Jamie Greening's Blog, page 7

The Gospel of Juan

Yesterday I finished a read-through of John. That in, and of itself, is not unusual. What was unusual about this is I read it in Spanish.

One of my goals moving forward is to become better at Spanish, but I had never seriously read anything in Spanish beyond instructions or a gossipy webpage. I chose the Gospel of John because I am very familiar with it and I figured that would help me. I know that was true of learning Greek and Hebrew, that parts of the Bible I had memorized or knew well were always easier to translate.

I find the Spanish language beautiful to the ear and to the mind. Once you get your mind around the way it works it is a logical language that makes sense — unlike the ever elusive English. My great failing is conversational Spanish because I rarely get the chance to practice, and I found reading the biblical text each day, with its many conversations tucked away inside of it, was a partial (though not complete) help in improvement.

Here are five things that stood out to me as I wrapped up Juan.

First, words I knew in Spanish from other contexts felt odd in the biblical material. I don’t know why this is, but it is true. It took a long time for me to get accustomed to thinking of Jesus as ‘el hombre’. Yet that is where John begins — 1:14 – ‘el Verbo se hizo hombre y habito entry nosotros.’ I felt the same way with the metaphorical language of Jesus being ‘el pan de vida.’ Again, I know these things, but I had so spiritualized such words as God made man and bread of life that I forgot the everyday nature of these words until I worked them through in another language.

Second, more than a few times I realized things I had never realized before. Now, keep in mind I have read John many times in Greek, the language it was written in, but it took reading it in Spanish to FINALLY SEE in John 3 that Jesus was going from Judea back to Galilee when he encountered the Samaritan woman at the well. For forty years It has been stuck in my head he was going from Galilee to Judea, but it was always the other way around. It’s been right there in front of me, but I couldn’t see it. Gracias, el Español. Gracias.

Third, in reading the text of John much of the mystery and mystique of the helping verbs like ‘habia’ and ‘habrian’ was removed. Full disclosure, they still stump me a lot and my ear doesn’t hear them well, but I think I finally kinda understand. Sorta. Maybe.

Fourth, the place where I really struggled was in those very philosophical chapters in the middle, 14-17. I’ve read them so much in English and Greek that I no longer saw the metaphysical nature of what Jesus was claiming about himself and the Holy Spirit and the disciples. But in Spanish, the verbs and their tenses and the lacking nouns made it all so much more mystical.

Fifth, several times the Spanish rendering took me back to the Greek and left me scratching my head. For example, Juan 14:1 is rendered as ‘No se angustien. Confien en Dios, y confien tambien en mi.’ The opening phrase is something like ‘don’t be worried’ or ‘don’t be in anguish’ (I love cognates, they are my favorite). In English this is ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled.’ I checked the Greek, and sure enough in the GNT it is ‘kardia’ — heart. Yet, here in the Spanish, there is no ‘corzaon’ where you expect one. I have no idea why.

There were many other fun things along the way, such as no quotation marks in dialogue, but these were the main things that stood out to me. I don’t want to sound too strange, but reading the crucifixion in Spanish seemed a little more urgent, and Pilate felt a little crueler.

It took me a long time, a little each morning, and I wore out my Spanish-English dictionary and several times had to look up idioms on my iPad. I will continue my Spanish lessons, but I will take a break from reading the Bible in Spanish for a while. I do think this fall I will try and find a Spanish third or fourth grade level chapter book to read. That might be helpful.

Adios.

Distorted

File this one under Greenbean’s failing memory.

Sunday (June 11) I preached the second of three sermons from Matthew 25. The sermons are about the end of the world, but not in an apocalyptic way, more in the cautionary narrative tone Jesus uses in this chapter which Matthew puts right after the frightening Olivet Discourse, which is apocalyptic end-of-the-world stuff.

The sermon was a basic working of the material where Jesus uses the tropes of a businessman who leaves investment capital, called ‘talents’, in the hands of three people. Two of them double the investment and one simply buries it. The Lord has great condemnation for the one who buries it. He applauds those who invest it wisely.

The sermon rocked along well and I had a good time with the word-study and narrative communication aspects of it — I feel at home in narrative sermons — and things were coming to the close. I had in my mind four summary statements to bring in one final exhortation swing for my beleaguered listeners. They were:

The gifts do not belong to the servants, they belong to the master.The goal of gifts, or talents, is not preservation. Static preservation is a betrayal of the Lord who gave the gifts to be used.Talents, money, were left to the servants likely with the understanding the money would be used to upkeep the master’s estate, businesses, or family. To bury it means these things were neglected and left in disrepair — like many churches I’ve seen. The servant who buried the talent had a distorted view of the master.

I only was able to get two of these out of my thick head, 1– the owner of the talent, and 2–they are not for preservation. The other two completely left me. I mean, they abandoned me in my moment of need. I was able to wrap things up, but it shook me, because that last point, about distortion, is important.

If you read the text (and I encourage you to do so, Matthew 25:14-30) you see that Jesus paints the one talent man as parroting his belief that the master was, ‘a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid,’ (v. 24-25). The text doesn’t say the master was that way, but that is the view the failed man had. The other two clearly didn’t have the same view, for they were adventurous and daring, doubling their master’s investment. That would have involved risk and hard work. They were not afraid of condemnation for using the talents.

It is the distortion that bothers me. So many people have distorted views of God which keep them from using the talents God has given them for kingdom purposes. There might be many distortions involved in our view of God, but the one that is at play here I think is that we are afraid we might use the gift incorrectly, or mess up with it, and if that happens then the Lord will not love us any more. That is the essential same feeling as the one talent man. Some are called to preach but don’t for fear failure. Same is true for teaching. Or singing. Some other people are gifted with hospitality and welcomeness but they are afraid of opening up. Fear guides them, and fear is not of love, nor of the kingdom of God.

The teaching here is that at the end of all things we will be held accountable. If we have a distorted view of God and our place in the world and his church, then we will be guilty of not fulfilling our potential and promise to enlarge and grow the kingdom.

An Honest Proposal: May The Fourth

Can we have a do over?

That is all I am asking — an old fashioned-elementary school-playground decision to act like it never, ever happened. It worked when we were kids. It can work again. Trust me.

Can we pretend The Force never Awakened? Can we act like there was no Last Jedi? Could Skywalker never Rise?

I’m serious. I was as excited as anyone when I learned of the newer movies, and I liked Rey and Finn a whole lot early on, but then it all went to Dagobah and sank under a swamp of lazy writing and uninspired acting. I’m on record for admiring what Rian Johnson tried to do with The Last Jedi, but the whole thing was disjointed and disconnected within the larger SWU.

Why can’t we ignore them all and pretend it never happened, the way the Star Trek Universe pretty much just ignores Star Trek V, and have in the last five years decided to completely ignore the JJverse and the stupid decision to blow up Vulcan. Can we act like the Rey/Finn/Poe stories never even happened? Please? Pretty please, with blue bantha milk on top?

Instead, I honestly propose we use the fantastic characters created in the original continuation of the SWU, those fantastic novels which thrived through the 90s-late 00s — I’m looking at you Timothy Zahn. I’m not saying we revive the plots necessarily, because I’m not sure the Yuuzahn Vong are where I’d go with things right now but I really want to see Mara Skywalker (nee Jade) and the Solo kids. You know you want to see Timothee Chalamet play confused Jacen and Anya Taylor-Joy playing powerful Jaina? We need to see the smart-mouthed gunslinger Anakin Solo walk into a cantina and clean house.

Go ahead, recast the principals — we’ve paid homage to Luke, Leia, Han, Lando, and Vader. It’ll be okay.

Please? Pretty Please? Just, start over. It takes a lot of courage to start over, Rebellion kind of courage. Come on Disney — I believe you can do this. I mean, look what has been done with very minor ideas — the Mandalorian, Cassian Andor, and Mon Mothma and the way the energy is there and so is the fan base. And Rogue One was amazing.

Why not make a clean wash, recast the principals with older actors in middle age — You can do this. I know the Solo movie tanked and was awful, but that is because it was a truly awful movie. Don’t be afraid. Fear leads to the dark side.

Imagine a one movie treatment of Luke Skywalker with his niece and nephew at the Jedi Academy and all the dark side energy hidden inside the grandchildren of Vader. Can you see Jaina discovering something about her grandmother, Padme, and and then she goes a vengeance streak Force lightening deathscapade on those she holds responsible while Luke and Leia have to hunt her down and help her come to her senses? A whole movie of Han, Chewi, and Anakin doing something disastrously dangerous but needed to secure an alliance with The Chiss or against a Thrawn protege. I mean, come on! Those are the movies we want — those are the movies we deserve.

And then, once that is done, we can undo the three prequels, too. I have some ideas about that, too.

HMU, Disney. I got nothing but ideas and my pay scale is pretty reasonable.

Beings of Light: A Poem

I’m going to cheat a bit.

Today is national poetry day, so I am sharing a poem I recently wrote for my WIP. The poem is based on John 12:25-36.

Beings of Light

Darkness is real. That much everyone agrees is true.
People cn’t see
Blind to reality
Young and old stumble and fall
Into the void we call
Bloodied shins and all

It is very near impossible to walk in the dark.
The path is bent
Our souls rent
Arms outstretched, groping
Hearts anxious with hoping
To feel our way through, coping

Forward, backward, left or right up or down are equally uncertain.
No movement only fear
Our own heartbeats we hear
Prisoners of unknowing
Seeds of doubt and shame sowing
Awareness of doom growing

In this blackness there is only isolation; other’s eyes are absent and their smile invisible.
There is no light, useless eye
The ear detects only groans of ‘why’
The hand that is held is a stranger
Just as afraid of imminent danger
The only true passion, anger

The mind plays jokes, cruel tricks, when trapped in darkness.
Stinging solitude amplified
Every nerve fried
Paranoia creeps about and overtakes
In emptiness the imagination makes
Unreal beasts, the heart quakes.

Darkness strangles every positive human emotion, suffocating the soul.
Joy, merriment, and truth fly
Respect, peace, kindness die
In their place an oppressive gloom
Despair and hate fill every room
Molding hate in full bloom.

People in darkness need only one thing, light.
The tiny flame of a candle
To illuminate table or handle
A gift to the eye
For that comfort flesh and blood cry
The solace morning is nigh.

Then, dramatically, the star rises from the heavens and beams cover the earth.
Trails are seen, roads unwind
Knowledge is gained, soothing the mind
Midday is laughter, frolic, and fun
In field shop home and sea— work is done
Vision is clear under the sun.

When sun is up and day is bright, strive to hold the light.
Work quickly while able
Clean the house, move the herd, paint the table
The hours are precious, time passes
Both for the individual and the masses
Regret will come for lazy lapses

Belief in the light vanquishes darkness even when the sun has set on the rest of the world.
Light is treasure for the heart
Loves glow will not depart
Thus, mortals translate into beings of light
Illuminating God’s presence in the night
Hope shining bright

Down To Business — Picking Oscar Winners 2023

I’ve already given you two blogs worthy of the New York Times Entertainment Section (click here and click here), so let us get down to predictions for the major categories.

Actor –As much as I’d love to see Bill Nighy win, it is a two person race between Austin Butler and Brendan Fraser, and I think the edge goes to Butler.

Actress — I’d give the award to the entire cast of Women Talking, but shamefully none of them were nominated, so the winner is Michelle Yeah. Cate Blanchett could steal it, but I think it is Empress Georgiou’s year.

Supporting Actor — The Banshee boys will split, so neither of them can win. I like Henry from Causeway because that movie was snubbed in so many ways, and Judd Hirsch was amazing in his small but powerful moment, but I think Ke Huy Quan gets it. TBH, I will not be upset if any of them win.

Supporting Actress — Angela Bassett. All. The. Way.

Animated Feature Film — this was the toughest and most competitive category. Only Turning Red was a stinker. Pinocchio is the favorite, but I think Marcel The Shell With Shoes On wins, and should have been nominated for best picture as well.

Cinematography — All Quiet on the Western Front

Costume Design — As much as I love Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, this category is either Black Panther or Elvis, and I think The King of Rock and Roll gets the nod.

Directing — It is not his best film by far, but when you consider he only has ONE OSCAR for directing (Schindler’s List), I think Spielberg wins by acclamation.

Documentary — Navalny, although I enjoyed Fire of Love and A House Made of Splinters very much.

Film Editing — Everything Everywhere All At Once must have been a brutal labor of love to edit, so this is the winner.

International Feature Film — The Greening Rule — any film nominated for best picture and also in the International Feature Film Category must therefore win the sub-category. Therefore, the winner is All Quiet On the Western Front.

Makeup and Hairstyling — The Whale. What they did to poor Brendan. Wow. In the shower. Wow.

Original Score — Another competitive category here. Three strong contenders, The Fabelmans is a delightfully perfect score that lifts up the soul, while All Quiet beats the continual painful drums of stupid war and Everything Everywhere is fun and eclectic. I think John Williams wins, though, because the Fabelmans is a complete composition.

Original Song — Rihanna, Lift Me Up.

Production Design — Avatar — and I think it has a leg up on all the technical categories.

Short Film — I personally preferred The Boy, the Mole, The Fox And The Horse even though they didn’t use the Oxford comma in the title, but I think, knowing Oscar as I do, My Year of Dicks will win.

Sound — Those airplanes. I mean, the airplanes. Top Gun: Maverick.

Visual Effects — Top Gun: Maverick has a claim here because of those airplanes! I mean, those airplanes! But the winner will be Avatar: The Way of Water.

Adapted Screenplay — Another strong category. I like Ishiguro and enjoyed Living, and Women Talking is amazing, but I think All Quiet wins this category, too.

Original Screenplay — Glass Onion was fun, but this is a toss up between Banshees and Everything. I’ll go with Banshees, because Everything has a lot of common tropes in it.

Best Picture — I already told you earlier in a previous blog, but there are four real contenders: Women Talking, The Fabelmans, Everything Everywhere, and All Quiet. I think All Quiet takes home the Oscar on a huge anti-war vote with people thinking about Ukraine and Russia. If the Fabelmans win, it is because that is everyone’s second choice in the ranked voting system.

Thanks for playing along — and yes, I know, I skipped a couple of categories, but none of the major ones.

Themes, and The Movies You Should Watch

Art imitates life, and this year’s Oscar movies demonstrate the truth of that in two important ways.

The first way is that the movies are sad. It is one gut punch after another. Endless war, attempted genocide, sexual abuse, debauchery, and suicide fill the screen time and time again. There are no joyful movies — with the one exception being the animated category, and I’ll get to that later — they are all sad. Top Gun: Maverick is a bit of a feel good movie, but as you watch it, the Goose and Iceman storylines stick in your throat, as does the waning wasted life Maverick has lived. These movies are sad, and they reflect a world that is sad and fatalistic. Overall, the quality is poor, and that reflects the reality of the pandemic. I’ve noticed the same thing on some television shows I like. All these movies were made during the pandemic, which means the writing, the production, the acting, the staging, everything was done within the confines of remote, Zoom, masks, and ‘essential’ personnel. And it shows. There is a missing zip, pizazz, and crispness that we had right through to last year. Last year’s movies were mostly produced before the pandemic. These movies remind me of the beloved restaurant that is now understaffed and you can only get it to go. It still tastes okay, but the quality isn’t what it was before. Something in the overall experience is lost.

But even with that, there are some gems. But first, let’s talk about themes. That is one of my favorite things to look at. The first theme connecting these films is an anti-military bent. This is not just anti-war, but anti-military. The most evident of these is All Quiet on the Western Front, which shows the hubris and arrogance of a military apparatus that wantonly wastes lives. Then there is Avatar, which openly castigates military operations as evil and exploitive. Top Gun: Maverick glorifies pilots but simultaneously denigrates the military as cold and heartless. The Banshees of Inisherin, likewise, is cast against the backdrop of the civil war that no one seems to understand. Indeed, it is my belief the entire plot of the movie is actually a syllogism for the war itself (and cue The Cranberries ‘Zombie’ in five, four, three, two, one …)

Another noticeable theme in this year’s batch of movies is family. Nothing unusual there, but still interesting to note. Elvis has a heavy family motif, both Elvis as a boy and as a husband and father, Top Gun: Maverick’s key theme is a son who never knew his father who was a pilot before him (another borrowed Star Wars Motif), Tar begs the question — how much does a successful person value family over their narcissism, Avatar’s one strength is Zoe Saldana’s performance as a wife and mother fighting for her family, and Everything Everywhere is really a family saga. But, The Fabelman’s and Everything Everywhere All At Once are completely all in on the family motif; that is all they are. Women Talking, in a way, is a story about a larger family, a community, that has to decide how to deal with the hurtful parts of being in a family.

One more theme and then I will move on. These movies, more than most years, seem to focus in, as a whole, on critique of systems that are authoritative or controlling. For Elvis it was Colonel Tom Parker, for Avatar it is the military, for All Quiet it is the military apparatus of war, and in Triangle it is capitalism. The two that fascinate me the most is Tar and Women Talking. Tar comes at us with an unsubtle jab at the inherent abuse and control afforded celebrity against the level playing field of social media and the power of accusation and innuendo. It chooses the interesting backdrop of classical music to do so, but it could easily be about college basketball coaches, movie producers, politicians, rock stars, or preachers. Authoritative power is corrupting. For Women Talking it is the system of life that gives men the benefit of the doubt and always forces women to make the hard choices. The men literally choose their own kind over the wellbeing of their wives and daughters, which is an indictment on a culture that screams pro-life but at the same time is okay with mommies and children living in poverty because daddy skipped out. It is yelling at a legal system that turns rape and harassment into a ‘he said she said’ which trivializes injustice. These movies have a lot to say about broken systems of privilege.

Let me now share with you the movies you should see. I realize most of you will not see them all as I have, but you might see some. Here is a list of seven. If you want to work a category throughout, do the animated — that is the most competitive category this year.

Marcel The Shell With Shoes On — See this if you see nothing else. I think this should have been nominated for best picture and is all about family.Women Talking — see above.Everything Everywhere All At Once — Speculative Fiction should be rewarded with viewers.Navalny — Nominated for documentary. Recent events and politics. Reminds you of how thankful we should be for a free press and an adversarial justice system.Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris — probably my favorite overall film. Nominated for costume design.The Sea Beast — animated category, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Living — Bill Nighy in this adapted story that started in Russia (Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Illyich) and moves through Japan (Akira Kurosawa’s Ikiru) and lands here in post-war London. Screenplay by the amazing Kazuo Ishiguro.

Now, a similar list — for the movies you should AVOID AT ALL COST!

Babylon – disgusting and indulgent. Looks like Hell. Triangle of Sadness — you’ll be sad that you watched it. All That Breathes — this documentary about kites (birds) in India made me sleepy. Empire of Light — I do not know why Oscar has such a fixation on Olivia Colman. Colin Firth should be ashamed of himself.Blonde — it is unwatchable. And weird. And mostly untrue. Did I mention it was unwatchable?

Tomorrow (Or maybe Saturday) I will blog my Oscar picks for the major categories. I know you’re waiting with anticipation.

Read the previous post about this years Oscars by clicking here.

Top Gun Avatar Western Women Fabelmans Tar Everywhere Elvis Banshees Triangle

The batch of movies offered to us this year by Oscar is an unusually poor group. Some of these movies are really good, but there is not a stand out movie like CODA last year or Spotlight a few years ago which stands up and shouts ‘I am the obvious winner here’. It is an open field. CODA may have been the best movie of the last twenty years.

Each year I usually post two or three times about the Oscars, and I intend to do so again over the next week. This is the one dedicated solely to the category of best picture. I will take them in order of the way they are listed and give a one or two sentence review. Then I will give some analysis of the movies that have the greatest chance of winning, along with which one I would pick.

Snubs? Did someone mention snubs? Yes, there are snubs. Wakonda Forever should be on this list, as should Causeway. I also think Marcel In The Shell With Shoes On should be there, too. None of those could win, but they are far better than Avatar, Top Gun, or the awful awful awful Triangle of Sadness. And yes, I am still upset Coco didn’t get a best picture nomination.

All Quiet On The Western Front — A powerful film expertly crafted and spectacularly performed. I know all the history of World War I, and somehow, still, It managed to keep me on the edge of my seat.

Avatar: The Way of Water — A beautiful remake of Dances With Wolves. Zoe Saldana is one of the best actresses of our age, and she almost saves this film from being a total waste of an entire afternoon.

The Banshees of Inisherin — Complex character study that may, perhaps, be a parallel of the politics of Ireland. The plot is insane, literally, but the acting is worth watching.

Elvis — I enjoyed the movie, but I think this is one of the few films I would say Tom Hanks makes worse. I still can’t figure out how they didn’t work the wonderful Alannah Myles ‘Black Velvet’ into the soundtrack, somehow.

Everything Everywhere All At Once — I enjoyed this movie far more than Mrs. Greenbean. The problems with it are the now too common tropes of alternate universes and Neo getting unplugged. But Michelle Yeoh (Shoutout to Georgiou!) compensates for those.

The Fabelmans — Biopic of Steven Spielberg’s life. That is pretty much all you need to know. Oh, and all the actors — all of them — are fantastic!

Tar — This movie stays with you, which is what good art should do. Its functioning at many different levels, and I can’t decide if it is incredibly dry comedy, suspenseful conspiracy tale, or commentary on the #metoo movement from an unexpected place. The scene where Tar (Cate Blanchett) eviscerates cancel culture while guest lecturing at The Juilliard should be required viewing for every Gen Z and Y every morning before going to work.

Top Gun: Maverick — This movie is a lot of fun, and I remembered how good it felt as we came out of COVID to sit in a packed movie theater and watch it. Still, though, I preferred the plot when it was Star Wars: A New Hope.

Triangle of Sadness — Do not watch this movie unless you are a glutton for punishment (like me) and have to watch them all. It is commentary on capitalism done in the most disgusting way and steals shamelessly form Lord of the Flies.

Women Talking — Straight up the best acting you’ll see anywhere in anything. That none of these women were nominated for any acting category is a travesty. Side note — Two women who both played Lisbeth Salander in such different roles but that at the same time remind you of that powerful female character is special in its own right.

There are ten movies here, but only four real contenders. If this were the old days of only five movies in this category, they would be All Quiet, Everything, The Fabelmans, Tar, and Women Talking. I don’t think Tar can win for the simple reason that it is complicated, confusing, and hard to nail down. That leaves us with four.

Women Talking feels to me a little like Argo did several years back. No one but me thought it could win, and I predicted it would, and it did, but Afleck did’t even get nominated for best director. This feels similar with Women. I think voters will have a hard time not voting for it. It has a puncher’s chance.

The Fabelmans, I think, will be very few people’s first pick. But it will be a lot of people’s second choice, and the ranked voting methodology may then usher in the Fabelman’s as the winner while the other key contenders split the top votes. I will not be mad if it wins, because Spielberg has been robbed so many times — I mean, only Schindler’s List — that’s it — that is the only best picture award he’s won.

Everything Everywhere is a fun movie with outrageous plot twists — I’m looking at you hot dog hands — and if it wins it will likely be a Parasite moment in that it is such an odd film people award it for that fact alone. The Social-Media-Verse thinks this will win, but I don’t. This movie must have been murder to edit.

All Quiet is a remake of a classic film from old Hollywood. This movie evokes so many emotions from sadness to joy to anger. Mrs. Greenbean was spitting mad at the end of it, such is the stupidity of war. The parallel track of warfare balanced with the work of diplomats makes this version of the story that much more compelling.

Greenbean’s pick? I would not be angry if any of these five won, unlike Birdman and The Shape of Water, two films I am still very upset about. Later next week I will address themes, but for now it is enough to say there is a powerful anti-war sentiment this year. To me, this gives emotional edge to All Quiet, and it performed strongly at the BAFTAs. I think All Quiet On The Western Front will win best picture.

Ash Wednesday – 2023

Today is the first day of Lent. A primary activity of the Lenten season (not the only, but primary) is fasting. Christ-followers should fast. Jesus clearly expects it of us for he tells us,

But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret.

Matthew 6:16

Jesus doesn’t say, ‘if you fast’ he says ‘when you fast.’ Jesus expects us to do so. Lent is a wonderful time to engage in fasting because a big portion of the kingdom of God is fasting, too.

In a few moments we are recording a podcast — the first of our new season on spiritual disciplines — and I intend to highlight Isaiah 58. The others don’t know that yet, so you are getting a little inside knowledge here.

Isaiah 58, in my opinion, is probably the most important single section on fasting in the whole Bible. The prophet (likely Isaiah III or II, depending on who you read) begins with a classic call to repentance.

Cry aloud; do not hold back; lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to the people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins.

Isaiah 58:1

The preacher cries aloud with the great emphasis of the Lenten season — sin and repentance from it. Here he or she is challenged to enumerate them — declare them to the people — the sins of idolatry, greed, fornication, abuse, manipulation, and oppression. Don’t spare them the details. Cry aloud, don’t use soft language or somehow let people off the hook. Name it.

But then the text does a curious thing. Beginning in verse 2 and moving through verse 5 the people are accused of fasting and engaging in religious endeavors, actually delighting in them, so the they can be justified in their own eyes even though they do not repent of their sins. Fasting for them is a form of performance that shows how awesome they are, and therefore they are able to keep right on oppressing the widow, orphan, and immigrant or sleeping with their neighbors wife. They use fasting like someone who doesn’t bathe might use perfume — to cover up the odor.

Then, God lays it on them.

Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?

Isaiah 58:6-7

I present to you that Isaiah gives us a radically new understanding of what fasting is and should be. Fasting is not just what you abstain from — food, chocolate, Facebook, sex, or alcohol — but it is what you actively do. If we were to enumerate them in modern language it would help us appropriate application.

Stop committing sin.Work for justice in the criminal justice system.Advocate for oppressed minorities like immigrants, racial minorities, and religious groups.Feed anyone who is hungry.House the homeless.Provide the basic needs for all people — clothing, medicine, meaning, and education.We should care for all, but it would be egregious to neglect those who are covenantally bound to us.

The remainder of the passage is a call to return to the Lord in repentance, that, if we do these things, then we will see our lives improve. The prophet uses flowing language of beautiful rhetoric to describe the situation as one of heritage.

Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall rise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorers of streets to dwell in

Isaiah 58:12

As many of us, myself included, begin our Lenten journey with fasting this year, we would do well to consider not only our own devotional meditations, but also the social dynamic of our actions and of behavior toward other people. Fasting, as defined by God in Isaiah 58, is as much, no, it is more about compassion and mercy toward human beings than it is about ‘giving up’ beer or beef.

Did Not Have Balloon On My Weekend Bingo Card

Some random and unconnected thoughts on the balloon floating over Montana.

Apparently, it is Chinese. They have claimed it. They say it is a mistake and was unintended. Should we see this balloon as clever spy craft or as bungled incompetency by a failing central government?People keep saying, ‘shoot it down’. This seems foolish to me. If it is on purpose, and is carrying a payload, which is altogether possible, shooting it down might activate the nuclear or dirty bomb or biological weapon. It seems best to force it down, preferably over Canada. I’m sorry, Canada. The Chinese certainly got their monies worth in paranoia over it. Secretary of State Blinken cancelled his trip to China because of this. That seems shortsighted. Perhaps there are forces inside China who wanted that very response, while there are forces inside China wanting the opposite. Diplomacy is the way we solve these problems — withdrawing diplomats is counterproductive. I’m assuming it has a payload — worst case scenario — but if it is a spy satellite, what on earth (literally) information could it be gathering that satellites flying all around the earth couldn’t gather?Someone pay attention to Florida. The balloon is clearly visible and designed to be seen. Maybe that was the intended operation, to get us focused there while something else happens on the other side of the nation. On the chance it was intended to be a spy balloon, didn’t they know we would be able to see it. Isn’t that, kinda, the opposite of covert? See earlier conversation about failing government.Speaking of governments, I am quite certain there are several thousand things about this situation we don’t know about, and that is why we have people in place to handle exactly these kinds of things while folks like you and me have fun speculating. I wonder what Russia and North Korea are learning from this. I mean, if I am North Korea and have failed at every missile launch toward the United States, the success of the balloon might inspire me. Anyone ever hear of Roswell? One more — In the Star Trek Universe — First Contact occurs on April 5, 2023 in Bozeman, Montana. MONTANA! Maybe the balloon isn’t Chinese . . .

Predictions for 2023

Elon Musk, cancer, and Taylor Swift all make appearances in my predictions for 2023. This is always one of my favorite blog posts of the year. But first, a few disclaimers: I am not a prophet or clairvoyant, I do not necessarily want any of these things to happen, and my ratio of getting things right is historically about 30%. I m simply making guesses based on information, analysis (or lack thereof), and thinking what if. Last year I didn’t do very well, but two years ago I was Nostradamus. By the way, Nostradamus is predicting a meteor will strike the earth this year and burn the whole thing down. However much you don’t like my predictions, mine are far more favorable than his.

I generally mix it up, making predictions ranging in areas of religion, culture, finance, politics, entertainment, and sports. I make ten predictions. No more, no less. So here we go . . .

10. The Federal Reserve will stop raising interest rates in the second quarter of this year because inflation will suddenly begin to fall dramatically after February.

9. Putin’s leadership in Russia will come to an end, and a peace treaty will be signed with Ukraine. This will spur a slough of economic development as Russia ‘opens up’ again.

8. The United Methodist Church will loose over half of its congregations nationally as a result of the schism over LGBTQ issues.

7. The Seattle Mariners will win a post-season baseball series.

6. Taylor Swift will retire from music and settle down to a country life in Vermont with a man no one has ever heard of and about whom no song has ever been written.

5. Cancer will be cured this year. It will not be treatment, but an advanced DNA/genetic technique which eliminates cancer cells in the body without adverse affects.

4. Elon Musk will sell Twitter to a conglomerate of investors. He will claim he grew bored with the project, but all will know it will be because of pressure from Tesla investors.

3. A Republican House and Democratic Senate will work surprisingly well together to pass meaningful immigration reform as well as major changes to internet regulation.

2. Tik Tok will continue to grow, as will suspicions about how much the Chinese Government has control over it.

1. Cryptocurrencies will be banned in the United States and most of the EU.