What is wrong with Socrates? / Christmas

Relatively intelligent people I have met on-line ranging from writers, professors, and debaters like the late Christopher Hitchens seem to see what they call a dialectic according to Socrates as a kind of religion or thing to live by.  Question everything, look higher to the elevated consciousness.  Get your head out of the mud of daily diving, cares, needs and desires, and just think.  On one hand, thinking is indeed something we could stand to do more of, and still, Plato's cave analogy serves as a convenient image to denigrate everything that there actually is, and has been created good, and promote the something or other higher (so-called).  They will even say that it is a "satanic" activity in the Biblical sense, the legitimate questioning of everything.

It really is the "fall upwards".  You can be like God. How could God forbid you something?  How could he withhold knowledge of evil from you?  Go for it.  You will be like God.  Look inside for all the knowledge you need.  Nothing is really forbidden, or shameful.

The Satan of the Bible asks Adam and Eve to search for something more than what they have been given--paradise on earth, love, goodness, bodies that reproduce, food, nurture.  But Satan does not care.  Satan offers a pretend light.  It is not a light.  It is death, that he offers.

And so even Socrates, when elevated to religious figure, a prophet, is Satan.

I cried at the account of Socrates' death.  He was brave and good in many ways.  But Plato was into eugenics and control.  So, also, the Socratic dialogue tends to swerve into the nightmare, downhill, rather than upward.  His society thought Socrates a demagogue, and maybe he was one.

Better watch out.

Mohammed, also, tries to teach that God can have nothing to do with the physical. The results are also disastrous.

Christian Science wants to say that illness is an illusion.  But illness is not an illusion.  It is real and scientific pursuits and medicine have offered relief and need acceptance. Buddhism wants us to ignore all the suffering in the world.  Give up caring, altogether.

The Bible teaches us to value what we have in the physical realm. The spiritual and higher realm is attached and integrated into this physical realm.  It cannot be pried apart.  When it is attempted the results are not elevating. It is a mirage, a temptation, a false road.

There is only one good road and it is narrow:  Christ, God in the flesh.  Love incarnate.

Christmas / The Cloud of Witnesses

Talking about Bible verses around the house.  Here is one that was stuck on the cork board down the way to the basement for some time, and other places.  It needs to be replaced.

Here is someone else who has kept this verse around:




Here is the text:

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.…  (Hebrews 12: 1 and 2)

It makes me think about how we need to keep alert, fit and moving forward.  It makes me think, how we can only do this with our eyes fixed on Jesus, otherwise we will be running wrong.  His example teaches us how to run and suffer when needed. He took every humiliation and humbling for us.  Those who will believe, will believe.  He is the conqueror.  In his train are all those witnesses.  The Te Deum reminds us of them, also.  Closer to home, I think about my mother and father, and my grandparents, my pastors, and mentors, all the dearly departed in the Lord, and Luther, who has taught me so much, and really brought Christ's work into focus--just as the author of Hebrews is doing here.

This is nice, too.  I need to choose something to print out for the cork board.



Or this, but I don't like the font.

Christmas 3 / Pain and Loss

Right after Christmas comes the Slaughter of the Innocents.  Jesus was forced to flee to Egypt as a little child and the babies of Bethlehem were slaughtered due to King Herod's scheming to get rid of the Christ child.

It is a horrible thing.  Herod was extremely paranoid.  We can read about it in the history books.  (Google it.) There are many people who don't want to see the Gospel accounts as historical, but there is so much material that corroborates them.  One of the circumstances happens to be Herod's insanity.  Read about it.  He killed his own family members.  But God has the matter in hand.  It is a wonder, indeed.

But for me, right after Christmas comes the anniversary of the fatal accident of my then 18-year old son.  The tragedy lies back six years now, and we have grown somewhat accustomed to it, as much as one can.  But still the season is hard.   And today is hard.  Life has not been the same since and in a way, the death of our son has changed an incredible number of things.  It has aged us.  It has, also, made me feel isolated.  I have not talked about this much, because I can't see how I can talk about it and not make everyone feel bad, but maybe I need to do it more.

And then you wonder:  if God protects Jesus but not the innocents in Bethlehem, if he has angels that manage this circumstance and not another, how do we deal with that?

I have kept two Bible passages in view:

"Lord to whom shall we go; you have the words of eternal life."-- Truly, there is no place else to go.  I will not have Satan rob me of my faith, while I have been deprived of my child.  Many people are deprived of many things.  We loose much along the journey.  We desire things and can't have them.  We have what we have.  And we don't have what we don't have.  We can and should pray.  The pain is part of the process.  We have to learn.  God knows all about pain.

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."  

We have this verse on a plaque on the fireplace mantle.  It keeps up my faith in the ways of God.  We have a hope and a future in Him.  Every day is new, and every day we have hope.  But part of me struggles.  Some other things have not worked out, and I am sad about it.  

Awful things happen.  

If it has not happened to you, yet, be grateful, and understanding of others.  There is pain that is beyond telling.  

John the Baptist was beheaded, and Jesus was crucified.  Anything can happen to anyone.  But the crucifixion was also Christ's glory.  Only in dying can we be raised again.  It is so hard.  Don't be surprised when it happens to you.  

--When I was younger I had a poster.  I wish I had  it now. Maybe it is on Google images.  On it, there was a huge, gnarled tree--huge--with a little hut at the bottom.  There was a saying about that old, gnarled tree and how it had the capacity to give shelter.  I liked that, even when I was young.  If needed, I wanted to be that big, gnarled tree.

That is not the picture because the tree is too small.  

Then there is the simple picture I drew several posts back.  I added the words:  "Planted by the water. Psalm 1"  The tree can flourish by the water of God's word and promises. There is rest.  There is growth.  It takes time.  A tree takes a long, long time.  A tree stands in all kinds of weather, exposed.   It is steadfast--like the Christmas tree, that is green year-round. 

1  Blessed is the man

who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,

nor stands in the way of sinners,

nor sits in the seat of scoffers;

2  but his delight is in the law of the Lord,

and on his law he meditates day and night.

3  He is like a tree

planted by streams of water

that yields its fruit in its season,

and its leaf does not wither.

In all that he does, he prospers.

4  The wicked are not so,

but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

5  Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,

nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;

6  for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,

but the way of the wicked will perish.

Christmas 4 / Anna and Simeon

Now, Lord, you let your servant go in peace:

your word has been fulfilled.

My own eyes have seen the salvation

which you have prepared in the sight of every people;

A light to reveal you to the nations

and the glory of your people Israel.

Last Sunday, we had the stories of Anna and Simeon at the temple.  The pastor's sermon began with his own bucket list.  He and his wife want to see Eastern Canada after they retire, for instance.  Then we went on to Anna and Simeon who knew that they would see the Savior.

It is really an amazing thing to think of these saints and how they lived out their lives in prayer and expectation.  Their joy at finally seeing the baby in the temple was exultant.  And Simeon was ready to depart.

Strange, that we need to complete certain things before we feel completely ready to depart.  But Simeon!  Simeon got the see the Savior with his own eyes.  We believe, though we have not seen, and this is a privilege.  Simeon waited in faith, and finally got to see, and we get to hear about this marvelous event.  Jesus was revealed to Simeon in the flesh. -- God is faithful.

Our hope is not vain.

"Jesus is kommen, Grund ewiger Freude"--"Jesus has come, the cause of our eternal joy."

Christmas 3 / Doctrine and Song

There is so much that comes across our Facebook stream.  Unfortunately, a good chunk of it is quite unsettling.

A certain post dealt with the Syrian boys who had been incorporated into the school system controlled by ISIS.  These children were subjected to about six hours of teaching in Sharia per day--three hours in the morning, three hours in the evening.  They were also trained in beheading.  (Or was that another story.  No, I think that was the same boys.)  The more stupid ones were pre-selected for becoming suicide bombers.  In any case, some of them were able to get out of the school and could return to their homes.

At home, they could not shake the Sharia teaching.  They harassed their mothers about showing bare arms, for example.  The nagged their fathers into praying five times a day.  And most annoyingly, they kept on singing the indoctrinating songs.

Music is banned under the law, but it seems that ISIS is making exception for itself.  Music is an integral part of the propaganda of the movement.  Yes, who can shake the songs they sang to us when we were young and that they had us memorize.

All of this, made me think of an  on-line conversation I had with someone promoting "liberal education" whatever that exactly means.  One thing it means is that there should not be any doctrine or indoctrination.  We should be figuring things out for ourselves and speak our own minds.  To that person, I once said, that he does not like anything of the things that "ground" me;  that is I am not permitted to hold doctrine or speak about it in a historical sense (it might be ok, if I had just figured it out for myself, in a fresh way), nor is singing, or especially choir singing, anything terribly worthwhile.  Or music, in general, maybe, is relatively useless.  I don't know.  I don't know what he is saying, sometimes, and he wants it that way.  The more ambiguous he is, the more I have to think for myself.  That's the idea.

But, doctrine and music comes down to us.  It becomes part of our fabric, part of the brain, neural pathways laid down early and well cemented, nearly impossible to uproot.  It is unavoidable.  Doctrine and song, it can't be bad in itself.  We all have it.  Even the one with the liberal education philosophy can't escape it, though he may be blind to it or may try to push it aside.

The "process" for free thinking may involve stepping back and looking at how your views came to you.  It may involve re-evaluation, adjustment, discarding, combining, renewing...  With all this, it is the contents of the doctrine and the music is what matters.  Is it right doctrine?  Is it teaching and propaganda for good or for evil?  How do you define good and evil? --  If you would not want it to happen to you, you also don't do it to another.

Would you want to be beheaded for your faith?  No?  Then don't behead others.  Do you really want to injure your conscience in this way? -- If only the stupid ones are sorted out for suicide bombing, would you really like to be a suicide bomber?  If it is such a prize to be martyred why don't you select those who are most dear to you and those who are the smartest for this honor?

We could go on.  Doctrine is fine.  Song is fine.  Indoctrination is fine.

Let it be the right kind.

Let it be Christ-centered.

Christmas 1 / Whom do we miss the most?

It was during the Christmas Day Communion Service, and hardly anyone was there.  (This is in contrast, to the Christmas Eve service, of course, which had been overflowing. )

At Christmas we talk a lot about all the people who are no longer celebrating with us, the people who have gone on to be with the Lord, the people we may not be getting along with now, the families that suffer distress and disunion.  And we cry a bit.  And to top it all: our hearts are with the persecuted refugees around the world.  As we sing about the shepherds in the field at night, we think of those who have lost house and home and celebrated in unfinished concrete apartments and in every nook and cranny, prisons and camps. -- But whom do we miss the most?  Who has suffered the most?  Who has been humbled the most?  Who has loved the most? -- It is Jesus Himself.  He is the one who has gone ahead to prepare a place for us.  We miss Him the most.  We love Him the most.  We look for his coming.  If we don't, we need a re-calibration.  This occasion is providing the readjustment for us.  Lord Jesus, come, soon, for your own sake. It is you yourself, whom we seek.

Advent / Religion as a cultural and psychological construct

Idols.

That's what they say we have when we proclaim that there is objective truth in religion.  Since the assumption is that all religion is cultural and psychological construct, none of the believers should claim any sort of objective truth, only a subjective truth, or maybe a tradition.  Anything else is a "fundamentalism", and on the heels of saying that, here it comes:  an "extremism".  I think I even heard the Pope say something like that in Turkey this week.  I wonder about him.  He has said many things already that have been reported far and wide, but I have not heard him say anything about Jesus.  That could be a problem of the media and the reporting, not with the Pope.  The Pope stood in prayer and faced Mecca, in a mosque.  Is it all just "spirituality", in the end, even for him?

The Bible proclaims something very different.  The Bible proclaims a God of history, a Creator who knows everything intimately, even the number of hairs on your head.  He promised redemption to the fallen world, and he delivered it himself. He said that there would be and end, and a judgement, when he comes visibly again.  This is not your run-of-the-mill "spirituality".  It is something quite different; and it is the opposite of "idolatry".  "Spirituality" lets you worship whatever you like.  Jesus Christ lets you only worship him.

You choose.  He has already chosen you and me.  Trust Him.  "O come, o come, Emanuel, and ransom captive Israel."  Captive Israel, that is the church, now.  It needs redemption, too.  In addition, far and wide Christians are persecuted, in our day, in distant lands and closer to home.  Their needs are quite present and real, and yet, redemption is from sin, death and the devil.  Lord Jesus come, deliver us from evil and ease our suffering. Be also with all who deny you, their Savior from sin.  Draw us all to you.  (Trahe me post te.)

Some sites for crafts

Here are some places I like to check out for arts and crafts, and printables.

1.  http://angelaandersonart.blogspot.ca/2014/03/mixed-media-crosses.html

Angela also has videos on techniques on-line.  I watched several and got inspiration to try something. I am going to paint something with acrylics.  Yes, I will.  Something original.  For Christmas.

2.  http://www.biblestoryprintables.com/Pages/BibleCrafts/NamesofJesus.html
Easy to like designes here.


Both pages are along the lines cutting, coloring, pasting and modpodging craft.  It is easy, pretty and good for all ages.  -- Not exactly art.  But easy and inviting and fast.




3.  http://www.u-createcrafts.com/beautiful-nativity-ornament-tutorial/

This one I would like to make with a craft.  See instructions on blog link.

Mary did you know?

Christmas Kitsch

Manger without Cross -- is Kitsch.
__________________________________________________

Born is the King of Israel!

Mumbai, India.
Persecution.

How annoying this Christ is.

What is it with this crucifixion.

What is it with these people, parading him around,
preaching him from the rooftops.

The "King of the Jews".

Of all places, born and raised and died in a real place,
Judea,  Bethlehem, as foretold, and in a troubled city, Jerusalem.

Jerusalem:  peace in its name but rarely at peace.
The king of peace came to you and you killed him,
as did we.  Peace, not of this world.

At Nelson Mandela's funeral, we couldn't tell what the hymns were.
They were in another language, the parts I heard on BBC.
But "Jerusalem" was in the song.
Nelson Mandela has gone to Jerusalem with Jesus, the King.

I turned on the radio this morning to a glorious madrigal chorus
singing full-throatedly:  "Born is the Kind of Israel"!

On CBC radio, of all places.

If it weren't a "tradition", if it weren't actual, living local people singing this,
you would never get it onto CBC.

Too offensive.

"Hail"

Lord, we greet Thee.

Another way to look at the Christmas tree, very nice.

Here is a different way to look at a Christmas tree, from http://a-study-of-christian-doctrine.blogspot.ca/ :

The Christmas Tree speaks to Children. 

I am a Christmas tree. Some children have gathered around me. They gaze at me with soulful eyes, filled with eager anticipation and joyful excitement, impatiently waiting. Children, I look at you and would like to grasp you with my branches and crush you against my trunk. That's how much I enjoy your happiness. Listen, children, I have something to say to you. Be as quiet as mice and I will whisper wonderful things to you. 

I grew in a forest. No one noticed me until a certain man cut me down, threw me on the platform of his truck, drove to the city and sold me to you. I was bewildered: "Why did I have to leave my beloved forest and come here?" But my Creator told me: "You must testify of me in the home to which you go." I asked: "What should I say? I don't know how to speak the way people speak." My Creator replied: "Do not object. Go with a joyful heart. When the children and their parents look at you, you will begin to live in their imagination and in that way you will speak to them. 

Children, look and see how green I am. Green is the color of life. I am a tree of life. I am a picture of God's Son, Jesus, who has brought us eternal life. Just as I left my own forest, so too He left heaven and became man. Just as I was cut down and will soon die, so too the Son of God suffered and died. In this way He atoned for your sins and earned everlasting life for you. 

I have a star at my top. You remember, don't you, how the star of Bethlehem led the three wise men to Jesus. You too need such a star to lead you to Jesus. That star is God's Word, the Bible. Read it. It tells us about Jesus. 

See how joyfully the candles flicker on my branches. They enjoy giving off light. They picture children and adults, who believe in Jesus. They testify of Jesus to others. In this way they give light and warmth. You also admire the other decorations on my branches. What do they picture? They picture the good works of Christians. With them Christians adorn Jesus' Gospel so that people gladly hear and read it. 

Children, whenever you see a Christmas tree, remember what I told you. 

Christmas and the Nazis / 3

Since the last post on this subject I've done some more reading on the various youth organizations agitating during the Weimar republic.  The anger over Versailles and the occupation of the Ruhr created overflowing anger, frustration and hardship which drove the politics into the street and to the average citizen's breast.  About 400 youth groups of all kinds were organized throughout the country involving about six million youth and children.  These groups had many different ideologies.  Some were tolerant, leaning to incorporating communists and Jews and others were developing with a pagan mythology and race focus.  After 1933, these groups were all gradually brought by more or less force, through the ideological "Gleichschaltung", to submit to Nazi ideology or else risk being sent to Dachau.  Young people were even encouraged to denounce their parents and send them to camp.

Thus the young folk systematically was forced to be incorporated into the Hilter Youth.  I read a very good article on this process here.

Over Christmas, I also asked the elder women in my family about how this worked and got the following out of them.  One of the women was born in 1934, so she was not even born when this Gleichschaltung of youth organizations happened. She always has told us somewhat cynically that it was in the Hitler Youth that you learned which one was your right hand.  It was the one you saluted with.  She also said that after 1942 when there were food stamps, that you could not have any if you were not in the Hitler Youth. -- I find this all very disturbing, having been born after war and knowing all about what happened and always wondering what I would have done if I had been in their shoes.-- The other woman I spoke to, was born in 1926 and remembered a little more.  She said  that for some reason such as that she had to work somewhere, she ended up not on the roster for being called up.  All the younger girls were in the DM, Deutsche Maedchen (German Girls) which they liked to joke about as the "Deutsche Milchkuehe" (German Milkcows), (I am guessing because of the Hilterian idea of reproduction and motherhood).  (Our grandmothers, my husband's and mine, had medals for bearing quite a few children.)  So, this woman I mentioned, was not on the roster and never ended up having to swear and oath or become a member of the Party;  but this was some kind of fortuitous accident.  She did not, for that reason, have to be de-nazified, later.  Somehow, she did suffer repercussions, as did others in the family, since hers was not a good Nazi family, so that she received bad report cards in school and one of her brother was even failed a grade.  She says that he certainly wasn't that stupid and that this sort of thing could damage your future and determine what kind of school you might transfer to later on.

So as the Nazi's tried to control the indoctrination of all children in youth groups and in school, they also tried  to stamp out the bourgeois observance of Christmas but this proved difficult even in their own circles.  There was the attempt to rename the Christmas tree as the "Juletree" or the "Worldtree".  In addition, if you could not institute successfully songs, such as we looked at in the last post on this subject, then at least you could try to rob the regular Christian songs of their substance or else make them ambiguous in their meaning, so that pagan ideas could be brought in.

Such ideas included mystical thinking about the solstice, resurrection of nature, motherhood and hopefulness in life.  This happened mostly during the war years, so that in addition there was an increase in themes related to the national character.  Even though Christmas could not longer be Christmas, it was still the German character to celebrate Christmas and, of course, no other nation could celebrate it as well as Germans. (The songbook I am looking at gives examples of such verses.)

The Nazi "Christmas" songs in this songbook are printed small and without music, or else without piano accompaniment as they are not meant for singing or revival, only for illustration and learning of history.   Here is a translation of one by me:

 "Today the God who made you  reaches for your heart.  Will you just let it pass, oh you my Volk (German nation, racially speaking), the call of the Savior?  Is in your heart, too, not burning the question about God?   Even more in these days of darkness and wild greed?  Now you have been snatched by a miracle from the hands of the enemy's darkness.  My Volk, God is your guest.  He invites himself into the German house.  Up!  Open the door!  God wants to be your comforter.  His word has German language, is manly, tough and clear.  Germany!  My Volk!  Awake!  God was revealed to you!" (p. 226)

A Pastor wrote this mixing up German Lutheranism with racial purity and election, to the honor of the Fuehrer's Heil.  Very pathetic and quite incomprehensible in some ways.  (The State church, of course, had to be "gleichgeschaltet", too, doing things like this to the Christmas message.)  The famous Christmas song "See how a rose is blooming" has a line "von Jesse kam die Art" (the root of Isaiah), which was changed to "von wunderbarer Art" (in a wonderful way);  and such the prophecy was done away with and a pagan nature magic was replacing the prophetic word.  More difficulty was had with "Silent Night".  Even we nowadays, seem to be able to substitute everything with Santa, snow and jingling bells, but "Silent Night" stubbornly remains.