12/04/2024

Musings 1st - 11th April

When tempted 

by immediate pleasures

think 

longer-term outcomes 

and stop.

Ambition recruits

allies-in-life

not friends.

Fine

holistic education 

raises 

self-esteem and aspirations.

The beauty of charities

attracts

benefactors

both financial 

and as volunteers.

Hitler's swift defeat of France 

worried Stalin

it would give him less time 

to rebuild the Soviet army 

whose leadership

he had slaughtered in the 30s.

As in the past

factories won wars

USA &UK Industrial mass production 

defeated Hitler.

All too easy

to neglect the fact

that most others

do not think

like me.

Ever since my Eriskay Experience in 1954

I have never walked alone.

There is no one richer

than me.

Music unites 

Above and below

Political divides.

On the evening of Saturday March 23rd, in The Sheldonian Theatre Oxford, while listening to Opus 48, in which my Goddaughter Kate was singing Mozart's Requiem, I suddenly realized I had to write down the thoughts that had been welling up in my heart these past few years.

As time passes and we journey on, in my case joyfully, towards eternity, we all have our roles to play. I believe one of mine is to let people know what life has taught me. One lesson is - alas - crystal clear: Christianity is no longer, in the western world, attractive.

God's reality is far beyond our full understanding. however, thanks to Jesus Christ - God translated into the vernacular of our humanity - we could discover much about the Divine Creator. That reality is immensely life enhancing. However, the presentation -  the way it is all too often taught and the way it appears in many liturgical texts - is not.

What sort of Father is God if we need to pray “Lend your merciful ear to our prayers”

And “Stir up your power, O Lord - not ‘loving father’ - and come to our help.”(Thursday collect first week in Advent).

If “at the Saviour’s command and formed by divine teaching, why on earth do we ‘dare’ to say: Our Father… Having been given a command and taught by Christ, ‘I would not dare to pray in any other way.”

As Christianity grew, first under the aegis of the Roman Emperor - who convened the Council of Nicea - and then profoundly influenced by Roman Law – and then the monarchies around Europe, the words that appear in Mozart's Requiem  - influenced by this secular history - do not do justice to the Divine Reality as disclosed by Jesus of Nazareth, The Christ.

No wonder so many modern folk - once they pass through their puberty - reject this divinity and do not seek to discover that divine reality.

How can the following nouns, adjectives and phrases – in bold - be applied to the God of The Christ?

Great trembling there will be when the Judge descends from heaven to examine all things closely. 

In the light of ‘today you will be with me in Paradise” (Lk 23,43)

King of tremendous majesty, who freely saves those worthy ones, save me, source of mercy. 

Yet Jesus – the Judge – calls us ‘friends’ (Jn 15,15)

Remember, kind Jesus, my salvation caused your suffering;

“I am going – freely it seems – to The One who sent me. Unless I go, the Paraclete will not come to you.” (Jn 16, 5 &7)

The Holy Spirit is the ‘we’ of the Father and Son – each is an instantaneous, eternal, mutual gift!

Righteous judge of vengeance, grant me the gift of absolution before the day of retribution.

“I am going to prepare a place for you. I shall return to take you to myself.” (Jn14,2-3)

For me, the key to all Christ’s sayings is that he sees me – and I see him – as friend.  Indeed, Yesh  - Yeshua ben Josef - is my best friend.

'Almighty' is a misleading word when applied to God.

For me 'almighty' means that there is only one God who has created everything - to avoid polytheism or henotheism (the best of all gods). Everything has been created by the one 'almighty' creator.

There is a long string of things God cannot do. God cannot force any human - with his or her free will - to love God or indeed behave morally. Hence so much evil in the world. God cannot make a square triangle or turn a horse into a fish; turn the sun into the moon, a human being into a cat.

In liturgy, it would be far better to change 'almighty' into 'all-loving'. Seriously intelligent folk might be happy to seek to accept this God and relate with this - for me - real God. That is the God I love. That is the God I strive to help to make this world a better place.

“Almighty” may have been used motivationally. In the Original Testament books there is a great deal of motivational  rather than descriptive use of language.

When a mother says 'if you do that, I will chop your fingers off" she is using language motivationally, otherwise those words would be abusive, criminal. "You can do It," says a trainer is motivational if he does not win, it would be a lie.

***

From the singularity of the Big Bang there are now two trillion galaxies in our observable universe. Our own galaxy has some 100billion stars  - including me who at conception was a single cell and now, being male, I have 36 billion of these. Were I female, I would have some 28 billion.

Our Creator God is a design genius who has guided evolution silently and magnificently for some 13.7 billion years – and me for over 85 (9 months of these in my mother’s uterus). Chapeau! 

When, at the end of journey to eternity I meet the Blessed Trinity, I will be speechless in wonder.

***  

You never know the future.

Sometimes it can be uplifting, charming.

At Spike's At Winchelsea Lodge on Wednesday 3rd April evening

My 91 year old dementia patient was crying.

Lee, the Manager, came over

And presented her with a bunch of lovely flowers.

"We want smiles, not tears here."

And they came.

A lovely, affectionate gesture, the first one

Never in my 84 years on this planet

Had I seen before.

***

Who can we trust?

With what?

Why? 

Fail:

"Tell us and you will go free." Bribery 

" Tell us and we will stop torturing you and not kill your family." During the second world war, captured Maquis members tried to stay schtum for 24 hours to allow their colleagues to fade away. 

We have to trust our dentist and medical carers, Airline pilots, coach drivers and taxi drivers.

Given their performances. We no longer trust the media and politicians. Not all cars and planes are trustworthy.

Think Boeing 737 and the door falling out. A Boeing 737 Max was forced to make an emergency landing shortly after taking off from Portland International Airport on January 5.

Four key bolts that were meant to lock the door to the fuselage appeared to be missing, according to the US National Transportation Safety Board’s initial findings.

Think  Electric Vehicles (EV). A study by the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency  concluded that EVs are 20 times less likely to catch fire than petrol and diesel cars. With data corroborated from a US insurer, the study found that EVs suffer 25 fires per 100,000 sold.

**

When Thomas Jefferson penned “all men are created equal,” he told a porky-pie.

Though an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809, and was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), he mislead many.

Some people are born male others female. Some have a high IQ, half, by definition, have an intelligence that is below average. A few are born into wealth. Many into poverty. Many are born into a loving family. Some are far less fortunate.

However, I believe we are all born with the same rights to respect, fulfilment and happiness.

**

Eastertide Musings 

In Kent – and East Sussex, 

Creation smiles

In flowers, 

and the beauty 

of fresh greens and new-born lambs.

Christ is

Forever risen

For us

To remind us all

That all is well

As long as we keep on

Buggering on

Open to his grace-filled love.

Belonging offers believing

Shaping behaving

On which our life

In God’s Kingdom now 

And then in Eternity

depends.

Frustration

Even when born of love

Can crack patience

Dissolving the frustrated

 barbs 

When seen in the context of Eternity.

(Caring for

Even now with more help

For a 91 year old with dementia

Is a splendid gymnasium 

in which to acquire and develop humility

And indeed

Patience).

Duty, honour, pride

Often bring out of me

What others think

was motivated by

kindness, generosity, and love.

Thank God

It’s “by their fruits

Not their motivations

That they shall be known.”

Folk live

As well as they are able:

A vastly broad spectrum

Of lifes’quality.

At the end of each day

“Thank you, beloved Yesh,

For enabling me

To survive

And even in part thrive

Another day.”

As we witness in the 

Russo-Ukrainian war

And the Holy Land conflict

Political Truths are

Distant cousins

Of honesty.

**

Stalin

And the USSR government

We're socially deaf

Unable to hear the needs 

of their people

For freedom,

and ability to develop

As humans.

Stalin, Mao, Hitler, Pot Pol, and all too many others

Suffered from ethical dementia.

They could not realise how grotesque their policies were.

Netanyahu and Trump perhaps.

Earlier in life they would have had a morality.

However, through their ambition and dire actions 

They lost it.

As years age bodies

Evil destroys moralities.

Our journey to eternity

Is like a car journey. 

You never know what lies ahead on the road. 

Maybe nothing. 

Maybe a crash

Or a fallen tree

Grinding our car to a sudden halt.

Then

Maybe the traffic once again flows free

Until.....?

**

While I face eternity 

Joyfully

to meet God

Japan’s Kamikaze pilots

faced death 

dutifully

for their Emperor. 

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