Post 128 The Lord’s Prayer

Today it’s from the ridiculous to the sublime.  Well, actually the last two posts were not on ridiculous topics, though unusual to be sure and about topics not everyone enjoys talking or reading , let alone writing about!  But in spite of the negative vibes that last subject tends to generate, it was a subject of immense importance, for mismanaging it or, worse and perhaps the most frequent when you take into consideration the entire world, simply not managing it, usually creates chaotic public health conditions. But in contrast to today’s topic, that of yesterday can definitely be described as ridiculous. 

Today’s topic is the most famous prayer in all of human history, the most famous Christian prayer. I admit I have no statistics to support that claim, but if you check it out on the Internet you’ll almost certainly find such statistics. It’s just that statistics are not my concern today. Perhaps another time. But that prayer? If you’re a Christian you must by now have named it: The Lord’s Prayer that Jesus Christ Himself taught his disciples to pray in the New Testament book of Matthew 6:9-13.  In the words of the translation by Eugene Peterson known as The Message, it goes like this:

^7-13 “The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They’re full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don’t fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply. Like this:

Our Father in heaven,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right;
Do what’s best—
    as above, so below.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.
You’re in charge!
You can do anything you want!
You’re ablaze in beauty!
    Yes. Yes. Yes.

Peterson’s translation is a loose one, conveying the core of the prayer as he understands it in contemporary language.

Another person who writes about the Lord’s Prayer is Father Ronald Rolheiser He is a Roman Catholic priest, a lecturer and writer with a weekly column that is carried in more than 50 newspapers worldwide. He is the author of numerous books as well. He has been a priest for 28 years. He also writes a lot about prayer and social justice. One of his titles on the subject is Living God’s Justice. You can find out all about him by just calling him up on the Internet and you’ll get plenty about him. A major URL about him and his major subject is:

                             <  http://corpuschristiparish.net/wp-                 

                  content/uploads/2011/07/Social-Justice-prayers.pdf >

Rolheiser has nicely summarize the Prayer for us as far as its meaning for social justice is concerned, but using its more traditional formulation. In the material below, the bold sections represent the words of the Prayer itself, which are then followed by succinct social justice statements. I think they are clear enough for you to enjoy—yes, prayers may be enjoyed!—to edify and be edified and, yes, to pray. I don’t think additional comments from me are necessary for you to get the thrust. If you need further enlargement, look online for the Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 45-52 or Question & Answer 116-129.  While Rolheiser is a Catholic priest, the “Heidelberger” as it is fondly known, is a Protestant document forged during the heat of the Reformation a few centuries ago.  Here goes:

Our Father… who always stands with the weak, the powerless, the poor, the abandoned, the sick, the aged, the very young, the unborn, and those who, by victim of circumstance, beat the heat of the day. 

          Who art in heaven…where everything will be reversed, where the                first will be last and the last will be first, but where all will be well and every manner of being, will be well. 

         Hallowed be thy name…may we always acknowledge your holiness,  

       respecting that your ways are not our ways, your standards are not our

          standards. May the reverence we give your name pull us out of the selfishness that prevents us from seeing the pain of our neighbor.

        Your will be done…open our freedom to let you in, so that the complete mutuality that characterizes your life might flow through our veins, and

                            thus the life that we help generate may radiate your equal love for all, and your special love for the poor. 

         On earth as in heaven…may the work of our hands, the temples and structures we build in this world, reflect the temple and the structure of your

glory so that the joy, graciousness, tenderness, and justice of heaven will show forth within all of our structures on Earth. 

  Give…life and love to us and help us to always see everything as a gift. Help us to know that nothing comes to us by right and that we must give        

                    because we have been given to. Help us realize that we must give to the poor, not because they need it, but because our own health

                            depends upon our giving to them. 

       Us…the truly plural us…Give not just to our own but to everyone, including those who are very different than the narrow us. Give your gifts to all

                            of us equally. 

     This day…not tomorrow…Do not let us push things off into some indefinite future so that we can continue to live justified lives in the face of injustice

                            because we can make good excuses for our inactivity.

   Our daily bread…so that each person in the world may have enough food, enough clean water, enough clean air, adequate health care, and

                           sufficient access to education, so as to have the sustenance for a healthy life. Teach us to give from our sustenance and not just from our

                           surplus. 

           And forgive us our trespasses…forgive us our blindness toward our neighbor, our self-preoccupation, our racism, and our incurable propensity

                           to worry only about ourselves and our own. Forgive us our capacity to watch the evening news and do nothing about it.

         And do not put us to the test…do not judge us only by whether we have fed the hungry, given clothing to the naked, visited the sick, or tried to

                          mend the systems that victimized the poor. Spare us this test for none of us can stand before your gospel scrutiny. Give us, instead, more

                          days to mend our ways, our selfishness, and our systems. 

NOTE:  I apologize for the irregular formatting above. My computer has been stubborn the past few days when it comes to formatting. Not being much of a techy, I chose to proceed as is and hope for your mercy. In desperation I decided the world is better off with a good prayer but poor formatting than with nothing!  After all, these words are straight from our Saviour's mouth! I hope you agree.... Pray and be blessed anyway!

         And deliver us from evil…that is, from the blindness that let us continue to participate in anonymous systems within which we need not see who                       gets less as we get more.

Post 127—Human Plumbing and Culture

I hope you’re ready for another session on human plumbing and how we manage its product.  That management, as we will see today, is usually related to the dominant local culture.  In the last post, we saw how at least some Indians still manage it in a pretty primitive way. Now I don’t know enough about Indian culture to demonstrate my thesis firmly on the influence of culture on the matter, but I can at least make a guess. The Indian practice described in Post 126 must have been influenced by at least two factors.

One of them would be a general traditional ignorance of the impact of hygiene on health. First of all, the people would not be aware that defecating all over the place creates hygienic problems. Secondly, they would not be aware of the danger to health such unhygienic practice creates. Flies crawling all over the excrement and then carrying it with them wherever they go, including humans and food. Well, we know what happens from there on, but those people do not. They are blissfully ignorant of it and so continue to practice their unhealthy tradition. So, one cultural factor is general ignorance of hygiene.

The second cultural factor would be low level of technology combined with a poor economy. It takes a certain level technology and economy to devise better management of sewage. And that technology is pushed by growing awareness of the dangers of traditional practice. When people become aware of the danger, they will be motivated to take the bull by the horns and devise more healthy management practices. I have read various publications that claim the rapid increase in the health level of Westerners during the 19^th century was due more to the improvement in sewage systems than to improved medical science. And that came along with the general rise of technology—the Industrial Revolution, remember? 

Bring these two cultural developments together and you will soon have a management system that almost makes the sewage invisible so that the general population almost forgets about it. In any modern city like Vancouver, where I live, I am blissfully ignorant as to where mine goes, how it gets there and what happens to it. Never really think of it—until, of course, the system develops plumbing problems and then we call in a plumber with all her sophisticated equipment. “Her” did I say? Well, probably not. I have yet to meet a lady plumber!

But then there is an even deeper factor that can play a role—anthropology. That’s a fancy term referring to a culture’s view about human beings, who or what we are. I have lived for many years in a culture where the local chief was regarded a demi-god with all the men of the community in some way sharing that status. They could not imagine that gods would have such human problems as defecation and so they pretended the chief and all the man did not defecate. I don’t know how the chief handled that pretense, but for ordinary males this meant they would do their thing in the bush or forest. There were no toilets in such communities, for that would entail an unwanted admission. So everyone else, women and children, though no demi-gods, also had no choice but the bush, for no provisions for them were made either. Not only were there no provisions, but no one would speak about the subject. It was a taboo.

A breakthrough came. After decades of missionary work in the area, the myth began to break down. The young church was one of the first to build a toilet in the town. It was a simple structure of a grass matting surrounding a deep hole. But it was built only a few feet away from the well from which they drew the water needed for the church’s cooking events!  The people did not see the dangerous connection! 

Another breakthrough came, a negative one: a cholera plague that killed many people in just a few days. The local government medical officer quickly called a meeting of all the religious leaders of the two dominant religions, Christianity and Islam. He begged these leaders to preach on the need for hygiene, including toilets, to contain the plague. It so happens it was my turn to preach that Sunday.  

I decided to preach on an Old Testament text that instructed the people to bury their excrement in a hole outside the camp.

 Mark out an area outside the camp where you can go to relieve yourselves. Along with your weapons have a stick with you. After you relieve yourself, dig a hole with the stick and cover your excrement.God, your God, strolls through your camp; He’s present…. Keep your camp holy; don’t permit anything indecent or offensive in God’s eyes (The Message, Deuteronomy 23:12-13).

 I knew it was culturally inappropriate to speak about such matters. So I consulted a church elder and friend who was to translate my Hausa-language sermon into another language. He advised me I should go ahead and preach that sermon and promised to translate faithfully, even if it was culturally inappropriate. So I did. I preached a sentence or two and he would translate. So we would alternate. Suddenly, in the middle of the sermon, a very influential man stood up and yelled something in the local language which I did not understand. My translator brushed it off and told me to continue, but my heart was out of it. After the service, I was told that man yelled that the translator should not beat around the bush! Say it as I said it! However, my sermon was not lost on most, for they understood the Hausa language.

Thus, another humorous story, but also an indication how culture can influence such matters. Though comparatively free from that tradition, it was not enough for him to translate the message straight. However, people did begin to construct toilets in their compounds. A combination of disease, new awareness and the gospel brought about a radical change in the way the people saw themselves and that, in turn, led to a breakdown of that particular tradition—and did so for the good of the entire community. I never learned how this was solved for the chief himself or what effect this may have had on his alleged semi-divinity. I do know that the church did not openly challenge it ever but played along with it good naturedly, even though over time the chiefs were all Christian. 

Post 126—The Human Plumbing System

I have long wanted to do a post on a rather messy topic: human defecation. In some cultures this is a no-go area, or, perhaps, in most even. It basically was in the rural European culture of my childhood. It simply was not talked about, though no reason was ever provided. The taboo was just there floating in the air as it were. Everybody who grew up there was aware of the taboo, even though it was never explained. I see no reason for this taboo in that culture, apart from the fact that it is a messy business. But at least we acknowledged it enough to make provision for it. Everyone had some form of toilet at their house, either in or outside.

In the case of our family, by the time I was aware of such things, we had a toilet stool shaped like modern flush toilets, except that this one did not flush. The product would slide down a wide tube into a cement holding cistern underground right next to the building.  Twice a year a local farmer would empty the cistern by scooping it out with a pail with a long handle into a wooden tanker on wheels with a spreading mechanism at the back and pulled either by a horse or an ancient tractor. The farmer would spread it out over his meadow, where the cows grazed—and we would buy and drink the milk!  Well, it was our own, after all!  Today the village has a full-fledged modern sewer system that automatically takes the product to a mysterious destination somewhere. Residents no long have to worry about it. Taken care of. Though I have left that culture since 1951, I believe they have loosened up on that taboo somewhat.

Why do I bring up such a macabrous  subject? I have often thought about our human plumbing system with a degree of admiration about how our Creator engineered it. How it allows us to eat things that our bodies reject. When you think of it, it really is quite an amazing system regardless of its messiness.  And to think that a holy God would even bother creating such a messy system that in probably all cultures is considered filthy and to be avoided. This should teach us to be more respectful and appreciative about it and not consider it such a taboo subject. Even the Bible is open about it.

Not only did our Creator design it, but it can generate humorous situations. The reason I bring up the subject today is precisely that: humour. This week one of the great American newspaper published the story about how the Indian government is trying to discourage people from defecating all over the place, except in toilets. Here’s the story:

India’s government has been on a public toilet-building spree. Now, it’s trying to shame people into using them. An aggressive new campaign ridicules those who are no longer poor but continue to defecate in the open—a practice that remains common in rural India. The advertisements mock the very idea that India is developing. The tagline says: “Only the habit of using a toilet is real progress.”  And the ridiculing is done by children. “Uncle, you wear a tie around your neck, shoes on your feet, but you still defecate in the open. What kind of progress is that?” asks a child in one commercial. Another says: “you may have a smart phone in your hand, but you still squat on the train tracks.” 

Now, macabre as it is, I am quite sure it brought at least a smile to your face. So, I have achieved two things so far: I’ve reminded you that our holy God created this messy system and that therefore we should respect and appreciate it more. Secondly, I have made you smile, which in this grim world, is quite an achievement. I’m almost proud of myself!

The way various civilizations manage their human plumbing system is usually not just random. It is often tied up with basic aspects of their culture. I hope to give an example of that in our next post.                                     

Post 125--The Small Things of Life

I don’t write or publish as many posts as I would like to. Always short of time. Yes, and I’m 78, “retired” and all that.  I always have more writing projects going than I can handle in a timely manner. For example, these days I am translating a children’’s book (age 10-15 or so) on Rembrandt from the Dutch language on behalf of a dear Dutch family friend, Ellie Linger, the author. Around 140+ pages.  I am also translating scholarly articles from the Dutch that express the worldview of the Kuyperian tradition I espouse. These articles are published on the “Guest Articles” page of my website < www.SocialTheology.com >. On top of all that, I maintain a rigorous church, social, camping and travel life.

The above means that I just cannot keep up a regular schedule of posts on this blog. That’s the reason I sometimes use guest articles that are worthwhile reading and that help me keep a bit of regularity for this blog. Hence the article for today written by Jim Denison on September 6, 2016, about the effect and importance of the small and often unnoticed acts we perform daily. Enjoy the read.

                               ==========

"We knew our father may not be alive for our future wedding, so we decided to capture the poignant moment before it was lost forever." This is how Becca Duncan explains the decision she and her twin sister Sarah made to have wedding photos made with their father, even though neither is engaged. Their dad is suffering from Alzheimer's disease, so they staged their wedding pictures with him while they can. Meanwhile, The Washington Post reports that basketball great Charles Barkley traveled to Craig Sager's bedside as the broadcaster recovers from a third bone marrow transplant. Sager is battling aggressive leukemia, and Barkley wanted to show his support. This despite Barkley's recent hip surgery and his doctor's warning that he should not yet travel. Sager's wife had a cold and couldn't be with him in the hospital, so Barkley flew to Phoenix to take her place. I often encourage Christians to use our influence for the greatest public good. As our culture becomes increasingly hostile to biblical truth and faith, our courageous public witness becomes increasingly vital. We can learn from the Duncan twins and Charles Barkley—their public actions called attention to dread diseases and gave us compassionate examples to follow. But there's another side to the story: those who serve far from the limelight are as important as those who make the news. Heroes who are unsung on earth are applauded in heaven. In 1 Samuel 9, an unnamed servant led Saul to Samuel, who anointed him the first king of Israel (vv. 5–6). Gideon's three hundred heroes are unnamed in Scripture, but their actions preserved the nation (Judges 7:6–8). Paul's unnamed nephew prevented a plot to murder the apostle (Acts 23:16–22). Without his bravery, Paul would have been killed before writing the books of Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, and 2 Timothy. We don't know the names of most of the people whose stories make up the New Testament: the Magi, the Samaritan woman at the well, the two thieves at the cross, and the Philippian jailer, to name but a few. According to John Allen's The Global War On Christians, ninety percent of all religious martyrs in the world today are followers of Jesus. The vast majority will never be named in our newspapers, but each is known and rewarded in heaven (Revelation 6:9–11). When you have opportunity to make public your faith today, pray for boldness and act with courage (see Acts 4:29–31). But know that every act of service to God and his creation is known and rewarded in paradise, whether it is acknowledged on earth or not. Mother Teresa, the newest Roman Catholic saint, was once opening an orphanage in New York City when a press conference broke out. A reporter shouted at the tiny Albanian nun, "How will you measure the success of this?" She smiled into the glare of the camera and said, "I don't believe our Lord ever spoke of success. He spoke only of faithfulness in love." Speak and live by God's word today, and though others may ignore or reject your witness, the world can never be the same (Isaiah 55:11). This is the promise and the invitation of God.

Post 124--Christian Genocide b y ISIS

It is generally recognized in the media that Christians are having a hard time of it in pretty well all Muslim-dominated countries, whether in Asia, Africa or Europe. I have drawn attention to this in several posts, the latest being number 122. I have also written about that more voluminously in another blog I operate under the name “ChristianMuslimWorld.”  

Now that claim may smell like Islamophobia to some, but that derisive term is over-used to cover almost anything that is less than laudatory with respect to Islam.  It means “fear of Islam,” which is a far cry from disagreement with Islam. I have high respect for orthodox Islam and for its adherents, but I disagree with them. If you want to know what exactly that translates into, I refer you to my series Studies in Christian-Muslim Relations on my website  < www.SocialTheology.com/Islamica >. Even Muslims have praised me for the spirit pervading that series. Disagreement? Yes.  Phobia? No, not one bit. So, let’s not have that misnomer stand in the way of the rest of this post. 

Today I discuss not mere Muslim persecution of Christians, but genocide. According to one edition of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, it means “the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political or cultural group,” with the last one, I take it, including religious groups.  It is much more specific than the more general term “persecution.” While the latter is common place throughout the Muslim world, genocide is more local and currently widely applied especially to ISIS, who are widely recognized to consciously and officially be practicing Christian genocide.

You need details of this recognition?  Carl Anderson, the CEO of the Knights of Columbus and a New York Times bestselling author, together with  Archbishop Bashar Warda, a Chaldean Catholic Archbishop in Iraq (A&W), wrote an article, “ISIS perpetrates genocide against Christians” (Vancouver Sun, Aug. 5, 2016, p. A11) that is fully worth a serious read. They write:

Based on overwhelming evidence, Christians have been included in genocide designations by the European Parliament, the US State Department, the US Congress, parliaments and officials of a number of European governments, as well as the Iraqi cabinet and the Kurdish Regional Government.    

In addition, according to Barnabas Aid, certain members of the British House of Lords urged their Prime Minister some months ago that, “jihadist attacks on  Christians and other religions in the Middle East should be classified as genocide.”  In other words, the UK Government hesitated to join the authorities in the paragraph above. And they are not the only ones. The same Barnabas report states that “The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has said that she ‘stands ready’ to begin a genocide enquiry but needs an order from the UN Security Council.”  So, the UN also hesitates. Given its membership, that should be no surprise to anyone.

But coming closer to home, our own Canadian Government also has rejected the call to declare a genocide on the part of ISIS. On June 14, 2016, the House of Commons defeated a motion (166 vs 139) to declare that present-day atrocities by ISIS against religious minorities in Syria and Iraq constitute genocide.

 A&W advocate that Canada should take leadership on the question of genocide by ISIS, but it is following the lead of the UN. Their argument against the genocide issue turns on a definition of a tax Islam calls “jizya”, a tax Christians and others have historically paid to Muslim rulers for protection instead of the traditional “convert or die” ultimatum. However, according to A&W, ISIS has widened the definition of this protection so that it includes even “kidnapping, rape and confiscation,” all actions from which that tax is supposed to protect them. In fact, a former ISIS leader “publicly revoked any special treatment of Christians years ago.”  Its official magazine, Dabiq, has threatened to “conquer your Rome, break your crosses, and enslave your women.” 

The result of all this violence? A&W tell us that the number of Christians in Iraq “has plummeted by nearly 90 percent, Syria’s by almost 70 per cent. “In the land where it first took root, Christianity could be stamped out entirely—within our lifetime.”  Such threats and actions hardly represent the preferential treatment Jizya is supposed to offer, as A&W put it.

And so I strongly support the call of A&W and the campaign being waged by Barnabas Aid for both Canada and the UN to become realistic. A&W urge, “It is time for both Canada and the UN to join the international consensus, supported by a majority of the Canadian people at a rate of two to one in our recent K of C-Leger poll.” As a Canadian I will be extremely embarrassed if our Government were to renege on this life-and-death issue for thousands of people. If there is no change at this front, I will definitely campaign against the Federal Government on basis of this offensive indifference during any future election. I will help arouse the Christian community against them in my writings. It is one more spike in the coffin of death with which the politicians of almost all parties are saddling our country, the others being easy abortion and easy assisted suicide along with the more general ones of poverty and injustice.

Though I am always wary of one-issue politics, the matter of life and death trumps all other issues in importance along with poverty and injustice.  Come to think of it, when you lump these “few” issues together, you’re really talking a pretty wide umbrella of issues that can hardly be considered “single-issue” stuff. I am aware this could leave me a political orphan without a party to vote for. I may be left to vote for the least of all evils, a position that an increasing number of Canadian Christians find themselves in.

Though I drift in this post from the specific issue of genocide of Christians to more general politics, what I want you to take away from it is first of all the genocide issue. That’s my issue for today.  It is more than an “issue” for thousands of Christians in the Middle East; for them it is indeed literally an issue of life and death that goes far beyond mere politics. We need to press the Government of Canada to recognize and declare ISIS genocide of Middle Eastern Christians and others of various persuasions. Does the pretty face of our current PM mask an attitude of political indifference to the lot of the most vulnerable and, thus, of an underlying cruelty? I leave the answer to you.