Sabbath Messages | Sabbath Message: May 8, 2004
Good Sabbath
May 8, 2004 "Oh come let us sing unto the Lord
Teach me Thy ways, be Thou our strength
For Thou art the light and the salvation."
Ah Mothers' Day, a delightful trip into appreciation for the women in our lives; a noble breed, these females; powerful in spirit, forgiving in practice, wiser than most understand, God's greatest architectural feat! Fran and my mothers were the personification of Eve. They had just enough vanity, more than enough worldliness, senses of humor, and both made me a better man. I thank them both for their faith in what I could become.
Thank You, O Lord
For inventing Eve
Giving her mischief as well as beauty of spirit
She knew the difference between a snake and an apple
But mischief prevailed.
Now snakes crawl on their bellies and mothers go through the agony of giving
birth
Since male and females need lessons
and that's what life is for.
I read a story titled "Going to a Glacier? You should hurry, about the possibility that there will be no glaciers left by 2030, that there were 150 glaciers in North America in the late 1800's, with just 27 left today. When common sense disappears beneath the idealogue's stupidity, then God looks for another Noah. Life is for making choices, but blindness is more than a tragedy; it is a political fact and never so much as today.
The fact that one political party attracts the most churchgoers makes me wonder about "religion" and whether it has been redefined; the culture that excuses monstrous acts using the childhood excuse "he hit me first" results in torture, at the very least. We are traveling from the dehumanization of current enemies towards the dehumanization of the other party; the result is that we, ourselves, are dehumanized. Humans can rationalize any act as they lose their reasoning. We are poor listeners because we have lost patience and schools do not teach it. We evolve towards the days of ancient times and values when we emerged from caves and thought ourselves giants. We are tiny but we have the power and the choice to be giants, in wisdom and action, if we realize that it is not too late.
"Let a man forgive the disgrace to which he has been subjected.
Let him seek no honor through the disgrace of his neighbor."
(Talmud)
We cannot triumph when we disgrace or humiliate others. It is a memory carved in forever as the mind stores its vengeance away for another day. We energize the hatred of the temporary enemy as we disappoint God, Who keeps hoping that we've finally learned how to be the humans He had in mind when we were created.
"Rejoice not when your enemy falls
And let not your heart be glad when he stumbles."
(Proverbs 24:17)
Seek justice; pursue it as if it were the air you breathe, for it is. "Love thy neighbor" is the simplicity of peace. We do have to be vigilant about tyrants for there is always one emerging. Our nobility is to protect the weak and the meek from tyrants. My life has been dedicated to this lesson from my youth, as I watched Phds organize the slaughter of millions. Education is to learn from history and the experience of the ever-present tyants. It is to pursue justice with equality for all. From that emerges justice, still blind, needing the assistance of good people to lead her to her pathways.
Without justice there can be no worthwhile living, just the temporary values of greed and wealth.
Honor Thy Mother, living or not, and you will honor yourself.
sandy
