Rumblings. 12.5.25

1. “Remember, the nature of your prayer experience is up to God. So, get your nose out of God‘s business! Simply content yourself with being in the presence of God by praying the scriptures. This is the prayer of Lectio Divina … a tremendously powerful and very simple means of being with God and stillness before the Word.” ~ David G. Benner, Opening to God

“So, get your nose out of God’s business.” I confess to chuckling when I first read that sentence. 

2. What’s happened to us? Once upon a time we were able to agree that threatening  people’s lives and protecting powerful sexual predators was verboten.

Using racist rants to demonize  Somalians and others is somehow now seen, in certain circles, as being quite OK. 

Who ever thought a POTUS would distribute a poop video on his social media platforms? 

We used to be able to agree that it’s wrong to appoint unqualified people to important government positions, that mocking women reporters was in very bad taste, and that cruelty was never a viable life strategy.

We used to be able to count on a President to not run shady, side hustles out of the Oval Office. 

Now such things are becoming  normative and it is truly discouraging. 

3. “The price of privilege is the moral duty to act when one sees another person treated unfairly. And the least that a person in the dominant caste can do is not make the pain any worse.” ~ Isabel Wilkerson, Caste

4. “When our story is told a century from now - and it will be - how much of the American church ran after idols and delusions, false Christs and conspiracies. History will not only fault the pastors for not confronting us with the truth but the congregations who forbade them to.” ~ Beth Moore 

There are lots of ministers living in fear of losing their jobs if they say even the smallest of things that don’t align with the gospel according to MAGA. 

There are congregants who want out but are afraid of what people might say about or do to them. So they stay, pretending to believe the unbelievable.

5. “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” ~ Luke 6:45

Listening to  POTUS and his message bearers speak,  one thing is clear. Their heart is not filled with abundant goodness.

 6. There were lots of  jarring moments in  November.

- When military and intelligence-affiliated members of Congress urged service members to honor their oath by refusing to obey orders that violate the Constitution, POTUS responded by posting this:“Seditious behavior. Punishable by death. George Washington would hang them.”

It was not seditious behavior. There is still such a thing as free speech and  reminding members of  the Armed Forces to  defend the Constitution is admirable and needed. The Executive Branch appears to be at a loss as to how to handle things like this.

-Then there was the meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. When asked about the murder and dismemberment of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the President waved it off with: “Things happen.”

Things happen? A journalist was murdered and dismembered. The CIA concluded the Crown Prince approved the operation.And the President’s concern was not justice, but not wanting to “embarrass our guest.” 

-And then the moment that still makes my stomach turn. When a female journalist asked Trump a question he didn’t like, he snapped: “Quiet, piggy.” Words of pure contempt.

-Of course, aligning with Putin and punting Ukraine to the sidelines was a sad and dangerous moment for democracy. 

-I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the vicious attacks on what we’re told were Venezuelan drug  boats, killing many. I have lots of questions about how the ‘gang  that can’t shoot straight’ pulled that off. Where’s the evidence? Who was really giving the orders? Why make a second pass to finish the kill? Who authorized that second pass? Are we at war or just playing war?

There’s more but I dare not do further damage to my heart. 

7. “Jesus is not exaggerating when he says we cannot serve two masters: God and Mammon… We have a choice; there is no both/and option. We will hate one and  love the other. But the fact of the matter is that Mammon will demand our blood, the blood of our brothers and sisters, and the blood of our neighbors. Our accumulation necessitates exploitation.”  Rev. Dr. Malcolm Foley, Baylor University

Wherever one finds great wealth, there is a good chance that exploitation of the marginalized is part of the equation. Ugh. 

8.  “Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of  their country.” 

I typed this more than a few times in my high school typing class along with ‘the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog’. ‘Now is the time’  has been attributed to a typing teacher back in the day. It’s  70 characters long, perfect for one line of typing. And “the quick brown fox …” uses every letter in the alphabet. (you don’t get analysis like this just anywhere).

As large segments of our society keep spiraling downward, everything feels quite perilous. That makes ‘coming to the aid of our country’ much more than a slogan.  It’s a battle cry.   

9. “The world”, as it’s called in the New Testament is forming us, constantly, but what is it forming us into? … Who or what am I becoming? …

If we’re not being intentionally formed by Jesus himself, then it’s highly likely we’re being unintentionally formed by someone or something else… the question isn’t, am I going to believe? It’s who or what am I going to believe in? ~ John Mark Comer

I don’t want to worship a caricature of Christ.

10. Pope Leo XIV condemned the use of religion for justifying "war," "violence" or "fanaticism" – instead urging Catholics to mobilize their faith and unify others "regardless of ethnicity, nationality, religion or personal perspectives."

Of course, there are those who kicked the Popein the butt for acknowledging the truth. I thought that was a good omen. Now the Pope knows who he can’t trust.