President Pharaoh

A brief sermon from a recent Virginia church service: 

 Genesis 47:13-27 

Good morning, brothers and sisters; it's always a delight to see the pews crowded on Sunday morning, and so eager to get into God's Word. Turn with me in your Bibles, if you will, to the 47th chapter of Genesis. We'll begin our reading at verse 13, and go through verse 27. Brother Ray, would you stand and read that great passage for us? ... (reading) ... Thank you for that fine reading, Brother Ray.

So we see that economic hard times fell upon Egypt , and the people turned to the government of Pharaoh to deal with this for them. And Pharaoh nationalized the grain harvest, and placed the grain in great storehouses that he had built. So the people brought their money to Pharaoh, like a great tax increase, and gave it all to him willingly in return for grain. And this went on until their money ran out, and they were hungry again.

So when they went to Pharaoh after that, they brought their livestock - their cattle, their horses, their sheep, and their donkey - to barter for grain, and verse 17 says that only took them through the end of that year.

But the famine wasn't over, was it? So the next year, the people came before Pharaoh and admitted they had nothing left, except their land and their own lives. "There is nothing left in the sight of my lord but our bodies and our land. Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for food, and we with our land will be servants to Pharaoh."

So they surrendered their homes, their land, and their real estate to Pharaoh’s government, and then sold themselves into slavery to him, in return for grain.

What can we learn from this, brothers and sisters? That turning to the government instead of to God to be our provider in hard times only leads to slavery? Yes... That the only reason government wants to be our provider is to also become our master? Yes.

But look how that passage ends, brothers and sisters! Thus Israel settled in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen . And they gained possessions in it, and were fruitful and multiplied greatly." God provided for His people, just as He always has! They didn't end up giving all their possessions to government, no, it says they gained possessions!

But I also tell you a great truth today, and an ominous one. We see the same thing happening today - the government today wants to “share the wealth" once again, to take it from us and redistribute it back to us. It wants to take control of healthcare, just as it has taken control of education, and ration it back to us, and when government rations it, then government decides who gets it, and how much, and what kind. And if we go along with it, and do it willingly, then we will wind up no differently than the people of Egypt did four thousand years ago - as slaves to the government, and as slaves to our leaders.

(Here, our thoughtful friend points at the government and the current president. His focus, however is not the specific individual in office but rather the U.S. government and the presidency in general.)

What (the president's) government is doing now is no different from what Pharaoh’s government did then, and it will end the same. And a lot of people like to call (the president)  a "Messiah," don't they? Is he a Messiah? A savior? Didn't the Egyptians say, after Pharaoh made them his slaves, "You have saved our lives; may it please my lord, we will be servants to Pharaoh"? Well, I tell you this - I know the Messiah; the Messiah is a friend of mine; and (THE PRESIDENT) IS NO MESSIAH! No, brothers and sisters, if (the president) is a character from the Bible, then he is Pharaoh.

And that, I'm persuaded, is precisely the point. Our great need as a nation is neither partisan nor party, but a revolution of conscience for us all.

 Bow with me in prayer, if you will...

Lord, You alone are worthy to be served, and we rely on You, and You alone. We confess that the government is not our deliverer, and never rightly will be.

We read in the eighth chapter of 1 Samuel, when Samuel warned the people of what a ruler would do, where it says "And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the LORD will not answer you in that day..."

And Lord, we acknowledge that day has come. We cry out to you because of the ruler that we have chosen for ourselves as a nation. Lord, we pray for this nation. We pray for revival, and we pray for deliverance from those who would be our masters. Give us hearts to seek You and hands to serve You, and protect Your people from the atrocities of Pharaoh’s government. In God We Trust...

The Parties Versus the People

How to Turn Republicans and Democrats into Americans

I thought I was perhaps alone in being deeply concerned with the us-vs-us politics of the last couple of decades.  Here's a thoughtful look by a knowledgeable insider.

Book Summary

To banish the negative effects of partisan warfare from our political system, a former congressman, drawing on his first-hand experience with legislative battles, presents a solution-based, practical way to break the stranglehold of the political party system.

Go to

to see the book write-up and a fascinating excerpt.  You can buy a copy there as well, if you like.

"In 1970, 47 percent of the members of the U.S. Senate were regarded as moderate. Today, that figure is 5 percent, and it is even lower in the House of Representatives. The decline of moderate views in Congress suggests a kind of dysfunction: a dramatic gap between the views and attitudes of the American people and the commonalities and differences that exist among our citizens, on the one hand, and what we wind up with in our elected representatives, on the other. Something is going wrong in our politics.

The dysfunction that has almost paralyzed our federal government has its roots not in the people, not in any fundamental flaw in our constitutional processes, but in the political party framework through which our elected officials gain their offices and within which they govern."

The author and former congressman Mickey Edwards came to a strong conclusion in his 16 years in Congress: Political parties are the "cancer at the heart of our democracy."

Edwards is one of the founders of No Labels, an organization devoted to bipartisan (or nonpartisan) political action. He argues for changes in how we elect our representatives -- the role of parties in primaries, redistricting, and campaign financing, he explains, has stifled the ability of voters to find and elect candidates who truly represent not only their interests, but their values. Once in office, he says, congressional members can and should be forced into more productive problem solving by removing or tweaking some of the worst (and most recent) excesses of partisan power.
________________________________________

The dilemma we face with the upcoming election is that we have no opportunity there to address or resolve our adversarial gridlock.  Congress has settled into a partisan battle, it seems, with little ability to make progress for the good of the nation.

The parties have yet to offer anything we couldn't get at a wrestling match.  We'll vote for our favorite, perhaps, but we won't have solved our greatest challenge.  We don't need a political victory for one side or another, we need to be healed as a nation.

Muslim Peace

Dear friends in Djibouti - Dad and I met on a desert transit.

As-salamu alaikum. 

 Peace be upon you.

It's a greeting among Muslims, and the traditional response is 'and also upon you.'

If you have Muslim friends, they'll laugh and help you pronounce it, so you can use the greeting as well.

So, can we truly be at peace with one another? Is it really that easy to greet and enjoy one another across such a divide as Christian and Muslim? After all, there's a lot of turmoil today on that front, and a lot of folks we know about are working hard to widen the gap. Riot and murder, hatred and violence, and the fury of a burning ideology have plunged nations again to the brink of their own destruction.  Muslim, Jew, and Christian; is there reason?

Christian and Muslim children at play in Ethiopia;
it doesn't even cross their minds ....

The story is told of the prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, and a crabby neighbor lady. It's said that she would dump refuse in his path daily, perhaps to show her disapproval and disrespect. The Prophet never responded in kind but went on his way until the day came that she failed to appear with her garbage. Concerned, the Prophet inquired and found that she was taken ill. When he visited her home and sincerely offered his help, she was undone; humbled and ashamed of her heart and behavior. The book says he was sent as mercy to mankind.  Nice.  I suspect Jesus would have approved.

Muslim and Christian children
and their families share this 
neighborhood.  Nice folks, 
welcomed me graciously.

Muslim friends flagged me down and

insisted I give them a ride home.  They

knew I would be glad to, of course.

Oh, there's reason for the violence, of course. There are reasons aplenty for one group to slander, vilify, and slaughter another over their differences.   I suspect, though, that neither the Prophet, peace be upon him, nor Christ himself would acknowledge such people as followers.

On the desert's edge, Muslim friends wave as we

part for a season.  They'd welcomed me, a Christian,

as a frequent visitor among them and instructed
 me on the issues of survival.

Can two friends from across such a wide chasm sit together and pray, share a meal and laugh a bit, and then part, speaking a blessing of peace to each other?  Of course they can.  It happens all the time.  All the time, all over the world. 

It's just not news.

Go see for yourself. 

 

 

 

Dear Lord and Father of mankind,

Forgive our foolish ways;

Reclothe us in our rightful mind,

In purer lives Thy service find....

... it's the world you love, isn't it.

And not just my little group.

 

God's favorite

It's good to be an American ... but God's favorite?

We've done wonderfully well, we Americans, and we've inspired so many others around the world, but our record is as yet unfinished and far from pristine. Civil rights, equal opportunity, freedom to speak and debate, freedom to work; folks come to live and work in America as perhaps the best place their world has to offer. There are two sides to that idea ...

    We've stated our values, but how did we act them out?  

          Looking back, it perhaps wasn't all that great a beginning.

We hold these truths to be self-evident ...

While we were proclaiming that 'all men are created equal',
we were driving out the native American men,
women, and children of the land.

... that all men are created equal ...

As we gave our word and covenant that each has the right to
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,
we had already brought 200,000
African slaves to the colonies.

... that they are endowed by their creator 

       with certain unalienable rights ...

Native American and native African, even indentured Europeans
displaced, killed, enslaved.

... that among these are life, liberty,

         and the pursuit of happiness.

Life? By the time these words were penned, around 80% of the native American population had vanished. Of the estimated twelve million original inhabitants, only a few hundred thousand survived at the end of the nineteenth century.  

Liberty?  An estimated 645,000 Africans were abducted from their homelands, brought to the U.S, and enslaved. By the 1860 census, there were 4 million as their children were born into slavery.

Equal?  At the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the United States, Britain and Australia rejected Japan's proposal of a "racial equality clause" in the League of Nations covenant.  Arrogance and racial discrimination towards the Japanese had plagued international relations since the forced opening of the country in the 1800s, and continued through the decades up to World War II.   

Through the twentieth century, we backed dictators who took our money and sided with us; no matter that their repressive regimes were cruel, inhumane, or even murderous, and we knew it in bloody detail.

We backed Mubarak in Egypt for decades despite his criminal human rights record. We backed totalitarian regimes in Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, how many?  Noriega,  Batista, ...  millions more died.

Weapons of mass destruction declared in Iraq, troop buildups on the Saudi border ... the reports were fabricated.

... of the people, by the people, for the people....

Government today follows the leadership of the elite

and acts on behalf of monied interests.

We've all recognized and
conceded the point.

Today on Wall Street and on Main Street in our cities, we pepper spray the public dissenters, and when we can, we throw them in jail.

Or we have the FBI break down their door in the middle of the night and haul them away to jail and then before a Seattle Grand Jury... on a warrant for 'black clothing' and possible 'anarchist literature'.

It's been two hundred years since such unreasonable search and seizure

were specifically denied to government agents. 

The intentions of those who founded this country were and still are quite noble.  

The goals they set are achievable;
there is so much yet to do
to make it real for all.

Troublesome times with great possibilities.  Let's be realistic; it is good to be an American.  Less than perfect, if we're objective, but good nonetheless.  Let's remember and affirm our values and press on toward the mark.  

Dear Lord and Father of mankind,

Forgive our foolish ways;

Reclothe us in our rightful mind,

In purer lives Thy service find....

See & be Seen

Ever wonder what it might be like, living in the shadow of wealth?  Well, that's precisely the concern.  Some cannot continue living when the wealthy behave irresponsibly.

For example, the Great Recession was triggered by the financial industry behaving irresponsibly.  They did so with government support, taking advantage of business-sponsored changes to the law.  The global economy fell into chaos, and hundreds of thousands who were hovering on the edge of survival died.  Goldman Sachs profited tremendously by marketing loans described widely in the industry as "liar's loans," and the world's poor took the loss.  Thank you Goldman Sachs.  Thank you Bear Stearns, AIG, and Merrill Lynch.  Thank you Republicans and Democrats.  Thank you, you selfish vermin, you who work so hard to win that you're willing to do so without a thought for the cost to others.


Wealth and power seem perhaps more a curse than a blessing.  It's so easy to do harm with such resources.  The obligation of responsibility is a weighty one; one which as yet hasn't shown itself in the financial marketplace.

"Without accountability, the unending parade of megabank scandals will inevitably continue," Neil Barofsky, the former watchdog over the $700 billion bank bailout fund and a frequent critic of the Obama administration's response to the financial crisis, recently told The Huffington Post.

There's no shortage of food in the world, by the way, and famine doesn't kill the rich.  There's enough food, just not enough good governance.  The problem of corrupt power in Rwanda or in coastal Somalia that ensures wealth for the influential ... that's the same problem of corrupt power in the U.S. and U.K. financial industries that triggered the recession.  And the deaths of hundreds of thousands.  That's what it's like to live in a world where you're not among the wealthy.

And now you know; that's how they see you.

Do not wait for leaders,
      do it alone,
           person to person.

A Woman's Place

What is a woman's place? At home? Or on the soccer field!

There were no women athletes in my high school!  None.  Not one. And no place for such things either.

In the south in the 50's, women were in a bind.  Perhaps as we recovered from the war years, many women tried to recapture their former roles as wife/ mother/ homemaker.  As a culture, we seemed to have an idealistic norm for femininity.  Reality took decades to reshape our thinking.

Holy cow, I remember seeing dress patterns like these on the table beside the sewing machine.

Church and school, community and the media, all reflected a narrow view of a woman's place.  She was to be feminine, somewhat fragile, elegant, home-oriented, and ... in many ways, sequestered (protected?) from the world in which men lived.

From a teenaged guy point of view, girls spent most of their self-expression efforts on their hair.  It was mind-numbing to hear them talk about it, and visually painful sometimes, especially when the big-hair thing was in full swing.
My college years in the 60's saw stereotypes crumbling as anti-establishment thinking challenged pretty much all of our social norms.  Conservatives and liberals (radicals?) were at each other's throats.

 

It helped my own thinking when I married a Texas girl.  She'd been fortunate to grow up in a practical, middle-class family that paid only minimal attention to social trends.  Tough-minded, adventurous, ... and a gymnast!  Scuba and skydiving were prenuptial conditions to our marriage upon which she insisted. 

We left home and country and lived overseas for most of my military career.  When we came home, much of what we had known had crumbled to dust.  Holy cow, what is this feminism stuff?

So, here we are five decades later.  Women in sports are everywhere!  Competitive, impressive athletes.  How great it is to see their world open up.  Women think, women teach, women decide, women tackle the business and political worlds.... It's not complete, this coming of age for our culture, but it's a great improvement, and my daughter (who has more backbone than a linebacker) gets to live in it without the artificial restrictions of the previous generation.  I'm so strongly in favor of the changes I see.  Does that make me a feminist?

The above was occasioned by pictures of my friend's youngest daughter.  A pretty young lady, she has beautiful coloration, physique, and natural beauty... and she plays field hockey, soccer, and football.  Well!  She's a powerhouse.  She would have been SO out of place in the 50's.  :)  And check out Women@NASA   There weren't any of those when I was a kid either!

(Just one more reason I love change!)