God's Final Reply

Getting Off on the Right Foot

Pope Francis continued the long tradition of the Pope washing the feet of others on Maundy Thursday, emulating Christ's own actions before the Last Supper. Normally this is done with retired priests, but the new Pope chose to do it for prisoners in jail instead and has taken some flack for it. Nonsense - his actions speak louder than words and visiting the poor in prison is precisely where Christ would have him be. This Pope is getting off on the right foot!

Mankind's Response

What God Offered

Today is Maundy Thursday or the remembrance of the Last Supper. What God offered was His friendship: 

I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.  John 15:15

The Eternal Cycle

Palm Sunday starts a week-long story that illustrates why we humans have so much trouble understanding God and each other. The Jews had a desire to be free of their Roman oppressors. That was not unreasonable since the Romans were brutal in their treatment of occupied countries. This desire became superimposed on Jewish prophecies that for centuries had predicted a coming Messiah who would set them free. The desire was now an expectation or demand that God do it their way with the Messiah. Hence the hopefulness of Palm Sunday and the royal treatment that Jesus received when He entered Jerusalem. In fairly short order, however, it became clear that Jesus did not meet the peoples' expectation of the Messiah. This led to judgment in front of Pilate (who did what the Jewish crowd requested) and ultimately punishment on Golgotha. The problem in all of this is a me-centric universe rather than a God-centric universe. 

If life is all about others meeting my desires, then God and other people simply become objects or obstacles. If they meet my desires they are no longer human - they are objects to service me. When they do not meet my desires, they become obstacles to that goal. Initially we ramp things up to the level of a demand and if that is not met, it is quickly on to judgment and punishment. If we do this, we choose alienation from God and others and then complain about our angst and loneliness. It is not accidental that God's First Commandment was that we shall have no other gods before Him. 

Think about this framework as we go through Holy Week. Think about it too in your own relationship with God and others. Who is at the center of our own universe is a question that we need to ask daily if we want to know what being human really means. 

Yessiree the Economy is Booming!

• Coke lays off 750 of its U.S. workers - 1% of its workforce.

www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/03/22/Coca-Cola-to-lay-off-750-workers-in-US

• Boeing to lay off 2,000 employees.

articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-03-22/business/chi-boeing-plans-about-2000-layoffs-by-yearend-20130322_1_marc-birtel-impact-workers-workforce

• Sea Ray boats - 205.
• Freight Car America - 254
• Hanford Nuclear Reservation - 243; 2,600 furloughed.
• J.C. Penney - 300.

uscorplayoffs.blogspot.com/

Etc., etc., etc. I don't think we can take too much more of this good news. BTW - the reduction in the unemployment numbers is primarily due to even more people permanently giving up the search for a jobs.

Fearless and Great Leader

The U.S. Department of Education posted a quote of the day this week from Chairman Mao, that great Chinese educator:

“Our attitude towards ourselves should be ‘to be satiable in learning’ and towards others ‘to be tireless in teaching.’”

Of course DOE missed the subscript to this quote - "or you will be shot!"

www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/03/22/National-Center-Education-Statistics