Starting Over

We saw "Les Miserables" (the film) on Dec. 26th.  It was superb.  I hope you see it, if you have not.

The main character, Jean valJean, keeps starting over.  He must.  Given a generous dollop of grace by a priest from whom he has stolen, he takes a new name and creates a new life of responsible behavior.  Through inattention he permits a foreman who works for him to destroy a female employee.  He learns of it as she dies, and accepts the responsibility for her daughter.  He starts over.  Again.  Always he is haunted by Javier, a Guard (read policeman) with an obsession to catch him and put him back in penal servitude.  He is recognized and has to flee.  He starts his life anew -- again.  He simply does it, with grace and gritted teeth.

Javier, however, is forgiven by Jean valJean.  As the story nears it's end Javier sings his despair.  He doesn't know how to handle grace.  He is so invest ed in rigidity, rules, his understanding of righteousness that he cannot start over.  Rather than risk a new beginning, he plunges to his death.

I wonder:  when we refuse new beginnings are we simply committing suicide at some deep level?  Even if the body continues to move, the heart keeps beating, the lungs pump air -- has a person destroyed the possibilities of newness, new life, new relationships, new understandings and new hope?

What do you think?  Leave a comment and let us know. 

Did Jesus Cop Out?

People who have read the Old Testament with some diligence are aware that care for the poor was a mainstay of Old Covenant teaching.  It wasn't always done, or done well, but the Law and the Prophets are all consistent about it.  Even the Proverbs balance the ant and grasshopper saying with admonitions to care for the weak and powerless. 

So, given the heritage that Jesus was born into, I wonder if he copped out.  He said, almost dismissively, "The poor you will have with you always."  I have heard hundreds of Christians and preachers quote his words to suggest that we don't have to worry very much, if at all, about solving the problem of the poor.

Jesus didn't leave a blueprint, a plan, or a generation-spanning protocol.  Why not?

What do you think?  He did care for the outcasts of his society.  He lived in the heritage of care for the poor.  What do you think?  Did Jesus cop out? 

Leave a comment and let us know.

Bid Envy, Strife and Quarrels Cease

Well, I thought I saved this blog article for future comment.  It was published blank instead.  You may have gotten an eamil of it if you have subscribed.  My bad.  I apologize.

I want the Syrians to stop butchering one another.  I want the Hamas forces to stop shelling Israel.  I want Israel to stop building in Palestinian territory.  I want the warlords of various African nations to stop killing, and to stop enslaving children to make up the cannon fodder for their "armies".   That's big stuff, big pain, big terror.  My list could continue.

We sang "O Come, O Come Emanuel" in worship last Sunday.  The phrase in verse two that makes up the title for this blog entry hit me between the eyes.  For most of us, this is what needs to stop. 

The envy the rich feel for the middle and lower classes (they don't deserve what they have! they believe).  The strife between a few secretaries that can stop the two busiest ports in the nation and stop the work force of about 900,000 because they cannot get a hearing any other way.  The quarrels between grown people who act like whiny children.

Bid them cease.  (Whiny children get over it.  Grownups carry grudges for decades.)  Bid them cease.

How can you bid them cease in your own life?  How can you dig the envy out and just leave it in the trash can?  How can you do your part to stop the strife?  Can you quietly refuse to be baited?  Can you positively refuse to let others get your goat?

What about quarrels?  Can you find a way to talk it out, and come to an understanding, and then to reconciliation? 

It takes two to quarrel.  You cannot answer for the "other guy", but you can refuse to be one of those two.  You can move on, work through the grief, get the counseling, find diamonds in the dung heap of life.  You can, and you will get more skilled at it with practice.

What do you think?  Leave a comment and let us know.