In this Lent season, we remember the Teacher, Jesus,
who came saying
"I come to bring good news to the poor
healing for the sick
freedom for the captive
the Day of Jubilee!"
And who said we'd know his people because
"I was hungry and you fed me
I was thirsty and you gave me drink
I was lonely and in prison
and you visited me..."
While at the same time noting that
the ones who were not helping the least of these
were not His followers
And this same Jesus who said
WE are the light of the world
the salt of the earth
who make the world better, brighter, more tasty!
and who said that
WE would do even greater works than even
Jesus
!
And remembering THAT Jesus
(who was eventually killed in an act of capital punishment
because he was considered a threat to the powers that be)...
In remembering THAT Jesus,
I take some comfort in knowing
we - mere mortals that we be -
HAVE done many great things
and our world IS a better place
in so many ways
We had the Enlightenment and the notion of
human rights for all became a Thing that
is more and more commonly accepted and defended
and we developed scientific methods and
have experience vast leaps in making the world healthier
and extending life spans,
even for the poor and marginalized
and at least in the freer parts of our world
women, those with disabilities,
the marginalized, LGBTQ folks
have more rights than ever before
And at the same time,
with every time of advancement and improvement and
social justice advances
there comes push back and
resistance against improvements
resistance in improvements in human rights
and then
the pendulum swings back.
Let's be the resistance pushing the pendulum
in the right way
in favor of health care
in favor of the poor and marginalized
in favor of science and education
in favor of a better world for all
for welcoming and justice for all.
Let's be the light of the world we're called to be.
8 comments:
For me this is more of an Easter sermon. In the sacramental community we tend to spend Lent in somber devotion. To reorient ourselves to the brokenness, to resensitize ourselves to suffering, to give injustice its room to remain in view in our imaginations. And, walking towards Jerusalem with Jesus liturgically, recall from the inside out, our absolute need for god’s love, for healing, for redemption, and re-creative atonement that binds all the wounds and powers of separation. 40 days in the desert. Heading toward pascal event: that being the consequences, the things won, the mission of which you name.
That’s why they call it a faith, Jack. 2000 year old eyewitnesses can’t prove explicit history. It’s just not what the writers of Holy Scripture were interested in.
Something we do know scientifically is that vaccines work. Plus, they dramatically reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s. Get your shots, man.
Someone commented here who was probably a troll. Anyone is welcome to comment here, but you'll need to identify yourself. Especially if you are going to sound like a not real person.
Just wondering...how do you determine if someone might "sound like a not real person" (good grammar there, by the way)?
It's fairly easy... It's much the same way an adult reader can generally recognize fake news from actual news.
1. It just doesn't "read" right or sound believable.
Would a complete stranger reach out on a blog to say, "I need help! Can someone there give me some assistance..." Who does that? Not an actual person seeking help.
2. The person has not revealed their identity, that's a red flag.
3. It's completely unrelated to anything.
For starters. It's not generally that difficult. If it doesn't sound believable on the face of it, it's probably not believable.
As an important aside: This is also precisely WHY one should lean on reputable, legitimate news organizations with actual journalists who observe journalistic best practices. IF one keeps listening to news-adjacent sources, hearing things about partisan "enemies" and increasingly conspiratorial and irrational information passed on as news, one begins to lose basic ability to recognize fake news and fake people.
I mean, I might occasionally read something from a progressive opinion organization, but I don't confuse that with actual news.
"It's fairly easy... It's much the same way an adult reader can generally recognize fake news from actual news."
OK, but I was asking how YOU determine it. You've proven well you don't recognize truth from fiction. Do you ask someone else to help you make that determination?
"Would a complete stranger reach out on a blog to say, "I need help! Can someone there give me some assistance..." Who does that? Not an actual person seeking help."
That would depend on the person, the available resources this person might have to acquire the assistance he needs, whether or not he's exhausted all other avenues at his disposal and how desperate he is to get the assistance he seeks. How grace embracing of you to reject him so easily, rather than extend a helping hand until you can confirm he's trolling you! Shame on you.
"2. The person has not revealed their identity, that's a red flag."
That's a false dodge of a reason, as so many don't use their real names on social media, particularly on blogs. An ID makes no difference to the content of one's comment. None whatsoever, but it's an easy way to avoid having to respond to that for which you have no legitimate, truthful response.
Be that as it may, I'm going to adopt that lame excuse myself and now feo knows why he isn't allowed to have his comment submissions posted at my blog....in addition to his bad behaviors, particularly posting the same comment literally one thousand times and then celebrating that he "broke" my blog when I decided I needed to enable comment moderation to prevent him from doing the same thing again. Until then, I never asked for his ID. I've not asked for Wintery Knight to identify himself. It makes no difference of any kind. It's just a dodge.
"3. It's completely unrelated to anything."
It's not out of character for you to take discussions off on a tangent. There's been quite of bit of evidence recently at Craig's blog. Indeed, it's routine with you.
Worse, is you feo, who constantly seeks to submit comments wholly unrelated to the topic of any post at one's blog and he does it here, as well, with no admonishment from you. No. That's just a dodge as well.
"It's not generally that difficult. If it doesn't sound believable on the face of it, it's probably not believable."
Frankly, I can't believe 99% of the things you post and pretend to believe as true. But then, I know most of it isn't true to begin with, so it no longer surprises me when you do it again and again.
Anyway, thanks for responding...such as you did. I now return this thread to its originally scheduled topic. Thanks for bearing with me.
This is nonsense. There's no confusion on our part what is opinion and what is news. While any given news source chooses what to report on what they regard as newsworthy, all which matters is whether or not they're reporting truthfully as possible. Those news sources you favor are not especially good at reporting truthfully. My "opinion" sources correct their mostly intentional misrepresentations which they present in full context. I've provided in the past numerous examples of that which does not display "journalistic best practices", but you falsely pretend it's mere "mistake", despite the commonality of it.
But you believe what you like.
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