For many weeks churches across the world have prepared for Easter morning - one of their highest attended days because it’ll be the first of the bi-annual gatherings of the community CEO’s in their sanctuary (or bored-room). You might know this already, but the CEO’s are those that attend church Christmas and Easter Only.
I’ve known this derisive term to be bandied about a lot in church circles, especially in anticipation of the increase in padded posteriors sitting in pews during either of these two “big events” in Christendom’s historical calendar…the baby that was born and the dead man who came back to life.
Now, my curiosity runs more toward why do “church” people get so much more excited about the people who’ll be coming on Christmas or Easter than they do on any other Sunday of the year?
Granted it's just human nature to be impressed by bigger audiences, at least that’s true for a performer like myself. But it seems that on many an occasion, as recorded in the gospel accounts of the New Testament, Jesus was less inclined to be impressed by the big crowds in general and far more interested in particular individuals. That becomes readily apparent in a cursory reading of any of the gospel accounts – four of which are contained in one of those run-of-the-mill Bibles that are easy to get your hands on – if you’re interested in actually reading about what transpired in the life and times of Jesus Christ.
Within a one-week time span of a public ministry that only lasted three years, Jesus of Nazareth would enter Jerusalem hailed by the crowd of on-lookers as their long-awaited king. The next day Jesus would begin a process of upsetting most of those people when he disrupted their moneymaking activities in the Temple, the church building of His day; and within another 72 hours one of his best friends would betray him to the authorities. This results in Him being arrested. And in one of the swiftest examples of “due process” in history, He is falsely accused, convicted in a mockery of justice and executed when the very same crowd that had hailed his arrival preferred having a criminal released from custody than Jesus. Essentially this served as the Roman and Jewish equivalent of a lynching. And it seems that crowds have a propensity toward fickleness.
As Jesus entered Jerusalem, that week prior to His execution, the religious leaders begged him to have his followers keep down all the racket about him being a king and all. To this, Jesus’ reaction is recorded in an account found in Luke’s gospel chapter 19 starting at verse 37.
Having lots of eyes or ears in attendance is surely a measure of opportunity, but what is the measure of success? Each week as “@ the Rock Shop” is uploaded to the Internet via ActofGraceRadio.net there’s a resemblance to shoving a bunch of bird seed into a cannon and firing it into the air…oh yes, opportunity indeed, but how would one measure it’s effectiveness? Which brings to mind a whole other parable that Jesus taught, but not necessarily my point.
I don’t know why so many more people go to church only on Christmas and Easter. Why is being a CEO sufficient? I don’t know if the messages or the music they hear on these two occasions are sufficient to tie them over until their next visit…but something’s definitely not all that appealing when they darken the doors of these bored-rooms. A church is the one place in town that’s intended purpose is to be a refuge from the slings and arrows the world at large is prone to pelt at an individual. Isn’t a church supposed to be a house of worship and prayer? Isn’t a church supposed to be a good deal more reflective of the Savior they proclaim?
As those CEO’s leave their church services this weekend, having performed what I can only imagine they must think is their “Christian duty” what will they really take away from the experience? I think this is the question that any church leadership would be better inclined toward finding an answer to than just looking at the numbers and counting what came in the collection plate. If “church” isn’t any more impacting on a world in desperate need of knowing the love of Jesus Christ than two days out of a year then how do we rationalize keeping these things open the other three hundred sixty-three (or three hundred sixty-four this year)?
Ever yours regardlessly,
mike
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Friday, March 14, 2008
Toots - eek!
I’ve read there was actually a point to having a horn on automobiles a couple of centuries ago. But like many ideas from that far back, this is one that seems to have outlived its usefulness. Nevertheless the modern lack of etiquette (i.e. common courtesy) demonstrated in the standard use of these electronic klaxon devices is, to my thinking, representative of - or a significant contributing factor to - many of society’s ills. (After all, what level comes next in life's game when honking a horn is your idea of stress relief - ARMED ROAD RAGE?)
I don’t even remember the last time I actually honked a car horn, but it definitely wasn't intended and hasn’t been perpetrated on my present vehicle…or the one before that, either. I’m not even sure I know where they mount horn buttons on cars any more. Are they still in the center of a steering wheel?
Living in a major metropolitan area means I hear auto horns way, way, way too much. My opinion is that only the most insipid of imbeciles would even resort to touching one of these, especially in this environment, in the first place. (I'm convinced this is how cooties get spread, and even if it isn't, I couldn’t care less what another yokel's impression is of my derelict driving techniques.) Plus, I also want to know what buffoon thought using horns as alarm devices to scare off anybody was an idea whose time had come? As such, I long, long, long ago began paying little to no attention to honking horns at all. I hardly think I'm alone in this opinion, so what good are they anyway? And have you noticed any correlation among pick-up truck driver’s having a particularly noteworthy abusive tactile love affair with these horrendous devices?
Furthermore, I’ve also lived in rural regions where when you heard a car’s horn it meant somebody you knew was waving at you through a windshield. When I lived in a mountainous region of South America the rule of thumb was if your brakes and your horn both went out on your car at the same time you’d have to get your horn fixed first…mainly because nobody there used headlights at night – it was a weird culture. But, in that same part of the world, it was also humanly impossible to make any move forward after a stop light changed without everyone behind you laying into their horns. I'm not at all sure there a point to any of that either...but it always happened.
Oh please, now I’m no proponent for any stricter legislation regarding using a car’s horn. After all people where I live don’t even observe speed limits. (This may very well have a direct correlation in an increase of horn honking enthusiasts, but I can't say that for certain.) No, I’d just as soon horns became an incredibly expensive add-on option in the purchase of a vehicle - if you could even get one at all. Maybe people would think twice then as to whether they really needed to have one at all, but some people just have more money than they know what to do with. But, by all means, horns must cease being included as standard equipment. And finally, why should any of these new fangled, environmentally and fuel friendly contraptions promised for the future come equipped with one of those noise polluting pieces of paraphernalia?
Got thoughts?
Ever yours regardlessly,
mike
I don’t even remember the last time I actually honked a car horn, but it definitely wasn't intended and hasn’t been perpetrated on my present vehicle…or the one before that, either. I’m not even sure I know where they mount horn buttons on cars any more. Are they still in the center of a steering wheel?
Living in a major metropolitan area means I hear auto horns way, way, way too much. My opinion is that only the most insipid of imbeciles would even resort to touching one of these, especially in this environment, in the first place. (I'm convinced this is how cooties get spread, and even if it isn't, I couldn’t care less what another yokel's impression is of my derelict driving techniques.) Plus, I also want to know what buffoon thought using horns as alarm devices to scare off anybody was an idea whose time had come? As such, I long, long, long ago began paying little to no attention to honking horns at all. I hardly think I'm alone in this opinion, so what good are they anyway? And have you noticed any correlation among pick-up truck driver’s having a particularly noteworthy abusive tactile love affair with these horrendous devices?
Furthermore, I’ve also lived in rural regions where when you heard a car’s horn it meant somebody you knew was waving at you through a windshield. When I lived in a mountainous region of South America the rule of thumb was if your brakes and your horn both went out on your car at the same time you’d have to get your horn fixed first…mainly because nobody there used headlights at night – it was a weird culture. But, in that same part of the world, it was also humanly impossible to make any move forward after a stop light changed without everyone behind you laying into their horns. I'm not at all sure there a point to any of that either...but it always happened.
Oh please, now I’m no proponent for any stricter legislation regarding using a car’s horn. After all people where I live don’t even observe speed limits. (This may very well have a direct correlation in an increase of horn honking enthusiasts, but I can't say that for certain.) No, I’d just as soon horns became an incredibly expensive add-on option in the purchase of a vehicle - if you could even get one at all. Maybe people would think twice then as to whether they really needed to have one at all, but some people just have more money than they know what to do with. But, by all means, horns must cease being included as standard equipment. And finally, why should any of these new fangled, environmentally and fuel friendly contraptions promised for the future come equipped with one of those noise polluting pieces of paraphernalia?
Got thoughts?
Ever yours regardlessly,
mike
Friday, March 7, 2008
Am I ever going to change this?
Last night my wife suggested it might be time to write something new for this blog…"Why" I asked, "is leaving the same thing up there for three weeks too long an interval?" "If they’re as wordy as the last few," she retorted, "then no. It may take that long to read one." But she then, in her special way, showed me evidence that there are actually people like you coming here to take a gander at this collective claptrap (i.e. pretentious nonsense). Wwweeeelllll, you can’t imagine my shock, surprise and amazement at that.
As such, you’re probably not going to buy my excuse that I’ve been in mourning at the passing of William F. Buckley Jr. - and have thereby been incapable of amassing any coherent thoughts of late - I won’t try and pawn that one off on you. If you even know who William F. Buckley Jr. was, then you’d be too smart to fall for that anyway.
I think I’m guilty of not realizing what an undertaking regularly contributing to this baby is about. If you don’t feed it it’ll die. But then again, if you do feed it invariably the diapers are going to have to be changed. Better understanding this now, I’ve renewed my intent toward putting a fresh set of nappies on this little bugger regularly. It’s not like I ever run out of thoughts or things to write about…it’s actually more related to a wrestling with an encyclopedic set of self-esteem issues wherein I get to thinking that nobody really gives a rodent's rump about my opinion and apparently that isn’t exactly true.
Plus I really don’t enjoy having my time wasted by anybody or anything. I think that’s called impatience…and isn’t its antithesis deemed the more virtuous? Regardless, my point is I don’t want you to feel your time has been wasted when you come here to peruse my ponderings. Therefore, I’ll try to keep them shorter and more succinct…or only provide snippets of longer meanderings that will hopefully entice you…as the old show business adage suggests, “always leave them wanting more.”
Nevertheless, here are a few of the topics I’m inclined to run on about a bit in the coming days and weeks:
1) I think the addition of a horn to an automobile, and the free license afforded anyone to activate one, is clearly indicative of the majority of society’s ills.
2) It disconcerts me that Hillary Clinton, Barrack Obama and John McCain have turned out to be the candidates for president that the United States is deserving of in 2008. b) What’s up with the power-sharing deal in Kenya, c) Dmitri Medvedev in Russia and d) who is it I call now to get anything done in Pakistan?
3) To me the scariest verses in the Bible are Matthew 7:21-23. (And reading it in a red-letter version is particulary frightening.) But there are quite a few others that come close to being almost as scary.
4) I’m of the opinion that Easter is a far more significant holiday than Christmas. So aren't we justified in getting more paid days off from work? Except I will admit a far better job has been done regarding all the trappings for the December observance.
5) If homosexuals don’t reproduce then where does the genetic inclination toward it come from?
Oh yes indeedy, I expect there will be an assortment of many other items that are spawned from these which means you’re going to have to just keep coming back…and in so doing you shall ever hence have my undying gratitude.
So, until the next time, I remain ever yours regardlessly,
mike
As such, you’re probably not going to buy my excuse that I’ve been in mourning at the passing of William F. Buckley Jr. - and have thereby been incapable of amassing any coherent thoughts of late - I won’t try and pawn that one off on you. If you even know who William F. Buckley Jr. was, then you’d be too smart to fall for that anyway.
I think I’m guilty of not realizing what an undertaking regularly contributing to this baby is about. If you don’t feed it it’ll die. But then again, if you do feed it invariably the diapers are going to have to be changed. Better understanding this now, I’ve renewed my intent toward putting a fresh set of nappies on this little bugger regularly. It’s not like I ever run out of thoughts or things to write about…it’s actually more related to a wrestling with an encyclopedic set of self-esteem issues wherein I get to thinking that nobody really gives a rodent's rump about my opinion and apparently that isn’t exactly true.
Plus I really don’t enjoy having my time wasted by anybody or anything. I think that’s called impatience…and isn’t its antithesis deemed the more virtuous? Regardless, my point is I don’t want you to feel your time has been wasted when you come here to peruse my ponderings. Therefore, I’ll try to keep them shorter and more succinct…or only provide snippets of longer meanderings that will hopefully entice you…as the old show business adage suggests, “always leave them wanting more.”
Nevertheless, here are a few of the topics I’m inclined to run on about a bit in the coming days and weeks:
1) I think the addition of a horn to an automobile, and the free license afforded anyone to activate one, is clearly indicative of the majority of society’s ills.
2) It disconcerts me that Hillary Clinton, Barrack Obama and John McCain have turned out to be the candidates for president that the United States is deserving of in 2008. b) What’s up with the power-sharing deal in Kenya, c) Dmitri Medvedev in Russia and d) who is it I call now to get anything done in Pakistan?
3) To me the scariest verses in the Bible are Matthew 7:21-23. (And reading it in a red-letter version is particulary frightening.) But there are quite a few others that come close to being almost as scary.
4) I’m of the opinion that Easter is a far more significant holiday than Christmas. So aren't we justified in getting more paid days off from work? Except I will admit a far better job has been done regarding all the trappings for the December observance.
5) If homosexuals don’t reproduce then where does the genetic inclination toward it come from?
Oh yes indeedy, I expect there will be an assortment of many other items that are spawned from these which means you’re going to have to just keep coming back…and in so doing you shall ever hence have my undying gratitude.
So, until the next time, I remain ever yours regardlessly,
mike
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