6/26/2013
LIFE: IN FOUR ACTS
GOAFS II: #48
LIFE: In Four Acts
JUNE 26, 2013
Act 1:
The Beginning
Our tale
begins when man arrives in a paradise prepared by God
for him on a small spec of dust in His vast
universe. The man
finds a job,
a wife, and fellowship with his Creator
from Whom he
learns the simple rules. His prospects
are
unlimited. Life looks to be very good.
At the time God made Earth and
Heaven, before any grasses or shrubs had sprouted from the ground—God hadn’t
yet sent rain on Earth, nor was there anyone around to work the ground (the
whole Earth was watered by underground springs)—God formed Man out of dirt from
the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life. The Man came alive—a
living soul!
Then God planted a garden in
Eden, in the east. He put the Man he had just made in it. God made all kinds of
trees grow from the ground, trees beautiful to look at and good to eat. The
Tree-of-Life was in the middle of the garden, also the
Tree-of-Knowledge-of-Good-and-Evil.
God took the Man and set him down
in the Garden of Eden to work the ground and keep it in order.
God commanded the Man, “You can
eat from any tree in the garden, except from the
Tree-of-Knowledge-of-Good-and-Evil. Don’t eat from it. The moment you eat from
that tree, you’re dead.”
God said, “It’s not good for the
Man to be alone; I’ll make him a helper, a companion.” So God formed from the
dirt of the ground all the animals of the field and all the birds of the air.
He brought them to the Man to see what he would name them. Whatever the Man
called each living creature, that was its name. The Man named the cattle, named
the birds of the air, named the wild animals; but he didn’t find a suitable
companion.
God put the Man into a deep
sleep. As he slept he removed one of his ribs and replaced it with flesh. God
then used the rib that he had taken from the Man to make Woman and presented
her to the Man.
The Man said,
“Finally! Bone of
my bone,
flesh of my flesh!
Name her Woman
for she was made from Man.”
Therefore a man leaves his father and mother and embraces his wife. They become
one flesh.
The two of them, the Man and his Wife, were naked, but they felt no
shame.
God looked over everything he had
made; it was so good, so very good!
Genesis 2.5-9, 15-25, 1.31 The Message
Act 2: The Choice
The plot
thickens when the Man and his Wife are confronted with a simple
choice that
will have eternal consequences. Shall they obey God, or
shall they
become like gods and obey themselves? They make the
wrong
choice, and life is no longer very good.
Now the snake was the most
cunning animal that the Lord God had made. The snake asked the woman, “Did God
really tell you not to eat fruit from any tree in the garden?”
“We may eat the fruit of any tree in the
garden,” the woman answered, “except the tree in the middle of it. God told us
not to eat the fruit of that tree or even touch it; if we do, we will die.”
The snake replied, “That's not
true; you will not die. God said that because he knows that when you eat it,
you will be like God and know what is good and what is bad.”
The woman saw how beautiful the
tree was and how good its fruit would be to eat, and she thought how wonderful
it would be to become wise. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she
gave some to her husband, and he also ate it. As soon as they had eaten it,
they were given understanding and realized that they were naked; so they sewed
fig leaves together and covered themselves.
And God said to the man, “You
listened to your wife and ate the fruit which I told you not to eat. Because of
what you have done, the ground will be under a curse. You will have to work
hard all your life to make it produce enough food for you. It will produce
weeds and thorns, and you will have to eat wild plants. You will have to work
hard and sweat to make the soil produce anything, until you go back to the soil
from which you were formed. You were made from soil, and you will become soil
again.”
Then the Lord God said, “Now
these human beings have become like one of us and have knowledge of what is
good and what is bad. They must not be allowed to take fruit from the tree that
gives life, eat it, and live forever.” So the Lord God sent them out of the
Garden of Eden and made them cultivate the soil from which they had been
formed. Then at the east side of the garden he put living creatures and a
flaming sword which turned in all directions. This was to keep anyone from
coming near the tree that gives life.
Genesis 3.1-7, 17-19, 22-24 NRSV
Act 3:
The Decision
In which God
sends His only Son to find that which has been
lost, to fix
that which has been broken, and to set up His Kingdom.
In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with
God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came
into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life
was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness
has never overpowered it.
There was a man sent from God,
whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all
might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify
to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the
world. He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the
world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not
accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave
power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of
the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
When the fullness of time had
come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem
those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children.
And the Word became flesh and
lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only
son, full of grace and truth.
“This is how much God loved the
world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one
need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting
life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an
accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the
world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to
trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And
why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of
God when introduced to him.
“This is
the crisis we’re in: God-light streamed into the world, but men and women
everywhere ran for the darkness. They went for the darkness because they were not
really interested in pleasing God. Everyone who makes a practice of doing evil,
addicted to denial and illusion, hates God-light and won’t come near it,
fearing a painful exposure. But anyone working and living in truth and reality
welcomes God-light so the work can be seen for the God-work it is.”
John 1.1-14 NRSV, Galatians 4.4-5 NRSV, John 1.15 NRSV, John
3.16-21 MSG
Act 4:
The Conclusion
The final act in this life, a drama in which
we each have the leading part.
Honor and enjoy your Creator
while you’re still young,
Before the years take their toll and your vigor
wanes,
Before your vision dims and the world blurs
And the winter years keep
you close to the fire. In old age, your body no longer serves you so
well.
Muscles slacken, grip weakens, joints stiffen.
The shades are pulled down
on the world.
You can’t come and go at will. Things grind to a halt.
The hum of
the household fades away.
You are wakened now by bird-song.
Hikes to the
mountains are a thing of the past.
Even a stroll down the road has its
terrors.
Your hair turns apple-blossom white,
Adorning a fragile and impotent
matchstick body.
Yes, you’re well on your way to eternal rest,
while your
friends make plans for your funeral. Life, lovely while it lasts, is soon
over.
Life as we know it, precious and beautiful, ends.
The body is put back in
the same ground it came from.
The spirit returns to God, who first breathed it.
Listen to this truth: we shall
not all die, but when the last trumpet sounds, we shall all be changed in an
instant, as quickly as the blinking of an eye. For when the trumpet sounds, the
dead will be raised, never to die again, and we shall all be changed. For what
is mortal must be changed into what is immortal; what will die must be changed
into what cannot die. So when this takes place, and the mortal has been changed
into the immortal, then the scripture will come true: “Death is destroyed;
victory is complete!”
Then I saw a new heaven and a new
earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was
also gone. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out
of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
I heard a loud shout from the
throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with
them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe
every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying
or pain. All these things are gone forever.”
And the one sitting on the throne
said, “Look, I am making everything new!” And then he said to me, “Write this
down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.” And he also said, “It is
finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To all who
are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life. All who
are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and
they will be my children. “But cowards, unbelievers, the corrupt, murderers,
the immoral, those who practice witchcraft, idol worshipers, and all
liars—their fate is in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second
death.”
Ecclesiastes 12.1-7 MSG, 1St Corinthians 15.51-55 GNB,
Revelation 21.1-8 NLB
Postscript
Every good tale has a moral. The moral of this tale
is quite simple: What goes around comes around!
JERRY SWEERS
cmudgeon@windstream.net
6/19/2013
AGGRAVATIONS OF AGING
GOAFS II: #47
Aggravations of aging
JUNE 19, 2013
|
L
|
et me introduce you to Bill, my regular afternoon caller. Bill
works for the shipping department of a company he never names. He is calling to
arrange delivery of a medical alert device that someone has already paid for,
including shipping charges, and just desperately wants to get my OK to send it
to me.
Bill is longwinded, but recorded, so it is not possible to
carry on a conversation with him, but he is kind enough to give me an option,
“punch 5 if you don’t want to hear from me any more.” This option is
meaningless if it comes from a message on my answering machine. It is
meaningless in any case, as my doing it simply betrays the presence of a live
body on my line.
Bill is very persistent. I have a phone system that allows me
to block any call that includes a number and that will also automatically block
any call that is too shy to identify itself. Bill has changed his number 4
times so far, 5 if you count today when he had his wife call. She had no name
but the call came from “Lifecare Services.” From her accent I would guess she
is a Maria. Maria has the same pitch as Bill but she was actually live so I
told her what I would like to tell Bill, and also that I would like to belt him
smartly on the nose.
I told her I might be 79, but I still have most of my wits
about me and I strongly resent being awakened from a nice afternoon nap by a
phone call that violates the law, tells me lies, and hopes I will be confused
enough to say yes. I had several other points to make but somewhere along the
way Maria lost interest and hung up.
|
B
|
eing 79 is a very dangerous age. To the telephone marketer,
you are a demographic cohort that is well-off, surely in need of things they
want to sell you, and edging up to senility where you are easily confused and
will believe almost anything they tell you. Very often people of this age begin
to feel a strong sense of duty to treat these parasites with humility and
consideration-- to listen to them, to believe them, and to do something nice to
get rid of them. Unfortunately, even if you buy their product, you don’t get
rid of them—they put your name on a sucker list and sell it to several hundred
like themselves who are not directly in competition with them.
One of the prime customers for these “qualified names” is the
hearing aid industry. These people are absolutely sure by the time you are 79,
you really must need a hearing aid. They don’t use the automatic telephone
dialer, they believe you are practically deaf. They use quiet direct mail. Their
letters never have any identification on the outside of the envelope, but I
have received so many (an average of 2-3 a week) that I can recognize them
without even opening the envelopes. They are very dignified and never attempt
any of the direct mail tricks on the envelope used by most direct mail appeals.
The other companies that are sure they have something old
people cannot live without are the home security people. Their pitch always
begins with something like, “The F.B.I. has reported that…” I am not sure just
what the F.B.I. has reported but it is always something intended to scare
elderly people out of their wits and into buying a home security system. This
particular company has called me from at least 30 different numbers, and is the
main reason I have to update my call-blocking list so often.
To be fair, some older people need a medical alert device, a
home security system or a hearing aid. Some may even need all three. But what
they don’t need is to be harassed into an early grave by merciless telephone
solicitors or direct mail appeals. When my wife’s father died at 101, he was
receiving over 50 direct mail solicitations every week. From some Christian
organizations he was getting as many as three a week. He died over seven years
ago—I would not be surprised to hear that mail addressed to him is still arriving
regularly at Windsor Park Manor in Wheaton, Illinois.
These three aggravations richly-deserve curmudgeonly comments,
but the number one grand prize for demonic persistence goes to the credit card
people. For almost nine months I received the same call—“this is your last
chance to lower your credit card charges…” The automated menu on the
auto-dialer offered a “don’t call me” option. I tried it several times but they
just changed the caller I.D. information and the calls came more often from
more locations.
I did get a human being once and went to some length to
explain they were wasting their time since I had not carried a penny of credit
card debt in 40 years. That didn’t satisfy the solicitor, “What if something
happened and you could not pay of your card every month.” I told her I never
charged anything on the card for which I did not have the cash in hand. She
could not believe such a person existed in America today and was sure I was
lying to her. She finally told me she would take me off the list, to get rid of
me. They just changed the caller I.D. and phone number and kept right on
calling.
I almost hesitated to bring up this last one since after nine
months of unrelenting pressure, they seem to have given up. I think I am safe
since the National Security Agency has better things to do than pass this blog
on to the credit card guys. Big Brother is watching me I am sure, but he has bigger
fish to fry than the credit card hustlers. But he does closely track my on-line
purchases and within two days a related advertisement shows up on my Weather
Channel screen.
Late Breaking News: The day after writing this, the credit
card calls began again offering “better interest.” They must really have a
friend at NSA.
JERRY SWEERS
cmudgeon@windstream.net
