The Downside Of Soccer As A Religion

Two more games. Then the curtains fall for World Cup 2014.

Once more, however I find myself reflecting on bigger themes as I watch these sometimes riveting games.

I don't think I'm breaking any fresh news as I note that Brazil got decimated yesterday. 7-1. Wow.

It's not nice to wish for someone's downfall, but frankly I was hoping for it all along. Never happier than to see a long-overdue thrashing. Watching their pathetic flopping (Neymar even flipping) with Columbia and other teams was a puke-inspiring event. Wasn't the tone properly set by that PK-winning flop in their very first game against Croatia?

But now that Brazil has gotten their come-uppance, one I don't doubt will be doubly sealed on Saturday against Netherlands...

I confess that I now feel sad for them.

Not that they didn't need this moment. I just hope they move on quickly. But. But. To what? Move on to what?

Well one avenue of thought would be an improvement in their soccer program. I heard a talking head suggest that during the aftermath.

But I'm thinking bigger than that. I've got a better idea.

I hope Brazil ditches their graven image. Their sick, sick idol.

Yes, soccer is a very sick and twisted religion in Brazil. Does anyone need to see their national anguish to realize how very much they have placed into this game? The soul of the very nation is in anguish.

Jesus had something to say about that.

Matthew 6:20-21
But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

It's not hard to see where Brazil stores a hell of a lot of their treasure. They're a second-rate nation, economically speaking. But in soccer they have always fancied themselves a first-rate nation. Shoot, they thought they were God's gift to soccer.

At some point I think the devil had a hand in the matter, however, because God's not into spotted white idols that bounce.

So trouble was bound to come back to roost. Yesterday it did.

I'm reminded of a passage from the Old Testament where some pathetic soul gets his collection of stone idols stolen. Here's his lament, given to the very men who stole his rock collection.

Judges 18:24
He replied, “You took the gods I made, and my priest, and went away. What else do I have? How can you ask, ‘What’s the matter with you?’”

Or was that what Brazil said to Germany after yesterday's game? Perhaps I'm mixing up my sources.

No, I don't think soccer balls make for good idols.

But the USA does well to note: neither does a stellar GDP.

My treasure is in heaven, with God. It's really, really safe there.

I'll enjoy soccer. But it's just a game.

Someone needs to tell that to the folks in Brazil.

Dispute Between a Man and His Book: Part 2 of 2

...Continued from Part 1

So my young son is well-versed in Ancient Near East culture.

In my first part of this reflection, I reveled in the sheer lunacy of it, making him out to be a closet scholar precocious beyond his years.

Reality is a bit more complicated, and not quite so humorous.

My son knew this ancient word Ba because he had been reading books from a certain genre. I knew that Rick Riordan had brought the Greek gods to life (witness the popular Percy Jackson movies) but was unaware that he also has a series of books set in ancient Egypt.

My son drank deeply from that well. While I wasn't looking.

Realizing that he was probably not the only one who had been reading these books, I asked my oldest daughter if she knew what a Ba was.

She did.

This is the daughter for whom school-related memorization of "boring historical facts" is an enormous and terribly unpleasant chore.

I'm not sure how I feel about all this.

On the one hand, I'm glad the kids are reading.

On the other hand, I am disquieted by what they are reading.

In one sense, perhaps my disquiet is misplaced. These are all dead gods. Gods that passed from the scene about 2,000 years ago.

In another sense, I'm a bit apprehensive as to how successfully these gods are making a resurgence in today's culture.

Now realistically speaking, I am not concerned that my children will come to believe that the Greek gods or the old Egyptian gods are real.

But I am a bit concerned that by taking these gods so lightly, even in book-land, we invite a nonchalance about all religious systems, treating them as good for entertainment, and not much else.

Religious systems make for dangerous playgrounds, but we as a culture have forgotten that simple truth. The situation I blogged just a few days ago was, in hindsight, entirely predictable.

We now have teachers and educators who have lost all sense of mooring and who therefore give blasphemous homework assignments without even realizing the nature of the offense.

Parents for their part are likewise blind — and voice no complaint.

If I had not spoken up, that homework assignment would have proceeded without a hitch. The only problem, so to speak, was me.

I am reminded of a passage from Nehemiah:

Nehemiah 13:4-8
Before this, Eliashib the priest had been put in charge of the storerooms of the house of our God. He was closely associated with Tobiah, and he had provided him with a large room formerly used to store the grain offerings and incense and temple articles, and also the tithes of grain, new wine and olive oil prescribed for the Levites, musicians and gatekeepers, as well as the contributions for the priests.

But while all this was going on, I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I had returned to the king. Some time later I asked his permission and came back to Jerusalem. Here I learned about the evil thing Eliashib had done in providing Tobiah a room in the courts of the house of God. I was greatly displeased and threw all Tobiah’s household goods out of the room.

Nehemiah had helped to restored the temple to its proper, holy state... only to see a non-Israelite take up residence in the temple as soon as Nehemiah left town. It happened with the priest's blessing.

When Nehemiah returns, he throws Tobiah back out. But I can almost hear the priest Eliashib muttering under his breath.

"The only problem here is Nehemiah."

Maintaining purity in this world is a task of constant gardening.

In our culture today I see few gardeners. Even among our priests.

Anyone looking here for final conclusions about those Rick Riordan books will come up disappointed. I'm not sure where I'm falling on this. The kids did nothing wrong in this matter, and I'm not even sure the books are of the sort I should ban from the home. I read fantasy books as a child, too.

I'm just putting pen here to my disquiet, my growing dis-ease.

Dispute Between a Man and His Book: Part 1 of 2

I was being scholarly. Reading through the Old Testament at a snail's pace, supplementing my reading with commentary from a commentary that provides obscure background information on Old Testament readings that are obscure enough without the additional help.

Having just finished Esther, I was soldiering through a small prefatory article covering the "wisdom literature" books that were coming up next... Job, Ecclesiastes, etc.

As I said, I was being scholarly.

Or attempting to be.

I turned a bit school-boyish, however, when I got to a comment about there being similarities between Ecclesiastes and (among other things) an ancient Egyptian text from that period titled The Dispute Between a Man and His Ba.

Ba?

Now I cannot speak for others, but I found the word "Ba" pretty funny, given the context. Rather un-scholarly. It almost sounds like the name a child would give to his security blanket.

After chuckling for a moment over this silly book title, I read on, expecting to find out what a Ba is.

My smile quickly faded from my lips. No definition.

Seriously?

You're going to give me a book title like that? With no explanation?

Yep.

So what began as The Dispute Between a Man and His Ba quickly turned into A Dispute Between a Man and His Book.

I began to write a tart comment in the margin.

"No, wait. Don't tell me what a Ba is. I want to guess."

While I was still writing these very words, my early-rising 9-yr old son wandered into my basement office.

He still sleeps with Blue Orsor (his title for Blue Oso, a blue furry blanket with a teddy-bear head in one corner).

He ought to know what a Ba is.

So I showed the book title to him, figuring he might find it funny too.

My son looked up at me after reading the words and said in a matter-of-fact tone of voice, "Isn't Ba an Egyptian word for a spirit?"

I must have looked a bit dumbfounded, because he quickly clarified himself.

"Yeah, and when a man goes to sleep, it wanders around in the form of a chicken or something."

Not so long ago I was reading this child Ba, Ba, Black Sheep.

Apparently he's moved on.

It's good to have a scholar in the home at times like these.

Just for backup, you understand.

This reflection continues in Part 2...

Needing Nehemiah

I try to keep my head down, but the stuff comes at me anyway.

I blogged recently about Ezra, so this one had to be Nehemiah.

I am stunned. Haven't been so angry about a school issue in a long time, if ever. Quite frankly, I think three images tells the story.

My daughter came home today with a homework assignment. The below two images are the front and back side of the assignment.

Then I did my homework.

Enough said?

Maybe not! And that alone speaks volumes for our time.

But for those puzzled by my outrage, here's the decoder ring.

Followers of any and all of three main world faiths (Judaism, Islam and Christianity) consider it sheer anathema to worship ancestors. Idolatrous in all the worst meanings to create a literal shrine with an altar upon which to place (for worship) anything at all.

I suppose I have to note that some wings of Christianity support the veneration of saints and prayers given to them. But that's not worship, and in any case this is not a practice I am keen on.

Even more to the point, the box is not a neutral object.

It's a Butsudan - a Buddhist altar!

My child has been asked (IN A PUBLIC SCHOOL) to create an altar suitable for another religion.

And place a photo of someone she reveres on/in it.

I haven't worked out yet how to respond to this, but will be doing so soon. (I don't have a lot of time. This assignment is due on Friday!)

One thing is sure. Nehemiah would not have put up with this.

I will seek to react as Daniel did, responding with tact and grace.

Daniel 2:14
When Arioch, the commander of the king’s guard, had gone out to put to death the wise men of Babylon, Daniel spoke to him with wisdom and tact.

But God help us, we need some Nehemiahs in our midst.

Nehemiah 13:25
I rebuked them and called curses down on them. I beat some of the men and pulled out their hair. I made them take an oath in God’s name and said: “You are not to give your daughters in marriage to their sons, nor are you to take their daughters in marriage for your sons or for yourselves.

I'm tempted to chuckle. No, no desire here to go out and beat people up. I don't want to pull anyone's hair out. And we live in a pluralistic society. Christianity was in any case born a minority religion.

No, I don't want to implement Nehemiah's reforms in our world. I want to see his zeal in God's church. When Christianity was born, its stated goal was not to overthrown the Romans and impose Christian ethics on an unwilling world. The goal was to build the church of Jesus Christ, one willing soul at a time.

The day may come when homework assignments like this will seem ordinary and tame. To the world.

But why on earth does the church not recognize that this is not acceptable stuff for our children?

For a little while longer, we have a say in the matter. We live in a democracy. While we have a say, we should speak. And when we no longer have a say (and that day is surely coming), we should withdraw.

But we do neither. We assimilate.

When will the church wake up and recognize that we have married our surrounding culture no less than Nehemiah's people had married the culture surrounding them.

Nehemiah woke the Israelites up.

Can we wake up?

Jesus asked at one point what happens when salt loses its flavoring.

We're finding out.

Finding out right now.

Envying Ezra

Spoiler alert: this blog reveals plot details from "The Fault In Our Stars" and also includes frequent use of a vulgar term.

"These books are not condoning or encouraging sex and vulgarity -- they are providing a voice and context for a particular experience of the characters."

That is the reply that almost haunts me most. (More on that shortly.)

These words came in response to a blog which I posted to a local "Patch" community website. (We used to gather at the soda bar, I suppose, or the post office. Now you post a blog to Patch.)

Heaven knows the link will go stale eventually. In anticipation of that day, I'll note here that in the blog I lamented the fact that an extremely popular book among middle-school children these days is available in our local public middle-school library.

I allowed this book to enter my house and even began to read it aloud to my daughter — but abandoned the project after I realized that there was no good ending to this book. We plowed a furrow through a lot of profanity and dubious material before I realized that things were getting worse, not better. This book was not taking me or my daughter anywhere I wanted either of us to go.

That's not to say I avoid all of life's ugliness. No, what I'm saying is that I need to know it's worth the effort. I don't engage with dark themes for kicks. I do so for the sake of the good. Where is God in this story? What's the redemptive thread in this?

Speaking of that word, a favorite line of mine from the memorable movie The Shawshank Redemption is that the main character "crawled through a river of shit and came out clean on the other side."

This book and that movie have shit in common. The movie portrays a redemption of sorts, however. The book just portrays young teens behaving badly.

Notably, in this book young teens...
• have sex,
• engage in lewd, profane and bawdy conversation,
• engage in a celebrated act of revenge vandalism, and
• joke about exchanging porn without parents noticing.

That's rough stuff any day of the week, but I might (maybe) put up with it if we came out clean on the other end.

But we don't. We just come out smelling like the shit we just read. Strong words, but have a look...

Is this appropriate for a sixth-grader?

Or how about this eulogy given in a church sanctuary:

The fact that the church was empty except for the three kids doesn't change the stunning lack of respect for holy space.

Good stuff for a sixth grader?

There are no adverse consequences to any of these deplorable scenes: they are just part of the story. Never lamented. Sometimes celebrated. The characters just keep plowing, behaving badly right up through the end of the book. Nobody grows. No epiphany moments. Perhaps the fact that they have cancer is supposed to somehow make me overlook their lamentable antics, but if that was the plan, it didn't work for me.

The book has nothing - I repeat, nothing - redemptive about it.... Unless dying of cancer is redemptive all by itself. (But it isn't.) Unless romance in and of itself is redemptive in every flavor under the sun. (Including the variety where two young teens have sex together within two months of their first meeting.)

So I blogged about how this stuff is totally inappropriate reading for eleven year old kids and subjected myself to a community response that, in terms of comments, came down on the side of condemnation. Condemnation of me, that is.

The reply at the top of this reflection captured the sentiment.

Fans of the book's presence in a children's library would have us believe that it does not actually encourage bad behaviors. It's just an opportunity to experience life from a different set of eyes.

My short response is to say: Our children? Through these eyes?

My longer response is to say that the American public (large swathes of it self-proclaimed church-attending Christians) can be aptly compared to a smoothly functioning toilet. It has been discovered that our wide American mouths swallow a lot of shit. So people with shit to sell keep dropping by to put more in.

And we defend the fact that we eat the shit we're sold, protesting that it doesn't always taste good. "We don't celebrate the taste," the line goes. "We experience it."

I prefere St. Paul's approach to the matter:

Ephesians 5:3-12 (excerpted)
But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving....
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light...
Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret.

(There's admittedly a bit of irony here. I am freely using the word shit here and describing what disobedient kids are doing in secret. Hmmm. but Paul did say we should expose them, and he did use the Greek equivalent of shit once in holy scriptures. A strong word at the right moment can be usefully employed to wake up dozing readers.)

The most haunting part of this experience for me, however, was not the response from my community, which was predictable, if tragic.

No, what haunts me most is the feedback from church acquaintances:
• The college kid who told my daughter that she really liked the book
• The woman who told my wife she very much enjoyed the book
• Others who disparage the book privately, but say nothing publicly

The blog did get forwarded on Facebook quite a bit (more than 50 times) but that takes only a second, and only your friends see it.

Replying to the blog publicly takes time and involves public exposure. It was largely only my detractors who had time for that kind of effort.

I've been reading my way through the Old Testament slowly over the past few years, and I happen (if anything in life is a coincidence) to be reading through Ezra and Nehemiah right now. Thus the blog title.

I envy Ezra. And Nehemiah. They saw that the Israelites were assimilating with local pagan culture, called attention to the situation, and the Israelites responded. Quickly. Repentance and change.

Such has not been my experience.

I live in an area some refer to as "the Christian Mecca". On this topic, at least, I believe more could be expected from a city on a hill.

Jesus asked at one point what happens when salt loses its flavoring.

We're finding out.

Finding out right now.

Baal Worship and Ball Worship

I'm reading through the Bible at a blistering pace. In a mere year (or was it two?) I've made my way from Genesis 1 to the end of 2nd Chronicles.

Today I ran into that odd verse, 2 Chronicles 23:17, which refers to the destruction of the temple of Baal in Jerusalem under the leadership of Jehoiada. Excepting the parallel passage in 2nd Kings, there is no other reference in the Old Testament to an actual temple of Baal in the city of Jerusalem.

And yet it was there.

One of the depressing things I take away from my Old Testament readings is the pervasive reality that people pick up spare idols rather easily. A page or two later we read of Amaziah, who is given a great victory over Edom only to... wait for it... take the Edomite idols home with him to Jerusalem.

At this point I set aside my reading to go upstairs and kiss a few children off to their respective schools. As I passed by our family idol I noticed it was glowing and paused to gain wisdom from it because the man on the screen was a priest wearing albs and a cross over his chest.

The video clip was on the news because the pastor had given a very hurried 1-minute sermon so as to get home to watch his beloved San Francisco 49ers in the NFL playoffs. As he left the podium the pastor spread apart his albs to reveal a red T-shirt underneath emblazoned with the 49ers team logo.

I proceeded upstairs to pray for the child heading off to school. Then I retreated to the basement, somewhat shaken by a disturbing juxtaposition. A temple of Baal tucked away in the City of Jerusalem... and a temple of Ball tucked away under this pastor's albs.

I decided to jot my thoughts down and turned on my PC (which happens to be another contender for my allegiance...). I was relieved to confirm on Google that the 1-minute sermon was a gag. The pastor did proceed to preside over a regular church service after the joke was over.

But my relief was not unmitigated, because a line had been crossed. Before the Lord's table there is little room for humor. Yet this pastor had quipped during his 1-minute sermon, "Would you all like to be forgiven for your sins? OK, that's great, you are. There's some bread and some wine up here on the table. You all feel free to help yourself if you'd like to."

A line had been crossed. And underneath his cross this man bore a shirt dedicated to the temple of Ball.

But as I reflected on the travesty I had witnessed, I realized that I too was guilty. There are many American Idols, and not all of them involve sports.

As it will be recalled, I had gone up to pray for a child or two as they headed off to school. After a brief (real) prayer over a particular child, I worded some final advice to the child (pertaining to an upcoming Math exam) in Eucharistic terms... as if the advice had come from the Lord. I closed with the words, "Thanks be to Dad." Even as I did it, I realized that a line had been crossed.

And I as sit here reflecting upon what I had done, I wonder if during my passage by the TV shine I had not perhaps picked up an extra Baal from that irreverent pastor.

Yes, inappropriate joking can desecrate a holy place no less effectively than a sports logo. I am guilty of the former, if not the later. Baal worship comes in many forms.

We like to think we have come a long way. We like to think we've left idol-worship in the rubble of ancient history.

But we haven't.

I pray for my fellow Americans that they will stop bringing sports idolatry or crass joking into the house of God.

For myself, I pray that this moment of clarity will not leave me. There is a place for silliness.

It does not belong in my prayers.

Returning To Shechem

One trip ought to have sufficed.

Genesis 12:6-7
Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. The LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your offspring I will give this land." So he built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him.

The deal of a lifetime. Abram gets another piece of it at the great oak of Shechem. We already know from the preceding text that God has called Abram out of the world he knew and away from the gods he knew and on to a new adventure with God. The true God. Here at the great oak of Shechem God revisits Abram and reminds him again of his great plans for Abram.

But strangely, Abram's offspring have a hard time remaining true to this awesome and generous God. They have a strange penchant for "little g" gods. The kind you can cut out of hunk of wood or stone. The ones that cannot really help anyone. The false gods.

In due time, therefore, it becomes apparent that a return pass by the great oak tree of Shechem is in order. To ditch a few false gods. To get tight again with the great God of the universe. To hopefully renew the deal of a lifetime. But is God willing? Still interested?

Yes. He is not only great, but he is also merciful. In fact, he calls for and arranges the trip. One can see, however, just a hint of frustration and jealousy in the way that God provides his travellers with a not-too-subtle hint about which God does the helping when times get rough. (Jacob, who happens to be one smart cookie, catches the hint.)

Genesis 35:1-4
Then God said to Jacob, "Go up to Bethel and settle there, and build an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau." So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, "Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes. Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone." So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had and the rings in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the oak at Shechem.

All right, then. That settles that! Glad to have that done. Move on? Yes.

But not for good. The cycle repeats. It seems those false gods have more staying power than they ought to, because a gazillion years later, Jacob's descendants, now a mighty nation, find themselves again at Shechem, and for good reason.

Time to renew the agreement. And ditch some false gods... Again.

Nearing the end of his life, Joshua (the man who led the conquest of the land God had promised Abram) exhorts the people:

Joshua 24:14-25 (condensed)
"Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living."

Then the people answered, "Far be it from us to forsake the LORD to serve other gods!... We too will serve the LORD, because he is our God."
...
"Now then," said Joshua, "throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the LORD, the God of Israel."
...
On that day Joshua made a covenant for the people, and there at Shechem he reaffirmed for them decrees and laws. And Joshua recorded these things in the Book of the Law of God. Then he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak near the holy place of the LORD.

Great! All done! Now the whole nation has recommitted themselves to the one God.

But not for long. In due time the Israelites were back at it with the false gods once again.

I'm tempting to mock the Israelites and scorn the thought that I could be as foolish as they were. 500 years have passed! And they are still tempted by the false gods Abram left behind when he crossed the Euphrates? Seriously?

But in my heart I know better than to smirk too quickly. It's serious business getting rid of false idols. Terribly hard to do. Hard to do permanently, anyway.

I know this because I too have my hard-to-lose idols. As the Israelites did then, I do now. I worship God. But not Him alone. Money, the opinions of others, prestige, honor, safety, security... You name it. I worship these things too from time to time.

I try to renounce those extra gods. Send them packing for good. But they are never gone for good. On this day I may renounce all idols, all competitors for the love, trust and affection I owe to God and to God alone — but without fail a tomorrow arrives when I discover they have returned and set up shop in my heart.

Why is it we all have to keep returning to Shechem?

I don't have a good answer for that question. What I do know is that I need to return to Shechem regularly to do some business. To bury a few things.

And I am unspeakably grateful, because the Lord God who waits for me under that beautiful oak tree is merciful and kind.

And He always has two shovels at the ready.

And Are We Really Doing Any Better??

So it starts off well. The garden of Eden.

"This is gonna be great!" That could be the rallying cry.

But Adam and Eve snatch defeat from the clutches of victory. Tales of woe follow.

So God steps in an introduces his first great covenant with one man: Abraham. The covenant is "formalized" many years later at the foot of Mt. Sinai with one people: Israel, the descendants of Abraham. The God of the heavens will call this people his own.

"This is gonna be great!" That could be the rallying cry.

But the people of Israel snatch defeat from the clutches of victory. Tales of woe follow.

So God steps in an introduces his 2nd great covenant with all of mankind. (No one can fault God for not thinking big!) This new covenant is ratified with the death of Jesus Christ, God in human flesh. We have been set free from sin by the blood of Christ.

"This is gonna be great!" That could be the rallying cry.

But the church of Christ has, by and large, snatched defeat from the clutches of victory. Tales of woe follow.

Someone will perhaps at this point jump up and, rightly, point out that this is not the victorious message proclaimed by the writers of the New Testament. We are the church victorious! We are one step away from the great finale where God comes down at the end of the ages! And we, the church of Christ, will become the bride of Christ. Touché.

But on the other hand, the book of Genesis started out on a pretty good note too.

So did the Exodus story.

The problem is not with God. It's with us. And I really don't think we're doing a whole lot better than our forebears. We're largely just miffing another great offer.

Sure, I could spin things a bit. I could assume the church is healthier in other parts of the globe. But since I don't live elsewhere I'll just describe what I see here in America. What I see here is, by and large, more of the same. Idolatry. Covetousness. You name it.

Oh, sure! We like to mock the Old Testament Israelites. "They were so stupid," we sneer. "They worshipped idols made of stone!" Idiots.

Granted. And it's true that we, enlightened souls, have not bowed to idols made of wood and stone. No. We're not that dumb. We only worship idols made of plastic and glass. They glow in our living rooms. (How cool is that?)

And we worship sports teams.

And nowhere does our worship become more pronounced than when the sports teams we worship are presented on the glowing screens of the plastic-and-glass gods we worship. A 2-for-1. When that happens? Well! We get as excited as any prophet of Baal.

The Old Testament Israelites worshipped at the temple, to be sure. They put in time at the holy place of Yahweh. But.... then they'd slip out to the shrines on the hills too, where they prostrated themselves before false gods that they mistakenly thought would secure a good harvest and fertility in general. These false gods offered, so the Israelites thought, a secure and fertile future.

"How silly," we say. "How hypocritical! Why didn't they just trust God to take care of them? Fine and good. Except that we do the same.

Oh sure! We go to church on Sunday and talk about God providing for our every need. But then we slink home and tend to our 401K and IRA savings accounts just as anxiously as any Israelite approached their fertility god.

Because apparently a secure future is not within the means of God to provide. Wasn't then, and isn't now. We have to take care of that on the side. That bit of life is too important to trust to God.

I could go on and on. (I suppose I am going on and on!)

The New Testament Pharisees thought they had a lock on the God thing. They thought they could line up God and get what they wanted from him provided they followed certain laws carefully enough. They never realized God wanted their hearts.

"How hypocritical and blind," we note scornfully. Oh, yes! We love to watch Jesus tear into the Pharisees for their wickedness. Then we church folk proceed to live utterly unholy lives which are literally, statistically indistinguishable from the lives of those who do not attend church. Why? Because we too think we have a lock on God. We think we can get what we want from him provided we say the right thing carefully enough.

"So long as I claim Jesus as my savior," we foolishly think, "I can do what I want and I'll be forgiven of it all at the end." But God always wanted our hearts – and no one who thinks like that belongs to God. We are as stupid as the Pharisees.

The great irony is in how the cycle repeats. The Pharisees mocked the wicked Israelites who preceded them. We love to hear Jesus point it out.

Matthew 23:29-33
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. And you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers! You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?"

We've come full circle. We now mock the Pharisees. They were heading to hell, we note approvingly. But we have been invited into the kingdom of God! We are invited to the wedding feast. We are to become the bride of Christ!

But Jesus had a few words for us too. And like the Pharisees, we're too blind to realize he's talking about us.

What did Christ have to say for those invited to this great event?

Matthew 25:1-12
"At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.

"At midnight the cry rang out: 'Here's the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!'

"Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.'

" 'No,' they replied, 'there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.'

"But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.

"Later the others also came. 'Sir! Sir!' they said. 'Open the door for us!'

"But he replied, 'I tell you the truth, I don't know you.'

Those word are for us. But like the Pharisees, we're too blind to see it.

There were holy people in the Old Testament days. But what we remember today is how most of the people of Israel behaved. And it was nothing to be proud of.

There were holy Pharisees in the New Testament era. Some of them followed Jesus! But what we remember today is how most of the Pharisees behaved. And it was nothing to be proud of.

There were and are holy members of the church of Christ. Some people who self-identify as Christians actually follow Jesus! But from my limited vantage point, what I see in the American church is nothing to be proud of.

In his wedding parable, Jesus indicates that half of those invited never make it past the doors of the banquet hall. I think it's safe to say that all of God's people will celebrate that banquet. So what is Jesus saying? That his church is a failure?

No.

I think Jesus is pointing out that his church is not what people think it is. There are plenty of churches and tons of church folk in this great land of America. But the number of people who belong to Christ is quite small.

The rest are just a bunch of blind fools.

Dear God, don't let me be one of them.