Be warned all ye faint of heart (figurative as opposed to literal) – it is time for me to venture onto the minefields of religion. If your shadow darkened the light from a stained glass window in a Canadian Roman Catholic Church this weekend past, here is what you would have heard read:

Zephaniah 3.14-18

The talk here is of God’s promise to the people of Judah to be hopeful as there is a coming time of redemption and joy. In fact, one day their troubles would be over.

Philippians 4.4-7

Paul is writing from prison to these Northern Macedonian Greeks: be glad, don’t worry about stupid stuff, be gentle with people, and pray for serenity. Do this and you will have this inner peace that most people will not understand.


Luke

John , Crazy John the Baptist, is telling people to be honest, to share, don’t rip people off, don’t extort money from weaker people. And then he tosses in a little warning: He, John, is a nobody but there is someone coming right behind him that really pays attention, and will hold you fully accountable for all you do and don’t do. So there!

So what does all of this mean to me?

Well, I think that the texts acknowledge that people have been fearful, stressed, and full of apprehension since the beginning of time. But this darkness of the Black Dog is not our ultimate destiny. There is in some form an ultimate time of goodness, satisfaction, contentment, and joy.

There are instructions on how to get there. Try not to spend too much tome worrying as that is unproductive. Give thanks when thanks are due. Guidance is a good thing to pray for. Be honest. Share your resources. Don’t hoard. Deep down you know what to do – in a lot of ways it is innate.

Be warned that a Power Greater than me will hold me accountable for all I do and do not do. It happens every day, and my measure of this judgment is the amount of serenity I have when I go to bed.

But is will also happen at the end of my time. It is my task to be ready for that. Do I have the courage to take my measure of the ultimate joy and serenity?


I don’t overly care what people think of me. Okay, that is not true at all but I try to pretend at least. One of the many peculiar things that I do, is go to church early and read the day’s readings in two translations. Then I make my notes and sometimes I share them here. So why do I do that? Well, I used to not really be a fan of church – in fact I sort of thought it as boring and a waste of time. But when I started reading the texts, doing notes, and doing my own personal interpretation I felt an immediate connection over the thousands of years with the millions of people that tried to do the same. Are there criminal priests? Of course. Have churches been involved in genocides? Yes. Do religious people take the word and name of God in vain? You can’t count the times.

But here is the deal for me – Just over 2,000 years ago a Jew heard the same reading from Zephaniah that I referred to above. The reading would have not gone in one ear and out the other. He would have taken the time to reflect, to see how he should apply the reading to his life today, what it perhaps meant to his father’s father and what it will mean to his grandchild. Somehow, his thoughts and thinking jump in a very, very, very, small way over to me. I find that little link very cool. That is why I find an hour in church wasteful but two productive.

I wish I were religious but I am not. I even wish I had a greater measure of spirituality but I am short there as well. But I am happy with the little ember that I have. It sure beats that black deep freeze.