Shade Tree Wisdom 11/11/10

November eleventh is Veteran’s Day, observed with parades and observances in cemeteries. A day spent for many in memory of what might have been, and I remembered that hymn:
The world is very evil,
The times are a waxing late.
Be sober, and keep vigil,
The Judge is at the gate.
The Judge that comes in mercy,
The Judge that comes with might,
To terminate the evil,
To diadem the right. TLH 605,1
So meanwhile, how then shall we spend our days?

For an example let me introduce the Rechabites. (Jeremiah 35, 1-2).
Who are these people. The city must have wondered too. The Rechabites were a nomadic tribe, probably skilled iron workers who moved around and stopped where their work was needed, but now they had come to the city for safety. Jeremiah reports, when the Babylonians invaded this land we said, “Come, we must go to Jerusalem for safety. And we are sill here”. 35,11. Different, strangers marching to a different drummer.

So The prophet Jeremiah invited them to lunch in a public place and offered them wine. They refused it, explaining, “we do not drink wine because our forefather Jonadab son of Recab gave us this command, ‘neither you or your descendants must ever drink wine’.”

The prophet used that as an object for his sermon to the citizens. Look at this, they have obeyed a command of their parents for 250 years. But you, you don‘t listen to God, you pay no attention to His commands. “I spoke to them, but they did not listen; I called to them, but they did not answer.” 35.17b. The people were crowd-conditioned, doing what the crowd did without thought. The Rechabites were not crowd-conditioned.

And that offers us an answer. How shall we then pass our days? A historian of the first century wrote this about Christians, “They live among us.
They are tax-paying and hard working people, friendly and neighborly, but they are different, for they do not throw incense before our gods nor do they bow. They are different. They are among us, but they are not one of us.”

That’s what Jesus meant, “You are in the world, but not of the world” and St. Paul. “don’t let the world crowd you into its mold”. You are God’s children and the Holy Spirit directs your lives In this world. That’s how we are to pass our days, under His guidance and God’s blessing.

GPD 11/11/10