Hymn stanza for Lent

Challenge for Lent; Say WHAAAAT?!! A Valentine Prayer for your Arch-Nemesis?!

"But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you," ~Jesus (Matthew 5:44 ) 

“The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend.” ~Abraham Lincoln

Okay, so I try to actually do what Jesus says, even as counter-intuitive and counter-cultural as it seems. But, what about that total jerk (I'd use profanity, but after all, this IS a religious blog). That MONSTER that I just can't deal with? What about the person who DESERVES my loathing and not my loving?

Really? Isn't that ALL of us? Seriously. Maybe there's someone who just seems to constantly make your life a living hell. Maybe its their attitude, their behavior, things they say. Maybe they're really "gunning for you," they really enjoy hurting you or demoralizing you day in and day out. 

First of all, I bet that if you step back and get some perspective, you may realize that you're just might be being a little bit paranoid. Odds are they're actually indifferent toward you.

But okay, so for whatever reason, you've neurotically given them way too much space in your head. Even if it IS just your imagination, what ABOUT that person? How on Earth do you ever muster the humility or self-discipline to pray for THAT person?

When in doubt, read the instructions. Most people who've been reading the Bible for a while will tell you that St. Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 13 is the "Love Chapter." I'll bet you see it quoted all over the place today since its Valentine's Day. 

So here's my idea. Take verses 4-6 in particular and pray them FOR that person. A Pentecostal or Charismatic blogger might tell you to pray them "over" that person. Here's the passage, followed by how a prayer like this might look-

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

"Dear God, __________________ is driving me CRAZY! I don't know if they hate me or if they're deliberately trying to make me feel like this, or if they just don't care how they treat anyone.

Lord, PLEASE change their heart, change their attitude, change how they treat me.

Make them patient, make them KIND! Don't let them be jealous (if that's whats going on), make them be humble, make them respect others, help them not be so selfish. Whatever I may have done, help them not be so angry with me. Help us to start over. Help them see things more clearly.

In Jesus Name, Amen"

Yeah, come to think of it, this might require that you read 1 Cor 13 over and over again until you have it memorized so that you can apply it like this. That, or you'll have to pray for that person the next time you crack open your Bible, or start carrying a small Bible around with you, or download one of those free Bible Apps onto your iPod or smart phone. Well, really, would any of those things be such bad ideas?

Challenge for Lent; Love our enemies

"But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you," ~Jesus (Matthew 5:44 ) 

“The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend.” ~Abraham Lincoln

Here's a challenge for Lent: instead of giving something up, start something. Start praying for your enemies.

Who are your enemies? You figure you're such a good person that you don't have any enemies?

How about the person who cut you off in traffic or took the parking spot you were hoping for? How about the family member or in-law who makes snide remarks or jabs about something you did or said? How about the ex who you feel betrayed by? That co-worker or boss or customer or whoever at work that just knows how to zap the joy out of your day or trample on your last nerve?

What if, instead of wasting your energy on being ticked off at them, you said a quick prayer for them?

Sure, you COULD say a prayer ABOUT them; "God give me patience with this jerk" or "God, would you DESTROY this idiot?!!"

But what if you prayed FOR them? "Lord, I don't know why this person said that (or acted a certain way), but please help them to have peace- if only so that they won't be such a jerk." or how about "Lord, please help them to realize that the way they just said that makes people feel like crap."

Oh, I know it doesn't come naturally, and it won't be easy. But I'm putting out the challenge. ( I may or may not be able to write something about this throughout Lent, but with God's help, I'm going to try to do it for the next 40 days.) Join me if you have the guts. If we say we believe in Jesus, this is one way we can actually comply with His directions, not to mention imitate His example.

True Justice, Mercy, & Compassion

And the word of the Lord came again to Zechariah: "This is what the Lord Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.’ ~Zechariah 7:8-10

When my right-wing family, friends and neighbors wonder how I can call myself a Christian and yet be a liberal- this is why; verses like this.

ADVENT; Promised through Prophets

Jeremiah 33:14-16
New International Version (NIV)
“‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will fulfill the good promise I made to the people of Israel and Judah.“‘In those days and at that time    I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line;
    he will do what is just and right in the land.In those days Judah will be saved    and Jerusalem will live in safety.
This is the name by which it will be called:    The Lord Our Righteous Savior.’

'Prophet, Priest, and Pirate' is the name of this blog. Jesus is out prophet (John 12:50), our high priest (Heb.4:14-16), and our king (John 18:36). He calls us all (John 20:21), if we follow Him to also be prophets (Joel 2:28-29) in the priesthood of all believers (1 Peter 2:4-9) and heirs and participants in His kingdom (1 John 3:1-3).

The first candle on the Advent wreath is the Prophets' candle. One thing that followers of this blog may know bugs the heck outta me is that Americans seem to think that prophets magically predict the future. That's not prophecy, its divination, which God strictly prohibits in Leviticus 19:26. Seeking out signs and omens to predict the future is a sin because God wants us to trust Him and know that He will be with us in the future and take care of us.

Prophecy, on the other hand, is delivering God's Word, His message. Old Testament prophets like Jeremiah, Isaiah, Amos, Joel, Malachi, Micah, and Zechariah- they all announced and declared the coming messiah- not by divination, but because God gave them His promise, and they repeated them.

When we share that God promises to love us, and He sent his Son Jesus as a sacrifice for us, to save us, forgive us, and stay with us, we are being prophets.

ADVENT; Step Into Christmas

Advent means “coming.” It is a season when we prepare for Jesus’ arrival. There are five candles in an advent wreath. 3 purple or blue, and one pink, and one white. Purple symbolizes both His royalty and our repentance.

As with every year, my hope is to post some Advent meditations on ye ole Pirate blog here- but as usual, my December is looking mighty busy so I'm not making any promises, just plans.
I'm thinking they may need to be shorter than is my habit (long winded/long worded) and my hope is to  post them on Monday, Wednesday and Friday (as opposed to Sun-Sat.). Wish me luck.

Here is a brief refresher on the color and symbolism of the traditional Advent wreath.

• An Advent wreath is a circle, which has no beginning and no end. Pine is used because it is "evergreen," also representing eternal life. However, the wreath is also foreshadowing of Christ's passion. Pine needles and/or holly leaves represent the crown of thorns and holly berries and/or poinsettia flowers represent the blood He shed on the cross.
• The first violet candle is the “Prophets candle” and symbolizes the hope that Old Testament Jews had that a Messiah would one day come.
• The second violet candle is the “Bethlehem” candle and represents the peace that the new God/Man savior would bring, ending the long spiritual rift between God and mankind.
• The pink candle is the “Angels’” candle (or in some traditions, the “Mary” candle) it symbolizes the joy of Heaven that a Savior was finally to be born.
• The last violet candle is the “Shepherds’” candle and represents the love or adoration of those ready to accept the gift of the Christ child.
• The large white candle  in the center, often lit on Christmas or Christmas Eve is the “Christ Candle” and represents Jesus as the “Light of the world,” or the Epiphany, God on Earth.

Don't dishonor the poor

Whatever happened to the "party of personal responsibility?"

They blame minorities for electing Obama. Blame minorities for getting jobs and college spots under affirmative action programs? Blame immigrants for the economy? Resent people on disability, food stamps, or unemployment for wasting your taxes?

"Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court?"

Aren't they the ones who cut your pay? Cut your benefits? Ship jobs overseas? Cut taxes on themselves so that they rise on the poor & middle-class?

True "Sodomy?"

This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty, and did abominable things before me; therefore I removed them when I saw it.

~ Ezekiel 16:49-50

Why is it?

Seems to me that the Bible is about love & forgiveness, and the Constitution is about equality and due process. Am I really wrong about this?

Seriously? Does it not occur to Tea Partiers that really they're proponents of nullification & states-rights and that they'd probably prefer to eliminate the Constitution with it's supremacy clause, its elastic clause, and that pesky 14th Amendment with its darned equal-protection clause.

And have you noticed that Fundamentalists are always telling us that we can't pick-and-choose what we want to believe from the Bible when it comes to evolution, abortion and homosexuality- but have they NOTICED how many times God commands us to care for the poor, the sick, the widows, orphans, hungry, and alien? How we're not to deny them justice? How its harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven that for a camel to get through the eye of a needle? Or how we should stock up treasures in Heaven, rather than in land and barns and possessions? Or how we should render unto Ceasar what is Ceasar's (pay taxes)?

The best things any of us can do as U.S. citizens has got to be to actually READ, rather than just claim to be exceptional because of the Bible and the Constitution. If we know what they REALLY say- we wouldn't put up with all the ways people misrepresent, misuse and abuse them both.

Make it a New Year's resolution this year- regardless of how the election goes this Tuesday, promise yourself that you'll really read and try to learn for yourself what both of these foundations of civilization really say. May we all be more literate about them and more grateful for them. And by reading them, may we all become better citizens and may we all grow in our relationships with God.

Happy Reformation Day

On October 31, 1517 (495 years ago, this week)
Dr. Martin Luther, a Theology professor at the University of Wittenburg, in Germany posted 95 Theses on the Castle Church door- challenging Christians to discuss and debate what he believed to be errors and corruption in the church of the time.
Especially the sale of "indulgences," documents promising to keep people out of Hell and/or Purgatory. Profits of the sales of these indulgences often went to line the pockets of rich Bishops, cardinals and the Pope and probably helped pay for opulent palaces, chapels and Renaissance decorations in Rome.

Luther's hope was to reform the Church, not to start a new one.
His main teachings were based on Romans 3:22 "...righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe," and Ephesians 2:8-9, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast."

Whatever his own faults or those of "Lutherans" who came after him, Luther's legacy is one that focuses Christians on that fact that we are saved by Grace alone (the free gift of what Jesus did on our behalf and in our stead on the cross), Faith alone- not by anything we have to do or try to refrain from doing, but only by trusting in what Jesus did- and we know these truths thanks to Scripture alone, not by philosophers or teachers or some new revelations given only to some magical and infallible representative of God- like the Pope, or like the Mormon's Prophet or any human leader- but only from God's Word itself, the Bible.  2 Timothy 3:16-17
"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."

Is there such thing as ghosts?

Luke 16:19-31 kinda leads me to believe that once you're in Heaven we'll be pretty oblivious to the pain of this world and Hell. Which, in spite of Samuel visiting Saul in 1Sam28 (in direct violation of Leviticus 19:26) suggests that it's pretty unlikely that the souls of the departed really visit the living.

But I could be wrong- "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." ~Hamlet (who was visited by his father's ghost).

Still, I can't help suspecting that what people thing of as ghosts are often at best, their mind playing tricks on them or at worst, demons, dark-spirits, and Satanic angels posing as benevolent or benign spirits.

Beware of "meddling with powers you can't possibly comprehend" as Prof. Marcus Brody from the Indiana Jones films might say.

Just so we're clear...

You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that —and shudder. ~James 2:19

(See also: Dt 6:4; Mk 12:29; 1Co 8:4-6)

WARNING: This post will offend some people.

Yesterday on the radio I heard a Romney supporter explain how important it was to him that people recognize that Mormons consider themselves Christian. I have no doubt that many, many Mormons do believe in Jesus as their personal savior and are saved... although, I suspect that they remain unaware of some of the details of the doctrines of the church of Latter Day Saints (LDS).

Here's some of what the person being interviewed said, along with things that he didn't say (which I'll highlight by making red and italicizing).

He said that just like Catholics and Protestants, Mormons believe that Jesus is the son of God,

just not the ONLY BEGOTTEN son, of the one and ONLY true living God, because if a White man is good enough during his life he has the opportunity to become the god of his own planet, populating it for eternity with spirit-babies...

He said that they believe that Jesus died on the cross and on the third day, rose again from the dead,

just not that He died for the remission of our sins, defeating once and for all sin, Satan, and death itself, because Jesus and Satan are both brothers of the same father-god, and as noted above, it is by your own works-righteousness (merit) that you earn your place and status in the afterlife.

I don't know whether or not they believe that Jesus ascended into Heaven where He sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, from whence He will come again to judge the living and the dead

but they do teach that Jesus appeared to Indians over here in North America after His resurrection, because after-all, they were Nephites, the lost tribes of Israel.

And of course, they may or may not believe that the Old Testament (Jewish Torah) and the New Testament ( Synoptic Gospels, book of Acts, and canonical epistles) are the Divinely inspired Word of God, but

They also believe that an angel revealed to Joseph Smith a third testament, written by a prophet Moroni on gold plates and buried someplace in upstate New York, also known as the Book of Mormon.

Call me a "Confessionalist," or orthodox or conventional or mainline, mainstream, Protestant, or whatever else you want to, but as a Lutheran, I believe that Christians are people who believe that Jesus is the promised messiah who died to forgive us of our sins, as laid out in the three major Christian confessions or creeds; Nicene, Apostles', and Athanasian. Sorry, but if he's Bishop, you'd think that Mitt Romney knows and accepts most of the LDS teachings and doctrines which do not align with these creeds, let alone most of the Old and New testaments. 

If you really believe that you can't be Christian and permit abortion or gay marriage, but you can be Christian and believe that you're working toward becoming your own god- I'm not sure what to say to you, except don't try telling me that someone who chose to join the United Church of Christ instead of atheism, agnosticism, Catholicism, Buddhism, or his father's Islam is not a Christian or is a secret-Muslim or is the Antichrist himself. Just stop. 

Vote for who you want to, based on what issues you believe are important. But don't fool yourself into believing that the Republican candidate is more "Christian" than the Democrat. At least not this year. 

Me, I think it's pretty weird that fundamentalist Evangelicals and conservative Catholics are so ready to vote for a Mormon because of a few social "wedge" issues. Abortion- not mentioned in the Bible at all. Homosexuality, mentioned maybe 6 times. Poverty and justice for the poor, widows, orphans, and aliens- almost 3,000 times. 

Oh, did I forget to mention, that Mitt Romney used to be pro-choice and pro-gay rights when he was governor of Massachusetts? Does that not tell you that he only tells us what he thinks we want to hear? Flip-Flop. Isn't that the accusation that right-wingers used to make against President Clinton back in the day? "Slick Mitt."

So, things Jesus didn't really talk about directly are what make you Christian, but following a false religion doesn't? You know what that reminds me of? 

"You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel." ~Matthew 23:24