Saturday, December 16, 2006

Saturday Sermon

I’m perturbed by the goings-on of today. There's a domestic situation close to me that is a disaster slowly dragging itself out and it will happen as sure as the earth will turn on its axis. And I have to just stand by. I have to watch this played out.

There’s a parallel between the man in question and his family, and between Little George Bush and his administration. Absolute disaster must occur to the villains in each case, taking every innocent person in their universe down with them. I have to watch the Bush catastrophe play out, just as I have to watch the other catastrophe play out. In each case, to the bitter, god, damned, end.

After the first of the year, Bush will send 50,000 troops to Baghdad to try to occupy it. Many of them will die. Many Iraqis will die. It's all about this little Texas frat-boy's ego. He doesn't want to "lose."

And we can't do a damned thing about it. We have a military dictator who is not a bit better than Kim Jong Il. This man is a monster. His vice president is a monster.

Lord? Will You please do something? But why should I ask you to do something on our behalf? On my behalf? You are God -- which means “good” -- and yet You let evil triumph over good every day, all over this tear-stained, grief-stricken, atrocity-laden ball.

What do You have to say for Yourself? How can the evil not come from You? Preachers say that evil comes from people -- or from Satan -- "the evil one," as Jesus calls him in the modern translations. Jesus says that only God is good.

But You, God, are the author of all, aren’t You? So didn’t You create evil? Whether in the form of people -- a more “parsimonious” explanation -- or Satan? You let Idi Amin and Josef Stalin and Adolf Hitler and the butchers of the Sudan and Papa Doc Duvalier and Slobodan Milosevich and yes, Saddam Hussein, and God knows how many other monsters come to power: why then should I be surprised that You have let George W. Bush and Dick Cheney come to power?

As Bob of God, the Devil and Bob cries out, looking up into the sky from a rainy, rubble-filled field in Detroit, “What kind of God are You? You’re a deadbeat dad!” Why do You allow all the misery and injustice and murder and mayhem to just go on and on and on and ON?

I know there are people, good people -- some of whom believe in You and some of whom do not -- and they keep on trying to do the good and decent and just and merciful thing at every turn and with every person they come in touch with, and I admire them, and sometimes I even try to emulate them to the best of my sorry ability. It is enough to try to emulate good people -- there are many good ones in this world; even some who are not born-again, Bible-bopping, church-chained Christians.

I am not amoral. I believe in doing always the good, just, kind, loving action. Even if I don't always do it myself. I believe in love.

But what of You, God? What of You?

6 comments:

dddonna said...

I am truly sorry for your concerns. When hope is gone we still have prayer. That somehow still works despite our impatience. God bless.

Anonymous said...

How sad, that a person living in this country of freedom has not had the penetration of the gospel into their conscience and soul. Maybe psychology is a deterrent and shield to seal out acceptance of the salvation God intended for us. Our free will sometimes is hampered, both positively and negatively.

Anonymous said...

You'll never get to God that way.

JT Evans said...

Oh you can't get to heaven, on a roller skate.
No, you can't get to heaven on a roller skate.
No you can't get to heaven on a roller skate,
'Cause anonymous says you're a reprobate.
Ain't a-gonna worry my Lord no more...
Curses! Damned again. By the Defender of the Faith. (self-appointed)

Anonymous said...

Man, you've really lost it now!

JT Evans said...

Have to cut you off, Zorro. You just have to have the last word, don't you? I've pleaded with you -- we've all implored you -- IDENTIFY YOURSELF. I don't care that you condemn me all the time. Yours is not to condemn and you and I both know that. Just come out of hiding.

With your insistence on hiding yourself while taking shots at me and my family, you are like a sniper taking cheap shots at people who can't see you.

If your God is so superior to mine -- obviously we don't have the same one -- then He should be able to blow me away for my "blasphemy" (got that spelling right yet?) and you will not have to hide from me. You, O mighty servant of the Lord, will be like Elijah in that cookoff with Baal (1 Kings 18). I will cry out to my false God and He will remain silent but your mighty Yahweh will vaporize the altar and the rocks beneath it.

So with a God like that to bear you up so that you do not dash your foot against a stone, why are you too cowardly to let me know who you are?

You can email or call me if you can't come out from behind your rock on this blog. Just 'fess up.