COLUMNS FROM THE PINKHOUSEJoseph A Hazlitt, Wynnewood OK
ANGELFIRE 12-07-05
Instead of recalling Pearl Harbor today, I'm noting that Japan has joined NASA and the EU space agency in the quest to learn about Mars and the Asteroid Belt. They tried two years and are soon going to send another to one of the giant asteroids. Looking at the record of space efforts, it was the USSR that tried for Mars first back in 1960. After launching their earth satellite in the fifties called Sputnik (shocking the whole world), they next sent their Marsnik a year or so later. It was at the same time president Kennedy announced our determination to put a man on the moon by the end of that decade. Marsnik failed, as did nearly all their subsequent shots. It seemed there was a curse on their part in the "space race" while we went forward to a manned lunar landing in just nine years. They wouldn't fool with something as near as the moon. Small potatoes! So they lost in a big way and their evil empire finally collapsed in '89. The smile of Providence was never upon them, for they hadn't sought it. Just secular science was the answer to everything. With our national motto "In God We Trust" keeping back atheism, we were able to finish first. Now even Russia is back in space, but that day in July of '69 was indeed America's when we heard Niel Armstrong say "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind" (though he left out "a"). Sadly we have now come to equate science and technology with total secularity, when the mother of it all was theology. That divine science ruled for a thousand years before the investigation of nature became foremost. So this season of the Nativity calls us back to the very root of our civilization. How appropriate that all time is marked before and after the Intervention of heaven into human history. Maybe I'm just a relic, but to me theology is still the queen of sciences and the Holy Spirit brings more certainty than objective experiments. Therefore, our faith is based on facts rather than myths. The Bible is a book of history; not just a bunch of delusions. I like to designate it as "a record of the mighty acts of Yahweh in history for the redemption of mankind." The record begins with and it's completion is in that last Word, as GOD comes inside of humanity to begin a re-creation. Thus history (His-story) is fulfilled with the parousia (Christ's final coming again). He has become the first and the last, beginning and end, the alpha and omega. Have you noticed that the hurricanes are being named as letters of the Greek alphabet now? A sign perhaps.
Niece is doing her Prison Fellowship Angeltree of children's gifts again this year. Call and we'll come pick up any cash donations. Or better still, bring them by the Pinkhouse here in WW and see this magnificent 8 foot tree we've put up inside. Prettiest ever I think. She brought it home and I helped her get it decorated. So ya'll come.
We keep hearing how "Merry Christmas" has been banned as a seasonal greeting to be replaced by "Happy Holidays." Some evangelicals are riled up and making a fight. I sense that the name isn't clearly about our Lord's birthday. "Nativity Night" are the words for that. Christ-mas comes from the midnight mass traditional observance by Catholics. Why not "Christ-birth" instead. And there's nothing Scriptural about Dec.25 either. It was the Saturnalia in ancient Rome, days to honor one of their gods, Saturn because they grew longer instead of shorter. Celebration was wild and wanton, anything but holy. So "contrafactum," the word I defined last week, was our Church response back then to turn the profane into the profound. Yet now it seems to have become more important as a boon to business than a sign of the Word become flesh. If we want that Biblical meaning, we might call it "Jesus' Birthday" or "Festival of the Incarnation" to keep the meaning clear. Thus it shows that He identified with us by becoming a human being through birth into this world, then "grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with GOD and man,'yet remaining subject to His earthly parents. Then at age 12 in the Temple He said "I must be about My Father's business"; and He continued thereater the only totally sinless life ever lived on earth, which He offered up as the perfection which alone can atone for all our sins. We must look in faith to His supreme Self sacrifice on the Cross. Virgin Birth, obedient childhood, maturity as divine Teacher and Death/Resurrection all constitute the first Advent (name of this pre-Christmas liturgical season); then His ascended state as our Advocate in heaven guarantees a final return for us all gathered together in the air (both living & risen) to be His Bride.
ANGELFIRE 12-10-05
When has an election in a foreign country ever been as important as the one next week in Iraq? It will be the making or breaking of our U.S. plan to establish a democracy other than Israel in the middle east. And secularity has to be the direction it goes for that to happen. Maybe that's what the White House is showing us by it's shift to "Happy Holiday" cards instead of "Merry Christmas" ones this year. I think of a book called "The Secular City" that Harvey Cox wrote back in the sixties. It foretold the decline of religion in public life that urbanization would bring. We had just made the transition from our rural mind set to a nation of big cities. And ever since then our population keeps growing increasingly urban/secular. It was a hard trend for us conservative minded citizens to face back then, but now we are seeing even faces replaced (and we thought your face was one thing sacred as personal identity, even more than fingerprints). But that radical theologian Cox claimed this process could not be resisted because it was "divine activity." The Secular City was a sign of the future, he declared. I felt little respect for him because he wrote articles in Playboy Magazine, for which I feel nothing but disgust. Yet the situation in Iraq appears to confirm his prediction. Democracy can't be theocracy, nor anything imposing a religious outlook. It has to leave that an open choice for each voter. Yet righteousness and justice must be in their vote, or GOD will condemn it's outcome. India became a secular democracy way back in '49, and still survives. And now there are many others. And we feel it has divine approval, yet may loose out with unGodly choices the majority make. In fact secular democracy is what many Americans think this nation has been, though I see it as just now nearing that kind of statehood. Cox claimed that objectified faith expressions were not as important as caring relationships, as I recall him. Yet my heart tells me that we need our national motto and pledge of allegiance "under God." I even want to spell GOD as the triune being of the Holy Bible. Secularity suggests that the presidential oath of office might even be taken on a Talmud or Quran some day. Now that's beyond the limit, I say.
Last week's "From Pauls Valley to Pluto" front page article was just amazing to me. Going clear to the edge of our solar system simply blows my mind. And Jeff Moore from here in our Valley being someone in on the New Horizon's launch next month is even more exciting. Then there's nearly a decade of space flight to get there. What an undertaking. Marvels never cease, but just seem to increase! Right on Jeff, NASA and the USA.
As we hear of St.Nicholas again, I'm pleased to note that his name is Biblical. Just look at the list of seven deacons first chosen in Acts 6:5 beginning with Stephen. The last one is Nicholas,a proselyte from Antioch. That means that he was a circumcised Gentile becoming Jewish who had then accepted Christ to become a "saint" (as all believers were then called). And being from Antioch, was also a "Christian" since that's where the new name was first used. Just thought this intersting. My recollection tells me that "Santa Clause" came from the Spanish way of pronouncing Saint Nicholas, San Neecolus. But the jolly gent appears a lot more Germanic to me. With all our concern about American obesity, he's looking a little more trim of late. Away with the pot belly at long last. For that you need to see Geezar, our local PV comic strip character.
ANGELFIRE 12-14-05
Our plutonium (nuclear energy) powered probe of Pluto that's to be launched next month pricked my interest about the edge of the solar system. I've learned that many astronomers now believe another planet exists far more remote than Pluto, which is 40 times as far from the sun as Earth. The new one lies 97AU (astronomical units) out or that many times 93,000,000 miles and is only known so far as UB313 until the International Astronomical Union decides what name it should have. Being larger than Pluto and having a rocky mass should give it prestige, as well as being the number ten of Sol's planetary kids. UB313 orbits in an elipse, so it's a little like a comet. We know from the Olympics how much that ten figure counts, for just as nine (nova) signifies a new beginning, a number ten is perfection. Here at the Nativity season we recall that Mary waited nine months to deliver her #10 in that stable of Bethlehem. Since UB313 will be the first planet encountered by our Lord returning from glory, I think it should be named "Shalom." That's the greeting in Israed used for hello. But it means so much more than a friendly sound. It's the Hebrew word for peace. And what better name for the first planet before our approaching Prince of Peace. It also has a moon that's already named Gabrielle. That's the angel who blows a trumpet (female name) when Christ comes again. An American musical had this song that I recall: "Gabriel will warn you. Some early morn you will hear his horn. So lift up your head and say 'There's going to be a great Day.' Angels in the sky promise that bye and bye there's going to be a great Day." Our sky has gotten far higher since that was written. If it will take the fastest ever spacecraft launched by New Horizons nearly a decade to reach Pluto, then one to UB313 would take over twice that long. And surely there aren't that many years left. Even radio signals take four hours from Pluto getting back to Earth, thus from "Shalom" maybe twelve. But for this season read the prologue of our fourth gospel, "All things were made through Him and without Him nothing was made that was made." John 1:3
ANGELFIRE 12-17-08
An ominous headline this Tuesday morning on MS-NBC, "Bush's Torture Ban Reversal." He's had my admiration and prayer support despite all the loss of popularity. And this deceptive line looked he was changing, though he's still opposed to it. Tortuer's a subject that deeply disturbs me because it sounds satanic, not only in what the devil does but in what Satan and his own will reap eternally for their wickedness. Some think that they will just be burned up and simply not exist, although Revelation pictures the lake of fire that torments forever. The existentialism which so captivated me in my seminary days described an abyss of nothingness into which man falls. Non-being seemed more terrible back then than a burning hell. Life was so absurd, that a bold leap into the abyss was a heroic response. That view must have sewed the seeds of much suicide later on, though Christians saw it as a "leap of faith" into the arms of GOD for each new moment that came. And such couldn't possibly mean annihilation as it did for the atheists escaping their angst (tortured lives). Like Soren Kierkegaard the Danish philosopher and father of existentialism, it meant instead our true existence-- moment by moment; thus the name "existentialism." And those who sought escape in death forgot that torture can extend into the hereafter according to the Bible. There it's certainly from the opposite pole of the universe than GOD our Father Almighty.
I'm recalling nine words that came to me in a crisis moment of '37 when I was just that many years old: "...going to see GOD and all the holy angels." At that moment I felt my earthly life was ending but that phrase has stayed with me for a lifetime. And so now it's become so real as we celebrate again the Babe's birth in Bethlehem. That angel that spoke to the shepherds Nativity Night must have been Gabriel, though Luke 2 only says "the angel of the LORD stood by them." Then shamayim (highest heaven) opened and all the angels were heard proclaiming "glory to GOD in the highest, and on earth shalom toward men of goodwill." Lk.2:14 newKJV I recall Billy Gram's book that said they were "saying" rather than singing it, which upset me. So I began reading The Jerusalem Bible which used "singing" instead. Now I'm back reading the New KJV. To pastors that might seem trivial, but to me angels speak in song more than word. Look at king David, the man after GOD's own heart. He wrote and sang most of the psalms, which are central in the Bible, literally. Therefore, carolling has long been linked to celebrating the birth of Jesus. And now why don't we rather sing Christbirth if Christmas is being phased out. "We wish you a merry Christbirth, we wish you a merry Christbirth. We wish you a merry Christbirth, and a happy new year." (My spell checker tried to change the word to "childbirth" each time and that can signifiy a fuller meaning yet, though His return will be from the sky rather than down in a lowly manger)
The fact that "Jesus of Nazareth" became His earthly name suggests to me that few people knew He'd been born down in Bethlehem of Judea instead of up in Galilee. That was David's original city, where Jesse's youngest youngest son was first a lowly shepherd; the famous site even by when Joseph & Mary returned to be enrolled for taxes. Pastor Clay Shannon asked us at Joy serices to find the prophecy "He shall be called a Nazarene" which the Gospel of Matthew reports. But the nearest I cold locate is about the birth of Samson, where the angel told his parents that "He shall be called a Nazirite." I once saw a New Testament translation which spoke of Jesus the Nazirite instead of Nazarene. The publisher thought Matthew had combined the two in his reference. Of course that fits Baptist and Methodist evangelical piety quite well, but we know that Jesus did come "eating and drinking" instead of abstaining like John the Baptist. Only at the last supper did He state that He would not drink of the fruit of the vine again until He drinks it with us new in the Kingdom." Of course that will be wine of the Spirit, not the kind with alcohol in it. Thus the Communion uses unfermented grape juice as a foretaste of that heavenly wine in store for the marriage feast to come and the grown up King finally takes His holy bride in the marriage that death can never end because death itself will be forever dead. Hallelujah and shalom!
ANGELFIRE 12-20-05
Matthew 1:16 tells us that Joseph wasn't the actual father of Christ Jesus, but only "the husband of Mary." Still, his genealogy is traced from the ancestor Abraham clear down to a Jacob ben Mathan, who begot the guardian of our Lord that everyone considered His father i.e. "Is this not the carpenter's son?" Thus Joseph has a prominent role in the Nativity saga. He's always pictured as leading the donkey upon which Mary rides to Bethlehem (though only a guess about their mode of travel and Matthew hints that they had lived there before ever in Nazareth). Joseph gets direction from on high through his dreams, thus likening him to the ancient Joseph of fame in Egypt (son of an earlier Jacob and one who also had dreams). This Joseph was legally the father because he had married the Child's mother (without a wedding it seems which must have raised eyebrows). While man's law isn't as powerful as biology, it can create virtual reality for us; and so often does in this carnal world. Thus Mary's husband can represent all us dogish Gentiles that get into the Holy Family only by divine grace rather than entitlement. Though Joseph had a royal geneology himself. Having been a visionary across my lifetime (77 years last month), I'm so glad Niece has called me "Joseph" instead of Joe. It's made these 15 years of our marriage more sacred I feel. I mix metaphors quite often in writing, something we were forbidden to do by seminary professors. And I feel a freedom in this Postmodern Age (bad as it is) which says that "whatever you claim as your truth is right for you." That allows for false gods to abound I know, yet also allows genuine faith just as in America. Nine/eleven seems the sign of this era to me, when the fall of those twin towers in NYC illustrated the collapse of modernism. Most of my life has been 20h century, the age of modernism (which I could never buy). So postmodern philosophy frees us from that by it's "deconsruction," a negative approach to every certainty. It recalls for me the much earlier rebellion in thought of Rene Descartes, who chose doubt over faith and found that the only thing he couldn't doubt was his own awareness. "Cogito ergo sum" (I think therefore I am) was the pivot upon which that French scholar launched modern philosophy nearly half a millennium ago. It's break with medieval metaphysical dogma led finally to the modernism that still lingers as social activism, political correctness and "open minds--open hearts--open doors" talk. Maybe modernism was open but it was hollow too, like a mind open at both ends. So postmodernism repudiates it without offering anything else. All negative, though some call it "pragmatism," a familiar formula for "whatever wors." For the first thousand years neo-platonic philosophy ruled supreme, in which the metaphysical domain was "real" and ordinary sensory experience was "illusionary" or idealistic. Then Thomas Aquinas changed it around with Thomism instead of Scholastacism and idealism termnology became realism, while realism bacame the ideal. Next DesCartes turned consciousness so upside down that the metaphysical or supernatural could be dismissed altogether by a later French thinker who fathered his "logical positivism," completely free of God. Scientific inquiry replaced monastic meditation on sacred eternal reality. All this went into the making of "modernism" and then August Comte, that philosopher mentioned, even created his own secular religion (from which Karl Marx must have been nourished). Here in this 21st century there's widespread unbelief, deep skepticism like a return of that existential revolt in the fifties when beatniks were in vogue. Organized religion truly is taking it on the chin and institutionalized faith has really begun to fade. Yet we can still sing "Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere...that Jesus Christ is born. Down in a lowly manger the humble Christ was born. And GOD gave us salvation upon that blessed morn. Go tell it on the mountain..."
This sort of heavy talk is usually only on my webpage, which I hope you'll read at least once. You can punch up unedited columns clear back to 9/11. Yet merry is a Bible word, so here is my rhyme translation of one Proverb: "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine should." Life's a very merry seminary at this season. Let the bells ring and the children sing. Christ Jesus is the reason, and also our King! And He's the one we're pleas'en. Hallelujah
ANGELFIRE 12-24-05
I begin this column recalling WW II (instead of 9/11). It built up for us to a "designated day" when the Allied Forces began an invasion of Europe. I had graduated from PV High only days before D-Day and can recall how eager I was to get into the navy and help finish off Hitler and Togo, those devils of Germany and Japan. Yet it wasn't until after I turned seventeen, that I could enlist in '45. Then the war was over that same year, first in Europe then Asia. D-Day's been compared to the Nativity of our Lord Jesus, when a heavenly invasion of Earth began by the armies of GOD. That landing on the beach at Normandy was the Bethlehem beginning, with the defeat of Nazi rule in Europe becoming the overthrow of Satan's dominion here below. I can't recall any other time in my life when all Americans were as united in one purpose, and I wish it could be like that since 9/11 as this war continues in Iraq. But the mood is so different now that I dare not draw any comparison to our "Happy Holiday" being celebrated, even though it's on our official national calendar. Instead were fighting an inner war for hearts and minds in which our personal conduct as citizens right here counts just like the bravery of those facing battle in Iraq. We support and join them when we are firm for Christlike standards in the USA, rather than yielding to the entertainment mania that's made us so vulnerable to drugs, sexploitation and crime. LORD help us see the purity in that manger, the beauty of holiness which You sent down from on high. And may we each be reborn in His likeness who lived a human life, yet without sin, as our perfect Example and Redeemer. Make us ready like Him, if need be, to suffer for righteousness sake. My grandmother Hightower, whose birthday was on Christmas Eve, once told me that we ask GOD to bless America in that song, but asked "what have we done with so much blessing He's already showered upon us?" I couldn't answer but now I'd say that sharing freedom has become basic. And we're trying our best to share it with others, even Muslim nations. The trial of Saddam Hussien is showing the world how right that is and how wicked his rule in Iraq was. If given enough rope in the trial, he'll hang himself just like Hitler and Judas did, though some poor fools may sill fall for his false claims the way neo-nazis now see Adolph Hitler as a hero. When Christ returns all such folly will be banished away. "Every knee will bow, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is LORD." Noel, noel!
ANGELFIRE 12-18-05
For the start of Christmas and Hanakkuh seasons to coincide on Dec. 25th was something I can't ever recall before. Though some think the former is over, there's actually twelve days in all of Christmastide. But Hanakkuh is only eight. It's also known is "The Festival of Lights" in remembrance of eight days that the menorah burned in the Temple that had been rededicated. It is mentioned in John 10:22 where Jesus went to the festival of dedication in Jerusalem. And in the Catholic O.T. you'll find 1 Maccabees reporting that revolt under Judas Maccabeaus, who got the Temple cleansed from it's corruption by Gentile use. Thus "Judas" was a magnificent name to the Jews for the century following. Maybe that's why the betrayer of our Lord had such close ties to Temple leaders, who made him a deal to sell out the Master. Jesus had already provoked them by cleansing it once more. And then He said "Destroy this Temple and in three days I will rebuilt it." But they didn't know that He meant His own body that would be resurrected after the Crucifixion. Thus the new and true Temple would be that ever growing group of followers called the church. So the birth of Christ does connect with Hanukkah as a greater fulfillment, I think. That newborn would become the Israel of GOD, whose earthly body of believers would be the holy catholic church, a temple here until His return. The baby Jesus was also circumcise after eight days there in Bethlehem, then after thirty three days was taken to be to the Temple for dedication. Next the family fled to Egypt to escape Herod's plot after the Magi visited their home. Remember that it took them a couple of years to arrive following that star. That's why Herod killed all the boys age two and younger.
Right in the middle of the twelve days of Christmas comes New Year's. And at the end is Eastern Orthodoxie's celebration of that Birth on Jan.6. So being mid-way between the two celebrations, "baby new year" could represent our Babe to this secular world. "Father Time" might even represent the GOD of all ages (and mother nature even as Mary). Thus it could point from a period of wild and wanton behavior toward the living LORD instead. When I began as a young pastor, there was a watchnight custom for our Methodist youth to take Holy Communion at mid-night each New Year's Eve. It's long since been shifted over to Nativity night and held earlier to include whole families. But those moments of kneeling for the Sacrament as sirens across town blew and horns honked everywhere else are a fixation in my memory of sacredness amidst the secular. What a bold way to face the upcoming year empowered by the Holy Spirit. It sewed a sense in me of His soon return in glory and majesty at the end of earth time. And that that sense still gets stronger year by year. Incidentally, we lost a secont from 2005 in order to set with the atomic clock that's absolutely right. I believe that's because the earth's rotation around the sun is slowing that much each year. Now that will really add up in astronomical time. Yeah, think about it. At my age, I'm now a minute and 18 seconds younger (or older, not sure which).
ANGELFIRE 12-31-05
This is my last column for '05, and I'm not sure I'll keep using this name Angelfire. Our state song says "Oklahoma where the wind comes sweeping down the plain." Well that's happened this past week with terrible consequences that went clear down into Texas. It's seemed like a tsunami of fire here in the heartland, leaving over 200 homes burned and some four or five fatalities as of reports last night. I know those figures are dwarfed by the statistics of a year ago in Asia's colossal disaster. But "fire" is not a kind name here at the moment. Niece and I have seen so much of the damage just in Garvin county as we cover our routes, and we're grateful for all those firefighters whether professional, volunteers or drafted by the situation. Fire under control is a great human ally, but gone wild it becomes the worst enemy. Yet I recall Hebrews 12:29 saying "For our GOD is a consuming fire," a text that has always evoked end of the world images for me. And last Tuesday did too when the WW sky was filled with smoke billowing out of the northwest. Yet I see "angelfire" as cleansing rather than destructive. When Moses saw some in the burning bush, it got his attention. And the fire didn't burn up the bush from which he heard that Voice. A common expression of primitive man's "discovery of fire" ignores how the Bible depicts it. Fire isn't mentioned in the Garden of Eden, but then Cain and Able offered their sacrifices to Yahweh as gifts of food and knew which was accepted if it was "consumed." Thus in subsequent sacrifices the fire came from above and took the acceptable offerings i.e. Abraham's and Solomon's. Remember how Elijah even called it down upon the altar at Mt.Carmel, as a holy sign in answer to his prayer? Israel repented and turned from Baal back to Yahweh. So that's what angelfire means; the kind that purifies like "being tried in the fire." Here are lines of a song we sang at church when I was young: "Oh my loving brother when the world's on fire, don't you want GOD's bosom to be your pillow? LORD hide me over in the Rock of Ages, Rock of Ages cleft for me." And we must rule our inner fire lest it become destructive. As a teen I memorized Pr.16:32 "He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty and he that ruleth his own spirit than he who taketh a city." So in the quest for purity of heart, Jesus leads us out of the fire of fleshly passions and into His realm of angelfire. He said "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see GOD." The good, the true and the beautiful (ethical, scientific and aesthetic) are goals that Christ helps us achieve. Burning with lust (for wealth or sex) and being on fire for GOD (to serve and sacrifice) are diametrically opposite. Let it be the latter as we start a new year.
Hymns speak to me as this one does from way back: Look for the beautiful. Seek to find the true. Look for the beautiful life's journey through. Seeking true loveliness, joy you will know, As to the home above onward you go...Think of the beautiful, think of the pure; Only the beautiful long can endure. God to His lowly ones "giveth more grace"; None but the pure in heart look on His face...Speak of the beautiful, speak of the pure; These to eternity fadeless endure, Error shall vanish soon, evil decay; God and the beautiful pass not away...Look to the stars of light (not down to earth); All that is beautiful there had it's birth. Upward and forward go, looking above; There is the dwelling place of perfect love.CHORUS Look for the beautiful, seek to find the true, God and the beautiful will dwell with you...You shall be beautiful, beautiful within.
Isn't that what heaven includes?
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