Level Ground

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Can an infinite number of chimps on an infinite number of keyboards pound out a post that doesn’t accuse everyone else of being a $&#%-ing Nazi?

Probably not.

The problem with social media is that it isn’t.

…social.

Whoever you know online, you don’t know. And whoever knows you only online, you don’t want to know.

An essential ingredient missing from any community is communication. Oh, sure… everyone’s talking. And talking at once. But no one’s listening.

Another is unity.

Back in the day, some found evil lurking in the analog grooves of long playing vinyl. And everyone laughed.

Today, evil has evolved into digital hashtags. Cultural vandals hide behind anonymous screen handles and fake profiles to taunt, terrorize, and torch the world around them into either conforming cliques or fractured factions. But no one’s laughing.

There’s a price to be paid for distant socializing.

Even before the zombie apocalypse, the anti-social skipped out on everyday life; content to virtually exist in the very unreal community of online shopping, contactless banking, and app’d pizza.

…leaving everyone else to foot the bill for their hostility and incivility. Yeah, keep the change.

Or maybe our modern evil is air conditioning.

Dead to the world behind flat screens and palm idols, our neighbors could be beamed-up by wayward aliens and no one would even notice the gathering pile of unforwardable mail.

Not that anyone really has neighbors anymore – just people who live next door. The rest of the world is just …there. Don’t have to talk to them, don’t have to listen, and don’t have to care.

So, from our climate controlled bubble mobiles, we cuss out other lane cutting idiots in terms we’d never confess face to face.

We bless the Father and give the finger to our fellow man, then wonder why Dial A Prayer goes straight to voicemail.

When Sunday dawns, off we go to worship with our fellow man.

…sorta.

Rather than community gatherings, too many services have gone tribal – segregating believers by dialect, hue, or flavor of Gospel.

Everyone else is sleepin’ in.

Or gettin’ down at The Mega Mall of Religious Convenience with this week’s Imax message, free mega-watt concert, and (of course) the Bagel Hour of Power – religiously totin’ that source of light and inspiration for all mankind:

  • iPhone preloaded with iBible: $1500.
  • Red-letter’d Hardcopy backup [option not selected]: $15.
  • Forgetting to remove iPhone before getting iBaptized: Priceless

You may own the phone but Apple owns the app. And when the ‘net nannies sanitize your portal “to save your soul”, God’s Word is… Gone with the Wind.

Perhaps the Gospel’d be better served if all these churchy monopolies were busted-up like Ma Bell.

…into smaller community assemblies, where everybody knows your name: White clapboard framed stained glass, the fragrance of hardwood, and King James.

…and they’re always glad you came.

There’s warmth in a man’s hand and truth in his reflection. And you take him at his word, because long before the country thought bandanas were cool, “Do unto others…” was the rule.

That’s right… take a good look around – this is what “unity” looks like in a Fruity Pebble’d utopia.

Racial arsonists may preach diversity and sing of rainbows, but their hearts are purely monochromatic. And like Pringles tumbling from a can, pitchforks and bullhorns in hand, they seek to destroy everything that offends them – everything that is not them: Columbus Day, Chik-fil-A, The Dukes of Hazzard… .

Robespierre preached unity through revolution. And he used the French Lives Matter mob to destroy non-believers …in the name of unity. In the end, the mob destroyed Robespierre.

Yeah… some lives matter. Some lives matter more than others. Welcome to the farm, animals.

Diversity doesn’t make us stronger. Just different.

Strength is found on level ground: Stars and Stripes, Balls and Strikes, the Flintstones… .

But there will be no unity until the closed fist is replaced by an open hand. And no peace until the unrepentant pardon the unforgiven.

The ground is level at the foot of the cross.

Gathered beneath the steeple, everyone has a neighbor. And y’know… it’s hard to feud with folk who share your hymnbook.

Cowboy boots and sandals
Tailored suits and pony tails

…but there’s a baggage check at the altar.

Come as you are. Don’t leave the way you came.


Free Parking
“Ride it like you stole it.” Thomas Paine (sorta)  Well… he might have said it, had he opened a novelty t-shirt outlet.

Let’s Eat Grandma
Hold up on that blue haired buffet, we need a quick powwow with the shoot eating panda.

Among Thieves

Genesis 22:7 And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb? 8 And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb.

Isaiah 53:3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. 4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

John 1:22 Who art thou? 23 I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord. 29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

John 10:9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. John 10:1 He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. John 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. 11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.

Isaiah 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Luke 24:7 The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.

Matthew 27:11 And [Pilate] asked him: Art thou the King of the Jews? And Jesus said unto him, Thou sayest. 31 and led him away to crucify him.

Luke 23:33 And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him. Mark 15:27 And with him they crucify two thieves; the one on his right hand, and the other on his left. 28 And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith… Isaiah 53:12 He was numbered with the transgressors.

Luke 23:34 Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.

Luke 23:39 And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. 40 But the other rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. 42 And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. 43 And Jesus said unto him, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  Romans 5:8

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

John 20:1 The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulcher, and seeth the stone taken away. 15 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. 16 Jesus saith unto her, Mary.

John 14:6 I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. 27 Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.


The Cry of the Rocks
Truth can be ignored but cannot be made untrue. Truth just is, even if held by just one. One plus God.

Level Ground
There’s a baggage check at the altar. Come as you are. Don’t leave the way you came.