7 Eyepopping Takes
3 Laws of Children, The Wedding Garment, The Enlightenment, the Stand Firm Pod, NYC Woes, and a Castle
Friday is Friyay. We’ve had a blustery, gray, week here in the Northeast with high winds and snow and threats of flooding. I’m sure it will be a consolation to rustle up some hearty and warm takes to make the winter hours pass more comfortably.
One- the Three Universal Laws About Children and Families
I never did a book round-up at the end of the year—the good, the bad, and the pathetic, as it were. That is because, for the first time in about five years, I didn’t keep a running list of all the books I got through. In previous years I aimed for about 75, and generally got there by a combination of reading, listening, and scrolling through the Kindle app, but this year I decided just to wing it. This was freeing, for the most part, but now I am stuck trying to remember what I read. I do know that I loved Feminism Against Progress and The Case Against the Sexual Revolution. I finally finished Heavenly Participation which is a must-read. I got through all those Sheila Gregoire books. But the one that is sticking in my mind right now, because I am almost done with it, about fifteen pages left, is Failure of Nerve by Edwin Friedman. If you only read one book this month, it should be this one. Just to tempt you, here are Friedman’s three laws about children:
The children who work through natural problems of maturing with the least amount of emotional or physical residue are those whose parents have made them least important to their own salvation.
Children rarely succeed in rising above the maturity level of their parents, and this principle applies to all mentoring, healing, or administrative relationships.
Parents cannot produce change in a troubling child, no matter how caring, savvy, or intelligent they may be, until they become completely fed up with their child’s behavior. 9
Two
The question of salvation, and what it will take to get it, has been percolating in the back of my head all week. It was then propitious that Matt sent me this ghastly clip of a so-called preacher coming unglued about how disturbed he is by the parable of the Wedding Garment. That is the little tale Jesus tells, if you remember, about how a man invited everyone to celebrate the marriage of his Son, but they all refused to come, so he sent his servants out to compel anyone who happened to be standing around to come to the banquet. As he is walking up and down, seeing how everything is, he comes across a man who isn’t wearing a wedding garment. When questioned, the man says, essentially, “meh,” and so the Master of the Feast has that man thrown out. I have blogged about this before, I just can’t remember when or where. It is a tough story, and I appreciate that the preacher is, at least, honest about how he feels about it. He doesn’t try to justify God or work it out in any way, which is more useful than wandering around the text trying to make it make sense when you don’t have the tools or inclination to really understand it.
The text does make sense, but only if you accept certain assumptions about the nature of the world. The first assumption you have to embrace, if you are going to understand the Bible at all, but this story in particular, is that God is the Creator and that he is good, and that he has a right to do with his things as he pleases. The second assumption is that you are bad and don’t have a right to just saunter into a wedding banquet with your own agenda and plans unquestioned. The preacher concludes “If this is what the kingdom of heaven is like, I’m not interested.” In this way, he shows himself to be the very guest the Master throws out of the banquet. Isn’t it ironic…or rather, the most expected thing in this new, wretched, shiny year where the most thinking people do not want to have their desires and thoughts shaped by the God who made them, and yet who insist on stepping up into pulpits and delivering their own thoughts and feelings as if they are precious and special.
Children, on the other hand, when they solemnly encounter this parable, are guided by the deep mysterious marriage of fairness that lives down in the depths of the human heart to loyalty. The Master of the Banquet isn’t unfair, he is kind and merciful. It would be unjust to let people who reject him go on eating his food and drinking his wine forever—unjust to all the people who accepted the garment and accepted the Master.
Three
That clip, I think, dovetails uncomfortably with the astonishing things happening in New York City. This week city officials decided that the students in at least one school would go to remote “learning” so that the facility might be used to house some people who had been bussed up from places in the south because their temporary shelters were flooded. The people being bussed in, you must already know, are amongst the throngs of people crossing the southern border who are not originally from here. It’s a bit alarming, one might say, especially as someone dug up an older clip—from June—of the Mayor of NYC talking about his “vision” to offer money to “faith-based organizations” (is that like a church or something?) and “private residences” to house the people coming here from other places.
Honestly, I feel bad for everyone—is that allowed? The idea of thousands of people living in tents anywhere in this country, especially this time of year, is amazing to me. And that the people in our government would stand about helplessly, shrugging and talking about how it will be great for individuals who need money to take strangers in as renters or guests is, well, it is sure something. The only way out, that I can see, is for literally every single person to read more Edwin Friedman.
Four
This long podcast was most enlightening—cough. Toward the end they start talking about AI, if you wanted more reasons to panic and feel extremely anxious.
Five
Six
Here’s something lots more restful:
Seven
I have to go for a walk! And then lift weights! And admonish my children to grow up in the fear and admonition of the Lord. Have a lovely day!
You inspired me to look into the ‘Wedding Garment’ parable more deeply. I found this wonderful sermon . “A Sermon Delivered On Lord’s Day Morning, May 20, 1888, By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.”
Re: The Wedding Garment - https://catholicproductions.com/blogs/blog/many-are-called-few-are-chosen-garment-of-righteousness.
Helpful discussion by Brant Pitre.