Who's to blame?

@willripleyCNN reported this morning and I was shocked. He said the millions of animals and the 27 humans died "directly linked to climate change."  Later during his coverage, he cited in the context of the fires which are ravaging our country, people who want a change from fossil fuel. He said, “they say that is the only way to stop this climate crisis from getting worse.” To be fair the undertag said that this was a quote from the protesters, but what’s missing is any response by firemen or government officials. I understand that the crowd was large and people’s placards and anger were both visible, but a reporter has to collect more than headlines.

This caught my eye this morning after I was awakened at 5:20 with the smell of smoke. The bush fires were near or the wind had blown in our home’s direction. I checked the app on my phone, “Fires near me” and sure enough the diamond of a grass fire was ‘out of control’ 400 metres from me. Yikes! I rushed to dress and hopped in my car. I drove over and within minutes the firemen had already put out the flames and were setting up a barrier to prevent anyone from walking into the bush at the Stringybark Creek reserve. 

I thought of the way Ripley had reported the Sydney protest from yesterday. I wondered if any of the protesters would be in my neighbourhood and what they would say. Would they blame Prime Minister Scott Morrison for this one, too? Would they blame coal production or the climate change which we must have caused by our use of any fossil fuels? 

In conversation with the couple across the street from the fire on Elizabeth Parade, they told me their daughter had also awakened to the smell of smoke. They, for whatever reason, checked their house CCTV footage which points onto the street and also the bush and saw an unusual car driving by at 3 a.m. The fire began raging after 4; they rang the emergency 000 and within minutes the firies were on site and had put out the fires. High marks for the firemen and also to the couple with the camera. Police will come by later this morning, to be sure to see if they can sort out the cause of the fire.

And that’s one of those things we all want to sort out. Will Ripley and CNN want to find out. Everyone wants to know the cause, so SOMEONE can fix it. 

“Climate change has not caused the current fire crisis,” says Australian Capital Territory forester and former acting fire control officer Ian McArthur.

“Long unburnt fuels in national parks are the primary cause. Basic fire management states that a fire needs oxygen, a heat source and fuel. The only one of those that can be manipulated is fuel. The more fuel, the more intense the fire, the harder it becomes to suppress the fire.”

That’s one for the celebrities and the wrongly-informed. That’s one for you to know. Who’s to blame? Maybe it’s the ones who stopped the firemen from doing their jobs. Maybe some things just happen. Maybe we don’t even need to blame anyone. And certainly not to demonize anyone who is giving themselves to serve us like our PM or premier. 

Who are the storytellers?

When I was a young boy my parents would warn me not to lie. There would be consequences like canker sores and elongated noses as in Pinocchio. The truth would win out and I would be found out. They used a phrase to warn me, “Don’t tell stories!”

I wish I had heeded their oft-repeated advice. And although neither canker sores nor wooden noses eventuated, there were still plenty of consequences which were harmful in personal relationships. I regret every lie I told and retold; to this day I am sorry. 

The use of “story” for “lie” fascinates me.  I love a good story. Hollywood thrives because, it seems, everyone loves a good story.  Forrest Gump told stories and Euripides told stories and Bill Bryson and Jeffrey Archer are master spinners-of-tales. But are they liars? I would not go so far. 

Some of you might know I love to tell stories especially true stories that feature my kids or grandsons. Their boundless energy and joie-de-vive are worth every yarn I can spin. They give me great nachas, that Yiddish indescribable term for family pride. 

Storytelling was a feature of the life of Yeshua as well. He knew how to capture and then to make a crowd shake its head. Substance and rhythm along with language which twists and turns— those make for good story. 

Let me ask you— to whose stories do you listen? What makes you return for their next one? When will you stop giving them your ear?

Don’t story to me. Tell me the truth. 

We just went along with it....what about wondering?

New to the world of Australia in the last few years...

1) Bag your own groceries. The bagger at checkout made famous by David Letterman and which was a staple of the service industry at grocery stores is basically gone and certainly will be gone by 2030. The stores put in extra cash registers to speed us along, and in-a-rush customers complied. 

2) We bring our own bags or else have to pay for the luxury of using one of the store's plastic bags. 

3) Rental trolleys and gym lockers. What used to be free, the use of grocery carts and trolleys became rentable per use. We bring a $2 coin and pay for the luxury.

4) The Technology of Fitbit and Apple Watch reminded oldies of Dick Tracy's communication device that became real and allowed people not only to check their heart rates but also to run computer programs and read emails and monitor their sleep patterns. 

5) While we are on technological advances, what about Siri and Amazon Echo? They are ever listening and available to assist us with finding our routes, finding our diaries, and answering anything about which we might be wondering.

Simply put, we don't wonder any longer. If you want to know the price of rice in Taiwan in the year 1954 or the latest NFL score from today, just ask Siri. If you want to hear your playlist in reverse order, just ask Alexis; she can turn on the lights in the house, while you are at it. How far away is the moon? Just ask. Who was the 9th president of the USA, just ask. Wonder? Don't bother... the information is a question away. 

When I was a kid, I was a happy reader of the World Book Encyclopedia. My parents had bought the 1961 version of the 20-volume set and had an annual 'subscription' to the "Yearbook" which added new information to the compilation and which included a sticker we were to place in the regular listings.  Everything I needed to know about space travel or the country of Argentina, about Sigmund Freud or the circulatory system of a human was all there in the World Books. 

If something was beyond my capacity to find it, there was a woman less than two miles from my house who would help. She worked as the librarian and could find almost anything I needed to know using the Dewey Decimal system or something. She was a knowledge-magician. 

Wondering is a human need. It leads to imagination. It leads to creativity. It leads to more, not less. I miss wondering. In fact, I make myself wonder sometimes. Intentional ignorance can be a bad thing, but leaving yourself without information allows rest to the brain and resets the rhythm of our mind. 

John Jacob Niles took a song sung by a child revivalist in North Carolina. Her name was Annie Morgan. Her family was dirt poor and were about to be kicked out of the little village. Niles wrote the carol later which would be made famous by Mahalia Jackson. The story behind "I wonder as I wander" is here told by Brad Walton.  The story of the song is here.    Wondering is good. And the words of this Christmas carol, rewritten by Niles, identify the traveling poor revivalist family with the birth of the baby Jesus in a similarly poor village like Bethlehem.

"I wonder as I wander out under the sky
How Jesus the Saviour did come for to die
For poor or'ry people like you and like I"

Here's Vanessa Williams singing it too. Click here. 

And Linda Ronstadt:  Click here 

I like wondering. 

I like this carol.

I like the songs of the season.

I'm so glad that Yeshua, the Jewish Messiah, foretold by the Jewish prophets in the Jewish Scriptures, identifies with each of us. In our humanity. In our needs. In our desperation for the presence of God. 

Merry Messiah-mas!

If I could talk with.... Sarah Hurwitz

Continuing my series on conversations I'd like to have with Jewish people in the news, I would like to talk with Sarah Hurwitz, author of her book Here all along, and former speechwriter for Michelle Obama.

The subtitle of her book says "Finding meaning, spirituality, and a deeper connection to life in Judaism (after finally choosing to look there)."

It all began when she broke up with a man, and she had extra time on her hands. She heard about an "Introduction to Judaism" class at the local Jewish community center. In an interview on the NBC Today show, she said the ancient Jewish texts had "wisdom to offer about how to be a good person, how to live a worthy life and how to find deep spiritual connection."

Sarah made the point that in her reading of Torah she discovered that since we are all created in the image of God (Genesis 1.26-27), that each of us is infinitely worthy, each of us is equal, and each of us is unique.  That changed her way of thinking, along with a long meditation retreat with others discovering their Jewish roots.

It allowed her to have a conversation with the Lord in a nature-filled setting, praying out loud and releasing her to be transformed from being a "good person" who didn't lie or cheat, into working towards being a 'great person." At the time she was not even a believer in God!

In the NBC interview, she spoke about Shabbat and the release that taking that day off, from screens and work and shopping, from the 'not enough' nature of our everyday lives to allow us to say, "We have enough right now." It's a view of satisfaction that is a beaut (By the way, I'm writing this blog on Shabbat in Sydney, whilst the fires surround us and the commensurate smoke droops over the city like a blanket of peril)

"It's about finding a balance that works for you," she said in the discussion of the all-or-nothing nature of many in religion. 

In an interview with The Times of Israel she said, "Something has to light that spark. It's different for different people. Once you find a way to ignite that spark, it does light up. It's there all along. I did not figure out how to ignite it till (sic) a little bit later in life."  

Her journey is more deeply chronicled in the book and in the Jewish Telegraph Agency report here. 

If I could speak with Sarah, I would be enriched, I think, by a very serious and pleasant woman of newly-found spirituality and ethical challenge. I would be informed by a woman of fine rhetoric about her own journey of faith. And if I could share with Sarah some of my own story, I would tell her that although she was raised Reform in Massachusetts and went to Harvard, I went to Washington University (St Louis) and was raised Orthodox in Kansas City. That is, our views of life were shaped by different forces to be sure. And I am 68 years old and she's 42, so our generations are also different. If she would allow a Midwestern Orthodox Jew from the 1960s to share a bit of story (which I expect she would welcome), then I would tell her of my encounter with God as well. And in a very strange angle.

I too found God in the reading of the Scriptures.
I too spoke out loud to God in a nature-filled scene (Estes Park, Colorado each morning of a week-long retreat in 1973 or so)
I too believe the Scriptures are relevant to our lives and give us deep "wisdom about how to be a good person, how to live a worthy life and how to find deep spiritual connection."

What surprised me, though, was that I found out that I would never be a good (enough) person to satisfy the real demands of the God of the Scriptures. He expects His people to be holy, to be pure, to be not only externally right but internally righteous as well.  Washing the outside of the cup is good, and washing the inside is even better. That's outrageous given our nature, given our sinfulness, given our self-consumption and selfishness.

How do I live a worthy life and find a deep spiritual connection? For me that was in the realization fo the greatest story in the Scriptures, the story of the Prodigal Son recorded in Luke 15. I know, that's not in Torah or even Talmud, but it certainly is one of the most Jewish stories ever written.

Sarah, I would want you to read that story and tell me which character is the one which best describes you. And by the way, I have no idea which one you would see as 'you.' Are you the wayward son who prefers his father to be dead and gets the life insurance, who spends his life wrongly, and in your case, finds Judaism's beauty again in recent years? Are you the older son who angrily and self-righteously almost refused to celebrate his brother's return? Are you one of the servants? The father? None of the above?

I guess the reason I read and reread this story is that I for years was the younger brother, spending on myself anything I wanted for the passing pleasures of life as I understood it. I was wrong and had to admit that to the God who was patiently and longingly waiting for my return. I needed forgiveness and restoration. I needed grace and was not finding it in my Orthodox, orthopractic Judaism. I couldn't find it anywhere. Self-serving is a lousy situation in which to find anything besides yourself.  And I needed God. But not the God of my youth who seemed distant and harsh, demanding and never satisfied. I needed the God of this Prodigal story, in fact, the One I title the Prodigal Father.

My "deep spiritual connection" was found the day I found Yeshua, our Jewish Messiah. He forgave my sins. He offered me hope and restoration. He died as a sacrifice for me, to take away what separated me from the Almighty. He paid the debt He did not owe; I owed the debt I could not pay. I needed someone to wash my sins away."

Real freedom.
Real release.
A real encounter with the Living God is ours in relating to Yeshua, the King of Israel,  the Messiah, born in Bethlehem about whom the Christmas choirs today and the shepherds and angels sang 2,000 years ago.

Maybe, in the same way you admit to finally looking into Judaism, maybe now you will read or re-read the Prodigal story or any or all of the story of Yeshua (Found in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke or John).  His story is true and worthy of notice and worthy of a Jewish woman's time and meditation. And that might spark something deeper yet.

At least that's my opinion.

I wish you a Happy Hanukkah 5780 and a joyful 2020.

--------------------------------------------------
The other "If I could speak with..." in the series include: .  . .

Troye Sivan   https://bob-mendelsohn.blogspot.com/…/if-i-could-speak-with….  
Charles Krauthammer https://bob-mendelsohn.blogspot.com/…/if-i-could-speak-with…
Woody Allen https://bob-mendelsohn.blogspot.com/…/if-i-could-speak-with…. 
Ari Hershkowitz https://bob-mendelsohn.blogspot.com/…/if-i-could-speak-with…. 
Geoffrey Edelston https://bob-mendelsohn.blogspot.com/…/if-i-could-speak-with…. 
Abby Stein: https://bob-mendelsohn.blogspot.com/…/if-i-could-speak-with…

Platforms

We receive questions daily about evangelism and Jewish people and the Bible; it never ends. And we love answering real questions. Sometimes, of course, there are those who write a question and then send a five-page answer to their own query, which shows that it wasn’t a query at all. Then there are those who write or ring us with a series of 10-20 questions, almost without breath, not really asking, because there is no space to answer, and no matter what we answer, they already have their minds made up. OK, not a problem. We aren’t everyone’s answer people. 

The Proverbs juxtapose two sentences that sound awfully contradictory. 

"Do not answer a fool according to his folly or you will also be like him. 
Answer a fool as his folly deserves that he not be wise in his own eyes." (Prov 26.4-50

Sometimes we should answer a fool to expose him and to help him with humility. Sometimes we should not answer a fool lest we end up banging our head against the proverbial wall and sounding as crazed as he is. Think of all those Facebook posts you wish you hadn’t engaged.

How do we choose?

The story is told of the young executive taking up his position on the first day of work. He walks past the open door of the senior group leader and knocks. 

“Can I ask you a question, boss?”

“Certainly,” the older executive replies.

“Do you have any advice for me today?” he asks.

The senior leader looks up from his paperwork and says, “Make good decisions.”

The newbie thinks this is great advice and begins to walk out. Then he asks a second question, “Excuse me, sir, how do I make good decisions?”

Without looking up, the senior group leader answers, “Experience.”

“Ah, that makes sense,” the younger executive answers and again makes his way towards the door.  Then he pauses and turns, “Sorry, boss, one more question. How do I gain experience?”

Looking up from his computer, the senior draws a deep breath, and answers, “Bad decisions.”

We should learn from our mistakes. We should learn from the mistakes of others.

Wisdom helps us choose wisely, and wrong decisions in the past help inform us in these days so that we can choose more wisely this time.

Questions and platforms

Stand here!

Not every question needs to be answered, but some do! And the wiser we are, the earlier we evaluate and conclude not only what to answer, but how to answer.

The world gives us platforms that cannot be taken lightly. When the world says “What about…” or “Don’t you think that…” or “I’ve been hearing a lot about…” then those are opportunities to enter into a conversation that you can use to share the Gospel. They are platforms onto which you can and should stand, not to pulpit the other to death, or bludgeon them with Bible verses, but simply to continue the conversation with a more natural segue into spiritual thinking. 

For instance, there are those, and we hear from them every Advent, who think that Jesus was born on 25 December. Others insist that he was born in the Israeli autumn around the Feast of Tabernacles. They even cite some Bible verses to back that up. One messianic leader has been making substantial claims about nativity being in April, around the time of the Passover. 

Moishe Rosen, founder of Jews for Jesus, used to say “25 December is as good a day as any to celebrate His birth.” Look, we aren’t advocating one day above another (See Romans 14). We are advocating this: When the world gives us a platform to talk about Jesus, to invite our neighbor to our church carols event, to discuss the reason for the season… let’s step on that platform and proclaim like the angels and the shepherds who sang, “Glory to God in the Highest” and “Let us go to Bethlehem” to meet Him. And to help others to meet Him as well. 

Foreign intervention: Is it good... ever?

The news about a Chinese spy 
(https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-26/pressure-is-on-to-reign-in-chinese-spying-in-australia/11736530) 
and the possibility that foreign powers were trying to place a person in parliament reminds me of the Manchurian Candidate. Duncan Lewis, the recently retired ASIO director-general, gave an early glimpse of this new-found resolve when he revealed the domestic spy agency was battling "unprecedented levels" of foreign interference.

He said, "Foreign interference laws have been introduced, we have transparency schemes for people acting on behalf of foreign governments to register themselves on, but to date, there haven't been prosecutions of people carrying out foreign interference in Australia.

"Yet every day we're getting more evidence that it is happening."

Over in the USA, the impeachment proceedings continue with daily and nightly tweets and continual coverage of the possibility that Donald Trump invited foreign intervention in the past or in the future 2020 elections from Russia or Ukraine or ... 

Of course, it's the Silly Season here in Australia, with Christmas parties and Black Friday sales and the continual barrage of goods and services. If Santa and David Jones didn't exist, what would we do with this holiday time? The real story is not about either St Nick or department stores, but a Jewish man in Bethlehem.  

Wait a minute, what does a Jew from 2,000 years ago in a land far, far away have to do with us? Isn't that foreign intervention? Ah, the Bible makes two things very clear. 

1) God so loved the world which He created, that He gave His only begotten Son so that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. 

2) The earth is the Lord's and the fullness of it. So it's not really a foreign intervention; the world is His. He's got the whole world in His hands. 

Christmas is about the birth of Yeshua, the Jewish Messiah, foretold long before GF Handel wrote his oratorio. Foretold by Jewish prophets like Isaiah and Micah, and recorded in the Jewish Scriptures, the Tenach. That may seem foreign to you, but it's the most native reality for those of us who have found "Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace."

Join with us and the angels and the shepherds, and those massive choirs singing "Hallelujah" for the kingdoms of this world have become "The Kingdom of our Lord and of His Messiah!"

Merry Messiah-mas!

Word of the year, a study in Gotcha... it's all about justice!

For the second time in three years, the Macquarie Dictionary committee who looks after new words for the English language has cited a negative type of word as the "Word of the Year." In 2017, the word was "milkshake duck" and this year, the committee has awarded this phrase "cancel culture." I will translate both of those in a moment.

Although my favourite among the contestants was either anecdata or hedonometer, the winner again takes the form of exposure and resultant termination of privilege. So on to the definitions.

Milkshake duck was coined in June 2016 by Australian cartoonist Ben Ward, who tweeted the following sketch from his Twitter account @pixelatedboat: "The whole internet loves Milkshake Duck, a lovely duck that drinks milkshakes! *5 seconds later* We regret to inform you the duck is racist."

In other words, a milkshake duck is a seemingly innocent individual or thing that is initially embraced and beloved by the internet's mass audience, only to be brought crashing down when further investigation reveals them to possess a fatal flaw.

It's the 'aha' moment and the tumbling down of the thing that strikes me with the idea of justice, especially the liar/deserving-to-go-down individual.

Thus it's similar in my opinion to today's revelation about the 2019 word of the year: cancel culture. As an example of this, an Aussie comedian was prevented from performing in Melbourne this winter. Kate Hanley Corley (pictured above-- not the duck) was due to perform eight renditions of her show Aisha the Aussie Geisha: The Accidental Oriental, however, she pulled out after she was criticized for doing material that "borders on yellowface".

The dictionary defines cancel culture as "the attitudes within a community which call for or bring about the withdrawal of support from a public figure". Senior editor of the dictionary said, "In a way it's an attempt to wipe them out, as a punishment," said Victoria Morgan.

Today I'm wondering if these two phrases are part of a long-ranged reaction endemic to society about a kickback, which includes the #metoo thinking and desire to see the exalted brought down to our low(er) level. Think about Jeffrey Epstein or Richard Pratt. What about Prince Andrew. Think about Rene Rivkin or Bill Cosby. Those people, we say, should not have it so (easy/good/free and clear). We want a semblance of justice and social correction.

Back in our school days, we wanted the school bully who had his way, certainly against us, to 'get his.' We wanted a 'gotcha' moment to happen.

We still want bad guys to 'get theirs.'

And back in his day, even King David, who had significant privilege and far-reaching wrongdoing, desired justice. One of his offsiders, the leader of the choir, Asaph, wrote a serious song/ poem about this idea. (Psalm 73). He was languishing in bother, disgusted that those in power had all the privilege and seeming good. Asaph wrote about being disturbed and wondering why he shouldn't go over to the dark side.

Asaph wrote, "I was envious of the arrogant as I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no pains in their death, And their body is fat. They are not in trouble as other men"

Maybe Asaph was hoping for a milkshake duck moment. If he had twitter, perhaps he would have tweeted about cancel culture when he discovered the wrongdoing of his king. And others.

Asaph continued: Waters of abundance are drunk by them. They say, “How does God know? And is there knowledge with the Most High? Behold, these are the wicked; And always at ease, they have increased in wealth."

But he did come to a conclusion after he went inside the sanctuary. He thought, "Until I came into the sanctuary of God; Then I perceived their end. Surely You set them in slippery places;  You cast them down to destruction. How they are destroyed in a moment!  They are utterly swept away by sudden terrors! Like a dream when one awakes,  O Lord, when aroused, You will despise their form."

Justice will happen. God will have his day and his way with those bullies and those who think they don't need him. Cancel culture will happen when God withdraws his (apparent) support for a public figure. Those bad guys will 'get theirs.' Justice will be served. Maybe not today, or tomorrow, but be sure of this. God will have the final words.  And that's not anecdata. That's a fact, Jack. 'Strewth.