Reviewing the situation

Ron Moody as Fagin

Ron Moody sang the retrospective, "Reviewing the Situation" in the movie of the Broadway show, "Oliver." He played Fagin, a British Charles Dickens character, a master thief, and mentor to the Artful Dodger and young Oliver Twist. There is no mention in the movie that Fagin is a Jew. That's a positive for us.

Last week the universities of Louisiana State (LSU) and Kentucky played a basketball game. For most of the world, it was irrelevant, but the two teams were both on a roll, and the clash lived up to all high expectations.

LSU, up by two points, fouled Kentucky’s Keldon Johnson with six seconds left in the game. Johnson, who was 3-of-7 from the foul line up to that point, calmly sank both free throws to tie the score.
LSU had the ball and one final chance. Junior Skylar Mays drove to the basket and missed a layup, but teammate Kavell Bigby-Williams was there for the tip-in. End of game.

Except that there was controversy. Seems that the tip-in should have been disallowed due to the rule that a ball cannot be touched if any part of the ball is 'in the cylinder' formed above the rim. The call or non-call is not reviewable according to the rules of basketball. The 'non-call' made Kentucky fans irate, as you can imagine. None of the Kentucky fans seemed to notice when seconds before one of their players had his hand up through the ring, which also should have been called as a goal-tending penalty and thus awarding the LSU team with the goal. But selective crowd refereeing is not limited to basketball.

A couple weeks ago, the New Orleans Saints were playing a football game (NFC Championship Game) in their home field, the SuperDome. They played against the eventual winner, the Los Angeles Rams. In the last two minutes, on a 3rd and 10 play, New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees threw a sideline pass which fell incomplete. The Saints kicked a field goal to go ahead by 3 points on the next play. The problem? Robey-Coleman, defenseman of the Rams clearly interfered with that pass and committed two offenses. Neither of those was called by the referees standing within meters of the play. It was a shocking non-call. Again it was also not reviewable by the referees up in the booth.  The whole description of the situation is here.

Due to the rules of each game, certain plays are able to be reviewed by the officials who are not on the court or the field. Certain other plays are not able to be reviewed. That's how rules work. Whether hawkeye on the tennis court or the VAR of the soccer World Cup, some things can be reviewed.

Speaking personally and not via a sports image, I like to review situations. I like to think back over my life, and over interactions with others. I go back over many in my mind, even now. I'm remembering mistakes I've made and moments where I've done things correctly.  Making an inventory of personal moments, defects of character, positive responses to situations... it's about reviewing the situations. Thanks Ron Moody.

When you review the situations of your life, do you see images and people? Do you feel emotions? Do you wish to go back and repair mistakes? I certainly do. But those are irretrievable. Those moments are part of your own history that made you into the you you became. For better or worse, you are you now, and those lessons of the dark past helped make you act better today. Or so I hope.

The Bible uses the term 'sin' to call out mistakes we made and offers us repair via 'repentance.' That's way better than regret or dismissal. Look back. Ponder. Consider the hurts you caused others to experience. Set and keep high standards. Then repent, admit you were wrong, ask God to forgive you, and when it won't harm others more, ask them to forgive you for the wrongs you committed.

That's the point of reviewing the situation. Let's do better next time. Fagin's song is all about NOT amending his life. That's not useful to society. The NFL is reviewing their entire refereeing regimen, and I expect some significant amendments to their review process.

What will you do as you review the situations of your life? 

Consider yourself...one of us (From Broadway's "Oliver!") and Singapore

Back in the late 1960s I was in high school and acted and sang in the musical "Oliver!" which has some great Cockney commentary on life. Here's a video clip of "Consider Yourself" from the movie which came out in 1968. Movie clip

This picture is Jack, the Artful Dodger, welcoming Oliver Twist into the community of small-time and small-in-stature street urchins who worked for Fagin in 19th Century London. By the way, Ron Moody who played Fagin, won a Golden Globe, but not an Oscar that year. The movie won the Oscar for "Best Picture." I was glad for Moody's victory at the GG's, but then I think about the Dickens character and remember that Fagin in that book is Jewish, and a crook. He's no less a loveable old thief than Shylock in Shakespeare. Ah, anti-Semitism rears its ugly head yet again.

Even so, the song "Consider Yourself" was on the radio yesterday. I hadn't even thought of it in years, and here I was singing out loud along with the radio. Thankfully the people in the next car didn't notice. My teenage tenor voice has lost a few notes to be sure. And then I thought of the words. I'll not include all the lyrics, but some are especially poignant.

Consider yourself at home.
Consider yourself one of the family.
We've taken to you so strong.
It's clear we're going to get along.

Consider yourself well in
Consider yourself part of the furniture.
There isn't a lot to spare.
Who cares?... What ever we've got we share!

Consider yourself our mate.
We don't want to have no fuss,
For after some consideration, we can state...
Consider yourself One of us!

Even though the Artful Dodger was recruiting to the band of thieves and for his own advantage, the welcome message is unmistakeable. And yesterday and still today I'm pondering the message of welcome. Especially in contrast to the vast feeling of 'un-welcome' which is characterising the planet. Syrian refugees are bandied about as political fodder, but they are at the end of the day-- people! Then so many on FB and Twitter, in this age of social media are less than social. The amount of hostility and rash commentary is equally unmistakeable. People are less moderated by social mores on social media than ever before. The polarised commentaries about ISIS, politics, religion, race, ... it's all there. And it's all out there.

In the year 2000 I went to Singapore. I'll never forget the many visits to the synagogue there named Magen Avot. Rabbi Mordechai Abergel had been the rabbi for about a decade. He was young, born in France, trained in Chabad/ Lubavitch in the Tri-State area (Connecticut, New York, New Jersey) and his first major post was to Singapore. Imagine that! He and his wife Simcha had a few kids. When I first went to Magen Avot, without going into all the details, let's just say he was unwelcoming to me. In fact, at the end of the service, and after the chicken rice luncheon, he asked me to leave. OK, he kicked me out. Scandalous, ridiculous, but he felt he had to oblige the man near me at lunch who dobbed me in to the rabbi. Fair enough; it's his party, he can cry if he wants to.

I could go deep into that story, that the first time I visited was the Shabbat called "Vayeira" which features the reading from the Torah of Genesis 18-22. Amazing stories, and I'll let you watch/ listen to this in 60 seconds here on YouTube . But of significance in that first attendance by me at the synagogue was what the rabbi taught that day about the 'sin of Sodom.' Like so many others in the liberal wing of the church, and so many in shules, Rabbi Abergel taught that the sin was inhospitality. Not that it was sexual sin; no, it was not welcoming Lot. Want to read more on this one?

OK, even so, after a sermon on not welcoming, to be kicked out, well, that seemed very bad. No, it was very bad.

But then the contrast could not have been clearer. Later that afternoon, I was the featured speaker at a small group entitled "Prayer for Israel." This monthly gathering is serious about God and the Jewish people. They are mostly all Chinese Christians with a deep love for the land, the people, and the God of Israel. And when I walked into the room where we met that day, the lady in charge, a lawyer by profession, widened her arms and said, "Brother Bob, welcome." That's it... here was the Artful Dodger's greeting live and in colour. Here was the greeting of a godly woman making me to feel one of us. And it worked. And it still works.

Welcome is not only a word that's a compound word (Good/well and come/enter) that finds its equivalent in German's wilkomen, Spanish's bienvenidos, Hebrew's Baruch Haba... it's one that I find in life that brings a calm, a warmth, a sense of conclusion and peace. Maybe you find that as well.

Yeshua, the Messiah said to the Jewish people of His day, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!’” (Matthew 23.37-39)

In other words, until the Jewish people, en masse, say to Yeshua, "Welcome!" we will have a desolate house and be without our Messiah. But when we shout "Welcome" to the King of Kings, He will come to us, our inclusion and HIS inclusion will be complete, and eternity will step into time for the final time. What a day of rejoicing that will be!

Why not live in that 'welcome' today? Say "yes" to the Messiah Yeshua. Consider this for yourself! Let Him know you are welcoming Him into your life. Today. Today is the day of salvation. Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart. Open your heart to the Saviour and Redeemer. You will be included in His kingdom. He will welcome you...how awesome is that?

As a final footnote, this year I'm speaking again at PFI and you are invited. HEre's the info: Sat, 27 Aug 2016 at 3 pm. The meeting will be held at the building of the Bible Society of Singapore, 7 Armenian Street, Singapore, 17993. Call for more information: (65) 6532 4188. Hope to see you there!