Polar Nonsense

Posted on December 23, 2009 by Robert Franklin

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Believe in what your heart is saying
Hear the melody that’s playing
There’s no time to waste
There’s so much to celebrate
Believe in what you feel inside
And give your dreams the wings to fly
You have everything you need
If you just believe

—Glen Ballard & Alan Sivestri

Is this really true or is it the kind to tripe Americans have dredged up to somehow make the Christmas holiday somewhat meaningful?  I propose that we rename Christmas “Dream Day.”  After all that is what Christmas is all about isn’t it?  Children dream about the toys and goodies under the lighted trees.  Adults dream about someone loving them enough to actually be sacrificially thoughtful.  Our elders dream about their families coming and fussing over them and making them important for at least a day.  

The whole religious overtone is completely unnecessary.  We can be nice and give gifts because we have decided that it is mutually beneficial to support our economy (and each other) by expressing extravagance at least one season a year.  Without “Dream Day” were would the retail establishment in the United States be, after all?  We really don’t need all that baby Jesus stuff. Santa is so much better, his followers actually make stuff to divert or entertain me and they didn’t write any boring books!

BUT

What if my heart is saying, “I’m broke”?

What if the melody that’s playing is “Taps”?

What if my life is full of wasted time looking for a job?

What if I am lonely and can’t find anyone with whom to celebrate?

What if what I feel inside is like constant nausea?

What if my dreams lay shattered on the floorboards of my existence?

What if I need food, clothing or shelter?

What if I just don’t believe anymore?

Am I kicked off the Polar Express or should I just stay on the ride into some fantasy land I know for certain never existed?

The holiday I celebrate this season says to the burdened, the weary, the naked, the homeless, the hurting, the suffering, the disappointed, the sick, the empty, the unbeliever,

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.“ (Matthew 11:28, ESV)

and

“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.“ (Matthew 25:35-36, ESV)

and

“By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.“ (1 John 3:16-18, ESV)

This is the true mission of Christmas, if we will just believe.

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How are you? (I don’t really care…)

Posted on December 22, 2009 by Robert Franklin

It occurred to me this Christmas season that we have lost our cultural capacity to bless each other.  The last two holiday seasons saw us argue about whether or not it was ok in our present sophisticated, pluralistic society to say “Merry Christmas” in public.  The news media reported the conclusion: we may say “Merry Christmas” in public if it is a reply to a well-wisher.  Those who protested the removal of the word Christmas from the holiday season greeting options felt somehow vindicated, many were quite smug about their “victory.”

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I had the privilege of securing a marriage to one of the most pleasant people on the planet.  People like to be around my wife; she makes most people feel at ease.  As we shopped together Michelle would cheerfully say, “Merry Christmas” in public to retailers and other people with whom we came into conversation.  Only a few easily replied, “Merry Christmas.”  Some choked the words out, others responded “Happy Holidays,” the majority stood silent and looked stunned.  How dare she in such innocent voice utter such bombastic language?

Our culture has not “believed” in Christmas in decades, but once upon a time not so very long ago it was culturally desirable at least to bless each other.  It was considered preferable to speak kindly, especially in the retail setting, whenever a person had the opportunity.  “Merry Christmas,” “Happy Easter,” “Happy St. Patrick’s Day,” even “Happy Hanukkah” were fine greetings to exchange if the date warranted it.  People used to say, “How are you?” and actually expect a reply as opposed to just brushing past without allowing a response.  When I was young we at least pretended to care about each other.  Not so anymore, I am afraid.

I came across a beautiful greeting recently and thought it worth sharing during this season of either “blessing silence” or empty exchange of pleasantries.

How truly I love you! We’re the best of friends, and I pray for good fortune in everything you do, and for your good health—that your everyday affairs prosper, as well as your soul! (3 John 1-2, The Message)

When’s the last time someone said something like that to you?  Those who belong to Jesus should oft be saying and praying (and meaning) such things.

Posted in Bible Study, Current Events, Devotional | 4 Comments

I disappeared and am back for this?!

Posted on December 21, 2009 by Robert Franklin

A precious few are waiting for the next BababaBobalog post.  I have been absent for about a month due to picking up a second job helping my lovely wife, Michelle, and her partner open up a restaurant in Augusta, Kentucky…more on that another time.

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The unfortunate thing is my planning is notoriously poor.  I write nothing for weeks and then my first post in forever is about circumcision.  Whose bright idea was that?  After all this is Christmas, surely I could write some syrupy anecdote about a holiday event.  No, that would be too easy, too safe, too “normal” so I calendared circumcision.  One of these days I am going to get the sack!

I cannot take all the blame.  The writers of the gospels should share in some of this indignity.  After all what did they leave us with? 

We have the announcement of the birth of the Savior of the world, very appropriate.  A few scenes during the days leading up to the blessed Advent, fair enough. A skimpy birth narrative, with which we have done much. A visit to the Temple for the circumcision rite and blessings from Anna and Simeon, ok if you are into religion. A visit from the magi, then the flight to Egypt and return to Nazareth, exciting but not much in the way of narrative.  The Messiah is twelve the next we hear of him (one Temple scene), then nothing until he is an adult. 

Slim pickings, if you ask me.   In lieu of the historical scarcity, the recorded events of Jesus’ early life must be all the more important.  From my point of view, the question is begged, “why record the circumcision at all?”.  The answer is discovered in connecting Jesus to the redemptive work of God throughout the ages; a connection that takes the inquirer all the way back to Genesis and the call to Abram to “get up and go.”

My friends at Main Street and I will be considering the connection (by circumcision) this weekend.

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I Have a Friend Who is Spending Her Christmas…

Posted on December 11, 2009 by Robert Franklin

Doing something about this…

What do you think?

Posted in Current Events | 4 Comments

Monochromatic (Pt. 1)

Posted on December 1, 2009 by Robert Franklin

A friend of mine recently wrote me and gently chided me for not putting hardly anything “personal” on this blog.  I responded that pretty much everything posted here is deeply personal.  I will admit that the content here (and on my Facebook) is removed from the common chatter about sniffles and life-frustrations and political rants.  Since I speak in front of hundreds of people every week and share some of those kinds of things (minus, perhaps, political rants) I am cured during the week of any such notion of filling up my corner of cyberspace with even more of my temporary diversions.

Posting my thoughts and interactions with God’s Word, however, is the greatest privilege.  I am not one of those detached purveyors of pithy statements; my interaction with God’s Word is confession of the “hidden places” in my life.  These thoughts are who I am and not some philosophy of the mind or some life-construct to which I adhere.  These posts are intimates of mine.

I am a real, live, person, however, and not some monochromatic apparition, so from time to time I will attempt to write entries that reflect a more transient reality.

Lately I am particularly thankful for my parents.  My wife, Michelle, is realizing her long-held dream of opening a business of her own and I am drawing upon some characteristics that mom and dad inculcated directly and indirectly in order to survive.

Mom could make something out of nothing almost effortlessly (or so it seemed).  There were periods of time when hamburger was the exclusive protein available.  I ate so much hamburger during my growing up years that I asked my new bride not to offer it as an ingredient for dinner for years.  Mom could make all sorts of things out of hamburger and a hodge-podge of other ingredients.  We may have had hamburger every day, but we didn’t have it in the same form.  The ability to plop down the meat and look in the pantry or refrigerator and figure out on-the-fly some sort of recipe using whatever was at hand never ceased to amaze me.  I am so grateful that this ability is part of my life and the life of my siblings.  To this day I don’t prefer hamburger, but I can open the fridge of my life and see what is in there and make something palatable at a moment’s notice.

Dad spent my entire growing up life doing things he had no idea of how to do, especially around the house.  We had no money to hire jobs out so Dad learned by error and trial (in that order) how to do everything there is to do to keep and improve a home.  To this very day my dad will tackle jobs he has no clue how to accomplish by virtue of his irascible will, courageous spirit and dogged determination.  There is no way dad should be able to do what he accomplishes.  I find myself in similar situations regularly.  I know how to do many things, but thanks to dad I am not afraid to try (and even fail) doing things that are out of my realm of expertise.

…a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised. Give her the product of her hands, let her works praise her in the [city] gates. (Proverbs 31:30-31)

…the glory of sons is their fathers. (Proverbs 17.6)

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A Family Problem

Posted on November 30, 2009 by Robert Franklin

The modern American experience nearly ensures every person’s first-hand knowledge of problems within the family.  Divorce, abuse, abandonment, conflict, nearly every family experiences at least one of these things first hand.  The hurt and broken lives which come parceled with family problems is of inestimable cost in every measurable, and immeasurable way.  We are intimate with this truth in this day.

[picapp align=”center” wrap=”false” link=”term=nativity+scene&iid=2936283″ src=”3/4/c/7/d5.jpg?adImageId=7939855&imageId=2936283″ width=”380″ height=”253″ /]So often we think Jesus immune to family problems, after all wasn’t he the chubby little infant nestled cozily in the straw-filled manger while his handsomely dressed parents, the nicely groomed animals, the well-kept shepherds and an angel or two looked serenely down upon Jesus’ cherubic face?

How many times have we considered that the announcement of Jesus’ birth caused fear, not celebration, more often than not? How many times have we stopped to consider that Jesus’ earthly parents nearly divorced before Jesus was even born?  How many times do we remember that Jesus’ parents were technically homeless on his birth day and then subsequently were refugees in a country foreign to them before Jesus was out of his toddler years? Should we remember the Bible records Jesus’ parents were angry with him? Should we recall the argument between Jesus, his brothers and his mother?  Didn’t his own hometown ask the question, “Isn’t this not Joseph’s son?”  I can almost see the self-justified sneer behind the lips of those who spoke from first-hand knowledge of Jesus’ “family problems.”

The modern American experience nearly ensures every person’s first-hand knowledge of problems within the family.  Divorce, abuse, abandonment, conflict, nearly every family experiences at least one of these things first hand.  The hurt and broken lives which come parceled with family problems is of inestimable cost in every measurable, and immeasurable way.  We are intimate with this truth in this day.

So often we think Jesus immune to family problems, after all wasn’t he the chubby little infant nestled cozily in the straw-filled manger while his handsomely dressed parents, the nicely groomed animals, the well-kept shepherds and an angel or two looked serenely down upon Jesus’ cherubic face?

How many times have we considered that the announcement of Jesus’ birth caused fear, not celebration, more often than not? How many times have we stopped to consider that Jesus’ earthly parents nearly divorced before Jesus was even born?  How many times do we remember that Jesus’ parents were technically homeless on his birth day and then subsequently were refugees in a country foreign to them before Jesus was out of his toddler years? Should we remember the Bible records Jesus’ parents were angry with him? Should we recall the argument between Jesus, his brothers and his mother?  Didn’t his own hometown ask the question, “Isn’t this not Joseph’s son?”  I can almost see the self-justified sneer behind the lips of those who spoke from first-hand knowledge of Jesus’ “family problems.”

My friends at Main Street will gather this upcoming Sunday to worship the one who suffered from “A Family Problem.”

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