Cherry Picking

I have been a little distracted of late given an active week with my dear grandson and one of his BFF's at our mountain home, though the memories etched in my brain and captured on my phone will be forever priceless.

Yet, even when away, my fifty plus years of daily devotions are continued, though the capacity to hear the Spirit at times seems limited by distraction.

Though always afterwards, the promised "parakletos" speaks once more (John 14:16-17, 26, and John 16:7, 13).

In fact, it seems that these intermittent interruptions provide some personal placeholder in our ongoing conversations.

Perhaps a necessary respite from the damage done to the mystery of scripture, brought on by an orientation toward "cherry picking", one long reinforced by a Protestant, Pentecostal Christianity.

At 77, I must decide what all this means, and what risk I dare take on answering my sense of calling to this moment, one so shaped by Old Testament prophets.

You might read on, if you so desire my thoughts!

This morning as I picked up my read in Jeremiah, chapter 18, I felt a release to press into thoughts that have troubled me of late.

All my life, the story of the potter's house has been used by pastors to imply a repetitive repentence thought necessary in the shaping of one's personal life, likely followed by an emotional "Just as I am without one plea-like" altar call.

This morning however, those same verses seemed to speak loud, but this time to our nation as well, the nation which many of those same pastors have referenced as a "Second Isreal."

Jeremiah 18:5-8 NIV

"Then the word of the Lord came to me. He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel. If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned."

As I have written before, books find me!

In this season, two in particular: LUSO, For Love, Liberty, and Legacy by Travis Bowman; and The Spoils of War, Power, Profit and The American War Machine by Andrew Cockburn.

I actually have had the privilege of meeting in our cabin with Travis, a 7th generation descendant of Peter Francisco, the American Revolution hero whom he writes about.

Why is all this important at this point?

First, we are soon approaching the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, in 2026. God's timing perhaps?

Secondly, we just "bunker bombed" Iran, in an effort to limit their access to fissionable material sufficient to build a nuclear warhead. The latter, Isreal's greatest fear since her return to nationhood in 1948!

Within my particular religious upbringing, that event was interpreted as setting off a time clock toward Armageddon! Uhmmm?

Now back to Cockburn's book, written in 2023, it provides a shocking transparency around the reality of our nation's role in propagating many of the warring religious factions across radical Islam.

Per Cockburn's research, lobbyist have strategically encouraged politicians behind the scenes so as to deliberately manipulate such factions to the economic benefit of this once thought to be Christian nation. Their means a well-positioned, politicized force that seeds fear and feeds greed.

This morning as I read of Jeremiah's trip to the potter's house, there seems more to the story than some personal altar call.

Given all the political divisiveness across Christendom, I now sense a major transformation, perhaps painful within the Body of Christ, and one that will continue to tear at the fabric of the institutional church in America.

We are on the Potter's wheel!

Worse yet, we are no longer a nation solely superior in our war machine, nor nuclear capabilities, though owning far more capacity than the rogue nations propagated by our decades of economic manipulation.

Allow me to explain how we got here per Cockburn.

With all respect for those who have fought, and yes, those who's lives were sadly sacrificed, it seems that shortly after the Cold War break up of the Soviet Union, the USA pursued a strategy for forming a well-armed northern Afghanistan resistance, holding Russia at bay. Sadly, at the expense of thousands of lives of young Russian teens, that strategy failed, yet birthed such defiant radicals as Osama bin Laden! We created 9/11!

Though postured as necessary for global peace, this clandestine manuevering of religious radicals (my apologies to Muslim friends) was more about maintaining our access to oil reserves, then later sustaining a market for our vast war industry.

A growing need for weapon purchases among the multiple nations caught in this jeopardy, soon became recognized as a major income stream for this burgeoning American industry. As well, the purse held by the Middle East was well sufficient, given our nation's and that of others' carbon fuel dependency!

We have created the perfect storm, one perhaps long prophesied?

All this set off the need to invest even more capital in weaponry in order to maintain our own superior weapons system.

Cha Ching, Cha Ching!

Thus the hiring of retired military as lobbyists for the weapons industry, in order to access said capital, though the Pentagon's vault of nuclear weaponry now surpasses the capacity to destroy the globe!

Cockburn even purports that should more inventory be created than necessary than the market will bear, it is simply disassembled in order to sustain the flow of tax dollars into the war machine.

Though hideous, perhaps now the hidden reality of America! Meanwhile, the church stays almost silent!

Are you beginning to you see a pattern, one driven by the deadliest of "partners", fear and greed?

I'll mention my third book, the title of which sums up our situation, Our Iceberg Is Melting, written by John Kotter, the guru of change management.

God help we penguins, fixed in our spiritual orientation toward some great escape, regardless of our nation's "sin!"

All this likely the product of an overly literal interpretation of scripture, one less likely to accept that there are other icebergs in our future! Now I sound like Elon Musk!

Not sure of much this morning, except that we are in a time of major shift, which occur about every 500 years!

This one now seems a little overdue, though certainly on the horizon.

God have mercy, as has been the case for millennia!