Crack open your Bibles

       Here is a reading that you don't see every day - from Sirach, sounds more like a book from Vulcan Scripture. Be that as it may, this passage attests to something wonderful about Scripture - it is timeliness.

         While I have no illusions that anyone from the far right is reading my blog except for perhaps Russian hackers, this passage speaks to everyone. There is pearl here for every single person to take to heart. If everyone did, perhaps we might begin to see the world  emerge from the miasma of hate we seem now engulfed in. That of course presumes that the reader has good intent and that they are reading with an open heart and mind.  How often do we see Scripture taken apart piece by piece and out of context to subvert the Word and bolster one's own agenda?

         If I could ask for anything, I guess at this moment it would be that we are all willing to listen and truly hear the words of God, to be open to the movement of the Spirit which is hope, wisdom and enlightenment.

        Certainly cracking open Scripture is the best start, itself a sign of one's willingness to be open to God. 

         

Sirach 19:4-17

One who trusts others too quickly has a shallow mind,
   and one who sins does wrong to himself. 
One who rejoices in wickedness will be condemned, 
   but one who hates gossip has less evil. 
Never repeat a conversation,
   and you will lose nothing at all. 
With friend or foe do not report it,
   and unless it would be a sin for you, do not reveal it; 
for someone may have heard you and watched you,
   and in time will hate you. 
Have you heard something? Let it die with you.
   Be brave, it will not make you burst! 
Having heard something, the fool suffers birth-pangs
   like a woman in labour with a child. 
Like an arrow stuck in a person’s thigh,
   so is gossip inside a fool. 

Question a friend; perhaps he did not do it;
   or if he did, so that he may not do it again. 
Question a neighbour; perhaps he did not say it;
   or if he said it, so that he may not repeat it. 
Question a friend, for often it is slander;
   so do not believe everything you hear. 
A person may make a slip without intending it.
   Who has not sinned with his tongue? 
Question your neighbour before you threaten him;
   and let the law of the Most High take its course.