We go high

         At first glance I wonder if Jesus was telling his disciples about the Internet and social media, nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered. It would certainly seem appropriate I think. That would be a fleeting comment though to the larger message at hand.       

       Once again I hear the wisdom of the father, that is, my earthly father. This passage this morning reminds me of yet another of my Pop's 'must reads', The Power of Your Subconscious Mind.  One of our discussions yielded the following revelation. Thou shall not kill is more than simply taking a life as this scripture attests to. Pop and I discussed a fictitious child who on his first day of school is amazed that his name is Johnny, or Bob, or Henry. He had only known his name to be "hey, stupid".  That is the killing of a soul. That is perhaps the easiest way any of us kill another, by hurtful and damaging words. "do not fear those who kill the body". 

         Bringing this back to the Internet, how many of us realize how hurtful and damaging are some of the words that we so easily post in these turbulent times?  Sure, I know the provocation is there, the examples from on high ( no, not that high, but administration high ) are there that seem to have no bounds of decency. The rhetoric is loud and nasty.  How are we to respond. Live and let die?  Are the harsh words we may utter any less painful, venomous or lethal?  The call to civility seems  then to be right from the mouth of Jesus. Should we meet evil with evil? Killing by any method is wrong. 

         In a less famous moment in the last Presidential administration, Michelle Obama gave advice on how to handle the torrent of hate, lies and fear mongering. "They go low, we go high".  Is this good advice for us? Do we have to be uncivil and lethal in our language to disagree and to fight against the tyranny at hand?  It is a very serious question that I am asking myself this morning. The domestic ship has alighted on calm if not lonely waters this morning, still it is a new day filled with hope, personal conversion and thoughts of a better world. 

       Lets go out and be the 'high' of God's love.

Luke 11:53-12:12

 When he went outside, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be very hostile towards him and to cross-examine him about many things, lying in wait for him, to catch him in something he might say.

Meanwhile, when the crowd gathered in thousands, so that they trampled on one another, he began to speak first to his disciples, ‘Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, that is, their hypocrisy. Nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known.Therefore whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed from the housetops.

 ‘I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that can do nothing more. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten in God’s sight. But even the hairs of your head are all counted. Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.

 ‘And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God; but whoever denies me before others will be denied before the angels of God. And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. When they bring you before the synagogues, the rulers, and the authorities, do not worry about how you are to defend yourselves or what you are to say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that very hour what you ought to say.’