TECHNOLOGY’S DOWNSIDE

The telephone rang on Maundy Thursday afternoon. Arlena answered it before I could get to it. I was distracted by whatever it was that I was doing at the time and it was only an hour or so later that I finally asked, “Who called?” “You did,” she said. It was my “robo” call that I had pre-recorded a month ago that was used to call all parishioners to remind about signing up for the pictorial directory.

 “Robo” calls are nothing new, especially during this election season. I have yet to meet anyone who likes them, appreciates them or who does not almost immediately hang up on them. Yet they persist because they obviously work well enough that they are worthwhile to those who employ them. As much as I disliked the idea even for our directory, I hope the call worked and that those who had not already signed-up finally did because of the call.

 Technology is with us to stay and it is only going to get better, the technology that is. Whether it is better for us as a people let alone as individuals is something to consider. There is much upside to technology. As much as I regale my grandchildren with “when I was your age” stories about three television stations, no remote control, no video games or email or – well, the list is endless, I still enjoy the fruits of all that technology and do not want to go back to three channels and no remote control.

 And yet there is a downside to all this technology that is more costly than the cost of the technology itself. Two of our grandsons, Zach and Tyler, were with us for most of Holy Week. Zach, almost 15, spent a lot of time in Arlena’s sewing room on the computer playing games with his friend in Baltimore. While that still amazes me and while he enjoys it, I know there is an experience he is missing that was so important and valuable to me and which I still cherish today: being physically with the person or persons with whom I am playing games.

 While technology does bring us closer than ever – I can Skype my daughters and talk with them on the phone and see them as we are conversing – it does keep us further and further apart as well. Nothing will ever replace the one-on-one, physical contact that is so vital to our lives as human beings. Nothing. That is the real downside of technology. I have 150 or so “friends” on Facebook. All were and some still are face-to-face friends, people I hugged as a friend.

 Yes, Facebook may help keep in touch but there is no real touching going on. We need that as human beings. We need to be physically present one with another. That need is part of our DNA and when that physical presence is absent, we are diminished as a person. No amount of technology will ever replace it even as technology is making it easier and easier to do without it.

 One of the real blessings of a faith community, a church, is that we come together to press the flesh, if you will. In this growing age of technology we will need our church now more than ever and will need it even more in the days and years to come.

WHERE HAVE ALL THE PROPHETS GONE?

Contrary to popular belief, a prophet is not one who predicts the future. A prophet, at least in the biblical-Old-Testament understanding is simply someone who speaks for God. The majority of, if not all the Old Testament prophets were reluctant prophets. They knew that if and when they spoke for God, they would not be willingly heard because their message was that unless the people changed their ways, some very bad things would happen to them. Sometimes the people listened and changed and sometimes they did not and what the prophet predicted happened.

Prophets are always caught in the middle. True prophets know what the people need to hear and yet know that the people don’t want to hear what they need to hear. For what the people need to hear is what is true and not some varnished or partial version of the truth. In today’s politically charged world that is what we are getting: half-truths and even downright lies that are purported to be truths, anything to appease a constituency that does not want to hear the truth because it might be painful.

The truth is always painful when it costs us something, when it demands sacrifice, when it asks those who are blessed to share some of their blessings with those who are not so blessed, when it reminds the blessed that it is only because of God’s grace they are so blessed and not because they are special or privileged, when it demands that the haves share with the have-nots.

That is prophetic language that has no place in politics and often has little place even in religious circles. No one likes to sacrifice. We somehow want to believe that we have what we have because we have earned it, deserve it, and have a right to it and that no one has a right to take it from us or ask us to share it with others let alone demand that we do so. Prophets would demur.

It is certainly not politically expedient to be a prophet by telling the truth when the populace is averse to hearing it no matter what one’s political persuasion might be. We all have our biases. That makes it difficult for us to accept what is true because it goes against the grain and even more so if it demands that we have to charge our beliefs or, God forbid, make some sacrifices for the common good.

Yes, it is often difficult to know what is the right thing to do, what sacrifices need to be made and what changes are demanded even as they may be difficult to both accept and to make. The Old Testament prophets had it easy even though their lives were in danger every time they opened their mouths. Their one job was to tell the people what they already knew but were unwilling to do, namely change their sinful and selfish ways.

Today we don’t kill our prophets, if and when we find them. We simply don’t listen to them or call them foolish or out of touch with the real world. We choose, rather, to listen to those who tell us what we want to hear and not what we need to hear. That has always been the case from time immemorial. And as it was then, so it is now, we do so at our own peril.

The Fear of the Lord

THE FEAR OF THE LORD (04-15-12)

The Book of Proverbs is one of those Old Testament books that is both often overlooked and also taken for granted. It is overlooked simply because most people do not read the Bible very much, if at all. It is taken for granted because the very title implies that it is filled with bits of wisdom that we assume we already know; and since we know what is written there, we need not read it again.

Nevertheless, whether we are too lazy to pick up our Bible and peruse Proverbs or assume we are so knowledgeable that we need not read that book, we would do ourselves a disservice not to check it out on occasion if only to remind ourselves of bits of knowledge and advice that we have stored in the back of our minds and which could use a bit of prodding and reminding.

The book begins with these words: “The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel: For
learning about wisdom and instruction, for understanding words of insight, for gaining instruction in wise dealing, righteousness, justice, and equity; to teach shrewdness to the simple, knowledge and prudence to the young— let the wise also hear and gain in learning, and the discerning acquire skill, 6to understand a proverb and a figure, the words of the wise and their riddles.”

Then, for the very first bit of advice, the very first piece of wisdom the book offers – and reminds – is this: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” “Well, if that is the first piece of wisdom a believer must take to heart and mind,” we might say to ourselves, “I’m not sure I want that type of god to be my God. I don’t want to live in fear that I will be punished for everything I do wrong, live on pins and needles, afraid to make a mistake.”

That would be a natural reaction, to be sure, and an honest one. But, of course, that is not what the writer had in mind and certainly did not mean. Our fear should not be a fear of God, living in fear of being punished for sins and offenses. Rather our fear should be one based on God’s love for us. One who is loved does not want to hurt or disappoint the lover no matter who that love is.

I love my wife. I do not ever want to say or do anything that would hurt her. I do not live in fear that I will, but a holy fear of doing so would certainly keep me on the straight and narrow if and when any temptation would arise for me to betray that love. I want to love her as fully as she loves me, and vice versa. That is what makes for a loving relationship. We do not love because we are afraid of what the other will do if we do not. The only fear we need to have is that we will not love as fully as the one we love loves us.

It is the same in our relationship with God. We do not live in fear that we will do something that will cause God’s wrath and anger. That is not living and that is not the life God wants us to live. Rather we live with a holy fear that we will not love God as fully as God loves us. That is the first bit of wisdom the Book of Proverbs offers and one that puts all other bits of wisdom and advice and the way we live our life in perspective.