Mike’s Rumblings 07-12-24

Faith Conversations

This is an audio version of Mike Murphy‘s Friday rumblings. This is a regular post on Facebook that I’ve turned into a podcast. I decided Mike’s words needed a wider audience. You may agree or disagree with what he says, but there is certainly much food for thought contained here. You can friend Mike on Facebook for the printed version or read it below.

Rumblings. 7.12.24.

1. “In Matthew 9 Jesus told Matthew to “Follow me.”

And then we hear that Matthew “got up and followed him.” The verb used here in the Greek is the same verb used to describe the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead: Matthew rose.

Conversion means a transition into a higher life, arising from a preoccupation with the goods of the world and a reorientation to the things of God… The call of Jesus is meant to get into your mind, and then past your mind into your body, and then through your body into your life, into your most practical decisions. …” Bishop Robert Barron

Have you had a conversion experience lately? Actually, I have had many in my life. I’ve needed many. And I’m sure I’ll need many more. It’s never been one and done for me.

2. “See the super patriot. Hear him preach how he loves his country. Hear him preach how he hates liberals.

And moderates.

And intellectuals.

And activists.

And pacifists.

And minority groups.

And aliens.

And unions.

And teenagers.

And the very rich.

And the very poor.

And people with foreign sounding names.

Now you know what a super-patriot is. He’s someone who loves his country while hating 93% of the people who live in it.” ~ Mad Magazine circa 1960

Ha, the prophet Alfred E. Neuman still speaks. By the way, if this (super-patriotism) describes you, help is available. Just like Matthew (Rumble #1) you can choose to cut against the grain and recover your life.

Or not.

I think it’s a no-brainer. But that’s me.

3. “The prosperity gospel and christian nationalism offer to us everything Satan offered to Christ when he tempted the Savior in the wilderness.” ~ author unknown

By the way, I’m deliberately using lower case letters from now on whenever I refer to christian nationalism. It doesn’t deserve an upper case mention. For that matter, neither does the prosperity gospel.

4. When a politician’s message is low on facts and heavy with doom and gloom, my cringe level rises and my trust level takes a nosedive. Fear mongering is what lazy politicians do. Trusting those politicians is what lazy citizens do.

5. “The price of privilege is the moral duty to act when one sees another person treated unfairly. And the least that a person in the dominant caste can do is not make the pain any worse.” ~ Isabel Wilkerson, Caste: The Origin of Our Discontents

She’s right, but the privileged/dominant caste likes the status quo. Rock the boat and that status could be jeopardized. It becomes a battle royale between self preservation and moral duty.

And the winner is …?

P.S. Wilkerson is a brilliant writer. I highly recommend her books Caste and The Warmth of Other Suns.

6. The Netflix documentary, “Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial” described Hitler as being “a fundamentally lazy person. He did not like to work at something he didn’t find interesting. He would sleep in late. He would have a kind of leisurely lunch, then maybe he would receive government ministers or military commanders and hear some reports and then give some orders…

Hitler had a very unusual leadership style. He was not someone who gave orders all the time. Instead, he seems to have rather consciously developed a technique where his subordinate people and subordinate agencies would have to compete for his favor. It was their task to work towards the Fuhrer…everything in the whole governmental machine was desperately trying to figure out what he wanted.”

One of my initial reactions was “Whoa, one of our presidential candidates (you can figure out which one) pretty much has the same habits and approaches to governance as Hitler.”

Yep, this is all too familiar territory. It gives me the willies just thinking about it.

7. What drum is God asking you to bang on these days?

Are you saying yes or no?

8. And the child said: “When I was hungry you put up posters of the Ten Commandments in my classroom and then voted against subsidizing lunches at school.”

Pretty whacked out isn’t it?

Putting a religious poster up is not my idea of being a credible witness. Feeding hungry kids is very credible.

“Whatever you did for the least of these, you did unto me.” ~ Jesus

9. “Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.” ~ Pierre Teilhard De Chardin

I read this for the first time in 1967. It grabbed me then and it grabs me now. Imagine it – “harnessing for God the energies of love.”

10. “The place where God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” ~ Frederick Buechner

Where is that for you? Not sure? That’s OK. Keep searching and stay available. And when you finally know where the world’s hunger and your gladness meet, go for it. Swing for the fences.

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