Working on Sunday

My dishwasher hasn't been working well lately. A busy repairman said he was fine to come by on a Sunday to look at it. Usually I try to take it easy on Sundays and avoid work. He had a bit of a point that it was him doing the work

The dishwasher has been on the fritz at my townhouse. I rent, the landlord is pretty good. She got her repairman Johnny in touch with us.

We went through his checklist. Check the spinner arm works and isn't clogged. Run hot water before and during. Fill the rinse aide. Tried…

— argc (@tookalito) February 1, 2024

The Old Testament

I recently finished re-reading the Old Testament. It was a long project. I'd try to read about 1 page a day on the days I did read. I started this project around 2015. I'd bought a NIV Bible for my mother as a planned Christmas gift for 2014. Alas she was ill and died in December that year before Christmas. So I was left with the Bible.

I took it as inspiration to read the good book again. I'd read it cover to cover over several months around a generation ago, back about 1994. It was King James Version in those days. I'd forgotten a lot of it over the years. The NIV is more accessible. Plus with the knowledge and experience of today, I got new and different things out of the reading. Well I'm not quite done yet. I've started the New Testament, perhaps there will be a post about that at some future point.

My reading of the Old Testament was basically the story of Israel and the Jews. The origins with Abraham/Isaac/Jacob, deliverance out of Egypt, years in the wilderness, the establishment of the kingdom of ancient Israel, the fall of Israel and Jerusalem. It was sad in II Kings when Israel, Judah, and Jerusalem all fell.

I got thinking how did that happen? From the success and splendor of the early kings Saul, David, and Solomon; to later division into Israel/Judah, military defeat by Babylon, and exile. It was quite a fall from the heights of the empire of ancient Israel.

I've assigned the failure of the kingdom of Israel to these three major factors.

Outmarriage
From the original 12 sons of Jacob, of course they would have had to marry wives outside their family to establish the original tribes. And with selective outmarriage such as Ruth it could be a benefit to Israel. But by the time of Saul it was not necessary to marry a wife who was not a Jew. King Solomon had in the area of 700 wives. It would not be possible to keep track of them all. Solomon accepted wives from other nations who had their own gods and were not of the Lord of Israel.

With scant attention or oversight from their husband (as there were 700 of them), and the authority of a king's wife, the wives of Solomon were allowed to bring Baal and Asherah into Israel. Solomon did not consistently require his foreign wives to take his religion and become Jewish. They were allowed to keep their own gods and bring in their own priests from their country into Israel's territory.

These foreign gods in time distracted and corrupted the people of Israel away from the Lord. The Lord certainly noticed, was displeased, and took action, to Israel's detriment. Once these foreign gods were allowed to come in and become established in Israel, they were never successfully completely removed.

Division and Infighting
The separation and creation of the separate kingdom of Judah from Israel was not for the best. A tremendous amount of time and energy and lives were lost between fellow Jews in Israel and Judah scheming and fighting each other. They were surrounded by enemies, and they weakened themselves by splitting into two hostile kingdoms. Divided you fall.

Regression to the Mean
The kingdom of Israel was founded by exceptionals. Consider the original line Saul-David-Solomon. Saul was a head taller than anyone. Strong and attractive. Saul killed thousands of Israel's enemies. David was a great musician and poet. Also a great warrior, David killed tens of thousands. Solomon was wise. A great statesman. Builder of the great temple. Solomon presided over an era of splendor, peace and prosperity.

And then after Solomon ... well there were a number whose name began with J. they all seem pretty unremarkable. So while it was exceptionals at the start, mediocrity followed. Regression to the mean link is a fact of mathematics. There are ways to counter it such as non-hereditary succession, choosing the "best" son as the new king instead of necessarily the "first" son, possibly some others. But after the greatness of the early kings the leadership of Israel fell off and Israel was worse off for it.


Together, over the years and decades and not that many generations, it was all too much. Judah was not too big to fail. Eventually Israel was defeated by enemies and the kingdom fell and the Jewish people were scattered.

Comment on The Church Virtuous Circle

In my previous post on virtuous circle life in the church, it was some things I'd been thinking about for some time. Writing it in a diagram helped me to visualize stuff I'd always known about and grew up with but never really thought about in that way.

I think the chain style is important, as it helps visualize where breaks in the chain can occur and how people can come be non-churchgoers.

It's well known that church attendance is in decline in Canada. Also at the church I grew up in, and still attend sometimes. Recently there was a fellow from Michigan speaking, a good speaker. He said at his home church they had 23 kids in their program for ages 3-7. It just struck me how healthy his home church was. I'm confident they will still be around a generation from now.

It was a bit painful too, the diagram made me examine my own life, choices I made along the way, and my kids relationship to church and religion such as it is.

From the bottom left I got though the first two links. I was born protestant and grew up going to church every week. However within a year of finishing high school I was basically done with church and effectively stopped going for many years. Now in modern times I've come back somewhat to around 1-2 a month on average for the last couple years or so. The same church I grew up in.

Also in the later links, I married outside my church. Nominally a catholic, like me very seldom actually attended church. In the years I was dating then married we never once got up on a regular Sunday morning that wasn't Christmas, Easter or some occasion and voluntarily went to church, any church.

If you read the Old Testament outmarriage was the downfall of Israel and Judah starting with King Solomon. We were warned in the church as kids that outmarriage was the major cause of people leaving the church, and they were right.

For my kids, well I did not do a good job with religion. They were baptized catholic but basically never went to church as children. So it wasn't a natural part of their routine growing up. Plus the failed marriage of their parents is hardly going to steer them to be churchgoers now or into independent adulthood. So more breaks in the chain from my own experiences and choices in life.

The Church Virtuous Circle

I will just post the diagram I drew of what occurred to me. Will comment more in later posts.

Moses and Joshua

I somehow didn't realize Joshua is a Jewish name. It's as Jewish as Moses. I wonder how many Joshua parents know that or have read chapters 1-11 of the book of Joshua. Oh well. Joshua succeeded Moses as leader of Israel.

Well Israel certainly got to work after the Lord stopped the Jordan river to get them across. It's impressive in it's own way, the uh, thoroughness. Everywhere they went, Jericho, Ai and beyond they put "all who breathed" to the sword. Everyone, kids, the elderly, pregnant women. It was what it was I guess.

It makes me think a bit, the people of Ai. They had their place in Israel's narrative as it turned out. Surely there were at least some good people in Ai. Maybe there's something to that. There is our own story, good things and bad things that happen, good luck and things that are hard to understand. Then there's the larger story, the tide of human events which everyone is pulled along in and influences in our own way. There is free will and people make our own decisions which causes outcomes. Still like the people of Ai we all have some place in the overall scheme.

Numbers 22

I recently came across a remarkable chapter in the Bible. Check out Numbers 22. Featuring Moab, a talking donkey, and an angel with sword drawn. awesome!

went to church

I went to church this morning. I'd been thinking about it yesterday. I got to bed at a good time last night and got up and went this morning.

I'm not exactly a churchgoer. I last went there some time last summer. I was going to go one day in January but it was snowing and slippery that morning so I just skipped.

But it's good in a way to be able to still go once in a while. Not much different from last summer. The preacher spoke from Jeremiah. I think he likes the Old Testament, the best testament.

I can say It's a lot better to be going to church on a Sunday morning than getting up and going down to that miserable hospital. So this was a luxury compared to that. So in a way back to the old routines after that period of disruption.

--

On a slightly related note. I was running on a different scene for a while but now that's over and I have returned to my old life. It's not so bad really. I've still got my job and my important-to-me projects to work on. I miss the fast company but who knows what the future holds.

Going to church?

I'm not a big religious person but I will appear in church a handful of times a year. It's good to live in a peaceful tolerant country where folks can go to a church of their choice or choose to not be religious.

It's not like that everywhere. In Nigeria Muslim youths burned down a Catholic church while the people were inside - nice. The Catholics stood up for themselves afterwards and it was bloody. It's good for now to be in this country where you can go to your own church and not be hassled when you're there.

Although I sometimes think of Lebanon where the Christians were generally driven out. Many Lebanese Catholics who were the merchant class of that once wealthy and beautiful country landed in Canada. The "Lebs" in my opinion have done well here. Many are self employed and some are wealthy. In a sense they were lucky perhaps because they were more "desirable" as immigrants/refugees; and they were just "first" historically they were able to just leave the land to Islam while the African Christians have to stand and fight. I wonder where the "next Lebanon" might be in the next 20-100 years. France, Canada, Britain? Let's hope not, but we must be vigilant and do more than just "hope" for the best for our way of life. France seems to understand this and has been taking some steps to recognize the situation and deal with it.

Book of Psalms

Psalms is an interesting book.

One thing I find interesting about it is how Psalms is often misread in modern times.

People think Psalms is about peace and love and such but the surprising thing about Psalms is that it isn't. There's definitely a dual character to that book. Most modern readers and preachers seem to have really missed this essential part of Psalms.

Once in a while I go to church. Recently the preacher spoke about Psalm 145, specifically verse 20 (NIV).

20 The LORD watches over all who love him,
but all the wicked he will destroy.

Now this is an interesting verse because it captures the dual spirit of Psalms. As it happened, and not surprisingly, the preacher spoke for a while about the first part of the verse. The part about love and the Lord.

However the preacher completely missed the key second line. About how the Lord will destroy the wicked.

That runs all through Psalms. The wicked, the enemy of Israel, etc. are constantly being destroyed, and made into footstools. Psalms is not at all a book of peace and love. In virtually every chapter the enemy gets his in Psalms.

Even the famous Psalms 23. They had to "walk through the valley of the shadow of death". Not a fun neighbourhood to be passing through. Good thing the Lord was with the Isrealites through their journeys, handing out rough justice to Israels opponents.

In a way it's too bad about Psalms that everyone just talks about the peace and love part and misses so much of the real richness and character of the book.

God damned

This is kind of a funny saying if you think about it. I mean why would God bother to damn something.

A traffic light glitch causes it to go flashing and delay motorists. Like God personally damned that traffic light this morning to go flashing.

Some dog barks at night. It starts raining while you walked from the bus stop to work. More likely stuff just happens, breaks, wears out, bad luck or whatever just happens on its own or by chance. Much less likely is that God for some reason decided to damn it.

But who knows. Maybe God for whatever reason does choose to damn things. Perhaps each morning He sits on His throne for a few minutes with a coffee and a huge printed list of thousands of things that He will choose to personally damn this day. Elevator out of order in Dallas. Newspaper ink smudge in Montreal. Traffic jam in Chicago. Bank machine out of service in Calgary.

God and Harold

Well it's December. Christmas is coming soon. My children are as always looking forward to it.

This time of year makes me think a bit about why the Lord has this fascination with the name Harold. Consider


Hark the Harold angels sing
Glory to the newborn King!

and

Our Father,
who art in heaven,
Harold be thy Name.


Something to think about I guess.

Practical Bible advice, tithing and the Sabbath

I had a nice talk with my mother a little while back. We got talking about the Bible. It came around to just how everyday practical some of the stuff there is. Two specific things are the Sabbath and tithing.

Now observing the day of rest may seem like a hassle, a constraint. Actually it is in your best interest. If you don't take break you will get sick and die. Also the Sabbath limited the powers of landlords or slaveowners to extract work from their subjects. The Sabbath was for the common workers protection, giving them one day off each week that they wouldn't have gotten otherwise.

Regardless of whether you go to church or even believe in God, the advice about the Sabbath is right on, and you should observe it, for your own good, not necessarily God's.


Now tithing. So suppose you have to tithe. What does that really mean. In order to tithe you have to know how much you're making. Then you have to set aside a specific amount of that. Well once you do that then basically you now have a personal budget! Having and sticking to a budget is probably the most important aspect of being solvent and sustainably financially prosperous for your lifetime. So the benefit of tithing is that it forces you to have a budget and stick to it, and that is massively in your best interest to do, well worth 10% of your income. So again what may seem like a burden the Bible imposes is actually something that is in your best interest.

First communion

A little while back my older son did his first communion. It went well. There were around 16 children going through. We had good sunny weather that day. All the children looked nice. We had a nice time afterward back at my house with lots of relatives coming over.

Now I'm not Catholic, but my wife is and my two sons are. I am a Godfather twice now though, which is still a bit strange to me.


Now I can't talk about communion without telling my favorite church story. Back when I was in high school me and some friends were big football fans. We still are big football fans of course. Anyway I liked the Jets and my friend Danny has a huge Steelers fan.

Now Danny was Catholic and he went to the Catholic church which was across the street from my house. That church didn't start Sunday service until a bit later. Usually it was a bit past 1 PM when they finished up. That was fine because it was around a 10 minute walk from the Church to Danny's place, and in Halifax the Sunday game doesn't start until 2 PM. So there was plenty of time to go to church and be home in time for the NFL kickoff.

On one particular Sunday we were getting the Steelers on NBC for the 2 PM Sunday game. Unfortunately the catholic service was running long that day, well past 1 PM. Danny didn't want to miss any of the Steelers game. So at communion he went to the front and got his food and drink. However when he went to the back of the hall to return to his seat, he instead just ducked out the door and left.

As you can imagine, Danny said his mother was quite angry with him for skipping out of church early. Danny said about it "the Steelers were on". Me and the other football fans totally understood why Danny did what he did. The priest should have been more careful anyway to wrap it up in time for kickoff, it was the Steelers.

Godfather

I am now a Godfather. I am the Godfather to my sister's baby son.

That is interesting because I'm not actually Catholic. My sister's husband is Catholic and their baby is now Catholic. The Godmother is the baby's aunt on his dad's side.

Apparently the rules have changed and I can be a godparent. Yay for me.

I like the Catholics. If I switched away from protestant then I'd have to become Catholic. Then I could join the Knights of Columbus. They seem to have a lot of fun. My wife and children are Catholic.

The Catholics have it good. They can drink and gamble and seemingly have more fun. However it is generally not true that Catholics carry around cards and dice in their pockets all the time.

One of my favorite Catholic stories is around the KofC in a Halifax church. One time at one meeting for some reason the bar wasn't open. One member was so upset about this that he left that KofC chapter and joined the KofC in a different church.

When I hear the term Godfather, it makes me think about that classic movie by the same name. I wonder if many others think this too. My dad says The Godfather is his favorite movie of all time. It is a classic. My favorite movie is Apocalypse Now.