The View from the West Mesa

Veterans Day. Since 1776-ish, our neighbors, family members, and friends have volunteered and been drafted to protect the freedoms we enjoy. In the United States we think of our freedoms as rights – things we can do or not do simply because we breathe. We live in a bubble though and it’s a bubble that could burst at any moment because our government is made of human beings who have their own agendas and to whom we give enormous power. Around the world and throughout history, the freedoms we hold as rights are not common. In fact, we constitute a small minority of humans in the history of the world who have had such freedoms. Yes, others have similar ones and yet others have had them in the past, but many, many more have never had them at all.  We are lucky, to be quite honest to have been born into or to have moved to this country which has had both our Constitution, and government officials who have respected the rights in that document and who have rarely, but with some nota...

This question, asked twice by YHWH of his prophet - of Israel’s prophet apparently - comes while Elijah is hiding from Jezebel in a mountain cave somewhere in southern Judah. He has come after a number of significant events as a prophet of YHWH. Before we get to those though, let’s rehearse the political situation in Israel. If you’ve read the history of Israel in the book of Kings, you will have been struck by the repeated descriptions of both Israel’s and Judah’s kings. They are to say the least, a mixed bag of faithfulness to YHWH, with Israel’s kings being roundly bad - evil even. We are introduced to Ahab in chapter 16 and find that he is worse than any king that had come before him. He has married a non-Jew from Sidon who is a worshiper of Ba’al, the infamous Jezebel who will end up being eaten by dogs before her story is done. Jezebel influences Ahab to worship Ba’al and Asherah. He erects a temple for Ba’al and he sets up as...

Today was the last of a triduum that began with All Hallowed Eve, then into All Saints' Day, and now All Souls' Day. Often over-shadowed by costumes and candy, this period is much better used to reflect on the lives of all those who have gone before us in the faith. Some of these have been tortured and murdered because of our shared faith - those that hated them would have hated you. Even today, martyrs are made daily around the world as those who claim our God are even in the 21st century,  hunted, abused, and killed for the same faith that you hold. Remembering them and honoring their faith once a year is hardly sufficient for their faithfulness to our God. It is true though, that most believers no longer with us have not been martyred, but all of them have influenced someone. Have any of those who have died influenced you either to believe, to return to God, or perhaps to own your faith more strongly and more assuredly than before? Who were they; can you bring them to mind ...