Got No Time for a Hand Me Down World

Guess who I am using for my inspiration today? The Guess Who, that’s who. And if you know the Guess Who then you know from my title that I’ll be working with two songs from the playlist.

Anybody here see the noise, see the fear and commotion?

I think we missed it

Anybody here see the love, see the hate being motioned?

 Anybody here see the noise, see the fear and commotion that is surrounding the Synod on the Family? If you are following the media and the bloggers it is hard to miss it.  There is noise, there is commotion but most of all there is fear. The extreme progressive side is afraid that the Church is going to tell us to put a muzzle on our sex lives. The extreme radical traditionalists are afraid that the Church won’t tell us to put a muzzle on our sex lives, thus leading us into apostasy.  Those in the middle are being encouraged to perceive the Church as a completely human institution, a government just like any other government.  By the people, for the people…all about the people. We are forgetting the divine character of Jesus Christ and the guidance of the Holy Spirit that animates the Church and gives it its being. By the way, the media is portraying this as the entire Synod being focused on our sex lives. Which just goes to show that although we may not have missed the event and the commotion, we have certainly missed the point.  Anybody here see the love, see the hate being motioned? And by allowing ourselves to miss the point we may be missing the motion of the Holy Spirit.   As well as the motion of hatred from the enemy of our souls that comes against the Church.  

Don’t give me no hand me down shoes

Don’t give me no hand me down love

Don’t give me no hand me down world

Got one already

In Ephesians 6 our shoes are a readiness to accept and proclaim the Gospel…and your feet shod in readiness for the Gospel of peace. The real focus of the Synod, regardless of the reports we hear of conversations going on right now, is how to bring the Gospel to families in the love of Jesus Christ. Then how do we assist them and encourage them to live the Gospel in their daily lives, as well as to give example of it and testimony to it for the rest of the world. Quite frankly, our sex lives are the least of it. Our Gospel needs to be the authentic Gospel, however, and not a hand me down interpretation of it. It needs to be the authentic love of Jesus Christ and not the hand me down perception of love that the world wants us to express. So that we may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, in which we shine like stars in the world. (Phil 2:15) We know that we are God’s children, and that the whole world lies under the power of the evil one.  (1John 5:19)  Without this authenticity we will merely be giving lip service to Church teaching. In actuality we may be negating those teachings for the sake of worldly concerns. Rather than being the children of God who shine like stars in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, we will, instead, be giving in to the hand me world of the evil one. Don’t give me no hand me down world…we got that already.

 Anybody here see the fuzzy-wuzzy loving cup explosion?

I think we missed it

Anybody here see the changing of the year-end emotion?

Many people are hoping to see a fuzzy-wuzzy loving cup explosion. I hope we miss that. Jesus tells us that we will drink from the same cup as he did (Mark 10:39). This cup is the cup of doing the will of the Father even when it involves suffering. It involves taking up our crosses to follow Jesus in doing the will of the Father.  By grace, however, we will be given everything that we need in doing so.  It is not at all based on the capriciousness of the changing of the year-end emotions of being subject to our wants, our desires and our passions. It is not even based on our sympathies and empathies. The Church is a means of that grace that overcomes a subjugation to sin. How hopeless for us if the Church begins to operate on the contingency that grace is not sufficient for what families face today. It will indeed be a hopeless state if we begin to believe that common virtue is somehow a heroic effort that is beyond us, even with the help of grace. That truth must be mitigated with politically correct language. We got that already in this world.

  “What has been, that will be; what has been done, that will be done. Nothing is new under the sun. Even the thing of which we say, “See, this is new!” has already existed in the ages that preceded us.” Eccl 1:9-10

All of this is nothing new. The tension between the Gospel and the hand me down world has always been and will always be. The conversations surrounding every decision the Church has ever made has always made one wonder just exactly which way the Church was going to go. They have even caused some to fear that the Church would take us along a wrong path. It has always been so. But Jesus promised that the gates of hell would not prevail against the Church. He promised that he would always be with us. He promised that the Holy Spirit would always lead us in truth. I for one plan to take him at his word.

I recognize that whatever God does will endure forever; there is no adding to it, or taking from it. Thus has God done that he may be revered. What now is has already been; what is to be, already is; and God restores what would otherwise be displaced. Eccl 3:14-15

There are many reports of many conversations coming out of the Synod. There is noise, there is commotion…and there is fear. The reason I know there is fear is that I read of the beginnings of contingency plans in many of the blogs that are already in motion. I read of progressive discussions of celibate men making decisions about things that they know nothing about. How the Church may uphold ideals for the sake of ideology but we all know how the real world works…nudge, nudge, wink, wink…and can follow our own consciences. On the radical traditional extreme I read of the further decent of the Church into modernity that then continues to justify those who believe in resisting the Church at this time. Even among what you call mainstream I have seen those who have been parsing the word infallible just in case the Church makes the wrong call here and we will know that we don’t have to follow.  You see, the greatest danger here is not the hierarchy and what they will decide. It will be us and how we decide to react, so that in the end there may be many who call themselves Catholic and go to Mass but who will have, in fact, separated themselves from the leadership of the Church. That will not be something new either. Only the same old, hand me down shoes, hand me down love, and hand me down world followed by many in times of uncertainty, turmoil, decision and change. We’ve been there before and many in the past have already done that. It is possible that we are the ones being put to the test here, not the hierarchy of the Church. Will we, when there is an appearance of uncertainty, stay the course with the one, true Church, established by Jesus Christ? Will we shine through the darkness, a light for the upright, gracious, merciful and just… never to be shaken. Will we have no fear of an ill report, of evil tidings, with our hearts steadfast, trusting the Lord? Will our hearts remain tranquil, without fear, knowing that we can trust the process, trust the Lord, and trust the Holy Spirit? Knowing, as well, that the desires of the wicked come to nothing?(Psalm 112)  And if, indeed, during these discussions, the arms of the Church that hold the staff of God begin to tire will we be as Aaron and Hur for them by upholding those arms? (Exodus 17:8-16) Or will we scatter in fear.  

 (No time left for you)

On my way to better things

(No time left for you)

I’ll find myself some wings

(No time left for you)

Distant roads are calling me

(No time left for you)

Mm-da, mm-da, mm-da, mm-da, mm-da

I have no doubt that the Church and the Synod will not conform themselves to this age. Instead, through the Holy Spirit, they will allow themselves to be transformed by the renewal of their minds, that they may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect (Rom 12:2) Because it is what Jesus has promised and that promise has been proven over the history of the Church. As for us…will we say that we’ve got no time for a hand me down world…got one already…but remain steadfast and confidant that we are on our way to better things?

I got, got, got, got no time
I got, got, got, got no time
I got, got, got, got no time
No, no, no, no, no, no, no time
No, no, no, no, no, no, no time
I got, got, got, got no time
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no time

(Don't give me no hand me down world)
I don't really need it and I'm not gonna take it
(Don't give me no hand me down world)
Don't give it to me 'cause I really don't want it
(Don't give me no hand me down world)
I don't wanna take it and I really don't need it, now
(Don't give me no hand me down world)
Just don't give it to me, don't wanna take it