Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

I’m Jemima L. Yeggs, a.k.a. Stinker.  Pink Lady Apple Yeggs, my landlady and my auntie, wants to read about how younger people, especially couples respond to what the Bible says.  And she wants to know how God is at work at Lily the Pink.

B.B. and I were in our ‘green room’.  B.B. was working on my hair as usual, and she was extra careful.  “Stinker?  Is God really zealous about my well being?  And does He even care about the unborn Broomhilda in my belly?”

I groaned.  “One, He cares about you so much that He is zealous about you.  Two, save these questions until the Sunday school class starts!  Three, are you out of your mind thinking of naming your daughter, Broomhilda?”

B.B. snickered, “No way.  That is the name that we have come up with if it’s a boy!”

I snickered, “You wouldn’t dare.”

B.B. laughed, “Joseph and I were talking about baby names, and I think Joseph came up with boy names out of the Bible for half the letters in the alphabet.  I did the same for girl names.  We got so frustrated, we started making up names that we would never call the child.  I think if we print out each list and toss it down the stairs, the name that lands on the bottom step, regardless of the gender, will be the kid’s name.  That’s a lot easier than what we’ve been doing.”

I shrugged, “One problem with that.  Your apartment is on the first floor.”

B.B. smiled, “My plan is to do the littering after we go to your apartment for dinner one night.”

I groaned, “And have Aunt Pink blame me for the mess?”

B.B. laughed, “Gotcha!”

I growled.

We entered the den and nodded at Joseph to open us in prayer.

Joseph led us in prayer with no interruption from Arabella.

Emmett’s band was not there.  There was Mags on the cello, Tamara on the flute, and Darrell on the guitar.  Then Carla, Menzie, and Arabella walked in dressed like angels.  They sang O Holy Night.

I asked, “Why aren’t you at the first service?”

Arabella smiled, “We are at the first service.  What you see is a hologram.”

I snickered, “So, if I walked up to you and slapped you with Stormie’s diaper bag, I would not hit anything?”

Arabella said, “Don’t you dare!  It messes up the lasers if you do that!”

Menzie said, “The songs from the cantata that they are singing for the first service do not need us.  None of us have solo parts, except Arabella.  She sings so low that no one hears her.”

Arabella groaned, “Did you get the number of that bus that just ran over me?”

Grannie Fannie laughed, “It wasn’t me, Belle!”

Darrell said, “Aunt Jemima, with Samuel at the early service, what Attribute of God are we studying today?”

I laughed, “Darrell, we do not have to maintain the schtick if Samuel does not show up.  But we are talking about how God is zealous.  He does things with great zeal.  Arabella, do we need Mr. Dictionary?”

Sarah tapped a button on her tablet, prepared ahead of time for the question.  The tablet said, “My older sister asked in our mini-group session last night if you had a typo.  It says in Exodus 20:5 that God is a jealous God.  That is the commandment about not having any images of anything else to worship.  So, are we talking about zealous or jealous?”

Arabella growled, “You little rat!  The second bus just ran over me.”

I asked, “What little mini-group was this?”

Sarah smiled.  She pressed something on her tablet.  “Our parents invited Soapy, Michael, and Clay over for supper last night and we discussed the Bible verses between the meal and a Christmas Carol singalong.”

“Okay,“ I nodded, “The answer to your question is zealous, not jealous.”

Easy groaned, “Rats!  That was a perfect question for Mr. Dictionary.”

I patted him on the arm.  “I apologize, dear.  Close your eyes and pretend to keep up with the class.”

Sarah moved her lips and then the tablet said, “That’s funny.  Arabella has her eyes open and she can’t keep up.”

Arabella screamed, “A third bus!  And class hasn’t even started!”

I huffed, “Class starts when Joseph prays.  We are well into the class, but we have not read any verses yet.”

Easy said, “Before you do, Arabella, Knock Knock.”  Arabella replied, “Who’s there?”  Easy: “Warren.”  Arabella: “Warren who?”  Easy: “Warren the heck are all these buses coming from?”

Grannie Fannie huffed, “I would like to know that too!  I’m the lead bus on Sunday morning.  My bus is parked in the circle drive, blocking anyone else driving up.  If you have just been run over by three buses, we have a problem.”

I hesitated, but added, “Please, let’s get started before we find a fourth bus.”

Mamma Missy (Isaiah 9:7) “Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.”

Missy said, “This says an awful lot about God’s will being done.  The eighth chapter starts off with the children of Israel being naughty and how they will be punished.  But then, practically in the same breath, God prophesies through Isaiah that Jesus is coming and He will sit on David’s throne.  He will establish and uphold justice and righteousness.  And since it mentions forever, I am thinking the second coming.  And it was just the previous chapter in Isaiah 7 where it talks about Jesus being born.  I think God is very zealous about protecting this person and that thing so that all the pieces of His eternal plan will come true.  The Climate Change people are definitely wrong.  Man cannot destroy this planet.  We may be doing a good job of it, and we should probably do better.  But God’s will is going to trump all that.  He will either preserve the world some kind of way or He will set the End Times into action before we can do it to ourselves.”

I smiled, “Bart, what does science have to say about it?”

Bart shrugged, “I am in the camp with Missy.  We should be responsible, but the dooms day prognosticators have missed their targets repeatedly.  There just isn’t enough data to extrapolate to the point of doom.  And doesn’t Jesus say that many will come in His name, but no one but the Father knows the date?”

Lance Allott shrugged, “I am not a scientist nor an engineer, but I have copied dooms day reports for governors to read from.  But the more and more that I find that I had wrong, I am leaning toward Bart’s idea now.”

“Well,” Missy added, “I just reported what the MacDougall mini-group came up with.”

I asked, “This is a couples class.  What’s with all these mini-groups?”

Missy laughed, “We knew Samuel would be at the church, helping with the cantata setup.  We invited Samuel and Menzie to join us last night.  In the Christmas season, you have to schedule family things or you never see each other.”

Lauren came over from the play area, “Sammie and I were there too!”

Missy nodded, “Yes, Lauren and Sammie are important members of the MacDougall mini-group.”

Professor Angus (Isaiah 42:13) “The Lord will march out like a champion, like a warrior he will stir up his zeal; with a shout he will raise the battle cry and will triumph over his enemies.”

Angus smiled, “Aye, and the pipers will gladly go before the Lord.  It was said in past centuries that when the enemy heard the skirl of the bagpipes, they would quake in their boots.”

I smiled, “Yes, but if God is the enemy of these people, would they not be quaking in their boots because God was after them?”

Angus sighed, “Och, Lassie!  God uses every weapon at his disposal.”

I asked Missy, “Am I going to get a straight answer if I continue this line of questioning.”  She smiled and shook her head.  I added, for the benefit of everyone else.  “In times of war, revving up the soldiers for battle was often done.  The Vikings would get one guy to take drugs that made him a bit crazy.  They would promise him a great place in Valhalla.  And then they would release the crazed man, called a berzerker, on the village that they were about to attack.  Other armies might not be that zealous, but the armies used zeal.  So, God is likening Himself to that berzerker type person, except God has all His wits about Him and all of Heaven belongs to Him, so promising Valhalla doesn’t matter in His case.”

Angus smiled, “I was focusing on the ‘battle cry’.”

Missy patted him on the arm and said, “Yes, dear, and you added something to the discussion.  The Vikings had their berzerker.  The Scots had their pipers.  Both got the passion elevated in the armies that followed them.”  And then she leaned over and kissed him.

Arabella (Zechariah 1:14-15) “Then the angel who was speaking to me said, ‘Proclaim this word: This is what the Lord Almighty says: “I am very jealous for Jerusalem and Zion, and I am very angry with the nations that feel secure. I was only a little angry, but they went too far with the punishment.”’”

Arabella said, “See there!  I was right!  This is about God being jealous!”

I groaned, “Arabella, look at the preposition use.  God is jealous for Jerusalem and Zion.  In other words, you say bad things about Jerusalem and Zion, and those become fighting words with God.  Then we are looking at the zeal in which God goes into battle.  So, in a small sense, extreme jealousy can be a form of being zealous.  So, you are not totally wrong, you are just limiting God’s zeal.”

Joseph smiled, “Arabella, do you like the Mighty Mites baseball team?”

Arabella nodded her head eagerly, “We went to a game one year when Dad sold some cattle.  I think Sarah was just a baby, but we had baseball caps and we ate hot dogs.  We had a great time.”

Joseph nodded, “So, are the Mighty Mites your favorite team?”

Arabella nodded eagerly, “Yes, I really like them.”

Joseph sighed, “Then, when the Mighty Mites are beaten by the Dodgers in the playoffs, do you get upset?”

Arabella nodded, “Yeah, a little.  I guess if I went to games every year, I might cheer harder.”

Joseph nodded, “So, you are jealous for the team if someone else puts them down, but you are not to the point of being zealous, where you would get upset if someone hurt the teams chances to win. Right?”

Arabella moaned, “I hate losing an argument just as bad, but I think I understand the difference now.”

I laughed, “We have time for two more.”

B.B. (Isaiah 59:17) “He put on righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head; he put on the garments of vengeance and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak.”

B.B. said, “This is the Old Testament version of the Armor of God.  In the New Testament, you find it in 1 Thessalonians 5 and Ephesians 6.  And it mentions the zeal being like a cloak wrapped around him.”

I snickered, “I once had someone tell me that I wore my emotions like a ‘grand robe’ around me.  So, yeah, God’s emotions are way out there on His sleeve, but He controls those emotions.  We cannot seem to master that.”

Pastor Joseph (Ezekiel 5:13) ““Then my anger will cease and my wrath against them will subside, and I will be avenged. And when I have spent my wrath on them, they will know that I the Lord have spoken in my zeal.”

Joseph said, “Aunt Jemima said it well when she said that God has emotions, but He controls them.  He pours out His wrath in judgments that are just and according to His promises.  But once that wrath has been poured out, His zeal has been quenched, and He goes back to His usual response, to give Mercy.  The wrath is only a correction to guide us back to Him.  But as God hands out His wrath with zeal, He is just as zealous when loving us.  Remember His wrath is in a way a form of tough love.”

I sighed, “Now it’s time for our benediction.”

Grannie Fannie (Romans 15:13) “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Lauren ran up to Grannie Fannie and hugged her.  “Are you ready to drive us?  And thank you for bringing Sammie and me so many friends.  There was Liam, Lympie, and Ellie Rain.”

Brooke did not pick up Stormie as usual.  She was at the church singing an alto solo at the early service.  Their alto lead had gotten bronchitis, and Emmett had recruited Brooke at the last minute.

I looked in Stormie’s carrier and said, “We are going to the church to hear Brooke sing in the cantata and they’ll have a lot of this class in the choir.

Stormie cooed.

Credits

The nature of the blog from Sweet to the Soul Ministries gives only one verse.  I used various searches and cross references for the other verses.  I used just a few sources.

Broomhilda was a story told in the movie, Django Unchained, but I never saw it, so I have no idea where I got the name.

I knew a professor who would take the class’ essays and toss them down the stairs. The bottom step got an “A”. Then the next step up got a “B.” Those that landed at his feet did not pass. Hey! He had a system!

Here is Gentri singing O Holy Night.

I had plans to debut Carla, Menzie and Arabella on Christmas Eve, but this video was simply too good. It won’t spoil Carla’s surprise for her in-laws if the in-laws miss the cantata.

When our younger son was about to be born, my wife and I sat down, and we both agreed on a biblical first name.  Then his middle name was a Gaelic name.  We had the girl’s name decided for months.  My wife’s water broke the day after we had chosen the boy’s name.  At least Joseph and Mary are not waiting until the last minute, but I know from experience, it is not easy to decide.

The Knock Knock joke is similar to a series of Knock Knock jokes that we used in Cub Scouts.  The first would be Amos – A mosquito bit me.  Then mother – a mother (another) mosquito bit me.  Then Yetta or Stella – Yet (or Still) another mosquito bit me.  Then you got to Warren – Warren the heck are all these mosquitos coming from?

The Mighty Mites were the fictional baseball team in the city where Dick Tracy was a police detective.  The Chicago Cardinal football team was also mentioned, but since the Cardinals are in Arizona now, I may call the football team the “Red Birds” or maybe someone has another idea.

My mentor in Jungian psychology, reading the temperament of people in classes where I instructed, gave me the exam for Myers-Briggs.  I am an INFJ.  The “F” means that I use my emotions to determine my value system above using my logic “T”.  I was an expert in Logic.  Straight perfect scores in a graduate level Logic class, and I always breezed through the Logic Puzzles in the magazine aisle.  Then he laughed, “You wear your emotions like a grand robe around you.”  He was the skilled people watcher, and with that description, for better or worse, I had to agree.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.