Poetry: Le Chanson d' Logres

   I stand astride the worlds,
a giant amongst men.
Singer, singing slumbering measures;
pacings, swayings, sighings.
stringing shimmering strands,
oh, so softly, beyond all ken.
     Soulful Nature's Symphony,
beyond all bend and spray.
 Silent, Sweeping, Song of Songs,
the truth, the life, the way.
 Trembling Viel, pierced by a trillion diamonds,
glistening teardrops, deep wells of reflection,
  yet as flaming messengers.
Then, the leaping chorus, shooting stars, rocketing, richocheting,
beyond all bounds,
until, suddenly caught and down and down again,
into fading, spiraling, winding white rivers.
   Bright hues, living waters, rainbow covenants,
prisms of a trillion colours, descending voices,
flickering white torches.
  The white flowing downward,
the ever-lengthening, widening,
train upon the stairs.
   Bells of joy, peals of laughter,
ringing loud and clear.
     The mighty voice upon the waters,
La Chanson d' Chanticleer.

When voting is too Hypocritical

Judge not , that ye be not judged. For with what judgement ye judge, ye shall be judged : and with what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again  ....  

....Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye.... (Matthew 7: 1,2.5a).

It is about hypocrisy. Jesus never tells us ,anywhere, we are never to make judgements.  

Even deciding what is hypocritical ,and what is not, is base upon judgement - let alone Christ’s whole “Sermon on the Mount”, which is an exhortation to judge our lives in the light of Christ’s teachings.

.........I could not bring myself to vote in our last provincial election. Of course, I was scolded by two friends down at the coffee shop.

“You have to vote, Ron! Look, Ron, even though I don’t agree with the Green Party, I voted just to weaken Christy Clarke and the Liberals,” said my coffee friend.

The end justifies the means. If you have to, vote the worst political party out.

       My answer to my coffee friend, was that I have voted for the lesser of the two evils in the past. This time ‘round, I could not bring myself to do it.

       Why? I cannot see any political party out there, that truly supports “LIFE.”

I only see the lowest dregs of political utility, rife within every political party. Death is the result. Only death, only social death is being preached.

       Why?

Because Western Society has abandonned the heart of any society - the Family.

The family is the life-giving, and life-affirming, foundation to all society. Attempting to change the family, to man and man, or woman and woman, in place of man and woman, can never maintain a true and living society.Instead of breeding life into society, same-sex marriage bears no children - no life to replenish society.

Further, our society has enacted laws that destroys the ‘fruit’ of the family - children. Abortion on demand is the second death knell to Western Society, besides same-sex marriage. The end of these two modern distortions can only be a protracted social death - no more life.

For any living being, to vote for any political party that encourages anything but life, is utter, shameful, hypocrisy. 

Ron Benty

Getting Married

                                                       Getting Married

For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh (Genesis 2:24).

Marriage is the most ancient social agreement recorded in the Bible.  Marriage is intended to be a lifelong commitment between one man and one woman, for their mutual benefit and the benefit and stability of a community (Malachi 2:10-16; Matthew 19:1-9).  When children are the fruit of this relationship, they are to be the beneficiaries of the stability and safety of this lifelong commitment (Ephesians 5:31-6:3).  Marriage was never intended to end in divorce, and divorce was only tolerated when the marriage agreement was violated by adultery or abandonment (Matthew 19: 3-8; I Corinthians 7: 10-16). Even in such cases, forgiveness and the restoration of the marriage was encouraged as the greatest alternative to divorce (Hosea 3:1-5; Ephesians 4:32; Matthew 18: 21-22).  In light of the Bible’s encouragement of  lifelong marriage commitment, any decision to marry is a serious decision.

How, then, can we encourage lifelong commitments to love and faithfulness in marriages?

                                          Togetherness

Love always protects, always trust, always hopes, always preservers. Love never fails. (I Corinthians 13: 7-8)

According to “Divorce Magazine”, 45% of marriages in Canada end in divorce (Divorce).  This means that if a couple are deciding to marry, today, there is, roughly a 50/50 chance that they could end up being divorced.  If a couple truly desires to make a “so long as you both shall live” marriage, how can they avoid being another divorce statistic?

                                                   -2- 

Mary Fairchild suggests five very practical steps to building a committed and lasting marriage (Fairchild).

1.  Pray together.

2.  Read the Bible together.

3.  Make important decisions together.

4.  Attend Church together.

5.  Continue dating.

Fairchild’s list of steps toward a lasting marriage seem, at the outset, so very simple, yet how often do married couples practice any of these activities together?

Certainly, the operative word in Fairchild’s “five steps” is “together”.  How can a man and woman achieve this kind of “togetherness” as a couple?

“Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so?” (Amos 3:3)

This passage from the book of Amos emphasizes a kind of “togetherness” that is founded upon agreement in spiritual matters.  According to the prophet Amos, the Israelites were not “walking together” with the Lord because they were not living in faithfulness to the Lord according to the “agreement” laid down in the Law of Moses.

Instead of serving the Lord alone, the Israelites were also worshipping other gods at competing altars (Amos 3: 2-4, 13-15)  The behavior of the Israelites undermined the covenant.  In other words, because there was no true agreement in spiritual matters, the “togetherness” that was supposed to exist between the Lord and the Israelites was destroyed.  According to Amos, then, the basis of walking together in harmony with another is some kind of agreement on spiritual matters.

Agreement on spiritual matters is crucial in a marriage.  Faith convictions, while never perfectly followed, still form the basis of our actions toward and relationships with other people.  If a couple are in agreement over regarding their spiritual convictions, then they tend to

                                                   -3-

be in agreement over other matters.  This claim is true simply because faith convictions tend to be the convictions that are the governing convictions over the lesser convictions of our lives.  For example, if a couple believes in a beneficent God who desires them to love others as themselves, then that spiritual conviction is going to underlie the numerous relationships that daily enter their lives - how they treat their colleagues at work, how they greet the neighbour on the street, how they treat each other - every relationship in their lives will be effected by the governing faith conviction to love their neighbour as themselves.  If, however only one of the couple held this belief, it would be far more challenging for that couple to stay together since there would be no agreement on this core belief.  Where there is no agreement, there is no harmony, and where there is no harmony, there is no togetherness.  

It would seem that a lack of “togetherness” on spiritual matters is exactly what the Apostle Paul has in mind when he speaks about followers of Christ being “unequally yoked” with those who do not follow Christ (II Corinthians 6: 14-18).  You will not be able to “pull together” in the same “yoke” as your spouse, if you do not share the same faith convictions - instead, you will be “pulling” away from each other on this serious matter.

Keeping your marriage together, then, can be greatly influenced by spiritual activities that Fairchild encourages, such as: praying together, reading the Bible together, attending Church together, etc....  Yet, this “togetherness” has to be first based upon an underlying agreement on the important spiritual beliefs which govern our lives, otherwise, there is no true harmony on which a couple can base a marriage. 

                                                   -4-

                                         Companionship

             “A friend loves at all time” (Proverbs 17:17)

One of the hallmarks of friendship is the enjoyment that comes from being with that other person.  What draws two people together into a friendship is not merely that they agree on everything, but also that they derive enjoyment from being around that other person.  It might be something in other person’s personality - the person’s exuberance, or seriousness, or thoughtfulness, or intelligence, or kindness - whatever trait it is, it draws you like a magnet toward that other person.  And, because you like that person, you want to be with that person, to be that person’s friend.

The question, then, is simple.  Are you and your spouse good friends?

The question about friendship between couple goes far beyond sexual attraction.  As our fallen nature teaches us time and again, two people can be sexually attracted to each other and have nothing in common except their mutual lust.  This lust might drive them together for a “one night stand” or longer, but their togetherness will only last as long as their lust will allow.  After the sex is over, those two people might even hate each other.  The story of Amon and Tamar is a case in point (II Samuel 13:1-19).

The question about being friends with your spouse to be is not then a question only about sexual attraction (which is a wonderful thing); but also a question about “liking” that other person (wanting to be around that other person once the sex is over).  A couple then has to not only be sexually attracted to each other, they have to enjoy each others company. 

                                      

                                              -5-

                                     Forgiveness

“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you”.  (Ephesians 4:32)

Pope’s maxim, “to err is human; to forgive is divine”, is most certainly true.  We are all doomed to err and those that say otherwise are simply not telling the truth (I John 1:5-10).  No one but God is perfect. Call it what you will, the tragic flaw, human weakness, honest mistakes, or just plain sin.  It does not matter what tag you put on it, we all err, period.

What does this mean to a marriage?  It means that no marriage will ever be perfect.  It means that to expect more than what your spouse is able to give is not only naive, but it is also unfair.  One way or another, your spouse will fall short of the expectations you had for her or him, when you first got married.  The claim is an absolute.  Everyone will eventually spy a flaw in their spouse that they never pick up on while they were only infatuated with each other.  True love is not blind.  God is not blind to our sins and He is love itself (I John 4:7-8).

The Bible’s command to forgive is so important because we all need forgiveness, and especially in our marriages.  Does forgiveness mean license to take advantage of your spouses generous heart?  Of course not.  There is a reason why divorce is permitted, although not encouraged (Matthew 19:1-9).  However, forgiveness is always preferred by God in the Bible.

Yes.  Some offenses are extremely hard to forgive.  In fact, some offenses, even when your spouse is truly sorry, will haunt you the rest of your life; yet, you must remember that you also have offended your spouse.  Words you have spoken, and sins you have committed, against your spouse will also haunt him or her even if you are truly sorry.

                                                   -6-

Forgiveness, then, becomes the touchstone of marriage.  With forgiveness come the opportunity for a wonderful marriage, without forgiveness your marriage will most certainly fail because you and your spouse are certain to err. For this reason, we are reminded, emphatically, to “forgive as the Lord forgave us” (Colossians 3:13).

                                          Works Cited        

Divorce Magazine.com (2007).  http://www.divorcemag.com/statistics/  statWorld.shtml.

Fairchild, Mary.  “Five Steps to Building Your Christian Marriage”,

     cited in About: Christianity-General.  http://christianity.about.com/

     od/practicaltools/p/christianmarria.htm.          

Think on These Things - Marriage and The Titanic

                                            Think on These Things

Have ye not read, that He which made them at the beginning

made them male and female.  And said, for this cause shall

a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife;

and the twain shall be one flesh?  Wherefore they are no more

twain, but one flesh.  What therefore God hath joined together, 

let not man put asunder.  (Matthew 19: 4-6)

I quote these words of Jesus, intentionally, from the dated King James Version, to underscore the reality that I am part of that fossilized, submerged, wreck called traditional marriage.  Although I was being put to rest by the law making community, it was not those people who released my coffin from the port bow.  The people most truly responsible for my passing were those who once claimed they treasured me most.  The sad truth is that I was eventually ignored out of existence by those who left their first love ....

It is always so easy for me to point my withering finger at the other guy, so pragmatically useful, and such an easy way for me to escape the inevitable responsibility of my own self-sacrifice.  If there is anything that stood out, during my own pathetic attempt at Lent, is that Jesus, who claimed to be the Son of the Living God, always led by example. He allows the scourge to tear His bloodied back, rather than use His words and actions to tear the other guy to pieces.

I am ashamed at how often my accusing finger wags it’s damning condemnation in that other person’s direction, while I sit there basking in the raging inferno of my own inexcusable, and outrageously indiscernible, hypocrisy.  Oh, it is certainly obvious to the rest of the world - like an emblazoned flag-announcing, look my foolishness! Yet, the more strident my preaching at the other person, the more and more and more my flagrant hypocrisy is ever more oblivious to my own self.

How then am I to react, when I see, all around me, a world, which, in my best judgement, has ignored, is ignoring, and will continue to ignore, the most basic model of all human relationships laid down in Holy Scripture.  Namely, the covenant relationship between the man and the woman, that has served as the model we are to aspire toward - marriage.  How does the preponderance of scripture writings encourage me to react, as biblical marriage continues to go the melancholy way of the once great dinosaur?  Scripture, overwhelming, encourages me to “weep, between the porch and the altar” - to bury my heart, in prayer.  As one writer once said: “We are never so tall, as when we are on our knees”.  When we hide and hunker down in prayer, then Jesus, the one who died, and rose again, and ascended into glory, becomes more visible, and far more compelling, than my hypocritical escapades.  And, then? Well, if Jesus is still rejected, and His message on marriage, then I will have done everything I could have, safely, done by the grace of God. 

And biblical marriage?  Well, even if it dies out completely to our society, as apparently the evidence indicates, then, at least we can take heart, that, as a earthly prototype of the eternal marriage between Christ and His heavenly Bride, it will forever remembered.

Still, now, biblical marriage, remains, down here, as a hollowed shell, like the once great Titanic, but now only a barely remembered underwater site, for daring and adventurous deep sea archaeologists and lovers of the bizarre and obscure.

Ron Benty,

Wynndel Community Church 

The Garden People

Click here to read The Garden People

Thoughts on unconditional love

Think on These Things

Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou

shalt love thy neighbour and hate thine enemy.

But I say unto you, love your enemies bless them that

curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for 

them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

That ye may be the children of your Father which is in 

heaven:  for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on

the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

For if you love them which love you, what reward have ye?

Do not even the publicans (the tax collectors) do the same?

And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than

others? Do not even the publicans (tax collectors) do so?

Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father 

which is in heaven is perfect. (Matthew 5: 43-48)

Christ’s teachings on love crack like a whip.  The snap of the lash to 

our conscience, has to do with loving the people, you normally cannot 

stand, the most.

The sad truth, is that we already have a hard enough time staying in love with the people we usually agree with.  How many people (like myself), who claim to be ministers of the Good News of sacrificial love and unconditional forgiveness, fail in even loving their own christian brothers and sisters - let alone those who disagree with Christ’s teachings.

To be blatantly transparent, I struggle, daily, in loving my wife and children, in true, sacrificial, ways.  I also struggle, daily, to love my christian brothers and sisters.  The sad reality, is that, apart from being graced to pray for the grace of love, I am one of the most miserable curs alive.  I am always complaining, “on the outside or on the inside”, about helping with the dishes, the laundry, the lawn, the recycling, picking up after the kids, or God knows what.  And, as far a loving the people at church? Well, ask my wife how much I grumble and rumble about “so and so” that “drives me nuts”.  If you truly do not struggle in this way - God bless you so much -  you are a rare gift of grace , and I would love to meet you, because I need more of what you have got.  

Still, I have discovered, much to my inner angst, that Jesus’s teaching, about really loving, and really blessing, and really praying for people who we disagree with the most, just will not go away.  This command, to truly and actively care the most, for the people you will always disagree with the most, is so far beyond the range of my own ability, that, apart from the sheer, miraculous, gift of God’s grace to my shriveled soul, I, literally, am ashamed to even read it.  For, normally, and usually, I am only willing to show any love, at all, to those others whom, I, secretly, think will be willing to “come around” to my own, personal, way of thinking.  It is quite pathetic.

In the end, I can only see, by grace, two options.  I continue, in my own human capacities, to love like I normally do - and, to forever question if that was “real love” at all.  Or, I can be graced with a grace of God.  A grace that, in spite of my pathetic limitations, lifts my soul, gifts my soul, with His sacrifical love.  .... Love that conquers all sins, love that lays down itself, so that its enemies have a bridge to walk on.

Love that bears all things, believe’s all things, hopes all things, endures all things.... Love that never fails (I Corinthians 13)

I, by utter grace, alone, have discovered a bizarre irony.  As I, naturally, become more miserable with age, I, ironically, am being graced to pray, daily, to really, and truly, love the people, I disagree with, the most. And, not with that conditional “Hidden Hitch” - that there must first exist a detectable willingness to eventually share in my own convictions. 

I, by sheer grace, want what the Holy Spirit desires to birth in my soul - a sacrificial love, that actively loves the people, I most disagree with, the most of all.

Ron Benty, Wynndel Community Church