And the truth shall...

 

...catch you out in the end. Hello everyone. I trust that you are ok. I am ok, all things considered. You may be looking at this photo and thinking - "The weather is nice, but I wouldn't have said that it was that warm yet."  Neither would I, dear reader, as I sit inside with a blanket while HOH insists on fresh air. 

Watching the news at the moment can leave you feeling as dismayed as an Israeli soldier when you realise that they are digging up the bodies of the ambulance drivers that you killed and that they will all have their mobile phones with them - with footage.  Not that it will make any difference, I suppose. Fighting off the cynicism can be a full-time job these days. 

There's a verse in the Bible which says (Message version), "Be shrewd as a snake". Now, I'm not sure how shrewd snakes are. To me, they look like hissing tubes of hatred. If you've ever watched Steve Backshall pick one up and point it at the camera, you can almost hear it thinking, "I will kill you all, given half a chance". To be fair, they have to get their fill of whole bunny rabbits - or children, to survive, so snakes gotta do what snakes gotta do.  I suppose Kaa in The Jungle Book was very shrewd, but I may be going off on a tangent here.  Just as a statement of fact - The Jungle Book is one of the greatest films of all time, and someone should be doing time in jail for producing a live-action version. Yes, we all know that you and your AI can produce a really life-like tiger, but just because you can, does it mean that you should? Ha! 

Last week, we watched that Bruce Parry documentary on the BBC. I can't remember what it was called. He spends a good third of it building up his part, telling us that he is going into the deep, dark jungle to meet people who hate outsiders and never see people who aren't in their tribe. We are entering a mysterious world where men are men, and an outsider could be killed and eaten just for refusing to eat a killer ant. Hmm. If that's the case, Bruce, then why are they all smoking Capstan Full Strength, and where have the kids got those Arsenal football shirts from? Then they all go to a "Mysterious Ceremony", where they all drink a Mysterious Spiritual Brew, which gives them the energy to dance a mysterious spiritual dance for twenty-four hours straight.  It sounds an awful lot like a Wigan Casino Northern Soul All-Nighter to me. (So I'm told). They are laughing at you, Bruce! They are hiding behind trees, watching you "purify yourself" by drinking something that makes you throw up for twenty-four hours straight and laughing until their sides hurt.  See. I am shrewd as a snake.

On a slightly more serious note, I watched an advert with a woman who I won't name but who has a high post in the current American Administration as the Spiritual Director. In this advert, she asks "spiritually" for everyone watching to send the administration $1000. In exchange for this, you can expect an angel assigned to you personally to be kept from all sickness, to expect great monetary prosperity and for all your enemies to be slain. Just a reminder, this is not "Channel 3460 Jesus Time" or something equally obscure - this is the government. Really? I believe the statements themselves are found somewhere deep in Leviticus or something, but they are so far out of context that they are meeting themselves coming back. It is, I think, quite difficult to be shrewd as a snake in situations like these because so many people are struggling so much, and to have someone with a high government position quote the Bible and tell you that all your problems will be over of you can just scrape together this money and send it to them, it can seem like a lifeline. Spoiler - It's not. 

Stuff like this is really annoying because it makes people think that all Christians are like this. I am probably preaching to the choir when I say that we are not. This Sunday, HOH was "on the door" yet again. (Don't ask. A long story about a lady with a blister under her toe that was turning nasty.)  Anyway, he was talking to a lady who has fostered for Barnardo's all her life - hundreds of 'em. Driven by her faith. Scratch the surface of any church - no matter how unlikely and these sorts of people are there.  The phrase "shrewd as a snake" comes from Matthew 5, which you maybe could find and read the whole thing. I like The Message version. In it, Jesus is sending out the Disciples on their own, and he is giving them a set of instructions. He tells them that they will be threatened and bullied. That they will be misunderstood - sometimes deliberately and that they must be sharp and alive to what is happening. There is nothing new under the sun.

But, if you read the full chapter, what is the response meant to be? My initial response is to run at these people who willfully mislead the vulnerable - possibly with an axe. But the disciples are told that they are being sent out to "tenderly care for the hurt and bruised and hurt lives", to "touch the untouchables", and to "give a cool cup of water to someone who is thirsty". Matthew 5 tells them not to lose their focus and to keep on doing these things in the midst of all this injustice. Because love, care and compassion are what people really need. Me included. Besides, I'm not that sure how I feel about having an angel following me around one-to-one, watching everything I do. I'm in enough trouble as it is. Have a great week.