The Chaff is Chafing

Before I go, say, to the hair salon or to the car repair shop or to a doctor’s appointment, I think about what I want and what I don’t want. Then, I am able to choose the path I take.

During my yearly checkup in March, the doctor came into the room all gowned and masked up. He asked if I was vaccinated. I told him “No”. He asked “Why not?” and I told him.

“Why should I take an “emergency-use”-untested- vaccine into my system? Should I get COVID, if I haven’t had it already, my body will deal with it. I will gain immunity and build immunological memory against it. If I get it and have symptoms, I’ll call you for Ivermectin.”

The doctor, looking concerned, went on to justify his giving the vaccine to his other patients. What was troubling: he agreed with me that the vaccine hadn’t been adequately tested. He also agreed with me when I said “You can’t live in fear.”

As you know, every prescribed medication has warnings, precautions and contraindications so you can make an informed decision with regard to its use. You would think that an “emergency-use”-untested- vaccine would be an absolute contraindication. And, especially when the recovery rate from Coronavirus is over 99%.

I chose the path I would take and said “No”. I based my adult decision on 1) the absolute contraindication presented to me and 2) the increasing number of adverse reactions (see links in previous posts) and 3) the warnings presented by Dr. Bhakdi in my previous post

*****

Just this week you and I were talked to, like we were little children, by the Biden regime. Joe Biden is now doing the deciding for you and me. Joe Biden now is choosing for you and me. I don’t know how I made it over 68 years without CDC guidance and Joe Biden.

(Apparently, Joe Biden didn’t use ultimatums in his own home. Did Biden ever lay down the law for his son Hunter? If he had, maybe Hunter wouldn’t have turned out to be such a . . .)

Per this ultimatum, our paths are limited to two. You and I are not to venture outside the paths Big Brother has told us walk in. Progressives, like the Evil One, desire a controlled opposition.

Biden’s pronouncement (of no Constitutional standing) was made to produce an outcome: separate strata of obedience to the state. On top, in pride of place, are those who conform to state vaccination. Below them are those who are not “vaxxed” and submit to wearing a mask as a sign of obedience. At the bottom, implicit in the pronouncement, are those who refuse to obey “the rule is”.

Those who refuse both vax and mask are the unclean. They are yet to be washed in the blood of communism.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary exacerbates the divide by producing its own version of a “yellow star” label. Its inscription “anti-vaxxer” connotes “A person who opposes vaccination or laws that mandate vaccination.” The world is lining up behind the dark forces that demand your total allegiance of mind, body and soul.

Now, when someone is commanding me to put something into my body to be acceptable to them, I say “No.” In the Bizarro world of Progressives it is not ironic that those of the Biden regime are the same people who condone “My body, my choice” when it comes to ripping a human from the womb for no other reason than “I want to.” These are the ways of the wicked.

I have also said “No” to mask wearing. I have never been a mask wearer – not here not there and not anywhere at any time. I won’t wear a mask so I can go into a store, or to a hair salon or to church. How ludicrous. How debasing. There is no science that says I should wear a mask. I follow the science and not the CDC and not the “scientism” pronouncements coming down from Mount Olympus.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary will now have to include “anti-masker”: A person who opposes mask wearing or laws that mandate mask wearing; archaic, an individual who refuses to debase themselves to please others.

It certainly appears that mask wearing and now getting a vaccination has become an “us and them” moral statement. Some are copping an attitude: “I am superior to you because I conform to the rules of my political tribe.” And, “I care about people and you don’t.”

For others, it is going along to get along with “governing authorities”. These are the passive -aggressive. They will lash out about restrictions in sermons or in print or to their spouse but they conform nonetheless.

And many conform to the ludicrous out of fear of reprisal. Progressives, like the Evil One, welcome the controlled opposition.

As priests, rectors, rabbis and ministers now submit to CDC guidelines, will they also subject themselves to the “governing authorities” and follow civic leader’s instructions when ultimatum guidelines are handed down: submit to and preach Critical Race Theory or you will not be allowed to minister? At what point do you not conform to Caesar’s pronouncements? Do you “go along to get along” so as to look like a “good little Christian” and to not suffer any consequences?

In the church we need leaders not lemmings. We have enough facilitators. We need leaders. Look at the Apostle Paul. Read the Acts of the Apostles and Paul’s letters. Paul spent a lot of time in prison because he spoke the truth. He didn’t go out of his way to break the law. He just spoke highly controversial things – there is one true God, his Son came to earth, was crucified, rose from the dead and now is Lord.

Paul’s words were perceived as heretical and just plain silly by the Greeks who had many gods and no resurrection of the dead in their philosophy. Pauls’ words were received as insurrection to the Romans who addressed their own sovereign as “Lord”.

Paul, like Jesus, submitted to the “governing authorities” AT THE POINT the “governing authorities” decided to deal with him. He accepted the consequence of his words and actions. He did NOT accept a “go along to get along” conformity that would keep him out of trouble.

Listen. Returning to normal is not gaining ground in the spiritual war confronting us. I am not sorry. I can’t stand namby-pamby leaders. If a fig tree is not producing it is of no use.

Will you stand before the Lord one day and say the following?

“You gave me ten talents and I kept them safe. I stayed within the status quo so as to not bring attention to them. I didn’t want to take the risk. So, I buried what you gave me and I obeyed the “governing authorities” who came snooping around. I did what they asked. Here’s the ten talents back. Good luck with that.”

Now, do you as a Christian think that because “science” is involved that it is OK for your mind to go into neutral and therefore you must submit to the “governing authorities”? If Caesar said “You must kill all your firstborn to end the pandemic” would you then resist?

What does it take for you to wake up and see the ways of the wicked and to not submit to them? Joseph and Mary didn’t stick around to obey the “governing authority” Herod when he commanded that first-born children be killed (to assuage his fear of losing power).

Haven’t you noticed? Progressives have no use for you if you don’t conform. And when you do, they still have no use for you except as a prole to do their bidding. It is their way or the highway. “The rule is . . . Conform to our Woke imperialism, take our Woke Jab, or you will be scoffed at, mocked, and exiled”.

Show me what you conform to and I’ll show you your future.

*****

Psalm 1

¹ Happy are those
    who do not follow the advice of the wicked,
or take the path that sinners tread,
    or sit in the seat of scoffers;
²but their delight is in the law of the Lord,
    and on his law they meditate day and night.
³They are like trees
    planted by streams of water,
which yield their fruit in its season,
    and their leaves do not wither.
In all that they do, they prosper

⁴The wicked are not so,
    but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
⁵Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
    nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
⁶for the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
    but the way of the wicked will perish.

*****

The Fig Tree and Flashpoint

The day of the “triumphal” entry:

Jesus entered Jerusalem, went into the temple, and looked all around. It was already getting late, and he returned to Bethany with the twelve. (Mk. 11: 11)

The next day . . .

“. . . as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. From some distance away he saw a fig tree covered with leaves, and hoped to find fruit on it; but when he came up to it he found nothing but leaves (It wasn’t yet the season for figs.)

He addressed the tree directly. “May no one ever eat fruit from you again,” he said. And his disciples heard. (Mk. 11: 12-14)

We get a basic understanding of why Jesus is cursing the fig tree from Psalm 1 – those who follow the Lord produce fruit. Those who have the appearance of fruit producing -leaves – but do not bear fruit will be dealt with. Their superficial being is like the chaff that the wind drives away.

We get a pointed understanding from the Prophet Hosea. He describes how God initially thought of Israel . . . and then . . .

Like grapes in the wilderness,
    I found Israel.
Like the first fruit on the fig tree,
    in its first season,
    I saw your ancestors.
But they came to Baal-peor,
    and consecrated themselves to a thing of shame,
    and became detestable like the thing they loved. (Hosea 9:10, emphasis mine)

During the time of the Second Temple, there were those, including priests, who had followed the advice of the wicked and taken the path that sinners trod (Ps. 1). They, like Israel before them, had laid waste my vines and ruined my fig trees. (Joel 1:6-7)

The cursing of the fig tree was a symbolic message to Israel and in particular to its priests: if you do not produce the spiritual fruit I ordained you to produce, you are to be cursed! For, as priests, rectors, rabbis, and ministers go, so go the people.

In direct opposition to their vocation to be a separate people and to be the fig tree that produced the fruit of righteousness, many Jews had conformed to the world around them. They had the appearance of bearing fruit – the leaves – but produced no fruit.

And so it was that many sat mocking the sacred space of the Temple as they sold their wares within its walls. Over time the Temple had become profaned by priests who had adopted the ways of the world. Jesus would not stand for that. He would drive the chaff from the Temple.

After the disciples heard Jesus curse the fig tree . . .

They came into Jerusalem. Jesus went into the Temple and began to drive out the traders, those who bought and sold in the Temple, and overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of the dove sellers. He permitted no one to carry a vessel through the Temple. He began to teach: Isn’t this what’s written,” he said,

‘My house shall be called

A house of prayer

For all the world to share’?

But you’ve made it a brigands’ den!” (Mark 11: 15-17)

The “afraid” governing authorities, the chief priests and legal experts – the chafing chaff, looked for a way to get rid of Jesus. (Mk. 11: 18) And then we read . . .