Fly Away As An Eagle

Pro. 23:5 Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that
which is not? for riches certainly make
themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle
toward heaven.


This morning, I look at the Yahoo news stories of the day, and I see a variety of news. None of it interesting. Is it just me? Do I really need to know 'Which cities are America's most obese'?Maybe I need to dig a little deeper.


Yesterday they were calling it black Friday. Does that make today black Saturday? It kinda' lends new meaning to the name of the older rock band Black Sabbath. The meaning of 'black' in context is that on the first day of Christmas shopping season, retailers balance sheets go from 'in the red' to 'in the black', meaning that they become profitable on the first day of Christmas shopping season. Again, this is not an exciting story. But this use of the word black would make Black Sabbath mean something like 'first profitable day of rest'.


It's just something that I've been trying to
figure out since I was a teenager listening to
their music. How to make sense of their name.

It was when I read through Schaeffer's 'EscapeFrom Reason', that I came to fully realize what was going on in modern Amerika. I mean, I had noticed the disconnect between what people say and what they do, but was (and still am) totally baffled as to why the effort to hide from ourselves. Now I know that under this influence, there is no reason that anything has to make a lick of sense. It provides good cover for all the popular nonsense that's going on around us.


There are passages of scripture that make
reference to an aspect of black Friday -- the
profit motive.


Pro 23:4 Take no care to get wealth; let there
be an end to your desire for money.


5 Are your eyes lifted up to it? it is gone: for
wealth takes to itself wings, like an eagle in
flight up to heaven.


6 Do not take the food of him who has an evil
eye, or have any desire for his delicate meat:


7 For as the thoughts of his heart are, so is
he: Take food and drink, he says to you; but his
heart is not with you.


8 The food which you have taken will come up
again, and your pleasing words will be wasted.


9 Say nothing in the hearing of a foolish man,
for he will put no value on the wisdom of your
words.


Over and again I've heard reference to verse 7. But I can't remember ever hearing it in proper context. Maybe it's just me.


The metaphors of scripture are fascinating to me. Verse 5 is one of them. Makes me think of the line 'They say that money talks. Mine just says goodbye.'


Still, if you are a christian, you ought to make yourself aware of the explicit commercialism of the Christmas season. I know, taking a pause in the busy holiday schedule to think about what we do, and how it is related to what we believe is no fun at all. I've never really enjoyed the whole shopping experience very much, so I don't get all caught up in it. It kinda' bores me.
But when I am forced to get out during the season and look around, I find that I am hard
pressed to find any semblance of a celebration of Jesus birthday.


See, if it were up to me, I would take the
position -- fine, you don't want to recognize Jesus birthday, I won't participate in your commercial holiday. I'll buy stuff some other time. There's a long story here, that really cuts against the grain. From reading the passage above, you have to think that the profit motive
is not the highest aim of the Christian, in the greater scheme of things.


With everyone home today, I gotta' go. Get on the bus.