Jay Horne’s Sacrilege
All men sacrifice, starting with Jesus’ example. Interchanging the name of Jesus with that of God is confusing to our youths. Let us be thankful for them all.
I’ve always been a praying man.
Passed down from my late Pawpaw, prayer was instilled in me to be performed at the dinner table. Just a simple one, always ending in bless those less fortunate than ourselves.
There’s a lot of praying going around to Jesus these days. Lot’s of thanks and even more requests.
I did my duty as husband and attended a non-denominational church with my wife and children. Wednesdays and Sundays.
Worked overtime and double-time. When things went well, we thanked Jesus.
When things went wrong, we blamed ourselves.
In my graying years, my observations from the pew have led me to some reluctant truths. First of all, I wasn’t always happy to be at church. I would much rather have been jogging on the beach. Damn me now, if you must.
A reluctant truth is, I went to be with my wife and kids because that’s where they were going to be.
From the pew, I dropped my hard earned money into the coffers along with the other husbands who likely were there to appease their better halves. The pastors did their duty and thanked Jesus for his sacrifice, reminding us to do the same.
Our church was one of the good ones. Some of the offerings went to helping those in need across the globe, though it always came with the disclaimer:
Paid for by Jesus Christ.
I can’t put words in the mouth of preachers or pastors, who I’ve come to believe take joy in their work. I watched them perform their jobs with smiles on their faces and became aware that they endured many hardships through counseling families who were the victims of abuse and divorce. Loss and death. My own included.
While their jobs were terribly heartbreaking, they were also rewarding, both spiritually and financially. And yes, in their position one may look to the North and say, “Thank you, Jesus.”
Full coffers and all.
A preacher, like other men, sacrifices his heart strings in his duty to the Lord. Just as a fireman sacrifices his heartstrings in his duty to the public while informing a father that their child has died.
Likewise, the fireman may say, I am performing my duty for the Lord. But still, the duty is filling his own coffers.
When I thank the Lord, I can’t help but see a million faces of different colors. Because, I know that there are real people out there making sacrifices for me everyday. Some do it for noble reasons and some do it for penance. But, it is the sacrifices themselves that are making the blessings bloom.
There are fathers who bow there heads at dinner tables all over America and teach their children to thank Jesus for everything that they themselves have provided. And yes, Jesus ultimately sacrificed himself to send the message that sacrifice is the way of God. And even Jesus, did not point to himself and say, this is my sacrifice. No, he pointed to God and said this is His sacrifice for I am his son.
Refusing credit is a good man’s acclaim.
Perhaps that is what those fathers are saying as well.
But, I argue that we cannot teach our children that they will obtain blessings because of the act of one man. Those on disability, those receiving child support, those receiving aid in foreign countries, those on food stamps and government assistance. Those are who fill the benches, pews, and cathedral halls of the modern Christian era.
Albeit, those with coffers overflowing both in time and currency find it easy to sacrifice as much to be a good Christian.
The same people who can today believe that the Earth may be flat.
Those people have never looked to the bottom of a well at noon and realized that no more than a single well can be fully illuminated at its bottom at any given time because the sun will be directly over only one at any single moment. That is the reality of living on a sphere that can only be obtained through meaningful observation or better education.
It’s okay to say, “Thank you, Jesus,” when your kids understand that their own sacrifices will enable others to live freely. But why confuse the youth? When Thank you, God is more of an umbrella term?
God can include everything under the sun, including his servants, his people, his sacrificial sons. Once the name of God becomes interchangeable with Jesus, the credit of sacrifice falls all to one man.
Sacrifice is something shared by every man, woman, and child on the planet. Along with with ecosystem, for that matter.
Jesus can justifiably be your only savior if your a paraplegic. Then again, there did exist Stephen Hawking. Yet, he was an Atheist.
I do agree, we could all drop to our knees and just thank Jesus for providing. Then we would all be better off.
The mushrooms would be happy. They love to feed on decay.
For there would be no one to hold the plow behind the oxen. No one to reap the grain after the grow. No one to rot in the deepest prisons for making mistakes that another man was bound to die for before the lesson was known.
Whole heartedly I say, “Thank you Jesus for your sacrifice.”
But today is two thousand and twenty three years after you taught us to sacrifice selflessly in the name of GOD. So, I give thanks to all those who sacrifice. Not those sacrifices of joy.
I would not dare to appreciate those self-sacrifices of ones own loves. Always, those sacrifices are self-serving.
I appreciate those sacrifices that are meaningful. The husband who sits on the pew because his wife loves listening to her sermon, while she thanks Jesus, as is her belief.
The sacrifice of the server who stays an extra shift for someone who probably is going out to party though she herself is overworked and will likely get home late to tuck her kids into bed.
The elderly husband who goes to the gym so his wife not have to suffer his fat belly.
The woman who uses Summer’s Eve.
The sacrifices that people endure that allow others hedonistic enjoyment. Everyone deserves a little of that in life.
This article is called Jay Horne’s Sacrifice. I sacrificed a little time out of my day to write this article, hopefully for your amusement. No need to thank me.
Please, for God’s sake. Thank a fellow human who lives!
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