Let's tax stupid people

According to Merriam-Webster the definition of stupid is: a: slow of mind Obtuse; b: given to unintelligent decisions or acts; acting in an unintelligent or careless manner, c: lacking intelligence or reason.

Some people may be offended by this blog, to which I will apologize that you are offended.  But I just couldn’t help it after reading an article in the Wall Street Journal about how Zynga made $600 million dollars last year selling virtual fish, cows, chickens, pigs and other livestock and assorted items. Now first if you don’t understand, virtual means that it exists only on the internet or in the imagination, like the tooth fairy.  It is not something that you can touch, taste, smell.  It is not a physical thing. 

People are paying $4.00 for virtual chickens and $3. to $4 for virtual translucent fish.  And it is estimated that the sell of virtual items will net some $2.2 billion in revenue for the companies who get stupid people to buy these pretend products next year.

So here is an easy way for the government to raise $220 million in revenue that I’m sure anyone with the common sense God gave lettuce won’t object too.  Let’s charge a 10% real tax on these virtual things.  After all if they will buy an imaginary chicken for $4.00 surely they won’t mind helping reduce the national debt by paying an extra 40 cents.  We can call it the virtual reality tax or taxing stupid people or practicing the theory of evolution.  In the games they can call it a livestock tax.

Now $220 million is nothing compared to the deficit but it’s still $220 million and it’s a tax that smart people can avoid.  After all we charge much higher taxes on things like cigarettes and alcohol and gasoline which the majority of hard working Americans have to have for their cars since the government made a deal with GM many years ago to kill mass transit and put a car in every garage.

President Obama says that everyone needs to pay their fair share and I agree lets start making stupid people pay their fair share too, before we raise taxes on the job creators.

Plainfield Days Ecumenical Service Sermon from 7-10-11

Ecumenical Service Plainfield Days 7-10-11 Matthew 13:1-17 Bad Soil

For the first 13 years of my life I lived in Kansas City, Kansas in a house with a yard barely big enough to contain the driveway and my dad’s ’71 VW Beatle because my mom’s car was parked in the one car garage that was part of the basement. 

My father never liked living in the city.  As a child he spent his summers on his uncle’s farm in Bethany Missouri, and his childhood home had a large yard where his mother had a large garden.  My father liked to think of himself as a farmer trapped in the city.  He disliked everything about the city the small yard we had, the lights, the traffic…and so when I was 13 we moved to a suburb of Kansas City, KS onto a ¾ acre lot.  It was big enough for my dad to have a 1600 square foot garden which he proudly worked on for years.

The only problem we had is that the soil was terrible and when I say terrible that is an understatement.  It was nothing but rocks and clay.  Everyday one of the choirs my sister and I had was to clear a 5 gallon bucket of rocks before we could do anything.  In the beginning this was fairly easy as the rocks were large but as time went on the rocks got smaller and it took longer to fill the bucket.

The first year the garden didn’t do very well.  But my dad kept at it, he was big into organic gardening so he got some horse manure, and made me bag the grass with a push mower and all organic food leftovers went into the compost pile.  As my dad worked the soil year after year it eventually got better and we got some good harvests of tomatoes, green-beans, leaf lettuce, carrots, potatoes, cucumbers and zucchini.  The two things that never did well no matter what my father did were sweet corn and strawberries.  Although the strawberries did better then the corn.  We would get a couple of quarts of decent strawberries but the corn was never any bigger then my thumb.

In Matthew 13 Jesus uses a farmer and soil as the background for a parable He tells about how lives are affected by those who hear the Good News.  In the parable there are four types of soil, the path, the rocky ground, the thorny ground and the good ground.  Now with the first three soil types we often think there is no hope.  The seed falls on the path and the birds eat it all, it falls in on the rocky soil and the sun scorches it and in the thorny soil the thorns choke it out.  And I think we hear that and think that’s it, those poor people have no chance at all.

But I’ve seen that bad soil can be turned around.  I watched my dad labor with it for years in that back yard of my teen years.  That first year as I said was terrible but little by little with my dad’s earnest care the soil improved.  As I said it never was able to support sweet corn but I think another 10 years or so of my dad working on it and I think it would have been able to begin producing a decent sweet corn crop.  Now there is no doubt that my dad had to work really hard at the soil to get the garden to produce, there is no doubt that if had soil like I have over at the parsonage he could have grown a good garden with relative ease.  But the thing my dad’s work on that garden soil year after year that I learned was that bad soil can become good soil.

Now we may look at this parable and think about those 3 bad soils and wonder how could they ever become good soil.  The path for instance, we might think of that as the side walk or a paved road what can grow there.  But we all have seen that green stuff can work it’s way through even concrete, it can crack it and take root and eventually break up the concrete.  If grass and weeds can do that to concrete how much more so can the Good News do that with someone’s life if they are exposed to it enough.  Or if we help work on them, work on busting up that hard surface so that Word can get into their lives and start to take root.

What about the rocky soil?  Well it’s main problem was lack of water.  If you travel down to Kansas you will see lots of corn were there used to be nothing but wheat.  Kansas’ climate isn’t exactly conducive to corn takes a lot of water for corn to grow.  If you look close every corn field is irrigated.  So the irrigation makes it possible to grow corn where it previously didn’t grow very well.  So the Word of God sown in a person’s life with rocky soil can grow if it can be watered and nurtured.  Again we can help nurture that seed of the Word.

And what about the thorny soil?  Well the easiest thing to do with that soil would be to remove the weeds, clean it out I imagine it’s probably not bad soil once you get all the weeds out.  The same is true for the person who has a lot of clutter and worry in their lives if we can help to clear that out then the Word of God that is sown will have a fighting chance.

But what about the good soil?  You might be thinking what about it?  It’s good soil we don’t need to worry about it, it takes care of itself.  But does it?  How easy is it for good soil to become thorny or weedy soil?  How many of you farmers never have to pull rocks out of some of your fields at least?  What happens if you drive a lot of heavy equipment over the fields or try to plow in them when it is too wet? 

The house that Yolanda and I had in Kansas City had a large yard with lots of flower gardens, at least that was what they were supposed to be.  We bought it from elderly widow who had been unable to tend to the gardens for many years.  It took a lot of work for Yolanda and I to clean up those gardens so that they would once again be nice flower gardens.  You can’t just depend on good soil to continue to produce a good crop it takes work.

As I said we had to pull rocks out of the garden every day until my dad planted in the spring and then after the harvest until it got to cold.  So it was work to keep the garden rock free.  And weeds?  As I said my dad was into organic gardening.  That 1600 square feet never saw any herbicide.  Now fortunately my dad had a fancy tiller with all kinds of attachments and he cultivated and planted the rows far enough apart to get the tiller down to till up the weeds between the rows so we only had to weed in the rows themselves.  But we still had to weed to keep them from overgrowing everything and choking out the plants.

We never had any trouble with compaction but I know that you farmers have to take care of that because if the soil becomes too compacted it will be like the path and the crop won’t grow.

I think too often we hear this parable and think that it’s kind of a one time deal.  You hear the word and if your heart is hardened or you have lots of rocks and no spiritual death, or too many things choke out the joy you have at hearing the word then all hope is lost.  Or we think that we have received the word and we have allowed it to sprout in our lives and it has produced a good crop but we don’t need to do anything else.

True Jesus didn’t elaborate the way I did when He told his parable but the people who heard this parable first were farmers.  They understood the work that even good soil required to maintain a good crop year after year.  I imagine they too could even improve the conditions of soil whether it be a path, rocky soil or thorny overgrown with weeds soil.

One of the things that we need to remember today is that spreading the word, and following the word takes work.  We can’t just spread the word once and think that’s it, we can’t hear the word and let it take root in our life and think that’s it either.  We need to cultivate that word in our own lives and in the lives of others, we need to cultivate the soil of those we encounter, praying for them, tilling up the soil of those with hardened hearts, helping to remove the rocks of those with rocky soil and weeding the worries and concerns out of other’s lives.  Jesus told a parable about different soil types, and sowing to farmers, knowing that farmers would see and understand the deeper implications of what He said as they recalled the story.

Let us not neglect to continue to cultivate the word in our lives so that it may continue to bear fruit and may we also cultivate others lives to prepare them to hear the word and for it to take root.

gym Etiquette

I’m at the gym this morning, a little later then I wanted to be mainly because I like to use the steam room after my workout but also to avoid this older gentleman who is always wanting to talk to me.

Now the gym is my time.  I go to exercise and I don’t really like to exercise so I treat myself to a book for pure fun.  I only allow myself to read it while I’m working out and while occasionally they do have good stories that I sometimes work into sermons but for the most part it is just pure indulgence, cotton candy reading.  I’m not looking to make friends or carry on any deep conversations which is one of the reasons that even when I don’t need to go so early I still do to avoid the older crowd that is there to socialize.

So as usual I’m on the recumbent bike and I’m reading my latest book and I’m pretty into it because it’s just a fun read.  When the guy I started coming earlier because of walks in and plops down on the recumbent bike next to me, and asks, “What are you reading now?”  I pretend not to hear him like I’m deeply absorbed in the book because like I said it’s my time, I didn’t come there to talk.  But as usual he doesn’t take the hint and asks again, “What book are you reading now?”  Fortunately my current book doesn’t have any religious overtones or double meaning like the last book I was reading and he tried to strike up a conversation.

Now, first I want to say the guy is okay, nothing against him he’s just an older pastor.  I know this because I’ve overheard him talking about it in the locker room.  So I know he’s just trying to be friendly and maybe possibly witness to me but I’m on limited time here and he’s cutting into my prime book reading for fun time.

So I tell him the title, which is “King Dork” last time it was “Adam” by Ted Dekker.  Of course he had never heard of Ted Dekker and was telling me he knew of an “Adam” the first man and blah, blah, blah and was asking if it was about that and so on and so forth and the whole time I’m thinking man I just want to exercise and read my book in peace.

Well this time he didn’t have anything to relate to it and asked if was a novel or something and I said yes just a novel pure enjoyment.  Fortunately he let me finish my exercising in peace.  But as soon as I was finished and got the cleaning stuff he’s asking what it’s about.

And the whole time I’m thinking isn’t there some etiquette for the gym?  Like if you’re reading or have head phones on it means, “I didn’t come here to make new friends please don’t talk to me.”  I mean I’m sure that the co-eds that come don’t really want the creepy older guys hitting on them.  I mean if I was one of them I wouldn’t.  I say hello, good morning if I pass them walking by on the way to the locker rooms or where ever like I do to everyone but that is the extent of my conversation.

And then there is the other guys that like to carry on a conversation while their butt naked in the locker room.  What’s up with that?  I don’t really want to be talking to naked guys just something wrong with that.  Don’t they cover that in gym class?  Maybe it should be in the orientation when you join the gym.

So I’ll be getting up earlier and make sure I’m done before the ones who want to talk get there.

The importance of voting

Dear Editor,

A wise man once told me, “People who don’t vote deserve bad government.”  So I will start off by saying shame on us for not voting.  I will also say that people who do not vote have no reason or right to complain about the decisions of our government.  Those who will not participate and contribute to their self government at the most basic of involvement by voting should expect to be disappointed by our government.

However I believe the greater shame should be upon our elected school board directors with their decision to follow the Chickasaw County Auditor’s recommendation to consolidate our polling station and have only one poling station at the welcome center in Nashua.

Now while voter turn out in the last school district election was dismal, in both districts, 25% of the total voter turnout came from the now closed District 1 (Plainfield) polling center.  District 1 voter turnout was 1/3 of the District 2 (Nashua) polling center.  Statistically those are not terrible numbers and should be interpreted, by any reasonable person who wants to encourage voter turn out, as justification to keep both polling centers open.

I’m willing to give our directors the benefit of the doubt and choose to believe that they made this decision solely based on the Chickasaw County Auditor’s desire to save money.  However, it does appear as though the school board is trying to discourage voter turnout from District 1.  And given that the school board is planning on putting our school district millions of dollars in debt to expand facilities in Nashua while at the same time underutilizing existing facilities in Plainfield, as well as reducing staffing to cut the budget one could surmise that the board is penny wise and pound foolish.

Most likely this letter will anger some and they will resort to calling me names and insinuating things about me again.  But the facts speak for themselves.  Our elected officials are running the school system how they see fit with little regard to the will of the people.  And why should they care what the people want if we cannot even make the effort to vote or inform them of our opinions.

I encourage all eligible voters to vote in the up coming purpose statement vote.  I also encourage us to use this vote as a referendum on the recent decision the school board made to consolidate grades 7 through 12 at the high school and to place the district millions of dollars in debt.

Sincerely

Shawn Geer

Plainfield, Iowa.

How many votes are too few to count?

In the last school election only 23 people voted from the Plainfield district.  Based on that number the Chickasaw County Auditor recommended moving to one voting precinct.  That 23 sounds like a small number and standing all by itself it sounds reasonable to justify their decision.  However the total number of people voting was an astronomical 92. Which means that 25% of the vote came from the Plainfield district.  So I guess supplying 25% of voter turnout doesn't qualify you to have a polling place.  Now I will agree that 23 is a dismal number but so is 69 from the other district, so shame on all of us for not voting better.  But it would be helpful if the school did a better job of letting the community know what is going on.  And publishing it on the website or the 700 circulation Nashua Reporter is not doing a good job of informing the community.

If you buy it for a lot of money and sell it for a little money they will come

Haven’t bloged for awhile but just had too blog.  First I stand corrected.  Ms. Franzen was correct the houses were sold at auction.  Well two of them anyway.  Two properties purchased for a grand total of $200,550 by the school district.  Two properties sold for $2750.  Yes that’s right $2750 no typo.  Two houses one bidder receives a $180,000+ tax payer subsidy I hope I get a thank you note at least.  I should be getting a kiss.  Well I guess that’s two houses we don’t have to tear down.  But who will take care of the foundations and the holes?  Should have thrown the third one in for him.

Also for the up coming purpose statement renewal vote we have one polling station at the Welcome center in Nashua Iowa.  I guess this is the process of bringing community together make it difficult for people to get to polling stations.  Maybe they will run a bus for those elderly who have trouble getting around.  Where’s a community organizer when you need one?  Or ACORN?  Is it too expensive to have more then one polling station?  We can come up with 5.5 million dollars to build a MS/Tech/Science Wing and Physical Education/Wellness/Athletic facility but not to have two polling centers?

Just remember that any general bond issue needs a 60% approval.  But they will tell you your taxes won’t increase.  Provided that the revenue doesn’t go down.  And gas doesn’t go up.  And food doesn’t go up and utilities don’t go up.  And pennies start falling from heaven.  In fact the school can afford this provided nothing changes, no cuts in funding from state. No sudden decrease in property values, (Like that could happen.  Oh wait didn’t that happen and is continuing to happen?)

Of course next on the agenda is to buy all the students iPad2’s shortly before the iPad3’s come out.

Just in case you couldn’t tell yes it is laced with sarcasm and tongue in cheek witticisms.

Midweek meditation for April 6 on Exodus 3:1-4:17

Ex 3:1-4:17

Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, "I will go over and see this strange sight — why the bush does not burn up."

4 When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, "Moses! Moses!"

And Moses said, "Here I am."

5 "Do not come any closer," God said. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground." 6 Then he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

7 The Lord said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey — the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt."

11 But Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"

12 And God said, "I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain."

13 Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?"

14 God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.'"

15 God also said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites, 'The Lord, the God of your fathers — the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob — has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.

16 "Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, 'The Lord, the God of your fathers — the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob — appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. 17 And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites — a land flowing with milk and honey.'

18 "The elders of Israel will listen to you. Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, 'The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God.' 19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. 20 So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go.

21 "And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed. 22 Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plunder the Egyptians."

Exodus 4

4:1 Moses answered, "What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, 'The Lord did not appear to you'?"

2 Then the Lord said to him, "What is that in your hand?"

"A staff," he replied.

3 The Lord said, "Throw it on the ground."

Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. 4 Then the Lord said to him, "Reach out your hand and take it by the tail." So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. 5 "This," said the Lord, "is so that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers — the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob — has appeared to you."

6 Then the Lord said, "Put your hand inside your cloak." So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was leprous, like snow.

7 "Now put it back into your cloak," he said. So Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh.

8 Then the Lord said, "If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first miraculous sign, they may believe the second. 9 But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground."

10 Moses said to the Lord, "O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue."

11 The Lord said to him, "Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say."

13 But Moses said, "O Lord, please send someone else to do it."

14 Then the Lord's anger burned against Moses and he said, "What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and his heart will be glad when he sees you. 15 You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. 16 He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him. 17 But take this staff in your hand so you can perform miraculous signs with it."

NIV

In his book, The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life, Os Guinness reviews the theology of call and just what is involved when one is called of God.
Guinness describes the call of God as "the truth that God calls us to himself so decisively that everything we are, everything we do and everything we have is ... lived out as a response to his summons and service." There are two dimensions to the call of God, the first being our essential role as a disciple of Jesus, and the second being the call to function in the church and the world using the gifts God has given us. When we are faithful to these two callings, God is glorified.

Moses had an interesting life, saved by being placed in a basket on the Nile, plucked out by the Pharaoh’s daughter raised a prince in Pharaoh’s court, exiled by his own guilty conscious and now settled in a comfortable life as a shepherd far from Egypt and the worries and pressures of his people and the life of a prince.

He had many unique experiences and opportunities in his life.  He was educated, and brought up in the royal court.  He knew Pharaoh.  He was a hard worker, and knew about sheep now.  I imagine that he was pretty comfortable, settled in his life when we encounter him again in the desert having a conversation with God.

From the way the conversation is going I’m betting Moses wished he had walked right on by that burning bush.  Moses sees the bush and decides to go investigate.  When He gets closer God calls to Him and says I have job for you.  You are going to be the one to lead my people out of the hand of Pharaoh.

And I’m sure it is at this moment that Moses thinks, why couldn’t I just walk on by.  So Moses thinking very fast comes up with the excuse. “Who am I?  I’m no one I can’t go to Pharaoh he’ll say who is this yokel that is coming to demand the release of my slaves?”  Well he is only Pharaoh’s nephew is all.

But God says, “It doesn’t matter who you are it only matters that I will be with you.”

So Moses thinks fast again, “Well that’s all good and well but what if the Israelites and say you sent me and they ask, ‘What’s His name?”  Surely that will get me out of doing this task is what Moses is thinking.

But the Lord tells Moses His name.  And so Moses has to think again real fast because what it boils down too is Moses doesn’t really want to do this.  It is a disruption to his current life, it moves him out of his comfort zone.

So Moses says, “Well what if they don’t believe me?  I mean let’s face it I tell them you appeared to me in a burning bush that didn’t burn up and spoke to me and said your name is I Am, and that I’m to demand that Pharaoh set you free…There more likely to whisper to themselves who is this crazy old shepherd.”  And I’m sure Moses is thinking surely this will get me off the hook.  The Lord will see the logic of my thinking and the error of His ways.

And God says, “What’s in your hand?”

Moses is probably thinking okay where is this going cause if he knew he would have been tossing his staff as far away as he could to try and hide it and answered nothing.

But Moses is caught off guard and answers “A staff.”

So the Lord gives Moses not one but really 3 signs to convince the people.  He turns Moses’ staff into a snake and back into a staff, he gives Moses leprosy on his hand and takes it away and then he turns the water into blood.

So Moses has to think real fast again. And what does he use as an excuse next?  “O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue."   Yes we have just witnessed Moses’ slow speech and tongue repeatedly as he comes up with one excuse after another why he shouldn’t be the one.  And what happens?  God lets him off the hook…

Nope not at all God reminds, "Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say." In short all Moses has to do is repeat what God says.  

But Moses won’t relent he has one more gambit to play the honesty gambit, the whiner gambit, “Lord I don’t want to please send someone else to do it.”

And what happens?  The Lord’s anger burns against Moses and He says, “what about your brother Aaron I know he can speak well and you will tell him what to say…”

God had called Moses and all of what Moses thought where good reasons for Moses not to do what the Lord was calling him and had equipped him to do were nothing but excuses and you know what Mr. Frost says about excuses…they are just like butt’s everyone has one and they all stink.

Remember Jonah?  He didn’t want to do what the Lord wanted him to do either.

Sometimes we are asked to do things by the Lord or by the Lord’s proxies, a friend, a spouse, a pastor, most often times it is something that we aren’t entirely comfortable with, but the Lord has prompted His proxies and told them that you have what it takes, or He has told you specifically that you have what it takes to do this for Him and His glory.

But like Moses we balk.  We think fast we come up with all kinds of excuses, I’m too busy, I don’t speak so well, I don’t know about technology, I don’t relate to this generation, I’m too old, too slow, too poor.  But the truth is if you can’t say the Lord doesn’t want me to do this then chances are it’s the devil whispering in your ear because the last thing he wants is for you to feel that you have what it takes, that the Lord can and will use you.  Because a well formed tool in the hands of a master can work marvels and when the Lord calls us to do something that is exactly what we are when we yield to His will.  Well formed tools in the hands of the Master.