SUNDAY SERMON WITH THE REVER-END DILLINGER

August 15th, 2010 -- Sunday Sermon

We are going today to speak of heroes. Children, what is a hero? Of course you all know that, don't you? Jesus, Mohammed, Martin Luther -- it is a long list, I admit. Then there are the heroes of combat, both men and women. Today we have an all volunteer military capacity. Today women and men go to war for God and country. This is most fine and admirable as these combatants, oh I would say probably 99% of them believe in just that: God and country. There are some who are merely adventurers, those fine folks out for the rush, those who have seen too many movies about the glories of war. I speak today of the 99%. Our world, our country is afoul with power mongers sending the above mentioned to be mangled and murdered in useless toil. They return in boxes or as cripples. They have courage, they have love, they have died or been crippled for nothing at all. 'How can you say this, Reverend Dillinger? That is a heinous thing to say.' I hear you all withering in self denial. 'We are stopping terrorism, defending our homes against all future attacks.' Rubbish! The combatant must have justification; we dare not take that away from them. This is the lie that we are fed and it is a well-eaten meal.

Jesus Christ, whether or not the son of God, was a revolutionary, a man, a God, someone who was, if taken at face value, a fool or a hero. That is up to you all to decide, if you must. He, I believe, had nothing against a good fight, nothing against standing up and being counted. It is no sin to face evil and spit in its face. No indeed! However, if we turn the other cheek, how often and at what cost? This is what has to be measured by the trusted ones. Too often, if not all the time, these so-called 'trusted ones' have alterior motives. Oh, for His sake and mine use your minds, your heart -- you know exactly of what I speak. Listen to that still small voice, would you please? It is screaming to you all at the top of its lungs. Look at Korea, Vietnam, all the so-called wars of necessity then and now and inbetween. Have I stood, knelt with the guts of a friend in the palms of my hands? You decide if you have or not! Have you ever looked at life, wondered at the glories of the Lord, examined yourselves so that you may fight the good fight?

I speak for the last time about love; the love of country, neighbors, your families, of self. These are the things of the Lord that are worth fighting for. Yes, yes it is important to fight the forces of evil at every point in one's life. Yet one must have knowledge, knowledge of right and wrong, good and evil, knowledge of the controllers of our lives, those people of evil that we allow such power over us that we are willing to be brainwashed into believing that a fight, any fight, is for God and country. I have stood in the marshes of such evil, my brain exploding with love for God and country. I have been smashed into an eternity of pain for the might of right. I believed and I died for God and country. Think of this as you will, my children. It was not as God intended. It was not to wage war against evil, but it was to assuage the not-empty pockets of polititians, those who programed myself and my friends to stand up and be counted, to be smashed, killed, destroyed for Father Knows Best, for nothing at all, which is the truly greatest of evils.

So for the last time I rebuke myself, I ask Marje what is for dinner, I say goodbye to you all. I leave you with love and the final question. What is a hero?

Reverend of Light and love and all that good stuff-Dillinger 'Haymon the body guard, the Anvil, David, all the Peaches, the prairies of Saskatchewan, The Nagging Little Man and Paul, all the rest of myself' Flakewaiter. Go in peace, my children, and when you understand my name you will have truly found the way to the Lord!