"I want you to go to your window, I want you to open it ... I want you to join our chant: winning, winning, winning ..."
copied from MSN.com, 03-29-11: Charlie Sheen regarding recent allegations leading to being fired from CBS
In twenty-two years of ministry, I could never have imagined leading a newsletter article with a quote from Charlie Sheen yet, here it is. Self-proclaimed as 'clean' and 'never more in charge of his faculties', possessing 'tiger's blood' in his veins and a 'vision for the future' in his mind, Sheen is taking on CBS and anyone else who dares to challenge his persona, his wealth, his position, or his life choices. Sheen perceives himself as being 'more' than an ordinary person, he perceives himself as something of a god, with god-like qualities, never-to-be-questioned, never-to-be-doubted, always-to-be-admired. For Charlie Sheen, and all of the other Charlie Sheen's of the world, the world is their tromping ground, their place of pleasure and provision with other 'mere mortals' scrambling to meet their every need, whim and desire. 'Responsibility to others' is little more than a catch-phrase of vocabulary words spewed upon backside-kissing hangers-on who desire to service the position more than the man, the sum of whom, once the money or the fame - or both, run out, will move on to the next 'up-and-coming, rising star' who will care for them, more than they care for themselves.
Seem harsh? Maybe, yet such are the qualities continuing to be possessed by, and possessing, those who treasure themselves above all and at the cost of all. Such was Caiaphas, the high priest, and Annas, his father-in-law. Such was Pilate and Herod of Rome. Such were those who worshipped them and those who tended them. Such were those who incited the crowds in Jerusalem in those fateful days and such were those who drove nails through hands and feet. Such were those who ordered the door of the tomb be sealed and guarded and such were those who persecuted the Apostles who remained.
Identifying threads of commonality between Sheen's behavior in current times with that of folks who lived at the time of Jesus might be something of a stretch, but then again, is it so hard to see those same threads of commonality coming out in the Church itself throughout the ages? In the names of the Inquisition, the Crusades, and the dogmatic controversies which have polarized generations of believers, even into the current generation regarding sexual orientation, AIDS, and birth control, those who proclaim " . . . winning, winning, winning . . ." are united with those who say, "In the name of Christ, death to the heathen." In one way or another, the goodness of God's creation present in each one of us is distorted beyond recognition by the emergence of a narcissistic bent, requiring the world to bow at the feet of those who deem themselves to be god, while countless souls suffer and die like Lazarus, with dogs licking their wounds, or like Jesus, with guards casting lots for his cloak. Where does it stop?
The boorish behavior of the powerful, the rich, the deluded and the self-absorbed stops, not where humanity can stop it, but where God says it will stop: at the door of an empty tomb. When, according to the Gospel of John, Mary Magdalene, herself scorned and reviled by many, yet loved of Jesus, came to the tomb of Jesus early on the third day and saw the angels sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, what she witnessed first-hand is what crystallizes hope and faith in the heart of the believer. In the Risen Christ, God announces God's power, even over death, subjecting the tyrants of every age to a judgment they could never pronounce: LIFE! Easter is God's gift of grace to the world, that all who fear and despair might run to the window and shout to the world, "He lives! He lives! He lives!" and know the true meaning of 'winning'.
