Yesterday was an odd day. One half of the day was hot to the point that it was physically painful to go outside and I hunkered in the bedroom, curtains drawn, doors open (I have a door to an outside porch in my room) and doing wordpress administration. Or arguing. Then the rain came, and it was rescue the washing time. The son went with his aunt to get strawberries: and the gardening was not done. I started to get guilty but then I remembered (mainly because the pain relief had worn off) that I had strained certain muscles lifting heavy weights… and I needed a day of rest.

Which we all do. It’s Sunday: a day to meet, to worship, and to do little. Today’s readings are about continuing to have our hope in Christ. To not let this delay, so long in our eyes, lead to mistrust, to disbelief, and to contemptuous abandonment of the gospel.

James 5:7-10

2 Thessalonians 2:1-3, 13-17

¹As to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we beg you, brothers and sisters, ²not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as though from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord is already here. ³Let no one deceive you in any way; for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the lawless one is revealed, the one destined for destruction.

¹³But we must always give thanks to God for you, brothers and sisters beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the first fruits for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and through belief in the truth. ¹⁴For this purpose he called you through our proclamation of the good news, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. ¹⁵So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by our letter.

¹⁶Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and through grace gave us eternal comfort and good hope, ¹⁷comfort your hearts and strengthen them in every good work and word.

We need to remember, here, that it is every good work and every good word. It’s not paid work: it’s not words said by professional theologians. The work of a woman raising children has considerable economic value, as a commentator at SSM noted. The comment has some US centric things — we don’t have deductibles for children, but instead the government pays families with children support up to a certain level of income. Which is quite high — an MP in the last Parliament (the party she was in, which is on the libertarian right, imploded in the last election) once said that on her salary, with five children — she would have the subsidy. She neglected to say that the children were grown and her husband made more that she does, but when you are subsidizing people earning over 100 K because of family size something is wrong.

SSSM, Exactly. The tax code…and also the fact that husbands’ taxes are redistributed to welfare sluts. So each working man isn’t supporting just his own family, but some other alpha cad/thug’s bitches and their babies. That gets expensive, and since he has NO CHOICE about supporting the alpha cad/thug’s bitches and babies, but he DOES have a choice about farming his own wife out for pay…well. You do the math.

This is such an excellent point I wish to make a few comments.

1. My wife, a SAHM, does a tremendous amount of economic labor – cooking from scratch, cleaning, buying used goods, taking care of kids, cloth diapers, shopping for deals, gardening, sewing, cleaning fish/game, cutting hair, and much more. I’m guessing $20k of labor each year, tax free, no commute – no sales tax, no income tax.
2. Even though I work full-time, I also fix cars, hunt, fish repair the home, split wood, fix computers, repair appliances, do taxes, handle law issues, etc. That’s all tax free as well.
3. If you have a large family, income taxes are far lower. I have a double-digit size family, so even though I make good money we still pay very little in income tax due to all the deductibles. Then of course, we also buy used as much as possible and pay little in sales tax.
4. Lastly: regarding the above comments on inflation and the FED, just get out! Keep your money in physical form (precious metals) or in a 401k as stocks (tax free on gain, and take it out slowly once 65 yo). This can minimize inflation and the government’s take to fund baby mommas…and I know nobody who pays taxes on used items they sell; one can easily find people to buy precious metals in bullion form for cash when they are ready to buy something (I’m always in the market to buy bullion myself…it’s far harder to find somebody willing to sell bullion than to buy). This method avoids both the inflation and the taxes.

It’s a war zone against liberal government in all its forms. Fight wisely.

It is not merely the work that is seen as good either, I think the Catholics have one of their lists of seven which is very scriptural and very good — and it is better than having no teaching on this issue apart from the heretical prosperity gospel — which is all too often the case in the non denominational churches.

It is working in a job you dislike, or doing that task around home that is disgusting (I get a plumber in when something goes wrong in the house beyond fixing a washer, but I’ve cleaned by fair share of drains). It involves sorting out physical and social messes in your family. Then in extends out into the wider community, where there are just as many messes to deal with, and just as much pain… and there is work that needs doing.

Paid or unpaid.

We may say that the economy is in the tank: I accept it is in North America (well parts of that continent) and there is a depression in Europe. But that means that there are not things to do. If you have no income,

• plant a garden and beg seeds of keen gardeners.
• Recycle your computers — the old machines can be repaired and the Linux geeks make versions of that OS that are designed for the computers of three generations ago.
• Care for the old, the sick, and the frail.
• Set up group exercise programmes. You just need space: use it — beg forgiveness for acquiring the square for pilates,don’t ask permission.
• Re learn the creative domestic arts. That includes basic sewing and repair and cooking for boys and girls (you need to be able to sew buttons and badges on).

And the list would go on. For six days you should work, with pay as a bonus. On the seventh, worship. May you all have a blessed Sabbath, and may the Lord come.