Speech on Christianity after Festive Season

Speech on Christianity after Festive Season A Job to Do It is all over. That for which we hoped has come and gone. Christmas is over. All of the excitement and energy has waned. The decorations have disappeared; boxed and stored in the attic, the garage or the basement for another year. School vacation is over. The old year is gone, and a new one has begun. Everything is back on schedule. We are back to life, as we know it. It happens every year. It is part of life not just a Christmas, but at other times as well. Something is on the calendar for which we are filled with great anticipation-birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, vacations, graduations, a new job, a new adventure. Then in the blinking of an eye, the time has passed, and we are back to life in the ordinary, the normal, maybe it is a new normal, but there is a routine. There are things that need to be done groceries need to be purchased, the house needs cleaned, bills need to be paid-we have a job to do, whether it is our employment, parenting, school work, housework. Whether you are in childhood, or are an adolescent, teenager, young adult, middle age, or enjoying the years of retirement, there are things that we have to do each day. We all have a job to do Through the advent season, Christmas, and now into the New Year, into the season of Epiphany, the stories, the lives of John and Jesus have been intertwined. We have heard the sister stories of the announcements of their births, the sister stories about their births and today, the weaving of their stories continue, even now, in their adulthood. They too have a job to do. Johns job is to be the one who prepares the way of the Lord. He is the voice crying out in the wilderness. In the other gospels, he is the prophet, the baptizer. Luke presents him differently. His job is not to baptize. His job is to preach. He is a preacher first and foremost for Luke. Like any good preacher, some of his sermons point out the peoples sinfulness and their need for repentance. He reminds them that they have wondered off the path, ventured into dangerous territory, and turned away from God and Gods purposes. Like any good preacher, some of his sermons focus on how we are to live life in the sphere of Gods influence. He preached sermons that answered the question What shall we do? How do we live as people of God? These are the sermons that remind us of what we learned in Sunday School, Kindergarten, or around the dining room table-share, treat people fairly, be honest, and dont be greedy, but be content with what you have. All throughout life, we need to be reminded of these values. Like any good preacher, some of his sermons focused on the judgment of God and his coming into to the world. The messiah, the anointed one comes to turn the upside down things right side up. A day will come when God will reveal himself and he will rid the world of evil, and restore creation to its rightful order. John was to preach repentance, covenant living, and the coming of the kingdom of God. John had a job to do. Jesus had a job to do as well. He came to the Jordan. He heard the words of his cousin. He stepped in line with the other people. If you want details about his baptism, you need to read the other gospels, because Luke is not interested in that event. For Luke, Jesus, in human flesh, joined the crowd and was baptized without notice. Just as his birth was unremarkable, for Luke so was his baptism. Luke tells us that sometime after his baptism, while he was in prayer, the Holy Spirit came upon him. I like to think that he was in prayer seeking, like you and I do, discernment and direction for fulfilling Gods purposes, that the Holy Spirit came upon him, anointing him for the tasks that lie ahead, and through the blessing You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased[i] he was set apart for the task ahead. Through his baptism, his commitment to prayer, the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the blessing of God, and his experiences of the wilderness temptations, Jesus was commissioned for the job for which he was born, the job that will lead him to Calvary and the tomb. We will learn more about his job throughout the coming weeks What is important for us to know is that after the visitations of the angels, the heavenly choir, the journey to Bethlehem, the smelly shepherds, the visitation of the Magi, the singing of Joy to the World, life got back to normal. John and Jesus grew up. The cousins matured. John and Jesus both had jobs to do. This morning, we are here to ordain and install Stephen Anderson, Mary Anne Fitzgerald, and Bernice Gibson to the office of Ruling Elder in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). They too, now have a job to do. The Holy Spirit led the nominating committee, through their prayer for discernment, to these three persons. The Holy Spirit came upon them as they sought Gods will on the matter and led them to accept the job as Ruling Elder. Upon further assessment, this congregation, through its prayer for discernment, confirmed the call of God upon Stephen, Mary Anne, and Bernice, and elected them to the office of Ruling Elder, to lead this congregation in the work of the Kingdom of God. Now today, we will ordain and install them to the office, and bestow upon the apostolic authority to guide us in our Christian vocation. Beginning today, they will attend to the job they are called to do. These three will join the other Ruling Elders on session who have also been called and confirmed in the job before them. In that job, they will need to be prepared to be honest, pure, and loving in their lifestyle. Leadership is a privilege, and with privilege comes responsibility. God holds teachers of His truth doubly responsible because we who lead are in a position where we can either draw people toward Christ or drive them away from Him. This is illustrated in the life of the famous author Mark Twain. Church leaders were largely to blame for his becoming hostile to the Bible and the Christian faith. As he grew up, he knew elders and deacons who owned slaves and abused them. He heard men using foul language and saw them practice dishonesty during the week after speaking piously in church on Sunday. He listened to ministers use the Bible to justify slavery. Although he saw genuine love for the Lord Jesus in some people, including his mother and his wife, he was so disturbed by the bad teaching and poor example of church leaders that he became bitter toward the things of God. Indeed, it is a privilege to be an elder. But it is also an awesome responsibility. The Ruling Elders have a job to do. But so do you. Each of you has a job to do. Just as the commission of Jesus began with his baptism, and was confirmed through his prayer life and his struggle with the temptations of the world, each of us, regardless of whether we hold a position of authority and speak from the pulpit, make decisions in the session room, teach Sunday School classes, work in the nursery, provide for fellowship or pray for those who do, we have a job to do. Kimberly Leetch rightly states, Every time we feed a hungry soul, visit one who is isolated, celebrate a widowers birthday, give money to charity, reduce, reuse, and recycle, we are bringing about Gods kingdom on earth. Gods kingdom is not an otherworldly, unreachable place. This is Gods kingdom. Right here. Right now.[ii] Each of us has a job to do. We may not all be preachers like John the Baptist. We may not all be called to be the decision makers. We may not all be called to positions of leadership in the church or in the community. However, we are called to live acts of kindness, to share what we have, to treat others with respect and dignity, to be content with that with which God has blessed us. When Martin Luther became discouraged and filled with doubt, he would put his hands on his head while saying, I have been baptized. Â   Â   Friends, remember your baptism. In it, God claimed you, God called you out of the world, and he placed you back in the world to serve him: to serve God and to serve human need. Remember your baptism. Remember, that because of your baptism, you have a job to do. Amen. [i] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), Lk 3:22. [ii] The Rev. Dr. Kimberly Kace Leetch. Clergy Stuff. www.clergystuff.org.

Financial ratio analysis Essay

Financial ratio analysis is conducted by managers, equity investors, long-term creditors and short-term creditors. What is the primary emphasis of each of these groups in evaluating ratios? Managers deal with all types of ratios. It is important for them to judge and improve the overall financial position of the company. Financial ratios are one of the most common tools of managerial decision making. Financial ratios involve the comparison of various figures from the financial statements in order to gain information about a company’s performance. Ratios to this group, serve as indicators, clues, or red flags regarding noteworthy relationships between variables used to measure the firm’s performance in terms of profitability, asset utilization, liquidity, leverage, or market valuation. Equity Investors use the analysis of financial ratio to help equity investors know whether their investment earnings some return or not. They emphasize more on profitability ratios with those investors look for entities with high earning potential and will be reluctant to associate themselves one that poor return since the market price of stock and dividend potential will be adversely affected. Long-Term Creditors deal mostly with the solvency ratios. They are important because the ratios under this category indicate the long term financial position of the company in terms of its solvency. Financial ratios analysis helps long term creditors to know company’s ability to meet interest expenses and long term obligations on time. Times interest earned ratio, debt to total assets turnover ratio, debt to shareholders equity ratio are also some of the ratios that are helpful for long term creditors. Short-term Creditors find liquidity ratios as more important. The analysis of financial ratios assists Short term creditors to know the ability of company to pay their short term obligation. They mainly focus on corporate liquidity is especially important to creditors. If a company has poor liquidity position, it may lead to delay in receiving interest and principal payments or even losses on the amounts due. It includes various calculated ratios such as Current ratio, receivable turnover, accounts payable , liquid ratio, working capital etc. , that helps short term creditors analyze company’s credit history. (3-3) Over the past years, M. D.  Rryngaert & Co. has realized an increase in its current ratio and drop in its total assets turnover ratio. However, the company’s sales, quick ratio, and fixed assets turnover ratio have remained constant. What explains these changes? It may have been that the inventory of M. D. Rryngaert & Co. was not properly managed. We can witness that because of a higher inventory, current assets increases, with an automatic decrease in total assets turnover. However, the quick ratio and the fixed assets turnover have remained constant due to the fact that they are not included in inventory. Furthermore, with sales remaining constant and with an increase in inventory as mentioned, the company is definitely not in a good financial position. (3-4) Profit margins and turnover ratios vary from one industry to another. What differences would you expect to find between a grocery chain such as Safeway and steel company? Think particularly about the turnover ratios, the profit margin, and Du Pont equation. Safeway, being a grocery business, requires a lesser number of dollars in assets to produce a dollar in sales than would a steel company. Furthermore the margin that grocery stores derive from the sale of each item is usually low. That is why they rely on a large volume of sales, and high turnover of inventory. They sell their products quickly, with a high turnover, and a lower profit margin with having to sell higher volumes of products to make up for the low margin. As for the steel company, being a business that has a higher profit margin but low turnover ratio, it tends to have lower volume of business transactions. The steel company would also spend more money in assets in order to generate a good return in sales, as compared to a grocery store. The profit margin being the ratio between revenue and income, finds a business with higher profit margin to have lower cost of sales and hence high profit, while a business with lower profit margin will have higher cost of sales. Turnover ratios show how many times a year company is replacing their inventories. So by using the DuPont formula, we can calculate the ROA for each different company by a simpler version of the equation being Return on Assets (ROA) = Profit Margin x Total Asset Turnover.

Mandarin Chinese Christmas Vocabulary

Christmas  is not an official holiday in China, so most offices, schools, and shops remain open. Nonetheless, many  people still get into the holiday spirit during the Yuletide, and all the trappings of Christmas can be found in China,  Hong  Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.   Additionally, many people in recent years have begun celebrating Christmas in China. You can see Christmas decorations in department stores, and the custom of exchanging gifts is becoming more popular—especially with the younger generation. Many also decorate their homes with Christmas trees and ornaments. So, learning Mandarine Chinese Christmas vocabulary can be helpful if you plan to visit the region. Two Ways to Say Christmas There are two ways to say â€Å"Christmas† in Mandarin Chinese. The links provide a transliteration of the word or phrase (called  pinyin), followed the word or phrase written in  traditional Chinese  characters, followed by the same word or phrase printed in simplified Chinese characters. Click on the links to bring up an audio file and hear how to pronounce the words. The two ways to say Christmas in Mandarin Chinese are  shà ¨ng dà  n jià © (è â€"è ªâ€¢Ã§ ¯â‚¬ traditional Ã¥Å" £Ã¨ ¯Å¾Ã¨Å â€š simplified) or  yÄ“ dà  n jià © (è€ ¶Ã¨ ªâ€¢Ã§ ¯â‚¬ trad è€ ¶Ã¨ ¯Å¾Ã¨Å â€š simplified). In each of the phrases, the final two characters (dà  n jià ©) are the same. Dà  n refers to birth, and jià © means â€Å"holiday.† The first character of Christmas can be either shà ¨ng or yÄ“. Shà ¨ng translates as â€Å"saint† and yÄ“ is a phonetic, which is used for Jesus yÄ“ sÃ… « (è€ ¶Ã§ ©Å' traditional è€ ¶Ã§ ¨ £ simplified). Shà ¨ng dà  n jià © means â€Å"the birth of a saint holiday† and yÄ“ dà  n jià © means â€Å"the birth of Jesus holiday.† Shà ¨ng dà  n jià © is the more popular of the two phrases. Whenever you see shà ¨ng dà  n, though, remember that you can also use yÄ“ dà  n instead. Mandarin Chinese Christmas Vocabulary There are many other Christmas-related words and phrases in Mandarin Chinese, from Merry Christmas to poinsettia and even gingerbread house. In the table, the English word is given first, followed by the pinyan (transliteration), and then the traditional and simplified spellings in Chinese. Click the pinyan  listings to hear how each word or phrase is pronounced. English Pinyin Traditional Simplified Christmas shng dn ji Christmas y dn ji Christmas eve shng dn y Christmas eve ping n y Merry Christmas shng dn kui l Christmas tree shng dn sh Candy Cane gui zhng tng Christmas presents shng dn l w Stocking shng dn w Poinsettia shng dn hng Gingerbread house jing bng w Christmas card shng dn k Santa Claus shng dn lo rn Sleigh xu qio Reindeer m l Christmas carol shng dn g Caroling bo ji yn Angel tin sh Snowman xu rn Celebrating Christmas in China and the Region While most Chinese opt to overlook Christmas’s religious roots, a sizable minority do head to church for services in a variety of languages, including Chinese, English, and French. There are  approximately 70 million practicing Christians in China as of December 2017, according to  the Beijinger, a monthly entertainment guide and website based in Chinas capital. The figure represents only 5 percent of the countrys total population of 1.3 billion, but its still large enough to make an impact. Christmas services are held at an array of state-run churches in China and at houses of worship throughout Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. International schools and some embassies and consulates are also closed on Dec. 25 in China. Christmas Day (Dec. 25) and Boxing Day (Dec. 26) are public holidays in Hong Kong, so government offices and businesses are closed. Macau recognizes Christmas as a holiday and most businesses are closed. In Taiwan, Christmas coincides with Constitution Day (è ¡Å'æ† ²Ã§ ´â‚¬Ã¥ ¿ µÃ¦â€" ¥). Taiwan used to observe Dec. 25 as a day off, but currently, as of March 2018, Dec. 25 is a regular working day in Taiwan.

Archetypes Are Mythologems - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 4 Words: 1128 Downloads: 9 Date added: 2019/07/30 Category Literature Essay Level High school Tags: King Lear Essay William Shakespeare Essay Did you like this example? Archetypes are mythologems that persist diachronically, that are embedded in the collective unconscious, and that are recurrently manifested in narrative form. They are the constituent elements of what Jung has called autochthonous revival a hypothesis that accounts for cross-cultural fantasy motifs inexplicable in the light of individual anamnesis. Jung had hypothesized these to be the latent vestiges of mental synthesis that existed long before man could verbalize his thoughts. A Jungian analysis seeks to identify mythologems, toposes, and associated fairy-tale motifs; it also seeks to indicate the aforementioned elements articulation with the universals of human deportment and perception. Shakespeares King Lear provides four main characters ripe for a Jungian analysis Lear and his three daughters, Regan, Goneril, and Cordelia. An extrapolation of King Lears instantiation as an ego-figure of the self, relative to the individuation process is at the helm of affairs; a deliberation on the recurrent literary topos of the number three proceeds, making special reference to the three sisters; and a thought exercise on the importance of Cordelia finalizes the composition. Although these topics are cogitated on a case-by-case basis, it is important to remember that they each relate to a focal subject-matter: the individuation process of King Lear, and his instantiation as an ego-figure of the self. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Archetypes Are Mythologems" essay for you Create order King Lears harrowing descent into madness is a fascinating tale that makes great use of the most asperous of all conflicts in the individuation process. The inchoative psychological disturbance that initiates this process is the Kings inflation of the ego-persona. Lears inflation of the ego-persona is evident in these lines: When I do stare, see how the subject quakes. I pardon that mans life (Shakespeare 4.6; 108-109). This powerful complex, in accord with Jungian theory, is liable to thrust an individual into a sort of liminal journey in search of the self, mining the unconscious in the process. A probing into the unconscious, by definition, sets one adrift on a sea of the unknown. Analogous to the external barrier that protects the ego from social reality (the persona), is an internal barrier that functions as a permeable stratum betwixt the ego and the dark recesses of the unconscious. Jung called this barrier the anima (in male psychology), and he considered it the bridge to the unconscious. When the anima, a so-called inferior function, is oriented toward the external world, as it is for King Lear, Jung would conjecture that the anima becomes a force of projection, resulting in the projection of intrapsychic archetypal images onto external objects. Identification with the anima leads to an abandonment of the unknown, a dismissal of unconscious images, and overall, a failure to adapt and transcend. The abnegation of the unknown [mytho-psychologically, the Great Mother], increases the likelihood that it will don a menacing countenance in its investable manifestation. This all bears true for King Lear. As a consequence of his fixation on the anima, a foreboding visage manifests itself in the second scene of act three: Blow, wind, and crack your cheeks! Rage, blow, You cataracts and hurricanos, spout Till you have drenched our steeples, drowned the cocks! You sulphrous and thought-executing fires, Vaunt-couriers of oak-cleaving thunderbolts, Singe my white head. And thou all-shaking thunder, Strike flat the thick rotundity othworld, Crack natures moulds, all germens spill at once That makes ingrateful man! (Shakespeare 3.2; 1-9) The nature of King Lears anima and psyche, as it is instantiated by his daughters, represents an intriguing paradox for a Jungian analysis. The great Jungian analyst, Edward Edinger, notes trinities to be dynamic manifestations of the father archetype. The prominent neurologist and psychoanalyst, Sigmund Freud, espoused his views on the nature of trinities in both The Interpretation of Dreams and The Theme of the Three Caskets (the latter, oddly enough, focuses on Shakespeares The Merchant of Venice and King Lear), making special reference to the Moirai, the three Fates of Greek mythology. Jung had contributed little to archetypal identity of the trinity, but has limned Gnostic, so to speak, on its fundamental nature. Only a synergistic use of the above-stated paradigmatic frameworks produces a cogent understanding of the functions of the three daughters in King Lear. Edingers paradigm would suggest that Regan, Goneril, and Cordelia are all animistic incarnates of the elder, or the father archetype. Jung, as previously noted, limned Gnostic on the subject of trinities, referencing the concept of homoousion, an idea that describes the marrow of a trinity as being generated of the same substance. Edinger and Jung postulate very similar ideas by dissimilar routes of perspective, together discerning the constituents of a trinity as being representative of a distinct wholeness. Uniting the concepts is the Freudian notion of the Moirai, the three Fates who orient the destiny of man. With the aforementioned background knowledge in mind, the three daughters can now be approached directly. The daughters are indeed dynamic representatives of a distinct wholeness, orienting the destiny of one man; the distinct wholeness can reliably be regarded as the anima, and the man as King Lear. Driving the plot and Lears destiny through integration, disintegration, and reintegration, the daughters are indeed orienting forces circumscribing the King, inducing certain behaviors in him and bringing him into confrontations with the unconscious. As a dichotomous model, however, they represent the psyche in either a negative or positive guise. For example, Cordelia disillusions her fathers fixation on the archetypal image of the anima by virtue of her independent will; in turn, the King disinherits her: Here I disclaim all my paternal care, Propinquity and property of blood, And as a stranger to my heart and me Hold thee from this forever . . . I loved her most, and thought to set my rest On her kind nursery. [To Cordelia] Hence and avoid my Sight! (Shakespeare 1.1; 111-114 121-122) Lear hereafter descended into a deep abyss as a result of the disillusionment of his anima-projection. As mentioned earlier, his identification with the anima reemerges with a foreboding visage. Following all of this, Goneril supplants her father and he is rendered destitute. However, in the end, Cordelia returns and restores Lears consciousness, reflected by Lears nonplussed utterance: Where have I been? Where am I? Fair daylight? (Shakespeare 4.7; 53). What is most interesting is the differentiation of his psyche, represented by a dualistic bifurcation of his daughters, who as a trinity reflect a distinct wholeness Lears anima. Cordelia can be reliably denoted as the positive instantiation of archetypal imagery throughout King Lear. From a Jungian perspective, Cordelia is the most important character in the entirety of the play by virtue of her role beyond a constituent of Lears triune framed anima and dualistically framed psyche. Although it is truly too nuanced an apprehension to thoroughly articulate, in the four scenes which Cordelia makes an appearance, she emanates the traditional qualities of the hero.