"Thinking of MLK's Influence"
As I was working on a recent blog post I was also watched several programs on WOSU about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the preparations for today's celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington, D. C. in 1963 and King's "I Have a Dream" speech. I was just getting ready to enter high school. While I remember the event I was only beginning to be exposed to the issues of poverty and race and my faith.
Anyway, sometime during the watching of the WOSU programs I began to sense that this would be a good day to share what effect King had on me. You see, by the time I was a freshman at ONU I was beginning to understand that being a Christian involved more than/something different than making a personal decision to be a follower of Jesus, being born again. On January 11, 1968 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke on ONU's campus. He had been a classmate of ONU's chaplain at the time, Dr. James Udy, while at Boston. King's visit to campus was controversial for some both in the area and and the campus at the time. King was murdered in Memphis on April 5, 1968 just four months after his visit/speech at ONU. A record was made of his speech. I still have the record. It is one of my most prized possessions.
Well, as the years passed the day King was on ONU's campus changed from controversial to a matter of pride - one of the most notable events to have ever taken place on the ONU campus. It was decided to erect a memorial on the south side of the Taft building, Taft Gymnasium when he spoke there. I had shared over the years how King had impacted/influenced my life and ministry over the years and was asked to speak at the dedication - which I gladly agreed to do. The rest of this post are the words I shared that day. (I'm still looking for some of the other things I wrote over the years and may post those later.)
"I suppose the day Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke at ONU will forever have a place in my mind and heart. For a young freshman who was raised in an insulated, safe, small rural community, religion was something one did on Sunday morning and social issues were things politicians dealt with somewhere else. That perspective on the relationship between religion and the issues of society had already begun to become blurry by January of 1968. Dr. James Udy, then chaplain of ONU, and several older students were certainly instrumental in the early disturbing of my simple way of departmentalizing life.
"I was sitting in the auxiliary gym in Taft here – far enough away from the main platform where King spoke that I don’t remember whether I could actually see him or not. I don’t remember who I sat with that day – what I was doing before or what I did after his speech – I don’t remember if anything else went on before or after he spoke. What I do remember is what he said and the difference it has made on my life.
"While it certainly was one of the epiphanies that revealed to me that it was indeed the ordained ministry God was calling me into, it even more importantly helped shape the way and the why of my ministry and my life.
"There’s no question that what King said that day and how he said it, I really would have to say changed my life – changed my theology – what I believed about God and the role of religion in the world. King’s coming to ONU and his speech awakened in me an awareness that following Christ involved a whole lot more than the personal decision to be more conscientious about my personal relationship with God – it involved a whole lot more than simply being concerned about eternal life – it means also walking the talk – taking the side of the disadvantaged – the disenfranchised – the powerless – the poor.
"King’s speech – while he was talking – even though unable to be seen – it just seemed like we were a part of something that was larger than life – larger than the moment. It was, to be sure, inspirational. But, there was this sense that we were in the presence of someone real – someone who lived the talk – someone who was larger than life. I shall never forget the experience.
"Thank you for the opportunity to share at this special ceremony marking one of the most historic visits to this campus and area on this significant anniversary of his assassination. Amen."
Peace, brothers and sisters!
(Now I think I'll go to the ONU library website and listen to his speech that day again before the D.C. event begins!)
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Sermon: "Dinner Party Etiquette"
"Dinner Party Etiquette"
Luke 14:1, 7-14
This passage is another one of those mealtimes the author of Luke and Acts used to broaden the understanding about what following Jesus Christ means. Some dinner party etiquette gets overhauled big time.
The very first verse has the makings of at least four sermons. The author of Luke notes that Jesus was a guest at a dinner party. So, we could spend some time reflecting on the important things that happen when people gather for dinner – catching up on events in the lives of one another – passing on table manners to our children – hearing the stories that bind us together – the learning of family secrets. (1)
We could also reflect on the significance of Jesus eating the meal in the home of a Pharisee. Or, we could talk about the fact that the author made mention that the meal happened on the Sabbath and how keeping this day for rest and worship was central to how the Jewish people differentiated themselves from the rest of the culture in that day. Or, we could talk about some of the 270 different regulations that governed every detail of what was permitted and not permitted from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday. Or, we could spend time considering the comment that the Pharisees were keeping their eye on Jesus. (2)
While all of them could be interesting, I suspect they would all be attempts to avoid the real intent of the story. You see, the account is really about the attempt on the part of the Pharisees to discredit Jesus. Only Jesus again successfully turned the tables on them. He used the occasion to suggest that following him was going to involve a very different way of dealing with those different from ourselves. The Pharisees wanted to expose Jesus as a dangerous and irreligious lawbreaker, thus discrediting him because everyone knows religious leaders don’t break laws, right?
In the verses between the first verse and the rest of the story read this morning, a man with dropsy just happened by. Yeah, right. Jesus wasn’t dumb – he knew what the score was. He knew what was going on; and so, he began his patented counterattack of asking a question of his detractors: “Uh, boys, tell me, with this suffering one right here among us, what do you think about healing on the Sabbath?”
If those Pharisees did intentionally set up the scenario of the man with dropsy stopping by the dinner, they didn’t think things through very well. One question from Jesus was all it took for them to get real quiet. They knew with his question that he had already turned the table on them with one of his seemingly easy questions. So, Jesus healed the man and sent him on his way.
Then he turned to his host and the other guests and challenged them using their own understanding of the law and the way they practiced it in their own lives. “If one of your animals falls into an open pit, a well, on the Sabbath, don’t you rescue it?” They knew full well they were allowed to rescue their animals on the Sabbath and that he had them. So they again kept quiet. He didn’t even have to follow-up his question with the obvious in-your-face-I-gotcha logical argument: “If it’s alright to help an animal on the Sabbath, surely it can’t be wrong to help a fellow human being.”
Jesus was on a roll and he wasn’t about to relinquish the pulpit now that he had it. As an invited guest he was expected to make a presentation on some topic as a part of the after-dinner entertainment. My guess is that the topic Jesus chose wasn’t exactly one the dinner guests welcomed. Banquet etiquette following a banquet hardly seems appropriate, especially banquet etiquette so contrary from what was accepted as proper in that day.
Now, I’m going to skip over one piece of dinner etiquette the author of Luke has Jesus note in this passage - that we should avoid thinking too highly of our position in life when we choose where to sit at dinner parties. While it’s a significant change in thinking and worthy in and of itself consideration, I want to spend time on the last piece of etiquette Jesus notes because it's pretty challenging stuff.
Talk about radical teaching! “When you have a special event in your life – a luncheon or dinner party – don’t invite your friends or family members who are able to repay you, but invite instead the poor, the lame, the blind – those who can’t repay you.” The point he was trying to make is revealed in the final verse: “Although they can’t repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” Or, “When it’s time to read the results in heaven, it won’t be on the basis of our educational achievements or financial accumulation or our won/lost record or our knowledge of the bible or how often we got spiritual or how deeply spiritual we have been. We are made ready for heaven on the basis of whether we have identified ourselves with – stood with – the down and out in the world.”
Humble service – standing alongside those who have difficulty standing at all – serving those who make us uncomfortable, not just by giving them food or clothes, but by socializing with them, spending time with them, inviting them into our homes for a meal, into our neighborhoods for a picnic or a swim, into our church for a meal or to worship – that is the path to salvation which will be rewarded at the resurrection of the righteous. This is a challenging story from the lips of Jesus – both to us as the church and to us as individuals. If we're going to follow Jesus than he expects us to get out of our comfort zones – to make our prayer something like this: “Lord, send us the people no one else wants.”
Now, Jesus isn’t saying there is anything wrong with us wanting to entertain our family and our friends. It’s natural for us to want to spend time with people we like and who know us well. This idea of Jesus’ is really more than just a thought about how we should make out a guest list for dinner. One writer suggests that Jesus is encouraging us to engage in “disinterested charity.” “We are being asked to give of ourselves, our time, energy, talents and treasure, and not look for any reward. This passage encourages us to make a special place in our hearts for the disenfranchised, for those on the margins of society, for the broken, weak, and poor.” (3)
"Imagine, if you would, one of the angels returning from a hard day’s work, doing whatever angels do in heaven. Imagine that angel coming back to see Jesus, Heaven’s Delight, God’s only beloved Son, working hard to prepare a feast. It’s a spiritual banquet, an offering of every good thing God can give: joy and peace and satisfaction and grace and forgiveness of sins.
“Imagine Jesus looking up at the angel and smiling and saying, ‘Guess who’s coming to dinner!’ And, when the angel shakes his head and says, ‘I don’t know, Lord, who?, Jesus continuing with: ‘I’ve invited sinners. I’ve invited anyone who’s ever broken God’s laws. I’ve invited husbands and wives who have betrayed each other. I’ve invited children who have let their parents down. I’ve invited parents who feel like they have failed their children. I’ve invited people who have subjected their bodies to all kinds of abuse. I’ve invited those who are twisted up inside, crippled by all kinds of painful memories. I’ve invited those whose eyes are blind to other people’s pain. I’ve invited people who say they love me, but whose actions deny me. I’ve invited all the people who, in any way, have ever failed me. I’ve invited anyone who has ever done anything that sent me to the cross.’
“And then that angel asks, ‘Why, Lord? Why? Why would you invite those people? How could they possible deserve you? How could they pay you back?’
“And Jesus responds with, ‘They can’t. But still, I love them. And I understand their hunger. And I hope that once they have been fed, they might just be moved to feed somebody else. You see, there’s a world down there full of people who are poor and crippled and lame and blind and lonely and hungry. In fact, they’re all poor or crippled or lame or blind in some way. It’s a world that needs to be loved with my kind of love. The kind of love that keeps on giving and doesn’t count the cost.’” (4)
Friends, the Kingdom of God includes banquets, dinner parties, luncheons, Pepsi and coffee breaks but they are different than any we think about throwing. When God throws the party – is the host – you never know who is going to be there or who you’re going to sit next to. “The financier will be seated next to the panhandler he always passed on his way to work. The store owner will be next to the person he just fired, and the doctor will be put next to the woman who just sued him for malpractice. Rush Limbaugh may be beside the single mother on welfare. Jerry Falwell may have to strike up a conversation with a gay rights activist.
“And you know what, everyone will get along famously at God’s Banquet Feast. You and I may well find ourselves seated next to, and engaging in conversation with, people we presently can’t stand (or who can’t stand us). But the old anger, hurt, and grudges will be gone, and reconciliation will come. At God’s Table, the barriers that keep people apart – rich/poor, upperclass/lowerclass, black/white, Republican/Democrat, gay/straight, friend/foe, the dividing walls of hostility will come smashing down. The crash will be greater than the fall of the Berlin Wall. God’s Banquet Feast will be the greatest party ever!” (4)
Every once in awhile we’re privileged to get a glimpse of this Kingdom of God banquet. I used to see it once a month on Sunday mornings when a breakfast ministry team at Lima Trinity started to have persons from an obviously different social class than those who normally attended church there drop in for the breakfast. It was awesome to see church members and homeless people and people from public housing just sitting around talking and eating together. I understand it's still happening coupled with some other life-changing ministries.
I get a glimpse of it every year at New Life’s Tailgate party. I hear stories about what it looks like on Sunday mornings at the CRC breakfast. I get a glimpse of it every year at Maple Grove's community Thanksgiving meal.
I'd be curious to hear of other images/glimpses others of you have been a part of or seen.
Peace and God's blessings on you all!
Fred Craddock, Interpretation: Luke (Louisville: John Knox Press, 1990), p. 175.
R. Robert Cueni, “Divine Dinner Party Decorum,” Sermons on the Gospel Readings, Series I, Cycle C (Lima, Ohio: CSS Publishing Company, 2004), 0-7880-1968-6e.
Alex Gondola, Jr., “Entertaining Tips for Christians,” Come As You Are (Lima, Ohio: CSS Publishing Company, 2000), 0-7880-1562-1.
Ibid.
Luke 14:1, 7-14
This passage is another one of those mealtimes the author of Luke and Acts used to broaden the understanding about what following Jesus Christ means. Some dinner party etiquette gets overhauled big time.
The very first verse has the makings of at least four sermons. The author of Luke notes that Jesus was a guest at a dinner party. So, we could spend some time reflecting on the important things that happen when people gather for dinner – catching up on events in the lives of one another – passing on table manners to our children – hearing the stories that bind us together – the learning of family secrets. (1)
We could also reflect on the significance of Jesus eating the meal in the home of a Pharisee. Or, we could talk about the fact that the author made mention that the meal happened on the Sabbath and how keeping this day for rest and worship was central to how the Jewish people differentiated themselves from the rest of the culture in that day. Or, we could talk about some of the 270 different regulations that governed every detail of what was permitted and not permitted from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday. Or, we could spend time considering the comment that the Pharisees were keeping their eye on Jesus. (2)
While all of them could be interesting, I suspect they would all be attempts to avoid the real intent of the story. You see, the account is really about the attempt on the part of the Pharisees to discredit Jesus. Only Jesus again successfully turned the tables on them. He used the occasion to suggest that following him was going to involve a very different way of dealing with those different from ourselves. The Pharisees wanted to expose Jesus as a dangerous and irreligious lawbreaker, thus discrediting him because everyone knows religious leaders don’t break laws, right?
In the verses between the first verse and the rest of the story read this morning, a man with dropsy just happened by. Yeah, right. Jesus wasn’t dumb – he knew what the score was. He knew what was going on; and so, he began his patented counterattack of asking a question of his detractors: “Uh, boys, tell me, with this suffering one right here among us, what do you think about healing on the Sabbath?”
If those Pharisees did intentionally set up the scenario of the man with dropsy stopping by the dinner, they didn’t think things through very well. One question from Jesus was all it took for them to get real quiet. They knew with his question that he had already turned the table on them with one of his seemingly easy questions. So, Jesus healed the man and sent him on his way.
Then he turned to his host and the other guests and challenged them using their own understanding of the law and the way they practiced it in their own lives. “If one of your animals falls into an open pit, a well, on the Sabbath, don’t you rescue it?” They knew full well they were allowed to rescue their animals on the Sabbath and that he had them. So they again kept quiet. He didn’t even have to follow-up his question with the obvious in-your-face-I-gotcha logical argument: “If it’s alright to help an animal on the Sabbath, surely it can’t be wrong to help a fellow human being.”
Jesus was on a roll and he wasn’t about to relinquish the pulpit now that he had it. As an invited guest he was expected to make a presentation on some topic as a part of the after-dinner entertainment. My guess is that the topic Jesus chose wasn’t exactly one the dinner guests welcomed. Banquet etiquette following a banquet hardly seems appropriate, especially banquet etiquette so contrary from what was accepted as proper in that day.
Now, I’m going to skip over one piece of dinner etiquette the author of Luke has Jesus note in this passage - that we should avoid thinking too highly of our position in life when we choose where to sit at dinner parties. While it’s a significant change in thinking and worthy in and of itself consideration, I want to spend time on the last piece of etiquette Jesus notes because it's pretty challenging stuff.
Talk about radical teaching! “When you have a special event in your life – a luncheon or dinner party – don’t invite your friends or family members who are able to repay you, but invite instead the poor, the lame, the blind – those who can’t repay you.” The point he was trying to make is revealed in the final verse: “Although they can’t repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” Or, “When it’s time to read the results in heaven, it won’t be on the basis of our educational achievements or financial accumulation or our won/lost record or our knowledge of the bible or how often we got spiritual or how deeply spiritual we have been. We are made ready for heaven on the basis of whether we have identified ourselves with – stood with – the down and out in the world.”
Humble service – standing alongside those who have difficulty standing at all – serving those who make us uncomfortable, not just by giving them food or clothes, but by socializing with them, spending time with them, inviting them into our homes for a meal, into our neighborhoods for a picnic or a swim, into our church for a meal or to worship – that is the path to salvation which will be rewarded at the resurrection of the righteous. This is a challenging story from the lips of Jesus – both to us as the church and to us as individuals. If we're going to follow Jesus than he expects us to get out of our comfort zones – to make our prayer something like this: “Lord, send us the people no one else wants.”
Now, Jesus isn’t saying there is anything wrong with us wanting to entertain our family and our friends. It’s natural for us to want to spend time with people we like and who know us well. This idea of Jesus’ is really more than just a thought about how we should make out a guest list for dinner. One writer suggests that Jesus is encouraging us to engage in “disinterested charity.” “We are being asked to give of ourselves, our time, energy, talents and treasure, and not look for any reward. This passage encourages us to make a special place in our hearts for the disenfranchised, for those on the margins of society, for the broken, weak, and poor.” (3)
"Imagine, if you would, one of the angels returning from a hard day’s work, doing whatever angels do in heaven. Imagine that angel coming back to see Jesus, Heaven’s Delight, God’s only beloved Son, working hard to prepare a feast. It’s a spiritual banquet, an offering of every good thing God can give: joy and peace and satisfaction and grace and forgiveness of sins.
“Imagine Jesus looking up at the angel and smiling and saying, ‘Guess who’s coming to dinner!’ And, when the angel shakes his head and says, ‘I don’t know, Lord, who?, Jesus continuing with: ‘I’ve invited sinners. I’ve invited anyone who’s ever broken God’s laws. I’ve invited husbands and wives who have betrayed each other. I’ve invited children who have let their parents down. I’ve invited parents who feel like they have failed their children. I’ve invited people who have subjected their bodies to all kinds of abuse. I’ve invited those who are twisted up inside, crippled by all kinds of painful memories. I’ve invited those whose eyes are blind to other people’s pain. I’ve invited people who say they love me, but whose actions deny me. I’ve invited all the people who, in any way, have ever failed me. I’ve invited anyone who has ever done anything that sent me to the cross.’
“And then that angel asks, ‘Why, Lord? Why? Why would you invite those people? How could they possible deserve you? How could they pay you back?’
“And Jesus responds with, ‘They can’t. But still, I love them. And I understand their hunger. And I hope that once they have been fed, they might just be moved to feed somebody else. You see, there’s a world down there full of people who are poor and crippled and lame and blind and lonely and hungry. In fact, they’re all poor or crippled or lame or blind in some way. It’s a world that needs to be loved with my kind of love. The kind of love that keeps on giving and doesn’t count the cost.’” (4)
Friends, the Kingdom of God includes banquets, dinner parties, luncheons, Pepsi and coffee breaks but they are different than any we think about throwing. When God throws the party – is the host – you never know who is going to be there or who you’re going to sit next to. “The financier will be seated next to the panhandler he always passed on his way to work. The store owner will be next to the person he just fired, and the doctor will be put next to the woman who just sued him for malpractice. Rush Limbaugh may be beside the single mother on welfare. Jerry Falwell may have to strike up a conversation with a gay rights activist.
“And you know what, everyone will get along famously at God’s Banquet Feast. You and I may well find ourselves seated next to, and engaging in conversation with, people we presently can’t stand (or who can’t stand us). But the old anger, hurt, and grudges will be gone, and reconciliation will come. At God’s Table, the barriers that keep people apart – rich/poor, upperclass/lowerclass, black/white, Republican/Democrat, gay/straight, friend/foe, the dividing walls of hostility will come smashing down. The crash will be greater than the fall of the Berlin Wall. God’s Banquet Feast will be the greatest party ever!” (4)
Every once in awhile we’re privileged to get a glimpse of this Kingdom of God banquet. I used to see it once a month on Sunday mornings when a breakfast ministry team at Lima Trinity started to have persons from an obviously different social class than those who normally attended church there drop in for the breakfast. It was awesome to see church members and homeless people and people from public housing just sitting around talking and eating together. I understand it's still happening coupled with some other life-changing ministries.
I get a glimpse of it every year at New Life’s Tailgate party. I hear stories about what it looks like on Sunday mornings at the CRC breakfast. I get a glimpse of it every year at Maple Grove's community Thanksgiving meal.
I'd be curious to hear of other images/glimpses others of you have been a part of or seen.
Peace and God's blessings on you all!
Fred Craddock, Interpretation: Luke (Louisville: John Knox Press, 1990), p. 175.
R. Robert Cueni, “Divine Dinner Party Decorum,” Sermons on the Gospel Readings, Series I, Cycle C (Lima, Ohio: CSS Publishing Company, 2004), 0-7880-1968-6e.
Alex Gondola, Jr., “Entertaining Tips for Christians,” Come As You Are (Lima, Ohio: CSS Publishing Company, 2000), 0-7880-1562-1.
Ibid.
Monday, August 26, 2013
"Our Team is Growing!"
"Our Team is Growing!"
If you've been following the Walk to Defeat ALS results, you might think this post is going to be about the growth of the Bill's Backers Walk Team and the mercurial monetary support we're gleaning for the work of the ALS Association. But you'd be wrong. I'm referencing here the expanding number of folks involved in the care and support of Dorothy and me on this ALS journey. I guess we might call them the Bill's Backers Care Team.
Since the beginning of our journey we've benefitted from the expertise of those who knew more about this journey than we did or cared to know - neurologists at both the Cleveland Clinic and the OSU University ALS and MDA/ALS clinics - physical therapists, pulmonary doctors, respiratory therapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, dietitians, social workers, nurses, even sales people of helpful equipment - the staff of the ALS Association of Central & Southern Chapter - members of our ALS support group, the Living With ALS, For PALS Only Facebook page, the ALS Forums and related sites. (Notice how big even this part of the team is/has been!)
Then there have been those family members (children, parents, brothers and sisters, in-laws, cousins, nieces and nephews, grandchildren), friends (OG, ONU, United Seminary and those from many other places and settings), former teammates and coaches, church members, members of youth groups I had the privilege to work with, new and former neighbors, hair stylist (not much to work with but she nurtures my vanity by doing it anyway), nail specialist, newspaper reporters, the community of brother and sister clergy and members of church staffs I had the privilege of working with over the years, members of the ONU trustees and ONU community - all of whom have offered us either words of encouragement, stopped to visit, gone on trips with us, assured us of our being in your prayers, called to talk to Dorothy, gone out to eat with me/us, brought food in, stayed in touch with me via Facebook and email, provided me/us tickets to OSU football and basketball games, sat with us in our home, organized and/or sponsored benefits with us (Putnam County ALS Benefit and Golf Outing, Jersey Mikes, City BBQ in particular and still coming up this fall again - September 10 is this year's City BBQ event, September 19 & 20 at Jersey Mikes, and the Putnam event is September 28), helped us move a couple of times, cried and/or laughed with us. (Do you want to estimate how many people are on this team so far?! I will assure you it's over 1000 and I'm not about to try to figure it out exactly!)
(Yes, I know, two paragraphs with only one sentence in each one! Please don't share this with my former english teachers!)
Well, as is the reality of this disease - known for its random and dissimilar journey through each of our ALS bodies and lives - things change, new physical realities strike with little to no warning. And with these new challenges come the addition of new team members - ours being the members of the new Ohio Health ALS clinic and the therapists we've met and spent time with as we've dealt with my falling, aides to help me shower, PALS' families and others who've shared equipment with us, home visits by therapists to provide us other ideas of what we can further or still do, Maple Grove staff and members who offer to help us in ways they and we are still unsure what that might look like, and now the hospice staff with their advice, promptness in responding, a different sort of lifeline support, and their assurance of being with us no matter how long the journey yet to be experienced/enjoyed/lamented/coped with/or endured.
It's quite a team that has rallied and gathered around us, as is the case for so many who have to deal with life-challenging illnesses! We feel quite blessed, supported, loved, and very thankful! Yes, it does take a community to deal with life's challenges! Actually, our experience notes that it takes more than one community - it takes a team of communities and we are so appreciative of the way ours has grown! Sure we wish it didn't have to be, but it sure is nice to know that we have so many teammates to help with the fight/battle/game!!!!!
Peace, Bill's Backers teammates!!!
If you've been following the Walk to Defeat ALS results, you might think this post is going to be about the growth of the Bill's Backers Walk Team and the mercurial monetary support we're gleaning for the work of the ALS Association. But you'd be wrong. I'm referencing here the expanding number of folks involved in the care and support of Dorothy and me on this ALS journey. I guess we might call them the Bill's Backers Care Team.
Since the beginning of our journey we've benefitted from the expertise of those who knew more about this journey than we did or cared to know - neurologists at both the Cleveland Clinic and the OSU University ALS and MDA/ALS clinics - physical therapists, pulmonary doctors, respiratory therapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, dietitians, social workers, nurses, even sales people of helpful equipment - the staff of the ALS Association of Central & Southern Chapter - members of our ALS support group, the Living With ALS, For PALS Only Facebook page, the ALS Forums and related sites. (Notice how big even this part of the team is/has been!)
Then there have been those family members (children, parents, brothers and sisters, in-laws, cousins, nieces and nephews, grandchildren), friends (OG, ONU, United Seminary and those from many other places and settings), former teammates and coaches, church members, members of youth groups I had the privilege to work with, new and former neighbors, hair stylist (not much to work with but she nurtures my vanity by doing it anyway), nail specialist, newspaper reporters, the community of brother and sister clergy and members of church staffs I had the privilege of working with over the years, members of the ONU trustees and ONU community - all of whom have offered us either words of encouragement, stopped to visit, gone on trips with us, assured us of our being in your prayers, called to talk to Dorothy, gone out to eat with me/us, brought food in, stayed in touch with me via Facebook and email, provided me/us tickets to OSU football and basketball games, sat with us in our home, organized and/or sponsored benefits with us (Putnam County ALS Benefit and Golf Outing, Jersey Mikes, City BBQ in particular and still coming up this fall again - September 10 is this year's City BBQ event, September 19 & 20 at Jersey Mikes, and the Putnam event is September 28), helped us move a couple of times, cried and/or laughed with us. (Do you want to estimate how many people are on this team so far?! I will assure you it's over 1000 and I'm not about to try to figure it out exactly!)
(Yes, I know, two paragraphs with only one sentence in each one! Please don't share this with my former english teachers!)
Well, as is the reality of this disease - known for its random and dissimilar journey through each of our ALS bodies and lives - things change, new physical realities strike with little to no warning. And with these new challenges come the addition of new team members - ours being the members of the new Ohio Health ALS clinic and the therapists we've met and spent time with as we've dealt with my falling, aides to help me shower, PALS' families and others who've shared equipment with us, home visits by therapists to provide us other ideas of what we can further or still do, Maple Grove staff and members who offer to help us in ways they and we are still unsure what that might look like, and now the hospice staff with their advice, promptness in responding, a different sort of lifeline support, and their assurance of being with us no matter how long the journey yet to be experienced/enjoyed/lamented/coped with/or endured.
It's quite a team that has rallied and gathered around us, as is the case for so many who have to deal with life-challenging illnesses! We feel quite blessed, supported, loved, and very thankful! Yes, it does take a community to deal with life's challenges! Actually, our experience notes that it takes more than one community - it takes a team of communities and we are so appreciative of the way ours has grown! Sure we wish it didn't have to be, but it sure is nice to know that we have so many teammates to help with the fight/battle/game!!!!!
Peace, Bill's Backers teammates!!!
Friday, August 23, 2013
Sermon: "God's Cure of an Inferiority Complex"
"GOD’S CURE OF AN INFERIORITY COMPLEX"
JEREMIAH 1:4-10
"Jeremiah."
"Yes, Lord."
"I've decided that you are to be a prophet."
Jeremiah couldn't believe the thoughts that were mulling around inside his head and heart and gut about what God had in mind for him. So, he began to argue within himself with the nudging he sensed from God, described as the voice of God. He presented his case in hopes of quieting the voice within him.
Perhaps one of the best ways I've ever heard this conversation inside Jeremiah between himself and God appeared in a little book written a number of years ago. I've always enjoyed the way the author of Are You Joking, Jeremiah? paraphrased Jeremiah's argument in poetic form.
"God, there must be some mistake.
I can't do work like that.
After all,
I'm only in my teens
sporting jeans
and lounging on the rooftops.
I've had no training
in diplomacy or politics,
in how to speak,
or how to pray in public.
You'll soon be sorry, God,
if you pick someone like me.
Well, God? Well, can't you see?" (1)
I can relate to Jeremiah - he's my kind of guy. I sense in him a kindred spirit. He was a man after my own heart. His struggle with God's call on his life was my struggle. I understand Jeremiah because his reaction to the voice of God inside him was like mine was.
I know some will find this claim a little hard to believe, but I really am basically a shy, quiet, self-conscious, reserved, insecure person. I used to say that's who I was when I was young, but I've come to the place where I understand that's also who I am in my core.
Feelings of inferiority influenced how I lived my life - how I related and responded to others. Some have made the observation that perhaps my feelings of inferiority and inadequacy were early formed or influenced by my athletic interest and vice versa. They have reasoned that because I felt I wasn't as physically gifted as others, except my ability to run fast, that I worked harder - that I played with more intensity to make up for what I felt I lacked.
Others have been so bold as to suggest that I have lived my life and worked in the church and community with the same intensity or drivenness as a result of that same sort of sense in myself that the abilities or gifts for the situations I often felt called upon to be involved were lacking. The thought of being a pastor, a preacher - the thought of standing in front of a group of people week after week and talking - the thought of visiting people in hospitals when I can't even watch a nurse give me a shot or a lab technician draw blood from me - well, those were not situations I ever felt I could handle.
I have to admit to you that throughout my career there were times when I was amazed and uncomfortable at some of the things I was called upon to do simply because I was a pastor. As I've mentioned before, I went to college to be a high school basketball coach and math teacher. I felt those were things I could best do with the gifts/strengths/skills/interests I believed and sensed about myself. And although I have had the opportunity to use those interests, etc. at times in my life, they weren't the ones that fueled the fire that God ultimately stoked in my heart, head, and gut.
In the introduction to Elizabeth O'Connor's book Cry Pain, Cry Hope Gordon Cosby, minister of the Church of the Savior in Washington, D.C. and inspirational leader behind the Servant Leadership movement, wrote: "For a growing person, call must continue forever to be the central concern. At each evolving level of our being we are asking: 'What am I going to do with my life now?' 'How do I find the vocation that is related to my deepest self, and will help that self to unfold?'" (2)
In one of the chapters of O'Connor's book she observes: "(Call) implies a summoning voice which comes from above one, and at the same time sounds deep within one's being." (3) Call is God, "The summoning voice from above" and the "sounds deep within one's being" - Call is God making us aware - Call is God announcing to us and in us - Call is God stoking the fire in our guts through the things that happen around us and the conversations we have with others and the conversations that take place within our hearts and minds, what it is for which God wants us to give our lives. Call involves sensing a passion within one's self that will not be extinguished by the making of excuses about one's lack of gifts or the assuming that the gifts we have are the ones God wants to use. Call is God's making us aware of how God wants to use us.
In that same chapter, Elizabeth O'Connor further observes: "Time was when I thought that the all-important subject was gifts, and that, if only we could identify our gifts, and begin using them, our lives would burst with creativity and the world would be restored. Now I am not so sure. A talent may be so great that it propels a person forever down one path, as is the case with some artists. But even for these extraordinary folk, call determines whether and how they use their gifts. A writer can produce copy, history, propaganda, poetry, contracts and proposals, political speeches, or sermons." (4)
"To be deeply nurturing and to carry one's life into the future, the use of a gift must be related to what one is called to do. An authentic call is hard to discern in today's world, a fact that makes difficult the naming and using of our gifts. (And here's the sentence I most want to share:) Gifts evolve in response to call, and we may not yet have heard a call." (5)
Listen to God's response to Jeremiah's feelings of inferiority and inadequacy, again according to the author of Are You Joking, Jeremiah?:
"Keep quiet son,
don't answer me like that.
Don't say you're only in your teens,
sporting jeans,
for you will go wherever I decide,
and you will say the words which I supply.
Don't be afraid of anyone at all,
for they are just as scared as you
if you could see inside their hardening hearts
and hardening arteries.
And more than that,
don't be afraid to fail,
as most seem to be,
for I am with you even when you do.
Yes, I am, I am." (6)
And so, despite his continuing to object and argue with God about being used in this way, Jeremiah became a prophet and he prophesied with the words God supplied. Jeremiah had good reason to argue - to lament what God had him do and say - because he really suffered for some of those things. His friends and even some of his relatives beat him up for sharing the words God inspired him to say. How could he do it? Why did he continue to do it? How could this guy who would rather switch than fight, this man with the inferiority complex, put up with the public ridicule he endured and continue to speak the unpopular word of God?
The answer? His knowledge, his confidence, that God was with him - that he wasn't in the brawl alone. With God's summons - God's call - comes God's assurance, God's strength, God's encouragement, God's rescuing presence.
Yes, there were times when I sensed God wanted me to do something or say something that I hoped I was hearing wrong. There were times when I tried to argue with God about something I sensed God wanted me to do or say. But, when God plants a call inside us - when God surrounds us with signs of what needs to be done by us - when God sets the fire aflame in us - God accompanies the call. "For I am with you," God says. When God wants to use us, God promises to come alongside us - to be with us - to go with us - to furnish us with that which we need to carry out the call. Call is about passion and trusting God will be with us and that God will equip us for the fulfilling of the call.
The cure of an inferiority complex is ongoing - it's not once and done. It involves believing God is able - that God wants - that God will use us no matter who we are or what gifts we have. It involves believing God is with us as we do or say that which God provides us. And when we forget and give in to our insecurities, God stays with us - offers us forgives us - and gives us other opportunities to overcome our sense of inadequacy and be what God needs us to be.
Being used by God - the call of God - is a tough call at times. It's tough at times to discern. It's tough at times because we don't feel adequate. It's tough at times because it means we may not be understood by those we love. But God promises to be with us and to provide what we need to fulfill the ministry to which we are called. God's promised presence births within us hope for the days and weeks and months and years ahead. Being used by God is a part of what it means to be a Christian.
LET'S PRAY: GRACIOUS GOD, WHO COMMISSIONED JEREMIAH OF OLD TO BE A PROPHET TO THE NATIONS AND WHO SENT YOUR SON, JESUS, TO BE IN MINISTRY TO THE WORLD, ENABLE US BY YOUR SPIRIT TO BE FAITHFUL TO THE MINISTRIES YOU CALL US TO. ENABLE US TO HEAR YOUR WORD IN SCRIPTURE, SENDING US FORTH INTO THE WORLD TO WORK FOR JUSTICE, TO DO ACTS OF MERCY, AND TO LIVE BY THE LAW OF LOVE. FORGIVE US, O LORD, WHEN WE HEAR THE CALL WITHIN US AND FAIL TO RESPOND. FILL US WITH YOUR GRACE AND STRENGTHEN OUR RESOLVE TO DO WHAT YOU WOULD HAVE US DO AND SAY WHAT YOU WOULD HAVE US SAY. IN CHRIST OUR SAVIOR’S NAME WE PRAY. AMEN.
Are You Joking, Jeremiah?
ELIZABETH O’CONNOR, CRY PAIN, CRY HOPE, (Washington, D.C., The Servant Leadership School, 1987), Introduction.
Ibid., p. 80.
Ibid., p. 79.
Ibid., p. 79-80.
Are You Joking, Jeremiah?
JEREMIAH 1:4-10
"Jeremiah."
"Yes, Lord."
"I've decided that you are to be a prophet."
Jeremiah couldn't believe the thoughts that were mulling around inside his head and heart and gut about what God had in mind for him. So, he began to argue within himself with the nudging he sensed from God, described as the voice of God. He presented his case in hopes of quieting the voice within him.
Perhaps one of the best ways I've ever heard this conversation inside Jeremiah between himself and God appeared in a little book written a number of years ago. I've always enjoyed the way the author of Are You Joking, Jeremiah? paraphrased Jeremiah's argument in poetic form.
"God, there must be some mistake.
I can't do work like that.
After all,
I'm only in my teens
sporting jeans
and lounging on the rooftops.
I've had no training
in diplomacy or politics,
in how to speak,
or how to pray in public.
You'll soon be sorry, God,
if you pick someone like me.
Well, God? Well, can't you see?" (1)
I can relate to Jeremiah - he's my kind of guy. I sense in him a kindred spirit. He was a man after my own heart. His struggle with God's call on his life was my struggle. I understand Jeremiah because his reaction to the voice of God inside him was like mine was.
I know some will find this claim a little hard to believe, but I really am basically a shy, quiet, self-conscious, reserved, insecure person. I used to say that's who I was when I was young, but I've come to the place where I understand that's also who I am in my core.
Feelings of inferiority influenced how I lived my life - how I related and responded to others. Some have made the observation that perhaps my feelings of inferiority and inadequacy were early formed or influenced by my athletic interest and vice versa. They have reasoned that because I felt I wasn't as physically gifted as others, except my ability to run fast, that I worked harder - that I played with more intensity to make up for what I felt I lacked.
Others have been so bold as to suggest that I have lived my life and worked in the church and community with the same intensity or drivenness as a result of that same sort of sense in myself that the abilities or gifts for the situations I often felt called upon to be involved were lacking. The thought of being a pastor, a preacher - the thought of standing in front of a group of people week after week and talking - the thought of visiting people in hospitals when I can't even watch a nurse give me a shot or a lab technician draw blood from me - well, those were not situations I ever felt I could handle.
I have to admit to you that throughout my career there were times when I was amazed and uncomfortable at some of the things I was called upon to do simply because I was a pastor. As I've mentioned before, I went to college to be a high school basketball coach and math teacher. I felt those were things I could best do with the gifts/strengths/skills/interests I believed and sensed about myself. And although I have had the opportunity to use those interests, etc. at times in my life, they weren't the ones that fueled the fire that God ultimately stoked in my heart, head, and gut.
In the introduction to Elizabeth O'Connor's book Cry Pain, Cry Hope Gordon Cosby, minister of the Church of the Savior in Washington, D.C. and inspirational leader behind the Servant Leadership movement, wrote: "For a growing person, call must continue forever to be the central concern. At each evolving level of our being we are asking: 'What am I going to do with my life now?' 'How do I find the vocation that is related to my deepest self, and will help that self to unfold?'" (2)
In one of the chapters of O'Connor's book she observes: "(Call) implies a summoning voice which comes from above one, and at the same time sounds deep within one's being." (3) Call is God, "The summoning voice from above" and the "sounds deep within one's being" - Call is God making us aware - Call is God announcing to us and in us - Call is God stoking the fire in our guts through the things that happen around us and the conversations we have with others and the conversations that take place within our hearts and minds, what it is for which God wants us to give our lives. Call involves sensing a passion within one's self that will not be extinguished by the making of excuses about one's lack of gifts or the assuming that the gifts we have are the ones God wants to use. Call is God's making us aware of how God wants to use us.
In that same chapter, Elizabeth O'Connor further observes: "Time was when I thought that the all-important subject was gifts, and that, if only we could identify our gifts, and begin using them, our lives would burst with creativity and the world would be restored. Now I am not so sure. A talent may be so great that it propels a person forever down one path, as is the case with some artists. But even for these extraordinary folk, call determines whether and how they use their gifts. A writer can produce copy, history, propaganda, poetry, contracts and proposals, political speeches, or sermons." (4)
"To be deeply nurturing and to carry one's life into the future, the use of a gift must be related to what one is called to do. An authentic call is hard to discern in today's world, a fact that makes difficult the naming and using of our gifts. (And here's the sentence I most want to share:) Gifts evolve in response to call, and we may not yet have heard a call." (5)
Listen to God's response to Jeremiah's feelings of inferiority and inadequacy, again according to the author of Are You Joking, Jeremiah?:
"Keep quiet son,
don't answer me like that.
Don't say you're only in your teens,
sporting jeans,
for you will go wherever I decide,
and you will say the words which I supply.
Don't be afraid of anyone at all,
for they are just as scared as you
if you could see inside their hardening hearts
and hardening arteries.
And more than that,
don't be afraid to fail,
as most seem to be,
for I am with you even when you do.
Yes, I am, I am." (6)
And so, despite his continuing to object and argue with God about being used in this way, Jeremiah became a prophet and he prophesied with the words God supplied. Jeremiah had good reason to argue - to lament what God had him do and say - because he really suffered for some of those things. His friends and even some of his relatives beat him up for sharing the words God inspired him to say. How could he do it? Why did he continue to do it? How could this guy who would rather switch than fight, this man with the inferiority complex, put up with the public ridicule he endured and continue to speak the unpopular word of God?
The answer? His knowledge, his confidence, that God was with him - that he wasn't in the brawl alone. With God's summons - God's call - comes God's assurance, God's strength, God's encouragement, God's rescuing presence.
Yes, there were times when I sensed God wanted me to do something or say something that I hoped I was hearing wrong. There were times when I tried to argue with God about something I sensed God wanted me to do or say. But, when God plants a call inside us - when God surrounds us with signs of what needs to be done by us - when God sets the fire aflame in us - God accompanies the call. "For I am with you," God says. When God wants to use us, God promises to come alongside us - to be with us - to go with us - to furnish us with that which we need to carry out the call. Call is about passion and trusting God will be with us and that God will equip us for the fulfilling of the call.
The cure of an inferiority complex is ongoing - it's not once and done. It involves believing God is able - that God wants - that God will use us no matter who we are or what gifts we have. It involves believing God is with us as we do or say that which God provides us. And when we forget and give in to our insecurities, God stays with us - offers us forgives us - and gives us other opportunities to overcome our sense of inadequacy and be what God needs us to be.
Being used by God - the call of God - is a tough call at times. It's tough at times to discern. It's tough at times because we don't feel adequate. It's tough at times because it means we may not be understood by those we love. But God promises to be with us and to provide what we need to fulfill the ministry to which we are called. God's promised presence births within us hope for the days and weeks and months and years ahead. Being used by God is a part of what it means to be a Christian.
LET'S PRAY: GRACIOUS GOD, WHO COMMISSIONED JEREMIAH OF OLD TO BE A PROPHET TO THE NATIONS AND WHO SENT YOUR SON, JESUS, TO BE IN MINISTRY TO THE WORLD, ENABLE US BY YOUR SPIRIT TO BE FAITHFUL TO THE MINISTRIES YOU CALL US TO. ENABLE US TO HEAR YOUR WORD IN SCRIPTURE, SENDING US FORTH INTO THE WORLD TO WORK FOR JUSTICE, TO DO ACTS OF MERCY, AND TO LIVE BY THE LAW OF LOVE. FORGIVE US, O LORD, WHEN WE HEAR THE CALL WITHIN US AND FAIL TO RESPOND. FILL US WITH YOUR GRACE AND STRENGTHEN OUR RESOLVE TO DO WHAT YOU WOULD HAVE US DO AND SAY WHAT YOU WOULD HAVE US SAY. IN CHRIST OUR SAVIOR’S NAME WE PRAY. AMEN.
Are You Joking, Jeremiah?
ELIZABETH O’CONNOR, CRY PAIN, CRY HOPE, (Washington, D.C., The Servant Leadership School, 1987), Introduction.
Ibid., p. 80.
Ibid., p. 79.
Ibid., p. 79-80.
Are You Joking, Jeremiah?
Thursday, August 22, 2013
"It's Our Anniversary!"
"It's Our Anniversary!"
We've been married 43 years as of today (August 22, 2013)! Seems like an appropriate time to reflect a bit on those years of marriage and the wonderful woman I was fortunate to meet on the ONU campus 46 years ago.
I really don't remember the first time I noticed Dorothy Machunas on ONU's campus - my suspicion is it was in Ron Evan's math classroom. But we also began to travel in the same circle of friends and it might have been an occasion prior to the first class. What I do know is at some point I discovered she was from Continental, a community about 9 miles from my hometown of Ottawa, Ohio, and she was a math major. She was one of three popular and good looking ladies from that small community who decided ONU was a good place for them to continue their education.
The first "setting the scene side-note" I would share builds on one of those I shared in my recent post about the relationship between Ron Evans and me/us. Mr. Evans was also Dorothy's adviser because she was a math education major. We were in the same first math class and Mr. Evans was the professor. While I don't remember this happening, I've heard her tell the story so many times over the years I feel fairly competent to repeat it. As our first day of class was closing, Mr. Evans announced that he would like Dorothy Machunas to stay after class.
She was shocked, scared, confused, etc. She couldn't imagine what he wanted to see her about. When everyone else had left he asked her if Janet Meyers had been her high school math teacher. She softly answered, "Yes." He then said: "Well, she was my high school math teacher as well, so I know what I can expect out of you!" (Mrs. Meyers had taught at Vaughnsville High School before taking a position in Continental and Ron Evans had graduated from Vaughnsville. Yes, it is a small world!)
The second "setting the scene side-note" I would offer happened as my long-time high school girlfriend was breaking up with me. I think I wrote or called her everyday for several weeks lamenting her decision and trying to convince her we could/should make it work. I believe it was in one of her letters to me that she wisely/desperately/innocently stated: "Surely there are girls at ONU that are attractive and nice that you could date."
I'm not terribly proud of all of my response but it's what I wrote back: "Well, there's one, maybe, but she's from Continental!" (My apologies to all my many wonderful relatives and friends I have today from Continental! Please forgive me! I was trying to be humorous and honest at the same time.) The one girl I had in mind was Dorothy. But we were friends. And she began to date pretty seriously a fellow ONU football teammate of mine. Still, we spent a lot of time together that year because of the classes and friends we shared.
I managed to start dating three girls during the rest of that freshmen year. I'm not really sure how much time overlapped in those relationships but I'm pretty sure that there were months when I was dating more than one at a time. It was pretty easy to pull off since only one was on campus and the other two were in Dayton and Defiance. To be honest, I'm a little embarrassed by this confession because they were all three very nice and I had a wonderful relationship with each one of them.
Well, the summer after our freshmen year a friend of mine, Bill Horstman, and I decided we were going to impart our new attitudes and ideas about race, war, etc. to our hometowns of Ottawa and Glandorf. Our way of doing so was to open a coffee house, The Serenity House (I'll save most of the stories about that for another blog post). Once in awhile that summer Dorothy would bring a friend or two over to the coffee house. On one of those nights it was her roommate and close friend, Nini.
After some time at the coffee house we decided to head to "My Place" for some dancing and further socializing. My Place was a local bar with live bands and a dance floor one block from my home. Late in the evening we decided to go outside to cool off. Then we decided to walk the 1/2 mile or so to the West Main Street bridge over the Blanchard River. I don't remember who all was with us but I know it was Dorothy, Nini, Horse, Big Dave and myself. This was a common route for me when I needed a break from studying when I was in high school. On our way to the bridge lights went on simultaneously in my head and heart, I was in love with Dorothy! Oh, she wasn't aware yet. We were still just friends.
We made plans to go hear my roommate, Carl (Larry) Martin, preach in an area UM church. When I dropped her off, I leaned over and kissed her - she wasn't expecting it. The rest of the summer we saw each other almost every day, even if it meant me taking a detour through Rice when delivering or picking up eggs between our eggplant in Ottawa to the eggplant in Delphos. She worked at a restaurant in Rice run by Charlie Bill. Only people from that area of Ohio get the humor and act of love this slight detour signifies. I took a lot of teasing that summer and still do even to this day!
Then came the fall and a two year courtship with my proposing to her on Christmas Eve, 1969, during the Machunas family gift exchange - her engagement ring was tied to
a rocking chair which was my other gift to her. This was rather bold since we knew her dad was not crazy about us marrying because I was considering being a United Methodist pastor and they were a devout Roman Catholic family. Her sister and mother ran interference for us. (Oh, another side note: I actually took her sister, Susie, out on a date before Dorothy and I went out. We went to see "The Graduate" - a really appropriate first date movie!)
We were married August 22, 1970 at St. John's Catholic Church in Continental. What a wonderfully beautiful bride she was (still is) and what an awesome day we enjoyed! The rest - first night at Riverview Inn in Tiffin, honeymoon at Lake Hope, moving into the dorm after two weeks of marriage for two-a-days, getting sick on the honeymoon, rice in her suitcase and her clothes tied in knots (thanks Nini!), family gatherings, etc. will have to be another post, another day.
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, DOROTHY! I LOVE YOU MORE THAN THE WORDS CAN EVER MEAN!!!
We've been married 43 years as of today (August 22, 2013)! Seems like an appropriate time to reflect a bit on those years of marriage and the wonderful woman I was fortunate to meet on the ONU campus 46 years ago.
I really don't remember the first time I noticed Dorothy Machunas on ONU's campus - my suspicion is it was in Ron Evan's math classroom. But we also began to travel in the same circle of friends and it might have been an occasion prior to the first class. What I do know is at some point I discovered she was from Continental, a community about 9 miles from my hometown of Ottawa, Ohio, and she was a math major. She was one of three popular and good looking ladies from that small community who decided ONU was a good place for them to continue their education.
The first "setting the scene side-note" I would share builds on one of those I shared in my recent post about the relationship between Ron Evans and me/us. Mr. Evans was also Dorothy's adviser because she was a math education major. We were in the same first math class and Mr. Evans was the professor. While I don't remember this happening, I've heard her tell the story so many times over the years I feel fairly competent to repeat it. As our first day of class was closing, Mr. Evans announced that he would like Dorothy Machunas to stay after class.
She was shocked, scared, confused, etc. She couldn't imagine what he wanted to see her about. When everyone else had left he asked her if Janet Meyers had been her high school math teacher. She softly answered, "Yes." He then said: "Well, she was my high school math teacher as well, so I know what I can expect out of you!" (Mrs. Meyers had taught at Vaughnsville High School before taking a position in Continental and Ron Evans had graduated from Vaughnsville. Yes, it is a small world!)
The second "setting the scene side-note" I would offer happened as my long-time high school girlfriend was breaking up with me. I think I wrote or called her everyday for several weeks lamenting her decision and trying to convince her we could/should make it work. I believe it was in one of her letters to me that she wisely/desperately/innocently stated: "Surely there are girls at ONU that are attractive and nice that you could date."
I'm not terribly proud of all of my response but it's what I wrote back: "Well, there's one, maybe, but she's from Continental!" (My apologies to all my many wonderful relatives and friends I have today from Continental! Please forgive me! I was trying to be humorous and honest at the same time.) The one girl I had in mind was Dorothy. But we were friends. And she began to date pretty seriously a fellow ONU football teammate of mine. Still, we spent a lot of time together that year because of the classes and friends we shared.
I managed to start dating three girls during the rest of that freshmen year. I'm not really sure how much time overlapped in those relationships but I'm pretty sure that there were months when I was dating more than one at a time. It was pretty easy to pull off since only one was on campus and the other two were in Dayton and Defiance. To be honest, I'm a little embarrassed by this confession because they were all three very nice and I had a wonderful relationship with each one of them.
Well, the summer after our freshmen year a friend of mine, Bill Horstman, and I decided we were going to impart our new attitudes and ideas about race, war, etc. to our hometowns of Ottawa and Glandorf. Our way of doing so was to open a coffee house, The Serenity House (I'll save most of the stories about that for another blog post). Once in awhile that summer Dorothy would bring a friend or two over to the coffee house. On one of those nights it was her roommate and close friend, Nini.
After some time at the coffee house we decided to head to "My Place" for some dancing and further socializing. My Place was a local bar with live bands and a dance floor one block from my home. Late in the evening we decided to go outside to cool off. Then we decided to walk the 1/2 mile or so to the West Main Street bridge over the Blanchard River. I don't remember who all was with us but I know it was Dorothy, Nini, Horse, Big Dave and myself. This was a common route for me when I needed a break from studying when I was in high school. On our way to the bridge lights went on simultaneously in my head and heart, I was in love with Dorothy! Oh, she wasn't aware yet. We were still just friends.
We made plans to go hear my roommate, Carl (Larry) Martin, preach in an area UM church. When I dropped her off, I leaned over and kissed her - she wasn't expecting it. The rest of the summer we saw each other almost every day, even if it meant me taking a detour through Rice when delivering or picking up eggs between our eggplant in Ottawa to the eggplant in Delphos. She worked at a restaurant in Rice run by Charlie Bill. Only people from that area of Ohio get the humor and act of love this slight detour signifies. I took a lot of teasing that summer and still do even to this day!
Then came the fall and a two year courtship with my proposing to her on Christmas Eve, 1969, during the Machunas family gift exchange - her engagement ring was tied to
a rocking chair which was my other gift to her. This was rather bold since we knew her dad was not crazy about us marrying because I was considering being a United Methodist pastor and they were a devout Roman Catholic family. Her sister and mother ran interference for us. (Oh, another side note: I actually took her sister, Susie, out on a date before Dorothy and I went out. We went to see "The Graduate" - a really appropriate first date movie!)
We were married August 22, 1970 at St. John's Catholic Church in Continental. What a wonderfully beautiful bride she was (still is) and what an awesome day we enjoyed! The rest - first night at Riverview Inn in Tiffin, honeymoon at Lake Hope, moving into the dorm after two weeks of marriage for two-a-days, getting sick on the honeymoon, rice in her suitcase and her clothes tied in knots (thanks Nini!), family gatherings, etc. will have to be another post, another day.
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, DOROTHY! I LOVE YOU MORE THAN THE WORDS CAN EVER MEAN!!!
Monday, August 19, 2013
Forgiven Anyone Lately?
Luke 7:36-8:3
Ever heard this one? “I eat peas with honey, / Been doin’ it all my life; / It tastes kind of funny, / But it keeps the peas on my knife.”
Have you ever eaten peas with a knife? I vaguely remember my dad eating some of his food that way. My wife is thankful that it’s one of the odd things my dad did that I chose not to make a part of my life.
Cori Connors told the story of how it came to be a custom in her family in a story she wrote for Guideposts a few years ago. Her mother was often teased for eating her peas with a knife, but it’s the reason she did it that has left a deep impression on Cori and the rest of the family.
Her mom grew up during the Depression and like so many didn’t have very much. The family did have a vegetable garden though and strangers passing through town were often at their dinner table for the evening meal.
Cori’s grandfather, her mother's father, brought home a man named Henry one day. Henry didn’t know much English but he left no doubt of his appreciation. When they sat down for the evening meal the family politely waited for Henry to take the first bite. To their amazement he began to eat his peas with his knife! The children could hardly contain their giggles. A look from their dad that told them to keep it under control helped. But, it’s what he did next that would stick with Cori’s mom. He picked up his own knife and began to eat his peas with it as well. He wasn’t as good as Henry but he stayed at it until he captured every pea.
Cori’s mom ate peas with a knife the rest of her life because it reminded her of her dad’s commitment to treating people with dignity in spite of our differences. She saw what her dad did as a concrete example of what it means to truly accept others. Her children and grandchildren continue the custom to remind them of the importance of accepting others.”1
Paderewski, the great pianist, was invited to attend a piano recital of a friend’s daughter. When the little girl saw the famous pianist in the audience, she froze and was unable to perform her piece. She broke down in tears.
After the recital, Paderewski walked up to her and without saying a word, bent down and tenderly kissed her on the forehead and left.2
A Pharisee once threw a dinner party. Jesus was invited. Now, houses of well-to-do folks in that day were built around an open courtyard. Meals were often eaten out there when the weather was warm. (The courtyards were sort of the decks or patios of our day.) One of the customs of that day was that when a rabbi was present anyone could come in and stand around listening for the pearls of wisdom that were sure to be spoken.3 Some Bible scholars believe that’s why the woman was there.
Despite the New Testament’s portrayal of Pharisees as these sort of bad guys, they were really regarded as good people – devoutly religious folks. They were committed to living according to the ways of God.
Some have wondered why the Pharisee invited Jesus to his party. Some have suggested that he might actually have been an admirer of Jesus – that he sympathized with him. The fact that the Pharisee was discourteous to him – not offering him the kiss of peace or washing his feet when he entered as was the custom of a host in that day – probably is cause to rule this idea out though.
Others have suggested that he might have invited him in hopes of enticing him into making a comment or performing an unlawful act that would give his enemies the ammunition they needed to bring charges against him. This seems unlikely as well since the Pharisee called him “Rabbi.”
Most Bible scholars believe what was going on was that the Pharisee, whose name was Simon, liked being seen with important people. Thus, they believe he was trying to capitalize on the fame of Jesus.4
Now, Jesus was known for enjoying a good party. Religious people accused him of being a winebibber and glutton. But, the real charge against him was because of the kind of people he often partied with – those known to be sinners.
Take the woman who showed up at Simon’s party. She was one bad girl, folks. Everyone else at the party apparently knew it and Simon was embarrassed by Jesus’ apparent lack of recognition of her unworthiness. Everyone knew she was a woman of the city – a prostitute. She probably wasn’t dressed appropriately for a party at a Pharisee’s house. Her make up was probably a bit excessive compared to the other women present. And then, there were the rules of etiquette she broke – a woman letting down her hair in public was a no-no. Her behavior had to be embarrassing to most who were there: emptying perfume on someone’s feet – blubbering enough tears to use them to wash another’s feet – kissing his feet. The people at the party had to have been more than a bit repulsed.
One bible scholar offers his take on the scene with these words: “Luke goes to great lengths to show the scandalousness of Jesus’ defiling contact with this sinner. Luke paints her actions toward Jesus in the most sensitive, sensual colors. And Jesus has allowed this woman to touch him. The Greek word for ‘touch’ here … can mean, and may mean here, ‘to caress, to light a fire, to fondle.’ Obviously, a kind of scandalous eroticism permeates this encounter, which adds to the general scandalousness of the episode.”5
I think it took a lot of courage for that woman to go to that party. I mean, to go uninvited into the home of a known religious man like Simon; to go when she was neither a member of the family or an invited guest; to go in and know that people were going to point at her, whisper about her and that her actions were going to be met with disapproval, condemnation. It took a lot of courage to do that.
I wonder if she’d have enough courage to attend a gathering of some of Jesus’ followers in our day – you know, a church. In Philip Yancey’s book What’s So Amazing About Grace he tells this really tough story that a friend who works among the down and out in Chicago told him.
His friend told him of a visit from a prostitute who was homeless, sick, and unable to buy food for her two-year-old daughter. While crying she told Yancey’s friend that she rented out her two-year-old daughter to men. She said that she made more renting her daughter for an hour than she could earn in a night. She told of doing it to support her daughter and her drug habit. (I know, pretty sick, right!?) Yancey’s friend shared how he could hardly bear hearing her story because he was legally liable to report it as child abuse. He said he was desperate for something to say to this woman. And so, he finally asked her if she had ever thought of going to a church for help. It’s what she said next that is why Yancey thought the terrible story important to include in his challenging book: “’Church!’ she cried, ‘Why would I ever go there? I was already feeling terrible about myself. They’d just make me feel worse.’”
“’What struck me about my friend’s story,’ says Philip Yancey, “is that women much like this prostitute fled toward Jesus, not away from him. The worse a person felt about herself, the more likely she saw Jesus as a refuge. Has the church lost that gift?” Yancey asks. “Evidently the down-and-out, who flocked to Jesus when he lived on earth, no longer feel welcome among his followers. What has happened?”6
Friends, if persons who are feeling guilty, ashamed, in need of the grace of God are afraid to enter a church to experience it because they sense all of us who are already in are too good for them – too religious – can’t relate to what they are going through – will judge them – look funny at them – be able to tell they don’t belong – where do they turn? Is there anything we can do to turn it around – to make the church more like Jesus – accepting of the unacceptable – rather than an inconvenient place to find Jesus?7
There’s no question about it, Jesus sided with sinners whenever the opportunity arose – no matter what the cost might be to his reputation. No matter how uncomfortable it makes us, we have to accept that these stories about a prostitute washing his feet and the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son and the woman caught in adultery and … Jesus opted for a ministry of acceptance. Sometimes it’s just more than we decent people can swallow. But, it’s what motivates a good sound bite like our United Methodist media campaign: "Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors." It’s not just “a nice advertising gimmick”, as one woman smirkingly whispered during a session of the Annual Conference a few years ago to those of us around her when it was used on the floor during a debate of why membership in the United Methodist Church should be open to all. We need these stories to keep us forever aware that Jesus is on the side of sinners and the church is not the church unless our ministry reflects that.8
That last comment wasn’t spoken first by me despite how passionately I agree with it. The preacher who stated it in a sermon went on to describe an experience he had at his annual conference a few years ago. He had written all the ministers of his conference urging them to support a petition taking what he considers the moral high ground on sexuality issues which was going to go to that year’s General Conference of the United Methodist Church. He went on in this sermon to share an experience he had that I think is one of the dangerous byproducts of our trying to carve out who is in and who is not – who is acceptable and who is not.
Here’s the rest of his account: “A retired preacher was expressing his appreciation for my strong stand, but then he threw me a curve. He started talking about a preacher who had baptized a baby born outside of marriage. There was anger in his voice, condemnation. He used the word ‘bastard’ as a label for this child. And there was venom in his voice as he talked about the father of the baby being present at the baptism. How could the preacher do it? Baptize this baby born out of wedlock and the father allowed to be present.
“I thought I was talking to Simon the Pharisee, and I thanked God he was a retired, not an active preacher. I wondered. Had he missed that throughout his ministry? Open door to whom and to what? Christ is on the side of sinners!”9 All of us sinners, not just those who go to church with us or hold the same moral attitudes or can pass the litmus test of acceptable doctrinal and/or denominational beliefs.
The greatest need we have is to be accepted. Acceptance is so powerful it’s been known to change people. “A child psychologist told about a boy who was brought to him who was labeled ‘incorrigible.’ The child was supposed to be ‘uncontrollable.’ He was moody, and at first wouldn’t even talk to the psychologist. There simply seemed to be no ‘handle’ with which to take hold of him. The boy’s own father, said, ‘This is the only child I’ve ever seen who doesn’t have a single likeable trait, not a single one.’ The psychologist realized this was his starting point. He started looking for some one thing he could approve. He found several. The boy liked to carve and he did it well. At home he had carved up the furniture and been punished for it. The psychologist bought him a carving set, a set of carving knives, and some soft wood. He also gave him some suggestions about how to use them, and didn’t hold back his approval. ‘You know, Jimmy,’ he said, ‘You can carve out things better than any boy I ever knew.’ To make a long story short, the psychologist soon found other things he could approve, and one day Jimmy surprised everyone by cleaning up his own room without being asked. When the psychologist asked him why he did it, Jimmy answered, ‘I thought you would like that.’10
This past weekend we went to see Smurff's 2. I've already admitted on Facebook that I like animated movies - can't wait to go see "Planes" - the grandkids give me excuses to go see them. There were many wonderful one-liners in Smurff's 2, but one is especially relevant to what we're dealing with now. Papa Smurff comments at one point that they didn't accept Smurfette because she changed, but that she changed because they believed in her. That will preach, folks!
Aceptance changes lives. We’ve all seen it happen. When people feel accepted, they find the power to change. I think it’s one of the secrets of Jesus’ ministry. He accepted people just as they were and he changed their lives.
We, the church, are called to be an accepting community in order that people’s lives might be changed. We are not an exclusive club, membership in which is reserved for the already good. The purpose of our getting together is not so we can congratulate one another on how good and righteous we all are. We are those who have been accepted and are committed to passing on that acceptance to others.
Robert Falconer was once witnessing among the destitute people in a certain city. He read to them the story of the woman who wiped Jesus’ feet with her tears. While he was reading he heard a loud sob and looked up at a young, thin girl whose face was disfigured by small pox. After he spoke a few words of encouragement to her, she said ‘Will he ever come again, the one who forgave the woman? I have heard that he will come again. Will it be soon?”
Falconer replied that it would be soon.
After sobbing again uncontrollably, she said, “Sir, can’t he wait a little while? My hair ain’t long enough yet to wipe his feet.”11
I don’t know about you but I crave to be part of a community of faith, or a community of any kind, where people might know they are welcome and able to receive not only the grace of God theoretically but experientially.
1 Cori Connors, Guideposts, “On the Cutting Edge,” March 1997, p. 36.
2 John R. Brokhoff, Lent: A Time of Tears, CSS Publishing Company.
3 William Barclay, The Daily Study Bible: The Gospel of Luke (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1956), p. 92-93.
4 Ibid., p. 93-94.
5 William Willimon, “Jesus: Eating and Drinking with Sinners!,” Pulpit Resource, April, May, June, 2007, p. 54.
6 Philip Yancey, What’s So Amazing About Grace? (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1997), p. 11.
7 David Kalas, Emphasis, May/June 2007, p. 55.
8 Maxie Dunnam, “Who Loves More?,” 2006, 0-000-000-400.
9 Ibid.
10 King Duncan, “On Eating Peas with a Knife,” Collected Sermons, Dynamic Preaching, 2005, 0-000-0000-20.
11 Stephen Brown, When Being Good Isn’t Good Enough (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1990), p. .
Luke 7:36-8:3
Ever heard this one? “I eat peas with honey, / Been doin’ it all my life; / It tastes kind of funny, / But it keeps the peas on my knife.”
Have you ever eaten peas with a knife? I vaguely remember my dad eating some of his food that way. My wife is thankful that it’s one of the odd things my dad did that I chose not to make a part of my life.
Cori Connors told the story of how it came to be a custom in her family in a story she wrote for Guideposts a few years ago. Her mother was often teased for eating her peas with a knife, but it’s the reason she did it that has left a deep impression on Cori and the rest of the family.
Her mom grew up during the Depression and like so many didn’t have very much. The family did have a vegetable garden though and strangers passing through town were often at their dinner table for the evening meal.
Cori’s grandfather, her mother's father, brought home a man named Henry one day. Henry didn’t know much English but he left no doubt of his appreciation. When they sat down for the evening meal the family politely waited for Henry to take the first bite. To their amazement he began to eat his peas with his knife! The children could hardly contain their giggles. A look from their dad that told them to keep it under control helped. But, it’s what he did next that would stick with Cori’s mom. He picked up his own knife and began to eat his peas with it as well. He wasn’t as good as Henry but he stayed at it until he captured every pea.
Cori’s mom ate peas with a knife the rest of her life because it reminded her of her dad’s commitment to treating people with dignity in spite of our differences. She saw what her dad did as a concrete example of what it means to truly accept others. Her children and grandchildren continue the custom to remind them of the importance of accepting others.”1
Paderewski, the great pianist, was invited to attend a piano recital of a friend’s daughter. When the little girl saw the famous pianist in the audience, she froze and was unable to perform her piece. She broke down in tears.
After the recital, Paderewski walked up to her and without saying a word, bent down and tenderly kissed her on the forehead and left.2
A Pharisee once threw a dinner party. Jesus was invited. Now, houses of well-to-do folks in that day were built around an open courtyard. Meals were often eaten out there when the weather was warm. (The courtyards were sort of the decks or patios of our day.) One of the customs of that day was that when a rabbi was present anyone could come in and stand around listening for the pearls of wisdom that were sure to be spoken.3 Some Bible scholars believe that’s why the woman was there.
Despite the New Testament’s portrayal of Pharisees as these sort of bad guys, they were really regarded as good people – devoutly religious folks. They were committed to living according to the ways of God.
Some have wondered why the Pharisee invited Jesus to his party. Some have suggested that he might actually have been an admirer of Jesus – that he sympathized with him. The fact that the Pharisee was discourteous to him – not offering him the kiss of peace or washing his feet when he entered as was the custom of a host in that day – probably is cause to rule this idea out though.
Others have suggested that he might have invited him in hopes of enticing him into making a comment or performing an unlawful act that would give his enemies the ammunition they needed to bring charges against him. This seems unlikely as well since the Pharisee called him “Rabbi.”
Most Bible scholars believe what was going on was that the Pharisee, whose name was Simon, liked being seen with important people. Thus, they believe he was trying to capitalize on the fame of Jesus.4
Now, Jesus was known for enjoying a good party. Religious people accused him of being a winebibber and glutton. But, the real charge against him was because of the kind of people he often partied with – those known to be sinners.
Take the woman who showed up at Simon’s party. She was one bad girl, folks. Everyone else at the party apparently knew it and Simon was embarrassed by Jesus’ apparent lack of recognition of her unworthiness. Everyone knew she was a woman of the city – a prostitute. She probably wasn’t dressed appropriately for a party at a Pharisee’s house. Her make up was probably a bit excessive compared to the other women present. And then, there were the rules of etiquette she broke – a woman letting down her hair in public was a no-no. Her behavior had to be embarrassing to most who were there: emptying perfume on someone’s feet – blubbering enough tears to use them to wash another’s feet – kissing his feet. The people at the party had to have been more than a bit repulsed.
One bible scholar offers his take on the scene with these words: “Luke goes to great lengths to show the scandalousness of Jesus’ defiling contact with this sinner. Luke paints her actions toward Jesus in the most sensitive, sensual colors. And Jesus has allowed this woman to touch him. The Greek word for ‘touch’ here … can mean, and may mean here, ‘to caress, to light a fire, to fondle.’ Obviously, a kind of scandalous eroticism permeates this encounter, which adds to the general scandalousness of the episode.”5
I think it took a lot of courage for that woman to go to that party. I mean, to go uninvited into the home of a known religious man like Simon; to go when she was neither a member of the family or an invited guest; to go in and know that people were going to point at her, whisper about her and that her actions were going to be met with disapproval, condemnation. It took a lot of courage to do that.
I wonder if she’d have enough courage to attend a gathering of some of Jesus’ followers in our day – you know, a church. In Philip Yancey’s book What’s So Amazing About Grace he tells this really tough story that a friend who works among the down and out in Chicago told him.
His friend told him of a visit from a prostitute who was homeless, sick, and unable to buy food for her two-year-old daughter. While crying she told Yancey’s friend that she rented out her two-year-old daughter to men. She said that she made more renting her daughter for an hour than she could earn in a night. She told of doing it to support her daughter and her drug habit. (I know, pretty sick, right!?) Yancey’s friend shared how he could hardly bear hearing her story because he was legally liable to report it as child abuse. He said he was desperate for something to say to this woman. And so, he finally asked her if she had ever thought of going to a church for help. It’s what she said next that is why Yancey thought the terrible story important to include in his challenging book: “’Church!’ she cried, ‘Why would I ever go there? I was already feeling terrible about myself. They’d just make me feel worse.’”
“’What struck me about my friend’s story,’ says Philip Yancey, “is that women much like this prostitute fled toward Jesus, not away from him. The worse a person felt about herself, the more likely she saw Jesus as a refuge. Has the church lost that gift?” Yancey asks. “Evidently the down-and-out, who flocked to Jesus when he lived on earth, no longer feel welcome among his followers. What has happened?”6
Friends, if persons who are feeling guilty, ashamed, in need of the grace of God are afraid to enter a church to experience it because they sense all of us who are already in are too good for them – too religious – can’t relate to what they are going through – will judge them – look funny at them – be able to tell they don’t belong – where do they turn? Is there anything we can do to turn it around – to make the church more like Jesus – accepting of the unacceptable – rather than an inconvenient place to find Jesus?7
There’s no question about it, Jesus sided with sinners whenever the opportunity arose – no matter what the cost might be to his reputation. No matter how uncomfortable it makes us, we have to accept that these stories about a prostitute washing his feet and the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son and the woman caught in adultery and … Jesus opted for a ministry of acceptance. Sometimes it’s just more than we decent people can swallow. But, it’s what motivates a good sound bite like our United Methodist media campaign: "Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors." It’s not just “a nice advertising gimmick”, as one woman smirkingly whispered during a session of the Annual Conference a few years ago to those of us around her when it was used on the floor during a debate of why membership in the United Methodist Church should be open to all. We need these stories to keep us forever aware that Jesus is on the side of sinners and the church is not the church unless our ministry reflects that.8
That last comment wasn’t spoken first by me despite how passionately I agree with it. The preacher who stated it in a sermon went on to describe an experience he had at his annual conference a few years ago. He had written all the ministers of his conference urging them to support a petition taking what he considers the moral high ground on sexuality issues which was going to go to that year’s General Conference of the United Methodist Church. He went on in this sermon to share an experience he had that I think is one of the dangerous byproducts of our trying to carve out who is in and who is not – who is acceptable and who is not.
Here’s the rest of his account: “A retired preacher was expressing his appreciation for my strong stand, but then he threw me a curve. He started talking about a preacher who had baptized a baby born outside of marriage. There was anger in his voice, condemnation. He used the word ‘bastard’ as a label for this child. And there was venom in his voice as he talked about the father of the baby being present at the baptism. How could the preacher do it? Baptize this baby born out of wedlock and the father allowed to be present.
“I thought I was talking to Simon the Pharisee, and I thanked God he was a retired, not an active preacher. I wondered. Had he missed that throughout his ministry? Open door to whom and to what? Christ is on the side of sinners!”9 All of us sinners, not just those who go to church with us or hold the same moral attitudes or can pass the litmus test of acceptable doctrinal and/or denominational beliefs.
The greatest need we have is to be accepted. Acceptance is so powerful it’s been known to change people. “A child psychologist told about a boy who was brought to him who was labeled ‘incorrigible.’ The child was supposed to be ‘uncontrollable.’ He was moody, and at first wouldn’t even talk to the psychologist. There simply seemed to be no ‘handle’ with which to take hold of him. The boy’s own father, said, ‘This is the only child I’ve ever seen who doesn’t have a single likeable trait, not a single one.’ The psychologist realized this was his starting point. He started looking for some one thing he could approve. He found several. The boy liked to carve and he did it well. At home he had carved up the furniture and been punished for it. The psychologist bought him a carving set, a set of carving knives, and some soft wood. He also gave him some suggestions about how to use them, and didn’t hold back his approval. ‘You know, Jimmy,’ he said, ‘You can carve out things better than any boy I ever knew.’ To make a long story short, the psychologist soon found other things he could approve, and one day Jimmy surprised everyone by cleaning up his own room without being asked. When the psychologist asked him why he did it, Jimmy answered, ‘I thought you would like that.’10
This past weekend we went to see Smurff's 2. I've already admitted on Facebook that I like animated movies - can't wait to go see "Planes" - the grandkids give me excuses to go see them. There were many wonderful one-liners in Smurff's 2, but one is especially relevant to what we're dealing with now. Papa Smurff comments at one point that they didn't accept Smurfette because she changed, but that she changed because they believed in her. That will preach, folks!
Aceptance changes lives. We’ve all seen it happen. When people feel accepted, they find the power to change. I think it’s one of the secrets of Jesus’ ministry. He accepted people just as they were and he changed their lives.
We, the church, are called to be an accepting community in order that people’s lives might be changed. We are not an exclusive club, membership in which is reserved for the already good. The purpose of our getting together is not so we can congratulate one another on how good and righteous we all are. We are those who have been accepted and are committed to passing on that acceptance to others.
Robert Falconer was once witnessing among the destitute people in a certain city. He read to them the story of the woman who wiped Jesus’ feet with her tears. While he was reading he heard a loud sob and looked up at a young, thin girl whose face was disfigured by small pox. After he spoke a few words of encouragement to her, she said ‘Will he ever come again, the one who forgave the woman? I have heard that he will come again. Will it be soon?”
Falconer replied that it would be soon.
After sobbing again uncontrollably, she said, “Sir, can’t he wait a little while? My hair ain’t long enough yet to wipe his feet.”11
I don’t know about you but I crave to be part of a community of faith, or a community of any kind, where people might know they are welcome and able to receive not only the grace of God theoretically but experientially.
1 Cori Connors, Guideposts, “On the Cutting Edge,” March 1997, p. 36.
2 John R. Brokhoff, Lent: A Time of Tears, CSS Publishing Company.
3 William Barclay, The Daily Study Bible: The Gospel of Luke (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1956), p. 92-93.
4 Ibid., p. 93-94.
5 William Willimon, “Jesus: Eating and Drinking with Sinners!,” Pulpit Resource, April, May, June, 2007, p. 54.
6 Philip Yancey, What’s So Amazing About Grace? (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1997), p. 11.
7 David Kalas, Emphasis, May/June 2007, p. 55.
8 Maxie Dunnam, “Who Loves More?,” 2006, 0-000-000-400.
9 Ibid.
10 King Duncan, “On Eating Peas with a Knife,” Collected Sermons, Dynamic Preaching, 2005, 0-000-0000-20.
11 Stephen Brown, When Being Good Isn’t Good Enough (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1990), p. .
Friday, August 16, 2013
Sermon: "By Faith"
By Faith
Hebrews 11:29-12:2
If I was to make a list of my favorite scripture passages, this would be one of them. I often used it at funerals when celebrating the life of particularly faithful and active church members. The 11th chapter of Hebrews is a masterful chapter noting the Hall of Fame of the faithful. The Roll Call of Faith includes such persons as: Abel & Enoch & Noah & Abraham & Sarah & Isaac & Jacob & Joseph & Moses & Moses’ parents & the prostitute Rahab & Gideon & Barak & Samson & David & Samuel & the prophets – “Name after name is given of those faithful heroes who: ‘by faith conquered kingdoms, by faith enforced justice, by faith received promises, by faith stopped the mouths of lions, by faith quenched raging fire, by faith escaped the edge of the sword, by faith won strength out of weakness, by faith became mighty in war, by faith put foreign armies to flight’ (Hebrews 11:33-34).”1 For those who know their old testament, it really is an impressive litany!
Let me see if I can recreate the emotion – the feeling – this writer of Hebrews awakened in those who read his letter. A few weeks ago the annual Pro Football Hall of Fame game was played in Canton, Ohio, where the Pro Football Hall of Fame is housed. How many of you have ever been to the Hall?
Well, imagine if you will when the game is played the stands being filled with former inductees into the Hall of Fame as well as the ones being elected this particular year – imagine the players on the two teams playing knowing that in the stands are the greats of the sport. Imagine looking up into the stands and seeing Johnny Unitas, Jim Thorpe, Walter Peyton, Raymond Berry, Dick Butkus, Ray Nitchkie, George Halas, Tom Landry, Bill Walsh, Vince Lombardi – and then, if you’ll beg a little partisanship: Jimmy Brown, Paul Brown, Lou Groza, Gene Hickerson, Ozzie Newsome, Paul Warfield.
“These are the men to whom the game belonged before (the current players) took the field. These are the players and coaches who set records and won championships. Trophies and awards are named after these guys – and now they’re watching (the current players) play their game.”2 Can you imagine what it would mean to know that those were the guys in the stands cheering you on? Wouldn’t you think it would cause a player to step up their game a little if they knew those guys were in the stands watching? Don’t you think they’d want to try and do their best in memory – in honor – of what the heroes of the game did?
At the start of chapter 12, the author of the letter to the Hebrews wrote what I think is one of the most memorable, inspiring, motivating phrases in all of religious history: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses,” and then he continues with, “let’s throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1-2)
“Carlyle Marney called these witnesses our balcony people. He said that we all have people who sit in our balcony and cheer us on. People of all ages who enable us to run the race with perseverance and grace. We can’t run the race alone. We find our way because there was (all those named by the author of Hebrews) and a multitude of others. But we run the race faithfully because of all those other nameless champions. It might be a mother, an aunt, a father, a cousin, or a scout leader. It might be a teacher or pastor or youth leader or neighbor or author of some book we have read. (The questions we might want to ask ourselves include) “Who sits in our balcony? Who cheers us on? Who is it that made it possible for us to keep on keeping on? (Or, we might want to reverse the order.) Whose balcony do we sit in? Whom do we cheer on? Who is it that counts on us and our faith and fidelity?”3
I absolutely enjoy the Olympics. I’ve been to two – Montreal in 1976 and Atlanta in 1996. I watch as much of the games as possible. I'm especially attentive to the track and field events. In the ancient games, it was primarily what was contested and it’s that image that the author of the letter to the Hebrews was drawing upon in this portion of his letter.
Several years ago I came across a description of the scene that those in the early church probably visualized when they read these words from the author of the letter to them. I long ago lost the source of this description, but I hope it helps recreate the scene in your mind: “The nearby sea is like sapphire, the sky cloudless and of the deepest blue. The air is soft and the sunshine warm. In the distance are the graceful brown columns of a Greek temple. Along the highway running from the temple in the stadium are busts and tablets on which are inscribed the names of the winners in the Olympian Games in past years. Along the race course rise, tier upon tier, the marble seats of the stadium, crowded today with visitors from all parts of the Greek world who have come for the annual celebration of the games.
“Presently, there is the sharp, clear, commanding note of the herald’s trumpet calling the runners to their marks. A hush comes over the expectant crowd. From out of their training booths the racers come, trained to the moment, not an ounce of superfluous flesh sagging from their splendidly molded bodies, bronzed by the sunlight. At another blast from the trumpet announcing that the runners should get set, they take their place on the starting line, every muscle tense and set. Among the thousands who line the course not a word, not even a whisper, is heard. Suddenly there rings out the third blast on the trumpet, and the racers are off like an arrow, straining for the distant goal. Save for a loin cloth, they are naked. For months they have trained for this race, abstaining from strong drink and rich foods and the pleasure of the world. The ambition of each racer’s life is to have his name inscribed on one of those memorial tablets and to have the laurel crown of victory placed on his brow. As they flash down the course, their friends on the marble seats, who happen to be from that part of Greece from which a particular runner comes, shout their encouragement to them.”4
With that image in our minds let us again hear the words those struggling to stay faithful read in this letter from one concerned about the possibility of their giving up the faith: “Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us.” I love the way Eugene Peterson puts it in his contemporary translation The Message: “Do you see what this means – all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running – and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed – that exhilarating finish in and with God – he could put up with anything along the way: cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!”5
The last time I preached on this text was the Sunday after Dorothy and I were informed by the neurologist at the Cleveland Clinic that unless something showed up in the spinal tap, which she didn't believe was going to happen, her diagnosis was "probable ALS." It was Friday, August 13, 2010. While it wasn't official enough for us to share yet, it was apparently enough on my mind that next Sunday morning to disrupt my reading of the above illustration about racing; trained, bronzed, and molded bodies; tense muscles; ambition. With no warning, I lost it. One of the members of the church began to make his way to the chancel area, but somehow I regained enough composure to finish the sermon. Flooding my mind and interrupting my presentation were images of my athletic and active body not being able to do what I had done before - thoughts of my being among the crowd of witnesses in the stands cheering others on - thoughts of those who had already cheered me on in my life - thoughts of those I was going to have to rely on in the future - already that morning I was thinking that I wasn't going to be standing in that pulpit very much longer - thoughts of how long - thoughts about not being able to have very many more years with Dorothy and the kids and grandkids and the rest of our families and friends. Yeah, it truly was a flood of thoughts and emotions!
We are indeed surrounded on every side by a crowd of great people we cannot see – a cloud of witnesses – who have run the race by faith before us. Just as the spectators on the crowded benches of the amphitheaters watched and cheered on their friends who ran in the races, so do those of the faith, and others, do so for us today. Believe me when I say, it is that crowd of witnesses, the living and the dead, who help us keep going in the midst of the challenges we face daily. It is in the presence of all the heroes of the faith – of all those who lived by faith throughout history that we live our lives as Christians – that we run this race of life.
Think about it! Along the way as we try to run the life set before us – watching, observing – are those who lived by faith – the heroes of faith – those who occupy the hall of fame. In one section our fans include that ancient litany we heard in the letter to the Hebrews: Abraham & Sarah & Isaac & Jacob & Moses & Elijah & Samuel & Jeremiah; & then there is that section of those we know about from the New Testament: Peter & James & John & Paul & Mary & Martha & Priscilla. And in still another section are the martyrs – and closer to our time we hear the cheers coming from the reformers – and then we pass before the great preachers and teachers and missionaries and musicians – and then, even closer to our day, we visualize that section of relatives: grandparents, and parents and aunts and uncles, maybe brothers and sisters – and then there’s a section of people in the churches we’ve been a part of: the YF leaders, the camp counselors, the Sunday School teachers – all there in the stands waiting for us to join them but encouraging us on the way in this life.
Yes, running the good race can sometimes hurt – we can indeed have faith pains as we try to run the race of faith – live by faith. Faithfulness does sometimes call us to love those others choose not to. Faithfulness does sometimes call us to take stands – to speak out – on issues within our country, within our community, within our church, and yes, even within our families at times, which might cause others to make fun of us – to stay away from us or reject us or disown us. We might even endure suffering for no apparent reason - not God's doing or wish even, please. Sometimes suffering just is our reality. Let me say it again: God is the comforter, companion on the journey, not the mean ogre playing games with his/her creatures for simple amusement to prove how unknowing, all-powerful, he/she is.
If we are going to be faithful in the midst of the pain that surely will come our way, then we must keep reminding ourselves of those who are on our side and we must - most importantly - keep our eyes on our Savior, Jesus Christ – “the author and perfector of our faith.”
Peace!
David Kalas, Emphasis, July/August, 2007, p. 57.
Ibid., p. 52.
Ibid., p. 57.
Unknown.
Eugene Peterson, The Message (Colorado Springs, Colorado: Navpress, 1993), p. 474.
Hebrews 11:29-12:2
If I was to make a list of my favorite scripture passages, this would be one of them. I often used it at funerals when celebrating the life of particularly faithful and active church members. The 11th chapter of Hebrews is a masterful chapter noting the Hall of Fame of the faithful. The Roll Call of Faith includes such persons as: Abel & Enoch & Noah & Abraham & Sarah & Isaac & Jacob & Joseph & Moses & Moses’ parents & the prostitute Rahab & Gideon & Barak & Samson & David & Samuel & the prophets – “Name after name is given of those faithful heroes who: ‘by faith conquered kingdoms, by faith enforced justice, by faith received promises, by faith stopped the mouths of lions, by faith quenched raging fire, by faith escaped the edge of the sword, by faith won strength out of weakness, by faith became mighty in war, by faith put foreign armies to flight’ (Hebrews 11:33-34).”1 For those who know their old testament, it really is an impressive litany!
Let me see if I can recreate the emotion – the feeling – this writer of Hebrews awakened in those who read his letter. A few weeks ago the annual Pro Football Hall of Fame game was played in Canton, Ohio, where the Pro Football Hall of Fame is housed. How many of you have ever been to the Hall?
Well, imagine if you will when the game is played the stands being filled with former inductees into the Hall of Fame as well as the ones being elected this particular year – imagine the players on the two teams playing knowing that in the stands are the greats of the sport. Imagine looking up into the stands and seeing Johnny Unitas, Jim Thorpe, Walter Peyton, Raymond Berry, Dick Butkus, Ray Nitchkie, George Halas, Tom Landry, Bill Walsh, Vince Lombardi – and then, if you’ll beg a little partisanship: Jimmy Brown, Paul Brown, Lou Groza, Gene Hickerson, Ozzie Newsome, Paul Warfield.
“These are the men to whom the game belonged before (the current players) took the field. These are the players and coaches who set records and won championships. Trophies and awards are named after these guys – and now they’re watching (the current players) play their game.”2 Can you imagine what it would mean to know that those were the guys in the stands cheering you on? Wouldn’t you think it would cause a player to step up their game a little if they knew those guys were in the stands watching? Don’t you think they’d want to try and do their best in memory – in honor – of what the heroes of the game did?
At the start of chapter 12, the author of the letter to the Hebrews wrote what I think is one of the most memorable, inspiring, motivating phrases in all of religious history: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses,” and then he continues with, “let’s throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1-2)
“Carlyle Marney called these witnesses our balcony people. He said that we all have people who sit in our balcony and cheer us on. People of all ages who enable us to run the race with perseverance and grace. We can’t run the race alone. We find our way because there was (all those named by the author of Hebrews) and a multitude of others. But we run the race faithfully because of all those other nameless champions. It might be a mother, an aunt, a father, a cousin, or a scout leader. It might be a teacher or pastor or youth leader or neighbor or author of some book we have read. (The questions we might want to ask ourselves include) “Who sits in our balcony? Who cheers us on? Who is it that made it possible for us to keep on keeping on? (Or, we might want to reverse the order.) Whose balcony do we sit in? Whom do we cheer on? Who is it that counts on us and our faith and fidelity?”3
I absolutely enjoy the Olympics. I’ve been to two – Montreal in 1976 and Atlanta in 1996. I watch as much of the games as possible. I'm especially attentive to the track and field events. In the ancient games, it was primarily what was contested and it’s that image that the author of the letter to the Hebrews was drawing upon in this portion of his letter.
Several years ago I came across a description of the scene that those in the early church probably visualized when they read these words from the author of the letter to them. I long ago lost the source of this description, but I hope it helps recreate the scene in your mind: “The nearby sea is like sapphire, the sky cloudless and of the deepest blue. The air is soft and the sunshine warm. In the distance are the graceful brown columns of a Greek temple. Along the highway running from the temple in the stadium are busts and tablets on which are inscribed the names of the winners in the Olympian Games in past years. Along the race course rise, tier upon tier, the marble seats of the stadium, crowded today with visitors from all parts of the Greek world who have come for the annual celebration of the games.
“Presently, there is the sharp, clear, commanding note of the herald’s trumpet calling the runners to their marks. A hush comes over the expectant crowd. From out of their training booths the racers come, trained to the moment, not an ounce of superfluous flesh sagging from their splendidly molded bodies, bronzed by the sunlight. At another blast from the trumpet announcing that the runners should get set, they take their place on the starting line, every muscle tense and set. Among the thousands who line the course not a word, not even a whisper, is heard. Suddenly there rings out the third blast on the trumpet, and the racers are off like an arrow, straining for the distant goal. Save for a loin cloth, they are naked. For months they have trained for this race, abstaining from strong drink and rich foods and the pleasure of the world. The ambition of each racer’s life is to have his name inscribed on one of those memorial tablets and to have the laurel crown of victory placed on his brow. As they flash down the course, their friends on the marble seats, who happen to be from that part of Greece from which a particular runner comes, shout their encouragement to them.”4
With that image in our minds let us again hear the words those struggling to stay faithful read in this letter from one concerned about the possibility of their giving up the faith: “Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us.” I love the way Eugene Peterson puts it in his contemporary translation The Message: “Do you see what this means – all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running – and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed – that exhilarating finish in and with God – he could put up with anything along the way: cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!”5
The last time I preached on this text was the Sunday after Dorothy and I were informed by the neurologist at the Cleveland Clinic that unless something showed up in the spinal tap, which she didn't believe was going to happen, her diagnosis was "probable ALS." It was Friday, August 13, 2010. While it wasn't official enough for us to share yet, it was apparently enough on my mind that next Sunday morning to disrupt my reading of the above illustration about racing; trained, bronzed, and molded bodies; tense muscles; ambition. With no warning, I lost it. One of the members of the church began to make his way to the chancel area, but somehow I regained enough composure to finish the sermon. Flooding my mind and interrupting my presentation were images of my athletic and active body not being able to do what I had done before - thoughts of my being among the crowd of witnesses in the stands cheering others on - thoughts of those who had already cheered me on in my life - thoughts of those I was going to have to rely on in the future - already that morning I was thinking that I wasn't going to be standing in that pulpit very much longer - thoughts of how long - thoughts about not being able to have very many more years with Dorothy and the kids and grandkids and the rest of our families and friends. Yeah, it truly was a flood of thoughts and emotions!
We are indeed surrounded on every side by a crowd of great people we cannot see – a cloud of witnesses – who have run the race by faith before us. Just as the spectators on the crowded benches of the amphitheaters watched and cheered on their friends who ran in the races, so do those of the faith, and others, do so for us today. Believe me when I say, it is that crowd of witnesses, the living and the dead, who help us keep going in the midst of the challenges we face daily. It is in the presence of all the heroes of the faith – of all those who lived by faith throughout history that we live our lives as Christians – that we run this race of life.
Think about it! Along the way as we try to run the life set before us – watching, observing – are those who lived by faith – the heroes of faith – those who occupy the hall of fame. In one section our fans include that ancient litany we heard in the letter to the Hebrews: Abraham & Sarah & Isaac & Jacob & Moses & Elijah & Samuel & Jeremiah; & then there is that section of those we know about from the New Testament: Peter & James & John & Paul & Mary & Martha & Priscilla. And in still another section are the martyrs – and closer to our time we hear the cheers coming from the reformers – and then we pass before the great preachers and teachers and missionaries and musicians – and then, even closer to our day, we visualize that section of relatives: grandparents, and parents and aunts and uncles, maybe brothers and sisters – and then there’s a section of people in the churches we’ve been a part of: the YF leaders, the camp counselors, the Sunday School teachers – all there in the stands waiting for us to join them but encouraging us on the way in this life.
Yes, running the good race can sometimes hurt – we can indeed have faith pains as we try to run the race of faith – live by faith. Faithfulness does sometimes call us to love those others choose not to. Faithfulness does sometimes call us to take stands – to speak out – on issues within our country, within our community, within our church, and yes, even within our families at times, which might cause others to make fun of us – to stay away from us or reject us or disown us. We might even endure suffering for no apparent reason - not God's doing or wish even, please. Sometimes suffering just is our reality. Let me say it again: God is the comforter, companion on the journey, not the mean ogre playing games with his/her creatures for simple amusement to prove how unknowing, all-powerful, he/she is.
If we are going to be faithful in the midst of the pain that surely will come our way, then we must keep reminding ourselves of those who are on our side and we must - most importantly - keep our eyes on our Savior, Jesus Christ – “the author and perfector of our faith.”
Peace!
David Kalas, Emphasis, July/August, 2007, p. 57.
Ibid., p. 52.
Ibid., p. 57.
Unknown.
Eugene Peterson, The Message (Colorado Springs, Colorado: Navpress, 1993), p. 474.
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