Essays
On Being a Bridge . . .
Tears For My Sake The Faith of my Childhood What is God like? On Community On Resurrection On Being a Volunteer On Prayer On Worship |
Our Role in Outreach
On The Servant Church What a fantastic engine! On Baptism On The Presence of Angels On Hands for Ministry and Healing Six Basic Truths of Christendom I Catch On Fire Perhaps God is a Spider |
On Being a Bridge . .
Christmas time of 1989 Updated
"When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy;
and going into the house they saw the child with Mary, his mother,
and they fell down and worshipped him. Then opening their treasurers, they offered him gifts, Gold and frankincense and myrrh. . . ." Matthew 2: 10 - 11
This is an amazing story. Why were they so excited about a baby born to travelers in an animal stall!?
I would like to share with you a thought that I was reminded of this season: This thought is that,
Joy comes to us not from happy times and knowing that things in life are in order but in
knowing that we are Christ's own.
They had found a great joy, the child who would be the redeemer.
Jesus breaks open for us a paradox. For happy times we are so thankful and we cherish them, of course.
But you may know by your own experience that joy is not a flippant thing. It comes to us in a paradox
out of pain and suffering - by our own experiences of difficult times and perhaps by our anguish and
hope of Christ's suffering as well. Joy is the knowledge that we will endure - as individuals - as family
-as a community - and as history unfolds. Joy is a deep sense that nothing can separate us from the
love of God who sustains us.
Did these Magi of the East see and understand the suffering that the baby was to take onto himself?
Did they foresee how He would be thrust into the breech of history? Did they know how he would be
loved? Did they have a sense of the mystery unfolding in this birth of the Messiah?
Just before Christmas and about a week before his wedding in 1994, I asked my son, Jeff, the question,
"Why, if God loves us so, is there so much pain and suffering?" His immediate response and a wise answer,
indeed, was, "So that we may know Him better."
It is no new thing that around us and perhaps very close is much pain and suffering - - often shrouded in
the cloak of hopelessness - - for those who have no home and who end each day without food; for those
disenfranchised from hope; for those who suffer illness alone; for those who have been raped and abuse
in their youth and cannot speak out; for children in the streets who cannot go back; for the elderly looking
to death without any who care, for young mothers with none for sharing and support; for those who carry
the guilt of ending a child's life in abortion; for those whose life is centered on self-pity, addiction and
abuse; even those who suffer the pain of lost love, broken families, and of separation by death. Joy...? Joy!
How can that be! How absurd! Oh, how can I cry out to rend your heart and mine!
With sad and angry words, the hurt cry out in a crescendo of: "What is love?" "How can there be God?"
"I have no life!" Shortly after Jesus' birth, Joseph and Mary fled with Jesus into Egypt while Herod had
the small children around Bethlehem all slaughtered. Jesus, indeed, has come to us in the midst of our
suffering and He tells us then and today, "True religion is this; to visit the widows and orphans."
Yes, we are called in joy to stand perhaps on the edge. It is you and I by our actions that bring the
suffering into the cradling arms of Jesus. That is our great joy; that is Christ's mission. It is in you and
in I that the Savior is found. As we see lives pass by - - even those in the generations of our families
- - some who over the years have been fortunate; some who just get along; and others who have seen
extreme misfortunes; we are called in joy first to kneel and secondly to stand perhaps on the edge. As
Jesus asked of Peter on that fateful day not so many generations ago, he asks of you and of me, "Peter,
do you love me?"
These ramblings are based on my notes of a message by Dean J. W. Matthews during Holy Week over 30
years ago in 1964 at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis and originally rewritten by me at
Christmas - time of 1989. Dean Matthews' homily was on "The Principle of the Cruciform" from the 10th
chapter of St. John where Jesus states, "Therefore doth the Father love me, because I lay down my life.
No one takes it from me. I lay it down of my own free will." Dean Matthews then asks, "Why, then are
you and I here?" He concludes; "The absurd body of Christ, the church, expends their death on behalf
of mankind. The church exists only when it offers its death on behalf of the world and lives on the brink,
the edge of their life. They throw their death into the breach of history. The communion of Christ's
Church only exists in history as it conforms to the "Principle of the Cruciform;" and takes the world's
suffering unto itself.
Peace
Tears For My Sake
June of 1996
It was the middle of June of 1996 and Evangelist Billy Graham brought to our cities what would be one
of his last evangelistic crusades; and over a period of five days over 300,000 people gathered together
to hear the call to salvation. Prior to the crusade, the organizing committee made a plea for prayer for
the Grahams, the co-workers, and the counselors; that the crusade would have a positive and lasting
impact on the Twin Cities. In particular was the plea that our prayers must be "of tears for those who
don't have a personal relationship with Christ.
“Where are our tears?” we were asked, “We need to have a burden in our hearts for the lost, the unborn
and the unsaved." We were asked as we go to our knees each day to lift these burdens up to God.
In the 126th chapter of the book of Psalms, David writes about those tears for the lost. In this Psalm,
David first rejoices over those returned to Zionfrom captivity and then remembers the sorrow and tears
shed for their return. Do we have such a burden for those not born anew in Christ as was for those not
returned to Zion? Listen to the text.
Psalm 126 - - A Joyful Return To Zion
When the Lord brought back the Captive to Zion,
We were like those who dream.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
And our tongue with singing.
Then they said among the nations,
"The Lord has done a great thing for them."
The Lord has done great things for us,
And we are glad.
Bring back our captivity, O Lord,
As the streams from the South.
Those who sow in tears
Shall reap in joy.
He who continually goes forth weeping,
Bearing seed for sowing,
Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
Bringing his sheaves with him.
A thousand years later, another cried.
Saint Monnica, born 331 a. d. and mother of Augustine of Hippo,
is remembered in the church on May 4th each year as a model
for her relentless prayers and the unceasing tears that she shed.
Her son, Saint Augustine bravely tells her story.
Augustine admits that he held to pagan religious beliefs and his
mother Monnica almost despaired of seeing him shed these spiritual
deceptions for the truth of Christ. The church said he was lost and
unteacheable. But Monnica's prayers and her tears never stopped.
Today, whenever she is spoken of, her weeping is remembered.
Saint Augustineis called "the son of these tears."
So Monnica is an example to us of the passion, fervor, and tenacity of
her prayers for her children. Augustine would later write, "O Good
Omnipotent Lord, who cares for every one of us, as if you care for
him only; and so for all, as if they were but one!" The truth and
passion of God's love was surely communicated to Augustine through
the unwavering love of a mother who would not let him go.
Perhaps, too, she should be called the patron saint of all who have
unbelieving family members. Her husband and her son, those closest
to her, did not see what she saw. But she held them close to her in
prayers and witnessed the power of God opening their eyes.
Monnica symbolizes for all of us the power of prayer.
The Apostle Paul in Romans 12.14-21 tells us of the intensity of our tears
together as Christians. He instructs us "to be of the same mind toward one
another," rejoicing when others rejoice and weeping when they weep and
to overcome evil with good. I believe Paul points out here that we are to
be of one fellowship, sharing even in our emotions, and to be an example
to those on the outside of this fellowship.
Verse 20 reads,
"If your enemy is hungry, feed him:
If he is thirsty, give him drink;
For in doing so you will heap
coals of Fire on his head."
In chapter 10 of St. Matthew, Jesus also speaks of being an example to
those on the outside - - to the Samaritans and to the Gentiles (those unclean).
Here Jesus sends out the twelve disciples to the "lost sheep of Israel," to
preach, saying, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand," to heal the sick, to raise
the dead and to cast out demons. He tells his disciples that they will be
persecuted, and so be a testimony to the synagogues, to governors and to
kings, and to the gentiles. And I add here - - again "Heaping coals on their
heads!" So in both of these texts, Romans 12 and Matthew 10, the theme
is to overcome evil with good and to be a testimony to those on the outside
looking in.
Now let us move to that incredible text of Romans chapter 5 - - Here let us
watch Jesus as he steps over the line in what he would do for all of us on
the outside. The question raised here is, "How far would I go to save
someone else?" Well, Paul says that if the man in need of saving were
righteous, it's possible some good person might stand forward to die for him.
But, in fact, Jesus died for us, "while we were yet sinners." We were not his
close friend from youth, nor his buddy in battle and certainly not righteous.
We are, indeed, strangers to him and, yes, the enemies spoken of in Romans
12 and the Pharisees, governors, kings, and Gentiles of Matthew 10 getting
the ultimate coals of fire heaped on our heads.
Did Jesus return evil with good? Yes, indeed, he died for us while we were yet
sinners! What can we do? What can I do? Surely, I should weep for joy and be
eternally grateful.
Yes I should.
I suppose that's what I should do.
But do you know what? If Jesus died for enemies and sinners, he also died for
that lady down the street that I don't even like and also for her stupid children!
Now this is starting to get complicated. And I guess I could name a few more
people that I could care less about and I certainly don't want to get involved
with. Apparently they, too, are as worthy (or perhaps as unworthy) of salvation
as I am.
Should I pray for them quietly? Should I have tears of sadness pleading to God
that salvation come to them? Should I reach out? I can't quite get into it.
I believe it’s important to understand that while Jesus died for us as poor
miserable sinners, as good Lutherans like to envision ourselves in God’s presence,
He didn’t save us out of pity, but as a gift to ennoble us. (See II Timothy “…of
power, etc”.)
Jesus died for my neighbor lady and her children. Jesus told his disciples,
"Therefore doth the Father love me,
because I lay down my life. No one
takes it from me. I lay it down of
my own free will."
He had no objections about for who He died - - I do. And in dying, He died
for me, too.
The Apostle Paul is also a man of paradox: Let us look at how his rejoicing in
his Savior is mixed with weeping for the lost. In Philippians 3: 17 - 21, he writes:
Brethren,
join me in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for
a pattern. For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even
weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction,
whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame - - who set their mind
on earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait
for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may
conform to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even
to subdue all things to Himself."
And so it is in the sure knowledge of our eternal reward we must assuredly weep
for the lost. And so we pray with tears for the lost and we return their evil with
a sure kindness, with goodness and with charity; thus heaping coals on their heads
that they may be saved; and so also we know that those samepeople will persecute
us, hate us, and even murder us on the streets because of Jesus. It happens all the
time and some will be saved.
Saturday evening was Youth Night at the Billy Graham Crusade and my wife, Nancy,
was at work at St. Johns Hospital in the recovery room where patients are cared for
in the period after surgery. On this evening, Nancywas caring for an eighteen-year-old
girl who was waking up after having severe cuts sutured and closed. She was cut
when she fell into a plate glass window. Her parents weren't at her side but, instead,
Nancy says, she had three loud, scummy young hoodlums with her who couldn't talk
without injecting the F... word. From their behavior, it was apparent that more than
one of them has had their way with her. When the girl awoke, she made sure all
knew that she was a manager at a convenience store. It was like she was saying,
"I'm really not so bad; I'm somebody important!" She had a number of tattoos on
her body.
Another young girl came into the hospital that evening. After her surgery, though,
Nancywould not be seeing her in the recovery room - - Her departure would be
different. While at a party she suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and upon arrival at
the hospital was placed on life support. After medical evaluation, her family made
what was, I'm sure, the most difficult decision of their lives. This young wife and
mother, and growing daughter was to be an organ donor before morning. It's called
a "harvest." This girl was nineteen and the mother of a small baby.
The anesthetist expressed how sad she was to do this case, but Nancy said she
should also look at the other side. She said there are people right now packing their
bags and securing emergency airline transportation. And I'm sure they were looking
to God with tears of hope, of joy and of excitement that they, their spouse or their
child will be given a chance to live.
Wow. How tenuous is our time here on earth - - and when we're afraid, we'd like
people to know that we're really not so bad and, yes, we are important. We'd like
to think that when we die we've made some difference.
While Nancy was at work and the Youth Crusade Event was going on, I was at home
in prayer and, yes, with tears streaming down my face imploring God to do a mighty
work in the hearts of the youth at the crusade and for the youth in our cities that
they may be opened to learn of Jesus and to follow him. I, myself, have known how
important this event can be and that this experience can be life changing for a lifetime.
I prayed a prayer of tears that night. Certainly not because of my prayers alone but,
I believe, because of the many thousands of prayers lifted up, eighty-two thousand
young people heard the word of God and most of them dedicated their lives to Christ
that night! The Holy Spirit of God and His angels were certainly at work filling their
hearts in that place! This was the largest gathering of people for any single event in
Minnesotahistory and it was for the sake of Jesus who, in tears, cries out for you and
for me.
What about that young girl with those cuts?
I pray God that by Your Spirit, by events and by courageous witnesses to You, she and
her friends will find You. What about the girl who became a "harvest?" I pray to You,
Lord that people and events have already surrounded her with your love and that she
is in the eternal harvest with you this day. What about my neighbor? I pray God to
forgive me again, and again, and again for being so wretched. May God Himself reach
out in his Spirit, and through angels of care, and through ones close to her to be merciful.
Who should we pray for?
Prayers for the lost:
1. For me and you,
2. For our families and friends,
3. For woman and men in their needs,
4. For our Nation and its leaders
5. For the homeless, hungry and disenfranchised.
6. For the sick and the dying,
7. For children and the unborn,
8. For drug addicts, criminals and thieves,
9. For murderers, rapists, and power abusers.
10. For those alone and mentally sick,
11. For persons I don't like and for enemies,
Xn. For the thousands of thousands in the world.
It's really important.
"Tears for my sake.
Tears for whose sake?
Tears for Jesus sake.
Tears for the lost."
The Faith of my Childhood
By Lawrence Richard Cowan
On April 12, 1954, my great uncle Carl Johan Christensen died at Mora, Minnesota
at the age of 75. He was born on May 2, 1878 at Fauchild Ostre, Toten, Norway and
married Anne H. Sandsmark (1885 - 1958) at BlueEarthCountyin southern Minnesota.
They had several children and farmed a place just out of Mora near Knife Lake. Carl
was my Grandmother's brother and I remember the many times being out to Mora
with my parents to visit.
Carl was buried out of Calvary Lutheran Church in Mora and I remember his funeral.
I was almost 14 and I remember sitting in the back of the nave watching the many
men in their coveralls in from the fields and the woman with their hot dishes and
I thought to myself, "This is good. A hard working man finished his life and comes
home to his Lord. His family and friends come in from their work this day to mourn
and to celebrate God's goodness. Yes, today is a good day."
I was confirmed in the Christian faith two months later by Pastor Carl A. Zimmerman
at Hope Lutheran Churchin north Minneapolis where I attended Sunday School and
sang in the choir.
In my youth, I have often asked the question, "How is it possible that if Jesus, whom
the Bible says is God's Son, died on the cross for my sins and I believe that; then my
sins are forgiven and I am right with God?" I am asked to believe this and yet I would
like to understand how this mechanism works. I suppose I could believe many things
- - But does this make it so? There are several hard questions here and I'd like it
explained to me.
Well, I believe I found the answer (for me, anyway) over thirty years ago in these
verses of the Psalms of David. It's from the 51st chapter that starts out with the
familiar, "Have mercy on me, O God, ...Wash me... ... and cleanse me...." It is the
last part of that chapter, however, that struck me and has been important to me
ever since.
From the RSV, in Verses 15 - 19, David writes:
"O Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. For thou hast
no delight in sacrifice, were I to give a burnt offering, thou wouldst not be pleased.
The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart thou wilt
not despise
"Do good to Zion in thy good pleasure, rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, then wilt thou
delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on thy alter."
I want you to know that I have pondered these words, I would guess, since the late
1950's and that they have been an intense revelation to me of how Jesus' death on
the cross is the most wonderful gift to me. Let's ponder these words while I make two
points.
The first point is that if there is God, then God must be like this: That which we call
"God" is holy and awful and demands our reverence. He is strong beyond our wildest
imaginations. His force is the power within the spinning sub-atomic particle and the
heave of the great galaxies far beyond our knowledge. He is within the molecular chain
that creates the daisy, a deadly virus, and the human species. He is spiritual, for
thought and imagination, although untouchable, do exist. The dog wags its tail, the cat
crouches, and we mourn when someone dies. He is the "I AM." He was before the
beginning of time, He is in this moment, and will be, beyond the eons of ages to come.
The second point is that if I turn from God, even in a derelict instant, and God is not
merciful, then I am forever destroyed. I have no salvation and I am lost. David says,
"Against thee, thee only, have I sinned and done that which is evil in thy sight, so that
thou art justified in thy sentence and blameless in thy judgment." If it's me against the
above-mentioned God, then it's no match - - I am certainly lost.
So if one turns from God, even I, in one momentary and fleeting thought, then the
verdict must be that I (and anyone like me who has defied God) should treated like
so much refuse flushed down the toilet of some dark rooming house on a lonely
remote corner of the earth and forgotten, or worse; suffer eternal damnation. If there
is God, then the judgment is rightly deserved. There is no sacrifice or burnt offering
that I can present that will make it right. No, none.
Well, if I can't make it right, who can make it right? Contrary to what I've sometimes
thought, It is not so much my repentance that makes it right - -although that's certainly
part of it; but it's the action of Jesus who, laying his hand on me, takes my sin and makes
me clean. The following are two accounts of redemption- - one from Scripture and the
other from C. S. Lewis - - that helps make this clear to me.
The first is that glorious chorus from Revelations, "Worthy is the Lamb that was Slain,"
which was set to music in G. F. Handel's oratorio, The Messiah. The question from
Revelations chapter 5 is asked, "Who is worthy to open the book of life?" ... and none
is found worthy. And then a messenger comes forward and exclaims, Yes! - Someone
is found! - It is the Lamb that was slain! - He is worthy! Then the legions of all heaven
sing out, "Worthy is the lamb that was slain, and hath redeemed us to God, to God by
his blood, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory,
and blessing, forever and ever, amen!"
The second illustration of being bought back (i.e. redemption) is from the children's books,
The Stories of Narnia by C. S. Lewis that I read to my children some years ago. In one
of the books, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, Lewis writes of little Reepicheep the
mouse that excitedly encourages the other animals, saying over and over again like the
prophet, "But Aslan is coming, Aslan is coming!" In this children's book, Aslan, the great
lion, is a simile to the Christ, the Lion of Judah to be slain, the one who will save us. It's a
profound metaphor of how Jesus laid down his life to save us.
So, what does God require? It's pretty simple, actually. Let down my guard; let down my
defenses; accept my errors, my mortality, and how I screw up and how I want to have
control. I can try anything I like; give anything I want and it's not enough - - It's still not
sufficient.... And it's not a matter of "I'll be better." All God wants is for me to say, "Have
mercy." He is worthy - It is as simple as that. The battle is won.
In the above passages in Psalms, David does not even take credit for his praises to God.
He states that no personal sacrifice is enough. But to say, "Have mercy," is enough.
He proclaims that God wants my heart and then I can be proud of the good works I do - -
giving glory to God. Then I can worship God and have joy.
My daughter, Jennifer, underlined the following verses in my Bible and wrote in the margin,
"POWERFUL-WOW": John 11: 25 - 27a Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the
life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes
in me shall never die. Do you believe this?
She said to him, " Yes, Lord.
The text, "Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life; he who believed in me, though
he die, yet shall he live,” is also mine. It is my confirmation verse from 1954 and I, too, have
treasured these verses.
The last verse of the poem from the Lenten hymn, Alas, And Did My Savior Bleed, by Isaac
Watts (1674 -1748), reads as follows and it, too, is my soliloquy.
"But tears of grief cannot repay
The debt of love I owe;
Here, Lord, I give myself away:
It's all that I can do."
So the act of God to show us mercy was to die in our presence by our hand. This was not
a thought, a philosophical concept, or a moral reasoning. It was physical, it was an act, and
it happened. So in the same manner, my response is physical, it is an act and it happened.
Thanks be to God!
I have often thought, "Is Jesus truly God in our presence?" I believe history confirms that
he was crucified - - as were so many others of his time. But did he truly rise from the grave
and was he seen by so many and did he return to glory? Did he really do those miracles?
Does he hear and reach to us in our prayers today?
I am awed and cannot comprehend how great was the motive of the thousands in the early
church who went willingly to a torturous death in the Roman circuses rather than recant
their faith. I cannot comprehend how His church has survived in history and has become
so alive among people in the world today. Is it a chance of history? I think not.
We read from Scripture that God, Himself, will keep upon our foreheads the terrible words,
"Thou shalt fear and love God above all thing." Yes, these words are reason for trembling
because He is God. Should I come close to Him? No, it is not by my action but it is He who
draws near to me and it is his doing even that I love him. I understand intimately the words
of the third article of Luther's Small Catechism that say, "I cannot by my own reason or strength
believe... but the Holy Ghost called me...." Even my faith belongs to Him!
Over the years, some of the books that have been important to me in my faith are 1) The Cost
of Discipleship, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, martyred for his faith at the end of World War II;
2) Christian Liberty, a treatise by Martin Luther that discusses our freedom and the nature of
responsibility as Christians; 3) Existentialism and the Modern Predicament, which discusses
the nature of faith, by 19th Century Danish philosopher, Soeren Kierkegaard; 4) St. John of the
Cross; a compelling biography of a simple 16th Century Carmelite monk who some say is the,
"greatest mystical theologian in Christian history," written by the French author, Leon Cristiani;
and 5) a homely little booklet of the writings of a monastery cook in 17th Century France.
I am pleased that he is my namesake: "Brother Lawrence - - His Conversations and Letters on
the Practice of the Presence of God". I quote from the forward: "There must have been
something rare in a monastery cook that a Grand Vicar should listen to his talk and go home
and make notes of it; and that high-placed persons should beg of him not the recipe for a
sauce but his secret for a happy life."
In his ninth letter for example, Brother Lawrence writes (Concerning Wandering Thoughts in
Prayer):
My Reverend and Greatly Honored Mother:
"You tell me nothing new; you are not the only one that is troubled with wandering
thoughts. Our mind is extremely roving; but as the will is the mistress of all our faculties,
she must recall them and carry them to God as their last end.
"When the mind, for lack of discipline when we first engage in devotion, has contracted
certain bad habits of wandering and dissipation, such habits are difficult to overcome, and
commonly draw us, even against our wills, to things of the earth.
"I believe one remedy for this is to confess our faults and to humble ourselves before
God. I do not advise you to use multiplicity of words in prayer; many words and long
discourses being often the occasion of wandering. Hold yourself in prayer before God like
a poor, dumb, paralytic beggar at the rich man's gate. Let be your business to keep your
mind in the presence of the Lord. If it sometimes wanders and withdraws itself from
Him, do not much disquiet yourself for that: trouble and disquiet serve rather to distract the
mind than to recall it; the will must bring it back to tranquility. If you persevere with your
whole strength, God will have pity on you.
"One way to recall the mind easily in the time of prayer, and preserve it more in
tranquility, is not to let it wander too far at other times You should keep it strictly
in the Presence of God; and being accustomed to thinking of Him often, you will find it
easy to keep your mind calm in the time of prayer, or at least to recall it from its wanderings.
"I have told you already at large, in my former letters, of the advantage we may draw
from this practice of the Presence of God. Let us set about it seriously, and pray for
one another.
Yours, ____."
What a wonderful little message about how to be quiet before God in our prayers. I find it
a joy to see that in the text of my book just after, "yours, _____," my daughter, Jennifer,
a child just learning to print, penciled in "in crist." She had apparently been reading it, or at
least looking at it, in her childhood.
Another set of books that have influenced me are the writings of Cambridge professor, C. S.
Lewis, including Miracles, Mere Christianity, and The Problem of Pain. I find it a particular
honor to have been able to read his books, the Stories of Narnia all the way through to
The Last Battle to you, my children at your bedtimes. These are brilliant, thoughtful writings
of a spiritual man and I pray their meaning will be clear to you even in your old age.
I close this little essay now with a quote from the Prologue to C. S. Lewis' biography,
Through The Shadowlands. Lewis writes:
"Give yourself up, and you will find your real self. Lose life and you will save it. Submit to
death, death of your ambitions and favorite wishes every day, and death of your whole body in the
end: Submit with every fiber of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep nothing back.
Nothing that you have not given away will ever really be yours.
" Nothing that has not died will ever be raised from the dead.
" Look for yourself, and you will find, in the long run, only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage and
decay.
"But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else will be thrown in."
- Pax
What is God Like?
Well, first of all, what if there is no __?
Secondly, if there is __, then what is __ like?
And thirdly, if __ is, then how do I interpret ___'s meaning for me?
One who asserts that there is no God would conclude that there is no force "out there"
that has an interest in the outcome of our being and we should act in all we do in our
own interest to have happiness and success in life. Such a person may also say that it
is presumptuous and egocentric to even consider that there is some force that has an
interest in our personal outcome. That person might say that there is some primordial
force that controls the universe but it is purely a natural phenomenon not based on
what we call reason and is without interest in outcomes. The human species is simply
one of the myriads of biological organisms that happen to thrive and evolve on this
planet over many millions of years. That which we call our thought process, intelligence
and emotion is only chemical and neurological synaptic activity related to evolving
reproductive functions of the species. When an organism dies, then that organism
specimen is simply over.
To that assertion, my question is this:
What is it that we call the "primordial force and natural phenomenon” and does this
proceed with purpose? And if so, to what purpose? For example, for what purpose is the
great energy within the small atom so strong that could level a mountain. For what
purpose is the great energy of a black hole that consumes even light? For what purpose
has the incredibly powerful DNA molecule evolved? None?
If there is no purpose, then that which we call natural phenomenon creates out of
chaos. If we say there is purpose, then whose purpose? What purpose? These are
unanswerable questions.
That which we call __ has many names. __ would have to be that mysterious cosmic
force that keeps the "worlds in their orbits", that creates all that is, that knows and
watches and is active in all that is. That which we call __ would have to be beyond
our physical nature. __ would have to exist beyond time, space, and mass and yet,
would be within it. __ would be in not only what we can feel and touch, but also within
our thoughts and emotions. __ would be physical and spiritual beyond what we know.
__ would be neither male nor female, yet both and neither. In awe and reverence,
the ancient Hebrews had no name theywould call __ nor would they apply a pronoun
to __. I believe they may well have understood better than we __'s awful nature.
If ___ really watches us all, how can __ keep track of all of the goings on and thoughts
of all of the people who have lived from the beginning of time and of the 5 billion people
alive today? Of that, St. Augustineremarks, "__, who cares for every one of us, as if you
care for him only; and so for all, as if they were but one!"
How do I interpret __?
How do I know __?
There are two ways. The first is by what I can conjure up in the inward being and the
second is by what information is given to me. The Bible says that we cannot by our own
reason or effort believe there is __, but it is by working of __ that we believe. Because
belief is of the mind does not mean that its existence is less real than, for example, a rock
that we can hold in our hand. Because belief is of __, it may well have substance as real
as anything that we can scientifically examine.
It is interesting to me that the biblical story that relates how being was created out of
chaos is in the myths and lore of diverse cultures throughout the world's history.
The story of __ and creation exists in the cultures of China, of Mesopotamia, India, the
Norse, ancient Greek, Inuit, Native American, and Mayan cultures. The stories are told
differently, but the theme remains the same.
I believe the story of God is complete in the action of one we call the Christ, and recorded
in history. The Apostle Paul concludes at the end of his letter to the Romans that Christ is
the culmination of history. He not only explains but acts out how we fit together with this
thing we call .
Can it be possible that Jesus and __ are one as he said? It is only my finite reasoning that
gives me my doubts. "Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is a child of God."
I John 5: 01
On Community
The following are comments and reflections based Romans 12: 9 - 13 and adapted from
William Barclay’s devotional book, The Letter to the Romans, first published by the Saint
Andrews Press, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1955 and later by The Westminster Press, Philadelphia.
Barclay was Lecturer in New Testament and Hellenistic Greek, University of Glasgow, Scotland.
Passages
"As a pebble dropped in a nearby brook or faraway sea
Creates a little ripple in the water for a moment;
Like a wildflower blossoms on a nearby glade
or faraway Mountain
and blows in the wind for a while;
We are a small bit of history unfolding . . .
We serve in some small way for a time for a few.
A cup of water, the binding of another's wounds,
A kind word, a story of hope:
This is our treasure and this is our joy.
This is surely the path to which we are called."
Reflection Based on Romans 12: 9 - 13
Larry Cowan, 1992
We are the family of God supporting one another in every way. A central theme
of Paul's Letter to the Romans is his immense love for the Jewish people and of
their heritage and of his anguish over their rejection of Jesus; and yet of how he
rejoices over the many people, who because of their rejection, come to believe
and the Gospel is spread. Paul writes that we are all one- - Jew and Romans alike
- - and the rest of us as well; and from where we come and who we are doesn't
matter. Paul writes of community.
Romans: 12: 9 -13 (RSV)
"Your love must be completely sincere. Hate that which is evil and love that
which is good. Be affectionate to one another in brotherly love. Give to each
other priority in honor. Do not be sluggish in zeal. Keep your spirit to the
boiling point. Seize your opportunities.
Rejoice in hope. Meet tribulation with triumphant fortitude. Be persevering
in prayer. Share what you have to help the needs of God's dedicated people.
Be eager to give hospitality."
Commentary:
1. Your love must be completely sincere.
Our love must be an altruistic love, meaning charitable, benevolent, humane, and caring
with no hypocrisy, no play-acting, and no ulterior motive. Jesus sought no control or
power over others in his love and caring. But, Oh, how again and again we carry our own
one-sided agenda when we display how we care. Our discussions with others may be used
to manipulate and to build our own power and position. We accuse of duplicity, perhaps
publicly, those who don't see our way. This is not love. Barclay points out that there are
many who display affection with “one eye on the gain that may result”. He says there is
such a thing as selfish love, whose aim is to get far more than it is to give. The Christian
love is a love that is clean of self - it is a pure outgoing of the heart to others. Perhaps
Jesus had an advantage. It's hard for us to know the thoughts of another - of the dreams
and troubles, the sins and how others care; but Jesus knows our hearts each minute of the
day. Let us be more like Jesus and listen when He admonishes us to love one another.
2. Hate that which is evil and love that which is good.
The devil is at work seeking whom he can devour - in the world and even in the Church.
This is an issue not to be taken lightly.
According to Barclay, Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), often considered the greatest social
philosopher of Victorian England, we need to see the infinite beauty of holiness and the
infinite damnability of sin. A person is not safe when his/her life consists of prudent
avoidance of evil and calculated adherence to that which is good. He must hate evil
and love goodness. Of one thing we must be clear- what many people hate is not evil,
but the consequence of evil. No person is a really good when he is good simply because
he fears the consequence of being bad. Not to fear the consequence of dishonor, but to
love honor with a passionate love is the way to real goodness.
3. Be affectionate to one another in brotherly love.
The Greek word used here means family love. Let me be clear on this as well. We must
love one another because we are one family. We are not strangers to one another within
the Christian church; much less are we isolated units; we are brothers and sisters of each
other, because we have the same father, even God. The Christian church is not a collection
of acquaintances; it is not even a gathering of friends; it is the family of God.
4. Give to each other priority in honor.
Problems oftentimes arise because recognition or thanks has not been given to someone
and the person feels slighted and neglected. Perhaps someone is given more prominence
or recognition and trouble brews. The mark of the truly Christian person however is always
humility. Barclay relates a story of Principal Cairnes (apparently of Glasgow)- - whom he
says is one of the humblest of men and a great saint and scholar. The story is told that
he was a member of a platform party at a great gathering and as he appeared on the
platform, there was a great burst of applause. Cairnes stepped back and let the next man
pass, and began to applaud himself. He never dreamed that the applause was for him.
Indeed. Give each other priority in honor.
5. Do not be sluggish in zeal.
Barclay writes there is intensity in the Christian life. There is no room for lethargy. It is
always a choice between life and death- - life is short and is a preparation ground for eternity.
The Christian may burn out but cannot rust out.
6. Keep your spirit to the boiling point.
The one person that the risen Christ could not stand was the man who was neither hot nor cold.
Today, people are apt to look askance at enthusiasm; the modern battle cry is, "I couldn't care
less." The Christian is desperately in earnest and therefore aflame for Christ. Barclay wrote of
this back in 1955. Are our attitudes toward enthusiasm for the risen Christ any different today?
Are we hot or cold?
7. Seize your opportunities.
The Greek text here can be taken two ways - "Serve the Lord" or "Serve the time," that is, grasp
your opportunities. Barclay felt it is likely Paul is calling to us "seize our opportunities as they come."
Life presents us with all kinds of opportunities - to learn something new; to cut out something old
or wrong; to speak a word of encouragement or of warning; to help or to comfort. One of the
tragedies of life is that we fail to grasp these opportunities when they come. "There are three things
which come not back - the spent arrow, the spoken word, and the lost opportunity."
8. Rejoice in hope.
Barclay writes that when Alexander the Great was setting out on one of his Eastern campaigns, he
distributed all kinds of gifts to his friends. In his generosity he had given away nearly all of his
possessions. "Sir," said one of his friends, "You will have nothing left for yourself." "Oh, yes I have,"
said Alexander, "I have still my hopes." I'm sure that Czar Alexander gave out of his abundance;
but what of the widow whom Jesus speaks of who gave out of poverty? The point of this passage
is not the giving or the gift; but that the Christian must have hope; that is, be essentially an optimist.
As followers of Jesus, we are certain that "the best is yet to be." Our hope is in knowledge that God's
grace is sufficient for all things and that strength is made perfect in weakness. There can never be
such thing as a hopeless Christian.
We have this hope together and the joy of fellowship - and even having fun together is the serious
business of practicing love for one another, even as Christ has commanded. Whether in sharing
that joy or in experiencing each other's sorrow, our role is to promoteconnectedness: Let us grow
in love for one another; for we are, in fact, members of the eternal community called the family
of God. That's a long time to have friends! Rejoice in hope - - Our hope is in the resurrection!
9. Meet tribulation with triumphant fortitude.
When beset by sorrow and tears, when tragedy looms, when struck by implacable forces, how can
one say that there is hope or any cause for joy? Many of the people at Rometo whom Paul writes
in the Book of Romans were to be tortured and sacrificed in the years to come for Jesus' sake.
Jesus, the Very Son of God, suffered terribly in taking on not only the physical pains of the cross
which culminated in his death but also the spiritual anguish of acknowledging and taking on our sin.
"Thy rebuke has broken his heart." Let us remember the sufferings of Jesus: And let us not forget
how He loves us so. From Isaiah 51 we read, " A broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart I will not
despise;" and from the Book of Revelation, "I will wipe the tears from their eyes." Can we say then
that this is only a foolish hope? Paul uses the words 'triumphant fortitude' meaning to go forward as, in
fact, the victorious! As Christians, we have Jesus at our side (and to carry us) to meet tribulation with
triumphant fortitude. We can in prayer lay our sins and sorrows on Jesus and he will lift us up far
higher than we can imagine. William Cowper, the English poet and hymn writer, explained it as follows:
"Set free from present sorrow,
We cheerfully can say,
'Even let the unknown tomorrow
Bring with it what it may,
It can bring with it nothing
But He will bear us through'"
More recently, we remember the familiar anonymous poem "Footprints," in which the question is asked,
"where were you, Jesus, when I needed you?" And He answers, "There was only one set footprints on
the sand because it was I who was carrying you."
10. Be persevering in prayer.
Barclay reminds us that there are times in life when we let day add itself to day and week-to-week,
and we never speak to God. When you or I cease to pray, we strip ourselves of the strength of the
Almighty God. Barclay uses the word despoil here. The dictionary gives the meaning of this word:
to ravage, denude, and to lay waste as by plundering or destroying!
11. Share what you have to help the needs of God's dedicated people.
We are to share with those in need. Back in 1955 Barclay wrote that, “We have become a world
bent on getting. Look magazine and the new television set we bought told us to buy that new
Sears refrigerator, nylon stockings, a Chevrolet car and to smoke Camel cigarettes.” Life was
good for those in the middle class. Today, it's grown to where we're inundated with an unlimited
array of consumer products. For example, in the U.S. there's no food item produced anywhere
across the face of this earth that is not readily available within a ten minute drive. We have even
become no longer worshipers but consumers in our church and in our relationship with God. With
the incredible resources for communication and information, do we not see the needs around us?
Do we understand that all we have is a gift of God?
During Holy Week of 1964, Dean J. W. Mathews of Westminster Presbyterian Church of Minneapolis
gave a homily on "The Principle of the Cruciform." I was so struck by the message I could not help
but to take notes. His sermon was from the 10th chapter of St. John where Jesus states, "Therefore
doth the Father love me, because I lay down my life. No one takes it from me. I lay it down of my
own free will." Dean Matthews then asked (and asks of you and me today), "Why, then are you and
I here?"
He concluded, "The absurd body of Christ, the church, expends their death on behalf of mankind.
The church exists only when it offers its death on behalf of the world and lives on the brink, the edge
of their life. They throw their death into the breach of history. They exist as they conform to the
'Principle of the Cruciform.'" Then following Jesus' example, we share our means and more . . .
We share our life and offer our death to any in need.
12. Be eager to give hospitality.
Over and over the New Testament insists on this duty to give hospitality. William Tyndale (1495-1536),
Bible translator and martyr, used a magnificent word: He translated it that the Christian should have a
"harborous" disposition. Christianity is the religion of the open hand, the open heart, and the open door.
The End is Praise:
In passages 16: 25 - 27, Paul concludes his message to the Christians of Rome:
"Now to him who is able to make you stand firm, in the way that the gospel I preached
promises and the messages Jesus brought offers, in the way which is now unveiled in
that secret, which was for long ages wrapped in silence, but which is now full-disclosed,
and made known to all the Gentiles - as the writings of the prophets said it would be,
and as the command of God now orders it to be - that they might render to him a
submission born of faith, to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be glory Forever.
Amen"
Commentary on Romans 16: 25 - 27:
1. The gospel makes persons to be able to stand erect and to stand firm, to be decisive, to be
able go into battle for the message that Jesus brought - and against the shocks of the world and
the assaults of temptation. Here Paul sounds out the gospel that he preached and loved.
The gospel is God's power unto salvation; it is that power which keeps a person safe, which makes
him and her able to meet life erect, even when life is at its worst and its most threatening.
2. The gospel that Paul preached was offered by Jesus Christ. That is to say, the gospel takes its
source in Christ, and is transmitted by people. Without Christ, there is no gospel.
3. It is a gospel that is the consummation of history. It is something that was there from all ages
and which at the coming of Christ was revealed to the world. His coming was the hinge of history.
It is the event to which all history was working up; and it is the event from which all subsequent
history draws. It is a plain fact that at the coming of Christ, the world could never be the same
again - it cannot be disregarded.
Reflection Questions:
In what ways are the people of Romein the
days of Paul's letter similar to us today?
What different things did they need to endure?
How did they affirm their faith?
In what ways are our affirmations different?
How do we stand up in terms of the marks of the Christian?
How do we as a congregation and I as an individual in our relationships
with one another and to God measure up in?
Loving honestly?
Intensity for loving goodness and hating evil?
Connectedness, brotherly affection?
Rejoicing in the hope of resurrection?
Facing difficulty and sorrows?
Giving honor and having humility?
Fire for the Lord?
fervency in prayer?
Unconditional service and giving?
On Resurrection
- What are the implications of the fact of resurrection on my daily life?
- What are the implications of the fact of resurrection on my future plans and goals in life?
- With some understanding of scriptural fact of resurrection as a background, how should
I view my death and the death of those whom I love?
- What are the implications of righteousness in resurrection?
- How should I view my role in the life of the desolate and forsaken as regards the resurrection?
- How do I feel about the resurrection as regards being dead, stone cold dead and rotting in the
grave or burned in an incinerator?
Lazarus! Come Out!
The section underlined in the middle of the next column on this page was underlined
in my Bible some years ago by my daughter Jennifer and she wrote in the margin,
"POWERFUL - - WOW." The part that reads, "Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection
and the life; he who believed in me, though he die, yet shall he live,"is mine also.
It is my confirmation verse from 1954 and I, too, have treasured these verses.
The verse is from the story of Lazarus whom Jesus brought back from the dead.
The story from the Gospel of St. John 11: 17 - 53:
"Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four
days. Bethanywas near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews had
come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. When Martha
heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him, while Mary sat in the house.
Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
And even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you."
Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."
Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me,
though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall
never die. Do you believe this?
She said to him, " Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, he
who is coming into the world."
When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying quietly, The Teacher
is here and is calling for you." And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him.
Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had
met him. When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise
quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep
there.
Then Mary, when she came where Jesus was and saw him, fell at his feet, saying to him,
"Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." When Jesus saw her
weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he wasdeeply moved in spirit
and troubled; and he said, "Where have you laid him?"
They said, " Lord, come and see."
Jesus wept.
So the Jews said, "See how he loved him!"
But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept
this man from dying?"
Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb; it was a cave, and a stone lay upon it.
Jesus said, "Take away the stone."
Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, "Lord, by this time there will be an odor,
for he has been dead four days."
Jesus said to her, " Did I not tell you that if you would believe you would see the
glory of God?" So they took away the stone.
And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, "Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.
I knew that thou hearest me always, but I have said this on account of the people
standing by, that they may believe that thou didst send me." When he had said this,
he cried out with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out."
The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with bandages, and his face wrapped
with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go."
Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and saw what he did, believed
in him; but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what he had done.
So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council, and said, "What are we to
do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on thus, everyone will believe
in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation. But
one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing
at all; you do not understand that it is expedient for you that one man should die for the
people, and that the whole nation should not perish." He did not say this of his own accord,
but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation, and not
for the nation only, but to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.
So from that day on they took counsel how to put him to death. "
Death: A Big Deal
Charles Lutz, Editor of the Metro Lutheran, Minneapolis, wrote an article in that newspaper
of April 1996 that he titled, Death: A Big Deal. I reprint it here because we tend to forget
and have so many ideas of what it means to die and of what the "hereafter" perhaps is like.
Scripture, on the other hand, is very specific in its meaning of death and the hereafter.
Lutz writes, "Death is at the center of what it means to be human. It, along with birth, is
the one experience that every human being has. And Death is central to the biblical story.
"Christians take death and dying seriously. We teach and believe that death is real. As we
are reminded every Ash Wednesday, "You are dust and to dust you shall return."
"Christianity doesn't toy with the idea that some part of me will never die (Immortality is a
pagan concept). When I die, all of me am dead. Thus, our creeds don't talk about the
soul's immortality; they speak about resurrection - - of the body, meaning, of course,
the whole person. Flesh and spirit together will be resurrected.
"Jesus, our Lord, didn't just fall asleep for a few days. His followers testified that he died -
- truly died. And God raised him up.
"It is the same reality that God has in mind for us. We aren't told how God does it. But we
do know that there is a new life to come, with God. Contrary to popular opinion, we won't
become bodiless spirits. Nor will we be angels. The bible indicates that our new life will
include materiality: we will be flesh again.
"So death is a big deal for believers. It's an important word in the Christian vocabulary,
but it's not the last word. The last word is that death - - humankind's final enemy - -
has been forever defeated by the life, death and resurrection of our Lord. Thanks be to
God who gives us the victory!" - Charles P. Lutz.
Biblical References to the Resurrection
The Gospel of St. Matthew 22: 23- 33
The same day Sadducees came to him who say that there is no resurrection; and
they asked him a question, saying, "Teacher, Moses said, 'If a man dies, having no
children, his brother must marry the widow, and raise up children for his brother.'
Now there were seven brothers among us; the first married and died, and having no
children left his wife to his brother, so too the second and third, down to the seventh.
After all of them, the woman died. In the resurrection, therefore, to which of the
seven will she be wife? For they all had her?"
But Jesus answered them, "You are wrong, because you know neither the scriptures
nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in
marriage, but are like the angels in heaven. And as for the resurrection of the dead,
have you not read what was said to you by God, 'I am the God of Abraham, and the
God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not God of the dead, but of the living."
And when the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching.
The Gospel of St. Matthew 27: 51-54
And behold the curtain in the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom, and the earth
shook, and the rocks were split, and the tombs also were opened, and many bodies of
the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his
resurrectionthey went into the holy city and appeared to many. When the centurion
and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what
took place, they were filed with awe and said, "Truly this was the Son of God!"
The Gospel of St. Luke 14: 12-14
He said also to the man who had invited him, "When you give a dinner or a banquet,
do not invite your friends or your brothers or your kinsmen or rich neighbors, lest they
also invite you in return, and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the
poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they
cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just."
The Gospel of St. Luke 20: 34-38
And Jesus said to them, "The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage; but
those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection of the
dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. For they cannot die any more, because
they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. But that
the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls
the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is not
the God of the dead, but of the living; for all live to him."
The Gospel of St. John 11: 21-27
Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. And
even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you."
Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."
Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me,
though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.
Do you believe this?
She said to him, " Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, he who
is coming into the world."
Acts of the Apostles 17: 16- 34
Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within
him as he saw that the city was full of idols. So he argued in the synagogue with the
Jews and the devout persons, and in the market place every day with those who
chanced to be there. Some also of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers met him.
And some said, "What would this babbler say?" Others said, "He seems to be a
preacher of some foreign divinities" - because he preached Jesus and the
resurrection. And they took hold of him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying,
"May we know what this new teaching is which you present? For you bring some
strange things to our ears: we wish to know therefore what these things mean."
Now all of the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time at
nothing except telling or hearing something new.
So Paul, standing in the middle of the Areopagus, said, "Men of Athens, I
perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along,
and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an alter with this i
nscription, 'To an unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown,
this I proclaim to you. The God, who made the world and everything in it,
being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in a shrine made by man, nor
is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself
gives to all men life and breath and everything. And he made from one every
nation of men to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted
periods and the boundaries of their habitation, that they should seek God, in the
hope that they might feel after him and find him. Yet he is not far from each one
of us, for 'In him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your
poets have said, ' For we are indeed his offspring.'
Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the Deity is like
gold, or silver, or stone, a representation by the art and imagination of
man. The time of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all men
everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the
world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has
given assurance to all men by raising him from the dead.
Now when they heard of the resurrectionof the dead, some mocked; but others
said, "We will hear you again about this." So Paul went out from among them.
But some men joined him and believed, among them were Dionysius the
Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.
Acts of the Apostles 23: 1-11
And Paul, looking intently at the council, said, "Brethren, I have lived before God i
n all good conscience up to this day." And the high priest Ananias commanded
those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth. Then Paul said to him,
"God shall strike you, you whitewashed wall! Are you sitting to judge me according
to the law, and yet contrary to the law you order me to be struck?" Those who
stood by said, "Would you revile God's high priest?" And Paul said, "I did not know,
brethren, that he was the high priest; for it is written, you shall not speak evil of a
ruler of your people.
But when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he
cried out in the council, "I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees; with respect to the hope
and the resurrectionof the dead I am on trial." And when he had said this, a
dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees; and the assembly was
divided. For the Sadducees say there is no resurrection, nor angels, nor spirit, but
the Pharisees acknowledge them all. Then a great clamor arose; and some of the
scribes of the Pharisees' party stood up and contended, "We find nothing wrong
with this man. What if a spirit or an angel spoke to him?" And when the dissension
became violent, the tribune, afraid that they would tear Paul in pieces, commanded
the soldiers to go down and take him by force from among them and bring him into
the barracks.
The following night the Lord stood by him and said, "Take courage, for as you have
testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must bear witness also at Rome."
Acts of the Apostles 24: 10-23
[The high priest Ananias has brought Paul before the Governor Felix with accusations
that he is an agitator among the Jews and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes
and that he even tried to profane the temple. See Acts 23: 1-11 above.]
And when the governor had motioned to him to speak, Paul replied, "Realizing that
for many years you have been judge over this nation, I cheerfully make my defense.
As you may ascertain, it is not more than twelve days since I went up to worship at
Jerusalem; and they did not find me disputing with anyone or stirring up a crowd,
either in the temple or in the synagogues, or in the city. Neither can they prove to
you what they now bring up against me. But this I admit to you, that according to
the Way, which they call a sect, I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything
laid down by the law or written in the prophets, having a hope in God which these
themselves accept, that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust.
So I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward God and toward man.
Now after some years I came to bring to my nation Alms and offerings. As I was doing
this, they found me purified in the temple, without any crowd or tumult. But some Jews
from Asia - they ought to be here before you to make an accusation, if they have anything
against me. Or else let these men themselves say what wrongdoings they found when I
stood before the council, except this one thing which I cried out while standing among them,
'With respect to the resurrectionof the dead, I am on trial before you this day.'"
But Felix, having a rather accurate knowledge of the Way, put them off, saying, "When Lysias
the tribune comes down, I will decide your case." Then he gave orders to the centurion that
he should be kept in custody but should have some liberty, and that none of his friends should
be prevented from attending to his needs.
Paul's Letter to the Romans 6: 5-11
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with
him in a resurrectionlike his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that
our sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For he
who has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall
also live with him. For we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again;
death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died he died to sin, once for all,
but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and
alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Paul's 1st Letter to the Corinthians 15: 12-19
Now if Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is
no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has
not been raised; if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your
faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God
that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if
the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised,
your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep
in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most
to be pitied.
Paul's Letter to the Philippians 8: 3-11
Indeed I count everything as a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ
Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse,
in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own,
based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that
depends on faith; that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share
his suffering, becoming like him in his death, that if possible I may attain the resurrection
of the dead.
Paul's 2nd Letter to Timothy 2: 14-19
Remind them of this, and charge them before the Lord to avoid disputing about words,
which do no good, but only ruins the hearers. Do your best to present yourselves before
God as one approved, a workman who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the
word of truth. Avoid such godless chatter, for it will lead people into more and more
ungodliness, and their talk will eat its way like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus
and Philetus, who have swerved from the truth by holding that the resurrection is past
already. They are upsetting the faith of some. But God's firm foundation stands, bearing
this seal: The Lord knows those who are his," and, "Let everyone who names the name
of the Lord depart from iniquity.
Paul's Letter to the Hebrews 6: 1-4
Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrines of Christ and go on to maturity, not
laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,
with instruction about ablutions, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the
dead, and eternal judgments. And this we will do if God permits. For it is impossible
to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, who have
tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have
tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they
then commit apostasy, since they crucify the Son of God on their own account and hold
him up to contempt.
Revelations to John 20: 4-6
Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom judgment was committed.
Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony to Jesus and
for the word of God, and who had not worshipped the beast or its image and had not
received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life, and reigned with
Christ a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until a thousand years
were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who shares in the first
resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God
and of Christ, and they shall reign with him a thousand years.
Commentary on The Resurrection
The span of life is as short as a ripple on a pond and we betterbe sure we get around to
helping one another out. It doesn't get any more serious that this.
It's a lot scary to think that upon death I am totally dead and have no contact with the
outside and I even have no thought or spirit. Jesus says that if I believe and am baptized,
I will be saved and God will one day at the resurrection raise me to everlasting life.
That day may possibly be thousands of years from now and I won't even be waiting for
the resurrection because I'll be dead. I will be one day be brought back alive and have
my body raised from the ashes. It will be totally God's doing and I must put my entire
trust in God to do it. It'll be like I am suspended and trusting upon entry (that is, when I
die) that God will press the button to bring me back. Scriptures say that I will no longer
be subject to death.
What are the implications of this? Well, I better make sure that those around me whom
I love and even those whom I dislike are aware of the need to repent and to believe and l
earn of Jesus so that they will not be left out or be lost. Part of their coming to salvation
is on my head and on the heads of all believers to pray, to talk about salvation, and to
lead godly lives, and to bring the lost to salvation. It's really important.
1. Jesus discusses the resurrection in absolute terms - - the question of its fact isn't
even an issue.
2. We in our life and in our death are to emulate Jesus in a death like his - following the
concept of the Cruciform.
3. There will be a resurrection of the just and the unjust.
4. The just who are dead will all sleep in God's care until the day of the resurrection.
5. The just will be equal to the angels - not like them but equal to them.
6. The just will be rewarded for their acts of mercy and for sharing with the poor and
disenfranchised.
7. Death will be conquered at the resurrection and there will be no death - ever again.
8. We shall be raised in bodily form - complete with mind, body and spirit.
9. There will no marriages in the resurrection.
10. There shall be two resurrections. The first shall be when Jesus returns and the
martyrs shall be raised to rule on the earth for 1000 years. The second resurrection
shall be after a time when God has loosed the devil and many calamities shall occur
and the faithful shall be persecuted and martyred. At the end, the devil shall be put
down and all of the saints shall be raised to live eternally with God and giving glory
to Jesus who died for our sin.
11. The elemental doctrines of Christ are repentance from dead works and of faith
toward God, baptism, the laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead, and
eternal judgments. Of these there should be no debate and we should move on to maturity.
12. The early Church did not keep these doctrines and stories of the events of Jesus and
the resurrection to within their own group, but preached and discussed and debated them
with any who would hear or who happened by; from the market places and streets to the
synagogues and temple, even to the Areopagus of Athens.
Read the First Letter of Peter
Sing, "I Am The Bread of Life"
Song #702 From With One Voice, Augsburg-Fortress Press
A Poem
As a pebble dropped in a nearby brook or faraway sea,
Creates its little ripple for a moment;
Like a wildflower blossoms on a nearby glade or faraway
mountain,
And blows in the wind for a while,
Each of us is a small bit of history unfolding . . .
We serve in some small way for a time for a few.
A cup of water, the binding of another’s wounds,
A kind word, a story of hope;
This is our treasure, this is our joy.
This is surely the example of Christ, our Lord.
"Passages" Based on Romans 12:9-13
Larry Cowan, 1992
Biblical references to life
into his nostrils the breath of l.; Gen 2.07
to guard the way to the tree of l. Gen 3.24
I have set before you l. and death, Deu 30.19
now, O Lord, take away my l.: 1Kin 19.04
"Remember that my l. is a breath; Job 7.07
Lord is the stronghold of my l.: Ps 27.01
For with thee is the fountain of l.; Ps 36.09
O Lord, what the measure of l. is Ps 89.27
give me l., O Lord, according to thy Ps 119.107
The wage of the righteous leads to l. Pro 10.16
The fear of the Lord prolongs l. Pro 10.27
A gentle tongue is a tree of l. Pro 15.04
The fear of the Lord leads to l. Pro 19.23
during the few days of their l. Ecc 2.03
In my vain l. I have seen everything; Ecc 7.15
All these is the l. of my spirit. Is 36.16
you found new l. for your strength, Is 57.10
Their l. shall be like a watered Jer 31.12
O Lord, thou hast redeemed my l. Lam 3.58
awake, some to everlasting l. Dan 12. 02
do not be anxious about your l. Mt 6.25
He who finds his l. will lose it, Mt 10.39
deed must I do, to have eternal l.? Mt 19.16
was l., and the l. was the light of men. Jn 1.04
said to them, "I am the bread of l.; Jn 6.35
It is the spirit that gives l. Jn 6.63
You have the words of eternal l.; Jn 6.68
lays down his l. for the sheep. Jn 10.11
"I am the resurrection and the l. Jn 11.25
the way, the truth, and the l.; Jn 14.06
lay down his l. for his friends. Jn 15.13
And this is eternal l., that they know Jn 17.03
and killed the Author of l. Ac 13.15
to eternal l. through Jesus Christ. Rom 5.21
but the l. he lives he lives to God Rom 6.10
sanctification and its end, eternal l. Rom 6.22
the spirit of l. in Christ Jesus Rom 6.08
one leads the l. which the Lord has 1Cor 7.17
does not come to l. unless it dies. 1Cor 15.36
kills, but the Spirit gives l. 2Cor 3.06
mortal may be swallowed up by l. 2Cor 5.04
and the l. I now live in the flesh Gal 2.20
whose names are in the book of l. Php 4.03
When Christ who is our l. appears, Col 3.04
consider the outcome of their l. Heb 13.07
the crown of l. which God has Jas 1.02
By his good l. let him show his Jas 3.13
hands, concerning the word of l. - 1Jn 1.01
He who has the Son has l.; 1Jn 5.12
grant to eat the tree of l.. Rev 2.07
Reference to Eternity
also he has put e. into man's mind, Ecc 3.11
References to Eternal
the blessings of the e. mountains, Gen 49.26
The e. God is your dwelling place, Deu 33.27
feet to be thrown into the e. fire. Mt 18.08
deed must I do, to have e. life?" Mt 19.16
but the righteous into e. life." Mt 25.46
you into the e. habitations. Lk 16.09
should not perish but have e. life. Jn 3.16
of water welling up to e. life; Jn 4.14
You have the words of eternal l.; Jn 6.68
and I give them e. life, and they Jn 10.28
And this is the e. life, that they know Jn 17.03
his e. power and deity, has been Rom 1.30
gift of God is e, life in Christ Rom 6.23
for us an e. weight of glory beyond 1Cor 4.17
the things that are unseen are e. 2Cor 4.18
made with hands, e. in the heavens. 2Cor 5.01
according to the e. purpose which Eph 3.11
us and gave us e. comfort and good 1Th 2.16
hold of the e. life which you 1Ti 6.12
become heirs in hope of e. life. Tit 3.07
the source of e. salvation to all Heb 3.09
by the blood of the e. covenant, Heb 13.20
undergoing a punishment of e. fire. Jud 7
with an e. gospel to proclaim to Rev 14.06
On Being a Volunteer
The Prospect fpr me of Volunteering?
What prevents one from being a volunteer?
"If I get started now, then they'll want everything."
"They'll be calling me all the time."
Troubles at home and unable to expend the mental energy
Feeling not good enough
Shy and can't talk and seem foolish
The many overwhelming commitments of life
Traveling team hockey
Having to interrelate with some persons other that from within my group ˆ
Working day and night
All of the family chores and dealing with the children,
and driving them everywhere, and going to their games
and programs and on and on to a never-ending day.
Is this what's troubling you, Bucko?
How to be a volunteer
- Make volunteering part of your life.
- Assess your goals in life not only for the long term future but for tomorrow
and for the coming week and maybe it needs to be in your list of priorities.
ˆ Talk to someone who volunteers.
ˆ Seek a little counsel.
ˆ Accept a small challenge to start.
ˆ Most don't volunteer forthrightly - - they help out only if asked.
Why? It's possible that they don't want to appear bold or perhaps they want to be
sure that someone will appreciate it first.
Part of the benefit of being asked is the feeling that someone thinks that I am worth
something and have an ability.
Benefits of volunteering
Meet some new folks
Get to use something you're talented at.
Get to learn a new talent.
Grow in ability to interact with others.
Get a chance to have someone appreciate you.
Possibly develop long term and fast friends.
Volunteering in Service to the Lord
On Tuesday this week a volunteer called and asked me to write something on why
I volunteer. I guess the main reason that people volunteer is that the thing they
volunteer in is something they believe in and they want to help out and
be part of it. You perhaps could say that it fulfills part of a personal destiny. I don't
think it's related so much to the need to socialize or to get recognition - - Such
volunteers are often short lived. But if you truly believe in the work, you'll likely
volunteer for life.
The way I see it, the ultimate volunteer was our Lord Jesus who took our sins upon himself
and died on our behalf, redeeming us from death to eternal life in the resurrection.
In the 10th chapter of St. John, Jesus states (RSV),
"Therefore doth the Father love me,
because I lay down my life.
No one takes it from me.
I lay it down of my own free will."
Now that's a volunteer.
Some years ago I attended a noon Holy Week service at Westminster Presbyterian
Church of Minneapolis and Dean J. W. Mathews spoke on "The Principle of the Cruciform."
He spoke of following Jesus and said, "The absurd body of Christ, the church, expends
their death on behalf of mankind. The church exists only when it offers its death on
behalf of the world and lives on the brink, the edge of their life. They throw their
death into the breach of history. They exist as they conform to the "Principle of the
Cruciform." With that, I should do a little volunteering? My goodness, Jesus wants
my life - - my all!
And so we should do what we can to fulfill the work that is the Lord's. I have no special
place as a volunteer; but let us work and not grow weary, as the harvest is great!
In Matt. 9: 35-37 (RSV), Jesus speaks of the harvest: "And Jesus went about all the
cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of
the kingdom, and healing every disease and every infirmity. When he saw the
crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and were
helpless, like a sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, "The
harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the
harvest to send out laborers into the harvest."
How should I conduct myself? A poem I wrote some time ago reflects my thoughts on
where I (and we) fit in:
"As a pebble dropped in a nearby brook or faraway sea,
Creates its little ripple in the water for a moment,
Like a wildflower blossoms on a nearby glade or faraway mountain,
And blows in the wind for a while,
Each of us is a small bit of history unfolding . .
We serve in some small way for a time for a few.
A cup of water, the binding of another’s wounds,
A kind word, a story of hope;
This is our treasure, this is our joy.
This is surely the example of Christ, our Lord."
"Passages" by L. R. Cowan, 1992
Reflections on Community
based on Romans 12:9-13
What are some of the things I have done to volunteer at church?
I am amazed to think that I have taught Sunday School for over twenty-five years
including one-year teaching deaf children.
I served as Sunday School superintendent for 3 years.
I served 4 years as chairperson of the School Board at Gethsemane School where my children went to
school. We worked hard and accomplished many difficult tasks during a time of transition for our school
when we split from Walther School Association.
I served as Chairperson of the Stewardship Committee at our church for two years
and successfully completed our tasks. under my leadership, we took the intensive approach
of having home "cottage" meetings.
I served 2 years as chairperson of the Interpersonal Ministries Committee at our church and
successfully completed our tasks. Although I was reluctant to proceed with this initially, we
had a very good year and a good time.
I was one of about three volunteers who painted the gym and put the stripes on. I also
painted the 12 ft large "hornet" that's seen on the wall.
I also helped with painting the walls in the school hallways for the renovation and other
service tasks.
I served Boy Scouts as assistant scoutmaster for 2 years and then as scoutmaster for 2 years.
I'm proud that we got four boys through Eagle Scout rank.
I have supervised a number of Boy Scout service projects and served as merit badge counselor
for several of the academic merit badges (The non-fun ones like citizenship and communications!)
I sing in the sanctuary choir.
On Prayer
1. Paul, The Apostle
Romans: 12: 9 -13 The Christian Life in Everyday Action.
We are the family of God supporting one another in every way. Writing to the
church at Rome, Paul expresses an immense love for the Jewish people. In a
paradox he anguishes over their rejection of Jesus, and yet rejoices over the
many people, who because of their rejection, come to believe and the Gospel is
spread.
Paul exclaims his strong conviction that we are all one - - Jew and Roman - - and
the rest of us as well; and from where we come doesn't matter. Paul points to
prayer as an integral part of that life in community with believers and in fellowship
with Christ Jesus.
Paul writes: "Your love must be completely sincere. Hate
that which is evil and love that which is good. Be affectionate to one another
in brotherly love. Give to each other priority in honor. Do not be sluggish in
zeal. Keep your spirit to the boiling point. Seize your opportunities. Rejoice
in hope. Meet tribulation with triumphant fortitude. Be persevering in
prayer. Share what you have to help the needs of God's dedicated people. Be
eager to give hospitality."
2. William Barclay
Barclay, lecturer in New Testament and Hellenistic Greek, University of Glasgow
reflects on the above Romans text, "Be persevering in prayer,"in his book, The Letter
to the Romans (1955):
"Is it not the case that there are times in life when we let day add itself to day
and week to week, and when we never speak to God? When you or I cease to
pray, we strip ourselves of the strength of Almighty God." Barclay uses the
word despoil here, with the meaning of ravage, denude, and to lay waste as
by plundering or destroying!
3. Saint Monnica
Saint Monnica, born 331, was mother of Augustine of Hippo. Saint Augustine tells her
story and she is remembered in the church on May 4th each year as a model for her r
elentless prayers and the unceasing tears that she shed.
Her son, Augustine, held to pagan religious beliefs and Monnica almost despaired of
seeing him shed these spiritual deceptions for the truth of Christ. The church said he
was lost and unteacheable but Monnica's prayers and her tears never stopped.
Whenever she is spoken of, her weeping is remembered. Augustine is called "the son
of these tears."
Monnica is an example to us of the passion, fervor, and tenacity of her prayers for her
children. Augustine would later write, "O Good Omnipotent Lord, who cares for every
one of us, as if you care for him only; and so for all, as if they were but one!" The
truth and passion of God's love was surely communicated to Augustine through the
unwavering love of a mother who would not let him go.
Perhaps, too, she should be called the patron saint of all who have unbelieving family
members. Her husband and her son, those closest to her, did not see what she saw.
But she held them close to her in prayer and witnessed the power of God opening their
eyes. Monnica symbolizes for us all the power of prayer.
4. Brother Lawrence, Order of the Carmelites of Dechausses
From the writings of a monastery cook in 17th Century France: "Brother Lawrence -
- His Conversations and Letters on the Practice of the Presence of God".
In his ninth letter (Concerning Wandering Thoughts in Prayer),
Brother Lawrence writes:
"My Reverend and Greatly Honored Mother:
"You tell me nothing new; you are not the only one that is troubled with wandering
thoughts. Our mind is extremely roving; but as the will is the mistress of all our
faculties, she must recall them and carry them to God as their last end.
"When the mind, for lack of discipline when we first engage in devotion, has contracted
certain bad habits of wandering and dissipation, such habits are difficult to overcome,
and commonly draw us, even against our wills, to things of the earth.
"I believe one remedy for this is to confess our faults and to humble ourselves before
God. I do not advise you to use multiplicity of words in prayer, many words and long
discourses being often the occasion of wandering. Hold yourself in prayer before God
like a poor, dumb, paralytic beggar at the rich man's gate. Let be your business to keep
your mind in the presence of the Lord. If it sometimes wanders and withdraws itself
from Him, do not much disquiet yourself for that: Trouble and disquiet serves rather
to distract the mind than to recall it; the will must bring it back to tranquility. If you
persevere with your whole strength, God will have pity on you.
"One way to recall the mind easily in the time of prayer, and preserve it more in tranquility,
is not to let it wander too far at other
times. You should keep it
strictly in the Presence of God; and being accustomed to thinking of Him
often, you will find it easy to keep your mind calm in the time of prayer, or at
least to recall it from its wanderings.
"I have told you already at large, in my former letters, of the advantage we may
draw from this practice of the Presence of
God. Let us set about it
seriously, and pray for one another. Yours, ________"
5. C. S. Lewis, Cambridge University
From the Prologue to his biography, Through the Shadow
lands:
Lewis writes, "Give yourself up, and you will find your real self. Lose life and you
will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favorite wishes every
day, and death of your whole body in the end: Submit with every fiber of your
being, and you will find eternal life. Keep nothing back. Nothing that you have
not given away will ever really be yours. "Nothing that has not died will ever
be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find, in the long run, only
hatred, loneliness, despair, rage and decay. But look for Christ [in prayer] and you
will find Him, and with Him everything else will be thrown in."
1. And whatever you ask in p., Mt 21.22
2. For your p. is heard, and your wife Lk 1.13
3. Yourselves to p. and the ministry Ac 6.04
4. You may devote yourselves to p. 1Cor 7.05
5. With all p. and supplication Eph 6.18
6. Consecrated by the word of God and p. 1Ti 4.05
7. The p. of the righteous man has great Jas 5.16
8. The breaking of bread and the p. Ac 2.42
9. Keep sane and sober for your p. 1Pe 4.07
10. That are the p. of the saints; Rev 5.08
On Worship
What is it that we mean when we say that we worship God and how is it expressed
within a community setting?
Worship is many things: It can involve so-called praying in the spirit, of offering praise
to God and of offering prayer for life and of repentance. It can contain experiences of
faith and of doubt, of turning from God and giving up to God. It can be an expression of
our faith statement and creed; and of singing songs of joy and of grief. It is hearing the
Gospel and of its meaning in our lives. It can be quietness of mind and spirit.
Worship can be formal as in the Mass or informal as in a gathering around a campfire
sharing testimonies and contemplating the wonder of God. Worship can emphasize the
events of Christ's life in seasonal services or emphasize specific themes of the Bible or
experiences of life.
What does it mean when one prefers a particular style of worship? Does it have something
to do with a need to express a certain way, to have that expression recognized by others,
to find deep answers to personal need? Perhaps preference in worship form is used to hide
some emotion. I would guess it has something to do with all of these things and more.
Robert Bellah, in his essay The Dynamics of Worship * states that, “Worship, if we define
it as a human activity, is an attempt to relate to the sacred or holy and that it tries to
break through the straight or profane world of every day pragmatic common sense.
It is a departure from the plane of the mundane, a departure that often rouses a sense
of the uncanny, of the presence of the mysterium tremendum.”
Bellah continues by making a simple but profoundly important observation: “Unless
there is a link between the religious symbols making up the worship ceremony and
the particular past and present of the worshipers, then the worship process cannot
begin. Indeed, the more deeply the symbols do grasp the real problems and conflicts
of the worshipers the more powerful the subsequent experience can be. But what
happens in worship is the transformation of the personal into the transpersonal, the
immediate into the transtemporal. Through the transformation the immediate
problems and conflicts can be seen in a new light, insight can be achieved, and post
worship changes can ensue.
“Worship, to be maximally effective, must provide not only a symbolic reordering of
experience but an element of consummation and fulfillment. The experience of worship
should produce an influx of life and power, a feeling of wholeness, of the grace of God,
of being at the still center of the turning wheel.
If worship doesn't ‘work’ it may not be because it is 'irrelevant',” Bellah points out.
“Worship involves a partial regression from the normal defensive ego-functioning
so that there is a greater openness to both inner and outer reality. But it is
precisely this regression and openness that may be seen as dangerous and
threatening to the ego" [so that he cannot let down his defenses enough to
participate meaningfully in the act of worship].
Meaning in contemporary worship
The continuum of corporate worship runs from the solemnly contrived liturgical service
to the unstructured and deliberately spontaneous. Examples of each may be a solemn
High Mass of the Catholic church or even the common Lutheran liturgies to the Friends
Meetings of the Pennsylvania Dutch or even the gathering of college youth in a coffee
house for the purpose of communion and communication.
Bellah observes that in the deliberately spontaneous worship there is a participation
that doesn't exist in the formal service. He also points out, however, that the spontaneity
even of the informal service is "partial and flickering." He states that much of what
happens, as in a conventional service, is a performance put on by a few people for an
audience of non-participators.
Bellah concludes with a few observations.
1. One of the things the service tries to do is to draw the participant through the usual
cognitive frameworks and put things in a new perspective.
2. The conventional service today lacks authenticity because it has no surprises;
it is not a point at which the world of every day is broken through but only a
particularly cozy corner of it.
3. The deliberately spontaneous service has elements of exhibitionism and of
deliberate shock in mixing what is familiar in one group and deliberately mixing
it with traditional religion. A danger of mixing what is familiar with forms of the
traditional is that the kick may come not from discovering something genuinely
new oneself but from appearing avant garde to others.
Our Worship experience
It seems at the surface we are a rather homogeneous community and that our needs
for worship expression are not extraordinary. We are mostly a suburban middle class
folk: We are mostly employed; we have families with growing children; most of us
have bills and money is tight. We have hopes and aspirations that draw us to our church:
We seek answers and consolation.
Our worship is expressed in a variety of settings. While we are used to the worship
texts of our tradition, we often look to other more contemporary settings for variation
and novelty to keep the worship experiences fresh. This is expressed also in the variety
of music forms we use.
As we reflect on these concerns regarding worship form, there are two questions for
which we must continue to find answers. These are:
1. How well do the religious symbols which make up the worship ceremony link with
our particular past and present and
2. Do these symbols grasp the real problems and conflicts of the worshipers?
In a particular worship setting, indeed, the symbols are meaningful for many, perhaps
even profoundly so. But for others the liturgies and symbols are not part of their experience.
To the degree that these differences are not resolved, the worship experience is not
contemporary and meaningful to all.
Conclusion
I reflect that worship doesn't begin in the sanctuary at all - -
It begins with the sorrows and joys of life that turn us to God.
It begins with stories like little Timmy who did something his family thought was
impossible - - He didn't die from his disease as was expected but turned age six.
He turned six with the help of the national organ donor program and the skilled
hands of the transplant team. And it begins with a call in the night to tell you
that your son and daughter-in-law were killed in a car crash on an icy road.
It begins in the maternity ward when you call your parents to say that the twins are
born and they are healthy. It begins when you are told that you have cancer and
may live three months. It begins when you are struck by the plight of families
starving in far off nations, of people killed by senseless strife.
I remember the day President Kennedy was shot. I was preparing to go to my next
class at the University when I heard. First there was the news; then the dirges on
all the radio and TV media; then people, it seemed by instinct, gravitated into their
houses of worship. Yes, worship begins with the sorrows and joys of life that turn
us to God. Thank God for the Holy Scriptures that show us the way!
* Essay, The Dynamics of Worship, in Beyond Belief, Robert N. Bellah, University
of California Press, Berkeley, Calif., 1991, PP 209 - 215 Bellah is Professor of Sociology
and Religion at UCLA and has studied the issues of socialization and religion for many
years. I was first introduced to his work at the St. Paul - Minneapolis Joint Synod
Convention at Gustavus Collegea few years back when he spoke on his book
Habits of the Heart.
** Essay, It Doesn't Go Far Enough, ibid. P 195
On The Sanctity of Life
Only God is Holy
There is none like God who creates and takes away, who molds the worlds and
us in it like a potter's vessel, who strengthens us in the ironwright's furnace and
who dashes us to pieces. It is God alone who is perfect in love and in mercy.
Our sanctity is that we are created of God and redeemed. Read the Book of Job
and Psalms 145.
To Preserve Life
To care for our environment, for the animals in the field, for the chain of life,
for our own life and that of our neighbor is our domain.
To Give Life
To be born, to plant, to expect the future, to anticipate life, to forgive and be
forgiven; this is what we are blessed with.
To Offer Life
The only life we have that we can offer is our own and we may offer it for many
things. As organ donor, as blood donor, to our country in war, as a replacement
for another, in the work we do for the hungry and homeless, to offer sanctuary,
to be a sanctuary, to go into difficult situations for another and even to give our
own life for another. We have no right to offer another's life for our own.
"I lay down my life for my sheep."
To Take Life
Only God gives and takes life and we have no role in determining the length of
another's life. Even to end another's life in what seems to be an act of mercy
is to play the role of God. The issue then is not whether the taking of another's
life is right or wrong or whether it is moral or not - - The issue is whether or not
it is a sin against God.
Euthanasia
If the taking of another's life is done with permission and without malice; if a person
is in unbearable physical or mental pain and is helpless or close to the end of life, is it
good or is it evil to end such a person's life? God has created this life - Is it ours to
take it from him? If we take such a person's life, it should be done on the pleading
of the person so wishing to die and with trembling and with tears for it is a sin for
which we need to plead in the arms of Jesus for mercy and for release. Do we then
willfully sin so that we may be forgiven? The apostle Paul discusses this and he
responds with a strong no.
War
Should we take another's life in war to protect our Nation or another Nation? This is
surely a sign of the sinfulness of mankind and we need to plead for God's mercy.
Capital Punishment
Should we take another's life without their consent? Even if the taking of another's life is
without malice, it is a sin. It is the sin of murder. But Jesus says that even if we hate
another, we have committed murder in our hearts and it is a sin. Is the one sin greater
than the other? Is it a sin because it is an act of evil against one's neighbor and against
God? It is sin because it is a turning away from God and disobedience. That is the sin
and there is no sin that is worse than another. They are all terrible evils of supreme
consequence because they alienate us from God.
Murder
The sin is not that another has died but that by a deliberate action and malice at one's
hand the poor soul has died. To cause the death of another even in one's heart is the
same sin. Jesus says that to hate or to wish evil on another is the sin of murder.
Abortion
Should we willfully end the life of a fetus? Is it a sin to end the life of a fetus if you
know that the child will be born into poverty and neglect? Is it a sin to end the life
of a fetus if you know that you, the mother, will be subject to abuse, neglect or
compounded poverty, or that you will have little chance for a good marriage or even
a chance at life? Is it a sin to end the life of a fetus if it seems clear that the child
would be deformed or unable to thrive? Is it a sin to end the life of a fetus because
the child was conceived from rape, incest or other non-consensual intercourse and
the child thus considered unclean? To willfully take another's life so that yours may
be better or even that you will keep your life and not die is a sin. This is surely a sin.
If it were my wife or daughter whose life was in known jeopardy because of her
pregnancy, I would think that I would wish to give my life in place of either life
that may be lost. In the end, I would opt to end the pregnancy to save her life
- - the more so if done during the early pregnancy. I would have difficulty saying
that I would opt to "abort the fetus" as these are uncomfortable words.
A late term suction extraction? I would rather that the child be born, given a name
and be baptized, and allowed to die comfortably and be mourned than to be treated so.
If the intercourse was forced or was unwanted; was the result of a variety of distasteful
events including rape and incest, and if the pregnancy is normal; I don't know what I
would want except that I would surely want the mother to have the best caring counsel
she can get. And then make her decision.
Our Role in Outreach
We are called as individuals to search out our answers to each of these issues.
Ø We are called to seek God's Word and to pray earnestly as we come to our own
personal conclusions.
Ø The church is called to reach out with a visible role in providing comfort, healing,
support, resource and sanctuary.
On The Servant Church
The call to be a servant
Throughout the book of Hebrews, the author details for us the nature of the high priest
to offer sacrifice on our behalf and explains how Jesus fulfills the role of High Priest
culminating in God's own sacrifice for us - the Son of God. To shed light further on this,
the author compares Jesus sacrificial authority to the one who was perhaps the greatest
High Priest of the Old Testament: Melchizedec, who served during the time of Abraham.
Specifically, I wish to open up chapter 6, verses 1 -12 where the author, well versed in
Hebrew Scripture, wonderfully explains to us how the doctrines of Christ are our
foundation and that we are to be resolute in our faith; not rehashing these issues but
how we are to move on to accomplish the ministry to which we are called. The author
addresses the elemental doctrines of Christ and concludes that our job is not to debate
them but to learn them, hold them in our heart and move forward. That is our call.
The text reads:
Heb. 6: 1 - 12 (RSV)
Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrines of Christ and go on to maturity, not
laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and faith toward God, with
instruction about [baptism] the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and
eternal judgments. And this we will do if God permits.
For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been
enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have been partakers of the
Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of
the age to come, if they then commit apostasy, since they crucify the Son of
God on their own account and hold him up to contempt. For the land that has drunk
the rain that often falls upon it, and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose
sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles,
it is worthless and near to being cursed; its end is to be burned.
Though we speak thus, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things that
belong to salvation. For God is not so unjust as to overlook your work and love which
you showed for his sake in serving the saints, as you still do. And we desire each one
of you to show the same earnestness in realizing the full assurance of hope until the
end, so that you might not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and
patience inherit the promises.
Wow! What a challenge.
The author makes four points in this text.
1. The challenge to go on to maturity
2. To leave those who have been partakers of God's mercy but now have contempt for
Jesus.
3. To understand that God sees your work, your love and your service for the saints.
4. And to not be sluggish but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit
the promises.
What then should be our work?
In Scripture, we read that the just will be rewarded for their acts of mercy and for
sharing with the poor and disenfranchised. The motivation for such acts is purity
in love for Jesus and not at all for the reward. Consider some exemplary persons
such as Mother Teresa of the slums of Calcuttaand Mary Jo Copeland of The Sharing
and Caring Hands Mission of Minneapolis. Consider Jesus who showed us how to be
a true disciple by washing the feet of his disciples.
What a fantastic Engine!
If you've read any Thomas The Tank Engine books to your children, you know how
there are different kinds of trains that do different things. Some little engines huff
and puff struggling to do their job while streamliners flash right along by. Well, my
perception is that while we're not a streamliner, we're an engine that's chugging
busily right up the hill.
For starters, if you've been around Gethsemane for a bit, you'll see the so many folks
who, by their actions and concerns and prayers, share what the Lord means to them.
What a blessing - folks who have concerns for the needy and those who suffer, for
the work of the church, for prayer, for Christian family, and even for joy and for
having fun together. This is surely a community of Christ's church.
A question one might ask is, "What is the Coal that feeds this engine of ours?" No,
it's not our offerings and financial support. The coal that feeds our engine is God alone,
the Holy Spirit who works in our lives.
We at Gethsemane look to Jesus in our sense of mission and of need to serve one
another and those in need. This is shown by the actions and words of many.
Have you seen it?
Romans: 12: 9 -13 (RSV)
". . .Your love must be completely sincere. Hate that which is evil and love that which
is good. Be affectionate to one another in brotherly love. Give to each other priority in honor.
Do not be sluggish in zeal. Keep your spirit to the boiling point. Seize your opportunities.
Rejoice in hope. Meet tribulation with triumphant fortitude. Be persevering in prayer.
Share what you have to help the needs of God's dedicated people. Be eager to give
hospitality."
Some Bible passages to look up
Ex 30: 11-16 and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel
De 15: 7-11 If there is a poor man of your brethren, within any of the gates in
your land which the lord your God is given you, you shall not harden your heart
nor shut your hand from your poor brother, but you shall open your hand wide
to him and willingly lend him sufficient for his need, whatever his needs.
I Samuel 2: 06-08 The lord makes poor and makes rich;
Job 5: 8 - 16 So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts her mouth.
Job 29: 16 I was a father to the poor
Psalms 34:6 This poor man cried
Psalms 40: 17 As for me, I am poor and needy
Psalms 41:01 Blessed is he who considers the poor
Proverbs 19: 01 Better is the poor man who walks with his
Isaiah. 11:04 righteousness he shall judge the poor
Is. 25:04 hast been a stronghold to the poor
Jer 22: 16 the cause of the poor and needy
Amos 2: 07 the head of the poor into the dust
Amos 8 :04 and bring the poor of the land to an
Matt 5:03 "Blessed are the poor in spirit,
Matt 11:05 and the poor have good news preached
Matt 19: 21 your possessions and give to the poor,
Matt 26:11 For you always have the poor with you,
Luke 4: 18 me to preach good news to the poor
Luke 19:08 half of my goods I give to the poor
Rom. 15: 26 contributions for the poor among the
2 Cor 6:10 s poor, yet making many rich
2 Cor 8: 09 yet for your sake he became poor,
Rev 13: 16 both rich and poor, both free and
On Baptism
I was baptized into the death of Christ Jesus on June 9, 1940 when I was just a
month old. Before I was born, my sisters Shirley, age 3 1/2; and Betty, 8 mos.;
and brother Wayne, age 5; died in their childhood each at different times. I never
knew them but they, too, were baptized into Christ Jesus and I am confidant that
they are with Him in Glory.
Does Baptism save? I believe that when a child is baptized, that in the act of
baptism we invoke God's Spirit to dwell in the child and, indeed, God comes to
the child. The act of offering the child is ours, but that the Lord dwells with the
child is surely an act of God. Does God's Spirit come to us only in baptism?
By no means. God calls everyone to himself.
On The Presence of Angels
Notes: There are more than thirty references in the old and new testaments
to angels and their work. Are You There?
Are you present in the night watching over me?
Do you watch over Nancy as she sleeps?
Is Noah or Hannah your assignment for life?
Do you keep Jennifer and Mark and Jeff and LeAnn safe?
Do you watch over me to intercept the troubles I might encounter?
Presence: The way in which or the quality by which a person outwardly manifests
his/her personality
Gifts: Something freely given to one person to another for their benefit or pleasure.
When Jennifer was a little girl and we were living on Driftwood Lane in Stillwater,
her bedroom was on the lower level and that's were she said that an angel was
sitting at the foot of her bed watching over her.
On Hands for Ministry and Healing
(A work in progress)
INTRODUCTION
In Paul's letter to the Hebrews, chapter 6, the laying on of hands is one of six basic
tenants of the Christian life and to the mature Christian it is not an issue about which
one should spend time debating. In the book of Acts, the laying on of hands was a
means whereby the recipient receives the Holy Spirit. The recipient may then speak
in tongues and prophesy. In Paul's letter to Timothy, Paul writes that Timothy
prophesy and to emphasize its role in the church.
I suggest that the issue of the laying on of hands has a position of low priority within
Lutheranism was not a controversial issue with Luther. Many churches embrace this
act far better than we for ministry - even the Roman Catholic to which Luther belonged.
- Scriptural and historic Examples with commentary
- Stories of how touch has healed. ·
- My Conclusions - its place in the community of followers, in the church setting and in the world
- Biblical references
- Questions to elicit essay responses of how healing hands touches or doesn't touch our lives.
Six Basic Truths of Christendom
The Apostle Paul, writing to the church at Jerusalem, has just explained how Jesus is the High
Priest after the order of Melchizedek - A concept people at the Jewish church at Jerusalem should
well understand. But he now admonishes them, saying,
"You have been Christians a long time now, and you ought to be teaching others, but
instead you have dropped back to the place where you need someone to teach you
all over again the very first principles in God's Word. You are like babies who can drink
only milk, not old enough for solid food. And when a person is still living on milk, it
shows he isn't very far along in his Christian life, and doesn't know much about the
difference between right and wrong [good vs. evil]. He is still a baby-Christian! You will
never be able to eat solid spiritual food and understand the deeper things of God's Word
until you become better Christians and learn right from wrong by practicing doing right."
(Hebrews 5: 12 - 14 Living Bible)
I use the Living Bible translation here because its contemporary text clearly brings
out this "slap in the face" for the Hebrews. Don't get me wrong - Paul is not admonishing
the Hebrews because he thinks they're ignorant or incompetent. No, he's really
angry with them because he knows they're much better than that (see v. 6: 9).
He knows they understand the messages from God's Word. His point to them is that
they must not doubt these words or debate them and thus be in jeopardy of turning
from God. They've got to get going - they've got work to do!
At the beginning of chapter 6, Paul continues with words to the Hebrews to which we
too must pay close attention. Those words to us are that there are certain truths
regarding the foundation of our Life in Christ about which we should have no question.
Let us not get hung up on them and let us not move away from them. Paul Continues,
"Let us stop going over the same ground again and again, always teaching those first
lessons about Christ. Let us go on to other things and become mature in our understanding,
as strong Christians ought to be. Surely we don't need to speak further of the foolishness
of trying to be saved by being good, or about the necessity of faith in God. You don't need
further instruction about baptism, the laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead
and eternal judgment. The Lord willing, we will go to other things."
(Heb. 6: 01 - 03 LB)
What a strong proclamation! So these six things are sure:
1: Our salvation is in Christ
and not by anything that we can do. The Latin phraseRes ipsa loquitur suggests that
because the facts are so obvious, Paul need explain no more!
2: Faith in God is essential.
Do you believe in God? Do you believe that he exists and that he is your personal
savior? Have you accepted him? Have you given over your life to him? Praise God,
Almighty!
3: Baptism.
Baptism is the giving up of the old self and being born again into the death of Christ.
Should we debate how Baptism is to be conducted and whether it should only for
those who are able to declare their faith or should we include even our children.
Baptism is not a declaration of our faith but a gift of God. Let us move on.
4: Laying on of Hands.
Now this is an item about which we as Lutherans are not very familiar. The laying
on of hands is a means whereby one receives the Holy Spirit. Perhaps it's because
laying on of hands gets a little personal and, with our staunch Lutheran theological
background, we’re standoffish on this one. And perhaps it's terrifying because it is
a life-changing event.
Let us remember that laying on of hands hasn't been a strong issue within the
Lutheran church. In all of his writings and sermons, the major portion of Martin
Luther's energy was taken up with the issue of justification and the concern to
correct the issue within the church and it is in regard to the issue of justification
that we as Lutherans are distinctive within the family of God's people.
5: Resurrection of the dead.
Wow. There is one thing from which we cannot escape and that of course is that
we are all destined to die. But we have a marvelous hope and our hope is in Christ.
Can you comprehend what it will be like? Can you believe it will happen? I guess
we generally go on with the concerns and activities of our lives without much thought
of that one-day when it will come to an end. But then we are confronted with a loved
spouse or friend who is diagnosed with a terminal cancer or even one of our children
is suddenly taken from us. Then, in our loss, it becomes clear and we have this hope.
Thanks be to God!
6: Eternal judgment.
God is holy. Let us not forget that. We shall be judged by whether we have loved or
by our works of selfishness and indifference. I love the story of Mother Teresa whose
order tends to the dying who would otherwise die alone. She says that her job is not
to reach all the sick and dying in the world because that is God's work and not hers.
To think it was her job would be a matter of building herself up, of inflating her
importance, and it would be a sin. Her job is only to reach her hands of healing to
the soul of each individual who comes to her - a few at a time in humility and in mercy.
Mother Teresa says that it by this that we will be judged and I believe her.
Damnation
Bible References:
Hands
Healing:
Sharing and Caring Hands Ministry, Minneapolis
Little Sisters of the Poor, Calcutta
Deut 34: 09 for Moses had laid his hand upon him
Mat. 19: 15 And he laid his hand upon them and went [Jesus laid his hand on the
children saying that of such is the Kingdom of God. This was a blessing of the children.
Acts 8: 18 Then they laid their hands upon them and they received the Holy Spirit
[The Spirit was given through the laying on of hands]
Acts 19: 06 He said to them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And
they said, "No, we have never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit."
And he said, "Into what then were you baptized?"
And they said, "Into John's baptism." .... On hearing this, they were baptized into the
name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hand upon them, the Holy Spirit
came on them; and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. There were about twelve
of them in all.
I Ti. 4: 14 the elders laid their hands upon you. [Timothy received spiritual gifts when
the elders laid their hands upon him]
I Tim. 5: 22 Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands [It is a serious thing and it is
to be done after some mental consideration] [The two text references in Timothy to
laying on of hands is in reference to the officers of the church and duties of minister.]
I Catch On Fire
August, 2008
Pastor José Antonio Machado, Interim Associate Pastor, Arlington Hills Lutheran Church
We use words like scarcity and fear / hope and abundance.
The Lord be with you. [And also with you]
Let us pray: Lord, how good and pleasant it is when brothers and sisters live together in
unity! It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on
Aaron's beard, down upon the collar of his robes. It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on
Mount Zion. For there the LORD bestows his blessing, even life forevermore. Psalm 133.
Lord, you call us to a work of justice. Keep us passionate in that work. Bring together all in
the circle so that common hopes are secure.
A commentary – Larry Cowan
Last Sunday we of Hope Church celebrated worship outdoors together with the people of
Arlington Hills Church and PastorJosé Machado made a comment about being on fire.
He pointed out that because of the message of the gospel that brings hope people of Asia
and Africa are catching on fire. The gospel points them to a way up to a new life and to a
promise for the future. It’s an incredible new model for people in the margins and it’s a bit
like a wildfire.
So what is this fire?
A reading from Romans 12: "Your love must be completely sincere. Hate that which is evil
and love that which is good. Be affectionate to one another in brotherly love. Give to each
other priority in honor. Do not be sluggish in zeal [but be on fire]. Seize your opportunities.
Rejoice in hope."
Since this text of from the book of Romans, I want to do a little mind game with the text like
Paul might so bear with me. There are three things that go together and each has an opposite.
The first is Hope –and its opposite is ______[despair].
The second point is the joy that comes out of having hope.
The opposite of joy is _________[anguish] and it comes out of despair.
The third thing is being on fire that comes out of the joy of having hope.
The opposite of being on fire is _________ [not being able to being lit]
and that’s because there is no joy because there is no hope.
It’s clear what a wonderful text this is about how we are called to live
together. The opposite is to live in isolation and fear and to be told there is not enough for me too.
So what does it mean to be on fire? Being on fire is not about jumping up and down –
It’s about having a passion, a resolve based on hope and then doing something about it,
it’s about being baptized into Christ’s death and finding new life – It’s perhaps going
further than you ever thought you could; It’s perhaps going the ultimate mile.
Helen Prejean, a sister of St. Joseph of Medaille lives in New Orleans and dedicates
her life to the poor. As any of you know, Sister Prejean wrote the novel “Dead Man
Walking,” based on her experiences with the death penalty. This is one of her poems:
I CATCH ON FIRE
Long black dress to my toes –
Flowing black sleeves and veil.
A walking bolt of black material.
Fourth grade religion class –
Teaching full force:
The Gospel according to . . .
Lit candle.
Fifty little eyes wide.
Twenty-five voices shout:
"Sister! Sister! You're on fire!"
Flames shooting. Hands beating.
Silence. Breathing.
Children, this teaches us always to be careful with fire.
Now, years later, when I catch on fire. Amen.
Christmas time of 1989 Updated
"When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy;
and going into the house they saw the child with Mary, his mother,
and they fell down and worshipped him. Then opening their treasurers, they offered him gifts, Gold and frankincense and myrrh. . . ." Matthew 2: 10 - 11
This is an amazing story. Why were they so excited about a baby born to travelers in an animal stall!?
I would like to share with you a thought that I was reminded of this season: This thought is that,
Joy comes to us not from happy times and knowing that things in life are in order but in
knowing that we are Christ's own.
They had found a great joy, the child who would be the redeemer.
Jesus breaks open for us a paradox. For happy times we are so thankful and we cherish them, of course.
But you may know by your own experience that joy is not a flippant thing. It comes to us in a paradox
out of pain and suffering - by our own experiences of difficult times and perhaps by our anguish and
hope of Christ's suffering as well. Joy is the knowledge that we will endure - as individuals - as family
-as a community - and as history unfolds. Joy is a deep sense that nothing can separate us from the
love of God who sustains us.
Did these Magi of the East see and understand the suffering that the baby was to take onto himself?
Did they foresee how He would be thrust into the breech of history? Did they know how he would be
loved? Did they have a sense of the mystery unfolding in this birth of the Messiah?
Just before Christmas and about a week before his wedding in 1994, I asked my son, Jeff, the question,
"Why, if God loves us so, is there so much pain and suffering?" His immediate response and a wise answer,
indeed, was, "So that we may know Him better."
It is no new thing that around us and perhaps very close is much pain and suffering - - often shrouded in
the cloak of hopelessness - - for those who have no home and who end each day without food; for those
disenfranchised from hope; for those who suffer illness alone; for those who have been raped and abuse
in their youth and cannot speak out; for children in the streets who cannot go back; for the elderly looking
to death without any who care, for young mothers with none for sharing and support; for those who carry
the guilt of ending a child's life in abortion; for those whose life is centered on self-pity, addiction and
abuse; even those who suffer the pain of lost love, broken families, and of separation by death. Joy...? Joy!
How can that be! How absurd! Oh, how can I cry out to rend your heart and mine!
With sad and angry words, the hurt cry out in a crescendo of: "What is love?" "How can there be God?"
"I have no life!" Shortly after Jesus' birth, Joseph and Mary fled with Jesus into Egypt while Herod had
the small children around Bethlehem all slaughtered. Jesus, indeed, has come to us in the midst of our
suffering and He tells us then and today, "True religion is this; to visit the widows and orphans."
Yes, we are called in joy to stand perhaps on the edge. It is you and I by our actions that bring the
suffering into the cradling arms of Jesus. That is our great joy; that is Christ's mission. It is in you and
in I that the Savior is found. As we see lives pass by - - even those in the generations of our families
- - some who over the years have been fortunate; some who just get along; and others who have seen
extreme misfortunes; we are called in joy first to kneel and secondly to stand perhaps on the edge. As
Jesus asked of Peter on that fateful day not so many generations ago, he asks of you and of me, "Peter,
do you love me?"
These ramblings are based on my notes of a message by Dean J. W. Matthews during Holy Week over 30
years ago in 1964 at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis and originally rewritten by me at
Christmas - time of 1989. Dean Matthews' homily was on "The Principle of the Cruciform" from the 10th
chapter of St. John where Jesus states, "Therefore doth the Father love me, because I lay down my life.
No one takes it from me. I lay it down of my own free will." Dean Matthews then asks, "Why, then are
you and I here?" He concludes; "The absurd body of Christ, the church, expends their death on behalf
of mankind. The church exists only when it offers its death on behalf of the world and lives on the brink,
the edge of their life. They throw their death into the breach of history. The communion of Christ's
Church only exists in history as it conforms to the "Principle of the Cruciform;" and takes the world's
suffering unto itself.
Peace
Tears For My Sake
June of 1996
It was the middle of June of 1996 and Evangelist Billy Graham brought to our cities what would be one
of his last evangelistic crusades; and over a period of five days over 300,000 people gathered together
to hear the call to salvation. Prior to the crusade, the organizing committee made a plea for prayer for
the Grahams, the co-workers, and the counselors; that the crusade would have a positive and lasting
impact on the Twin Cities. In particular was the plea that our prayers must be "of tears for those who
don't have a personal relationship with Christ.
“Where are our tears?” we were asked, “We need to have a burden in our hearts for the lost, the unborn
and the unsaved." We were asked as we go to our knees each day to lift these burdens up to God.
In the 126th chapter of the book of Psalms, David writes about those tears for the lost. In this Psalm,
David first rejoices over those returned to Zionfrom captivity and then remembers the sorrow and tears
shed for their return. Do we have such a burden for those not born anew in Christ as was for those not
returned to Zion? Listen to the text.
Psalm 126 - - A Joyful Return To Zion
When the Lord brought back the Captive to Zion,
We were like those who dream.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
And our tongue with singing.
Then they said among the nations,
"The Lord has done a great thing for them."
The Lord has done great things for us,
And we are glad.
Bring back our captivity, O Lord,
As the streams from the South.
Those who sow in tears
Shall reap in joy.
He who continually goes forth weeping,
Bearing seed for sowing,
Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
Bringing his sheaves with him.
A thousand years later, another cried.
Saint Monnica, born 331 a. d. and mother of Augustine of Hippo,
is remembered in the church on May 4th each year as a model
for her relentless prayers and the unceasing tears that she shed.
Her son, Saint Augustine bravely tells her story.
Augustine admits that he held to pagan religious beliefs and his
mother Monnica almost despaired of seeing him shed these spiritual
deceptions for the truth of Christ. The church said he was lost and
unteacheable. But Monnica's prayers and her tears never stopped.
Today, whenever she is spoken of, her weeping is remembered.
Saint Augustineis called "the son of these tears."
So Monnica is an example to us of the passion, fervor, and tenacity of
her prayers for her children. Augustine would later write, "O Good
Omnipotent Lord, who cares for every one of us, as if you care for
him only; and so for all, as if they were but one!" The truth and
passion of God's love was surely communicated to Augustine through
the unwavering love of a mother who would not let him go.
Perhaps, too, she should be called the patron saint of all who have
unbelieving family members. Her husband and her son, those closest
to her, did not see what she saw. But she held them close to her in
prayers and witnessed the power of God opening their eyes.
Monnica symbolizes for all of us the power of prayer.
The Apostle Paul in Romans 12.14-21 tells us of the intensity of our tears
together as Christians. He instructs us "to be of the same mind toward one
another," rejoicing when others rejoice and weeping when they weep and
to overcome evil with good. I believe Paul points out here that we are to
be of one fellowship, sharing even in our emotions, and to be an example
to those on the outside of this fellowship.
Verse 20 reads,
"If your enemy is hungry, feed him:
If he is thirsty, give him drink;
For in doing so you will heap
coals of Fire on his head."
In chapter 10 of St. Matthew, Jesus also speaks of being an example to
those on the outside - - to the Samaritans and to the Gentiles (those unclean).
Here Jesus sends out the twelve disciples to the "lost sheep of Israel," to
preach, saying, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand," to heal the sick, to raise
the dead and to cast out demons. He tells his disciples that they will be
persecuted, and so be a testimony to the synagogues, to governors and to
kings, and to the gentiles. And I add here - - again "Heaping coals on their
heads!" So in both of these texts, Romans 12 and Matthew 10, the theme
is to overcome evil with good and to be a testimony to those on the outside
looking in.
Now let us move to that incredible text of Romans chapter 5 - - Here let us
watch Jesus as he steps over the line in what he would do for all of us on
the outside. The question raised here is, "How far would I go to save
someone else?" Well, Paul says that if the man in need of saving were
righteous, it's possible some good person might stand forward to die for him.
But, in fact, Jesus died for us, "while we were yet sinners." We were not his
close friend from youth, nor his buddy in battle and certainly not righteous.
We are, indeed, strangers to him and, yes, the enemies spoken of in Romans
12 and the Pharisees, governors, kings, and Gentiles of Matthew 10 getting
the ultimate coals of fire heaped on our heads.
Did Jesus return evil with good? Yes, indeed, he died for us while we were yet
sinners! What can we do? What can I do? Surely, I should weep for joy and be
eternally grateful.
Yes I should.
I suppose that's what I should do.
But do you know what? If Jesus died for enemies and sinners, he also died for
that lady down the street that I don't even like and also for her stupid children!
Now this is starting to get complicated. And I guess I could name a few more
people that I could care less about and I certainly don't want to get involved
with. Apparently they, too, are as worthy (or perhaps as unworthy) of salvation
as I am.
Should I pray for them quietly? Should I have tears of sadness pleading to God
that salvation come to them? Should I reach out? I can't quite get into it.
I believe it’s important to understand that while Jesus died for us as poor
miserable sinners, as good Lutherans like to envision ourselves in God’s presence,
He didn’t save us out of pity, but as a gift to ennoble us. (See II Timothy “…of
power, etc”.)
Jesus died for my neighbor lady and her children. Jesus told his disciples,
"Therefore doth the Father love me,
because I lay down my life. No one
takes it from me. I lay it down of
my own free will."
He had no objections about for who He died - - I do. And in dying, He died
for me, too.
The Apostle Paul is also a man of paradox: Let us look at how his rejoicing in
his Savior is mixed with weeping for the lost. In Philippians 3: 17 - 21, he writes:
Brethren,
join me in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for
a pattern. For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even
weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction,
whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame - - who set their mind
on earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait
for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may
conform to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even
to subdue all things to Himself."
And so it is in the sure knowledge of our eternal reward we must assuredly weep
for the lost. And so we pray with tears for the lost and we return their evil with
a sure kindness, with goodness and with charity; thus heaping coals on their heads
that they may be saved; and so also we know that those samepeople will persecute
us, hate us, and even murder us on the streets because of Jesus. It happens all the
time and some will be saved.
Saturday evening was Youth Night at the Billy Graham Crusade and my wife, Nancy,
was at work at St. Johns Hospital in the recovery room where patients are cared for
in the period after surgery. On this evening, Nancywas caring for an eighteen-year-old
girl who was waking up after having severe cuts sutured and closed. She was cut
when she fell into a plate glass window. Her parents weren't at her side but, instead,
Nancy says, she had three loud, scummy young hoodlums with her who couldn't talk
without injecting the F... word. From their behavior, it was apparent that more than
one of them has had their way with her. When the girl awoke, she made sure all
knew that she was a manager at a convenience store. It was like she was saying,
"I'm really not so bad; I'm somebody important!" She had a number of tattoos on
her body.
Another young girl came into the hospital that evening. After her surgery, though,
Nancywould not be seeing her in the recovery room - - Her departure would be
different. While at a party she suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and upon arrival at
the hospital was placed on life support. After medical evaluation, her family made
what was, I'm sure, the most difficult decision of their lives. This young wife and
mother, and growing daughter was to be an organ donor before morning. It's called
a "harvest." This girl was nineteen and the mother of a small baby.
The anesthetist expressed how sad she was to do this case, but Nancy said she
should also look at the other side. She said there are people right now packing their
bags and securing emergency airline transportation. And I'm sure they were looking
to God with tears of hope, of joy and of excitement that they, their spouse or their
child will be given a chance to live.
Wow. How tenuous is our time here on earth - - and when we're afraid, we'd like
people to know that we're really not so bad and, yes, we are important. We'd like
to think that when we die we've made some difference.
While Nancy was at work and the Youth Crusade Event was going on, I was at home
in prayer and, yes, with tears streaming down my face imploring God to do a mighty
work in the hearts of the youth at the crusade and for the youth in our cities that
they may be opened to learn of Jesus and to follow him. I, myself, have known how
important this event can be and that this experience can be life changing for a lifetime.
I prayed a prayer of tears that night. Certainly not because of my prayers alone but,
I believe, because of the many thousands of prayers lifted up, eighty-two thousand
young people heard the word of God and most of them dedicated their lives to Christ
that night! The Holy Spirit of God and His angels were certainly at work filling their
hearts in that place! This was the largest gathering of people for any single event in
Minnesotahistory and it was for the sake of Jesus who, in tears, cries out for you and
for me.
What about that young girl with those cuts?
I pray God that by Your Spirit, by events and by courageous witnesses to You, she and
her friends will find You. What about the girl who became a "harvest?" I pray to You,
Lord that people and events have already surrounded her with your love and that she
is in the eternal harvest with you this day. What about my neighbor? I pray God to
forgive me again, and again, and again for being so wretched. May God Himself reach
out in his Spirit, and through angels of care, and through ones close to her to be merciful.
Who should we pray for?
Prayers for the lost:
1. For me and you,
2. For our families and friends,
3. For woman and men in their needs,
4. For our Nation and its leaders
5. For the homeless, hungry and disenfranchised.
6. For the sick and the dying,
7. For children and the unborn,
8. For drug addicts, criminals and thieves,
9. For murderers, rapists, and power abusers.
10. For those alone and mentally sick,
11. For persons I don't like and for enemies,
Xn. For the thousands of thousands in the world.
It's really important.
"Tears for my sake.
Tears for whose sake?
Tears for Jesus sake.
Tears for the lost."
The Faith of my Childhood
By Lawrence Richard Cowan
On April 12, 1954, my great uncle Carl Johan Christensen died at Mora, Minnesota
at the age of 75. He was born on May 2, 1878 at Fauchild Ostre, Toten, Norway and
married Anne H. Sandsmark (1885 - 1958) at BlueEarthCountyin southern Minnesota.
They had several children and farmed a place just out of Mora near Knife Lake. Carl
was my Grandmother's brother and I remember the many times being out to Mora
with my parents to visit.
Carl was buried out of Calvary Lutheran Church in Mora and I remember his funeral.
I was almost 14 and I remember sitting in the back of the nave watching the many
men in their coveralls in from the fields and the woman with their hot dishes and
I thought to myself, "This is good. A hard working man finished his life and comes
home to his Lord. His family and friends come in from their work this day to mourn
and to celebrate God's goodness. Yes, today is a good day."
I was confirmed in the Christian faith two months later by Pastor Carl A. Zimmerman
at Hope Lutheran Churchin north Minneapolis where I attended Sunday School and
sang in the choir.
In my youth, I have often asked the question, "How is it possible that if Jesus, whom
the Bible says is God's Son, died on the cross for my sins and I believe that; then my
sins are forgiven and I am right with God?" I am asked to believe this and yet I would
like to understand how this mechanism works. I suppose I could believe many things
- - But does this make it so? There are several hard questions here and I'd like it
explained to me.
Well, I believe I found the answer (for me, anyway) over thirty years ago in these
verses of the Psalms of David. It's from the 51st chapter that starts out with the
familiar, "Have mercy on me, O God, ...Wash me... ... and cleanse me...." It is the
last part of that chapter, however, that struck me and has been important to me
ever since.
From the RSV, in Verses 15 - 19, David writes:
"O Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. For thou hast
no delight in sacrifice, were I to give a burnt offering, thou wouldst not be pleased.
The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart thou wilt
not despise
"Do good to Zion in thy good pleasure, rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, then wilt thou
delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on thy alter."
I want you to know that I have pondered these words, I would guess, since the late
1950's and that they have been an intense revelation to me of how Jesus' death on
the cross is the most wonderful gift to me. Let's ponder these words while I make two
points.
The first point is that if there is God, then God must be like this: That which we call
"God" is holy and awful and demands our reverence. He is strong beyond our wildest
imaginations. His force is the power within the spinning sub-atomic particle and the
heave of the great galaxies far beyond our knowledge. He is within the molecular chain
that creates the daisy, a deadly virus, and the human species. He is spiritual, for
thought and imagination, although untouchable, do exist. The dog wags its tail, the cat
crouches, and we mourn when someone dies. He is the "I AM." He was before the
beginning of time, He is in this moment, and will be, beyond the eons of ages to come.
The second point is that if I turn from God, even in a derelict instant, and God is not
merciful, then I am forever destroyed. I have no salvation and I am lost. David says,
"Against thee, thee only, have I sinned and done that which is evil in thy sight, so that
thou art justified in thy sentence and blameless in thy judgment." If it's me against the
above-mentioned God, then it's no match - - I am certainly lost.
So if one turns from God, even I, in one momentary and fleeting thought, then the
verdict must be that I (and anyone like me who has defied God) should treated like
so much refuse flushed down the toilet of some dark rooming house on a lonely
remote corner of the earth and forgotten, or worse; suffer eternal damnation. If there
is God, then the judgment is rightly deserved. There is no sacrifice or burnt offering
that I can present that will make it right. No, none.
Well, if I can't make it right, who can make it right? Contrary to what I've sometimes
thought, It is not so much my repentance that makes it right - -although that's certainly
part of it; but it's the action of Jesus who, laying his hand on me, takes my sin and makes
me clean. The following are two accounts of redemption- - one from Scripture and the
other from C. S. Lewis - - that helps make this clear to me.
The first is that glorious chorus from Revelations, "Worthy is the Lamb that was Slain,"
which was set to music in G. F. Handel's oratorio, The Messiah. The question from
Revelations chapter 5 is asked, "Who is worthy to open the book of life?" ... and none
is found worthy. And then a messenger comes forward and exclaims, Yes! - Someone
is found! - It is the Lamb that was slain! - He is worthy! Then the legions of all heaven
sing out, "Worthy is the lamb that was slain, and hath redeemed us to God, to God by
his blood, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory,
and blessing, forever and ever, amen!"
The second illustration of being bought back (i.e. redemption) is from the children's books,
The Stories of Narnia by C. S. Lewis that I read to my children some years ago. In one
of the books, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, Lewis writes of little Reepicheep the
mouse that excitedly encourages the other animals, saying over and over again like the
prophet, "But Aslan is coming, Aslan is coming!" In this children's book, Aslan, the great
lion, is a simile to the Christ, the Lion of Judah to be slain, the one who will save us. It's a
profound metaphor of how Jesus laid down his life to save us.
So, what does God require? It's pretty simple, actually. Let down my guard; let down my
defenses; accept my errors, my mortality, and how I screw up and how I want to have
control. I can try anything I like; give anything I want and it's not enough - - It's still not
sufficient.... And it's not a matter of "I'll be better." All God wants is for me to say, "Have
mercy." He is worthy - It is as simple as that. The battle is won.
In the above passages in Psalms, David does not even take credit for his praises to God.
He states that no personal sacrifice is enough. But to say, "Have mercy," is enough.
He proclaims that God wants my heart and then I can be proud of the good works I do - -
giving glory to God. Then I can worship God and have joy.
My daughter, Jennifer, underlined the following verses in my Bible and wrote in the margin,
"POWERFUL-WOW": John 11: 25 - 27a Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the
life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes
in me shall never die. Do you believe this?
She said to him, " Yes, Lord.
The text, "Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life; he who believed in me, though
he die, yet shall he live,” is also mine. It is my confirmation verse from 1954 and I, too, have
treasured these verses.
The last verse of the poem from the Lenten hymn, Alas, And Did My Savior Bleed, by Isaac
Watts (1674 -1748), reads as follows and it, too, is my soliloquy.
"But tears of grief cannot repay
The debt of love I owe;
Here, Lord, I give myself away:
It's all that I can do."
So the act of God to show us mercy was to die in our presence by our hand. This was not
a thought, a philosophical concept, or a moral reasoning. It was physical, it was an act, and
it happened. So in the same manner, my response is physical, it is an act and it happened.
Thanks be to God!
I have often thought, "Is Jesus truly God in our presence?" I believe history confirms that
he was crucified - - as were so many others of his time. But did he truly rise from the grave
and was he seen by so many and did he return to glory? Did he really do those miracles?
Does he hear and reach to us in our prayers today?
I am awed and cannot comprehend how great was the motive of the thousands in the early
church who went willingly to a torturous death in the Roman circuses rather than recant
their faith. I cannot comprehend how His church has survived in history and has become
so alive among people in the world today. Is it a chance of history? I think not.
We read from Scripture that God, Himself, will keep upon our foreheads the terrible words,
"Thou shalt fear and love God above all thing." Yes, these words are reason for trembling
because He is God. Should I come close to Him? No, it is not by my action but it is He who
draws near to me and it is his doing even that I love him. I understand intimately the words
of the third article of Luther's Small Catechism that say, "I cannot by my own reason or strength
believe... but the Holy Ghost called me...." Even my faith belongs to Him!
Over the years, some of the books that have been important to me in my faith are 1) The Cost
of Discipleship, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, martyred for his faith at the end of World War II;
2) Christian Liberty, a treatise by Martin Luther that discusses our freedom and the nature of
responsibility as Christians; 3) Existentialism and the Modern Predicament, which discusses
the nature of faith, by 19th Century Danish philosopher, Soeren Kierkegaard; 4) St. John of the
Cross; a compelling biography of a simple 16th Century Carmelite monk who some say is the,
"greatest mystical theologian in Christian history," written by the French author, Leon Cristiani;
and 5) a homely little booklet of the writings of a monastery cook in 17th Century France.
I am pleased that he is my namesake: "Brother Lawrence - - His Conversations and Letters on
the Practice of the Presence of God". I quote from the forward: "There must have been
something rare in a monastery cook that a Grand Vicar should listen to his talk and go home
and make notes of it; and that high-placed persons should beg of him not the recipe for a
sauce but his secret for a happy life."
In his ninth letter for example, Brother Lawrence writes (Concerning Wandering Thoughts in
Prayer):
My Reverend and Greatly Honored Mother:
"You tell me nothing new; you are not the only one that is troubled with wandering
thoughts. Our mind is extremely roving; but as the will is the mistress of all our faculties,
she must recall them and carry them to God as their last end.
"When the mind, for lack of discipline when we first engage in devotion, has contracted
certain bad habits of wandering and dissipation, such habits are difficult to overcome, and
commonly draw us, even against our wills, to things of the earth.
"I believe one remedy for this is to confess our faults and to humble ourselves before
God. I do not advise you to use multiplicity of words in prayer; many words and long
discourses being often the occasion of wandering. Hold yourself in prayer before God like
a poor, dumb, paralytic beggar at the rich man's gate. Let be your business to keep your
mind in the presence of the Lord. If it sometimes wanders and withdraws itself from
Him, do not much disquiet yourself for that: trouble and disquiet serve rather to distract the
mind than to recall it; the will must bring it back to tranquility. If you persevere with your
whole strength, God will have pity on you.
"One way to recall the mind easily in the time of prayer, and preserve it more in
tranquility, is not to let it wander too far at other times You should keep it strictly
in the Presence of God; and being accustomed to thinking of Him often, you will find it
easy to keep your mind calm in the time of prayer, or at least to recall it from its wanderings.
"I have told you already at large, in my former letters, of the advantage we may draw
from this practice of the Presence of God. Let us set about it seriously, and pray for
one another.
Yours, ____."
What a wonderful little message about how to be quiet before God in our prayers. I find it
a joy to see that in the text of my book just after, "yours, _____," my daughter, Jennifer,
a child just learning to print, penciled in "in crist." She had apparently been reading it, or at
least looking at it, in her childhood.
Another set of books that have influenced me are the writings of Cambridge professor, C. S.
Lewis, including Miracles, Mere Christianity, and The Problem of Pain. I find it a particular
honor to have been able to read his books, the Stories of Narnia all the way through to
The Last Battle to you, my children at your bedtimes. These are brilliant, thoughtful writings
of a spiritual man and I pray their meaning will be clear to you even in your old age.
I close this little essay now with a quote from the Prologue to C. S. Lewis' biography,
Through The Shadowlands. Lewis writes:
"Give yourself up, and you will find your real self. Lose life and you will save it. Submit to
death, death of your ambitions and favorite wishes every day, and death of your whole body in the
end: Submit with every fiber of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep nothing back.
Nothing that you have not given away will ever really be yours.
" Nothing that has not died will ever be raised from the dead.
" Look for yourself, and you will find, in the long run, only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage and
decay.
"But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else will be thrown in."
- Pax
What is God Like?
Well, first of all, what if there is no __?
Secondly, if there is __, then what is __ like?
And thirdly, if __ is, then how do I interpret ___'s meaning for me?
One who asserts that there is no God would conclude that there is no force "out there"
that has an interest in the outcome of our being and we should act in all we do in our
own interest to have happiness and success in life. Such a person may also say that it
is presumptuous and egocentric to even consider that there is some force that has an
interest in our personal outcome. That person might say that there is some primordial
force that controls the universe but it is purely a natural phenomenon not based on
what we call reason and is without interest in outcomes. The human species is simply
one of the myriads of biological organisms that happen to thrive and evolve on this
planet over many millions of years. That which we call our thought process, intelligence
and emotion is only chemical and neurological synaptic activity related to evolving
reproductive functions of the species. When an organism dies, then that organism
specimen is simply over.
To that assertion, my question is this:
What is it that we call the "primordial force and natural phenomenon” and does this
proceed with purpose? And if so, to what purpose? For example, for what purpose is the
great energy within the small atom so strong that could level a mountain. For what
purpose is the great energy of a black hole that consumes even light? For what purpose
has the incredibly powerful DNA molecule evolved? None?
If there is no purpose, then that which we call natural phenomenon creates out of
chaos. If we say there is purpose, then whose purpose? What purpose? These are
unanswerable questions.
That which we call __ has many names. __ would have to be that mysterious cosmic
force that keeps the "worlds in their orbits", that creates all that is, that knows and
watches and is active in all that is. That which we call __ would have to be beyond
our physical nature. __ would have to exist beyond time, space, and mass and yet,
would be within it. __ would be in not only what we can feel and touch, but also within
our thoughts and emotions. __ would be physical and spiritual beyond what we know.
__ would be neither male nor female, yet both and neither. In awe and reverence,
the ancient Hebrews had no name theywould call __ nor would they apply a pronoun
to __. I believe they may well have understood better than we __'s awful nature.
If ___ really watches us all, how can __ keep track of all of the goings on and thoughts
of all of the people who have lived from the beginning of time and of the 5 billion people
alive today? Of that, St. Augustineremarks, "__, who cares for every one of us, as if you
care for him only; and so for all, as if they were but one!"
How do I interpret __?
How do I know __?
There are two ways. The first is by what I can conjure up in the inward being and the
second is by what information is given to me. The Bible says that we cannot by our own
reason or effort believe there is __, but it is by working of __ that we believe. Because
belief is of the mind does not mean that its existence is less real than, for example, a rock
that we can hold in our hand. Because belief is of __, it may well have substance as real
as anything that we can scientifically examine.
It is interesting to me that the biblical story that relates how being was created out of
chaos is in the myths and lore of diverse cultures throughout the world's history.
The story of __ and creation exists in the cultures of China, of Mesopotamia, India, the
Norse, ancient Greek, Inuit, Native American, and Mayan cultures. The stories are told
differently, but the theme remains the same.
I believe the story of God is complete in the action of one we call the Christ, and recorded
in history. The Apostle Paul concludes at the end of his letter to the Romans that Christ is
the culmination of history. He not only explains but acts out how we fit together with this
thing we call .
Can it be possible that Jesus and __ are one as he said? It is only my finite reasoning that
gives me my doubts. "Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is a child of God."
I John 5: 01
On Community
The following are comments and reflections based Romans 12: 9 - 13 and adapted from
William Barclay’s devotional book, The Letter to the Romans, first published by the Saint
Andrews Press, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1955 and later by The Westminster Press, Philadelphia.
Barclay was Lecturer in New Testament and Hellenistic Greek, University of Glasgow, Scotland.
Passages
"As a pebble dropped in a nearby brook or faraway sea
Creates a little ripple in the water for a moment;
Like a wildflower blossoms on a nearby glade
or faraway Mountain
and blows in the wind for a while;
We are a small bit of history unfolding . . .
We serve in some small way for a time for a few.
A cup of water, the binding of another's wounds,
A kind word, a story of hope:
This is our treasure and this is our joy.
This is surely the path to which we are called."
Reflection Based on Romans 12: 9 - 13
Larry Cowan, 1992
We are the family of God supporting one another in every way. A central theme
of Paul's Letter to the Romans is his immense love for the Jewish people and of
their heritage and of his anguish over their rejection of Jesus; and yet of how he
rejoices over the many people, who because of their rejection, come to believe
and the Gospel is spread. Paul writes that we are all one- - Jew and Romans alike
- - and the rest of us as well; and from where we come and who we are doesn't
matter. Paul writes of community.
Romans: 12: 9 -13 (RSV)
"Your love must be completely sincere. Hate that which is evil and love that
which is good. Be affectionate to one another in brotherly love. Give to each
other priority in honor. Do not be sluggish in zeal. Keep your spirit to the
boiling point. Seize your opportunities.
Rejoice in hope. Meet tribulation with triumphant fortitude. Be persevering
in prayer. Share what you have to help the needs of God's dedicated people.
Be eager to give hospitality."
Commentary:
1. Your love must be completely sincere.
Our love must be an altruistic love, meaning charitable, benevolent, humane, and caring
with no hypocrisy, no play-acting, and no ulterior motive. Jesus sought no control or
power over others in his love and caring. But, Oh, how again and again we carry our own
one-sided agenda when we display how we care. Our discussions with others may be used
to manipulate and to build our own power and position. We accuse of duplicity, perhaps
publicly, those who don't see our way. This is not love. Barclay points out that there are
many who display affection with “one eye on the gain that may result”. He says there is
such a thing as selfish love, whose aim is to get far more than it is to give. The Christian
love is a love that is clean of self - it is a pure outgoing of the heart to others. Perhaps
Jesus had an advantage. It's hard for us to know the thoughts of another - of the dreams
and troubles, the sins and how others care; but Jesus knows our hearts each minute of the
day. Let us be more like Jesus and listen when He admonishes us to love one another.
2. Hate that which is evil and love that which is good.
The devil is at work seeking whom he can devour - in the world and even in the Church.
This is an issue not to be taken lightly.
According to Barclay, Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), often considered the greatest social
philosopher of Victorian England, we need to see the infinite beauty of holiness and the
infinite damnability of sin. A person is not safe when his/her life consists of prudent
avoidance of evil and calculated adherence to that which is good. He must hate evil
and love goodness. Of one thing we must be clear- what many people hate is not evil,
but the consequence of evil. No person is a really good when he is good simply because
he fears the consequence of being bad. Not to fear the consequence of dishonor, but to
love honor with a passionate love is the way to real goodness.
3. Be affectionate to one another in brotherly love.
The Greek word used here means family love. Let me be clear on this as well. We must
love one another because we are one family. We are not strangers to one another within
the Christian church; much less are we isolated units; we are brothers and sisters of each
other, because we have the same father, even God. The Christian church is not a collection
of acquaintances; it is not even a gathering of friends; it is the family of God.
4. Give to each other priority in honor.
Problems oftentimes arise because recognition or thanks has not been given to someone
and the person feels slighted and neglected. Perhaps someone is given more prominence
or recognition and trouble brews. The mark of the truly Christian person however is always
humility. Barclay relates a story of Principal Cairnes (apparently of Glasgow)- - whom he
says is one of the humblest of men and a great saint and scholar. The story is told that
he was a member of a platform party at a great gathering and as he appeared on the
platform, there was a great burst of applause. Cairnes stepped back and let the next man
pass, and began to applaud himself. He never dreamed that the applause was for him.
Indeed. Give each other priority in honor.
5. Do not be sluggish in zeal.
Barclay writes there is intensity in the Christian life. There is no room for lethargy. It is
always a choice between life and death- - life is short and is a preparation ground for eternity.
The Christian may burn out but cannot rust out.
6. Keep your spirit to the boiling point.
The one person that the risen Christ could not stand was the man who was neither hot nor cold.
Today, people are apt to look askance at enthusiasm; the modern battle cry is, "I couldn't care
less." The Christian is desperately in earnest and therefore aflame for Christ. Barclay wrote of
this back in 1955. Are our attitudes toward enthusiasm for the risen Christ any different today?
Are we hot or cold?
7. Seize your opportunities.
The Greek text here can be taken two ways - "Serve the Lord" or "Serve the time," that is, grasp
your opportunities. Barclay felt it is likely Paul is calling to us "seize our opportunities as they come."
Life presents us with all kinds of opportunities - to learn something new; to cut out something old
or wrong; to speak a word of encouragement or of warning; to help or to comfort. One of the
tragedies of life is that we fail to grasp these opportunities when they come. "There are three things
which come not back - the spent arrow, the spoken word, and the lost opportunity."
8. Rejoice in hope.
Barclay writes that when Alexander the Great was setting out on one of his Eastern campaigns, he
distributed all kinds of gifts to his friends. In his generosity he had given away nearly all of his
possessions. "Sir," said one of his friends, "You will have nothing left for yourself." "Oh, yes I have,"
said Alexander, "I have still my hopes." I'm sure that Czar Alexander gave out of his abundance;
but what of the widow whom Jesus speaks of who gave out of poverty? The point of this passage
is not the giving or the gift; but that the Christian must have hope; that is, be essentially an optimist.
As followers of Jesus, we are certain that "the best is yet to be." Our hope is in knowledge that God's
grace is sufficient for all things and that strength is made perfect in weakness. There can never be
such thing as a hopeless Christian.
We have this hope together and the joy of fellowship - and even having fun together is the serious
business of practicing love for one another, even as Christ has commanded. Whether in sharing
that joy or in experiencing each other's sorrow, our role is to promoteconnectedness: Let us grow
in love for one another; for we are, in fact, members of the eternal community called the family
of God. That's a long time to have friends! Rejoice in hope - - Our hope is in the resurrection!
9. Meet tribulation with triumphant fortitude.
When beset by sorrow and tears, when tragedy looms, when struck by implacable forces, how can
one say that there is hope or any cause for joy? Many of the people at Rometo whom Paul writes
in the Book of Romans were to be tortured and sacrificed in the years to come for Jesus' sake.
Jesus, the Very Son of God, suffered terribly in taking on not only the physical pains of the cross
which culminated in his death but also the spiritual anguish of acknowledging and taking on our sin.
"Thy rebuke has broken his heart." Let us remember the sufferings of Jesus: And let us not forget
how He loves us so. From Isaiah 51 we read, " A broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart I will not
despise;" and from the Book of Revelation, "I will wipe the tears from their eyes." Can we say then
that this is only a foolish hope? Paul uses the words 'triumphant fortitude' meaning to go forward as, in
fact, the victorious! As Christians, we have Jesus at our side (and to carry us) to meet tribulation with
triumphant fortitude. We can in prayer lay our sins and sorrows on Jesus and he will lift us up far
higher than we can imagine. William Cowper, the English poet and hymn writer, explained it as follows:
"Set free from present sorrow,
We cheerfully can say,
'Even let the unknown tomorrow
Bring with it what it may,
It can bring with it nothing
But He will bear us through'"
More recently, we remember the familiar anonymous poem "Footprints," in which the question is asked,
"where were you, Jesus, when I needed you?" And He answers, "There was only one set footprints on
the sand because it was I who was carrying you."
10. Be persevering in prayer.
Barclay reminds us that there are times in life when we let day add itself to day and week-to-week,
and we never speak to God. When you or I cease to pray, we strip ourselves of the strength of the
Almighty God. Barclay uses the word despoil here. The dictionary gives the meaning of this word:
to ravage, denude, and to lay waste as by plundering or destroying!
11. Share what you have to help the needs of God's dedicated people.
We are to share with those in need. Back in 1955 Barclay wrote that, “We have become a world
bent on getting. Look magazine and the new television set we bought told us to buy that new
Sears refrigerator, nylon stockings, a Chevrolet car and to smoke Camel cigarettes.” Life was
good for those in the middle class. Today, it's grown to where we're inundated with an unlimited
array of consumer products. For example, in the U.S. there's no food item produced anywhere
across the face of this earth that is not readily available within a ten minute drive. We have even
become no longer worshipers but consumers in our church and in our relationship with God. With
the incredible resources for communication and information, do we not see the needs around us?
Do we understand that all we have is a gift of God?
During Holy Week of 1964, Dean J. W. Mathews of Westminster Presbyterian Church of Minneapolis
gave a homily on "The Principle of the Cruciform." I was so struck by the message I could not help
but to take notes. His sermon was from the 10th chapter of St. John where Jesus states, "Therefore
doth the Father love me, because I lay down my life. No one takes it from me. I lay it down of my
own free will." Dean Matthews then asked (and asks of you and me today), "Why, then are you and
I here?"
He concluded, "The absurd body of Christ, the church, expends their death on behalf of mankind.
The church exists only when it offers its death on behalf of the world and lives on the brink, the edge
of their life. They throw their death into the breach of history. They exist as they conform to the
'Principle of the Cruciform.'" Then following Jesus' example, we share our means and more . . .
We share our life and offer our death to any in need.
12. Be eager to give hospitality.
Over and over the New Testament insists on this duty to give hospitality. William Tyndale (1495-1536),
Bible translator and martyr, used a magnificent word: He translated it that the Christian should have a
"harborous" disposition. Christianity is the religion of the open hand, the open heart, and the open door.
The End is Praise:
In passages 16: 25 - 27, Paul concludes his message to the Christians of Rome:
"Now to him who is able to make you stand firm, in the way that the gospel I preached
promises and the messages Jesus brought offers, in the way which is now unveiled in
that secret, which was for long ages wrapped in silence, but which is now full-disclosed,
and made known to all the Gentiles - as the writings of the prophets said it would be,
and as the command of God now orders it to be - that they might render to him a
submission born of faith, to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be glory Forever.
Amen"
Commentary on Romans 16: 25 - 27:
1. The gospel makes persons to be able to stand erect and to stand firm, to be decisive, to be
able go into battle for the message that Jesus brought - and against the shocks of the world and
the assaults of temptation. Here Paul sounds out the gospel that he preached and loved.
The gospel is God's power unto salvation; it is that power which keeps a person safe, which makes
him and her able to meet life erect, even when life is at its worst and its most threatening.
2. The gospel that Paul preached was offered by Jesus Christ. That is to say, the gospel takes its
source in Christ, and is transmitted by people. Without Christ, there is no gospel.
3. It is a gospel that is the consummation of history. It is something that was there from all ages
and which at the coming of Christ was revealed to the world. His coming was the hinge of history.
It is the event to which all history was working up; and it is the event from which all subsequent
history draws. It is a plain fact that at the coming of Christ, the world could never be the same
again - it cannot be disregarded.
Reflection Questions:
In what ways are the people of Romein the
days of Paul's letter similar to us today?
What different things did they need to endure?
How did they affirm their faith?
In what ways are our affirmations different?
How do we stand up in terms of the marks of the Christian?
How do we as a congregation and I as an individual in our relationships
with one another and to God measure up in?
Loving honestly?
Intensity for loving goodness and hating evil?
Connectedness, brotherly affection?
Rejoicing in the hope of resurrection?
Facing difficulty and sorrows?
Giving honor and having humility?
Fire for the Lord?
fervency in prayer?
Unconditional service and giving?
On Resurrection
- What are the implications of the fact of resurrection on my daily life?
- What are the implications of the fact of resurrection on my future plans and goals in life?
- With some understanding of scriptural fact of resurrection as a background, how should
I view my death and the death of those whom I love?
- What are the implications of righteousness in resurrection?
- How should I view my role in the life of the desolate and forsaken as regards the resurrection?
- How do I feel about the resurrection as regards being dead, stone cold dead and rotting in the
grave or burned in an incinerator?
Lazarus! Come Out!
The section underlined in the middle of the next column on this page was underlined
in my Bible some years ago by my daughter Jennifer and she wrote in the margin,
"POWERFUL - - WOW." The part that reads, "Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection
and the life; he who believed in me, though he die, yet shall he live,"is mine also.
It is my confirmation verse from 1954 and I, too, have treasured these verses.
The verse is from the story of Lazarus whom Jesus brought back from the dead.
The story from the Gospel of St. John 11: 17 - 53:
"Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four
days. Bethanywas near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews had
come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. When Martha
heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him, while Mary sat in the house.
Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
And even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you."
Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."
Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me,
though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall
never die. Do you believe this?
She said to him, " Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, he
who is coming into the world."
When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying quietly, The Teacher
is here and is calling for you." And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him.
Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had
met him. When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise
quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep
there.
Then Mary, when she came where Jesus was and saw him, fell at his feet, saying to him,
"Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." When Jesus saw her
weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he wasdeeply moved in spirit
and troubled; and he said, "Where have you laid him?"
They said, " Lord, come and see."
Jesus wept.
So the Jews said, "See how he loved him!"
But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept
this man from dying?"
Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb; it was a cave, and a stone lay upon it.
Jesus said, "Take away the stone."
Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, "Lord, by this time there will be an odor,
for he has been dead four days."
Jesus said to her, " Did I not tell you that if you would believe you would see the
glory of God?" So they took away the stone.
And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, "Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.
I knew that thou hearest me always, but I have said this on account of the people
standing by, that they may believe that thou didst send me." When he had said this,
he cried out with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out."
The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with bandages, and his face wrapped
with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go."
Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and saw what he did, believed
in him; but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what he had done.
So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council, and said, "What are we to
do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on thus, everyone will believe
in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation. But
one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing
at all; you do not understand that it is expedient for you that one man should die for the
people, and that the whole nation should not perish." He did not say this of his own accord,
but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation, and not
for the nation only, but to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.
So from that day on they took counsel how to put him to death. "
Death: A Big Deal
Charles Lutz, Editor of the Metro Lutheran, Minneapolis, wrote an article in that newspaper
of April 1996 that he titled, Death: A Big Deal. I reprint it here because we tend to forget
and have so many ideas of what it means to die and of what the "hereafter" perhaps is like.
Scripture, on the other hand, is very specific in its meaning of death and the hereafter.
Lutz writes, "Death is at the center of what it means to be human. It, along with birth, is
the one experience that every human being has. And Death is central to the biblical story.
"Christians take death and dying seriously. We teach and believe that death is real. As we
are reminded every Ash Wednesday, "You are dust and to dust you shall return."
"Christianity doesn't toy with the idea that some part of me will never die (Immortality is a
pagan concept). When I die, all of me am dead. Thus, our creeds don't talk about the
soul's immortality; they speak about resurrection - - of the body, meaning, of course,
the whole person. Flesh and spirit together will be resurrected.
"Jesus, our Lord, didn't just fall asleep for a few days. His followers testified that he died -
- truly died. And God raised him up.
"It is the same reality that God has in mind for us. We aren't told how God does it. But we
do know that there is a new life to come, with God. Contrary to popular opinion, we won't
become bodiless spirits. Nor will we be angels. The bible indicates that our new life will
include materiality: we will be flesh again.
"So death is a big deal for believers. It's an important word in the Christian vocabulary,
but it's not the last word. The last word is that death - - humankind's final enemy - -
has been forever defeated by the life, death and resurrection of our Lord. Thanks be to
God who gives us the victory!" - Charles P. Lutz.
Biblical References to the Resurrection
The Gospel of St. Matthew 22: 23- 33
The same day Sadducees came to him who say that there is no resurrection; and
they asked him a question, saying, "Teacher, Moses said, 'If a man dies, having no
children, his brother must marry the widow, and raise up children for his brother.'
Now there were seven brothers among us; the first married and died, and having no
children left his wife to his brother, so too the second and third, down to the seventh.
After all of them, the woman died. In the resurrection, therefore, to which of the
seven will she be wife? For they all had her?"
But Jesus answered them, "You are wrong, because you know neither the scriptures
nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in
marriage, but are like the angels in heaven. And as for the resurrection of the dead,
have you not read what was said to you by God, 'I am the God of Abraham, and the
God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not God of the dead, but of the living."
And when the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching.
The Gospel of St. Matthew 27: 51-54
And behold the curtain in the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom, and the earth
shook, and the rocks were split, and the tombs also were opened, and many bodies of
the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his
resurrectionthey went into the holy city and appeared to many. When the centurion
and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what
took place, they were filed with awe and said, "Truly this was the Son of God!"
The Gospel of St. Luke 14: 12-14
He said also to the man who had invited him, "When you give a dinner or a banquet,
do not invite your friends or your brothers or your kinsmen or rich neighbors, lest they
also invite you in return, and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the
poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they
cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just."
The Gospel of St. Luke 20: 34-38
And Jesus said to them, "The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage; but
those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection of the
dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. For they cannot die any more, because
they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. But that
the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls
the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is not
the God of the dead, but of the living; for all live to him."
The Gospel of St. John 11: 21-27
Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. And
even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you."
Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."
Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me,
though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.
Do you believe this?
She said to him, " Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, he who
is coming into the world."
Acts of the Apostles 17: 16- 34
Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within
him as he saw that the city was full of idols. So he argued in the synagogue with the
Jews and the devout persons, and in the market place every day with those who
chanced to be there. Some also of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers met him.
And some said, "What would this babbler say?" Others said, "He seems to be a
preacher of some foreign divinities" - because he preached Jesus and the
resurrection. And they took hold of him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying,
"May we know what this new teaching is which you present? For you bring some
strange things to our ears: we wish to know therefore what these things mean."
Now all of the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time at
nothing except telling or hearing something new.
So Paul, standing in the middle of the Areopagus, said, "Men of Athens, I
perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along,
and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an alter with this i
nscription, 'To an unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown,
this I proclaim to you. The God, who made the world and everything in it,
being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in a shrine made by man, nor
is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself
gives to all men life and breath and everything. And he made from one every
nation of men to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted
periods and the boundaries of their habitation, that they should seek God, in the
hope that they might feel after him and find him. Yet he is not far from each one
of us, for 'In him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your
poets have said, ' For we are indeed his offspring.'
Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the Deity is like
gold, or silver, or stone, a representation by the art and imagination of
man. The time of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all men
everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the
world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has
given assurance to all men by raising him from the dead.
Now when they heard of the resurrectionof the dead, some mocked; but others
said, "We will hear you again about this." So Paul went out from among them.
But some men joined him and believed, among them were Dionysius the
Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.
Acts of the Apostles 23: 1-11
And Paul, looking intently at the council, said, "Brethren, I have lived before God i
n all good conscience up to this day." And the high priest Ananias commanded
those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth. Then Paul said to him,
"God shall strike you, you whitewashed wall! Are you sitting to judge me according
to the law, and yet contrary to the law you order me to be struck?" Those who
stood by said, "Would you revile God's high priest?" And Paul said, "I did not know,
brethren, that he was the high priest; for it is written, you shall not speak evil of a
ruler of your people.
But when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he
cried out in the council, "I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees; with respect to the hope
and the resurrectionof the dead I am on trial." And when he had said this, a
dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees; and the assembly was
divided. For the Sadducees say there is no resurrection, nor angels, nor spirit, but
the Pharisees acknowledge them all. Then a great clamor arose; and some of the
scribes of the Pharisees' party stood up and contended, "We find nothing wrong
with this man. What if a spirit or an angel spoke to him?" And when the dissension
became violent, the tribune, afraid that they would tear Paul in pieces, commanded
the soldiers to go down and take him by force from among them and bring him into
the barracks.
The following night the Lord stood by him and said, "Take courage, for as you have
testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must bear witness also at Rome."
Acts of the Apostles 24: 10-23
[The high priest Ananias has brought Paul before the Governor Felix with accusations
that he is an agitator among the Jews and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes
and that he even tried to profane the temple. See Acts 23: 1-11 above.]
And when the governor had motioned to him to speak, Paul replied, "Realizing that
for many years you have been judge over this nation, I cheerfully make my defense.
As you may ascertain, it is not more than twelve days since I went up to worship at
Jerusalem; and they did not find me disputing with anyone or stirring up a crowd,
either in the temple or in the synagogues, or in the city. Neither can they prove to
you what they now bring up against me. But this I admit to you, that according to
the Way, which they call a sect, I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything
laid down by the law or written in the prophets, having a hope in God which these
themselves accept, that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust.
So I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward God and toward man.
Now after some years I came to bring to my nation Alms and offerings. As I was doing
this, they found me purified in the temple, without any crowd or tumult. But some Jews
from Asia - they ought to be here before you to make an accusation, if they have anything
against me. Or else let these men themselves say what wrongdoings they found when I
stood before the council, except this one thing which I cried out while standing among them,
'With respect to the resurrectionof the dead, I am on trial before you this day.'"
But Felix, having a rather accurate knowledge of the Way, put them off, saying, "When Lysias
the tribune comes down, I will decide your case." Then he gave orders to the centurion that
he should be kept in custody but should have some liberty, and that none of his friends should
be prevented from attending to his needs.
Paul's Letter to the Romans 6: 5-11
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with
him in a resurrectionlike his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that
our sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For he
who has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall
also live with him. For we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again;
death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died he died to sin, once for all,
but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and
alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Paul's 1st Letter to the Corinthians 15: 12-19
Now if Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is
no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has
not been raised; if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your
faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God
that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if
the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised,
your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep
in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most
to be pitied.
Paul's Letter to the Philippians 8: 3-11
Indeed I count everything as a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ
Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse,
in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own,
based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that
depends on faith; that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share
his suffering, becoming like him in his death, that if possible I may attain the resurrection
of the dead.
Paul's 2nd Letter to Timothy 2: 14-19
Remind them of this, and charge them before the Lord to avoid disputing about words,
which do no good, but only ruins the hearers. Do your best to present yourselves before
God as one approved, a workman who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the
word of truth. Avoid such godless chatter, for it will lead people into more and more
ungodliness, and their talk will eat its way like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus
and Philetus, who have swerved from the truth by holding that the resurrection is past
already. They are upsetting the faith of some. But God's firm foundation stands, bearing
this seal: The Lord knows those who are his," and, "Let everyone who names the name
of the Lord depart from iniquity.
Paul's Letter to the Hebrews 6: 1-4
Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrines of Christ and go on to maturity, not
laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,
with instruction about ablutions, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the
dead, and eternal judgments. And this we will do if God permits. For it is impossible
to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, who have
tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have
tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they
then commit apostasy, since they crucify the Son of God on their own account and hold
him up to contempt.
Revelations to John 20: 4-6
Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom judgment was committed.
Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony to Jesus and
for the word of God, and who had not worshipped the beast or its image and had not
received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life, and reigned with
Christ a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until a thousand years
were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who shares in the first
resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God
and of Christ, and they shall reign with him a thousand years.
Commentary on The Resurrection
The span of life is as short as a ripple on a pond and we betterbe sure we get around to
helping one another out. It doesn't get any more serious that this.
It's a lot scary to think that upon death I am totally dead and have no contact with the
outside and I even have no thought or spirit. Jesus says that if I believe and am baptized,
I will be saved and God will one day at the resurrection raise me to everlasting life.
That day may possibly be thousands of years from now and I won't even be waiting for
the resurrection because I'll be dead. I will be one day be brought back alive and have
my body raised from the ashes. It will be totally God's doing and I must put my entire
trust in God to do it. It'll be like I am suspended and trusting upon entry (that is, when I
die) that God will press the button to bring me back. Scriptures say that I will no longer
be subject to death.
What are the implications of this? Well, I better make sure that those around me whom
I love and even those whom I dislike are aware of the need to repent and to believe and l
earn of Jesus so that they will not be left out or be lost. Part of their coming to salvation
is on my head and on the heads of all believers to pray, to talk about salvation, and to
lead godly lives, and to bring the lost to salvation. It's really important.
1. Jesus discusses the resurrection in absolute terms - - the question of its fact isn't
even an issue.
2. We in our life and in our death are to emulate Jesus in a death like his - following the
concept of the Cruciform.
3. There will be a resurrection of the just and the unjust.
4. The just who are dead will all sleep in God's care until the day of the resurrection.
5. The just will be equal to the angels - not like them but equal to them.
6. The just will be rewarded for their acts of mercy and for sharing with the poor and
disenfranchised.
7. Death will be conquered at the resurrection and there will be no death - ever again.
8. We shall be raised in bodily form - complete with mind, body and spirit.
9. There will no marriages in the resurrection.
10. There shall be two resurrections. The first shall be when Jesus returns and the
martyrs shall be raised to rule on the earth for 1000 years. The second resurrection
shall be after a time when God has loosed the devil and many calamities shall occur
and the faithful shall be persecuted and martyred. At the end, the devil shall be put
down and all of the saints shall be raised to live eternally with God and giving glory
to Jesus who died for our sin.
11. The elemental doctrines of Christ are repentance from dead works and of faith
toward God, baptism, the laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead, and
eternal judgments. Of these there should be no debate and we should move on to maturity.
12. The early Church did not keep these doctrines and stories of the events of Jesus and
the resurrection to within their own group, but preached and discussed and debated them
with any who would hear or who happened by; from the market places and streets to the
synagogues and temple, even to the Areopagus of Athens.
Read the First Letter of Peter
Sing, "I Am The Bread of Life"
Song #702 From With One Voice, Augsburg-Fortress Press
A Poem
As a pebble dropped in a nearby brook or faraway sea,
Creates its little ripple for a moment;
Like a wildflower blossoms on a nearby glade or faraway
mountain,
And blows in the wind for a while,
Each of us is a small bit of history unfolding . . .
We serve in some small way for a time for a few.
A cup of water, the binding of another’s wounds,
A kind word, a story of hope;
This is our treasure, this is our joy.
This is surely the example of Christ, our Lord.
"Passages" Based on Romans 12:9-13
Larry Cowan, 1992
Biblical references to life
into his nostrils the breath of l.; Gen 2.07
to guard the way to the tree of l. Gen 3.24
I have set before you l. and death, Deu 30.19
now, O Lord, take away my l.: 1Kin 19.04
"Remember that my l. is a breath; Job 7.07
Lord is the stronghold of my l.: Ps 27.01
For with thee is the fountain of l.; Ps 36.09
O Lord, what the measure of l. is Ps 89.27
give me l., O Lord, according to thy Ps 119.107
The wage of the righteous leads to l. Pro 10.16
The fear of the Lord prolongs l. Pro 10.27
A gentle tongue is a tree of l. Pro 15.04
The fear of the Lord leads to l. Pro 19.23
during the few days of their l. Ecc 2.03
In my vain l. I have seen everything; Ecc 7.15
All these is the l. of my spirit. Is 36.16
you found new l. for your strength, Is 57.10
Their l. shall be like a watered Jer 31.12
O Lord, thou hast redeemed my l. Lam 3.58
awake, some to everlasting l. Dan 12. 02
do not be anxious about your l. Mt 6.25
He who finds his l. will lose it, Mt 10.39
deed must I do, to have eternal l.? Mt 19.16
was l., and the l. was the light of men. Jn 1.04
said to them, "I am the bread of l.; Jn 6.35
It is the spirit that gives l. Jn 6.63
You have the words of eternal l.; Jn 6.68
lays down his l. for the sheep. Jn 10.11
"I am the resurrection and the l. Jn 11.25
the way, the truth, and the l.; Jn 14.06
lay down his l. for his friends. Jn 15.13
And this is eternal l., that they know Jn 17.03
and killed the Author of l. Ac 13.15
to eternal l. through Jesus Christ. Rom 5.21
but the l. he lives he lives to God Rom 6.10
sanctification and its end, eternal l. Rom 6.22
the spirit of l. in Christ Jesus Rom 6.08
one leads the l. which the Lord has 1Cor 7.17
does not come to l. unless it dies. 1Cor 15.36
kills, but the Spirit gives l. 2Cor 3.06
mortal may be swallowed up by l. 2Cor 5.04
and the l. I now live in the flesh Gal 2.20
whose names are in the book of l. Php 4.03
When Christ who is our l. appears, Col 3.04
consider the outcome of their l. Heb 13.07
the crown of l. which God has Jas 1.02
By his good l. let him show his Jas 3.13
hands, concerning the word of l. - 1Jn 1.01
He who has the Son has l.; 1Jn 5.12
grant to eat the tree of l.. Rev 2.07
Reference to Eternity
also he has put e. into man's mind, Ecc 3.11
References to Eternal
the blessings of the e. mountains, Gen 49.26
The e. God is your dwelling place, Deu 33.27
feet to be thrown into the e. fire. Mt 18.08
deed must I do, to have e. life?" Mt 19.16
but the righteous into e. life." Mt 25.46
you into the e. habitations. Lk 16.09
should not perish but have e. life. Jn 3.16
of water welling up to e. life; Jn 4.14
You have the words of eternal l.; Jn 6.68
and I give them e. life, and they Jn 10.28
And this is the e. life, that they know Jn 17.03
his e. power and deity, has been Rom 1.30
gift of God is e, life in Christ Rom 6.23
for us an e. weight of glory beyond 1Cor 4.17
the things that are unseen are e. 2Cor 4.18
made with hands, e. in the heavens. 2Cor 5.01
according to the e. purpose which Eph 3.11
us and gave us e. comfort and good 1Th 2.16
hold of the e. life which you 1Ti 6.12
become heirs in hope of e. life. Tit 3.07
the source of e. salvation to all Heb 3.09
by the blood of the e. covenant, Heb 13.20
undergoing a punishment of e. fire. Jud 7
with an e. gospel to proclaim to Rev 14.06
On Being a Volunteer
The Prospect fpr me of Volunteering?
What prevents one from being a volunteer?
"If I get started now, then they'll want everything."
"They'll be calling me all the time."
Troubles at home and unable to expend the mental energy
Feeling not good enough
Shy and can't talk and seem foolish
The many overwhelming commitments of life
Traveling team hockey
Having to interrelate with some persons other that from within my group ˆ
Working day and night
All of the family chores and dealing with the children,
and driving them everywhere, and going to their games
and programs and on and on to a never-ending day.
Is this what's troubling you, Bucko?
How to be a volunteer
- Make volunteering part of your life.
- Assess your goals in life not only for the long term future but for tomorrow
and for the coming week and maybe it needs to be in your list of priorities.
ˆ Talk to someone who volunteers.
ˆ Seek a little counsel.
ˆ Accept a small challenge to start.
ˆ Most don't volunteer forthrightly - - they help out only if asked.
Why? It's possible that they don't want to appear bold or perhaps they want to be
sure that someone will appreciate it first.
Part of the benefit of being asked is the feeling that someone thinks that I am worth
something and have an ability.
Benefits of volunteering
Meet some new folks
Get to use something you're talented at.
Get to learn a new talent.
Grow in ability to interact with others.
Get a chance to have someone appreciate you.
Possibly develop long term and fast friends.
Volunteering in Service to the Lord
On Tuesday this week a volunteer called and asked me to write something on why
I volunteer. I guess the main reason that people volunteer is that the thing they
volunteer in is something they believe in and they want to help out and
be part of it. You perhaps could say that it fulfills part of a personal destiny. I don't
think it's related so much to the need to socialize or to get recognition - - Such
volunteers are often short lived. But if you truly believe in the work, you'll likely
volunteer for life.
The way I see it, the ultimate volunteer was our Lord Jesus who took our sins upon himself
and died on our behalf, redeeming us from death to eternal life in the resurrection.
In the 10th chapter of St. John, Jesus states (RSV),
"Therefore doth the Father love me,
because I lay down my life.
No one takes it from me.
I lay it down of my own free will."
Now that's a volunteer.
Some years ago I attended a noon Holy Week service at Westminster Presbyterian
Church of Minneapolis and Dean J. W. Mathews spoke on "The Principle of the Cruciform."
He spoke of following Jesus and said, "The absurd body of Christ, the church, expends
their death on behalf of mankind. The church exists only when it offers its death on
behalf of the world and lives on the brink, the edge of their life. They throw their
death into the breach of history. They exist as they conform to the "Principle of the
Cruciform." With that, I should do a little volunteering? My goodness, Jesus wants
my life - - my all!
And so we should do what we can to fulfill the work that is the Lord's. I have no special
place as a volunteer; but let us work and not grow weary, as the harvest is great!
In Matt. 9: 35-37 (RSV), Jesus speaks of the harvest: "And Jesus went about all the
cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of
the kingdom, and healing every disease and every infirmity. When he saw the
crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and were
helpless, like a sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, "The
harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the
harvest to send out laborers into the harvest."
How should I conduct myself? A poem I wrote some time ago reflects my thoughts on
where I (and we) fit in:
"As a pebble dropped in a nearby brook or faraway sea,
Creates its little ripple in the water for a moment,
Like a wildflower blossoms on a nearby glade or faraway mountain,
And blows in the wind for a while,
Each of us is a small bit of history unfolding . .
We serve in some small way for a time for a few.
A cup of water, the binding of another’s wounds,
A kind word, a story of hope;
This is our treasure, this is our joy.
This is surely the example of Christ, our Lord."
"Passages" by L. R. Cowan, 1992
Reflections on Community
based on Romans 12:9-13
What are some of the things I have done to volunteer at church?
I am amazed to think that I have taught Sunday School for over twenty-five years
including one-year teaching deaf children.
I served as Sunday School superintendent for 3 years.
I served 4 years as chairperson of the School Board at Gethsemane School where my children went to
school. We worked hard and accomplished many difficult tasks during a time of transition for our school
when we split from Walther School Association.
I served as Chairperson of the Stewardship Committee at our church for two years
and successfully completed our tasks. under my leadership, we took the intensive approach
of having home "cottage" meetings.
I served 2 years as chairperson of the Interpersonal Ministries Committee at our church and
successfully completed our tasks. Although I was reluctant to proceed with this initially, we
had a very good year and a good time.
I was one of about three volunteers who painted the gym and put the stripes on. I also
painted the 12 ft large "hornet" that's seen on the wall.
I also helped with painting the walls in the school hallways for the renovation and other
service tasks.
I served Boy Scouts as assistant scoutmaster for 2 years and then as scoutmaster for 2 years.
I'm proud that we got four boys through Eagle Scout rank.
I have supervised a number of Boy Scout service projects and served as merit badge counselor
for several of the academic merit badges (The non-fun ones like citizenship and communications!)
I sing in the sanctuary choir.
On Prayer
1. Paul, The Apostle
Romans: 12: 9 -13 The Christian Life in Everyday Action.
We are the family of God supporting one another in every way. Writing to the
church at Rome, Paul expresses an immense love for the Jewish people. In a
paradox he anguishes over their rejection of Jesus, and yet rejoices over the
many people, who because of their rejection, come to believe and the Gospel is
spread.
Paul exclaims his strong conviction that we are all one - - Jew and Roman - - and
the rest of us as well; and from where we come doesn't matter. Paul points to
prayer as an integral part of that life in community with believers and in fellowship
with Christ Jesus.
Paul writes: "Your love must be completely sincere. Hate
that which is evil and love that which is good. Be affectionate to one another
in brotherly love. Give to each other priority in honor. Do not be sluggish in
zeal. Keep your spirit to the boiling point. Seize your opportunities. Rejoice
in hope. Meet tribulation with triumphant fortitude. Be persevering in
prayer. Share what you have to help the needs of God's dedicated people. Be
eager to give hospitality."
2. William Barclay
Barclay, lecturer in New Testament and Hellenistic Greek, University of Glasgow
reflects on the above Romans text, "Be persevering in prayer,"in his book, The Letter
to the Romans (1955):
"Is it not the case that there are times in life when we let day add itself to day
and week to week, and when we never speak to God? When you or I cease to
pray, we strip ourselves of the strength of Almighty God." Barclay uses the
word despoil here, with the meaning of ravage, denude, and to lay waste as
by plundering or destroying!
3. Saint Monnica
Saint Monnica, born 331, was mother of Augustine of Hippo. Saint Augustine tells her
story and she is remembered in the church on May 4th each year as a model for her r
elentless prayers and the unceasing tears that she shed.
Her son, Augustine, held to pagan religious beliefs and Monnica almost despaired of
seeing him shed these spiritual deceptions for the truth of Christ. The church said he
was lost and unteacheable but Monnica's prayers and her tears never stopped.
Whenever she is spoken of, her weeping is remembered. Augustine is called "the son
of these tears."
Monnica is an example to us of the passion, fervor, and tenacity of her prayers for her
children. Augustine would later write, "O Good Omnipotent Lord, who cares for every
one of us, as if you care for him only; and so for all, as if they were but one!" The
truth and passion of God's love was surely communicated to Augustine through the
unwavering love of a mother who would not let him go.
Perhaps, too, she should be called the patron saint of all who have unbelieving family
members. Her husband and her son, those closest to her, did not see what she saw.
But she held them close to her in prayer and witnessed the power of God opening their
eyes. Monnica symbolizes for us all the power of prayer.
4. Brother Lawrence, Order of the Carmelites of Dechausses
From the writings of a monastery cook in 17th Century France: "Brother Lawrence -
- His Conversations and Letters on the Practice of the Presence of God".
In his ninth letter (Concerning Wandering Thoughts in Prayer),
Brother Lawrence writes:
"My Reverend and Greatly Honored Mother:
"You tell me nothing new; you are not the only one that is troubled with wandering
thoughts. Our mind is extremely roving; but as the will is the mistress of all our
faculties, she must recall them and carry them to God as their last end.
"When the mind, for lack of discipline when we first engage in devotion, has contracted
certain bad habits of wandering and dissipation, such habits are difficult to overcome,
and commonly draw us, even against our wills, to things of the earth.
"I believe one remedy for this is to confess our faults and to humble ourselves before
God. I do not advise you to use multiplicity of words in prayer, many words and long
discourses being often the occasion of wandering. Hold yourself in prayer before God
like a poor, dumb, paralytic beggar at the rich man's gate. Let be your business to keep
your mind in the presence of the Lord. If it sometimes wanders and withdraws itself
from Him, do not much disquiet yourself for that: Trouble and disquiet serves rather
to distract the mind than to recall it; the will must bring it back to tranquility. If you
persevere with your whole strength, God will have pity on you.
"One way to recall the mind easily in the time of prayer, and preserve it more in tranquility,
is not to let it wander too far at other
times. You should keep it
strictly in the Presence of God; and being accustomed to thinking of Him
often, you will find it easy to keep your mind calm in the time of prayer, or at
least to recall it from its wanderings.
"I have told you already at large, in my former letters, of the advantage we may
draw from this practice of the Presence of
God. Let us set about it
seriously, and pray for one another. Yours, ________"
5. C. S. Lewis, Cambridge University
From the Prologue to his biography, Through the Shadow
lands:
Lewis writes, "Give yourself up, and you will find your real self. Lose life and you
will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favorite wishes every
day, and death of your whole body in the end: Submit with every fiber of your
being, and you will find eternal life. Keep nothing back. Nothing that you have
not given away will ever really be yours. "Nothing that has not died will ever
be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find, in the long run, only
hatred, loneliness, despair, rage and decay. But look for Christ [in prayer] and you
will find Him, and with Him everything else will be thrown in."
1. And whatever you ask in p., Mt 21.22
2. For your p. is heard, and your wife Lk 1.13
3. Yourselves to p. and the ministry Ac 6.04
4. You may devote yourselves to p. 1Cor 7.05
5. With all p. and supplication Eph 6.18
6. Consecrated by the word of God and p. 1Ti 4.05
7. The p. of the righteous man has great Jas 5.16
8. The breaking of bread and the p. Ac 2.42
9. Keep sane and sober for your p. 1Pe 4.07
10. That are the p. of the saints; Rev 5.08
On Worship
What is it that we mean when we say that we worship God and how is it expressed
within a community setting?
Worship is many things: It can involve so-called praying in the spirit, of offering praise
to God and of offering prayer for life and of repentance. It can contain experiences of
faith and of doubt, of turning from God and giving up to God. It can be an expression of
our faith statement and creed; and of singing songs of joy and of grief. It is hearing the
Gospel and of its meaning in our lives. It can be quietness of mind and spirit.
Worship can be formal as in the Mass or informal as in a gathering around a campfire
sharing testimonies and contemplating the wonder of God. Worship can emphasize the
events of Christ's life in seasonal services or emphasize specific themes of the Bible or
experiences of life.
What does it mean when one prefers a particular style of worship? Does it have something
to do with a need to express a certain way, to have that expression recognized by others,
to find deep answers to personal need? Perhaps preference in worship form is used to hide
some emotion. I would guess it has something to do with all of these things and more.
Robert Bellah, in his essay The Dynamics of Worship * states that, “Worship, if we define
it as a human activity, is an attempt to relate to the sacred or holy and that it tries to
break through the straight or profane world of every day pragmatic common sense.
It is a departure from the plane of the mundane, a departure that often rouses a sense
of the uncanny, of the presence of the mysterium tremendum.”
Bellah continues by making a simple but profoundly important observation: “Unless
there is a link between the religious symbols making up the worship ceremony and
the particular past and present of the worshipers, then the worship process cannot
begin. Indeed, the more deeply the symbols do grasp the real problems and conflicts
of the worshipers the more powerful the subsequent experience can be. But what
happens in worship is the transformation of the personal into the transpersonal, the
immediate into the transtemporal. Through the transformation the immediate
problems and conflicts can be seen in a new light, insight can be achieved, and post
worship changes can ensue.
“Worship, to be maximally effective, must provide not only a symbolic reordering of
experience but an element of consummation and fulfillment. The experience of worship
should produce an influx of life and power, a feeling of wholeness, of the grace of God,
of being at the still center of the turning wheel.
If worship doesn't ‘work’ it may not be because it is 'irrelevant',” Bellah points out.
“Worship involves a partial regression from the normal defensive ego-functioning
so that there is a greater openness to both inner and outer reality. But it is
precisely this regression and openness that may be seen as dangerous and
threatening to the ego" [so that he cannot let down his defenses enough to
participate meaningfully in the act of worship].
Meaning in contemporary worship
The continuum of corporate worship runs from the solemnly contrived liturgical service
to the unstructured and deliberately spontaneous. Examples of each may be a solemn
High Mass of the Catholic church or even the common Lutheran liturgies to the Friends
Meetings of the Pennsylvania Dutch or even the gathering of college youth in a coffee
house for the purpose of communion and communication.
Bellah observes that in the deliberately spontaneous worship there is a participation
that doesn't exist in the formal service. He also points out, however, that the spontaneity
even of the informal service is "partial and flickering." He states that much of what
happens, as in a conventional service, is a performance put on by a few people for an
audience of non-participators.
Bellah concludes with a few observations.
1. One of the things the service tries to do is to draw the participant through the usual
cognitive frameworks and put things in a new perspective.
2. The conventional service today lacks authenticity because it has no surprises;
it is not a point at which the world of every day is broken through but only a
particularly cozy corner of it.
3. The deliberately spontaneous service has elements of exhibitionism and of
deliberate shock in mixing what is familiar in one group and deliberately mixing
it with traditional religion. A danger of mixing what is familiar with forms of the
traditional is that the kick may come not from discovering something genuinely
new oneself but from appearing avant garde to others.
Our Worship experience
It seems at the surface we are a rather homogeneous community and that our needs
for worship expression are not extraordinary. We are mostly a suburban middle class
folk: We are mostly employed; we have families with growing children; most of us
have bills and money is tight. We have hopes and aspirations that draw us to our church:
We seek answers and consolation.
Our worship is expressed in a variety of settings. While we are used to the worship
texts of our tradition, we often look to other more contemporary settings for variation
and novelty to keep the worship experiences fresh. This is expressed also in the variety
of music forms we use.
As we reflect on these concerns regarding worship form, there are two questions for
which we must continue to find answers. These are:
1. How well do the religious symbols which make up the worship ceremony link with
our particular past and present and
2. Do these symbols grasp the real problems and conflicts of the worshipers?
In a particular worship setting, indeed, the symbols are meaningful for many, perhaps
even profoundly so. But for others the liturgies and symbols are not part of their experience.
To the degree that these differences are not resolved, the worship experience is not
contemporary and meaningful to all.
Conclusion
I reflect that worship doesn't begin in the sanctuary at all - -
It begins with the sorrows and joys of life that turn us to God.
It begins with stories like little Timmy who did something his family thought was
impossible - - He didn't die from his disease as was expected but turned age six.
He turned six with the help of the national organ donor program and the skilled
hands of the transplant team. And it begins with a call in the night to tell you
that your son and daughter-in-law were killed in a car crash on an icy road.
It begins in the maternity ward when you call your parents to say that the twins are
born and they are healthy. It begins when you are told that you have cancer and
may live three months. It begins when you are struck by the plight of families
starving in far off nations, of people killed by senseless strife.
I remember the day President Kennedy was shot. I was preparing to go to my next
class at the University when I heard. First there was the news; then the dirges on
all the radio and TV media; then people, it seemed by instinct, gravitated into their
houses of worship. Yes, worship begins with the sorrows and joys of life that turn
us to God. Thank God for the Holy Scriptures that show us the way!
* Essay, The Dynamics of Worship, in Beyond Belief, Robert N. Bellah, University
of California Press, Berkeley, Calif., 1991, PP 209 - 215 Bellah is Professor of Sociology
and Religion at UCLA and has studied the issues of socialization and religion for many
years. I was first introduced to his work at the St. Paul - Minneapolis Joint Synod
Convention at Gustavus Collegea few years back when he spoke on his book
Habits of the Heart.
** Essay, It Doesn't Go Far Enough, ibid. P 195
On The Sanctity of Life
Only God is Holy
There is none like God who creates and takes away, who molds the worlds and
us in it like a potter's vessel, who strengthens us in the ironwright's furnace and
who dashes us to pieces. It is God alone who is perfect in love and in mercy.
Our sanctity is that we are created of God and redeemed. Read the Book of Job
and Psalms 145.
To Preserve Life
To care for our environment, for the animals in the field, for the chain of life,
for our own life and that of our neighbor is our domain.
To Give Life
To be born, to plant, to expect the future, to anticipate life, to forgive and be
forgiven; this is what we are blessed with.
To Offer Life
The only life we have that we can offer is our own and we may offer it for many
things. As organ donor, as blood donor, to our country in war, as a replacement
for another, in the work we do for the hungry and homeless, to offer sanctuary,
to be a sanctuary, to go into difficult situations for another and even to give our
own life for another. We have no right to offer another's life for our own.
"I lay down my life for my sheep."
To Take Life
Only God gives and takes life and we have no role in determining the length of
another's life. Even to end another's life in what seems to be an act of mercy
is to play the role of God. The issue then is not whether the taking of another's
life is right or wrong or whether it is moral or not - - The issue is whether or not
it is a sin against God.
Euthanasia
If the taking of another's life is done with permission and without malice; if a person
is in unbearable physical or mental pain and is helpless or close to the end of life, is it
good or is it evil to end such a person's life? God has created this life - Is it ours to
take it from him? If we take such a person's life, it should be done on the pleading
of the person so wishing to die and with trembling and with tears for it is a sin for
which we need to plead in the arms of Jesus for mercy and for release. Do we then
willfully sin so that we may be forgiven? The apostle Paul discusses this and he
responds with a strong no.
War
Should we take another's life in war to protect our Nation or another Nation? This is
surely a sign of the sinfulness of mankind and we need to plead for God's mercy.
Capital Punishment
Should we take another's life without their consent? Even if the taking of another's life is
without malice, it is a sin. It is the sin of murder. But Jesus says that even if we hate
another, we have committed murder in our hearts and it is a sin. Is the one sin greater
than the other? Is it a sin because it is an act of evil against one's neighbor and against
God? It is sin because it is a turning away from God and disobedience. That is the sin
and there is no sin that is worse than another. They are all terrible evils of supreme
consequence because they alienate us from God.
Murder
The sin is not that another has died but that by a deliberate action and malice at one's
hand the poor soul has died. To cause the death of another even in one's heart is the
same sin. Jesus says that to hate or to wish evil on another is the sin of murder.
Abortion
Should we willfully end the life of a fetus? Is it a sin to end the life of a fetus if you
know that the child will be born into poverty and neglect? Is it a sin to end the life
of a fetus if you know that you, the mother, will be subject to abuse, neglect or
compounded poverty, or that you will have little chance for a good marriage or even
a chance at life? Is it a sin to end the life of a fetus if it seems clear that the child
would be deformed or unable to thrive? Is it a sin to end the life of a fetus because
the child was conceived from rape, incest or other non-consensual intercourse and
the child thus considered unclean? To willfully take another's life so that yours may
be better or even that you will keep your life and not die is a sin. This is surely a sin.
If it were my wife or daughter whose life was in known jeopardy because of her
pregnancy, I would think that I would wish to give my life in place of either life
that may be lost. In the end, I would opt to end the pregnancy to save her life
- - the more so if done during the early pregnancy. I would have difficulty saying
that I would opt to "abort the fetus" as these are uncomfortable words.
A late term suction extraction? I would rather that the child be born, given a name
and be baptized, and allowed to die comfortably and be mourned than to be treated so.
If the intercourse was forced or was unwanted; was the result of a variety of distasteful
events including rape and incest, and if the pregnancy is normal; I don't know what I
would want except that I would surely want the mother to have the best caring counsel
she can get. And then make her decision.
Our Role in Outreach
We are called as individuals to search out our answers to each of these issues.
Ø We are called to seek God's Word and to pray earnestly as we come to our own
personal conclusions.
Ø The church is called to reach out with a visible role in providing comfort, healing,
support, resource and sanctuary.
On The Servant Church
The call to be a servant
Throughout the book of Hebrews, the author details for us the nature of the high priest
to offer sacrifice on our behalf and explains how Jesus fulfills the role of High Priest
culminating in God's own sacrifice for us - the Son of God. To shed light further on this,
the author compares Jesus sacrificial authority to the one who was perhaps the greatest
High Priest of the Old Testament: Melchizedec, who served during the time of Abraham.
Specifically, I wish to open up chapter 6, verses 1 -12 where the author, well versed in
Hebrew Scripture, wonderfully explains to us how the doctrines of Christ are our
foundation and that we are to be resolute in our faith; not rehashing these issues but
how we are to move on to accomplish the ministry to which we are called. The author
addresses the elemental doctrines of Christ and concludes that our job is not to debate
them but to learn them, hold them in our heart and move forward. That is our call.
The text reads:
Heb. 6: 1 - 12 (RSV)
Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrines of Christ and go on to maturity, not
laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and faith toward God, with
instruction about [baptism] the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and
eternal judgments. And this we will do if God permits.
For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been
enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have been partakers of the
Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of
the age to come, if they then commit apostasy, since they crucify the Son of
God on their own account and hold him up to contempt. For the land that has drunk
the rain that often falls upon it, and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose
sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles,
it is worthless and near to being cursed; its end is to be burned.
Though we speak thus, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things that
belong to salvation. For God is not so unjust as to overlook your work and love which
you showed for his sake in serving the saints, as you still do. And we desire each one
of you to show the same earnestness in realizing the full assurance of hope until the
end, so that you might not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and
patience inherit the promises.
Wow! What a challenge.
The author makes four points in this text.
1. The challenge to go on to maturity
2. To leave those who have been partakers of God's mercy but now have contempt for
Jesus.
3. To understand that God sees your work, your love and your service for the saints.
4. And to not be sluggish but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit
the promises.
What then should be our work?
In Scripture, we read that the just will be rewarded for their acts of mercy and for
sharing with the poor and disenfranchised. The motivation for such acts is purity
in love for Jesus and not at all for the reward. Consider some exemplary persons
such as Mother Teresa of the slums of Calcuttaand Mary Jo Copeland of The Sharing
and Caring Hands Mission of Minneapolis. Consider Jesus who showed us how to be
a true disciple by washing the feet of his disciples.
What a fantastic Engine!
If you've read any Thomas The Tank Engine books to your children, you know how
there are different kinds of trains that do different things. Some little engines huff
and puff struggling to do their job while streamliners flash right along by. Well, my
perception is that while we're not a streamliner, we're an engine that's chugging
busily right up the hill.
For starters, if you've been around Gethsemane for a bit, you'll see the so many folks
who, by their actions and concerns and prayers, share what the Lord means to them.
What a blessing - folks who have concerns for the needy and those who suffer, for
the work of the church, for prayer, for Christian family, and even for joy and for
having fun together. This is surely a community of Christ's church.
A question one might ask is, "What is the Coal that feeds this engine of ours?" No,
it's not our offerings and financial support. The coal that feeds our engine is God alone,
the Holy Spirit who works in our lives.
We at Gethsemane look to Jesus in our sense of mission and of need to serve one
another and those in need. This is shown by the actions and words of many.
Have you seen it?
Romans: 12: 9 -13 (RSV)
". . .Your love must be completely sincere. Hate that which is evil and love that which
is good. Be affectionate to one another in brotherly love. Give to each other priority in honor.
Do not be sluggish in zeal. Keep your spirit to the boiling point. Seize your opportunities.
Rejoice in hope. Meet tribulation with triumphant fortitude. Be persevering in prayer.
Share what you have to help the needs of God's dedicated people. Be eager to give
hospitality."
Some Bible passages to look up
Ex 30: 11-16 and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel
De 15: 7-11 If there is a poor man of your brethren, within any of the gates in
your land which the lord your God is given you, you shall not harden your heart
nor shut your hand from your poor brother, but you shall open your hand wide
to him and willingly lend him sufficient for his need, whatever his needs.
I Samuel 2: 06-08 The lord makes poor and makes rich;
Job 5: 8 - 16 So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts her mouth.
Job 29: 16 I was a father to the poor
Psalms 34:6 This poor man cried
Psalms 40: 17 As for me, I am poor and needy
Psalms 41:01 Blessed is he who considers the poor
Proverbs 19: 01 Better is the poor man who walks with his
Isaiah. 11:04 righteousness he shall judge the poor
Is. 25:04 hast been a stronghold to the poor
Jer 22: 16 the cause of the poor and needy
Amos 2: 07 the head of the poor into the dust
Amos 8 :04 and bring the poor of the land to an
Matt 5:03 "Blessed are the poor in spirit,
Matt 11:05 and the poor have good news preached
Matt 19: 21 your possessions and give to the poor,
Matt 26:11 For you always have the poor with you,
Luke 4: 18 me to preach good news to the poor
Luke 19:08 half of my goods I give to the poor
Rom. 15: 26 contributions for the poor among the
2 Cor 6:10 s poor, yet making many rich
2 Cor 8: 09 yet for your sake he became poor,
Rev 13: 16 both rich and poor, both free and
On Baptism
I was baptized into the death of Christ Jesus on June 9, 1940 when I was just a
month old. Before I was born, my sisters Shirley, age 3 1/2; and Betty, 8 mos.;
and brother Wayne, age 5; died in their childhood each at different times. I never
knew them but they, too, were baptized into Christ Jesus and I am confidant that
they are with Him in Glory.
Does Baptism save? I believe that when a child is baptized, that in the act of
baptism we invoke God's Spirit to dwell in the child and, indeed, God comes to
the child. The act of offering the child is ours, but that the Lord dwells with the
child is surely an act of God. Does God's Spirit come to us only in baptism?
By no means. God calls everyone to himself.
On The Presence of Angels
Notes: There are more than thirty references in the old and new testaments
to angels and their work. Are You There?
Are you present in the night watching over me?
Do you watch over Nancy as she sleeps?
Is Noah or Hannah your assignment for life?
Do you keep Jennifer and Mark and Jeff and LeAnn safe?
Do you watch over me to intercept the troubles I might encounter?
Presence: The way in which or the quality by which a person outwardly manifests
his/her personality
Gifts: Something freely given to one person to another for their benefit or pleasure.
When Jennifer was a little girl and we were living on Driftwood Lane in Stillwater,
her bedroom was on the lower level and that's were she said that an angel was
sitting at the foot of her bed watching over her.
On Hands for Ministry and Healing
(A work in progress)
INTRODUCTION
In Paul's letter to the Hebrews, chapter 6, the laying on of hands is one of six basic
tenants of the Christian life and to the mature Christian it is not an issue about which
one should spend time debating. In the book of Acts, the laying on of hands was a
means whereby the recipient receives the Holy Spirit. The recipient may then speak
in tongues and prophesy. In Paul's letter to Timothy, Paul writes that Timothy
prophesy and to emphasize its role in the church.
I suggest that the issue of the laying on of hands has a position of low priority within
Lutheranism was not a controversial issue with Luther. Many churches embrace this
act far better than we for ministry - even the Roman Catholic to which Luther belonged.
- Scriptural and historic Examples with commentary
- Stories of how touch has healed. ·
- My Conclusions - its place in the community of followers, in the church setting and in the world
- Biblical references
- Questions to elicit essay responses of how healing hands touches or doesn't touch our lives.
Six Basic Truths of Christendom
The Apostle Paul, writing to the church at Jerusalem, has just explained how Jesus is the High
Priest after the order of Melchizedek - A concept people at the Jewish church at Jerusalem should
well understand. But he now admonishes them, saying,
"You have been Christians a long time now, and you ought to be teaching others, but
instead you have dropped back to the place where you need someone to teach you
all over again the very first principles in God's Word. You are like babies who can drink
only milk, not old enough for solid food. And when a person is still living on milk, it
shows he isn't very far along in his Christian life, and doesn't know much about the
difference between right and wrong [good vs. evil]. He is still a baby-Christian! You will
never be able to eat solid spiritual food and understand the deeper things of God's Word
until you become better Christians and learn right from wrong by practicing doing right."
(Hebrews 5: 12 - 14 Living Bible)
I use the Living Bible translation here because its contemporary text clearly brings
out this "slap in the face" for the Hebrews. Don't get me wrong - Paul is not admonishing
the Hebrews because he thinks they're ignorant or incompetent. No, he's really
angry with them because he knows they're much better than that (see v. 6: 9).
He knows they understand the messages from God's Word. His point to them is that
they must not doubt these words or debate them and thus be in jeopardy of turning
from God. They've got to get going - they've got work to do!
At the beginning of chapter 6, Paul continues with words to the Hebrews to which we
too must pay close attention. Those words to us are that there are certain truths
regarding the foundation of our Life in Christ about which we should have no question.
Let us not get hung up on them and let us not move away from them. Paul Continues,
"Let us stop going over the same ground again and again, always teaching those first
lessons about Christ. Let us go on to other things and become mature in our understanding,
as strong Christians ought to be. Surely we don't need to speak further of the foolishness
of trying to be saved by being good, or about the necessity of faith in God. You don't need
further instruction about baptism, the laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead
and eternal judgment. The Lord willing, we will go to other things."
(Heb. 6: 01 - 03 LB)
What a strong proclamation! So these six things are sure:
1: Our salvation is in Christ
and not by anything that we can do. The Latin phraseRes ipsa loquitur suggests that
because the facts are so obvious, Paul need explain no more!
2: Faith in God is essential.
Do you believe in God? Do you believe that he exists and that he is your personal
savior? Have you accepted him? Have you given over your life to him? Praise God,
Almighty!
3: Baptism.
Baptism is the giving up of the old self and being born again into the death of Christ.
Should we debate how Baptism is to be conducted and whether it should only for
those who are able to declare their faith or should we include even our children.
Baptism is not a declaration of our faith but a gift of God. Let us move on.
4: Laying on of Hands.
Now this is an item about which we as Lutherans are not very familiar. The laying
on of hands is a means whereby one receives the Holy Spirit. Perhaps it's because
laying on of hands gets a little personal and, with our staunch Lutheran theological
background, we’re standoffish on this one. And perhaps it's terrifying because it is
a life-changing event.
Let us remember that laying on of hands hasn't been a strong issue within the
Lutheran church. In all of his writings and sermons, the major portion of Martin
Luther's energy was taken up with the issue of justification and the concern to
correct the issue within the church and it is in regard to the issue of justification
that we as Lutherans are distinctive within the family of God's people.
5: Resurrection of the dead.
Wow. There is one thing from which we cannot escape and that of course is that
we are all destined to die. But we have a marvelous hope and our hope is in Christ.
Can you comprehend what it will be like? Can you believe it will happen? I guess
we generally go on with the concerns and activities of our lives without much thought
of that one-day when it will come to an end. But then we are confronted with a loved
spouse or friend who is diagnosed with a terminal cancer or even one of our children
is suddenly taken from us. Then, in our loss, it becomes clear and we have this hope.
Thanks be to God!
6: Eternal judgment.
God is holy. Let us not forget that. We shall be judged by whether we have loved or
by our works of selfishness and indifference. I love the story of Mother Teresa whose
order tends to the dying who would otherwise die alone. She says that her job is not
to reach all the sick and dying in the world because that is God's work and not hers.
To think it was her job would be a matter of building herself up, of inflating her
importance, and it would be a sin. Her job is only to reach her hands of healing to
the soul of each individual who comes to her - a few at a time in humility and in mercy.
Mother Teresa says that it by this that we will be judged and I believe her.
Damnation
Bible References:
Hands
Healing:
Sharing and Caring Hands Ministry, Minneapolis
Little Sisters of the Poor, Calcutta
Deut 34: 09 for Moses had laid his hand upon him
Mat. 19: 15 And he laid his hand upon them and went [Jesus laid his hand on the
children saying that of such is the Kingdom of God. This was a blessing of the children.
Acts 8: 18 Then they laid their hands upon them and they received the Holy Spirit
[The Spirit was given through the laying on of hands]
Acts 19: 06 He said to them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And
they said, "No, we have never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit."
And he said, "Into what then were you baptized?"
And they said, "Into John's baptism." .... On hearing this, they were baptized into the
name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hand upon them, the Holy Spirit
came on them; and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. There were about twelve
of them in all.
I Ti. 4: 14 the elders laid their hands upon you. [Timothy received spiritual gifts when
the elders laid their hands upon him]
I Tim. 5: 22 Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands [It is a serious thing and it is
to be done after some mental consideration] [The two text references in Timothy to
laying on of hands is in reference to the officers of the church and duties of minister.]
I Catch On Fire
August, 2008
Pastor José Antonio Machado, Interim Associate Pastor, Arlington Hills Lutheran Church
We use words like scarcity and fear / hope and abundance.
The Lord be with you. [And also with you]
Let us pray: Lord, how good and pleasant it is when brothers and sisters live together in
unity! It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on
Aaron's beard, down upon the collar of his robes. It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on
Mount Zion. For there the LORD bestows his blessing, even life forevermore. Psalm 133.
Lord, you call us to a work of justice. Keep us passionate in that work. Bring together all in
the circle so that common hopes are secure.
A commentary – Larry Cowan
Last Sunday we of Hope Church celebrated worship outdoors together with the people of
Arlington Hills Church and PastorJosé Machado made a comment about being on fire.
He pointed out that because of the message of the gospel that brings hope people of Asia
and Africa are catching on fire. The gospel points them to a way up to a new life and to a
promise for the future. It’s an incredible new model for people in the margins and it’s a bit
like a wildfire.
So what is this fire?
A reading from Romans 12: "Your love must be completely sincere. Hate that which is evil
and love that which is good. Be affectionate to one another in brotherly love. Give to each
other priority in honor. Do not be sluggish in zeal [but be on fire]. Seize your opportunities.
Rejoice in hope."
Since this text of from the book of Romans, I want to do a little mind game with the text like
Paul might so bear with me. There are three things that go together and each has an opposite.
The first is Hope –and its opposite is ______[despair].
The second point is the joy that comes out of having hope.
The opposite of joy is _________[anguish] and it comes out of despair.
The third thing is being on fire that comes out of the joy of having hope.
The opposite of being on fire is _________ [not being able to being lit]
and that’s because there is no joy because there is no hope.
It’s clear what a wonderful text this is about how we are called to live
together. The opposite is to live in isolation and fear and to be told there is not enough for me too.
So what does it mean to be on fire? Being on fire is not about jumping up and down –
It’s about having a passion, a resolve based on hope and then doing something about it,
it’s about being baptized into Christ’s death and finding new life – It’s perhaps going
further than you ever thought you could; It’s perhaps going the ultimate mile.
Helen Prejean, a sister of St. Joseph of Medaille lives in New Orleans and dedicates
her life to the poor. As any of you know, Sister Prejean wrote the novel “Dead Man
Walking,” based on her experiences with the death penalty. This is one of her poems:
I CATCH ON FIRE
Long black dress to my toes –
Flowing black sleeves and veil.
A walking bolt of black material.
Fourth grade religion class –
Teaching full force:
The Gospel according to . . .
Lit candle.
Fifty little eyes wide.
Twenty-five voices shout:
"Sister! Sister! You're on fire!"
Flames shooting. Hands beating.
Silence. Breathing.
Children, this teaches us always to be careful with fire.
Now, years later, when I catch on fire. Amen.
Perhaps God is a SPIDER
We lived just a block off the Mississippi River on the north edge of Minneapolis at 5230 North 3rd Street. The house isn't there any more - - Neither is the street. It's part of the interstate highway system and now hundreds of cars and trucks pass through that place each day busy with their own concerns and schedules. But back then the street was unpaved and quiet. The neighbors visited with friendly concern and children
played and ran about in the yards. Bed sheets and towels on the clotheslines flapped in the breeze and an occasional dog barked and chased after the children. In our back yard, there was a wild plum tree, a grape arbor with two swings, lots of irises, a rickety old screen house and a doghouse. Lilac bushes ran along both sides of the yard. The Lilacs on the south side were kept neatly trimmed and the ones on the north were let to grow tall. A large Box Elder tree shaded the porch in the front and,
in the back; a dirt alley ran behind the old garage.
It was the middleof July and the sun was warm in the still noon air and small
white clouds drifted across the bright sky. In the back yard, the Morning Glories
bloomed under the kitchen window and the grass was a little dry because it hadn't
rained for a while.
Mom was hanging out the clothes on the line and, by the door to the back porch;
I played in the dirt along the corner of the sidewalk. I had a few little rubber trucks
and a farm tractor. With my fingers, I made little roads in the dirt. The year was
1944 and I had just turned four years old in May. With a child's imagination, I could go
just about anywhere then.
First there was me and then there was my brother Billy. He was a year older than I
and we would play in the dirt and ride our trikes and run around the neighborhood and
have fun. Billy was my leader in playing with friends in the neighborhood and I followed
along. Billy was skinny and I was kind of chubby, I thought. Then there was my mom
and dad. It seems mom was always washing clothes in the basement or making dinner
in the kitchen.
I remember that dad was always working or busy with something. He'd work on the
car in the garage or trim the hedges in the yard or tend his vegetables in the garden
or talk to the neighbors. I remember relatives and my cousins would come over a lot
and he would talk and there was a lot of laughter. Mom laughed too and I liked that.
I had a lot of fun when my cousins came over. Mom was thirty-four and dad was
thirty-seven then. Dad was a waiter at the Jolly Miller and he took the streetcar to go to
work. I thought that my sister Mary Ann was a lot older than me and almost grown-up
at that time - - I guess she was ten. My brother Junior was thirteen and, it seems, he
was away most of the time with his friends. He went down to the river a lot.
It may have been that same summer that I remember riding my tricycle along the
sidewalk by the south side of the house. There were Peonies planted next to the
house and the buds were fun with ants crawling all around sucking up its nectar.
I liked to pick off the buds and watch them roll on the ground like marbles.
Mom would say, "Now, don't pick those buds!" Earlier in the spring, Box Elder bugs
by the hundreds, or maybe thousands, crawled around the siding of the house and
basked in the warmth of the sidewalk
I remember mom canning beans and peaches and baking bread. I remember the
"dough gobs'' that she would fry up on the stove and roll in sugar from the left-over
dough. We would run in from our playing and run out with these wonderful warm treats.
Out in the back yard, the sidewalk ran out to the garage and, just to the right, the grape
arbor grew up on two sturdy posts and across an arch. Two well used wooden swings
hung from the arch on strong ropes. Mom made grape jelly from the grapes of that vine
if she could get to the ripe grapes before the birds would eat them - - which was often
the case. And next to the grape arbor was the wild plum tree. Mom made plum Jelly,
too. And under the plum tree, our dog Pal sprawled out to rest in the shade.
His doghouse was in the Iris patches just up from the plum tree along the Lilac hedge.
One summer afternoon I took a nap in the doghouse. It may have been that same
year or possibly a year earlier in 1943. I guess mother was frantic. Everyone in the
neighborhood was out and the police were looking for me, too - - I guess I was
lost. Mom found me, though. As she walked past the doghouse she thought, "He can't
be in there,” but looked in anyway. There I was - - sleeping. I remember how
comfortable it was there in the doghouse. It had a screened back window that allowed
some circulation and had warm straw on the floor. With little spiders with their spider
webs in the corners, I remember that it was a nice place.
played and ran about in the yards. Bed sheets and towels on the clotheslines flapped in the breeze and an occasional dog barked and chased after the children. In our back yard, there was a wild plum tree, a grape arbor with two swings, lots of irises, a rickety old screen house and a doghouse. Lilac bushes ran along both sides of the yard. The Lilacs on the south side were kept neatly trimmed and the ones on the north were let to grow tall. A large Box Elder tree shaded the porch in the front and,
in the back; a dirt alley ran behind the old garage.
It was the middleof July and the sun was warm in the still noon air and small
white clouds drifted across the bright sky. In the back yard, the Morning Glories
bloomed under the kitchen window and the grass was a little dry because it hadn't
rained for a while.
Mom was hanging out the clothes on the line and, by the door to the back porch;
I played in the dirt along the corner of the sidewalk. I had a few little rubber trucks
and a farm tractor. With my fingers, I made little roads in the dirt. The year was
1944 and I had just turned four years old in May. With a child's imagination, I could go
just about anywhere then.
First there was me and then there was my brother Billy. He was a year older than I
and we would play in the dirt and ride our trikes and run around the neighborhood and
have fun. Billy was my leader in playing with friends in the neighborhood and I followed
along. Billy was skinny and I was kind of chubby, I thought. Then there was my mom
and dad. It seems mom was always washing clothes in the basement or making dinner
in the kitchen.
I remember that dad was always working or busy with something. He'd work on the
car in the garage or trim the hedges in the yard or tend his vegetables in the garden
or talk to the neighbors. I remember relatives and my cousins would come over a lot
and he would talk and there was a lot of laughter. Mom laughed too and I liked that.
I had a lot of fun when my cousins came over. Mom was thirty-four and dad was
thirty-seven then. Dad was a waiter at the Jolly Miller and he took the streetcar to go to
work. I thought that my sister Mary Ann was a lot older than me and almost grown-up
at that time - - I guess she was ten. My brother Junior was thirteen and, it seems, he
was away most of the time with his friends. He went down to the river a lot.
It may have been that same summer that I remember riding my tricycle along the
sidewalk by the south side of the house. There were Peonies planted next to the
house and the buds were fun with ants crawling all around sucking up its nectar.
I liked to pick off the buds and watch them roll on the ground like marbles.
Mom would say, "Now, don't pick those buds!" Earlier in the spring, Box Elder bugs
by the hundreds, or maybe thousands, crawled around the siding of the house and
basked in the warmth of the sidewalk
I remember mom canning beans and peaches and baking bread. I remember the
"dough gobs'' that she would fry up on the stove and roll in sugar from the left-over
dough. We would run in from our playing and run out with these wonderful warm treats.
Out in the back yard, the sidewalk ran out to the garage and, just to the right, the grape
arbor grew up on two sturdy posts and across an arch. Two well used wooden swings
hung from the arch on strong ropes. Mom made grape jelly from the grapes of that vine
if she could get to the ripe grapes before the birds would eat them - - which was often
the case. And next to the grape arbor was the wild plum tree. Mom made plum Jelly,
too. And under the plum tree, our dog Pal sprawled out to rest in the shade.
His doghouse was in the Iris patches just up from the plum tree along the Lilac hedge.
One summer afternoon I took a nap in the doghouse. It may have been that same
year or possibly a year earlier in 1943. I guess mother was frantic. Everyone in the
neighborhood was out and the police were looking for me, too - - I guess I was
lost. Mom found me, though. As she walked past the doghouse she thought, "He can't
be in there,” but looked in anyway. There I was - - sleeping. I remember how
comfortable it was there in the doghouse. It had a screened back window that allowed
some circulation and had warm straw on the floor. With little spiders with their spider
webs in the corners, I remember that it was a nice place.