BALANCE
“Maturing Christians must seek to hold both the mission of evangelism and the mission of compassion in balance in their lives. Most of us have the tendency to emphasize one of these commissions of Christ and neglect the other. Persons can become over zealous for evangelism or for some form of social action, thereby distorting the essential lifestyle to which Christ calls us. It is quite appropriate that some persons may be far more gifted and involved in one of these areas than the other, but they must strive to give their full endorsement and support to both areas. Every Christian, whatever his or her area of interest and gifts, however, is called both to overt acts of mercy and to be ready to give expression with gentleness and reverence to the faith that is in him.”
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—From “A Shared Adventure: The Dynamics of A Discipline Church,” by James R. Tozer; C.S.S. Publishing Company, 1984.
Volume 50, No. 2 of Monday Morning magazine, January 21, 1985
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BAPTISM
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Why give the call to one man, Abraham, when he was only going to father one son?
Why not make the covenant with the son?
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Because families are important! The context for that son was within the covenant of God.
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BAPTIZED (sermon)
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"YOU ARE MY BELOVED SON"
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[On the FESTIVAL OF THE BAPTISM OF OUR LORD (1/11/87), I preached a "narrative" sermon which elicited a lot of comment. I thought I would share with you an excerpted version of my attempt to deal with the issue of baptism, faith, and "the blessed hope of everlasting life."]
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The room was silent, save for the soft electronic click of the intravenous device. A small amount of light filtered in. How guiet it was. What a contrast from the bustle and commotion of the inten sive care unit. Robert was surrounded by silence and he felt very much alone, robert did not know what was happening to him. He knew he was very sick. He knew he could not speak. He did not seem to be able to move his legs but he could squeeze his hand and make a fist.
Is this what it was like to be near death? Robert thought it would be different. He thought there would be a lot of people gathered
around him, doctors and nurses, perhaps a visit from a smiling pastor. But that's not the way it had been at all. Oh, he wished
someone would come. But who? He couldn't expect Sarah to come. That's one thing about divorce...you can't expect a former wife who has suffered greatly because of your rejection to care whether you live or die. "She probably doesn't even know I'm sick," Robert thought. Now you might think a man with two children could expect presence of at least one of them at a time like this. But Barbara was out in California, struggling with the two small children, and Bob, well, he and Bob hadn't spoken in years.
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So this is the way it is. All the accomplishment of a lifetime and it comes down to being alone in a room, alone and immobile, alone
and mute. Why doesn't anyone come? His parents would have been there. They never let him down. When he played sports, they
watched. When he was just getting started they called and relished each success. And how they enjoyed his family! But they were
dead now. No one to say, "This is my son. This is my beloved son."
"This is my beloved son." Those words had not entered Robert's mind in years. What was that story? Weren't they the words that come from the cloud when Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan River? "This is my beloved son." The steady click, click of the intravenous machine broke the uncaring silence of his room. "This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. "Oh, to hear those words, to hear any words of love and compassion. "This is my beloved son..."
"I was baptized," Robert thought. "I was baptized in First Lutheran Church in Jamestown, New York, by two people who loved me
and loved each other and believed in God." The memories came flooding back to him: the Sunday School class in the church kitchen, the Penny Socials, those wonderful plates with pieces of cake, the stern old Swedish pastor who gave you a good feeling when he would speak to you. "Oh, if only Pastor Bergstrom could walk in this room and speak to me now!"
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"You have been baptized, Robert, and that means that you belong to the Lord. You are His precious child, and no matter what you do, nothing will ever change that." His mother had told him that, and he had always believed it. Oh, he had a pretty lousy track record as a Christian. He always meant to get back to church. Too bad. it would be nice to think there was a group of people somewhere thinking about him, praying for him, maybe even, yes, visiting him, bringing flowers. Oh, he could remember, as a child, going with his mother after church to deliver flowers. He felt a tear run down his face as he imagined how much color and joy a bouquet of flowers would bring to his sterile room.
"This is my beloved son." The words would not go away. His thoughts ran back to Confirmation Class...six boys and two timid
girls, meeting every Saturday morning with Pastor Bergstrom, reciting the memory work from the catechism. "This is most certainly
true! I believe that I cannot byt my own power or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord or come to him." Why do we remember these things? How is it that forty years later they remain? Is this what faith is all about?
"You are my beloved son - you have been baptized - you have been marked by the Cross of Christ forever." I suppose this is what it finally does come down to, Robert thought. We come into this world with nothing, we go out of this world with nothing. It really
doesn't matter what we've learned, or how much we've accomplished, or who we've known. All that matters is that we are known by God, named and counted by Him. What was that verse that Pastor Bergstrom had written in his confirmation Bible? Robert closed his eyes and he could picture that maroon Bible with the inscription: "He who believes and is baptized shall be saved." Mark 16: 16. "He who believes and is baptized shall be saved."
A quiet peace came over Robert. He did not feel alone anymore. Somehow he could sense around his bed the warm, affirming presence of Carl and Britta Johnson, his parents, and Pastor Bergstrom, and Astrid Nordsted, his Sunday School teacher in the church kitchen, and those seven kids in his Confirmation Class, and, yes, somehow he could even sense the presence of Sarah and Barbara and Bob, whom he had hurt and who had hurt him, but he knew he could now sincerely forgive them, and whether they would ever know it or not, he would love them with whatever strength remained within him.
"This is my beloved son." There was a smile on Robert's face, and a joy in his heart. He was not alone. He was held by the one who had called him from the beginning. And so, not in resignation, but in joyful assurance, Robert could say with St. Paul, "Whether I live or whether I die, it makes no difference, for I belong to the Lord." Amen.
Pastor Almquist, First Lutheran Church, Jamestown, NY
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BEGINNING - STEWARDSHIP
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The Art of Beginning
by Thomas C. Rieke*
Starting is something which is essential to Christian stewardship. Management, caretaking or trusteeship—call it what you will—everything about stewardship relates to action. And unless you begin, there will be no resulting action.
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Beginning is more than merely breaking the hold of inertia. For the steward it is the deliberate, active, positive step which can lead to all sorts of good results. It should be intentional and thoughtful. It is more than rolling downhill. There is an art to the start.
In personal experience and within the life of the church there is far too much of the spirit of the person who mounted a horse and rode off in all directions. The attitude expressed by the phrase—"just do something"— does not produce sound stewardship. In order to be faithful stewards we must begin somewhere and somehow. But the "where" and the "how" have a great deal to do with the kind of stewards we are and will become.
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To illustrate, let's begin at an unlikely point of beginning and consider the matter of introductions. Perhaps it is just the nature of my work that makes me sensitive at this point. But my experience may turn on some lights in yours. A frequent spot in which I find myself has me in front of a committee or other group in a church body. Usually there is a need of some sort relating to stewardship and finance which has brought me by invitation to this group. Almost every beginning goes like this: "We are happy to have ______________with us tonight and we will turn it over to him now."
There is no stating of the situation that brought us together nor a discovery of common ground. I find some folks in the group who do not know who I am nor what credentials I may have brought to this situation. Everything is taken for granted. Anything can happen. There are no goals stated and no guidelines set. We are just supposed to begin.
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And that is hard! I often find myself feeling as a farmer must who goes out to plow ground that is uncultivated and baked hard by the sun. Even scratching the surface is difficult, much less making a deep impression. How could all of this have been different and what would have made for a better beginning?
Put yourself in that spot and respond as you would feel about it. Would it not have been easier to start by getting acquainted with
each other, thus allowing someone to get to know you and share that information? Certainly a statement of the need that brought everyone together would be helpful, as would a thinking-through of the goals of the meeting. Setting a time frame for the meeting and indicating the procedures to be followed would provide perspective for everyone. And then a time of prayer would have laid the matter before God, seeking the mind of Christ for everyone present. What a way to begin!
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To Begin
Now move to consider other settings for beginnings. Sometimes a new group has been formed. A program or project is to be brought to life and initiated. A campaign is begun or a new task started. The possibilities are endless. We are always at the point of beginning something.
How and where is the steward to start? I believe a sound point of initiation is with a look over the shoulder at the past. Where have we been and what has brought us to this opportunity for newness? Everything we do is from the perspective of standing on the shoulders of others. In one sense there is really nothing new under the sun, nothing which does not depend on the past and upon others for its present initiation.
Now look at the present. What resources of history and people and ideas and money and possibility do you bring to this particular point of beginning? Consider what is already at hand that will contribute toward the success of this beginning. Lacking in some things you may be. But there will be an adequate supply for which to give thanks. Doing so, and the recognition which it brings, are essential for a good startup.
Finally, look toward the future. What is to be gained by this beginning? Where are you headed and how quickly? What constraints do you face and by what opportunities will these be defeated? How will you know when you have achieved the purposes for which you are now starting?
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Center All in God
Allow all of your beginnings to center in God and in the Word. Find a place to relate in the scriptures to other beginnings. From the orderliness of the initial creative process to the final chapter there are myriad beginnings to consider.
For the stewards the exercise of prayer is vital to starting right. We like to quote the injunction—"Except the Lord build a house, they labor in vain who build it" (Psalm 127:1)—but far too often we just begin, without God as a point of reference. Seeking divine
direction is not simply a pious exercise. It is the prudent practice of the steward all of whose works are to begin and end in God.
"Don't just do something, stand there" is a funny way of reversing conventional wisdom in order to make a point. But on second thought, that is not bad advice. Before doing anything, just stand there and consider how best to begin. Doing so will make all the difference in the world how the venture moves ahead.
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In the beginning. That is more than a nice phrase with which to begin the Biblical account. There is always a time of beginning. Will it be worth mentioning when the final chapter is written? It will if there are good stewards at work, making certain that the beginning is an adequate preparation for all that is to follow. Now we can put the phrase back in its proper order. "Don't just stand there, do something!"
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BEST - ENEMY OF THE GOOD
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FROM THE PASTOR'S DESK. . .
Recently I came across an intriguing statement "The good is the enemy of the best—and vice versa." I have been trying to see how this idea might apply to me and to this church.
It seems to me that the good is the enemy of the best when we are satisfied with the good and don't go onto try for the best. If I
say I have a good relationship with my wife, or I am doing a good job in my work—and I am satisfied, simply because it's not bad, then that goodness is the enemy of the better life I could lead, I think the same can be said of all my relationships, and can be applied to groups, such as church groups and the church as a whole as well.
But the best can also be the enemy of good, especially if we think of the best ideally instead of the best possible. I find that I get
discouraged and depressed when I try to look at perfection as a goal. I know perfection is impossible and I don’t try as hard to do the best I can do. So "The Best" (perfection) becomes the enemy of what I might do because it discourages me.
I believe that the statement can be helpful to us by making us aware that even the good and the best can be our enemies just as bad and evil can. We need to find ways to "fight" the good when it prevents us from doing better and to "fight" the "best" when it keeps us from doing more good.
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by David W. Abbott, Covenant Presbyterian Church, November 1981
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BETHLEHEM (poem)
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It isn’t far to Bethlehem
Where lies the new-born King;
It isn’t far to Bethlehem
Where holy Angels sing.
The Wise Men saw the guiding star
That led them where He lay;
The Shepherds heard the heavenly song
That brought the better day.
We, too, may go to Bethlehem
And find the Savior Child;
We, too, may hear the Angels sing
Their hymns of mercy mild.
Our hearts are God’s new Bethlehem
Where Christ is born anew—
It isn’t far to Bethlehem
If He is born in you!
by J. Harold Gwynne, honorably retired, Clearwater, Fla.
December 17, 1984 in Monday Morning, Vol. 49, No. 21
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BETRAYAL
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Betrayal
By R. DAVID STEELE
TUESDAY MORNING regular column
It was 8:30, so the fellows turned to me: “What shall we talk about today?" I replied, “Betrayal!”
This group in our church defies definition. In the bulletin, we call it the “Men’s Breakfast Group” for lack of a better moniker. Sometimes, it doesn’t even show up in the Annual Report, because it has no officers and, hence, no report writer.
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Basically, a group of men meet in a home at 8 a.m. for breakfast on a Saturday. At 8:30, they begin to talk about something or other. At 9:30, they quit and decide to meet again in two weeks. That’s it. If some Saturday the group does not decide to have another meeting, that’s OK, too.
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Every now and then, someone suggests that the group get organized: have officers, set up a schedule of meetings for the year, take on a church project, etc. It’s thumbs down every time. The gang refuses to become institutionalized. My job as pastor is to set the topic for discussion. The men will allow me up to five minutes to do so. Then, I am to get out of the way and let them go at it. They are never at a loss for words. I like the arrangement. Where else can you find a group of folk who are willing to explore, for an hour, a subject that interests you?
So, I said to them that day, “The subject is betrayal.” I explained that our Lent committee had been talking about Jesus and Judas. I was wondering to what extent we contemporary people have experienced betrayal. So, I asked them, “Have you ever felt betrayed? When?”
I HAD TO LEAP out of the way. The reaction was hot, heavy and animated. Yes, these men knew how it felt to be betrayed. No question about it. I guess I expected a conversation that would center around parents, children or spouses. That’s not what I got. Those folks leaped immediately to expose the betrayer that they believed impinged most diabolically upon their lives: the
corporation!
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Theirs was a remarkably common story. In their 20s and early 30s, they had signed up with the corporation. They had invested long hours, sacrificed their family life, given their talents to the company. They had anticipated that when they reached their 50s and 60s they would find themselves in a position of honor, respect and trust. But it had not turned out that way.
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Two of the men had moved into early retirement via executive buyout schemes. They felt demeaned. Others found company perks for long-timers dwindling. Instead of operating in a climate of honor and respect, these men believed they were tolerated at best. They felt betrayed.
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These men are all sharp and read The Wall Street Journal daily. They know why all this is happening. They understand the corporate world in the booming ’50s is not the same as in the belt-tightening ’80s. They understand the rules have changed, and why they have, but still they feel betrayed.
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“Lee” found the discussion fascinating. He’s Hispanic and Catholic and operates in a very different world from the rest of us. He heads a large Hispanic self-help group in the city. A few years ago, he stumbled into our group — sort of by accident. He likes it. “My regular contact with Anglos,” he says.
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Lee commented, “All day long I work with young Hispanics who feel they must operate in a world that does not respect or honor them. Now I hear you fellows at the heart of the establishment saying the same thing. Amazing!”
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’Twas rather an interesting comment — and intriguing. But most intriguing was Lee’s final thought, just as the meeting was breaking up: “Given your feelings, I could make revolutionaries of you fellows in half a day!”
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In Presbyterian Outlook
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BIBLE VERSE JOKES
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Margaret Cronyn, editor of The Michigan Catholic, wrote in her "Bit O’ Blarney” column about a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and
other places. She concluded the report by saying that one guide, tongue-in-cheek, "gave us a quiz on the Bible. We all flunked.”
Here are the guide’s questions and answers:
"When was baseball first mentioned in the Bible?” . . .
Old Testament: Genesis 1:1 "In the Big Inning" New Testament: “When the Prodigal Son ran home.”
“Was tennis mentioned?” . . .
"Sure, Joseph served in Pharoah’s court.”
"Best actor' in the Old Testament?” ...
“Sampson, he brought the house down.”
"Know why there was no card playing in the ark?” . . .
“Because Noah sat on the deck.”
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BLESSINGS
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"Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem and the cross, but along the way he took time to rest awhile, set a child on his knee, went to dinner with a sinner, etc."
Rev. Dr. Robert D. Young in his sermon "Along the Way to the Master Plan," 5/1/88
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BLOOPERS IN HISTORY
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The World According to Student Bloopers
Richard Lederer, St. Paul’s School
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(One of the fringe benefits of being an English or History teacher is receiving the occasional jewel of a student blooper in an essay. I have pasted together the following “history” of the world from certifiably genuine student bloopers collected by teachers
throughout the United States, from eighth grade through college level. Read carefully, and you will learn a lot.)
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The inhabitants of ancient Egypt were called mummies. They lived in the Sarah Dessert and traveled by Camelot. The climate of the Sarah is such that the inhabitants have to live elsewhere, so certain areas of the dessert are cultivated by irritation. The Egyp-
tians built the Pyramids in the shape of a huge triangular cube. The Pyramids are a range of mountains between France and Spain.
The Bible is full of interesting caricatures. In the first book of the Bible, Guinesses. Adam and Eve were created from an apple tree. One of their children, Cain, once asked, “Am I my brother’s son?” God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac on Mount Montezuma.
Jacob, son of Isaac, stole his brother’s birth mark.
Jacob was a patriarch who brought up his twelve sons to be patriarchs, but they did not take to it. One of Jacob's sons, Joseph, gave refuse to the Israelites. Pharaoh forced the Hebrew slaves to make bread without straw. Moses led them to the Red Sea, where they made unleavened bread, which is bread made without any ingredients. Afterwards, Moses went up on Mount Cyanide to get the ten commandments.
David was a Hebrew king skilled at playing the liar. He fought with the Philatelists, a race of people who lived in Biblical times. Solomon, one of David’s sons, had 500 wives and 500 porcupines.
Without the Greeks we wouldn’t have history. The Greeks invented three kinds of columns—Corinthian, Doric, and Ironic. They also had myths. A myth is a female moth. One myth says that the mother of Achilles dipped him in the River Stynx until he became intollerable. Achilles appears in The Iliad, by Homer. Homer also wrote The Oddity, in which Penelope was the last hardship that Ulysses endured on his journey. Actually, Homer was not written by Homer but by another man of that name.
Socrates was a famous Greek teacher who went around giving people advice. They killed him. Socrates died from an overdose of wedlock.
In the Olympic Games, Greeks ran races, jumped, hurled the biscuits, and threw the java. The reward to the victor was a coral wreath. The government of Athens was democratic because people took the law into their own hands. There were no wars in
Greece, as the mountains were so high that they couldn’t climb over to see what their neighbors were doing. When they fought with the Persians, the Greeks were outnumbered because the Persians had more men.
Eventually, the Ramons conquered the Geeks. History calls people Romans because they never stayed in one place for very long. At Roman banquets, the guests wore garlics in their hair. Julius Caesar extinguished himself on the battlefields of Gaul. The Ides of March murdered him because they thought he was going to be made king. Nero was a cruel tyranny who would torture his poor subjects by playing the fiddle to them.
Then came the Middle Ages. King Alfred conquered the Dames, King Arthur lived in the Age of Shivery, King Harold mustarded his troops before the Battle of Hastings, Joan of Arc was cannonized by Bernard Shaw, and victims of the Black Death grew boobs on their necks. Finally, Magna Carta provided that no free man should be hanged twice for the same offense.
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In midevil times most of the people were alliterate. The greatest writer of the time was Chaucer, who wrote many poems and verses and also wrote literature. Another tale tells of William Tell, who shot an arrow through an apple while standing on his son’s
head.
The Renaissance was an age in which more individuals felt the value of their human being. Martin Luther was nailed to the church door at Wittenberg for selling papal indulgences. He died a horrible death, being excommunicated by a bull. It was the painter Donatello’s interest in the female nude that made him the father of the Renaissance. It was an age of great inventions and discoveries. Gutenberg invented the Bible. Sir Walter Raleigh is a historical figure because he invented cigarettes. Another important invention was the circulation of blood. Sir Francis Drake circumcised the world with a 100-foot clipper.
The government of England was a limited mockery. Henry VIII found walking difficult because he had an abbess on his knee. Queen Elizabeth was the “Virgin Queen.” As a queen she was a success. When Elizabeth exposed herself before her troops, they all shouted, “hurrah.” Then her navy went out and defeated the Spanish Armadillo.
The greatest writer of the Renaissance was William Shakespear. Shakespear never made much money and is famous only because of his plays. He lived at Windsor with his merry wives, writing tragedies, comedies, and errors. In one of Shakespear’s famous plays, Hamlet rations out his situation by relieving himself in a long soliloquy. In another, Lady Macbeth tries to
convince Macbeth to kill the King by attacking his manhood. Romeo and Juliet are an example of a heroic couplet. Writing at the same time as Shakespear was Miguel Cervantes. He wrote Donkey Hote. The next great author was John Milton. Milton wrote
Paradise Lost. Then his wife died and he wrote Paradise Regained.
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During the Renaissance America began. Christopher Columbus was a great navigator who discovered America while cursing about the Atlantic. His ships were called the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Fe. Later, the Pilgrims crossed the Ocean, and this was
known as Pilgrims Progress. When they landed at Plymouth Rock, they were greeted by the Indians, who came down the hill rolling their war hoops before them. The Indian squabs carried porpoises on their back. Many of the Indian heroes were killed, along with their cabooses, which proved very fatal to them. The winter of 1620 was a hard one for the settlers. Many people died and many babies were born. Captain John Smith was responsible for all this.
One of the causes of the Revolutionary Wars was the English put tacks in their tea. Also, the colonists would send their parcels through the post without stamps. During the War, the Red Coats and Paul Revere was throwing balls over stone walls. The dogs
were barking and the peacocks crowing. Finally, the colonists won the War and no longer had to pay for taxis.
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Delegates from the original thirteen states formed the Contented Congress. Thomas Jefferson, a Virgin, and Benjamin Franklin were two singers of the Declaration of Independence. Franklin had gone to Boston carrying all his clothes in his pocket and a loaf of bread under each arm. He invented electricity by rubbing cats backwards and declared, “A horse divided against itself cannot stand.” Franklin died in 1790 and is still dead.
George Washington married Martha Curtis and in due time became the Father of Our Country. Then the Constitution of the United States was adopted to secure domestic hostility. Under the Constitution the people enjoyed the right to keep bare arms.
Abraham Lincoln became America’s greatest Precedent. Lincoln’s mother died in infancy, and he was born in a log cabin which he built with his own hands. When Lincoln was President, he wore only a tall silk hat. He said, “In onion there is strength.” Abraham Lincoln wrote the Gettysburg Address while traveling from Washington to Gettysburg on the back of an envelope. He also freed the slaves by signing the Emasculation Proclamation, and the Fourteenth Amendment gave the ex-Negroes citizenship. But the
Clue Clux Clan would torcher and lynch the ex-Negroes and other innocent victims. It claimed it represented law and odor. On the night of April 14, 1865, Lincoln went to the theater and got shot in his seat by one of the actors in a moving picture show. The
believed assinator was John Wilkes Booth, a supposingly insane actor. This ruined Booth’s career.
Meanwhile in Europe, the enlightenment was a reasonable time. Voltare invented electricity and also wrote a book called Candy. Gravity was invented by Isaac Walton. It is chiefly noticeable in the Autumn, when the apples are falling off the trees.
Bach was the most famous composer in the world, and so was Handel. Handel was half German, half Italian, and half English. He was very large. Bach died from 1750 to the present. Beethoven wrote music even though he was deaf. He was so deaf he wrote
loud music. He took long walks in the forest even when everyone was calling for him. Beethoven expired in 1827 and later died for this.
France was in a very serious state. The French Revolution was accomplished before it happened. The Marseillaise was the theme song of the French Revolution, and it catapulted into Napoleon. During the Napoleonic Wars, the crowned heads of Europe were
trembling in their shoes. Then the Spanish gorillas came down from the hills and nipped at Napoleon’s flanks. Napoleon became ill with bladder problems and was very tense and unrestrained. He wanted an heir to inherit his power, but since Josephine was a
baroness, she couldn’t bear children.
The sun never set on the British Empire because the British Empire is in the East and the sun sets in the West. Queen Victoria was the longest queen. She sat on a thorn for 63 years. Her reclining years and finally the end of her life were exemplatory of a great personality. Her death was the final event which ended her reign.
The nineteenth century was a time of many great inventions and thoughts. The invention of the steamboat caused a network of rivers to spring up. Cyrus McCormick invented the McCormick raper, which did the work of a hundred men. Samuel Morse invented a code of telepathy. Louis Pasteur discovered a cure for rabbis. Charles Darwin was a naturalist who wrote the Organ of the Species. Madman Curie discovered radium. And Karl Marx became one of the Marx brothers.
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The First World War, caused by the assignation of the Arch-Duck by a surf, ushered in a new error in the anals of human history.
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BODY (What it does each day)
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Your Working Day
If you’re as adult of average weight, here is what you accomplish in 24 hours:
Your heart beats 103.689 times
Your blood travels 168,000,000 miles
You breathe 23,040 times.
You inhale 438 cubic feet of air,
You eat 3.25 pounds of food.
You drink 2.9 quarts of liquids.
You lose 7/8 pound of waste.
You speak 4,800 words, including some unnecessary ones.
You move 750 muscles.
Your nails grow .000046 inch,
Your hair grows .01714 inch.
You exercise 7,000,000 brain cells.
... feel tired?
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BOGGLES THE MIND
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BOGGLES AND BAGELS
By PAUL A. CORCORAN
My mind is boggled so often these days that it no longer knows a boggle from a bagel. People do such things that I simply
fall into a state of mental floundering when I try to comprehend.
I look at a tall, gleaming, new hotel and convention center and try to think how one person can design all those millions of
angles and corners and joinings and stress curves and then be so sure that he can say, “Go ahead; build it. It’ll stand up.” The mind boggles.
People put out such numbers that the brain is stunned. Forty-five billion, for instance. Can you picture 45 billion somethings? Anythings? I had to look up billion and discovered that Webster’s Collegiate doesn’t even try to define it, but refers the reader to “the numbers table” on Page 479, where they run it out in digits — words failing, I suppose. A billion is 1,000,000,000.
And what’s the 45,000,000,000? That is the number of paper and plastic cups we throw into the trash every year! The brain reels. That’s along with 21 billion other plastic dishes and bowls, 15 billion paper plates and 18 billion plastic lids. We’re building our own “tower with its top in the heavens” — not in Babel, but out of the debris of what must be one big, year-long picnic going on somewhere. We also bury, bundle or burn 16 billion disposable diapers and scatter across the earth 2 billion razors and razor blades. I’ll never go barefoot again.
MAYBE I JUST HAVE an easily boggled mind. I even have trouble understanding how my camera knows the difference between 1/10 and 1/100 of a second. I know that if a second has hundredth, it must have a hundred of them, but how can that little piece of Japanese plastic, glass and springs separate one from the other 99? How can a stop watch tell that Mary Decker Slaney ran the mile just 2/100 of a second faster than the last time? The material in her track shirt would make more difference than that. Such things dazzle my razzle.
I’m hearing something else, like a message from somewhere familiar, something about boggle and dazzle and God. It’s that old psalmist friend of mine saying, When I look at the stars, the sun and moon which thou hast made, what is man, that thou art mindful of him?
I join his boggle. Six million stars in just one corner of a galaxy and a million galaxies so far away it’ll take a million years for the light from one of them to show up in my evening sky some winter night.
And God who made all this cares more for us than about all that! There’s boggle for you — God, the great boggler of man’s mind!
And he doesn’t quit with that. Here’s where it really hits me. My mind falters and staggers and can hardly go on when I try to think how men could make themselves take a mallet and drive nails through the gristle and bone of men’s hands and feet and then hang them up on crosses along the roads of their empire and that 2,000 years after my life is affected profoundly by one of those crosses, the one with the young rabbi from Nazareth on it. And he’s called by all people the Prince of Pax! It boggles the mind.
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Thank God, it also saves my sou.
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PRESBYTERIAN OUTLOOK, page 9, OCTOBER 14, 1985
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BORN AGAIN
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BORN AGAIN? IF, FROM ABOVE!
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The Greek words for “born again” may be taken to mean one of two things, either “born again” or “born from above.” But the Aramaic words that lie behind the Greek words *cannot* be translated “born again”; they can only be translated “born
from above.” Now the difference in meaning is not significant, but the difference in emphasis is crucial if we are born
from above it is not anything to be proud of because it is not anything that we have done. We are born “from above.” I like
that, because it puts the emphasis where it ought to be. If we are born from above, it is not our work but God’s. And if that
is true, then the experience is not a reason for conceit and arrogance, but for humility and praise. What is there to be proud of, and what is there in it to make us feel superior to others, when the work is God’s and we are but the recipients of His grace?
Sometimes a man who finds himself loved by a good woman will marvel, as the poet does, at the love he has encountered, and will ask with wondering joy, “Why, why and why?” That ought to be the normal attitude of faith.
Dwelling in the love God has for us and the mercy that has redeemed us, we ask, “Why, why and why?” (p. 61)
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R. Maurice Boyd, in Permit Me Voyage. in the Presbyterian Outlook, 4/23/1990 Vol 172, Number 16