Quote for the Day

"We cannot deduce anything about Jesus from what we think we know about God; we must now deduce everything about God from what we do know about Jesus."

-- Brennan Manning
The Signature of Jesus

The Cost of Christmas -- a Sermon

The Cost of Christmas

Christmas is over. The tree is down and the nativity scene is put away. Now we’re getting on with life as usual. The shepherds visited Jesus and then left him in the manger and went back to work, disappearing from the story. The wise men delivered their gifts and then went home to continue their studies. We’re just like them, aren’t we. We celebrate Jesus’ birth and then go back to life as usual. But the story continues with or without our participation.

The world hasn’t changed much either. At Jesus’ birth a world superpower was trying to impose peace in the middle east. Local radicals -- terrorists or patriots, depending upon your point of view -- killed the foreign soldiers and local government officials in an effort to destabilize things so that they could eventually take over the country.

When I think about what life must be like today for the average non-political Iraqi, I begin to understand better what life must have been like in Judah when Jesus was born. Visualize the scenes we’ve seen from the streets in Iraq, only something even worse than beheadings and bombings.

Let’s read Matthew 2:16-18.

It began with the sound of marching feet at the far end of the lane. The sound got louder and louder, nearer and nearer. Then you could hear the banging as doors were broken down followed by screams as soldiers entered houses. Suddenly, there was the loud crying of a baby accompanied by the screams of a mother and shouts of a father. Then the crying ended, and the wailing began. Wails of mourning. Mourning for the death of a child.

As the sounds come down the lane, closer and closer, you move deep within your one room house, trying to shield your children in the shadows. Suddenly, your door is broken down and soldiers swarm inside the house. One grabs your baby, rips off it’s clothes, then tosses your daughter back to you alive. Your prayers have been answered. God is merciful.

As the soldiers leave your house, you can see others coming out of the house of your neighbor across the lane. One is carrying an infant. He tears off its clothes, looks, then swings it by the feet exploding its head against the wall. The baby’s mother screams and rushes at the soldier. Your neighbor grabs his wife and holds her back. He couldn’t bear to loose his first born son and his wife on the same day. Other soldiers toss baby boys back and forth, laughing as they catch them upon their spears. The soldiers continue from house to house, killing all boy babies they can find under about two years of age. The whole town is filled with wails of pain and screams of anger. Then the wailing spreads to the countryside as the soldiers move out into the villages. It seems as if the whole God forsaken world were one loud cry of sorrow, pain, anger.

After the soldiers leave, people begin to gather, talking to one another, trying to figure out what was going on. Why had the soldiers suddenly appeared, killing only boys below a certain age? It was senseless. Were the deaths completely meaningless? Or could they serve some purpose? Where was God while this was going on? Why hadn’t God intervened?

Someone suggested that it might have something to do with that strange couple and their son who had disappeared just a few days before. Remember the ones who came for the census? That’s right, the ones that had a party with those drunken shepherds who kept telling some story of angels singing in the countryside.

Now that was a strange family. There was lots of gossip about whether they were even married or not. Most people thought that they were married, but that the baby was VERY early. Then there were those foreigners who were visiting them just before they disappeared. They claimed to be scholars. They kept talking about a king and a star. They had visited King Herod. Maybe they caused all this. Maybe the soldiers were really after that baby boy who had disappeared. Our innocent children have died because of one strange baby who escaped with his life before the soldiers came. Where is the God of justice? Cries of pain became tortured shouts of anger.

We usually skip over these verses when we tell the Christmas story. If we read them, we do it quickly and without comment. We don’t like to mar the joy of Christmas with the obscenity of the deaths of innocent children. It feels indecent and improper. It doesn’t make for a “merry” Christmas. But Matthew included this part of the story. He didn’t hide the difficult parts. Like Paul Harvey, he gives “the rest of the story.”

We know that the joy of Christmas leads to the grief of the cross and ultimately to the elation of the resurrection. I’ve often tried to make a Christmas card showing that idea. But I don’t have any artistic ability, so I’ve given up. However, maybe your imagination can produce what my hands cannot.

Close your eyes and imagine a Christmas card. In the foreground, at the left bottom corner, is the manger with Joseph, Mary and Jesus. Then toward the center in the middle distance is a hill with three crosses on it. In the far background near the right top corner is a hillside tomb with the stone door rolled aside. Over it all is the star. A Christmas card that tells the whole story. Almost. It tells the parts of the story we can live with because we can see the reason for the cross. We know of the empty tomb.

Can you imagine the pain of the mothers of these boys in Bethlehem? They had no idea what was going on. They had no warning of trouble. Suddenly, soldiers appeared in town and went door to door killing all the boy children under two years of age. Why? What had they done? What could they do to protect them? What was the meaning of all this? Where was God? They had no vision of an empty tomb.

The families in Bethlehem and surroundings had no clue as to what was going on. And they never did learn the answers to their questions. What about us?

It was day two of the four day trip back to Pemba, Mozambique from the airport in Lilongwe, Malawi where we’d just sent our son back to school in Kenya. We had made the trip in the other direction just a few days before. We still ached all over from that trip. Now we’d left the paved roads of Malawi and were a few hours along the dirt torture track that masqueraded as the highway in Mozambique. Two more days and several more hours to look forward to. The Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland might be fun for the few minutes it lasts. But that kind of experience gets old after a few hours. Four days is no fun at all. You can’t even enjoy the scenery. We were listening to a tape of a sermon that a friend had sent us. The preacher was talking about what he called the “Law of the Harvest.” He said, “For there to be a blessing anywhere, there must be suffering somewhere.” Just then we hit another big bump and Kathy looked at me and said, “Someone somewhere must be getting a blessing.” I’m not sure if she was joking or not.

Does the blessing of Christmas require the suffering we’ve just described?


Do you have some idea of the pain felt by the parents? How is your stomach right now as you think of this story? Does anyone have dry eyes? It hurts doesn’t it? It makes me angry. How about you?

What do you think God felt?

God was acting to save His creation. He was acting to rescue His people. And the immediate result of His actions was great suffering. Innocent children were dying. The very ones God was seeking to rescue were paying the price for His actions. Was the cost of the blessing too great?

God loved His people so much that He was willing to sacrifice His own son in order to rescue them. He was willing to suffer to save His creation. But the result of sending His son into the world to save it was that innocent children were dying. Parents who had done nothing to deserve such pain were in agony over the murder of their children.

Can God feel guilty? Don’t you think God suffered even more than the families because of the price they were having to pay because God loves you and me so much?

Did God have second thoughts about the plan He had put into effect to save His creation? The Adversary was fighting back. He knew he couldn’t prevent God giving His son to save us. But maybe God would give up when He saw innocent children dying. The Adversary invoked the “Law of the Harvest.”

But God was undeterred.

We often trivialize the cost of salvation. We assume that because God loves us, it’s His job to sacrifice His son for us. Sure, Jesus suffered on the cross, but we assume he knew he would be raised from the dead, so it wasn’t REALLY such a big thing. Yes, God lost His son. But He knew He would raise him from the dead and all would be fine. Isn’t that the way we think?

“For there to be a blessing anywhere, there must be suffering somewhere.” It’s real suffering without a clear knowledge of the outcome. It’s the death of innocents. Those parents in Bethlehem thought that one innocent boy baby had escaped. But eventually he, too, was killed. Still innocent. There is no cheap grace.

I don’t know about you, but I find it hard to believe that God could love me so much that He would allow such suffering to take place just to save me. It’s hard to know how to respond. To reject such love would be to make all those deaths meaningless. But I know I don’t deserve such love. I don’t have the right to accept it. But can I really refuse it? Can you?

Maybe part of our problem is that we are afraid of the “Law of the Harvest.” We’re afraid that we will be called on to suffer.

In May 1844 Dr. Ludwig von Krapf with his wife from Germany landed in Mombasa, Kenya as C.M.S missionaries. Two years later, Krapf's wife and child died. He was joined by Rev. Johann Rebmann, a fellow countryman. In September 1853 Krapf returned to Europe. His health had been destroyed. He had come to Africa to spread the gospel. He had sacrificed the lives of his wife and child as well as his own health. He suffered greatly, but saw no sign of blessing. He saw no results of his evangelistic efforts. In fact, the only claim to fame he and Rebmann had was that they were the first europeans to see Mount Kilimanjaro. And that just caused people to think they were crazy. No one believed there could be an ice capped mountain so near the equator.

For over a hundred years more missionaries watered the seeds Krapf and Rebmann had planted. They, too, suffered so that others might be blessed, even though they, themselves, would not participate in the blessing. Finally, in the late 1980’s the spiritual harvest was ripe in coastal Kenya. Not only were many Kenyans blessed with God’s salvation, but hundreds of Baptists from the USA who participated in evangelistic outreaches there returned home blessed. The “Law of the Harvest” holds.

William Carey is famous as the father of modern missions. But few know of his wife. She didn’t want to go to India. She never adjusted to life in India. She developed severe mental and emotional problems and spent her final days locked in a padded room for her own protection. She suffered so that others might receive a blessing. Like those families in Bethlehem, she did not choose her suffering. She probably never understood what was going on.

Whenever God and evil contest each other, innocents suffer. We know about Job’s suffering because of his faithfulness, but we usually forget that his servants lost their lives because of Job’s righteousness and that their families endured great suffering as well as did Job.

There’s a well known African proverb that says, “When elephants fight, the grass suffers.” The list could go on. The gift of salvation is not cheap. Who has suffered so that you could be offered this gift? Have you ever given anyone a gift that you knew was very valuable and they either refused it or didn’t seem to value it when they took it? How did you feel?

I remember when I was in my first year at seminary in Kentucky. I was a single fellow then. Kathy was working in Hilo and sending me goodies from Hawaii on occasion as part of our long distance courtship. A church invited me to speak to their GA group about Hawaii for their Annie Armstrong emphasis. Kathy had just sent me some rock salt plum as a special treat. I thought I’d be generous and share with this group of girls. I passed the bag around the group and each girl took a piece and put it into her mouth. Suddenly, there was a mad rush of girls to the bathroom. They all ran and spit out the rock salt plum!

I wasn’t overjoyed by that response. I had given them something very special to me. They treated my gift with contempt. I promised myself never again to share my rock salt plum except with other Hawaii folks.

God has offered you a very special gift. Have you accepted it? Or have you refused to receive this gift? Have you chosen to remain outside God’s love?

How do you think God feels about your response?

Maybe you have accepted the gift, tasted it and then run to the bathroom to spit it out? You want the blessing, but you don’t want to pay the price of being obedient to God. It tastes bad to you.

Maybe you have only partially received God’s love. You’ve taken the seed into your mouth without spitting it out, but you haven’t swallowed anything. Your mind knows that God loves you but you continue to live as though you were unloved.

If God has paid such a high price for the blessing of salvation, how can we refuse it? How can our way of thinking and living not be changed?

Which one of us will tell the families of Bethlehem that their sons died for nothing?

Who will tell God that His son died in vain?

“For there to be a blessing anywhere, there must be suffering somewhere.” What will you do if God calls you to suffer?

Do you know that old hymn, “Make Me a Blessing”? Listen to these words of the hymn:

Give as ‘twas given to you in your need, Love as the Master loved you; Be to the helpless a helper indeed, Unto you mission be true.
Make me a blessing, Make me a blessing, Out of my life May Jesus shine; Make me a blessing, O Savior I pray, Make me a blessing to someone today.

Will you “give as ‘twas given to you in your need?”

Can you “love as the Master loved you?”
“For there to be a blessing anywhere, there must be suffering somewhere.”
Are you contributing to anyone’s blessing?

We’re going to sing our final song. It’s a time for you to reflect on your response to the story you’ve heard. You can’t avoid a response.

Either you accept God’s gift and give meaning to the deaths in Bethlehem and the death of God’s own son on the cross, or you proclaim them all meaningless and worthless by rejecting the blessing.

Can you refuse such a gift?

Quote for the Day

"Poverty and riches are the result of man's rebellion against the will of God. When his kingdom comes, when his will is done on earth, both poverty and riches will go!"

-- Clarence Jordan
Sermon on the Mount

Quote for the Day

"A pious repetition of Jesus' name is no substitute for a life of loving obedience to the Father. A 'worship service' is of little value unless it leads to worshipful service."

-- Clarence Jordan
Sermon on the Mount

Quote for the Day

"Ernest Becker, in his book Escape from Evil, has remarked that one way we escape from evil is to project it on others. So we become a fierce nation toppling foreign governments at will for 'good and noble' reasons."

-- Brennan Manning
The Signature of Jesus

Quote for the Day

". . . there never has been a time in Christian history when the name of Jesus Christ so frequently is mentioned and the content of his life and teaching so frequently ignored. The seduction of counterfeit discipleship has made it too easy to be a Christian."

-- Brennan Manning
The Signature of Jesus

Bleak Christmas for Zimbabweans

Please take a moment to care.

Bleak Christmas for Zimbabweans

Patron Saint

Ryon Price has a great post at his blog, From the Wilderness. This quote from the Rev. A. Ritchie Low is a highlight of the article for me: "The Negro is not a problem to be solved but a human being to be understood." Sometimes I wonder if America has learned that lesson yet.

Read: Patron Saint

Quote for the Day

"Jesus well might prove the Virgin Birth, but how can the Virgin Birth prove the nature of Jesus?"

-- George A. Buttrick
The Christian Fact and Modern Doubt

Quote for the Day

"God's plan of making peace is not merely to bring about an outward settlement between evil men, but to create men of goodwill."

-- Clarence Jordan
Sermon on the Mount

Quote for the Day

"Personally, I take great comfort in the life stories of the first disciples. Their response was flawed by fear and hesitation. What they shared in common was dullness, an embarrassing inability to understand what Jesus was all about. Their track record was not good: They complained, they misunderstood, they quarreled, they wavered, they deserted, they denied. Christ's reaction to their broken, inconsistent discipleship was one of unending love. The good news is that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever."

-- Brennan Manning
The Signature of Jesus

Quote for the Day

"If the gospel were proclaimed without compromise, the roster of card-carrying Christians in this country would shrink."

-- Brennan Manning
The Signature of Jesus

Quote for the Day

"Are we people of God in the world but not of the world? Or are we more capitalistic than Christian? Our culture blasphemously implies that the bottom line is really the bottom line. Church ministries are evaluated by the size of their budgets. . . ."

-- Brennan Manning
The Signature of Jesus

Quote for the Day

"As long as we continue to live as if we are what we do, as if we are what we have, and as if we are what other people think about us, we will remain filled with judgments, opinions, evaluations, and condemnations. We will remain addicted to the need to put people in their place."

-- Brennan Manning
The Signature of Jesus

Quote for the Day

"The movement of Abraham is a paradigm of all authentic faith. It is a movement into obscurity, into the undefined, into ambiguity, and not into some predetermined, clearly delineated plan for the future."

-- Brennan Manning
The Signature of Jesus

Quote for the Day

"One of my problems with Jesus is that he always seems to come at the wrong time. Small wonder that Teresa of Avila complained: 'Lord, if this is the way you treat your friends, it's no surprise you have so few.'"

-- Brennan Manning
The Signature of Jesus

Quote for the Day

"To be a witness does not consist in engaging in propaganda, nor even in stirring people up, but in being a living mystery. It means to live in such a way that one's life would not make sense if God did not exist."

-- Emmanuel, Cardinal Suhard
Quoted by Madeleine L'Engle
Walking On Water

Quote for the Day

"We do not judge great art. It judges us."

-- Madeleine L'Engle
Walking on Water

Quote for the Day

"The rabbi, 'For if you do not know what hurts me, how can you truly love me?'"

-- Madeleine L'Engle
Walking on Water

Quote for the Day

"When we look at a painting, or hear a symphony, or read a book, and feel more Named, then, for us, that work is a work of Christian art. But to look at a work of art and then to make a judgement as to whether or not is is art, and whether or not it is Christian, is presumptuous. It is something we cannot know in any conclusive way. We can know only if it speaks within our own hearts, and leads us to living more deeply with Christ in God."

-- Madeleine L'Engle
Walking on Water

Quote for the Day

"The cross of desolation is not just a whim of God, it is the only way we can truly learn to love."

-- Thomas H. Green, S. J.
When the Well Runs Dry

Quote for the Day

"I was at the annual meeting of a state library association a few years later when the children were in the process of leaving the nest, and one of the librarians asked me, 'What do you think you and Hugh have done which was best for your children?' "I answered immediately and without thinking, 'We love each other.'"

-- Madeleine L'Engle
Walking on Water

Quote for the Day

". . . any spirituality which neglects the demands of fraternal love and concern -- even the demands of love for one's enemies -- cannot be authentically Christian."

-- Thomas H. Green, S.J.
When the Well Runs Dry

Quote for the Day

"God often talks to us directly in Scripture. That is, He plants the words full of actual graces as we read them and sudden undiscovered meanings are sown in our hearts, if we attend to them, reading with minds that are at prayer."

-- Thomas Merton
The Seven Story Mountain

Quote for the Day

"Faith in God is less apt to proceed from miracles than miracles from faith in God."

-- Frederick Buechner
Wishful Thinking quoted in Listening to Your Life

Quote for the Day

"It is true that he [Jesus] asked some -- Peter and John and James and the rich young man -- to leave everything in order to follow him. But there were others whom he loved, and whose company he shared -- Mary and Martha and Lazarus, Simon, Zacchaeus -- of whom he seems to have made no comparable demand."

-- Thomas H. Green, S.J.
When the Well Runs Dry

Quote for the Day

"The 'machine-age' is an easy formula. It has been made a pack-horse for many theories that cannot travel of themselves."

-- George A. Buttrick
The Christian Faith and Modern Doubt

Quote for the Day

"The interior life is not a question of seeing extraordinary things but rather of seeing the ordinary things with the eyes of God."

-- Thomas H. Green, S.J.
When the Well Runs Dry

Quote for the Day

"Are we supposed to bring our language down to the lowest common denominator in order to be 'meaningful'?"

-- Madeleine L'Engle
Walking on Water

Quote for the Day

"If there were not strict limits to the potency of prayer in the 'natural order' man would probably commit suicide on the sword of his own overweening power, life would be victimized by unthinkable chaos, and character would fester in lack of the freedom and brave occasion which are granted only in an orderly world."

-- George A. Buttrick
The Christian Fact and Modern Doubt

Quote for the Day

"His command to us is not 'Make yourself perfect,' but 'Be made' perfect. The love, even for our enemies, which Jesus commands is not our work but his work in us. That makes all the difference."

-- Thomas H. Green, S.J.
When the Well Runs Dry

Quote for the Day

"I had to learn to seek the God of consolations and not the consolations of God."

-- Teresa of Avila quoted by Thomas H. Green, S.J. in
When the Well Runs Dry

Quote for the Day

"Christians have given Christianity a bad name. They have let their lights flicker and grow dim. They have confused piosity with piety smugness with joy."

-- Madeleine L'Engle
Walking on Water

Quote for the Day

"More than guided missiles, all the world needs guided men."

-- Helen Steiner Rice quoted in SoJo Mail

Venomous as Vipers and Dumb as Dodos

The following letter was in the Letters to the editor of my local paper:

Dear editor:

A friend recently sent me a photo from the Internet that shows Sen. Obama not saluting during the National Anthem. It is my understanding that he is a devout Muslim and that he refused to be sworn in on the Holy Bible – a 200-year old tradition – when he became a senator for his state. Instead, he took his oath of office on the Koran, the Islamic bible.

Now he is a frontrunner for the highest office in the land and I’m wondering, should he win the presidency, will he be allowed to be sworn in on that document as well? If he is, then our country will have reached an all-time low. He will not be a president who will uphold our Constitution, our history, nor our way of life. He will defend his own Islamic principles and lead the United States into accepting them as well, or he will not be a true Muslim.

If that awful scenario comes true, then all of our soldiers would have died for nothing. The brave people of Sept. 11 would become so much fodder under the heels of Obama. With all the prophecies of the Christian Bible coming true, it may very well be that Sen. Obama could be the "Beast" of the Book of Revelation!

Far fetched, you say? Look at the way our country is heading. Congress and other political heads are running scared by declaring God is not important in the life of this great country. They don’t want to offend the Muslims moving here! President Ronald Reagan said it best: "If we ever forget that we’re one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under."

The Rev. Donald Cunningham Hot Springs

Below is the letter I have written to the editor in response:

The Rev. Donald Cunningham should check his facts before writing to the editor. A quick check of published records would have revealed that a) Sen. Obama is a Christian b) the "photo from the Internet" was actually taken during the national anthem (saluting is not the norm during the national anthem) and c) Obama did not take the oath of office on the Koran.

Jesus instructed his followers to be "wise as serpents, and harmless as doves." (Mt. 10:16) Too often we tend rather to be "venomous as vipers and dumb as dodos." Rev. Cunningham's letter is an example of this tendency. Unscrupulous political power mongers have taken advantage of our gullibility to propagate untruths, sow fear and elicit support for their chosen candidates. As "sheep in the midst of wolves" (Mt. 10:16), we must not allow ourselves to be misled and manipulated.

A suggestion to Rev. Cunningham: When you attach the title Rev. to your name you proclaim yourself to be an "ambassador for Christ" (2 Cor. 5:20). You are called to be His representative. "But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect . . ." (1 Pet 3:15). Be a testimony of hope. Leave the fear mongering to representatives of someone other than Christ. During this election season there will be an abundance of slander and fear tactics provided. However, remember, "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love." (1 Jn 4:18) Do not succumb to those sowing fear. Rather, "let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." (Mt 5:16)

A suggestion to the editorial staff of the Sentinel-Record: Continue your excellent job of providing a platform for the expression of diverse opinions. However, you should develop a policy for providing a disclaimer to accompany letters to the editor and opinion pieces when they present factual errors or falsehoods. This should not be an attack on the views presented but a warning that certain factual inaccuracies are included in the presentation of the writer's position. You have better resources to check facts than the average reader. A responsible press has the obligation to enable readers to make judgments based upon accurate facts and not half-truths and distortions.

As we persevere through the election mania, let us all strive to be "wise as serpents, and harmless as doves."

I grieve for truth in this world when the Shepherds of the Flocks join forces, wittingly or unwittingly, with the wolves.

Quote for the Day

"There are two kinds of fools in the world: damned fools and what St. Paul calls 'fools for Christ's sake.'"

-- Frederick Buechner
Wishful Thinking quoted in Listening to your Life

Quote for the Day

"What really hinders our growth is that we don't really want badly enough to discover God in our lives."

-- Thomas H. Green, S.J.
When the Well Runs Dry

Quote for the Day

". . . Whoever you are, the land to which God has brought you is not like the land of Egypt from which you came out. You can no longer live here as you lived there. Your old life and your former ways are crucified now, and you must not seek to live any more for our own gratification, but give up your own judgment into the hands of a wise director, and sacrifice our pleasures and comforts for the love of God and Give the money you no longer spend on those things, to the poor.
"Above all, eat your daily Bread without which you cannot live, and come to know Christ Whose Life feeds you in the Host, and He will give you a taste of joys and delights that transcend anything you have ever experienced before, and which will make the transition easy."

-- Thomas Merton
The Seven Story Mountain

Quote for the Day

"Meditation and contemplation are not prayer, they are but (normally) a necessary preliminary to prayer: They are the 'getting to know' the Lord which makes prayer possible. Prayer is the loving that flows from a deeper and deeper knowing."

-- Thomas H. Green, S.J.
When the Well Runs Dry

Quote for the Day

"When we offer up competing prayers in a warfare situation, we are hoping that the Ruler of the Universe takes sides. And that means that one of us is asking God to do the wrong thing."

-- Richard Mouw quoted in Ethics Daily newsletter

Quote for the Day

"It is for saints to lead the way among men by holy influence: they are not to be the tail, to be dragged hither and thither by others. We must not yield to the spirit of the age, but compel the age to do homage to Christ."

-- Charles H. Spurgeon
Faith's Checkbook

Quote for the Day

"The principal part of faith is patience."

-- Unknown quoted by Madeleine L'Engle
Walking on Water

Quote for the Day

"Most successes are unhappy. That's why they are successes--they have to reassure themselves about themselves by achieving something that the world will notice. . . . The happy people are failures because they are on such good terms with themselves that they don't give a damn."

-- Anthony Browne in Remembered Death
by Agatha Christie

Quote for the Day

". . . devotion, as we have seen, is not the goal of a good prayer life -- it is a means to the growth of the virtues. If the virtues are alive and flourishing in us, even in the absence of devotion or consolation, then our prayer life is healthy despite the dryness."

-- Thomas H. Green, S.J.
When the Well Runs Dry

Veterans Day Creates a Ministry Dilemma

Ruth Rosell has a very important column contribution at Ethics Daily. Entitled Veterans Day Creates a Ministry Dilemma, it raises an issue all Christian leaders must face or be untrue to their calling. Ruth's response is a very positive one.

Thank you.

Quote for the Day

"God must be very great to have created a world which carries so many arguments against his existence."

-- Unknown quoted by Madeleine L'Engle in
Walking On Water

Quote for the Day

"It happened that a fire broke out backstage in a theater. The clown came out to inform the public. They thought it was a jest and applauded. He repeated his warning, they shouted even louder. So I think the world will come to an end amid general applause from all the wits, who believe that it is a joke."

-- Kierkegaard
Either/Or, Vol. I

Quote for the Day

"People often talk about their fear that God's will may break them, that what he asks is too hard for them to bear. And yet the clay is never broken by anything the potter may do to it -- unless the clay has become hard and rigid."

-- Thomas H. Green, S.J.
When the Well Runs Dry

Quote for the Day

"Judgement has been rendered once and for all: 'The Light came into the world, and the world did not receive it.' There is no use trying again. And if you see the powers of the world so well disposed, when you see the state, money, cities accepting your word, it is because your word, whether you are only a man of good will or an evangelist, has become false. For it is only to the extent that you are a traitor that the world can put up with you."

-- Jacques Ellul
The Meaning of the City

Quote for the Day

"Jesus instructed us to be 'wise as serpents and gentle as doves.' We have chosen, rather, to be venomous as vipers and dumb as dodos."

-- Someone

Quote for the Day

" . . . but even a beginner can sense that there is something wrong when he professes to follow a crucified Lord and yet is discouraged by a few days of dryness.'

-- Thomas H. Green, S.J.
When the Well Runs Dry

Quote for the Day

"Theology is the study of God and his ways. For all we know, dung beetles may study man and his ways and call it humanology. If so, we would probably be more touched and amused than irritated. One hopes that God feels likewise."

-- Frederick Buechner
Wishful Thinking quoted in Listening to Your Life

Criswell’s cupids, Roman gods make waves at legendary auction house

Associated Baptist Press carries this article: Criswell’s cupids, Roman gods make waves at legendary auction house

Here is an excerpt from the article:

Scantily clad nymphs attended by flower-bearing maidens. Strapping young gallants gently bending over lovers’ bosoms. Frolicking cupids surrounded by doves and gilt-edged arrows.

The mythological figurines are not exactly the kind of art you’d expect a legendary Baptist pastor to collect.

But at least one did -- W.A. Criswell. And his collection of 19th century Meissen porcelain was grand enough to earn an estimated half a million dollars Oct. 25 at Christie’s art auction house in New York City.

Criswell, the renowned pastor who led First Baptist Church in Dallas for more than 50 years, first developed an interest in Meissen during a post-World War II mission visit to Germany. For decades after that trip, Criswell and his wife, Betty, studied and collected the figurines, Schneeballen, and flower-applied serving and toilette sets made in the region.

The culmination of the Texan’s collecting years comprised the 200-plus lots expected to take in more than $500,000 at auction. Proceeds will benefit the W.A. Criswell Foundation and Criswell College, the Dallas-based college he founded in 1971.

Christie’s international head Jody Wilkie described the collection as “fabulous.”

These verses came to mind as I read this article:

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. ^ Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
NIV Mt. 19:23, 24

“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money."
NIV Mt. 6:24

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
NIV 1 Ti 6:10

People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, ^without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, ^treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— ^having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.
NIV 2 Ti 3:2-5

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,

“Never will I leave you;
never will I forsake you.”

NIV Heb 13:5

^Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; ^not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.

NIV 1 Pe 5:2, 3

We do not need to go so far as the joke about the deacon who prayed, "Lord, if you'll keep our pastor humble, we'll keep him poor." However, there is something inconsistent with one, who claims to be leading others to follow a Master who had no place even to lay his head, amassing such wealth. Perhaps Criswell's estate is belatedly trying to obey the command of Jesus to another rich young ruler: “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” (NIV Lk 18:22) However, the wealth is not going to help the poor, but to glorify the giver.

May I quote again the Quote for the Day for 31 October 2007:

"Success is one of the dirtiest temptations of the devil."

-- Madeleine L'Engle
Walking on Water

And also the quote heading this blog:

"For us let it be enough to know ourselves to be in the place where God wants us, and carry on our work, even though it be no more than the work of an ant, infinitesimally small, and with unforeseeable results."

-- Abbé Monchanin

May God deliver us, one and all.

Quote for the Day

"Jesus was not a theologian. He was God who told stories."

-- Unknown
quoted by Madeleine L'Engle
Walking on Water

Quote for the Day

"I have often thought that if I were God I would never tolerate as weedy a garden as I myself am. But then I thank the Lord that he is God and not I!"

-- Thomas H. Green, S.J. When the Well Runs Dry

Quote for the Day

"We desperately need the foolishness of God."

-- Madeleine L'Engle
A Circle of Quiet

Quote for the Day

"Can man truly know hope until he has touched despair?"

-- Someone

Quote for the Day

"Success is one of the dirtiest temptations of the devil."

-- Madeleine L'Engle
Walking on Water

Quote for the Day

"The devout student is the best of all students. There are too many who are devout, but not students. They will not accept the discipline of study and of learning, and they even look with suspicion upon the further knowledge which study brings to men. There are equally too many who are students, but not devout. They are interested too much in intellectual knowledge, and too little in the life of prayer and in the life of service of their fellow men. A man would do well to aim at being not only a student, and not only devout, but at being a devout student."

-- William Barclay The Revelation of John, Volume 2

Quote for the Day

"Today rather than asking 'What at most may I believe,' we ask 'What at least must I believe.' This narrowing of faith is the Christian equivalent to the death inviting legalism of the pharisees."

-- Someone

Quote for the Day

". . . when Christianity begins to defend itself by force, it ceases to be Christianity."

-- William Barclay
The Revelation of John, Volume 2

Quote for the Day

"They looked at His death, and said, 'It is cruel in its beauty, heart-breaking in its joy, and most unspeakably grand!'"

-- George A. Buttrick
The Christian Faith and Modern Doubt

Quote for the Day

"Many people still regard prayer as a species of graft whereby God gives special favors to those who whisper in His ear."

-- George A. Buttrick
The Christian Fact and Modern Doubt

Quote for the Day

"Sin is not breaking a law; it is the breaking of a fellowship."

-- E. Stanley Jones
Christian Maturity

Quote for the Day

"Dogmatism is the sign of a faith become a fear; and the vehement reiteration of a dogmatism is the poor whistling of a fear scared to death of its own dark."

-- George A. Buttrick
The Christian Faith and Modern Doubt

Quote for the Day

"Christianity is primarily something to be done. It is not first of all a finished set of propositions to be accepted; it is first of all an unfinished task to be completed. It is a way of thinking about life and living life to be wrought out personally and socially on earth. The question to be asked about it is not simply, Is it true? but Can we ever in this world make it come true? not simply, Is it credible? but Is it possible?"

-- Harry Emerson Fosdick
The Secret of Victorious Living

Quote for the Day

"George Bernard Shaw has lately remarked that he does not believe in the hereafter, and that he would be horrified at the prospect of being George Bernard Shaw forever. . . . Christ's faith in the hereafter is in its very essence the faith that a George Bernard Shaw must not go on being George Bernard Shaw forever."

-- George A. Buttrick
The Christian Faith and Modern Doubt

Quote for the Day

"Are we asking government to make criminal what we believe to be sinful because we ourselves can't stop committing the sin?"

-- New York Governor Mario Cuomo

Quote for the Day

"Before I can listen to God in prayer, I must fumble thrugh the prayers of words, of wilful demands, the prayers of childlish 'Gimmes,' of 'Help mes,' of 'I want . . . .' Until I tell God what I want, I have no way of knowing whether or not I truly want it. Unless I ask God for something, I do not know whether or not it is something for which I ought to ask, and I cannot add, 'But if this is not your will for me, then your will is what I want, not mine.' The prayers of words cannot be eliminated. And I must pray them daily, whether I feel like praying or not. Otherwise, when God has something to say to me, I will not know how to lilsten. Until I have worked through self, I will not be enabled to get out of the way."

-- Madeleine L'Engle
Walking On Water

Quote for the Day

"A creed should be more akin to poetry than to logic -- a banner to be unfurled or a glad Te Deum, rather than a set of propositions to be debated."

-- George A. Buttrick
The Christian Fact and Modern Doubt

Quote for the Day

"It is this fear of touching upon the personal which causes the overorganization of social and administrative activity. In order to avoid telling an applicant that we do not wish to admit him to a college we quickly draw up a regulation that bars his entry by establishing an age limit. In order to avoid speaking as man to man to an employee about an error he has committed, a general order is drawn up and quite impersonally delivered to each man. And the regulations multiply. They completely dominate life in the office or the plant where there are no means of communication other than notices."

-- Paul Tournier
Escape from Loneliness

Quote for the Day

"Prayer then means yearning for the simple presence of God, for a personal understanding of his word, for knowledge of his will and for capacity to hear and obey him."

-- Thomas Merton
Contemplative Prayer

Scripture Passage for the Day

And the word of the LORD came again to Zechariah: 

“This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.’

“But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and stopped up their ears. They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the LORD Almighty was very angry.

"‘When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen,’ says the LORD Almighty. ‘I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations, where they were strangers. The land was left so
desolate behind them that no one could come or go. This is how they made the pleasant land desolate.’”

-- Zec 7:8-14 New International Version

Charlie Reese recently had a good commentary in the local paper here (The Sentinel-Record). Here are a few extracts:

How can anyone look at the levels of corruption, both public and private, and say this is a Christian nation? We swim in a sea of lies. Preachers with sixfigure incomes, mansions and private jets are about as un-Christian as an ignorant cannibal in Borneo. Warmongering Christians and Christians who preach hate are naturally contradictions of everything Jesus Christ stood for. Multimilliondollar churches whose shadows fall on the poor are a contradiction of Christianity.

Evangelical Christians all too often act like insurance salesmen. As soon as they sell a convert, they forget about him and move on to the next prospect. There is a great deal more to Christianity than selling conversions, but too often the evangelicals act like the operators of a pyramid scheme. Their message to the new convert is, now that I’ve sold you, you go out and sell others. Mouthing the verbal rituals of conversion do not a Christian make. Nor does writing a check fulfill one’s duty as a Christian.

The last thing Americans have to worry about is Christian influence. It is practically nil in the United States. I imagine all the true Christians in America would fit into one of those 5,000-room hotels in Las Ve gas, where, by the way, you can find thousands of nominal Christians seven days a week. Las Vegas is the capital of hedonism.

One ought to be able to tell a Christian by his behavior, demeanor and conversation, and I don’t mean mouthing slogans like "praise Jesus." I challenge you to see if you can do that. The essence of Christianity is love, humility and compassion.

There hasn’t been much of that around ever since a Roman emperor decided to make Christianity a state religion.

I'm sorry to say that he's pretty well got it right. There's not a lot of the Imitation of Christ in what passes for Christianity around here these days. However, a remnant remains and it is beautiful to encounter.

Quote for the Day

"This is a universe that is not indifferent to your virtue or your vice. It takes sides. You are free to choose, but you are not free to choose the results or the consequences of your choices. They are in hands not your own. And you do not break these laws written into the nature of things; you break yourself on them. and these laws are color-blind, race-blind, and religion-blind. Break them and you get broken."

-- E. Stanley Jones
Christian Maturity

Quote for the Day

"If Jesus of Nazareth was God become truly man for us, as I believe he was, then we should be able to walk on water, to heal the sick, even to accept the Father's answer to our prayers when it is not the answer that we hope for, when it is NO. Jesus begged in anguish that he be spared the bitter cup, and then humbly added, 'But not as I will, Father; as you will.'"

-- Madeleine L'Engle
Walking on Water

Scripture Passage for the Day

How long, O LORD, must I call for help,
but you do not listen?
Or cry out to you, “Violence!”
but you do not save?

Why do you make me look at injustice?
Why do you tolerate wrong?
Destruction and violence are before me;
there is strife, and conflict abounds.

Therefore the law is paralyzed,
and justice never prevails.
The wicked hem in the righteous,
so that justice is perverted.

--Hab 1:2-4
New International Version

Quote for the Day

"Those who believe they believe in God, but without passion in the heart, without anguish of mind, without uncertainty, without doubt, and even at times without despair, believe only in the idea of God, and not in God himself."

-- Unamuno
Quoted by Madeleine L'Engle
Walking On Water

Quote for the Day

"It came to me suddenly that evil was, necessarily always more impressive than good. It had to make a show! It had to startle and challenge! It was instability attacking stability. And in the end, I thought, stability will always win. Stability can survive the triteness of Good Fairy Diamond; the flat voice, the rhymed couplet, even the irrelevant vocal statement of 'There's a Winding Road runs down the Hill, To the Olde World Town I love.' All very poor weapons it would seem, and yet these weapons would inevitably prevail. The pantomime would end in the way it always ended. The staircase, and the descending cast in order of seniority, with Good Fairy Diamond, practising the Christian virtue of humility and not seeking to be first (or, in this case, last) but arriving about half-way through the procession, side by side with her late opponent, now seen to be no longer the snarling Demon King breathing fire and brimstone, but just a man dressed up in red tights."

-- "Mark Easterbrook"
Agatha Christie
The Pale Horse

California slated as new home for Missouri Baptist Convention

This headline is hilarious! No, the Missouri Baptist Convention isn't moving west. California is a town in Missouri. (Did you know that, Arnold?)

Scripture Passage for the Day

This is what the LORD says:
“As for the prophets
who lead my people astray,
if one feeds them,
they proclaim ‘peace’;
if he does not,
they prepare to wage war against him.

Therefore night will come over you, without visions,
and darkness, without divination.
The sun will set for the prophets,
and the day will go dark for them.

The seers will be ashamed
and the diviners disgraced.
They will all cover their faces
because there is no answer from God.”

Micah 3:5-7 New International Version

Quote for the Day

"It is only when the heart is unburdened to God with absolute candour and without any hidden mental reservations that that atmosphere of truthfulness and trust is created in which the communing with God serves a real purpose and the answering of prayers becomes possible."

-- Artur Weiser
The Psalms

Quote for the Day

"Now and again to some lone soul or other God speaks, and there is hanging to be done."

-- Edwin Arlington Robinson
John Brown
Quoted by George A. Buttrick
The Christian Fact and Modern Doubt

Baptists in the kitchen

Martin Marty continues to observe through astute eyes and speak with a prophetic voice. His commentary Baptists in the kitchen puts things in perspective. How do we respond to the questions he asks? (Better yet, how do Patterson, Mohler and their ilk respond?)

I especially appreciate this sentence:

'Back when Southern Baptists were still Baptist, I was invited to Southwestern Seminary, the "largest seminary in the world," and was impressed by its worship, classes and faculty.'

Would that Southern Baptists were still Baptist!

Quote for the Day

This I tell thee, Sam-I-Am,
I cannot stand thee, Reverend Sam;
I hate thy sophistry and sham,
Thy pulpit pounding blam, blam, blam.
I will not listen to the, bloat!
I will not listen in my coat!
Dear Reverend Sam-thou dreary rote-
Feed all thy sermons to thy goat
I can digest green eggs and ham
But never thee, good Sam-I-Am.

"How I long for content that screams from softer words instead of vice versa."

-- Eutychus
Christianity Today