Lost Loyalties, But.....

Cleaning out the store-room after a death in the family, in the very back corner was hidden a large, framed, formal document.  Elegant script and decorations, it was a 33rd degree Masonic certificate.  That degree is given as a special recognition, I discovered, not like the earlier earned degrees.  The certificate told no story of what was recognized, or what the holder of that degree had done or contributed to generate the honor.  But it did generate the curiosity!

Digging a bit, I found that my ancestor had been a "withdrawer" from several things.  He withdrew from the local medical association after a bitter malpractice contest in which he supported a woman badly burned by a competitor/doctor who had improperly used X-Ray when it was a totally new technology.  He retained membership in the AMA.  His medical work was a passionate commitment for him, over and over again.

He had withdrawn from the church, upset over the inter-locking of city government and church leadership, and what he felt was a lack of ethics in the group controlling both.  But the withdrawal was not from boredom, but from a passionate expectation of better things from the organization.

And the Lodge?  he had moved his membership from his East Texas town of residence, returning to the very small town of Moscow, over similar issues.  And in Moscow, there was a Masonic school (back in the prosperous times), which he highly supported.  Was that the source of the 33rd Degree?

Almost no way to answer the questions.  By 1950, the school had been disbanded.  By 1980, even the oldest men who played dominoes on the front porch of the old, closed pharmacy no longer played there.  The town, shrinking away, held no memories of the great and passionate civic efforts of the 1920's and earlier.

But the today's ghost town was once a place where lumber brought wealth, the money flowed, and there was a passion for education.  Bits and pieces remain.  But the biggest heritage of the town is that inherited passion.  (There are families who have impacted Texas:  Hobby for one!)  There are unknown practitioners of various professions who would now be the third-generation inheritors of the passions that built the Masonic School.

There are grandsons now grandfathers whose whole perspective on the world has been shaped by those who passionately withdrew from one allegiance for the sake of forming and honoring another allegiance.  History sometimes harvests slowly, but it does come to the harvest day.

Thank God for loyalties that found a new home one day, and generated an entire new wave in the process.

The Big Thankful

We are grateful for privileges so fundamentally "ours" that we think them to be rights.  Which they are, so long as we maintain them.

I am grateful today for freedom of speech.

A key understanding of the American Revolution is this oft-repeated and oft-modified fundamental:

"I despise your opinion but will defend to the death your right to speak it."

Is freedom only for my friend?  Is freedom of religious expression only for those who agree with me?  Some of those who came to these shores long ago immediately set up governments that would guarantee their own freedom, and suppress the free expression of conflicting views.  The founding fathers saw the thing more wisely.

I defend freedom. I like people who disagree with me, 'cause it challenges me to think more thoroughly.

But we live in a time when people who disagree may be ostracized, or ignored.  Or suffer at least the "rolling of the eyes and making of strange sounds", the social separation that creates peer pressure.

The defense of freedom begins with the receptive listening to people of different opinions.

And when it gets really good?  I am absolutely committed to the defense of freedom of speech for people with whom I disagree politically and theologically!  I WANT them to be on radio, on talk shows, writing books, and articles, having  maybe their own television shows.

Why?  Because I truly believe that the open expression of all the opinions lets everyone see for themselves where the truth lies.  The longer you listen, the more the false falls away.

Under it all, I believe God made it that way when He designed human nature.  It's not up to any select group to suppress opinions - - truth will out, and thank God for that!

Christmas Adoptees

Part of the celebration of Christmas is the celebration of beautiful branches grafted onto the sometimes-older vine.  Things such as evergreen Christmas trees, St. Nicholas, even the December dating, are all "add-ins" to the original story, each bringing/brought by believers who were then new to the faith.  Some of the things are older, some younger, but all are gifts to you and me in our time.

If you were to count the religions that interpret winter solstice as a significant promise of new life, first harbinger of spring, it would be the whole list.  If the most insightful psychology says that we are hard-wired for faith in God, then surely this is one of those points built into us.

As the days stop their shortening and slightly begin to lengthen, astronomers ancient and modern have pointed to the event.  From the astronomical observatories at Chaco Canyon to the Central American religions, to the Egyptians and Greeks, ancient astronomy was hardly primitive on this point.  And it has fascinated the children of God in every age.

On what day was Jesus actually born?  I don't know.   On what day did the early Christians decide to celebrate His birth?  Within the solstice festival.

Over and over, festival days, heroes, and theology come to be grafted into the story.  Thank God for that.

Count the Context

Take Isaiah 61, or actually most of the poetry of Isaiah.  Imagine a rather plain man with an exciting message, walking in the dust just like he was processing into the Temple, full of a message that trumped the circumstance!

Isaiah is preaching to refugees.  People who are exiled, and have been for a long time.  People in refugee camps longing to go home.

Consider the Advent/New Year messages:  every valley shall be lifted up, every mountain and hill made low, the road prepared for the way home.  The road that was brutal getting here is the road that God will make accessible for homeward travel.

Great and powerful poetry, to WHOM?  To the prosperous?  To the comfortable IN their homeland?  To the ones all well-spoken-of?  Not at all - to the ridiculed, the down-played, sometimes vilified foreigners in a sophisticated land.  God did not ADOPT the Babylonians;  God USED the Babylonians, and Cyrus the Persian, unbelievers to accomplish what he wanted.

Anything to do with our contemporary situation?  Has God decided to side with the prosperous who use the right labels, instead of the helpless, the outcast, the downtrodden who are children ALSO of Abraham who succumb to hate instead of love?  Has God decided to do a strange thing, loving those we love and hating those we hate, instead of insisting that we do a new thing, loving those whom he loves and hating no one?

Worth pondering.  Worth praying over.  Worth using as a corrective to the easy arrogance that comes to us, and upon us, so easily.  God's good news through Isaiah may be better good news than we sometimes give credit to.

Remembering the Rabbi

Rabbi Goldstein.  Port Arthur minister's association.  The Rabbi was to talk on the Christian communion.

Holocaust survivor, Doctor of Laws, Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Philosophy, Doctor of History, and working on a fifth.

80 years old with the energy of an athlete at 40!  Deep sense of history.  Always drove that insanely long Chrysler, often a little careless about things like traffic lights.  Always in a hurry.

Why write about him?  Because at least once a year, it is worth tapping into the beliefs of every ancient religion:  the "remembered" live.

Why write about him?  Because a very provocative realization crossed my desk yesterday!  If Jesus was (and is) "the Word made flesh", and the Word was available within the Old Covenant, and to know the Word is to know God, and no one comes to God except through Jesus who IS the Word, then...............

What do I "do" with the Rabbi?  He doesn't fit the language with which I was brought up.  The Rabbi is "brother" in some difficult to express manner.  I don't understand it all, but there is a clear sense that I should remember him with a special kindness, because that's how God deals with all of His covenant people, whether I understand it or not.

The "family of God" is chosen by Him, without consultation with me.  Like Jesus said, He has other sheep in other folds.  In all of this, there is the sense of a very large door swinging open, almost soundlessly.  And behind that door?  So big!

And there is a peace in that!

Only Through Jesus, and Better Than You Thought

"If Jesus is THE WORD made flesh, and THE WORD was with the JEWS BEFORE He became flesh, and no one comes to the Father but through Him (THE WORD), then what kind of ideas might we come up with?"


This provocative line is from one of the responders to a blog I follow:  http://rachelheldevans.com and just one of many thought-provoking elements there.  


I find great comfort in those who point out that God holds the door WIDE OPEN, even as some of His children seem to want to push it closed at least a little bit.


The lectionary readings for this Sunday before the start of Advent include the "shepherd's warning" passage:  Jeremiah 23:1-6.


Required reading for all who audaciously stand to preach.

Old Words, Italian

Listening to "Way with Words" on NPR yesterday (a show about where do words come from), a caller asked about an old expression his wife used:  "I can put my hand on the fire!"  It says, this is absolutely true, I'll stake everything on it.

Where did that come from?

From old Italy, from a pre-Christian temple truth-testing ritual, where apparently there was a flame always present, and as a "spiritual" test very like the medieval water tests or combat tests, it was a way to swear to the truth.  If you could hold your hand over the flame, you were innocent of any falsehood.  Even swearing that you COULD do it was convincing.

Other things from old Italy?  When Catholicism became the religion of the Empire, some elements of other religions were sort of swept into the theology of the area.  This is pretty much the missionary equivalent of "love me, love my dog" thing, in which we accept the opinion with the one who holds it.  The same has happened in every century:  easter eggs, Christmas trees, the DATE of Christmas celebrations, naming the months of the year, etc.

You can probably think of some examples of cultural beliefs becoming articles of faith.  On the second Sunday in a new pastorate, I was met by a small delegation after church.  Their request:  "We need to sing the old, familiar hymns, and you need to pick them!"  It did take another meeting or two to realize what were THEIR old, familiar hymns.  Actually, you could have divided the church into five groups (having moved in from elsewhere), based on their definition of "old, familiar".

Culture - - - faith - - - always mixing together, and the wise Christian always wants to know the source of the "absolute belief" that slides into the conversation.

Re-Walking History

A blog carried by the New York Times is tracking history, 1860, based on today's date in that year.  As a short history lesson, it makes a fascinating read.  I didn't know, for example, that slave-captives returned to Africa were all sent to Liberia, no matter where they originated.  Out of sight, out of mind often creates a wave of chaos that lasts for decades.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/03/a-slave-ship-in-new-york/#more-66969

is today's listing.

Why study 150 year old "journals"?  Well, just like reading the Diary of Anne Frank, history opens our eyes.

And open eyes are essential for disciples who want to be faithful in OUR time!

Have you found other historical windows that help faithfulness?

An Ancient Well of Anger

From Yemen, bound for Chicago, bombs were in packages that bore the addresses of Jewish institutions.  But in place of the names of the institutions, individual names of historic figures from the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition had been used.  These bombs that didn't go off, plus other packages used to test out the travel patterns of freight airplanes, point to an element our Western minds find difficult to grasp.

For most of US, the Crusades are a matter of very old history that have nothing to do with us or the present.  For the opponent's mind-set, Zionism and Israel are an extension of a centuries-old invasion of Europe into Palestine and neighboring countries.  We don't connect anything 14th century with 21st century.  They do.  To us, it seems like a form of mental illness;  to them, it is a deep and angry connection, a deep well of hatred which is much more than manipulation through propaganda.

Part of the difficulty of the whole matter is understanding just how "religious" it is.  It may be wrong, it may be terrible, it may be irrational, all those things wrapped up in one horrendous series of acts - but there is a deeper well of anger than we easily comprehend.

Resist?  absolutely!    Do battle in the war for the persuasion of minds?  absolutely!   Be determined to defend this country and others against this ancient hatred?  absolutely!  Be aware of an enemy with a deeper anger than we might have realized?  absolutely!

Wasn't it Jesus who said:  "Be wise as serpents and innocent as doves?"  That's never been the easy road!

From Garden to Garbage

All of us know about waste.  It costs us!  And it clutters us!  But it's rare that someone actually adds it all up.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/01/from-farm-to-fridge-to-garbage-can/

This today in the New York Times.  Human nature is phenomenally entertaining!  In a country that struggles financially to make sure that every child has enough to eat, that invents social welfare programs as a safety-net, AND that moans mightily about the cost of it all, we waste good stuff!

When I was very small, we washed cans after taking the food out, cut out both ends, and flattened them for the "scrap metal drive", making sure that metal became defensive weaponry in the great WWII.  Now that I'm grown, I help with a clean-up project along the highway, picking up trash we toss.

Values are like a garden - - - and there is no self-tending garden!  Values either grow or perish, depending on the attention that the gardener of such things applies.

What sort of lesson in all this?  The whole world of philosophy can be approached just through this doorway!  Happy trails!

Aroma Therapy

A Mrs. Baird's bread truck went through an intersection ahead of me today, with a simple sign:  AROMA THERAPY - Mrs. Baird's Bread.  I remember turning off Central in Dallas, going toward SMU, driving through the most incredible AROMA in the whole world.  An entire plant of baking bread.

Early mornings at Lamar U. in Beaumont meant marching band, always in a practice field exactly down-wind of the Texas Coffee Company, roasting!

You know, if they could ever make a coffee that would taste as good as a freshly opened can SMELLS, a fortune could be made.

Non-verbal communication can be among the most powerful things in the world.  It brings us non-debatable truths, in every language, time-less.

Consider it:  aromas, night-time sky scenes, morning fog over a lake, the compelling rhythm of a high-school marching band.  Take a late-night "sit-out" and watch the sky.  Go more modern and browse some of the photographic blogs.  Experience again the power of non-verbal communication, and open up that part of your mind for a while.

While you're at it, bake (or find newly baked) some good bread - - - it's aroma-therapy that's good for the soul.

Dogs Don't Do Divorce

Close to my place in the world, there is a visiting Beagle, once a month, for an undetermined number of days.  He stays in the back yard, calls out lonesome at the fence, and is generally ignored.  I'm trying to calculate the pattern, but it's about 4 days, once a month.

He is an award in a divorce.  The woman who "won" the issue doesn't do anything with friend Beagle.  Doesn't play, doesn't take him for walks.  The whole point is that she "won".  In the divorce, so I hear, she won shared custody of the family pet, purely to deprive the "loser" of the right to the sole custody of the dog.

Makes you wonder what "win" and "lose" mean, doesn't it?

Dogs just don't understand such business, I think.  Maybe that is why some notable or other says, from time to time, I do prefer dogs to people.

God created us and dogs, both.  Maybe there are times when God says, all other things being equal, that He prefers dogs to people.  Happily and hopefully, it is a passing feeling with God.  But humans often take more mercy than dogs to maintain, it seems.

A Strong Road

Reading today followed a new thread:  Jesus' Sermon on the Mount to Leo Tolstoy to Ghandi.  Tolstoy's treatment of the Golden Rule is powerful, and true to the sources.  As a professor once said to a young seminarian (me):  "to follow and attempt to live out the Sermon on the Mount is a vastly humbling experience."

Is it possible?  Probably.  Has it been done often?  No.  Francis of Assisi, Tolstoy, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, some lesser saints known only to their contemporaries and companions, perhaps.

But what do we do with it when we cannot actually do it?  Even with prayer?  Do we walk away from it and consider it no more?  Or do we hold its ideals in tension with whoever and whatever we are?

In the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us that the house that survived the storm did not survive by superior construction or by the builder's skill.  It survived because it had been founded on the rock.  Maybe that is good enough to live by;  good enough to lay aside the tension long enough to sleep well;  good enough to thank the crafter of that Sermon for the generosity of His love, which maintains the foundation which he lays, while forgiving the clumsiness of the builder of a life/house upon it.

We all make conclusions.......... that's mine.

B

The Letter Man's Abundance

Once, he'd been a pilot, traveled a lot of the world, and now he still loved what he remembered.  Breathing problems confined him to his house, so he began to connect with people around the world through letters.  


Mr. Wolf bought a magazine one day, and through a letter to the editor, began correspondence with two people from Europe.  Then, five.  Realizing he would actually get a response, he expanded his writing to world leaders.  It was exciting when the first response came.  Chiang Kai-Shek, nationalist leader in China and opponent of the Communists, picked up the correspondence.


Regular mail meant a slow pace, and even air-mail was hardly what we experience today, but the correspondence continued.  Madam Chiang Kai-Shek joined in the letter writing.  When Mr. Wolf included in a letter that the church in his small town wanted to build a new fellowship hall, Madam Chiang Kai-Shek volunteered a gift to help.  


A large package arrived one day, carrying a multi-panel silk screen, with a message of good will in large Chinese characters, beautifully scripted and decorated.  Madam Chiang Kai-Shek was an artist, and had painted this for her letter-writing friend in a tiny Texas town, advising that he could sell it to help pay for the new building.


People are sometimes wise, you know.  They decided that the better way would be to frame her fine work, and display it in the new building.  Much better than selling it.  


And so, in a tiny town that would raise no expectations if you drove through, a disabled man who wrote letters brought beauty from a well-known and beautifully artistic lady, to decorate a church fellowship hall.


Sometimes life "fulfills".  Like the abundance of life that Jesus taught.  Isn't it a wonder when it happens?

An Exit Strategy

When you leave faith, where do you go?

A columnist was pondering this, and set me to wondering.  His spin was that as Americans have tended to leave religion, they've gone to other first-priority substitutes.

Leaving?  Well, the pollsters have a definition, in place for lots of years, that "regular church attendance", in their question/response protocols, means once every six weeks.  Not exactly a measurement of putting church at the top of the list!

So, presuming that America is becoming LESS religious, where do people go?  Some drift off into paranoia, the mild sort that picks new causes and projects based on "what frightens me".  Some drift into materialism, some into nationalism (one of the oldest religions).

But, every time someone drifts "out of faith", human nature seems to require us to find a substitute.  We're hard-wired to be religious, anyway.

So, in our time, like in all times, someone may leave "church" for whatever reason, but just end up replacing faith with a new "object of their devotion".

Consider:  if a person builds a blend of paranoia, materialism, and nationalism, two things become apparent.

First, this is a "hot" blend, always passionate!  Second, haven't we seen this before?

Seems to me that we might exit the church, but it is very hard for human nature to ever become NON-religious.  And that leads to an open question ......................................................

The Other Lesson from Earl

He came to Lindale, TX from Jacksonville, TX,  where he had engineered the wooden-box factory system, translating hand work into fast and accurate automated production.   Allen Canning Company brought him in to rework their production line.  He liked to tell how he began.

First day on the job, Earl took a folding chair and a legal pad, and moved slowly along the line. He listened to the machinery, the wheels and bearings, every part that moved a can or touched one.  On day two, he went back, walking the line with the engineering drawings, listening to the way each part passed a can down the line.  With a well-trained ear,  he heard the pauses and the tensions, the grabs and the slips.  The process was repeated until Earl knew the rhythm and timing of the machinery very well. 

First you listen, THEN you modify. 

Good lesson to learn early, specially if you want to succeed!  There are lots of "machines" in life.  Production lines, schools, churches, families, all have bumps and whistles, groans and strains, smooth spots and conflicts.  Earl said, "You have to listen first."  Whether you're making baskets, canning vegetables,  growing a family, or shaping up a team, listen first.

We've all seen instances of a highly skilled "engineer" of one sort or another, trained, equipped, eager to work, but who never learned to listen.  Frustrates everyone.  But the listener always wins the day and the long, long run.

The best blessing I know?  God listens!  It all works better when God's children, who want to do His pleasure, learn how to listen, too.  If I listen, and you listen, then that is the 'thing-in-common" that over-rides all of the differences that might obstruct our friendship.  And THAT is no small deal.  Think so?

Finding New Turf

One of Houston's leading neuro-surgeons, David went to work on morning, knowing that he had a mid-morning appointment for a report on a recent medical test.  He went to his friend, and got the word, short and simple.  "You are grounded, cancel appointments now."  There was a tumor, a brain tumor, that would directly and negatively affect his ability to work.

By early afternoon, patients had been given to other specialists.  By the next day, the office was closed.  Sudden.  But David had two loved projects:   1) Medical Bridges, a medical supply recycling effort that drew in supplies from Houston's Medical Center and carried those supplies to medical missionaries around the globe.  And 2) fine woodworking.  A man with phenomenally skilled hands had a work shop and a large collection of fine woods.

After his medical practice was suddenly closed, recycling picked up speed tremendously.  Around the world, supplies went to hospitals and doctors making so much possible.  And from his workshop, an amazing flow of really beautiful carved and turned wooden pieces.

Trite to say, but when a door closes, even a big door, God opens another.  Or maybe two.

Have you seen something like that?  Let me know.

B

The Chief and Social Security

He explained a lot to me.

I asked the chief why Deer Park was so tough on speed limits. His response: "We like to meet people at that level of infraction! If we say 'HI' at that level, we've discovered there are some who will just take their criminal inclinations outside our city. It works."

A very gentle man, very polite, and he staffed the department with well-trained officers, well-disciplined, but very able to be "in charge" when they needed to be. Result: an extremely low crime rate - the word was out: "don't play it out in Deer Park."

Life should always be so direct. Even with Social Security. More and more depend on it as a primary source of retirement income. (Whether that's wise or not is another question.) And for decades, the politics have laid out the script: solve this problem, but at no cost to ME.

1. Say how terrible the problem is financially, and it is my opponent's fault!

2. Replace the incumbent, but NEVER EVER propose the simple fix that would actually eradicate the problem.

3. Stir, shake, and repeat (unless you're the incumbent, in which case blame the new challenger).

I wonder when, in the name of social responsibility, someone will simply say: "We'll balance this with a reduction in benefits and an increase in tax rates until it is solvent." It's clear the demographics have changed, the economic realities have changed, the number of workers per retiree have changed, and the former times will come no more. So, why not fix it now?

Why does it have to be daring to be truthful and accountable? Seems simpler to just do the deed.

David and Goliath

Here's a story that made a ripple!

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/15/business/15maine.html?_r=1&hp

And on NPR yesterday, the story you might have expected: a foreclosure stalled when the attorney simply said: "Show me the note." Seems you can't collect on a lien you don't actually HAVE! And the bundled and re-sold and re-sold mortgages of the housing crisis are a mess.

A BIG BANK can shudder and grow very silent if it appears that the mortgage-based cash flow could suddenly stop. Stop as in dead!

Basics matter, in banking, in huge financial schemes, just like in cooking the eggs for breakfast. There's a story in there for faithful, mission-minded theological folks, as well. Ya gotta do what ya gotta do! Just keeping things pacified, keeping people happy at all costs, doesn't serve the mission.

You ever wonder about that?

B

The Maya Code

Someone casually asked: "Does this calendar go through 2012?", a laughing remembrance of the possible Maya prediction of the end of the world.

By evening, I had located a Nova documentary called "Cracking the Maya Code". Scholars over a hundred year period had slowly moved to decipher the Maya writings on tons of monuments in the three major cities. First dates, then calendars, then family stories, then histories of the conflicted nations and city-states, and finally narratives that portrayed the Maya as rather ordinary people with extraordinary skills in art and communication.

So what's it all about as we uncover the realities of the Maya? Mystic prophets of the end-times? Not so much. Ordinary people in a complex culture? Yes. Made more mysterious by persecution, book-burning, and a total, brutal suppression of language and culture for over 400 years; which is more of a critique of Spanish Christianity "purging the devil" than of Mayan culture.

Reflecting: what IS the role of disciples of Jesus? Should we be the New Crusade to wipe out what we don't understand? Should we convert at the point of a sword? Should we be respectful in conversation as we learn? Should we be strategic evangelists seeking to love, honor AND persuade folks to draw close to Jesus?

Seems to me that the old "wipe out the enemy" (old world) strategy has no usefulness at all today. We're back to the oldest option for disciples - to love new acquaintances into faith in Jesus. Seems like that's well-recommended! Even on high authority.

Human Nature's Hard-Wired Reach for God

An early morning surprise on NPR: the stories of people willing to die for their musical expressions, often totally unseen by anyone outside their own countries. Oppressed and often silenced, they share their music underground, expressing religion in opposition to rulers.

Much of the world is caught up in the Sunni/Shiite struggle for the heart and leadership of Islam. And, like an underground aquifer flowing out of sight, there is the music of a different passion.

http://mideastunes.com/ opens a window. The majority of the middle eastern world is under the age of 25. The musical expression becomes actually nothing less than a religion itself, so passionate that some are willing to risk death to perform it, and to listen to it.

Familiar to our ears? Probably not. Traditional religious behavior, in a deep sense, absolutely! Does this have anything at all to do with God? Without a doubt!

The highest and most grand proclamation of the New Testament is that God loves the world. The whole thing. Not JUST my part. Whether it is the best-informed or the least informed, the human spirit that reaches out for Him pleases Him. Whether that reach agrees with ME is probably of no concern to God at all; it agrees with HIM passionately.

Mid-East Tunes. What an unexpected spot to launch a discovery!

I just posted on another blog I write, called NewParable. Told an old family story about watching my grandfather sharpen a razor blade - - he'd use them for weeks before he'd replace one. The word "Gillette" was in my text.

I published it, and returned to the editing screen.............. and there on the margin was this:

New Razor From Gillette® New Gillette® Fusion® ProGlide™ Is Now Available - Order Today! www.Gillette.com/ProGlide

Whatever I type, there's an automated reader! If I send an e-mail, an advertising mechanism has an ad for me before I finish typing. It's a weird world, friend.

And in this world of too-much help, all of us need to focus on making up our OWN mind, marching to the beat of the RIGHT drummer, and giving VALUE to the REAL values of life.

The Guide

In Budapest, she took up her little banner and led us from the bus to the patriotic Hero's Square, and began. At once, we realized that our guide was NOT politically neutral, intended to hit LOTS of "hot buttons" and was passionately patriotic.

As we toured squares and churches, we asked each other, "I wonder what faith our guide holds?"

Bit by bit, as we weighed the conversation, she talked about the decline of the church, and the heritage days of shamanism. Soon, the opinion began to firm.

From a Catholic family, raised during the strictest days of Communism, never much to practice Catholicism, intensely patriotic with a love for Hungary's older heritage..........she had a deep respect for shamanism. And what religious element continued within her materialism was that ancient thread.

The individual and community spiritualism in Hungary that endured the barbarians, the Huns, the Romans, the Turks, the Holy Roman Empire, the Nazis, the Communists, and now endured modern materialism took the shape of the "old reliable" and surfaced in her conversations.

She might only pray when she needed to, but when that happened, it seemed clear that it would be in the framework of the old gods.

In our time, the football coach might say: "We gonna dance with who brung us." In every time, people go with what they trust. In our culture, materialism seems to be winning the day, with a polite nod to the Christian vocabulary, but material to the bone! In a culture,like Hungary, that has been tossed from one set of absolutes to another, one of the systems will win.

So, the question: for her, who has every good reason to trust nothing OTHER than shamanism, does God turn away from her or still do His very best to love HER? She'll never use the LANGUAGE of either church or mosque, BUT..........................................

And Jesus said: "I have other sheep not of this fold..........."

A very provocative short statement in John's Gospel............................

Judge? Nope. Just do my best to walk by the light given to me.......................

And wonder the BIGGEST question for disciples.................... am I being trustworthy in the sight of those around me??????

Bryan

Opinions

A historian said that Romans made their emperors gods, which showed not how much they thought of emperors, but how little they thought of gods!

After carefully looking through the Old Testament, an acquaintance quoted a passage which said that the wise goes to the right and the fool goes to the left......... therefore "the right" is godly. Therefore modern conservative political opinions are holy. And what the wisdom from 1000 BC had to do with political choice in 2010 AD was never clarified.

Like the Romans, my acquaintance did not reveal so much the wisdom of Scripture, but how little he thought of Scripture to bend it to suit the political preference of the moment.

It occurs to me that we are to bend TO Scripture, rather than bending Scripture to suit the moment. Think so?

About this, I'll always BCurious!

There have been good days when I've taken time to stand a moment at the chapel entrance in Methodist Hospital Houston. I'd read words from a poem written by Dr. Hyla S. Watters, a Methodist missionary and Chief Surgeon of Wuhu Hospital on the Yanhtze River during the WWII era.

The Hospital Speaks

I stand by the side of a current

That's deeper by far than the sea

And storm beaten craft of every draught

Come in to be healed by me

But some have more grief than pain

God help me make whole both body and soul

Before they go out again

Dr. Hyla S. Watters

We pray and build hospitals; that's always made a great deal of sense to me as a good theology about being the people of God.

Bronze Baby Plus

It was a hot day, and the shade looked very welcoming as I walked out the door at Lowe's. The shade was provided by one of those yard loungers, for sale, but occupied at the moment by a grandfatherly type holding a sort-of bronze colored infant.

At least I thought it was an infant. Tucked into his arm, maybe two feet total height, as he leaned down to kiss its little head. Sweet, I thought. Then, as I got exactly even with him, it was apparent that there was no baby at all.

A miniature Buddha. Nothing wrong with that. Object of devotion for millions. But the kiss on the very top of a bronze head in the summer heat outside Lowe's was just unique. It wasn't clear whether he had just bought the little fellow or brought him along on the shopping trip.

We live in a multilayer religious world. Many recognitions all around us. Lots to see. From the Sikh, to the Hindu, to the converts moving from one to another, to the claims of various Protestant groups and Mormons, to the YMCA camp at Estes Park, with a large group of Buddhist monks playing tennis for the first time.

Discovering the zest for life among Buddhists, the powerful commitments of the Sikhs, to the sheer numbers of other groups, we need an openness to discover how God is at work in other cultures and other religions.

Ask the question: could it be possible for 1 billion Chinese to be on their journey through life without God deeply wanting to be in touch? And already there? And wondering when we'll discover that and find our way in behind Him?

One More from the Eccentric

He was an encourager. He was a listener.

His first Sunday in worship he was noticeable. He did take off the hat, but the brown leather coat was the only one in the house. He wasn't sure about being there, and it showed in his posture.

He didn't sing, he did watch the readers and speakers, and followed in a relaxed sort of way. When the sermon started, he leaned back and slid a bit lower in the seat, giving the impression he just might slip off into a short nap.

Then he sat up. Then he leaned forward, soon resting his arms on the empty pew in front of him, obviously connected, face expressive as each part of the sermon moved along.

For me, it became a vivid and personal picture of what I and every preacher wants. It became the target in my mind from that morning forward, to engage, to communicate, to connect.

I don't know if he realized the effect he had on me; I know that it was an unforgettable picture of what I wanted to accomplish. A target. And I believe an inspired, God-given target.

Celebrating faith, after all, is intended to make something happen. This did.

The Mildly Eccentric Friend, One More

You never knew where you might see his broad-brimmed brown leather hat, walking along in strange places, and usually with the grocery cart in front. Driving one day between Anderson, TX and Navasota, there was the hat, marching along toward Anderson, the county seat. I waved and hurried on to Navasota, keeping to schedule.

Next day, I saw him downtown and asked: "Where were you going yesterday?"

"To Anderson; I got a jury summons. I never had one of those before. What a privilege!"

Well, 30 years a merchant seaman, summons never came to him. So, it was a privilege.

"You walked?"

"Sure, only about 10 miles. What a privilege!"

One of our great liberties is anchored in the right to trial by a jury of our peers. As the comic said, it can be a scary thing to rest your fate in the hands and minds of 12 people who were too dumb to get out of jury duty!

And securing that right is not done by mobilized armies and marching troops,or by laws passed in Congress. Securing that right is done inside the mind and heart that honestly considers it a privilege to serve!

Jesus talked about that, in the sense that the reality-issues of life proceed from the commitment of the heart. And if selfishness replaces the sense of duty in enough hearts, we're all in deep trouble.

Love liberty? Serve on that jury when called!

One Mildly Eccentric Friend

His sister died, so he inherited the house. 'Twas a good time to retire, so he left the sea, left the ships, and moved to Navasota. He walked everywhere. Found an old grocery cart behind a long-closed grocery store, cleaned it up, took it everywhere.

He made all the garage sales, walking all over town every morning. When I visited, he wanted to show me what he'd collected. A mechanic all his life, he'd bought outboard motors, dismantled and cleaned every part, and kept and cataloged the good ones. Salvage can be beautiful in the eye of the beholder, and valuable in the hand of a good mechanic.

Then people noticed he was bringing home BIG sections of what looked like scrap. Day after day. Suddenly, illness overtook him, and he was not seen again in the mornings, pushing his load of scrap.

A friend got volunteers to complete what none of us had known: his biggest project. Abandoned swing sets, cleaned, salvaged, cut and welded,combined into a huge set, almost finished. All primed and ready to finish. Volunteers painted, transported, and assembled his last great "salvage project": an enormous swing set for the Head Start school children.

Real values are transparent, credible, and powerfully motivation, even from a mildly eccentric friend. Makes you think of ancient words: "Go and do likewise."

The Downside

I'm new to this medium, but into communications all my life. Some days, like today, I think a blog is just an excellent way of getting a story out. Books are shrinking down, newspapers fading, TV shrinking, but this medium is exploding!

Sometimes, though, it feels a little like the chronicles of the sinking! Take today's MSNBC blog - http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/08/24/4961091-diving-down-to-document-titanic-debris - We know more now than we ever knew before, but facts are hard to come by. Let's go look!

In a world of "spin", we want to get down to whatever it is that's real. For example, today's other reading - jimvb.home.mindspring.com/2006/07/five-biggest-problems-in-world-today.html connected in such a good way. The biggest problems in the entire world come down to the Garden-of-Eden problem - I want my ME-time, my ME-stuff, no matter what the cost. Nothing new there! Just new manifestations.

I am determined to have my luxury foods, my air-conditioning, my on-and-on, and the world just needs to develop systems to manage that for me!

Getting down to it? Global warming and Peak Oil. That's getting down to it. Sometimes it seems that the downside of whatever we call the great final conflict is being laid out, with elaborate preparations that mask the seriousness of it all.

When we dig down, its' not just curiosity........ we need to find the foundation.

In a tricky world, sometimes we find the foundations flawed. In a south-east Texas town, in a housing subdivision, all the houses had broken foundations. Investigation revealed that when the foundations were poured, just before the concrete flowed into the mold, the crew moved the re-bar to the next foundation site. No re-bar. As the pace picked up, many foundations even had grass on the underside.

Ever wonder about getting to the downside of the world's great problems? I do.

Share a thought?

Two-a-Day

August brings football to East Texas, and two-a-days are those twice a day practice sessions in the fierce August heat. This year even hotter.

So, it seemed to me a good time to begin two-a-days in the blogging world. Besides, its COOLER in here at the keyboard. The other venue is called Blogging Lectionary A, which only means things to pastors, I suppose, but it's a three-year pattern used by many traditional churches to move through the Old Testament, Psalms, Letters, and Gospels over the course of three years.

Which makes it a good framework for me. And maybe for you, if you care to travel along.

'I’m sure you’ve read this quote before: “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Socrates said that at his trial for heresy. He was on trial for encouraging his students to challenge the accepted beliefs of the time and think for themselves. The sentence was death but Socrates had the option of suggesting an alternative punishment.' (http://www.relaxfocussucceed.com/articles/2003010002.htm) Karl W. Palachuk begins an article quoting one of the most quoted sayings of all history.

So, let's do a bit of that!

I'll bring along a deep barrel of clippings and useful stuff, a few personal experiences, and an open-ness to questions along the way. I'll suggest a few books that YOU ought to buy, including my latest favorite, Caroline Kennedy's "A Patriot's Handbook".

August is hot and dry. The cultural scene heats up all around us and the spirit can dry up without some fresh water and such.

Check back, I'll be here most days.

BCurious

Ethics, Health Care and Comfort Zones

Blogging is a new thing for me, so I have no idea how long it will take to get a response on this one. Basically, today I was asked how the church can support current health-care reform legislation, since so many people don't like it.

Interesting question. Should the church support only those things most people like? Should the church refrain from ANY ethical conversations, unless we get a 50% or greater public approval rating on the ethical positions expressed? Since, as Lincoln said so eloquently, we are (at least hopefully) a nation of, by, and for the people, should we not as Christians simply and authentically express valid cares and concerns through political influence? Can this nation ever be totally spiritually neutral?

Should the church just stick with salvation-chat and leave the other things alone?

We are in a strange season, if that is the case. What would it look like for the church to espouse only popular causes? Would we advise this as a part of Christian education, advising teens to "always go along with the crowd", so folks will like you?

It's not new, of course, just one moment's reflection on one of life's "ain't this wierd" events.

In a weightier sense, isn't it amazing that the church of Jesus Christ should grow "ethics-less", dedicated to the providing of larger and larger comfort zones for folks. Is that our task?

Just a Book Review

The Chaos Scenario, by Bob Garfield, is a celebration of huge social change in the collapse of the funding base for the last several centuries of newspapers, and the last several decades of movies and television.

The power has moved, Garfield says, from the old ivory towers to the consumer-driven communications, just like this one. He's right. In huge terms.

To touch and relate this to the news, the current scandal (taking its place in the long, long line) concerning Catholic power structures and pedophiles is an enormous example. To use Ireland as a microcosm, it only takes a minute for credibility to evaporate. No matter how much history, tradition, rationale, and articulate re-hashing is offered, credibility is the only "coin of the realm" that can preserve a future.

Spin-offs?????

First, EVERY proclaimer of religious truth and claimer of authority now has the issue of credibility, at the top of the list.

Second, if there was any doubt about consumer-driven loyalties to denominations and local congregations, doubts have disappeared.

Third, those who doubt the power of "word of mouth" can now test the power of "vote with the feet" in response to this.

Is this an ongoing conversation? Let me know.

I'm always like the word says: BCurious