Luke 10: 1-20 (links validated 6/8/22)

Some years ago, I thought of the perfect gift for one of my God-children for Christmas. I knew they were really into some cartoon character – I can’t even remember which one it was at this point: Sponge Bob, Barn Yard Animals, or Dora … Well whichever one it was, Sponge Bob, Barnyard Animals, or Dora there was this new toy that had come out, which was going to be one of the “most popular toys” of the season according to the Today Show. I checked with the parents, and Santa wasn’t getting it – none of their other relatives were getting it. So I set out to find it. I went to three or four stores the last week before Christmas – (a REALLY great idea by the way – Note the sarcasm) No luck. Fuming from the insanity of traffic jams, frigid temperatures, really into the season shoppers… I went home, searched online, finally found this thing, and paid full price for the gift with the added expedited shipping costs probably doubling the cost, which really drove me crazy. But it was all going to be worth it. Christmas day when my godkid opened that gift, it would all be worth it. I got to their house later on Christmas afternoon. There was a maze of gifts already opened and spread out about the house. Looking around, I figured there was no competition here, that mine would become the favorite of the lot (remember, the Today Show had told me, this was one of the “most popular toys of the season”) They opened it and looked at it. You have to love the honesty of kids – instantly I could tell they weren’t impressed with “Thank You Father Jim” as they put it down and went back to one of the much lesser quality, non-morning show-endorsed gifts. I felt gipped...

In the movie, “Miss Congeniality,” there is a scene during the beauty pageant in which contestants are asked what society needs most, and each contestant responds predictably, “World peace.” And then Sandra Bullock’s character is asked the same question, but she responds, “That there would be harsher punishment for parole violators.” She smiles and the crowd looks back blankly at her. There is a long and awkward silence. Then she blinks and says enthusiastically, “And… world peace!” and the crowd goes wild with cheering and applause...

On the screen is a painting by the American artist Winslow Homer. He was in his twenties when the Civil War broke out. He worked on this painting for several months after the war was over. In it he placed a veteran in a wheat field. A Union Army jacket is discarded in the lower right corner along with a canteen. The jacket has been abandoned presumably because the heat of the day makes it unnecessary. But it is also a reminder that this man has quit soldiering and returned to his farm. He has traded the battlefield for the wheatfield. The 1865 wheat crop is documented to have been a bumper crop. Homer shows grain heads almost at the height of the farmer’s head. It might seem that the artist is painting a positive outlook for the farmer and the nation. But there is more to see. The farmer is harvesting wheat with a single-bladed scythe, a tool that was already out of date in 1865. Homer chose the older tool because of its association with the Grim Reaper. While this veteran has moved on, both he and the viewers would have been reminded of the cost of war. Many of the bloodiest battles of the war were fought in fields, so fields had become associated with soldiers who were cut down in the same way that this farmer now cuts the wheat...

Canadian hymnwriter Margaret Clarkson (1915-2008) wrote “So Send I You.” Well actually, she wrote two versions: one in 1938 and one in 1963. The original hymn is much starker in its description of the hardship and difficulty those who are sent by God will face. Clarkson herself did not have a happy childhood and suffered from a couple of different physical ailments, so perhaps she was writing from personal experience and reflection… The later version is much more triumphant: less about what the cost and experience of the disciple is and much more about what the mission produces. It is quite similar to the way our lectionary text reads (first a description of the hardship and difficulty, but then the triumphant report). Did Clarkson live the “sent life” for the almost thirty years between the hymn versions? Did she feel compelled to share “both sides” of the story of following Christ? To see what I mean, here are a few verses from each edition of the hymn:...

I’ll admit it: I’m a Harry Potter fan. As his story begins, in the first book, I love how his true identity cannot be repressed, even by the concerted efforts of his aunt and uncle, the Dursleys. I love that he can talk to snakes. I love the fact that the Dursleys cannot stop the offer of admission letters arriving from Hogwarts, the famous school for wizards. The scenes in the movie about the letters arriving are so well done! I especially love the spells! I believe they are all loosely based on Latin and sound so cool, especially with the character’s UK accents. The young Hogwarts students take out their wands, which have been carefully matched to each student, and say some fancy sounding thing such as levicorpus and the person at whom the spell it is aimed, is left in mid air, dangling by an ankle! Or the wizard waves her wand and says aguamenti, and his wand begins to squirt water, like a hose. Another phrase will cause blisters to appear all over someone’s body and a slightly altered spell will make them disappear! There is a spell to make lost objects appear (now that would be really helpful) The bubble-head charm gives the user a kind of diving helmet so they can swim under water. But, if you pronounce a word in a spell incorrectly, it may be another spell, an unwanted one! One of the reasons the young wizards go to school is that they have to perfect their skills in the use of these charms, spells and curses. There are lots of accidents that the professors, more adept in their use, have to reverse...

The story of St. Philip Neri, who earned the title “Apostle of Rome” in the 16th century, is an example of the missionary zeal demanded by today’s Gospel. Philip came down to Rome in the early 1500s as an immigrant from Florence and a layman. When he arrived, he was horrified by the physical and moral devastation of the city. Rome had been sacked in 1527 by the Germans who had left much of the city in ruins. The Gospel wasn’t being preached, and many priests and cardinals were living in open defiance of Christ’s moral teachings. Philip prayed to God to learn what he might do. He read the letters that St. Francis Xavier had sent back to Europe from India, where he had been converting tens of thousands. Philip thought that God was calling him to follow the great Basque missionary to India, to give his life in proclaiming the Gospel...

It was the day life changed, becoming something it had lacked any capacity ever to be on its own. It is the day that your loved one entered your life. Often, when I visit with the family of someone who has died, I ask how their parents met. The story is almost always known. Perhaps it is not often mentioned, but it is passed on, like an heirloom. Of course, if one of the spouses survives, one hears a richer tale: not just the place and time of the first encounter but the reactions of both, their thoughts about this new person who came and changed life itself. Why is everything altered? Because he or she brought what none of us possesses on our own, someone else to love. There are those who like to concentrate upon a Jesus which their own minds construct, but they notice that the story of Jesus includes those whom he sent forth to preach in his name, both before and after his death...

Composer Giacomo Puccini wrote a number of famous operas. In 1922 he was suddenly stricken by cancer while working on his last opera, "Turandot," which many now consider his best. Puccini said to his students, "If I don't finish 'Turandot,' I want you to finish it for me." Shortly afterwards he died. Puccini's students studied opera carefully and soon completed it. In 1926 the world premiere of "Turandot" was performed in Milan with Puccini's favorite student, Arturo Toscanini, directing. Everything went beautifully until the opera reached the point where Puccini had been forced to put down his pen. Tears ran down Toscanini's face. He stopped the music, put down his baton, turned to the audience and cried out, "Thus far the Master wrote, but he died." A vast silence filled the opera house. Toscanini picked up the baton again, smiled through his tears and exclaimed, "But his disciples finished his work." When "Turandot" ended, the audience broke into thunderous applause. No one at the premiere performance ever forgot that moment...

As much as I enjoy Downton’s aristocratic family drama, I’m equally fascinated by the stories of the “below stairs” staff—the butler, housekeeper, maids, footmen, and valets who so precisely keep the house running. As a class, the servants take their work extremely seriously, and they find “service” to be a noble and honorable profession. They are loyal and dedicated, and often provide a quiet but comforting presence to the lord and ladies they serve. We may look down our noses today at the kid who asks us, “Do you want fries with that?” but, if COVID has taught us anything, we should consider that those who do the “menial” tasks might not be as menial as we previously thought. There’s something to be said for those who take service seriously. Take Jesus, for example, who said, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve.”[i] He didn’t have any issues with getting down on all fours to do the servant’s job of washing the feet of the disciples...

(Includes lots of Greek exegesis!!)

("Prophets throughout the ages might be called God's 'Fair Warning' messengers. The message has always been clear, 'Reject God's reign at your peril!'. On February 12, 2003, US Senator Robert Byrd gave a 'Fair Warning' speech that included these words: 'To contemplate war is to think about the most horrible of human experiences...")

("Most of us know these lyrics better than those of the national anthem. The melody is certainly more singable. 'Who can turn the world on with her smile? Who can take a nothing day, and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile? Well it's you girl, and you should know it With each glance and every little movement you show it Love is all around, no need to waste it You can have a town, why don't you take it You're gonna make it after all...")

always good insights!

(always excellent exegesis)

Barbara Brown Taylor, the gifted Episcopal preacher, tells a story about a visit she made several years ago to southern Turkey. She shares it in her book, The Preaching Life, a book that was published 28 years ago. She writes that while hiking with some friends and a Turkish guide, “We turned a bend and the outline of a ruined (Christian) cathedral appeared ~ a huge gray stone church with a central dome that dominated the countryside. Grass grew between what was left of the roof tiles and the facade was crumbling.” Taylor goes on to describe the shell of a once magnificent church, which now was filled with trash and indications that it was a play place for children. On the massive walls were still visible the fading frescoes … lambs of God and angels and medieval saints. In the dome you could see one outstretched arm of the victorious Christ who had dominated the building ten centuries earlier. She observes: “It is one thing to talk about the post-Christian era and quite another to walk around inside it. Christianity died in Turkey – the land that gave birth to Paul – the land of Galatia, Ephesus, Colossae, Nicaea. Today the Christian population of Turkey is less than one percent.”...

If you are Steven Spielberg, then you always shoot more scenes than can fit in the finished movie and it’s only after you see how they all turned out that you can determine which scenes slow the movie down, end up being extraneous, or just didn’t turn out that well. So you cut them. You sit with your film editor and begin selecting and slicing. Back in the day, real pieces of celluloid were cut and tossed aside. Today it’s all digital, of course, with the deleted scenes getting saved somewhere else on a hard drive, perhaps only to be revisited some day in case they decide to release an “Extended Edition Director’s Cut” on BluRay. That’s all de rigeur if you’re Steven Spielberg. Because then, of course, the thing you are editing is your movie. But the Bible isn’t my book or a committee’s book and so just because in the middle of Luke 10 Jesus begins to sound some definite notes of judgment and condemnation for those who reject the message of the Kingdom’s approach, that doesn’t mean we can edit that out, skip it, pretend it’s not there...

Sr. Mary McGlone tells of a Romanian friend of hers who experienced this type of evangelism. This woman entered religious life when participating in church was illegal; celebrating the liturgy could get you arrested, and secret communities of monks and nuns who operated underground constantly risked imprisonment. This woman had been working in a factory where some other young women workers attracted her attention simply by some intangible quality of their presence. As she got to know them and asked what made them different, they admitted that they were believers. One day, they invited her to pray with them at their apartment. Time went on and trust grew. They eventually admitted that they belonged to a secret religious congregation and invited her to join them. Being lambs among wolves, they had learned to evangelize by presence and only much later by formal invitations to discipleship. And McGlone’s friend joined...

Not too long ago, while preparing a sermon, I was reminded of linguistic philosopher J. L. Austin’s book How to Do Things With Words, where he expresses the conviction that you know the meaning of a word or sentence not by what it says (our usual assumption), but by why what it does, by what impact it has on you. For instance, imagine that I say, “The door is open.” Is that simply a statement of fact? Maybe. But what if you had just asked a question about why it was so warm inside even though the air-conditioning was on, and I said, “The door is open.” Then I’m not simply stating a fact but providing you an answer. Or maybe I say it with a kind of incredulity or even a hint of contempt in my voice – “the door is open” – and you realize I’m implying that a) your question isn’t too bright – anyone should realize that if you leave the door open when it’s 90 degrees outside it’s going to get warm – and b) you aren’t too bright for leaving it open. Or maybe I’ve told my kids several times that when the air conditioner is on, it’s really important to save electricity by keeping the door closed and I find it open once again and so say, with some annoyance in my voice, “The door is open,” and they feel both accused and guilty and at least one of them – hopefully – gets up to shut the door. Or maybe you and I are gossiping about a mutual friend – not that we’d ever do that! – and I whisper insistently, “The door is open,” to remind you that our friend might be just outside and to beg you to keep your voice down...

Jesus “took away the sins of the world” by holding, carrying, purifying, and transforming tension, that is, by taking in the bitterness, anger, jealousy, hatred, slander, and every other kind of thing that’s cancerous within human community, and not giving it back in kind. In essence, Jesus did this by acting like a purifier, a water filter of sorts: He took in hatred, held it, transformed it, and gave back love; he took in bitterness, held it, transformed it, and gave back graciousness; he took in curses, held them, transformed them, and gave back blessing; and he took in murder, held it, transformed it, and gave back forgiveness...

“I don’t remember the date,” he said simply. “But I remember the day,” he added quietly. “I belonged to a suicide unit. Our mission was to hold our position for 72 hours and take 98% casualties,” he explained. “We were to hold a key position outside of Berlin. I was always packed and ready to go. We had drills.” “And then one dark morning, we found out it wasn’t a drill. Those horns went off and we scrambled through the darkness into the waiting trucks. Grumbling, like soldiers always do. On the way they handed out live ammo. We got to our position. We waited. And waited. And then it got really quiet. A couple of generals showed up, looked into the darkness ahead of us and conferred quietly.” “We waited some more. And then we got the ‘All Clear’ about mid-afternoon. We never knew what happened. But we knew we were playing for keeps that morning,” he concluded. “I thought I’d gotten lucky because I was in Germany rather than Vietnam. But on that morning, I got a taste of just how real things could get—and how quickly I could die.” As old veterans do, he looked at me with a quizzical look that invited a similar story. I just nodded and we were quiet for a while. Like him, I couldn’t remember the date of the conversation. But I remember the morning...

Many illustrations about the persecution of Christians throughout the world.

All this talk of labor reminds me of a commercial I saw once. Picture the video. No words, just images. Men and women already at work by sunrise. Up early doing important foundational work. Up late doing what it takes to make the world run. Ordinary people. Ordinary work. Images of unity, constancy, and dignity. And then breaks in the audio. Men and women turn to the camera one by one reciting a poem as they work. And the poem is: How often times we hear the praises sung of wealthy men, of prince and duke and peer. They're lauded over the land, but you very seldom hear them sing the praises of the honest working man. Their hands may be both rough and hard. Their clothes and speech be plain, but you will find their honest heart without a spot or stain. Here's to each hearty child of toil that labors in the land, let us give three cheers with right good will for the honest working man. For the honest working woman. Harvest labor is downward mobility. Down into the foundational things. Harvest labor, he said, is not farm management. It's down into the fingernail dirty corners of the world. Wherever God has planted you. Down into the muck of human relationships...

Did anyone watch the programme on Channel 4 where people agreed to have literally all their possessions taken away? Life Stripped Bare started out as an excuse to see young people running about naked, because even their clothes were taken away. But each day during the making of the film they could take back one of their possessions and one person said that, although at first it was really exciting every time she got something back, the excitement grew less every day until she found she didn’t really need anything else. At the end of the programme some of the people gave away half their possessions to charity. They also found they had a lot more time to concentrate on what really mattered most in their lives.

Discusses the shootings in Orlando and is based on Genesis 19 which is referenced in Luke 9:51-62.

("Some while ago, someone wrote of a conversation he overheard at some East Coast upscale party. The topic turned to morality and at one point a martini-sipping woman proclaimed, 'Oh, those terms: adultery, fornication! Isn't it a shame that people still talk that way in this day and age?!' To this another partygoer replied, 'No, I think that what's a shame is that people still do those things in this day and age.'...")

It’s unfortunate that Nicholas Stargardt’s The German War: A Nation under Arms, 1939-1945 is a long read. Released the year before Britain has weighed European unity and found it wanting, it recreates, by way of diaries and letters, the personal experiences of a European nation at war. It also illustrates how the most diabolical aspect of evil is its ability to hide itself, even to take on a semblance of righteousness.

Seventy, after all, is six times more than Jesus' original disciples. Imagine a 600% increase in staff. But we might think of the number in a larger context. The population of the city of Rome during the time of Augustus (he of the census in Luke's gospel) has been estimated at 1,250,000. 1.25 million. What does a million look like? The composition of the silkscreen print below is made of a million dots.

When artist Bob Kane created The Batman in 1938, the so-called Dark Knight was a solitary figure. But in 1940 Kane decided that his nocturnal detective needed a partner. So, hoping to draw in younger readers, Kane introduced Robin: the Boy Wonder. Together Batman and Robin would become the icons symbols of justice in Gotham City: the Dynamic Duo. In the years since, it is safe to say that these two caped crusaders have become one of the most recognizable teams in all of popular culture.

Last week in Sacramento, CA, Baptist preacher Roger Jimenez said that Orlando was a safer place with 50 gays dead, and he wished it could have been more. The Westboro Baptist Church greeted the news of the Orlando massacre by composing a song, Shooters, Keep Coming Around. Such virulent religious haters hold up the story of Sodom as one of their main biblical anti-gay texts.

In Libya, a score of Christians are marched out onto a beach and with choreographic precision they are beheaded for the benefit of some blood-thirsty bloggers. In Indonesia Christian schoolgirls are dragged from a bus and butchered in front of their classmates. In Egypt the ancient Coptic communities have now been virtually annihilated. In Sudan Christian villages are routinely bombed and strafed. In Nigeria entire congregations are rounded-up, gunned down and left to rot. In India venerable Anglican churches are burned to the ground, while the faithful are hacked to death. In Palestine, Iraq and Syria, “ethnic cleansing” has reduced Christian communities to a pitiful few, elderly survivors.

We are always dependent on gifts. The older I get, the more I realize the ways my teachers (some of whom were even part of educational institutions) gave me the best that they had for free. For instance, Gretchen Heath, my high school drama teacher, gave me much more than a couple of plays to be in. She opened up a way of understanding the world and human being that I would never have discovered apart from the theatre. The good stuff she gave for free because none of us could ever have afforded to pay for what she knew out of a life dedicated to literature and theatre.

What many of the news industry’s theological illiterates overlook, however, is that Francis is a Jesuit (Google “Satan, Pope Francis” or “Satan, Jesuits,” and see what the blogosphere thinks of that!), and that order’s founder, Ignatius Loyola, was very much an early modern, though traditional enough to consider the Evil One a spirit whose invitations must be resisted through a rigorous “discernment of spirits.” In Week Two of Spiritual Exercises, Ignatius writes: It is characteristic of the evil angel, who takes on the appearance of an angel of light, to enter by going along the same way as the devout soul and then to exit by his own way with success for himself. That is, he brings good and holy thoughts attractive to such an upright soul and then strives little by little to get his own way, by enticing the soul over to his own hidden deceits and evil intentions.

("About 15 years ago, my wife, Tammy, and I were traveling through East Africa and we decided to go to Uganda to try and see some of the last remaining Mountain Gorillas in the world. The gorillas lived on the western border of the country, but we had to go to Kampala, the capital, because you could only get into the park on an official permit on a particular assigned date...")

("We become what we hate. This is one of the most disconcerting parts of being human. In blind fear at a daughter's hurt, a father becomes the one to hurt others. Unaware of what is happening to us, we turn into the very thing we oppose. The process happens over and over again. It happens within us, in our hearts and minds...")

("One repeat of Everybody Loves Raymond I caught the other day was when Ray's mother-in-law enlists his help in throwing a surprise party for his wife Debra. The long and short of it, the forever lazy and often foolish Ray ends up telling Debra about the forth-coming surprise, gets direction from her on how the party SHOULD be run...")

("James Billington, the Librarian of Congress and a student of Russian history, happened to be in Moscow in August of 1991, the tumultuous time when the old Soviet regime was giving way to a new social order. These were tense and dangerous days, and power was balanced on a razor's edge...")

("In Nelson Mandela's autobiography called The Long Road to Freedom, he said: 'During those 27 long years of imprisonment, I came to understand that I had to work as hard for the freedom of the oppressors as for the freedom of my own people because anyone who oppresses another is a prisoner of hatred.'...")

If I had my life to live over, I’d pick more daisies. I’d try to make more mistakes next time. I would be sillier than I have been this trip. I would relax, I would limber up. I know very few things I would take seriously. I would take more trips, travel lighter. I would be crazier. I would be less hygienic. I would take more chances. I would climb more mountains, swim more rivers, and watch more sunsets. I would eat more ice cream, and less bran. I would have more actual troubles and fewer imaginary ones. You see, I am one of those people who live practically and sensibly and sanely, Hour after hour, day after day...

("In The Worshiping Body: The Art of Leading Worship, Kimberly Bracken Long recalls the 1984 film Places in the Heart, set in Waxahachie, Texas, in 1935. Its last few minutes depict a communion service in a small country church. The few folk in the sanctuary do their best to sing "Blessed Assurance" as they prepare to commune. But then something remarkable happens...")

("One of the things we're asked to do as Christians is to help 'take away the sins of the world' as Jesus did. How? Jesus 'took away the sins of the world' by holding, carrying, purifying, and transforming tension, that is, by taking in the bitterness, anger, jealousy, hatred, slander, and every other kind of thing that's cancerous within human community, and not giving it back in kind...")

("Near the end of his life, Mickey Mantle received a liver transplant after years of alcohol abuse. But, even in this difficult situation, graciousness toned his words, as Mantle told the media: 'You talk about your role models. This is your role model – don't be like me.' Mantle squarely faced the fact that while he had been a superstar on the field, he could not manage his personal life off the field....")

("Two missionaries, commissioned to organize a new church in a South American country, visited, preached, and prayed with the poor people of the region for a year, sleeping in thatched-roof huts on straw mats laid upon clean, dirt-packed floors, and giving thanks for the constant diet of rice, beans, and potatoes...")

("The First Reading offers images of a motherly comfort and the Gospel demonstrates the trust that the disciples had as they embarked on their journeys with "no money bag, no sack, no sandals. What complete trust and faith they had! As I was reflecting on this trust and dependence on God to provide everything needed for the journey, the little girl I babysit for during the summers popped into my mind...")

("The church was saddened to learn this week of the sudden and unexpected death of one our church's most active members - Someone Else....")

Barbara came to church the first time on a Christmas Eve. Her husband attended to her needs, as she was bound to a wheelchair. She experienced the coming of God in many ways in her life, both in and out of church. She couldn't do much else, but she could knit, and knit she did. She prayed a prayer with every stitch...

("Dallas Willard once said that when he was a young boy, rural electrification was taking place throughout the United States. For the first time ever, tall poles popped up across the landscape of the countryside with huge electric wires strung from pole to pole to pole. But initially at least, not everyone trusted electricity...")

"Let me tell you about Fred Snodgrass. He died in 1974 The New Times reported his death, like this: 'Fred Snodgrass, 86, dead, ball player muffed fly in 1912.' Poor old Fred Snodgrass. Some sportswriter would not let the world forget that he had made a mistake in a ball game 62 years before his death..."

("There's a wonderful poem by the American poet, Galway Kinnell. It has the unlikely title St. Francis and the Sow...")

("A preacher was speaking at an open-air crusade in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Billy Graham was to speak the following night. But he arrived a day early. He came unannounced and sat on the grass with the crowd. In front of him sat an elderly gentleman who seemed to be listening attentively to the preaching...")

("Ann Morrow Lindberg wrote a marvelous little book that's been read by thousands, GIFT FROM THE SEA. It is a profound work. In it Ann Lindberg describes her alone time at her beach home. She tells how she experiences God's grace thru the simplicity of the life she finds on summer vacation..." and other illustrations)

("One of the people I’m indebted to when I look back at my past ministries is a man by the name of Claude Duteal who was an Episcopal priest. He graduated from Georgia Tech and was very proud of that. He majored in engineering and then went to study to become a priest in the Episcopal Church...")

("there are events and people who change our lives in a positive way. There is the story about a man who visited the Fiji islands. This visitor was sceptical of missionaries. He even spoke with the chief and told him that nobody believed what the Bible had to say nowadays...")

["Once upon a time a mommy and a daddy were preparing to take their two children for two weeks vacation in the country. They had, as do most mommies and daddies these days, a sports utility vehicle (SUV). They figured that they would travel light. For two weeks you don't have to bring the whole house, do you?..."]

("I have a friend who spent six weeks last summer along the United States-Mexico border in the states of Arizona and Sonora. Sara was working with an organization called No More Deaths, which provides humanitarian aid to migrants crossing the desert. Over 2000 people have died since 1998 trying to cross into the United States, most from dehydration or exhaustion...")

("Arthur was a nerd! A class 'A' ... number one... no doubt about it nerd! He didn't hang around with the 'cool' guys and he didn't have any girlfriends that anyone knew about. Arthur might even have been a geek! But... Arthur received an appointment that turned all the 'cool' guys green with envy and brought up the interest of the girls several notches..." and another illustration)

("A questioner asked Norma Cook Everist in a column in The Lutheran magazine whether the asker's church had gotten off track: 'My congregation is successful but I wonder if the success is a result of being popular and trendy while sacrificing Lutheran teaching...")

A rancher, in the West, hired a cowhand named Bob. Bob was a very good cowhand when sober. But this was not always the case. Bob seemed to have a weekend "flu." The "flu" was sometimes acquired while in the county jail. The rancher frequently went to get Bob from jail and tend to him while he had the "flu." People in the small town made fun of the rancher. He was teased about his "project." After a while the rancher asked Bob if he might take him to an AA meeting. Bob was so indebted to his boss that he felt he had to go. After a while, some months, Bob related later, "I found out those stories were my stories. " He was able to say, "Hi, my name is Bob and I'm an alcoholic." And that miracle of God began to work in his life. Next, the rancher asked him to go to church with the family...

("On July 4th, 1863 in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the grim task of burying almost 50,000 American soldiers, from the north and the south, began. The Battle of Gettysburg was the northmost battle of the Civil War on the most devastating for the Confederacy. Though they would go on and fight for two more years, the tide of the war had dramatically turned that day...")

("When I was a boy growing up in Jackson, Minnesota, we prayed that the spring and early summer rains would be good, so the corn crop would be abundant that year. When I was a boy growing up, we would walk in the cornfields on July 4th, to see whether or not the corn was up to our knees. When the corn was to our knees by July 4th, we knew that the corn was off to a good start...")

"One of the classic stories about missionaries is Brian Moore’s 1985 novel Black Robe. It is a fictionalized account of a French Jesuit missionary priest among the Iroquois and Algonquin tribes of present day Quebec in the 17th century. The story begins with the priest’s journey of faith from childhood visions of heroic martyrdom at the hands of pagan savages..."

In his book The Legacy of the Second World War , the historian John Lukacs honors patriotism but warns of nationalism. Many aspects of patriotism are natural, good, and even admirable. People rightly love their unique ethnic roots, foods, history, language, culture, and music. Homesickness is a compliment to the sights, sounds and smells which we love and miss when we are separated from them...

("The students had been working hard practicing the all school play. They were guided by a young woman who taught English at the school. She was a new addition to the faculty, She poured herself into those students and the play. In the afternoons when school was out, she carefully coached all the actors on their lines and helped them get their timing right..." and another illustration)

("It was always fun to be around Charles "Sparky" Schulz, the creator of Peanuts. As one might expect, he had a sense of humor that never ran dry. He also knew the Bible very well and had the kind of insight into the Bible that would delight most ministers when it didn*t shame them. But when he threw a party, he had fun and was funny and was a kind and considerate host...")

("Isaac Asimov once told a story about a Rabbi Feldman who was having trouble with his congregation; they couldn't agree on anything. The president of the congregation said, 'Rabbi, this can't continue. There has to be a conference, and we have to settle all areas of dispute once and for all.' The rabbi agreed...")

("Years ago a I remember seeing a piece entitled IF A CHILD LIVES WITH...: If a child lives with criticism, she learns to condemn, If a child lives with hostility, he learns to fight, If a child lives in fear, she learns to be apprehensive. etc...")

("In his book, Discontinuity and Hope, Lyle Schaller said that 'the height of the steeple is no longer the influential bragging point' of the church. Today it is conveniently located parking. Hmmm. He also adds the necessity of a first floor nursery and space where people can fellowship. This he calls a 'milling around' place...")

("On January 13, 1982, when Air Florida's Flight 90 crashed on takeoff and fell into the icy waters of the Potomac River, Martin Skutnik, age 28, saw the plane go down. He stood with other spectators on the riverbank watching a woman who had survived the crash and was struggling to swim in the cold water. Skutnik plunged into the river and rescued her...")

"A traveling salesman was traveling on a train through the countryside when it suddenly stopped. 'Why have we stopped?' he demanded. 'I’m a salesman and I have an appointment in less than an hour in the next town.' The conductor smiled and said, 'Nothing to worry about, sir. Just a cow on the tracks. Gotta wait her out.'..." and other illustrations

("The Clarks were the first black family to move into an all-white neighborhood. Before moving they made an inspection trip to their property. They saw a few of their future neighbors, but none of them spoke, and their indirect glances were less than friendly...")

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("There was an old farmer, ragged and barefooted, who sat on the steps of his tumble-down shack, chewing on a stem of Timothy grass. He was approached by a passing stranger who was searching for a cool drink of water. Wishing to start a conversation and get acquainted with this farmer, the stranger asked, 'How is your cotton coming in this weather?'..." and other illustrations)

When he was a young priest, St. John Paul II wrote a play called The Jeweler’s Shop. In this play, one of the characters, Anna, feels trapped in an unhappy marriage. She and her husband, Stefan, have ceased paying any attention to each other. One night Anna is wandering the streets, and she meets a man named Adam. He puts his finger on the pulse of her pain and asks her what she’s looking for. She admits that she can’t stand her husband. So Adam tells her that great love and happiness await her and that the person she was looking for would come walking down the street. Anna felt a sudden longing for someone perfect, good, who would be different than Stefan. Suddenly she sees a man walking down the street, and, on impulse, thinks, “this is the one.” But as she draws near and sees his face she realizes that it’s Stefan. And she wonders, “Must he have that face for me? Why?” That vision gave her a new understanding of love, and she comes to realize that we’re called to love the people God has given to us in our lives...

("There is true and old story told about a man by the name of Ali Facid. He had a small farm and a family. One day, the story goes, a Buddhist priest came by and said to Ali: You know, there are valuable stones called diamonds, and if you find one of these you could be a wealthy man...")