Mark 12: 28-34 (links validated 9/24/24a)

let me tell you a story from Sarajevo. A reporter was covering the then conflict when he saw a small girl shot by a sniper. He rushed to a man who had picked up the child, and helped them both into his car. Racing to the hospital, the man holding the bleeding child said: Hurry, my friend, my child is still alive. A moment or two later: Hurry, my friend, my child is still breathing. A moment later: Hurry my friend, my child is still warm. Finally: Hurry. O God, my child is getting cold. When they got to the hospital, the little girl was pronounced dead. As the two men were washing the blood off their hands, the man turned to the reporter and said: This is a terrible task for me. I must go and tell her father that his child is dead. He will be heartbroken. The reporter was amazed. He looked at the grieving man and said: I thought she was your child. The man looked back and said: No, but aren’t they all our children?...

Mark Allen, a six-time “Ironman” winner and holder of the title “The World’s Fittest Man,” is married to a retired “Iron woman” triathlete, Julie Moss. Ironman/Ironwoman competitions include a grueling triathlon of swimming, bicycling, and running, designed to push the capabilities of the human body to their limits. To compete as an Ironman/Ironwoman, one must be in superb, all-round, peak physical condition. Mark Allen has devised a 16-week program designed to get a person into a state of “ultimate fitness.” Allen also claims that if one follows this complete training regimen for as little as five hours a week, he/she can be transformed from chump into champ. Perhaps more startling is Allen’s description of his training regimen as a kind of “meditation” for the entire body. The training regimen includes four components: “heart training” for endurance; “mind training” for attitude; “nutritional training,” eating and drinking as often as they are needed those things that will support the members of the body to survive and thrive, while avoiding those that will have detrimental effects, and “strength training” for muscle mass. Thus, Allen has physicalized the Shema mandate given in today’s Gospel, (Mk 12:29-30), into a program for shaping and transforming a human being in his/her entirety. — When, in the Shema, the Lord God commands, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength,” and “you shall love your neighbor as yourself,” He reminds Israel, and us, that a big part of human existence is sheerly physical. It takes a certain amount of brute strength just to get through each and every day. To deny God’s presence and love in the physical world would be to remove godliness from our existence. As Christian men and women, we have our own Iron Person to look to as a perfect example of “fitness.” Jesus Christ completely embodied the mandates of the Shema – loving His Father, God, with all His heart, mind, soul and strength, then reflecting God’s love for Him in loving all He met, His neighbors, the same way. May Jesus coach us as we train in godliness, loving God and neighbor with all our heart, mind, soul and strength!

Boundaries are curious things. We speak of them as though they were absolute. But we can only recognize a boundary because we have some sense that there is another side. We do not speak of the world or the universe as being bounded. No, to recognize a boundary is already to have seen beyond it. That is the point of this passage from Anne Michael’s mesmerizing and rather mystical novel Held (2024). Science is supposed to draw lines, to define objects and categories. Human life, however, cannot be contained by systems and limits. Certainly not those qualities that make us uniquely human. You can speak of rational boundaries, but when you do, you are not speaking of human life. When we are moved, Paavo thought, when we feel something beyond us, it is the boundary, the limit of the body that allows us to recognize it. Limit is proof of the beyond. Not the self, but what lies beyond the self. He would not be surprised if physics made sense of it someday; but only because science is bent on proving it doesn’t exist. Scientists will rip us to shreds looking for it, but it will not be found where they are looking. He remembered a joke, about someone who’d lost something and was searching across the street, under a streetlamp. Why are you looking for it there? Because the light is better...

includes lots of Greek exegesis!!

always good insights!

(excellent exegesis)

How many of you remember learning how to drive? For some of you it was probably just a couple of years ago… I hate to admit that it’s now been 29 years ago so I’m sure things have changed in those decades. But back in the day – we had it as part of our physical education and health classes. So our health teacher, Mrs. Ratched had us in a classroom setting going though a book from the NJ Department of Motor Vehicles (that looked like it had been written in the 60’s) that had all kinds of rules, laws about driving. We would have videos about how to drive that also looked like they came from the 1960’s since most of the women had beehives and poodle skirts, guys in shirts and ties demonstrating how to drive. The one exception was a much more current film showing the effects of drunk driving (I think it was called “Death Highway” or something… I just remember it was pretty horrific – making the point of how horrific drunk driving was). Mrs. Ratched was responsible to teach us the theories behind the practice of driving. I remember her teaching us“the rule of thumb” for highway driveway (or as they called it “on the speedway” or “the Motor-highway”) for every 10 mph you drove, you should be 1 car length away from the car in front of you so at 40 MPH, you should be back 4 car lengths – that you’d measure by thumb in front of you… (Can you imagine?) I remember one guy in my class raised his hand and said “Mrs. Ratched, I thought we were supposed to keep both hands on the wheel, how are we supposed to use our thumbs to count car lengths.” She threw him out of our class...

Do you remember Drivers Education? For some of you, it was probably just a couple of years ago… Not sure how much has changed, because for me it’s now 31 years ago (and wow that is really not a fun revelation to stumble upon) but back then, there were two parts of it in one semester. The first marking period we would be in a classroom talking about driving. We had a book from the NJ Department of Motor Vehicles (that looked like it had been written in the 60’s) with all kinds of rules, laws about driving. We had videos, – oh those videos! About how to drive. Again, mostly looked like they were produced in the 60’s: women in beehives and these poodle skirts, guys in shirts and ties demonstrating how to drive. The one exception was a much more current film showing the effects of drunk driving (I think it was called “Death Highway” or something… I just remember it was pretty horrific – making the point of how horrific drunk driving was). This part of drivers ed was designed to give you the theories behind the practice. I remember them giving us “the rule of thumb” for highway driveway (or as they called it “on the speedway” or “the Motor-highway”) for every 10 mph you drove, you should be 1 car length away from the car in front of you (so at 40 MPH, you should be back 4 car lengths – that you’d measure by thumb in front of you…) One guy in my class raised his hand and said “Mrs. Ratched, I thought we were supposed to keep both hands on the wheel, how are we supposed to use our thumbs to count car lengths.” She threw him out of our class. Anyway...

There are ten ways to love other people: Listen without interrupting. Speak without accusing. Give without sparing. Pray without ceasing. Answer without arguing. Honour others above yourself. Enjoy without complaint. Trust without wavering. Forgive without punishing Live and love as a child of God...

Saturday morning, at a synagogue maybe a mile from my home in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood, a man armed with an assault rifle and several handguns came in and murdered eleven worshippers, shouting anti-Semitic statements. He too was shot. He had his wounds treated by Jewish physicians at a local hospital, apparently continuing with his insults all the while. I’m not getting a ton of work done. Walking down the street I’m prone to bursting into tears. I have no idea whether the murderer professed my faith or not but, God knows, countless anti-Semitic murders and other atrocities have been done ostensibly in the name of Jesus.

According to Morgan Cutolo from Reader’s Digest, “Close, but no cigar!” appears to have originated at 1920s carnivals, where games were for the adults, and the prize was a cigar. If you missed the target, the person running the game would declare, “Close, but no cigar!” Consider another idiom: “Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.” Both of these sayings help us remember the metanarrative message about discipleship in the gospel of Mark: we can’t just know things, we have to know them by doing them. Further, the agenda of what we are to do is set by Christ, not ourselves (think of the rich man or when Peter is rebuked). Jesus says that the scribe is not far from the Kingdom, but he hasn’t said a thing about the scribe’s faith, nor do we read that the scribe became a follower (like Bartimaeus did). It turns out that discipleship is meant to be a bit more like gambling, we have to go “all in”: heart, soul, mind, and strength...

I like the movie The Incredibles. It's about a family of superheroes who try to save the world from destruction. In Bob Goff's book "Love Does," he writes about the superhero dad in the movie. He is an insurance claims adjustor, but he really wants to use his superhero powers. He begins drawing pictures of the superhero suits he wants to wear. Of course, all the suits he draws include capes. The dad has a friend named Edna who makes superhero suits and she keeps telling him that he needs to lose the cape. She mentions how capes cause big problems for super heroes. They get caught on things like fences or jet engines. Edna is famous for saying, "No capes!" You get a lot more stuff done if you lose the cape. Bob Goff thinks Jesus agrees and so do I! You know what I think will draw the world to Christ? When Christians lose the cape...

The renowned Polish psychiatrist, Kasmir Dabrowski, had a thought-provoking theory about human maturity and what it takes to get here. For him, we grow by breaking down, by being driven to our knees through various crises which force us to move beyond our mediocre habits and immaturities. Richard Rohr calls this falling upwards: We mature through failure, grow arrogant through success. Mostly that’s true. Success, more than failure, destroys lives. But is that logical? Isn’t it more logical to grow through success? Shouldn’t success induce gratitude within us and make us more generous and big-hearted? Someone asked Dabrowski that question in class one day. This was his answer: “You’re right, success should make us more grateful and big-hearted; that’s the ideal way to grow … except, in more than 40 years of clinical experience, I have never seen it work that way. It only works that way in rare, exceptional cases … and that, I believe, is what makes for a great person.” A great person is someone in whom success enlarges the soul rather than swells the ego...

Daniel Grossman is an ER doctor at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. A year ago, he was a terrible accident on a mountain bike that left him paralyzed from his mid-abdomen down. Today, he is back at work, although his life has changed drastically. A lot of what he now does is physically difficult and draining – he has had to learn to do things in new ways. Many patients are shocked to see this man in a wheelchair as their doctor. But it has made it easier for patients to open up to him. When he tells them they will be facing a difficult road, they know that he has traveled that road himself. His parents, in their 70’s, are both recently retired college professors. They spend a considerable amount of time and effort helping their son. On a recent broadcast of NPR’s Here and Now, Grossman told about the moment that he apologized to his father. His parents had been traveling in Europe. They came to Minnesota to stay with him for six months. He said to his dad that he was sorry, that he knew this is not what his parents had in mind for their retirement. For the first time, his father teared up and then became almost angry. “Don’t ever apologize to me again,” he said. “This is what I signed up for on the day you were born. This is my role as a father.”...

A pastor friend in Minneapolis told a story about his childhood in West Virginia. He and his dad were driving through town and passed Old Man Hulbert’s house. Old Man Hulbert was out in the front yard, and when he saw Travis and his dad approaching, he started waving. Travis and his dad waved back. They drove in front of his house and he was still waving. They passed his house, and he was still waving. And then, they looked back in the rear-view mirror, and saw that Old Man Hulbert was out in the street, waving at them. Travis’ dad thought something must be wrong, like he was flagging them down. So he hit slammed the brakes, put the truck in reverse, gunned it, and went back to Old Man Hulbert’s house. He rolled down the window. “Is everything Ok? Do you need some help?” And Old Man Hulbert said, “Oh, I’m fine. I was just giving you a Big Howdy.” This is a time for giving Big Howdy's. This is a time for friendliness. This is a time for treating one another with compassion and patience. This is a time to love our neighbors...

Many people, women and men, have recommended, in the past, falling in love with God. Falling in love with God. And nothing is more practical, says Father Pedro Arrupe. Father Pedro Arrupe was one of the great Jesuit Superior Generals of the past and he has gone home to God. Why does he say this? Why is it so practical? And then he says, “Because when we are in love, when we are in love, we know what our priorities are, we know each day how we will devote our time and our talents. And when we are in love we find time to nourish our relationships.”...

("Rabbi Hillel felt that love of others was the core principle of Jewish teaching, and in a collection of his maxims there is an account of him being approached by a heathen who was considering becoming a Jew, and who asked the rabbi for a concise summation of the religion. Hillel told him: 'That which is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole Law; the rest is commentary.'...")

includes several quotes and interesting observations on the text!

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the man who created the World Wide Web, spoke on a TED talk on NPR about Open Sourcing, the freedom from copyright, royalties, and all intellectual property rights into which Berners-Lee has dedicated the Web. Open Source makes available to the world all the codes and design language used in the Web project. The principle in doing this is that creating things freely and openly will lead to possibilities never imagined by the original author...

("A number of years ago, a young man came to me because he was in crisis: He had been having an affair with his girlfriend and she had become pregnant. For a variety of reasons, marriage was impossible. The pregnancy would have an irrevocable impact on a series of lives...")

Fulton Sheen gave us this insight: “God does not love us because we are valuable. We are valuable because God loves us.” This is the bridge from love of God to love of neighbor. God created and Christ died for the least attractive, least accomplished, most annoying neighbor we have...

("Steve and Lisa met and fell in love while earning their MBAs at a leading university. Young, sharp, and highly motivated, they shared a common goal to succeed in business, make a lot of money, and live the American dream. Immediately after receiving their MBA degrees, Steve and Lisa married. Soon thereafter they accepted business positions in a large city...")

One of my favorite songs in The Wizard of Oz is the one where the scarecrow, the tin man and the lion take turns singing, If I Only Had…. It's a game that many of us still play today. If I Only Had… In the movie, each character had a different need...

("It is said that the arch is the greatest Roman contribution to building technology. A wooden frame was built so that the wedge-shaped stones could be laid. They were made to fit together, to lean on one another. Finally, a larger stone wedge was dropped into place at the top...")

("Ethiopia has never seen a single day without war until today. War has been the national trademark, part of the national news, and it is always included in daily talks on the streets of the nation...")

("Today as much as ever, people need to know that this kingdom is real and available. They need to see the joy and the possibilities of that kingdom in us. Because often people are too easily satisfied just to make do with what is quick and easy and cheap. People settle for sex or liquor or a rock band or the distractions provided by entertainment...")

("From the time he was seven years old Will Campbell wanted to be a preacher. After ordination at the age of seventeen, for twenty years he devoted himself to the civil rights movement based upon his understanding of the Gospel. He had few peers...")

("I love the thought of Karl Rahner, a spiritual theologian. He talks about God and mystery, and how so many people say we simply must believe what we are told about God and if it doesn't make sense to us we simply say it is part of the mystery of God...")

("There is a little Sufi story about a stream of water working itself across the country, experiencing little difficulty. It ran around the rocks and through the mountains. Then it arrived at the desert. Just as it had crossed every other barrier, the stream tried to cross this one, but found that as fast as it ran into the sand, its waters disappeared...")

("Once upon a time not so very long ago, a new pastor was assigned to a parish that was quite divided over the issue of what it means to be a good Christian...")

The second story is from the 1960’s. It is a briefer but no less powerful story, about the wife of a pastor.4 The minister had just retired from his position as the Executive for the Presbyterian Synod of New Jersey the day before he became a widower. While his wife, Dora, sat in a rocking chair on their porch, a man ran by and grabbed her purse. As he did so, Dora was thrown off balance and fell, breaking her neck. There had been $2.75 in her purse. But, as with the story of the widow’s two pennies, amounts are irrelevant in more circumstances than we might think. Hetty Green had long since lost any sense of scale, any sense of proportion when it came to spending her fortune, whether it was for a 5¢ bottle to hold medicine or a million dollars to buy a failing business. Dora also set aside proportion and scale in her commitment in her dying act. It is a sorry thing, an absurd thing to lose your life over $2.75. But Dora’s faith was judged by a different measure than dollars and cents. Her determination was to make even her death resound with the meaning of the Creator’s intention for her life.* As her husband, her pastor, and the chief of police gathered around her, her dying words to them were, “I knew the man, his family is hungry. Each of you promise to let the pastor have the church session take care of this man and his family, and see that the children get Presbyterian scholarships and go to college.” She was adamant, and lingered on the porch until all three agreed to her wish. Then, apparently satisfied, she died.

("Here are some laws that are said to have existed or still exist in parts of the United States of America: 'In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania it is against the law to sleep in a refrigerator. There was once a law in Iowa against women wearing corsets, and an official job of corset inspector who went around poking women in the ribs to make sure they weren't wearing one...")

In the days of the circuit riders a minister was out riding one afternoon and came upon a man out working in his field. "Fine day isn't it?", the minister called out. "Its fine for you", the man replied, "All you have to do is ride around on that horse thinking about God all day long, while I have to sweat here in this field and then walk home afterward. I don't think its right you should have things so easy while I have to work so hard." "On the contrary", the minister answered, "thinking about God is one of the most difficult things you can do. And to prove it, I'll give you this horse if you can think about God and nothing else for one minute." "You're on.", said the man and immediately he sat down in silence. Thirty seconds later he looked up at the minister. "Does that include the saddle?", he asked.

A thoughtful, curious young man went to the desert to visit an elderly man, a monk, who had lived in the desert for many years. Arriving at the holy man's cave, the young man encountered the monk, who was sitting out enjoying the sun, his dog lying lazily at his side. This spiritual seeker asked, "Why is it, teacher, that some who seek God come to the desert and are zealous in prayer, but leave after a year or so, while others, like you, remain faithful to the quest for a lifetime?"...

Once there were two neighbors who farmed together. They shared equally in all of the work and split the profits exactly. Each had his own granary. One of the neighbors was married and had a large family; the other neighbor was single. One day the single neighbor thought to himself, “It is not fair that we divide the grain evenly. My neighbor has many mouths to feed, while I have but one. I know what I’ll do, I will take a sack of grain from my granary each evening and put in my neighbor’s granary.” So, each night when it was dark, he carefully carried a sack of grain, placing it in his neighbor’s barn. Now the married neighbor thought to himself, “It is not fair that we divide the grain evenly. I have many children to care for me in my old age, and my neighbor has none. I know what I’ll do, I will take a sack of grain from my granary each evening and put it in my neighbor’s granary.” And he did. Each morning the two neighbors were amazed to discover that though they had removed a sack of grain the night before, they had just as many. One night they met each other halfway between their barns, each carrying a sack of grain. Then they understood the mystery, and embraced with joy. And as God looked down from heaven, he saw the two neighbors embracing and said, “I declare this to be a holy place, for I have witnessed extraordinary love here.” It is said that God chose that spot for Solomon’s Temple...

("Writer and poet Kathleen Norris sometimes gets asked to come into schools to help students learn a little bit about writing poetry. One day Norris was in a 5th grade classroom where she asked the kids to write a poem using some similes. To Norris's surprise, one little boy wrote a strikingly good poem entitled, 'My Very First Dad.'...")

("A reporter was covering the conflict in Sarajevo when he saw a small girl shot by a sniper. He rushed to a man who had picked up the child, and helped them both into his car. Racing to the hospital, the man holding the bleeding child said: Hurry, my friend, my child is still alive...")

Jim was a 35 year old semi-successful mid-level manager in a larger corporation in Chicago. His father was on the board of directors. When he came to my office, he had the anxious look of someone who was about to undergo major surgery or be audited by the IRS. 'I get the feeling sometimes,' he said, 'That I somehow happened to be born on the wrong planet...

("Let it be said that I have a remarkable neighbor in Upstate New York. A former schoolteacher, ageless, who does endless favors and yet is never intrusive. She saved my house from certain death on the coldest night of last winter..." and other illustrations)

("Tom Troeger, who teaches preaching at Iliff Seminary in Denver, has a poem about this passage: 'If all you want, Lord, is my heart, my heart is yours alone -- providing I may set apart my mind to be my own..." and another poem)

("Today, you will notice a door, a doorframe, and doorknob, leaning against the church altar, and immediately some of you think that you know what this sermon is all about. Some of you have already guessed that this sermon is based on the Bible verse in Revelation: “Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone opens that door, I will come in and live in him and he in me....")

("Barbara Keener Shenk in her lovely book The God of Sarah, Rebekah and Rachel puts words in poetic form to Ruth's decision to stay with Naomi. Ruth says to Naomi: 'Your inner flame warmed me and helped me see That loyalty and truth form bonds and last eternally. I came to share your bitter dregs with you And found the cup was filled with joy for two.')

Back in the 1920’s a divorced female journalist worked for a series of leftist periodicals and lived a bohemian life in New York’s Greenwich Village. In 1927 she became a Catholic, and then led a quiet rebellion within the church to reach out to the poor, the needy and the desperate. She was a pacifist, something of an anarchist and a crusader for social justice—not your standard-issue saint..." and other illustrations

In 1970 the BBC assigned to a popular commentator a special documentary on a relatively unknown nun. Malcom Muggeride who at the time was a popular as Tom Brokaw is today traveled to Far East. He walked through the streets of one of the poorest and most populated cities looking for a woman who served the dying. He finally found her working in the street amid filth, garbage, disease and poverty, that were greater than he had ever seen. But what struck that cynical reportor more than the squalor and decadence was the deep, warm, glow on her face and the compassion in her eyes. He asked her, "Do you do this every day?" "Oh, yes," she replied, "It is my mission. It is how I serve and love my Lord." "How many months have you been doing this?" inquired the stunned reporter. "Months? Not months but years, about eighteen" answered the woman. "Eighteen!" exclaimed the BBC commentator, "You have been working here in these streets for eighteen years?" "Yes, it is my privilege to be here. These are my people. These are the ones my Lord has given me to love," the woman said with a simple but joyful reply. "Do you ever get tired? Do you ever feel like quitting and letting someone else take over your ministry? After all, you are beginning to get older." "Oh, no," she replied, "this is where the Lord wants me, and this is where I am happy to be. I feel young when I am here. The Lord is so good to me. How privileged I am to serve him."5 Mother Teresa of Calcutta served the poor for over 26 years without recognition. Every day she would rise early and walk the streets in poverty to comfort the dying. She did not seek attention or fame. She only sought to serve...

Philanthropy! The word was first used in an ancient Greek play about Prometheus. The Greek Titan felt sorry for the primitive creatures who lived in caves, in the dark and were in constant fear for their lives. He decided to improve our lot.1 First, he removed the knowledge of the day of their death. This removed our sense of limits and mortality. Secondly, he placed in us a blind hope for the future instilling incentive. And finally he gave us fire to cook our food and make weapons for protection.2 Zeus was furious with Prometheus and has him taken to a remote mountain where he is chained to a rock exposing him to the scorching sun and night cold. Every day vultures attack him to eat his liver. Every night his internal organs heal to be ready for the next day's assault. Prometheus is defiant and unrepentant. The giving of fire, enlightenment and technology makes it possible for humanity to live civilized lives. Prometheus is referred to as having a human-loving, or philanthropic character The term philanthropos is the combination of two Greek words—philios, which means “loving” in the sense of benefiting, caring for, or nourishing. The second part of the word comes from the Greek word anthropos—humanity, humankind. A philanthropist is someone who contributes their financial resources for the betterment of humankind. While every donor is important the mega-philanthropists garner a greater amount of praise and recognition. Forbes Magazine recently had a very splashy issue listing those who have contributed over $1Billion to humanitarian aid. The members of this elite list should not surprise anyone. It is headed by Bill Gates and includes Warren Buffet, Michael Bloomberg, Michael Dell, and Ted Turner to name a few. There are some interesting facts about this list. First, the list is rather small. There are over 789 billionaires in the world and over 700 are worth more than a billion dollars. However only 14 have given more than a billion dollars. That is a rather small number. Secondly, all of the 14 are self-made billionaires. None of them inherited their fortune. Inherited money tends to stay horded. Another characteristic of this list is the number of Americans. Ten of the 14 are from the US even though only 45% of the mega-rich live in the US...

The church desperately needed to remodel the sanctuary. The carpet was worn. The color of the walls faded. It did not have a handicap accessible entrance. But how could they afford it? They were a large but older congregation with many people on fixed incomes. The leadership decided to hire a fund raiser. At the introductory meeting the fund raiser asked the leadership team about their goals for the project. Immediately a long time member of the church spoke, “You have to understand that we are a church that has a high percentage of older people, mostly widows on fixed incomes. So we really can't expect to raise too much money." The fund-raiser asked to see a list of our major givers. He took the list with him at the close of the meeting. The next meeting, he told the board that he had done an analysis of our congregation's giving. "Please note," he told us in his report on his analysis of the church's giving patterns, "that the majority of your top 50 contributors are 'widows on fixed incomes.' Please note that, according to my calculations, those 'widows on fixed incomes' pay about 60 percent of this congregation's annual budget. I'd say if you want to improve the giving in this congregation, you need to talk to those women first, find out why they give, then try to infect the rest of the congregation with the faith of these 'widows on fixed incomes.'"...

("In The Road Less Traveled, M. Scott Peck has a lot of wise things to say about love, what it is not, what it is. He says that love is not something that you 'fall into'. We do not fall in love. We fall into a crush. What happens when boy meets girl is basically a sexual reaction or attraction and is of its nature temporary...")

("Probably, we all have that individual who we still miss dearly, who we hold up in our hearts and minds. For me, this person has been my grandfather, Millard Mudge. Grandpa wasn't a leader. He didn't start any great movements, he didn't make headlines very often. But when he died five years ago, and over 500 people showed up for his calling hours...")

("I was waiting at a car park the other day and it was full. So I was waiting there for a car to go out so that I could be let in and there was a young man who was at the barrier allowing the cars in and out. He looked at me and I looked at him and then said so what do you do for a living?...")

"I spent all of last week in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in the heart of Amish country. Let me remind you of some of the recent events there. On the day after the killings at the school in West Nickel Mines, the Amish and the larger community supported the families of the victims..." and another illustration

"There is a United Methodist local pastor by the name of Rose Simms. She's written a marvelous little book about her life experience in the church. One of the things she says in it is that making connections is hard work. She gives an illustration..." and another illustration

("A particular church was having Vacation Bible School and the five year olds were outside playing Red Rover. You know 'Red Rover, Red Rover send Jimmy right over'. Then if you break the chain, you get someone for your team. If they catch you, you join their team..." and another illustration)

("In a little book by Margaret Craven, I Heard The Owl Call My Name there is a sentence spoken by the bishop that stands out for me. The story is about a young Anglican priest who goes up to Kingcome up on the northern coast of B.C. to the Indian village there...")

Secondly, Jesus wants us to love God and others with our soul. The soul is that part of us that denies logic. It is a mystery. Loving with our souls goes beyond what people would consider as normal. We give forth our love because we want to and it probably makes no sense to outsiders. During the course of earning her master's degree, a woman found it necessary to commute several times a week from Victory, Vermont to the state university in Burlington, a good hundred miles away. Coming home late at night, she would see an old man sitting by the side of her road. He was always there, in sub zero temperatures, in stormy weather, no matter how late she returned. He made no acknowledgment of her passing. The snow settled on his cap and shoulders as if he were merely another gnarled old tree. She often wondered what brought him to that same spot every evening. Perhaps it was a stubborn habit, private grief or a mental disorder. Finally, she asked a neighbor of hers, "Have you ever seen an old man who sits by the road late at night?" "Oh, yes," said her neighbor, "many times." "Is he a little touched upstairs? Does he ever go home?" The neighbor laughed and said, "He's no more touched than you or me. And he goes home right after you do. You see, he doesn't like the idea of you driving by yourself out late all alone on these back roads, so every night he walks out to wait for you. When he sees your taillights disappear around the bend, and he knows you're okay, he goes home to bed."...

("During the course of earning her master's degree, a woman found it necessary to commute several times a week from Victory, Vermont, to the state university in Burlington, a good hundred miles away. Coming home late at night, she would see an old man sitting by the side of her road. He was always there, in subzero temperatures, in stormy weather, no matter how late she returned...")

("One time there was an Israeli soldier by the name of Yosef. He was in the Six-Day War of 1967 and the Yom Kippur War of 1973. He later became a tour guide in Israel. He was known as a kind and selfless person. Kelly Mustian was a tour guide in Egypt and the two became friends..." and another illustration)

("There was a young man named Johnny, who worked at a super market. He was inspired at a company meeting to add a 'personal signature' to his work. Johnny was a bagger, a boy with Down’s syndrome. He decided he wanted to give more to his job and had an idea...")

"Last week, Willam Cope Moyers came to town to speak at Riverbend Church. But since he's also a long-time friend of Austin Recovery, he came and did a little fund-raiser for us too. William is the son of the famous journalist Bill Moyers who served as press secretary to Lyndon Johnson in the 1960's."...

includes several quotes

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("A number of years ago, a young man came to me because he was in crisis: He had been having an affair with his girlfriend and she had become pregnant. For a variety of reasons, marriage was impossible. The pregnancy would have an irrevocable impact on a series of lives...")