Mark 7: 1-23 (links validated 7/24/24a)

It’s with a heavy heart that I share this, but I find myself in a state of shock and disbelief. I’ve been unfriended by someone on Facebook, a turn of events I never saw coming and one that has left me deeply unsettled. It’s true… hard to believe I know. The sad thing is I was never notified that our friendship had ceased or ended. I simply went online looking for this person to wish them well with the start of the new Academic Year coming up. But when I came to their page I saw it no longer displayed the persons wall or postings or anything. It had simply an “Add Friend” button. And I couldn’t even message the person anymore unless I asked them to add me and granted my request, leaving me with a sense of abruptness and lack of closure. I’m sure this person’s not the first person who’s “unfriended” me. But the thing that, all kidding aside, was upsetting was that 1- this is someone who works in “academia,” who in the not so distant past were considered the most open-minded of people we’re going to find in the country; 2 – we had actually communicated quite a bit online about various theological, cultural and political things – sometimes we agreed, sometimes we disagreed – but I always felt the dialogue was intellectual, not emotional, and that we could maybe, possibly learn something even if we disagreed. As I have attempted to pick up the shattered pieces of my life from the experience of being “unfriended,” it struck me how these kinds of things are happening more and more—not just on social media but in real-life friendships and relationships...

Did you know that appealing to tradition—without providing any other arguments for your case—is a logical fallacy in rhetoric? In other words, it is not good enough justification. Perhaps Jesus’s teaching helps us understand why: when tradition is appealed to, we can fool ourselves into thinking that we are not responsible. After all, we didn’t come up with the tradition, we’re just following it. Plus, we don’t have to think about why we are eager to follow the tradition (and what vices or prejudices might be motivating us), we just have to do what we’ve always done. Following tradition becomes an easy out for those it privileges.

For almost 50 years Mother Teresa worked in the slums of Calcutta, India. She worked among the most forsaken people on earth. You and I would recoil from most of the people that she touched every day – the dispossessed, the downtrodden, the diseased, the desperate. And yet, everybody who met Mother Teresa remarked on her warm smile. How, after almost 50 years of working in conditions like that, did she keep a warm smile on her face? Mother explains, “When I was leaving home in Yugoslavia at age of 18 to become a nun, my mother told me something beautiful and very strange. She said, ‘You go put your hand in Jesus’ hand and walk along with Him.'” And that was the secret of Mother Teresa’s life ever after...

I cannot remember my father telling me that he loved me. Being a man of few words—as we say—it is not something that he would have often said, though, often enough that I do not remember any particular instance. But I do remember the first time I felt loved by my father. It came at the close of the day. The Sundays of my childhood were spent visiting our grandparents, both sets of whom lived a little less than an hour away. The day began with early Mass, followed by a morning drive to the home of my father’s parents. In the afternoon, we transferred to my mother’s family. A long day with lots of cousins would drain us kids, and we were fast asleep by the time we reached home after dark. Do you remember falling asleep in the back seat of your family car? You were not quite comfortable, but you were out cold. I often crawled into the window well above our car’s back seat. They were more spacious then, and child safety had not yet become an issue. I would fall asleep up there, counting immovable stars as the highway slid by beneath us. I would not awake until the car doors swung open and cold air filled the cabin. We were all so groggy! Dad did not expect us to awake and walk inside. Instead, he picked each of us up, carrying us, singly or in two, into our bedrooms. That is my earliest memory of feeling loved: my father’s arms carrying me to bed...

includes lots of Greek exegesis!

("Jerry Siegel was born in 1914, into a large, poor family, living in gritty Jewish neighborhood of Cleveland. He would remain a runt, the object of his classmates' taunts. As he recalled decades later, 'I got a taste of how it feels to be victimized.' Recess for him was an unrelenting retreat from bullies. Girls ignored him. When it came time for the class to exchange them, Jerry had to worry whether he'd receive even one Valentine card...")

(always good insights!)

(recommended reading)

(excellent exegesis)

Back in 1979, 257 people left New Zealand for a sightseeing flight to Antarctica. Unknown to the pilots, there was a 2-degree error in the flight coordinates. Most people hearing that would think that’s “close enough”- but that 2-degree error in fact it placed the aircraft 28 miles to the east of what was the planned route. As the pilots approached what they thought was their intended destination, to give the sightseers a better look of the beautiful landscapes they descended to a lower altitude. Although the pilots had years of experience, they had never made this particular flight before. So they had no way of knowing that the incorrect coordinates had placed them directly in the path of Mount Erebus, an active volcano that rises from the frozen landscape to a height of more than 12,000 feet. Sadly, the plane crashed into the side of the volcano, killing everyone on board. It is hard to imagine how this tragedy of epic proportions was brought on by a minor error—a matter of only a few degrees...

There used to be a 1918 Dodge Touring Car on display in the Car Collectors Museum in Nashville, Tenn. Its little placard told an interesting story. “In 1918, the father of Albert Hillyard bought this car for $785. In 1921, Albert and his brother got into an argument over who got to drive the car into town on Saturday night. Their father drove the car into the garage and shut the door. There the car remained until found 38 years later, covered with dirt and chicken manure, with only 1800 miles on the odometer.” I’ve thought about Mr. Hillyard and his Dodge Touring Car many times over the years. Dad attempted to heal the breach between his children by making a rule. “OK, neither one of you gets to drive it!” I’m willing to bet that the boys just went on to argue about something else, and then about something else, and then about something else. The car wasn’t the problem. The problem was the jealousy and strife that lived in that family and in those brother’s hearts. They didn’t need rules and judgment— they needed reconciliation. So it is with all of us. Because our problem lies within our hearts, our healing must start there as well. Jesus calls us to understand that it’s not about the rules; it’s about the relationships...

Author Anthony DeMello tells a story about an ashram cat. He writes, “When the guru sat down to worship each evening, the ashram cat would get in the way and distract the worshipers. So he ordered that the cat be tied during evening worship. After the guru died the cat continued to be tied during evening worship. And when the cat died, another cat was brought to the ashram so that it could be duly tied during evening worship. Centuries later learned treatises were written by the guru’s disciples on the religious and liturgical significance of tying up a cat while worship is performed.” Most Christians, and certainly Episcopalians, have their own ashram cats...

I remember this one Sunday at church when a young child talked quite loudly through the entire worship service. Afterwards, I met an irate, long-standing member in the church office. A leader in the church at the time, the man revealed with his angry words how many people probably view that sacred Sunday hour: he was angry that his “nice time with his friends” was interrupted; he yelled about how he came to church to be with his friends and how this kid ruined it. He wasn’t mad because he thought God had been disrespected, he was mad because he didn’t get to feel the way worship usually makes him feel. That’s what a human tradition and ritual is all about, isn’t it, making us feel a certain way about ourselves? In the case of the Pharisees and scribes, it made them feel set apart from non-Jewish people. But in the course of setting up a way to get that feeling, separating from others became central to the task—and that willingness and acting to separate reveals an interior immorality, a broken heart in need of Christ’s mending.

Last week a friend of mine recommended the movie, Downsizing. This movie’s main character, Paul Safranek, and his wife decide to be downsized and move to one of the small communities designed for them. However at the last minute his wife opts out but he does know this until it’s too late. One day he meets his eccentric neighbour’s maid, a famous Vietnamese dissident, whose Christian faith is a driving force in her life. Her boss allows her to take his expired medication and the leftover food from his frequent parties. Paul discovers that she is spending all her spare time taking these items to a slum where many people are in need of food and basic medical care. At one point Safrenak is contemplating another irreversible change, but she is not willing to undergo it with him; there are people who need her!...

If you watched the news of the shootings in Plymouth a week or so ago, you may have seen the video which the killer, Jake Davison, made in the run up to the killings. It was terribly sad. He looked straight into the camera – another sort of mirror really – and he spoke about how much he hated himself and how hopeless he felt about his life. He was convinced that no one loved him and that no one ever would love him, and that seemed to have become a self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s hard to love people who don’t love themselves. He was convinced too that there was nothing he could do to change the situation. Eventually that feeling hardened into the bitterness which fuelled his slaughter of six innocent people. If only he’d known, really known, deep down, that you don’t have to have the face of a film star or the body of an athlete to be loveable and loved, maybe the outcome would have been very different, for him and for those whom he killed...

As a seminary student, I spent a year at Virginia Tech doing a campus ministry internship. While I was there the campus ministers group had Will Campbell come to campus to speak. I had the chance to have dinner with Will Campbell along with a few other people. He lived near Nashville and he was telling us about being on a radio program in Nashville a couple weeks before. It seemed that the singer Charlie Daniels had been on the same program in the previous segment. Campbell was interviewed for a bit and then they opened the phone lines. A woman called in to say how terrible it was that Charlie Daniels had used such obscene language on the air, and what did the minister have to say about that? Well, Campbell said it was hard to comment without knowing what Mr. Daniels had said. He asked the woman if she could tell him so that he could offer an opinion about it. Of course, the woman said that she couldn’t repeat that kind of language. And so Will Campbell told the woman, “Tell you what: I will say the most obscene words that I know, and you can tell me if Mr. Daniels used these words.” Well, the caller about went into convulsions, but these are the words that Will Campbell said: Hunger Bigotry Racism War Greed Abuse Hatred Exploitation Did Mr. Daniels use any of those words? The woman said, “Well, no.” And Will Campbell said, “Well, those are the most obscene words I can think of, so if Mr. Daniels didn’t use any of those words, then I guess I’m not too worried.”...

It is safe to say that no one is happy about this pandemic. No one wants to wear masks, sanitize everything, get jabbed in the arm, or worry about infection. No one. And it would be simple to navigate this challenge if my decisions only impacted me. But they do not. My decisions also affect you, and your decisions affect me; and these decisions affect the countless others we encounter in stores, cars, trains, buses, airplanes, hallways, offices, and parks. In calling us to pay attention to the thoughts of our hearts, and the words that come from those thoughts, Jesus asks us to give God first place as the source of wisdom and to act to care for our neighbor’s wellbeing. In an article found on The FULL QUOTE by Luther on BUBONIC PLAGUE – CORONAVIRUS | Pentecostal Theology.com we can see how Martin Luther wrestled with some of these things. I quote from that website: THE BUBONIC PLAGUE struck Wittenberg, Germany, in August of 1527. This disease was horrific: in a single day, an infected person could show signs of delirium, fever, speech disorders, and loss of consciousness. Soon after, [the person] would break out in large boils that infected the bloodstream and rapidly led to death. The mortality rate was extremely high. 3 Martin Luther and his wife Katharina, who was pregnant at the time, were urged to flee the city. However, they chose to stay in order to minister to the sick and dying. When asked by Christians in another city for advice, Luther wrote a pamphlet titled “Whether One May Flee From a Deadly Plague”. It combines faith and realism in a way that is powerfully relevant to our present coronavirus crisis. Luther wisely counseled his readers to utilize medicine and intelligence “to guard and to take good care of the body so that we can live in good health.” He declared, “I shall fumigate, help purify the air, administer medicine, and take it.” He also practiced what we today call “social distancing”: “I shall avoid places and persons where my presence is not needed in order not to become contaminated and thus perchance infect and pollute others, and so cause their death as a result of my negligence.” But he added this important caveat: “If my neighbor needs me, however, I shall not avoid place or person but will go freely.” He understood the urgency of sharing the gospel so as to lead the sick to saving faith before they died and to minister to believers in their final days...

The Dalai Lama once said: According to my experience, the principal characteristic of genuine happiness is peace: inner peace. By this I do not mean some kind of feeling of being ‘spaced out’. Nor am I speaking of an absence of feeling. On the contrary, the peace I am describing is rooted in concern for others and involves a high degree of sensitivity and feeling, although I cannot claim personally to have succeeded very far in this. Rather, I attribute my sense of peace to the effort to develop concern for others...

Paul Schrader’s recent film “First Reformed” goes deeper. in part it’s a study in hypocrisy. Rev. Toller is set up by the local megachurch as pastor of the historic church in town, but is really just the curator of a museum. Abundant Life church seems to be a thriving congregation, but it’s largely funded by the wealthy owner of a factory that spews our pollution. Everything is fine as long as the real issues are not addressed. Rev. Toller begins to see more and more the hypocrisy that lurks under the surface of his public piety. The strength of the film is that it’s not a cheap shot at ecclesiastical hypocrisy, but a sympathetic, insiders view of the danger that always lurks when Christians confuse the outward aspects of faith with true inward transformation.

("For those of you who have not seen Hell's Kitchen, there are two teams - a Red Team and a Blue Team. They work under the very critical eye of expert, world-renowned chef Gordon Ramsay. In any event, the two teams compete to prepare dishes in a restaurant for the hungry customers. Before any of the meals go out, they need to be scrutinized by Chef Ramsay. For some reason, as someone who can't really cook at all, I find the whole thing hysterical. ")

("Just behind me, close enough that I could overhear their conversation, was the long-time pastor of the leading Baptist church in town and walking alongside him was the moderator of our local ministerial alliance, who happened to be the pastor of the local Unity congregation, fifteen members strong. The Unity pastor was inviting the tall steeple Baptist pastor to the alliance meetings, 'We'd love to have you join us the second Tuesday of each month at noon.' The Baptist said, 'Well, we have staff meetings on Tuesdays and I'm usually tied up'...")

Throughout history, human beings have apparently been searching for an object to love, serve, and adore wholeheartedly. Despite numerous disappointments, the search continues. The entire history of humanity is a record of this search for some beckoning object. Influential figures have understood this search in different ways. Sigmund Freud thought it was connected somehow with sexual release. Another psychologist, Alfred Adler, thought it was connected with a drive for power. Karl Marx related it to economic issues. An answer that includes and surpasses all of these is that our desire is toward being and its increase. We seek to flourish. We want an abundant existence...

("I think of this, of a very human tradition which somehow became 'sacred' in a place I once served. I was walking on a beach in Florida where I was on a quick getaway before the start of Lent. As I walked I started picking up seashells -- those little clam shells which are so common. I was thinking about the children of my congregation and I was thinking about baptisms. I was remembering that the shell is an ancient symbol of baptism...")

("In her podcast, Looking in the Mirror, Episcopal Priest Martha Sterne, shares her beauty parlor experience and how her stylist Grady always screamed 'Emergency, emergency!' when she walked in the door. One day she was in no mood for his humor after a very hard week at her ministry in an Atlanta public housing neighborhood, seeing more than middle-class people want to see or know of the grind and of poverty. She says, 'Grady, I either need a totally new haircut or a totally new me and right now I don't care which.'...")

("My mother saved me. I was a geek in high school, a guy with black-rimmed glasses more comfortable reading books than relating to people. Shy. Introverted. But occasionally, because of expectations or longing or both, I attempted to escape my geekishness. Take, for example, my high school's Senior Ball. The 'big dance' was a formal affair. I'd have to buy a corsage for a date. I'd have to . . . wait! Worse! First, I had to ask someone to the Ball in order to have a date..." if for nothing else, just a funny read!!)

As enjoyable as Fiddler is as a musical, as lighthearted as it is at times, the questions asked are serious ones, important ones. How far should you change traditions to meet the demands of an ever-changing world? How far is too far to bend? When do the traditions hold us to what is good and important, and when do they keep us from moving forward, from growing and changing in healthy ways? What traditions are based on simple habits that have extended over generations, and when to they represent the unchanging truth?...

"Two decades of unrelenting scandals exposing the defilement of the church has left Americans skeptical that there can be such a thing as holy faith. Dr. Brantly, the AME community, and Jimmy Carter remind us that Christian faith is not about pietistic living, but is about a trust in God that will allow us to walk into the presence of painful life and horrific death, filled with the grace of the Spirit and able to honor it in everyone..."

("It was Henri Nouwen who first commented with sadness that many of the really angry, bitter, and ideologically-driven people he knew he had met inside of church circles and places of ministry. Within church circles, it sometimes seems, everyone is angry about something. Moreover, within church circles, it is all too easy to rationalize our anger in the name of prophecy, as a healthy passion for truth and morals....")

("In his classic short story The Portrait of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde grotesquely illustrates Christ's final point in this gospel: There is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile. Dorian Gray was a golden boy. Stunningly handsome, polished… an accomplished, secretive seducer… a practitioner of every vice. Physically he was perfection. Spiritually he was a hideous portrait of evil...")

("One of my favorite Dr. Seuss books is entitled The Butter Battle Book. Published in 1984, it is really a satire about the arms race. But the book begins with these words: 'On the last day of summer, ten hours before fall... my grandfather took me out to the Wall. For a while he stood silent. Then finally he said, with a very bad shake of his very old head, "As you know, on this side of the Wall we are Yooks. On the far other side of this Wall live the Zooks."'..." and Fiddler)

("In one of the great novels of Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, a story makes the point well: a stingy old woman who finds herself after she had died in the misery of hell seeks to be raised to the comforts and joys of heaven. 'I wasn't all that bad!' she shouts at a passing angel. 'What about that time when a poor beggar came to my door and I gave him an onion?'...")

For those of you who have not seen Hell's Kitchen, there are two teams - a Red Team and a Blue Team. And they work under the very critical eye of this guy, Gordon Ramsay, who, from the looks and sounds of it, is an expert chef...

("While I was a seminary intern, I experienced for the first time what it is like as a pastor to walk with someone through cancer, the rigors of chemotherapy, and the final succumbing to the disease. Especially as the end drew near, what worried this dear Christian man more than anything was what was going to happen on judgment day...")

"Florence Nightingale, known as the founder of modern nursing, began the work for which she has become best known, in Turkey in the mid 1850's, during the Crimean War. When she was asked why she did not write something and she replied that thoughts put on paper were easily wasted but thoughts should be distilled into actions, especially those actions which bring results..."

In Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novel The Brothers Karamazov, there is a story of a stingy old woman who sought, from the misery of hell, the lake of fire where she found herself after she had died, to be raised to the comforts and joys of heaven. “I wasn’t all THAT bad!” she asserts to an angel passing by. “What about the time when the poor beggar came to my door and I gave him an onion?” The angel swoops down and hovers just above the old woman, as together they look back upon that scene from her life. The woman had resentfully come to the back door of her grand mansion to try to shoo the beggar away, complaining loudly about the filthiness of his hands and face. “You don’t even wash before you come to beg?” Nonetheless, the woman had reached down into the bottom of her larder and produced a rotting onion that she handed over to the beggar. “Well,” said the angel, “that should be enough to open the doors of heaven for you.” The angel lowers to her a rope with that very onion tied to its end. The woman grabs on, but as the rope is lifted, others in the lake of fire climb on, hoping to be pulled out as well. The old woman, alarmed by this, cries out, “Let go! Let go! It’s not you who are being pulled out! It’s me! It’s not your onion! It’s mine.” And just when she says, “It’s mine,” the onion snaps in two, falls out of the rope, and she falls back into the lake of fire. The angel weeps, as she flies away. If only the old woman had had it in her heart to say, “The onion is ours,” surely the onion would have been strong enough to have pulled all of them out together...

("Shortly after starting work at hospice this year, a fellow employee demonstrated the proper way to wash hands: lather with soap, use plenty of water and vigorously rub your hands together for as long as it takes to sing back-to-back versions of 'Happy Birthday to You'. As a bonus for those of you unsure of the words for one of America's favorite songs, I've included Marilyn Monroe's memorable salute to President Kennedy on his forty-fifth birthday...")

("My father, Aunt Briddie, and their brothers and sisters lived through a time when Jim Crow and segregation ruled the South. My grandparents were sharecroppers. And in that system, about the only way to make any money was to have children; the children would work and help the parents pay off the debt they owed to the landowner. And to that end, my grandparents had fifteen children...")

"A house next door to us is for sale, but the interior is a disaster. If you approach it from the street, it looks decent. The lawn gets mowed by the realtor, the painted exterior is attractive and the fenced-in yard awaits a friendly dog. However, two consecutive rental parties left the interior in shambles. The carpeting, although shampooed for the sale, has to be ripped out...."

("Remember the story of Gulliver's travels. He came to a land of tiny people, Lilliput and do you remember the legality those tiny people were going to war over. It was whether one should crack the big end of an egg or the little end. The two sides became known as the big enders vs. the little enders...")

("The story is still told of Queen Victoria who gave a ball in honor of an African Chief. At the end of the meal, finger bowls were served. The chief was not familiar with the British custom of rinsing fingers in water after a meal so he took the finger bowl in his two hands, lifted it to his mouth, and drank it all...")

("A young rabbi went to serve his first synagogue, and he noticed that on the first Sabbath, when he said the prayers, the congregation on the left side of the synagogue stood at the beginning of the prayers, and the congregation on the right side remained seated....")

Our family saw the movie “Little Miss Sunshine” last night. The heroine is Olive, an 8 year-old contestant in a beauty pageant. She is daughter to a father obsessed with selling “winning” as a whole way of life. Olive naturally interprets that to mean her father hates all “losers” in life. As the moment of her performance arrives, her well-meaning family wants to spare her the humiliation and begs her not to go on. Olive studies herself in the dressing-room mirrors – looking herself up and down and deeply into her eyes. She realizes she cannot possibly win in the terms of these “pageants” of life that pit all our images of ourselves in desperate competition for each other’s approval and approbation. Olive’s only hope – like our only hope -- lies in being herself with such passion and power -- such faithfulness to her own identity as so plainly revealed in the mirror -- that her performance will expose and explode the very myth and illusion that life can be “won” as some pageant – or even as some war! Olive offers what can only be called a freak-loving dance (to the tune of Rick James’ music!) of earth-shaking resurrection. As other contestants’ families and the pageant’s producers react with revulsion to this undermining of their whole “way of life,” one by one Olive’s family of “losers” finds grace and courage to join in her dance!...

("We lived in the same house from the time I was about 7 years old until I was 15. One of the house's appealing features was that it backed up onto a large and wild jungle, filled with all kinds of wild tropical plants, animals and opportunities to explore...")

("A few decades back Kris Kristoferson had a corny song with the words Everybody Needs Somebody to Look Down On. After listing possible candidates, he said, 'And, brother, if you don't find somebody to look down on...well, help yourself to me.'...")

("We are a funny society. On the one hand people from all walks of life have embraced some form or another of moral relativism. If you read philosophers and sociologists, you will find a lot of talk about how religion and morality are little more than social constructs. 'Truth' is culture-specific...")

("'No outcasts', writes Garry Wills in What Jesus Meant, 'were cast out far enough in Jesus' world to make him shun them—not Roman collaborators, not lepers, not prostitutes, not the crazed, not the possessed...")

("Two monks, Brother Francis and an elder monk, are walking down a muddy road on a rainy day. They came upon a lovely young girl dressed in fine silk, who was afraid to cross because of the flood and the mud. "Come on, girl," said Brother Francis...")

Some years back a new self help organization was formed in the United States -- a kind of religious group really. It was called Fundamentalists Anonymous. The goals of Fundamentalists Anonymous are to help people who have withdrawn from Fundamentalist churches deal with the guilt, depression, sexual problems, fear, and loneliness that has been created in their lives due to their exposure to what can only be described as a sick religion. It is amazing really that such an organization not only exists, but thrives in our midst...

("Once upon a time a very, very conservative Catholic came to complain to his pastor. The new Pope has let us down, he protested. He’s a great disappointment. Ah, said the pastor who professed to be a liberal Catholic though in fact he was a closet moderate...")

("Once upon a time, not so very long ago, the friends and relatives of a young couple gathered in a bride-to-be's parish church. After the wedding party processed up the aisle and before the ceremony began, the celebrant made an announcement...")

("It's a shame they didn't have television back in the days when Jesus walked with his disciples on earth. Imagine the possibilities! Think about how reality programming might have covered that eventful extended weekend when our Lord and his followers were really put to the test...")

("Perhaps you have heard this statement with the blank filled in by one thing or another: Anybody who __________ is not a Christian. This blank can be filled in by any of a number of phrases..." and another short illustration)

On considering today's Gospel, I have gained a deeper sense of its message through a Zen Buddhist story told about Nan-in, a teacher who was active a hundred years ago in Japan. It seems that one day, Nan-in received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen. Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor's cup full, and then kept on pouring. The professor watched the overflow until he could no longer restrain himself. "It is overflowing! No more will go in!" "Like this cup," Nan-in said, "you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?"...

("St. Isaac the Syrian speaks in a passage that has become popular in our time, thirteen centuries after he wrote it: 'When someone with such a heart as this thinks of the creatures and looks at them, his eyes are filled with tears because of the overwhelming compassion that presses on his heart...")

("In the United States there are what is called 'trivia murders', murders in which a person is killed over some really little, what we would think unimportant matter. A person is killed because 'he used my hand soap'. Another is killed because 'he looked at me funny'...")

("Just before sitting down to Sunday dinner after church, mom asked her two children to wash their hands before eating. Her son startled her with his response: 'Jesus said it's okay to eat without washing your hands!' 'Where did you hear such a thing?' the lad's mother asked...")

There was a very talented minister who was very proud of his accomplishments. It was his church that had built a new building that was the envy of many others in town. His Church was growing a great Sunday School program...

There are sometimes movies released that, for one reason or another, do not receive a great deal of advanced publicity or many reviews–good or bad. But when one of these films, against all odds, proves to capture the attention and admiration of audiences who spread the word about its charms, it is called a “sleeper.” A recent sleeper that has come to my attention is a wonderful film called The War of the Buttons. It is a British film, set in the English countryside, and it is the story of two sets of ten- to twelve year-old boys in rival, neighboring towns. The drama begins with one group defacing a sign at the school in the rival village. In retaliation, the boys of the offended town, capture one of the intruders and humiliate him by cutting all the buttons off his clothing, His friends then mount a rather unorthodox campaign to gain revenge. They use a girl from their town to lure the other boys into an ambush. Then they emerge from hiding behind boulders, swooping down on them, completely naked, scaring them senseless and chasing them into a nearby lake. Some authorities report that the Picts of ancient Britain sometimes fought without clothing to prevent their garments from becoming entangled in the brush and as a way of intimidating the enemy. The naked fighting scene in the movie may indeed be, for the British, an obvious reference to Pictish warfare. One wonders, however, if going into battle without clothing is a really such good idea. One tee-shirt manufacturer has suggested otherwise. This manufacturer sold shirts emblazoned on the front with the words: DON’T FIGHT NAKED. This is not a reference to the movie The War of the Buttons, nor was it designed for students of the ancient Picts. Rather the words DON’T FIGHT NAKED on the front were designed to give the words on the back a more profound impact. On the back was a quotation from today’s Epistle reading from Ephesians:...

("On February 3rd 1959, at 35,000ft. above the Atlantic, Captain Lynch took a last look at the flight panel of the Boeing 707. The co-pilot was studying a map. Captain Lynch decided to stretch his legs, thinking that the worst was over. Shortly after leaving Paris they had run into a very strong headwind. But by now they had climbed above the storm...")

("Do you remember the Milli Vanilli band? They were a popular singing duo which won a Grammy award in 1989. Their songs included hits like Blame It on the Rain and All or Nothing. In 1990 the band had its Grammy award taken away...")

("One of the most enjoyable movies that I have ever seen was the movie Fiddler on the Roof. Many of you perhaps have seen Fiddler and if you did, you haven’t forgotten it. It was two hours of sheer theatrical pleasure...")

("Mary Pipher, in her book The Shelter of Each Other, tells of a family that spent a year in a rain forest in Brazil. They lived in a Stone Age village of eighty people on the banks of a muddy river. The children quickly adapted to the culture. At home they were just like other kids: easily bored, acquisitive and reluctant to work...")

("The story is told of a family and friends gathered for a special dinner that called for the best china and everyone's favorite recipes. All were seated at the table, waiting hungrily for the turkey to be served so dinner could begin. The proud cook strode through the doorway, the weight of the platter straining her grip, and she tripped on the carpet's edge...")

We all know the coast is a dangerous place for hurricanes. Years ago, one city was pretty severely damaged by a big hurricane including the church buildings. One church sustained very heavy damage to the sanctuary itself. Part of the roof was blown away and debris was all over the inside of the building. Yet, the parish hall which was sizable was basically untouched. The Sunday after the hurricane the parish hall was packed with people. They had the highest attendance at a service in months. The next Sunday the crowd was considerably smaller. The numbers started to drop quickly. Some people were asked why they stopped coming. The answer was, "When they finish the repairs to the church, I'll be back. It's just not worship in the parish hall." They missed the point of worship...

("Many years ago there lived a man in Charleston by the name of Elijah. He loved to fish and he loved to hunt. He also loved spicy hot food. His barbecued chicken would set off the alarms at the fire department if you drove by the doors. He was also very talented mechanically. He could take anything apart and put it back together...")

("James Dunn notes that in the first century a disproportionate amount of rabbinic attention was devoted to three areas of the law: dietary rules, Sabbath-keeping and circumcision. This was in spite of the fact that rabbis would not have claimed these as the central aspects of God's will for humanity..." and other quotes)

("This past week I began reading A Cup of Coffee at the Soul Café. In chapter one, he makes reference to the potter and the clay metaphorically. In that chapter there is a quote from Al Qoyawayma, one of the world's finest potters. Let me share that quote with you...")

("While strolling through the grocery store during my weekly trip to stock up on lunches and snacks, I noticed a warning label on one of the products that I was about to purchase. The thought struck me that warning labels have become the 'ceremonial' laws of our consumer conscious society...")

Mary was adopted at six weeks into a Christian home. Her adopted mother prayed for her everyday. After she graduated from school, Mary became friends with a group of people who loved to party. Somebody offered her some smack and said, "Snort this, it's really fab." Even after she was warned that the stuff she was inhaling was heroin, Mary continued. She could not understand how some harmless powder could do any harm. She also enjoyed the wonderful feeling it gave her. Soon Mary was chasing the dragon and then mainlining. She spent six years lying, whoring, deceiving herself and others. When she was arrested for stealing some cheques, the newspapers got a hold of it. While Mary was a nobody but her father was an ambassador. She was sent to prison for six weeks. The terms of her probation required her to go for drug rehabilitation at a clinic. She slowly began to piece her life together but she continued to party. One morning she woke up with a bad hangover from a night of heavy drinking. She recalled that "...I suddenly found the old feeling of oblivion coming back." She called a friend who had become a Christian. Daphne prayed with her on the phone and later took her to an Alpha course. Mary's life began to change. She began to pray and God answered her prayers. Then on the weekend retreat during one on the teachings on the Holy Spirit, Mary gave her life to Christ and embarked on the adventure of discipleship...

("here is a great story of male childishness and female rootlessness in the first book of Kings. Ahab the king covets the vineyard of Naboth and offers to buy it or give another in exchange for it. But Naboth answered Ahab, 'The Lord forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my ancestors.'...")

("A young man once came to a great rabbi and asked to be made a rabbi. The rabbi stood at the window looking out upon the yard while the rabbinical candidate was droning into his ears a glowing account of his piety and learning. The young man said, 'You see, Rabbi, I always go dressed in spotless white like the sages of old. I never drink any alcoholic beverages...")

("In the opening scene of the famous musical Fiddler on the Roof, Tevye, the lead character, asks a question that is something like: 'How do we retain this fragile balance in life?' His answer of course, he says he can tell you in just one word: Tradition!...")

("A middle-aged woman was telling her girlfriends of her experience looking for a new dentist. She said as she waited for him to come in she noticed his credentials on the wall. Looking at them carefully she said his full name was the same as a very handsome, athletic, young man she had known in high school...")

("The book I referred to at the beginning of this sermon has an interesting title Heartwood. It refers to a type of tree that add layers of new wood under the bark each year thus becoming stronger and stronger from the inside until they almost become like iron. Old Timers used to say that they would bust their axes on it....")

("A downtown business man liked to have his shoes shined every day. He always had the same little boy do it. The shoe shine boy always did a good job. One day the man asked him, 'How come you are son conscientious about your work?'...")

(Scroll down for these reflections.)

Scroll down the page for this resource.

Scroll down the page for this resource.

Scroll down the page for these activities.

Scroll down the page for these activities.

Scroll down the page for this resource.

Scroll down the page for this resource.