Matthew 10: 16-39 (links validated 5/23/2023)

This past week I spent time with hundreds of recent college graduates – including six from Montclair State University – out in Lincoln, Nebraska. They were out there completing their first phase of training to serve as FOCUS missionaries for the next two to three years of their lives. FOCUS is an acronym for the Fellowship Of Catholic University Students. So these twenty-somethings have committed to Prayer, Study, and going out to their peers and encouraging them into deeper relationships with Jesus’ Christ and the Catholic Church which He founded. More than just reaching out to them to come to Mass and a Bible study, they go the next step and encourage and challenge their peers to strive for excellence in their studies and live soberly and chastely. We are blessed to have had a team of 4 missionaries serving at Montclair for the last 13 years. And it’s amazing to see them going out regularly throughout the school year, creating events to invite people to come, or just engaging people their age in dialogue on campus. In order to do this, these young people have to fundraise their salaries. So a few weeks ago, they started reaching out to family members, friends, friends of their families, former employers, teachers, and coaches – explaining to them what they are doing and inviting them to consider joining their support team by making a monthly contribution...

Let me tell you a story: Imagine someone who didn't sleep well. Work has been hard, the kids have been sick, and it's too late to make themselves some lunch for work. So they duck out from work to buy some lunch and walk past a young woman sitting on a blanket in that winter wind tunnel which we call Grenfell Street. She looks cold, miserable, sick, and hungry. Our friend turns back and says, "I'm just getting some coffee. Would you like some? How do you have it?" And a few minutes later they return with a flat white with two sugars. "They had some good muffins, too," says our friend... and sits down next to the beggar. Some folk have a gift of compassion that simply blows my mind: Our friend talks to the young woman as though she's someone they've known for years. On the surface it sounds like light chat, just small talk, of no consequence, but the young woman is being healed. She is being treated like a fellow human being instead of a despised outcast. She is being loved, some of her life is being given back to her. She has a friend. Eventually, our friend stuffs the muffin bag into their empty coffee cup, and says, "I should get back to work. Perhaps I'll see you around." And gives her new friend some money for tea. And few metres down the footpath, our friend is shoved into the wall of a building. A man in a thousand dollar suit and a hundred dollar haircut yells at her, "What do you think you are doing!? Why pander to lazy no good f's like her!? They don't deserve it!" His spittle sprays across her face and he storms off, shaking with rage...

(includes lots of Greek exegesis!!)

"Gale Sayers and Brian Piccolo were running backs for the Chicago Bears who began rooming together in 1967 when Sayers was recovering from major knee surgery that threatened to end his career. It was a first for race relations for professional football. They were the first white and black to share a room. They developed a loyalty to each other that we learned about from the movie Brian’s Song..."

("In 1998 a young priest, who was just 33 years old at the time, had some devastating news. He'd been suffering from blurred vision and problems with balance, and tests revealed that he had multiple sclerosis. There's no good time to get news like that, but this was a particularly bad moment. His second child had just been born, and he had just taken up a new job at Coventry Cathedral as director of the International Centre for Reconciliation which was based there..." - powerful story!)

always good insights!

(excellent exegsis)

What are you afraid of? Not too long ago, there was a story that was published entitled Cancer Doctors Avoid End-of Life Talk. It reported that many oncologists often refuse to tell terminally ill patients the truth about their condition. One of the main reasons is fear. The doctors talk about their own personal fear over breaking difficult news coupled with their concern of bringing even more fear to their patients. The article went through a list of reasons why this was so difficult for the doctors but, not surprisingly the same study said that cancer patients who were informed by their doctor of their true condition often did better than those who were not. Most patients who knew their condition were better prepared to face the reality, as well as their families. It helped them make decisions they had been putting off. Sure it didn’t remove all of people’s understandable fears, but the truth often helped mitigate it...

Once, when I was maybe five or six years old, my grandfather tried to teach me how to prepare a bundle of tobacco leaves for market. The adults in my family spent several months in the fall doing this. It was a very hands-on, time consuming, traditional craft. The farmer took a handful of cured leaves, arranged the stems evenly, then wrapped a leaf around the top, binding the whole thing together. Every time I tried it quickly fell apart. After what seemed to me an eternity but, since I was a little kid, was probably only 10 or 15 minutes, I threw my leaves down in disgust and whined, “Come on Grandpa, show me the easy way!” Grandpa looked at me, chuckled a bit, picked up the leaves, and drew me into his arms, “I’m sorry to tell you this Son, but there just ain’t no easy way.” In today’s gospel lesson, we hear Jesus say the same thing, “Child of God, I know you want to follow me, and I have to tell you a difficult truth; there is no easy way. There is only this way, the way of the cross.”...

Years ago a man named Millard Fuller was pretty near the apex of an American success story. He was a high-octane corporate executive working eight days a week and pulling down close to a million bucks a year. But then one day he heard God calling to him, telling him his life was overfull and his priorities out of whack. So in prayer with his wife one day, Fuller re-committed his life to Christ. He quit his job, moved to a more modest house, and wondered what to do next. What he ended up doing next was building affordable houses for low-income families who could purchase these homes interest-free. Today we are most of us well aware of the great good Habitat for Humanity has done. A preacher once re-counted Fuller’s story but was later approached by someone who asked, “How old were Fuller’s children when he quit his job like that?” It took this preacher a minute to appreciate what lay behind this query: how dare Fuller uproot his kids and subject them to a less lavish lifestyle just so that he could serve God?!...

The most fearless person I have known took these words of Jesus seriously. Physical discomfort, strife, censure, disappointment, foolishness in the eyes of the world, none of these could intimidate her. Even the sight of violence, whether in ugly war or mean streets, seemed not to daunt her. She once saw a rape in progress. She did not try to hide, did not worry or fret. She simply pulled her old Volkswagen over to the sidewalk close to the sordid scene and looked at the man—his foot on the stomach of his victim. He was frozen by her light, by her sight. He insisted that she leave, escape, mind her own business. Yet she stayed with her terrible light, her fearless gaze. After many minutes, the rapist ran. And she, with the victim, came to me and my secure community to seek help. This woman had no fear of those who deprive the body of life. It was only later that she would fear the enemy that can destroy the soul...

In the typical arrangement, shown here in Hans Memling's triptych, Jesus sits on a throne. A stem of lilies extends from one side of his mouth; a sword extends from the other. The lilies symbolize mercy; the sword justice. Jesus' right hand (under the lilies) forms a symbol of blessing; his left hand (under the sword) is palm down, indicating a curse. As the ultimate and final judge, Jesus brings both mercy and justice. Is that what the sword in Matthew's gospel means? Does that sword represent judgment?...

Besides a bunch of college history professors, who in recent memory talked about the American Revolution until the musical "Hamilton" hit Broadway? In this Tony-Award-winning hit, a gloriously diverse cast uses rap, hip hop, jazz, R&B, ballads, and more to share the life and legacy of Alexander Hamilton with the 21st century. We learn of his tragic childhood, his gifts with the spoken and written word, his passion for justice and revolution, and his human frailties. We hear how he created our federal financial structures and how he made many enemies over the years with his fearlessness in speaking up for the causes in which he believed. Throughout the play, Hamilton is held in contrast with Aaron Burr, another intelligent rising star with many gifts, but a man who refuses to speak out for what he knows is right. Burr continually waits to see where the majority of society will land on important issues. He refuses to take a stand, refuses to help those who are on the side of good, refuses to lead. Burr waits so long to side with the revolutionaries that he is snubbed repeatedly by George Washington for his lack of courage and character. Aaron Burr gets excluded from the key decisions that help win a revolution and shape a young nation, and he never gains the respect by those who embrace Hamilton for his bravery and willingness to speak up, even in the face of a powerful British government, loyalists all around, and a fledgling movement. In the song, "My Shot," Hamilton and his fellow revolutionaries get energized to lead the colonists to get out from under the oppressive burdens imposed on the colonies by King George and the British rule, to stand up for what is just, and to wait no longer to work for the cause that they realize is worth living and dying for, a cause beyond themselves, a cause that will make their world a better place. As Hamilton and his friends become bolder and more resolute in their plans, this song reaches a fever pitch with the call to "Rise Up!" It is time to take their shot, to act for that which is most important to them...

Lawyer Kenneth Feinberg chaired the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund, which gave money to the family of each person who died in the 2001 terror attacks. Starting with a formula and then using his discretion, Feinberg considered the victims’ age, their dependents, whether they had life insurance—and their income and earning potential. The value assigned to these lost lives varied dramatically: as little as $250,000 for blue-collar workers, as much as $7.1 million for executives. Feinberg later reflected on his experience. “As I met with the 9/11 families and wrestled with issues surrounding the valuation of lives lost, I began to question this basic premise of our legal system,” he told NPR. “Trained in the law, I had always accepted that no two lives were worth the same in financial terms. But now I found the law in conflict with my growing belief in the equality of all life.”... After the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund completed its work, Kenneth Feinberg received a call from the president of Virginia Tech, asking him to manage the fund that would distribute compensation to the families of the students and faculty killed in the 2007 mass shooting. “I realized that Feinberg the citizen should trump Feinberg the lawyer,” he said. “My legal training would no longer stand in the way. This time all victims—students and faculty alike—would receive the same compensation.”...

As Christians, we recognize that our allegiance has shifted. No longer are we to pledge ourselves primarily to family. Indeed, we are called to pick up our Cross and leave our family. What this looks like today is holding all of our relationships loosely, keeping Jesus as the primary relationship in our lives. It also means we radically redefine family. No longer are parents and children the primary form of family. Jesus created a “found family” with 12 disciples of different ages, skills, and backgrounds. He created family with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. He created family in an Upper Room. Biological bonds are replaced by the bonds of kinship in the great family of Jesus Christ.

One of my favorite bands has a song called, Small, Swift Birds. It uses this image to teach us to appreciate how important every encounter is, to teach us to appreciate each moment. I have heard about the lives of small swift birds.
They dazzle with their colour and their deftness through the air.
Just a simple glimpse will keep you simply standing there….
And then there’s the day we look for them and can’t find them anywhere.

Did you ever see that great musical Les Miserables? There’s a song lyric that succinctly makes Jesus’ point in verse 10:28. Jean Valjean, the ex-con who has broken parole and started a new life, learns that a man who looks just like him has been arrested in his place. He knows he will be sent back to prison if he corrects the mistaken identity. He also knows the cruelty the innocent man will face in prison. In a poignant and powerful solo he sings, “If I speak I am condemned. If I keep silent I am damned.”

The most fearless person I have known took these words of Jesus seriously. Physical discomfort, strife, censure, disappointment, foolishness in the eyes of the world, none of these could intimidate her. Even the sight of violence, whether in ugly war or mean streets, seemed not to daunt her. She once saw a rape in progress. She did not try to hide, did not worry or fret. She simply pulled her old Volkswagen over to the sidewalk close to the sordid scene and looked at the man—his foot on the stomach of his victim. He was frozen by her light, by her sight. He insisted that she leave, escape, mind her own business. Yet she stayed with her terrible light, her fearless gaze. After many minutes, the rapist ran. And she, with the victim, came to me and my secure community to seek help.

We human beings never stop being fearful of life, just as we never stop sinning, and the harmony between those two facts of life ought to tell us something. There is still another congruence: Fear, like sin, is not immediately recognized. It takes a certain grace to see how fear clips our wings. That is because fear is so much a part of our lives, of the way we live each day. And there is a third similarity: Fear, like sin, is not something that comes from a healthy mind. There is something irrational about both fear and sin.

Jesus has seen these birds (or some like them) before, and he will see them again. Not just see them but mention them in words and deeds that have been recorded for us. Here, the reference to the sparrows compares the worth and value of humans relative to the birds. In many images of the Presentation in the Temple, Joseph will be holding a cage or basket with the two birds. In the Byzantine manuscript illumination below, the doves are being carried in Joseph's hands, wrapped somewhat in his garment. Their eyes are focused toward the infant Jesus who is in his mother's arms.

St. Alban lived just outside of modern day London during the third century. He was a pagan when he met a priest who was fleeing the most recent wave of Roman persecution. For reasons that will forever be unknown, Alban decided to hide the priest in his home. For several days, they had nothing to do but talk with each other. Over time, Alban was so impressed by the faith of the priest, that he became a Christian. When soldiers got word that the priest was hiding at Alban’s home, they came to arrest him, but Alban quickly donned the priest’s cloak and gave himself up instead. Alban was tortured in hopes that he would renounce his faith, but when he withstood the flogging with patience and joy, the judge ordered him beheaded.

The famous Wesleyan prayer says it well: “I am no longer my own, but thine. Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt. Put me to doing, put me to suffering. Let me be employed by thee or laid aside by thee. Exalted for thee or brought low for thee. Let me be full, let me be empty. Let me have all things, let me have nothing. I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.”...

Several years ago, I was at a symposium at which we were discussing the struggle that many young people have today with their faith. One of the participants, a young French Canadian Oblate, offered this perspective: I work with university students as a chaplain. They have a zest for life and an energy and color that I can only envy. But inside of all this zest and energy, I notice that they lack hope because they don’t have a meta-narrative. They don’t have a big story, a big vision, that can give them perspective beyond the ups and downs of their everyday lives. When their health, relationships, and lives are going well, they feel happy and full of hope; but the reverse is also true. When things aren’t going well the bottom falls out of their world. They don’t have anything to give them a vision beyond the present moment.

I present to you one Norman Borlaug, hardly a common name in the annals of American history. But his name should ring from the voices of every student in every school in our country! Norman Borlaug was an American scientist who won the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Congressional Gold Medal. Few people have been so honored in their lives. His work in developing disease-resistant, high-yield wheat has been credited with saving the lives of more than a billion people. Imagine that: saving the lives of more than three times the population of the United States. Saving the lives of one out of every seven people living on earth.

How could Jesus (who taught us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves) be so hard on parents? The answer to that question is hinted at in the story of King Presenjit and the Buddha. King Presenjit came to the Buddha with a problem: “I would like to become your disciple, but my old mother may feel hurt—she is too old.” When the king was sitting in front of Buddha, one of his disciples (called a sannyasin) came by, touched Buddha’s feet and said, “I am going on a long journey. Bless me, please.” Buddha looked at Presenjit and said, “This man is the answer to your question. He has killed his father and mother both!” King Presenjit was disturbed and thought: How can Buddha entertain a man who killed both his parents? The king said, “You praised that man even though he is a murderer!” Buddha smiled and said, “I mean he killed them metaphorically; what this sannyasin has learned is to kill his clinging and his dependence”.

In the song, "My Shot," Hamilton and his fellow revolutionaries get energized to lead the colonists to get out from under the oppressive burdens imposed on the colonies by King George and the British rule, to stand up for what is just, and to wait no longer to work for the cause that they realize is worth living and dying for, a cause beyond themselves, a cause that will make their world a better place. As Hamilton and his friends become bolder and more resolute in their plans, this song reaches a fever pitch with the call to "Rise Up!" It is time to take their shot, to act for that which is most important to them.

As a part of the conversation, the taxi driver admitted that his kids were the main motivation for his life. He was driving the cab as a second job to put his son through college at the time. The danger, as the cab driver himself admitted, is that there were problems with putting his kids in such a position. Kids grow, change, sometimes rebel against their parents. They move away, begin lives of their own...

("I live in Northern Ireland. I live in a town that is over 95% Roman Catholic and 5% Protestant. At one point in recent memory, this town was the most bombed city in Europe. That was until Sarajevo took top spot in the 90's. For the first time in my life, I think I understand this passage. This is a passage with an Irish, Bosnian, Russian, Chechen, Armenian, Azerbaijani, and countless other accents...")

("Not long ago, I attended a meeting that was open to the public at Texas A&M University. A student named Levi was presenting on his experience with reparative therapy and his research of so-called ex-gay ministries. To a room of roughly 50 people, Levi talked about being raised in a Christian home, being actively involved in his church's youth group, and devoting his life to following Jesus...")

("Martin Niemoeller, a founder of the confessing church in Germany was outspoken in opposition to the Nazi regime. To keep him quiet Niemoeller was imprisoned. Months later he was summoned before a special court, and suddenly he began to feel afraid. He had no idea what to expect! As he was taken along the seemingly endless corridor from the prison cell to the courtroom, he heard a quiet voice..." and other illustrations)

("I had pulled into the drive at their old farm house. I could see Larry standing at the kitchen door -- his hair now gone from his battle with cancer. Head down, my heart caught in my throat as I made my way to the back steps. We stood in the kitchen and visited a while. When I left, he said to me. 'You know, I'm not afraid. George taught me how to do this.' He was speaking then of our precious friend whose dying we had grieved together not so many years before...")

("In 1965, those who marched for voting rights for African-Americans from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama were attacked by state and local police, in what became known as 'Bloody Sunday'. On the same day, Stanley Kramer's 1961 film Judgment at Nuremberg, a dramatization of post-World War II trials Nazi war criminals, aired on ABC-TV. That night, many stations interrupted regular programming to show clips of the violence in Selma. Some viewers actually thought that the footage of police in military-style helmets and riot gear, brutally beating protesters, was a part of the movie...")

(includes several quotes)

The gun, drawn from hidden holsters, blazes death fire all across America. Our children are no longer safe in their daylit classrooms. There have been 74 school shootings since Sandy Hook CT, and each incident creates a spike in new gun sales. Cries for background checks come to nothing, and I, for one, don’t believe the checks would stop any of these shootings – the student shooters have no prior record, buy their guns legally or take them from their parents...

("The Godfather, the classic 1972 film by Francis Ford Coppola, opens with a garden wedding at the family estate. It is a homecoming for Michael Corleone, the favorite son who's just returned from a tour in World War II and is enrolled at Dartmouth. The picture is clear early on: Michael loves his family, but he doesn't want to be a part of it. The Corleones are a crime organization and they are as tight knit as they are patriarchal...")

Tony Campolo presents an example this kind of risk in the story of Roger in one of his books: 'Some of my friends go hard on me these days because they think I call for compassion for gay and lesbian people more than I should. They say, "It s okay to be considerate toward these folks, but you seem to be running a hobbyhorse on this issue. It seems to come up time and time again when you speak'..." and another quote and prayer

'I hate you!' The words stung, coming from her daughter as they did. Jane had heard it all before, of course. One teenager had already left home for college, and this language was often part of the repertoire in that relationship as well...

Mahatma Ghandi, though a devout Hindu, was widely known to admire Jesus; Ghandi often quoted from the Sermon on the Mount, in fact. Once when the missionary E. Stanley Jones met with Ghandi he asked him, "Mr. Ghandi, though you quote the words of Christ often, why is that you appear to so adamantly reject becoming his follower?" Ghandi replied, "Oh, I don't reject your Christ. I love your Christ. It's just that so many of you Christians are so unlike your Christ."...

("Years ago a man named Millard Fuller was pretty near the apex of an American success story. He was a high-octane corporate executive working eight days a week and pulling down close to a million bucks a year...")

Harry Emerson Fosdick, a famous Protestant preacher, once said in a sermon based on our Gospel passage: Fear imprisons, faith liberates; fear paralyzes, faith empowers; fear disheartens, faith encourages; fear sickens, faith heals; fear makes useless, faith makes serviceable – and most of all – fear puts hopelessness at the heart of life while faith rejoices in its God...

("We see the slogan on T-shirts, coffee mugs, shorts and lapel pins - no fear. Its was created as an advertising gimmick but it has caught on with a generation that thrives on taking risks, living on the edge, pushing the envelop to its outer limits...")

("In 1941, a young Jewish woman named Etty Hillesum began to keep a journal. Hitler's armies had invaded her homeland of the Netherlands nine months before she took up her pen...")

("Above the hills of time the Cross is gleaming. Far as the sun when night has turned to day; and from it love's pure light is richly streaming, To cleanse the heart and banish sin away...")

("I recently watched the 1957 Henry Fonda film 12 Angry Men based on the stage play of the same name. In it Fonda plays a character on a jury. For the other 11, the case was simple, open and shut, and they all vote guilty right away...")

Let nothing disturb you, Let nothing make you afraid, All things are passing, God never changes...

(includes several quotes)

("As a society we are facing an epidemic of lack of commitment. Those who run organisations, whether it is the Brownies or cricket teams, all complain that they find it hard to find people who will take on roles of responsibility...")

("Recently, I have gotten to know Francis Walter, a priest who was active in the civil rights movement in Alabama. Early in his ministry, Francis had been forced out of the Diocese of Alabama in 1961 by Bishop Charles Carpenter for his involvement with the Episcopal Society for Cultural and Racial Unity...")

("Pastor Li stood in front of the chopping block, a Communist guard on each side of him. He trembled as they placed his right hand on the block and spread his fingers wide...")

("When Julius Caesar landed on the shores of Britain with his Roman legions, he took a bold and decisive step to ensure the success of his military venture. Ordering his men to halt on the edge of the Cliffs of Dover, he commanded them to look down at the water below...")

("Some years ago, a Christian minister and a group of students from Canada went to Kenya for a summer field study program. They had a jeep to enable them travel deep into the rugged hinterland. On one of their travels the vehicle broke down and they had to employ the services of the village mechanic...")

("Martin Niemoeller was on Adolf Hitler's list of people he feared and hated the most. To keep him quiet, Niemoeller was put in prison. Months later he was summoned before a special court, and suddenly he began to feel afraid...")

("Some of you may recall from your childhood or perhaps read the story to your children – a story by Dr. Seuss entitled Horton Hears a Who. It's a children's story about an elephant named Horton, who tries to protect a tiny world full of little creatures called "Whos" from destruction...")

("A water bearer in India had two large pots, each hung on either end of a pole which he carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it, and while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water at the end of the long walk from the river to the master's house, the cracked pot arrived only half full...")

("Once upon a time back in the last century there was a young woman from Ireland who had lost her parents and all her family. Some kind people wrote to their relatives in America and said we have this fourteen year old orphan here who is very bright and very pretty and very hard working...")

("Once upon a time that there was a young woman who won every short story contest when she was in high school. She decided that she would be a great novelist some day and wanted to major in creative writing in college...")

("I can recall very clearly a young man and woman in Mexico seeing their brand new 12 x 14 foot concrete block home. It had a dirt floor and a corrugated steel roof and a tiny patch of ground for a yard with a water spout behind the house...")

"There was a young couple in Virginia and they had one child, a bright eyed, curly haired, energetic five year old named Rachel. One day those eyes began to cloud and after some tests it was discovered that the child had cancer of the eye..."

("I would like to share with you the story of a man from my first parish, Chan. Chan was the superintendent of the Sunday school at Edison Park Lutheran Church in Chicago, well-educated and multi-talented. He served as president of the congregation, was a gifted public speaker and an able leader. He was also an executive on the move with a large retail chain. Chan had managed stores around the Chicago area and had become manager of a large downtown store...")

("Evelyn Underhill, an English woman, was a layperson, and someone with little formal religious training. Yet, her abilities to recognize the hidden dimensions of God's presence in our life ...")

("As you probably recall, the hero of Forrest Gump is a slightly slow-witted young man whose life we follow from boyhood through about age 40. We learn that he got his first name from a distant relative, Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate General who, once the War between the States was over, used to dress up in bed sheets and tear around the country with his similarly-dressed friends in their club called the Ku Klux Klan..")

In 1877, a handful of Roman Catholic and Anglican missionaries arrived in Uganda. They had permission to preach only to the members of the court by order of King Mutesa. Mutesa's successor was King Mwanga. He became angry when he learned that the converts to Christianity placed loyalty to Christ over loyalty to the king. In 1885 he began killing anyone who went near a Christian Mission. When he couldn't stop them from going to the Missions he decided to systematically wipe Christianity from Uganda. These thirty men were all converts to Christianity. They were also pages to the court. Mwanga thought this mass execution would have the desired effect of turning everyone away from Christianity. In reality, it had the opposite effect. The thirty men walked to their deaths. As they walked they sang hymns and they prayed for their enemies. The people watching were inspired and they started to seek more information from the Christians who were still present. Within just a few years, Christianity had spread throughout the land. The martyrs showed the people that Christianity was not just a white man's religion but was truly African. Most of the missionary work was done by Africans and not white missionaries. Presently, Uganda has the largest percentage of professed Christians of any nation in Africa. Christianity is so strong that it even survived the persecution by the military dictatorship of Idi Amin in the 1970's almost one hundred years later...

("Sparrows. Sparrows are all around us. Sparrows are those little brown birds that seem to be everywhere. Ever present. Unimportant. Unimpressive. Unassuming...")

("The novel titled TRINITY is one of the finest books I have read. It was written by Leon Uris. It is a story about an old conflict that has been going on for centuries in Ireland. It was and still is the perpetual conflict between Irish Catholics and British Protestants...")

("You may or may not realize it, but Peoria, Illinois is the geographic center of the United States. If you were going to pick one city that is the center of the country, you would pick Peoria, Illinois...")

C. S. Lewis had issues with hopelessness. He was a member of the faculty at Oxford University. The faculty had formed a debate club of sorts. The two groups were the Christians and the atheists. Once a month they would gather. One side would present a paper supporting their point of view. The next month the other side would respond. Lewis was originally an atheist. He argued the point that God did not exist. Everything was dependent on humanity and natural forces of the universe. He argued his point well. One day he realized he had argued humanity into a position of total hopelessness. If the world, if humanity, was all on its own, and left to its own devices, then we would be in a horrible world. The nature of humanity was so depraved that we would be lost. In this lost humanity, there is no hope. Hope does not exist. There cannot even be the concept of hope. Then, Lewis realized his flaw. Hope does exist. Hope is what keeps humanity out of this dismal world he created. Hope is not something humanity can create. Hope has to come from something outside of humanity. That something outside of humanity, Lewis concluded was God. The realization that hope existed and was real was the conversion point for Lewis. The corrupt nature and systems of humanity are real. They cannot stand, however, against hope. They cannot stand against the way of God...

In 1877, a handful of Roman Catholic and Anglican missionaries arrived in Uganda. They had permission to preach only to the members of the court by order of King Mutesa. Mutesa's successor was King Mwanga. He became angry when he learned that the converts to Christianity placed loyalty to Christ over loyalty to the king. In 1885 he began killing anyone who went near a Christian Mission. When he couldn't stop them from going to the Missions he decided to systematically wipe Christianity from Uganda. These thirty men were all converts to Christianity. They were also pages to the court. Mwanga thought this mass execution would have the desired effect of turning everyone away from Christianity. In reality, it had the opposite effect. The thirty men walked to their deaths. As they walked they sang hymns and they prayed for their enemies. The people watching were inspired and they started to seek more information from the Christians who were still present. Within just a few years, Christianity had spread throughout the land. The martyrs showed the people that Christianity was not just a white man's religion but was truly African. Most of the missionary work was done by Africans and not white missionaries. Presently, Uganda has the largest percentage of professed Christians of any nation in Africa. Christianity is so strong that it even survived the persecution by the military dictatorship of Idi Amin in the 1970's almost one hundred years later...

("One of my favorite past times as a child was to watch Saturday morning cartoons. I would get up early and go sit in the den, turn on the TV and watch Bugs Bunny and a host of other characters on Merrie Melodies...")

("We see the slogan on T-shirts, coffee mugs, shorts and lapel pins - no fear. It was created as an advertising gimmick but it has caught on with a generation that thrives on taking risks, living on the edge, pushing the envelop to its outer limits...")

("In Southern Africa, The Bebemba tribe has a fascinating ritual for combating feelings of rejection. Each person in the tribe who acts irresponsibly or unjustly is taken alone to the center of the village. Everyone in the village stops work and gathers in a large circle around the accused...")

("Have you ever seen a labyrinth or walked one? Whether or not you’ve seen or walked a labyrinth, you probably know what I’m talking about. A few years ago, Grace Cathedral in San Francisco reintroduced the labyrinth as a spiritual discipline...")

("I believe that one of the worst kinds of fear is that of the unknown~especially fear of people who are different than ourselves. In Waiting For The Parade, Canadian playwright, John Murrell tells us the story of five women during World War II...")

("The mystic theologian Howard Thurman in his book Jesus and the Disinherited speaks to this issue of fear and how we counter fear as we seek to minister and do the work of God in our lives...")

("During his years as premier of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev denounced many of the policies and atrocities of Joseph Stalin. Once, as he censured Stalin in a public meeting, Khrushchev was interrupted by a shout from a heckler in the audience. 'You were one of Stalin's colleagues. Why didn't you stop him?'...")

("Dr. William Sloan Coffin of New York's Riverside Church said this in the April 20,1984 Lutheran Standard after the death of his son, Alex.'The night after Alex died, I was sitting in the living room of my sister's house outside of Boston, when a middle-aged lady came in...")

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("The most legendary locker room speech ever given belongs to Knute Rockne, the great coach at Notre Dame. It was popularized in the movie Knute Rockne, All-American. It was halftime of the game against Army in 1928, and his team was losing badly. To inspire his players he told them the story of the greatest player ever at Notre Dame, George Gipp...")

(Poetic Sermon by Michael Kennedy)

("A scene in Herman Melville's Moby Dick may suggest something of the measure of what one must anticipate who signs on to be one of Jesus people. Recall how Ishmael comes to Captain Peleg to sign on for the voyage of Captain Ahab's Pequod...")

("Special cameras in airports scan 15 people at a time, focusing on the 80 landmarks of the human face. Not that precise recognition of individual faces is really anything new - God has been making positive identifications for years...")