Luke 12: 49-56 (links validated 7/17/25a)

When we think about the Cold War—the standoff that had the whole world holding its breath—we get these big names in our heads: Ronald Reagan. Mikhail Gorbachev. Maybe even Pope John Paul II. But have you ever heard the name Stanislav Petrov? Probably not. His name isn’t in most history books, there are no statues of him anywhere. Even though this ordinary man sitting in a Soviet bunker in 1983 saved the world from nuclear disaster. No title, no power, just a man, a blinking computer screen, and a decision that went against everything he was supposed to do. On September 26, 1983 as he was filling in for a sick colleague monitoring the Soviet computers his bunker lit up with a warning—five American missiles were supposedly on their way. The protocol was clear. Detection meant immediate retaliation. No debates, no verification – launch everything. He had minutes to call it in, minutes before the Soviet Union launched a counterattack, minutes before the world changed forever. Imagine that: the fate of the entire world, hanging on your next move. Every alarm, every regulation, every bit of training told him to follow orders and report the attack. But something didn’t add up. Petrov went with his gut. He called it a false alarm. He was right. The “attack” was sunlight reflecting off clouds – fooling Soviet satellites. Petrov had just prevented nuclear holocaust with nothing but intuition. You’d think he’d be a hero… It was a computer glitch—not World War III. So, what did Petrov get for saving the world? Not medals. Not a promotion. He got interrogated, demoted, and basically erased from the story. The system he saved punished him because he didn’t follow the script. That story came to mind because it illuminates something profound about today’s readings...

Lisa Fithian seems to understand Jesus’ call to embody crisis. Fithian is a grassroots activist in the global peace-oriented movement for social justice. She has been arrested 30 times for intentionally creating crises, i.e., situations that force the powers that are—transnational corporations, the media, security forces, consumers—to cease doing business as usual, examine the inequities that they may be perpetuating, and change policies. In an interview [in 2003], Fithian explained: “When people ask me, ‘What do you do?’ I say I create crisis, because crisis is that edge where change is possible.” I wonder: Is this not what Jesus meant when he spoke of bringing fire to the earth? Did he not seek to bring crisis as “that edge where change is possible”? Was he not saying, as Lisa Fithian says, I have come to bring crisis because business as usual means injustice and death?

I read a dramatic story about a boy born forty years ago in communist China to Christian parents. His parents did their best to raise their children in the faith, but at school they would be taught something radically different. They were taught to despise their own parents, and soon they did. The father in this family was imprisoned because he would not renounce his faith. When he was released after several years, he was in many respects a broken man, yet his faith in Christ was intact. The son, who had despised his father, after many years had a change of heart, and realized that the promises of Chairman Mao were empty. “I dragged home,” he wrote. “Long hair, dirty, smelling, and strangling in depression. … Nervously I slipped inside and sat on the sofa in my parents’ cramped, dingy apartment. … How long I sat there with my head in my hands, I don’t know. Finally, I heard my father’s footsteps, heard him sit across from me. I couldn’t look up. I couldn’t speak. He had every right to cast me aside. After an eternity, I felt his hand on my shoulder. When he spoke, his voice held no hint of the years he’d waited … for me to come back … and for the truth to win. ‘Welcome home, son.’”...

In 1980, in the midst of a U.S.-funded genocidal war against the so-called leftist rebels in El Salvador, Archbishop Saint Oscar Romero who sided with the poor, exploited farm workers, declared: “If they kill all your priests and the bishop too, each one of you must become God’s microphone, each one of you must become a prophet. I do not believe in death without resurrection. If they kill me, I will be resurrected in the Salvadoran people.” Amid over-arching violence, Romero wrote to President Jimmy Carter pleading with him to cease sending military aid to the brutal military regime because, he wrote, “it is being used to repress my people.” The U.S. sent $1.5 million in aid every day for 12 years. Archbishop Romero’s letter went unheeded. Two months later, he was assassinated. Ending a long homily addressed to the pro-government land owners and peasants and the military and broadcast throughout the country, his voice rose to breaking, “Brothers, you are from the same people; you kill your fellow peasants . . . . No soldier is obliged to obey an order that is contrary to the will of God.” There was thunderous applause; he was inviting the army to mutiny. Then his voice burst out, “In the name of God then, in the name of this suffering people I ask you, I beg you, I command you in the name of God: stop the repression.” Oscar Romero gave his last homily on March 24, 1980, moments before a sharpshooter felled him at the altar of a hospital chapel. Reflecting on the day’s Scripture, he had said, “One must not love oneself so much, as to avoid getting involved in the risks of life that history demands of us, and those that fend off danger will lose their lives.” In an interview as he was flying to Brazil in May 2007 Pope Benedict XVI told the reporters, “Romero as a person merits beatification.” In July 2007, the new Salvadoran conservative government said it would formally request the Vatican to beatify Romero although it would not accept responsibility for his slaying. Pope Francis beatified the martyred Archbishop Romero on May 23, 2015, and canonized him three years later, on October 14, 2018)...

In the 1968 movie “Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows,” a sequel to the 1966 hit “The Trouble with Angels,” a busload of preparatory schoolgirls and their teachers, religious sisters of the Order of St. Francis, take a cross-country trip. Somewhere in the American Southwest, they encounter a closed road. There is no air conditioning, and this is no interstate highway. Emotions flare a bit when Sister George, the young, “groovy” sister, played by Stella Stevens, has a roadside confrontation with a parasol-wielding, fully habited Mother Superior, played with aplomb by the magnificent Rosalind Russell. They first square off on the age and capability of their driver, Sister Clarissa (Mary Wickes), and then about the state of the church in general. Eventually, one of the young women, Rosabelle, played by Susan Saint James, pokes her head out the bus window and asks, in a mixture of the plaintive and the impertinent, “Reverend Mother, do we know where we’re going? Without hesitation, Mother Superior responds, “We do, but only if we’ve led good Christian lives.” Put in her place, Rosabelle meekly responds, “I wasn’t thinking that far ahead.”...

(Includes lots of Greek exegesis!!)

always good insights!

(excellent exegesis)

I grew up in and around the sandy pine forests of north Florida. Growing up, we would have what’s called a “controlled burn.” After we burned the underbrush, the trees were free from the vines, and the bushes that held them back from reaching their full potential. Ironically, the ashes the fire left behind served as fertilizer for the pine trees. They had to go through the fire, but they were better for it. Carl Jung said, “The person who has not passed through the personal inferno of their addictions and fears can never overcome them.” Jung knew that a crisis is a chance for change.

Two Christmases ago my brother gifted my Mom and I with tickets to see Hamilton on Broadway. Well technically speaking, as he handed the us the tickets, he informed us we were “done” for Christmas, our Birthday’s, and any other important event where gifts might be exchanged for the next year. That’s understandable. Tickets to this musical telling of Alexander Hamilton’s role in the story of American independence and foundatin as a democracy has been one of the hardest tickets to purchase in the last 4 years that it’s been playing. Truth be told, I really didn’t have any desire to see it. I’m not a hip-hop fan (which is the primary musical style for the show); and trying to imagine a three hour history lesson set to that type of music didn’t seem like the recipe for a fun outing. But I couldn’t have been more wrong. Hamilton is definitely one of those things that exceeded all of the hype...

One of the most-talked about Television series of 2022 is the streaming service Paramount-Plus’ “The Offer.” This 10-episode show is a biographical drama that traces the development of “The Godfather,” which has been named one of “the greatest and most influential films ever made.” It was surprising that the story of what went on behind the scenes was as compelling as the movie itself. The writers, directors, and particularly the producers had to navigate studio politics, the egos, competition between actors and actresses, Mafia (not that such a thing exists) as well as FBI pressure. One of the most interesting things was learning that the Italian-American Civil Rights Action League had started in some part in response to the book “The Godfather” and is depicted in the tv-series as having rallies and calling for boycotts of Paramount to try to stop even the filming of the movie. The IACRL was instrumental in getting assurances and concessions from the creative team responsible for The Godfather that Italians would not be depicted in certain ways that they felt were demeaning and stereotypical to those of us who are Italian and to our culture – particularly that the word “mafia” would never be used in the script...

In the late-aughts, Phyllis Tickle wrote about The Great Emergence, noting the trend in Judeo-Christian structure and practice to have a huge “rummage sale” every 500 years or so in response to challenges and upheavals as it is transformed by the Spirit’s inspiration. Her work is both prophetic and deeply rooted in the past. I wonder, if Tickle was alive today, if she might feel compelled to write a new edition of The Great Emergence in order to explore more fully the sort of divisions and upheavals that have come to the forefront in just the last decade and the tenor and tone of these “conversations” have taken. The reckoning seems a more apt description than emergence these days.

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...

If you’re a fan of the Hitchikers’ Guide to the Galaxy, you might remember the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal, who features in it, a creature described as so mind-bogglingly stupid that it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you. So all you need to do to protect yourself from it, despite it being very ravenous, is to wrap a towel round your head. You can’t see it, so it can’t see you. Problem solved. The Bugblatter Beast doesn’t exist outside the world of fiction – I hope - but its way of thinking certainly does.

A long time ago, I read somewhere an interesting anecdote about Gertrude Ederle, who was the first woman to swim across the English Channel from France. She accomplished her epic feat on August 6, 1926, through cold and choppy waters that forced her to swim 35 miles instead of the minimum 21. Although Ederle’s time of 14 hours and 31 minutes beat the previous record for the crossing (held by a man) by about 2 hours, she suffered severely during the arduous swim. She not only had to cope with extreme physical exhaustion, but also overcome psychological obstacles, such as mental fatigue and discouragement. When Ederle had only one more mile to swim to reach the English coast, every aching fiber in her being made her want her to quit. The only thing that kept her going was a light from a cottage on the shore that she could see through the dark. As long as she could keep her focus on that light, she knew that she had only a short distance to go and that somehow she could get there. That tiny light lifted her spirits, rekindled her hopes, and motivated her to keep making a few more strokes. The inspiration and strength that Ederle found in that tiny light through a cottage window gives us an inkling of what we can experience if we keep our focus on Christ, the light of the world. No matter how discouraged we may become, how futile our feeble efforts may seem, or how depleted all our resources may appear, as long as we set our sights on Jesus, he will be an inexhaustible source of inspiration and strength for us.

Years before, I served a smallish, isolated church in a different corner of California. There were divisions there. Anger sometimes. Finger pointing. One of the long-time church members, a World War II veteran, was prominent in local conservative politics. He let people know what he thought. He loudly let people know what they should think. Another church member, a soft-spoken young husband and father raised in the rollicking free-to-be-you-and-me 60s, was new to the community. On one Sunday, recently released from jail, the young man approached the railing near the altar where communion would be served. Jail? He had been growing marijuana . . . only a few plants, only for personal use. But he'd broken the law, and paid the price. Now he knelt, head bowed.

Gianna Berretta was a doctor living outside of Milan, Italy. She had a double residency and practice in pediatrics and obstetrics gynecology. After she finished her residencies, her desire to reach out to the people influenced her to open a clinic in a small town in her native Italy. She was not a wealthy doctor, she never hesitated to give her services free to those who could not afford to pay. A good doctor works long hours and Gianna was no exception. Pregnant mothers felt so secure in her care because they knew no matter what time of night they needed her, she would be there for them. After becoming a doctor, Gianna met and became engaged to the man of her dreams, Pietro Molla. Like all young brides to be was radiant with joy and happiness during the time of the engagement. She had found a man who agreed with her determination to live her faith. She told her future husband, “I really want a Christian family, where God is one of the family; a little cenacle where He can reign in our hearts, enlighten our decisions and guide our programs.” They were married on September 24, 1955. In November 1956, to her great joy, she became the mother of Pierluigi, in December 1957 of Mariolina; in July 1959 of Laura. With simplicity and equilibrium she harmonized the demands of mother and wife, and continued practice as a doctor all with the passion that she had for life. In 1961, Gianna became pregnant with the Molla’s fourth child. In September, towards the end of the second month of pregnancy, she was touched by suffering and the mystery of pain...

the church lives with the constant tension, anxiety and outright “conflict,” internally and externally, with expectations of where, when, how as well as to, with and through whom God is at work in the world right now. Rules, definitions, traditions and their interpretations are useful, but the gospel is inherently “suspicious” and always retains the potential to challenge them, as Jesus does when he broke one of the Ten commandments and a venerable, strict rule: he put the Sabbath to a new use and he invited and healed a woman whose ‘essence’ had been defined by her condition. She was presumed to be crippled by “a spirit,” Luke says...

during the civil rights movement. John Lewis and freedom marchers were attacked on March 1, 1965 as they peacefully marched for civil rights. As they approached the Edmund Pettis Bridge, in Selma, Alabama, they were attacked by police mounted on horseback with tear gas and clubs. Society did not want to hear about fairness for all people. Many of the freedom marchers were often sustained by preachers like Martin Luther King, Jr, who, in his unique way, preached what Jesus came to proclaim: that God was raising up the lowly. The protesters carried the gospel in their hearts as they marched and experienced the division Jesus predicted. Proving once again that Jesus' message is good news for the oppressed and distressing news for the comfortable.

Fire is a frightening force. The New York Times Magazine recently featured on the Paradise, California fire, following the journey of Tamra Fisher through the inferno. This harrowing article reads like a wake up for global warming. Tamra woke that morning feeling hopeful, ready to move on with her life. She was moving past her divorce, getting a handle on depression, figuring out what’s next. She lived at the edge of town known as “Poverty Ridge.” Life was not easy in Paradise. Lumberjacks moved there when the Diamond Match Company built a logging road into the hills to harvest trees which were perfect for being matchsticks. As Tamra brushed her teeth, the fire was growing at the rate of one football field per second...

("Listen to this. It comes from Housekeeping Monthly. The headline was The Good Wife's Guide and the advice went like this: 'Have dinner ready. Plan ahead to have a delicious meal ready, on time for his return. This is a way of letting him know that you have been thinking about him. Most men are hungry when they come home and a good meal is part of the warm welcome needed....")

"The movie Shadowlands is a biopic about the life of C S Lewis: and in particular, about Lewis' relationship with Joy Gresham, and how that relationship and her subsequent illness and death precipitated a crisis of faith in Lewis – a crisis that ultimately changed him from a comfortable, middle-class Christian who was sure of all the answers to a Christian who was prepared to embrace a radical sense of his own vulnerability..."

In January, the New York Times published an article titled “Can Forgiveness Play a Role in Criminal Justice?”1 It tells the story of Conor and Ann, a young couple barely out of high school. They were close. Their families were close. With no history of violence, the news that Conor had shot Ann was a shock to everyone. Ann’s dad recalls praying by his daughter’s beside in the intensive care unit. She was intubated and dying, unable to speak. Yet somehow, he felt his unconscious daughter speak to him over and over: “forgive him.” His response was immediate and audible, “No, it’s impossible. Ann, you’re asking too much.” Ann remained on life support for a few days before she died. During that time, her dad realized that it wasn’t just Ann asking him over and over to forgive Conor, but that it was also the voice of Jesus. So instead of focusing solely on the crime and punishment of Conor, Ann’s parents decided to embark on a journey of reconciliation through restorative justice. This meant 3-days of sitting in a room with Conor, his parents, and a facilitator, telling difficult truths, exposing deep rage and anguish, not protecting each other from the horrors of the crime, or from everyone’s unimaginable loss. The criminal lawyer who was there said, “It was excruciating to listen to them talk…It was as traumatic as anything I’ve ever listened to in my life.” By the end of the three days, a transformation had taken place in each person, but perhaps most notably in Ann’s father whose “No – forgiveness is impossible” turned into a “Yes, forgiveness is possible.” But that “Yes” came a price. This was not cheap forgiveness. Ann’s father let himself go through the flames of anguish to have his anger and pride, his shame and helplessness at the tragic death of his daughter slowly begin to burn away, to fall and turn to ash, until what was left was real forgiveness, tried by fire. These two families did not ask to be in this fiery crucible, or to encounter the pain of the flames. But in finding themselves there, they sat in the refining fire. And this process didn’t end in destruction, but in reconciliation, a measure of peace, and a glimmer of hope...

("A university campus chaplain tells this story. 'I performed the baptism of a graduate student. This young man had become convinced that Jesus was his Saviour and requested to be baptized. He was a graduate student from China. I talked with him before his baptism and made sure that he had a good understanding of the Christian faith and the questions that we would ask him at his baptism...")

("If the kingdom of God is to up-end our lives and the way the world typically operates, how does that apply to family situations? Well, it minimally applies to the priorities we set in our homes. Curiously, the pace of modern culture--a pace driven by precisely people's desire to 'make a life for themselves'--may itself be at variance with the gospel....")

(" It was Christmas Eve when I was in the 8th grade. My grandmother had died the week before and my parents, my three sisters and my grandfather had gathered at the funeral home that afternoon. My dad's folks had moved to the Midwest the year before when Grandma's Alzheimer's meant they needed the support of family in the day to day. My folks bought the house next door to us for them...")

("In the wee hours of a Sunday morning, May of 1654, Jacob Rolandus climbed out a bedroom window of his family’s home. He was fleeing the rectory, and the family, of his father, a Reformed Dutch Minister, so that he could freely practice his new religion, Catholicism. In the 17th century, neither Protestants nor Catholics were inclined to offer freedom of conscience to minors...")

Nelson Mandela understood this. In concluding his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, Mandela reflects on his life and says: Freedom is indivisible; the chains on any one of my people were the chains on all of them, the chains on all of my people were the chains on me. It was during those long and lonely years [in the struggle against apartheid and in the twenty-seven years he was imprisoned at Robben Island] that my hunger for the freedom of my own people became a hunger for the freedom of all people, white and black. I knew as well as I knew anything that the oppressor must be liberated just as surely as the oppressed.

An elderly priest, speaking to his younger assistant priest, said, “It was a great idea to replace the first four rows of pews with plush leather bucket theater seats. It worked like a charm. The front of the church always fills first now.” The young priest nodded, and the old priest continued, “And you told me a little more beat to the music would bring young people back to the church, so I supported you when you brought in that rock ‘n roll gospel choir. We’re packed to the balcony!!” “Thank you, Father,” answered the young priest. “I’m glad you’re open to the new ideas of youth.” “But,” said the elderly priest, “I’m afraid you’ve gone too far with the drive-thru confessional.” “But, Father, my confessions and our donations have nearly doubled since that began!” “I know, son, but the flashing neon sign, saying, ‘Toot ‘n Tell or Go to Hell,’ just can’t stay on the church roof!!”...

("German pastor/theologian Martin Niemoeller who survived Dachau and Sachsenhausen, is credited with this poem: 'First they came for the communists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the socialists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist....")

Blasé Pascal pointed out that all of the miseries of life stemmed from a single cause: Our inability to remain quietly in our room. He asked, 'Why must a man with sufficient to live on feel drawn to divert himself on long sea voyages? To dwell in another town? To go off in search of peppercorn?'...

("In one of T. S. Elliot's poems entitled Gerontion, he inserts this line, 'In the juvescence of the year Came Christ the tiger'. In the 1960's, this single line led Thomas Howard to write a kind of autobiography entitled, ...." and other illustrations)

Contemporary literature is quite regularly permeated with inquisitions into and information about the 'inner life' of the subject. It is important to psychoanalyze, scrutinize and examine motives, hang-ups, intentions, purposes, goals, objectives, drives, neuroses, malfunctions, disfunctions and who knows what else about the person / people concerning whom the literature is interested...

"Lisa Fithian seems to understand Jesus' call to embody crisis. Fithian is a grassroots activist in the global peace-oriented movement for social justice. She has been arrested 30 times for intentionally creating crises, i.e., situations that force the powers that are -- transnational corporations, the media, security forces, consumers -- to cease doing business as usual..."

("I would like to mention a famous Christian who was sorely tried: Dr. Martin Luther King, Sr. All of us know he faced a terrible trial when his son, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in April of 1968. But that was not the end of his testing. A year later, a second son, Albert Daniel, would die by drowning...")

("About twelve years ago, a forest I knew burned in a raging fire. I was five hours away by car, and there was probably nothing I could do about it. Nevertheless, something in me felt an anxious urge to add my panic to the situation. So, my cousin and I jumped into a fast car, and we rushed down to South Georgia at 1:00 in the morning...")

Few novels more winsomely point to the division caused by faith than David James Duncan’s remarkable book, The Brothers K. It’s the story of a family of four sons and two daughters who are parented by Hugh Chance, a former minor league baseball player who has no interest in formal religion, and his wife, Laura, a deeply devout Seventh-Day Adventist. Their children follow a variety of religious paths that meander through atheism, eastern religions and even Christianity. The divisions this causes are memorably and poignantly exemplified in a section of the book labeled, "The Psalm Wars." Because the family customarily prays before its meals and Hugh is not there to offer his usual form-prayer, it’s the turn of Everett, one of the sons, to offer the prayer before supper one evening. Everett, however, offers what his mother considers to be a blasphemous prayer, beginning it with phrases like, "Dear God, if You exist," and "Dear Jesus ... if there really was a resurrection." His mother tries to derail his prayers by loudly quoting Psalm 23. When, however, neither that nor her slaps to Everett’s face silence him, she storms off to her room from which she continues to quote psalms in a voice loud enough for her children to hear. Everett responds by quoting psalms right back her, triggering what the children call the "psalm war." When his mother cries, "Deliver me not over unto the will of my enemies," Everett answers, "When mine enemies and mine foes came against me, they stumbled and fell." When Laura shrieks, "For false witnesses are risen against me, and such as breathe out cruelty," her son responds, more creatively than biblically, "Draw me not away with the WICKED, nor with the Workers of INIQUITY, which speak PEACE to their daughters, but snivel mischief unto their SONS!"

("A woman named Pam who lives in Listowel Ontario wrote these words in response to today's Gospel reading. 'I was born and raised in South Africa, nurtured and indoctrinated by the system of Apartheid. As a young Christian in my twenties I began to grapple with what my new found faith had to say about the society in which I lived...")

"Robert Frost reported 'Some say the world will end in fire. Some say in ice. From what I've tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire. But if I had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate to say that for destruction ice Is also great And would suffice..." and several other quotes

("Francis Bernardone was born at the end of 12th century. His father was a wealthy cloth merchant and had high hopes for his son. He became a knight in a war with a neighbouring province, and had a fabulous future in front of him. His father was proud of his son, but the problem was that Francis kept going to church and praying, asking God what he wanted him to do...")

("Once upon a time there was a daddy who prided himself on his abilities as a driver. He wouldn't let the mommy of the family drive when he was in the car. Ever. Nor would he let the one legal teenager drive. They were simply not competent enough, careful enough, responsible enough...")

("Once upon a time at the end of a summer vacation, a young man called his mother and father and brothers and sisters together after a day on the beach. There was something important he wanted to tell them. He was going into his third year at college. His grades were wonderful, he was charming, and popular, and successful...")

"Tom Wolfe's modern American satire The Bonfire of the Vanities tells the story of Sherman McCoy, a Wall Street 'Master of the Universe' who has it all: a Park Avenue apartment, a job that brings wealth, power and prestige, a beautiful wife, an even more beautiful mistress. Suddenly, one wrong turn, a car accident makes it all go wrong..." and other quotes and illustrations - recommended!!

("In the book TRINITY, the hero is a man by the name of Conner Larkin. Conner Larkin is an Irish Catholic. Conner Larkin is the biggest and the best in his school. He has the brightest brains. He is a scholar and the valedictorian of his class. He is also the greatest athlete in his class..." and other illustrations)

("This story is in The Brothers Karamozov. A very wicked old woman died and went to her reward and found herself in a lake of burning fire. Angles came and urged the people swimming in the fiery lake to try to recall some good deed that my be used to get them out of the lake..." and other illustrations)

("Lance Armstrong, of course, is the American cyclist who recently set a record by winning his sixth straight Tour de France. Millions of people have been inspired by Armstrong's story. He is a cancer survivor who did not win his first Tour de France until after his cancer treatments. No one would suggest that his accomplishments are somehow less remarkable because of his physical suffering...")

"Jim Valvano was coach of the 1983 national champion North Carolina State men's basketball team, and I remember him telling the story of his first coaching experience. He was hired by Iona College, a small university in upstate New York. Valvano says that even the college's name helped in recruiting..." and other illustrations

"My friend Murray Haar grew up Jewish in Brooklyn, but he made a fatal error when he was 18 years old; he enrolled at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota. It was there that Murray came to know Jesus Christ, and his life took a dramatic turn..."

("Daniel, for most of his life, had seen himself as being from the ideal family. His father had been a doctor, and he, his two brothers and a sister were all successful professionals. Daniel himself was a well-placed executive in a thriving corporation, working many hours a week and pulling in a six-figure salary. He, his wife, and two children lived a comfortable life in the suburbs...")

The seventh grade Sunday school class had gathered in their tiny classroom in the stone church on Sullivan's Island, SC. They were studying some of the stories of the Old Testament. One of the teenagers raised the following questions. I don't what to believe about the Bible. What is the Bible all about anyway? The teacher was a little startled by the question. While he thought about his possible answer he asked the class this question. What do you think about the Bible? The class got quiet. Then one seventh grade girl spoke up. She said, "The Bible is a very dangerous book. Once you read it you have to make a decision."...

("I remember seeing one specific poster in school. I saw this poster many times in various classes, offices, and hallways from grade school to high school. The poster pictures a little gray kitten sitting tangled up in a large pile of yarn. A very sad kitten face is looking up to the camera. The caption on the poster reads...")

"This fear, fear of losing sight of the meaning of the cross, was actually what motivated George Bennard to write The Old Rugged Cross in 1913. According to the Christian History Institute, George Bennard was struggling with personal problems that were causing him a great deal of trouble and anguish. In his suffering, his mind returned again and again to Christ's anguish on the cross..."

The French bishop, writer, and theologian Francois Fenelon (1651-1715) wrote a prayer — called in English “All in All” — that says for us on this day and in this season what we might like to say: Lord, I don’t know what I ought to ask of you. You alone know what I need. You love me better than I know how to love myself. O Father, give to me, your child, that which I don’t know how to ask… I would have no other wish than to do your will. Teach me to pray. Pray yourself in me...

("One day when I was in the military, the chaplain came to see me and told me that he had received word that my father was on his death bed in Abington, Pennsylvania. I was given an emergency leave and arrived at the hospital two days later. And there was my father, formerly a proud, arrogant, angry, and alcoholic man, lying almost in a fetal position under an oxygen tent in a state of semiconsciousness...")

("I haven't talked about Midnight the Wonder Dog for awhile. For our new members, Midnight is our dog. She was supposed to be my wife's dog. She likes Mary all right but she absolutely adores me. Midnight is afraid of thunder and lightening. I don't what happened but this fear has only arisen in the last two or three years..." and other short illustrations about Y2K)

("Garth Brooks has a song on one of his albums called Standing Outside the Fire. One can say that it is a love song but the love that is spoken of can easily be the 'higher love'. One can say that it is a love song but the love that is spoken of can easily be the 'higher love' - that kind that gives itself for the sake of humanity...")

("Some time ago there appeared on Broadway for a short time a wonderfully absorbing play called Trapp's Last Tape and is the work of a strange and lonely genius named Samuel Beckett. It is the story of an old man and his tape recorder; a man who at the beginning of every year likes to record for his own amusement, the highlights of the past twelve months while they are still fresh and vivid in his mind..." and other illustrations)

("A newly-ordained (pastor) was assigned to his first parish. In his first sermon, he condemned wagering on horses. The sermon went over poorly. 'You see' a parishioner explained, 'this whole area is known for its fine horses. Many members of the parish make their living raising horses.'...")

"A recent book caught my attention. The title is If It Ain't Broken, Break It, written by two corporate executives. What they do in this book is to try to challenge the corporate leaders of our nation to think beyond the typical traditional modes and attitudes to look at that which probably should be broken and not remain..."

There was a popular book in business circles a few years back called “Surfing the Edge of Chaos”. It was written by a group of business people who observed nature as a way of understanding how best we can learn to organise ourselves. One of the key things they saw was that in nature – equilibrium – ie a stable state, is the precursor of death. Only a system that maintains significant internal variety can withstand the threat of external variety. So the inter-tidal zone is the most fertile context for spontaneous mutation. This is a region swept by extremes – inundation and flood followed by drought and desiccation, and this amazing variety forces the system to the edge of chaos, and demands that organisms adapt or die. It is here that fish grew legs, and roots learnt to breathe. It is in the place of extremes that life comes forth. Businesses and churches have to learn that equilibrium is life–threatening. If we do not embrace risk and change, if we do not encourage extremes of experience and ideas, we will die. The birthing of peace, and all good things, is forged in the crucible of life lived on the edge of chaos; life that is open to risk and to new possibilities. And I think that this is what Jesus is talking about in this passage...

("This family sat around the dinner table one evening when Ruth, who was in high school, told of a friend at school who had told her that Jesus was the son of God and that salvation was free to all who would trust in Him. Ruth quoted her friend as saying, 'Jesus is the way the truth and the life.'...")

("There is a story about a tourist who was traveling along the shores of Lake Como in northern Italy. When he reached the castle, a friendly old gardener opened the gate and showed him the ground which the old man kept in perfect order. The tourist asked when the owner of the castle had last been there. '12 years ago', the old man answered..." and several others)

Scroll down for the children's time.

Scroll down for the children's time.

("Today is the birthday of Mother Teresa, born in the city of Skopje, Macedonia (1910). Her father was murdered when she was seven, and her family fell into poverty....")

("In the words of Barbara Brown Taylor, 'It was not a matter of who has the same last name or lives at the same address but who serves the same God, which means that his family became huge beyond counting...")

There’s a story about a man walking on a beach in a tropical country. Thousands of starfish have washed up on the shore and lay drying in the blazing sun. Without immediate immersion, they would die. As the man walked along, he saw a young boy picking up starfish one by one and throwing them back into the ocean. He was struck by the apparent futility of the boy’s actions in comparison with the vast number of starfish, and so he decided to teach him a lesson. Walking up to him, he sneered “Can’t you see that there are thousands of starfish dying here in the beach, and all you’re doing is throwing a few back into the water? What difference does it make?” The boy didn’t look at him. Instead, he picked up another starfish and tossed it into the cool waters beyond the sand. Then he looked at the man and said, “I’ll bet it made a difference to that one.”...

Christianity is the only religion which worships the scapegoat, the one who is hated, excluded, spat upon, blamed for everything, ridiculed, shamed, and made expendable. Christianity is the only religion that focuses on imitating the victim and which sees God in the one who is surrounded by the halo of hatred...