Once upon a time a government surveyor brought his equipment to a farm, called on the farmer, and asked permission to go into one of the fields and take readings. The farmer objected, fearing that the survey was the first step toward construction of a highway through his land. "I will not give you permission to go into my fields," said the farmer. Whereupon, the surveyor produced an official government document which authorized him to do the survey. "I have the authority," he said, "to enter any field in the entire country to take necessary readings." Faced with such authority, the farmer opened the gate and allowed the surveyor to enter the field. The farmer then went to the far end of the field and opened another gate, through which one of his fiercest bulls came charging. Seeing the bull, the surveyor dropped his equipment and began to run for his life. And he could hear the farmer triumphantly shouting after him, "Show him the paper, show him your authority."
Compassion/Consolation/Empathy/Heroes
1944 • "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, a gentle Father and the God of all consolation, who comforts us
in all our sorrows, so that we can offer others, in their sorrows, the consolation
that we have received from God ourselves"
(2 Corinthians 1:3-4).
Brian Cavanaugh remembers a comforting moment in the life of the great Babe Ruth. The "Babe," as he was called, hit 714 home runs during his baseball career. Unfortunately perhaps, he continued to play long after his ability had waned, both at bat and in the field. During one of his last games as a professional, the aging Babe fumbled the ball several times. In one inning alone, his errors were responsible for most of the five runs scored by the opposing team ...
As the Babe walked off the field and headed toward the dugout after the
third out, a crescendo of derisive yelling and booing reached his ears.
It was a humiliating moment for that great athlete who had been the number
one idol of baseball fans for so many years. Just then, a boy jumped over
the railing onto the playing field. With tears streaming down his face,
he knelt before his hero and threw his arms around his legs. Ruth didn't
hesitate for a second. He took the boy's hand and lifted him up. He hugged
him, then set him down on his feet, patting him gently on the head. The
noise from the stands came to an abrupt end. Suddenly there was no more
booing. In fact a hush fell over the entire ball park. The Babe and the
boy had melted the hearts of the crowd.
Cavanaugh, B., "The Sower's Seeds," Paulist Press
(adapted).
Cynicism/God, presence of/ Religion
1945·"Yahweh, how much longer will you hide?"
(Psalm 89:46).
A religious cynic once said:
God made man on the last day of creation. When he realized what He had done, He took off and went into hiding. The search to find Him is what men called religion.
In a very real sense, the search for God is what men call religion. But that cynic is only half-right. When God made man, He did not take off and go into hiding. On the contrary, from the very beginning He made Himself totally accessible to man. More particularly, God has been present to you from the moment He gave you life. And He wants you to tap the depths of that bottomless well of love He poured into your being when He made you one of His creative masterpieces. God knew exactly who you were meant to be even before He brought you into being, and He was pleased to create you, pleased to be with you always, pleased to make His Presence known to you, pleased to make Himself accessible to you at all times. And if your religious search for Him is coming up empty, it's because you've been looking in the wrong places.
Death/Funeral/Progress
1946 • Several years ago, a Lexington Avenue building in New York
City was being remodeled. As the work neared completion, a big sign was
placed out front. It read: "Keeping pace with the progress of the community
... a new funeral chapel." Whoever wrote that ad spoke the truth in
more ways than one. Many renovations were taking place in the area and,
in this regard, a spanking new funeral chapel was keeping pace with such
progress. The larger truth was that the new funeral home symbolized the
progress of everyone in the community toward being the central figure in
that place (or in one just like it) for a day or two!
Death/Life-Span/Time
1947 • The pastor of a New York City Church once preached a sermon
in which he asked his congregation to imagine that the human life-span for
each member was ninety years. Then he said, "Suppose we compress those
ninety years into the waking hours of one day, say from seven in the morning
until eleven at night ...
If you are fifteen-years-old, then it is twenty-five past ten in the morning.
If you are twenty-five, it is twelve forty.
If you are thirty, it is ten minutes to two.
If you are forty, it is a little after four.
If you are forty-five, it is a quarter past five.
If you are fifty, it is six twenty-five.
If you are fifty-five, it is twenty-five minutes to eight.
If you are sixty, it is twenty minutes to nine.
If you are sixty-five, it is nine fifteen.
If you are seventy-five, it is ten minutes to ten.
If you are eighty-five, it is ten minutes past ten.
And we all run out of time just as the news comes on at eleven!
Devil/Action/Love/Stagnation
1948 • "It was to undo all that the devil has done that
the Son of God appeared"
(1 John 3:8).
The story is told of a man who asked the question, "What is the devil?" Before anyone could reply, the man supplied his own answer. "The devil," he said, "is not a huge monster with horns and a harpoon tail and a wicked glitter in his eye. No, the devil is inertia, doing nothing, following the lines of least resistance."
The definition might not satisfy many theologians, but it makes the point: When Jesus asks us to turn our lives upside-down by following His example of radical love, and we respond by following the lines of least resistance, we're in the devil's corner.
Dreams/Heaven/Hope/Horizons/Vision
1949 • The horizon is the line or arc that forms the boundary between
earth and sky. The English word "horizon" comes from the Greek
word "horos," which means "limit." The horizon is the
limit of one's vision, beyond which one cannot see.
"Horizon" can also mean the limit of one's vision of life, one's outlook on life: "What is the point and purpose of life?" "Why was I born?" "What am I doing here?" "What's it all about?"
A young boy was looking dreamily out the classroom window. The teacher asked ...
"And what do you see out there?"
"I see the horizon."
"And have you ever walked to the horizon?"
"No, I am too young."
"Well, someday you will."
"And when I get there what will I find?"
"When you get there you will discover another horizon -- another far beyond."
"And if I walk again?"
"If you walk again you will know that the second horizon is merely a starting place for the third."
"Will my life then be one of always losing horizons?"
"No, of always finding them!"
Ellis, M., "Sermons In Stone," Holt, Rinehart and Winston (Adapted).
Faith/God, relationship with/
Religion/Theology
1950 • While pursuing a doctorate in Theology, an Ohio pastor attended
several days of intensive study at a monastery. "Theology and Today"
was the subject of one of the seminars. "I sidled into the classroom,"
the clergyman said, "ready to hear a multisyllabic analysis of the
existential predicament paralyzing the souls of modern believers ..."
Through thick glasses, a relaxed professor studied each of us in the room. At last he spoke. "Most of you have come here to wrestle with words and toy with theory. Bridging the gap between Creator and the Created is simply not that complicated. If you would hold theological truth against current lifestyles, you would need ask only one question:
What's in it for God?"
Greed/Priorities/War
1951 • Within hours of the first bombs being dropped over Baghdad,
the Dow Jones average on the New York Stock Exchange shot up over one hundred
points -- the largest one-day gain in many years. But did any of you notice
on the Eleven-O-Clock News that the traders on the floor of the Exchange
were cheering the day's events as though their favorite football team had
just scored the winning touchdown in the Super Bowl?
The country had just gone to war and they were deliriously happy. Apparently, for them that day, war had a positive impact on their bottom line.
Hand of God/Growth/Life
1952 • "God, your praise, like your name, reaches for the
ends of the world, Your right hand holds the victory" (Psalm 48:10).
The French Sculptor, Rodin, fashioned two small statues as companion pieces. One is of smooth marble, sleek in texture, depicting a human figure cradled in a cupped hand. It suggests that all is peaceful as the human figure lies there, inert and untroubled. Rodin called this work "The Hand of the Devil."
The second piece is not smooth. The stone is of rough texture and the artist has designed a powerful hand which suggests movement, motion. In its grip, this hand also holds a figure of humanity, carrying it upward, into life. Rodin called this work "The Hand of God."
Happiness/Faith/Growth
1953 • "I have told you this so that my own joy may be
in you and your joy may be complete" (John 15:11).
In the words of one of the world's great psychologists, "Whoever insists on safety and security as primary conditions of life cannot have faith."* To put one's faith and trust in God who is Love, and to love and to be loved, requires genuine heroism -- the courage to embrace certain values as one's ultimate concern and to take the great leap of faith and stake everything on those values.
Time and again, and in many different ways, Jesus said, "You will recognize by their fruits the persons whose faith and trust in God's ways brings them into His Kingdom." You will know them, He said, by the difference this faith and trust has made in the way they live. And because their faith and trust in God has made a difference in the way they live, they are blest, they are happy ...
Happy are they who show mercy, mercy shall be theirs ...
Happy are the peacemakers ...
Happy are they who hunger and hirst after holiness ...
Happy are reconcilers ...
Happy are they who forgive and forget ...
Happy are they who leave the judgment of others to God ...
Happy are they who have faith and trust in God's blueprint for living.
Erich Fromm
Happiness/God, presence of/
God, search for
1954 • "Set your heart on his Kingdom first, and on righteousness,
and all these things will be given you as well " (Mt. 6:33).
The United States Constitution affirms the people's right to freely engage themselves in the "pursuit of happiness." The New Testament -- a collection of the greatest "self-help" books ever written -- teaches people how to engage themselves in the "pursuit of happiness." In so doing, the New Testament writers seem to be telling us that God has a sense of humor. The poet Robert Frost has expressed his understanding of this in a delightful couplet:
Forgive, O Lord, my little jokes on Thee,
And I'll forgive Thy great big joke on me!
God's great big joke on us is that, in terms of ultimate reality, the pursuit of happiness is a trivial pursuit. "He who acts in truth comes to the light," Jesus says. The Gospel truth is that we cannot achieve happiness by pursuing it. Happiness is the result of going after something else -- something ultimate.
C.S. Lewis expresses his understanding of God's ultimate joke in these words:
Look for yourself and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.
Heaven/Faith/Reunion
1955 • When C.S. Lewis lost his dear friend, Charles Williams,
he wrote something which he hoped would not be regarded as maudlin. He felt
that since Charles Williams had died, heaven was no longer a strange, far-off
place. It had been once, but now it was near and dear because his friend
was there. And when Lewis later lost his wife he said the same thing. Lewis's
experience was not unlike that of a woman named Mrs. Bunting from a fishing
village on the coast of Northern Ireland. When she was well into her eighties,
she had a conversation about death with a visiting clergyman. "I'm
not afraid to die," she said, "because I have a claim on heaven."
Do you know what her "claim" was? It was her own child who had
died in infancy. Mrs. Bunting had lived to be a ripe old age, but all the
time she had loved that little one. She was not afraid to die because she
had a claim in heaven; there was a little bit of herself already there.
The truth is we all have a claim in heaven. You may ask, "When I
die shall I know my dear ones and shall I be able to love them?" And
the answer comes, "Would it be heaven otherwise?" Of course we
shall know and love them. We shall know them even better there than we have
known them here. And we shall love them more!
Boyd, M., "Who Goes There," Westminster Press(adapted).
Heaven/Meaning of Life/ Purpose
1956 • "If life on earth is not a road to heaven," someone
has said, "then it is a treadmill, a merry-go-round minus the merry."
It is like an old "Mutt and Jeff" comic strip ...
It is late at night and Jeff is standing next to a pile of stones in the center of a highway. On the stones there is a lantern. Mutt comes along and asks,
"Hey Jeff, did you put the lantern there?"
"Yes, Mutt."
"Why did you put the lantern there?"
"To warn cars away so they won't crack up on this pile of stones."
"Good thinking, Jeff. But did you put the stones there too?"
"Yes, Mutt."
"What for?"
"Why, to hold the lantern up, of course."
For better or for worse, every ingredient in our lives can be seen to be fulfilling some purpose: the stones are there to hold up the lantern; the lantern is there to light up the stones. But why is the whole thing there? All the ingredients in society's big machine are there for the sake of the big machine, but why is the big machine there?
Take an hour sometime and sit under a bridge or major traffic artery, when the traffic noise seems to be in your soul, not just in the road. Then, ask yourself "Why?" Why is that bridge there? Well, it brings commuters from the suburbs to the city in the morning and back home in the evening. Why? Why do they go to the city? To work. To work at what? Well, at all sorts of meaningful jobs. Like what? Well, like financiers, architects, policemen, construction workers ... And what do they do? Well, financiers finance bridges, architects design bridges, policemen police bridges, construction workers construct bridges ... You see? (The lantern is there because of the stones and the stones are there because of the lantern.)
Is that all there is? What is it all there for? What is the purpose of it all? We desire bridges as a means -- but a means to an end, or merely a means to more means? What is the end -- the purpose of it all? What is the end -- the purpose of our life? What do we want? What are we searching for?
Kreeft, P., "Heaven," (adapted).
Helping Hand/Healing/ Human
Touch
1957 • "He touched her hand and the fever left her and
she got up and began to wait on him" (Matthew 8:15).
A sensitive woman named Marcia relates the following"touching" episode in her life:
"Now you've come," my grandmother whispered weakly from her bed. Just the night before we had brought her to this nursing home, because it now took several people to move her large-boned, crippled body. Her complexion looked pasty in the morning light, and her colorless hair was wispy against her pillow. Grandma, always so active, always doing for others. Now her hands lay limp on the sheets -- hands which once served heaps of potatoes and fried chicken on blue willow plates, kneaded bread, patched overalls, gathered eggs, churned butter. I shoved my hands into the pockets of my coat. I felt helpless and awkward, not knowing what to do or say.
Several days later I went to the doctor for a routine treatment. My three-year-old son stood wide-mouthed with fear and concern as we waited. "Don't worry," I reassured him, "I'm all right."
Then he took my hand and held it quietly in his two small ones. My heart flooded with warmth and thankfulness. And suddenly, with my little boy still holding my hand, I knew what I would do the very next time I visited my grandmother.*
God shows forth His works -- His Love -- through the healing hand of the Lord Jesus Christ. And God is ready to show His works through your healing hands. You can do marvelous things in Jesus' Name.
Schwartz, M., "A Touch Of Love," Treasury of Love (Bantam).
Hope/Faith/Optimism
1958 • In Greek mythology there is a legend in which Zeus, the
righteous ruler of the world, presents his subjects with a big vase filled
with everything they would need to be whole and happy persons. The people
are overjoyed by this great gift. They begin to dance with such exuberance
that the vase falls to the ground and its lid pops off. And before the lid
can be put back in place, all of the life-giving gifts escape, except one.
The people cringe before the all-powerful Zeus. "Well," he asks,
"what is left?" Peeking inside the vase, one of the subjects reports,
"Only hope remains." To which Zeus replies, "It is enough!"
Hypocrisy/Greed/Money
1959 • "I tell you solemnly, it will be hard for a rich
man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven" (Matthew 19:23).
Composer Rudolph Friml once turned on the radio and was outraged to hear one of his great songs being used as background for a beer commercial. Immediately he called his manager and expressed his indignation over his song being "vulgarized" in that manner. "I demand that you do something about this outrage at once," he bellowed. "But, maestro," the manager replied, "I've been saving this as a surprise. I made a deal with the beer company and you'll get at least fifty thousand dollars for the rights." After a moment's silence, the maestro purred, "It does have a nice commercial lilt, doesn't it?"
Light/God, search for/ Truth/Wisdom
1960 • "God is light; there is no darkness in him at allif
we live our lives in the light, as he is in the light, we are in union with
one another"
(1John 1:5,7).
Mel Ellis, an expert on wildlife and conservation, has written a little book of fables in which he examines the world around him with a naturalist's eye and celebrates what he sees with a poet's vision. The forty-sixth and last fable in the book unfolds in a little dialogue between the author and his daughter:
Daughter: Now that I have read your fables I am disappointed because you gave no space to the "new morality."
Father: Well, there are many, many things I did not touch on. As for morality, almost every generation claims a new morality. It is a vagary.
Daughter: I'm not quite sure I understand.
Father: Consider the climbing vines. Honeysuckle, for instance, always twines clockwise, to its right. Jasmine always twines counterclockwise, to its left. Nothing can make either do otherwise. Yet there is one twining plant -- Scyphanthus Elegans -- which will start turning in one direction, making a couple of loops around its support, and then go back the other way, reversing itself every couple of loops or so.
Daughter: Well it would seem that is the most interesting way to climb.
Father: Most interesting, perhaps, but not a very tidy system.
Daughter: I still don't get the point.
Father: The point is that no matter how vines climb, whether to the left or to the right, or both ways, each is always seeking the same thing.
Daughter: And that is?
Father: Light.
Ellis, M., "Sermons In Stone," Holt, Rinehart and Winston (Adapted).
Listening/Human Voice/Joy/Music
1961 • "Sing to Yahweh, sing to the music and to the sound
of many instruments. To the sound of the trumpet and horn acclaim Yahweh
the King!" (Psalm 88:5-6).
A young writer was interviewing a symphony orchestra conductor from Eastern Europe. The maestro had just been released from prison where he had spent years in isolation because of his political views. After asking several questions on political and economic matters, the reporter turned to music. "What in your opinion is the most beautiful piece of music ever written?" he asked. The maestro thought about this for a while without answering. The reporter pressed on: "While you were held in isolation what did you want most to hear? What music would have come to mind then as the most beautiful?" "In the whole world?" the maestro asked. "In the whole world!" the reporter answered. "In all the world," the maestro said, with tears in his eyes, "the most beautiful music is the sound of another voice."
Love/Husband and Wife/ Quarreling
1962 • "You are God's chosen race, his saints; he loves
you, and you should be clothed in sincere compassion, in kindness and humility,
gentleness and patience. Bear with one another, forgive each other as soon
as a quarrel begins"
(Colossians 3:12-13).
Veteran comics know that they can always get a laugh by dipping into their storehouse of husband-and-wife jokes -- lover's quarrels. For example ...
"My wife and I had a fight last night."
"How did it end up?"
"She came crawling to me on her hands and knees."
"What did she say?"
"Come out from under that bed, you coward!"
"A lover's quarrel," it has been said, "is like a storm at sea; all the fury is on the surface, but underneath there is a deep current of love."
Engraved on the tombstone of poet Robert Frost are the words: "I had a lover's quarrel with the world." Frost himself chose that epitaph. What it means, really, is that he had a lover's quarrel with God. And, whether we realize or not, the same is true of us all. We have an ongoing lover's quarrel with the world and with God because of the evil we encounter in our lives. Why is there so much war and hatred? Why so much sickness and sorrow? Why so much anxiety and insecurity? Why so much loneliness and emptiness? Why death? Why did God make such an imperfect world?
We lament that the world is not perfect, forgetting that if it were, there might not be a place for us in it and there might not be a place for our loved ones in it, for we all fall short of perfection. It was into this world that we were called. It was into this world that our loved ones were called. Consequently, whenever we quarrel with God's world, let's be sure that it's a lover's quarrel. Let's never forget to love this world because it is a gift of Grace; it is a gift of God.
Boyd, M., "A Lover's Quarrel With the World" (Westminster).
Preaching/Faith/Word of God
1963 • " the Word of the Lord remains forever. What is
this word? It is the Good News that has been brought to you" (1
Peter 1:23).
Recently, a small town newspaper's "Religion Column" included the story of a local minister who had been preaching Sunday after Sunday for two years to an empty Church. Before that, there were three members in the congregation. But two died and the third moved away. Nevertheless, each Sunday for two years, the minister went into the pulpit, looked out at the uninterrupted rows of empty pews and preached the Message of Jesus Christ as he understood it.
At one point during this period he decided to turn off the sound system because some of the neighbors were complaining about the noise. When he was asked if he didn't feel a little foolish preaching to empty pews week after week, he replied, "No. I don't ever feel foolish. I'm just taking it one Sunday at a time, waiting for someone to come in and listen to the Word."
That is the problem which all serious preachers face week after week: "Is there anyone out there who realizes that the Word of God being preached is a call to turn his or her life upside down? Or am I preaching, in effect, to empty pews? Is there anyone out there who is so astonished by the Word of God spoken through Jesus that he or she feels compelled to cry out, 'I know You are the Holy One of God ... I know You are my Lord and Savior'?"
War/Pacifism/Peace/Ripple Effect
1964 • "Happy the peacemakers: they shall be called sons
of God" (Matthew 5:9).
It was early in the Vietnam War, and an American platoon was hunkered down is some rice paddies, in the heat of a firefight with the Vietcong. Suddenly a line of six monks started walking along the elevated berms that separated paddy from paddy. Perfectly calm and poised, the monks walked directly toward the line of fire.
"They didn't look right, they didn't look left. They walked straight through," recalls David Busch, one of the American soldiers. "It was really strange, because nobody shot at 'em. And after they walked over the berms suddenly all the fight was out of me. It just didn't feel like I wanted to do this anymore, at least not that day. It must have been that way for everybody, because everybody quit. We stopped fighting."
The power of the monks' quietly courageous calm to pacify soldiers in the heat of battle illustrates a basic principle of life: Emotions are contagious.
"Monks in the heat of Battle," as told by David Busch in "Culture Cul-de-Sac," Arizona State University Research, 1994.
