Category: Blog

Thoughts from here and there…Religion and Soap

A rabbi and a soap maker went for a walk together. The soap maker said: “What good is religion? Look at the trouble and misery in the world after thousands of years of religion. If religion is true, why should this be?”

The rabbi said nothing.

They continued walking until he noticed a child, filthy with mud and grime, playing in the gutter.

The rabbi said: “Look at that child. You say that soap makes people clean. We’ve had soap for generation after generation yet look how dirty this child is. Of what value is soap?”

The soap maker protested, “But rabbi, soap can’t do any good unless it is used!”

“Exactly,” replied the rabbi.

Religion is like soap. This is an excellent illustration of the need, but, you ask yourself, what about the results?

What can faith help us to accomplish that cannot be done in no other way? I remember a story that is often repeated about a little boy was in the hospital, unwell and very unhappy. He wanted to go home.

To cheer him up, his nurse gave him pen and ink to draw a picture, with strict instructions not to soil the bed- clothes. He completed his picture, but then the nurse found him crying. He had dropped a great blob of ink right in the middle of his picture.

She looked at the mess and then with deft strokes drew around the blot a dog and called it Spot.

“Oh,” said the little boy, looking up into her face, “that’s just like my dog at home.”

She had done something with that blot that God can do in all our lives if we’ll let Him.

God has the resources to take away the bitterness and strife of life.

God will share divine power with us so that we can overcome the temptations that confront us with successful living.

There is nothing that we can do on our own. It takes two. If we will let him, God will help us.

Thoughts from here and there…How much time do you have?

I was deeply impressed with this story. Mary Ann O’Roark in an interview with Anne Lamott talks about her friend Pammy and herself.

“I was raised to keep all the family secrets and present myself in such a way that people would be either envious or approving. But keeping up a facade like that takes so much energy.

“When my friend Pammy was going through chemotherapy, and I asked her if the dress I was wearing made me look fat, I was making a fuss about the dumbest things, and Pammy looked at me and said, Annie, you just don’t have that kind of time. It was so profound, it was like I was in a cartoon and somebody conked me over the head. I got it.

“Pammy died seven years ago. But I still live by her words: You don’t have time to live a lie. You don’t have time to get the world to approve of you.

“You only have the time to become the person you dream of being. You only have the time to clean out your mean and ugly spots, areas that drag you down and hurt other people. You only have the time to accept yourself as you are and start getting a little bit healthier so you can be who God needs you to be.

“In a way, it’s exhilarating to say, This is really who I am, and I’m not going to pretend just because I have the sneaking suspicion I’m not good enough. God meets you where you are.”

God meets us in so many ways and in so many places. God meets us during Lent to reminds us of the brief nature of life and on Easter to loudly declare that there is life after life. Get the message?

Mary Ann O’Roark, an interview with Anne Lamott, reprinted from Clarity magazine.

Thoughts from here and there…Readiness

Readiness is a common everyday process that we use. Readiness implies how you dress for the events of the day Readiness takes in the food that you might eat for breakfast or for any meal, whether it is at home or in a restaurant. Readiness covers the preparation that is needed when you are planning a trip. Whether we acknowledge it or not rediness is an important process. It eould be sad and embarassing if you were not ready.

The season of Lent is time for getting ready.

Readiness invites us to take a long view of Jesus Christ as he prepares for the Last Supper, the crucifixion, and the resurrection on Easter morning.

For us this ought to be a deeply humbling experience. We are to take what Jesus did for us personally. It is for you and me.

You recognize the substitution of Jesus for you not only intellectually, but you feel it emotionally. Johann Christoph Arnold in his book, Seeking Peace writes:

“Humility is not just gentleness or meekness. It demands vulnerability, the willingness to be hurt. It is readiness to go unnoticed, to be last, to receive the least. Humility offers nothing in the way of peace as the world gives–and plenty that destroys it. Yet it describes the way of Christ better than any other word. It is the way of Christ. And as such it brings the deepest and most lasting peace.” (Johann Christoph Arnold, Seeking Peace(Farmington: The Plough Publishing House, 1998), 123.)

To find the peace of Easter, we ought to go through the humility of Lent.

May your journey through Lent be a productive one.

Thoughts from here and there…God’s Immune System

Your immune system is a complex defense system for suppressing and eliminating infections. Agents that can invade your body live everywhere—in the air; on dust particles, food and plants; on and in animals and humans; in soil and water; and on virtually every other surface. They range from microscopic organisms to lager parasites.

The vast majority of these organisms do not produce disease, but some do. This majority is usually kept under control by your immune system but, if that system becomes weakened or you encounter an organism to which you have not built up a resistance, illness results.

We live with the constant battle that is going on between the body and infection—a battle your body usually wins, but not always. We don’t have to be told how important our immune system is for our good health. A strong and healthy immune system protects us from disease.

We know how important it is that we pump–up the immune system with vaccinations, injections or oral immunization agents. We can be immunized for the flue, measles, chickenpox, diphtheria, mumps, smallpox, and many, many more threats to health and life.

It might be well to think of the Christian religion as an immune system that protects us from dissolution and death. But the benefits that Jesus Christ offers us include much, much more than immortality.

The great plague that, more than anything else, infects us and inhibits us is selfishness. The selfish need an immunization of love. Harry Emerson Fosdick in “Riverside Sermons,” wrote: “Bitterness imprisons life; love releases it. Bitterness paralyzes life; love empowers it. Bitterness sickens life; love heals it. Bitterness blinds life; love anoints its eyes.”

Bitterness is the end result of selfishness. It is a deep feeling of anguish created by anger, resentment or animosity to people or life. Life owes us and it has not paid off. Only the application of the therapy of love can gradually wash away the fruits of bitterness.

Thomas C. Oden speaks of an immune system for heresy. Heresy is like an infection. Heresy can be understood as an opinion or doctrine that is not in line with the accepted teachings of Jesus Christ. It is more than false teachings; it also has to do with improper attitudes.

The siren call of the heretic enters smoothly into the ear and mind. The message is one that supports our own personal gods, whatever they may be. The message infects our morals, our ethics, our values, our attitudes, and our relationships. We are victims. We are bound by unnecessary restrictions. We do not allow ourselves to experience the pleasures of life. It is an old song which reverberates from Eden to the present day.

There is a vaccine which we can take that helps the immune system resist heresy. It is the good news taught by Jesus Christ. There is a clinic which dispenses the vaccine, it is called the church. The clinic is open seven days a week to provide the information and use of the antitoxin that saves us not only from the heretics but also from ourselves. The invitation is open. It’s up to you.

Thoughts from here and There…Learning to say I Love You!

I had the fortunate experience to conduct worship on the first Thursday of the month at Greenway Manor. Greenway Manor is a skilled nursing facility in Spring Green Wisconsin.

It was a challenge to find material that will interest the residents. I thought it might be beneficial to speak about love

Christina Rossetti’s poem. Love Came Down at Christmas made a deep and lasting impression me. I had used it for a Christmas Eve Service and used it at Greenway

Love came down at Christmas,

Love all lovely, love divine;
Love was born at Christmas,
Star and angels gave the sign.

Worship we the Godhead,
Love incarnate, love divine;
Worship we our Jesus:
But wherewith for sacred sign?

Love shall be our token,
Love shall be yours and love be mine,
Love to God and to all men,
Love for plea and gift and sign.

What was impressed on me is that without love coming down at Christmas, I would not love, nor know how to love, nor would any one else.

For the Writer’s Almanac of December 22, 2009, Garrison Keillor read “Susanna” by Anne Porter, from Living Things: Collected Poems.

It is a beautiful poem that also emphasizes love. I quote it here because of the depth of meaning that it communicates.

Nobody in the hospital
Could tell the age
Of the old woman who
Was called Susanna

I knew she spoke some English
And that she was an immigrant
Out of a little country
Trampled by armies

Because she had no visitors
I would stop by to see her
But she was always sleeping

All I could do
Was to get out her comb
And carefully untangle
The tangles in her hair

One day I was beside her
When she woke up
Opening small dark eyes
Of a surprising clearness

She looked at me and said
You want to know the truth?
I answered Yes

She said it’s something that
My mother told me

There’s not a single inch
Of our whole body
That the Lord does not love

She then went back to sleep.

There is not a single inch of our whole body that the Lord does not love. The old woman went back to sleep. She could sleep the sleep of deep peace because she recognized that she was loved.

Some people find it hard to say “I love you.” I do not. I met a friend of the family at our Christmas dinner. I told him that we were a huging people. He reached over and gave me a hug, and I said, “I love you.” He appeared to be startled by my action. We are also a family that freely says, “I love you.”

Love is one of the major themes promoted during February. What the world calls love is not what God calls love. Love comes down at Christmas. This is love.

With sincere practice it is not hard to say “I love you.”

Thoughts from here and there…Are You Jesus?

A few years ago a group of salesmen went to a regional sales convention in Chicago. They had assured their wives that they would be home in plenty of time for Friday night’s dinner. In their rush, with tickets and briefcases, one of these salesmen inadvertently kicked over a table which held a display of baskets of apples. Apples flew everywhere.

Without stopping or looking back, they all continued their sprint to reach the plane in time for their nearly missed boarding. All but one.

He paused, and experienced a twinge of compassion for the girl whose apple stand that had been overturned.

He yelled to his friends to go on without him, and to please explain to his wife that he would be taking a later flight.

Then he turned around where the apples were all over the terminal floor. He was glad he did. The 16 year old girl was totally blind! She was softly crying, tears running down her cheeks in frustration, and at the same time helplessly groping for her spilled produce as the crowd swirled about her, no one stopping, and no one to care.

The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up the apples, put them into the baskets, and helped set the display up once more. As he did this, he noticed that many of them had become battered and bruised; these he set aside in another basket. When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, “Here, please take this $20 for the damage we did. Are you okay?” She nodded through her tears. He continued on with, “I hope we didn’t spoil your day too badly.”

As the salesman started to walk away, the bewildered blind girl called out to him, “Mister….” He paused and turned to look back into those blind eyes.

She continued, “Are you Jesus?”

He stopped in mid-stride. Then slowly he made his way to catch the later flight with that question burning and bouncing about in his soul: “Are you Jesus?”

Dare I ask the question? Yes. “What would you do?”

Thoughts from here and there…Load the Wagon!

Life is full of obstacles. Some of them are minor and cause you little concern, these are the mole hills. But there are mountains which have to be climbed. There are valleys that have to be crossed. And there are bridges which have to be negotiated. Sometimes you stand for a moment and survey the scene and the obstacle appears so great that there does not seem to be a way to deal with it. We might listen to the words of a former NFL coach and broadcaster.

John Madden was the color commentator for Monday Night Football, and he was a professional football coach. He was once asked what words of encouragement he gave to his team at half-time.

He replied: “Don’t worry about going blind! Just load the wagon!” He confessed later that he didn’t have the vaguest idea of what this meant but, it appeared to work!

Well he misquoted the expression. I looked it up and it ought to read: “Don’t worry about the horse going blind, just load the wagon.” Still, you have to ask what such an expression might mean.

The sentence came from a paraphrase of the quotation that is to be found in a sermon by Bishop Robert Spain of KY as quoted by Dr. John Bardsley.

What it really means is this. A blind horse guided by a sighted driver will always make the trip successfully. For us the conclusion is rather obvious: “Get on with it! (The work of Christ!) There’s no place for defeatism or negativism.

Does this appear to be too harsh a way of stating the obvious? I do not believe so. As Paul writes, “I can do all things through him (that is Christ) who strengthens me,” (Philippians 4:13, NRSVA). Perhaps he could, but if he could so can you and me.

This promise is all-inclusive. We may be blind, but Jesus is the light. We may be weak, Jesus offers strength. We may be ignorant, Jesus offers truth. Whatever our need there is a remedy in Christ. So take heart. Load the wagon.

Thoughts from here and There…Love Never Burns Out

Love is power. Love is Joy! Love is the source of individual vitality and hopefulness. Love creates the capacity in life to prevent “burn–out.” This thought occurred to me as I was sitting in conversation with a student in the Lay Ministry Training Program whom I was mentoring.

In response to his comment I made a audacious statement. “I will not burn–out!” This is something that I had not said before that moment. “Love is the source of power that prevents “burn–out.” It is true! Let me explain.

Love begins with God. We love because God first loved us(1 John 4:19). God is the one who defines God’s love (1 John 4:8). God is the one who illustrates love (1 John 4:9). God is the one who demonstrates the actions and attitudes of love (Jeremiah 3:3). One can only learn love through knowing God (1 John 3:14-18). God is love, unlimited and unconditional, though not necessarily approving. This kind of love, generally, cannot be readily observed in the world, or, generally, discovered in the life of the common citizen of the world.

Jesus as God’s representative illustrates love, in his thoughts, in his attitudes, and in his actions. Jesus commands us to love God, ourselves, and our neighbor/enemy. Loving one’s self means accepting one’s self for who and what you are. There may be things that you do not like, that is okay. You can always change, if change is what you want.

Loving one’s self means that the individual takes the time to develop the necessary order in one’s life so that it may be lived optimally. That is you get enough rest, the necessary food, not only for the body, but also for the mind, the spirit. A person who has come to love his or her self is at peace. There is great restfulness in love. Love does not reduce activity, but it is the great antidote for worry. Love helps to keep life in balance. Love helps us to realize what is important and necessary.

Once you have come to the place where you can love, and forgive yourself, you are ready to apply this principle to all your relationships. When you encounter frustration you will find the means to cope. When you face losses, you will discover the energy and wisdom necessary to see the situation through to a positive conclusion. It makes no difference what happens to you, you will be optimistic and up–beat, creative and hopeful.

In this way you will never burn–out. Love is energizing. You will have all the energy of the Energizer Rabbit. You will keep going, and going, and going. God gives us every opportunity to understand and grow in love. The best place to observe love and to grow love and to participate in a loving relationship is in the community of the faithful. We call this the Church. It comes as close to the ideal that God and humans can make it.

Thoughts from here and there…Who is in control of information?

Here we are at the end of January 2025. Our country is in turmoil. Our world relations are being challenged. We have an administration that is willing to use force to compel compliance with the Presidents desires. This can be observed in the pressure to conform in California and in Colombia.

All I can think of is what Wiston observed in Orwell’s 1984.

“Winston is an editor in the Records Department at the governmental office Ministry of Truth, where he actively revises historical records to make the past conform to whatever Ingsoc wants it to be. One day he wakes up and thinks,

“Who controls the past, controls the future: who controls the present, controls the past…”

“The mutability of the past is the central tenet of Ingsoc. Past events, it is argued, have no objective existence, but survive only in written records and in human memories. The past is whatever the records and the memories agree upon. And since the Party is in full control of all records, and in equally full control of the minds of its members, it follows that the past is whatever the Party chooses to make it.” (Retrieved from: https://www.thoughtco.com/what-does-that-quote-mean-archaeology-172300)

Who controls the present controls the past and the future. This may lead to a high level of discontent and depression.

It may be helpful to consider “The Nine Requisites for Contented Living, as written by the German philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

They are well-worth contemplating.

1. Health enough to make work a pleasure.

2. Wealth enough to support your needs.

3. Strength enough to battle difficulties and
overcome them.

4. Grace enough to confess your sins and forsake
them.

5. Patience enough to toil until some good is accomplished.

6. Charity enough to see some good in your
neighbor.

7. Love enough to move you to be useful and
helpful to others.

8. Faith enough to make real the things of God.

9. Hope enough to remove all anxious fears concerning
the future.

It is 2025. You have made your New Year’s resolutions that you promise not
to break. What may you have promised God for 2025? What do you think God might ask of you in the coming days, weeks, and months?

Take a look at the items below. Do you see any revelance in them for
2025?

~ God won’t ask what kind of car you drove, He’ll ask how many people you drove who didn’t have transportation.

~ God won’t ask the square footage of your house, He’ll ask how many people you welcomed into your home.

~ God won’t ask about the clothes you had in your closet, He’ll ask how many you helped to clothe.

~ God won’t ask what your highest salary was; He’ll ask if you compromised your character to obtain it.

~ God won’t ask what your job title was; He’ll ask if you performed your job to the best of your ability.

~ God won’t ask how many friends you had, He’ll ask how many people to whom you were a friend.

~ God won’t ask in what neighborhood you lived; He’ll ask how you treated your neighbors.

~ God won’t ask about the color of your skin, He’ll ask about the content of your character.

How to answer? It is up to you.