Ash Wednesday
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series VI, Cycle C
Object:
COMMENTARY ON THE LESSONS
Lesson 1: Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 (C, E); Joel 2:12-18 (RC)
The people have slipped away from their religious commitments. First, Joel predicts dire consequences, gets their attention with ominous threats: "Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming." He predicts a "day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness ... Like blackness spread upon the mountains." His fearsome predictions continue at length. Then, when one imagines the people quaking with fear, he totally changes his tack. "Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love." Joel has called upon the people of his land to repent. "Rend your hearts, not your clothing," he commands. Thus, God "relents from punishing." They are to evidence their renewal of commitment with fasting, weeping, and mourning. These were traditional Jewish religious exercises, not always as life-changing as one could wish. Jesus didn't seem terribly impressed with wailing prayers, preferring private prayer. In a culture where public prayer is an expected custom, such prayer can become a status symbol. We have already discussed the Pharisee who prayed in his temple, rather pompously Jesus thought. Jesus was more impressed with our treatment of each other than with our religious observances. Only insofar as the latter improved the former would Jesus have encouraged what Joel recommended.
Lesson 2: 2 Corinthians 5:20b--6:10 (C, E); 2 Corinthians 5:20--6:2 (RC)
Paul had quite a life. His adventures included an incredible number of hardships and close shaves. He felt that this rugged life was a gift to God, and called us not so much to endure what he had faced, but at least to bear witness, not to Paul's sacrifices, but to those of Jesus. We are the means by which the gospel is to be spoken and preached. More importantly, we are to be the evidence which can convince others that this Christian faith can result in lives which are spiritually and emotionally rich, lives which are courageous, lives which are productive of the things that matter most. Jesus was made like us -- "sinful" according to Paul, though he probably meant here "human" -- in order to enable us to identify with him, and thus enable us to live righteous lives. As it pertains to Lent and Ash Wednesday, the sacrificial element in our worship must be relevant to the world around us. Fasting is nothing more than an unhealthy form of diet unless it causes us to reflect in such a way as to pay the price of acting like the Christians we claim to be.
Gospel: Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 (C, E); Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18 (RC)
One must be reminded of the culture to which Jesus addressed his words. Public prayer was highly regarded. Frequently, those who wished to appear dutifully orthodox would pray in loud voices, often wailing away their supposed grief at the wrongs they had done and the losses taken. Undoubtedly there was sincerity on the part of many. After all, children were raised to believe in that sort of thing and should not be criticized by us for a cultural custom remote from our own. For a Jew to pray publicly in that fashion is probably not much different from the way we pray The Lord's Prayer and other rote prayers on Sunday morning. What Jesus knew was that there was a lot of insincerity, a lot of hypocrisy. As such, it was a waste of time. People praying in public may find it hard not to be conscious of those around them, and if we preachers are honest, some of our public prayers are carefully crafted to appear as examples of good literature, plus the fact that many of them are mini-sermons, not prayers anyway.
Jesus said that our prayers and, if we fast, our fasting is to be done privately, being sure there is no effort to receive admiration and approval from others. Since people who fast are looked upon by some as a little strange, fasting has all but disappeared from Protestant practice. At least, that's the general assumption. Actually, a good friend of mine was drinking only water at lunch last Lent. I finally pried out of him that he was fasting. If it's done, he did it the right way.
SERMON SUGGESTIONS
Title: "Celebration Of Discipline"
Text: Joel 2:1-2, 12-14
Theme: That title is, of course, the title of a book. It's also something I dare say not many people do today: celebrate discipline. Consider some signs of the times. Paul G. Labadie, writing for USA Today, began an article this way: "The activities of the '60s and '70s socialized boomers into heavy use of the Gratification Solution: 'I want it all, I want it now, and I'll pick it up at the drive thru.' " At Princeton University, some researchers followed some 6,000 young men through their crime-prone years, from their teens up through their early thirties. They controlled for race, education, income, urban residence, and even cognitive ability. They discovered that men raised in disrupted families were 200 percent more likely to end up incarcerated than men who lived in intact families. So, what are we doing about divorce, about marital infidelity, about workaholism which keeps families apart?
Some other signs of the times: Bob Jones University recently announced that any alum who is gay and appears on that campus will be arrested for trespassing. What kind of Christianity is that? How about our legal system: in Cleveland, Senator Henry Johnson was convicted for pressuring grocers to hand over 17,000 dollars in campaign contributions in exchange for determining just who got licenses to participate in food stamp programs. Meanwhile, an Associated Press report stated that "prosecutors throughout the country have hidden evidence, leading to wrongful convictions, retrials, and appeals that cost taxpayers millions of dollars according to The Chicago Tribune analysis of thousands of court records in homicide cases." And it was also discovered in this connection that 381 people placed on death row in U.S. prisons, have had their convictions thrown out "because prosecutors concealed evidence suggesting innocence or presented evidence they knew to be false...."
Michael Medved, writing for Hillsdale College, began with this sobering observation: "In every corner of contemporary culture childhood is under assault. The very idea of parental protectiveness has been overwhelmed by relentless pressure from a society that seems perversely determined to frighten and corrupt its own young in a misguided effort to 'prepare' them for a harsh, dangerous future."
I won't go on. The very technological miracles which have made our culture so exciting in material terms has begun to smother out the most revered qualities of the human spirit. It is time -- it is far beyond the time -- when we, who call ourselves preachers, must call our people back to the discipline of integrity, of loyalty, of love. Unpopular though it may be, it is time to celebrate discipline.
Title: "The Cost Of Discipleship"
Text: 2 Corinthians 6:2-10
Theme: (Our title here, of course, is thanks to Dietrich Bonhoeffer.) While it may seem that Paul was boasting here, stating his own many accomplishments, I think he was actually referring to those faithful people with whom he was working, and was using them as examples for others to follow. We have to remember that the people of Corinth were notorious for their wild and woolly life styles. Paul was trying to slow them down, first of all, and was preparing them for the many problems which would lie ahead if they were serious about their Christian faith.
So with us. In America, being a Christian is not risky in the physical sense. The problems which our faith presents are more subtle. It involves things like honesty when that is pricey, and loyalty when opportunities beckon elsewhere, and refusing to take offense when offended, and forgiving people who cause us pain. The Christian faith calls upon the qualities of courage and integrity and good spirit. And as important as anything, a Christian is called to be generous to the point of self-denial.
Title: "When You Pray"
Text: Matthew 6:1-6
Theme: Jesus was horrified at the sheer hypocrisy of much public prayer. To the Pharisees, it was important to be known as a rigidly faithful practitioner of prayer. The more public the better. It wasn't limited to worship, where people of like minds (more or less) shared in prayer. I'm inclined to think Jesus would not oppose corporate prayer in our churches. More likely, he was scolding the listeners for a wrong set of motives, for pretending to themselves and others that they were sincerely addressing God, when in fact, they were vividly aware of the effect they were having on passers-by in the process. Surely, some of those people were genuinely trying to pray, and just as surely, Jesus would have approved of them. He was simply making the point loud and clear that prayer or, for that matter, any other show of religion, if intended to achieve some kind of recognition, applause, or status in the view of others was therefore, by definition, useless. While sincere prayer in public -- if it is truly sincere -- is good, private prayer is better because it can serve no useful purpose other than what prayer is supposed to do and to be.
1. Private prayer enables us to concentrate on God. Whether we be in a mode of petition, or gratitude, or awe, the person who prays alone can be open to God without the distraction of other people nearby.
2. Private prayer eliminates embarrassment for those who are self-conscious. Maybe that ought not to be, but it's true for many. I must confess that I get a little nervous when someone wants to have grace at a restaurant. Probably, I should be ashamed of that, but I'm so aware that people nearby are noticing and probably forming opinions about me, that I find it difficult to really focus on God. One of my friends quarrels with me on this and insists that it is a witness which tells others that (a) there are Christians here, and (b) it is appropriate to pray in public places. I never argue with him, but I do my praying in private except when I'm in a church worship service, or having grace with my family at home.
3. Private prayer allows us the freedom to concentrate on the content of prayer, rather than on the method. God probably doesn't care whether you kneel, or pray while walking, or while driving your car (once in a while -- that's not a good regular practice), or for that matter, while still in bed in the morning provided you don't fall asleep. In a public situation, we all more or less agree that head bowed, eyes closed, is the right way. Alone, you can devote your full attention to God.
4. Private prayer allows for reflection, meditation, and listening. Bonhoeffer observed that God can never communicate "with a chatterer." I have a feeling that sometimes we are praying when we don't think of ourselves as doing so. When I'm searching my heart for flaws, when I'm wrestling with a moral choice, when I'm struggling to do something like forgive someone, or do something I very much don't want to do but I know it's right -- if I'm doing these things out of my Christian convictions -- it may be that I am, in fact, praying.
ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS
Here was Huckleberry Finn's fix on prayer: "Miss Watson, she took me in the closet and prayed, but nothing came of it. She told me to pray everyday, and whatever I asked for I would git it. But it warn't so. I tried it. Once I got a fish line but no hooks. It warn't any good to me without hooks. I tried for the hooks three or four times, but somehow I couldn't make it work. By and by, one day, I asked Miss Watson to try for me, but she said I was a fool. She never told me why, and I could never make it out no way. I set down one day in the woods and had a long think about it. I says to myself, if a body can get anything they pray for, why don't Deacon Wynn get back the money he lost on pork? Why can't Miss Watson fat up? No, says I to myself, there ain't nothin' to it."
____________
My daughter and I recently decided to have lunch in a new restaurant. She called for a reservation and the lady who owned the place, hearing my daughter's last name, asked her this: "Are you the one who was here last week for our special luncheon for mothers and daughters?" My daughter assured her she was not. Then the woman explained: "A lady by that name was here and I inadvertantly overcharged her. I've been worried about it ever since." I couldn't help but be impressed by such simple honesty. The restaurant is located in such way that most of that woman's traffic will be tourists, so she wasn't worried that the customer would pass the word. This woman was honest. To me, that's the form the Christian faith commonly takes; not necessarily grand, noteworthy examples, but the simple, ordinary thoughtful honesty of everyday relationships.
____________
Reader's Digest, responding to renewed interest in World War II, some time ago reported a true story about a colonel being driven down a French road in a jeep by his sergeant driver. They came around a corner and saw, ahead, a German tank, its turret swiveling its cannon in their direction. The two men jumped from the jeep, diving in ditches on opposite sides of the road. Apparently, the tank driver saw the sergeant, but did not see the colonel, who was now safely hidden.
The tank rumbled toward the spot where the sergeant had entered the ditch, its machine gun firing. It was apparent the sergeant was in imminent danger of death. At this point, the colonel, seeing the danger to his friend, jumped from his concealment and opened fire on the tank -- with a pistol. Immediately, the tank turret swiveled in his direction and killed the colonel. The sergeant then surrendered. Instead of killing him, the tank crew took him prisoner. He survived and later reported this story of one man's courageous loyalty, even unto death.
____________
Dr. Reuel Howe told a lovely story about a teacher whom he knew. There was a fourteen-year-old boy in her school who was a serious problem in deportment. He disrupted his classes, made life miserable for his teachers, as any teacher will understand. Sent to the principal, he was defiant and threatening. It was obvious the boy must be expelled from school. But as a last resort, the principal called in one of the school's teachers who had a reputation for handling children like this. She was middle-aged with a naturally motherly concern for bad boys. The boy was assigned to this teacher's class with her permission. But it was made clear to the boy that this was to be his last chance.
Things went wrong from the start. It was soon obvious that the boy intended to ruin this class too. He was constantly disruptive. He defied the teacher's instructions. When she turned her back to write on the blackboard he threw things, he bullied the others, and generally made the class almost intolerable for both teacher and class. It was now obvious the boy was filled with hate and violence and was probably not to be saved.
One day, the teacher asked the boy to meet her in her office. He arrived late, and was immediately arrogant with her. For a long moment, the teacher looked into the eyes of the boy. Then she said: "Young man, I don't know why you like to bully me. But you can go on doing it. I won't stop you. But I can't bear to see the suffering in your eyes. I love you too much." For a minute the boy's eyes wavered. Then, suddenly, tears welled up in his eyes and at last he began to cry like a lost little boy. He poured out a story of a miserable home life, of parents who didn't love him. He admitted a fear that no one really cared about him and that the only way he was ever able to get any attention was to cause trouble. Reuel Howe said that from that time on, the boy began to change. He thereafter worshiped that teacher, began to do what he could to make her class better. He was in the process of healing, because at last he realized that someone loved him.
____________
Back when Harry Truman was president, he was interviewed by Norman Vincent Peale. Peale asked him, "Mr. Truman, America is the most important and powerful nation in the world right now, and you are the most important person in America. This means you bear an enormous responsibility for the welfare of the entire world. How do you handle the stress this must involve?" Truman answered this way: "When I'm ready to go to bed at night, I say a prayer to God, and ask him to please look after the affairs of this nation because I'm going to sleep." And then Truman said this: "In all my years as president, I have never had a sleepless night."
____________
Psalm Of The Day
Psalm 51:1-17 -- "Have mercy on me, O God."
Prayer Of The Day
In Jesus' name we come to thee to ask forgiveness for our sins. Enable us to find the honesty and courage to recognize wherein we have fallen short, to accept responsibility for our wrongful ways, to find the generosity of spirit to make amends, to summon the energy to be better than we are. Amen.
Lesson 1: Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 (C, E); Joel 2:12-18 (RC)
The people have slipped away from their religious commitments. First, Joel predicts dire consequences, gets their attention with ominous threats: "Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming." He predicts a "day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness ... Like blackness spread upon the mountains." His fearsome predictions continue at length. Then, when one imagines the people quaking with fear, he totally changes his tack. "Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love." Joel has called upon the people of his land to repent. "Rend your hearts, not your clothing," he commands. Thus, God "relents from punishing." They are to evidence their renewal of commitment with fasting, weeping, and mourning. These were traditional Jewish religious exercises, not always as life-changing as one could wish. Jesus didn't seem terribly impressed with wailing prayers, preferring private prayer. In a culture where public prayer is an expected custom, such prayer can become a status symbol. We have already discussed the Pharisee who prayed in his temple, rather pompously Jesus thought. Jesus was more impressed with our treatment of each other than with our religious observances. Only insofar as the latter improved the former would Jesus have encouraged what Joel recommended.
Lesson 2: 2 Corinthians 5:20b--6:10 (C, E); 2 Corinthians 5:20--6:2 (RC)
Paul had quite a life. His adventures included an incredible number of hardships and close shaves. He felt that this rugged life was a gift to God, and called us not so much to endure what he had faced, but at least to bear witness, not to Paul's sacrifices, but to those of Jesus. We are the means by which the gospel is to be spoken and preached. More importantly, we are to be the evidence which can convince others that this Christian faith can result in lives which are spiritually and emotionally rich, lives which are courageous, lives which are productive of the things that matter most. Jesus was made like us -- "sinful" according to Paul, though he probably meant here "human" -- in order to enable us to identify with him, and thus enable us to live righteous lives. As it pertains to Lent and Ash Wednesday, the sacrificial element in our worship must be relevant to the world around us. Fasting is nothing more than an unhealthy form of diet unless it causes us to reflect in such a way as to pay the price of acting like the Christians we claim to be.
Gospel: Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 (C, E); Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18 (RC)
One must be reminded of the culture to which Jesus addressed his words. Public prayer was highly regarded. Frequently, those who wished to appear dutifully orthodox would pray in loud voices, often wailing away their supposed grief at the wrongs they had done and the losses taken. Undoubtedly there was sincerity on the part of many. After all, children were raised to believe in that sort of thing and should not be criticized by us for a cultural custom remote from our own. For a Jew to pray publicly in that fashion is probably not much different from the way we pray The Lord's Prayer and other rote prayers on Sunday morning. What Jesus knew was that there was a lot of insincerity, a lot of hypocrisy. As such, it was a waste of time. People praying in public may find it hard not to be conscious of those around them, and if we preachers are honest, some of our public prayers are carefully crafted to appear as examples of good literature, plus the fact that many of them are mini-sermons, not prayers anyway.
Jesus said that our prayers and, if we fast, our fasting is to be done privately, being sure there is no effort to receive admiration and approval from others. Since people who fast are looked upon by some as a little strange, fasting has all but disappeared from Protestant practice. At least, that's the general assumption. Actually, a good friend of mine was drinking only water at lunch last Lent. I finally pried out of him that he was fasting. If it's done, he did it the right way.
SERMON SUGGESTIONS
Title: "Celebration Of Discipline"
Text: Joel 2:1-2, 12-14
Theme: That title is, of course, the title of a book. It's also something I dare say not many people do today: celebrate discipline. Consider some signs of the times. Paul G. Labadie, writing for USA Today, began an article this way: "The activities of the '60s and '70s socialized boomers into heavy use of the Gratification Solution: 'I want it all, I want it now, and I'll pick it up at the drive thru.' " At Princeton University, some researchers followed some 6,000 young men through their crime-prone years, from their teens up through their early thirties. They controlled for race, education, income, urban residence, and even cognitive ability. They discovered that men raised in disrupted families were 200 percent more likely to end up incarcerated than men who lived in intact families. So, what are we doing about divorce, about marital infidelity, about workaholism which keeps families apart?
Some other signs of the times: Bob Jones University recently announced that any alum who is gay and appears on that campus will be arrested for trespassing. What kind of Christianity is that? How about our legal system: in Cleveland, Senator Henry Johnson was convicted for pressuring grocers to hand over 17,000 dollars in campaign contributions in exchange for determining just who got licenses to participate in food stamp programs. Meanwhile, an Associated Press report stated that "prosecutors throughout the country have hidden evidence, leading to wrongful convictions, retrials, and appeals that cost taxpayers millions of dollars according to The Chicago Tribune analysis of thousands of court records in homicide cases." And it was also discovered in this connection that 381 people placed on death row in U.S. prisons, have had their convictions thrown out "because prosecutors concealed evidence suggesting innocence or presented evidence they knew to be false...."
Michael Medved, writing for Hillsdale College, began with this sobering observation: "In every corner of contemporary culture childhood is under assault. The very idea of parental protectiveness has been overwhelmed by relentless pressure from a society that seems perversely determined to frighten and corrupt its own young in a misguided effort to 'prepare' them for a harsh, dangerous future."
I won't go on. The very technological miracles which have made our culture so exciting in material terms has begun to smother out the most revered qualities of the human spirit. It is time -- it is far beyond the time -- when we, who call ourselves preachers, must call our people back to the discipline of integrity, of loyalty, of love. Unpopular though it may be, it is time to celebrate discipline.
Title: "The Cost Of Discipleship"
Text: 2 Corinthians 6:2-10
Theme: (Our title here, of course, is thanks to Dietrich Bonhoeffer.) While it may seem that Paul was boasting here, stating his own many accomplishments, I think he was actually referring to those faithful people with whom he was working, and was using them as examples for others to follow. We have to remember that the people of Corinth were notorious for their wild and woolly life styles. Paul was trying to slow them down, first of all, and was preparing them for the many problems which would lie ahead if they were serious about their Christian faith.
So with us. In America, being a Christian is not risky in the physical sense. The problems which our faith presents are more subtle. It involves things like honesty when that is pricey, and loyalty when opportunities beckon elsewhere, and refusing to take offense when offended, and forgiving people who cause us pain. The Christian faith calls upon the qualities of courage and integrity and good spirit. And as important as anything, a Christian is called to be generous to the point of self-denial.
Title: "When You Pray"
Text: Matthew 6:1-6
Theme: Jesus was horrified at the sheer hypocrisy of much public prayer. To the Pharisees, it was important to be known as a rigidly faithful practitioner of prayer. The more public the better. It wasn't limited to worship, where people of like minds (more or less) shared in prayer. I'm inclined to think Jesus would not oppose corporate prayer in our churches. More likely, he was scolding the listeners for a wrong set of motives, for pretending to themselves and others that they were sincerely addressing God, when in fact, they were vividly aware of the effect they were having on passers-by in the process. Surely, some of those people were genuinely trying to pray, and just as surely, Jesus would have approved of them. He was simply making the point loud and clear that prayer or, for that matter, any other show of religion, if intended to achieve some kind of recognition, applause, or status in the view of others was therefore, by definition, useless. While sincere prayer in public -- if it is truly sincere -- is good, private prayer is better because it can serve no useful purpose other than what prayer is supposed to do and to be.
1. Private prayer enables us to concentrate on God. Whether we be in a mode of petition, or gratitude, or awe, the person who prays alone can be open to God without the distraction of other people nearby.
2. Private prayer eliminates embarrassment for those who are self-conscious. Maybe that ought not to be, but it's true for many. I must confess that I get a little nervous when someone wants to have grace at a restaurant. Probably, I should be ashamed of that, but I'm so aware that people nearby are noticing and probably forming opinions about me, that I find it difficult to really focus on God. One of my friends quarrels with me on this and insists that it is a witness which tells others that (a) there are Christians here, and (b) it is appropriate to pray in public places. I never argue with him, but I do my praying in private except when I'm in a church worship service, or having grace with my family at home.
3. Private prayer allows us the freedom to concentrate on the content of prayer, rather than on the method. God probably doesn't care whether you kneel, or pray while walking, or while driving your car (once in a while -- that's not a good regular practice), or for that matter, while still in bed in the morning provided you don't fall asleep. In a public situation, we all more or less agree that head bowed, eyes closed, is the right way. Alone, you can devote your full attention to God.
4. Private prayer allows for reflection, meditation, and listening. Bonhoeffer observed that God can never communicate "with a chatterer." I have a feeling that sometimes we are praying when we don't think of ourselves as doing so. When I'm searching my heart for flaws, when I'm wrestling with a moral choice, when I'm struggling to do something like forgive someone, or do something I very much don't want to do but I know it's right -- if I'm doing these things out of my Christian convictions -- it may be that I am, in fact, praying.
ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS
Here was Huckleberry Finn's fix on prayer: "Miss Watson, she took me in the closet and prayed, but nothing came of it. She told me to pray everyday, and whatever I asked for I would git it. But it warn't so. I tried it. Once I got a fish line but no hooks. It warn't any good to me without hooks. I tried for the hooks three or four times, but somehow I couldn't make it work. By and by, one day, I asked Miss Watson to try for me, but she said I was a fool. She never told me why, and I could never make it out no way. I set down one day in the woods and had a long think about it. I says to myself, if a body can get anything they pray for, why don't Deacon Wynn get back the money he lost on pork? Why can't Miss Watson fat up? No, says I to myself, there ain't nothin' to it."
____________
My daughter and I recently decided to have lunch in a new restaurant. She called for a reservation and the lady who owned the place, hearing my daughter's last name, asked her this: "Are you the one who was here last week for our special luncheon for mothers and daughters?" My daughter assured her she was not. Then the woman explained: "A lady by that name was here and I inadvertantly overcharged her. I've been worried about it ever since." I couldn't help but be impressed by such simple honesty. The restaurant is located in such way that most of that woman's traffic will be tourists, so she wasn't worried that the customer would pass the word. This woman was honest. To me, that's the form the Christian faith commonly takes; not necessarily grand, noteworthy examples, but the simple, ordinary thoughtful honesty of everyday relationships.
____________
Reader's Digest, responding to renewed interest in World War II, some time ago reported a true story about a colonel being driven down a French road in a jeep by his sergeant driver. They came around a corner and saw, ahead, a German tank, its turret swiveling its cannon in their direction. The two men jumped from the jeep, diving in ditches on opposite sides of the road. Apparently, the tank driver saw the sergeant, but did not see the colonel, who was now safely hidden.
The tank rumbled toward the spot where the sergeant had entered the ditch, its machine gun firing. It was apparent the sergeant was in imminent danger of death. At this point, the colonel, seeing the danger to his friend, jumped from his concealment and opened fire on the tank -- with a pistol. Immediately, the tank turret swiveled in his direction and killed the colonel. The sergeant then surrendered. Instead of killing him, the tank crew took him prisoner. He survived and later reported this story of one man's courageous loyalty, even unto death.
____________
Dr. Reuel Howe told a lovely story about a teacher whom he knew. There was a fourteen-year-old boy in her school who was a serious problem in deportment. He disrupted his classes, made life miserable for his teachers, as any teacher will understand. Sent to the principal, he was defiant and threatening. It was obvious the boy must be expelled from school. But as a last resort, the principal called in one of the school's teachers who had a reputation for handling children like this. She was middle-aged with a naturally motherly concern for bad boys. The boy was assigned to this teacher's class with her permission. But it was made clear to the boy that this was to be his last chance.
Things went wrong from the start. It was soon obvious that the boy intended to ruin this class too. He was constantly disruptive. He defied the teacher's instructions. When she turned her back to write on the blackboard he threw things, he bullied the others, and generally made the class almost intolerable for both teacher and class. It was now obvious the boy was filled with hate and violence and was probably not to be saved.
One day, the teacher asked the boy to meet her in her office. He arrived late, and was immediately arrogant with her. For a long moment, the teacher looked into the eyes of the boy. Then she said: "Young man, I don't know why you like to bully me. But you can go on doing it. I won't stop you. But I can't bear to see the suffering in your eyes. I love you too much." For a minute the boy's eyes wavered. Then, suddenly, tears welled up in his eyes and at last he began to cry like a lost little boy. He poured out a story of a miserable home life, of parents who didn't love him. He admitted a fear that no one really cared about him and that the only way he was ever able to get any attention was to cause trouble. Reuel Howe said that from that time on, the boy began to change. He thereafter worshiped that teacher, began to do what he could to make her class better. He was in the process of healing, because at last he realized that someone loved him.
____________
Back when Harry Truman was president, he was interviewed by Norman Vincent Peale. Peale asked him, "Mr. Truman, America is the most important and powerful nation in the world right now, and you are the most important person in America. This means you bear an enormous responsibility for the welfare of the entire world. How do you handle the stress this must involve?" Truman answered this way: "When I'm ready to go to bed at night, I say a prayer to God, and ask him to please look after the affairs of this nation because I'm going to sleep." And then Truman said this: "In all my years as president, I have never had a sleepless night."
____________
Psalm Of The Day
Psalm 51:1-17 -- "Have mercy on me, O God."
Prayer Of The Day
In Jesus' name we come to thee to ask forgiveness for our sins. Enable us to find the honesty and courage to recognize wherein we have fallen short, to accept responsibility for our wrongful ways, to find the generosity of spirit to make amends, to summon the energy to be better than we are. Amen.
