Proper 10
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series VI, Cycle C
Object:
COMMENTARY ON THE LESSONS
Lesson 1: Amos 7:7-17 (C)
Scholar Hughell E. W. Fosbroke, writing in the introduction to the book of Amos in The Interpreter's Bible, pointed the way for this passage with these words: "It is the pervading sense of this transcendent power and majesty of the living God that invests the ministry of Amos with its abiding significance. He sees everything, whether in nature or history, in the light of the divine sovereignty." Perhaps the scholarly interests of the reader will cause one to wish to spend some time discovering the source of this particular vision and oracle, and to research the degree to which Amos thought of God as the exclusive God of the Jews, predating a broad recognition of monotheism, that God is in fact the God of us all. However, I would guess that not too many of our congregants will be interested in these side issues.
The point here is the insistence that God is all powerful, and that God's will is not to be disobeyed except at severe cost. This could be used for a sermon on creation. Or one might prepare a sermon on prayer with the underlying theme being that God is in complete charge of the universe. Other possibilities occur to me which grow out of the main theme of God's total sovereignty over all that is. My own choice is a sermon on Creation versus evolution.
Lesson 1: Deuteronomy 30:10-14 (RC); Deuteronomy 30:9-14 (E)
Here is a promise of prosperity for those who are obedient to the Law. They need no intercessor, for all of this is deep within their own hearts.
Lesson 2: Colossians 1:1-14 (C, E)
For a sermon I would use verse 9 for a sermon on intercessory prayer. Clearly, Paul believed that his prayers and those of his colleagues could lead to the spiritual development of the people of Colossae.
Lesson 2: Colossians 1:15-20 (RC)
This is one of the most important passages in Paul's writings. Clearly, Paul equated Jesus with God. He was born in the image of the invisible God. Thus, in viewing Jesus, we are in a very concrete sense seeing God Himself. He is the prime mover in all creation, head of the church, and bringer of peace through the cross. Since we plan to use the passage from Amos to discuss creation, a sermon on the Church could be quite timely, underlining again the fact that the Church is not just a locus for fellowship and for services of a sacramental sort. It is the embodiment of Jesus himself and therefore we, as part of that body, are to act out the ministry of Jesus in our own lives.
Gospel: Luke 10:25-37 (C, RC, E)
The very familiar story of the Good Samaritan. Nearly all of our listeners on Sunday know this story. Certainly anyone who attended Sunday school knows this story. It begins with a lawyer who, it seems, found pleasure in philosophical discussions about the human situation. Also, he didn't think much of this itinerant preacher, this Jesus, who so far as the lawyer was concerned was something of a know it all. He, of course, being smarter than Jesus, would have some fun and in the process show the listeners how to put Jesus in a corner. How could he achieve eternal life, he inquired. This wasn't the questing of a devout searcher. This was a trap. And when Jesus replied that he was to love his neighbor as he loved himself, the lawyer, warming to the fray, already armed with a succession of profound questions leading nowhere, then asked: "And who is my neighbor?"
Did you ever get in discussions like this in seminary? One of my greatest delights was long, often late night, discussions about theology. Recall college? In the dorm or the frat house, all those deep discussions about the meaning of life and the failures of the current generation -- just wait 'til I get there? We had so much to learn. So much. I have great sympathy for members of those little rural churches who get student ministers as pastors, and that includes the dear people of Wesley Church near Crawfordsville and Waynetown Church a few miles away. They endured my erudition (as I would have seen it then) and loved me anyway. But that's where we all start. All of us. And what we must learn is that while ideas are important, they mean nothing at the last unless they are translated into action. That's what Jesus demonstrated. Karl Barth once observed that "In the beginning was the word, until the theologians got hold of it, then it became words."
So, this show-off lawyer thinks he has Jesus going. But Jesus shuts that boy down real fast. He tells a story. Who is my neighbor? "A man was going down from Jerusalem...." That's pure Jesus. No philosophizing. No long drawn-out explanations. Just, "A man was going down from Jerusalem...." We preachers can learn from this. Get rid of the long expositions and tell a story. Grady Davis once pointed out that most sermons are ten percent story and ninety percent exposition, while the Bible is ninety percent story and ten percent exposition.
The point of the story? A Christian may be short on talk but is long on action. That Samaritan, who would probably have been totally lost in a lengthy discussion with that lawyer, or the priest, or the Levite in the story, was the only one who was there when it counted. Maybe he couldn't change a suffering world. Maybe he couldn't stop crime, or save the victims of a frequently unjust society. But he could do one kind, expensive act for someone in need. Social distinctions be darned, here was someone in need and this man did what was needed.
SERMON SUGGESTIONS
Title: "And Then God Rested"
Text: Amos 7:7-17
Theme: Do you remember one poet's words?
What can you say but "glory be,"
When God breaks forth in an apple tree.
God's handprint is on everything that is. That doesn't mean that it all started at once. I'm of that persuasion which holds that science deals with how the world came into being, religion deals with why and who started the process. Surely, we don't think the Bible is concerned with the specifics of the manner in which this all started. Maybe evolution is right. Maybe the big bang theory is right. I don't know and frankly, I don't care. Whatever the explanation -- and we're not ever going to know that anyway -- I'm satisfied that it was God who started it all. One of the great atheists of the twentieth century was Bertrand Russell. For years, he dismissed Christianity and all of its teachings as mere myth. But toward the end of his life, he opined that the only hope for humanity was in Christianity's teachings about love. Where else do you find such teachings? If you can think of a place I'm guessing they got it from the teachings of Jesus.
1. God created the world. It doesn't matter how or when, so far as most of us are concerned. This doesn't denigrate the scientific studies of the universe. But I rather doubt that even if we do somehow learn the exact way the world started, I won't be around to hear it, and neither will you.
2. What this does mean is that God is in control. Somehow, it's all leading somewhere. There is purpose to creation. Consider the human eye. We're surrounded by marvelous beauty: flowers, sunshine, mountains, baby's ears, a beloved's smile. And we can see these things. Consider the mind. How could anyone invent this computer I'm using right now? It's beyond me, but I do know how to think certain things through, formulate it into words, and write them out in intelligible form. Someone, I think it was either Fosdick or Sockman, said he considered the odds of this creation coming about by happenstance were about the same as someone taking a bushel of playing cards, each with one letter of the alphabet on it, and throwing that basket of cards in the air to fall in neat order, to spell out an intelligible sentence, using all the cards.
3. If God is in control, we should accord our conduct with His advice. I use the word advice only because I think God created us with freedom to follow or not follow. To call them God's commands might presume we had to do them. Anyway, we're pretty dumb if we don't do them. And where do we find these rules for a happy life? In the teachings of Jesus. (We'll throw in the Ten Commandments.)
4. If we do as God warns us we should through the teachings of Jesus, we'll be very glad. Jesus said he told us all these things "so my joy may be in you and your joy may be fulfilled." If we don't we'll be very sorry. I can bear witness to this. I have reached the age of looking back. I have reached the age at which I now realize my mistakes, my missing out. I have reached the age at which I am glad when I was kind and loving, when I did what I knew what was right, regardless of the cost. And sometimes, in the silence of my own thoughts, I turn cold at the recollection of my impatient, thoughtless words and acts which made someone else's world a little worse when I could have made it a little better. No, God outsmarts us at the end. All our wrongs come back to haunt us in one way or another. And all our loving acts come back to bless us sooner or later. Only a divine and loving Spirit could have brought this into being and see that it works.
Title: "Praying For Others"
Text: Colossians 1:9
Theme: Paul and his friends prayed for their friends in Colossae. They prayed for their spiritual enlightenment. I have reported elsewhere in this book that when I recently underwent major surgery which could have meant a drastically shortened life, I was so buoyed up by the prayers of friends and parishioners that I almost felt guilty at not having a worse time of it. Bear with me, then, if I employ some insights from that experience in suggesting an outline for a sermon on intercessory prayer.
1. We are all joined together in love. I am convinced of this. Years ago the president of Liberia was a man named Tubman who, unlike many African rulers, was dearly loved. Once when a Liberian citizen was asked how Tubman had been able to remain in power so long, the man replied: "We have a saying here, that when a little boy out in the remote bush country stubs his toe, Mr. Tubman says, 'Ouch.' " I see this as a spiritual truth, but I feel that I am a part of the being of some other people. Perhaps when we love someone, or when someone loves us, that attachment becomes most real.
2. Only prayers which beautify and ennoble the person prayed for will change anything. I can't coerce another person's actions, nor bring about a disadvantageous turn in their lives. I can't affect the other persons material course, I don't think. But I can share spiritual energy with him. Insofar as what I pray for may actually bring that person closer to God and to God's will I believe I can bless that person.
3. When I pray for someone and do so in love, wishing only for that person whatever God's will may be, I believe I not only contribute spiritual energy to that person, I believe God also adds to my own spiritual energy. I believe both the person who prays and the person who is prayed for is buoyed up with an enriching input of energy.
Title: "Being There When It Counts"
Text: Luke 10:25-37
Theme: Sociologist Pitirim Sorokin pointed out that a slight increase in the number of good deeds by each of us could change the world. I'm writing this shortly after the unthinkable murder of twelve high school students and their heroic teacher in Littleton, Colorado, by two of their classmates who then took their own lives. This has spawned a spate of articles and news commentaries which, while expressing unanimous sadness for the people hurt by this, also has occasioned an endless stream of expert analysis trying to determine how and why something like this can happen. It seems to me that the best way to change things in the future is for mothers and fathers to teach their children when they're very small to do deeds of kindness each and every day. Maybe not everyone will grow up to do this -- many parents don't even know to do this themselves. But I recommend that each of us urge our congregations in this direction. Do one specific kindness each day. Ask your children when they come home from school: "Did you do something for someone else today?" If we start early enough, the children will expect that question, will not resent it, and will try to have an answer.
Here's the point -- Jesus' point: Talk about goodness and religion and so forth is unproductive unless and until it leads me to do something selfless for someone else. Methodist Bishop Gerald Kennedy told of a trip to Istanbul many years ago for a visit with Father Demetrius, then secretary of the Ecumenical Patriarch. Together they entered a shop in the city where Demetrius knew the shopkeeper. When Kennedy was chatting with the man he said that Father Demetrius was such a thoroughly good man he could not bring himself to charge more than a fair price when Demetrius was around. Then Demetrius made a purchase: a very expensive ring. When he walked away with his purchase, the shopkeeper explained that "he can't afford that, but he bought it for a little girl whose family lost their home and their business in some recent riots." As they left the store and Kennedy mentioned this to Demetrius, that good man said, "I know they need clothes and other things, but I didn't want to buy her something which would remind her of her poverty. I wanted to give her something which would let her know she is loved."
1. Christianity is an active faith. Actions more than words describe the true Christian. Of course words have their place. Words of encouragement. Words which teach and inform. Words which bring people close in intimate communication. But in Jesus' story, we see that the highest form of faith is the expensive action taken to help someone else, especially someone in need.
2. We are not to make distinctions. The Samaritan's quick action revealed this. It would have been more like a Black American stopping to help a white man after the local pastor and a local businessman had passed by, not wanting to get involved.
3. Little things count. The other day in my city three teen-aged boys heard a woman cry out as she was withdrawing money from an ATM. They saw two big men assaulting the woman. Heedless, the three boy yelled and took out after the men who ran. The woman was saved. The police were called. The culprits were caught. The boys? "Aw, it wasn't anything much." It was to her.
ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS
Just now, even as I was writing this, there was a knock at my door. The two little children who live next door, about six and nine, were there with two rather expensive water bottles in canvas cases. They asked if they belonged to our family. They had found them in our yard. Many a child today would have taken those bottles home. But they knew the right thing to do. It's little things like this that make you think there's hope for tomorrow.
____________
"Do you really think that we're already into the computer age? That's a gross underestimation of what the computer will eventually do to change our world, our lives and perhaps the nature of reality itself." (Newsweek article on the computer, 1997) Here are some quotes from an article titled "Workers of the World, Get Online." It appeared in a special edition of Newsweek magazine in the winter of 1997, the subject of the edition being a look at the next millennium.
"Trying to make refined predictions of what work will look like decades from now is an exercise in folly economists say, since the biggest changes will probably come from technological innovations we can only dream about. 'To try to predict technology you really go out on a limb,' says David Bills, author of The New Modern Times.
"If the lives of the folks at the top and bottom of the ladder don't sound much different from what they lead today, that's because the greatest changes face workers in the middle, whom Reich calls, mercifully, 'the new middle class.'
"Wharton professor Mike Useem says the mid career executives he works with are already becoming comfortable with the notion of bouncing between employers and assignments rather than climbing the ladder at a single employer. Of course, they have no choice.
"If you believe one school of thought, we won't be seeing our colleagues much in tomorrow's workplace. So say folks like Jeremy Rifkin, author of the best-seller The End Of Work, a discussion of how technology will take the place of many mass laborers."
There's no reason we shouldn't move to a thirty-hour workweek now and a 25-hour workweek ten years from now, with higher pay and benefits. "No matter what forecasters say, someone has to milk the cows."
____________
"You can flip through old Popular Science magazines and read about conveniences to come, such as the family helicopter and nuclear power 'too cheap to meter.' " History is full of now ironic examples -- the Oxford professor who in 1878 dismissed the electric light as a gimmick; the commissioner of U.S. patents who in 1899 asked that his office be abolished because 'everything that can be invented has been invented.' "
-- Bill Gates (re: the ongoing creation)
____________
There may still be parishioners who have not yet heard the story about the pulpit-pounding preacher who declared that God created man by gathering up some mud from a river bank, fashioning it into the shape he desired for man, then having done this, he slapped it up against a white board fence to dry in the sun. At this point, a parishioner called out from the sanctuary, "Reverend, if that was the beginning of humanity, who made that white board fence?" The preacher thought, for a moment, then replied: "Brother, it's people like you what gives religion a bad name."
____________
Psalm Of The Day
Psalm 82 -- "God has taken his place in the divine council."
Prayer Of The Day
Open our eyes to those around us, we pray. Make us mindful of the little services we might perform which could brighten another's day. Arm us too, O God, to make the occasional expensive gesture that we might save another from pain and sadness. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Lesson 1: Amos 7:7-17 (C)
Scholar Hughell E. W. Fosbroke, writing in the introduction to the book of Amos in The Interpreter's Bible, pointed the way for this passage with these words: "It is the pervading sense of this transcendent power and majesty of the living God that invests the ministry of Amos with its abiding significance. He sees everything, whether in nature or history, in the light of the divine sovereignty." Perhaps the scholarly interests of the reader will cause one to wish to spend some time discovering the source of this particular vision and oracle, and to research the degree to which Amos thought of God as the exclusive God of the Jews, predating a broad recognition of monotheism, that God is in fact the God of us all. However, I would guess that not too many of our congregants will be interested in these side issues.
The point here is the insistence that God is all powerful, and that God's will is not to be disobeyed except at severe cost. This could be used for a sermon on creation. Or one might prepare a sermon on prayer with the underlying theme being that God is in complete charge of the universe. Other possibilities occur to me which grow out of the main theme of God's total sovereignty over all that is. My own choice is a sermon on Creation versus evolution.
Lesson 1: Deuteronomy 30:10-14 (RC); Deuteronomy 30:9-14 (E)
Here is a promise of prosperity for those who are obedient to the Law. They need no intercessor, for all of this is deep within their own hearts.
Lesson 2: Colossians 1:1-14 (C, E)
For a sermon I would use verse 9 for a sermon on intercessory prayer. Clearly, Paul believed that his prayers and those of his colleagues could lead to the spiritual development of the people of Colossae.
Lesson 2: Colossians 1:15-20 (RC)
This is one of the most important passages in Paul's writings. Clearly, Paul equated Jesus with God. He was born in the image of the invisible God. Thus, in viewing Jesus, we are in a very concrete sense seeing God Himself. He is the prime mover in all creation, head of the church, and bringer of peace through the cross. Since we plan to use the passage from Amos to discuss creation, a sermon on the Church could be quite timely, underlining again the fact that the Church is not just a locus for fellowship and for services of a sacramental sort. It is the embodiment of Jesus himself and therefore we, as part of that body, are to act out the ministry of Jesus in our own lives.
Gospel: Luke 10:25-37 (C, RC, E)
The very familiar story of the Good Samaritan. Nearly all of our listeners on Sunday know this story. Certainly anyone who attended Sunday school knows this story. It begins with a lawyer who, it seems, found pleasure in philosophical discussions about the human situation. Also, he didn't think much of this itinerant preacher, this Jesus, who so far as the lawyer was concerned was something of a know it all. He, of course, being smarter than Jesus, would have some fun and in the process show the listeners how to put Jesus in a corner. How could he achieve eternal life, he inquired. This wasn't the questing of a devout searcher. This was a trap. And when Jesus replied that he was to love his neighbor as he loved himself, the lawyer, warming to the fray, already armed with a succession of profound questions leading nowhere, then asked: "And who is my neighbor?"
Did you ever get in discussions like this in seminary? One of my greatest delights was long, often late night, discussions about theology. Recall college? In the dorm or the frat house, all those deep discussions about the meaning of life and the failures of the current generation -- just wait 'til I get there? We had so much to learn. So much. I have great sympathy for members of those little rural churches who get student ministers as pastors, and that includes the dear people of Wesley Church near Crawfordsville and Waynetown Church a few miles away. They endured my erudition (as I would have seen it then) and loved me anyway. But that's where we all start. All of us. And what we must learn is that while ideas are important, they mean nothing at the last unless they are translated into action. That's what Jesus demonstrated. Karl Barth once observed that "In the beginning was the word, until the theologians got hold of it, then it became words."
So, this show-off lawyer thinks he has Jesus going. But Jesus shuts that boy down real fast. He tells a story. Who is my neighbor? "A man was going down from Jerusalem...." That's pure Jesus. No philosophizing. No long drawn-out explanations. Just, "A man was going down from Jerusalem...." We preachers can learn from this. Get rid of the long expositions and tell a story. Grady Davis once pointed out that most sermons are ten percent story and ninety percent exposition, while the Bible is ninety percent story and ten percent exposition.
The point of the story? A Christian may be short on talk but is long on action. That Samaritan, who would probably have been totally lost in a lengthy discussion with that lawyer, or the priest, or the Levite in the story, was the only one who was there when it counted. Maybe he couldn't change a suffering world. Maybe he couldn't stop crime, or save the victims of a frequently unjust society. But he could do one kind, expensive act for someone in need. Social distinctions be darned, here was someone in need and this man did what was needed.
SERMON SUGGESTIONS
Title: "And Then God Rested"
Text: Amos 7:7-17
Theme: Do you remember one poet's words?
What can you say but "glory be,"
When God breaks forth in an apple tree.
God's handprint is on everything that is. That doesn't mean that it all started at once. I'm of that persuasion which holds that science deals with how the world came into being, religion deals with why and who started the process. Surely, we don't think the Bible is concerned with the specifics of the manner in which this all started. Maybe evolution is right. Maybe the big bang theory is right. I don't know and frankly, I don't care. Whatever the explanation -- and we're not ever going to know that anyway -- I'm satisfied that it was God who started it all. One of the great atheists of the twentieth century was Bertrand Russell. For years, he dismissed Christianity and all of its teachings as mere myth. But toward the end of his life, he opined that the only hope for humanity was in Christianity's teachings about love. Where else do you find such teachings? If you can think of a place I'm guessing they got it from the teachings of Jesus.
1. God created the world. It doesn't matter how or when, so far as most of us are concerned. This doesn't denigrate the scientific studies of the universe. But I rather doubt that even if we do somehow learn the exact way the world started, I won't be around to hear it, and neither will you.
2. What this does mean is that God is in control. Somehow, it's all leading somewhere. There is purpose to creation. Consider the human eye. We're surrounded by marvelous beauty: flowers, sunshine, mountains, baby's ears, a beloved's smile. And we can see these things. Consider the mind. How could anyone invent this computer I'm using right now? It's beyond me, but I do know how to think certain things through, formulate it into words, and write them out in intelligible form. Someone, I think it was either Fosdick or Sockman, said he considered the odds of this creation coming about by happenstance were about the same as someone taking a bushel of playing cards, each with one letter of the alphabet on it, and throwing that basket of cards in the air to fall in neat order, to spell out an intelligible sentence, using all the cards.
3. If God is in control, we should accord our conduct with His advice. I use the word advice only because I think God created us with freedom to follow or not follow. To call them God's commands might presume we had to do them. Anyway, we're pretty dumb if we don't do them. And where do we find these rules for a happy life? In the teachings of Jesus. (We'll throw in the Ten Commandments.)
4. If we do as God warns us we should through the teachings of Jesus, we'll be very glad. Jesus said he told us all these things "so my joy may be in you and your joy may be fulfilled." If we don't we'll be very sorry. I can bear witness to this. I have reached the age of looking back. I have reached the age at which I now realize my mistakes, my missing out. I have reached the age at which I am glad when I was kind and loving, when I did what I knew what was right, regardless of the cost. And sometimes, in the silence of my own thoughts, I turn cold at the recollection of my impatient, thoughtless words and acts which made someone else's world a little worse when I could have made it a little better. No, God outsmarts us at the end. All our wrongs come back to haunt us in one way or another. And all our loving acts come back to bless us sooner or later. Only a divine and loving Spirit could have brought this into being and see that it works.
Title: "Praying For Others"
Text: Colossians 1:9
Theme: Paul and his friends prayed for their friends in Colossae. They prayed for their spiritual enlightenment. I have reported elsewhere in this book that when I recently underwent major surgery which could have meant a drastically shortened life, I was so buoyed up by the prayers of friends and parishioners that I almost felt guilty at not having a worse time of it. Bear with me, then, if I employ some insights from that experience in suggesting an outline for a sermon on intercessory prayer.
1. We are all joined together in love. I am convinced of this. Years ago the president of Liberia was a man named Tubman who, unlike many African rulers, was dearly loved. Once when a Liberian citizen was asked how Tubman had been able to remain in power so long, the man replied: "We have a saying here, that when a little boy out in the remote bush country stubs his toe, Mr. Tubman says, 'Ouch.' " I see this as a spiritual truth, but I feel that I am a part of the being of some other people. Perhaps when we love someone, or when someone loves us, that attachment becomes most real.
2. Only prayers which beautify and ennoble the person prayed for will change anything. I can't coerce another person's actions, nor bring about a disadvantageous turn in their lives. I can't affect the other persons material course, I don't think. But I can share spiritual energy with him. Insofar as what I pray for may actually bring that person closer to God and to God's will I believe I can bless that person.
3. When I pray for someone and do so in love, wishing only for that person whatever God's will may be, I believe I not only contribute spiritual energy to that person, I believe God also adds to my own spiritual energy. I believe both the person who prays and the person who is prayed for is buoyed up with an enriching input of energy.
Title: "Being There When It Counts"
Text: Luke 10:25-37
Theme: Sociologist Pitirim Sorokin pointed out that a slight increase in the number of good deeds by each of us could change the world. I'm writing this shortly after the unthinkable murder of twelve high school students and their heroic teacher in Littleton, Colorado, by two of their classmates who then took their own lives. This has spawned a spate of articles and news commentaries which, while expressing unanimous sadness for the people hurt by this, also has occasioned an endless stream of expert analysis trying to determine how and why something like this can happen. It seems to me that the best way to change things in the future is for mothers and fathers to teach their children when they're very small to do deeds of kindness each and every day. Maybe not everyone will grow up to do this -- many parents don't even know to do this themselves. But I recommend that each of us urge our congregations in this direction. Do one specific kindness each day. Ask your children when they come home from school: "Did you do something for someone else today?" If we start early enough, the children will expect that question, will not resent it, and will try to have an answer.
Here's the point -- Jesus' point: Talk about goodness and religion and so forth is unproductive unless and until it leads me to do something selfless for someone else. Methodist Bishop Gerald Kennedy told of a trip to Istanbul many years ago for a visit with Father Demetrius, then secretary of the Ecumenical Patriarch. Together they entered a shop in the city where Demetrius knew the shopkeeper. When Kennedy was chatting with the man he said that Father Demetrius was such a thoroughly good man he could not bring himself to charge more than a fair price when Demetrius was around. Then Demetrius made a purchase: a very expensive ring. When he walked away with his purchase, the shopkeeper explained that "he can't afford that, but he bought it for a little girl whose family lost their home and their business in some recent riots." As they left the store and Kennedy mentioned this to Demetrius, that good man said, "I know they need clothes and other things, but I didn't want to buy her something which would remind her of her poverty. I wanted to give her something which would let her know she is loved."
1. Christianity is an active faith. Actions more than words describe the true Christian. Of course words have their place. Words of encouragement. Words which teach and inform. Words which bring people close in intimate communication. But in Jesus' story, we see that the highest form of faith is the expensive action taken to help someone else, especially someone in need.
2. We are not to make distinctions. The Samaritan's quick action revealed this. It would have been more like a Black American stopping to help a white man after the local pastor and a local businessman had passed by, not wanting to get involved.
3. Little things count. The other day in my city three teen-aged boys heard a woman cry out as she was withdrawing money from an ATM. They saw two big men assaulting the woman. Heedless, the three boy yelled and took out after the men who ran. The woman was saved. The police were called. The culprits were caught. The boys? "Aw, it wasn't anything much." It was to her.
ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS
Just now, even as I was writing this, there was a knock at my door. The two little children who live next door, about six and nine, were there with two rather expensive water bottles in canvas cases. They asked if they belonged to our family. They had found them in our yard. Many a child today would have taken those bottles home. But they knew the right thing to do. It's little things like this that make you think there's hope for tomorrow.
____________
"Do you really think that we're already into the computer age? That's a gross underestimation of what the computer will eventually do to change our world, our lives and perhaps the nature of reality itself." (Newsweek article on the computer, 1997) Here are some quotes from an article titled "Workers of the World, Get Online." It appeared in a special edition of Newsweek magazine in the winter of 1997, the subject of the edition being a look at the next millennium.
"Trying to make refined predictions of what work will look like decades from now is an exercise in folly economists say, since the biggest changes will probably come from technological innovations we can only dream about. 'To try to predict technology you really go out on a limb,' says David Bills, author of The New Modern Times.
"If the lives of the folks at the top and bottom of the ladder don't sound much different from what they lead today, that's because the greatest changes face workers in the middle, whom Reich calls, mercifully, 'the new middle class.'
"Wharton professor Mike Useem says the mid career executives he works with are already becoming comfortable with the notion of bouncing between employers and assignments rather than climbing the ladder at a single employer. Of course, they have no choice.
"If you believe one school of thought, we won't be seeing our colleagues much in tomorrow's workplace. So say folks like Jeremy Rifkin, author of the best-seller The End Of Work, a discussion of how technology will take the place of many mass laborers."
There's no reason we shouldn't move to a thirty-hour workweek now and a 25-hour workweek ten years from now, with higher pay and benefits. "No matter what forecasters say, someone has to milk the cows."
____________
"You can flip through old Popular Science magazines and read about conveniences to come, such as the family helicopter and nuclear power 'too cheap to meter.' " History is full of now ironic examples -- the Oxford professor who in 1878 dismissed the electric light as a gimmick; the commissioner of U.S. patents who in 1899 asked that his office be abolished because 'everything that can be invented has been invented.' "
-- Bill Gates (re: the ongoing creation)
____________
There may still be parishioners who have not yet heard the story about the pulpit-pounding preacher who declared that God created man by gathering up some mud from a river bank, fashioning it into the shape he desired for man, then having done this, he slapped it up against a white board fence to dry in the sun. At this point, a parishioner called out from the sanctuary, "Reverend, if that was the beginning of humanity, who made that white board fence?" The preacher thought, for a moment, then replied: "Brother, it's people like you what gives religion a bad name."
____________
Psalm Of The Day
Psalm 82 -- "God has taken his place in the divine council."
Prayer Of The Day
Open our eyes to those around us, we pray. Make us mindful of the little services we might perform which could brighten another's day. Arm us too, O God, to make the occasional expensive gesture that we might save another from pain and sadness. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
