Always Be Ready
Stories
Object:
Contents
What's Up This Week
"Always Be Ready" by Frank Ramirez
"Looking for God" by Peter Andrew Smith
"A Gentle Profession" by Peter Andrew Smith
What's Up This Week
Actions, as they say, speak louder than words. Our actions carry much more weight than our words, and it is by our actions that we are ultimately judged. In "Always Be Ready," Frank Ramirez looks at the life of one individual whose actions still resonate with us today. In "Looking for God," Peter Andrew Smith tells the story of a man who, in his vain attempts to find purpose in life, finds an active God who has already searched him out. "A Gentle Profession" reminds us that, as Christians, our actions can speak volumes about our faith to the world around us. What do your actions say?
* * * * * * * * *
Always Be Ready
Frank Ramirez
Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, "Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, 'To an unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you."
-- Acts 17:22-23
The Apostle Paul was ready at a moment's notice to take advantage of the opportunity to speak to all the philosphers at Mars Hill in Athens. It helps to know what you want to say and to have something worth saying.
The actor Don Murray, who received an Academy Award nomination for his role in the movie Bus Stop, and who may be as well known for his work on the film The Cross and the Switchblade, once took advantage of an unexpected speaking opportunity during the presidential campaign of 1956 and changed the world at least a little bit. That speech planted the seeds that was one of the factors that led to the founding of the Peace Corps. What he spoke about was his Christian service in Europe earlier in the decade.
Murray was not a well-known actor when he was drafted to serve in the military during the Korean War. Born in 1929, Murray grew up in a show business family. His father managed shows on Broadway and his mother was a former Ziegfield Follies girl. The opportunity to meet and even act with celebrities as a child did not interfere with his involvement with Sunday school. His father was Catholic and his mother sang with the choir at her Congregationalist church, and Don was a regular in both faiths. Though he was high-spirited by nature and often in trouble, he experienced church as a regular part of family life.
It was at the multiracial Congregational church camps, held at Blairstown, New Jersey, that his sense of social justice was sparked. Don found he was opposed to war, and he had thought through his position by the time he registered for the draft at the age of eighteen. Though his mother, father, and older brother (who had served as a Marine during World War II) did not agree with his position, they respected it because they knew it was his sincere belief.
Though Murray chose to be a conscientious objector, his draft board and the US Attorney threatened him with prison because they did not believe that actors had principles. Eventually, however, his case was settled and the Brethren Service Commission sent him to Europe to serve his two-year stint.
Murray was horrified to learn that many refugees who had fled Nazism were still living in camps and there was little chance to resettle them. He worked to establish clubs for boys and craft guilds for adults that led many to start new lives.
Don Murray stayed six months beyond his two-year enlistment, earning the standard $7.50 a month. Those who knew him felt that his experiences had deepened his talents as an actor, and it wasn't long before he was starring on stage and screen. His films included Bus Stop (for which he received an Academy Award nomination), Hatful of Rain, and Bachelor Party. He used his sudden fame -- and increased income -- as a platform to found HELP, which purchased land and resettled refugees on farms. He emphasized the importance of making a difference.
When he returned from the service in 1956 it was to find that though he had been a little-known actor before, his agent had arranged far more television and film projects than he could imagine. Soon he would be acting with the likes of Marilyn Monroe, Hope Lange, Helen Hayes, and Mary Martin. It was quite a step for someone who'd been the classic struggling actor, depending on the kindness of friends and family to make ends meet.
The sudden fame he found in the late fifties and early sixties did not stop him from giving a little HELP (Homeless European Land Program), as he called the program he founded to help European refugees still held behind barbed wire years after they'd fled the ravages of Nazism and Communism. He used money from his films to help relocate refugees, and his program was one of the bright lights of Christian service in Europe.
Ultimately after some fits and starts, refugee families began to experience a sense of ownership and pride. He made it possible for some of the victims of World War II to start a new life.
Then came his speaking opportunity.
"The Democratic National Committee asked me to go to Hibbing (Minnesota) to introduce (Vice Presidential candidate C. Estes) Kefauver." Again and again he practiced his speech that was simply, "Ladies and Gentlemen the next vice president, C. Estes Kefauver." Murray remembered, "That's all I was prepared to do, that one sentence. I was on the podium. Two of the greatest orators were to speak. One was Victor Reuther, of the AFL-CIO, the other was Hubert Humphrey. They gave fabulous speeches. As Humphrey was finishing up and Kefauver was supposed to come on next, the guy that organized (the event) whispered 'Senator Kefauver's plane is late and we need you to stall for time and we need you to make a speech.' "
Murray asked what he was to speak about and for how long. He was told to talk about Hollywood for half an hour.
"Instead of telling Hollywood stories (they were boring and I didn't know enough anyway), I started to talk about Brethren Service. They became very enthralled, and as a matter of fact right before I summed up what I was going to say Senator Kefauver appeared in the doorway, 8,000 people there, I could see him. I kept him waiting a couple of minutes because I wanted to finish up my point."
Senator Hubert Humphrey took a personal interest in the matter. The idea of sending young people overseas for a couple of years to serve their country, promote peace, and solve the world's problems had an appeal for him. He thought he had convinced President Eisenhower to institute such a program for the United States, but in the end other presidential advisors convinced him that modern youth did not have enough enthusiasm and idealism to make the program work and that it would be a black mark on his administration. The next administration, however, did not share those convictions, and Humphrey was able to convince President Kennedy, who instituted the Peace Corps.
Sources: A Cup of Cold Water: The Brethren Service Story, by J. Kenneth Kreider (Elgin, Illinois: Brethren Press, 2001)
Personal Interview with Don Murray for the book Brethren Brush With Greatness.
Frank Ramirez is a native of Southern California and has served as a pastor for nearly thirty years in Church of the Brethren congregations. Frank has served congregations in Los Angeles, California; Elkhart, Indiana; and Everett, Pennsylvania. He and his wife Jennie share three adult children, all married, and three grandchildren. He enjoys writing, reading, exercise, and theater.
Looking for God
Peter Andrew Smith
Acts 17:22-31
There once was a man who wanted more in life. He believed there must be something greater than what he was experiencing, some grander purpose than just surviving day to day, some deeper meaning to connect to in his life, so he began to search.
He spent time considering the world around him and discovered that when he was outside in nature he felt connected to something greater than himself. Sitting on the seashore or watching the sunrise on a mountain, he felt something he did not feel in his everyday life. He wanted to experience and know that feeling all the time but could never control when it occurred.
The man tried to find what he sought by achieving perfect health. He exercised, ate healthy, and he stretched the limits of his body. As he engaged in physical activity, he discovered there were some times when he felt alive like no other times. Yet those occasions were fleeting and those times never lasted long.
The man who was searching tried to understand. He studied, researched, and learned. As he expanded his mind, he experienced occasions when he caught a glimpse of something more. At those times, he felt that he was close to what he was seeking, but those occasions also never lasted. No matter how much he studied and learned he could not truly understand what he sought.
The man used what he had seen in nature, what he had learned, and what he could do, to create. He fashioned things in words, paint, and clay. As the man created, he sometimes felt connected to what he sought. In the sentences, in the pictures from his imagination, as his hands sculpted, he felt more than himself but he was never able to completely capture what he desired in his art.
The man assumed he had failed in his search. He looked at what he had seen, felt, understood, and achieved and knew now more than ever that there was something missing in his life.
One day the man came upon another man and shared his story. He told of his searching, his desire to know the greater life, which always seemed just beyond him. The other man listened to the story of searching and told him of the God who had created all the earth, who fashioned humanity in the divine image, who knew everything and who was the source of inspiration and imagination. The man who had searched was excited as he heard of this God for he knew that the glimpses of something greater he had known in life must be of God.
When the other man told him that God had come to earth so that everyone could see, could understand, and know God, the man began to weep. As he wept, he began to see the hand of God in the world around him, in the life he felt within him, in the understanding he had of the universe, and in the creativity he expressed. He dried his tears and realized he no longer had to search for God because God had found him.
A Gentle Profession
Peter Andrew Smith
1 Peter 3:13-22
"There goes one of the 'god squad,' " Cheryl said in an exaggerated whisper as Anna went past. Mary and all the girls snickered when Anna looked down and kept walking. Cheryl said something else that Mary missed but she laughed along with everyone else anyway. The bell rang and they all hurried off to chemistry lab.
Mary was happy to be paired with Laura since they were friends and had worked together before. She shuddered when she heard Cheryl and Anna named as partners -- Cheryl wasn't good at chemistry and was in danger of failing. Mary snuck glances during class but couldn't tell what was going on with Cheryl and Anna.
When the bell rang, she caught up to Cheryl. "Sorry, you got that religious freak Anna as your partner."
"It's all right."
"I bet she was awful to work with."
"She was okay," Cheryl said.
"Really?"
Cheryl nodded. "Yeah, really. She helped me get the assignment done properly. Mr Johnson said it was the best work he's seen me do."
"Why would she help you?" Mary blurted out and went scarlet as Cheryl stared at her. "I mean you... well... we don't always... well... I just thought she might not like you... I mean us."
"I know what you mean, I treat her like dirt. But she was nice to me and helped me out."
"Why?"
Cheryl stopped. "I asked Anna the same thing before we left class."
"What did she say?"
"She said that being good to other people, even the people who were mean to her, was something she believed in," Cheryl said. "She told me that was what Jesus wanted her to do."
Mary snorted. "Well, that's just dumb."
"Maybe." Cheryl shrugged. "All I know is that she helped me out when I needed her."
Neither girl said anything else as they walked to their next class. Both of them were too busy thinking about what Anna had said in her words and actions.
Peter Andrew Smith is an ordained minister in the United Church of Canada currently serving St. James United Church in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. He is the author of All Things are Ready (CSS) a book of lectionary based communion prayers and a number of stories and articles, which can be found listed at www.peterandrewsmith.com.
**********************************************
How to Share Stories
You have good stories to share, probably more than you know: personal stories as well as stories from others that you have used over the years. If you have a story you like, whether fictional or "really happened," authored by you or a brief excerpt from a favorite book, send it to StoryShare for review. Simply email the story to us at storyshare@sermonsuite.com.
**************
StoryShare, April 27, 2008, issue.
Copyright 2008 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 517 South Main Street, Lima, Ohio 45804.
What's Up This Week
"Always Be Ready" by Frank Ramirez
"Looking for God" by Peter Andrew Smith
"A Gentle Profession" by Peter Andrew Smith
What's Up This Week
Actions, as they say, speak louder than words. Our actions carry much more weight than our words, and it is by our actions that we are ultimately judged. In "Always Be Ready," Frank Ramirez looks at the life of one individual whose actions still resonate with us today. In "Looking for God," Peter Andrew Smith tells the story of a man who, in his vain attempts to find purpose in life, finds an active God who has already searched him out. "A Gentle Profession" reminds us that, as Christians, our actions can speak volumes about our faith to the world around us. What do your actions say?
* * * * * * * * *
Always Be Ready
Frank Ramirez
Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, "Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, 'To an unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you."
-- Acts 17:22-23
The Apostle Paul was ready at a moment's notice to take advantage of the opportunity to speak to all the philosphers at Mars Hill in Athens. It helps to know what you want to say and to have something worth saying.
The actor Don Murray, who received an Academy Award nomination for his role in the movie Bus Stop, and who may be as well known for his work on the film The Cross and the Switchblade, once took advantage of an unexpected speaking opportunity during the presidential campaign of 1956 and changed the world at least a little bit. That speech planted the seeds that was one of the factors that led to the founding of the Peace Corps. What he spoke about was his Christian service in Europe earlier in the decade.
Murray was not a well-known actor when he was drafted to serve in the military during the Korean War. Born in 1929, Murray grew up in a show business family. His father managed shows on Broadway and his mother was a former Ziegfield Follies girl. The opportunity to meet and even act with celebrities as a child did not interfere with his involvement with Sunday school. His father was Catholic and his mother sang with the choir at her Congregationalist church, and Don was a regular in both faiths. Though he was high-spirited by nature and often in trouble, he experienced church as a regular part of family life.
It was at the multiracial Congregational church camps, held at Blairstown, New Jersey, that his sense of social justice was sparked. Don found he was opposed to war, and he had thought through his position by the time he registered for the draft at the age of eighteen. Though his mother, father, and older brother (who had served as a Marine during World War II) did not agree with his position, they respected it because they knew it was his sincere belief.
Though Murray chose to be a conscientious objector, his draft board and the US Attorney threatened him with prison because they did not believe that actors had principles. Eventually, however, his case was settled and the Brethren Service Commission sent him to Europe to serve his two-year stint.
Murray was horrified to learn that many refugees who had fled Nazism were still living in camps and there was little chance to resettle them. He worked to establish clubs for boys and craft guilds for adults that led many to start new lives.
Don Murray stayed six months beyond his two-year enlistment, earning the standard $7.50 a month. Those who knew him felt that his experiences had deepened his talents as an actor, and it wasn't long before he was starring on stage and screen. His films included Bus Stop (for which he received an Academy Award nomination), Hatful of Rain, and Bachelor Party. He used his sudden fame -- and increased income -- as a platform to found HELP, which purchased land and resettled refugees on farms. He emphasized the importance of making a difference.
When he returned from the service in 1956 it was to find that though he had been a little-known actor before, his agent had arranged far more television and film projects than he could imagine. Soon he would be acting with the likes of Marilyn Monroe, Hope Lange, Helen Hayes, and Mary Martin. It was quite a step for someone who'd been the classic struggling actor, depending on the kindness of friends and family to make ends meet.
The sudden fame he found in the late fifties and early sixties did not stop him from giving a little HELP (Homeless European Land Program), as he called the program he founded to help European refugees still held behind barbed wire years after they'd fled the ravages of Nazism and Communism. He used money from his films to help relocate refugees, and his program was one of the bright lights of Christian service in Europe.
Ultimately after some fits and starts, refugee families began to experience a sense of ownership and pride. He made it possible for some of the victims of World War II to start a new life.
Then came his speaking opportunity.
"The Democratic National Committee asked me to go to Hibbing (Minnesota) to introduce (Vice Presidential candidate C. Estes) Kefauver." Again and again he practiced his speech that was simply, "Ladies and Gentlemen the next vice president, C. Estes Kefauver." Murray remembered, "That's all I was prepared to do, that one sentence. I was on the podium. Two of the greatest orators were to speak. One was Victor Reuther, of the AFL-CIO, the other was Hubert Humphrey. They gave fabulous speeches. As Humphrey was finishing up and Kefauver was supposed to come on next, the guy that organized (the event) whispered 'Senator Kefauver's plane is late and we need you to stall for time and we need you to make a speech.' "
Murray asked what he was to speak about and for how long. He was told to talk about Hollywood for half an hour.
"Instead of telling Hollywood stories (they were boring and I didn't know enough anyway), I started to talk about Brethren Service. They became very enthralled, and as a matter of fact right before I summed up what I was going to say Senator Kefauver appeared in the doorway, 8,000 people there, I could see him. I kept him waiting a couple of minutes because I wanted to finish up my point."
Senator Hubert Humphrey took a personal interest in the matter. The idea of sending young people overseas for a couple of years to serve their country, promote peace, and solve the world's problems had an appeal for him. He thought he had convinced President Eisenhower to institute such a program for the United States, but in the end other presidential advisors convinced him that modern youth did not have enough enthusiasm and idealism to make the program work and that it would be a black mark on his administration. The next administration, however, did not share those convictions, and Humphrey was able to convince President Kennedy, who instituted the Peace Corps.
Sources: A Cup of Cold Water: The Brethren Service Story, by J. Kenneth Kreider (Elgin, Illinois: Brethren Press, 2001)
Personal Interview with Don Murray for the book Brethren Brush With Greatness.
Frank Ramirez is a native of Southern California and has served as a pastor for nearly thirty years in Church of the Brethren congregations. Frank has served congregations in Los Angeles, California; Elkhart, Indiana; and Everett, Pennsylvania. He and his wife Jennie share three adult children, all married, and three grandchildren. He enjoys writing, reading, exercise, and theater.
Looking for God
Peter Andrew Smith
Acts 17:22-31
There once was a man who wanted more in life. He believed there must be something greater than what he was experiencing, some grander purpose than just surviving day to day, some deeper meaning to connect to in his life, so he began to search.
He spent time considering the world around him and discovered that when he was outside in nature he felt connected to something greater than himself. Sitting on the seashore or watching the sunrise on a mountain, he felt something he did not feel in his everyday life. He wanted to experience and know that feeling all the time but could never control when it occurred.
The man tried to find what he sought by achieving perfect health. He exercised, ate healthy, and he stretched the limits of his body. As he engaged in physical activity, he discovered there were some times when he felt alive like no other times. Yet those occasions were fleeting and those times never lasted long.
The man who was searching tried to understand. He studied, researched, and learned. As he expanded his mind, he experienced occasions when he caught a glimpse of something more. At those times, he felt that he was close to what he was seeking, but those occasions also never lasted. No matter how much he studied and learned he could not truly understand what he sought.
The man used what he had seen in nature, what he had learned, and what he could do, to create. He fashioned things in words, paint, and clay. As the man created, he sometimes felt connected to what he sought. In the sentences, in the pictures from his imagination, as his hands sculpted, he felt more than himself but he was never able to completely capture what he desired in his art.
The man assumed he had failed in his search. He looked at what he had seen, felt, understood, and achieved and knew now more than ever that there was something missing in his life.
One day the man came upon another man and shared his story. He told of his searching, his desire to know the greater life, which always seemed just beyond him. The other man listened to the story of searching and told him of the God who had created all the earth, who fashioned humanity in the divine image, who knew everything and who was the source of inspiration and imagination. The man who had searched was excited as he heard of this God for he knew that the glimpses of something greater he had known in life must be of God.
When the other man told him that God had come to earth so that everyone could see, could understand, and know God, the man began to weep. As he wept, he began to see the hand of God in the world around him, in the life he felt within him, in the understanding he had of the universe, and in the creativity he expressed. He dried his tears and realized he no longer had to search for God because God had found him.
A Gentle Profession
Peter Andrew Smith
1 Peter 3:13-22
"There goes one of the 'god squad,' " Cheryl said in an exaggerated whisper as Anna went past. Mary and all the girls snickered when Anna looked down and kept walking. Cheryl said something else that Mary missed but she laughed along with everyone else anyway. The bell rang and they all hurried off to chemistry lab.
Mary was happy to be paired with Laura since they were friends and had worked together before. She shuddered when she heard Cheryl and Anna named as partners -- Cheryl wasn't good at chemistry and was in danger of failing. Mary snuck glances during class but couldn't tell what was going on with Cheryl and Anna.
When the bell rang, she caught up to Cheryl. "Sorry, you got that religious freak Anna as your partner."
"It's all right."
"I bet she was awful to work with."
"She was okay," Cheryl said.
"Really?"
Cheryl nodded. "Yeah, really. She helped me get the assignment done properly. Mr Johnson said it was the best work he's seen me do."
"Why would she help you?" Mary blurted out and went scarlet as Cheryl stared at her. "I mean you... well... we don't always... well... I just thought she might not like you... I mean us."
"I know what you mean, I treat her like dirt. But she was nice to me and helped me out."
"Why?"
Cheryl stopped. "I asked Anna the same thing before we left class."
"What did she say?"
"She said that being good to other people, even the people who were mean to her, was something she believed in," Cheryl said. "She told me that was what Jesus wanted her to do."
Mary snorted. "Well, that's just dumb."
"Maybe." Cheryl shrugged. "All I know is that she helped me out when I needed her."
Neither girl said anything else as they walked to their next class. Both of them were too busy thinking about what Anna had said in her words and actions.
Peter Andrew Smith is an ordained minister in the United Church of Canada currently serving St. James United Church in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. He is the author of All Things are Ready (CSS) a book of lectionary based communion prayers and a number of stories and articles, which can be found listed at www.peterandrewsmith.com.
**********************************************
How to Share Stories
You have good stories to share, probably more than you know: personal stories as well as stories from others that you have used over the years. If you have a story you like, whether fictional or "really happened," authored by you or a brief excerpt from a favorite book, send it to StoryShare for review. Simply email the story to us at storyshare@sermonsuite.com.
**************
StoryShare, April 27, 2008, issue.
Copyright 2008 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 517 South Main Street, Lima, Ohio 45804.
