Donnie's Plant
Stories
Object:
Contents
What's Up This Week
"Donnie's Plant" by Stan Purdum
"Running with the Holy" by Gregory L. Tolle
"Pax Christi or Pox Christi?" by David E. Leininger
What's Up This Week
As we become more... mature, most of us are at best ambivalent about the aches and pains that come with the aging of our bodies. But one of the side benefits is the storehouse of knowledge and life experience that we accumulate. Even so, we can find ourselves in totally virgin territory -- as Stan Purdum vividly portrays in the featured story of this week's edition of StoryShare. An old man with no "green thumb" experience whatsoever finds himself in charge of his young neighbor's plant, and by caring for it receives a wonderful gift. Greg Tolle then reflects on the encouragement that the proverbial "cloud of witnesses" offers us in our walk with the Lord. And while spiritual issues can sometimes seem contentious, the long view of history and its accumulated knowledge shows us that conflict and division over how the church ought to confront moral issues is hardly new -- as David Leininger reminds us in his fascinating discussion of the various approaches prominent American churchmen took on the issue of slavery.
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Donnie's Plant
Stan Purdum
My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.
He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines;
he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it;
he expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.
-- Isaiah 5:1-2
Although Lester was 90 years old, his health was still good and he was still able to take care of himself. He missed Sarah, of course, with whom he'd spent nearly 68 years, but he'd seen no reason to give up their apartment after she passed away the previous summer.
The only thing was, Sarah had been the outgoing one. She'd been the one who visited with their neighbors, chatted with the mail carrier, and made small talk with the children in the building. Lester wasn't unfriendly, and he'd always said hello when he passed others in the complex, but he'd left the real socializing to Sarah. But now, with Sarah gone, Lester missed the human connection.
And so it was that he began to make an effort to be more talkative -- and to his surprise, it wasn't as hard as he expected it to be. He became better acquainted with the folks on his floor, and especially with the father and daughter who lived next door.
The father, a man in his 30s, was named Don, and his daughter, age 9, was Donnie. It had not always been just the two of them, but two years previously Donnie's mother had been killed in an auto accident. So now the sad-eyed man and his bright-faced little girl were alone. Lester was never quite sure how much to say to Don, but Donnie made talking to her easy; she simply started conversation with Lester every time she saw him, and Lester made it a point to stop and speak back to her on each occasion. So eventually the old man and the little girl began to think of themselves as friends.
Thus, it was not altogether surprising when one day in early summer Donnie came to Lester's door with a request. She was leaving the next day for a 10-day vacation with her daddy. Would Lester be willing to tend her plant while she was away? With little thought, and without seeing the vegetation in question, Lester immediately agreed.
At daybreak the following morning, Don and Donnie started on their trip. Later in the morning, Lester stepped outside his door and found a child's small sand pail filled with nondescript dirt. Growing from this soil, but not thriving, was a fragile tree-like seedling. Competing with it for survival -- and clearly winning -- was a long reedy plant of some sort.
At that moment, Lester was struck by the enormity -- and perhaps the foolhardiness -- of what he had promised. A city dweller all his life, he'd never had a garden, and neither had he ever nurtured potted flora. But he had promised, and so, as he picked up the bucket, he uttered a prayer that Donnie's plant would not die on his watch.
A short time later, Lester told another neighbor about his dilemma and showed him the sand-pail planter. This man quickly identified the smaller plant as a maple tree seedling and the reedy stem as an obnoxious weed. This neighbor then invited Lester into his apartment and showed him his two dwarfed trees growing in pots. Learning of the special soil and nutrients this man used for his plants, Lester decided a trip to the local nursery was in order.
It was Saturday, and the large nursery Lester found was crowded and busy. After searching in vain for several minutes for a nursery worker to help him, Lester noticed a woman pushing a dolly loaded with shrubs. When he approached her, however, she indicated that she was a customer herself. But as Lester turned to walk away, he heard an inner voice say, "Turn back; this woman will help you."
So Lester obeyed. He changed direction, and this time he told the woman he thought God had directed him to her for help. Who knows what the woman thought about that, but she politely stopped and gave him her attention. Lester introduced himself and told his story, and when he was done the woman, who introduced herself as Debbie, said that yes, she would help him. She left her dolly where it was and led Lester with his cart to various stops around the store until he had everything he needed to give the tiny tree a fighting chance -- potting soil, fertilizer, plant food, and a larger pot. She then went back to her own shopping.
Lester slowly made his way to the checkout line, and when he arrived, he found himself in line behind Debbie. As they chatted casually, it must have become clear to her that Lester was still feeling out of his depth. She told Lester that she operated a small flower business herself. And then she said that if he would bring his supplies and the sand pail over to her shop that afternoon, she would handle the transplanting for him. With great relief, Lester said he would.
When Lester got to Debbie's shop that afternoon, Debbie immediately took charge, expertly separating the seedling from the weed and bedding it firmly in good soil in Lester's new roomy pot. Then, picking up the other plant, she said, "This is only a weed; we'll just throw it away."
"We can't do that," Lester said. "Donnie thinks that is part of the plant."
Debbie thought for a second and then said, "I know what. We'll replant it in the pail." She dumped out the original dirt, filled the little bucket with potting soil, and placed the weed in its new home. Before Lester left, she gave him specific instructions on how to care for both of his botanical charges.
For the remaining time Don and Donnie were away, Lester followed Debbie's instructions to the letter.
Thus, when dad and daughter came home, the little girl was thrilled to find her tiny maple tree flourishing, and the weed looking robust as well.
The next day, Lester heard a knock at his door. When he opened it, he found Donnie standing there beaming. In her hand was the sand pail containing the weed. "Thank you for taking care of my plant, Lester," she said. Then with both hands she extended the pail with its thriving weed and said, "This is for you."
As Lester accepted her offering, he told Donnie that he couldn't think of a nicer gift, and he thanked her for being so generous.
After she left, Lester realized that what he had told the little girl wasn't just a matter of politeness -- he couldn't think of a nicer gift.
Stan Purdum is the pastor of Centenary United Methodist Church in Waynesburg, Ohio. He has served as the editor for the preaching journals Emphasis and Homiletics, and he has written extensively for both the religious and secular press. Purdum is the author of New Mercies I See (CSS) and He Walked in Galilee (Abingdon Press), as well as two accounts of his long-distance bicycle journeys, Roll Around Heaven All Day and Playing in Traffic.
Running with the Holy
Gregory L. Tolle
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.
-- Hebrews 12:1-2
Funerals have a way of reminding us of our mortality -- not only is death in our midst, but we also gather with people that we haven't seen in years. They, of course, look older, which causes us to see ourselves as older as well.
At a family funeral once, my 64-year-old father-in-law, Hal, conversed with an old acquaintance. Even though Hal walks daily to keep in shape, he was pleasantly surprised when the man commented about how good my father-in-law looked. The man said, "You're running in the Olympics, aren't you?"
Hal, who is known for his wit, quipped, "Yeah, the Special Olympics." He added, "And then I'll do the Geriatric Olympics."
Hal then shared the story of walking in a park in McKinney, Texas, a few years prior. On his walk, he saw a group of teenagers jogging toward him. Not wanting to be outdone, he decided to jog instead of walk as he approached them. When he reached the group, one of the teenagers honestly wanted to encourage my father-in-law for picking up his pace. He congratulated him by saying, "Way to go, old-timer."
Needless to say, Hal was not encouraged. More encouraging was the man at the funeral who came across more positively. Certainly, runners need encouragement to complete their races.
The writer of the book of Hebrews offers words of encouragement for Christians. Hebrews 12:1 says, "Let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us." This race is a race of faith. The Hebrew people were in danger of leaving the faith because of false teachings, pagan practices, and persecution.
The Hebrew people were reminded that they had a lineage -- a cloud of witnesses that cheered them on in this faith race. These former faith champions were listed in chapter 11: Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Rahab, Gideon, Samson, David, Samuel, and the prophets.
It is a reminder that we do not run the race alone. There are a host of others who ran the race before us and are now in the stands cheering us on.
Back when I was in high school, the rock band Van Halen had a hit song called "Running with the Devil." It was song that glorified decadent living and includes the line "all I've got, I had to steal." Instead of "lay(ing) aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely" as the book of Hebrews suggested, it encouraged people to bear the weight of sin.
In contrast to "Running with the Devil," the book of Hebrews says we should be "Running with the Holy." We run the race with a cloud of witnesses -- holy matriarchs and patriarchs of the Bible as well as the saints of Christian history.
We do not run the race alone. We have those saints who have completed the race cheering us on to victory. God wants you to be a champion in the faith and will help you complete the race. The goal is to be like Christ, so cast off the sin that is weighing you down and keeping you from running free. Then you can run to victory.
Gregory L. Tolle is the senior minister at First United Methodist Church in Durant, Oklahoma. He is the author of three volumes of the CSS series Lectionary Tales for the Pulpit.
Pax Christi or Pox Christi?
David E. Leininger
Luke 12:49-56
This is not a favorite passage for preaching. "Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth?" Well, now that you ask, Jesus, yes. I mean, I remember the angels at your nativity and their anthem about "Peace on earth." What's going on?
"From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided: father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law." Well, Lord, the in-law against in-law conflict is not exactly unheard of. Come to think of it, the father-son and mother-daughter clashes are not news either. And, yes, even over matters of faith.
How many family crises have come because a Baptist daughter wants to marry a Catholic boyfriend, or some such other relational disaster? Or with a wider scope, think of some of the controversies that have beset our society in recent years: abortion, gay rights, embryonic stem cell research, etc. The roots of those disputes are all religious, and the various positions that people take are based on their understanding of scripture. Indeed, it has often resulted in father vs. son or mother vs. daughter, as one generation sees an issue one way while the next generation sees it differently.
Several years ago as one of the mainline denominations was convened in its national gathering, the subject of debate was the place of gays and lesbians in the life of the church. The verbal sparring was vigorous and rancorous, as is often the case when two sides passionately defend diametrically opposite positions, and especially when each side is positive that their position is the one that reflects the mind of Christ. Finally, one of the youngest delegates in attendance spoke up and said, "You folks can keep fighting about this issue if you want to, but one day soon, my generation will be in charge, and when we are, we will fix it." 'Nuff said.
If it is any consolation, our day and age is not the only one that has experienced faith-based conflict. A century-and-a-half ago America was embroiled in the bloodiest confrontation this nation has ever experienced. It was over an issue that, viewed through the prism of history, we find incomprehensible -- human slavery. This was more than an economic issue; this was an issue of faith.
As we might expect, there were powerful prophetic abolitionist voices in the church. The Quakers had been vocal in their opposition to slavery from the beginning. In 1787 the Presbyterian Synod of New York and Philadelphia (at the time the highest ecclesiastical authority for American Presbyterians) endorsed the abolitionist sentiment and urged church members to work, when practical, towards an eventual end to slavery. Presbyterian evangelist Charles G. Finney is the revivalist credited with inventing the "altar call" which has since seen countless folks come forward to accept Christ as their Savior. Finney had another purpose in mind though -- his invitation to converts was to come forward and sign an abolitionist pledge. Phillips Brooks, the well-known Episcopalian who is most famous to us as the author of "O Little Town of Bethlehem," was a vocal opponent, as were other widely respected church leaders: Theodore Parker, Horace Bushnell, Henry Ward Beecher (whose sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe, would write Uncle Tom's Cabin). Roman Catholic priest Father Theobold Mayhew organized a petition with 60,000 signatures, urging the Irish of America to support abolition.
Although it is difficult for us to imagine today, there were equally respected church names who supported the "peculiar institution." Most prominent among them was one of the best-known Presbyterian ministers and educators of his day, Dr. James Henley Thornwell of South Carolina. Thornwell was a brilliant man who graduated from South Carolina College (now the University of South Carolina) at age 19, studied briefly at Harvard (leaving only because of dangers to his health from the harsh Boston climate), then entered the ministry. He became prominent in the Old School Presbyterian denomination in the south, preaching and writing extensively on theological and social issues. He taught at South Carolina College, eventually served as its president, and went on to teach at Columbia Theological Seminary. Following the secession of the southern states in 1861, Thornwell had a major role in establishing the Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America and, in fact, preached the first sermon and wrote the first address for the new denomination. Thornwell was also the primary developer of a theological defense of slavery that became a leading standard for many Southern Christians.
Thornwell saw slavery as something perfectly natural. He wrote:
"Slavery exists, of course, in every nation in which it is not prohibited. It arose, in the progress of human events, from the operation of moral causes; it has been grounded by philosophers in moral maxims; it has always been held to be moral by the vast majority of the race. No age has been without it. From the first dawn of authentic history, until the present period, it has come down to us through all the course of ages. We find it among the nomadic tribes, barbarian hordes, and civilized States. Whatever communities have been organized, and any rights of property have been recognized at all, there slavery is seen. If, therefore, there be any property which can be said to be founded in the common consent of the human race, it is the property in slaves." (James Henley Thornwell, "The State of the Country: An Article Republished from The Southern Presbyterian Review," http://docsouth.unc.edu/imls/thornwel1/thornwel.html)
As to a theological rationale for slavery, Thornwell made his position clear in an 1851 report to the Presbyterian Synod of South Carolina titled "Relation of the Church to Slavery." Thornwell expressed lucidly what most pro-slavery clerics already were saying: "The Bible, and the Bible alone, is [the church's] rule of faith and practice.... Beyond the Bible, [the church] can never go, and apart from the Bible she can never speak."
And what did the Bible say about slavery? Thornwell noted scripture's apparent sanction. There was Old Testament law that allowed for it, and five different ways one could become a slave in the nation of Israel: captivity in war (Deuteronomy 20:14; 21:10-11), debt (2 Kings 4:1; Isaiah 50:1; Matthew 18:25), theft (Exodus 22:2), birth (Genesis 14:14--15:3, Psalm 86:16), and purchase. In the New Testament he noted scriptures such as 1 Corinthians 7:20-21, 1 Timothy 5:1, and the Epistle to Philemon all dealing with slavery as a normal social condition. Thus Thornwell was led to conclude that if slavery were OK 3,000 years ago and still 2,000 years ago, it must be OK now. He went on to note that Jesus never condemned slavery, the prophets never condemned slavery, and the apostle Paul never condemned slavery. The only way a person could demonstrate that slavery was inherently a sin would require a "spirit of speculation," not on the hard evidence of the revealed word of God. For Thornwell, this primacy of scripture meant that the church should not get involved in the controversy -- when scripture is "silent it is her duty to put her hand upon her lips.... Where the scriptures are silent, she must be silent too" (The Collected Writings of James Henley Thornwell, Volume 4, Ecclesiastical, edited by John B. Adger, 1873, reprinted by The Banner of Truth Trust, 1974, pp. 384-385).
What then should the church's position be on slavery? Thornwell insisted on no position at all. The church was a spiritual body, and as such had no business involving herself in civil affairs such as whether or not slavery should be permitted to continue in the nation. "We are neither the friends nor the foes of slavery... the policy of its existence or non-existence is a question which exclusively belongs to the state. We have no right, as a church, to enjoin it as a duty, or to condemn it as a sin" (Thornwell, "The Southern Address," in The Presbyterian Enterprise, p. 214). As far as Thornwell was concerned, Christians could freely discuss the relative merits of slavery in their role as citizens, but as members of the church their views were limited by scripture (ibid., p. 501).
Thornwell's attitude toward slavery was a reflection of the doctrine with which his name is most closely associated: the spirituality of the church. Just as the church should keep its ecclesiastical nose out of slavery, he argued, so "it is not the distinctive province of the church to build asylums for the needy or insane, to organize societies for the improvement of the penal code, or for the arresting of the progress of intemperance, gambling, or lust" (quoted in Bradley J. Longfield, The Presbyterian Controversy: Fundamentalists, Modernists, and Moderates, Oxford University Press, 1991, p. 35). Ironically, a South Carolina orphanage (that is still in operation today) was established in Thornwell's honor not many years after his death in 1862.
Can you imagine a preacher advocating such a hands-off approach to overwhelming moral issues in our day? Oh, I forgot... we've got to be careful about politics in the pulpit.
Again we hear Jesus' words in our text: "I came to bring fire to the earth." Well, we know what a conflagration occurred 150 years ago. It was the bloodiest war in America's history -- "father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law." Oh, right -- we were warned, were we not?
David E. Leininger is the pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Warren, Pennsylvania. He is the author of Lectionary Tales for the Pulpit (Series VI, Cycle A), God of Justice: A Look at the Ten Commandments for the 21st Century, and A Color-Blind Church, his account of the intriguing match of two congregations -- one black, one white -- in a small community following the reunion of the northern and southern streams of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in 1983.
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StoryShare, August 19, 2007, issue.
Copyright 2007 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
"Donnie's Plant" by Stan Purdum
"Running with the Holy" by Gregory L. Tolle
"Pax Christi or Pox Christi?" by David E. Leininger
What's Up This Week
As we become more... mature, most of us are at best ambivalent about the aches and pains that come with the aging of our bodies. But one of the side benefits is the storehouse of knowledge and life experience that we accumulate. Even so, we can find ourselves in totally virgin territory -- as Stan Purdum vividly portrays in the featured story of this week's edition of StoryShare. An old man with no "green thumb" experience whatsoever finds himself in charge of his young neighbor's plant, and by caring for it receives a wonderful gift. Greg Tolle then reflects on the encouragement that the proverbial "cloud of witnesses" offers us in our walk with the Lord. And while spiritual issues can sometimes seem contentious, the long view of history and its accumulated knowledge shows us that conflict and division over how the church ought to confront moral issues is hardly new -- as David Leininger reminds us in his fascinating discussion of the various approaches prominent American churchmen took on the issue of slavery.
* * * * * * * * *
Donnie's Plant
Stan Purdum
My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.
He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines;
he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it;
he expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.
-- Isaiah 5:1-2
Although Lester was 90 years old, his health was still good and he was still able to take care of himself. He missed Sarah, of course, with whom he'd spent nearly 68 years, but he'd seen no reason to give up their apartment after she passed away the previous summer.
The only thing was, Sarah had been the outgoing one. She'd been the one who visited with their neighbors, chatted with the mail carrier, and made small talk with the children in the building. Lester wasn't unfriendly, and he'd always said hello when he passed others in the complex, but he'd left the real socializing to Sarah. But now, with Sarah gone, Lester missed the human connection.
And so it was that he began to make an effort to be more talkative -- and to his surprise, it wasn't as hard as he expected it to be. He became better acquainted with the folks on his floor, and especially with the father and daughter who lived next door.
The father, a man in his 30s, was named Don, and his daughter, age 9, was Donnie. It had not always been just the two of them, but two years previously Donnie's mother had been killed in an auto accident. So now the sad-eyed man and his bright-faced little girl were alone. Lester was never quite sure how much to say to Don, but Donnie made talking to her easy; she simply started conversation with Lester every time she saw him, and Lester made it a point to stop and speak back to her on each occasion. So eventually the old man and the little girl began to think of themselves as friends.
Thus, it was not altogether surprising when one day in early summer Donnie came to Lester's door with a request. She was leaving the next day for a 10-day vacation with her daddy. Would Lester be willing to tend her plant while she was away? With little thought, and without seeing the vegetation in question, Lester immediately agreed.
At daybreak the following morning, Don and Donnie started on their trip. Later in the morning, Lester stepped outside his door and found a child's small sand pail filled with nondescript dirt. Growing from this soil, but not thriving, was a fragile tree-like seedling. Competing with it for survival -- and clearly winning -- was a long reedy plant of some sort.
At that moment, Lester was struck by the enormity -- and perhaps the foolhardiness -- of what he had promised. A city dweller all his life, he'd never had a garden, and neither had he ever nurtured potted flora. But he had promised, and so, as he picked up the bucket, he uttered a prayer that Donnie's plant would not die on his watch.
A short time later, Lester told another neighbor about his dilemma and showed him the sand-pail planter. This man quickly identified the smaller plant as a maple tree seedling and the reedy stem as an obnoxious weed. This neighbor then invited Lester into his apartment and showed him his two dwarfed trees growing in pots. Learning of the special soil and nutrients this man used for his plants, Lester decided a trip to the local nursery was in order.
It was Saturday, and the large nursery Lester found was crowded and busy. After searching in vain for several minutes for a nursery worker to help him, Lester noticed a woman pushing a dolly loaded with shrubs. When he approached her, however, she indicated that she was a customer herself. But as Lester turned to walk away, he heard an inner voice say, "Turn back; this woman will help you."
So Lester obeyed. He changed direction, and this time he told the woman he thought God had directed him to her for help. Who knows what the woman thought about that, but she politely stopped and gave him her attention. Lester introduced himself and told his story, and when he was done the woman, who introduced herself as Debbie, said that yes, she would help him. She left her dolly where it was and led Lester with his cart to various stops around the store until he had everything he needed to give the tiny tree a fighting chance -- potting soil, fertilizer, plant food, and a larger pot. She then went back to her own shopping.
Lester slowly made his way to the checkout line, and when he arrived, he found himself in line behind Debbie. As they chatted casually, it must have become clear to her that Lester was still feeling out of his depth. She told Lester that she operated a small flower business herself. And then she said that if he would bring his supplies and the sand pail over to her shop that afternoon, she would handle the transplanting for him. With great relief, Lester said he would.
When Lester got to Debbie's shop that afternoon, Debbie immediately took charge, expertly separating the seedling from the weed and bedding it firmly in good soil in Lester's new roomy pot. Then, picking up the other plant, she said, "This is only a weed; we'll just throw it away."
"We can't do that," Lester said. "Donnie thinks that is part of the plant."
Debbie thought for a second and then said, "I know what. We'll replant it in the pail." She dumped out the original dirt, filled the little bucket with potting soil, and placed the weed in its new home. Before Lester left, she gave him specific instructions on how to care for both of his botanical charges.
For the remaining time Don and Donnie were away, Lester followed Debbie's instructions to the letter.
Thus, when dad and daughter came home, the little girl was thrilled to find her tiny maple tree flourishing, and the weed looking robust as well.
The next day, Lester heard a knock at his door. When he opened it, he found Donnie standing there beaming. In her hand was the sand pail containing the weed. "Thank you for taking care of my plant, Lester," she said. Then with both hands she extended the pail with its thriving weed and said, "This is for you."
As Lester accepted her offering, he told Donnie that he couldn't think of a nicer gift, and he thanked her for being so generous.
After she left, Lester realized that what he had told the little girl wasn't just a matter of politeness -- he couldn't think of a nicer gift.
Stan Purdum is the pastor of Centenary United Methodist Church in Waynesburg, Ohio. He has served as the editor for the preaching journals Emphasis and Homiletics, and he has written extensively for both the religious and secular press. Purdum is the author of New Mercies I See (CSS) and He Walked in Galilee (Abingdon Press), as well as two accounts of his long-distance bicycle journeys, Roll Around Heaven All Day and Playing in Traffic.
Running with the Holy
Gregory L. Tolle
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.
-- Hebrews 12:1-2
Funerals have a way of reminding us of our mortality -- not only is death in our midst, but we also gather with people that we haven't seen in years. They, of course, look older, which causes us to see ourselves as older as well.
At a family funeral once, my 64-year-old father-in-law, Hal, conversed with an old acquaintance. Even though Hal walks daily to keep in shape, he was pleasantly surprised when the man commented about how good my father-in-law looked. The man said, "You're running in the Olympics, aren't you?"
Hal, who is known for his wit, quipped, "Yeah, the Special Olympics." He added, "And then I'll do the Geriatric Olympics."
Hal then shared the story of walking in a park in McKinney, Texas, a few years prior. On his walk, he saw a group of teenagers jogging toward him. Not wanting to be outdone, he decided to jog instead of walk as he approached them. When he reached the group, one of the teenagers honestly wanted to encourage my father-in-law for picking up his pace. He congratulated him by saying, "Way to go, old-timer."
Needless to say, Hal was not encouraged. More encouraging was the man at the funeral who came across more positively. Certainly, runners need encouragement to complete their races.
The writer of the book of Hebrews offers words of encouragement for Christians. Hebrews 12:1 says, "Let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us." This race is a race of faith. The Hebrew people were in danger of leaving the faith because of false teachings, pagan practices, and persecution.
The Hebrew people were reminded that they had a lineage -- a cloud of witnesses that cheered them on in this faith race. These former faith champions were listed in chapter 11: Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Rahab, Gideon, Samson, David, Samuel, and the prophets.
It is a reminder that we do not run the race alone. There are a host of others who ran the race before us and are now in the stands cheering us on.
Back when I was in high school, the rock band Van Halen had a hit song called "Running with the Devil." It was song that glorified decadent living and includes the line "all I've got, I had to steal." Instead of "lay(ing) aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely" as the book of Hebrews suggested, it encouraged people to bear the weight of sin.
In contrast to "Running with the Devil," the book of Hebrews says we should be "Running with the Holy." We run the race with a cloud of witnesses -- holy matriarchs and patriarchs of the Bible as well as the saints of Christian history.
We do not run the race alone. We have those saints who have completed the race cheering us on to victory. God wants you to be a champion in the faith and will help you complete the race. The goal is to be like Christ, so cast off the sin that is weighing you down and keeping you from running free. Then you can run to victory.
Gregory L. Tolle is the senior minister at First United Methodist Church in Durant, Oklahoma. He is the author of three volumes of the CSS series Lectionary Tales for the Pulpit.
Pax Christi or Pox Christi?
David E. Leininger
Luke 12:49-56
This is not a favorite passage for preaching. "Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth?" Well, now that you ask, Jesus, yes. I mean, I remember the angels at your nativity and their anthem about "Peace on earth." What's going on?
"From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided: father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law." Well, Lord, the in-law against in-law conflict is not exactly unheard of. Come to think of it, the father-son and mother-daughter clashes are not news either. And, yes, even over matters of faith.
How many family crises have come because a Baptist daughter wants to marry a Catholic boyfriend, or some such other relational disaster? Or with a wider scope, think of some of the controversies that have beset our society in recent years: abortion, gay rights, embryonic stem cell research, etc. The roots of those disputes are all religious, and the various positions that people take are based on their understanding of scripture. Indeed, it has often resulted in father vs. son or mother vs. daughter, as one generation sees an issue one way while the next generation sees it differently.
Several years ago as one of the mainline denominations was convened in its national gathering, the subject of debate was the place of gays and lesbians in the life of the church. The verbal sparring was vigorous and rancorous, as is often the case when two sides passionately defend diametrically opposite positions, and especially when each side is positive that their position is the one that reflects the mind of Christ. Finally, one of the youngest delegates in attendance spoke up and said, "You folks can keep fighting about this issue if you want to, but one day soon, my generation will be in charge, and when we are, we will fix it." 'Nuff said.
If it is any consolation, our day and age is not the only one that has experienced faith-based conflict. A century-and-a-half ago America was embroiled in the bloodiest confrontation this nation has ever experienced. It was over an issue that, viewed through the prism of history, we find incomprehensible -- human slavery. This was more than an economic issue; this was an issue of faith.
As we might expect, there were powerful prophetic abolitionist voices in the church. The Quakers had been vocal in their opposition to slavery from the beginning. In 1787 the Presbyterian Synod of New York and Philadelphia (at the time the highest ecclesiastical authority for American Presbyterians) endorsed the abolitionist sentiment and urged church members to work, when practical, towards an eventual end to slavery. Presbyterian evangelist Charles G. Finney is the revivalist credited with inventing the "altar call" which has since seen countless folks come forward to accept Christ as their Savior. Finney had another purpose in mind though -- his invitation to converts was to come forward and sign an abolitionist pledge. Phillips Brooks, the well-known Episcopalian who is most famous to us as the author of "O Little Town of Bethlehem," was a vocal opponent, as were other widely respected church leaders: Theodore Parker, Horace Bushnell, Henry Ward Beecher (whose sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe, would write Uncle Tom's Cabin). Roman Catholic priest Father Theobold Mayhew organized a petition with 60,000 signatures, urging the Irish of America to support abolition.
Although it is difficult for us to imagine today, there were equally respected church names who supported the "peculiar institution." Most prominent among them was one of the best-known Presbyterian ministers and educators of his day, Dr. James Henley Thornwell of South Carolina. Thornwell was a brilliant man who graduated from South Carolina College (now the University of South Carolina) at age 19, studied briefly at Harvard (leaving only because of dangers to his health from the harsh Boston climate), then entered the ministry. He became prominent in the Old School Presbyterian denomination in the south, preaching and writing extensively on theological and social issues. He taught at South Carolina College, eventually served as its president, and went on to teach at Columbia Theological Seminary. Following the secession of the southern states in 1861, Thornwell had a major role in establishing the Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America and, in fact, preached the first sermon and wrote the first address for the new denomination. Thornwell was also the primary developer of a theological defense of slavery that became a leading standard for many Southern Christians.
Thornwell saw slavery as something perfectly natural. He wrote:
"Slavery exists, of course, in every nation in which it is not prohibited. It arose, in the progress of human events, from the operation of moral causes; it has been grounded by philosophers in moral maxims; it has always been held to be moral by the vast majority of the race. No age has been without it. From the first dawn of authentic history, until the present period, it has come down to us through all the course of ages. We find it among the nomadic tribes, barbarian hordes, and civilized States. Whatever communities have been organized, and any rights of property have been recognized at all, there slavery is seen. If, therefore, there be any property which can be said to be founded in the common consent of the human race, it is the property in slaves." (James Henley Thornwell, "The State of the Country: An Article Republished from The Southern Presbyterian Review," http://docsouth.unc.edu/imls/thornwel1/thornwel.html)
As to a theological rationale for slavery, Thornwell made his position clear in an 1851 report to the Presbyterian Synod of South Carolina titled "Relation of the Church to Slavery." Thornwell expressed lucidly what most pro-slavery clerics already were saying: "The Bible, and the Bible alone, is [the church's] rule of faith and practice.... Beyond the Bible, [the church] can never go, and apart from the Bible she can never speak."
And what did the Bible say about slavery? Thornwell noted scripture's apparent sanction. There was Old Testament law that allowed for it, and five different ways one could become a slave in the nation of Israel: captivity in war (Deuteronomy 20:14; 21:10-11), debt (2 Kings 4:1; Isaiah 50:1; Matthew 18:25), theft (Exodus 22:2), birth (Genesis 14:14--15:3, Psalm 86:16), and purchase. In the New Testament he noted scriptures such as 1 Corinthians 7:20-21, 1 Timothy 5:1, and the Epistle to Philemon all dealing with slavery as a normal social condition. Thus Thornwell was led to conclude that if slavery were OK 3,000 years ago and still 2,000 years ago, it must be OK now. He went on to note that Jesus never condemned slavery, the prophets never condemned slavery, and the apostle Paul never condemned slavery. The only way a person could demonstrate that slavery was inherently a sin would require a "spirit of speculation," not on the hard evidence of the revealed word of God. For Thornwell, this primacy of scripture meant that the church should not get involved in the controversy -- when scripture is "silent it is her duty to put her hand upon her lips.... Where the scriptures are silent, she must be silent too" (The Collected Writings of James Henley Thornwell, Volume 4, Ecclesiastical, edited by John B. Adger, 1873, reprinted by The Banner of Truth Trust, 1974, pp. 384-385).
What then should the church's position be on slavery? Thornwell insisted on no position at all. The church was a spiritual body, and as such had no business involving herself in civil affairs such as whether or not slavery should be permitted to continue in the nation. "We are neither the friends nor the foes of slavery... the policy of its existence or non-existence is a question which exclusively belongs to the state. We have no right, as a church, to enjoin it as a duty, or to condemn it as a sin" (Thornwell, "The Southern Address," in The Presbyterian Enterprise, p. 214). As far as Thornwell was concerned, Christians could freely discuss the relative merits of slavery in their role as citizens, but as members of the church their views were limited by scripture (ibid., p. 501).
Thornwell's attitude toward slavery was a reflection of the doctrine with which his name is most closely associated: the spirituality of the church. Just as the church should keep its ecclesiastical nose out of slavery, he argued, so "it is not the distinctive province of the church to build asylums for the needy or insane, to organize societies for the improvement of the penal code, or for the arresting of the progress of intemperance, gambling, or lust" (quoted in Bradley J. Longfield, The Presbyterian Controversy: Fundamentalists, Modernists, and Moderates, Oxford University Press, 1991, p. 35). Ironically, a South Carolina orphanage (that is still in operation today) was established in Thornwell's honor not many years after his death in 1862.
Can you imagine a preacher advocating such a hands-off approach to overwhelming moral issues in our day? Oh, I forgot... we've got to be careful about politics in the pulpit.
Again we hear Jesus' words in our text: "I came to bring fire to the earth." Well, we know what a conflagration occurred 150 years ago. It was the bloodiest war in America's history -- "father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law." Oh, right -- we were warned, were we not?
David E. Leininger is the pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Warren, Pennsylvania. He is the author of Lectionary Tales for the Pulpit (Series VI, Cycle A), God of Justice: A Look at the Ten Commandments for the 21st Century, and A Color-Blind Church, his account of the intriguing match of two congregations -- one black, one white -- in a small community following the reunion of the northern and southern streams of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in 1983.
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StoryShare, August 19, 2007, issue.
Copyright 2007 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
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