A Place Of Healing And Hope
Stories
Object:
Contents
"A Place of Healing and Hope" by Frank Ramirez
"The First Love of God" by Lamar Massingill
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A Place of Healing and Hope
by Frank Ramirez
Numbers 21:4-9
In today's scripture text, Numbers 21:4-6, a symbol of death becomes transformed into an icon of healing and hope. The people are dying from snake bites, but when they look up at the copper snake fashioned by Moses, they are healed.
On September 17, 1862, over 23,000 Americans were killed, wounded, or missing in action in the Battle of Antietam, near the town of Sharpsburg, Maryland. It was the bloodiest day in American history, and although it did not bring an end to the war, it did end General Lee's first invasion of the North, and the victory provided President Abraham Lincoln the opportunity to deliver the Emancipation Proclamation.
At the center of this carnage was the Mumma Meetinghouse, a simple place of worship built by a people of peace that is usually referred to at the Dunker Church. The Dunkers (so-called because their form of baptism called for immersion three times forward) were a pacifist group of Germanic believers, who had emigrated to America to escape religious persecution. Ironically, it was this place where the Confederate army first made its stand, and it was the goal toward which the Union armies marched in the early morning hours of that terrible day, and so it became an image of death. That image was reinforced by the famed photographer Alexander Gardner, whose photograph of dead soldiers scattered before that bullet-riddled church brought home the horrors of the war to many who thought of battle as consisting of gallant charges.
Yet that image, like that of the copper snake, too was transformed into one of healing in the days that followed. The building itself became a hospital. The people took in the sick and the suffering from both sides to nurse them back to health.
When the Civil War broke out in 1861 many in the North and the South thought it would be a quick conflict, with a decisive victory for their own side, of course. It didn't turn out to be that way. As 1861 turned into 1862 it became apparent that a long, bloody struggle must ensue. Already many in the North were weary of the war, and it was thought by those in the South that if a heavy blow could be struck in the Northern states then a bargain of peace -- and recognition of the Confederacy as an independent nation -- might be the result. It was not necessary for the South to conquer the North -- just unsettle things enough to break the resolve of those who wanted to preserve the Union.
In addition there was the danger that countries like England and France would recognize the Confederacy or perhaps even join the war. The breakup of the United States would suit the European powers, because they had no desire for a strong nation to develop on the American continent. And Southern cotton was essential for the textile industries of those countries. But both nations had abolished slavery and were cautious about appearing too supportive of the South for that reason. For this reason many of Lincoln's advisors urged him to issue a proclamation freeing the slaves, but the president did not feel he could do this without at least one major victory to back up the statement. The Battle of Antietam provided that opportunity!
That long day of battle left thousands dead and many thousands wounded from both sides who were abandoned by the armies that moved on afterward. Just as that little Dunker Church lay at the heart of all the death and dying, it became the source of much healing. Because the care of all those wounded, the burial of all the dead, the comfort for families who came seeking the graves of their lost loved ones, fell on the shoulders of the people of that church and that community.
Their world may have fallen apart all around them, as their crops were either destroyed or taken by soldiers from both armies, but their Christian hearts did not allow them to abandon the suffering.
It is true, there are records of prices that went way up temporarily for ordinary things (a dollar a pound for butter, six small cakes for fifty cents), but the Dunkers lived a form of practical Christianity typified by these words from the letter of James: If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill," and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? (James 2:15-16).
The Dunkers, whose church has been riddled by bullets and bombs, fed, nursed, and cared for those left behind. One Georgian for instance, Benjamin Prather, who was seriously wounded, wrote home, "The Dunker preacher Pastor Emmanuel Silfer sees us every day. He loaned me his pen and ink. Mrs. Amanda Silfer, the pastor's wife, brings me her Bible every morning."
It took months before life returned to normal for the Dunkers and the other residents of the Sharpsburg area. The little meetinghouse was repaired and decades later a storm destroyed the building, but it was eventually rebuilt for the battle's centennial, utilizing the original materials that were saved. It is still there, maintained by the National Park Service, the focus for the nation's bloodiest day, and the locus of healing and hope in the name of Jesus Christ.
Frank Ramirez has served as a pastor for nearly 30 years in Church of the Brethren congregations in Los Angeles, California; Elkhart, Indiana; and Everett, Pennsylvania. A graduate of LaVerne College and Bethany Theological Seminary, Ramirez is the author of numerous books, articles, and short stories. His CSS titles include Partners in Healing, He Took a Towel, The Bee Attitudes, and three volumes of Lectionary Worship Aids.
The First Love of God
by Lamar Massingill
John 3:14-21
I was extremely interested in the president's visit to Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany in the summer of 2009, and even more interested in the words of Ellie Weasel, remembering his father, who died at Buchenwald. At the end of Weasel's speech, he quoted the end of Albert Camus' novel The Plague, "After the tragedy, there is more in the human being to celebrate than to denigrate." And I agree. In other words, in spite of the evil human beings have perpetrated the world over, we should still celebrate the essence of humanity, not its ignorance.
Of course I hope you understand that God could not have stopped the horrors of Buchenwald any more than he could have stopped the prodigal son from becoming prodigal, or the rich young ruler from walking away from the invitation of Jesus. God's way is the gift of choice, and humanity has made some unacceptable ones that have led to many of the horrors we have seen in history and up to the present time when, on the very Sunday before the president's visit, one can walk into a service of worship and in the name of God and life (the ultimate irony of this story), and kill a doctor who performs abortions. It is no less an act of terror as what we call "terrorism." And human beings choose such acts every day. In Jackson, our own capital city, you may or may not know has a murder rate that is fourth in the nation. Remember Archbishop William Temple: "Our actions are the difference we make," and our actions in Mississippi and a thousand other places in our world have not made an all-inclusive and creative bit of difference, the kind of difference that is loving and creative.
I would love to call this a "Christian" country, if I only saw the proof of it. We're kidding ourselves and we're killing ourselves. But still, I agree with Weasel, we should "celebrate the essence of humanity, not denigrate it." Why? Because the world and all who live in it is God's first love. Why is it his first love? Because humanity's choices are not always the essence of what God created. What God created is "good, it is very, very good" (Genesis). We, however sadly, have grown inconsistently consistent. The only part of a human being that God cannot penetrate is the final stronghold of the human heart, and the choices it makes.
The culture is right in its argument against the existence of God that, as Bill Coffin once said, "The oppression of the weak by the strong is as worldwide as it is age-old, and the suffering of the innocent is surely the cruelest dilemma facing the conscience of any sensitive follower of Christ." But what non-believers can't seem to grasp is the fact that the gift of choice is the essence of a human being, and that gift is being abused, not only by the world at large, but even by followers of Jesus every day.
So to the non-believer we must say and continue to say that the world with all its murder, greed, sham, and drudgery is still God's first love. We must continue to confess that it is God's children -- believers and non-believers alike -- who do not share that love. It is me. It is you.
In the last parish I served before I left parish ministry I wore, on those Sundays when Holy Communion was celebrated or the liturgical color was white, a stole that belonged to that church that matches the beautiful white paraments we used to help us celebrate Holy Communion and other holy seasons. The thing I liked about this particular stole was that it was stained on the right side. A parishioner said the first time I wore it that I couldn't wear it because it was stained. I responded that I rather like wearing it, because it is a reminder that I am stained too.
You are as well and in spite of the tragedies we humans have caused, God is still in the very heart of them. He's not absent from them. You can be sure that Christ was at Buchenwald and Auschwitz. Christ was at the twin towers looking sadly upon hatred and death. We can be sure those planes went right through his body as well. You can be sure that Christ was at the Lutheran church that Sunday in 2009, and the bullet that killed an abortion doctor who was worshiping went right through his body as well. You can be sure that the tears of the Christ over the choices his children have made would flood the earth hundreds of times over again. Regardless, he doesn't have his hands on throttles or his fingers on triggers or hatred in his Spirit.
The world is still God's first love. God's love for this world is the ultimate truth that needs to be shouted from every rooftop, particularly when the world seems hell-bent on denying it. So convinced was the German mystic Silesius that love was the very essence of God, he dared to write, "If God ceased to love, He would cease to exist." I love the gall it took to write those words. The world and the children of the world is God's first love and remains his first love. "If God ceased to love, he would cease to exist." Say that statement to yourself a few times, and after a few minutes, you will see what kind of love God has. Then we can say with John, "For God so loved the world..."
The Rev. Lamar Massingill, a former Southern Baptist pastor, and also long time minister at the historic United Methodist Church in Port Gibson, Mississippi (1988-1999), is now Religion Editor for the Magnolia Gazette (magnoliagazette.com), for which he writes a weekly column. Massingill has traveled nationally and internationally and has lectured widely on the interaction between religion and psychology. He recently retired from the parish church after thirty years of pastoral ministry.
*****************************************
StoryShare, March 18, 2012, issue.
Copyright 2012 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., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
"A Place of Healing and Hope" by Frank Ramirez
"The First Love of God" by Lamar Massingill
* * * * * * * *
A Place of Healing and Hope
by Frank Ramirez
Numbers 21:4-9
In today's scripture text, Numbers 21:4-6, a symbol of death becomes transformed into an icon of healing and hope. The people are dying from snake bites, but when they look up at the copper snake fashioned by Moses, they are healed.
On September 17, 1862, over 23,000 Americans were killed, wounded, or missing in action in the Battle of Antietam, near the town of Sharpsburg, Maryland. It was the bloodiest day in American history, and although it did not bring an end to the war, it did end General Lee's first invasion of the North, and the victory provided President Abraham Lincoln the opportunity to deliver the Emancipation Proclamation.
At the center of this carnage was the Mumma Meetinghouse, a simple place of worship built by a people of peace that is usually referred to at the Dunker Church. The Dunkers (so-called because their form of baptism called for immersion three times forward) were a pacifist group of Germanic believers, who had emigrated to America to escape religious persecution. Ironically, it was this place where the Confederate army first made its stand, and it was the goal toward which the Union armies marched in the early morning hours of that terrible day, and so it became an image of death. That image was reinforced by the famed photographer Alexander Gardner, whose photograph of dead soldiers scattered before that bullet-riddled church brought home the horrors of the war to many who thought of battle as consisting of gallant charges.
Yet that image, like that of the copper snake, too was transformed into one of healing in the days that followed. The building itself became a hospital. The people took in the sick and the suffering from both sides to nurse them back to health.
When the Civil War broke out in 1861 many in the North and the South thought it would be a quick conflict, with a decisive victory for their own side, of course. It didn't turn out to be that way. As 1861 turned into 1862 it became apparent that a long, bloody struggle must ensue. Already many in the North were weary of the war, and it was thought by those in the South that if a heavy blow could be struck in the Northern states then a bargain of peace -- and recognition of the Confederacy as an independent nation -- might be the result. It was not necessary for the South to conquer the North -- just unsettle things enough to break the resolve of those who wanted to preserve the Union.
In addition there was the danger that countries like England and France would recognize the Confederacy or perhaps even join the war. The breakup of the United States would suit the European powers, because they had no desire for a strong nation to develop on the American continent. And Southern cotton was essential for the textile industries of those countries. But both nations had abolished slavery and were cautious about appearing too supportive of the South for that reason. For this reason many of Lincoln's advisors urged him to issue a proclamation freeing the slaves, but the president did not feel he could do this without at least one major victory to back up the statement. The Battle of Antietam provided that opportunity!
That long day of battle left thousands dead and many thousands wounded from both sides who were abandoned by the armies that moved on afterward. Just as that little Dunker Church lay at the heart of all the death and dying, it became the source of much healing. Because the care of all those wounded, the burial of all the dead, the comfort for families who came seeking the graves of their lost loved ones, fell on the shoulders of the people of that church and that community.
Their world may have fallen apart all around them, as their crops were either destroyed or taken by soldiers from both armies, but their Christian hearts did not allow them to abandon the suffering.
It is true, there are records of prices that went way up temporarily for ordinary things (a dollar a pound for butter, six small cakes for fifty cents), but the Dunkers lived a form of practical Christianity typified by these words from the letter of James: If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill," and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? (James 2:15-16).
The Dunkers, whose church has been riddled by bullets and bombs, fed, nursed, and cared for those left behind. One Georgian for instance, Benjamin Prather, who was seriously wounded, wrote home, "The Dunker preacher Pastor Emmanuel Silfer sees us every day. He loaned me his pen and ink. Mrs. Amanda Silfer, the pastor's wife, brings me her Bible every morning."
It took months before life returned to normal for the Dunkers and the other residents of the Sharpsburg area. The little meetinghouse was repaired and decades later a storm destroyed the building, but it was eventually rebuilt for the battle's centennial, utilizing the original materials that were saved. It is still there, maintained by the National Park Service, the focus for the nation's bloodiest day, and the locus of healing and hope in the name of Jesus Christ.
Frank Ramirez has served as a pastor for nearly 30 years in Church of the Brethren congregations in Los Angeles, California; Elkhart, Indiana; and Everett, Pennsylvania. A graduate of LaVerne College and Bethany Theological Seminary, Ramirez is the author of numerous books, articles, and short stories. His CSS titles include Partners in Healing, He Took a Towel, The Bee Attitudes, and three volumes of Lectionary Worship Aids.
The First Love of God
by Lamar Massingill
John 3:14-21
I was extremely interested in the president's visit to Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany in the summer of 2009, and even more interested in the words of Ellie Weasel, remembering his father, who died at Buchenwald. At the end of Weasel's speech, he quoted the end of Albert Camus' novel The Plague, "After the tragedy, there is more in the human being to celebrate than to denigrate." And I agree. In other words, in spite of the evil human beings have perpetrated the world over, we should still celebrate the essence of humanity, not its ignorance.
Of course I hope you understand that God could not have stopped the horrors of Buchenwald any more than he could have stopped the prodigal son from becoming prodigal, or the rich young ruler from walking away from the invitation of Jesus. God's way is the gift of choice, and humanity has made some unacceptable ones that have led to many of the horrors we have seen in history and up to the present time when, on the very Sunday before the president's visit, one can walk into a service of worship and in the name of God and life (the ultimate irony of this story), and kill a doctor who performs abortions. It is no less an act of terror as what we call "terrorism." And human beings choose such acts every day. In Jackson, our own capital city, you may or may not know has a murder rate that is fourth in the nation. Remember Archbishop William Temple: "Our actions are the difference we make," and our actions in Mississippi and a thousand other places in our world have not made an all-inclusive and creative bit of difference, the kind of difference that is loving and creative.
I would love to call this a "Christian" country, if I only saw the proof of it. We're kidding ourselves and we're killing ourselves. But still, I agree with Weasel, we should "celebrate the essence of humanity, not denigrate it." Why? Because the world and all who live in it is God's first love. Why is it his first love? Because humanity's choices are not always the essence of what God created. What God created is "good, it is very, very good" (Genesis). We, however sadly, have grown inconsistently consistent. The only part of a human being that God cannot penetrate is the final stronghold of the human heart, and the choices it makes.
The culture is right in its argument against the existence of God that, as Bill Coffin once said, "The oppression of the weak by the strong is as worldwide as it is age-old, and the suffering of the innocent is surely the cruelest dilemma facing the conscience of any sensitive follower of Christ." But what non-believers can't seem to grasp is the fact that the gift of choice is the essence of a human being, and that gift is being abused, not only by the world at large, but even by followers of Jesus every day.
So to the non-believer we must say and continue to say that the world with all its murder, greed, sham, and drudgery is still God's first love. We must continue to confess that it is God's children -- believers and non-believers alike -- who do not share that love. It is me. It is you.
In the last parish I served before I left parish ministry I wore, on those Sundays when Holy Communion was celebrated or the liturgical color was white, a stole that belonged to that church that matches the beautiful white paraments we used to help us celebrate Holy Communion and other holy seasons. The thing I liked about this particular stole was that it was stained on the right side. A parishioner said the first time I wore it that I couldn't wear it because it was stained. I responded that I rather like wearing it, because it is a reminder that I am stained too.
You are as well and in spite of the tragedies we humans have caused, God is still in the very heart of them. He's not absent from them. You can be sure that Christ was at Buchenwald and Auschwitz. Christ was at the twin towers looking sadly upon hatred and death. We can be sure those planes went right through his body as well. You can be sure that Christ was at the Lutheran church that Sunday in 2009, and the bullet that killed an abortion doctor who was worshiping went right through his body as well. You can be sure that the tears of the Christ over the choices his children have made would flood the earth hundreds of times over again. Regardless, he doesn't have his hands on throttles or his fingers on triggers or hatred in his Spirit.
The world is still God's first love. God's love for this world is the ultimate truth that needs to be shouted from every rooftop, particularly when the world seems hell-bent on denying it. So convinced was the German mystic Silesius that love was the very essence of God, he dared to write, "If God ceased to love, He would cease to exist." I love the gall it took to write those words. The world and the children of the world is God's first love and remains his first love. "If God ceased to love, he would cease to exist." Say that statement to yourself a few times, and after a few minutes, you will see what kind of love God has. Then we can say with John, "For God so loved the world..."
The Rev. Lamar Massingill, a former Southern Baptist pastor, and also long time minister at the historic United Methodist Church in Port Gibson, Mississippi (1988-1999), is now Religion Editor for the Magnolia Gazette (magnoliagazette.com), for which he writes a weekly column. Massingill has traveled nationally and internationally and has lectured widely on the interaction between religion and psychology. He recently retired from the parish church after thirty years of pastoral ministry.
*****************************************
StoryShare, March 18, 2012, issue.
Copyright 2012 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., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
