Restoring The Birthright
Stories
Object:
Contents
"Restoring the Birthright" by Frank Ramirez
"Product" by C. David McKirachan
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Restoring the Birthright
by Frank Ramirez
Genesis 25:19-34; Romans 8:1-11
Esau said to Jacob, "Let me eat some of that red stuff, for I am famished!" (Therefore he was called Edom.) Jacob said, "First sell me your birthright."
-- Genesis 25:30-31
World War I was supposed to be "the war to end all wars," but the onerous reparations imposed on Germany by the victorious European powers in effect robbed a whole generation of their birthright, creating misery and discontent and leading at least in part to the even greater disaster of World War II. The German people, impoverished and embittered, were not incorporated back into the community nations. Instead, made to feel as outcasts, they rearmed and prepared for the even greater war that followed.
In the wake of World War II the decision was made by the victorious nations to avoid their previous mistakes. The victors meant to rehabilitate the vanquished which included help for those in need. Both the victors and vanquished of Europe were starving. Food and supplies were sent by the ton but the need was still great. Among the many groups who sought to alleviate the dire needs was the Brethren Service Commission, administered by the tiny Church of the Brethren. The leaders of the church who created the Heifer Project (now known as the ecumenical Heifer International), who recruited Seagoing Cowboys who shepherded Heifer Project animals across the ocean and then helped found a new organization named CROP -- which stood for Christian Rural Overseas Program. They were joined in this endeavor by the Evangelical and Reformed World Service Commission.
CROP was inaugurated in 1947 and operated out of a donated dorm room at denomination's seminary in the Chicago area. Andrew W. Cordier, the chair of Brethren Service Commission (and future first Undersecretary General of the United Nations), encouraged the organization to figure out how to get food from the United States to the starving in Europe. There had to be a way to get food that was plentiful on the west coast all the way to the east to the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, where tons of materials from many denominations were packed and shipped overseas. This was in the days before the Interstate Highway system, which made travel easy. There were many difficulties in shipping -- not the least was the expense!
The answer came by recruiting the nationally known columnist and radio broadcaster Drew Pearson, who helped conceive of the idea of "Friendship Trains" to collect and transport food from across the nation to port cities in order to help Europe's hungry people, he turned to CROP for assistance in organizing.
It turned out to be a great match. The Friendship Trains picked up hundreds of carloads of foodstuffs to ship to Europe. Moreover their itineraries were deliberately designed to garner the most publicity and therefore the most public interest. The railroads joined the partnership and shipped the food for free. The trains only traveled during the day so their journey could be covered by the newspapers. Arrivals would be announced in advance so they could be met by cheering crowds and preening politicians. More partners were recruited. In this way many thousands could take part in the relief effort.
Through this and many other relief projects the birthright was restored to individuals who are children of God like us. Though the world is still filled with danger, nations that fought two terrible wars in the twentieth century are at peace with each other.
Today CROP, which has become an ecumenical organization, still involves the efforts of hundreds of thousands through the CROP walks and other programs that allow ordinary people to challenge themselves each year to do even more to figure want and hunger both overseas and close at hand.
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.
Product
by C. David McKirachan
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
My son is following in the footsteps of his grandfather and myself. He's studying philosophy. At least that is his stated major, that and Italian. I asked him if he has an employment track. He told me he's going to be a secret agent. Actually, I think it's a congenital disorder, the philosophy I mean. His favorite class so far has been Marxism. He liked Feuerbach but Marx was more specific. Now, for those of you who have never attempted to read Das Kapital, I'll save you the trouble. Marx wrote in a style that paid absolutely no attention to his readers. He didn't care if anybody understood what he had to say. Getting through his stuff is kind of like chopping wood with a nail file. If my kid likes reading Marx, he's got the philosophic bug.
He wrote a twenty-page paper for the semester grade. In it, he laid out Marx's idea that people need to be connected to the product of their labor to have any satisfaction or identity. When folks are cogs in a machine, they are alienated from identity and hope.
We spend a lot of time looking at all the nasty stuff that happens to the seed the sower sows. The thorns, the birds, the shallow soil all get prime time. But the head on the nail that Jesus was hammering here is at the end. Look at the harvest the farmer gets from the seed that fell on good ground! A hundred, sixty, thirty times what he sowed! Now that's product for his labor.
Dr Phil put out the idea that if someone keeps doing something, no matter how stupid or nuts it may seem, they must be getting something out of it. Compared to Marx that's pretty simple but I think they're barking up the same Philosophical tree (I wonder how Dr Phil would feel about that). When we can see the product of our labor, we get a sense of connection with the process of creation and we have a sense of power and identity. That brings us back to do it again.
My son has found in philosophy a place that allows him to create as he learns. In spite of the late nights and the research and dense language and ideas and the anxiety about papers and grades, let alone money and work and loans and bureaucratic red tape -- just some of the thorns of the academic endeavor -- for him there is a yield that is worth it all.
Perhaps we ought to focus more on the product rather than issuing warnings about all the difficulties we face. Perhaps we ought to celebrate the harvest, the glory of God's gifts rather than second-guessing about how they're happening.
I don't think Marx had much to say about celebration. Lighten up, Karl!
C. David McKirachan is pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Shrewsbury in central New Jersey. He also teaches at Monmouth University. McKirachan is the author of I Happened Upon a Miracle and A Year of Wonder (Westminster John Knox).
*****************************************
StoryShare, July 10, 2011, issue.
Copyright 2011 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.
"Restoring the Birthright" by Frank Ramirez
"Product" by C. David McKirachan
* * * * * * * *
Restoring the Birthright
by Frank Ramirez
Genesis 25:19-34; Romans 8:1-11
Esau said to Jacob, "Let me eat some of that red stuff, for I am famished!" (Therefore he was called Edom.) Jacob said, "First sell me your birthright."
-- Genesis 25:30-31
World War I was supposed to be "the war to end all wars," but the onerous reparations imposed on Germany by the victorious European powers in effect robbed a whole generation of their birthright, creating misery and discontent and leading at least in part to the even greater disaster of World War II. The German people, impoverished and embittered, were not incorporated back into the community nations. Instead, made to feel as outcasts, they rearmed and prepared for the even greater war that followed.
In the wake of World War II the decision was made by the victorious nations to avoid their previous mistakes. The victors meant to rehabilitate the vanquished which included help for those in need. Both the victors and vanquished of Europe were starving. Food and supplies were sent by the ton but the need was still great. Among the many groups who sought to alleviate the dire needs was the Brethren Service Commission, administered by the tiny Church of the Brethren. The leaders of the church who created the Heifer Project (now known as the ecumenical Heifer International), who recruited Seagoing Cowboys who shepherded Heifer Project animals across the ocean and then helped found a new organization named CROP -- which stood for Christian Rural Overseas Program. They were joined in this endeavor by the Evangelical and Reformed World Service Commission.
CROP was inaugurated in 1947 and operated out of a donated dorm room at denomination's seminary in the Chicago area. Andrew W. Cordier, the chair of Brethren Service Commission (and future first Undersecretary General of the United Nations), encouraged the organization to figure out how to get food from the United States to the starving in Europe. There had to be a way to get food that was plentiful on the west coast all the way to the east to the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, where tons of materials from many denominations were packed and shipped overseas. This was in the days before the Interstate Highway system, which made travel easy. There were many difficulties in shipping -- not the least was the expense!
The answer came by recruiting the nationally known columnist and radio broadcaster Drew Pearson, who helped conceive of the idea of "Friendship Trains" to collect and transport food from across the nation to port cities in order to help Europe's hungry people, he turned to CROP for assistance in organizing.
It turned out to be a great match. The Friendship Trains picked up hundreds of carloads of foodstuffs to ship to Europe. Moreover their itineraries were deliberately designed to garner the most publicity and therefore the most public interest. The railroads joined the partnership and shipped the food for free. The trains only traveled during the day so their journey could be covered by the newspapers. Arrivals would be announced in advance so they could be met by cheering crowds and preening politicians. More partners were recruited. In this way many thousands could take part in the relief effort.
Through this and many other relief projects the birthright was restored to individuals who are children of God like us. Though the world is still filled with danger, nations that fought two terrible wars in the twentieth century are at peace with each other.
Today CROP, which has become an ecumenical organization, still involves the efforts of hundreds of thousands through the CROP walks and other programs that allow ordinary people to challenge themselves each year to do even more to figure want and hunger both overseas and close at hand.
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.
Product
by C. David McKirachan
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
My son is following in the footsteps of his grandfather and myself. He's studying philosophy. At least that is his stated major, that and Italian. I asked him if he has an employment track. He told me he's going to be a secret agent. Actually, I think it's a congenital disorder, the philosophy I mean. His favorite class so far has been Marxism. He liked Feuerbach but Marx was more specific. Now, for those of you who have never attempted to read Das Kapital, I'll save you the trouble. Marx wrote in a style that paid absolutely no attention to his readers. He didn't care if anybody understood what he had to say. Getting through his stuff is kind of like chopping wood with a nail file. If my kid likes reading Marx, he's got the philosophic bug.
He wrote a twenty-page paper for the semester grade. In it, he laid out Marx's idea that people need to be connected to the product of their labor to have any satisfaction or identity. When folks are cogs in a machine, they are alienated from identity and hope.
We spend a lot of time looking at all the nasty stuff that happens to the seed the sower sows. The thorns, the birds, the shallow soil all get prime time. But the head on the nail that Jesus was hammering here is at the end. Look at the harvest the farmer gets from the seed that fell on good ground! A hundred, sixty, thirty times what he sowed! Now that's product for his labor.
Dr Phil put out the idea that if someone keeps doing something, no matter how stupid or nuts it may seem, they must be getting something out of it. Compared to Marx that's pretty simple but I think they're barking up the same Philosophical tree (I wonder how Dr Phil would feel about that). When we can see the product of our labor, we get a sense of connection with the process of creation and we have a sense of power and identity. That brings us back to do it again.
My son has found in philosophy a place that allows him to create as he learns. In spite of the late nights and the research and dense language and ideas and the anxiety about papers and grades, let alone money and work and loans and bureaucratic red tape -- just some of the thorns of the academic endeavor -- for him there is a yield that is worth it all.
Perhaps we ought to focus more on the product rather than issuing warnings about all the difficulties we face. Perhaps we ought to celebrate the harvest, the glory of God's gifts rather than second-guessing about how they're happening.
I don't think Marx had much to say about celebration. Lighten up, Karl!
C. David McKirachan is pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Shrewsbury in central New Jersey. He also teaches at Monmouth University. McKirachan is the author of I Happened Upon a Miracle and A Year of Wonder (Westminster John Knox).
*****************************************
StoryShare, July 10, 2011, issue.
Copyright 2011 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.
