Stranger In A Familiar Land
Stories
Object:
Contents
"Stranger in a Familiar Land" by Frank Ramirez
"Eyewitness" by Keith Hewitt
* * * * * * * *
Stranger in a Familiar Land
by Frank Ramirez
Acts 8:14-17
Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them.
-- Acts 8:14
It was tough for Peter and John to travel to Samaria. Samaritans and the various branches of Judaism were as close as cousins -- and fought like family too! Put simply, the Samaritans were those members of the people of God who'd been left behind while others were dragged off to exile in Babylon. When the exiles returned and took over, there was a good deal of resentment, anger, and fighting between two groups that shared the same concept of God, as well as the same scriptures, culture, customs, and language.
But then, fighting is what families do, until extraordinary events brought them together in Christ.
During the height of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union an extraordinary event brought astronauts and cosmonauts together, where before they'd been considered opposing warriors in a barely peaceful competition for supremacy in space. Each side was attempting to demonstrate that their science, and therefore their political system, was superior. With the whole world watching the competition was played out on a stage that was literally out of this world.
The Soviet Union put the first satellite in orbit, as well as the first man in space, the first woman in space, the first multi-staffed spacecraft, and the first walk in space.
The Americans, who struggled at first, caught up and surpassed their rivals by accomplishing the first rendezvous of piloted spacecraft, the first docking in orbit, the first piloted spacecraft to orbit the moon, and or course the first landing on the moon itself.
Then on May 24, 1972, at the height of what was known as Detente, President Richard Nixon and Premier Alexei Kosygin signed an agreement for a joint space mission between the two nations. Astronauts Tom Stafford, Vance Brand, and Deke Slayton were selected to pilot an Apollo spacecraft that would dock with a Soyuz spacecraft piloted by Alexei Leonov and Valeri Kubasov.
This meant that the astronauts and cosmonauts, along with mission planners, support staff, and no doubt a few spies, traveled to facilities of each others' nations. Both sides quickly discovered they shared the same intense ambition and skill. They all had, in the words of the author Tom Wolfe, the "right stuff."
Not that there wasn't a learning curve on both sides. Representatives from the Soviet Union sometimes found it hard to believe that the grocery stores they visited weren't fronts created solely to impress foreign visitors. It was difficult to get used to the idea of the apparent affluence that was the norm in the United States.
Conversely, Americans in the Soviet Union had to get used to the fact they were always observed. When an astronaut's car broke down, help appeared seemingly from nowhere. Astronauts who went running were followed not so discreetly by unmarked cars. And once when someone moved a table during a meeting, wires were exposed. Space farers from both countries pretended they did not see the surveillance equipment.
Because they assumed their rooms were bugged, an astronaut deliberately made the pointed comment that it would sure be nice to have a pool table. The next day one appeared without any explanation. On other occasions when certain Soviet officials proved difficult, casual comments about them would be made near a certain lamp. The offending officials were pulled from the project.
Along the way Americans learned Russian, and Russians learned English, and as both sides learned a lot about the others' culture, they also gained respect for each other, for despite many differences everyone involved in the mission discovered they had far more in common than they could have imagined. The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, with the two ships docked for nearly two days from July 17 to 19, 1975, turned out to be a tremendous success, and it set the stage for further cooperation, including the docking of space shuttles with the Mir Space Station, and later, of course, the building of the International Space Station.
Today we take it for granted that space travelers from many nations will train in each other's countries, learn each other's languages, and cooperate in space, even when there are many international tensions on earth. Discovering that even feuding families share the right stuff meant that there was no barrier that could not be overcome.
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, three volumes of Lectionary Worship Aids, and Breakdown on Bethlehem Street (Christmas 2012).
Eyewitness
by Keith Hewitt
Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
The old man fussed a bit with the lamp's wick, positioning it just so before he tilted it to the flickering lamp on the table, let the flame embrace it until it, too, sputtered and began to glow. With a grunt, he set it down on the opposite end of the table and sat down and peered through the gloom at the man who sat across from him.
He was youngish, well dressed in unmended clothes, and his face was a blend of planes of flesh and angular shadows that hid quite as much as it revealed by the light of the two small lamps. His eyes, dark and penetrating, peered closely from beneath a pale blue shawl. His speech, though it was grammatically correct Aramaic, carried a Greek burr on its edge that marked him as a foreigner in this troubled land.
They eyed one another -- young and old -- until the silence grew awkward, and the young man leaned forward. "You're the last one," he said softly.
The old man blinked, shrugged -- almost invisibly. "What do you mean?"
"I saw you walking past the Court of the Gentiles, in the temple, and a mutual friend pointed you out to me." The young man's eyes held his steadily, now. "He said that you had actually witnessed the baptism of Jesus -- Jesus of Nazareth -- by the Baptist. After talking to many people, I believe you are the last living soul who actually saw it with his own eyes."
"Does our mutual friend have a name?" the old man asked, his voice casual even as the hair on the back of his neck stirred. These days, it didn't take much more than a careless word or a pointed accusation to put a man under arrest, and from there it was a short step to being stoned.
"Joseph," the young man answered, hesitated. "A member of the --"
The old man raised a hand in a gesture of caution, and the young man fell silent. "I know who you mean," the old man said simply and pondered the deeper meaning behind the revelation. If the Arimathean had truly pointed him out to the young man, then that gave him credibility, establishing his bona fides as a follower of Christ. Joseph was not some flighty, hot-headed youth -- he would be careful who he spoke to and what he said.
"What else did he tell you?" the old man asked after a few moments.
"Precious little, sir. Only that you were present when John baptized Jesus and that you saw the whole thing."
In the shadows, the old man's head nodded a couple of times. "I was, and I did. What do you want to know? If you are a disciple of the Teacher, you must have heard the story many times by now."
The young man smiled faintly. "Many times, from many people. Some just repeating what they had heard, and many who claim to have been there, themselves -- but who I know were not. I am trying to record these things -- all of the events in the life of Jesus -- and I want to talk to someone who was actually there. Joseph told me clearly that he was not and just as clearly, that you were. A man who is honest enough to say he was not a witness, but knows someone who was, is a man I can trust. And I feel I can trust you, as well."
The old man put his elbows on the table, forearms forming two sides of a vertical triangle, and laced his fingers together. He held them that way, almost as though he was in prayer, and began to speak softly, his eyes changing focus to some time far away, and a place long past.
"I didn't think anything of it," he admitted ruefully. "None of us did, right away. The Baptist had been teaching for several years, and some of us had begun to follow him pretty closely. Some of us were trying to make him admit that he was the Messiah we had been waiting for, but he would have none of that. He told us we were wrong, and that the real Messiah would be along any time, now... someone much greater than him."
"And did you believe him?"
The old man shrugged. "He was pretty convincing. But he was a powerful speaker, a powerful teacher, as well, so it was easy to get caught up in his presence. But one day -- one day that all changed. The day our Savior, the Messiah, showed up to be baptized."
His voice trailed off as his eyes shifted again, trying to reconstruct the scene from the shades of long-held memory. "It was a cool day, in the hills near Jerusalem, and John had been preaching to a small crowd of people. Most of them came forward afterward, and asked to be cleansed of their sins by baptism. John did this, all the while exhorting them that someone much greater than he was going to come along soon, to bring real forgiveness, and real justice.
"He had just said this, again, when he looked to the riverbank to call the next person forward for baptism. When their eyes met, John dropped his staff and he had to scramble for it in the water. While that was happening, the other young man waded out into the water. Then they stood, face-to-face -- the other man was smiling, and John was excited, I guess -- almost embarrassed."
"This was Jesus?"
"I know that now. But standing there, there was nothing remarkable about this man. They argued -- no, they discussed something under their breath for a minute or two, and then John nodded and took his hand. Holding his hand and supporting Jesus' head and shoulders with his other hand, he ducked him down beneath the water and blessed him."
"Did anything unusual happen?"
"You mean besides the Messiah coming to a prophet in the wilderness and asking to be cleansed of sins he didn't commit?"
"Is that what he asked?"
The old man hesitated. "Well... no. That's why John baptized the others, but in this case it was something different. It was more like an anointing, almost. I've heard it said that the Spirit of God -- the Holy Spirit -- can sometimes be found in water, the bringer of life to the earth. I think that's as good an explanation as any -- for Jesus, the baptism was a matter of being immersed in the Holy Spirit, not forgiven. Almost like it was imbuing him with its power."
"And what did you see then?"
"I saw Jesus come up out of the water, and he almost glowed. There was just this amazing, fresh, aliveness about him, this sense of power and purpose. A small bird -- a dove, I think -- lit on his shoulder... and then I think I heard a voice."
"A voice?"
"Or it might have been distant thunder. I never really knew for sure. But whatever it was, it sounded like it said, 'You are my son, whom I love, and with whom I am well pleased.' "
There was a long pause, and then the young man gently prodded, "What happened next?"
Thoughtfully, the old man shook his head. "Nothing, my son, nothing happened. No more birds, no more voices. It was over." He reached to one end of the table, moved a lamp closer, so he could see the young man's face a little more clearly. "Were you expecting something more?"
The young man smiled again. "I guess not."
"I'm just an old man, trying to recall something that happened many years ago. There may well have been other things that happened --"
"-- but you don't think so," the young man added, finishing his sentence. "Is that correct, sir?"
"That is correct. It was simple and majestic. And it was at that moment that I knew I would follow our Lord and Savior."
"I see. Well, thank you for that. I can make this a part of my history, then." The young man stood up, started to turn away -- then turned back and sat down, looked into the old man's eyes and said, "I'm sorry, sir, but there's something more. I can see it."
They looked at one another like that for several moments before the old man broke eye contact and shrugged. "I did see something else. I saw it, and one day some years later, I actually had the chance to speak with him, alone, and I asked. He told me I was right."
"So tell me -- what did you see?"
"To understand, I have to tell you that he said at that moment, as the water washed over him, the Holy Spirit came upon him fully, and for the first time in his life as a human being he was fully aware of what he was to teach, of what he was to do." His voice lowered. "And of how he was to die. He said it was as though he could stand on the summit of a tall, tall mountain and look into his future, and see everything." The old man trailed off.
The young man frowned. "But that's what he saw. What did you see?"
The old man paused, then reached to one end of the table and snuffed out the lamp by crushing the wick between his fingertips. He seemed to be wrestling with words in the shadows, then slid the single remaining lamp to the middle of the table, between them, and stared at the flame.
"What did you see?" the young man pressed, afraid that he might lose him if he didn't answer soon.
"Fear," the old man answered and leaned toward the lamp. "Fear and deep, deep loneliness. What else would you expect?"
And he blew out the lamp with a sharp puff of air.
Keith Hewitt is the author of three volumes of NaTiVity Dramas: Nontraditional Christmas Plays for All Ages (CSS). He is a local pastor, former youth leader and Sunday school teacher, and occasional speaker at Christian events. He is currently serving as the pastor at Parkview UMC in Turtle Lake, Wisconsin. Keith is married to a teacher, and they have two children and assorted dogs and cats.
*****************************************
StoryShare, January 13, 2013, issue.
Copyright 2013 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.
"Stranger in a Familiar Land" by Frank Ramirez
"Eyewitness" by Keith Hewitt
* * * * * * * *
Stranger in a Familiar Land
by Frank Ramirez
Acts 8:14-17
Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them.
-- Acts 8:14
It was tough for Peter and John to travel to Samaria. Samaritans and the various branches of Judaism were as close as cousins -- and fought like family too! Put simply, the Samaritans were those members of the people of God who'd been left behind while others were dragged off to exile in Babylon. When the exiles returned and took over, there was a good deal of resentment, anger, and fighting between two groups that shared the same concept of God, as well as the same scriptures, culture, customs, and language.
But then, fighting is what families do, until extraordinary events brought them together in Christ.
During the height of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union an extraordinary event brought astronauts and cosmonauts together, where before they'd been considered opposing warriors in a barely peaceful competition for supremacy in space. Each side was attempting to demonstrate that their science, and therefore their political system, was superior. With the whole world watching the competition was played out on a stage that was literally out of this world.
The Soviet Union put the first satellite in orbit, as well as the first man in space, the first woman in space, the first multi-staffed spacecraft, and the first walk in space.
The Americans, who struggled at first, caught up and surpassed their rivals by accomplishing the first rendezvous of piloted spacecraft, the first docking in orbit, the first piloted spacecraft to orbit the moon, and or course the first landing on the moon itself.
Then on May 24, 1972, at the height of what was known as Detente, President Richard Nixon and Premier Alexei Kosygin signed an agreement for a joint space mission between the two nations. Astronauts Tom Stafford, Vance Brand, and Deke Slayton were selected to pilot an Apollo spacecraft that would dock with a Soyuz spacecraft piloted by Alexei Leonov and Valeri Kubasov.
This meant that the astronauts and cosmonauts, along with mission planners, support staff, and no doubt a few spies, traveled to facilities of each others' nations. Both sides quickly discovered they shared the same intense ambition and skill. They all had, in the words of the author Tom Wolfe, the "right stuff."
Not that there wasn't a learning curve on both sides. Representatives from the Soviet Union sometimes found it hard to believe that the grocery stores they visited weren't fronts created solely to impress foreign visitors. It was difficult to get used to the idea of the apparent affluence that was the norm in the United States.
Conversely, Americans in the Soviet Union had to get used to the fact they were always observed. When an astronaut's car broke down, help appeared seemingly from nowhere. Astronauts who went running were followed not so discreetly by unmarked cars. And once when someone moved a table during a meeting, wires were exposed. Space farers from both countries pretended they did not see the surveillance equipment.
Because they assumed their rooms were bugged, an astronaut deliberately made the pointed comment that it would sure be nice to have a pool table. The next day one appeared without any explanation. On other occasions when certain Soviet officials proved difficult, casual comments about them would be made near a certain lamp. The offending officials were pulled from the project.
Along the way Americans learned Russian, and Russians learned English, and as both sides learned a lot about the others' culture, they also gained respect for each other, for despite many differences everyone involved in the mission discovered they had far more in common than they could have imagined. The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, with the two ships docked for nearly two days from July 17 to 19, 1975, turned out to be a tremendous success, and it set the stage for further cooperation, including the docking of space shuttles with the Mir Space Station, and later, of course, the building of the International Space Station.
Today we take it for granted that space travelers from many nations will train in each other's countries, learn each other's languages, and cooperate in space, even when there are many international tensions on earth. Discovering that even feuding families share the right stuff meant that there was no barrier that could not be overcome.
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, three volumes of Lectionary Worship Aids, and Breakdown on Bethlehem Street (Christmas 2012).
Eyewitness
by Keith Hewitt
Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
The old man fussed a bit with the lamp's wick, positioning it just so before he tilted it to the flickering lamp on the table, let the flame embrace it until it, too, sputtered and began to glow. With a grunt, he set it down on the opposite end of the table and sat down and peered through the gloom at the man who sat across from him.
He was youngish, well dressed in unmended clothes, and his face was a blend of planes of flesh and angular shadows that hid quite as much as it revealed by the light of the two small lamps. His eyes, dark and penetrating, peered closely from beneath a pale blue shawl. His speech, though it was grammatically correct Aramaic, carried a Greek burr on its edge that marked him as a foreigner in this troubled land.
They eyed one another -- young and old -- until the silence grew awkward, and the young man leaned forward. "You're the last one," he said softly.
The old man blinked, shrugged -- almost invisibly. "What do you mean?"
"I saw you walking past the Court of the Gentiles, in the temple, and a mutual friend pointed you out to me." The young man's eyes held his steadily, now. "He said that you had actually witnessed the baptism of Jesus -- Jesus of Nazareth -- by the Baptist. After talking to many people, I believe you are the last living soul who actually saw it with his own eyes."
"Does our mutual friend have a name?" the old man asked, his voice casual even as the hair on the back of his neck stirred. These days, it didn't take much more than a careless word or a pointed accusation to put a man under arrest, and from there it was a short step to being stoned.
"Joseph," the young man answered, hesitated. "A member of the --"
The old man raised a hand in a gesture of caution, and the young man fell silent. "I know who you mean," the old man said simply and pondered the deeper meaning behind the revelation. If the Arimathean had truly pointed him out to the young man, then that gave him credibility, establishing his bona fides as a follower of Christ. Joseph was not some flighty, hot-headed youth -- he would be careful who he spoke to and what he said.
"What else did he tell you?" the old man asked after a few moments.
"Precious little, sir. Only that you were present when John baptized Jesus and that you saw the whole thing."
In the shadows, the old man's head nodded a couple of times. "I was, and I did. What do you want to know? If you are a disciple of the Teacher, you must have heard the story many times by now."
The young man smiled faintly. "Many times, from many people. Some just repeating what they had heard, and many who claim to have been there, themselves -- but who I know were not. I am trying to record these things -- all of the events in the life of Jesus -- and I want to talk to someone who was actually there. Joseph told me clearly that he was not and just as clearly, that you were. A man who is honest enough to say he was not a witness, but knows someone who was, is a man I can trust. And I feel I can trust you, as well."
The old man put his elbows on the table, forearms forming two sides of a vertical triangle, and laced his fingers together. He held them that way, almost as though he was in prayer, and began to speak softly, his eyes changing focus to some time far away, and a place long past.
"I didn't think anything of it," he admitted ruefully. "None of us did, right away. The Baptist had been teaching for several years, and some of us had begun to follow him pretty closely. Some of us were trying to make him admit that he was the Messiah we had been waiting for, but he would have none of that. He told us we were wrong, and that the real Messiah would be along any time, now... someone much greater than him."
"And did you believe him?"
The old man shrugged. "He was pretty convincing. But he was a powerful speaker, a powerful teacher, as well, so it was easy to get caught up in his presence. But one day -- one day that all changed. The day our Savior, the Messiah, showed up to be baptized."
His voice trailed off as his eyes shifted again, trying to reconstruct the scene from the shades of long-held memory. "It was a cool day, in the hills near Jerusalem, and John had been preaching to a small crowd of people. Most of them came forward afterward, and asked to be cleansed of their sins by baptism. John did this, all the while exhorting them that someone much greater than he was going to come along soon, to bring real forgiveness, and real justice.
"He had just said this, again, when he looked to the riverbank to call the next person forward for baptism. When their eyes met, John dropped his staff and he had to scramble for it in the water. While that was happening, the other young man waded out into the water. Then they stood, face-to-face -- the other man was smiling, and John was excited, I guess -- almost embarrassed."
"This was Jesus?"
"I know that now. But standing there, there was nothing remarkable about this man. They argued -- no, they discussed something under their breath for a minute or two, and then John nodded and took his hand. Holding his hand and supporting Jesus' head and shoulders with his other hand, he ducked him down beneath the water and blessed him."
"Did anything unusual happen?"
"You mean besides the Messiah coming to a prophet in the wilderness and asking to be cleansed of sins he didn't commit?"
"Is that what he asked?"
The old man hesitated. "Well... no. That's why John baptized the others, but in this case it was something different. It was more like an anointing, almost. I've heard it said that the Spirit of God -- the Holy Spirit -- can sometimes be found in water, the bringer of life to the earth. I think that's as good an explanation as any -- for Jesus, the baptism was a matter of being immersed in the Holy Spirit, not forgiven. Almost like it was imbuing him with its power."
"And what did you see then?"
"I saw Jesus come up out of the water, and he almost glowed. There was just this amazing, fresh, aliveness about him, this sense of power and purpose. A small bird -- a dove, I think -- lit on his shoulder... and then I think I heard a voice."
"A voice?"
"Or it might have been distant thunder. I never really knew for sure. But whatever it was, it sounded like it said, 'You are my son, whom I love, and with whom I am well pleased.' "
There was a long pause, and then the young man gently prodded, "What happened next?"
Thoughtfully, the old man shook his head. "Nothing, my son, nothing happened. No more birds, no more voices. It was over." He reached to one end of the table, moved a lamp closer, so he could see the young man's face a little more clearly. "Were you expecting something more?"
The young man smiled again. "I guess not."
"I'm just an old man, trying to recall something that happened many years ago. There may well have been other things that happened --"
"-- but you don't think so," the young man added, finishing his sentence. "Is that correct, sir?"
"That is correct. It was simple and majestic. And it was at that moment that I knew I would follow our Lord and Savior."
"I see. Well, thank you for that. I can make this a part of my history, then." The young man stood up, started to turn away -- then turned back and sat down, looked into the old man's eyes and said, "I'm sorry, sir, but there's something more. I can see it."
They looked at one another like that for several moments before the old man broke eye contact and shrugged. "I did see something else. I saw it, and one day some years later, I actually had the chance to speak with him, alone, and I asked. He told me I was right."
"So tell me -- what did you see?"
"To understand, I have to tell you that he said at that moment, as the water washed over him, the Holy Spirit came upon him fully, and for the first time in his life as a human being he was fully aware of what he was to teach, of what he was to do." His voice lowered. "And of how he was to die. He said it was as though he could stand on the summit of a tall, tall mountain and look into his future, and see everything." The old man trailed off.
The young man frowned. "But that's what he saw. What did you see?"
The old man paused, then reached to one end of the table and snuffed out the lamp by crushing the wick between his fingertips. He seemed to be wrestling with words in the shadows, then slid the single remaining lamp to the middle of the table, between them, and stared at the flame.
"What did you see?" the young man pressed, afraid that he might lose him if he didn't answer soon.
"Fear," the old man answered and leaned toward the lamp. "Fear and deep, deep loneliness. What else would you expect?"
And he blew out the lamp with a sharp puff of air.
Keith Hewitt is the author of three volumes of NaTiVity Dramas: Nontraditional Christmas Plays for All Ages (CSS). He is a local pastor, former youth leader and Sunday school teacher, and occasional speaker at Christian events. He is currently serving as the pastor at Parkview UMC in Turtle Lake, Wisconsin. Keith is married to a teacher, and they have two children and assorted dogs and cats.
*****************************************
StoryShare, January 13, 2013, issue.
Copyright 2013 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.
