Word&Way Voices

Each year around this time, we hear a lot about being thankful. We have a lot to be thankful for, we hear, and yet the collective national mood has been one that has seemed to be particularly ungrateful.

Despite what the world thinks, God uses unique means and ways to be in relationship with people. God’s desire to be in relationship with the world is best understood through the actions and teachings of Jesus the Christ. This may not always make sense to the world, but God’s wisdom always trumps ours.

It was 40 years ago, but I remember it like yesterday. My sister called, “We took Mom to the hospital today. It’s her heart. Doesn’t sound good.”

Last summer, I had the privilege of hearing noted author Brian McLaren speak several times at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly. During one of the Q&A sessions, I asked him a question which had been rolling around in my mind for quite some time. “What is the difference between patriotism and nationalism?”

Five hundred years ago, a clergyman named Martin was reading his Bible and felt something was wrong. What he had learned in church and seminary did not jive with what he read in his Bible. “Perhaps, I am missing something,” he thought.

During the month of October, Christians all over the world will be commemorating the 500th anniversary of the Reformation and reflecting on the impact of Martin Luther’s life and legacy. Whether you realize it or not, your spiritual life has been somehow touched by Luther’s hymns, writings, theology and courageous challenge to a powerful Church desperately in need of renewal.

What comes to mind when you think of the kingdom of heaven? Based on the visions of Old Testament prophets and descriptions found in Revelation, most of us think of heaven only as a physical place.

For Christmas 1942, my parents gave me a book, “Hurlbut’s Story of the Bible.” For the first time, I could read the Bible for myself. You can well imagine a first grader would have difficulty reading the Bible. This book was written with children in mind, and I could read and understand.

Bitterness seems to be the occupational hazard of church people, including clergy. Because we are socially conditioned to be nice, we often swallow our rage when something irritating or hurtful happens to us, all in the name of keeping the peace and taking the high road. The problem comes when we neglect to deal with the anger, either because we dislike confrontation or because life simply moves us on to the next unpleasantness.

At church, we make it an unspoken “policy” to stay away from blatantly political discourse. That doesn’t mean, however, that we are unable or unwilling to take a stand on the issues of right and wrong.