“The Latest Scheme”

It is interesting to see how the Internet has changed things.

Let’s start off with those innumerable e-mails that warn of some impending doom and disaster coming and we need to flood the bandwidth with notes to our friends, neighbors, cohorts and persons we haven’t even met. And don’t forget all those wonderful messages from various and sundry agencies warning us that our accounts have been comprised and we need to contact them immediately or our accounts will be terminated. All this has done is lead to a new term in the internet lexicology, “phishing”. I have put notes about similar problems in “An Emerging Technical Problem”and “Continuing Thoughts on Emerging Technical Problems”.

There there were those e-mails from Nigerian bankers informing us that we could get untold sums of money, provided we send them a down payment and our checking account information.  As I noted in a previous piece, I even got an e-mail from the FBI once asking for my assistance in tracking down those same Nigerian bankers.

Then, we started receiving e-mails from our friends telling us that there were stranded somewhere in Europe without any assistance and that they needed our help getting home. (Never mind that if you can get a U. S. Consular office or embassy, that pretty much takes care of the problem.)

Some of us have even been invited to give a talk or presentation overseas but the organizers need a few extra bucks from us to resolve issues related to the visa and travel permits (see “There’s A Sermon In Here Somewhere But First A Warning!”)

So it is not surprising that the efforts at easy money have shifted back to the telephone. How many people have received phone calls from Microsoft Tech Support informing us that there are viruses on our computer? All we need to do is let them install some software on our computer that will remove those viruses. Of course, in doing this, you have now let a real virus come into your system and it can now go out into the world and multiply. And you probably better not use the credit card that you gave them because they maxed that out a long time ago.

When these scammers refer to Windows, I sometimes mention that I work in a windowless office and sit by the door. Other times I wonder why my Mac has Windows.

But the new scam is the one we received yesterday informing us that the Government is going to give us $8400! Of course, all we have to do is give them our credit card information or our checking account and routing numbers and we will have our funds within 45 minutes. This one got real interesting when I asked the individual for some form of identification, such as their Social Security number. They hung up.

In this time, when things are rough, it becomes very easy to think that any of these requests are real. But the one thing is that most of what these will do is make life rougher, not easier.  See “Let’s Think About This For A Moment” for some additional thoughts on some of the e-mails and blog posts we get at times.

So if you need a laugh to avoid from crying, get a copy of the “Bad Times Virus”.

“The Real Sin of Sodom and Gomorrah”

I am watching a show on cable about the various mysteries of the Bible and how we might be able to explain them.  It does make for some interesting reading and it also makes the viewer think about what they know.

For instance, one of the episodes discusses what happened at Sodom and Gomorrah and talks about the sinful nature of the people of that area.  What is interesting is that the sin of this people is perhaps not what we think but rather that they were very inhospitable to visitors.

There is a contrast between the nomadic life of the early people of the Bible where kindness to strangers was essential and the sedentary life of people living in the developing cities.

Now, I am not a Biblical scholar but if this is the sin of these cities, what does this say about various issues before us today that we so often associate with those two long-vanished towns?

A Simple Explanation For The Recent Cold Weather

It just occurred to me that there is a simple explanation for the recent cold weather, especially in the Midwest and East. Congress is not in session!

When Congress is in session, our representatives generate enough hot air to keep the jet stream up in Canada, thus keeping the polar vortex and its cousin, the Canadian clipper, where they belong.

But since Congress is not in session, there is not that counter-balancing hot air mass in place and here comes the cold air and weather.

This is probably the only time we should every wish that Congress was in session. Though I do wish they would do something meaningful when they do all that talking; but that is the subject of another blog.

“A Moral Imperative”

Here are my thoughts for the 2^nd Sunday of Epiphany (Year A), 19 January 2014. The Scriptures for this Sunday are Isaiah 49: 1 – 7, 1 Corinthians 1: 1 – 9, and John 1: 29 – 42. This is also Human Relations Sunday.

If you are a regular reader of this blog, then you know that I am Southern born and Southern bred and when I die I will be Southern dead. I am also the son of an Air Force officer and the grandson of an Army officer. As a result, though I was born in Virginia, I grew up in a variety of states and have worked in another group of states. All together, this combination provides for a unique view of society and the world; a view that does not hold to many of the traditions so often associated with the South.

You cannot expect someone who attended as many elementary, junior high and high schools as I did to not wonder why the rules at one school in one state are so dramatically different from the rules of another school in another state. Why is that every kid can go to the same school in Colorado but some kids have to go to one school in Alabama while other kids of the same age have to go to another one? Why is that high school bands in Colorado and Missouri had ample funds (at least, back when I went to school) but high school bands in Tennessee had to scrap for funds? Somewhere along the way, as I was growing up in Virginia, Alabama, Illinois, Texas, Colorado, Missouri, and Tennessee, I began to question certain aspects of society in terms of economics and race. There are questions that still need to be asked today and have expanded way beyond what they were in the 1960s.

Now, you have to know that my parents were very conservative and this questioning attitude and the actions that I undertook to answer my questions did not always set well with them. But they raised my siblings and myself to think and act independently and to know that 1) we were responsible for our actions, whatever the result, and 2) we would be loved no matter what. And over time, their conservatism mellowed and the views on war and equality began to change.

The Old Testament and Epistle readings for today speak to much of what I feel today. The Old Testament reading speaks of Isaiah seeing no value to the work that he has done at the local level but God telling him, in essence, to look beyond the horizon and see a bigger picture and know that his work does have some impact. Paul speaks of the gifts that God has given each one of us.

I know that the gifts and skills that I have are from God and I know that I have not always used them in the way that best serves God. There are times when it has been clear that my gifts and talents have been squandered and I have not done what needed to be done.

But I know that I have heard, in several different ways, the call to go out into the word and do the work of God. It requires seeing each person, no matter who they are, not in the context of their local setting but as members of God’s Kingdom and as such (and to borrow words from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.), measured by the content of their character and nothing else, not their race, their economic status, their sexuality, or place in life.

And while I may see the impact of the words of Isaiah and Paul in terms of my own life, I know that they are words spoken to each person on this planet, whomever they may be. Granted, it means that I, along with others, have to tell the people what those words are. It does not mean that those who hear those words must accept them but you cannot determine the path that you wish to walk if you do not know what lies ahead.

We live in a day and age where greed, violence, hatred, and war are commonplace occurrences and where the response to each of these plagues on science is often times more of the same. The Gospel message that offers promise, hope, and freedom is often times cast aside as meaningless and without substance.

The problem is that too many times those who often so proclaim themselves as followers of Christ are among the leaders who promote hatred, greed, violence and war. They do so because 1) they see only the present and the local, not the future and the world; and 2) because that’s the way they have been taught.

And when the time comes they teach what they know without seeing alternatives or options; they have no desire to see beyond their own limits. And one cannot often blame them, for when you teach others to think beyond the present, to think of the future and what might happen, you give them the chance to change the world. And changing the world today is a threat to those in power. 

And if nothing else and whatever the cost, we have to begin changing the world, both in terms of what is done, what is to be done, and how we teach the world.  This is a very frightening thought because it goes against almost everything done up to this part.  In fact, it goes against everything we have been taught but what we have been taught and what are children are being taught is designed to keep those who have the power in power and not open up the horizons of life.

In today’s Gospel reading, there is a transfer of power from the prophecy of John the Baptist to the mission of Jesus. But it is also about what happens to us when we meet Jesus Christ for the first time. Simon, brother of Andrew, comes to Jesus but leaves as Peter, the Rock upon whom the church will be built. Meeting Jesus is a life changing moment. When we meet Jesus, our names may remain the same but our lives do not. We cannot expect that what we will tomorrow to be the same that we did yesterday.

When I selected the title for this piece, it was with the assumption that it had been used at some time in the past. And while it had been used, it was not by the individuals that I thought would have used it. I thought of John Kennedy’s comments concerning the need for a comprehensive civil rights bill in the 1960s and I thought about what Dr. King had said on any number of occasions but neither used the term that I had selected.

I am reminded of the words that Senator Edward Kennedy spoke at his brother’s, Robert Kennedy, funeral, “of how he saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it.”

There is a moral imperative in our lives today; it is that yearning in our soul to make sure that all of the people of this world are free and treated equally, that war and violence, poverty and hunger have no place on this planet and that the change that must be made begin with each one of us.

There may be a few who read these words and say that there is no God, there is no Christ, and they will have to determine where that call for justice comes from if it does not come from God through Christ. But I believe that call comes from God and that I have to answer it as such. And I have made my choice to follow Christ and seek to do what I can in His Name to make sure that Gospel message is fulfilled.

The challenge for each one of us is find ways, individually and collectively, to do the same.

“My Two Baptisms”

Here are some belated thoughts for Sunday, January 12, 2013 – Baptism of the Lord (Year A). The Scriptures for this Sunday are Isaiah 42: 1 – 9, Acts 10: 34 – 43, and Matthew 3: 13 – 17.

Been caught up in some other things so I didn’t have a chance to jot down my thoughts for this Sunday. Right now, it would seem that much of what I am posting is more in the nature of thoughts and not really something I would say, per se, if I had to give a message.

There are two baptisms in my life, the one where I was baptized and the one where I wasn’t baptized. Some of this is mentioned in some earlier posts related to the Baptism of the Lord Sunday but rather than link those pieces I will briefly summarize them.

I was baptized as an infant, three months after I was born, on Christmas Eve at the First Evangelical and Reformed Church in Lexington, North Carolina. Now, I realized that I know nothing about that night other than I had an absolutely stunning baptismal outfit and that my parents and my mother’s parents were there. It is possible that my father’s parents were there as well but I don’t have anything that tells me that.

The baptism that didn’t occur took place on a dark March night in Moberly, Missouri, in the spring of 1969 as I was trying to get back to Kirksville after spring break. I had gone home to Memphis and was trying to get back to Kirksville which, without a car, was a difficult thing to do. I had flown back to St. Louis from Memphis and was scheduled to fly back to Kirksville on Ozark Airlines.

Not knowing then what I know about traveling today, after I got to St. Louis, I sort of took my time wandering down to the Ozark gate. When I got there I found that my flight to Kirksville had been cancelled. Rather than letting the airline get me “home”, I opted to fly to the Columbia, MO, regional airport where they put me on a bus north to Kirksville. When I got to Moberly, I discovered that northeast Missouri was in the midst of a major late snow storm (and the reason for the cancelled flight).

So I ended up in Moberly, on my own and without any sort of travel voucher to get me the rest of the way home. I don’t know how it came about but I ended up spending the night at the local Bible College. And there is where and when the second baptism didn’t take place.

In a discussion with one of the students, a soon-to-be preacher, I was informed that my baptism as an infant didn’t count and that if I wanted to be saved, I needed to be baptised as an adult and now would be a good time to do it.

Now, I will be honest; I have never been comfortable with pastors who take a fundamentalist approach in religion and this college was one of the prime producers of such individuals. And I had been on the road for the better part of 24 hours and I was still 60 miles from school (and what was home for me). And there was the small matter that I had just endured the worst academic quarter of my career and was trying in the spring semester to bring some stability to my college life. I had also spent the better part of the first months of 1969 worried that I was going to be drafted and shipped off to Viet Nam because the paper work dealing with my requested deferment had not gone right.

Baptism cannot and should not be done under turmoil and that was clearly what was going to take place. So I declined the offer and have lived with the fact that at least one young preacher thinks that my life is condemned.

But when my parents brought me to the altar of that church in Lexington, North Carolina, that night in 1950, they brought a commitment to raise me in a way that would allow me to understand what it meant to be baptized. The difficult thing about infant baptism is that the infant may not realize what is going on and may not understand what is being done. But there are individuals present who do understand and who, by their presence, are saying that they will insure that the child one day understands what is being done.

I don’t recall if George Eddy, my pastor at First Evangelical United Brethren Church in Aurora, Colorado, asked me about my baptism when I begun the work on my confirmation and God and Country Award. I would think that he did because nothing was said or done otherwise. I made the conscious and public decision to walk that path and I don’t think I could have walked it without understanding somehow that I was baptized.

What bothers me today is the number of times we as a denomination and individual church baptize a child knowing that we may not see that child or his or her parents for several years and it is time to begin the confirmation process.

Do I think that we should deny a child that opportunity? I think not but I also think that we need to seriously think about how we counsel and advise the parents who come. I also know that we need to be real careful about how we do this because we run the risk of turning away a family who are shopping for a church and are turned away because we are too strict in our thoughts.

This is one of those questions where there is one answer but how we find that answer is dependent on who we are and the time and place the question is asked. In the end, we have to make sure that all who seek Christ know the role that baptism plays in that search and make sure that everyone associated with that individual know what they have to do to help that individual complete their search.

Seven Things You May Not Know About Infant Baptism

I am going to add some thoughts of my own concerning baptism (along with the comment I made on the original post). But I think this is worthy of re-blogging so that everyone gets a chance to read it.

“Pardon Me, Do You Know The Way To Bethlehem?”

Here are my thoughts for 5 January 2014, the Epiphany of the Lord Sunday (Year A). The Scriptures for this Sunday are Isaiah 60: 1 – 6, Ephesians 3: 1 – 12, and Matthew 2: 1 – 12.

A couple of things – I didn’t post anything for last Sunday but if I had I would have compared what transpired in Israel with the slaughter of the innocents with what is transpiring in this country with the cuts being made in our social programs and what is transpiring in other countries such as Syria where children are being killed with the same ease as those who are intent on fighting. Somehow I just can’t escape the notion that we haven’t learned that when you do harm to the welfare of the young and innocent, you don’t give yourself much of a future.

The second note I wanted to make was that I had promised to write something with the title of this post for a youth group to give as a devotional. I want to apologize to that group for not getting it done. In my defense, I am finding it difficult to be creative at the moment. I might be able to use what follows later and prepare something that can be done by a group.

Along those lines, I chose the title because this is the Sunday that the wise men (number unknown) arrived at the home of Joseph and Mary. We know from the scriptures that they were essentially astronomers (thought we would probably call them astrologers today) and had determined by their observations of the night sky that something unique was taking place.

Now, just as I would have compared the situation in Israel at the time of Jesus’ birth and Herod’s rage with what we are doing to our children last week, let us think about what is transpiring with our society, country, and throughout the world today.

Each day we get evidence that we are getting dumber and dumber each day. Whether it be in what we know about human qualities or science matters, we are unwilling and unable to sufficiently analyze the information before us and make informed and accurate decisions. I don’t have any data but I suspect that if we were to quantify the number of conspiracy based theories floating around the universe and/or the Internet today, we would find that the number has increased significantly over the past twenty years or so.

And I would be willing to wager that our standing relative to other countries in terms of mathematics, science, history, and reading has fallen at the same time.

Let’s face it; we are quickly becoming incapable of thinking for ourselves. And there are quite a few individuals who would be glad and are working towards reaching the goal where they will do our thinking for us.

Now, some people will gladly point out that religion has a hand in it but it is not religion that is leading us astray. It is those leaders who feel that they and they alone know what is the best path to take and what are the best thoughts to think. These leaders work very well in the darkness of ignorance and will do whatever it takes to keep the people there.

But the prophet Isaiah calls for the people of Israel to be in the light, to see what is coming. You know that if you keep people in the dark, they can’t see what’s coming and if you can’t see what’s coming, you will not be prepared.

I have said it before and I will keep saying it. Our schools are not preparing students for the unknown problems; they are preparing for the problems that are already solved. Ask any teacher and they will tell you that when they assign problems for homework, they have to make sure that the answers are in the back of the book. If they give any other problems, they will hear about it from the administration and the parents.

Even Paul points out that, under normal situations, he might not understand much of what he writes. But he also acknowledges that there was a moment in his life when he gained that understanding.

In some circles, that is called the “AHA Moment”, that moment when a hard problem becomes very easy to understand. We should have all had such a moment in our life but it only comes when your mental skills and thinking processes are tested. And I think that we would all agree that Saul was truly tested that one day on the road to Damascus, sufficient that not only was his mind opened to Christ but his life changed and he became known from then on as Paul.

The wise men were clearly students of the sky, seeking answers to many questions. Whatever it was that they saw, individually and/or collectively, was sufficient to cause them to leave their lands and travel to Israel and seek out Jesus.

You cannot seek out Jesus if your heart is closed; you will never know who Jesus is for you unless your mind is open as well. In our churches today, we are faced with a dilemma. There are those who come to the doors of many churches asking where the child born in Bethlehem may be found. But they do not get an answer because many people do not know the answer or they are unwilling or unable to share the knowledge.

So, do you know the way to Bethlehem? Can you help a traveler find the way?