The mission of the United Methodist Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world – or as I (Dave) like to put, to make disciples of Jesus who make a difference for Him in the community. In 2021, even amidst the ups and downs of the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, Keith Church has been able to experience remarkable success in fulfilling this mission.

Making Disciples of Jesus Christ

The first part of our mission is to make disciples of Jesus Christ. And Keith Church has been doing just that! In 2021, we received seven new members on Profession of Faith. That means seven persons professed their faith in Christ for the first time last year. These are new disciples! These new members were all received through our Confirmation Class, which began prior to the pandemic and was finally completed last spring. We also received three new members by transfer from other United Methodist churches and three new members from churches from other denominations. That is a total of thirteen new members of Keith Church in 2021. This qualifies Keith Church for a Silver Medal for Excellence in Evangelism in the Holston Conference!

We also baptized three babies this past year, setting them on their journey toward one day professing their own faith in Christ and becoming disciples themselves. Ten of our church members joined the church triumphant this past year, and two transferred their membership to other churches. So we realized a net gain of one member for a total of 1279 professing members.

We also continue to make disciples of Christ through our worship together. Not only did we return to in-person worship for most of 2021, but we also continue to provide online worship for both the sanctuary and Gathering services. Our average weekly online worship attendance for 2021 was 170, which actually surpassed our average in-person worship attendance of 146, for a total average worship attendance of 316. This total figure is 5% higher than our 2019 pre-Covid average attendance of 299.

We also continue to make disciples through our small groups, including our home-based groups, Sunday school classes, adult fellowship, and our women’s circles. Many of these groups continued meeting during Covid or have returned to meeting together in-person. Our children’s and youth ministries have been especially strong thanks to the dedicated leadership of Reagan Kelly and Mark Reedy. The youth are now having a monthly youth worship service in addition to their weekly small group meetings, and they now have almost twice as many regular attenders as in 2019 (31 compared to 16). We also have an average of 15 children on Wednesday nights, and the Trustees are working with an architectural firm to redevelop the nursery areas in memory of Melissa Rhodes so that we can continue to draw new families and make new generations of disciples for Jesus Christ.

Making a Difference in the Community

Keith Church members are also making a difference in our congregation and in our community for Christ, fulfilling the second half of our mission statement. We currently have 108 different church members serving on our various ministry teams and committees at the church. Another hundred or so members serve in outreach events like the Fall Festival, the Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve meals, or volunteer with ministries in the community like Nourish One Child (which currently serves 291 children in the city school), Table Graces, and Grace & Mercy Ministries. Over 2/3 of the 60 individuals who volunteered at the Warming Center which we hosted this January were Keith Church members. We also offer weekly worship services on Wednesdays at Athens Place and Morning Pointe assisted living centers which has incorporated at least 10 of our church members.

Our members not only support these various ministries physically but financially as well. In 2021, Keith Church members generously supported more than fifteen different ministries in our community with more than $40,000 of budgeted or designated gifts to agencies like Coordinated Charities, Friendly Fellows, Good Faith Clinic, Helping Hands, the HOPE Center, Isaiah 117 House, the Tri-County Center and more. As longtime church member, community leader and Home Service Sunday school class teacher Neal Ensminger was fond of saying, if anything good is happening in this community, you can bet that someone from Keith Church is involved.

Financial Challenges and Opportunities

Keith Church, like a lot of churches locally and nationwide, has been impacted financially by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as by uncertainties over the future direction of the denomination after the upcoming General Conference. The good news is that we received about $50,000 more than we anticipated receiving, and we were able to fund 93% of our expenditures. The bad news is that we also spent about $50,000 more than we received. Much of that overage had to do with unanticipated building maintenance and repair expenses. (Detailed financial reports are available in the church office to anyone who would like to review them.)

There is also good news in that the average annual amount our church members give to support the ministries of the church has increased from $2,845 in 2015 to $3,557 in 2021. That’s an increase of 25% and is a testament to the generosity and commitment of our engaged membership. The bad news is that the number of givers during that time has decreased from 266 in 2015 to 192 in 2021. That’s a decrease of 28%, much of which follows the death or departure of some very faithful and generous supporters. So there are fewer people giving more money to the church than in years past. This mirrors a nationwide trend in philanthropic giving not only to churches but to other organizations as well. 

Our church leadership wants to encourage our membership’s fullest engagement in the financial support of the ministries of the church which we believe are making a real difference in people’s lives and in this community. The Bible instructs us that we glorify God through our giving of ourselves through our time, our talents and our treasure. While the top 10% of the church’s givers each gave over $10,000 in 2021, nearly two-thirds (65%) of our givers gave less than $3,000, and there are many more who are involved in the life of the church but do not contribute anything financially. So there is plenty of room for our congregation to grow in the discipline of giving. Recently, we included a flyer in the bulletin that showed that an additional $5 a week – the cost of an iced coffee or a small pizza – from every current giver would mean an additional $60,000 a year to support the church’s ministries. That would nearly cover our anticipated shortfall for the budget for 2022.

The changing financial situation of the church presents an opportunity for the church to structure our staffing and programs more strategically so that we can fulfill even more efficiently and effectively our mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ who make a difference in our community. There will likely be changes yet to come on the horizon, but we hope they will ultimately be changes for the better.

We continue to invite you to fulfill what our Church Council has discerned as God’s vision for Keith Church in 2022 – to EXPAND OUR REACH as we REACH UP to God in worship and praise, REACH OVER to one another in care and concern, and REACH OUT to our neighbors in love and service.

Pastors Dave & Andrew

When our post-Christmas trip out west to see some friends got canceled last week, we spent the night in Atlanta anyway and tooled around some of our familiar places the next day. We ate breakfast at the Flying Biscuit where Tracy and I had our first date back in June 1997. We walked around Lullwater Park on the Emory University campus, where I would get some fresh air on the walking trail around the lake when I was in the thick of seminary studies. And even though we probably weren’t dressed up enough, we strolled through phancy Phipps Plaza where all the phancy shops are, like Gucci and Prada and Tiffany’s – oh, and let’s not forget Legoland!

While Tracy was browsing one of the stores, the boys and I hung out by the elevator. In front of the elevator was parked a sleek black Lincoln Navigator SUV. Around the Navigator were some large signs. One of the signs read, “LINCOLN: The Power of Sanctuary.” 

Well, being a preacher, that word “sanctuary” caught my eye. So I walked over to check it out.

There was an adjacent sign that had a quote on it from a fellow named David Woodhouse, identified as a design director for Lincoln, which read, “A sanctuary takes you away, however temporarily, from the realities of life. It puts you in another reality.”

Hmmm, now that’s really something!

I realize it was an advertisement for an automobile – a rather cavernous one at that. And I’m sure many of us find a sense of sanctuary in the safety and comfort of our own automobiles. I know I often do. But here I am standing there in the midst of the cathedral to capitalism that is Phipps Plaza, and I can’t help but think of the power of another sort of sanctuary to take us away, however temporarily, from the realities of this life, and to put in us the atmosphere of another reality, a truer and higher and deeper reality, the realiest real reality of all, the reality of the kingdom of God.

And I began to wonder: Do we experience this power of sanctuary when we are gathered together for worship, whether in the sanctuary or in the Gathering? Does our worship transport us to glimpse the glories of the heavenly realm, like it did John the seer in the Revelation?

While I was still pondering that question, we returned home to Athens, to the parsonage, this place of sanctuary for our family. But we were all still feeling a bit restless, so we made plans for a quick trip over to Nashville to spend a few days there. Tracy found a place for us to stay in East Nashville, which was, ironically enough, an old church that had been converted into a hotel. Our room was in the upper part of what used to be the sanctuary.

“The Russell,” as it is now called, was originally built in 1904 as a Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Nine years later, in 1913, the Church of Christ bought it. Eventually it became the Russell Street Church of Christ. 

During the 1918-19 pandemic, the building was used as a makeshift hospital. In the 1920s, it housed a daycare, sick ward, and medical and dental clinic for the community. Shifting demographics led the congregation to gradually dwindle until a tornado swept through Nashville in April 1998, and the damage to the church was so significant that the insurance settlement couldn’t cover the cost of repairs. In 2001, a developer purchased the property, and in June 2019, “The Russell” opened as a hotel.

Even though it’s now a hotel, elements of the sanctuary have been incorporated into the design. The beautiful stained-glass windows frame the open lobby. The brick walls and wooden rafters are still visible above and behind the new walls. The old pews have been repurposed as headboards for the beds. Even the room numbers look like Bible verses (our room was 2:3).

The hotel is still very much a sanctuary of sorts. While we were there, I found myself pleasantly transported from the realities of this life to an alternative reality. There was an old-fashioned phone both. There was an old-fashioned luggage lift. There was a phancy photo booth where Tracy and the boys had our pictures made. There was a tiled portrait of Dolly Parton on the wall at the foot of the stairs down from our room. I wanted to say (and maybe I did a time or two) “Well, hello Dolly!” every time I came downstairs.

There were coffee tables in the lobby with books just lying there upon them. There was a huge book about all the Beatles’ songs. I flipped through it and read about some of my favorite ones. There was a book of Japanese short stories. I read a few of them. One was about a warrior who was trying to preserve his honor. Another was about a child who was harshly disciplined over a misunderstanding about a peach. There was a copy of John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row. I read the first few chapters about Lee the Chinese shopkeeper and some of the down-on-their-luck people who frequented his store.

There wasn’t ever anybody at the front desk. There wasn’t even a front desk. And there were a couple of times when I really didn’t want to leave the hotel and go anywhere else. I just wanted to stay right there and enjoy its quirky hospitality, its refreshing sense of sanctuary.

But the hotel didn’t just provide sanctuary, a place of rest, for us. It also helps provide sanctuary, a safe place of rest and refuge for its neighbors in need in its community. The owners believe they are building on the building’s legacy of providing refuge, safety and belonging – sanctuary – to people in need for more than a century. And so a significant portion of each night’s stay goes to local nonprofits who serve individuals experiencing homelessness in Nashville. An average weekend stay is estimated to provide 16 nights, 100 clean showers or 30 prepared meals through charities like Room in the Inn, Nashville Rescue Mission and ShowerUp. They call it “Rooms for Rooms.”

The top step into the front door is painted with the message, “Welcome Friends,” the large welcome reads “Stay Divine,” and the back wall behind the hotel has “You Belong” painted across a flowery background. You know, maybe it’s no longer a church, but maybe it’s still a church after all.

Our first morning there we walked to a café around the corner for breakfast. The place we went to had a sign out front that read, “We welcome all races, all religions, all countries of origin, all sexual orientations, all genders. We stand with you. You are safe here.”

I didn’t realize it at the time, but we had just transferred one sanctuary for another.

I began to wonder, are there sanctuaries all around us, if we have but eyes to see them?

I know a lot of people every new year choose a new word that is their word of the year, a word that they’re going to work on, focus on, attend to throughout the coming year. A word like “peace” or “balance” or “intentional.” I’ve done that before myself, with varying degrees of success. I wasn’t planning on doing that this year. But maybe all of this has been God’s way of nudging me, suggesting a word for me to work on, focus on, attend to. 

Sanctuary.

I want to be a sanctuary, a safe place, a safe person for others, no matter who they are, where they came from, what they’ve been through, who they voted for or who they love. I want our church to be a sanctuary, a safe place, a signpost of and a waystation to an alternative reality. I want to discover, to rediscover, the power of sanctuary to transport us all together to another reality, the alternative reality of the kingdom of God breaking in, however subtly, within and among us.

A couple of weeks ago, Andrew and I went down to Camp Lookout for an overnight retreat. It was an opportunity the camp provided for us to rest and to recharge our batteries after a wearisome past several months. It was so refreshing to be back in that space where I hadn’t been since we were there with our Confirmation class the weekend before Covid shut the world down.

While I was there, I took a walk by myself around the camp. One of the things I realized was how many crosses there are at the camp. There’s the cross at Vesper Point where we have morning devotions at summer camp. There’s the cross at the Maynard worship area beside the lake where we share Holy Communion at the close of our Confirmation retreats. There’s also a cross at the fire circle where we gather in the evenings to sing songs around the campfire. But I hadn’t really noticed this cross before this visit. Maybe that was because it was usually dark when we gathered there. But here I was looking at it by the light of day.

It’s a cross that consists of eight rectangular blocks of concrete in which are embedded stones. The stones are various sizes, shapes and colors. Some of them are big and some are small. Some are round, some are flat, some are oblong. Some are black, some are gray or brown, and some are blue or red or orange or purple.

But one of the first things I noticed about this cross was that some of the stones are missing. In their place are their uniquely shaped and hollowed-out cavities in the concrete. 

I looked at the spaces their absence left empty, and I felt sad. I felt sad for the missing stones, and I began to wonder what had happened to them that they were now missing. 

Had the weather over the years worn them loose? Had the concrete swelled and squeezed them so that they simply slipped from its embrace? Had an angel of the Lord appeared and rolled the stones away from the cross? What happened to those stones?

I couldn’t stop thinking about that cross and its missing stones. I thought about it the whole rest of the day.

I called the camp director Don Washburn after we got back home to ask him about this cross. He told me that several years ago the theme for summer camp was “God Rocks,” and one of the counselors that year invited the campers to pick out a rock or a stone each week to bring it with them to the Communion service, where together they embedded their rocks and stones into the wet concrete. He did this each week for all eight weeks of summer camp. At the end of the summer, he formed the eight blocks together into the shape of a cross, and the cross was placed at the fire circle. Don told me that the guy is an engineer now; he’s probably still designing and building things out of concrete.

I asked Don about the missing stones. He didn’t know what had happened to them either. Maybe it was the weather. Maybe some later campers thumbed some of them loose. He even suggested that maybe some of the original campers came back to pry away the stone they had placed there to take away with them.

I keep thinking about those stones that have gone missing from that cross. Maybe that’s because I keep thinking about the people who have gone missing from the church, especially over these past several months.

I know a lot of folks have been staying safer at home during the pandemic who tell us they still feel connected to the church through online worship, social media and digital communications, and that’s good to know. I also know a lot of folks who told us they would come back to church when they’re fully vaccinated or restrictions are relaxed or worship is more “back to normal,” and many of them have already returned. I know we’ve lost some folks to some other churches, and I know we’ve lost some who have died.

I also know we’ve engaged some new people during the pandemic that we weren’t reaching before the pandemic. There are a few new stones on the cross, and that’s good to know, too.

But there are still some who have gone missing. As far as we can tell, they don’t seem to be going to church somewhere else. They don’t seem to be going to church at all. Maybe they simply got out of the habit and haven’t gotten back into it. Or maybe they have come to feel church really isn’t as important to them as they thought it was.

Andrew shared with me recently some research that the Barna group conducted on the current state of the church in the US (https://www.barna.com/stateofthechurch/). While overall worship attendance among adults in the US has been in a long and steady decline, they found that during the pandemic, the weekly worship attendance (either in-person or online) of those who identify as “practicing Christians” dropped from 79% pre-pandemic to 51% during Covid, while those who identify as “churched adults” dropped from 54% to 37%.

But most worrisome was that 19% of “practicing Christians” have not attended worship at all – either in person or online — during the pandemic. That’s nearly one in five of those who were previously dedicated, devoted disciples of Christ who are now disconnected. For “churched adults” it was 22%.

That’s a lot of stones that have gone missing.

I wish I knew what happened, where they are now and what we can do about it. Was it the weather? Did someone – perhaps the old Devil himself – come and snatch them away? Was the concrete not strong enough to hold them?

I know I’m supposed to be thankful for the stones that are still on the cross, those who have stayed connected to the church. And I am. God knows – and I hope they know – that I thank God every day for those beautiful, unique and absolutely precious stones on “the old rugged cross” of the church. 

And I know what the church growth experts say, that it is easier to mix new concrete and help new stones find their place there than it is to try to gather up the missing stones. I know all that.

But I can’t quit thinking about that cross and those missing stones. I hope somehow they know that they are still precious in the sight of the Lord of the cross, and that there is still a place there for them that fits them just right, and that maybe they will find their way back there someday.

This past Sunday, Andrew and I shared a vision of Keith Church expanding our reach in three different dimensions in 2022. This was not a vision that he or I dreamed up somewhere off on a deserted island. Nor was it a vision that the voice of God delivered to us pre-packaged during a time of prayer. Rather, it was a vision that emerged from our church leadership.

A couple of months ago, on Monday, September 20, our Church Council gathered together for a visioning retreat. There were seventeen of our church leaders that were there that night. We followed essentially the same visioning process that our consultants led us through a few years ago with our children’s ministry.

We started off by asking everyone there to name what they believe to be our church’s “core values,” who we really are and what we value the most as a church. Words like “authenticity” and “inclusiveness” and “compassion” just popcorned up and around until we identified 15 different core values.

We wrote those values up on a whiteboard, and then we asked everyone to vote for their top three values, to mark a little “tick” off to the side of the values they were voting for. (It was all very sophisticated technology.) When they were finished – Andrew and I didn’t vote, we just let the council members vote – we tallied them together. We grouped together some of the values that were worded a little bit differently but were really getting at the same things, and here’s what we found were the top five values that these church leaders identified that night.

1. Inclusiveness/open hearts/accepting/hospitality (19)
2. Involvement in the community/community outreach/reputation in the community (18)
3. Congregational Care (10)
4. Worship (8)
5. Authenticity/sincerity (6)

I found this exercise to be tremendously helpful in clarifying our leaders’ core values of our congregation, especially as we lean into a still uncertain future not only coming out of the pandemic but also in light of the potential schism within the United Methodist denomination over human sexuality in the coming years. Core values are about who we are. They are what we hope will stay the same about our church, whatever changes or challenges may come.

What became clear in my mind is that our church leaders value an inclusive congregation where absolutely everyone is welcome and invited to be as fully involved in the life and ministries of the church as possible, where the congregation is integrally involved in serving the community where God has placed us, and where we embrace and care for one another in worship, fellowship, and discipleship.

And so a threefold vision for Keith Church began to emerge in my mind from what our church leadership shared with us that night. Each of these three dimensions have to do with the word “reach.”

∙ Reaching OUT to others in love and service in our community

∙ Reaching OVER to one another in care and compassion in our congregation

∙ Reaching UP to God in worship and praise

How can we expand our reach both as individuals and as a community in 2022? Because there are a lot of twos in the year 2022, maybe that can give us a goal to expand by twos in the coming year.

Let’s break each of these three dimensions down one by one:

1. Reaching OUT to others in love and service in our community

This first area relates to the top two core values of the church: inclusiveness and our involvement and outreach to the community.

I’ve heard it said many times by many people both in and out of the church, “anytime anything good is happening in Athens, you can bet someone from Keith Church is involved in it.” And I’ve not just heard it said but I’ve seen it myself in the number of Keith folks present at community events like the United Way service days and the Athens Federal grant awards luncheon. What a wonderful thing to be known for – how we reach out to others and serve our community! What a great reputation for a church to have in the community!

And what an easy way to invite new people to get involved in the life of the church! Most folks might be a little hesitant to come with you to a worship service or a small group meeting, but would jump at an opportunity to help you make a difference for others. Like to pack a bag of food for the weekend for our city school kids in the Nourish One Child ministry. Or to decorate the trunk of their car to hand out candy to kids at our Fall Festival Trunk or Treat. Or to take a turn at our Warming Center hosting our neighbors who don’t have a warm place to stay on a night with freezing temperatures.

So here are a couple of goals for each church member for 2022:

(1) to participate in at least 2 hospitality or outreach events of the church in 2022, AND

(2) to invite at least 2 people to join you in participating in those events – a friend, a neighbor, a coworker or classmate – whomever, and together, let’s expand our reaching OUT in love and service in our community in 2022.

And before we move on to the next part of our vision, here’s a question I’d like you to ponder and let me know what ideas you have. I’m sure you’ve seen the new city school buildings that are being constructed across the street, essentially in our church’s front yard. We are the closest church congregation to that new consolidated city school system. We are ideally situated geographically. We already have the Nourish One Child ministry to the city schoolchildren. A majority of the city school board members are Keith Church members. And we have so many retired teachers and others who have worked with the city school system. Perhaps God has placed us here for just such a time as this (Esther 4:14). So here’s my question: How can we expand our outreach to our city school system – the teachers, the students and their families – to be a blessing to them and to serve them even more effectively for the sake of Christ?

2. Reaching OVER to one another in care and compassion in our congregation

Second, let’s expand our reaching OVER to one another in our care and compassion for one another in our congregation.

We already do this in a number of ways – through the prayer group that meets on Wednesday afternoons and sends cards out to folks we’re praying for, and through the Stephen Ministry that pairs trained caregivers with persons going through challenging situations and seasons in their lives. But the main way we extend care to one another is through our small groups – our Sunday school classes, our women’s circles, our youth groups and children’s groups, and others.

In a church our size, with three different worship services, it can sometimes be hard to find where we fit in. Our small groups are where folks can fit in and feel known, loved and cared for. Our small groups are the glue that binds us and bonds us together. That’s where so much happens in our church. That’s where discipleship happens. That’s where fellowship happens. It all happens in our small groups.

Some of our small groups meet in person, some meet online. Some meet at the church, some meet in people’s homes, some meet out in the community. See https://www.keithumc.org/small-groups for a list of our current small groups that are meeting.

The root of the word “religion” is ligare, from which we also get the word “ligaments,” the connective tissue that holds our body, our organs and our bones, together. Our small groups are really the ties that bind.

So here’s a few goals for us all for 2022:

• each member to attend a small group at least 2 times. If there’s not one that meets at a convenient time for you, find a few other folks and form a new one.
• each member invite at least 2 people to attend a small group meeting with you in 2022
• increase the number of our small groups by at least 2 (can be online, too).

3. Reaching UP to God in worship and praise

The third way we can expand our reach in 2022 is in our reaching UP to God in our worship and praise.

Our worship of God is the main thing we do as a church. It’s foundational to everything else we do. Our worship fuels our work and our witness out in the world, the service and outreach we offer to the congregation. And it undergirds the care and compassion that we extend to one another in our congregation.

Our church leaders identified our worship as one of our core values – excellent, authentic, and inspiring worship of God, in both our traditional and contemporary accents. Rev. Dennie Humphreys was a former senior pastor here. He was fond of saying that our goal was to offer the very best traditional worship service that you could find anywhere around, and also to offer the very best contemporary worship service that you could find anywhere around. No matter your worship language, your “love-of-God” language, you can worship God fully from your heart here at Keith Church.

That continues to be a core value and a compelling vision for our church, reaching up to God in excellent, authentic and inspiring worship and praise. So how can we expand our reaching up to God in worship and praise in 2022?

Here are some goals:

(1) everyone attend worship (onsite or online) at least 2 weeks each month. Nowadays, “regular worship attendance” has been defined as at least once a month. Let’s double that!

(2) everyone invite at least two different people or families who aren’t already attending another church to attend worship at Keith Church with you – whether in-person or online – in 2022.

You may think you don’t know anyone not already attending church. But depending on which study you look at, that could be half or more of the people in this county. So reach out to them and invite them to come worship with you. And invite them to have lunch with you after church, or grab coffee with them and talk about the Sunday sermon or whatever may be on their mind or going on in their lives.

Finally, our giving is an act of worship. This goes at least all the way back to the sacrifices of animals that the worshipers would bring to offer on the altar that we read about in the Old Testament. Obviously we don’t do it that way these days! Now it’s through our financial giving. But it’s still an act of worshiping God, of expressing our thanks to God for the gifts and blessings God has given us, and of putting God first in our lives, of trusting that we can give to God what’s “right” and have plenty “left” for ourselves. Our giving is an act of worship.

So a goal for all of us is to increase our financial giving by 2%. However much you have been giving to God to support the mission of the church this year, try bumping that up 2%. If you’re in the 80% or so of folks who give about 2% on average, then commit to bumping that up to 4%. Or if you’re in the about 5% who tithe, who give 10% of your income, then consider stretching that another 2%. If you haven’t given anything of yourself financially to God, then figure out what 2% of your income will be, and commit to giving that.

We know these are challenging times, and not everyone is able to give like they’d like to. But we can all give something of ourselves to God as a part of our worship of the God who gave so much of God’s own self for us in Christ.

So that’s a threefold vision for our church for 2022, based on the core values that our key church leaders have identified. I hope you’ll commit to making this vision your own and join us in expanding our reach in 2022 – our reaching OUT to everyone in our community in love and in service to others, our reaching OVER to one another in care and companionship in our congregation, and our reaching UP to God in excellent, inspiring and authentic worship and praise.

Yesterday afternoon, I got a call from Rev. Ellen Peach, a retired United Methodist pastor who worships with us at Keith Church. She told me she and David Siklosi had been working on a visual design for today, which is Trinity Sunday (which is always the Sunday after Pentecost when the church celebrates the gift of the Holy Spirit). She wondered if I could meet them over at the church to let them in so they could hang it in the Gathering. 

When I arrived, David’s pickup truck was already parked under the awning. In the back was a ladder and three rings formed from water hoses (they looked like hula hoops) fastened together. I said something you would probably expect me to say: “it looks like a three-ring circus around here.”

We brought it into the Gathering along with the assortment of rope and streamers that Ellen had brought. It was clear we needed a taller ladder, so David and I fetched the big one the church has. Ellen went to get some scissors and tape, and we proceeded to affix three sets of white streamers and some loose rope to each of the three rings. Then we tacked some shiny tinsel to the wooden bar across the back. Then David hoisted the whole contraption into the air with thirty-pound fishing line hanging from the spotlight racks. By then, our worship leader Josh Stephens had shown up and he helped us make sure everything was level and centered. 

I love that the church’s teaching of the Trinity is all about teamwork, cooperation, what the ancients called “co-inherence.” It was like we were all participating in that same spirit of teamwork and cooperation, that we were all sharing together in the life and the energy of the Trinity in the teamwork that it took for us to prepare and to place this symbolic representation of it in our worship space.

Once it was in place, we all stepped back and took it all in. When we had arrived, I couldn’t quite picture what they had in mind, but once it was up there above us, in front of us, I could see that it was beautiful in its elegant simplicity in symbolizing the mystery and the majesty of the Trinity. I confessed to Ellen that even though I’m not gifted with such creativity myself, I sure can appreciate it when I see it!

Then, in a flash of inspiration, I said to them, “Hold on a sec, let me flip on the light behind the cross.” Then when we stood together in the back of the Gathering and looked at it again, we could see the light of the cross shining through the shimmering tinsel streaming down through the center of the rings. That was the real “ahh” moment for me. 

I took a photo of it with my phone and sent it to our associate pastor Andrew Lay. He was mighty impressed as well and posted it on our church’s social media where several folks near and far have marveled at it. 

Over the rest of last evening and throughout this Trinity Sunday, I’ve continued to ponder this serendipitous alignment of symbols in our worship space and to wonder if the symbol of the Trinity might help us reflect on the significance of the cross. If wonder if it might be helpful for us, in other words, to look upon the cross through the lens of the Trinity. 

I remember a paper I wrote in seminary in which I explored the possibility of a Trinitarian theory of the atonement. The atonement has to do with how we are reconciled or made “at-one” again with God. Most of the atonement theories advanced throughout Christian history have focused either on the work of Christ on the cross or on some sort of transaction between God and Jesus on our behalf. 

In my paper, however, I posed this question: what if the atonement was not just Jesus acting alone or something that took place between God and Jesus, but rather was an event in which the entire Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – was involved and engaged? 

I went on to suggest that perhaps it is by the light of the Holy Spirit that we can see that Jesus gave his life for us on the cross to show us the depth of God’s love and mercy and grace toward us. In other words, when we look at the cross, we can see not just the work of Jesus but the work of the whole of the Holy Trinity to win back our at-one-ment with the one God. 

I don’t know. I’m still thinking about all this, pondering it. I suppose the best symbols always have a surplus of meaning and significance. The deepest mysteries, like the doctrine of the Trinity, are always inexhaustible.

But after church today, I called together some of the children who were there and asked them to join me in the back of the Gathering. I pointed out the symbol of the Trinity and we talked a bit about how it represents the one God we encounter and worship in the Spirit of Jesus Christ. And then I asked them if they saw anything back behind it, shining through. One of the girls spoke up immediately and said, “the cross!”

After commenting on how cool that was to see, I then talked about how I have to wear glasses to help me see things more clearly, and maybe this idea of God as a Trinity is like a pair of glasses that can help us to see and understand the cross more clearly. 

I’m not sure if they understood a thing that I was talking about. I will admit I was pretty inarticulate. But maybe someday they will remember peering through that suspended symbol of the Trinity and seeing the light of the cross. And maybe then they’ll see it a little more clearly and understand it a little better. At least, as well as any of us can understand something like that. Something so magnificent. 

She’s been described by millions as “Queen of Heaven,” “Mother of God,” and sometimes even “Co-Redemptrix.” Millions of others have responded by only thinking about her once a year.  But she doesn’t need elaborate titles.  She only needed the title that Jesus gave her – Mom. 

Her name was Mary of Nazareth 

Mary of Nazareth is a unique person in the Christian family tree.  Depending on your faith tradition, her role may be vastly overstated or quietly downplayed.   

In Roman Catholic and Orthodox tradition, there has been a growing assortment of traditions concerning her.  These teachings cover all aspects of Mary Life from the Immaculate Conception (meaning she was born without original sin) to her Assumption (meaning her body was taken up to heaven after her death).  The title Queen of Heaven comes across as an awkward attempt to use a medieval monarchy to understand the kingdom of heaven.  Titles such as Co-Redemptrix and Mother of God are much too clunky and confusing. 

On the other end of the spectrum, Protestants tend to place Mary in the same category as her little grey donkey and the resident ox at the stable.  They are all part of the Nativity narrative that we blow the dust off on the day after Thanksgiving and quickly box up on the day after Christmas. 

Perhaps both sides would do better to follow the actual Biblical text when Elizabeth simply refers to Mary as “the mother of my Lord.” (Luke 1:42 NLT). 

When we first meet Mary, we meet a spiritual, but very practical young lady.  She willingly accepts God’s mission to give birth to his son – a very dangerous task for a 1^st century unmarried Jewish girl.  But she is not afraid to ask the question, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.”  Contrary to what skeptics like to think, people in the ancient world knew where babies came from. 

When Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth outside Jerusalem, she confirms the truth that Elizabeth in her old age is also pregnant.  Mary rejoices and gives us The Magnificat, “Oh, how my soul praises the Lord.  How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior! For he took notice of his lowly servant girl, and from now on all generations will call me blessed.”  (Luke 2:46-48 NLT).  That is what it is entirely appropriate to refer to Mary as the Blessed Mother.  She was blessed, because she believed what the Lord had told her (Luke 2:45). 

We follow Mary and see her in a whirlwind of trouble as her fiancée Joseph the Carpenter decides to quietly end the engagement.  He knows where babies come from too.  But he does not know where this baby is coming from.  Thanks to an angel, Joseph is reassured, and he and Mary are wed. (Matthew 1:18-25). 

The next scene finds Mary wrapping the newborn Jesus in swaddling clothes and placing him in the manager, not too far from that faithful donkey.  She and Joseph are startled when shepherds arrive unannounced to worship the newborn. When the shepherds left the nativity scene, they tell everyone they met about baby Jesus.  In contrast, Luke tells us that “Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often.” (Luke 2:19 NLT).   

Sometime later, Mary and Joseph take the baby Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem to perform the appropriate religious ceremonies.  It is here that the old man Simeon, takes Jesus in his arms, and praises God for allowing him to see the Messiah.  Luke tells us that Mary and Joseph are amazed. They shouldn’t have been, but perhaps they thought that the news of Jesus’s miraculous birth was only between them. They weren’t fully aware that a diverse group from shepherds to senior citizens to astrologers would be in on the secret. After blessing them, Simeon has a strange warning for Mary, “This child is destined to cause many in Israel to fall, and many others to rise. He has been sent as a sign from God, but many will oppose him. As a result, the deepest thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your very soul.” (Luke 2:34-25 NLT). 

In our culture, we have spent so much time focusing on the shepherd’s adoring the newborn Jesus and the wise men worshipping the baby Jesus, we have overlooked this ominous warning that occurred in the middle, “Many will oppose him….And a sword will pierce your very soul.” 

Mary begins to understand this when they received some more unexpected visitors – astrologers from the East, better known to us as the Three Wise Men.  The celebration is short lived.  Soon afterwards, Joseph, Mary, and the baby Jesus make a desperate journey to Egypt to seek refuge from the evil King Herod the Great.  After his death, they wisely decide that perhaps Bethlehem is a little too close to the action.  Just as Superman needs Smallville to grow up in, Jesus needs Nazareth to be his childhood home. (Matthew 2). 

The next time we meet Mary she is a panicked parent.  She just realized that her son has been gone for three whole days.  She and Joseph rushes back to Jerusalem, and she gives preteen Jesus a little bit of her mind.  “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been frantic, searching for you everywhere.” (Luke 2:48).  Again, she’s not resembling the mother made of marble.  She’s resembles more of the mother from Home Alone rushing home to check on Kevin.  Jesus calmly asks why they had to search everywhere.  Didn’t they know that he would be in his Father’s house?  So Mary, did you know?  At this juncture, Luke tells us “But they didn’t understand what he meant. Then he returned to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. And his mother stored all these things in her heart.” 

That incident captures the paradox of being a parent of Jesus.  On one hand, Mary does know that the Lord is doing great things.  She even wrote a song about it – The Magnificat.  On the other hand, she is constantly being surprised at how the Lord is doing great things. 

When Jesus begins his public ministry, we see an awkwardness in their relationship.  At the wedding in Cana, it seems that Mother Mary has more faith in her son than he does when the wine runs out.  Scholars disagree over how to view this situation.  Was Mother Mary expecting Jesus to perform a miracle?  Or was she just expecting Jesus “to do something”?  I’m sure many a grown son can relate to frustration of a mother that wants him “to do something” – in other words, fix this problem, though I have no idea how you are going to do it.  In any event, it is here that Jesus performs one of his first miracles, turning water into wine. (John 2:1-12). 

The awkwardness continues into Jesus’s ministry.  Mark tells us that early on in Jesus’s ministry that ‘One time Jesus entered a house, and the crowds began to gather again. Soon he and his disciples couldn’t even find time to eat. When his family heard what was happening, they tried to take him away. ‘He’s out of his mind’ they said.”  (Mark 3:20-21).   

A few verses later, we read, “Then Jesus’ mother and brothers came to see him. They stood outside and sent word for him to come out and talk with them. There was a crowd sitting around Jesus, and someone said, ‘Your mother and your brothers are outside asking for you.’  Jesus replied, ‘Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?’ Then he looked at those around him and said, ‘Look, these are my mother and brothers. Anyone who does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.’” (Mark 3:31-33) 

Once again see the panicked parent of Mary.  She learns that Jesus has been so busy preaching, teaching, and healing that he has not been eating – he has not been cleaning his plate.  Mary wonders if her son has gone mad!  So apparently at this juncture, Mary still didn’t know.  Later, she and his brothers are outside a house ready to grab him – a family intervention.  John’s gospel collaborates this by telling us that even his brothers didn’t believe in him. (John 7:5).   

And Jesus doesn’t help matters when he implies that his family extends beyond shared DNA.  This is a theme that he will repeat again in his ministry.  It seems that Mary may have become something of a celebrity – the mother of the prophet from Nazareth.  For while Jesus was speaking, a woman shouts out, ““God bless your mother—the womb from which you came, and the breasts that nursed you!”  Jesus doesn’t argue with her, but replies with “But even more blessed are all who hear the word of God and put it into practice.”  (Luke 11:27-28 NLT).  That is a powerful and scary thought – we can be more blessed than Mother Mary, if we hear the word of God and put it into practice. 

Our final scene is of Mary at foot of the cross.  Whatever misunderstandings she and her firstborn son had are now in the past.  From the cross, Jesus tells his mother, ““Dear woman, here is your son” as he asks the mysterious “beloved disciple” to provide for his mother.  Strange is it not, that even from the cross, Jesus was showing concern for others, especially his mother. 

One of my favorite pieces of art is the Pietà by Michelangelo of Sistine Chapel fame.  I have a replica of it that I bring out every Easter season.  It is a statue of Mary holding the body of her deceased son.  It is a powerful reminder of the Jesus’s humanity – that his own mother had to watch him die, something that no mother should have to go through.  At a time, when Jesus had been deserted by those closest to him, he was able to look down and see the one person who was there for him from the beginning to the end – his mom. 

And Mary surely remembered the prophecy from long ago, “And a sword will pierce your very soul.” 

Mary is rightly remembered at Christmas, but her love for Jesus led her from the stable to the cross.  For this reason, Mother Mary is a heroine of Easter.

One was the wife of a high-ranking palace official, watching the inner workings of a reckless ruler.  The other was the wife of a governor appointed by the most powerful man in the world.  On one fateful Friday, they both crossed paths with one who held no political power but was accused of being a king.  Their names were Joanna and Procula, wives of political insiders and witnesses of the trial and death of Jesus of Nazareth.  Together, they represent the faithfulness of the women in both the region of Galilee and the city of Jerusalem. 

Our story begins with not with Joanna and Jesus, but rather Herod Antipas and John the Baptist.  Following the death of King Herod the Great, Caesar Augustus decided the Kingdom of Jews needed to be broken up with the sons of Herod given smaller pieces of the kingdom while a Roman governor controlled the lion’s share of the province of Judea with its Holy City of Jerusalem.  Herod Antipas was given the small province of Galilee to rule and to make a name for himself. 

And oh, how he did.  He broke the heart of his first wife, an Arabian princess, by abandoning her and stealing his brother Phillip’s wife, Herodias.  Such a scandal had to make life difficult for those who worked near and for Herod Antipas, including his steward Chuza and his wife Joanna.  I doubt Joanna enjoyed being near Herodias or her daughter Salome.  Being a righteous person, she disapproved how her husband’s boss Herod Antipas had stolen and incestuously married Herodias, his brother’s ex-wife and niece.   She had to bite her tongue.  John the Baptist didn’t.  He called out Herod Antipas for his marital sins.  Herodias had Herod Antipas to place John the Baptist in the dungeon.  She wanted John the Baptist to be executed. 

But Herod Antipas had respect for John the Baptist, “knowing that he was a good and holy man, he protected him. Herod was greatly disturbed whenever he talked with John, but even so, he liked to listen to him.” (Mark 6:29 NLT).  Perhaps Chuza and Joanna were present when Herod Antipas spoke to John the Baptist.  Unfortunately, they were probably also present at Herod Antipas’s birthday party when “ his high government officials, army officers, and the leading citizens of Galilee” were present.  Salome performed a risqué dance that greatly pleased her great-uncle.  When he promised her anything, Salome and her mother Herodias saw their chance.  They asked for the head of John the Baptist.  Chuza and Joanna were horrified when Salome came prancing and dancing with the head of John on a platter. 

But John’s life was not in vain.  Joanna had listened carefully as John spoke about one who was coming after him.  Joanna found Jesus who healed her of her disease.  Out of gratitude and love, Joanna and several other women joined Jesus for one of his tours and provided financial reports.  As Luke puts it, “Soon afterward Jesus began a tour of the nearby towns and villages, preaching and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom of God. He took his twelve disciples with him, along with some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases. Among them were Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons; Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s business manager; Susanna; and many others who were contributing from their own resources to support Jesus and his disciples.” (Luke 8:1-3 NLT). 

Word even reached back to Herod Antipas that Joanna and others had been healed by Jesus.  But who was this Jesus?  Luke picks up the story with “When Herod Antipas, the ruler of Galilee, heard about everything Jesus was doing, he was puzzled. Some were saying that John the Baptist had been raised from the dead.  Others thought Jesus was Elijah or one of the other prophets risen from the dead. ‘I beheaded John,’ Herod said, ‘so who is this man about whom I hear such stories?’ And he kept trying to see him.” (Luke 9:7-9 NLT). 

Things came ahead during the fateful week of Passover. Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey on Palm Sunday. Throughout the week, Jesus is preaching and teaching in the Temple where all can hear him, the men and women, Jews and foreign tourists.  Among the visitors with her Jewish aides providing translation was Lady Procula, wife of Roman governor Pontius Pilate.  Pilate and Procula usually spent their time at the port city of Caesarea, but they would come to Jerusalem during the Jewish festivals to keep tabs on things. 

On Friday, both ladies crossed paths with Jesus.  For Joanna, it was when Jesus was delivered by Pilate to Herod Antipas for judgement.  Joanna and Chuza watched as Herod Antipas questioned Jesus.  Then they saw Antipas and his soldiers mock Jesus before sending him back to Pilate. 

Back at Pilate’s Jerusalem headquarters, Procula was watching her husband creating a bigger legal mess with the trial of Jesus. Procula did not have a political position, but she had some wifely wisdom.  She wrote Pilate a note, “Leave that innocent man alone. I suffered through a terrible nightmare about him last night.” (Matthew 27:19 NLT).  Pilate, despite finding Jesus not guilty, gave into pollical pressure and sentenced Jesus to death. 

Luke tells us that as Jesus is bearing the cross beam down the Via Delarosa to Calvary that “a large crowd trailed behind, including many grief-stricken women.”  These were the local women of Jerusalem who had listened to Jesus when he would make his various pilgrimages to Jerusalem.  Jesus being with Jesus though, deflected and reflected.  Earlier that week on Palm Sunday, the people in Jerusalem were rejoicing as Jesus rode the donkey, just as the prophet Zechariah foretold, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” (Zechariah 9:9 NRSV).  But the time for rejoicing was over.  Now was the time of mourning.  Jesus filled with sympathy turns to the women of Jerusalem and warns, “Daughters of Jerusalem, don’t weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For the days are coming when they will say, ‘Fortunate indeed are the women who are childless, the wombs that have not borne a child and the breasts that have never nursed.’ People will beg the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and plead with the hills, ‘Bury us.’ For if these things are done when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?” (Luke 23:28-31 NLT).  Jesus was looking past his pain and warning Jerusalem once again about the future.  If the Romans will execute the Prince of Peace, what would they do to today’s children, forty years from now, when they rashly rise and declare war against Rome? 

At the crucifixion, we find that friends were standing at a distance while family members were at the foot of the cross. John’s gospel tells us that “standing near the cross were Jesus’ mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary (the wife of Clopas), and Mary Magdalene.” (John 19: 25 NLT).  Matthew tells us that “And many women who had come from Galilee with Jesus to care for him were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary (the mother of James and Joseph), and [Salome] the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee.” (Matthew 27:55-56 NLT).  Luke, while not naming specific individuals, shows that they stayed until the bitter end: “And when all the crowd that came to see the crucifixion saw what had happened, they went home in deep sorrow. But Jesus’ friends, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance watching.” (Luke 23:48-49 NLT). 

It was these Galilean women who followed the body of Jesus to see where it would lay.  They rushed back to prepare spices for the burial, but they ran out of time.  The sun had set; and the Sabbath had begun.  (Luke 23:55-56).  It would have been easy for them to walk away.  But their love for Jesus was such that they wanted to perform one last act of generosity.  They wanted to give Jesus the proper send off. 

The ladies were in for a surprise.  On a Sunday morning, they were informed by an angel that Jesus is risen from the dead. Luke tells us that “Then they remembered that he had said this. So they rushed back from the tomb to tell his eleven disciples—and everyone else—what had happened. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and several other women [including Salome] who told the apostles what had happened. But the story sounded like nonsense to the men, so they didn’t believe it.”  (Luke 24:8-11 NLT).  More significant than seeing the angel, they saw the risen Jesus. 

What a joyful surprise that must have been for Joanna.  She had been healed by Jesus, she supported Jesus, she traveled with Jesus, and she was with Jesus to the very end. And in her mind, she thought that Jesus had met a violent end just like John the Baptist.  What Joanna didn’t realize was that in her last act of kindness, she was going to become one of the first witnesses to the Resurrection.  She would be a witness that Jesus had lived, taught, healed, died, and was buried.  She would also be the witness to say that the tomb was empty, and she had met the risen Lord.   

It is for these acts of generosity and compassion, that Joanna and her Galilean friends, and Lady Procula and the women of Jerusalem, are heroines of the Easter story.  Instead of focusing on what they couldn’t do, they focused on what they could do for Jesus.

In tribute to the Oscars, we’re going to give out some Oscar awards to the many men, women, and moments who have used media to bring the Bible to the masses through the silver screen, the television screen, as well as audio recordings. I hope you enjoy some of the behind-the-scenes drama behind these spiritual endeavors! 

Best Baby – Fraser Heston.  On February 12, 1955, Fraser Heston was born to proud parents Lydia and Charlton Heston.  Soon afterwards, Lydia received the most unusual telegram.  “CONGRATULATIONS: HE’S CAST IN THE PART.”  The telegram was from legendary director Cecil B. DeMille.  Thus, newborn Fraser was cast as the part of baby Moses in 1956 The Ten Commandments. Fraser did great and did not cry even when the basket began to sink.  Heston was also in the water in his swimming trunks.  The nurse provided by the labor department informed Heston that “No one can handle him except me.”  Heston later wrote, “I summoned the voice I had only recently used to face down Pharoah, ‘Give me that child,’ I said softly. She did.” 

Best Easter Villain – Frank Thring.  This Australian actor got to play two Easter villains in Biblical epics.  First, he played the philosophical Pontius Pilate presiding the chariot race in 1959 Ben-Hur and then as the scheming Herod Antipas in 1961 King of Kings. 

Most Seasonal – H.B. Warner.  H.B. Warner was a long career, but felt that he had been type casted when he portrayed Jesus in the 1927 King of Kings directed by Cecil DeMille.  When Cecil DeMille made his last film, 1956 The Ten Commandments, he arranged for the very weak H.B. Warner to be brought to the set and be filmed for a cameo as the elderly Amminadab who dies before being able to plant a tree in the Promised Land.  Thus, sharp eye viewers will recognize him both at Easter AND Christmas – at Easter as the dying old man in The Ten Commandmentsand at Christmas as the kindly drugstore owner Mr. Gower in 1946 It’s A Wonderful Life.  You see, Mr. Warner, you did have a wonderful film career! 

Best Touching Performance – Sir Laurence Oliver. Laurence Oliver brought Shakespeare to the big screen for many Americans.  With his mastery of Elizabethan English, he was a natural fit for the King James Version Bible.  He recorded a series of LP records of readings from the Old Testament and Apocrypha.  In 1977’s Jesus of Nazarethminiseries, he gave a powerful performance as the open minded and open-hearted Nicodemus.  When asked by a reporter if he was the “star” of the miniseries, Sir Oliver replied, “’There is only one star here, the star of Bethlehem.” 

Most Moral Authority – Finlay Currie.  Finlay Currie with his Scottish actor was delightful in playing supporting characters in movies, especially ones with moral authority. He portrayed the Apostle Peter in 1951 Quo Vadiscomforting the martyrs in Rome, the wiseman Balthasar in the 1959 Ben-Hur searching for the now fully grown Jesus, and as the troubled Pope who is encouraged by a young animal loving monk in the 1961 Francis of Assisi. 

Best New Testament Villain – Sir Peter Ustinov.  Peter Ustinov was always a joy to watch on the screen, especially as a historical character, and especially as a villain.  He played the mad Emperor Nero persecuting Christians in 1951 Quo Vadis and King Herod the Great the villain of Christmas in 1977 Jesus of Nazareth.  He “redeemed” himself, however, in his final film appearance, 2003 Luther, as Frederick the Wise, the German prince who protected Martin Luther.  He made for a great Frederick, while Joseph Fiennes was a rather boring Luther. 

Best Christmas Villain – Christopher Plummer.  Another joy to watch on the screen, Christopher Plummer was irritated that he was always being associated with The Sound of Music, a Julie Andrews movie.   He made for a lustful, but guilt-ridden Herod Antipas in 1977 Jesus of Nazareth.   He was the narrator for the 2003 The Gospel of John, a word-for-word filming of the fourth gospel.  In 2017, he played two Christmas villains.  He portrayed Scrooge in The Man who Invented Christmas, a bio pic about Charles Dickens, and he was also the voice of King Herod the Great in the animated movie The Star, thus portraying both the father and the son of a rather maniacal Middle-Eastern monarchy. 

Best Action Scene – The Chariot Race 1956.  This thrilling scene was created by the father-son team of Yakima and Joe Canutt.  Native American Yakima Canutt had made a name for himself in early Hollywood as a stunt man and his son Joe, who was close to Heston’s age, followed his footsteps.  Yakima had trained teams of horses for the race and worked closely with Heston.  Before filming started, Heston confessed, “Yak, I feel comfortable running this team now, but we’re all alone here…I’m not so sure I can cut it with seven other teams out there.”  Yakima replied, “Chuck, you just make sure you stay in the chariot. I guarantee you’re going to win the race.”  For the most dangerous part of the race, Joe Canutt served as Heston’s double.  He was supposed to drive the chariot over the wreckage of another chariot.  Without telling his dad, Joe unfastened his safety harness and flipped out of the chariot.  When director William Wyler saw the footage, he exclaimed, “We have to use to that!”  Yakima argued, “Don’t see how you’re going to do that.  I promised Chuck he’d win the race.  I don’t believe he can catch that chariot on foot.” Thus, Heston learned that he had to film one more close up shot – of him climbing back into his chariot in the middle of the race! 

Best Special Effects – Parting of the Red Sea 1923. Today, most viewers think of Charlton Heston dramatically parting the Red in the Sea in the 1956 The Ten Commandments.  And while that is an impressive sequence, I have to give a slight edge to the original 1923 version.  While not quite as dramatic, it really does look like that God is using his hands to part the waters. 

Best Composer – Miklós Rózsa.  This Hungarian American was a genius at musical scores and had a strong sense of artistic integrity.  He composed the music for both the 1959 Ben-Hur and the 1961 King of Kings.  The 1959 Ben-Hur particularly stands out to me and not just for its rousing intro.  Director William Wyler wisely decided not to show the face of Christ or to have him speak.  Instead, every time Christ appears on the screen, we hear the Christ theme.  For the Sermon on the Mount scene Rózsa created a piece of music that gave the listener the emotional impression that Christ was speaking.  Rózsa displayed his artistic integrity when he refused to give in to his producers who insisted that the tune “Adestes Fideles” (O Come All Ye Faithful) be used for the nativity scene.  Rózsa argued that the tune would be anachronistic and created his own beautiful melody for Bethlehem. 

Best Mother – Martha Scott.  Martha Scott was a talented award-winning actress, often appearing on screen and on stage with Charlton Heston.  She played his wife twice AND his mother twice.  She played Heston’s mother in both 1956 The Ten Commandments and 1959 Ben-Hur.  She also gave Heston moral support on a wing and a prayer in the camp favorite disaster film Airport 1975 where Captain Heston is attempting to land a badly damaged airplane while Scott as Sister Beatrice is praying and Sister Ruth (Helen Reddy) is playing the guitar! 

Best All Around – Charlton Heston.  No surprise here as his name has come up several times on my list.  Heston had a lived a full life on and off the camera.  Through the 50’s and mid 60’s, he was best known for portraying larger than life historical characters.  In the late 60’s, he transitioned into a science fiction/action hero.  In the 80’s, he became better known for his politics.  In the early 90’s, he began to experience a second wind with small but impressive roles in movies like 1993 Tombstone and 1996 Hamlet.  In the late 90’s, he became part of the political debate as the outspoken president of the NRA.  In 2002, he announced that he had Alzheimer’s, passing away in the spring of 2008. 

Forgotten during all the political debate and such was that Heston really did love the Bible, particularly the King James Version with its Shakespeare language.  In film, he portrayed Moses in the 1956 The Ten Commandments, Judah Ben-Hur in the 1959 film, and John the Baptist in 1965 The Greatest Story Ever Told.  He also portrayed other famous Church figures from the Renaissance and Reformation era: Cardinal Richelieu, King Henry VIII, and one of my favorites, Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel in 1965 The Agony and the Ecstasy.  He even starred in a film that at one point had the working title of “Our Second Adam.” While the title was changed, film critic Pauline Kael also saw the Biblical allusion, writing that Charlton Heston “is the perfect American Adam to work off some American guilt feelings or self-hatred on…”  But I still think that the title that they went with was better…..Planet of the Apes.  Heston, who provided the voice of God in The Ten Commandments, also played God in the 1990 comedyAlmost An Angel.  Heston also had a great sense humor as evidenced when he hosted “Saturday Night Live” in 1993 and did a hilarious Ten Commandments bit with Billy Crystal. 

Heston also used his voice for Van Guard records in the late 50’s and early 60’s to record a set of LPS, one based on the five books of Moses and one based on the life of Christ.  In the early 90’s, he produced a miniseries Charlton Heston Presents the Bible for A&E Television in which he presented his favorite Bible stories on location in the Holy Land.  As part of the project, he recorded even more material, especially the Psalms, for CDs.  In 2003, he was also a voice actor for an animated version of Ben-Hur. 

Another forgotten tidbit was that Heston was present for the most famous sermon of the 1960’s.  He and a handful of Hollywood friends were only feet away behind Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. when he gave his famous “I Have a Dream” sermon at the Lincoln Memorial. 

Heston, himself, would have three memorable Oscar moments.  When he won the Best Actor of Ben-Hur, he made a point to thank Christopher Fry.  Christopher Fry had rewritten all the dialogue, but had been denied screen credit by the Writers Guild of America since he didn’t write the original script.  The Writers Guild of America attacked Heston in the newspapers, and Heston coolly answered them.  On a less controversial note, in 1977, he won the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. 

For my third and final and comical Heston Oscar moment, we must turn to the 1973 Academy Awards.  Heston was supposed to open the show by reciting the boring rules of the Academy in a Biblical parody, “In the book of Genesis, it is written that the first day all eligible Academy members are asked to vote for nominations for Best Picture of the Year.  On the second day, the other nominations are made.”  Unfortunately, Heston was no where to be found. In a last second decision, Clint Eastwood was drafted. Eastwood was visibly uncomfortable reading the cue cards with all their Biblical allusions.  At one point, he growled, “Turn the cards, man, this isn’t my gig.”  Much to his relief, a hurried Heston soon appeared on stage.  Heston had suffered a flat tire on his way to the Oscars.  Heston acted like nothing had happened and started from the beginning, but then, realizing the humor of the situation, muttered, “I’ve should have brought my rod.”

He was part of an elite and powerful group.  While often quiet, he would often ask questions in the search of truth and justice.  He had two very different encounters with Jesus – one dealing with birth, one dealing with burial.

His name was Nicodemus.

Following the connection with Jesus and Nicodemus can be somewhat messy.  Nicodemus appears three times in the Gospel of John at pivotal moments in Chapters 3, 7, and 20.  One of those pivotal moments is Chapter 3 after Jesus has cleansed the temple.  If one takes a very literal approach to the Gospel of John, treating it like a modern-day biography, then you’ll think that Jesus cleansed the temple twice – once early on in his ministry and then a second time during Holy Week, and for whatever reason, each Gospel writer only mentions one encounter.  But if we view them as literary gems, then it seems that author of John has purposely moved the Temple Cleansing from the back of the gospel to the front of his gospel, much like how a modern-day movie maker, will use flashbacks and flashforwards to emphasize a point.  The author is seemingly making a contrast between true worship and fake worship.

With that theory in mind, I start out in the autumn of the Jesus’s last year in Jerusalem at the Jewish Feast of Shelters (or Booths) in John 7.  At this point in his career, Jesus has a reputation of either being a fraud or a mighty miracle worker.  He tells his critics “I did one miracle on the Sabbath, and you were amazed.” (John 7:21 NLT) referring to the healing of the lame man by the pool of Bethesda in John 5:1-15.  Later, the author tells us that many people believed in Jesus because, “after all, would you expect the Messiah to do more miraculous signs than this man has done?” (John 7:31).  This line of reasoning frightens both the Pharisees and priests.  They order the temple guards to arrest Jesus.  When the temple guards return empty-handed, they explain, “We have never heard anyone speak like this man.”  This angers the Pharisees who retort, “Have you been led astray, too?  Is there a single one of us rulers or Pharisees who believes in him?  This foolish crowd follows him, but they are ignorant of the law.  God’s curse in on them!”

And that’s when Nicodemus speaks up.  He doesn’t argue with colleagues.  He asks a question.  And most of the time when Nicodemus speaks, he’s asking a question.  He asks, “Is it legal to convict a man before he is given a hearing?”  Nicodemus has a strong sense of justice and fair play.  He does not like it that this fellow Pharisees have already judged and condemned this Nazarene without hearing his side of the story.  His colleagues angrily replied, “Are you from Galilee, too?  Search the scriptures and see for yourself – no prophet ever comes from Galilee!”

The Pharisees were wrong on two accounts.  One, while it is true that most prophets did not come from Galilee, there was at least one – Jonah, the same Jonah that sailors had left for dead, swallowed by a giant fish, only to wash ashore three days later.  Two, apparently Jesus had several admirers in the Pharisee party.   Jesus often dined with Pharisees.  He shared their belief in a resurrection of God’s people.  On one occasion, some Pharisees came to Jesus with a word of warning to save his life.  

And apparently there was a small group of Pharisees located in Jerusalem who followed Jesus’s career with interest.  Perhaps, they were present that December when at Hannukah, Jesus healed a man born blind.  When the critics said, “This man is not from God, for he is working on the Sabbath,” his defenders asked, “But how could an ordinary sinner do such miraculous signs?” (John 9:16).  I strongly suspect that Nicodemus was once again asking a question.

In a fascinating literary style, Jesus reappears in Jerusalem in John 12 for Palm Sunday, but the author tells us very little about that dramatic week, for in John 13 Jesus is washing his disciple’s feet and is soon betrayed.

I think that in between his triumphant entry and the washing of his disciples is where the events of John 2:13-21 actually takes place.  In John 2:13-22, Jesus cleans the temple. 

I suspect that this small group of Pharisees in Jerusalem recognized the temple cleaning as a prophetic act and wanted to learn more about Jesus.  Having discussed the matter among themselves, they agreed that Jesus’s mighty miracles, his acts of healing, were proof enough that he was sent by God, but they had questions about his teachings about kingdom of heaven.   Therefore, they decided to send a representative to speak to Jesus one-on-one.  He would go by himself, at night, to avoid the crowds.

Sounds like a job for Nicodemus.

Now Nicodemus was no ordinary Pharisee.  He was also a member of the Sanhedrin, the governing body of the Jewish people – within Roman Empire limitations.  Having to work with his fellow Pharisees and across the aisle with Sadducees, and occasionally with the Roman governors, he was a master of diplomacy.  So instead of just asking how a person could enter the kingdom of God, Nicodemus breaks the ice by saying, “Teacher, we know you are a man sent by God for not one can work the miracles that you perform if God wasn’t with him,”

Then Jesus surprises Nicodemus, by answering his question, before he asked his question.  “Unless a person is born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Nicodemus is impressed.  Jesus just answered his question, but leads to another question.  “What do you mean ‘born again’?  Can a man be physically born again?”

Jesus explains how a person must be born both of water and spirit.  Humans can only give physical life, but the Holy Spirit gives spiritual life.  And just as you can’t see the wind, but yet see it at work, so a person cannot see how the Holy Spirit works.

Once again, Nicodemus asks a question, “How are these things possible?”

Jesus gently points out to Nicodemus that he’s supposed to be the respected Jewish teacher.  So Jesus being a good teacher, if somewhat unrespectable, reaches way back into Jewish history to find an example that a Jewish scholar like Nicodemus would understand.  He refers to Numbers 21:4-9.  In this story, the Hebrew people are still wandering in the desert and are still complaining.  The Lord responds to this ingratitude by sending venomous snakes into their camp.  Dying from snake bites, the people ask Moses, once again, to pray for them.  The Lord answers Moses’s prayer with a most unusual response.  He commands Moses to have the craftsman to make a snake out of bronze metal.  This bronze snake is to be attached to a pole, and “all who are bitten will live if they simple look at it!”  Strange, isn’t it?  To be healed from snake bites, the people had to look at a snake.

In the Jewish book “The Wisdom of Solomon” written about 100 years before Jesus, the author also comments on this accident:

“For when the terrible rage of wild animals came upon your people and they were being destroyed by the bites of writhing serpents, your wrath did not continue to the end; they were troubled for a little while as a warning, and received a symbol of deliverance to remind them of your law’s command.  For the one who turned toward it was saved, not by the thing that was behold, but by you, the Savior of all.  And by this you also convinced our enemies that it is you who deliver from every evil.  (The Wisdom of Solomon 16:5-8 NRSV).

Jesus explained it this way, “And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.  For this is how God loved the world; He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.  God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:14-17 NLT).

I’m sure when Nicodemus met up with his colleagues again, they had a most interesting debriefing. 

Throughout the week, Jesus continues his teaching and answering questions.  Then either late Thursday evening or early Friday morning, Nicodemus is summoned to an emergency meeting of the Sanhedrin.  Jesus has finally been arrested and placed on trial.  High Priest Caiaphas point-blanketly ask Jesus if he is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.  Jesus, who has remained silently, quietly answers “I am.  And you shall see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Father, coming in clouds of glory.”

The Sanhedrin take their vote.  Did Nicodemus vote to condemn Jesus?  Or did he abstain?  I think he and a few others probably abstained.

On Good Friday, Nicodemus watches Jesus being nailed to the cross beam, and then watches the cross beam physically lifted and attached to a Roman cross, possibly an olive tree.  That powerful visual brings back to mind, what Jesus had said earlier that week.  Nicodemus catches his breath in his ah ha moment.  Now I understand….just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must Jesus the Son of Man be lifted up….and all who look toward him will be healed.  With this new insight, Nicodemus quickly runs through his mind any other scriptures that would serve as a clue to what was unfolding before him.  He quickly comes to what we now know as Isaiah 53, the funeral dirge, the Song of the Suffering Servant.  The Man of Sorrows.  Acquainted with bitterest grief.  He barely looked human.  We thought his punishment came from God.  But it was the sins of my people that he carried.  It was the iniquities of my people that he bore.  He was led like a sheep to the slaughter.  By his condemnation, we were forgiven.  By his scourging, we were healed.  By his death….we are born again.

Standing at a distance from the cross, the scriptures came together for Nicodemus, like a giant puzzle missing the box.  Somehow, this terrible death was part of God’s will, part of his good plan, an act of love.  Somehow Jesus had taken on the sins of the people in order to heal his people.

At this point, the easiest thing for Nicodemus to do, would be to walk away.  But he couldn’t.  The great love that Jesus had for him and for their people, stirred a love in Nicodemus for Jesus, even in death.  He would perform one last act of kindness.

Justice led Nicodemus to defend Jesus.  Curiosity led Nicodemus to question Jesus.  Love led Nicodemus to bury Jesus.

Nazareth was too much far away for Jesus to be taken home and given a proper burial.  Besides, his brothers would have nothing to do with him.  His mother Mary was at the foot of the cross, sobbing and weeping. She did not have the physical or the emotional capacity to carry out that task.  The thought of Jesus’s body being tossed into a wheelbarrow and thrown into the local dump was unacceptable.

So Nicodemus and his good friend, Joseph of Arimathea devised a plan.  Joseph of Arimathea had an unused tomb that was nearby in a garden.  Joseph would use his Sanhedrin credentials to ask the Roman governor Pontius Pilate for the body of Jesus.  It was a risky gamble.  Legally, Jesus was a Roman rebel who was sentenced to death.  But Joseph gambled that Pontius Pilate would grant permission, given his seemingly reluctance to have Jesus crucified.  In the meanwhile, Nicodemus would hastily purchase the burial supplies – the clothes and anointments.

The sun was setting.  They quickly applied spices as well as some flowers from the garden.  They wrapped Jesus’s body in a long cloth, and his head in a smaller cloth.  But before they wrapped the head, following Jewish custom, Nicodemus takes a feather and places in front of Jesus’s nose.  The final test to determine if someone had truly died.  The feather did not move.

Finishing the job, they leave the tomb, and Joseph’s servants roll the stone in front of the entrance.  Standing nearby were a handful of women fighting tears.  Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus exchange sympathetic glances with the women.  The women understand that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had done the best they could in the little time that they had.  They were grateful that two men and quickly and generously provided a final resting place for their teacher.  The women silently vowed that they would return at first daylight on Sunday to give Jesus a proper burial.

For Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, there would be a political fallout when High Priest Caiaphas learned what they had done.  The political price was no longer a concern for them.  All Nicodemus could focus on was that he had just buried the man who told him that he must be born again.

Unbeknownst to them, they have a provided an invaluable service.  Early Christians would not have invented a story that two men of the Sanhedrin that had condemned Jesus were the ones who had actually buried him, while his disciples were hiding.  That would have been embarrassing.  But it was the truth and proves the historicity of the event.

In their act of compassion, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea had set the stage for the story of Easter.  Joseph thought that as the years went by, he and his family would rest near Jesus in the tomb.  Instead, Joseph had to purchase another tomb for his family for family to rest in him.  And not because Jesus needed the tomb all to himself.  On the contrary, Jesus proved that he just needed to borrow the tomb for the weekend!

One of the reasons that we celebrate Easter is because Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus are witnesses that yes, Jesus truly died on a cross, was buried, and on the third day rose again.