Month: February 2021

Being the end of February the shortest of our twelve months, I wanted to share a few farewell thoughts to February.  On February 15^th, we celebrated Presidents Day about remembering the forty plus people who have served as president.  President’s day originally began as a celebration of George Washington’s birthday on February 22^nd.  As time went by, another president came along with a February birthday, Abraham Lincoln born on February 12^th.  Thus, some states had TWO days of celebrating. And then in 1960’s, somebody had the bright idea of combing them in a generic Presidents Day.  And thus, William Fillmore, James Buchanan, Chester Arthur, and all those presidents that you’ve probably forgotten got elevated to the Father of Our Country and the Great Emancipator.   And a day dedicated to remembering two great presidents has become the day of mattress sales.  Oh my.

So question: Do we really do a good job of remembering our presidents?

Let me share with you with what I experienced back in January.

Last year, as a nation, we had a very boisterous presidential election, and emotions ran high.  And elections are like basketball tournaments – somebody is going to home disappointed, and that’s perfectly normal to feel that way.  So back on January 20^th, as the new president took the oath of office, I was bemused by the number of copy-and-pasted “thank you” posts to the outgoing president on my Facebook feed.  Many of these posts referred to him as the greatest president in their lifetime or even history.  Now I try to be a good umpire.  I think that the previous president’s legacy can be divided to different categories: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, thank you Clint Eastwood.  I didn’t think he was the AntiChrist, but I didn’t think he was the Messiah, either.

And then I had a spark of inspiration, and so on January 20^th at 6 PM, I posted the following:

Thank you, Mr. President for all you accomplished in your 1st term despite tremendous difficulties. In the very beginning, the Democrat led states never even gave you a chance. “Not my president” was their attitude. They disrespected you, our beautiful American flag, our proud US Armed forces, and blue lives. The media unfairly attacked you for incompetence for the high number of deaths. Your wife was attacked over her gowns and spending. And in the end, you were cheated out of a 2nd term that you fairly and squarely won. We shall not forget you, Mr. President. And going forward, we shall, as you said in one your last speeches, “achieve and cherish a just and a lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.” – Tim Womac

That post struck a nerve on Facebook.  People were liking it and loving it and sharing it.  I had likes from people who had NEVER liked anything that I posted.  In 24 hours, it had 99 positive reactions and 5 shares.  I regret that it also caused hurt and confusion among my friends.  One friend, a talented musician, commented that he was so confused by this post based on my earlier posts concerning social justice.  A real-estate friend texted me and wanted to know if I was tied up in a barn somewhere being held hostage.  Another friend, a beautiful lady of color, unfriended me, because she thought I was being hypocritical.  At work the next day, my coworkers asked if my account had been hacked.

So on January 21st at 6 o’clock, I posted a second post to clarify things:

1 score and 4 hours ago, I wrote a post conceived in mischief and dedicated to the proposition that Mr. President Lincoln was a great president. The Facebook world little noted nor long remembered Lincoln’s achievements and words. Therefore, we the living must rededicate to the great task remaining before us: to see that this nation, under God, have a new birth of freedom.

In this post, I had a selfie of me in front of my Abraham Lincoln poster.  And just to make it super clear, I edited the first post to where it now read, “Thank you, Mr. President [Abraham Lincoln 😉] for all you accomplished in your 1st term despite tremendous difficulties.”

And this is where the fun really begin, some folks went back to my 1st post and unliked it when they realized that I had been speaking about Abraham Lincoln and not Donald Trump.  My favorite catch was a prominent member of the Daughters of the Confederacy who honestly admitted that she had to go back and unlike my original post when she realized whom I was talking about.  On the other hand, other folks started liking my post, and I ended up with 110 positive reactions.  So Honest Abe and Trickster Tim came out ahead!  

One friend commented, “Tricky, tricky, tricky!”  One dear lady posted, “I was so confused and I hope others were as well – sometimes confusion causes us to dig deep and really think. Seriously, this may be the best thing to ever happen on Facebook!”  And several people told me afterwards, they didn’t think that the quote “achieve and cherish a just and a lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations” sounded like our previous president, but neither they nor his supporters had bother to Google search it.  If they had, they would have learned that it came from the last line of Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, one of the greatest speeches of all time, and a speech that more of a sermon than a speech.

So on a Wednesday, people read my post and thought it had to do with Black Lives Matter, COVID, President Trump, and the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections.  And then on Thursday, they realized that it was about the Confederacy, the Civil War, President Lincoln, and the 1860 and 1864 elections.

Jesus told his disciples not to judge others.  But social media is all about judging.  We read a post and we respond to it, maybe add a comment, maybe respond to a comment, maybe argue with a random stranger.  Question: Do we read what we want to read?  Hear what we only want to hear?

Let me tell you a story from deep down in the heart of Texas. 

Preacher man Nate called on County Mayor Dave at the City Hall.

“Mayor, I have an urgent request!”

“Come in preacher!  Tell me what’s on your mind.”

“Here in our own county, Mayor, are two men.  One is a rich cattle baron, owner of a thousand head of cattle.  His neighbor is a poor man.  Nearly a sharecropper.  His most prized possession is his pet lamb.  That pet lamb is like a child to him.  Recently, the Cattle Baron had some visitors come in from England for a business dinner.  Cattle Baron wanted to impress his visitors.  Instead of serving steak, he wanted to serve them lamb chops.  He ordered his cowhands to steal the poor man’s lamb.  They killed it.  Cooked it.  And ate it.  Mayor, what should be done with such a man?”

Dave the County Mayor became very angry.  “He’s no better than a cattle thief.  He ought to be hung like a cattle thief, thrown under the jail. And he will replace that lamb with a flock of lambs.”

Preacher Nate stares at the County Mayor and pointed his finger.  “Dave, you are the man!”

Preacher Nate continues, “You had an affair with the wife of one of the county deputies while he was away on active military duty.  She became pregnant.  When he returned, you had the sheriff purposely place him in a deadly shoot out without any backup.  He was killed in the line of duty.  And then you stole his wife who was pregnant with your child!”

Ok.  My story isn’t original.  It’s a modern retelling about how the prophet Nathaniel confronted King David who had an affair with a soldier’s wife and then tried to cover it up with having the soldier killed in battle.  You see, as long as the names were changed, King David could easily see the right and the wrong in the manner.  He couldn’t see it as clearly when it was him.  As the late Bishop G.E. Patterson said, “There’s something about when you think you’re judging someone else.  When someone else does it, they’re evil!  But when do it, we were just weak.”

And that’s what happened with my presidential Facebook post.  When folks read it and thought it was referring the previous president, they either really loved it or hated it.  But when they realized that I was referring to Honest Abe, a number of them had to go back and change their response.  Interesting, isn’t it?

Now for me, it really makes no difference who is in the White House.  As a Christian, I believe that I am supposed to pray for them and respect them.  And as a Christian voter, I also have the duty to be like a good basketball referee and “call it both ways.”

I am thankful for the service of Presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.  One created the country with a birth of freedom, and the other preserved the country with a new birth of freedom.  But guess what?  They didn’t do it by themselves.  They had to have lots of help from their fellow citizens.

I wish President Biden all the best.  I wish him and my fellow citizens, four years of peace and prosperity.  And for President Trump, I hope he goes back into the private sector and finds great success in the business world.  In his famous “On the Use of Money” sermon, John Wesley preached to “gain all you can, save all you can, and give all you can.”  I sincerely hope that President Trump makes a couple billion, saves a couple billion, and gives a couple billion.  He can support St. Jude’s in Memphis, buy a rainforest in South America, dig wells in Africa, or a thousand other services to mankind.  In doing so, he would be walking in the footsteps of Herbert Hoover who was tasked by President Truman to help feed a war-torn Europe.  He would be walking in the footsteps of Jimmy Carter, who went from the White House to Habitat for Humanity.  He would be walking in the footsteps of George H.W. Bush who joined his former rival Bill Clinton in raising money after the Asian Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina.

Afterall, whether you are a president or a preacher, a plumber or a prophet, we all need to get busy and do God’s will to love our neighbors, not just on President’s Day, but every day.

Being the end of February the shortest of our twelve months, I wanted to share a few farewell thoughts on February.  On February 14^th, we celebrated Valentine’s Day about finding love.  I offer a few thoughts on lost love, looking at the relationship between Joshua and Jesus, Paul and the Professor.  I’m not referring to Joshua who brought down the walls of Jericho.  I’m talking about a former pastor who had the walls fall on him.

Back in 1997 BC (Before COVID), Joshua Harris, with a head full of hair, and being filled with wisdom and life experience at the age of 21, wrote the bestselling book “I Kissed Dating Goodbye.”  He opened the book with a parable of a couple getting married, but the bride is wondering why these other girls were standing at the altar behind the groom.  It’s a little crowded.  The groom explains, “They’re girls from my past. Anna, they don’t mean anything to me now, but I’ve given part of my heart to each of them.” Ouch!

In his book, Harris discouraged one-on-one dating, saying that it was practicing for divorce.  Instead, he advocated group dating and a system of courtship.  He discouraged displays of affections liking kissing and holding hands.  Harris has his fans.  But he also has his critics who found his reasoning to be faulty and legalistic.

Christian psychologist Henry Cloud, coauthor of the bestselling Boundaries books, said, “As a psychologist, I can tell you that there are people who look very good in a group, but they’re very different in a one-on-one situation. You don’t start to see how kooky people really are sometimes until you are in a one-on-one relationship where control issues, intimacy issues, and fear issues really begin to emerge that don’t emerge in a group.”  Likewise, Christian psychologist Debra Fillet and author of “True Love Dates” writes on her blog that “As long as we stick to God’s principles and deal with one another in a God-honoring way, we have the freedom to pursue relationships in the way that works best for each of us.” And lastly, you don’t have to be a Beatles fan to realize that wanting to hold hands is a natural part of a growing relationship.  

To be fair, this is not all the fault of Joshua Harris.  He was just a 21-year-old kid who wrote a book that was a mixed bag of good and bad ideas.  It was part of the 90’s Christian bookstores (remember those?), virginity vows, purity rings, and “true love waits” popular culture/marketing scheme.  It’s also partly the fault of a gullible public: you’re taking premarital advice from a 21-year-old homeschooled kid?

Now, where things get interesting is that that some 20 years later, Harris began having second thoughts about his bestseller.  In 2018, he asked the publisher to quit publishing it.  Nothing wrong with that.  But then in July 2019, he announced that he and his wife Shannon were separating.  Shortly afterwards, he announced that he was no longer a Christian. 

The young Christian speaker with a headful of hair and a beautiful wife was now a bald divorced nonbeliever.  The author of a bestselling book on finding love…lost his love and his faith.

What happened?

It’s a crash course in love.  The 1997 Joshua Harris didn’t believe in dating, because you would give a part of your heart away.  There’s a kernel of truth of that.  You shouldn’t give your whole heart away over a pizza with a blind date.  But in any relationship, you will give part of your heart away – with a date, a favorite customer, a student, a teacher, a relative, a pet. 

One of my favorite C.S. Lewis quotes is from his own book “The Four Loves.”  Lewis writes, that “To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket – safe, dark, motionless, airless – it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.”

Our love shouldn’t be like a pizza – where we are scared to give away too many slices.  It should be like a stream flowing out of our hearts – a stream to give to our pets, relatives, customers, friends, teachers, students, and even enemies who are thirsty for love.

I don’t know if Joshua Harris ever reached that conclusion.  I do suspect that guilt over his imperfect book lead him to leave the Christian faith and his wife.

Now can a Christian leave the faith?  Some would argue no.  The more sophisticated would say, “Perseverance of the saints.”  Growing up in a country church, we would say, “Once saved.  Always saved.”

But here’s an important principle about love: love must be freely given……and freely received.  For two people to become a match, they both must freely give love and freely receive love.  It has to be free.  No strings attached.  If it’s not free, then it has become a business transaction and perhaps an illegal one at that. To make a second Beatles allusion, “You Can’t Buy Me Love.”  When one party isn’t interested in receiving love, then somebody is going to get ghosted.  Attraction cannot be forced.  It can only be grown.  And when you try to force attraction, you end up killing the little there was.

God’s love is the same way.  God the Father is not the like the godfather making us an offer that we can’t refuse.  Jesus isn’t flipping a coin for heads/heaven or tails/hell to see who gets to be lucky in the afterlife love lotto to be predestined for heaven.  God initiates his love, and we respond to it.  We have a choice to freely receive his love or reject it.  We can ghost the Holy Ghost. 

I think the young Joshua Harris did respond to God’s love and the older Joshua Harris has what the Apostle Paul says made “shipwreck of his faith” (I Timothy 1:19).  Let’s talk about being shipwrecked for a moment.  The Apostle Paul knew all too-well what it meant to be shipwrecked.  My knowledge is limited to Robinson Crusoe, the Swiss Family Robinson, Tom Hanks, and a three-hour tour.  Recently television legend Dawn Wells passed away.  She was best known as the down-to-earth beauty Ginger on the old tv comedy “Gilligan’s Island.”  Now growing up, I was sometimes called the Professor by my older relatives.  The Professor was a brilliant man.  He could make anything out of bamboo and coconuts.  The only thing that he couldn’t do…was fix the boat.  Why?  I think the Professor had enough common sense to realize that he was in a tropical paradise with this beautiful, charming lady.  He purposefully wanted to stay shipwrecked, and I don’t blame him.

I realize some would say that Joshua Harris and others like him were never Christians to begin with.  I wouldn’t be quick to jump to that conclusion.  Why?  Because to be shipwrecked, you gotta be on the ship to begin with.  Thus, in my opinion, Joshua Harris went from cruising on “The Love Boat” to Crusoeing it on “Gilligan’s Island.”

You see, even God himself, gets turned down.  For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son….and the world crucified his only son.  Now anybody with common sense would say if I’m going to get rejected or later get ghosted and toasted, why ask her/him out?  But God knew in advance what would happen to his son.  And he sent his son anyways.  And as the Gospel of John puts it, those who did believe in him and received him to them he gave the right to become the sons and daughters of God.

I sincerely hope that Joshua Harris and many like him, hop back on the boat.  I would like to see Joshua Harris back with his wife and back in ministry.  He may never come back.  And God loves him enough to respect his choice.

After all, love must be freely given and freely received.

Note to the reader: This essay was composed by Dan Fisher, who, along with his wife Gayle, had been a member of Keith Church since 1982. He wrote it during the season of Lent last spring. He shared it with me in August as a portion of a lecture on ethics he was to deliver last fall. Dan entered his eternal rest last week at his home, surrounded by his family. I share his words here with Gayle’s permission. In fact, Gayle said he would have been delighted for us to share them with you. – Rev. Dave Graybeal

      Lent is a time of penance by abstinence and a time for thought. It has changed in length of time, severity, and proscription over the years in the Eastern and Western Church, and now in many Protestant churches.  The earliest recorded Lenten fasts of 40 days were recorded in the Canons of Nicaea in AD 325. In today’s western world the fast consists of giving up something that is especially pleasurable for the 40 days, with the exception of Sundays, from Ash Wednesday until Easter Sunday. The objective is to replace the thought of the particularly delightful item that you have committed to forego with a thought of Christianity each time the enunciated desire crosses your mind. My chosen enjoyable foregone item for fasting is wine. 

         My thoughts began this year with the question “What does being a Christian” mean? There are many simplistic answers, such as John 3:16 KJV “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life”. However, to me your belief should be your philosophy of life. Writing what you really believe is surprisingly difficult. 

         The first consideration should possibly be the Ten Commandments. From the Septuagint – Exodus 20:2-17 paraphrased, with input from Leviticus 19 and Deuteronomy 5:

1. You shall have no other God set before Me.
2. You shall make no carved image (idol) to worship, for I am a jealous God, and shall punish the children for the sins of the fathers unto the fourth generation.
3. You shall not use the name of Lord your God wrongly.
4. Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. You have six days to labour, but on the seventh you shall not do any work, for in six days the Lord made the heaven, earth, and sea and all that is in them, and on the seventh day he rested.
5. Honour your father and mother.
6. You shall not commit murder.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not give false evidence against your neighbor.
10. You shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his wife or anything that belongs to him.

These Old Testament dictates are fairly straightforward and therefore pretty well black and white. Do what it says, or it is a sin, and you will be punished.

         The next deliberation might be the Seven Deadly (Cardinal) Sins. These originated with the “desert fathers”, a group of monks who segregated themselves from the world (as in became hermits) in AD 200-300. The foremost of these was Evagrius Ponticus who went into the desert and for a number of years and thought only of the things he liked. He then decided these were sins and he wrote them down. (It was reported that he was caught with the wife of a Roman general and fled to the desert to hide). He and his fellow hermits became Christian heroes. His final view was that 1) lust, 2) gluttony, 3) greed, 4) sloth, 5) anger, 6) envy, and 7) pride were evil thoughts and therefore the basis of all other sins. Evagrius’ pupil John Cassian brought that tradition to Europe with his book The Institutes.

St. Augustine of Hippo (A.D. 354-430) who was generally recognized as the greatest thinker of early Christianity was intrigued by The Institutes and combined the Christian graces of faith, love, and hope with the Platonic virtues of just action, courage, knowledge, and temperance. The influence of Augustine on society was so profound that these graces were recognized as the seven cardinal virtues—faith, hope, charity, prudence, temperance, chastity, and courage. The fusion of the New Testament and the Platonic tradition of Greek philosophy led St. Augustine to believe that man alone could never achieve goodness because of the difficulty of living a virtuous life. St. Augustine concluded that man could not be virtuous by himself, therefore, God’s grace was the only path to virtue. In the 6^th century AD Pope Gregory (a particularly structured Pope) codified the original seven and gave us the above list of don’t’s. This codification became a component of theCatechism of the Western Church and was used as a principal tenet in confession.

So far we have a list of things that are good and bad, right and wrong, in black and white terms. Essentially the Old Testament was a set of laws that God had given the Jews in the Torah, as reassembled in the Septuagint (meaning 70 for the 72 Jewish scholars who were assembled at the behest of Ptolemy II  285-246 BC) for inclusion in the Library of Alexandria. The Old Testament was a pre Christian set of Jewish regulations and historic sagas translated from ancient Hebrew and Aramaic into Greek (which was the language used in Alexandria, the center of all learning in the world at that time). The library of Alexandria was said to have the most books ever assembled in one place. It was a home to beauty and tolerance of all ideas.

A new era in world history came along when Jesus Christ essentially fomented a rebellion against the Jewish political, religious, and economic system as it existed under Roman rule. In his time he was first recognized as a prophet, then as God himself as a part of the Trinity.

The New Testament is made up of many manuscripts written by people who knew Jesus or had strong belief in him, the most important of which are the Gospels; Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John that describe the birth, life, and death of Jesus. There were many Christian documents and the decision of which to include in the Bible were made in the first (AD 325) and seventh (AD 787) councils of Nicaea composed of the bishops at that time. It should be noted that the first two Christian churches (Roman and Greek) include 15 books in the Apocrypha (meaning hidden or secret writings) which are not in the protestant bible. My favorite book of the bible is in the Apocrypha because this is where I find a philosophy that combines Old and New in the wisdom of Ecclesiasticus. 

 As a young man, raised in a fairly strict religious household, I believed that the paramount tenet of being a Christian was a firm belief that Jesus was the Son of God and that “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” was the basic philosophy of my faith. 

I thought that The Golden Rule from the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 7:12 and the Sermon on the Plain Luke 6:31 was only a Christian concept. In my later education I was quite surprised (in fact stunned) to find that other religions had essentially the exact same philosophy, this Golden Rule. 

Hindusim – The Mahabharata  -“Do not to others what you do not wish done to yourself…This is the whole Dharma. Heed it well”. (c. 13^th Century BC)

Judaism – The Babylonian Talmud – “What is hateful to you, do not do unto your neighbor; that is the entire Torah; the rest is commentary; go learn it”. (c.13^th Century BC)

Zoroastrianism – The Dadistan-i-Dinik – “Human nature is good only when it does not do unto another whatever is no good for its own self” (c. 12^th Century BC)

Buddhism – The Tibetan Dhammapada – Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful. (c.6^th Century BC)

Confucianism – Confucius, Analects – Do not do unto others what you do not want done to yourself. (c. 6^th Century BC)

Islam – The Sunnah from The Hadith – No one is a believer until you desire for another that which you desire for yourself. (c. 7^th century AD)

Baha’i  – Baha u llah – The Hidden Words – Ascribe not to any other soul that which thou wouldst not have ascribe to thee, and say not that which thou does not. This is my command to thee, do thou observe it. (c. 19^th century AD)

So I had to ask the question – What is a Christian, other than someone who believes that Jesus Christ is the only son of God? What is this “new covenant” that we hear about? 

To get an overview of Christianity for the individual I will quote a bit of Galatians 5:14 “For the whole law can be summed up in a single commandment –  Love your neighbor as yourself”……5:22 …  “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, fidelity, gentleness, and self – control”. These are Christian attributes. Over the years I have learned that it is not what one says, but how one lives that tells you whether someone has these qualities. 

It is difficult to be a Christian. In times when we are attacked by others it is natural to do the opposite of what Jesus has asked. I am as guilty as most, and may have the most trouble reconciling the should do’s with the want to’s. In Matthew (written around 90 AD) 5:39 we see “But I say if an evil person slaps you on one cheek offer the other also”.

In chapter 25 we are taken to the time when God judges all nations. This was a distressing concept as several of many nations believed that they were the chosen of all to be favored and given the gift of eternal life. But Jesus was not hoodwinked. He quite simply asked – “Did you feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, offer water to the thirsty, care for the sick, visit those in prison?” 

The Old Testament seems to be based on justice, whereas the New Testament is based on mercy. Both concepts are undeniable as to value. Justice is rather simple “vengeance is mine saith the lord”. We as 21^st century Christians     (and maybe a few hundred years before) believe that we should do better each day. That is a slightly more complex idea, and certainly requires more philosophical thought.  And in my opinion it might require a much greater effort.

Given that every verse of all Christian bibles were written by men, we must ask the question “Is the bible truth?” If it is meant that every word is literally true the reluctant answer must be that each contributor had his own biases, lived at different times, and therefore there were many opinions about what God was trying to convey to us. If you read the bible as a whole the answer becomes much more understandable. The concept of the whole cannot be broken down into single verses, the meanings of which can be used to prove almost any point, or counter point, one wishes to make.  One of my favorite theologians said “The Bible cannot be read as a news release, but as a love letter”.

For the Christian it is a given that God exists. We believe that the universe and man was created for a purpose and that we are guided by a loving creator. We are guided, as conscious agents of free will, in experiencing the apprehensions and appreciation of each day. In my opinion we are given life in order to enjoy the beauties of the world that we choose to see. The divine splendor of achieving an understanding of eternal truth is the wisdom that comes together at the end of a life well lived. 

We are not accidents, trivial inconsequential parasites that have arisen by chance, only to disappear into nothingness when our bodies leave us. We are travelers together, our bodies and souls – companions in life’s journey. Mankind is the reason for the creation of the cosmos. We are put here with the objective of joy, unity and harmony with all that surrounds us and waits for us. 

Life is the compensation for death, which is only an interlude when we gather strength for that next road trip, where the destination is forever unknown. A place where we will breathe a fresh new air, see a new rainbow of colors, taste new wine, see beauty unimagined and make discoveries of the past and the future.

 In the words of an old hymn “We are Bound for Glory” so let us enjoy the beauty of the day, the company of family, of friends, and not forget that we are never alone in this heaven on earth that we see around us.