Is This the Work of Your Kingdom?

Once upon a time there was a beggar who came with her begging bowl to a great king and asked for alms, for food, for anything that he would give. The king gestured to one of his advisers, and the beggar’s bowl was filled with grain. But to the adviser’s dismay, no matter how much he put in the bowl, it was still empty, as though it was bottomless. The king repeated his order, and the man sought to fill the bowl again and again and again. Finally, in desperation, the man cried to the king that the bowl seemed to eat everything that it was given.

The king looked at the beggar with different eyes, seeking to understand. The woman stood there with her empty bowl and patiently held it out for the offering. They both stood looking at each other, and the king finally asked: “Who are you and why have you visited my kingdom?” The beggar looked at the king and held out her begging bowl. She answered: “This bowl is the bowl of human wants and needs. It is impossible to fill, but it is the work of all those who believe in Allah, the most Compassionate One, to try. Is this the work of your kingdom?” And the beggar left the bowl on the floor in the middle of the great hall of the king. And she left.

[from Leave Her Alone by Megan McKenna. Orbis Books: Maryknoll, NY, 2000; p.95]

A Second Chance

On New Year's Day, 1929, Georgia Tech played the University of California in the Rose Bowl. During the first half of the game a player by the name of Roy Riegels recovered a fumble for California on his own thirty-five yard line. In evading some of the Georgia Tech tacklers, Riegels became confused. He started running sixty-five yards in the wrong direction. One of his teammates, Benny Lom, outran him and tackled him on the one yard line just before Riegels was about to score for Georgia Tech. Then, on the next play, when California attempted to punt out of its end zone, Tech blocked the kick and scored a safety, which was the ultimate margin of victory.


That strange play came near the end of the first half. Everyone watching the game was asking the same question: "What will coach Nibbs Price do with Roy Riegels in the second half?" The players filed off the field and trudged into the dressing room. They sat down on the benches and on the floor. All but Riegels. He pulled his blanket around his shoulders, and sat down in a corner, put his face in his hands, and wept like a baby.


A coach usually has a great deal to say to his team during half-time. That afternoon coach Price was quiet. No doubt he was trying to decide what to do with Riegels. Then the timekeeper came in and announced that there were three minutes before playing time. Coach Price looked at the team and said simply, "Men, the same team that started the first half will start the second."


The players got up and started out. All but Roy Riegels. He didn't budge. The coach looked back and called to him again. Still Riegels didn't move. Coach Price walked over to Riegels and said, "Roy, didn't you hear me? The same team that started the first half will start the second." Roy Riegels looked up and his cheeks were wet with tears.


"Coach," he said, "I can't do it. I've disgraced you. I've disgraced the University of California. I've disgraced myself. I couldn't face that crowd to save my life."


Then Coach Nibbs Price put his hand on Riegels shoulder and said, "Roy, get up and go on back. The game is only half over." Roy Riegels did go back, and those Tech players testified that they had seldom seen a man play as Roy Riegels did in that second half.


[from a sermon by Haddon Robinson: http://www.csec.org/csec/sermon/Robinson_4017.htm]

Called to Community

Several years ago studies were conducted among former American prisoners of war to determine what methods used by the enemy had been most effective in breaking their spirit. The findings revealed that they did not break down from physical deprivation and torture as quickly as they did from solitary confinement or from disrupted friendships caused by frequent changing of personnel. Attempts to get the prisoners divided in their attitudes toward one another proved to be the most successful method of discouraging them. It was further learned that the soldiers were not sustained primarily by faith in their country or by the rightness of the cause for which they fought. They drew their greatest strength from the close attachments they had formed to the small military units to which they belonged.
These observations help us understand why Christians need the group experience of fellowship with other believers to help them sustain the new life in Christ.

[from a sermon by Jim Davis: http://www.focusongod.com/Acts04s.htm]

Love Your Enemy

Her story is recorded in Philip Yancy’s Rumours of Another World, where Yancy  describes how in a Truth and Reconciliation hearing, a policeman by the name of Van de Broek  recounted for the commission how he, together with other officers, had shot at point blank range an 18 year old boy, and then burned the body to destroy the evidence. The policeman went on to describe, how eight years later, he returned to the boy’s home and forced his mother to watch as he bound her husband, poured petrol over him and set him on fire.

Yancy tells us that as Van de Broek spoke the room grew quieter and quieter. And when the story was finished, the judge turned to the woman and asked: ’what do you want from Mr van de Broek?’ She replied, ‘I want him to go to the place my husband was burned, and gather up the dust there so that I can give him a decent burial.’ Van de Broek, head down, nodded in assent. ‘Then,’ she said, ‘Mr Van de Broek took all my family away from me, but I still have a lot of love to give. Twice a month, I would like for him to come to my home and spend a day with me so I can be a mother to him. And I would like Mr Van de Broek to know that he is forgiven by God, and that I forgive him too. I would like to embrace him so he can know my forgiveness is real.”

I cannot imagine what having Van de Broek in her home must have cost this mother, this wife, this woman. I cannot imagine what her neighbours thought of her. But what dignity, and what healing and hope she brought through her love for her enemy, not just to herself, and not just for him, but for all who hear the story.

We don’t love our neighbours because they deserve it. We love them because they are our sisters, and our brothers, and because God, while we were yet sinners, loved us first. And if we want to live with dignity, it is the only thing to do.

(from a sermon by Debbie van de Laar: http://sacredise.com/blog/?p=691#more-691)

Light in the Darkness

This past week I read about a mountain village in Europe where a wealthy nobleman lived
several centuries ago.  He wondered what legacy he should leave to his townspeople. He made a
good decision when he decided to build them a church. No one was permitted to see the plans or
the inside of the church until it was finished. At its grand opening, the people gathered and
marveled at the beauty of the new church. It was a masterpiece.   But as the people admired the
new church someone said, "Wait a minute! Where are the lamps? It is really quite dark in here.
How will the church be lighted?" The nobleman pointed to some brackets in the walls, and then
he gave each family a lamp with the instruction that they must bring it each time they came to
worship.  "Each time you are here'" the nobleman said, "the place where you are seated will be
lighted. Each time you are not here, that place will be dark."
  
What a cute idea!  But, oh what a rotten trick.  That means that I am responsible.  Everyone
else is depending on me.  Without my light the whole place is just a little bit darker.   Will we
take up our cross [and our light] and follow Christ so that light is brought into the kingdom?

[from the sermon, "Choosing to Pay the Cost" by Pastor Glenn A. Berge: http://www.bottineauflc.org/archived%20sermon.htm]

Who Do You Plan to Be?

I am reminded of a story told by retired United Methodist Bishop Leontine Kelly. Bishop Kelly was elected to the episcopacy in the United Methodist Church in 1984, was the second woman and the first African American woman to be elected bishop of any major denomination. When she was 10 years old she lived with her parents in Cincinnati, Ohio. Her father was a pastor active in the community.  One morning as she was getting ready for school, she heard a knock on the front door. She ran down the stairs to answer it. There on the step was an imposing woman with a confident air. Only later did Leontine find out that the visitor was Mary McCleod Bethune. Dr. Bethune was a prominent educator and civil rights leaders, founder of a school for African –American students in Daytona Beach, Florida that became Bethune-Cookman University, and advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. She was in town to raise money for her school, an effort with which Leontine’s father was helping.

Bishop Kelly says that as she looked up in awe at this imposing woman, Dr. Bethune looked down at her, with no preliminary statement or question like “how are you this morning?” or “could you go get your parents?” She simply looked at her and inquired, “Little girl, who do you plan to be?” At the moment, the fifth grade girl had no plans to be anything other than a fifth grade girl. But the question started her thinking, and it came to guide her life, gaining more and more resonance as she came to understand just who it was who was asking the question.
           
  Mary McCleod Bethune’s question is a good one: “Who do you plan to be?”   It all depends on what’s in our hearts.

[from Alyce McKenzie's blog, February 5, 2011: http://experts.patheos.com/expert/alycemckenzie/2011/02/05/whats-in-your-heart/]

A Tribute to Grandparents

Every Grandparent can testify that if someone would have just told them that grandchildren were so much fun, the choice would have been made to have them first!

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She was in the bathroom, putting on her makeup, under the watchful eyes of her young granddaughter as she'd done many times before. After she applied her lipstick and started to leave, the little one said, "But Gramma, you forgot to kiss the toilet paper good-bye!"

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My young grandson called the other day to wish me a happy
birthday. He asked me how old I was, and I told him, "62." He was quiet for a moment, and then he asked, "Did you start at 1?"

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Grandparents have one thing God doesn't have: GRANDCHILDREN!!

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After putting her grandchildren to bed, a grandmother changed into old slacks and a droopy blouse and proceeded to wash her hair. As she heard the children getting more and more rambunctious, her patience grew thin. Finally, she threw a towel around her head and stormed into their room, putting them back to bed with stern warnings. As she left the room,
she heard the three-year-old say with a trembling voice, "Who was THAT?"

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"A grandmother is a lady who has no children of her own. She likes other people's little girls and boys. A grandfather is a man-grandmother. He goes for walks with the boys and they talk about fishing and stuff like that. Grandmother's don't have to do anything but...be there. They're old, so they shouldn't play too hard or run. It's enough if they drive us to the market where the pretend-horse is and have plenty of quarters ready. Or if they take us for walks they slow down past things like pretty leaves and caterpillars. Usually, grandmothers are fat but not too fat to tie your shoes. They wear glasses and funny underwear, and they can take their teeth and gums off! When they read to us they don't skip or mind it if it is the same story again. Everybody should try to have a grandmother, especially if you don't have cable- because they're the only grown-ups who have time."

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Grandparents are the only ones who have time to play.

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A grandmother was telling her little granddaughter what her own childhood was like: "We used to skate outside on a pond. I had a swing made from a tire; it hung from a tree in our front yard. We rode our pony. We picked wild raspberries in the woods." The little girl was wide-eyed, taking this all in. At last she said, "I sure wish I'd gotten to know you sooner!"

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My grandson was visiting one day when he asked, "Grandma, do you know how you and God are alike?" I mentally polished my halo while I asked, "No, how are we alike?" "You're both old," he replied.

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In the car my four-year-old granddaughter asked me why I was wearing the brightly colored scarf I had on. "I thought it would make my blue suit look much prettier," I said. After a moment's consideration, she replied sympathetically, "It didn't work, did it?"

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A little girl was diligently pounding away on her grandfather' s computer keyboard. She told him she was writing a story. "What's it about?" he asked. "I don't know," she replied. "I can't read."

[From Sermon Central]

Well, if the Pope Can't be Patient...

I once heard a humorous story about the Pope who was on a visit to America for a period of time. On his last day of the visit, he was delayed due to meetings and was unable to break away to catch a flight.

Since he couldn’t depend on his Pope Mobile, he phoned for a limousine. When the limousine arrived, the driver was joyfully surprised that it was the Pope who called for him. The driver became nervous and was beside himself. He proceeded to drive very slowly. The Pope became nervous and told him to hurry up. It did not make a bit of difference. The driver went slower; he wanted to keep the Pope in his limousine as long as he could. The Pope could not be delayed any longer so he asked to drive the limo himself. The Pope sped off and reached the speed of 85 miles an hour. The policeman who stopped him was shocked when he discovered the famous personality behind the wheel. He frantically phoned his police chief and said, “Chief, I have stopped a very important figure for speeding. I don’t know what to do?”
--“What do you mean? Give him a speeding ticket!”
--“Sir, in all honesty, I can’t.”
--“Why can’t you? The law is the law. Who is it anyway that you stopped? Is it the mayor?”
--“No, sir.”
--“Is it the governor?”
--“No, sir.”
--“Is it a congressman?”
--“Is it the president?”
--“No, sir.”
--“Well, then, who is it?!”
--“I don’t know sir! All I know is that the Pope is driving him to the airport.”

[story found at Sermon Central]