What is holy ground?

On August 25, 2012 a story appeared in the press about a group of freshmen Republican legislators  appearing to suffer the affects of a night of drinking, who jumped into the Sea of Galilee for a late night swim.  Rep. Kevin Yoder of Kansas removed all his clothing before diving in.  Last week he apologized.  None of the non-nudes joined in the apology.  They insisted that this was a spiritual swim for them.

Apologies are good and it seems to me, that those who give reluctant apologies have usually exhausted their excuses or that the incident has become public.  This incident happened over a year ago and the press and the FBI have made investigations which have recently become public.  So Mr. Yoder, your apology has lost some of its warm and fuzzy, so far as I am concerned.  I really can understand what happened;  all of us have done stupid things which cannot be explained in the light of day.  And, yes, I know that the Sea of Galilee is a recreational body of water in Israel.  It is not like the Biblical art picture depicted of Christ walking on water there!  I, too, have been to the Sea of Galilee  and realized that it was not what I had it  mentally pictured. 

So what was the big deal?  To me, it is simple.  You never know what is "Holy Ground" to another person!  To defile that ground constitutes a sacrilege to them!   In this case, the Sea of Galilee is an evident "Holy Ground" to Jews, Christians, on and on.  The Congressional delegation should have received full briefing on what to do and what not to do to show respect.  My tour group certainly was well-briefed on these things!  Should we expect more or less from representatives of the government?

The Bible gives two instances of using the term "Holy Ground", one in the Old Testament (Ex. 3:5) and one in New Testament (Acts 7:33).  Both were referring to the time when God spoke to Moses on Mt. Horeb from the burning bush and said that this was holy ground.  The "Holy Ground" was not the bush or the bush afire.  The ground and the bush were sacred because of the presence of God there.

We all need to be mindful of what is sacred to another.  It will not have a florescent sign on it!  But the "Do Not Enter" connotation is there in another person's heart and mind!

My friend, Kim Mothershead

Kim Vance Mothershead died this week at the age of 53.   She has been a friend since she was a student, she was in my Sunday School Class when she married, and we have been long-term friends.  I normally go to the visitation or the funeral service but I went to both for Kim.   At the visitation, I stood in line for over two hours and the church this morning was packed.   It was a time of sadness at her passing but rejoicing in her life.

The Southeast Missourian called me for an interview about her and I said these things:  I described her as a person of joy and added:  "Anytime you were with her the world would be lighter and brighter" and then I summed up her contributions as:  "The intensity of her interest was such that in whatever she did, she was not content to be ordinary."

One of the ironic parts of all of the people who came to either service or visitation was how many talked about what a valued friend she was.   When she spied you anywhere, she made you feel that it was a thrill to her to see you.  She made the experience and the day brighter just by her presence.

Friendship is a wonderful thing.  I love my friends.  I love it when they tell me that I have played a special part in their life.   It makes life meaningful and makes me so grateful for the experiences that have been mine.  

I think of the love between David and Jonathan in the Bible and all the relationships that jump from its pages.  I learned the verse "A friend loveth at all times" and have said that often to Harriett Goodin and Rosalie Oliver when we have been peeved with each other,  pointing out that that verse came from Scripture.

Kim and I were kindred spirits and we did love at all times.   I shall miss her joy but I will seek to be a part of her joy constantly.  I hope that someone feels "that the world was lighter and brighter when I was there."  Help me, Lord, to be a more caring friend to those along the way.  RIP Kim Vance Mothershead.

Colin is engaged!

I was sitting at home on Saturday night when the phone rang.  It was my grandson, Colin Dyer, in Cincinnati.  His first words were:  "Mamaw, I asked her and she said yes!"   No further translation was necessary.  He asked Adrienne Mary to marry him and she agreed!  I felt as though I was a real part of the "ask" since they were in the restaurant still.  So happy for both of them and for all of us as a family!

He told me that he had designed the ring.  Colin is an artist!  I commanded him to take a picture of the ring and them and send it to me on the computer.  Well, it was a huge request, at least.  Colin laughed and said it was on its way.  And it was!

Ephesians 5:3  "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife.."

Rain, rain, come again!

This is Day 142 of the Drought Count in our area!   You don't want to be grateful for other people's misfortunes but we are openly praying that Hurricane Isaac will do its work in the South and keep enough rain in its clouds to douse us with its leftovers.  My parents taught me to believe in the weather and respect it.  After all, I had bragging rights to the fact that my grandfather, James F. Cooper, was a "water witch" in practicality.  People of Izard County knew that he could take his dowser stick, walk the fields, and when that stick flipped over, there would be water!  His wells never went dry!  I believed that sincerely as a child because I have walked with him and seen him at work.  And he never lied!

Not only do I respect weather, but I live in a community of farmers.   Every acre of ground in Mississippi County (MO) is solid gold.  They say that you drop in a seed and jump back so it won't hit you!  (That is an overstatement but it has some kind of truth in its kernal!)   But the  long drought has robbed the ground of its growing power.  The corn crops look like the crop has already been picked and sold to the highest bidder.

So what does all this have to do with theology!  More than one would think at first glance!  Remember the Scripture, "The Earth is the Lord,s and the fullness thereof: the world and they that dwell within."  (Psalm 24:1)  Proof texts of God's concern with the land and its bounty and the impact that droughts and floods have upon that land  and the people abound throughout the Bible.  I especially like Isaiah 45:8:  "Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down righteousness, let the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit, let the earth cause them both to sprout, I the Lord have created it."

God did create all of this and his eye is watching.  It's another exercise in faith - a dry run, perhaps!

Be Ye Kind, one to another!

Kindness seems to be a thing of mostly the past, these days!  It's a time in our history when you are not surprised at any random act of violence against a nameless part of society. 

 

 On August 5, 2012 a man burst into a Sikh temple in Wisconsin in a "domestic-terror incident" and opened fire on the worshippers that left six people and the gunman dead.  The congregation's president was among those wounded.  Some tried to excuse the attack on the temple by saying that the gunman may have mistaken the Sikh congregation for  Hindus or Muslims--as if that would give the shooter a "pass".  To most of us, there is no "pass" for this kind of conduct on anyone!

But to those of us who claim to be non-violent, religious or even peace-loving, this kind of unprovoked violence seeks an old kind of theological answer, "Be ye kind, one to another!"  It's a simple verse with huge unfathomable results!   Am I my brother's keeper?   Yes, you are.  Every day and in every way!  David Barry echoed this in his book, "Things that it Took me 50 Years to Learn:",
"A person who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person."

Christians should serve up kindness in their everyday path.  They should try listening for a change instead of talking.  They should avoid ignoring people who seem different.  They should try an overload of courtesy.  They should concentrate on random acts of kindness.  Kindness is a gift that one can give to others.  It grows and comes back where nobody knows!

Years ago my sister, Rose Marie, and I were in the car with our Mother and we played a game with her.  Our question to her was, "What one word would you use to describe each one of us?"  My Mother took Rose Marie first and answered, "Driven to succeed"  (that was really three words which I pointed out to her.)  Then she answered simply (l word) about me:  "Kind".   What a letdown!  It was almost insulting.  Rose Marie was slated, in my Mother's mind,  to become  a great composer and I was some kind of little, kind,  innocent who never succeeded in anything.   Rose Marie never let me forget the prophecy!  

But the irony of that one word all  but eluded me over the years.  Kindness is a virtue to be sought every day.  I wish I deserved that prophecy!  I would settle for that one-word description any day of the week. 

What about Separation of Church and State?

To day starts the voting process at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida!   All of my life I have watched both parties because I come from a "mixed" marriage.  My Dad was a Republican (one of four in the county) and my mother was a acquiescent Democrat!  I consider myself a Democrat now!

The Republicans will nominate Mitt Romney today if the hurricane does not blow them away first;  but it does not seem to be an "easy" marriage.  One of his problems is his religion;  Mitt Romney is a Mormon.   I turned on the television and Sen. Orrin Hatch, of Utah said he did not think that his being a Mormon would be a problem.  (Senator Hatch is also a Mormon)!

 

Senator Hatch also added that he didn't think that Romney should spend any time defending his religious choice;  Americans wanted to know "What are you going to do for us?"  But many other non-Mormons in the Party, especially conservative evangelicals, want a little more reassurance about what kind of religion this Mormonism is?

 

And me, I'm a Baptist  -- not a good one but once a good one if you measure "good" by faithful attendance, active in congregation type of standards, and all of my life I have heard the Baptist doctrine of "Separation of Church and State".  We ooze it at our seams but do we really believe it!  If we really believe it, then why would it make any difference about whether he is a Mormon or a Yoruban?

 

So I went to Barnes and Noble, bought a book called "30 Second Religion" and read the page on Mormonism.  This 3 minute theology overview says:  "For Mormons, God has a physical body (albeit exalted in heaven), Jesus is the perfect first-born Son of God and the Trinity consists of three distinct beings united in a common purpose."

 

What I truly believe in is the same thing I've long believed in!   I believe in the Separation of Church and State.  I believe that we should never allow a President to spew his religious views upon this country.   I am not for Mitt Romney but it is because I am a liberal Democrat; not because I am a Mormon-hater!

 

 

 

 

The Storms in our Lives!

  I am glued to the television set these days waiting to see if the storm hitting the United States right now, called Tropical Storm Isaac, is picking up speed or changing its course.   Some predict that it will turn and hit New Orleans on the 7th anniversary of Katrina and some are wondering if the Republican National Convention will be held on schedule in Tampa.  Weather commentators are predicting today that all people in the area should prepare for a Category 2 Hurricane and they say that the massive storm surges will cause a wall of water above the land 6 to 12 feet.

Weather affects us in so many ways.  Airports are shut down, people are called upon to change their daily lives and even the best weather people are stymied about the paths of the storms.  In the meantime, we sit and wait and pray that the area will escape.  Right now the storm is "barreling" to the Gulf of Mexico.  States of emergencies exist in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida  and they are preparing to ride out the storm in their life.  Bad things happen to good and bad people;  sometimes they just live in the path of a storm.   And sometimes they are a part of creating their own storm!

One of the most poignant stories of storm-coping, to me, is found in Mark 4:35-40.  Christ had been teaching all day on the Sea of Galilee, preaching from a boat to people on the shore.  A furious squall came up and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped.  All this while, Christ was in the stern, asleep on a cushion.  The desperate disciples awakened him and one said, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?"

Christ arose, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet, be still!"  Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.  Christ said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid?   Do you still have no faith?"

The winds of storm fall upon us, in many ways, and he promises us that he will give us the strength to cope with every disaster in our lives if we only have faith.

Mary Sue Hines is buried today!

I just returned from Carbondale, Illinois, where I attended a visitation and funeral service for Mary Sue Hines.  Her husband, Ron, worked with me at Southeast Missouri State University for 36 years and I was pleased to join a pew of fellow employees in paying tribute to her.  As we rode home together after the service, our fellow travelers talked about death and life and service.   The minister said in his sermon that Ron called the minister on Thursday and said, "Mary Sue has gone to heaven to be with her Lord."  This statement surprised us all because none of us had ever heard Ron say anything that was remotely theological.   So the discussion became all about the sentence!

The discussion kept going.   Do people get "theological" when they face death around them?  Do they suddenly want to know if there is anything out there and try to uncover, in a week's time, what takes years of living to uncover?   Do they want to examine the inner workings of the clock before the alarm goes off for them?   Whichever or whatever,  nothing stirs up a desire for theological answers like the feeling that the hand of death is lurking closer and closer.   As the agnostic said, "Perhaps I've overlooked something along the way!"

The Lutheran minister gave two Scriptures (both of which Mary Sue had selected prior to her death) and they both gave clues to her theology of death:

l.  John 3:16  "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."    The first clue to her theology was that Christ was "her" Lord;  she had put her trust in him along the way.  She claimed that promise!  She planned on continuing her journey in another place.

The second clue I got from this simple verse I had memorized in the Primary Department of lst Baptist Church was that God was an active agent in all this.  There was nothing passive about his act and he gave his Son so that those who put their trust in him would never die but would have everlasting life.

Pretty strong inner clock workings! And this was validated by a second Scripture in the service.

2.  Romans 8:38  "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

So, go on and take this body to Blairsville Cemetery and bury it there.  But Mary Sue Hines had her own ideas and her own theology of death.  She knew, by the Scriptures she chose, that nothing would separate her from the love of God.

Putting the watch back together!

Dr. Stagg writes in the foreward to his book:  "To understand a watch, one must take it apart to see what makes it tick.  But, if one wants to hear it tick, he must put it together again."

Most of us are not interested in knowing the inner workings of a watch; nor, do we want to spend any time putting one back together.   We only want to know what time it is at a particular moment!

The purpose of the New Testament, in the minds of many theologians, is to proclaim Heilsgeschichte.  (Sure, memorize that baby for a test!  It leaves you before you leave the classroom!) Heilsgeschichte is the story of salvation.  It is the story of God's saving acts down through history.  Pivotal to Heilsgeschichte is the Incarnation --the birth of Jesus Christ into this world.

So let's start on our road to putting the watch back together! 

A man named Frank Stagg

I have heard of Dr. Frank Stagg ever since I was a student at the Baptist Student Center in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.  I took Bible classes there and I heard New Testament Theology and Frank Stagg.  He was professor at New Orleans Baptist Seminary and then Southern Seminary for a combined 50 years.  I studied his book, New Testament Theology, when I was working on a Seminary Degree.

You can imagine how thrilled I was when he came to First Baptist in Cape for January Bible Study and I spent some time with him.  In fact, he stayed with us at the President's House on campus and every day that wintry week, the two of us would gather in front of the fireplace, and drink Mama's "float".  When he went home, his wife, Evelyn, wrote me and asked for the recipe.

I wish I had taped those sessions.  I sat at the feet of the Master -Teacher and heard him answer my piddling questions as if I was the most important intellectual he had ever met!   He told me of his views on pacifism "There is no just war!" and I pondered his statements.  He told me of his friendship and bond with Dr. Martin Luther King in the struggle for Civil Rights.  I treasure the privilege that was mine.  I also loved it in seminary classes when I could insert about this personal experience and the pastor boys would fall out of their chairs with envy!   I even told Frank that and his response, "If it helps, use it!"    Frank, you made me laugh and think at the same time and with me, that is something.

So I am going to take your words, digest them, maybe for the first time, and write on them!  Again, Great Teacher, you are making me think!  Give me strength for this effort!