Children

Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me…If any of you put a stumbling-block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea.
~ Jesus, Mark 9

Teach your children well
Your father's hell did slowly go by
And feed them on your dreams
The one they picks
The one you'll know by
Don't you ever ask them why
If they told you, you would cry
So just look at them and sigh
And know they love you
~ Graham Nash (Crosby, Still, Nash, & Young)

And when I die and when I'm gone, 
there'll be one child born,
and a world to carry on, to carry on.
~ Laura Nyro (Blood, Sweat, & Tears), (Laura Nyro)

The quotes above invite you into a couple of ear worms I have this morning - two songs from my youth, two songs among many about how the past becomes the present, becomes the future. 

If you want a glimpse at the future look at how children in the world are being treated today. There is a wide range from total neglect and cruelty to obsessive attention and smothering love. Countless children are born into fear, poverty, and violence, while others come into comfort, wealth, and safety. The divides that exist in the world today become tomorrow's, or not, depending on how we welcome, teach, and nurture all children, not just our own.

Today, as the song says, "there'll be one child born," one child, and another, and another and... "and a world to carry on."  May we do our part to "teach them well."
  

A Father's Day To Remember

On Father's Day this past Sunday I remembered something that Peg and I experienced on Father's Day back in 1976. My reflections on that day were subsequently published in a religious weekly publication in 1981. It took me a couple of days to find my yellowing copy. So I'm sharing it now.  

On a technical note, in order to make it readable I inserted a large photo copy that requires using the vertical and horizontal scrolling bars on a computer and/or the zoom functions on phones and tablets. Sorry for this inconvenience. I hope you are able to read and enjoy. 

Believing

"Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe." ~ Thomas - John 20:26

"Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."  ~ Jesus - John 20:29

"A man [sic] hears what he [sic] wants to hear and disregards the rest." ~ Paul Simon - The Boxer

"I'll believe it when I experience it," said a deputy sheriff as we told him about the good experience friends had at the local small community hospital. "Don't go there unless you have to," one person after another told us. But our friends "had to." And what they discovered was a hospital under new management, a recently remodeled facility, a friendly, efficient staff and highly qualified physicians -some local and some resourced from other "big city" hospitals. The once inefficient, sketchy hospital has evidently taken a turn for the better.  It is changing.  But that doesn't change the past experiences of many people in the community who continue to believe their hospital is bad.

Which comes first - belief or experience?  In the Gospel of John, Jesus' disciple, Thomas, won't believe Jesus is alive until he sees and touches his wounds. Then Jesus blesses everyone who will believe without seeing and touching.

There are also those who say, "I can't believe this is happening." in spite of their experience and evidence all around them - hearing and seeing what they want to hear and see.

Believing can save us or it can lead us into destruction. What we believe, how we believe, and why we believe is a tricky thing.  I really believe this!

"words" Expressing Word

“Words make worlds” — because it’s true...language in poetry is magical language. It creates a world. It summons a world into being. The existential necessity of poetry — lyric poetry and song — emerges from the magical power of language to create worlds that dramatize both our experience of disorder and our need for order — vividly present, both.   

~ Gregory Orr, from On Being with Krista Tippett

In the beginning is the Word. The Word becomes flesh and lives among us.  

~ John 1:1, 14, my paraphrase

Language constitutes our reality. It is the expression of the human experience of the essence of existence. The Word (Logos) is the embodiment, the becoming flesh, of experience. And words give shape and meaning to The Word. 

My Old Testament professor at Columbia Seminary, Walter Brueggemann, once said in a lecture, "Yahweh lives on the lips of Israel's praise." This is truly Incarnation! If this is also true in our time, that God lives on our lips, then God may very well be on life support today.

In the same interview quoted above, Gregory Orr shares the following lines from William Wordsworth:

“Let’s remake the world with words.
 Not frivolously, nor 
To hide from what we fear,
 But with a purpose. Let’s remove
 the dust of custom so things
 shine again, each object arrayed 
In its robe of original light. And then we’ll see the world
 As if for the first time.
As once we gazed at the beloved
 Who was gazing at us.”

In order for humanity to survive and thrive we must "remove the dust" of the current, rampant abuse of language, stop "tweeting," and sing in full measure of the great goodness of all people and all creation. 

Words matter. Language makes a difference. We must pay attention to what we say, write, and hear because in the end "The Word" is expressed through our "words."