“Show Me the Way”
Our country’s cultural mythology tells us that “rugged individualism” was the way White people settled the American west. We are at least 90% wrong about that: sure, there was the occasional person who lived alone in the mountains, hunting for their own food and rarely even seeing another person; but the vast majority of people who migrated, for instance, along the Oregon Trail went in groups.
“Yay, God!”
We memorized today’s reading in my worship class in seminary. The professor seemed to be implying that this is the correct Biblical way to worship—it’s the model for what we might call a “contemporary” or “praise” service: It begins on a high note with songs of praise, keeps our focus on God, and then moves us toward a quieter time, when we will hear the Word read, proclaimed, and taught.
“Admit it”
Today’s passage from James is the scriptural backing for two of the traditional sacraments of the Catholic church: the anointing of the sick (formerly called Extreme Unction) and confession (now generally referred to, at least formally, as the sacrament of Reconciliation).
“I’m not here to do dishes.”
My first boss at the Council of Churches in Portland was an old-school kind of boss. He sat in the corner office and summoned me when he wanted something. He’d call me to come and go through paperwork with him at his convenience, without regard to what I was doing at the time. He would even call from time to time to have me make him a cup of tea and bring it to him.
“Hierarchy”
When we translate from one language to another, things get lost in translation. There are words that have so many different meanings that you have to choose one as you translate. Or, as in the case of the three terms in New Testament Greek that are all rendered with one English word, love, there are simply no equivalent words in the new language that can fully communicate the meaning.
“Alone”
Do you remember the show Northern Exposure? Before it made the unfortunate error a great many shows make (I’m looking at you, Moonlighting, X-Files, Bones, and any number of others), having the two main characters hook up, it was a good show, with a really interesting ensemble cast.
“How much is enough?”
So apparently someone once asked Andrew Carnegie how much wealth he thought was enough. His response was, “Just a little bit more.”
On the other hand, I once read about a woman down south, living in a tiny house with a dirt floor, trying to eke out a living on a meager piece of land. She received some money from the Farm Aid benefit, and somebody asked her what she was going to do with it.
“An hour of study is…”
Fred Craddock told some of the best stories. There’s even a book of them compiled by a couple of his students and colleagues.
I don’t know that this one is in that book; I first heard it in a recording someone made of a lecture of his, maybe at Northwest Christian College in Eugene, Oregon. He said he was guest preaching at a church somewhere in Oklahoma one Sunday. It was his custom to teach an adult Sunday school class when he was preaching somewhere like that, so he asked if he could do that there.
