Sunday night was slow so I thought about

It was really slow last night so I had a lot of time to think various thinks. And to take notes.

I thought about some more the 40 years Moses spent in the desert and hope to make a post about that tonight or tomorrow.

Then I thought about infant baptism and plan a facebook note about that.

Before I left for work I watched part of a movie called The Final Countdown. It’s about a 1980s aircraft carrier that travels back in time to December 6, 1941. Mary got to see the whole movie but since I had to leave I will watch the rest of it later today. I have seen it before but it got me to thinking about

Time Travel

People always say (in movies about time travel) that if you can / when you do go back in time you must be careful not to change anything because that would alter the future, which is your present.  Really? The future has already happened so if you changed something it must have been part of the past anyway! For example, could you go back in time and somehow prevent your parents from having you? No! because then you would not exist to go back to the past etc. So, time travel is simply not possible! Besides, if you went back too far you couldn’t understand anyone or be understood. And I’m convinced that we would probably starve if we tried to eat what they ate two hundred years and more ago.

Still, I have always loved the thought of being able to go back to some period in time but always been afraid that if I traveled back in time I would arrive in the middle of a tree no one knew was there! Now that’s a bad day, today or yesterday! But I repeat, it just isn’t possible. Time is a straight line. The past is fixed and unalterable. Nor does it co-exist with the future. And speaking of the future, one of my favorite quotes is “Every step you take is a step into the future.”

Beam me up, Scotty

I have completely thought this through before but I was reminded of it last night. Star Trek had a transporter by which they “beamed” down to planets and other space-craft. And the guy in the movie The Fly had one too. “Help me!” Anyway, I have concluded that transporters will never work either. And why not? Because we are more than the matter that makes up our bodies. We have a soul. And when you take a body apart like that, you lose the soul. Besides, we are fearfully and wonderfully made. Even with all that modern medicine can do, I don’t believe they could reassemble all of my parts exactly as they were before!

Do I really think about these things? Oh yeah. And it is even easier when I am up all night and not really mentally challenged!!

Humility

A few days ago I wrote a facebook note about humility and humiliation. I have since been looking again at the words for humble in both the Old and New Testaments. I also looked up the word in Synonyms of the New Testament by Richard Chenevix Trench (R. C. Trench, 1807-1886, was archbishop of Dublin and professor of divinity at King's College, London and later Dean of Westminster Seminary). He has some amazing insights on humility, which I include below. The brackets [ ] are my attempts to make clear what he wrote. This is, of course, not the final word of humility. For that we need to search the Scriptures. But it is a good starting line.

ταπεινοφροσυνη— humility, humbleness, lowliness of mind

“The work for which Christ’s Gospel came into the world was no less than to put down the mighty from their seat, and to exalt the humble and meek. It was then only in accordance with this its mission that it should dethrone the heathen virtue μεγαλοψυχια [greatness of soul; desire for honors; pride], and set up the despised Christian grace humility … advancing so far that a Christian writer has called humility not merely a grace, but the treasure house in which all other graces are contained. And indeed not the grace only, but the very [Greek] word [for humility] is itself a fruit of the Gospel; no Greek writer used it before the Christian era. It does not occur in the Septuagint [Greek translation of the Old Testament. The simple word humble or low occurs numerous times, mostly referring to humble or lowly conditions or circumstance. Two other closely related words occur, as in Proverbs 29:23 Pride brings a man low, but the Lord upholds the humble-minded with honor.] In the heathen writers use of humility, the instances are few and exceptional in which humility signifies anything for them which is not grovelling, slavish, and mean-spirited.

There is, however, an almost prophetic foresight of humility as a virtue. Aristotle, having confessed how hard it is for a man to be truly proud [“Therefore it is hard to be truly proud; for it is impossible without nobility and goodness of character”; and pride is a virtue - “Pride, then, seems to be a sort of crown of the virtues”; then he adds, “The man who thinks himself worthy of less than he is really worthy of is unduly humble…”] — for he will allow no “thinking yourself worthy of great things”, which does not rest on corresponding realities of goodness and moral greatness, and he goes on to observe, though merely by the way and little conscious how far his words reached, that to think humbly of oneself, where that humble estimate is the true one, cannot be imputed to any as a culpable meanness of spirit. But if this be so (and who will deny it?), then, seeing that for every man the humble estimate of himself is the true one, Aristotle has herein unconsciously vindicated humility as a grace in which every man ought to abound. Christian humility is no mere modesty or absence of pretension, which is all that the heathen would at the very best have found in it; nor yet a self-made grace; No, humility is the esteeming of ourselves small, inasmuch as we are so; the thinking truly, and because truly, therefore lowlily, of ourselves.

But it may be objected, how does this account of Christian humility, as springing out of and resting on the sense of unworthiness, agree with the fact that the sinless Lord laid claim to this grace, and said, I am meek and lowly in heart (Matt. 11:29)? The answer is, that for the sinner humility involves the confession of sin, inasmuch as it involves the confession of his true condition; while yet for the unfallen creature the grace itself as truly exists, involving for such the acknowledgment not of sinfulness, which would be untrue, but of creatureliness, of absolute dependence, of having nothing, but receiving all things of God. And thus the grace of humility belongs to the highest angel before the throne, since he is a creature. In His human nature He must be the pattern of all humility, of all creaturely dependence; and it is only as a man that Christ thus claims to be lowly in heart: his human life was a constant living on the fulness of his Father’s love; He evermore, as man, took the place which is proper for the creature in the presence of its Creator.”

As I have followed this wonderful word throughout the Scriptures, I realized the best passages, supplying our strongest motive to humility, are:

Matthew 11:27-30
27 All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.  
28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Philippians 2:3-11
3 Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.  
4 Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.  
5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:  
6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:  
7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:  
8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.  
9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:  
10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;  
11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Jesus, the Son of God, was “lowly in heart.” He “humbled himself.” Can we do less? Humility or lowliness of mind should be our aim, our goal, our prayer. How the Church would prosper if it concentrated on humility and love. Each believer should focus on humility and love. I need to be marked by lowliness of mind and love!

The thoughts I think at night

Just a few of the thoughts I think in the middle of the night:

The New Year
A friend of mine posted about the new year on her blog. I read it and also noticed so many other people making a big deal about January 1. And I got to thinking. New Year’s Day has never really been a big deal to me. Oh, when I was young I was into fireworks and looked forward to shooting them on New Year’s Eve. And, when I was pastoring we always had a family night fellowship. But I never had the feeling that somehow this calendar day marked a fresh beginning or a new start or a time to make resolutions. It might be different if it were tied to some astronomical event like an equinox, solstice or a cross quarter day . . .

Would Peter be an evangelical?
What a strange thought! But I just read 1 & 2 Peter and that led me to thinking about his sermons in Acts and then to this question. I know he believed in Jesus and that the Scriptures are the Word of God and that we need to preach the Gospel like any evangelical, but consider his first sermon. This was his invitation: “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” Have you ever heard an evangelical give an invitation like that? Or what about this in his first epistle, “Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” I never hear evangelicals talking like that! So I'm just wondering if he would fit in most of our churches . . .

“It will make you happy”
In January and February we have certain items we are supposed to promote or “up-sell.” One of these is our 2 pack special on cigarettes. The company offered several selling tips including this first one, “Appeal to their emotions – It will make you happy.” Who knew that the key to happiness lay in buying 2 packs of cigarettes???

Michelle Bachman
When Michelle Bachman began to run for president I looked into her political positions. She seemed conservative enough. Then I heard her speak with that Minnesota accent! I thought, I cannot listen to her for four years! Well, two things have recently happened: (1) I took an internet test (consisting of inane questions) and they said I should vote for Michelle; (2) she is trailing the rest of the pack and being mostly ignored by the media. Now I want her to win and will probably vote for her in the SC primary! Tell me I’m not being shallow . . .

Long Hair
I have not had a hair cut in a while. Mary, who doesn’t care for it, asked me the other day just how long I was gonna let it grow. I know how long I would like to let it grow (long enough to have a pony tail) AND that Mary won’t like that at all! What a conundrum!!

Is there a difference?
I’ve been wondering for a while if there was any difference between humbled and humiliated. And to that I recently added embarrassed. Which leads to two questions:
+ if a person is embarrassed by some act is that person humble?
And more to the point
+ if a person is humiliated can they still be proud? Does humiliation itself produce humbleness? Or, is humility something else altogether?

And when am I gonna take that step and get rid of Netflix?

As I said, some of the thoughts I think at night between customers! Feel free to contribute any insights to my questions.

Observations from behind the counter – Working Christmas

I work at a store that is open every day of the year. Which means, unless it falls on a regularly scheduled day off, I work every holiday. Thanksgiving and Christmas are especially busy. And Christmas Eve and Day, when almost everyone else is closed, is crazy. What follows are just a few observations about working on Christmas.

I confess, for some reason, I had a hard time this year getting into the Christmas spirit. And the week leading up to Christmas day was terrible. People were out all night long. The crowds and busyness and rush-rush just suck the spirit of the season right out of you. I can’t imagine working in a retail store or restaurant that is non-stop busy. I’m sure you have heard the saying, Working with the public wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the public. I will Amen that.

Saturday night, Christmas Eve, about 12:10 am. A woman is in the store on the phone, wandering around looking for something. Finally, she asks me, “Do you sell wine?” I tell her we do but I can’t sell it to her now. She asks why and I tell her it is after midnight. (In South Carolina you can buy beer 24 hours a day except between midnight Saturday night and 7 am Monday.) She murmurs, “South Carolina!” Then she comes to the register and once again mutters, “South Carolina! Why is everything closed on Christmas here?” (For the record, I’m glad nearly everyone closes on Christmas.) I tell her, “Everywhere I’ve lived as an adult, everybody always closes on Christmas. Where are you from?” “D.C.” And I gathered they aren’t so backward up there. But you know what, I’m pretty sure she got off for Christmas and would be mighty upset if she had to work Christmas Eve and Day. She just wants stuff available for her. Which led me to this conclusion:

People in America are more concerned about convenience than they are motivated by conviction.

Which ties in to another observation:

America is a consumer culture, not a contemplative one.

There was a mild uproar over some stores opening on Thanksgiving night for the Black Friday sales. Yet every store open was packed out. I had people wandering around Christmas night waiting for Wal-Mart to open back up at 5 am! Kohl’s (an area department store) ran a big TV ad announcing they were opening at 5 am on the 26th. And I bet there were people there at 5 am, too. If a store will open people will shop. Americans are consumer mad, they just have to get out and buy something. I had people all night just coming in to buy chips or soft drinks or candy or cigarettes or to get $5 worth of gas. Just to get out of the house and buy something. I told a police officer last night, “If every store in Rock Hill would close for 2 days, we would have riots!” In fact, I have finally figured out why there was such a mad rush West in early America – stores were not open long enough back East!

So many people live day to day, they could not plan ahead for two whole days. I’m sure of it. They get enough gas or beer or tobacco for right now. And plan to do the same thing tomorrow. I know, I see a lot of people every single day, getting the same thing each time. There are people who come in 2,3,4 times a night and buy one can of beer each time! I have a guy who comes in every week day morning and buys one 35¢ pack of gum. And he brings exactly 35¢ each time!

One of the biggest fears in America is to have “nothing to do.” People are so stimulated these days they don’t know what to do with themselves. Contemplate? I’ll tell what I’m thinking about, Where can I go? What can I do? and Who sells what I wanna buy? !!

What you said got me to thinking

I’m sure that has happened to you. I was following a family conversation on facebook and a reference was made to me. This conversation was a potential minefield so I stayed out of it. (Just in case any family member involved in that discussion should happen to read this, I am still staying out of it!) I commented just to keep the facts straight, but it got me thinking. There are those who would say that is a dangerous thing, but I did it anyway!

Perhaps you are wondering, “What was said that would make you think?” It was suggested that because we lived in a house provided by the church we can’t relate to people who struggle having enough money. My initial response was, “HA! Obviously, you don’t understand – the pastor in a parsonage is there because neither he nor the church has much money.”

But it got me to thinking about my life. And money. Right now, we have way more money than ever in either of our lives. I guess we both grew up middle class, but middle class in the 50s and 60s was a little different. I like to tease Mary because when she was young she got to go to a pool. I tell her, “You grew up rich. We were so poor we didn’t even know people with a pool!”

I don’t remember much before being 10 years old or so (a lot goes into that and I would write about it, only I don’t remember!). I do remember Hawai’i. There were 8 children and two parents. All living in a small three bedroom house. Our next door neighbors, the Gumapacs had 13 people living in a slightly larger house (and they had cousins in Honolulu, 18 of them living in two adjoining apartments). I shared a room with two brothers. But my sisters had it really rough: 4 girls and a baby in one room! I don’t know how my parents provided enough food for us with only my Dad working. We never went out to eat, probably in part because they had not yet invented all the fast food joints we have now. Our big night out was going to a Shakey’s Pizza Parlor. We could watch them make the pizza. I always got a pepperoni and green pepper pizza, even though I didn’t like green peppers. No one ever bothered to tell me I could order the pizza minus the peppers! We got most of our clothes from the Salvation Army, but so did a whole lot of other people. When I was in the 6th grade I was a Junior Police Officer (crossing guards). We had to wear khaki pants, which in those days was poor man’s clothes. Then they changed it to blue pants. Rather than buying me a new pair of pants my mother dyed my khakis blue. I took a lot of ribbing the next time I wore my “new” blue pants! When we got into high school we began to get store bought pants. And since most people had very little money school lunches were subsidized and only cost 25¢, and everyone had to spend a week working in the cafeteria. But we were happy. I knew there were some folk who had more than we did but it didn’t bother me – I could beat most of them up, I mean, most everybody was in the same condition we were. Beginning with my 9th grade year, my Dad wanted me to go to school in the next town. So he got a “District Exception.” What he didn’t get was a ride. This meant I had to find my own way from Kaneohe to Kailua, so I hitch-hiked to school. In those days I hitch-hiked everywhere. But it is true, we endured all this while living in Hawai’i!

My Dad died and after my junior year we had to move to Nashville. What culture shock! The first summer we lived with my Grandparents. Some of us slept in a travel trailer in their driveway. We must have moved up in the world because we rented a house then my Mother bought a house. January after I graduated (another long story) I went off to the University of Tennessee at Martin. I came home in the summer and went back that fall. While at school this time my Mother re-married and moved to California. So there I was, stuck in Martin, TN. In the midst of all this I had met Mary and we had begun to talk about marriage. Long story short, I dropped out of school and began working at a Sonic Drive In.

Then we were married. I was 20, she was 19. I was working at Sonic and she was still in nursing school. Like college students everywhere, we had no money. When she graduated we moved to Memphis so I could pursue my schooling at Mid-South Bible College while she got into nursing. When she got pregnant I had to go to work full time and school part time while she stayed home with our first daughter. Eventually I graduated and headed off to the ministry.

My first church, Pensacola, was very small. As was the salary. We were there for a couple of years and then moved to Macon. A bigger church but not by much. After 3 years we moved to York. This was a little bigger church and more financially stable. All three churches provided a parsonage. This was part of the older way of doing things. But we weren’t getting rich. The unspoken arrangement was, “We can’t offer you a lot of money but we can offer a house for you and your family.” But you know what, I wasn’t in the ministry for the money. Oh, I know all about how a lot of pastors are doing quite well, thank you very much. We just wanted to serve the Lord. We ate. We all wore clothes. We were happy. As little as we had, our children had way more than I had growing up. My Dad had something he called the “Weak Week” box. If you were too weak to pick up a toy then it was put in the box for a week. Oh how that killed us because we didn’t have many toys. I tried that with my girls. They wouldn’t put something away and into the box it went. A month later we discovered it was still there! They had so many toys they never missed it. The “weak week” box didn’t last long at my house.

I’m sure we could have used and would have enjoyed more money when I was growing up and when we were raising our girls. But we were happy. It is true that at one point Mary went back to work part time as a nurse and we used that money for vacations and extras. And since we had made a commitment to being home with our children, I stayed home with the girls when she would work. Now we have more money than ever. Of course, the children are all grown and gone. Most of them far away! Of course with more money comes more taxes, ugh!

But let me stress again, this is not a thinly veiled response to that facebook conversation I alluded to. Everybody has to make their own choices and live with the consequences. It just got me thinking about our lives. We didn’t have a lot when we were raising our girls and even less when we were young. But we had enough. I have never been that interested in having a lot of money, anyway. Good thing, huh? ’cause we never did. Until now, or so the tax man sayeth!

Another favorite carol

My last post was “One of my favorite Christmas Carols”  about an old and obscure song that I had introduced to the church. The carol? "A Great and Mighty Wonder." And I said it was one of my all-time favorites. And that got me to thinking about another song I introduced that became one of my favorites – “From Heaven Above To Earth I Come.” It was written by Martin Luther for his son Hans in 1540. Luther, who loved Christmas, entitled it Vom Himmel hoch da komm ich her. Since most of us don’t know German, it was translated into English by Catherine Winkworth in 1855. (If you know and like hymns, especially older hymns, then you are familiar with Winkworth as well as J.M. Neale.) We sang this to the tune, Sagina (And Can It Be That I Should Gain – a hymn I believe every Christian knows by heart!) I hope I am remembering this right, but I think I remember the praise team singing the first two stanzas and then the congregation joined in on the third stanza. If not, that is how I always wanted to do it! Another great carol!

From Heaven Above To Earth I Come

ANGEL
From Heaven above to earth I come
To bear good news to every home;
Glad tidings of great joy I bring
Whereof I now will say and sing:
To you this night is born a child
Of Mary, chosen mother mild;
This little child, of lowly birth,
Shall be the joy of all your earth.

"This is the Christ, our God and Lord,
Who in all need shall aid afford;
He will Himself your Savior be,
Himself from sin will make you free.
He brings those blessings, long ago
Prepared by God for all below;
Henceforth His kingdom open stands
Open to people in all lands.

CONGREGATION
Now let us all with gladsome cheer
Follow the shepherds, and draw near
To see what God for us has done
In sending us His glorious Son.
Give heed, my heart, lift up thine eyes!
Who is it in yon manger lies?
Who is this lovely baby boy?
’Tis Jesus Christ our only joy.

Welcome to earth, Thou noble guest,
Through whom e'en wicked men are blest!
In mercy come to our distress,
How can we thank thy gentleness?
Ah, Lord, who didst all things create,
How cam’st Thou to this estate,
To make the hay and straw thy bed
Whereon the ox and ass are fed?

And thus, dear Lord, it pleaseth Thee
To make this truth quite plain to me,
That all the world's wealth, honor, might,
Are naught and worthless in Thy sight.
Ah! dearest Jesus, Holy Child,
Make Thee a bed, soft, undefiled,
Within my heart, that it may be
A quiet chamber kept for Thee.

My heart for very joy doth leap,
My lips no more can silence keep;
I too must sing with joyful tongue
That sweetest ancient cradle-song—
Glory to God in highest Heaven,
Who unto man His Son hath given!
While angels sing with pious mirth
A glad new year to all the earth

One of my favorite Christmas Carols

We went to church this morning and sang Christmas Carols. That was nice. And how those brethren sang! As we sang, I remembered that I regularly introduced a new Christmas Carol every year. Usually some really old obscure song that I had discovered. You see, I had learned that old Christmas songs had really great words, and if we could learn them they would be brand new songs to us.

One of my all-time favorites is "A Great and Mighty Wonder." This was written in the 7th century by St. Germanus and the original title was μεγα και παραδοξον Θαυμα. It had been translated into English by John Mason Neale (who translated a lot of ancient songs). All of this was in its favor. All we had to do was learn the tune. The hymnbook had put it to Ellacombe (The Day of Resurrection, another old hymn also translated by J.M. Neale!), which is a bright tune and easy to learn. So we learned it and sang it every Advent season thereafter.

I love this carol and am enjoying singing it again. I hope you can join me. If you don’t know it or have forgotten how it goes, just grab a hymnbook and look up the tune Ellacombe. I mean, everybody has like 10 different hymnbooks lying around, right? OK, so maybe collecting hymnbooks is one of my eccentricities! But you can also go here for the sheet music.

A great and mighty wonder.
A full and holy cure:
The Virgin bears the Infant
With virgin honor pure!

Repeat the hymn again:
Repeat the hymn again:
"To God on high be glory
And peace on earth to men!"

The Word becomes incarnate
And yet remains on high,
And cherubim sing anthems
To shepherds from the sky.

While thus they sing your Monarch,
Those bright angelic bands,
Rejoice, ye vales and mountains,
Ye oceans, clap your hands.

Since all He comes to ransom.
By all be He adored,
The Infant born in Bethlehem,
The Savior and the Lord.
__________________________
"A Great and Mighty Wonder"
μεγα και παραδοξον Θαυμα
St. Germanus, 634-734
Translated by John M. Neale, 1818-1866