Carl Sagan was no friend of Christianity. He was no- nonsense kind of scientist who took every opportunity to articulate the belief that faith and revelation offered little to modern people other than a false sense of comfort. When he discovered that he was very ill, he remained consistent with what he had preached: he said that his death would end all that he had been.
Sagan was brilliant. So brilliant in fact that most Christians could do little more than get angry at his words. For some time rational discourse has not been the strong suit of American Christianity so. Carl Sagan had no Christian peer to challenge his beliefs and bring him comfort in his own hour of need, Or did he?
As it turns out, a member of Christ Church, a man largely unknown in our congregation, became the instrument God chose to send to Sagan’s in his final weeks. The man’s name is Friedrich Schuening, a highly respected hematologist.
How Dr. Schuening became a hematologist is a fascinating story. He was born in the final days of World War II, as his native country was burning to the ground. The Russians and the Americans were occupying the ruins and Germans were terrified about their future. Friedrich grew up in those ruins. He was a member of a generation whose heritage had been squandered and his country humiliated.
He decided to become a minister. So, after he graduated from college, he went to seminary. He loved the seminary’s demanding curriculum. However, when he was ready to graduate he realized that he had a problem: he was shy. He didn’t believe he could actually preach. So, he started over, this time in medical school. When he had finished there, he had been studying at the university for sixteen years! After serving in various German hospitals, he had an opportunity to work in the United States. He though it would be a temporary assignment. But God had other plans.
That’s why, when Carl Sagan discovered that he would need the best care possible, God had a servant ready to serve him. When the curtains were pulled, the cameras were gone, and the reporters were outside, Sagan was alone with a minister of the gospel wearing a white coat. This doctor/theologian had struggled for a long time about whether he had done the right thing in choosing medical school over church work. Like Phillip in the Book of Acts, the Holy Spirit had moved a man of God a long distance in order to speak to one man who needed a message of hope. Had it been a mistake? Had he been faithful to his calling?
I would like to tell you that Sagan made a profession of faith and in his final days came to know Christ. I cannot say that. However, I can say that when Sagan’s final hours came, Christ had a representative speaking and acting on his behalf to offer the great scientist hope and care.
I have written several times these last few days now about Patricia Cross is a representative of Christ in our inner city. I thought it would be important for you to know God has agents working among the mightiest and the most famous too. For our Lord is no respecter of persons. He loves the poor. But he doesn’t forget the rich. In the end, we all have the same need for grace and love. Dr. Schuening was fully prepared to serve the poor and the needy but God called him to the mighty and the influential. The important thing is to obey God at each step of life so we end up doing what He wants. When we do that, we are successful.
The Psalm this morning said, “I have considered my ways and turned my feet toward your decrees.” (Psalm 119:59) Both Patricia Cross and Friedrich Schuening are servants of God. AT important moments in life, they have “considered their ways and turned their feet toward God’s decrees.” At one point, Dr. Schuening feared that he might be turning away from God’s call. It seemed strange that God would call him away from pastoral ministry. However, God wanted him to minister in a place that required a different sort of preparation than either seminary or a church staff could offer him. Thank God, he was obedient.
In his book, How to Get Out Of Your Own Way, Mark Goulston asks, “What are you becoming?” We cannot always tell what others are becoming or even what we are becoming. We can only decide whether or not we are considering our ways so that we may turn our feet toward God’s decrees. It is a daily work and the end result is not always clear for a long, long time. Ask God’s servants, Patricia Cross and Friedrich Schuening. So what are we becoming? If we are considering God’s ways and turning our feet toward His decrees, we are becoming God’s friends.
Wednesday, May 3, 2006
Tuesday, May 2, 2006
Vision #6
Several passages from my morning readings spoke deeply to me today.
In Exodus 32, Moses has just come down from the mountain to see the Israelites worshipping a golden calf and the writer stops to make this comment, “the people were unrestrained for Aaron had not restrained them.”
The Gospel reading was from the Sermon on the Mount in which Jesus warns us, "when salt loses its flavor, it is good for nothing.”
In 1 Thessalonians, St. Paul reminds his readers that his message was not “in Word only.”
Then, in Psalm 26, we give thanks because, “my foot stands on level ground.”
My meditations on these passages took me back to Saturday evening, to the little church in East Nashville. I watched the children's dance recitals with their parents, grandparents and family friends. The wholesomeness of the children and the community around them moved me. I had gone because Beverly Robbins will soon begin teaching the group the fundamentals of the faith and I was trying help her discern what God might be doing among them.
What I saw was that God has been at work there for a long time. He sent Patricia Cross there years ago. She obeyed Him by giving herself to a handful of children week after week. What she had to offer was dance and so that is what she gave.
God received her gift. Like the bread and the wine that we received in worship, which God has given and which human hands have prepared, her gift of dance has been transformed by grace into a meeting place between God and the hearts of children. Little by little, her work has drawn adults into the work too. Now, two or three have been gathered in Christ’s name and He is very obviously among them.
Without a Patricia Cross, the children might be “unrestrained.” The Evil One would be free to pillage and destroy their little hearts. But Patricia sets boundaries and gives discipline. She has been salt. She has not just offered words, but her very life. She has been setting little feet upon level ground.
The world owes so much to people like Patricia Cross, whose work is done in secret but which will one day be shouted from the housetops. Beverly is going now to help Patricia's work reach a new level of spiritual intensity. The ultimate results will probably be greater than any of us can imagine. I know this because the salt has been good. The boundaries have been set. The ground is level. The gospel has been not only preached but lived.
In Exodus 32, Moses has just come down from the mountain to see the Israelites worshipping a golden calf and the writer stops to make this comment, “the people were unrestrained for Aaron had not restrained them.”
The Gospel reading was from the Sermon on the Mount in which Jesus warns us, "when salt loses its flavor, it is good for nothing.”
In 1 Thessalonians, St. Paul reminds his readers that his message was not “in Word only.”
Then, in Psalm 26, we give thanks because, “my foot stands on level ground.”
My meditations on these passages took me back to Saturday evening, to the little church in East Nashville. I watched the children's dance recitals with their parents, grandparents and family friends. The wholesomeness of the children and the community around them moved me. I had gone because Beverly Robbins will soon begin teaching the group the fundamentals of the faith and I was trying help her discern what God might be doing among them.
What I saw was that God has been at work there for a long time. He sent Patricia Cross there years ago. She obeyed Him by giving herself to a handful of children week after week. What she had to offer was dance and so that is what she gave.
God received her gift. Like the bread and the wine that we received in worship, which God has given and which human hands have prepared, her gift of dance has been transformed by grace into a meeting place between God and the hearts of children. Little by little, her work has drawn adults into the work too. Now, two or three have been gathered in Christ’s name and He is very obviously among them.
Without a Patricia Cross, the children might be “unrestrained.” The Evil One would be free to pillage and destroy their little hearts. But Patricia sets boundaries and gives discipline. She has been salt. She has not just offered words, but her very life. She has been setting little feet upon level ground.
The world owes so much to people like Patricia Cross, whose work is done in secret but which will one day be shouted from the housetops. Beverly is going now to help Patricia's work reach a new level of spiritual intensity. The ultimate results will probably be greater than any of us can imagine. I know this because the salt has been good. The boundaries have been set. The ground is level. The gospel has been not only preached but lived.
Monday, May 1, 2006
Vision #5
The woman with the issue of blood did nothing but touch Jesus’ robe. That was a very small act. But by doing it, God’s power flowed toward her. As Jesus put it, “power went out of him” and in to her.
Whenever we act, we always attract power, for good or for evil.
I believe that Jesus commended the sick woman because most of us avoid action. We live our lives believing that we are acting when we are really just thinking about acting. We mistake the emotions and intentions of our inner life with the reality of the world outside our heads. We get captured by our "subjective world," the word of personal perception, daydream and trance. We fail to realize that others are not sharing our sense of reality.
Living our lives in our own subjective world makes us sad, angry, lonely, and isolated. As we get older, we can begin to feel empty and false, as though we have not yet lived our real lives.
The perception is accurate. Early in life we learn how to produce powerful movies for viewing inside our own heads. The movies can become so compelling that we just "stay inside" and watch them. They become so real that years can go by during which we rarely "go outside" into the dangerous and unpredictable “objective world.” We fool ourselves into thinking that we are acting in the real world. But really we are just feeling emotions and intending to act. We keep rehearsing our script, constantly delaying our time out on the stage. We feel all the emotion of our lines but we are not actually acting.
Emotion is wonderful by the way. It is inner motion, that is to say, "motion inside ourselves." If the emotion lasts long enough, it may even produce an intention.
That's a very important because an intention is the beginnings of an action plan.
So intention is potential. Without it, we can do nothing. However, even intention is not action.
It is possible for us to feel very deeply about something -- to weep and wail whenever we think about it – to be so moved that we make a decision to do something – without ever allowing our passion or intention to mature into action. In so doing, we abort our dreams, goals and desires. Each time we perform an abortion on our intentions, a bit more of life ekes away. Emotions and intentions are products of our inner, “subjective” being. If they remain there inside our being, no one else will ever experience them. When we die, even the noblest of these intentions will die with us. But an intention is not meant to remain inside us. It is meant to be the first step of an action.
For years Nick Abernathy, a friend and financial advisor, told me to get a will. On several occasions, he nearly moved me to tears. I could smell the roses. I could see my loved ones floundering without me. On a couple of these occasions, I decided to make an appointment with a lawyer. Something important always come up and the intentions got aborted. Years past and all my emotions and intentions never produced a will.
Last month, Trish and I finally signed a will and a medical power of attorney. Our subjective intentions finally became objective realities. Our word became legal documents that now exist in the objective, world that we share with our children, grandchildren and the State of Tennessee. They are no longer merely a movie inside our heads.
The woman who touched Jesus did more than cry. She did more than think. She did more than talk. She did more than allow herself to be moved. He emotion generated motion. Her intention became an action. And power went out of Jesus into her.
The ancient philosopher, Lao Tzu, said that the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. The step may be small, even laughable but it turns dreams into realities.
Whenever we act, we always attract power, for good or for evil.
I believe that Jesus commended the sick woman because most of us avoid action. We live our lives believing that we are acting when we are really just thinking about acting. We mistake the emotions and intentions of our inner life with the reality of the world outside our heads. We get captured by our "subjective world," the word of personal perception, daydream and trance. We fail to realize that others are not sharing our sense of reality.
Living our lives in our own subjective world makes us sad, angry, lonely, and isolated. As we get older, we can begin to feel empty and false, as though we have not yet lived our real lives.
The perception is accurate. Early in life we learn how to produce powerful movies for viewing inside our own heads. The movies can become so compelling that we just "stay inside" and watch them. They become so real that years can go by during which we rarely "go outside" into the dangerous and unpredictable “objective world.” We fool ourselves into thinking that we are acting in the real world. But really we are just feeling emotions and intending to act. We keep rehearsing our script, constantly delaying our time out on the stage. We feel all the emotion of our lines but we are not actually acting.
Emotion is wonderful by the way. It is inner motion, that is to say, "motion inside ourselves." If the emotion lasts long enough, it may even produce an intention.
That's a very important because an intention is the beginnings of an action plan.
So intention is potential. Without it, we can do nothing. However, even intention is not action.
It is possible for us to feel very deeply about something -- to weep and wail whenever we think about it – to be so moved that we make a decision to do something – without ever allowing our passion or intention to mature into action. In so doing, we abort our dreams, goals and desires. Each time we perform an abortion on our intentions, a bit more of life ekes away. Emotions and intentions are products of our inner, “subjective” being. If they remain there inside our being, no one else will ever experience them. When we die, even the noblest of these intentions will die with us. But an intention is not meant to remain inside us. It is meant to be the first step of an action.
For years Nick Abernathy, a friend and financial advisor, told me to get a will. On several occasions, he nearly moved me to tears. I could smell the roses. I could see my loved ones floundering without me. On a couple of these occasions, I decided to make an appointment with a lawyer. Something important always come up and the intentions got aborted. Years past and all my emotions and intentions never produced a will.
Last month, Trish and I finally signed a will and a medical power of attorney. Our subjective intentions finally became objective realities. Our word became legal documents that now exist in the objective, world that we share with our children, grandchildren and the State of Tennessee. They are no longer merely a movie inside our heads.
The woman who touched Jesus did more than cry. She did more than think. She did more than talk. She did more than allow herself to be moved. He emotion generated motion. Her intention became an action. And power went out of Jesus into her.
The ancient philosopher, Lao Tzu, said that the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. The step may be small, even laughable but it turns dreams into realities.
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