In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, “If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also.” (- Mt. 6:39)
It seems to me that if we live by this saying we don’t have to get so upset with those who slight us in some way. We can take it in stride as opposed to going ballistic.
We don’t have to get mad at customer service representatives who mistreat us. Maybe they’re just having a bad day. Or maybe they truly are rude or inept at what they’re doing, but why should we allow it to ruin our day? What kind of people are we when we get upset about inconsequential matters?
Of course, if the person who slights us is a person with whom we have dealings daily as opposed to once in a life time, and if the insults are routine, we may need to point out to the person what he or she is doing and how we feel about it. Jesus isn’t telling us here to be a doormat.
Indeed, what’s the context for this teaching? “If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also,” is preceded by, “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, do not respond in kind.” (My translation)
Jesus is giving us a better way of handling insults than responding in kind. Take it in stride. Walk away from it. Forget and forgive. Choose the better way.-DJ
Monday, May 30, 2011
Sunday, May 22, 2011
PASTOR’S COLUMN (May 22, 2011)
Do you remember when two players for the Washington Nationals took the field wearing jerseys with their team named spelled “NATINALS.” Why the misspelling? As Vanna White said, “There is a logical reason for this wardrobe malfunction. Given the state of the economy, the team owner tried to spell the team name without buying a last vowel.” Self-appointed team spokesman, Natty Yunnels, said of the many spelling jokes being made about the Nationals, “This is much ad abut nthing. What’s yur prblem?”
This O-versight reminds me of another wardrobe malfunction. Two seminaries, the Southern Baptists and the Roman Catholics, were playing each other in an intramural baseball game. Both teams took the field without knowing that the jerseys of one team said, “BATISTS,” while those of the other said, “CATOLICS.”
Assuming that the baseball uniforms had been sewn in another country, one where English wasn’t the primary language, one can see the logic. Many countries, no matter what the people speak, listen to old-timey Rock & Roll. People know the song about the famous baseball player, “Bat, bat Leroy Brown, the batist man in the whole downtown…” They also know the word “cat,” and thus it makes sense that “Catolics” are people whose team mascot is Garfield.
By the way, the game between the BATISTS and CATOLICS was called after three innings, the score 0-0, due to a downpour. The local newspaper said that the rainstorm was “an act oPH God.” – D.J.
This O-versight reminds me of another wardrobe malfunction. Two seminaries, the Southern Baptists and the Roman Catholics, were playing each other in an intramural baseball game. Both teams took the field without knowing that the jerseys of one team said, “BATISTS,” while those of the other said, “CATOLICS.”
Assuming that the baseball uniforms had been sewn in another country, one where English wasn’t the primary language, one can see the logic. Many countries, no matter what the people speak, listen to old-timey Rock & Roll. People know the song about the famous baseball player, “Bat, bat Leroy Brown, the batist man in the whole downtown…” They also know the word “cat,” and thus it makes sense that “Catolics” are people whose team mascot is Garfield.
By the way, the game between the BATISTS and CATOLICS was called after three innings, the score 0-0, due to a downpour. The local newspaper said that the rainstorm was “an act oPH God.” – D.J.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
PASTOR’S COLUMN (May 13, 2011)
This past April 28, at 7:00 in the evening a group of us from Grace went through CPR/AED training – Liz McClain, Pam Harmon, Muriel Stephens, Judy Null, Haley Null, Carolyn Pruneau, and Dewey Johnson. If there are others who would like to take such training, there may be an opportunity in the future. And those of you who have already been trained in CPR/AED, please let Liz at the church office know.
In any event, the session of Grace authorized the purchase of an AED (Automated External Defibrillator), and the Men of the Church have now hung it on the wall by the bulletin board in the hallway to the sanctuary.
In this location it is convenient to the sanctuary, the classrooms upstairs, and to Fellowship Hall by either the elevator or the stairway.
The procedure is amazingly simple. If a person collapses, bystanders should call 911 immediately. Person A should race to the AED cabinet and bring the AED to near the head of the collapsed person. Person B should have immediately gone to the person on the ground or floor to see if he/she is breathing. If they are, wait for the ambulance. (Maybe place the person on his/her side in the recovery position.) If they are not breathing, Person B (or someone knowledgeable) should begin chest compressions (2-inches deep) immediately and at the rate of about 100/minute.
If you are in the role of Person B, and you know how to blow air into the person’s lungs, you can certainly do so as you alternate with the chest compressions. But the big thing is to keep the chest compressions going until medical personnel arrive or the AED arrives. Authorities are now saying that there is enough air inside a person without blowing any more in, although we certainly may. What’s more important is to keep the blood flowing with heart compressions.
The AED is simple to operate. After it is placed over the person’s chest, it will tell us if the person’s heart needs to be shocked.
The session purchased the AED in an attempt to save lives in our building and on
our grounds. -DJ
In any event, the session of Grace authorized the purchase of an AED (Automated External Defibrillator), and the Men of the Church have now hung it on the wall by the bulletin board in the hallway to the sanctuary.
In this location it is convenient to the sanctuary, the classrooms upstairs, and to Fellowship Hall by either the elevator or the stairway.
The procedure is amazingly simple. If a person collapses, bystanders should call 911 immediately. Person A should race to the AED cabinet and bring the AED to near the head of the collapsed person. Person B should have immediately gone to the person on the ground or floor to see if he/she is breathing. If they are, wait for the ambulance. (Maybe place the person on his/her side in the recovery position.) If they are not breathing, Person B (or someone knowledgeable) should begin chest compressions (2-inches deep) immediately and at the rate of about 100/minute.
If you are in the role of Person B, and you know how to blow air into the person’s lungs, you can certainly do so as you alternate with the chest compressions. But the big thing is to keep the chest compressions going until medical personnel arrive or the AED arrives. Authorities are now saying that there is enough air inside a person without blowing any more in, although we certainly may. What’s more important is to keep the blood flowing with heart compressions.
The AED is simple to operate. After it is placed over the person’s chest, it will tell us if the person’s heart needs to be shocked.
The session purchased the AED in an attempt to save lives in our building and on
our grounds. -DJ
Monday, May 9, 2011
Pastor's Column May 8, 2011
Moms, it’s important that you concern yourself with the telling of your family’s story to your kids, whatever their ages.
Lynn W. Huber says, “I believe that the greatest gift we can offer to each other is the telling of and listening to our stories.” This helps us see our connection to others, helps us make sense of our own lives, and strengthens by seeing how it is with others. Jean Bolen says, “The stories people tell have a way of taking care of them. If stories come to you, care for them. And learn to give them away where they are needed. Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive.”
And here’s a concern for those of us who missed out on certain stories from our moms. It comes from Katie Wiebe. “What makes the journey into old age terrifying to me is that I hear no one beyond the middle years inviting me urgently and loudly to cross the border because of its splendid advantages.” Katie goes on to say that a child has admiring fans in parents, siblings, and friends who help her cross into adulthood. But the older one gets, the fewer the number of people telling her how they’ve dealt with certain stages of life. Almost no one helps us cross into the land of the aging by telling their story.
Katie Wiebe then visited the Soviet Union, the place of her family origin. Upon her return she reported, “I returned with countless stories people told me about their lives. I came back with a renewed sense of the importance of story, especially for older adults. Stories bind the generations together. Stories bring to light dense abstractions. Stories show the pattern of living. Stories assert boldly, ‘I am a human being.’”
One last thought, moms, and this from Isak Dineson. “All the sorrows of life are bearable if only we can convert them into a story.” Don’t let your story or your family’s story go untold to your kids. -DJ
Lynn W. Huber says, “I believe that the greatest gift we can offer to each other is the telling of and listening to our stories.” This helps us see our connection to others, helps us make sense of our own lives, and strengthens by seeing how it is with others. Jean Bolen says, “The stories people tell have a way of taking care of them. If stories come to you, care for them. And learn to give them away where they are needed. Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive.”
And here’s a concern for those of us who missed out on certain stories from our moms. It comes from Katie Wiebe. “What makes the journey into old age terrifying to me is that I hear no one beyond the middle years inviting me urgently and loudly to cross the border because of its splendid advantages.” Katie goes on to say that a child has admiring fans in parents, siblings, and friends who help her cross into adulthood. But the older one gets, the fewer the number of people telling her how they’ve dealt with certain stages of life. Almost no one helps us cross into the land of the aging by telling their story.
Katie Wiebe then visited the Soviet Union, the place of her family origin. Upon her return she reported, “I returned with countless stories people told me about their lives. I came back with a renewed sense of the importance of story, especially for older adults. Stories bind the generations together. Stories bring to light dense abstractions. Stories show the pattern of living. Stories assert boldly, ‘I am a human being.’”
One last thought, moms, and this from Isak Dineson. “All the sorrows of life are bearable if only we can convert them into a story.” Don’t let your story or your family’s story go untold to your kids. -DJ
Sunday, May 1, 2011
PASTOR’S COLUMN May 1, 2011
Sometimes our giving is less than pure. Recently there was a neighborhood Easter egg hunt. All sorts of eggs had been hidden – hard-boiled eggs, small chocolate eggs in foil wrappers, and plastic egg-shaped containers filled with jelly beans. But then there was one really large, golden, plastic egg-shaped container with a big chocolate bunny inside, the Treasure Egg!
Little Egbert was on the lookout for that Treasure Egg. He ran as fast as his legs could take him in hopes of finding that egg-shaped container with the chocolate bunny inside. He searched and he searched until he noticed something golden over beneath the root of a cottonwood tree. Could it be? Yes it could! It was the large, golden, plastic egg-shaped container, buried in the dirt so that you could see just a bit of the golden plastic; buried so deeply that little Egbert had to find a stick to dig the egg out of the ground. As he dug he did not notice how tarnished and dirty the gold plastic was.
If he had, he might have realized that this was the Treasure Egg that hadn’t been found at last year’s Easter egg hunt. Nor did he notice the crack in the plastic that had allowed water to seep inside, so that after being exposed to the melting summer heat, and then frozen during the winter, the bunny had changed into the shape of a walrus swimming in a pool of muddy water. Its ears had melted and frozen and become the walrus’ tail; and its feet had become tusks. That’s what little Egbert found when he opened that year-old plastic egg container, the most disgusting-looking piece of chocolate he could have imagined. It was so gross that he gave it to his sister. “Here, look what I got for you. Happy Easter!” -DJ
Little Egbert was on the lookout for that Treasure Egg. He ran as fast as his legs could take him in hopes of finding that egg-shaped container with the chocolate bunny inside. He searched and he searched until he noticed something golden over beneath the root of a cottonwood tree. Could it be? Yes it could! It was the large, golden, plastic egg-shaped container, buried in the dirt so that you could see just a bit of the golden plastic; buried so deeply that little Egbert had to find a stick to dig the egg out of the ground. As he dug he did not notice how tarnished and dirty the gold plastic was.
If he had, he might have realized that this was the Treasure Egg that hadn’t been found at last year’s Easter egg hunt. Nor did he notice the crack in the plastic that had allowed water to seep inside, so that after being exposed to the melting summer heat, and then frozen during the winter, the bunny had changed into the shape of a walrus swimming in a pool of muddy water. Its ears had melted and frozen and become the walrus’ tail; and its feet had become tusks. That’s what little Egbert found when he opened that year-old plastic egg container, the most disgusting-looking piece of chocolate he could have imagined. It was so gross that he gave it to his sister. “Here, look what I got for you. Happy Easter!” -DJ
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