It’s Friday, But Sunday’s Coming
More than a hundred years ago, railways ruled the United States and Europe. They were a source of Fortune, power, and romance. Children would lie awake at night and listen for the whistle of a train. When they would hear it, they would imagine that train carrying them away.
As one wrote:
I hear the train a comin'
It's rolling round the bend
And I ain't seen the sunshine since I don't know when,
But I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die…
But I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die…
Oh, wait, sorry about that. Wrong song. Anyway, in 1906, a book was written for children called The Railway Children. Masterpiece Theater produced a movie based on this book several years ago. I've shown it to Bible classes that I have taught at ACU and ETCA through the years. I am always gratified for the response to this motion picture made for children.
It tells about three children of London and their mother who move to a country house in Yorkshire after their father is taken away by mysterious men. The family is now poor. The mother, as was common in that time, refuses to inform the children the circumstances surrounding their father's disappearance. For reasons beyond them, they have become poor.
Near their old rundown house, lies a railroad track. The children are fascinated by the railroad and the trains that pass by each day. One day, they decide to wave to the people on the train with the childish wish that their love will be taken to their father. But would anyone wave back?
We are vulnerable when we are in need. Even the apostles find themselves in need. That was the case with the apostle Paul who was imprisoned in Rome. During this time, people were careful not to visit someone in prison. The fear was that they would be identified with the prisoner and perhaps be suspected of committing similar crimes. It is easy to assume no one from Rome visited Paul during his imprisonment. Yet, he was in need of help.
Fortunately, Paul says there were two, who laid down their lives as examples of Jesus. They, too, considered the needs of others above their own. Timothy and Epaphroditus gave of themselves to meet Paul’s need--even to the point of risking their lives.
Our problem today is ignoring the way we can live like Jesus. It is easy to think that, if need be, we will offer our lives, but how many of us will ever be called to make that sacrifice?
Actually, our problem is we refuse to risk our lives. Most of us are willing to risk our DEATHS, what is hard is risking our lives. We don't want to get involved with other people. We don't want to serve other people. We don't want to invest in people. And we underestimate the impact that we can make when we are willing to risk our lives in these ways.
Remember the Railway children? These innocent children went to the tracks to wave at the passengers on the train. One child, a girl, said, "Let's wave and share our love. Maybe they'll take it to father.”
The children waved and waved to the passengers on the train. But the passengers refused to wave back. The children were deeply disappointed. However, as the train was pulling away, one passenger in the last car smiled enthusiastically and waved back. The children smiled and began again enthusiastically waving at their new friend. Then the music swelled and everyone felt good.
(The actor playing this character was Richard Attenborough, the same actor who played Santa Claus in the 1994 version of Miracle on 34th Street. How can you not love Santa Claus waving at you!)
No one on the train wanted to risk investment in relationship, save for the bearded man. He was actually a member of the Board of Directors of a major railroad. He was busy, he was wealthy, and he was kind. He was willing to share grace and invest in people.
I won't spoil the rest of the movie for you. But if we understand Paul, we understand this. Our decision about whether or not to help people, whether or not to forgive people, whether or not to serve people, needs not be made in moments of crisis or opportunity. That decision was made when we chose to give our lives to Jesus.
Zip Lines for Jesus
Our church had a family camp out last weekend. It was located at the Woodman of the World encampment near Quitman. We had a great time. During the afternoon, I and some other guys helped out with providing safety so that the teenagers could ride the zip line. The camp had a neat zip line that ran a 100 yards or so. On one end, it was attached to a telephone pole. On the other end, it was attached to a climbing wall that was approximately 40 feet high.
The teenagers kept on encouraging those of us who are adults to ride. Pretty soon everyone in the camp was surrounding this location, cheering each other on, teasing each other, and just simply having a good time.
I really wanted to ride the zip line. Finally I got my chance. I put on a harness, allowed the camp worker who dedicated himself to zip line fun and safety to clip a protective rope to me, and began to climb the tower on a ladder. I used to not be afraid of heights, but I've got to confess, the higher up I climbed, the more I had to tell myself, "Breathe deeply, look at what you're grabbing, and stay calm."
Finally, I reached the top of the tower, and I began to look out. Intellectually, I knew I was only 40 feet off the ground. Emotionally, I felt like I was on top of the Eiffel Tower.
Then, Chris Green, one of our members who was on top of the tower helping everyone go out on the zip line, clipped a rope that was attached to the tower to my harness. He then told me to swing out away from the tower, over the ground, and then allow gravity to bring me back onto the tower.
I stood there with my mouth open. Evidently this made an impact upon him because he asked, "Would you like for me to show you how to do it?" I nodded my head up and down. Chris then modeled for me how you swing out over the ground and then swing back onto the tower.
Frankly, this was the scariest part for me of the whole experience. I took geometry in high school, and I never knew it's stuck. But it did. The reason I know is that I immediately realized that the tower was the highest point I would reach that day. If my rope should break on that swing, I would fall from the highest point to the ground. I would do it back buster like nobody's business. At least with the zip line, for every foot that you ride away from the tower, you’re also correspondingly coming a foot closer to the ground. In this case, in my mind, Chris was asking me to take my life into my own hands.
That is when my mind started talking to me. "Don't you jump you fool!"
And then, when I did jump, my mind said, "You fool! I told you not to jump!"
My mind was involuntarily talking to me like it had been baptized into Mr. T.
Nevertheless, I did jump out over the land, and after three feet, the rope took me back to the tower. Chris looked at me and said, "Would you like to jump again?"
I had to practice self-control in order to not channel my answer through Mr. T. – “No, fool!” Instead, I offered him a hearty “no thanks”, and got ready to jump out on the zip line.
Unfortunately, Chris had the nerve to ask, "Would you like to run before you leap off the tower? It will help you go faster."
Great, of all the people who could have been on the tower, I had to get the guy who thinks he is a Navy seal. I rejected the chance to run and leap, and instead chose the method that now brings me some shame. I sat down on my fanny, and after much deliberation, repentance for having made such a stupid choice, and prayer, I meekly pushed off and allowed God, gravity, and goat hair to take me where I needed to go.
Actually, once I realized that I was not going to fall to my death, I had a good time. It was exhilarating. Fortunately, my momma raised me to be a mannered man. I instinctively grasped that surely there were dozens of others who wanted to ride the zip line. How could I possibly deny them that possibility? I announced my retirement for the day.
Death of a Newspaper
I saw this week where another major newspaper shut down operations. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer ceased publishing newspapers in order to provide Web service only. This was only a couple weeks after Denver's Rocky Mountain News published its final edition.
I realize change is inevitable. I am grateful that over a hundred years ago, the blacksmith union did not sabotage the construction of automobiles in order to protect their field of labor. Still, I do feel sad that something I have always enjoyed doing, getting up in the morning and reading the newspaper, will be a thing of the past in not too many years.
Disclaimer: the only newspaper that I subscribe to is the Dallas Morning News. I only receive the Wednesday and Sunday newspapers. The rest of my newspaper reading is online, where I can select my reading from almost any newspaper service on the planet.
Boredom Alley
I finally saw the documentary by Ben Stein called Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. You may recall that Ben Stein is famous for playing the dry teacher on “The Wonder Years” and was the host on cable’s “Win Ben Stein’s Money.”
If you still have not seen the movie, Expelled is Ben Stein's effort to challenge the scientific establishment with regard to the establishment’s view of the origin of the world. More specifically, he questions the scientific community’s identification with Darwin's theory of natural selection.
I must admit that it was quite intriguing. I had hesitated to see it because I had read and heard that Stein's documentary was the conservative equivalent of a Roger Moore documentary. Moore, of course, is known for his "over the top" technique in the filming of propaganda to advance his liberal causes.
I do not think that Expelled was as sensationalistic as Moore's movies. However, Stein at times was clearly trying to push emotional buttons by inserting scenes from various film clips such as gags from The Three Stooges, while academics discuss their support of Darwin’s theory.
Stein clearly is trying to make the point that Political Correctness has hampered debate. For this reason, he spends much time interviewing scientists who have been “expelled” from their institutions or universities because of perceived belief in Intelligent Design.
Bias alert! I must confess, it was very difficult for me not to have my emotions stirred by this movie. As a Jew, Stein does not buy into the Christian view of Jesus or the cross, so that gives him some credibility against the charge that Intelligent Design is an exclusive tool of Christians.
Furthermore, Stein spends much time on the relationship between Adolf Hitler and the Natzis and the offspring Darwinian’s doctrine—eugenics. Eugenics is a branch of science that maintains human beings should take care so as not to allow flawed members of the human species to breed. This view ultimately led to the destruction of millions of Jews, people who were mentally retarded, Homosexuals, gypsies and others. As a Jew, Stein must have felt chills as he visited the remnants of Natzi concentration camps.
Here’s where Stein might have proven more unbiased. There are many, many scientists who believe in God, believe that evolution came from a personal God of creation, and who believe that Intelligent Design is terribly flawed. You may ask, how can that be?
Francis Collins makes a clear case for his belief in his book The Language of God. An entire chapter is devoted to his argument. To summarize briefly:
Collins believes that Intelligent Design’s foundation is built upon the need to defend God against the materialistic worldview of proponents of Darwin’s theory of evolution. It was conceived by Philip Johnson, a Christian lawyer and a professor of law at the University of California as a means of answering the atheists’ arguments against God. Nevertheless, Intelligent Design, while presented as a scientific theory, was not developed in the tradition of science.
Collins, furthermore, states ID (Intelligent Design) tries to place God into the role of designer because evolution cannot explain all complexities of nature. Therefore, an intelligent designer must have stepped into play.
The problem according to Collins is that science is learning more and explaining more about the complex features of organisms. He warns that many Christians who place their hopes on ID will find their faith challenged as the theory crumbles.
Prejudice alert!
I am certainly a pilgrim when it comes to science and faith. I am on a journey of learning. Yet, I see why many Christians and Jews and other people experience frustration when it comes to Darwin and evolution. Many of us perceive that a number of atheist have freedom to inject their godless worldview, and the consequences of that godless worldview, into the marketplace of ideas without censure. They are marketing religion and/or philosophy in the name of science.
We see the shell that is human existence when there is no God. How can life truly be experienced if all there is the material? Where is the meaning? No wonder groups like Nazis torture people as less than human. No wonder children destroy other children in schools.
Science has allowed an intersection to occur with the “religion” of atheism. Many of us who believe in God desire to see that intersection for us as well.
Five things I think I think (a tip of the hat to Peter King for this idea)
1. I think writing a weekly blog is like writing another sermon. I enjoy it immensely and feel great satisfaction, but it is also hard work.
2. In 1984, I built a house paying 13 1/2 percent interest on my loan. Yesterday, I locked-in a new interest rate to refinance our current home. The rate was 4.625%. Amazing.
3. I confess that I really like Beyoncé’s song “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)”.
4. My computer got a virus last week. I am thankful that I did not lose any information. I got it fixed and it works better than ever now.
5. No place looks more beautiful than Tyler in March. God himself has surely painted the flowers.
Have a great weekend!
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