TEN GREATS

I WAS going to write a blog and the ten greatest Christians in the 20th century, but decided that was really pretentious. How could I decide who were the greatest? What criterion would I use? What about the millions of Christians I don’t know? OK, so I decided I would just make a list of ten great Christians of the 20th century without saying they are THE greatest or anything like that. Just ten names that came to mind.

The project started because I have been reading about two well-known figures of 20th century Christianity C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) and Thomas Merton (1915-1968). Lewis taught English first at Oxford and then at Cambridge, but he is best known as a Christian apologist writing such books as Mere Christianity and The Screwtape Letters. He was also the author of the popular series The Chronicles of Narnia. Merton was a Trappist monk who wrote widely on spirituality. His autobiography The Seven Storey Mountain had an amazing impact of the generation coming out ow World War II. What struck me was the parallels in their lives. Both lost their mothers at a young age. Both were poets with a deep love of literature. Both had roots in the Anglican church which they abandoned. Both were converted to Christianity–Lewis into the Church of England, Merton to Roman Catholicism. Both had wide-spread influence through their writings, yet as far as I can tell there was very little connection between them. Each had an admiration for the other, yet as far as I can tell, the two never corresponded. They are quite different in their writing, but I think both had a strong suspicion that the modern world was “Post-Christian.”


Following this initial pair, I started to thing of other influential 20th century Christians. First name, of course was Albert Schweitzer (1878-1965), missionary, doctor, organist, theologian. I wrote about his influence on my life several years ago. Albert and Me

I was a little surprised at the next name that popped into my head, Karl Barth (1886-1968). He’s probably unknown to most of my readers. Well basically he was unknown to me, too, until I got to know, Dr. Robert Hann, a professor at FIU. Barth was a tremendously influential theologian. He started out a proponent of the liberal theology but somehow World War I changed his thinking. He rejected much of the philosophical underpinnings of liberal theology and developed a theology that emphasized the sovereignty of God. Barth was largely responsible for the writing of the Barmen declaration which rejected the influence of Nazism on German Christianity. Barth’s great work is the incomplete Church Dogmatics. Heavy, heavy stuff. I have only plowed through part of one volume.

That aspect of Barth lead me to Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945). A Lutheran theologian, Bonhoeffer joined with other significant figures to form the Confessing Church which opposed the German Christian movement in its attempt to unite Nazi views with Christianity. He became involved in the plot to assassinate Hitler, and was arrested. He was executed just days before his prison was liberated by the Allies. The usual recommended book of Bonhoeffer is The Cost of Discipleship. There’s plenty in that book to trouble the proponents of America as a “Christian” nation. Nevertheless, I recommend starting with Life Together and Prayerbook of the Bible.

Bonhoeffer’s martyrdom led me to the great American Christian martyr, Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968). The Lutheran calendar designates him as a Renewer of Society, and that indeed he was. Somewhere recently I heard someone mention that Dr. King was at first reluctant to become involved in the Civil Rights Movement because he saw himself primarily as a pastor of a church. Yet he was persuaded to take a leadership role and things changed. Christians are change agents. They can and do make things better. Dr. King’s efforts gained him terrible hatred from those who were invested in using racism to control people. His non-violent approach gained him condemnation from radicals who wanted to use violence to gain change. Dr. King followed what I think is the only sane approach for a Christian–to oppose evil wherever it is encountered but never to surrender ways of evil to gain the good.

I really regret that as time has gone on, the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday has become an almost exclusively African-American observance. Far too many White Americans fail to see that the Civil Rights Movement was about ALL people. As Dr. King observed, discrimination diminishes both the person discriminated against and the person who discriminates. I highly recommend people read his “Letter from a Birmingham City Jail” to see how he lays out this view and how it leads to an indictment of Christian churches when they fail to concern themselves with justice.


Since I was thinking of Americans, my mind naturally ran to Billy Graham (1918- ). Here is a Christian who made evangelism his whole life’s work. I don’t know how many thousands have been led to faith because of him. I believe the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association claims 2.5 million have come forward because of him. I see Dr. Graham as an honest man, willing to admit his faults which puts him head an shoulders above the hypocrites who denounce one thing and another only to be caught in scandal. I have only sampled a few of his books, but found Just As I Am: The Autobiography of Billy Graham fascinating.

At this point I realized I had only listed one Roman Catholic, but I quickly though of two more who ought to be on the list, Pope John XXIII (1881-1963) and Mother Theresa (1910-1997).

Since Mother Theresa was Albanian, I can’t resist writing putting in her birth name Agnesë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu. She had gone to India where she taught as a member of the Sisters of Loretto. There she was appalled by the conditions there the In 1950 she founded Missionaries of Charity to care for “the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone.” I learned from someone who met her that Mother Theresa was one tough cookie. She didn’t hesitate to tell off clergy for not doing enough to help the poor. After her death, the spiritual crisis which haunted most of her years in India was revealed. She, as many before, experienced the Dark Night when God seems to have abandoned a person. It’s worth reading Brian Kolodiejchuk’s book Mother Teresa: Come be My Light.

John XXIII (Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli) came from very poor beginnings. He rose from a humble priest to become Archbishop of Venice. Elected at the age of 77, he seems to have been regarded as a “caretaker,” someone to be Pope for a short while until at his death a more significant person would be elected. Boy did he surprise them. He quickly called the Second Vatican Council which under his successor, Paul VI, would make tremendous changes in the Roman Catholic church most notably in the change of the liturgy and the openness to other Christian groups. I can still remember the first time that Catholics and Protestants gathered together in a Catholic church in Chicago to worship together. It was amazing. To get the spirit of John, read Pacem in Terris, (Peace on Earth). “. . .every man has the right to life, to bodily integrity, and to the means which are suitable for the proper development of life . . .”

OK, that’s nine. Who’s next? I considered Bishop Desmond Tutu and Bishop Oscar Romero. I also thought of three non-Christians that have had an influence on Christianity: Abraham Joshua Heschel, Martin Buber, and Mahatma Gandhi. But maybe I should just leave number ten blank for the many unsung heroes of the faith. I found the following article on AOL the other day.

It's been almost three decades since Andrea Jaeger burst onto the tennis scene as a 14-year-old phenom. Jaeger claimed the No. 2 ranking in the world in 1981 and reached the semifinals of five grand slam tournaments by 1983. She was capable of embarrassing the toughest of opponents. Yet she realized that there was more to life than just tennis. Before an injury prematurely ended her career later in the decade, she took up a personal cause, visiting terminally ill children and giving them toys she bought with her earnings. Her transformation culminated in 2006, when, as detailed recently by The Washington Post, Andrea Jaeger became Sister Andrea, an Anglican Dominican nun. She continues her work with cancer-stricken kids (she started a foundation in 1990) and has expanded her focus to abused children and those affected by war. "I don't have the answer to everything," Sister Andrea told The Post. "I just know I love what I do. I have peace with what I do.

On this eve of Pentecost, may the Holy Spirit send you on your pilgrimage. May the Lord bless you on your journey, and greet you on your arrival.

Wayne


Note: I will be away on vacation, so it will be about three weeks before there is another update.




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NO BATS IN OUR BELFRY ‘CAUSE WE DON’T HAVE ONE. (WE DO HAVE DECEASED SQUIRRELS, HOWEVER.)

OY! Except for a couple of worship services, a memorial service, and some Bible studies, the last few weeks have been a desolation of anything even vaguely related to proclaiming the Good News. No, wait, I did for real go to a workshop on Inspiring Worship (a real one, not the fun time at Disney I told you about last week.) I got to climb to the top of the tower (pictured,12 stories high) at the University of Florida where the carillon lives and watch (and hear) it being played. A carillon is a collection of tuned bells (really big bells) that are played by making the clapper strike the bell by sort of hitting a giant sized key board with fists and stomping on a pedal board with your feet. It’s really a workout. And if you make a mistake, they hear it for miles around. It’s amazing how complex the music can be.

I was at a dreadful church assembly for days which did little except spend a LOT of money to have a meeting. Then I wasted a couple days trying to head off a crisis by someone trying to claim out church belonged to a certain organization that was trying to get a LOT of money out of someone.

And then there was the Santeria problem. Santeria is an Afro-Cuban religion that sort of hides primitive practices with a very thin layer of Roman Catholic symbolism. I knew it was going to be bad when I opened the mail box and found a broken statue of St. Jude stuffed in a plastic bag. I immediately started looking for the dead chicken that is usually left on church grounds after being sacrificed. I didn’t find one. Later someone found two dead squirrels. I guess with the economy the way it is, chickens cost too much. Squirrels are free. I worried when we only found two squirrels because I pretty well knew there should be three of them. We found that one after Bible study, not quite gone to it’s maker yet. Now I am no fan of these vermin who eat through wood, plaster and aluminum siding to get inside our roof, but I don’t hold with animal sacrifices.

Why do I know about this stuff? ‘Cause I lived in Miami for 21 years and someone was always performing some sort of vile ritual on the church grounds. The worst was the Sunday when I found the head of a goat by the church door. I disposed of it. The next day I found the rest of the goat. I called the police who were none to thrilled about having to haul it away, but it was evidence of a crime.

They never tell you about these things at seminary. That’s because the people at the seminary generally don’t know what really goes on day to day in a typical parish church. They send you on internship to practice with a seasoned pastor to find out. At the parish I served I it was my job to kill bats that swooped into the church during the evening services. They really did have bats in the belfry. No bells, of course, just bats. (I should mention that the tower at UF is carefully screened so that only carillonneurs and not bats or pigeons can get in. Sometimes they let in batty people like me in to watch, but that’s it.

I didn’t think I’d write a blog this week, but my computer is busy running a virus check, and I hate to leave it until I see what sort of junk it has found. Usually it’s hundreds of tracking cookies which it banishes to the virus vault, but it’s running a lot longer than usual tonight, so maybe it found something else, a virus, maybe, or a Trojan horse, or maybe a dead squirrel or a bat.* Never can tell these days. The computer at church has a lizard–not in the computer, just sitting on top of the monitor. It’s very small and not hurting anything, but it can be disconcerting to have this reptile bobbing its head at you while you work.

Anyway, don’t let life drive you batty or make you squirrelly. And if you have ringing in your ears, check to see if there is a carillon nearby before you see your doctor.

May the Lord bless you on your journey and greet you on your arrival.

Wayne



*Bat joke: A little mouse girl looks up into the sky and sees a bat. She says to her mother, "Look, Mommy, an angel. (Now that's a really bat joke.)








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INSPIRING

Here it is, a picture from the inspiring worship conference. No, wait. That's Walt Disney World. Well, that was pretty inspiring. The young man on stilts is Jake, my first cousin once removed. (Don't send me any stupid jokes about whether he was removed for tracking mud on the rug. I looked it up. Your first cousin's children are first cousins once removed. I have four of them. No, they aren't second cousins. Second cousins have a common great grandparent. I have about a bazillion of those on my father's side of my family alone. I was a little disconcerting to discover a few months back a second cousin who is almost 40 years younger than me. Goodness, our family managed to get more than a generation out of whack.)

Anyway, it was amazing to see him dancing, jumping, and doing all sorts of contortions. Of course he's an athlete (hockey player). Me, I never played any sport more dangerous than Tiddly Winks. (It can be very painful if you tiddle a wink into your eye.) If I ever tried to get on stilts, I'd fall off and break something, most likely the pavement. (I have got to get back on my diet.) I am very impressed by my cousin's performance. I wanted to go around pointing to him and telling people "that's my cousin" as if that could make some of his bravura performance rub off on me. I am afraid I am always seeking glory by association. See that kid who won fourth place in potato sack race? That's my neighbor's gardener's granddaughter's best friend. (Do they still have potato sack races? Do they still have potato sacks? I know they still have potatoes because I see them in the store and Vice-President Quail once misspelled the word 'potato.' ((True! Look it up.)))

Anyway again, It was nice to see Jake. I've only seen him a few dozen times in my life because I ran away to live in Florida many, many years ago. He only ran away to Florida a few years ago. He's a really good person, interesting, caring, intelligent, and a lot more willing to take risks and explore things when I was his age. As a matter of fact I was only a few years older than he is now when I baptized him. Baptizing people is a LOT safer than dancing on stilts, especially in a traditional Lutheran Church. It's really hard to tumble head-first into a baptismal font and drown. Now I did see a church once that had a built in water heater in the font, so electrocution might be a possibility, but probably not drowning.

Jake is a good example of a person raised in a family that took raising children seriously. My cousin and her husband deserve stars in their crowns for this accomplishment four times over.

You know what you do for others is the real measure of your life. There are a lot of people who make great monuments to themselves hoping to live on for years and years in people's memories. The great baseball promoter Charles Comiskey named the ball park he built for the Chicago White Sox after himself, Comiskey Park. They tore it down in 1991and built a parking lot on the site. So much for a permanent memorial to yourself. You want a real memorial, invest in kids.

Sunday, May 31, 4 p.m. Feel the Spirit. Feed the Kids. A special, spirited Pentecost Jazz concert at Our Saviour in Marion Oaks. All donations to benefit Food 4 Kids. Here endeth the commercial for this blog.

May the Lord bless you on your journey and greet you on your arrival.


Wayne




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CONSIDER THE LILIES

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. (Matthew 6:28-29)

I'm afraid I don't have anything useful, intelligent, inspirational, of even amusing this week. And there will be even less next week since I will be attending a conference for three days and then the Synod Assembly. This week has run the gamut from having a fender bender in which no fenders were bent at all, but I received a citation which a police officer said she didn't want to give me, but the law didn't allow any discretion. I paid the fine and completed traffic school to avoid points. I had a wonderful, wonderful day at the Magic Kingdom with my cousin, her husband, and oldest son who is one of Disney's talented cast members. Then I spent several hours with a member for whom death draws near. And in between I have been brushing up as Robert's Rules of Order so I can be of some help as a parliamentarian next week. I suppose this a typical week insofar as clergy have a typical week.

I once interviewed for a church where a committee member asked me several times to outline a typical day. I kept repeating that there is no such thing. He could not accept that. Many years ago a member of a church spent most of the day at the church while I was mainly "in the office." A steady stream of visitors arrived some seeking food, some advice, some to complain, and others just to chat. The phone rang, I struggled to get through some reports, the mail arrived with numerous demands for one thing or another. I think I also had to put bulbs in the lighting fixtures. As I left to make hospital calls the church member asked me if it was always like that at the church. "No," I replied, "sometimes it gets busy."

I'm not complaining. I like the variety of things that I do. I don't like wasting time just goofing off which is I why I am usually up at 6 a.m. when I'm on vacation. My regret with all this busyness is that I often do many urgent things rather than important things. That's probably true for most people. We lurch from one pressing demand to another, but too often miss things that are important. I have this feeling that when the day of Judgment comes, the Lord isn't going to ask about why I didn't get the parochial reports done in time, but why I didn't spend more time listening to children or helping people to pray.

Well, I have about an hour left today. I intend to read a bit more of Boxen,stories that C. S. Lewis wrote when he was quite young. And maybe I will read a bit of Bishop Fenellon's amazing writings. So as not to make this blog a total loss, here is a bit from his book The Royal Way of the Cross.

Do not let your natural activity consume you amid the irksome details around you. You cannot take too many pains to subdue your natural temper by prayer, and by a frequent renewal of God's presence throughout the day. . . . Let it be our concern to abide peacefully, fulfilling all outward duties as well as we can, while inwardly we are absorbed by Him who is the only one worthy of all our love.

May the Lord bless you on your journey, and greet you on your arrival.

Wayne



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