Scripture A’ la carte

“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching,

but having itching ears will gather teachers to serve their own liking.”

2 Timothy 4:3

          There are two ways to eat.  The first is to pick and choose off of a menu or buffet those morsels that please your eye and tongue. That is called a’ la carte, French for off the card or menu.  The second is Table d'hôte or “table of the host” which means you eat what is put on your plate.  I’ve always preferred the former, but my mother had strong views about the latter.

          Mom always knew that left to my own devices, I would crash the dessert cart and ignore the vegetables.  So, there were dining room rules designed to guarantee my good health:  No vegetables – No dessert.

          God’s Word is designed to provide a balanced spiritual diet, but we often avoid the difficult or challenging parts, and proceed directly to the verses that promise comfort and hope.  Commandments that seem to restrict our freedom definitely fall into the broccoli column.

          The Apostle Paul recognized our tendency to pick and choose those spiritual tidbits we like and to ignore the rest.  So, he warned against such a' la carte spirituality.  Those with “itching” ears tend to wander away from the truth and toward the dessert cart.  God gave us guidance for living that demands discipline as well as devotion.  Good health of body and soul demands a balanced diet. 

Lord, we thank you for your Word given to guide and strengthen. Keep us from the temptation to pick and choose, but rather recieve all that you have given.  Amen



 Grandpa wasn’t always old

“Remember the days of old, consider the years long past;

ask your father and he will teach you.”

Deuteronomy 32:7

Dad never talked about the war.  I knew he served in the Navy because his old hat hung in his closet.  I knew he learned Morse code, because sometimes he would sneak upstairs and tap out his dot-and-dash messages to other veterans on a short wave radio he had built from scratch.  But, that’s all I knew.  He had packed up memories along with an old Japanese sword in his old sea bag that never made it home - lost somewhere between the Philippines and East Liverpool Ohio.  If you asked him about it he would just look away and whisper, “It was a long time ago.”

For fifty years that part of my father’s life was closed shut and sealed as in a safe. It turned out only his grandson could figure out combination. One day, fifty years after the Japanese surrendered Dad and I sat on the sofa and watched documentary on the “War in the South Pacific”.  Kyle, ten years old, was playing with his toy cars on the floor not interested in black and white newsreels of eighteen year old marines charging out of Higgins boats onto the beach and into enemy fire.  He had seen war movies before and knew we always won and that the actors got up when the director yelled “Cut”.

Then somewhere in the middle of the program my father was taken back through time and space by images that flickered across the screen.  Once again he was back there - “over there” where people were trying to kill him and there was no guarantee he’d see the next day.  I saw him swallow hard at the sound of gunfire and wince when he saw someone fall.

 When the narrator identified a particular island, Dad whispered to no one in particular, “I remember. I was there.”   Kyle immediately stopped his game, lifted his eyes and looked at Grandpa and then at the eighteen year old marines charging out of the Higgins boats on the beach and into enemy fire. He looked at Grandpa once more and then at the marines and suddenly his eyebrows raised and his jaw dropped and he realized that Grandpa was not always old.  Grandpa was once eighteen years old and in frightened in a faraway place called war.  Kyle understood this was not a movie and the soldiers would not be getting up when the scene was over.

Now the T.V. commanded Kyle’s attention. He got up off the floor and sat right next to Grandpa.  With each island invaded he would ask, “Where you there Grandpa, were you there?”  For fifty years my father had deflected my questions about his war years, but he could not refuse his grandson.  He could never refuse him. He told Kyle he usually went in with the second or third wave to establish to set up the radio so that they could communicate from the beach to the ships. He told him had been wounded in Saipan when an enemy mortar shell found its way to an ammo dump and blew up his jeep. I never knew he had been wounded.

Memories locked away are never far away.  No matter how deep we try to bury them, they find their way out. They can emerge at the slightest touch.  A sight, a sound, a smell can trigger the synapses that recorded those meaningful moments in our lives.  A date, place, a person can rekindle thoughts of days gone by.

Long before technology gave us instant replay memory allows us to relive the past. The great question though is whether we learn from it or not? Kyle learned a lesson that day and so did I.  Treasure those memories because they have shaped us into the people we have become.

Lord, in the end we are little more than a book of memories and they have so much to teach.  Remind us to listen to those who have come before us and learn and so honor their memories.  This we pray in the name of the one who said, “Do this in remembrance of me.”  Amen

Faith and Doubt

“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering.”

Hebrews 10:23

          There are very few who are never troubled by spiritual doubts.  Even the staunchest believers will have moments when they ask themselves, “Is this really true?  Is God really there?  Does God really care?” Sometimes a challenge or obstacle prompts uncertainty.  We wonder why God does not always intervene to make things better. Sometimes the various philosophies and religious beliefs that surround us raise questions. Our confidence wavers.

          For these reasons and others, the writer to the Hebrews encourages the disciples of Jesus Christ to “gather together for worship and study and prayer.” The corporate nature of these activities is necessary so that we may “encourage one another to love and good works.”  This support requires that we be present to each another.  You won’t find this hope so easily if you sit by yourself and alone in your room.

          What others do for us, that we can’t often do ourselves, is to see with objectivity. We always look at thing through our own eyes.  How can we not? Our perspective is the only one we have.  We only see through different eyes when we open ourselves up to the views of others.

They can help us to doubt our own doubts and open the door for a new way of looking at our faith and our relationship with God.  They may see something in a familiar scripture we never before saw.  Their experience may speak to our own.  With that we can gain a renewed confidence in Jesus Christ that will not waver.

The church really is like the children’s pantomime, “Here is the church and here is the steeple.  Open the door and here are the people.”  We are the body of Christ.  Together with him we can grow.

Holy Trinity, through your Word we learn that you exist in communion, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, so we know that community matters.  Help us to forge a caring community of faith so that we may always encourage one another to love and good works and so express you love and faithfulness to a world in such need.  Amen.

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for,

 the conviction of things not seen.”

Hebrews 11:1

The Bible speaks of faith often, but this is the only place where any kind of definition is offered.  The two operative words are assurance and conviction.  In today’s world where questions far outnumber answers, assurance and conviction seem in short supply.  They are often replaced by whim and feeling.

The problem with life directed by whim and feeling is that everything is in a constant state of flux.  There is no base on which to stand.  In fact the Greek word behind the word assurance is stasis, which was a construction term meaning foundation.  Faith gives you a place to stand as Jesus said in his parable about the wise and foolish man, and will allow you to face the inevitable storms of life.

This is important because it helps you to understand some of the more important questions in life – questions that cannot be answered by formula or computer or balance sheet.  These are questions like:  “Does my life have meaning?” and “What does it really mean to be loved or to love?” and “Where is my place?”

 The answers to these questions will only be found in the heart, and can only be seen as the Spirit gives us insight into God's Word.  The convictions created by such reflection form the faith foundation that strengthens us to resist the blowing of every changing wind of public opinion.  It allows us to become a more faithful people.


Grant us faith we pray, so that we may stand upon you who are our rock and redeemer.Help us to share that faith through out attitudes and actions.  Amen.

“For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted as we are, yet without sinning.”

Hebrews 4:15

          Temptation!  Literature great and small, films classic and cheap, and now even a recent television show revolve around this powerful human dynamic.  We covet what we see, so some believers over the years have tried to limit what they see by living in monastic communities where temptation is held outside high walls.  But, temptation still sneaks in through the crannies of the human heart.

          Others give up the fight and give in with a shrug, “I’m only human.”  Some even seek it out as a test of faith.  The results of such a view can be deadly to all human relationships because it breaks trust.  Vows of fidelity come under suspicion.

          Scripture offers an alternative to “running and hiding” or “giving in and giving up”.  It suggests we bring our temptations to Jesus, who the Bible says, understands because he has suffered the same as we.   So, there is no reason to run and hide because he can empathize.  There is no reason to give in with a shrug, because Jesus responded by remaining faithful.

          So, scripture encourages, “with confidence we can draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need.”  It can be as simple as acknowledging in prayer those things you covet which you know can destroy your spirit, asking God for strength to resist and for forgiveness when you did not.