Of the many times I've heard Tony Campolo speak it has been this particular talk titled "It's Friday but Sunday is Coming" that has shaped my thoughts of Easter.
Today the day is rainy in Michigan so I am "forced" to sit at my desk to ponder and pray and to visit some of the "old" books which have influenced my thinking and my life. One of those books is titled THE PRAYER THAT SPANS THE WORLD by Helmut Thielicke. (1960) Here are a few of his thoughts -- please read the whole book
First - "To the Reader"
"These sermons, delivered to congregations in Stuttgart, were addressed to people who continued to assemble throughout the horrors of air raids, the declining days of a reign of terror, and finally through the period of total military and political collapse and the beginning of occupation...
"The preacher saw upon the faces of his hearers the destinies from which they had come or which they were approaching. He sensed the tension they were feeling ... He saw on those faces the torment of doubt and despair, the hunger and thirst for a valid comfort and encouragement that would stand the test in hours of work, in hours spent in underground shelters, suffering agonies of body and mind.
"All that the preacher read in those faces and also what filled him to the brim, since he too was a participant, is doubtless reflected in these sermons. And the Lord's Prayer was able to contain it all.
"..."And to the author it seems important that they should keep in view a world in which the furies had been unleached, a world that was forced to reveal itself - the actual world in which these addresses were delivered. This meant that any kind of phrasemaking and glorification of the world in ruled out. Here only the whole truth and the naked truth can stand; here only the center of the gospel message can make us free." Helmut Thielicke
Second, - Pages 21,22
"No, we cannot say 'Our Father'! We really cannot!
Only on one condition - and that condition would be tantamount to a miracle - could we say 'Our father.' And that would be if the Father has first spoken to us, if he had revealed himself to us and we therefore had the guarantee that he was actually and beyond all conjecture with us in the dark forest and that when we cried 'Father, Father' we were not merely victims of the illusions of our own yearnings.
"And this is the point in our train of thought at which we clearly see the tremendous importance that this prayer is to be attributed to the fact that it is Jesus Christ himself who teaches us to pray the Lord's Prayer...
"... suddenly we realize that it is fatefully significant that Jesus is one from whom we receive this holy prayer of all Christiandom. Jesus in the invisible backgrouind of every one of its petitions. All of them are nothing less than geometrical loci that meet in Jesus, even though Jesus himself is never mentioned.
Page 29
"Out of the flood of thoughts that pour in upon us when we say 'Our Father' I have chosen and dealt with one in this first sermon... this though can be summed up as follows: Absolutely everything depends on this one fact, that it is Jesus Christ who teaches us this prayer. Jesus alone, in his life and his death, is the guarantor that there is a Father, that God is nevertheless at work in this cruel, hard, and fatherless world, building his kingedom of mercy and the secrecy of the Cross. So every sermon on the Lord's Prayer must of necessity be central to the preaching of Christ; otherwise it romantic fantasy, nothing more.
"Now everything will be all right, so long as we hear his good voice calling us above the howling of wolves, and above the sound of branches snapping, above all the ominous noices around us.
Pages 31,32
"God is always there first. God has always spoken first;... Jesus Christ walked the earth, died and rose for us, ascended into heaven, and brought us to the Father. God is always there first, and therefore our prayer is always only and answer to this simple fact. Take Bethlehem and Golgotha out of the world and the cry of God will be slienced and praying becomes meaningless...
"Never can we realize this wonderful fact that a voice is calling to us from Bethlehem and Golgatha and the open grave, and that our tongues are free to pray, so that now the note of praise and thanks may enter into our response: 'Praise to thee, O God our Father; you are the one who walks in the night and calls us. Now all is well...
Page 41 -42
"But Jesus lives and breaths in the atmosphere of eternity. For Jesus, prayerful conversation with the Father is the familiar home to which he is constantly returning. For Jesus, our native home is an alien place...Indeed, his sacrifice is that he comes to be with us in the far country. But Jesus does come; he wants to be our brother... We should all be orphans were it for Jesus. There would be no one to hear us if Jesus had not opened the gates of heaven...
"But now we have a shepherd. Now the gates of heaven are open. Now we have a Father. What can ever cast us down, what can ever unhinge us as long as we can look into that countenance and as long as we can say in the name our brother Jesus Christ. "ABBA FATHER"
To each of you who happen to read this blog
Wilma and I wish for you an Easter filled with grateful hearts for Jesus -- the one who truly spans the whole world!!!
Bill
Friday, April 22, 2011
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Thank you
For all of you who tapped into my last post GOSPEL FOR TEENS thank you very much! My hope is that many of you will take your unique "Vi" character and find a equally great way to use your talent (giftedness).
There are million of Onesidphorous type people around the world - deeply needed - desperately wanted - waiting to be revealed. These are the future Mother Teresa people whom the world wonders if they will come ------- some day!
Bill
There are million of Onesidphorous type people around the world - deeply needed - desperately wanted - waiting to be revealed. These are the future Mother Teresa people whom the world wonders if they will come ------- some day!
Bill
Monday, April 4, 2011
Gospel for Teens - from CBS 60 Minutes 4/3/11
Last evening I happened upon 60 Minutes and found a story that caused my heart to break as well as to "sing"! A lady named Vi was the featured person in the story as she has worked with teens in Brooklyn, New York. Lesley Stahl of CBS spent a year working on this story. I recommend that you bring it up on your computer for the whole, beautiful story - ultimately. CBS/60 Minutes/Gospel for Teens.
There were so many statements, so many kids, so many insights that caused me to compare Vi to one of the Apostle Paul's friends - Onesiphorus. (Am I stuck on this guy, or what - II Timothy 1:16 -18 or what?)
For the 40 some kids who auditioned to sing Vi selected some and could not tell you why. She just felt that they belonged in the group. From the first the kids were told to leave their "baggage" outside and just learn to sing. Singing became the vehicle for bonding, for company, for self respect and eventually for openness.
When asked to introduce themselves many of the kids were either too timid or too ashamed even to share their name. In time there was trust and one day Vi asked them to bring their "baggage" inside. Kid after kid shared of someone really close who had either been shot or stabbed or some other horrible thing had happened to them. Vi asked them to "sing it all out". One young lady said, "I build up all of my pain so that I can sing it all out. You believed in me." (Gabby) (Onesiphorous - you often helped me catch my breath) About Gabby Vi said, "If I had only looked at the surface I would not have invited her."
Another young lady, Rhonda, wrote a song about her life. She lives with a Grandmother in a special apartment building set aside for women to raise these young people. Two of those ladies spoke of how they are able to help but also about how they can not replace a father. Rhonda's song was about her Dad who came and never came back. "DADDY, DADDY, DADDY WHERE WHERE ARE YOU WHEN I NEED YOU THE MOST?" This from a 15 year old in Brooklyn whose dad came and took her to a movie and gave her $20.00 and promised to come back, and never did.
David Moses, another 15 year old whose father has stayed with his family because his father had modeled what it meant to stay with the family, even in the "projects" and how he has now stayed with family. David, "my cousin was shot to death - "Sing it all out!" and sing David did! Vi, "Struggles - what do you do - you have to go someplace where there is sacred ground." "Singing was allowed during slavery, so I want these kids to know that Gospel singing could be "sacred ground". "The right to sing was allowed."
Another young lady was asked by Leslie Sthal, "What's on the inside?" The answer, "JOY"
David and Tiffany Oli (on the spot at the spring concert ) were asked to sing the theme song of the group "HOW CAN I TELL YOU". Tiffany (14)later sang a solo, "Jesus love me".
At the Spring Concert the kids were asked to share their name - each one shouted out "My name is....from Brooklyn, N.Y.!"
Vi (Onesiphorous) you often refreshed me - helped me catch my breath. You were not ashamed of my chains (Oh the chains these kids carry). You sought me out and you found me (Oh that all the kids in our towns and cities could find a Vi). You served me --- "you believed in me when no one else believed in me!" (Gabby) Her Mom and Dad did not come to the concert
This blog is an attempt to let you know about another person who gives herself to others - to let them "sing it all out". In time, to let them bring their "baggage" inside. A place where trust has been won and where it is safe to "sing it all out".
I hope you too will find "sacred ground" for singing.
Bill
There were so many statements, so many kids, so many insights that caused me to compare Vi to one of the Apostle Paul's friends - Onesiphorus. (Am I stuck on this guy, or what - II Timothy 1:16 -18 or what?)
For the 40 some kids who auditioned to sing Vi selected some and could not tell you why. She just felt that they belonged in the group. From the first the kids were told to leave their "baggage" outside and just learn to sing. Singing became the vehicle for bonding, for company, for self respect and eventually for openness.
When asked to introduce themselves many of the kids were either too timid or too ashamed even to share their name. In time there was trust and one day Vi asked them to bring their "baggage" inside. Kid after kid shared of someone really close who had either been shot or stabbed or some other horrible thing had happened to them. Vi asked them to "sing it all out". One young lady said, "I build up all of my pain so that I can sing it all out. You believed in me." (Gabby) (Onesiphorous - you often helped me catch my breath) About Gabby Vi said, "If I had only looked at the surface I would not have invited her."
Another young lady, Rhonda, wrote a song about her life. She lives with a Grandmother in a special apartment building set aside for women to raise these young people. Two of those ladies spoke of how they are able to help but also about how they can not replace a father. Rhonda's song was about her Dad who came and never came back. "DADDY, DADDY, DADDY WHERE WHERE ARE YOU WHEN I NEED YOU THE MOST?" This from a 15 year old in Brooklyn whose dad came and took her to a movie and gave her $20.00 and promised to come back, and never did.
David Moses, another 15 year old whose father has stayed with his family because his father had modeled what it meant to stay with the family, even in the "projects" and how he has now stayed with family. David, "my cousin was shot to death - "Sing it all out!" and sing David did! Vi, "Struggles - what do you do - you have to go someplace where there is sacred ground." "Singing was allowed during slavery, so I want these kids to know that Gospel singing could be "sacred ground". "The right to sing was allowed."
Another young lady was asked by Leslie Sthal, "What's on the inside?" The answer, "JOY"
David and Tiffany Oli (on the spot at the spring concert ) were asked to sing the theme song of the group "HOW CAN I TELL YOU". Tiffany (14)later sang a solo, "Jesus love me".
At the Spring Concert the kids were asked to share their name - each one shouted out "My name is....from Brooklyn, N.Y.!"
Vi (Onesiphorous) you often refreshed me - helped me catch my breath. You were not ashamed of my chains (Oh the chains these kids carry). You sought me out and you found me (Oh that all the kids in our towns and cities could find a Vi). You served me --- "you believed in me when no one else believed in me!" (Gabby) Her Mom and Dad did not come to the concert
This blog is an attempt to let you know about another person who gives herself to others - to let them "sing it all out". In time, to let them bring their "baggage" inside. A place where trust has been won and where it is safe to "sing it all out".
I hope you too will find "sacred ground" for singing.
Bill
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