Abigail Inn --- Lexington, Va.
Lexington was as close to the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington that Wilma and I were able to get this year. A great small town in the mountains just a short 3 hour drive from DC. The home of Washington and Lee University (WL), the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), H.Q. for Omicron Delta Kappa (ODK), Southern Virginia University (SVU), a short distance away, and the place where Stonewall Jackson is buried (Civil War), and the home of the ABIGAIL INN.
Good friends Landey and Becky Patton (L&B) are the proprietors of the Abigail with the able assistance of Megan Stephens of SVU. Megan is a graduate student in English and creative writing, also an expert in the digital world of Facebook, Twitter and websites etc.
Landey and Becky's dream is to turn the Abigail into a great B&B but also into a type of "community center' - they have the largest table in town; a place for parents of graduating seniors from the various schools; a place for VMI cadets to relax on Sunday afternoon & evening - snacks, soft drinks, TV, overstuffed chairs and couch etc. all under the leadership Chaplain Jim Park of VMI,
The week, while L&B were at the PB in DC and then off to Chicago for a wedding, became a great time with different friends who came for a day or so. Drazen Glavas from Croatia, Todd and Paula Endo from Amisville, Va., Milt Richards from California, and others from Lexington. Megan ran the B&B and also became my mentor. When we met I had told her that I was writing a "novel" the first sentence of which had these 7 words, "Fleas and flies and a thousand eyes...". She said that she liked those word but also wondered what was in the rest of the sentence, to which I replied, "That is all that has been written, I only started it in 1957!" So my journey has only begun, I also found out that I had started a memoir and not a novel.
With the able assistance of Megan and Wilma I might even find a way to write that memoir from my year in Pakistan ---- Marian and Kathy my classmates, whom I was taking across north India to Nepal, to be with Marian's dad the head medical advisor to the government of Nepal. Only a memoir - long dormant in my brain, t all these years, this will probably take even longer -- a very long journey is still ahead!
Bill
Sunday, February 23, 2014
Saturday, February 22, 2014
Abigail Inn - Lexington,
Abigail Inn - Lexington, VA. ... at 72 degrees in the "sunroom" as we used to call that space in the house. But spring is coming and we can hardly wait for "global warming" to kick in. That is what getting that close to Washington D.C. can do to person's brain!!!
Bill
the above does not make sense except for the loss of everything that had been written when I had forgotten to use the computer "save" button!!!
So now to try and reconstruct the real blog---maybe I should stop and think about becoming - again - a blogger. Wilma has patiently guided the steps into the modern world of "climate change" instead
of "global warming", of "progressive" rather than "liberal", of "the principles of Jesus" rather than the "person of Jesus", of "fetish" rather than of a "baby", of the constitution being a "living" document rather than a "static" document etc. Will we ever come to a point when a word means something or a handshake will be enough without 40 pages of lawyer talk before persons can agree and move ahead?
The next attempt at a blog will hopefully come out of some great and recent study/dialogue under the book HOW HE WORLD BEGAN "Man in the first chapters of the Bible" by Helmut Thielicke. Though I had the book 25-30 year ago it came to "life" when Wilma and I started to read it out loud. No skipping words or sentences - addressing what the word "it" means, who are "they", what does "this" mean etc.
Please accept this "beginning again" attempt....I hope it will not be the last
Bill
the above does not make sense except for the loss of everything that had been written when I had forgotten to use the computer "save" button!!!
So now to try and reconstruct the real blog---maybe I should stop and think about becoming - again - a blogger. Wilma has patiently guided the steps into the modern world of "climate change" instead
of "global warming", of "progressive" rather than "liberal", of "the principles of Jesus" rather than the "person of Jesus", of "fetish" rather than of a "baby", of the constitution being a "living" document rather than a "static" document etc. Will we ever come to a point when a word means something or a handshake will be enough without 40 pages of lawyer talk before persons can agree and move ahead?
The next attempt at a blog will hopefully come out of some great and recent study/dialogue under the book HOW HE WORLD BEGAN "Man in the first chapters of the Bible" by Helmut Thielicke. Though I had the book 25-30 year ago it came to "life" when Wilma and I started to read it out loud. No skipping words or sentences - addressing what the word "it" means, who are "they", what does "this" mean etc.
Please accept this "beginning again" attempt....I hope it will not be the last
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Two Good Friday services - so different ..
This afternoon Wilma and I attended two very different Good Friday services. Both were held at two very well known churches in this area, two very different services, exact opposites in tone, attendees, music, sermon, and in emphasis.
The first service was formal, in the exact expression of that word. Magnificent structure, hundreds of stained glass windows, quiet - do we breath or not? The service started with a great bell counting down the number of years of Jesus's life. This was followed by a silent procession of a black draped cross, a young lady carrying an open bible, the fulled robed choir, three blacked dressed pastors etc. All of with almost stoic faces, each to their prescribed place. Solemn music by what must have been a professional choir, Scripture readings with precise entonations of the words, sombers faces - not a smile, not a sneeze, not a step out of place.
The sermon by the stately head pastor was skillfully crafted, word for word.
I found myself wondering if he rally believed what he was saying. Towards the end of his sermon he used the word "perhaps" what seemed like 10 or 12 times as he spoke of the variety of peoples who were part of the death of Jesus. Perhaps they believed this about Jesus, perhaps they saw something that they had never seen before, perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.
One friend after the service made the comment, "The greatest part of the service was the solo titled WERE YOU THERE WHEN THEY CRUCIFIED MY LORD?
The service ended with a silent recession by thoses who came back down the center isle, in silence with not a smile, in perfect order song folders at a perfect angle. The congregation was intructed to leave the sanctuary in silence.
The contrast was at a church which is described as the "Christian Entertainment Church in Southeast Michigan" Their building is huge with seats for 3 to 4 thousand people, several large TV screens, lights of all kinds, a stage large enough for a giant cross, a row of 7 drummers, guitars, singers, a pit orchastra, not astained class window in the whole building, and, ultimately, the lone head pastor sitting on a stool with a small table holding his electonic device with his sermon.
He is dressed in a plaid type shirt, not tucked in, a mic next to his mouth so that he can move around the stage as he talks - perfectly casual, wonderfully prepared, his image is displayed on the large TV screens etc.
Both services were a great experience, I even sat in this later service with a smoothie purchased in the churches "cafe". Both pastors had done a great deal of thinking regarding their sermons for this Good Friday. The first was scholarly, entoned in the right words, creating the right atmosphere. He talked about lots of different people who had responded to the crucifixion. I walked away wondering, if I had to attend this church on a regular bases where would faith in Jesus end up?
As we walked into the second church the music was so loud that it must have ruined one of the battries im my hearing aids. (Our grandson was one of the drummers ). As we drove home the aid kept beeping "put in another battery".
The sermon was focused on Jesus and "radical hope" that is offered to everyone whether you are dressed to the hilt or were in cutoff jeans. Whether you wore your baseball cap backwards, wore a motorcycle helmet which you placed in the seat next to you. You could take in your coffee and listen, clap long and loudly, sing until you throat was sore, or just sit there and watch the big screens. The message was about "your name being written on the cross" in the end they showed this huge cross with thousands of names written on it - the question was whether your name is on the cross!
Two very different services, two very different pastors with two very different staffs, choirs, and styles, but both with a message about the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth .... on Good Friday.
Two very different church buildings, the first a marvel telling the whole world that we are a church. The second is like a big box store which holds and draws thousands of people.
As my good friend in China told me one day, "Don't worry Bill, Jesus knows what he is doing!"
The first service was formal, in the exact expression of that word. Magnificent structure, hundreds of stained glass windows, quiet - do we breath or not? The service started with a great bell counting down the number of years of Jesus's life. This was followed by a silent procession of a black draped cross, a young lady carrying an open bible, the fulled robed choir, three blacked dressed pastors etc. All of with almost stoic faces, each to their prescribed place. Solemn music by what must have been a professional choir, Scripture readings with precise entonations of the words, sombers faces - not a smile, not a sneeze, not a step out of place.
The sermon by the stately head pastor was skillfully crafted, word for word.
I found myself wondering if he rally believed what he was saying. Towards the end of his sermon he used the word "perhaps" what seemed like 10 or 12 times as he spoke of the variety of peoples who were part of the death of Jesus. Perhaps they believed this about Jesus, perhaps they saw something that they had never seen before, perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.
One friend after the service made the comment, "The greatest part of the service was the solo titled WERE YOU THERE WHEN THEY CRUCIFIED MY LORD?
The service ended with a silent recession by thoses who came back down the center isle, in silence with not a smile, in perfect order song folders at a perfect angle. The congregation was intructed to leave the sanctuary in silence.
The contrast was at a church which is described as the "Christian Entertainment Church in Southeast Michigan" Their building is huge with seats for 3 to 4 thousand people, several large TV screens, lights of all kinds, a stage large enough for a giant cross, a row of 7 drummers, guitars, singers, a pit orchastra, not astained class window in the whole building, and, ultimately, the lone head pastor sitting on a stool with a small table holding his electonic device with his sermon.
He is dressed in a plaid type shirt, not tucked in, a mic next to his mouth so that he can move around the stage as he talks - perfectly casual, wonderfully prepared, his image is displayed on the large TV screens etc.
Both services were a great experience, I even sat in this later service with a smoothie purchased in the churches "cafe". Both pastors had done a great deal of thinking regarding their sermons for this Good Friday. The first was scholarly, entoned in the right words, creating the right atmosphere. He talked about lots of different people who had responded to the crucifixion. I walked away wondering, if I had to attend this church on a regular bases where would faith in Jesus end up?
As we walked into the second church the music was so loud that it must have ruined one of the battries im my hearing aids. (Our grandson was one of the drummers ). As we drove home the aid kept beeping "put in another battery".
The sermon was focused on Jesus and "radical hope" that is offered to everyone whether you are dressed to the hilt or were in cutoff jeans. Whether you wore your baseball cap backwards, wore a motorcycle helmet which you placed in the seat next to you. You could take in your coffee and listen, clap long and loudly, sing until you throat was sore, or just sit there and watch the big screens. The message was about "your name being written on the cross" in the end they showed this huge cross with thousands of names written on it - the question was whether your name is on the cross!
Two very different services, two very different pastors with two very different staffs, choirs, and styles, but both with a message about the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth .... on Good Friday.
Two very different church buildings, the first a marvel telling the whole world that we are a church. The second is like a big box store which holds and draws thousands of people.
As my good friend in China told me one day, "Don't worry Bill, Jesus knows what he is doing!"
Monday, April 2, 2012
One year later...where does the time go ???
Due to an email from my son Stephen I'm back in the "blog world" hoping that this new entrance will be more consistent and even more meaningful. Steve thinks my 83 years will offer something worth reading --- I hope that also.
This past years several close friends have died and I have reflected on their impact on my life. Wes Trucker, John Gilman, Gene Herr, to name just three.
Wes - years of faithful service first, as a member of the Salvation Army, later as a pastor, a member of FEMA, and in the end a pastor to pastors. A journey of a trip to India in 1952, starting out with a borrowed $25.00. A a journal really worth reading.
John Gilman, a classmate at Willamette, class of 1958. John joined the AFROTC at Willamette and later became and Air Force office, a TWA Airline Pilot and later a lay pastor. John with Kent Hotaling and others became authors of ourstanding articles on living with and for Jesus. John and Jeanah served Jesus really well and with GREAT humor.
Gene Herr and Mary, led me into the world of Mennonite Youth, into the larger Menonite world, and then as part of the board of The Hermitage in Three Rivers, Michigan. Gene and Mary became "spiitual directors" for may pastors who came to The Hermitage. That ministry continues even today with the new directors. Gene intoduced me to the writings of several authors Robert Johnson, Morton Kelsey, recommending several books which influence my thinking even to this day. From Johnson - HE - SHE - WE - and CLAIMING YOUR OWN SHADOW to name just a few titles. From Kelsey - THE REALITY OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD - THE OTHER SIDE OF SILENCE - CARING - GOD, DREAMS, AND REVELATION -- each of these books have opened doors into my own life and world. Lately the book WE by Robert Johnson has helped me to move even further out of the destructive influences of my early childhood.
There is nothing like moving on, even when reaches the age of 83. One admonition, don't wait until you are 83 !!!
This past years several close friends have died and I have reflected on their impact on my life. Wes Trucker, John Gilman, Gene Herr, to name just three.
Wes - years of faithful service first, as a member of the Salvation Army, later as a pastor, a member of FEMA, and in the end a pastor to pastors. A journey of a trip to India in 1952, starting out with a borrowed $25.00. A a journal really worth reading.
John Gilman, a classmate at Willamette, class of 1958. John joined the AFROTC at Willamette and later became and Air Force office, a TWA Airline Pilot and later a lay pastor. John with Kent Hotaling and others became authors of ourstanding articles on living with and for Jesus. John and Jeanah served Jesus really well and with GREAT humor.
Gene Herr and Mary, led me into the world of Mennonite Youth, into the larger Menonite world, and then as part of the board of The Hermitage in Three Rivers, Michigan. Gene and Mary became "spiitual directors" for may pastors who came to The Hermitage. That ministry continues even today with the new directors. Gene intoduced me to the writings of several authors Robert Johnson, Morton Kelsey, recommending several books which influence my thinking even to this day. From Johnson - HE - SHE - WE - and CLAIMING YOUR OWN SHADOW to name just a few titles. From Kelsey - THE REALITY OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD - THE OTHER SIDE OF SILENCE - CARING - GOD, DREAMS, AND REVELATION -- each of these books have opened doors into my own life and world. Lately the book WE by Robert Johnson has helped me to move even further out of the destructive influences of my early childhood.
There is nothing like moving on, even when reaches the age of 83. One admonition, don't wait until you are 83 !!!
Sunday, April 1, 2012
The Son pushing the Father
Friends of 'Released Friend' blog I discovered that my father had let the site laps for over a year. I can understand why it is difficult to spend time putting your thoughts in the public forum. But the new generation (52 year old new generation) needs to remind our fathers that their thoughts and reflections have great value. In my fathers case he has been teaching how to interpret the bible into life today. His focus is supporting people and organization with guidance and leadership. We need this kind of information on a regular bases.
Palm Sunday and Easter week is a key time for Christians and insight is needed. Please encourage my father to get into the swing and start contributing.
Stephen
Palm Sunday and Easter week is a key time for Christians and insight is needed. Please encourage my father to get into the swing and start contributing.
Stephen
Friday, April 22, 2011
"Its Friday but Sunday is Coming"
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
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
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
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