Having A Stake In The Harvest
Stories
Object:
Contents
"Having a Stake in the Harvest" by Frank Ramirez
"Geek" by C. David McKirachan
* * * * * * *
Having a Stake in the Harvest
by Frank Ramirez
1 Corinthians 3:1-9
The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labor of each.
-- 1 Corinthians 3:8
George Washington is rightly considered the "Father of our Country" as well as perhaps our greatest president. Despite a lack of formal education and training (which he felt keenly), it is hard to imagine the founding of our country taking place without his inspirational leadership.
He was considered at the time the only possible candidate to lead the Continental Army during the Revolution. The fractious thirteen colonies could scarcely agree on anything else. He held his fragile army together through years of deprivation and despair. Though actual military victories were few and far between, he willed the army through tough times despite the refusal of the government and populace to support the cause.
He set a great example when, though commander-in-chief, he refused the helm of political leadership first offered to him but stepped away from power. Later, when the Articles of Confederation proved inadequate for the new nation he supported the work of the Constitutional Convention and reluctantly agreed to become the first president. He then refused to assume the mantle of king, which many internationally assumed he would become.
Finally, he confounded those who thought he would serve for life when, after two terms, he once more voluntarily walked away from a position of power back into private life.
It's important to remember these accomplishments, because it cannot be ignored despite the fact he was one of the few Founding Fathers who, owning slaves, freed them (although not until after his own and his wife's death), the fact that he owned slaves makes for a contradictory figure in our history.
Washington never understood why slaves did not work harder, and why so little work seemed to get down sometimes. He never seems to have understood that slaves did not benefit from their hard work. In his book An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America, historian Henry Wiencek examines some of the contradictions in Washington's life. He recalls a visit to Mount Vernon, Washington's home, where now the archaeologists and interpreters sift through the historical evidence left behind that chronicles the experience of his slaves.
One of the more interesting things that Wiencek demonstrates is how the experts are convinced that slaves on Washington's plantation, seemingly powerless, practiced "random and petty sabotage, malingering, tools missing and broken, rampant theft" (108).
He describes how slaves could dull the blades of the machinery designed to create roof shingles, just by setting things down wrong, so that work could come to a halt while a new blade was procured. We learn how slaves managed to set aside some of the best wool from the sheep for themselves, despite the fact that they were only allowed "stomach wool," typically fouled by dirt and manure. Seed, horse feed, mails, and other essentials somehow managed to end up in the slaves' hands.
This was all in the face of a killing pace of work, brutal living conditions, along with inadequate clothing and rations allowed by Washington to his slaves.
The apostle Paul lived in a time when slavery was rampant as well. But in likening the work of the church to the work on a farm, he suggested that, unlike slaves, Christians shared in both the work of Christ and the benefits of that work. "The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labor of each" (1 Corinthians 3:8).
By contrast, as Wiencek wrote, Washington's slaves "... did not share his vision or his drive because they could never share in the results. Washington never quite grasped this idea because he had been brought up to be indifferent to what his inferiors thought and felt" (119).
In our congregations we can truly say that we share in the work and the wages of grace. Right?
Frank Ramirez has served as a pastor for nearly 30 years in Church of the Brethren congregations in Los Angeles, California; Elkhart, Indiana; and Everett, Pennsylvania. A graduate of LaVerne College and Bethany Theological Seminary, Ramirez is the author of numerous books, articles, and short stories. His CSS titles include Partners in Healing, He Took a Towel, The Bee Attitudes, three volumes of Lectionary Worship Aids, and Breakdown on Bethlehem Street.
Geek
by C. David McKirachan
Psalm 119:1-8
I was put to shame with great regularity. Having started school a good year before most of my fellow scholars, I was usually clueless about what was going on among them. (Everybody needs a good excuse, this is mine.) I didn't know what the dirty words meant. And I couldn't figure out why people were so hard on each other. Being a large and clueless geek, I was an easy target. There was one easier target in my fourth grade class. He had a hard time seeing and the ones who knew what all the dirty words meant (or at least used them a lot), were hard on Tim. He wasn't tiny. I knew that story. So did Tim. He was legally blind (he explained to me what that meant), and I was a large clueless geek. He was also nice to me. He didn't put me to shame.
One day he told me that some people were nice to him, sort of. I wanted to know what that meant. He said that by their tone and their behavior he could tell that they were being nice to him because they were supposed to be nice to blind people. I reminded him he wasn't blind, he was legally blind and that made them dumb. He agreed and we both felt better.
I told my mother about him. I told her I had a friend. He was nice to me and we hung out with each other. I told her how people treated him and how dumb they were. She cried and I figured I'd done something good, but I remember not quite knowing what it was.
I got hit in the head during recess one day. I think it was the jungle gym, oops, slip, fall, wack, dizzy. We lined up to go back to class and I couldn't get my bearings. I was scared and I went over to Tim and held onto him. He was my friend. I woke up in the principal's office. My parents got there in a few minutes. They took me home and I had to rest. They said it was from bumping my head. I told them Tim was the one who'd taken care of me.
I got a day off and when I went back to school, the guy who knew all the dirty words used some of them to shame me. Tim stood right next to me. He told me he didn't understand why I'd grabbed him, but when I fell down, he yelled for a teacher and held my hand. I told him he was a hero. We both laughed. I think we laughed from relief. We'd found somebody we could depend on, even when the whole world wanted to put us to shame.
About a week later I found out he was the governor's son. But that's another story.
C. David McKirachan is pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Shrewsbury in central New Jersey. He also teaches at Monmouth University. McKirachan is the author of I Happened Upon a Miracle and A Year of Wonder (Westminster John Knox).
*****************************************
StoryShare, February 16, 2014, issue.
Copyright 2014 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
"Having a Stake in the Harvest" by Frank Ramirez
"Geek" by C. David McKirachan
* * * * * * *
Having a Stake in the Harvest
by Frank Ramirez
1 Corinthians 3:1-9
The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labor of each.
-- 1 Corinthians 3:8
George Washington is rightly considered the "Father of our Country" as well as perhaps our greatest president. Despite a lack of formal education and training (which he felt keenly), it is hard to imagine the founding of our country taking place without his inspirational leadership.
He was considered at the time the only possible candidate to lead the Continental Army during the Revolution. The fractious thirteen colonies could scarcely agree on anything else. He held his fragile army together through years of deprivation and despair. Though actual military victories were few and far between, he willed the army through tough times despite the refusal of the government and populace to support the cause.
He set a great example when, though commander-in-chief, he refused the helm of political leadership first offered to him but stepped away from power. Later, when the Articles of Confederation proved inadequate for the new nation he supported the work of the Constitutional Convention and reluctantly agreed to become the first president. He then refused to assume the mantle of king, which many internationally assumed he would become.
Finally, he confounded those who thought he would serve for life when, after two terms, he once more voluntarily walked away from a position of power back into private life.
It's important to remember these accomplishments, because it cannot be ignored despite the fact he was one of the few Founding Fathers who, owning slaves, freed them (although not until after his own and his wife's death), the fact that he owned slaves makes for a contradictory figure in our history.
Washington never understood why slaves did not work harder, and why so little work seemed to get down sometimes. He never seems to have understood that slaves did not benefit from their hard work. In his book An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America, historian Henry Wiencek examines some of the contradictions in Washington's life. He recalls a visit to Mount Vernon, Washington's home, where now the archaeologists and interpreters sift through the historical evidence left behind that chronicles the experience of his slaves.
One of the more interesting things that Wiencek demonstrates is how the experts are convinced that slaves on Washington's plantation, seemingly powerless, practiced "random and petty sabotage, malingering, tools missing and broken, rampant theft" (108).
He describes how slaves could dull the blades of the machinery designed to create roof shingles, just by setting things down wrong, so that work could come to a halt while a new blade was procured. We learn how slaves managed to set aside some of the best wool from the sheep for themselves, despite the fact that they were only allowed "stomach wool," typically fouled by dirt and manure. Seed, horse feed, mails, and other essentials somehow managed to end up in the slaves' hands.
This was all in the face of a killing pace of work, brutal living conditions, along with inadequate clothing and rations allowed by Washington to his slaves.
The apostle Paul lived in a time when slavery was rampant as well. But in likening the work of the church to the work on a farm, he suggested that, unlike slaves, Christians shared in both the work of Christ and the benefits of that work. "The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labor of each" (1 Corinthians 3:8).
By contrast, as Wiencek wrote, Washington's slaves "... did not share his vision or his drive because they could never share in the results. Washington never quite grasped this idea because he had been brought up to be indifferent to what his inferiors thought and felt" (119).
In our congregations we can truly say that we share in the work and the wages of grace. Right?
Frank Ramirez has served as a pastor for nearly 30 years in Church of the Brethren congregations in Los Angeles, California; Elkhart, Indiana; and Everett, Pennsylvania. A graduate of LaVerne College and Bethany Theological Seminary, Ramirez is the author of numerous books, articles, and short stories. His CSS titles include Partners in Healing, He Took a Towel, The Bee Attitudes, three volumes of Lectionary Worship Aids, and Breakdown on Bethlehem Street.
Geek
by C. David McKirachan
Psalm 119:1-8
I was put to shame with great regularity. Having started school a good year before most of my fellow scholars, I was usually clueless about what was going on among them. (Everybody needs a good excuse, this is mine.) I didn't know what the dirty words meant. And I couldn't figure out why people were so hard on each other. Being a large and clueless geek, I was an easy target. There was one easier target in my fourth grade class. He had a hard time seeing and the ones who knew what all the dirty words meant (or at least used them a lot), were hard on Tim. He wasn't tiny. I knew that story. So did Tim. He was legally blind (he explained to me what that meant), and I was a large clueless geek. He was also nice to me. He didn't put me to shame.
One day he told me that some people were nice to him, sort of. I wanted to know what that meant. He said that by their tone and their behavior he could tell that they were being nice to him because they were supposed to be nice to blind people. I reminded him he wasn't blind, he was legally blind and that made them dumb. He agreed and we both felt better.
I told my mother about him. I told her I had a friend. He was nice to me and we hung out with each other. I told her how people treated him and how dumb they were. She cried and I figured I'd done something good, but I remember not quite knowing what it was.
I got hit in the head during recess one day. I think it was the jungle gym, oops, slip, fall, wack, dizzy. We lined up to go back to class and I couldn't get my bearings. I was scared and I went over to Tim and held onto him. He was my friend. I woke up in the principal's office. My parents got there in a few minutes. They took me home and I had to rest. They said it was from bumping my head. I told them Tim was the one who'd taken care of me.
I got a day off and when I went back to school, the guy who knew all the dirty words used some of them to shame me. Tim stood right next to me. He told me he didn't understand why I'd grabbed him, but when I fell down, he yelled for a teacher and held my hand. I told him he was a hero. We both laughed. I think we laughed from relief. We'd found somebody we could depend on, even when the whole world wanted to put us to shame.
About a week later I found out he was the governor's son. But that's another story.
C. David McKirachan is pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Shrewsbury in central New Jersey. He also teaches at Monmouth University. McKirachan is the author of I Happened Upon a Miracle and A Year of Wonder (Westminster John Knox).
*****************************************
StoryShare, February 16, 2014, issue.
Copyright 2014 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
