Hearing the News
Stories
Contents
“Hearing the News” by Peter Andrew Smith
“Rejecting the Darkness” by Frank Ramirez
Hearing the News
by Peter Andrew Smith
Mark 10:46-52
John sat on the curb next to the medical clinic. It wasn’t fair. He did everything he was supposed to do. He ate healthy foods, exercised, and didn’t smoke. He got plenty of sleep, meditated, and tried to live a balanced life. Yet the doctor was clear that he had cancer. Cancer. He hadn’t heard too much of what the doctor said after that. All he could think of was his aunt lying in bed wasting away during the last weeks of her life.
Why? John asked silently. He was a good person. He went to church with his brother on Sunday and read his Bible. I try to be kind like you ask. Am I being punished for something? Why is this happening to me?
Simon sat down beside his brother. “How are you doing?”
“How do you think I’m doing?” John snapped. “I have cancer.”
“I’m sorry,” Simon put his arm around John’s shoulder.
“It’s just not fair.”
John started to cry and Simon simply sat holding him on the sidewalk. After a few minutes, John wiped his tears and sat up.
“I’m sorry I snapped at you.”
“Its okay you’ve got a lot to deal with right now.”
“Yeah. I never expected to hear the word cancer.”
Simon said nothing as John looked off into space for a while.
“I’m just upset. I don’t understand.”
“I don’t know that there is an explanation,” Simon said.
“Huh?” John turned toward his older brother. “You’ve gone to church longer than me. I expected you to tell me that I did something to deserve this or I don’t have enough faith.”
Simon shook his head. “I don’t believe that this is a punishment.”
“Do you believe that God loves me?”
Simon didn’t hesitate. “I do.”
“If God loves me then why do I have cancer?”
Simon shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“So what good is faith if it doesn’t have answers?”
Simon tilted his head. “What do you think faith is?”
John paused and thought about the question. “I’ve always thought faith is having God on your side.”
“God has always been on your side. The cross and empty tomb bear witness to the fact that God through Jesus has moved heaven and earth for each and every one of us.”
“So what’s faith?”
Simon took a deep breath. “I think faith is when we put ourselves on God’s side.”
John furrowed his brow. “So are you saying that if I have enough faith then God will heal me?”
“I think you are mixing up faith and magic. That confusion leads to the belief that if we just have enough faith then we can do anything we want.” Simon shook his head. “That’s certainly not what the Bible teaches.”
“But the Bible spends lots of time talking about people being healed by Jesus,” John said. “Just last Sunday the pastor talked about the blind man who asked Jesus for his sight and Jesus saying his faith had made him well.”
“Yes, the story does say that,” Simon said. “But who does the healing?”
“Jesus.”
“So what does the blind man have to do?”
John took a few moments to think. “Trust. Believe. Hope.”
“Exactly.”
John rubbed his forehead. “Having faith seemed easy when I heard the story but hard now that I have to do it in my life.”
“I know. That doesn’t change the fact that Jesus’ gift of grace and hope are for you,” Simon said. “I don’t know what tomorrow will bring but I know that Jesus will not abandon you and neither will I or any of the other people at the church.”
“Thanks. I needed to hear that.” John wiped at his eyes. “Do you think you could drive me to the church?”
“Sure.”
“Would you pray with me there for a while?”
“Absolutely.”
“Thanks.” John smiled at Simon. “Thanks as well for being like the people around the blind man in the story.”
“The people around the blind man?” Simon tilted his head. “I don’t remember what they did.”
“They encouraged him to come to Jesus after he cried out. I never really understood why he needed their help but I think I know now.” John got to his feet and offered his brother a hand “Sometimes you get so caught up in your pain and worry that you need someone to help you hear the good news of Jesus.”
Simon let himself be pulled up. “Brother you never cease to amaze me. You claim to not know much about being a Christian and then you come out with the most profound thoughts.”
John smiled at him. “I have a good teacher.”
* * *
Rejecting The Darkness
by Frank Ramirez
Job 42:1-6, 10-17
It seems that for each generation there has to be a movie, a book, a documentary -- something -- that brings to life the horrors of the Holocaust. Nothing can make sense of it, but we have to remind ourselves that six million Jews were systematically murdered by the German people under Nazi leadership.
How could seemingly ordinary people cooperate with those leaders to brutalize and destroy millions in death camps that exploited those strong enough to work as slaves before executing them by means too foul to describe?
Even against the backdrop of a war that resulted in the deaths of tens of millions of people, the photographs and descriptions of the death camps by those who liberated the paltry few survivors betrays belief.
And yet the story has to be told. And it was told best by those who endured its horrors and somehow survived.
One of those survivors was Elie Wiesel (1928-2016). He struggled with the problem of how to tell this story and why.
“Could men and women who consider it normal to assist the weak, to heal the sick, to protect small children, and to respect the wisdom of their elders understand what happened there. Would they be able to comprehend how, within that cursed universe, the masters tortured the weak and massacred the children, the sick, and the old?” (Night, New Translation, 2006, pp ix-x)
But attempt it he did. Born in a small town that today is part of Romania, Weisel lost his parents and his younger sister in the Holocaust. Having survived he continued his education in France and became a journalist. Thirteen years after he was freed from Buchenwald in 1945 his first book, La Nuit, was published. It was translated into English as simply Night. In this slender volume he told the story of the absolute evil he encountered in simple and heartbreaking language. He described being forced to watch executions, of growing complacent in the face of the constant brutalities and events that startled and humanized the suffering.
His book closed with his liberation, and how startled he was to look into a mirror and see a corpse staring back at him.
Weisel would go on to write more than thirty books, to lecture ceaselessly, to speak against hatred and genocide against any and all peoples, to teach, and to represent, as best he could, the world that had been swallowed into a world of suffering and hate.
Along the way he received many awards, including the United States of America Congressional Medal of Honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the French Legion of Honor, and the Nobel Peace Prize.
In his 1986 speech accepting the Nobel Prize he imagines that the boy he was can speak to him.
“Tell me,” he asks, “what have you done with my future, what have you done with your life?” And I tell him that I have tried. That I have tried to keep the memory alive, that I have tried to fight those who would forget. Because if we forget, we are guilty, we are accomplices.” (Night, 118).
Noting later in his speech that “…I have faith. Faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and even in his creation,” he affirmed the importance of living and acting because “Our lives no longer belong to us alone; they belong to all those who need us desperately.” (120)
This willingness to live well and faithfully despite the incomprehensibility of what has occurred mirrors the response of Job after God answers his questions with the larger picture of creation. While most translations in the past stated that Job abjectly repented in dust and ashes, more and more commentators are recognizing that Job repents from dust and ashes. The Common English Bible more correctly puts it, Therefore, I relent and find comfort on dust and ashes.
(Want to know more about scholars and their translations of this verse? See Job: The Bootleg Commentary, by Robert W. Neff and Frank Ramirez, pp 249-253.)
*****************************************
StoryShare, October 28, 2018, issue.
Copyright 2018 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.
“Hearing the News” by Peter Andrew Smith
“Rejecting the Darkness” by Frank Ramirez
Hearing the News
by Peter Andrew Smith
Mark 10:46-52
John sat on the curb next to the medical clinic. It wasn’t fair. He did everything he was supposed to do. He ate healthy foods, exercised, and didn’t smoke. He got plenty of sleep, meditated, and tried to live a balanced life. Yet the doctor was clear that he had cancer. Cancer. He hadn’t heard too much of what the doctor said after that. All he could think of was his aunt lying in bed wasting away during the last weeks of her life.
Why? John asked silently. He was a good person. He went to church with his brother on Sunday and read his Bible. I try to be kind like you ask. Am I being punished for something? Why is this happening to me?
Simon sat down beside his brother. “How are you doing?”
“How do you think I’m doing?” John snapped. “I have cancer.”
“I’m sorry,” Simon put his arm around John’s shoulder.
“It’s just not fair.”
John started to cry and Simon simply sat holding him on the sidewalk. After a few minutes, John wiped his tears and sat up.
“I’m sorry I snapped at you.”
“Its okay you’ve got a lot to deal with right now.”
“Yeah. I never expected to hear the word cancer.”
Simon said nothing as John looked off into space for a while.
“I’m just upset. I don’t understand.”
“I don’t know that there is an explanation,” Simon said.
“Huh?” John turned toward his older brother. “You’ve gone to church longer than me. I expected you to tell me that I did something to deserve this or I don’t have enough faith.”
Simon shook his head. “I don’t believe that this is a punishment.”
“Do you believe that God loves me?”
Simon didn’t hesitate. “I do.”
“If God loves me then why do I have cancer?”
Simon shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“So what good is faith if it doesn’t have answers?”
Simon tilted his head. “What do you think faith is?”
John paused and thought about the question. “I’ve always thought faith is having God on your side.”
“God has always been on your side. The cross and empty tomb bear witness to the fact that God through Jesus has moved heaven and earth for each and every one of us.”
“So what’s faith?”
Simon took a deep breath. “I think faith is when we put ourselves on God’s side.”
John furrowed his brow. “So are you saying that if I have enough faith then God will heal me?”
“I think you are mixing up faith and magic. That confusion leads to the belief that if we just have enough faith then we can do anything we want.” Simon shook his head. “That’s certainly not what the Bible teaches.”
“But the Bible spends lots of time talking about people being healed by Jesus,” John said. “Just last Sunday the pastor talked about the blind man who asked Jesus for his sight and Jesus saying his faith had made him well.”
“Yes, the story does say that,” Simon said. “But who does the healing?”
“Jesus.”
“So what does the blind man have to do?”
John took a few moments to think. “Trust. Believe. Hope.”
“Exactly.”
John rubbed his forehead. “Having faith seemed easy when I heard the story but hard now that I have to do it in my life.”
“I know. That doesn’t change the fact that Jesus’ gift of grace and hope are for you,” Simon said. “I don’t know what tomorrow will bring but I know that Jesus will not abandon you and neither will I or any of the other people at the church.”
“Thanks. I needed to hear that.” John wiped at his eyes. “Do you think you could drive me to the church?”
“Sure.”
“Would you pray with me there for a while?”
“Absolutely.”
“Thanks.” John smiled at Simon. “Thanks as well for being like the people around the blind man in the story.”
“The people around the blind man?” Simon tilted his head. “I don’t remember what they did.”
“They encouraged him to come to Jesus after he cried out. I never really understood why he needed their help but I think I know now.” John got to his feet and offered his brother a hand “Sometimes you get so caught up in your pain and worry that you need someone to help you hear the good news of Jesus.”
Simon let himself be pulled up. “Brother you never cease to amaze me. You claim to not know much about being a Christian and then you come out with the most profound thoughts.”
John smiled at him. “I have a good teacher.”
* * *
Rejecting The Darkness
by Frank Ramirez
Job 42:1-6, 10-17
It seems that for each generation there has to be a movie, a book, a documentary -- something -- that brings to life the horrors of the Holocaust. Nothing can make sense of it, but we have to remind ourselves that six million Jews were systematically murdered by the German people under Nazi leadership.
How could seemingly ordinary people cooperate with those leaders to brutalize and destroy millions in death camps that exploited those strong enough to work as slaves before executing them by means too foul to describe?
Even against the backdrop of a war that resulted in the deaths of tens of millions of people, the photographs and descriptions of the death camps by those who liberated the paltry few survivors betrays belief.
And yet the story has to be told. And it was told best by those who endured its horrors and somehow survived.
One of those survivors was Elie Wiesel (1928-2016). He struggled with the problem of how to tell this story and why.
“Could men and women who consider it normal to assist the weak, to heal the sick, to protect small children, and to respect the wisdom of their elders understand what happened there. Would they be able to comprehend how, within that cursed universe, the masters tortured the weak and massacred the children, the sick, and the old?” (Night, New Translation, 2006, pp ix-x)
But attempt it he did. Born in a small town that today is part of Romania, Weisel lost his parents and his younger sister in the Holocaust. Having survived he continued his education in France and became a journalist. Thirteen years after he was freed from Buchenwald in 1945 his first book, La Nuit, was published. It was translated into English as simply Night. In this slender volume he told the story of the absolute evil he encountered in simple and heartbreaking language. He described being forced to watch executions, of growing complacent in the face of the constant brutalities and events that startled and humanized the suffering.
His book closed with his liberation, and how startled he was to look into a mirror and see a corpse staring back at him.
Weisel would go on to write more than thirty books, to lecture ceaselessly, to speak against hatred and genocide against any and all peoples, to teach, and to represent, as best he could, the world that had been swallowed into a world of suffering and hate.
Along the way he received many awards, including the United States of America Congressional Medal of Honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the French Legion of Honor, and the Nobel Peace Prize.
In his 1986 speech accepting the Nobel Prize he imagines that the boy he was can speak to him.
“Tell me,” he asks, “what have you done with my future, what have you done with your life?” And I tell him that I have tried. That I have tried to keep the memory alive, that I have tried to fight those who would forget. Because if we forget, we are guilty, we are accomplices.” (Night, 118).
Noting later in his speech that “…I have faith. Faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and even in his creation,” he affirmed the importance of living and acting because “Our lives no longer belong to us alone; they belong to all those who need us desperately.” (120)
This willingness to live well and faithfully despite the incomprehensibility of what has occurred mirrors the response of Job after God answers his questions with the larger picture of creation. While most translations in the past stated that Job abjectly repented in dust and ashes, more and more commentators are recognizing that Job repents from dust and ashes. The Common English Bible more correctly puts it, Therefore, I relent and find comfort on dust and ashes.
(Want to know more about scholars and their translations of this verse? See Job: The Bootleg Commentary, by Robert W. Neff and Frank Ramirez, pp 249-253.)
*****************************************
StoryShare, October 28, 2018, issue.
Copyright 2018 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.
