Founded on a Dream
Stories
Contents
“Founded on a Dream” by C. David McKirachan
“Recess” by C. David McKirachan
“A Bit of Both” by Frank Ramirez
Founded on a Dream
by C. David McKirachan
Genesis 15: 1-12, 17-18
Abram was offered a deal. A deal with God. Wow! And he wanted assurances. Few give the guy credit for guts. Few give him credit for much of anything. How could you be so rude to God? Next time you check your credit rating, or pay your mortgage, or check the value of your IRA, or sit your kid down and give them the talk before he or she takes the car out, reconsider your judgement of Abram. “We give God the credit. All others pay cash.” I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve seen that in stores. Our culture is not built on trust, it’s built on collateral. If you’re going to promise me something, I want something up front, a down payment, something. That’s just reasonable. I’m no fool.
I went to Stewardship School, a euphemism for a class on how to wring money out of church members. We were taught how to present the church as a winning proposition, because who would invest in a losing operation? Offer them bang for their bucks. Periodically I felt a gag coming on.
There are words at the foot of the Statue of Liberty, “Send me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teaming shores, send them, the tempest tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” That doesn’t sound like a good strategy for building a winning proposition. That sounds like a homeless shelter. Where are we going to put all these losers? They don’t have anything to offer. How can we trust them? I mean, what have they done for us? And what can we expect from ‘wretched refuse?’
When people in Abram’s time wanted to make a deal they used blood as a binder. That’s where we get blood brothers. It was a commitment founded on the stuff of life and death. Now we use contracts, supported by double entry book keeping. But stretch a bit and the whole cutting up lambs thing makes a little more sense. This was God’s way of letting a ‘reasonable’ man know that this disembodied voice/presence that we call a spirit, meant business. God was sealing the deal in terms that made sense to a human being. What God has to go through to deal with our insecurities!
The Church, our nation, my marriage, my relationship with my kids, my friendships, my relationship with my dog and all the most important things in my life are not based on bang for my buck, double entry book keeping, or being a winning proposition. They are based on a dream. A dream that rises out of a terribly old fashioned concept called faith.
Hebrews defines faith as “…the assurance of things hoped for…” Sounds pretty flimsy to any reasonable person. But if we are to aspire to anything more than a sophisticated application of might makes right and the law of tooth and claw, if we are to believe that we are more than dust accidentally piled together and tangled up with amino acids, if we are to believe in beauty, nobility, courage, or compassion, then this flimsy dream of faith becomes a well spring of everything we want to be or become.
What assurance do I have that this is not a pie in the sky waste of time? Two things. First: the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, a guy named Jesus. He was God’s lamb. He was the assurance, the blood that God laid down to demonstrate that this multi-dimensional mystery meant business. Through all the cobwebs of dispute and confusion and years of insanity this guy Jesus shines like a star in my sky. A star that I’ve followed and found to be dependable, not necessarily easy, but as real as anything else in this crazy world.
Second: Consider the alternative. I love the world, but life in it is hard. And there are a lot of philosophies and schemes and methods that I’ve considered and watched. There are a lot of people who are called successful and powerful that I’ve considered and listened to. None of them offer a way of life that allows me to enjoy this world and to appreciate so much of its wonders and to grow beyond my own smallness into glory like this one. I love my life. And I don’t think I’d be half this happy following any other way.
And all of that is founded on what others call a dream, what some of us call faith. So, I’ll chase away the buzzards (read verse 11. That’s another sermon) and follow the dream. It’s the best way to go.
* * *
Recess
by C. David McKirachan
Psalm 27
It was hell. Every day began with anxiety and ended with shame. I was in third grade. The school work was easy. I already knew how to read pretty well and Mrs. Williams knew enough not to make me into some kind of pet. Math was easy but it took the other kids a while to crack the nut of times tables.
It was recess that did it. At lunch I could keep my head down and the teachers watched us. But recess… I asked Mrs. Williams to let me clean the erasers. (I found out later I was allergic to chalk dust.) She thanked me and told me I’d done a good job the day before. They were still pretty clean. (It never occurred to me she needed a break.) After all it was a beautiful day. Why couldn’t it rain more often? I should go out and play. By the time I made it out, he was waiting for me.
He was a fifth grader. Taller, faster, stronger. He knew all the ugly words and he knew how to use them in ways that proved I was a baby and he could do and say anything he wanted. He had a crew cut, and a nasty snarl. And I was his favorite victim. I never considered myself that. The way he spoke and acted it was clear I deserved to be treated like that. There was little physical violence. It wasn’t needed.
When my mother listened to my prayers at night, kissed me and left the room, I had another prayer. I asked God to make me sick so I wouldn’t have to go to school the next day. Faking it wouldn’t help. My mother was too smart. Every day, I’d wake up hoping for a sore throat, putting my hand to my head, no fever. Sure that God hated me, I would go to hell for another day, alone, ready to be punished for being me.
I had a bible study once on the Psalms and a woman said that she didn’t like the language in so many of the psalms that implied we needed a stronghold, or a fortress, or a protector. Her attitude was that it was too adversarial. If we preached a gospel of peace why should we need fortresses? I asked her if she’d never felt put upon or pushed around. “Well yes. By you.” Everybody laughed. She didn’t. Okay…
Life is full of situations that bring us to places of fear and pain. We are confronted by monsters. Cancer, judgement, betrayal, loss, and sometimes people who for no good reason use us as punching bags. Life has edges. And dealing with lacerations and lumps is part of getting along. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a protector? Wouldn’t it be great to have a place to go that was fortified, where the Vikings of life couldn’t breach the gates and plunder our precious bits of self-esteem and hope? In the movie Lethal Weapon, one cop says to another, “God must hate me.” The response comes, “Hate him back. It works for me.”
The psalmist was honest. He didn’t back away from his sense of struggle with the edges of life. He’d suffered. But he found a sense of presence with him even in the painful places of life. He had confidence that God was there and that God didn’t hate him. It didn’t solve the problem. Bullies would still attack others, maybe even him, out of their own insecurity or as sociopaths enjoying the impact their behavior had on others. But the writer’s confidence was not in an ability to out bully the bullies of life. It was in his relationship with a living God whose justice and mercy was more important and ultimately more powerful than all the pain and trouble of life. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “The arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice.” That attitude gives us a place to stand that can move the world, because we never forget that we are not victims. We are children of the most high God.
Tell that to a third grader or someone who’s getting pushed around by a boss, a landlord, or an abusive spouse. They need a stronghold. They need a safe place. They need the church. That’s why it’s called a sanctuary. Our job as the people of God is not only to create a nice place to do nice things. It’s to stand with the victims in the midst of a dark world and proclaim that the light lives here. And nothing shall overcome it. We all need that.
I have a feeling that my mother and Mrs. Williams got together. One day the bully wasn’t at recess. My first thought was that he got all the luck. He got sick. Then I saw him in the hall. Before I could find a bathroom to duck into, he turned around and went the other way. My mother sat down with me that night and told me that she wanted me to know that she and my father loved me, and that God loved me, and I should remember that, even when other people didn’t.
I told you she was smart.
* * *
A Bit of Both
by Frank Ramirez
Philippians 3:17-4:1, Luke 13:31-35
At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to (Jesus), "Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you." He said to them, "Go and tell that fox for me...." (Luke 13:31-32)
There's very little that is actually known about Aesop, the author of many fables that have come down to us over the centuries. It’s believed he came from Thrace, that he was a slave who belonged to a man named Iadmon who eventually freed him, and that he lived in the Sixth Century BC.
Aesop's Fables were not considered literature in the ancient world because they were written in prose and poetry, and by a slave besides. Nevertheless everyone quoted them.
Among the hundreds of fables preserved in ancient Greek and Latin that are attributed to Aesop are many that concern foxes. For instance:
A fox went into a cave after a meal. He ate so much he was unable to exit through the narrow way he'd entered.
A fox invited a stork to dinner and served a thin broth on a slab of marble from which the stork could not get a taste. The stork in turn invited the fox over for dinner and provided solid food served in a long, thin, narrow jar. While the fox licked the outside of the jar in vain the stork said, "If you treat someone badly you shouldn’t be surprised if you get the same treatment in return."
A crow had a piece of cheese in his mouth and sat on a high perch. A fox flattered the crow, hoping to get the cheese. “What a beautiful bird you are. Your only flaw is that you can’t sing.” The crow opened its mouth to sing, "Caw! Caw!" causing the cheese to drop right into the fox's mouth.
A rabbit asked a fox why everyone called him The Sly One. The fox invited the rabbit over to dinner to explain, whereupon he ate the rabbit.
A fox saw bunches of beautiful grapes hanging from a vine. He tried to leap high enough to reach the fruit, but he could not. After he gave up he said, "Those grapes were probably sour, anyway."
A fox knocked on the door of the hen house on a cold night and asked them to let him in the coop, for surely God would hold them responsible for his death if they allowed him to freeze. The pious hens let him in whereupon he ate them one by one.
A fox begged a ferryman to give him a ride across a rushing river, promising to pay him on the other side. Afterward when the ferryman demanded his payment the fox watered his shoes. He who serves a scoundrel wastes his effort.
A fox lost his tail in a trap. Afterward he tried to convince the other foxes to cut off their tales, as this would make it impossible for them to lose theirs in a trap.
A fox looked at the mask used by an actor in tragedies. "What a majestic face," he said, "but no brains!"
A fox complimented a rooster for its beauty, adding, "I remember how grand your father looked when he sang with his eyes closed." The rooster closed his eyes and the fox snapped his teeth around the bird and ran off. A shepherd cornered the fox. The rooster said, "Tell him I belong to you and your carrying me off is none of their business." When the fox opened its mouth to explain the rooster ran away. "Alas for me," said the fox. "I should have kept my mouth shut." The rooster replied, "Alas for those who shut their eyes when they ought to keep them open!"
A fox went hunting with a bear and a lion. The bear and the lion spent a great deal of energy hunting their prey, but a fox found a camel tied to a post and reported that to the bear and the lion.
A fox invited a dove to come down from its perch, saying he had just come from the royal court where the king had signed a proclamation of everlasting peace. "I would never harm you now," said the fox. The dove, perched high up in a tree, said, "I can see two hunters and their dogs. They don't look like they know anything about the everlasting peace." The fox was frightened of the hunters and it showed. "Maybe the dogs haven't heard about the proclamation," the fox said. "Or maybe," the dove replied, "the document has been written up, but it hasn't been signed and sealed."
It was said that the great god Zeus so admired the fox for his shrewdness and made him king of the animals, but he worried that the fox was still greedy, so he let a beetle fall while he was being carried on his royal litter. The fox scrambled to catch it and eat it, convincing Zeus to demote the fox.
So when Jesus referred to Herod Antipas as a "fox" one can assume that his listeners knew many stories about foxes, including famous fables like these, to let them know just what Jesus meant. Was this a positive image or a negative image?
Maybe a bit of both.
*****************************************
StoryShare, March 17, 2019 issue.
Copyright 2019 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.
“Founded on a Dream” by C. David McKirachan
“Recess” by C. David McKirachan
“A Bit of Both” by Frank Ramirez
Founded on a Dream
by C. David McKirachan
Genesis 15: 1-12, 17-18
Abram was offered a deal. A deal with God. Wow! And he wanted assurances. Few give the guy credit for guts. Few give him credit for much of anything. How could you be so rude to God? Next time you check your credit rating, or pay your mortgage, or check the value of your IRA, or sit your kid down and give them the talk before he or she takes the car out, reconsider your judgement of Abram. “We give God the credit. All others pay cash.” I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve seen that in stores. Our culture is not built on trust, it’s built on collateral. If you’re going to promise me something, I want something up front, a down payment, something. That’s just reasonable. I’m no fool.
I went to Stewardship School, a euphemism for a class on how to wring money out of church members. We were taught how to present the church as a winning proposition, because who would invest in a losing operation? Offer them bang for their bucks. Periodically I felt a gag coming on.
There are words at the foot of the Statue of Liberty, “Send me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teaming shores, send them, the tempest tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” That doesn’t sound like a good strategy for building a winning proposition. That sounds like a homeless shelter. Where are we going to put all these losers? They don’t have anything to offer. How can we trust them? I mean, what have they done for us? And what can we expect from ‘wretched refuse?’
When people in Abram’s time wanted to make a deal they used blood as a binder. That’s where we get blood brothers. It was a commitment founded on the stuff of life and death. Now we use contracts, supported by double entry book keeping. But stretch a bit and the whole cutting up lambs thing makes a little more sense. This was God’s way of letting a ‘reasonable’ man know that this disembodied voice/presence that we call a spirit, meant business. God was sealing the deal in terms that made sense to a human being. What God has to go through to deal with our insecurities!
The Church, our nation, my marriage, my relationship with my kids, my friendships, my relationship with my dog and all the most important things in my life are not based on bang for my buck, double entry book keeping, or being a winning proposition. They are based on a dream. A dream that rises out of a terribly old fashioned concept called faith.
Hebrews defines faith as “…the assurance of things hoped for…” Sounds pretty flimsy to any reasonable person. But if we are to aspire to anything more than a sophisticated application of might makes right and the law of tooth and claw, if we are to believe that we are more than dust accidentally piled together and tangled up with amino acids, if we are to believe in beauty, nobility, courage, or compassion, then this flimsy dream of faith becomes a well spring of everything we want to be or become.
What assurance do I have that this is not a pie in the sky waste of time? Two things. First: the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, a guy named Jesus. He was God’s lamb. He was the assurance, the blood that God laid down to demonstrate that this multi-dimensional mystery meant business. Through all the cobwebs of dispute and confusion and years of insanity this guy Jesus shines like a star in my sky. A star that I’ve followed and found to be dependable, not necessarily easy, but as real as anything else in this crazy world.
Second: Consider the alternative. I love the world, but life in it is hard. And there are a lot of philosophies and schemes and methods that I’ve considered and watched. There are a lot of people who are called successful and powerful that I’ve considered and listened to. None of them offer a way of life that allows me to enjoy this world and to appreciate so much of its wonders and to grow beyond my own smallness into glory like this one. I love my life. And I don’t think I’d be half this happy following any other way.
And all of that is founded on what others call a dream, what some of us call faith. So, I’ll chase away the buzzards (read verse 11. That’s another sermon) and follow the dream. It’s the best way to go.
* * *
Recess
by C. David McKirachan
Psalm 27
It was hell. Every day began with anxiety and ended with shame. I was in third grade. The school work was easy. I already knew how to read pretty well and Mrs. Williams knew enough not to make me into some kind of pet. Math was easy but it took the other kids a while to crack the nut of times tables.
It was recess that did it. At lunch I could keep my head down and the teachers watched us. But recess… I asked Mrs. Williams to let me clean the erasers. (I found out later I was allergic to chalk dust.) She thanked me and told me I’d done a good job the day before. They were still pretty clean. (It never occurred to me she needed a break.) After all it was a beautiful day. Why couldn’t it rain more often? I should go out and play. By the time I made it out, he was waiting for me.
He was a fifth grader. Taller, faster, stronger. He knew all the ugly words and he knew how to use them in ways that proved I was a baby and he could do and say anything he wanted. He had a crew cut, and a nasty snarl. And I was his favorite victim. I never considered myself that. The way he spoke and acted it was clear I deserved to be treated like that. There was little physical violence. It wasn’t needed.
When my mother listened to my prayers at night, kissed me and left the room, I had another prayer. I asked God to make me sick so I wouldn’t have to go to school the next day. Faking it wouldn’t help. My mother was too smart. Every day, I’d wake up hoping for a sore throat, putting my hand to my head, no fever. Sure that God hated me, I would go to hell for another day, alone, ready to be punished for being me.
I had a bible study once on the Psalms and a woman said that she didn’t like the language in so many of the psalms that implied we needed a stronghold, or a fortress, or a protector. Her attitude was that it was too adversarial. If we preached a gospel of peace why should we need fortresses? I asked her if she’d never felt put upon or pushed around. “Well yes. By you.” Everybody laughed. She didn’t. Okay…
Life is full of situations that bring us to places of fear and pain. We are confronted by monsters. Cancer, judgement, betrayal, loss, and sometimes people who for no good reason use us as punching bags. Life has edges. And dealing with lacerations and lumps is part of getting along. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a protector? Wouldn’t it be great to have a place to go that was fortified, where the Vikings of life couldn’t breach the gates and plunder our precious bits of self-esteem and hope? In the movie Lethal Weapon, one cop says to another, “God must hate me.” The response comes, “Hate him back. It works for me.”
The psalmist was honest. He didn’t back away from his sense of struggle with the edges of life. He’d suffered. But he found a sense of presence with him even in the painful places of life. He had confidence that God was there and that God didn’t hate him. It didn’t solve the problem. Bullies would still attack others, maybe even him, out of their own insecurity or as sociopaths enjoying the impact their behavior had on others. But the writer’s confidence was not in an ability to out bully the bullies of life. It was in his relationship with a living God whose justice and mercy was more important and ultimately more powerful than all the pain and trouble of life. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “The arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice.” That attitude gives us a place to stand that can move the world, because we never forget that we are not victims. We are children of the most high God.
Tell that to a third grader or someone who’s getting pushed around by a boss, a landlord, or an abusive spouse. They need a stronghold. They need a safe place. They need the church. That’s why it’s called a sanctuary. Our job as the people of God is not only to create a nice place to do nice things. It’s to stand with the victims in the midst of a dark world and proclaim that the light lives here. And nothing shall overcome it. We all need that.
I have a feeling that my mother and Mrs. Williams got together. One day the bully wasn’t at recess. My first thought was that he got all the luck. He got sick. Then I saw him in the hall. Before I could find a bathroom to duck into, he turned around and went the other way. My mother sat down with me that night and told me that she wanted me to know that she and my father loved me, and that God loved me, and I should remember that, even when other people didn’t.
I told you she was smart.
* * *
A Bit of Both
by Frank Ramirez
Philippians 3:17-4:1, Luke 13:31-35
At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to (Jesus), "Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you." He said to them, "Go and tell that fox for me...." (Luke 13:31-32)
There's very little that is actually known about Aesop, the author of many fables that have come down to us over the centuries. It’s believed he came from Thrace, that he was a slave who belonged to a man named Iadmon who eventually freed him, and that he lived in the Sixth Century BC.
Aesop's Fables were not considered literature in the ancient world because they were written in prose and poetry, and by a slave besides. Nevertheless everyone quoted them.
Among the hundreds of fables preserved in ancient Greek and Latin that are attributed to Aesop are many that concern foxes. For instance:
A fox went into a cave after a meal. He ate so much he was unable to exit through the narrow way he'd entered.
A fox invited a stork to dinner and served a thin broth on a slab of marble from which the stork could not get a taste. The stork in turn invited the fox over for dinner and provided solid food served in a long, thin, narrow jar. While the fox licked the outside of the jar in vain the stork said, "If you treat someone badly you shouldn’t be surprised if you get the same treatment in return."
A crow had a piece of cheese in his mouth and sat on a high perch. A fox flattered the crow, hoping to get the cheese. “What a beautiful bird you are. Your only flaw is that you can’t sing.” The crow opened its mouth to sing, "Caw! Caw!" causing the cheese to drop right into the fox's mouth.
A rabbit asked a fox why everyone called him The Sly One. The fox invited the rabbit over to dinner to explain, whereupon he ate the rabbit.
A fox saw bunches of beautiful grapes hanging from a vine. He tried to leap high enough to reach the fruit, but he could not. After he gave up he said, "Those grapes were probably sour, anyway."
A fox knocked on the door of the hen house on a cold night and asked them to let him in the coop, for surely God would hold them responsible for his death if they allowed him to freeze. The pious hens let him in whereupon he ate them one by one.
A fox begged a ferryman to give him a ride across a rushing river, promising to pay him on the other side. Afterward when the ferryman demanded his payment the fox watered his shoes. He who serves a scoundrel wastes his effort.
A fox lost his tail in a trap. Afterward he tried to convince the other foxes to cut off their tales, as this would make it impossible for them to lose theirs in a trap.
A fox looked at the mask used by an actor in tragedies. "What a majestic face," he said, "but no brains!"
A fox complimented a rooster for its beauty, adding, "I remember how grand your father looked when he sang with his eyes closed." The rooster closed his eyes and the fox snapped his teeth around the bird and ran off. A shepherd cornered the fox. The rooster said, "Tell him I belong to you and your carrying me off is none of their business." When the fox opened its mouth to explain the rooster ran away. "Alas for me," said the fox. "I should have kept my mouth shut." The rooster replied, "Alas for those who shut their eyes when they ought to keep them open!"
A fox went hunting with a bear and a lion. The bear and the lion spent a great deal of energy hunting their prey, but a fox found a camel tied to a post and reported that to the bear and the lion.
A fox invited a dove to come down from its perch, saying he had just come from the royal court where the king had signed a proclamation of everlasting peace. "I would never harm you now," said the fox. The dove, perched high up in a tree, said, "I can see two hunters and their dogs. They don't look like they know anything about the everlasting peace." The fox was frightened of the hunters and it showed. "Maybe the dogs haven't heard about the proclamation," the fox said. "Or maybe," the dove replied, "the document has been written up, but it hasn't been signed and sealed."
It was said that the great god Zeus so admired the fox for his shrewdness and made him king of the animals, but he worried that the fox was still greedy, so he let a beetle fall while he was being carried on his royal litter. The fox scrambled to catch it and eat it, convincing Zeus to demote the fox.
So when Jesus referred to Herod Antipas as a "fox" one can assume that his listeners knew many stories about foxes, including famous fables like these, to let them know just what Jesus meant. Was this a positive image or a negative image?
Maybe a bit of both.
*****************************************
StoryShare, March 17, 2019 issue.
Copyright 2019 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.
