One long hot summer in a place called St. Johns, there came into town a man with a big tent which he set up at the corner of Lombard and Clarendon, with a sign posted in front: THE GREAT MARCEL AND HIS FABULOUS SNAKE SHOW. He was dapper and slim, and he wore a stovepipe hat and a cutaway coat. And when the crowds thronged around the tent that night and oil torches flickered their light over a lithe young lady dancing with snakes, Marcel told of his wonderful oil ” oil extracted from snakes that cured every ...
In the summer of 1981, Will Lee, the actor who played an adult character named Mr. Hooper on the children's television show SESAME STREET, died. This posed a difficult set of issues for The Children's Television Workshop, producers of the show. Should they deal at all with the subject of death? If so, how would they explain it to their 10 million viewers, most of whom are under the age of six? A staff writer describes it this way: "We asked ourselves: What do we want the kids to know? What can they absorb ...
Sometimes you just can't win. A man had been driving all night and by morning was still far from his destination. He decided to stop at the next city he came to, and park somewhere quiet so he could get an hour or two of sleep. As luck would have it, the quiet place he chose happened to be on one of the city's major jogging routes. No sooner had he settled back to snooze when there came a knocking on his window. He looked out and saw a jogger running in place. "Yes?" he said. "Excuse me, sir," the jogger ...
Do you remember where you were on July 21, 1969? I know that many of you weren't even born! Weren't even a twinkle in your parent's eyes! But for those of you who were around, do you remember where you were in July 21, 1969? Let me give you a hint--maybe the title of the message this morning will trigger a memory. How did the songwriter put it? Young girl in Calcutta Barely 8 years old; The flies that swarm the marketplace Will see she don't grow old. But don't you know she heard it On that July afternoon ...
"I want to start a garden, but my yard's a little problematic," a customer told the proprietor at the yard and garden center. "I get blazing afternoon sunshine for about two hours, but otherwise it's all shade." "What kind of soil," asked the proprietor. "Hard clay, lot of rocks," said the customer, "What do you recommend I plant." "Hmmm," mused the store owner. "Why don't you look down Aisle B. We've got a big new supply of birdbaths and flagpoles . . . " (1) Maybe you have a lawn like that--good for ...
An advertisement on a TV Cable system began with this stirring question: "Wouldn't you love an exciting new career that could change your whole life?" According to this advertisement, all that you need to do to have a totally "new" and "exciting" life is to launch a career selling Pre-Paid Telephone Cards. The ads make it clear that this career opportunity requires no direct sales on your part. You can be the wholesale distributor in your area! Now many of us enjoy talking on the telephone! Any many of us ...
Object: None or three $20 bills. Say: I have a story to tell you this morning. A father had three sons. One Saturday morning he told the oldest son that he needed help in the garage that day and he would pay him twenty dollars to help him. Of course, his son was very happy to help him if money was involved! At lunch time, the father could see that he and the oldest son were not going to get the job finished by evening so he asked the middle son if he would also help and he would pay him. What do you think ...
A company chartered a ship for its top sales people. These sales people swarmed aboard and headed for their cabins. Minutes later one of them was on deck demanding to see the Captain. One of the officers asked if he could help. "My friend has a much better cabin!" the salesman said. "I did as good a job as he did and I want a cabin just like his." "Sir," the officer replied, "The cabins are identical." "Yeah," said the man, "but his cabin looks out on the ocean and my cabin looks out on this old dock." ...
Can you make an accurate judgement of a person based on his or her name? There was a motion picture sometime back with the simple title, "Heathers." The movie gave a less than flattering portrait of young women with that name. Is it true? When you choose names for your children, do you give thought to what their name might mean to their future success in life? In an issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, Dr. Howard J. Bennett presented a personal study of the various names of people in ...
A huge sofa filled the sidewalk in front of a home. Evidently the sofa had been taken out to the curb by the owner for trash collection. Since the sofa was in pretty good shape, a lot of people driving by slowed down for a closer look. But when they saw how big it was, they'd pass on by without stopping. Eventually a compact car pulled up, and two men got out. They removed all the cushions, turned the sofa upside down, and shook it hard. Then they picked up all the coins that tumbled out of the sofa, ...
Few of us will ever have the experience that John Neidigh of Jackson, Mississippi, had many years ago. John became trapped in the eye of a tornado. Even more amazing was the fact that he lived to tell about it. By the time John learned of the tornado's presence, it was too close for him to escape. His mobile home began moving up and down, as if it were a surfboard on a killer wave. Trees and debris flew by. The wind peeled off his roof. The sound was like the howl of a freight train. Suddenly, Neidigh's ...
What would you say are the top three tourist spots in the world? Time's up. The three most-traveled-to places in the world are: Rome (the seat of Catholicism and Vatican City), Mecca (the holiest site in the Islamic world), and Orlando, Florida (the home of Disney World). (1) More people visit those three places than any other on earth. I'm not exactly sure what that says about us, but it's an interesting fact. I guess it means that the three most influential figures in the world are the Pope, Mohammad, ...
“For we maintain that a man is justified by faith . . .” (3: 28 NIV) What are the most important lessons you’ve learned as you’ve gone through life? Author Adair Lara asked dozens of people to pass on the things they wish they’d known in their earlier years. Here are a few nuggets of wisdom: “Never marry a man who hates his mother.” -- Beth Clements “Never pass up an opportunity to use the rest room.”-- Sally Sanger “You will never, never win an argument with a meter maid.” -- Dean Backus And this final ...
This is the season we celebrate Christmas. The shopping has begun. The countdown of days left to make purchases is underway. Jewelry commercials are dominating the airways. People are passing by the Salvation Army bell ringers as they go in and out of the mall looking for just the right gift. It’s Christmas! This is the time of year when we decorate with lights, greenery, and all the symbols of the season. We sing carols. We greet the people we pass with tidings of good cheer, “Merry Christmas!” We rejoice ...
Not being a great sports fan myself, I have to rely upon others to help me with the sports imagery in writing about the topic above. In this case, I want to call upon evangelist Tom Skinner to flesh out the metaphor which gives us the title for this chapter and which helps us to understand the mission and purpose of the Church. He writes, In football we have what is called the huddle. We have only 25 seconds in the huddle. If you stay longer than 25 seconds, you are penalized five yards for delay of game ...
No matter what you do, there will always be somebody who won’t like it. Even Jesus had His critics. In our Scripture lesson we read that Jesus had just performed a miraculous cure on a man who had been ill for 38 years. You would think that such an event would be the occasion for universal rejoicing! But some took it as an occasion to criticize. The man was walking through the streets of Jerusalem carrying his bed, when the hyper-orthodox religious leaders stopped him and reminded him that he was breaking ...
I wonder about folks who proclaim their theology through the medium of bumper stickers. I have wondered ever since I read about the fellow who honked when he saw the bumper sticker, “Honk if you love Jesus,” only to be greeted by an obscene gesture from the driver of the other car. I suppose “Have a nice day” is harmless enough, but I recently came across one which said: “Don’t tell me what kind of a day to have!” A few years ago there was a campaign which plastered bumper stickers on cars with the caption ...
Is there anything more frustrating than to be reading an interesting article in the newspaper, only to find that the article is “continued on page 7, section C”.... and then turn to page 7, Section C., only to find that someone has either torn off that page or cut an article from the other side and thereby wiped out the conclusion of the story? That’s sort of the way it is with the Gospel of St. Mark. I. SCHOLARS HAVE KNOWN FOR A LONG TIME THAT MARK’S GOSPEL IS CUT SHORT AT THE END OF VERSE 8. They know ...
We have learned how the Lord''s Prayer truly encompasses and speaks to the totality of the human experience. We have discovered that no believer can ever really exhaust the meaning of this prayer, but only experience anew its purpose and power. It truly leads us into the "Presence of the Almighty." This prayer has a three-fold purpose for the pilgrim in that it helps us to center our lives, provides a corrective for our Christian walk, and provides comfort for the long haul of life''s sacred journey. ...
As we continue in our study of the Philippian letter, we see that Paul addresses the age old problem of fussing and fighting among God''s covenant people. This is one of the reasons I know Paul is writing to a real church, not a mythological one. Paul begins verse 2 trying to persuade and coax two sisters in Christ Jesus from acting up in the church family. It seems that Euodia and Syntyche were having a terrible time of agreeing on anything, except that the other was wrong. From the various scholars and ...
A pious woman with a rather sharp tongue, who professed to be a Christian but gossiped like an old hen--approached the rector of her church in London. She complained that the white bands which he wore with his pulpit gown were altogether too long and that this annoyed her greatly. She wanted permission to shorten them and had come armed with a pair of scissors. The pastor agreed, handed over the bands, and the woman snipped away with her scissors and then handed the garments back to the rector. He said, " ...
Following his service as Prime Minister of Great Britain during the dark days of World War II, Winston Churchill was invited to speak at Harrow, his boyhood grammar school, from which he had been graduated some seventy years before. As he stood at the lectern, looking out at his young audience, he said, "Young men, never give up! Never give up! Never! Never! Never!" With that he sat down. The audience was stunned. The message was so brief. Yet, in this succinct message, the man who had kept England going ...
Last fall the phone rang in my study. It was a newspaper pollster doing a survey on church and society. His main question was, "What would your city be like without the church?" I was tempted to be funny in my reply. Like the cartoon that shows a pack of wolves howling at the moon. A wolf on the back row is looking worried and asks another fanged friend, "Do you think we're doing any good?" Sometimes I feel like that when the church seems to be ignored or irrelevant. Yet anytime one feels he is small and ...
Sometime ago Sydney Harris, the syndicated columnist, wrote a "fascinating piece about Anita Bryant that I would like to read to you this morning. As you know, Anita Bryant was a self-appointed crusader against gay rights a few years ago. Then she went through a divorce, and acquired a drug habit, and was hospitalized for a long time. And today, she's not the same person she was back then. This is what Sydney Harris wrote: He said, "Now that her world has come unstuck, and she is beginning to reglue it, I ...
I heard an amusing story recently about a Southern Baptist pastor who answered his telephone one day and heard a man's voice. "Please send six cases of whiskey to my house," said the voice. "We're having a party." To say the least, the pastor was surprised. Southern Baptist pastors are not in the habit of delivering cases of whiskey to people's homes. Even more surprising, he recognized the voice as being that of one of his deacons. Evidently the deacon had been calling a liquor store and dialed his pastor ...