Marriage Equality

In the past sixty years I have witnessed many changes in our society that would have startled my parents. The baby boomers have grown up looking at life from a very different perspective and their children have gone far beyond them.

When I was a boy it was unheard of for blacks and whites to be married and yet today almost ten percent of weddings are mixed race of many varieties.  Indeed some of the brides and grooms are children of mixed race marriages. There were some states that outlawed such weddings. There were many arguments that it would ruin the sanctity of marriage to allow it. Now no state has such restrictions. In my church there are mixed race couples with beautiful children and no one thinks anything about it. We have a new normal for our society.

Today the argument is about same sex marriages and there are already a lot of them as one state after another have made it legal. The older generation rails against it but the under 40 group thinks it is the most natural thing. That group is not far from taking over the political arena. Our culture is evolving to a more open and more loving accepting society.

Some of us older generations are having a difficult time adjusting to this sweeping change. As with the mixed race time people are calling for laws for marriage to be only for one man and one woman. It calls into question the purpose of marriage. Marriages in the past were often arranged by the fathers and were for providing legal heirs. In the early days of America some states required that a man own property before he could take a wife.

If marriage is only to provide for the next generation what does that say for couples who do not wish to have children or can not have children? If marriage is to provide for stable family units would that not include same gender couples?  The debate is on but the direction of change in society has already been set and like it or not there is no turning it back.

I ponder the question that if the marriage of a black woman and a white man does not affect my marriage, will marriage between two women affects it?

My First Time

The first time I stood up to preach I was very nervous. I knew that I had been called by God to preach but a certain amount of fear made my knees wobble.

As I approached the pulpit where I had practiced the day before it felt different, there were about a thousand people in front of me. I prayed for God to give me courage.  Once I started my presentation my words came out in a flood. I know now that I made some nubie mistakes bout the congregation encouraged me and sent me into ministry as their “Timothy” any way. That was in 1967 in Austin Texas at Hyde Park Christian Church.

I remember two things from that event. First is that with God’s help I over came my fear. Second was that the pulpit was indeed my calling and my home. Though I am now retired from the pastorate I still enjoy preaching on occasion when there is a need for some one to fill in and I always feel right at home when I step up to the pulpit.

Avoid Future Regret

I usually mute TV ads because they are too loud and annoying. Last night I was distracted and left the sound on so an ad caught my attention. You may have watched this ad for a gold coin yourself.

It starts off showing a US government fifty dollar gold coin using  buffalo nickel as the form. The announcer stress in loud tone that the coin is minted in .9999 percent pure gold, and limited number because the mint ran out of the special gold blanks. In truth the coin had a limited production because it was struck for the collectors market.

The announcer then switches coins. He is selling what amounts to a counterfeit coin. In softer voice he says that it is a non-monetary gold clad replica. Clad means that there is a very thin 14 mm gold layer of unknown purity. It is being sold for $9.95 so it can not be the .9999 percent like the real coin. Again in a louder voice he stresses that this offer is for a limited time and you can purchase up to five coins per order.

At the end he invites you to avoid disappointment and future regret so buy right now so call the number. Well I always want to avoid future regret and experience tells me that most of the time if I purchase a "too good to be true" item I will regret spending the money on it.   

So I am avoiding future regret.

God Sized Days

I have been studying two scriptures; one in the Old Testament and the other in the New Testament. Both deal with the idea of what is a day to God. What is a God sized day?

Psalm 90:4

“For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past.”

Second Peter 3:8

“But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like one day.”

For us limited humans a day is defined as 24 hours. We live in finite time and place. For God who lives in eternity the mere human concept of time does not apply. Before God created people who defined a human day, God lived. After we are no longer on this earth God will continue to exist. What is time to God and what is a day to God?

These two scriptures give us a clue. I note that they do not say that a God sized day is a thousand years so let us not be confused. Our concept and definitions of time are irrelevant to God who lives in eternity. So a day to God may be a thousand of our years, a billion of our years or even a trillion of our years. We can not and dare not apply our definitions on God. 

The first chapter of Geneses also talks of God sized days for until the last day there were no humans to define time. Something to think about. 

Atoms

I was watching a NOVA program on PBS that showed us an electron microscope that was so strong they could see atoms in brass and distinguish the different atoms of copper and tin. We have come a long way since Democritus of Adbera in northern Greece first described the atom in 400 BC. He said, “That all material things are composed of extremely small irreducible particles called atoms and that nothing exist except atoms and empty space.”

I saw this Nova episode during a time when I am rereading “The Nature of the Universe” by Lucretius a Roman gentleman about 55 BC. In this book he describes among other things the nature of the atom in great detail.

Without the aid of electron microscopes they both did an amazing job of thinking about something they could not see and could only imagine using logic.

How far will we go in the next hundred or a thousand years?

She Saw Jesus First

Mary Magdalene was a woman in Galilee who became a follower of Jesus after he cast seven demons out of her. In the past some people wrote that she was a prostitute but that is NOT what the Bible says about her. What it does say about her is that she was the first person to see Jesus resurrected. I think that is most significant!

There are many stories about Mary Magdalene and even a Gospel according to Mary that didn’t make it into the bible. She was an important part of the early Christian church. Today I am thinking about her on the Monday after the Resurrection and how she might have felt that day.

It IS Resurrection Sunday

Celebrate the Resurrection !

Today is Resurrection Sunday so celebrate the risen Jesus the Christ who died on the cross for our sins and was resurrected for our eternal life.

Praise God!