October-December 2011

December 28, 2011

Some Bible wisdom that can't really be pondered too often is “you reap what you sow,” quoting Galatians 6:7 and found in a variety of proverbial forms and in various cultures and languages. The origin is as obvious and ancient as the invention of agriculture, coming from observant men and women who'd lived long enough to see one generation re-enact the follies or evils of the prior generation. But, actually, too often you reap what your neighbor sows, or you reap what someone in California or Georgia sowed 40 years ago.
A man beats his wife and abandons his family in 1979, and their son, maintaining a meth habit, steals your car in 2005. 
Thousands, millions of people shoplift and you pay higher prices at Wal-mart, or wherever you shop. Rinse, repeat, endlessly.
But, it's a new year. Let's turn this around. Let's flip it. Let's judo the whole unintended consequences thing. 
One of the things I'm most proud of in my whole life is the character of my two children. Yes, I know I don't get ALL the credit but that just makes it more enjoyable. It's a gift!
My daughter, who, growing up, lay on the couch and read novels and ate apples all day, now is a hardworking, conscientious Comptroller for a Texas law firm. I'm always astounded to learn how much, how hard, and how diligently she works.  If you've ever worked in a group setting, you know there's always somebody not pulling their load, and you know how irritating that is. My daughter is the one doing more, and doing it quicker and doing it better. She's a dynamo!
My son is one of the smartest people I know, and yet he's unfailingly polite to the rest of the world trying to keep up with what he's talking about. When he lived here with us for a while in 2009-10, I would occasionally hear him (working at home) speaking on the phone to the people he was calling in California or New York informing them of state contracts they were being encourage to bid on. What impressed me most was how unfailingly polite he always was to the (too often) very rude people he spoke to. It seems like his default attitude is always to treat people with courtesy. 
Now why am I boring you with all this palaver about my children? Because I'm reversing the proverb. Somebody else is reaping the blessing that I sowed in my children. Our personality, our character, is partly inherited, partly chosen, and partly taught by our parents. We DO have an effect on our children's later lives. You CAN bless the world with what you teach and by the example you show your 5 year old about discipline, honesty, fairness, kindness, courtesy, hard work, and all the other things we teach our children and grandchildren. 
And it doesn't stop there. This church exists because you're a part of it. And this church blesses those it serves because of your participation. The long arm of what you sow reaches into continents around the world and reaches forward through the decades and centuries ahead through Global Ministries and and Week of Compassion, and the Room in the Inn and the RUCO Food Bank and on and on. You have an opportunity through our growing involvement with GreenHouse Ministries to help families flourish and grow in Murfreesboro.
Yes, you reap what you sow. But others reap what YOU sow, as well. Sow life, sow love, sow blessing. Sow courtesy, sow hard work, sow generosity. You are the light of the world. Let your light shine!

December 27, 2011

Upcoming Sermon Scriptures:

January 22,  Luke 6:32-38

January 29,  Luke 10:1-20
February 5,  Luke 10:25-37
February 12,  Luke 10:38-42
February 19,  Luke 12:13-21

December 14, 2011

Volunteer Opportunities

Greenhouse Ministries, at 309 S. Spring St., has been working with families and individuals in need of assistance for 13 year in Murfreesboro. The ROMEOs (Retired Old Men Eating Out) have decided to begin volunteering there, and the next training session for volunteers is Tuesday, January 10 at 10 AM, or 6:30 PM. This is open to all CCC members, retired and working, male and female. I hope to see you there! smo
Sunday Evening Class
Our current class ended December 11 and the next class starts January 15. If you'd like to see the possible book choices, go to the Recommended Books page of the Pastor's Page on the church website, borodisciples.org. Let me know your favorite soon. smo
Christmas Services
We will observe Christmas Eve at 6:30 PM with Lessons and Carols and other solos and specials. We will have worship at the regular time on Christmas Day, an opportunity to be in communion on the day of the birth of our Lord. Sunday School will not meet that morning, adult or children. Sunday January 1 will be a special, Christmas Memories service, with four congregation members sharing a special memory with all of us from the pulpit. And Sunday January 8, we welcome Rev. Zach Mills to the pulpit while Pastor Odom is on vacation in Tallahassee. 
December 14, 2011

Upon Christ's Nativity, or Christmas

From three dark places Christ came forth this day;
From first His Father's bosom, where He lay,
Concealed till now; then from the typic law,
Where we His manhood but by figures saw;
And lastly from His mother's womb He came
To us, a perfect God and perfect Man.
     Now in a manger lies the eternal Word:
The Word He is, yet can no speech afford;
He is the Bread of Life, yet hungry lies;
The Living Fountain, yet for drink He cries;
He cannot help or clothe Himself at need
Who did the lilies clothe and ravens feed;
He is the Light of Lights, yet now doth shroud
His glory with our nature as a cloud.
He came to us a Little One, that we
Like little children might in malice be;
Little He is, and wrapped in clouts, lest He
Might strike us dead if clothed with majesty.
     Christ had four beds and those not soft nor brave:
The Virgin's womb, the manger, cross, and grave.
The angels sing this day, and so will I
That have more reason to be glad than they.

Rowland Watkyns, 1662

December 13, 2011

A Very Different Santa Claus,

by James Parker, from Baptist Press News

In reflecting on this season of the year, I have often wondered how a Martian reporter would write a story about Christmas in the United States. If one only had the dominant cultural icons of TV, movies, news media and retail stores, my guess is that the Martian-viewing audience wouldn't have a clue as to what Christmas is about.

They might think it has something to do with snowmen or reindeer or retail store sales. And if any particular person rose to the top in the public's awareness, it would be a jolly secular guy at risk for stroke or cardiac arrest who likes to dress in red and let his beard grow. 

Rather than just bemoan this fact, I assert that we need to reimage the myth of the modern-day Santa Claus.

Most people simply do not realize the rich ancient heritage behind the Santa Claus story. The secularized and sanitized contemporary version pales in comparison with the deeply Christian ethos and content of the original.

Much exaggerated legendary material is connected with his life and ministry, but if nothing else, the legends tell us what values and beliefs the church held as important as they were projected onto Nicholas. To the bare minimum of facts, legend has supplied intriguing details through such writers as St. Methodius (patriarch of Constantinople in the 850s) and the Greek writer Metaphrastes in the 10th century.

The story goes that Nicholas was born in A.D. 280 to pious and wealthy parents who raised him in the fear and admonition of the Lord and taught him "sacred books" from the age of 5. He was forced to grow up quickly upon the sudden death of his parents.

Inheriting his family's wealth, he was left rich and lonely, but he had the desire to use his wealth for good. The first opportunity to do this happened when he heard about a father who, through an unfortunate turn of events, was left destitute with three daughters. Without marriage dowry money, the daughters would be condemned to a life of singleness and prostitution, so Nicholas threw some small bags of gold coins into the window of the home (some traditions say down the chimney), thereby saving the children from a life of misery.

Later as a teenager, Nicholas made a pilgrimage to Egypt and Palestine. Upon returning home he felt called to ministry and was subsequently ordained. He spent time at the Monastery of Holy Zion near Myra until an old priest had a vision that he was to be the new bishop.

The congregation overwhelmingly elected him bishop, and he became known for his holiness, passion for the Gospel and zeal. He challenged the old gods and paganism at the principal temple in his district (to the god Artemis), and it was said that the evil spirits "fled howling before him."

But the old deities did not go easily. In A.D. 303, Emperor Diocletian directed the persecution of Christians, and "as he [Nicholas] was the chief priest of the Christians of this town and preached the truths of faith with a holy liberty, Nicholas was seized by the magistrates, tortured, then chained and thrown into prison with many other Christians."

With the Edict of Milan, Emperor Constantine ordered the cessation of all persecution of the church, and the Christians were released from prisons. Those who survived Diocletian's purges were called "confessors" because they wouldn't renege on their confession of Jesus as Lord.

When Bishop Nicholas walked out of the prison, the crowds called to him: "Nicholas! Confessor!" He had been repeatedly beaten until he was raw, and his body was the color of vermilion. Bishop Nicholas was also said to have intervened on behalf of unjustly charged prisoners and actively sought to help his people survive when they had experienced two successive bad harvests.

One of the most interesting stories connected with him was his role during the Arian controversy. St. Methodius asserted that "thanks to the teaching of St. Nicholas the metropolis of Myra alone was untouched by the filth of the Arian heresy, which it firmly rejected as death-dealing poison." (Arius, of course, asserted that Jesus was a created being and had not existed from all eternity.)

One weak tradition has him actually attending the Council of Nicea in A.D. 325, when Arian doctrine was rejected. The story goes that he got into a heated debate with Arius himself about whether there was a time when the Word (Jesus) did not exist. Nicholas strongly disagreed.

The debate ended suddenly when Nicholas punched Arius then and there on the floor of the council. This gives new meaning to the ditty: "He's making a list and checking it twice, he's going to find out who's naughty or nice."

The mental image of Santa Claus punching Arius on the floor of the Council of Nicea with Emperor Constantine looking on fundamentally changes the way one ever sees Santa Claus again. While I might not agree with his methods, I certainly admire his passion for Christological orthodoxy and doctrinal purity.

So when you think of Santa Claus, here's something to think about:

Think of a godly Christian bishop who was persecuted and imprisoned for faithfully proclaiming the faith under the most dangerous of circumstances. Think of someone who had a sensitive caring pastoral heart and took care of the flock of which God had made him shepherd. Think of someone who provided support and defense for children, the weak and poor, the helpless and victims of injustice. Think of someone with an unparalleled passion for doctrinal purity. And to top it off, think of someone whose whole purpose in life was to point people to Jesus.

Now that's my kind of Santa Claus.

James Parker is professor and associate dean of worldview and culture at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. This first-person ran in the December-January issue of Towers, a publication of Southern Seminary and online at SBTS.edu. A version of this first-person originally ran in Baptist Press in 2001. 

December 12, 2011

Christians, Muslims, Share Ideas on Loyalties

Lately I've read many times and in many places that a Muslim's first loyalty is to Shariah law, as for example in Marshall Boates' letter to the editor (The DNJ, Dec. 7): "The Muslims' first pledge is to Shariah law. All other authority is subordinate to Shariah law. Therefore Muslims cannot be allowed to defend our country because it is not their highest authority."

I would guess that many if not most of those who make statements like this are church-going Christians. Which puzzles me because they seem not to have thought of equally absolute statements like the apostle Peter's "We must obey God rather than men," when sanctioned by the "council" (local government in Jerusalem) for evangelizing. Christians have ever since referenced this and other similar statements and the history of subsequent encounters with imperial government in the Roman Empire. Repeatedly, in various sporadic persecutions by Roman government, Christians were given the opportunity to acknowledge the government's role as "highest authority." Repeatedly, Christians gave up their lives rather than do so. Religious allegiance has always been a part of the history of the West and Christians have sometimes been pressed to violate their ethics or beliefs by an inordinately dominant government.

These two religions' claim to have a higher authority than government should be seen as a salutary thing, not a problem. They are, while not identical, at least analogous to one another. Christians who understand their faith know implicitly that we hold allegiance to our country and its government only at arm's length, so to speak. It is a secondary allegiance at best. God is our first allegiance, and we may not sacrifice that loyalty on the altar of convenience. Fortunately, in a well run representative republic, there are seldom occasions when a Christian is absolutely pressed to the wall of sacrificing allegiance to God in favor of government or facing the consequences.

Different Christians see the religious/governmental conflicts differently, and it is out of the pacifist heritage against all forms of violence and war that the traditions of affording citizens the opportunity to register as Conscientious Objectors originates.

Certainly Muslims have a higher allegiance than government. The problem lately has come from the misreading by certain Muslims of what that requires them to do when different allegiances clash. There is this aspect to the Islamic tradition, but it is by no means monolithic.

There are thousands of American Muslims who serve in the Armed Forces well and honorably. Rather than the rather simpleminded tactic of excluding service based on one's religion, it may well behoove the Department of Defense to be more attentive to statements like those made by Maj. Nidal Hasan prior to his murderous attacks on service members at Ft. Hood. This is simply common sense, such as the current administration has occasionally demonstrated when attacking terrorists and their leaders in recent events in Pakistan and Yemen for example.

The Christian and Islamic tradition re: Church/State relations are not identical, of course. But, we hold in common, with Jews also, the notion that God is Almighty, and to him alone belongs ultimate authority over the affairs of all. How this is sometimes put into practice reflects our different theologies and traditions. But it is not, in this country anyway, a basis for blanket exclusion from military service based on religion.

Steven Odom is the pastor of Central Christian Church in Murfreesboro and a former community member of The DNJ's Editorial Board.

November 23, 2011

Here's an encouraging word about our country the day before Thanksgiving. R.R. Reno is a Catholic layman and professor at Creighton University. He, along with several others, was asked by Commentary Magazine whether he was optimistic or pessimistic about America's future. He's pretty conservative in his politics, but his optimism goes deeper than his poitical stance. ~smo

Mark me down as an American optimist. True, we face many challenges: the fiscal crisis of the modern welfare state, the end of American military super-hegemony, an elite culture bent on dismantling the Judeo-Christian moral consensus. Add our present economic woes, which seem intractable, and only a naif can but conclude that we face real problems posing real threats. Nonetheless, I remain convinced that America will remain a vital, attractive, and immensely powerful nation in the coming decades.

The overwhelming majority of Americans—elite, middle class, and working class—are visceral patriots. We’re critical, we find fault, we anguish over our racist past, but theDeclaration of Independence continues to express what we believe. This fact about America—the fundamental, deep, and rock-solid legitimacy not only of our system of government but also and more important of our common myths and civil religion—gives us an incalculable strength over and against any of our competitors on the global stage.

The American myth, moreover, has a remarkable—an unprecedented—absorptive power. It reabsorbed a defeated South after the Civil War. It absorbed and still absorbs waves of immigrants, even the children of ex-slaves, whose suffering and humiliation should have made them eternal enemies. A decade ago at my church, one of the elderly black members wept as he watched a documentary about the Tuskegee Airmen, black pilots in World War II who had to endure Jim Crow while training in the South. “How,” he said to me afterward, “could our country have been so unjust to those men?”

Our country! I defy anyone who understands the anguish of that man (who had himself grown up under Jim Crow!) to be anything other than an American optimist. Deficits, unemployment, new international threats, the fraying moral fabric of society—has any generation, any nation not faced these or similar challenges? A country doesn’t “solve” these sorts of problems but rather meets, ameliorates, and endures them. In these times of threat (and we certainly live in such a time), a nation is only as strong as its common culture, and ours is very strong, very strong indeed.

It’s easy to miss the forest for the trees. My elderly friend at church is a rock-ribbed Democrat, and I have little doubt that he disagrees with me about how to solve our present fiscal woes. Other friends think me a religious fanatic in my opposition to same-sex marriage, easy divorce, and abortion on demand. Still others have dreamy ideas about global conflict, the United Nations, and international law. They take the Rodney King approach to national defense: “Why can’t we all just get along?”

Their views and those of others on the left are wrongheaded, and if they control our national future we’ll suffer accordingly. But a nation hobbled by its own stupidity is almost inevitable. What makes us great is the fact that underneath our political and moral debates we have a healthy, robust common culture, a backstop, a bottom line.

Osama bin Laden was stupid enough to imagine that America’s all too real and obvious corruptions—our wanton hedonism, our empty materialism, our reality-TV political culture, our supine, bleating efforts to placate enemies with our vast treasure rather than meet them with military resolve—constitute our national essence. He was very wrong. As we face and fight these corruptions, let’s not make the same mistake.

November 19, 2011

Good to be home after a visit with family down in Tallahassee. I met with the youth group this morning on a retreat at the Woodfin's cabin and talked about the Bible and how to use it. Below is the handout I shared.

1. Listen to the Bible on your car CD Player or Tape player, Bible on CD/Tape, especially good for commuters.  www.biblebible.com

2. Read 5 Psalms a day. Every month. On the 24th skip Ps. 119 and save it for the 31st.

3. Read 3 Bible chapters a day. 5 on a Sunday. Done in a year.

4. Get a spiral notebook. Copy into it one Bible chapter a day.

5. Buy a cheap paperback Bible  Tear out one page a day. Carry it around with you. Memorize something from that page. Smokers, fold it up to fit in your pack and read it every time you have a cigarette. 

6. Buy a yellow highlighter. Start at beginning. Highlight each Command.

7. Pink Highlighters, Highlight all the Promises.

8. Green highlighters, Highlight the Questions
 
9. Memorize one Psalm at a time. Write out in a pocket notebook,  read over and over till memorized.

10. Proverbs has 31 chapters. Read the chapter for today's date. Do this for a year. 

November 7, 2011

Copy this and send to your inquiring friends and relatives. It's also on the front page of our website. smo

     What is an Inquirer’s Class? It’s a presentation of the beliefs and practices of the followers of Jesus Christ, in an informal context of discussion and questioning, where it‘s safe to doubt and wonder. An Inquirer’s class is intended for those who seek to know God and his gracious love through the historical figure of Jesus of Nazareth. Using the resources of the whole church, the program culminates in a profession of faith and church membership for those who seek this. This voluntary step is offered only: for  “there is no compulsion in faith.” Some may choose to postpone this choice, or remain involved in further classes, or end the program.     

       This is not a political action committee, a moral improvement class, or a claque of know-it-alls gathering to judge others. It’s intended as an opportunity to learn more about the Christian faith, for those who are tired of hidden agendas and religious hackery. The facilitator is a “shepherd of souls,” the pastor of Central Christian Church at 404 E. Main St. in Murfreesboro, Steve Odom. Odom was formerly a Campus pastor at University of Wisconsin-Madison. First meeting is at the Rutherford Blvd Starbucks at 7:00 PM Monday, January 15, 2012. Contact steven.odom@gmail.com for more info. 

November 1, 2011

November 6 Genesis 28:10-17 

November 13 Musical Sunday/St. Cecilia's Day
November 20 Malachi 3:1-12
November 27 Luke 3:4-9
December 4 Hanging of the Greens
December 11 Lk 7:18-28 
December 18 Choir Cantata
December 24 Christmas Eve, 6:30 PM
December 25 Matt 1:18-25

October 28, 2011

Jennifer Richardson is offering new art classes this winter and has set up an online survey to find out the type of class people want. The survey is operative for a week from today. Go here to take the survey.

October 23, 2011

Some of you know of Darlene Bowman's involvement with Adventures in Learning, which provides a program by and for older adults in which they can share knowledge, talents and skills for lifelong learning and personal growth. It's sponsored by an interfaith coalition of congregations here in Murfreesboro and is held at First United Methodist Church on Thompson Lane.

I have lectured there for the past three years, most recently last month on the “Lost Histories of Christianity.” Someone asked if I would be holding any lectures at our church between now and next September and this is to let you know about our first series, which will begin Monday, November 21 at 10 AM at Central Christian Church, in the sanctuary.

In 2009, my first Class with AIL was The Influence of the Bible on the English Language. It was fun for me, an English major with a seminary degree in Bible, and many others enjoyed it too. For those of you weren't in that class, I'm repeating it this fall. It will run November 21, 28, December 5 and December 12.

Many are familiar with how the Bible has formed Western Culture, primarily religiously, but are perhaps less familiar with its role in forming the English language and its literature. From the world changing (Pope Gregory's sending of missionaries to the "Angels, not Angles" in Anglo-Saxon "Angle-lond") to the passing curiosities of Puritan naming practices (Faith, Hope and Charity for girls, Fear-not, Faint-not and Flie-fornication for boys) to the politically potent Biblical phraseology and rhythms of Lincoln's Second Inaugural ( "with malice toward none, with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right,") the Bible has for 14 centuries formed our language and literature, our life and our learning. It ties us to ancient, otherwise unknown worlds, and as the English language spreads around the globe, it carries a potent message hidden in the folds of its historical garments. We'll trace its place in the English tongue from 597 A.D. forward.

We'll have plenty of time for questions, and, as always, will have a bin and offering plate for theRutherford County Food Bank. Coffee and snacks will be available downstairs after each lecture. Look forward to seeing you there!

October 22, 2011

In November Daytrippers are going to visit the Nashville Farmers' Market, followed by lunch at either the Mad Platter of the Germantown Cafe.  At the Nashville Farmers' Market you’ll find locally, regionally, and more grown fruits & vegetables, locally & regionally raised meats, plants, flowers & herbs, farm-fresh eggs & dairy products, baked goods, snacks, spices, international items, and more on our Farm Side. In season produce includes Apples, Cucumbers, Honey, Herbs, Mushrooms, Pecans, Raspberries, Sweet Potatoes, Swiss Chard, Turnips and Greens and Winter Squash. Inside the Market House you'll find restaurants & shops, crafters making handmade soaps & body products, prepared foods, specialty items, and more. On the Flea Market Side you'll find everything from handcrafted pottery & jewelry to home goods to clothing and accessories.  Get some Christmas shopping done early! We leave church at 9:00 AM on Tuesday, November 22. Not all the FM merchants accept Credit Cards.  Let me know you plan to come so I can arrange transportation. 

October 19, 2011

I once heard someone in a Sunday school class say, about the Bible, “It's just stories that people told around the fire to one another that were handed down over centuries till they were written down in a book.”

There are so many things wrong with the intentions and assumptions of this statement it's hard to know where to start.

Let's begin by asking this question: “What's wrong with campfires and stories and the passage of time?” That is, why is that somehow a delegitimization of the authority of the Bible? which the original statement is so clearly intended to be, if only implied by the presence of that damning little word, “just.”

The origins of the idea that the Bible's participation in the normal human processes of ancient literature are somehow disqualifying of the Bible's religious reliability tells us something about the prior assumptions of the speaker and his ilk.

Those who think this way assume that the Bible is analogous to the Quran or the Book of Mormon, whose adherents believe and proclaim that the words of those texts are sacred, in a a way that precludes their (the texts') participation in any aspects of what could be called the “human element.”

Christians see the doctrine of the divine and human nature of Jesus Christ, the Word of God (John 1:14) as helping to clarify, by comparison, the way we understand the human form and divine message of the the Bible, the “Word of God.” Jesus and the scriptures are both the message of God, as the scriptures testify to Christ and his kingdom.

The notion that Christ is entirely divine, with no element of the human present in him is an early Christian heresy. Some believed that Jesus merely appeared to be human, so that we might see and know him, but that his divinity was impossible to be combined or conjoined with inherently sinful human flesh.

This presumption is similar to the theological motivations of the origin myths of the Quran and the Book of Mormon. In the one, Allah (Arabic for a particular god of the pre-Islamic collection of gods in Mecca) is presumed to have spoken every word of the Quran into the ear or mind of Muhammad, who is presumed to be the mouthpiece of the divine, in this understanding.

With Joseph Smith, the angle Moroni supposedly revealed to him the location of golden tablets inscribed in “reformed Egyptian” (sic) and used either giant spectacles or a “seer's stone” to translate them, oddly enough, into an anachronistic, 300 year old form of English.

When one considers the Bible to have been somehow divinely dictated word for word, in Quranic fashion, and then finds that not to have been the case, the normal reaction is an over-reaction. “They're just stories that somebody told around a campfire and then later wrote down!”

The actual facts of the matter are much more involved and complex than that description, because we're actually talking about a library of 66 books by as many, or more, authors/compilers, written over a span of perhaps 1,000 years. Some are as well or better documented than the plays of Shakespeare as to their authorship and textual soundness, even though Shakespeare wrote 150 years after the invention of printing. Some are composite books, with many authors or editors, like Isaiah, or Genesis, or Judges.

But the original claims of the church were not for some kind of inerrant, infallible text with all the accuracy of present day historiography. “Modern” history writing didn't exist, nor did Baconian, Newtonian or Einsteinian science.

The Jewish scribes preserved the scrolls they had received as those maintaining a record of God's dealing with his people, the Jews. These were Jesus' Bible, as well as the apostles'. And when the early church began to hold onto, and revere, and then share the letters of Paul, and Peter and James and John and the gospel accounts, they read them in worship and acknowledged their authority just like they did Genesis and Isaiah and Psalms, and came to see and believe that they contained the same good news, told the same story, proclaimed the same glad tidings.

The Bible does contain stories in some of its books. But it also contains poetry and prophecy, hymns and laws, parables and visions. But nothing in the Bible could be fairly or accurately described with that little, belittling, word, “just.”