Abra Cadabra!

     For thousands of years words were thought to have magical powers.  Magicians for example would use the words "Abra-Cadabra!" before pulling a rabbit out of a hat or doves flying out of handkerchiefs.     Witches would use mysterious poetry to cast spells and hexes on people.  

    Words do have a lot of power.   The written word is still one of the most influential tools we have today.  While modern videos have the ability to communicate ideas as well , as does audio presentations, there is still something compelling about reading the words off a page.  Maybe because its been around longer than the other mediums or maybe just because it requires more mental facilities to accomplish that it has a longer lasting and more deep impression on us. (It is because of this I still prefer to write my ideas out rather than create video-blogs).   The written medium has another advantage over the other mediums.  That advantage is hearing the words written in our own voice and not in mine.  Right now, as you read this blog, you are "hearing" this blog in your head in your own voice as if you were the one speaking it.   This makes the written word even more personal as these words of mine become your words too.

     God's word has even more power.  His word can give life and it can take it away (he created it).  In Genesis God says "Let there be..." and there it is in all its glory.    Jews have always held that God's "word" is one part of God (while is Spirit and Creative force are distinctly different). This is why John in his Gospel writes "the word became flesh and dwelt among us full of grace and truth".  Jesus is that Word of God.

    When Jesus calls his disciples he simply says, "Follow me!" and they follow.  This is not to say they had no choice in the matter (they did).   They could decide to not follow Jesus, but they could not decide TO follow Jesus.  His word makes things happen.  When Jesus cleanses the 10 lepers he simply says, "Be clean" and they are clean.   When the storm threatens to drown them in the boat Jesus simply says "Be still" and it happens.  When he calls Lazarus from the grave he says, "Lazarus come out!".  No fancy poetry.  No Abra-Cadabra.  Just commands. 

    When Jesus is later asked to heal the synagogue rule's daughter, he comes to the house to find she is already dead.  When he goes into the room he speaks to the girl in Aramaic "Talitha Koum!" (which means 'little girl arise').   Why did Jesus choose to use Aramaic rather than Hebrew?   I think it is to show the disciples that there is nothing special or magical about Hebrew.   He shows them that his words are powerful no matter what language they are spoken in. This may have been as a teachable moment to Jairus as well,. As Jairus was the local synagogue ruler, he would be well versed in Hebrew and possibly think that there is something special about his people's historical language. 

    When the Bible is translated to another language it has as much power to save and transform as it did when it was first penned in Hebrew and Greek.  It doesn’t matter if it’s German, French, Spanish, Russian or Chinese, Gods’s spirit can touch the souls of those who read it  The medium is not important. The source is what is important. 

   When Martin Luther initiated the Reformation in 1520, he would later go on to translate the Bible from Latin into the language of the people , German   He did so because he believed God’s  word should be read by everyone and not just priests   Many of his day felt that this was heresy as God can only speak in Latin   Later, Lutherans moving to the US were hesitant to leave behind their German language and heritage but were forced by WWII to adopt their new country’s main language   They too may have been caught up in the notion that German is somehow more holy than English too  

    We must not let the medium be the message in the church  we must always keep the Gospel as the message and not worry about how God chooses to communicate it  it may be online   It may be an iPhone Bible app   It might even be a rap song   

     God’s  word is powerful in any language!

You are no different

       One of the great learnings a person can become aware of is the truth that you are no different than the person next to you.  A phrase once said was “There but by the grace of God go I”.  In this statement, we acknowledge that we would be in the same situation as that person if things happened differently for us.  It’s a humbling realization. 

      Today many people sneer at people of the past and call people like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson evil because they owned slaves. Their beliefs emanate from a view that if they had lived back then they would do things differently.  

     How wrong they are.  

     We often don’t take into account how so much of who we are is handed down by the culture and environment around us.   We like to think we arrived at our trajectory on our own power and they only thing influencing us is our own DNA.  

    As an illustration, consider the modern day “alligator fish” (also known as “gar”). This fish is often referred to as a living fossil as its appearance hasn’t changed in 100s of millions of years.  Fossils we find today have the exact same bone structure and teeth.  There is one glaring difference however.  The modern day Gar is freshwater and the prehistoric is saltwater. Over the Millenia this fish as changed its ability to live in freshwater and become incapable of swimming in saltwater without dying.  Same fish but different habitat.   Humans are much like the Gar.  We may look the same as people in other centuries but we swim in much different waters 

     Many modern day “period pieces” (movies and TV) try to inject 21st century views and thinking into the 18th and 19th centuries to make you think these people living at that time were just like you and I living today.  One such PBS program called “Bridgerton”.  The series centers around the main character , Daphne Bidgerton, whose views (and even language) could be pulled from a modern day teen romance novel. Her character is purported to be living in England in the early 1800s and is fighting for “social justice” and upsetting the aristocratic system. This mixing of eras gives the wrong impression to the people viewing it that we find the people living at this time no different from us other than the need to wear long dresses , top hats and ride in horse drawn carriages. This could not be further from the truth.  

    The truth is, if time travel was made possible we would need a lot more than a change of cloths to fit in.  We would need a whole change of views , values and also language.  Once I was visiting the Pittock Mansion in Portland Oregon and saw some old newspapers mounted on the wall in glass (Pittock was the owner of the local newspaper).  I went up to the paper to read and see what issues they were concerned with in their time.  To my amazement I could barely read the article as the language and choice of words was far different from why I was used to reading.  I would need several hours and a Thesaurus to decode what many of that time could read without any trouble.  This is just one of many differences I would have to overcome in going back to this time.  

      Every culture from every time is like this.  They are who they are because of when they lived. Take for example those living in the bronze era.  City states attacked other city states on a regular basis to obtain their wealth.  There was no “Free Trade Agreement Acts” to protect them.  The only protection were bigger walls and better swords and spears.  When crops failed from no rain or from pestilence the people of their day did not have weather forecasts to give them hope or people to show them how to better rotate their crops.  Instead they had people who scared them into sacrificing their children or offering up their young girls as prostitutes for Baal worship.  To think that you would grow up in this culture, (illiterate and uneducated) and would act completely different is the height of hubris.  You would be no different than them and only by the grace of God are you saved from that type of life. 

     We need to show grace , not only to those living around us now , but also to those living in the past (maybe even more for those living in the past as they cannot speak for themselves).  We need to say to ourselves as we read about history that we would be very much like them.  

     This not too say you would not be any different.  After all,  you are still you.  The issue is the degree of difference.  Each generation has men and women who do think differently than their culture dictates but only by a few degrees of difference.  But like compounding interest from a bank these few differences over time multiplies over each generation.  

     For example, Thomas Jefferson put aside the idea of an aristocracy (blue bloods verse commoners) when he penned his infamous words “We believe all men are created equal”.  (even though he owned slaves). Lincoln would later use these words in his infamous Gettysburg address to include men of all races (even though he like many felt at one time blacks would not be able to live among whites).  Martin Luther King would build on these changes to end racial hatred still lingering from the civil war and to bring us together in love for one another  (even though he known to have been unfaithful in love to his wife). 

   So as you read about historical figures or people of different eras, remember that these people  , like you, are imperfect and a product of their time and world.  Thank them for how they were able to make the changes they did.