A Confession about Reading Too Much

I got in trouble when caught reading way past my bedtime. Teachers scolded me for reading ahead in the textbook and pointing out errors in the textbooks. One was that we were running out of coal. The other was that rockets could not go into outer space because there was no way to thrust against the vacuum. 

I answered the FB graphic, writing, "Yes. I was saddled with scholarships in college, seminary, and doctoral studies." 

I blame my mother and my grade school teachers. Mom read to us every night. I remember my sister bawling her eyes out when Lassie came home. At Garfield School, now a condo, the teachers read to us - and we loved it. I remember The Secret Garden.

I bought my own Bible and read it cover to cover.

Today I finished Jan Karon's At Home in Mitford. Recently I read Sinclair Lewis novels suggested by our Lutheran Librarian, Alec Satin.

It's no wonder that those who love Luther's works and the KJV are still avid readers. I expect the percentage to continue decreasing. Years ago, I was teaching undergraduates and giving away my extra books. They grabbed them and thanked me. They even participated in a prize - an almost complete set of Mark Twain. One student asked if he could have my own beaten up leather copy of Moby Dick, which I was giving away - but only to a Melville fan. The next week he burst out thanking me because he was enjoying every paragraph. 

My four-hour class of honor students did this during the two mandatory breaks - they pulled out books and read them in silence, never running off to get food, which all other classes did. 

Suddenly, one day, students acted as if I had brought cow chips to class. They were perplexed that I would give away books to read, my favorites from the overflow at home.

 From the movie, starring Gregory Peck, with Orson Welles as the preacher.

What could be more full of meaning?- for the pulpit is ever this earth’s foremost part; all the rest comes in its rear; the pulpit leads the world. From thence it is the storm of God’s quick wrath is first descried, and the bow must bear the earliest brunt. From thence it is the God of breezes fair or foul is first invoked for favorable winds. Yes, the world’s a ship on its passage out, and not a voyage complete; and the pulpit is its prow.

Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chapter 8




I must have been 8 when our family went to see the 1956 movie, Moby Dick. The whaling scenes were thrilling and terrifying, but the pulpit scene was puzzling and dark.

We visited Melville's home, where he wrote the novel, where he viewed the mountain's shape from his study as a whale breaching the surface of the ocean.

Creation Garden - Next Year Will Be Better

 

Joe Pye Weed is famous for its height, pollinator pride, and musky fragrance. 

Now that Joe Pye plants are seven feet tall, loaded with bees and butterflies, it is time to take down the heaviest and slouchiest plants. The thick stems hold up enormous flowerheads filled with tiny flowers. I put two of them in a heavy vase for Sunday and the contraption fell over. One stem was enough to imagine the top-heavy flower crashing during the service. An unhappy bumblebee coasted in front of me during the sermon, perhaps wondering what happened to its earliest paradise of pollen.

I will chop down many of the Joe Pyes and use them as free mulch to improve the soil and discourage the obnoxious weeds (aka free weeds, air express weeds, and hated weeds). The Joe Pyes will come back late in spring, God willing.

Perhaps it is the climate - the roses planted do not do well the first year from the gardening center or national distributor (Jackson and Perkins, no relation). Even though I gather rainwater in barrels, front and back, nothing seems to help very much. The next spring, good becomes great, and optimism emerges.

A British gardener suggested this for all gardens - "Do not plan something here and there, waiting for the flowers to fill in the space. Jam the space full of plants and do some editing later."

Our greatest weakness is the failure to allow for the roots. They are tiny at first in related to the future plant and even the potted plant. They are crowded and longing for the right soil. The Lord of Creation has set up hundreds if not thousands of ways for that plant to survive and thrive, if only we are patient.

Daily Luther Sermon Quote -Trinity 11 - "The publican is on the right road and is twice justified; once through faith before God, and again by his works to me."

 

Complete Sermon for Trinity 11 - The Pharisee and the Publican, A Picture and an Example of a True Saint

15. The publican is on the right road and is twice justified; once through faith before God, and again by his works to me. Here he gives unto God his glory, and by faith repays him with praise. Also toward me he performs the duty of love, and puts words into my mouth and teaches me how to pray. Now he has paid all his debts toward God and man. So faith urges him to do; without however requiring anything from God as a reward of faith.

16. This is one character of the publican, who, according to faith which is the spiritual judgment, is acknowledged justified, while according to the flesh he is unprofitable. For the Pharisee passes and does not notice him, sees not his faith, lets him stand way back, and sees him alone in his sins, and knows not that God has been gracious to him, and converted and reformed him. So when a carnally minded man would condemn a sinner according to his sins, it is otherwise impossible, he must fail.

17. Let us now consider the fool, the Pharisee. Here are most beautiful works. In the first place he thanks God, fasts twice in the week, and all this to honor God, not St. Nicholas or St. Barnabas, he gives the tenth of all his goods, nor has he at any time committed adultery, has never done any one violence or robbed him of his goods. Thus he has conducted himself in an exemplary manner. This is a beautiful honest life, and excites our wonder and surprise. Truly, after the fashion of the world no one could find fault with him, yea, one must praise him. Yes, to be sure he does this himself.

18. But God is the first to come and say, that all the work of the Pharisee is blasphemy. God help us, what an awful sentence this is! Priests and nuns may well be terrified by it, and all their bones quake, as you scarcely ever find one of them as pious as this Pharisee. Would to God we could have many such hypocrites and Pharisees; for then they could be taught better things.

19. Well, what is the matter with the good man? Only this, he does not know his own heart. Here you see that we are our own greatest enemies, who close our eyes and hearts, and think we are as we feel. For if I should ask any such hypocrite: Sir, do you mean just what you say? he would take an oath, that it is not otherwise. But behold, see how deep God’s sword cuts, and pierces through all the recesses of the soul, Hebrews 4:12.

Here everything must go to ruin, or fall to the earth in humiliation, otherwise nothing can stand before God. Thus a pious woman must here fall down and kiss the vilest harlot’s feet, yea, her footprints.

20. Now let us better see and hear what the Lord says to this. There stands the publican and humbles himself, says nothing of fasting, nothing of his good works, nor of anything. Yet the Lord says that his sins are not so great as the sins of the hypocrite; even in spite of anyone now exalting himself above the lowest sinner. If I exalt myself a finger’s breadth above my neighbor, or the vilest sinner, then am I cast down. For the publican during his whole life did not do as many and as great sins as this Pharisee does here when he says: I thank thee God that I am not as other men are; and lies enough to burst all heaven. From him you hear no word like: “God, be thou merciful to me a sinner?’ God’s mercy, sympathy, patience and love are all forgotten by him, while God is nothing but pure mercy, and he who does not know this, thinks there is no God, as in Psalm 14:1: “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.” So it is with an unbeliever who does not know himself. Therefore I say one thing more, if he had committed the vilest sin and deflowered virgins, it would not have been as bad as when he says: “I thank thee God, that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.” Yes, yes, do I hear you have no need of God and despise his goodness, mercy, love and everything that God is? Behold, these are thy sins. Hence the public gross sins that break out are insignificant; but unbelief which is in the heart and we cannot see, this is the real sin in which monks and priests strut forth; these lost and corrupt ones are sunk head and ears in this sin, and pretend to be entirely free from it.

21. Further, since he has now blasphemed God and lied to him, because he is unwilling to confess his sins, he falls further and sins against love to his neighbor, in that he says: “Even as this publican.” He could not bear his presence without blaming and condemning him. Here all commandments are abolished and transgressed, for he denies God and does his neighbor no good. In this way he goes to ruin, because he has not obeyed a letter of the law. For if he had said: Oh God, we are all sinners, this poor sinner is also like myself and all the rest: and had he joined the congregation and said:

Oh God, be merciful unto us! then he would have fulfilled God’s commandment, namely, the first, in that he gave God the honor and the praise, and had he afterwards said: Oh God, I see this one is a sinner, in the jaws of the devil; dear Lord, help him! and had he thus brought him to God and prayed to God for him, he would then also have obeyed the other commandment of Christian love as Paul says, Galatians 6:2, and teaches: “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

22. Now he comes and praises himself that he is just. He has a poisonous, wicked heart, who praises himself most gloriously on account of his pretended good works, how he fasted and gave the tenth of all he had.

Hence he is so full of hatred to his neighbor, if God allowed him to judge, he would plunge the poor publican down into the deepest hell. Behold, is not this a wicked heart and terrible to hear, that I would all men should go to ruin, if only I be praised? Yet all this is so finely decorated and adorned by external conduct, that no one can censure it. Here we see how we are to know the tree from its fruits. For when I view his heart with spiritual eyes, I recognize it is full of blasphemy and hatred to his neighbor. From these fruits I know that the tree is evil. For works would not be evil in themselves, but the evil root in the heart makes them evil. This is set before us that we may beware and guard ourselves against it.

23. Again, on the other hand, examine the heart also of the publican. Here we find that he believes. Hence his works are good and of service to the whole world, for he teaches that a man should humble himself and praise God. On the contrary the other with his works makes saints who are puffed up and proud of heart; for he is entrapped in sins, his soul is condemned, and is fast in the jaws of the devil, and the high minded knave steps forth and praises himself, because his neighbor over there is a sinner. To sum up all, he misleads the whole world with his hypocritical life. Thus we must judge the fruits with spiritual eyes as we have now judged these two; then we will know the tree whether it be good or evil.