Wednesday

Sometimes it seems that time gets away. After spending 9 hours driving to attend a meeting of 5 hours, it does take away time to do other activities. Today I am working with the sermon series on Why Church and doing visits as well as confirmation class tonight. As I was reading in Homiletics, I came across some illustrations about being real and the importance of being real to one another. The focus of the sermon is going to be on a church's willingness to be honest and to accept others and our need to be around people who are journeying to santification.

Any way here are the illustrations. I was struck about the idea of the differnce between ethics and virtue and agree that if we are able to teach our children to strive toward being virtuous that we would not need a list of rules to live by. Also the poem speaks about what we choose to follow is much like choosing what we swallow. I immediately thought about our addiction to fast food that is full of fat with little substance. Also the need for instant gratification.

Why church real people
It’s common, in businesses or professions, to have something called a “code of ethics.” Usually, it focuses on specific behaviors: do’s and don’ts.

“You are allowed to receive a gift from a client of no more than $25 in value.”

“It is not permitted for a supervisor to engage in a romantic relationship with a subordinate, unless the subordinate is first transferred to another division.”

“If a salesperson completes a contract with a customer who was first contacted by another salesperson, the commission goes to the first salesperson.”

These are examples taken from corporate ethics policies. These lists of rules are quite different from virtue or morality.

There’s only one problem with this approach. Not everyone, in society at large, agrees on what the rules ought to be — such as whether it’s always wrong to tell a lie. If it means closing the deal ... getting the candidate elected ... preserving the company’s public image ... keeping one’s spouse from learning about the affair ... it’s complicated, don’t you know?

No, it isn’t complicated. Ethics can sometimes be complicated. Morality — virtue — is simple. It’s a matter of character, of integrity, of trust.

Virtue — not ethics — is what we teach in the church. In doing so, we intend to raise up boys and girls, men and women, who don’t have to consult a policy to know how to do good.

Belonging May Not Be All It’s Often Believed to Be

Belonging
Is a human longing.
It once secured us to
Our mothers
And later
Moves us toward others.
Aloneness can be such a fear
That we become less cautious
About who we are near.
Who we choose to follow
Is akin to deciding
What to swallow.

—David A. Reinstein, LCSW, associatedcontent.com/article/2818984/odd_man_out_being_different_can_be.html. Retrieved April 7, 2010.

A full-of-herself religious woman was deeply shocked when the new neighbors called on Sunday morning and asked to borrow her lawn mower.

“The very idea of cutting grass on Sunday,” she ranted to her husband. “Shameful! Certainly, they can’t have it. Tell them our lawn mower is broken.”