Monday's thoughts on Sunday's sermon

"The Main Thing"

I am putting together some thought on how we keep "the main thing" the main thing. Given the confusion in our world and the way in which people are bullied and manipulated and driven by greed we need to be reminded of some of the basic and foundational values that should motivate us.

We need role models and examples of moral behavior. We need to see ourselves as providing such direction for others. What is this world coming to? Why do we find such corruption in politics and religion and almost every aspect of life? How do we turn this tendency around?

John Miller wrote a book entitled Jesus at Thirty. He reflects on the influences and factors in Jesus life. He writes:
"Against the backdrop of his father's death and Jesus' subsequent role as breadwinner and guardian of his father's family, many another facet of his emotionality become luminous as well: his fierce battle with 'satanic' hubris (the psychological after-effects of a precocious assumption of his deceased father's role): his 'Age Thirty Transition' and baptism at the Jordan (where he humbled himself and experienced God as gracious Father); his emotional bonding with John the Baptist (a surrogate father and mentor for Jesus in this crucial transitional period of his life); his joyful creativity and courage (after John's arrest) in his new-found 'calling' as 'generative' prophet-evangelist of God's love for the 'lost' (a father now himself with a 'family' of his own, one 'born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the human will, but of God,'; his extraordinary faith and intuitively wise 'father-like' talent for relating helpfully to all types of people and situations (the fruit in part, no doubt, of an emotionally secure childhood and his years of leadership in his deceased father's family)."

Miller has raised an important question in his search for the psychological factors in Jesus' life. He has provided the means for us to reflect upon the influences on Jesus' life and the way he served as an example for us.

Who have been your mentors? What responsibility do we have to be role models for others in this time when there is concern about what it means to be ethical and honest?

What is our responsibility?

Do you have thoughts on this?

If so write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. If you are willing to have others read your thoughts click on the "comments" box below.

I look forward to hearing from you.


Charles Schuster