Mark Eckel, Director, Mahseh Center, Lake Bruce, IN 

Once upon a time in China, a family left their home to visit the next village.  While they were gone embers from a cooking stove caught the house on fire, burning it to the ground.  Returning to the same day’s destruction the father found the pet pig roasted within the structure.  Not wishing to waste any food, the animal was carved into multiple meals.  From that time on, whenever someone wanted to have pork barbeque, they burned down their home.  The Chinese moral to the story is clear: do not sacrifice what is important on the altar of insignificance. 

Genesis establishes significance for humanity.  The first five Bible books were written by Moses after the exodus from Egypt.  In order to establish a written history of God’s world, Genesis is written as an apologetic, a defense of the Hebrew worldview.  Genesis takes a stand against the polytheistic worlds of Egypt and now Canaan, the land God’s chosen were about to enter.  The first eleven chapters of Scripture is a statement declaring the distinction between The Personal Eternal Triune Creator and unreal pagan idols.  In the pagan mindset, creation gives order; in Israel’s thinking, God orders creation.  

On the first parchment page of God’s revelation to humanity the statement is clear: worship The One who creates creation.  People of the day had seven day cycles as did Israel.  However, the days were tied to moon phases and considered to be “bad luck.”  Avoidance of pleasure or projects was important to discourage evil omens.[1]  Completely different, Israel was not tied to heavenly cycles but to Heaven.  A day of refreshment and renewal was mimicking The Creator.  

Genesis is in agreement with our daily lives.  The world works in a certain way; we know we need rest.  A creational ordinance or what I call “Genesis law” means that God established regularity and pattern within His world.  For instance, on average, humans spend one-third of their lives asleep.  Biologists tell us that prior to mitosis the matter within the cell “interfaces” or rests in anticipation of dividing itself.  Many more examples could follow: sun and rain, seasonal changes, the day-night cycle.  Clearly, rest is embedded within creation itself.  

The creational ordinance of rest is a distinctive blessing given by The Personal Creator in the opening pages of His Book.  God gave three blessings prior to human sin: reproduction (Genesis 1:22), rule (1:28), and rest (2:3).  The word used for rest literally means to cease from one’s work for a time.[2]  Once begun, the pattern should continue.  The importance of rest as a blessing cannot be overemphasized.  In Ancient Near Eastern religions, people created holy places, holy men, and holy things.  But for Israel, the first thing God made holy was a time for rest. 

Egypt, Canaan, and all the nations of Israel’s day sanctified space, a place, a piece of creation.  God’s first use of the word holy-distinctiveness, set-apart-ness-is to sanctify time.[3]  The first instance of the word holy in Scripture stipulated that God wants His people to be different by making time holy.[4]  The climax of creation is to construct one day out of seven as unique.  Holiday-a day set apart-should mark our calendars rather than “vacation,” coming from the Latin meaning to evacuate or leave empty.  When time is sanctified, our days are given meaning. 

Ephesians 5:16 commands us to “redeem the time;” buying it back, making the most of every opportunity, giving time purpose.  2 Corinthians 6:2 admonishes humans not to take time for granted because “today is the day of salvation”: tomorrow has no guarantee.  Psalm 31:15 makes The Lord, Lord of tomorrow saying, “My times are in His hand.”  “Don’t boast about tomorrow, for you don’t know what a day may bring” Proverbs 27:1 reminds us.  James 4:14 calls life “a vapor.”  Psalm 90:9-12 reminds everyone that time is short; so people should calculate, take stock of, or “number their days.”  Every tick of the clock brings us one second closer to death-far from morbid, the statement does forbid nonchalance in life. 

Time is precious.  I rue the days when I was five that I did not take advantage of naptime-I wish I could take those naps now!  My constant harangue to teenagers who couldn’t wait to get out of high school went something like this: “For most of you, this is probably the last time someone else will pay to put a roof over your head and food in your stomach!  Don’t wish for time to go faster!  Time goes fast enough!”  We must not “waste time.”  Time should not be “killed” (as in, “I’m just killing time”).  Time is not money: time cannot be commercialized if it is a gift.  Our culture places dollar signs on the clock.  Unbelieving mindsets today are the same as those of the ancients.  We worship creation instead of The Creator.  We worship time instead of The Timekeeper.  

The clock reminds every athletic contestant as it does every human there is only so much time to play the game.  As in sports, so in life, we answer to an authority outside of ourselves.  To worship The Creator is to remember He made an ordered universe for our benefit.  A return to Genesis law in our thinking is to acknowledge His beneficence and to practice the blessing of shabbat, Sabbath, rest, retreat.  The three blessings of Genesis 1:22, 28 and 2:3 are all commands: the first two are given directly, the third is only reported, its enactment altogether beyond human control.[5]  Retreat is not a luxury.  Retreat is an expectation.  Retreat is an act of worship.  Retreat is the anticipation of eternity.[6]  Retreat is not something we work into our schedule, our schedule should work around retreat.  To think that we can honor The Creator by carving out time for retreat is burning the house to barbeque a pig.  We must not offer what is important on the altar of insignificance. 

[2] Victor P. Hamilton. 1980. Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. (Moody): 2:902.

[3] Worship is to time what a temple is to space.

[4] The word holy is in the same grammatical construction as blessed.  God pronounced a state of holiness within time that once begun would continue.  Notice in creation God calls other things good while time was sanctified.

[5] The blessing of rest is a command that can only be given from The Creator to creation.  Time itself was infused with eternal significance: the quality of heaven now asserts itself, weaving itself within the earth.

[6] Read Hebrews 4:1-10.

Mark Eckel, Director, Mahseh Center, Lake Bruce, IN 

I love my country.  My voice cracks when I sing the national anthem.  Tears come to my eyes when an Air Force jet passes over a football stadium before kick off.  Seeing uniformed service personnel in airports, I walk over to shake their hand, thankful for their service.  A smile lights up my face when I think of my students who serve in our military.  And I loathe anti-Americanism.  Bowing before potentates, exchanging pleasantries with leaders who want our national destruction, or giving backhanded apologies for actions taken in just wars does not represent dependable gratitude for The United States of America.  No place is perfect.  But for years I’ve watched as people risk their lives to get from Havana to Miami for the privilege of our freedom.  And I’m still waiting for those who have decried our nation in the past to emigrate elsewhere.  To my mind, living in this country is a privilege, bearing the weight of responsibility. 

Paul Ray Smith, member of the legendary “Rock of the Marne,” Third Army Infantry Division, bore that weight with his blood.  Sergeant First Class Smith received The Medal of Honor having risked his life above and beyond the call of duty: 

. . . Fearing the enemy would overrun their defense, Sergeant First Class Smith moved under withering enemy fire to man a .50 caliber machine gun mounted on a damaged armored personnel carrier.  In total disregard for his own life, he maintained his exposed position in order to engage the attacking enemy force.  During this action, he was mortally wounded.  His courageous actions helped defeat the enemy attack, and resulted in as many as 50 enemy soldiers killed, while allowing the safe withdrawal of numerous wounded soldiers. . . . “[1] 

As then president George W. Bush recited at Smith’s posthumous Medal of Honor ceremony, “Scripture tells us . . . that a man has no greater love than to lay down his life for his friends.  And this is exactly the responsibility Paul Smith believed the sergeant stripes on his sleeve had given him.”[2]  

Responsibility to defend others in combat is born out of military discipline: a state of order, obedience, and responsibility in performing one’s duty.[3]  But we live in a culture where the response, “Who?  Me?!” forms the cornerstone of our internal edifice.  “What?!  Take responsibility for my actions?!  Is that legal?!”  Bob Thaves in his “Frank and Ernest” cartoons[4] pokes fun at our inherent desire to pass the buck.  Genesis 3:9-13 is the epitome of finger pointing.  Adam and Eve’s emphatic response[5] to God’s questions is a guilt release.  “Don’t look at me!” or “That’s not my problem!” or “I didn’t know!” register our classic dodges.  Lost is a sense of responsibility born of discipline bound by duty.[6] 

For years I have taught students the twin pillars that uphold all the rest of life: gratitude and discipline.  Without thankfulness, we acknowledge no authority outside of ourselves.  Without discipline, we exercise no authority over ourselves.  So, as a professor, I bear the responsibility of clear commitment to and communication of “true Truth.”[7]  My students are accountable for the privilege of learning and to the providers of that learning.[8] 

Gregory Roper had fallen into the practice of beating himself up because those enrolled in his classes were not studying.  He gave his heart and soul to his subject and students.  Yet he felt like an abject failure.  It was not until he realized that his students were inherently corrupt persons, who bore responsibility for their own learning that he began to come out from under the cultural spell against education: “it’s the teacher’s fault.”[9]  Patrick Welsh, a public school instructor from Alexandria, Virginia, entitles his article, “For Once, Blame the Student.”[10]  Welsh compares American-born and immigrant students.  The former have no sense of gratitude because of entitlement; the latter discipline themselves to accept more work for more learning. 

“Why do I have to do this?!”  Similar cries can be heard in both home and school.  Scripture teaches that we are unwilling to learn because we are sinners.  After Adam’s sin God told humanity that work would be difficult.[11]  Schoolwork is no exception.  Christian teachers should know that our natures are the largest roadblocks to education.  Molding the character of the student, then, becomes key to how children develop academically.  If I recognize that sin has tainted all of life, this galvanizes my resolve, prompted by The Spirit,[12] to overcome the difficulties of learning with hard work.[13]

If we believe people are inherently corrupt, we believe that education begins with character development-the interiority of the person-not with programs intended to address external issues of concern.  This view holds personal responsibility as paramount for what we do no matter our race, nationality, or religion.  Talk with any military personnel and they will say the same: discipline arises out of responsibility to do one’s duty.  It was Sergeant Smith’s personal discipline that motivated duty to country and the lives of his men.  Discipline, our willingness to sacrifice for others, demonstrates proper Christian response to my Commander in Chief-The King of Glory.[14] 

[2] Ibid. 201.

[3] For both definition and practice see Mark Bender, Operation Excellence: Succeeding in Business and Life-The U. S. Military Way. (ANACOM, 2004) and www.military-net.com

[4] http://frankandernest.com/cgi/view/display.pl?96-10-06

[5] The normal Hebrew word order of verb, subject, object is obviously inverted in these phrases from the original language: “The woman you gave me” and “The serpent deceived me.”

[6] One has only to turn the pages of Scripture from beginning (“You may . . . you may not,” Genesis 2:16, 17) to end (“I warn everyone who hears the words of this prophecy,” Revelation 22:18) to see God’s requirements of responsibility, discipline, and duty.  Luke 14:25-35 produces the mantra to be repeated moment-by-moment “count the cost . . . count the cost . . .”

[7] Titus 1:9; James 3:1.

[8] Proverbs 23:12; 1 Peter 2:17.

[9] Gregory Roper. “Teachers’ Guilt.” First Things 127 (November, 2002): 21-22.

[10] http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20060308/oplede08.art.htm

[11] Genesis 3:17-19.

[12] Galatians 5:16-26.

[13] Against laziness: Proverbs 6:6-11; 24:30-34.

[14] Read Psalm 24.

Mark Eckel, Director, Mahseh Center, Lake Bruce, IN 

The Bells of St. Mary’s ring no more.  Half a century has passed since Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman demonstrated to audiences the redemptive nature of the Christian Church in the 1945 film.  John Patrick Shanley’s alternative perspective with the adaptation of his Pulitzer Prize-winning play Doubt, questions The Church by questioning its servants.  In an age where sex scandals have rocked reputations in the rectory,[1] casting doubt instead of dispersions is certainly understood.  Yet, the movie invites discussion of even deeper questions: Is certainty a myth?  Is authority abusive?   Should justice be blind?  Does perception trump reality?  Answers to these questions may be as elusive as the film’s conclusion in the actions of individuals or governments. 

Meryl Streep, arguably the best actress to ever walk any stage, plays the overpowering, overbearing Sister Aloysius Beauvier.  The nun strikes fear and (physical) pain into the young charges at her school as well as during Sunday morning mass.  Whether obsessed with the wrongful use of ballpoint pens or silence during meals until she alone rings the bell for interruption, Streep artfully directs the audience in their collective loathing of her character.  Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Father Brendan Flynn, a genial priest who captures the spirit of the progressive movement coming out of The Vatican in the early 1960′s.  The priest’s kindness juxtaposed with the sister’s austerity causes the barometric pressure to drop as warm and cold fronts collide.  

A novice teacher in the parochial school (Amy Adams) seeds the brewing storm with her sincere yet superficial behavioral observation.  It seems Father Flynn befriends a young altar boy.  Impropriety is suggested.  The young nun brings her information to Sister Beauvier whose suspicions are raised more by rancor than reality.  Confrontation between the combatants leave more questions unanswered.  Add to this lack of assurance the absoluteness of the young man’s mother (played by Viola Davis, who supersedes all other performances in this picture).  When the nun reveals her notion of sexual misconduct by the priest, a Catholic mother’s categorical obeisance to her faith, her race, and her son’s future is perhaps the most shocking revelation in Doubt. 

After Mother Teresa’s death, Newsweek dedicated a cover article to depict her doubts from, then, newly disclosed personal correspondence.[2]  Little noticed during her lifetime in the secular world, focus shifted to questions about her faith after death.  Perhaps it was this revelation that set up the last scene in the movie exposing the doubts encountered even by those most committed.  Surety is difficult in a generation nurtured by cynicism parlayed by the John Stewarts of the world.  If ever there was a need for evenhandedness in media, it is now.  However, Doubt should make the viewer re-examine their own personal beliefs based on insufficient evidence, perception, or group-think.  And all should hold the tension of their questions while they ring the bell for Truth. 

Rated PG-13 for disturbing thematic material concerning children. 

[2] August 2007; http://www.newsweek.com/id/38603