23 of 52 Trip Around The
Sun - Community Reformed Church
Have traveled about 258,500,000 miles.
Thoughts
during the week:
Someone
sent the following:
The children were lined up in the cafeteria of a Catholic
elementary
school for lunch. At the head of the table was a large pile of apples.
A Nun made a note, and posted it on the apple tray,
"Take only one, God is watching."
Moving farther along the lunch line, at the other end of the
table was
a large pile of chocolate chip cookies.
A child had written a note, "Take all you want,
God is watching the apples."
Eyeballs have a shape – a lens with a shape – and simple
physics for the optical parts. The physics becomes more complex with the
retina, the optic nerve, and the connection to the brain, but the collector
itself is limited to a specific field of view, etc., much like a camera lens
system. If God sees all, there would be no purpose at all for Him to have such
a limited organ. This little joke assumes the simple eyeball for God (He can
watch the apples – but then not the cookies.) This assumption is incorrect for
the Catholics, who do not view God as a humanoid form – but in fact it is
accurate for Mormons. (Who view Him as having this limited organ and an entire
humanoid body – but also as having the ability to do the other (see all) by
some other means.
What possible advantage there may be to having this organ or any other
mammal’s organ, completely escapes me. It makes a nice metaphor – but that’s
all. Well – perhaps it allows Him to be like us when we meet, so that it is
easier to relate to Him and feel close. Being able to see as He does – all at
once and still organized, using these eyeballs would
be like our using some old mechanical typewriter after using these word
processors.)
The
Visit:
Community
Reformed Church –
This is
a very comfortable little facility. The chapel is not large, but sweet in character.
There is a beautiful patio and lawn area behind – visible through the chapel
windows. We could watch a picnic being prepared out on the lawn, where tables
had been placed. This was being done during our meeting. Probably, they have
another similar meeting later or earlier that the others attend.
The
congregation was almost entirely senior citizens, including the choir. The
minister was much younger than most of the others. I didn’t feel like one of
the old guys in this group – just normal.
The opening
prayer ended with the minister’s words, “And they all said, -“ And then the congregation repeated the
Lord’s Prayer (debts – not trespasses.) I always get silent right there to make
sure where we’re going.
The
choir sang the opening song with piano and recorded organ – after which there
was applause.
Then
there was a children’s sermon – all the children (there were four – I had not
seen them before,) came to the front, and the minister gave them a lesson. They
were all shy about answering questions in front of the congregation – even if
just a yes or no. (So different from our Mormon primary kids
– who compete for the floor with quite a lot of enthusiasm.) Then after,
the kids left for Jr. Church. (Oh – That’s where the kids were.) I checked out
the Jr. Church after – and it looked like still few children. I think most of
this senior congregation had grown kids – in other churches somewhere.
This
was “Communion Sunday.” I heard someone behind me say, “Oh – this is communion
Sunday! – with some excitement.” I think this may
happen only once or twice a year. (At the
The
Communion was, to my mind, pretty well done. The minister’s talk was on that
subject – explaining his understanding of the meaning, etc. He said that the
sacrament came from the old Seder – the Passover meal of the Jews. He said when
the Jews speak of the time, the Passover, they speak
of what happened to “us,” not to what happened to “them.” They take this all
very personally. Remember the hymn, “Were you there when they crucified our
Lord?” He said we should answer, “Yes – I was there.” This is not about “them,”
but about “us.”
I
wondered - - If I
were an Egyptian, should I say, “We did this to you,” rather than, “They did
this to them?” As Caucasian Americans, should we say, “I chopped off my Negro
slave’s foot,” or should we rather recognize that this was not done by us, but
by a less moral (in this way) group of Americans of the past? I don’t like to
think of myself as a slave holder – nor would I, if I were of the great Negro
race, want to think of myself as a slave. I’m thankful that horrible era is of
the past. Coming across
On this
Passover thing, the other side, the Egyptians, could say, “Our firstborn, even
the babies, were monstrously killed by the Hebrews, who claim that God did it.
Allah would never do such a thing.”
This is
all taken far too personally – this was not we – but a they
of long ago. It certainly was not God.
I am
thinking this is the big problem among the world’s religions – taking things
personally that really are not. Thinking we are “The chosen people,” etc. I
don’t personally believe that God ever set aside a group of His children and
taught them that they were more special than others of His children. It’s just
one purposefully written error among heaps of error in the Old Testament. Same
for we Mormons – we’re not special in any way that all
the others aren’t just as special to their Father. There ought to have been an
eleventh commandment, “Thou Shalt Not Regard Thy
People Superior To Other Groups Of My Children.”
Hey –
if good old Ronald Reagan can have an eleventh commandment, so can I.
Well,
come to think of it, there is this very commandment – in the New Testament,
“Charity seeketh not her own.” We were commanded to
have charity, and taught that it did not have this feature of regarding “our
own” as most important.
The
minister called the “Elders” to come forward. Four came. Three were senior
citizens – one was about middle-aged. One of the seniors was a woman! (I liked
that.)
They
four passed the sacrament. The bread was very familiar – broken wheat bread –
not whole wheat – just soft wheat, as we often have. I think it was so familiar
that I lost my concentration, took a piece, and put it straight away into my
mouth. It was the woman Elder who had handed the plate to me, and she was
gesturing for me to pass it on. She was really trying to get me not to put it
in my mouth. I didn’t even notice until after – when they all took it together
after a few more words from the minister, which sounded familiar also, much
like our sacrament prayers. So when the grape juice came, I did better.
“Sacraments
are ‘Visible Words,’ ” he said.
They sang
several hymns from the hymn book – no projection. They sang well, the choir
leading the way.
This
was also “Picnic Sunday,” but I was going to be with the family at my
daughter’s to watch some of conference and have a nice meal.
23 of 52 Trip Around The
Sun - Community Reformed Church