Sniffing out the work of God in the world…
What I wish I were doing tonight: answering the door for trick-or-treaters while watching game seven of the World Series.
This afternoon was the costume carnival at Highland. Our sixth and seventh graders usually dress up in costumes and then help run it. Christopher went as a bespeckled middle-aged preacher with my sport coat, my tie, and a bald spot he taped on. It was a great costume, but I can’t figure out who he was supposed to be. 
Certainly it’s a weekend to pray for our nation (as, of course, we pray for all nations of the world). I, for one, will be glad to get politics ads off of television and radio. They’re pretty much all–Democratic and Republican–obnoxious to me.
A great memory from four years ago. Friends in Uganda were watching election results on a satellite tv at a local hotel. Others who were watching in the hotel told them how very sorry they were for America. When my friends asked why, they found out that the others were assuming there would be an ugly civil war in the United States. Al Gore had “clearly” won the election. (They understood popular vote, which Gore clearly won, but had no concept of electoral college.) They found out that the election turned on the decision of a state where the President’s brother was governor and where one of his state campaign co-chairs was secretary of state . . . and then on the decision of a Supreme Court that was heavily Republican-appointed.
They assumed there would be war.
But there wasn’t. There was anger. There were recounts. Then no recounts. Then appeals. But in the end, there was civility.
I hope there is a clear victor Tuesday night. (If the most recent polls are accurate, it sounds like there will be a clear winner.) But even if there isn’t–even if we’re in suspense for weeks again while votes are being counted in Ohio or Wisconsin and while appeals are being filed–aren’t you glad that the system of government holds up?
I’m especially thankful for the mature ways I’ve noticed so many Christians agreeing to disagree in this election. Apparently a majority of white Christians will vote for George Bush, while a majority of African-American Christians will vote for John Kerry. They’re apparently weighing different aspects of the campaigns and coming to different conclusions. Wouldn’t it be tragic if we erected walls saying, “Real Christians vote this way”? The last thing the body of Christ needs is ONE MORE THING to divide “the REAL Christians” (those who agree with ME) from the others.
This is the last morning of the “Together Conference.” The sessions have been enjoyable, but the really important part is the relationships that are forming. I was especially glad to meet a couple guys from a healthy church near where I grew up in SW Missouri. They apparently followed the “build it and they will come” philosophy somewhere eight miles north of Joplin, MO. Now their congregation has 2400 people, made up largely of converts.
The official split of Churches of Christ and Christian Churches was in 1906. Now as we approach the hundred year anniversary, many people on both sides are saying, “That’s a split that never should have happened.”
Some might say that we’re not speaking for them. Fair enough. But we’re saying that a few people decided this a hundred years ago and THEY WEREN’T SPEAKING FOR US.
I’m especially thankful that in these two gatherings (a smaller one in June and this larger one at Grand Prairie) there have been supportive people from ACU, Pepperdine, LCU, OCU, and Lipscomb. And, of course, there have also been supportive leaders from Ozark Bible College, Cincinnati Bible College, Milligan College, etc.
This is by no means the only place a unity movement should go. But it’s a good place to begin. We have the same family roots.
As always when we find ourselves together at an event, Leonard Allen and I snuck off to catch up on each other’s lives. For years, he and Darryl Tippens were a big part of my support system (as I suppose I was part of theirs). Always good to reconnect.
Leonard wrote the best book of my lifetime in Churches of Christ: The Cruciform Church. Many of you probably read it a long time ago. But his new book Seeing the Unseen is also pretty incredible. Don’t miss it!
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I’ll be home tonight. It’s the annual crosstown rivalry, and we’ll be in W4, row 20 . . . as always.
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Did you know that John Kerry said he can’t wait to take the country back from church-going people? Or that he (or President Bush, depending on the e-mail) said his favorite verse is John 16:3, thereby showing his real biblical ignorance? Neither is true, but you wouldn’t know it from the e-mails that people have forwarded to me recently and that have been printed out and passed along to my wife at school.
Why are Christians passing around such obviously false things about George Bush and John Kerry? It seems to me that we ought to take the time to check on these internet rumors. But it’s just so easy to hit the “forward” button and participate in the spreading of lies.
There are several places on the internet where you can check most of these. One of my favorites is Snopes. Pretty good search engine. (E. g., type in ” Bush John 16:3″ or “Kerry church-goers.”)
Thoughts about the World Series: Where is Bob Gibson when you need him? And who’s the little league coach who taught Jeff Suppan how to run bases?
I’m not giving up yet. The Sox came from 3-0 to beat the Yankees.
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Great Zoe meeting in Nashville yesterday. Brandon was talking about what a good week he had in Abilene last week. He said that it was a little strange in chapel on Friday when nearly all the songs were from Zoe CDs and were being sung exactly as he (and others who work with Zoe) had arranged them. I told him to be sure no one sneezes during one of the recordings because all over the country, people will sneeze at that point in the song.
Those of you out there in blogland who’ve been coming to Zoe Conferences — what suggestions do you have for the future? We’re talking and praying about various templates besides the one we’ve used the last few years. We’d love to hear from you–drop a note to Randy Gill, Brandon Scott Thomas, or me.
In the afternoon, I worked in a Baja Burrito and a Wineskins meeting with Greg Taylor, Rubel, and Phil Herrington (one of our board members). We reminisced a lot about the early, somewhat explosive, days of Wineskins–and dreamed about the future.
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We went to see “Napoleon Dynamite” this weekend with Mark and Gina Lewis. This is a PG . . . repeat, PG . . . movie. Incredibly funny.
A few thoughts about the “Together Conference” which is later this week.
First, it’s important for those of us who are speaking and attending to remember that important discussions have been going on for a long time between members of Churches of Christ and Christian Churches. We’re not blazing the trail. We’re just jumping into prayers and discussions that have been going on for a long time.
Second, we must make sure that the center of the discussions is never about who’s speaking at whose churches and lectureships. Now I would say this: it’s been a shame that the Christian Churches have so generously included many of us speaking at their big events, but we have seldom reciprocated. But beyond that, this isn’t about a few preachers and where they’ll get to speak. Rather, it’s about individuals, families, and churches “discovering” each other, realizing our unity in Christ, and finding ways to encourage each other in our work for Christ.
Third, in situations like this we’re always surprised by how much we have in common. But we’re also surprised (as in any family reunion) with how different we are in ways we weren’t expecting.
To most of us, it’s a foregone conclusion that we are brothers and sisters in Christ. What we’re looking for (as the hundred year “anniversary” of our formal split in 1906 approaches) are ways to bless and encourage each other as we seek to follow the Way of Jesus.
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Thoughts about the new museum at Highland as we approach our 75 year anniversary. I mentioned at our assemblies yesterday that I went through it Saturday with no one around. I felt like I was hearing the voices of the eight men who preceded me as Highland preachers: Lynn Anderson, John Allen Chalk, Mid McKnight, James Willeford, and the others. I sensed their encouragement to be a more faithful minister of the gospel to this church they served so well.
But beyond that, I also realized that the story of the preachers is hardly the story of Highland. The real story is all those people peeking out in the photos who were seeking to make a living, raise children, nurture a marriage, and follow the lead of Jesus. These are people who, in their own small (and sometimes large) ways turned the world upside down.
Well, no handy Missouri press tickets available for game 4. So I’ve been checking eBay off and on this weekend. People are VERY proud of those tickets! I’m thinking that if I snuck up on Wednesday (my students are taking a test, anyway!), I could take the earlybird flight out the next morning in time to speak at the “Together Conference.” (Rick Atchley, Rubel Shelly, Randy Harris, and I will be speaking from Churches of Christ. Allan Dunbar, Barry McMurtrie, Ben Merold, and Bob Russell will be speaking from Christian Churches.)
I’ve been wearing my purple all day as this is ACU Homecoming weekend. Special congrats to Brandon Scott Thomas for his award as “young alumnus of the year.”
There wasn’t any doubt was there? Atta way, Cards! The last time the Cardinals and the Red Sox played in the World Series was 1967. And I was there (for game 3)! Because we were a MO newspaper family, my dad could always score tickets. I’ve been to a game in every World Series the Cardinals played in during my lifetime (’64, ‘67, ‘68, ‘82, ‘85) except for 1987. Sad story. I had agreed to do a one-week city-wide meeting in San Diego that year. To make matters worse, my flight to San Diego from Little Rock went THROUGH St. Louis on game day.
(By the way. NOTE TO LITTLE BROTHER: It’s up to you! Any of those old ticket connections lingering around MO press circles these days?)
Is it against blog protocol to quote yourself? Here’s something I wrote last October that really fits this year with a repeat of the 1967 World Series.
By the time the Cardinals returned to the World Series in October, 1967, I was in 6th grade. I guess that means my brother would have been a first grader. My sisters would have been 4 and 1.
1967 was the year of the Super Bowl before it had Roman numerals attached to it! In the first ever Super Bowl, Green Bay defeated Kansas City. Also in ‘67 . . . Mohammad Ali was stripped of his title for draft evasion. Elvis married Priscilla. Christiaan Barnard conducted the first human heart transplant. The big hits at Neosho’s Intermediate School were “Windy,” “I’m a Believer,” and “Come on Down to My Boat.” More significantly, it was the year of Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl” and the Beatle’s “Sergeant Pepper” album.
But for me here’s what mattered: the Cardinals were in the Series. And by 1967, both Roger Marris and I had seen the light. His playing for the Yankees and my cheering for the Yankees were long behind us. We were Cardinals (in different ways).
So back to St. Louis we went for game 3 between the Cards and the Red Sox. This time the game was at the NEW ballpark. In 1964 we were at Busch Stadium I (which had been Sportsman’s Park until the team was purchased by Anheiser-Busch in 1953). But now we were in the new Busch Stadium.
For game three, here was the Cardinals’ batting order (yes, I still have my program and my scorecard I kept that day): Lou Brock, Curt Flood, Roger Marris, Orlando Cepeda, Tim McCarver, Mike Shannon, Julian Javier, Dal Maxvill, and Nelson Brills.
The Red Sox were led by Carl Yastrzemski, of course. It was the last time in major league baseball that a player won the Triple Crown. That year Yaz batted .326, hit 44 home runs, and drove in 121 RBIs.
But my Cardinals had Bob Gibson. Enough said. Gibson won games 1, 4, and 7. Some day the Red Sox may break the curse for trading Babe Ruth . . . but it wasn’t going to be under my (and Bob Gibson’s) watch!
And . . . as a little added note . . . it won’t be this year either!
I mentioned a couple months ago that my Thursday carpool is a bit quiet–a carload of 6th grade boys. Well, it no longer sounds like a library on the way to Lincoln Middle School. Why have they started blabbering all the way to school? I attribute it to two things:
1. Baseball. Though we haven’t been able to agree on the NL team to root for, we have been unified in our support for the Red Sox. Not that any of us are huge Sox fans, but “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Nothing can unite a car of taciturn males quite like baseball.
2. Oldies Music. Who knew? These kids all love my oldies stuff. They were raised in proper homes! They can sing along to the Beatles, 3 Dog Night, Lynyrd Skynrd, Sly, CCR, etc. Put on B. W. Stevenson singing “My Maria,” and the place explodes.
And there is the formula for male bonding: oldies music and baseball playoffs. Just thought you’d want to know.
I heard this morning that sometime there’s going to be a special on the best TV cars of all time. Doubt that I’ll catch that show. But surely it’s the Batmobile, isn’t it? I guess Fred Flintstone’s car would have to be in the running. And maybe the General Lee.
Last night the Red Sox became the first team come from a 3-0 deficit to force a game seven. Could it be? Could the Evil Empire be going down?
Tonight, we’ll be reinforcing the “Jesus-Formed” theme with several class options taught by David Wray, Mark Love, Shelley Nielson, and others. We’ll meet in the auditorium from 7:00 to 7:15 for prayer and singing. Then we’ll break out to these classes.
Trust me. You don’t want to read on. First, I read a little Nicholas Sparks this summer. Then I listened to a bit of Josh Groban recently. I’ve temporarily lost my male ability to bottle up all emotions inside.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
But here’s the thing: when I picked up Diane at the airport Sunday afternoon, I was surprised all over again by her beauty. How can that be after so many years?
To be honest, I hadn’t really missed her for the couple days she was in Houston. (It’s one of our private little secrets–that, while we love being together, we also don’t mind a day or two alone! She was in Houston; Chris was on the middle school campout. I was pigging out on play-off games.)
There are so many things that I love about Diane that I had no idea about so many years ago.
I love how much children love her. Recently, a third grader (whom she taught in 2nd grade last year) came up to hug her after school and said, “Mrs. Cope, look in my backpack.” Inside was her treasure trove: every note that Diane had written to her last year. “You’re like a mother to me,” the little girl said.
Right now she’s gone to work out. But before that this evening, we sat and listened AGAIN to MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech. I love how, after so many times, it still touches her.
I love how when (as happened at least once when she joined me someplace where I was speaking) a woman came up to her and said “It must be wonderful being married to him!” she just smiled and said, “Oh, yes.” Fighting the gag reflex is one of her strengths.
I love how she loves her boys and her daughter-in-law. And, of course, I love the memories of her with Megan.
I love how she’ll stay at church as long as someone wants to talk–even though it drives me nuts when I’m tired.
I love watching movies with her, eating out at a nice restaurant with her, and grabbing burgers off the grill to watch “Raymond” with her. Things are only half as funny when she isn’t watching with me.
I love her low threshhold of tolerance for “look-in-the-mirror-and-tell-yourself-how-much-God-loves-you” exercises. At moments like that she comes within an inch of falling off the cliff of explosive laughter. . . . And I have the gift of sending her over that precipitous cliff.
I love her laugh. The best laugh I’ve ever heard. Angels applaud.
Sorry. Soon I’ll get back to more trivial things, which is where I really excel.