The Sacred and the Secular--A Presidential View

Yesterday’s Sunday edition of The Seattle Times featured a front page story about a prominent area businessman, accused of masterminding the largest Ponzi scheme in the history of Washington State, bilking investors in his bogus mortgage company out of $100 million. The headline said it all, “Financial empire, luxurious lifestyle were built on a mirage.” The article pictured the architect of the scheme relaxing by the pool of his $10 million mansion, just down the road from Bill Gates’ home, complete with two yachts parked in his dock at the back—not to mention his two jets for personal use.

The Seattle Times author quoted the bankruptcy trustee who compared him to the Wizard of Oz. There was absolutely nothing behind the curtain of legitimacy that lured investors through the promise of big profits on their investments. Sadly, we can become jaded by reading about such scammers, developing a deep sense of distrust and suspicion that easily leads to skepticism or cynicism. When we hear or see something or someone who seems too good to be true, we often wonder what is hiding “behind the curtain.”

So where should we land? We certainly should not believe everyone who says, “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.” On the other hand, we miss a great deal of life’s beauty if we do not recognize good character and the accomplishments of those who surprise us with their honesty or unexpected kindness. Sure, there are Bernie Madoffs in this world, just like there are preachers who are charlatans, and politicians who are corrupt. But I believe they are in the minority—those who have given themselves over to wholesale corruption and deceit. I personally know hundreds of pastors, lawyers, politicians, and business leaders who quietly do their jobs with dignity and integrity, working for justice and seeking the truth.

For most of us, the struggle is to maintain our integrity in the face of temptation. And for those of us who believe God cares about such things, our challenge goes beyond the surface, what people see on the outside. Our challenge remains the challenge of character, of staying true to our convictions, of living a life free of duplicity or hypocrisy.

In the Gospels, Jesus viewed the hypocrisy of religious teachers and leaders as reason enough to publicly chastise them for not practicing what they preached. Today, we may not use the word, “hypocrite” very much, yet we know how we feel when we spot one, particularly if it is a person we have trusted. And when a person loses our trust, we lose as well. We become less likely to trust others, more jaded in our perspective, and suspicious of those whose kindness or good works seem too good to be true.

The trouble is, we often separate the sacred from the secular. Believing that what we do in our personal life has nothing to do with our professional or public life is a slippery slope. We all have recollections of a former U.S. President whose private Oval Office sessions with an intern, and subsequent denials of wrongdoing, brought scandal and impeachment proceedings. Along the way, many took the position that a person’s private life should not be open to public scrutiny. The false assumption that there is a sacred side of life and a secular side of life contributes to this skewed perspective.

I am the first to admit that none of us would want absolutely everything about our private lives broadcast for public consumption. Not that there isn’t a market for it—reality shows and webcams provide ample evidence of a ready audience. But watching the failures of others is no excuse for our own shortcomings. There is a price for leadership, and that price is a sacred trust, especially for those of us who labor in the church.

I love old books, and recently ran across two antique volumes I purchased for a couple of bucks on eBay containing the Messages and Papers of President Theodore Roosevelt. In it, I discovered a speech to a gathering of Methodist church leaders. Teddy delivered the address to a receptive audience in Carnegie Hall on February 26, 1903, on the occasion of the 200th birthday of John Wesley. Listen to a bit of what he said (by the way, the copyright information of the book says, “There is no copyright on this work, as President Roosevelt considers that his messages and speeches delivered while President have been dedicated to and are the property of the public.”)

“The instruments with which, and the surroundings in which we work, have changed immeasurably from what they were in the days when the rough backwoods preachers ministered to the moral and spiritual needs of their rough backwoods congregations. But if we are to succeed, the spirit in which we do our work must be the same as the spirit in which they did theirs. These men drove forward, and fought their way to success, because their sense of duty was in their hearts, in the very marrow of their bones. It was not with them something to be considered as a mere adjunct to their theology, standing separate and apart from their daily life. They had it with them week days as well as Sundays. They did not divorce the spiritual from the secular. They did not have one kind of conscience for one side of their lives and another for another. If we are to succeed as a nation, we must have the same spirit in us.”

Wow! I wonder what the press would have to say today if the President of the United States delivered such passionate lines to a group of church leaders. I believe it to be a relevant message to twenty-first century citizens hungering for authenticity. However, “Separation of church and state” would no doubt be the cry of those calling for his resignation. That’s too bad, because there would be a lot less headlines in newspapers across this country reporting on another fallen leader if everyone took his advice! (c)2011 Don Detrick

Some Thoughts on the 400th Anniversary of the King James Version

Like many in my generation, I grew up believing that God spoke in Elizabethan English. I heard so many “thee’s” and “thou’s” in the prayers, hymns, sermons, and scripture readings during the course of an excursion to church or Sunday School that it seemed a logical conclusion to a young boy. You can imagine my surprise to later learn that the archaic expressions used in the church of my youth were more a product of the 1611 King James Version of the Bible than a proclivity for speaking in God’s native tongue.

This year we observe the 400th anniversary of the Authorized or King James Version of the Bible. If my brief perusal of the Jan/Feb edition of the History Channel Magazine is any indication, the year will be filled with articles and memorabilia to commemorate the occasion. Marketing strategies will pitch every conceivable edition of the venerable KJV, including those in the original 1611 olde English (hardly decipherable by modern English readers), along with bindings in leather and designer fabrics. Already I’ve noticed a number of media responses to include NPR broadcasts and various special reports.

Although I rarely use the KJV for public speaking or preaching anymore, I must admit to an affinity for this most common of the English translations of the scriptures. Probably because of my youthful exposure to the best-seller of all time, I tend to think biblically in the King James Version. Indeed, most of the hundreds of Bible verses I memorized as a child and teenager were from the pages of the KJV. Those verses have served me well over the years, filling my heart and mind with principles, promises, and ideas that transcend human comprehension.

When faced with temptations to compromise my convictions or do wrong, I immediately think of a verse like Psalm 119:11, “Thy Word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee” or 1 Corinthians 10:13, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which ye are able, but will with the temptation make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” (For the purposes of this article I am writing out the verses from memory, so I might not get them exactly right—maybe you should check.)

When weary or troubled, my thoughts go to those red-letter words of Jesus in Matthew 11:28-30, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me. For I am meek and lowly of heart, and ye shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”

When discouraged, my mind turns to Hebrews 10:35-36, “Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise” or 1 Peter 5:7, “Casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you.”

I could go on, but I think you get the point. Although we never use a word like “recompence” in daily conversation, the word has meaning to me precisely because I was taught at an early age to look up words I do not understand in a dictionary. That may seem quaint and even archaic in the post-modern world of electronic technology, yet it served the purpose of encouraging my love of learning, and desire to investigate and find out something for myself. There was something intrinsically satisfying about going to the library and taking a look at the Oxford English Dictionary to find the precise definition of a word, or using the old oak library catalog and Dewey Decimal System to research just the right book or resource, that I find lacking in the 5 million hits of a one second Google search.

Don’t get me wrong, I would not trade the ability to search the internet for a throwback to the old Dewey Decimal System and its arcane code of numbers and alphabet. Still, there is something to be said for actual printed books and real brick and mortar libraries that I miss when using my iPad. In the same way, there is something to be said about a translation of the Bible that has served us in the English speaking world well for the past 400 years, and you can be sure to hear at least some of it in the coming year.

The King James Version of the Bible has strongly influenced our culture and history. Handel used it as the text for his oratorio, The Messiah in 1741. Verses from its pages can be found engraved in public buildings in Washington, D.C. Martin Luther King quoted from Isaiah 40:4 in his 1963 “I have a dream” speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial: "I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together."

King James authorized this translation of the Bible to, “be read in churches.” When read aloud, the poetry and majesty of the words create a syllabic soliloquy that convey the drama and pathos of the printed word, often in relatively simple terms. The fact is, most of the British citizenry was illiterate in 1611, and having a Bible available to be read in the common language of the people, with verses easily understood and memorized, opened up literacy to the general populace.

Our modern tendency is to explain and over-explain, and use far too many words in the process. As a man who has made his living preaching sermons most of my adult life, I should know. While many verses in the Bible do require explanation, exposition, and commentary using principles of biblical interpretation, many verses easily stand on their own with clear meaning—even when using the 400-year-old KJV.

The late British journalist and host of Masterpiece Theater on PBS, Alistair Cooke, once used hyperbole to offer a modern politician’s wordy rendition of God’s simple command, “Let there be light, and there was light” in Genesis 1:3: "The Supreme Being mandated the illumination of the universe and this directive was enforced forthwith."

Even the detractors of the Bible recognize its importance as a singularly unique and glorious piece of literature. “For three centuries, this book has been woven into the life of all that is best and noblest in English history; it has become the national epic of Britain and is as familiar to noble and simple … as Dante and Tasso once were to the Italians … it is written in the noblest and purest English and abounds in exquisite beauties of pure literary form.” One would not expect such accolades for the Bible from Thomas Huxley, known as the first public figure in Britain to declare himself an “agnostic” while championing Darwin’s theory of evolution.

Such is the power of the Bible to create conversations about the most important topics of life: “Who am I? Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going?” And those who objectively look at the Bible will acknowledge its influence and beauty. For those of us who believe it to be the Word of God, we also acknowledge its inspiration and authority—but primarily its power to change lives for the better.

Don’t get me wrong, I do not worship the Bible, rather I worship the God of the Bible. And I do not think there is any special blessing that comes from reading the KJV as opposed to any other translation. Those who believe so ignore the fact that Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek make up the original languages of the Bible. Nor was King James a saint by any stretch of the imagination!

Yet the translation endures in popularity. And I for one, want to say, “Happy 400th birthday!” to an old friend and faithful companion from my youth. The leather bindings, gilt edges, and India paper will always bring a sense of peaceful nostalgia to my soul, but it is the power of the printed words upon the pages that have been transferred to the flesh of my heart that really make the difference.

Reflections on a Snowy Day

This morning I was reading John Greenleaf Whittier's epic poem, Snowbound. Whittier, a Quaker who gained fame as a celebrated poet and a crusader against slavery, served as a member of the Massachusetts legislature in the 1830's, and was a founding member of the Republican Party in America. Like his contemporaries Longfellow, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Emerson, and Whitman, among others, his was a household name before, after, and during the Civil War era, during one of the most tumultuous times in our nation. Many of his musings seem surprisingly relevant to twenty-first century residents of planet earth, including one of my favorite Whittier quotes, “Of all sad words of tongue or of pen, the saddest are these, ‘It might have been.’”

During my morning meditations on this winter day filled with anticipation of the forecaster's prediction of snow, I was drawn to Whittier's lengthy, 769 line treatise, first published nearly 150 years ago, in 1866. Snowbound begins with a detailed description of the effect of a New England blizzard on the landscape, home, and hearth of a farm family of that era. His first-person narration makes it clear early on that this is not a piece of fiction, but Whittier’s own story. His accurate depiction of the humble home filled with a loving family, and barn filled with cattle, horses, sheep, and chickens are bursting with such exquisite detail that only a resident observer, thoroughly familiar with the characters and setting could describe.

Soon the author takes the reader on a nostalgic journey, as he reminisces about winters past, and reflects on the memories of family and loved ones through all the seasons of life. A cold winter day is a perfect time for reflection. Reading Whittier’s personal snowbound echoes through the tunnel of time plucked my own heartstrings, producing several resonating chords on this snowy winter day. I would like to share a few of my observations from his Snowbound notes with you.

1. Faith is stronger than doubt, and life is stronger than death. While reminiscing about the past Whittier observed that out of his immediate family, only his brother and he remained. Yet no matter how old he was or how long he lived, he could not forget the influence of his loved ones. He wrote:

Yet love will dream, and faith will trust,

(Since He who knows our need is just,)

That somehow, somewhere, meet we must.”

While looking over the marble tombstones of a cemetery, he observes:

Who hath not learned, in hours of faith,

The truth to flesh and sense unknown,

That Life is ever lord of death,

And love can never lose its own!

During the long months of winter it is so easy to forget that spring and summer will return. And during those times of frigid, isolated darkness we cannot allow our immediate circumstances to control our feelings, or thwart our God-given destiny. Despite the current surroundings, we must set our course on the truth: Life ebbs and flows like the seasons. A high point will be followed by a low tide. And both can reveal details and open passageways that are hidden by the other. We do well to “learn in hours of faith” the truths that will sustain us when doubts tug at the fabric of our souls, seeking to create an opening for unbelief and defeat.

2. We have a God-given right to liberty and justice. A staunch abolitionist, Whittier found himself on that snowbound day reflecting on the struggle for justice and liberty, only recently won through the horror of Civil War. No doubt his own conscience was battered by the tension and dilemma between his Quaker pacifism and the battle in which he had long engaged that led to the bloodiest war in American history, literally pitting brother against brother. The cause was just, but the price was high. As if to remind himself of this he recited the “trumpet call” pen and voice of Mercy Warren, once called the most remarkable and influential woman of the American Revolutionary period:

Does not the voice of reason cry,

Claim the first right which nature gave,

From the red scourge of bondage fly,

Nor deign to live a burdened slave.

Slavery takes many forms, with tyranny and terror always the twin results. We can become enslaved to habits, to people, even to institutions or ideologies. The consequences are always the same as we yearn for freedom from the chains that bind our hearts and souls. The human heart beats for freedom. Human lungs long to be filled with the fresh, unpolluted air of freedom. The human voice cannot be silenced by tyranny and terror, as those who enjoy the blessings of liberty must use their voices to speak on behalf of those whose voices are stilled by the tyrant’s whip.

Sadly, nearly a century and a half after the American Civil War, slavery still exists in one form or another in many parts of our world, and wars are still being fought for far less noble purposes. Despite the geography or time, the human heart continually cries out for freedom. The abolitionists of the day used St. Paul’s clarion voice as a banner for their movement, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” (2 Corinthians 3:17) Those words remain faithful and true to this day.

3. A simpler and slower pace of life allows space and time for sorting out the important from the unimportant. There is nothing like an extended time of reflection for determining our core values. The temporary and trivial melt like the snows of winter when exposed to the sunlight of truth, revealing the foundational structure upon which all of a good life is built. Love, mercy, justice, piety, integrity—principles that form godly character, must be joined with friends, family, and community—relationships that sustain and nurture human existence. Reflecting upon simpler times, Whittier was reminded of:

The common unrhymed poetry

Of simple life and country ways,

The story of her early days,

She made us welcome to her home

At another point he wrote of an uncle, lacking perhaps in formal schooling and social graces:

Our uncle, innocent of books,

Was rich in lore of fields and brooks.

Whittier went on to describe persons like his uncle, who were rich in their own character and skills, unseen or unnoticed by the casual observer, but readily viewed and appreciated by those long familiar with golden treasures lying below the wrinkled patina of experienced skin. How often do we pass by or dismiss others because they lack the appeal of youth or beauty in our rush to judgment? I have frequently reflected upon my own life growing up on a farm, how that one can observe things from the seat of a tractor traveling at 8 miles per hour that you would surely miss from the seat of an automobile traveling at 80 miles per hour.

Our trajectory is frequently so rapid that we grow accustomed to the dizzying pace, and feel faint when given a moment of respite. It is too bad that it often takes a crisis to bring a busy life to a temporary halt. We learn so much from those experiences as we mine strength from the depths of our souls and learn to depend upon God and others for our mere existence. It is during such times that we separate the trivial chaff of life from the wheat that produces the bread of life. Those moments can lead to Him who invites us to “Come and dine,” freely offering the Bread of Life to all.

4. There is more to life than the here and now. Within the heart of man lies a tendency to ponder the imponderable, to ask the question, “Is this all there is?” Unlike his transcendentalist friends, Whittier possessed a foundational belief in the Bible and saw God as more than an impersonal force of nature or voice of reason. Reflecting upon a loved one lost in death he wrote:

But still I wait with ear and eye

For something gone which should be nigh,

A loss in all familiar things,

In flower that blooms, and bird that sings.

And yet, dear heart! Remembering thee,

Am I not richer than of old?

Safe in thy immortality,

What change can reach the wealth I hold?

I cannot feel that thou art far,

Since near at need the angels are;

And when the sunset gates unbar,

Shall I not see thy waiting stand,

And, white against the evening star,

The welcome of thy beckoning hand?

The Bible speaks of three eternal virtues: faith, hope and love. This trio plays a passionate song that cannot be extinguished by the desperate circumstances of life or the traumatic sorrows of death. When its music plays, the heart can soar above the winter landscape; over the regrets of the past, and the perils of the present to see the mystery and glory of a future known only to God but bright with the promise of spring.

I am still awaiting today’s predicted snow, although the temperature is hovering near freezing, and the clouds are foreboding. But the meditations on Whittier’s Snowbound have fueled my spirit on this cold winter day, and once again reminded me of the importance of reflection and sorting out the trivial from the treasure, regardless of the weather. Whittier is listed among the group known as “Fireside Poets” and I’ve enjoyed sitting by the hearth of his warming words.

If you are interested in reading Snowbound, and have a Kindle, iPad or other electronic reading device, you can find a copy of it on Amazon.com for the low price of $00.00—a good price for a good read on a snowy day.