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Friday, June 30, 2006
How's Your Greek?
Even in my senior years, one of my greatest
satisfactions is to learn something new, to get fresh insight into a familiar idea. I owe Frank Gelli, an
Anglican priest and founder of Arkadash Network, a fellowship devoted to Muslim-Christian friendship and reconciliation, special
thanks for my most recent blessing.
Gelli notes that the common New Testament
word for forgiveness is the Greek aphiemi, which means a release, a liberation. He suggests we think of horses
at the start of a race. "There they are, champing at the bit until the starting shot rings out. Then, like the
very dickens, they are off, dashing toward the finish liine. They are aphiemi, released, freed -- 'forgiven.'"
What a powerful image! When
I forgive one who has offended me, I release him or her with vast new energy. I liberate my offender to make a
fresh run toward the goal of the upward call of God.
And of course, the opposite is equally
true. When I am forgiven, I too am endued wtih fresh hope and drive. "Forgetting what is behind," the apostle Paul wrote, "and straining toward what is ahead, I press on."
Monday, June 26, 2006
Announcement
Volumn One, the first half of my autobiography,
Double Helix, is now in the public domain. You can read it on screen, download it to your computer and save
it, or print off a hard copy on 8 1/2" by 11" paper. Or you can write me and I will send it to you on a CD.
Just click on Double Helix in the left hand Navigation column and follow directions
from there.
Volume Two is finished, but I'm still in the process of uploading it to this
web site. This will take a while because I'm doing it between other chores.
Sunday, June 25, 2006
St. Leo the Great
Some times the gospel becomes fresher when we
hear it or read it from an ancient. Today I have been reading some of the sermons and letters of St. Leo the Great who
was Pope from 440 to 461 AD.
I know what missio Dei, God's mission
to the world, is. And I know what Jesus' mission is: to seek and to save lost men and women. But what is the specific
mission of the Holy Spirit?
According to St. Leo, "When the Lord Jesus took
his seat at the right hand of the Father, he poured out his Spirit on his church, the Spirit whose mission it is to make available
to all believers the salvation Christ has won for us."
I read that in The Binding of the Strong Man:
the Teaching of St. Leo the Great, translated by Anne Field, O.S.B. (Order of Saint Benedict). That book is out
of print, but it has been republished recently under the title, Delivered from Evil: Jesus' Victory Over Satan.
It's available from Amazon.com.
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Roy Robertson
Several years ago I read On the Missionary Trail, an excellent account of early 19th
century missionaries serving with the London Missionary Society (David Livingstone's mission) in such disparate places as
Africa, Asia and the Pacific Islands. It was fascinating reading.
 More recently I read Roy Robertson's narrative of his own adventures as a missionary in the second half of the 20th century
in East Asia. Roy was the first Navigators missionary. The photo at left shows him leaving for pre-communist
China in 1948.
Roy's book, Developing a Heart for Missions, is available from NavPress. Besides
telling his personal story -- and it's as inspiring in its own way as any missionary autobiography
I've read -- Roy provides intimate portraits of his personal missionary heroes: Dick Hillis, Daws Trotman, Dave
Morken, Hube Mitchell and Bob Pierce. He calls them "the powerhouse five."
The book isn't perfect. Roy concentrates on his and others' victories through the years; we read
little about what he must have learned from his and his heroes' mistakes or personal failings. But mistakes,
flaws and personal struggles are equally part of good biography too.
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