A RESURRECTION REFLECTION

Posted on March 29, 2024 by Andrew Fuller

Peeps, Bunnies and Eggs. Go through an average Easter section in a store at this time of year and these are what you will see. Okay, so Easter has to do with Spring, was originally a celebration of the Vernal Equinox, and predates the life of Christ. Eggs and little chicks give evidence of new life, and the Easter Bunny came to the American colonies in the eighteenth century from Germany. Migrants brought their tradition of an egg-laying hare known as the Osterhase. But they have all distracted us from the significance of the most important events in history?

The name Easter appears only once in an English translation of the Bible, and then it is a mistranslation. In the King James version of the book of Acts we read that after Herod had the Apostle James killed he arrested Peter and when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people.[i] The early English translators mistakenly took the Greek word pascha which was properly translated elsewhere as Passover and called it Easter.

There are varied theories regarding the origins of the English word. Some say it is derived from Astarte, the Chaldean goddess of heaven. Writing of its emergence into the English language Vine writes The term ‘Easter’ is not of Christian origin. It is another form of Astarte, one of the titles of the Chaldean goddess, the queen of heaven. The festival of Pasch held by Christians in post-apostolic times was a continuation of the Jewish feast . . . From this Pasch the pagan festival of ‘Easter’ was quite distinct and was introduced into the apostate Western religion, as part of the attempt to adapt pagan festivals to Christianity.[ii]

The 8th century Anglo-Saxon monk known as the Venerable Bede considered that Easter came from Eostre the Saxon goddess of fertility, however modern consensus has landed on Eostarum the old high German word for the dawning of the day as the truer origin of the English word.

It should not however surprise us that, regardless of the origin of the word, its multiple associations with pagan practices ensure Easter is celebrated in many different ways around the world. Even though the death and resurrection of Jesus may play a part, many rituals and festivals contain multiple elements that distract from truth.

In Norway, the tradition of Påskekrims or Easter Crime is unique. No other nation celebrates the sacred holiday by obsessing about murders and violence. A visitor would likely see more crime novels in shop windows than chocolate bunnies or Easter story books.

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic in Guatemala, the Antigua Easter festival is the largest in the world. In common with many nations of the Roman Catholic tradition Christian statuary is paraded solemnly through the streets, and in this case across intricate colored patterns in sand and sawdust.

Nonetheless, there are many who celebrate the death and resurrection of our Lord as a reminder of what God in Christ has done for us. Through these profound events He offers forgiveness for our sins and the opportunity for a new life for all who believe in Him.

But more than that, hidden behind all the commercial trappings, and religious ceremony, is found the desire expressed by Paul to the church in Philippi, when he said: For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ … that I may know Him and the power of his resurrection.[iii]

How this broken world needs to know that power in this day and age. Only the resurrection power of Jesus Christ can bring reconciliation to the peoples of Russia and Ukraine, and of Israel and Palestine. Only the power of a new life in Christ can offer real hope to the millions on the refugee trails of the displaced around the world. Only the victory of the Cross and an empty tomb, offers renewal to lives shattered by both the economic mills of the modern world, and the depredations of extreme violence that so frequently cover our media.

How we all need to know His resurrection power in our lives, in our ministries and in our churches. That His Kingdom may come to all!

[i] Acts 12:4 KJV

[ii] W.E.Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words (1985), Pub. Thomas Nelson Inc. Entry for “Easter”

[iii] Phil 3:8,10 ESV

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SHEPHERD OR WISE MAN?

Posted on December 22, 2023 by Andrew Fuller

The nativity scene was old and the paint on the wooden figures was scratched and chipped. All the essential pieces were in place. A Mary in pale blue, a Joseph in a working man’s brown, and a pink and white cherubic face peeking out from a bundle of swaddling cloths laid within a farmyard hay rack.

There were the shepherds, with a few sheep to affirm their calling, and there were some very regal looking characters leading camels into the scene. But why, oh why, does an angelic figure always have to be nailed so artificially above the gabled front of the barn?

A better question to ask though might be, Why are there always three shepherds and three wise men? I am sure it can only be the demands of symmetry, to balance this celebration of the incarnation as they all bow down in worship.

Luke tells us that There were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night[i]. Independently, Matthew recounts that After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem[ii]. The two events are separate, and there is no indication either to their coincidence or of the number participating.

Shepherds were living nearby and the announcement they received told them of events happening that day. The magi, even if living in what today is Northern Iraq, would have had a minimum trek of eight hundred miles to reach Jerusalem. A loaded desert camel can manage around eighty miles a day, so the shortest likely journey time for the magi would have been ten days. They must have seen the star over Bethlehem weeks before the Messiah was born, or they would not have set out in search of the savior.

The two accounts of visitors to the newborn king surely happened at different times, with one on the night of His birth and the other during the brief post partem period when Joseph and Mary continued to reside in Bethlehem. We know of the response of the shepherds, that, having visited the holy family, they returned glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told[iii].  Conversely, the magi brought their worship with them right into the house where Jesus was and, bowing down, presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

The magi were the wise men of a religion foreign to the Jews. They were Zoroastrian, the other great religion of the Middle East that survives from that time until today. They worshipped Ahura Mazda, the Lord of Light, and, as magi, were the astronomers, astrologists, and alchemists of their day. They knew stuff in an age when the majority were uneducated. Not even the schooled among the Jews, while knowing that the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem had understood the event was imminent. As the Son of God was being incarnate in the hometown of David, the greatest King of the Jews, he was also being revealed to the Gentiles. Presumably, those wise men would have returned from whence they came and shared the new wisdom they had received.

However, it was the shepherds who became the first missionaries of the good news the angel had given. These simple men, who maybe had never seen a book or a scroll in their lives, except in a syngagogue, became the first to share an account of Jesus’ birth narrative and the primitive gospel contained therein. They had heard the word: Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is the Messiah, the Lord.[iv] Then, having seen him they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed.[v]

Whatever your nativity looks like, be it scratched and dented, with missing figurines, or be it shiny and polished, radiating a manufactured glory, it is only a shadow of the true nativity. The stable was a smelly place, filled with the sweat and breath of livestock. The shepherds were unwashed from sleeping out on the hillside among the animals and the wisemen were dirty from days of dusty travel. Perhaps the only clean things in the whole diorama would be the gold and the containers of frankincense and myrrh that would have come from the loaded saddlebags. Yet the story contained within is the most glorious story ever told.

And perhaps the message contained within this message is the one prepared for the Apostle Paul to reflect upon when he wrote to the church in Corinth: God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.[vi]

As with shepherds and wisemen and all the others who heard on that day and the days to come, an encounter with the Savior demands a response. Which is ours? Perhaps better though, in the oft repeated words of the nineteenth century poet Christina Rosetti, If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb; If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part; Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart.[vii]

[i] Luke 2: 8

[ii] Matthew 2:1

[iii] Luke 2:20

[iv] Luke 2:11

[v] Luke 2: 17-18

[vi] I Cor 1: 27-28

[vii] In the Bleak Midwinter, by C. Rosetti

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FINDING PEACE ON EARTH – A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE

Posted on December 12, 2023 by Andrew Fuller

This has been adapted from a sermon I delivered on December 10th at a local church here in Richmond, VA.

One of the most loved episodes within the Christmas message is the shepherds’ story. It is beautiful in its simplicity; it is profound in its revelation.

In his gospel Luke records:  And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”[i]

Recently, my wife and I attended the Richmond Christmas Big Band Concert at the Byrd Theater. One of the pieces offered was the classic carol: Hark the Herald Angels Sing. As I was listening to the arrangement I found myself pondering what Charles Wesley, writing the lyrics more than two and a half centuries ago would have thought if he could see his chorus being sung in an art deco cinema theater. More than that, what would the German composer Felix Mendelssohn have thought of his musical arrangement for piano and strings, as it was pounded out on trombone, snare drum and tenor saxophone? Nonetheless the words remain the same: Hark! The herald angels sing, “Glory to the new-born king. Peace on earth and mercy mild. God and sinners reconciled.”

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace.

As we look around our world at the end of 2023 it is hard to see where real peace is to be found. The headlines, which were full of Ukraine at the beginning of the year are now full of the war between Israel and Hamas. I have felt the pain of that particular conflict because I have lived in Israel and traveled through Gaza and the West Bank. Syria, Yemen, the Sudan, Somalia and parts of West Africa are all places that lack earthly peace as the result of militant extremist agendas. And civil war rages in Myanmar and North-Eastern territories of India, with a world largely unaware. The list of conflicts and insurgencies goes on.

So where is the peace that is offered through the Christmas message to be found? Here are three thoughts to provoke a deeper understanding, and hopefully, a deeper experience of that peace.

Firstly, it is a peace that is unknown to the world. The angel said to the shepherds Fear Not! indicating very clearly that it is a peace not tied to our circumstances, but to our emotions. It is peace, not dependent upon what is going on in the world around us, but dependent upon what is going on in our hearts. Jesus reiterated these words from heaven during his own ministry when he said: Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.[ii]  He makes it very clear that this peace is not to be perceived in the way the world around us understands peace, but that it is something intrinsic to the state of our hearts and minds in relation to the world around us.

In 1940 Britain experienced one of its darkest hours. Standing alone in Europe against Nazi aggression the whole nation was afraid of invasion and the unthinkable – defeat. In the war room in London, at the height of the Battle of Britain Prime Minister Churchill asked his Air Marshall, Hugh Dowding, “what more fighter planes do we have to send up?”. “We have none,” came the somber reply. However, Churchill noted in his diary that at that point the large map recording battle movements showed German fighters and bombers turning eastward, though there seemed no obvious reason for this. September 15th was recorded as the culminating night of the battle and after the war Air Marshall Dowding wrote: “At the end of the battle one had the sort of feeling that there had been some special divine intervention to alter some sequence of events which would otherwise have occurred.”[iii]

Two hundred miles to the west, the faculty and students of the Bible College of Wales were praying through the duration of that crisis until they reached a place of peace, knowing that a victory, protecting the nation from invasion had been secured. The college community was disciplined and consistent in prayer for protection over the nation even as aerial bombardment was destroying nearby docks and industry. As they prayed they reached a place of confident knowledge that Britain would be safe, the war would be won, and that the gospel would continue to go out to every nation.[iv]

The journal of Rees Howells, the principal of the college, records daily prayer in remarkable alignment with events recorded in the war room in London. On the eastern side of the nation, the professionals were securing an uneasy lull in the war. Peace had not come, and Britain was still to endure some of the worst of the bombing. But on the opposite side of the nation, a group of devout intercessors found a place of perfect peace in the Lord.

During that same war and enduring the bombing raids of the Luftwaffe my grandmother was living in Peckham, South London. She died before I was born, so I never had the opportunity to meet her, however, one of my most precious possessions is a set of three hand-written volumes comprising her journal. In May of 1941 she wrote a piece entitled: The Security of the Dwelling Place – Peace, Joy and the Hope of Glory.

She described three occasions on which her home on Bellenden Road suffered bomb damage. The last of these took place May 10th, 1941, and was the worst because it blew the street front windows and doors in. She described being unable to open the door into her front living room because the blast had blown her piano across the room. The day following the bombing was a Sunday which she described as follows:

As it was early, I started to clear up the mess before going to church. Only when I went out did I realize the terrible damage and so near. Our house is the least damaged of the whole row of these tall houses and right in the line of fire as it were. People were surprised to see me going along as usual with my bible and flowers as though nothing unusual had happened.

She concluded the writing three weeks later with: Today we are to start having the damage repaired. What a privilege to be living in these days. May we who realize the privilege, thank our father always. It seems strange to some that only by the grace of God have we come to no harm in any way. All this while open to the elements, and the cats especially, but I do praise him for it all, and especially allowing me to stay here where I am able to visit old friends and the hospitals. He knows just how much I should miss the work for Him here if I had to move away.

Real peace from God is not given as the world understands it, but as Paul wrote to the Philippians, reiterating what Jesus had said about fear and anxiety: do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.[v]

A second descriptor of this peace is that it is not universal, but it is on offer to all.

Luke records the angels’ song: on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased. For years I remembered the words of verse fourteen as: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward all men, as recorded in the King James Version, for so long the standard for the English-speaking world. But this is actually a mistranslation. It should read peace among those with whom he is pleased from the English Standard Version or peace to those on whom his favor rests from the New International Version. The Greek reads anthrōpois eudokias (ἀνθρώποις εὐδοκίας) referencing the people on whom his favor rests.

Even in the Christmas Carol, While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night written by Nahum Tate in the year 1700, we see an historical change occur in the lyrics. The sixth stanza as found in a 1917 hymnary reads: All glory be to God on high and to the earth be peace; Good will henceforth from heaven to men begin, and never cease[vi], while a 2021 hymn book records: All glory be to God on high, and to the earth be peace; to those on whom his favor rests goodwill shall never cease.[vii]

If this peace is not for everyone we have no right to automatically expect peace in our relationships, neighborhoods, and nations. But what can we expect? Remember Jesus’ words Ask, and it will be given to you, seek and you shall find.[viii] This peace is for all who diligently seek. It is not just for the Christian; otherwise, how would others be led to Him. It is not just for the devout. We don’t have to attain some special status in Christ to know his peace.

Thirty years ago, I moved to the United States. I know: who on earth would do something crazy like that? I came to set up an office for the Wales-based mission ministry of World Horizons. I said to my colleagues I would invest two years to see what could be done. Thirty years later I am still here in Richmond.

I remember sitting on the plane flying across the Atlantic and reading a novel by Frederick Forsyth entitled The Negotiator. It’s a secular book. I wasn’t particularly focused on spiritual things. I and others had prayed much about my move, but it was not something I was thinking over at that moment in flight. The book is the only book I have ever read that contains references to my hometown of Luton, England, and to Richmond, Virginia, my destination and adopted home. I was profoundly struck by the appearance of those two place names and remember feeling this incredible calm overwhelm me in my seat. I cannot explain it as anything other than the presence and peace of the Lord at a time of dramatic life change.

A friend who ministers to refugees in a city in Europe was recently telling me of an Afghan woman who comes to the outreach center. She has not made a commitment to the Lord even though she has heard the message. However, every time she sees Mike and his wife she tells them that she feels an incredible peace when in the center.

This peace is there for all, and it can serve to lead all into a deeper relationship with Him.

Lastly, this peace is transcendent. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host.

Scripture records a few moments when the doorway between this world and the next opened. I believe one of these is the moment on a hillside near Bethlehem where shepherds were watching over their flocks. Suddenly, there was a multitude of the angelic, visible before them.

From time to time, we need to be reminded that we only live with half of the story. Our vision of all that is, is limited to the earthly and the finite. Yet, God, who dwells in eternity, sees both sides of the veil, all that is within time, and all from within eternity. And the peace he offers extends from eternity into the here and now, and echoes back into eternity.

Another moment when heaven opened is recorded in the Acts of the Apostles when Stephen was speaking before the council of the Jews. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” [ix]

Stephen caught a glimpse of the heaven awaiting him just before he was taken out and stoned to death, becoming the first Christian martyr.

In January 1956 five American missionaries were speared to death on a riverbank in the jungles of Ecuador. News of this event shocked the Christian world. The story of the lives of Jim Elliott, Nate Saint and three others is well told in the books, Through Gates of Splendor, and Jungle Pilot

They had been trying to connect with a remote tribal group called the Waorani so that they could preach the gospel to them. Flying in an amphibious plane they landed in the tribal area and having made initial contact were later murdered.

Subsequently, Elliott’s widow, Elizabeth, who in later life became well known for her devotional writings, and Saint’s sister Rachel, returned to the area and established a gospel work among the community. Nate Saint’s son, Steve, went to live with his aunt and was befriended by Mincaye, who had killed his father before later becoming one of the first followers of Jesus among his people. Their friendship went on to have global impact, especially when Mincaye traveled with Steve to other parts of the world.

Years later, Steve took his family to live among the Waorani as the gospel took hold. He taught them many skills to enable them to interact with the outside world. On one occasion when an American student group was visiting, someone was playing music on a cassette player. Mincaye, and one of the other young Waorani who had come to faith after they murdered the missionaries had never heard music before. They stopped their conversation and listened. They said, this is like what we heard from the people who were here when the men from the big bee (their only way of describing an airplane) were dying.

Steve Saint tells how he and another American endeavored to unpack what they had heard.

What people? What music?

These jungle tribespeople had seen a host of ‘people’ in the treetops above them when they had speared the mission team. These ‘people’ were making a sound that they had never heard before[x]

Shepherds saw heaven open; Stephen saw heaven opened; and a group of primitives in a South American jungle had not realized they had seen heaven opened to welcome men whose faithful lives were passing into eternity.

So, in conclusion, what shall we say of this peace. It is not to be understood as the world understands peace; It is not universal, but it is available for all who truly seek Him; and it is transcendent, extending from eternity into this world, and carrying those from each time-confined era, back into the infinite.

Seven hundred years before Jesus’ birth, the prophet Isaiah says of the Lord: You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.[xi]

And, writing in full knowledge of the life and testimony of our Lord, the Apostle Paul writes to the church in Thessalonika this benediction: Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all. [xii]

[i] Luke 2: 7-14

[ii] John 14:27

[iii] Quoted in: Rees Howells, Intercessor, by Norman Grubb, pub. Lutterworth Press, 1973, p.262

[iv] Elsewhere it was observed that Luftwaffe pilots turned back because they saw many more British fighter planes than were in the school and spoke of a secret force at work in Britain at 9pm every night. 9pm was the time at which the British people had been called to a moment of silent prayer. Hand on the Helm, by Katherine Carter, pub. Whitaker House, 1977, p. 4-5

[v] Philippians 4:6-7

[vi] Methodist Hymns and Tunes, pub. William Briggs, Toronto, 1917

[vii] Christian Worship Hymnal, pub. Northwestern Publishing House, Milwaukee, 2021

[viii] Matthew 7:7

[ix] Acts 7: 55-56

[x] Story narrated in The End of the Spear, by Steve Saint, pub. Tyndale House, 2005, pp.333-338

[xi] Isaiah 26:3

[xii] 2 Thessalonians 3:16

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CHINESE JUNK

Posted on August 30, 2023 by Andrew Fuller

A Chinese Junk is a maritime vessel of great beauty. I looked at a photo from 1880 depicting a fleet at rest in Hong Kong Harbor[i]. Each individual boat is sharply outlined and the ripples in the battened sails seem to shimmer with absent breeze. Even in monochrome to sepia tone, the image proclaims the beauty of the setting. I found another picture, this time a painting of indeterminate origin but presumably painted in the late twentieth century[ii]. The modern skyline of Hong Kong provides the backdrop for another fleet of ships, this time splashed with the artist’s palette. A certain silhouette of a coastal mountain suggests a similar aspect to both pictures, separated only by a century and the media of different artists.

Is it possible that a huge fleet of such ships circumnavigated the globe, exploring the Indian Ocean and the Americas a century before the feats of Columbus and Ferdinand Magellan? Some cartographic historians certainly believe so.[i] Whether or not an expedition of that magnitude took place can remain a matter for conjecture. What is undeniable is that the sight of such a fleet in full sail in the mouth of the Yangtse or crossing the South China Sea, would have been magnificent to behold.

A Chinese Junk is a vessel of great beauty; unfortunately, today, Chinese junk is just that – junk!

Several years ago, I was waiting for my wife in a Walmart. It must have been close to Halloween because I noticed I was standing beside a tub full of long plastic swords, pikestaffs, and tridents, each one brightly colored, priced at $2.99 and bearing a label that stated: Made in China. Looking at them I sadly realized that within a month many would be consigned to the landfill, and only a few would make it into uncertain recycling.

On another occasion I decided to edge the perimeter of my lawn to remove the growth of crab grass hanging over the curbstones. I went to the store and purchased an edging tool, one of those half-moon shaped blades attached to a long handle which you step down upon and rock from side to side to cut the turf. It looked sturdy enough. On my first endeavor I held the handle, stepped on the blade, and promptly snapped steel from wood. Of course, I returned the tool for a refund, noting that it had been made in China.

A third instance of Chinese junk comes to mind as I recall a Christmas when my boys were pre-school. Their grandmother bought them miniature rachet and socket sets and their grandfather set up blocks of lumber with embedded bolts. The boys could use their wrenches to tighten nuts onto the bolts while experimenting with different gauges.

On opening the cases we noted that one of the rachets did not work. It simply turned and turned without any torque. I suggested we should return it to the store and grandma commented that it probably was not worth it as they only cost ten bucks apiece. Once again I noticed that a piece of worthless junk was made in China.

The experiences point to several sad things about our society. Firstly, and most obviously, we have sent our manufacturing overseas. Growing up in England I noticed that my older cousin’s model cars were stamped with Made in Britain on the metal base. Mine bore the impression Made in Hong Kong. I also had the distinct impression that mine were not as finely detailed.

By the time I went to college I was hard pressed to find anything in the store that was made on home territory. Clothing came from South-East Asia, electronics from Taiwan and for some odd reason my wood-working tools were made in Germany. When I bought my first turntable and sound-system I paid over the odds just so that I could patriotically buy British. More than thirty years later the system still works.

Here in the United States, the furniture industry for which Southside Virginia and North Carolina were once famous is long gone, leaving empty, abandoned factories, desolate supply chains and disillusioned communities. All of this happened simply because it was cheaper to abuse labor outside of modern employment law, in places where raw materials were cheap because of similar human exploitation, and then ship the output halfway around the world employing third parties who also were not protected by domestic standards.

That thought brings a second point. We have sacrificed quality for quantity. The less we pay for the same item, manufactured where cheaper labor prevails, the more we have to spend on other “stuff”! Our material consumerism tells us that if an appliance breaks down after a couple of years we can easily replace it – and after all, we didn’t pay so much for it in the first place! I honestly have no idea why my kids needed to have new school lunchboxes every year, other than that those they had used were of such poor quality the zippers broke or the fabric wore through by the time summer break came around.

A third impact of these economic decisions has been the global increase in municipal solid waste, otherwise known as MSW. United States solid waste disposal increased four-fold in the years between 1960 and 2020, a season in which the population barely doubled. Every one of us throws away twice as much as our parents and grandparents did sixty years ago.

I was recently at a birthday party. Increasingly on such occasions I notice the amount of single-use plastic, paper and Styrofoam that ends up in the trash can. It is the same whether it is a picnic, a church or work event, or a visit to a fast-food establishment. Bags and bags of disposables get cleared away, eventually to make their way to the landfill.

Of course, not all of our trash is wasted. Close to thirty per cent gets recycled or reused if it has been sorted properly. Some gets composted while some is cleaned and upcycled. Some gets incinerated for energy production, and the majority is returned to raw material for new production. Of the remainder not all ends up in the ground. Some of it is exported. Yes, we send it to Canada and Mexico. And until 2017 we sent some of it all the way back to China. In that year the People’s Republic banned the importation of overseas waste. Fortunately, we can no longer send our Chinese junk back to China. But until we change our habits it will continue to pile up increasingly closer to our doorsteps.

[i] http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/17/world/a-new-theory-puts-chinese-fleet-ahead-of-columbus.html#:~:text=Theories%20about%20pre%2DColumbian%20contacts,a%20century%20before%20the%20Magellan (accessed 4/27/2023)

[i] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junk_(ship)#/media/File:Guangzhou,_Chinese_Boats_by_Lai_Afong,_cа_1880.jpg (accessed 4/27/2023)

[ii] http://www.1stdibs.com/art/paintings/figurative-paintings/unknown-contemporary-oil-chinese-junk-boats/id-a_10182522/ (accessed 4/27/2023)

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A DREAM OF SIX KICKS

Posted on July 10, 2023 by Andrew Fuller

Warning: This article is about the global game of football – you know … that game in which players actually kick the ball with their feet, rather than the sport known as American football, in which most of the ball action involves the hands. For an explanation of the English football league system see the footnote. For meanings of some English football terms also the relevant footnotes.

It was a game of high drama at London’s Wembley stadium on Saturday 27th May. On arguably the most famous turf in all of football, The Town played out 120 minutes of deadlock against Coventry City.  Penalty kicks beckoned to settle the 2023 Championship Final. The prize was promotion to the Premier League, the richest in global football.

It’s only a game, but six kicks can be the difference between ignominy and immortality. Six against seven in sudden death leads only to depression and disappointment; six against five and the trajectory can only be upward.

I have followed The Town through successes and failures as far back as I can remember. I was there when they were four up against Liverpool inside sixteen minutes, and I remember the Antic goal against Manchester City that kept the team in the highest division in 1983. There was also great joy in 2013 when The Town became the first non-league team to win against Premier League opposition defeating Norwich City ranked eighty-three places above them in an FA cup match.

The sad loss to Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup final was before my time but it was thrilling to tune in on short wave radio from the African wilderness for the last ten minutes of the 1988 League Cup final. The Town beat the mighty Arsenal with the final kick of the match to win the only major trophy of their long history.

Luton is my hometown and Luton Town are my team. The town, located thirty miles north of London, in a gap in the Chiltern hills, is not a fashionable place. It has few claims to fame and apart from its airport is unmemorable. Most recently noteworthy about Luton was its setting as the location for the 2019 movie tribute to the music of Bruce Springsteen, Blinded by the Light.

As with the town, the Luton Town stadium is somewhat nondescript. The Kenny, as the Kenilworth Road ground is affectionately known, is nearly a hundred and twenty years old, and accommodates only ten thousand spectators. Hemmed in by rows of terraced townhouses on three sides, and a major road on the fourth, there is no room for expansion. Renovations have been few and far between. Compared to the likes of Liverpool’s Anfield, Manchester United’s Old Trafford, and West Ham United’s home in the former 2012 Olympic Stadium, Luton Town play in a quaint and antiquated original.

In 1992, The Town could be found among the footballing elite of the old First Division of the Football League. They had managed ten years in the topflight and, along with the other members of that division voted for the creation of the Premier League. Unfortunately, their relegation to the second division at the end of that season meant they never benefited from their vote, nor the associated financial rewards from lucrative new television screening deals.

That relegation was the beginning of several. The concept is unknown to the American where a principle of once a football team, rooted in the NFL, always a football team, prevails. That is, of course, until another city offers a bright new stadium and the team ups and leaves town, moving halfway across the nation.

By 2009 the club, beset by financial problems and sorely lacking a cohesive and consistent team, had dropped out of the Football League, into the National League, the fifth tier of English football, where they languished for five years. Something of a renaissance began in 2014 when they returned to the League following a runaway season amassing 101 points, nineteen ahead of their nearest rivals.

Subsequent successive promotions brought them to the brink of the Premiership during the 2021-2022 season. First and second rankings in the second tier of the League award automatic promotion. Clubs placing third through sixth qualify for a knockout playoff. That season Luton reached the playoffs but lost out on promotion. During the most recent season, and following a fourteen-match unbeaten streak, The Town finished third and qualified for the playoffs once again. They won their first match and so qualified for the playoff final in front of 87,000 spectators at Wembley.

On a mild May evening Luton played one of the greatest games in their history. A sea of orange clad supporters had traveled the short distance down the motorway to face the sky-blue opposition across the stands, while eleven of each strip[i] lined up across the pitch[ii] for the action to unfold.

In the eighth minute The Town captain collapsed on the field with an atrial fibrillation and the match was paused for ten minutes while he was stretchered away. Three times Luton had the ball in the back of the net only to see each score disallowed for an infraction. Ninety minutes ended with one goal apiece; thirty minutes of extra time only prolonged the stalemate. As in the drawn[iii] home and away regular season games it had proved impossible to separate the teams. Penalty kicks beckoned as the only way to end the deadlock.

Each team was given five chances to score a spot-kick against the opposition goalkeeper. Rarely do all ten kicks prove successful. The stalemate continued, as one by one and alternating between teams, the best five from each came to the spot and slotted their kicks passed the keeper and into the net. Sudden death followed, with victory and defeat decided in a moment.

The Town captain, the third to wear the armband on the day, with the hospitalized captain’s replacement having been substituted late in extra time, stepped into the box. In front of thousands of screaming fans, he calmly shot past the keeper. At that moment, watching from the comfort of my armchair thousands of miles away, I was sure that I knew what would happen. The sixth Coventry kicker would miss!

The night before I had a very vivid dream. I saw Mick Harford, one of the star players of the Luton team of the 1980s, occasional interim team manager and current chief recruitment officer, dressed sharply in suit and tie standing with two unidentified players in the Luton strip. Above them, a clear sign with the words: “Six Penalty Kicks”. Why the vision? I have no idea… but it had to be a sign.

The sixth Coventry kicker’s ball went ballooning up above the goal into the crowd. He held his head in shame. The Luton players ran the field in jubilation while their opponents slumped in disappointment. For the first time in the history of English football, a team had gone from the heights of the first division, all the way down and out of the league, only to return to the topflight. For the first time one player, Pelly Ruddock, had played for the same team all the way from non-league into the Premiership. Records were broken that May afternoon in North London, and a team that plays its home games on an ancient football field, amidst the most unglamorous of facilities will host the likes of Manchester City, Liverpool, and Arsenal next season.

It may only be a game, but English football is the greatest game, and six kicks were all it took for the greatest comeback ever on May 27th, 2023.

[i] English Strip – US Uniform

[ii] English Pitch – US Field

[iii] English Drawn – US Tied

The English Football League System – A brief explanation for the American reader.

The system for organizing professional English soccer teams originates in the late 19th century and exists among many things, to enable successful clubs to be promoted to a higher tier and play against tougher opposition while under-performing teams can be relegated to a lower grouping. There are nine recognized divisions to the system below which regional divisions exist. It is this system that offers the possibility to the most obscure of clubs, often playing at the smallest of club facilities, the opportunity to play one day against the greatest of teams.

The top division is known as the Premier League. It is the well-known teams like Manchesters United and City, and Liverpool, all from North-Western England, and London clubs such as The Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur, who play in this division. Below the Premiership the next three tiers complete the Football League. With twenty teams in the topflight, and twenty-four in each of the lower divisions, the ninety-two teams of the League compete against each other in an annual knock-out tournament called the League Cup. It was this trophy which Luton Town won in 1988.

The League and the lower divisional system are collectively named the Football Association, or FA. All the teams across this association compete annually in the FA Cup, another knock-out tournament which, as it captures the imaginations of the British sporting public, is most akin to the American Superbowl. The 2023 final was recently won by Manchester City, playing against their local rivals, Manchester United. That victory, along with their retention of the Premiership title and their victory in the European Champions Tournament against Inter Milan of Italy, gave Manchester City an historic treble title season and makes them arguably the best team in Europe.

An interesting sidenote to the story of the English Football League is that Welsh teams participate. Notably, Cardiff and Swansea both play in the second tier, although to Americans Wrexham City, in the fourth tier may be most well-known being owned by Hollywood actors, Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenny.

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REMEMBERING GEORGE

Posted on May 18, 2023 by Andrew Fuller

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THE UNIQUENESS OF OUR SWEET LORD

Posted on February 18, 2023 by Andrew Fuller

I’ve had much involvement in the nation of Turkey over the years. I have many friends there, both Turkish and ex-patriate. This piece was written over a week as I learned more of what was happening following the two earthquakes of February 6th. I’ve also been involved with a fund-raising initiative that has so far raised over $60,000 to assist the Turkish church in its work of bringing relief to those made homeless.

“Allahim nerdesin? Allahim nerdesin?” “God! where are you?” rise the cries on the voices of the lost. An ancient oft-asked question on the anguished voices of a multitude. Disaster strikes again. The earth shakes and a new wave of tragedy compounds the suffering of an area already burdened by the weight of conflict. Human displacement is overwhelmed by tectonic shift and the masses slide sideways in confusion. Buildings collapse like a row of dominoes, one upon another as clouds of dust arise. Richter’s scale records the magnitude; the arrogant ricture of earth gapes and gulps.

This is the city where modern Tűrkiye meets the Arab World – Syrian Antioch. Antakya, where the followers of Jesus were first called Christian. Elders, from the nations, sent out the first missionaries as they commissioned Barnabas and Paul. The church grew and changed and over many centuries faithfully testified. The church faced the challenge of Islam, of the Turkic migration, and of the Ottoman empire. The church remained, a testimony to the rock upon which Christ built. Today the 19th century Protestant sanctuary lies in ruins. The Catholic and the Orthodox churches have crumbled. Buildings, block on block, could not survive the shaking of the earth.

Across Eastern Tűrkiye and Northern Syria, the homeless look back in dismay at their broken buildings. They cry out, not knowing they repeat the lament of the Psalmist: “How long, Oh Lord? Will you forget me forever?” In the Mediterranean port of Iskenderun Pastor Hakan preached on the resurrection of the dead. He did not know that he and his wife would not survive the events of the following day. In Elbistan lived Hassan and Gűler, newly baptized believers. Hassan and a son survived; Gűler and their other son are gone.

Indeed “How long, Oh Lord?” and then a shout is heard. “Be quiet!”, and in the silence a frail cry. A shiver of hope where the fissure has claimed the life of a mother. The searching crowd pause in expectation and a baby is brought forth from a ruinous earthen womb, passed from arms to arms to the waiting embrace of a thermal blanket, then whisked away to the field hospital. Another orphaned infant, rescued from the debris; another whose name and identity have been stolen by the tragedy. Who knows whose family lineage this one belonged to!

Our friends are safe in the city of Gaziantep, but they cannot return to their home. My friend who sought refuge in Switzerland three years ago, is distraught at the knowledge of what is happening to his homeland and feels powerless to help. He worked in government service before his so-called crimes made him a state pariah. He knows well how the enduring Erdoğan administration has successively granted amnesty to the construction companies in return for under-the-table favors.

While chapels lie in ruins, the church is mobilized across the nation. Brick and mortar have failed but faith has not crumbled. Vans and utility vehicle have taken teams from the west to connect with believers in the afflicted cities. Equipped with tents, heaters, stoves and fuel they are establishing mobile soup kitchens. Under the banner of AFAD, the Turkish equivalent to the United States’ Federal Emergency Management Agency, the community of Jesus’ followers is legitimized by this Muslim nation. A pastor from Istanbul has gone to Malatya; another pastor and his American colleague from Cannakkale have traveled East; and another team member has gone to Hatay to serve as translator for a search and rescue team. All over the nation the church is mobilizing staff and volunteers to serve. In Jesus’ name the hungry are fed, the homeless are sheltered and where clothing is needed arms reach out to wrap the cold and naked.

The God of Islam is remote and impersonal; the gods of the Hindus are confusing and incoherent; and the God of the Jews ponders why His people rejected His Son. The idols of the modern materialist are no more alive and listening than those of tribal antiquity. But here comes the Messiah, walking among His people. Emmanuel here with us again, his nailed feet broken on sharp metal and bleeding from shards of glass, his scarred hands torn by the rubble of a thousand fallen buildings. Our God walks among us where His people first followed him, to connect, to comfort, and to confirm that He is here.

In the words of Turkish Christian publisher Gokhan Talas, “From this side of eternity, nothing is clear. But our sweet Lord is suffering with us.”[i]

[i] Christianity Today – February 10th, 2023 – https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2023/february/earthquake-turkey-syria-christians-churches-prayer-relief.html (accessed 2/12/2023)

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AS OLD AS THE FIELDS

Posted on June 2, 2022 by Andrew Fuller

Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.”

The American nation has been examining its soul. It has taken time to focus inward upon systemic injustices that divide and sometimes conquer people. For many of its people it has been a painful experience. For some it has prompted moments of revelation, for others it has provoked resistance.

Sloping away from a global pandemic we are all subject to low-level trauma. We never believed the last two years could have happened. Out of that trauma should we expect the world to behave a little less rationally? A shooting in a grocery store kills ten and is conducted by someone who wants to eliminate people who are different from him. The event is just one sharp tip of a massive iceberg that, hidden beneath an ocean of civility, absorbs the private thoughts of the masses.

What happened in Buffalo on May 14th, is nothing new. It is not justified by a pandemic nor by recent racial introspection. It is as ancient as the first sinful act of aggression. It is another event in the Eden-old narrative of man’s inability to live with either himself or others.

In the garden Adam and Eve demonstrated they were not content to live solely in God’s presence. Out in a field Abel’s death at the hand of Cain was not merely the result of anger as a younger brother usurped the favor of the Lord, rather it was the first manifestation of man’s unwillingness to live with his fellow man. Difference breeds contempt in a sinful heart. A lack of deference nurtures persecution. In gardens and in fields; in homes and in grocery stores; and on the battle front and in the halls of power, the hearts of men and women reveal their true nature. In a world where wise mentors encourage the protégé to ‘just follow your heart’ a wiser word declares: The heart is deceitful above all things!

Beyond the garden and the field came the tower; man’s vain endeavor to reach the heavens in an act of self-aggrandizement as he ran from fear of an unknown wider world. Then came the dispersal as confusion ruled communication and suspicion of the other became endemic.

Today we are living in the age of the paranoid and egocentric authoritarian. Controlling nations of the dispersed the dictator derogates diversity and enforces conformity to a religious, political or cultural norm. Suspicion of the other invalidates the uniqueness of the individual created after God’s image.

A nation far to the east incarcerates a minority community in the name of deradicalization and reeducation. In reality its leadership is afraid of a people exerting their religious and ethnic identity raising the specter of separatism. To the south another insecure totalitarian holds his people in economic misery delegitimizing opposition and mortgaging territory to bluff his way through sham constitutional processes.

In one of the great travesties of our time the successor to the Tsars has manipulated his way to enduring power through the elimination of all opposition and the suppression of objective truth. He distracts his people from economic failure by embarking on a special operation to rid a neighbor of extremists and invokes the name of God in defense of traditional values. In the process whole cities, full of gardens, homes and grocery stores are destroyed. Thousands die and are laid to rest in muddied fields.

For those who survive the purge, wherever it takes place, refuge in strange lands is the prize. That is why a Ukrainian pastor and his family arrive in Richmond, fleeing a war, finding a welcome, but not without frequent worry. That is why the former Afghan finance minister, fleeing the threats of theocratic madmen who violently enforce the will of the minority, now finds himself driving for a rideshare service in Washington only streets from an embassy to which he was once an official visitor. It is also why my Afghan friend Salim is working a custodial job at the University of Richmond rather than running an insurance company office in Kabul and why my Turkish friend Ihsan, a former civil servant in his homeland, is building a new life in the strange surroundings of the Swiss Alps.

The rule of the absolute is not the way of Jesus. His journey took him through the fields, to people’s homes, and whatever served as grocery stores in his day. It ended in a garden where he healed the wound rather than watch his friends discriminate against his persecutors. He had commanded love for enemies, love for neighbor as for self, and love as he had loved, for one another. The life that loved gave itself up with the words: Father, forgive!

I deliberately kept the names of nations out of this piece, except where they relate to nationalities, because I wanted the focus to remain on the issues at the hearts of peoples and nations. However, for those who don’t follow global news as keenly as I do, the nation to the east is China and its treatment of its minorities, and the one to the south is Venezuela. I don’t think the third nation needs naming since it is all over the current news. I also gave pseudonyms to my refugee friends.

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THE FLESH BECAME WORDS

Posted on December 20, 2021 by Andrew Fuller

– A Christmas Reflection –

A childhood memory has me sitting on the kitchen stool, just home from school, while my mother stood at the sink peeling potatoes for supper. I am talking at full speed recounting the events of my day, not heeding repetition, and probably not making much sense. My mother would pause, look in my direction and say: “Now Andrew, slow down and don’t waste your words!”

While shy and quiet in the classroom I must have been garrulous once at home as I remember this phrase being repeated on many occasions. Sometimes my cheeky response would run something like this: “Mum, how can I waste my words? Do I have only a limited supply of them? Is it possible that I could tell you the teacher gave us a project for (the) weekend, and at that point I run out of (the)  word “(the)” never to repeat it again? Could it be that there is a limited supply of (the)  word “(the)” and once they have been used up (the)  word is never to be heard from my lips again?”

As I began to study French maybe I could have come home to substitute French translations for that same word, and so, in telling my mother of my day I could tell her that: “Le teacher had asked us to leave le classroom quietly and enjoy le weekend”. But that would leave unaddressed questions about gender and language. Should it be le or la? Is “classroom” masculine or feminine? Who cares?

From our first breath we begin to use our mouths to communicate. As we learn to speak, we subconsciously discover that tongue and lips and throat are used to control sounds that produce responses in our hearers. No matter which language, our use of vowels, consonants and glides constitutes speech.  Whether we aspirate, lisp, or growl; whether our voice sounds sweet or hoarse; whether we use glottal stops or nasals, fricatives, affricates, or diphthongs, it is our flesh that forms speech. Flesh of tongue and lips, with flesh of alveolar ridge and velum combine to form our words as air is expelled. For other languages, such as French and German, Uvula and Pharynx come into use as different sounds form shapes of foreign words.

Once words are formed, they carry meaning. They can tell stories, they teach and instruct, they can encourage and speak life, they honor, commend, congratulate, praise and worship; but then they can also tear someone down, curse someone out, tell lies, deceive, and negate truth. They gossip, upbraid, accuse, defame, and slander. Flesh, worded out, can build up .. or destroy.

Our flesh truly wastes our words when we gabble on, when we don’t listen reflectively, or when our speech denies another an opportunity to speak. Aesop told us that: after all is said & done, much more is said than ever done, while Simon & Garfunkel reminded us that man hears what he wants to hear & disregards everything else[i]. So many words wasted. Jesus tells us that out of abundance of heart, mouth speaks[ii]. What is inside, comes out… & in this world of instant connectivity today’s words travel far further, more quickly.

Two thousand years ago our world was turned upside down. Flesh had formed words for centuries as men & women of old spoke their thoughts, feelings & emotions; as they laughed, loved, taught, fought, groveled & reveled. Now, Word, creative power of God, was made incarnate to live among men & women. That Word, which was when all began, which was with God, & was God; that Word through which all things were made, without which nothing was made that has been made; that Word through which all that is flesh & all that is not flesh came to have being in this world; to breathe, to labor, to live, to love … friends, neighbors & enemies; to take all punishment for all evil acts of all flesh upon His own flesh; to die, brutally, horribly, cruelly; to rise to resurrected life, conquering death, conquering destructive power of flesh; to rise, to ascend, to live forevermore; to offer that life to us. That Word came!

As Christmas brings another year to its close, we may reflect on one of greater challenges than before; of anxiety, heartache, grief, & fear, brought on by pandemic, economic challenge, observations of suffering among others, & low-grade trauma that has affected us all. Surely, though, we are entitled to moments of levity as our flesh makes words, so here goes:

I used to think that sticks & stones could break my bones, but words could never hurt me – & then I fell into my friend’s printing press!

How can you tell your alphabet spaghetti was manufactured in Eastern Europe? Those naughty little consonants all clump together! (It looks far funnier in Polish – Po czym poznać, że spaghetti z alfabetem zostało wyprodukowane w Europie Wschodniej?)

Oh, & my friend just told me that if I did not get off my computer, he would slam my head down onto its keyboard. I think he’s only joki_tgyjkhgtfrdtryuy;lxs’sfn

& with discernment you will have noticed that after my conversation with my mother I’ve not been able to use definite & indefinite articles. My supply has run out. Readers may also note that after paragraph six my computer had exhausted supplies of one particular conjunction replacing it with ampersands.

So for thousands of years flesh has been making words but after all is said & much left undone it is good to be reminded that Ο λόγος έγινε σάρκα και κατοίκησε ανάμεσά μας (O lógos égine sárka kai katoíkise anámesá mas)…… Oh! Great news! My supply of English words has been miraculously replenished. I can now say: THE Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, THE glory of THE one and only Son, who came from THE Father, full of grace and truth.[iii]

And the Word of the Lord endures forever!

Merry Christmas

[i] A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest – Lyric from The Boxer – Simon & Garfunkel, Columbia Records, 1969

[ii] Matthew 12:34

[iii] John 1:14

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ANCHORS FOR THE SOUL

Posted on May 19, 2021 by Andrew Fuller

I have been thinking about the way we teach a Biblical basis of Christian mission starting with God’s call and promise to Abraham in Genesis 12. I think we do ourselves a disservice when we don’t root Genesis 12 in the chapters that precede it. Here I endeavor to introduce this topic. I hope to follow it up with some more articles covering specific aspects of the Genesis narrative.

*********************

Sunlight streamed through the open windows of the study center, and the shadows from fluttering spring leaves dappled the room. The air flooding in was warm in the cool morning of the classroom-cum-library. A gathering of occasional students sat with Bibles open, and pens held to notepads as they listened to the lecture.

Some were obviously attentive; others, with eyes glazed over, seemed to drift as a slight breeze ebbed and flowed. Of the nine participants in the class only four were official students. The others were all volunteers in one capacity or another. Jake, the Messianic Jew from Philadelphia, was attentive as ever, round thick-rimmed glasses perched on the end of his nose as he read the Genesis passage. James, the son of a vicar from the north of England, was a recent Theology graduate of Corpus Christi in Cambridge. He was now taking a year before training for ordination.  Lindsay, traveling the globe together with her southern accent was from Alabama. Gabi was from Mannheim, Germany, and clearly the most bored attendee; though whether that was because of the subject or her struggles with reading Scripture in the English language remained unclear. And then there was me, taking time out to volunteer on a construction crew renovating the old hotel in an ancient city on the shore of the Mediterranean; a building that was slowly being transformed into a Christian community center.

This class was my introduction to the Biblical basis of Christian mission. The teacher was a parish priest from Northern Ireland who, together with his wife, had volunteered a year to lead this diverse community of young people. We loved them. They were warm and generous of spirit. They hosted frequent suppers for us, kept an open door, and while not always able to answer questions with facts, were quick with responses full of wisdom.

The student body, having completed an overview of Luke’s gospel were now embarked on a mission class beginning with God’s call to Abraham recorded in Genesis chapter 12:1-3:

The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

This was the 1980s, and my own missionary calling was being informed by the call to a man whose name would change from the exalted father Abram to Abraham, the great father of a multitude. Here I was in Jaffa, a port from where Jonah had taken ship fleeing his mission, and where centuries later Peter, had a vision that sharpened his call. Where one man rebelled against God and another was given direction, I was now being shaped.

Traveling forward through thirty years of adventures in a multitude of mission roles I revisit a moment late in the second decade of the twenty-first century. I’ve noted that Genesis chapter twelve begins with the words: The Lord ‘had’ said to Abram, and not simply: The Lord said to Abram. If the Lord said it, then surely the moment was there in the passage, but if the Lord had said it, then the moment was sometime in the past. The only way we can get to the past from Genesis chapter 12, is to turn back the page and read: Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there.

The cities of Ur and Haran were located along the fertile valley of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the first recognizable rivers to be mentioned in the Bible, for they are referred to in the second chapter of Genesis as headwaters of the river that watered Eden. This region is known as Mesopotamia, literally between the rivers.  According to those who have studied the ancient Sumerian culture of the Middle East, life was a series of cycles. The cycle of the moon, born to wax and wane and die; the cycle of the harvest from sowing through to reaping; the cycle of the flow of rivers from flood to ebbing through the dry season; and the cycle of human life, being born, growing, reproducing, and dying, governed every aspect of life.

Into this world a voice speaks, and at its command a man called Abram embarks on what has been called The Unaccountable Innovation[i]. Out of an endless cycle a journey begins. It is a journey with direction and purpose. It is as though a slingshot, whirling at a steady pace is broken by a tangential departure toward a distant target.

We can choose to view the endless cycle as a cultural origin, or we can look back beyond the last verses of Genesis chapter 11 and rediscover the foundations upon which Abram’s society was grounded, and with them, the first principles that have always been there in God’s Word, and without which, as the tedious genealogy of the chapter tells us, Abram would not have been born.

We can regard the beginning of Abram’s journey as a random embarkation from a collective to a personal narrative. Or we can look at the scattering of peoples resulting from the Tower of Babel and say that out of a shattering moment for early civilization came a call to momentous purpose for one man.

As the world of the missionary has sometimes neglected the story before the call to Abram the modern church has sometimes followed the way of the world and consigned those early chapters of Genesis to the world of myth and fantasy. We do so at our peril, and we see the fruit of that ignorance in our broken society. We do so at ever greater risk, for they are anchors for our souls.

I have heard many objections to stories contained in the first eleven chapters of Genesis. Commentators have taken issue with the literality of a six-day creation; they have dismissed genealogies that ascribe hundreds of years to one man; they dismiss the possibility of a cataclysmic flood with no thought to narratives that contain an inundation in the folklore of many peoples other than those of the Bible. How often do we stop and ask not what is contained on these pages, but why is the narrative there and what is the reason for these specific stories reaching us?

Eleven chapters tell us about creation, fall, rebellion, salvation, renewed rebellion and then dispersal. But they also lay foundations for understanding a triune God, His redemptive purpose, the uniqueness of mankind, human sexuality, the purpose of work, creation care, the depravity of sin, and the relevance of geo-politics. These eleven chapters, 299 verses, and 1,946 Bible years until the birth of the man who embarks on the incredible journey are the foundation for the rest of scripture and the rest of the human story. They are the crucible in which are cast the anchors for our souls.

[i] The Gifts of the Jews, Thomas Cahill, Anchor Books, 1998, p.50

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