OUR CHANGING WORLD

 

There is high drama taking place just outside our kitchen window. Ouida watched as a cardinal built her nest in a bush but a few feet from where she works. There are now seven eggs in the little nest, which she faith-fully tends. Ouida notices that the male cardinal, with his bright red plumage, doesn’t come near the nest, and she wonders if he instinctively knows that his presence might reveal its location to predators. The mother bird, with its drab red feathers, is beautifully camouflaged. Even so she approaches the nest warily and indirectly. Ouida notices that the male will call from a nearby tree and the two will meet and flyaway for breakfast, but not for long. Ouida can hardly wait for the little ones to break out of their shells, and she wonders how there will be room for all of them. In the meantime she stands guard, scaring away the neighbor’s cat when it ventures too close. But there’s a problem. The nest is near our air-conditioning unit, and Ouida fears it would frighten the mother if we turned it on. I have checked with a friend who is an ornithologist, and he has assured me that the noise will not disturb her, that city birds are used to noises. But Ouida had rather that we endure the heat than to take a chance. Wars have been fought before over less things than a bird’s nest!

This month Mother Pitts turns 95 and Ouida begins her tenth year in caring for her. While she is usually rational and knows who we are, she is incredibly weak and frail, hardly able to take steps even with help. Ouida marvels that she can be so weak and yet so free of any pain or illness. She takes no medicine or pills, but Ouida has a problem trying to feed her, even with a syringe. Ouida still has a day out once a week while I care for her mother. She shops and meets with “the girls” for what is supposed to be Bible study, but they mainly enjoy being with each other and swapping stories. They also get prayer requests, which figures, considering the unique quality of the group.

I saw a touching thing recently when I visited the Central Christian Church in Kansas City, KS, now an inner-city church, while attending a planning session of the World Convention of Churches of Christ. A small choir rendered special music, mostly old people in an ageing church. One of them was an aged blind man who sang heartily unto the Lord as his fingers moved over the braille notes he had prepared. In spite of age and darkness he sang as if he saw heaven open up before him. A man sitting near me, also a visitor, was so touched that he wept.

John Wright reports in the bulletin of the Burke Road Church of Christ in Houston that several of their members took part in daily gatherings during Holy Week at the First Methodist Church. People from 20 different congregations took part. Five preachers from as many denominations addressed those that gathered. Not one of them spoke with a sectarian agenda. Each one pointed to the Cross. The experience led John to write of “that Truth” that unites us as far greater than all the various “truths” that divide us, regardless of how important they may be. He could have added that when we have such experiences even the lesser truths do not have to compromised. There is reason for hope that one day such experiences will be widespread among Churches of Christ. Our people would go for it!

The Assemblies of God have not always had a good press. They were at first known as “Holy Rollers,” a pejorative term applied to all Pentecostals. In more recent years they have become known by their less-than-exemplary tele-evangelists, Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart, both of whom lost their credentials with the church. What is not generally known is that the Assemblies have been growing by leaps and bounds, especially abroad, while many other churches are stagnating. They have 16 million members abroad, especially in Latin America. They now have two million in the U.S., which is a fourfold growth in the last twenty years.

The United Presbyterians are in the throes of controversy over the report of their committee for the study of human sexuality, which recommends that all sexuality based on “justice-love” be honored as having ethical integrity. This includes single as well as married persons, and gay, lesbian, and bisexual persons as well as heterosexual persons. The moral norm, the report says, should be justice-love, not marriage. It specifically states that homosexual love, no less and no more than heterosexual love, is right and good. The Presbyterian For Renewal, who have their own publication, as well as many others in the church, are horrified and shocked that Presbyterians could issue such a report, and charge the committee of ignoring the Scriptures. The church’s General Assembly, which meets this summer, is expected to reject the report by a huge majority. But the issue is not expected to go away and may either divide the church or cause many to leave. Christians generally are more open to a call to love and accept homosexuals, but to ask them to approve of their “alternate life-style” as God-ordained is too much.

I am to be with the Elm Street Christian Church (727 E. Elm) in Olney, Illinois for the weekend of May 24-26, including a Saturday a.m. session. The subject will be the hope of the believer. We have many readers in that part of the country, and it would be a blessing to see some of you. Call Jerry Black at 618-393-29033 (office) or 618-392-3901 (home) for details.