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Donald Duck is 70 years old. (Foster Letter 6/10/04)
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"And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me."
Barak Obama
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/hisownwords
SUPPORT YOUR LEADERSHIP
Doing what is right means that we give our leaders support. This does not mean we have to agree with them all the time. In our governmental structure, it also does not mean that we should not criticize their decisions if they are bad ones. We are allowed that freedom.
However, I see submitting for us today to involve giving support to our leaders. Recognizing that they have tough jobs especially right now. Even if we criticize them, we can acknowledge their efforts to serve their country. Senator McCain showed an incredible amount of support (which revealed his character) during his concession speech. When people started booing that Obama had won, he shut them down and said that response was completely inappropriate.
OBAMA IS NOT THE MESSIAH
President Barack Obama arrived at Stansted airport last week from America, complete with armoured limousines, helicopters, 200 US Secret Service staff and a six-doctor medical team. More than 500 officials and staff accompanied Obama, along with a mass of high-tech security equipment, including the $300,000 Presidential limousine, known as ’The Beast’ which is fitted with night-vision cameras, reinforced steel plating, tear gas cannons and oxygen tanks. In addition, a team from the White House kitchen travelled with the President, amid huge razzmatazz. His presidential jet, Air Force One, a Boeing 747-200B is fitted with its own gym, electronic defence units and shielding to protect its complete communication devices from nuclear radiation. A BBC reporter described him as, "The man in whom so many people have invested their hopes and dreams at this difficult time in w...
FAREWELL, PRESIDENT
An on-line friend directed my attention this week by to a recently published note by one of our nation’s most distinguished church historians, Dr. Martin Marty on the eve of President Obama’s inauguration. It was titled, "Farewell, President" and in it he quoted the late columnist Mike Royko who said after the departure of Lyndon Johnson, "Farewell, President Johnson. You weren’t the best president a people ever had, but we were not the best people a president ever had."
HELL'S BAD RAP
Hell has gotten a bad rap these days. Dante wrote about its amusement park, but that’s fallen into disrepair. It's no longer on the list of any popular tourist destinations. No TV sitcom is set there. It does appear in one "reality show", and the food's pretty good, but the chef is something of a potty-mouth. In times medieval it showed up in quite a few paintings, but now it has hit hard times. It's either banished altogether, or at best ignored in polite company. In fact, there's only one time in modern society that it’s proper to mention it at all. Here's an example:
Do you believe in eternal punishment in a burning lake of fire?
Hell, no!
Fortunately for us our modern culture has forbidden God from sending anybody there except perhaps Hitler, Stalin, and either Barak Obama or George Bush, depending upon your party affiliation.
SIT SO HE CAN WALK, SO THEY CAN RUN
I wonder who amongst us this morning feels insignificant. On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a 42-year-old African American woman who worked as a seamstress, boarded a Montgomery City bus to go home from work. On that bus on that day, Rosa Parks initiated a new era in the American quest for freedom and equality. She sat near the middle of the bus, just behind the 10 seats reserved for whites. Soon all of the seats in the bus were filled. When a white man entered the bus, the driver (following the standard practice of segregation) insisted that all four blacks sitting just behind the white section give up their seats so that the man could sit there. Mrs. Parks quietly refused to give up her seat. Her action was spontaneous and not pre-meditated, although her previous civil rights involvement and strong sense of justice were obvious influences. She was arrested and convicted of violating the laws of segregation. Rosa Parks appealed her conviction and thus formally challenged the legality of segregation.
When Barack Obama was elected President some people wore T-shirts saying "Rosa sat so that King could walk so that Obama could run." Rosa Parks – a black African American woman- sat on a bus, so that Martin Luther King could walk in protest marches, so that Barack Obama could run for President.
SPRINGING INTO ACTION
On the day President Obama was inaugurated, Eliot Swainson happened to be in Washington, D.C. The city authorities had expected record numbers of people to attend the inauguration, so they asked for assistance from other cities to help with crowd control. Metro Officer Swainson from Houston, Texas was one of those who answered the call. He was deputized and assigned to help at the D.C. metro station near the National Mall.
And that’s where he was on the morning of January 20th when he heard shouts from the crowd that someone was on the subway track. Swainson looked and saw a woman, who had obviously fallen onto the track and was trying desperately to get back up on the platform. One of the subway trains was rapidly approaching.
Swainson sprang into action. Running to the woman, he first tried to pull her up onto the platform, but the train was coming too quickly. So, he pushed her to the ground and tucked her into a space under the platform just as the train arrived and passed harmlessly beside her.
This lady needed a savior. When everything seemed lost and all hope was gone and disaster was imminent, she needed someone to be on her side. And that’s what Eliot Swainson was. He became her hero—-the o...
A SPECIAL VISITOR
This past Tuesday, it was difficult to drive in and out of our church parking lot because of a barrage of traffic down Webster Street. Where did this traffic come from? Downtown was blocked off because President Obama and Vice-President Biden were speaking at a closed meeting a few blocks away from the church. City, county, state, FBI, and secret service agents were among the security team hopping to their tasks.
But 2,000 years ago, someone special came to visit our planet, and his security team consisted of angels, his mother and step dad, and a few nearby shepherds. Who was this most special of guests, and what was his purpose in visiting we mortal humans? That is the very question John addresses in chapter one of his Gospel.
LET THE DEAD BURY THEIR DEAD
To one person who wanted to bury his father before following Jesus, Jesus said, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God." (Lk. 9:60)
Doesn’t that sound harsh? Someone’s father just died, and the man can’t even go back to bury his father? Doesn’t sound very compassionate.
But you know what? When there is a Super Bowl game coming up that week, if a player or coach’s parents died, they will probably not go home either to bury their parents, until after the game is over.
In fact, we read about that all the time. The players would say, "My father or my mother would want me to play the game, and then go back home." So, they stay until the game is over.
Even President Obama, when his grandmother died just two days before the election, he did not return home to HI immediately, but waited until after the election was over.
Why? There are some things - just a few things - that are so important and timely, that we really have to put everything else on hold until we take care of that one thing. There are times when that one thing even takes priority over our beloved family members.
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