Devotional

This I observed and learned when I made a pilgrimage to Israel in 1983. If one would visit the palaces and shrines in Israel, the statues surrounding the pools and gardens and great halls are a beautiful sight to behold. The women are figures of perfect beauty that most only fanaticize about, and the men depict a machismo bound to foster a jealous envy. A closer inspection will reveal that the bodies are permanent and the heads removable. This was because rulers changed so frequently that artisans only had time to recreate the new heads. Perhaps even more important, those…

Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, who served on the High Court from 1975 to 2010, enlisted in the Navy several hours before to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He served as a cryptographer, assigned to breaking Japanese codes. The team, of which he was a member, was responsible for decoding the orders that informed American officials the flight plan of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the commander of the Japanese Navy and the architect of the Pearl Harbor aerial assault. Based on this information, Navy pilots, on the orders of President Franklin Roosevelt, shot down Yamamoto’s plane in April 1943.…

Christological Titles – Messiah Painted on the president’s chair at the Constitutional Convention, assembled at the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia, was a brilliantly engraved sun. Though George Washington distinguished the seat by his presence, directing the representatives that would incorporate a new nation, one delegate’s attention was often affixed not on the face of the presiding officer but on the painting adorning his throne. During dull moments of the legislative process, he would contemplate if the sun was rising or setting, for the orange cast lent itself to either persuasion. The discussion on the disposition of the sun ceased…

Christological Titles – Divine Physician Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come not to call the righteous but the sinner to repentance. Luke 5:31-32 I had a very pleasant family physician when I was living in Erie, Pennsylvania. I went to his office one morning to have a small growth removed by electric needle. He came into the examining room, and as was his custom, he sat and conversed for a few minutes. He then got up from his stool and took my blood pressure, checked my temperature, then…

Christological Titles – Resurrection and the Life Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.” John 11:24-27 Presbyterian minister Reverend Benjamin Weir, in his book Hostage Bound, Hostage Free, reveals what it was like to…

Christological Titles – Light of the World Thomas Alva Edison was lying in bed, life quickly ebbing from his body. He wanted to speak, but his voice was inaudible. The attending physician bent low, ear pressed to mouth, and he heard the great inventor say in the quietest whisper, “It is beautiful over there.” And then he died. Edison, a man of science, throughout his adult life only sought that which was true and could be factually verified before ever being reported. It must be asked: would his last comment in his earthly existence be any different? In that moment…

Christological Title – Suffering Servant Thesis “Eighty-six years I have served Christ, and he never did me any wrong. How can I blaspheme my king who saved me?” This is considered one of the most important confessions in the history of Christendom. It was spoken by Polycarp as his last opportunity to recant before being executed as a subservient of the state. Though thousands of Christians met a similar fate and must be duly recognized for their steadfastness, Polycarp, because of his position in the church and his chronological age at the time of his death, has decorously received special…

Christological Titles – Son of Man When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, Matthew 25:31-32 Thesis Seeing what you believe is not always the same as believing what you see, and it took fifty years for that revelation. On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched into space the world’s first satellite. People across the globe stared into…

Christological Titles – Lamb of God Homily Jimmy Carter, in his memoir An Hour Before Daylight, recounted the number of tramps that frequented their home in depression era Plains, Georgia. He admired his mother who never turned one away, always providing food and water for the unexpected guests. Equally admirable, in the eyes of the future president, was that most of these men were polite, honest, and educated who sincerely were on a quest to find gainful employment. Confused by the unusual number of visitors she received, Lillian Carter inquired with the matron of the neighboring farm as to the…

Christological Titles – Good Shepherd Homily Dr. James Dunn, the surgeon of the 109th Pennsylvania Volunteers, returning home after caring for the wounded during the battle of Ceder Mountain, a conflict that was engaged on August 8, 1862, told his wife, Temperance, about the heroism of a woman whom he met for the first time, Clara Barton. Dr. Dunn related how this nurse preformed battlefield surgery using only a pocket knife. He told of the time a bullet passed through the sleeve of her coat as she served water to a stricken soldier. He could not comprehend her stoicism as she…