A tale of Two Messages
Last Sunday (for me as I write this), I heard two messages by two elders (Patrick was on vacation) that impressed me in different ways.
The first was the communion message by elder Ricardo. Near the beginning of his message (which I happened to hear in both first and second services), he asked the congregation if anyone liked getting presents. I, and a few others, raised my hand. Most people, didn’t.
I’m not sure why most people didn’t raise their hands and contextually from his message, I’m sure he assumed everyone would raise their hand. Regardless, he went on with his message.
“And many brought gifts to the Lord to Jerusalem and precious things to Hezekiah king of Judah, so that he was exalted in the sight of all nations from that time onward.” - 2 Chronicles 32:23 ESV
In his second service message, he asked the congregation the same question and got the same meager response. Now I was sure, after not getting what I felt was his desired response, he would have added something like “really, be honest,” to try to get a higher response. But he didn’t and went on with his message.
In the sermon, elder Don started with a humorous anecdote and in describing how bad things are in the world and even brought up an example of the Olympic opening ceremony that had happen just a day or two before. I started to squirm a little, not because I don’t think the world is in bad shape, but because I’m not sure it’s that much worse than it was in the past. I believe as people age, one of the common graces God gives everyone is the ability to remember the good things more than the bad things. So, at my age, I remember the society in a much better light 50 years ago than I see it today.
Additionally, and compounding this, is that, today, communication is much better than it’s ever been. When I was a little boy, being the remote control for my dad watching tv, I turned the dial to one of 3 channels. Throwing in a daily paper gave my dad 4 sources of information of what was happening in the world. There must have been a lot of stuff that happened that we didn’t hear about. Today, we have so many sources of information that they fight among themselves for market share by introducing a bias for news to match their audience. Different for sure but not likely better in general.
Finally, at least in my recollection, people were less forgiving of actions that violated the moral code at the time. I remember several presidential candidates that were derailed in their endeavors by someone releasing a “scandalous” story from their past. Today, in the overriding desire to win, we ignore even horrible things a candidate has done.
“Whoever loves transgression loves strife; he who makes his door high seeks destruction. A man of crooked heart does not discover good, and one with a dishonest tongue falls into calamity. He who sires a fool gets himself sorrow, and the father of a fool has no joy. A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. The wicked accepts a bribe in secret to pervert the ways of justice. The discerning sets his face toward wisdom, but the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth.”- Proverbs 17:19-24 ESV
I was so relieved when Don ended his sermon, it was on Daniel chapter 1, with pointing out how bad society was back then. In fact, he mentioned that it was worse back then.
“Then the king commanded Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family and of the nobility, youths without blemish, of good appearance and skillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding learning, and competent to stand in the king’s palace, and to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans. The king assigned them a daily portion of the food that the king ate, and of the wine that he drank. They were to be educated for three years, and at the end of that time they were to stand before the king. Among these were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah of the tribe of Judah. And the chief of the eunuchs gave them names: Daniel he called Belteshazzar, Hananiah he called Shadrach, Mishael he called Meshach, and Azariah he called Abednego.” - Daniel 1:3-7
