Week 39—Friday Acts 27:33-35
Acts 27:33-35
“NOW I SEE THE MEANING OF CHRISTIANITY”
We are meditating this week on the Universal in the particular. Two men spoke at Gettysburg—one a man of very eloquent words, Edward Everett, and Abraham Lincoln, a man who that day used few words. No one can remember any of the words of Everett, but we cannot forget the words of Lincoln. Everett was the word of democracy and freedom become word, but Lincoln was the Word of democracy and freedom become flesh. We heard it in Everett and saw it in Lincoln. One dies and the other lives. Everett put the universal in universal words, and Lincoln put the universal in the particular—in himself. So his particular words became universal words.
In an orphanage Mrs. Murphy was the loving mother of them all. One little boy said the Twenty-third Psalm, not the way it was written: “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,” but this way: “Surely good Mrs. Murphy shall follow me all the days of my life.” To him goodness and mercy had become flesh.
If a man, really in love with his wife and away from home, were offered a book on “Love,” instead of going home, would he not reply: “I want my wife”? The picture of the dog listening to “his master’s voice” is good advertisement, but no dog will be content with the canned voice of his master—he wants his master. The word of his master become word is not a substitute for the word of his master become flesh.
At the close of the World War II, some young American boys and girls went to Germany to work on the ruined cities to restore them. At first the German workmen viewed with sullen suspicion this approach to bridge the chasm of hate. It couldn’t be real. But when they saw these young people dead tired at night, they melted. A German workman gave them a piece of his precious cake and said, “Now I see the meaning of Christianity.” That piece of cake was a sacrament of the Word become flesh—the Universal in the Particular.
O Lord God, help me this day to make every act of mine a sacrament—a sacrament of the Word become flesh. Help me to show in every situation the reconciliation I have received from you. May every little thing be big and with meaning. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: A cup of cold water given in his name can be a revelation of God.