Beautiful People
In an episode of the old television series “All in the Family,” Edith and Archie are attending Edith’s High School class reunion. Edith encounters an old classmate named Buck who has allowed himself to become extremely obese. Edith has a delightful conversation with him about old times and the things they did together, but remarkably, Edith doesn’t seem to even notice how extremely heavy her friend has become.
Later, Edith and Archie are talking. She says, “Archie, ain’t Buck a beautiful person?” Archie replies: “Edith, I’ll never figure you out. You and I can look at the same guy and you see a beautiful person and I see a blimp!” And Edith replies, simply, “Yeah, Arch, ain’t that too bad!”
Jesus tells us that when we look at other people, we should see something special in them; we should see them not just as beautiful people but as people for whom He gave His life; we should see them not just as fellow believers but as people in whom He lives.
What do you see when you look at the broken person, the dysfunctional person, the needy person, the sinner? If you see anything less than one for whom Christ died, "ain't that too bad!"
Jesus said: "Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40).
The World's Most Expensive Dirt
Steiner Sports is a premier provider of sports memorabilia of all kinds. In particular, it has held the "exclusive rights" to Yankee Stadium memorabilia since 2004. It's always been a lucrative business, but with the closing of the old Yankee Stadium following the last game in September 2008, Steiner Sports hit paydirt--literally.
They devised a marketing plan to sell everything--even the old seats and the restroom urinals--as a growing number of sports fans worldwide clamored for a literal "piece" of history. But the dirt and sod that clung to the cleats and stained the pants of baseball's giants--that's where the real money was to be found.
“Dirt really is a piece of history, and it is something other fans generally can’t get,” said a Steiner spokesman, who has been selling dirt from Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park, Dodger Stadium and other MLB diamonds for several years. “In some way, Yankee Stadium dirt connects you to Babe Ruth.”
As for the harvesting of the paydirt, the New York Post reports:
The dirt, collected before the old ballpark was demolished, has been used in some 360,000 and counting! collectibles that were sold to Yankee fans willing to dig deep into their pockets for a smidgen of the old Stadium’s sacred soil. …
Less than half an ounce was sealed in each of thousands of transparent plastic disks that were artfully inserted into souvenirs such as posters, plaques and paperweights.
More than three tons of the stuff has been dug out so far — and half of it was used in $10 million worth of products.
And the Yanks and their agent, Steiner Sports Collectibles, will probably score a double play.
The other half of the world’s most expensive dirt is being stored in barrels in New Rochelle, awaiting its transformation into additional keepsakes.
The products sell from as little as $20 for a small keychain with a few grains of dirt, to tens of thousands of dollars for a "star" signed plaque encasing dirt from the area surrounding home plate or sod from the infield.
But don't be fooled by imitation dirt or sod. Genuine Yankee sod comes with the following Steiner Sports Product Description:
Many considered the field at the original Yankee Stadium to be the most sacred turf in all of sports. The games' greatest and brightest stars have shined while playing on this beloved sod. Now you can own an actual piece of this legendary sod. Removed from the Stadium, your personal piece of pinstriped real estate will be freeze-dried. No care and maintenance is needed, your freeze-dried grass will stay like that forever. Each piece of ... freeze-dried sod comes in a glass display case with an engraved nameplate. A Yankees-Steiner Letter of Authenticity is included.
What was merely dirt to those who played the game has become something sacred in the minds and hearts of the throngs of adoring fans who are willing to lay down big bucks for it.
Indeed, God has given us the freedom to decide what we will choose to hail as truly significant, as sacred. But even though we've been given the freedom to venerate "this" or "that," God alone determines what is genuinely worthy of veneration. In fact, He has always held the "exclusive rights" to our adoration and worship, and He's not sharing them with anyone or anything--not even the New York Yankees!
That means the only sacred turf you'll ever really find is that on which you stand or bow in His presence. And we can choose to do that every moment of every day as we engage in all the details of our lives, from the mundane to the momentous, with an attitude of reverential awe for Who God is and all that He's done for us. In this way we make all ground "holy."
As God said to an awe-struck Moses, "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground" (Exodus 3:5).
Mysteries on the Walls of our Faith and Worship
One of our young woman recently baptized asked for help to solve a mystery that perplexed her to no end. Among the towels, garments, and other items in the baptismal changing room, she noticed two black, curly wigs hanging on the wall. “Why are those wigs hanging there?” she asked. The answer was unclear, but it was suggested that perhaps they'd been put there a long time ago, for women who didn't want to be seen with stringy, wet hair, or for the modesty of older women with thinning hair who might appear balding coming up out of the waterr. Definitive? Nah. Plausible? Sure. Nevertheless, the mystery remained (as did the wigs hanging in the changing room).
Sometimes we have “wigs” hanging around. They may be traditions that were started in other times for specific reasons. For example, you may have seen communion plates covered by runners or tablecloths going back to times when buildings didn’t have air conditioners and the cloths were used to keep the flies off the elements. The circumstances changed, but the cover remained.
There are many traditions we honor that are fine and acceptable, but which are only expedients and may be a mystery to our young, new Christians, visitors, and the like. That is not to disparage them, but it is to say that we should be ready to discuss them.
Whether that is standing before a song or Scripture reading, leading a specific number of songs before prayer, having an invitation at the end of a sermon, having the Lord’s Supper before the sermon (or vice versa), ending worship with a prayer or a song (Matthew 26:30), the way those leading in worship enter the auditorium, or any number of habits and customs congregations settle into, we should never let these simply settle into our subconsciousness.
Periodically, it’s good to explain and discuss these habits and traditions, whether in brief form during the course of our services, at greater length in a Bible class, or certainly in one-on-one conversations.
It is also good to ask if and how we might vary or alter some of these customs, periodically or even permanently. There are acts of worship we are commanded to engage in each Lord’s Day (Acts 2:42; 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2), but for how long and in what order? The Word of God is to be reverenced, but does standing inherently do that? What the people did in response to Ezra was spontaneous, and they followed it up by bowing low with their faces to the ground (Nehemiah 8:5-6).
These traditions may be good, or at the least neutral.
But the point is to keep them from becoming mysteries hanging on the walls of our faith or our worship. Let’s continually ask what we are doing and why!
"And so you cancel the word of God in order to hand down your own tradition. And this is only one example among many others" (Mark 7:13, NLT).