The Benefits of Being Five Years Old

by Rev. Laura Barclay

My niece, Téa, recently turned five and wore this fabulous number. If you can't tell, she is wearing red cowboy boots, a floral skirt with a blue plastic grass skirt on top, a green shirt with flowers on it, a lei, and a multi-colored, peace symbol headband. And to that I say, rock it! More than one, partygoers kept looking at her and saying, "I wish I could still dress like that."

In addition, she completed an art project, which consisted of painting her own treasure box, fit as many of her friends as possible in a giant chair, ate copious amounts of pizza and cake, and played on giant bouncy slides and castles for an hour. She had a blast and it was fun to watch. 

Remember when birthdays started to go downhill after 21 or so? At 25 you could rent cars at a cheaper rate, but that was the last real milestone of adult freedom. Now, birthdays seem to be ignored due to shame ("I'm 29, I swear. Shut up!") or subdued due to indifference ("I think I'll just stay in. Nobody cares that I'm 52."). 

What if we just donned our grass skirts and went for it? Are we afraid people will judge us for having a good time on our birthdays? Afraid that people will think we are too old for that? We all deserve to be happy and celebrated as children of God. Our births are special, no matter if we are 5, 55, or 105.  

So, the next time you see a kid in a tiki, mermaid, or pirate outfit screaming, "Oh yeah, it's my birthday!", consider throwing a pirate-themed fiesta yourself. I might even help plan it with you if there's a cutlass and eyepatch for me! 

James and the Rumor Mill

By Rev. Mark Reece

Everyone has played a variation of the childhood exercise designed to teach us the damaging power of the “rumor mill.” Whether you have five people sitting in a circle or twenty-five people sitting in a circle, by the time a whispered secret makes it all of the way around the circle the original statement has been twisted, reconstructed and often changed altogether. We humans have a tendency to repeat everything that we hear. Not only that, we have a tendency to speak the words that come to our mind. When we were children, our parents often told us that “sticks and stones may break your bones but words will never hurt you.” Such stern advice made us all stronger children as we made our debut in the real world of kindergarten. However, it didn’t take most of long to realize that words can hurt. Words do hurt. As a matter of fact, words usually hurt. All of us are trapped in this cycle of unhealthy communication that plagues our world, communities, churches and families. James offers us some very beautiful images that are intended to help us with controlling our tongue.

James 3:3-6 says, “If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole bodies. Or look at ships: though they are so large that it takes strong winds to drive them, yet they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits. How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of nature, and is itself set on fire by hell.” I’m really grateful to live in a nation where freedom of speech is guaranteed. It’s nice to be able to sit around the coffee or barber shop and talk about everything under the sun. At times, I hear folks talking about ever person under the sun too and not always in the most positive ways. Indeed, we’re free to do so. Yet, I’m reminded of Saint Paul’s words in Galatians 5:13:14: “For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” In our most recent lesson from James, James reminded us that this command from Jesus is the “royal law.”

Reflecting upon whether or not our patterns of speech express love of God and neighbor is a good starting place for working at speech control. Looking in the mirror, something else James highly recommends, quickly reveals shortcomings in our conversation patterns. The good news from James is we can use our voices to curse or bless God and others. Whatever decision we make, James reminds us that it’s going to have a significant impact on every aspect of our life. Like an unbridled horse, the unbridled tongue will inevitably send us in directions we don’t want to go. If the tongue is our rudder, then we have to consider all of the variables that might influence our proper speech. The political and social currents are pulling and pushing us at all times. We have cargo on our ships that might need to be thrown overboard. And then some of us have a few negative mates on our ship that need to be redirected and some exchanged for positive examples of speech. When the fires of unhealthy speech are allowed to escape our lips, they’re destined to burn others and eventually we too will be consumed by their flames.

It’s a bold proclamation from the book of James this week and it challenges us beyond spoken words. You can post a comment on someone’s Facebook page and within a millisecond it’s being read by thousands of people you may not even know. You can be trending on twitter before you put your smartphone back in your pocket. And before anyone claiming they’re old school and anti-technology decides this doesn’t apply to them, allow me to remind you that the landline telephone hasn’t been around forever. The arrival of the landline phone was probably when “rumor mills” got their steam. We’re living in a world where a careless, senseless and ignorant video can be uploaded to the internet and within hours another part of the world will be in an uproar and an American diplomat killed. Then of course the media airs more conversations that breed conflict than those that build bridges of peace. Words not only have the power to hurt us but words have the power to destroy us and our world. It’s an old piece of wisdom that James offers, but as we witness the fires burning around the world we’re reminded that they all started as a small flame. While we can’t fix the problems of our world overnight, we can control the flame on the tip of our tongue and be the change we desire to see in our world. This week we reflect on one of those most challenging yet practical passages in all of the Biblical record. I know that James is writing to me. He’s writing to you. He’s writing to us all. Be challenged today and be blessed in the week to come.

Mark Reece is the pastor of Piney Grove Baptist Church in Mount Airy, NC. This article originally appeared in their church newsletter, The Grove.

Speaking of Freedom: How About a Strong Separation of Church and State?

Dr. Dennis Herman

Until recently, most Baptists have adhered to a belief in a distinct and strong separation between Church and State. We Baptists believe that the State has no right to dictate how we worship in our homes and church buildings. Likewise, we Baptists have long insisted that the State functions remain functions of a government that represents all of its people, its religions, or even those of no religion. We have insisted, and rightly so, that the State not meddle in the affairs of Church. Some Baptists, however, are arguing that a strong separation of Church and State is no longer important. Some pulpits have become election campaign platforms; and some church people, including pastors, have taken to endorsing candidates who would accommodate their own Church’s position on social issues.

Such a change is a danger to both Church and State. Before we jump on the bandwagon of popular religious slogans like “bring back prayer to school,” we would do well to ask in this pluralistic society, “whose prayers are we bringing back?” Are we to be led in public forums, schools, and government meetings by Muslim prayers? How about Buddhist chants? How about prayers in the name of St. Francis or the Blessed Virgin? How about Wiccan prayers? And if we live in certain parts of the country, we would perhaps be led in prayer by a Mormon, or Unitarian Universalist, or a Campbelite minister.

I don’t like being told how to pray, or to whom, or even being led in a prayer whose theology voices a different understanding of God’s love than mine. So I’ll just continue to pray like I’ve always been taught to pray in my heart. No one can tell me not to pray. Others might not hear me, but God will. In fact, I wonder if God might hear the silent and heart-felt prayers we sincerely offer, rather than prayers in the public forum which tend to persuade or impress. Just wondering…

Dennis Herman is the interim pastor at Oxford Baptist Church in Oxford, NC. This article originally appeared in their church newsletter, The Forecaster.