REMEMBERING THE FUTURE 2
“The more things change, the more they stay
the same.” (old proverb.)
“I remembered the future. And in turn, the
future remembered me.” (Burnstein.)
“Whatever you do will be wrong for
something and cause unexpected consequences.”
(Murphy’s Law.)
Behar (Starbucks) writes: “It's not about product, it's about
people. That's the number one priority. If you grow people, the people grow the
business."
“That which has been is what will be, That
which is done is what will be done, And there is nothing new under the
sun. Is there anything of which it may be said, "See, this is
new"? It has already been in ancient times before us. There is no
remembrance of former things, Nor will there be any remembrance of things that
are to come By those who will come after.”
Eccl 1:9-11 (NKJV)
My bills pay automatically from my
Bank. Groceries and things are paid for
with a swipe of my Bank card. Should I
“give of my means” to the church with a debit card? Some are already doing this. I am a very senior-citizen, and I have nine
blogs online. What should the church
have online? TV is fading out and soon
everything will be online. Through
GOOGLE the libraries of the world are at my fingertips. Again, what should this mean for the church? Anything discovered by Science was already
put there by GOD.
TIBERIAS CYLINDER [A city in Space.]
"'Chipova Dio...'
All-powerful God, who permits us to
join together our united voices in prayer, and who promises that when
two or three are come together in Your Name, You will grant their prayers. Fulfill now the desires and requests of Your
servants, in a way that will most bless them.
In this world please give us wisdom concerning Your truth, and in the
world to come eternal life in Your presence.
Through Christ our Lord, Amen."
The third song will be the Communion Hymn:
"Upon The First Day Of The Week."
Christ raised from death on the day following the Sabbath - Sunday, the
first day of the new week.
A word of explanation. The tradition of this Church is that every
Sunday is Communion Sunday. We believe
it was so in the early Church. Some of
the names applied to this Communion are: Vespermangon; Lord's Supper; Holy
Meal; Eucharist. This will be the high point of the worship
service. HE has overcome the world! HE has won the victory! We worshipers believe that this Holy Meal
ties each one of us to every other Christian in the Universe as each one shares
in the bread and wine of the Communion.
We will see the tradition of simultaneous
communion. Each communicant has already
received an individually sealed portion of the bread and wine (an outgrowth of
the AIDS epidemic of the past). The
bread is unleavened. The wine is
unprocessed grape juice with only enough fermentation to prevent spoilage."
Morris Evans has come to the symbolic table
and is the Unifier of this Holy Meal.
Again we inject a note of explanation. This Church makes no sharp distinction
between clergy and laity. Steve is an
electrician; Morris is a paramedic. Both
are church-elders, as is Rod, who is also a Preaching Minister. As brothers and sisters in the Family of God
all work together for the common good of all.
"He lets us rule as kings and serve God His Father as priests"
(Revelation 1:6).
Morris lifts up his hands and speaks: "As we join together in this Holy Meal,
we remember our Lord who died on Old Earth many centuries ago. Jesus died as God's Sacrificial Lamb, to
expiate the sins of the world of humans and to put us right with God. We are here today to praise Him and to show
Him our love! We honor Jesus for Who He
Is and for What He Did! We take this
bread - by faith, His body. We take this
wine - by faith, His blood. As the
Scripture says: 'For until the Lord comes, you proclaim His death whenever you
eat this bread and drink the cup.' And
now Stan Chenowitz will lead us in the prayer of thanks."
Stan comes from the right to stand at the
podium. He lifts up his hands and
speaks.
"We praise You, O Lord our God! While we were estranged from You because of
our sins, You reached out to us by sending Jesus! We are so thankful for Your blessings! Touch this bread - to us the body of Christ
by our faith. Touch this wine - to us
the blood of Christ by our faith. Touch
our lives, and make us one in Christ - we are the Body of Christ. We pray in the Name of Jesus, Amen."
Now attention shifts back to Morris Evans at
the Table. The entire congregation waits
in anticipation, holding in their hands the individual portions of bread and
wine. Morris lifts his individual
portions as high as he can reach, holding them for a moment. Then he lowers his arms and speaks.
"This is My body, which is for
you. Do this in memory of Me."
As Morris puts the individual portion of
bread in his mouth, simultaneously so do each of the communicants.
Again Morris speaks.
"The wine which is this cup is God's New
Covenant, sealed with My blood. Whenever
you drink it, do it in memory of Me."
Morris puts the individual portion of wine
in his mouth and so do the communicants simultaneously."
We remind you that the bread and wine are
encapsulated in individual portions. One
pops the whole thing into the mouth, bites through the capsule, and swallows
the contents. As we said, this began
during the AIDS crisis on Earth. Actually,
this works quite well in a crowd like this.
There is nothing to dispose of.
And, it permits us to follow the example of the early Church who
celebrated the Holy Meal regularly. This
Church emphasizes the memorial /commemorative /celebration purpose of the
Lord's Supper.
Now Frank Miller, a church elder, comes to
the podium to lead the closing prayer.
"Bless, O Father, these who have come
to give their lives to You. Bless them
and make them a blessing to others. And
now, may the Lord Himself, who is our source of peace, give you peace at all
times and in every way. The Lord be with
you all! In the Name of Jesus,
Amen."
HYDROPONICS –
AMISH ON TIBERIAS
Somewhere I
could hear a door open and close. In the
distance I could see a man coming toward us.
As he got closer, I could see he appeared to be dressed all in black in
an antique style.
By now the
man had reached us. He had on heavy
shoes, black denim trousers, which were held up by suspenders, and a black
denim shirt. He had a bushy beard of
reddish color, and was wearing an old style earth straw hat.
"Rod,"
I gasped, "what is this? He looks
just like an Amishman back home in northern Usono."
"This is
Hans Yoder," Rod said. "Hans,
this is a group from Earth, visiting our Churches of Christ here on
Tiberias."
Rod proceeded
to introduce us all around.
"But I
don't understand," said Fred.
"I thought the Amish were tied to farmland and seventeenth century
ways. What is an Amishman doing out here
in space on Tiberias Cylinder?"
"Hans is
as you say, an Amishman," Rod said.
"He and all his commune are our food experts. They are geniuses when it comes to growing
things. None of your great earth chefs
can give yeast protein the exquisite tastes to equal what they can do."
"But, an
Amishman, out here in space?" I said.
"Hans, tell him," Rod said.
"Well,
we got to make a living. It's as simple
as that. Back on Earth there was never
enough farm land to go around. It costs
money to feed and raise a family. Some
of us had to work at other things, even in the 1900's. My great-grandfather worked in a furniture
factory. My father looked out into
space. No machine can do what a human
can do. It was an easy step to go from
working with our hands on the land to working with our hands out here in
space. We Amish can work together in
close cooperation. Not everyone can do
that. We are a community. We understand each other."
"But you
can't have horses out here?" asked Edna.
"You don't have horses, do you?"
"No
horses. Too expensive. But, being Amish is a way of life. We had to think that out in my grandfather's
time. We love horses. But we don't need them. Horses are tools to use. We have other tools. But family is family. We stick together and work together. We are giving the gift of life to the people
of Tiberias. We grow things, produce
food, just like the old farms, even though conditions and things are very
different out here in space. We Amish
are a community and we work for the good of our community."
"But it
certainly seems strange," I said.
"Doesn't this conflict with everything the Amish stood for in the
past? At least, what I thought they
stood for."
"You got
to look at it the right way. We were
never against using tools. But we were
against allowing tools to use us. Our
fathers made the choice to be plain people.
We worked wonderfully hard, but it was a celebration of life. We are a church-community, a commune if you
will, who practice austere living and a family-oriented economic system. We just have different conclusions about how
to live life and enjoy it."
"Hans,
you surely make it sound good about plain people and hard work and
celebration," said Molly. "But
I don't know about your celebration of life.
I read about my great-grandfather on a hillside farm in West Virginia. He called it 'hard scrabble farming,' not any
celebration. He wrote that he had to
work from 'it ain't light yet' to 'I can't see anymore' just to starve on the
farm. It seemed to be more desperation
than celebration."
"Circumstances
alters cases," Hans said.
"Some talked like your great-grandfather. But, 'many hands make light work' as the old
saying goes, and we Amish work together.
That made it easier to get along.
Let me show you around. That is
the best answer I can give - to show you how things work here on
Tiberias."
Hans touched
a keypad and a small floater came out from between two huge tanks.
"Let's
go see the farm," he said.
"But you
do all this by hand?" I asked.
"We do
as much by hand as seems reasonable. But
we must use tools - machines - to make it possible to produce what we
need. Tiberias must have huge quantities
of food each day. It would be impossible
to do very much by hand. We use robot
harvesters and smart machines. And we
call on the 'English' technicians and specialists when we need them. I should explain that our ancestors called
everyone who wasn't Amish, the 'English.'"
"But on
Earth, no one knows about what goes on to produce food," said Edna.
"Who
knows it here?" said Hans. "No
one comes out here to watch. And we are
'waste extraction.' We are isolated from
life on Tiberias."
"I
hadn't thought about that," I said.
"You are isolated? Doesn't
that bother you?"
"Not at
all. We don't need other people. We have our community. We have each other. We are family. It is not all that different from what our
ancestors experienced on Earth. We have
made the choice to be separated people."
"You say
'isolated,'" Fred said. "Does
that mean you are shunned because you are 'waste extraction'?"
"Sometimes
that is true," said Hans. "But
few are even aware that we are here.
Rod, of course, knows us well. He
is our friend."
"Hans, I
hear you talking 'community'," said Molly, "but back on Earth you
Amish sometimes had conflict within the group and certain people were shunned
because of this. Not everyone would pay
the price to be Amish."
"Yes. But you have conflict within the 'English'
also. It isn't all that different. Some individual rights must be sacrificed for
the good of the community. But this
choice is voluntary. Those who will not
conform must go elsewhere. It is vital
that we work together and we must preserve the community. It cannot be otherwise. It is a choice we make."
"I
suppose that's really the basis of civilization," I said. "Either cooperate, or be a hermit."
"You got
it," said Hans, "cooperate.
But let's go meet the families."
Hans stopped
the floater at another portal. We
stepped off, then followed him through a small door into the next ring.
"Our
families live here," he said.
"It is more pleasant and we are shielded from the noise and smells
of the farms."
As we looked
ahead down the street, we could see the standard pattern we had seen everywhere
on Tiberias. Cubicles, only these seemed
larger.
He led us to
a door, touched the keypad, and led us into a huge room.
As we
entered, we could see wall-screens which were showing rural scenes of mountains
and trees and running streams of water."
"Sit
down," he said, "and make yourself comfortable."
Then he
beckoned toward the rear of the room. A
woman and three small children came to meet us.
"This is
Gerta, my wife, and these are Herman, Carol, and Frederick. Children are a treasure to the Amish, and we
tend to large families. There are a few
hundred of us here on Tiberias."
"Kayor,
Gerta!" Rod said. He hugged Gerta
and each of the children.
Then he
introduced us all around.
"I act
as a contact for the Amish," Rod said.
"They are very special people."
"I'm
puzzled," said Molly. "How is
it that you have wall-screens and TV images?
Isn't that against your 'plain' creed?"
"Tools,
remember," said Hans. "You may
call it rationalizing. We want to keep
our link with the past. We want our
children to feel close to nature as our ancestors knew it."
He touched a
keypad. The wall-screens changed to show
a harvest scene: horses, shocks of wheat in the old fashioned style, Amish
people dressed in their distinctive clothing, working in the fields to harvest
the crops, children laughing and playing and helping in their own way.
Then they
changed to show a dinner scene in a large house. Many people sat at long tables and were
helping themselves from the huge dishes of food. They seemed to be happy and laughing and
enjoying this good time of fellowship.
They changed
to show a winter scene. Snow was drifted
deeply around a large house. A horse was
pulling a sleigh with happy people in it.
Cows were in the field, huddled together. A man was throwing hay over the fence to
them.
They changed
to show springtime, with women and children working in the garden, with bare
feet, skirts pulled up slightly, pants legs rolled up to the knees, raking,
planting seeds.
"Do you
watch the TV and news programs?" asked Molly.
"Never! We have historical videos of Amish farming
and people. We receive videos from our
people on Earth. And from those on other
Cylinders out in space. Our people will
hire someone to use a video cam to make the videos for them. These videos help preserve our sense of
community and our heritage, and they keep us in touch with the extended Amish
community. But TV programs and the news
- never! We value our isolation too
much!"
"You say
'isolation' and 'sense of community.' I said.
"How do you balance these two things?"
"We want
to stand separate and apart from the 'English,' as our forefathers tried to
do. But, we want to have intense
'community' between each of us. In fact,
some of our leaders have considered a radio link between each of us Amish to
allow continuous contact."
"A radio
link? How would you fit that into your
beliefs?"
"A tool,
once again. We have heard of a radio
microchip which can be implanted under the skin and spliced into nerve
fibers. This would allow us to join our
minds together in a way never before possible.
Our Bishops on Earth would need to confer about that and approve such a
radical step. But think of the
possibilities! What would be the IQ of a
group mind? What new concepts might open
up? What new possibilities in growing
things? What new biology? It boggles our minds!"
"It
scares me," said Molly.
LOOKING
BACK TO LOOK FORWARD
(adapted from a book I am reading.)
1. Churches must develop a better
understanding of history as a tool for making sense of what has happened and is
happening. Ecclesiastes 1:9-10; Acts
15:7-18.
2. Churches need to examine their own
religious tradition and use of Scripture.
["Old Uncle John" did have his own way of thinking and we
might be following him rather than the Bible.
We need to know.]
3. Though it is important to restore the beliefs
of the New Testament, restoration of real Christian behavior in all that
we do is equally important. 1 Peter
1:13-16; Eph. 4:20-32.
4. We must learn to communicate the
unchanging word of God as seen in Christ-on-the-Cross in terms that speak both
to a modern and postmodern society. Note
2 Cor. 4:4-11; 1 Cor. 9:19-23; 14:9-11.
5. There is a great need to have dialogue
among ourselves and with others of similar Christian values, but these must be
on core issues and not peripheral issues.
Note Paul in 1 Cor. 1:10-17; 2:1-5; Romans 14:1,12,17.
6. Cutting up churches into fragments does
not help spread the Gospel of Christ. As
it works out, division often halves the efforts of the church, rather than doubling
it. The people in the community
are the church - NOT the building.
7. The battle between the church and the
devil is not determined on earth. It has
already been settled in heaven. The
Ascension of Christ meant the downfall of Satan, and every act of Christian
sacrifice confirms it. Rev. ch 12; Luke
10:17-20; John 12:27-33.
P.S. This "profound statement" from a
writer of fiction: "The best
introduction to a culture [or church] is through one of its malcontents. This person is fully patterned in the basic
assumptions [dogma] of the group, but has some observational skills developed
by being an outsider. The malcontent is
able to comprehend the questions and may even have arrived at some general
guidelines extracted from society's [the church's] mass of unvoiced assumptions
[unwritten creed]."
