This is a reprint from the time of Covid, April 27, 2021

As the designated adventurer at our house, I am the grocery shopper for more than a year now. I have learned that pimentos are never located on the olive aisle and that Velveeta cheese is located wherever the last tired stocker set them down because it is not a cheese. I have learned to eat my shopping mistakes. Try as I might, apparently chocolate dipped ice-cream bars do not qualify as a shopping mistake. The actual worst of my grocery mistakes was just a few weeks ago. My assignment was to get a can of old-fashioned quick cooking steel cut oatmeal. I honestly thought I did. But I didn’t. I got old-fashioned steel cut Irish Oatmeal in a can, 1 pound and 12 ounces net weight. It did not say quick cooking or fast cooking or 10-minute quick oatmeal. Dorothy noticed immediately. It was decided that we would press ahead. There was a winter storm in the forecast.

Upon reading the fine print on the back of the can we learned that the shortcut method was to boil water in a pot, add the oatmeal, stir and boil for 5 minutes. Cover the pot and store it in the refrigerator overnight. The next morning, put the pot back on the stove, bring it to a boil and stir it for another 9-12 minutes. By my estimation, the quick-cook method takes about 25 hours. We opted for the traditional method—30 minutes on the range. I also noticed that the recipe kept referring to this as porridge. I remember porridge as something Little Orphan Annie had to eat, with a big frown on her face. Porridge is oatmeal, flax and other bird seeds boiled in a big pot, which is stirred constantly until you are done. It suggests you add buttermilk or honey and brown sugar suitable to taste. Our pot of porridge lasted for days. We tried syrup and apple sauce with cinnamon on it and we tried smothering it with various flavored yogurts. Our final attempt was to use a large amount of pumpkin pie filling. That actually tasted best. By the way, porridge diluted to a thin, watery state is called gruel. It was used to help the sick get well. It tastes worse than it sounds.

We make mistakes. We try to hide them, own them, or make up for them. The best policy is to admit them, deal with them, and learn from them. We still have a pound or so of the oatmeal left in the can. It will keep.

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Press ahead.  And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

I went to Will Rogers High School for an after-school meeting today. As I approached the receptionist’s desk, I noticed a teacher walking his big black and yellow dog without a leash down the main hall. The dog was prancing around all curious about everything but stayed out of trouble. I visited with the receptionist who I’ve known now for six years. I made it to my meeting room and found the dog was entertaining those who came early. 

The dog was a robot. You may have seen pictures of these robot dogs used by scientists and police in other states. This one was on loan to the school for a few days from the University of Tulsa. I asked if the dog could take some papers out of my hand. Of course it could. It walked over to me, sized up the situation, opened its mouth, and took the papers from my hand. I moved away and it followed me and returned my papers without a wrinkle or a tooth mark. The robots are here, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is in the news.

Fear not, we have had one hundred years of science fiction books and movies preparing us for life with robots possessing more knowledge than we could ever fathom. So I did about two and a half hours of research last week on the current state of AI, leaving me totally prepared to face the future. I listened to discussions about AI. I watched a person build an app for his computer using step by step AI. That was tedious, even for him. AI is only as good as the person who uses it. The difference with today’s AI is the speed with which it makes its calculations and the vastness of its information base. 

The Hollywood writers are on strike in part because AI can use any writer’s creations, without credit or compensation. Teachers are worried that students will just let AI write their essays and research papers, effectively cheating their way through school. Today’s AI is another disruptive force for society to deal with. All advances in any technology are disruptive. All have been misused and have the potential to hurt people, like nuclear energy or your cellphone. AI will reveal the true character of a person. Will you be honest, or will you cheat? Will you be authentic, or will you be an imposter? AI is not the issue. Our sinfulness is.

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Character matters. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

I took a university class entitled, Reading the Bible as Literature. Our textbook was a Bible that had no chapter numbers or enumerated verses. Some of the books of the Bible had been edited to eliminate repetitious material. Overall, though, the point was to read and study the various books of the Bible just as if these were novels, short stories, or poetry found in an advanced English literature course. It was an English course, not a course in Religion. Our professor was Dr. Joseph King, a man who was well into his 70’s at the time. His enthusiasm and keen wit kept me fascinated with his insight into the styles, structures, and metaphors of this diverse book we honor as The Bible.

Dr. King cautioned the ministerial students in the class to be careful when handling the biblical material. He believed a sin of the “religious” was to just “study the words as a duty,” but never truly experience the stories as masterful art and beauty. None of the books of the Bible were originally written with chapter numbers or verses. These were added as aides to corporate worship and personal reference. All the letters of Paul were just that, letters. They were read out loud in their entirety before the congregations that received them. I tried that in church one Sunday. Some people were kind in their comments. 

Psalms and Proverbs are one kind of literature—wisdom, the Kings and the Chronicles another—history. The Gospels tell the stories of Jesus while Daniel and The Revelation tell of the last times. Jeremiah and Amos call God’s people to repent while Isaiah and Hosea demonstrate God’s faithfulness and mercy. Each of the books of the Bible can stand alone as expressions of God’s story and our story. Sin and sorrow, pain and death are hard taskmasters. Anger and revenge, pride and power destroy us from within. But redemption, repentance and love offer a tender path worth walking each day. 

There is a special power that comes with reading the Scriptures out loud and listening to it read by someone else. Faith comes by hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ. (Romans 10:17 NIV)  

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Take pleasure in your Bible reading. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

I’ve been thinking about graduation gifts. Graduation is one of life’s rites of passage, literally and figuratively. A person passes the tests and completes the required course work. There is a commencement. A commencement is both an ending and a beginning. The graduate will soon discover they have advanced into the “what’s next?” of life. All of that hard work deserves recognition, commemoration and validation. A graduation gift is always in order. When I graduated from high school, my grandmother gave me an Avon toiletry set for men. I still have remnants of that set to this day. The giver wants the receiver to be pleased. 

I’ve also been reflecting on the gifts of graduation that shape my life to this day. Reading, writing and arithmetic head up my gift list, although there are some questions about my subsequent math skills. Music and imagination, science and discovery, history and literature, all were gifts I received at my graduation. The power of preparation, the patience of persistence, the satisfaction of success were all given to me at graduation by my teachers and mentors. I was a solid C high school student. As I neared graduation, a Sunday School teacher handed me a little devotional book called Meeting the Test: A Book of Devotions for Young People. That book challenged  me to find other books where I learned how to study and deeply learn about any subject. It pointed the way to life-long learning and my grades improved substantially in college. What a great gift!

As I explored my call to ministry, I found my way back, time and again, to the insights of Meeting the Test.  One lesson was about getting the most important “degree” of all—the A.U.G. Degree. Last Sunday’s message was based in part on this early life lesson. This degree is found in the King James Version of 2 Timothy 2:15. Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Approved Unto God. I’m still working on that degree. It’s the graduation gift worth living for. One day there will be an eternal commencement for us all. It’s not too late to cram for the Final, yet. What might your diploma say?

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Meet the test. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

The non-stop coverage of the Coronation of the King of England begins soon. He is already the king but will officially take his oath of office and receive his crown on Saturday, May 6. King Charles III is the oldest king to ascend to the throne of Great Britain. He was 73 at the time of his mother’s death. The runner up is Queen Victoria’s son Albert, Bertie as he was called, while he was Prince of Wales. Albert Edward became King Edward VII at age 59. The US television coverage (on all major channels) begins at 4:00 a.m. Central Daylight Time. Charles and Camilla will be crowned in a two-hour service in Westminster Abbey beginning at 5:00 a.m. The new King’s crown was made for Charles the II in 1616. Have fun watching it all. You can tell me about it someday.

Who should crown a king? Whoever puts the crown on a sovereign’s head implies an authority above the King. For centuries the Pope, representing God Almighty and with the personal power to condemn people to eternal punishment, crowned the European kings. With the Protestant Reformation of the 1500’s, and a general move towards religious separation, the Pope became less important. In fact, one King of France snatched the crown from the hands of the Pope and crowned himself, proclaiming no one was above the King. Religious libertarians, like Baptists, proclaimed the separation of the church from the entanglement of the state. We have but one King—Jesus. Baptists helped write the first amendment to the Bill of Rights. Men like James Madison recognized that state endorsed religions promote a heavy-handed oppression of the free expression of faith.  Some Baptists today have abandoned their principles on this matter. 

After Henry VIII broke from Catholicism and established the Anglican Church, tradition there holds that the Archbishop of Canterbury is the head of the church. In that role the Most Reverend Justin Welby will anoint the King with holy oil (viewers are not allowed to witness this ritual) before placing the crown upon his head. Those countries which still have kings and queens, including Great Britain, are all constitutional monarchies and are pledging an oath to their governing constitutions. The kings and queens of today’s world are symbols of a nation’s heritage and carry the role of advisors to their nation’s leaders.  They have the title but little authority.

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Christ is King. Let’s experience the love and power of God together.