Monday, November 5, 2018
625 - In the Beginning, 13, #666, etc.
Spirituality Column #625
November 6, 2018
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
In the Beginning, 13,
#666, etc.
By Bob Walters
I can’t remember if it was a phone call or an email, but late-summer
2006 Steve Greenberg offered me the opportunity to return to the newspaper
business.
He and a publishing
partner in Carmel were starting “Current” newspapers and needed a managing
editor. Steve is a great guy I had known
for many years in Indiana sports writing circles, occasionally working together
on outside projects. At that moment I
had what was admittedly tenuous employment in corporate communications but
figured a steady paycheck was better than rolling the dice on a nascent newspaper
enterprise. Expressing sincere appreciation
I declined, teasing Steve that he’d be looking for a job in a year or so,
too. Newspapers were dying, not being
birthed.
But before
ending the conversation, I pitched the idea of “Current” letting me provide a
weekly religion column on whatever religious thing happened to be on my
mind. It wasn’t going to be “church
news,” but rather a brief “think piece” essay on something having to do with
Jesus Christ – the Jesus Christ that most Christians agree on: not doctrines,
denominations, and politics. Carmel is a
vibrant Christian faith community (huge Catholic parishes, huge Christian
churches). Steve, well aware of my
newfound faith in 2001, liked the “edgy” first couple of columns I submitted; I
don’t write like a preacher. Column #1
ran November 7, 2006, and “Current” – still going strong – published them
weekly through 2015. I kept writing, and
here we are at week #625.
That’s 12
years down, heading into year, gulp, “13.”
An unlucky year? In Christ we don’t
spend a lot of time thinking about “luck” and “superstitions,” we just trust
Jesus, pray hard, love others, and deal with what comes; “Thirteen,” I’m
saying, is just another number. But in
41 weeks (Sept. 3, I think) I’m going to have to decide how to deal with “Column
#66X” … a Bible “mark” no Christian likes.
“666” (Revelation 13:18) is the mark of the Beast (Satan); and also the
mark of man. I’m guessing that’s an
allusion to our sin, condemnation, and death.
Not good: clearly a number to softly whistle past.
I looked to
see if my Bible (NIV ’85) has a page “666”; it does, and happens to be Jeremiah
28-29, with God telling Jeremiah to tell Hananiah, “… you have persuaded this nation to trust in lies. … I am about to
remove you from the face of the earth.
This very year you are going to die.”
Great; Hananiah died in the seventh month. The “Sept” in “September” (ibid. Sept. 3?),
is Latin for “seven.” But hey, I’m not
superstitious.
Anyway,
thanks so much to Steve Greenberg and Current for greenlighting the column and
getting things going. It is a great writing-and-thought outlet. Ironically, it was an editor named
“Christian” who at the end of 2015 notified me that Current would no longer
carry it. With my wife’s steadfast
encouragement, I still write and email it to 1,000 or so folks each week (free,
just ask), and post it on Twitter, Facebook, and our archived and searchable
blog, (link) CommonChristianity.
Not
to prolong the navel gazing (“hesychasm” in Orthodox monastics), but November
is kind of a big month in my faith life … I birthed this column in 2006, buried
my friend and mentor Russ Blowers in 2007, met my wife Pam at Russ’s funeral,
and celebrated my baptism in 2001. It
all is good lead-up to Thanksgiving.
More soon.
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