Friends: It was a tough Christmas season in 2002, but an angel named Mary Jean Alig rekindled past, joyful memories of my mother. This will be a two-parter. May your holidays be joyful!  Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #943

December 10, 2024

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Who Are You Guys?

By Bob Walters

Twenty-two Decembers ago, in 2002, my mother Ruth McKinney Walters was in a northern Michigan nursing home with a broken hip that healed and general vascular failure that didn’t.  She would pass away in March 2003.

My dad, John Walters, had died from post-surgical complications in September 1991, and both are buried in Mackinaw City, Michigan, where we have had family roots since the early 1900s.  Mom and Dad met in Mackinaw in the 1940s, and our family grew up vacationing there at our cottage on the Straits of Mackinac’s south shore. The cottage is long gone, but Mackinaw City remains a family cornerstone. We visit there yearly and it is an area that “speaks to me” as a beloved lifelong home.

Growing up I heard countless stories, especially on vacation at our cottage – the longtime McKinney summer vacation venue – about Mom’s and Dad’s friends and adventures in their teens and beyond at Mackinaw. They had a fully-functioning “beach gang” several of whom were around in the 1950s and 1960s with kids my age. Mom’s and Dad’s Mackinaw friends, stories, and adventures were legends of my upbringing.

Anyway, in October 2002 Mom had fallen at home and broken her hip.  She lived alone in Alpena in the house where, in 1980, she and Dad had moved from Kokomo, Indiana, where I grew up. Her injury was an awful ordeal; Mom was alone for two days until a waitress at the coffee shop she frequented daily came by to check on her. 

In the intervening months I was back and forth to Alpena often, but mom wasn’t getting better. My brother and sisters and I felt guilty we hadn’t been there, and Mom’s illness intensified my memories of all those old stories of the great times in Mackinaw.

That said … that same December of 2002 I was here in Indianapolis (we lived in Carmel) at a Thursday morning Christmas carry-in breakfast for the “Mustard Seed” Bible study I attended which was taught by beloved retired minister Russ Blowers. The class in those days met Thursday mornings at the Castleton MCL cafeteria, but the breakfast was at our East 91^st Street Christian Church less than a mile away.

Standing in the E91 Friendship Room breakfast line behind an “elderly” couple obviously of my parents’ vintage – roughly the same age I am now – we introduced ourselves.  They were Vincent and Mary Jean Alig.  I said my name was Bob Walters.

“Hmmm,” Mary Jean queried. “Are you related to …,” and I cut her off. “Naw …,” I said.  “I’m not related to anyone named Walters except my immediate family.  My dad was an only child and his dad was an only child and neither was from here.”

As if Jesus had sent a gracious angel, Mary Jean, who appeared to be about my mom’s age (mid-70s), said wistfully, looking at Vincent, “The only Walters we knew was several years ago; Johnny Walters in Mackinaw City, Michigan.”

Stunned … and I mean, truly stunned … I said, “Who are you guys? My dad was John Walters in Mackinaw City, Michigan.” Many years ago.

Turns out, she was Mary Jean Milner, aka, “Jeannie,” whom I’d heard my folks talk about as one of their summertime Mackinaw friends, and also the daughter of long time Indy Second Presbyterian Church minister, Dr. Jean Milner. More next week.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) became fast friends with the Aligs and learned much about his mom’s younger days from Mary Jean, 95, who died Friday, Dec. 6, in Carmel. Her funeral is 11:30 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 12, at Legacy Bible Church, Fishers, IN.

 

Friends, Almost nothing is known about the most voluminous writer of the New Testament – Luke – Gospel author and first Church historian, but he sure helps us know Jesus.  See the column below. You are also welcome to join us 10:30 a.m. Thursdays at e91 for our Mustard Seed Bible Study through the Spring on “The People in the Gospel of Luke.” - Bob

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Spirituality Column #844

January 17, 2023

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Luke Was Different

By Bob Walters

“I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.” – Luke 1:3-4

Luke, the writer of the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts, isn’t identified by name in either book, is mentioned only three times in the New Testament, and if truly a gentile, was the only non-Jewish writer in all the Bible.  Oh, wait.  Except for Job.

And by the way, Luke, this non-Jew, in only two books wrote 28 percent of the New Testament text, more than Paul’s 24 percent in 13 books, and John’s 20 percent in five.  Luke was the first church historian (Acts) and only guesses and legends remain as to his place of birth (Antioch or Philippi?), his death (Thebes?), where he was educated (Greece?), or how he came to believe in Christ, know Paul, and join Paul’s journeys.

Famously a physician, virtually nothing concrete is known about Luke, scripture’s finest writer of Greek.  In the closing lines of “greetings” in three of the Apostle Paul’s letters, Luke is called a “doctor” in Colossians 4:14, is Paul’s lone companion in 2 Timothy 4:11 – considered to be the imprisoned Paul’s last letter shortly before his death in Rome – and appears in a brief list of Paul’s companions in Philemon 1:24.

Tellingly, in Colossians 4:11 before mentioning Luke in 4:14, Paul’s greeting identifies “Aristarchus, Onesimus, Mark…” and others saying “these are the only Jews among my fellow workers for the Kingdom of God.”  So, Luke … not a Jew.

Yet, great evidence exists that Luke was nonetheless a well-studied student of Jewish theology with a profound, obviously spirit-filled understanding of the importance, impact, purpose, position, and person of Jesus Christ.  This made him a great companion to Paul, the former Jewish Pharisee and now Christ’s apostle to the gentiles.

The Gospel of Luke is one of the three “Synoptic” Gospels with its many similarities to Matthew and Mark, while the Gospel of John is considered separate, i.e., “The Fourth Gospel.”  Some say Matthew was written heavily laden with Hebrew images for the Jews, Mark was succinct for the “to-the-point” Romans, Luke wrote elegantly for the Greeks, and John wrote in the Holy Spirit for everybody.

Each Gospel, then, had its own purpose and audience.  Luke may be famous as a doctor, but he held sufficient academic authority as a writer and historian that his testimony of Christ proved compelling even to those who did not start with belief in the Jewish God.  Luke’s polished use of eyewitness testimony, as an “outsider,” gave him the targeted purpose of preaching Christ not only to gentiles and pagans, but to the leaders and intellectuals of other cultures “to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

Jesus, the Son of God, was a new idea for everybody.  Many Jews rebelled, but the story of Jesus traveled quickly and non-Jewish leaders and intellectuals who heard the tale of the Resurrection and the Son of God wanted to know if it were true.  That is likely the case with Theophilus (“lover of God”), assumed to be a Roman elite and likely a patron and publisher for Luke’s investigation.  Theophilus wanted to know truth.

Luke’s Gospel also had another purpose.  Written in 60 A.D. or after, heresies had already crept into the church, e.g., think of Paul’s letters to the Church at Corinth.  Luke wrote, citing eyewitnesses, to preserve truth among the believers, and wrote as an intellectual outsider so elites elsewhere couldn’t shrug him off “because he was a Jew.”

We don’t know a lot about Luke, but thanks to him, we know a lot about Jesus.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) is teaching a series on “The People in the Gospel of Luke” in e91’s Mustard Seed Bible Study, 10:30 a.m. Thursdays, free and open to all.

Friends,

Here is Common Christianity #830 (10-11-22), “What in the World?” Godly wisdom and worldly wisdom are two fairly different things, but easy spot while hard to define.  See the column just below.  Have a great week!  Bob

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Labels: James 3:13-18, Kindness, Mustard Seed Bible study, peace, philosophy, U.S. Supreme Court, wisdom

Spirituality Column #830

October 11, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

What in the World?

By Bob Walters

“Who is wise and understanding among you?” – James 3:13

Wisdom is one of those wonderful cosmic qualities, like love and beauty, that defies common, worldly definition.

One can spend a great deal of time describing wisdom or love or beauty without nailing a repeatable, true-in-every-case, conclusive list of qualities.  It’s easier to revert to the “I know it when I see it” argument Justice Potter Stewart used in a 1964 U.S. Supreme Court case involving free speech and a more opposite idea, obscenity.

But wisdom is the topic of the day.  In preparing a lesson on James 3:13-18 for a Mustard Seed session last week I discovered a couple of plainly observable elements of “wisdom” that I’ve previously overlooked … but now realize they are there all the time.

One is kindness, and the other is peace. Yeah … it surprised me too.  These have not been the first things I think of regarding wisdom.  Now, I can’t un-think of them.

James is considered the New Testament’s unofficial “wisdom literature” because it is similar in pithy, practical, easily accessible tone and advice to the Old Testament’s Book of Proverbs.  Plain language, plain instruction: do the right thing and it is wisdom.

“Who is wise…?” James can tell with two sure indicators – “a good life, and humility.” (v13) Good life here means “free of self-inflicted chaos” and humility is bridling one’s pride.  If we think of a “good life” as being “rich, smart, good looking, and healthy” – hey, I’d take it, I think – we are nonetheless flirting with and possibly nosediving into James’ next point (v14) about harboring “bitter envy, selfish ambition … [and] boasting.”

Humans tend to idolize the worldly stuff we attain, and we need to not do that.

We never encounter selfish envy and think, “This is a wise person.”  But when we see grace and calmness amid difficulty, and an abiding concern for others, and let’s not forget love, we sense a power beyond fallen humanity’s chaotic fight for survival.

I daresay we sense the comforting, peace-tending presence of the divine.

James, the half-brother of Jesus, clearly delineates origins of two different kinds of wisdoms: the wisdom from above, i.e., God, and the wisdom from below, which he describes as earthly, unspiritual, demonic (v15).  This is the worldview that creates trouble amid those who are “wise in their own eyes” (Is 5:21, Prov 26:12, Rom 1:22). To avoid, disbelieve, or discount divine – i.e., God’s – wisdom is to sow chaos and death. 

Only God’s wisdom is permanent and eternal.  Man’s earthly wisdom – we all have at least some – works for a while but ends at human death; there is no enduring, eternal peace, no “next round” to go to.  Unspiritual wisdom gives rise to earthly disorder, and when the “wisdom” of demons and Satan call the plays, evil flourishes.

Sadly, there is only limited “play” for this assessment, and that only among those of us who believe the Bible and the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  Jesus is our connecting point to God and salvation. Whatever else happens in life, when we have relationship with Jesus, wisdom shows in kindness and inherent peace. Non-believers lack that.

Think of the countless libraries of human philosophy that are plenty erudite but lack God, the fear of God, and relationship with Christ. James shouldered the task of defining the world’s new reality in Christ, and it was God’s wisdom James shared.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) encourages you to think of Godly and wise people you know; they live in kindness and peace, right?