MOVIE & BOOK CORNER

Yes, I actually read a book again. My reading skills aren’t the same since my last stroke because my ability to concentrate on written words is weak. Sometimes the comics in the daily newspaper are tough to get through. But I do have good days and take advantage of them.

This time, I read Mitch Albom’s new book, Have a Little Faith. In Have a Little Faith, Mitch offers a beautifully written story of a remarkable eight year journey between two worlds, two men, two faiths and two communities that will inspire readers everywhere.

It’s his first nonfiction book since “Tuesdays with Morrie”, which was published twelve years ago. It begins with an unusual request: an 82-year-old rabbi from Albom’s old hometown asks him to deliver his eulogy. Feeling unworthy, Mitch insists on understanding the man better, which throws him back into a world of faith he’d left years ago.

Meanwhile, closer to his current home, he becomes involved with a Detroit pastor, a reformed drug dealer and convict, who preaches to the poor and homeless in a decaying church with a hole in its roof. Moving between their worlds, Christian and Jewish, African-American and white, impoverished and well-to-do, Mitch observes how these very different men employ faith similarly in fighting for survival: the older, suburban rabbi, embracing it as death approaches; the younger, inner-city pastor relying on it to keep himself and his church afloat.

As America struggles with hard times and people turn more to their beliefs, Mitch and the two men of God explore issues that perplex modern man: how to endure when difficult things happen; what heaven is; intermarriage; forgiveness; doubting God; and the importance of faith in trying times. Although the texts, prayers and histories are different, Albom begins to realize a striking unity between the two worlds, and indeed, between beliefs everywhere.

In the end, as the rabbi nears death and a harsh winter threatens the pastor’s wobbly church, Albom sadly fulfills the last request and writes the eulogy. Also, he finally understands what both men had been teaching all along: the profound comfort of believing in something bigger than yourself.

Have a Little Faith is a book about a life’s purpose; about losing belief and finding it again; about the divine spark inside us all. It is one man’s journey, but it is everyone’s story.

And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.
Matthew 5:41-42

WHO IS JESUS?

Jesus asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered Him, “You are the Christ”.
Mark 8:29

Two thousand years have gone by since Jesus walked the earth. No other person has been so thoroughly studied and analyzed. And yet, Jesus still is often misunderstood.

During Jesus’ earthly life, people were not sure who He was. Jesus knew this. Therefore, Jesus asked His disciples who the crowds thought He was. His disciples had heard people talking about Jesus, and even they had different thoughts about who He was.

Some people confused Jesus with John the Baptist because they had never seen the two together, and because both preached repentance and forgiveness of sins. Others thought Jesus might be the prophet Elijah come back to earth, because both spoke against the religious establishment. Still, others thought Jesus was a new prophet.

Then, Jesus asked His disciples their opinion. Peter was the only one who declared that Jesus is the Christ. Christ is the Greek word for “Messiah”. In other words, Peter confessed that Jesus was not one of the Old Testament prophets; rather, He was the One whom the prophets predicted. Peter said Jesus was the special King sent by God Himself to save us.

O Jesus, thank You for being the Messiah who died for my sins. Amen.

(Read also, Mark 8: 27- 30 and Psalm 118.)

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It’s the thought that counts

Sometimes, a pastor must think twice about the choice of hymns after a sermon. Here’s an illustration of that.

A pastor was completing a Temperance sermon. With great emphasis he said, "If I had all the beer in the world, I'd take it and pour it into the river."

With even greater emphasis he said, "And if I had all the wine in the world, I'd take it and pour it into the river."

And then finally, shaking his fist in the air, he said, "And if I had all the whiskey in the world, I'd take it and pour it into the river."

Sermon complete, he sat down. The choir director stood very cautiously and announced, with a smile, nearly laughing, "For our closing song, let us sing Hymn #365, "Shall We Gather at the River."