Take Two Tablets -- FPC sermon excerpt
This month contains a silver anniversary.
Something significant happened exactly 25 years ago. Ronald Reagan was president, leading the fight against communism. He told a story about a collective farm in the Soviet Union, one in which a state commissar grabbed a farm worker and said, “Comrade, how are the crops?”
“Oh,” said the farm worker, “Comrade Commissar, if we could put the potatoes in one pile, they would reach the foot of God.”
The commissar corrected him, “This is the Soviet Union, comrade. There is no God.”
“That’s all right,” said the farm worker, “there are no potatoes.”
But that’s a joke — that’s not what happened in February 1983. That month, Ronald Reagan proclaimed 1983 to be “The Year of the Bible.”
You remember it, don’t you? “The Year of the Bible.”
I didn’t think so.
Sure, 1983 was better known for the final episode of the television series M*A*S*H, which ended after 11 years and 251 episodes. It was the same year that Sally Ride became the first American woman in space, and the Soviet Union shot down Korean Air Flight 007. Oh, and this might surprise you: Microsoft Word was first released that year.
But 1983 as “The Year of the Bible”? It’s hard to remember. I certainly don’t.
President Reagan’s proclamation said, in part, “Today our beloved America and, indeed, the world, is facing a decade of enormous challenge. As a people we may well be tested as we have seldom, if ever, been tested before.” That was true then, and it is true today.
He went on to say, “We will need resources of spirit even more than resources of technology, education, and armaments. [The Bible is] the writing that Abraham Lincoln called ‘the best gift God has ever given to man … But for it we could not know right from wrong.”
“The Year of the Bible” came and went, and few people — if any — remember it. But we still need the “resources of spirit even more than resources of technology.” The Bible remains one of God’s greatest gifts to us, revealing God’s will and showing us what is right and wrong. It is a book that should be approached with gratitude and urgency … not just one year, but every year.
Exodus 24 gives us an excellent place to begin. Here, God instructs Moses to “take two tablets” — the Ten Commandments. Moses goes up Mount Sinai, into a cloud that contains the glory of the Lord, and receives the gift of two tablets. But he soon discovers that the laws of God can be hard for people to swallow.
Something significant happened exactly 25 years ago. Ronald Reagan was president, leading the fight against communism. He told a story about a collective farm in the Soviet Union, one in which a state commissar grabbed a farm worker and said, “Comrade, how are the crops?”
“Oh,” said the farm worker, “Comrade Commissar, if we could put the potatoes in one pile, they would reach the foot of God.”
The commissar corrected him, “This is the Soviet Union, comrade. There is no God.”
“That’s all right,” said the farm worker, “there are no potatoes.”
But that’s a joke — that’s not what happened in February 1983. That month, Ronald Reagan proclaimed 1983 to be “The Year of the Bible.”
You remember it, don’t you? “The Year of the Bible.”
I didn’t think so.
Sure, 1983 was better known for the final episode of the television series M*A*S*H, which ended after 11 years and 251 episodes. It was the same year that Sally Ride became the first American woman in space, and the Soviet Union shot down Korean Air Flight 007. Oh, and this might surprise you: Microsoft Word was first released that year.
But 1983 as “The Year of the Bible”? It’s hard to remember. I certainly don’t.
President Reagan’s proclamation said, in part, “Today our beloved America and, indeed, the world, is facing a decade of enormous challenge. As a people we may well be tested as we have seldom, if ever, been tested before.” That was true then, and it is true today.
He went on to say, “We will need resources of spirit even more than resources of technology, education, and armaments. [The Bible is] the writing that Abraham Lincoln called ‘the best gift God has ever given to man … But for it we could not know right from wrong.”
“The Year of the Bible” came and went, and few people — if any — remember it. But we still need the “resources of spirit even more than resources of technology.” The Bible remains one of God’s greatest gifts to us, revealing God’s will and showing us what is right and wrong. It is a book that should be approached with gratitude and urgency … not just one year, but every year.
Exodus 24 gives us an excellent place to begin. Here, God instructs Moses to “take two tablets” — the Ten Commandments. Moses goes up Mount Sinai, into a cloud that contains the glory of the Lord, and receives the gift of two tablets. But he soon discovers that the laws of God can be hard for people to swallow.
posted by Henry Brinton | 10:54 AM
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