Eats, Shoots, & Leaves: The Importance of a Comma Placement
In the old west, a stranger entered the local saloon. He wore a black, ten gallon hat and his fur was black and white; even his eyes were black like he was wearing a mask. A holster, holding his Colt 45, was strapped around his fat belly. Spurs “clinking” as he walked into the saloon. The music and talking came to an eerie and abrupt stop as the patrons’ eyes slowly followed the stranger to his table where he removed his hat and holster.
A nervous waiter served the stranger. He showed him the menu to which the stranger pointed to the items he wanted to eat. The waiter cautiously and quietly thanked his guest and put the order in. A few minutes later he returned with a bamboo stick and fresh greens, to which the stranger slowly chewed each bite.
When he finished his meal, he reached for his hat and holster. The waiter came and with a crack in his voice, thanked him for his patronage. The stranger pulled out his Colt 45 and shot the waiter. When the stranger reached the exit, the owner of the saloon shouted with a very country twang, “Whatcha do that fer?” The stranger looked at him and quietly said, “Look it up.”
The saloon owner reached under the counter for his 1880 edition of the World Book Encyclopedia (it was only a one-volume encyclopedia back then). He found the letter, “P” and started looking for Pandas. “Here it is,” he noted, and began to read aloud, “Ailuropoda Melanoleuca . . . Giant Pandas . . . endangered species . . . native to south central China . . ..” And with the light of understanding and a nodding motion of his head, he added, “Eats, shoots, and leaves” (cue the laugh track, now).
A friend of mine once sat in my office, sharing his concern. His buddy was engaged to marry a woman who was a member of a questionable, cult-like “Christian” organization. He wanted to know from me what I knew about their core belief system. I told him I knew very little. What I did know comes from two facts: One, this group has their own translation of the Bible. Secondly, they deny the incarnation, so that the Jesus who walked on the earth was not the God who created the earth. Thus, their own translation is a manipulated attempt to support what they already believe (it’s a clear example of “instead of Scripture shaping one’s theology, one personal and bias theology is shaping Scripture” which happens all the time, but on a less formal basis). John 1:1 is the best example, “. . . and the Word was with God and the Word was a god” (New World Translation). All other translations universally translate the same verse, “. . . and the Word was with God and the Word was God.”
However, understanding the Greek is complicated. I looked to my library and retrieved Jack P. Lewis’ book, The English Bible: From KJV-NIV (Dr. Lewis taught at my alma mater, Harding School of Theology), and started reading on the NWT until I found another fascinating verse in Luke 23:43, which clearly exposes their bias. By paralleling the two passages, you can notice the difference:
“I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise” (NIV).
“I tell you the truth today, you shall be with me in paradise” (NWT).
The conflict is over the placement of the comma. Does it belong after “truth” or after “today.” If the NIV is right, then Jesus is assuring the criminal on the cross that his paradise experience will occur “today.” However, if the NWT is right, then Jesus is assuring the criminal that his words are true “today” (almost as if on another day his words might be false). Where is the comma supposed to be? By looking at other verses with the same structure (Mt. 5:26; Mk. 10:15; Jn. 1:51, et. al.) it soon becomes apparent that the comma belongs after “truth.”
So the whole story and debate comes down to a comma. Nothing in the English language is as small and minute as a comma. Yet, if ignored or wrongly placed can have devastating results. Where are the commas in your life? Where are those little items in your life that, if you ignore because they are small and seemingly insignificant, they could cause great conflict? Who knows? Instead of one who “eats shoots, and leaves,” you might end up being someone who “eats, shoots, and leaves.”
Soli Deo Gloria!
(i.e., only God is glorified!)
Hand in the Hand
Follow Me, Boys!
The Beagle Scouts were a common thread Schulz wove into his daily strips. Snoopy was the Scoutmaster who led Woodstock, Conrad, Bill, and Oliver on numerous adventurous hikes. They camped out, roasted marshmallows, and learned about nature. While the group began as a “boys only” organization, they eventually let Harriet join the group because of her famous angel food cake with seven minute icing.
When Schulz introduced the Beagle Scouts, he was not only offering a parody of the Boys Scouts, but he clearly had a competence tone in mind. In that first panel Lucy couldn’t believe Snoopy was involved with scouting. She asked, “What kind of scout are you,” then followed it up by a scathing commentary, adding, “You don’t know anything about scouting!” Snoopy smiled and responded, “I’m a Tenderpaw.” (Boy Scouts get the obvious pun).
I don’t believe Snoopy really knew a lot about scouting either. He did offer sound advice like, “The first rule of course is always follow your leader,” and “stay together because we’re a team.” However, his “troop” never quite understood scouting, like the time they built their campfire out of their own (wooden) tent pegs, or the time Snoopy corrected Oliver over the proper response to roll call when he said, “No Oliver. You do not say ‘When the Roll Is Call Up Yonder, I’ll Be There.’”
I see a lot of myself in Snoopy’s leadership. When I joined the Boy Scouts leadership, I knew nothing about camping. I didn’t know how to set up a tent. I didn’t know how to tie a knot. I didn’t know, and still cannot recite the Scout Law or Oath. A group of boys were placed under the care of my inadequate leadership. In many ways I learned as they learned, and I learned from them as much as they learned from me. While today, I do know how to set up a tent and stay warm in cold weather, I never did quite master the Scout Law and Oath, and I still hadn’t a clue about tying knots.
Fred MacMurray stared in the 1966 Disney movie, Follow Me, Boys! After spending time on the road with a band, McMurray decided to settle down in a small town. In order to win the favor of a local girl, he started a Boy Scout troop, and he knew about as much as scouting as I did; his inability to ties knots becomes a running gag in the movie. In the end, McMurray builds a successful Scout Troop, not because of what he knows, but because he was passionate about Scouting, and believed in the boys he was leading. More than what he taught the boys, he modeled daily living for the boys who needed a male presence and leadership in their lives.
On numerous occasions the apostle Paul called for his churches to follow him, because he was following Jesus (1 Cor. 4:16; 11:1; Phil. 3:17; 4:9; 1 Thess. 1:6; 2 Thess. 3:7,9). The words can sound like an ego-centric person, or someone whose pride has distorted what it means to live a life of faith. Certainly, some of the so-called “Christian Leaders” we find today are so concerned with gaining their own fame and following that they forget they’re primary responsibility is to point those followers to Jesus. Paul’s statement to follow him is only in light of how well he himself is following Jesus, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1).
Concerning biblical leadership, two points of interest are worth highlighting. First, to be a good leader doesn’t mean you have all the answers, but it does mean you’re willing to find the answers. As one person said, “It’s not what you know that matters, but who you know, or how much you care.” Good leaders have the right people around them, who offer sound/healthy advice, wisdom, and keep the leader accountable to his/her own actions. Simply put, you don’t have to know how to tie a bow-line knot, but you can say, “We can learn this together.”
This brings us to the second point of biblical leadership. You must model something about Jesus in your life for people to see. When Paul says to “follow me because I follow Jesus,” then there must be something concrete about Paul’s discipleship of Jesus for the church to see. Did they see his compassion, his forgiveness, his love, his joy? If 1 Corinthians 11:1 is a summary statement for the previous section in chapters 8-10, then his leadership example is about giving up his freedoms or rights for the good of others. (By the way, I like Peter’s generalized statement to elders. They have the authority to model the Christian faith [1 Pet. 5:3]. Leadership is less about power and control and more about showing what Jesus is supposed to look like in each other.)
Snoopy may not have been the best Beagle Scout, but we’ll give him a pass because he’s Snoopy. However, no one can doubt that his motive was pure, and that he cared about his followers. Ultimately, isn’t the level of compassion and concern you have for those under your care the real mark of great leadership?
bonum dolar!
(i.e., good grief!)
Jail Time
Keep On Singing
“So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God you will receive what he has promised” (Heb. 10:35-36).
Can you sense the urgency of his plea? These believers were about to throw in the towel, and it was left to the author to convince them to stay faithful. Maybe these Christians had failed to count the cost, and presumed that a life defined by faith would be easy; or maybe the appeal to the Temple “mega praise” was competing with their small group simple worship. Whatever was driving their decision, they found themselves at a crossroads. The journey was wearing on them. Do they continue or admit defeat by calling it a “run?”
While Scripture is clear about staying faithful to God, defining “faithfulness” can be much more complicated. Such an understanding means trying to read the signs and explain events within our lives. Paul comes to my mind. While he received his calling from God on the road to Damascus, his calling was not always embraced by the church. His ministry was filled with beatings, jail time, and people questioning his own ability if not his own credibility. At any time, he could have rationalized that God wanted him to step aside and let someone else (e.g. younger with more talent) replace him.
With limited perspective, we have a difficult time distinguishing God’s will for our immediate context. Do we stay or go? Which job do we take? What major should we declare? Do we speak or remain silent? Do we open our churches in the midst of a global pandemic or remain only online? Where is the moment when our political ideology infringes on the Kingdom of God, and what do we do about it that line is crossed? When we’re told to stop singing, should we silence our voices or just sing that much louder? What God wants is easier defined in broad terms, what he wants from us right now is often confusing.
George Younce and Glenn Payne of The Cathedral Quartet modeled faithfulness, but it came through the roller-coaster of professional gospel musicians. In the mid-sixties they were the successful worship leaders for Rex Humbard’s Church of the Cathedral with a built-in TV audience. When they went out on their own, they lost their following, struggled to sell concert tickets and records, not to mention making ends meet. With continual turnover in the group, by 1979, George and Glenn finally assembled a group they felt could sing, until a concert promoter convinced the three younger members that George and Glenn did not have their best interest at heart; he misled them to leave and form a new group.
Devastated, George and Glenn found themselves at a crossroads. Life on the road had not been easy, their families had suffered, and their record company was threatening to drop them. What should they do? They were tempted to quit; just how many groups actually make it in the music business anyway? But since they were working on their latest album, they saw it to completion. George took Dottie Rambo’s classic, “I’ve Never Been This Homesick Before,” and used it to set the tone for the new album, an album simply entitled, Keep On Singing. They continued singing through the valley, and despite the setbacks, they persevered to become the epitome of faithfulness for Southern Gospel music.
(Sidebar: they soon hired Mark Trammell to sing baritone, and later Roger Bennet to play the piano, and with their stable presence remained with the group for the next twenty years. Kirk Talley was also hired and became the cornerstone for Cathedrals’ tenor voices; he would be followed by Danny Funderburk and then Ernie Haase. By the time George and Glen retired in 1999, they were the premiere Southern Gospel group in America).
Not all stories end with an encore, but all stories can end with faithfulness (read that line again). It’s not always easy to determine God’s specific will in the moment, but he does expect a faithful trust. He doesn’t guarantee prestige or financial success, but he does ensure his presence. Sometimes we must make difficult decisions, and even give up on dreams, so that we can live out his dreams. Through it all, though, we can keep on singing.
Soli Deo Gloria!
(i.e., only God is glorified!)
Keeping On
When Your Faith Goes Public
Some twenty of us were gathered on a Sunday night in the D.P. Culp Center auditorium on the campus of East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, TN, near the birthplace of the modern day Storytelling Festival. We were students and former students of Dr. Flora Joy who orchestrated the academic Storytelling program on campus. She had organized a 45 minute Halloween Storytelling show that included a little song, a skit, and a powerful story. For two days students were bussed from local schools for the free performance, and we were the entertainers.
She was explaining how the program was going to unfold. We knew our individual parts, but hadn’t seen how it was going to come together until that evening. In the midst of explaining the program, she said that we still had five minutes we needed to fill, and asked if any of us had any ideas.
I was wearing my suit because I drove from church services where I preached that night prior to the rehearsal. I wasn’t that well known by the other students and storytellers, and my friendship with Dr. Joy was still in its very infancy. Theologically, I had no clue where the people around me were; we weren’t exactly in the Bible belt. Were they believers? If they were believers, were they religiously liberal or conservative? Were they apathetic or resentful toward religion? I didn’t know where they stood, and I can only assume where they saw I stood.
“Who has any ideas to fill a five minute void,” Flora asked us. No one else volunteered, so I raised my hand. She acknowledged my willingness and asked me to share my thoughts. I did. Like the excitement of a child, I suggested, “With all the children here, I could stand up and witness . . .” I saw her eyes struck with fear, and the room immediately grew eerily silent. I’m pretty sure she was rethinking both the invitation to express my idea, as well as inviting me to participate in the production, and I can only imagine what the people around me was thinking. I continued my suggestion, “. . . and share with the children how on Halloween night the Great Pumpkin rises out of the most sincere pumpkin patch to deliver goodies to all the good little boys and girls.” The sigh of relief from my friend and teacher, with the laughter from those around me, was worth the suspense only moments before. The icing was taking great pride in knowing I had created a storytelling moment.
Beyond the humor, the instant haunted me. I wondered. I questioned. I struggled with the larger issue: when should my faith go public? When should my private core values become a matter for the public forum?
Give credit to Linus. He stands alone. He’s unmovable in his faith. He makes no excuses about where he places his faith. No matter the ridicule, he stands his ground. He’s vocal about the goodness of the Great Pumpkin, and even critical of the guy in the red suit.
He writes letters. He shares his faith. He sits in the most sincere pumpkin patch. No all are so bold in their faith, but all need some boldness in their faith.
During the days of Elijah, when King Ahab and his wicked wife, Jezebel, were persecuting the faithful, Elijah met with Obadiah (1 Kings 18:1-15). Elijah’s voice was on public display for the king. Obadiah operated under the radar. Obadiah was a servant in King Ahab’s courts, but he served the Living God. His ministry included hiding 100 of God’s prophets, keeping them supplied with food, water, and shelter (very difficult and remarkable since the land was in the midst of a three year drought). Elijah needed Obadiah to deliver a message to the king. In doing so, Obadiah would be exposed; Ahab would know his true loyalties and the prophets he’s hid would be vulnerable. Naturally, Obadiah hesitated in volunteering for Elijah’s mission. Elijah refused to take “no” for an answer, and Obadiah had to step out of the shadows and go public with his faith.
The church is filled with many Obadiah’s. They do great work and ministry behind the scenes. No one knows what they do – like buying lunch for a soldier, or visiting with an elderly person, or mowing the lawn of their neighbor who is battling an illness. No, their voice goes unheard, but their actions speak loud to God’s glory. However, a time may come, like it did for Obadiah, when one’s words must be as definitive as the actions they’ve been taking. Someone will have to say, “I need to tell you about what God has done in my life,” or “I need to tell you that I am a person of faith and my faith is in my Lord, Jesus Christ,” or “I need to speak so that you understand how my actions line up with my faith,” even if it brings ridicule.
Schulz caught lightening in a bottle when he developed Linus’ Great Pumpkin story. But I cannot help but wonder the point of his message. Did he think Linus was brave, or just crazy? I’m not sure. I am sure of this, “Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven” (Mt. 10:32). And they man who spoke those words, was often thought to be crazy himself (Mk. 3:20-21).
bonum dolar!
(i.e., Good Grief!)
A Wounded Warrior
God’s Day In Court: When YHWH Brought Charges Against His People
People love a good courtroom drama. From Perry Mason to Law & Order and from Atticus Finch to the gripping trial of Casey Anthony, we’re drawn to the courtroom as we sit on the edge of our seats in anticipation of the verdict. We hope that justice will be served and all the wrongs committed will somehow be made right. Sometimes they are, sometimes they’re not and other times we’re left wondering what happened?
The prophet Micah orchestrated a courtroom drama unlike ever witnessed by Israel. Micah oversaw significant and unprecedented history as he watched Samaria fall and then predicted Jerusalem’s doom. Sure, the people of Judah clearly understood why Samaria deserved such punishment, but the plank was too thick and heavy for any introspective on their part. Samaria was evil and fell from grace. Judah, on the other hand, was home to Jerusalem, the temple and the reign of David’s dynasty. God’s Name was in there, and with his covenant, he wouldn’t allow anything to happen to the City of David. Would he? So they glossed over their own sins and charged God’s rule with incompetence. So God counter sues them and gets his day in court.
The drama in Micah 6 unfolds in four movements. A summons is called as God sends out for his creation to gather as witnesses against Israel (Mic. 6:1-2). Once the court is in session, God, acting as the plaintiff, turns to the defendant and questions their charges against him. The evidence God produces is the salvation history of Israel. He rescued them from slavery and sent Moses to lead them. With so many marvelous works God performed for Israel, he shares just enough to shame and to quiet Israel (Mic. 6:3-5). They have no case against God.
Knowing they’re defeated, and to settle the suit quickly and quietly, Israel seeks to know what God really wants in recompense. Burnt offerings of a one year old calf? Sacrifices of a thousand rams with ten thousand rivers of oil? Is he wanting their firstborn (Mic. 6:6-7)? While Micah may be using hyperbole to make his point, it’s clear that Israel believes more ritual will satisfy God’s anger and atone for their sins. More ritual.
But God doesn’t want more offerings. No more empty rituals. In fact, he might be sick of their sacrifices.+ Instead, God calls Israel to model his own behavior. What God really wants from his people is found in three settlement requirements (Mic. 6:8).
* Seek Justice > not only are God’s people called to stand against sin and corruption (and to stop our own participation in it), but we’re called to defend and/or speak on behalf of those who are weaker and vulnerable in our society. So when individuals or groups are marginalized, exploited and/or abused, God’s people are called to bring balance to justice.
* Love Mercy > far from simply a call for compassion, mercy extends to action. Take that feeling and turn it into deeds. Here the Hebrew word, hesed, is the same word used to describe God’s Covenant Love he made with Israel. God’s people are to be committed to each other modeling God’s commitment to his people. Loving mercy is a stronger way of saying to follow the second greatest command: love your neighbor as yourself.
* Walk Humbly > while many may view this as a “I come to the garden alone” moment, Micah saw this requirement as a combination of the first two, so that “seeking justice” and “loving mercy” is walking humbling with God. As the Apostle John might say, our love for God is in direct proportion to loving each other (see 1 Jn. 4:7-12).
People love a good courtroom drama, unless they’re at the center of the case. No doubt Israel was feeling uncomfortable being called into the courtroom by God, and even more so by turning a deaf ear to his settlement requirements. To be honest, so do we. How comfortable is it to ignore the need for justice and mercy, or worse to point fingers. We have a choice: we can take a risk “to walk humbly with God” as Micah defines it, or we can ignore our calling and simply wait for the day we’re summoned to appear in God’s courtroom.
Soli Deo Gloria!
(i.e., only God is glorified!)
+The prophet Amos was a contemporary with Micah and he not only believes God hated their sacrifices, but he also called for justice as well (see Amos 5:21-24).