55 MPH
Is it just me, or do you despise the speed limit? I know that preachers are notorious for relaxing Rom.13 on this matter. The urgency of the appointment must outweigh the legitimacy of the limit?! No one would admit to this, but I have watched the wheels turning in too many heads!
You see, the deal is, the authorities must estimate the average skill of the average driver and set the limit accordingly. Any teenager realizes this, even if he can not verbalize it. And, I think there is some truth to this. Really, 55 is such an arbitrary number. And it once was 65, until some statistician during the gas shortage computed how many gallons our nation could save by scaling back the speed limit. (And, doctors might point out the physics of an impact 10 mph slower are more advantageous! 20 mph less if it is head-on!)
All of this is a bit tongue-in-cheek, but it does raise a serious question -- How should we do our theology? I recently read a reprint of a 1964 article (running out of new material?) in a church publication, “G.M.”, which my church sends to me. It lauded the simple, uneducated preaching of a generation ago. All modern preaching, with references to systematic theology, psychology, and sociology, must be a departure from the “old paths”. Is this simply a generation gap, or is it more, a general digression? I am sure the writer of the article would choose the 2nd option. I stand in awe, with jaw frozen open, of the scripture-familiarity, of some great preachers of old. These people could quote whole chapters from memory. Today we live in an age of google and sermoncentral.com. I once read a biography of an old preacher who commented toward the end of his life, that the one thing he would change, if he could, would be to spend more time in the Bible, and less time elsewhere. Amen! But, is it an either/or? It goads me to irritation every time I hear someone quote 2Tim.2:15 in the context of “rightly dividing” covenants (it works only in KJV). But, I calmly smile, listen carefully, and hopefully walk away with some message to make me more like Jesus.
I fuss and fume with dumb-downed approaches. I like words on my signs, not pictures. I like ALL my options with my computer programs, and I also like add-ons. (you should try ASAP utilities with Excel!) But, many want the programs to be in auto-pilot. The automatic spellchecker (can be one or two words, or hyphenated) is annoying to me. But, it works, most of the time.
Lists are a convenient communication tool: the five steps, the seven ones, the … (we might do well to study the nine fruit?! Wouldn’t that be an oxymoron!) But, sometimes oversimplification creates confusion. I really do not want a surgeon with a copy of “Cardiac Surgery for Dummies” working on me! But, neither is it practical for every mother to be an M.D. before she can deal with scrapes and cuts. Jesus is the logos, but he told stories about birds and trees, to get his point across. We need to be more like him, in this area, also! He could fathom the deepest mysteries of the Divine; but, still talk to a woman with a long string of men, and touch her heart. (somehow the P’s could not hear him, though?!)
The point is, it takes all kinds. We need to be like a rugby team -- running, biting, kicking, scratching to get the ball to the other end of the field, a 155 mph! (but, not to each other) The goal is too valuable, and the cost is too precious, to be fighting each other. Let’s join arms and scrum the Snakes off the field and back to Hell where they belong! ( I know this is mixing the metaphors.)
I like it fast and furious. But, I do not want to run over some old-timer doing his thing for Jesus. We are all in this together.
“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2Tim.2:15, KJV [won’t work otherwise!])
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