Memories of JFK

Last December we visited the John F. Kennedy, Presidential Library and Museum in Boston. It was a novel experience for me, the first museum I had been to where I remembered not only living through the events that were showcased but of hearing the original of many of the speeches that were being rebroadcast there. There were many quotes from speeches of the Kennedys on the walls. And I not only knew immediately why I had liked him back in the ‘60s but also couldn’t help but recognize similarities to what we had been hearing pre- and post-election from Justin Trudeau.

“If a free society cannot help the many who are poor,

it cannot save the few who are rich”

John F Kennedy

Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961

“A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on,”

John Fitzgerald Kennedy

And from his brother:

“Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve

the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice,

he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope,

and those ripples build a current whitecap sweep dow

the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance”

Senator Robert Kennedy

University of Cape Town, South Africa, June 6, 1966

All of these resonate with me. On the mug we brought home are these words, also by quoted Kennedy which are from Tales of the Ramayana, as told by Aubrey Menon (New York: Scribner's, 1954), p. 276.

“There are three things which are real:

God, Human Folly and Laughter.

The first two are beyond our comprehension

So we must do what we can with the third.”

This is a quote that I find myself taking exception with every time I handle that mug! I realize that Kennedy was just repeating views which resonated with him based on an upbringing in Roman Catholicism and the scientific knowledge of the 1950s and ‘60s. But that is precisely what makes it (but not the other quotes which are based on ideals which are timeless) dangerous! It is all too easy to put them all under the umbrella of quotes to remember and live by.

We have learn a lot about human psychology since then and new frontiers are continually being explored. Human actions are becoming more and more understood…certainly no longer beyond our comprehension. The upsurge in biblical knowledge and spirituality over the last 60 years, has encouraged the average person to look at what their understanding of God might be and how that understanding changes with a maturing faith.

So while we can’t deny or denigrated the importance of laughter, our horizons have expanded since Kennedy uttered this quote. Here we have the perfect example of the necessity of applying the knowledge of our time and place to the wisdom handed down from the past. Things change, new discoveries are made, and new insights are discovered. It is up to us to incorporate all of that into the wisdom from the past in order to come up with something that works for us in our time. The wisdom from the past tells us what was true for them at that time. We have to decide for ourselves what is true for us now!

Comments

This, too ...

‘By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going.’ -Hebrews 11:8 Dr. Theresa Tam, Chief Public Health Officer of Canada, says this, too, will pass . Dr. Eileen de Villa, Medical Official of Health for Toronto, says this, too, will pass . Justin Trudeau , Prime Minister of Canada, says this, too, will pass . But will it really??? Some days this feels like an unending struggle with just one tiny step forward and not just two, but more like a dozen steps back. Of course I’m talking about COVID-19 with all its associated variants. We might even be forgiven for rewriting that well known quote from Ecclesiastes to read…. For everything there is a season,…but just not for this ! Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a French priest, might well have been talking about COVID when he penned the lines below: We should like to skip The ...

Challenging Faith

“All giving constitutes a challenge to faith because there is no guarantee of a return.” When I heard this statement as part of a sermon on Rogation Sunday, my ears pricked up and my mind started to spin. The rest of the sermon had things to say as well, but this sentence is still the one that has stuck with me. It made, and is still making me think! For those of us who identify ourselves with the church, whenever we hear the word ‘givings’ our minds go immediately to what we put on the offering plate each Sunday and for that we expect, but are not guaranteed, that the church will be there for us when we need it; for weddings, baptisms, funerals and other rites of passage. However what intrigues me about this quotation is that first word. “ ALL giving constitutes a challenge …” And how true it is! Each time we ‘give’ something away and it doesn’t have the expected return, it is upsetting and we have all had that experience. I remember many years ago s...

"Property of Jesus"

Have you seen people wearing shirts that say "Property of Jesus" Perhaps you have seen them for sale in a Christian book store? Have you stopped to consider just what that motto says about the wearer, or more importantly just what it might say about you? 'Property' in a business dictionary, is defined as: " Quality or thing owned or possessed . In Law: Article, item, or thing owned with the rights of possession, use, and enjoyment,... " So if we are the property of another, then they have complete control over us. We are in fact their slave . According to the dictionary, a slave is " someone who is legally owned by another person and is forced to work for that person without pay ; a person who is strongly influenced and controlled " I wonder if the persons wearing these shirts ever consider what they are actually proclaiming? If in fact they are the 'Property of Jesus', does that not mean that they have no choic...

"A Leap of Faith"

"Leap of faith - yes, but only after reflection" - Søren Kierkegaard "Much of Kierkegaard's authorship explores the notion of the absurd: Job gets everything back again by the virtue of the absurd (Repetition); Abraham gets a reprieve from having to sacrifice Isaac, by virtue of the absurd (Fear and Trembling); Kierkegaard hoped to get Regine back again after breaking off their engagement, by virtue of the absurd (Journals); ... the Christian God is represented as absolutely transcendent of human categories yet is absurdly presented as a personal God with the human capacities to love, judge, forgiver, teach, etc." (ex cerpt from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - emphasis mine) Just what does Kierkegaard’s ‘leap of faith’ mean . . . especially if we consider that, as he also postulates, religion is ‘absurd’ [or as the dictionary says, ’ inconsisten...

'God's Presence'

“God's presence is incarnated in the times and places when and where people are willing to be vulnerable and allow the spirit to work unimpeded.” ~ Quoted anonymously While reflecting on this statement, the story of the woman with the hemorrhage kept coming into my mind. It is told in all three of the synoptic gospels, but with a difference: in Matthew the woman does not come forward to admit publicly that she had touched Jesus’ cloak. If we look at the story in Mark and Luke, we see in both accounts that she was unnoticed in the touching the hem of Jesus’ garment, even by the disciplines, and could have just gone away healed and unknown [as she did in Matthew]. But although she was frightened of what Jesus might say to her because, after all, she had made him ritually unclean, she came forwarded and admitted that she was the one who touched him. And THAT act was what made the most difference to her life. Yes, she had been healed physically...

An Allegory

Once upon a time there was a knight and his lady, who lived contently for many years in a southern kingdom. As they aged however, their manor became too big for them and so they decided to relocate in a northern kingdom where smaller quarters were available. They left their friends of many years with a sad good-bye and set off for new adventures. They settled quite happily in their new abode, and joined in all the activities and merry-making until one day, they had to drop out of some of the activities because of their declining years. No one came to ask them why they were no longer taking part. Instead the rest of the folk in that kingdom ignored them and it became very lonely for the knight and his lady The king suggested that they might be happier is a neighbouring kingdom and so they moved a short distance and set up house one more time. This time though things went well for many years. Then the king died. The heir apparent had many different ideas about what ...

To walk humbly with your God ...

1 Peter 5:5[b] …Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Have you ever been asked to chair a committee or lead a discussion, and said “No” even if you secretly wanted to? Have you ever responded to a compliment by belittling the speaker’s words? Have you ever ‘pooh-poohed’ the suggestion that you did something well? Well, I have, to all of the above. After all weren't we taught in Sunday school that we should be humble and not think too highly of ourselves? But how many of us have said “I can’t be the secretary because I can’t spell?” or “I don’t like your idea because it isn’t mine?” I wager that, like me, you come up with another excuse like “I’d love too but I’m much too busy!” or “I like your idea but it would never work!” What if we have the meaning of being humble backwards? What if being humble actually means that we are to admit our shortcomings to others rath...

"On Giving Thanks"

Thanksgiving Is usually one of those ‘easy’ times for me. It is easy to be thankful living with abundance, in safety, with family and friends – so many things to give thanks for, so many blessings undeserved. Some years and for some people, it is not so. What would Thanksgiving mean to me then? How would I deal with it? I came across this prayer not long ago ~ For that which was For that which is For that which will be Thanks be to God And I began to wonder ~ Is the real meaning behind Thanksgiving not so much the ability to be thankful for those things we have in abundance? After all, that is easy. But rather to be thankful for everything we have been given or experienced in life, or are now experiencing: the highs and the lows, the mountain-top experiences and the valleys of death, the deserts and the abundant har...

Another Road

“And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they [the Magi] left for their own country by another road.” Matthew 2:12 NRSV Just the other day I was out with a friend. As we were leaving to go home we decided ‘go by another road’ and the comment was made about how biblical that was. But as I heard the preacher’s opening to their sermon this past week, suddenly I had a very different understanding of just what those words meant in the context of the story of the magi. One might say I had an epiphany! We don’t know anything about who wrote the gospels or even when or why the gospels were written. We can surmise that the authors were writing down these stories in an attempt to pass on the transformative effect the life and teachings of Jesus had had on their lives and perhaps the lives of others around them. So I have come to understand the two birth narratives to be an attempt to rewrite his birth showing this importance. As angels sang, he was revered by t...

'Slipping and Sliding'

“…If you and I are serious about following Jesus…the path we have to follow is not smooth but is like going out to walk today with all the snow and ice on the sidewalks, slipping and sliding. It is not going to be a uniform path to follow, but then it never is…” (Lifted from a sermon heard on January 26, 2014) I grew up in a small village in central Ontario, where the winter meant lots of snow at a time when sidewalk plows were virtually unheard of. We walked [or perhaps trudged is a better word] through the snow to school, to our activities, and yes, even to church. It was exhilarating, wrapped in scarves and layers of mittens to brave the elements! The amount of snow this winter brings back those memories. But my arthritic knee and ankles don’t...

NUDGINGS: a journey into the unknown

Search This Blog