Montgomery County sentinel., 1951-01-11

wealthy OF n x@ $Es ~
states they ask,
How much have
you got?" In the
South where pedi-
grees are SO much
treasured, th ey nr-L--.-
ask: who was " oe'a"
your granfather?" But out in the
wide-open west they have only one
question: What can you dO?"
Action in Religion
TT Is fair question. If the answer
1 is Nothing" then it does not
make any difference at all what a
man can answer to the other three
questions.
To be sure, they look at this
differently in the Orient. Ac-
cording to the ancient philoso-
ply of the East, 1t is only the
inferior man who rushes around
doing things. The superior man
sits and thinks. The Vests ad-
miration for action, and the Or
tents admiration for contem-
platiOn, enter into religion itself.
The typical Oriental "saint"
may be man who never turned
his hand to piece of work in
all his life. The typical western
saint" is likely to be a very
busy and active sort of person.
1t is all the more interesting that
Jesus combined both the western
and the eastern ideas of religion.
He was man of prayer and medi-
tation, yet a man Of strenuous life
too.
Life of Action
rYIaa Gospel by Mark. re!iablA
L tradition claims, actually comes
from Simon Peter. During Peter 9
missionary travels he used to speak
often about the life and work of
Jesus, and young John Mark would
take down notes of what he said.
Then later Mark worked up into a
connected gospel" many of those
story-sermons. 1t Is easy to believe
the tradition, because this gospel
sounds SO much like what would
appeal to Peter, man Of action.
At any rate, in Mark we have
very little said about Jesus
teaching, a great deal said about
what he did. Jesus does not have
a spare minute, not day off.
What about the rest of us? Sup
pose some biographer were to write
up you who read these lines. Sup
pose he could use in his story only
your actions, not your words or
IDEAS. Would there be enough ma
;erial for him to write a book?
Words of Power
IKTHILE Mark almost never tells
w us what Jesus taught, he does
tell us that Jesus was a teacher. In
describing the synagogue-service in
Capernaum Mark tells us the peo-
Pile were astonished, and even two
demon-ridden men were struck
down with terror.
What Jesus said that aston
ished the people and alarmed
the dem0niacs we do not know.
Possibly Peter, who was there,
may have been too busy watch
ing peoples faces to hear what
Jesus was saying. However that
may be, Jesus Is here introduced
to us not only as doer but as
a thinker and teacher.
Life is not all action; it is also
thought. Jesus acts were full OF
power; so and not less so were his
ideas, words, teachings. Look at
the rest of us again: We may be
full of talk, but how much power
is there in our ideas?
Straightway
ONE word is found many times
~ in Marks stories of Jesus:
"Straightway" as the older versions
have it,-that is, Immediately. II
is not just Marks style. 1t is his
way Of bringing out something i'm
portant about Jesus life and habits.
There were no blank spaces,
no pages unwritten, no empty
gaps, no waiting around, In
Jesus life. In his life one ac-
tivity followed on the heels Of
another. He had no time to
waste, and he wasted none.
Let the honest reader try to make
a realistic budget of his time. At
the beginning Of week let him draw
up a kind Of chart showing how he
expects to spend his l6 waking
hours each day,-so much for work,
recreation, study and so forth. Then
at the end of the week let him ask
himself: Where did my time go?
He will often have to admit that he
did not really live the whole day,
any day.-only parts of it. Living as
a Christian means living ones full
time. living one Of those 10 hours a
day.
Copyright by the InternatIoBal CeuB-
oil Of Religious Education en- behalf Of
20 Protestant denominations. Released
By WNu Features)
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