FOR GOOD MEASURE: Volume 7, December, 1988 

by Paul F. Bosch


Ten Radio Meditations (61-70)
originally composed by ELCIC pastor Paul F. Bosch
for CFCA-FM, Kitchener, Ontario.

These meditation appear in speech-line form. 
With a little bit of editing, 
they may be rendered in paragraph form 
for use in newsletters and guides to worship.
Be sure to credit the author for his work.


61)  Limited liability corporation
62)  RC's enjoined: assist at mass:  "stand there..."
63)  Luther:  "You can't prevent the bats..." 
64)  E. Roosevelt:  "No one can make you feel inferior...:
65)  Jennifer Able: "...fun to pretend...?"
66)  Goethe: "...begin by taking delight..."
67)  Ontological necessity...
68)  "Where the groaning is..." feminism...
69)  St. Felicitas:  Black African...
70)  Henry Ford:  "If you think you can, or can't..."




61)  
In the late Middle Ages, 
     the emerging economic system we now call capitalism 
     developed two new forms: 
     one was interest on money loaned, called usury, 
     and the second was the limited liability corporation.  

Roman Catholics, in the late middle ages, 
     opposed both of these new inventions;  
     Protestants favored them.

The argument against the limited liability corporation, 
     among those who opposed the idea, was this:  
     the limited liability corporation was legally a person;  
     yet it was granted under law only a limited liability, 
     a limited responsibility. 

So, the argument ran, such a corporation
     cannot have a soul:
     There's a danger that there's no conscience there,
     no sense of responsibility,
     with that kind of limited liability.

I guess we're struggling today
     with the same problem:  
     where's the soul in our corporations,
     in our institutions?




62)  
The most profound question a person can ask 
     is what the philosophers would call 
     the question of ontological necessity:

In simpler words, that's the question:
     "Why should there be something, and not nothing?"

And you can ask that question of the whole universe,
     or of any part of it:  
     a maple tree in the colors of autumn;  
     a sunrise;  a sunset;  a snowflake;  
     the fingers of frost on the windowpane in winter.

That is, why should there be a maple tree, let's say, 
      in the colors of autumn, and not no maple tree?  Nothing? 
Why should there be a sunrise; a sunset; 
             the frost on the window, and not nothing?  

None of it had to be;  
     there's no necessity 
     for any of it existing in the first place. 

Now when you ask that question, 
     you begin to see the character of gift in everything.  

You begin to see the maple tree, the sunrise, the snowflake 
     are each one in their own way a gift to you.




63)  
I can remember from the sixties 
     a favorite buzz word of the civil rights movement.

Maybe you too will remember
     that the activists in those days said that Christian people
     should be "where the action is."

That made some sense to me,
until I heard someone say, no, we don't need to be 
     where the action is, but rather
     where the groaning is.

It's not the action that needs the attention
     of people of good will;
     it's the groaning, the pain, the hurt.

These days, I've heard a lot of groaning,
     a lot of pain and hurt and wounding
     from women.

And whatever you feel about the women's movement,
     or women's liberation,
     you have to admit that there's a lot 
     of pain out there.

That's a pain, a groaning worth listening to.

     For my part, I hope Christian people,
     at least, at last are listening.




64)
I have a friend who's a black, 
     and he tells of serving as altar boy   
     as a kid, 
     in the local Roman Catholic Church   
     named St. Felicitas

The pastor of St. Felicitas was a sensitive fellow,
     and when the neighborhood around the church 
     began to change from Italian to black
     he wanted a new name for the church,
     a name that sounded less Italian,
     more hospitable to blacks.

Imagine his surprise when he discovered that St. Felicitas,
     far from being Italian,
     was actually a North African black,
     and an early Christian martyr.

It set me to wondering:
     What might it mean for Christians 
     to understand their name -- Christian  -- 
     and to live like it?





65)
Older generations of Roman Catholics 
     were enjoined to "assist" at mass  --
     that's the word they used.

I like that because it suggests 
     a kind of active waiting upon the Lord,
     and a kind of active waiting upon the Lord's people.

The word assist derives from the Latin "to stand",
     and it recalls to me the poster bearing words
     ascribed to Dan Berrigan, the activist priest.

The poster says "Don't just do something; stand there!"

There are times in the Christian journey 
     when we want to roll up our sleeves and get to work.

But there will be other times -- just as important --
     when we will simply want to wait upon the Lord, 
     to stand and wait in confident expectancy.




66) 
Eleanor Roosevelt is supposed to have given 
     this wise advice:
     No one can make you feel inferior
     without your permission.

I like that as a reminder 
     that we have control over our own thoughts,
     yes, as you might expect, and
     over our own feelings.

That's less readily apparent; 
     that we can, in a sense, control our feelings.

But I think it's true:  if I criticize you,
     unfairly, for example,
     or put you down, 
     you don't have to believe it.

     You don't have to buy what I say.

I can't make you feel inferior:
     that's something you do to yourself.

I couldn't get away with it without your permission.

It's worthwhile remembering 
     that you're worthwhile, 
     that you're loveable and capable,
     no matter what anyone says,
     no matter what anyone does.




67)  
Martin Luther had a way with words,
     and he's supposed to have said this:
     "You can't prevent the bats 
     from flying around your head.
     But you can keep them 
     from making a nest in your hair."


What he meant by that, of course,
     is to point out the control 
     we have over our own thoughts.

The fact is,
     I can't do much about the thoughts,
     the desires, the fantasies that crowd into my brain
     from minute to minute.

Some of those thoughts and fantasies are fun 
     and some are harmless
     and some are scary and even dangerous.

I can't prevent any of them from coming to me.

But I can take responsibility
     for giving them a permanent home.

I don't have to dwell on the scary thoughts,
     the harmful fantasies, 
     the dangerous desires.

Thoughts, fantasies, desires -- 
     I'll never get rid of them, altogether.

I probably wouldn't want to.

But I don't have to pay them much attention.

I don't have to let them make a nest in my hair.




68)  
I took part in a play at the University
     a couple of years ago,   
     and the director had given a small part in the play 
     to his precocious twelve-year-old daughter.

Anyhow, on opening night, I was backstage,
     in costume and makeup,
     and I was making faces at myself in the mirror,
     when I found this 12 year old watching me.

With some embarrassment.,
     I turned to her and said,
     "Isn't it fun to pretend to be somebody you're not?"

Without so much as a pause for breath,
     she said,
     "There are days when I spend all my waking hours that way."

I found myself beaming with delight at this precocious child:
     so self-aware, 
     so self assured, 
     so transparent and open and guileless.

Maybe that's part of what Jesus meant when he said
     that the kingdom of God belongs to kids.




69)  
Here's a neat quotation for you,
     from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

"In every new situation," he says,
     we must start all over again like children, 
     cultivate a passionate interest 
     in things and events,
     and begin by taking delight in externals,
     until we have the good fortune
     to grasp the substance."

Now that's terrific,
     in my view.

It reminds me that, in every new situation,
     I've got to begin
     with the externals,
     with the superficialities, even.

And only when I've taken full delight in them
     will I be given the grace
     to know and appreciate the substance,
     the deep-down essence of things.

I suppose it's a reminder
     that God wants externals and substance 
     both to carry meaning,
     and for us to take delight in them.




70) 
Here's a great quotation for you.
     It's from Henry Ford, of all people.

He's supposed to have given this wise advice:
     "If you think you can,
     or if you think you cannot, you're right."

I love that because it seems to me 
     to put responsibility right where it belongs.

If I think I can, I probably can.

If I think I can't, I probably can't.

So much of life's successes depend, 
     that is,
     on my own attitude.

If I go into a project with a positive attitude,
     there's a good chance I'll fulfill my own expectations.

There's a good chance nothing will happen
     without my own expectation
     without my own active sense of positive outcome,
     without my own active will and commitment.

Christians have another word for that kind of optimism.

It's "hope."