Inspired by Sonnetjoy's blog from yesterday; where you can also read this:

I remember you wanting to help me shovel the sidewalk.  So we put you into your purple snow suit and blue moon boots and gave you a red plastic toy shovel and you followed me out into the storm.  We shoveled until the walk was clear and I had shed two layers of warmth and your cheeks were rosé.  Two hours later, after your Mom had tucked you into bed and I read your bedtime stories (plural) and delivered the good night ritual, I went out again and again and shoveled the walk that was covered again and again, and the parking spaces too.

But that was not the first year we were there, not the year it snowed at least a little every day from Halloween to Easter, 240 inches worth; the sidewalks had walls five feet high that year.  The roof had ice that fell in thundering “WHOOMPs,” which shook the house and made us afraid to let you play in the snow because you might get under the eaves at the wrong moment.

That was the year my bride came to help clear the church parking lot of snow and ice, and Pastor told her to go inside and help the women prepare breakfast for the men.  That got her hackles up, and she began chopping the ice off his parking spot right outside his office window where he could not see her while he ran the snow-blower in the parking lot.  When he did see her, he said she could not possibly get that thick ice up, but she set her jaw and said “Just watch me.”

That Christmas I had my first reportable car accident in the snow.  We were going to the Christmas Eve services at Calvary Baptist off base.  Christmas Eve was also the night of parties in our housing area, and someone parked illegally on the wrong side of the street.  It was a white car in a high snow bank, and my windows were covered in snow (a no-no); and I backed into the car.  The owner did not want me to report the accident because he was not supposed to be driving; he had an Article 15 for DUI.

There are more stories, but limited time and space, and even more limited interest from your readers.

I recently read a posting by SirNicDon that he titled “Exile Politics.”   His Anabaptist roots clearly showed in his posting.  His question mostly had to do with the extent that Christians should be involved in secular government in the categories of ‘Voting,’ ‘Public Office,’ ‘Military Service,’ and the ‘Pledge of Allegiance.’  I appreciate SirNicDon’s thoughtful questioning, but I disagree with his conclusions.

First, my background is Baptist, not Anabaptist, so there is that difference.  Second, I have served in the Armed Forces, and I know that decision impacts my reading on this.  Actually, my service in the military came after my examination of the questions he raised, if not quite so thorough an examination as I will make here.

The common Scripture cited for not participating in civil government is 2 Cor. 6:14-18 :

    Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? [15] Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? [16] Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said,

        "I will dwell in them and walk among them; And I will be their God, and they shall be My people. [17] "Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate," says the Lord. "And do not touch what is unclean; And I will welcome you. [18] "And I will be a father to you, And you shall be sons and daughters to Me," Says the Lord Almighty.

But Paul had already told the Corinthians (1 Cor 5:9) "I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; [10] I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world. [11] But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler--not even to eat with such a one. [12] For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? [13] But those who are outside, God judges. REMOVE THE WICKED MAN FROM AMONG YOURSELVES.

There are problems with applying Scripture to things that Scripture did not specifically address, but that is the option we are left with.  We are not to be “bound together” with unbelievers, and we are not to associate with immoral people; but Paul was not talking about withdrawal from the world, and he said so.  If we try to apply these (and SirNicDon did not do so in his post) to civil service we can easily go wrong.  However we do have a recorded conversation between John the Baptist and new believers in Luke 3.

The context is this: several groups of people came to John for believer’s baptism (baptism of repentance) and instruction in holy living as they go forward in their new lives.  “Ordinary” people, tax collectors, and soldiers, all came to John.  By the context, some were offended because their family lineage did not count, and John called them a “brood of vipers;” but some came as believers, wanting instruction in righteousness.  John did not tell any of them to leave their occupations, tax collectors were in government service, but were not to cheat people in their taxation; soldiers were in military service, but were not to “take money from anyone by force, or accuse anyone falsely, and be content with your wages,” (Luke 3:14 NASB).

Romans 13:6 “For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing.”  Rulers are servants of God! “Servants” in the NASB and the ESV, “ministers” in the KJV: λειτουργοὶ : “one performing public service; in the NT of one who carries out God's will by serving others, servant, minister” in Fireberg’s Lexicon.

That answers (for me) Public Service and Military service, leaving Voting and Pledge of Allegiance.

Voting was not part of citizenship of the Roman Empire, except by the Patricians and Senators; most Christians and Jews were not in the upper class and so were neither Patricians nor Senators or even citizens of the empire.  The one place in the NT where we might interpret the Greek as voting would be in Acts 3:26 where the “lot” was the system used to discern who should replace Judas, and the ‘lot’ fell to Mathias.  “Lot” is the Greek κλῆρος and it occurs ten times in the text of the NT in various forms.  Four times, once in each Gospel, we read that the soldiers ‘cast lots’ for Jesus’ robe; I don’t think they were ‘voting’ about who would get it; I suspect they were playing a form of craps.  In other places the Greek indicates an inheritance or charge of people in the congregation, also not applying to our question about Christians voting.  The Acts 3:26 may not have been voting either, but some form of “drawing straws” or perhaps colored pebbles.  Voting was not unknown, but the franchise was not something to which the every day man/ woman had access.  But our western democracy has given us the franchise and it is a gift of God among other gifts; not to vote impugns the wisdom of God who gave us the franchise.  Furthermore, the fact that we may have to choose between the lesser of two evils only makes the vote more important, because in doing so we restrain evil.

This leaves us with the Pledge of Allegiance.  The early Christians faced a dilemma: Rome required an annual sacrifice of incense and a repetition of the phrase “Caesar is lord.”  For Christians, there is only one Lord, The Lord.  This annual requirement was no big deal for Roman subjects, it was once a year, it took seconds, the incense was provided, when you were done you could go about your life and even worship any deity you chose.  But for Christians, “Caesar is Lord” was a real problem.  The Bible most of the Jews and Christians read was the Septuagint (LXX), the Greek translation of the OT Scriptures.  Careful not to break the third Commandment, Exodus 20:7  "You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain,” the Jews used a euphemism for יְהוָה the Name of God, they used κύριος.  Kurios is Greek for Lord.  In fact, in good Bible translations, you will see Lord in all caps to indicate when it is the Divine Name in the OT.  To say “Caesar is Kurios” would deny that “Jesus is Kurios.”   

However, our pledge of allegiance has, since 1954, the phrase “under God” at its center.  The Pledge itself was originally written in 1892 by a Baptist minister, and has been modified four times since then; the last being to incorporate the phrase “under God.”  The phrase appears also in Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, in the last sentence.  That the phrase does not appear in all “real” copies should not deter us; reconstructing something from memory even the next day is not easy for anyone, as you may attest if you have ever had an argument with your wife.  The phrase is in the “official” canonical version, the Bliss copy, which Lincoln both titled and signed in his own hand.

I think that the Pledge may or may not be recited by Christians of good conscience as a matter of their individual conscience.  Saying it does not renounce faith as “Caesar is Lord” would have; not saying it does not make one un-American or unpatriotic, it is something for each one to decide for their self.  For me, I will say the pledge, and I will also “swear to tell the whole truth, and nothing but the truth” when I am required to do so. Deut. 10:20  "You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him and cling to Him, and you shall swear by His name,”  James 5:12 not-with-standing.

We have a family tradition of concluding our Thanksgiving meal with the Lord's Supper.  Some of you may know the LS as Communion, or Eucharist, or something like that.  This year, Sonnetjoy and Pendragon are thousands of miles away.  Through the miracle of the internet and with thanks to Skype, however, we were able to observe the Lord's Supper as a family on Friday.

Yes, Friday. Sonnetjoy had to work on Thanksgiving, so we did it all on Friday.

I still had my usual problem with the Lord's Supper: I read the passages from the Bible and I begin to choke up and cry.  This began about 15 years ago while we were in Misawa JA.  For the church Christmas play, they had me play the grandfather.  They made my hair white with baby powder, and had me sit on the step to the podium platform while the children came around me, and one sat on each knee.  One of them brought a Bible to me and said, "Read it to us again, Grandpa, read it to us again."  Unexpectedly I choked up and tears came unbidden.

When I talked to my bride about this, I asked why does this take me by surprise?  She said "It never takes us by surprise."  So I must be a real softie, if my bride and children know that I am going to cry when I read the Christmas story or the Lord's Supper passages.

What can I say?

I like to read multiple books at the same time.  I am currently reading Dan Brown's page turner "The Lost Symbol," with "The Complete Sherlock Holmes," and "The Chronicles of Narnia; The Magician's Nephew;" and some other (theological) books too.  I really like the Barnes and Nobel leather bound series of books, they are leather bound, with a matching placekeeper ribbon, and very inexpensive.  I want to get some more books from the series, great quality for a nice price!

Here is the first interesting confluence.  Sir Conan Doyle wrote the first Sherlock Holmes story "A Scandal in Bohemia" in 1887.  In that story Doyle introduced Dr. Watson, Holmes faithful recording companion.  Dr. Watson was medically retired from the British Army due to a leg wound received in (wait for it ... here it comes) the Afghan Wars!  122 years later, guess where one of America's wars is continuing?  Wait for it, I'm not talking about Iraq ... but ... Afghanistan!

The second interesting confluence is in the opening pages of Lewis' "The Magician's Nephew."  Do you know what the time period selected for this "children's book" was?  Guess.  You'll never guess: Lewis said that the events took place at about the time that Sherlock Holmes was living in and working from 221b Baker Street.

Sorry, no link to "The Lost Symbol" yet; maybe later in the book.  Although it's a page turner, I really question the accuracy of his details to make the story line "work."  His other books were page turners too, but wow, were they ever wanting in their details!

Over the course of may years as a Christian, Bible teacher, and pastor, I have acquired several study Bibles.

If you like your compu, you may want to look at something basic that is expandable like Quickverse, or Wordsearch.  They have multiple translations of the Bible, and commentaries from the public domain, and more recent ones for purchase at modest prices.  Do an Internet search on either title, or go to ChristianBook.com and use their site's search engine for them.

If you have the cha-ching for it, I love and use BibleWorks8 all the time.  This does not have the commentaries and devotionals, but has some amazing scholarly tools for only $399; but that is for the more serious Bible scholar or pastor.  If you can handle the Greek and Hebrew, this is my tool of choice.

On the other hand, however, if you want something in your hand, I recommend and have used the Thompson Chain Reference Bible for many years.  It is for purchase in most of the modern translations including the NASB, NIV, and of course the standard KJV.  Prices will vary depending on the type of cover you get with it.  Again ChristianBook.com or DiscountBible.com will have them.