Jack’s Winning Words 9/6/17
“After I’m dead I’d rather have people ask why I have no monument than why I have one.”  (Cato the Elder)  The word, monument, is from Latin meaning, “to remind” or “to warn,” which seems to relate to what’s going on in our world today.  Are statues warnings or reminders?  I guess it depends on the interpreter and which interpretation appeals to you.  Kurt Vonnegut wrote: “Symbols can be so beautiful…sometimes.”  So…a reminder or a warning?    ;-)  Jack

FROM SHARIN' SHARON:  Your WW today, Pastor Freed, are so thought-provoking. "Reminder" or "warning". With all the devastation and pain and suffering from war, the loss of life and property, destruction in a country, it simply hadn't occurred to me that war statues could be seen as a "warning", I suppose because people only seem like they like to make statues, monuments of people that look heroic and not un-heroic. Even crucifixion statues of Jesus hanging on the cross become heroic and not un-heroic. Because we know the reality of that hanging on the cross. Can it be that many people in the South never saw the reality of the Civil War in a similar way to the rest of the country? as a loss and a warning but rather that their cause was just? Symbols can be.....beautiful but symbols based on fairy-tale wishes are very disturbing.====JACK:  I guess that the crucifix is a statue, although I've never thought of it in that way.  Even the 10 Commandments are statutes (statues)...and flags, too.  Reminders or  warnings...The statues are what we want them to be.

FROM KF:  I like Mt Rushmore. That dynamic foursome often made decisions that were not 'popular'...but they pushed on....====JACK:  When Mary and I were married we visited Mt. Rushmore.  It was cloudy and rainy the whole time we were there.  We never got to see it, but we knew that it was still there.  It's sort of that way with God.

FROM TARMART REV:  ...all in the eyes of the beholder..."do this in remembrance of Me" 0;-)====JACK:  Many theological discussions with regard to the Lord's Supper as a remembrance or a sacrament,  It is what it is...to the one who participates.

FROM EDUCATOR PAUL:  Interesting...I guess I'm not the only one who got up early this morning! ====JACK:  Interesting things happen when we put our brain in gear and step on the gas!

FROM SG:  Thank you so much for your Winning Words!  I, like so many others, look forward to reading it every day to give me a fresh start to our morning!  Have a wonderful, fantastic, super day!!!====JACK:  Strange...but I look forward to sending out WWs each day.  The creation of each can sometimes give the brain a workout.

FROM HONEST JOHN:  I think that they should have a monument of us....two fairly successful heretics!====JACK:  I came across this quote today..."The bourgeois today burns as heretics..those who he erects monuments tomorrow."  I wonder how POG will recognize your ministry after your name appears in the obituary column?====JOHN:  It is odd to say...but I don't really care....I hope I have been faithful

FROM FACEBOOK LIZ:  is it judgmental to put all recipients of monuments in one category... undeserving?  i am more concerned w/hurricanes, wildfires & the lunatic in north korea than someone's hurt feelings over historical statues, frankly.====JACK:  Cemeteries are filled with monuments, usually "reminders" of loved ones.  Right now I'm working with my family on a similar one.  As for the weather and international politics...I'm concerned, but these things are beyond my control, except in the broadest sense.

FROM HAPPY TRAIL;S IN NOVA SCOTIA:  Did you happen to see Kurt Vonnegut's cameo appearance in Rodney Dangerfield's movie "Back to School" (not 100% sure of the title)? Rodney tried to buy his way to academic success (later reformed and succeeded) and hired a ghost writer for a report on some Vonnegut creation. No less than Kurt himself turns up at the door to exchange the paper for a check. Later Rodney gets his paper back with a poor grade and a comment that "It is obvious you don't understand the work of Kurt Vonnegut." Rodney turns around to his bodyguard/chauffeur and says "Stop the check!"  Another of several funny scenes in that movie was when Rodney didn't want to wait through the long lines at registration. Shortly after he arrived, the chauffeur in uniform showed up with a sign "Bruce Springsteen" (I think) and walked through the registration hall. Almost all the students followed him like the :Pied :Piper.====JACK:  Rodney's expressions win me over.  I liked him in Caddyshack.  Vonnegut is one of those names you know, but have a hard time wring a paragraph about him.

FROM HUNGRY HOWIE:  I was in Gettysburg with Sue a week ago. There are scores of monuments from both sides. They line seminary ridge(confederacy) and cemetery ridge ( union) as if the solders stood there waiting for battle. These are both warnings and reminders of the problems we had and thought we solved but continue to battle. Too many don't understand what these represent. Have you ever been to visit?====JACK:  Why is it that some want to refight that war?  Thinking that the outcome will be different? As Peter, Paul and Mary sang..."When will they ever learn?"  BTW, the Gettysburg Seminary is one of our Lutheran schools, dating back before the Civil War.