Use of this site

A Yellow Brick Road is primarily made up of daily entries during the Church of the Brethren 300th Anniversary Year in 2008. You will find some earlier entries and a few entries in 2009.  

While this blog is no longer receiving regular posts, 
it has been left up and you may find some interesting information about the Church of the Brethren and related personalities.

While you are welcome to read this blog day by day, 
it might be most helpful to use the search bar to search for articles on particular subjects or personalities (ie. Dan West).

Prayer Before Reading the Bible

Saint Jerome is a saint in the Catholic Church, best known as a scholar who translated the scriptures from their original languages into Latin. His version of the Bible is still considered an important translation in the history of the early church.

The following prayer is considered his prayer for use before reading the Bible:

O Lord, you have given us your word
for a light to shine upon our path;
grant us to to meditate on that word,
and to follow its teaching,
that we may find in it the light
that shines more and more
until the perfect day;
through Jesus Christ out Lord.

Ruth Duck

Ruth C. Duck is professor of worship at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston, Illinois, and a widely-published author of hymn texts.
She has written and edited several books of worship resources.

In a 1981 book entitled Bread for the Journey, published by The Pilgrim Press, she includes these thoughts in the book's Introduction:

The image of life as a journey is another way of saying that faith and worship grow out of our stories and the story of God's people moving through time. This approach to faith and worship assumes that the experiences out of which they grow are important.
She later adds the following comment: From scripture one is reminded of the manna from heaven, which fed the Exodus sojourners in the wilderness. At this time in the life of the church, there are burdens to be borne and struggles to be endured for the sake of justice and peace and the wholeness that comes from incorporating all sorts of people into our life.

In the book she offers this prayer for the season of Epiphany:

O Spirit that flows through all of life, you were powerfully present in the life and ministry of Jesus. Yet many of his contemporaries were looking for something more dramatic, someone less simple. Like them, we do not always recognize your presence. Give us spirits that respond to you Spirit as an instrument resounds to a musician's touch, that we may glorify your name in Christ Jesus. Amen.

May that prayer go with you on this, another day on your journey through life.

Rabbi Hillel

Rabbi Hillel was one of the great heroes of the Jewish People. He served in a position that combined religious and secular leadership, and was the highest position of leadership in Jewish Society during the several centuries preceding and several centuries following the destruction of the Second Temple. Hillel himself lived at the beginning of the century preceding the Destruction.

In addition to his contributions to the understanding of Jewish Law, he is famous for a number of incidents in his personal life, and "ethical" pronouncements that he made:

Most famous perhaps is the incident which occurred before his rise to leadership, when he was not yet a scholar, but had a burning desire to study Torah. At that time, Torah study was tightly controlled and limited only to those of the highest caliber and to those who could pay for it. Hillel, working then as a woodchopper, did not have enough money to pay for entry into the Beit Midrash. On a freezing cold snowy day, he climbed onto the roof of the Study Hall, and lay at the "skylight" listening to the lecture, until he froze. When the scholars below observed his form above, they retrieved him, and changed the policy such that anyone who wished to study Torah could come in and do so.

A certain non-Jewish "wise-guy" came to scoff at the Torah, first to the home of Shammai, then to the home of Hillel. He said, "Teach me the Torah while I am standing on one foot." Shammai, sensing his true intention, had him thrown out forthwith.

When the individual came to the home of Hillel with the same request, Hillel responded. "No problem! The main idea of the Torah is 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' Everything else is commentary. Now, if you're really interested, go and study the commentary." So impressed with Hillel's response, according to Jewish Tradition, was the visitor, that he took Hillel up on his instructions, began to study the Torah seriously, and became a Jew.

Source: http://rabbihillel.com/

This final quote which grows out of the same theme:

"What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow;
that is the whole Law; all the rest is interpretation."

A Prayer for You

Each of us, as we journey through life, need prayers. We need to know that others are praying for us in our time of need and we need to remember others in our own prayers. Here, from an unknown author, is a prayer for you today.

I Said A Prayer For You Today

I said a prayer for you today,
And know God must have heard;
I felt the answer in my heart,
Altho He spoke no word.

I didn't ask for wealth or fame,
I knew you wouldn't mind;
I asked Him to send treasure
Of a far more lasting kind.

I asked that He'd be near you
At the start of each new day;
To grant you health and blessings
And friends to share your way.

I asked for happiness for you,
In all things great and small;
But it was for his loving care,
I prayed for most of all.


May God bless you today on your journey through life.

Eugene Peterson

Eugene Peterson is most known for his contemporary paraphrase of the Bible known as The Message. In this fresh paraphrase of Scripture, Peterson's exegetical abilities are strengthened by his way with speaking in the language of today, forged by some thirty years of pastoring.

"The pastorate," says Peterson, "is one of the few places in our society where you can live a truly creative life." Indeed, this man has been creative. With eighteen books, numerous contributions to others, and dozens of journal and magazine articles to his credit, his writing career has been nothing short of prolific. No minor accomplishment for a man who at the same time pastored Christ Our King Presbyterian Church in Bel Air, Maryland, for twenty-nine years before retiring from the pastorate in 1991.



Among Peterson's books are several designed from one pastor to other pastors. In his book, Under the Unpredictable Plant, Peterson used the story of Jonah to speak to the vocation of being a pastor. Two brief quotations follow from this book:

I want to study God’s word long and carefully

so that when I stand before you and preach and teach

I will be accurate.

I want to pray, slowly and lovingly,

so that my relation with God will be inward and honest.

And I want to be with you, often and leisurely,

so that we can recognize each other as companions

on the way of the cross and

be available for counsel and encouragement to each other.

I want to be a pastor.

I want to lead people in worship each Lord’s Day

in such a way that they will be brought

into something large and beautiful -

into God and his salvation (not reduced and demeaned).

And I want to be with them through the days of the week

at those times when they need verification

or clarification

of God’s continuing work and will in their lives

(not promoting sure-fire moral schemes,

not bullying them into churchly conformity)

so that they can live orginally and praisingly.

Few of us will take the time or consider ourselves qualified to re-write scriptures in contemporary language...

but consider the possibility that your lifestyle

may be someone's introduction to God's Message for the world today.

You may not be called to be a pastor...

but is that any reason not to study God's word

long and faithfully

so that you may be prepared

to share it accurately when the occasion presents itself;

or to pray slowly and lovingly

to maintain an inward and meaningful

relationship with God;

or to be available to others

for counseling and encouragement.

May your Journey this day lead you inwardly to God and outwardly to others.

Howard Thurman

In 1944, Dr. Howard Thurman helped found the first intentionally interracial church in this country, where he served as co-pastor with a white clergyman. A professor as well as a pastor, he became the spiritual advisor to the next generation, including Martin Luther King, Jr.

This African-American pastor and poet,

wrote these words in a poem called

“The Work of Christmas”—

When the star in the sky is gone,

When the Kings and Princes are home,

When the shepherds are back with their flocks,

The work of Christmas begins.

To find the lost,

To heal the broken,

To feed the hungry

To release the prisoner,

To teach the nations,

To bring Christ to all,

To make music in the heart.

As the season of Christmas and New Year's Day vacations come to an end, as you presumably find yourself returning to a more normal routine, and the Christmas tree and decoration have been put away until next year - may you also find that the work of Christmas begins.

On your Journey through Life, look for opportunity to keep Christmas alive each day.

Creation Stories

Today's Gospel Lectionary reading comes from the 1st chapter of John and begins with John's Creation Story:

In the beginning was the Word,

and the Word was with God,

and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things came into being through him,

and without him not one thing came into being.

What has come into being in him was life,

and the life was the light of all people.
The light shines in the darkness,

and the darkness did not overcome it.

The Bible includes two additional Creation Stories from the Hebrew tradition:

Genesis 2:4 -3:24 from the Yahwehist tradition, and

Genesis 1:1 - 2:3 from the Elohist tradition.

Other Creation Stories from Around the World may be found here.

One of my favorite stories comes from the Potawatomi Indian tradition. It begins with the "Earthmaker" creating the earth and all within it except for humans. In this tradition, Earthmaker three times scoops clay which is baked to create a figure - white, black and red. The story continues with wars and the creation of peace. Read this Creation Story.

We are beginning a new year - 2009. It is a time of beginnings and as the various Creation Stories attest, "In the beginning God..." As you journey into this new year, may you find God in your beginnings.

Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven is a well-known German composer who remains one of the acclaimed and influential musicians of all time. As a young man he began to lose his hearing with a ringing in his ears that made it difficult for him to hear and appreciate music. Nevertheless, he became one of the great composers.

The story is told that in his later years Beethoven would spend hours playing a broken harpsichord. The instrument was worthless. Keys were missing. Strings were stretched. It was out of tune, harsh on the ears. Nonetheless the great pianist would play till tears came down his cheeks. To look at him, you'd think he was hearing the sublime. He was. For he was deaf. Beethover was hearing the sound the instrument should make, not the one it did make!

-told by Max Lucado

What makes your heart sing as we move into this new year? Do you hear only the "Out of tune" sounds coming the world press today? Are you burdened by the sounds that are harsh to the human ear? Or are you able to hear the music that God means for us to hear in our lives and relationships with others? Are you able to hear what God intends rather than what is?

May this be a day in which you hear the sound of music all around you on your journey of life.

Mayberry USA

In a book titled, Coming Home: Timeless Wisdom for Families, Dr. James Dobson begins one chapter with these words:

When it comes to family-related matters,

I'm known as a traditionalist.

In fact, there are some who think I would like

to take the American family back to the days of

Ozzie and Harriet.

But that criticism is preposterous.

I don't want to go back to Ozzie and Harriet.

I want to go back to Mayberry -

with Sheriff Andy Taylor and the gang.

I loved it when Barney Fife said,

"My whole body's a weapon!"

Obviously, I know that Mayberry never existed -

that Aunt Bea and Opie were figments

of the writers' imagination.

But there is validity to the theme of that sitcom....

Here I have found something that Dr. Dobson and I agree about. While Mayberry never existed as small-town America, it remains for many of us as a figment of our imagination as well as that of the writers of the sitcom. Mayberry becomes the place where living is simple, peaceful, and built on the relationships that draw us together. Even the issues that arose were never too difficult to be overcome within thirty minutes.

2009 is a different kind of place than is found in Mayberry 1959. And yet ... are we not called to use our imagination to build the kind of world in which we want to live? Can we not begin to build a community within the world where we can live ... peacefully, simply, together?

This remains my hope for this coming year. May your journey today down the yellow brick road take you through the Mayberry of your imagination.

Dag Hammarskjold

A New Year brings a new direction for this web site. During 2008 we focused on the 300th Anniversary of the Church of the Brethren. We recalled individuals of the church who preceded us on this Journey through Life.

In 2009 we hope to take a wider look at Life's Journey as seen through the eyes and thoughts of other travelers on the Yellow Brick Journey. Today we begin with Dag Hammarskjold who served as Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1953 until 1961. Many of his private thoughts were later published in a book titled simply Markings.

Dag Hammarskjold was born in Sweden in 1905 and died on September 18, 1961, in an air crash will flying to Northern Rhodesia to negotiate a cease fire.

I have long valued the phrase with which he begins one writing in 1950:

The longest journey

Is the journey inwards.

I pray that 2009 might for many of us be a journey to our inner life as we become more in touch with who we are as a child of God. I believe that this longer journey will help us to better understand who we might yet become.

Again, in 1952, Hammarskjold wrote these words:

How long the road is.

But, for all the time the journey

has already taken,

how you have needed

every second of it

in order to learn

what the road passes - by.

I pray that during this coming year you may value each moment of journey as you keep all your senses open to learn as you continue your journey down this yellow brick road of life.

Reflections on the Close of the Year

The following words come from John Kline's Diary - entry of December 31, 1838:

This evening closes the work of another year. The record of this year is now nearly complete. Have I any idea of that record? I think I have. Of one thing I feel sure. It has not been kept with paper, pen and ink. Neither has it been written in the skies. Each one's yearly record is written by no hand but his own, and upon no tablet but that of his own heart.

Each one's LIFE, therefore, is his record. This, before God and the angels, is a faithful transcript of his mind and heart within. "A good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth good things; likewise an evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart, bringeth forth evil things."

The good things of the one and the evil things of the other constitute the life record of every man. This makes character, and character is the basis on which men make up their opinions of one another; but the HEART, out of which the character grows, is the BOOK that will be opened before the throne, out of which everyone will be judged. A good heart is each redeemed saint's BOOK OF LIFE: and an evil heart is each lost soul's book of condemnation.

Hence we are told by our Lord "that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment:" and that "whatsoever is spoken in the ear in the closet shall be proclaimed upon the housetop." Good words leave the lines of their light upon the heart's love-tablet; but evil words leave their shadows in the chambers of the soul, and deepen the darkness there.

Source: Life and Labors of Elder John Kline, Benjamin Funk

Coming to the end

Throughout this 300th anniversary year of the Brethren, it has been our intent to provide daily stories and reflections about the Brethren. Much has been recorded over the years and we are indeed grateful to the historians and writers who have kept alive the stories and information about the church in their era. We hope our effort has helped in some small way to help keep the writings of others alive for a while longer. Tomorrow's entry will be the final entry in this series - coming from the December 31 journal entry of John Kline which we believe will bring fitting closure.

But for today we turn to words written by J.H. Moore at the conclusion of his 1929 book, Some Brethren Pathfinders. In the Preface to the book, Moore described how the chapters had been written for the Gospel Messenger to keep the stories alive for boys and girls of that generation. Demand led to the publication of the stories in book form and is a tribute of respect to the religious heroes of the wilderness.

Moore's book ends with a paragraph titled simply: The End.

To all things there must be an end, and here ends my story, not because the material at our disposal is exhausted ... but we think enough has been told to show that in the generations gone by we had a band of devout and efficient leaders worthy of any honor that we might possibly be able to confer upon them. All honor to the noble heroes of the cross and heroes of the wilderness. They blazed the way for present and future generations and we shall do well to keep their achievements in mind, and profit by their devotion, experiences and sacrifices.

Source: Some Brethren Pathfinders, J.H. Moore

Tomorrow: a year-end entry from John Kline's Diary

White Christmas

Brethren missionaries in the Far East faced grave danger in the face of the Japanese war of aggression that led to United States involvement in World War II. Some escaped through harrowing circumstances, but others, such as Lloyd and Ellen Cunningham, were captured and interned by the Japanese during the war.

The Cunninghams, along with their then two and a half year old son Lloyd, Jr., were in the Philippines after Pearl Harbor. They had been serving as missionaries in China since 1938, but they had moved to the Philippines for advanced language study in 1941. On December 29 of that year the three were imprisoned, and were not liberated until February 3, 1945.

It was over 32 years later that Ellen Edmister Cunningham decided to write down some of her memories of that era. Her account of her imprisonment is filled with stories of hunger and want. At one point, she wrote, "Our calories dropped to about 600 per day. Breakfast consisted of a cup or two of very bad tea. The natives pointed out some wild greens that were edible so we spent hours picking and cleaning these leaves that grew in the back of the compound. Those mixed with a little oil and lots of water furnished our noon meal of soup."

Through the latter part of her imprisonment she relates that on more than one occasion the rumors of an Allied advance were tempered with the fears that they would be killed by the Japanese to prevent their liberation.

On their last day of imprisonment they heard American tanks and wondered if this would also be their last day on earth. But their Japanese captors had fled. Even so they had a difficult time convincing their liberators they were Americans, who thought that all the prisoners of war had already been set free.

Their son, who by that time was five, had never seen a loaf of bread and asked what it was. Then Ellen asked one of the American soldiers if World War II had produced any memorable songs like the previous world war.

"The soldier with whom I was talking thought a moment and then he said, 'I don't think of any war songs, but have you heard White Christmas?' Of course we hadn't, so he called one of his buddies over and had him sing it for us. I thought it was such a beautiful song and even yet I get goose bumps when I hear it and it brings back memories of that long ago night."

Source: Frank Ramirez, Tercentennial Minutes for December 28, 2008

"White Christmas" is an Irving Berlin song whose lyrics reminisce about White Christmases. The morning after he wrote the song — Berlin usually stayed up all night writing — the songwriter went to his office and told his musical secretary, "Grab your pen and take down this song. I just wrote the best song I've ever written ... the best song that anybody's ever written!"

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas

Just like the ones I used to know

Where the treetops glisten,

and children listen

To hear sleigh bells in the snow

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas

With every Christmas card I write

May your days be merry and bright

And may all your Christmases be white

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas

With every Christmas card I write

May your days be merry and bright

And may all your Christmases be white

Dan West: The Brethren in the Future

Writing in 1947, Dan West suggested that "in the last third of a century we [the Church of the Brethren] have moved so far and so fast that were my own father to return he would not likely recognize the same church to which he belonged."

Many of these changes, Dan believed, had demonstrated the genius of the Brethren in action. ... Dan concluded that the future was "uncertain as yet but potentially far beyond anything in our history."

According to him the question was, and still is, whether the Brethren would continue to develop their social policy as rapidly as they had done in the past fifty years, or whether they had reached the point where an inevitable leveling-off would take place.

Perhaps Dan would say today, as he wrote in the family's Christmas newsletter in 1944:

God is still in his heaven ...

and here on earth too

trying to help us floundering mortals

to learn how we ought to live

in homes, in churches, in communities,

and in the world.

He shouldn't have to wait so long on us!

Source: Passing on the Gift, Glee Yoder

Called to Serve

The Lord Calls Us to Serve

The Lord calls us to serve our present age. He speaks through our heritage to those of us in new communities where our neighbors, uprooted from former church homes, may easily drift away from religion to be counted among the vast unchurched. He speaks to those of us in urban communities where neighborhoods are changing in class and in color, and we must either serve or die. He speaks to those of us in rural churches where the community is so stable that rigid boundaries have long been drawn between the churched and the unchurched, the Brethren and the non-Brethren.


This is what our heritage says to me: "You have a vision of what the church can become – a fellowship of disciples, learning, growing, and following the Master together. You have the New Testament as an authority out of which your practice, your faith, and your approach should continue to grow. You have a plan that is sound: a keen interest in family living and an appreciation of what this basic unit of society can do to shape the world’s tomorrows. Your respect for conscience and for the religious experiences of others gives you the attitude for service. All this finds its final and dramatic challenge in the ordinance of feet-washing."


These are things which the Church of the Brethren holds dear. And since we do, we must share them or we shall lose them. A church that will risk losing its life in the service of a community will discover it has new life in its Lord. It was a wise brother who said, "If we have reason for existing, we have reason for serving."

Source: "To Serve the Present Age," Robert N. Miller, Brethren Life and Thought, Winter 1956

Christ-centered

It is the love experienced

when Christ is at the center of one's life,

that draws us into unity.

We do not create unity or fellowship.

They are gifts.

When our lives are Christ-centered,

we can disagree

without being bitter or divisive.

It is a mark of the working of the Holy Spirit

that we can hold one another

in love and fellowship

even though

there is diversity among us.

Source: Biblical Inspiration and Authority

1979 Annual Conference Statement

First Brethren Baptism in America

In August of 1723 a rumor spread that famed preacher Christian Liebe had come from Germany to the Colonies to preach in Philadelphia. The rumor was false, but it caused some of the scattered Brethren who had emigrated to Pennsylvania to get back in touch with each other after four years in America.

In 1719 the Brethren in Europe, penniless after having been hounded from sanctuary to sanctuary because of their religious beliefs, faced dissension from within as the group split over the question of whether one could only marry within the fellowship. Exhausted and hurt, some emigrated to Germantown, under the leadership of Peter Becker.

For the next four years they established farms and businesses, while sending back glowing letters describing the unlimited opportunities in William Penn's colony, which was the home of an experiment in religious liberty. Though the Liebe rumor proved false the Brethren realized they missed worshipping together. Peter Becker, who had a great reputation for singing, was named their first minister in America.

A baptism was arranged at the edge of the Wissahickon Creek on Christmas Day of 1723. The ice was broken, and six new members were dunked three times forward. Twenty-three adults gathered afterward at the Gumre home on the top of the nearby hill. With everyone dried off and warmed both outwardly and inwardly, the Brethren shared their Love Feast.

They felt so good afterwards they decided that the following fall all the men would go forward in a great evangelistic trip, one that would result in the founding of new churches that are still in existence today.

Christmas Day, 1723 - one of the most important dates in Brethren history.

Source: Frank Ramirez, Tricentennial Minute for December 23, 2007

Christmas Eve 1940 - Kenneth Morse

In 1943, Kenneth Morse began a thirty-five year tenure on the denominational staff. He edited youth publications from 1943-1950 and became as editor of The Gospel Messenger in 1950. In 1965 he and his staff radically changed the magazine's appearance and the name was changed to Messenger. In 1971 he became book editor for Brethren Press but continued as associate editor of Messenger until his retirement in 1978.

Morse was noted as a poet and hymn writer (including "Move in Our Midst"). A book of his hymns, poems and prayers, Listen to the Sunrise, was published in 1991. The earliest of the poems is a meditation for Christmas Eve, 1940, when our country was preparing to conscript its young men to serve in a war that came a year later. It seems appropriate for this day as well.

Christmas Eve, 1940

Will the angels sing on the hills tonight
When the world is weary with war?
Will they sing again of peace on earth?
Will the shepherds hear them once more?

Will the wise men see the star tonight
While the fires of hate burn high?
Will they bring to the child their gifts of love?
Will they find his star in the sky?

Will the Lord God intervene tonight
To halt the hatred of men?
Or will this night of horror spread
To cripple the world again?

To the ears of faith the angels sing,
To the eyes of hope the star leads on;
To the hearts who wait the Lord God speaks;
To the world he gives his son.

Sources: The Brethren Encyclopedia
Listen to the Sunrise, Kenneth I. Morse

An Incarnation of God's Reconciling and Redeeming Love

We who are the body of Christ,

an incarnation of God's

reconciling and redeeming love

in the world,

are called to be a channel of God's loving justice.

Wherever brokenness among people exists,

we are called to participate

in God's work of healing;

Wherever people suffer from oppression,

we are to work

for God's act of liberation; and

Wherever people are deprived of basic

human needs and opportunities,

we are called

to God's work of humanization.

Source: Justice and Nonviolence

1977 Annual Conference Statement