When something bad happens, it always comes as a surprise.
Happy Pearl Harbor Day
December 7th, 2007 | America
Christianity, Culture, Vocation
December 7th, 2007 | America
When something bad happens, it always comes as a surprise.
Gene Edward Veith is the Provost and Professor of Literature at Patrick Henry College, the Director of the Cranach Institute at Concordia Theological Seminary, a columnist for World Magazine and TableTalk, and the author of 18 books on different facets of Christianity & Culture.
Lucas Cranach was the great artist of the Reformation. He was a close friend of Martin Luther. He was a businessman, who first printed Luther's translation of the Bible; a politician, who served on the Wittenberg town council and served the city as its mayor; a chemist, who operated a pharmacy; a teacher, who trained a host of apprentice artists; a family-man, who helped arrange Luther's marriage with the two men serving as the godfathers of each other's children; and an active layman in his church, who gave his pastors important personal and material support. As a Christian who lived out his faith in his many different callings, Cranach thus embodies the Reformation doctrine of vocation, using the gifts God had given him in service to Christ and his neighbor in the church, the family, the workplace, and the culture. In the spirit of Lucas Cranach, this blog will discuss wide-ranging issues of Christianity and culture with a Lutheran twist.
© Cranach: The Blog of Veith — Copyblogger theme design by Chris Pearson
1 comment so far ↓
No, not everyone is surprised.
(Some historians remark that Gen. Marshall was not surprised by the attack on Pearl Harbor, and that Kimmel and Short should have indeed been warned.)
Scripture is filled with warnings.
Pastors are to feed and warn the flock.
When something *bad* happens, most of us are not surprised by it. People are aware of the possibilities of tragedy and wickedness, sin and death.
What then is so astonishing and bewildering??
We are astonished when the bad thing happens to us, personally.
When the tragedy is no longer just a news story, but when the tragedy strikes personally, in our own families,
It is then that we are overcome with surprise.
I was certainly not astonished when I learned from a newscast that a US Marine Corps CH-46 Sea Knight had crashed into the Ocean on 15 October 1985, killing 14 Marines and Navy Chaplain.
Helicopters crash often enough.
What *was* surprising, astonishing and bewildering was this:
My Christian son was one of those Marines killed.
Leave a Comment