EPITAPH or EPITHET

When I was an English teacher I pushed my adolescent writers to expand their vocabularies, but sometimes, while trying to impress me, my students would stretch their word choices beyond their grasp of definitions.   They’d use big words, but the wrong big words.

For example, sometimes students would confuse the words epithet and epitaph.

An epitaph is “something written or said in memory of a dead person; especially : words written on a gravestone.” (Merriam Webster online)

An epithet is a word or phrase, often “an offensive word or name that is used as a way of abusing or insulting someone” (Merriam Webster online), as in “a racial epithet.”

In the Bible, when a prominent character died, Scripture often gave a one verse summary of his/her life --- an epitaph.  Epitaph not epithet.

But then, there was King Jehoram of Jerusalem.  The summary of his life is in 2 Chronicles 21:20.

He was thirty-two years old when he became king. He reigned in Jerusalem eight years and, to no one’s sorrow, departed.

The King James Version says that Jehoram died without being desired.  That English phrase is a single Hebrew word.

Jehoram’s epitaph is kind of an epithet.

How sad.

Remember that other people will bury you.  Someone else will decide what your tombstone says.  Even if you have the stone carved while you’re living, someone else will still decide.

How sad it would be for you or I to attain great titles, to gain positions of power and personal prosperity, and then die “to no one’s sorrow.”  To be remembered as an epithet.

Live daily the verse you want carved on your grave.  Be now the person you want preached in your eulogy.

By your actions, choose an epitaph that is not an epithet.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

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P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

YOU KEEP USING THAT WORD...

I was talking to a teen earlier today who asked me what "matrimony" means.  She thought that it meant "peace," as in a couple marrying into a state of holy peace.

I was surprised because I know that this particular teen is very intelligent and very active in her church.

The conversation reminded me that just because people hear a term all the time doesn't mean that it means to them what it really means.

I get into these debates with people over Christian doctrines and they say, “No.  I’m a Christian.   I believe in Jesus Christ.   I just don’t think that you have to take the whole idea that Jesus was the literal Son of God literally.  I don’t think you have to believe that Jesus really physically rose from the dead for God to accept you into Heaven.”

I hear stuff like that--- ALL THE TIME, and all I can think is:  You use the word “Christian.”  I don’t think it means what you think it means.

You keep using the phrase “believe in Jesus Christ.”  I do not think it means what you think it means.

Cause I read things like 1 Corinthians 15: 13-17:

But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen.

And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.

Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise.

For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen.

And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!  (1 Corinthians 15: 13-17)

I read stuff like Mark 14: 61, 62:

Again the high priest asked Him, saying to Him, “Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?”

 Jesus said, “I am.” (Mark 14: 61, 62)

And that perhaps is the root of our problems.  We’re reading from the same Bible but using different dictionaries to define what we read.

We need to bring all our dictionaries out from our laps and lay them on the public table.  We need to be honest with our congregations about what writings we regard as authoritative.

And if the Bible isn’t at the top of your list of authoritative publications, you need to be honest about that.

If Plato trumps Paul for you, say so.

If you believe Nietzsche over Nahum, admit it.

If you hold Marx in higher esteem than Mark, tell the people.

That way we don’t just know what we say, we actually understand what everybody means.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama, executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO) and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com .

If this message helps or touches you, please help support this ministry. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116

THE OTHER HALF OF CRAZY

Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?

You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. (James 4: 1, 2)

The layman’s definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.   But, that’s only half of the crazy.

The crazier half is not realizing that the reason you fail is because of the things you continue to do over and over.

James, the brother of the Lord, wrote a plea to the early church.  In the A. T. Graves paraphrased version James said: “Where da’ crap do you think all this drama comes from?  Don’t you see that you’re the source of all your confusion?   You want stuff, and the way you try to get it is the very reason why you don’t have it.  But you keep trying to get it the same way.”

James goes on to point out that some of the stuff they want is stuff they shouldn’t have---- but that’s a topic for another post.

If your life is a continuing cycle of 4 months of ballin’ followed by 2 months of bankruptcy and begging------ where da’ crap  do you think your bankruptcy comes from?  It’s not because of haters, or the government, or your baby’s daddy/ mama ‘nem.  It’s because as soon as you get a little money, you spend it foolishly.   Stop the foolishness (STOP not pause and restart) and the cycle of desperation will magically go away.

If you keep falling in and out of toxic, dead-end, destructive relationships------ who da’ crap do you think keeps bringing these people into your life?  The neighborhood doesn’t go out with them.  Your “haters” don’t give them your number and home address.  And all men/ all women aren’t like that----- or you wouldn’t have so many couples to envy.  Baby, it’s you.  If you stop selecting your romantic interests based on the worst possible set of standards then you wouldn’t keep ending up with the worst possible kinds of people.

If your church is in continual decline----- who?  Who in crap do you think is killing the ministry?  The gates of Hell can’t prevail against the church, but the Hell on the inside will kill it like cancer.  Stop blaming the media, the bishops, the big church up the road, and the devil.  It is the wars and fights we perpetuate among ourselves that kill churches.  It is our own desires for power and control no matter what the cost to the young, the weak, and the spiritually vulnerable. 

We fail because we keep doing the things that cause failure and we not only expect a different result, we haven’t even accepted that our current results are our fault.

Fortunately, James articulates the solution as well as the problem.

James 4: 7-12.

·         Submit to God.

·         Resist the devil

·         Draw near to God  

·         Cleanse your hands

·         Purify your hearts

·         Lament

·         Mourn

·         Weep

·         Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

·         Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord

·         Do not speak evil of one another

Do these things instead of what you’ve been doing/ are doing now and these will be your new results:

·         The devil will flee from you.

·         God will draw near to you.

·         The Lord will lift you up.

If you want different, you gotta do different.  But first, you have to accept that what you are still doing is the reason that you are still failing.

Yeah, I know that sucks, but I’m only telling you because I love you.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama.

Call  334-288-0577
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com .

If you enjoy our work, please help support our work in the community. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116