Reflections by Maxie Dunnam

Reflections by Maxie Dunnam

As persons created by ‘God in His image we are Children of God. Can you think of a better name to be called? Child of God.

Scripture notes over and over again how important that is. God notes even the fall of sparrows, and we are more important than a sparrow. What a powerful way He put it, “Even the hairs on your head are all counted.” 

We don’t have to worry if we know that we are important to God. Nor do we ever have to prove to others that we are worthy of their love.

When we truly live up to the glorious title we bear, children of God, the image of God can readily be seen in us. Years ago I heard a story that dramatically confirms this. A minister’s wife noticed a small boy selling newspapers.

He stood in his bare feet over the grating of a hot air vent outside a bakery to stay warm. Moved by pity, she asked him, “Where are your shoes? He replied, “Lady, Iain’t got no shoes.” She took him to a department store and bought him new socks and shoes.

The lad ran off without a word of thanks, and at first, she was a bit disappointed. Suddenly he burst back into the store and exclaimed, “Lady, I forgot to thank you for these socks and shoes, and I do thank you. But, lady, I wanna ask you a question. Are you God’s wife?” Taken aback, she stammered, “Why–ah-no I’m just one of his children.” The boy replied, “Well, I knowed you must be some kin to him.” 

Whenever we Christians project an image of God as he was revealed in Jesus Christ others recognize our kinship with Him. I can’t think of a better way to be named, Children of God.

Reflections by Maxie Dunnam

Do you remember Narcissus, the character from Greek mythology? Narcissus was a youth who was gazing at his reflection in a well one day. The more he stared, the more enamored of himself he became. He fell in love with himself, forgot about everything else, tumbled into the water and drowned.

I maintain that was not self love – certainly not in the healthy sense of that word. It was self-centeredness, and that is always destructive. We could all do with less self-centeredness. Life will never work very well on that basis. The world was created to function in a God-centered way and nothing will work out very well until we understand that and cooperate with that. 

One day Lady Astor said to Winston Churchill, “Mr. Churchill, if I were your wife I’d poison your tea.” He replied, “Madam, if I were your husband, I should drink it.”

There are always people around who will bring us down to size. What we need is to be brought up to size. That’s what Jesus is seeking to do… to bring us up to size. Can you believe it? God notes even the fall of sparrows, and we are more important than a sparrow. What a powerful way He put it “Even the hairs on your head are all counted?”

We don’t have to worry if we know that we are important to God.

Reflections by Maxie Dunnam

It is obvious to us. Hardly a week passes that we aren’t reminded of death. If you have not done so, you need to think about, plan and talk to your family about your funeral. Jerry and I have been doing that, meeting with a funeral home and talking to our children. 

We have decided on some of the content of our funeral worship services. I am requesting that Charles Wesley’s, Love Divine, All Loves Excelling, be one of the hymns sung. The final stanza expresses my prayer for my life with God now and in eternity. 

Finish, then, thy new creation; 
pure and spotless let us be. 
Let us see thy great salvation 
perfectly restored in thee. 
Changed from glory into glory, 
till in heav’n we take our place, 
till we cast our crowns before thee, 
lost in wonder, love and praise. 

During this Easter season we need to spend time thinking about the resurrection and eternal life. Paul gave powerful witness to it. “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer lives, Christ lives in me.” (Gal. 2:20) To be a Christian is to change. It is to become new. It is not simply a matter of choosing a new lifestyle, though there is a new style. It has to do with being a new person. The new person does not emerge full-blown. Conversion, passing from death to life, may be the miracle of a moment, but being Christ’s new person is the task of a lifetime. 

We who are a part of the Wesleyan/Methodist tradition talk about this in terms of going on to salvation. The fullness of salvation comes in the resurrection as our new life continues with the Father. Read again the stanza from my “funeral hymn;” you may want to make that your prayer as I have made it mine.

Happy Easter!

Reflections by Maxie Dunnam

Clement of Alexandria, one of the early church fathers, said all Christians should “practice being God.” When I first read that, it shocked me. Me? Practice being God? But the more I thought about it, the more gripping the idea became. Practice being God.

Don’t close your mind, thinking this is irreverent. Ponder for a moment. Paul was talking about this in his word about reconciliation? “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:18)

Do you see it? Paul said first, God reconciled us to himself… that’s what God does. Then…what are we to do? He has called us to do the same. Isn’t He talking about practicing being God?

Come at it in a slightly different way. When are we most like God? We are most like God when we are most like Christ. What is the first thought that comes to your mind when you consider being like Christ? By far, most of us would have love in our response to that question the question.

Paul said it well: “For the love of Christ controls us, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore, all have died. And He died for all, that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised.”(2 Cor. 5:14-15) What an encompassing statement! That means that since He has died for all, He has died for each. Christ loves like that, and we are to love as he loved. 

Whether we like the language, practice being God, or not, at the core of the Christian faith is loving. At the core of loving is forgiving. Forgiveness, then, is high on any list of Christian practice. As though as it may be, we can all forgive. Go from there and ponder other ways you can practice being God. 

Reflections by Maxie Dunnam

With many of you here at Kirby I’ve had fear that someday people, talking behind my back, would accuse me of being childish. The dictionary defines childish as having “immaturity and lack of poise.“ As an 88 year old, I certainly didn’t want to appear “immature.” And goodness knows, I have privately considered myself as having poise. 

Being a “person of the Book,” I remember that, when he became an ardent follower of Jesus, Paul said, I put away childish ways. However, I was forced into putting that in sharper perspective when I remembered Jesus’ word: “Let the little children come to me, for to such belongs the Kingdom of heaven.” 

I’ve had to conclude that there is a difference between childish and childlike… Rather than having “immaturity and lack of poise” as the dictionary defines childish ,“ childlike is “marked by innocence, trust, and simplicity.” 

No wonder I like Eric Marshall and Stuart Hamphill’s Children’s Letters to God. One little boy prayed, “Dear God, I’m sorry I was late for Sunday School, I couldn’t find my underwear.” And another little boy prayed, “Dear God, please tell me where everybody came from, and I hope you explain it better than my daddy did.” Children are open and alive. They have a perception that we adults seem to have lost. Best of all they have the capacity of what I call living lightly. They’re not burdened down by preconception. Their lives are not predetermined by force of habit. They’re not closed to others because of sour experiences. They don’t keep grudges. 

So for God’s sake, and for our community’s sake, let’s not be childish. Let’s pray and work hard at being childlike. 

Reflections by Maxie Dunnam

It was hard to believe: 162-year sentence deemed excessive. That was the headline (Commercial Appeal, Dec. 16, 2022). The story was of a man, Courtney Anderson, who in 2020 was sentenced to 162 years in prison for repeated non-violent offenses. I found it difficult to believe the story, but it happened here in Memphis. Discovering that inhumane action on the part of a judge, District Attorney Steve Mulroy said, “It made me sick to my stomach when I saw what had occurred in this case.”

Anderson explained to the judge that his theft and fraud offenses were tied to a cocaine addiction. He has been sober for decades. Mulroy’s office and Anderson’s defense attorney worked with the court and his sentence was reduced to 15 years. He was released because he had already served the sentence. Now, at 54 years old Anderson is free.

I read that story and tried to put myself in Anderson’s place. On the beginning of this new year, I’m wondering what Anderson is going to do with the rest of his life? The larger question is, What are we going to do with the time we have?

Psalms 90, one of my favorites, deals with time and what we are doing with it. In the midst of it, there is this chunk of significant wisdom: “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Keeping that in mind and anticipating this new year there are some thoughts I’ve had and decisions I’ve made.

I’m going to guard against giving in to procrastination. How much of the good and the beautiful, the exciting and the positive, never happens because we procrastinate to the point that the opportunity spends itself. William James, the distinguished psychologist, gave us some saving advice when he said, “Seek the first possible opportunity to act on every good resolution you make.” So, I’m going to resist the temptation to procrastinate. 

Two, I’m not going to use age as an excuse. Being on Social Security doesn’t give us the right to be inconsiderate, nasty or cantankerous. And nowhere along the way is there an excuse for being less than the loving and lovable person God and others would have us be. 

That’s one level of the problem of using growing old as an excuse. – Another level has to do with using age as an excuse for being less capable and less useful. I know that energy wanes with age. I know that there is a healthy slowing down that ought to be affirmed and celebrated, but I’m talking about something else. I’m talking about the common myth that says as we grow old, we automatically become less capable and useful. 

At 94, Bertrand Russell led international peace drives; at 93, George Bernard Shaw wrote the play, Farfetched Fables at 91. At 89, Albert Schweitzer headed a hospital in Africa. 

So, let’s not use growing old as an excuse not to be capable and useful. 

Reflections by Maxie Dunnam

Napoleon was once visiting with a group of cynics and these skeptics concluded that Jesus was a great man, a good man, a great prophet, but nothing else. And Napoleon looked at them and said, “:Gentlemen, I know men, and Jesus is more than a man.” That’s the ultimate paradox of the Christian faith. Jesus is God and man.

Sometimes in human relationships, the more we know a person, the more we love them. Now that’s true, not because the more we know people, the greater they become in our eyes, because oftentimes as we know people, we begin to discover their weaknesses, their failures and faults, their shams and their shames. Now unlike our knowing other people, the more we know Jesus, the greater he becomes, and the more we love him. That’s the ultimate paradox of the Christian faith. Jesus is God and man.

This past Sunday Nov. 29, was the beginning of Advent. On the Christian calendar, this was the beginning of our year, marking the coming of Christ into the world. Two weeks ago, Nov. 18 we had one of the many creative events in the life of our community, an event that happens every six weeks. For me it was providential. One of the paintings from the show is pictured here. It was my wife, Jerry’s sketch for a painting of the “Holy Family” she was working on. Her word about the sketch is not only descriptive of the painting, it expresses something about the life of an artist.

I believe the sketch could legitimately be called “The Good Shepherd,” which was one of the great “I AM” claims of Jesus. During this Advent Season, in my desire to know Jesus better, I’m going to spend time pondering these great claims: I am the Good Shepherd, I am the bread of life. I am the door. I am the light of the world. I am the resurrection and the life. If Jesus were a mere man, then we could dismiss him as a mad egotist. But the more we know him, the longer we look at him, the more convinced we are that this is God’s picture of himself. He loves each one of us as though we were the only person in the world to love.

A Word from the Artist: Jerry Dunnam

The Touch

As Mary ponders the future, Joseph holds the baby secure in his protective arms. Baby Jesus stretches out his hand to touch the sheep. No matter how I sketched the Holy Family, baby Jesus was always stretching out his hand to touch the sheep. This troubled me until I remembered Mark 1:40-42. Jesus, the good shepherd, had listened to the leper and having compassion, he stretched out his hand and touched him. Now it was clear. Baby Jesus is reminding us to find, listen to and with compassion, stretch out our hands and touch his lost sheep.

Reflections by Maxie Dunnam

Apart from Peanuts, Dennis the Menace may be my favorite comic strip. In a recent cartoon Dennis is in his room with his dog; the cookie jar is open, and Dennis has put four or five on the plate for his dog.

It must have been on Sunday. His mother came into the room, and we can only imagine what she said, but Dennis responds, “Didn’t you hear the preacher say, The Lord helps those who help themselves?”

Most readers, with Dennis, will know that proverb, believing it comes from the Bible. George Barna, a well-known Christian pollster and religious sociologist, opened one of his survey reports with this indictment, “Americans revere the Bible- but, by and large, they don’t read it. And because they don’t read it, we have become a nation of biblical illiterates.”

Some of the data behind that summary is:

Fewer than half of all adults can name the Four Gospels. 

Sixty percent of Americans can’t name even five of the ten commandments. 

Eighty-two percent believe that the proverb “God helps those who help themselves” is found in Scripture. 

Dennis may have heard it wrong. I doubt if any preacher would say that. I hope the preacher would say, where human power and resources are sufficient, divine power will not be put forth.

So I ask, Is it possible to be too dependent upon God?

I know full well that the message of the Gospel is that God helps those who are helpless – not just those who are down–and-out helpless, but like so many of us, who by the grace of God come to an awareness of an up-and-out-helplessness.

The insensitive philosophy of “pull yourself up by the bootstraps” is also too often stated. The problem with that philosophy is that there are too many who don’t have boots, so there are not straps to pull on.

Yet, I pose the question: Is it possible to be too dependent upon God? It may very well be that when and where human power is sufficient, divine power will not be put forth. That challenges each of us to see the needs around us and respond to those needs with the resources we have. 

Reflections by Maxie Dunnam

During the last few weeks, when I awake in the middle of the night and don’t return to sleep quickly, not to awaken Jerry, I sing in my mind. Interestingly the most frequent songs that come to mind are Gospel Songs that we sang in the little country church of my youth. I’m 88 years old, and these are songs I heard and sang over 70 years ago. 

The first verse and the chorus of the one that comes most frequently is “When we all get to Heaven,” 

Sing the wondrous love of Jesus 
Sing His mercy and His grace; 
In the mansions bright and blessed 
He’ll prepare for us a place. 

When we all get to Heaven, 
What a day of rejoicing that will be! 
When we all see Jesus, 
We’ll sing and shout the victory! 

I’m sure, since all of us here at Kirby are in my age category, my hunch is you can identify with that, some of you have sung it. We are strongly aware of our mortality, and we think of life after death. We think of that in terms of some vision of Heaven. But let’s get it straight… 

Heaven is Here, not There. 

I often express it this way: Our Father sent his Son, Jesus, not to get us into heaven, but to get heaven into us. By His death and Resurrection, He saves us, but more. In his ascension, through the Holy Spirit He leaves His presence, and his ongoing ministry is getting heaven into us. 

So we share in answering Jesus’ prayer, 
Thy Kingdom come… 
…on Earth as it is in Heaven. 

We seek to live now as though 
the Kingdom had already come. 

How? By being continually open to the Holy Spirit, and “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22-23) 

Doesn’t all that fruit look like and sound like what we have thought Heaven might look and feel like? Well, that’s the heaven Jesus wants to get into each one of us. 

Reflections by Maxie Dunnam

It is no happenstance that Paul wrote the largest portion of the New Testament. I am convinced that he is the person who knew Christ best. Believing that, our potential for knowing Christ is enhanced. Like us, Paul did not know Jesus in the flesh. With a note of sadness, he referred to himself as “one untimely born.” His was an experience of faith, as ours must be. Yet there is no doubt about it – Paul knew Christ, and we can know him as well. 

Grace is the heart-core of the Gospel. Paul is rather dogmatic in stating that: “For by grace you have been saved through faith.” (Eph. 2:8) In his gospel, John states it more expansively, identifying grace with who Jesus is. “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth….. From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.” (John 1:14,16 NIV) 

Even a bit of reflection on these three verses of Scripture makes it obvious that grace is important. In our understanding and living the Christian faith nothing is more important. 

It’s all grace!