Hey Dana
I started this at the shore
yesterday and then had a problem with my lap top. I lost the email. Sooo,,,,I’ll
try again.
There are two Mallard ducks in the
near pond. Usually the Mallards show up in the spring. Blacks Ducks are the
frequent winter waterfowl; although I didn’t see many this past winter. One
thing that surprised me last winter was we didn't see any Brant geese. Usually
they are in the waters around us by the hundreds. A year or so ago there was
very large die off on the West Coast of Auks, a sea duck, because of the lack
of food. I checked Google but didn't find anything posted about Brant, but
something is amiss.
Did you know Dag Hammarskjöld was a Christian? I recently purchased the book They Were Christians, The Inspiring Faith of
Men and Women who Changed the World, by Cristobal Krusen.
https://www.amazon.com/They- Were-Christians-Inspiring-
Changed-ebook/dp/B012H1050E Krusen writes about others such
as Louis Pasteur, Frederick Douglass, Florence
Nightingale, and John D. Rockefeller Sr. who were also Christian. In his book,
published by Baker Books, I am all ready convicted by page 25. Krusen
tells how Dag (that is how he is often referred to in this chapter) was not
only the secretary-general of the United Nations, but he came from a family of soldiers
and politicians on his father's side.
Krusen writing
about Dag Hammarskjöld , "(From the father's side)...I inherited a belief
that no life was more satisfactory than one of selfless service to your
country--or humanity. This service required a sacrifice of all personal
interests...." But from his mother's side, Dag inherited, "...a
belief that, in the very radical sense of the Gospels, all men were equals as
children of God, and should be met and treated by us as our masters in
God." Our masters in God. "...all men were equals as children of God,
and should be met and treated by us as our masters in God." I'm not even
sure what that means but I am being convicted by it.
I know that in Philippians
2:3 (NIV) we're told, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.
Rather, in humility value others above yourselves."
What do you think
this means?
John
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Dana
responded on Wed, Mar 22, 2017 at 3:05 PM
Good
morning, John,
Whether you intended it or not, I went
ahead and treated this letter as a lead in to the next blog, and responded in
kind. Attached is my response. I did find the subject engaging.
No, I didn’t know that Dag Hammarskjöld was a Christian. As a kid, I remember having a stamp with his
picture on it. Plus I just thought it
was a cool name. Dag Hammarskjöld, kind
of like the Scandinavian equivalent of “James Bond.” I wished my name had been
Dag, because when you have a handle like Dana, you cannot imagine in your
wildest dreams what a Junior High School Principle from Mayberry can do to it
over the school intercom system. My High
School Band Director even called me “Dang,” because he had trouble deciphering
my name on account of my poor penmanship (I was born left handed into a right
handed world, a hostile right handed one at that.)
When one contemplates the sorry state of
the United Nations today, it causes me to wonder how it might be as an
organization, and consequently how effective it might be
in the world, if it had a Christian at the helm. It brings on a sense of
wistfulness; it really does.
In the Old Testament especially, the term
“the nations” is used frequently to refer to those nations dispossessed by God
after the Tower of Babel incident, prior to God crafting His own people by the
calling of Abram a chapter later. “The
nations” refer to those nations, hostile to God and to His people Israel. They worshipped and served other gods (little
“g”) and remained at enmity to God until Pentecost, when their reclamation
began. Not that they are exactly fully
reclaimed and friendly towards the Gospel now, but we do know that either by
salvation or by judgment, they will be under the total domain of Christ one
day. The nations are His inheritance.
Psalm 2:8
Without heading down too deep a rabbit
hole with the above, my point is that there are all these so called “important”
people, dignitaries, heads of state, movers and shakers meeting in a building
that resembles an enormous Ritz Cracker box with lots of windows, trying to
exercise enough control to keep “the nations” of the world from destroying each
other and the entire world…and in my lifetime, they have failed miserably. They push for more and more control, seeking
to become a kingdom in their own right, not realizing that there is another
Kingdom to which they are responsible, and to who’s King they must both answer
and bow. “Claiming
to be wise, they became fools…”
Romans
1:22 a, (ESV) Where’s old Dag when you need him? But I digress….
You asked, “What do you think this means?”
Would you be referring to the section about the beliefs Dag Hammarskjöld
inherited from his family or Philippians 2:3?
Short answer; I think they are intertwined.
To paraphrase, his belief that all men are
equal, but we should treat them as masters [I think] refers to how we should
treat others better than ourselves, or to not elevate ourselves above
others…which fits quite nicely with the first part of Philippians 2.
How about a little Greek lesson from
Brother Grazier? Don’t worry, it won’t hurt…too
bad.
(All English portions of the Scripture
below are ESV unless otherwise stated).
For reference and context sake, I’ll quote
the whole passage in question, Philippians 2:1-11, though we are only looking
at a couple of segments of it in particular:
“So
if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any
participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy,
2 complete my joy by being of the same mind,
having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but
in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own
interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have
this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not
count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but
emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of
men. 8 And being found in human form,
he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a
cross. 9 Therefore God has highly
exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should
bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and
every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the
Father.” (ESV)
Looking at Philippians 2:6:
“6 who,
though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be
grasped….”
The word “form” is the Greek word “morphe,”
from which we get the word metamorphosis.
Morphe means, “…having the essential set of characteristics that make
something what it is.” (Hobart Grazier)
Paul is saying in one of the great textual
proofs of the divinity of Christ, that Jesus had the morphe of God, or “…the
essential set of characteristics that made” God…God.
And even though Jesus was/is/will be God
in every respect, from all of eternity to all of eternity, yet He didn’t cling
to it but, “but emptied himself, by taking the
form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”
The word “likeness” in Greek is “schema,”
and I love Brother Grazier’s definition of the word; “Schema is a man dressed
in a bear suit, or John Wayne dressed up as a cowboy. John Wayne had the morphe
of John Wayne, but he had the schema of a cowboy.” (Hobart Grazier)
To clarify, Jesus had the essential set of
characteristics that made God…God (morphe), but He had the schema or likeness of
a man. He was fully God, and He was
fully man. Alistair Begg says, “There
was a time when Jesus was not man, but there was never a time that He was not
God.”
But the point of the passage can be summed
up in Philippians 2:5 “Have this mind among
yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus…,”
We are to not think highly of ourselves,
but to be like Jesus, following His example of emptying Himself, and putting
the needs of others before Himself.
From what was written about Dag
Hammarskjöld, I would surmise that he was familiar with at least the spirit of the
passage from Philippians. Though in a
major sense we humans are all equal, yet we are to approach our fellow man not
as master, but as servant, acting like said fellow man is the master. That
should be our attitude.
Imagine if the United Nations would
approach the world’s problems with the Philippians 2 attitude. What a different world in which we might
live! Well…one day it will be that way;
not on account of the UN, but on account of the Kingdom of God, when it is
consummated in its fullness upon Jesus’ return, and in the New Heavens and the
New Earth. What a different world that
will be, indeed!
Dana
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