December 16, 2009 - The True, Eternal Fraternal Order

     When a person joins a fraternal club there is always a point where the inductee has to recite a statement that pretty much demands eternal, loyal, and dedicated allegiance to that organization until everyone is snug as a bug, secure in God’s post-millennial Kingdom. I have joined several clubs with such requirements and even have several antiquated membership cards somewhere in my billfold to prove it.
     My first “eternal fraternal club” was organized and founded in the woods right behind my childhood home. My elementary-aged boy cousins and I got together and swore up and down that we would do this and not do that, hate this and not hate that, believe this and not believe that, and pretty much agree to be brothers until the world came to an end, or high school graduation, whichever came first.
The main motivation behind the formation of this secretly-named, (of which I am not able to reveal here), and eternal fraternal order, was the fear of an impending attack of our country by enemy atomic bombs. We were all concerned that the bombs were “hanging out” somewhere over our heads, looking for a good opportunity to fall on us, even as we organized our club.
     What precipitated the formation of our secretly-named club was that we had talked with our parents about building fallout shelters for the families, but they seemed less than interested. So our pact was for each of us to build a shelter for our family, keeping it all top secret, so that when the bombs began to drop we could invite our families into sure safety. We secured the pact with an induction ceremony by eating a hot pepper and fashioning a pig’s tooth as an amulet on a string necklace for each member to wear. We then began to dig our shelters on obscure locations on our respective land. The obscurity was to both surprise our families and to keep unwanted people from knowing about these shelters in the time of a terrific event.
     I doubt that very many people have ever dug a fallout shelter. This was my first attempt. I had no way of knowing “what all” was required to house four people for the months required for radioactive material to half life a few times. You, also, would be surprised that the hole seemed to create dirt, roots, and rocks. The more I dug the less of a hole it appeared to be. I was also bright to recognize that my 25 cent weekly allowance was not going to go far in purchasing the required food and paraphernalia required to fully outfit the shelter. After several days of digging I was reconciled to the belief that the atomic bombs were not so imposing as a threat.
     However, our secret eternal fraternal order still met regularly to give reports on our progress. Everyone else seemed to be digging out great quantities of dirt and progressing nicely. I falsely joined in the ratchet-jawing proclaiming my great successes. Today, I still have the pigs tooth necklace, but I have no fallout shelter. My eternal fraternal great intentions soon failed me and my brothers.
     That is the trouble with our eternal and faithful plans. Most of the time we fail and fall by the wayside. Even with the greatest of intentions and with some strenuous momentum our eternal promises are dated. Our level of involvement is limited.
     On the other hand we are in the Season of Advent where soon Jesus will again make the eternal commitment of intimacy, as God becomes a human being. Christmas is God’s joining the eternal fraternal order of mortal and foiled human beings, as God becomes a man. But the true scope of this deed is not limited to a brief, one time, temporary, and terse episode. Jesus did not only make a pro tempore appearance where he lived for a time and then died.
     As well as being born of a mother in the visible form of a man, he also grew up in that body eating, drinking, and sleeping in that body. He lived, died, rose, ascended, and is seated at the right hand of the Father in that body. He will come, judge the living and the dead, rule over heaven, and is our eternal Savior in that body. What is the eternal scope of God’s commitment to us at Christmas, as God becomes a man? It is total, timeless, and perpetual. God in Jesus will not fail or fall by the wayside. The commitment of the Lord is eternal and fraternal.
Rev. Dan Martin is pastor of First UMC, Hendersonville. He can be reached at moose1953@hotmail.com