A Word From Casey

Most of us know how there is a tendency in our country to secularize holidays. If we are not careful, Christmas becomes a secular holiday which is about gift giving and Santa Claus. Likewise, Thanksgiving becomes a holiday all about eating lots of food—turkey and dressing, sweet potatoes, corn, rolls, pumpkin pie, and the Lord only knows what else. Also secular Thanksgiving marks the beginning of a great emphasis on buying/buying/buying---all the way up until Christmas.
If Christmas is a holiday where we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, then what is Thanksgiving? I am sure some who do not believe in God would say they are thankful, but for me it is difficult to think of Thanksgiving as not being personal and relational. Thanksgiving is a day when we give thanks to God.
Suppose you were delivered from death in a horrible car accident. As a Christian I would give profound thanks to God for that.  A person who does not believe in God might feel joy, gratitude, and thanksgiving in be…

Recently I was babysitting my three-and-a-half year old grandson while he and his brother’s parents were at an evening event.
It was early evening, and I was telling him Bible stories before bed. It soon became evident that his parents had done a good job teaching him from the Bible.  We were lying on the floor on our backs, and I would begin a Bible story. Before long we would usually come to a part of the story which he knew, and he would say the name of the character about to be introduced:  (for example, Adam, the snake, David, Goliath, Daniel, the lion [in the lion’s den].) Whenever we got to a part of a story which my grandson knew and where he could start telling the story himself, he would get this huge grin on his face that just consumed his whole face with joy.  I can still see this look of utter and complete joy when he knew a story and could tell part of it himself.  I keep thinking of it and remembering it. I am convinced there is a lesson for me.
First of all, and most obv…

Recently I decided, almost at the last minute, to go to my 50th high school reunion. Crazily, I tried at that late date also to arrange a preaching gig at the church I grew up in, but it was just too late for that. I understood, and yet something about it also disappointed me. I had attended my high school for four years, but I had attended my church, usually three times a week, for the better part of thirteen years. Seeds planted at my church had grown up in me, and I had spent almost forty years being a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Then suddenly I thought of the title of the novel by Thomas Wolfe (who grew up in Asheville, NC, near to where I grew up): “You Can’t Go Home Again.” Many people have asked why Wolfe chose this title. To me the title means at least two things: First, you can’t go home again because the place you knew as home has changed. It is no longer there (as it was). Secondly you can’t go home again, because you also have changed. Even if you could go back t…

Once upon a time a man owned a field. One day he needed people to work in this field, and so very early in the morning he went out to the place where people gathered who needed work. He hired some of them to work the whole day and promised them a fair wage.Then later in the day, he went back and hired more people. In the mid afternoon, he returned and hired some more. Then one last time, about an hour before quitting time, he went back and hired even more laborers.
When the workday was done, he began to pay the workers, starting with those who had workedonly about an hour. To everyone's surprise, he paid those last workers the same amount that, in the early morning, he had agreed to pay the laborers that he had hired first and who had worked the entire day! Those workers who had worked the whole day, when they saw that those who had worked for just an hour were paid the same amount that they had been promised, were glad and said to themselves, "he is going to pay us much more …