April 17, 2013 | Boston Creme Pie

“But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him.” (Luke 10:33 NIV)

Biblical Chiasm Parable

Boston Crème Pie.”

Nice! By the way, a chiasm works like a Boston Crème Pie. Each layer is parallel, working to the best stuff in the middle. The Luke 10 structure is:

Robbers steal, strip & wound.

Priest sees but does nothing.

Levite sees but does nothing.

Samaritan sees & helps.

Treats wounds (Levite’s failure).

Transports (Priest’s failure).

Samaritan spends money to clothe & heal.

No man is an island

Another letter referenced the most famous portion of British preacher John Donne’s Meditation 17. Looking at it again, I think much of Donne’s piece is edifying and applicable, so I’ve copied the bulk of it below.

Meditation XVII by John Donne from Devotions upon Emergent Occasions (1623)
Nunc Lento Sonitu Dicunt, Morieris (Now this bell, tolling softly for another, says to me, Thou must die.)
Perchance, he for whom this bell tolls may be so ill, as that he knows not it tolls for him; and perchance I may think myself so much better than I am, as that they who are about me, and see my state, may have caused it to toll for me, and I know not that. The church is catholic, universal, so are all her actions; all that she does belongs to all. When she baptizes a child, that action concerns me; for that child is thereby connected to that body which is my head too, and ingrafted into that body whereof I am a member. And when she buries a man, that action concerns me: all mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated; God employs several translators; some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice; but God’s hand is in every translation, and his hand shall bind up all our scattered leaves again for that library where every book shall lie open to one another. As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come, so this bell calls us all; but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness.

…No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were: any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

Neither can we call this a begging of misery, or a borrowing of misery, as though we were not miserable enough of ourselves, but must fetch in more from the next house, in taking upon us the misery of our neighbours. Truly it were an excusable covetousness if we did, for affliction is a treasure, and scarce any man hath enough of it. No man hath affliction enough that is not matured and ripened by it, and made fit for God by that affliction. If a man carry treasure in bullion, or in a wedge of gold, and have none coined into current money, his treasure will not defray him as he travels. Tribulation is treasure in the nature of it, but it is not current money in the use of it, except we get nearer and nearer our home, heaven, by it. Another man may be sick too, and sick to death, and this affliction may lie in his bowels, as gold in a mine, and be of no use to him; but this bell, that tells me of his affliction, digs out and applies that gold to me: if by this consideration of another’s danger I take mine own into contemplation, and so secure myself, by making my recourse to my God, who is our only security.

Old Goodies

Finally a fan of 60’s music (and who isn’t!) attached this link of the Youngbloods’ 1967 hit “Get Together.” [CLICK HERE]Enjoy!