Magyar Egyház, 1965 (44. évfolyam, 2-12. szám)
1965-04-01 / 4. szám
MAGYAR EGYHÁZ 9 Jesus wants us to get out of the lives, out of the private affairs of other people, which we invade by our judgements. And he wants us to know that it is always wrong, inhuman to regard people as cases, datas, and not persons who have the same problems, joys and sorrows that we have. Don’t be a watch-dog trained to tear the sinner to pieces. Don’t play god towards your neighbor. God does His own part. And the last word is God’s as far as the judgement is concerned. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing at the midst. Until now Jesus was busy to give a lesson to the Scribes and the Pharisees. 1 have a strong feeling that this story has been put on paper by John because of the Pharisees and not because of the woman. The first message of this episode is: Don’t be a Pharisee! Judge not, that ye be not judged! And now Jesus turns towards the woman. He did not know the woman, and perhaps she had not heard about Jesus until now either, but now his heart is full with compassion and divine love. Now the true service in the church begins. There is not a big congregation, only two people, Jesus and a very sinful woman. God in flesh and a woman destroyed by sin. This service is beautiful. There is an absolute silence. But this is a silence after the storm. No sermon, no confession. Between Jesus and her there is a perfect inward understanding. Jesus knows the state of her soul and the woman feels that something big happened to her. At last Jesus breaks the silence: Woman, where are those accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? Do you feel Jesus’ fine sense of humor in these words? This question shows Jesus’ sarcasm concerning the attitude of self-righteous people. I am very grateful for it because his fine, sarcastic smile means he is the friend of sinners indeed, not because they are sinners but because they are in need of him. The woman who met God first face to face, is also smiling. In her eyes are tears when she whispers: No man, Lord. She answers only three words. But one of them shows that she already knew —knew because the Holy Spirit had revealed to her — that this carpenter, this silent, strange man before her is the Lord, the Messiah who was promised. Don’t forget, in those times only an emperor was addressed as Lord. This is the end of the service. Only the benediction is left, given by Jesus as he says: Go and sin no more. Here is a challenge for you: go and make a new start! And now begins the true story of a woman, a story written for heaven. ATTENTION ALL WOMEN! SIXTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE UNITED CHURCH WOMEN of the Hungarian Reformed Church in America, Eastern Area SUNDAY, MAY 2 - PERTH AMBOY, NEW JERSEY Theme: Our Sacraments and Their Daily Application Everyone Invited! Stephen Szőke CONFIRMATION - a Time of Our Life Anyone using the expression, having had an excellent time at a perfectly wonderful party, would look twice at the heading of this article. I do take the words in the same meaning: we have a time of our life at Confirmation. And unless it was such an event, never to be forgotten, we missed the boat spiritually as well as socially. The answer to the question, “What is confirmation?”, may be worded several ways, but basically the answer is the same: “Confirmation is the holy rite when we personally confess our faith and promise faithfulness to God.” Confirmation is that and many things more. Even the less serious student (or parent as well) would regard the occasion an important one, but would be very wrong to regard it as a time of “graduation.” Again it may be regarded as a social event, a “coming out party” on a lesser scale, or simply fulfilling the laws of the Church, going through the motion of becoming an “adult member” of the fellowship of believers. Many will accept one of these or some other explanation for confirmation — and miss the time of their lives. To evaluate and regard the event as such, we must have the necessary setting and provisions, such as the age, seriousness, educational and spiritual level of the student as well as the seriousness, responsibility and understanding of the parents. One of the most important factors is the age of the student. According to the rules of our Church it should be at least 14 years of age — and certainly not 12. We should not be mislead or encouraged in our old custom by an even earlier confirmation age in the Roman Catholic Church which seems to have a more loyal membership. We do not want a robot-like adherence to form and custom. In spite of the outward strength, the time will come when their whole structure will crumble under the relentless power of change. God forbid that we mimic or find admirable what is, even in our time, being weighed in the balance and found wanting. Age alone, however, should not be the decisive factor. Very closely related to it is the general educational level of the student and his previous religious training. We usually pre-suppose that the members of a given confirmation class possess the basic knowledge of the Bible, but very often it is far from the fact. There should be a required number of years of faithful attendance in Sunday School or which better yet, a preparatory year before one would be admitted into the confirmation class. There is a genuine need for a twoyear instruction period before confirmation — and the students should be in the 8th grade in public school at the beginning of their instruction. This, of course, would make them 15 years old at the time of their confirmation. The tradition of confirming 12 year olds is outmoded and the continuation of its practice very harmful both to the student and the Church. Inadequate knowledge is one of the main reasons for drop-outs! The custom originated at a time when our forefathers had only a sixth-grade level education and most of them studied in church schools where religion was an
