Magyar Egyház, 1993 (72. évfolyam, 1-5. szám)
1993-12-01 / 5. szám
6. oldal MAGYAR EGYHÁZ louder the shrieks of the drunken men. Whiz of wings, angelic music, good news, none of them would have an ear for that. “Where now?” - Helpless and undecided the angels were looking at each other. “There is but one light in the window in that house yonder. May be there...” The angels looked through the window. They saw a man alone at a big table. Heaps of silver and copper coins before him. His eyes twinkled, his crooked fingers swiftly moved as he counted the coins. The silver was clinging, the copper clattering - sweet music for the tax collector. Angelic music, whirring wings, good news - who could ever hear it? Dismayed the angels hovered along. The smallest one was almost ready to cry. They were close to the temple. “It is the temple. We should find somebody here who would listen. Let’s try” - so they encouraged each other. They saw a man holding a fully written scroll in his hands. He mumbled the words as he read them. Around his lips the self-conscious smile of knowledge. He leaned back in his chair and whispered to himself: “Knowledge! How wonderful it is not to be stupid and ignorant like others!” - His voice was not louder than sigh but the angels looked alarmed at each other. As if the good news had frozen to their lips from the scribe’s cold pride. Embittered the angels were beating with their wings. “Let us go back to the Lord for new orders.” “For new orders? Have you lost your mind? The Lord will be angry with us. We have not done a thing of what He ordered us to do. Not a single soul did we tell the good news.” The wings of the angel who spoke were rustling from fear. The oldest angel rebuked him: “How can you say such thing? The Lord is good. How could He be angry? What do you think He is sending the Savior for? Because everybody is so good? You others are right. We should fly back and ask the Lord for new directions.” And they took off. Now they were out of town. As they left the last house the fields were stretching under them. One angel suddenly cried out and pointed downward: “Look, there, campfire in the field! Let us take a last chance before we return. Just this one and no more!” It was a group of shepherds sitting close to the fire for the night was chilly. They were talking in a low tone as if they would not want to wake their sleeping flock. The angels were listening to what they were talking about. “It was a good day. Very fortunate”, one shepherd was saying. “A good day, you say? You would better say it ended well. You should have seen yourself in the morning when we checked the flock and you noticed that the little lamb with the black circle around her eye was missing...” “I did not need to check. I knew it right away.” And the shepherd’s voice was trembling from the memory. “Well then. And how good was your time at noon?” The other continued kind of teasing him. - “You seemed to have lost the whole flock, so you tried to run into ten directions at the same time! From hill to creak, from copse to pit! Haven’t you run around all day looking for her?” “I did. But then I saw her down in the ravine.” “Your sandals are still wet, your robe loamy!” “But I got her back!... So wasn’t it a good day? Fortunate?” “Well yes. It was. The Lord be praised for it” The angels’ faces were beaming with joy. They could hardly wait until their leader would begin to tell a good news. “...behold, I bring you good news, for to you a Savior is born...” The rest of the angels were unable to wait anymore. Out of the depth of their hearts, the song simply broke forth and their choir rose above the words of the newstelling angel: “...Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and good will among men...” * It is a strange world, this world of ours. And strange people these angels too. No centuries seem to exist for them, no continents, no people, no languages. Ceaselessly they hover through the ages with wings unfurled. Yes, with whirring wings with their sweet music floating in the air. For eternal is the Lord’s command to tell the good news. Do we hear it? In our American world? In our magyar world? In our home, in our hearts? For the Savior is born! Andrew Harsanyi PROTESTANT DAYS IN HUNGARY REVIVED No nationwide Protestant Days were celebrated in Hungary after 1939. A week of lectures and worship services in October and November of 1993 marked new countrywide festivities of Hungarian Protestantism. Konrad Raiser, General Secretary of the World Council of Churches was the main speaker at several ceremonies. At one service he told an audience of more than 2,000 that with the church’s credibility in both East and West at a low ebb, renewal is necessary. “It is not what the media, the politicians or the economists expect from us that determines our credibility, but only the spirit of the gospel.” As a concrete example of “acting in
