Something which is called nothing
My text is from second Corinthians, chapter 12, verse 11, "I have become a fool in glorying, ye have compelled me: for I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing." That is what Paul has to say about himself. "I am nothing." The greatest men in mankind were those who knew they were nothing. ...
I wish to start tonight by telling you a prison experience. When the communists took over my homeland, Romania, they did what they did everywhere where they came to power, what they would do in this country, too, if it would ever fall under them, they put in prison thousands of Christians. ... We never saw sun, moon, snow, flowers, stars, mountains, rivers. I had forgotten that these things exist. We never had a Bible not any other book. We never had a bit of paper or a pen. I forgot [how] to write. ... In solitary confinement we saw nobody except the wardens and the torturers. We never heard a sound. The cells were soundproof. We never heard a whisper. We saw nothing. We heard nothing. Perfect silence reigned in those prison cells....
Years of prison passed. ... We were hungry after food. We were hungry after love. Nobody ever smiled to us. Nobody heard us. Nobody caressed us. Nobody told us a nice word, only words of hatred. We were so hungry after love. ... We were hungry after a printed page. We were hungry after the face of a man. And we were hungry for one thing more, a hunger which is unknown in your country. We were hungry for Holy Communion. The years had passed and we had had no Holy Communion.
Now what should we do? We were everyone alone in his cell so it could not be a fellowship of brethren. At that time, we did not have even this one slice of bread a week. We got instead some dirty maize cake. Wine? From where should you take wine in a subterranean communist prison cell? We had no Bible. We had no hymn book. We had nothing. We consulted with each other, everyone alone in his cell, by tapping through the wall in Morse code. ...and we asked each other how [sic] should we do? We are hungry after the body and the blood of our Lord as it is communicated in the Holy Communion. How should we take it? We have nothing.
And at once we had an illumination. Wait a little bit! We had. We had! Something which is called nothing! If nothing would be nothing, we could not have it. We had something which is called nothing. Now, what is the value of this nothing? We have nothing. They have taken away from us our families, our houses, our furniture, our libraries, our churches. Everything they've taken away from us. They've taken away from us our own clothing. They've taken away from us even our names. Every prisoner, if he was a more important one considered by them, was taken away his name and given a number. And he had not, he was not allowed to tell even a warden what his real name is; they feared that a warden, over a glass of wine, might betray the secret of who is in prison to a friend of his. So we got given numbers, the one prisoner number 5,833, the other prisoner 9,221 and so on and all the prisoners did not remember their numbers and then they were beaten because of this. I had the advantage to have a number very easy to be remembered. I was prisoner number one so that was easy to be remembered.
But they'd taken away from us everything, even our names. We had nothing. ... We were nothing and we had nothing. There was another one who said, "I am nothing." Saint Paul. And when he wrote this, he was free. He said, I was nothing. And -- I am nothing. And then we had something, the name of which, is nothing. We had nothing. And we begin, we began in these half dark prison cells, these subterranean prison cells in which all kinds of thoughts come to you which don't come in the free world, we began to think about the value of the nothing. We all love this world with its beautiful, multicolored butterflies and the chirping birds and the scented flowers and the pretty children. Who will remember, "But wait a little bit -- out of what did God make this beautiful world?" He made it out of nothing. So nothing is a very valuable material, you can make a universe out of nothing! If anyone would try to make all of these things out of gold and iron he would not succeed. But out of nothing, God created this world. But wait a little bit. With what is Holy Communion taken in churches? It is taken with bread. And out of what is bread made? Out of flour. And out of what is flour made? Out of wheat. And out of what is wheat made? Well, God made it out of nothing! And in Holy Communion we take wine. The wine is made out of grape juice, and the grape juice comes from the grapes and the grapes come from the vineyard. And out of what is made the vineyard? Out of nothing! So nothing is a very valuable material. Nothing is the basic material with which Holy Communion is taken everywhere in the world. Nothing. We have nothing. And nothing is a material out of which the universe is made. ...
... And then we felt how foolish we had been not to rejoice about the fact that we had nothing and that we were nothing. And we decided by mutual consultation, on a Sunday morning, to take Holy Communion with nothing. I have read similar things have happened in the past too. So we decided to take Holy Communion with nothing. And at a certain moment on a Sunday morning, we gave a signal through the wall from one end of the corridor to the other -- there were many cells -- and at one and the same moment we took in our hands nothing, we thanked God for nothing. You must not have a thing to thank God for. ... A bird does not sing because of the things it gets. The bird sings because it has a song in its heart. And Christians are simply thankful and grateful in their character and they thank not for things. We thank because we are thankful. And we thanked God for nothing, we blessed the nothing, the beautiful nothing, out of which multicolored butterflies and the smiles of children are made. We blessed the nothing, we ate nothing, and we remembered the body of our Lord Jesus Christ which has been broken for us.
[RW]
I wish to start tonight by telling you a prison experience. When the communists took over my homeland, Romania, they did what they did everywhere where they came to power, what they would do in this country, too, if it would ever fall under them, they put in prison thousands of Christians. ... We never saw sun, moon, snow, flowers, stars, mountains, rivers. I had forgotten that these things exist. We never had a Bible not any other book. We never had a bit of paper or a pen. I forgot [how] to write. ... In solitary confinement we saw nobody except the wardens and the torturers. We never heard a sound. The cells were soundproof. We never heard a whisper. We saw nothing. We heard nothing. Perfect silence reigned in those prison cells....
Years of prison passed. ... We were hungry after food. We were hungry after love. Nobody ever smiled to us. Nobody heard us. Nobody caressed us. Nobody told us a nice word, only words of hatred. We were so hungry after love. ... We were hungry after a printed page. We were hungry after the face of a man. And we were hungry for one thing more, a hunger which is unknown in your country. We were hungry for Holy Communion. The years had passed and we had had no Holy Communion.
Now what should we do? We were everyone alone in his cell so it could not be a fellowship of brethren. At that time, we did not have even this one slice of bread a week. We got instead some dirty maize cake. Wine? From where should you take wine in a subterranean communist prison cell? We had no Bible. We had no hymn book. We had nothing. We consulted with each other, everyone alone in his cell, by tapping through the wall in Morse code. ...and we asked each other how [sic] should we do? We are hungry after the body and the blood of our Lord as it is communicated in the Holy Communion. How should we take it? We have nothing.
And at once we had an illumination. Wait a little bit! We had. We had! Something which is called nothing! If nothing would be nothing, we could not have it. We had something which is called nothing. Now, what is the value of this nothing? We have nothing. They have taken away from us our families, our houses, our furniture, our libraries, our churches. Everything they've taken away from us. They've taken away from us our own clothing. They've taken away from us even our names. Every prisoner, if he was a more important one considered by them, was taken away his name and given a number. And he had not, he was not allowed to tell even a warden what his real name is; they feared that a warden, over a glass of wine, might betray the secret of who is in prison to a friend of his. So we got given numbers, the one prisoner number 5,833, the other prisoner 9,221 and so on and all the prisoners did not remember their numbers and then they were beaten because of this. I had the advantage to have a number very easy to be remembered. I was prisoner number one so that was easy to be remembered.
But they'd taken away from us everything, even our names. We had nothing. ... We were nothing and we had nothing. There was another one who said, "I am nothing." Saint Paul. And when he wrote this, he was free. He said, I was nothing. And -- I am nothing. And then we had something, the name of which, is nothing. We had nothing. And we begin, we began in these half dark prison cells, these subterranean prison cells in which all kinds of thoughts come to you which don't come in the free world, we began to think about the value of the nothing. We all love this world with its beautiful, multicolored butterflies and the chirping birds and the scented flowers and the pretty children. Who will remember, "But wait a little bit -- out of what did God make this beautiful world?" He made it out of nothing. So nothing is a very valuable material, you can make a universe out of nothing! If anyone would try to make all of these things out of gold and iron he would not succeed. But out of nothing, God created this world. But wait a little bit. With what is Holy Communion taken in churches? It is taken with bread. And out of what is bread made? Out of flour. And out of what is flour made? Out of wheat. And out of what is wheat made? Well, God made it out of nothing! And in Holy Communion we take wine. The wine is made out of grape juice, and the grape juice comes from the grapes and the grapes come from the vineyard. And out of what is made the vineyard? Out of nothing! So nothing is a very valuable material. Nothing is the basic material with which Holy Communion is taken everywhere in the world. Nothing. We have nothing. And nothing is a material out of which the universe is made. ...
... And then we felt how foolish we had been not to rejoice about the fact that we had nothing and that we were nothing. And we decided by mutual consultation, on a Sunday morning, to take Holy Communion with nothing. I have read similar things have happened in the past too. So we decided to take Holy Communion with nothing. And at a certain moment on a Sunday morning, we gave a signal through the wall from one end of the corridor to the other -- there were many cells -- and at one and the same moment we took in our hands nothing, we thanked God for nothing. You must not have a thing to thank God for. ... A bird does not sing because of the things it gets. The bird sings because it has a song in its heart. And Christians are simply thankful and grateful in their character and they thank not for things. We thank because we are thankful. And we thanked God for nothing, we blessed the nothing, the beautiful nothing, out of which multicolored butterflies and the smiles of children are made. We blessed the nothing, we ate nothing, and we remembered the body of our Lord Jesus Christ which has been broken for us.
[RW]
posted by CS at 7:33 PM
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