Do Be Do Be Do

Do Be Do Be Do

by Alex McCullough

Transcribed from the original recording; may contain errors.

Everybody wants to have. If only I had… If I had… Everybody wants to have. But you don’t have until you do. And you don’t do until you are. So the sequence is the other way around. First we be, then we do, and then we have. That’s unalterable. It doesn’t matter whether we like it or not. That’s just the way it works. You can’t do anything until you exist. And what you do is based on who you are. You’ll do what you believe you are.

And when you do, you’ll have. God bless the child. It’s God his own. Everybody wants some. So the question is, who be you? Really, what I want to talk about is, who are you? Who are you? That’s the title.

Got it, Matt? The title is, who are you? Yeah, I hope you said, be, do, have. Yeah. I’m going to say, do be, do be, do. Do be, do be, do. Socrates said, the most important thing in life is know thyself.

Shakespeare said through Polonius’ speech to his son Laertes going off to college. He says, “Above all, to thine own self be true, and it shall follow as the day, the night, that thou canst then be false to no man.” And he said something like that. You really need to be, and you need to know who you are. Because you may be someone you don’t know you are.

We sang a song about wanting to become. Lord, make me something or other. So, I want to take us through the fourth chapter of the Gospel of John, because in this chapter, we find a person who we’re all keenly interested in being discovered for who He is.

I’ll read John chapter 4, verses 1 through 6 first. Now, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, although Jesus Himself did not baptize but only His disciples, He left Judea and departed again to Galilee. Now, understand, He’s leaving Judea. He’s down in the southern part of what we call Israel, the southern part that was at one time called the Kingdom of Judah. So, He’s heading northward. He’s going up to Galilee. He’s going down… He’s going from the part of Israel that’s a bit west of the Dead Sea and going north to the part of Israel that’s up around the Sea of Galilee. So, He’s heading north. And between Judea… or Judah… and Galilee… is an area… that’s called what? Samaria. Now, a lot of Jews wouldn’t travel that way. They’d go across the Jordan and up the other side so they didn’t go through Samaria. That’s how much they hated the Samaritans.

But it says… He had to pass through Samaria. He didn’t have to. He chose to. So, He had to pass through Samaria. So, He came to a city of Samaria called Sychar near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Joseph. Joseph’s well was there. It’s still there, by the way. And so, Jesus, wearied as He was with His journey, sat down beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. What time of day was it?

Please don’t forsake me, oh my darling. It was high noon. It was high noon. About the sixth hour. It’s noontime in Israel. High noon. And He’s been walking from Judea. He didn’t get the Amtrak. He’s been walking from Judea and gone many miles northward. And He’s gotten as far as a town called Sychar. And that’s where Jacob’s well is. Jacob, the son of Isaac. Jacob, the son of Isaac. The son of Abraham. And so that’s the scene. You can still drink from that well. I had a nice drink from that well last March. In 1995, I’m going to take a group to Israel and then to Rome. If you want to go with me, you can let me know and I’ll take you along. We’ll have a great time. Anyway, He arrives at the well. Now, who is this person that arrives at the well? Well, if we read on, it says a woman comes to the well. Now, what does she see? The first thing she sees is a man sitting at the well. Now, it’s unusual to see a man at the well at midday. Because it’s too hot to be there. You don’t want to hang around there at midday. You’re out in the open and it’s hot. So you send the women to get the water.

Aren’t you glad Jesus came? He had a different attitude toward women. He had the right attitude toward women. He honors women. Loves them. He created them. Because He knew Adam couldn’t deal. You know why women exist? Because men are a failure. Without women in this world. Not everybody gets married. But this world would be a sad place with no women.

I love women. I think they’re terrific. I used to be scared of girls when I was a kid. I had a brother, but I had no sisters. I didn’t know how they operate. You know, they don’t play football. They don’t wrestle. They don’t shoot guns. What do you do with them? They don’t want to get muddy. They’ve got their pretty dresses. I don’t know what you do with them. They don’t know how to talk about football. So, you know, the only thing I knew to do with them, you weren’t supposed to do.

But I still wanted to, and that’s why I was scared of them. It made me feel bad about myself. But I grew up, and Jesus got hold of me and turned me inside out. And now I can have the right kind of love for people. And I find that some of my best friends are women. They’re pals. They’re friends. We are different from each other. It’s true. But we have some commonality. And then we complement one another. And I find in women things that are just delightfully beautiful that I don’t have, that I lack. And it makes me feel complete being around real ladies. That’s out of tune for today. You’re not supposed to call them ladies. You’re supposed to call them women. I call them ladies. Ladies. Until they prove they aren’t. You know, I just like it that way. So that’s too bad, but that’s the way it is. Anyway, there He is. He’s sitting there at the well. And this woman sees… What does she see? She sees a man. It’s just a man sitting there. She hasn’t gotten close enough to see what kind of man He is. Or who He is.

I told you that I was born on Friday the 13th in April of 1934. This is 1992. A lot has happened in all those years. And I’m not going to tell you all the things that happened, Matt. I’m just going to spend a few minutes here.

It all began in 1897 when my father was born in Mississippi. My mother was from Columbus, Mississippi. Mississippi. Columbus, Mississippi. She was a very refined lady. And she was a wonderful pianist and a great teacher. She’s one of the best music teachers I’ve ever met. She teaches it the right way. You learn it right, and then you know it. You learn it. You got it. And you learn it musically. You learn it. So that’s the kind of person she was. She liked to listen to the opera and concerts. And my daddy was a good old boy from Pickens down in the Delta.

His father was a Methodist minister who would arise on Sunday morning and while it was still dark, hitch up the horse to the carriage and hit six points and arrive home after dark. And my dad drank himself to death. Not because of his father, I don’t think, but probably because the mother spoiled them all. All of them were spoiled. They’re crazy as who gals. The whole bunch. Six children. Five boys and one girl. Can you imagine?

That was part of the crew. And my mother would listen to the opera from the Metropolitan Opera House live on Saturday afternoon. Milton Cross would be narrating, commentating. And they’d have the opera quiz and they’d have the guests at the different intermissions. And it was, you know, something. And I would hear these operas, you know, Saturday afternoon. I can remember the Ride of the Valkyrie by Richard Wagner. Bum. And these wild women on horses would ride down from heaven and gather up the dead bodies, you know, and they’d swing them in on wires on the stage. It was wild. And boy, it was exciting, you know. So, my father would plan for things like this. And he’d get down at the other end of the house in his union suit. Any of you know what that is?

That’s of the vintage of Farewell to the Privy. And here it would go. Dum, bum. And he’d go charging through the house shouting, “Hi-yo, Silver!” My mother would say, “Lord, you oughtn’t to do that. Don’t you know that’s beautiful music?” He said, “That’s not music, that’s noise. The music comes on tonight. Grand Ole Opry.”

“Howdy! Just so proud to be here.” The Duke of Paducah, Minnie Pearl. That’s the kind of family I grew up in. Now we are. Now we understand. That’s right. God is good. God is good. Nothing, absolutely nothing. Nothing is too difficult for God. My brother liked jazz music. My mother taught me piano lessons. And when I was in fourth grade, I began clarinet in school. Clarinet because my brother had started clarinet and we’d moved around some and he didn’t pick it up again after we resettled. And so there we had an old metal clarinet. A peddler, it cost $50. So we figured we’d better use that. So I went to school and began clarinet lessons. And when I was nine years old, I decided to be a musician. That’s all I ever wanted to do. So I did it.

I wasn’t a good student in school because I didn’t really care that two and two are four. Five is a great number. I like five. And seven is good sometimes. It didn’t matter to me. I used to take poker chips and make fives and sevens and the blue army would attack the red army and the whites would come to the rescue and I’d have little groups there and there. Nice little formal structures here and there. It was nice. I didn’t care whether it was five or ten. It didn’t make any difference. Except I liked the way five looked. You had two and two and then you had one. You could put the one in the middle or up front or whatever you wanted to do.

I think Alfred North Whitehead would have understood me because I had a sense of form but I just didn’t care about the particulars. And a cosine and a tangent. Are you kidding? I haven’t seen one of those in the supermarket yet.

Why did they make people like me take trig? The only thing I remember about trig was my best friend Jim McKinley sat next to me. He says, “Nice books, Alex.” And out the window they went. Right, Jim. Push out his went. Then the knock came on the door. We forgot the principal’s office was right below us.

I just didn’t care about that. And things weren’t so good at home either. So I just did my own thing. But I loved music and that’s the route I went. I graduated from high school June 17, 1952. And June 18, I was U.S. Marine Corps. And came home and told my parents. They went crazy. “What’d you do that for?” I said, “Because of the way you’re acting now.”

Wasn’t much point in asking your permission. You’d have said no. So I did it. And then I spent three years in the Marine Corps. During the Korean conflict, I requested to be sent to Korea. And they obliged. I spent 15 years in Korea. Or 15 months.

From November 53 to January 55. And then I came home. Finished up at Quantico. And discovered that I had the GI Bill. I didn’t even know I had it. Had the Korean GI Bill. My best friend, George Lush, who got out three months later, had nothing. Which didn’t matter because he didn’t want to use it anyway. But I did. That meant that I could go to college. Otherwise, I couldn’t have. We had no money. When I got home from Korea, the next day I was home, I asked my mom, “Where’s my saxophone? I can’t find it.” And she turned her back on me. I said, “Where’s my saxophone?” She said, “Your father took it to the pawn shop yesterday.” I said, “My father did what?” “He took your saxophone. He had to. The furniture was gone. The wedding ring was gone. The engagement ring was gone. Everything that was worth anything was gone.”

So I said, “Yesterday?” She said, “Yeah.” I said, “Do you have the ticket?” She said, “Yes.” I said, “Could you find it and give it to me, please?” And she did. And I looked at the address and I found where it was and I went downtown to Broad Street and I found the store and there it was with the three little balls, you know, over the door. And then I looked and right in the show window was my saxophone. That’s my saxophone. It belonged to me. Someone took it away from me. And I went in and paid the full price on the redemption ticket and bought back what someone else took from me that was mine from the beginning.

I got my saxophone, but I didn’t get the lesson. So I went to college at Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pennsylvania. Graduated with a B.S. in music education and with a lot of work done on applied music. I used to drive a hundred miles Saturday morning secretly to take a lesson with George Rowe who was the assistant solo clarinetist with the Philadelphia Orchestra because my professor in college was a good clarinet player and was good with technical things, but he wasn’t that good a musician. And so I would go to this man and he never told me anything. I’d drive a hundred miles with a thundering hangover. It was Saturday morning. And then take a lesson and drive a hundred miles home. And the man never told me anything. I paid and I worked and practiced and he never told me anything. He just played. He’d said, “Play.” So we’d work on the Mozart Concerto with four measures. “Good. Listen.” He’d play. “Play. Play again. Good. Listen.” Same four measures over and over again. Rote learning. Musicianship. It got to such fine point that I couldn’t even tell the difference. And when he finally said, “Now you’ve got it,” I couldn’t tell the difference between that and four times earlier. So that’s work. That’s working to, you know, that’s paying your dues.

You’ve got to do in order to have. But if you do, you’ll have. But you’ve got to be before you do. What are you? What are you doing? Who are you? What are you after? What are you after? So I graduated. Oh, by the way, after my second year, I married this girl I met in high school. And she came up and taught for a year, two years there, and finished up there and then went out to Michigan, to the University of Michigan for my Master of Music. She came out and taught a year there with me. Then we moved over to New York so I could be a big star in the music business.

And I wasn’t a big star in the music business. I got a job teaching public school band and started playing in the groups around. And then 1962, on June 20th, I arrived at Waterloo, Iowa and found my way to Electric Park. And that night played my first evening with the Glenn Miller Orchestra with Ray McKinley leading. What a place to start. It’s a good place to start.

Waterloo, Iowa. Nobody ever heard of Waterloo, Iowa, where I came from. Waterloo what? Iowa! You know. So I was with them for quite a while. We had Steve Lawrence with us for a week when we were at Freedomland in New York, which is kind of like the World’s Fair. We did… So Alice was with me there. I was home for that week. Then we did a week in Atlantic City on the Steel Pier. And we worked opposite this kid who was supposed to be somebody or other. We used to laugh about him. We’d play a set at the ballroom out at the end of the Steel Pier, you know, and then we would take a break and he would do a set. We’d do a set, he would do a set. We used to call him Clyde Ankle. That was a guy named Paul Anka. So…

So… Minneapolis and the fair was in St. Paul. Is that right? Or the other way around? I don’t know. But we had with us Rosemary Clooney and the Smothers Brothers and Buster Keaton and singers and dancers. And it was a whole review. I had a great time meeting Buster Keaton. I never forgot him. You know, he was a hopeless alcoholic. He lost his wife. He lost his house. He lost his children. He lost his work. Nobody would hire him. He was a drunk. You couldn’t rely on him. A great actor of the silent films. And lost everything. And somehow or other he was able to do a turnaround. When I met him he was an old man. But such a man. In all of my life I’ve never experienced just raw humility as the day I met Buster Keaton and chatted with him in the hallway. Beautiful man. I don’t know what happened to him but that was an experience. I’ve met a lot of people. But that was memorable. Well anyway, so forth and so on. And I worked with Buddy Morrow and Sammy Kaye and Art Mooney and Les and Larry Elgart and worked with vocalists like Tony Bennett, Johnny Desmond. I mentioned Rosemary Clooney and Steve Lawrence. I did a concert with Eric Knight, one of the conductors of the Boston Pops and Ethel Merman.

And I did a concert with Anna Maria Alberghetti. And I mean, I just, you know, had a good career in music. I worked with Neil Sedaka. I did a guest appearance on the Jackie Gleason show when they had the Saturday night show, the primetime show and they had seven big bands on, you know, and they had Duke Ellington and they had Les and Larry Elgart, which I was with and Count Basie and Guy Lombardo and Sammy Kaye and the Glenn Miller Orchestra and Freddie Martin. It was a big thing. And I played for President Nixon’s inaugural ball. I worked in symphony orchestras with guest artists like Van Cliburn and Emil Gilels and Rudolf Firkušný and Zara Nelsova and so forth and so on. And did chamber music with the Woodwind Quintet and a saxophone quartet. I played in a concert band in Queens at the park in the summer for seven years and most of the members were from the Metropolitan Opera and from Radio City Music Hall. So I had a good career in music. I didn’t hit the top. And in music there’s no middle market. If you don’t hit the top you’ve got to do something else to earn your bread and play music in addition.

But you know it left me empty. I was just a man sitting at a well tired and thirsty. John chapter 4 verses 7 through 9. There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink,” for His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. And the Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that You, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. So here this man sitting at the well, lo and behold, He’s a Jew. So she knows a little more. First she sees a man, now she sees He’s a Jewish man, and she asks a perfectly natural question. What’s He doing there since Jews won’t have anything to do with Samaritans? You remember a story about a Samaritan?

Jesus was a thirsty Jew. I became a born-again, spirit-filled Christian man thirsting for more of God. Soon after I went to CFO and had been filled with the Spirit, God spoke to me and He said, “I’m going to start a new church in this area and I’m going to use you to do it, and you’re not to be the pastor but you’ll be the pastor’s right-hand man. You’re not to look for it but I’ll show it to you when the time comes, and meanwhile you’re to stay where you are and do the things I give you to do.” I said, “Lord, why don’t You just pour out Your Spirit on all the churches?” I figured He hadn’t thought of that.

He said, “I’m going to start a new church in this area and I’m going to use you to do it, and you’re not to be the pastor but you’re to be the pastor’s right-hand man.” I said, “Excuse me. Excuse me.” I had tried to fake a magnanimous gesture. “Why don’t You pour out Your Spirit on all the churches?” What I really meant was, “Wow, that’s fantastic!” And He caught me. He wasn’t buying that. He just repeated it. So I believed Him, only I took about two weeks trying to figure out whether that was Him or me. He. It was He, not I. So I did what He told me to do. I didn’t look for anything and I continued in the Presbyterian Church and they had asked me if I would be superintendent of the Sunday schools and I said yes. Then my seventh grade teacher reneged at the last minute and I taught a seventh grade class and some kids received the Lord and it made a change in their lives.

I was active with Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship. I was the charter secretary for the Westchester County chapter when there were none. Now there are five of them. And I was active with Camps Farthest Out. The second year I had hoped that I could talk my wife into coming and maybe bringing the kids and while we were here together maybe something would happen. Shoot, two months later they were in the kingdom. The following year they all came enjoying the Lord and came every year until our son fell off a cliff. That put us out of action for a little while. But meantime I had been invited to become part of the council ring and then became camp chairman and so I know how council rings operate. Know what goes into a camp. You got to do before you have. You got to be before you can do.

So these things were all going on and then I just don’t have time to tell much about this but we met a man named Bert Schlossberg. He has a brother named Herbert Schlossberg. Bertram and Herbert. Herbert was in the army and when he would come home on weekends to Brooklyn he would share with his little brother Bert about how some friends had told him about Jesus and this Jewish boy from Brooklyn was telling his little Jewish younger brother about the Messiah of Israel and Bert doesn’t know of any huge identity crisis in his life. He just knows that he listened and thought and listened and thought and began believing in Jesus and he just ended up believing in Jesus. And later he went to seminary and then ran away from the call. And when I met Bert he was a professor at Sarah Lawrence College. He had some students named Ben Torrey and Liz, I’ve forgotten what Liz’s maiden name was, but Ben and Liz got married later. He came and taught a course in an adult Scarsdale Adult School called The Bible as Literature which Alice had sort of set up and I can’t take time this morning to tell a lot of detail but that’s how we met Bert and eventually we discovered that he was a Christian and later we discovered he was a spirit-filled Christian and we had prayed that the person who would teach this course in Scarsdale, which is about 80% Jewish, would be a born-again, spirit-filled Jewish Christian. And that’s who Bert Schlossberg is. We never heard of him. They just said, “Professor Bertram Schlossberg of Sarah Lawrence College, who teaches Hebrew and Aramaic and Near East studies, would teach a course called the Bible as Literature.”

Only the way he was going through the early chapters of Genesis, you could tell that he understood something that we understood. And after a while it became clear, and we made our contact in communicating, and yes, we were enjoying the Lord together, and then each week for coffee at our house, and then supper first, and then the class, and then coffee, and then one day he let us know that he had not received tenure at Sarah Lawrence. And I said, “Man, what are you going to do?” See, I was concerned about money, because I made a vow when I was a kid that what happened to our family, financially, would not happen to my family. See, when I was a kid, I lived in Bronxville in a five-story house with a live-in maid and butler who doubled as a chauffeur.

I got home from Korea and my saxophone’s in the hock shop. And it went downhill from there. So I made a vow that wouldn’t happen when I got my family, that I would ensure that we always were provided for financially. So I couldn’t trust the Lord. That’s a cop-out. What are you doing? Trusting the Lord. What are you doing in the meantime? Nothing.

Not me. Get out there and earn it, man. It’s out there. By the way, in Deuteronomy, it tells us that God has given us power to get riches. God has given us the ability to get riches. But, you know, you sit on the porch spitting watermelon seeds, that doesn’t mean it’s going to come to you, does it, June? June said that so well the other day. You do have to do something. Now, things turn out differently than what you think because, you know, with his mind, man plans his way, but God directs his steps. But, you know, you’ve got to be in motion in order to make some turns.

You can’t make a wrong turn if you’re not moving. That’s a good way never to make a mistake, but you just sit there and atrophy. So, anyway, I made this vow. So, I never… I could never trust God for finances because I thought that was dishonorable. I mean, the way I trusted Him was that I had a teaching job with a guaranteed annual wage and increments and occasionally salary raises, a good medical plan, you know, fringe benefits, nice retirement system. And I believe God provided that, so I’m trusting God for my finances. Except whenever it would cross my mind, suppose He called you into full-time ministry with no promise of how He would do it. And when that would happen, I’d go, oh, jeez, no. You know, I was terrified. And besides, it was not honorable. And yet, weren’t you supposed to be able to trust Him without seeing? You know, all that stuff. Anyway, so I was terrified when Bert said he hadn’t gotten his tenure. I thought, what are you going to do, man? What are you going to do? He says, “Oh, well, it’s not really so bad because I’ve sensed for quite a while a call into the priesthood.” And I said, “What do you mean, priesthood?” “Yeah,” he says, “that’s right.”

“And so God’s taking care of me.” I said, “Wait a minute, wait a minute. What church are you talking about?” He says, “Church of the East. And so God’s going to take care of me. And so I’m not worried.” “Wait a minute. What is this Church of the East?” “Yeah, right. And God will take care of me.” He kept fluffing me off. I thought, who is this guy anyway, Bert Schlossberg? His brother, Herbert Schlossberg, is a college professor and has written some good books. One of them called Idols for Burning, something like that. He’s a Christian, you know.

So anyhow, we got to talking and one night Alice gave me a little slip of paper and says, “Invite Bert to live here. Love will overcome all problems.” I said, “Yeah?” Alice says, “Well, what do you think?” I knew what she was getting at. She meant, I think that God told me this. Do you think He did? And I wasn’t going to give her anything. I was going to let her decide whether God told her. I said, “What do you mean, what do I think?” She says, “Well, what do you think about that?” I said, “Well, I understand what it says.” She says, “Well?” I said, “Well, what?” She says, “Well, do you think it’s okay?” I said, “Sure, I don’t mind if Bert lives here. He’s great and he needs some help. Why not?” She says, “No, I mean, what do you think about what it says?” I said, “Well, that’s what I think.” She said, “Do you think that it’s from the Lord?” I said, “Do you think it’s from the Lord?” Being a good rabbi.

So do you think it’s from the Lord? You didn’t ask me about my operation. How was your operation? You shouldn’t ask. Do you think it’s from the Lord? “Well, I think it is.” I said, “Well, then you better do it.”

She said, “Well, okay.” I said, “Of course I think it’s from the Lord. If you believe it is, I do. But if He spoke to you, He didn’t speak to me. You got to know. And I’ll agree with you on this. I think it was.” So Bert came to dinner. A man who came to dinner. And stayed a year.

In that year, we got to know each other very well. And I told him about God speaking to me about starting this church. God was going to start a church, and He was going to use me to do it. But I wasn’t to be the pastor. I was to be the pastor’s right-hand man. And Bert would tell me a little bit more about his church, the Syro-Chaldean Church. S-Y-R-O hyphen Chaldean. An early church that began in Syria and in Chaldea, which is Iraq. And through Thomas and his disciples carried the gospel eastward instead of westward. So while Paul and the guys were going west, Thomas and his bunch were going east. And carried the gospel into India and Mongolia and as far east as the Philippines in the early centuries. By the time of the Mongol invasion of the 14th century, there were 84 million members. And it was the largest church in the world. It’s the most evangelistic church the world has ever seen. They were just like a forest fire. They evangelized all through the Orient. Genghis Khan’s wife was a member. The Chinese loved the church because it was full of doctors and lawyers. And that’s how Christianity came into the far east. And through the Mongol invasion, millions of them were slaughtered.

So there’s less than a million in the world anymore. Millions of them ran for their lives and joined the other churches in the west. Others were slaughtered. Millions of them. And others reneged on their faith to save their skin. That’s the saddest of all of the things. But at any rate, that was the church. So I thought, well, that’s pretty esoteric. You know, I thought, you know, Bert’s kind of wild. You know, that probably suited him right well. He said, “Now, what kind of church is this that you think the Lord has called you to be involved with?” I said, “Well, I think it’s going to be an all-American, non-denominational, independent, spirit-filled, Holy Ghost church where you swing in on a pulley, crash through the window, shout in Glory Church.” He says, “Sounds great to me.”

After about nine months, we were sitting on the sofa together having one of our 2 a.m. chats. And I said, “You know something, Bert? It just occurred to me earlier today. That what God is doing in your life and what He’s doing in my life, do you think that this is part of one plan and that we’re supposed to be doing something together?” And he just cracked up laughing. I said, “What are you laughing at?” He says, “I was wondering when you were going to catch on.”

I said, “When did you catch on?” He said, “About six months ago. I was just waiting for you.” And so it was that on July 28th of 1974, Bert Schlossberg was ordained as a priest in the Syro-Chaldean Church of North America, and I was ordained as a deacon, a clergy position for life. You know what a deacon is. It’s a lackey. He shines the shoes, cleans the toilets, and does whatever anybody tells him to do. That was a great privilege. I love that. And I would anticipate things that would be there, that had to be done, that would keep Bert busy, and I’d do the work before he even knew it was there. And it got stuff out of the way so that he could preach and teach and do what he had to do. And I loved it. Well, let’s get back to the well.

Boy, we’ll never get this one finished, Matt. So, John chapter 4. Verses 9 through 12. The Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that You, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.” And Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

June read this to us the other day. And the woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where do You get that living water? Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, and his sons, and his cattle?”

Oh, there it is. My denomination. Yet Jesus is greater than Father Abraham. Jesus said to a certain group of people, “Call no man father.” And the reason He said that to them was not that you should never call a person father. He spoke to fathers of people. People called people father. There was nothing wrong with that. But what He meant is, don’t claim that your righteousness is based on the fact that you are descended from Father Abraham. Or that you studied that Rabbi Galel, you know, is your spiritual father. And that’s your credentials with God. Don’t call any man father in that sense.

Father Bert was my pastor. And a priest in the Syro-Chaldean Church. But my righteousness is not based on Father Bert. My righteousness is based on Father God. And His Son, Jesus Christ, is the only hope I’ve got. He’s the only hope Bert has. And we both know that. Bert and I.

But He’s greater than Abraham. He’s greater than Abraham’s son, Isaac. He’s greater than Isaac’s son, Jacob. Jacob, you know, got a new name after he had dealings with God or after God had dealings with him. He may have pinned God, but God didn’t change, but Jacob did. He had a different walk after that, didn’t he? He walked differently. He looked like John Wayne. He walked with a limp. He had a hip in a funny place, but he got a new name. He was no longer Isaac or Jacob. He became Israel. Different name. Abraham got a different name. He was Abram and became Abraham, didn’t he? Cephas got a new name. Say, Cephas. Cephas. He got a new name.

Petros. Peter. The little rock. Rocky. Ta-da-da. Ta-da-da. “Don’t call me Cephas. My name is Rocky.” So to be a deacon, I had to go to seminary. He had to do a year of seminary in order to be a deacon. And I was glad to do that. So I spent a little over two years part-time getting my seminary studies done. I went to Fordham University Graduate School Department of Theology and studied with the good Jesuit fathers.

And most of it was real good. I took one course at another seminary, which deserves to be named, but I’ll be nicer than I am and won’t name it. But of a major Protestant denomination in New York City, there the priest taught us that there was no virgin birth, no miracles, and no bodily resurrection. And for all the money that I spent for that course, I learned something very valuable, which was to love the instructor.

And I do. But I only took one course there. I took studies at Maryknoll, Roman Catholic Foreign Missionary Training Center in Ossining, New York, up the river. That’s where Sing Sing is in Ossining. But that’s also where Maryknoll is. I studied with a wonderful Capuchin priest. That’s the poorest order of Francis. And he taught a great course in the psychology of spiritual development, comparing developmental psychology and spiritual growth and seeing the similarities, overlaps, and the differences. Fantastic. But the main thing was he was a holy man. Father Benedict Greshel.

So it took me about two and a half years to get a year’s worth of seminary done with teaching and Fickabumfy and CFO and all the other things I was doing. And I enjoyed it, thoroughly enjoyed it. Most of my studies were at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Seminary in Crestwood, Yonkers, stemmed out of the Russian Orthodox Church, and they changed their name during the time of the Russian Revolution. They didn’t want to be called Russian. So they became the Orthodox Church of America, OCA. And I studied with great teachers there, Alexander Schmemann and John Meyendorff, and these are people who are well-respected. And I really enjoyed my studies, and most all of that was good, I thought was good, in my opinion. You know, what do I know? It was great. And I finally received a call to the priesthood, which I resisted, because I didn’t want to take responsibility. But finally I was ordained. That’s another story. Don’t have time for it. But it happened, and then I was set as assistant pastor. And around that time, I found out what my name means. I grew up with a nickname that was so awful… How awful was it? It was awful.

I’m not going to tell you what it was. My name is awful. My name… Jose Jimenez… No. It was a bad name, and so… But that’s the name I grew up with. My teachers called me by that name, my Sunday school teachers, the pastor, everybody. That’s the only name I went by. But after I grew up, I decided, if I’m going to teach school, no way can these kids discover what my nickname was. Because if they do, I’m finished. I’ll never be able to teach any of these kids. So I started being called Alex. That’s the name you know me by. My name is Alexander. You know what I found out about it after I was ordained a priest and set as assistant pastor? I found out Alexander is a Greek name, and it means…

It means… Protector of men. It means two things. It means caring for and protecting men. Isn’t that a great name? See, but I didn’t know my name until God had done something with me. He gave me a different name. Alex. All right. Back to the well.

Verses 11 through 19. I’ve got to get this done quick, Matt. I’m into the gallop now. The woman said… Did I read that? No. The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where do You get the living water? Sir, are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, and his sons and his cattle?” And Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. The water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” Whoa. And the woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst nor come here to draw.” Jesus said to her, “Go call your husband and come here.” And the woman answered Him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You’re right in saying, ‘I have no husband,’ for you’ve had five husbands, and he whom you now have is not your husband. This you said truly.” The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You’re a prophet.” How did He know that? I perceive You’re a prophet. And so forth. So anyway, as you go through the chapter, what you find is that, bit by bit, who Jesus is, is revealed to this woman.

And she goes back and tells the town. You all know the story, don’t you? Okay, I could have stayed in New York. I should have stayed in bed, you know. So, you know, then He’s a prophet, you see. And then He’s known as Messiah. She says, “If Messiah was here, He could tell us all things, whether we should worship on the mountain like we do, or in the temple in Jerusalem, as you say we should do.” And He said, “Woman, the time’s coming when you will not worship neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem, but you will worship in spirit and in truth, for God is watching to find those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth.” Whoa. She says, “When Messiah comes, He’ll teach us everything,” and He says, “The one of whom you speak am I. I’m the Messiah.” Oh, and the Messiah. What is happening here? I just came to get a drink, you know.

And then she runs back to the town and His disciples arrive and say, “Oh, you didn’t eat yet. You need a sandwich.” You know, He says, “I don’t need a sandwich because I got meat you don’t know about,” which is to do the work of my Father, to obey my Father and do the work He gives me and so forth. You know the story. And so finally, the people come out and to end this chapter we read verse 39, many Samaritans from that city believed in Him because of the woman’s testimony. “He told me all that I ever did.” And so the Samaritans came to Him and they asked Him to stay with them. He didn’t stay a year though. He stayed there two days and many more believed because of His word. And they said to the woman, “It’s no longer because of your words that we believe, for we’ve heard for ourselves and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.” Not just the Messiah of Judah, but the Savior of the world as hope for Samaritans. Hallelujah. Even New Jersey. Even Nebraska. Jesus’ identity revealed. He reveals our identity gradually. You didn’t know who you were. In fact, you’re not who you used to be. But even now, we need to discover who we are becoming, who we have become, and who we’re becoming. He’s busy restoring us to the image of His adorable Son, isn’t He? He’s creating us in the image, not of Paul or Peter, but of Jesus of Nazareth, the Savior of the world, the Son of God. “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God,” Peter said. And Jesus said, “Now I’m going to tell you who you are.” And nobody knows who they are until they know who He is. Once you know Him, you begin to know who you are. In August of 1990, I was consecrated as a bishop, and as a bishop in our church, you get a new name. You get a bishop’s name. I’m still Alex, but, you know, I have a bishop’s name also. Just like there was Cephas, there was Simon, and there was Petros. All the same guy. There was Judas, Lebbaeus, and there was Thaddeus. It’s the same guy.

So, I don’t know what name to take. And Bert says, “Well, you’re supposed to take an Aramaic name in the tradition of the church, and I’ll give you a list of all of the primates of the church from the time of Thomas down to today, because we’re one of those churches in unbroken apostolic succession. You can take one of their names if you want to. They did. There are several of them with the same name. And if you like any of those, you can. If not, you can just think of a name in English and we’ll put it in Aramaic for you.” I looked down the list and nothing rang my bell and I thought, I want to take a name that says who I am and who am I. And I had to stop and think, if you’re only going to have one name that gives a description of you, what word would you use to describe yourself? That’s not easy to do, because there’s more to us than one word will say. But I finally decided what I thought said what my most basic nature in Christ is and I tried it out on Alice. She said, “That’s it. You got the right one.” Tried it out on my other deaconess. She says, “That’s exactly right.”

That’s who you are. And so, as I was consecrated to Bishop, I received my new name, Mar-mehadishu. See, Mar-toma means St. Thomas. Mar-mehadishu means thanking Jesus. Mehadishu. My name is thanking Jesus. I’m not Rain-in-the-Face. I’m not Sitting Bull. I’m thanking Jesus. That’s my name. I like that name, because I’m grateful. The only prayer we ever prayed in our house when I was a child was at dinner. I never heard my parents ask for anything or thank God for anything. I never heard my brother pray nor myself. The only prayer that ever was prayed in our house was a set prayer at the supper table. “Heavenly Father, make us thankful for these and all our other blessings through Jesus Christ, our Lord.” And He did it. He made us thankful. Who are you? I’m going to read something for you real quick. And then you can go to rhythms. I’m going to read this fast. You’re not going to be able to take notes. I have the scripture references. You can borrow this and photocopy it and distribute it if you want to. None of it’s original with me. It’s all pure scripture, but I’m going to tell you who you are in Christ. Are you ready? You open now? If you weren’t open for any of the rest of it, get ready, because this one you’re going to like.

This is the steak. Some people are looking for pie in the sky by and by, but I want steak on the plate while I wait. So here comes the good stuff. Say, “I’m ready. I’m ready.” All right, now I’m going to say “I” so that you can say for yourself “I” for your own sake. As I say “I,” let it be you speaking concerning yourself. I’m God’s child, for I’m born again of the incorruptible seed of the word of God, which lives and abides forever. I’m forgiven all my sins and washed in the blood. I’m a new creature. I’m the temple of the Holy Spirit. I’m delivered from the power of darkness and transferred into God’s kingdom. I’m redeemed from the curse of the law. I’m strong in the Lord. I’m holy and without blame before Him. I’m accepted in Christ. I’m blessed. I’m a saint. I’m qualified to share in His inheritance. I’m the head and not the tail. I’m above only and not beneath. I’m victorious. I’m dead to sin. I’m elect. I’m loved with an everlasting love. I’m established to the end. I’m set free. I’m circumcised with a circumcision made without hands. I’m crucified with Christ. I’m alive with Christ. I’m raised up with Christ and seated in heavenly places.

I’m His faithful follower. I’m the light of the world. I’m the salt of the earth. I’m called of God. I’m brought near by the blood of Christ. I’m more than a conqueror. I’m in Christ Jesus by His doing. I’m an ambassador for Christ. I’m beloved of God. I’m the first fruits among His creation. I’m born of God and the evil one does not touch me. I’m a king and a priest unto God. I’m a joint heir with Christ. I’m reconciled to God. I’m overtaken with blessings. I’m healed by the wounds of Jesus. I’m in the world as He is in heaven. I’m a fellow citizen with the saints of the household of God. And I’m sealed with the promise of the Holy Spirit. I’m complete in Christ. I’m the apple of my Father’s eye. I’m free from condemnation. I’m the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ. I’m chosen. I’m firmly rooted, built up, strengthened in the faith and overflowing with thankfulness. I’m a disciple of Christ because I have love for others. I’m built on the foundations of the apostles and prophets with Christ Himself as the chief cornerstone. I’m a partaker of His divine nature. I’m God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. I’m being changed into His image. I’m one with Christ.

Hallelujah. I have all my needs met by God according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus. I have the mind of Christ. I have everlasting life. I have a guaranteed inheritance. I have abundant life. I’ve overcome the world. I have the peace of God which passes all understanding. I have access to the Father by one Spirit. I’ve received the power of the Holy Spirit. Power to lay hands on the sick and see them recover. Power to cast out demons. Power over all power of the enemy. I can do all things through Jesus Christ. I shall do even greater works than Christ Jesus. I walk in Christ Jesus. I possess the greater One in me because greater is He in me than he who is in the world. I press toward the goal of the prize of the high calling of God. I live by the law of the Holy Spirit. I know God’s voice. I show forth His praise. I always triumph in Christ. Christ is in me, the hope of glory. Hallelujah! Amen! And that ought to hold you till lunch.