This Week

This week at praxis...How to Win Friends and Influence People

Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks.  
They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, 
"Sir, we wish to see Jesus."  Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew 
and Philip went and told Jesus.  Jesus answered them, "The hour has come 
for the Son of Man to be glorified.  Very truly, I tell you, unless a 
grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single 
grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.   Those who love their life 
lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for 
eternal life.  Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there 
will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.

"Now my soul is troubled. And what should I 
say-'Father, save me from this hour'? No, it 
is for this reason that I have come to this 
hour.   Father, glorify your name." Then a 
voice came from heaven, "I have glorified 
it, and I will glorify it again."  The 
crowd standing there heard it and said 
that it was thunder. Others said, 
"An angel has spoken to him."   
Jesus answered, "This voice has come for 
your sake, not for mine.   Now is the 
judgment of this world; now the ruler of 
this world will be driven out.  And I, when 
I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all 
people to myself."  He said this to indicate 
the kind of death he was to die.
- John 12:20-33
 


I have often been threatened with death.  
nevertheless, as a Christian, I do not 
believe in death without resurrection.  
If they kill me, I shall arise in the Salvadoran people.  
I say so without meaning to boast, with the greatest humility...

Martyrdom is grace of God that I do not believe I deserve.  
But if God accepts the sacrifice of my life, let my blood 
be a seed of freedom and the sign that hope will soon be reality.  
Let my death, if it is accepted by God, be for the 
liberation of my people and as a witness of hope in the future.

You may say, if they succeed in killing me, that I pardon 
and bless those who do it.  Would that thus they might be 
convinced that they will waste their time.  A bishop will 
die, but the church of God, which is the people, will never perish.
- Archbishop Oscar Romero

Echoing the World War II era, a company called Innovative Marketing Alliance 
is publishing the God's Armor New Testament, a bulletproof pocket-sized 
Bible for loved ones who are at risk.  'While its fundamental function is 
to provide the spiritual assurance that comes from carrying God's Word next 
to the heart, its antiballistic qualities built into the cover provide 
a reminder of the world we live in.' However, the armor is only 
capable of resisting a .38 caliber bullet.
- Brian Kelcher, "Not So Good News," The Door, Nov-Dec 1996, 41.

 The king has been very good to me.  
He promoted me from a simple maid to be a marchioness.  
Then he raised me to be a queen.  Now he will raise me to a martyr.
- Anne Boleyn (1536)

We multiply whenever we are [cut] down by you; the blood of Christians is seed.
-Tertullian (AD 160-220)


Questions:

	Do you have a favorite martyr, or martyr story?  What is it?
	What do you think about martyrs?  Did they do the right thing, 
	or should they have protected themselves more carefully?
	Should Jesus have avoided Jerusalem, and avoided dying on the cross, or not?
	What difference does this part of the overall story of Jesus does 
	the martyr-death part make for you?
	How do you make sense of dying for a religious belief, 
	a political dream, or to save others?