Story Of Noah

Blogger has mixed feelings about toppling Cumberland County politician with ...

CUMBERLAND COUNTY — Carl Johnson sat behind his laptop in the breakfast nook of his well-kept Millville home Wednesday afternoon, reviewing the traffic his blog, magazzuwatch.com , had gotten the last few days.

"Yesterday we had almost 100,000 hits," he said, his voice rising with excitement. "Right now we’re at 78,265 hits. … We used to have 300 to 500 hits during a normal day."

For nearly a month, Johnson was censored nude photos display only and racy e-mails that the most powerful politician in Cumberland County - Democrat Lou Magazzu - had sent a woman on the internet.

Johnson, an artist and a factory worker who says he is a little more than minimum wage, had been feuding with Magazzu for the better part of three years. But its site criticizing the politician had gained little notice until Tuesday, when a local newspaper wrote about the e-mails.

Within 24 hours, the story was international news, Magazzu resigned and South Jersey had a scandal reminiscent of the one that has cost New York in Congress Anthony Weiner.

Suddenly, Johnson had scored the knockout he wanted. But he had mixed feelings.

"I think that's all the idiocy," said Johnson, 49, wearing a white polo shirt with the name of his blog printed below a picture of green-tinted face Magazzu. "We knocked a politician over something stupid, when I was three years in a site full of material that really should have been the stuff that brought him down."

Officially, Magazzu, 53, was a freeholder, but in practice he was much more. A former director of the freeholder board and chairman of the Democrats, who control county government, he was the most powerful political figure in Cumberland County.

It was a life in stark contrast to Johnson’s, who says he is $10,000 in the hole for child support and works at a glass factory where the heat on the "cold end" of the floor can reach 115 degrees in the summer.

Johnson and Magazzu first collided in 2008, when Johnson — at the time Millville’s Republican chairman — wrote a letter to the editor disputing Magazzu’s claim that under his leadership, the county saw its biggest tax cut. Later, a Magazzu ally running for sheriff, Bob Austino, held a news conference to accuse the incumbent Republican sheriff of dragging his feet in carrying out an order against Johnson for not paying child support.

7 August, 2011 18:41 «

JESUS WALKING ON THE WATER PROPER 14, A, 08/07/11 Matthew 14:22-33

This story of Jesus walking on the water never made much sense to me. Feeding people makes sense; healing people makes sense; what’s the purpose of walking on the water?

There’s a trick I learned from someone, although I can’t remember who it was. When a story like this one doesn’t seem to make sense, try treating it like a parable. So let’s imagine this as a story told about a religious leader who sent his followers off in a boat so he could go up on the mountain to pray.

Just think, Jesus puts all 12 of his disciples, every one of them in a boat and sends them out into very rough water. Granted, some of them were fishermen and had experience, but still they were having great difficulty in the midst of wind and waves.

Might this be an early experiment – send the followers off by themselves to see how they do? What else do they need to learn before the master really leaves? Maybe the boat is an image for the early church? Or even the church today?

In the Jewish tradition the sea represent chaos, maybe even evil. Karl Barth said this about water in the creation story: “ It is the principle which, in its abundance and power is absolutely opposed to God’s creation. . .representative of all the evil powers. . .” Think not only of the creation story but also that of Noah, the deliverance of Israel through the parting of the waters, and the entry into the land across the swollen Jordan River. In all of these the Lord triumphs over the waters.

So here is the church, surrounded by chaos, having trouble making headway against the wind and waves – hmmm, sound familiar? And if this relating of the boat to the church sounds far-fetched to you, consider that where you are currently sitting is called the NAVE. Haven’t you seen churches that especially remind you of an upside down boat?

And in this story Jesus not only calms the storm, but also walks on the water. Is this not a startling image of who is in charge?

Still, it’s no wonder that the disciples are afraid when they see Jesus. Is this a ghost? Is it some sort of evil apparition? In response to their fear, Jesus says, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”

In the Greek original, the phrase translated, “it is I,” is ego eimi. This is the same phrase, I AM, that was spoken to Moses out of the burning bush as the name of God. So Jesus is implying, at least, that I AM is here, walking safely through the waves.

The story of Noah and the ark, according to the book of Genesis : from the King James Bible

The Story of Noah

Story of Noah

The Story of Noah

THE STORY OF NOAH, Bible Story Cards