C is for Challenge

And the challenge is to you, gentle reader. See whether you can come up with a nine-word sentence whose words begin with these letters, respectively,

C-R-O-S-S-I-N-G-S.

Here is a sample: "Could Rudolf Otto Scare Sinners In New Guinea? Sure."

Can you find Rudolf Otto in this picture?

To qualify, your sentence ought to be true, more or less. For instance, take the sample just cited. There really was a character name of Rudolf Otto, a German Lutheran theologian who was born a few days before Michaelmas exactly 130 years ago. ("Otto" was also the name of our family dog.) Professor Otto claimed that humans have a natural intuition of The Holy, before whom they sense they are mere creatures, sometimes with fear and trembling. But did Otto ever check out his scare theory in New Guinea? I do know he conducted a study tour all the way from Morocco to Japan. Yet that is hardly proof enough to answer our question, above, as cockily as we did: "Sure!" (If necessary, I was prepared with a more negative substitute, like "Scarcely" or "Seldom.") So I consulted an old Papua New Guinea hand, Dr. Jerry Burce, now pastor in Cleveland. He says, Go with the "Sure."

Burce explains. Suppose I am a Papua New Guinean and that my father died recently and that now suddenly my child comes down with pneumonia. Under the circumstances, "it's utterly reasonable to expect that my old man is trying to settle a score with me over some filial failing on my part." So I call in the local expert on spirits, hoping he can placate my deceased father. But suppose, instead, the one who makes the housecall is not the medium but Rudolf Otto. And suppose, says Burce, that "Herr Doktor proceeds to advise me that behind my child's fevered gasping lies a power infinitely fiercer and more implacable than my father's ghost. Am I frightened out of my wits? Yes." So the "Sure" stands.

Old PNG hand

Oh, and one thing more. Your nine-word sentence ought to be not only somehow plausible but somehow relevant to Crossings, that is, to the church's interest in shoelacing Word with world. For instance, the following acrostic wouldn't do: "Chicago Really Owes Sammy Sosa Its Next Grand Slam." Not that that's not true. But it is, shall we say, theologically deficient. You can do better.

OK, readers, start your engines. Everyone whose entry gets published gets a year's subscription to this paper without the contribution envelope enclosed.

rwb

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