IT’LL BE THERE TOMORROW

One of the benefits of this universal slowdown because of the virus, even when at times it became a shutdown, is that we are all finding time to spare. Early on a small group of men, all retired, got together on Zoom. There were six or seven of us who logged on. We spent almost two hours talking about what was going on in our lives and how we were coping with basically being home-bound.

Four weeks later when we met again, we spent a little more than an hour taking and sharing. Four weeks after that we were together for less that forty-five minutes. Why? We simply did not have that much to talk about. The virus had kept us mostly locked in at home. Given all the free time we had because we social distanced only when we absolutely had to, we had completed all the work we needed to do around the house that we had been putting off. In that sense the virus did us a lot of good and pleased our spouses in the process.

Sooner or later, hopefully sooner, our restrictive lifestyles will be over and we will be free to going back to the good old ways and days, which means filling up all those minutes which, during the virus allowed and even forced us to rest and relax, something our culture tends to frown upon. We seem to buy into the adage that an idle mind and body is the devil’s workshop. It isn’t.

God gave us the commandment to keep a sabbath rest for a reason. While we may think the devil loves an idle mind and body, it is just the opposite. When we are too tired, too exhausted, to think and act properly, we think and act improperly. We make the wrong decisions. We say things we, in hindsight, regret. If we hadn’t been so tired, if we had thought before we spoke, if, if, if.

The truth is that most of what we think must be done today can wait until tomorrow, most,

not all. What that means is that we truly do not have any excuse for not taking sabbath

rests. That means once a week, regularly, not randomly. We know this is possible because

we have been keeping sabbath in one way or another all these months. My guess is that

most of those who have been infected have acted as if there was nothing to worry about.

Yes, keeping safe is no guarantee we will be safe. Not doing so means we won’t be.

 

Keeping sabbath is a good and Godly (by God) way to stay healthy and refreshed and

relaxed. It is no guarantee that we won’t get sick. But it is God’s reminder that good health

is only possible when we take the time to rest, relax and get in tuned with our body and

mind and our God.

 

I know I am beating a dead horse. But a horse can only go so far before it has to stop and

rest. So do we. As we enter a new year, perhaps resolving to take a weekly sabbath rest and

actually doing so may be the one good result of this virus. A Happy and Healthy 2021.

THE CHRISTMAS CAROL

It was December 24, 1968, Christmas Midnight Mass. I was home for the holydays (yes, “holy”) from my final year in seminary. As a deacon I was vested to assist at the service. Thanks to Vatican II the altar was facing the people and I was seated in front of the altar facing the congregation as the old Monsignor stepped to the pulpit to deliver his Christmas sermon. He began by asking everyone to stand and sing “Happy Birthday” to Jesus. I was shocked and embarrassed and so, it seemed, were the people.

What an idiot I was! Why in the world were we gathering in the first place? What is Christmas except the celebration of Jesus’ birth. If it were not for that, the only reason I would have been home was for a planned winter break. And for everyone else in that congregation and in the world December 25 would be just another day on the calendar to be lived out as any other day.

As the old reminder reminds, Jesus is the reason for the season. He is now and was back then. Somehow I had forgotten about that even though I was assisting in a celebration that had nothing to do with Christmas trees and Christmas presents and all the rest but had everything to do with the celebration of Jesus’ birth. How could I? Where was my head? What was I thinking back then?

And today? Arlena and I walk through our neighborhood at night and marvel at all the decorations. I haven’t seen anything that reminds me of Jesus and everything that reminds me of Santa Claus. My guess is that if it hadn’t been for this virus, there would be those going to court asking local communities to take down manger scenes because they are a propagation of a certain faith. How dare they at Christmas!

Okay, okay. Enough of this rant because, in all honesty, the celebration of Christmas and what we are gathering for, wherever we gather, is, underneath it all, a celebration of Jesus’ birth. As another saying reminds us, there is nothing we can do to take Christ out of Christmas. Back then I was part of a Christ Mass, a ChristMass celebration. And the truth is, the Christmas holiday is still a holyday even if it is not acknowledged by the vast majority and is often forgotten by idiots like me back then.

My old pastor reminded me back then and still reminds me today whenever I think of that learning moment if my life all those years ago that I must never forget what Christmas in essence is all about. It is easy to do, as we all know. And my guess is that come Christmas morning we may forget what the real reason is for why we are gathering. If we play Christmas carols as background music that day or during this season, one song we won’t hear is “Happy Birthday, Jesus.”

My hope and prayer for you and for me is that maybe just for a moment on Christmas Day amid our celebration we might stop and silently say, “Happy birthday, Jesus.”

NO GARDEN OF EDEN AFTER THE GARDEN OF EDEN

The creation story is just that: a story. It is a wonderful parable about creation and the place of us human beings in it. The central part of that story is that of the Garden of Eden, paradise on earth, inhabited by two so-far-sinless human beings. And then everything went to hell in the proverbial handcart. My guess is that the initial concepts of an eternal hell stemmed from a seemingly human need to punish those who knowingly and willingly eat those tempting apples, whatever those apples tend to be.

The truth is that there was no way for that biblical Eden to last. Given human nature and free will everyone one of us would and will decide to do something we know is selfish and wrong. Even if an original Eden existed, it was no going to last. But that was not the point of the parable. The point, or at least one of them, is that everything and everyone is good because God, who created and continues to create, is good and it is up to us to do all we can to keep us and all of creation good.

But we fail to do so and fail daily. That is why the world is in the shape it is in. To be sure, we know that. We all want a better world, a world where there is no hunger, no disease, no covid: an Eden-like world. That world will never be, at least not in our lifetime. Yet, that does not give us a pass so that we need not do all we can to do the best we can at every moment of every day.

The problem is that when we look at this world of ours and all the problems we personally observe, we can be and are overwhelmed by what it would take to resolve them. The temptation, then, is to not even try, knowing that what little we can do will be a drop in the bucket. Moreover, the truth is is that is all it will be: a drop, maybe two or three of them, but no more. But one drop is better than none at all.

All our failures, big and small, and we all have them, do not erase our successes. The good done cannot be undone even if it sometimes seems as if it had been. In the biblical story Adam and Eve did not pack it in. They had long lives to live doing the best they could to make their lives and the lives of their children as good as they could. They surely failed as did their children, as the stories of Cain and Abel, Noah and the Ark make perfectly and abundantly clear.

The story of creation is held out to us as a constant reminder of creation’s goodness, of everything and everyone in it: cows and chickens, snakes and gnats, you and me. We are all good and we all have a purpose even if we sometimes wonder just exactly what that purpose truly is. Perhaps it will only be in death when we will be able to look back and see how well and, at times, how poorly we did. It won’t matter then. But in the meantime, in the here-and-now, when it is within our ability to enjoy, care for and use God’s creation as best we can, we must do so. It won’t be Eden, heaven on earth, but it will be what we make it.

OBEYING THE COMMANDMENTS FOR THE WRONG REASONS

Most of us, I assume, grew up learning the Ten Commandments. Unfortunately, my guess is that most of those growing up today have never heard, and maybe never will, learn them, let alone memorize them and learn what they mean. That is sad. (And it’s the church’s fault. But that’s for another reflection.) My further assumption is that even if we who once could recite the ten could not do so today. That, to, is sad, maybe even sadder.

There is something else that is even sadder most of all. When we learned those commandments way back then and we set out to obey them, we obeyed them for the wrong reasons. We did so out of fear of present or future punishment. They were commandments handed down by God and, by God, God would make us pay somehow in some way if we disobeyed them.

The truth is that we do pay when we go astray from them. When we lie and cheat and steal, our sins eventually come back to haunt us as we all know well from experience. Our sins catch up to us. When we fail to keep sabbath rest, take time to relax and reflect, our health pays for it sooner or later. When we forget about God and God’s creation, when we abuse it, we and our world will pay for our negligence and abuse. And we are.

Keeping the commandments and obeying laws out of fear of some kind of punishment is not the way to live. Rather we are to live our lives, doing whatever we are to be doing, out of love and not fear. We honor our God not because we fear God’s retaliation if we do not, nor, on the other hand, because God will reward us if we do. We honor God because we love God even if we really do not know what that means, because we don’t.

We honor our parents, anyone in authority, not because we fear what they might do if we do not nor because we want to receive some kind of reward – praise, honor, a raise, etc. – but because it’s the right and loving thing to do. In fact, keeping the commandments is always the right thing to do. And let’s be honest, the right thing to do is somehow already written in our hearts and minds and souls from birth.

Keeping the commandments is the only way to live. The reason why the world is in the mess it is in, where we have divisions, sometimes great ones, is that individually and collectively we have decided that it is easier and presently more rewarding to disobey one or more of them. That present reward always comes with a price, often at a great price, as, again, history and our own life experiences teaches us.

God gave the commandments to Moses simply as a way of reminding him and the people he was leading to the Promised Land that is they wanted to arrive there, keeping them was the only way to get there. The same is true for us today. Loving another, especially (fill in the blank), is hard. But it is the only way to live. The truth is that in the end and through it all love always overcomes fear.

FINDING THE GOOD NEWS IN THE BAD

 In this life we all receive our share of bad news, some more than others and some more than it seems one deserves. No matter how bad the bad news and no matter how often it comes our way we have to deal with it. As much as we want or even try to avoid it, there it is staring us in the face.

The point is not to try to deny the bad news nor is it to downplay how bad the bad really is. Doing so only makes matters worse and not better. Yet, the truth is we often try. The further truth us that sometimes the bad news isn’t as bad as we think it is. We are all prone to making the proverbial molehill into a mountain. Nevertheless, the molehill is still a problem we have to address.

What we need to do is find the good news in the bad news. Full disclosure: I am an ardent Joe Biden supporter and totally opposed to Donald Trump. It is not so much about politics as it is about the person. I could go on. My point is that despite the polls saying Biden was going to win in a landslide, I always had my doubts: the memory of 2016 never went away. What I was doing in case my worries proved correct was to try to find some good news in the bad news should it come. It did not for me, but for over 74 million others it did. Now they must try to find some good news in what they have considered bad news, and for some of them, very bad news. I know the feeling. Been there.

No matter who we are we must try to find the good news in what we consider really bad news. At first that is extremely difficult because we can be overwhelmed by the bad news. For me, had the election turned the other way, I would have a very difficult time trying to find the good news. It would not be easy, not in the least, but I would have to try. I would have no choice.

The good news in any bad situation is that we never go through it alone, Family and friends are there to walk with us and who try to help us fine that glimmer, and sometimes it is only a glimmer, of good news that is there somewhere. But it is there as difficult as it sometimes is to see. We simply have to open our eyes to see it as blurred as that vision may be.

At the same time, when our good news may be another’s bad news, what we have to do is be the person who helps find the good news for him. In doing so we must resist the temptation to downplay how he feels, to try to make light of what is going on inside of him. He is hurting and may even be angry. Who isn’t when confronted with bad news, whatever that bad news is?

Bad news is bad news and it is personal, meaning a real person is experiencing it, a person we are called to love and try to understand, support as best we can. When the bad news is ours, we hope the other will do the same for us. We are in this life together.

SEEING BEYOND WHAT WE SEE

Sometimes, maybe more often than not, we really do not see what we think we see. We see on the surface and no more, and then we make judgments about what we are seeing: he/she/it is beautiful, ugly, interesting, boring – the list is long and even endless. Most of the time, I dare say, we don’t even go so far as to pass any judgment. We move on in the blinking of our eyes.

Sometimes, too, we see only what we want to see, especially when the object of our attention is a person. If we like that person, we tend to see good. If we have an adverse feeling, for what ever reason we have such, we often see something less than good, even evil. We want to see good in those we love and care about and see not-so-good or even not-good in those we don’t. Human nature, perhaps, but not justifiable or acceptable for us as Christians.

Seeing beyond what we see takes effort. It often takes hard work and it takes time. It takes being open and not automatically being judgmental, either for good or for bad. One bad observation about another does not make that person bad. What we saw may only have been a bad moment or part of a bad day. We can relate. We’ve all had them. On our part we certainly do not want to be judged by another because of one bad and foolish word or action. One bad sermon does not make one a bad preacher nor does one good one make one an orator. We are judged by our body of work not by one act.

We know that. That is why it is so important to try to see beyond what we se. There is depth to everyone and everything, sometimes profound depth. We’d like to think sometimes that what we see is what we get, that there is no depth to it – to the act or to the person. But there us. Even a passing nod, a peck on the cheek, a quick handshake of greeting all have more to them that meets the eye, perhaps not a whole lot more, but more. We know that also to be true when we are nodding our head to another, giving that peck on the cheek or extending out hand in welcome.

None of this is very profound. But during these times of social distancing I am reminded how much I miss giving and receiving that peck on the cheek from a friend, that warm handshake or big bear hug, all saying more than words can say. And it is in these times we are given the opportunity to take the time to reflect on the world about us: the beauty and depth and meaning of God’s glorious creation; the importance of family and friends; the ways we can begin to mend the divisions that have been so profound and sad and still linger. The list is long.

We have been called to be a lamp of love and forgiveness to the world by the way we live our lives. To do so we have to keep our eyes open to see beyond what we think we are seeing and see what God sees and then do what we can to help others see beyond what they think they are seeing. That may not be easy for us or for them. But we must.

MISJUDGING THE DAY

At the end of the day as I am falling off to sleep, I often reflect upon the day that is almost done. I think about the things I have done, what I have accomplished, if anything. In these days of covid, I have to admit that my list of good deeds done is often very, very short. When you can’t go anywhere, or most anywhere, for fear on contracting the virus, there is not much one can do that merits praise or good feeling of any kind.

That said, it is so much easier to look for the self-pats-on-the-back that I can give than reflect on the missed opportunities there were to determine if what I have done has enabled others to, if you will, go and do likewise. As a wise person one once observed, we should not judge each day by the harvest we reap but by the seeds that we plant. If you are like me, it is so very easy to admire the harvest, if there was any, than rue the time we wasted in not taking time to plant seeds.

Of course, the truth is that we plant seeds all the time whether we realize it or not, whether conscious of that fact or not. Everything we say or do is a seed that is planted in another or others. Those seeds can be very good or very bad. When we have done something that helps another or others, we have planted a seed in them. What they do with that seed – emulate it or ignore it – is up to them. But we have planed a seed.

The same is true when others plant seeds in us by the examples they set – good or bad. What we do with those seeds is up to us. Over the years I have become a better person because the good seeds planted in me by others I allowed to grow and take hold in me. On the other hand, there have been times, all too many I must honestly admit, that I have allowed a bad see to take hold in order to justify something I did that I really knew was wrong and should not have done.

Whenever I reflect back my day or days, week or weeks, I have to wonder about all those missed opportunities there were to plant seeds, good seeds, in others by things that I have done and by things I have left undone, words and actions. I cannot go back and do a make-over. I can only rue my failings and determine to be more aware of those opportunities to plant good seeds when they come my way.

The danger, certainly, when I have indeed planted some good seeds, or think I have, is to take pride in what I have done rather than be thankful that God has given me the grace and strength to do what I should do and should be doing all the time. It is truly no great praise-worthy deed to do what I should be doing. It is simply fulfilling my responsibility as a Christian.

At the end of the day, if we can reflect back on what examples we have given to the people we have encountered by the way we have lived and know we have done the best we could, we can rest in peace. That’s all we can ask of ourselves and all God asks of us.

LIMPING ALONG TOGETHER

William Sloane Coffin once astutely observed: “It is often said that the church is a crutch. Of course it’s a crutch. What makes you think you don’t limp?” We’re all a bunch of cripples, are we not, we who are members of the church? We’re not whole in any way, shape or form. We are crippled by our pasts, each of us and all of us together. To think that the church is made up of whole and sound people is to miss what the church is all about. It is a hospital for the crippled, those made weak by their sins. The healthy need not apply.

To realize our ill health, to admit that we are not whole, to recognize our need for help – all that is the first step in getting healthier: healthier. There will never be a time when we are completely whole, in total health; not in this life anyway. While we are trying to get better, become less crippled, we often find ourselves taking two steps forward for every step backward, and sometimes it is just the opposite. We are all cripples. What is worse, most of our pain is also self-inflicted. Every time we think we have made some progress towards better spiritual health, we do something sinful and stupid that drags us back a peg or two.

We limp along day by day by day hoping we will get just a little better, limp a little less and not do anything to make the limp even worse. Some days we succeed and some days we fail and often fail miserably. That is the first truth about life in this life. The second truth we need to acknowledge is that we cannot get better all by ourselves even as we sometimes try to do so. We all are in need of help, no exceptions. The one place we know we can find that help is with and among our fellow cripples, in that community of the sick we call our church.

We all need a crutch to lean on at times. The church is indeed our crutch. The church as that community of cripples is that place where we help one another become stronger and healthier and better. We support one another in our individual journeys in faith because we know that is the only way we can make the trip: together. Trying to go it alone only insures our failure. The trek is too long, too difficult and we are too crippled to make it all by ourselves.

That is not a sign of failure. It is only an admission of the truth. Yes, it is an admission of our weakness. But if we refuse to confess that weakness, even profess it, we are only making our life worse. It is only the fool and the too proud who will not use the crutch. It is the wise and the humble who reach out and grab the crippled hand of the other so that together they can limp along together, slowly but surely, on the journey in faith.

We are all wounded. Our wounds are inflicted by the sins of others and are self-inflicted because of our own. They may not be evident. But they are there and they are very real and they make cripples of all of us. That is why we gather as a community of faith, crippled, limping along, supporting one another, being a crutch one to another, loving one another to healthier and more whole spiritual lives. Yes, it is difficult these days because of the virus, but these days will pass and we can extend the hand of help once again.

TRUTH

Pilate was a cynic. He believed all truth was relative. Even more, since he was a person in authority, truth was what he said it was. If power could alter the truth, as it obviously could in Pilate’s mind, who wouldn’t be cynical? Thus, if one has power, one can easily be tempted to play loose with the truth and even get away with it. Pilate, of course, was not the only one in power who has played loose with the truth. History is replete with like examples.

The truth is that no one has a lock on the truth. Why? Because not all truth is known, that’s why. There is still much about life we do not know and do not understand. We are still learning: about this universe, about our bodies, about how we think, about life and death, about so much. Every year Nobel Awards are given out to researchers and scientists who have learned something about us and our world that we never knew before or what they proved to be incorrect. We know so much more today than did the people of Pilate’s time. So much of what Pilate honestly believed to be true has proven to be false.

Jesus said as much, not to Pilate who was not about to listen to anyone, but to his disciples in the hours leading up to his arrest and crucifixion. As they were eating their last Passover meal together, Jesus was preparing his followers for what was to come. They did not understand everything he was saying nor did they even have the foggiest notion of what was to come. That is why he told them that he would send them the Holy Spirit who would lead them into all truth.

The Holy Spirit is still guiding, leading us into all the truth. But we do not receive it all at once. Would, perhaps, that we could. Would that there be one book in which we could find all the truth in clear and sure and uncertain terms. Opps, I guess there is. It’s called the Bible. The truth is all there – somewhere in there. Unfortunately, it is not all that clear. The truth has to be mined, if you will. It has to be dug up and dug out of the words of scripture, refined, polished, and then refined and polished over and over again.

All of the truth is in there, but it is not all black and white. And sometimes what once seemed so sure and certain proved to be simply in error. Slavery was permitted; the earth as the center of the universe was an accepted scientific truth; women were second class citizens, if that; polygamy was allowed especially to those in power; prostitutes were part of the landscape: weary soldiers deserved some reward did they not? All this and more is only for starters.

The point is that no one generation has ever had a lock on the truth, not even today’s generation that arrogantly considers itself the best and the brightest – a truth that is truly relative. The Holy Spirit is still with us, still leading us into the truth. It is guaranteed that some truths we hold today will be proved false some day.

Each generation has to deal with issues that were never addressed in scripture but whose truths can be found in there somewhere –with the grace and wisdom and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Each generation has to deal with newly discovered truths that make what was once believed to be true, even if scripturally accepted, now known to be false.

Does that mean that scripture is in error? No. It simply means that the writers only dealt with the truth as they knew it and as they understood it – as do we, as does every generation. We have struggled to discover the truth from Day One. We have struggled to accept the truth once we have found it, also from Day One. The Holy Spirit will continue to lead all of us into the truth, as the Spirit has done from Day One. Our response is not to be cynical like Pilate or arrogant like we can all be at times, but to be open, honest and, most of all, patient.

JESUS: THE ULTIMATE CONSERVATIVE/LIBERAL/INDEPENDENT

At first glance upon reading the Gospels it might seem that Jesus is the ultimate and consummate liberal, at least as we understand that quite political term these days. Perhaps I should rather say, “as that term is misunderstood” these days. Also, at first glance, one could also conclude that Jesus is the ultimate conservative, again, as that term seems to be (mis)understood these days. And finally, Jesus certainly had to be the ultimate independent.

Jesus said that he came not to change one iota of they Law but to fulfill it. In that he was a true conservative. Jesus himself followed the Law, kept the Holy Days, fasted as the Law demanded. The Law had its purpose else God would not have given us the Law in the first place. However, it was never meant to be an end in itself. It was given to help us be better people and not to prevent us from doing what the dictates of the heart demanded. Sometimes the Law would have to cede to love. The Sabbath had its purpose but sometimes the laws of the Sabbath had to be set aside to take care of the needs of those in need. In saying that and in fact in doing just that, Jesus was a true liberal.

Perhaps one might thus conclude from all this that Jesus was the ultimate and consummate independent in that he was beholden to neither liberal of conservative, neither right nor left and certainly not to the Law. Of course, it does take a lot of courage, even gall, to attempt to define someone else’s political, sociological and theological stances. We know what they say about those who make assumptions about anyone or anything.

Nevertheless, when we do read scripture and read about Jesus’ actions and listen to his words, and when we are tempted to try to categorize those words and actions into a present-day political perspective, we can come away somewhat confused. We want to get a handle on Jesus but Jesus always seems to elude us; yet that does not deter us from making the attempt and from forming a conclusion which we will gladly share with anyone and everyone, especially those who disagree with us and to whom we want to prove that Jesus is on our side.

The safest course, it would seem, if one has the courage to actually define Jesus, is to assert that Jesus was an independent, that he marched to the tune of his own drumming; and that he did. But he did it in the context of his Jewish faith. He was neither a loose cannon nor a radical polarizer. He simply challenged everyone he encountered, from those in highest authority to those on the outskirts of society, to examine the reasons why they did what they did and why they avoided doing what they so refused to do. He demanded complete honesty. Asserting “It’s the Law,” was, for Jesus, disingenuous if not dishonest as well.

What he got in return was often a lot of self-defense and sass. Instead of people taking him seriously they refused to take themselves seriously. Instead of questioning their own motives, they questioned his. But he never let them off the hook. In the end those who refused to listen, to take him seriously, to change, silenced him on the cross. Yet, the words they heard were never silenced. They had to live with them. And his loving actions, the Law notwithstanding, were seared into their memories.

 Jesus challenges us today in no less a way than he did when he walked the highways and byways of ancient Palestine. As with his contemporaries, so with us: we are often tempted to label him, to assert that Jesus is on our side, to use him as a cudgel to beat over the head into defeat those who oppose us. The only person we should be beating over the head is the one we see in the mirror. His words and actions speak as loudly to us today as they did two thousand years ago. Categories aside, Jesus was always on the side of those who at that moment in time needed him the most, who needed to be loved and cared for, Law or no Law. So should we, no matter how we label Jesus and no matter how we label ourselves.

COMPASSIONATE LISTENING

There is either too much or not enough, let alone none at all going on in this world and even in this church of ours – talking, that is. On the one hand, there seems to be too much talking going on. Everybody’s talking at us. Everyone has an opinion and everyone seems willing and able to make that opinion known and heard. It is almost a Tower of Babel out there and it is all dissonance, lots of yelling and screaming.

Now talking in and of itself is not bad. That is often the best way to communicate thoughts and ideas to others. When we speak, we use body language and body language often conveys more than even profound words. Talking becomes bad when it degenerates into pontificating. Give some of us the opportunity to mount the pulpit and we will tell anyone who is listening what is wrong with the world, wrong with him and how to fix it. Why would others not think we have the answers, all of them, in fact, or maybe most?

On the other hand, there is not enough talking going on. When we are at odds with someone else, with another nation, with another belief, we tend to stand apart and glare at each other. We are unwilling to talk, for whatever reasons we may have. And if we do give in and agree to sit across the table with those with whom we disagree or whom we do not understand, we have a penchant for pontificating.

What is even worse is that when we talk too much, we do not listen. When we do not talk at all, no one is listening. When we do not listen because we are drowning out the other with our words or when there is nothing to listen for because there is no one to speak to us, we fail to communicate. And the failure to communicate is the primary cause for so many of the problems we have in our world today, the church included. In fact, I tend to believe it is the reason for the great number of problems we have.

We must speak with one another, communicate with the other, no matter who the other is, especially when we find ourselves at odds with the other. But more importantly we must listen to the other, truly listen, and listen compassionately. To listen with compassion we have to put aside for the moment our beliefs, our prejudices, and our opinions and put ourselves in the place of the speaker. That is in and of itself always difficult. But we must.

We cannot do that if we are listening sitting on the edge of our seat ready to interrupt or interject our retort. That is not listening and that prevents us from truly hearing what the other is saying. And so we fail to communicate even as we think that is what we are doing. If we are communicating anything, it is that we are not listening, certainly not listening with any sense of compassion and willingness to understand.

Even if we are convinced of the correctness of our position and the incorrectness of the other’s, we must listen with compassion. We must try to understand why he believes or thinks or acts the way he does. When it is our turn to speak, we simply do the same and trust the other will listen with compassion to us. In the end we may continue to disagree with the other, but at least we will have heard each other out and will understand why we each believe the way we do.

Listening with compassion also enables us to hear what we may not have heard before because we talked too much or talked too little or talked not at all or hear something we never thought about before. Imagine that! Speaking and listening with compassion, with an open heart and mind, enables communication to take place and will go a long way in bringing peace and help mend broken relationships of any shape or size or form.

 

THERE'S A CONSPIRACY AFOOT

 As Sherlock Holmes might say to Dr. Watson, after investigating all that is going on in the church, “Ah, Watson, there’s a conspiracy afoot; and it’s a good one.” And there is; and it is good – both in the correct meanings of those two words, thank God. Conspiracy, as in it’s Latin base – cum spirare, to breathe together; ­good, as in virtuous. There is a good, virtuous conspiracy, a breathing together, that’s afoot in the church. Some may disagree, but I digress.

Too often when we hear the word conspiracy, we immediately think of a group of people gathering together to commit some nefarious action. In fact, that is now the basic definition of the word. How far we have come. Thus, if someone were to observe that there is indeed a conspiracy afoot in the church, most would be speaking of something that is not good. They would be asserting that there is a group planning, scheming even, to destroy the church.

Of course there will always be those who do indeed conspire to work against the work of God. Of course there will be those conspiracy theorists who insist that there is a deliberate one afoot aimed precisely at them and their beliefs. Of course there are those who conspire to denigrate the good others do. Pun intended, they are wasting their breath with such protestations.

But is not the work of a church, a parish family, that of a conspiracy? Does not the Holy Spirit breathe in and through us as we breathe and work together doing the work, the ministry, God calls us to do? But this does not happen automatically. The truth is that we have to deliberately conspire to do God’s work. We have to willingly and lovingly breathe together, work as one, or else the work we are called to do won’t get done. We must be intentional about it because it will not happen on its own. The further truth is that when people are breathing together, acting as one, conspiring to be of one mind and one heart, more often than not they are doing so for good and not for evil.

We do not need any theorist, moreover, to remind us that the greater the conspiracy, the greater the breathing together for good, the more good things will be done – and vice versa, of course. Since as church we are called to do good, to remove evil, to work together for the good of all, we have no choice but to conspire together. The mission and ministry is simply too great to be accomplished alone.

The more we conspire, the merrier – and in the original meaning of that word as well, as in delightful. For that is what it is, is it not? We have all discovered just how delightful it is to work together doing the work of God wherever and whenever we do it. It is a good conspiracy. Granted, that work will not always be easy. Sometimes it may not be the work, the ministry, we like to do even as we know it must be done. But we do it because it is indeed good and delightful.

There is conspiracy afoot. Hang on for the ride. God only knows where the breath of the Spirit will blow!

 

WHY THE FIRST IS FIRST

Did you ever wonder why the First Commandment is first, other than the fact that God gave them to Moses and obviously wanted to make sure everyone knew from whence they came and who was really most important in their lives? From a human point of view we might easily assume that God was being a little self-serving when God insisted that the most important commandment, the most important rule in our life, is that we have no other god except God.

It would make sense to think that way. In a work environment the first rule is to obey the boss. All other rules and regulations follow. We may be a very conscientious employee, do our job well, always arrive at work on time and never leave work early, never ever take even a paper clip or a used pencil, and treat our fellow workers with respect. That is all well and good and even necessary for a great working environment. But if we disobey the boss, none of it really matters and is almost all for naught. So, of course, the first commandment is to obey the boss or, in our case, The Boss.

Yet, the truth is, if we do not obey this first commandment, it will be very difficult to keep all the rest. On the other hand, if we, in fact, do make God first in our lives, it will be much easier to keep the other nine commandments. The rest follow and flow from the first. For what matters first and foremost is who our God/god really is. If something else such as money or career, becomes first in our lives, becomes our god, then the other nine will never be kept as they should.

 

Consider: if we make our career, for instance, our god, we have already broken Number Two. It is already an idol, a false god. We will sacrifice family, health, whatever we must, to enhance that career. When things do not go right for us, we will curse that god for so controlling us and even curse God for allowing it to happen. As for Sabbath Rest, well that goes the way of everything else that slows us down in our race to the top.

What is worse is that our relationships with those who matter most, who should matter most, family and friends, deteriorate in this service of what has become our god. We no longer have time for them because this new god consumes our time. We will step on those who get in our way; we will lie and cheat and steal, covet what we do not have until we have it, all in the service of this god of ours.

Not a pretty picture is it? It is so easy to make something so all-important that everything else takes second place, and a distant second at that. When that happens, we have, intentionally or not, made that something into a god. It is even worse when we make ourselves to be Number One, when everyone and everything becomes subservient to our wants and wishes, to ourselves.

That is why the First Commandment is indeed first. Keeping it keeps us focused on what is most important in our lives. Even when we begin to lose focus and chase after some other god, which helps us so easily to forget about and break the rest of those Commandments, we will not lose sight of just who is Number One, thanks be God.

 

 

TO SAVOR OR TO SAVE

You and I live in a world of conflict. The newspapers and magazines, radio and television are full of stories about mankind's inhumanity to mankind. But the greatest conflict goes on not in the world around us but in the world inside us. Every day we are torn between doing what we would like to do and doing that which we know we should do. It is a conflict between faith and fulfillment.

Something inside us tells us that we will not be fulfilled unless or until: unless we have this, until we can do that. Something else inside us tells us that that which we believe will be fulfilling is merely and empty glass. The conflict will not go away because we cannot escape the barrage all around us and inside us.

We want to be the Good Samaritan but we also want to say Good Riddance. We know we should help the person in need and yet we know that he will probably be a burden we would rather not carry. Do we stop and help or do we look the other way?

There is something deep inside us that knows what to do, what should be done, the desire to do the right thing. That something is our faith. But there is also something inside us that is not so deep. In fact, it is rather shallow. And because it is rather shallow, it is on the surface, right there at the top, demanding our attention. It is the desire to do that which is pleasing, satisfying, seemingly filling. It is the desire to use the good of creation for ourselves.

There would seem to be no real conflict between the shallowness of life and the depth of our faith even when the conflict takes place at the same time. But there is. Writer and wit E.B. White (Salt of the Earth): "If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning, torn between the desire to save the world and a desire to savor the world. That makes it hard to plan the day!"

We've all been there. We are all there, every day. Our faith fills us with the desire to save what is wrong with this world, to correct the mess that we are in. Our desire for fulfillment – to be all that we are and all that we can be, as deep as that sometimes is, as shallow as it often is -- shoves us more into the mess rather than helping us solve the mess.

The conflict will never go away, not because we will never save the world. It has already been saved. It will not go away because it's – we've – been too busy either wallowing in misery or wallowing in wealth. Our misery stems from the fact that we don't know how blessed we really are and our wealth creates a desire that is never satisfied.

The fact of the matter is that we can both savor the world and save it – or at least continue the salvation – by simply living out a life of faith. Faith helps us understand the goodness of creation that is to be savored and gives us the strength to use it in loving service to God, others and self. Saving and savoring are two sides of the same coin and not two different and contradictory ones.

GROANING FOR SOMETHING MORE

As Christians we believe that we are born to live, to die and then to be born again to live eternally with God. Our end is not life on earth but life with God forever. But we are not there yet and we will not get there until we die in this life; not die to this life but die in this life. We still have to live this life before we can live the life to come. Yet, as we live this life as fully and as faithfully as we can, there is still something missing. As Paul says in Romans, we groan for something more.

Thus, in that sense, we are like a mother in labor. The life to come is still within us and wants to be born as soon as possible. Paul himself in another place talks about wanting to be with God in eternity right then and there but also knows that he still has a mission to fulfill in this life. He is not yet done with what has to be done even as he aches to be done with this life and be with God forever.

Perhaps that is why, even when we are most satisfied with life as it is, when we seem fully alive, we still have this inkling that there is more, that something is missing. There is a longing for something more, a holy longing as it has been called. That longing will not be satisfied until eternity. We know that. Yet we cannot help but groan from within for it to be now.

This is good. If life did not get any better than this, what would we have to look forward to? Or as Paul says, where would our hope be? If there is nothing to hope for, if this life is as good as it gets, what a pity! But we do have hope and we live with that hope and we groan patiently within for it to be fulfilled. No, we do not dwell on it and the labor pains are not constant. But every once in a while we feel them if only as a reminder that the best is yet to come, whatever that best will be like.

On the other hand, when life is not so good, when the pain of this life is real, whatever the pain, whatever the form of suffering we are in, this hope for life without pain is what helps us through the moment, however long that moment may be. We certainly are experiencing some of that these days, what with the virus and the restrictions on our life style and all the rest. We are longing for something better now, in this life, not just in the life to come. As we struggle through life now, the life to come is put on hold.

That’s the way it is in this life. When life is good, we still long for something more and better. When life is not so good, we long for something more and better. We are never truly satisfied and will never be until we finally live that new and better life with God in eternity. Until then we will continue to groan from within.

And that is as it should be, is it not? That is not to say we always are greedy for something more and better. Rather it is to say that as we live out this life, inwardly groaning for the life to come, we still know that we can always do better, be better. There will always be something missing even if we cannot put our finger on just what that something is. In a real way we can never be satisfied with what is. We have to look for ways to be better, groaning our way as we do.

 

FEELINGS

For a while now I have mostly put aside spiritual and theological reading and substituted it with Agatha Christie, David Baldacci, Sue Grafton and the like: mystery and detective stories. It’s been enjoyable. The other day I told Arlena that I started to feel a little guilty not reading serious stuff but books for pure entertainment. She replied that since I had been doing the serious reading for sixty years or so, I need not feel guilty.

Easier said than done, at least on my end. What may be even worse is that in the process of reading all these basically murder mysterious is that they are filled with some bad guys and gals, some very bad ones. They are cruel and sadistically enjoy their murder and mayhem. They seem to hold no remorse for their actions. No, they hold no remorse, no seeming about it.

Then, when one of these murderous incidents takes place, my blood begins to boil. Yes, it is fiction. No real person was killed. But still. In my internal anger I want that bad person, in the end, to suffer, really suffer. And sometimes, I have to admit, I contemplate how I would administer that suffering were I the one called upon to do so. Then, when I pause to think about what I had just been thinking and contemplating, I don’t like those feelings of anger and vengeance that I had.

This is not a new revelation for me because I have been aware of it all my life. Something inside me has always wanted those who knowingly and willingly and freely commit heinous crimes to suffer and to suffer in the same way and to the same degree – and maybe even worse – than the person they harmed. Authors of fiction often make that happen, but in society it doesn’t and, what’s more, society can’t and shouldn’t.

We may want to get even, as I often do when in my readings that feeling comes over me, but when we do, we make ourselves just like the person we want vengeance upon. Actually seeking revenge only makes matters worse. Even in my stories, when the murder is avenged, the one who was the victim is not brought back to life. George Floyd was murdered in cold blood, on video for all to see, gut-wrenching and anger-inducing. And even if the perpetrator is tried, convicted and executed, George Floyd is still dead.

Unfortunately, when our emotions, our gut feelings are aroused and we allow them to get out of control, bad things happen. Sadly, sometimes those revengeful actions make everything worse. An eye for an eye is never the answer. For me, thankfully, when my feelings of anger or guilt or vengeance arise when I am reading fiction, I am aware of them even as I am often repelled by them.

Nevertheless, those aroused feelings are a reminder that I am quite capable of actually acting out on those feelings were the situation real. That frightens me and, if you are like me, it should frighten you as well.

NEEDING A BREAK

Around five months into the covid imprisonment – or at least it seems like one – daughter Tracy, Carter’s mom, called. She and her husband have high-stress jobs and both have been working from home all the while. At the same time Carter was with them, upfront and personal. So, besides working they had to see to it that Carter kept up on his pre-school lessons and was kept busy enough so that they could do their jobs. Five-year-old’s can be a handful. Tracy’s message was short and to the point: “Covid or no covid, we need a break. Can you watch Carter for a week?”

Silly question. We couldn’t wait to get him along with his trusty companion, Carmine. We met them on a Saturday and brought the boys home. Unfortunately, grandmother-wise, Arlena had to board a plane to Denver on Monday to, fortunately, be able to take care of our niece who was recovering from a very serious mountain-biking accident. Nurse Arlena saw her through the critical days of recovery and came home a week later. By that time, however, Carter and Carmine had been returned home.

Arlena’s niece was blessed to have a wonderful and caring nurse to help in the healing process. And I was blessed to have the boys to myself. Carter and I went to the pool, three doors down, almost three times a day, most of the time having it all to ourselves, mostly because our community is doing a great job social distancing and because, even though it was warm, the sun wasn’t out and the tan-seekers stayed home.

We had a great time eating bachelor meals: Eggos, PB&J sandwiches, mac and cheese, pizza, Chick-fil-A and the like and 35 calorie popsicles for dessert and to keep us hydrated. When Carter arrived home and sat down to dinner, Carter found on his plant what he usually does: vegetables. It’s a task to get some down. When Tracy asked him how he did with vegetables while he was with me, he responded: “Pap gave me a break from vegetables this week.”

His parents needed a break from Carter and Carter needed a break from vegetables. There are times in our lives when we truly need a break from someone or something even when we truly love that someone or something. In the process we often discover how important that person or thing really is to us. Okay, it may take Carter time to discover the importance of vegetables in his diet and I was of absolutely no help. But he will learn.

Sometimes needing a break and being able to take a break can’t happen. As long as covid is with us, there is no way to really take a break. If and when we do, we put our own life and the life of others at risk. Sometimes we take the risk because we have to, as Arlena had to. Carter’s parents knew we were as safe as could be because we have never taken the risk. Yes, there are times, like now, when we all could use a break from the “vegetables” of our lives, this covid. Perhaps we already have and it hasn’t come back to bite us. We might not be so lucky the next time, to our pain and perhaps to those we love.

WHY ME/US?

Over the years my suspicion is that we all ask the question, when something completely unexpected and traumatic happens to us, “Why me? What have I done to deserve this?” The answer, more often than not, is “nothing”. And that is true. We did nothing that merited or caused what happened. It simply did and now we have to deal with it. That same question arises not only individually but collectively, as a community, small or large, from a family to a city to a state – and sometimes to the entire world.

Not very long after I arrived in Cedar Rapids in 2003 living next door to the church in the rectory while Arlena was still in Spokane trying to sell our home, my dog, Albert, and I went to bed. During the night a tornado tore through Cedar Rapids and the surrounding area. When Albert and I woke up, the power was off. When we went outside to take our morning walk through the large cemetery behind the church, we discovered branches and leaves in the front yard, a tree next to the rectory torn from its roots, wires attached to the garage pulled from their steel frame, and in the cemetery at least sixteen uprooted trees. Devastation everywhere but no one really asked, “Why me? Why us?” When you live where tornadoes are a fact of life, sometimes life bites you.

But then, five years later in 2008 a massive storm arose and flooded the downtown and surrounding areas. A parishioner a mile from the river had six feet of water in her basement. Much of the community was in shambles. Many probably wondered why this tragedy happened so soon after the tornado. What was worse was that the country was in the midst of a recession. People were already hurting. The flood was adding insult to injury. But as in the aftermath of the tornado, after the flood, the community rose up and worked together to heal and rebuild.

And then came the derecho, a massive windstorm that damaged a third of the corn crop, tore trees from their roots and collapsed structures that had withstood the tornado and the flood. My guess is that citizenry again wondered why this happened. Wasn’t a tornado and a flood enough for one community in a relatively short period of time? Now this! Yet no one who asked “why?” would be taken to task. And the old and honest response “Why not us?” doesn’t hold.

So what are the people of Cedar Rapids doing? They are doing what they did after the tornado and after the flood, shaking their heads, rolling up their sleeves and working together to find and make resurrection, new life. And they will just as they did before, just as they always will. God bless them. They are an example the rest of us seem to need while in the midst of this pandemic. They are putting aside political differences, religious difference, all differences and working together. That is the only way. In any tragedy there are not two sides to recovery but one.

They are teaching us a lesson we should have learned long ago. I, for one, thank them.

WHY WE DON’T LISTEN

“Let anyone with ears listen,” (Mt. 13:9) Jesus says to the people as he tells them a parable. Why did he have to say that? Didn’t they specifically come out to listen to what he had to say? Why would they not be listening? Even more, why would he have to say the same thing to us today were we the audience? Don’t we all have ears? Don’t we all listen? Obviously not.

It is just as obvious why we do not. We not listen because, deep down, we really do not want to hear what is being said. We do not want to hear what is being said because we do not want to do what we are being told we must do. Then when we do not hear what has been said, we somehow believe we have an excuse for not having done what we know we should have done in the first place.

But we have no excuse. That, I think, was part of Jesus’s message from Day One. Those who heard him whenever he spoke had no excuse for not understanding what he was talking about. What he was saying was not rocket science even if there was no such entity back then. The Gospel message was clear and to the point. The only excuse they would have was that they were not willing to listen to his words. They were not willing to take his message to heart and make it their own, make it part of their own lives.

We truly have to listen to the Gospel message. We have to be open to what is being said and willing to make it personal and take it personally. That is the first part of Jesus’ message. The other part is that what is heard takes work to be understood. Jesus wants us to not only listen and listen closely to what he says, he wants us to think about it and think about it deeply, in the recesses of our minds and hearts.

The parables are not simply good stories, and interesting ones at that, fine word pictures. They have a deep meaning. But to discover that meaning we have to think about what has been said, what the words mean, how they apply to our personal lives, what we are to do with what we have learned, and so forth.

Of course, the final part of Jesus’ message is that we have to actually do something. We have to put into action what Jesus’ words are calling us to do. That, I think, is the real reason why we don’t listen to that message: it isn’t easy to live out in our daily lives. It takes work, often hard and demanding and sacrificial work. And we are not always that willing to go that far.

Jesus did not tell parables just to hear himself speak. He spoke so we could hear and listen, could understand ourselves better, could learn how to live our lives to the fullest. None of that comes from a simple hearing of a parable. It comes from a life-long listening, listening to and hearing the message again and again and again, learning something more each time and putting it into practice each day.

That will never make the sometimes-difficult task of living out our faith easier, but it will make worthwhile, as we have all discovered.

SEEING THE KINGDOM OF GOD/HEAVEN

Every once in a while as I am driving somewhere I come across a sign that tells me in King James English or a more modern translation that unless I am born again, I’ll never see the kingdom of God, and by that I know the sign-posters mean I’ll never get to heaven when I die. They are wrong of course both about what it takes to get to heaven after death and about what the kingdom of God is all about.

First of all, there is nothing they or anyone else can do or has to do to get to heaven upon death. Heaven, the life to come, is God’s free gift to each and every one of us. Whether, upon death, we accept that free gift is up to us. We will still have the free will to decline the invitation. I can’t imagine anyone doing so, but there you go. Some fool might but I know I will not.

Second, I am born again every day. Every day is a new day to live the life I know God calls me to live and every day I know, at the end of the day and, in all honesty, at times during the day, I do not live the life I should. In other words, I sin. But come the next day, I can be born again to do better today that yesterday. I’ll never get it totally right, imperfect being that I am. That is no excuse. It is simply the truth.

And, third and finally, the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, is not some place out there. It is where each one of us lives and moves and has our being. The problem of course, and the reason I think the sign-makers get it wrong, is that this world is certainly no one’s idea of what heaven is to be like. As wonderful as it is at times, in all reality it is a mess and often a colossal mess. And it is no one’s fault but our own.

Jesus came among us not to show us how to get to heaven but to make this earth, the kingdom of God, into what God created it to be in the first place and which it is now not. And he showed us how to do it even if we already knew how to do it. Jesus’ message was nothing new. If we would only love God above all us and on another in the same way, including ourselves, as the Old Testament prophets said we should, we would bring in the kingdom in its fulness. We haven’t so far.

Thus, what we have to do is be born again every morning intent on doing all we can in every way we can, do our part in helping make this kingdom a reality. There is neither a magic formula nor a simple formula – like be baptized and profess faith in Jesus. What it is is hard work, sometimes really hard work. Sometimes pain and suffering are involved, maybe even death (see Jesus as an example).

When we awake each morning, born again to a new day, all we have to do is open our eyes and we will see the kingdom of God. It is a beautiful, messy, but hope-filled world waiting for us to do our part to get rid of some of the mess and help make it into what we know it can become. Or we can hide under the covers. The choice is ours.

RETROFITTED NOT RETIRED

There are times, not a lot, but noticeable, when I am standing in line waiting to be waited on. The person at the counter looks up and apologizes for the delay and tells me I’ll be taken care of soon. My response is always, “No problem. I’m in no hurry. I’m retired.” And it is never a problem because, well, I am retired. But, then, maybe not. Most people I come in contact with who are in the same position as I am – retired – all sing the same tune: We are busier now than when we worked.

Thus, the other day Arlena and I were talking and the word retired came up. She said that she didn’t like that term simply because of the busy lifestyles we now have. My response is that I would prefer retrofitted as a better way of understanding life now. And I think I am correct. The dictionary defines retired as “having left one’s job and ceased to work.” We may have left our jobs but we have not ceased to work.

What has happened is that in the process of moving from being paid for our work and into the volunteer field, we have been retrofitted to do some things we never did before or had time to do before. We, as the dictionary says, have been furnished “with new or modified parts or equipment not available or considered necessary at the time of manufacture.” I don’t know if that takes into consideration my two cataract surgeries and three hip replacements, but having been retrofitted with these new parts makes what I do now much easier.

The sad part is that I have known many people who have retired and never allowed themselves to be retrofitted. Quite a few died young because all they saw in themselves was who they once were, namely what job they had, and never considered what they could become. My Dad basically died with his boots on working on all the equipment on the family “farm” until his heart gave out. My Mom crocheted almost to her dying breath. Arlena’s Dad, a PTSD victim of WWII, worked till his lungs gave out. Her Mom finally stopped her needle work last month when she reached 98. The arthritic fingers quit working for her. Now she puts together jigsaw puzzles to keep her mind and fingers as active as possible.

We all have those stories. Many of us are those stories. We retrofit our lives to the circumstances around us – as we all are having to do in this time of virus crisis. We are finding new ways of being who we are and doing what needs to be done. There are those, of all ages and conditions, sadly and of course, who refuse to be retrofitted because change is too difficult or something from which they think they are to be exempted.

Our lives are being changed because of circumstances beyond our control, as they always have been, as they always will be, whether those circumstances are age, health, societal conditions, whatever. How we retrofit ourselves to those changes or refuse to do so defines our present and will decide and define our future.

STARTING SMALL

We are all aware of the truth that big things often come in small packages and that size is not always a measure of worth. In fact it almost seems that smaller is better and that less is more, or at least it often happens this way in life. There are thoughts to reflect on in every one of these truths to be sure. There is another truth about size and that is that if we want something to become great, we really have to start small.

Corporations do not begin as corporations. Often they begin as a one-man operation in the founder’s garage. The Ford Motor Company began that way. The telephone company began with one man and his associate. Microsoft began with two college dropouts and an idea. The list is long. The founders may have begun with big dreams but those dreams could only begin to come to fruition by starting small.

So with the kingdom of heaven, with the proclaiming of the Gospel message, with the church: the seed has to be planted and then take root before the tree can grow into a fruit-bearing plant. The yeast has to be mixed into the message so that the message can be expanded. The Gospel message is proclaimed one person at a time and the church grows one person at a time and we grow as persons one day at a time. We do not arrive in this world as adults. We grow into it and we grow up.

We often find ourselves impatient with the slow pace of things, frustrated with others because they are taking too long to catch on, angry because the situation is not going as planned. When that happens, what we need to remember is that growth always takes time and almost always takes longer than we had planned and certainly much longer than we desire. We want a solution to our problems sooner rather than later, now and not tomorrow, easier rather than more difficult.

I sometimes think Jesus must have been impatient with the slowness of his disciples to catch on and with the reluctance of so many to even give him a hearing. But Jesus was not. He knew it would take time for his message to get through and that it probably would not finally sink in until after he was gone. And so it happened.

I think that is one of the reasons why he told parables about the growth of the kingdom. He did so to remind his followers that they should not become frustrated when it seemed as if they were failing and that they needed to just hang in there. The message would get through, eventually. And it did, as it always does. As it always will.

When we start small, as we must, patience is a virtue we must cultivate especially when if or when we find ourselves in over our heads with an issue, whatever the issue. We want a vaccine to kill the virus and we want it now; but it will take time. We want to get back to normal, whatever that is, but it will take time. Everything that is worthwhile takes time and usually more time than we would like.

In the meantime, whatever it is that we are awaiting, we do so knowing that all time is in God’s hands and in God’s good time all will be well.

IGNORANCE IS NOT, IF EVER, BLISS

What we don’t know can hurt us as we have all learned the hard way – which, unfortunately (perhaps) is the only way we seem to learn. What we do know can also hurt us if we ignore the truth, especially when it is right there in front of us, up front and personal. This is certainly true about the virus that is consuming the news, our world and each one of us personally.

I was reminded of this truth amid this pandemic when Arlena and I were out for a drive with her Mom. Nanny is 98 and doesn’t drive, but she has a 1999 Lincoln Towncar with 54,000 miles on it sitting in her carport that needs to be driven on occasion. She also needs to get out of the house on occasion. Thus, we merge the two needs and take her for a drive anywhere she wants.

The last time out we were turning onto a country road. There was a poster on the corner that announced a wedding and reception. The first words out of Nanny’s mouth: “They don’t know what they are getting into.” So true. For that couple, ignorance, at moment, is blissful. There will be unblissful moments to come when they learn how difficult marriage can be at times no matter how much they love each other.

Why? Even if they have lived together, marriage changes reality. Living together is usually a 50-50 proposition. That’s manageable. Marriage is 100-100. That’s difficult. Learning that the other always comes first is not always blissful. In fact, it can be painful even when what is done is done out of pure and total love. So, yes, Nanny is right. We really don’t know what we are getting into when we marry.

I dare say that the same would be true if we had to make a decision today whether or not we wanted to be a Christian. The same is true even as we have made that decision. We really don’t know what we are going to get into when our faith is put on the line, when we are called by circumstances to prove that we truly are Christians. As in a loving marriage, so in living out our faith: for the most part, it is not all that difficult. It can even be blissful.

We will never know what demands will be placed upon us as we live out our faith (or our marriage). That ignorance of the future can be blissful. Why worry about what might happen because it just as well might not? The point is that when the difficult demand does happen, when there is nothing happy or blissful about it, we need to remind ourselves that it goes with the territory, if you will.

The difficult and hard times come and they must be faced honestly and not with blissful ignorance. Otherwise we will indeed learn the hard way just as those who thought the virus is/was a hoax. Ignorance, especially chosen, is not and never will be bliss. It is always painful. So, as well, is the truth sometimes. We need to be prepared to face it.

WINNING IN LOSING

Over the years we all have lost a lot of battles we had hope to have won. We lost because we were up against something or someone superior. We lost because we went into the battle unprepared. We lost because of events or situations that were out of our control and which got the upper hand. No one is a winner every time out. We are all losers in one way or another. That is a given.

And that is okay. In fact it is good. We learn, or should learn from our defeats. If or when we do not, we set ourselves up for more defeats, more failures and, I dare say, more pain and heartache. When I was growing up, I played Little League baseball for one year. I wasn’t very good even though I thought I wasn’t as bad as I really was. When I went out for a second year, I didn’t make the team. What was worse, my skinny little brother made his. I was devastated.

Losing, losing out, always hurts. If it does not, then there is something wrong with us. What I learned back then, even though it did take time for the pain to subside and the learning process to take in, is that I have to be honest with myself, as painful as that can be. Thinking I am better than I am, that I can do something I really cannot and should not do, only gets me into trouble. That does not mean that I have never put myself into a situation where I was in over my head. I am still learning the hard way.

Aren’t we all? We are in a situation right now in our country where we are losing a battle to an enemy that, presently, is more powerful than we are. Many don’t believe that, much to their pain and suffering and, for some, even their death. For whatever reason, we, as a country, are not getting a handle on this virus, and until we do, sadly and tragically, more and more will die.

We will eventually win this battle. We will overcome. But will we have learned anything from it? My old history professor had a favorite line after every war we studied: Status quo ante bellum.  In other words, nothing really changed after the battles were fought. We learned nothing. That’s why history repeats itself. We think, even believe, we won’t make the same mistake the second time around or that others made, but we do.

We are presently learning the hard way as we continue to lose this battle. When we eventually win it, the question will remain: Have we learned anything? The losing side in all those wars in the past could have been real winners if they had learned anything from their defeat. But, as history tells us, for the most part they did not. They believed they were the exception to the rule, like those who flaunt the CDC guidelines today.

As we struggle through the days and months ahead, we have the opportunity to reflect on what we are learning from this battle we are presently losing. Will we turn out as winners who learned from our losers who will make the same mistake somewhere down the line?

STEPHEN’S EXAMPLE

Stephen was the church’s first martyr. We do not know very much about this man, this saint. What we do know is that he was one of the seven men the apostles chose to become the first deacons in the aspiring community. The seven were called to aid the apostles in their ministry. Stephen had to have been someone special to have received this calling, this honor. And, as the events in his life played out, he certainly proved to be not only someone very special but also very worthy of such a calling.

What it was that set Stephen apart in the first place, we do not know, other than he and the other six were full of wisdom and the Spirit – the only two requirements demanded by the Apostles of these men. Stephen was so full of God’s Spirit that he even worked miraculous deeds – which certainly attracted the attention of those in authority among the Jews and the Romans. Like Jesus before him, it was dangerous business to work miracles because miracle working attracted the attention of too many people.

Stephen, because of all the attention he was getting, like Jesus before him, became a threat to the authorities. And Stephen, like Jesus, was eventually put on trial because his good works were somehow perceived as a threat to both the Jewish nation itself and even more so to those in authority. The leaders tried to find fault with him. And when they could not and did not, they simply decided he was a blasphemer who should be put to death, just as their predecessors did with Jesus. And that they did. They killed him by stoning him to death.

Like Jesus, even in death Stephen could find a way to forgive those who were unjustly putting him to death. Both Jesus and Stephen are reminders that doing what we are called to do can get us in trouble with others. Goodness, like evil, always attracts attention. Granted, evil deeds gather all the headlines. Stories of people doing good rarely do unless it is the season – or the day – to report on such good deeds, days like Christmas and Thanksgiving. But the truth is we upset more people by our good deeds than we do by our evil deeds. That seems strange, even wrong, but it is true.

A doer of good, like Stephen, is a living, walking, waking reminder to everyone of what all of us are called to be and to do. The good deeds of others stand in contrast, often stark contrast, to the sinful deeds we do – and vice versa. No one likes to be reminded of his or her failings, especially by another human being’s actions. Thus, that living reminder is persecuted, like Stephen, because he is doing what he is supposed to be doing by those who know they are not doing what they know they should.

Human nature, to be sure, but unjustified, also to be sure. We are not called to be Stephen. He had his special call. But so do we. Stephen in his day was not more important than we are in or day. What Stephen did was use his God-given gifts to the best of his ability and then let the chips fall where they fell. We are to use our God-given gifts to the best of our ability and let the chips fall where they will fall. We cannot control the response of others. Only they can. What we can do and must do, and hopefully do, is live out our faith as best we can. That’s all God asked of Stephen and all God asks of us.