The Pastor's Ponderables

Here’s the third of my in-rhyme bible stories.  Hope it makes you smile...and think. Jonah had an easy job that anyone could do All he had to do was say what God would tell him to But one day Jonah didn't like the words God gave to him “Go tell the folks from Nineveh I don't want them to sin And if they keep on sinning things are going to get real grim You see our Jonah didn't like those rotten Ninevites  ‘Cause Ninevites and Jonah’s folks kept getting into fights So what did Jonah do? What would you do? Jonah did a silly thing I’m sure you never would  He ran away from God, but do you think he really could? He hopped aboard a little boat and sailed across the sea “If I can just go far enough, God never will find me.” But God found Jonah in that boat and started up a storm The weather went from warm Then started to transform And as the storm began to form The sailors said, “That’s not the norm! And now our boat is ...

It would be tempting - especially after the past couple of  weeks - to look at today’s reading in Exodus and say, “See?  God gets us through the flood waters.  God sees us safely through to the other side.” Tempting but wrong.  Because that's not really what the story of the parting of the Red Sea is about.  And it's certainly not what our gospel today is about. I mean, maybe they are about getting us through water, but not the floods or torments of something like Harvey, or Irma, or Katia, or Jose.  Not today's readings.  They're more about getting us through the angry waters - that is the anger that surrounds and threatens to drown us every day. Here's what I mean. You know how in Exodus, Moses brings the people out of Egypt.  But Pharaoh is furious about them getting away - especially after doing so much damage to Egypt in general and to him personally.  Even though he told them to leave, he now decides he’d rather just have t...

Kneeling is all the rage these days.   That is to say, it’s causing rage in a lot of people.   What Colin Kaepernick started 13 months ago - first with sitting during the national anthem then with kneeling - has become a movement, and some of the fans don’t like it.   Apparently, neither does the president, calling the protestors names that disparage their mothers. Now, as a church person, kneeling has always been considered a good thing.  It is one of the two primary positions of prayer, the other being standing with arms upraised to heaven.  Kneeling is a sign of humility before the awesomeness of God.  It is a sign that we understand our smallness, that we know we don’t deserve what we ask, but that we trust God’s goodness and therefore ask freely. That may not be what Kaepernick had in mind when he took a knee.  Nevertheless, it is a sign not of disrespect but of submission.  He submits to the US Constitution and its promises, demanding ...

Holy God, you may have seen - well, I’m positive you did see - the article about a local trucker who worked on the recovery effort after the 9/11 attacks.  When he put on a pair of work gloves that had been donated for the recovery workers, he found a handwritten note inside - it was by a sever-year-old girl who simply wanted to help.   Interestingly, she addressed it simply to, “Fireman.”  Perhaps that’s because in her young mind, a firefighter was the image of everything that is good and right in the world.  The image of those who give themselves to help others regardless of their race, religion, or nationality.  Perhaps it’s because she knew that firefighters like Paul Tegtmeier would always rush into the danger, and when the were knocked down would pick themselves up and keep looking for others in need. Perhaps - We can’t know. But we do know that there are many in need today.  With hurricanes, floods, earthquakes and wild fires tearing through...

Today is 9/11. Later today, the entire town will gather at a park for our annual 9/11 commemoration.  We will remember one of our fellows - a firefighter named Paul Tegtmeier, who died while saving others.  Everywhere, I see signs and bumper stickers with the Twin Towers and the words: “Never Forget.” Such heroism is worth remembering.  Such tragedy is also worth remembering.  But what do people mean by never forgetting?  And what do we deem worthy of remembering - or forgetting? The reason I ask this is because in the last few months, we have seen a lot folks around the country say things like, “Let it go, already.  It’s in the past.”  They weren’t talking about 9/11 - in fact, these are the same folks who have those “Never Forget” car stickers. What they wanted us to forget was not something done TO us by something done BY us.  In this case, it was slavery and its children - Jim Crow, Segregation, and the Industrial Prison Complex wi...