Dismissals

Mike called: “Erica’s missing! She doesn’t answer her phone for more’n a week.” I listen as every 30 seconds a pre-recorded message says, “This call is originating from an Ohio correctional facility and may be monitored or recorded.” Mike and Erica plan to marry when Mike gets out in 11 years. Right now, all Mike wants is for me to find Erica. I make some calls. I leave some messages. Eventually Erica calls me from a neighbor’s phone. It was hot. She went swimming to cool off and her phone fell in. “Phone’s soaked! And I don’t have anyone’s number!” I call Mike. He’s relieved and asks when I will visit him. That’s how it is at the cutting edge…

Sunday morning, another city, looking for a familiar and comfortable church, I saw two spires above the rooftops. It was an inner city church named for a saint I did not know. I was early. I admired the vaulted ceiling with painted angels, the colorful statues of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. I watched as people came quietly, pausing at the narthex, crossing themselves with water, genuflecting at the pew, kneeling, praying. There was something in that church I wanted. Not something of the church itself, beautiful as it was, but something in the people, something to be found in the silence. Go in peace to love and serve the Lord! Josh

Kenny carried a New Testament in his shirt pocket. It fit, now that Kenny quit smoking. Every month the mailman brought Kenny one of those booklets with daily lessons on scripture but that was too much for the shirt pocket. Kenny took to tearing a few pages out of the booklet and folded them into the Bible. Whenever a little time came available, Kenny would take out the page for that day and read along in the Bible then set the page somewhere for someone to find. Kenny was one of the early recyclers. Go in peace to love and serve the Lord! Josh

A letter to a friend: “God is with me on the road. There are times I could use a hand up and God is standing by the side of the road watching, wondering, amused at the fix I have managed to get myself into. Seeing God standing by the road tells me there is great power at hand. It’s still up to me to get myself out of the scrape, and, with God nearby, I do. Then I sit quietly and listen, for in listening to God I will hear great things.” Go in peace to love and serve the Lord! Josh

In the 30 years it took to raise my three sons, I may have watched Bruce Lee’s classic Enter the Dragon about 600 times. My sons and I know every line of dialogue, every balletic kung fu move. It’s quite a spectacle. One scene in particular has carried me through some tough times. Bruce is pursued by villains from every side. They are relentless and they are legion. Bruce fights valiantly but, alas, exhausted and pressed against a wall, he sinks slowly to the ground and crosses his legs in a lotus position. This is not defeat or resignation, this is renewal and regeneration. Bruce is not done. The fight has only begun. I often recall that slow descent to…

When I was a boy, we traversed the Caribbean on a freighter, docking at islands to offload freight, then loading fruit and sugar for the mainland. The Captain said to my mother, “You are an artist. Draw for me in my book.” That evening, the Captain’s book open before her, India ink spilled across the page. My mother wept and from my bunk I shared her misery. When morning came, I saw in the book the perfect image of the freighter, sailing at night through black water, yellow stars piercing the midnight sky. The India ink had done its work.

Sunday morning, black shirt and collar, standing in line to buy coffee, the man ahead took his change, turned to me and said, “Do something good with this.” He pressed a five dollar bill into my hand. That five has had me thinking. Should I buy a burger and fries for a hungry person? A Bible for a heathen? A toy for an orphan? Gas for a stranded motorist? All of this and more, I’ll do. But that particular five dollar bill? I’ll pass it along to someone in the next coffee line. I’ll say, “Do something good with this.” Go in peace to love and serve the Lord! Josh

Three dozen men and women, united by their strange and arcane work, were drawn together from the four corners to consider the benefits of meeting regularly. Around the table, each in turn, they spoke of why such gatherings might be valuable: “Promote our profession … Establish licensing … Set standard to discourage the unqualified … Pool our resources … Effect legislation.” So it went until the last. An old man, drawing on his pipe, took his time then spoke: “Fellowship! It is an unhappy business to work in solitude. I would meet again for the fellowship.” And so they did, and have ever since Go in peace to love and serve the Lord! Josh

The man told me what happened and at one point said, “I told her not to give that man the keys to her car, him being on a bender and all.” I listened right along. It was quite a story and I wanted to say this and wanted to say that but I am learning that it’s OK to hear someone’s troubles without offering a solution. Somewhere, way deep in telling the story, it happened. As if hearing the story for the first time, the man’s tone and posture changed. We sat for a few minutes, shook hands and went. Go in peace to love and serve the Lord! Josh

A recluse died some years ago and the local newspaper delighted in reporting the worthless stock certificates found in his home, boxes full of risky investments that came to naught. What a fool this man had been! Yet who among us has not bet on the wrong horse, put a nickel in the wrong slot, turned left when we should have gone right, asked the wrong date to the dance or first attended a church we would one day leave for another? When the man’s will was read and his charitable gifts were known, no one recalled the worthless certificates. Go in peace to love and serve the Lord! Josh

It happens. Walking along, minding my own business … Poof! My faith is gone! Just like that. Then I recall the words of Fred Craddock*: “Do not panic. In the interim between the lapse of faith and the return of faith, I suggest you do two things. First, let the church believe for you until your own faith returns. And second, remember that even when you are experiencing distance from God and feeling all alone, it is still better to be true than false, to be brave than cowardly, to be generous than selfish, and to be kind than cruel.” Amen. Go in peace to love and serve the Lord! Josh *Fred B. Craddock, Craddock on the Craft of Preaching…