Dismissals

I stood in the side aisle at the intermission of a classical concert. A young man, early twenties, came and stood by me. There was nothing remarkable in his appearance. I said something cordial and he replied with a non sequitur about his assignment to a secret military base. He will soon be sent on a mission at the personal request of the president. I listened. His name is Donald. At the end of the concert I saw Donald’s worried parents. I introduced myself. I said that Donald and I enjoyed our few minutes together and we would meet again. Donald’s father gave me a warm handshake and his mother whispered, “Thank you.” When we listen, God hears. Go in…

St. Christopher, it is said, once operated a ferryboat. He was strong and able yet his faith was weak. One day a storm came and the ferryboat capsized. Christopher dove into the roiling waters and pulled a child to the safety of the shore. Looking upon the child as it gasped for breath, Christopher saw the image and very presence of Christ. At that moment, Christopher’s faith was made strong. Ronald Rohlheiser, author and Catholic priest, says it this way: “God does not ask us to have a faith that is certain but a service that is sure.” Like St. Christopher, we serve in the world. In our service, we find Christ where we least expect him and there our…

I was in my apartment, clickety-clack typing on my 1946 Royal typewriter when there came a knock at my door. A neighbor, passing in the hall, heard me typing. “Is that a typewriter?” she asked. She looked at it. “That can’t be a typewriter! Why would anyone use a typewriter?” She did not wait for the answer: That I type letters to family and friends. I write in the medium by which someone writes to me. If email, then email. If a friend sends a handwritten letter, I will reply by hand. So, too, my listening to God. When there is ‘sheer silence’ I remain still and quiet. When God whispers, I whisper in reply. When God types me a…

Cormac McCarthy’s “No Country For Old Men” is a novel (and an Ethan and Joel Coen movie) set in the desert along the Mexican border. It is a tale of an old sheriff pitted against an unremitting evil that cannot be overtaken or brought to heel. At the novel’s end, a friend says to the sheriff, “All the time you spend trying to get back what’s been took from you, more’s going out the door.” In its undercurrent, the novel is a theological statement about evil and about good. The devil may be in the desert but so, too, is God. Go in peace to love and serve The Lord! Josh

Lent begins with ashes. Robert Bly’s book “Iron John” speaks of an ancient civilization where the young take their place in the community by sitting in ashes from the fire, listening to the stories of the elders. Bly borrows a Greek word to describe this process: katabasis. This is a descent, a remove downward, away from distraction and in search of clarity. Lent is our katabasis, our taking on stillness and quiet so that we might hear the words of the elders, written in scripture, and in those words the voice of God. Go in peace to love and serve The Lord! Josh

We lived then without electricity. We had kerosene lamps for light but no refrigerator. One day, a small refrigerator came in a wooden crate. Made for the tropics, it would burn kerosene to keep food cool. The less-than-helpful instructions said: “Steadfastly hold a candle beneath until within the burner a clear flame flourishes.” I vividly recall those instructions and recollect my father’s invective as he knelt and held candle after candle under that refrigerator, trying to get it started. Each candle burned to a nub and no flame flourished in the burner. My mother was so disappointed. My father, no mechanic, was crestfallen. He was an artist, a Dartmouth graduate in literature, brought low by something he did not understand,…

I ordered one of those “check engine” lights for myself. I have one for the car and it flashes from time to time, sometimes for a great emergency, sometimes as a gentle reminder that the old buggy needs oil and a new air freshener. This new “check engine” light is not for my car. This one will flash insistently whenever I need to check my own, internal engine, whenever I must check my spiritual gears, soothe my quarrelsome neurons or untangle my emotional wiring….. There! My internal “check engine” light is flashing! The instructions are clear: Rest. Pray. Trust God. Above all, Go in peace to love and serve The Lord! Josh

There were five kids in the family and they were very poor. I visited them from time to time and brought from the church a shopping bag with enough food for a meal. Once I brought also a few good chocolates, surely a treat in a home where there was so little. Each child took their piece as I offered it, said their “thank you” and wolfed the chocolate straightaway. I later learned that, for these children, to savor and eat slowly with siblings about was to risk loss. Any food that was not hastily consumed would be taken and eaten by another, such was hunger in this desperately poor family. Go in peace to love and serve The Lord!…

These cold days I rise early, fetch the amaryllis from its warm night-place, set it in the east window and wait for the morning sun to break the horizon-line. The amaryllis has one stem of wilted petals but another stem has come into bloom. Whichever way I set the pot, the flowers turn to face the sun. I open my Bible and recollect the words of Catholic social activist Dorothy Day: “My strength…returns to me with my cup of coffee and the reading of the psalms.” Go in peace to love and serve The Lord! Josh

Our Gospel lesson for last Sunday (Mt 4:12-23) has Jesus traveling about: “Jesus withdrew to Galilee … left Nazareth … walked by the Sea of Galilee … went from there … went throughout Galilee.” Our Lord, always on the move! Deacons follow Jesus’ example of moving about. In the year ahead, some Sundays will find me at other parishes but it will be my continued great joy to return often to New Life Church, where I am nourished and encouraged, and then, with your prayers, to be sent again wherever I am to go. Go in peace to love and serve The Lord! Josh

Once a week I go to the men’s homeless shelter in Cleveland. The address is 2100 Lakeside. It is run by the Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry and is known simply as “2100.” Over 300 hundred homeless men stay there every night and you may be sure that today it was one cold wait, lined up at the entryway of 2100 for a warm place to stay. Once inside, groups of three or four men huddle together along the walls, gathered around the electrical outlets to charge their cell phones and to share stories of their day in the cold. Go in peace to love and and serve The Lord! Josh

Every Tuesday morning I went to group Bible study in the rector’s office. Each time, we would study one chapter, read it aloud, discuss and sometimes argue, always learning and enjoying. But I was baffled that each chapter was typed out and photocopied. I raised my hand. “Why is this typed? Wouldn’t it be easier, better, more efficient – with fewer typos – to simply copy the page from a Bible …. or bring our own Bibles?” The rector said, “This is the only way I can get the secretary to read the Bible.” Go in peace to love and and serve The Lord! Josh