Dismissals

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

For about a year I went weekly to the Phyllis Zumkehr Clothing Center in Ravenna. I was a volunteer and new to the scene. The Clothing Center is set up like a store with used clothes on racks – pants and shirts, dresses and sweats, suits and baby onesies. Folks come from miles around, pick out what they need and bring it to the “checkout.” That’s where they put me, to fold and carefully bag the clothes that people selected. No one paid even a thin dime for the clothes. The clothes were free and I did not know why I was there, folding and bagging and saying, “Thank you, come again!” But then hit me: This was not about…

Let us go forth into the world rejoicing in the power of the Spirit! Josh

Wishing you every blessing of the Christmas Season. Go in peace to love and serve the Lord! Josh

The Christmas gifts my grandmother gave me disappointed me when I was a boy. Yet, on my desk to this day are her gifts: my grandfather’s pen, inkwell and brass dragon paperweight. They are still here, long after the toy trucks and model trains were set aside. I will be with my granddaughter Charlotte this Christmas. I have been to Amazon for a few trinkets but I believe the time has come to send the pen, the inkwell and the brass dragon off to the future. Go in peace to love and serve the Lord! Josh

Pete was from Abilene, Texas. He was an oilman, a friend and mentor to me. Among the many bits of wisdom that Pete imparted to me: “Never get to believing your own geology.” This saying comes from the oilfields of west Texas where a man once studied the geological formations of a particular place and decide there was oil under that earth. He set up an oil derrick and drilled down until he was well past where the oil was supposed to be. He simply could not accept the fact that there was no oil there. He drilled and drilled until he ran out of money, believing always in his own geology. Go in peace to love and serve the…