The world or at least the part we live in has changed. The calamity of September 11th has made most of us aware of those around us. In some case that awareness is unfortunately one of caution, but in most cases it’s just one of celebrating with others the joy of being alive. We are within the “darkness of the cloud of unknowing”, yet we are experiencing more love of God and all those good things we have accepted and lived, without knowing in most cases they were even here.
June and I took off last Sunday after Church just to get away. We went to Busch Gardens. We saw two great shows one on ice and the other a successor to one we liked very much “American Juke Box”. It is now “Moroccan Rock”. The dancing was as good as ever but we missed those hits we used to listen to on our old Juke Boxes of the ’40’s,’50’s, 60’s, and 70’s. We treated ourselves to a grand family style southern fried chicken dinner and topped it of with peanut butter pie. It made the world disappear. Yet, as we arrived home we learned that it would not stay away, America was at war. It brought back a lot of those feelings we had prior to our visit to Busch Gardens. But we pray that the Good Lord make it all go away in as fair a way as possible. The statements by the Taliban aren’t helping. They are saying things like bin Laden can’t be released since it is against their religion, or condemning alleged deaths of civilians in their country after they killed 6000 or more innocent people here in the name of that same “religion”.
We suffered another grub attack. To the uninitiated, grubs are big fat worms that love to devour grass roots. Once again the front lawn is turning brown. Once again it is on the main street, not out back where no one could see it. We have decided that our hired hands hired to keep such things away are about to lose their job. We are allowing them, due to their guarantee, to kill what has killed our grass, and then its good bye to paying for incompetence. I feel able enough now with the help of some friends to do at least as well if not better than our paid protectors. The grass calamity looks so insignificant in the face of what is going on over and above it, but it does distract one from those monumental happenings.
Another distraction is my involvement in the political process once again as a candidate. “Lutherans fill their vacancies (of pastors) more deliberately than any of the churches in Christendom. Vacant congregations go months without thinking about choosing a new leader, and pastors, once they have received a call, may sit on it for additional months before hatching a decision. The time isn’t used for negotiating more favorable terms; it is simply filled with prayer and dormancy”. This is a quote from Richard Lischer’s book, “Open Secrets” which is the story of his early years as a Lutheran pastor. The book was a gift from Marge and Dan for our twentieth wedding anniversary. The “call” process would make any corporate lawyer proud. It begins with the council electing nominees to a “Call Committee”. The entire congregation then elects these nominees. But before they are so elected the congregation may offer additional nominees from the floor. Once elected they then begin the legal process laid out in the constitution and laws of the Synod for picking a pastor from the three who are offered by the Synod. As noted by Pastor Lischer the process is a long one. On Sunday October 21st we will have the election of the six nominees or nominees from the floor. I am one of the listed nominees. I have run for office some 4 times before and lost three times. My only win was in a primary in 1966 for the nomination as the party’s candidate for the Legislature from my district. I won it and then the opposition party (which will remain un-named) nominated without consent of it members one Tom Gola, an all American College Basketball Star and Professional Basketball player. He won, I lost, but I gained a friend. But odds are that come the 21st of October since not many people are seeking this office I will be serving on this “Call Committee”. It should be an interesting experience for an ex-Catholic that was used to having his pastors simply imposed upon him. Which, I must say, even if it was not as ‘semi-democratic’ as the Lutheran method, it was much faster. I say ‘semi-democratic’ since we cannot wander out and start selecting whomever we might consider. We are given three names of those who seemingly fit the profile of the pastor we need. Our search is limited to those three. If they fail to answer the call if given or we reject them, then we go back to square one. It is no wonder the selection process as Pastor Lischer says is “more deliberate” than any other in Christendom.
All the news of the “war” against the invisible enemy fills the daily newspapers. Our present pastor, who like myself was a young man during World War Two, remembers such occurring in the newspapers of that day. In fact he went to his mother and asked, “Is that all the news there is?” Some commentators are pointing out a similar happening in our papers today, but noting that at least we’re not bombarded with stories about Congressman Conduit, or the like. I agree but it is a high price to pay for getting scandal and rumor of scandals off the front page. Humor is a good relief for tension. So it is not surprising to see some in these grimmest of times. Naturally Florida plays a part apparently in all national humor, like the memo from the President circulating on the net: “From: President Bush; To: Al Gore: Subject: Election: “Al, we found more votes. You win. Congratulations!” Or like the cartoon showing a couple in gas masks standing under palm trees by a pool with the sign in the distance reading “Boca Raton Resort”, and the woman says to the man, “Oh yea, you said get outta the city, get outta New York, and go to Florida where it’s safe!”. I note that the other day a report in the local paper read, “Three letters that carried St. Petersburg postmarks and contained white powder are not linked to Islamic terrorism, authorities say.” So no more snickers from the audience when the name St. Petersburg is mentioned.
I am a Thomas Jefferson fan. I had a interesting example in my study of the Bible of the concept that the ‘past is prologue’. In 1 Samuel, chapter 8, the people of Israel come to him and tell him they need a King. He is told by God to warn them of the consequences. He does telling them what a King will do. Now, Thomas Jefferson, in the Declaration of Independence, a few hundreds (or thousand) years’ later lays out the facts as to what a King did. Both of them demonstrate that, “A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be a ruler…” writes Jefferson. Samuel says “…when this takes place (the enumerated tyrannical conduct making a King), you will complain against the King whom you have chosen, but on that day the Lord will not answer you.” Samuel’s details of what a King will do parallel Jefferson’s “history of repeated injuries” in many respects. In fact, one commentary on this Chapter of Samuel, suggest that he was so “on the mark” that it appears that some editing may have been done by later writers who actually served under Kings. Kings have come and gone now, but I note that in order to bring some order to the chaos of the tribes in Afghanistan some are suggesting they bring back the King. The past is a prologue.
We saw the musical “South Pacific”. The songs were all familiar. I have even played some them like “Some Enchanted Evening” and “Bali Hi” when I play at the nursing home and assisted living places. I get comments like, “I know all the right songs”, when I play numbers like that. It could be they are as familiar to them as to me because of our age. (No kidding?) I don’t think I ever saw the show before. I know I did see some of the numbers performed by Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza on TV but not the story. It was a good one and combined with the music it is little wonder it was a hit and continues to entertain. We went on Sunday night the last night of the run. After the show ended and the applause died down the cast stayed on Stage and the actor playing Emil Beck, or Ezio Pinza’s part, stepped forward and thank the audience and the community for their support.He then mentioned that there were buckets about for donations to help in the relief caused by the tragedy. He reported that in the week’s run so far they had collected $27,000. He then asked the standing audience to join him and the cast in singing “God Bless America”. It was a moving experience and we sang the prayer with all we had along with hundreds of strangers all united as Americans.
My usual ending is to say, the Lord to be with you, or as it is in Latin, Dominus Vobiscum! In saying it to myself this morning I recalled an old story you may have heard about the small Italian church where ever time the priest turned during the Mass and intoned those words, Dominus Vobiscum, a young man would leave his pew, go retrieve the collection basket and start a collection. The father stopped him after the Mass and asked him what he was doing? He said, “Father, I’m Dominic and I thought you were saying, “Dominic go frisk-em!” You can be sure it won’t get much on the laugh meter but enjoy it the best you can as I bid you, Dominus Vobiscum!