Good Friday--On a Hill Faraway

 

On A Hill Far Away - Good Friday

This Good Friday I remember a story I heard somewhere. A preacher chose slides for her Good Friday’s evening service. One of the slides of the crucifixion the minister was painted by Grunewald. It was painted for the Hermitage of DSt. Anthony in the fifteenth century during an outbreak of the black plague. The hermits had taken upon themselves the mission of nursing the sick and burying the dead from the plague.

Many of the victims suffered from the symptom called “St. Anthony’s Fire,” where the circulation stops and the lower limbs become gangrenous and putrefying even while the person lived. This was in the days before scientific medicine and the hermits could do very little for the victim but to cool their fevers and be with them in their agonizing deaths.

Over the altar Grunewald painted the figure of Christ on the cross—dead, twisted and repulsive, gray and green with corruption...His legs swollen with St. Anthony’s fire. He painted the Lord against a black sky and a dead sea. 

The hermits did what they could for the victims, and one thing they did was to leave each arriving patient alone on his pallet before that picture, many of them almost too sick to see it. But now and again one of them almost too ill to see it. But now and again one of them would look at it and say to himself, “In a few hours I must go t my death through foul and terrible pain. But so did He, and God turned that experience to the salvation of the whole world. If that is so, what, then, can He not do for me?”

And so this day let us grow quiet and remember that hill far away. And bring with us names and loved ones and people we do not know—and lift up this whole tattered world to the One with the nail-scarred hands.

“See from His head, His hands, His feet

Sorrow and love flow mingled down

Did e’re such love and sorrow meet,

Or thorns compose so rich  crown.”

Holy Week in a Not-so-Holy World

 

Palm Sunday is behind us. The crowds then and now have gone back to their business. Along the road are remnants of that day. Trampled grass. Withered palms. Crowded road with all their alleluias silent now. It is almost as if yesterday—or was it the day before—as if nothing special had happened. Before the week ends there will be a terrible hill and blood and gore and smugness and tears, too. Rome with all their soldiers were there. Always in charge. And scattered and fearful little knots of heart broken half-believers. There was gambling and laughter and cursing thieves and a middle cross where stretched there was a naked dying man and impalpable sorrow. 

This would be the setting that the church later would call Holy. Was this a bad joke? Holy? The whole long terrible week holy? And in that not-so-holy place the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world hung. And since that time people have clung to their own rugged crosses and hoped they would make it through their own sloughs of despond.

Amazingly amid everything wrong and unjust there was a kindly light that led them through their own flicking sputtering gloom. At first those closest to him were so bereft they hid in caves. Even after Easter they shuffled down roads muttering :”We had hoped he would be the one to redeem Israel.” How wrong they were in their not-so-holy world. 

And us just beginning our own way of the cross are we any different? Some of us still hunker down in churches and synagogues too—singing what we hope will be true, taking tiny remnants of bread and wine and whispering over and over: let it be. God, let it be.

But outside those stained glass windows the doors open to anything but holy. Fear stalks most of us. Look at any direction from cancers and mental illness to Alzheimers to kids on drugs to freshly dug graves. Not to mention Gaza and Israel and Ukraine and Russia and a red and white and blue tattered flag or all the ugliness and hatred that runs rampant. Remember back when he railed out in pain and delirium: “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?” Sound familiar.

And from that first Via Dolorosa—the Arabs call it the way of pain—we dare to walk this road station after station. Pilate…and Simon coming forward to help. Soldiers spitting and cursing. And a weeping mother. 

His falling not once but again and again. And then the nails and the terrible crown and the tearing of flesh as his splintered cross was put in place. 

So we come this week, like Bunyan’s Pilgrim with a burden on our backs. And we follow this week called holy like all those others along their way. We may even have our own crosses and sin and unfinishedness 

But we know the headlines and twisted power and whatever dark there may be at the top of all our stairs—we keep coming back. Hoping, hoping this lamb that they say takes away the sins of the world would stop on our street and stand by our door. They made it, not without scars and tears but moving through it all a centerpiece they believed was sound and sure.  Taking in his arms all those who were weary and heavy laden.

And despite the odds they would, like their Lord, give mercy and love and care and even peace in the midst of their raging wars. And we climb the hill with all those others and we find something that keeps us going.

And wonder of wonders it may be the truest thing that ever was.

Holy…Holy…Holy even here—especially here.

Ash Wednesday, Etc.

ASH WEDNESDAY, ETC. 

 “…you neglect and belittle the desert

The desert is not remote in the southern tropics,

The desert is not only around the corner,

The desert is squeezed in the tube-train next to you,

The desert is in the heart of your brother.”

—T.S. Eliot, Choruses from the Rock

Ash Wednesday. Didn’t we do that? Oh yes, again and again and again.

Why do we keep doing this year after year, decade after decade—centuries too. 

We stand in the line with all others. And when our time comes some preacher or priest will mark our foreheads with the smudge of the cross. He or she will whisper: “You are dust and to dust you shall return.” And we move away and find our pew again as the line goes on waiting for their sign. Waiting for the strange words. Maybe just waiting.

This is why most of us have come through the years. It is a somber time. It is a holy time. It is a painful time. 

If you are like me you remember the promises you made year after year on this day. And you also remember how you washed that smudge off your face as if that settles it all. But you broke those promises you made this day and this season. 

And old T.S. Eliot is right. This day and those that follow are the desert times. 

Even those set free slaves in Egypt. They crossed the water and found what? Desert. And the whole book came out of that cursed place where water was scarce and hunger was real and fear seemed, like the desert to cover everything.

And marked sometimes I remember that we all berth mark not of the beast whatever that means. But another mark like all our brothers and sisters the world over where one day sooner or later we really will be dust.

But the desert brings dust and it can choke us. And does. It can be a lonesome  place where we remember that, as Mark Connelly reminds us “even bein’ God ain’t no bed of roses.” So we walk the winding trail that he walked. Where the ups and downs and the ups and downs seem to go on forever. 

So we bring our burdens to lay them down. The old song :”take your burden to the Lord and leave it there.” But we don’t. Like the Pilgrim in Pilgrim’s Progress we stagger with our own burden. All of us. 

You name it. Old age. Cancer. Heart. Pain.That baby grave you left behind. Grief of a zillion sorts. Fear. The anger that just comes seemingly out of nowhere. Or the pettiness that cripples and diminishes us. Or the black dog that follows us one and all.

 

We wash off the mark—we think. But it is there. But lurking around us, too are those stained glass windows that tell us of faith and hope and love too. And Jesus hanging on the cross. And somehow those windows tell everybody’s story. 

Gloomy yes. Darkness yes. But we leave the shadowy church and walk out into the sunshine. It’s so bright we find it hard to see. But life is there—despite the ashes. Kids throwing frisbees or footballs. Wearing the bright orange hoping every game will be won. An old woman leaves behind you. On a walker. Knowing somehow she will get in her car and go home maybe to an empty house. But surrounded by her pictures and memories and a pictured cross she got at the Dollar Store. She goes on with her faith, with her hope and most of all her love.

Maybe that’s why we keep coming on this day. To be marked. And to know this matters terribly. Even in the desert.

Saying Goodbye to the House

“How hard it is to escape from places. However carefully one goes they hold you—you leave little bits of your self fluttering on the fences—like rags and shreds of your very life.”

                                                                  --Katherine Mansfield

The house is almost empty except two garbage bags and a few items to give away. Moving from four bedrooms to 4 rooms takes some adjusting. Understatement. 

We looked at an empty house about twelve years ago. As we walked in the living room filled with light. I told Gayle: “This just might be the house.” And she agreed. We moved in December 15th that year. “It’s too late for a Christmas tree.” But my kids said, “You gotta have a Christmas tree.” And so we hauled down from our new attic our seven-foot Christmas tree. And when it was decorated we just stood back, saying little, just “Ah.” 

And that was the beginning of a slow but sure love affair with this house.

And so this morning walking trough quiet empty, empty rooms memories swirled. Moving Gayle’s seven-foot grand. Adding shutters to the windows we could afford covering. Putting carpet down those 15 streps so we wouldn’t kill ourselves. Buying a few things but not much. We moved in our stuff. But hopelessly sentimental so many things we brought had a history. And we hung the paintings. Matthew’s art work. Some huge and some small. And Cecile Martin’s work and Carol Tinsley’s and LIz Smith’s and Susan Wooten’s too.  We tacked up prints and paintings from trip after trip. And we loved them all. 

I took a room upstairs for my office, dragged up heavy book cases and began to fill them up. I had filing cabinets to house my too-many sermons.and there was my computer and big old walnut desk that someone gave me. 

We filled the place with furniture from garage sales and consignment and antique stores. And there were two or three TV’s and a great CD player. And a dining room table that could tell a hundred stories. 

Outside I tackled the tiny yard around our patio. Ferns and hostas and ajuga and inpatients and begonias. Out back I hauled in good dirt and compost and began to plant. Many things. Roses. Shastas and phlox and so many yellow daisies that my wife kept saying: “Don’t you think you are overdoing it?”

So for twelve years we loved the place. But in my late eighties it seemed a good time to move. From four bed rooms to four rooms. And the sorting out and trying what to decide what to take and not take was overwhelming. But somewhere I learned a lesson as we packed up books and called the Goodwill and filled a zillion black garbage bags. And struggled with what to do with all this dishes my wife loved and so much more. But what I learned was that we semi-hoarders began to realize we did not really didn’t need all those treasurers. 

And so the tears ran and there were huge lumps in our throats and we wondered if this was the craziest thing we had ever done. But maybe the weariness of packing and moving helped us know so much of what we thought was important was not really was precious as we remembered. 

And so everything is out of the house. We close on the house in two weeks. Thank God it sold. And there are days as we remember grief comes trickling back. But it doesn’t stay.

We’ve done this many times. And every time the leaving behind is hard. But we began time after time to open a new chapter. Every one proved to be different. And we found ourselves doing things differently than before. Looking around at all the emptiness we wonder. 

Buechner once told of a wonderful trip his family spent in the mountains. And after several weeks they had to pack and move on. And somebody said, “Why do we ever have to leave this place? Why can’t we just stay.” And Buechner said he learned that they left it all behind to become human beings and discover there would be fine things out there they had yet to know.

And this is where we are. Closing a chapter and opening up with new pages fresh and yet to be filled. In leaving I remember something  Dag Hammarskjold once wrote: "For all that has been thanks. For all that is to be yes.” May it be so not just for us but for the people out there whose names and faces we do not know. 

--Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com

Bill French--He Left a Mark

   

 

In a world that seems to have gone mad we all need some sustaining grace. Many of you have never heard of Bill French. Unless you live in Upstate South Carolina around Clemson. 

But this man in his quiet ways left a mark on so many lives. He and his parents moved South from New York in the 1960’s. His parents both developed progressive Alzheimer’s disease and Bill found the resources to keep them at home. What a Caregiver. As a devoted son he made sure his parents had physical and mental stimulation and because of his hands-on care his father and mother found meaningful quality of life. 

Only those who have experienced the hard work of caregiving know how difficult this task must have been for both his parents with dementia.But he took them on car rides, local outings, brought good friends into his home and at local facilities. He learned to cook nutritional meals for them. 

So he cared for both parents until the end of their lives. His father died in 1980 and his mother died in 1997.But this was not the end of his story. He began to work as volunteer at the local Retirement Center called Clemson Downs. 

I remember reading that when the nurse, Florence Nightingale moved through the hospital the sick loved her and many would kiss her shadow as she passed by. She changed the lives of the sick and the dying. 

Bill French learned the names and faces at the Downs and their families during this most vulnerable time in their lives. You could see him leave his car in the parking lot bringing in homemade cookies, entire meals, soup and ice cream, cakes for special occasions and flowers. He led monthly care giving support groups at this Nursing facility.  I saw him attending funeral after funeral for those he had loved and cared for. 

I could go on and on talking abut this man who never married but spent his whole life giving, encouraging, loving. He will be missed by so many of us. For once upon a time a man named Bill left his mark and made an incredible difference.

In our day when so much seems so wrong—whether you knew him or not remember this guy named Bill and all those cadre of angels in many places we have never heard of. Turn off the TV, push aside the newspapers and thank God that in this world there are still angels of mercy who leave the mark of love on whose in need. 

And so Bill we do not say farewell for we will remember that light you brought into the darkness and how it shone and how much it helped.

I leave Bill with this Benediction that comes from the Roman Catholic Prayer for the Dead:

“Into paradise may the angels lead our brother Bill, 

at his coming may the martyrs take him up

into eternal rest

and may the chorus of angels lead him to that holy city, 

and the place of perpetual light.”

--Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com

Attack on Books, Teachers, Librarians?

 

 I grew up in a cotton mill village in the 40’s in Columbus, GA. Neither of my parents finished high school. They had to drop out and helped with the farming in the middle of the depression. But both were readers. The Bible, 0f course but also books, books, books about everything. My mother  even subscribed to the Book of the Month Club then. Monthly all kinds of books found their way to our mail box. Salespeople knocked on our door and talked them into buying the one-volume Lincoln Library. Another person told my parents that the World Book Encyclopedias would make their children smart. 

AsI grew older maybe twelve or thirteen I would board the bus on Saturdays and head for the Carnegie Library three miles away. I discovered a treasure in that Georgia library. I would pilfer through the stacks and brought home Tom Swift and the Hardy Boys series. But these beginnings expanded to all kinds of books. And my mind was stretched and my imagination was deeply stirred.

My parents never checked the books I read. And in some of those volumes I learned about our country. These who believed and sacrificed for the rest of us. But I also read the way Indians were treated. Those awful days of slavery and the terrible Civil War. Curious I read books about sexuality, other religions besides Baptist and all those who lived beyond our borders. The door opened wide to a larger and wonderful world.

And so when I read that this is Banned Books Week I said yes. The theme for this year’s week is “Let Freedom Read.” I have studied the multitude of banned books from schools and libraries and been appalled. Over 3,362 books have been banned in the last year. And the list continues to grow.  I have read many of those books they now call dangerous. 

 I find myself furious that school administrators and teachers have been charged with ugly names like groomers and pedophiles. Some have even lost their jobs. Others have even faced death threats. School Board meetings have become a nightmare. All because of books? I have known librarians in many places where I lived. They are mostly kind and helpful even when many still make only a pittance.  

When both my children left home for college it was scary. We dropped one at a dorm in Louisville and another in Chicago. And this was a grief. Night after night we wondered if they were safe. But we had to let them go discovering that freedom is scary but so important for maturity.  

This country was founded on a dream of freedom. Since our beginnings we have struggled to make that dream a reality. But I do not want some group out there badgering teachers and administrators and monitoring how children must think. But not only children.

So I applaud this year’s Banned Books theme. “Let freedom ring.” Let it be so for your land and mine. And for us all.

--Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com

Who's Blessed?

 

I want to talk to you today about a word we all know. Bless. And we Southerners say:"Bless yo' heart" whether we mean it or not. Or simply: "Bless you!" Some time people come up to me and say: "Ive been so blessed!" And I stand there thinking: "Hmm. What about me? Don't you think I've been blessed?" Leaving a restaurant the other day I looked at the tag on the back of a huge Mercedes. "I've Been so Blessed!" Well, I thought, I guess so. Folks, blessing is not just for the well-heeled or the pious--but for everybody.

The Power to Bless

One of the books that has meant a great deal to me is a little book called, The Power to Bless. It was written by a Pastoral counselor, Myron Madden. He said that the great power of primitive religion was the power to curse. This was a most fearful thing—to be cursed. But beginning with Abraham a new dimension was added to religious history. It was the power to bless. And over and over we read through the Bible these wonderful words: “I will bless you and I will bless your descendants.”

Now the great news is that the power to bless is much stronger than the power to curse. This is the heart of Judea-Christian religion. Instead of giving us some curse for our cussedness, God graciously holds out a blessing instead.

The Curse

Now we all know something about the curse. It’s those crippling messages we have heard all our lives. That we don’t count. That we’ll never amount to anything. That we are dumb, lazy, sissies. Dead-beat. Maybe foreigner or illegal. It is the feeling that we are just not important. And this curse cripples us. It shrivels our self-image. Sometimes it makes us too dependent 

 and we spend all our lives just hoping for a blessing a father for mother could not give. Hoping, hoping somebody will bless us.

The Blessing

But we also know something about the blessing. To be blessed is to be accepted. To be blessed is to be brought into the circle. To be blessed is to belong—to be a part. When her parents gave their blessing to your marriage, your career, your dreams. It is to be accepted by another person—though they know us warts and all. Bless is really is amazing grace. Remember how the old father blessed that boy that came back home in rags and shame. What did the father say? “My son…my son.” And standing at the door was the prodigal’s brother. Seething. Furious. While he was out there doing God knows what I have been here. Working. Working. Working. I took care of the crops. I have kept this house from falling in. I paid all the bills. And the father turned and said tenderly to that other son: “My son…my son. Don’t you know you have been a blessing to me all these years. 

So the gospel holds out a great promise for all of us. We are blessed despite all sorts of obstacles that are thrown in our path. Or that we throw in our own paths. You are blessed even if you didn’t not get your share when the will was read. Or your brother has a shelf with all those trophies and you have no trophies. And continually at the dinner table you have to hear over and over again about when your sister was crowned Miss Anderson and in bitterness you say:”Huh, I never got crowned for nothing except up beside the head.”

Opening the Door

But you know the Gospel opens the door and says everybody is welcomed and everybody is important. The New Testament reminds us that little group of scared believers—always in the minority—always seeming a little strange by most folks. Always looking into the plate glass window but no money to go inside. Paul knew this feeling when he first came into the fold and everybody in church turned their backs except Ananias who reached out and called him brother. And so later, much later this same man would write over and over:”We do not lose heart.”And some of those sitting there listening thought well, he has never been in my shoes. But that did not stop Paul for he told them: “we regard no one from a human point of view…” No one…no one. We are all blessed whether we know it or not.

Everybody

The common people kept following Jesus because he made them feel good about themselves. You know how it is when you are around somebody who accepts you helps you feel good about yourself They make you laugh and you find all your defensiveness just melts away. You are accepted and you know it. This is to be blessed.

But after all these years some of us still feel the sting of: “You’ll never amount to anything.” “You are just a woman.” Or a Democrat or a Republican. Or just a C student to never made the first team. Or queer. Or never had one of two or three of those little strings around you neck the night of your graduation.

Never mind. This gospel really is good news. For us all and nobody is left out. That’s what we call it the blessing. 

A Pastor named Dean Snyder told a story. He said that Norah came to stay for a few days at the emergency shelter on the first floor of his church. Her hair was colored like a rainbow. She wore tight plastic slacks, and a see-through blouse. She must have been no older than 16. Her parents had tried everything with her and finally threw their hands up and locked her out.

She chained-smoked, flirtatious, troublemaking—smart and stupid at the same time. Norah made sure she was the center of attention. Always.

One Saturday afternoon the preacher said he was alone in the kitchen when Norah came in and sat down across from him. She was quiet for a long time and finally she asked him a question: “I heard a priest say once that Jesus loved everybody even prostitutes Is that really true?”

Yes

He said he almost went into sermonette drive about how God loves the sinner but not the sin. But he didn’t say that. And to her question about Jesus loving everybody he said the only thing he told her was ,”Yes.” And Noah wept and wept.

It’s our story too. Jesus loves us all. And we are blessed whether we know it or not. We prodigals. We Elder Brothers. We Elder Sisters. Pass it on friends. Pass it on.

(This sermon was preached September 24, 2023 at the Mount Zion Presbyterian Church, SandySprings, SC.)

--RogerLovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com