Dream Time

Reckon this child just might be called into the ministry? 

--Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com

Fair and Balanced--Huh?

One phrase that has been floating for quite some time is: “Fair and Balanced.” I think the idea behind these words was a plea to be fair. Which is commendable. But in a time when truth is up for grabs I think to put down this term beside all sorts of issues is not fair or balanced.

When Lyndon Johnson was a young man looking for a job he interviewed about a teaching position in a high school in Texas. The officials asked : “Tell me what you believe about evolution?”  Mr. Johnson said, “I can teach it either way.”

Fair and Balanced Won't Go Away

And after all these years we are still struggling with this issue. We cannot just take any prescribed medicine or home remedies when we are ailing. Horse pills do not cure covid. Many of us check the labels on food before we buy them. Protein, fat, carbohydrates. How many grams. How much should we eat. Or should we eat it at all. We’re having a lot of discussion—well, maybe not real discussion, in public schools about what is fair and balanced. People are checking up on teachers to see if what they say is fair and balanced. School and public libraries are being monitored to make sure that we have no books on our shelves that will offend or make our children upset. 

Truth about America’s incarcerating Japanese citizens in the Second War War is now suspect by many. What about the other side? Truth about our dark history with slavery. Must our children think that back that everything was fair when history says no. Truth that demonizes Republicans or Democrats.  Monsters or angels. Pick your side. Dealing explosive issues like sex. What should be taught and what should not. What about the Holocaust? Should children know the truth about that terrible time or should we just be silent and ignore the dark pages of history. Physicians should not spare patients when they have cancer or other maladies. We have to come down on what is the best treatment which sometimes will make us very ill. I don’t want to have an operation but my Doctor tells me this is necessary. Maybe we get a second opinion but if we are really sick fair and balanced goes out the door.

Is the Earth Flat?

Remember those that were sure the earth was flat. Remember those that were tortured and burned at the stake or simply lost their jobs because they were not Catholics or Protestants or atheists or come from a strange land. This happened in America too.

Lloyd Douglas, the popular author in the fifties tells of a conversation with a friend who taught the violin. The old man had a lot of wisdom. Douglas asked him one day, “Well, what’s the good news today?” The old music teacher went over to a tuning fork that was suspended by a cord and struck it with a mallet. “That,” he said, “is the good news for today. That, my friend is an “A”. It was an “A” all yesterday. It will be an “A” all day tomorrow, next week, and for a thousand years. The soprano upstairs warbles off-key, the tenor next door flats his high notes, and the piano across the hall is out of tune. Noise all around me, noise: but that, my friend is an “A!”

We Cannot Scrap the Ten Commandments

There are some thing right or wrong. We still have the Ten Commandments. Truth is like that “A”. It has been and it will always be. We cannot believe or teach it either way. Jesus said:’You shall know the truth and the truth will make you free.” There are no alternative truths or facts. We cannot pick and choose. 

Flannery O’Connor said, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you odd.” In this very stormy time, maybe oddness is what we all need.

--Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com

Father's Day Memories

Father's Day. Memories Swirl

Father. As I look in the mirror and begin to tie my tie I remember how I learned . My Father taught me. And this really is a symbol of how much I am indebted to him. He lost most of his hearing when he was a young boy way out in the country. His ears burst and home remedies were futile. So he spent his whole life straining to understand and hear. He missed a lot. But so did we. But looking back I want to thank him for so much, more than learning to tie a tie. He worked in a textile mill from age 21 until his retirement. Those early days he worked sometimes twelve hours a day--seven days a week. He worked in a huge mill at a time when it was no air conditioning. It is hard to imagine working in that hot Georgia heat day after day. But he did when he could. The other day I found the letter the President of the mill wrote him when he had been working there for forty years. It was a thank-you note on engraved stationery for all those yers of faithfulness. There was no gift, no bonus. I wonder what he thought as he read that letter. He died when he was 67 years old. Two years after retirement his heart just gave out. I have no prizes to award him. But I remember the day I learned to tie my tie and so many other things.

And for me that is enough.

 Son. Funny story.  When my son was in the cub scouts every member was to enter the pinewood derby. Which meant--from scratch he and his father was to build a little car which would race against the others in the derby. Whew. I had no skills for building a race car or any car. So I spent a lot of time muttering and saying I did not have a clue. But together my son and I somehow pieced together a pitiable racing car. The night of the race the cars were on display. Ours was the saddest car in the race. It looked like the wheels would come off. And I was embarrassed for him and for me too. The engineers were there in full force. Their cars were something. They had calibrated them and weighed them knowing they just would win or place. And the whistle blew and the cars started down the ramp. Curve after curve they ran. I wanted to run away.  Guess what? My son won the Pinewood Derby. He beat out all the engineering kids and all the others. Just yesterday he sent me the first place ribbon he won. The caption said: "Winner." He still is.

Daughter. I still remember that after her divorce my daughter had a very difficult time. She had two daughters and she taught school. Everything was hard. And Christmas time for her present she invited my wife and me to a Robert Shaw Christmas Concert in Atlanta. How could she do this? The tickets were expensive. And yet she insisted. And that night we went with her to the concert sitting close to the front. It was magnificent. And I looked over at her face--beaming and shining. Life got better much better. Both daughters finished college. She got married again. Life is  good. But I still remember that hard evening and that Christmas gift and the smile on her face. 

--Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com

It''s Pentecost--What Really Happened?

 

A little boy visited the Grand Canyon with his parents. And when they got there they walked out on the edge and looked down and it was scary. Nobody said anything. And then their son spoke. Looking out on that vista and it’s enormity and wonder he said, “Something Happened Here.”

And when we come to the story of Pentecost Luke says something happened here. It was after the horror of the cross. Some could not get that out of their heads. It was after Easter. It was after Ascension when they stood there looking up and he left them. Went upward. They were left empty and grief-stricken. They wondered what in the world they were going to do. They had left jobs and families and for what. It all seemed to be over. There was Rome always breathing down their necks. And a whole cadre of people that hated them and killed some of them. They just fell apart. Oh, they kept meeting week after week but their hearts weren’t in it. They were just going through the motions one morning and guess what? Something happened. Something changed their lives. They were never quite the same again.

They were just sitting there hopeless and sad. In total shock with Jesus gone. And then something happened. That day lightning struck. And they got up no longer hopeless, no longer immobilized. They went out after that Pentecost morning and changed the world. And if the challenge of Pentecost had not happened there would be no church here and on this spot there would have been a Dollar General and Jesus’ name would be consigned to the history books. 

But that did not happened. Why? Something happened here.  A little group came together in that hard year of 1789. George Washington was Inaugurated as President. The Constitution of the United States became law. Benjamin Franklin and a colleague met and began to lay out plans for a place called Washington. Bill of Rights introduced by James Madison. Down in Kentucky Rev. Elijah Craig distilled bourbon whiskey for the first time in Stamping Ground, Kentucky. By the way the Reverend was not a Presbnyterian but a Baptist!

But that’s not all. In a place called Pendleton Village a little cluster came together and started a Presbyterian Church. It was a hard time. They were  attacked more than once by Indians. And in 1796 their little church burned. And they rebuilt in 1797. And in 1802 they built a worship center called Old Stone Church. And in 1820 they moved to Pendleton and built this building. And for 233 years you have opened the doors and said welcome.

Is it all over? Is anything happening today? Yes. It is Pentecost and it is not just a day for looking back. It is a day that looks toward the future. Is what happened here just in the history books or is there a door that slowly opens in this strange time and the people here you and you and you and me, too know something is happening here still.

Wind

What happened? Wind. Suddenly there came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind and it filled the whole house.” They couldn’t see the wind but they could feel it.  Wind comes from the old Hebrew word: breath. The breath of life. 

They were turned inside out by that wind that came. And here today—without breath what happens? We die. Breath energizes. Breath puts wind in our sails. It keeps us going.

Fire

But not only was there wind but there was also fire. “Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them and a tongue rested on each of them.” Each of them. Everybody here too. Yes. Their hearts burned within them as they walked and talked with him along the way. 

And we know that sometimes the lamp flickers low—but it doesn’t go out. A man wrote a story about this boy that fled from home and did the dumbest things. He was in jail more than once. And in desperation he decided to go back home hungry and penniless. He remembered his Daddy always told him if you decide to come back—we’ll leave a candle burning in the window. So in desperation he staggered down the road and saw his home. And guess what? The house was dark and there was no candle burning. The house was dark. And a man that read the story told the writer:’You devil put the light back in that window!” And sometimes we think the light has gone out. But no. “The light still shines and the darkness cannot put it out.”

Tongues

Wind. Fire. But Luke adds another word. Tongues, too. “All were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them ability.” It was not the unknown tongue. Everybody heard in their own language. Everybody.                                    

Something happened there. And no one was a stranger or a visitor. No back of the bus. No inside/outside jokes. No pecking order. No one better than others. Just one big family. “Parthinians, Medes, Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia,  Judea and Cappadocia.”That’s not all the languages that Luke gives. But we have got to go home and get lunch. That first Pentecost everybody heard and everybody belonged. They looked around and most realized they were all part of a great big family.

Prophecy

But there’s more wind and fire and tongues. But there was prophecy too. What did that mean? “In that day God will pour out his spirit on all people.” He said: there will come the peaceable kingdom. And old and young and slaves and free, and women and men…all will be touched with the Spirit of God. And the prophecy said: There are hopeful days ahead. Not just back there. But here and in 2023 and 24 and more.

Power

But one more word about what happened. Don’t get scared we are gonna eat lunch. The last word is power. We are living at a time like theirs when we just don’t know what the future holds. Ukraine worries. So do we. This is a hard, hard time and most of us feel hopeless.  And we don’t know what to do about guns or inflation or gas prices or if our kids will come home safe from school. We feel powerless. But put down beside our TV news and our newspapers another word: Power. We don’t hear that word much these days. But that’s Pentecost. 

When I was pastor in Memphis the phone rang one night and it was Paul who called to see how I was doing. And he said, “Do you remember when you helped start the AA chapter here and people didn’t want us to do it? But we decided to try anyway and that first night we had five that came. And people would call you up and say:”We can’t do this.” “They’ll tear up this good church.” “We’ll lose members.” Well, we kept meeting. And then Paul said, “Now we’ve got 40 people that come every week. Some here still don’t like it but it’s the strongest AA group in East Memphis. He told me: I haven’t had a drink in 13 years.” Some of those that came repented of their self-destructive behavior. Some got back together with their wives and children. Some started going to church on Sunday. Some found joy, joy, joy down in their hearts. That’s power. The power of God was there. And it’s here too.

So we are gonna have lunch after all. But let us remember Pentecost when something miraculous happened . And let us know that here where so much has happened in the past God is still here and his power has not dried up. The candle in the window still burns. And the darkness can never put it out. Thanks be to God.

This sermon was on preached on June 5, 2022, Pentecost Sunday at the First Presbyterian Church, Pendleton, SC

--Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com

A Little Child...and a little Child...and a Little Child

 

 

I cannot look at the picture without tears. She would have been almost three years old soon. But she did not make her third birthday. You see for some reasons her parents either gave her away or the State moved in and she was without a permanent home. She expected to be adopted in January 2021. But for some reasons the adoption fell through--she was placed in foster care. And then the Foster Parents officially adopted her. Months later she was found dead. The Foster Parents were charged with homicide. She was beaten to death by a belt and died from internal bleeding. I cannot get her little face out of my mind. And so I grieve for a little girl named Victoria that I did not know. Last week she was laid to rest in a Greenville SC cemetery.

And this week in Uvade, Texas is burying child after child after child after sercvices at the Catholic Church there.19 children and two of their teachers were gunned down as they sat in a classroom by an 18 year old boy-man with an AK-47. Bought on his 18th birthday. They were mostly fourth graders who died. Nine. Ten. Some older. One family lost two children that day in Texas.  Lesi...Uziyah...Amerie...Jose...Rojelio...Tess. These are just a few of those killed. Two teachers who loved their jobs and loved the kids they taught.  And down the road in a hospital wounded kids still fight for their lives. And those grieving parents try to deal with their unspeakable grief.

Many of us in this country have grieved for little Victoria in Greenville and for those 19 children killed in their school in Uvalde, Texas. I do not want to deal with guns. Not today. Neither I do not want to rail out at legislators that seem more interested in power and their parking spots at LaGuardia Airport.  Even this horrendous anguish of those who serve us is not our focus right now. Perhaps November will tell a different story.

We pray for parents and husbands of those that will never go home again. We lie in bed and wonder what can be done? The killing of children. There are no easy answers. Maybe no answers at all. That will come another day--but it will come. But today we think of little Victoria's fresh grave in Greenville.We see that mound of flowers and notes and candles and some pictures of the fallen ones in Texas. We are awash in grief.

We cannot forget little Rose's funeral or all those weeping, weeping in that Catholic church in Uvalde and all those in every town that are grieving, ignored and forgotten.

Reckon Jesus' challenge is applicable to all of us who live in 2022?

"If any of you cause one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for you if a great millstone werer fastened around your neck and you were deowned in the midst of the sea."

Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane

Found at the Monastery of Gethsemani

Bardstown, Kentucky

--Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com

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