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The Garden Grows Even During the Summer
Bella Wether?
Our little dog, a Malti-Poo named Bella, has been sheltering-in-place for her 12 ½ years. As a rescue dog she began life in cage, then moved on to become Lady and Ruler of a house.
In the early morning hours, she sleeps on the love seat on the patio. She then moves to the guest bedroom to curl up and sleep until early afternoon. Then down the stairs she comes, heads outside for a moment only to take a nap in her bed by the fireplace in the family room. Dinner time has her lay on the floor by which ever table we occupy. In the evening after a hard day of rest she alternates between her bed and the family room couch. At night she sleeps on either her cushion in our bedroom or on the floor…that is, unless there is a storm with thunder and lightning. Then she hops on the bed to be near those whom she apparently thinks can protect her from all things loud and frightening.
Bella does enjoy a morning walk, dinner, and occasional treats thrown her way. As Lady and Ruler of the house, with voracious barking, she protects us from all who dare walk their dogs in the park behind our home. She provides ecstatic welcome for any who leave the house and return. Going to and from the mailbox, leaving the house for just a few minutes, qualifies for such a celebratory welcome. For Bella life goes on mostly as it has been throughout her life. She is oblivious to all that is happening around our world. Life goes on interrupted.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we too could live in the bubble of life inhabited by our pets? It would seem some would encourage us to do so as though that was possible. But we are not animals dependent upon someone to care and feed us and make all our major decisions for us. . We are independent folk called to live with interactive, relational, and responsible lives. We have to make our own decisions and accept the results. But our life has been interrupted.
Actually we have had a sampling of living in a bubble lately, haven’t we? The adjudication on this type of life has not been less than positive. Did you enjoy being alone? Even if huddled with family, did you not miss going out and being among others? Were there not other loved ones you wanted to spend time with? We have been created to be in relationship and it pains us when we can’t live accordingly.
With all that is going on regarding the COVID 19 numbers there are calls for many responses. One that I have not heard often is a complete return to sheltering in place for an indefinite time. It seems we have had enough of that experience. Bubble living is not for us.
What is called for in an environment of a dangerous disease spread from person to person? How does Christian faith, following Jesus, relate?
First, we need to recognize it is not about us. It is about all of us, including ourselves. That means our choices, our behaviors, need to take others into consideration. We simply cannot for now live and act as we once did. Those new appendages and fashion statements called masks not only are a sign of care and respect for others, they greatly symbolize we recognize our response to this pandemic can’t be all about us.
Second, as those who follow one who was a healer, we need to look for places where we can bring healing. Where might there be pain and struggle that we might address?
I wonder if the huge outbreak of support for George Floyd and justice reform is somehow tied to our experience in this pandemic. Of course, the empathy and support of such a cause is long overdue. But as those sitting around wondering and wishing we could do something…..did this give us a positive, needed, avenue to do something? Did sheltering in place humble us a bit and move us to a greater willingness for repentance?
I don’t know, really. What stands out to me is this: even in a very critical culture- changing time there are major things that can be accomplished. Things beyond a larger 401K and missing eating out at our favorite haunt.
People of God, people of Jesus, love and care for your pets. Just don’t chose to live like them.
Fee Fi Fo From
Gary N. McCluskey
It was an American Indian chief (Seattle?) who was quoted as saying, “We spend too much time learning about things and too little time learning from them.” Indeed. How much time, lately, and energy have you put into learning all about COVID 19 and racial injustice?
It is good and necessary to learn about things. This is especially so in our current times. To learn can be to prevent. To learn can be to heal. To learn can be to have more success in the future.
Yet, how much time have we invested in trying to learn from these things? What lessons have they to teach us? It seems to me we have learned appreciation. We have learned appreciation for things and people we now miss and ways of life we currently cannot enjoy. We have learned to appreciate various electronic means that help us communicate with family, worship, shop, keep informed, and, ….yes….learn about things.
We have learned how dependent we are upon others, yet how independent we can become and continue to go on. We have learned how connected we are to those we know and to those who serve us in grocery stores, drug stores and so many places deemed “essential.” We have learned how connected and dependent we are to others around the globe. We are all in this together means “we all”.
What have we learned about cries and hurts of those who protest racial injustice? I who have invested much reading time and many conversations over the years have learned a great deal more from colleagues, students, and various media coverage. Perhaps what I have learned most is that I have yet a lot to learn.
What have we learned about the way we care for our institutionalized elderly? What have we learned about both those we imprison and the care of those in prison? What have we learned about the way we care for health care workers, first responders, and prison guards? What have we learned about how most any difficulty that confronts our nation disproportionately affects the poor and people of color?
Maybe the most important question underlying these questions and more which need to be asked is this: Do we try and learn from events and times such as these or do we retreat to time worn ideas and phrases to prevent thinking, change, and growth?
Martin Luther said the ultimate idol is security. We have learned once more about our illusions regarding security. Have we learned also from our recent experiences of vulnerability?
Jesus helped us learn about. Jesus very much taught us also to learn from. In parables Jesus used people, plants, coins, and animals that you and I can learn from. Yet it is the very life, death and resurrection of Jesus that you and I primarily learn from.
The most frightening, most upsetting and most profound things that life hurls our way…what can we learn from them? What change in ourselves and our life assumptions can we learn from these? Where do we see God at work in all this? Don’t be afraid to ask these kinds of questions to yourself and to each other. We have Jesus with us as we do. We have one from whom we have discovered time and again that learning from can be a way to be open to new life bursting forth from certain ways of thinking and living that need to die.
We can and ought to continue to learn about things. Yet, let us go deeper and learn as well from things. It is this learning that has the most potential to bring us new life.
Gary N. McCluskey, Pastor
Son God
Gary N. McCluskey
Living in New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona for 41 years, I can see why some people worshiped the sun and had a “Sun God.” Let’s face it, we do have a little bit of sun worship in the sun soaked West. Instead of praising the sun in temples, we do it on beaches, around pools, on ball fields, and golf courses.
One of the problems with a sun god is you need other gods to fill in the rest of the world. A god for rain, a god of harvest, a god of healing, and so on are required. In Athens the Greeks once had a statue for an unknown god, apparently, just in case they missed one. Paul addressed the Athenians (Acts 17:16-34) saying he knew who that god was. And, paraphrasing Paul, he proclaimed there was one God, and, without mentioning Jesus by name, said God was revealed through Jesus.
At all times it is good to have one God, and especially, to have the God of Jesus. Imagine a pantheon of gods! Think of how problematic family relations can be as we have to relate to one family member one way and another family member in a different manner. Then there are the times we must deal with them all together with all their various personalities, quirks, and gifts.
Imagine in a time like ours if we had to relate to various gods. There would be the god of healing, then there would be the god of peace among people. A god of work or the economy would be helpful. For a while we may have even had or wished for a god of toilet paper. Now it seems, we could use a god of disinfectant spray. Seriously, there would be need for several gods to deal with our pandemic, the economy, and racial injustice.
Yet you and I take our monotheism…..belief in one God only….for granted and don’t really ponder it much. Having one god, as revealed in Jesus, means we have a God not only of all, but for all. A God for all means not only for all people, but for all areas of life. This one God permeates life and is in every nook and cranny of our life and of the world.
This means God is not confined to church, nor to those aspects of our life we associate with the Christian faith and with our own personal faith. God is in the boardroom, God is in politics, God is in our earning and use of money, God is in all those areas too often deemed “secular.” If God was not in these places, there would be a vacuum created, and into that vacuum would come other gods to take the place of the God of Jesus. There would be a god of business, a god of our politics, and a god of personal finance.
If God can reside in these otherwise ungodly places, our faith needs involvement in these places. It needs very direct connection and application especially to those segments of life we too often see as apart from God and faith. Having one God, the God of Jesus Christ means we are called to follow Jesus wherever we go, in whatever we do, and in all areas of life and the world.
One God, three persons; one life, one faith; one world. None of it without God. None of it not in need of the faith of those who follow the God of Jesus Christ.