What Happened to Retirement?

Dear friends at Fellowship:

On my way to taking it easy, finishing my writing project about WWII, reading those 51 books lined up on the shelf, and generally getting into trouble with all those causes I tend to get involved in, God turned the page instead. I often state in my sermons that God is full of surprises. Now I know what that means.

Gray was surprised by a spider and its bite has left him with severe head pains for nearly a month. How anyone could manage that much hurt for that long is beyond me. Fortunately, he now seems to be relieved partially of that stabbing pain, thanks to shots and medications. And at this point, having been granted a three-month sabbatical, he has an opportunity to refresh and renew his spirit, his body, and his energy. For that we can all be thankful, knowing that when there are surprises, God can surprise us even further with new opportunities. For Gray, the surprise, with the support of this entire congregation, comes as you present him with three months of R&R. You are a gracious people.

You have also been gracious to me, as I begin to pick up some of Gray’s many ministries, to the Session as it takes on more duties for now, and to this church as you are willing to pitch in to be true ministers to one another, in accord with our Reformed theology. I preached about Moses this morning, and it struck me that just as he was beginning to plan for his retirement at the sheep ranch in Midian, sitting on the veranda and surveying all those woolly creatures and the pastures that stretched out of sight, a stack of scrolls from the local library at his side for reading, his stylus prepared to record his autobiography, he trips one day and almost falls into a bush on his way across the fields. And it was on fire! And you know the rest of the story.

Charlie, my long-enduring partner of the past 53 years, will now have more quiet time at his computer as he writes his historical creative non-fiction pieces. I won’t be bugging him constantly about something, or sending him a long string of internet links with the latest articles or videos on current topics, every 30 minutes or so. Bless his heart, as Southern women say, he will have time for himself at long last. He will also know that I am busy doing what is so close to my heart, providing ministry, this time to a congregation I absolutely love and revel in.

Back in August, I began as Parish Associate, and was working on several projects that would complement Gray’s ministries here. Some of those will have to be set aside for the next few months, but once Gray returns I can resume them. One is our Fellowship Green project. My regret is that we could have received a grant from one of the presbytery committees as we launched that new project, but the deadline to apply is Oct. 3. My thinking, however, is that there may still be funds for such a grant even next year. Other projects that I was starting to work with may still get done, only at a slower pace.

We have a Fall Festival coming up this Saturday, and World Communion Sunday Oct. 5, and the Blessing of the Animals on Oct. 12. Many good events, and I trust that you will participate in these and support our church activities. I will be away from Sunday Oct. 5 through late Tuesday Oct. 7. The Micah bible study continues, however. This week I will lead it, and next week Ruth Long has wonderfully offered to lead it. The Wednesday evening prayer and meditation group will also continue to meet. Ruth has been willing to lead that next week as well. So life goes on because of members such as Ruth who step in and provide leadership. I know that the rest of you will be assessing your own skills at some kind of expertise that you can offer to Fellowship, so please don’t be shy. Let God surprise you with opportunities to lend us your skills and let God surprise us all by seeing that the ministry of Fellowship Presbyterian Church makes the next three months memorable. Then we can surprise Gray upon his return, with a congregation that has grown, has developed new abilities, new energies, new purpose, ready for his leadership once again.

When the Planes Came

Sixty-seven years ago I was living with my family in Honolulu, Hawaii. My father, an Army doctor, was stationed at Tripler Army Hospital. One brother was a student at Princeton in New Jersey, and one was a senior at Roosevelt High School in Honolulu. I was a third-grader at Lincoln Elementary School. My mother, an accomplished pianist, kept everything in working order at home while the rest of us studied and worked. Life was pretty much routine for this military family, living in a rented house in the city rather than choosing to live in Army quarters on base.

In December of 1941, however, events changed the course of our lives forever. Japanese planes attacked Pearl Harbor and our country’s entry into World War II began a new way of living for our family and for our nation. Only 23 years earlier “the war to end all wars” had been fought and peace treaties were signed. Yet the peace did not hold, and we experienced once more the terror and destruction from skies which were no longer friendly.

Seven years ago our country again knew the shock of terror and destruction from the skies. Two planes crashed into the Twin Towers in New York City, one into the Pentagon and one into a field in Pennsylvania, all of those events tied to one major plot by those from other places. Once again our nation was at war, and battles fought far from our shores would affect our way of life. It was not the first time we were involved in war since the end of WWII. In all likelihood it won’t be the last time we know war. Generations of us have lived more years with war than with peace, each time with some hopeful ones believing that wars will some day become only history, when peace reigns permanently. We still wait and hope for that day.

As we take time this week to remember the pain and loss experienced on September 11, 2001, we also become aware of the necessity to make peace a priority. Some must wonder if God blesses our battles or if God weeps at the devastation wrought upon this good creation. The psalmists found their expression of sorrow and need for God’s intervention in what we label the “psalms of lament.” These have been the cries of God’s people for thousands of years. In addition to those biblical psalms, many new psalms express the laments of later times. After our country’s 9-11 experience, I wrote this:

Lament
psalm for September 11, 2001

When the planes came to the buildings,
When fire and flesh converged,
Were you there, Lord,
When permanent became impermanent?
Were you there at all?
When all came crashing down, O God, were you
There in the midst of chaos, of unspeakable evil?
Did you gather up your lost and broken?
Did you carry them in your bosom, kissing them,
Holding the ashes of their souls?

Let your fierce love meet our disbelief.
Let your hand hold us up from this earth’s danger.
May our shouts of anger turn into hosannas.
Come to our broken spirits and make us whole
In your peace.