KICKING THE BUCKET DOWN THE ROAD [F, 5-1-20]

Christ In Winter: Reflections on Faith & Life for the Times of Winter

KICKING THE BUCKET DOWN THE ROAD          [F, 5-1-20]

We moved to the country near Oakland City, IN, when I was ten, right after World War II. My father heard that Jess Hall had walnuts for sale, so we hitched Old Prince to the wagon and drove over to get some. We had no money, but Daddy worked out some trade deal so that we could have walnuts for making Christmas cookies.

Trade deals in the country back then included quite a few stories, and Jess told us this one…

He was a retired Baptist preacher. Twenty or thirty years before he had preached at a church that had a water bucket on a table in the front, up near the pulpit. There was no indoor plumbing then, even in homes, certainly not in churches. People drew their water from a well and carried it in. They used out houses for other needs. No one had even heard of air conditioning.

Southern Indiana summers are quite thirstifying on long hot Sunday mornings. At Jess’ church, whenever anyone got thirsty, they just walked up to the bucket and got a drink out of the communal dipper.

Some people began to object, not to the communal dipper, or to folks getting a drink during the service, or to the water bucket, but to its placement. They thought it unseemly and distracting to have people, especially children, going up to the bucket during the worship service. They wanted the bucket table moved to the back of the church building.

Others disagreed. The water bucket had always been in front. They could remember Uncle Gib and Aunt Lola up there drinking from the dipper. It wasn’t that big a nuisance. It showed the children that they belonged, since people put up with them going to the bucket. Etc.

Of course, they did the logical thing. The back-bucket people went a mile down the road and built another church. One strong country church became two little straggling struggling churches. But what is Christian witness compared to having your own way about where the water bucket is situated?

I think about that now as various people who supported Bernie Sanders are saying that they will not vote for Joe Biden. In fact, they spend more time criticizing Biden and the Democrat leadership than they do Donald Trump, even though they are as far from Donald Trump in where they want the bucket placed as it’s possible to be. And they are not stupid. They know that a vote not for Biden is a vote for Trump, and that if Trump wins, they probably won’t ever get to drink from the dipper again, regardless of where the bucket is. But they are so concerned about where that bucket is that they are losing sight of why they supported Sanders in the first place.

If you find someone bleeding beside the road, the first thing you do is stop the bleeding. After that you take them to the hospital and pay for their health care. That’s exactly how the Good Samaritan did it. [Look it up, Luke 10:25-38]. To save any semblance of democracy or morality in American politics, first we have to stop the bleeding.

In the days of summer, it’s not wise to refuse a drink of cool water because you don’t like the placement of the bucket. In the days of winter, it’s not wise to refuse to wear a coat because it’s not the color you prefer.

John Robert McFarland