A NICE JEWISH BOY [w, 11-25-20]

 CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith & Life for the Years of Winter

A NICE JEWISH BOY          [w, 11-25-20]

Aaron Comforty was already on staff at St. Mark’s UMC, as Director of Music for Children & Youth, when we moved here, a position he’s held for six years, so I’m not sure how he got the job. Probably the same way musicians and youth workers always get their jobs—he saw an ad on the Music School bulletin board, needed some money, and so applied. Even though he is a Jew from Chicago. When it comes to musicians and youth workers, desperate churches become remarkably open-minded.

Aaron says, “I didn’t even know that places like St. Mark’s existed. It turns out that not all churches are like what you see on TV.”

It’s not too surprising that Aaron feels so comfortable in this UMC, even to the extent of serving as a confirmation mentor and VBS teacher. We are the quintessence of “United.”

Our pastor was a Baptist preacher until he was 50. Our associate pastor was a Catholic until she was thirty, and went to a Disciples seminary, to become an ordained Methodist. As with most “converts,” they are quite enthusiastic about being, and talking, Methodist.

Our music director was/is Catholic. I don’t think he’s sure anymore. As our granddaughter once said, about being in a school named St. Mary’s: “I don’t know if I’m a Catholic or a Christian.”

Our youth minister is Baptist. We’ve had 3 directors of children’s education since we’ve been here. The first was Roman Catholic. She had to resign to care for a family member in bad health. The second was an ordained Unitarian. She resigned for similar reasons. We finally got a Methodist, who is the most questionable of the bunch, since her husband is a UKY basketball fan, which, in Bloomington, IN, isn’t just a different religion; it’s a heresy!

All this reminds me of the Catholic girl who was dating a Jewish boy. Her parents said she had to stop seeing him unless she could convince him to convert. She came home crying. “Won’t he convert?” “That’s not the problem. I oversold it, and now he wants to be a priest!”

Anyway, in his six years at St. Mark’s, Aaron has pondered his life. Music has always been his passion. He’s an excellent musician. Plays many instruments. Looks like a young Bob Dylan. Gives music lessons. He says because of his experience at St. Mark’s, he began to think he “needed to sing a new song.”

He thought about being a rabbi. But, as one of my rabbi friends says, “What kind of job is that for a nice Jewish boy?”

So, he’s decided to become a lawyer. He is going “to proclaim liberty to the captives.” [Luke 4:18, or, for Aaron, Isaiah 61:1.]

We shall miss him. It’s hard to imagine him as a lawyer, because he’s so nice. But if he gets thrown out by the lawyers, we’ll take him back. We’re a church that’s so nice, people don’t even know that such a place exists.

Stanley Hauerwas, a Roman Catholic who taught in a Methodist school of theology [Duke], says, with a bit of a dismissive sneer, that the only Methodist theology is being nice. Well, wouldn’t the world be better off if that were everybody’s only theology?

John Robert McFarland