CHRIST IN WINTER:
Reflections on Faith from a Place of Winter for the Years of Winter… ©
In the Gospel reading for
this coming Sunday, Feb. 8, Jesus is thrust into his healing ministry in an odd
way, via Simon’s mother in law. I’ve always admired Peter for that. His mother
in law was sick, and instead of rejoicing, he asked his new friend, Jesus, to
get her up on her feet again. That may, of course, have been because he was
hungry, since Mark [1:29-39] tells us that as soon as she was well, she got up
and started fixing lunch for them, in which case Peter was not quite as well
motivated as I like to think.
As soon as the neighbors
find out about this, they start bringing everyone and anyone who has a problem,
to get them fixed up just like Mavis. [Peter’s mother in law’s name is usually
not mentioned in this story, but I feel that is a disrespectful omission.]
Later Jesus goes off by
himself to pray about what just happened, all those people coming to him with
their physical and emotional ailments, and when Peter and his other disciples
find him, he says, “Let’s take this show on the road, because this is what I
was sent to do.” [The KJV translates Jesus here saying, “For therefore came I
forth.” That’s a nice phrase.]
It reminds me of the time
Hank Aaron came to bat against the Dodgers. John Roseboro was catching. He
noticed that Henry had the brand of his bat toward the front, toward the
pitcher. Every sandlot ball player knows that is a no-no. If a pitched ball
hits the bat directly on the brand--the spot that gives the information about
the bat, its manufacturer and name and number, etc.--it is more likely to
break.
“Hey,” Roseboro said, “you’ve
got the brand toward the front.” Aaron replied, “I didn’t come up here to
read.”
That’s why he’s the all-time
home run leader. [1] He had one mission, and he knew what it was.
During annual conference
one year when the late Leroy Hodapp was the UMC bishop in IL, he was called up
to MI to do the ordination service for the annual conference there. The MI bishop
had suddenly taken sick and was unable to do it.
Annual conference is when
all the ministers of a geographical area, plus lay representatives from all the
congregations in that area, plus anyone else who wants to sell something or
spend a long intense week of boring meetings, come together to transact
business. Bishops get no rest. They are in charge. They sit up in front and try
to keep things going smoothly.
Leroy was already tired,
half-way through the week of the IL annual conference, but MI needed a bishop,
fast. A thousand people had gathered, including the families of those to be
ordained. It needed to be done now. They sent a plane for Leroy. He hopped on
it after the evening conference session in IL. When he got to MI, they had been
singing for several hours. He ordained the new preachers at midnight and flew
back to IL.
I encountered him in the
hallway the next morning as the IL conference was about to start up again. I
commiserated with him about what a tough life he was leading. He looked
thoroughly surprised that I was so clueless. “But this is what I was elected
for,” he said. He had a mission, and he knew what it was. If it had to be done
at midnight, when he was already tired, so what? [2]
John Robert McFarland
johnrobertmcfarland@gmail.com
1] Barry Bonds doesn’t
count.
2] Note to UMC insiders:
Yes, I know I generalized the names and dimensions of conferences, but this
makes it more understandable.
The “place of winter”
mentioned in the title line is Iron Mountain, in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula
[The UP], where life is defined by winter even in the summer! [This phrase is
explained in the post for March 20, 2014.]
I used to keep a careful
index of all the things I told in this blog so that I would not repeat. That
has become unwieldy. Now I just trust to… what’s it called… oh, yes, memory.
Sorry about that.
I have also started an
author blog, about writing, in preparation for the publication, by Black Opal
Books, of my novel, VETS, about four
handicapped and homeless Iraqistan veterans who are accused of murdering a VA
doctor, n 2015. http://johnrobertmcfarland-author.blogspot.com/
I tweet as yooper1721.
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