CHRIST IN WINTER:
Reflections on Faith and Life from a Place of Winter for the Years of Winter…
We are watching the
weather very carefully today, because our college granddaughter is flying to a
conference in New York, what she called Yew Nork 20 years ago, in the frigid
wake of winter storm Grayson. [A stupid name for a storm. If you must have a “G”
name for a storm, it should be Grendel.] We are switching between The Weather
Channel and Weather Nation on TV according to which one is telling the story of
NY weather best at the moment.
For a number of years, I
was on the “Parish Pastor of the Year” selection committee, for The Academy of
Parish Clergy. There are a lot of good pastors out there, and it was difficult
to select for honor only one. I began to realize, though, that we weren’t
really selecting the best pastor out of the nominations sent us; we were
selecting the best nomination writer.
The same is true with
obituaries. Some people, according to the facts, lived fairly humdrum lives,
but the obit writer makes them sound like fascinating celebrities. The fact
lineup of others is astounding, but the obit writer makes their lives sound
mundane and ordinary. I mean, how can you write about a career as a deep-sea
diver repairing nuclear submarines sound boring? {True story of the shy little old
man who stood in the corner during coffee time at church.}
It has been said that the
world will be won by whoever has the best story. Not quite. The world will be
won by whoever tells their story best, most convincingly. That’s why Donald
Trump is president. His story, both personally and professionally, is sordid
and pathetic. But how can you argue with “Make America Great Again?”
His message was really, “I
am the anti-story, so if you feel left out of the American story, come be part
of my story, and you’ll feel important.” Every citizen who felt left out-for
whatever reason, and there are lots of different reasons for feeling left
out-voted for him.
I fear that thoughtful
Christians have been content to say, “Well, we have the best story, because our
story is about love and inclusion, so we’ll win the day.” Not so, if we don’t
tell it better than the hate and exclusion stories. Those stories have some
very good tellers.
JRMcF
I tweet occasionally as
yooper1721.
Speaking of obit writing: I
was once doing a week’s worth of preaching for a special occasion at a church.
The pastor took me to lunch with the funeral director. He told us about an
older woman from his town who came to him to make funeral arrangements for her
husband. [Yes, he was already dead.] She brought her middle-aged daughter from
another town with her. As they listed the newspapers in which they wanted
obits, he said, “Oh, let’s not send one to that newspaper. Whoever writes those
obits is terrible.” The middle-aged woman said, “I’m the one who writes the
obits for that paper.”
JRMcF
I tweet occasionally as
yooper1721.
With the cold bearing
down, I worry about the homeless. That includes far too many military veterans.
The royalties from my novel, VETS, about
four homeless and handicapped Iraqistan veterans, go to helping homeless
veterans. It is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, BOKO, Powell’s, etc.
It’s published by Black Opal Books.
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