Pastor Don's Ponderings

 It is Pentecost Sunday, the day the Church of Jesus Christ celebrates being birthed in the wind and fires of Ruah, the Holy Spirit. On that day the disciples were gathered together and the sound of a rushing wind surrounded them and fires as of flames danced on their heads. Their hearts were opened and their lips were inspired to proclaim the Goodness of God through Jesus Christ in the languages of all those who were present around them.  In an instant, these Galileans who were mostly undereducated and unworldly became the purveyors of Wisdom beyond their knowing and Faith beyond their understanding. God was doing a new thing in that moment and, for those who hearts remain open today, God is still at work birthing the Good News in wonderful ways.  Nancy and I recently returned from a vacation given to us by our children as a gift to honor our wedding anniversary and my retirement from fulltime ministry. This trip took us on an eight day, seven night cruise to Alaska, beg...

 "You need to stand and listen to the graves of the saints." In a Zoom meeting the other day, one of the members present observed that it seems our current world culture really has not learned much from our shared past. Referencing the overt bigotry against the LGBTQIA+ community, the ongoing racial unrest in so many forms, the painful grievous nature of the ongoing warfare in Ukraine, and our shared unwillingness to extend mercy and grace to others that they not be brought low by our stiff-necked system of beliefs within the Church itself, another of the participants, a Veteran of the military and of the cross as a minister, quietly, simply said, "You need to stand and listen to the graves of the saints." That so struck me, I wrote it down immediately and have been mulling on that wisdom ever since. What does it mean to, ". . . listen to the graves of the saints"? Then came the most recent of school shootings, this one in a Nashville, Tennessee, Christian...

Your day has come. You raise your head and look around only to discover you are the only one raising your head to look around. Cautiously, you stand on tippy-toe and peer over your taller, non-descript neighbors, hoping on hope that someone, somewhere around you, looks just like you but, it is of no avail. You are alone as you are, in a field of others, with little choice of what to do for yours is a specific gift and calling. So, you bloom.  You bloom boldly, magnificently, proudly and beautifully. You raise your head to the sky and offer to the sun a bit of your color and to the sky a grand, 'Alleluia!'.  You catch the eyes of those who, otherwise, would have just passed by without a notice yet, in you they see the marvelous, delicious nature of God rising out of the mundanity of those around you. They are given reason to pause, to catch their breath and whisper a thanksgiving to the One who set you where you are. You inadvertently, maybe subliminally, transform the narrativ...

 I would never presume to speak for God, nor should anyone. That said, when I look on this young lady, my friend, Savannah Nunn, on the occasion of her Confirmation, I cannot help but wonder what it is God has to say to her, of her, in such a holy moment. What follows is a humble Pastor's pondering around such a conversation, in the form of a letter from God to Savannah as she is Confirmed: Dear Savannah, You make Me smile, even laugh with Delight on this sacred journey! Your quiet beauty lights up the Heavens, just as I always thought you would. Thank you! The stole which you made in the course of your Confirmation class is full of meaning and so very beautiful. Each symbol makes Me pause as I watch you grow in faith. The Descending Dove of the Holy Spirit, as pretty in the blue stained glass rosette window in the Chancel area of your worship home as it is on your stole, touches My heart deeply, for the Holy Spirit has been with you and your family since the beginning of your jour...

 Once upon a time Dad 'fixed up' this old buckboard wagon seat, mounted it on wooden runners and painted it so Mom could have it as an extra seat on the porch. Now that I think about it, I am not nearly so certain Mom was as excited by the renovation project as was Dad - but she nonetheless graciously accepted the gift and put it to use for quite a while. At some point the renovated seat was demoted to the shed as a seat then, finally, to being put away altogether. Such has been its fate for many a year - out of sight, out of mind, until now.  In the course of bringing together many of the old farm tools Dad had stored away, this seat resurfaced and, now looking at it, I am thinking of some questions which should have been asked of Dad a long time ago concerning its origin. Alas, into eternity with the keeper of its history went the answers to any questions which might have been asked - and I am left looking at the seat pondering whether or not to once again restore it and whe...

 At one of our son's home the other morning I happened to step out the front door and look up in time to see this: Three jets on divergent paths, each with a vapor trail marking their route away from the others. In the cold morning sunshine it took me a few moments to recognize what was happening above me, then a few moments more to open my cell phone for a couple of pictures. After looking into the sun shining brightly in my screen and hoping upon hope the camera had captured the action in the skies over my head, I stepped back and watched all three aircraft go their own way and wondered where they were going and from whence they had come. When first I spotted them, they appeared so close that it fleetingly crossed my mind that they might have each just appeared there, then started from a mutually agreed upon point in the sky. That is what made me stop and watch them. Yes, I know it was all an optical illusion, that in reality they had thousands of feet, maybe even miles between t...

Their names are Donald and Harold O'Rear - and you are viewing them at a distance of about one hundred and fifty yards across the Marissa Recreational Area Golf Course, golf clubs in hand.  I had just walked up to the number 5 green and, while waiting for the others in my foursome to complete their approach shots, saw these two walking towards the number 8 green. Their golf cart was waiting behind them as they sized up their next shots to the green, side by side. They are two of the luckiest men I know when it comes to sizing up and completing golf shots and, oddly enough, the more they practice, the luckier they get! Most notably, they are brothers through and through, in looks, mannerism and demeanor - and I say that with no small amount of admiration for them both. They are gentlemen who know what it means to have respect for others, to earn their way in this world and to care genuinely for the sake of those around them more than any of us will ever deserve. When you look at thi...