Uncle Russel's Rocker

At Easter, one of our long-time friends asked, "where's Russel's rocker?"

After my mother died and Uncle Russel's wife died, Russel moved into his brother's (my father's house) in Princeton, West Virginia.

Russel brought some furniture with him, including his rocking chair.

When I moved my Dad to CT, I brought some of Russel's furniture, including the rocker.

It was in our house for over 20 years in Cheshire.

My Dad and Russel were watching TV one night and my Dad said, "Russel, I'm going to bed."

Russel answered, sitting in his rocker, "I'm going to watch the 11 o'clock news, good night."

The next morning, my Dad got up to find Russel dead in his rocker.

Yet another reason not to watch the11 o'clock news.

Anyway, we had it for decades, first in New Haven and then in Cheshire.

But a few years ago, in one of her 'downsize' moments we put it out on the street and someone took it.

They don't know they're sitting in a rocker where someone died watching the news. 

We always knew.

Whenever I sat in it I remembered Russel and Sidney and Del and my Dad--all the Bradley brothers.

It was odd, but comforting.

I miss it.

Just as our Easter guest did.

 

 

Too deeply divided

In my 7 decades as an American, I've never lived in such a deeply divided nation before.

It astonishes and terrifies me.

Not only voting rights bills in Republican states, but bills that in essence take away the Constitution's right to peacefully assemble--calling 'protests', riots.

I have a sticker on my car--the statue of liberty, not holding a light but with her fist closed and raised. It says, "Dissent is democratic".

And I believe that.

Now tell me, if you can, if you don't see racial issues in both the voting rights and right to assemble bills being passed in Republican states?

I didn't think so.

The beat goes on.

Still, nearly half of Republicans polled think the election was stolen!

Still, over half of Republicans don't want the Covid-19 vaccine!

Proud Boys, Q-anon, Oath Takers and other far right groups continue to mess around in our society.

M. T. Green wants to debate 'the Green New Deal' with A.O.C. as soon as she finishes reading the oh-so-long 14 page bill.

Tell me, if you can, when, since the Civil War, we were so divided as a nation?

I didn't think so.

The beat goes on.

Beware, beloved, we are so divided among ourselves....

 

Waiting

(This may seem strange, an Advent Sermon from 2008 in late, cruel April, 2021. But 'waiting' is important to us right now. Vaccines are being given every day--but we're nowhere near 'herd immunity' needed to go back to normal. We need to be patient and to 'wait'. Wear your masks. Encourage all you no to get the vaccine. Take care unless everyone you are around have been fully vaccinated--and even then, stay safe. People all over the country are longing to be back to whatever 'normal' will be. But it's not time yet. "Waiting" can teach us patience and contemplation and open us to new possibilities. "Wait" my dear readers, do not go forward too soon.)

 

ADVENT I—“WAITING”

I was going to do some nonsense like saying ‘wait a minute’ and going into the vesting room and then the back of the church and then around the yard. And then come back and say to you “How was that for you? Isn’t it a pain to be kept waiting?” But then I realized all that business would have either worried you or made you question my sanity—which maybe you should…

          But it’s true, none of us like to “wait”. It’s the worst thing in the world.

          Doctors’ offices, public offices, the grocery store, even ‘drive through’ lanes—we all hate to wait.

          I was one of those people who didn’t get a letter about my license plate expiring so I was pulled over and had to go to Motor Vehicles in Hamden to get new license plates. Talk about waiting! The only thing, I believe, that kept there from being a riot is people were all looking at the phones as we moved up a step or two at a time. I, myself, was reading a book I’d brought.

          We hate to wait.

          Yet…Yet…Isaiah tells us in today’s lesson “…no eye has seen any God besides you, who works for those who WAIT on God…”

          And the season of the year that begins today—ADVENT—calls us to “wait” …to “wait upon the Lord” ….to have patience and focus and concentration and to WAIT, to WAIT….

          During the Thanksgiving holiday, I spent most of four days with four granddaughters—Emma and Morgan who are 11, Tegan, who is 8, and 16- month-old Eleanor. “Wait” is not a word that Eleanor understands.

          She reminded me of a poster I used to have in my office in the first parish I served as a priest. The poster said: GOD GIVE ME PATIENCE…RIGHT NOW!!!

          We are not much different from Eleanor….We don’t know the meaning of the word “WAIT”.

          I can do the little things this time of year. I saw people driving by our house on Friday with Christmas trees tied to the roofs of their cars. We avoid putting up our Christmas trees until it is a little closer to the actual day—though they may be out on our front porch for a while. But we don’t decorate them until the week before Christmas—we “wait” for a while.

          And we, as a church, avoid singing Christmas Carols during the Advent services. We “wait” until Christmas is actually here.

          But those are minor things—little waitings…. Besides there are Christmas decorations everywhere and carols all around us. I’m even humming “O Holy Night” in my head right now….

 

          Yet we are called to “wait”—to wait and watch and listen. “Waiting” is not a passive activity…it is full of focus and attentiveness and ‘watching’.

          “Waiting” is only boring and painful if we see it as something ‘passive’.

          “Waiting” is full of action.

          Back where I grew up, in the narrow valleys of the West Virginia mountains, there were signs beside every railroad crossing. The coal from where I grew up, went to Pittsburgh to make steel and to Roanoke to make electricity. And it got to those places by the railroads.

          So, there were lots of railroad crossings on the narrow, two lane roads. And there were lots of signs to remind us of three things: STOP, LOOK and LISTEN.

          The signs were in the shape of an X. They were always white with black letters that said: STOP, LOOK and LISTEN.

          The mountains were so high and the valleys so narrow, that often simply stopping and looking wasn’t enough. You had to ‘listen’ for the train coming.

          Advent is like that. We are called to “wait”—and to stop, look and listen. The mountains of life are so high and the valleys so narrow, that it isn’t enough to simply ‘stop and look’. We must listen as well.

 

          “Waiting” is an important, profound and vital way to live. We must ‘wait’ for the moment—the right time, the opportunity, the revelation, the truth and wonder. We can’t hurry it along. We must learn the difficult lesson of patience. We must wait—ready, expectant, awake—for the Moment to come.

          It is God we wait for, after all. And God will come in God’s own time.

          But when God comes, we must be ready and awake and eager to welcome what is Holy, what is Wondrous, what is True. God ‘WILL COME’. Believe that as if your life depended on it—because, in a real way, it does….

          Wait a moment!

                  

          Just like that.

 

 

 

Pondering

 I ponder a lot.

Here's a dictionary definition: Ponder V--To think about something carefully, especially before making a decision or reaching a conclusion.

Lately, I've been pondering systematic racism. I grew up in a segregated county in southern West Virginia. I had no black students in school with me until my senior year of high school.

My first parish was a black parish in Charleston, West Virginia. They taught me a lot and well about racism.

My parishes in New Haven and in Waterbury had many black members and they continued my education.

The killing of black and brown people by the police is part of systemic racism. Housing in this country is as well. Income inequality is as well. Education inequity is as well. Voting laws in Georgia and many other states is as well.

We have to see that 'racism' is part of our 'system'.

The recent hate against Asians--which is my daughter-in-law and my three bi-racial grand-daughters is as well.

We all need to 'ponder', think about carefully, how 'racism' is a part of our country's life, bred in the bone, as it were.

Ponder all that--and reach a conclusion that systemic racism must be stopped.

Then do all you can to stop it.

That's what I urge you to do.

And I will as well.

Shalom.

Remember this name

 JOSH HAWLEY.

He's a Senator from Missouri who raised his fist in support of the insurrectionist on January 6.

He's a big MAGA guy.

He's under investigation for his fund-raising tactics.

He was the only Senator today to vote 'NO' against the Hate Crime Bill defending Asian-Americans.

He wants to run for President.

He is a dangerous guy with an Ivy League education who claims to be a 'man of the people'--at least non-Asian people (and probably all people of color).

How could you vote 'NO' against protecting Asian-Americans from Hate Crimes?

You'd have to have no empathy or integrity or love for democracy.

He's a dangerous guy.

Remember his name.

And what he stands for and against.

The Sound of Silence

"The Sound of Silence" by Simon and Garfunkel is my favorite song ever.

I listen to it on line every day. Sometimes with Neil and Art, but often by Her Royal Majesty's Marine Band with Harry and Megan there (try it out on You tube) and others who have covered it.

I don't know exactly why it is my song, but it is. Something about the mystery and strangeness in the lyrics, something about the melody, something about how it speaks to my soul in all its weirdness.

One reason I listen to it every day is so I don't wake up with some stupid song in my head that I can't shake until afternoon--mostly childhood songs like...well, I can't remember any since when I think of songs I hear "The Sound of Silence" in my head!

So, it's worked.

And I could listen to my favorite song every minute of every day.

I love it so. 

"Hello, Darkness my old friend, I've come to talk to you again..."

There's nothing like the sound of silence.

And that's from a guy with tinnitus....

 

It's over!

 Derrick Chauvin was found guilty by a jury of his peers today all all three charges: 2nd degree murder, 3rd degree murder and 2nd degree manslaughter. He could spend most of the rest of his life in prison. His bail was revoked and he is in jail right now.

But this isn't 'justice'. It is accountability--and that is a pit stop on the way to 'justice'.

Justice will come when police all over America have reformed their recruitment and policies.

Justice will come when black and brown people are not killed without cause by police anywhere.

Justice will come when all people are truly considered 'equal' in our nation.

Justice will come when police truly are defending 'liberty' and enforcing the law with great restraint.

But it is a start, a beginning, a stop on the road to 'justice'.

And that causes me to take a deep breath and have 'hope' again.

I've needed that.