Lizard Leaps

All Saints Sunday is the first Sunday of November. This is the day when we recall the lives of those who have gone on before us and who have impacted our lives with their goodness and love. It is one of those great celebrations of The Church, and is one of the most important days of the Christian year. Each year, as we approach this time, I think of those good people who have affected my life. I recall the death of a saintly woman in my first appointment: Mrs. Pinkie Parker. She had worked all her life in a local mill, and her hands were so gnarled with arthritis that she could hardly grasp anything. That did not deter her love for children, however, and she expressed it in a most sacrificial way. Every infant who arrived in the Almon community would receive a gift from Mrs. Parker: a set of hand-crocheted booties. She labored endlessly to create one such pair of shoes because of her affliction, yet she was never deterred in making those wonderful gifts for little children. I som...

Sunday's scripture is about the Pharisees' asking Jesus about which is the greatest commandment. He replies with the Shema: "Hear O Israel, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, (He adds this one…with all your mind), and with all your strength." Jesus then says: "This is the first and great commandment, and the second is like unto it; "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." In our world of so much anger and hatred it is hard to see this last commandment being lived out in our society. A current conservative infatuation with the writings of Ayn Rand and her atheistic philosophy of capitalism which she called Objectivism, makes it hard to get people to hear about loving neighbor amid the cries of "What's mine is mine." So much current conservative opinion calls for the divorcement of politics from faith. I find it disheartening. One major political candidate has called for the building of a deadly...

I wonder what’s so wrong With the notion Of caring for each other? Our politicians fight Endlessly about this... Which you would think Is such a simple thing Of mutual love and responsibility. But we disagree; Whether one deserves love, Another deserves care, Or another’s too lazy, Or too different in color, Or language, Or custom. So the wealthy ride by In Maybach limousines Or Rolls Royces Or only in the grandeur Of their own minds, While the poor Long for bread, For clothes, For a place to lie down Where it’s warm... We get lost In getting and spending... And making it To the top. Perhaps it might help If we remembered That God Lives at the bottom, too. 10/7/11 CR