Anna Mae Jones

There is a sense that a chapter in my life has just ended. I heard today that Anna Mae Jones passed away. I don't need to know anymore about the circumstances surrounding her death to feel a profound sense that nothing will ever be the same again. Anna Mae always had a hug a kiss and an encouaging word for me. When someon is always friendly and always positive it's almost impossible to believe that they are not hiding something. It just doesn't seem possible that anyone could be as positive and as generous as Anna Mae was.

For twelve years I was nourished by her hugs, kisses and glowing praise at the rear of the sanctuary. I was refreshed everytime that she told me she loved me and all the times that she said that she was thankful to God for me and the sermons that I preached. I received her words with a healthy measure of skepticism. I thought it was wise not to take her too seriously. I always reminded myself that it was Anna Mae who was dishing out the praise and affection. After all, If I had stood in front of the Congregation and read the phone book to them, she would have commented about how expressively I had read it.

In spite of my skepticism, I am brushing the tears off of my cheek as I key these words in to my computer. It wasn't just harmless for me and everyone who knew her to indulge Anna Mae and tell her how much her words meant to us. Now I know we were telling the truth. Those words and those hugs and kisses will be missed. Anna Mae lived out God's unconditional love for me in the narthex after church. I know that she is experiencing that kind of love at acceptance in the presence of God. Thank You God for Anna Mae Jones.

Lost and Found

The Gospel lectionary passage for this past week was Luke 15:1-10. The passage containes two parables about things that are lost and then found. The first story is about a shepherd who has 100 sheep. The shepherd discovers that one of the sheep is missing. Jesus says, "naturally the shepherd will leave the 99 and go out looking for the one that is lost." The point of the story is that the need of the one is more urgent than the 99. It's not that the 99 are unimportant, but they are safe.

The second story is about a woman who has ten coins. She discovers that one is missing and she moves all the furniture and sweeps the house until she finds the lost coin. Jesus says about both of these parable that heaven rejoices when one sinner repents. These stories connect with us because we are familiar with the pain of loss and the joy of finding things that had been lost.

I just made a woman's day. She stopped by the church to see if, by chance, her missing glasses were left in her pew when she attended the chamber music concert this past Saturday. She had no inkling that they would still be there. More because it couldn't hurt to look, I let her in the church. She went to the pew where she had sat on Saturday night and found them perched on the pew cushion.

I love those unexpected moments when you get better than you deserve; more than you bargained for. I could tell that she was prepared to go buy new glasses if she had to. She wasn't desperate to find them. Her attitude was, "why not stop and ask? It takes so little effort to look." I could also tell that the gracious bonus that she had experienced was more than she had expected. It's a joyful experience to find something that you had almost given up on.

She, a good Episcopalian, was the one who observed that Sunday's lection fit her situation. It's not that God is desperate. But God's attentive searching and calling and gathering in what others give up on never stops. It's a good thing when we catch a glimpse of the joy that accompanies the turning of one person away from sin toward the mercy and grace of God that is always waiting to embrace them.

Fishing

My Father-in-law in the boat across the way turned around and spoke. "The Bible says to cast on the other side of the boat." That's the kind of thing that happens when a group of people from church go fishing together. It was hot and muggy and we didn't catch many fish, but we had fun anyway. We tried shrimp, squid,and mullets. We tried artificial lures. There was endless speculation about why we weren't catching many fish and even some stories about places around Edisto.

"That was where they filmed the beach scene in The Patriot," someone said pointing over to my right. I heard someone say, "I don't care if we catch any fish or not. It's really nice out here."

We didn't get to go out to 4KI, like we had planned. For those who may not know, 4KI is an artificial reef off of Kiawah Island. The forecast was for high winds and rough seas. The experienced boaters in the group said that we wouldn't have any fun out there under those conditions. I'll take their word for it. We had a great time fishing in the creeks and rivers.

At the end of the day we had five small croakers and memories of a day on the water in the sunshine with some good folks. We were sweaty and thirsty but I can't wait to try again. Maybe next time we'll make it out to 4KI.

Painted Buntings

My wife went to visit Botany Bay yesterday. While she was there they were catching and banding Painted Buntings. She texted me and told me where they were. I drove over. I've never seen anything like this before. There were several people working on tagging the birds. They had set up special feeders. When a bird would stop at the feeder the cages around the feeders were built so that they could carefully capture the birds. They would then put them in a tiny cloth sack and carry them to a table where the guy in charge would weigh and measure the birds. Then he would tag them or record information on the birds that were already tagged.

They are beautiful little birds. Here is a video of one.



I'm still gettting used to having so many wonderful things so close by. A fishing trip off the coast is in the works. That should be an experience. Edisto is flooded with visitors at the moment. It's easy to see how carefully the residents of Edisto are working to balance being hospitable with not giving away everything that makes this place special. Botany Bay is a treasure that everybody can enjoy. It's a good Idea to do what we can to keep it that way.

Tides II

Since my last post. I've been Kayaking in the creek that runs past our house on two different occasions. The first time I went by myself and paddled south to the ox bow that runs right past the front of our house. It's an incredible thing to have a marsh in your front yard. Then I paddled against the early and slow moving outgoing tide. I stayed out for about one and a half hours. It was remarkable how much the flow of the water changed during the time I was out there. Still I was pleased that I could pretty easily paddle against the tide. The kayak cuts through the water pretty smoothly.

The second trip was just paddling in the calm at the turning of the tide and again against the start of the outgoing tide. This time I towed my younger son in an inner tube upstream. So that we could float with the tide back home for the last half of the trip. I'm hoping to get him in a Kayak before too much longer.

I'm confirming what I suspected. Even a little paddle boat opens up a whole new world of things to do at the beach. I have been looking forward to seeing my new island home from the marsh side and at water level since we moved. The views and the sounds are pretty overwhelming. It all looks diffferent from the creek than it does from the land.

Although it's not too shabby from the land. The other morning I arrived at church early and heard the unmistakable call of the Pileated Woodpecker. When I turned to look in the direction of the call, I saw a woodpecker flying toward a dead tree across the road. I noticed that there were several other birds perched on the trunk the way that woodpeckers do. I looked more closely and realized that there were five of them. It was like a woodpecker diner.

If, like me, you've wondered about the pronunciation of the name of these red headed woodpeckcers. I looked it up. You actually have a choice. Either PIE-lee-ay-tid, or PILL-ee-ay-tid is acceptable according to several sites that I checked out. This video is much closer and clearer than my view but it gives you a good Idea of what I was watching and hearing except multiplied by five.


That was pretty good way to start out a Sunday Morning.

Tides

I have uploaded a picture of my new kayak. I've wanted one for quite awhile. I'm looking forward to exploring the marsh right around home. I've asked several people about the tides and how to predict when the tide will be right for paddling around. I've been told that the tide at the creek near our house is normally an hour later than the time that the chart lists for Charleston.

My only experience so far was one of those learning experiences. It was a good experience because Lillian and the boys and I got to spend some time talking with the woman whose dock we were planning to begin our float from. The plan was to float on inner tubes down the creek back to our house. We had done this with a group earlier in the week and enjoyed it immensely. We thought it would be a fun thing to do as a family. We were expecting the tide to be going out when we got to her house. It was coming in and so we waited for the tide to turn. We waited almost an hour and it was still coming in. We will definitely try again.

With the kayak it will be possible, if I plan it right, to use the tide to go out and then come back to the same place. Of course adventure awaits because predicting the tides is not an exact science. Variables like wind and the depth of the previous high tide can change the times significantly. I'll let you know how it goes.

More About the Church.

It's about time for another post. I missed last few weeks. My goal to start with is to add something once a week. Mondays seems like a good day to do so.

I have been teaching a Sunday School Class for the last 4 weeks. The name that we have given the class is Presbyterian 101. The outline I am using for the class is the Apostle's Creed. So the topics in order are: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, The church and the sacraments, The Presbyterian Church, The Presbyterian Church on Edisto Island.

Recently, We talked about the image of the body of Christ (I Corinthians 12). Perhaps I'm making too much of this image, but it seems to suggest that the relationship between the Holy Spirit and the church is mirrored in the relationship betwen the Holy Spirit and Jesus. We discussed how the sending of the Holy Spirit to the Church at Pentecost is what made it possible for a dispirited group of outcasts, runaway disciples, to become the church described in the book of Acts. Dr. Andrew Purves at Pittsburgh Seminary gave me a helpful summary of the work of the church in a lecture at the Seminary a few years ago.

"The Church," he said, "is supposed to do the things that Jesus did." That's a significantly different view of the work of the church than I was working out of. I think many people think that the church is a place where like-minded people gather and reinforce each other's thinking so that they can go out and withstand the onslaughts of a hostile or indifferent world until they get back together. That is closer to the image of the church's mission that I was working out of.

It's sort of a defeated aproach to doing the work that we have been given to do. We are under seige and our job is to hold out until Jesus comes back. In the mean time if we can persuade anyone to join us in our cloister that's even better.

If we now say that we are supposed to do the things that Jesus did, it changes the character of our work entirely. Jesus didn't hide out in a safe place and try to persuade people to join him. Jesus went out and like a sheep in the midst of wolves.(Luke 10) He wasn't a sheep in wolve's clothing. He went out among the people without hiding who he was or what he thought. He observed that some were hurting and confused. He saw that others were misusing people or indifferent to the pain of others. Jesus observed that some people were grasping what they could take and refusing to share what they had.

Jesus observe that the people were like sheep without a shepherd.(Matthew 9:36) He didn't see vicious wolves, he saw hurting desperate confused people. Jesus moved out from where he was, beginning with his birth in bethlehem. Jesus left heaven and laid himself down in a manger. The rest of his 30 odd years were about moving out, taking risks, extending himself for others. Early in his ministry, Jesus took those whom he had gathered to himself and sent them out.

Those whom he sent out were an extension of himself. Toward the end of his ministry Jesus told the disciples, "Go into all the world." (Matthew 16:15) God is always moving out from the center. Jesus was sent. His followers were sent. I am sent. I am not made to hide behind the church walls and think and perfect my understanding of who I am and who God is. We are sent to be the body of Christ. We are an extension of Christ himself expanding outward from God's throne, out into all creation. I think this video does an excellant job of describing the difference between my old image of church with the new one that Dr. Purves shared with me.