Every day I wake up with Garrison Keillor.  Not really.  But everyday when I open my email I have a poem from Garrison Keillor’s “Writer’s Almanac”.  Today’s poem seems particularly appropriate, given the front page news of the Big 3 and all the difficult issues which surround us, let alone the first snow fall of winter:

                                                Sometimes

                                                By David Budbill

Sometimes when day after day we have cloudless blue skies,

Warm temperatures, colorful tress and brilliant sun

When it seems like all this will go on forever;

When I harvest vegetables from the garden all day

Then drink tea and doze in the afternoon sun,

And in the evening one night make pickled beets;

When we walk in the woods over fallen leaves,

Through yellow light, when nights are cool and days warm,

When I am so happy I am afraid I might explode or disappear;

At those times when I feel so happy, so alive, so in love with the world,

Suddenly, I think about all the suffering and pain in world, the agony and dying.

But I still feel happy and good, alive and in love with the world,

Because I know in the next minute all this may be taken away from me,

And therefore I have to say right now, what I feel and know and see.

I’ve got to say right now how beautiful and sweet this world can be.

One of our clergy colleagues, Ken Christler is fighting for his life today.  Please keep him in prayer.  In the face of it all, I am reminded that all of this can be taken away…how beautiful and sweet this world can be.Thanks be to God.

Blessed Thanksgiving season,

 Jack Harnish

 Ok…last week when I sent a Monday Memo on Saturday, I promised a Monday Memo on Monday, but here it is Thursday.  So, you ask, what gives?  It’s simple—a Sunday computer crash got in the way.  I have no idea what happened but on Sunday when I opened up my computer, I wasn’t there.  That’s right—no personal profile, no familiar face of the grandson smiling back, just a blank Lenovo blue screen where Ethan was supposed to be. The computer has been under repair and frankly, it still isn’t right, but at least I can get online and I am getting over my loneliness without my laptop.

Its funny how attached we become to our technology, our passwords, our online identity. Facebook becomes our circle of friends and we can easily spend more time online with people around the world than we do in touch with people close at hand.  (In fact, right now, I’m working on my laptop and Judy is in the next room typing away on hers…maybe I’ll just send her a message.  LOL.) 

St. Paul says "now we see through a glass darkly, but one day we will see face to face.”  Windows gives me a window on the world, but it can never take the place of face-to-face encounter with another touchable human being.  The Body of Christ is meant to be just that—a body, a collection of bodies, flesh and blood, skin and bone, face-to-face. It's messy, smelly, and well, human, but nothing can take the place of the Body gathered in worship and service.  As private and personal as my relationship with Christ may be, it is meant to be lived out in community. 

I missed my laptop while it was gone, but Lord, how I would miss the Body of Christ!  Sunday through Wednesday we welcome Rev. Melody Pierce John, former associate pastor who will lead us on a journey through forgiveness.  I hope you will be a part of it.  See you in church on Sunday…face to face.

Jack Harnish

Next Sunday, Nov. 16, we will welcome a return visit from Rev. Melody Hurley Johnson, former associate at First Church, leading us in four days on the theme of Forgiveness.  Tomorrow morning, Nov. 9 at 7:00am, the theme of this week’s “Speaking of Faith” is  “Getting Revenge and Forgiveness”. You can hear it at 7:00am on 91.7FM, WUOM.  Of course you can also pick it up at a more civilized hour from the website: www.speakingoffaith.publicradio.org. While you are there, you can get information on the “Campaign for Love and Forgiveness” through the Fetzer Institute, a program in which Melody is a participant.  You can find a full schedule for Melody's visit in the "Steeple Notes" on our website www.fumcbirmingham.org.

And you will still hear from me on Monday :)

Jack Harnish

Jon Meachem writes,

“The great good news about America—the American gospel, if you will—is that religion shapes the life of the nation without strangling it.  Belief in God is central to the country’s experience, yet for the broad center, faith is a matter of choice, not coercion, and the legacy of the Founding is that the sensible center holds.  The Founders found a way to honor religion’s place in the life of the nation while giving people the freedom  to believe as they wish, and not merely to tolerate someone else’s faith, but to respect it.”

His book is called “American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers and the Making of a Nation”.  You can get a copy in the “Circuit Rider Book Store” or in the front office.  The Arbon Dennis men’s group will be discussing it later this fall. Meacham reminds us that though most of the Founders were not orthodox Christians—Thomas Jefferson referred to the Trinity as “mere Abracadabra of the mountebanks”—they did realize the importance of faith in the fabric of the society.  Having experienced the melding of church and state in England they were dead-set against it here, but they were also committed to assigning religion its proper place. The miracle of the Founders is the creation of a society where religion was free to flourish in all of its forms.

In the final days of this seemingly endless campaign (what’s it been, two years now?) the question of the relationship of faith to the life of the nation is as lively a debate as it was at the time of the founding. Of course, the faith and religion of the candidates matter, but the Constitution is clear that there will be no religious test for those seeking public office.  Of course, our moral convictions should guide our thinking in elections, but the notion that faithful people can’t disagree and still regard each other as fellow Christians is destructive to the church as well as the nation. You can be a “good Christian” and vote with the Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Greens, Libertarians, or maybe even Ralph Nader. That’s the American way and I believe it is the Christian way.  It is certainly the Methodist Way.  Pretty soon, it won’t matter anymore, but I celebrate the fact that Hillary Clinton, George Bush, John Edwards and Dick Cheney are all United Methodists!  That’s the kind of church I want to be a part of.

On the other side of Nov. 4 the most important thing is that we come together as  “one nation under God” to overcome our divisions and work together for the common good. I pray that our elected leaders will model that kind of spirit.

Jack Harnish

Take A Deep Breath, Turn Off the TV, Calm Yourself

Here’s some of the best advice I’ve found for our current crisis.  It comes from Saturday’s Wall Street Journal.  Jason Zweig recommends:

Break the circle.   Hang out with folks who do not obsess over the market. You are less likely to be spooked by dilated pupils, grim faces and quavering voices.

Turn off the tube.  The sight and sound of screaming traders with fear in their eyes are enough to fill you with fright.  Turn off the TV.

Think positive.  When Warren Buffett feels his blood pressure rising, he calms himself down by gazing at snapshots of his family or playing a game of bridge with friends.

Stick to it. Set yourself the simple, stark goal of investing more money in something you don’t want to own.

To that I would add,

Refocus your life on your faith and on others.  In times like these we tend to turn inward and get so focused on our own needs, our own portfolio, our own issues that we loose our balance.  Take a step back and refocus on the things that have eternal value.  Refocus on the needs of others.  Suddenly your own problems, though they will still be there, take on a new perspective.  On this glorious fall morning, when the sun is breaking through the brilliant autumn leaves, take a walk, kick the leaves, listen for the Canada geese in flight, smell the scent of the season and give thanks for God’s goodness.  Jesus recommends that we look to the birds of the air or consider the lilies of the field.  If God cares for these, will he not care for you?  “Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.  Let the day’s troubles be sufficient for the day.”  Take a deep breath and read Matthew 6:25-34.

This Sunday is our Ingathering Sunday.  If you are part of First Church, please bring your pledge card with you to worship.  If you are one of our friends, pray for us as we seek to be faithful to our mission to “gather, nurture and equip disciples for ministry and mission”.

Peace,

Jack Harnish