From the Pastor's Desk
I heard it said once, that a comedian's job is to look at life and to see the humor, while a pastor's job is to look at life and see the theological. Each month, when I write my column for the New Dorp Moravian newsletter, I try to take some experience of daily life, whether in mine, in the community, or in the church, and try to view it from a theological perspective. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. Some times its humorous. Sometimes, I'm the only one who sees the humor. Occasionally, people will comment on what
I have written, so I decided to add the column to our site.
Pastor Duane
June 2011
By the time you read this, I will have made it back from a weekend workshop, but for the moment, at least, greetings from Wisconsin. I flew into Minneapolis on the Wednesday after Easter. Then, I rented a car and drove to visit my father in Watertown (WI).
The best part of the drive for me happened about half way. The Interstate highway cuts through a
section of terrain that features a lot of sandstone bluffs. What never ceases to amaze me are the number of trees and shrubs that are growing on the bluffs and outcroppings of stone. In one particular place, there is a particular pillar of stone that is at least 60-75 feet tall. On the top of this formation, there is a tree growing. What really amazed me, was from what I could tell, for all practical reasons – that tree shouldn’t be there. It shouldn’t be there, because there is no sign of any dirt or ground. It looks like it is growing out of pure rock.
As I continued driving, I started to chuckle to myself, thinking, “I guess that tree didn’t get the memo that said that it was impossible to grow there!” Then, I noticed more trees. These were growing in the median between the East and West bound lanes. “I guess they didn’t get the memo, either, that growing in a median wasn’t a good place to plant one’s self,” I thought. Then I thought some more, and thought about the bumble bee. Aerodynamically speaking, a bumble bee isn’t supposed to be able to fly. Apparently someone forgot to tell all the bumble bees, too!
Some things are impossible. Or at least that is what we like to tell ourselves. It’s a good thing that some people didn’t listen, or else Columbus might never have left port, and we’d still be walking instead of driving or flying.
Some people have said that it is impossible for someone to come back to life – but that is what we declare every Easter. “The Lord is risen! The Lord is risen, indeed!” Impossible? I don’t believe so.
And when Jesus said, “Go and make disciples of all nations,” He apparently didn’t notice that He was talking to only 11 men. But, then again, maybe He did. So, perhaps, when it is our turn to share this Good News, and we hesitate because on Staten Island “they’re all Italian,” or “they’re all Catholic,” we have to remind ourselves that when the Eleven started out sharing their message in Jerusalem, in the beginning everyone was Jewish!
I guess they just didn’t get the memo.