A Prison Called Unforgiveness
Stories
Object:
Contents
What's Up This Week
A Story to Live By: "A Prison Called Unforgiveness"
Shining Moments: "Right Here in My Church" by April McClure Stewart
Good Stories: "Patient Waiting" by John Sumwalt
Scrap Pile: "Peace Table" by Connie Schroeder / "Nix on Extravagant Welcome?"
What's Up This Week
Speaking of "lifting up the lowly," as Mary does in this week's Gospel reading from Luke, April McClure Stewart finds herself lifted up in an unexpected way by a lowly fourth grader in her church's after-school program. This was a boy who had been disrupting things in every imaginable way that children can be disruptive. April found herself wishing he would stay away. But she discovered the Spirit was working in wondrous ways through the church to touch this boy's heart, as she tells in her wonderful Shining Moments story:
"One day, toward the end of the school year, we were discussing hospitality in class. I asked the kids to think about a place where they felt most secure -- most at home. Some said their bedrooms, or outside at their houses.... When it came to Brayden, he said, 'Man, I've lived in a million places.' We all laughed and waited for him to go on. 'You mean the place where we feel happy and safe?' he asked, and I said yes. 'Oh,' he said, matter-of-factly, 'that's right here in my church.' "
For more stories and commentary, see the Advent 3 editions for Cycle B and Cycle C in the StoryShare archives.
Those who are preparing Christmas Eve services will find a number of touching Christmas stories in our Cycle B and Cycle C special Christmas editions. Look for the 2004 installment, coming soon.
A Story to Live By
A Prison Called Unforgiveness
Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are of a fearful heart, "Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God."
Isaiah 35:3-4
Dateline: Rice Lake, Wisconsin
More than 600 people gathered Tuesday for an evening of Scripture, prayer, and song organized by local churches in an effort to help the community heal after the shooting deaths of six hunters.
Residents openly grappled with their anger and bafflement over the killings and over the man who has been charged with them, 36-year-old Chai Soua Vang. How that anger is directed was a clear concern.
The audience gasped when one speaker, Melissa Paulette, told how a neighbor reported seeing a bumper sticker that said, "Save a deer. Shoot a Hmong."
"You can be sure that two wrongs will never make a right," she said. "God has given each of us free will. We can choose to harbor hatred and unforgiveness, or we can choose to forgive."
Paulette went on to say, "There are two communities hurting."
The accused shooter isn't the only one who faces prison over the tragic event, she said. "We too can end up in a prison if we're not careful. A prison called unforgiveness."
The crowd then sang "Amazing Grace." (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, December 1, 2004)
Shining Moments
Right Here in My Church
by April McClure Stewart
"He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly."
Luke 1:51-52
I first met Brayden when he was nine years old. He was a fourth grader at the elementary school across the street from the church. The minute he appeared in my Bible study class at the midweek program we had at the church, I branded him a "troublemaker." Within thirty seconds of entering the room he had pulled a chair out from under a girl, punched the only other boy in the class in the arm, and used a four-letter word that was definitely not appropriate for church.
After the Bible study, I pulled aside the minister and asked her for the details about Brayden. His father was in jail for the third time. His mother had abused him and was not allowed to see him. He was living with a grandmother who worked second shift, and the woman who provided him child care was not available until 6:00 p.m. The reason he was in our program was because the principal at the grade school, an occasional attender of the church, had heard that our program did not finish until 7:30. That meant that at least one night a week Brayden would not be on his own for three hours, getting into trouble.
It was not an easy thing to have Brayden in class. He was constantly changing the subject to talk about things that he had heard about girls from his 20-year-old uncle -- hardly the type of things we would normally be discussing in class; or he would tell stories he had heard about his father. He was also antsy. He liked to move around, and he liked to bother the girls. He especially liked to bother the girls by moving them -- seizing their chairs and hurling them to the ground. To combat this problem, Brayden sat right next to me, and I had him do things like help with passing out papers when he behaved himself. We also devised a system where he would go stand by the door if he felt himself getting angry. That worked some of the time, but many times he would get angry anyway, and when that happened he would call other people names, insult them as badly as he could, and it would always end with him and at least one more child crying. I resented him for it.
My Bible study was not the only time that Brayden acted up. In recreation he would hit and pinch people. During music he goofed around and carried on conversations entirely separate from the task at hand. During mealtime he was an absolute terror, throwing food, spitting at people, and making the little kids cry. Our program team had what seemed like weekly meetings about him, and we didn't know what to do. We tried talking to him, calling his grandmother, and asking for volunteers to accompany him at all times. We tried to explain what "church" behavior was, and we put up "no running" signs in that hallway. We had lengthy discussions in our Bible study about what subjects were and were not appropriate in church. As a team, we adults rolled our eyes, sighed, and moaned about having to accommodate Brayden. I think we all secretly hoped his grandmother would take him to another babysitter or that he would not come back the next Wednesday. I know I did.
But there was no such luck for us. The rest of the kids missed an occasional Wednesday. Some got sick, some had other things to do every once in a while, but not Brayden. He was there every single Wednesday, and he was always at the same energy level -- extremely high. As time went by, I became more and more frustrated. It seemed that I was always correcting and disciplining Brayden, and quite frankly I wanted the whole thing to go away.
Sometime in March, after about seven months of meeting every Wednesday, Brayden started giving me a hug when he left for the evening with his babysitter. One day I saw him in the grocery store, and he ran up to me and pulled me over to meet his grandmother, who was one of the cashiers. He bragged, "This is my teacher at my church." I told the minister about it, and she reported that the same thing happened to her. Another woman, who was his substitute teacher at the grade school, reported that Brayden had introduced her to the class on a day she subbed, saying, "Mrs. Andrews goes to my church with me on Wednesday nights."
One day, toward the end of the school year, we were discussing hospitality in class. I asked the kids to think about a place where they felt most secure -- most at home. Some said their bedrooms, or outside at their houses. One kid said the playroom at his grandpa's house. When it came to Brayden, he said, "Man, I've lived in a million places." We all laughed and waited for him to go on. "You mean the place where we feel happy and safe?" he asked, and I said yes. "Oh," he said, matter-of-factly, "that's right here in my church."
Right here in his church. Right here in my church. Right here where I had not wanted him to be.
April McClure Stewart is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and is the pastor of First Christian Church of Rock Falls, Illinois. She attended Eureka College (Eureka, Illinois) and Lexington Theological Seminary (Lexington, Kentucky). She and her husband, Dennis, reside in Rock Falls.
Good Stories
Patient Waiting
by John Sumwalt
Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near.
James 5:7-8
Herb Minton stepped into the whirlpool at the YMCA where several of his friends were already soaking in the hot, steamy water and conversing, as men do, about the deep, ultimate existential concerns of mankind -- like the point spread of the coming Monday night football game, the ridiculously high salaries of professional baseball players (they were about evenly divided on that one), and the price of American cars compared to German and Japanese models. The conversation flowed from one topic to another -- family matters, how difficult it is to raise kids today, high taxes, national politics, local gossip, the differences between men and women -- till finally they got to talking about human nature. That was when the conversation became quite heated, almost as hot as the water. One man expressed very loudly, and in language he wouldn't have used in church, that most people he knew only looked out for themselves. "When it comes right down to it," he said, "we are all basically selfish. Take care of number one and to heck with everyone else."
That was when Herb pulled himself up out of the water to cool off, and said in a quiet voice, "I don't agree with you, and I'll tell you why. I saw something recently that I have not been able to get out of my mind. As you all know, I am a jogger. Every afternoon, when I get off work at the plant, I jog about a mile and a half to the convenience store on the corner to pick up my daily paper, and then I turn around and jog home. I run slowly, so it is enough to keep my heart aerobically fit.
"One day when I went into the store, the man behind the counter who saves my paper for me, and whom I've known for years, was standing at the window with tears in his eyes, staring out at the bus stop across the street. He turned to me after a bit and said, 'Herb, do you see that bench over there?' I nodded and he went on. 'There's an old woman who comes there every day around this time. She sits there for about an hour, knitting and waiting. Buses come and go, but she never boards one and she never meets anyone who is getting off. She just knits and waits. I took a cup of coffee over to her one day and sat with her for a while. She told me that her son is in the navy. She last saw him two years ago when he left town on one of the buses right out there. He's married now, and he and his wife have a baby daughter. The woman has never met her daughter-in-law or seen her grandchild, and they're the only family she has. She told me, "It helps to come here and wait. I pray for them, knit little things for the baby, and I imagine them in their tiny apartment on the base. They are saving money to come home on the bus next Christmas. I can't wait to see them." '
"My friend behind the counter took a deep breath, and then he said, 'I looked out there just now, and there they were getting off the bus. You should have seen the look on her face when they fell into her arms and when she laid eyes on her little granddaughter for the first time. It was the nearest thing to pure joy that I ever hope to see. I'll never forget that look for as long as I live.' "
Herb sat down in the hot water again and paused for a moment before he said, "When I went back the next day, my friend was in his usual place behind the counter. Before he could say anything, or even hand me my paper, I looked him in the eye and I said to him, 'You sent her son the money for the bus tickets, didn't you?' He looked at me with eyes full of love and a smile that was the nearest thing to complete joy that I have ever seen, and said, 'Yes, I sent him the money.'
"I'll never forget that look for as long as I live."
It was quiet in the whirlpool for a long time after that. No one wanted to be the first to speak.
(This story also appears in the Advent 2 [Cycle B] edition of StoryShare for December 8, 2002.)
Scrap Pile
Peace Table
by Connie Schroeder
Back in seminary, a friend who lived across the hall from me worked with a neighborhood center in the area. I was visiting one day, and noticed some children sitting at a table. The little girl had a determined look on her face, her lips drawn tight, her arms across her chest. The little boy was sticking his tongue out at her, and had turned his chair away so he didn't have to look at her I presume, except of course to stick his tongue out. Bruce walked over and turned the boy's chair around. He spoke some words to them, and left them to their own devices. We continued our tour, and I asked him about the table. He said: "We call it the peace table. When the kids get in fights we make them sit there until they work it out."
"But what if they don't work it out? You can't keep them there forever."
"They always work it out, Connie. They don't want to be left out of the fun or miss their snack. The problem is usually worked out within a couple of minutes. Those two, however, are brother and sister, and it takes a little longer."
When we finished our tour and were passing back through, the two children were busy playing dodgeball with the rest of the group in the gym.
"You know, Bruce," I said, "that's a good idea. I wish we could make our world leaders sit at a peace table until they work it out. Shut them in a room without food for a few days, and I'll bet they would find some kind of compromise in short order."
If only it were so simple! Last night, one of the people I love most in this world and I had a dreadful fight. It was dramatic and painful. Some part of me knew that we would find God's grace in the midst of it, but those places of impasse can feel pretty impossible. And as lovely as it would be to give simplistic answers, the issues are complex and difficult.
Peace is a process. Peace comes at a cost. When it arrives? Priceless. And one's credit card will never serve the process or pay the price. That comes with a struggle for integrity; with letting go of trying to control our situation; with allowing each other to be fully who we are. It comes when love prevails over all else.
This morning I am smiling again, filled with gratitude for a miracle in a relationship that has been a most wonderful gift over several months. Our humanity may sometimes cause divisions; but Christ's love comes to remind us that we are one with each other. There is unity.
Maybe the world is really sitting at a gigantic peace table, and we are waiting. We may be waiting with an attitude written all over our faces; we may be waiting in frustration; we may be waiting with this amazing thing called hope. In whatever state we find ourselves, if we can remember all the possibility the world held when we were a child we will remember how to live! We won't want to be left out of this thing called life! Not for a minute! We will let the anger come, but we will allow it to go just as quickly. If we can remember what it was to be a child, we will be fully engaged with one another; and God's love will be close at hand.
Connie Schroeder is a writer, singer/songwriter, sometime preacher, retreat facilitator, companion, friend, storyteller, and dreamer. She holds a B.A. degree in educational services and an M.Div. degree. She writes a weekly "Reflection for Creative Souls." Subscriptions are free. Just drop an e-mail with your request to csturtleconnie@yahoo.com.
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Nix On Extravagant Welcome?
Anne Sunday, pastor of First United Church of Christ of Pleasant Valley in rural Clarksville, Iowa, sends excerpts from an article which appeared on her denomination's website last week.
CBS, NBC refuse to air church's television advertisement
United Church of Christ ad highlighting Jesus' extravagant welcome called "too controversial"
"It's ironic that after a political season awash in commercials based on fear and deception by both parties seen on all the major networks, an ad with a message of welcome and inclusion would be deemed too controversial," says the Rev. John H. Thomas, the United Church of Christ's general minister and president. "What's going on here?"
Negotiations between network officials and the church's representatives broke down today (Nov. 30), on the day before the ad campaign was set to begin airing nationwide on a combination of broadcast and cable networks. The ad has been accepted and will air on a number of networks, including ABC Family, AMC, BET, Discovery, Fox, Hallmark, History, Nick@Nite, TBS, TNT, Travel, and TV Land, among others....
"We find it disturbing that the networks in question seem to have no problem exploiting gay persons through mindless comedies or titillating dramas, but when it comes to a church's loving welcome of committed gay couples, that's where they draw the line," says the Rev. Robert Chase, director of the UCC's communication ministry.
CBS and NBC's refusal to air the ad "recalls the censorship of the 1950s and 1960s, when television station WLBT in Jackson, Mississippi, refused to show people of color on TV," says Ron Buford, coordinator for the United Church of Christ identity campaign. Buford, of African-American heritage, says, "In the 1960s, the issue was the mixing of the races. Today, the issue appears to be sexual orientation. In both cases, it's about exclusion."
In 1959, the Rev. Everett C. Parker organized United Church of Christ members to monitor the racist practices of WLBT. Like many southern television stations at the time, WLBT had imposed a news blackout on the growing civil rights movement, pulling the plug on then-attorney Thurgood Marshall. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. implored the UCC to get involved in the media civil rights issues. Parker, founding director of the Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ, organized churches and won in federal court a ruling that the airwaves are public, not private property. That decision ultimately led to an increase in the number of persons of color in television studios and newsrooms. The suit clearly established that television and radio stations, as keepers of the public airwaves, must broadcast in the public interest.
(To read the complete article, click on http://www.ucc.org/news/u113004a.htm)
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New Book
The third book in the vision series, Shining Moments: Visions of the Holy in Ordinary Lives (edited by John Sumwalt), is now available from CSS Publishing Company. (Click on the title for information about how to order.) Among the 60 contributing authors of these Chicken Soup for the Soul-like vignettes are Ralph Milton, Sandra Herrmann, Pamela J. Tinnin, Richard H. Gentzler Jr., David Michael Smith, Jodie Felton, Nancy Nichols, William Lee Rand, Gail Ingle, and Rosmarie Trapp, whose family story was told in the classic movie The Sound of Music. The stories follow the lectionary for Cycle A.
Other Books by John & Jo Sumwalt
Sharing Visions: Divine Revelations, Angels, and Holy Coincidences
Vision Stories: True Accounts of Visions, Angels, and Healing Miracles
Life Stories: A Study in Christian Decision Making
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle A
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle B
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle C
Lectionary Tales for the Pulpit: 62 Stories for Cycle B
You can order any of our books on the CSS website; they are also available from www.amazon.com and at many Christian bookstores. Or simply e-mail your order to orders@csspub.com or phone 1-800-241-4056. (If you live outside the U.S., phone 419-227-1818.)
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About the Editors
John E. Sumwalt is the pastor of Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church in Milwaukee, and is the author of eight books for CSS. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary (UDTS), John received the Herbert Manning Jr. award for Parish Ministry from UDTS in 1997. John is known in the Milwaukee area for his one-minute radio spots which always include a brief story. He concludes each spot by saying, "I'm John Sumwalt with 'A Story to Live By' from Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church."
John has done numerous storytelling events for civic, school, and church groups, as well as on radio and television. He has performed at a number of fundraisers for the homeless, the hungry, Habitat for Humanity, and women's shelters. Since the fall of 1999, when he began working on the Vision Stories series, he has led seminars and retreats around the themes "A Safe Place to Tell Visions" and "Vision Stories in the Bible and Today." To schedule a seminar or a retreat, write to jsumwalt@naspa.net or phone 414-257-1228.
Joanne Perry-Sumwalt is director of Christian Education at Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church in Milwaukee. Jo is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, with a degree in English and writing. She has co-authored two books with John, Life Stories: A Study In Christian Decision Making and Lectionary Tales For The Pulpit: 62 Stories For Cycle B. Jo writes original curriculum for church classes. She also serves as the secretary of the Wisconsin chapter of the Christian Educators Fellowship (CEF), and is a member of the National CEF.
Jo and John have been married since 1975. They have two grown children, Kathryn and Orrin. They both love reading, movies, long walks with Chloe (their West Highland Terrier), and working on their old farmhouse in southwest Wisconsin.
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StoryShare, December 12, 2004, issue.
Copyright 2004 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
What's Up This Week
A Story to Live By: "A Prison Called Unforgiveness"
Shining Moments: "Right Here in My Church" by April McClure Stewart
Good Stories: "Patient Waiting" by John Sumwalt
Scrap Pile: "Peace Table" by Connie Schroeder / "Nix on Extravagant Welcome?"
What's Up This Week
Speaking of "lifting up the lowly," as Mary does in this week's Gospel reading from Luke, April McClure Stewart finds herself lifted up in an unexpected way by a lowly fourth grader in her church's after-school program. This was a boy who had been disrupting things in every imaginable way that children can be disruptive. April found herself wishing he would stay away. But she discovered the Spirit was working in wondrous ways through the church to touch this boy's heart, as she tells in her wonderful Shining Moments story:
"One day, toward the end of the school year, we were discussing hospitality in class. I asked the kids to think about a place where they felt most secure -- most at home. Some said their bedrooms, or outside at their houses.... When it came to Brayden, he said, 'Man, I've lived in a million places.' We all laughed and waited for him to go on. 'You mean the place where we feel happy and safe?' he asked, and I said yes. 'Oh,' he said, matter-of-factly, 'that's right here in my church.' "
For more stories and commentary, see the Advent 3 editions for Cycle B and Cycle C in the StoryShare archives.
Those who are preparing Christmas Eve services will find a number of touching Christmas stories in our Cycle B and Cycle C special Christmas editions. Look for the 2004 installment, coming soon.
A Story to Live By
A Prison Called Unforgiveness
Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are of a fearful heart, "Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God."
Isaiah 35:3-4
Dateline: Rice Lake, Wisconsin
More than 600 people gathered Tuesday for an evening of Scripture, prayer, and song organized by local churches in an effort to help the community heal after the shooting deaths of six hunters.
Residents openly grappled with their anger and bafflement over the killings and over the man who has been charged with them, 36-year-old Chai Soua Vang. How that anger is directed was a clear concern.
The audience gasped when one speaker, Melissa Paulette, told how a neighbor reported seeing a bumper sticker that said, "Save a deer. Shoot a Hmong."
"You can be sure that two wrongs will never make a right," she said. "God has given each of us free will. We can choose to harbor hatred and unforgiveness, or we can choose to forgive."
Paulette went on to say, "There are two communities hurting."
The accused shooter isn't the only one who faces prison over the tragic event, she said. "We too can end up in a prison if we're not careful. A prison called unforgiveness."
The crowd then sang "Amazing Grace." (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, December 1, 2004)
Shining Moments
Right Here in My Church
by April McClure Stewart
"He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly."
Luke 1:51-52
I first met Brayden when he was nine years old. He was a fourth grader at the elementary school across the street from the church. The minute he appeared in my Bible study class at the midweek program we had at the church, I branded him a "troublemaker." Within thirty seconds of entering the room he had pulled a chair out from under a girl, punched the only other boy in the class in the arm, and used a four-letter word that was definitely not appropriate for church.
After the Bible study, I pulled aside the minister and asked her for the details about Brayden. His father was in jail for the third time. His mother had abused him and was not allowed to see him. He was living with a grandmother who worked second shift, and the woman who provided him child care was not available until 6:00 p.m. The reason he was in our program was because the principal at the grade school, an occasional attender of the church, had heard that our program did not finish until 7:30. That meant that at least one night a week Brayden would not be on his own for three hours, getting into trouble.
It was not an easy thing to have Brayden in class. He was constantly changing the subject to talk about things that he had heard about girls from his 20-year-old uncle -- hardly the type of things we would normally be discussing in class; or he would tell stories he had heard about his father. He was also antsy. He liked to move around, and he liked to bother the girls. He especially liked to bother the girls by moving them -- seizing their chairs and hurling them to the ground. To combat this problem, Brayden sat right next to me, and I had him do things like help with passing out papers when he behaved himself. We also devised a system where he would go stand by the door if he felt himself getting angry. That worked some of the time, but many times he would get angry anyway, and when that happened he would call other people names, insult them as badly as he could, and it would always end with him and at least one more child crying. I resented him for it.
My Bible study was not the only time that Brayden acted up. In recreation he would hit and pinch people. During music he goofed around and carried on conversations entirely separate from the task at hand. During mealtime he was an absolute terror, throwing food, spitting at people, and making the little kids cry. Our program team had what seemed like weekly meetings about him, and we didn't know what to do. We tried talking to him, calling his grandmother, and asking for volunteers to accompany him at all times. We tried to explain what "church" behavior was, and we put up "no running" signs in that hallway. We had lengthy discussions in our Bible study about what subjects were and were not appropriate in church. As a team, we adults rolled our eyes, sighed, and moaned about having to accommodate Brayden. I think we all secretly hoped his grandmother would take him to another babysitter or that he would not come back the next Wednesday. I know I did.
But there was no such luck for us. The rest of the kids missed an occasional Wednesday. Some got sick, some had other things to do every once in a while, but not Brayden. He was there every single Wednesday, and he was always at the same energy level -- extremely high. As time went by, I became more and more frustrated. It seemed that I was always correcting and disciplining Brayden, and quite frankly I wanted the whole thing to go away.
Sometime in March, after about seven months of meeting every Wednesday, Brayden started giving me a hug when he left for the evening with his babysitter. One day I saw him in the grocery store, and he ran up to me and pulled me over to meet his grandmother, who was one of the cashiers. He bragged, "This is my teacher at my church." I told the minister about it, and she reported that the same thing happened to her. Another woman, who was his substitute teacher at the grade school, reported that Brayden had introduced her to the class on a day she subbed, saying, "Mrs. Andrews goes to my church with me on Wednesday nights."
One day, toward the end of the school year, we were discussing hospitality in class. I asked the kids to think about a place where they felt most secure -- most at home. Some said their bedrooms, or outside at their houses. One kid said the playroom at his grandpa's house. When it came to Brayden, he said, "Man, I've lived in a million places." We all laughed and waited for him to go on. "You mean the place where we feel happy and safe?" he asked, and I said yes. "Oh," he said, matter-of-factly, "that's right here in my church."
Right here in his church. Right here in my church. Right here where I had not wanted him to be.
April McClure Stewart is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and is the pastor of First Christian Church of Rock Falls, Illinois. She attended Eureka College (Eureka, Illinois) and Lexington Theological Seminary (Lexington, Kentucky). She and her husband, Dennis, reside in Rock Falls.
Good Stories
Patient Waiting
by John Sumwalt
Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near.
James 5:7-8
Herb Minton stepped into the whirlpool at the YMCA where several of his friends were already soaking in the hot, steamy water and conversing, as men do, about the deep, ultimate existential concerns of mankind -- like the point spread of the coming Monday night football game, the ridiculously high salaries of professional baseball players (they were about evenly divided on that one), and the price of American cars compared to German and Japanese models. The conversation flowed from one topic to another -- family matters, how difficult it is to raise kids today, high taxes, national politics, local gossip, the differences between men and women -- till finally they got to talking about human nature. That was when the conversation became quite heated, almost as hot as the water. One man expressed very loudly, and in language he wouldn't have used in church, that most people he knew only looked out for themselves. "When it comes right down to it," he said, "we are all basically selfish. Take care of number one and to heck with everyone else."
That was when Herb pulled himself up out of the water to cool off, and said in a quiet voice, "I don't agree with you, and I'll tell you why. I saw something recently that I have not been able to get out of my mind. As you all know, I am a jogger. Every afternoon, when I get off work at the plant, I jog about a mile and a half to the convenience store on the corner to pick up my daily paper, and then I turn around and jog home. I run slowly, so it is enough to keep my heart aerobically fit.
"One day when I went into the store, the man behind the counter who saves my paper for me, and whom I've known for years, was standing at the window with tears in his eyes, staring out at the bus stop across the street. He turned to me after a bit and said, 'Herb, do you see that bench over there?' I nodded and he went on. 'There's an old woman who comes there every day around this time. She sits there for about an hour, knitting and waiting. Buses come and go, but she never boards one and she never meets anyone who is getting off. She just knits and waits. I took a cup of coffee over to her one day and sat with her for a while. She told me that her son is in the navy. She last saw him two years ago when he left town on one of the buses right out there. He's married now, and he and his wife have a baby daughter. The woman has never met her daughter-in-law or seen her grandchild, and they're the only family she has. She told me, "It helps to come here and wait. I pray for them, knit little things for the baby, and I imagine them in their tiny apartment on the base. They are saving money to come home on the bus next Christmas. I can't wait to see them." '
"My friend behind the counter took a deep breath, and then he said, 'I looked out there just now, and there they were getting off the bus. You should have seen the look on her face when they fell into her arms and when she laid eyes on her little granddaughter for the first time. It was the nearest thing to pure joy that I ever hope to see. I'll never forget that look for as long as I live.' "
Herb sat down in the hot water again and paused for a moment before he said, "When I went back the next day, my friend was in his usual place behind the counter. Before he could say anything, or even hand me my paper, I looked him in the eye and I said to him, 'You sent her son the money for the bus tickets, didn't you?' He looked at me with eyes full of love and a smile that was the nearest thing to complete joy that I have ever seen, and said, 'Yes, I sent him the money.'
"I'll never forget that look for as long as I live."
It was quiet in the whirlpool for a long time after that. No one wanted to be the first to speak.
(This story also appears in the Advent 2 [Cycle B] edition of StoryShare for December 8, 2002.)
Scrap Pile
Peace Table
by Connie Schroeder
Back in seminary, a friend who lived across the hall from me worked with a neighborhood center in the area. I was visiting one day, and noticed some children sitting at a table. The little girl had a determined look on her face, her lips drawn tight, her arms across her chest. The little boy was sticking his tongue out at her, and had turned his chair away so he didn't have to look at her I presume, except of course to stick his tongue out. Bruce walked over and turned the boy's chair around. He spoke some words to them, and left them to their own devices. We continued our tour, and I asked him about the table. He said: "We call it the peace table. When the kids get in fights we make them sit there until they work it out."
"But what if they don't work it out? You can't keep them there forever."
"They always work it out, Connie. They don't want to be left out of the fun or miss their snack. The problem is usually worked out within a couple of minutes. Those two, however, are brother and sister, and it takes a little longer."
When we finished our tour and were passing back through, the two children were busy playing dodgeball with the rest of the group in the gym.
"You know, Bruce," I said, "that's a good idea. I wish we could make our world leaders sit at a peace table until they work it out. Shut them in a room without food for a few days, and I'll bet they would find some kind of compromise in short order."
If only it were so simple! Last night, one of the people I love most in this world and I had a dreadful fight. It was dramatic and painful. Some part of me knew that we would find God's grace in the midst of it, but those places of impasse can feel pretty impossible. And as lovely as it would be to give simplistic answers, the issues are complex and difficult.
Peace is a process. Peace comes at a cost. When it arrives? Priceless. And one's credit card will never serve the process or pay the price. That comes with a struggle for integrity; with letting go of trying to control our situation; with allowing each other to be fully who we are. It comes when love prevails over all else.
This morning I am smiling again, filled with gratitude for a miracle in a relationship that has been a most wonderful gift over several months. Our humanity may sometimes cause divisions; but Christ's love comes to remind us that we are one with each other. There is unity.
Maybe the world is really sitting at a gigantic peace table, and we are waiting. We may be waiting with an attitude written all over our faces; we may be waiting in frustration; we may be waiting with this amazing thing called hope. In whatever state we find ourselves, if we can remember all the possibility the world held when we were a child we will remember how to live! We won't want to be left out of this thing called life! Not for a minute! We will let the anger come, but we will allow it to go just as quickly. If we can remember what it was to be a child, we will be fully engaged with one another; and God's love will be close at hand.
Connie Schroeder is a writer, singer/songwriter, sometime preacher, retreat facilitator, companion, friend, storyteller, and dreamer. She holds a B.A. degree in educational services and an M.Div. degree. She writes a weekly "Reflection for Creative Souls." Subscriptions are free. Just drop an e-mail with your request to csturtleconnie@yahoo.com.
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Nix On Extravagant Welcome?
Anne Sunday, pastor of First United Church of Christ of Pleasant Valley in rural Clarksville, Iowa, sends excerpts from an article which appeared on her denomination's website last week.
CBS, NBC refuse to air church's television advertisement
United Church of Christ ad highlighting Jesus' extravagant welcome called "too controversial"
"It's ironic that after a political season awash in commercials based on fear and deception by both parties seen on all the major networks, an ad with a message of welcome and inclusion would be deemed too controversial," says the Rev. John H. Thomas, the United Church of Christ's general minister and president. "What's going on here?"
Negotiations between network officials and the church's representatives broke down today (Nov. 30), on the day before the ad campaign was set to begin airing nationwide on a combination of broadcast and cable networks. The ad has been accepted and will air on a number of networks, including ABC Family, AMC, BET, Discovery, Fox, Hallmark, History, Nick@Nite, TBS, TNT, Travel, and TV Land, among others....
"We find it disturbing that the networks in question seem to have no problem exploiting gay persons through mindless comedies or titillating dramas, but when it comes to a church's loving welcome of committed gay couples, that's where they draw the line," says the Rev. Robert Chase, director of the UCC's communication ministry.
CBS and NBC's refusal to air the ad "recalls the censorship of the 1950s and 1960s, when television station WLBT in Jackson, Mississippi, refused to show people of color on TV," says Ron Buford, coordinator for the United Church of Christ identity campaign. Buford, of African-American heritage, says, "In the 1960s, the issue was the mixing of the races. Today, the issue appears to be sexual orientation. In both cases, it's about exclusion."
In 1959, the Rev. Everett C. Parker organized United Church of Christ members to monitor the racist practices of WLBT. Like many southern television stations at the time, WLBT had imposed a news blackout on the growing civil rights movement, pulling the plug on then-attorney Thurgood Marshall. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. implored the UCC to get involved in the media civil rights issues. Parker, founding director of the Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ, organized churches and won in federal court a ruling that the airwaves are public, not private property. That decision ultimately led to an increase in the number of persons of color in television studios and newsrooms. The suit clearly established that television and radio stations, as keepers of the public airwaves, must broadcast in the public interest.
(To read the complete article, click on http://www.ucc.org/news/u113004a.htm)
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How to Share Stories
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We invite you to forward this offer to all of your friends who are looking for good stories.
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New Book
The third book in the vision series, Shining Moments: Visions of the Holy in Ordinary Lives (edited by John Sumwalt), is now available from CSS Publishing Company. (Click on the title for information about how to order.) Among the 60 contributing authors of these Chicken Soup for the Soul-like vignettes are Ralph Milton, Sandra Herrmann, Pamela J. Tinnin, Richard H. Gentzler Jr., David Michael Smith, Jodie Felton, Nancy Nichols, William Lee Rand, Gail Ingle, and Rosmarie Trapp, whose family story was told in the classic movie The Sound of Music. The stories follow the lectionary for Cycle A.
Other Books by John & Jo Sumwalt
Sharing Visions: Divine Revelations, Angels, and Holy Coincidences
Vision Stories: True Accounts of Visions, Angels, and Healing Miracles
Life Stories: A Study in Christian Decision Making
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle A
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle B
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle C
Lectionary Tales for the Pulpit: 62 Stories for Cycle B
You can order any of our books on the CSS website; they are also available from www.amazon.com and at many Christian bookstores. Or simply e-mail your order to orders@csspub.com or phone 1-800-241-4056. (If you live outside the U.S., phone 419-227-1818.)
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About the Editors
John E. Sumwalt is the pastor of Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church in Milwaukee, and is the author of eight books for CSS. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary (UDTS), John received the Herbert Manning Jr. award for Parish Ministry from UDTS in 1997. John is known in the Milwaukee area for his one-minute radio spots which always include a brief story. He concludes each spot by saying, "I'm John Sumwalt with 'A Story to Live By' from Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church."
John has done numerous storytelling events for civic, school, and church groups, as well as on radio and television. He has performed at a number of fundraisers for the homeless, the hungry, Habitat for Humanity, and women's shelters. Since the fall of 1999, when he began working on the Vision Stories series, he has led seminars and retreats around the themes "A Safe Place to Tell Visions" and "Vision Stories in the Bible and Today." To schedule a seminar or a retreat, write to jsumwalt@naspa.net or phone 414-257-1228.
Joanne Perry-Sumwalt is director of Christian Education at Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church in Milwaukee. Jo is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, with a degree in English and writing. She has co-authored two books with John, Life Stories: A Study In Christian Decision Making and Lectionary Tales For The Pulpit: 62 Stories For Cycle B. Jo writes original curriculum for church classes. She also serves as the secretary of the Wisconsin chapter of the Christian Educators Fellowship (CEF), and is a member of the National CEF.
Jo and John have been married since 1975. They have two grown children, Kathryn and Orrin. They both love reading, movies, long walks with Chloe (their West Highland Terrier), and working on their old farmhouse in southwest Wisconsin.
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StoryShare, December 12, 2004, issue.
Copyright 2004 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
