Category Archives: Life

I Want Jesus to Walk with Me

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Yesterday the children at Trinity Episcopal Church sang a beautiful rendering of “I Want Jesus to Walk with Me”. This morning, after posting “Seeing with the Ears” about Nicodemus’s night visit with Jesus, this soulful YouTube of “I Want Jesus to Walk with Me” sung by Larry Kinley struck a deep chord.

If you’re not into Jesus, you can still feel the song – listen to the saxophone and Larry Kinley’s baritone longing for companionship and hope in your times of trouble.

  • Gordon C. Stewart, Chaska, MN, March 13, 2017.

Seeing with the Ears

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Last night the story of Nicodemus‘s night visit with Rabbi Jesus intersected with a quite unexpected introduction to Max Picard’s The World of Silence read aloud on Voetica.com. Click HERE for the audio of David Juda’s reading of Max Picard’s The World of Silence or watch and listen to the re-blogged sermon on Nicodemus,”Seeing with the Ears”for this time when words so often fail the longings of the heart.

Gordon C. Stewart's avatarViews from the Edge

Nicodemus and Jesus on a rooftop, Tanner, Henry Ossawa, 1859-1937 Nicodemus and Jesus on a rooftop

He comes by night. He slips along the buildings of the city streets in hopes that no one will notice. He is a man of position and authority, a learned teacher with a Ph.D. in religion on his way to the kindergarten teacher. “Everything I need to know in life I learned in Kindergarten,” wrote Robert Fulghum. Nicodemus has a sense that he has lost a thing or two along the way, that he needs to start over again.

He’s sent a private message asking for a confidential meeting. The arrangements have been made for the time and place…under the cover of darkness… at Nicodemus’ request.

Dressed in a hooded sweatshirt pulled up around his face and wearing an old trench coat to blend in with displaced people who spend the night on the street, Nicodemus changes his normally stately gait on the way to his secret meeting.

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Murmuration? You gotta be kidding!

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Today I was challenged to write something original on the word murmuration‘.

My mind immediately went to a biblical text when, after the Hebrew slaves (laborers with no rights), led by Moses and Aaron, have escaped their Egyptian taskmasters (“management” with absolute power), they find themselves in a state of murmuration and a sudden attack of nostalgic longing in the wilderness.

“And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness! And wherefore hath the LORD brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt? And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt. – Numbers 14: 1-4, KJV.

A forgetful people is nostalgic for “the fleshpots of Egypt” – the place they had murmured against while bending their welted laboring backs to their taskmasters’ whips – eager to exchange their uncertain future for security.

So today, in the United States of America, we’re in two states of murmuration. One believes we’ve just left Egypt (the regulation society of the Obama and previous Administrations) and now murmurs for security – build the wall, stop the Muslim immigrants, make America great again from the previous Administrations that were, shall we say, Pharaohic? – while the other murmurs that we’re being led by a murmuring madman and Administration that keep us in a constant state to twittering murmuration on the way not to the promised land but to a land led by the Egyptian taskmaster security.

Such is life on this Sunday evening, March 12, 2017. I’m sticking with Moses and Aaron. I’m not so big on the captain or the Egypt that is ahead of us if we keep up the murmuration.

  • Gordon C. Stewart, Chaska, MN.

Listening for the Whisper

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In this time of great restlessness many of us long for the “still small voice” heard by Elijah hiding in the cave of his own self-righteous pouting. This sermon was preached in a moment similar to this – the political campaign season of 2014 – and the search for stillness in a world gone mad. FYI, several of the members of this lovely church were in their 9os. They owned neither cell phone nor computer. They had no idea what a tweet was. But they knew experienced a stillness that sometimes comes with the wisdom of age. I post this here in honor of Carol and Maxine.

Grace and Peace,

Gordon C. Stewart, Chaska, Minnesota, author of Be Still! Departure from Collective Madness, now available through Amazon, Wipf and Stock, Barnes and Noble, and your local bookstore.

 

 

 

A Dog Day Pattern

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Okay, enough of politics!

Time for something light, like a response to The Daily Post‘s challenge to publish something on the word ‘pattern’.

So, what’s my daily pattern, I ask myself. Kay’s out of town, so the pattern is different today. It’s just Barclay and I (or is it ‘me’?).

I get up early, as usual. I make a pot of coffee, open the front door hoping the newspaper’s waiting on the porch, pour myself a cup of coffee (four packets of Splenda – it’s bad for my health but I don’t care; two teaspoons of Cremora – made of corn starch, also bad for my health and for the planet, but I ignore it) in my special cup from our trip to San Francisco. Every morning I wish I were in San Francisco. It’s part of the daily pattern.

I turn on the MacBook Air to check for emails and find a text from Kay who’s in Charleston, South Carolina with her three sisters from Denver, Lincoln, and Charleston. Texts are rare in my normal daily pattern, but there are three of them this morning. I’m not much of a texter, though there are mornings when, though Kay and I are sitting together silently in the living room so as not to awaken Barclay, she will text me!

About 9:00 a.m. it’s Barclay time and Barclay’s pattern takes over for the next half-hour. Out from the kennel he comes, stretching his legs as though he’s been instructed by a Yoga Master, wagging his tail . . .  running over to the recliner where Kay should be. “Where’s Mom, Dad?” Sitting on the recliner with Kay is an essential part of Barclay’s pattern, but she’s not here today. He looks at me, lies down on the rug, rolls over on his back for a tummy rub, a brushing and the wiping of his eyes (Cavies have problems with their tear ducts requiring twice-daily depletion of  Kleenex). Then he gets his ball and drops it at my feet. Time to play ball – “Get the ball!” “Bring the ball!” “Get the ball!” “Bring the ball!” – until it’s time for a drink and for turning over his food dish to play with the food, as in throwing pieces of food into the air and chasing them down until he runs to the front door to ring the bell that tells me he’s ready to go out.

Anyway, that’s enough about my daily pattern, and it’s only 9:30. The rest of the daily pattern is not very interesting. After lunch we take a long nap together. We have dinner. We go to sleep. And the day begins again with an unhealthy cup of coffee and the dream of being in San Francisco. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat the pattern.

All days with Barclay and Kay are good days!

  • Gordon C. Stewart, Chaska, MN, March 11, 2017.

Desire for a vast and endless sea

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Mrs. Semar taught our high school English class to appreciate good literature, to avoid using words like ‘beautiful’, ‘great’, ‘amazing’, and ‘incredible’, and to be careful, when referring to a source, that we not Littleprincetwist it for current purposes contrary to the author’s intent.

Last week the White House website posted President Trump’s March 3rd Weekly Address.

“I’m joining you today from the deck of what will be our Nation’s newest aircraft carrier…. Our carriers are the centerpiece of American military might, projecting power and our totally unparalleled strength at sea.

“This beautiful new warship represents the future of naval aviation, and she will serve as a cornerstone of our national defense for decades and decades to come.”

It goes on to cite “a famous aviator [who] once wrote that to build a truly great ship, we shouldn’t begin by gathering wood, cutting boards, or distributing work, but instead by awakening within the people a ‘desire for the vast and endless sea.'”

English literary critics who have searched for the unidentified “famous aviator” author most often point to a paragraph by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (best known for The Little Prince) in Section LXXV of his work Citadelle:

“One will weave the canvas; another will fell a tree by the light of his ax. Yet another will forge nails, and there will be others who observe the stars to learn how to navigate. And yet all will be as one. Building a boat isn’t about weaving canvas, forging nails, or reading the sky. It’s about giving a shared taste for the sea, by the light of which you will see nothing contradictory but rather a community of love.”

The sea metaphor is refers to “a community of love,” a matter of poetic hope for a peaceful world.  Other researchers trace “a desire for a vast and endless sea” to a number of other sources, but in no case is the poetic “desire for a vast and endless sea” used to beat the drums for military build-up.

The Weekly Address was poorly written in grandiose style, complete with capitalization of the word ‘nation’ (‘Nation’- as in the greatest, the best, the exceptional ‘Nation’ that stands alone above the lesser ‘nations’).

“Investing in the military means investing in peace, and it is an investment in the incredible men and women who serve every day to keep our country safe.

“These are exciting times and amazing opportunities are unfolding before us. If we all work together, then anything is possible.” – POTUS, 2017.

It was the President’s message of March 3, 2017, years after Mrs. Semar died, but her red pen is still in my head. “Stop using those words, Donald, and please strike the word ‘then’. No need for ‘then’ following the conditional clause that begins ‘if'”. Please show some respect for Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and read The Little Prince again.

The White House needs a good editor – not Steve Bannon – and the Presidential bedroom needs better literature than Breitbart News.  Where is Mrs. Semar when the President needs her?

  • Gordon C. Stewart, Chaska, Minnesota, March 10, 2017.

 

Dominant and counter-cultural narratives

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Idolatry is the elevation of something relative and finite to the absolute and infinite. Theologian Walter Brueggemann speaks clearly and concisely about the anxiety produced by the dominant the military-consumerist narrative of the American national security state, and the gospel’s counter-cultural narrative.

I sure wish I could say that so clearly! Thank you, Walter.

  • Gordon C. Stewart, Chaska, MN, March 7, 2017

 

 

 

I wanna be an Orangutan!

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I wake up too early this morning. The first thing I see is an orangutan making a hammock in his zoo cage. I identify with the orangutan.

The orangutan has always been my favorite animal. Those eyes. That mouth. Those teeth. That smile. Okay, so she needs a groomer, but, hey, so do I. How can you not love an orangutan? So smart. So . . .  human. So . . . technological!

Not only are they endearing personalities; they don’t make bombs or burn coal. They use their creative resources to make hammocks to rock away the day and turn their world upside-down . . . or right-side up. They invent. They make it up. They play.  They have no need of the smoke and mirrors of the zoo keepers’s world.

I wanna be an Orangutan!

  • Gordon C. Stewart, Chaska, MN, March 7, 2017

The Sound of Trumpets in the Morning

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Times such as this beg for an historical perspective. According to a Jewish legend, what Satan missed most after falling from heaven was the sound of the trumpets in the morning. This sermon was preached the Sunday before the 2012 U.S. election.

“Oh what a relief it is!”

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“Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, Oh what a relief it is!”

Writing a book is one thing. Promoting it is another.

I love the one. The other gives me a stomach ache. I sip joy as I write. I gulp down anxiety just thinking about the book’s material success (i.e., number of sales!). Which is why I’m so grateful to “Speedy” –  Bob Todd of Bob Todd Publicity – for relieving me of the gastric distress of promoting Be Still! Departure from Collective Madness.

Bob posted on my FaceBook page page today.

I’m delighted to be spreading the word about Gordon Stewart’s new book, “Be Still! Departure from Collective Madness” from Wipf & Stock Publishers.

”Be Still! is needed at this American moment of collective madness even more than the moments that occasioned many of the essays originally airing on public radio and other venues. With a keen eye and a knack for telling the right story at the right time, Rev. Stewart speaks to the pressing issues in our politics, economy, and culture, and consistently, often poignantly, puts them in ethical and theological perspective that clarifies what too often mystifies. Great bedside reading for those of us who stay up at night concerned about where our world is heading!”

–Michael McNally, Ph.D., Professor of Religion, Carleton College; Author of Honoring Elders

I have gratis copies available for media interested in doing a book review or feature article, and for professors interested in considering the book for their classroom.

Contact me direct at BT@BobToddPublicity.com.

 

As for the Alka Selzer, remember what Speedy says,”take only as directed!” Then, slow down, be still, and leave your anxious madness behind! Who knows? With Bob’s bromide, I might yet become still – and know that I’m not God.😳

  • Gordon C. Stewart, thankful for Speedy’s relief, Chaska, MN, March 5, 2017.