One of my favorite things to do is to try to see in my mind’s eye the print “Glory Days”, depicting Jackson Springs years ago. I look and listen with my heart for the sounds of the glory days of Jackson Springs- the hotel bustling with guests, the sound of the train approaching the depot, the loading zone for peaches and the cotton gin storage shed.
I imagine friends and neighbors enjoying Jackson Springs Lake and folks shopping at John and Oscar Richardson’s General Store. I imagine the bank filled with customers and Whitley’s Store and Morris Hardware doing business as usual. In my mind’s eye, I see the schools – both white and black, the service station and the hatchery – all a part of the “glory days” of Jackson Springs.
In the midst of all that’s come and gone in this place through the years stands Jackson Springs Presbyterian Church, on the hill above the spring, for 202 years. Through all the changing seasons of life, from year to year, in the best of times and in the worst of time, God’s Word has been preached and taught and lived in this special place.
I wish I could have been here when the choir loft was full and when there were Sunday School classes of children and adults all over the building. I wish I could have experienced the Bible Schools and Easter Egg Hunts that drew children from all around. I wish I could have been a part of the memories shared in this special place through the years, experiencing them first-hand, rather than hearing you tell of them!
On this day in the 202nd year of ministry in this place, we find ourselves an older congregation (for the most part), and with an older pastor (for sure)! While we have the memory of all that has been in the life of this congregation and in our individual lives, we have once more the challenge to be faithful to answer God’s call in this time and place.
“For all that has been – thanks! For all that is yet to be – Yes!” (Dag Hammarskjold) Giving thanks for homecoming celebrations, for all that has been and for all that is yet to be, and for those streams of mercy, never ceasing!
Elizabeth
I’ve been thinking a great deal in recent days about how we come to be the persons we are, with our unique perspectives on life, the ways we see ourselves and others. No one can tell what goes on in between the person we were and the person we become, there are no maps showing the way there, no charts to mark the change, no warning signs for detours or dead ends. We just travel through life, making our way, and helping each other along the way.
I believe we grow and change and become as people come and go in our lives “for a reason, or a season, or a lifetime” and as they “love us or refuse to love us, or love us in unhealthy ways.” Through every experience we learn the life lesson that “what lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us”, and we come to understand that “things happen to us, so that things can happen in us, so that things can happen through us.” We learn as we live, that we can find peace in the pieces of life, and new beginnings in endings.
A friend is dying and I’m sad to know she lived a neighbor so nearby, yet I hardly knew her. How important it is to be attentive to those around us, to notice who we see and who we never see. So much of our “becoming” comes as we interact with each other, offering encouragement, counsel, and loving support. As we share the joys and sorrows, victories and defeats, hills and valleys of life’s journey, we help each other find the way. When we can’t see our own worth for ourselves, we’re often able to see it reflected in another who catches a glimpse of who we are and of who we might become. I believe God plans for us to do that for one another. In many ways, we “love each other” to wholeness!
Several years ago, I watched the movie “Still Alice” THREE times – it was in Movies on Demand, and I guess I just like the idea of “getting my money’s worth!” My friends, knowing the movie was the story of Alice, who suffered from alzheimers, questioned, with a laugh, “Hey, you did remember that you’d seen it before, when you watched it for the second and third time, right?” I assured them that yes, I was aware of choosing to watch it three times!
Alice’s daughter, Lydia, is staying with her mother for a spell – Lydia, the daughter who was such a disappointment because she wanted to act in plays rather than go to college. Lydia was reading one of her parts and Alice was listening. “Mom, do you understand what I’m saying? Do you know what it means?” Alice pauses for a second, then looks into Lydia’s face with love and says, “It’s about love, Lydia, it’s talking about love. Did I get it right?” Lydia draws her mother into her arms saying, “That’s right, that’s right, you got it right! It’s all about love!”
The bottom line is love. When all the rest falls away, it’s the love we’ve shared that lasts. May we live out of the memory of the love we’ve shared we others all our days! Giving thanks for the gift of life, for neighbors to love one another, and for those streams of mercy, never ceasing.
Elizabeth
We’ve all seen Lazarus. He lies on a pile of newspapers outside a shop doorway, covered with a rough blanket; sometimes he’s sitting near the local Wal-Mart holding his “will work for food” sign; sometimes he’s walking down the highway with his “need food, money, or whatever else” sign, hoping to thumb a ride; sometimes he’s a sad little man in our community walking here and there, always ending up right where he started.
We’ve all seen Lazarus. Sometimes he’s a little child coming to school on a cold winter morning without a coat; sometimes he’s the young single mom, with babies in tow, holding up the line as the checkers work with her WIC checks to buy food for her children; sometimes he’s the elderly woman pushing a grocery cart holding all her worldly goods to the window at a fast food restaurant, coming in for the breakfast they have for her each morning, ever keeping a watchful eye on her cart as she eats; sometimes he’s a neighbor struggling with health issues, determined to stay in her home, clinging to her dignity and independence, even as all is slipping away; sometimes he’s the grandmother struggling on her meager Social Security check, to care for her grandchildren whose parents have abandoned them for drugs.
We see Lazarus all over the world on the nightly news: people of all races, male and female, old and young, Christian, Jew, Muslim and on and on. We see Lazarus every day of our lives, in all times and in all places. But do we really see him? Do we really see him, or do we miss him, and failing to see him, pass on by?
The parable of the rich man and Lazarus presents us with the great moral challenge of seeing and then making visible, the invisible suffering of the world. The parable challenges us not simply to share wealth, but to become attentive to the poor and suffering persons who are among us. If Jesus was on the side of the poor, and we are followers of Jesus, then we, too, are called to be on the side of the poor and bless them, not just with words but also with deeds of mercy and loving- kindness, giving of ourselves on their behalf, like Jesus himself.
This parable speaks to the deep truth that things are not the way God intended. Jesus teaches that all of our lives are caught up with one another in ways that have consequences now and consequences into eternity. If we truly see each other, perhaps that can be the start of living in a way that acknowledges the truth: that we all belong to one another and we all belong to God, in this life and in the life to come.
Giving thanks for the witness of scripture and the work of the Holy Spirit in all of life giving us a vision of the Kingdom of God and helping us live into its fullness.
Elizabeth