Mothers Day

From time to time you are forced to look at various aspects of your life along with the people in it. As we approach Mother’s Day, I am reminded of my own mother’s death a little more than a year ago. It is hard to believe that she is gone because she was such a looming personality in my life. Where would we be without our parents? It is an interesting thought.

Today I ran across an article in the New York Times with the title, “Actors Son Gets Five Years on Drug Charges.” The actors son is Cameron Douglas, son of Michael Douglas and his ex-wife Diandra Douglas who has been sentenced to five years in prison for distributing large quantities of Methanphetamines, Cocaine and Heroine. He had been an unemployed addict with a five time a day Heroine habit.

There are many to take the blame for this. The article said that his life was one of loneliness in which his parents were often absent or feuding. He turned to drugs at age 13. Some of us could think that he had taken a great life of money and celebrity and blown it. At age 31, you can’t really blame your parents for your problems. At some point you have to take responsibility for them yourself.

What I did find interesting was Michael Douglas who said that he cherished his weekly visits with his son at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan. Maybe Michael Douglas should have had more visits with his son a lot earlier. Who knows?

All I know is that I am glad that I was able to see my mother every day. Time may not have always been quality time but without it, I really wonder what would have happened to me. So I just want to raise my glass to all those mothers who tuck their kids in at night, read them stories, teach Sunday school, get everyone up and moving for church and are constantly a taxi service driving their children from ball games to music lessons to school plays. Here’s to you mom. Thanks for everything.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.

(Mark 10:13-14)

Sometimes when you have done something for many years, such as receive the Eucharist or say the Lord’s Prayer or the Apostle’s Creed, its meaning can be taken for granted - buried somewhere in your “belief box” which lies dormant in the back of your brain. But then, there is an awakening that can take place in situations of trauma, when you find yourself reaching for comfort and assurance, or in moments of great joy, when you see two people looking into each other’s eyes and say, “For better, for worse.” It can also take place when you look into the eyes of a young child who is preparing for his or her first holy communion. Questions come at you in new and fresh ways that you remember you once asked yourself. You also see the anticipation in their hearts and the sincerity that can inspire, along with the awe and wonder that can get knocked out of you by the time people call you an adult.

As I met for six weeks with a bunch of ten year olds I was reminded how new and fresh the world is and how awe and wonder are still a part of the “MO.” It is too bad so much gets knocked out of us by the time we are ready to have children. There is a quote that Jesus says You Must Become Like A Little Child To Enter The Kingdom Of Heaven. May our inner child not diminish, as we grow older.

Are we our own worst enemies…..

It doesn’t take long as a Pastor to begin to realize there are people in your congregation who are no different than people in the world--they have gifts, talents and opportunity but they are hiding in the pew or in their homes. They just don’t come forward. Someone else will take care of this for me. Someone else will make sure that the church keeps going, someone else will serve on the school board, in the community and vote the way I want them to. It is always someone else. So when I came across this quote by a pastor I somehow was able to relate.

This poem is ascribed to the German pastor Martin Niemoeller (1892–1984), who protested Hitler's anti-semite measures in person to the fuehrer, was eventually arrested, and then imprisoned for eight years at Sachsenhausen and Dachau (1937–1945).

First they came for the Communists,

- but I was not a communist so I did not speak out.


Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists,

- but I was neither, so I did not speak out.


Then they came for the Jews,

- but I was not a Jew so I did not speak out.


And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.

Sometimes, we are our own worst enemies.