The Promise of Living: December 2006

Sunday, December 31, 2006

It's been a long December, but there's reason to believe...

Did You Know?

Some people attend parties on New Year's Eve, while others celebrate their birthday/new years by blogging!

Every week in Newsweek, the Conventional Wisdom Watch section gives up or down arrows to people and things that have been in the news. So I thought I’d review the year 2006 in a similar fashion. Who was up? What was down? Who was somewhere in the middle? Have a happy 2007!

↑ Beans – I’ve never been too excited about a plate of beans staring up at me from the table. I have been attempting to expand my food repertoire, and have been increasing the amount of beans I’ve been eating. Over the week of Christmas, in fact, I quite enjoyed green bean casserole and refried beans.

↑ Tennessee – I remember last Thanksgiving during an ISU basketball game vs. Middle Tennessee State at the Hulman Center that I remarked to our out of town relatives from Boston that “at least Indiana is a whole lot better than Tennessee.” Well, I ended up living there about 10 months later. I have to say it isn’t quite as bad as I always imagined. So far, I have not been recruited for Klan membership or anything.

↑ Steamers – I’ve always been someone who had trouble stopping myself from getting my normal grande vanilla latte when I go out for coffee at night. When I do that, I end up being awake until 3:00am. Ordering a caramel steamer is my new solution. I’d recommend the soul-warming taste of a steamed milk with caramel syrup to anyone.

↑ Stingrays – I have more respect for these creatures. I will not be attending the stingray petting zoo at Opry Mills anytime soon.

↑ Sycamore Men’s Basketball – The Indiana State men’s basketball team could go nowhere but up after the beginning of 2006, when we lost like 11 in a row after starting last season 8-0. The good news was that last season we beat IU, Northern Iowa (while they were ranked), Southern Illinois (breaking their longest-in-the-nation home winning streak), and Bradley (Sweet 16 team). The Missouri Valley has risen to be one of the best conferences in Division 1—it’s currently ranked third behind the PAC-10 and the ACC (ahead of the Big 10, Big 12, SEC, etc). So far this season, ISU has been pretty good. They have been the only team to beat nationally ranked Butler, and while I’ve been home for Christmas, they blew out Purdue and came back from a 17-point defecit to beat Drake. Plus, the men’s games are now as fun as the women’s ones to attend.

↔ Sycamore Women’s Basketball – The women’s team finished last season 27-6, but nothing went right from about March 1 on. They never made it into the actual top-25 polls (they were usually sitting right on top of the “others receiving votes” section). They lost the tournament championship game (for the third year of the last four), and didn’t get that at-large bid in the NCAA tourney that all the experts predicted. We lost in the 2nd round of the WNIT to IU of all teams. Then, our star point guard Melanie Boeglin, who everybody predicted would be picked in the late 1st or early 2nd round of the WNBA draft didn’t get drafted. The good news is that the new team this season is off to a great start and will be better than the conference championship team from last year that got no respect.

↑ Nancy Pelosi – A woman will be 3rd in line to the presidency in a few weeks. She was villified in countless Republican campaign commercials as some evil liberal from San Francisco, yet the grand new party actually took back both houses of Congress, which I would never have thought possible a year ago.

↓ Republicans – Ha Ha!

↑ The Trinity – Many people were upset at the report on the Holy Trinity that came before the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly this summer because, affirming the traditional Father-Son-Holy Spirit language for the trinity, it suggested some other images that might be used to more fully understand the Trinity. I think being able to imagine a mystery in ways that might include more feminine (gasp!) language is good theology.

↔ Country Music – Although I’m surrounded by country music in Music City, I am not planning to become a fan anytime soon. Okay, so maybe I’ve enjoyed a little bit of bluegrass, though.

↓ Animals – I have little appreciation for them, whether they are cats that throw up all over the place or mice in my office.

↓ Television – Maybe it would be better if we had cable. Really, I’ve only watched the local news since September.

↔ Spiders – Brown recluses are a little bit freaky, but they haven’t killed any of us – yet.

↑ Small homes – I think cramming as many people as possible into small spaces will soon become all the rage.

↔ Advent Wreaths – I get excitement out of celebrating the liturgical year, but we need an edict from the pope or General Assembly or someone about the proper color scheme for the Advent season. I am all into blue—which seems to be the trend. I hear it was Mary’s favorite color (she’s always wearing it—just look at the next nativity scene you see). Others insist that purple is the best color, and some try to throw in that pink candle for gaudete Sunday.

↑ Lutherans (ELCA, of course) – I have been extremely blessed in the past year by the people at Trinity Lutheran in Terre Haute where I worked as music director for three years. They threw a real nice shindig (no, the South is not affecting my vocabulary!) for me when I left, and have been very good about keeping in touch with me since I’ve been in Nashville.

↑ Curb Your Enthusiasm – This show is hillarious. It’s on HBO, and I’ve been watching it on DVD a lot this year.

↓ Movies – I’ve realized I only enjoy movies that fall into two genres: comedies and documentaries. That’s a little strange, isn’t it.

↑ Communion – I didn’t realize how much I loved having weekly communion at church until I came to Nashville and didn’t have that anymore at Second. The Lord’s Supper has historically been the central part of weekly worship, and John Calvin thought it was good to have weekly communion, yet the majority of Presbyterians still don’t do it (though more are all the time). What’s the deal?

↓ Paychecks – I now work forty hours a week, and make less than half of what I did working 15 hours a week at the church.

↑ Smart Alecks – I’ve discovered being one of these is one of my spiritual gifts. It will either make me millions or get me killed (possibly before this year is out!).

Saturday, December 23, 2006

HOME

With a flash of lightning and a clap of thunder, my Grandpa Moles died on Friday at about five minutes until two in the morning. Brian and I had gotten to Union Hospital about an hour earlier. As we were passing the Vigo County fairgrounds on our way home from Nashville, Sarah called to tell us that Grandpa’s nurse had wisely let the family know that it was time for all of us to be at the hospital.

The man that was lying in the hospital bed, ravaged from the cancer and its treatment and the host of other problems that popped up since last Thanksgiving was different from the always-strong pillar of strength that I had known for the 25 years before. Indeed, Thursday night was the first time I had ever seen him in the role of hospital patient. Aunt Barb has remarked several times that she just assumed, as I think most of us did, that Grandpa would live 100+ years like his mother did.

Though we know that nothing will ever be the same, we will always have our memories of the home that he and grandma together created for those of us in our family and those outside as well. It isn’t only memories of family holidays and frequent evening visits to their house, but the memories of the neighborhood kids always being welcome with Mr. Moles. The family on my grandma’s side has found a true home at their house over the years, and their Uncle Will was just as close to them as their own fathers. A trip to 3017 Putnam Street is a trip home for so many people.

* * * * * * * * * *

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL CHRISTMAS TREE

All this thinking about home has been on my mind a lot lately as I’ve had the opportunity over the last four months to serve and be served by those who are home-less. Something that many of us forget about is that homeless often does not mean just houseless, but truly without a home, the foundation that most of us are privileged to build our lives around. I was reminded of this during the past week when Cricket phones came to the Campus to let people make long distance calls to get in touch with family and friends during the holidays. It was an agonizing decision for many of our participants whether or not to make that call to families that have often rejected them (unfortunately for what are often understandable reasons). I thought about the importance of home when one of our participants proudly introduced me to his young grandson on Thursday morning who was with his mother for a half hour or so Christmas visit in our parking lot. I also was reminded of the importance of home on the occasions in the past month when two of our homeless participants have come to us because they learned of the deaths of family members through the media. The teary-eyed man who showed us his own son’s obituary this week that he had found in the newspaper that morning was a tragic display of home-lessness.

One of the epiphanies I’ve had this year is that I am helping in a very small way to create home for people. This becomes true whenever somebody asks me to be a reference for them on a job application. I usually think something like, “but I hardly even know you,” but then I realize that to them, the staff members at the Campus for Human Development are those who know them best and are the ones that they can trust. People have put the Campus down as their next of kin to be notified at the time of their deaths.

The most amazing demonstration of the power of home that is offered at the Campus came a few weeks ago when we were getting the Christmas decorations out (and no, we never got around to getting them all the way out, though we tried several times). We had thrown some decorations on the tree. Several participants wanted to help, which was nice to see. We had been told that we couldn’t put lights on the tree, because of rules from the fire marshal. By the end of the day, we had a pretty nice tree, though it certainly wasn’t the best in holiday fashion that Music City had to offer.

At the end of the next day, I noticed that there was some added sparkle to the tree. There were some new silver icicles on the tree, and assumed that somebody had gotten them out of storage. The day after that, after lunch, I happened upon an older woman and a tall younger man putting some additional mylar streamers and ornaments on the tree. I started talking to them about how nice the tree was starting to look. I asked where they found the decorations that they were adding, and the woman answered that she had bought them at the dollar store because she wanted the Campus to have a nice tree. She had taken what little money she had and bought decorations for the tree that was hers. It struck me that this was these people’s Christmas tree. They did not go home at night to another one like I did. The fostering of a small sense of home is what the Campus is about. Thanks to over 150 churches in Nashville, all will be able to get a taste of home in a warm church building on Christmas Eve or Christmas night through Room in the Inn.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

My family’s home will never be the same without Grandpa there. Nobody will be sitting in his chair, although Grandma is thinking about moving hers to his old spot so somebody can see when a car pulls into their driveway. I probably won’t be called Jeff-a-rey any time soon. I no longer know anyone whose favorite song is “The Red River Valley,” or anyone who can grow tomatoes that taste so good.

In the wee hours of Friday morning when the moment came that we had all been ready for, but dreading at the same time, God gave us the sign that someone new had entered the eternal home that awaits us. As Grandpa took his last labored breath and his body went limp, a flash of lightning lit the dark room and a single comforting clap of thunder rang out. A new voice had joined the heavenly host which once proclaimed to the poorest of those in a small Middle Eastern town a new home-coming of God into human skin. In the birth of Christ, God forever joined the frailty and temporary nature of humanity with the perfect and eternal nature of the divine. Indeed, we rejoice that nothing in life or death can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

* * * * * * * * * *

Wilfred E. “Will” Moles

Wilfred E. “Will” Moles, 86, of Terre Haute, passed away at 1:55 a.m. Friday Dec. 22, 2006 in Union Hospital. He retired from the federal prison, where he was a teacher of diesel and farm machinery repairs.

He was born Feb. 7, 1920 in Belknap, Mont., to Albert Moles and Sophia Skierka Moles. He married Agnes Smith Moles on Jan. 16, 1949.Survivors include his wife; one daughter, Barb Goltry and her husband Jeff of Logansport; one son, Jim Moles and his wife Cheryl of Terre Haute; three grandchildren, Jeff, Brian and Sarah Moles; and one sister, Altha Thompson. He was preceded in death by his parents; and five brothers, Leo, Lester, Clarence, LaVerne and Louie Moles.

He was a U.S. Army World War II veteran, having served in the 607th Tank Destroyer Batallion, Normandy Invasion and the Battle of the Bulge. He was a member of Central Presbyterian Church, Veteran of Foreign Wars Post 972, Wayne Newton American Legion Post 346, Federal Prison Retirees Association and National Association of Retired Federal Employees.

Funeral services are 10:30 a.m. Wednesday in Callahan-DeBaun Funeral Home, 2425 Wabash Ave., with the Rev. Lant Davis officiating. Visitation is 3 to 7 p.m. Tuesday in the funeral home. Burial is in Oak Hill Cemetery, with military graveside rites conducted by VFW Post 972. Memorial contributions may be made to Central Presbyterian Church or Vista Care Hospice.

Sunday, December 17, 2006

See Rock City and other adventures

SEE ROCK CITY
Last weekend, we had our first visit to one of our homes. During our first week in Nashville, we made plans to visit Chattanooga during Christmastime to see the “Enchanted Garden of Lights” at the world-famous Rock City, which is situated atop Lookout Mountain, where Chasie grew up. We slid in right at the last possible moment, and got to take the special holiday walking tour. We got to see some cool gnomes and fairies, and definitely saw glow in the dark models of every fairy tale and nursery rhyme ever written. After a late-night dinner with Chasie’s mom, we went to spend the night at her dad’s house on Signal Mountain. She showed us around Chattanooga the next day. It was great to see where Chasie is from and learn more about her.

OLD TIME ROCK AND ROLL
We had to cut and run from Chattanooga last Saturday, because we were given free tickets to the Bob Seger concert that night at the Gaylord Entertainment Center. We had really great seats. We were only asked a few times about why a group of people so young would be at a Bob Seger concert. AARP definitely should have had a recruiting booth there.

I thought the concert was really good, even though I only knew one song that was sung. Apparently several of them are really well known, but I am a little culturally deprived. The sax player, Alto Reed (great name), was the best part of the show. Well, maybe the best part of the show was seeing all the 50-something baby boomers who were acting crazy, smoking marijuana, and staggering up the steps carrying vomit-filled beer cups. Of course, as seems to happen every time I go somewhere, one of the participants at the Campus saw me at the show, and has been using "hey man, I cleaned up after you at that concert the other night, why can't you do such-and-such for me?"

NASHVILLE UNLIMITED
Wednesday night was the annual Nashville Unlimited Christmas concert to benefit Room in the Inn. It was extremely well attended, and we raised a lot of money for the Campus. The doors had to be shut with about 45 minutes to go until the beginning of the concert. I took people’s donations

at the door for a while, and then sold some greeting cards. The concert was really great—all 2-1/2 hours of it. My favorite part of the night was getting to be in the room when Emmylou Harris was warming up before the doors opened. She was really bad in the warm up, but she definitely redeemed herself in the performance. The best part of the sound check was when she accidentally chastised one of her band members over a live mike in front of several people from Christ Church Cathedral: “you can’t say sh** in church!”

THE VERY IMPORTANT CHRISTMAS PAGEANT
Tonight was the Second Pres. Christmas pageant. I led the kids in their singing. Everything went very well, as it always does when you have a bunch of cute kids in the front of the church wearing costumes. We did “The Very Important Christmas Pageant,” by Dennis Hartin, which included some pretty funny lines. The little girl who played Mary really hammed it up.

This is a conversation between Mary and the angel:

(knock on the door)
-Yes?
-Is this the home of Mary, the betrothed of Joseph?
-Yes, it is, but we don’t accept door-to-door solicitations—
-But that’s not why I’m—
-So please put us on your “Do Not Call” list.
-Hail, O Favored One! The Lord is with you!
-I’m sure he is. Have a nice day.
-Please don’t shut the door. I’m here to deliver a message.
-The mailman wears a blue uniform.
-I don’t work for the Postal Service.
-Then, who do you work for?
-Look at the wings. What do they mean?
-You work for the Philadelphia Eagles?
-No, no. I’m an angel.
-Yeah, right. And I’m a pop star.

Instead of saying “and I’m a pop star,” the girl had been saying “and I’m Brittney Spears.” It was hilarious when she changed it up today, while striking a pose, to “and I’m Madonna.”

I’LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS
I do get to spend a week back in Indiana for Christmas. This week, my brother Brian and my friends Doug and Michael are coming to see me here in Nashville. Okay, maybe they’re reall

y coming to see the Indiana State women’s basketball team play in a tournament at Vanderbilt on Wednesday and Thursday. Brian is going to stay here with me, and we will head home on Christmas Eve after church in the morning. I’ll be in Terre Haute through New Year’s Day.

PRAYER REQUESTS
An 18-year-old college freshman who is a member of Second Presbyterian fell 30 feet onto concrete at Smoky Mountain National Park a few days ago, and suffered life threatening brain injuries. Please keep the family of Spence Hobson in your prayers.

Also, please keep my grandpa, Will Moles, in your prayers. He will be at Health South Rehabilitation Hospital in Terre Haute for several weeks after spending time at Union Hospital over the last few weeks. He will be finishing his radiation treatments for his cancer this week.

AND FINALLY

We have been using some great liturgical texts during the Advent season here at Second Pres. Here is the closing litany from today’s service.

Among the poor, among the proud,
Among the persecuted, among the privileged, Christ is coming.