Nelson Mandela and The Rifleman

     When I was asked to speak at an interfaith service for Nelson Mandela last week, my first thought was, “What in the world could a white guy raised in a lower middle class family in Sparks, Nevada possibly have to say about this great man that could not be said better by others?

     But then I remembered Chuck Connors in the TV show The Rifleman…

     When I was a kid, he was my hero.  And I… I was going to grow up to be a cowboy.  Funny how life doesn’t always turn out like we expect.  But because I looked up to Chuck Connors when I was a kid — because he was my hero — I did everything I could to be like him.  I had a cap gun I kept in a side holster, and I learned to ride horses… got pretty good at it too!

     We all grow up, and we get new heroes.  For many of us, Nelson Mandela was one.  If someone is your hero… if you look up to him… you try to be like him.  But being like Nelson Mandela isn’t as easy as buying a cap gun and learning to ride a horse.  So many other folks have talked about different aspects of his life, so I’ll just focus on one… what he thought about poverty.

     Mandela said, “Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life.  While poverty persists, there is no true freedom.”

     There have been a lot of people eulogizing Nelson Mandela.  But if he’s really your hero — in this one area — it’s going to change the way you feel about the poor in your heart.
     It’s going to change the way you speak about and to the poor.
     It’s going to change the way you see your own finances as not all belonging to you.
     It’s going to change the programs you support in this country and the world.
     And… it may change the people you vote for.

     With Nelson Mandela gone, a great light has been extinguished in our world.  But we can all be like him in our own small way.  It’s not as easy as becoming a cowboy, but it will change the world.

A Month of Gratitude on Facebook

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Fear

     The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. – Exodus 16:2

     For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain. – Philippians 1:21

     Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner… – Matthew 20:10,11

      Fear.

     It's what I felt ten years ago as a teacher trying to explain to young children what had just happened at the World Trade Center in New York City. The children were afraid, and my job as a teacher was to reassure them that they were safe with me in school, even though I was just as afraid.

     Fear.

     It's what I felt Friday night as I watched over two hours of coverage of the tragedy at the Reno Air Races. Finally, I just had to turn the TV off. I had gone from being afraid and horrified to simply being numb, as the video of the accident looped over and over again. I gave up working on my sermon, and just went to bed, turned out the lights, and prayed.

     We spend so much of our lives afraid. We naturally experience fear when we have to deal with terrible tragedies: The shootings in Carson City last week; the devastation of the hurricane on the East Coast; the suffering of the Japanese in the wake of the tsunami; the poor people of the nation of Haiti. But just in the day-to-day living of our lives, so much of what makes our decisions for us is fear.

     In our readings today, the Children of Israel were afraid: Afraid that there wouldn't be enough to eat; afraid that they would die of thirst. We live in constant fear of both living and dying. Yet in our reading in Philippians today, we hear Paul saying he's neither afraid to live nor afraid to die. And because he had let go of fear, he was able to act, and to teach, and to love. Even in our Gospel reading today, we see the commonest of all fears: Those who had worked in the vineyard all day were angry that those who had only worked a couple hours were paid the same. That anger was based in a common fear we all share: The fear that someone else will do better than we will. That they will somehow get ahead of us in this life that we so often turn into a rat race. And because we live in our own skin, we think our own personal fears are unique, but they're not.

     Michael Bernard Loggins is an adult living in San Francisco with developmental disabilities. He wrote a little book about his fears entitled Fears of Your Life. He says of his book, “I write down my fears, my scariness and my frightfulness. This is an understanding process. It helps me real good.” You and I may not seem to have a lot in common with a developmentally disabled 40-year-old man, but I invite you to listen to some of his fears and see if we don't share some just like his. 

• Fear of hospitals and needles.



Click here to order book.

• Fear of school and dentists.
• Fear of black cats.
• Fear of monsters being under my bed.
• Fear of intruders coming to the house to steal things and hurt us all.
• Fear of being followed.
• Fear of dogs.
• Fear strangers.
• Fear of timebombs.
• Feared of being left in the house alone afraid that there would be an earthquake in few more seconds.
• Feared that if you are bad or naughty no one's isn't going to love you anymore.
• People are fearful of me which I wonder is they think I am all that terrible or I'm thinking that they think I'm not human at all because when they sit next to me than they get back up and move away from me i may be a stranger but that doesn't make me a created monster or something like that… They don't think who's feelings they hurt at all they just do it no consideration for whatever.
• Fear of you never known you were gonna lose your mother is very sad and scary experience you have to face and learn from and you wonder why she has to die I love her – and I had loved her once while she were alive. Especially if she was the mother that raised you and the others through birth and you only wish that you could have done all you can to help save her life. It gonna be a worse times and hard times for Michael Bernard Loggins and his sisters and brothers too. Especially when Mother's day comes.

      Yet, this man who faces so many challenges in his life also shares his wisdom about fears with us:

• Does fear makes you smart or does it takes you over? It tries…
• Want to know more about fears: and what it can happen to you if you still be afraid and you hasn't really truly over come the kind of fear that you happens to have on you? You look like you'll almost never get your chance of over coming it like if you are home alone.
• Life will be… no matter what the circumstances will be. Whether it's good – bad – or worse than what it seems or even those things kind of get wacky, or slightly out of hand, soon or later, these things blows over and return to what they will be.

      I think Michael Bernard Loggins is right: Fear can take over your life. You'll never get over fear hiding alone at home. And finally, in life these things blow over and return to what they will be.

     It is tempting to blame tragedy on God. But God was not behind the throttle of the airplane Friday. There was just a good man by all accounts, an excellent pilot, yet human frailty or a mechanical failure – we don't know – overtook him. It was an accident.

     But I know where God was because I saw him on TV. I saw God in over a hundred people in the grandstands who responded to the plea for anyone with medical training to come help. I saw God in the many people who had no medical training who stayed and helped get the wounded to safety and comfort the terrified and grieving. And I see God in all the good, good people of this Valley who hold the victims of this tragedy up in prayer.

     Last week on 9/11, we talked about forgiveness. This week we consider fear. Next week, we will talk about the future. I am convinced that without forgiveness; without letting go of harm that has been done to us either intentionally or just because of the randomness of life… all that remains is fear. I am convinced that without looking to a future of love; without believing the God whose name is love is already standing there waiting in all our tomorrows no matter what they bring… all that remains is fear. I am also equally convinced that if we will unclench our fists and allow God to carry the burden of our fears… all that will remain is love.

Traditional Japanese Fishermen’s Dance

     For those of you who think that life in Reno consists mainly of gambling, it is time to introduce you to some of the fine arts in our community. Every year, the University of Nevada in Reno holds a Japanese Festival where native Japanese, Japanese-Americans, and we curious westerners gather for authentic food, Taiko drumming, detailed traditional costumes, and dancing.

     This year’s featured performance was of the traditional Japanese Fishermen’s dance called Sōran Bushi ( ソーラン節 ). It is said to have originated in the northern islands of Japan and imitates the movements of fishermen (fisherpersons?) as they gather in the catch. What you will see in the video is incredibly vibrant and athletic moves combined with an infectious, almost hard rock beat. It is probably a lot faster and more dynamic than the original Japanese folksong, but the audience loved it – and one doesn’t say that just because one’s daughter is one of the incredible dancers. All I know is if I started dancing the Sōran Bushi on a regular basis, I would be skinny as a rail… if I didn’t end up in traction first!

11th Annual Ecumenical Choir Festival

     Over one hundred choristers gathered at Trinity Episcopal Church last Sunday for our 11th annual Ecumenical Choir Festival. The church was packed, as choirs from as far away as Quincy, California lifted their voices in praise. Each group presented an individual anthem they had prepared, and there were three incredible mass choir pieces. Our church has a long tradition of supporting ecumenical relations, and it did my heart good as I watched Episcopalians, Methodists, Roman Catholics, Lutherans, and Unitarians all joining their voices in song. For a couple hours every year, it always feels to me I am seeing Christians united in faith as it was meant to be.

     This first piece is the mass choir presentation of Elijah Rock in an exciting gospel arrangement I had never heard:



     The second piece is Trinity's offering of Taste and See arranged by our talented new Interim Music Director, Michael Langham:

The Reno Air Races

     Every year, the Reno Air Races attract thousands of visitors to our area. The competitive races are amazing given the speeds as the airplanes roar around the pylons in the valley.

     The Air Force’s Blue Angels were here this year. Their aerial acrobatics takes my breath away! When they are flying in formation, as you see in the video below, their wingtips are a mere eighteen inches apart. Such incredible precision! The one maneuver they make that frightens me the most is when they fly straight at each other at full speed, and then one tilts to the left and one tilts to the right as they pass within inches. I tend to pray really hard right then that nothing goes wrong. It was thankfully a great year with no injuries.

     I took my students on a field trip to see them, and then returned on Saturday with friends. I have to admit Saturday was a lot more relaxing without having to make sure I kept track of every student. Oddly, the school district has absolutely no sense of humor about returning to school without every single student. Of course, what made Saturday even more fun is being with friends, and the fact that we were in the Pepsi VIP tent where there was an incredible buffet and lots of cool shade!