18 Wheels A Rollin' ~

By Jeff Craw

Ever had a "Root Canal"? I've had plenty, and what a blessing they were! They were a bit uncomfortable sometimes, but nothing like the pain that they relieved. Also, The Incredible Dr. Pol, (when he takes a break from birthing a calf) is usually lancing an abscess on some poor animal. And as the pressure is relieved, the pain subsides. Then, as the Dr. Pol states, relief is almost instantaneous. I confess I do, at times, envy Dentists and Vets for their gifted ability to quickly relieve pain. As a Pastor (and as a friend), helping to alleviate someone's pain is a much more daunting enterprise. It's not often easy or smooth, and it is often becomes a very lengthy road to travel. Hey, I'm a guy. We like to fix things as quickly and efficiently as possible. But a measure of maturity seems to come over us when we realize that there are times and situations in this life that are simply not microwaveable.
Now when Jesus wields His sword of truth, a sword that is NOT meant to kill, but to cleanse and to renew, - the laceration that it administers releases an outward flow of all that we would cover up and fear, - all that we've sweep under the rug. And then all these crippling masses that have built up inside of us, - they are now discharged, giving off an offending aroma that is often enough to blow one into the next county. Rotting lies, arrogant pride, unfounded fears, crippling anxieties, and hollow prejudices all come pouring out, as the soul is then freed and allowed to breath once again. Ah! Clean air! And then laid out before us the welcoming arms of Peace, along with perhaps a "meet and greet" with Joy.
My effort in these pages then, is a directed attempt to "lift up the rug" and see what's been swept under there, - what's swept out of sight by both you and by me individually, and by the Church in general. And then to use a kind of "Celestial Dyson" to suck it all out of there (like a Doctor would remove a tumor), then running these malignancies through a good cleansing in a sort of spiritual bath of 'baking soda, vinegar, and bleach".
This all seems like a huge and humbling challenge I know, but that's my bold attempt here anyway. And as I learned from experience many, many years ago, "You don't know what you can do till you try." So bring it on! Let's have at it!

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Feb 26, 2020
• ISBN: 9781098305383

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COMMENCER

BRIGHT LIGHTS! SHOW TIME!

– Luke 9:28-36

Back in the 1950s, Kenny Smith was a sportswriter who covered the New York Giants for a couple of the New York Newspapers. Eventually, in the 1970s, Kenny became Director of The Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Anyway, he was also a member of my Dad’s church in Danbury, Connecticut, and from time to time he would give my Dad tickets to Giants games. Once in a while on a school day, out of the blue, Dad would pop his head into my room and say, Come on! Get up! We’re headed to New York for a ballgame! Ecstasy! Thank You Lord! Once there (thanks to Kenny) we would often get to wander the innards of the Polo Grounds, and thereby I got to shake hands with such heroes of mine as Dusty Rhodes, Don Muller, Whitey Lockman, Sal Maglie (The Barber), Willie Mays, and Hoot Evers. Talk about a breathless experience! For an 8-year old boy, this was a presence of God situation!

For me, being on Coogan’s Bluff in those days, had to be much like the experience that Peter & his buddies had on that mountaintop some 2000 years ago. And much like Peter, my heart was saying, "Hey Dad! This is Too Cool! Let’s pitch a tent here. Let’s stay for a while!" Just to note, - these breathless experiences both began with an acknowledgment of the need for Sabbath time, - for Peter, James, and John, as well as for my Dad and me. Hey, even Jesus went on retreats! He was not a workaholic. Workaholics often miss many of life’s treasures. (read about Mary & Martha elsewhere in this book) Now Peter wanted to stretch the moment, as did I, but that didn’t happen for either of us. Peter was soon headed back down the mountain, and I was soon riding shotgun in our ‘54 Chevy, as we wound our way back up the Saw Mill River Parkway, headed back home to the valley of Danbury.

My thoughts of saving some of this experience, like saving time in a bottle, were captured tears later by Jim Croce in a song by that same name.

"If I could save time in a bottle, the first thing that I'd like to do;

Is to save every day till eternity passes away

Just to spend them with you!"

Amen Jim! In truth it is impossible to capture these mountaintop moments to serve as a way of life. In a sense, its like when we used to catch Fireflies. These amazing little flying lanterns would light up the night air, and then would perish during those nights, sadly at our hands. You see we would catch some little lights and put them in a jar, adding some grass and such as a habitat, while punching some holes in the lid for ventilation. Then we would place that jar on our nightstand, and go to sleep marveling at their light show. But in the morning, the light show was over, and those Fireflies would be lying lifeless at the bottom of the jar. From what I have researched, Fireflies can live quite a while, but not while entombed in a jar.

We may periodically climb to the mountaintops, and we should! But we live in the valleys. And there is nothing at all wrong with that. Switzerland always intrigued me because of those idyllic villages surrounded by majestic mountain peaks. The lesson here is that folks don’t live up there on those peaks, breathtaking as they are. Folks live in the valleys (sometimes on the hillsides), but not on the peaks. Still, we are always in the presence of those peaks, as we are also in the presence of our own mountaintop experiences. Oh, clouds may hide them from us now and then, but they are always there. Can you think of a mountaintop experience in you life?

For me, my ordination was such an experience, a bonding synchronism of emotion, grit, intellect, and love. But then the very next morning, on my desk, - The Letter! Seems I had managed, innocently enough, to induce venom from a Church member who felt I was in some sense an abomination to the church. I could explain the root of his vexation here, but it might take a page or so, and it was so juvenile and ignorant that I don’t want to waste time with it. Still, for me, it was good practice for all the incoming vexations that would come my way over the years. In the end, the light from the mountaintop experience of Ordination Day, up on the hill in Acworth, New Hampshire, had saved the day.

Then there is the story of the young boy who adored both Shari Lewis & Lambchop and Captain Kangaroo. When he learned that they would both be on the same show together that coming Saturday Morning, he was beside himself. How amazing this was going to be! All week his head was filled with visions of what it was going to be like to witness this mountaintop experience. Then Saturday morning arrived and his excitement could be felt throughout his home. And so, at the appointed time, he sat in front of the TV focused on the adventure of a lifetime that was about to play out before him. Well, it was about 4 or 5 minutes after the show had started that the young boy wandered into the kitchen in a semi daze. His parents were surprise and asked him, Hey, what’s up? He sighed, as if to catch his breath, and said, "It’s too much! It’s just all too much! I can’t take it!

Years ago, my good friend Anne-Marie was getting married in Vermont. At 40, she was marrying a bit late in life, like me. She was an excellent reporter for the local paper and she had an outrageous and wondrous soul; - the ultimate cynic, but she was as refreshing as anyone I’ve ever known.

She wanted her wedding to be something special (a mountaintop experience, perhaps?), but she was finding it hard to plan the Service. So she emailed me this note: I have no vows written and no readings. I’ve looked and looked online, and all I can find is the schmaltzy" syrupy love stuff: you know, the ‘Love is patient, love is kind’ bogus stuff. Can you recommend any readings that would be wedding appropriate that wouldn’t sound like a Hallmark card? Also, can you recommend any online sites that are good inspiration for writing vows? In short, she wanted me to guide her out of the valley of Wedding tedium.

And so I answered. First off, there maybe schmaltzy people who read 1st Corinthians 13, but the scripture itself is pretty outrageous and extravagant! In truth, it has little to do with romantic candlelight type love. Let me ask you, when was the last time you worked on being patient, or struggled with envy? And as for the vows, I tend towards the traditional vows because they are really scandalous; ‘In sickness and in heath? For richer, for poorer?’ Are you kidding me? Those are pretty extravagant vows, - while the ones I’ve heard that were made up by the Bride and the Groom have been, more often than not, pretty lame and full of schmaltz and sap! Well, live it up kid. I hear there is a blizzard forecast for your Wedding Day! Does God love you or what! What fun!

And so she replied, "Thank you Jeff! Still have some writers block here, but I will check out 1st Corinthians 13, as a lack of patience and presence of envy are still things I struggle with. Live it up yourself!

So the reality is that, as we struggle to achieve a meet and greet with the perceived perfections of various mountaintop experiences, our truest connections with real perfection are, through all of our days, always and increasingly weaving their way with simplicity and clarity into the tapestry of our valleys. Reminds me of the guy who was under a streetlight looking for his keys. When someone asked, Where did you lose them, he replied, Over there, -but there’s no light over there.

When I was a young boy, one surefire mountaintop experience for me was Angel Food Cake. Loved it! One day, while visiting my Grandmother, I spotted such a cake, newly minted and sitting on her dining room table. After scanning the area for authority figures, I sat right down and had a nibble. Well, actually, there were many, many nibbles. In no time at all, I had ingested more than half a cake worth of nibbles, - after which I wobbled into my bedroom and lay on the big brass bed just waiting to die. It’s been over 65 years since that afternoon of excess, and I have never, ever allowed even a hint of Angel Food Cake to pass over my lips since that day! Indeed, it is true that a full diet of mountaintop experiences can often bring a need for some various kinds of Bromo-Seltzer®.

Suggested for your viewing:

Twilight Zone A Nice Place To Visit with Sebastian Cabot

Most athletes do live off of the energy of mountaintop experiences, off the cheers of the crowd, the "thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, - along with all of the attention and adulation. Wow! It’s a trip! I know cause I’ve been on that train. I never really responded well to classroom education (even thought I did wind up getting a Masters from Duke University) so I was not about to be inducted into the National Honor Society at a school assembly. But come the sports awards, I was there; letterman, co-captain, All League, All Star, etc. I lived on the peaks of those athletic experiences for years.

A couple of years after graduating from college, all that mountaintop stuff just fell away and I dropped with a great thud into the valleys that lay below my head in the clouds existence. I had left much of my valley life for the high clouds while in High School, and had spent too little time cultivating the rich treasurers that resided there.

But now, this was where I was to live, and in my eyes it was (due my own neglect) an unattended wasteland. It was overwhelming, scary, and lonely. I remember thinking that an amoeba probably had a more rewarding social life than I did. Still, after treading water for a time, I began to till the soil in my valley, hoping something might grow, - like me! And so, the sun did start to rise just a bit, especially when I eventually started driving Tractor-Trailers around the country. Anyway, you should know that when I was growing up, there were four things I wanted to be; First, a Pro Football player. Second, a Cowboy. Third, a Truck Driver. And fourth, a Pastor, just like Pop. Honestly, how many kids do you know who would put being a Pastor at the top of their list?

Anyway, the cowboy deal got eased out of contention around the time girls became apparent. And Pro-Football? I had a chance to play semi-pro ball out of college, but those guys were BIG! So trucking it was (after a brief flirtation with banking). I drove an oil truck for a couple of years, and then moved on to driving over the road for United Van Lines. Even though these were basically valley jobs, my days were slowly getting increasingly brighter, - and at least becoming partly sunny and warmer. Times were still challenging and somewhat confusing in my valley, but things were also growing. After a while, I was asked to work with the young people at my Dad’s old church. So even as my life was still quite tough for a myriad of reasons, a decent harvest seemed a real possibility, - a harvest that might even offer the glimmer of a mountaintop experience.

Then, I jumped off the high dive, into the waters of The Divinity School at Duke University. Whoa! Was that water cold! Talk about a valley! But in those years I threw myself into the cultivating of new ground for the growing and nurturing of all kinds of valley miracles that led to some mountaintops.

One of those mountaintops was driving (Charter Coach) the Duke football team to Clemson, where we beat them 34 to 17, Very cool! And another peak experience was driving my truck with the hammer down one cool night, -out of Rockford, Illinois headed for Chicago with the Theme from Peter Gunn playing wide open. Cleansing & refreshing! And in the flow of Parish life, there were often elevated sessions like singing (at full throttle) For all the Saints, A Mighty Fortress is Our God, and/or Eternal Father, Strong to Save. Add to that, singing Silent Night while lighting the Christmas Candle on Christmas Eve, and being present for numerous Parish situations of trauma, grief, joy, and tragedy. And then yes, - always when gathered with the children for our time together during worship. Even so, the real revelation here for me was that those mountaintop experiences were most always reliant on my persistent sacrificial labors in the valleys.

And now, being retired from my role as Pastor, I feel the breezes of mountaintop experiences of the past, - even as I now drive around the country over the vast wondrous landscapes of open road. And so, viewed as they are now, through my attendant window of gratitude, those memories do have me living very much at ease and at peace in the loving arms of some very fertile valleys.

Truth is, that the euphoric experiences of peaks and mountaintops will almost always take one’s breath away, but, in reality, it is in the life that is cultivated and realized in the environs of our valleys that will yield unto us God’s greatest and truest gift, -- the gift of His rich and sustaining breath of love and life.

Luke 9:28-36

About eight days after saying this, he climbed the mountain to pray, taking Peter, John, and James along. While he was in prayer, the appearance of his face changed and his clothes became blinding white. At once, two men were there talking with him. They turned out to be Moses and Elijah—and what a glorious appearance they made! They talked over his exodus, the one Jesus was about to complete in Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, Peter and those with him were slumped over in sleep. When they came to, rubbing their eyes, they saw Jesus in his glory and the two men standing with him. When Moses and Elijah had left, Peter said to Jesus, Master, this is a great moment! Let’s build three memorials: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. He blurted this out without thinking.

While he was babbling on like this, a light-radiant cloud enveloped them. As they found themselves buried in the cloud, they became deeply aware of God. Then there was a voice out of the cloud: This is my Son, the Chosen! Listen to him.

When the sound of the voice died away, they saw Jesus there alone. They were speechless. And they continued speechless, said not one thing to anyone during those days of what they had seen.

7 BROTHERS - ONE WIFE!

Luke 20:27-38

This particular scripture affirms my admiration for Wile E. Coyote and his undaunted determination and persistence in his quest to catch the elusive Roadrunner. It is an epic struggle that is found in both cartoons and in scripture.

You have to know that the Pharisees and the Sadducees were constantly trying to show up Jesus as a fraud. They tried to make Him look inept and stupid, but in the end, they themselves are the ones that always wound up with egg on their face (along with a side of hash browns).

Today it is the Sadducees turn to look silly. The Sadducees were aristocrats, and they were collaborators with the Romans, - doing so in order to remain aristocrats! Also, they subscribed to, and clung pretty exclusively to, the Pentateuch (the first 5 books of their Bible) as their foundation. In addition, they did not believe in any form of Resurrection, which shows that they were not really looking for an answer to their question of Who Gets The Girl in the next version of life? FOR THEM, there was no next version of life!

Now in response to the Sadducee’s question, Jesus could have made like the Roadrunner, BEEP! BEEP! and be gone in a cloud of dust! BUT He doesn’t. He probably snickers a bit to Himself that He really can’t give up such a golden opportunity here for a breakaway SLAM DUNK. So He says, "Look! When one rises from death to life, it’s a whole new ballgame.