Thoughts on Carryng a Gun

Beretta Stampede in cal. .357 magnum
for when I need both hands free to do chores

Somehow it just doesn't feel right.  Carrying a weapon everywhere I go on my own property sort of un-nerves me.  And yet it is a necessity in the short term.  The severity of the drought here has seriously disrupted animal movement patterns in our part of the country.  We always have raccoons around the barn and trap twelve or thirteen in an average year.  Occasionally, the terriers will drag in a possum who has made his way up to the barn.  Groundhogs are a regular issue in the gardens.  Whitetail deer move through seasonally after the corn is cut.  But the drought has brought skunks out of the bottoms in search of water.  They are notorious for spreading rabies and then there is that ever present problem of how they protect themselves from the dogs, whose job it is to keep unwanted animals out of the gardens and outbuildings.  All three dogs have been sprayed at least once in the last week.  And so I carry a gun everytime I go out in order to dispatch skunks should they appear, which they often do in times of drought, even during the day.

Stoeger's 12 gague side by side Coach Gun
my barn gun of choice
 

I don't really have a problem with weapons.  I grew up with them, and they are just another tool of country living and field sport, much like a chainsaw or a post driver or a jon boat.  I figure that like baseball bats and kitchen knives, they have legitimate uses.  People who use them illigitimately ought to go to prison.  People who use them legitimately should be left alone.  But carrying them all the time because you must still leaves me a bit uneasy.  If we get rain from the hurricaine this weekend, my skunks will probably move back to the bottoms where they belong, and the shotgun will go back into it's safe.  But there are so many places in the world, some of them right here in my own country, where people never quite feel safe.  Some of them are probably just paranoid, but many of them really do live in places where legitimate authority is unable (or unwilling) to restrain bad guys and inhibit bad behaviour.  Folks there carry weapons not to shoot skunks and other vermin, but because they fear for their own safety and that of their families, often with very real cause.  Carrying has caused me to think about those folks a lot this week.  I think of an elderly person living in public housing in an American city.  I think of members of religious minorities in several countries across South Asia and North Central Africa (or even in a Milwaukee, Wisconsin suburb.)  I think of a Bosnian farmer or an Afghani shepherd.  The list goes on, and is as long as the list of how and where we homo-sapiens have chosen to mistreat each other.

Living in paradise here in Fairfield County as I do, it seems strange to think about things like this- but stranger things do abound in the world.  I find myself offering a prayer this day for those who feel afraid, and especially for those who have good reason to be afraid.  May God bring us all to reason and mutual respect, and hasten the day when our weapons can be used to kill a rabid skunk or fill a freezer with meat- instead of on each other.        

A New Masonic Year Begins in Lancaster

With the passing of summer each year, the masonic fraternity comes back to life after having "gone dark" for the hot months of  July and August.  I don't know why the lodges go dark in the summer, but they always have everywhere I have been active.  Perhaps it has to do with the oppressive heat in the second floor meeting rooms which tend to predominate in midwestern American Craft Masonry.  And I'm not sure where the term "going dark" comes from.  I've heard theories, but like so many things in masonry, they are just that- theories to be tossed about without enough evidence to make much of a definitive statement.

Tonight, I met with my brothers of the Allied Masonic Degrees, a research society dedicated to the preservation of a handful of degrees no longer in general use in the English speaking world.  It was a convivial evening, conducted in the drawing room of our local Lodge.  One of our borthers brought greetings from our brothers in Brazil, where he had recently traveled to address the members of the Order of DeMolay, a Masonic youth group based on the storied heroism of Jaques DeMolay, the last grand master of the Poor Knights of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, the famed Templars.  It was fascinating to hear his narrative of Brazil and her Masons, and the discussion turned rather effortlessly to the fraternity in Mexico, where our brother spent a significant portion of his early life.  I learned much, and to be with friends in such a setting of brotherhood was comforting and uplifting.
  
Even in this election year, and during the national convention of one of our leading political parties, the brothers observed that longstanding masonic admonition to refrain from arguing about politics and religion at lodge.  The discussions continued for a good hour after the meeting adjourned, and the talk was of plans for benevolence, fellowship, and ritual performance in the various lodges, chapters, and commanderies represented for the ensuing year.  Laughter and good will flowed freely, as they so often do in our fraternity. 

Over the past 27 years, I have fellowshipped with my Masonic Brothers on three continents and all across this great land.  The men with whom I have laughed and learned and served have represented all of the world's great religions, vastly differing political opinions, every social class, and every income and educational level.  We  have come from many nations and represent every color and race.  But by committing ourselves to respect each other and by working together to achieve those goals which are common to all good men, we have been able to maintain friendship in spite of our differences, without demanding that anyone give up his core beliefs to work alongside of us.  (That is unless those core beliefs include intolerance, tyranny, or lack of respect.)  We are committed to stressing that which is common, good, and true; and to respectfully permitting differences of opinion in religion, culture, and politics.

It is not such a bad way to live with one's neighbors, and I am thankful that having passed the darkness of the summer recess, we are together again. 

Country Living Update: From the Lighter side

Quincy and Rawley: The Terriers

This morning, while I was engaged pulling the cockleburrs out of Squirt the pony's mane, the terriers went absolutely crazy at the other end of the barn.  It didn't take long to discover the source of the ruckus.  The unmistakable odor of Mephitis mephitis (the striped skunk) wafted through the barn and made it impossible to stay with the job at hand.  North American Wildlife explains it thus: "When provoked, the Striped Skunk arches its back, raises its tail, stamps its front feet, and shuffles backward.  If the warning is not heeded, the animal ejects a fine spray of acrid, blinding fluid from its anal glands.  As a result, few animals other than large owls prey on skunks..."  No kidding!

Many years ago, while hunting squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) in Wisconsin I came up over a rise with my dogs (Beau and Wulfy back then), was confronted by a relative of today's entertainment, and witnessed the entire dance.  Fortunately, the dogs were distracted by a flushing ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus for my readers who may be familiar with other types in the UK), and we were spared the "fine spray of acrid, blinding fluid" on that day.  The boys didn't come off so well this morning.  While they managed to avoid the direct blast, it is fair to say that they will not be allowed into the house until they are cleaned up and descented.  Opinions vary on the best way to accomplish that little job, and this afternoon I will probably try at least two or three of the proposed folk remedies.

But to finish the story, by the time I got the horses out of their stalls and into the front pasture, and checked to make sure the chickens were ok, I saw the raised white tail of my offended neighbor going over the hill and under the fence into the woods.  Even if my shotgun had been handy, I didn't have a safe angle for the shot.  And so he lives to spray again.  The terriers have taken it all in stride, and are quite proud of their accomplishment.  It is as if someone has given them both a shot of adrenelin.  Faithful Pat, the retired white rabbit hound, witnessed the entire thing and seemed quite bemused by it all.  But after a life spent in the woods and hedgerows, he was more than willing to leave the whole thing to the terriers.

An elusive neighbor to avoid!

Commitment, Contentment, and a Sense of Belonging

The Peacable Kingdom
by Edward Hicks

Today was not a busy day, but it was one of those where because of one or two things you feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders.  And so it was with real joy that I settled into a hickory rocker on the front porch after completing my barn chores at about 10:30 Eastern Standard Time.  The terriers, who had been chasing small unwelcome animals at the barn, finally settled in with me.  We watched the shooting stars and listened to the constant drumming of the crickets and the call of the katydids.   I can't remember when I've enjoyed my evening ration of Redbreast and Navy Flake any more.  Amazingly, there was not a coyote within earshot, which is a very good thing (they run out the fox and kill more fowl than any fox ever dreamed of.)  It is cool enough now in the evenings to wear a kilt for chores, and somehow, the garmet just seems right for rural life. 

When I was a boy, living on the edge of town, I used to wander the fields and woods and dream of a time when I would be able to own property for the long haul.  When I went to college and began to read agrarian and romantic literature, I came to imagine ownership more as stewardship and less as control.  And now here we are, lost in the beauty of a late summer evening in southeastern Ohio.  There is here for me a sense of belonging, and of commitment to the people with whom I share this garden of the earth.  Someone asked me a few weeks back if we were planning to move when we retired.  My answer was as it has been for some years now, "no- we've got a farm and grave lots." 

It is good to commit to a people and a place, and to belong.  Would that we all might discover the communities to which God is calling us; and in those places and among those people find contentment and peace.

Harvest Time at Briarwood

The temperature has dipped into the high fifties over the last few nights, and fall is just around the corner.  I don't usually work on Sundays after Church, but the peaches had to be picked today.  Rebecca baked fresh shortcake this afternoon from scratch, and we had a few of the peaches on the same for supper tonight.  Tomorrow, she will make more pies for the freezer.  Tomorrow morning, I will be picking Concord grapes.  They are at their peak now, and the scent is wonderful as we walk by the small vineyard on the way to the barn.  Saturday was tomatoes again, and I believe Rebecca put up another 21 pints of maranara sauce.  We will soon have enough to supply both ourselves and Tristan for the entire winter and through until next year's harvest is ready to process.  Apples and shell beans are just around the corner.

During the course of the drought this summer, an intermittent spring which had been dormant for several years reappeared just below the great apple tree below the summer kitchen.  After the corn is cut, when the deer move back into the woods, it should provide the perfect spot for hunting.  If all goes well, by thanksgiving we should have whitetail deer in the freezer.  I'm trying a new type of broadhead this year on the crossbow bolts www.ragebroadheads.com which is supposed to cut a much larger wound channel and produce a more humane kill.  Chuck and I are already making plans to shoot pheasants over Fat Leo the Labrador.  It would be nice to put ten or fifteen birds in the freezer this year for those special occasion meals.  The next time Tristan comes home from school, we have plans to dam the springs at the south end of the property in two locations, which should give us a significantly increased capacity for holding game locally.

The Roses this year have been beautiful, and seem to be holding their blooms well as the weather cools.  The Wisteria must have doubled or tripled in size on the arbors, and next year we have every reason to expect our first blooms.  The Russian Mammoth Sunflowers are in all of their glory, and should soon provide adequate forage for our many feathered friends.  It has been a good year in the garden, but we have had to water much to maintain it all.  The fall peas and spinach are started in pots and flats and will soon be ready for transplanting into the garden.  After the next paycheck, I plan to order commercial cold frames to install inside the greenhouse.  We should have cold weather crops well into January, and then it will be time to start tomatoes and peppers  and cabbage again for next year's harvest. 

My one disappointment this year was the hydrophonics system that I used to try and extend the lettuce and spinach season into July.  The spinach fared poorly, and although the lettuce seemed to start well, the heat proved to be too much, even when the direct afternoon sun was blocked.  Next year will see the experiment repeated with a bit of tweaking.  Perhaps it will go better the second time around.

It is good to live in this place and to experience the rolling of the seasons.  They are so predictable, and yet each is so unique, and they do bring joy to my heart.

Resources for Christian Study and Formation

Rector’s Rambling September 2012

The Learned and Godly Richard Hooker
outside Exeter Cathederal
One of the Patrons of Excellence in Biblical and Theological Education

With the coming of the new school year, I thought it might be a good time to remind everyone of some of the opportunities for Christian growth and formation which are available here at St. John’s. I hope and pray that everyone will peruse these resources and prayerfully consider ways in which you might draw closer to God in this coming year.
+Perhaps the most important thing you can do is to attend services every week. Our services on Sunday and Wednesday afford us the opportunity to hear and experience the Scriptures through confession, praise, listening to God, and receiving Holy Communion- all things He has commanded us to do.

+Become more familiar with the Bible by participating in the “Essential One-Hundred Bible Reading Plan” http://www.scriptureunion.org/ from Scripture Union. Materials are available at the back of the church or in my study.

+Attend our mid-week Bible study on Wednesdays at 10:30 in the undercroft beginning in September. We generally discuss a book or section of the Bible over coffee or tea.
+Enroll in “Education For Ministry” http://www.sewanee.edu/EFM/ , a program for education of the laity sponsored by St. Luke’s Sewanee, my alma mater. The group meets on Wednesday nights for a gourmet meal and to study the in depth texts provided by the Divinity School. Kathy Heim and Carole Bailey are our mentors. Call Kathy at 205-3397 for more information.

+If you are in middle school, plan on attending our “Pizza and God Talk” nights on Monday at 5 at Nick’s Pizza on West Wheeling Street (STARTING SEPTEMBER FIRST WE WILL BE MEETING IN THE CHURCH UNDERCROFT.) Bring your Bible and your appetite. We are usually done by 6:15 at the latest.

+We invite all Junior and Senior High Students to meet at Four Reasons at 9AM on Sundays for breakfast and discussion of spiritual topics beginning in September. There is no cost to the teens, and we hope you will attend in conjunction with the regular Communion Service of your choice.

+If you like online resource study, check out “The Global Anglican Theological Institute" http://www.globalanglican.org/ . It will soon be accessible from our Church Web Site http://www.stjohnlancaster.org/index.html . It has scores of articles with links and references about all sorts of Biblical and Theological issues from an Anglican perspective.

+The Anglican Library http://www.anglicanlibrary.org/  has a great collection of sermons,commentaries, and other works illustrating what we believe. Project Canterbury http://anglicanhistory.org/ is another great source for online anglican resources.+Watch your mail box for a complimentary annual subscription to “The Anglican Digest” http://www.anglicandigest.org/ , a quarterly miscellany reflecting the words and works of the Churches of the Anglican Communion, provided through an agreement between St. John’s and the Trustees of Hillspeak, an Anglican retreat center in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.+Plan on attending "Mere Anglicanism" http://www.mereanglicanism.com/ January 24-26, 2013 in Charleston, SC.  It will refresh your soul. +Some folks at St. John’s have indicated an interest in seeking a formal spiritual director or participating in sacramental confession. If you are interested in these more intensive ways of knowing yourself and our Lord, please call me at 215-3900.
I hope these resources will help you as you seek to draw closer to God in this coming academic and church year. May we all commit to live together in peace and harmony, that true religion might flourish among us as we order our lives to more readily recognize and appropriate his grace.

Faithfully,
Bill+

Spiritual Lessons From Tools

Fiskars Bypass Pruning Shears

Last week, my trusty old pair of bypass pruners bit the dust.  After several years of very hard service maintaining trails, keeping runaway roses in check, and cleaning up garden refuse, a small but essential metal projection broke, and upon closer examination, I found the shears to be unrepairable.  I made a trip to the garden store and was amazed by the plethora of gadgets aimed at the American gardening public.  After a few minutes of searching through oversized handles and goofy colors, I found just what I needed, an unadorned and well built set of ambidextrous bypass pruners (pictured above.) 

By the time I arrived back at Briarwood, wife Rebecca was on her way down the long gravel drive to pick up a pizza for supper.  Since I had a few minutes, I decided to try out my new pruners on the overgrowth along the fencerow that parallels the drive.  It was slow going, but each cut was a pleasure which led me to the next.  The balance and mechanism were wonderful, and by the time Rebecca arrived home, I had managed to trim about twenty feet of fenceline.  That leaves just a bit over five hundred feet to do!

In years past, I've pruned that fencerow with electric hedge trimmers.  It always managed to look even and fresh, but it always seemed like a job to be done.  I cannot remember a time when it was a pleasure.  But now, with my Fiskars Bypass Pruning Shears, it was an event- an opportunity to know the farm a bit more intimately.  The slow rythem of the job allowed me to see every bird's nest, to find every honey locust sapling and clip it at the base before it punctured a tire- or worse, a shoe sole.  I noticed the snake skin where it had been shed by its owner earlier in the year, and the slowly decaying skull from some past deer hunt.  It became my choice how far to trim back the sassafras limb peeking through the honeysuckle, and whether or not to leave the wild rose intact for next spring's blooms.  The machine was no longer in control, but I was. 

I've been out twice since that initial outing with my new shears.  The work is a lot slower, but it is much more satisfying.  It is not so much about getting the job done quickly anymore.  Rather it is about the experience of maintaining this little piece of Eden that God has placed into my care.  At the end of the day, I suppose that is something of a parable for life.  We get caught up so readily in measuring our accomplishments that we miss the joy of the job itself.  Perhaps it would be better if we could take the time to enjoy our journey a bit more and concentrate less upon the destiniation.

Oh yes, my thanks go out to the engineers at Fiskars.  You have built a wonderful tool which is a joy to use.

Facing the Darkness

Sermon for August 5th
Preached at St. John's Lancaster

The Lion of the Tribe of Judah

And Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites, and the Pelethites, went down, and caused Solomon to ride upon King David’s mule, and brought him to Gihon. And Zadok the priest took an horn of oil out of the tabernacle, and anointed Solomon. And they blew the trumpet; and all the people said, God save king Solomon. (I Kings 1: 38-39)

It was an auspicious day, for a new king had been anointed in Zion. It was the latest verification of that promise which had been given by God through the patriarch Joseph, “Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father’s children shall bow down before thee. Judah is a lion’s whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up? The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be…” (Genesis 49:8-10) The prophet Zechariah understood the prophetic nature of these utterances about the house of Judah and of David when he proclaimed “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, o daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.” (Zechariah 9:9) His understanding was vindicated and the prophecy fulfilled on that day “when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples, Saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them and bring them unto me. And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them. All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass. And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them, And brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon. And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strewed them in the way. And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in the highest.” (St. Matthew 21:1-9)

The Jewish people suffered much in the thirteen or fourteen centuries which contained these prophetic events. There were wars and rumors of wars, slavery and deportations, famines and earthquakes and fire and flood. Invasion and economic ruin were never far over the horizon. For much of that time we might apply Churchill’s description of life in Iron Age Britain that “Life is brutal and short, and then you die.” But God’s promise prevailed, and among the people, even in the darkest of hours, that hope flickered that God would remember his chosen, and that the “scepter would not depart from Judah until Shiloh come.”

And now, by virtue of our response to God, we too are numbered among His chosen people. Because ‘we have confessed our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.’ (I John 1:9 sic) Because ‘we have confessed with our mouth the Lord Jesus, and believed in our heart that God hath raised him from the dead, we shall be saved.’ (Romans 10:9 sic) Because ‘we have been born of the water and of the Spirit, we can enter into the kingdom of God.’ (John 3:5 sic) Because we ‘eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, we have life in us…and we dwell in him and he in us, and he shall raise us up at the last day.’ (St. John 6:53-56 sic)

Like patriarchs and prophets and kings before us, like those who are ‘unremembered…who were men of loyalty and good deeds…, whose lives led their children to stay within the covenant of God.’ (cf Ecclesiasticus 44:9-12) we find in our lives those times of dryness and disappointment, those times of difficulty and unexpected disorder, those times of darkness. But the promises of God are true. During the years when Jerusalem was in ruins and God’s faithful people wept by the waters of Babylon, they remembered the promises (cf. Psalm 137). In the most difficult of times, when they cried “Out of the depths” (Psalm 130:1), the people of God affirmed their faith that “he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.” (Psalm 130:8) Blessed Job in the midst of his infirmities and misfortunes cried out in faith “I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.” (Job 19:25-26)

And so should we, when life’s vicissitudes and uncertainties and unpleasantries confront us, place our hope in God, who is “our refuge and our strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake at the swelling thereof. Selah. There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early. The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.” (Psalm 46:1)

As war descended across Europe in the closing years of 1939, King George VI addressed the people of the Empire and of the world. He quoted from a poem by Minnie Louise Harkins and said “I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year, Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown, and he replied. Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way! So I went forth and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night. And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.”

Whatever darkness my threaten you this day. Whatever sorrow you have known or whatever difficulties you face. I bid you this day to put your hand into the hand of God in the knowledge that Shiloh is come into the world and that the prophesies are fulfilled. Jesus Christ, who bid his disciples “be not afraid” on so many occasions, gives to us the same admonition today. Praised be God, who has not allowed the scepter to depart from the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, and who in his mercy and grace has named you and me to be the heirs of the Kingdom of God. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. AMEN.