On Tuesday of the first full week of school, I picked up Elijah from Kindergarten. He was hungry so we sat at the round tables in the courtyard. While Elijah ate the remainder of his lunch, we watched his brother, Ethan, and his 7th grade class in a competitive game of kickball, boys versus girls.
This year, we have our first student from China. Her name is Pei Ling. She is staying with a host family and when she graduates from Saint John’s, she plans go to one of the top high schools in the county and then off to an American college. I find her courage and tenacity awe inspiring. Although she is bi-lingual, there is a lot about American culture that she is learning, including kickball. If it’s been a while since you’ve played kickball, it’s like baseball, played with an inflated rubber ball, but unlike baseball, you can throw the ball at someone to get them out. Pei Ling was hiding at the back of the line-up. In the second inning, it was her turn to kick. The girls were in the lead by a run, with one out and a runner on third. Coach Montijo said, “Okay, next up.” She shook her head and tried to become invisible in the group of girls. He said, “Everyone kicks; come on, step up.” The girls reassured her and told her just to kick it, “don’t worry about where it goes, just kick.” She timidly stepped up into the batter’s box. George, the pitcher, rolled a good ball to her – not fast but certainly not slow. Pei Ling put her shoulders back and kicked a bouncing line drive past George and to the shortstop. The girls yelled, “RUN!” and off she went. Ethan was covering first and had his outstretched hands to get the ball. The shortstop threw it across the infield and made it to Ethan on the third bounce but Pei Ling was already standing safely on the base. The girls cheered and then the boys joined in and everyone applauded and cheered for her. She stood on the base beaming. It was her first base hit in kickball. I had goose bumps on my arms because of the support and cheering they gave a shy student from China that they’ve known for only a few days. The teacher didn’t tell the students to cheer and support her, they just did. During my middle school years, I never witnessed anything like that. When I was in school, the new person would be made fun of until they tried kicking the ball and then someone trying to prove a point would go out of their way to get the new person out. Unfortunately, that’s just how things happen in most middle schools. Saint John’s is no ordinary Middle School. How can we learn from these students? How can we act more like them in our life? Each Chapel service at Saint John’s this year starts with the phrase from Jesus, “You are the light of the world. Let your light shine before others so that others may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” (Mt 5:14, 16) I saw some of that light on the play field. And I give glory to God for being a part of it. May God give me the courage to let my light shine for others to see. -Fr. Marshall At my home church, Church of the Resurrection in Spokane Valley, there is a way to serve the church called “pig duty.” The church doesn’t have a pet pig but rather an industrial vacuum that looks like a pig. It has a short nozzle that looks like a snout and a large faded-red bag that inflates to the size of a beach ball. The bag inflates above the stainless steel vacuum canister which is supported by four stout wheels that resemble hoofs, and a curly electric cord for a tail. Someone once said it looks like a pig and the name stuck. As you may have guessed, pig duty consists of vacuuming the church. Like an usher schedule, pig duty is listed in the bulletin with a rotating schedule of five people.
One of the parishioners said that pig duty was one of the most spiritual activities that she does all month. It’s a time for her to be alone, in the house of God, and to serve. She feels refreshed and at peace when she is done. I attended a Benedictine university which believes in St. Benedict’s rule of life, which says, in part, that praying to God and laboring for God are equally important. Fr. Killian, a professor of church history and an avid runner, would tell his students that it is important to study for a test but it’s also important to take a break and do physical exercise. One day I took him up on his offer. Instead of cramming for a test, I went for a run around the wooded campus. It worked – my test score was higher than if I had crammed. Later on, when I’d go for a run, I’d tell my roommates that I was studying. The parishioner who enjoyed her spiritual “pig time” understands that prayer and labor are intertwined. Instead of laboring in a field (like what Benedict originally declared as labor), she was actually laboring in a church, which, in her mind, was like praying twice. That reminds me of something my seminary professor of church music said: “When you sing in church, you pray twice.” Some changes have been made in the way that Saint John’s gets cleaned. We are using a cleaning company to clean the church for Sunday. This provides a considerable cost savings for us. It also gives us flexibility. When there is a wedding on Saturday, we can contract with the company to clean after the ceremony; likewise for other events in the church. This change has also provided us an opportunity because the company is not vacuuming the pews (because we didn’t know how often they’d need to be vacuumed and thus didn’t know if we should spend the additional $600 per year for that particular service). Saint John’s offers many ways to serve Christ, the Church, and the world. And now, we have a new way – Pig Duty. We have a special, hand-held unit that vacuums the pews. It’s small, portable, and while it looks nothing like a pig, you can use your imagination to identify with Resurrection up in Washington. If you are willing to labor thirty minutes a month in service, and therefore prayer, maybe this is the opportunity for you. Friday afternoons from 3 pm to 5 pm is the window and if you are interested, let me know. God calls us to labor and to prayer. After all, Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” I think this includes parishioners who care for our rose garden, folks who labor making food for the needy, those who raise their voices in choir, our ushers and acolytes, those who deliver donated food, our knitters and prayer blanket makers, committee, group and Vestry members, those who volunteer their time in the office, Sunday school, and for fellowship set up and clean up; it’s all serving God through labor. -Fr. Marshall What do you like best about vacation? Is it traveling to a new location, relaxing, being with loved ones, reading a good book or all of the above? The Marshalls had a week-long vacation on the coast of Baja California, 73 kilometers south of the United States, in a rental house. The compound was big enough to sleep all twelve of us – my mother-in-law and father-in-law, who graciously underwrote the rental, Christi’s sister, a brother-in-law and our nephew, our daughter Victoria, her husband Douglas, their almost-three-year old Dougie, and the four Marshall crew. The main attraction of the compound was the deck and a short, sandy walk to the beach.
Of all the things I love about vacation, and in particular this one, spending time with family is number one. A close second, however, is television. The house had a fifty inch TV with a monstrous sound system, quite a set up with two amplifiers, one inside and another for outside speakers. The owner walked me through how to access the various components that could turn this sleepy Baja fishing village into a beach party scene to rival MTV. Although the sound system was on for most of the day and night, the television never made an appearance. My kids saw it, were impressed but then realized it was a “Mexican TV” so nothing would be in English. I did nothing to dispel that thought (even though I knew it was connected to a well-known American satellite company which offers hundreds of English-speaking channels). Likewise, I brought a converter that would take a Samsung tablet or smartphone and display it through an HDMI cord. I could have shown their favorite shows on the giant TV through Netflix or YouTube. But I did not tell them I had the cord. Does that omission make me a bad person, parson, or papa? Regardless, it was an easy decision to spend an entire week with my boys with no TV interruptions. The result of having no television was awesome. Our evenings were spent on the spacious deck watching the waves roll onto the white sandy beach, enjoying the stars at night, and having meaningful conversations (and one crazy night when someone, I won’t mention who, bought fireworks). We had mornings with no TV – so no reminders of the tragedies of the world to start our day. Instead, we played card games, made Play-doh creatures, walked on the beach, played pool, listened to music, drank coffee, and talked. … while pondering where to buy more fireworks. There was a Cantina five houses down the gravel road, just past the massive security gate. There is a shuffleboard game there that the boys enjoyed playing. Oddly enough, we went during the recent presidential debate which was shown on several televisions placed strategically around the darkened room. It was the first bit of television that we saw in a while. It looked and sounded jarring and alien in small Mexican village cantina. When we arrived home, no one noticed our own television. It didn’t get turned on for a while. We had gotten used to not living around it. Vacations are important. It’s good to get away and spend time with loved ones. Although we have settled back into our routine, which includes television, one thing that remains is the time spent together. It reminds me of Mary and Martha – the latter spent time in the kitchen while Mary spent time at Jesus’ feet. Time spent with family is short but, as Jesus said, it is the better part, the one thing that remains. -Fr. Marshall Parenthood is not a spectator sport. One of the joys (and frustrations) of parenting is watching children choose what to eat and what not to eat. I am really happy when they get excited about a particular food, especially when it’s healthy. On the other hand, I get frustrated when one of the kids says, “I don’t like it,” which usually prompts me to say, “But you haven’t even tried it yet.” Never, ever has that logical argument worked.
When Elijah was an infant, he had difficulty sleeping in his crib. A parishioner gave me The Scientist in the Crib, a book about babies. It did nothing to help. We found out later Elijah had acid reflux. With nightly medicine, and blocks to prop up the head of his crib, Elijah began to sleep. The Scientist in the Crib theorizes that babies are little scientists who test everything, including food. This “testing” is pre-programmed into the brain to avoid ingesting poisonous things. A different parenting book suggests parents introduce new foods by placing them on the child’s plate and on theirs. The child supposedly will see the parents eating it and, after several days the child will eventually try it. Wait, did I just hear you sigh while reading that? Yeah, me too. In the real world, that plan might work just before the child heads off to college after 18 years of hot dogs and chicken nuggets. When do we reinforce a child’s testing of new foods and when do parents simply insist? I had a co-worker who would wrap up the plate of un-tried dinner food and put it in the fridge. The next day, that plate was brought out for the child who refused to try it (folklore/office gossip on this is that she and her son had a stalemate that lasted five days). I know another parent who sat patiently with the child every night because she could not get up from the table before eating her green vegetable… for hours the mom sat and waited with the child. By the way, green beans do not get better after an hour on a cold plate. When do we trust our taste buds and when should we just dive in and try something new? When should children be encouraged to use independent thinking and control what they eat and when should they simply trust their parents? The Psalm for this Sunday has the phrase, “Taste and see that the Lord is good, happy are they who trust in God!” Fewer and fewer people in our country are willing to taste and see what the Psalmist declares. That might be because so many Christians toward the end of the 20th Century wanted to tell everyone else what tastes good and what is not. I think that makes people unhappy, for the most part, and I believe people who taste God are happy when they do it on their own rather than under explicit instructions. I’ve seen and experienced the God-of-all-patience who places a little bit of his goodness on a plate and waits. God never forced me to eat. In fact, God is so patient we are allowed to eat even of the sweet and poisonous food of self-righteousness, resentment, and greed; all the while God waits at the kitchen table for us to return to see that God is good. -Fr. Marshall |