I am often surprised by which of our Facebook posts receive the most – or the least – comment. Sometimes it is fairly predictable, but often not.
A recent example is when last week Suzanne took an early evening stroll through our northside children’s garden. For those of you who have never ventured out on the northside of the church it is a smallish strip of land bisected by a brick walkway. Over the years the children and I (with a bit of professional help) transformed what was pretty much a scrubby little patch with one neglected hydrangea hanging on in the summer heat to green space filled with redbud trees, lobelia, drift roses, my grandmother's peonies, my mother's double day lilies, my friend Barbara Dill's black-eyed susans, and other perennials. It isn’t House & Garden material, but it is a nice little oasis in the city.
For years a bunny family lived under the yucca plants. We had a deal that in return for Coffee Hour leftovers (ever wonder what happens to the uneaten half of the veggie tray…) said bunny family would regularly appear at least one night of Vacation Bible School and/or poke a nose out for St. Francis Fun & Learning Day.
But the last few years – no bunnies. Carrots left uneaten and no sign of our little furry friends.
This year – THEY’RE BACK!!!!! Bunnies galore! Parents and little guys all romping around the garden.
I commented on one of the posted photos that the empty space in the middle of the garden was where the black-eyed susans would be except that the bunnies had eaten them all. And I mean down to the ground eaten them all. Sigh.
And they are moving on to other plants. One morning walking around the building I came upon a little bunny mid chomp on a cone flower. Standing on his (her?) hind legs the little scamp bit the stem in two pieces and proceeded to eat each bright pink petal while staring me down as if to say Well, I am right under the Welcome banner after all…
And ya know that’s it. A Facebook comment nailed it –as one church member posted, that’s what happens when all are welcome at the table!
Yeah. And it is good. All are fed. Our abundance is shared without question or qualification. You have only to be hungry.
I agree with those who prefer the bunnies to the blooms – yes, I’ll miss the black eyed susans for a season but they will come back. The bunnies as we have experienced might not. But if they remember the tasty leaves and the juicy blossoms, the carrots and the broccoli florets maybe they will, maybe they will come to know we are a safe place to be and a place to be fed.
As a student of the Hebrew Scripture I am and have always been reminded of the power of naming. Naming was not just a happenstance - it was an intentional act and meant to prove lineage. It was also a means of conveying power. Power over.
I name you. I own you. You are mine.
So I often think of how we are named and how we name others.
For me - I was named for a great grandmother I would never know, her spelling and all. And it is ironic to me that in her day she led the then called "Sunday School" and her husband - George - well just get out on this one - was a "sweet" singer in the choir.
I was named. In love.
And along the way I learned other names. Some not so good, some I was forbidden to utter - you know what I mean.
So today I wonder at the a names we use for each other. Are we "naming" without knowing? Are we "naming" without understanding the depth and reach of what we call each other? Are we letting names get in our way?
I was talking with a friend and realized that in all that we have shared about our families - you know her kids and grandkids - that I did not know an important family name. She shared it with me and shared moreover that it had been one hard for her family to learn and that for a while they had "shorthanded it" to make it easier. The shorthand was not honoring and it did change.
I am practicing this new name hoping one day to meet its owner. To honor.
What we call each other is more than words What we call Israel and Palestine is more than words.
Our names for each other are predictive of our actions.
Let us do as best we can to make sure we know each other's names.
So this happened (Monday April 8). We were not in the line of total eclipse but we were promised a changing of our day - a changing of our normal at around 3pm on Monday.
And so it was. We went out on the porch not knowing exactly what to expect. It had gotten darker but not dark. And as it happens we were joined by neighbors and then by a few of those just walking by wanting to take a look at the eclipse. We joked that if we were all together on the sidewalk looking up at the sky we wouldn't look so odd - we wouldn't be taken for a bunch weirdos staring off into space.
We became for a few minutes a community. We shared our eclipse glasses and helped each other use them to take photos. We talked a bit about being and living around here. What we liked - what we had experienced and what we hoped for. And then we walked away - back to our own lives and homes.
We were changed though - even if just for a few minutes. And I hope when I next see these folks they will remember me and I will remember them - with or without our eclipse glasses.
I think of St. Mark's so much in this way. We join together as community on Sunday mornings - people who just like this afternoon on my sidewalk might have never encountered or talked with one another otherwise. We share ourselves in the community of worship and fellowship. And it is good.
We pray and laugh and eat together. And we part maybe knowing something has been changed. Maybe in us, maybe in the community. Maybe in the world.
A friend gave me this ornament last year. I told her then that it was perfect as I begin my nightly prayers praying for peace.
It is ever more perfect this year.
I am praying for peace in this war-torn and war-weary world.
I pray for the Ukraine - that the Russians pack up their missiles and bombs and drive their tanks home. I pray that healing can begin, that the things which can be rebuilt will be, and those forever lost - mourned. I pray that the Ukraine will once again bloom with sunflowers.
I pray for Israel and Gaza - that somehow they will be released from their generations-old cycle of vengeance and violence. I am not naive - I know this is a complex history and much harm has been done on both sides, by both sides. But I pray that somehow they can come to see what they share rather than what separates them. Abraham, father of all the monotheistic religions is patriarch to both Jews and Muslims, as well as Christians. Could we begin there? Could we imagine a Palestine and an Israel seeing each other as images of one another, of God, rather than as enemies to be brutalized and killed?
I pray and have hope that it will be Jewish and Muslim and Christian women, the mothers who will say enough.
Peace seems to me so much more challenging and difficult than war.
We have to work hard to create a different outcome, one that can look ahead not forgetting the violence, destruction, and devastation but one that recognizes that nothing changes until we change.
By now it is getting late. I have prayed for all of you, most by name.
And my prayer refrain is always to pray for the peace which passes all understanding, a kingdom peace that while only God can give, is ours to claim and manifest.
The kingdom is here and it is now. Peace is ours to build.
The Book of Common Prayer has a prayer for the aged.
Look with mercy, O God our Father, on all whose increasing years bring them weakness, distress, or isolation. Provide for them homes of dignity and peace; give them understanding helpers, and the willingness to accept help; and, as their strength diminishes, increase their faith and their assurance of your love. This we ask in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
A lovely prayer, but providing proper care for aging adults requires more than the power of prayer. It requires work.
It takes the kind of work being done by the staff and trained volunteers at Senior Connections: The Capital Area Agency on Aging, a non-profit organization whose mission is to empower older adults to live with dignity, to choose where they live, to receive proper medical care, to be fed nourishing meals, to spend time socializing with others.
Serving eight localities -- Richmond and seven surrounding counties -- the agency offers 20 unique services providing services for older adults and their caregivers in a variety of ways.
“For example, we provided more than 180,000 meals last year,” said Amy Strite, the agency’s executive director who oversees the day-to-day operation at its headquarters, 1300 Semmes Avenue in South Richmond.
Many services are tailored to help seniors remain in their homes. These services include:
Home-delivered meals.
Help with money-management and paying bills.
In-home personal care services.
Transportation to and from appointments.
Home visits for safety checks and socialization.
“Isolation is a huge problem, so opportunities to socialize is important,” said Amy. “We have Friendship Cafes in 25 neighborhoods, where seniors gather to stay connected.”
In a comment posted on the Richmond Memorial Health Foundation’s website, Amy wrote: “We are, at every age, inherently social and relational creatures. We need to see one another, talk with each other, hold hands, and laugh together. It is necessary for good health and a good life, whether we are six months old or 96 years old, and every age in between.”
This month the agency introduced a 4-year Area Plan listing programs and services to help people age successfully in the coming years, with special emphasis on older adults who have the greatest needs due to poverty, inadequate housing, or who have no family members able or willing to be caregivers.
“Aging is a justice issue,” Amy said. “How do we in our society see and treat older adults? How committed are we on a policy level to seeing that all people are able to age with dignity, to have their basic human needs met? What value do we afford those people in our society who are professional caregivers for older adults and people with disabilities? These are the questions we must ask ourselves and our communities. Too often older adults and those who care for them are forgotten and unseen. We need to change that by becoming informed advocates.”
She added: “Love God. Love neighbor, Love self. This is why I do the work I do, and why I believe it is important for all of us to advocate for a more just world.” – Steve Clark
One of the leading advocates for reforming federal and state laws relating to firearms and domestic violence is St. Mark’s parishioner Lisette Johnson, a survivor of domestic violence who nearly died of gunshot wounds 14 years ago.
In the summer of 2009, Lisette informed her husband, Marshall, she wanted a divorce. He had been verbally abusing her for too long. She could not continue to live that way. When Lisette returned home from church on Sunday, Oct. 4, 2009, they met in the bedroom. She told him again she wanted a divorce.
Marshall retrieved a handgun. From a distance of about 4 feet, he shot her in the chest. Lisette ran of the room and yelled to her children – Natalie, then 12, and Graham, then 9 – to run out of the house and call 911. She escaped the house as he continued to shoot her. Marshall then shot himself. Natalie, who had entered the bedroom looking for Lisette, witnessed her father committing suicide.
Lisette was transported to VCU Medical Center Hospital and immediately taken to surgery. She was bleeding internally and surgeons had trouble finding the source of the bleeding.
“I lost 2.9 liters of blood,” she said. “They didn’t think I would make it through the night. The surgeon later told me they were praying a lot.”
By the grace of God and the surgeon’s skills, she survived. Two bullets remain in her body. One in her liver. One in the breast/chest wall.
After a long recovery period, she dedicated herself to advocating for changes in lax gun laws and to speaking on behalf of victims of domestic violence. Her first appearance on the national scene was in 2014 when then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi invited Lisette to speak at a hearing in Washington. The topic was “Domestic Violence and Guns: An Epidemic for Women and Families.”
“I was also asked to take on an advocacy role to speak for gun violence prevention at the state level,” she said. “Gun violence is a public health issue. It’s a pandemic that has to be addressed.”
Over the years she has become friends with many other victims of intimate partner gun violence. “I have a 44-year-old friend in Texas whose husband shot her in the neck. She’s a quadriplegic and has been since she was 28, raising two toddlers to adults, alone.”
Lisette has been a volunteer at Richmond’s Safe Harbor Shelter and has worked at VCU’s Injury and Violence Prevention and the YWCA, which provides numerous services for domestic violence victims, including emergency shelter.
In a 2014 article in the Chesterfield Observer newspaper, Lisette was quoted as saying that for her tragedy to make any sense, she needed to help other people. “This was my survival technique.”
What can St. Mark’s parishioners do as the issue of gun violence relates to justice and advocacy?
“Vote! Vote! Vote!” she said. “For candidates who will make guns harder to access by those who are in crisis, including those with histories of domestic violence or substance abuse.”
Contacting lawmakers in Washington and Richmond also is important.
“Maybe we should have a training session at St. Mark’s on how to contact and talk to elected officials,” she said.
