Entry 2

It’s mid-week. The threat of a storm looms in the air this morning. There is something peaceful about a thunderstorm. Maybe it’s a natural reaction we have to something so large and powerful…it puts us in our place. We’d all do well to learn this lesson a little better.

Lots of wonderful things are happening at First Covenant Chapel this week. At the top of the list is the spring in Miss Mary’s step. She has recovered so well from her broken hip, thank you, Lord. When I am in my eighties I hope to be so blessed. I am not one to listen to gossip…but, rumors are going around that Miss Mary is so sprite due to the fact that she is in love. Of course Julia Matthews started that rumor. However, my mother always said, “When rumors spread, there is truth somewhere.” She is right.

I caught a glimpse of the news yesterday and it appears that a mother is facing a prison sentence for trying to get her child enrolled in a different school district. I didn’t hear all the details, but I can only imagine. Prison time seems pretty harsh for trying to enroll your child in a different school district, but I suspect the tail started wagging the dog and it became an issue of identity theft. The bottom line is she lied. Business executive are going to prison for fraud…bottom line is they lied. Sylvia keeps me up-to-date on the real life soap opera going on at Salem Regional Medical Center. It appears there are a lot of relationships among the staff and a lot of affairs which in turn makes for a lot of heartache and broken friendships…especially when you find out that your fellow nurse, best friend, and confident is the one sleeping with your husband, who is also a doctor at the hospital…as was the case with one of Sylvia’s scrub nurses. Bottom line…just about everybody was lying in the situation. I would say this all makes a pretty strong case for the ninth commandment.

We’re all guilty. Truth be told, when I shake hands with Dr. Richard Davies, the new chief of staff over at Salem Regional Medical Center, and tell him it’s a pleasure to see him again….I’m lying. Honestly, I really wish he would fall off the face of the earth. And, if he tries to make one more move on Sylvia he is going to catch my fist across his jaw. Oh, please forgive me Lord for such thoughts. But, I guess I’m really lying to Sylvia too when I appear indifferent about my feelings for her. Truthfully, every other thought I have is about her…..

Entry 1

I rose early this morning to drive into Salem. Although the promise of summer is in the air, many of my parishioners are still fighting the winter crud –particularly the elderly ones. I also hope to see Sylvia.

Driving from Wakefield to Salem slightly after dawn is spectacular, especially on clear mornings. Salem is east of Wakefield and as the sun crests over the horizon it appears as a fiery big orange ball that commands attention and dominates existence. I am awestruck by this sight. Not that I haven’t seen it before, but today it stirs different thoughts. I am still desperately grieving over the many deaths this last year, in just my church alone –not to mention elsewhere. It brings me face to face with a God that didn’t intervene. At least not on these occasions, or did He? I don’t know. And everyone looks to me for the answers. Ministers are supposed to know all there is about what God is thinking and doing –another fallacy from a world under great misapprehension. Forgive me Lord for my cynicism.


The beauty of the sun, as it becomes the morning dawn in and of itself, leaves me thinking of how beautiful this world really is? I smile as I reminisce about my trip to Europe after I graduated from college. Some of the places and scenes were so breathtaking. I will never forget the feeling I had when flying over the French Alps. In the expanse of white capped mountains I lost myself. The beauty in this world seems endless, but this morning as I travel the highway into town the vision before me has left me wondering, as beautiful as it is On This Side of Heaven, what must there be in eternity? I found myself smiling…until the blare of a car horn behind me. My thoughts were abruptly shaken back into the part of this world that is not so beautiful –including those people who have no ability to see beyond themselves. The sun became a menace as its color changed to an overbearing brightness which glare blinded every driver on the road. Collectively, we were now a community of people driving by faith, except for the few who feel they own the road –and they cannot see the danger they presented to everyone else –just like Bob Buck. “The Reverend Bob Buck” as he so proudly called himself. Another example of where God didn’t intervene.

First Covenant Chapel is a fine church with fine people. Reverend Bob Buck used them and hurt them. I still wonder what it is that makes a minister turn so far away from his calling. What is it that allows him (or her) to lie and deceive, and all “in the name of God”? As I drove along into the blinding glare I had a vision. St. Peter was standing at the pearly gates. Buck was there and they were chatting. I heard Buck talking –making his case that he had indeed led many people to the Kingdom of God. And then I heard St. Peter say, “Yes, but ten times that number turned away from God because of you.” Lord, should I ever begin to lose sight of my calling, please remove me from the ministry. Buck has left wounds so deep that tears can puddle in them. Now, I am left to clean up the mess. Maybe God did intervene.

Yours, Ben.

Greetings

Greetings from First Covenant Chapel. Here I will post thoughts and inspiration from inside the tiny white clapboard church in the country. I welcome your thoughts. God Bless each of you and remember...."God is in the church, but the church is not God!" --Rev. Ben Montague