QUARANTINE BLOG # 245

November 30, 2020

Today’s sermon “Ready or Not, Here I Come,”is from the Crawfordville Pulpit, preached on the first Sunday of Advent, November 29, 2020.

The blog today features our regularly monthly history recap.  And the updated Quarantine Blog Index is now online.

👉 On November 1, 1512, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, one of Italian artist Michelangelo’s finest works, was exhibited to the public for the first time.  Michelangelo’s epic ceiling frescoes, which took 4 years to complete, feature nine panels devoted to biblical world history.  The most famous of these is The Creation of Adam, a painting in which the arms of God and Adam are stretching toward each other. 

Personal note: If you have the privilege of visiting the Sistine Chapel, you will be required to walk near the outside walls, not stopping except for a quick gaze up.  If you want to observe a particular part of the ceiling, or just take some photographs, you are required to move into the center of the room (and there is a velvet rope barrier separating the two spaces).  Bonnie and I were blessed to be there one Easter weekend, and when the guard asked us to step into the center, I looked up, and I was standing directly under those two outstretched hands.  Powerful moment!

👉 The Hughes Flying Boat – at one time the largest aircraft ever built – was piloted by designer Howard Hughes on its first and only flight on November 2, 1947.  Built with laminated birch and spruce, and nicknamed the “Spruce Goose,” the massive aircraft had a wingspan longer than a football field and was designed to carry more than 700 men to battle.  Following the U.S. entrance into World War II in 1941, the U.S. government commissioned the Hughes Aircraft Company to build a large flying boat capable of carrying men and materials over long distances.  Development of the Spruce Goose took so long that the war had ended by the time of its completion.

👉 One World Trade Center officially opened on November 3, 2014. The new tower, along with the rest of the World Trade Center complex, replaced the Twin Towers and surrounding complex, which were destroyed by terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

👉 On November 4, 1922, British archaeologist Howard Carter and his workmen discover a step leading to the tomb of King Tutankhamen in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings.  22 days later Carter and fellow archaeologist Lord Carnarvon entered the interior chambers of the tomb, finding them miraculously intact.  The most splendid find was a stone sarcophagus containing three coffins nested within each other. Inside the final coffin, which was made out of solid gold, was the mummy of the boy-king Tutankhamen, preserved for more than 3,000 years.

👉 Led by Bolshevik Party leader Vladimir Lenin, revolutionaries launch a coup d’état against Russia’s Provisional Government on November 6, 1917.  The Bolsheviks and their allies occupied strategic locations in the Russian capital of Petrograd (now St. Petersburg) and within two days had formed a new government with Lenin as its head.  Bolshevik Russia, later renamed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), was the world’s first Marxist state.

👉 On November 7, 1944, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected – 432 electoral votes to 99 for Thomas Dewey – to an unprecedented fourth term in office.  The 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified on February 27, 1951, insures that FDR will be the only president to serve  more than two elected terms.  The amendment prohibits anyone who has been elected president twice from being elected again.  Under the amendment, someone who fills an unexpired presidential term lasting more than two years is also prohibited from being elected president more than once.

👉 On November 10, 1969, “Sesame Street” made its broadcast debut.  “Sesame Street,” with its memorable theme song (“Can you tell me how to get/How to get to Sesame Street”), went on to become the most widely viewed children’s program in the world.  It has aired in more than 120 countries.

👉 Moby-Dick is now considered a great classic of American literature and contains one of the most famous opening lines in fiction: “Call me Ishmael.”  Initially, the book about Captain Ahab and his quest to catch a giant white whale was a flop when it was released on November 14, 1851.  Melville died in 1891, largely forgotten by the literary world.  By the 1920s, scholars had rediscovered his work, particularly Moby-Dick, which would eventually become a staple of high school reading lists across the United States.

👉 Microsoft released the Xbox gaming console on November 15, 2001, dramatically influencing the history of consumer entertainment technology.  Microsoft CEO Bill Gates decided to venture into the video game market because he feared that gaming consoles would soon compete with personal computers.  At the time, Japanese companies Sony and Nintendo dominated the field, and no American company had challenged them since Atari ceased selling its Jaguar console in 1996.  Microsoft is said to have lost $4 billion on the initial Xbox, but its successors have sold over a hundred million units.

👉 On November 18, 1978, Peoples Temple founder Jim Jones lead  hundreds of his followers in a mass murder-suicide at their agricultural commune in the South American nation of Guyana.  Started in 1974, Jonestown never became the utopia that was promised.  Charges of cruelty and virtual slavery began to leak out and Congressman Leo Ryan came to investigate.  Jones, addicted to drugs and increasingly paranoid, ordered Ryan and his party murdered, then directed his followers to commit suicide.  Many of Jones’ followers willingly ingested a poison-laced punch while others were forced to do so at gunpoint.  The final death toll at Jonestown that day was 909; a third of those who perished were children. 

👉 On November 19, 1863, at the dedication of a military cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, during the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln delivered  one of the most memorable speeches in American history.  Charged by Pennsylvania’s governor, Andrew Curtin, to care for the Gettysburg dead, an attorney named David Wills bought 17 acres of pasture to turn into a cemetery for the more than 7,500 who fell in battle.  Lincoln’s address lasted just three minutes.  In fewer than 275 words, Lincoln brilliantly and movingly reminded a war-weary public why the Union had to fight, and win, the Civil War. 

👉 On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, by British naturalist Charles Darwin, was published on November 24, 1859.  Darwin’s theory argued that organisms gradually evolve through a process he called “natural selection.”  Darwin acquired most of the evidence for his theory during a five-year surveying expedition aboard the HMS Beagle in the 1830s.  

👉 “The Mousetrap,” a murder-mystery written by the novelist and playwright Agatha Christie, opened at the Ambassadors Theatre in London on November 25, 1952.  The drama is played out at “Monkswell Manor,” whose hosts and guests are snowed in among radio reports of a murderer on the loose.  A detective shows up on skis with the terrifying news that the murderer, and probably the next victim, are likely both among their number.  At every curtain call, the individual who has been revealed as the murderer steps forward and tells the audience that they are “partners in crime” and should “keep the secret of the mystery locked in their heart.”  Christie’s whodunit would go on to become the longest continuously running play in history, running continuously until March 16, 2020, when the stage performances had to be discontinued due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

👉 On November 26, 1942, Casablanca, – my personal vote for best motion picture of all time – a World War II-era drama starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, premiered in New York City.  Bogart played Rick Blaine, the owner of a swanky North African nightclub, who is reunited with the beautiful, enigmatic Ilsa Lund (Bergman), the woman who loved and left him. Casablanca was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Actor for Bogart.  It took home three Oscars, for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.  The film featured a number of now-iconic quotes, including Rick’s line to Ilsa: “Here’s looking at you, kid,” as well as “Round up the usual suspects,” “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship” and “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.”  And in one of the best scenes from a great movie, Sam (Dooley Wilson) plays and sings, “As Time Goes By.”

👉 The first Monday of Advent.

Outrageous God

“For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating; for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight. I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people; no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress” (Isaiah 65:17-19).

God speaks: “New heaven, new earth, new Jerusalem.” Heaven and earth will rejoice because in that new world wrought by God, there will be no more the sound of weeping, no more homeless folks to moan, no more broken folk to whimper, no more terrorized folk to cry out.

Heaven and earth will rejoice, because in that new world wrought by God there will be no more infant mortality, no more infants who live but a few days, and no more old people who will die too young or live too feebly or continue as a shell while the life is gone.

Heaven and earth will rejoice, because when the newness comes, every person will live safely under a vine and fig tree, safe, unafraid, at peace, with no more destructive threats or competitive anxieties.

Heaven and earth will rejoice, because in that new world wrought by God, God will be like a mother who hears and answers in the night, knowing before we call who is needed and what is needed. And we shall never be left alone again.

Isaiah’s poem is outrageous. The new world of God is beyond our capacity and even beyond our imagination. It does not seem possible. In Advent, however, we receive the power of God that lies beyond us. This power is the antidote to our fatigue and cynicism. It is the gospel resolution to our spent self-sufficiency, when we are at the edge of our coping. It is the good news that will overmatch our cynicism that imagines there is no new thing that can enter our world.

Outrageous God, outflank our weary Christmas with the Advent miracle of a power that lies beyond us. May we receive this power, this new vision, which would set us free to live boldly into your dream for the world. Amen.

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QUARANTINE BLOG # 244

November 29, 2020

Today is the first Sunday of Advent. What is Advent? We recognize that Advent serves as an anticipation of Christ’s birth in the season leading up to Christmas. But that’s only part of the story.

The word “Advent” is derived from the Latin word adventus, meaning “coming.” The season of Advent lasts for four Sundays leading up to Christmas.

Advent symbolizes the present situation of the church in these “last days”, as God’s people wait for the return of Christ in glory to consummate his eternal kingdom. The church is in a similar situation to Israel at the end of the Old Testament: in exile, waiting and hoping in prayerful expectation for the coming of the Messiah. 

Israel looked back to God’s past gracious actions on their behalf in leading them out of Egypt in the Exodus, and on this basis, they called for God once again to act for them. 

In the same way, the church, during Advent, looks back upon Christ’s coming in celebration while at the same time looking forward in eager anticipation to the coming of Christ’s kingdom when he returns for his people. 

In this light, the Advent hymn “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” perfectly represents the church’s cry during the Advent season.

Newness Is on Its Way

Throughout this Advent Season, the meditations which close each day’s blog will be from “Celebrating Abundance,” by Walter Brueggemann.

“As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, ‘I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.’”

~ Luke 3:15-16

John the Baptizer bursts upon the Gospel of Luke. That is because it is Advent time. It is not yet time for Jesus. This is still the time for getting ready. Getting ready time is not mainly about busy activity, entertaining, and fatigue. Getting ready time is mainly abrasive . . . asking, thinking, pondering, and redeciding.

“He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (v. 16). Being baptized with God’s Holy Spirit means we may be visited by a spirit of openness, generosity, energy, that “the force” may come over us, carry us to do obedient things we have not yet done, kingdom things we did not think we had in us, neighbor things from which we cringe. The whole tenor of Advent is that God may act in us, through us, beyond us, more than we imagined, because newness is on its way among us.

John is not the newness. He prepares us for the newness. And his word is that if we want to be immersed in the life-giving power of God, then we must do as John says: Share your coat and shoes and goods ... Manage money in neighborly ways ... Quit being the heavy in social transactions.

Who would have thought such concrete acts are the tactic whereby God’s newness will yet come! Advent is not the kind of “preparation” that involves shopping and parties and cards. Those things disguise the true cravings of our weary souls. Advent is preparation for the demands of newness that will break the tired patterns of fear in our lives.

It is no wonder that in the very next verses of Luke 3, King Herod arrested John, imprisoned him, and tried to silence him. For what John says was dangerous for business as usual. Herod and his company preferred to imagine that their established credentials were enough, with Abraham as their father. And anyway, they did not want newness, so they tried to stop the dangerous newness before it ever intruded into their lives.

What we know, that Herod didn’t know and never even suspected, is that John’s Advent invitation cannot be silenced or arrested. It continues to invite. And sometimes we let it come among us and transform us.

Living God, visit us in this season with your Holy Spirit that we may get carried away to do obedient things we have not yet done, kingdom things we did not think we had in us, neighbor things from which we cringe. May you act in us, through us, beyond us, more than we imagine, because newness is on its way among us. Amen.

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Quarantine Blog # 243

November 28, 2020

Part 3

Escape!

In mid-July 1938, Maria Altmann awoke to loud knocking. She pulled on a dress and opened the door to Gestapo officers. The men presented a gaunt, sunburnt man, his head fuzzy with short stubble. It was a fragile-looking Fritz, who bore no resemblance to the suave dandy who had won her heart. But he was alive.

Maria and Fritz before Auschwitz

Bernhard Altmann, Fritz’s brother, finally got them a message: “I have found a way for you to leave. You must do exactly what I say, and tell no one. Wait until you hear from me.”

Maria got word that the family’s jeweler needed to see her. He gave her two diamond earrings that matched Adele’s necklace. Maria had been forced to give the necklace to Landau. 

The necklace in Adele's portrait

Replica of Adele's necklace

“I saved these for you. They could help you.” Meaning that they could be used as a bribe.

Maria asked Landau for permission to leave the house with Fritz for a doctor’s appointment. They took a city train, getting off at different stations to see if anyone was following. No one seemed to be. 

Another day, Maria told the guard they were going to the dentist. They walked a few blocks, hailed a cab, and asked to go to the airport. Maria had Adele’s diamond earrings in her brassiere. A Catholic woman Maria knew had purchased tickets for a flight to Cologne.

From Cologne they boarded a train to the German city of Aachen. There they gave a cabdriver an address of a safe house on the border, but the driver could not find it.

Maria and Fritz began walking, unsure of where they were going, when Maria saw a young priest. “Ah yes, a lot of my people go to him,” the priest said, when they showed him the address. “I’ll take you.”

The priest stopped at the house of a farmer, Jan Honnef. His farmland ran along the border. Jan, Maria and Fritz waited for the shift change at the border post which would allow a several-minute lull in vigilance. Across the border, they were taken to a little hotel in Maastricht.

At dawn, Maria and Fritz ran to catch the train to Amsterdam. In the Dutch capital, Bernhard had a private plane waiting, with champagne and caviar. At Liverpool, Bernhard’s contact in Immigration welcomed them warmly. 1300 miles, and they had made it.

Stealing Beauty

On January 28,1939, a group of Austrian art curators gathered at Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer’s Elisabethstrasse palace to divide up Ferdinand and Adele’s art. They ignored the golden portrait of Adele. The Fuhrer wanted paintings that celebrated German values, not portraits of decadent Jewish society women.

The fate of the Gustav Klimt’s painting of Adele was left to Erich Fuhrer, a hack lawyer with a pedigree to match his serendipitous name. Fuhrer had the lucrative concession for managing the state theft of property of Jewish families. 

On September 30, 1941, he secured for the Belvedere Palace the spectacular gold portrait of Adele.

The Belvedere art historians knew, of course, that Adele Bloch-Bauer was Jewish, but the painting could be reinvented. The Belvedere announced the acquisition of an “awe-inspiring portrait of a woman covered with a shimmering crust of gold.” The gold portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer now had a new German title: “Lady in Gold.”

The Nero Decree

In the wee hours of April 29, 1945, Adolf Hitler committed suicide. Across Nazi Germany, a scorched-earth farewell was taking place. Hitler had issued his “Demolitions on Reich Territory” order in March. Its nickname, the “Nero Decree,” revealed its intent – destroy everything that would help the invading Allies. Including the art work.

In the Austrian village of Alt Aussee a salt mine cradled a repository of stolen European art once destined for Hitler’s planned Fuhrermuseum in Linz. The mine held more than 6,577 paintings, from Van Eyck’s Ghent Altarpiece to Vermeer’s The Artist in His Studio and a Michelangelo sculpture, Bruges Madonna.

Van Eyck’s Ghent Altarpiece

Vermeer’s The Artist in His Studio

Michelangelo’s  Bruges Madonna

Bruges Madonna recovered at Alt Aussee

As American troops approached, August Eigruber, the Nazi governor who had ruled the region like a king, feverishly called for the contents of Alt Aussee to be destroyed. 500 pound bombs were put in place. 

The day before Allied forces arrived, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, the SS intelligence chief, ordered the bombs removed. On May 5, the mines were safely sealed with explosives to protect the art from the Nero Decree.

When U.S. soldiers finally entered the mine, they found a seemingly endless supply of paintings and statues, packed deep into the mountain passage. 

Klimt’s gold portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer made it through the war. Her family and friends had been insulted, murdered, driven to suicide. Her name had been erased. Now Adele joined Europe’s survivors.

Ferdinand, Maria’s uncle, survived the war, but his world had been betrayed. A former friend, Karl Renner, who lead the postwar government, declared that “restitution of property stolen from Jews” should go “not to individual victims, but to a collective restitution fund ... to prevent a massive, sudden flow of returning exiles.”

The war was over. But the people and the life that Ferdinand had treasured were gone, leaving him, at 82, an old man alone in a hotel room. On October 22, 1945, Ferdinand signed his final will and testament. On November 13, a hotel maid came in to make up the room and discovered Ferdinand’s body.

Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer

Historical Amnesia

It was difficult for the Bloch-Bauers to recover the remnants of their lives after the war. Officials who had played roles in the art theft during the war were now in the position to deny families their paintings.

In 1965, Walter Frodl, a curator for Hitler’s museum in Linz, was named president of Austria’s Federal Monument Office. He was now positioned to block the return of art he had helped steal.

Then a new generation of Austrians emerged who did not participate in the denial and deceit. One of these was Hubertus Czernin, a young crusading journalist.

Hubertus Czernin

Many buyers claimed they had no idea the paintings might be Nazi loot. In Europe  purchasers could say they bought the painting “in good faith.” In the United States, buyers were under pressure to prove they had diligently researched the paintings’ wartime provenance.

Austrian Culture Minister Elisabeth Gehrer said the government would examine the provenance of art works in museums. Hubertus decided to take a look for himself. His first article appeared in February 1998, and it was damning. One of the world’s most recognizable paintings, the gold portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, did not appear to have been “donated” at all. It had been stolen from her husband. Austria had concealed the evidence and refused to return stolen art.

A new art restitution law was introduced to the Parliament. State-held art that had been obtained under duress was to be returned.

Next week: The Conclusion.

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QUARANTINE BLOG # 242

November 27, 2020

As promised earlier, here is the story of the most successful pirate of all time.  She – yes, she – sailed the South China Seas in the early 19th century.  If you merge all ships and vessels of all the pirate captains about whom we’ve talked, then gather all pirates and sailors they had under their commands, you couldn’t have nearly enough power to beat mighty fleet of female captain, Cheng I Sao.

Cheng I Sao, a prostitute, married a Chinese pirate captain on the condition that she would share equally in his power and would be given the opportunity to help him secure more wealth. For six years, they grew their piracy business, and when he died, Cheng I Sao took the reins.

Cheng I Sao had her own system of pirate law, and her most famous laws applied to the taking of female prisoners. Ugly women were returned to shore, free of charge. Attractive captives were auctioned off to the crew, unless a pirate personally purchased the captive, in which case they were considered married. If that pirate cheated on his new bride, Cheng I Sao had him killed.

In the height of her power, she controlled more than 1,500 ships and had manpower of 80,000 sailors which was larger than almost any navy at the time. She was virtually unchallenged throughout the coast of the South China Sea.  Finally, in 1810, the Chinese government offered her universal amnesty in exchange for peace.

The pirate queen negotiated a killer deal. Fewer than 400 of her men received any punishment, and a mere 126 were executed. The remaining pirates got to keep their booty and were offered military jobs.

As for Cheng I Sao, she retired with her loot and her new husband, her former right-hand man, Chang Pao, and opened a gambling house. She died peacefully in 1844, a 69-year-old grandmother.

👉  November is Native American Heritage Month, established to honor and recognize Native Americans and to celebrate both their cultural heritage and integral importance to our nation. Today is Native American Heritage Day.  President George W. Bush signed into law legislation on October 8, 2008, after it passed both houses of Congress unanimously.  The bill, however, was only formally supported by 184 out of 567 federally recognized tribes, and some Native American leaders protest the day of recognition being on the major shopping day “Black Friday.”

👉  With all of the furor over recounts, you may have missed another vote.  The residents of Key West approved three proposals that would effectively ban large cruise ships from Key West.  The new laws limit persons disembarking from cruise ships to 1,500 per day, prohibits cruise ships with a capacity of 1,300 or more persons from even docking, and prioritizes cruise lines with the best environmental and health records – if any fit the new, rigid standards.  Quick research reveals that of the major cruise lines, only the Pacific Princess, with a capacity of 670 passengers, can sail into Key West.  I guess that will limit souvenir sales and tours to places where Ernest Hemingway drank.

Pacific Princess sailing past Grand Princess

👉  Here is one from our “Uh, Let’s Think This Through Department.” Mason Kinley is attending school in-person this year for the first time.  His mother Brittany filled out the forms for school photos.  There was an option for parents to have their child’s name printed on the pictures, but  Brittany wasn’t interested.  The form wouldn’t let her leave that section of the form blank, so she wrote: I DON’T WANT THIS.  The result?  They received 30 copies of Mason’s adorable school photo with the words “I DON’T WANT THIS” printed at the bottom of each one, in all caps.

👉  I have always liked impressionists – people with the talent to mimic other people’s voices.  Rich Little is tops.  But while doing some old fashioned goofing off one recent morning I stumbled on some YouTube collection of people who had tried out for one of those Somebody’s Got Talent TV Shows.  I edited out this 1 minute 46 second clip of Greg Morton doing Star Wars.  Enjoy!

👉  WHAT THEY SEE

Doug Nichols Bothel was a missionary serving with Operation Mobilization in India.  He contracted tuberculosis which forced him into a sanitarium for several months.  He did not yet speak the language, but he tried to give Christian literature written in their language to the patients, doctors, and nurses.  Everyone politely refused.

The first few nights Doug woke around 2:00 a.m. coughing.  During one of those morning coughing spells, he noticed one of the older and sicker patients across the aisle trying to get out of bed.  The old man sat up on the edge of the bed and tried to stand, but in weakness fell back into bed, exhausted, and crying softly.

The next morning it was apparent what the man had been trying to do.  He had been trying to get up and walk to the bathroom.  The stench in the ward was awful.

Other patients yelled apparent insults at the man.  Angry nurses moved him roughly from side to side as they cleaned up the mess.  One nurse even slapped him.  The old man curled into a ball and wept. 

The next night Doug again woke up coughing.  He noticed the same old man across the aisle sit up and again try to stand.  Like the night before, he fell back whimpering. Doug did not want to awaken in the morning to the aroma of soiled sheets, so he got out of bed and went over to the old man, smiled, put his arms under the man, and carried him to the facilities – which were nothing more than a hole in the floor.

He stood behind the man with his arms under the old fellow’s armpits as he took care of himself.  After he finished, he picked him up, and carried him back to his bed.  Before the old man sank into his bed, he kissed Doug on the cheek, smiled, and said something the missionary couldn’t understand.

The next morning another patient woke the missionary and handed him a steaming cup of tea.  He motioned with his hands that he wanted a tract.

As the sun rose, other patients approached and indicated they also wanted the booklets Doug had tried to distribute before.  Throughout the day nurses, interns, and doctors asked for literature.

Weeks later an evangelist who spoke the language visited the sanitarium and discovered that several inmates and workers had put their trust in Christ as Savior as a result of reading the little booklets.  Those people were not reached by the ability to speak their language, or a persuasive talk.  Doug simply took a trip to the bathroom.

Telling other people about Jesus is not all that hard.  It just takes living like Christ in front of them.

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QUARANTINE BLOG # 241

November 26, 2020

On Thanksgiving Day, here is a two-Kleenex feel good moment.  The clip is 6 years old, but that doesn’t lessen the impact.  Enjoy “Baseball Surprise”.

👉  The first official annual Thanksgiving in Canada was celebrated on November 6, 1879, though Indigenous peoples in Canada have a history of celebrating the fall harvest that predates the arrival of European settlers.  Sir Martin Frobisher  and his crew, while searching for the Northwest Passage, are credited as the first Europeans to celebrate a Thanksgiving ceremony in North America, in 1578.  They were followed by the inhabitants of New France under Samuel de Champlain in 1606.  The celebration featuring the uniquely North American turkey, squash and pumpkin was introduced to Nova Scotia in the 1750s and became common across Canada by the 1870s.  On January 31, 1957 Canada’s Parliament proclaimed the observance of the second Monday in October as “a day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed.”  

👉  When I was a teenager, I remember our pastor at Loch Lynn Evangelical United Brethren Church, Rev. Oscar Hull, saying, “I know I see a Communist under every bush, and I try hard to keep from turning leaves over.”

Well, Brother Oscar, in 2020, it’s a racist under every bush that we see.

This time it’s Charles Schulz’s A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving that has caused the modern day Paul Reveres (sorry Paul) to rise up and shout, “The racists are coming!  The racists are coming!”

Franklin Armstrong, the only Black character, is sitting by himself on one side of a Thanksgiving table, while the other kids sit together on the other side, which raises the of cry “racism.”

Darnell Hunt, dean of social sciences and professor of sociology and African American studies at UCLA, says, “Having Franklin on this long side by himself, you could interpret it that no one wanted to sit next to him.”

Franklin first appeared in the Peanuts comic strip on July 31, 1968. A retired teacher named Harriet Glickman asked Schulz to add a Black character to the strip that year. Schulz said he and other cartoonists were afraid it would look like they were patronizing their Black friends.  One Black leader, Kenneth Kelly, suggested that a Black character be introduced “in a casual day-to-day scene” – to suggest racial friendship.

Franklin joined the Peanuts comic strip a few months later. But it wasn’t without a fight: When the cartoon’s publisher, United Feature Syndicate, questioned adding a Black character, Schulz responded, “Either you run it the way I drew it, or I quit.”

Commenting on the current storm, Luis Vazquez said, “Franklin has the whole side of the table to himself on a lounge chair, while the rest of the crew are all cramped together on some butt-hard wooden chairs.  My boy got the W not the L.”

Sadiah Ani said, “The king usually sits alone from servants.  No more talk.”

👉  THOUGHTS ON THANKSGIVING

A Sunday school teacher asked the class what they were thankful for. One little boy said, “I’m thankful I wear glasses.” This struck the teacher as odd because most boys didn’t care for wearing glasses so she asked, “Now why is that?” The boy answered, “Because it keeps the older boys from fighting with me and it keeps the girls from kissing me.” What a great attitude to have. To see all things as a benefit instead of a curse, especially when so many blessings are forgotten or taken for granted.

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness...you are more blessed than the six million who will not survive this week.

If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation...you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.

If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death...you are more blessed than three billion people in the world.

If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead, and a place to sleep...you are richer than 75% of this world.

If you have money in the bank, some in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace...you are among the top 8% of the world’s most wealthy citizens.

Thankful people don’t have to have everything going their way to rejoice. Thankful people can remember how God has provided and they even see his comforting hand in their day of trouble.

Paul wrote his letter to the church at Philippi while he was in jail. He had been beaten, abandoned by his friends, lost contact with his churches, and in the midst of those circumstances he penned the Epistle of Joy. He writes to “rejoice in the Lord” and to be “thankful.” Thankful people refuse to allow today’s troubles to blind them to yesterday’s blessings. Come ye thankful people come.

“Come, Ye Thankful People, Come” is a hymn traditionally sung at this season.  Here is a version from Brookwood Church.  It transitions into “Let Everything That Hath Breath.”  I wish the clip had gone longer to get the entire praise chorus.  Enjoy.

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QUARANTINE BLOG # 240

November 25, 2020

In Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan, Khan Noonien Singh told James T. Kirk, “Revenge is a dish that is best served cold.  It is very cold in space.”  In that spirit, here are a trio of very good payback moments:

If you’re struggling to find parking in a crowded lot, there’s nothing more annoying than a fellow driver who decides to take up two spaces.  While there’s often little you can do to remedy the situation, this person decided to send a clear message about their fellow driver’s poor parking job.  When the owner of this vehicle returns to their car, they’ll have trouble driving away with a shopping cart zip-tied to their door handle. That will teach them to park over the line and take up two spots.

After a couple got into an argument, the wife was faced with the problem of packing her husband’s lunch the next day. She did pack him a sandwich, but it wasn’t quite the sandwich he was hoping for. When he bit into the bread, he quickly realized that she failed to take the plastic wrapper off of the cheese. Not only that, but she took the time to let him know she wasn’t at all sorry for that. What a petty, genius way to win a fight.

This woman got revenge in more ways than one. After finding out her boyfriend was cheating on her, she uninvited him from the football game they were supposed to attend together. After she deprived him of the experience of seeing his favorite team on the field, she also decided to publicly shame him for all the world to see. You go, girl!

👉  At the request of a reader, I started a series of stories about pirates from my cruise talk series “The Golden Age of Sail.”  The most successful pirate from the Golden Age was Black Bart Roberts, born in Wales, around 1682, and christened John Roberts.

Eventually Black Bart rose to the rank of captain, and consolidated his position by proposing a list of articles that all crew members had to agree to follow. Roberts’s Rules of Order were notable in what they did not allow. No gambling was permitted onboard. Swearing was forbidden. Lights out was eight o’clock in the evening. Any man found to have brought a woman onboard would be executed. Sunday was to be observed as the Sabbath.

Like all pirates, Roberts needed a distinctive flag above his ship, the Royal Fortune. His flag displayed the figures of himself and death holding an hourglass between them as a warning that time was running out for his future victims.

For a time, Roberts took to North America. From Nova Scotia to New Jersey, Roberts raided towns and captured ships – over 200 vessels. No other known captain approached this number of captures in such a short period of time.

The beginning of the end for Black Bart began when British Commodore Chaloner Ogle, was given an ultimatum by the Admiralty – put an end to Black Bart Roberts.

Four days before the fateful day, Roberts took an English ship, and invited the ship’s commander, Captain Willard Hill, and his men to join the pirates on the beach, sharing rum and wine. 

On February 10, 1722, the hung-over pirates spotted a sail. Roberts led his crew into battle, but unfortunately the ship, HMS Swallow, was Ogle’s ship. Survivors said that Black Bart was killed early in the battle, and his body was heaved overboard to prevent its being taken by the British.

But Roberts may never have been on board. There is evidence that he struck a deal with Captain Hill to take him onboard his ship disguised as a common sailor. Whatever the case, Bartholomew Roberts was never heard from again.

Black Bart Roberts’ legacy is unquestionable. In just three years, he captured 450 ships, the largest number of captures by any pirate of his era. His estimated haul of treasure would be worth one billion dollars today. With the end of Bartholomew Roberts’s career, the Golden Age of Piracy came to an end. All of the great pirates were gone.

Next time, “The Most Successful Pirate of All-Time” (not from Puerto Rico).

👉  Before we close, here are a couple of songs you won’t find on any jukebox.  I learned them many years ago, one of the at Camp Potomac, the Boy Scout camp for Potomac District of the BSA (back before the bankruptcy and all of the law suits – and shame on the offenders!).

The first of these is, “Do Your Ears Hang Low?” and the accompanying video definitely does not feature a Boy Scout.

The second is definitely a Scout campfire song, “Pink Pajamas”.  While searching for a musical version for this blog, I learned there is a second verse (not the same as the first): “I wake up in the morning with the sheets above my head.  My little tootsie wootsies are a-stickin’ out of bed.  And three times out of four times I wind up on the floor.  So I’m not drinking Coke before bed anymore!”

👉  Today’s close is from Bill Bright.

The story is told of a man who traveled to a certain city on one cold morning. As he arrived at his hotel, he noticed that everyone there was barefooted, including all the clerks and guests. In the coffee shop, he noticed a well-dressed fellow at a nearby table and asked, “Why aren’t you wearing shoes? Don’t you know about shoes?”

“Of course, I know about shoes,” the patron replied.

“Then why don’t you wear them?” the visitor asked.

“Ah, that is the question,” the patron returned. “Why don’t I wear shoes?”

After breakfast, the visitor walked out of the hotel and into the snow. Again, every person he saw was barefooted. Curious, he asked a passerby, “Why doesn’t anyone here wear shoes? Don’t you know that they protect the feet from the cold?”

The passerby said, “Believe me, we all know about shoes. See that building? It’s a shoe factory. We are so proud of the plant that we gather there every week to hear the man in charge tell us how wonderful shoes are.”

“Then why don’t you wear shoes?” the visitor persisted.

“Ah, that is the question,” the passerby replied. “Why don’t we wear shoes?”

When it comes to prayer, many Christians are like the strange people in that city.  They know about prayer.  They believe in prayer.  They know how wonderful it is and what a blessing it can be.  They frequently gather at the church to hear sermons about how wonderful prayer is.  But if you ask them why they don’t pray more, they would say, “Ah, that is the question.  Why don’t I pray more?”

Prayer is an indescribable privilege.  As you know, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to speak with the mayor of your city, the governor of your state, congressmen or President.  What is amazing is that you can speak with the all-powerful, all-wise and all-loving Creator, God and Savior anytime, day or night, 24 hours a day – no appointment needed!

In my study of God’s Word and in my travels throughout the world, I have become absolutely convinced that wherever people really pray according to biblical principles, God works in their lives and through them in the lives of others in a special way.  

Let us be praying Christians and not like those people without shoes!

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