QUARANTINE BLOG # 616

December 6, 2021

Today’s sermon from the Crawfordville Pulpit is an Advent message, “Hope: True Light in a Time of Darkness”  The Bible reading is Matthew 24:36-44.

👉  Matt sent me this one: To all parents when they are asked, “Is Santa real?”

Son: “Dad, I think I’m old enough now. Is there a Santa Claus?”

Dad: “Ok, I agree that your old enough. But before I tell you, I have a question for you.  You see, the ‘truth’ is a dangerous gift.  Once you know something, you can’t unknow it.  Once you know the truth about Santa Claus, you will never again understand and relate to him as you do now.  So my question is: Are you sure you want to know?”

Brief pause ... Son: “Yes, I want to know” 

Dad: “Ok, I’ll tell you: Yes there is a Santa Claus” 

Son: “Really?” 

Dad: “Yes, really, but he’s not an old man with a beard in a red suit.  That’s just what we tell kids.  You see, kids are too young to understand the true nature of Santa Claus, so we explain it to them in a way that they can understand.  The truth about Santa Claus is that he’s not a person at all; he’s an idea.  Think of all those presents Santa gave you over the years.  I actually bought those myself.  I watched you open them.  And did it bother me that you didn’t thank me?  Of course not!  In fact it gave me great pleasure.  You see, Santa Claus is THE IDEA OF GIVING FOR THE SAKE OF GIVING, without thought of thanks or acknowledgment.  

“When I saw that woman collapse on the subway last week and called for help, I knew that she’d never know that it was me that summoned the ambulance.  I was being Santa Claus when I did that.” 

Son: “Oh.” 

Dad: “So now that you know, you’re part of it.  You have to be Santa Claus too now.  That means you can never tell a young kid the secret, and you have to help us select Santa presents for them, and most important, you have to look for opportunities to help people.  Got it?”

Help each other this Christmas.  And be kind!

👉  In QB 613 I told you about the migrating crabs in Australia.  The original piece was shared with me by Bonnie, and when she read the post, she reminded me of a great photograph which I left out.  The picture below shows a bridge which has been built over the highway so that the crabs can cross without being squashed, and so that they pose no threat to motorists.  Incredible.

👉   A request for Santa:

👉   Senior t-shirts:

👉  In honor of the Steelers’ win yesterday over Baltimore, here are two pieces from our Black and Gold departments.  They have nothing to do with football, but can you imagine you are the head coach, your team just scored a touchdown with 12 seconds left in the game to bring the score to 20-19.  You take the chip shot, kick the extra point, go into overtime and take your chances.  But because you have big head and you’d really like to stick your finger in the eye of your division rival, you go for 2 points and the win.  Your receiver drops the ball.  You lose.  Good guys win!

👉  Speaking of football, here are three more team nicknames revealed.

The Buffalo Bills nickname was suggested as part of a fan contest in 1947 to rename Buffalo’s All-America Football Conference team, which was originally known as the Bisons. The Bills nickname referenced frontiersman Buffalo Bill Cody and was selected over Bullets, Nickels, and Blue Devils.

The Carolina Panthers team president Mark Richardson, the son of team owner Jerry Richardson, chose the Panthers nickname because “it’s a name our family thought signifies what we thought a team should be – powerful, sleek and strong.”

In 1921, the Decatur Staleys, a charter member of the American Professional Football Association, moved to Chicago and kept their nickname, a nod to the team’s sponsor, the Staley Starch Company. When star player George Halas purchased the team the following year, he decided to change the nickname. Chicago played its home games at Wrigley Field, home of baseball’s Cubs, and Halas opted to stick with the ursine theme, hence the Chicago Bears.

👉  Until Isaac Watts came along, most of the singing in British churches was from the Psalms of David.  As a young man in Southampton, Isaac had become dissatisfied with the quality of singing, and he keenly felt the limitations of being able to only sing these psalms.  So he “invented” the English hymn.

He did not, however, neglect the Psalms.  In 1719, he published a unique hymnal – one in which he had translated, interpreted, and paraphrased the Old Testament Psalms through the eyes of New Testament faith.  He called it simply The Psalm of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament.  Taking various psalms, he studied them from the perspective of Jesus and the New Testament, and then formed them into verses for singing.

“I have rather expressed myself as I may suppose David would have done if he lived in the days of Christianity,” Watts explained.

“Joy to the World!” is Isaac Watts’s interpretation of Psalm 98, which says, “Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth.”  As he read Psalm 98, Isaac pondered the real reason for shouting joyfully to the Lord – the Messiah has come to redeem us.  The result was a timeless carol that has brightened our Christmases for nearly three hundred years.

Enjoy Celtic Woman singing “Joy to the World.”

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QUARANTINE BLOG # 615

December 5, 2021

Today’s Second Sunday of Advent meditation, “Salvation for All,” (from Isaiah 11:1-10 and Romans 15:4-13) is adapted from The Word in the Wind, by Bruce L. Taylor.

A news story a while ago focused on the increasing fragmentation of public opinion in California, and how it was becoming virtually impossible for the state legislature to govern when there was no political consensus on any major issue. We need to hear diverse opinions. We need to test different approaches. But today we have crossed over into the dangerous territory where there is no consensus about the way we debate. Individuals and factions have shown their willingness to wreck society at large and even our churches over any single issue.

Paul wrote his great letter to the Romans at the height of his career. A Jew, Paul had long since adopted as his particular ministry a mission to the Gentiles – to non-Jews, people who did not live according to the law of Moses. Most Jews, on the other hand, could scarcely conceive of their God being interested in people from any other nation. 

Some Christian leaders had thought it an absolute scandal that Paul should mount a mission to the Gentiles, and Paul frequently ran afoul of Jews living in the cities of Europe and Asia Minor in which he tried to establish churches. For their part, the new Christians at Rome tended to disregard the authority of the Old Testament altogether, as something that did not concern them. What had they to do with Israel’s holy book, and what did it have to do with them? 

So Paul wrote that the scriptures – what we know as the Old Testament – were written of old for instruction today, to provide hope for both Jew and Gentile, so that together we all might recognize Jesus Christ as Lord, who confirmed and fulfilled the promises given to the Jewish patriarchs, and who showed God’s mercy even upon those who were not descended from Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. “May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 15:5-6), wrote Paul. “Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God” (Romans 15:7).

The laying aside of divisions, the putting to rest of hostility, the coming of peace and unity to all creation, was an ancient dream. Based on their understanding of God, the prophets could imagine a world in which the enemies that they observed in their time would be at peace; not only would they not be fighting with each other, but they would respect one another, and look out for one another’s welfare, and enjoy fellowship with one another. “The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain” (Isaiah 11:6-9).

Imagine! Can we even do that, imagine? But for us, the grandness of the vision or the folly of the imagination remain the same, and whether we regard it as grand or foolish depends upon whether we are hopeful or cynical, people of faith in the promises of God or people who put our trust in worldly wisdom.

Peace and harmony are major themes of Advent. In the days leading up to Christmas, everyone is encouraged toward good will and optimism by Christmas cards and street decorations and all the rest. But for the Christian, hope for peace and harmony goes beyond wishful thinking to the promises of God and the fulfillment of those promises in Jesus Christ who lived and lives again, who came and will come again. For the Christian, peace and harmony are a practiced certainty because they are the will of God, integral to the divine purpose restoring the community of love and fellowship that is God’s very purpose for creation.

The church at Rome had failed to learn the obvious lesson from its very existence – that if Gentiles were now on even footing with Jews in the eyes of God because of Jesus Christ, then surely the members of their own church must be on even footing with each other in the eyes of God. Something was causing disharmony in the Roman congregation and preventing the full unity and community that ought to characterize Christians. “May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another,” Paul prayed earnestly in his letter, “in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice” – not in discordant squabbling but in a genuine unity of praise “glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God” (Romans 15:5-7). 

Paul was saying believe that the Christ in whom we have new and abundant life is the Messiah who was promised to the Jews and through whom the Gentiles have mercy, and whose mission is the salvation of all. Imagine! A lamb safe in the company of a wolf! A kid resting confidently alongside a leopard! An infant uninjured as it plays with snakes! A ridiculous dream? Or the promised root of Jesse come to fulfillment in the reign of Jesus Christ the Messiah in whom you and I and every Christian have said that we put our faith?

Fanciful folly? The day is coming. Its dawn in the cessation of hostilities is not yet the full noonday of harmony and community and love and self-giving, but the day is coming. Have faith, people of God, and think and speak and act hopefully and trustfully in the day of salvation that approaches ever nearer – the day of salvation for all of God’s creation.

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QUARANTINE BLOG # 614

December 4, 2021

There was real money to be made from a new trade: privateering. Privateers were sailors from one nation who had been given permission by their monarchs to attack and capture enemy ships. A pirate attacked anyone he came upon, and he was hanged on sight if captured. Privateers were supposed to share their treasure with the nation they represented. Pirates kept what they stole. 

Privateering was invented by a cash-strapped Henry III of England, who had no navy to attack the French (it having been sold by Parliament to pay his debts); he came up with the idea of issuing commissions to private captains for the purpose of attacking French shipping.

Henry III

Piracy threaded through the history of all seafaring nations. A young Julius Caesar had been captured by pirates and after he won his release, he hunted them down and crucified all of them. 

A bust of Julius Caesar

St. Patrick was seized by pirates, who sold him as a slave in Ireland. 

The ship of Miguel de Cervantes, later the author of Don Quixote, was intercepted by Barbary pirates, and he spent five miserable years as an Islamic slave.

Many became pirates because of an unusual opportunity presented to them. If their ship was taken by pirates, the survivors were offered the chance to join up. Any man who joined up would get an equal share. Certain occupations – carpenter, navigator, doctor – were always in demand, and whether willing or not, they would be pressed into service. But everyone else was free to choose. If they were captured by ships of the Crown, all of the volunteers would hang. Those conscripted, if they could prove it, would be set free.

As Henry Morgan sailed out on his first raid as a captain of buccaneers, he wore his beard short and pointed, in the style of Sir Francis Drake, and around his forehead tied a scarlet kerchief. In later expeditions he’d pack a wig, in case he was called to accept a surrender from a Spanish noble. 

Sir Francis Drake

Captains liked to dress well: In 1722 captain Black Bart Roberts was described as being “dressed in a rich crimson damask waistcoat and breeches, a red feather in his hat, a gold chain round his neck with a diamond cross hanging around it.”

Black Bart Roberts

Buccaneer expeditions followed a routine. The privateers would meet on the captain’s flagship. The first order of business was fresh meat, especially tortoise. 

What the bison was to the American settler in his wagon train, the tortoise was to the pirate: Without the sustenance that animal provided, it’s unlikely that the buccaneers could have achieved half their victories. One visitor to Jamaica wrote in 1704, “The flesh looks and eats much like choice veal.” After supper, the Brethren would agree on a target, and the real drinking would begin in earnest.

Here on the eve of Morgan’s first expedition is where one John Esquemeling enters the story. He accompanied Morgan on some of his raids, and wrote a memoir, The Buccaneers of America. Esquemeling’s stories of the buccaneers almost single-handedly created the pirate craze that enchanted Robert Louis Stevenson and gave birth to our image of  pirates. And his accounts give us many of the details of our story today.

Esquemeling’s The Buccaneers of America

Once they had a confirmed destination, the buccaneers agreed to the articles that governed the ship for the duration of the voyage. They voted on how many shares of treasure each pirate would get. The most extraordinary clauses in the articles were the ones addressing the reward if a pirate was either wounded or maimed in his body, suffering the loss of any limb.

Some articles even awarded damages for the loss of a peg leg. Prostheses were so hard to come by that the loss of a good wooden leg was worth as much as the loss of a real one. 

There was generous medical insurance, incentive pay, and considerable employee input: Most modern American corporations would not match the pirates’ articles until well into the 20th century, if then.

Morgan’s fleet sailed toward the Yucatan Peninsula, a journey into blankness, only here and there illuminated by a known landmark or a familiar current. 

There were no charts to guide Morgan, no way of measuring longitude. Dead reckoning was a primary tool – starting at a known or assumed position, the navigator used the ship’s compass heading, the ship’s speed, the time spent on each heading and at each speed. Most pirates could attest to the truth of what a French soldier bound for the New World wrote in his journal, “We saw nothing but sky and water and realized the omnipotence of God, into which we commended ourselves.”

Once the buccaneer ships had passed the western tip of the Yucatan Peninsula, they tacked into the Bay of Campeche. Their target was Villahermosa, the capital of Tabasco province. 

Villahermosa was hundreds of miles away from pirate haunts, and its citizens believed they were safe. Guards slept at their posts; the shot for the cannons rusted in the night air until they’d no longer fit into the mouths of the guns. Keys to chests full of gunpowder were lost. So when Morgan’s men burst into the town square, the Spanish defense collapsed, and they quickly plundered the village.

Sailing back, they prepared for a raid on Trujillo. 

It had become a destination for epic journeys. Over 150 years before, Christopher Columbus, on his fourth and final voyage to the New World, had made his first landing on the American continent. His men said the first Catholic mass ever celebrated in the Americas. Now Morgan added his name to the list, as his men crashed into the town, quickly stormed the fort, carried away everything of value, including a Spanish vessel.

Next week: The pirates strike against England.

👉  Today’s close, “The Vicious Cycle Broken,” is from Celebrating Abundance, by Walter Brueggemann.

“He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Isaiah 2:4).

It is written in Deuteronomy that the poor will always be with you (15:11). It is written elsewhere that there will always be wars and rumors of wars. It is written in the American psyche that the big ones will always eat the little ones. It is written in the hearts of many hurting ones that their situation will always be abusive and exploitative. It is written and it is believed and it is lived, that the world is a hostile, destructive place. You must be on guard and maintain whatever advantage you can. It is written and recited like a mantra, world without end.

In the middle of that hopelessness, Advent issues a vision of another day, written by the poet, given to Israel midst the deathly cadence. We do not know when, but we know for sure. The poet knows for sure that this dying and killing is not forever, because another word has been spoken. Another decision has been made. A word has been given that shatters our conventions, which bursts open the prospect for life in a world of death.

Watch that vision, because it ends in a dramatic moment of transformation. The old city is full of blacksmiths who have so much work to do. Listen and you can hear the hammer on the anvil. The smiths are beating and pounding iron, reshaping it, beating swords into plowshares and spears into tools for orchards. They are decontaminating bombs and defusing the great weapons systems. The fear is dissipating. The hate is collapsing. The anxiety is lessening. The nations are returning to their proper vocation – care of the earth, love of creation, bounty for neighbor, enough for all, with newness, deep joy, hard work, all because the vicious cycles are ended and life becomes possible.

This vision sounds impossible. It sounded impossible the first time it was uttered; it has not become more realistic in the meantime. Advent, nonetheless, is a time for a new reality. There is a new possibility now among us, rooted in God’s love and God’s power. Power from God’s love breaks the vicious cycles. We have seen them broken in Jesus, and occasionally we have seen them broken in our own lives. It is promised that the cycles can be broken, disarmament will happen, and life can be different. It is promised and it is coming, in God’s good time.

God of love and suffering power, speak again your word of transformation in the midst of our weary world. We so easily capitulate to despair, to numb acceptance of deathly orders. Break the vicious cycles, and kindle in us once again a passion for the possible. Amen.

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QUARANTINE BLOG # 613

December 3, 2021

Sports Talk by Amy suggested a new feature for QB – how teams acquired their nicknames.  Since it is football season, we’ll start there.  And hope to be finished by Super Bowl LVI (Sports Talk by David wishes they’d stop the Roman numeral silliness and use real numbers.  The city council of Rome, Italy abandoned using them in July, 2015, saying, “We have no choice.  The Roman numeral system is too complicated”).

The Arizona Cardinals began play in Chicago in 1898 before moving to St. Louis in 1960 and Arizona in 1988. Team owner Chris O’Brien purchased used and faded maroon jerseys from the University of Chicago in 1901 and dubbed the color of his squad’s new outfits “cardinal red.” The team adopted the cardinal bird as part of its logo as early as 1947 and first featured a cardinal head on its helmets in 1960.

As with many teams, a contest winner named the Atlanta Falcons. 1,300 came up with more than 500 names, including Peaches, Vibrants, Lancers, Confederates (they would have had to change that one in today’s cancel culture – they could have become the Atlanta Football Team), Firebirds, and Thrashers. Several fans submitted the nickname Falcons, but schoolteacher Julia Elliott was declared the winner of the contest for the reason she provided. “The falcon is proud and dignified, with great courage and fight,” Elliott wrote. “It never drops its prey. It is deadly and has great sporting tradition.”  QB notes that in the current season, the Falcons rank # 16 in the NFL for dropped passes with 12.  

Ravens, a reference to Edgar Allan Poe’s famous poem, beat out Americans and Marauders as the name of the Baltimore team when Art Modell moved the Cleveland Browns east. Poe died and is buried in Baltimore. The Marauders nickname referenced a B-26 built during World War II by the Glenn L. Martin Company, that was based in Baltimore.

👉  Readers of QB know that I do not like spiders.  One question I would like to ask God when I see him, if I am permitted a question is, “If there had to be spiders, why did they have to be so ugly.”  One time I warned the teenagers of Macedonia UMC  not to scare P.D. (“Preacher David” – the kids nickname for me) with spiders unless they wanted to hear some colorful metaphors.  Anyway, when I get to visit Australia, here is one place I will avoid like the proverbial plague.

This Australian field in Goulburn, New South Wales, has been blanketed by reams of spider silk, caused by wolf spiders migrating after lots of rain flooded their ground dwellings.  Silk from spiders’ bodies is captured by the light breeze.  The wolf spiders use their spider silk like a parachute to float up to the sky and fly long distances in a natural migration phenomenon called “ballooning.”  The spider silk blanketing the fields like snow is called angel hair. 

And that reminds me of a song by Dolly Parton and Jim Stafford called “Spiders and Snakes.”

👉  Speaking of creepy things in Australia, cannibal crabs shut down roads in Australia during their seasonal migration towards ocean.  

The swarm of these critters shut down roads from the jungle to the coast on Christmas Island off Western Australia.  Every year, an estimated 50 million crabs make their way from the forest after rainfall in October or November and head to the ocean to mate.  Their journey takes them through residential areas and tourist hotspots through the winter months.

The crabs generally eat leaves, fruits, flowers and seeds but have a dark side that sees them eat their young.  The crabs’ cannibal side comes out when babies returning from their first ocean migration are feasted on by adults as part of their diet. 

👉  I was recently sent a couple of videos from TikTok that are actually funny.  The first is comedian Sebastian Maniscalco talking about taking a picture of yourself.  The second is of an enthusiastic kettle drum player.

👉  I have been saving some comic strips, and now is a good time to share them.

Dagwood and the plumber:

Spaceman Spiff:

Men, hang onto this one for a time you need to say just the right thing:

Garfield is watching a very scary movie:

Opal tries a new recipe and Earl offers a critique:

This next one is a variation on a true story that happened at 2211 Whiskey Road – names have been changed to protect the guilty:

👉  Two really good smiles:

👉  Today’s close, “Season of Decrease,” is from Celebrating Abundance, by Walter Brueggemann.

“He must increase, but I must decrease” (John the Baptist, in John 3:30).

Into this season pushes the unkempt, unwelcome figure of John the Baptizer. You remember him. He is dressed in a hair shirt. He eats wild honey and such other gifts that he can forage in the rough.

He comes in anger and is demanding, with threats and insistence. He speaks really only one word: Repent! Recognize the danger you are in and change! He has this deep sense of urgency about the world. It is an urgency of threat and danger and jeopardy, one that we ourselves sense now about our world. He comes first in the story. He is a key player in the Advent narrative.

When Jesus appears on the scene, John the Baptizer immediately acknowledges the greatness of Jesus, greater than all that is past – greater than John, greater than all ancient memories and hopes. When Jesus comes into the narrative, John quickly, abruptly, without reservation says of Jesus, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” 

If John embodies all that is old and Jesus embodies all that is new, take as your Advent work toward Christmas that enterprise: decrease/increase. Decrease what is old and habitual and destructive in your life so that the new life-giving power of Jesus may grow large with you.

Advent basks in the great promises. In the meantime, however, there are daily disciplines, day-to-day exercises of Advent, work that requires time and intentionality. Advent is not a time of casual waiting. It is a demanding piece of work. It requires both the outrageousness of God and the daily work of decreasing so that Jesus and God’s vision of peace may increase.

In this season of Advent, open our hearts to receive the hard word of repentance. Empower us to decrease what is old, habitual, and destructive in our lives so that the new life-giving power of Jesus may increase within us. Amen.

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QUARANTINE BLOG # 612

December 2, 2021

Christmas is a great time to invite someone to church, according to a recent study by Nashville-based Lifeway Research. In a recent poll of 1,000 Americans, Lifeway Research found six out of 10 Americans typically attend church at Christmastime. But among those who don’t attend church at Christmastime, a majority (57 percent) say they would likely attend if someone they knew invited them.

👉  The headline of this story was “Thanksgiving Surprise,” but it is too good a story to pass over just because Thanksgiving was last Thursday (and the online report was Monday, so they were late anyway).

More than 20 years ago, Mike Moffitt started getting a lot of calls from a Florida phone number. The older woman on the other end of the line was trying to reach her daughter, who lives in Maryland. But she kept dialing area code 401, instead of 410 –  and getting Moffitt instead. Finally, Mike said, “Hey, what’s your name?” and they started talking. And we started hitting it off.”

As time went on, Gladys became a steady fixture in Moffitt’s life. But the two had never met – until last Wednesday when he showed up to surprise her with flowers.

Gladys started calling him to ask how his family was doing, or what the weather in Rhode Island was like. “I started doing the same,” he said. Their conversations never got too deep, and usually only lasted a few minutes. But every so often, either “Mike from Rhode Island” or “Gladys from Florida” would call to check in with the other.

When Gladys’ husband died, her son called Moffitt to let him know. “She told him, ‘Call Mike from Rhode Island,’” Moffitt said. He sent flowers, and realized that their friendship had gotten serious.

This year, the family decided to spend Thanksgiving in Florida. While driving around on Wednesday, he realized that he was only 2.3 miles from Gladys’ house.

“I just literally knocked on the door,” he said. “I just said, ‘Hey, I’m Mike from Rhode Island,’” Moffitt said. “Her eyes lit up.” The first words out of her mouth were, “I’m blessed.” Now that they’ve met in person, Moffitt hopes to continue to get to know Gladys better, and play an even bigger role in her life. “She’s just a great person,” he said.

👉  It’s generally viewed that optimism is a positive trait, but as this photo clearly shows, some people take it a little too far. 

That set of box springs is not going to fit into that car. Not even in a million years. The woman must suffer from terrible spatial awareness to have even entertained the idea. You’ve got to love her optimism though.

👉  This distorted railroad line is the result of the Canterbury New Zealand Earthquake. 

The 7.1-magnitude earthquake twisted the railroad tracks. It now looks like a roller-coaster track at an amusement park, except it’s still on the ground. The twisting was caused by concentrated stress.

👉  Yesterday we looked at the reason most old barns are painted red, and as promised, here is some more old barn stuff, specifically “barn advertising.”

Advertisers take advantage of the barns’ prominence in rural landscapes, paying their owners for the right to paint and maintain logos and slogans on them. Once a common form of billboard advertising during the early-to mid-20th century, barn advertisements have faded into obscurity, as many of these rural ghost signs fall into disrepair, along with the structures that bear them.

The Bloch Brothers Tobacco Company is credited with popularizing the medium. The company began advertising their products on the sides of buildings in 1890. By 1925, they had moved to advertising on Mail Pouch Barns. At the program’s height in the early 1960s, some 20,000 barns in 22 states displayed Mail Pouch advertising. 

In the early 1940s, Clark Byers painted barns and their roofs for Rock City near Chattanooga, Tennessee, often with messages promising travelers the chance to see seven states from atop Lookout Mountain. During the Civil War Battle of Lookout Mountain, both a Union soldier and a Confederate soldier claimed that seven states could be seen from the summit of the mountain. 

Opened in May 1932, the attraction gained prominence after owners Garnet and Frieda Carter hired Byers to paint “See Rock City” barn advertisements.

View of The High Falls on Lookout Mountain

The Grand Corridor

Mushroom Rock

In 1965, Congress passed the Highway Beautification Act, which regulated and in some cases removed billboards from the sides of federally funded highways. Barn advertisements were affected by this legislation, leading owners to paint over them, until public outcry led to a 1974 amendment that specifically exempted them as “folk heritage barns.” 

If you’ve never driven through an area where there was barn art, but you’ve driven on Interstate 95, you’ve seen another type of highway art:

Or maybe you’ve driven along Route 16 or Interstate 90 in South Dakota:

👉  Yesterday I told you I was going to share Advent meditations from author Asheritah Ciuciu.  Then, looking for something else (isn’t that always the way) I found a book I bought last year, and misplaced – isn’t that always the way – to use this year at Advent.  So if you will allow me – and since I am writing the blog, you have to 😁 – from now through Christmas Eve we will be reading from Celebrating Abundance, by Walter Brueggemann.

“And all ate and were filled; and they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish” (Mark 6:42-43).

In Mark 6, Jesus does a transformative miracle to exhibit the saving power of God that is present in and through his life. It is the narrative of feeding the 5,000. Mark tells us that huge crowds followed Jesus and when he saw the crowds he reacted in kindness to them. He saw their need, and he was moved by compassion for them. First he taught them the good news of God’s generous love. And then he fed them – all 5,000 of them.

The disciples didn’t understand, and thought he couldn’t feed such a big crowd. So Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish – one person’s lunch. He took what was there.  He turned ordinary food into a sacramental sign of God’s massive goodness and generosity. Mark reports:

“Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people” (Mark 6:41).

His prayer consists in the four big verbs of Holy Communion: “He took, he blessed, he broke, he gave.” Jesus takes the ordinary stuff of life in all its scarcity – two fish and five loaves – and transforms them into God’s self-giving generosity. The outcome was that “all ate and were filled” (v. 42). But that is not all: there were twelve baskets left over, one for each of the doubting disciples.

The news that is proclaimed in Christ’s coming, about which we are reminded at every Communion service is, Jesus has turned the world into abundance. God is the gift who keeps on giving, and the people around Jesus are empowered to receive abundance and therefore to act generously.

Every day, all day: it’s still true! “He takes, he blesses, he breaks, he gives.” And we are astonished about the surplus. It is all there for those with eyes to see, with ears to hear, and with hearts to remember. We are recipients of enough and enough and more than enough, enough and enough and more than enough to share. And to be glad in this Giver who keeps on giving . . . endlessly.

God whose giving knows no end, make us glad recipients of your generosity. Give us eyes to see and ears to hear and hearts to remember your abundance, that we might share it with the world. Amen.

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QUARANTINE BLOG # 611

December 1, 2021

Why are barns often painted red?  Three reasons: it’s traditional, it’s practical and the color looks good. During the 1700s and early 1800s, barns on family farms in the Northeast U.S. were typically covered with thick vertical boards. When they were left unpainted, the boards would slowly weather to a brownish-gray color.

But after the mid-1800s, to improve the efficiency of their barns by reducing drafts to help keep their animals more comfortable in winter, many farmers tightened up their barns by having wooden clapboards horizontally nailed on the outside barn walls. These clapboards were sawed quite thin, so painting them provided needed protection and dressed up the appearance of the barns.

In the 1800s it was common for people to make their own paints by mixing pigments with linseed oil. The tint we see so often on older American barns was called Venetian red. Venetian red got its name because historically this pigment was produced from natural clays found near Venice, Italy. The clays contained an iron oxide compound that produced this red color.

But as people found similar iron oxide deposits in many other places, “Venetian red” became a generic term for light red pigments. By the 1920s, such “earth pigments” used to make red paints were being dug in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Alabama, California, Iowa and Vermont.

Today, many modern barns don’t resemble classic versions. Very large barns that hold hundreds of cows or pigs look more like hangars or warehouses, and may be built of metal. But the tradition of painting smaller barns red continues – so strongly that the U.S. Postal Service now celebrates them on postage stamps.

Tomorrow “barn advertising” and “beautiful Rock City.”

👉  Brian sent me a new collection of humorous pieces for the QB and this is one of the best:

What made it even funnier to me is a country and western song by David Allan Coe called “You Never Even Called Me By My Name.”

Now I know that DAC is singing “darlin’” when he says you never called me by my name, but to me it sounds like “Darlyn,” which is the middle name of our oldest child, Jennifer Darlyn.  You sing it your way, and I’ll sing it mine.

👉  Just when you thought sports couldn’t get any crazier, along comes PFC – Pillow Fighting Championship.  You read that correctly.  A professional pillow fighting championship will be held on January 29 in Florida as a pay-per-view event.  Steve Williams, the man with the dream of turning childhood horseplay into a professional combat sport, said PFC delivers all the drama of hand-to-hand combat without the gore of mixed martial arts or boxing.  Well, that’s a mercy.  Using specialized pillows male and female combatants will slug it out.  Williams says, “The fighters don’t like to get hurt.”  The bruise under that pf-er’s left eye says there is going to be some hurting going on.  I’ll pass.

👉  Santa’s working on his list, seeing who’s naughty or nice, and you’ve probably started on yours.  Here are a few suggestions you may or may not want to purchase to fill someone’s stocking.

First up, a Smart Landline Multimedia Telephone with Android 7.9-inch Display.  You just re-read that and asked, “But why?”  If you are like me, you haven’t had a landline phone in a decade, maybe two, and with this thing going for $259 – and you can’t even use Google Store to download apps – “but why” is a great question.  The advertiser says it is a “re-invented desktop phone that combines traditional telephone and the user experience of an Android tablet to offer an all-in-one voice, video, data and mobility solution.”  Yup.  But why?

I am a fan of Legos.  Really big.  Huge.  If you’ve been to 233 and seen the room formerly known as my office and now known as the Lego Room, you already knew that.  Behind me are at least 100 Lego kits, fully assembled and engaged in our own version of Star Wars (most of them are Star Wars kits, but there is the Saturn V moon rocket, the International Space Station, and the RMS Titanic is under construction).  So I was intrigued by a double deck of Lego playing cards for $16.95.  My mouse was heading for the “buy now” button until I looked at the face of the cards.  The back is a wonderful picture of Lego bricks, but the fronts are all one color – blue – and the suits are not pictured with their correct colors.  Make the faces white and the suits correct, and I’m in.

For only $19.95 plus shipping and handling this last gift will help you tinkle better in a dark bathroom at night.  GlowBowl has a motion sensor that turns on any one of 13 colors, or rotates them all, when you approach it for a late night pee.  No more bashing your toes in the dark or searching for a place to aim.  This battery operated device even has a built-in air freshener.  Now if it just came with an attachment that would raise the seat for those who need it up, or lower it for those who need it down.

👉  Some more smiles for your day:

Don't you tell me you that you don't get this one!

👉  As I said in Sunday’s blog, Advent is the time when Christians focus on three things: we remember the birth of our Savior in Bethlehem’s manger, look forward to his Second Coming in power and in glory, and examine our preparations for living in “the time between already and not yet.”

For the close these next 24 days I’ll be sharing Advent thoughts from Unwrapping the Names of Jesus by Asheritah Ciuciu.

“She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).

The name Jesus is a transliteration of the Hebrew name Joshua, which means “the Lord is salvation.” In Bible times, it was not an uncommon name, just like Jesus Himself didn’t appear out of the ordinary to those who grew up with Him. Yet His given name holds great significance to who He is and what He did on earth.

In the Old Testament, Joshua led the Israelites into Canaan. He saved the people through courageous leadership, charging into battle upon bloody battle, leading hundreds of thousands into the Promised Land. In contrast to the first Joshua, the second Joshua (Jesus) saved through an epic battle that He fought alone, making the way for His people to enter the Promised Land of God’s presence.

Jesus came to save people from their sins. What the first Joshua was powerless to do, the second Joshua was born to accomplish.

During Jesus’ lifetime, the Israelites were waiting for a political leader like Joshua who would free them from the yoke of Roman oppression and allow them to live in the land God had promised them, just as their forefathers had been freed from Egyptian slavery and led into Canaan. They wanted a macho man who would reinstate Israel as an autonomous country and make the Romans run in fear.

But Jesus’ perspective is always bigger than ours. His gaze was set on the universal dilemma of sin. His battle was one of cosmic proportions, to deliver all who believe in Him from the bondage of soul-deadening sin and welcome us into the family of God.

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