Autograph
I was ten when my dad took me to see the Indians play the Yankees. Mostly, I wanted a player to sign my baseball. My dad was decidedly skeptical. At seventh inning stretch, an important looking man in a dark suit walked by. I said, “Mister! Sign my baseball!” Without a word, he wrote upon…
Sabbath
Saturday morning, it was the Jewish Sabbath and I, needing a widget, drove to the Big Box Store. I passed people walking to their synagogues … women in full-length skirts, men in felt hats. I saw a young man, perhaps half my age, in a dark suit, a prayer shawl under his jacket. I felt…
Dismissal
The Deacon’s Dismissals I write every week now number over three hundred. They each allude to the deacon’s (or the priest’s) dismissal at the end of the eucharistic service, “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.” In the Eucharist, we have met God. Then we go forth to make the world a better…
Alone time
My cousin died leaving her Chow dog, Molly. Her sister, Lee, might have adopted Molly but Molly was too big and rambunctious. Lee found a Chow rescue home a few hours away. At the rest stop, I held the leash as Molly slipped her collar and ran into the dense woods. I was distraught. Lee…
Blessing
Two men sit at a table, men like any other at a table like any other. One man is a prisoner, chained to the table. The other man is free. One is a Muslim, the other a Christian. The conversation is animated and light. They listen, laugh, reminisce and speak of what might one day…
Armored car
I was barely 21 when I took a notion to buy an old Brinks armored car. It was a lark, nothing I needed, but I set about getting one. I wrote letters and ended up on a long distance, operator assisted telephone call to a man in Texas. He had dozens of old armored cars….
Poor
Evelyn Underhill (1875 -1941) was an Anglican intellectual, pacifist and writer on mysticism. She once received advice from Austrian religious writer and Christian apologist Friedrich von Hügel (1852-1925) who thought Evelyn too enthralled by ideas: “I believe you ought to get yourself, gently and gradually, interested in the poor; that you should visit them, very…
Homeless
Every Friday, I go to the men’s homeless shelter for a few hours. A block away, I always pull over by the railroad tracks to gather my thoughts. Recently, sitting there, a police car pulled up behind me. Two officers wanted to know what I was doing, parked like that. They were pleasant but curious….
Memory
How are we to talk to people about our church? In this age, how does the conversation begin? There is wisdom from 400 years ago: “When you counsel someone, remind them of something they had forgotten, not the light they were unable to see.”* Socrates, 2450 years ago, referred to this process as maieutic, a…
Chips
The usual rigamarole … empty pockets, 20 questions, show ID … then into the prisoner visiting area to see Mike. Prisoners cannot leave their chair so I went to the vending machine to peruse the wilting ham sandwiches, sawdust cookies and limp chips. The woman ahead of me tried for the chips but her card…
Did You Know? – Deacon Josh
The Rev. Josh Butler is a Vocational Deacon in the Diocese of Ohio.
It is the deacon who ends the service, dismissing the congregation to go out in the community to serve. In his Deacon’s Dismissal, Josh offers reflections to strengthen and inspire us in our call to service.
