Hello,
Just when I thought that I had seen it all, last week I saw
something on TV that broke that assumption apart.
Tractor Square Dancing.
Yes, Tractor Square Dancing. There is a thing here in Pennsylvania that is sort of an
indoor winter state fair….cattle judging, pig shows, chickens and
sheep….tractor pulls, implement displays…and something that I have never seen
at a fair…tractor square dancing.
It is just what it sounds like. Eight antique tractors with grey haired and no haired
drivers following the directions of a caller….a la mande left, dos a dos,
promenade right, circle up, and swing your partner. By the precision of the “dancers” you could tell that this
was something that these folks had often practiced…which led me to wonder: who
would have ever thought this up? I
am trying to imagine a bunch of retired farmers gathered around the table of
the local café where they meet every day at 7:00, when in between the gaps of
silence that make city-folks uncomfortable one of the guys says, “Ever thought
about doing square dances with our tractors?”
The pregnant pause that surely must have followed would have
left most of us to conclude that there wasn’t much support for the idea, but if
you have ever sat at one of these tables, you would not have been surprised to
hear a coffee cup set on the table and out of the side of one of the guy’s
mouth, “Sounds good to me.” And so
began Tractor Square Dancing…..maybe.
“What do you say we go to Jerusalem?” said Jesus to his
disciples. Jerusalem: the place
where his face would have been posted amongst the “Most Wanted” in the post
office, the place where those who enjoyed judging and condemning were doing all
they could to silence Jesus’ words of forgiveness and mercy, the place where
the appetite for his life was most ravaging, the mouth of the lion. “What do you say that we go to
Jerusalem?”
If there was a pregnant pause, it certainly would have been
caused by the disbelief of the disciples at the hearing of Jesus’ words. Having wandered around with him for the
last several years and saying over and over again to themselves at the things
that they saw him do (like eat with the town’s biggest slime bag –Zacchaeus)
and say (like “pray for your enemies”),
“I thought we had seen it all,” one can only imagine the thickness of
the silence that fell around that table.
But that is the wonder of what Christians call the Gospel,
i.e. the good news of Jesus Christ.
Just when you might think that you’ve seen it all when it comes to the
crazy things that God will do, we see the one who carries the name of the Son
of God set his face toward torture, suffering and death. And why? The Bible tells us: love (John 3:16,17).
I found myself laughing at the square dancing tractors. I find myself astounded by the
Jerusalem bound Jesus. Astounded
that the Divine, the Wholly and Holy Other would so hold the likes of me, or
the likes of anyone as a matter of fact, as the apple of his eye that that one
would completely incarnate himself in humanity and then irreversibly and
intentionally walk into the worst pain that humanity could conjure up. It is hard to believe….and some find it
impossible to believe.
But having seen the outrageous creativity of old farmers
with old tractors, I find myself saying that maybe I shouldn’t be so surprised at
the outlandish determination of the Creator to make all things new with me…and
you. So, when I see someone
baptized and remember my Baptism, when I hear the words “your sins are entirely
forgiven”, when I receive a piece of bread and a sip of wine containing the
promise of the presence of Jesus body and blood, and when I hear that I have
been enlisted to bring God’s hope into a hopeless world…well, I don’t find
myself saying with unexpected surprise, “Just when I thought that I had seen
everything.” Instead, I find
myself saying with the expectation of being surprised, ‘Thanks be to God.”
Have a great week.
God’s grace and peace, (ggap)
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
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