Faith Works 3-28-20

Faith Works 3-28-20

Jeff Gill

 

Social dislocation vs. social distancing

___

 

Greetings from sunny, hot, and very windy Texas. Most of you know why I'm down here, missing out on floods and such in Ohio.

 

As I pack my parents' residence here in the Rio Grande Valley, in the retirement community where they lived half the year the last fifteen, I've had many sincere and lovely expressions from their long-time friends and neighbors down here about their love for my folks, and sorrow over Dad's death.

 

But as my sister and I have tried to observe the most basic precautions, since we did arrive here recently from out of state, we've been regularly handshaken and hugged whether we wanted to or not, and then told how silly all this worry about some flu bug is. Usually in some version of "we have the flu go through every year, and yes, a few older people are taken by it, but it doesn't warrant all this hooey."

 

Ahem. What I haven't been saying, mainly because a) I'm trying to be polite, and b) I really need to get back to packing and loading, is to point out that if we just see an infection rate in the US of 40%, and a mortality rate of 1% (I join Dr. Fauci in hoping it will be closer to .5%, but he warns it's as likely to be above 1% than down closer to the .1% of seasonal influenza), with those parameters the number who would die from coronavirus would be equal to the number we "know" statistically will die from heart disease & cancer . . . combined. We expect about 1,250,000 persons to die from heart disease (which took my father a week and a half ago, unexpectedly) and cancer. But a 40% infection rate, which is conservative, and a projected mortality rate of 1% would give you that many more deaths in 2020, the overwhelming majority being deaths that otherwise would not happen this year.

 

For everyone telling me that these "silly" restrictions are media hysteria and damaging to the economy: I don't know that you are taking seriously the economic impact and social dislocation (vs. social distancing) of a death. When someone unexpectedly dies, many more lives are put on hold, yanked out of shape, and turned inside out. Normal patterns end, and basic survival instincts kick in (not always productively). People take time off work, and are largely dysfunctional anyhow if you had them working. I'm still having to think steps for leaving the house or completing a task through twice and three times, and I make errors everyday of a basic sort.

 

Social distancing is a major pain in the kiester. I get it. I didn't have a funeral for my father. I'm still wrecked over that. But here's the thing: death is permanent. We can get through this, but I know many workers and businesses and yes, churches will be deeply scarred, even disabled functionally for some time to come. But death is permanent. Let's not lose sight of the fact that we're talking about a new source of bereavement and sorrow and loss rippling into our society which we have a chance to freeze and still and slow, and save many, many lives.

 

I can get over not having a funeral shortly after my dad's passing. But I could not get over knowing that an event, to do what I deeply wanted to have done, might be the indirect but very real source of even three or four avoidable deaths. Because death is permanent. And as a pastor, I know that while there is life there are options, choices, possibility, hope.

 

For a Christian, in death there is indeed hope. For this Christian, it's still a truth I'd share that in death there is an ending to many earthly options. Full stop. So I'm not in a hurry to die. I don't fear it, and I have hope for my dad and many others who have gone on before. But there are plenty of people waiting for me on the other side. I don't want to add to the greeting party by my actions.

 

The pool here in this retirement community is jam packed, and behind these walls and gates people forget that the troubles of the outside world come in and out with the caregivers and maintenance workers and yes, family packing up trailers to move surviving spouses home.

 

I just hope anyone reading this who thinks it's all hurting our country, and the recommendations just more foolishness from political manipulators, understands the difference between 40,000 deaths a year nationwide from seasonal influenza/flu and even a low mortality from coronavirus of 650,000 from 40% infection across the country and a .5% mortality. That's 650,000 families dropping everything to reach out and try to put their hearts and heads back in order, and that's an economic and social and spiritual impact that I fear is the least we can expect. And it's what many of us are bracing to handle in the year ahead.

 

Because there's already more than enough death to go around.

 

Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and pastor in Licking County; he's handwashing and sanitizing as best he can. Tell him about your experiences with illness and contagion at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on Twitter.

 

Faith Works 3-21-20

Faith Works 3-21-20

Jeff Gill

 

The Great Hiatus will be with us for years

___

 

At this time, if anyone tells you they know when the public gathering restrictions will be lifted, or how soon large worship gatherings will be encouraged, they're guessing.

 

I'm in south Texas right now, as in you can almost see Reynosa, Mexico from where I am, and thank you for the many kind words and expressions and prayers that have followed me here, to honor the end of my dad's life last week and support me in caring for my mom and her needs right now.

As in Ohio (how'd that election go, anyhow?), Texas is dealing with a variety of reactions by faith communities, consumers, and the public at large. I ran into a guy . . . okay, my sister ran into him, but we stood by the side of the road for some time waiting for wreckers to show up (long story), and he told me about how he's not convinced this is really a problem. We've been part of the problem – people from one state traveling to another – and some react by hearing we're from Indiana and Ohio by stepping back, and some by shrugging and hugging us whether we want one or not.

 

If we were asymptomatic carriers of the virus, we've had far too many opportunities in two planes, a van, and now a rental car, shopping for necessities for a new widow and her two adult children now Texas occupants, to spread a virus if we had one in our system, just by walking around and breathing. We've neither had a temperature or other symptoms, but it hasn't been a week since my dad's death, and I'm behind the curve on almost everything, including noticing my symptoms. So who knows.

 

And yes, my father's memorial service here in Pharr, Texas where he's lived half the year for fifteen years is cancelled. Gatherings are banned. So we're doing a strange, surreal version of "calling hours" from the porch. I will say more about this once I've processed it.

 

I picked up my father's ashes, which I've done with more people than I can count, but yes, doing it for your own parent is . . . no, I don't have a great deal to say about that experience yet. But that modestly sized box, whose contents (black plastic box, certificate of cremation, heavy duty plastic bag, metal seal affixed to the neck of the bag, contents which are, frankly, undescribable other than as ashes) are no surprise to me, yet are a world shaking, reality shattering gift handed over with a matter-of-fact statement of "that will be [price stated like a bag of apples].," to which you hand over your credit card like you do for groceries . . . do I sound rattled yet? Yes, you're welcome.

 

So we are in what I firmly believe will long be called something like "The Great Hiatus." A pause in normal life, which may or may not change how we do normal. I am quite old enough to recall the events both of 9-11-01 itself, and the weeks that followed. Many of us, myself included, thought certain aspects of community life would change after 9-11, but by October we had plowed over much of those assumptions. Other than boarding at airports, I'm not sure how much in faith or community changed.

 

Wrong once, shame on me; wrong twice, shame on you? But I really do think that this time we will see some significant changes in social and faith community life after the current coronavirus crisis ends. It's too soon to speculate too broadly,  but I have a few in mind. Many churches will see some major changes over these next few weeks. When I'm back in town and into ministry, I hope to share a few thoughts on that.

 

Meanwhile, for your prayers to what we are still able to do for my dad, I thank you. These are hard days for many, and the obstacles to a "normal" funeral for so many is one of many hard things we have to grind our way through.

 

Again, thank you for the many prayers and expressions of support.

 

Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and pastor in Licking County; he's in the middle of planning memorial services for his dad. Let him know how you've dealt with such times of transition at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on Twitter.

Faith Works 3-21-20

Faith Works 3-21-20

Jeff Gill

 

A column I'd rather not write

___

 

My father died.

 

Many of you reading this have been through that, and God bless you. I have not, though I've been with more families than I can count as they dealt with this personal and existential shock.

 

In fact, I was with a family at a funeral home going through calling hours for their father when I got the call from my mother that . . .  right, what I just said.

 

It does not feel real, and I suspect it won't for some time. He was 85, and it couldn't be called a complete shock, but it was. No doubt for him, too. He sat down to drink his coffee and didn't get back up.

 

I'm writing this just after I learned the news, and well before you'll read it, because I may be off my feed for a few weeks. But if you find my stories of interest and my faith as expressed, even obliquely, to have any solidity and substance, Ronald B. Gill gets the credit.

 

He worried that his sons might inherit his flaws, so he was always very forthright with us about mistakes he'd made (less than you might think) and honest about their impact on his life, which always frustrated him a bit that we pretty much all three boys (I'll leave my sister out of this) managed to echo his foibles in one way or another. "Why did I tell you all about my foolishness if you're just going to go ahead and make the same mistakes?"

 

But we had to make them for ourselves, like most people do; I'd like to think we made quicker recoveries having heard Dad's experiences preceding our own. His fondest hope, like most American fathers of his era, was that we'd all four kids do better than he had done. That was a high bar to set, though.

 

Many people have made the modest mistake of thinking my dad was a minister, because of some of the ways I cite his influence. But he was never in that role: he was a Christian, first a Congregationalist, later (due to marrying my mom) a Disciples of Christ adherent, a deacon and elder and chairman of the elders and building committee chair and board chair and constitution revision chair and most of those multiple times. When my childhood church building was condemned, and my ordination held under a tent next to the unusable building, he led and guided and motivated the effort to build a new building in an even better location, and then chaired the second group (after swearing he'd never do that again) to build the current sanctuary.

 

Ron Gill was a local historian and genealogist and Civil War re-enactor and storyteller, in print and in person. Oh, I hear many of you saying, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

 

No, it does not. I've tried to make him proud. Last summer, our church body had their biannual General Assembly in his native Iowa, and in Des Moines he heard his son teach our Christian tradition's history for two long afternoon workshops. After it was all over, on our way to dinner, I asked him what he thought.  "Not bad," Dad said. "I learned some stuff I'd never heard." That's what he always was looking for.

 

Recently, I finished a doorstop of a book I was looking forward to passing along to him. He loved those finds, the thicker the better. He was reading one of them as he drank his coffee and sat in his recliner, no doubt thinking about his next project, when Jesus said "Ron, I need you to help set up some chairs."

 

So he went. See you later, Dad. Love you.

 

Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and pastor in Licking County; he's proud to be Ron Gill's oldest son. Tell him about your family at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on Twitter.

Notes from my Knapsack 3-19-20

Notes from my Knapsack 3-19-20

Jeff Gill

 

A bubble over Brigadoon

___


If there is really a bubble over the top of Our Fayre Village, and Granville surrounded by high walls to keep out development and tacky businesses from intruding into our community, we should be fine with the whole COVID-19 virus deal.

 

After all, if intentional distancing is now something that the CDC and WHO are recommending, then we're on the right track here, aren't we?

 

To be serious for a moment, I feel badly for the students from China at Denison, and international students in general. To return home, and be uncertain about when you can come back, or to stay here and hope something can be worked out… no one saw all this coming, and we might not see the like of it for another decade or two, but right now the situation for family and friends is uncertain back home, and the course of the viral outbreak still unclear here in the United States, let alone around the world.

 

So even within our friendly confines, between Raccoon Creek and the Homestead, from Cherry Valley Road over to Loudon Street, we will still have to observe all the same precautions of hand-washing and elbow coughing and self-quarantining. The odds of a coronavirus making its way into to Welsh Hills are pretty good, considering our highly mobile population and much vaunted proximity to the John Glenn International Airport. The intersection of Broadway and Main is not far from Trafalgar Square and the Champs-Élysées and Tiananmen Square.

 

And this, too, is part of being a participant in a global culture. As the saying goes, we are all downstream. The idea that an infection or an idea is the property of any one corner of the globe is gone, and even the concept of a non-native species is problematic, when our "native" dandelions and plantain came from abroad, if longer ago, and now garlic mustard and purple loosestrife are so deeply woven into our landscape as to be inextricable. (Go look up Louis Bromfield and multiflora rose, or Johnny Appleseed and dog fennel for an education in global realities and the last couple of centuries.)

 

On the other hand, how can local areas maintain their own unique qualities while interacting with a much, much wider context? We don't want to encourage zebra mussels in the Great Lakes, nor have leaping Asian carp in Lake Erie. By the same token we're concerned about changes in the streetscape or local economy that transforms the entire experience beyond recognition.

 

It's a series of trade-offs and resistances and acceptance that can manage to make everyone uncomfortable. Lots of hand-washing and sanitizer and avoiding handshaking is not what most of us are used to, but it might need to become more common. The current virus will crest and fade in time and with summer's sunlight, but the seasonal influenza will always be with us, perhaps with our being a bit more vigilant the next time. And we're not likely to see grocery stores downtown again in our time, but the nature and mix of shops and retail will continue to change and surprise us.

 

Our resistance to change has been a community strength in some ways. That's worth maintaining, up to a point. But the idea we can avoid every bug in the system, any passing viral trend, is not only impossible, it would be unhealthy in the long run. We can build up some immunities to worse things by letting a few new ideas infect us from time to time.

 

Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and pastor in Licking County; he's probably less into change than he should be, but doesn't care. Tell him what you'd like to change in Granville at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on Twitter.

Faith Works 3-14-20

Faith Works 3-14-20

Jeff Gill

 

From docents to curators

___

If you are getting a purely voluntary education from a person who isn't giving you a grade or a certificate of completion, you may be listening to a docent.

 

Last week I was talking about non-formal education, or "interpretation" such as what a park ranger or historic guide might provide for a natural or cultural resource. Docent is the standard term these days for a volunteer, but trained guide. A teacher is normally doing more formal education, with curriculum standards and outcome measurements.

 

As a preacher, I'm a bit more like a docent than a teacher, even more of a wilderness ranger than a professor. No one is legally required to attend services or sermons, and I don't give the worshipers grades (though some give me grades on the message afterwards!), so faith gatherings are more of a non-formal educational experience than a class in holiness.

 

And frankly, influenced by my wife's experience with the National Park Service, I see some very close comparisons in parish ministry and park rangering. It's a common frustration of natural resource interpreters that the overwhelming majority of visitors to a state or national park will never get more than a few hundred yards from the visitor center. Guests of great parks rarely venture into the backcountry, but even to get people to walk out of sight of the parking lots is the great challenge of interpretation.

 

If you're following my metaphor at all here, I'd say that if I'm a park ranger, and the church is the visitor center, the vast natural resource I'm here to interpret is God. The experience of the Divine. Spiritual realities, directly experienced. That's the acreage beyond the parking lot, the tangible sense of contact with the actual Place Around Us: going out for yourself to know God, and be known.

 

Instead, most people stick to the visitor center, where the restrooms are clearly marked, the gift shop is reassuring, and the little path around the manicured garden behind with some nice views suitable for easy picture taking is enough of a hike . . . then back in the car, honey, we've gotta go!

I'm that ranger at the information desk who hopes in our static displays inside and campfire talks on the forest edge that we are telling enough of a story about the marvels and wonders and glories beyond the familiar to tempt more than a few to venture out on their own.

 

The Bible itself, God's Word in the scriptural record, is much the same: people trot from John 3:16 to Romans 8, take a quick peek over the edge of Revelation 21 into Genesis 1, then head back to the gift shop past Luke 2, and leave so much unexplored. The well-trodden paths are within the resource we rangers are here to interpret, it's true, but if you are hurrying past them on your way to lunch, you're like visitors to the Grand Canyon who stand at the scenic overlook facing each other comparing hotel room prices as the sun sets and the shadows race across the spires. The familiar needs you to approach it occasionally from a different direction, but if you're always on your way to the visitor center and back to the car, you'll only see even the core truths from a single angle of perspective.

 

What I love, as a minister, is when someone comes up to me excited and wanting some, well, interpretation to illuminate their path, because they just discovered Micah. Or they read Jonah beyond the whole whale thing (itself often glossed into a Pinocchio-like episode), and marvel at the ending God speaks to that prophet's tale. Or a whole group of people come to you and say "we want you to help us understand what's going on in Acts."

 

Like a docent or a ranger, a curator is a title with a formal meaning that's gaining some new applications. A curator is responsible, whether in a museum or some other cultural institution, for curating, or selecting wisely an assortment of themes and artifacts to invite us into understanding a story. Conversations can be curated, and even our media consumption might benefit from a curator's eye and ear, helping us select what we consume with discernment.

 

If you can see the usefulness of what I'm thinking about ministry being kind of a park ranger, I'd love to explore the idea of pastoral work as comparable to being a sort of curator. Next week?

Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and pastor in Licking County; he has visited quite a few national parks, but not enough. Tell him about when you got away from the parking lot at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on Twitter.