Donald Trump, Paul Ryan, and To Whom It May Concern, Matthew 9:35-10:23

In the past weeks, we have all been reminded of how fragile our social safety is. For many, this was a shock, but, for many others in our world, this news was status quo. Yet it takes something like a driver running over innocent people during tourist season, a bomb going off at a concert with thousands of young people in attendance, a shooting of congressional leaders at a baseball field, and a fire in a high-rise apartment building to remind us, as a nation and a global community, that there is so much to be done when the goal is safety and peace.

It was a great moment when Congressman Paul Ryan proclaimed, “An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.” As a Wisconsin native, I felt particularly proud. Yet I continue to be concerned about how limited his understanding of all is. I am not sure his all is all inclusive. When we speak of all are we speaking of the limited all of just congress? Or, are we also talking about the neighborhoods that surround the fated ball field, those neighborhoods where shootings are common place? And, does that all extend to Albany, Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit, Syria and Yemen, the Holy Lands, Iraq and Iran, and the Ukraine, to mention just a few?
When we hear our president say, “We can all agree that we are blessed to be Americans, that our children deserve to grow up in a nation of safety and peace”, do we really believe that these words are for all of our children? Or, are these words a soporific panacea for the masses?


When we hear and see with horror, the reports coming from around the world of death by car, bomb, shooting, and fire, do we compartmentalize those events to something sad that happened to others or do we recognize that they happened to all of us? Are we reminded that we need to continue to work for peace among the nations and throughout the world? Yes, Paul Ryan was right; his words of counsel were helpful and right when he said, “Let’s just slow down and reflect, to think about how we are all being tested right now because we are being tested right now.”


Churches around the world today are reading and preaching the verses we just heard from chapters nine and ten in the Gospel of Matthew. Within this text is an intriguing and challenging statement Jesus makes in a world that also wanted safety and peace. He tells his disciples to go out among the lost sheep of Israel and “proclaim the good news, ‘the kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.” (Matt. 10:7-8a, NRSV) I assert that this commissioning is not beyond the capabilities of Jesus’ followers then or now.


Let’s take a look at each commission.


Cure the sick. How are we able to cure the sick when millions do not have adequate health care, when access to physicians is limited by whether or not one can pay?


Raise the dead. How can we even begin to raise the dead when we, as a society, are more concerned about a legal system that gives preference to a privileged few at the expense of the impoverished dead; when we are unwilling to address the systemic laws and policies that have been instituted in order to bury them?


Cleanse the lepers. How can we address the issues of the unclean when we are unwilling to be in conversation with those who suffer from real and metaphoric skin diseases and rashes to learn the circumstances of their hate and alienation?


Cast out demons. How can we even begin this task when we seem to be celebrating and feeding, even worshipping, the demons of our world?


This may be where we need to begin. Each day we name our demons in the news, but little seems to be done when it comes to casting them out. We have the demon of hate and polarization; the demon of character assassination; the demon of self-interest; the demon of greed; the demon of racism, sexism, ethnocentrism, hedonism, and privileged self-righteousness. One of our greatest demons seems to be that damned aisle. I mean that literally, that damned aisle, dividing Republicans from Democrats. With so much energy being spent on personal aggrandizement, why would we want to change?
Well, we might want to start changing because of the level of violence arising in our nation. We might want to change because of the increased anxiety we are feeling as a society. We might want to change because we do not recognize ourselves anymore when we look into our domestic and foreign mirrors. Over the course of years, we have become a suspicious and suspect nation testing the limits of the constitution that binds us all together.


Yes, getting rid of the demons may be the place to start because, with the demons put aside, we can focus on the work of the other three tasks we’ve been commissioned to do. With doctors and nurses, pharmacists and scientists, curing the sick and cleansing the lepers seems possible, but what about raising the dead? Was Jesus serious?


A few years ago, I read an article in the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament concerning the poor. It included this amazing nugget: the poor were just one segment of the society in the first century who were declared socially dead, shunned, that is, beyond the concern of the ruling class. It also said, for the purposes of the privileged, other groups of people, including the many beggars, were shunned and declared dead.


As I have studied Scripture, I have learned how large this catalog of “the dead” is. It included and continues to include the deaf, the lame, the blind, the maimed, the widow, the orphan, the stranger, and the poor. In our world today, we can also add to the catalog the mentally ill, various ethnic groups, and the LGBTQ communities.


Certainly, there is a crisis in our world today that tests the very fabric of our society. As we wrestle with health care and our national budget, with equitable distribution of goods and services, the conversation seems to center on worthiness. After all, we really want those who receive the benefits of our great “America First” society to be worthy of the largesse we give, right? You wouldn’t want the benefits to go to worthless dead people, would you?


Paul Ryan is right, this is a time of testing, and the people of our nation and the people of the world are watching and waiting to see what it is that we, the people of the United States, will do in the coming days to cast out the demons of division and find a way to provide adequate health care for all of our people; to address not only the symptoms of poverty, homelessness, and violence in our nation, but also the causes instituted by systemic practices; and cleanse the leprous rhetoric of hate and isolation.


These latest shootings, in Virginia and San Francisco, are incidents that are too often repeated. The New Town Action Alliance said, “Approximately one-half million Americans have been killed or injured by guns since Sandy Hook [the elementary school shooting where twenty 6- and 7-year-olds were shot December 14, 2012]. Thoughts and prayers are not enough.”


I do not know who to thank for the following comment, but a person interviewed this week said, “Prayers are nice, but it is time to do more than pray.” There have been many comments about prayer and praying recently. Many have asked for God’s blessing and healing for so many. These comments belie a confidence in God’s ability to continue to act in our history, to enter into our lives, and to make a difference. Into this mix of social access to the benefits of our culture, the commissioning words from Jesus—cure, raise, cleanse, cast out—seem incredibly poignant. If we are so willing to call on God to ask for God’s action, then why do we not listen to the commissioning words Christ speaks? What is preventing us from acting? Do we believe that these tasks are beyond our abilities? Or, are we just afraid to try?


A friend once said to me, “God never gives us more than we can handle, but the Holy Spirit really pushes our comfort zone.” Well the comfort zone is quickly vanishing, and it is time for all of us to find places for reconciliation because the violence has to stop. We need to insist that Bernie Sanders’ words are heard. “Violence of any kind is unacceptable in our society, and I condemn this action in the strongest possible terms.” These words and the actions necessary to support them are important for us all.


In the coming days, let us hear the cries of Hagar for her child, Ishmael, and remember the healing, life-giving waters of her tears. Let us remember the wrestling match with God that changed the name and identity of a people, that Israel means the one who wrestles with God. Let us remember that God came in the midst of slavery and led his people out into the wilderness to a new land and into a new covenantal relationship that sustained us for years and led us into a relationship with God’s-self revealed to us in the person of Jesus Christ. Therefore let us remember the one who died for us and is raised up from the dead also lived a ministry of resurrection and commissioned us to be part of that ministry.


Let us lift up the words of our President and hold him and our Congress accountable to them: “We are strongest when we are unified and when we work together for the common good.” In St. Paul’s language we hear, “Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose.” (1 Cor. 1:10) Let us be reminded that, in the new resurrection life, “there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!” (Col. 3:11)


Let us remember that all who share in the common good are common people seeking basic solutions for basic needs. Let us find ways to lift the common people up into new ways of living together—ways that say, in word and deed, every person, all in our society, is valued and that we, all, can walk together knowing the benefits of this great nation. Let us allow and invite the wealthiest part of our society to share their gifts of great abundance with those who have not known that bounty. Let us cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, and cast out demons.


Let us remember the all in these statements when we hear the words Christ speaks as he offers the cup to his disciples and us, “This is the cup of the new covenant in my blood, shed for you and for ALL people for the forgiveness of sin. Do this for the remembrance of me.” And then, when we have remembered our oneness, our all in the body of Christ, our hope for the common good, let us clamber into that damned dividing aisle between us and claim it as Isaiah’s holy highway where all walk together in safety, where no one can get lost, and walk together with one another from the altar fellowship of Christ’s table into Christ’s resurrection world. We have received the blessings of God without payment. Let us also be generous with what we have been given. Let all really mean ALL.


Now may the peace of Christ that surpasses all understanding guard and keep us all in Christ Jesus.

Zombies, Raise Up and Fight

THE ANGELUS TRUMPET

The Unexpurgated Source for Alternative Bible Facts

ZOMBIES, RISE UP AND FIGHT

Dateline: Holy Land?, June 18, 09:35:10:23
by Matt Hughes

In an unprecedented shortfall in the farm labor market due to the demise of migrant workers, recent job listings show that there are more jobs available on farms than there are workers. A call recently went out across the country for as many workers as possible before the harvest is lost.


Josh Kristy of NU-Food Farms has gathered his local followers, even, and specifically sent them out to find more workers. Prospects looked dismal until yesterday when Kristy gave his followers the authority to raise the dead. Human Resources personnel throughout the area were confused today when thousands of Zombie workers presenting death certificates and expired Social Security numbers showed up for work. 


According to United Factory Farm Dairy Alliance (UFFDA) spokes- person Ketil O. Moene, “If we don’t check their paperwork too closely, everything should work out, but this raising the dead stuff has created another groundbreaking problem. I have thousands of workers showing up for work with cemetery plots for their home addresses.”


At least one incident has been reported where a person whose whereabouts were previously unknown presented her driver’s license that had expired 01/20/17. She explained her body was never found after she was killed 11/8/16.


Many employers are happy these Zombie laborers have arrived, especially since they are willing to work for lower wages than living laborers. Moene described the situation. “They want to work, and there is more than enough work to be done. You just can’t get the average worker interested in these low paying, underground economy jobs, and still, they need to be done if the rest of the country is going to eat. We do have to pay the Zombies something though because, as the saying goes, ‘A laborer deserves his food’; and these guys have a real passion for raised donuts and angel food cake.”


In a clash this afternoon between the Zombie workers and worker’s rights advocates, it seems clear that, if these jobs are to be filled, Zombies will have to fight for their right to enter the work force. In an attempt to mollify current workers, government plans are underway to create a special authorization card indicating they can work until the harvest is done, but then all Zombies must return to their places of origin. Again, Moene, “I have no idea what will happen when the harvest is done, but I don’t suppose they need a retirement plan.” 


One Zombie worker, Dag Agan said, “I’ll not make any bones about it. I suppose I’ll just return home to the old sod.” 

GO, MAKE DISCIPLES, Matthew 28:16-20

Last week we celebrated Pentecost, the only Christian holiday mentioned in the Bible. Pentecost has deep roots in Judaism, but quickly became very important for the Christian community. It marks the birthday of mission in the Church.


Pentecost is the end of the Easter season. It is the doorway that opens before us leading us into a new season of learning. To kick off this new season, we begin with one last festival, the festival of the Holy Trinity. It celebrates the mystery of God—God is one in three and three in one.


There are those who will spend time today trying to explain this mystery (and I have been one of those people in the past), but Martin Luther says, “There are those who are much smarter than I who will try to explain this mystery, but for me it is enough to know that a mystery means that it cannot be resolved.” That is, if you can explain a mystery, it is no longer a mystery. So, today I come to you not to explain how God can be Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; but to remind you that to know God is to be in a relationship with God and that this relationship brings a wholeness to our lives that cannot be known without God.


We come today, this day of Holy Trinity, celebrating Christ’s victory over the grave, the birth of mission in our church, and the mystery of God’s continued relationship with us and the world. This is the time to roll up our sleeves and get down to doing the work of the Church. It is time to enter into God’s world of creative possibility, to work with God in the goodness of God’s creation, and to strive for the completion place of peace and hope God has intended for us from the very beginning.


Lately I have spent a fair amount of time studying church growth programs. What people are realizing in these studies is that the church is not as big as it used to be. (Can you believe that? I sometimes wonder how much money has been spent for this learning. We could have told them this without spending a great amount of time, let alone money.) 


The studies ask several questions. What is happening in the Church? What is the trend in our society? Why is it that what used to be the center of our communal living is no longer central? What is it that we need to do to reclaim our place in the story of our society? Is it even possible to reclaim our place in that story?


A part of the answer addresses one of the fastest growing sectors of our society—people who identify themselves as “none” or “done”. The “nones” are people who had no or very little in the way of religious upbringing and want nothing to do with religion of any kind. The “dones” were previously dedicated to and active in congregational life. Although still spiritual and faithful, they are done, not only with the religious tradition they were brought up in, but Church as an institution. It is just not going to be part of their lives again.


With this knowledge before us, we come to these texts today, this Holy Trinity Sunday, seeking good news, maybe even comfort; thinking about what the Church has to offer. What is it that the Church has to offer the world? Who is it that needs to be served? How are we, as Christ’s followers, going to meet that need?


We now live in a world where it is no longer about having people come to us. We no longer live in that “If you build it, they will come” society. We are faced with a world where it is more important to think about how we will meet the needs of God’s people outside of this building.


In order to begin knowing what we can do to serve God’s people, we need to identify what God is calling us to do. If we understand our call to ministry is to be gardeners and we choose to work with people whose immediate need is learning English as a second language, then our success rate is not likely to be very high, but, if we are called to be gardeners and our ministry is with hungry people, then our ministry might have a dramatic impact. So, it is important to know what God is calling us to do and where our gifts are needed.


Back in the first days of creation, life was so much easier. In fact, it was really simple. God did all of the work, declared it good, and, then after God created humankind, God invited us to join with God in a Sabbath celebration. Oh, for those days again, right? “Creation time, and the livin’ was easy.”


It was easy until that serpent came along. After that, there was the fruit of knowledge of good and evil, choosing our relationship with one another over our relationship with God, the finger pointing, and the sudden realization that life couldn’t be easy any more. Then there was the sweat of his brow and the pain in child bearing, finding enough time and money to put food on the table, preparing our children for the vicissitudes of life, saving for college educations, and then getting ready for retirement with uncertain markets and low interest rates. No wonder we want to get back to the garden.


We look at our lives and are tempted to think that Bible times were somehow more peaceful, calm, and safe, but, when we really look at the communal lives of the people in Scripture, we discover a world that looks very much like the world we are living in now.


In today’s reading in 2 Corinthians, we find a highly conflicted community. It is on the brink of falling apart. After reading about the issues of conflict within the community in Corinth, after hearing about the lack of faith and struggles for power, we hear these amazing words from Paul, “So, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ” (grace, that undeserved love of God—i.e., “May you know Christ’s love!”) … “So, may the grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who is the love of God (an appositive, Jesus is God’s love for us personified) … “So, may the grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit (the “other” advocate sent to walk alongside us, and speak for us, and help us find our way) … “So, may the grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you always.”


Now I don’t know about you, but when I am fighting with someone, I am more likely to say something like, “Take that!” Instead, Paul says, “Know God’s love. Find peace. Come to know oneness in the Spirit. Build each other up in love; don’t spend a lot of time trying to destroy the reputation of the people around you. Rejoice!”


And, if that is not enough to make you take pause on this Holy Trinity Sunday, we find ourselves coming back, in Matthew, to where we started several months ago. The disciples have been directed to the mountain in Galilee, and they have gone there. Remember, we heard these words Easter morning, “You are looking for Jesus among the dead. He is not here. He has gone ahead of you to Galilee. There you will find him” (or see him or encounter him).


The disciples went to the great gathering place in Galilee, to this amazing place in the book of Matthew. They went to the mountain—that mountain where Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount, where he gave his statements on what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Who was he preaching to? Who was listening? They were the sick, the diseased, the lame, the maimed, the blind, the deaf, the rejected, widows, orphans, the broken of the world and their care givers. Many of these people were brought before Jesus on cots, from all over the known world. This is the place where Jesus preached and the people who gathered heard him.


It is at the foot of this mountain, in the book of Matthew, that Jesus fed the five thousand with two fish and five loaves of bread. Two chapters later, Jesus fed four thousand on this mountain side. And it is on this mountain that Jesus is transfigured while speaking with Moses and Elijah. In the book of Matthew, these are all the same mountain. Now Jesus’ disciples have come back again to this central gathering place. It is their sanctuary, their place for worship. It is the place where they have come to know the word of hope, promise, and life itself, in a world that is about dying.


So now, as Jesus directed them, they have come to this sacred place and found him. They found him where he said he would be. And although everything seems to be as it should be, Jesus’ words to them are somewhat disconcerting. Jesus says something like, “It is wonderful that you have come here. I am so glad to see you again. It is a great thing, a heart-warming time for us, now that we can gather here, but we can’t stay here.”


Imagine we are Jesus’ disciples and we have come to witness that Jesus has conquered death and the grave. We have discovered that, indeed, Jesus has gone ahead of us, and he is with us on the side of the mountain. We are there, hearing him say, “All power and authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” It must be great worshipping that day. We may even want to savor this moment for a day or two. We might be tempted to build a shrine, a chapel, even a cathedral, a place where we could stay for many years to come basking in the glory, but Jesus doesn’t allow for that basking. Jesus doesn’t say, “Let’s take a break for a while. Let’s build a Christian commune here for reflection, spiritual discipline, and retreat.”


Instead, Jesus says, “Go! Leave this place! Go out into the world. Go to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to all of Galilee, to the remote corners of the Roman Empire, to all of the nations, and make disciples. Spread the word. Teach my commandments: ‘Love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and your neighbor as yourself.’ Baptize them into the relationship that I have demonstrated for you—that relationship of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Yes, baptize them into that relationship. Live openly in the world around you, knowing that you have been sent to serve the world. Lastly know this, you are not sent out alone. ‘Remember, I am with you to the end of the age.’ I am with you to the end of your days and to the end of all of the days of all those who follow after you.”


On this Holy Trinity Sunday, there are some who will show the triangle symbol and try to demonstrate how that is God, but the great mystery is this relationship that God continues to have with us and that relationship that we continue to have with God. It is not something that just happens; it is something that we have to live into. It is this amazing “into” relationship that we celebrate today. The words in Greek are clearer than our English translation. The Greek literally says, “Baptize them INTO the name of the Father, and INTO the Son, and INTO the Holy Spirit.” It is this INTO relationship word that places us in a relationship of life-long participatory living. It is not a magic act that happens to us once and then leaves us alone. It is this constant presence that interacts with us every day to the end of the age.


As the body of Christ in this place for worship and praise, we also become part of that divine relationship for the sake of the world. No longer is this place a place for shelter and comfort, but a place to be sent from; to hear the command, “GO! Go to all people of the world bearing witness to the power of God’s love for yourself and them in the midst of our controversial differences.”


These texts are challenging for us today, but the world that we live in is challenging. The way that we think about Church is challenging; and it is incumbent upon us to remember where we have been, and where it is that we are going, and how it is that we are going to get there.


We are not on a mountainside today, with the luxury of being able to use gravity to direct our footsteps down into the world when we leave here. What we have is this aisle that runs from the nurture and feeding and teaching place of love, that connects God’s altar to the baptismal font and then passes through the doors leading us out into the world where Christ continues to go ahead of us and call us.


On this Holy Trinity Sunday may we remember and know, really know, in our minds and in our hearts, that we are called to GO, and, in going, we seek to serve the people that God continues to give us. May you always find the surprises of God’s relationship gifts in the world each and every day.

Commencement Address

THE ANGELUS TRUMPET
The Unexpurgated Source for Alternative Bible Facts

Commencement Address

June 11, 28:16:20
by Matt Hughes

As we have promised, The Angelus Trumpet continues to report and analyze the activities of Josh Kristy and now his disciples.


Disconsolate since Kristy’s controversial trial which led to a verdict of treason and public execution, his followers have returned to the place where they say it all started. After Kristy’s alleged resurrection, which Temple Guards continue to contest, his devotees left Jerusalem and traveled to Galilee, returning to the scene of the crime, so to speak. I had followed them to the mountain clearing which was the site where a disreputable and plague-ridden crowd first stalked and then trapped Kristy. It is here that he shared his first fully-developed manifesto.


Thaddeus, one of Kristy’s droopy groupies, shared during the trek, “There seems to be little left to do. The movement is all but ended. All that’s left is this requiem journey; this one last blast of the past. We’re both consoling, and being consoled by, the people we meet along the way, passing on a word of hope where we can. After all, we have the words from the women claiming, He is risen and has gone ahead of us”. One can always hope, right? So, we’re heading back up there to the mountain. Oh, but the Temple Guards and the priests seem so confident….”


As the funereal pilgrimage moved on from city to village, it gathered followers who walked with the disciples for a while each day, recounting stories of Kristy’s work and the hopes they had had for the NU-world Kingdom of Dodd. I saw a handshake here, a hand on the shoulder there, sometimes a kiss of greeting and an embrace. And although there were times of laughter, mostly, people were subdued. Grimly determined, Kristy’s droopy groupies traveled by night, with a woeful countenance.


Reaching the iconic mountain where Kristy first spoke, where more than four thousand were healed and ate, this mountain where (with Peter, James and John) Kristy supposedly conversed with Moses and Elijah, where God’s voice was heard endorsing Kristy’s mission, and where, at the foot of this mountain, more than five thousand were fed with only two fish and five loaves of bread, Kristy’s followers began to search for the one who has allegedly conquered death.


As the pilgrims wandered disconsolately amid the detritus from earlier crowds—a piece of cloth, a broken sandal, fruit pits and fish bones everywhere—not to mention the worn patches still evident where people walked and sat, Kristy’s followers looked more like a docked puppy looking for its tail. They were on the mountain for several days before they seemed to find what they were looking for.


On Sunday, just as the sun crested the mountain, the droop dropped out of the group when Kristy’s followers gathered for worship. This small impassioned cohort gathered in one of the high mountain meadows. After rejoicing by singing some songs of praise and giving some individual testimonials recalling the high points of Kristy’s career, a man who could be Kristy’s doppelganger (dg) gave a powerful motivational speech recognizing that they had come to this place to find their roots.


But this dg declared that the time had come for his disciples to go out into the world. As the disciples had always had a relationship with one another, so now they were to introduce people to the relationship they have with God. The symbol of this new community of relationship with God and one another would be an adapted form of the baptism Jean Baptiste had used. They are also to keep and observe Kristy’s teachings and commands; that is, they are to practice ways of loving one another and the people God sends to them—to be agents of healing in a broken world, to build each other up rather than tear each other down; to visit the sick and the dying, the imprisoned; to clothe the naked, feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, care for the poor and welcome the stranger as a sister or brother.
The longer this reporter listened to this dg the more he seemed to take on the full identity of Kristy. I am may believe that the women outside the tomb were right after all.


Kristy continued, telling them that they had been studying for a long time now and they had passed the test. They had learned The Way. Through finding their way back to the mountain and talking with and sharing their remembrances of Kristy’s life and teachings, they had learned the value of NU Kingdom community, something that would go with them to the end of their lives. He assured them that he had been with them in their conversations and storytelling and he would continue to be with them to the very end.


Kristy said that this time they had together was going to be the last time all of them would be with one another because it was time to start something new. This time together could not be held onto; rather, this was the time for new ways of life to commence. His disciples were now to be the teachers. Starting now, they would travel the world meeting some fascinating people, and, at the end, they would die in the faith that had carried them to that place, but their death would not be the end of their relationship with one another.


Then, drawing himself up, he (Kristy, or maybe his doppelganger), told them to go. Go out into Galilee. Go into Judea. Go into all of Samaria. Go into all the corners of the Roman world. In doing this, Caesar’s world will be overcome, and the possibility of life lived in the presence of God’s love will become a reality.


At the end of his speech, Kristy blessed the food as he had before and then they ate together. After eating, the eleven came down the mountain. His followers appeared to be more focused and deliberate as they left. God only knows what kind of changes these ruffian rabbis might bring.

All Who Call on the Name of the LORD

   I started early that day, the first day of the week. It was harvest time, and I was going to town—well, to the farmers’ market. I knew that many people from all around would be coming and they would be looking for something to eat. So, I was bringing some of the best fruit I had.
   It was one of those beautiful harvest days when the sun is bright but not too hot. The air was clear with a light, refreshing breeze, and the dew lay heavy on the fields. In fact, the dew was so heavy when I started that the cobbles were a little slippery, and it made it tricky pulling my cart of figs and olives up the hill.
   Suddenly, the sound of a mighty wind roared through town. It sounded like the roaring of a thousand lions and five hundred stampeding elephants at the same time. The trees didn’t move; the grass never wavered; but there was this sound. I tell you, it was scary weird, and then it stopped. There wasn’t even a breeze anymore. It was spooky.
   “So, it’s going to be a hot one,” I thought. “I’ll have to wet down my cloak and lay it over the cart to keep the fruit from over-ripening.”
   Then I saw them, this crowd of people up ahead. “I’ll have to go another way to get to the market,” I thought. Then I saw people pouring out of every street. Apparently, they had heard it too.
   When I got closer, I asked someone what was happening. “Oh, it’s just a bunch of drunks babbling about something. They’re some of those Jesus followers. You know, that guy who was crucified almost two months ago.” 
   “Not that again!” I said. “I thought that we were done with that.” 
   “These are his disciples. The authorities are looking for them you know. The police will be here soon, and they’ll take care of it.” 
   “Good. I need to get to the market.” 
   “What for?”
   “I’m a little short this month. I could use a little walking around money so I want to sell my fruit at the festival.” 
   “Whatcha got?” 
   “Figs and olives, the best I have.” 
   “Was the crop good this year?” 
   “Well, it wasn’t bad. It would have been a lot better if that Jesus-guy hadn’t cursed the fig trees. We didn’t have the rain we needed, and there was blight on the figs. People say its because of the curse. Though I do have some really good figs here.” 
   “Well, I heard the noise, and I came out so quickly that I didn’t have anything for breakfast. Sell me a couple figs and a handful of olives.” 
   “Take your pick.” 
   Someone in the milling crowd must have seen us talking because we were challenged. “What are you doing over there?” 
   “Just getting some breakfast from this farmer. What’s it to you?” 
   Then I heard someone shout, “Hey, you want something to eat while we wait to see what happens?”
   That’s when the drunks got up and started to speak to the crowd. There was one guy, drunker than the rest, who seemed to be the leader. “People of Jerusalem”, he started. And people turned back to listen to what he had to say.
   A few people kept heckling. “Shut the drunk up. He’s going to be sorry when they arrest him for drunk and disorderly.”
   Not since the destruction of Babel had there been such confusion. People shouted for the police. Others tried to get closer so they could see who was speaking. Some wondered aloud how long it would be before these traitors would be crucified. There were many comments on the behavior of people during the festival. Many of the people came from other countries so they were speaking in different languages. As I said, like Babel all over again.
   But the man kept on talking, and we could hear him clearly. The more he talked the more excited he became. And when he got going, he was on fire!
   Then others started to speak, and the people looked in amazement because they could hear them clearly too. You would have thought, with so many speaking at once, that it would be impossible to hear anything, but it was like they were talking in unison. They got louder and clearer.
   People gathered around me wanting figs and olives while they listened, and, before I knew it, my cart was empty. 
   Since I no longer had to go to the market and I had nothing better to do, I stood around listening to what these crazies had to say. The day was young, and this could get interesting when the police would finally show up—cheap entertainment. 
   I suppose I should tell you that the police never did show up—you never can find one when you need one. The men just kept talking, and, pretty soon, the crowd settled down. The followers of Jesus kept telling us about this Jesus-guy. I was still mad about the curse on the figs, so I listened with some skepticism, but they talked about some interesting things like how we should love our enemies, treat them with kindness, and help them in any way we could. It was better to treat our enemies with kindness and have them respect us than it was to kill them and suffer retaliation and revenge. 
   They said that we should take care of the poor and let them know that God loves them too. After all, we couldn’t live without their help in our houses and estates. God had given us the gift of community so that we would all have enough and more. We should eat with them at our sides and not have them serving us the best while they got the left overs or nothing at all. 
   They said that we should make sure that the widows, and orphans, and strangers were cared for and treated respectfully because God speaks to us through the health of our society not just in the temple. So, we should listen to their concerns and needs. 
   They said that, if we were truly concerned about God’s creation, we would want to follow Jesus because he was God’s son and he had shown us how to live in peace—but peace might have a high price. Jesus died for that peace but not to fear because he rose from the dead on the third day. That was the sign of his Godliness.
   And, if people hated us for what we did and said in his name, then we should remember that people weren’t really overjoyed with Jeremiah or Elijah or Habakkuk or Moses or anyone else who listened to God. But God wants us to live together in the midst of our differences helping one another. This is what the prophets have always tried to get us to understand. “Well,” I said to the person standing next to me, “the only profits I’m interested in is this silver jingling in my pocket,” and we laughed. 
   The disciples kept on talking. They said that the rich landowners should be ashamed of themselves because they have resources to raise the standard of living for their workers but they choose not to—they keep their people in such great debt that they are forced to live as perpetual slaves. And God intended that no one be a slave for more than seven years—not even the gentiles.
   “Now we’re getting somewhere,” I said. “I like that. I’ve been working for the same landowner for fifteen years so far, and I’m guessing I will die working for him.”
   “I thought you said that you were selling your fruit,” my companion said.
   “Well, actually, it’s just a little I set aside. You know, just little extra somethin’ somethin’ for the working man.”
   By this time, the Jesus-guy was saying that Jesus had died so that everyone might be free. 
   Right about then the slaves started shouting, “What must we do to be saved?” Then others joined in, “What must we do to be saved?” The chant got louder and louder. 
   I saw that it was my time to leave. Things were going to get ugly soon, and, after my little confession, I thought, “better safe than sorry”—so I skipped. 
   They say that three thousand people joined the Jesus boys that day. I’m still not sure, but I did have Zeke, my neighbor, over for supper the other night; he’s been poorly lately and hasn’t been able to do much. And my brother’s widow, God be praised, has come to live with us.
   Of course, I want to be saved, but I’m still a little ticked about the figs even though they aren’t my trees—just a little somethin’ somethin’ for the working man; hear me God?

Sources for this story:
Genesis 11:1-10
Mark 11:12-24
Luke 16
Acts 2:1-21
© Peter Heide, May 22, 2007, rev. June 7, 2017. All rights reserved.

Benevolent Bloviating Bluster

THE ANGELUS TRUMPET
The Unexpurgated Source for Alternative Bible Facts

Benevolent Bloviating Bluster

by Luke A. Possil

Dateline: Jerusalem, June 4, 02:01:21


Thousands of pilgrims who came for the Pentecost holiday poured out into the streets of Jerusalem this morning after the forces of nature converged over our great city creating a meteorological phenomenon. Authorities are unable at the time of this report to explain these odd occurrences.

Some scientists and philosophers are proposing a particularly virulent, anomalous, climate change-induced, straight-line wind microburst while our national leaders are hypothesizing a fluke of cosmic energy released from warfare on Mt. Olympus. Whatever the cause, it seemed to localize where the followers of the treasonous leader, Joshua bar Joseph, were staying.

For the past forty-nine days, hoping to round up the traitor’s followers and other radical cell leaders all at one time, the Roman and Temple guards have been surveilling an undisclosed house where they believed bar Josephs’ followers were gathering. When this sudden meteorological phenomenon occurred, his followers exited the building like refugees from a Ringling Brothers clown car. There seemed to be a strange aura about them like some fiery, plasmic manifestation or St. Elmo’s fire.

Those affected didn’t so much walk as stagger from the domicile muttering to themselves, iterating what sounded like nonsense. As they continued to speak, people started to gather around one or the other of the bar Joseph followers recognizing their utterances. Lo their mumbling was actually foreign languages!

No one knows how these country bumpkins came to know these languages. Some suspect undocumented immersion-study linguist tutors; others claim a type of idiot savant classification. One observer was heard to say, “Now we can study pneumatology.” Another added, “And spontaneous polyglottal utterances."

Others, less curious, less impressed, are bringing charges of public drunkenness and substance abuse. The primary spokesperson for the bar Joseph followers, one Simon, aka Cephas, aka Peter, denies charges of inebriation, claiming drunkenness and substance abuse were not possible because it was still morning.

Simon explained, rather, that God was speaking through them via the Holy Spirit. He further asserted that the witness they were making was perfectly understandable and should have been anticipated if only one recalled the words from the ancient prophet Joel (who is suspected of mushroom eating).

After charging Rome and the people gathered here at the time of the Passover with killing the Son of God, Joshua bar Joseph, Simon continued by promising forgiveness if they would only join the little band gathered. He said, “The answer my friends, is blowing in the wind. The answer is blowing in the Holy Wind.”

With these and other hyperbolic statements, mob rule took over. Chants of “We call on the name of the Lord!” and “Jesus is Lord!” that arose from their midst eventually echoed throughout our city challenging the very foundations of Roman rule. We all know that the name of our lord is Tiberius Caesar. This gathering and its treasonous declarations are bound to bring Roman recriminations and retributions to our city. When it is all over, this reporter wonders, who will be saved?

Just for the Record, John 17:1-11

Just for the record, I hate it when the text for the day begins with, “When Jesus finished saying these things…”. I find it distracting and a little irritating because I immediately wonder, “What did Jesus just say?”

Well for the record, between last week’s text and this week’s text, Jesus has been instructing his disciples. We do not know for sure where they are, but we do know that this is Jesus’ farewell address that builds on verse 13:34 and has continued through this chapter—chapter 17. So, we have heard about the great vine; you know, “I am the vine and you are the branches.” We have heard that Jesus is in the world, but not of it. We have heard that the world hates Jesus and his witness and that, if we follow Jesus’ commandment, that is to love one another as Christ has first loved us, and if we bear witness to who Jesus is and continue in his teachings, then we can be hated too. If that weren’t enough, then Jesus said, “The time…has come when you will be scattered, each one to his home, and you will leave me alone, yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. I have said this to you so that in me you will have peace. In the world you face persecution, but take courage, I have conquered the world.”

Okay, now we have the context for understanding “After Jesus had spoken these words…”. What follows is an amazing prayer: a prayer for oneness and that we might come to know eternal life, more literally, life that will go on through the ages. And then Jesus tells us what this everlasting life, this life in the ages is: it is knowing the Father and his son Jesus Christ.

Now, I don’t know about you, but, when I first think of eternal life, even life into the ages, I’m thinking heaven. Yeah, heaven’s a nice place to go, so let’s go with that. But Jesus upsets this idea of place with an understanding of relationship. Life that goes on into the ages, what we translate as eternal life, is not a where but a what and a who. It is not a place but a relationship with Godself. And this is eternal life: that you know the Father and his son, Jesus Christ. Why? Because, without Christ, we have no life with any kind of future, not even life in the present.

With these words, Jesus reminds us of what we heard in John at Christmas: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was Life, and the Life was the light of all people. The light, in the darkness shines, and the darkness has not overcome it.…To all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.”

As John understands it there is no life without God, but John is not proposing some abstract philosophy. He is referring us all the way back to Genesis, to the sixth day of creation when God creates humanity in God’s own image, male and female. Without God, there is no life, and, without Christ, there is no new creation. This new life we know in the resurrected Christ, God has revealed to us in the person of Jesus who preaches to us and teaches us and prays for us to know the primary, primal relationship with the Father and his son, Jesus the Christ.

In this amazing prayer, Jesus prays that we know the Father and the son. This is not just a “be aware of”, “casual acquaintance with”, but an “intimate relationship” knowing. In fact, the intimacy of this knowing is likened to the relationship of sexual intimacy in most of Scripture. I do not use these words lightly. Jesus wants us to have such an intimate relationship with God that we will not question it, a relationship that understands God well enough to be able to finish the sentences of life and creation that God begins. Jesus wants us to have a relationship that fully embraces the understanding that we are created in God’s image—not just the beautiful people, but all of us. All of us are created in God’s image—those of us who walk with walkers, who sit in wheel chairs; the blind, the deaf, the broken; black, white, and all of the shades and hues that come from God’s vibrant color palette; gay, straight and other sexual identities. All of us are created in the image of God, and, in God, we find the many gifts of life being continually given.

This is the life that Jesus prays for us. And, if we know that we are created in God’s image and we are one with Christ and in Christ, then all we need to do to know what God looks like is to look around us, to reach out and greet those whom Christ has given us to walk through life WITH. If you want to get a little freaked, then think about God’s image the next time you look in a mirror. Do not be confused. You are not God, but you are made in the image of God.

When we know this, then God will give us his name, the name first given to Jesus. Jesus is given the name or title, Son of God. So, what is that name for us? It is Children of God. Individually we are claimed as sons and daughters just as Jesus is claimed. We hear those words echoing down from the beginning of John, “To those who believe in God’s name he gives the power to become the Children of God.”

In the waters of Baptism, we claim that intimate relationship of being child of God through the dying and rising into new life IN the Father, and IN the son, and IN the Holy Spirit. From the waters of baptism, we live; we walk as the children of God in this named identity that God has given us in God’s life. That is the relationship that Jesus is praying for us.

We are God’s children. We are called to be one with one another and with Christ. In this amazing oneness, this wholeness that Jesus is talking about, we are called to be one with one another in the world, not for the sake of the world, but for our sake. This holy oneness is not some hypothetical circumstance of the future. It is something that Jesus prays for at that very moment, that his disciples might know unity in who they are, in whose they are, and what they are going to do about it.

So often, we think that the disciples and Jesus’ other followers had it all together. We think that they had this wonderful relationship with Jesus and one another so that there must have been at least that small period of time when people were at peace with one another. Seriously, Jesus was there. Why wouldn’t there be peace at that time?

What we discover in Scripture though is that everybody was arguing with everybody else. Even the disciples continued to have arguments among themselves over who was the greatest, how should the money they collected be spent, who was able to speak God’s words of promise and healing, where was Jesus going, should they follow or should they go home and call it a day?

Even when they had agreed to go out and tell the story of Jesus—his life, his ministry, his death, and, yes, his resurrection, they couldn’t agree on how that story should be told. As a witness to this conflict, we have this Gospel book of John to help us understand it.

The book of John is not just a story about Jesus. It is an historic merging of at least two faith communities coming together probably in the area in and around Ephesus. We know this because the Gospel of John was presented to the church by the Bishop of Ephesus whose name was Polycarp. Thus, this prayer for unity, for oneness, is even more important for the people of John’s community in the early years after the crucifixion and resurrection. In this single Gospel, we have one group of followers who think that Jesus’ teaching and philosophy on life needs to be the central focus of who Jesus is. The other group thinks that telling the stories of the miracles Jesus performed should be the center of who this Jesus is.

Neither group seems to have been strong enough to make it on its own, so at least these two faith communities got together to tell a unified story. The result is the Gospel of John that tells one complete story including the philosophy of Jesus with his teaching and six miracles or sign stories. They agreed on almost everything except how to end their telling of who this Jesus is and what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

At the end of the telling of who Jesus is, they had two separate endings, one in Chapter 20 and the second ending in Chapter 21. What to do? Not knowing which of the endings to use, they included both. After all, Genesis has two creation stories. Why shouldn’t the end of Jesus’ story have two endings? So, in part, this Gospel of John is an answer to Jesus’ prayer. “Father, I pray that they may be one, as you, O Father, and I are one.”

And in this year of the 500^th anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation, we hear these words in our background, “That they become one.” We note that the Pope is attending many of the Reformation celebrations. We are closer to being reunited with our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters than we have been in…well, 500 years. This is an amazing time. May we someday know the oneness that Jesus prayed for those many years ago.

Later in this prayer we will hear that Jesus wants us to be one with him in faith and to know the oneness he shares with the father, but, at this point of the prayer, he is praying for us to know oneness with one another and the world around us. Think about this. Jesus wants us to be one with all of God’s people and yet we continue to find new ways to build walls that separate us. We find ways to push others out of our way in order to say, “Wait a minute! It’s all about me! It’s all about what I believe! It’s about my way of doing things!”

For the record, I believe that Jesus is still praying that we learn to be one and that through sharing our stories, through sharing our lives, through sharing our commitment to build up one another and to defend our neighbors, through sharing our sufferings and our joys, we might come to know the wholeness, the oneness of Christ, and to experience the life that comes from Christ which is God’s mercy, grace, truth, and forgiveness.

Again, for the record, as we live into the days ahead, let us look for those places where we are one with our neighbors, to be aware of being an answer to Christ’s prayer, and may we be instruments of God’s plan, creating unity in our divided world—that oneness that comes in knowing the Father and his son Jesus Christ.

A WHIM AND A PRAYER

THE ANGELUS TRUMPET
The Unexpurgated Source for Alternative Bible Facts

A WHIM AND A PRAYER

The fifth in a series of interviews with first shapers in The Way, or as we know them today, Christians. Previous conversations were with Peter, James and John, Thomas, and Mary Magdalene.

by Jack D. Sypal

Dateline: Jerusalem, May 28,17:01:11

The other day, while wondering what I would write this week, a very quiet-mannered man appeared at my desk. I paid little attention as I was busy completing my expense voucher to get reimbursed for the VII drachmas I had spent for wine at the inn the other night where I had been angling for a soldier’s perspective on Nero’s use of the military in Syria and Afghanistan. While it had turned out the night was well-hydrated, the story was dry.

The man next to me modestly cleared his throat. Tentatively he inquired, “I’m Drew; you may know me better as Andrew. I know you did the series on the early leaders of the Christian movement. I was wondering if you might be interested in that time between our last meal together and when the Jam Man got arrested?”

Frustrated by my lack of story, feeling a little guilty over my expenses, brusquely, I sneered, “What makes you arrive now, Drew, ‘a day late and a drachma or seven short’, figuratively speaking?”

“I was traveling around the Black Sea talking with the Scythians, then I was up in Georgia, and then I spent some time in Kiev. I’ve just returned. Just like my brother [Peter], James and John, Thomas, and Mary, who’ve all gone their ways, I’ve gone mine. It is what he said we would do, but I hadn’t realized how far away we might go.”

“Who said?” I asked for clarification. “And just what happened between supper and the arrest?”

“The Jam Man, Jesus, The Son of God, The Messiah, Christ, take your pick—they’re all the same person. He sat down with us and told us what to expect, and then he prayed for us,” Andrew added.

Knowing I needed a story, any story, I sought an opening. “I’m not sure my readers really care. Maybe you should tell me about the things you have been doing. My readers might be interested in that, but a parent-like lecture and then a prayer? I’m not feeling it.”

My tone must have shown I was still in my “mood” because I could tell I had touched a nerve. This mild-mannered, deferential, tentative man started to get a little red in his face and seemed to grow in stature right before my eyes. When he started speaking, he was no longer tentative, he asked no quarter, and mild mannered never crossed my mind during the ensuing minutes. What follows is Andrew’s statement.

 “This story is not about me. If the story were about me, I wouldn’t be here. It’s about the one man whose life and teachings will change the world, the one who overcame death and the grave, the one who showed all of us hope in an otherwise hopeless world. It is about the one who demonstrated that power is something that comes from within and is best used by sharing that power with others rather than using that power to oppress. It is about the one who raises up the worthless, forgotten, disposable people into a relationship that claims all people as valued, recognized, and needed in order to know the fullness of God’s person and likeness.

“I have wandered in a part of the world peripheralized; they are considered too violent, too plebian, too ill-bred, too far away from anyone. Yet I learned they are fully aware of the power of Rome, of a taxation system that favors the very rich and punishes the very poor, of how little value life has unless you have some sort of power over someone else, of slavish indebtedness, and of the lack of care for those who are injured or get ill while in the service of Rome. They are aware of the dead bodies floating down the Tiber amid the sewage and the flotsam, and the starving children who risk infection themselves as they swim out to steal the coins from the eyes of the dead so that they can buy food. They know of the violence of our great cities and how the wealthy find it entertaining to watch the suffering of some and the violent death of others in the Coliseum. They know that their lives are brutally harsh, but they prefer their lives to the culture of Rome.

“What is important is that these people come to know the wholeness, the oneness, the great joy of celebrating life without worrying about dying the next day; that the next group of people that comes over the horizon will not try to take the little they have from them, but help them to build up what they have and to speak well of them; that God’s word, revealed to us in the person of Jesus the Christ has come to let us know of God’s love and care for us; and that the glory of God is known in God’s mercy.

“In the midst of this cultural mistrust, I have lived with these people. I have been their neighbor until they could listen to me. Then I would talk with them about the teachings of the Messiah. I have told them about that time between our last supper and the trial that was to come. Jesus didn’t just prepare us for what was to come, he laid out the dangers of his message and gave us all the opportunity to go home and do nothing.

“And it almost happened. We were unprepared. We were innocents. We were naive. But that didn’t last long. Mary may think that she was the one who got us moving, but the fact of the matter is that we were ready to go. We sat in that room and talked about what we thought was important—about what Jesus had taught us and what we needed to tell the world. That time in that locked room significantly shaped the message we can bring to the many people who need to know that God loves them.

“Well one of the things that we all agreed was important was the last time he talked with us. He wanted us to know that he could do what he did because he always knew that he was not alone. He told us that he had always been secure in his relationship with the Father and that we should know that he [Jesus] would always be with us; that not only were we not going to be alone, but that he would send another advocate, another one to walk and talk alongside us. He called it the Spirit of Truth. I usually refer to it as the Holy Spirit because the people I talk with are superstitious, and they are afraid of spirits in general, so “Holy” Spirit helps them.

“He told us that, as his disciples, we had grown in our relationship with him and one another and he considered us students and friends; that we should love one another and, by our expressions of love, the world would know us. He told us that Rome was not going to be happy about people showing love for one another but that God had never stopped loving us and that we should continue to love one another just as he would always love us and, because of that, God would always love us despite what Rome thought and did.

“He said that we were forever grafted into his life and ministry by our relationship of trust and that this relationship was like a vine that might look like it withered from time to time but it would come back with strength and vitality because he was the vine and he would not fail us; that we would always know of our relationship with him and one another whenever we saw vines growing or whenever we shared the fruit of the vine with one another.

“And then, when he had finished with his assurances, he prayed for us.” At this point, Andrew paused his tale to ask me, “Have you ever been prayed for? …. Well?”

I flippantly told him that I thought I might have been prayed for a time or two. To which Andrew heatedly responded, “Well, this was a prayer that left no doubt. It was both consoling and empowering.  I’m talking about being prayed for in a way that changes your life. Jesus began to pray for us, making sure that we understood that this was not a general prayer for the world, but a prayer for us. It was a prayer, an asking, a begging, that we might come to know a oneness with one another as he had always known the oneness he had with the Father. Later he even prayed that we might know the oneness he had with the Father and that we might come to know the wholeness, the oneness, the peace, the love and assurance, that can only come from the one who had created us, who died for us, who broke through the limitations of life, i.e. death, for us.

“Of course, the later stuff we didn’t know at the time, but it was because of this last conversation and prayer that we were able to understand these teachings in light of the events that happened. I know that the reporting of these words is a little confusing at times, but that is partly because this last conversation and prayer were so important that we may have overdone it a little.

“Still, it is this message of preparation, of knowing that we will not be alone when we tell the world about who Jesus is, yes, is, that continues to support us and helps us remember that what we do is not about us, but the one who sends us. Believe me. I’d have been happy working on my dad’s fishing boat. I even think about it today, but then I think about those people who don’t know about this relationship I have; this relationship that has called me to share the gift of love I’ve been given with people who barely know a relationship of respect, let alone love, and then I have to go again.

“There is a long way to go, but the message of love is beginning to make a difference. Just think about the possibilities for the world 1,000 or even 2,000 years from now. It could mean that all people are treated with respect and love; that our rulers might not lie about their motives and not make false promises to the poor; that all people would receive the care they need when they need it; that starvation and brutality might be ended; that oppressive taxes and laws would be a thing of the past; and that the world might come to know the oneness, the wholeness that comes from building each other up instead of tearing lives apart; then all people might be raised up into ways of fulfilling life instead of razed into the pits of death and the grave.

“Jesus taught us this world of possibility and hope and demonstrated it. It is this life of resurrection living in the new world of mercy and forgiveness we came to understand in the wake of the empty tomb and in Jesus’ appearances among us, and it is this awareness of God’s presence that walks with us and embraces us in the midst of our fears and our joys; this presence that seems closer at times than my skin is to my own body.

“In his prayer, Jesus said, ‘This is the life of the ages, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.’ and ‘Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me so that they may be one, as we are one.’ Contained in that kind of love, how can anyone help but share it? That’s the difference Jesus’ parent-like lecture and prayer had for us.”

As Andrew left he smiled shyly, almost like he hadn’t just made this impassioned speech. “Thanks,” he concluded,” I’m planning to go to Peloponnesia; Patras is sounding good, if you need to be in touch. Love you, man.”