Simple Country Church in a F#*@ed-Up World

My best buddy has a cabin up in the woods 1.5 hours north of Harrisburg. It is actually his house, not a weekender. It is where he lives full-time except when having to travel to his actual place of work. He does his work remotely and I mean remotely. Sprint (now CenturyLink) years ago ran a DSL connection across his street. I suppose it had to mine opportunity where the bigger players weren't vested. Comcast would call it chump change and CenturyLink is rather chump-like.

They were the only utility that didn't respond to my repeated "call before you dig" notification when I was excavating my garden out back and that nearly resulted in me severing their phone/DSL line.

By process of elimination, I figured out it was them. Sure, I will sign up for your cut-rate shitty sub-par service. I would really like to stick it to Comcast but just don't have the means if CenturyLink is my only weapon. Like the Poles on horses attacking the Germans in tanks at the start of WW II.  

How remote is my buddy's domicile? I can't get cell coverage at his house. It fits his vibe. He is a true mountain man. He's handy, hard-working, and smart. College-educated, a computer scientist of the highest order of competency, yet a country kid at heart. "West Virginia, mountain momma, take me home" kind of vibe. His being a missionary in Alaska for a couple of years has made him tougher than me. He has lived through two Alaska winters in fairly primitive conditions. He is an anomaly of sorts, smart as hell, practical at heart. And a good man.

I lived in West Virginia during some formative years and I love mountains and lakes, yet essentially I am a product of the suburbs and that is where I am most comfortable. If I had an extra million dollars, I would probably buy a place in the country and a place in Lancaster City. But, I don't, so I average the two and get the 'burbs. I am close enough to rural and urban if I want it, but I can chill in my little townhouse and my small plot of land that I till (my garden in 12 X 4). God has taught me much by gardening. Including my tragic Moby Dick-like battles with groundhogs--at my previous house which was a metaphor for my life then. Just going to lose man. Your fence means nothing. Resistance is futile, resign yourself to the furry furies.http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Fi-Go/Furies.html

Central Pennsylvania is rather fascinating geographically in that one can go from the hood to the wood in a matter of minutes. I was at a birthday party in Lancaster Central Park Friday night that is blocks from the Lancaster City's version of the badlands. Nothing like North Philly, it is still a dangerous place, particularly at night. Not good to be white at night in that part of town because it means that you are out of place and maybe a good candidate to be rolled. I don't like stereotypes but this one holds up. It is just a statement of fact. That is one reason why I surmise we packed up soon after dark. Plus, the mosquitos were enjoying my man-flesh.

Maybe other places are like this urban/rural schizoidness too but I tend to think that the starkness is not as polarized. Places tend to be urban or rural and stay that way for miles on end. The current budget impasse in the Pa. Legislature is a reflection of the deep differences in the urban/metro mentality of Philadelphia/Pittsburgh and their 'burbs and the rest of the state that have centers of small urbanity surrounded by vast swaths of rural America.  

My buddy goes to a country church up in that there mountains. The other week I went to the service and was preparing myself to be preached to by some 300 pound fire-breathing pastor. I instead encountered a part-time pastor who is a former high school English teacher who preached a quite erudite and informed sermon.  That can happen in Central Pa. because the rural/urban divide is small geographically but large culturally if that makes any sense.

The parishioners fit the rural type more. Mostly older, less formally educated, and few younger families and maybe one teenager. It was a reminder that rural America is quite literally dying off and the world they knew with it. During Bible Study Hour, there were conversations and confusion about the state of society. Kind of along the lines of how people's word these days is no longer binding, how dishonesty is modeled and taught to kids, how people steal without a second thought. These critiques are not the rantings of right-wingers, they are the valid and simple expressions of people who grew up in a different world where tradition is like the soil from which the community sprung and sustained.

Agribusiness has wiped out the family farm for the most part. The irony is that we may need to all go back to farming with places like California running out of water. God may be working in all of this to teach us the basics of life and to call us back to understand that our food does not come from Costco, Wal-Mart, etc. Food comes from the land and watch what you do (Monsanto, et. all), you shall surely reap what you sow. The last Round-Up poisoned field whimpers and dies and all of your chemical incantations and shenanigans come to naught. Raise the dead ye corporate gods.  

Just to circle back to the sermon as I draw to a close here. Like I mentioned, the sermon was erudite, biblical, and informed. It was based on 2 Samuel 2:1-4 where King David inquired of the Lord whether he should go up into the cities of Judah. This is after the death of King Saul when he fell on his sword after being mortally-wounded in battle with the Philistines (that whole tragedy is going to be the basis for another blog soon: The overweening nature of pride and the sword of judgment. It is inevitable sooner or later. When we know this, it makes sin less tempting).

Here is the interesting and unique thing...God spoke to David. David actually heard from Lord. These days, we are quite certain that when someone says that they heard from the Lord audibly that they are loony and in need of meds. I struggle with things like this. Is it really instructive to teach that God speaks to people in that way today? As far as I can tell, He doesn't normally do so. It wasn't the main point of the pastor's sermon which was more along the lines of seeking guidance in a more generic sense. What is right and wrong and how to proceed. God has been quite clear about righteous vs. unrighteous in terms of the moral law. The Ten Commandments are self-evident. Just as a side comment, I find it almost hilariously but tragically comic that the Ashley Madison proprietors (the cheating website) are taking a moral stance against hacking and offering a 500K reward when they created a technical haven for people to hack their marriages.  The world explodes.

There was some suggestion in the pastor's sermon that God will make the darkness clear by His revealed light and that is true to a point. Yet, I have often been still in darkness in respect to the specific steps that I have needed to take in particularly vexing situations where I prayed, fasted, read the Word, and talked to godly people--and still got nothing. I just watched scenarios go from bad to worse. It was like watching a building fall and trying to avoid the bricks. There was nothing I could do as far as I could tell. In fact, God seemed to be the party with the hand on the demolition switch.

I think we need to be up front here and not pretend that God's providences are not hard to understand at times. They are, and we are in the dark. I like the quote from the sermon, "The Light of His smile, or the Cloud of His refusal." Silence, safely we can conclude, is a "No."

Perhaps one of the purposes of education is to make one skeptical. To doubt revealed truth or what is considered revealed truth.

That is purposeful because if an idea cannot withstand the acid of doubt, it is probably not true. However, we live in a complex world with complications beyond comprehension. The best and smartest among us stagger like blind men. It is almost satire to watch politicians boast what they can and will do. Ben Carson is looking better and better all of the time. I am frankly sick of politicians...this is all most of them have ever done...be politicians.

So, in conclusion, just because we cannot find the answer does not mean that it does not exist. It is just beyond our intellectual grasp and that reminds us that we are not God. And that is the answer. It has always been the answer. And will always be the answer.