My Conversation with Caleb

While down at the condo pool, I received a phone call a bit ago from my son Caleb, who is at Hillmont Camp again, where his father's parents are retired directors. His grandparents are Free Will Baptists, and it is to the FWB church in Dickson TN that they go on Sundays and Wednesdays.. Here is part of the phone conversation from today:

"Hey Mom, how ya doin'?"

"How ya doin' Cabie?"

Exciting so far, huh???

Then , "Mom, mom, I saved you the bulletin this morning ...you will LOVE it!! It's got the Statue of Liberty and the American Flag on it...we sang America and America the Beautiful."

Me: "Oh, well America the Beautiful is good---the words are so real." And I also reminded him that we usually could always find something edifying in a sermon if we listened for it. And that it is Memorial Day and people in the congregation may be thinking about loved one who have died in the military. I also asked if his grandparents could hear him...no, they had just left Captain Ds and he was at the car.

C: "Wait a minute, we didn't sing America the Beautiful....and the sermon was on how we want to be remembered...and he said people should remember us for how much we loved Jesus and the church. He talked about how good the institutional church is."

At this point, I could tell he knew that I agreed with the Jesus part and the church part, though I wouldn't have said the church thing the same way. And I also reminded him that we usually could always find something edifying in a sermon if we listened for it. And that it is Memorial Day and people in the congregation may be thinking about loved one who have died in the military. (I DO try to be encouraging in a motherly way.)

C: Yeah, I think that about Jesus...be remembered for Jesus...but..." (He knew I knew what he meant.) "In Sunday School, all the imagery was about war "(this he said with disgust) He and I both honor those who serve---we remember Clinton Cox, our father and grandfather, who served in WW II. But we also know that Daddy and Paw-Paw would be see the problem here too.

At the time of the phone call, I had been reading Michael Slaughter's book Change the World. Sort of a coincidence (God working anonymously as Anne Lamott would say) since much of what Slaughter writes about Caleb would agree with. I told him about the book and Slaughter and Caleb said "Cooooool...it's neat that a mega church pastor would talk like that."

When I got off the phone, I gave God thanks for a 19 year old son who knows how to pay attention to the important things, who knows who Jim Wallis is, who takes his spiritual life very seriously, and who isn't rude (I hope) to the people of his grandparents church. In fact, he really likes the preacher. And I am thankful for a son who can disagree vehemently, but still likes the folks with whom he disagrees.

Oh, yeah, one more thing. Last Sunday, when he and his grandparents walked into church, he asked an older man there whom he knew, "where's the red? Don't we celebrate Pentecost here?"

At which the man laughed and said, "no, we're Baptists." First Caleb asked me if Methodists are the only ones that celebrate Pentecost...and then if there were any Baptists that celebrated Pentecost. I told him about American Baptists. Caleb also told me that a bit of Methodist bashing went on then (I am certain that it must have been done in love...I hope) and of course Caleb had to tell me all about it.

Changing the subject slightly, I worshiped at the middle service at Platte Woods this morning. The church musician is Walter Bryant, a great jazz keyboard player and arranger. Steve Breon preached on simplifying and prioritizing our use of time. Walter played My Sweet Lord for the prelude and then a very talented woman sang, with Walter and his combo playing, the Rolling Stones' Time is on Our Side..which really fits....he and I had a discussion after the service about using popular contemporary songs "as is"...instead of gerrymandering them up to be explicitly Christian. Not that that is always bad, but maybe we are supposed to turn our ear to the radio, and despite some of the ugliness and language, hear that God shows up in the strangest places. Caleb and I have had several discussions about this and agree with Walter.

I think this is enough. And it's time to go watch or listen to the Cards game.

PS: Googling around for a picture, I see that White American Baptists are not the only Baptists who celebrate Pentecost. There are several websites of African American Baptists of many ilks that do. One example is at this site for Sharon Baptist Church in Richmond VA: http://www.thesharonbaptistchurch.com/index.php?p=1_15_Ecumenical-Calendar-