Dear St. Paul’s Family,
A few days ago I read a splendid essay by Casey Clabough called “The Skeleton Woman,” published in the latest issue of the journal Creative Nonfiction. It is a childhood recollection of the day Clabough’s mother came to “Parent Show and Tell Day,” in which parents shared with the students their occupations. The story begins with his mother saying to him “Tell them I am going to show them what they are,” as she dropped him off at school a few days prior.
For much of the essay, Clabough recounts stories of his mother’s professional life. An accomplished research biologist and professor, she was the only female faculty at her medical college, during the growing pains of gender equality in the 1960s. Many of the vignettes recount his mother’s struggle against gender bias and blatant sexism in the classroom, which she handled with grit, grace, and – sometimes – graphic strength (like the time she cut off a cadaver’s certain body part to illustrate a point to some childish male students.)
Eventually, this collection of memories winds back to its original premise: the morning that this determined, defiant mother entered her son’s classroom to tell his teacher and his classmates “what they are.” At the very moment when the reader expects a combustible climactic scene between a powerful woman and the oppressive cultural conventions that hampered her success, the essay takes a surprising turn toward the poignant.
She brought with her an actual, full-size skeleton. “Well, here you are,” she said to the students. “Here is what you all are beneath your clothes and your skin. An adult human skeleton consists of 206 bones altogether, which are divided into two principal divisions: the axial skeleton and the appendicular skeleton. The axial forms the long axis of the body, and it includes the bones of the skull, vertebral column, breastbone and rib cage. The appendicular consists of the bones of the upper and lower extremities, the shoulder girdle and the hip girdle.”
Then, with her demonstration well under way and the students’ attention wrapped around the skeleton’s little finger, she said: “I could show and tell about this forever, but the best showers and tellers care about what other people want to know. I am interest in you all. What do you want to know?”
WHO TELLS US WHAT WE ARE?
The Bible contains numerous passages that engage us in much the same way. Its words assess the human condition with diagnostic precision, showing us who we really are deep below the surface of our skin. It exposes both the deviant parts of our souls as well as our divine potential for beauty and wholeness. It reminds us that as much as we are “fearfully and wonderfully made” we also “fall short of the glory of God.” Rather than using skeletons and anatomical sketches, the Bible uses parables and poetry, prose and prayers, to remind us that behind our public facades, we are people of fears, hopes, irritation, grief, and love. We live with complexity, ambiguity, and inconsistency, much like Paul’s confession to the Romans: For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.
That’s why it’s good to willfully subject ourselves to the enduring gaze of the God who is in the Show and Tell business: Showing us facets of our lives that we have ignored or concealed, and telling us how to be authentic, whole, and aligned with God’s highest purposes.
Incidentally, this is partly how I see my role as your minister. As your preacher, your residential theologian, and your mid-week columnist, my task is to give language to the Spirit’s work in and through us. It is to invite us to receive the Scripture’s words of comfort and of challenge with receptive ears and open minds, and to direct our attention to the one in whom we “live and move and breathe and have our being.” Admittedly, there is a regular temptation to make the sermon more egocentric, and much more about the preacher’s personality, humor, and charisma. But sermons are never about me, and they are never about any of you. First and foremost, they are about God, and God’s constant efforts to save us and perfect us in love.
Perhaps Paul came to this same realization as he was writing his letter to the Philippians. Rather than focus on his own efforts to advance the gospel, or rely on his own prominence in the church to advance his agenda, he redirects our attention in the text that we will study this Sunday: I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
SHOWING US OURSELVES
Toward the end of the class period, Clabough’s mother said to the kids, “I like talking to you all. Now for the real fun. Who wants to touch him?” Then the essay ends with these charming words:
An eruption of hands and a piping chorus of “Me! Me! Me!” Bodies abandon their desks, pressing forward as one. My little classmates weave around the skeleton in a frenzy of fascination, giving quick touches from small forefingers. One girl reaches up to grab a bottom rib then lifts her shirt to poke at her own. And I, apart from the others, have eyes only for my mother: towering above the swirl of motion, commanding the classroom, beaming down upon the children, showing them themselves.
So, join us this Sunday, for another show and tell demonstration. Let’s come to learn more about who we really are, deep down inside. But more importantly, let’s come wanting to know more about Christ, and the God who created us, redeemed us, and strengthens us every day.
Grace and Peace,
Magrey
The Rev. Magrey R. deVega
St. Paul's United Methodist Church
531 W. Main St.
Cherokee, IA 51012
Ph: 712-225-3955
Email: mdevega@sp-umc.org
Philippians 3:1-11
1 Finally, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is not troublesome to me, and for you it is a safeguard.
2 Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh!
3 For it is we who are the circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh—
4 even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more:
5 circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
7 Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ.
8 More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.
10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death,
11 if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
INVITATION TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
Join us this Thursday for the start of a new evening study called “Invitation to the New Testament.” The class will meet on the first and third Thursdays of the month, from 6:30-8:00, and will be an overview of the major themes and books of the New Testament. The books cost $12.00 and will be available this Thursday. Please respond to this e-mail with your interest in attending.
ELECTION DAY LUNCHEON
This year our United Methodist Women’s election day luncheon will be held on Tuesday, November 8, 2011, from 11:00am-1:00pm. The bake sale and coffee will start at 9:00am. If you would like to help here are some things you can do:
· Make a salad for the salad bar, by picking up an ice cream bucket from the dining room. The recipe for the salad is in the bucket.
· Make any kind of pie for the dessert table.
· Make baked items for the sale.
Please contact chairperson Ervina Scott or Barb Clabaugh if you have questions or wish to help out in any way. Thanks for your help in making this another successful event.
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