September 2010 Newsletter

Church Office Hours

Please note as of september, the church office will be open 9:30 am until 1:30 pm, monday through thursday; 9:30 am until 12:30 pm on friday.

Lessons from Noah
Getting Along

Noah joined our household in late October of 2004.  An adorable, wiggly bundle of energy, he would need to adjust to life in a relatively quiet household, unlike the home where he’d spent the first eight weeks of his life.  His original home was filled the chaos and excitement of his litter mates, numerous grown Portuguese Water Dogs, a hairless cat and the comings and goings of the breeder’s teenage children and people who came to view and purchase the pups.  Noah was leaving a somewhat chaotic place where he was at the bottom of the pecking order to go to a relatively quiet place where he had the potential to be top dog.

We had just three rules, which we discussed with much seriousness on the way home with the new pup – no people food, no jumping on the furniture, and no sleeping in our bed.  But Noah really had no reason to be concerned about our conversation that day, since none of our rules were enforced for very long.  Today Noah frequents sidewalk café gatherings (otherwise known as “coffee with the boys”) where he’s indulged with bits of pastry provided by friendly humans.  He shares our couches with us and naps in a comfy leather chair when we’re not home.  And he sleeps with us at night, all 70 pounds of him.  He had to learn a few things, like keeping his distance from our elderly cats if he didn’t want to have his nose scratched, but basically Noah is well socialized and has learned to get along with everyone – adults, children, other dogs, even the cats.

Noah’s success in our household is at least in part due to his flexibility and his ability to accept everyone exactly as they are.  He never discriminates based on race, color, religious preference or political affiliation.  He never judges anyone by the size of their bank account, how much education they have, or the presence or lack of designer labels in their clothing.  He just plain loves people -- even when they’re not all that lovable or are too distracted to pay him as much attention as he’d like.

How tolerant are we of those around us?  Can we forgive intentional and unintentional slights?  How well do we adjust when people don’t meet our expectations?  How often are we quick to judge others when their behaviors fall short of our standards or their views do not match our own?

God loves us unconditionally and expects us to love each other in the same way.  Jesus’ words caution, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”  (Matthew 7:1-2)

I recently read a book entitled The Feather-Bed Journey, a children’s story written by Paula K. Feder, a resident of Centerbrook, Connecticut.  Her book tells the story of “a little Jewish girl and her family in Poland during World War II.  It is an account of the many people, Jewish and Gentile, who helped that girl along her way to survival.”  This story, although fiction, was based on stories that Paula’s mother, who came to the United States from her town in Poland in 1912, told about friends and family “who remained in Poland and were not so lucky.” (Quotes from book jacket.)  

The Feather-Bed Journey is a story about people who were judged and those who chose to help instead of judging.    

In defense of writing on this topic for young children, Paula Feder wrote the following:

Before World War II, 10 percent of Poland’s population was Jewish.  When the Germans occupied Poland in 1939, they severely limited the freedom of the Jews.  Anti-Jewish decrees made life unbearable.  There had always been a history of anti-Semitism in Poland, but treatment of Jews became much worse during the occupation.

In 1940, Jews were placed in ghettos.  Although people tried to live as normally as possible, crowding produced starvation and disease.  Many died.  Some rebelled.  Some escaped, but the majority were sent to concentration camps.  There few survived, and few Jews are left in Poland today.

The Nazis also persecuted Gypsies, homosexuals, Communists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, the disabled, and the mentally ill.

During the war, some sympathetic Poles hid Jewish children at the risk of their own lives.  They hid them in basements, attics, convents, orphanages, haylofts, and secret compartments.  The children had to learn to deny their names and religion.  All were deprived of their childhoods.

Today’s children must learn about history, even when history is about evil.  Perhaps the best way is to tell a particular story and, in telling, help children to think about what it must have been like to be cold, hungry, afraid, and separated from one’s mother and father.

We can talk to our children about prejudice and its results.  We can point out the devastation of war.  Perhaps most important, we can talk about courage and acts of goodness in the midst of horror.

Then it will be our children, armed with an understanding of the past, who can stand up and say, Never again.

While atrocities similar to those of the Holocaust continue to be repeated over and over again around the globe, we are not immune from perpetrating our own atrocities, albeit on a lesser scale, in our nation, our communities and our families.  Any act of intolerance, prejudice, or unkindness is as unsightly in the eyes of our creator as is grand scale genocide.

It is only with “new hearts” that we can break the mold of intolerance.  “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”  (Psalm 51:10)  Let that be our prayer.  May we always love as Noah loves – unconditionally, without prejudice.

Julie Peace