Bruce Springsteen – Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town
The Return of the Flags ~ A Reflection on 150 Years
It is not often that we get to participate in a once in a lifetime event but recently I had just that opportunity. On December 22, 1865, representatives of the regiments from Massachusetts assembled on the Boston Common. They had survived four years of war and were now safe at home and would be able to gather with family and friends for Christmas. But they had one more job to do, they had to return their battled scarred flags to the Governor of Massachusetts.
It had been the custom, since the Revolutionary War, for the Governor of Massachusetts to present each regiment with their flag as they departed for battle. These colors would become the symbol of their honor and a rallying cry on the battlefield. During the confusion of battle, a soldier would be able to see his regimental colors flying in the wind and know where his comrades were at all times. The soldier that carried the colors was out in front, with no weapon to defend himself, and was very often the one who was shot first as the units marched across the field. Each man that took that flag in his hands knew the fate that he was certain to meet, but he willingly volunteered for the job.
On that December morning, it was time to return those flags to the State that had provided them. They would return in a lavish ceremony at the Massachusetts State House in Boston and immortalized on canvas for all to see. The flags and the men that had fought with them had finally come home. They came from all parts of the state, small towns, and large cities. Factory workers and farmers, native born and immigrants, fighting for different reasons but unified under the flag of their regiment.
Massachusetts Governor John A Andrew, who served as governor during the years of the Civil War, was standing at the bottom of the steps of the State House as the regimentals flags, flying in the wind, approached from the Boston Common. Seeing those colors, marked with the scars and blood of many battles, coming back home must have been an impressive sight to see.
The units formed in front of the Governor and his party and the ceremony began with a prayer led by the Reverend Samuel Lothrop. In this prayer, Rev. Lothrop prayed for the nation and those that had served and continued to serve. He prayed for those who were injured and those who were recovering, and he prayed that wars would one day cease and we would know peace.
Lord, grant that we may yet see the day when war and fear of war shall no longer be; the day when peace shall become our common possession; the say when Your will shall be done on earth as it is in Heaven. O Lord, hear our prayer for our sakes. Amen.
The prayer being finished Brigadier General Darius N Couch stepped forward to address Governor Andrew. He told the Governor that they had come to return to the State the colors that had been entrusted to them. With great emotion he paused, and then continued;
You must, however, pardon us if we give them us with profound regret, for these tattered shreds forcibly remind us of long and fatiguing marches, cold bivouacs and many hard-fought battles. The rents in their folds, the battle-stains on their escutcheons, the blood of our comrades that has sanctified the soil of a hundred fields, attest the sacrifices that have been made, the courage and constancy shown, that the nation might live.
Governor Andrew then addressed those assembled and reminded all listening of the sacrifices that had been made.
These banners return to the government of the Commonwealth through welcome hands. Borne, one by one, out of this capital, during more than four years of Civil War, as the symbols of the nation and the Commonwealth, under which the battalions of Massachusetts departed to the field, they come back again, borne hither by surviving representatives of the same heroic regiments and companies to which they were entrusted.
General, I accept these relics in behalf of the people and the government. They will be preserved and cherished, amid all the vicissitudes of the future, as mementos of brave men and noble actions.
The soldiers then marched up the steps of the State House and returned the flags.
150 years later, on December 22, 2015, men gathered on Boston Common. Many of the men who came had ancestors that fought, and some died, in the battle to keep the Union together. Once again they came from small towns and cities all over the Commonwealth. They gathered in the rain and held in their hands the colors of the regiments that had gone off to war. They marched through the Boston Common to the sound of fife and drum, up the stairs, past the monument to the 54th Massachusetts, across Beacon Street to the Massachusetts State House. The brief ceremony was recreated and, as had their ancestors 150 years ago, they marched up the stairs and through the center doors of the State House.
I was there and was surprised by the emotion as those flags, one by one, went past and up the stairs. I thought of all the men that had gone off to war and those who did not return, not just from the North but the entire country. What had that war cost us and what does it still cost us today.
I had the honor of reading the prayer prayed on that day by Rev. Lothrop and was taken aback by the words and how fitting they were for that day and how fitting they are for today. We all long for the day when all wars will cease and peace will reign on earth.
I am often asked why I participate in reenactments and the answer I give to so that we never forget. That we never forget the brave men and woman who sacrificed so much that we can have what we have today and also to keep their memories alive and continue to tell their stories. It is our collective responsibility to uphold their memories and to live up to the ideals that they fought for.
I will not soon forget this day. It was an honor to have been a part of remembering.
A Winter Solstice Prayer
A Winter Solstice Prayer
by Edward Hays from Prayers for a Planetary Pilgrim
The dark shadow of space leans over us. . . . .
We are mindful that the darkness of greed, exploitation, and hatred
also lengthens its shadow over our small planet Earth.
As our ancestors feared death and evil and all the dark powers of winter,
we fear that the darkness of war, discrimination, and selfishness
may doom us and our planet to an eternal winter.
May we find hope in the lights we have kindled on this sacred night,
hope in one another and in all who form the web-work of peace and justice
that spans the world.
In the heart of every person on this Earth
burns the spark of luminous goodness;
in no heart is there total darkness.
May we who have celebrated this winter solstice,
by our lives and service, by our prayers and love,
call forth from one another the light and the love
that is hidden in every heart.
Amen.
Stress and Burnout, the Solution
In the previous essay I presented the signs and symptoms of stress and burnout. In this essay I will prevent some ways that you can learn to deal with stress. As with any issue like this always consult with a health professional.
- Take Relaxation Seriously – Whether you take up meditation, listening to music, reading a book, taking a walk or visiting with friends and family (although this can often lead to more stress), truly think about what you’ll do to relax, and then designate time for it.
- Cultivate a Rich Non-Work Life – Find something outside of work that you are passionate about that’s challenging, engaging, and really gets you going. It might be a hobby, sports or fitness activities, or volunteering in the community.
- Unplug – While communication technology can promote productivity, it can also allow work stressors to slip into family time, vacation, and social activities. Set boundaries by turning off cell phones at dinner and designating certain times to check email.
- Get Enough Sleep – Research suggests that having fewer than six hours of sleep per night is a major risk factor for burnout. Poor sleep can have negative effects on your job performance and productivity. Lack of sleep can lead to fatigue, decrease your motivation, make you more sensitive to stressful events, impair your metal function, leave you more susceptible to errors, and make it harder to juggle competing demands on you and your time.
- Get Organized – Often, when people are burnt out, they spend a lot time worrying that they’ll forget to do something or that something important is going to slip through the cracks. Get organized, clear your head, put together a to-do list then prioritize. Having a system in place will make it less likely that you will have to worry about getting things done or remembering them.
- Stay Attuned – It is important to tune into the precursors of those conditions and physical signs that point to your being under too much stress. Headaches, tight shoulders, a stiff neck, more frequent upset stomach are all signs that you may be reaching your limit. In terms of mental health, burnout affects depression and vice versa, if you are depressed that can affect your level of burnout. You may need to seek professional help if this is the case.
- Know When it’s You and When it’s Them – Stress and Burnout are sometimes motivated by internal factors and sometimes external ones. If it is internal ask yourself where this is coming from so you will have the ability to head it off. The same applies to external factors although sometimes they are much harder to deal with than the internal one. In the end, a change is what might be called for.
- Figure out When Enough is Enough – Consider talking with the person you report too at work and programs that might be available to you to help you deal with this. If the stress is coming from other activities you might need to draw back a little on those. If neither of these work, like in the last example, it might just be time for a change.
Stress and Burnout, the Symptoms
A lot of people come to me and say that their stress level is on the rise this time of year and they are not sure what to do about it. Well first let me say that we a put way too much emphasis on a season of the year that is designed to slow down and ponder. The danger of stress is it accumulates, unless dealt with as it is happening, and will eventually lead to burn out. As a pastor I need to be aware of the amount of stress that the volunteers in my church are under and ensure that they are not taking on too much.
With all of that said, in this essay I will present the signs and symptoms and in the next essay I will present some ideas on how we can adjust and learn to deal with stress before it gets to burn out.
Stress seems to be a normal part of life but if we understand ourselves and the signs and the symptoms usually stress can be dealt with in the normal course of our lives. So what do we need to look for?
1. Exhaustion – A clear sign is feeling tired all of the time. This can be emotional, mental, or physical. It is a sense of not having any energy or being completely spent.
- Lack of Motivation – When you have lost your enthusiasm for something you usually like to do or you have lost that internal motivation for what you like to do. If it is harder to get going in the morning or you feel like you are dragging yourself to work, that is a clear indication that something is wrong.
- Frustration, Cynicism, and Other Negative Emotions – You may feel like what you are doing does not matter anymore or you may be disillusioned with everything. You might notice that you feel more generally pessimistic than you used to. While we all experience negative emotions from time to time, it’s important to know when these are becoming unusual for you.
- Cognitive Problems – Burnout and Chronic Stress may interfere with your ability to pay attention or concentrate. Stress narrows our attention to focus on the negative elements that we perceive as threats. In the short term, this helps us deal with the problems at hand. When stress becomes chronic, this narrow focus continues for a long period of time and we have difficulty paying attention to detail.
- Slipping Job Performance – Compare your job performance now to your job performance in previous years. Because burnout tends to happen over an extended period of time, taking this long-term view might reveal whether you’re in a temporary slump or experiencing more chronic burnout.
- Interpersonal Problems at Home and at Work – This tends to play out in two ways;
a. You’re having more conflicts with other people, such as getting into arguments, or
b. You withdraw, talking to your coworkers and family members less.
You might find that when you are physically present you are tuned out more. - Not Taking Care of yourself – When we suffer from burnout we sometimes engage in unhealthy coping strategies like drinking too much, smoking, being too sedentary, eating too much junk food, not eating enough or not getting enough sleep. Self-medication is another issue and could include relying on sleeping pills to sleep, drinking more alcohol at the end of the day to de-stress or even drinking more coffee to summon up the energy to drag yourself into work in the morning.
- Being Preoccupied with Work – When you’re not at work – even though you might not be working at a given moment, if you’re expending mental energy mulling over your job, then your work is interfering with your ability to recover from the stress of your day. In order to recover, you need time to stop thinking about that task altogether.
- Generally Decreased Satisfaction – This is the tendency to feel less happy and satisfied with your career and with your home life. You might feel dissatisfied or even stuck when it comes to whatever is going on at home, in the community or with your social activities.
- Health Problems – Over a long period of time, serious chronic stress can create real health problems like digestive issues, heart disease, and obesity.
In the next essay, how to deal with this.
Joy is Coming
Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say rejoice!
We see right in the opening lines of today’s Scripture passage the command of Paul to always rejoice. He must have meant it since he said it twice. What Paul is telling us is important as we move through these weeks of preparation for the birth of Christ, we must always rejoice. I know it is difficult when we are in line waiting or when we are ripping that last item out of another person’s hand because you want it, to rejoice, but we simply do not have a choice in the matter.
At the start of the fourth chapter, Paul is writing about two women in the church that just cannot get along. These two have struggled with Paul and are now at odds with each other for a reason that is unclear. My guess is that whatever it was they were arguing over was nonsense and so Paul did not even mention it. So many times we get into arguments about things that, in the final analysis, were so meaningless that we do not even remember what they were about, but even in these times, Paul is telling us to rejoice!
Rejoicing in what God has done for us changes us. Just like if we walk around constantly complaining about things and are always on the lookout for problems changes us, joy changes us as well. As Christians, we are not to be known by our aggressive holding of opinions but by our gentle dealings with people.
Years ago, it was all the rage to wear a bracelet that had the initials on it that read WWJD, what would Jesus do. Kids and adults would wear these as a constant reminder to always think about what Jesus would do in any given situation. Well, that is the wrong question to be asking. We are not Jesus. So the question should be, what does Jesus want us to do? Knowing that Jesus is present with us, in all situations, how should we be treating one another?
As people who follow Jesus, we are commanded not to be anxious but to pray and thank God in all times. God’s peace will guard our hearts, not our emotions, but our thinking and choosing, and will determine our mindset. This is the same advice that God gives in verse 5 of chapter 2 “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” Jesus did not press for his rights but condescended to the will of God, even though He is equal to God. Paul continues in Chapter 2 of this letter, “being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking on the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of humanity.”
So we are to rejoice, but we are also to be gentle. “Let your gentleness be known to all,” Paul tells us in verse 5. Gentleness, considerate, yielding all of these can be considered a weakness, however, what Paul is telling us is that this attitude describes how Christians are to conduct or represent themselves. The concern for others is not necessarily to be one of yielding. One of the greatest voices in the Anti-Slavery movement was William Lloyd Garrison. He was often accused of intolerance and ungentlemanly immoderation. To one of his accusers, he replied, “On this subject I do not wish to think or speak with moderation. No! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him moderately to rescue his wife from the hands of a ravisher; tell a mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen – but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present.” However, Garrison never resorted to fear tactics or name calling in his constant struggle against the forces of darkness. As Christians, we have to speak the truth, but we have to tell the truth in love.
Verse 7 is often used as a Benediction in our services and at other times in our lives. “and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” What is this peace of God that Paul is talking about?
I have often said that English is a very limiting language. Take the word love for example. In Greek, there are four different words for the one English word love. In English we use the same word to say, “I love hamburgers” and “I love my spouse.” How can this be? Do we love them the same? Of course not, but words limit us.
In his book, Bible Translating, Eugene Nida explains the Mayan language: “Mya makes a distinction in the area of meaning covered by the English word peace. Maya has two words. One of these designates an inward peace of the heart and the other denotes the lack of strife between people.” Christians often demote “peace” from God’s great action into a small calming of our emotions or an ironing out of our daily difficulties. The peace that Paul is talking about, and the peace that Christians should be striving for is the peace that guards our hearts, and this is the peace of God brought about through Jesus Christ.
There is much talk in our world about peace. It seems all sides are fighting with each other on a limitless number of issues. But not just fighting, people are talking at each other and not to each other. We are screaming as a way of making a point and when we do that no one is listening. Peace can truly be accomplished in our world, but it begins inside each one of us. If we want peace in the world, then we have to have peace in our world. Peace in our homes. Peace at work, peace in our church. And peace in our hearts. We cannot hope to influence others to peace if we do not know it ourselves. As the old song goes, “let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.”
Paul lays out for us the cosmic ramifications of peace in Christ. The peace of Christ is dynamic, it does things, it stands guard as sentinel. What Paul is speaking about here is the peace produced by God! God produces peace in this world, once person at a time and this peace will produce joy!
But what is this joy that Paul speaks about? We may not like the answer that Paul is about to give us, but we nonetheless have to hear it. Paul finds his joy through his sufferings. Through Paul’s sufferings the Gospel of Jesus Christ is advancing and for that he is rejoicing! In Paul’s very experience of pain, he has found the impossible joy, because in suffering an inevitable death and because of them, he has found men and women, like those in Philippi, coming to life in Jesus Christ.
Paul believes that the primary and abiding joy for Christians comes from the presence of Christ in their lives, not from circumstances. Sure things can bring us joy and situations can bring us joy, but those are fleeting. We look for situational joy, times that will make us happy but what Paul is speaking of is the joy of God through Christ in our lives and if we have that joy nothing can take it away, in fact, this joy will exist even in adverse situations.
When we make room for this joy in our lives, then peace will come over us. If we allow the peace of God to be the sentinel of our hearts and minds then when we are dealing with those in our lives, peace will reign and not disorder and chaos. I always remind myself that Jesus is in the room with me at all times and in all places, even when I am sitting behind a keyboard commenting on Facebook, Jesus is there. What is the message we are sending to those on the outside? What message are we sending when we have disagreements in Church that prevent us from continuing God’s mission? The disagreement that the two woman were having had apparently risen to the level that Paul needed to address it, and it had evidently started to keep them from the mission, spreading the Gospel. It was harming the community, and Paul wanted it to stop. He was telling them that it is not about us getting our way it is about God getting his way in each and every situation.
Joy comes when we make room in the inn of our hearts for the one who wants to come in. He is knocking on the door of our hearts, not just during this Advent season but all year long. He wants to come in and help us change and realize our potential. The season of Joy for a Christian cannot be reduced to one season or one day. The season of Joy for a Christian is each and every day. If we make room in our hearts, just a little room, the radical transforming power of God will take hold, and we will find peace and we will find joy, even in the midst of our suffering.
“And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
Leadership and the Measured Response
We expect a lot out of our leaders and sometimes it might be too much. The art of leadership is all about setting the tone, providing vision and direction and moving things along in a steady pace. Leadership is influence, influencing people to work at their potential to get the job done. Reading the signs along the way and making gentle course corrections usually brings one across the finish line with little or no interruptions in things.
The captain of a cargo ship has to plan for many things when setting sail for port. For example a 103,000 ton ship at full speed can take more than a mile to stop so knowing what and where to obstacles are is important in navigation of his ship.
In a 2011 essay in the Harvard Business Review, leadership consultant and coach John Baldoni laid out the five principles for leadership in crisis.
Take a moment to figure out what is going on. Assemble your team, delegate responsibility to the necessary people to gather the information and then report back with their finding. Chaos is never good and can lead to bad decisions.
Act promptly, not hurriedly. A leader provides direction and that needs to be provided in a timely fashion. Making decision in a sense of urgency or hurried will only case those on the team to get nervous and feel unsure about the direction things are going. Slow down; catch your breath, and then act.
Manage expectations. Slow and steady wins the race. The initial reaction to crisis is that it be over as quickly as possible. All relevant data needs to be collected before a decision can be made about how to respond to the crisis. Alarming people is never good but giving them information is important.
Demonstrate control. During the aftermath of the Blizzard of 1978 Governor Michael Dukakis appeared on television almost nightly wearing a sweater and providing updates on the crisis. He tone and demeanor lead to a calming of people. Sometimes the information he provided was not earth shattering but by doing it he able to calm people down. Bringing in the necessary experts to work on the situation and out resources also helps to demonstrate that the leader has control of the situation.
Keep loose. “A hallmark of a crisis is its ability to change quickly; your first response may not be your final response.” Leadership is situational and what works in this particular instance might not work in the same instance tomorrow. A leader has to be willing and able to change course if that is what is necessary. If a particular strategy is not working then look for an alternative, adapt the present one or throw it out all together and look for a different one.
The leader’s job is not to do the heavy lifting but to surround him/herself with the right people. The leader provides the vision and sets the direction as well as the tone. If the leader is frantic the rest of the team will be frantic, if the leader is calm and brings that sense of calm to the situation, then the team will be calm. Although we may want our leader, be it president or some other leader, to act quickly I always remind myself that they are aware of thousands of pieces of information we are not, and for good reason. We have to trust our leadership that they know what is going on when we clearly do not.
Being a leader when things are running smooth is easy but more often than not leadership is tested in times of crisis. Baldoni makes it clear that following these guidelines will enable the leader to be that calm presence and then be able to provide the vision and direction necessary to the task.
What we need is a leader who is just that, calm and measured and not one willing to push the button and blow them off the face of the earth. That is the easy solution, but what is the measured response in crisis, that is the question.
Chaplain George Hughes Hepworth
“Good-by for a year.”1
These were the words spoken by the Harvard-educated Unitarian minister in Boston as he prepared to leave for service with the with the 47 Massachusetts Infantry Regiment in the United States Civil War.
His French mother had wished for a son who could preach, and her dream came true on February 4, 1833, when George Hughes Hepworth was born in Boston. He earned his Doctorate from Harvard University in 1855 at the age of twenty-two and began a pastorate on the Island of Nantucket. He returned to Boston in 1858 and would serve there for another twelve years. It was during this time that the news of the Civil War was brewing.
According to his writings, Rev. Hepworth saw the Civil War not only as an “apocalyptic showdown between good and evil but as a historical, God-driven break between two ages.”2 He saw it has his duty to do what he could to aid in this struggle and when he told his congregation, I can stay no longer,” they said to him, “Go, and God speed to you!”
Rev. Hepworth was commissioned Chaplain on November 6, 1862, with the 47th Massachusetts Volunteer Militia that had been called up for nine months of service. On the day he reported for service, the church bells began to ring, and he thought the bells had a message for him.
“Chaplain, the work before you are hard but grand. A thousand mothers, wives, and daughters have given those they dearly love their country. A thousand homes will support your arms while a thousand altar-fires will burn low for nine long months; and many, Alas! will never be kindled into their wonted brilliancy, because there is war, bloody war, in the land. Look to your duty. Pray for the boy, who, until now, has never known temptation; warn the husband and the father who is walking, as fast as he can, in the road that leads to moral death, and who will bring back his family, at the end of his term of service, a poisoned mind and heart; and when the dark day lowers, and the air is thick with battle-smoke, speak, with the Master’s authority, the ‘Peace, be still!’ to those who have fallen; and open, with the hand of friendship and of prayer, the door of heaven, that they may enter to receive their reward.”3
The 47th Regiment was organized at Camp Stanton in Lynnfield Massachusetts and then transferred to Camp Meigs in Readville to complete their training. The regiment was transported by steamer first to Long Island New York and then on to New Orleans. Finding regimental chaplain life a disappointment, Rev. Hepworth resigned his chaplain Commission after three months service on February 11, 1863, to accept a commission with the 76th Regiment US Colored Troops.
After the war Rev. Hepworth returned to his Church in Boston and would eventually end up in New York where he advocated help for those displaced by war especially the many former slaves that were coming to the north.
Upon hearing of the Kurdish Massacres in Armenia, Rev Hepworth traveled to Armenia to discover the truth about these events. He wrote about his experience in “Through Armenia on Horseback.” Shortly after his return from Armenia, Rev. Hepworth’s health began to fail him, and he died on June 7, 1902, and were buried in the Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plain Massachusetts.
During his time at Harvard, he began to question slavery that contributed to his thoughts on the war and his work after the war until his death. His was a brilliant mind, and I have no doubt that he brought much comfort to those he served with.
_____________________________
1. George H. Hepworth, The Whip, Hoe, and Sword, The Gulf Department in ’63 (Boston: Walker, Wise, and Company, 1864)
2. Benedict R. Maryniak, The Spirit Divided: Memoirs of Civil War Chaplains : the Union (Mercer University Press, 2007)
3. Ibid.
President George W Bush on Muslims
As a contrast to my previous post concerning what Donald Trump had to say about Muslims. Here is a clip of a speech by President George W. Bush on Muslims right after 9/11
Trump and the Muslims
Well he is at it again. The Republican Presidential front-runner told a cheering crowd that he would ban all Muslims from entering the US, even Muslims who are US citizens, as well as close Mosques. Christians, and all people of faith in the United States, need to stand up against this extremist. We need to fight radical Islam for sure but we need to fight extremists regardless of their faith background. Trump claims to be a Christian and informed by his Presbyterian background. This certainly does not sound very Christian to me.
Russell Moore of the Washington Post has written a well thought out piece on how Christians need to respond to Mr. Trump and his wildly un-American ideas. Here is a bit of the piece:
Make no mistake. A government that can shut down mosques simply because they are mosques can shut down Bible studies because they are Bible studies. A government that can close the borders to all Muslims simply on the basis of their religious belief can do the same thing for evangelical Christians.
A government that issues ID badges for Muslims simply because they are Muslims can, in the fullness of time, demand the same for Christians because we are Christians.
We are in a time of war, and we should respond as those in a time of war. But we must never lose in a time of war precious freedoms purchased through the blood of patriots in years past. We must have security, and we must have order. But we must not trade soul freedom for an illusion of winning.
Read the Rest Here