Growling

Sometimes my ideas are brilliant. 

Sleeping in a hammock in below freezing temperatures was not one of them.

I took a gaggle of girls out to a cabin and thought I would get more sleep in my cool camping hammock instead of a cabin filled with giggling. 

I was wrong.

It was almost warm and the moon streaming through the mesh top was amazing, but I ended up freezing my aspirations off. I drifted in and out of sleep curled up in a tiny ball until around 3:30 am when I awoke to this terrible growling right near me. 

There is a moment, if you ever happen to be freezing and terrified, when you appreciate the warmth adrenaline pumping through your body provides. I could stay completely still and warm while imagining that I must appear a bit like a floating burrito to whatever creature was emitting such an ominous sound.

Options are slim when you're hanging in the air and something is growling. I could picture the wolf underneath me wishing he had a side of guacamole and some cheese. I played through all the scenarios and none of them turned out well until my stomach growled again.

I felt slightly ridiculous, but also much more motivated to go curl up in the cabin with the girls. 

One growling experience a week would seem like enough, but then on Friday I worked too long and hiked accidentally in the dark. Our daylight is changing at 6 minutes a day right now so it's hard to track until you are well into the woods and realize you can't see anymore.

It wasn't a big deal. I figured I could get a little further and then make my way to the beach area where it was still a little light.

Then, the dog stops and there is growling again. I couldn't tell if it was coming from her or from near us, but she was scared and I might have piddled a little. 

I again started running scenarios and one of them involved me running, but unless the growling was a rabid sloth I wasn't going to win a foot race. I could probably fight off whatever it is with the poop bag in my hand, but I'm thinking this would not turn out well in the dark.

So, we bushwhack through the woods towards the beach hoping for the best. Nothing got us and we made good time back. 

There are several takeaways from these growling experiences:
1. Don't eat Indian when camping.
2. Wear a watch or at least be aware of when it gets dark.
3. Growling does not produce rational thought or responses. 

I think this last one might be helpful for all of us as we interact with each other. Growling does not make people their most rational. In fact, growling mixed with fear can make us quite absurd and as fun as that is, it doesn't make for good decisions. 

Budget

An open letter to our governor:

Dear Governor Dunleavy;

I want to honor you for being a man of faith and I know seeing all life as sacred is close to your heart. I’m not Catholic, but as a Lutheran pastor, my Catholic colleagues are some of my closest in appreciating the centrality of the eucharist and the community of faith.

There is a Bible verse that keeps popping in my head as I toss and turn thinking about the proposed budget cuts:

Romans 15:1-2   We who are strong ought to put up with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Each of us must please our neighbor for the good purpose of building up the neighbor.

The image of building up the neighbor is central to living out my faith in Christ and central to creating a community where life can be affirmed and encouraged.

I spend large amounts of time with those of my neighbors who carry heavy burdens, some are Native Alaskans who fear getting cut off from their land and village, some are families who are homeless, some are those weighed down by addictions, health issues, and hunger. I also spend time with those who work in resource extraction, those who serve as police, and those who rely on PFDs. 

These relationships make me realize there aren’t easy answers to solve the fiscal challenges in Alaska, but there are destructive choices that do not build up our neighbor. 

Cuts to education, Medicare, senior services, criminal justice, Department of Law, access to transportation and energy for rural Alaska, public assistance, and veterans lead to greater burdens on those who are already weighed down heavily.

I realize you are probably getting all kinds of comments regarding the budget, but as a person of faith I have been thinking some about your statement in an interview where you said, "I’m a small-government guy and I’m an individual — I believe in the individual.” I too believe in the worth of every person and the uniqueness of our gifts, but the communion of God is the core of my faith. We are called to use our worth and our gifts for the building up of the neighbor. We are the body and blood of Christ alive in this world and this budget does not reflect that life.

Peace,

Rev. Tari Stage-Harvey

Army Crawl

This might be blasphemy, but the other day I quoted

a distortion of scripture.

As I was doing an army crawl though the chicken run to smash down the snow with my body, I kept quoting, "No greater love has a woman for her chickens than to lay down her life for them." It made me laugh and a little less resentful of what we do to get two fresh eggs a day.

I rarely quote the Bible for a couple of reasons.

1. I'm lazy about memorizing it.

2. Our Lutheran tradition teaches us to read large chunks in context. 

Memorizing proof texts to win an argument and validate an agenda is frowned upon as contrary to the good news of God's kingdom. One can use Biblical texts to promote a range of moral and social agendas; the entire political spectrum has used Christian scripture to justify their plans and that makes me nervous.

I do love Jesus. I love how no one knows quite what to do with him. He keeps loving the unlovable, scolding the successful, feeding the hungry, and touching the dehumanized until folks finally kill him. It's dangerous when people don't know what to do with you and you keep messing with expectations. 

That's when my misquote shows up. In John 15, Jesus says, "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you."

We are friends of Jesus when we love as we are loved. So the question those who wish to befriend Jesus need to ask is, "how did Jesus love?" 

I like to think he loved a bit like I love my chickens. 

• He tried to remove obstacles so people could live and offer the gifts they have to the community. 
• He fed and tended people.
• He sometimes shook his head when people got lost in the yard and tried to sleep in the cold rather than allowing themselves to be gathered and put back in the coop.
• He scolded them when they were stubborn and doing something not in their best interest (like jumping in the neighbor's yard or road).
• He carried them across the snow because they didn't like the cold on their feet.

All right. Maybe it breaks down. I'd say there is a lot more mutuality of relationship between Jesus and people, but my chickens do bring me great delight and they are amazing conversationalists. I wouldn't die for my chickens, but crawling through a tiny tunnel full of snow and some eau de chicken is close.