I am a skeptic because of my father. Pretty sure that’s not what he was going for. Here is how we got there.
My hometown, the port of Paducah, Kentucky, is a busy one. Sitting at the confluence of the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers, the town, like so many river towns, owes it's very existence to these rivers. Everything orients on the rivers. For a time, my Dad, like many others, worked on the river. Dad worked the 30-30; that is, 30 days on the river and 30 days off. So, every other month, he either spent the month at home or away working on a tug.
On one of those getting on or getting off occasions, Dad pointed out across the river to what I later came to know was Owens Island, and said, "You see that Island out there? That's the island Mark Twain had Huck and Jim hide out on." From that moment on, it was an article of faith that Owens Island was the physical reality put to good use by Mr. Clemens in his classic novel, Huck Finn.
I told people (so many people) that tidbit for … oh, about a decade; told them that with confidence. I did so regularly ... until that day my Senior Year, in the Paducah Tilghman High School Library, when my friend Bruce brought it all crashing down. After being unable to convince me that I was mistaken in my understanding about Owens Island, Bruce led me into the Library where he spun the globe so we could look at the United States. He pointed to the Mississippi River. He then asked me if that was the river on which Huck and Jim had all their adventures. I agreed it was.
Moving his finger slightly to the right, he then located Paducah and asked the names of those two rivers. Of course I knew they were the Tennessee and the Ohio. I then saw where this was going and I quickly pointed out that Owens Island could still be the island in the book because Huck and Jim traveled down river as they fled.
Spinning the globe up so that we were looking directly down on the area including all three rivers, he pointed to where the two rivers which fronted our hometown ran a few miles further South to join up with the Mississippi. Suddenly I saw it. There was never anything clearer. Owens Island could not be the island from the book. Huck and Jim floated down the Mississippi, and could never have come back up North to Owens Island.
Dad had not told me the truth.
And that is how I came to learn my father liked to tell tales. He didn't mean anything bad by doing so. It was all just a bit of fun to him to exercise his imagination. The problem, of course, was that, until confronted, he never let on. After that, I was no longer quite so naive about the things Dad told me. I usually sought verification from other, more dependable, sources; Mama or Granny. And, to be fair to Dad, I also learned to be a little skeptical about things in general; no longer just accepting everything on face value, but applying a little scrutiny when anything seemed not quite right. So, in the long run, I concede the experience had a positive result.
It also explains why I completely understand the skepticism expressed in this week’s Acts 2 passage about Pentecost. Upon encountering the cacophony of disciples speaking many languages all at once, the sneering doubters were, perhaps, quite right to be skeptical. They came to see what the fuss was all about and found several people speaking what seemed for the most part to be gibberish. It's no surprise to me they thought the speakers were drunk.
Picture it: these people are all speaking at the same time, each in a different language. To the average hearer, only one of the speakers would be making sense, the one speaking their language; the rest would be an oral jumble of non-intelligible sounds all piled on top of one another.
And here is the point: it's OK to be a bit skeptical in unusual situations. If it is a real miracle, God will make it plain all on his own, just as He did at Pentecost.
Trust me.
_________________________
PHOTO CREDIT:
https://maptic.tumblr.com/post/41943424970/jacksons-island-adventures-of-huckleberry-finn
_________________________
DaySpring’s next Lectionary Breakfast is this Friday morning. We’ll enjoy some fellowship, a discussion of scripture, and some (possibly inappropriate) laughter. Join us on Zoom at 8:00. Bring your own breakfast.
SCRIPTURES FOR THE COMING WEEK
Found them here:
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu//texts.php?id=94
Day of Pentecost (May 23, 2021)
Acts 2:1-21 or Ezekiel 37:1-14
Psalm 104:24-34, 35b
Romans 8:22-27 or Acts 2:1-21
John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15
_________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment