Remember Fitz

LETTER FROM FITZ - 2002

​

"Today there is neither the glorification of God nor peace on Earth.

As long as hunger is not yet stilled and as long as we not uprooted violence from our civilization,

Christ is not yet born"

​

-Gandhi

​

December, 2002

 

Dear Friends:

 

My 60th birthday is lurking just around the corner. Perhaps for that reason I'm feeling a bit more nostalgic and a lot more "sensitive" 

this December. One of the realities that is stirring my heart and troubling my soul is how little the world has changed in my

lifetime. Oh, I know there are zillions of surface developments - the computer I'm preparing this letter on, most·notably. (There are also violent video games for children and too many yuppies chatting on their cell phones while maneuvering their gas-guzzling 

SUVs.)                                                   

 

But in the ways that really matter, our world is still distressingly mired in the same· sinful crap that both discouraged and outraged the prophets of ancient Israel. In Bobby Kennedy's eloquent words; "the poor·continue to suffer while wealth is lavished on armaments." So, whatever the historical details from Bethlehem two millennia ago, in so many ways we are still waiting for (and in labor for) 

that much anticipated birth in our hearts.

 

Now, before you tum the page to see if this was written by Andy 'Rooney or other old curmudgeon, let me assure you that

I'm not feeling as gloomy as those paragraphs above might suggest. One of the great "leaps forward in my lifetime has been the quest for racial and ethnic justice in America (The equality a gift from God ... the justice was left for us to accomplish ). As a citizen, as a teacher and as a preacher, I feel immensely privileged to have lived in these times, even as I acknowledge haw much remains to be done. 

(When did "profiling" enter our vocabulary?)

​

But in so many other ways things have actually gotten worse during the.years I've lived on this earth. 

(The gap between rich and poor in the USA is now worse than at any time since World War II!)    .

​

So, with the days getting shorter and the nights longer, it is time once again to dwell in hope. 

It is time for me to put into practice the lessons I have learned from my. homeless friends - to simply refuse to let the darkness squelch the light and to focus on, and celebrate, what is good, beautiful and hopeful. Indulge me, please, and let me share with you 

two wonderful moments from the year about to end.

​

My friends, Phil and Craig, got married last month. It wasn't a "legal" marriage of course. You can't do that in our country. But it was very much a wedding of two remarkable and loving spirits. Craig's father, a retired Lutheran pastor, presided at the ceremony -- one of the most touching ceremonies I've ever been privileged to be part of. At the rehearsal dinner the night before, his dad told me that 

he'd been in a phone conversation with a retired Lutheran bishop a couple of weeks earlier. On the spur of the moment he gulped and decided to reveal to his colleague that he was about to travel to California to witness his son's commitment ceremony to his friend and lover. After an awkward moment of silence, the bishop·said, "I'm so glad you shared that with me! Two months ago, I presided at my gay son's wedding."

​

During the holidays we have an old tradition at St. Anthony's called "Curbside". People drive up to the curb and drop off donations of food, clothing and money. Volunteers in red jackets surround the cars, accept the donations and write receipts. 

(We operate, by choice, without a penny of government assistance, so it's a significant operation.)  On the day before Thanksgiving, a man drove up, and got out carrying his attaché case. He said he was a lawyer, representing a client who'd died a few weeks earlier. She had left money to help our poor and homeless guests. He handed a stunned volunteer a check for $3l7,000! Then, just a moment later, a shy; soft-spoken man walked up and said he wanted to give us some money to help the children who get treated in our free

medical dinic. He·reached in his pocket and pulled out five, crumpled dollar bills. When·the volunteer dutifully began filling out his receipt and asked his address, the man looked embarrassed and confided, "I don't have an address. I'm homeless."

​

I choose.to cherish those moments in my heart as the clouds of war once again darken the horizon and we remember, with Isaiah, that 

"the people who lived in darkness have seen a great light."

​

May this holy season bless you with light, warmth and renewed hope.

 

With love,

-Fitz