Smiling Madonna - Chapter Three

It was
finished...
It had to
be doneEven though...

With shaking hands he put the shovel back in the back of the truck at the foot of the driveway. It was finished. He needed to drive the truck back to the church parking lot and leave it there.
It had to be done. Even though two wrongs don’t make a right. It was not fair what had been done to him. He had sacrificed too. For too long he had given up his interests for the needs of the parish. Too long he had spent in hospitals with the dying, sick, or recovering old and young people. Now he could look himself in the mirror and see someone who was doing something for his desires.
It had taken weeks to figure out what to do. And then it had been several days before it “hit” him who and how it had to be done.
Now as he drove the few blocks to the parking lot next to the church, he said to himself, “Please let the lot be empty, like I timed it before.” He realized he was praying and directed his prayer to God.

An hour or so later, Travis came back from a visit to Swedish Medical Center. He had been to see John Anderson, who was going in for his first chemotherapy. Travis knew it was a scary thing – even though the cancer wing and its staff were some of the best and had the reputation of being really helpful to the beginner cancer patients.
Travis marveled at their patience sometimes. He knew some of them by name, having completed the prostate cancer treatment with his own father a year before. The staff was really great.

George saw Travis come in to the church office.
“How’s John doing?”
“Fine. You know how well they treat new cancer patients at Swedish.”
“Yeah…. Hey, do you want to get a cup of coffee in a few minutes, before we plan the education opportunities for the Wednesdays before Christmas? Maybe we could even be inspired with some ideas for Sundays in the new year.”
“Sure, give me 15 minutes to get a couple of things settled and grab some papers.”
“Great. I thought we could go to the Green Café?”
“Sure – do you want to just meet me there in 20 minutes? If we go longer than an hour and a half, I’ll need to leave to drive home, so I have little time off before the class tonight.”
Travis lived in Lake City. You wouldn’t think that made for a long commute, but in a city where all the roads are designed to move traffic North-South, getting “across town” was quite a feat. George felt for him. He had done the commuting pastor gig for 12 years. In his last two calls, George couldn’t afford to live in the communities of which he was a pastor – or at least - where the church was located; in San Jose, then in this synod, over in Bellevue. Thankfully he had enough experience to be paid well enough, well for a single man with no dependents. He had been able to buy a condominium on the outskirts of Bellevue after three years serving that congregation.

George got to enjoy that short commute for only a couple years before the long idea of community life, almost suddenly, became a reality right in his back yard – just two lakes over.
George returned home himself, after the education planning meeting with Travis. He needed a little space to work on his sermon for Sunday and organize his notes from the meeting. He parked his truck, out front of Simpson house. It was the “community” truck now, a little burned red Toyota that had served him well for eight years. He had bought it used to drive up from San Jose, California to his new parish in Bellevue, Washington. He had been able to fill it with all but a few boxes, well, a couple filing cabinets of stuff from work. Those waited for someone from the congregation to bring up a month later on their vacation, swinging by Mount Carmel Lutheran in their RV on their way up to the Seattle area.
It was cloudy today. One of the days that fits strangely into the northern hemisphere, when the clouds darken the southern sky, so the light filters mostly through from the North. Never having been to the Southern hemisphere, George always felt a little wrong on days like this.

Maybe that is why when he walked up to the house, he paused to look at the gift from the Episcopal church and the community that served them. The smiling Madonna and child somehow seemed to glow with light from within, on this day of strange light. Maybe it was the reflection off the white door, or something in the brick. She was pretty big, nearly three feet tall; always reminding George of Orthodox icons depicting holy people with extra large bodies and hands, and smallish heads. The Madonna looked at everyone who came to this door as if to say, “Who are you really?” It wasn’t a threatening question, except on a day when you felt uncertain about the answer. Which is not to say the statue appeared scary or anything like it. With a wide lap big enough for the baby and everyone else, a face unmarred by creases of worry, and wide looking eyes, the Madonna was “grace-full.” The child too, whose hands encircled the mother’s neck while the face turned to follow her gaze, imparted a sense of awareness.

Council Meeting of Green Lake Lutheran Church

Present: Ted Anderson, Pamela Needham, Andrew Parker, Sonja Bogle, Theresa Simms, Andrea Hogle, Kay Petersen, Petra Voycek, Tony Lewis, Pr. Travis, Pr. George

1. Call the meeting to order at 9:05 Saturday morning.
2. Opening Prayer followed by approval of the Agenda
3. Minutes read silently and approved, 9:10.
4. Treasurer’s report
5. Pastors’ reports
6. There was discussion about the events of the past weekend at the Simpson home.
7. Pr. Travis is going out of town in February to visit his relatives in Eugene, OR.
8. Old Business
9. New Business - Security seems to be an issue in the summer, but not in the winter, although Pr. George has asked several times for people to move away from the doors in the back of the church, where they had been sleeping.
10. Closing Prayer
    

“Security got a new meaning this past week,” said Petra.
“Yes, and we have much to give thanks for in the care our pastors have given us through this time,” offered Sonja.
“It’s a shame that Mrs. Simpson will not be present to witness the completion of the building she helped fund.”
“Oh, who’s the say she won’t?”
“I heard from Theresa that she was going to go on a long trip to regain some of the peace that this event has stripped from her. I mean she has been long planning on a trip to the east. Now would be just the time to take some time.”
“May I ask where you would- how did you come by the news of these plans?” asked George mildly.
“Well, we thought in retrospect, thinking about the things she has said at coffee hour and before, around the Rally Day celebration.” Theresa was looking at Petra for agreement.
Petra offered, “It seemed like a natural decision.”
“But you haven’t actually heard her say it this week, since the horrible event on Tuesday morning?” asked George.
To their credit, the two did not look at each other, but paused before trying to cover up the blatant lie.
“Well, no, but it seems like a better story for her sake, to offer that she will be taking care of herself, maybe going away to heal and forget, settle or something,” said Theresa.
“My God! What were these women thinking?! “ raged George in his head. “How could they make something up around this terrible tragedy?!”

next week: unfriendly and friendly