My daily routine quickly took shape. I would
eat breakfast at Mrs. Carruther’s and have dinner with Philip, Molly, Billy,
and Polly. I read my Bible in my room in the mornings. After breakfast I would walk
around the town. Since I had been asked to preach, I began to go to the Town Library
to work and study there. When my sermon was ready, I could type it into one of
their computers and then print it out. The Library only charged 10 cents a
page.
There were three Sundays that I knew I would
be preaching in Wolf Point. For Sunday, December 19 I would preach on “The
Music of Christmas”. For Sunday, December 26 my sermon would be “The Christmas
Baby”, and For Sunday< January 2 the topic would be “All Things New”.
Friday night Nathaniel called.
“Dad, how are you?”
“I am fine. More to the point, how are you?”
“I’m on thirty days leave right now. I have
to report in to Ft. Bragg, North Carolina by January 8. I proposed to Joy and
she accepted. We are going to be married on January 1. Reverend Johnston is
going to marry us. He and his wife are going to babysit Sean and Eibhlin while
we are on our honeymoon January 1 to 5. I will leave for Ft. Bragg on January
6. Joy and I were out Christmas shopping today. Joy is wearing Mom’s engagement
ring. Thank you. We went shopping for our wedding rings. I wish that you could
have performed the wedding ceremony, but I suspect that you will be snowbound
for the next couple months at least.”
“ Son, I am really happy for you. I’ll be
praying for you and Joy.”
“Thanks, Dad. I love you.”
“ I love you, too.”
On Sunday I went to the Dakota United
Presbyterian Church. They preserved the heritage of the United Presbyterians
and sang only Psalms in worship. They had a book with the words of the Psalms
in meter. On one side were the English words, on the other side the same Psalm
in the same meter in an Indian language. The service was reverent and yet there
was a relaxed atmosphere. I felt welcome and among brothers and sisters in
Christ from the beginning. My sermon had numerous quotes from Scripture and I
could tell from the smiles that that was what they wanted.
The service at the First Presbyterian Church
was stiff and formal. The congregation seemed like they had to maintain a
certain reputation. I think the name “First” on a small church is a curse. They
are always trying to live up to an image which is beyond their means. They had
an organ. A piano would have made for better singing. The choir was attempting
some classical piece which was beyond their ability or capacity. Wolf Point is
an impoverished town. How many of its poor residents would find a welcome in
the First Presbyterian Church? As individuals they were probably friendly and
even loveable. When they come together as the First Presbyterian Church they
live up to the name of their presbytery, Glacier!
After church Molly had a fine meal prepared.
At the dinner table she asked, “Dad, we are going to be making special foods
for Christmas. What special food can we make for you?”
“Fruitcake. Until she became ill, Laura
always made a fruitcake for Christmas.”
Philip said, “I remember that now. Mom made
the best fruitcakes.”
“Well, I don’t know if it will measure up to
Laura’s, bur I’ll make you a fruitcake.”
Polly said, “Mom, can I help you? I want to
be part of making something special for Grandpaw Sterner.”
“You certainly can, my dear. Tomorrow when
you come home from school, we will go to Albertson’s and see if we can get the
ingredients for a fruitcake. There are some unusual ingredients in a proper
fruitcake.”
“Like what?”
“For instance candied ginger.”
“What is that?”
“If we can find it, I will give you a piece
to suck on. It will last at least an hour.”
Billy said, “Can I have a piece?”
“Of course you can.”
“What can I make for Grandpaw?”
“I would guess that if you would shovel the
snow out from around his car that he would appreciate it. If he had to go
anyplace in it, he’d have to shovel it himself. That wouldn’t be good.”
I spoke up. “Let’s make a deal. You shovel it
out and sweep the snow off the car this first time as a Christmas present. When
it snows anytime after this I’ll pay you $3 each time. Or if it is a really
heavy snow, I’ll make it $5. Deal?”
“Deal.”
When I was working on my sermon “The
Christmas Baby” I remembered an experience that I had in a rural church in West
Virginia. It was Christmas Eve. The church was dark except for the candles on
the communion table below the pulpit. On the front pew directly in front of me
there was a young couple. The young woman had a baby which she laid down on the
pew. All through the time that I was reading the Christmas narrative from the
Gospel and while I was preaching, the baby was cooing and making baby sounds,
playing with his feet, sucking his thumb. It was almost a reenactment of the
Child in the manger.
As I was walking around town on Thursday,
December 23, I met Mr. Slower Than Bear coming out of the bank.
“Reverend Sterner, it is so good to see you.
Our people appreciated your fine sermon, filled with solid Bible teaching.”
“Thank you. I was going to look for you and
ask you to help me with something that I would like to do. The First
Presbyterian Church is having a Christmas party for its Sunday School children
tomorrow. We don’t have any children at Dakota Church. I see Indian children
running around town. They look so poor. It isn’t hard to imagine that they
won’t have much Christmas. I want to make up some paper bags with candy inside
and maybe a $5 bill as well, staple the bag shut with a picture of the manger
scene stapled to it. Would you take me to homes with poor children and help me
give them the bags. I want to do it in such manner that neither the children or
their parents will be embarrassed. Maybe you could say in their language,
“Jesus asked us to bring your children a gift.”
“You are amazing Reverend Sterner.”
That is what we did. I made up twenty-five
bags. The bags were gone after visiting a dozen houses and trailers. The abject
poverty tore my heart out.
***********
On Monday, December 20, Nathaniel and Joy
went to Ft. Bliss. They wanted to find out what paperwork to fill out after
they were married. Joy knew that her VA benefits would cease, but she wanted to
protect her children’s benefits. A VA counselor sat with them for over an hour
explaining to them what to do and what forms to fill out. They both felt much
better. Nathaniel knew that he would have to take her to Ft. Bliss after they
were married so that she could get an ID card as dependent of an active duty
soldier.
************
Tom was surprised at how his trip to North
Carolina had changed his life. He had become more confident in his work. He
expected to be treated with respect and that improved his law practice. The
Cubans looked up to him now. His business clients admired the ways he found to
cut the cost of operating a law practice and at the same time deliver quality
service.
Tom was very choosy about who he hired from
the students. He demanded respect from them and if he didn’t get it, he sent
them on down the road.
Tom’s assertive manner brought him rewards at
home. Ofelia treated him as the head of the house and the girls followed suit.
He was surprised and pleased that they went to church with him. They continued
going every Sunday.
Perhaps, most remarkable and noticeable was
the way Ofelia stood up for him to her parents.
“You will treat my husband with respect or
you will not see me or your granddaughters. When you were a lawyer, Father, you
demanded respect. It was Castro’s fault, not Tom’s fault, that you had to work
as a plumber’s assistant in Cuba and cannot practice law in the United States.”
She said all of this in Spanish. Tom did not
know what she said, but he noticed the difference in how her parents treated
him. Meanwhile, he was steadily building up the House Fund at the bank. By
Christmas there should be $10,000 in it.
************
On the Sunday after Christmas, I was ready to
leave the church and go to Philip’s. I was looking forward to another slice of
that fruitcake that Molly and Polly made for me. Mr. Pinterest came out of the
back of the church.
“Reverend Sterner, I heard that you went
around to the Indian children giving them bags with candy and a five dollar
bill.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you give any of the bags to white
children?”
“You had a party for them.”
“Them Indians could have come to the party.”
“Really?”
“Well they would have to wash the stink off
of themselves.”
“This conversation is over, Mr. Pinterest.”
I turned on my heel and left. I was really
upset. I didn’t do the candy bags to be noticed. I would prefer that no one
knew about it. I was upset at the racial bigotry he had displayed.
Christmas Day had been a happy occasion for
me. When Billy saw the snowboard he became oblivious to everything else. His
parents told him that he had to wait until after Christmas dinner before he
could take it outside and try it out. There was plenty of snow outside.
Occasionally he would hear children yelling and squealing as they played with new
toys out in the snow. Philip and Molly had bought him an electric train set. He
looked at the pieces, but made no move toward setting it up. He kept going back
to the snowboard, examining every detail.
Polly was ecstatic about the doll that I gave
her. She noticed how soft the doll’s skin was and how lifelike the hair felt.
She looked at me with beseeching eyes,
“Do you think it would be all right if I gave
her Grandmom’s name.”
My eyes teared up and my voice choked as I
said,
“I think she would be pleased if you did.”
There was not the conflict with her gift from
me and her parents’ as there was with Billy’s. Philip and Molly knew that I was
buying her a doll. They gave her a doll bed. It was handmade and sturdy. There
was a mattress and pillows in it.
Molly said, “You know how I have been
teaching you to sew and how to use the sewing machine and how to crochet?”
“Yes, Mom”, she answered warily.
“Since your doll has a bed, you can sew her a
pair of pajamas. After that you can make a fitted sheet, a top sheet, and
pillow cases. Then a blanket and bedspread. When you finish all that, she will
be ready for some new dresses. Learning to sew was hard work, but now you can
use it for something you wanted.”
I talked to Philip about my encounter with
Mr. Pinterest while Molly and Polly were preparing Christmas dinner.
“Dad, you just came from Arkansas. In your
mind transpose African-Americans for Native American Indians.”
“I didn’t like bigotry in Arkansas and I
don’t like it any better in Montana.”
“People are the same wherever you go. I don’t
mean everyone in Arkansas or Montana is a bigot or even that most of them are. In
every town and every church there are mean spirited people, generous people,
stingy people, helpful people, block heads, and people whom it is a pleasure to
know.”
“You are right, Philip.”
Christmas dinner was delicious. The only one
who didn’t enjoy it was Billy. As soon as he said, “Excuse me,” he hurriedly
put on his winter jacket, toboggan, and mittens, grabbed the snow board and
bolted out the door.
“Dad, you and I are going to have to play
with that train while the women wash the dishes.”
We both got down on our knees and set up the
electric train in the living room. Soon it was flying around the track, blowing
its whistle and puffing smoke out of its smokestack. When we tired of that,
Philip and I sat on the sofa.
“Dad, this has been the happiest Christmas
I’ve had in years. You can’t know how much it means to me to have you here.”
Just then Molly came in with coffee and
fruitcake for us.
“If I had known what good fruitcake Molly
makes, I would have tried to come sooner.”
“Thank you, Dad”, she said. It felt good for
her to call me “Dad”.
After my conversation with Phillip, I
realized that it would not be good for me to try to minister in the same town
where he was the doctor. If I did something that made some people mad, his
practice would be affected.
No comments:
Post a Comment