Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

I’m Jemima L. Yeggs, a.k.a. Stinker.  Pink Lady Apple Yeggs, my landlady and my auntie wants to read about how younger people, especially couples respond to what the Bible says.  And she wants to know how God is at work at Lily the Pink.

Menzie, B.B. and I were doing our thing in the women’s restroom, in the hallway between Aunt Pink’s office, where I hold the class, and Aunt Gwen and GrandPa’s house.  But this week, most of the joking around was Menzie and B.B. pulling on a bit of my hair and the two arguing about where they should hide it.  But even with them nearly pulling out the hair, I couldn’t ask for two better friends.

But thinking of who lives at the end of the hall, we call Gwen, Aunt Gwen, because Aunt Pink considers her the sister she never had.  They’ve been inseparable for decades, and Lily the Pink might be the invention of Aunt Pink, but Aunt Gwen was the cook that perfected it.  But it is strange calling her Aunt Gwen when she married my husband’s great grandfather.  Shouldn’t she be Grannie Gwen?

We had a “fuller” house than last week.  I was told that we would have a new “couple” in the classroom.

Sophie, Easter’s sister, told me that Tammie Thompson, who had been on her softball team this past year was going to come with a Lily the Pink employee, Rhoda “Rosie” Posey.  They were roommates temporarily until Tammie sorted things out.  Then she would probably move into the third floor of the main apartment building.  The point was that they were not a romantic couple, just two people working through issues.

I guess I am like Aunt Pink.  She prefers to say that she is nebby, but I can deal with nosey.  Maybe we are both part cat.  You know, a bit curious.

When I came in, Rosie was helping Tammie find books in the Bible.  Sophia sat next to Tammie on the other side, encouraging Tammie that she could get it.  I am thinking that Tammie has never been in a church setting before.  Rosie did not go to First-Third, but she probably went elsewhere.  She seemed to know her way from Genesis to Revelation.  And it seems she has been teaching Tammie the books of the Bible in order.  Tammie would mumble the books as she was hurrying through from one verse to another.

But we had another couple in class that I had not expected, Tommie Tat and Doug Kutz.  Somehow, it seemed Rosie and Tommie Tat were friends.  I know that Tommie Tat is an alcoholic and going to AA meetings.  Hmmm.  I am thinking that might be the connection, so I am not going to ask any leading questions.  They can keep that “anonymous.”

Before I could say something to welcome them, Arabella said, “Michael and I didn’t get much sleep last night.  We pretty much slept in the barn … together.”

Michael turned red and Arabella was giggling. Michael said, “Not what you’re thinking, Aunt Jemima, we had the last of the kiddings early this morning.  That makes four new llamas this winter and five kids.  Mom and Dad suggested that we just sleep in the barn together, all four of us, and then we could shower once we got back.  The vet let Belle assist the goat in the kidding by herself, but he watched and then went home.  We got some sleep, just not much.  And if you are wondering, Mom and Belle slept in the room where we keep the sacked feed, using the sacks for a hard mattress, and Dad and I slept in the hayloft.”

Arabella said, “Dr. Ben snores.”

Dr. Ellie said, “Fireball!  Don’t blab all our secrets!”

Dr. Ben asked, “I snore?”

I said, “Okay, let’s move on.  We have a couple of new people in class that I know about, but then four people showed up.”

Tommie Tat shrugged, “Oh, we are just visiting.  Rosie is a good friend.  That’s all.”

I nodded, “So, Rosie, what brings you here?  You seem to know your way through the Bible.  Do you go to a church nearby?”

Rosie smiled a crooked smile.  I anticipated a half answer, but she was more forthcoming.  “I like the way you put that.  Yeah, Tommie Tat taught me good.  Maybe not teaching me English grammar.  But my first Bible was a gift from her.  When we was emancipated, like Mommie Pinkie says, I started going to the Eastside Evangelical.  Poached goes there.”

Otto said, “Yeah, he and Callie tried to get us to go there too, away from the parents, find our own way.  But really, Poached and Callie went there to hide.  Poached and me, we had a birth Mom.  She’s back in prison again.  She was afraid of birds, so she was afraid of Callie by extension, her being a bird scientist.  And Callie’s Dad was afraid that any member of the Yeggs family has to be a crook.  So they hid where no one would find them.  Zuzka does not have to hide from Mom, that’s Mommie Pinkie, and the Evangelical service was too loud for Zuzka.  People jumping up and down during the singing.  She grew up with the Latvian Orthodox church back where she grew up in Latvia.  It has that high church feel to it.  So, First-Third Metho-Presby was a good compromise.  And sitting with Mommie Pinkie and Dad does not bother us at all.”

Zuzka added, “But Rota still goes to the Latvian Orthodox church some of the time, and another church in that part of town.  Jim and Stasya go to a church near here.”

Tommie Tat nodded, “They go to the church where Dev Yeggs used to be an elder.  It’s about like First-Third, but it is smaller, more intimate.  I don’t know why the Yeggs moved.”

Easy shrugged, “They have a more active youth group, a lot more service projects, but the kicker was that Dad helped them find someone during the living nativity scene one year, and Dad really liked the pastor, Rev. Tozer, before Jemima’s father came to town after Rev. Tozer retired.”

I nodded to Joseph, and he started us with a word of prayer.

Emmett then led us, with his selected singers in a Gaither song, There’s Something about that Name.

I applauded.  “Second week in a row.  Your harmony is great.

Then, Samuel asked, “What attribute of God are we studying today, Aunt Jemima?”

I smiled, “We are covering God’s Immutability.”

Arabella asked.  “Mr. Dictionary, please.”  She giggled and shrunk her head in between her shoulders.

Easy looked perplexed, “Okay, Fireball, do you like the X-Men?  They have had X-Men movies, an X-Men cartoon show, and X-Men comic books?”

Arabella shook her head.  “Mom and Dad don’t like those kinds of movies.  I didn’t know there was a cartoon show.”

Dr. Ben said, “I remember the cartoon show.  I thought it was better than the movies.”

Angus said, “I read the X-Men comic books, Lad.  What’s your point?”

Easy shrugged, “What were the X-Men?”

Dr. Ben said, “People that went to school at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters.”

Easy asked, “And how were they gifted?”

Angus huffed, “They were mutants, Lad.  Something mutated from parents to the child.  They had special powers as a result.  While children are mostly a direct product of their parents, DNA variations might occur once every couple of generations.  Someone might grow taller.  Something like that.  The X-Men was mostly fancy with an underlying theme of tolerance for those who are different.”

Easy scratched his chin.  “Mutants.  Immutability.”

Arabella giggled, “Uncle Easy, are you saying God is a mutant?”

Everyone laughed, but Easy shook his head.  “No, Immutable.  Meaning Not Mutable, not able to mutate.  God, by His very nature, cannot change.  He is Holy, Perfect, there is no reason why God should change.  If you were perfect and you changed, then any change at all would make you less than what you were.”

Thomas (Malachi 3:6): ““I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.”

Thomas said, “I am not sure about the second half of this verse.  God does not change because He cannot destroy the descendants of Jacob?”

I suggested, “How about this?  God made a promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  The Israelites were chosen for a reason.  Jesus would be part of that family line.  So, destroying the family line puts a big problem on everything that happens up to the end of the Old Testament, and that is where you are reading from.”

Thomas shrugged, “I guess that makes sense.  If God would change His mind about who the Chosen People are, He’d start the Bible over at page one.”

I shrugged, “I guess He would, wouldn’t He?”

Catherine (Hebrews 6:17-18): “Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged.’”

Catherine asked, “Did I get the Blaise verses this week?”

I nodded, “I picked on him last week.”

Blaise said, “See there!  She admits it!  She deliberately picks on me.”

I nodded, “Yeah, my personal windup doll, and the best thing is that he winds himself up.  But, Catherine, I chose you because you read so well, and because you are insightful.”

And Arabella added, “And she’s smarter than her chickens and turkeys.”

Catherine groaned, “Arabella, you know a lot about four legged animals, but the fowl that I take care of are smart in their own way, and kind of silly in other ways.  It is not hard to be smarter than a turkey, Arabella.  But, God is unchanging and His nature is unchanging.  Part of God’s nature is that He cannot lie.  So, when He makes a promise, He must carry that promise through.  So, when the Bible says that those who profess with their mouth and believe in their hearts that Jesus Christ is Lord, then they are saved.  The trick is that anybody can say those words, but do we believe it in our heart?”

I nodded, “That is the tricky part, even for us.  Do we make a 100% commitment to Jesus or is our commitment 99%?  So close, and yet so far.”

Darrell (James 1:17): ^“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”

Darrell scratched his head.  “That last little bit there.  God does not change like the shifting shadows.  We used to walk on the beach at sunset and see how long our shadows could get.  So, if the nature of God is to give us good gifts, He is not going to give us a stink bug.”

I said, “Oh, no, not a stink bug.  But remember that a good gift is something that is good for us in the overall plan of things.  We just may not think of it as being that great at the time.”

Mama Missy (Hebrews 13:8): “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

Missy looked at me.  “Oh, how I love Angus.  But think about it.  Jesus is the best ever.  He is perfect.  And He will always be the same.”

Angus said, “Och, Lassie, are you saying that I have disappointed you?”

Missy winked, “Not yet.  You have often surprised me, but you work hard to stay ahead of that one time when you miss the boat.”  He leaned over and they kissed.

“Hey!” I said, “This is not a designated make out spot.”  At that point, all the male-female couples kissed each other except for Easy and me.  “What did Athaliah say when Jehoiada anointed Joash king of Judah.”

Easy replied, “Then Athaliah tore her robes and called out, ‘Treason! Treason!’ (2 Kings 11:14 or 2 Chronicles 23:13)”

I replied, “Wow!  That was fast.  You must be studying really hard.”

Easy said, half asleep or so it seemed, “Yeah, I could see it that way.  Or it’s the app on my phone.  Actually, I was a little off. The second Chronicles reference says ‘shouted’ instead of ‘called out’.”

I wiped my brow.  “Okay, that’s more like the man I love.”

Easy asked, “Man you love?  Are you thinking about joining in treasonous behavior?”

I rocked my shoulders.  “It would be kinda fun.”

Tommy Tat said, “I heard that, Stinker!”

I groaned, “It would be the visitor who becomes the informant.”

Then Tommy Tat added, “If you don’t kiss Easy, I will!”

I shrugged, “A Sunday school class that turns into an orgy.  I might not get into Heaven through the backdoor now.”  But I kissed Easy, anyway.

Then, I raised my voice just a little, not wanting to awaken Stormie, who could get rather stormy if she did not have enough sleep.  “Everybody, can we quit kissing for a minute.  This class was going somewhere important before it turned into a kiss orgy.”

Easy nodded, “Yeah, before we started, we talked about where many of us go to church.  There is the Latvian Orthodox and the Catholic church that are considered high church.  Everything is according to a prayer book, or some set order of worship with a lot of liturgies.  And there is the Evangelical church that does not even hand out a bulletin, maybe having dancing in the aisle, jumping up and down, and that kind of thing.  And then other churches are in between those extremes.  But that is because people are different and their means of expressing their love for God is different.  The one thing that is the same in all those churches, that is if the church stays true to the Bible, is that God does not change.  No matter what happens in our lives or how much everything around us changes, God does not change.”

I added, “As my wonderful husband said to start off the class.  Why should God ever change?  He is already perfect, any change means that you step away from being perfect.”

Lauren came over from the play area and patted Menzie on the knee, “Mommie!  The buses!”

I smiled, “As we have been doing, let’s end with our benediction.  Everyone bow your heads in prayer.  ‘“‘The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.’”’” (Numbers 6:24-26)

After everyone headed toward the busses, Rosie and Tammy came over and Rosie said, “We have been practicing.  You could have called on us.”

I smiled, “I try to let the new people see the dynamics of how this goes, although this is the first time people started kissing.”  Rosie and Tammy turned beet red.  I had hit a nerve, but I was not going to ask which nerve.  “It depends on who is here each week.  Either next week or the next after that.  And what most people do is make a comment, and as you can see, it might just be a comment that asks what does the verse mean?”

Credits

I am using suggested Bible verses from The Attributes of God, A Journey into the Father’s Heart by A.W. Tozer, in two volumes. My two volumes have a Study Guide by David E. Fessenden, which is designed for each chapter of Tozer’s book. I may review those chapters to keep Stinker from straying too much, but the nature of her class is that the class tends to stray anyway. I am not using Rev. Tozer’s comments directly.

Again, a kidding is the birthing of a baby goat, known as a “kid”.

The examples of church worship are not meant to be judgmental.  What I was trying to convey is that people are attracted to one type of worship or another due to what they experienced when younger or what fits their mood at the time.  As Easy suggested, the youth group issue was fresh on Deviled and Naomi’s minds since Easy was just starting high school at the time and there were more children to come, but going from their old church to the new one did not represent a drastic change in worship style.

My wife was not much into public displays of affection (PDA).  I doubt if she would have participated in the kissing even though everyone else did.

And here is He Touched Me sung by CeCe Winans, Geron Davis, and the Martins.  It is a Gaither tune, and the Martins have been part of the Homecoming gatherings for a long time, but the feel is a little different.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.