Blackeyed Peas. Scraps of fatty ham: the kind that isn’t worth saving to make sandwiches out of or anything. Rice. Rice is cheap. So is cabbage.
Poor people food. This is what we eat, traditionally, in the South on New Year’s Day, in hopes that it will bring us a prosperous New Year. I guess it is borne out of superstition: one wouldn’t want to eat a sumptuous meal (such as the typical Christmas Dinner or Thanksgiving Dinner) and thus “tempt fate.” I suppose that is the origin of this particular custom.
I don’t think I’ll be any better off for having eaten blackeyed peas today, nor any worse off if I didn’t eat them.
It’s sad how, over time, we lose touch with friends.  We think they will be around forever and we’ll have a chance to “catch up” one of these days.
Life is but a vapor . . .
Much of this post won’t make sense to many of you. Some of you will know exactly what I’m talking about. But right now I’m writing for myself more than for any of you, dear readers, so please bear with me.
Erick sat in front of me in Dr. Edwards’ Old Testament class. Whenever I use my Oxford Annotated Bible (which is almost every day), I think about Erick and the hours spent studying for Old Testament exams, study time that usually took place in his room in CJ. Erick had the reddest hair I’ve ever seen. Like Ronald McDonald red. Erick liked to talk as much as I did. Maybe more. I remember us trying to come up with a mnemonic device for remembering all the judges in the Book of Judges. Erick was perhaps the skinniest person I have ever known.
One could always count on seeing Erick palling around with his usual group (we’d call it a “posse” today, wouldn’t we?). David Battles. Beth Rowell. But Erick was not a clique person. Erick had time for everyone. Erick liked everyone. I never knew Erick to be sarcastic or mean (and this from a person who knew/knows how to be both). I was from Center Point. Erick was from Pinson: just up the road. And we both ended up at Samford, in the School of Music. So we had a lot in common.
As a DO Big Brother, I was at all the DO functions, and so was Erick. He had the craziest way of dancing, without ever moving his feet. He wasn’t the lampshade-on-the-head, “life of the party” kind of guy, but he was the life of the party in his own way. More like the soul of the party. He could make you feel like the most interesting, most important person in the universe.
After I graduated from SU and was in seminary, I’d still see Erick a lot because whenever I’d come home I’d go to the bookstore at Samford’s Beeson Divinity School, and Erick was working there at the time. We’d always pick up like it had only been a few hours since we’d seen each other. Erick was just like that. Everyone has friends like that: you can go weeks, months, even years without keeping in touch and it’s OK.
But it’s not OK. Because the next opportunity may not arrive.
I learned this morning that Erick was killed Tuesday night in an auto accident. His Toyota Corolla collided with a dump truck at a busy, dangerous intersection. The driver of the truck was unharmed. Erick was pronounced dead at the scene.
He leaves behind a wife named Kristen and a sixteen-month-old son named Jeremiah. Erick was 39.
It’s going to be 2009 in about ten minutes for me. It’s already 2009 for many of you. Resolve to get back in touch with those old friends. With E-mail, with Google, with swtichboard.com, with Facebook, etc., there’s no excuse not to.
Tomorrow is the Eighth Day of Christmas, a.k.a. the Holy Name of Jesus (it was on the eighth day that Jesus was circumcised, and the Bible tells us that it was at his circumcision that he was given the Name of Jesus). On the civil calendar it is also New Year’s Day. No matter which way you look at it, Holy Name or New Year’s, it’s a good time to start reading the Bible!
This page from ESV.org offers many different ways to read the Bible this year, including the Daily Office from the Book of Common Prayer and a Chronological Plan (which I have just added to my RSS feed). (The Daily Office readings are similar, but not identical, to the daily readings we publish in the church bulletin each week. If you’d like to access those online, you can do so here.) You can read the passages online, have them sent to your your E-mail or your RSS feed, to your iCal or your mobile device, or print a hard copy of the reading guide to keep in your Bible. Now there is no reason not to read the Bible every day in 2009!
Brief note here. Getting ready for church, which prompted this thought:
So many people tell us every year to “keep Christ in Christmas.” How about keeping the “mas” in Christmas?
“Christmas” is “Christ’s Mass.” Christ’s Eucharist. Christ’s Holy Communion Service. Christ’s Lord’s Supper Service. Whatever the terminology of your particular tradition may be, the Communion Service in honor of Christ’s birth is Christmas. How many radio announcers have you heard this year telling you that “Christmas is all about giving” or “Christmas is all about the children” or something like that. Have you heard anyone say “Christmas is about the Eucharist”? I didn’t think so.
Tonight (and tomorrow) is the Christ Mass. Tonight’s (and tomorrow’s) services of Holy Communion are Christmas.
When I was in seminary, just a few days before we got out for Christmas break, I remember a fellow student asking me what I usually did on Christmas Eve. I told him the highlight of Christmas Eve for me was the midnight Eucharist at the Cathedral in Birmingham. He looked surprised: genuinely surprised. He said, “Really? It would never occur to me to go to church on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.” Now it was my turn to be surprised. I asked him if he went to church on Easter. “Of course,” he replied. “Then why not on Christmas?” I asked.
Christmas has become Family Day for Evangelical Christians. They may talk about Christ’s birth, but they do it in private, not with a congregation, and the Lord’s Supper doesn’t fit into the picture at all.
You may have the “Christ” in your Christmas, but do you have the “mas” in your Christmas? It’s not too late. Churches in every city and town will be having services this evening and tomorrow morning. Take your pick.
1) The groovy fashions those groovy teens have made.
2) The Gilligan hat covered with studs, or
3) How Grandma is having a little too much fun with this product.
