Rev. Don Erickson

That first drive home from college to upstate New York was not without some fear. Traveling from southern Ohio across Interstate Highway 90 and the width of New York State, through the infamous snow belt of Buffalo, Syracuse and Rochester, in mid-December amid a snow storm, to say the least it was not a dashing through the snow in a one-horse open sleigh, laughing all the way, spirits light, singing Jingle Bells kind of trip. It was a white knuckle on the steering wheel, praying to God for a snow plow to follow behind kind of a trip. The passengers with me may have been having a good time, oblivious to it all and mostly catching up on sleep after mid-terms. Come to think about that trip and the trips found throughout the Nativity story, a white-knuckled drive through a snow storm is as close to the biblical trips on feet and donkey-back a car trip can get. When I finally made it to familiar terrain, I was able to finally relax. Familiar terrain has a tendency to do that, soften...

So we’ve really begun the Christmas Season, haven’t we? Traffic is a little heavier. Shopping, even if you are not Christmas shopping, is a little busier. The days are a little shorter, grayer, and colder. And people, well, many people, they are a little grumpier. The holidays and their stress can influence grumpiness in the best of us. I’ve always found it interesting that at exactly the time we are expected to be joyful and peaceful and full of good will, there are so many things that come with this time of year working against these things. Producing joy and peace and good will amid a time of so many counterproductive forces swirling around like snowflakes – tiring, isn’t it? Bleakness of the winter, busyness of doing what we need to do, broken-ness, as in going broke buying all those Christmas gifts, brokenness as we sense losses and loneliness that more easily come to the surface this time of year. And then we have some really horrible holiday music blaring...

I am old enough to remember when airline flight attendants were called stewardesses. Maybe there were stewards, as in a male version of stewardesses. I don’t know. But stewardesses much like flight attendants do now were tasked with taking care of the needs of the passengers flying with them as well as the cabin itself. Stewardesses made sure all was well in any particular flight to a particular destination. They served food, coffee, snacks. They assured lanes were clear and the restrooms clean. They informed folks of safety protocol and calmed nerves amid turbulence. These things and so much more. I’ve known stewardesses, or flight attendants as they are known now, to comfort crying babies in flight in only to give their parents a rest. I should also note that airliners weren’t the only moving vehicles that employed stewardesses. Ships, cruise ships namely, employ them as well. Thinking of the work of the stewardess, we come together for Stewardship Sunday. We are called...