Agreeable responses to sermons have a salutary effect on
those who preach, and Sunday I received perhaps one of the best responses to
any sermon I’ve delivered since I began preaching seventeen or more years ago.
I’ve mentioned Peanuts and his gang in previous sermons, but yesterday when I
brought up Snoopy as an example of what Robert Short calls “the little Christ,”
the small crowd in the chapel at St. Mary’s Convent, Sewanee, TN, became
instantly alert. I apologized for seeming irreverent but went on to explain
that, according to Short, Snoopy may be lazy, sarcastic, a coward, and quite
weary of being a dog, but he also possesses love, loyalty, watchfulness, and
courage. Furthermore, Short advises that before we can become a good Christian
who loves well, we have to take on the dog’s lowliness of complete obedience
and humility at the feet of the master and in service to others. When I said
that Hegel, the German philosopher, recognized the dog as the most religious of
all creatures who loves with complete dependence, the congregation seemed to be
on the edge of applause. It was a memorable moment, and Penny, the Convent dog,
who was curled under Sister Madeleine Mary’s feet, awoke from her usual nap in
the sanctuary during church service and looked around for recognition.
I received a similar response when I went down to Grace
Fellowship Church on Garner Road to deliver the same sermon. The response both
gladdened and saddened me because I love dogs but cannot withstand too much
exposure to them as I’m allergic to animal dander. Of course, Sophie, the
Convent cat, isn’t as polite as Penny and insists on following me around,
hiding under the table when I share breakfast with the Sisters in the
refectory. Yesterday I was informed that the Sisters were up late vacuuming the
chair on the altar where I sit before delivering a sermon because perverse
Sophie had been lining it with animal dander all week in preparation for my
arrival.
Sunday afternoon, we went down to the valley in Cowan, TN,
to view an exhibit of the work of Carolyn Tocco who is one of the members of
Grace Fellowship. Although Carolyn owns several dogs, I didn’t find any
renderings of
them; however, one wall
of the Artisan Depot in Cowan featured a beautiful display of her oils that
depicted wildlife and nature. Carolyn works in a studio of her home at
Winterberry in the woods near Sewanee that we had visited last fall before we
left Sewanee. We had come away from the visit with two small depictions of bugs
and berries now hanging on the walls of the cottage here on The Mountain, and
yesterday I added a painting of butterfly weed to our Tocco collection. I also
left the Artisan Depot with two ceramic tea bag holders by Gretchen McCance who
has a kiln at her home in Tim’s Ford, TN and another in Blue Ridge, Georgia.
The Artisan Depot just moved into a new facility on the main
thoroughfare of Cowan and is a part of the Franklin County Arts Guild, which
features fine art and crafts from Franklin County and surrounding areas. The
Arts Guild is an organization of local artists and friends who promote the visual
and performing arts for all ages in Franklin County. It also provides a
scholarship for a promising high school senior who plans to study art or
education at the university level, and an annual Sweet Tooth Theater, which is
a musical act accompanied by coffee and dessert. The Artisan Depot is one of
those galleries found in small communities throughout the Appalachians that
promote venues for artists to sell their work.
It was a Sunday filled with “glad surprises,” as Thomas a
Kempis says, made more pleasant by a Mexican dinner at the Fiesta in Cowan where the walls are decorated with another visual
experience —the work of Sewanee artist, Edward Carlos.
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