Hogs and Hoppers

Discussions while sitting around a dinner table after a funeral can be very interesting.  The funeral was for Raymond, a former minister of music of at the church I pastored in Clanton.  He became a mentor to me for the five years we served together.  It was an honor to participate in his funeral and comfort the family and friends.

Sharing memories together at the table, the conversation quickly turned to the aches and pains of growing old.  We talked of knee pains and replacements.  One nephew-in-law talked of his foot stress and early retirement.  There was talk of all the medicines, which most of us could not pronounce.  A nephew said he had heart trouble and that his doctors wanted to know what medicines his cardiologist prescribed.  He said he did not have a cardiologist and did not take any medicines.

The nephew said that he was born with the defect and had a valve from a pig implanted to replace his defective valve.  I asked since the transplant did he have a craving for corn.  I can be a smart aleck at times.  He joked back and said he had told his son that he craved corn and could no longer eat pork.

Someone asked him if the cardiologist told him not to eat the pork.  The nephew said, “No, now that I had a pig valve, it is hard to eat my fellow pigs’ flesh.”  This was ironic since the church was serving the family pork barbecue.  Yes, he was eating his fellow pigs.

Pork is a main staple in the South, especially during Independence Day activities.  My brother is cooking a whole hog for a community gathering July 1-2.  He said he was starting at midnight and cooking the hog all night.

It is going to be a fun filled weekend.  My brothers and I are the main attraction for the community event.  Originally, it was called the Hopper Brothers Reunion, because all three of us serve outside Chilton County and our home church wanted us to return to share our talents.  We sing, play musical instruments, write songs, and generally have a lot of fun together.

There will be the hog, chicken quarters, and all the fixin’s.  There will be singing, playing, cousins, friends, and games Saturday from three in the afternoon until who knows when.  The pastor there said he had “blowup” slides for the kids.  It is an outside event at a friend’s farm.  Plan B will utilize my home church’s Family Life Center.  With all the rain, Plan B may be a reality.  Sunday, The Hopper Trio will be leading in Worship.  It is a “you all” come event.

When I think about hogs, I am reminded the story of Jesus and the swine.

So the devils besought him (Jesus), saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine.  And he said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters.  And they that kept them fled, and went their ways into the city, and told every thing, and what was befallen to the possessed of the devils. And, behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus: and when they saw him, they besought him that he would depart out of their coasts (Matthew 8:31-34 KJV).

This was the invention of “deviled ham” and it brings back memories of my days as a contract negotiator.  Businessmen more concerned with profit than with the souls of people, asked Jesus to leave.  I experienced something similar. 

I was involved in a toxic waste issue at the cement plant in Calera.  Our local union supported a community group that was protesting the burning of toxic waste in the cement kilns.  The men in the plant were concerned with the waste being to dangerous to handle and process.  This community group made the Chamber of Commerce for the city of Pelham very uncomfortable.  They we so upset that members of the Chamber and a delegation of business men approached me and tried to convince me to back the union off because it was causing no small stir when trying to bring new businesses into Shelby County.  They had very strong, threating language for me.

I looked this group of professionals dead into the eye and said, “The lives of the men and women in the plant and people and the communities in which they live are more important that making millions of dollars especially when businesses do more to harm than to help.  The lives of people are more important than immoral monies.”

This last time I read the Bible, which is daily; Jesus is more concerned with the souls of people than sales and profit.

As we celebrated Independence Day in days of COVID 19, let us remember that men and women sacrificed and died for our freedom and the establishment of a moral society and government.  Pray for those entities that would misuse freedom to destroy lives for gain.  Pray that our churches to find those that sin has bound and share the freedom of Jesus in His redemptive blood and give hope.

Cost of Freedom

You and I live in a time when TV commercials receive higher ratings than regular programming.  Vendors and Madison Avenue Marketing compete for airtime during the Super Bowl.  The network that carries the Super Bowl charges an unbelievable $2.6 million for a 30-second ad slot.  Our government paid $2.5 million dollars for the 2010 census ad.  The bottom line is the record number of viewers for the Super Bowl.

The commercials can be funny.  A Snickers ad that shows Betty White being tackled is funny and continues to be a hit.  Budweiser beer usually has some very humorous ads.  They have enough money in their coffers to do so to make them funny.

One night several years ago as my son Aaron and I were watching TV, Budweiser aired an ad for the Fourth of July.  The ad shows Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and other men of that era at a backyard barbecue.  It tries to be humorous, but it was offensive.  It shows our founding fathers as bumbling idiots drinking beer and partying, something typical of today.  Ben Franklin’s character accidentally tilts a cannon creating fireworks when it discharges.  They say that we should do this celebration every July 4.  Aaron commented on how disrespectful the commercial was about our founding fathers and the signing of the Declaration of Independence. 

The men that signed the Declaration of Independence did so at great cost.  Some lost their fortunes, some lost their property, and some lost their lives for signing their names on that document.  A document and freedom we make frivolous today as evidenced in the Budweiser commercial and actions of many citizens.

Snickers went through a fiasco a few years back when they aired a commercial that was considered inappropriate by many viewers.  They withdrew the ad, as have many other brand name products when there was public outcry against them.

We live in a nation where public outcry is changing.  Isaiah reminds us, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”  We see that unfolding before our eyes.  We have a tendency to forget.  Most people do not like history, but without knowing where we have been, we might have the tendency to repeat our past mistakes.

How did my young son determine that the beer commercial was disrespectful?  Many his age would have never considered that thought.  I would like to think that it is because I have tried to teach him the real meaning of the Fourth of July and the great sacrifice that our forefathers paid for us to enjoy a grand holiday.

I think that it is important to tell our children about real people and kinfolk that have gallantly served our nation to preserve our great freedoms.  Millions are enjoying the fruit of the work of those gone before us.

The Bible tells the story of Moses and the Exodus over and over.  Spanning centuries, the Exodus and God’s love for the nation of Israel in caring for them until they entered the promise land is as one of my professors put it, “a watershed event in history.”

When the nation of Israel would forget and stray, God, or His representative, would remind them of the great cost and victory of the Exodus.

When we make frivolous those events of great sacrifice and great significance, there needs to be condemnation.  Freedom comes at great expense.  Once, an old friend and I were discussing Salvation.  She enjoyed needling me, especially about me being a Southern Baptist.  She was bragging about her salvation not costing anything.  I reminded her that it might not have cost her, but the cost of our salvation bankrupted heaven.  It cost God everything.

Could it be that we are not teaching our children about the cost of our freedom?  Are we profaning the sacred?  When do we draw the line with humor?  Will our freedom without remembrance keep us free?  I think the Psalmist says it best.

Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.  I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:  Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.  We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done. For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children:  That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:  And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God (Psalm 78: 1-8 KJV).