Thanksgiving In Sculley Square
Posted By: Caxy
on 11/23/2006 12:01:28 PM in
THANKSGIVING
"I was a sophomore in a church-related New England college outside Boston. I could not go home for Thanksgiving because I just couldn’t. I was planning on being home for Christmas and being in Maryland for November vacation was too close to December’s get-away.
So I went from student to student on campus to ask for money. I had an idea. I would feed the Boston poor in Sculley Square on Thanksgiving Day. But I needed money - cash.
Fellow students gave away their money. I put it in a jar in my dorm room. And then most of my friends left for Turkey Day elsewhere. It was an eerie feeling at the college when dorms were mostly empty. But I was so excited I was beside myself.
Prior to Thanksgiving I went into Boston where they sold clerical collars. I, a Protestant, would dress as a priest. It was the only way I could be certain that I’d be safe at nighttime in Sculley Square — the dregs section of the metro. It was after all where the prostitutes stood on corners, vagrants slept in the gutters, and a downtown mission sang hymns like, “Softly and Tenderly, Jesus is Calling.”
I knew Sculley Square. I was a part of the college’s Evangelistic Association. We made our ways into the slums of Boston to sing and preach and hand out hymnals in the mission. It smelled badly in that mission house. But it was one grand place to be. Straight backed chairs. Floppy hymnals with paper backs. An old piano at the front of the room. No microphones. Hanging bald light bulbs strung from the stained ceiling. And the gospel preached with gusto, especially by students preparing for the ministry.
I can recall when I preached my first sermon. It was in the Sculley Square downtown mission. When I got back to campus, seated in chapel the next morning, I wrote the outline of my sermon on the back of an envelope I was mailing home to my parents. They would be so proud that their son was preaching, let alone at the slum mission. I was elated with that sermon outline. I wish I still had it.
So it was that preparing for Thanksgiving I went to buy my Roman collar. It worked. It fit. I weighed only 120 pounds, so I didn’t need a large collar. I had a black suit; most of the preacher-wannas had a black suit. So I was all set. I had my cash. I had my collar. I had my black suit. And I had my Thanksgiving in Boston rather than with family in Maryland. Perfect.
The day came to get onto the T — the train that went from Quincy to Boston. There I sat, looking very much like a Father. And so it was that people seated to my right and left greeted me kindly: “Hello, Father.” “Good day, Father.” I smiled and nodded in reply. I recall especially two old ladies. They were whispering to one another. I heard one say, “He seems awfully young to be a priest.” Oh, if they only knew!
Of course, then, in 1958, Catholics swarmed all over Massachusetts, particularly Boston. Priests in garb and nuns in habits were all over the place. So for me to be one of them fit in quite readily, though truly I was a bit young to have finished one’s priestly schooling.
Presently I disembarked and walked up the dungeon steps from below ground onto Park Street and Tremont Street, the Boston Commons to my left. It was mid-afternoon. I walked down past King’s Chapel right into the heart of Sculley Square. I was home!
Sure enough, vagrants, otherwise then known as “bums,” were to right and left. I approached my first customer. “Hello, Father.” “Hello. I hope you’re having a blessed Thanksgiving Day, sir.” “Not at all.” “Then here’s some money. Take it over there to the cafeteria and get yourself a turkey dinner. God bless you.”
I handed him the cash. I had already checked out how much the meal was. It was indeed a cafeteria where you served yourself and paid the cashier when filling up your tray.
With a flash the man took my money and darted into the shadows. He had no intentions of eating a turkey dinner. Liquor was better. And he had my cash in hand.
That taught this naïve Protestant teetottler a lesson. So for the next fellow I approached
about a turkey dinner, I walked with him to the cafeteria, watched him put the food on the tray and then paid the cashier myself for his food. That was that.
But before any more men had their free meals, I walked them right into King’s Chapel. The doors then were never locked. It is an historic church — stone, awesome, quiet, perfect for meditation and prayer. There each fellow along with myself knelt before the altar to pray. I prayed aloud. Then we two stood to our feet, walked to the cafeteria and the man had his turkey dinner.
Night began to fall. I still had money. I was on one grand high for Jesus. Truly. I had never felt so good in a long, long time. I thought my heart would burst.
I came upon a flophouse. I walked in. I talked with the clerk, who herself was a bit of a vagrant. Everyone was that in Sculley Square. The building was dark and dirty. For fifty cents a person could literally flop down somewhere under its roof.
I walked further down the street to be called out to by a fortuneteller. “Father, let me see your palm. I will tell your future,” she beckoned. She was seated in a storefront type of station, dressed as gypsy fortunetellers were garbed in Sculley Square. Behind her was a fancy, colorful curtain. “No thank you,” I replied. “God bless you.” Then I went on my way as she kept calling me to have my fortune told.
Presently, as I was standing under a lamppost, its light forming a perfect circle all around me, I looked up several stories high to an apartment of sorts. There was a light on and a man peering out the window. He must have caught sight of my collar and concluded he hated priests. So with that he opened the window to shout obscenities at me — clenching his fist all the while. I concluded I wasn’t going to linger there under that light.
Finally all my money was gone. I boarded the T for a return to college. All the way home I was thrilled beyond words. What a Thanksgiving Day I had had. It was delightful, fulfilling, out of this world. No one could ever believe what a grand time I had in Sculley Square.
Looking back on that day many, many times — and sharing the experience with numerous friends not only at Thanksgiving — I truly believe it was one of the most miraculous spiritual experiences I have ever been privileged to know.
MAYFLOWER COMPACT & GOD: THANKSGIVING
J. Grant Swank, Jr.
The Mayflower Compact underlines in no uncertain terms the faith in God characteristic of America’s early settlers.
The authoritative language is there. Even though present-day atheists attempt to rewrite history, what they cannot expunge from the historical annals are the exact quotations from persons and documents. They wrestle with interpretations to historical events, but they cannot erase that which is there as documented fact.
One of the main documents highlighting the colonists’ faith in the God of the Bible is the Mayflower Compact. It became the “primary text” for researchers who would follow.
Note the words of colonial leader William Bradford:
“In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are underwriten, by the loyall subjects of our dread soveraigne Lord, King James, by the grace of God, of Great Britaine, Franc, and Ireland king, defender of the faith, etc.
“Haveing undertaken, for the glorie of God, and advancemente of the Christian faith, and honour of our king and countrie, a voyage to plant the first colonie in the Northerne parts of Virginia, doe by these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God, and one another, covenant and combine our selves togeather into a civill body politick, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by vertue hereof to enacte, constitute and frame shuch just and equall lawes, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meete and convenient for the generall good of the Colonie, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.
“In witnes whereof we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cap-Codd the .11. of November, in the year of the raigne of our soveraigne lord, King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fiftie-fourth. Anno Dom. 1620.”
There was no apology from the early settlers when it came to their belief that their mission was God ordained. They were listening to the Holy Spirit. The Lord Himself was providing them with providential care. Therefore, they were more than willing to heed His every directive.
It was the Bible that was at their fingertips. It was the Bible that was preached forthrightly from the early Christian pulpits. It was the Bible that was revered in the homes. From this Bible, colonists came to understand salvation and the will of the divine in their personal lives.
Therefore, when it came to such documents as the Mayflower Compact, it was as natural as breathing for the document to begin with “In the name of God, Amen.” It was a matter of spiritual course for the wording to continue with underlining the “grace of God.” Furthermore, there was attention given to the colonies’ understanding of the “glorie of God.” It was the “glorie” which they prayed for. It was the “glorie” that they revered and worshiped.
THANKSGIVING BRINGS BACK THE BIBLE FOUNDATION
J. Grant Swank, Jr.
John Davenport, at the first settlers’ gathering of New Haven in 1639, delivered an address. He spoke clearly of the Bible having a most significant place in the lives of the newcomers to America. The Bible was the foundation for legal and moral beginnings in their new land.
“Scriptures do hold forth a perfect rule for the direction and government of all men in all duties which they are to perform to God and men as well as in the government of families and commonwealth as in matters of the church … the Word of God shall be the only rule to be attended unto in organizing the affairs of government in this plantation.”
There are those who have rewritten the United States history books in order to expunge the spiritual start to America. With the recent George W. Bush presidential victory, there is going to be a turnaround in that regard. There are scholars now preparing textbooks that will return students to the facts of America’s start.
There are those already expunging the evolution-as-fact nonsense from textbooks. More will occur as time passes and more and more local parents take the challenge to their school boards. It was a hot topic on the radio talk shows this week. It’s a subject that has made news headlines on Internet news sites.
With that change over taking place now, so it will be regarding the spiritual beginnings of this land. Those atheists who have controlled too much of the schools’ reading material will be replaced with historians of integrity. These historians will put back into the books what was erased by the liberals. Therefore, there is the hope that the next generation will indeed come upon the spiritual truth concerning their country’s start.
Of course there are the dark chapters in early American history; it was not heaven-come-to-earth. It never will be here on this spiritually fallen planet. But there was much that was biblically sound back then; and it is that which will be placed back into the annals of United States history.
For instance, early Puritans often considered themselves coming to the Promised Land. That was a reference to the Old Testament Hebrews leaving the slavery of Egypt for God’s Promised Land. So it was that their spiritual leader, Moses, guided them through the wilderness. Eventually, the Hebrews did indeed cross over into the “land flowing with milk and honey.”
In that kind of mindset, Puritans came across the ocean to their Promised Land. It was in that voyage and the landing safely that they lifted their hearts in thanksgiving to God. It was He who watched over them. It was His book that gave them comfort. And it would be that book that would guide them in establishing their new culture.
Much of the early settlers’ legislation then was patterned after the biblical detail. The early colonies’ leaders were personally cognizant of God’s Word. Therefore, they set about to put in place a settlement that would reflect that divine revelation.
For example, the Connecticut Code of 1650 basically was set upon a governmental foundation
influenced greatly by the Mosaic law. Many references from the Holy Scriptures were used to buttress the foundation.
In 1621, the Pilgrims set aside a special day — Thanksgiving — for feasting and worship. In that, they turned their hearts heavenward, expressing their gratitude for blessings received from above.
THANKSGIVING GIVES POISE IN PRAISE
J. Grant Swank, Jr.
Praise Him with Thanksgiving!
And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God,
Saying, Amen! Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen
Revelation 7:11,12 KJV
I will wash mine hands in innocency: so will I compass thine altar, O LORD: That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all thy wondrous works.
LORD, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honour dwelleth.
Psalm 26:6-8 KJV
But I am afflicted and in pain; May Your salvation, O God, set me securely on high. I will praise the name of God with song and magnify Him with thanksgiving.
And it will please the LORD better than an ox Or a young bull with horns and hoofs.
Psalm 69:29-31 NASB
There is a slump to life that can come upon all of us. But for the spiritually wise, they learn how to praise in thanksgiving Creator God. In that, focus turns from self to the Lord God. In that, focus turns from selfishness to serving others.
One of the most rewarding blessings that can come upon a thankful individual is a Good Morning attitude toward everyday. I discovered this in a couple of friends some years ago. Let me tell you about it:
While spending some time on vacation with friends, I noted how upbeat they were each morning. Our hosts were cheerful with comments about the new day, asking about our rest in the night, and setting their sights on our plans for the day. They were simply happy.
With that kind of start, we anticipated the rest of the day with excitement. We knew that we would not have a dull moment. And sure enough, we didn’t.
The couple was in their eighties. And in all the years I had known them, they were consistent: I could always count on their happiness to brighten up a day.
One of their secrets was laughter. It did not take much to hear them break into a genuine outburst of laughter.
Before long, all of us were drawn into their mirth. After all, “this is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm ll8:24).
Singles--young ones in particular--can learn valuable lessons from older believers, even couples. At some time in their lives, they too were single.
Such a simple ingredient as laughter--but what a difference it makes. This elderly couple lit up the dawn with their smiles.
It is delightful to be around people like that. We all want to have others encourage us. We gravitate toward those friends who can see what is going right with the morning.
Believers begin each day with the Morning Star. Jesus revealed to John on the island of Patmos that he himself is “the bright Morning Star.”
Therefore, to get the most out of each day, start with Jesus on your mind. Invite him into your thoughts. He will welcome your invitation.
Others with whom you live may begin their days with grumbling. They may be gloomy pessimists. You may be able to influence them, pointing them toward the light you have discovered in Jesus. If so, then you will have reflected more of Heaven’s radiance in your own household.
Be persistent in discovering Jesus at the start of every day. This is so particularly if you tend to look on the dark side of things. Then you will want to give an extra push to changing your thoughts toward the light. It can be done with a bit of forethought.
As soon as you come out of sleep, say to yourself that you are going to give the first few moments to the grace of God. Focusing on him will begin to shape your attitudes.
It is the start of fresh happiness.
The weather does not matter. Nor does it matter what duties await you. It is your invitation to the Morning Star, Jesus, that will overpower circumstances. Indeed it will begin to form your outlook about those circumstances.
Refrain from listening to the news when you first awaken. Many news items are dealing with violence, war, financial woes, and the like. Your mind as a believer does not need this as its first focus on the day.
Many people do not realize that their entire day can be clouded over because of the negative start they get from the depressing news reports they listen to at dawn. Why do we do this to ourselves? It is not necessary. We are not less responsible citizens if we do not do this.
Sometime later in the day you can catch up with what has happened in the world during the preceding 24 hours, but why start your day with this news?
Redirect your morning routine to center on Jesus and his shining presence in your life. Thank him for watching over you through the night. Tell him that you trust his care during this new day. Focus on God’s happiness in you.
Then you will be ready for the new day." (J. Grant Swank Jr./AmericanDaily.com 11/23/06)
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