PASTOR DAVE’S MUSINGS F ROM THE HEARTLAND

July 2, 2023

REALITY CHECK

The Monday following my granddaughter’s wedding Diane and I headed north to Canada.  Our destination was Sutton, Quebec, which is located just across the Vermont border in the Eastern Townships.  We spent two nights in a microbrewery and spent Tuesday touring the area.

Sutton and the surrounding area is the inspiration for Louise Penny’s Chief Inspector Armand Gamache mysteries.  In Knowlton which is not far from Sutton and is the home of Penny we visited the bistro and bookstore which are mentioned in her mysteries.  While there we also saw a painting entitled “Fair Day” which was featured in the Gamache television series.  We took a thirty minute drive over first paved roads, then gravel roads, and finally dirt roads which had turned to mud to visit the Mystic School House.

In reading the mysteries I had formed a picture of the primary setting for the stories, Three Pines.  Sutton, Knowlton, and the surrounding area provided a reality check on my impressions.  The village was larger than I had imagined and the surrounding area was more populated.  The bistro, the book store, and other sites we visited adjusted my image of each of them.  Tuesday morning we ate brunch at Mollies.  I had French toast with rhubarb sauce.  My impression of the residents of Three Pines will be forever influenced by people we met there and where we were staying.

                In Matthew 17:20 Jesus tells his disciples in answer to their question about why they could not cure a young child, “Because of your little faith.  For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.”  I never fully understood this passage until I visited the Holy Lands and saw the mountain that moved from one place to another.  In 40 B.C.E. King Herod took the top of one mountain and placed it on top of another mountain to build the Herodium.  On one of my trips we visited the fortress.  Recently, archeologists think they have found the tomb of Herod there.

I have found that visiting the Holy Lands has provided a reality check about my understanding of scriptures.  Walking a part of the Wadi Kelt gave me a greater appreciation for Jesus’ Parable of the Good Samaritan.   Observing the natural amphitheaters along the shore line of the Sea of Galilee explains how Jesus was able to talk to large groups of people.  My three visits to the Holy Lands have forever changed my attempt to place the events of the scriptures in a Midwest American setting.  The road to Emmaus did not take place between Plymouth and Argos.

We all live with idealized pictures of the past which over time we have come to think of as fact.  Unfortunately, reality has a way of interfering and exposing some of our misconceptions.  More than once I have thought something was true from my growing up in Cortland, Ohio, only to discover that I was wrong.

Jesus said, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free (John 8:32).”  Reality checks not only help us to know the truth, but they also help us to have a better understanding of the world in which we live and think.  My picture of Three Pines will be forever influenced by my visit to Sutton and Knowlton.  My visit helps me to have a greater appreciation of Louis Penny’s Chief Inspector Armand Gamache mysteries.