Father Tim Kavanagh and Thanksgiving

I’ve been enjoying re-reading Jan Karon’s books set in Mitford, North Carolina, and

centering on the life and ministry of the community’s Episcopal priest,

Father Tim Kavanagh.

I like Father Tim. My wife goes farther: she says I am Father Tim. My wife

is usually right, but she’s wrong on this one. Father Tim is a much better

pastor and a much nicer feller than the preacher my wife lives with. But

nonetheless it does me good to spend time with the kind rector, and I’m

usually more pastoral and a little nicer after I’ve done so.

I wouldn’t deny that a few similarities do exist between us, Father Tim

and me.

Mitford is a small town of the “great place to live” variety. Muleshoe is

in exactly that category. Father Tim has discovered that the very best

(and by far the largest) part of America is the small town part. I

couldn’t agree more.

Mitford is set in the “high green hills” of North Carolina. Muleshoe is

set in the high brown plains of West Texas. Hmm.

Father Tim has discovered that you can truly and meaningfully touch just

as many lives in a small church/small town setting as you can in a large

city/mega-church setting. Maybe more. I agree.

Father Tim is the kind of guy who would rather spend thirty minutes with

the “real” guys at the local coffee shop than thirty minutes with the

“plastic” big business/big politics/big shots (in general) of our society.

Absolutely.

Father Tim has a great church secretary full-time who does a great job and

doesn’t mind telling him how “the cow ate the cabbage” and keeping him in

line. I’ve got one of those, too, but she can do the job in one day a week.

Father Tim has a great dog. Ditto. His dog is pacified by the reading of

Scripture or 18th-century English poets. I may try that.

Father Tim has a polite little motor scooter. I’ve got a man-sized machine

with air intakes and pipes that opened wide will suck in and spit out

neighborhood pets from three doors down. (The similarity is that both

machines have two wheels.)

Father Tim has been described as “bookish.” Probably ditto (and I consider

that a compliment).

Father Tim esteems C. S. Lewis and Winston Churchill as among his heroes.

Well, of course.

Yes, there are some similarities. But Father Tim is, I repeat, a much

nicer guy, better pastor, and finer human being than am I.

As I spent some time with him recently, I was struck by the notes he’d

jotted in his sermon notebook on “thanksgiving” and another quotation or

two he recalled.

Oswald Chambers: “We look for visions of heaven, and we never dream that

all the time God is in the commonplace things and people around us.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer: “We prevent God from giving us the great spiritual

gifts he has in store for us because we do not give thanks for daily

gifts. . . .” Looking for the “highest good,” we “deplore the fact that we

lack the deep certainty, the strong faith, and the rich experience that

God has given to others, . . . Only he who gives thanks for little things

receives the big things.”

I’m pretty sure Father Tim’s Thanksgiving sermon was better than mine.