Get Off My Lawn!

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One of my all time favorite movies is "Gran Torino" in which Clint Eastwood plays Walt Kowalski a crochety Korean War veteran and retired auto worker who spends his days sitting on the front porch of his home drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer.  As a pastor I can't recommend the movie because Walt's vocabulary is the vocabulary of  a crochety Korean War veteran and retired auto worker who spends his days sitting on the front porch of his home drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer.

The movie tells the story of how Walt befriends an Asian family that lives next door to him while bemoaning the transitional nature of his Detroit area neighborhood.  The widowed Walt takes extreme pride in his home and his lawn.

One of the classic scenes in the movie takes place when some neighborhood thugs trespass on Walt's lawn.  Walt appears on the front porch with a shotgun in classic crochety old man fashion points the gun at the thugs and declares "Get off my lawn."  

From that point the phrase "Get off my lawn," has taken on a life of its own in pop culture.  It has come to symbolize older folks exhibiting their disgust at things around them.

I don't own a shotgun and I've never had anyone trespass on my lawn to my knowledge but I have to admit that the older I get I do seem to have more "Get of my lawn" moments.

I just returned to the office here at the church after visiting Walmart.  A trip to Walmart always finds my mood worse when I leave than when I arrive.  In fact, I try to avoid Walmart as much as possible in order that I have fewer "Get off my lawn" moments.
  
What kind of things set me off in Walmart?  One is self check out stands that aren't operational or open.  If no one is required to actually staff the thing then why can't they all be open?  Another thing that irritates me is the price checks because of the person in front of me in the lines that do have cashiers. Today I watched woman argue over whether or not the frozen biscuits she was trying to buy cost $2.94 rather than the $3.32 she was charged.  

Still another thing is being asked to show a receipt when I leave the store.  Now, lets get the picture.  I've just paid for my purchase therefore whatever is in my bags is now my property.  I'm not a constitutional scholar but as I understand it no one should search my personal stuff without a warrant. It's not like I'm bringing things into the store, I'm leaving the store so it isn't a matter of safety.  

Basically Walmart's way of thanking me for shopping with them is to accuse me of theft on my way out the door.  I've recently adopted the policy of saying "not today" when a Walmart employee asks to see my receipt on the way out the door.  For some strange reason my wife doesn't ever go to Walmart with me anymore.

Of course there are other things that create "Get off my lawn" moments.  One is folks not moving when a red light turns green.  Another is people driving below the speed limit on a two lane road.  Above all I get real grumpy when I see a group of people walking down the street not interacting with other but staring at their phones.

I'm really not a total grouch.  There are many more things that make my happy than produce "Get of my lawn" moments.  Yet ever so often I just feel the need for a  few of my "Get of my lawn" moments.   

Of course there are some important things that irritate me and I hope irritate all of us.  Injustice, dishonesty, pretentiousness, all cause me consternation and these are things that matter.  

The truth is there are probably sometimes that God looks at me and gets a little irritated as well, particularly when I have my "Get of my lawn" moments.

In Luke 15 we read the story Jesus told of a father who had every reason to be irritated with his son.  His son had squandered and inheritance he'd been given but came home to his father.  Yet, rather than tell his son to "Get off my lawn" he said "Welcome home."  Such is the grace of God and for that I am thankful because sometimes after I've been a little too grumpy and a little too crochety I am blessed to hear the words "Come back home" rather than "Get off my lawn."  

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