Good sermon's words are never lost on young ears

"If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I've reached the age where I scan The Augusta Chronicle's obituary pages with some regularity, and that's where I found Saturday's death notice of the Rev. Marvin Poe.

The notice said he had died at 82 in Rome, Ga., and it included a list of survivors, none of them local.

I was curious why the family would care to run the notice in the Augusta paper because I knew the Rev. Poe as the minister at my suburban Atlanta Methodist church when I was in high school in the 1960s.

I remembered him as a superior preacher who could intellectually challenge a certain know-it-all teenager with his grasp of theological perspective. I heard him quote philosophical heavyweights such as Reinhold Niebuhr and Dietrich Bonhoeffer a decade before White House resident Jimmy Carter invoked their insights.

I called my father to share the news, and he said he remembered the Rev. Poe distinctly because his sermons often centered on our human problem with acquiring "things" and how the pursuit of possessions almost never involved happiness.

It is certainly a tribute to any preacher that 40 years have not diminished memories of his message.

As for the Augusta connection, well the computer magic of augustaarchives.com solved that one. A check of The Chronicle's back issues showed the Rev. Poe had served at Marvin Methodist Church in Martinez in the late 1950s.

TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALL GAME: That was a full house Saturday night at Lake Olmstead Stadium as the GreenJackets began to wind up their season.

The high number of military servicemen present seemed to boost the attendance to near capacity, and I don't think the concession lines ever got less than five deep across the counter.

Someone, maybe Bob Gleason, wondered whether Cal Ripkin already had taken over.

"No," I said, "but you can certainly see the potential."

TODAY'S JOKE: Here's one shared by George Dean:

A large and boisterous woman was arrested for shoplifting and stood facing the judge.

"Mrs. Jones," he said from the bench, "I see you stole a can of tomatoes. There were six tomatoes in the can, so how about I sentence you to six nights in custody?"

Mrs. Jones glowered up at him, but she finally nodded her head in agreement.

And at that point, her husband jumped to his feet and asked: "Your honor, may I approach the bench?"

"Well," the judge said, "it's rather unusual, but yes, come ahead."

Mr. Jones approached somewhat timidly, leaned forward and whispered:

"Your honor, she also stole a can of peas."