Pilgrimage Ponderings

Just thought I'd let folks know that I'm going to take a few weeks for a summer blog vacation.  I don't plan to post again until the end of July or the beginning of August.  It's gratifying to know that people are checking this blog, and I wanted folks to know not to expect anything for a few weeks.

Happy Summer!

I was visiting a church Sunday and felt blessed by the pastor's use of language.  My favorite image that she used was one of "grace spillin' out all over."  The point was that we as people of faith are to be that for those around us.

It has occurred to me that one reason those outside the church see communities of faith as problematic is that we inside the community of faith talk far more about budgets and buildings and institutional matters than we do about why the institution is here in the first place.

For me, the story of the Christian community of faith is a love story...a story of God's love for the world "spillin' out all over" through Jesus Christ and the story of how people of faith at their very best become the Body of Christ spillin' that love out everywhere they are.

Sadly, all too often we are not at our best, and what comes spillin' out all over is not grace but something else.  My prayer is that we followers of Jesus can be revived and renewed in the love of God so that we can not only tell that wonderful love story, but also live it.

And thanks to Rebecca for that inspiring image.

Annual conference ends today with the fixing of the appointments.  And another year begins for United Methodists in South Carolina.  School was out yesterday for my kids.  I look forward to the change in routine during the summer.  Sometimes I'm glad they are out of school and I can schedule my work without the same kind of attention to their schedule.  And sometimes I wish I could be on summer vacation with them!

This morning we will learn how our annual conference voted with regard to constitutional amendments.  Then we will vote on the budget, adopt resolutions, and take care of a few nominations.  The other morning our Bible study leader reminded us that whatever happens with the amendments won't make much difference if we are not inviting people into relationship with Jesus Christ and welcoming them into our church families.

I think he's right.

I've been thinking today, from my confirmation-level understanding, mind you, about how Wesley thought and felt about his decision to break with the Anglican structure of the church in order to ordain Thomas Coke and Francis Asbury so that they could serve God and extend the Gospel into a place where the Anglican church could no longer go.

I find myself wondering if he agonized over that decision, or if it seemed clearly to be the leading of God's Spirit for the time.  I wonder if he looked back later on that decision, after the consequences and ramifications of that choice were more fully known, with joy or with regret.  And I wonder if there is any wisdom to be gleaned from John Wesley for the issues facing our church today.

Yesterday we had a wedding at the end of the church service.  It was very special and reminded me of the role of Christian community in our lives.  I am thankful to be part of a community that commits to pray and give active support to families as they unite in marriage, pledges to raise their children in the faith in baptism, seeks to support those children when they publicly profess their faith at confirmation, and surrounds with love and care those who are grieving the loss of a loved one at a funeral.

What a gift we have as the people of God to offer this level of care.  And what a gift to be able to receive those tangible expressions of caring when we are in need.  How can we as people of faith communicate this wondrous gift to those outside our walls who think that we are all about drawing lines and judgment and wrath and hiding ourselves from this world until Jesus comes and whisks us away?

We cannot control what people think of us.  But we have some control over the message we send about what is most important and most central to our life together.

It amazes me how much anxiety and energy is being stirred up over the proposed changes to the United Methodist constitution that every United Methodist will be asked to vote on at their annual conference.  I think that for the most part, the Worldwide Church amendments are putting the cart before the horse, so to speak, because the legislation that will explain what the new structure looks like was referred to a study committee until next General Conference.  I do not believe, however, that if these amendments end up passing it will mean another layer of bureacracy or the end of The United Methodist Church as we know it.  I realize that there are a lot of people who believe the opposite.

I guess I am feeling a bit discouraged about church because I would like to see us, the people of The United Methodist Church who follow Jesus Christ and feel called to loved the world as God loves the world, be as energetic and excited about showing that love to the world as we are about trying to make sure our structures reflect our understanding of the nature and purpose of the church.  Or from a local church perspective, I would like to see us as energetic and excited about showing God's love to the whole world as we are about making sure things go a certain way in our congregation.

If you see that happening in your local church or annual conference, I would love to hear about it.

Today's my birthday.  I'm 42 years old.  Not 43, like my son has been telling everyone.  And not the 10th anniversay of being 29, although I suppose that would be nice.

There was a time when I would have not looked forward to this day.  As a teenager, I thought that 30 was OLD.  Funny how your perspective changes.

What I know is that my brother-in-law did not live to see his 40th birthday.  A week after he died, I celebrated mine. 

Our culture teaches us, particularly through media images, that there's not much exciting in life once you get out of your twenties.  I sometimes used to believe that.

Now I celebrate another year of life, of growing in my understanding of God's grace that is available to me, even me.  I celebrate another year to grow in compassion for God's people and God's creation, and another year to learn how to take advantage of opportunities that come my way to extend that love into the shadowy places of our life together.

It's a good life.  Happy birthday to me.

Silence is a gift.  It is not empty, either.  Especially not silence in community.  We were fellow pilgrims on a journey together, but we were not all one big glob.  We were separate selves linked together by the Holy Spirit.

There is a deep rhythm to life and life with God that I need to pay attention to.  Going inward is a way to reconnect with the world.

It is possible to hear the good news again in fresh ways.

If I am very patient with myself, and God is very gracious, I can bring a taste of that gift of silence and rhythm and freshness back into my "regular" life, busy and hectic and crowded though it is.

May God be gracious.

I'm going to be attending a "Five Day Academy for Spiritual Formation" next week.  You can read about Five Day Academies here: http://www.upperroom.org/academy/fivedayacademies.asp.

The whole thing has me thinking about the idea of pilgrimage.  I have to fly to another state, rent a car and drive to the site of the retreat.  My other option was to drive the whole way, but I decided that 9 hours in the car by myself was trumped by the first option.

So I am thinking about how to make the getting there and getting home part of the retreat experience, rather than being so focused on getting there and getting home that I am not tuned in to God's presence with me along the journey.

Got into an interesting religious conversation with our waiter at supper tonight.  In the process, I learned that my middle son is becoming quite a theologian.  We ended up discussing the concept of absolute truth.  The waiter thinks (I think) that if there is absolute truth, then we human beings should be able to determine what it is.  I suggested that absolute truth resides with God, and that because we are finite human beings, we cannot know more than bits and pieces of the mind of God.  Which, I said, is why we need the whole community of faith, even those with whom we disagree, and we need to wrestle with each other even when we think we are right and the other side is wrong.  In the midst of all of us together putting forward our understanding of what God wants, we can perhaps get a fuller picture than if we are just dealing with our own perspective.

To which the waiter replied, "But what if my truth is that your truth is a lie?" or something like that.

Which sounds like another Tower of Babel to me.  A situation where human beings are seeking to stand in the place of God.