Lenten Reflection 2/20

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You know well enough how the wind blows this way and that. You hear it rustling through the trees, but you have no idea where it comes from or where it's headed next. That's the way it is with everyone 'born from above' by the wind of God, the Spirit of God. "  - John 3:8

It seems to me that not everyone that's wandering is lost.  There are frequent times in life in which we really don't know where we're headed or where we'll end up.  But I think that's the way the Spirit likes to work it.   It's a way of reminding us that the only reliable road map we have in life is our trust in God.

In the recent readings from Deuteronomy, the Israelites have been wandering around in the wilderness for years already (and they don't like it one bit). And Nicodemus, too, must have felt like some kind of wanderer sneaking out in the middle of the night to talk with Jesus.  His Pharisee colleagues would have thought he was mad - and a traitor.  But the spirit is like that.  It leads us out of our comfort zones.  And though we may feel like we're lost, God's got it covered, and is showing us as we wander forth - telling us - giving us - just what we need to move forward in faith.  The Israelites in the desert were certainly not on their best behavior while wandering, yet God still brought them to a better place.  The writer of Hebrews points out that it was just the Israelites that turned deaf ears to God who died in their wandering. 

I was thinking of all this as I heard about "the Sequester" on the news for about the billionth time this morning.  Each side is accusing the other of being uncooperative.  No one wants to make concessions.  Everyone wants it their way.  It's all someone else's fault.  People are drawing lines in the sand.  They sometimes seem like children that are sticking their fingers in their ears and saying, "I can't hear you - la, la, la, la, la, la..."

It seems like our political leaders have been wandering around in the desert for quite a while now in addressing our communal budgetary problems.  It is my prayer that at least some of them are wandering around in this wilderness with open ears, minds and hearts.  In any case, I am sure that God's got it covered.  The Holy Spirit is always at work - even in the halls of Congress, the White House and the Supreme Court.  Who knows: maybe this crazy bipartisan bickering and the propensity of our leaders to make icons  -golden calves - of things that are not God (things like power and money and influence and - of course - getting elected again) will eventually nudge us all to go forward in faith instead of fear, focusing on the greater good instead of just our own interests.

Until then, I pray for our leaders ears to be unstopped and their hearts and minds to be opened to something much greater than themselves.

Today's readings:  Deut. 9:13-21; Heb. 3:12-19; John 2:23-3:15
Elsa is reading The Message translation this year.

Called to Trust

Before I left on vacation last week, I attended the splendid consecration service of our new bishop, Ian Douglas. The Koeppel Center at Trinity College, usually used as a sports arena, was transformed into a beautiful worship space by colorful fabrics and banners. Choirs from all over the state, African drummers and a steel drum band provided spirited music during the liturgy. (Carl and Bo were among the many choristers that took part.) Over 40 bishops were in attendance in their red vestments, along with hundreds of priests and deacons, vested in white, along with the celebrating bishops in their white and gold copes and miters. With that number of clergy in attendance, it was quite a procession!

I had volunteered to help, and I was given the task of helping to shepherd in the procession. In fact, I was asked specifically to shepherd Katherine Jefferts Shori, our presiding bishop, into the service, which gave me the opportunity to meet and talk with her before the service. Oh, I liked her very much, and felt immediately at ease with her. I was most impressed her presence. She is an unusually centered person, and her calm energy seems to relax everyone in her vicinity. I asked her if she was enjoying her work as presiding bishop, and she told me that it has been a great gift – a blessing. She particularly enjoys the variety in her work, and seems fed by it. “The Spirit always has something unexpected in mind, so every day is new,” she said.

I was thinking how much trust in the Spirit it must take to be a bishop. Stepping into such a significant leadership role brings great pressures along with it. I was immensely grateful to hear that rather than becoming overwhelmed by the many pressures of her role, our presiding bishop seems to receive each task as a privilege and as a gift. I asked if she ever gets overwhelmed by her many responsibilities. She told me with a warm smile that she just has to trust that moment by moment the Spirit is putting the thing that most needs her attention in front of her. That was a powerful testimony to me.

I pray that our presiding bishop’s faithful sense of trust will ripple out like waves in a pond to the entire church. I pray that Bishop Douglas also has that kind of trust in leading our diocese - and that I do, too, as the priest in charge at Grace Church. I pray our vestry also lives more and more each day into trust. And I pray that everyone who walks into Grace Church not only recognizes that trust is alive among us there but is put at ease by it, just as I was put at ease in the bishop’s presence that morning.

I was visiting with our own Bishop Ahrens yesterday and telling her how things are going at Grace Church. She told me she has no doubt that God has called me here. I have to agree - but I'm also clear that it's not just me who's been called here. The people of the church have been called here, too. Whether they've been attending Grace for decades or have just started coming, I think God has something in mind in calling us all together here in Trumbull in 2010. I think we're all being invited into God's mission together. It will take lots of listening and lots of discernment to hear and begin to understand that call. It will take lots of courage to answer it. It will take lots of willingness for this church to step into leadership, and it will take lots and lots and lots of trust – in God and in each other. But by trusting in the power of the Spirit, which is guiding us every moment, I hope we will be fed by our work together, and that we will come to treasure as both a gift and a blessing.

A New Glow and a New Blog

The blog's been on the back burner for a while, but since the words Paul wrote to the Corinthians that we read on Ash Wednesday keep ringing in my ears, ("now is the acceptable time") I guess it's time to just jump in. I'd like this blog to be a place where the changes that are happening at Grace Church and in me as their priest are recorded and shared.

I am the priest of a struggling Episcopal Church. Like so many North American churches these days, we're feeling the unsustainability of the way church has been done in past decades with our large buildings, small congregation and dwindling funds. Our congregation of mostly older folks decided that rather than closing down, they wanted to be open to a new way of being church, so the bishop sent me here in July of 09 as their priest in charge for three years. We're going to try and make a go of it. I am a fairly entrepreneurial person who loves a good challenge - which is what all clergy need to be these days - and I feel particularly called to re-discovering the ancient and beautiful spiritual practices of the Christian faith and exploring what they might have to offer us here in the 21st century. So we have come together as pastor and parish, opening our minds, our hearts and our doors to whatever the Spirit blows in!

I hope you'll visit every now and then to see how we're doing.