Friday, March 18, 2011

The Spirit blows

It is 12:50 on Friday and the Spirit has been fairly brisk this week with the possibility of gale force winds in the near future...

The essential thing is that for the past number of years the reaction to gale force Holy Spirit has been to batten down the hatches and make sure that we stick to the United Church agenda. Even if we have forgotten what that is. Money is down, people are down (both in numbers and mood), the possibility of saving the church seems to be more down everyday.

At a recent meeting of Presbytery we spent 90 minutes looking at Creative Ministries, of which 30 minutes was actual discussion. We spent almost six hours talking about Creation and Empire, the idea of hiring a bus to take us to Conference was turned into a suggestion that a resolution be drafted asking Conference to hire the bus.

I am not saying that Creation and Empire is not an interesting and timely discussion, but it is one with which we are familiar. Creative Ministries less so. The United Church Manual pretty much suggests that a church is a group with a minister and a building. That limits us. There are congregations with no minister and no immediate hope of affording one. There are other with no buildings. Depending on circumstance these are both valid propositions.

Nicodemus came to Jesus in the middle of the night to ask about this Dominion of God thing that Jesus kept talking about. Jesus told him to look to the Spirit. "There's no telling what the Spirit will do." Jesus suggested that all Nicodemus' knowledge was useless in the face of God's action in the world. Nicodemus needed to start all over again with what is called "beginner's mind".

I think we need to come to our churches and our church meetings with beginner's mind. We need to see them like we have never done this before; then ask "How is this serving God?"

Asking that question may help us to refocus the discussion.

But I bet it won't make you popular at church meetings.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Light and loss

I am not preaching this week and I didn't get a post up last week. I am looking at the readings anyways and thought, what a change in mood in one week. Transfiguration has us up on the mountaintop with this Jesus, who the disciples are understanding is somehow the Son of God, even if they have no understanding of what that means. God tells them to "Listen to him", then they go back down the mountain and spend the next few chapters completely lost because they aren't hearing what they want from Jesus.

They want, like the crowd that is following them, a final earthly solution to this problem of the Romans. The return of the Golden Age of Israel, when they were more than a minor province of a massive empire.

We still look for those final earthly solutions. We want that glowing Jesus to wave a hand and make all those people who aren't like us to change. If only everyone was like us the world would be perfect.

Only it wouldn't be. The story of the Fall in the Garden is, for me, about how each person doesn't take responsibility for their action. They point their finger and cry "It's their fault, your fault, anything but my fault!" What the story shows is that we as humans don't want to accept responsibility for the mess we make of things. Whether it is global warming or the gap between the rich and poor, it is always someone else's fault.

The light of Christ shines to reveal our need for God. Why? So we can move into relationship with God and the world and take up our responsibility for each other and Creation. Look at Jesus, he goes into the desert and is tempted.

He is tempted to do good. Make stones into bread, not just for himself but for the world. He can feed everyone! How cool is that. Only he would spend all his time making stones into bread and nothing would change.

He could give into the world and go the path of power. Become King/Emperor, supreme ruler. Make good laws, enforce the Dominion of God. Only people have tried that and failed. The Dominion of God can only be entered by choice. Empire cannot defeat Empire.

He could prove with miracles and wonders that he is God's Son. Only he would have to come up with ever more spectacular wonders and people would still not believe. Because believing would mean they would have to take responsibility for their lives and that it too hard.

The light of revelation is meant for the mountain tops. It is the experience that defies language. We can't explain it, we can only live it. The temptation will be to try to translate it into something that is useful in this world, but that doesn't work.

All we can do is go down the mountain and try to listen, listen, listen for that whisper of the Spirit that tells us that we, and they, need to choose love for ourselves.