A Lenten Collection
A Lenten Collection
Lent: We walk into the gathering danger & doubt surrounding Jesus as he made choices that led to the Cross.
This is a time of preparation & reflection.
Where have you been this year & where might you be going?
What are the things that have kept your journey on pause?
What are the choices you have made that you would like to revisit?
A Lenten Collection
Just recently, UCiM held its Annual Meeting. The Annual Meeting often is a time of reports and discussions about the work that has been done and discerning where the Spirit may be Calling. And sometimes, if such communities are ready, the Calling might be heard and, possibly, even heeded …
For some, meetings and the administration of faith communities can feel onerous and even tedious. I admit, church-geek that I am, I relish these times. Times when those, such as myself who are privileged to be allowed to offer Accountable Leadership, get to simply listen, sit and notice the tensions between what a community longs to be and the human tendencies that can get in the way of that longing to respond to the Spirit’s Calling.
Often, the most apparent tension is the world of numbers, dollars and cents. And, as any good Steward knows, there is a fine line between accountability of someone else’s assets and the hoarding of what is not ours. This tension is only exacerbated by the intrinsic paradox that God’s Kingdom is grounded in an idea of abundance! This, in turn, is only further complicated by a 21st Century tendency to talk about deficits, budget cutting and fiscal conservatism while, ironically, we are living in the wealthiest and healthiest human context within our species’ recorded history!
The gift that I have been blessed to experience at UCiM has, generally speaking, been an upside-down community that chooses to continue to grow its ministry before ‘i’s are dotted and ‘t’s are crossed! Nope, UCiM does not seem to be paralysed by this particular conundrum …
Matthew 11.30
30 “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (NRSV)
30 “Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” (The Message)
What struck me during this last Annual Meeting, however, is the feeling that this Good and Faithful Work is a burden, as an onerous and unwanted task. There were moments, this past Sunday, when I sensed not joy at the brave and hopeful choices being made, but a melancholy at the least and, at worst, cynical apathy.
For the United Church in Canada, the generational experience as to why one attends church ranges from a context of obligation to a context of choice. This range is neutral in nature and, really, why one stays is more important and it is this aspect of burden that gets me to musing …
A Wordle
Jesus ministered in a time of oppression and persecution, when the Haves CERTAINLY had and the Have Nots, well not at all! Into this place called the Roman Empire, he told men and women to wake up, embrace one another as Holy and to share that news without apology and with the clear knowing that this was dangerous and subversive … and what happened? Well, put it this way, I’m blogging some 2000 years later in a space-faring, atom-splitting culture that is still trying to get what he meant!
These men and women knew – or at least could anticipate – the danger this ministry possessed, but it was worth it for they were awakened to a universal truth spoken and wrestled with throughout our Sacred Stories: living into God’s Kingdom, acting as Stewards for this change was liberation! Liberation from believing you were nothing; that you deserved to be beaten, oppressed, judged because of your ability – or more accurately, perceived lack thereof, and, perhaps worse yet, that God – the Holy of Holies – had predetermined your fate!
Part of this discipline called the Lenten journey is to try to reconcile our suspicions about what happened. As we do that, he told his followers something that I think speaks to the experience about which I was just writing about. He told these men and women that his work was light, that the burden was – implicitly – joyful! That doesn’t mean he implied it was easy, however!
These men and women knew – or at least could anticipate – the danger this ministry possessed, but it was worth it for they were awakened to a universal truth spoken and wrestled with throughout our Sacred Stories: living into God’s Kingdom, acting as Stewards for this change was liberation! Liberation from believing you were nothing; that you deserved to be beaten, oppressed, judged because of your ability – or more accurately, perceived lack thereof, and, perhaps worse yet, that God – the Holy of Holies – had predetermined your fate!
As our Annual Meeting drew to a close – after the various tensions and voices shared challenges, affirmations, and concern – joy filled that blessed space. It seems to me that the burden becomes heavy when we think it’s ours to own. When we let our egos mask the Spirit’s work, I think we get misled and we long to get back to where we were: free and liberated, excited to share the Good News! And, as Lent reminds us, sometimes we need to walk into the wilderness, in order to appreciate what’s been and might yet be, for the Kingdom of Heaven is always NOW. We just have to choose HOW …
Your reflections are most welcome!