Open Door-Maybe Not!

This afternoon I read a post about a proposal to have a 'closed 2016 General Conference' when the United Methodist Church gathers for its global meeting.  It seems the 2012 General Coference got a little too messy for some folks.  Disruptions and unexpected challenges to the 'schedule' have led some to seek a way to keep the 'unwanted' out.  This strikes me as very odd for a Church whose theme has been "Open Doors, Open Hearts."

I want to compare that proposal to what I observed sitting in a really messy room this afternoon.  I was at my cable company's office.  Only the bravest of the brave dare enter such a den of human emotion.  Can you believe parents letting their children crawl around, stand and shout, drool, and approach you like you want to talk to them!  I saw people waiting (me too) clutching their 'number' praying someone got frustrated and left so we would not have to wait so long.  I watched people argue, challenge, perhaps even mildly threaten the 3 women behind the counter.  Grumbling, rumbling, and looks of defeat or anger moved from face to face.  The one thing we had in common was we wanted to say something about the service we were getting.

NOW let's give a cheer and credit to those 3 women.  They patiently dealt with each one of us.  They listened even when they knew we were not right.  They smiled and showed respect to each person.  That is the spirit of hospitality!  It would have been so much easier to have a 'closed' setting where they could control the number of people, determine who to talk with and who to ignore.  BUT life is messy and sometimes getting done what needs to be done requires us to roll up our sleeves and wade into the mess.

When we see disruption, not as a possibility for hearing others, but as an obstacle to doing the business of the church then we have no business to do.  Closing doors sends a chilling message.  Prayerfully we will see our delegates be willing to roll up their sleeves, listen to all, and together move the vision of being a church for all forward.  If we are not certain how to do this then I can provide the planning committee with the names of 3 women who can teach us. 

In the Still of the Night

In the still of the night it came to me.  Despite a household filled with furniture from two homes, 4 adults, two children, three cats, and a dog there was a stillness in the night.  I was reading a Navajo mystery novel, the lights were low, Max the dog was asleep in 'his chair', and a cat slid slowly through the shadows.  I was very relaxed and, no, I had not had a glass of wine.  A sentence about one of the main characters stirred my mind.  "He retired, didn't he?"

After a little more than 3 years since my official retirement I think the time has come for me to really retire.  I had begun to think about serving a small church.  What was I thinking! I had taken a step back from being Pastor Norm several weeks ago when I decided not to do children's messages at church anymore.  I enjoy doing this but I have been doing it for 44 years.  Others can do it just as well as me.

I am teaching a study group through November.  They are a great bunch with inquiring minds.  Together we are thinking about how the Bible fits into our faith journey.  And I have some friends joining us via an online study group.  I love teaching!  This morning I am thinking this will be my last study group.  Others can lead just as well as me.

Earlier this month I led a memorial service for a dear friend who died too soon.  It is a privilege and an honor to be asked to celebrate an individuals life. Later, I learned that several attending wanted to know what church I was preaching at.  I am grateful for the compliment.  I will do services such as this but I no longer have the need to do funerals.  Others can do it just as well as me.

I am scheduled for one wedding and possibly a second wedding in 2015.  I look forward to doing these as ,again, it involves significant friendships.  It will be a joyful time.  Honored as I am to be asked, friendships will decide my answer.  Others can do weddings just as well as me.

Finally, preaching.  I love preaching and have done so several times this year.  To engage the congregation in reflecting on our faith and how we live it out has always been a delight.  I will continue to preach from time to time but am content to more and more be a pew person rather than a pulpit presence.  Others can do it just as well as me.

IF you are still reading thank you.  I felt the need to move these thoughts out of my mind and into black and white on a page.  In the still of the night I answered the question "He retired, didn't he?"  YES



 

I Could Be Wrong

I shared a walk in Israel in March with a group that included a delightful young woman.  One day she remarked "I could be wrong but I am usually right."  She said it with a soft smile and a positive tone and I believe she probably is usually right.

My dilemma is that I find myself sharing my thoughts and views with some degree of certainty.  However, I am comfortable saying "I could be wrong."  So I want to wade into the muddy waters of theology and bible and it is likely you will decide this is one of those times Norm is wrong. 

My tradition, United Methodists (and that label is now a real struggle), is searching for a way to hopefully stay together and be faithful to the bible.  The hot button focus at the moment is inclusion of all people in terms of sexual orientation.  My observation is that the dialogue needs to begin with respectful and open conversation about what the bible says.

Some take a literal approach and say 'the bible says what it says.'  Some take a historical/critical approach and say 'the bible says what it says but we need to look at the context in which it was said' (and you thought I wasn't paying attention in how to use doublespeak).  Some of us like bible study groups that reflect our view.  Some of us like bible study groups that challenge our view. 

I pose two thoughts.  The first is that I think there is always the temptation to tell the people what they want to hear.  One defines reality rather than wrestling honestly with the possibility of having misunderstood reality.  It happens in politics, it happens in news media, and it happens in the church.  The second thought is simply this-can we stay together in faith community with those who understand the bible differently?  Is it okay to see different realities in the same faith community?

I could be wrong but I think this sits beneath the buzz and heated views swirling at the moment.  Is being gay a sin?  Do Muslims and Christians believe in the same God?  Can I believe that every word in the bible is without error?  Can I believe that the bible contradicts itself?  Is it possible we have misconceptions about heaven and hell?  Is there more than one way to God?

It took me awhile but I ended up in the muddy waters.  I could be wrong but I believe until we are willing to be together in the muddy waters we will continue to muddle along becoming more and more irrelevant to more and more people.  I could be wrong but I believe God calls us to live out the vision of love, compassion, and justice for all the peoples of the earth.  AND THAT DRIVES MY PASSION TO LIVE WITH FAITH AND DOUBT.

Defining God

This Sunday was a simple day filled with everyday moments.  I left the warmth of my bed at 6:30am (and I wasn't even preaching!) to shovel 2 inches of snow from our driveway.  A bagel and orange juice breakfast followed by a hot shower prepared me for going to Sunday worship.  Cheryl, Kristen, and I were pleasantly surprised by having good friends, Pastors Hugh and Erma Rohrer, join us as their church was snowed out of services.  It was a communion Sunday and we had-for me-those awful, tasteless wafers and grape juice.  Surely Jesus meant for us to have two of the joys of life-good bread and wine!

Lunch was at the Southside Diner where they might not call out "Norm" when I enter but they do know my name!  A solid breakfast for me at 1:00 in the afternoon and some teasing with the wait staff.  Then home to shovel off what the city plows threw back onto my driveway.  With the promise/threat of bitter cold and more snow the next 3 days it was off to the library to pick up some reading material.  Man does not live by television alone.

Two pain pills and a recliner carried me away for a winter's nap.  A light supper and washing the dishes brings me to the first shadows of the night.  A simple day with everyday moments.  In the darkness a siren now echoes and a life faces a crisis-may it become song and not sorrow for those at the end of the ambulance run.  A God given day and I choose to end by sharing with you a poem by Jane Kenyon.  Her poetry speaks powerfully to me.  She defines God in her poem Briefly It Enters, and Briefly Speaks. 

I am the blossom pressed in a book, found again after two hundred years...
I am the maker, the lover, and the keeper....
When the young girl who starves sits down to a table she will sit beside me....
I am food on the prisoner's plate...
I am water rushing to the wellhead, filling the pitcher until it spills....
I am the patient gardener of the dry and weedy garden....
I am the stone step, the latch, and the working hinge...
I am the heart connected by joy...the longest hair, white before the rest....
I am there in the basket of fruit presented to the widow...
I am the mush rose opening unattended, the fern on the boggy summit....
I am the one whose love overcomes you, already with you when you think to call my name...

And so a simple day ends with a simple definition of God that comforts me and reminds me of where to look for God's presence.