Those who sowed with tears….

Serving as a parish priest is always challenging; serving in a time of pandemic is even more challenging. All of us are, in one way or another, grieving. I think part of that grief rises out of our realization that there is no way to go back to the way things were two years ago. And that realization comes in the wake, if we have been honest, of the realization that there is no way back to the way things were a generation ago when church-going was the norm in North America. 

Although there was no de jure establishment of Christianity in the United States and Canada, there was a de facto establishment during much of the last century. That has ended and we have been faced with a difficult choice. Do we resist disestablishment or do we embrace it? I have for at least the past decade believed that embracing disestablishment is what God requires of us. And that involves honest grieving. 

Twenty years ago I was unemployed for several months. I had decided not to continue teaching and the interim work that I was doing came to its inevitable end. As I began looking for work one verse of Psalm 126 became part of my daily prayers. “Those who sowed with tears will reap with songs of joy.” (v. 6) It was for me a promise. After some none too patient waiting and an embarrassing encounter with a deployment officer, I was asked to serve a parish that was in crisis. When I arrived and began to post that verse on the sign board outside the parish office, the parish secretary immediately recognized that it was from Psalm 126. That was, I thought,  confirmation that the promise was not just for me but for the parish as well.

During the pandemic I have prayed Psalm 126 during Compline each night. It is an affirmation of my belief that the tears we sow, our grieving, will be seeds that God uses to bring new life to the Church. Not a return to what once was but something new and unexpected.

Who Are We?

On the first Sunday of my time as locum at Christ Church, I mentioned in my sermon how the people of Israel often misunderstood the nature of their identity as God’s chosen people. The problem, I said, was that they thought their identity was about their superiority, that God had chosen them because they were inherently better than other people. They had forgotten that God had called them to be a blessing to “all families of the earth….” (Genesis 12:3)

This amnesia led some of them to despise those who were outside the community of Israel. That led some of them to define themselves simply as “not one of those people.”

That amnesia can infect our churches as well and lead us to see ourselves simply as not like those Roman Catholics or those Baptists or…. The challenge is to discover how we are called to be a blessing to the community in which God has placed us. Or to put another way, what would the wider community lose if we weren’t there? How, specifically, has God called our church to be a blessing to others?

At Christ Church we often point, rightly, to the Thrift Shop as a blessing to others, but resting on our laurels is hardly appropriate. The world today needs God’s love and we are, not the only channel, but certainly a channel through which God’s love can flow. It’s our task to listen and discover what new adventures in becoming a blessing await us. 

Sharing in God's Mission

This week I begin a three month stint as locum tenens at Christ Church in North  Conway, New Hampshire while my friend Richard Belshaw is on sabbatical. Unlike my previous experience at Ascension Memorial Church, this will be with a community I have known for more than fifty years. Jan and I met at Christ Church in 1971, married there the following year, and chose to retire in the Mount Washington Valley in 2016. 

A sabbatical is not only an opportunity for learning for the cleric but for the parish as well. The old saying about the minister ministering while the congregation congregates can be proven wrong during a sabbatical. All members of the Body of Christ are called to share in Christ's transforming and renewing work in the world. The chance to explore new ways of sharing in this work is one of the gifts that the parish can receive during a sabbatical.

During the next three months I will, of course, have responsibility for worship, pastoral care, and some administrative work. But I will also have an opportunity to help parishioners explore new ways of serving one another and our neighbors. I look forward to this new adventure and ask for your prayers.