Scripture

Last Sunday we met for our “summer communion” service. Circumstances put us outdoors, in a picnic shelter. It was hot, but we were shaded and it was lovely to be together and surrounded by nature, by sacred creation..

Our presider was well-prepared and we experienced the tradition of the sacrament of the Lord’s supper and a familiar exploration of the scriptures. We’d been apart for a few weeks, as you know, and it was good to remember these important bits of our identity.

Of course, our conversation continued on Tuesday when our discussion group met. It was a good reminder of just how scripture has helped shape us as a group, as a congregation. It’s another area where we have been intentional about reinventing ourselves. We agreed with Affirmation One ( you can find it here Sharing in Community of Christ) that our first allegiance is to Jesus as the one to whom scripture points. But we have also found reason to agree with Affirmation Five, that scripture is “vital and essential to the church.” Not as a law book or code of conduct, but as a trustworthy anchor that nurtures a life of discipleship.

We don’t do lectionary sermons much in our little group but we try to remember to return regularly to scripture and we have often found in those “ancient words of scripture “ something revelatory for our time and place, something new, not seen or heard before.

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History

 

We were a small group at Discussion time this week, but that doesn’t mean we don’t talk about big subjects. This week it was History.

What is history? When does it start? When does it end? Does it end, really, ever? Why all of us participating in the conversation were alive for the entire Volume III of the latest version of official church “history.” Does our story count as history or is it just memories that may or may not be recorded anywhere? When do we pick up the thread of history and just add more story? And how will our memories become part of the history if we don’t share the story? So many questions.

While I was thinking about all this (Note; the discussion never ends when we walk out the door.) I remembered a bit of recent history. something that possibly I am the only one who remembers.

Some years ago I was part of the Mission Centre staff and we were dealing with the need to reorganize the various reunions. Volunteer help and resources had begun to dwindle and it just wasn’t practical or even possible to operate three big traditional family camps for the three former districts that used the Ziontario property. This was going to be a big change and there was going to be pushback.

Two of us (one other who may remember this too) were on one of those long car rides together. We did a lot of important work on those rides. This one, I think, qualifies as “historic.” For miles and miles we imagined and envisioned what it would be like if we stopped calling the reunions by the geographic names and instead created two events with different characteristics. They would still be true to the nature of reunion but they would emphasize different things.

One would be most like the camps we knew and knew how to plan and support. Lots of families with lots of kids and schedules full of familiar activities like worship and classes and volleyball and canteen and campfires and visiting around the trailers and under the trees. Many people wanted this kind of camp and they came to be fed, like to crowds who came to Jesus.

The other one would also feed the people who came. But this reunion would fucus more on the individual, the tired or traumatized or the burned out, the ones most interested in reflection, meditation, spiritual renewal. Oh there would still be support with sympathetic ministry and fun, but the campfires and morning meditations might have a quieter tone, might even be completely silent, except for the sounds of nature.

People would choose according to their needs. Some might do both or alternate years. But their choices would reflect something other than their geography.

The names of the two events came out of the scripture rather than off the map. And “Loaves and Fishes” and “Healing and Freeing the Spirit” were born. Driving down the road unwinding the story of history.

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It's Too Hot

...to do most anything. “Forty” is NOT a word I want to hear in a weather forecast.

Oh well. No deep thinking today folks. I’m sitting in the shade on my deck. I’ll take you for a slow walk around. This is what I’m seeing from my lovely wicker rocker:

I share this space with my houseplants, brought outside to enjoy the summer air and light. The Christmas cactus is thriving. It may have doubled in size. All my spider plants are happily producing babies. And the snake plant actually has THREE flower stalks growing amidst those hard green leaves that I faithfully ignored and withheld water for three months last winter (the secret to getting them to bloom I’ve read).

One step down is my salad garden with lettuces, parsley, kale, dill, cucumbers, thyme and oregano. Blooms and aromas abound in this mostly shady spot.

The birdbath garden is a busy place. Squirrels, chipmunks come to drink along with all the birds. The birds don’t care. As long as there’s space and time and fresh water for their them. Robins keep the shasta daisies watered with all their splashing, and I must get up from time to time to keep the bath refilled.

Zinnias, petunias, salvia, coleus, day lilies, snap dragons and various unnamed annuals collected from the end-of-season-will-you-give-us-a-home tables at the nurseries, the garden centres, the grocery stores all blooming happily and not minding the heat at all.

Off to my right is another aromantic corner. There’s a pot of basil and a beautiful happy lovage that I must keep pruned or it would be six feet tall. (I did let it go one season just to see: six feet is where I drew the line.) So all this pruning releases its lovely celery aroma, alongside the lemon balm that happily shares its bed.

There’s raspberry patch just there, beside the garden steps. Not a good spot for it as it doesn’t really get enough sun and it’s hard to reach. But never mind, The chipmunks love to climb up the canes and harvest the garden candy it produces for them. And on the other side of the step is the prickly pear garden. This plant followed us from another house to this little hillside where it is so happy it makes copious new paddles and has decided to reward us with blooms! So we keep it and avoid touching any part of that garden. It can inject its nasty little prickles even inside what felt like the most impermeable glove. But leave it alone and it will do amazing things. (Prickly pear is a cactus that is, in fact, native in this part of Ontario, so we prize and protect it.)
Maybe another day I’ll walk you on up the steps to the tomatoes and vegetable garden. But not today. It’s too hot.

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Can I Get A Witness?

This is an idea I’ve been playing around with for a long time. Years, even. If you’ve been following me you might have seen some of my musings about it. (Do you have these questions that keep coming back and demanding you chew on them some more? I do.)

When I was growing up in the church we had things called “witnessing weekends.” The basic concept, as I recall, was that a group from one congregation would visit another congregation and team up to make several visits to potential new members or folks we were trying to “bring back to church”? Is that what you remember? I don’t know if it ever worked.

It seems that the key concept upon which real “success” depended was the the ability to WITNESS. I wasn’t much of a witness. How did you do? I’m not sure I even knew what it meant. How do you learn to witness? Do you remember having witnessing classes? We would import some fab witnesses from time to time. Really exciting preachers; story-tellers to be more accurate. You likely remember some names. Impossible standards! I’ll never be that kind of witness. I’m a failure before I even begin.

I lived with that notion for decades. Then I had a new idea. I realized that as I went out into the community I often saw examples of the Holy Spirit at work in the world! When I looked for the helpers during times of trouble or tragedy, I had no problem at all finding them. Where there were folks in need I found all kinds of people already working to make things better for them. They were almost always more than willing to let me help!

One thing that got more obvious, the more I looked, was that we could head off some of those problems-in-the-making if we did something to keep it from happening. So we got busy feeding breakfast to kids who came to school hungry. Same principle with our music grants. Kids with music in their lives do better, have fewer of those life problems to be fixed.

Now one thing that is essential to MY idea is the need to be out and about. We need to go where the people are. And we need to be noticing that Holy Spirit at work in the world. We need to be actively witnessing where it is happening, or where it could be or where it should be happening. Can I be this kind of WITNESS? You bet!

Now, what about a new kind of witnessing weekend?

When we come back together after a nice relaxing summer camping or traveling or visiting we’ll have had plenty of time and places to Witness. We’ll be so excited to tell each other what we’ve observed. It will be so easy to share this kind of story. We’ll be full of ideas about ways we can help. We may have met new people already engaged in projects just waiting for us to join in. We’ll be excited to introduce our new friends and lobby for the ways we want to help next.

What do you think?

That’s where my mind has been this summer season. Now, can I get a witness?
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Conversation

We were a small group this week. But we were operating on the “where two or three are gathered” principle. So our discussion group met as usual on Tuesday morning. Without a specific topic we talked about “conversation.”

I confess the discussion touched several subjects and took lots of detours, but on reflection I’ve decided that the main point we made was the importance of conversation! It’s how we establish and maintain relationships. Conversation is how our understanding evolves and grows. True conversation is more than just talking. It has long periods of listening.

We try to keep our conversations generous. Not every thought is fully developed and ready to share. But there is grace in our sharing. We’ll help with the word that escapes and wait for a point to clarify. We definitely do not just wait for a turn to speak and we’re patient as we listen to the same point we’ve heard last week or something that’s coming round yet again – a favourite theme. Because sometimes we notice a slight change, a new emphasis, some nuance that wasn’t there before.

Conversation can be the way we change our minds. It’s definitely part of the identity of our little congregation. It’s how we’re reinventing ourselves. I guess you might say that the chats we have in the Foyer play a serious and important role in who we are. And when we miss our regular times to get together and just talk, we miss something critical to who we are.

I’m looking forward to hearing from those who are at reunion this week. And at least part of the reason is that you’ve had the opportunity for lots of conversations, chats under the trees or around the dining tables. I’ll be listening for ways you’ve changed or things you’ve learned from your conversations.

We’ll have lots to talk about when we meet again.