Faith Venture

Madeleine L’Engle remarked, “Sometimes the very walls of our churches separate us from God and each other. In our various naves and sanctuaries we are safely separated from those outside, from other denominations, other religions, separated from the poor, the ugly, the dying.…The house of God is not a safe place. It is a cross where time and eternity meet, and where we are – or should be – challenged to live more vulnerably, more interdependently.”

A popular bumper-sticker theology of the recent past—Churches are a hospital for sinners, not a clubhouse for saints.

I’m “attending” one of those modern churches—”a rock concert followed by a TED Talk.” But this one also has many ministries that reach out to poor people, prisoners, people in need in the US and in many locations in the world.

It’s not there yet, but it is attempting to be the place that sends people out equipped and encouraged to spread God’s love.

It’s OK to meet with people you like and sing some songs and pray together and be taught. But that is not where things begin and end. It’s an oasis for rest along the journey.

Anne Lamott told this story, “I heard an old man speak once, someone who had been sober for fifty years, a very prominent doctor. He said that he’d finally figured out a few years ago that his profound sense of control, in the world and over his life, is another addiction and a total illusion. He said that when he sees little kids sitting in the back seat of cars, in those car seats that have steering wheels, with grim expressions of concentration on their faces, clearly convinced that their efforts are causing the car to do whatever it is doing, he thinks of himself and his relationship with God: God who drives along silently, gently amused, in the real driver’s seat.”

Some of us have personalities that love control. We all know the control-freak bosses and teachers. They drive people like me, who are more of an independent type, crazy. These people, aka micro-managers, trust no one else to do a good job and tell us what and how to do everything. I can imagine them telling God the things he got wrong when he invented the universe.

Some people give up control. They let other people control their lives. They live in fear that they will be trampled by chaos, but they do not feel up to the responsibility and power to grab the reins and guide those horses. They look for someone strong to grab control.

One group won’t let God be in control; the other group doesn’t trust that God is in control.

God, however, doesn’t care what we think. He did start this whole thing moving and knows where it’s going. Trust that.

A brother came to Abba Theodore and began to converse with him about things which he had never yet put into practice. So the old man said to him, “You have not ye found a ship nor put your cargo aboard it and before you have sailed, you have already arrived at the city. Do the work first; then you will have the speed you are making now.”

You may think you are entitled to your opinion. Unless you have done the work of study and prayer first, no, you are not entitled to an opinion.

I have hired people in the past at entry positions who wondered how many months it would take before they’d be considered for president of the company. Unless you have done the work to learn the business and learn how to lead, you will only be president that quickly if your foolish dad owns the company.

I have watched craftspeople at work in awe of their skill. Then I realize the years of practice and learning behind that ability to form pottery on the wheel or pound out beautiful iron work or weave a beautiful carpet.

Do the work first, and then you will sail.

A story of a 4th Century Desert Father, Abba Bessarion.

A brother who had sinned was turned out of the church by the priest; Abba Bessarion got up and went with him saying, “I, too, am a sinner.”

How often do we look at other people and label them as sinners–perhaps even for things that are not a sin, just something we personally don’t like?

Yet, we are blind to ourselves, to our thoughts, to our actions.

Who among us has the strength and courage to follow this example of Father Bessarion and identify with the sinner?

We cannot even say, “But my sin is not as bad as that other person.” For, we must remember Paul’s argument in his letter to the Romans that all have sinned and fallen short. There is no relative scale. It is binary–sin or not sin. One human falls into the “not sin” category; all of the rest of us fall into the “sin” category.

Another saying of Abba Bessarion–do not compare yourself to others.

I scanned my current notebook. There it was. Big letters. Almost shouting out at me.

BE KIND

• To Yourself
• To Others
• To Nature

We must begin with ourselves, of course. How could we find the capacity to be kind to anyone or anything without that capacity within us?

Part of self-awareness is recognizing how we talk to ourselves. Do we constantly say bad things to ourselves about ourselves? What is our favorite word we call ourselves? Dummy? Ignorant? Worse than those?

Be kind to yourself. Exercise. Eat moderately and only “real” food. Give yourself an occasional treat. Stop dressing like a slob, show a little pride.

When I have calmed myself, I can find the capacity to be kind to others. Even the obnoxious others (you know who you are).

Get outside. Enjoy the air, flowers, trees, rain, snow, hills, and creeks. Be kind. Enjoy, but perhaps pick up litter and put in the small bag you pack for that purpose. Leave things a little better for the next person.

Today’s mantra to get into the spirit–and perhaps an able antidote to the toxicity of today’s political environment–Be Kind.