Back Home

After a bit of a traveling frenzy and a family health emergency, I've been back at work about a week and a half now. No longer do I need credentials to get to my work space. The docket controlling my time isn't found on PC-Biz. Affinity groups are no longer seeking my attention. Instead, this is what was waiting for me upon my return:

• Families in distress, either due to medical emergency, job loss, or ongoing situations
• Three letters: VBS!
• Staff members who wanted to talk about such theologically nuanced issues as painting bathrooms and waxing floors.
• Two funerals, and a wedding -- all in the same week!
• Planning for the ice cream social.
• Casting this November's dinner theater.
  
• Discussing the Christmas mission project
  
• Studying upcoming sermon texts.
  

If, as Tip O'Neill is reported to have said, "all politics is local," then these are the top issues confronting my congregation in the next sixty to ninety days. This is where Jesus is calling me to get into the boat. And I guess that means, as important as General Assembly is to our church, we really need to keep our eyes on the issues at home. That does not mean the broader issues of the church are any less important. But it does suggest that the strength of our denomination is not at the top of the structure, but at its base. For it is from congregations that the church learns how to push forward. We must rise every day, with the words of the doxology on our lips and reminder that the "Great Ends of the Church" are a mandate for local and global mission. The Great Ends of the Church are, by the way:

• The proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of humankind.
• The shelter, nurture, and spiritual fellowship of the children of God.
  
• The maintenance of divine worship.
  
• The preservation of the truth.
  
• The promotion of social righteousness. And,
• The exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world.

Let's strengthen the base.

Out To The Lake

Jesus, it seemed, had no desire to be safe.

Even in the face of a horrendous thunder storm, he turned to face the storm. He asked the disciples "Where is your faith?"

Gradye Parsons, newly elected stated clerk of the General Assembly, reminded us of that story during his stand for clerk. Gradye's telling of the story was one of the more moving memories of the assembly. It is, he said, a story he uses as a reminder of his calling into ministry. And, he said, the reminder is always that Jesus is calling us to get into the lake.

The assembly's actions just may give him reason to rely more faithfully on that story.

As you may have heard, the assembly took many actions -- over 400 -- but perhaps only three of them will ever be remembered. Those actions, which are better summarized on the denomination's web page, are all related to issues of ordaining homosexuals. The constitution itself has not yet been changed. That will require a majority vote of Presbyteries, and may or may not happen. In any case, it seems we are out in the lake at the moment.

As I reflect on GA, I have several thoughts. I'm struck by how hard it is to come to consensus around such a difficult issue when the only option is "win-lose." I do not fully think this is the most grace-filled option, but then I'm not sure what other options are readily available. We cannot continue to confront this -- and other controversial issues -- with a "war room" mentality where we rely on stategies, caucuses, and lobbying to "win the day." We must, instead, find a way to confess the faith anew in this time and place. Trusting in Jesus, we must turn toward the storm. Trusting in Jesus, we must turn toward each other and discover new ways of practicing discernment.

A second thought: our work as commissioners was not over as the gavel adjourned the meeting. We are, indeed, floating in the storm.

Claudio Carvalhaes, Assistant Professor of Worship and Preaching at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, wrote a paraphrase of Psalm 118 for the GA devotional booklet. You can find a copy at www.ThoughtfulChristian.com, but here is a snipet:

"Sometimes, out of my distress here at GA,
I called on God, and God answered me.
The Lord reminded me that God has set me
in the midst of a diverse church, a broad place.

With God on our side to help us,
We should not fear...
In the name of the Lord,
I will not cut off those who do not agree with me;
Here at GA I was pushed hard,
and I pushed hard, too.
But in the name of God we did not cut ourselves off from each
other and from the loving bond of Christ."

Claudio's paraphrase concludes:

Save us, we beseech you, O God!
Oh God, we beseech you,
give us success in our unity!
Blessed is the one who comes
in the name of our Lord.
The Lord is God,
and God has given us light!
You are our God.
And as your church,
we will give thanks,
we will do justice,
we will love kindness,
and we will walk humbly with you, O God.

So it is now time to face the storm. We will debate, we will push hard, we may even be pushed harder. As that storm swirls around us, will Christ say to us "Where is your faith?"

Let us give thanks, do justice, love kindness, and learn new ways of walking humbly before our God.