In the Sept-Oct issue of the magazine, Presbyterians Today, I came across a wonderful article, by Kathleen Long Bostrom I’d like to share. Bostrom is a retired PC(USA) minister and the author of over 50 books, most of them picture books for children.
“A New Liturgical Season Emerges – ‘Anything But’ Ordinary Time.”
“September is usually the month when we settle back into our routines. Beach umbrellas are replaced by school buses speckling the roadway. Parents scramble to get kids out the door to school. Churches, too, gear up for rally days. But not this year.
As 2020 began – and at the first ragged, painful cough – the world found itself navigating an unprecedented journey that introduced phrases such as “sheltering in place” and “social distancing.” By early summer, as communities began emerging from isolation, protests pushed COVID-19 from the limelight. People joined in outrage, horrified by the brutal death of George Floyd, an African American man pinned to the ground pleading for his life. This year has become “The Year of Tragical Thinking” and has ushered in a new season in the liturgical calendar – “Anything But” Ordinary Time.”
Traditionally, the season of Ordinary Time runs til the Saturday before the first Sunday of Advent. It is a season to discover God in the daily rhythm of our lives. But daily rhythms seem hard to come by lately, and “Anything But” Ordinary Time has put us on an unending road trip with no detailed timeline letting us know when we’ll be safely home again.
The Old Testament lectionary readings recall another unprecedented trip – the one the Hebrews took from Egypt to Canaan. The Hebrews lived in slavery for 500 years, their identity shattered, their freedom long-forgotten. Moses whisks them from the only life they have known and sends them skedaddling into a foreign land where they wander for an entire generation. They are homeless, frightened and threatened, and have no way of knowing when their journey will end. They are only a few miles - and months- into the journey when the people start to whine like a carload of kids on a trip. They even become nostalgic for the “normalcy” of slavery when they reminisce about pots of meat and bread, putting a shining patina on what was in actuality a life of suffering and starvation. Slavery? Normal? Not in God’s eyes.
In this season, we also have World Communion Sunday, which falls on Oct 4. The emphasis on being united with Christians around the world has particular significance in 2020. The pandemic of COVID-19 has unfurled like an 11th plaque, and nobody has been spared the effects. The world seems to have awakened to the blatant inequality between different colors of human beings. And yet we are reminded in the breaking of the bread that Jesus welcomes all people- equally. “This is my body,” Jesus said, not broken for a few, but broken for everyone.
We are still on an unending road trip. We’re not there yet, but there is no going back to the way things were, no more than it was possible for the Hebrews to return to Egypt. Ordinary and normal are no more. Maybe it’s time that we embraced that truth. Let us allow “’Anything But” Ordinary Time to open our eyes, helping us recognize that nobody is exempt from a pandemic and that inequality and injustice won’t go away unless we all make that happen. The journey has begun, and we must keep moving forward until we are finally home. “
I give thanks for Bostrom’s gifts in ministry, for these insights to help us find our way on this continuing journey to a new day, and for the faithfulness of our God who is with us on the journey.
Elizabeth
This has been a pensive week for me – perhaps starting with Sunday’s call to worship: “For everything there is a season”; maybe the memory of holiday week-ends with family gathered to celebrate the end of summer; maybe the coming anniversary of 9-11, the anniversary of my mother’s death, as well as so many others that beautiful September morning; maybe the weariness that comes from navigating the negativity all around, and seeking a sense of calm in the midst of chaos; maybe the passing of a dear friend after many years with Alzheimers, and the death of yet another dear friend in her 90’s, a professor at St. Andrews Presbyterian College (now St. Andrew’s University) since its very beginning. – how quickly those folks are leaving, and what rich treasures they leave us, for having known them.
I re-read a favorite book, Resilience, by Elizabeth Edwards, and remembered this special quote: “I can only be what I am capable of being … when my children tell their own children about their grandmother, I pray they will be able to say that she stood in the storm, and when the wind did not blow her way – and it surely has not – she adjusted her sails in a new direction, and sailed on.” So much of life is adjusting the sails in a storm, and sailing on; keeping an eye on one’s goal, and re-adjusting the sails from time to time to keep on track. I remember the friend who taught me that out on Lake Chautauqua – this week is the anniversary of dear Capt’n John’s passing as well.
Saw Jane Fonda on the morning news, reflecting on her life and introducing her new book What Can I Do? (That’s a good question for any kind of week!) Through the years I’ve been inspired by her activism, and today she spoke of her passion for climate change concerns. “Whoever is elected in November, we must get them moving to address climate change concerns,” she said. Fonda was asked what she would like to say to her “younger self” at 30? She said, “Ah, at 30 she wouldn’t listen to anything I had to say.” Then she added: “Take care, keeping searching, don’t give up…make a difference…”
What would we say to our younger selves if we had a chance to help them by sharing what we’ve learned on life’s journey? A perfect question for a pensive week. In going through yet one more drawer, I came across one a quote scribbled on a scrap of paper - “I’m sure that yesterday’s disaster is our teacher today. Let us linger near until we can stop hurting enough to listen.” More food for thought.
This week I’ve been working on the church newsletter, gathering pictures of all “our children” and holding up the hope and promise we have in them. A few Sundays ago, one of our young families came for 9 am worship in our parking lot, after months away. In reflecting on having them back, I wrote: Seeing the girls back among us last week was a great encouragement to me. One of the things I struggle with these day, as I learn things I never knew before (about myself and this nation) is that I doubt that at his stage of my life, I’ll have much time to be a part of setting things right! We’re leaving our children and youth quite a task, but I’m filled with hope when I think of each of them.”
So much for a pensive week. It’s good to reflect on where we’ve been, where we are, and where we hope to go. “For all that has been, thanks! For all that is to come, Yes.” (Dag Hammarskjold)
Giving thanks for every season of life, and for those streams of mercy, never ceasing – carrying us through this life into all that is yet to be.
Elizabeth
I heard a story on a televised worship service yesterday that gave me much to think about, and want to share it. Watchman Nee was a Chinese church leader and Christian teacher who worked in China during the 20th century. During his thirty years of ministry, Nee published many books about the Bible. He established churches throughout China and held many conferences to train Bible students and church workers. Following the Communist Revolution, Nee was persecuted and imprisoned for his faith and spent the last twenty years of his life in prison. It’s not permitted to copy the story and present it word for word, so I’m sharing a “revised” version, that departs from the original a bit, but is true to its message!
A poor, Christian Chinese farmer had rice fields high in the mountain. Every day he spent hours pumping water into the rice paddies; but when he returned to the fields the next morning, he would find that his unbelieving neighbor, who lived down the hill, had opened the dikes and drained the water to fill his own fields. For a while the Christian ignored the injustice, but at last he became desperate. His rice would die if this continued, and this was his livelihood. So he gathered his church, and they prayed and discussed the situation and came up with a plan. The next day the Christian farmer rose early in the morning and first filled his neighbor’s fields; then he attended his own. He counted his neighbor more significant than himself and looked to his neighbor’s interests as well as his own. Soon the neighbor wanted to know the Jesus whom the farmer served as Lord and master. He eventually came to faith by seeing how the mind of Christ radically reordered the attitude and thinking of his neighbor. He was forever transformed by his neighbor’s shining example of Christ.
In Romans 12:9-21, yesterday’s Epistle Reading, Paul tells the church at Rome to do essentially the same thing: to overcome evil with good. It feels at times as if evil is running rampant in our world today. Injustice, hatred, lawlessness, violence, and selfish ambition rule the day. This was also true in Paul’s day in the Greco-Roman world. Paul is calling on the believers in Rome to remember the sacrifice of Christ. Jesus didn’t destroy the world, He died for the sins of all. All the hatred, murder, violence, immorality, injustice, greed- Jesus died to save us from these things. He overcame sin, death, and hell by the greatest display of extravagant love ever, and we must arm ourselves with the same purpose. Do we want to change the world? Do we want to see things change? How do we overcome evil? Only when we can embrace those who do evil in our world with genuine love can we hope to respond to what they do in a way that will bring real change. We must respond to violence with forgiveness; to hatred with compassion, and to hostility with peace. We who have experienced grace of God are to become more gracious; we who have experienced the love of God are to become more loving. We are to engage in practices that promote life-giving relationships and in ways of being and doing that seek to embody genuine love, mutual regard, humility, peace and harmony.
We are to be about building relationships with others, and being willing to listen to vantage points of life that are outside our experience. When we do this, we have the chance not only to effect change, but to be changed ourselves, as well. As we embrace those who do evil, we have the chance to be a part of a change that can create peace and justice and freedom and joy. May God help us to learn the important lessons these days have to teach us; may God help us to be a part of the solution in these days, not a part of a continuing problem.
Elizabeth