Mondays are usually quiet, peaceful days for me, and today I’m doing lots of remembering. I just learned the Clerk of Session in my first church in Virginia died at the age of 95 and one of my dearest seminary classmates died at the age of 93.
Moving from teaching first grade in the mountains of southeastern Kentucky to seminary in Richmond, Virginia, at the age of 40, had been a major undertaking! Moving from seminary to serve the church in Rustburg, Virginnia was a major undertaking as well! In moments when I struggled with single-parenting three children and finding my way in ministry, the RPC Clerk of Session was a source of love and encouragement day by day. On days when I doubted my ability to do what I believed I was called to do, she would say, “Just let me believe in you….until you can believe in yourself.” I did just that, with her help!
That dear seminary friend was a retired AT&T executive who went to seminary at the age of 65. He was a father figure for me, and in some moments a strong and supportive brother, a grandfather to my children, and his wife taught the children in Luther School – so our relationship was a family affair! They lived in Bedford, Virginia and often went home on week-ends. At times we most needed to “get away” we found a home-away-from- home at their house in Bedford. I’ll always remember the sermon at his Service of Ordination: “When Old Men Dream Dreams.”
With all these thoughts in my heart I glanced at the “Find a Friend” app on my cell phone, and saw as if never before, how our family has scattered to many places! Those who once lived only streets apart in that small Kentucky town now live in Nevada, Georgia, Virginia, Florida, and yes, some are still in Kentucky! Cousins have drifted to Texas and Indiana; and all but one grandchild is in college!
As I dealt these thoughts a wonderful children’s hymn from that “old” blue hymnal came to mind – “Wherever I May Wander”:
Wherever I may wonder, wherever I may be,
I’m certain of my Maker’s love; God’s care is over me.
God made the great high mountains, and made the wide blue sea.
God made the sky where airplanes fly, God made the world, and me.
Throughout the whole creation, I see God’s loving care
for everyone in every land, God’s children everywhere.
Wherever I my wander, wherever I may be,
I’m certain of my Maker’s love; God’s care is over me.
As I remember dear friends who’ve made their final journey “home” and as I remember family scattered to many places, I’m grateful to know “God’s loving care, wherever we may be.’
Elizabeth
Sometimes Sunday School lessons published months ago, and sermons simply following the common lectionary speak directly to our circumstances of the moment, as spirit and truth. Add to that an experience at the Presbyterian Women’s Fall Gathering, and there’s no doubt God was speaking to God’s people in our time and place last weekend. We were reminded that love and justice are not just words in the Bible on a shelf, but a kind of life we are called to live day by day.
The Sunday School lesson came from I Corinthians 4, and addressed struggles of the early church in Corinth as they ministered to a diverse society. The dangers of showing favoritism and passing judgment were explored. Paul spoke of leaving the judgment to God. I was reminded of what Mother Teresa once said- that if we spend so much time judging, we have no time for loving, and that is what we are called to do.
The lectionary passage for the day was the story in Matthew 15, telling of the Canaanite woman who came asking Jesus to heal her daughter. Matthew tells how the woman was annoying and persistent in asking for help, and how Jesus tried to dismiss her, saying he was sent only to the “lost sheep of Israel.” As she persisted in her pleading, Jesus recognized her pleas were coming from the depth of her love for her daughter, and he healed her daughter.
It was as though Jesus heard God speaking to him and to his disciples through her: “Don’t focus on whose sheep you’re tending. You keep crossing the boundaries and removing the barriers; you keep pouring out your healing love on all who call for it. I will do the rest, because my love knows no boundaries, and this is what it means to be my Son and my followers in the world.”
We were challenged to ask the question: “Where is the Canaanite woman today? Who is she?” Perhaps she’s part of the one in six Americans who don’t have enough food to eat; maybe she’s one of the millions who face daily violence and abuse; perhaps she one of the countless many who live with addiction or mental illness; perhaps she’s a woman in Jackson Springs or a man in Robbins, or a little child in Candor.
Today’s text encourages us to reflect on our relationship with those outside the bounds of our normal circles. Often “outsiders” hold us accountable to our best insights about who we are and what we ought to do. They help us to overcome our blind spots. In performing such a function for us, they, like the Canaanite woman, help us to act in a manner consistent with whom we claim to be.
And that PW Fall Gathering- the keynote speaker was a “homeless woman” who used drama, stories and songs to share laughter and to communicate truth and deep insights. At the end of her “talk” she began singing: “Not far from you, someone is down to their last dime…… Not far from you someone is running out of time…. won’t you open up your heart….”
Never has a message come right when we needed to hear it most, as we deal with the “Canaanite women” in our lives. May God help us to widen our circle of concern by making ourselves vulnerable to the needs of the stranger, especially those who have been pushed to the side.
Elizabeth
An interesting podcast was shared on the PC(USA) website this week: “A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast”, with Dr. Anna Carter Florence speaking with hosts the Rev. Lee Catoe and Simon Doong over “engaging the biblical text.”
It was said that the Bible is the best-selling book in the world, and the least read. We live in a time when people take texts and use them out of context. For many folks, scripture is used to proof-text and close a conversation. That’s not the way scripture is meant to be read, for it’s the community’s book.
“When it’s the community’s book, it’s not meant to have one person say definitively over time, ‘This is it…this is how we’re going to read this, and this is what it means. If you disagree with me, that’s an example of your lack of faith or obedience, or of sin.’”
The ancient rabbis were reading scripture all the time, and they never read it alone. They loved interpreting new things, hearing new things, seeing new things, and seeing what it was saying in their own day. Many feel this is something some of our Christian traditions have lost along the way.
“We aren’t setting a big enough table for people to get around and read scripture together…. As soon as we set a bigger table and invite people to read scripture together, the more it’s going to be our book… I hope we can encourage people to look not for the meaning, but for what it is saying to you today. The text speaks so differently depending on where you’re sitting, what’s happing in your life, and who’s reading with you.”
Florence challenges ministers to step off the “lectionary” path and “open the table” and “break the rules.” We have “some backtracking to do and we have some listening to do,” she says, “to acknowledge the hurt scripture has caused and then to really covenant together to say, ‘How can we hear it as a book that speaks to us about human flourishing?’”
Things for us to think about as pastor and people! How freeing it would be to read scripture together, sharing what we hear and understand, rather than simply listening to a teacher/preacher tell us what it all means!
I’m not sure I understand this quote: “The Bible is being weaponized all over the place in ways that are pretty awful, having more to do with politics than scripture.” Now that would make for interesting conversation about the table!!!
Elizabeth