I LOVE IT WHEN A PLAN COMES TOGETHER

I never really watched the "A-Team" TV show, but Hannibal Smith's catch phrase came quickly to mind in the last few days for me. I have been planning for this upcoming weekend's service in my normal way. I start with the suggested readings from the revised common lectionary for the Sunday and see what emerges. I was drawn to the Old Testament and Epistle readings:

• Jeremiah (imprisoned by the King of Judah as the Babylonian forces lay siege to Jerusalem) makes arrangements to buy his cousin's land. There was no way he would ever live on or use that land. He did it as a symbol of his belief that in spite of the invasion by Babylon, there would come a time when the Judean people would buy and sell land here again.


• From 1st Timothy, words of encouragement in less than ideal times: be content with what you have - don't focus on wealth (held or desired) but on the pursuit of things like faith, love, gentleness.

So, the theme I was thinking would come out of this was "Now and Later". Living in today, with a mirror to the past and a eye on the future. I decided to have a similar focus for the special Saturday evening service I will lead for some local football families who will have to miss serves at their churches because their kids have Sunday morning football games this weekend.



Now and Later. Being content with now, while keeping hope for the future.



On top of all this I had a great conversation with an old friend about the value of faith in this 21st century and how we can be comfortable with what we are invited to believe. That conversation had us delving into whether every thing that has been passed on to us needs to be followed literally and how much is contextual. We spoke about the real value in understanding the meaning of our faith history over and against, how that has been lived out in the past.



I read the letter to Timothy and wonder if the Apostle Paul (or one of his companions writing in his posthumous-name) intended the words to be timeless. The language of the 1st century was speaking to a 1st century audience. Do they translate directly into our day? Well sometimes, yeah, pretty much. But what about when our worldview and context are different? Because we find slavery abhorrent, do we have to reject the message of Paul's letter to Philemon because Paul complicity accepts the legal validity of slave ownership (as pretty much everyone did in his day did), or can we see the relevance for 'now' in the deeper message? I think we can.

My friend and I talked about what it means to be Christian. And how, in some parts of the Body of Christ, if you don't agree you will find yourself on the outside of the circle of faith they draw. Now, I'm a lefty-liberal in pretty much every way, so my circles tend to be drawn pretty wide and I have room for even those-who-reject-me in my circles. But it is hard to be told 'you're not a real Christian' by someone else's narrow definition.

For me, being Christian is defined as having accepted Jesus as personal savior. It is not defined as adhering to a dogma that Jesus is God (i.e the second person of the trinity). It is not defined by expecting women to cover their heads and be quiet in church. It is not even defined as living a live in Jesus' example. These are ways of expressing one's faith withing a broader circle that is Christianity, they are not Christianity itself.
For me, to be religious or spiritual is to be open to the unknown mystery that we call God, who exists beyond us and has much more to do with this existence than we do. For me, to be Christian is to nurture a connection to God through and experience of Jesus. For some that might be a sense of extreme safety (salvation, if you will) that is known in an experience that feels like a relationship with Jesus at the depths of one's soul. For others that might be through the long and valued history of thought and developed doctrine based on 2000 years of reflection on the impact of Jesus; for others it might be in tension with some of those practices and beliefs. For others, it might be a sense of purpose in what one sees as a calling to live the love so central to Jesus' life and message.

The Apostle Paul once wrote that the church was like a body with many parts. Different, but interconnected. I am dismayed by the more narrow parts of this body, who prefer isolation and amputation to dialogue and tolerance. Ironically, as Christians, we don't own the word Christian. It has it's origins in an insult that was hurled at early believers that the people were encouraged to see as a badge of honour. Maybe it is more clear to say that we don't own the Spirit. We simply experience it. How can we deny the spiritual experiences of others, especially we are able to believe that God is all-inclusive mystery?

These varied thoughts and conversations seem to be coming together for me in that call to be content with what I have now: not just the physical things, but my sense of faith and hope. My connection to the Holy Mystery can not be devalued by someone telling me that I don't measure up to their expectations. I love it when a plan comes together.