Pastor Pondering – September 2011
30 Aug 2011 Comments Off
in News
I recently started writing the curriculum for our Sunday school lessons this fall. This is a real joy for me. I do not get to work with the children as much as I would like. Writing a series of lessons helps me keep aware of their needs and ideas. It is also about the most fun as I get to have in a church. I love to write.
Sadly, my writing skills run more toward technical writing than toward leisure reading. Sunday school lessons allow me to have fun and write what I write best – all at the same time.
The children suggested that they wanted help deciding how be behave as Christians. For me this is a great subject. I believe that faith without action is small faith. This is not to say that we must all go abroad to be missionaries or bankrupt ourselves to give to charity. I believe that God wants us the strive for balance in everything we do – including living out our faith. How many of you were truly transformed by Campus Crusaders in college? At Alfred University the Crusaders were the folk we dodged. Too much of any (even good) thing is TOO MUCH! As we used to say then: Don’t shove the dove!
So, I want our children to learn discernment.
Now discernment is a hard term. In the first place it is hard to spell. In the second place, it suggests that there are several possible responses to the same situation. In the third place, it seems to infer doing some critical thinking and gathering facts before acting.
This becomes a lot of work!
How, in a 45 minute at-the-most class are we to even introduce the theme?
I have begun with the Ten Commandments. That’s where God got really down and dirty about behavior. Of course, memorizing them is a must, but living them is hard, too. What does “covet” really mean, anyway? Does the ways we honor our parents change with age? How do we define “adultery” in the current age? Not easy questions, but these are the moral questions our children – especially the Confirmation class need to wrestle until they have a grip on their own reality and choices. So what’s next?
There are tons of crafts and experiential things we can attempt as we study the Ten Commandments, but it all wears thin and ancient after a while. How are we to move from Golden Calves to everyday decisions? Better yet, how are we to accomplish this without becoming preachy and boring?
Ever since last Christmas a line from a song I heard, first on the radio and then at the Duggan’s concert, has been cemented in my mind. “Be the light you long to see at this darkest time of year.” As our children move through ever shorter days into ever longer nights, as they see snow fall from grey clouds and then sparkle with early sun on the way to school, as they move through the adjustments of the school year – light will be an indispensable commodity. It will catch their attention, distract them, and (hopefully) give them the means to carry on until the sun is strong and warm again.
I remember Perry Como (now THAT dates me, doesn’t it!) singing
“If everyone lit just one little candle, what a bright world this would be.” In today’s world, our children cannot light candles much of anywhere without aggravating the EPA, teachers, and any nearby adult. They can purchase battery votives at Michaels, but the light is not the same. The only old-fashioned, renewable, dependable lights they have readily available is the light within themselves and the light of like-minded others. This can be a fragile light, but it is also a stubborn light. It can be snuffed, but it will reappear in the most startling ways. Like a candle flame it can start many fires without being diminished. When fanned and fed it can warm most anything.
I just received permission to use Peggy Lynn’s song as a base for our children’s education. I am excited to find a vehicle that may help our entire set of generations work to find the light. We cannot just wish for light; we must act to be and bring light. Our children are looking for ways to illumine their choices and the world around them. I am thrilled that they have come to us, RMPC to find that light. There are other places they could learn and other foundations they could use. I am glad they want ours. Jesus is the light of our world. What will this season’s light uncover? This is going to be fun.
- Tracie
Download your copy of the ponderings:church-life-september-2011b1
April Pastor’s Ponderings
24 Mar 2011 Comments Off
As I write this there are several chickadees on the feeder, a squirrel on the corn, and deer in the back lawn. The sun is shining; Jafar and I are enjoying breakfast. He runs to the window – looks out – and runs back to his food. It is a perfect morning.
I am so very ready for spring. This winter has been looooooooooong and messy. My feet froze, my attitude tanked, and – well – it is time for a change.
The first change spring brings, however, is also messy. Leaves we missed last year are now a lumpy covering for bulb plants trying to break into the sunlight. I pull the barrier apart and find yellow shoots. These will turn green soon, assuming we do not have any more really harsh weather. The drive is pitted and muddy. There is a big hole at the end where we pull onto the pavement. At the sides of this hole are two big piles of dirt encrusted ice. The mailbox is loose. Several weeks ago the shed collapsed under the weight of the snow and will need to be dismantled and discarded. There is just so much that needs doing.
It seems to me that all of this, somehow, creates a sense of the transition from Lent into Easter. Lent settles in and we do as the season requires. We become introspective. We pray a bit more. Sometimes we fast; sometimes we make and keep resolutions. After a week or two, however, Lent can become habitual. Like a cold, long winter it requires certain practices and accommodations. We have done it all before. We will do it all again. Lent ceases to be truly special; it becomes another season to be experienced/endured. We may feel guilt over our distraction. Mostly we feel overwhelmed.
Then the sun breaks through. We feel the warmer breeze of spring and even lent is somehow transformed. Easter feels possible. Resurrection involves not just God; resurrection begins to involve all of us. Our spirits begin to push through the barriers and face the light. Lenten devotions begin to feel new; we begin to feel new as well. Somehow things begin to make sense again.
Easter renews our faith as well as our hope. With the first light of Easter dawn many of us become children again. We remember how exciting the holiday was at age 9; we feel a touch of the same anticipation. The term Alleluia is discovered to have new meaning. We are renewed.
When I was a child, Easter meant new, shiny shoes and a pretty hat. We all had something new to wear. As we walked to the church we greeted neighbors and friends. We skipped and laughed. Even an early, cold Easter could not mar the sense of happy and fun. I remember feeling like I was part of something much, much larger than myself, my family, or even my church.
Forget the bunnies; forget the eggs and jelly beans. Yes, they are fun, but Easter represents so much more than candy and cute, furry critters. The experience of Easter resurrects and renews our interconnection and our interdependence in all of the best ways. Through friendship, memory, perseverance and prayer we leap up from self-imposed graves and move into the warmth of a new season.
- Tracie
