Re-Focusing

First of all, I would like to express my appreciation to Marion for carrying the blog by herself for the past nine days while Joan and I went to soak up some much needed vitamin D in the sunny South. It was lovely to be there and to contemplate the not-so-distant dream of retirement. It was good to get away, to try to let my intense vision for CEM go “out of focus” for a few days. Perhaps in this sense, vacation can be compared to meditating: you try to let your mind be completely still (good luck with that) in order to hear and see what God or the universe may have to show you. My efforts, or non-efforts as the case may be, while never entirely successful, did help me see one small piece of the puzzle a little clearer. The following may illustrate.

When D. & C. 163 first came to Community of Christ, my attention was caught by the oft quoted opening paragraph. I have often contemplated it.

“Community of Christ,” your name, given as a divine blessing, is your identity and calling. If you will discern and embrace its full meaning, you will not only discover your future, you will become a blessing to the whole creation. Do not be afraid to go where it beckons you to go.

What does that really mean? I once asked an Apostle that question. He looked at me quizzically and said he thought it was obvious. It has never been obvious to me. It was probably while sitting in the sun beside the pool that I began to gain fresh insight about the verse’s meaning.

Your name is your identity. Your name is your calling. This says to me that, first and foremost, we are called to be community, both to each other and to all the people with whom we interact. Are we doing that? How do we go about that?

We are not called to be a closed community, because Section 163 offers ample evidence of the type of community we are called to be. Are our communities open? Are they reaching out to the people who live near? Or are we simply focused on Sunday morning worship, not that there is anything wrong with that, but is that all there is to being community? I think not.

For a congregation to make worship the sole focus of its efforts and ministry is, in my view, misguided. There is nothing wrong with worship unless that is the only thing we do, in which case I think there is something wrong. Can worship alone build community? Can worship alone make us “a blessing to the whole creation?” It hasn’t so far! Is it possible that we need to re-focus on what it means to be the Community of Christ?

I would love to hear your thoughts on this. How do we discern and embrace the full meaning of this statement? What would that look like in your congregation? And, in the words of the oft quoted child travelling in a car, “Are we there yet?”

Posted by Carman

Acts

I'm writing this on the evening of the day Section 164 passed into our scripture. There are no scheduled sessions this evening; I think the original intention for this "open" Wednesday evening at Conference was to allow for a break mid-week when participants and leadership are likely tired. I AM tired. (How many people have used the night to schedule another full evening of stuff?)

But it has been a good experience. The times of spiritual formation and preparation, the non-legislative sessions, and finally the formal legislative discussion and passing of the motion to approve these words for inclusion. You'll hear more, I'm sure. I'm going to take it easy for a bit.

I did want to share one thought I've had this evening as I'm reflecting on "what comes next." Hence, my good word for the day: Acts.

You remember that the name of the book that follows the gospels and talks about the story of "what came next" after the resurrection is Acts*. It's not "Standing Around Thinking About It" or "Sitting Down to Wait" (not even "sitting under a fig tree")-- it's Acts!

Here we are "poised to fulfill God's ultimate vision for the Church" [D&C 164:9a]. We have come through our Easter and we need to move forward. We will now write the next book of Acts. How will it read? I'm excited. What about you?

[*Note: that would be the second part of Luke-Acts, for you Bible experts reading this.]

Posted by Marion

Translation

Not one person here this week has not been touched in some way by translation. Alfredo's facebook post was "That Art is a translation machine!" Would you believe that in the High Priests' Quorum the Words of Counsel were read in six--count 'em--six languages. Everyone who speaks is routinely cautioned to "Speak slowly for the translators."

So those are some of the ways translation impacts us. But let's go deeper. Because I think we can use the idea to help us go there.

We really are all engaged in a process of translation. We're all trying to understand what this or that word means. We're all working harder to interpret (translate?) important concepts. A good translator needs a good ear; but more, they need an openness to listen, to let the deeper meaning come in to their understanding.

As we confer together we regularly bump into words or ideas that we may think we understand, but that now appear to have more possible meanings. We're hearing that a word that has been perfectly clear to us for years and years just might mean something quite different in another culture.

I spent a very long time in the aisle talking about just what is the right preposition to go in the phrase "baptized __ water." Is it in, or by, or with, or something else? I'd been a bystander a few hours earlier about that exact phrase. Is the correct Spanish word con, or de, or por, or en?

You see what I mean? And today we talked about paragraph three: Having been baptized and confirmed, become fully immersed in the servant life of Christ. How do you plan to translate that in your life?

That's going to be the challenge. Even if we manage to navigate, with the help of translation, all these good words, unless we can make them live in the days and years and life ahead of us, we'll have missed the point. But we're doing such a wonderful job this week, I look forward with great hope to what lies ahead. I'll meet you there.

Posted by Marion

Deeper

Verse 3 of President Veazey’s January 17, 2010 Counsel to the Church is a call to each of us to go deeper.

3 a. All church members are urged to examine the depth of your baptismal commitment. Having been baptized and confirmed, become fully immersed in the servant life of Christ.
b. Live the meaning of your baptism daily as you grow in the skills and qualities of discipleship. Actively and generously support the ministries of the church, which was divinely established to restore Christ’s covenant of peace, even the Zion of your hopes.
c. The Eternal Christ invites those who have yet to experience the blessings of baptism to “Follow me in the way of righteousness and peace.” Be baptized of water and the Spirit and discover your spiritual home as a fully functioning member of the body.

Examine the depth, become fully immersed, live the meaning, grow in skills and qualities; these are among the key words and phrases that call to us as followers of Jesus. It is an interesting series of verbs, isn’t it? The order of their expression suggests a nice progression in our discipleship.

The first step is to examine our commitment. How deep is it? What does it mean? How serious are we about it? And so on. In other words, we are invited to take a good look at ourselves from the inside out.

The second step outlined is to become fully immersed in the servant life of Christ. To become fully immersed does not suggest that we test the water by sticking our toe in. On the contrary, it suggests we get right in over our head! It suggests we really need to be fully engaged.

Step three in this progression is to live the meaning of our baptism daily. Having examined ourselves and committed to the process, live it out! Live it every day! This one rather reminds me of the old Nike slogan, Just Do It!

The fourth step is to be done in conjunction with the third; grow in skills and qualities. As most of us have learned already, thinking, deciding, and attempting are not enough. We also have to learn and grow. It is necessary to progress in our learning, to learn from our mistakes and to become better at what we do. It is a critically important part of the process.

The challenge in all of this, of course, is that reading this list of words and phrases is not enough; we have to do them! If we accept the challenge, we can grow in our discipleship, become more effective disciples of Jesus, and make a difference in the world. If we don’t, they are just nice words and phrases.

We are called to go deeper. Are you ready?

Posted by Carman

Response

"All who actively engaged in prayer, discussion, and discernment about important issues in the church’s life are commended for your faithful response. Your disciplined effort to open your lives more fully to God’s Spirit in response to the call to be a prophetic people has become a blessing to the entire church. Your spiritual yearning for light and truth has created a favorable environment for the Spirit’s movement to provide inspired counsel as authoritative guidance for the church."

I dropped in on our Proton congregation yesterday. It was such a glorious, sunny morning when I awoke, it seemed like a great day for a drive into snow country. I was right!

Beautiful snow-covered fields, sparkling ice-frosted trees, clear blue cloudless skies accompanied the whole drive, right to the door of our pretty little rural Proton church. The door opened into a bright foyer, thanks to the sun through their stained glass south-east window. Coffee was on; Peggy's eggy muffins were hot from the oven. Hugs and hospitality everflowed.

Guests (who'd been invited by someone) were introduced and about fifteen of us settled down to discuss and discern about the Words of Counsel to the church.

Questions, opinions, perspectives flowed freely. Scriptures were explored, testimonies shared. "What does it mean to open our lives?" "How can our rural Ontario story mesh with other global stories?" Wisdom and insight was evident around that circle. It was a blessing for us all to be there.

And we noted the truth in the statement that a favourable environment is created for the Spirit to move when we are open to, and yearning for, new light and truth.

Thanks to all the Proton folk who enjoy that good spirit in their gathering and in their living. I've only shared a tiny bit of my experience there; maybe I'll share more in future posts.

Posted by Marion

Clutter

I am in a de-cluttering mood just now. Tomorrow is pick-up day on my street and I've got a couple of big bags to go to charity and the nicest, neatest dresser drawers you could imagine.

My house was built in 1904, so closet space is very limited. When something comes in, something must go out. I've already confessed my stacks of books; truly I have other stacks as well. Today I begin to clear some of this paper clutter from my surroundings.

We speak quite alot about setting goals, establishing priorities, determining what matters most. Maybe one of the reasons this sometimes is so hard is that we try to hang onto too many things. Maybe we need to be honest about some of the things we're holding onto and confess that some of that stuff is just clutter!

Continuing conversations about Goals, Enduring Principles and now Words of Counsel might also include making some decisions about things I've always thought. I just might need to clear some of my personal clutter as I seek out the universal spiritual principles.

I am trying to hear that call to covenant that "requires whole-life stewardship dedicated to expanding the church’s restoring ministries" and I don't want any of my clutter getting in the way.