Manitou Conference Devotionals
At the last meeting of the Manitou Conference of the United Church of Canada (June 2011 at Kirkland Lake), your sisters and brothers in faith worked hard to discern where God is calling our church. Your delegates undertook an animated visioning exercise that resulted in inspiring and provocative new visions for our churches! A link to a worship resource sharing that vision is available to you through the Manitou Conference Website.
Ted Harrison, the new President of Manitou Conference, has been asked to issue a monthly devotional resource to help keep us faithful to our renewed conference priorities, which have been expressed with these words:
We believe that God’s radical hospitality calls Manitou Conference:
- To journey into new ways of being church
- To understand and engage with our neighbours’ struggle for dignity and economic justice
Please feel free to share the attached devotional throughout your church network. It is offered to you monthly over the next biennium as a resource to meetings of your church board, committees, or other gatherings. Each devotional is likely to contain a reflection, prayer, a suggested hymn and/or a scripture reading. Feel free to adapt it as you wish!
February 2012, Congregational Meeting Month!
A Meeting Devotion: “Let There Be Light"
A brief reading from John’s Gospel:
“Nicodemus, a Jewish leader, came to Jesus at night and said to him, “Rabbi, no one could do these miraculous signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus responded, “I assure you, unless someone is born again, it’s not possible to see God’s kingdom.” Nicodemus asked, “How is it possible for an adult to be born anew?”
A Reflection:
How many United Church members does it take to change a lightbulb?
I’m glad you asked. Because in the United Church, we’ve developed a Comprehensive Procedure Document On Light Bulb Changing (that’s the U.C.C.C.P.D.O.L.B.C, for short). Your church board is mandated to strike an ad hoc committee to discuss the matter, to draw up a congregational light bulb policy, to develop consensus, and to apply for a luminescence grant. At the same time that a member of the UCW is probably just replacing the stupid bulb, the Church Board schedules a congregational meeting to ratify the congregational policy, which is followed by a pot-luck meal, at which the congregation nominates a scribe who will write on flipchart the exhaustive list of reasons why we liked the old light bulb better.
The moral of the story: We don’t like change—and we do just about everything in our power to slow down, prevent, thwart, avoid, and resist change. Believe me, I know. I am one of the hundreds of ministers whose unspoken job description is a crazy paradox: We’re supposed to fix everything, but change nothing!
My therapist tells me that there’s a definition of crazy. You are crazy if you keep doing things the same way, but expect different results. Which is just what the church keeps trying to do. Maybe that’s why I love my job, because the church is so crazy, it makes me feel comparatively sane.
And yet I am reminded of the words of an obscure and infinitely crazier minister who advocated for change in a mind-blowing impossible way. He said: “You all must be born again.”
A Song
You may recognize the little-known hymn found at Voices United #48. It speaks about the impossible paradoxical nature of Jesus, and how Jesus can be born in us to make real change happen. Despite our obstinance, we can be born again! The hymn is called, “Hark the Herald Angels Sing.”
A Blessing For Changed Light Bulbs
(From the United Church of Canada Comprehensive Procedure Document On Light Bulb Changing, Appendix C. Reproduced with permission.)
God of Light, you have given us various electromagnetic photon sources—
Each blessed in their own unique way; Be they incandescent, fluorescent, halogen, CFLs or LCDs. Each is its own equally valid path to luminescence, and is to be honoured.
Keep us from the error of our ways in our temptation to use candles, for fear of local fire code regulations,
This we pray in the name of your son. For without Jesus Christ, who calls us to new life, we are still in darkness. Amen.
----
January 2012
A Meeting Devotion: “The Community Beyond Facebook”
A Reading from the second chapter of Acts: “Every day the followers of Jesus met together. They prayed and broke bread in each others’ homes and ate with glad hearts. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being made whole.”
A Reflection:
There was no mention of cancer on Catherine’s Facebook page. In fact, there was no indication of any change in her life and family—she continued to provide a daily stream of clever one-liners and hilarious slice-of-life stories about her husband and three kids. It took a call from a mutual friend to know that Catherine had already begun receiving aggressive chemotherapy treatments. Her loved ones living in shock and fear. Her carefully composed facade of family bliss was coming apart at the seams.
My spouse and I blamed Facebook. If we hadn’t come to rely on this pale substitute for human connection, we’d have known sooner. We would have offered the care and concern that Catherine deserves. Instead of meaningful personal contact, we had settled for the illusion of community.
The promise of the church is also a costly challenge: When we know one another, when we pray and eat and serve together, we become keenly aware of one another’s shortcomings, needs, and pain. We’re called to support one another, to recognize what is holy in one another. And we do so recognizing that we may not always like what we see.
A Sung Prayer
Voices United #602, “Blest Be the Tie That Binds”
A Blessing:
May your friendships be genuine;
May your fear never overwhelm your compassion.
May you trust the Spirit’s working in us and others,
That the people may live up to their calling to be Christ’s Church for one another.
Amen.
----
December 2011 / January 2012
A Meeting Devotion: “What’s the Church For?"
A Reflection:
Some years ago, the church I served had a financial review. In order to get our books in order, we retained a Licensed Public Accountant.
Perhaps his greatest challenge was the section of the audit entitled, “Purpose of the Organization.” What is the purpose of a church, he had to ask himself. What’s a church for? Ultimately, he came up with this answer: “The church is a congregation within the structure of the United Church of Canada and is a registered charity providing spiritual and faith based services to its members.”
It’s really a fascinating definition-- very pragmatic, very functional. The church exists (apparently) to “provide spiritual and faith based services to its members.” Essentially –to one person’s eyes—the church is a social club, a supportive in-group, a prayerful kind of mutual admiration society.
I sure hope we’re something more than that!
What we need to recall is that “God so loved the world” that God came in Jesus (John 3:16). It doesn’t suggest God’s particular love for the church. In fact, the church is simply one vehicle by which God’s love for the world is made known—a people through whom that love is witnessed in concrete action.
In 2011, Manitou conference suggested two directions in which we are called. The first priority is “journeying into new ways of being church”—which is about being relevant. And maybe that direction is just a little inward looking. But perhaps it’s priority one so that we can really dig into our second priority, which is “to understand and engage with our neighbours’ struggle for dignity and economic justice.” Because if we’re doing that, then we are really going about the work of God’s love for the world—which is the message of this and every season!
A Hymn to Sing
Read through the verses of Voices United #87 before you sing it. Think about it as a job description for the church—and then sing with gusto the hymn, “I am the Light of the World.”
A Brief Prayer
Loving Christ, you are the light of the world. We pray that we may follow you, embracing the work of Christmas throughout the year. May we feed and heal. May we bring hope and justice. May we sing and dance—thereby shining your light into every darkness. Amen.
----
November 2011
A Meeting Devotion: “Church Two-Point-Oh"
A Reading from the 28th chapter of Matthew’s Gospel.
A reading that reminds us of Christ’s presence, regardless of the state of the institutional church:
As he ascended, Jesus said to his disciples, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations... and teach them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age."
A Reflection:
Consider the following three stories, and see if you can detect a common thread between them all:
(1) Greater Saint John’s church, in Nashville, Tenessee, is a large brick church that disappeared beneath the inter-state overpass. A local businessman purchased the abandoned church. The property is now festooned with brass poles and pink neon. The chancel is now a series of private black leather booths, and the church has been re-named “Confessions.” It’s a strip club.
(2) This past summer, a teenager in my congregation told me that she didn’t want to use her minister as a job reference, for fear that her Christian faith might be a strike against her. A local teacher –also a member of the congregation—vouched for her instead.
(3) One of 2011’s most talented secular bands, Mumford and Sons, released a catchy new track this past summer. Their song, “Roll Away Your Stone,” deals deftly with themes of sin, grace, and redemption.
What these stories have in common is that they all suggest a shift in our culture’s regard for the Christian church—our status, our language, our story. In twenty-first century North America, the church is not automatically embraced or respected. Our culture is less intimidated by the Gospel, and less convinced of its authority.
At the same time, people are learning to appropriate our faith’s language and imagery—often in ways that make us proud, sometimes in ways that feel deeply disrespectful. It is in the crucible of today’s culture that we as Christ’s people struggle to “journey into new ways of being church.”
Prayer:
Timeless God, we live in a fading Christendom-- Where our ways of speaking your mystery are increasingly foreign. Where your truth is sometimes embraced, and sometimes shunned or mocked. Help us to remember that your love surrounds all your children, that all culture is born of and for you, that the yearnings of human brokenness need to be responded to with compassionate understanding. Help us to speak your Good News in ways that our world can hear. Amen.
Hymn: Sing or speak this first verse of Voices United #578, “As a Fire is Meant for Burning”:
As a fire is meant for burning / with a bright and warming flame,
so the church is meant for mission / giving glory to God's name.
Not to preach our creeds or customs / but to build a bridge of care,
we join hands across the nations / finding neighbours everywhere. Amen.
----
October 2011
A Meeting Devotion: “Canaries in the Church Coalmine”
A reading from the First Letter to Timothy, the third chapter.
This reading shares something of the high standards to which church leaders have been held:
“In a strict way, deacons and other leaders are to be worthy of respect, sincere, not indulging in much wine, and not pursuing dishonest gain. They must keep hold of the deep truths of the faith with a clear conscience. They must first be tested; and then if there is nothing against them, let them serve.”
A Reflection:
In Manitou Conference, we’ve sometimes heard complaints about the lack of quality education and professional development: “Why do we always have to go so far?” And yet when we proposed to host a course in Transitional Ministry which was to take place this month in Manitou, the course was cancelled due to a lack of registration.
I was disappointed that your ministry personnel didn’t want to cultivate their skills in transitional ministry. In a time of much dynamism and apprehension in the church, surely we all need more skills and insight in dealing with change and conflict!
I’ve since come to believe that the reason our paid leaders didn’t wildly embrace the Transitional Ministry course is that our ministers are as deeply ambivalent about church change as the rest of us. And undergoing transitional training is likely to make those ministers even more the “canaries in the coalmine” which is the anxious and diminishing church. We honestly aren’t always sure if we have the heart for “journeying into new ways of being church.”
Shortly before I was installed to the Presidency of Manitou Conference, I asked a beloved mentor --the Rev. Dr. Murray Arnill-- for advice. He suggested simply that my task as President is to encourage God’s people. Honestly, the word “encourage” fell a little flat with me. It sounded too simple, too shallow, too “cheerleader-ish.”
But as it turns out, encouragement is exactly what we need. If you look at the word “encouragement,” you’ll note that the French word for “heart” (“coeur”) is embedded right in there. Put simply, “encouragement” really means “en-hearten-ment.” So take heart, friends. Take courage. It is an exciting time to be the church, to sing God’s song in an increasingly strange land. It is a great and exciting time to be God’s people, and to journey together into new ways!
Suggested Hymn: More Voices #79, “Spirit Open my Heart”
Prayer: “You Embrace All People” (VU 525)
Eternal God, whose image lies in the hearts of all people, we live among peoples
whose languages are different from our own,
whose faiths are foreign to us,
whose ways we fail to understand.
Help us to remember that you embrace all people with your love,
that all religion is a response to you,
that the yearnings of other hearts
are much like our own, and are known to you.
Help us to recognize you in words of truth, things of beauty,
and actions of love about us.
We pray in the name of the One who calls us to be neighbour and friend. Amen.
----
August 2011
Meeting Devotion: “Hell and Presbytery”
A reading from the Gospel according to Matthew, the sixteenth chapter:
When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who you say that I am?” Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Peter, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.”
A Reflection:
As we move into the season of autumn, and church boards and committees again kick into high gear, it is helpful to remind ourselves of the limits of how we presently do church. Think about it this way: When Jesus speaks of the church over which the gates of Hell will not prevail, he wasn’t talking about presbytery meetings!
Often we hear complaints from faithful churchgoers, who bewail that their adult children and grandchildren don’t attend church. The typical complaint goes like this: “If they don’t support the church now, then the church might not be there for them when they need it!” --Although those words are born of a love of our church, they betray a real lack of faith and imagination. Of course the church will be there for our children and our grandchildren-- we just don’t know what that church will look like. As our conference priority states, we are called to “journey into new ways of being church.” We don’t know what that will look like, which is precisely what makes ours a journey of faith.
The Bible that guides our faith contains a number of epistles. There are Paul’s letters to the churches in Galatia, Ephesus, and Corinth. There’s also John’s letters to the seven Asian churches. --Consider that not one of those churches exists today. Not one. They’re all dead and gone, history. It will be the same for our churches, in time. But the Church established by Jesus Christ continues as a growing and diverse entity, against which the gates of Hell will not prevail. Thanks be to God.
A Prayer and Hymn:
Consider singing or simply reading the hymn found at Voices United #579, and how this hymn defines the nature of the church:
The church is wherever God's people are praising,
singing God's goodness for joy on this day.
The church is wherever disciples of Jesus
remember his story and walk in his way.
The church is wherever God's people are helping,
caring for neighbours in sickness and need.
The church is wherever God's people are sharing
the words of the Bible in gift and in deed.
|
|
|
