Transitions

Maundy Thursday reflection: The Wounds.

Here is the reflection I will give for this evening's Maundy Thursday Service. 

 

The Wounds 

by Rev. Derrick L. Weston 

 

Every Sunday, I conclude worship with these words:

 

Go in peace,

And may the God who walks on wounded feet walk with you on the path

May the God who serves with wounded hands open your hands to serve

May the God who loves with wounded heart open your heart to love.

May you see the face of Christ in all that you meet and may all that you meet see the face of Christ in you.

 

This is a reflection I’ve made on that benediction in light of Maundy Thursday:

 

They’ll wound his feet, his weary feet, which so many miles have tread.

Across highways, deserts and mountainsides where hungry crowds were fed.

Those feet that carried him from the shore out on the raging sea

And bid his frightening followers, take heart and follow me,

Feet that moved through angry mobs when unpopular words were spoken

And rested at the sinners’ table where unfavorable bread was broken

Those feet that traversed town to town to do good and set minds free,

The calloused feet of a nomad who preached God’s reign of liberty

Those feet anointed by precious oils and scrubbed with hair and tears

Will soon be pierced and locked into place to calm the masses fears.

For this traveler’s journey is near its end, destination nearly reached.

It was for this night he journeyed so and taught and healed and preached.

 

They’ll wound his head his sacred head, which spoke the words of peace.

With eyes that looked out with compassion and lips that spoke captives’ release

The head, with mind for parables and rethinking laws worn thin

With wit that countered Lawyers and scribes accusing him of sin

This head worthy of kingly crown beset with jewels in gold

Will soon be fit with twisted vines while thorns in flesh take hold

And while this head, blood soaked and bruised looks out on mocking throng

He’ll utter prayers, forgive them, God. They know not that they’re wrong.

 

They’ll wound his side, his sacred side ,now flanked by loving friends.

Who’ve stood beside throughout the quest, but will leave him in the end

He stood beside the sinners, whores, gentiles, and unclean

And those with whom the religious folk would not dare to be seen

Brothers asked if they could be to his side both left and right

He turned to them and in reply said service was their might

Instead of disciples on his sides, he’ll hang with common thieves.

And though the two men lay condemned he’ll rejoice as one believes.

 

They’ll wound his hands, his holy hands, blessed with a healing touch.

With words he’s said so many things, but his hands say just as much.

For with these hands he’s cured blind eyes and helped the lame to walk .

His hands that touched the lepers clean while others cringe and gawk.

Hands that broke the festive bread and poured the blessed cup

Will soon know the pain of cruel spikes and by them be lifted up.

But these hands now grasp towel and bowl and wash the students’ feet

 To symbolize the new command that they will soon repeat.

That love must serve to be true love and so this much is true.

The model that the master gives becomes the charge to you.

 

But they’ll wound his heart, his loving heart with wound that runs most deep

While he holds vigil to kneel and pray they’ll give themselves to sleep.

They’ll take up sword during his arrest though he has taught no violence

They’ll flee his side and hide away in dark rooms filled with silence.

And yet the deepest wound of all will be when they refuse

His new command to love and serve and then instead will choose

To be a church of factions, cliques and multiple divisions.

Where folks are left out or judged solely on their worst decisions

They’ll wound his heart by being church only for the elite

Without reaching a servant’s hand to those who’ve known defeat.

 

So in this night of sacred dark, his wounds become our own

We feel that we have not shared with all the love that we have known.

We  have not modeled the unity for which our savior prayed

Or laid our lives down for our friends, and so he hangs betrayed.

The question lays before us now “when will we learn to love”?

To seek the best of life for others and put their needs above

Our own ambitions and desires, to be selfless with all we own

By this we’ll make his words be true: by our love we’ll make him known. 

 

From Maintenance to Service

I did a video post for my good friends over at Two Friars and A Fool. Thoughts?

 

 

Discernment Session #5 - Mergers

Much of what we will be discussing this week will come from the Alban Institute's webinar "Crunch Time for the Small Church" lead by Alice Mann. I have been incredibly grateful for this resource throughout the entire process.   Download Crunch time pt. 3 The parts we will be using are found on pages 13-26. Here are some supplemental slides I am adding. Download Discernment session #5

After this session, we will have reviewed all of our options. We'll begin thinking through what our next steps need to be. I have asked people what their emotional preference is in terms of our options. The question for this session is what are you willing to commit to in order to make that preference work. I think commitment is one of the major things that the church has lacked in helping to turn the corner. 

After Easter I plan on taking what I've done to the Committee on Ministry in our presbytery. They know we are going through this process, but don't know all the specifics. No matter what we do, the presbytery needs to be involved, despite the church's feelings about presbytery. 

The Sunday after Easter we will review all of our options and discuss a process for decision making. I'm assuming right now that this will include a congregational meeting in late May or early June. I'm hoping it will also include a lot of prayer. 

reflections on discernment session #4

I didn't write much about the nuts and bolts of our forth option which is to share our facility. It is pretty cut and dry; we'd need to create a landlord/tenant agreement, we'd have to figure out how to share space and expenses, and (of course) we'd have to find a willing partner. 

During the session itself, there wasn't a whole lot of discussion on this particular option other than some thinking through some of the logistics. Obviously at this point, if we could find someone who wanted to share our space, while it wouldn't solve all of our problems, it would be a help. The emotion just wasn't there as there has been for some of our other options, which is about what I expected. 

What was totally funny to me was an interaction I had in the grocery store after the session. One of our members works in the store. Both he and his wife are deacons. He has had to work Sundays and I haven't seen him much, so I stopped to chat for a bit. He told me that his wife had been keeping him up to date on the meetings. He then said "I'll tell you one thing we definitely can't do and that's share the building! There's no way you could get those people to figure out how to share space." I couldn't help but laugh. 

After our brief discussion on sharing the space, I asked people some general questions: 

1. Having gone through 4 options so far, which do you prefer most? Least?

2. which option do you think makes most sense for us? Least sense? 

3. What do you think God is calling us to do? 

4. How are you feeling about the process up to this point? 

I had them write down their responses to these questions and asked them to keep the paper so that we could talk about the first two questions down the road. We then had a discussion of questions 3 and 4. I tried to make it clear, that I wasn't asking in question 3 which option does God want us to pick (guess ing that would be the same as #1 for most of them) but what does God want from us in general. Some really good thoughtful responses: to know that if we close we haven't failed, to provide ministries of care for the neighborhood, to risk doing something that might be hard, to be faithful... Good answers. 

Then I asked how they were feeling about the process. Some felt frustration. Some felt anger. Some felt the process wasn't doing any good. Others felt that despite the frustration, it was good to go through the process. Someone mentioned that they didn't realize that we had so many options. For some, the primary value is that they get to vent. I mentioned my feeling that the process feels really slow. Some agreed. Others felt like so much info was being thrown at them that they felt like were going at lightspeed. One person said it's helping them to deal with reality. Perhaps needlessly, but I added that they were dealing with realities that should have been dealt with ten or more years ago and that's why it is so hard now. Not sure they wanted to hear that.

In any case, we have one more option, mergers, to discuss and then a process of decision making has to take place. I think that part is making me anxious. What's the best way to decide how we move forward? Do we just vote straight up? I can't see anyone voting for us to end well, though I still maintain that that MIGHT be the most faithful thing we could do. I'm hoping for some inspiration as we enter the last leg of this race. Prayers are appreciated.