Being About God

Last week I got to spend three intense, lively, inspiring, challenging, and fun days with my colleagues.  We heard one another’s stories, competed for one another’s fabulous home made items in a silent auction benefiting Imagine No Malaria, ate delicious food, and spent lots of time talking together and playing games.  This was a gathering of the Order of Elders.  This group is made up of all the ordained elders of the United Methodist Church in Oregon and Southern Idaho.  We meet every other year to grow together and to support one another.

I came home from OOE (I just love acronyms!) on Thursday afternoon and got ready for the Sellwood Faith Community’s  Thursday night dinner.  This month at SFC we are talking about the teachings of Jesus.  After checking in with one another and starting our meal we had a fruitful discussion on the first part of the sermon on the mount contained in the Bible in Matthew chapter 5.  Then it fell apart.  My head & heart were so full from OOE. I made a comment about that and all of a sudden we weren’t talking about God or faith anymore, we were talking about church..

Now there is nothing inherently wrong in talking church.  It is one of my favorite things to do.  The problem comes in when as a community we stop being about God and start being about something else.  And usually what we do is start being about ourselves.  That conversation has it’s place, but that is not what Thursday night dinner is about.  Thursday night is about us exploring faith and journeying together in our response to God’s love.  There is of course a place and a time for us to share our personal worries and struggles at the end of dinner as we pledge to be present to one another int he coming week.  The heart of our time together, however, is a focus beyond the day to day, beyond the institutions and organizations of our lives, so that we can connect with something profound and eternal.  It’s shocking how hard that is sometimes, to just keep the open space for something more than our usual narratives and interactions.  Last week I didn’t do a good job of this.  Luckily communities are not just one time gatherings and I have the chance to practice and get better with people who both hold me accountable and who are willing to play along.  Grace abounds as we learn by making mistakes.  I get to try again the next time to connect to the source of all and to lay aside self.  All this and delicious dinner too.  I really am so very fortunate to be doing the work that God has sent me to do in this neighborhood.

-E

Our grace each week is a reminder of our purpose.