Joe’s Blog

            Recently, the church liturgical year entered what is sometimes called “ordinary time.”  Frankly, I am not sure what constitutes “ordinary time” any more.  With so many more options and opportunities afforded to me today and the cultural pluralism which society, in general, has embraced, some days I long for knowing and experiencing the “ordinary.”  Maybe it is just me.  I confess I like patterns in my life.  The patterns form a sort of rhythm and routine which give me boundaries and provide me comfort, albeit it may be a false sense of comfort at times. 

            What about your own sense of “ordinary time.”  How do you determine whether to embrace an aspect of the ever-increasing sense of change?  What is the “ordinary” basis for your decision making relative to “change?”  Please note if you immediately thought to yourself, “Change?  I don’t need or want to change,” then you may be in denial of what I consider the three certainties of living, “death, taxes and (recently I added) change.”  As wisdom shared by Soren Kierkegaard, “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards..,” this “living forward” I believe is about change and how we plan to manage it.

            So, I return to the liturgical season of Ordinary Time.  As imperfect as it is and has been, I believe the church provides valuable guidance and a sense of pattern in our continuing changing and somewhat chaotic world.  In our tradition, we rely upon Tradition(history and praxis), Reason, and Holy Scripture to give us patterns to “live forward.”  Ironically, the culture seems to have deemed the church “out of touch” and therefore not relevant to answering how we “live forward.”  This is reflected in the declining attendance at weekly worship.  People believe they have more relevant activities for grounding their being in life than being an active part of a community of faith.  I contend this is very short-sighted if one wants help in “living life forward.”  The church is all about “ordinary time,” those constructs of human value, justice, peace, and loving and being loved are taught and demonstrated to give us that sense joy and peace that makes time anything but ordinary.  What is your plan for living life forward?  Reconsider the value of your community of faith, the church, if you seek “life,” as in the words of our savior and redeemer, Jesus, “….I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10b NRSV) 

In our Lenten journey, we move this week from the death and sin of Ash Wednesday and our trials and temptations in the “fall of man” of week 1 to readings dealing with “faith.”  This resonates with me as I have been dealing all week with “faith” being able to help me deal with the anxiety and fear for my son living in Japan.  I ascribe to the notion that the way we manage anxiety and keep it from turning into irrational or paralyzing fear is either with more  understanding through knowledge about the issue at hand or through this thing I call “faith.”  However, every time I try and develop my definition of “faith” it always seems inadequate.  There is a part of me that looks at “faith” as a personal thing that I strive to create more of through my spiritual discipline and then there is another part of me that sees “faith” as a gift from God which I can use to help me in my spiritual journey.
When we examine the lessons for 2 Lent, we have Abram accepting God’s call to pack up and move without a definitive destination.  We have the apostle Paul developing his argument to the Jewish Christians in Rome using Abram as the example of responding to God in “faith” as so important. And finally, in the gospel we have the unique encounter between Nicodemus and Jesus where Nicodemus cannot grasp what Jesus is saying being born from above.  All are about this wonderful and, for me, somewhat elusive thing we call “faith.”  What I have concluded, at least for now, is there seems be believing component of “faith” based on what God reveals in Holy Scripture and through my life experiences and there is an action component of “faith” which involves trusting what I believe enough to take a risk, an action.  I do think Abram got this and Nicodemus did not.

Maybe my struggle with “faith” is that I am comfortable with the believing part, but I am not comfortable taking a risk based on my belief.  This struggle for me is heightened  because I believe in the scheme of salvation, when Jesus came into the world I am or will be placed in situations when I have the opportunity or not to risk based on my “faith.”  My decisions strengthen or weaken my relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
PS  There is another dynamic when we consider our corporate “faith,” but I probably have confused everyone enough as it is for one post.

I recently came across a plaque with the words. “Bidden or Unbidden, God is present.”  Intriguingly, as I reflected on this simple statement, I thought about the way I drive my car.  If I am wearing my clerical collar, I generally am a much more courteous and, more importantly, forgiving driver.  I feel the cultural expectation others have for a “man of the cloth,” so to speak.  As I thought more about the plaque’s word, I concluded there should be no difference in my behavior, with or without the collar identifying me.  How often do each of us act differently if we believe we are being watched by someone we do not want to disappoint?  Or, do we?