slow

wonderfulexchange7 Comments

As we drove between Crainlarich and Callendar today, my father began pondering road signs. He’d been fretting at it for a while before he spoke. He couldn’t decide whether to be bothered by how often the word SLOW was painted across the road when he thought is should say SLOWLY, or to accept that the cost of all those Ls and Ys would have been a terrible waste of public funds.

Which led to a debate on how the word SLOW functions in that context. I’d aways assumed it was an abbreviated form of an imperative phrase (SLOW DOWN). He agreed, but thought the phrase was GO SLOWLY.

Before I could even touch the brake, we found ourselves caught in grammatical knots. Just how does one parse SLOW DOWN? Is slow really a verb?

But if you think that’s too easy, gold stars to the person who best parses or diagrams this sentence (but no prizes for those who guess Dad is from Tennessee):

Y’all slow down now, y’hear?

JPEG, Word or Publisher diagrams can be offered by email by those who have both the grammatical and technological savy to do so.  

This is another Hermione Granger moment, isn’t it? 

in your own time

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sourdough starter

This morning I’ve been pondering sourdough starter as a model for church growth. The process works like this:

  • prepare a warm hospitable place for things to grow
  • stir in the basic ingredients
  • leave it alone for a while
  • check on it after a few days and give it a stir
  • when it has grown sufficiently, use some of it and replenish the rest
  • so long as you keep feeding it, you can give away quite a lot and still have all that you need

Two other observations:

  • at first it seems to take forever for things to get going
  • give it long enough to mature and it grows quickly without losing depth.

Unfortunately, the whole process is much more predictable with bread than with congregations.

The starter itself is now thriving at the rectory. Bring a jar if you want some.

undique

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One of the questions that recurs in Christian life is, ‘where is God in this?’ It is a simple question. It can be an infuriating question. It took me a long time to learn to be thankful for the person who asked me it at the most provoking and irritating times; and even longer to learn to ask it for myself.

As a priest, the ‘where is God in this’ question often hovers around the relationship between what I do and who I am in relation to God. How do you separate out the prayer you need to engage in to grow and sustain a relationship with God from the prayer that is part of what you are called and required to do? How do you find time to read the bible or study theology for its own sake rather than as sermon fodder, teaching resource, or pastoral aid? Where is the line between ‘private’ and ‘professional’? Does it, or should it, exist?

When life gets busy (when isn’t it busy?), it’s too easy to go through the motions — to churn out sermons and discussion plans and agendas and prayers without ever knowing if I’ve connected with God at all. No that’s not right. It isn’t easy at all. Because as soon as I begin to slip down that path, I know it’s wrong. It’s not what I want, what I have chosen or been called to. But it can so easily happen despite that.

So, there is always the question: ‘where is God in this?’ A ruthless quest for honesty and integrity.

But something is just dawning on me on day 9 of my holidays. I am beginning to miss all that stuff that has been driving me crazy. No, I’m not ready to go back to work. No, I haven’t been thinking about my sermon for Sunday. But I am beginning to feel an absence.

And absence is good.

Absence is longing.

And longing provokes prayer and growth and more longing.

Maybe God is in the endless round of sermons more than I realise. Maybe all the things that seem to get in the way of God — or get in my way of God — are indeed a part of how God gives himself, part of my learning faithfulness.

Of course, I would have claimed to know that all along.
But sometimes I forget.

So in a week’s time, when I’m lost under the 6 page to-do list and all the un-filed filing, someone remind me please.

out there

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An other good post over at Episcopal Cafe. This one is on GenX, Harry Potter, blogs, outreach and ecclesiology. It reminds me of a lot of good and interesting people I have known who want God in their lives, but really struggle with the church.  It ties in, too, with the questions of church identity,  growth and development that are tugging at Piskie blogs right now.

Here’s a snippit to tempt you.

…Gen X, are the translators [.] We are well equipped to understand social media, which is going to be the communications medium of choice for today’s young people. How is this changing the face of communications? My connections in the news media say it’s as revolutionary as Gutenberg and the moveable type printing press. Ignore this opinion at your peril, unless you think Luther’s revolution had nothing to do with Gutenberg’s (again, a hat tip to my friend for saying this; I hope he outs himself in the comments). Blogs are just a part of what that next generation is coming online with. We can speak their language. We can speak the Boomers’, too, though. Did I mention my teenage son? Yes? What about my aging parents? How’s your retirement portfolio?

So anyway, back to the matter at hand. Don’t skip Generation X. We’ve seen it more than once. We’ve heard you ask how to reach us, and seen you form committees hoping to find the magic pill that will get us back in the pews. To be honest, you might not. My fiancé has stalwartly avoided church services pretty much since he was old enough to say “no” to them. But cookouts, labyrinth walks, drum circles, soup kitchens, river clean-ups? He’s so there.

–Helen Thompson