Dear Friends,
Annie Dillard, author of For the Time Being, begins its seventh chapter with these words:
Birth • Our lives come free; they’re on the house to all comers, like the shopkeeper’s wine. God decants the universe of time in a stream, and our best hope is, by our own awareness, to step into the stream and serve, empty as flumes, to keep it moving. (175)
What a picture this created in my mind! I had to look up the word, flumes, though, not knowing much about streams and rivers. Seems they are like channels, open and dry, and then the water rushes through them. Hmmmm….
I get the notion they are empty but not completely. I imagine that over time, pebbles, rocks, even boulders find their way into these flumes, along with branches and other debris blown into them from across the landscape. Sometimes, these things become obstacles to the flow of the water, and sometimes they facilitate it, and they create a new force, a new energy. And, we know, river beds change their paths, slowly over time, as they wind their way through the territory. What a metaphor for our own birth, our own life, our baptism and spiritual life!
Step into the stream! Serve! Love and Serve the Lord and your neighbor! That’s the call to all who say yes to God. But how, that is the question many of us have. It is the intention of the Ministry Development Commission (MDC) to offer you as many opportunities as it can to help you discern what it is you are called to do and to support you as you step into the stream. To that end, it has agreed to pilot a Whitaker School of Theology (WSoT)program, Exploring Your Spiritual Journey (EYSJ) for this congregation and the congregations in our Oakland Deanery.
EYSJ participants make a commitment to themselves, to God, and to each other to meet twice a month for about eight months. During this time, each person looks into his/her spiritual life. This is a scripture based program that looks at prayer, creation, call, covenant, suffering and hope, and images of Jesus. It is also a program that gives individuals time to explore and share their spiritual journey, identify their gifts, and explore ministry. The program doesn’t end there, but sends each person out with a learning plan to carry out his/her ministry. This program is open to all people who are either at the stream’s edge or in the stream and wondering, “Okay, now what?”
Because this is a pilot program for WSoT, it will underwrite the program, and this means a savings in tuition for the participants. Participants in the St. Andrew’s pilot will be charged $275. ($125 is for the retreat in September at the Emrich Center, and $150 is the tuition cost.) Ordinarily, this program costs $1400 per participant. Scholarships are available through WSoT. An informational meeting is scheduled for May 21, 2008, 7-8:30 p.m., in the St. Gregory Room. The first class session is scheduled for August 20, 2008, from 7-9:30 p.m., here at St. Andrew’s. At that time, the participants will set the place and calendar for the remaining 14 meetings. We know that Father Bob and I will facilitate the program, so you can talk to us about the program or any member of the MDC—Carole Wollard, Mary Kay Sparre, Diane Hammond, Aleta Morris, Tracy Moore, and Marcia Bottomley.
EYSJ is perhaps more of a commitment than some are ready to make right now, so other discernment opportunities are needed. For you, MDC will offer a shorter, but intense, “Listening Hearts” experience, they hope this summer. And, the regular 5-6 week “Listening Hearts” program will be offered again this next fall or winter.
More information about all of these programs and more will become available in the bulletins, on the bulletin boards, and/or in future editions of the “Companion.” I hope you will participate in many of these discernment opportunities as discerning God’s call to serve, to step into the stream, is on going, a never ending responsibility and joy. With that in mind, I’d like to leave you with another thought from Dillard’s book:
As Martin Buber saw it—writing at his best near the turn of the last century—the world of ordinary days “affords” us that precise association with God that redeems both us and our speck of world. God entrusts and allots to everyone an area to redeem: this creased and feeble life, “the world in which you live, just as it is and not otherwise.”…
“It is given to men to lift up the fallen and to free the imprisoned. Not merely to wait, not merely to look on! Man is able to work for the redemption of the world.”
The work is not yours to finish, Rabbi Tarfon said, but neither are you free to take no part in it. (199-200)
Deacon Marlyn
