Tag: faith

A Mothering Hen in a Dangerous World

“Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.’ Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”
(Luke 13:33-34 NRSV)

The above images were taken in 2013 during my trip to Jerusalem at the Church of Dominus Flevit. The altar mosaic overlooks the image of the city of Jerusalem as the scripture reads, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”

The role of a pastor is so often to tend to a group of people, sometimes within congregations who share a geographic bound, sometimes as chaplains who are responsible for transient membership, and sometimes serving our communities caring for people who we may only meet once in our journey. Awaiting is Jesus’ own death on the cross, awaiting is the destruction of the city of Jerusalem, awaiting in the scattering of the flock into the diaspora & the uncertainty if God’s promises of a Promised Land will ever be revealed again.

To hear Jesus weep over the city of Jerusalem is to see the deep care & compassion of a mother wishing away the dangers of the world & the destruction that is to come. And yet, we all know that isn’t possible.

We’ve all seen the “hover parents” at sporting events, school classrooms, within our churches & on community playgrounds who work to make sure that their children never have to experience the pain and disappointment of failure or injury. And for many of us, we wish we could do the same things for our own children, keeping them safe from the dangers of this world, whether they be physical dangers or dangers brought about by a world that is increasingly more and more connected though technology.

But that’s not how the world works, it’s not even how Jesus works within this passage. When we step out into this world, despite all of our mothering instincts to keep those we care for safe, they still step out into the world and are bound to be hurt by it. Despite our want to gather those we love under our wings and shield them from the dangers of the world, they’re not willing. They want to explore and see what the world holds for them, dangers and discoveries alike.

So as Jesus weeps over Jerusalem, may we be reminded of the ways in which God longs to gather us under the wings of a loving creator. But might we also acknowledge our own longings to explore the world around us. To see the ways in which our own free will can hurt, but also at times protect, those who are around us.

It’s the beautiful paradigm of the life that we live. The choice of how to respond to the grace and comfort that is offered as a part of our faith sends us out to live that faith in the lives that we live.

And as we venture out into this ever dangerous world, might we always know the loving shelter of the welcoming wings of Jesus waiting for us to come home.

Gardening a Congregation

“Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.” -Genesis 2:15

For as long as I can remember my family has had gardens. We had flower gardens, vegetable gardens, we explored the wild gardens on family hikes & enjoyed the beauty of community gardens. The experience of having our hands in the dirt and working for what we were going to enjoy later was an experience ingrained into the patterns of life.

This past weekend we spent some time at my In-Law’s and in some of the down time that I had I went out into the flower garden and was weeding. As a part of my doing that, my mother-in-law asked me “what is it that you enjoy so much about gardening?” And it got me thinking…

“what is it that you enjoy so much about gardening?”

So much of the joy of gardening is in the process. When you talk to someone who is a perennial gardener (the plants come back year after year) there never really is an end point. Sure, you have the beautiful moments of blossom or harvest, but there’s always something else to be done, to prepare for what’s next.

Sometimes in church I wonder if we miss the process. We’re so results oriented in our measurements (how many butts in the pews, how many dollars in the offering plate, how many students in Sunday School, etc.) that I wonder if we miss the process & forget to enjoy the steps along the way.

The purpose of the church is not to have the biggest congregation & the largest budget, on the block, in the community, in the country, etc. The purpose of the church is to share the Gospel so that those who haven’t experienced the good news can know that reality for themselves. Where is it that we miss the process of being the church, when all we care about is some “next harvest” calculation that pulls us away from being present in the moment?

One of the greatest joys of gardening is being able to craft your own workmanship. There is no final right or wrong way to do gardening. Everything that you do may have positive or negative impacts on the larger goal of what you’re trying to accomplish, but everything you do is also usually reversible. Plants that are planted and don’t fit can be pulled out. Pruning that goes too far will eventually grow back. Everything is your canvas to do as you want within that space & it’s freeing.

Everything is your canvas to do as you want within that space & it’s freeing.

So often in the church we’re unwilling to try new things, because we worry that we’re going to be stuck doing that experiment for the next 45 years. If the church could learn anything from gardening I wish that we could see the beauty in the ways in which new blooms require experiments (and sometimes failures) before we get something that’s worth keeping “forever”.

How is it that we as Church can take some of those new risks? What would it take for church leadership to feel free to have their own canvas, knowing that sometimes there will be things that will need to be pulled out and new plantings made? Where is it that we need to prune back the out of control bushes (or weeds) to allow for the church to bloom more fully again?

There’s nothing more fulfilling than seeing a finished project, but that doesn’t mean it’s the end of the work. There’s joy in seeing a garden that has been weeded down to the dirt, there’s only the flowers you planted, or the vegetable plants that you’ve tended to. But just because you complete the work of weeding one time doesn’t mean that your work of weeding is over. Just because you’ve pruned the bushes back this year doesn’t mean that they won’t be overgrown again next year, or the year after.

Our work is one that is one worth celebrating. God is doing amazing things in our midst, and in our congregations! But just because we succeeded (and hopefully celebrated too) our accomplishments doesn’t mean that we are done with the work. Our work is always one that will need a new commitment to the new work that is around us. We cannot rest on what has been done in the past, a new project awaits us every step we take along our journey.