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What If?

February 7 & 8, 2020 were amazing here in metro-Detroit. The Episcopal Presiding Bishop, Michael B. Curry, was in town for the Consecration of our new diocesan Bishop, Bonnie A. Perry. There are many web-places to enjoy scenes from that weekend, such as our diocesan site www.EDOMI.org

Spending time with PB Michael is always a treat. Ever since the Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, where Bishop Curry was the preacher, he is truly the most famous Episcopalian in the world. He still preaches love, of course. But against a backdrop of harsher times and darker spirits at work.

Bishop Curry told us of his recent experiences among other bishops, and archbishops (called Primates) of the Anglican Communion. Specifically, there is a worldwide tendency toward fascism and suppression of freedoms. Not only in our country but in many others. And what will Christians do about it? He asked us to set aside time — suggesting Wednesdays starting in Lent — to fast and pray for the healing of our country and the casting out of the world’s darkness. Quoting Dr Martin Luther King Jr: Darkness cannot cast out the darkness, only light can do that. The Light of Jesus Christ.

The Episcopal Church has got other amazing preachers. Listen to +Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows’ sermon that starts at 1:33:15 of the Consecration video, for instance. On Saturday, Bishop Baskerville-Burrows enjoined us to “trust the waters” of our creation and our baptism into Christ’s Body, the Church, as we “paddle” with our new bishop (an avid kayaker) toward justice and healing.

And when she stepped into the pulpit for the first time as Bishop of Michigan, Bonnie Perry preached the most concrete challenge of all: “Mind the gaps” between rich and poor, black and white, and help her, help God, dismantle all that divides the children of God in SE Michigan. “What if…” she proposed… What if we really do notice injustices, and take action? What if we actually dare to break the bonds of oppression, and set the captives free, quoting Isaiah’s vision.

These are no mean feats. But our life, our world, depends on our success. The Gospel stories we hear, week in and week out, as followers of Jesus demonstrate that sitting on our hinies isn’t an option. How will we be salt and light? What will we do, when next we see the gap? I’m grateful that our leaders are pointing the ways forward.

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Rethinking Assumptions

While preparing to preach on the Fourth Sunday in Lent (March 31, 2019) when the Gospel is the uber-familiar “Prodigal Son” parable, I re-read the first chapter of Prof. Amy-Jill Levine’s Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi (2014: HarperOne). A-J, as she likes to be called, spoke to an enthusiastic group of Michigan clergy and laity last year, sharing her unique insights on preaching, as a Jewish Professor of the New Testament. Prof Levine was already a hero of mine, from attending her summer lectures at the Chautauqua Institution in Western New York; and she never fails to shake up my understandings of Jesus and his first-century listeners. This excellent book on his parables is no exception!

While my Lent 4 sermon ultimately focused on the day’s passage from 2 Corinthians (you can listen to the sermon from my Sermons page), A-J’s insights shaped how things went. Her take on the Prodigal or “Lost Son(s)” is that this whole family is in need of reconciliation! The father would make a poor God (so don’t assume that’s his identity), ignoring his older son’s bitterness and indulging the younger wastrel. At the end of the parable, we’re left wondering whether the trio will ever manage to forgive one another. But at least they are all back in the same place, if not actually celebrating together… yet. Will they? It’s far from a tidy reunion, and that’s how Jesus would want it left. No one fully blamed, no one truly innocent, in this dysfunctional family.

Getting to the concluding image of worried father and angry brother of “Junior,” the prodigal, Levine takes her readers verse-by-verse through the parable and challenges the interpretations that most Christians have heard or read. Her book is a wise and humor-filled warning against making assumptions about another culture. Inquire, yes; diagnose, please don’t. And that’s a lesson that applies to nearly all aspects of ministry, and politics, and social situations, and other people’s marriages, and…. you get the idea. Understanding comes from the inside, gently and respectfully listening to the whole, messy story. I suppose that’s why Interims need to stick around for a while, listening twice as much as speaking.

Thanks, A-J, for teaching me again.

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Thawing out on Groundhog Day

It’s Groundhog Day, woodchuck-chuckers!

Groundhog Day (1993)
Phil Connors and Phil the Groundhog

I hope I’m not caught in a time-loop, like poor Bill Murray in the iconic, 1993 movie about Punxsutawney Phil (the groundhog and the weatherman). I trust I’m not spoiling the plot for you, because you’ve watched it at least a dozen times like my family has. Phil Connors the weatherman, caught in a time loop, is doomed to repeat Groundhog Day until he learns from his life and evolves into a better human being. The character gradually transforms, going through the classic steps of denial, anger, and depression over his circumstances; eventually becoming a caring servant of others because of his unusually-gained wisdom.

Here in Michigan on Groundhog Day, we’re thawing out after a week of deadly cold temperatures and school closing, brought to us and millions of others in the Midwestern U.S. by the “Polar Vortex” weather pattern. (Phil the weatherman could tell you all about how this happens. Canada is implicated.)

However, Phil the Groundhog predicted an early Spring today in Punxsutawney PA, and truly it does feel rather spring-like outside — a whopping 39′ after -15′ F a few days ago. No one is putting away their winter gear just yet, of course. We’ve experienced Michigan winters before and they aren’t over until, oh… April? The snow comes, and goes, and comes again. We repeat our routines of shoveling, salting, warming up the car for 10 minutes before getting in and driving to work or school. The usual.

The Groundhog Day effect — I mean the movie’s, not the weather predictions of a rodent — can be seen in plenty of other, non-fiction situations. Families, companies, political parties and churches repeat their patterns like winter snowfalls until someone finally learns to shift the focus and evolve.  By moving to Arizona!

Just kidding, I’m not ready to do that quite yet. (Thanks, Dad, for a great visit since you did it 20 years ago!) Breaking patterns that bring frustration and misery just need some better awareness, more forgiveness, and a dose of bravery.

You don’t even have to be a selfish jerk like Phil Connors started out. Plenty of well-meaning folks try to repeat what worked in the past, perhaps try more than once, with diminishing returns and increasing anxiety. Phil had only himself to repeat history with, but he learned from the other characters, every round of Groundhog Day. “Just put your little hand in mine, there ain’t no hill or mountain we can’t climb…” Let a Transition Minister or counselor help you through yours. We’ve seen it before, too.

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Are you part of the Solution?

It was really impressive to see the line at our polling place yesterday (especially since I had arrived before it grew out the door). In record numbers, people decided they would put action behind words of complaining about the roads, or the political sleaze, or the unfulfilled promises of last time, or the rhetoric coming from Washington and elsewhere. We voted.

And here in Michigan, a large number of women candidates were successful, including our next Governor, Gretchen Whitmer.  Some won by a comfortable 10+ points, others by teeny-tiny margins. Women’s victories came in large measure by the turnout of women voters. Yes, my sisters!

I’m heartened by yesterday’s results in part because I have suffered a personal, professional defeat due largely to good people doing nothing. They might have said, “It’s terrible, what’s being said and done to you!” But would they confront the ones saying and doing? No, they did not. At least not in time to make a difference.

This is so common in churches. Well-intentioned individuals allow systemic bad behavior to continue.  The national results of the 2018 mid-term elections suggest that in Washington, the divisiveness will get worse instead of better. Reconciliation seems a long way off in the political arena.

It doesn’t have to be so in the church. Once recognized, multi-generational patterns – called “family systems” after the work of Murray Bowen and Edwin Friedman – can be disrupted and improved by individuals who are willing to be part of the solution.

In the work of a Transition minister or consultant, doing a “family history” of the congregation is an illuminating first step. What crises or tragedies, accomplishments or victories, defined the decades? Which problems do people know about (vaguely) but won’t discuss openly? Who are the bullies, and why do they seem to get their way?  Who are the elders that people listen to, for corporate wisdom?

Once we put up the history and start to notice the patterns, interesting conversations happen. Some members will see their role in troublesome themes, others will remain in denial. Some will bravely become part of a solution; some will continue to resist transformation. It’s to be expected.  Just like the aftermath of a mid-term election. Don’t forget, however, that putting a few healthy individuals into a system’s leadership will start to change things for the better.

Maybe you’ll be one of them!

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Is this Change or Transition?

“Change is unavoidable, Transition is chosen.”

Nowhere in our lives, our jobs, our churches, our families, do situations stay constant for very long. People we love move, get sick, even die. Jobs and responsibilities come and go. Families blend, grow, splinter, reconcile. Politicians and institutions rise, decline or are replaced, bringing upheaval.

American society is faced with accelerated rates of change, it seems to me. We see this in many of our industries, various technologies, scientific discoveries, and environmental catastrophes.  Incredible quantities of digitized information are available immediately to anyone with internet access. National and international news, divisive opinion pieces and ridiculous hoaxes go “viral” in hours instead of days or weeks. No wonder that anxiety levels are on the rise!

Churches — of all sizes — feel the stress like everywhere else.  Worshipers have a variety of expectations when (if) they come on any given Sunday. And when the experience doesn’t provide a “fix,” or at least some relief, more and more parishioners are choosing simply to leave rather than have an honest conversation with leadership.  Some look elsewhere, more just stay home.  As I know from personal experience, parish clergy are feeling pressure to “Grow the church or else!” and, since that rarely happens, they are treated poorly by their stressed-out laity. Bishops and other judicatory leaders get caught in the cycle too, receiving and doling out harsh words.

Does all this Change doom us to more anxiety, stress and reactivity?Not necessarily.

One of the clearest opportunities to address change in the church is when the settled, long-term {Rector, Pastor, Priest-in-Charge, etc.} decides to leave. The circumstances of the leaving have an impact, of course. It might be {happy retirement, unhappy resignation, removal due to misconduct, etc.}  Once the farewells have been said, in whatever tone of voice, the congregation enters a new phase of its life: Transition.

Occupational Development guru (the late) William Bridges dubbed this “The Neutral Zone.” I found this a helpful description, because there are different forces at work when an individual, a company or a church is in “neutral” than when a course has been set by leadership.

You might enjoy this article by Bridges, which really opened my imagination:

https://wmbridges.com/featured/articles/getting-them-through-wilderness/

 

I see my role as helping a congregation to recall the joys, sorrows and life-lessons of their past; reevaluate the current situation in keeping with the Gospel; and get pointed toward a hopeful AND realistic future.

In short, I want to help a congregation to see the ways God is equipping them for the future during the time of transition. I bring skills for discerning the pathways that are newly possible.