But the mercy of the world is time. Time does not stop for love, but it does not stop for death and grief, either. After death and grief that (it seems) ought to have stopped the world, the world goes on. More things happen. And some of the things that happen are good.
Wendell Berry, Jayber Crow, 296
I turned 53 today. Thanks to all those who sent kind wishes by way of Facebook, and to the congregation at First UMC who surprised me with a singing of “Happy Birthday” during worship.
A few years ago, my daughter Sarah asked me, “What’s so great about growing up?” I recall blogging about that then, and my response was something about the richness of memory. Reading Wendell Berry’s Jayber Crow, I can add to my former response. Growing older, the richness of one’s memories are deepened, and growing older one can come to know the truth that the mercy of the world is time. The world goes on, things happen, and some of the things that happen are good. When I served as a youth pastor in Dallas from 1987-1994 (Ridgewood Park UMC), one of the things that struck me was that I needed to help the youth understand that no matter how difficult a time they were going through, the sun would come up the next day and they had more inner strength than they might imagine, including strength from the grace of God.
When I read the words of Wendell Berry’s protagonist, Jayber Crow, they made deep sense to me. In recent months I have worked with two families whose infant children died. Today, Chester Park United Methodist Church joined with First United Methodist Church in a new merged congregation. There is a great deal of excitement about this merger, but I also know there is heartbreak among Chester Park people whose beloved church has ceased to exist as before. This past week in Duluth, flash floods ripped through streets and gushed into homes, turning the lives of many upside down.
The mercy of the world is time. Time does not stop. Things happen, and some of them are good.
Theologically, I understand the good things that happen to be rooted in the grace of God.
With Faith and With Feathers,
David
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Item 505
ITEM 505
Action: The Minnesota Annual Conference will express opposition to the constitutional amendment with a press release.
Rationale:
1. Paragraph 161F of the Book of Discipline states: “All persons, regardless of age, gender, marital status, or sexual orientation, are entitled to have their human and civil rights ensured and to be protected against violence.”
2. The ballot question will be: "Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to provide that only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in Minnesota?”
3. Many civil rights are based on one’s marital status: health insurance, equal taxation, retirement benefits, and healthcare directives.
4. Hundreds of thousands of current and potential United Methodists in Minnesota would benefit from equal protection of civil rights.
Due to limits on debate on this item which were voted on by our Annual Conference, I did not have the opportunity to offer my speech in favor of item 505 – opposing the proposed constitutional amendment about marriage here in Minnesota. Here is what I planned to say.
Bishop, Members of the Minnesota Annual Conference:
We disagree about many things surrounding the legislative item before us now – what is the nature of attraction, how does the Bible and Christian faith address same-sex attraction and relationships, can we genuinely affirm the sacred worth of persons while denying them intimacy in line with their orientation?
Can we agree, though, that the church has a role and a voice in the civil discussion regarding marriage and the rights and responsibilities of all persons as they seek to form loving and caring families?
Can we also agree that Jesus calls us to wisdom – “be wise as serpents” (Matthew 10:16) and to compassion – “be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate” (Luke 6:36)?
I hope there is wide agreement here that this legislation, opposing the Minnesota Marriage Amendment represents wisdom and compassion.
If the marriage amendment becomes a part of our state constitution we are saying that we don’t want to continue the civil conversation about same-sex relationships and same-sex families. We are saying that we don’t want to wrestle with these challenging issues that affect our neighbors, our friends, people who work with us, people who share the pews with us on Sunday mornings. We are saying we really don’t want to ask any more about the legal status of the relationship of the same-sex parents of our children’s friends, nor do we care to discuss visitation rights when one part of a same-sex couple is in the hospital, or even in hospice.
If the marriage amendment passes we are telling our LGBTQ friends that these issues which affect their lives need to be pushed farther away from public discussion, chiseled into the founding document of our state.
I hope there is wide agreement here that this does not well represent either wise public policy or the compassion to which Jesus calls us.
Please support item 505. Thank you.
Item 505 passed at our Annual Conference by a vote of 400 to 169. I hope when this constitutional amendment comes for a vote here in Minnesota in November, there will be wide agreement that it is neither wise nor compassionate.
With Faith and With Feathers,
David
Action: The Minnesota Annual Conference will express opposition to the constitutional amendment with a press release.
Rationale:
1. Paragraph 161F of the Book of Discipline states: “All persons, regardless of age, gender, marital status, or sexual orientation, are entitled to have their human and civil rights ensured and to be protected against violence.”
2. The ballot question will be: "Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to provide that only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in Minnesota?”
3. Many civil rights are based on one’s marital status: health insurance, equal taxation, retirement benefits, and healthcare directives.
4. Hundreds of thousands of current and potential United Methodists in Minnesota would benefit from equal protection of civil rights.
Due to limits on debate on this item which were voted on by our Annual Conference, I did not have the opportunity to offer my speech in favor of item 505 – opposing the proposed constitutional amendment about marriage here in Minnesota. Here is what I planned to say.
Bishop, Members of the Minnesota Annual Conference:
We disagree about many things surrounding the legislative item before us now – what is the nature of attraction, how does the Bible and Christian faith address same-sex attraction and relationships, can we genuinely affirm the sacred worth of persons while denying them intimacy in line with their orientation?
Can we agree, though, that the church has a role and a voice in the civil discussion regarding marriage and the rights and responsibilities of all persons as they seek to form loving and caring families?
Can we also agree that Jesus calls us to wisdom – “be wise as serpents” (Matthew 10:16) and to compassion – “be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate” (Luke 6:36)?
I hope there is wide agreement here that this legislation, opposing the Minnesota Marriage Amendment represents wisdom and compassion.
If the marriage amendment becomes a part of our state constitution we are saying that we don’t want to continue the civil conversation about same-sex relationships and same-sex families. We are saying that we don’t want to wrestle with these challenging issues that affect our neighbors, our friends, people who work with us, people who share the pews with us on Sunday mornings. We are saying we really don’t want to ask any more about the legal status of the relationship of the same-sex parents of our children’s friends, nor do we care to discuss visitation rights when one part of a same-sex couple is in the hospital, or even in hospice.
If the marriage amendment passes we are telling our LGBTQ friends that these issues which affect their lives need to be pushed farther away from public discussion, chiseled into the founding document of our state.
I hope there is wide agreement here that this does not well represent either wise public policy or the compassion to which Jesus calls us.
Please support item 505. Thank you.
Item 505 passed at our Annual Conference by a vote of 400 to 169. I hope when this constitutional amendment comes for a vote here in Minnesota in November, there will be wide agreement that it is neither wise nor compassionate.
With Faith and With Feathers,
David
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Leading With a Broken Heart
Now I know I’ve got a heart, ‘cause it’s breaking.
Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz
Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter – tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther… And one fine morning – So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
With upright heart he tended them, and guided them with skillful hand.
Psalm 78:72
I have not written here since attending General Conference. Many who were there have blogged about what went wrong – institutional inertia, reluctance of boards and agencies to change, Robert’s Rules of Order. There are deep questions to be asked. Why, in a time when restructuring seems needed did we fail to restructure? Could it be that our way of making decisions together is no longer adequate for the size, complexity and diversity of our denomination? If that is the case, how do we, constitutionally move to different decision-making models? Rules of order, including Robert’s Rules are simply tools for discussion and decision-making that can be used for better or for worse. That we don’t always use them well may say more about us than about the tools. I continue to ponder all that happened at General Conference and continue to ask about ways forward. I will not here offer some broad proposal or sweeping criticism – it seems that there are a lot out there already, some better than others. Instead I want to reflect more personally on something I have been thinking about since General Conference.
I was honored to be elected chairperson of the legislative committee on Ministry and Higher Education at General Conference. I worked with a great team of people who were also elected to leadership in that committee. It was a joy and privilege to work with them, and with the entire committee. Sometimes being chairperson is seen as a position of power, and there is power in the role. It is not the power to influence the results of legislation, however. Rather it is the power to shape a process for discussion and decision-making. In fact, as a chairperson I think one gives up one’s power to try and influence the results. I hoped certain things might happen with some of the legislation before the MHE Committee. For instance, I would have liked to seen language which prohibits United Methodist clergy from officiating at ceremonies celebrating same-sex couples softened or eliminated. It is a ministry issue for many of us. I valued that result. I also value fair process and meaningful discussion. As chairperson it is my job to place those values for fair process and meaningful discussion at the center of what I do. I did that to the best of my ability. That does not mean that the results don’t matter.
So we discussed same-sex marriage and had a vote. In a close vote, the removal of the prohibition of United Methodist clergy officiating at same-sex unions lost 41-37. Inside, I was disappointed, broken-hearted. I knew at the moment that I had a heart, because it was breaking. At that moment, I was still the chairperson of a committee that had to take in the result of that vote, breathe, and move forward with other work. I felt a little like the ending of The Great Gatsby – we beat on, boats against the current. But we kept moving forward. Sometimes the heart that strives to be upright is also breaking, and still we try as best we can to guide with skillful hand.
I have been thinking about this in other contexts of ministry – leading with a broken heart. Being a pastor means leading as skillfully as one can, yet sometimes with a broken heart. The place I have experienced that most these past months is in officiating at funerals. I have been the pastor at my church for seven years now. The people who are dying have been a part of my life for seven years, or their families have. Some I have known even longer. The day I flew back from Tampa, I was informed of the death of a woman I first met when I was in elementary school. She attended the church I grew up in, and seven years ago, I became her pastor. She was the only one in my church who would call me “that Bard kid.” She went into hospice just before General Conference and every day I hoped and prayed that she would still be around when I returned, because if she was going to die, I wanted to be there to celebrate her life. Of course I hoped her life would go on much longer, but that was not to be. Yet it was almost as if she waited as long as she could. One feels such deaths even as one leads others through the grieving process at the memorial service – leading with a broken heart.
Today, we buried the child I wrote about a few weeks ago, Lucy June, who died at age two months. My heart was breaking as I watched Lucy June’s dad carry her tiny coffin from the hearse to the grave side as the committal service started. I can feel the heart break, but I also need to lead with a skillful hand.
So we beat on, boats against the current, hearts breaking, leading as skillfully as we can.
With Faith and With Feathers,
David
Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz
Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter – tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther… And one fine morning – So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
With upright heart he tended them, and guided them with skillful hand.
Psalm 78:72
I have not written here since attending General Conference. Many who were there have blogged about what went wrong – institutional inertia, reluctance of boards and agencies to change, Robert’s Rules of Order. There are deep questions to be asked. Why, in a time when restructuring seems needed did we fail to restructure? Could it be that our way of making decisions together is no longer adequate for the size, complexity and diversity of our denomination? If that is the case, how do we, constitutionally move to different decision-making models? Rules of order, including Robert’s Rules are simply tools for discussion and decision-making that can be used for better or for worse. That we don’t always use them well may say more about us than about the tools. I continue to ponder all that happened at General Conference and continue to ask about ways forward. I will not here offer some broad proposal or sweeping criticism – it seems that there are a lot out there already, some better than others. Instead I want to reflect more personally on something I have been thinking about since General Conference.
I was honored to be elected chairperson of the legislative committee on Ministry and Higher Education at General Conference. I worked with a great team of people who were also elected to leadership in that committee. It was a joy and privilege to work with them, and with the entire committee. Sometimes being chairperson is seen as a position of power, and there is power in the role. It is not the power to influence the results of legislation, however. Rather it is the power to shape a process for discussion and decision-making. In fact, as a chairperson I think one gives up one’s power to try and influence the results. I hoped certain things might happen with some of the legislation before the MHE Committee. For instance, I would have liked to seen language which prohibits United Methodist clergy from officiating at ceremonies celebrating same-sex couples softened or eliminated. It is a ministry issue for many of us. I valued that result. I also value fair process and meaningful discussion. As chairperson it is my job to place those values for fair process and meaningful discussion at the center of what I do. I did that to the best of my ability. That does not mean that the results don’t matter.
So we discussed same-sex marriage and had a vote. In a close vote, the removal of the prohibition of United Methodist clergy officiating at same-sex unions lost 41-37. Inside, I was disappointed, broken-hearted. I knew at the moment that I had a heart, because it was breaking. At that moment, I was still the chairperson of a committee that had to take in the result of that vote, breathe, and move forward with other work. I felt a little like the ending of The Great Gatsby – we beat on, boats against the current. But we kept moving forward. Sometimes the heart that strives to be upright is also breaking, and still we try as best we can to guide with skillful hand.
I have been thinking about this in other contexts of ministry – leading with a broken heart. Being a pastor means leading as skillfully as one can, yet sometimes with a broken heart. The place I have experienced that most these past months is in officiating at funerals. I have been the pastor at my church for seven years now. The people who are dying have been a part of my life for seven years, or their families have. Some I have known even longer. The day I flew back from Tampa, I was informed of the death of a woman I first met when I was in elementary school. She attended the church I grew up in, and seven years ago, I became her pastor. She was the only one in my church who would call me “that Bard kid.” She went into hospice just before General Conference and every day I hoped and prayed that she would still be around when I returned, because if she was going to die, I wanted to be there to celebrate her life. Of course I hoped her life would go on much longer, but that was not to be. Yet it was almost as if she waited as long as she could. One feels such deaths even as one leads others through the grieving process at the memorial service – leading with a broken heart.
Today, we buried the child I wrote about a few weeks ago, Lucy June, who died at age two months. My heart was breaking as I watched Lucy June’s dad carry her tiny coffin from the hearse to the grave side as the committal service started. I can feel the heart break, but I also need to lead with a skillful hand.
So we beat on, boats against the current, hearts breaking, leading as skillfully as we can.
With Faith and With Feathers,
David
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Adventures in Listening
Last Saturday I attended my first opera. It was a performance of La Traviata at a local movie theater simulcast from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. Though I write about jazz and rock most often, and listen to it most of the time, I am not a complete novice when it comes to opera. My experiences have been mostly brief encounters, however. Years ago I bought a light introduction to operatic music sub-titled “What’s All the Screaming About?” It came with a CD of highlights from the opera Carmen, with Maria Callas singing lead soprano. I confess I listen to it rather infrequently. So I went to La Traviata with a friend from church who is an opera fan and an astute listener. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience -the music and the human drama in the story. They sang about love, joy, longing, heartbreak, death, religion and the meaning of life.
Last month, while in Nashville for two meetings, I had a few hours to enjoy the area. That has not typically been the case when I have traveled to Nashville for meetings, between the meetings and the work I bring along, there is usually little time to take in the sights. With the time I had I walked to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. It was a fascinating visit. One discovery was that in 1949, Billboard magazine retitled one of its music charts, from “Hillbilly” to “Country and Western.” Before going to the museum, I was not a novice with country music either, though it has certainly played second fiddle (an apt metaphor) in my listening over the years. I have spent a fair amount of time with Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Patsy Cline and Lucinda Williams. Anyway, the visit inspired me to give some of my country music another listen.
So in the days after the opera I have been listening in the car to the Carter Family. They were country when it was still “hillbilly” music on the Billboard charts. In their music there are songs about love, joy, longing, heartbreak, death, religion and the meaning of life.
The voices could not be more different – Natalie Dessay and Matthew Polenzani, A.P. and Sara and Maybelle Carter. The instrumentation could not be more distinct – a full pit orchestra at the Met, guitars played with the Carter scratch. Yet in each musical form there is the human situation being expressed, the human voice striving for articulation.
It is good to hear the variety of ways the human voice has been given expression, the diverse musical cries of the heart.
Maybe these adventures in listening are wonderful preparation for the United Methodist General Conference to which I am headed.
With Faith and With Feathers,
David
Last month, while in Nashville for two meetings, I had a few hours to enjoy the area. That has not typically been the case when I have traveled to Nashville for meetings, between the meetings and the work I bring along, there is usually little time to take in the sights. With the time I had I walked to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. It was a fascinating visit. One discovery was that in 1949, Billboard magazine retitled one of its music charts, from “Hillbilly” to “Country and Western.” Before going to the museum, I was not a novice with country music either, though it has certainly played second fiddle (an apt metaphor) in my listening over the years. I have spent a fair amount of time with Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Patsy Cline and Lucinda Williams. Anyway, the visit inspired me to give some of my country music another listen.
So in the days after the opera I have been listening in the car to the Carter Family. They were country when it was still “hillbilly” music on the Billboard charts. In their music there are songs about love, joy, longing, heartbreak, death, religion and the meaning of life.
The voices could not be more different – Natalie Dessay and Matthew Polenzani, A.P. and Sara and Maybelle Carter. The instrumentation could not be more distinct – a full pit orchestra at the Met, guitars played with the Carter scratch. Yet in each musical form there is the human situation being expressed, the human voice striving for articulation.
It is good to hear the variety of ways the human voice has been given expression, the diverse musical cries of the heart.
Maybe these adventures in listening are wonderful preparation for the United Methodist General Conference to which I am headed.
With Faith and With Feathers,
David
Friday, April 13, 2012
Walk Away Renee
This has been a busy time, busy but good in many ways. Easter was wonderful – a lot of people and a lot of energy. I’ve mentioned one significant funeral during Lent. There have been others, including one of the wise elders at my church. Armas was the son of Finnish immigrants who became a professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. At his funeral I discovered that his name means “beloved” in Finnish. “David” means “beloved” in Hebrew.
Besides all the activity at my church there has been the preparation for the United Methodist General Conference coming up later this month. There have been meetings and phone calls and e-mails. There has been reading and study.
So it is kind of nice that I came across some small bit of trivia that brought a smile. I was reading something about unrecorded Woody Guthrie songs being set to music by contemporary musicians. It began with Billy Bragg and Wilco. I was reading about Billy Bragg and there was mention of his recording of “Walk Away Renee.” I could hear the song in my head and began to wonder who performed the original version. Such a familiar song, I was sure I had it on my computer, or, if not, certainly on a CD. I went to my i tunes and did a search. “Walk Away Renee” was there, in the wonderful version by the Four Tops. While great, I knew this wasn’t the original. Who did that? A little internet search brought me the information – The Left Banke. I never knew that. I also discovered that the song was listed as number 222 in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. A few clicks later “Walk Away Renee” is now on my computer and burned on a CD. It is a great song that should bring a smile, even if you’ve never heard it before.
Small joys are always welcome.
With Faith and With Feathers,
David
The Left Banke, "Walk Away Renee"
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Unintentional Lent
Lent 2012 is winding down as we enter Holy Week. The time has gone quickly, in part because it has been a busy few weeks – a trip to Nashville for the United Methodist Committee on Faith and Order followed immediately by the United Methodist General Board of Higher Education and Ministry. Our Minnesota delegation to the United Methodist General Conference has met twice. There have also been funerals. One of the funerals brought an unintentional discipline into my life this Lent.
We Shake with Joy Mary Oliver, Evidence
We shake with joy, we shake with grief.
What a time they have, these two
housed as they are in the same body.
I read this poem as a part of my reflection for the funeral of a little girl named Lucy June, born December 13, 2011 and died February 28, 2012. The poem helped me frame some of what I was experiencing as I thought about this little girl whose brief life touched mine and many others. I hoped it might help others frame their experience as well. We shake with joy. We shake with grief.
Lent is supposed to be a time when we remember our humanity and our mortality. We will all shake with grief sometime. Lent is supposed to be a time to recall the grace of God which touches our lives – we shake with joy, the joy of new life, however brief, and love shared. What a time they have, these two, housed as they are in the same body. My body. Your body.
This poem pressed itself upon me. It persisted in my consciousness. It would not let me go until I memorized it – unintentional Lenten discipline. When these disciplines work well, they give us resources for living life more deeply in God’s grace, which has been a gift of this poem.
With Faith and With Feathers,
David
We Shake with Joy Mary Oliver, Evidence
We shake with joy, we shake with grief.
What a time they have, these two
housed as they are in the same body.
I read this poem as a part of my reflection for the funeral of a little girl named Lucy June, born December 13, 2011 and died February 28, 2012. The poem helped me frame some of what I was experiencing as I thought about this little girl whose brief life touched mine and many others. I hoped it might help others frame their experience as well. We shake with joy. We shake with grief.
Lent is supposed to be a time when we remember our humanity and our mortality. We will all shake with grief sometime. Lent is supposed to be a time to recall the grace of God which touches our lives – we shake with joy, the joy of new life, however brief, and love shared. What a time they have, these two, housed as they are in the same body. My body. Your body.
This poem pressed itself upon me. It persisted in my consciousness. It would not let me go until I memorized it – unintentional Lenten discipline. When these disciplines work well, they give us resources for living life more deeply in God’s grace, which has been a gift of this poem.
With Faith and With Feathers,
David
Monday, March 5, 2012
Alone With Poetry
The poem
is complex and the place made
in our lives
for the poem.
It is difficult
to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day
for lack
of what is found there.
William Carlos Williams, from “Asphodel, That Greeny Flower”
It is in poetry rather than the formal concepts of philosophy that the truth of existence is ultimately articulated.
Daniel Day Williams, The Spirit and Forms of Love, 292
I wonder if poetry is not a barometer for my soul. If it has been too long since I picked up a poem, the weather in my soul is usually changing for the worse. I need to encounter that complex place inside carved out by poetry, or something in me seems to die, sometimes miserably.
Lately, I have been reading the poetry of Tomas Transtromer, Swedish poet and recent winner of the Noble Prize in literature. That is a good thing for my soul.
I must be alone
ten minutes in the morning
and ten minutes in the evening.
_Without a program.
From Tomas Transtromer, “Loneliness” (tr. Robin Fulton)
By a wonderful serendipity, I also read these words from Joan Chittister in my Lenten discipline. Sinking down into the self where the Spirit resides and the waters run deep is close to impossible in a culture built on noise and talk and information and advertisements and constant movement and a revolving door schedule. Silence and space and solitude are light years away from the raging list of unending activities we carry always in our heads. (The Breath of the Soul, 33)
So I try to be alone some, without a program. Often a poem helps create that complex place of silence and space and solitude. There I encounter something of the truth of existence. There I encounter the self. There the Spirit resides and the water runs deep.
It is difficult to get the news from poems yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there.
With Faith and With Feathers,
David
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
