Through the looking glass

As you probably know by now, I am a lover of good so-called children’s literature. In fact this column takes its name from the book of the same name that accompanies Alice in Wonderland and is a classic of very serious nonsense. There is a verse from Tweedledee (of Tweedledee and Tweedledum fame) that comes up every now and then in the continuing conversation of the world or more precisely, in our case, of the church, and even more precisely to be exact, our church.  It goes like this:

‘The time has come,’ the Walrus said,

‘To talk of many things:

Of shoes—and ships—and sealing wax—

Of cabbages—and kings—

And why the sea is boiling hot—

And whether pigs have wings.’

And so it is that we face the challenge of being the church in the world in these days. There are many things to consider, no doubt, and much has changed and is changing, yet some things, the things that matter, remain the same.  What remains the same is the God of love revealed to us in Jesus is calling us in from the world and gathering us into community (the church) in order to be sent forth enlightened and in peace to the world. What also remains the same is how we love each other and how we love the church. Make no mistake, without the love of God and the love with which we love each other and our church, we really do have nothing as St. Paul knew from the very beginning.

What has changed, and is changing, is the world and the place of the church in the world and the expectations of people about the church and the world. The challenge is to pay attention to what is happening and to understand what we are dealing with in order to do what God is calling us to do now. The challenge is discerning what matters and what needs to be done and how to do what needs to be done. We cannot just assume that business as usual will work and yet we know that the past informs the future and can never be completely lost either. As a community of the beloved we are, even now, in holy conversation about the life of our congregation and our witness to the world. We are challenged to be realistic and faithful. This will not always be easy but we are the church and we are standing on holy ground. We are not alone because the sum total of each one of us and our gifts united by the Spirit is more than we even know.

If you come into my study you may notice that I have a pig with wings hanging over my desk. It is a reminder to me that sometimes there is more to being faithful than just doing the same old thing and there is more to being faithful than I yet know or can even imagine. Because we are a people of faith what is possible is bigger than the usual expectations. And we are not stuck in ‘what is’ but are on our way to ‘what might be.’ You may recall in another part of this delightful and crazy little book that Alice declared she could not believe in impossible things and the Queen reminded her that she needed more practice. Our practice could do with some of that. Yes, the time as come again to talk of many things and not suppose that we can’t believe impossible things.

Bless your hearts, Larry