February 2009

“Sabbatical Musings”

 

I truly miss being with my congregation, but I am also finding these days of sabbatical very fulfilling. I have chosen to spend my first month of reading to be done by the sea (the Atlantic Ocean). I have never considered myself a beach person but have found this winter experience of surf and sand exhilarating. The room where I am staying looks directly out upon the Atlantic; and each time I gaze out upon this vast body of water, I know I am seeing an absolute beauty.

 

“IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU!” These words from Rick Warren’s book The Purpose Driven Life were ones I bantered around in a comic fashion with some folk in my congregation. “What do you mean it’s not about me?!” Standing at the ocean’s edge and sensing the utter smallness of who you are against such vastness greatly helps one to see “it’s not about me.” I am doing a lot of walking both day and night with this vastness filling both eye and ear. It is exhilarating…

As exhilarating as I am finding my reading. I assigned myself many books to read during the time away; and on my first day I sat and stared at a table stacked high with said books. Most of these books require far more than a casual reading, so I looked for a book amidst the pile that would be less demanding. And so I pulled out a volume by Dr. Timothy Johnson titled Finding God In The Questions. Dr. Johnson is an ordained minister, Harvard University physician, and journalist. I could not have started with a better selection as the motivation behind this volume came from important issues for Dr. Johnson in a “sabbatical” time of his life. Those issues for him were questions – recurring questions. Questions as to what he really believed about God – about the purpose of life.

 

RECURRING QUESTIONS…. They keep coming back – questions I asked years ago in my journey of faith. And so in this sabbatical time of my life, I find myself confronted with them once again —

 

• Is the universe (the absolute beauty that the Atlantic is) an accident?
• Am I an accident?
• How did we get here? Who are we?
• Who was/is Jesus?
• What does a life look like that takes Jesus seriously?
• Why the often glaring disparity between the Jesus of the New Testament and those who say they believe in Him?

 

What do you think? Is it appropriate for me, who considers himself a follower of Christ, to continue to ask such questions? I have no doubt that some would say as much. I feel, however, (for me) that it is absolutely imperative that I return to these (and other) fundamental questions – and keep returning.

 

Yet returning with a humility borne of a sense of the incomprehensible vastness of God.

 

Questions about God – the know-ability of God – suffering – life – Do you have them? Someone has said …..

 

“Christians are not those who have all the answers, but they are the ones who are asking the right questions.”

 

SWITCHING GEARS:

 

One of the things I am enjoying greatly is worshiping with other Presbyterian congregations.

 

–         One Sunday it was “First Presbyterian” with a magnificent pipe organ that I would go to church to hear (if for no other reason). They also had a beadle and processional cross – felt at home!

 

–         Another Sunday, a Presbyterian Church that calls itself “purpose driven” – different from “First Church” but still warm, caring – again I felt at home!

 

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Ron