Unnecessary

Snow and ice covers the road in front of the parsonage and no one, except a few, is braving the elements today. Authorities on TV and the radio encourage everyone to stay put, “Only necessary personnel should venture out.”

Well, I guess I am not necessary. I usually think otherwise. I think and act as if the world might not go on unless I am turning it on its axis. As pastor-in-charge I am responsible for running the church, keeping the gears greased, making sure spiritual life is happening, assuring the sick and troubled that God is with them. Who will make sure the church carries on if not me?

A day or two of inclement weather is all it takes to disabuse me of my indispensability. Nobody is distressed if the church office stays closed for a couple of days. The bulletin will eventually get put together. The phone calls and correspondence that seemed so necessary can wait a little longer. Appointments can be postponed. Only necessary personnel should venture out.

The weather comes as a wake-up call to my need for Sabbath. I am as guilty as everyone else in our culture of belittling the necessity of a day of doing nothing. I rationalize, “but I have to work on Sunday.” But my Fridays, the day when I am “off,” turns out to be a day of work, too. Only instead of wearing my preacher clothes, I’m wearing clean-the-house, work-in-the-yard, go-to-the-store clothes. Obviously not Sabbath-keeping.

Sabbath is intended to remind us that we are not necessary. A weekly dose of humility. Yes, the world will go on without us. God does not NEED us to keep creation spinning. We may take a rest, and reflect. Do nothing.

I know doing nothing is a heresy in American culture. But it could be the very antidote we Christians need to believing that we are at the center of the world. One day a week in which we observe the sufficiency of God might do us wonders. No need to gather manna. There is enough in our pantry for one more day. No need to do any work. It will still be there tomorrow. Turn off the computer. Don’t answer the phone. Go outside and play and delight in the beauty of creation. If you must do something, let it be something completely unnecessary – something that won’t accomplish anything more than evoking the joy and wonder of living.

Sit and talk with your spouse, your children, your friends. Take a walk in the park, through your town. Sit, (don’t dig or pull weeds) in your garden. Smell the roses. Listen to music. Love the one you’re with. Love the life you have been given. And give thanks that you are not necessary to the machinations of the world. What a relief it is.

Only God Knows the Truth

“What is truth?” That is the question. Long after Pontius Pilate asked that question of a wandering rabbi from Nazareth, the answer still evades us. The writer of the Gospel of John tells us that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. We capitalize those words because we, Christians at least, believe that Jesus provides us with a Truth that is somehow ultimate.

But sadly, even Christians disagree on Pilate’s question, “What is truth?” How else do we explain the existence of various denominations except that we have defined our “truths” differently? The religious soil of the U.S. has proven amazingly fertile in the propagation of diverse spiritual experiences, expressions and faith communities. But proclaiming one Truth to unite us all has been incredibly difficult. The non-believing world holds Christians at a distance in part because we can’t get our “truths” together. And well did Jesus foresee this problem when he prayed for the disciples that they might be “one that the world would believe (John 17:20-23).” Until we get at the capital “T,” Truth, the world is still going to have problems with us Christians.

Not only is the definition of Truth a problem for world evangelization, but it is also a problem in human relationships. On the mega-scale, we have Glenn Beck rallying in Washington declaring a revival of the meaning of civil rights. On the same day in the same city we have the Rev. Al Sharpton defining civil rights very differently. Both men claim the name of Jesus as Savior. But who speaks the Truth?

I suspect only God knows, and I am guessing that absolute Truth may be something we will have to wait on. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13, “Now we see in a mirror dimly, then we shall see face to face. Now I understand in part, then I shall fully understand, even as I have been fully understood.” The key phrase there is, “as I have been fully understood.” God knows what’s True, even when our perception of Truth is distorted.

So, there is great comfort for me when I sing the old spiritual, “In the midst of faults and failures, stand by me . . .When I’ve done the best I can, and my friends misunderstand. Thou who knowest all about me, stand by me.” After all, there is my truth, and there is your truth, and if we disagree, what are we to do? To quote another soulful song, “There ain’t no good guy, there ain’t no bad guy. There’s only you and me and we just disagree.”

God knows our hearts. We have our own perceptions, and sometimes we are fooling nobody but ourselves. Only God knows the Big Truth of the human condition, and only God knows what is really true about us. When we are so sure we are right, that’s the first warning sign that we could stand some humility.

We can only make it in this world with a lot of empathy and forgiveness and humility as we await the day when “we shall fully understand as we have been fully understood.” Meanwhile, we can try to be a little less arrogant and a little more merciful, and that’s the Truth we can live with.