Thursday, June 12, 2014

The Tedious Holy

I am an ordained minister.  One of my favorite things to do is to take a familiar Bible story that people think they've heard a thousand times before and breathe new life into it.  I love the challenge.  I love the test of my creativity.  I love discovering new ways in which something that was "back then" and "for those people" speaks to our 21st century lives, and sharing that discovery with others.  It wakes folks up.  It moves them from "Ho hum. . ." "Boring. . ." to "Oh!  I've never heard this before. . ."  It brings this burst of energy that is pure joy.  Another one of my favorite things is when that happens to me--when someone else takes a Bible story I think I've heard before and makes it new again.  The other night, that happened to me.

The church I attend recently hired Patricia to be our associate minister.  Tuesday night, she started a Bible study.  Now, I've been to seminary.  Bible studies usually evoke a sort of "Been there.  Done that" reaction from me.  But this one was called Bad Girls of the Bible.  I had to go!  First up was Hagar, Sarah's servant girl.  Remember the story?  God has promised Abraham and Sarah that they will have tons of children--as many as there are stars in the sky, grains of sand on the beach, or whatever.  It's been a while since God made this promise, of course.  (God seems to like to keep people waiting).  Sarah's attempts to get pregnant have met with absolutely no success.  She and Abraham are about ninety something and they figure maybe God needs a little help fulfilling his promise.  So Sarah tells Abraham to "go into" Hagar, and then gets upset--really upset--when her plan actually works and Hagar gives birth to a son, whom she names Ishmael.  Sarah makes Abraham kick Hagar and Ishmael out into the wilderness where Hagar and her son almost die.  Almost, except that God shows up  in the wilderness and says, "See that over there?  It's water.  Go drink some, and give some to your son."  They drink, and they survive.

We discussed this story in detail, asking what prompted Sarah to act as she did, how we thought Hagar felt, and how we felt about God's actions in the story.  At some point Patricia  said,  "The message of this story is that sometimes just surviving is enough," and I had what Oprah would call an "ah ha" experience.

I'm a well-educated woman.  I come from an upper middle class background, and although I live in a supportive living facility where most people are on public aid, I have a roof over my head and food--most days too much food--in my stomach.  I am hardly "just surviving." And yet--I am also a person with a disability.  I spend a comparatively large portion of my day on so-called "activities of daily living"--bathing, dressing, etc.,  the basics of care and if not surviving then at least maintaining reasonably good health.  I have also often felt less than adequate as a Christian because I have not lived the life of Gandhi or Martin Luther King:  I did not change the world or the country by the time I was 25;  I have not risked my life for justice. I have spent a lot of time doing ordinary things.  When Patricia spoke, I heard God say, "That is enough.  More than enough, it is sacred.  The time you spend taking medicine, putting on your socks, and pulling up your pants is holy.  It is doing what I have called you to do."

The tedious, ordinary, basic things we do are holy.  That is the gospel.  It is very good news.  Next week, we talk about Tamar.  I can't wait!



4 comments:

  1. Wow, bad girls of the Bible, what a great idea for a Bible study! I was raised Christian, in s small denomination known to the world as Swedenborgian (based on the writings of Emmanuel Swedenborg, 1700s). When I was 12, 13, 14, I was devout and fascinated with the church and wanted to become a minister. My pastor said girls couldn't be ministers, and it was a huge blow. I remained devout until the age of 25 when after some tough life experiences I read the books of Thomas Paine ridiculing Christianity and decided that God had betrayed me (oddly, though, since I came thru some life-threatening experiences alive!) and spent the next 20 years as an atheist. Then during a woman's retreat in 1996, after a powerful emotional experience called a rebirthing, I heard a voice say, Tu non sai sola, which is Italian for You are not alone (I was learning Italian at the time). It scared me and I tried not to think about it for a year, and then the voice came back in a dark hour saying I was loved, and I used Shadow Work to ask to reconnect with spirituality, and was on my way to a spirituality that now does a lot to sustain me. Sorry to get wordy here, but I wanted to preface any comments I make on faith or the Bible with a little background. Today I'm a pagan, meaning I believe God is in everything, the earth and sun and moon are sacred, and each of us is sacred and every moment is sacred because it's a moment on a path toward connecting with God. So I really resonated with what you said about the tedious tasks that are sacred. (And for anyone who's been misinformed, pagans don't do weird stuff at midnight or hurt babies,)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hmm. . .I'm debating whether I want to respond to your comment or create another blog post related to it. I suppose for now I'll say that much of the reason I became ordained is because I know Christianity has been misused and there is much in the Bible that's difficult to deal with, and that I am blessed and have been blessed for much of my journey to be part of Christian communities that are and were thoughtful, intelligent, and very caring. (How's that for a run-on sentence?) I work to help people have a good experience of Christianity and the Church. I also love learning from other religions. I find truths and images in them that I don't necessarily see in Christianity or that are harder to see in the Judeo-Christian tradition. My hope is that people belong to a spiritual community which is healthy, and which helps them connect with what is whole, compassionate, and loving within and around them. To live and act from that place is to be faithful.

      Delete
  2. How freeing it would be if each one of us could accept that what we are and what we do is enough. Such freedom would not lead to complacency but to more enthusiasm for the everyday and more courage for the days that require something more than everyday.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes! We wouldn't waste our energy trying desperately to do huge things or be someone we're not. We'd have a whole lot more energy for giving our true gifts, and doing what we are really called to do.

    ReplyDelete