Week 2: The Sewer

That's right, week 2 of my new appointment has been somewhat centered around the sewer, and I'm not being metaphorical here.

On Friday I was excited to have most of the day to work on preparation for Sunday and laundry. At the end of my four loads of laundry, which resides in the basement of my new parsonage digs, I opened the adjoining door to put a few boxes away. (I have been keeping all of my moving boxes since I have an entire basement and nothing to put in it.) When I opened the door, there was a lake stretched out before me. Pool party in the parsonage basement!

Naturally, I thought this was the product of the intense rain that we had on Thursday night, since it hasn't rained in weeks. I waded through the water to save my big wardrobe boxes, which I actually paid money for, and then called the Trustee chair. Poor guy; he probably sees my number on his phone and wants to run way.

I will say this, the trustees of my new church are ROCKIN'! He was at my house in 20 minutes with a wet vac, which might be my new favorite appliance. He would vacuum up the water and I, water-conservation-conscience that I am, would transfer it to a bucket and haul it upstairs to dump it on the plants.

I felt great about this until another trustee showed up, and they determined that the problem was not the rain, but the sewer. Ah, the sewer had backed up.

I take great comfort in knowing that the washing machine was the reason for the backup, and in remembering how I had pondered why the water that I was carrying up the stairs looked soapy.

So today, the head trustee has been here all day as the plumber is working to replace the pipes, which is made much more complicated in that they are underneath a chunk of the concrete carport and concrete driveway. Let's just say that first there was a jackhammer, and then a bobcat to dig down the 8 feet.

I have to give a shout out to the plumber, who is the first female plumber I have ever met, and who has been slinging concrete and working the jackhammer with the best of them. Yep, women can be pastors and they can also be plumbers! When God calls, all we can say is: here I am, send me!

New Church: Week 1

I have been here at my new church appointment for exactly one week. And what a week it has been! In some ways, I feel as if I have been here forever…it has been one heck of a week. And yet when I look around my house that is still littered with boxes and random piles of stuff that I have yet to find the right place for, I realize how short a time it has been.

Salem is my new home, and it is an area that I do not know at all, which is both fun and challenging at the same time. I was invited over for lunch on Monday at the home of a church family. As the person gave me directions over the phone, they said, “Well, from 419 you take a left on…” and I had to say, “Wait, where is 419?” (419, by the way, is a pretty major thoroughfare in the Salem/Roanoke area.) I know the 1.5 mile stretch from my house to the church, I know the grocery store, the gym, and Target…beyond these, I need the GPS, which may or may not know where he is going.

One thing that I love about being new is the chance to ask church people why and how they do the things that they do. Most of us humans are creatures of habit, and we quickly tend to assume that the way we do things is the right way and the obvious way. But even a lifelong Methodist can be confused upon going to a church that is not his/her own and trying to figure out the way things are done. Imagine leading a worship service for the first time when you have never attended the church before. It’s such a fascinating feat.

For example, most churches have a usual way of collecting the tithes and offerings. In the bulletin, it usually just says something like “Celebration of Tithes and Offerings.” But here was my question as I walked through the service in the sanctuary on Saturday afternoon: Where are the offering plates??? They definitely were not on the altar or up in the front area. Don’t worry, I didn’t lose them! (Sigh of relief). It turns out that the ushers bring them up at the beginning of the “Celebration of Tithes and Offerings.”

The next question is, to pray before the offering is collected or after? My last church prayed after, the church before that prayed before. Anyone want to guess the way that this church goes??? Before AND after. I was glad to have asked this question earlier in the week to the lay leader and then have discussed it with the head usher before the service.

My point is that every church seems to think that their traditions and unwritten rules, the routine of their worship service, is completely self-explanatory and understood by all who walk in the door, and the reality is that it is NOT. I think that a new pastor helps the church to realize this, providing a speedbump so that we ask why and how we do the things that we do, especially in worship.

And now, imagine that you are not well-versed in the church. Imagine that you did not grow up going to church or that you have been away for a long time. Imagine that you can count on one hand the number of times you have been inside a church, and most of those were for a wedding or funeral. Imagine how strange it all must be, how bizarre.

It is good for us to remember this as well, and clergy are as guilty of forgetting as lay people: there will be people who walk into our churches who do not know the traditions, the unwritten rules, the seating charts, the taboos, the expectations. We HOPE that persons who have no idea what is going on will, by the grace of God and the invitation of a friend or family member, show up at the church and attempt to join the community worshipping God.

It’s a good question for each of us to examine and reflect on: do you know why you do the things you do when you go to worship at your church? Why do you do them in that certain order, or that specific way? If not, how can you find out?

Practicing hospitality

"There are families where the faith is not developed, because what is given is traditions poisoned by economic and political interests and wrapped up with things of faith. They want a religion that will merely support those interests. And when the church protests against such selfishness, sins, and abuses, then it is thought to be departing from the truth, and these Christians, with their children and all, go away and continue to live traditions that are not true Christian traditions." ~Archbishop Oscar Romero 12.31.78

"Let no family isolate itself from society as a whole because it is itself well off...It will be so easy once boys and girls are trained in the heart of each family to aspire not to have more but to be more, not to grab everything but to give abundantly to others. They must be educated for love. Loving is what the family is all about, and loving means giving oneself, surrendering oneself to the well-being of all and working for the common happiness." ~Archbishop Oscar Romero 10.7.79

I have learned much about family from my Latino brothers and sisters, as I have learned much about generosity, hospitality, and giving. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why I feel so comfortable and grounded in Latin America; I have always been so well taken care of.

This visit in El Salvador is a case in point. Another female pastor from Virginia and I stayed in the home of Maria, her daughter Brenda, and Brenda's son Diego. They have a small two-bedroom house, and we were given one of the bedrooms. We were treated like family from the moment we arrived, except that we weren't allowed to do any chores or work around the house (as is usually expected of family!) We ate delicious food, watched tv with the family in the evenings, and played with Diego. The day that I asked where I could buy some cough drops, Brenda went out and bought some within the hour (after she had been at work all day, an hour-long bus ride away).

I know that hospitality to strangers was of utmost importance in the culture of the Bible. This is why Abraham and Sarah fall all over themselves to provide for the three strangers who are passing through their camp in Genesis 18. This culture of hospitality is alive and well in Latin America, where strangers and visitors are treated like honored guests.

I wonder if that level of hospitality is encountered here, in the United States, among the dominant culture. I often feel that strangers are seen as intruders or dangerous unknowns instead of potential bearers of God's blessing (did you ever hear the phrase about entertaining angels unaware?) We have large homes and spare bedrooms and even sometimes extra cars, and yet, are we generous and giving of our resources and our homes?

Generosity and giving are characteristics that Archbishop Romero says are learned at home, within the context of family. I know that Diego is growing up in a home where hospitality for strangers, generosity and sacrificial giving are practiced and modeled. Can we say the same? Are we giving such that it hurts, to the stranger, the visitor, the outcast? Or are we demonstrating the selfishness and obsession for accumulation that characterizes much of our society?

The Task of Preaching

"A church that doesn't provoke any crises,

a gospel that doesn't unsettle,

a word of God that doesn't get under anyone's skin,

a word of God that doesn't touch the real sin of the society in which it is being proclaimed -

what gospel is that?

Very nice, pious considerations

that don't bother anyone,

that's the way many would like preaching to be.

Those preachers who avoid every thorny matter

so as not to be harassed,

so as not to have conflicts and difficulties,

do not light up the world they live in." ~Archbishop Oscar Romero 4.16.78

"That is why we preach this way. We wish to shake our baptized people out of habits that threaten to make them practically baptized pagans, idolaters of their money and power. What sort of baptized persons are these? Those who want to hear the mark of the Spirit and the fire that Christ baptizes with must take the risk of renouncing everything and seeking only God's reign and his justice." ~Archbishop Oscar Romero 1.13.80

Immediately after I returned from El Salvador, I had my morning of interviews with the Board of Ordained Ministry. I have been in the ordination process in the United Methodist Church for nine years now, since 2001, and this was, I prayed, my final round of interviews to become an ordained United Methodist minister.

Many people thought I was crazy for going to El Salvador the week before this major event that I have been working on for almost a third of my lifetime. What if you get sick? What if you get hurt? What if something happens with the weather? Won't that make you tired? But I knew that the opposite was actually true; going to El Salvador was the best thing I could have done before being grilled on theology, leadership, and the practice of ministry.

There are many times when I feel like most of us in the dominant culture in the U.S. are living in something akin to a giant version of Disney World, a fantasy land that is not real and is in fact, far removed from the reality of the world.

Methodist pastors in El Salvador are living in the real world, a world in which persons depend on God to provide daily bread and give joyous praise when God does indeed provide. This is a world in which the gospel is GOOD NEWS because it declares that God is with us, presently, and especially with those who live daily on the edge of survival. Most of the pastors are as economically poor as their parishioners; one pastor commented to me that it must be easy to be a pastor in the U.S. because I have access to so many things, like a car for instance!

I got the phone call on Wednesday night that I have indeed been recommended for ordination at Annual Conference this year, so by the grace of God, I will be ordained on June 14, 2010. All week I have been reflecting on this. The bishop will place a stole around my neck and charge me with the task of preaching the gospel. I pray fervently that I will heed the words of Archbishop Romero to truly preach the good news of Jesus Christ that is provocative and bothersome to many, particularly to the majority of those who sit in the pews of the United Methodist Church. I pray to light up the world in which I live, knowing that many will want to put that light out, as they did to many priests in El Salvador, Archbishop Romero, and even Jesus himself. I pray to shake up the baptized pagans and proclaim God's reign and justice, both with my words and with my life.

The Monsenor

"And so the church values human beings and contends for their rights, for their freedom, for their dignity. That is an authentic church endeavor. While human rights are violated, while there are arbitrary arrests, while there are tortures, the church considers itself persecuted, it feels troubled, because the church values human beings and cannot tolerate that an image of God be trampled by persons that become brutalized by trampling on others. The church wants to make that image beautiful." --Archbishop Oscar Romero

It doesn't take long in El Salvador before someone brings up the Monsenor, and when they say this, they are referring to Archbishop Oscar Romero. Romero was a Catholic priest who became archbishop here in El Salvador and gave his life preaching and living the gospel. He was a "voice for the voiceless," for the poor and the people, the pueblo. After several years of speaking out strongly against the violence in El Salvador, at the hands of both the military and the guerillas, after his weekly radio addresses, after his refusal to support the violence and give it the blessing of the church, Monsenor Romero was shot and killed during a church service, while he was consecrating the communion elements.

As Christians, this is a powerful witness, but as pastors, it is even more striking. I will be sharing much more about this experience in the days to come...

Holy Conferencing

Monday was our first day of dialogue with the Methodist pastors of El Salvador. There are 10 Methodist Church in El Salvador, and the majority of the pastors did travel from their homes to be here with us for the time of holy conferencing. (Yes, I think that this is an example of holy conferencing, distinct from what we do an annual conference...)

We are working at the Methodist Church ¨La Providencia¨(Providence) on long tables that span the entire length of the sanctuary. In the large group, I am primarily translating from Spanish to English, and Norma is from English to Spanish. Pastor Juan, who is the president of the Methodist pastors group, gave us a presentation on the history and issues of the Methodist Church in El Salvador, which put us in context for our dialogue. It is such a young church, with such opportunity and challenges all at the same time. Four of the 10 churches are pastored by women, which is a good percentage, even though it is VERY difficult for female pastors here. They struggle in a culture where it is unacceptable from both the Catholic church and the other Evangelical churches to be a woman and a pastor at the same time.

We spent most of the afternoon talking about baptism, first in small groups and then in the large group all together. It is such an amazing opportunity to be a part of this conversation.

None of the pastors here are ordained. They are in the work of developing an ordination process that is suitable for their context, and they are very clear that this is such an important task that it must be carried out with care, great wisdom, and fervent prayer. Most of the pastors do not have formal theological training. Currently, they have a Course of Study school twice a year, and professors from Clairmont Seminary come to teach, which is both a blessing and a challenge, because their courses are not contextual, but are from the North American, U.S. context.

So, it is rather amazing to sit around and discuss things like baptism...what is baptism, why do we baptize infants, what happens in the act of baptism. Wow. I can see why John Wesley said that conferencing, gathering with other Christians like this, is a means of grace, a way in which God shows us grace. It truly is a grace filled experience to gather and share with our brothers and sisters on such a deep level.

The Methodist Family

I am here with a group of pastors, so you know that we are going to spend a lot of time in the church.

Yesterday on Sunday, we attended two worship services in San Salvador, the capital city of El Salvador. It is a two hour drive from where we are staying, plus the flat tire that we had on the way there. We went first to the Methodist Church Vida Nueva (New Life). One of the greatest things about this church was the worship team, which consisted of about 10 young people, all under the age of 17, led by the music minister, who is 30. The drum player was a 15 year old girl, the keyboard player a 15 year old girl, and they were all phenomenal. They lead the worship at this church, and there is indeed a spirit of new life in this place. After worship I spent some time with a couple of 13 year olds, who were telling me about their church, their faith, and how they love to lead worship at the church.

The second church we attended was celebrating their 11th anniversary. The Methodist Church is 16 years old in El Salvador, founded in 1994. There was also lively music and worship at this church, and I enjoyed the opportunity to sing songs of praise to God that I don´t often get to sing anymore in my US context. Again I say, there is something about Latin American that makes me feel at home, that feels right. The most profound part of this service for me, however, was the prayer of the pastor at the end of the service. He asked for everyone to put their arms around the person standing beside them, and then he prayed a powerful word about our connection, how we are blessed to gather as Methodists from the US, Colombia, and El Salvador, how we are one body, one people and we together bless the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and serve him. I felt so connected to this Methodist family from many different contexts and places but gathered to sing glory and honor to God. The pastor prayed for us, for our churches, and for the world that belongs to God and is beloved by God. It was powerful.

We were all pretty worn out by the time we got in the car at 6:30 for our two hours drive home. But as I sat in the car and we drove home in the dark, I sat with my eyes closed and enjoyed the time to pray and meditate on how good God is and how thankful I am. It was really nice to have that time of stillness, of rest, of prayer and reflection, and I wonder that I don´t spend this amount of time at home like this. But then again, who has time to spend two hours in prayer and reflection...maybe I should. Maybe we all should. Maybe we are all way to busy to enjoy God´s goodness the way that we were created to, and too busy to enjoy God the way that we were created to?