Some years ago I was at a small country church, right about this time of the year in fact. There had been a choir made up of people who called the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago, their home. They had traveled from Chicago to worship with us that morning and to sing a presentation later that afternoon following a church wide (and anyone else who cared to attend) luncheon meal.
There was some time between the meal and when the group was to perform and as I was walking to put something in my car, I spied one of the choir members staring off into the distance across a freshly harvested field. I took a moment to watch this person before I moved closer and asked what they were looking at. The answer that came back was that this person wasn’t looking at any one thing – (in their words … ) “I have never seen this far.”
That one comment took me back to even before I met Jodi. Even as we began to date, me from Chicago and her from Hebron, Indiana, I had settled into the rhythm of rural life. Winter was for planning and getting everything ready for spring; Spring was planting time; Summer meant tending the crops and getting ready for harvest; Fall was when the harvest happened and the ground being laid to rest to do it all over again with a long winter’s nap. It was a ritual that, even though I wasn’t a farmer, set the tone and pace of the place I lived. It was familiar and everyone from the farmers to the grocery store clerks knew it and fell into the very same rhythm. We took it for granted that spring follows the winter; Fall and the harvest follow the summer. It has been this way forever and it will continue that way in the future as well.
The very same holds true for our faith. We have been in a long period of Ordinal Time in the church year. There will be a little flurry of excitement with All Saints Day and Christ the King Sunday in November. And then the church year starts all over again with Advent, Christmas and so on. It has always been this way and it always will be. The problem with that is we take it for granted when we fall into that pattern. So too, we take for granted our salvation and the mandate Jesus gave us to go and make disciples, to serve the needy, to clothe the naked and to feed the hungry all around us.
The letter to the Hebrews (attributed to Paul or someone close to him) says:
- “Therefore we must pay the closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it (Hebrews 2:1 – RSV).”
Now, I know that this letter was actually written to prevent Jewish Christians, who were facing persecution, from abandoning their faith in Jesus by demonstrating that Jesus is superior to the Old Testament figures and institutions they revered. I am not going to argue that. But there IS a measure of truth we all need to hear in just that one sentence. We can even go back to the Old Testament with:
- “A man who wanders from the way of understanding will rest in the assembly of the dead (Proverbs 21:16 – RSV).”
We all need to pay attention to what is around us each and every day, including our faith. Am I telling you that you had better get yourself into a 34 week Disciple Bible Study? NO! What I am saying is that we need to keep our eyes open to the leading of the Holy Spirit AND to be willing to talk about it AND do something about it as well.
Jodi and I spent a week in Nashville, Indiana and I always keep my eyes and ears open to what is happening around me. We walked into a gallery I like going into when we are there and I looked around. This week we spent there was to be a chance to get away from being a pastor and I truly believe that God knew I needed to have someone other than Jodi or an awesome SPRC person like Mary Perren look after me. And God used that gallery to speak to me. Have you ever looked at something and later dreamed about it with the feeling you needed to go back and act on it? I did. Now as a pastor, my funds are limited but I did have enough to purchase a print from an artist there in Nashville. And when I went back to get it, I found out that she not only lived right around the corner from the gallery, but that she was the person tending the gallery (it is run by multiple artists in Nashville) the day I first looked at the print. So I went to her home as soon as I left the store. I had a conversation with this woman that went straight to my soul and I found myself asking if I could share her picture in this article. I also asked her if she would be so kind as to sign the print and she did with a lovely pencil signature on the front. But it was the message on the back that completed my walk with God this last week.
Friends, don’t take anything for granted. God can use even the most mundane for something wonderful. Just like it says in Hebrews, “[pay] closer attention … lest we drift away.” Because of that one interaction with a homeless person visiting from Chicago who had never seen that far, I look at an empty field stretching into the distance in a new and exciting way. My prayer is that you can see the distance too.
Pastors Note: Take a moment to go over to the artists website (lorywinfordfineart.com). She is amazing and can ship to you. Thank you Lory for allowing me to use your picture here. + Chris
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