When the calendars meet

Sometimes the scriptures the liturgical calendar the Revised Common Lectionary provides have no easily noted connection with the calendar we all use in daily life.  This week seems to be a fortuitous exception.

 

This morning’s gospel selection does include that nice passage on forgiveness.  As our news media have been reporting anniversaries of Blacksburg, Waco, Oklahoma City, and Columbine this week and how survivors are coping or not coping, the importance of forgiving and letting go seems more important than ever.

 

The church I attend was observing the Second Sunday of Easter as Holy Humor Sunday instead, and while I admit there is something to learn with that approach too, I admit being disappointed although not surprised at our church’s choice.

 

But I hope that in the places of grief that pastors and teachers were able to help survivors and friends and acquaintances. 

How tolerant are we?

The various ceremonies surrounding the inauguration of President Obama featured prayers and messages from people of an amazingly broad spectrum of religious traditions – Protestant of almost all stripes (Pentecostal, Evangelical, Liberal main line), Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Hindu, Muslim, Jewish. Although there was some flak about the placement of some of these, especially Rick Warren at the inauguratal ceremony, nobody seemed to mind this reflection of American religious diversity and tolerance for others’ beliefs.

Which is one reason that I find this story interesting.

Oklahoma is a place with which I am not familiar, but one would think that people there would want the records of their legislative bodies to be correct, even if they did not all like what happened.

But I guess the matter is not clear cut, after all. According to the web site of the United Church of Christ Rev. Scott Jones, pastor of Cathedral of Hope – Oklahoma City gave an invocation for the Oklahoma House of Representatives.

After Mr. Jones gave the invocation, the House actually debated on whether to include the prayer in the journal and 20 voted against putting it in.

The pastor is gay. The congregation is primarily gay and lesbian. And the church is in the capital city of the state. Surely people knew this before inviting the man. The pastor’s denomination is upset and its leaders are screaming “bigotry.” I think I can safely assume that his congregation is less than happy.

My first thought is that there is a whole lot of unnecessary ugliness here. But after thinking more about it, I am wondering if maybe we should be glad that even though it is a shame how some reacted, that fact that the leadership appreciated religious diversity enough to invite Rev. Mr. Jones in the first place is an encouraging thing.

(In Minnesota Ojibway shamans have given invocations, even being allowed to light the otherwise taboo tobacco in the chambers in preparation. I don’t think that there are any members of the legislature who practice Ojibway religion and almost all of them are clearly anti-tobacco, but they are accepting enough to welcome the shamans.)

link to story

No Starbucks, no pastor?

Time has an article [Rural Churches Grapple with a Pastor Exodus, by-line Dan Viema; dateline Crookston MN] about the crises rural churches are facing getting and keeping pastors.

A lot of this problem comes from obvious reasons. Small congregations of non-affluent people, often people who are becoming older, have difficulty affording men or women with professional degrees who have come out of theological school with significant debt. Many of these new clergypeople have spouses whose work has helped them get through school and much of this work is of a relatively high professional level and comparable work may not be available in rural or small town areas.

I doubt that there is any simple solution. Combining parishes or sharing clergy may work sometimes. Accepting less than fully educated and credentialed ministers may work sometimes also, but both solutions bring about problems of their own.

But what I find amazing is the article tells us that for the first time a majority of seminarians do not come from rural areas. An expert from Kansas City is quoted as saying “A town without a Starbucks scares them.”

That statement scares me a bit. We have all heard probably for most of our lives about apostles, saints, missionaries, evangelists, pastors, prophets, brothers, priests, and nuns who have undergone real and extensive inconveniences [many not so minor and some fatal] to spread the Gospel and tend to the needs of the faithful.

But no Starbucks?

Please give us a break.