The Church as Lapidary

I was listening, online, to the presentation of Gradye Parsons, our General Assembly Stated Clerk, addressing the Eastern Regional Benefits Conference of the Board of Pensions. Gradye was talking about the state of the church and challenging his listeners using the Apostles’ Creed as his framework. He said, And this whole forgiveness of sins, this whole relationship thing that’s in the Church where, you know, you bump against me and I bump against you and we have to get sore about it and bruised and all this stuff and work through all of those things. This reality of forgiveness and living into forgiveness. It’s hard work. It’s hard work to be in relationships. And that’s what the Church is about. Is being in relationships with each other. To care for each other. To accept each other for the broken people that we are and realize that we are accepting each other because God is accepting us for the broken people that we are.

That statement caused my mind to jump to a sermon illustration I had used a few time. The object for that illustration was a lapidary. One of those stone tumblers which polishes the stones. Even old river rock can become smooth and beautiful after enough time in the lapidary.

In the lapidary, along with a few stones, are grist and water. Over time, as the lapidary turns, the stones bump against each other. The rough edges are chipped off and the grit polishes the stones.

Have you ever thought about the Church as a lapidary where, as Gradye said, …you bump against me and I bump against you and we have to get sore about it and bruised and all this stuff and work through all of those things. In the everyday life of the church we are constantly bumping into each other. In a healthy way, we are knocking the rough edges off each other. When we engage in sharing different perspectives on Scripture, various issues and projects with the grit of Holy Spirit we are being polished into being more faithful disciples.

If it were not for the lapidary of the church we would forever be just plain old river rocks. The small and large conflicts we encounter, if we are open to it, is all part of our development and growth. Where are you bumping up against another and finding small chips of your rough edges being smoothed off. As Teaching Elders and Commissioned Ruling Elders, what are your rough edges, and are you willing to stay in the lapidary long enough to become more smoothed and polished? Or, as soon as the tumbling begins, do you start to look for another place where there is not so much bumping against others? Do you embrace the diversity of thought and action, or do you only want to be with like-minded folks?

The Great Secret

In every congregation there is a great secret. Some are in on the secret. Most do not know the secret, especially the minister. If the minister is bold enough to ask about the secret, or to stealthily go looking for the secret information, they might find the drawer slammed shut on their fingers by the guardians of the great secret. Even if the congregation uses a data program like Servant Keeper, Church Windows, the minister usually does not have access to some of the data so the great secret can be maintained. Keeping the great secret away from the minister implies a distrust of the minister and casts doubts upon the pastoral integrity of the minister.

Ministers new in their service usually want a clear empirical answer to the great secret. Ministers with some tenure in service are usually about to intuit the answer to the great secret. The great secret is not about sex, politics or theology. The great secret is about………money. In most situations it is a strongly held belief and practice that the minister should not know how much any individual or family gives to the church. Some ministers declare, “I don’t want to know.” My question is, “Why not?”

After some years serving a congregation a minister will know some of the most intimate and embarrassing details of the lives of members of the congregation. Marital problems, problems with children, addictions, failures in business, faith crises, foreclosures, sexual dysfunctions are all things a minister eventually comes to know. Yet, the one big secret of who gives how much is stringently guard, lest “the preacher should know.”

As a pastor, we are to help people grow in faith and to live more faithfully. There is no part of our being and doing which is separated from our faith. It is said when Constantine had his soldiers baptized they were to hold their right arm and their sword up out of the water so they would be free to kill in battle. It seems today that we hold our wallet out of the water so we are free from applying our faith to it. If helping people grow in faith and to live more faithfully is our task doesn’t that include their giving?

Which of us would go to the doctor for our annual physical and tell the doctor, “You can prod and probe even the most intimate parts of my body, but you can’t know my blood pressure?” For a physician, knowing a patient’s blood pressure is not the only data they need, but it is critical data in determining our physical health. Knowing a congregants level of financial support of the church is not the only data a pastor needs, but it is critical data in assessing spiritual health.

What was it Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also?” (Mt 6.21 NRSV) Ministers, will not break the seal of the great secret, but why is it so important to keep the secret?

Rest IS a Weapon

How many hours a week should a pastor work? Every minister and every congregation will, at one point or another, ask this question. Ministers are weary of hearing the joking jab, “You only work one hour a week.” Yes, it is said jokingly, but behind the joke is a serious question/ concern about just what is it pastors do and how long does it take to do it. Just how long does it take to write a sermon and the accompanying liturgy? “Don’t you just get that stuff out of a book or off the internet?” For the diligent pastor that last one really hurts.

In my observation, the issue is not that the pastor works too few hours. The issue is working too many hours. Unless a minister leaves town and leaves their cell phone at home, a minister is never off the clock. Even when on a date with one’s spouse, if the cell phone rings the pastor is expected to answer the call. If the call involves a personal crisis for the person on the other end of the call the pastor is expected to respond appropriately. Responding may mean having to leave your date to find a quiet and less public place to hear the person out and to give the necessary reassurances. Responding may mean having to end the date and make a trip to the hospital to be with the family of a person facing emergency surgery or end of life issues.

That sermon for the next Sunday is always on the pastor’s mind, even when not frontally active. When enjoying an evening home watching the TV or reading a book the sermon is simmering on the back burner. A word, a scene, a paragraph can suddenly bring the sermon off the back burner to the front burner and to a galloping boil.

Much of a pastor’s work is hidden except from those to whom the pastor is ministering. The pastor cannot go about telling others the story of having sat for hours with the distraught parents of a teenager who was arrested for drug possession. The pastor cannot begin to describe the personal emotional and spiritual toll in preparing for the funeral of very close member of the congregation. For pastors, in more rural areas, it may take two, three, or more hours driving each way to visit a member in an acute care hospital in “the city.”

In the Robert Ludlum novels featuring Jason Bourne a frequent refrain of Bourne is “Rest is a weapon.” It is Bourne’s contention, in any struggle or conflict, the person who is the most rested has the advantage. In the Gospels, Jesus and the disciples periodically pulling away from the fray for rest and prayer. If we look to the account of the Fall, arduous work is one of the consequences associated with being expelled from the garden. If we look at Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus invites those who labor and are overburdened to find rest in Him. Jesus redeems the negative consequence of arduous labor inviting us to rest.

Pastors and congregation members, rest is not optional for the pastor. Rest is essential. The pattern is set for us in the creation account where God rested. Every day, pastors are in contention with powers and principalities of this world as they seek to minister to those they have been called to serve. Taking at least one day a week for rest and re-creation is essential. Taking an extended vacation each year is essential.

Those who continually work 10-12 hours a day, seven days a week and fifty-two weeks a year are not doing themselves nor the congregation they serve any favors. Such a pattern is a failure in the stewardship of self. Such a pattern rejects the gift of Sabbath. Such a pattern is to ignore Jesus’ invitation to rest.

Jason Bourne had it right. Rest is a weapon. In any struggle or conflict the one most rested has the advantage.