The Boatman

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What do we mean when we talk about leadership, which is, after all, the galvanizing word for pastoral work and thought in our time?  Sometimes we seem to mean visionary, at others the giver of stemwinders, at others a politician who can read a constituency. For the New Testament the key term is “elder” conveying as it does prudence and memory, which are surely balms for our age, whether sought out or not. 

I have come to have a different root metaphor in my mind.  It is, I believe, especially pertinent in this age, in which sail into strong headwinds and quickly shifting cultural tides. Church leaders in our time are more like boatmen whose job it is to bring a younger generation across the tide as safely as they can. I am not claiming we are crossing the River Styx, though “forgetfulness” (Lethe) is a good name for those waters nonetheless. In our barque are also found the traditional scriptures and doctrines and spiritual practices. I certainly have in mind us older ordained leaders, but I would not exempt senior lay leaders. 

This image is not a pugnacious one, though it has a considerable degree of resistance in it. There is some relation to the “Benedict Option” about which I have already written, though the image of a passage has dimensions which monastic retreat does not. But both make preservation for a new generation paramount in our common life. 

Salud

 +GRS

 

 

Segundo Blog Oaxaqueño

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La complicada religiosidad de ser humano

El Martes pasado visitamos el sitio arqueológico y famoso  de Monte Alban. Es muy tranquillo y bonito con una magnifica vista de las villas de los alrededores. En el antiguo Reino Zapoteco construyeron  edificios muy buenos. Su juego, sus plantas, su diseño combina el tiempo y las Estrellas como partes de un único sistema complejo y profundo de universo y vida.

De acuerdo a los antropólogos encontramos allí todos los elementos más importantes para encontramos con la divinidad: una montana que nos acerca a los dioses, juegos, los sacerdotes, los sacrificios. La gente  buscaba entonces como ahora una puerta del cielo. Vemos así nuestra capacidad humana por transcendencia y misterio.  

Pero encontramos también una dimensión terrible. Los enemigos eran torturados y morían en sacrificio.  La acción de gracias para los dioses era !la sangre humana! Aquí vemos la doble dimensión nuestra en nuestros momentos de violencia e ira y también en nuestros deseos de conectarnos con la divinidad.

Eso lo conocemos en profundidad desde el pecado original.  Ello describe el corazón de toda la gente  con ambas partes el bien y el mal.  Nosotros escogemos el bien en nuestro Redentor y Salvador.


Saludos

+GRS

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Complete the Race (II Timothy 4:17)

At the end of our vacation we find ourselves in Chicago for its Marathon weekend (the fastest, I have read this morning, perhaps because it is cool and relatively level). Marathons offer many good things. You can see world-class athletes from places like Ethiopia and Kenya. There is a feel of fiesta with signs by family members, getups by some for-fun runners, and food for sale.

But as I looked out my hotel window at 7:30 a.m., I watched the race of competitors who have lost legs or their use. Wheeling vehicles by arm for 26 miles means serious fitness and determination.

Those competitors were to me, this morning, a symbol of the Church too. For each is wounded. The larger family cheers them on. Each by grace has risen up to run the race. Ahead is the goal, the prize, the welcome home. We find the companionship of Jesus the Lord, there, and along the route too.

Amen.

GRS