I WONDER AS I WANDER. . . From the Road to Bethlehem to the Road to Jerusalem

       Christians are not a settled people. Rather, our faith story is one of a community on a pilgrimage. Our seasons of the Christian year remind us of varying stages of that journey.

        In Epiphany, we began with the road to Bethlehem, the road traveled by Wise Ones who followed a star on a route they did not have fully laid out for them. That star led them to find a newborn, to whom they gave lavish and unusual gifts. They sensed in this helpless child one who brought the very life of God into human existence, one who would change the direction of their journey. In fact, they went home another way, Matthew’s gospel tells us. In this very beginning of the pilgrimage, we discover that this child Jesus, God’s Word to us and with us, is meant to be a “light to the nations,” not just for the chosen few.          Part way through Epiphany, we encounter the adult Jesus, newly baptized by John and proclaimed through the Holy Spirit as “the beloved child” of God, inviting persons to join him on the journey to which God has invited him. “Come with me!” Jesus said. In John’s Gospel the first ones to hear the invitation are Andrew and Simon Peter his brother, Philip and Nathanael, who at first did not believe that “anything good could come from Nazareth!”           Those first disciples then began a 3-year long journey, which we focus on in Lent, the journey of discipleship, which led them towards Jerusalem. During that journey, those disciples learned that they would go to places they had not expected, including Samaria, a place they previously had been taught to avoid because of racial and religious differences. They discovered that they were asked to meet with and deal with unsavory people, whom formerly they would have kept at arms’ length: the women who journeyed with them, the tax collectors who represented the oppressive government, the lepers and the poor, the hungry who needed food for the body as well as nurture for their spirits. They recognized that they were asked to take risks outside their comfort zone for the sake of bringing God’s wholeness to broken people and challenging the systems which kept people from being whole.          Life was never the same for those who took that journey with Jesus towards Jerusalem. At times that journey was exciting and energizing. At other times it was scary and the future seemed uncertain. What kept them on the journey was the vision which Jesus kept before them, of God’s longing for reconciliation with and relationship with all people, no matter what their racial or ethnic background, no matter what their economic reality, no matter what their profession or means of earning a living, no matter what their religious “party.”           As I’ve pondered the journeys to which God has invited us as people of faith in the Albany Episcopal Area, I believe that Jesus has invited us on a journey of faithful following that will lead us to places we had never anticipated. We have been given an unprecedented opportunity to follow Jesus’ way in ways that connect with the 21st century. This journey is not about conference mergers, or downsizing the number of bishops. If that is our focus, we will be going nowhere fast. Rather this journey is about:   ·         Recognizing that the church of this century needs to focus on “being” faithful to that mission of Jesus in ways that reach out to the whole world, beyond the walls and structures of our buildings and our current structures and organizations, and beyond our current comfort zones.   ·         Working with those both within the Christian community and at times to partner with our neighbors who are “un-churched” or “de-churched”, in order to bring the wholeness which God offers to us and to the whole world, to bring healing to the broken and broken-hearted, and to seek freedom for those who are captive to whatever binds them, to bring food for the spirit to those who are “poor in spirit,” and food for the body to those who are hungry.   ·         Finding the resources – and believing that God will provide the resources we need as we go along – that will help us to be faithful and engage in the mission.          Just as the Wise Ones had to go home by another way, transformed by the encounter with God’s presence in the baby in the manger, just as the disciples had to discover that their presuppositions about what worked needed to give way to new ways of being, thinking, and behaving, so I believe that we are called to this journey for this time.         This is the work that is at the core of what your conference leadership has been engaged in over these last several months. The extended cabinets of both Troy and Wyoming Conferences have been considering prayerfully what it means for all of us to be on this journey at this time. We know that we need to become clearer about God’s mission and vision for us, and to covenant to new ways of being before we identify the structures and procedures by which we will carry out that mission and vision. And we believe that any structural work needs to be consistent with the mission and vision.         This work is not just about the appointment cabinet working on appointments together, though we are. That helps us to live our way into “being” part of a larger cabinet. This work is not just about the extended cabinet supporting each other through this transition process, though we are. We are spending considerable amount of “balcony time” to get a view of “the big picture,” and to prepare ourselves for leading in this post-Christendom time, when “being church” looks and is different from what worked in the mid-20th century. This work is not just about the Boards of Ordained Ministry thoughtfully and prayerfully examining what changes are required as they seek to credential ordained leadership for a different context.          Similar work is going on in the New ACT group, in the Upper New York Area, and the input from those who were part of a mid-November gathering of leaders from various groups will be shared more widely in the near future for your response and feedback. Similar work is also happening as the Central Pennsylvania and Wyoming conferences team, as leaders will be gathering in late February.   A conversation between persons from Vermont and New England in early January also held before us the question of our common vision and witness.         Not only are these conversations appropriate in these larger venues. Every local church needs to be engaged in examining “How is God calling us to faithful journeying in our communities now?  Where is God leading us to share the good news about the transformation that comes to lives and faith communities through God’s presence with us?”          As your church moves from Epiphany into the season of Lent, I invite you to engage in prayerful conversations – in small groups, in the Church Council, in other settings. Hear Jesus’ invitation, “Come with me!” And be open to that journey taking you to unexpected places, to engage in dialogue with unusual people, to face opportunities and take risks.         At the same time that these efforts at clarifying vision and mission are happening, there are also dialogues among the six conferences about how to deal with pensions and health benefits, with financial and property assets and administrative matters, and with short- and long-range communication and information technology strategies. In all of these matters, groups are drawn from leadership of the 6 conferences and are resourced by staff persons from general church agencies. In all of these areas, it is expected that the specific details will be dealt with in light of our overarching vision and mission, and not out of expediency or simply adopting the model of a particular annual conference.          We are the people whom God is choosing at this time and in this region to follow boldly into a different future, a future that is faithful to the hospitality and grace and compassion which Christ as offered to us.          I’m reminded of a hymn written by Charles Albert Tindley, prolific hymn writer and founding pastor of the African American congregation of Tindley Temple in Philadelphia.                Beams of heaven as I go, through this wilderness below,              guide my feet in peaceful ways, turn my midnights into days.              When in the darkness I would grope, faith always sees a star of hope,              and soon from all life's grief and danger, I shall be free someday.                I do not know how long 'twill be, nor what the future holds for me,              but this I know; if Jesus leads me, I shall het home someday.  (UM Hymnal , 524)   Perhaps Tindley’s words might be our theme song as we journey towards Jerusalem.  

By: Bishop Susan Hassinger On 1/23/2009
Topics: I Wonder as I Wander...