An honor and a privilege...

It is an honor and privilege to be a part of this small section of the United Church of Christ: the Berkshire Association is a blessing.  A broken and incomplete blessing, to be sure, for as St. Paul is clear "we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." But a real and authentic blessing nonetheless. 

Tonight our diminished but faithful small group - a "community of spiritual practice" - met for supper.  Last year we began small and over the course of the year we have lost two of our friends to resignation and death.  Tonight we wept and prayed for them both even as we get ready to bury our colleague this Sunday. As one friend said in parting, "I am so glad I came tonight because I feel better than when I arrived."

Same was true last night, too at our church and ministry meeting:  this is the administrative meeting of those who serve as "bishop by committee" for our region of Massachusetts.  In light of all the pain in so many of our churches - and the recent death of our friend - we shed some more tears.  Then we talked deeply about ways we might strengthen our connections to one another in the the sacred but too often lonely calling of pastor.  We spoke about real prayer for one another.  And accountability.  And finding ways to bring this small but deeply parochial constellation of churches closer together.  And while we haven't cracked the nut yet, we are closer to coming up with ways to help one another know we are loved and respected.

It is a privilege and honor to serve with these saints - hard and tender, frustrating and complex - but also very real and sweet.

Ministry isn't heavy lifting - there are TONS of jobs that are harder - but being the pastor is often lonely, mostly misunderstood and very humbling.  Used to be a time when clergy held a role of respect and influence in the community.  Thankfully those days are over - but now too many think of us as huckster, pedophiles or Christian jihadists.  We have been forced by circumstances to give up our allegiance to a theology of glory and exchange it for a theology of the Cross. 

Only problem is, we need to strengthen our support for one another because NOBODY can carry the Cross all by themselves (no matter what the gospel hymn might suggest!)

Buechner put it like this: “Compassion is sometimes the fatal capacity for feeling what it is like to live inside somebody else's skin. It is the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy for me until there is peace and joy finally for you too.”

Lord may that be true for us all...