I wanted to share two stories/metaphors/images that I find very powerful and inspirational: the story of the courage it took to cross the Red Sea and the little boy whose mother told him to follow the light.
But I perhaps should have added the three temptations Rendle sees that keep us from such quiet courage. The are real - and if we don't name them it's easy to falter. In short, these three are: (1) The Temptation to Play it Safe (Nostalgia); (2) The Temptation of Christian Empathy; and (3) The Temptation of Tiredness.
A brief word about each of these.
First, nostalgia. We've know in the mainline denominations for some time that we aren't going back to the Eisenhower administration - back to full Sunday School classes and all that the early years of the Baby Boom meant, for better or worse. But we also know we aren't even going back to 2019. There is only forward. Step into the water. Follow the light. Keep moving forward.
The third one, next. I keep hearing how tired our clergy are - and I know that's how they feel. I do get it. But the way to resist this temptation isn't about more sleep, is about renewed purpose. I got an email just yesterday from an ordained person I adore who just completed a continuing ed opportunity that has her all jazzed up. It unleashed something real. And when we are following our true purpose the work can be hard but it's also usually energizing. When we are "too tired" we miss those invitations, however.
I put that one first because since the pandemic began, not a week has gone by when I haven't heard that said to me. I felt a bit of it myself, I will admit - but fortunately a year ago I got a much-needed sabbatical and I did learn (re-learn) for myself that it wasn't more sleep I needed but perspective. I think we overcome the "temptation to tiredness" by learning to pray Neibuhr's famous prayer about the courage to change the things we can change but also acceptance of that which we cannot change; and the wisdom to know the difference.
I am a natural empath, and in my diocesan work, which includes being a pastor to clergy, I realize that the greatest of the three temptations for me personally has been the temptation to empathy. And empathy sounds so good - especially in a world where there is seemingly so little of it. It's even the kind of thing that makes people like you!
But Rendle says (and I think he's right) that "unchecked empathy favors relationship over purpose." The late Rabbi Ed Friedman addressed this in A Failure of Nerve and Rendle acknowledges his dependence upon Rabbi Friedman in his own work. I'll conclude this post with a quote from Rendle that speaks to me almost directly, as I try to find the quiet courage needed in this time and place - and to resist the temptation to overuse empathy.
Empathy unchecked, I will argue, can lead to paralysis. Unchecked empathy for the pain that is seen in strained denominational systems and communities can easily become a Christian strength practiced to the point that it becomes a missional weakness. As noted in Chapter 5, strengths overused become weaknesses. Empathy overused, while continually rewarded, will lead to weakness in mission.
We need, in this time and place, to be reminding one another that God needs for us to be the Church, to do our jobs, to be faithful witnesses to the good news made known in Jesus.
No comments:
Post a Comment