[Propertalk] Fwd: [propertalk.topic] Breaking the STone

[Joe Parrish]

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-----Original Message-----
From: Frank Fisher <f.fisher.obl.osb at comcast.net>
To: midrash <midrash at joinhands.com>; PRCL-L <PRCL-L at LISTSERV.LOUISVILLE.EDU>; propertalk.topic <propertalk.topic at ecunet.org>; SBA <SBA at SBAbbey.com>
Sent: Sat, Sep 24, 2011 1:46 pm
Subject: [propertalk.topic] Breaking the STone


Here's my 3rd draft for this Sunday, the first one in a new congregation.
The texts are Exodus 17:1-7, and Psalm 78.  Comments and/or suggestions are
appreciated.

PAX,
__

Frank R. Fisher, Obl OSB
www.ffisher.net
Interim Pastor
First Presbyterian Church of Gibson City, IL
http://www.firstpresbygc.org

aka

Brother Oscar Romero
Oblate of St. Benedict's Abbey
Bartonville, IL
www.SBAbbey.com


"When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life so
that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice."-Cherokee proverb


_______________________

"How many more miles
 Moses?
Moses, 
are we there yet?
When are we gonna' 
stop for lunch Moses?
Moses,
I'm thirsty!
Why did you drag
 our children and animals
way out here 
in the dessert?
Moses,
at least the Egyptians 
gave us water to drink!
We'd have been better off 
living in slavery there
than out here 
dying of thirst!"

Those were the cries
of the people of Israel 
in the wilderness
They forgot the path
of their  journey,
turned inwardly 
and cried out
not for others 
but for themselves.
They built
 a rock around themselves.
They began preparing
 for their deaths.

Listen
to the summation
of their cries
in the 78th Psalm:
"I cry aloud to God,
aloud to God, 
that he may hear me.
In the day 
of my trouble 
I seek the Lord;
in the night 
my hand is stretched out
 without wearying;
my soul 
refuses
 to be comforted.
I think of God, 
and I moan;
I meditate,
 and my spirit faints. 
You keep my eyelids 
from closing;
I am so troubled 
that I cannot speak.
 I consider the days of old,
and remember 
the years
 of long ago.
I commune 
with my heart 
in the night;
I meditate 
and search my spirit: 
'Will the Lord spurn forever,
and never again be favorable?
Has his steadfast love 
ceased forever?
Are his promises at an end 
for all time?
Has God forgotten 
to be gracious?
Has he in anger 
shut up 
his compassion?'
And I say, 
'It is my grief
that the right hand
 of the Most High 
has changed.'"

And in response
to their cries of despair,
God broke open
the rock
they'd built
around themselves.
They received 
streams of flowing water .

In many
 of our denomination's congregations
we hear cries
similar
to those
of the people of Israel;
cries of a congregation
 in the wilderness.
They focus only
on their own troubles.
They forget we're all
called to be pilgrims
on a journey.

In forgetting they Way
Jesus called us to trod
they turn inwardly,
and try to build 
fortresses of safety
          Their first priority 
becomes taking care of themselves
and not
to tell and live
the story of Jesus.
In short
they focus 
only
on survival.

This reaction's
 understandable.
But it ignores
a very hard truth;
congregations 
whose only goal
is survival,
do not
survive.
For when a congregation
behaves like this 
it becomes 
a self fulfilling prophecy
They begin
to behave like a dying church
The people of their community
see and sense this,
and they begin to perceive
the congregation
as a dying church
When that happens
they stop
drawing others in
to walk with them 
on Christ's Way.
In short,
they become
a dying church.

But there are congregations
who rise above
this process.
They find ways
to break the rock 
surrounding them,
and let Christ's 
living water flow.

I've been here
in Gibson City
since last Monday.
And already
I've almost lost count
of the people
who have said to me,
"I hope
you can help us."

I hope
I can too.
But please remember,
no pastor
can be
your Messiah.
There is only
One
who can be that
for you.

During this interim time
I'll be
 making suggestions
of ways
you can find the path
Christ calls you
to walk.
M. Scott Peck tells a story
about what is
 perhaps
the most important
factor
that can help you
find that path.
That factor
is the way
we as Christians
treat both 
each other,
and 
those we encounter.

Once upon a time,
 there was a monastery
 that had fallen upon hard times.
Once a great order,
 as a result of waves 
 of persecution,
and the rise of secularism,
all its daughter houses were lost.
It had become  decimated
 to the point
that there were only five elders,
 all nuns and monks, 
left in the decaying hermitage.
 The abbot  and the four others
 were all over seventy in age.
Clearly 
it was a dying order.

In the deep woods
 surrounding the hermitage
 there was a little hut
 in which 
a rabbi  from a nearby town
 occasionally
came
for a retreat.
 Through their many years
 of prayer and contemplation
 the elders had become 
attuned
to what happend
in the woods around them.
They could always sense 
when the rabbi was in her hut.
 "The rabbi is in the woods,
 the rabbi is in the woods again," 
they would whisper to each other.

As he agonized 
over the imminent death
 of the order,
 it occurred to the abbot
 to visit the hut
 and ask the rabbi 
if by some possible chance
 she could offer any advice
 to save the order.

The rabbi welcomed the abbot
 at her hut.
 But
 when the abbot explained
 the purpose of his visit,
 the rabbi
 could only commiserate with him.
 "I know how it is,"
 she exclaimed.
 "The spirit 
has gone out of the people. 
It is the same in my town.
 Almost no one comes 
to the synagogue anymore."

 So the old abbot
 and the old rabbi
 wept together. 
Then they read parts of the Torah 
and quietly spoke
 of deep things. 

The time came
 when the abbot had to leave.
They embraced each other. 
"It has been a wonderful thing
to meet
after all these years," 
the abbot said, 
"but I have still failed
 in my purpose 
for coming here. 
Is there nothing 
you can tell me, 
no piece of advice 
you can give me 
to help me 
save my dying order?"

"No,
 I'm sorry,"
 the rabbi responded.
 "I have no advice to give.
 The only thing
 I can tell you
 is 
the Messiah
 is among you."

When the abbot 
returned to the hermitage 
the others gathered around him
  to  ask,
 "well,
 what did the rabbi say?"
"She couldn't help,"
 the abbot answered. 
"We just wept 
and read the Torah together.

 The only thing she did say,
 just as I was leaving,
 it was something cryptic,
 was the Messiah 
is among us. 
I don't know what she meant."

In the days
 and weeks
 and months
 that followed, 
the elders pondered this 
and wondered
 whether 
there was any 
possible significance
 to the rabbi's words.

The Messiah 
is among us. 
Could she possibly have meant 
one of us here 
at the hermitage
is the Messiah? 
If that's the case, 
who is it? 

Do you suppose 
she meant the abbot?
 Yes,
 if she meant anyone, 
she probably meant 
Father Abbot. 
He's been our leader 
for more than a generation. 

On the other hand, 
she might have meant
 Brother Thomas.
 Certainly Brother Thomas
 is holy.
 Everyone knows
Brother Thomas 
is a man of light.

 Certainly
 she couldn't have meant 
Sister Ellen! 
Sister Ellen 
gets crotchety at times. 
But come to think of it, 
even though she's a thorn 
in people's sides, 
when you look back on it, 
Sister Ellen
 is virtually
 always
 right.
 Often very right. 
Maybe the rabbi did mean
 Sister Ellen. 

But surely not Brother Phillip. 
Brother Phillip 
is so passive, 
a real nobody.
But then, 
almost mysteriously, 
he has a gift
 for somehow 
always being there
when you need him 
and saying just
the right thing. 
Maybe Brother Phillip 
is the Messiah.

Of course 
the rabbi didn't mean me. 
She couldn't possibly 
have meant me. 
I'm just an ordinary person. 
Yet supposing she did? 
Suppose 
I'm the Messiah. 

O God,
 not me.
 I couldn't be 
that much for You, 

could I?"

As they contemplated
 in this manner,
 the elders 
began to treat each other
with extraordinary respect 
on the off chance 
one among them 
might 
actually 
be the Messiah. 

And on the off, 
off
 chance
each elder 
might himself 
or herself 
be the Messiah, 
they began
 to treat themselves 
with extraordinary respect.

Because the forest 
in which it was situated 
was beautiful, 
it so happened
 people still occasionally 
came to visit the hermitage,
to picnic on its
tiny lawn, 
to wander 
along some of its paths, 
even now and then 
to go into the dilapidated chapel 
to meditate. 
As they did so, 
without even being conscious of it, 
they sensed
 this aura of extraordinary respect 
beginning
 to surround the five elders.
It radiated out from them 
and permeated 
the atmosphere of the place.
 There was something 
strangely attractive,
 even compelling,
 about it.
 Hardly knowing why, 
they began to come back 
to the hermitage 
more frequently to picnic, 
to play,
 to pray. 
They
began to bring their friends 
to show them 
this special place. 
And their friends 
brought their friends.

Then it happened.
Some of the youngest ones
who came 
to visit the hermitage 
started to talk 
more and more 
with the elders. 
After a while one asked 
if she could join them. 
Then another.
 And another. 

Within a few years
 the hermitage 
had once again 
become a thriving order.
And,
 thanks to the rabbi's gift, 
a vibrant center of light
 and spirituality
 in the realm."

I'm here
to walk with you
on your journey.
I'll work with you,
and help you
find the Way
you are to trod.
But it's up to you
as members and friends
of First Presbyterian Church
to determine 
what will come
 to people's minds
when they hear the name
of this congregation.
Will they picture a declining church?
Or will they picture a place
where living water flows;
a place
where people 
tell the story of Jesus
with their words
 and their lives?

As you consider these questions,
please remember
a thought
I ask you
to keep in mind
during my time with you
and the time
after your settled pastor
has arrived.
.
Take a moment
and look 
at the people 
around you.

Remember,
you'e looking
at the living, striving,
and transforming body
of Jesus Christ;
a body
called to treat everyone
we meet
like they're Jesus.

And also remember,
the Messiah
is among you

To God alone be glory.  
Amen.



 
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