Good-Lifers

I am not planning for this to be a rant. After all I prefer conversations rather than adrenaline fueled firestorms (cf. April 22 post). Also I am not planning for this to be a feel good encouragement for all my nice friends everywhere – apparently that’s not my thing either! It is however a post that qualifies for the oh oh category. It’s been wanting to get written for about a week and I did not want to do it.  But it has to be done; something about personal integrity. Acts 4:20 is one Bible verse I cannot ignore, ²⁰ for we cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard.”   

It goes something like this. Of late I have encountered some good education experiences, including a new discovery and appreciation of prayer, new intercultural and neighborly learnings right here in my city of Calgary, new interfaith learnings, new ecumenical learnings, some new family learnings, and also new learnings and inspiration among fellow evangelical Christians.  For this chronic nesheah life is indeed quite fascinating even in these corona days!

My discomfort is with the “so what.” What do we do with ourselves, with our lives in between the learnings, the sidewalk conversations and the Zoom meetings. What do with heads full of ideas and new learnings after you click that “Leave Meeting” button? I begin with the first example. I just completed an online book study along with about 50 others, mostly North American Christians,  Beloved Amazonia: The Apostolic Exhortation and Other Documents from the Pan-Amazon Synod (Orbis, 2020). It documents the recent synodal consultation undertaken by the Roman Catholic Church. Pope Francis acknowledges deep environmental and sociocultural problems brought on by extractive corporate business intrusion into South American rainforests which are in fact “the lungs of the world.” Not only has this created a global climate crisis, but now poses a grave pastoral challenge for the people who live there and the Church that has been there since Europeans appeared on that continent.

We read designated chapters and then discussed in breakout rooms. Perhaps because of Corona loneliness, perhaps because of unrealistic expectations of the study leaders, these breakout rooms did not accomplish quite as much as organizers might have hoped. Why? My sense is that we spent considerable time ‘hearing one another’ (visiting😊). Even with the sheer intrigue of the very interesting topic about what is being attempted ‘down there’ our Zoom appearances with one another still carried the energy. Consequently, our final meeting #5 seemed more like a good-bye than a covenanting ceremony. Even as we understood the dire consequences if we do not make some lifestyle adjustments, my hunch is that we, along with a large portion of the Catholic church, have become inoculated by information overload, and life will continue as per habits to date. Not good news for our common habitat, namely the planet we live on.

Another example.  I am a volunteer on one of the committees in our Provincial Area Church, Missions and Service to be exact. As I have already written in a number of previous posts, world missions has a considerably different face than years ago when we heard reports and donated dollars to support missionaries in ‘foreign fields’. We now live in a repopulating world. Populations are shifting as political and economic and religious circumstances change all over the world. The great opportunity for today’s churches is to open doors for newcomers among us. The great challenge is to learn about and welcome those from other cultural backgrounds, even if fellow Christians. I find the church appetite or interest very similar to the Amazonia book study – interesting information, but we are careful to assure ourselves that our lifestyles are not too impacted by all these newcomers. And to make it a little extra confusing, while we look askance at immigrants coming at taxpayers’ expense, we 'exercise reservation' about those Indigenous who a short while ago accommodated most of us colonialists who have now settled on their land, some of it unceded to this day. I always find it interesting that at our church and conference AGMs our budgets are presented in environments of middle to upper middle-class prosperity with assumptions of par lifestyle with fellow settler communities around us, and little reflection on lifestyle adjustment even as we desire to be messengers of good news “in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”(Acts 1:8).  In a repopulating world and in wake of this pandemic might it be appropriate to consider lifestyle adjustments as part of budgeting?  It’s on my mind lots as I do the committee work these days.

Another example, similar to the above but less formalistic, perhaps just a bit more in-your-face. At a recent men’s breakfast meeting (Not Breakfast Meetings we call them, yes on Zoom) the discussions get around to many things – life giving and very invigorating actually. Usually included is at least one or two poor-me whimpers of no trips to the sun destinations winter getaways, snowbirds parked at home, etc.  My occasional sarcasm or suggestion of lifestyle adjustment is always received awkwardly –  kind of endure and change subject asap.😕 Thus far they have not yet kicked me out of the group.

Further examples could now follow, and it’s a bit like priming the pump – once you get started there are many more that come to mind. From my previous descriptions of walks and sidewalks and local incidents you may already know my wife and I and one adult daughter live in what we label as a great location in our wonderful modest home. The fascinating thing about this is that now in retirement we finally notice that fellow church members our age are all downsizing into condos that have square footage similar to or slightly larger (yes) than this bungalow we have proudly lived in, eventually paid for, hosted Christmas parties, meetings and get-togethers in, never really aware that this was a starter home - poor people’s housing! Yes, next door is a revenue property - new renters about once a year! This is what we could afford given the salary I was being paid! Now, in hindsight I also realize our kids never attended the private Christian schools many of them sent their kids to. Did we feel short-changed? No! Did our children ever feel short-changed? No! In our home this was thought of as the way we live with choices made by mom and dad. Thanks kids; much appreciated! I’m glad we did not think about these lifestyle inequities during those years. I was busy being the pastor!

Now back to the Amazonia book study.  Amid the intrigue about the Catholic Church’s attention to dire circumstances, our personal lifestyle implications were kind of slow to catch on. Compelling information does not necessarily lead to personal changes.  I submit this is a larger and a deeper work of God which even us change agents need to be aware of. In two months that group met again (didnt really need breakout rooms because many were already busy doing - maybe learning - other things! As of this time I have not sold all that I have and given to the poor (Mark 10:21), perhaps because I am slightly over-preoccupied how I will manage my small retirement portfolio (fixed income of a senior citizen). I have and I continue to speak positively about efforts made by the biggest church in the world to right some wrongs, and applaud them in their commitment to a more just and ecologically balanced life in the rainforests, but not quite ready to ‘take up their cross’. Undeniably we all are beneficiaries of the extractive multinational infused economies which have caused the problem. My hunch is that this is illustration of your average church participant. Christian faith notwithstanding, we live in a society with survival inclinations. And sometimes our bent toward survival is a front for selfishness and sin (Acts 5 Ananias and Sapphira comes to mind. They died pretending they were giving all).

Once upon a time during my years serving as a pastor in Edmonton, I regularly visited inmates at Edmonton Institution, a maximum security facility just north of the city. I always marveled at the inmates participating in the chapel program. Most of them were lifers, not so much those who were there for a year or two. The lifers seemed more peaceful, not necessarily groveling or growling about ill-fortune that got them in jail, etc. The lifers were quite open about their crimes and now living out long sentences and seemingly committed to making the best of it. Bible studies and worship life were from the vantage of ‘us’ - all of us chaplains, inmates, and volunteers - assembled by the grace of God, and why pretend anything else. Imagine my enjoyment in singing and worshiping and praying with a congregation of lifers! 

Seems to me that many of us in our communities – almost all of us – still have a hankering for the good life. Good Living is our preferred way - with some spiritual salt and pepper. So we are the good-lifers, Christian good-lifers, Muslim good-lifers, conservative or liberal good-lifers, old fashioned or new age good-lifers. Perhaps it would be okay, a healthy move even, to line up with the lifers, those inmates who have nothing to lose, not even their social status or self-images. Lifers, fully at the mercy and grace of God! We could use some of that honesty in our churches.

Once upon an even longer time ago 😅 I was a Bible School student. In one of the classes we were required to memorize - yes memorize - Bible verses.  This one passage still gives me pause and I shall never forget even as I learn many things. Thank you Mr. Zacharias. Rest in Peace.

Ephesians 2:8-10 (RSV)

⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not because of works, lest any should boast. ¹⁰ For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.