Mount Sequoyah was great. Really...no, really...wipe that smirk off your face RIGHT now. It was. Good things happened. First of all I realized there are FIVE WOMEN ON THE CABINET!!! WOWWWWOOOOOWWW! Jesus must be coming soon!!! What FUN!!!! (note the picture...I am pretending we are the angels coming to tell the good news that Jesus has come.. take that interpretation for what it is worth!) And not only that, but every darn one of us is different and every darn one of us is pretty darn good. Wow.
The workshops went... okay. I didn't think the first one was good as the second. I tried to do too much. Second time, it was a smaller group and I was less formal. I told the bishop that I didn't think I did very well the first time, and he said, "that's what you always say." I loved being the oldie on a panel on of the workshop leaders on Wed. night. There I think I was able to just let it be and be relaxed.
Will Willimon .... I am just glad I am alive at the same time that he is bishop...I have heard him speak probably 10 times over the last 25 years and was delighted I heard him this week. I first came to know of him in the early eighties as he wrote some on children and worship which I was so interested in. His commentary in the Interpretation series on Acts is wonderful. But, when I was at Jurisdictional conference in 2004 and on the screen in the auditorium in Corpus Christi, the names of bishops who were being elected from other jurisdictions came up, and William Willimon came up, I just was astounded. Bishop William Willimon feels like an oxymoron to me. He can be scathing, prophetic, a curmudgeon and he can call people to holiness while being funnier than any stand up comedian. He spoke three times and was SO good. I will have one of his presentations on CD if anyone wants to borrow it.
And home again, home again. The kids arrived about two hours after I did. I was SO glad to see them, and seemed none the worse for the wear of being near relatives for the past 10 days for Cana and five days for Caleb.
And, then, last night, sitting at the table, talking and laughing with Ann Rathert and Yolanda Villa (our two new women dss in Missouri), for some reason, they raised their voices and became very very direct with me, and pointed their fingers at me, and said, probably 15 times in the course of 8 minutes, "you HAVE to write this book!" and "Girl, WHAT is WRONG with you?" "you HAVE to write this book!" and then today, as I closed my eyes as I always do when rs is presiding at the communion table, and listened to that voice that I have heard around the cabinet table, on the phone, in important meetings, giving advice, announcing elections of General Conference delegates, and in many other occasions over the last two years, I realize that even though all of those times I have heard his voice, he has had something good and profound to say, it was today again, llistening to that voice leading people in the Great Thanksgiving in that room at Mount Sequoyah, speaking the ancient words of faith, when that resonate, youngish, baritone, Texas-tinged voice spoke most profoundly...."The Body of Christ, broken for You" and when he said, "we offer ourselves as a living sacrifice" I was overwhelmed at the call on my life. When we sang, "Let us Break Bread Together...(which I always cringe at singing when we receive the elements standing....we are NOT on our knees folks...but, I guess, metaphorically, if we are in the right spirit we are in our hearts) ANYWAY, as we were singing this song which I may have sung 1000 times in my life, for the very first time I really HEARD, "when I fall all my knees with my face to the rising sun" ---not my face to the SETTING sun, church, but the RISING sun...I felt a sense of peace, and a sense of hope for our church, our cabinet, and for myself, and realized that once again, God is inviting me to a disciplined life where I can be free to do what I have been called to do...take care of my body so that I can live a longer, healthier life for myself and my children and my church; take care of my money so that I can help the world more; and take care of my time, gosh darn it, so that I can write that book...whatever I might hear from Abingdon.
3 comments:
This is indeed good news.
It is so good, no great, to hear optimism in the Unioted Methodist church. It gets so tiring to hear of declining membership and stagnant giving. Instead, today reading your message it was imply a trumpet dound that it is okay. Not because we are so special, but instead because we have Jesus.
We will be okay and the church will go on and we will in fact move onwards towrds perfection.
Thanks!
TY Susan, wow so many women, I think that is good. I too agree that the church around the world and the UMC are full of Hope. Some choose to see the glass empting, but I see the glass being filled by Christ. Fact is: we have to empty ourselves and the church once in a while to be filled up with the good stuff from God. Keep up the God work.
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