Taking Temperatures

 When I was little and feeling sick, my mom would get out a glass rod, wash it, flick it and stick that glass in my mouth under my tongue and remind me not to bite it.  Of course I did!  Not too much mind you, but I do remember a time someone, my younger brother perhaps, bit down on the glass enough to break it!  That caused a flurry of excitement and a worry about mercury poisoning, but the child was okay.  When I was a mom, I was quite relieved to find out that there were now digital thermometers.  What a relief!  It’s actually one thing that in retrospect I am surprised we even thought was appropriate for kids.  Glass, mercury and wiggly little bodies just do not mix!  And last week I went in to get some routine lab work done and there was a thermometer that quickly took my temperature with one quick pass across the forehead.  How the world has changed since Galileo and others of his day first used water to measure temperature, and how much better an electronic measuring device is from Fahrenheit’s glass rod with mercury invention three hundred years ago.

One thing that hasn’t changed is the reason the thermometer was invented in the first place.  Measuring temperature is a useful skill to have, especially measuring children’s fevers to find out how sick they are.  Or now doing a temperature check for everyone who comes into the hospital or health unit, the doctor’s office and more as a way of containing pandemics.

But how do we measure the health of a congregation?  There are no thermometers for that.  Matthew and Moses both were concerned with the health of their faith communities.  Moses recognized that the Israelites were groaning with the oppressive conditions they were under, Matthew recognized that conflict was causing anxiety and tension in his congregation.  Both went back to their sources – Moses went back to wrestle with what kind of God was in relationship with him.  Matthew looked to ways Jesus had encouraged his disciples to work out their many conflicts.

Someone quipped that there was an alternative version of our Matthew passage that reads:

“If a member of the church sins against you, talk about them behind their back, hold a grudge against them forever, post it on social media, and make sure everyone knows what a complete jerk they are, then go talk about them again, then report them to Human Resources, and if anyone disagrees with you, they are evil”, which is the version from the Gospel of Holy Resentments, not Matthew!   It is very human and not at all biblical; while we know that the actual scripture is not a perfect recipe for conflict resolution, it was a huge step in the right direction in that day. 

Just as thermometers have evolved over the centuries to be more reliable, so too the church has evolved ways of thinking about congregational health, especially over the last few months.  Taking our temperature doesn’t just include physical, how many people come and their demographics, but now includes social, emotional, spiritual, financial and psychological health.  We have thermometers like questionnaires, focus groups, coffee time and church consultants, visioning workshops, annual reports, oversight visits, regional staff and other congregations.  We also have a wealth of knowledge and experience through our own connections – how many of us have friends who are nurses or teachers or social workers or mechanics or accountants?  We all are connected with someone who has some area of expertise that can help us.

One such person is Rev. Diane Strickland, a United Church minister from Alberta who is a Certified Compassion Fatigue Specialist and a Community and Workplace Traumatologist.  She worked with the United Churches of High River and Fort MacMurray after their disasters.  She talks about taking our personal temperatures first, checking how we are doing before we look to our community.  We all respond differently.  She recommends a thermometer called SUDS, subjective units of distress, that helps us recognize that it helps us be more aware of our stress.  Others too are feeling more stress than normal.

The good news is that as people of faith, we have many tools to calm our distress.  Our scriptures remind us of them.

Moses challenged God directly, “why have you added to the oppression of your people?”  We don’t tend to think about getting angry at God as a way of calming our distress, but if you read through the psalms, that was a part of the spiritual practices that the ancient people recorded.  When people felt oppressed, they let God know.  They said that things were unfair, that they felt overwhelmed, that they needed God’s help.  God said, “remember who I am, the God of your ancestors, the God who helped your family get through the Spanish Flu, the First World War, the Great Depression, the Second World War, the Polio epidemic and more.  I am, and I am your God, and I am here with you, ready to act.”  Wow!

Matthew reminds us of the power of community, where two or more are gathered with God front and center, we can trust that God is with us.  We gather to solve our problems and challenges, using the scriptures to test our intentions. 

Rev. Diane reminds us that we as Christians have got this!  When we gather, when we use spiritual practices, when we calm our minds remembering we are beloved of God, we will see God working in us and through us through the Spirit.  Now more than ever, we are needed.  Our provincial parks need our loving action, indigenous neighbors and people of color need our love, our teachers and health care professionals need our love, communities targeted for bullying like Edmonton’s Bible Pentecostal church because they caught Covid, our LGTBQ2S+ community, and yes even and maybe especially our police and politicians need our love.  Our loving action with God’s loving action make a real difference in this world, and we are all called to be a Moses and a Matthew, connecting with God then acting in the world.  Together we have got this! Thanks be to God!