Boy
did Jesus ask hard questions! Who am
I? And he had a new answer for who Simon
was, who just two chapters ago, was caught sinking like a stone during a storm. I suspect that after that event, there may
have been some teasing by the other disciples, “Simon, oh he’s great, but
whenever he gets in a tight spot, he sinks like a stone!” Maybe Jesus decided to flip that teasing on
its head and give Simon the nickname of The Rock, the cornerstone of the new
community of love that Jesus hoped to build.
The new name stuck, and Simon made it a big part of who he was. As Christians, we too are called to define
and redefine who we are, and who Jesus is for us. We are called to continually renew and
explore our faith and our commitment to the teachings of Jesus. We are to be like the ancient Christ
followers who called themselves the People of the Way. People on a journey. People learning more and more about their
relationship with God and their relationship with their neighbor, which are to
be rooted and grounded in love.
One
of the first workshops we did as part of the FAB Collab with Fort McMurray,
Athabasca, and Barrhead was where we
explored who Jesus was for us. We looked
at a variety of artist’s images of Jesus, traditional ones, new ones,
outrageous ones and comforting ones. We
reminded ourselves and each other of what our favorite Jesus story was, that
had influenced our lives the most. Just like Jesus prodding his disciples, we
were prodded to remember and share how Jesus and his teachings had influenced
us. And we made art to connect us in
ever deepening ways to the story of Jesus.
Art about Jesus keeps us getting into ruts. Humans like ruts. We like them so much, sometimes I think we
decorate them. But when we get into ruts
of who we are, or who we think Jesus is, we can get bogged down into narrow and
inflexible ways of thinking. Our
Christianity goes from being a journey of exploration and growth to an
institution where the status quo is focusing on maintenance rather than
mission. One person described it this
way:
Institutions are driven by sustainability and
survivability- neither of which should be a major focus of the church. Churches
should not be led by institutional viability but rather inspirational
viability. Inspiration means- to be filled with the spirit, always changing,
moving, evolving and transforming. Christians are also called to be
transforming and renewing constantly discerning what is good, acceptable and
perfect.[1]
In other words, we are to keep learning and trying new ways of living
our mission to love God and love others.
Easier said than done. That’s
where Rule 6 comes in. It’s simple, straightforward,
and helps us choose intentional love in times of conflict. What is Rule 6, you might ask? Benjamin Zander, conductor of the Boston
Philharmonic Orchestra, described Rule 6 this way:
Two prime ministers are sitting in a room discussing
affairs of state. Suddenly a man bursts in, apoplectic with fury, shouting and
stamping and banging his fist on the desk. The resident prime minister
admonishes him: "Peter," he says, "kindly remember Rule Number
6," whereupon Peter is instantly restored to complete calm, apologizes,
and withdraws. The politicians return to their conversation, only to be
interrupted yet again twenty minutes later by a hysterical woman gesticulating
wildly, her hair flying. Again the intruder is greeted with the words:
"Marie, please remember Rule Number 6." Complete calm descends once
more, and she too withdraws with a bow and an apology. When the scene is
repeated for a third time, the visiting prime minister addresses his colleague:
"My dear friend, I've seen many things in my life, but never anything as
remarkable as this. Would you be willing to share with me the secret of Rule
Number 6?" "Very simple," replies the resident prime minister. "Rule
Number 6 is 'Don't take yourself so g-damn seriously." "Ah,"
says his visitor, "that is a fine rule." After a moment of pondering,
he inquires, "And what, may I ask, are the other rules?"
"There aren't any."[2]
Of course, as Christians, our first rule is to love God and love our
neighbors as ourselves. But Rule 6
reminds us of Paul’s scripture that asks us to stop measuring ourselves against
others: “not to think of yourself more highly
than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to
the measure of faith that God has assigned.” That sounds like Rule 6 in
theological language.
What happens when we do that? Great things! Naramata Centre [where
Monica was until August 1] found neighbors knocking on their doorstep at
midnight August 6. They suddenly had
evacuees, 15 of them, from just across the Okanagan Lake. The evacuees were from Peachland and
Summerland. The staff didn’t hesitate
despite knowing that they would lose all the revenue from the next two weeks,
they cancelled all the reservations and became a residence for Evacuee
families, finding food, shelter and even activities for kids. They chose Christian hospitality over budget,
no questions. Naramata Center is one of
many United Church Communities which when faced with challenges, have
remembered to put love as their main priority.
We do that here too when we provide food for the hungry and comfort for
the grieving. We do that when we open
our doors to strangers and feed the hungry.
We do that when we act courageously and renew and explore our faith. We define and redefine who we are, and who Jesus is for
us. By remembering Rule 6, and following
the teachings of Jesus and Paul, we can learn humbly to live lives of action,
faith and spirituality. And Jesus will
give us new names too, names like “Beloved, friend, and disciple. May it be so for us all.
Please check out Naramata Centre's video of their pivot to support evacuees here: (2) Facebook
