Peter Gomes: Authentic and Faithful Disciple

The Rev. Peter Gomes, the Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and the Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church at Harvard University, died this past Monday, February 28. This is a tremendous loss for the Harvard community, but I believe also for the church in the United States.

I did not know Gomes. I never met him and never heard him preach (though I wish I had). I've read one of his books and know I should read more.

There are a variety of places you can read about his life and achievements: on the Harvard Divinity School website, on Wikipedia, and in obituaries in the New York Times and the Boston Globe.

I want to share one quote I read in the paper this morning. In 1996 Gomes said this in an interview with the Boston Globe:

"[My mother] always told me that I must invent my own reality. Reality will not conform to you. You must invent your own and then conform to it. So I did. I am an authentic and an original . . . I will not allow myself to be known simply as an African American, no more than I would allow myself to be known as gay or conservative. They are all bits and pieces of a work in progress. I am a child of God."

Wouldn't it be nice if we could all live with this sort of authenticity? What might the world look like if we had enough security to live as fully and courageously as the people God created us to be? What might the world look like if we all recognize and admit that we are works in progress? What might the world look like if we could see each person we meet as a child of God instead of the through the lens of our own reality and perspective?

This, I believe, is the essence of what we are called to create as leaders of Christian communities. We need to create communities that invite people to discover who they are as children of God. And once they have discovered this (or begun to see themselves as works in progress), we need to be communities that support and equip people to live authentically and faithfully at home, at school, at work, and in their neighborhoods and communities.

Isn't this why the church exists? Isn't this why Jesus told us to go forth and make disciples?

Thank you, Peter Gomes, for living your authentic and faithful life so publicly for the rest of us. May you rest in peace.

Building Bridges Wherever Possible

On Sunday, July 4, the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church was preached a sermon in the Diocese of Brisbane, in Australia. Her sermon was based on 2 Kings 5:1-14, the story of Naaman, the Gentile, who was cured of leprosy in the River Jordan by Elisha the prophet. Her words are so relevant for the church today, that I quote her here:

Our communities are still pretty well divided up between the haves and the have nots, the white and those of darker hue, the straight and those who aren't. Yet we're all meant to cross over those boundaries that keep some enslaved to others' definitions. We are all invited to bathe in the river of freedom, to be washed clean of the shame of thinking that some are different enough to be pushed out of the community, away from the feast God has set from the beginning of creation.

That's at least partly what Jesus is telling his followers when he sends them out. . . . Go and proclaim peace. Eat with anybody who offers to share a meal, offer healing to anyone who's hurting, and tell them that God is near. And if you aren't accepted, don't fuss, just move on and try the next person. Healing and reconciling need our active labor and participation. Disciples are supposed to build bridges wherever possible.

There is at least one sort of division that your context and mine share – between the inside and the outside of the church. There are growing numbers of people who think that Christians are bigots, hypocrites, and uninterested in those who differ from them. The only real way to cross over that boundary is to leave these communities of safety and go on out there to find those who think we're unclean. We're going to have to wade into the river, even if, like the Brisbane, it does have a few bull sharks in it. There are far more dangerous creatures walking around on both banks. It's past time to go swimming.

In so many ways, we in the church have become too institutionally and internally focused. We deal with our own issues to the exclusion of what is going on in the world around us. Confused and concerned about dropping attendance and participation in our churches, we fail to engage and listen to the people who seek God but won't walk through our doors.

"Disciples are supposed to build bridges wherever possible." Amen to that!

Now, how am I going to do that?

Relections from the Center of Exeter

I'm sitting at Me and Ollie's in Exeter, NH (a very informal place to hang out with some coffee) and blogging on my iPhone. I'm old enough to be struck by the oddity and wonder of the fact that I don't have my computer but I can still do this. Of course, it's possible this won't work, so I should probably keep this short (and the fact that I'm using this tiny keyboard should limit any reflections at the moment; my thumbs can only take so much!).

I hang out at Me and Ollie's a couple of times a week. Most of the time someone drops by for a conversation. Sometimes I have about 90 minutes to myself to read, catch up on email, or get some work done. By far the best days include a conversation.

With no one dropping by today I can watch people. Most are gathers in pairs having a conversation. A few are alone, reading or working on computers. Some stand in line waiting for their order to be taken. Some sit outside, some inside. A name is called when an order is ready. As the afternoon continues the crowd thins and the music played continuously in the background can be heard.

All of this strikes me as a 21sf century experience of community. In a sense, Me and Ollie's stands in the place of the old village greens, town commons, and town squares, those places that today are public parks but were in the past places where anyone and everyone gathered. Everyone is welcomed here and everyone is invited to find a place, with others or alone, connected by wireless or in conversation with another person.

I'm not sure what any of this says about building community in the church, but I suspect we need to create some new spaces to allow community to be formed more organically and less programmatically. This isn't my idea, by the way. I read about this in an article, the title of which escapes me at the moment. I believe this is one of the challenges and opportunities facing the church in 2010. We need to create common places that invite the creation of community. And we shouldn't concede that task to a coffee shop (no matter how much I like the
coffee shop!).

My thumbs are tired. Time to stop blogging, at least for now. If you read this and you live on the Seacoast of New Hampshire, drop by Me and Ollie's on Tuesdays at 3:30 or Thursdays at 7:30. I'll be ready for a conversation.

Finding the New Commons in the Congregation

This post is adapted from a recent column I wrote for the newsletter of Christ Church in Exeter, New Hampshire.

As I write this I’m sitting in rehearsal for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. This was Christ Church's third annual Youth Theatre production. I had the privilege of being a part of the cast this year. Another adult and I have shared the parts of Jacob and Pharaoh. I can not put into words what a joy and inspiration it has been to share this experience with the youth and adults (about 170 volunteers in all) who made this production possible.

Over the past few months I have spent a great deal of time writing and talking about the church as a “new commons.” While this has been the primary focus of my doctoral thesis (which has taken so much time I've not been posting much in my blog!), it has also been a part of Christ Church's discussions about our identity and mission as a parish community. For a fuller description of the “new commons” you can see read my annual address to the parish from the annual meeting (you will find a link online at www.christchurchexeter.org).

Participating in Joseph, I have come to realize that our youth theater ministry is a perfect example of a new commons. It exhibits what I believe are the six essential characteristics of the new commons.

• Through their work together to prepare a show the cast and crew created opportunities for conversation and connection that bind them together in transformed relationships.
• These relationships deepen trust and agency – through this deepened trust they empower each other to offer their best for the good of the whole.
• While there are well-defined boundaries, the ministry is inclusive, welcoming a wide range of people to participate in virtually infinite ways.
• Diversity is a hallmark of the youth theater community. Only a little over 25% of the cast comes from Christ Church. The youth who participate represent a variety of faith communities in the Exeter area. Some of them do not participate in any faith community at all. Yet all are welcome and valued.
• For several weeks they have worked interdependently. I have listened as the director and musical director have solicited the ideas of the cast and put them into the show. I have seen crew members find solutions to challenges in the sets and costumes. This is a community in which each person’s gifts are honored, valued, and incorporated into the whole.
• Finally, they are working for a common good, a good beyond themselves. Joseph reached out into the community in ways that are impossible to measure. People have been touched and changed. The youth themselves have been transformed in ways we cannot imagine or predict, but ways that will impact the common good of our society for years to come.

This ministry is but a microcosm of Christ Church. It represents the best of who this parish is and what it can do in the world. This ministry helps us to see what congregational mission and purpose can be, the reason God has placed the church in the world. Imagine what might happen if we applied the same creativity and energy to all of our communities. Imagine what might happen if, instead of focusing on polity and property, we focused on fostering these six characteristics in the church as a whole. How might we be transformed? What a difference might we make in the name of Jesus?