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 From the Pastor…
By Rev. Kathleen Kline Chesson
June 2010
Jesus tells us that we belong to one another. That we are responsible for one another. That we can and must love one another. That when you suffer, I can help love you back into life. And when I make a tragic mistake, you can help me to heal and change and re-create. It is easy to forget how much influence we have on one another, or how even a simple kindness can change another‘s life. We are intricately woven into one another‘s lives…for good and sometimes for bad. We follow Jesus because we want to make it good.
Last Sunday many of us remained after church for a family style luncheon, during which we were placed at random tables, asked to pick questions out of a bag and go around the table sharing our answers. Questions like:
What are your earliest memories of Church? How old were you? How would you describe GOD? How has your perception of God changed over the years? What is your favorite story about Jesus and how has that impacted your life? Where do you feel the presence of GOD in your life? Is prayer a part of your daily life? Tell us a story about your prayer life and how it affects you. What elements of your daily life interfere most with your life in our faith community here at First Christian Church? Can you identify a faith mentor in your life? How did you meet and what was the most powerful thing about that person?
I learned things I had never known about Shortie Simmons and David Findley, Marilyn Gilliland and DeDe McCoy…things which helped me to love them even more than I already do. It was fun and gloriously purposeful. The wonderful chatter of people laughing and sharing was beautiful. It made me fall in love with you all over again.
We don‘t do this enough. Sometimes we are too afraid to ask the questions that matter... to come to know the deeper places of faith and joy and pain that exist in another ~ even as we think we know them so well.
Last week I had the privilege of co-officiating the funeral service of Susanne Betts, a former member whom I had never had the honor of knowing. Phil Gilliland and I spent a few hours with the family, asking many questions and reveling in this woman who had been a part of the Christian fellowship at FCC for so many years. Phil was astounded at how little he really knew about her life, even as he felt he knew her so well. “It‘s a shame” he said “that it took her death for me to know how alive she really was.”
FCC will flourish, I know, when we stop waiting to discover what lies beneath each others‘ well honed and protected exteriors. It is both hard and easy to do. Arm yourselves with questions like those listed above and spend some time during coffee hour finding out something new about Frances or Mary Lib or Stanley.
Don‘t be afraid of your neighbors. Ask them, too. Everyone wants to know that they matter. Create a small group bible study, where sharing the life of Christ helps you to find your own. The Holy Spirit will act as your advocate, as promised. And perhaps that ache in your chest may dissipate and you will find a new friend. Or the fatigue that plagues you will transform into energy. And your light will shine. And so will FCC. We are one, after all, you and I; together we suffer; together exist, and forever will recreate each other.
Wouldn‘t it be great if this summer we could take a sabbatical from meetings and programs, and spend our time learning about each other as we deepen our relationship with God? I wonder what might happen then. We really do need each other. In the Spirit of Jesus Christ, it can be so.
Faithfully Yours,
Kathleen
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