A Glimpse of the Kingdom

The academic year has ended, Commencement commenced and now I prepare for next year. I forget, sometimes, how little life on a college campus has in common with the outside world. Take yesterday, for instance. I was chatting with someone who recounted, in horror, the time that her daughter brought home a guy of another race. This person and I grew up in the same region of the country, so I knew the mindset out of which she was speaking. However, I found myself taken aback and not able to identify with her feelings of shock and disapproval. There was another instance, recently, when I was talking with someone and the subject of same-sex attraction came up. Immediately, it was obvious that we were not on the same page regarding the subject.
These instances, and others that I could cite, attest to the world in which I live and work. It is a world in which the population changes every four years and life seems always in a state of flux for that reason. I lead worship services for a congregation that is racially mixed oftentimes, and I forget that such is not the case in many places of worship in the United States today. I meet with students who are looking for advocates to help sustain their efforts to bring attention to instances of injustice in the world, and , sometimes, on campus. In such a small community as a liberal arts college, folks get to know one another well. More so than on the outside, students become protective of one another, even if they don't share one another's ideologies or political or religious beliefs. Therefore, whenever I chat with someone who does not work in such an environment, I am caught off guard sometimes by an individual's fear of someone from a middle-eastern country, or a person of another race, or of someone who is gay or someone who has differing political views.
You see, I work with young adults who often make stupid choices regarding alcohol consumption and can be promiscuous sexually, though the majority are not. But these young people are also determined to be more accepting of those with whom they differ, and who are less likely to think that race or ethnicity matter in relationships as much as folks of my generation do. I can offer new interpretations of the Gospel that would cause an uproar in the parish, but here, such ideas about Jesus' concern for all people and my enthusiasm for interfaith cooperation are met with joy and a willingness to explore new avenues of ministry. So, it occurs to me that, though life in an academic community can exhaust one in ways unimagined outside the campus perimeter, life here is shot through with idealism, energy and hope. Working with students who are so accepting of one another gives me a glimpse of the kingdom of God that not many get to see.

F.O.G. - F.O.J. John 15:9-17

When Bill Clinton was running for president, and afterward, members of his inner circle were known as F.O.B.'s, as in, Friends of Bill. Barry Chance, writing in the on-line source, Join the Feast, speaks of the people who practice the kind of love Jesus talks about in John 15 as Friends of God and Friends of Jesus. The love which John describes, agape love, is a selfless giving for others. It was the kind of love that defined Jesus. In John's gospel, those whom Jesus loves are defined as philios, the friends of Jesus who experienced that transforming love. Gandhi is said to have stated that he liked the tenets of Christianity very much. He never converted to Christianity because he said that he did not see Christians living out the love that Jesus proclaimed.
On more than one occasion, my wife has turned to me and stated that she is very glad that I chose a career in ministry in higher education as opposed to life as a parish pastor. And she knows that of which she speaks; I was a parish pastor for more than seven years. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. I experienced such transformative love and encouragement as a young divinity school graduate by the folks of my first parish. Later, I served a small parish in another state, and one of the churches on that circuit exemplified some of the most unloving behavior that either my wife or I had ever experienced. She stopped attending the women's group because most of the time was spent gossipping about women who were not in attendance. Don't get me wrong; there is nastiness everywhere, including among students on a college or university campus. However, I have seen more evidence of the transformative power of love and acceptance in the lives of the students with whom I work than I have the less attractive side of life. Young adults can have a tremendous capacity for changing their minds and opening themselves to new ideas. I see so much less of the hatred towards some segments of society when I am with them than I read about in church publications or hear at annual conference. I have met so many young adults who are F.O.G.'s and F.O.J.'s. They live out the kind of love that Jesus talks about in John's gospel, the kind of love that some folks in the church deram about but despair of seeing come to fruition. Perhaps these same young adults will lead the way towards helping the church reclaim that love that is visible, certainly in some churches and faith communitites, but nearly enough of them.

Abiding Love - John 15:1-8

When my niece was baptized, I asked a friend to sing a song entitled "Abiding Love." I have not heard that song since, and I think the reason I chose it way back then was because she sang it so beautifully, and because I had a crush on her. I was a teenager then, and the word abiding had a limited meaning, because I had not lived long enough to know what it meant for something or someone's love "to abide." Now that I have the wisdom that comes with being fifty-something, I have a better idea.
In John's gospel, Jesus speaks of abiding in us and us abiding in him. I know that I understand that passage very differently than I did when I was in college. My Christian friends and I looked at the idea of Jesus abiding in us as having an exclusive hold on that love, because so many other students were not like us. It is easy to overlook the fact that, in the same passage where Jesus speaks of abiding love, he also speaks about the need to prune the vines every now and then. I was moved by an old column written by Walter Wink, as he referred to such a pruning process in his own life. He likened it to cooking in the fires of purgatory, and then reflected on its true meaning for him: Something in me stayed with the process simply because God was in it. This, too, was a way to abide. "Abide in me and I in you," even in the purgatorial fires of individuation. Abide in me, even when it feels as if you are being consumed. Abide in me, for there are branches that, when pruned, can be used to build the inferno in which you can be cooked, and cleansed, and slowly shaped into a human being.
I like to think I have become a better human being as a result of the pruning in my own life. That pruning has come in the form of reprimands, encouragement, loss, love, rejection, wilderness wanderings, mountaintop experiences and God's gracious forbearance in waiting me out when I have felt rebellious. Abiding love - God's assurance that we will not have the last word.