Reckless in Slo-Mo: Small, Daily and Unglamorous

Reckless

If you debate for a second when God has spoken, it is all up. Never begin to say—‘Well, I wonder if He did speak?’ Be reckless immediately, fling it all out on Him. You do not know when His voice will come, but whenever the realization of God comes in the faintest way imaginable, recklessly abandon. It is only by abandon that you recognize Him. You will only realize His voice more clearly by recklessness. (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest, June 8th)

I can't say I heard God speak giving me a retirement date. For me it always seems to come to the point of saying to God, "I haven't heard from you and I really want to do Your will and please you. This is what I'm hoping/planning to do. If it's not what you want, please let me know."

For me it was more a matter of three things:

• age; in the middle of the range at 67
• dates; after Easter with the summer then available for posting, interviewing and a move for a new priest 
• circumstances; my mother, who lived with my sister for fifteen years, always said she'd move into a senior's home before she needed extra care. Advancing years and a couple of strokes took her ability to choose that away so when the move had to happen it was very difficult for her and my sister. There's a lesson in that, I thought; you've got to move before you think you have to because too-late sneaks up on you. 

How reckless is retirement? I suppose one could argue that it's reckless to retire before one has to. It's reckless to abandon a well paid job and to join the ranks of the fixed income pensioners when one doesn't have to, especially when the Canadian Anglican pension fund has had some solvency issues. But it doesn't feel reckless. It's too comfortable for reckless. If it is reckless, it's reckless in slo-mo.

Which brings me to…

Small, Daily and Unglamorous

On their Facebook page Slow Church posted:

Slow Church hopes to affirm the small, the daily, and the unglamorous. It all matters.

Reckless retirement in slo-mo is about small, daily and unglamorous, too. I like it. Especially in the light of some things I've been reading in my daily offices lately.

Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass. Joshua 21.45

Not one word. And,

So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. Luke 12.21

Retirement, I find, has not a whole lot of opportunity for laying up any treasure for myself so far. I'm hoping small, daily and unglamorous in slo-mo will be rich toward God.

Slow Church

It could be just because I'm 63, but I'm thinking slow these days. Partly, it comes from listening to the CBC a while ago and hearing someone talking about the slow food movement which, I understand, all started out of a protest about a McDonald's restaurant opening somewhere in Rome.

What has remained with me is something whoever it was on the CBC said. Don't eat anything that:

• has ingredients you can't pronounce
• you can't cook in your own kitchen
• won't rot
• people weren't eating it in 1900.

Why not a slow church movement, I thought?

Simple Ingredients

We won't use ingredients that we can't pronounce, either. If what we're cooking can't be expressed as straight talk in plain language, then we won't cook it. I did a television program on Emily Carr, the painter and writer, once. Something she wrote has stuck in my mind ever since: "Never use a big word when a little one will do." Amen.

Our Own Kitchen

If God wants us to cook something, it'll be in our own "kitchen" using the ingredients he has already brought together here. There is no point and trying to imitate what people are doing in other kitchens (like Willow Creek or Saddleback, for example). God has something unique with a particular flavour which can only be cooked at StB. We just have to get the recipe from him.

Rot

Our ingredients are not supposed to last forever. They have a shelf life. When they start to lose their effectiveness (rot, in other words, like choir pews, perhaps?) then they must be discarded and we must get fresh ingredients.

The Same

Jesus and his message, however, does not change. The dish we prepare is the same as was being prepared and enjoyed in 1900 and before. Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, Saviour of the world. Way, truth and life. Bread and wine. Word and sacrament. Church.

There are some folk on to the idea already. For example:

So we are a slow church. It is our nature. Many of us are tired of churches that have freshly printed agendas at every meeting and high energy, executive types barking orders and getting things done. We tend to attract wounded, introverted sorts who need to sit in the woods for a while. Maybe for 2 or 3 years. The average time it takes to get a project completed at Covenant Baptist Church is three years. Someone brings up an idea. It gets talked about for a few months, maybe put on the elders’ agenda. If it is still being talked about a year later, we might talk seriously about it. (The rest here)

Slow Going

I think we're doing slow church at StB. I've been trying to do fast church, but it hasn't worked. We're slow. It's taken us a long time to get where we are—all the way from mid 16th century Church of England via 1884 in Medicine Hat. I'm only the fourth priest at StB since 1949. Slow going. It will take us a long time to get where the LORD has us going. We're in it for the long haul.

Slow is not for everybody. Especially in this high speed age. StB is slow and our worship is not particularly convenient. We're not like the new "seeker friendly" churches with bands and lights and pastors in shirt-tails (mind you, the hem of my alb hangs even lower; all the way down to my ankles).  I'm not knocking them, by the way. They are doing what God is calling them to do in their particular "kitchens." At StB you don't get to sit and be entertained. You have to participate. You have things to say and do in the worship. You have to use a book and sip real wine from a common cup. I'll nag you to bring your own Bible (BYOB).

Slow and steady…