November 2022 – Breaking the Chains that Bind

This weekend is a pretty special one for the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio. We will join together for our annual Diocesan Convention.
Yeah, sounds exciting, right? Kinda like watching paint dry.
But, it is important. We will set the agenda for the coming year as well as elect officers for various committees and such. It is truly like a big corporate meeting of stockholders.

This year, however, we will also be electing a new Bishop. Our current Bishop, The Right Reverend Mark Hollingsworth, Jr., is retiring in 2023. We will be choosing the person who will lead our diocese into the next chapter of our life together. And, in a way, we will also be actually choosing the direction of that next chapter. The person chosen will imprint her own life and character on who we are and where we go as a diocesan community.

Oh, did I mention that there are three candidates? And, they’re all women?

Not that it should matter, but in a highly patriarchal culture, electing women to the highest authority is both noteworthy and long overdue.

But, that’s not what I wanted to write about today. There are lots of others who are carrying that load.

This morning in prayer, I reflected on the choice we will make this Saturday. We’re fortunate in that all of the candidates are eminently qualified. So, in a way, we cannot lose. Whomever is elected will do an outstanding job as we move forward together.
We’re also fortunate that we have clear choices. We will not be simply choosing who our favorite is out of 3 clones. They each have different character, temperament, strengths, and opinions.

So, who to choose? If all three are great choices, does it really matter who gets the nod?

Yeah, I kinda think it does.
Let me explain…

Throughout my life following Jesus, I have been lead by men, (it’s always men, amirite?), who were alpha males and authoritarian control-freaks. They ran our church(es) with iron hands and would not entertain any questions to their decisions. After all, wasn’t Jesus the Lord over His disciples? Didn’t Paul and Peter and James hold the early church to strict adherence to their rule? These men made sure that their idea of what being a christian was enforced as the ‘Only Way to be a True Christian.’ Any deviation was met with swift rebuke.

However, for the last few years I’ve experienced a different sort of leadership. I’ve been blessed to work with a person who seems to trust God with much of what we do. He has been a pastor and shepherd, to be sure. But, he hasn’t told us how we sheep should chew our grass. For the first time in my life in Jesus, I think that I’m experiencing what some call Servant Leadership. While he knows clearly and accepts his position and responsibility, he also seems to understand, when the people are doing well and are happy, so is the church. And, so is his job, I’m sure.

The reason I mention this at all is because that is the choice we have this weekend. While all three candidates are good ones, only one has revealed a Servant’s heart. The other two will certainly be good. Much will get done in the diocese. Many very good things.
But, only one, I think, will bring life to the position. Life that she will share with all of us who live and work in our churches.

I, for one, know where my choice lies.

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I don’t know about you, but I’m just about done with the political world. It seems that for the last several months we’ve been barraged with ads for this candidate or that one; this party or that other one.

And, they ALL LIE!

They lie about each other’s stance on the economy, immigration, election monitoring, redistricting, blah, blah, blah.

WILL IT NEVER END!!!!

AARRGGGHHH!!!!

Whew! Ok. I’m back.

People want to be heard. Yeah, I get it. Me too.
So, they take to social media to find like-minded folks to reinforce their own ideas and opinions until they think theirs is the only opinion worth considering. We call that being in a ‘silo’ or an ‘echo chamber.’ You only really hear the sound of your own voice reverberating all around you.
This is endemic to any and all political ideals. I don’t care if you call yourself conservative or liberal; Republican or Democrat. People want to be heard. More than that, they want to feel that they are RIGHT. So, as I spend all my time in the silo of my choice, my opinion is heard and amplified by all of the voices that sound just like mine.

That’s a problem.

When we become so entrenched in our “Side” we forget that there are other “Sides” out there. We forget that ours is NOT the only voice. In fact, there are more voices in the world than we can possibly imagine. Society, and surely not politics, is a black/white; either/or proposition. Like everything in life there are myriad voices and ideas out there. We can never, ever assume our own superiority in the field of ideas.

That requires something that is hard to find. Especially, in our special brand of Western culture in the U.S.
That something is Humility.

Yep. There, I said the “H” word

Humility.

Before you all have a conniption, let me explain just a wee bit.
First, humility is not allowing anyone to walk all over you. You are not being humble when you consider yourself a worm. That’s something that might require some counselling to help out.
Neither is humility remaining silent while everyone else talks over you. No, your opinion is important and necessary in any conversations we have about our World.

Humility in this case is simply listening.
Not listening like, “Yeah, I here a noise.” But, listening with the intention to really Hear what each other has to say. Nor, is it simply listening while forming a rebuttal to whatever the other person is saying.
We all want someone to:
PLEASE HEAR ME!!!

All of us want that.

When I think about the divide that the media seems to want to describe, I think not in terms of Right/Left; Conservative/Liberal.
Hell, I don’t even know what those terms truly mean.
I think rather of Conservatives as people who don’t want to be pushed. I can visualize them as rank upon rank of people marching slowly toward some unknown, yet desired, future. They are working hard in their lives to keep things from moving too fast. Fast and Change are not good words for them. Yet, change will come. Eventually. Hopefully, on our terms.
On the other hand, I find Liberal to also be a misnomer. These are folks who are like a river flowing to that still unknown, yet desired future. They meander and rush over rapids and over falls. They pick up a lot of stuff along the way and carry it with them. They don’t always see beyond the next bend. But, ‘Hell, Yeah!’ we’re going there!

Both want to move forward.
Both want to be seen and heard.
Both want peace.

I’m writing all of this for the simple reason that for me this is therapeutic. I need to get these thoughts out of my head so my head doesn’t explode. No one wants that. It would be a hell of a mess to clean up.
Plus, I don’t think that I’m alone in these thoughts.
Feel free to comment with your own ideas.
After all, your thoughts are important for all of us.

Month: November 2022

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