Warning: Translating can lead to whiplash

Radiolab recently had a number of short stories they put together in an episode they called "Translation". In it there is a short story of a telephone translator. This is someone who sits in a room and waits for the phone to ring. When it does they answer it and begin to translate for the two people on the phone. For instance, if you call to book a hotel in France but don't speak French, there are people who will translate your conversation with the hotel and they to you. I have never heard of this service, but it makes sense. 

The story goes on and you hear of a translator who sat in a room, the phone rang and on the other end you heard a woman whisper that "he is going to kill me." You should really listen to this podcast to get the sense of the intensity of this moment but it does not end with any clarity. The intense phone call just ends. 

The translator, not sure if she just translated the last words of a woman who was murdered or the victim of a cruel prank, has to hang up the phone and wait for the next call to come in to continue translating, perhaps something as mundane as booking a hotel room. 

This is very similar to what many clergy go through every Sunday. Someone will tell you about the test result they got back and how life is going to be shorter than expected and then you turn around to hear someone overjoyed that their football team won the day before. Then you turn around to hear a man lost his job and a woman lost her marriage, then a kid runs up to you and shows you his handprint turtle and a teen shares she just landed the lead in the musical. 

I am sure this emotional whiplash is not limited to the calling of the clergy, you may experience this everyday as well. You may not. I can say this is another very big reason why clergy need to be rooted in spiritual disciplines, self reflection and humility. If not, this whiplash can break your neck and spirit. 

I have written about the face of God before, so this may be redundant to you, but one of the things that makes God different from humans is God's ability to see all the joy and pain in the world and not die.

What the Dwarf teaches us about Christmas

A previous post highlighted a story told about John the Dwarf of the Christian tradition. It was about his willingness to water a dry bit of wood for three years until it bore fruit. Continuing to share some sayings of the desert from Merton's book here is another John the Dwarf story:

ONCE some of the elders came to Scete, and Abbot John the Dwarf was with them. And when they were dining, one of the priests, a very great old man, got up to give each one a little cup of water to drink, and no one would take it from him except John the Dwarf. The others were surprised, and afterwards they asked him: How is it that you, the least of all, have presumed to accept the services of this great old man? He replied: Well, when I get up to give people a drink of water, I am happy if they all take it; and for that reason on this occasion I took the drink, that he might be rewarded, and not feel sad because nobody accepted the cup from him. And at this all admired his discretion.

In this season of gift giving, we can forget that gift giving can be a form of power. In the words of Bishop Will Willimon:

"We prefer to think of ourselves as givers -- powerful, competent, self-sufficient, capable people whose goodness motivates us to employ some of our power, competence and gifts to benefit the less fortunate. Which is a direct contradiction of the biblical account of the first Christmas. There we are portrayed not as the givers we wish we were but as the receivers we are. Luke and Matthew go to great lengths to demonstrate that we -- with our power, generosity, competence and capabilities -- had little to do with God’s work in Jesus. God wanted to do something for us so strange, so utterly beyond the bounds of human imagination, so foreign to human projection, that God had to resort to angels, pregnant virgins and stars in the sky to get it done. We didn’t think of it, understand it or approve it. All we could do, at Bethlehem, was receive it."

So may we all be givers like the very great old man in the story. And may we also be like John the Dwarf who was humble enough to receive so that others can experience the joy (and power) of giving a gift. 

What year is it?

While we were driving to worship we told our son that today (November 30, 2015) was the first Sunday of Advent which means this is the first day of the new year in the Christian year. We then said, "Happy New Year!" in a way that was far too enthusiastic for a six year old boy at just after 7am. 

More puzzled than excited, he asked, "So what year is it now?" 

We tried to explain that the Church year does not have numbers like the "regular year". He was puzzled and asked, "Then how do you know how old you are?" 

"I guess you don't ever know how old you are in the Church." We replied. 

My son is like most of us in the West who view time as a line. There is a start, there is a middle and there is an end. And perhaps that is how time works in some ways. In other ways time is less like a line and more like a circle. Our sisters and brothers in the East have a better grasp on this idea than we do but the Church talks about time as both a line ("In the beginning...") AND as a circle (through the calendar).

Advent, the season we have just entered, is spoken about as the "start" of the Christian year. And to a degree this is true. But it really is the same "start" that we have had for hundreds of years. We tell the story of the birth of God in Jesus and tell stories of humility, hope, and anticipation. 

We may never really know how old we are in the church, and there is a beauty in that. We all are as innocent as children and as wise as an elder. We all have the ability to die to ourselves and be born again. So I say to you, happy new year and welcome back to where we started.