When
I was in teacher training for early childhood oh so many years ago,
the lab school where we took our classes had a distinct disdain for
the anthropomorphism of animals. We were forbidden to read stories to
children where any animal talked. It was said to mislead them.
In
the same way, sometimes, the traditional church can be a gatekeeper
for what is sacred and meaningful and what is not.
I heard someone talking about the meaning of her coffee mug a while or so back. It made me
think again of a huge theological discovery I've made that is ancient
truth rediscovered. Other,non, marginal, dis, doubting and prior
believers are eager for us to hear what is sacred to them. They will,
if we are willing to do so, let us listen to what has had meaning for
them that is beyond the here and now. Maybe it's a place, maybe it's
a relationship, maybe it's a book, and maybe it's an afghan or a
chair or a cabin in the woods near a lake.
We
who believe have a peculiar call to share what we know here. We know
that the onus on followers of Jesus is to listen first and share second. We
know it is important to go to the other, non, marginal, dis,
doubting, and prior believers rather than making them come to us. And
if we don't suggest they come to us, it has to be in a venue familiar
to them. We worry less about wandering from the path and more about
not walking with people on their own streets. That is the new road to
Emmaus.
You
see, it is true that teaching children that animals can talk is
misleading =except for those youtube animals that can sing and dance
and of course my own dog and cats who have the ability to say 'OUT'
quite clearly. But what children learn when they are young and ducks
and trumpeter swans and pokey little puppies are losing their way is
that there is an affinity between us and animals. It's a starting
point.
When
somebody tells me how holy Kahlil Gibran's 'The Prophet' is to them,
it's an opportunity to begin a discussion of the sacred and how it
moves us past the concrete. I suppose I could go into a discussion of
Trinitarian theology and kill their joy in about a nano second but
what's the point; my correct theology or their budding one? The only
test question we have to answer on the Jesus exam is 'Yes or No?'
And getting to Jesus was already modeled for us as he put his
hands in dirt and water and people's hearts and said, '"what do
you see of eternal value and meaning here?"
Let
me put it even more simply. I have a colleague who was raised as an
atheist Jew and she asked me one time, "How do you see the
sacred in the secular?"
How
can a coffee mug lead to eternal meaning? That's the new millennium
calling for Christians in an age more people than ever are
spiritually curious even as the church is either dying or becoming an
arena spectator sport. We don't spread the Gospel as much anymore as
we translate.
Can
you speak secular? Can we say where we once were and how we're not
there anymore and how that happened even as we held our meaningful
gift mugs? Jesus would now sit at the Espresso stand instead of
the well, and say "The Holy Spirit is a little like your shot of
flavour that sweetens the deal and makes it more pleasant.” And so
we drink from a new cup, if we can bear to allow ourselves a new
chalice.
