This week's author is the Rev. Da Vita D. McCallister, Associate Conference Minister for Youth and Young Adult Ministries for the Connecticut Conference, UCC.
What is community but a group of people who have some claim over you, and what is a tradition but a set of stories and principles and rules handed down over hundreds or thousands of years that each new generation has to wrestle with? -- Eboo Patel
I am reading Acts of Faith by Eboo Patel, and I came upon the passage written above a few weeks ago. As I read it, I was struck by the expression "claim over you" and I wrote it down in the margins.
I tried to remember the last time someone had a "claim over me." You know: the sort that allows someone other than me to say "where I should be" or "what I should be doing." The sort of claim that causes me to adjust the way I am thinking or the way that I am acting; the sort of claim that pushes me when I want to sit still or pulls me when I want to relax; the sort of claim that requires something of me; the sort of claim that requires more of me than I may be willing to give at any particular moment.
Yet, this statement of "claim" struck me at my core. I was struck because the reference point wasn't singular; it was communal. This claim was not from a child, spouse, partner, or deity, but from a group of people. Now we have trouble, an entire set of people making claims on my life and on my time! I suppose this is the feeling of congregational ministry: An entire congregation is laying claim to your life, your time, your energy, your resources, your family.
I sat for a moment and recalled that feeling when the phone rang in the middle of the night or someone stopped by my office in the midst of some other crisis, requiring my immediate time and attention, laying "claim over me." I remembered that I had mixed feelings about those moments. Sometimes feeling comforted, while other times feeling overwhelmed, frustrated or simply ill prepared to respond.
I was comforted by the claim because it meant that I was a part of something larger than I was. I was a member of a community. Nevertheless, I was also overwhelmed and frustrated because sometimes the claim was one that I had to deny. I used to think that the worst feeling in the world was having to say "NO" when others attempted to lay a "claim" on my time, my resources or my energy. Now I think that it might be worse to have no one ASK or expect that I would give of myself.
The lack of a "claim" was the context for Patel's description of community. It emerged in the midst of a story about his own longing to be connected and claimed by a community of faith. He was a young adult at the time and sat in the back of a cab in Israel weeping because there was no one to "lay claim over" him. It was an odd moment that had turned very quickly; just a few seconds before he described his utter disgust that his girlfriend's community of faith was making outright demands of her. He had pondered aloud, who are these people and how dare they impose their will on her? Having witnessed her "wrestling" with her tradition to find her own unique path, he longed for it in his own life. Who were the elders in his life, from his tradition of faith, who required something, ANYTHING of him?
I wonder now: how many of our young adults have experienced that moment of disconnection? Have we failed to lay "claim" over the lives of our young adults, leaving them disconnected from a community of faith? Do they have a tradition to wrestle with or a claim to respond to? Have we been afraid to lay "claim" for fear of rejection? Have we built the kind of relationships that would allow us to lay a "claim" on their lives?
The answers to these questions are a strong indicator of who has a claim over us...
Stake your claim in us, O God, in our homes and hearts, in our children and communities. Do not leave us -- any of us -- disconnected from each other and your claims of love. Guide us as we build the relationships with others that will carry your gentle, compelling, and urgent claim into their homes and hearts, their children and communities. Amen.
Please remember:
members and leaders at churches that suffered damage in the storms of March 13 or 29-30:
Colchester Federated Church,
Westfield Congregational Church UCC in Danielson,
North Greenwich Congregational Church UCC,
Second Congregational Church UCC in New London,
First Congregational Church UCC in Norwalk,
Congregational Church of North Stonington UCC, and
First Church of Christ UCC in Woodbridge;
residents of Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island who were displaced or suffered losses due to the storms of March;
the Rev. Sidat Balgobin, recently retired pastor of Park Congregational Church UCC in Norwich, on the death of his mother on March 23;
the family and friends of Vera Venable "V.V." Yordon, spouse of the late Rev. Henry K. Yordon, who died on Holy Thursday;
Elizabeth Naylor, daughter-in-law of the Rev. Robert Naylor, pastor of the Second Congregational Church UCC in Greenwich, who is being treated for lymphoma;
the people of Mexico affected by the earthquake;
the Rev. M. J. Hinchliff, pastor of First church of Christ, Congregational, UCC, of East Haddam, who is being treated for cancer; the Rev. Donna Cassity, an ordained minister in this conference, on the loss of her mother, Margot Cassity, on March 5th;
the Rev. Marcia C. Eveland, pastor of the First Congregational Church UCC of Ansonia, who has suffered a seriously broken wrist;
the Connecticut Conference and the Rev. Dr. Davida Foy Crabtree, as both prepare for her retirement on May 15: looking to the future with gratitude for her faithful ministry and trust in God's care for her and all the churches of the Conference;
our Conference Minister the Rev. Dr. Davida Foy Crabtree and her spouse, David, and their daughter Elizabeth, who suffered a stroke on December 12 and is undergoing rehabilitation;
the Rev. Nancy Allen, associate minister of Immanuel Congregational Church UCC in Hartford, as she undergoes cancer treatment;
the people of Haiti amidst the devastation of the earthquake, the people who seek to aid them, and those who grieve for their losses;
the people of Chile, particularly those near Concepcion or on the coast where earthquake and tsunami have done their worst; the injured, grieving, and homeless; and the people who seek to aid them;
this nation, that it may continue its difficult work to end the practices of racism;
the Conference's partners working for peace in Colombia amidst violence;
the leaders of this nation, that they may meet the challenges of the day with insight, wisdom, and compassion;
those suffering due to the ongoing financial woes of the nation, be they struggling to meet an unaffordable mortgage, confronting the loss of a job, or working to find just resolutions to the crisis; and
those serving or living in war or conflict zones around the world, or where terrorists have struck, particularly in Afghanistan, Iraq, Colombia, and the Sudan.
To be added to the prayer list, please send an email to Rev. Eric Anderson at: webmaster@ctucc.org.
Scotland
Scotland Cong'l Church, Inc.
IN The Rev. Paul J. Doyle
Seymour
Seymour Congregational Church
P The Rev. Gregory E. Dawson
MM C. E. Weiss
Sharon
Sharon Congregtional Church
P The Rev. Terrence W. Ryan
AP The Rev. Jody T. Guerrera
Shelton
Cong'l Church, Inc.
P The Rev. Shepard Parsons
Shelton
Huntington Cong'l Ch
P The Rev. Lucille L. Fritz
CE Ms. Jill Jennings
To read previous editions of the Spirit Calendar, visit:
http://www.ctucc.org/fido/spiritcalendar/
To learn more about or subscribe to the Spirit Calendar, visit:
http://www.ctucc.org/fido/
The Spirit Calendar: April 06, 2010 by Rev. Da Vita D. McCallister, Associate Conference Minister for Youth and Young Adult Ministries
