More Than Broken Glass

         

"I can see clearly now"  Johnny Nash

 
The church leaders, of the church I serve, and I have been on a prayer vigil.  As the year comes to a close I felt it was time to really pray for each other as we are experiences changes.  We all know that whether change is positive or negative, change is difficult. And so we go back to the beginning with prayer! 

            Yesterday morning as I pulled into the church parking lot for quilting I saw one of our parishioners waiting for me.  I could tell by his expression that something was amiss and then saw the broken window with a large rock on the ground below.  My reaction surprised me, overwhelming sadness, anger and outrage were nowhere to be found, I was just sad.  As I write this my eyes tear up still.  I think all of the intentional prayers we have been investing in the church over the past week(s) and I think it is because of these prayers there was no room for anger, blame or revenge...so often stumbling blocks to moving forward.  We can be sad because of great love, not love for a building but love for the people and God who have a standing date each Sunday, and we can move on because of great love.

            This past September I went to a Jan Richardson retreat.  We were guided through meditation and prayer with her own reflections and her husband Gary's music.  I am using her book Night Vision as an Advent Study. Last week we talked about the desire that can come out of the darkness, Jan used a form of writing we experienced on the retreat in her book.  She uses the words "I am...to begin each stanza.  On the retreat my I Am poem began

"I am Nancy Drew and Honey Bunch,

I am sweet cherries and peaches,

I am coca cola and a black mustang...”   You get the idea?

            As I was praying for our leaders this morning I began to pray for the church in this I Am manner:

I am more than broken glass,

I am smeared fingerprints from children and adults alike,

I provide the first view or the last as people cross this threshold.

I am sunshine so bright the curtains must be pulled.

I am the reflection at night of chicken pie and smiling faces,

    of children breaking piñatas, of dessert served after musical affairs,

            Of costumes and candy

    of tired faces crunching numbers for the coming year.

I receive the faces of expectation looking for plants, food, and chicken? (what kind?)

Look my way--I am busy hands sewing, knitting, quilting, felting...did I leave something out?

            sorting papers, letters from Melville.

I am children running, falling, laughing, crying

            packing pet food, making may baskets, sweeping (at least trying).

I am warm from their faces pressed against me as they wait...

I am more than broken glass,

I am one window, I am one view

I am one part of a whole-- I am a church.

           

 It struck me that the vandals left this very large rock outside the damaged window.  Placed right there at the base of the church.  I couldn't help but think of the children's song:

           

"Don't build your house on a sandy land, don't build it too close to the shore, oh it might be kind of nice but you'll have to build it twice, you'll have to build your house once more…you better build our house upon A ROCK!....”

             How ironic would it be if the best gift we got as a church this Christmas was a wake-up call from unlikely visitors to remind us of who we are?

        I invite you to pray with and for us and for Jan Richardson’s husband Gary who is seriously ill.  If you would like prayer please feel free to post on our Cox Memorial United Methodist Church facebook page.   May the peace that passes all understanding be upon you this holiday season!