Pastors' Blog
We offer this with permission as a way of expanding the conversation and the pondering.
Dear Rick and Jill,
I am having a bit of a difficult time with my faith right now I guess for a few reasons. One being that I'm busy and it's easy to get caught up in the everyday events and not reflect on faith and my relationship with God. The main reason though, and the reason I am emailing you, is because of a recent event. About a week and a half ago, one of my classmates and one of my best friends, who is only 17, died in a car accident. She was one of the most amazing girls I knew and was so passionate about making a difference in this world. I know that if she had not been taken from this world she would have continued to be a role model to many and would have greatly influenced many lives. I'm just wondering how God can let this happen. I would appreciate some insight on this and wondering what your thoughts are on issues like this.
Thanks,
Mary (pseudonym)
Dear Mary,
We are so sorry to hear about your loss. Friends are wonderful gifts in our lives. They constantly feed our sense of self and push us to be the people we are meant to be. And likewise your friendship feeds them and pushes them. It is a positive feed loop. Thus to have a friend die and abruptly taken out of your life by death, breaks a dynamic motion that has been feeding your life and the lives of those around you. It is a real loss -- a gaping hole in life. Instead of a person whose life is creating energy, death is like a black hole that vacuums the energy around it.
As you have grown, your mother and father have trusted you to make your own decisions. God has done the same with all the sons and daughters of creation. Tragically it means that mistakes, errors, mess-ups -- even when one is faultless -- can have disproportionate, painful even fatal consequences. We don't know your friend or the accident that took her life but there were a myriad of human decisions entrusted to us to make: the design of the road; observance of the highway laws, cultural rules for driving, requirements to be authorized to drive and insurance regulations; fitness to drive; time of day when driving; ability to drive; and the list continues.
Sometimes people try to understand tragic events like the death by saying, "God called her home," or "It was God's will," or "God had a purpose in this that we do not see." We think God was the first to shed a tear when your friend died. We do not think the way we are living on this creation or all the decisions we have made reflect God's intention for creation or God's people.
As people of faith we are called to live out God's intentions for creation and God's people. Believing God intended Creation to be Good, we want our decisions to uphold and reflect that goodness. Thus we strive to make good decisions as individuals but we also strive to make this world good -- overcoming poverty, establishing justice, promoting peace, building community. Believing God created out of love, we want our decisions to uphold and reflect that love. Thus we strive to make loving decisions as individuals but we also strive to make love our guide in the world -- loving enemies, loving mercy over judgment, loving life over death.
Thus we do not believe God intended the accident happen. We do believe that God with good and loving intent created us to be co-creators ---entrusted making decisions to us as co-creators. Decisions and their consequences can thus be in alignment with God's good and loving intent for creation or not.
And, to be perfectly frank, there are times when "why?" is shrouded in mystery. The reason we gather with others grieving a death, the reason we visit family and have a funeral is to stand before this black hole called death and witness to an alternate reality -- that God's creation is good and loving. When the congregation gathers for a funeral, the congregation makes that declaration when those most intimately related are unable to make that affirmation. This is what you and your friends are doing when you gather to remember your friend. You are witnessing to each other that life is good and loving -- in your own words and ways, of course. There are times when someone will say, "I miss xxxxxxxxx. She would have said "yyyyyy zzzzzzzzz about that." Other times her name will not be called but everyone there will know it is about her and the loss everyone still feels.
As funeral services come to a close at
We believe there is no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus,
and we know that in everything
God works for good with those who love God,
who are called according to God's purpose.
We are sure that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities,
nor things present, nor things to come,
now powers, nor height, nor depth,
nor anything else in all creation,
will be able to separate us
from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Amen.
It is our way -- before the reality of death -- of protesting death as a way of defining life's purpose and affirming that God's purpose for life is good and loving. We also stand on the promise of resurrection that God has a purpose for life that is greater than death. One of the traditional prayers we use when we place someone's body in the ground says, "we commit this body to the earth in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life." Jesus' resurrection and the promise of our own is our way of saying there is no love lost in this life.
This is a long answer but it is large question with which God's people live with. Having confidence in God's goodness and love we have hope. Don't hesitate to contact us again and stop by for more conversation.
Grace and peace,
Rick and Jill
Best known for his work as the CEO of Herman Miller, Inc. author and businessman Max De Pree has grown in popularity over the years for his vision and commitment to leading with integrity. De Pree's work has influenced the business world immensely with the institution of the Scanlon Plan, a program that encouraged and rewarded employee participation, and the establishment of the Max De Pree Center for Leadership in 1996. The Three Tasks of Leadership, a book comprised of theological essays contributed by 18 different theologians and pastors, insists that De Pree's influence far transcends the world of dollar signs- and has theological implications for spiritual leaders today. These writers speak directly to De Pree's famous words concerning leadership: "The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between the two, the leader must become a servant and a debtor".
Defining reality is harder than it sounds. At first glace the reader can insist that "reality is as it seems" -and, thus, suggest that this is a shared reality, understood by all. However, the assumption that one person, alone, can perceive a common reality and call it "so" is over-reaching. I, on the other hand, would like to believe this common reality can be understood and shared under the distinguished umbrella of a unified, believing church body. But how?
Defining our reality at United Church through opportunities such as the "Light up Your Winter Series", the sustainable harvest projects, the educational endeavors taking place with parents and children, and the list goes on...will serve to undergird our efforts and allow us to move beyond our own realities towards a shared reality. Which, in turn, will grant us the opportunity, as De Pree suggests, to become servant leaders in an ever-changing community. How does this, per se, shared reality come into being? Our writers suggest that it involves: the united processes of intentional conversation, of ambiguous tensions and conscious persuasion, difficult dialogue and active listening, and above all the extensions of grace and respect in a reciprocal community.
Sherwood Lingenfelter shares these words for congregations in The Three Tasks of Leadership, "Defining reality for many congregations may mean helping people to abandon their reliance upon structure and process and to concentrate on cultivating vibrant faith, vision and covenant relationships."
As we undertake the exciting and obligatory challenge involved in planning for our future let us work in covenant with one another through these processes and expect the emergence of such a shared reality.
Blessings in 2010,
Jenny Shultz
jedens@unitedchurch.org
-- Richard Edens
Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009
The Study of Exemplary Congregations in Youth Ministry, http://www.exemplarym.org/
Meditation at Church Council, October 27, 2009
Last Wednesday I flew to
We had an appointment with Senator Hagan and knew we would have 15 or, at most, 20 minutes with the Senator. The National Council of Churches had us come to the
1) Encourage strong emission reductions. The current bill is asking for 20% emission reductions by 2020 and 80% by 2050. The Eco-Justice Ministry of the National Council of Churches is asking that we challenge ourselves by adopting a goal of 25% emission reductions by 2020. As carbon is already compounding, so to speak, the earlier we begin reducing and reversing the better. Also, environmental advocates worry that we need to frontload the challenge if we are ever to reach the 80% reduction by 2050.
One way of encouraging stronger emission reductions is by adopting higher Renewable Energy Standards (RES). The State of
2) Protect low-income consumers/households. As a carbon swap program is brought into existence, there will an addition cost added to any and all consumption of energy that involves carbon. The National Council of Churches is asking that 15% of the monies created by the carbon swap be set aside to assist the bottom quintile. To identify the bottom quintile, we can use the current food stamp program (70%) and state programs (20% ) with the remaining 10% self-identifying (earned income tax credit, for example). The monies would be distributed through light/heat programs and weatherization programs or the earned income tax credit. Representative Butterfield (NC District 1) has been a champion of protecting our low income consumers or households.
3) As a historic emitter of carbon, the
While these goals will be technically challenging, the question of cost arises. It is estimated that the average household will pay 43.9 cents a day more for carbon used throughout the economy. That is approximately $12 a month or $160 a year.
What I found interesting in this part of the conversation is how familiar this is. Each of us routinely does this calculation of “our fair share.” It is almost instinctual to come up with an average cost knowing that if it is to be shouldered justly some will pay more and some will pay less. Our community is in the midst of elections and what are politicians asking citizens to consider: how do we balance the cost of our common life? As a church community, we are in the midst of the same consideration as we come to the close of this fiscal year and begin offering our pledges for next year: how do we balance the cost of our common life? It is somehow comforting to read in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians that the first Christian community wrestled with the same concerns.
“The best thing you can do right now is to finish what you started last year and not let those good intentions grow stale. Your heart's been in the right place all along. You've got what it takes to finish it up, so go to it. Once the commitment is clear, you do what you can, not what you can't. The heart regulates the hands. This isn't so others can take it easy while you sweat it out. No, you're shoulder to shoulder with them all the way, your surplus matching their deficit, their surplus matching your deficit. In the end you come out even. As it is written,
Nothing left over to the one with the most,
Nothing lacking to the one with the least.” 2 Corinthians 8:10-20, The Message
Paul is referring to a collection begun by Christians in
I thought we had a good meeting with Senator Hagan. We were well prepared. We all spoke. All our points got made with energy and conviction. She and we acknowledged that it would be challenge but that she would have support if she adopted more aggressive energy standards.
While she is a Senator and her vote will matter a great deal whenever the Senate can take up this bill, the challenge of “balancing surplus with deficit” is not the Senate’s challenge alone. It is our challenge as a global community and country. It is our challenge in
-- Richard Edens
October 20, 2009
Last night I spoke at the Chapel Hill Town Council in support of the relocation of IFC's Community House to land -- provided by UNC and the Town of Chapel Hill -- adjacent to United Church of Chapel Hill. Below are my remarks.
Grace and peace,
Richard Edens
Mayor Foy, Council Members and Fellow Citizens,
I am Richard Edens. For thirty years, I have served with my wife Jill, as co-pastor of United Church of Chapel Hill which is the adjacent property to the proposed location for Community House. We live in the North Forest Hills community on Stateside Drive. I am an almost-daily, early morning, runner through Homestead Park and the Parkside neighborhood. I am also a member of the Inter-Faith Council Board of Directors.
First, I would like to invite fellow supporters of the plan to relocate Community House to stand: colleagues in the clergy and congregational leaders (Mark Acuff – Gathering Church, Bob Dunham – University Presbyterian Church, Jill Edens – United Church of Chapel Hill, Stephen Elkins-Williams – Chapel of the Cross, Rebecca McCulloh – Chapel Hill Christian Church, Robert Seymour – Pastor Emertius, Binkley Baptist, Susan Steinberg -- United Church of Chapel Hill, Isaac Villegas – Chapel Hill Mennonite Church; Peter Carman of Binkley and Carl King from University UMC send their regrets) , supportive congregational members, IFC supporters. We rise in support of the partnership of the Town of Chapel Hill, the University of North Carolina and the Inter-Faith Council which resolved a five-year process initiated by the Mayor’s Taskforce to find a new location for the shelter.
The good news is that we are not here to discuss whether Community House should exist or the need for safe space as people undertake the transformation from homelessness to independence.
We do not believe that having a safe space for children to grow up or for the public to use the park is mutually exclusive with having a safe space for people at a vulnerable time in life engage in this transformation from homelessness to independence. The movement towards independent living whether it is that of a child or any person having to refashion a life requires safe space, sheltered space, for that transformation to occur.
Many of us who have gotten to know the people in the Community House program know them as persons, not statistics or numbers or probabilities or projections. Thus our familiarity with them makes them like family and we are seeking a safe place for our family to grow from a state of dependence to independence.
Community House is a way station on the journey from homelessness to health and independence. It is not a place that shelters the homeless as they remain homeless and neither is it a place to call home where as Robert Frost reminds us, “when you have to go there, they have to take you in.” Upon entering the Community House program, a resident is no longer homeless. Their stay, however, at Community House is contingent – contingent on health, on effort, on contributing towards the movement from homelessness to independence.
The journey from being homeless to being at home is fraught with “many dangers, toils and snares,” to quote an old hymn. Few people find themselves homeless for one reason alone so it can be a long journey home. As anyone who has ever dieted or tried to stop smoking, it is rarely achieved the first time you try.
Bob Seymour and I ran into each other last week and could not help reminiscing that we were before Town Council almost 25 years ago locating Community House downtown. I always looked upon its location in the center of our community as an indication of this community’s heart – the original safe space. Twenty-five years later, the Town of Chapel Hill has expanded and the downtown is no longer the only center of our community. We move easily from downtown to Southern Village to University Mall to Meadowmont to Carolina North. As Chapel Hill has expanded so has our heart – and the safe spaces our community requires for the health and transformation of all its citizens.
We, clergy and congregational leaders from participating IFC congregations, encourage you to continue the work you initiated through your partnership with the University of North Carolina and the Inter-Faith Council to provide a place in our community for the transformation of all our citizens towards as independent and abundant a life as possible.
I am also here as one of the pastors of the closest property to the proposed location of Community House. We are a community of some 850 adults and several hundred youth and children. On weekdays we have 60 preschoolers in our education space. United Church of Chapel Hill welcomes the relocation of Community House because:
(1) Community House is in alignment with our faith that welcomes the stranger and sojourner, that seeks to increase the love of neighbor and love of God. Or as book of Proverbs instructs, Remember what your mother taught you: “speak out for those who cannot speak, for the rights of the destitute. Speak out, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.”
(2) United Church of Chapel Hill is in covenant with 50 some other congregations seeking the community’s good through the Inter-Faith Council and its programs.
(3) The 24 year history of Community House is time-tested and is positive.
(4) When United Church was located on Cameron Ave, the Inter-Faith Council operated out of a house on Wilson Street which backed up to the playground of our church school and that of the Chapel Hill Daycare Center. Community House had its origin on the floor of the Fellowship Hall prior to the move into the Old Municipal Building. We lived together with people and families seeking assistance over 25 years without incident in a downtown historic district neighborhood.
Our familiarity with the IFC, Community House and those seeking assistance through Community House has not made us fearful. Our hope and prayer is that Community House will continue to restore people to health, to independence and to life in community. Our hope and prayer for our community is that we find that creating spaces for growth and change of differing populations are not mutually exclusive but the goal of healthy communities.
October 13, 2009
Welcome to the new UCCH web site! And thanks to Bill Siddall and Janet Newcity for recommending this fun and easy tool for the ministry of UCCH! The site is organized according to our "5 for 5 Spiritual Practices." Worshiping, Connecting, Learning, Serving, Giving will help us navigate our website as well as our Christian living.
In the UCC we say "to believe is to care, to care is to do." This is a great expression of spiritual practice. Spiritual practices are practical, with them we rehearse human behaviors that we hope are pleasing to God and helpful to other people. With practice we transform believing into caring and ultimately into doing. This website invites you into every aspect of this spiritual journey: worshiping and learning invites you into places where faithful believing seeks understanding. Connecting will help you to find places of fellowship and pastoral care where our caring ministries are nurtured and empowered. Serving and Giving are not the only places for "doing" but they will connect you with UCCH's doers and are invitations to "hands on" ministries.
We are so glad to welcome you to UCCH and hope that you will find a place of faith, friendship and support for "believing, caring and doing" that is pleasing to God and of help to our neighbors.
With you in service, Jill Edens