How did it get to this?

The questions “Who am I?”,  “Why am I here?”, “What is my purpose?” are the foundational questions of the existence.  I recall my “Shorter Catechism” days in Sunday School as an attempt to master the historic language of Reformed faith.  I confess that only one question remains in my memories from the catechism: What is the chief end of man?  (pardon the non-inclusive language).  The answer: “The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy God forever.”   I was introduced to the writings of John Calvin while in college. His treatise The Institutes of the Christian Religion begins with the affirmation that true knowledge consists of knowledge of God and knowledge of self.

The meeting of our presbytery on Saturday helped me to frame another foundational question that rattles around our denomination right now.  The presbytery was hearing and preparing to vote on a recommendation to dismiss Reflections Church to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.  A commissioner expressed how upsetting it was to be voting on such a crucially important matter without ever really getting to talk about the conditions and circumstances that led a congregation to want to leave the Presbyterian Church U.S.A.  What I think he said is – “How did it get to this?”

How did the Presbyterian Church who understands itself as a “connectional” church reach a place where we are so disconnected from one another? When did we become a denomination of  “like-minded” theological nightclubs and not an academy where theological diversity and inquisitiveness is shared in hopes of discerning the word of God.  How can a group calling itself a “Fellowship” consider the idea of creating another reformed body?  Will the “NEXT” church really be what God next desires for us?

Discernment is a word we like to use a lot, but I think we struggle with its application.  I’m afraid that too many people use discernment as an opportunity for each of us to share our opinion expecting the other to “see it our way.”  When they won’t, we walk away from the table embittered at them and entrenched in believing that we are right and they are wrong.  In all honesty, doesn’t discernment suggests that we loosen our grip on the opinions we bring to the discussion?  The act of truly discerning requires bigger ears and smaller tongues.  It invites us to risk the possibility or maybe the probability of a change of heart and mind.  After all, it isn’t discernment if I don’t leave the room with a part of me changed by the other and the Other.

“How did it get to this?”  This question has pushed me to evaluate the way we’ve been doing the work of engaging with congregations who want to leave our denomination.  We’ve just entered the painful task of dismissal and I don’t want our presbytery to end up like the married couple who won’t talk about the hard stuff of marriage until it is too late.  I don’t want us to become a bitter people who ask “how did it get to this?” after signing the divorce papers.

Our presbytery has adopted a process that mandates the work of a Response Team to meet with leaders of a congregation who may be feeling “disaffected” by decisions of the denomination or presbytery or for any other reason.  The work of the Response Teams has felt more like a reactive step to meet an directive from these congregations.  I’d even admit that we’ve bought into the notion of the quick dismissal by merely receipt of notice from a Session because that is what they want but the truth is, it makes the process less painful for us.

No more!  It is time for our presbytery and our congregations to be honest and to engage in open and honest dialogue over tough and potentially divisive issues.  Discernment in its truest sense must become the by-word for the future of our presbytery and for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).  Engaging in discernment must not be interpreted as a stall tactic.  The time of engagement must not be seen as a strategic planning period.

Maybe discernment’s first task is to return us to the foundational questions of “What is our chief end?” and “What is your only comfort in life?”  May we begin to hear God’s word to us in the time of discernment.