Veni Sancte Spiritus
23/05/13 05:19
It has been busy around here. We are a team-led church with three pastors, an administrative colleague and three music staff. Two of the pastors are out of town this week, which means I’m the only one around. That means that the workload is a bit higher. We are launching a capital funds drive and we enter the advance gifts portion of the drive this evening. That means that there is behind the scenes work that needs to be done. Next week we produce our newsletter, which requires extra work from our staff. And we are a busy, growing church where workdays are seldom limited to a set number of hours. Our people lead very busy lives and so meetings and gatherings need to be scheduled for times that work for them. I’ve had an evening meeting every day this week and there’ll be another this evening.
This isn’t a complaint blog. Busy is good. Being a part of an exciting, serving congregation is a wonderful gift. Having dedicated volunteers to give of their lives above and beyond the usual schedule is wonderful. We are in no danger of becoming bored. But such a life needs to be supported by prayer and study and ample quiet time. I have learned that getting up to write my blog during the hours when others sleep is an important part of my life. Pausing for deep breathing and meditation are critical to stay focused. There is a difference between busy work and God’s work. It takes careful discernment to know which is which.
Last night ended with an hour of prayer with the people who are preparing for this weekend’s “pilgrimage of trust on earth” at Red Shirt Table on Pine Ridge. People have already begun to arrive from around the world. The teams are working to prepare the site. Tomorrow the big influx comes. Nearly 500 young adults aged 18 – 35 will participate in events starting with dinner Friday evening and concluding with noontime prayers on Monday. Red Shirt table has a tiny Episcopal church. The large gathering requires a fleet of porta-potties, a truckload of tents, mountains of food, and an enormous amount of faith. My role in all of this is very small. I went to Bridger yesterday to pick up a tipi. I’ll load a truck and trailer with tables and tents and other items today to haul down to the gathering. I’ll help with childcare on Saturday.
But along the way, I have been receiving a gift of prayer. Last night’s gathering was a potluck supper and discussion followed by a time of prayer. I had been rushing all day long. I took my pot of soup over to the gathering then headed back to our church to meet with a couple planning a wedding and then returned for the prayers.
There is no way of describing how much I needed those prayers. I didn’t ever count, but there were perhaps 50 people, mostly young adults, who came into the informal room quietly with their shoes removed and the candles burning. The songs were gentle and easy to learn. The prayers were simple with sung responses. The gospel that was proclaimed was the same reading that we will use in our congregation on Sunday, so I’ve already been through a Bible study on the text and a reflection in preparation for my preaching on Sunday. Last night, however, I didn’t have to engage in an intellectual challenge. I could just listen. We began by singing in Latin, “Veni Sancte Spiritus.” In the Roman tradition, this phrase is sometimes called the “Golden Sequence.” It is prescribed for the liturgies of Pentecost. It is a simple prayer inviting the Holy Spirit into our lives, into our community, into our work and into our world. As we immersed ourselves in words that faithful people have sung together for centuries, the cares of the day faded away. There is something that is deeply moving to me about hearing ancient melodies and words sung and played by people who are decades younger than I. Together we were swept up in the reality that the times of our lives are short, but we are a part of something that is much bigger than ourselves.
In recent decades the term “sustainability” has become very popular. It refers to laying aside practices that consume too many resources in such a way that they cannot be sustained over a long period of time. You can live on debt for a short time, but it is not sustainable. It will catch up with you. The over consumption of fossil fuels will work for a generation or two, but the fuel will run out and the practice is not sustainable. Sustainable living focuses on smaller, more energy-efficient dwellings and renewable practices such as gardening. But you don’t need me to explain this to you. You have heard the term and know what it means. In some circles, it has become common to refer to certain practices within the church as being “sustainable.” Appropriately sized budgets are called “sustainable.” Energy efficient buildings are called “sustainable.” The term misses the mark when applied to the church, however.
The church does not endure through the centuries because it is sustainable. We are not called to form sustainable ministries. We are called to pour out our lives in service to others. “Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 16:25). The church has not endured because it has been accomplished at building institutions. It has endured because it is resilient. It adapts and changes to meet the challenges and opportunities and circumstances of each new event. The history of the church is filled with failure and mistakes and missteps. We have not been perfect. We have not always planned well for the future. We have sometimes gone off on tangents. I do not aspire to participate in a church that is “sustainable.” Rather I would live a life that is resilient.
An hour of prayer with faithful young people last night was a demonstration of the church that is resilient. The future is not going to look like the past. It is not even going to look like the present. They are about creating something entirely new. But they are connected to thousands of years of faithful tradition. And flowing through all of these centuries is a song: “Vene Sancte Spiritus.”
Come, Holy Spirit.