How do we handle the PCUSA grief...?

From The Layman, by Carmen Fowler:

The season of our humiliation


How do you live through a season of grief? How do you cope? Where do you turn?  The pain is not going away. 
The doctor asked, “on a scale of one to ten, what’s your pain level?” Good question. How acute does the pain have to get before you act? Many of us have lived with so much acute denominational pain for so long that we’ve simply learned to live with it. We’ve developed a host of unhealthy coping mechanisms including avoidance, fits of rage and threats of amputation. Like a patient avoiding a very dire diagnosis, we deny the root causes and deal exclusively with surface level presenting issues. Many in our family have become exasperated with our inability to deal with truth and reality and have simply gone on with their own lives. One thing is certain, although changing the standards of ordination are viewed by some as “the” answer to the problem, Amendment 10A is not going to alleviate the pervasive pain of division in the body anymore than adding G-6.0106b has done. We cannot legislate the body back to health.


The bones are out of joint

It could be described as a cancer or as heart disease, but the analogy that seems most fitting is that the Presbyterian Church (USA) is a body out of joint. If you’ve ever dislocated a finger, a shoulder or a knee, you know the agonizing pain that results. Left uncorrected, dislocation results in deformity, dysfunction, immobility and sometimes, paralysis. In many ways, the PCUSA has become paralyzed. Notably, before doing what the friends of the paralytic desire (restoring him to physical health), Jesus deals with the underlying sin issue. The real question that paralyzes us is sin and a corporate unwillingness to submit to the revealed will of the one true God of the Scriptures and allow the Holy Spirit to genuinely conform our deformed body to the perfection of Jesus Christ. Without Him, we remain cut off from the possibility of wholeness, healing and genuine life.


The grief is real


We tend to think of grief as being related to death, but grief is produced by loss of all kinds. As Presbyterians, even if you find yourself in a healthy, growing congregation, we have collectively experienced massive loss.  The obvious losses are: the loss of millions of members, hundreds of congregations, our generational effectiveness, many national staff. But there are other less obvious losses: the loss of a sense of who we are, the loss of standing and influence in the world, the loss of dignity and civility and respect, the loss of a sense of ability and purpose, usefulness, fruitfulness and blessing. Finally, there is the loss that comes by being left and the loss exacerbated by being disabled. All this loss produces genuine grief.


This grief is being experienced across the theological spectrum. We know well its myriad manifestations and we know the process: denial, anger, projecting blame, acceptance, healing. Maybe what we need is a national effort of denominational “grief recovery” through which we could seek the life-giving, renewing, transforming power of the Great Physician to do for His body what we cannot do for ourselves: give us new life.

My response (Larry):  We've read these kinds of observations many times, but nothing changes.  The pro-gay, anti-Scripture, anti-Lordship of Christ advocates grin and say, "Deal with it!  We're in charge now.  Love it or lick it.  You can't stop us now!"
It's a truly sad time in our beloved, once great denomination. 

A Footrace to a Miracle

From Jerusalem to the Cross

Scripture Lesson: John 20:1-18

Finally, Easter morning! And the disciples cannot believe what the women tell them. Alive? You have to be crazy. He’s dead. We saw him die. We know he is in a grave. Wouldn't you know -- Peter must see for himself. So he and John take off running to the cemetery. John wins the footrace, but stands outside the tomb, peering in, staring in unbelief at the grave clothes neatly folded where a body should be. Peter arrives, panting, and races into the grave. Finally, John goes in, also, and his Gospel records these words: “He saw and believed.”

Friday was bad news. Sunday brought the Good News we have wanted to hear: HE IS ALIVE! Now everything Jesus said, taught and did comes back to us with power! What we sinners needed so desperately, God has given us in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Hallelujah! Praise God!

What's Good About 'Good Friday'?

From Jerusalem to the Cross

Good Friday

“That Awful Cry!”
Scripture Lesson: Mark 15: 33-34

“Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? My God, my God, why have your forsaken me?”


Have there ever been words spoken of greater, more profound, utterly awesome consequence? Jesus takes your sin and mine upon his own heart and soul! For those awful, terrifying moments he is separated from his heavenly Father. All the sins of humankind came crashing down upon his soul. Your sins and mine. Your shame and mine. Hell reached up and caught him and held him captive. The curtain in the temple was torn from top to bottom. Thunder and lightning pierced the afternoon. The sky turned black. Then, in words that insure our salvation, Jesus announced it all finished. And, “with a loud voice, Jesus breathed his last.” He was dead. BUT! In the words of the preacher, “It was Friday, but Sunday was a-coming!” We wait, now, for God’s next spectacular act. Jesus lay in a cold grave, but God was about to work another miracle. If the next miracle did not work, all that suffering would be in vain. Lent ends tomorrow.

Are you ready for the next miracle?

Helpful note...I hope!

If you are a Presbyterian and concerned about the direction, conflicts and future of our denomination, here is a site to help you think through a lot of the issues and possibilities.

http://www.fellowship-pcusa.org/

After going to the site, click on the many articles there...and check it out regularly.

Maundy Thursday April 21, 2011

From Jerusalem to the Cross
Maundy Thursday

“This Is My Body”
Scripture Lesson: Mark 14:22-26

Reflections:

Simple elements. Bread and wine. As always, Jesus took the simple things of life and made them sacred. In this powerful Upper Room meal, Jesus shares the depths of his soul with his disciples. Shortly after, he was arrested and murdered a day later on a bloody hill outside the Holy City. Remember, my friends, it was all done for you. “When he was on the cross, you were on his mind.”

Our celebration of the Sacrament of Holy Communion is an act of remembering that evening Jesus shared with his disciples. Let us not take the bread and wine without serious thought about what it cost Jesus to win our salvation and empower us day by day to work for justice and live by divine love. We were without hope and only by his sacrifice do we have hope again. Hope of eternal life. Hope of his Spirit empowering us every day. Hope that the grave is not the end, just the beginning. Hope to act for justice in an unjust world. 

Do not eat the bread nor drink from the cup casually. This sacred meal brings us near the end of Lent and the beginning of Eastertide. Remember!