Saturday, April 10, 2021

Spring Cleaning

 




Have nothing in your house you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful. ---William Morris

And from geniusquotes.org:

Spring cleaning isn’t about sorting through things and getting rid of clutter. It’s about taking stock of who you are and how others see you.  Its a chance to redefine yourself, to change expectations and to remember that it’s never too late to recapture who you were, or to aim for who you want to be.

 

Today’s scriptures (and the beautiful weather of the past week) have had me thinking about spring cleaning:

 In the early church community we hear of a community of people who are sharing what they have with each other.  The community uses their possessions for the good of all: I sense that nothing is wasted; items are used, reused, and passed along; if food or necessities are required possessions without immediate purpose are sold or traded for what is essential.  The focus of the community is love and compassion for each other.

The disciples’ story gives us a glimpse into a different kind of spring cleaning, one that focuses on the items in our brains and hearts. The text speaks about degrees of belief. The disciples have just experienced the death of their teacher and have had to work at making sense of what they belief; integrating new thoughts into a life-long faith system, accepting a changing relationship with how they understand scripture and the idea of Messiah, and how this applies to actions and life moving forward. And then Jesus appears in their midst! Spring cleaning continues – beliefs, ideas, emotions, actions – some things get pushed out and others resurrected into something new.  

 

In the early years of the church, the community gathered together to care for each other and to tell the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection. The community also went out to care for others and to proclaim the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection to those who had not yet heard.  There was nothing in the house church that one did not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.  The community took stock of who they were and how others saw them. This early period was a chance to redefine themselves, to change expectations and to remember that it’s never too late to recapture who you were, or to aim for who you want to be. And so it was for the first 200 years or so.

 

After 300 CE,  there was a change of focus within some church communities from spreading and telling the story of Jesus to collecting and preserving sights and artifacts belonging to Jesus and the disciples. Historian Eusibeus records that the Emperor (that is of Rome) has a desire to recover sights like the Upper Room, Jesus’ tomb; artifacts like the cross. Shrines were built to mark the sights, pilgrims began to visit sights to see and take a piece home with them – whether a rock or a piece of tile, a chunk of pottery. Sights began to accumulate things: artifacts to attract pilgrims, candles, sculpture, decorative pieces, tombs, benches; ways of doing things, prayers to be said, fees to pay, what to believe, how to act. The proverbial closet became full of stuff.

 

Over the years there were times of ‘spring cleaning,’ particularly of hearts and brains; buildings remained, as did the stuff in them.  One example of a ‘spring cleaning’ was the Reformation – where focus shifted through a renewed reading of scripture – hearts and minds were changed through wrestling with and understanding that God was not about judgement, but rather, grace. ‘Spring cleaning’ -getting rid of that which was not useful or beautiful – helped the springing up of creative music, art, preaching, conversation, study – resurrection of faith through once again focusing on telling and sharing the story of Jesus.’

 

The current situation of the church is one of spring cleaning.  Over pandemic items have been set aside, some completely tossed out, and new ways of telling and sharing the story of Jesus’ have grown. We are in a position where we are slowly returning to the closet – the building- where our relationship to the material things around us will have changed; some items will have lost their use and no longer be beautiful.

This is our chance to spring clean – to spring clean material things, to spring clean matters of the heart, to spring clean our intellects, to spring clean so that our focus as individuals and a community of believers is resurrected to be of use and beauty to the world.

 

To help in this endeavor a reflection pamphlet has been created to assist us in figuring out our focus – and the nitty-gritty of who we are and who we want to be moving forward.  The pamphlet will be available for pick up, it will be mailed out to some, and photos of it shared. Please take the time to participate and reflect --- to do some spring cleaning of yourself and the church--- And if the pamphlet is not your style, feel free to send your reflections to the church in whatever style works for you.

 

Spring cleaning has been forced on us. Spring cleaning can continue as fuller community is resurrected coming out of pandemic.

 

Resurrection is:

.. about taking stock of who you are and how others see you.

It’s a chance to redefine yourself, to change expectations and to remember that it’s never too late to recapture who you were, or to aim for who you want to be.

 

Thanks be to God.

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