Surf’s up!

BY THE REV. GRADYE PARSONS

GENERAL ASSEMBLY STATED CLERK

LOUISVILLE — Each year, the Mavericks Surf Contest attracts the top surfers in the world. The competitors watch the Mavericks’ Web site until they see the words, “It’s on.” They then have 48 hours to get to the designated beach and compete for the prize money.

This year, the beach was Half Moon Bay in northern California. The surfers had to be towed out to the starting point because the breaking waves were so monstrous in size. Lifeguards zoomed around on jet skis to watch over the competitors.

Naturally, many spectators came to watch the excitement. Some observed from the bluffs; others, from the shore. Many of those who stood and watched from the shore were injured when a couple of the giant waves made it all the way onto the beach and crashed upon them.

An insightful bishop from the American Methodist Episcopal Church observed with interest that no active surfer was hurt while in the middle of riding a board on those huge waves. It was only the passive spectators on the unmovable shore who were injured.

We are facing a wave of change in our communal life of faith. It seems logical that the safest way to weather that change would be to observe it from the unmovable shore of “We’ve always done it this way.”

But could it be that the safer, though perhaps scarier, place to thrive in this change is in the middle of the wave?

In Danielle Shroyer’s study guide for Phyllis Tickle’s book, The Great Emergence, shewrites:

“Perhaps surfing is an apt metaphor for the kind of dual action required of us. Though we may choose our surfboard, our spot in the ocean, and the wave we take, we are not, in the end, able to control the movement of the ocean. We cannot determine the tide, or the length of the wave, or its intensity. It is our duty to ride it, and ride it well, in hopes that we arrive safely (and, with a little luck, gracefully) on the shore.” — (Reader’s Guide to The Great Emergence: How Christianity is Changing and Why, Baker Publishing Group, 2008, p. 20)

Surf’s up. It’s on!

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Happy New Year!

We look forward to working with you in 2010

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A monthly column for the church-at-large by the Reverend Gradye Parsons, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Great loss, great harvest

April 2009

It is my good fortune to teach an adult Sunday school class once a month. A couple of weeks ago, we were discussing Ezekiel 36. I shared an essay by Carlyle Marney entitled, “Years of the Locust” (from Beggars in Velvet, Abingdon Press, 1960). The essay draws a parallel between the seasons of discontent and the account of the swarm of locusts in the Old Testament.

Marney relays an insight he received from a friend who witnessed firsthand how locusts swarm in Africa. When the locusts come, they eat every living plant down to the roots. The farmers and their hired hands will drive the cattle and horses out into the fields in an attempt to crush the locusts before they can lay their eggs. However, despite their efforts, the farmers will yield no harvest that year.

In small or large ways, my hunch is that we all have experienced our own “swarm of locusts,” many of us more recently than not. We have contributed to our 401(k)s for years, only to see them decline to nothing. We have given a great chunk of our lives to companies, only to receive pink slips in the end. We have faithfully paid our mortgages, only to find the value of our homes slide to basement levels. At times, it seems our best intentions – including our spiritual work – melt before the heat of our ambitions and selfishness.

But Marney offers a hopeful note in his essay. His friend reports that the year following the devastation by the locusts is a time for bountiful crops. The crushed locusts become a rich fertilizer for the soil.

It is using wisely a season of great loss that eventually yields great results.

Sisters and brothers, our Lenten journey will soon end and we will celebrate anew the great resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Lord will once again hear “Alleluia!” from our congregations. May we use wisely our losses in this season of the locusts and allow the Spirit to build a treasure for us that neither thief nor moth can touch.