Ants!!!!

Yesterday I was sitting on the lounge chair by the pool, with Norio, having a glass of wine, and munching on some potato chips we found in the cupboard. The idea in this house is that whatever is there is to be used – no matter which guest buys it or leaves it. So,  little bits of potato chip dropped to the bricks, and before long the ants arrived. We sat for a good half hour watching as they came and picked up a crumb of chip, and trotted that crumb away. One ant picked up a piece really too big – staggered along heroically – until another ant came up and took the other side, and together they moved the big piece of chip off to their nest. Yet another ant decided to *pull* a large piece, rather than try to carry it. One can learn a lot from ants.

I’d almost forgotten, till this reminded me, of the day I was sitting in the bathroom in Viet Nam, for about three hours – watching ants move the carcass of a finally-dead cockroach.  Roaches in Viet Nam were a good three inches long and could fly. (Shudder.) Norio had sprayed and whacked this one, and was about to burn it and flush the ash down the drain ( the only way, he said, to be sure it was really dead) when the ants came out. One by one they lined up at the tail end of the roach. Two ants got on top – one at the front and one at the back. Then another group of ants came to the front end. They began to move the roach – pushing from the back and pulling from the front. The two on top ran back and forth transmitting orders. Seriously. As they moved off the floor and up the wall, more ants were directed to the back end to push up. When the carcass started to slide, even more ants were called in. It was an amazing exercise in co-operative community. I don’t buy the notion that this is only instinct. If that’s the case, why do humans not rely on such collaborative instinct more, instead of less.

Too often we in ministry see congregations tear the carcass apart rather than collaborate and share. We see people willing to let go of a church rather than change their perspective to help it move ahead. Often the change in perspective doesn’t mean the death of that congregation – although it might, and that’s not a bad thing – but it does mean the death of the way things are done, and a good clean sweep of the old dusty places. Don't get me wrong, sometimes congregations have to close and die - but not always.

It seems to me ants are aware that the only way to accomplish something for the good of the community is to both push and pull. It might require innovation. I guess that’s the point – the carcass has to be got to the nest, one way or the other.  It might not even be the way they’ve done it before.  Somehow, as I watch ants, I don’t get the feeling ‘how we’ve done it before’ comes into the equation.

People attach so much meaning to places that eventually the place becomes their reason for being. As a young married woman, still living in Viet Nam, I was irked incredibly when a friend in Winnipeg asked me when I was going to ‘come home and settle down'. My answer was ‘Home is wherever I am.'  In the church Jesus said “wherever two or three are gathered…”. “Church” is not a place, for me, it’s a people – and that means it doesn’t matter where we are. What matters is how we live and collaborate with each other. If we cannot do that, the physical place – the building -  is truly meaningless.  It’s wonderful to be able to say “My mother was married here, I was married, here, my kids were baptised here and now they are getting married here too.” Yes. Wonderful. Lots of good memories. But is it critical for the future???? It should not be. We need to take a lesson from the ants – and learn how to work together for the good of us all. If each congregation (aka anthill) could do this, collaborate – with each other and with our neighbourhood, wouldn’t there be a huge difference in how our neighbourhoods and churches are shaped? I wonder......