This morning, we read a very familiar passage from Micah –
and it just so happens it did come up this week in the lectionary – interesting
that it falls on the Sunday that most churches have their annual meeting.
Many decades ago, a sociologist named Hans Mol wrote a book
called “Meaning and Place”. It was a book which affected the study of churches
and congregations deeply. Mol delineated the connection between places, and the
meaning people attached to them, and how hard change can be.
In my student internship, in rural Alberta, I served the New
Norway – Ferintosh churches – two churches in one pastoral charge but as
different as could be imagined. New Norway, true t its name, was settled by
Norwegians, nestled in a beautiful valley covered in evergreen trees. It likely
reminded them of home. Ferintosh, on the other hand, was on the plainsland, and
was settled by Scots. The Ferintosh family who proceeded to begin producing
Ferintosh whiskey.
Closer to home, my settlement charge was
Maxwell-McIntyre-Badjeros. Once again, three churches each 8 kilometres apart. Three
towns settled early in Canada’s history – each with a hotel, general store,
blacksmith, post office, church. Locals attended their central local church. And
even the personalities of those churches – depending on whether or not their
history was Methodist, Congregational or Presbyterian. Then something happened –
the automobile. As cars and roads improved, and commitment to farming began to
wane, these little towns gradually died. Maxwell, on a reasonably major
highway, survives. The United Church is closed. McIntyre is no longer even a
town. Badjeros is the only church of those three which has continued. It lives,
because those who remained when the churches closed were able to drive there.
We get attached to our churches, and that’s to be understood.
But like everything, there is a season. Rural churches which once thrived and
served the surrounding neighbourhoods can no longer do that. While in our heads
we recognise that, in our hearts it’s harder. We make a decision to come
together as one, but we still have that emotional attachment to our ‘place’. It’s
our church, and it holds a place in our hearts. As the world changes more, and
we feel less secure, we tend to want to hang on to the meaning and the place.
Now, we’re a congregation of three distinctly different
places – Adjala, Hockley and Mono Mills. And today we meet to set forward
direction. We are a different church. The words of Micah speak to us in this
time. God requires us to seek justice, to love compassion, and walk humbly. Put
another way, we are asked to remember Holy Manners – that everyone will be
heard with respect, and responded to with respect. It might mean we have to
give up on something to which we’re clinging. So we all need to be heard, and
we all need to hear. This is a process of discernment, in which answers might
not come right away, and in which some things may not be avoidable. But we make
a commitment to walk, humbly, together and wherever God may be leading – even if
we can’t see the way very clearly. May it be so.
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