Serendipity: The Upside of the Downturn

Necessity, they say (and why would they lie?) is the mother of invention, and she is the kind of mother who doesn’t put up with grousing. When her child whines “I’m so bored,” she responds, “Maybe that’s because you’re boring. Go find something to do!”

Perhaps the upside of the economic downturn is that it requires us all to use our imagination, and figure out how to amuse ourselves without expensive toys or fee-based leisure. If green fees are beyond our reach this summer, we may have to remember how to take a walk in the park without a ball and a club, and we may find out that it is even more relaxing that we imagined. Taking the children to the free beach instead of the water park, we might rediscover the wonder of sandcastles and snail shells. Serendipity is what that is called: an unexpected gift.

And here’s a thought: Sunday mornings, at church, an hour of live music and stand-up storytelling, absolutely free (donations accepted). Eat enough cookies at fellowship afterward, and you could call it lunch!

Shocking it may be to hear worship described as free entertainment (and by a pastor too!), but I offer this as pastoral care. The Sabbath is God’s free gift to us, not as a chore, but as a joy. Come for the free coffee, or come for the sage wisdom. Come for the company of friends, or come for the glory of God. Just come!

You may find here, much more than you expected. That’s serendipity.

For Sunday, June 21, 2009

Paradise Now
"See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation!"
--II Corinthians 6:2
Come, take a walk in the gardens around the church, and you will see paradise, now. Close your eyes, inhale deeply, and you will draw in the lilac-scent of God's breath. Consider the bumbling path of the bee, drunk on nectar, deliriously content with life, and you will witness deep peace.
There was one stream of early Christian thought which rejected the material world, which viewed the earth as a deeply flawed creation of some lesser god. Marcionism, as it was called, was rejected as heresy in the third century, but unfortunately its ghost still haunts some philosophies of religion. The view that "life is hell"-- that would be Marcionism.
But Paul, writing to the church in Corinth, was not naive. "Now is the day of salvation," even if we continue to suffer illness, persecution, arrest, and trial. "Now is the day of salvation" even if we are dying.
As the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is grown in it to spring up, so God's salvation comes. We can see it, now. Look!

On Vacation

...until June 18.