MNO Synod - Bishop's Message


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Bishop's Message	Follow the Bishop
Holy Encounter Barbara Brown Taylor, in her book, An Altar in the World, says that “the practice of being with other people is the practice of loving the neighbour as the self… and at least entertaining the possibility that this is one of the faces of God.” She shares the story of her encounter with the local grocery clerk. As she gazed at the woman’s face it occurred to her that this is someone who exists even when she is not ringing up your groceries. She is someone’s daughter, maybe even someone’s mother. She has a home she returns to, a bed she lies awake in, wrestling with her own demons and angels. Barbara Brown Taylor says it is enough that you acknowledge her when she gives you change. Her premise is that an encounter has occurred and because you noticed, your life has changed. I was thinking about the time my mother helped us move to Saskatchewan the first time. She was at a grocery store purchasing canned tuna (dozens because it was cheaper than on the west coast where she lived). The grocery clerk engaged in a conversation with her. For years after, my mother claimed that Saskatchewan folks were friendlier to strangers than anywhere else she had ever travelled. My mother’s encounter changed her thinking. I then recalled how many times, in a hurried state, I wanted to get through the grocery line quickly but she dawdled and talked to the clerk. Even today I find myself doing the same thing when I remember her experience. Each encounter brought new understandings and a new face to God for us. It causes me to wonder if we had more encounters with each other, especially those for whom we disagree with or fear, would we see our world differently? Would we see others as people of God rather than demonize them because their beliefs or values or lifestyle or personhood is different than our own? Would it change our thinking and perhaps even change theirs? Would it help us to better understand where others are coming from? Brown Taylor reminds us that Jesus taught the practice of encounter. He did it by what he said but also by what he did. “No one is dismissed from his circle of concern, for no one made in God’s image is negligible in the revelation of that same God. You love the stranger because the stranger shows you God.” She suggests that in doing so we discover how dangerous our own fear can be. I am holding these words dear to me as I encounter and be engaged in our church as it comes out of convention this summer. There are issues and fears that could use a holy encounter so we remember our unity in Christ, to love one another as God has loved us. Dr. David Lose, Luther Seminary, proclaimed in a sermon that everyone and everything can sing even though some of us don’t know we can sing. He reminded us that songs are so powerful they can change the world. Dr. Lose recalled during the Quiet Revolution in Leipzig, before the fall of the Berlin Wall, that in St. Nicholas Church up to 300,000 people were singing songs of hope and justice. Soldiers said there was no contingency plan for prayer or song. What kind of song will we sing about our encounter with others? What kind of song will we give our children when we encounter those who are unlike us? An image of God!