Renew

As our time of discernment and transition continues, again we reflect on the question, “What is God calling us to do and to be?” This past week, I felt privileged to listen as people shared some of their hopes and dreams, fears and challenges about the redevelopment journey that we are on as a community.  As previously noted, the board has put forward three key words to help us think about the redevelopment: 

Refresh. Renew. Reignite.

When I contemplate the word renew in the context of redevelopment, I am drawn to the words of the poet Rumi. Talking about the wanderings and returnings that weave their way through the tapestry of life, Rumi writes:

Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing?

I have no idea.

My soul is from elsewhere, I’m sure of that,

and I intend to end up there.

As a human, I am often driven towards achievement, accomplishment, and personal bests—“results oriented” is the phrase used on a resume. The risk, of course, is when one’s significance is tied to performance . If I accomplish this, or do that, or own this, then I can prove that I am worth something. That’s exhausting—for our lives and for our souls. And if manifest within a community in the context of redevelopment, it’s debilitating. As we dream and are called toward big things, where does renewal fit in? Rumi writes that “Whoever brought me here will have to take me home.” 

For us, this means living, resting, breathing, being, dwelling in the Kin-dom of God. I am inspired by the words of Jake Owensby who writes: “The Kingdom is not some distant spiritual realm separate from the world we inhabit. God reigns with love. Where love animates us, that is the Kingdom of God. Yes, that Kingdom stretches into eternity. But it begins right here. Right now. Jesus teaches us to walk the way of love in order to bring the Kingdom of God near. To bring God’s reign to our neighborhood, to our school, to our workplace, and to our supermarket. To bring it near to the broken-hearted, the neglected, the despised, and the destitute. In other words, Jesus teaches us to let his love express itself in our actions. With our hands and our feet, with our votes and our checkbooks. His love restores, renews, and remakes a world debased by violence, prejudice, and greed. Heals a world wounded by hunger, oppression, and suffering. To put it differently, Jesus urges us to live in this world as the place that God is returning to the dream that God had for it in the first place. The place where love reigns.” (Jake Owensby, Looking for God in Messy Places).

A renewed people in a renewed world…could it be? I, for one, offer an emphatic and heartfelt yes. As we journey in and towards redevelopment, as layers of our individual and collective stories are peeled away, we rediscover and live our story anew.  Not the story of who friends say you are. Not the story of who family says that you are. Not the story of who bosses or higherups, or advertisers, or church experts, or the world, say you are. But the story of who your Creator says you are, and who our Creator says that we are. Therein, I think, lies what some call enlightenment. Some call freedom. Others, renewal. 

Everybody is worthy of love and safety and belonging. And we each have a place at St. Peter’s, not through accomplishment or merit, but as beloved children of God. Whether in the context of redevelopment or beyond, maybe true renewal comes when we let God be God. This leads to great freedom which allows us to be our truest selves as we journey together towards the amazing things that God has in store. 

I am grateful that, throughout this journey, we continue to listen deeply to one another as we ask challenging questions and contemplate our future.   “Our path is long and uneven,” says Owensby, “[and] we will endure detours and setbacks.” But, with the words of Rumi and Owensby ringing in my ears I tell you, the one who brought us to 49 Queen Street North in downtown Kitchener will bring us home.

Onward,

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