I like this picture of the pig stuck in the mud because that's how I feel most of the time, stuck! Surely you have felt the same way too, at least once in a while. If you are saying, "no, not me" well, I think you're lying, we all have been in tough situations. Following my post yesterday about new ways of Church life I feel that many of us in Church/Parish land feel stuck. Some communities are doing some great creative and innovative things in their parish communities, doing some great work and really following the gospel. Yet many of us in Church land feel stuck. We have have some great ideas, new ways of doing things perhaps and we share these ideas with the people around us. And we share and share and share and we realize after a while NO ONE IS LISTENING! Now that should make anyone feel stuck!
So many pastors have tried new ways of doing things in worship, singing new hymns perhaps or creating new ways of connections and community in parish life. Pastors have tried new ways of being community whether it is creating small groups or new ways of financial giving. Yet there is little if no response. People are busy. People are not interested; yada, yada, yada............
Most people like the tried and true the old and familiar. They are scared of new and different. When they hear the word "new" or "innovative" or "creative" ikes, they run the other way!
Yet when reading Acts and Paul we see a new message being preached, that finally, after hundreds of years God sent his Son into the world to save it. The messiah has come! One may think that everyone was happy and excited and thrilled about this good news. Yea, right. What do we read. Yes, some people were interested and thrilled, but most people kept on doing what they were doing not interested at all. They turned a deaf ear.
I wonder, did Paul or Peter feel stuck? Maybe so. All I know is that I feel stuck most of the time, maybe this is part of being a pastor, one foot in this world and one foot in the world yet to come. One eye on earth and one eye on heaven, meanwhile, we are stuck in the middle of two worlds.
Oh well, at least I try getting out of the mud once in a while :)
