Keeping the Faith in the Interim Time;
Thoughts, Views and Opinions from your Interim Vicar
“Tradition! Tradition! Tradition! Tradition!”
“Fiddler on the Roof”: a great musical for the whole family. Its lessons hit us right between the eyes! I am talking about the story of Tevye, the Jewish dairyman, his family and their lives in the little “shtetl” (village) of Anatevka, somewhere in pre-Soviet Russia.
Tevye would like time to stand still, for things to remain as they always have been. But in the story of Tevye and his family the world begins to impose itself on them. One daughter falls in love with a poor tailor, the other with a young anarchist and revolutionary, and another falls in love with a Russian gentile man, bringing shame to Tevye and Golde, his wife, for breaking tradition and marrying outside the Jewish faith. Things are changing rapidly for Tevye and his village. Events over which he has no control will sweep him away from the familiar world which he has known all his life.
And so it goes with our Church! We find that the old familiar ways that we thought would never change are moving and changing faster than we can handle them. Old traditions give way to new traditions … it has always been so in the life of the Church. Just think how difficult it must have been for those very first Christians who believed that in order to be a “Christian” one must obey all of the Jewish laws, the laws of kasruth, or kosher laws regarding food, the rite of circumcision for all males, and the purification rites for women. But St. Paul, raised as a strict Pharisaic Jew, believed that Jesus’ sacrifice of himself on the cross brought atonement for sins for all peoples and that it was no longer necessary to follow the strict rules which made daily living as an observant Jew so difficult to do.
Paul turned everything upside down, the other apostles said. Why was he doing this? Well, Paul said that Jesus’ revelation to him, on the road to Damascus, convinced him that the Good News of Jesus Christ was to bring salvation and God’s grace to all peoples, with the emphasis on “all”. Paul saw himself as the Apostle to the Gentiles, the one who would bring God’s love, God’s forgiveness, and God’s powerful spirit to the people who were outside the Jewish covenant. He wrote of the Gentiles and all believers as being adopted into the covenant of Abraham and just as entitled to a special relationship with God as were the Jews. No less than full rights and responsibilities as God’s children were given to the Gentiles for their faith in the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Savior for all people.
Well, it is hard to live during times of change and transition. But when we learn to see God’s hand leading us to new opportunities and new possibilities, we begin to trust in him and the “Promised Land” to which we are going. Transition is like that … bumpy and rocky! Sometimes we can’t clearly see where we are heading. If we are to be people of faith we need to know that God is working his purpose out for us even though we can’t always see clearly what that purpose is!
Our Transition Committee is finishing up its work of self-study and is deep in writing the profile which will describe St. Philip the Apostle Episcopal Church in Scotts Valley as the unique place it is. A faith community with real attractions for those who would be candidates for our new vicar! Then the Search Committee will see that the Parish Profile is circulated and will begin the awesome and wonderful task of screening candidates and visiting them at their home locations. And finally, a call will be made to the lucky priest who will be with you as new “traditions” are being made and another chapter in the exciting history of St. Philip’s is being written!
Please thank the members of the Transition Committee for all their hard work and pray for the members of the Search Committee as they begin their tasks.
May the Peace of God which passes all understanding be with all of you!
Your faithful servant in the Lord,
The Reverend Barry Miller
