February 2010 HENRY STEELE COMMAGER From the pastor: Sometimes finding common ground with others is difficult. In fact, we seem better equipped to notice unique differences rather than subtle similarities. Yet we share so much in common. We all started out as babies, for example. We all know what it is to be swimming around in a warm pond hooked up with a food and drink snorkel that keeps us fat and sassy all the time. Some of you don’t think you remember this, but it is simply an experience beyond memory that is submerged in your soul. Likewise, we all found our way out of that sweet, perfectly comfortable place. You may not recall kicking your way out, but the stress and strain and determination of that moment is written on your soul, and mine, too. The warm pond was replaced by cold air. We struggled to suck in air rather than fluid. The comforting darkness was replaced by bright lights and a force was twisting, turning, poking and stroking our bodies. We were shocked to discover that, baby, it’s cold outside. The snorkel was cut and something vaguely uncomfortable grew inside our body: hunger began. The steady drumbeat of mama’s heart was replaced by strident sounds coming from here and there; above us; beside us; beyond us. You may not remember these things, but your soul retains the experience; blow by blow account still circling in the soul. “Let me back in!” we cried. “I didn’t know what I was doing! There has been a terrible mistake! I want my mommy!” But it is too late. The snorkel is cut. The passageway is already beginning to close back up. Breathing air has already become an addiction. It will be for the rest of our life. When we kick that addiction, the bucket will topple, too. By the time we are 30 seconds old, we have all shared an experience we will have in common the rest of our lives. I hear the skeptic out there: “I have no memory of this. If it were still “etched on my soul” as you say, why can’t I perceive it?” Oh, I think you can. Tell me please, how do you feel about change? How about if we play musical chairs in worship this Sunday, requiring you to move to the other side of the aisle to get a different perspective on worship? Does that sound good? Psychologists affirm that resistance to change is something we have in common. In fact, feeling like we are being forced to change creates powerful, destructive anger forces to surge to the surface. Consider this: was your first experience of change perceived as good or bad; pleasant or painful; blessing or curse? You don’t know because you can’t remember? Then why do you resist change so strongly, maintain the status quo at all costs? Could it be that your birth experience IS written on your soul? We have that much in common, I think. My first sermon here was entitled “Let’s Get Comfortable.” Those who remained in the long‐winded breezes of that sermon until the bitter end realized how ironically it was titled. Jesus made change a way of life, discomfort a sure expectation. But he was just reminding us of what we discovered in the first 30 seconds outside the womb: life is constant change and often uncomfortable. We all have that resistance to change in common. Paul February 2010
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