Thursday, 15 August, 2002

The lead piece is from "Amazing Grace by Kathleen Norris. In this book she takes many of the words and images of the faith and attempts to put some reality and life to them.



PENTECOSTAL (part 2 of 2)

Religious prejudice does so much damage in the world, and is so pervasive, that I find it instructive when my own prejudices get knocked about...

It was an unexpected friendship with an Assembly of God pastor that finally caused my stereotype of Pentecostal Christians to crumble. Like most prejudices, they were based on shallow assumptions and incomplete information. I had always equated Pentecostalism with fundamentalism, and this pastor's biblical scholarship was not that of a fundamentalist. I had expected him to be moralistic and judgmental, but he did not reject me or my husband. The fact that we were poets had attracted him, and also that we considered poetry to be primarily oral. He saw connections between poetry and the orality and spontaneity of Pentecostal worship, connections I found fascinating. To value experience over credentials, the sound of words (or tongues) over what is written on paper, to attune oneself to, as he put it, "the good, the grace that comes by way of the unexpected, the 'not qualified,'" made sense to me. The way he spoke of grace reminded me of what William Stafford once said about inspiration. He compared it to fishing, to being receptive (and humble) enough to accept whatever nibble comes along.



This piece has taken me to where I do not want to go. I'm not a very gracious participant when it comes to taking part in conversations with Pentecostals. Maybe it is because I let those "shallow assumptions" swell into my own notion of truth. But somewhere in those conversations, there are those moments in which the Spirit does push me into seeing and hearing in a new way. Those moments are not enough for me to give up the faith tradition that is a source of inspiration and guidance for me in my own life, but it does point to the one I call Creator and Lord...and therefore, I am pressed to listen to what may surprise me with a word of grace. That word of grace may be the qualifier onto which I hold...the bottom line...the anchor. For if the amazing, life renewing, open wide the doors of the Reign of God...grace is present, I'll listen to more of what I usually would simply turn off.



Connection: Some days, we must simply be willing to be upended and see our life experiences from a new perspective...and not simply trust what has been the lens through which we have been looking at the world for all these years.



Grant us this day, O God, a full measure of patience and ears to hear your grace expressed in many ways by your saints - all of them. Encourage us to dwell within your graceful reign as people who actually live with other with just such grace and attention. Amen.