A bigger WE and who is YOU?

I've been musing on the significance of pronouns. In his sermon at the Comer United Methodist Church on World Communion Sunday, Jonathon Wilson-Hartgrove used the phrase “a bigger WE.” The text was Jeremiah 29:4-7, where YHWH tells the people of Israel, exiled to Babylon, to settle in there and pray for the welfare of the place. Just like then, diverse groups of people are still coming together because of warfare and other horrendous conditions. As God's children, we are called to become a bigger WE than has previously existed.

And another pronoun. A few weeks ago, we Jubilee volunteers played a game called Win as Much as You Can. Participants play as a team, but within the team are decision-making pairs. The purpose of the game is to acquaint participants with the merits of competition and collaboration. I've seen this game played many times and competition tends to dominate, though collaboration is a clear choice. In debriefing the process, the primary question is who is YOU? The whole team or the pairs? The highest total score is attained by including everybody in the definition of YOU. Apply globally to get the lesson of the game.

And have you ever thought how easily attitudes and talk and actions can transform groups of people into US and THEM? Hmm... barriers identified, injected, oh, so subtly.

And then there's SHE-HE. As a young student learning grammar before the feminism of the 1960s, I wasn't particularly bothered by using HE generically when gender was unknown; I just thought it was weird. I appreciate inclusive language, though, using S/HE, or SHE OR HE, or alternating pronouns. To me, this inclusive approach is appropriate and refreshing. 

One more. IT in Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, is the villain, evil itself, and turns out to be a naked, disembodied brain. Though she hadn't consciously named it IT, Madeleine agreed with a reader's observation that IT “stands for Intellectual Truth as opposed to a truth which involves the whole of us, heart as well as mind... the intellect, when it is not informed by the heart, is evil.”

A bigger WE and who is YOU?  Fun with pronouns.

Slow down, you move too fast...even at Jubilee!

            Remember Paul Simon's free and easy tune Feelin' Groovy? (Also known as The 59^th Street Bridge Song, I just discovered)  Slow down, you move too fast. You got to make the morning last...and so on, lazily kicking cobble stones, talking to a lamppost, watching flowers grow. I have been invoking the opening line as an admonition to myself lately, invoking it in surprise, as I had expected the Jubilee life to move more slowly and be less busy. Nope, and now I'm wondering why I ever thought it would be. Because of the pastoral setting, perhaps, and the daily times for reflection and worship (which are helpful, but still), and the simpler life style minimizing errands and appointments. At any rate, I was wrong!

            One reason for my misconception is obvious. This is important work here, and there is great seriousness about doing it, in the spirit of  “God's work, our hands."* Our 40-hour work week is the beginning point. After hours—after the teaching and driving, cooking and cleaning, planting and harvesting—we have fun getting to know the refugee families better and gather for Bible study or work on projects.

            Another reason for this busyness has bushwhacked me. Somehow, I didn't expect it, even though it is common to any setting:  opportunities. Relevant events—movies and lectures— often associated with the University of Georgia in Athens. Jubilee friends and visitors telling about their adventures. Card games. Adorable children to play with. Scintillating conversations.

            Encompassed in the opportunities is the people factor. Always, people around, who, for this extrovert, present wonderful times of connection and enjoyment, and sometimes they need a little help, or give it. And encompassed in the people factor are family and friends at a distance, and that communication takes time, too.

            We are not like the groovy guy in the song. He's got no deeds to do, mo promises to keep. No, it is not like that here at all. Therefore, just like always, management is required. Set priorities, make choices. Doing so has never been my forté. I want it all. Nevertheless, even though busier than I wish, my soul sings along with the closing of the song, slightly altered:  Life, I love you. All is holy.

*credo of the ELCA