March 26 Update from Scott Lumsden
Seattle Presbytery
On Ghosts
With spring officially here, I suppose it’s time to talk about spring cleaning. In our house right now that means the time has finally come to bite the bullet and get rid of the clutter that is taking up most of our basement. But why is it so hard to face? Why can’t I just go down there and get it done? Probably because all of those “things” down there once meant something to me and I have to deal with the emotional reality that things have changed -- I’ve changed, my family has changed, and those things don’t mean the same to us anymore.
In the same way, churches and organizations from time to time are faced with a similar dilemma. After years of dealing with signs that things have changed: the inability to get things done, the nagging inefficiencies of their structure, the drift and/or malaise that has set in with their leaders and volunteers, and the lack of clarity around their mission -- many organizations choose to reorganize or restructure. But they too have to face those same emotional realities of their organization -- who they’ve been, who they are now, and who they are becoming -- to successfully navigate an organizational “spring cleaning.”
Ghosts are a strange thing in the bible. The disciples see Jesus walking on the water and scream out like they’ve seen a ghost (Mt 14:26, Mk 6:49). After the resurrection, they were similarly frightened at Jesus’ appearance before them, “thinking they saw a ghost;” to which Jesus replies that “a ghost doesn’t have flesh and bones as you see that I have” (Lk 24:37, 39). And in one of the more interesting passages in the Old Testament, Saul, in a panic disguises himself and consults a medium to seek Samuel’s advice, who the scriptures describe as a “ghostly figure coming up out of the earth,” (The whole process of consulting the dead being expressly prohibited by Deuteronomy 18:10-11.)
What strikes me in these passages, is that: 1). ghosts are acknowledged as a reality (more or less); 2). ghosts are not a negative thing or necessarily to be feared, though their appearance can surprise and shock us; and most to the point for this little reflection, 3) ghosts are reminders of what was once a living, present, meaningful reality to us but is now gone.
Whether life is asking us to live into new realities, our languishing organization is begging for reorganization, or our basement needs a purge -- these ghosts of the past may leap out and scare us -- but they shouldn't. Those old ways are not the enemy, they are in fact a friendly reminder to us of how things have changed. We are different now -- we’ve grown -- and it’s time to live into who we are becoming, rather than hold on to who we’ve been. Who we were in the past worked then, but not now -- the challenge now is to live into who we are becoming and discern the best path forward.
Obviously we are on a journey, thanks be to God, toward the resurrection and new life. And on that journey are called to grow day by day into the person and people Christ is calling us to be. A part of that journey means facing what is old and no longer working, so that we can embrace the new things God might be calling us to do.
Peace,
Rev. Scott Lumsden
Co-Executive Presbyter
Hosted by University PC: COVID-19 Update: Regathering and Vaccinations Webinar
Hear from a team of local churches on how they have worked together in developing a set of shared principles and guidelines that are being used to build plans that consider each church’s unique situation.
The panel discussion was guided by Dr. Daniel Chin, UPC Elder with panelist members Pastor Laurie Brenner, Westside Presbyterian Church (WSPC); Pastor James Broughton, Damascus International Fellowship (DIF); Dr. Elton Lee, Evangelical Chinese Church (ECC); and Atsuko Tamura, University Presbyterian Church (UPC).