continuing transition to retirement
Seeking human favour always carried amber warning lights in my ministerial formation. We’ve seen too many examples of fall from grace in the political arena – and church leadership ain’t far from politics!
Yet Luke’s gospel speaks approvingly of Jesus increasing in human favour.
As an Enneagram Six, I am naturally inclined to seeking human favour. In my earlier unaware state, this did me little favour indeed! Compliant, secretive, anxious, afraid of criticism – I was the company “yes” man! While serving my instincts for survival in the human jungle, I quickly discovered this didn’t work in the areas that really mattered – deep relationships with others. Worthwhile ministry quickly plunges one into this territory.
Integrity and transparency were the traits to which I had access to cultivate. They served as antidotes to my unconscious self-preservation strategies. The motive of currying favour to serve myself began to transform into genuine service of others. I don’t see this dynamic receding during retirement.
Reflection on this four-fold increase in Jesus’ development as described in Luke 2:52 suggests that wisdom, stature and divine and human favour are inextricably linked.
In retirement, they can be expressed as goals against which one may establish measures (I refuse to call them KPIs!)
Wisdom – maintain a reading, workshop, lecture program
Stature – work to physical, health and collegial regimes
Divine favour – set regular times for contemplation and continuing spiritual formation
Human favour – continue to seek out opportunities and avenues for service and socialisation.
This is why retirement is looking more like refirement!
Everyone thinks clergy have some secret hotline to God. How does a retiring one increase a state that is already deemed to be “perfect?” Let’s lay that myth to rest.
Stature – now there’s a giggle. The transition has been lifelong – from the skinny, gawky unco-ordinated youth to what I overheard someone describing as that “round little man.” It seems my stature increase has been outward in all the wrong places rather than upward. Daily moderate exercise and lean eating have done little to modify such a transition, yet I continue to attend to both. Sometimes one just has to flow into one’s genes.
At its best, tradition is like a tall sailing ship, navigating the uncharted narrow shoals of postmodern times. Its cargo is the virtues and values that create civilisation. From time to time, its crew has found it necessary to discard outdated, redundant and no longer serviceable jetsam. To navigate unknown shallow waters, the art of “kedging” or “warping” is applied. A dinghy rows forward a small anchor attached to a hawser while simultaneously sounding the depths. The mother ship then hauls itself forward. Rinse and repeat. In this way, the good ship “Tradition” makes its way forward through brave new worlds. When done well, such tall ships are feted and celebrated. (I am indebted to Leonard Sweet and his book, Aquachurch (Group Publishing, 1999) for this helpful concept.)
Across the spectrum of Christian spiritual tradition, from the sacramental to the puritan, fragrance has described the beauty and intimacy of connection with the Divine.
The Hebrew word dabar speaks of the spoken word that is also an action, hence the Creator “spoke” the universe into being, and the fourth gospel writer, blending both Hebrew and Greek consciousness, points to the Word that became flesh and dwelt among us. What word (or Word) lies dormant within you and me?
A friend last week reminded me of the time, some years ago, I saw myself as a boundary rider, looking for and mending holes in fences. It probably suited my maverick-like approach to my work, seeking to be a part of but apart from the communities in which I participated.
Wondering Pilgrim 