On my father’s side of the family, my people hail from West Virginia. Due to information not being passed on before the death of elders and the burning of a church that held all the family records, that is a bit of a genealogical dead end otherwise.
My grandfather grew up on a mountain in West Virginia, and like many in his generation his family’s first car was a second-hand Model T. As it turned out, the distinctive qualities of the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia proved to be challenging for Ford’s Tin Lizzie, which were steep enough in places that the car could not climb many of the inclines without the engine bogging down and dying. Those resourceful West Virginians, however, realized quickly that the reverse gearing was lower on the Model T (giving them a mechanical advantage), and that all they had to do was turn around and they could simply reverse their way up the mountains to their homes. Such is the reality that gave my grandfather a prime view for the experience that would in many ways change the rest of his life.
As his family one day rather slowly worked their way backwards up the mountain towards home, my grandfather happened to see what he recognized to be the dust trail of a vehicle approaching the foot of the mountain. But rather than seeing it stop and doing the customary U-turn before backing up, as was customary in these parts, it simply continued without pause. Perhaps an out-of-towner, who simply didn’t understand the realities of these hills?
So his eyes continued to follow the plume of dust, like the Israelites followed the cloud in the wilderness, wondering at what point it would stall out. Frankly, this was far more excitement than was usual on the drive home. But it just kept coming. And it incredibly seemed to be gaining on them, a reality that was denied until it was undeniable — when a sleek vehicle unlike anything he had seen actually came into view…… approached them…… and even passed them…… as it continued up the mountain, and quite impossibly in a FORWARD gear rather than reverse at that! From that day forward, my grandfather had a soft spot for the Ford Model A, and for the way that automobiles and transportation had the ability to completely alter the way we saw and experienced the world. In this particular situation, it was literally a matter of seeing the world backwards and forwards.
In 1960, six days before his 64th birthday, the bluesman Reverend Gary Davis crooned “Great change since I been born.” And indeed anyone who has lived long enough feels this blue truth in their bones. The world is different than it was, in some ways for good and in some ways not. But the Reverend Gary Davis was not singing about external changes in culture or society but internal changes in himself. The verses are filled with lines like: “Things that I used to would do, I don’t do no more,” “A new step in me since I been born,” “Lies that I used to would tell, I don’t tell no more,” and “People that I used to would hate, I don’t hate no more.”
He is testifying to the reality that if we are indeed following Jesus as we are so called to do that we will be changed by our experience of God’s presence and our encounters with grace. And so when we look back on our life, it is indeed possible for us to recognize in us “great change since we’ve been born.” That change — progress in the Jesus kind of life, if you will — will be the result of what I like to call the experiments of the Christian life: our practices of prayer and celebration and meditation and study and worship and service and so on. And if, when we look across the span of our life with Jesus, we do not recognize a “great change since we’ve been born (again),” let us remember that we have an Advocate… a Helper… a Friend… a Partner…… and certainly a church that would like to accompany us on that journey.
Let me know if you’d like to talk about this some more individually. But let me also continue to remind you that this notion of “formation” is a topic that we are going to be exploring in depth and in practice throughout the summer season. I hope you will consider some different ways of stepping out and joining with us in the journey.
Remember, we’re all in this together,
Peace+
Pastor Michael