DE Ponderings by Kevin Kessler

Above all, trust in the slow work of God. We are quite naturally impatient to reach the end without delay. We would like to skip the intermediate stages. We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new. And yet, it is the law of all progress that it is made by passing through some stages of instability—and that it may take a very long time.
— Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

After reading the quote above I concluded that God doesn’t need to be in a hurry. There is all of eternity for God to work. Maybe this explains the impatience of humanity. We have only a brief time to work in this life, so let’s hurry up and get things done. But if humanity is part of God’s work that takes time to develop into what God has planned, then there really isn’t a need to be impatient. What may be more appropriate is finding joy in what we are able to accomplish, be it little or much, in the time we are allotted on earth. Or would it be better to say that we find joy in what God accomplishes through us.

Later on in de Chardin’s prayer he says, “Only God could say what this new spirit gradually forming within you will be. Give Our Lord the benefit of believing that his hand is leading you, and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete.”

Believing that God leads us, we can accept the anxiety of suspense and feeling incomplete. Why? Because God is leading. It’s God’s work; in God’s time.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s prayer is, for me, affirmation that the matters we face in the church today that seem to have a sense of urgency attached to them may be better engaged by slowing down and not getting ahead of God. Besides, this seems to be a Church of the Brethren way of moving forward.

I either read or heard it said that in the past decisions in the Church of the Brethren emerged slowly, sometimes over a period of several Annual Conferences (or Yearly or Annual Meetings as they were called then). In my search to locate where I had gleaned such knowledge, I perused Donald Durnbaugh’s book, Fruit of the Vine. In it he writes about church polity beginning with this sentence: “Because Brethren emerged in reaction to a highly organized and bureaucratized state church, they were slow (emphasis added) to develop a carefully articulated church government.” There is in Durnbaugh’s statement a sense that the church deliberately took their time to make wise decisions. Implied is that moving too rapidly could derail the Church of the Brethren movement whereby it might move in unwanted directions.

My research on Annual Conferences decisions also led me to Annual Meeting minutes. A query in 1896 from the Milledgeville congregation asked that inconsistencies be removed with regard to the Brethren being able to wear modern styles of clothing and retaining membership but the wearing of hats by sisters was made a test of fellowship. The query was sent to committee to be brought back to the Annual Meeting in 1897. The answer given in 1897 included the following statement: “The inconsistency exists to some slight extent, resulting from a violation of the decisions of Annual Meeting. Upon examination seventy-four decisions (emphasis added) covering the various phases of nonconformity to the world in dress and in adorning the body are found on our Minutes.” Slow might very well describe the process of discerning appropriate dress among the Brethren and the ways in which remaining in fellowship was tested as a result.

I wonder if some of the matters we face in our district today cause anxiety partly because we are unable to quickly discern answers or responses. As a result, we are in suspense and we feel incomplete. I suspect the early Brethren were no different when they dealt with weighty matters that took time, if not years, to resolve or at least find common purpose to move forward. Our predecessors did their part, as anxious as they were, to engage in the slow work of God. We can do our part, as anxious as we are, to engage in the slow work of God confident that the incompleteness of the work as we perceive it will continue because it is God’s work. And my assumption is that God will be present with our successors in their anxiety, leading them along just as we have been led.

It’s okay to admit we are anxious. Remember, though, God is leading us; not our anxiety. As de Chardin reminds us, “Give Our Lord the benefit of believing that his hand is leading you, and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete.”