It was while on vacation that I met Rob (a fictitious name, but a real person). We had spent a long, leisurely afternoon exploring the wonders of Nantucket, which had let to a chance meeting with Rob and his wife Pat. They were friendly, affable people from the Midwest. Our friendship began with a meandering conversation over lunch and ended on board their boat, moored in one of the cozy marinas on the island.
When the conversation turned to our lives and careers, they learned that I was a minister. Rob began to reflect on his own life’s twists and turns, including his “lover’s quarrel” with the church. He was not a person without faith. In fact, I found him to be an honest and earnest searcher after the truth, sensitive to hypocrisy and insistent that whatever faith he embraced be honest. I liked him instinctively and respected his spirit.
When I asked Rob why he didn’t go to church on Sundays, he readily replied, “I haven’t become active in a church because I have never found a church with passion.” Rob was turned off by much of organized religion. My quip – “That’s why we try to keep some things disorganized!” – didn’t scratch where he itched, but he laughed politely. But something told me that this was a man who was “not far from the Kingdom.” Much of what he objected to were aspects of religion that Jesus or the prophets didn’t care much for either.
But it was his reference to “passion” that has stuck with me over the years since my chance meeting with Rob. His comment has challenged me to think about my work and the life of the institution I serve. Ever since that conversation, I have asked myself, in the midst of the complex life of a large congregation, how much passion drives what we are doing? How passionate am I?
Almost 200 years ago, when we Presbyterians were embroiled in debate over how to act in church, the stodgier members accused those with passion and enthusiasm, even bringing ecclesiastical charges against them. How interesting, given that the roots of the word are en Theos – in God.
I suppose there has always been something about passion that scares us, makes us uneasy. We prefer decency and order. But I wonder how many of us are like Rob – secretly hungering, always searching for a passion, a zeal, even an old-fashioned fervor that comes straight from the heart.
