March 6thBeing Interrupted
I’ve been reading a book called Being Interrupted (Barrett & Harley). It’s an excellent book, if not what I expected, but when I’m not reading the book it sits on my coffee table with the main title reminding me to think about Being Interrupted.
We often think of being interrupted as a negative thing. Being interrupted when you’re speaking takes away your voice or agency, being interrupted at work takes you away from the task at hand, being interrupted in travel might leave you stranded with a missed connection; being interrupted is hardly every thought of as a good thing. But we all know that life happens, and part of life happening is that our plans get interrupted. This past Sunday the service plans at Calgary First Mennonite Church were interrupted when our pastor came down with the stomach flu.
The worship ministry worked to pivot in a way that would keep our Lenten series intact; a series that focuses on the moments of Peter’s faith journey with Jesus. We came up with an alternate to a sermon and added a hymn in the interest of time. With the focus of the Sunday being mountain-top moments of faith, I chose the hymn “Mountain of God” and it was late Saturday, after all the alternate plans had been made, that I realised that this hymn didn’t really speak to the theme despite “mountain” being in the title. Too late, I thought, I’ll find some way to introduce the song that makes it work. In the end I didn’t have to work very hard at all because God was working in our interruption. One of our youngest congregants, Robin, just 5 years old, had created a painting to use in our display. In telling me about it, Robin told me that Jesus is on top of a mountain, and the large grey circle surrounding Jesus is God going out from the mountain. Robin had, in her childlike inspiration, provided the link that brought the elements of our interrupted service together. God works in our interruptions.
Last week I spoke on Matthew 14:22-33 where Jesus calls Peter out onto the water to walk to Him. In a great expression of faith and bravery, Peter steps out of the boat, but before he gets to Jesus he is distracted, interrupted in his focus, by the wind and the waves around him. While we often think of this as a story of Peter’s doubt, my sermon focused instead on Jesus. When Peter falters, Jesus is right there to reach out a hand to catch him. While Peter is tentatively walking towards Jesus, Jesus is still coming towards Peter, coming close enough to catch Peter when he gets interrupted in his walk. God is there in our interruptions. When our life gets interrupted by the storms, or the stomach flu, or any number of things that intrude on our daily lives, let us remember that God is there and working in our being interrupted.