PERSPECTIVES
A good lesson on the beach
L
AST week, as I write, I took a leaf out of the book of a two year old boy with regards to being in the moment, relaxing and enjoying the present as fully as possible. I was at the beach, sitting in my beach chair and watching this little boy running in and out of the sea trying to fill a big hole with the water he was trying to catch in a cold drink can. He utterly loved running into the water, almost rolling into it, because he barely managed to stay on his two feet, then scooping up the water and running and stumbling back to the hole he made in the sand and just depositing something like three drops of water into the hole. He thoroughly enjoyed doing this for a long time, and he kicked and screamed when his mom eventually tried to stop him because it was getting late and she wanted to take him home. Before I went to the beach I already thought of what else I could have done at home, and pondered what I could have prepared for the coming week by staying at home. On my way to the beach my head was full of what else needed to be done—meetings to attend, activities to organise, and so on—and I was feeling all the tensions that go with such a state of mind. So just watching this small boy gave me so much pleasure; it took me out of my world and into his carefree, relaxing, in-the-moment world of gratification. What he was doing showed me how to let go, to relax and enjoy the moment. Why is this an important lesson?
This habit of constantly doing without being, working without relaxing and busyness throughout the day, comes from our notion that relaxing is wasting time, and we therefore want to do more and more giving us the idea that we are achieving more. Nothing could be further from the truth. When we relax and enjoy, we rejuvenate and we re-energise and we prepare ourselves to be able to achieve better the next time. As some leadership experts would say, we sharpen our saw. There is a story told of two woodcut-
Finding love in unity
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NE day in the 1960s I travelled by car from Pretoria to Durban. Along the way I picked up a young hitchhiker. When he learned that I was studying to become a minister, he said that he was not a Christian and glad about it. “You know”, he said, “when I look at Christians I feel like somebody standing on a balcony, looking down on the street and all I see are Christians fighting each other.” This was my first experience of being sensitised about the divisions among Christians. In those days it was fairly common that Christians competed on who had the better grasp of the biblical message and truth about God. Each of us thought that our doctrines were better than those of other Christians and that our particular church was superior. Many believed that they had the inside lane to heaven, to quote John Grisham. During my ministry I gradually came to appreciate that God’s emphasis and requirement for his Church was not so much how eloquently we can formulate our doctrines, but how we give expression to the unity we have as the family of God; an expression of love, caring and compassion for our brothers and sisters in Christ—irrespective of denominational boundaries. I became aware of how we lack this love. In my previous congregation we decided that each Sunday evening we would invite a representative of one of the other churches to come and introduce their church to us. We said: “Come and share
with us what the nature and identity of your church is and how you would like us to perceive you.” What a blessing this was! Our members discovered how our common faith in the Lord Jesus was more important than our differences. One of these speakers was a priest of the Catholic Church. In his summary at the end of the evening, after discussing issues on which we differ, he said: “Mike asked me to tell you how you would like to see us. I will be so thankful if you see me tonight as just another child of God who dearly loves Jesus Christ and wants to serve him!” Now, there you have the basis of our unity! Another outstanding experience we had, was in the 1990s, after the transition to the new South Africa. We invited Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu to preach in our church. Here was a man who was maligned by the Afrikaans press and politicians, preaching to a congregation of Afrikaans speaking intelligentsia. He had the ideal opportunity to get back at them. Instead he preached on the theme “God loves you!” He said: “During the horrible years of apartheid, this is the message I preached to my black brothers and sisters. What a privilege to now also preach it to my white Afrikaans brothers and sisters!” After the sermon, my colleague went on to the pulpit and said: “I speak as an Afrikaans dominee of the Dutch Reformed Church, a part-time chaplain of
Judith Turner
On Faith and Life
ters who went into the forest early in the morning. Both started high up in a tree and started sawing down their trees at the same time. The one woodcutter noticed how the other woodcutter would go down to the ground at regular intervals, come up again, saw for a while, go back down and come up again and so it continued throughout the day. He, on the other hand, remained in his tree, working hard throughout the day cutting down his tree. At the end of the day the woodcutter noticed that his friend who went down at regular intervals had managed to cut down much more of the tree than he had. He was very surprised by this and asked his friend how he had managed to cut down more of his tree than he could, seeing that he left the tree so many times to go down to the ground. His friend replied to him that every time he went down, he sharpened his saw. What is in this story for us? Doing more does not mean being more. Let’s take regular time out of our busy lives and be quiet, relax and enjoy. It revives us. We must not depend so much on our own efforts alone, but be guided by God’s Spirit to take us to fresh and green pastures where he gives us repose. Near restful waters he will lead us, to revive our drooping spirits.
Dominee Mike Smuts
New Vines, New Skins: An ecumenical series
the army. I now want to say to Bishop Tutu: I am so sorry for what we have done.” At this stage he broke down and could not continue. Archbishop Tutu went to him and hugged him. Then something unheard of in a staid Dutch Reformed church happened: everybody stood up and applauded them, tears running down many cheeks. Unity happens when Christians value the love of God and the love he commands, higher than their differences and divisive histories; especially when Christian love compels us to forgive as he forgave us. Creating divisions and maintaining it is part of our sinful nature. The Bible gives many examples of such divisions. In the time of Jesus deep divisions existed among the Jewish peoples. Even the apostle Paul experienced great pain because of divisions within the first churches. He warned that such behaviour is tantamount to dividing Christ Himself. The Afrikaans translation says: “Is Christus dan in stukke verdeel?” (1Cor 1:13) Therefore he pleaded: “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Eph 4) May God show each of us how we can obey this command! n Mike Smuts is a retired Dutch Reformed Minister in Boesmansriviermond, Eastern Cape.
The Southern Cross, February 15 to February 21, 2012
7
Michael Shackleton
Open Door
May we dip the sacred host in wine? In my home parish, when receiving Communion we are allowed to dip the sacred host into the chalice (with the permission of the local bishop). I was embarrassed at Christmas Eve Mass in Pretoria when an extraordinary minister of Communion withdrew the chalice from me and said: “That is not allowed.”. I replied that it was allowed in my church. She then repeated: “Well, it’s not allowed in this diocese.” I slunk back to my seat chastened. Others had the same experience that night, so it seems I am not alone in my confusion. What exactly are the rules of the Church? H van Waltsleven
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T the Last Supper, Jesus handed bread and wine changed into his Body and Blood and physically gave them to his Apostles with the words: “Take and eat” and Take and drink”. In the same way, the priest or other authorised minister of the Eucharist, presents the host and the chalice to the communicants who take, eat and drink. Communion can be received only in this manner. The General Instruction on the Roman Missal does not permit communicants to “selfcommunicate”, that is, help themselves from the ciborium and chalice. They must take the sacrament from the hands of the minister, and say: “Amen”. When you say “we are allowed to dip the sacred host into the chalice”, you imply that the communicants receive the host and dip it into the chalice themselves. If so, this is not allowed. When Communion is given in this form, known as intinction, the Instruction states that “each communicant, holding a communion plate under the chin, approaches the priest who holds a vessel with the sacred particles, a minister standing at his side and holding the chalice. The priest takes a host, dips it partly into the chalice and, showing it, says: ‘The Body and Blood of Christ’. The communicant responds Amen, receives the sacrament in the mouth from the priest, and then withdraws” (287). It is because of the danger of spilling drops of the Precious Blood that the Instruction mentions only a priest as minister of intinction, and says a communion plate or paten must be held under the communicant’s chin. The diocesan bishop may establish norms for communion under both kinds (host and chalice separately or by intinction) in his own diocese. These norms could depend on sufficient priests to do so in one diocese, and not enough in another.
n Send your queries to Open Door, Box 2372, Cape Town, 8000; or e-mail: opendoor@scross.co.za; or fax (021) 465 3850. Anonymity can be preserved by arrangement, but questions must be signed, and may be edited for clarity. Only published questions will be answered.
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