Adventures in Chaos
Dear People, Neighbours, and Friends of St. Thomas’s,
For the third year in a row, my family spent a week with dear friends on Keuka Lake in the Finger Lakes region of Upstate New York. In prior years, we had passed our lake time swimming and kayaking, but this year, our hosts had become the proud owners of a new (to them) speedboat. The couple, whom Anne has known since undergrad days, has a teenaged daughter. She wanted to show our teens how to use the towable tube—a large covered innertube with handles that can be connected via a long rope to the back of a boat, such as the specimen pictured, which you can obtain at Canadian Tire and other fine retailers.
Hang onto the handles. This is going to be a bumpy ride!
The action photo is not from our vacation (our friends’ boat is way cooler), but it’s a good illustration of this form of recreation.
For illustrative purposes only.
The three teenagers took turns riding on the towable tube on their stomachs, gripping the handles as our friend steadily increased speed until the tube was bouncing along off the boat’s wake. After each of our adolescent adventurers had had a turn, they turned to me. Would I care to join in the fun?
A few minutes later, I was being pulled along at high speed, holding onto the handles for dear life.
The sensation was exactly what I experience every Sunday as the rector of St. Thomas’s, Huron Street, but with spray instead of smoke. And a life jacket rather than a chasuble.
Being your priest is always an adventure. Admittedly, it’s not necessarily an adrenaline rush or a dopamine high all the time, but there is a borderline chaotic sense of uncertainty to ministry, as there is to life in general. Sometimes all one can do is hang on and try to enjoy the ride.
And of course, in the matter of parish life, we trust that God is piloting the speedboat.
I’ve contrived this metaphor somewhat facetiously, of course, but I’m not entirely joking. There is some truth to it. It is very true that when we don’t know where it will all end, we must put our trust in God. Not that God will ensure smooth sailing, but that God will work redemptively to bring life out of chaos, just as God did at the beginning of creation.
“Chaos” may be too strong a word to apply to parish ministry, but the unpredictable nature and outcomes of our endeavours, I believe, are in accordance with the more scientific notion of Chaos Theory, where a system may look random, even when it is governed by predictable principles. And the results are not predictable at all. In this sense, we all live with chaos.
These musings set me on another towable tube adventure, this time surfing the Internet. I came across an article from 1997 entitled Theological Reflections on Chaos Theory, whose author sets out to demonstrate that “far from being a threat to a biblical understanding of providence, chaos theory can be seen as a new avenue for appreciating both the limitations of human ability to predict the future and the complexity and richness of God’s creative power.” Reading up on Chaos Theory certainly made me appreciate my own limitations in understanding complex mathematical and scientific scholarly literature. But it did make me reflect that in many ways, the spiritual life entails coming to terms with the chaotic nature of lived reality.
And how do we come to terms with this reality in the church? Short answer: through our participation in the chaotic rhythms of parish life. On Sunday, I’ll be preaching more about my reflections on parish life. Which reminds me: I have a sermon to finish! So I’ll wrap up these chaotic ruminations by expressing my gratitude to Fr. Micah, Alix Arnett, John Fraser, Manny Piazza, David Kent, Alison Juurinen, and Rob Kennedy for providing their reflections on parish life in these (web)pages while I was away tubing on a lake. To them and to all of you: thanks for holding on and hanging tight while I was away. The rope is long, the wake is bumpy, and the ride is always better for your company. See you Sunday, I hope—or perhaps you’ll see us via livestream!
Yours in Christ’s service,
Nathan J.A. Humphrey+
VIII Rector
