Let’s Make Some Mayonnaise! (or Why I am Presbymergent)
by David Robertson
One of my hobbies is cooking. I love taking fresh, beautiful ingredients and making dishes that bring a smile to the face of my wife, my kids, and my friends. Although I’m not a very good cook, I approach it with a foolish enthusiasm. For the last several years, I’ve been fascinated by the idea of an emulsion. In cooking terms, it’s a combination of two things that don’t want to be together, like oil and water or oil and vinegar. It requires considerable chemistry, as well as a pretty good technique, to make an emulsion happen.
Being Emergent and Presbyterian often feels like trying to create an emulsion.
I am Presbyterian both by inheritance and by intention. My father was a Presby pastor, and on my mother’s side, I am the 4th generation of Presbyterian elder. That’s the inheritance part. I went to a Roman Catholic high school, and my spiritual mentor during my college years was a Lutheran pastor. But I remained Presbyterian. That’s the intentional part.
I love our denomination’s requirement that pastors be well-educated. I love our thoughtful polity (as clunky as it is much of the time). I love, in theory, the connectional nature of the denomination. Mostly, though, I love my church. I have been a member of this church for 19 years. I was ordained an elder there in 1991, married there in 1993, and both of my daughters were baptized there, surrounded by people we love and who love us.
So that’s the oil. What about the vinegar?
In 2004, I started reading books by Dan Kimball, Brian McLaren, and Doug Pagitt. I found a connection with people who were experiencing some of the same hopes, frustrations, and dreams as I was. They described a new way of following Jesus that was immediately both recognizable and life-giving to me. The emergent conversation didn’t so much introduce me to new ideas as it gave me a vocabulary for talking about the God dreams that were already in my mind and soul.
The emergent conversation has enriched my life as a follower of Jesus in many, diverse ways. It has given me permission to think about fundamental issues of doctrine in new and challenging ways: What happened in the atonement? What/where is the kingdom of God? Is the trinity the only/best way of understanding the nature of God? How can I follow Jesus? (Not as a member of a church, but as part of the entire community of people who want to follow Jesus?) How can I live my life, understanding that I am living in the Kingdom of God? It’s a huge change for this 4th-generation Presbyterian, and it has made my connection to my local church more difficult and complicated.
So I am Presbyterian by heritage and experience, and emergent because this conversation is drawing me nearer to God, in so many ways. At the recent Mainline Emergent/s conference, I was drawn nearer to God simply by being with fellow Presbys who are feeling many of the same things.
Obviously, the PCUSA is in a hard place. We are torn by internal strife and ignored by the culture that used to pay attention to us. So we keep issuing press releases and holding General Assemblies and hoping the world will spin backwards to 1955. But it doesn’t, and so these are hard days.
I am emergent, in that I am questioning and listening and trying to follow God in the way of Jesus. And I am Presbyterian, by hanging in with my local church, which is filled with wonderful people and draws on a proud heritage. Where we go from here is anyone’s guess, but I feel more hopeful and excited and faithful than I have ever felt. Let’s keep following Jesus, wherever He leads.
My first few times of making mayonnaise failed miserably. But once it worked . . . well, consider yourself invited to our house for BLT salad. It’s a wonderful combination of bacon, lettuce, tomatoes, toast, and homemade mayonnaise. It tastes so good, you’ll find yourself thanking God for oil and vinegar.
Comment by RPS on 20 February 2007:
What an image / metaphor! I’ll go it a bit further: Oil and Vinegar actually work… when they are continually / often shaken. It’s only when they sit still in a cruet together that they separate / segregate. Maybe we’re sitting a bit too still? Not allowing for the shaking of God’s energy imposed upon the inevitable entropy that happens when we leave it to ourselves?
Comment by Tom Robinson on 21 February 2007:
Thanks, David, for your neat metaphor - it got me to thinking: Yes, we are not the influence in society we once were, but is that necessarily a bad thing? I was wondering especially about worship - when we gather to worship God, how does your metaphor come alive in people being together, with all of their different viewpoints? How can the oil and vinegar combine in wonderful ways? How have you experienced that?
Comment by Jan Edmiston on 21 February 2007:
What an awesome post. I’ve always been a “hold the mayo” kind of person but you’ve converted me.
Your story does the same. Thanks -
Pingback by Presbymergent Retrospective, 2007 : presbymergent on 1 January 2008:
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