Hope’s Corner: The Yoke Is One Me

This coming Sunday my church, First Congregational Church United Church of Christ, will begin to yoke with Dickinson United Methodist Church. In church terms, this means we wish to share our resources — our time and talents — as well as our building. We will worship together and share our pastors with one another, but we keep our individual denominations and governing boards. We will be like two oxen yoked together. One ox alone might be a clumsy ox. But when that ox gets yoked with another ox, they pull together and can do a whole lot of good things. Much more than either could do alone. Like pull a wagonload of tourists around a pioneer village. But first, the oxen need to figure out how to work together. So, we are in a period of discernment. Discernment means trying to understand something. And in church terms, it means trying to understand divine will and to make decisions to move forward in accordance with that will. That is powerful stuff. And right now, at the beginning of this new relationship, I kinda sorta feel like a clumsy ox. I am eager to put on the yoke because I know we will be able to do so many wonderful things. Wonderful things that would be difficult, if not impossible, for one clumsy ox to do on her own. I have an uncanny ability to trip over my own feet, over cracks on the patio, and over shadows on the basement steps. And even when I am yoked with my Methodist friends, I still will occasionally slip off the organ bench and onto the pedals. But there will be more people to pull me up and dust me off. Yes, sliding off the organ bench happens to me with regularity. I have short legs. Most organs are designed for people who are at least five-foot eight, with size eight feet. I have short feet as well. Whenever I play “For All the Saints” I run the risk of slipping onto the middle C pedal and sliding down an octave or two. I am hoping to become a horse by the time we are done discerning and are ready to start yoking. I want to be like one of those beautiful and not-at-all clumsy horses that pull the stagecoach out at Medora. They are hitched together, not yoked. That sounds way cooler and definitely not clumsy. My pastor said this period of discernment is like when a couple begins dating. Therefore, I am confident that getting hitched is the next logical step.
https://www.thedickinsonpress.com/opinion/columns/hopes-corner-the-yoke-is-one-me