Crowd Control

Recently I have been re-reading a book that was recommended by my spiritual director several years ago.  The book is The Spirituality of Imperfection: Storytelling and the Search for Meaning, by Ernest Kurtz and Katherine Ketcham. 

In our day and age of Netflix and short attention spans, the discipline of storytelling has been diminished. However, it remains a truth that a well-told story, like a picture, is worth a thousand words. It points beyond its own limitations to a larger reality that can bring meaning. Jesus told stories. Often they were referred to as parables.

Last Sunday’s sermon was based on Mark 10:17-31. In that passage we encounter a rich man who wanted to know what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus schools him on the Way. The man was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

Kurtz and Ketcham share the following story and reflection that I have found helpful and that I now share with you.

Around the end of the nineteenth century, a tourist from the United States visited the famous Polish rabbi Hafez Hayyim. 

He was astonished to see that the rabbi’s home was just a simple room filled with books. The only furniture was a table and a bench. 

“Rabbi, where is your furniture?” asked the tourist.“Where is yours?” replied Hafez“Mine? But I’m only a visitor here.”“So am I,” said the rabbi.

Greek thinkers, Hebrew prophets, Eastern sages, and Christian saints agree that the “problem” is not material realities but our attachment to material possessions--attachment that hinders us from seeing and seeking our own good, the “goods” proper to us because they fit the spiritual reality into which we “fit.” Material realities tend to stunt spirituality because as we possess them, they possess us. Possessions can lead to obsessions; consumers become consumed with getting things, keeping them, safeguarding them, adding to their hoard. Obsession with possessions crowds out the spiritual. (page 34, The Spirituality of Imperfection.)

What do you think? Is your life crowded? What can be put to the curb? How do we strike a balance? Is there a balance to be struck?  Thoughts and comments appreciated. 

Saint & Sinner

In the reports that I have heard this week of the visit of Pope Francis, one of the commentators mentioned a well-known quote from Oscar Wilde:  Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future. To my mind, this gets at the entry point for authentic conversation. In developing a series of classes for the month of October, I tried to set the stage for multiple entry points for authentic conversation for our Sunday Faith Formation Forum.  I would like to encourage you to review the topics below and begin to consider the questions raised and take some time to formulate questions of your own.  I'm looking forward to our time together in the weeks ahead for listening, learning, and growing as authentic disciples of Jesus.

Faith Formation Forum

Topics for October 2015

Sundays @ 8:45 AM

October 4

Identity & Mission

Who am I? What am I to do?

We'll hear about who God says we are alongside many other descriptions from society, self, and tradition. Ultimately, our sense of calling and vocation in light of our identity will be discussed .

October 11

Power & Weakness

When we are weak, we tend to protest and look the other way in order to avoid a hard truth about who we are. Often a lifetime is spent in denial of limitations and conditions we rarely consider God-given and necessary. 

Where is the true power in your life?

Lucas Cranach the Younger, 

detail from "Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery" 

(after 1532), oil on copperplate, 

The Hermitage, St. Petersburg. 

October 18

Self & Others

It's a delicate balance! How is it working out in your life? 

Has self-will run its course yet? Are others really worthy of our attention, service and love? Where do we meet Jesus?

October 25

Fear & Faith

We walk by fear and not by faith!  Is that how it goes?

Be afraid, be very afraid!  Really?  Who says?

Whatever happened to the Freedom of a Christian?

What force molds and shapes your life?  How about our life together?

Spiritual Compost

(At yesterday's healing service I reflected on this passage from Colossians 3:1-3.  

I tried, as best as I can, to reconstruct the homily in writing to share with you here.)

So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:1-3)

 + Grace and Peace to you.

The Apostle Paul, writing to the young church in Colossia, is encouraging the community of faith to recognize and embrace not only the good news of the resurrection, but also the impact that this good news has on their lives in the faith. Things have changed. God has acted in Christ.  

When we are baptized, we participated in the only death that really matters.  We have already died, we have been put to death, we have been joined to the death of Christ in the waters of baptism.  And we have been raised with Christ in the resurrection.

Therefore, Paul can say:  So, if you have been raised (up) with Christ (and you have!) seek (or keep seeking) the things that are above...

This is all well and good.  We hear these words of encouragement that exhort us to look up and seek things above. But how are we doing with this, say, when we are walking the aisles of the grocery store and we have to concentrate on whether to buy Cheerios or Grape Nuts?  We live our lives in the midst of the here and now, the nuts and bolts, the down and dirty of earthly life. How can we go around seeking the things that are above?

When we were baptized, God took the initiative to give us a new identity, an identity that will outlive our diagnoses and prognoses.  We are children of God.  We have been clothed with Christ’s righteousness, we have put on Christ, our lives are hidden with Christ in God.

The thing is, our lives have become cluttered. It’s sometimes difficult to recognize these blessings of God in our lives because there is so much stuff in the way.

Consider for a moment the image of an overgrown backyard.  Without weekly and regular tending, trimming, and uneventful maintenance, things quickly become complicated and confused.  Our soul is a lot like that backyard. It is out of sight for most of us and most everyone looking in at us.  Yet we know that we need a bit of care (to put it mildly).  It seems so overwhelming. Where do we begin?

Probably the most effective and efficient way to proceed is to compost.  Just start gathering all the debris, detritus, and trash in the yard together. Pile it high and turn it over.  Allow it to ferment, breakdown. Permit the rain, the Sun, and the clock to turn this pile of waste into something beautiful. Compost.  It can eventually be used to feed and nourish, to bring and encourage life where only death and decay seem to prevail.

Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.  Don’t waste this life on trash and clutter that brings you down and makes a stink of things.  De-clutter, take out the trash, pile it up high, turn it over and let God... 

Meanwhile, clothe yourself in God’s garments of righteousness, light and life, in Christ.

In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen

Seeing Together

Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain.
Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,
and all people shall see it together,
for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.  (Isaiah 40:4-5)

What kind of future do you think the prophet Isaiah was pointing towards with these words? Prophets were never so much about predicting the future as they were about addressing present behavior with God's will in mind.

For example, if I continue to play with matches, eventually I will get burned.
If I stop that behavior -- if I refrain from playing with matches -- I stand a better chance of not getting burned. Maybe this is too simplistic. The point is, Isaiah's point is to point to God and the will of God for the people of God and all of creation. Oh that we would behave accordingly!

For those determined to interpret scripture only literally, this passage from the fortieth chapter of Isaiah is rather unsatisfying. Do we really want to live in such a topography? Sure, we would love for the glory of the LORD to be revealed, but what about that part of all people seeing it together. Shouldn't we get special privileges? What about a preview, all-access VIP passes, or reserved box seats?

I took a brief detour the other day to see the local spectacle pictured above. South of Chambersburg, just to the east of Marion is this beautiful field of sunflowers. From one perspective, it's some spectacular show (quite the departure from familiar corn or soybeans). Looking at the acreage from another perspective reveals the orderliness of the rows, and the way in which the flowers are all oriented in the same direction. Such discipline from organic and innocent vegetation! They look like a mass of little conspiring satellite dishes.

When God envisions unity, I believe uniformity is not the intention. Indeed, we are all one in Christ Jesus. Yet we are not the same. There are a variety of gifts, but the same Lord.

More about this on Sunday. . . . looking forward to our time together!

Prejudice

I wasn’t keeping track of time exactly, but I’m pretty sure that it didn’t take as much time for 30,000 people to receive communion last Sunday morning at Ford Field in Detroit, than it does on any given Sunday at St. Luke. This is not a complaint, just an observation that I think is interesting. How can this be? Well, the reason is that there were probably 500 communion “stations” conveniently located throughout the stadium.  To my knowledge, nobody had the opportunity to kneel, but everyone was welcome to the Lord’s Supper.

It would be practically impossible (nor advisable in my opinion) to have such a massive gathering as a normal occurrence for weekly worship, but it does provide an opportunity to reflect on and experience the rich diversity that is the Body of Christ.

My experience of the ELCA Youth Gathering in Detroit last week provided a great deal upon which to reflect. I can report that I frequently felt overwhelmed and outnumbered. Perhaps such large crowds of people remind me that I have a propensity to anxiety in such saturated social situations. 

So, what I was able to do was be proactive in engaging individual people as opportunities presented themselves and I was inclined. 

There was a man named John who I encountered on a visit to a neighborhood that is home to the Heidelberg Project. Our tour bus turned down the street and parked right in front of his house. John was standing behind the fence in his front yard with a look of disgust on his face. Among the first off the bus, I walked up to him to say hello. He was upset that the bus parked where it was -- that the exhaust fumes filled the air and drifted into his home. Point taken. 

I spoke with the driver of the bus and suggested she park the bus on the next block that was clear of any residences. There were just abandoned lots where once homes stood. The bus moved.

We took about 45 minutes to tour the “installation” of the Heidelberg Project. By the time we were getting back on the bus, I noticed that John had emerged from his fenced in yard and was engaged in conversations and “selfie” photo-ops with many of the youth in the larger group.  He was standing now in the middle of the street with broom in hand, sweeping up shards of broken glass. The pride that John had in his neighborhood and in his city was clearly evident. By now, John’s disgust was transformed into delight in his encounter with the curious ELCA youth who had taken the time to not only visit the project, but visit with him. 

But John’s transformation was just one of many. When I first encountered John less than an hour before, I had quickly determined that he was just a grumpy old contrarian who simply wanted us young folk to get off of his front yard. However, what I came to realize is that John was just like any one of us who simply desire to be seen as a unique person with a story to share. John was real, authentic, vulnerable, and courageous. He risked encountering a bunch of out of town unknowns. And he delighted to commune with us as his brothers and sisters.

Clearly, I do not have a comprehensive understanding of the totality of John’s life story. But, taking into account his age, race, and longevity in Detroit, I can only guess at the struggles, adversity, and challenges he has faced in his years and which still confront him in the unfolding story of his hometown. 

Maybe the overwhelming nature of the 30,000-person gathering created the willingness in me to see this individual on his own terms and in light of God’s desire for His creation to be reconciled to one another. When I got up that morning and boarded the bus, I hadn't anticipated that I would meet Jesus in a man named John. I’m grateful for the opportunity to see past my initial presumptions and prejudice.

Detroit

I am planning to share with you some of my personal, spiritual, and theological reflections of our time here in Detroit at the ELCA Youth Gathering. But that will have to wait a few days at least so I allow things to percolate a bit more. For now, here are some pictures for you to see.  Some have already been shared on our Facebook page.

Opening worship at Ford Field

Service time with LutherHANDS in Dearborn

A quick visit to the Heidelberg Project

An exhibit at the Heidelberg Project

There is a man who lives across the street from the Heidelberg Project. 

His name is John. Prepare to hear more about John in an upcoming sermon sometime!

The ELCA Presiding Bishop, Elizabeth A. Eaton, 

took some time to meet and talk with us in Cobo Hall on Thursday

We spent the day on Friday cleaning up around an abandoned home in preparation for the "boarding up" crew to arrive on Saturday.

Here is the crew getting started.

Getting ready to leave for our day in Hart Plaza.

Praising Jesus along with our 30,000 sisters and brothers at Ford Field.

Another morning gathering on Hart Plaza looking south into Canada!

On the bank of the Detroit River at the monument to the Underground Railroad.

The Renaissance Center is a group of seven interconnected skyscrapers in Downtown Detroit. 

Located on the International Riverfront, the Renaissance Center complex is owned by General Motors as its world headquarters. 

The Cross has central place at Ford Field, the center of our evening gatherings of worship and praise.

Thorns

Rembrandt captured in his paintings the sense of burden Paul carried. 

Gift inventories are important. At least it is common practice for churches to encourage their congregants to engage in "gift discernment" so that everyone knows what you bring to the table, how you can contribute to the mission of the church and, honestly, how you might support it financially. And as far as that goes, that is all well and good. But I believe it doesn't go far enough.

I think we miss out on the fullness of God's vision of faithfulness when we think that the focus should be on gifts. What I mean here by gifts are the strengths, talents, and abilities that we identify in ourselves and one another. In an ever-so-familiar churchy kind of way we emphasize "gifts" to the near exclusion of all else.

What about different abilities?  What about dis-abilities?  What about our weaknesses and what Paul would call the thorns in our flesh? What good are they? Might God have a vision that includes them as well?

Here is how Paul speaks of it in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10.

. . .  [A] thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. ⁸Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, ⁹but he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness." So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. ¹⁰Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.

Take a few moments in the days ahead to consider what your thorns might be. How can they be viewed as a blessing?  Are they a reason for strength? How might God use you in all your authentic, complete self (thorns and all!) to be a willing habitation of the power of the Holy Spirit?