Posts tagged "Faith":

Jude

Today's New Testament lesson is from the book of Jude, not a particularly well read or well liked book in the NT.

Since I have been listening to Morning and sometimes Evening Prayer, my engagement with all Scripture has increased. Over and over again the critiques of the world as it is sound very familiar. This can be interpreted as depressing–the rich and powerful are still behaving badly. On the other hand, it helps. I am not living in a unique time. This has always been true.

Rant: I just want to retire the words "uncharted", "unpresidented" and "sui generis".

Versus 18-19 describe the ungodly. Rings true.

The ones to whom this letter is addressed, the beloved, me, are to

• build ourselves up on our most holy faith
• pray in the Holy Spirit
• keep ourselves in the love of God
• look forward to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to

et ernal life

• have mercy on some who are wavering
• save others by snatching them out of the fire
• have mercy on still others with fear (even if they are really disgusting)

I write these out not only as an a way to communicate to others, but to remind myself of what Jude has to say. The list is mostly about interacting with others, those in the faith community and those outside of it. It boils down to being concerned for others. There's a desire here for no one to be lost forever. Somewhere in Ezekiel it says that God does not desire ill for anyone and Jude underscores that here. It's not them and us. It's everyone!

Advent

Advent is about darkness, about living in darkness, about waiting for the light in the darkness. The dark is an uncomfortable place to be, especially in winter. The nights are cold. The sun's rays in the daytime do not warm but only highlight the overwhelming presence of the dark. The nights grow ever longer until the winter solstice, the longest night of the year. Then there is light, the light that shines in the darkness. The light the darkness cannot overcome. The light that lights everyone, the light of life. But I am getting ahead of myself. Advent is about darkness, about living in darkness, about waiting for the light in the darkness.

It is tempting to make the move from the Thanksgiving Day feast to the Christmas Day feast and bypass Advent entirely, to reach for festive garments of red and green, to deck the halls with bright lights and evergreen boughs and sing cheerful songs so that no one will know we are afraid of the dark.

Yet as Christians, we are called to be honest about the darkness. In summer, the darkness brought relief from scorching sun, but now, it exposes our own mortality, our most private fears and our deepest longings. As the darkness becomes more enveloping, we light one candle, then two, then three and finally the entire advent wreath is ablaze with the proclamation of Jesus' promise to return. for it is Jesus for whom we wait, not the baby Jesus, but the crucified and risen one who is coming soon to make all things new.

We were all conceived in the darkness. We waited and grew and at the proper time, our mothers brought us into the light. During that time of waiting, our parents prepared for our arrival, sometimes ill, sometimes excited, sometimes anxious and even sometimes in great despair at our promised advent. For many expectant parents, the wait is long and the labor seems endless. So it is with Jesus' return. The church waits with the signs of labor all around it: wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes in various places, famines, signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves (the signs which have been always around the church from the first). Yet the new creation has not yet been revealed. Jesus has not yet come, though the Lord is near.

Instead of trying to convert the ever-present signs of the creation's labor into a timetable for Jesus' return, or carelessly skipping from celebration to celebration with forced cheeriness, Christians tell the truth about the human condition in the darkness of Advent. We tell also of the promise of God's salvation through our savior Jesus Christ, Shining forth in the flickering light of the Advent candles.

And, to encourage one another in this season of waiting, consider wearing Advent blue. It is the color of the darkness just before dawn.

Note: I have no idea when I wrote this.

Caitlin: Great Dog, Loyal Friend and Partner in Ministry: A Tribute

Note: I must have written this some time in July, 2006 before I had a regular blog. but it seems appropriate for me to post this on the 33-year anniversary of her birth.

• The Time – January 4, 1994 - July 10, 2006
• The Place – Everywhere I went
• The Situation – Working together, my Seeing Eye dog and me
• My Spirituality – God watch over my dog and me.

10 Universal Lessons

I have no idea where these notes come from but they may come from Zen study.

internal goal or need that is in some way a derivative of one of the following ten universal lessons:

1. Forgiveness: of self or of others
2. Love: includes self-love, family love, romantic love
3. Acceptance: of self, of circumstances, of reality
4. Faith: in oneself, in others, in the world, in God
5. Fear: overcoming it, conquering it, finding courage
6. Trust: in oneself, in others, in the unknown
7. Survival: including the will to live
8. Selflessness: including sacrifice, altruism, heroism, and overcoming greed
9. Responsibility: including duty, standing up for a cause, accepting one’s destiny

1. Redemption: including atonement, accepting blame, remorse, and salvation

In Silence

For God alone my soul in silence waits; from him comes my salvation. (Psalm 62:1 BCP)

Today the church remembers St. Francis Navier. He wrote to Ignatius that more evangelists were needed to tell those in Asia about Jesus. He believed there were people just waiting to hear the good news. Reading Psalm 62, I can say They are waiting for God alone.

I often think of the people at the time of Jesus as waiting in silence. Perhaps this is because of Slent Night or perhaps because we have the Scripture about the people sitting in darkness which implies silence to me. In any event Francis reminds us that many are just waiting to hear our words of forgiveness, love and salvation.

A Spirit of Cowardice

I have sought various ways to be connected to Jesus.

Happy Birthday, Elwood!

Today is Elwood's 4th birthday. He was sung to last night at church and greeted this morning from St. Luke's Bible study. His birthday gift was unintentional. I changed clothes quickly last night before church and dropped them on the floor. Elwood found jeans and a sweatshirt when he came home and curled himself up on them. He was still there this morning. Such love. This was not his style when I first met him.

The Women of Madison

Happy New Year to everyone!

I haven't posted for a while. Life is like that.

The kids were here Christmas Eve. We went to church together. Brian thought there was a lot of singing. If you wanted a service with lots of singing, this was it. A very good service for people who are not necessarily "into" church or who may think differently than you about church. It had singing, candle lighting, kids and the Christmas story as well as a play about how the Christmas story characters were just ordinary people like us.

The soup was a great success with people taking leftovers home. I decided's ed I need to work a little more on the soup choices. i picked 3 heavy soups and that was way too much in the stomach so a lighter soup choice needs to be found.

It's been very cold here and we've had over 38 inches of snow already. The Sunday before Christmas the wind chill was -35.

With the snow blocking routes and Elwood's creativity, I have found myself in need of help. The women of Madison have come through for me. One woman drove me to the library because the path I was on was snow-blocked. Another woman stopped her car to re-direct us as we were in no man's land along the side of a major road. She made sure we knew where we were before returning to her car.

It is very cold today but lots of people were out, especially on the bike path. I heard someone say,"We have 5 miles to go." I don't know if there was a New Year's walk in progress.

I now have GPS. Sited people can have GPS for under $100. I got GPS for under $1000. It is a dedicated unit and very simple which is what I wanted. There are cheaper solutions on cell phones, but I (a) bounced someone out of his application by fiddling with his phone and (b) I couldn't imagine myself messing around with commands on a phone at a corner in 4 degree weather like there was outside today. I can find out where I am by pushing one button with my gloves on if necessary.

I recorded our route today and learned I had walked over 2.25 miles. I need to walk more, for Elwood's sake as well as to deal with the weight which is creeping up due to inaction.

Bear in mind, the average snowfall in Madison has been 51 inches though last year they had 100. The head of the meteorology department at UW Madison does not think it will be 100 this year, but with 40 inches or so on the ground already who knows.

Wonderful Day

Sunday was cold and rainy in the morning. My ride was late. The rain drops got harder and more frequent. When my ride to church arrived, I said we needed an inclement weather policy. We have now agreed where I should wait in case I cannot be out at the curb.

Our conversation around Elie Wiesel's book is still very largely lecture, but I think that is more the desire of the leader to share info than a desire to squelch conversation. The holocaust and the history of the Jews is, after all, quite a large topic. Next week we are to share passages.

The jux apposition of this book with Sunday's sermon was quite jarring. The basic thrust was to develop a sense of wonder: God's rescue of the people at the Red Sea. We don't hear that anyone was lost. As I thought about it, I thought about the 400 years or so it took for God to send Moses. Many were lost. The people, in the end, were saved. Is this a connection? It raises all sorts of questions.

The Children's Moment is worth sharing. The children were the children of Israel. The congregation stood in the center isle. They were the Red Sea. The children were stopped. When the adults moved out of the center isle, the children were free to move forward.

I have learned that there is a dinner group that meets on Wednesdays followed by some kind of discussion–a small group experience. I will try it out and the Bible study which follows it. This group is reading the Book of Mark.Rides have been arranged.

J. and Melanie came. We had split pea soup. Willie Street only has green split peas. I added carrots and smoked turkey which gave it good flavor without adding salt. Someone from the church had visited during the week and brought chocolate chip cookies. The kids ate them up and brought the 4 remaining ones with them for the homeward journey.

We did paperwork which was necessary, but we also checked out where the local library is. It is less than a mile away. It seems a pretty straight forward run. This library is not open on Sundays so we couldn't go in. It is in a shopping center which has been taken over mostly with non-shopping stores like a medical center and human services.

The neighborhood changes as we walk south. We were amused that a Taco Bell is right next door to an "authentic" Mexican restaurant. The neighborhood is definitely Spanish-speaking. This is a different neighborhood than mine with a different name and there has been trouble in parts of it, but no sign of problems on our walk. People are just people.

On the way back we stopped at a farmer's market in the field on the corner. I had thought it was Saturdays and wish I knew about it sooner. Not many people around midday of a chilly day, but the vendors were very friendly. I bought apples and sweet potatoes from one man who handed out slices of apple, had a long tasting with a woman who sells grass-fed beef and bought kohlrabi's and blue beans which turn green when cooked from a Mong woman. I bought bacon from the beef woman. I think it is interesting that a Mong immigrant grows local food stuffs in the Madison area. I wonder if she was a farmer in Laos.

Coincidentally, we went out to dinner at a Mong restaurant the kids like. It is moderately priced, but not a "foreign" experience. It's a noisy regular restaurant with American weight staff. The hotness of the food comes in several layers. I chose careful and J. had native Lao. I think melanie likes cautious. There is also adventurous.

I had wide rice noodles with lots of veggies and shrimp. Very tasty. I can get rice noodles at the coop. I ordered green tea to drink. It was honey green tea. J. had a sweet coffee which turned out to be iced and with a touch of coriander in it. It would have been a great dessert.

Weekly Message - Working

I shared this message with The Judson Fellowship: An American Baptist Church and member of the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists this morning in Jamestown, New York.

Biblical texts for today:

• Psalm 66;
• John 14:8-14.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Can you believe it? Can you really believe it? Jesus says to us today: "Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to [God] (John 14:12 NRSV).

Do you believe–do you really believe–that we can do greater things than Jesus? That is what our Scripture says this morning. It says that we will do greater things than Jesus did.

I don't know which is more fantastic, more astonishing, more preposterous–that we are capable of doing greater things than Jesus or that Jesus is speaking this Word to us today. Look around you. Jesus is saying this little band of believers gathered here this morning will do greater things than Jesus did in his lifetime on earth!

Do you believe this? Can you really say it out loud? Can you?

And more importantly, do you? Do you believe it? Do you act every minute of every day that you will do greater things than Jesus?

Let's find out. Try this sentence: I __ (say your own name out loud) will do greater things than Jesus.

How does that sound to you? Fantastic? Astonishing? Preposterous? Irreverent? Blasphemous?

How about scary?

Let's think for a minute what Jesus did. Give me some examples.

(Here are a few samples:)

• Cured a man of his demons (Mark 5:1-20);
• Cured a woman of a twelve-year flow of blood (Mark 5:25-34);
• fed the five thousand (Mark 6:30-44);
• walked on water (Mark 6:45-52);
• Gave Bartimaeus his sight (Mark 10:46-52);
• Raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11:1-44).

And we can do greater things than these?

Thursday night we read an article together from March's InSpiritor. 54 American Baptist churches and a number of like-minded individuals have declared themselves to be welcoming and affirming to "all persons without regard to sexual orientation or gender identity". In response, there's a proposal to "disfellowship" all Welcoming and Affirming churches from their respective associations and refuse to allow these same churches to associate with other churches non-geographically. A consultant to the General Board of ABC-USA has talked about "acceptable losses". Our General Secretary has called on us to be bridge builders rather than people who put up walls between us; to be Baptists who focus on the work. (The link is no longer active.)

"Disfellowship" is not a nice word–much less a real word. I began to ask myself if "fellowship" is a verb. Certainly not in English. In Greek perhaps–the original language of our New Testament? Well, yes, there's a verb and it means "I share." "Disfellowship" means, therefore, an unwillingness to share.

Well, The Judson Fellowship knows about sharing. We've been dubbed "the sharers": the people who don't want to put their resources into real property but want to reach out to other people, to put the money into work. Isn't that what Welcoming and Affirming is all about–sharing God's love with all people? Isn't that the work?

Fellowship is such a hard thing to maintain. It is so much easier to walk away. Isolation seems preferable: no arguments, no wrestling with our consciences, no struggling with what it means to be Jesus' disciples or how to love each other when we hold opposite views, no change, no growth, no work.

When I first got Caitlin–when we were still at the Seeing Eye–I bought a Nylo bone for her. It was just a toy for her to chew on. I hesitantly held it out to her. Those powerful jaws closed tightly on it. She seemed to be saying, "Mine!" Dogs don't share. Toddlers don't share. As adults, we make decisions about with whom we want to share. We have our own bank accounts, own our own homes in which we live with other people or not. Some of us may share clothing–jackets, sweaters, maybe even shirts, but I wonder about items like underwear. Toothbrushes are definitely out. We all have our limits.

Jesus says to us today, "Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to [God]."

What sort of works is Jesus talking about? Not necessarily miracles: these works are not signs or wonders. It's work plain and simple–the kind of work that raises a sweat or provides a service. Jesus says our works, our deeds, our toil, our labor, our services, our sweat equity will be greater than any works Jesus did.

The old adage says: If it's too good to be true, it probably isn't. We may be inclined to ask, "What's the fine print here?" The offer that comes in the mail that says, "Here's a check for a thousand dollars for you," also says, "Cash it and you've agreed to pay it back at considerable interest."

When Philip says, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied (NRSV); that will be enough for us (NIV); that is all we need (CEV); something in me says, "Oh yes. Show us! That would be wonderful!" To be caught up in God would be to put all my troubles aside. I would be filled with love and a peace beyond words. That is all I need I tell myself!

Jesus, however, finds fault with Philip. Jesus finds fault with me, too. You and I and The Judson Fellowship are called to "greater works than these," not blissful contemplation. We are not to shirk the work.

To see Jesus is to see God. Unlike Philip, we are not reclining at table with Jesus in Jerusalem around the year 30. We are here in Jamestown, New York, May 1, 2005. Shortly we will eat a loaf of bread together and share a cup. It is in the words at our table, in the passing of food and drink, in the sharing of this meal, that we will know Jesus is in our midst. We will see Jesus in each other's face, feel Jesus' touch as we are handed food and drink and we hand food and drink to another person. Jesus is present in the simple act of sharing. Jesus is present in the work.

Think how different we are. Only a few of us are biologically related. Think how little we have in common. Jesus is the one who binds us together, who enables us to share our lives, our hopes, our dreams, our troubles and our fears with one another.

It's fantastic. It's astonishing. You wouldn't have believed it if you hadn't seen it with your own eyes, if you hadn't touched it with your own hands, if you hadn't experienced it for yourself.

Sharing together is one of the greater things Jesus is talking about today. Bringing very different people to be partners together is what Jesus is talking about today. Inclusion is what Jesus is talking about today. This is the work Jesus is talking about today. That is why I find "disfellowshipping" so offensive.

Relationships are difficult enough with the people we love. Relationships with people we don't agree with are very hard. I know. I'm experiencing this right now. I would rather just hang out with people who like me, who agree with me, who support me, who approve of me. Jesus' words call out to me to do something more, something fantastic, something astonishing, something preposterous. Jesus calls me to share with others: people who don't like me, who don't agree with me, who don't support me and who don't approve of me.

The greater things than all the miracles we named at the beginning is "love each other, just as I have loved you. If you love each other, everyone will know that you are my disciples" (John 13:34b-35). It's sweaty, gut-wrenching work.

There's no way around it–Christian love is work. There's a lot of risk involved. Feelings get hurt. Self-esteem and confidence fall through the floor. Minds get changed. Truths we once thought were incontrovertible turn out to be falsehoods.

I have one caution: Risk-taking in relationships does not extend to putting yourself in harm's way in domestic relationships. Jesus does not intend for us to be in abusive relationships: spiritual, emotional or physical. If you are in one, get out. If you need help, ask. There is no situation that you can't get out of. You don't have to stay. Get out.

What I am talking about today is those voluntary associations we respond to because we believe God has called us together to be a community of Christian love and to continue Christ's ministry of building the Kingdom of God on earth. One way I believe we do that is working so that some day all people, regardless of their sexual orientation or their gender identity will say, "Blessed be God, because [God] has not rejected my prayer or removed his [or her] steadfast love from me" (Psalm 66:20. This is the greater work Jesus calls us to do today.

Amen.

The Spirituality of Risk Taking