Archive for June, 2012

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June 28, 2012

Living in Interfaith Land

The first time I heard the phrase “God is too big for any one religion” I was in seminary. This statement was found on a bumper sticker on my roommate’s car. I looked at it every morning when I walked out of the house to go to school. I was intrigued, but confused.  Growing up with a “Jesus is the only way to God” upbringing, I had no idea about what to think of my Baptist soon-to-be clergy friend’s bold declaration on her car.  Was she crazy being so public about her inclusive theology in the Bible Belt of the US??

Fast forward nine years to the present, as I willing submitted myself to a continuing education course in the practice of spiritual direction in an interfaith setting. My discomfort with God being found outside the bounds of Christianity has greatly diminished through thought, prayer and careful study. I believe that Jesus is the only way to God for me, but might not be the case for someone else.  Vocationally, I am a pastor of an opened minded church where all are welcome  as they work through their spiritual struggles (And, we really mean all). And, I am so proud to have friends in other faith traditions from whom I regularly meet with and learn from in my neighborhood. I find my own faith journey encouraged not only by texts in the words of Christian scripture, but reading of all kinds that draws my attention back to the common humanity that we all share. I too, can now talk about the vastness of God with confidence too.

So, while there were countless spiritual direction programs I could have learned much from in my own Christian tradition (much closer to home too), something stuck out to me about Chaplaincy Institute in Berkeley.  It wouldn’t let me go. I knew this would be a place where I would learn in a completely different context of my seminary education or any other formal training I’ve had, for that matter. I knew I could be uncomfortable, stretched theologically and come to moments of complete disagreement with my classmates.  But, I also knew that this would be good for me. What might the Spirit be leading me into next? And for the past three days I’ve been learning.

In all my processing, I”m still scratching my head with all of the “why” questions of what being in a program like this for the next year (I’ll come back 3 other times before graduating) will mean for my future. But, what I do know is this: how blessed it is when brothers and sisters dwell together in unity of our common human tradition. Though I’m tempted to challenge my classmates at many junctures about their ideas on the brokeness (or not) in this world, God’s essence, human responsiblity, who the divine is, and the importance of committment to a faith community, such is not why I am here.

I am here to learn about how to receive stories of fellow pilgrims on a spiritual journey. I am here to learn how to be a better listener both to myself and others. I am here to learn from the richness of the world’s religious traditions, so to better edify my own spiritual practices. I am here to be among a community of folks unlike any other experience I could receive at home in DC.

While some might think I’m crazy and might even “loose” my own faith in an integrated setting like this, I have to say that such the opposite is true. Being in an interfaith culture for the week, I’m remembering again why I love being a Christian and why I could not imagine any other path for my life. While I can appreciate the faith practices of my classmates, I can’t imagine embracing their beliefs for myself.

Sure, there are hair pulling out moments where I wonder how soon I can go back to my Christian cocoon and why the teaching doesn’t mean more of “my” needs. But, such is far from the point. There is something I need from my classmates. Our world is growing more by the day in the direction against “organized religion” so it seems the interfaith education is the future. The God I am meeting in Berkeley is pushing my buttons, but this is what living in Interfaith land is all about.

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June 27, 2012

Being Welcomed

When is the last time you felt out of your comfort zone? When is the last time you felt like a stranger?

For me, it had been a long time. Until this week . . .

Currently, I’m studying the art of spiritual direction at the Chaplaincy Institute for the Arts and Interfaith Ministries in Berkeley, CA. And, what an out of my comfort zone experience it has been so far!

First of all, there was the difficulty of simply getting around and finding the place where I could sleep on Sunday night upon arrival. Coming into the city on Sunday night first the cab driver got lost. I paid more than $10 more than I expected to pay after winding around endless neighborhoods. Then, finally when I was dropped off at the dorm where I’d made reservations to stay at, my code to get in the building did not work! What was I to do? A sign on the door said if you were locked out at you needed to call __ number between the hours of 8-5 on weekdays (didn’t help me one bit at that time!). And on top of all of this, I found out that my cell phone was dead.

So, with luggage in hand, I had no choice but to walk the streets dependent on the kindness of strangers to find a way to charge my phone (met a guy named Douglass– I think an angel– who took me to his apartment building’s laundry room with a wall outlet).

Of course my momma taught me not to talk or follow strangers into their homes but really what was I to do?  Fear began to overcome me. This was not how my night was suppose to go!

In tears flowing down my cheeks as my phone charged, I called Kevin. He helped me make a reservation for another hotel for the night (no way to get back into the dorm until morning!). I called a cab. While I waited on the cab to come pick me up in front of the apartment, a homeless man crawled out from under the porch. I was frozen, hoping that I would not be attacked. 10 minutes later, the cab came and I was still alive! The homeless man who was half drunk seemed not to notice me.

Then, the next morning got lost walking to the school from the hotel where I crashed for the night— ended up being 5 miles out-of-the-way (after crossing a scary interstate bridge into another not so nice part of town). Google maps totally lied to me. Note to self, never believe it blindly again! I thought the walk to the school was only 1 mile! I was almost an hour late before I figured out how to get to where I was going (via stopping at a Kinkos to ask for help. Making friends with the owner who called me a cab. My last $11 of cash on me luckily got me to the school but I was making change with my quarters in my purse). I’m sure it will be funny sometime soon, just not funny in the moment :)

I am especially thankful though that when I arrived at the class, I was welcomed by soon to be new friends.  

I was welcomed by a fellow pastor who walked with me up the hills (gotta love all the hills in the bay area!) to figure out my situation getting in the dorm again with the right door code(where I am now).

I was welcomed by another colleague who yesterday afternoon agreed to drive me to my hotel (where I also stayed last night) and picked me up this morning with my luggage and delivered me to the dorm after class today.

I was welcomed for lunch by a colleague in the area who I “met” three years ago via twitter but finally put a face with a name this afternoon. He gave me some tips so not to be so lost on my walking about tomorrow.

After these adventures in Berkeley, Jesus’ words, “ I was a stranger and you invited me in” will always hold new meaning. Being welcomed is a really wonderful thing. Really.

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June 21, 2012

God Provides

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the blessings of life, in particular how much I have to be grateful for. Though it’s not that season when gratitude is what we normally to talk about (several more months to November!), I’ve been taking stock of how much I really do have to be thankful. Light has come to some really dark places in my life and in the lives of those I love the most and for this I can’t help but name aloud the Lord’s provisions.

And this is what I know: if we wait long enough and wait some more, I do believe that God will meet all our needs in accordance with the people we were made to be! This is not to say that every unresolved situation in and around us get resolved. No, but it does mean that we are given what we need to keep going, to take the next step. I call this provision: God’s love for us.

So, today I wanted to share some of the things currently on my gratitude list. Maybe it will encourage you to make one too.

  • Feed the Children. Though Kevin has just begun his work there, I can already tell how our relationship as a family with this amazing organization is going to be the source of so many blessings in our lives– opportunities to meet new people, opportunities for us to both grow professionally and opportunities to give back out of the richness of our blessings given to us. Kevin is so happy in his new job. It is joy to watch from the sidelines!
  • Opportunities for rest. It is good to reconnect with Kevin over the weekend in FL as we’ve been a part for a while (which is never very much fun). I’m excited that my writing Rev. friend, Ruth, will be leading Washington Plaza’s services while I’m away. And, really taking my day off today is a very wonderful thing!
  • New learning. I spoke aloud the desire I had a couple of months ago to learn more about spiritual direction and soon it all came to be! I’m looking forward to the week ahead that awaits in California as I will begin training in the practice of spiritual direction at the Chaplaincy Institute for Arts and Interfaith Ministries.  I’m going to be learning more in the next several weeks about ministry to folks both in and outside the Christian tradition. Stay tuned for more updates.
  • The joy of friendships old and new. Helen Keller once said: “I would rather walk with a friend in the dark, than alone in the light.” And such has been true of those who continue to walk with me right now. Our lives may not be perfect, but we are willing to share them with one another and such makes all the difference! Or as Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, not the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when you discover that someone else believes in you and is willing to trust you with a friendship.”  I’m glad I have people in my life who are willing to share their lives so openly with me which encourages me to do the same. We are all the better for it, I believe.  
  • And the moments of joy that come in my work. Moments like finding I have been kissed by an elderly woman during our communion service as I gave her bread. (My cheeks were stained in red lipstick through the rest of  the worship service as the congregation erupted in laughter that I couldn’t figure out where it came from!) Moments like talking about end of the life plans with those who are facing impending death. Moments like finding something I said in a sermon touching the life situation of someone who lost hope in God’s provisions for her.

So, today I give thanks. I give thanks for all of these things, all of God’s provisions. And I give thanks for you, my faithful blog readers for letting me share more of my story with you each time I post. I am blessed.

And you- what can you say “thank you, thank you, thank you” for today? Anne Lamott said once that this is the best prayer of them all!

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June 20, 2012

Are Times Changing in the SBC?

Yesterday, I got the word via twitter that Fred Luter, pastor of Franklin Ave Baptist Church became President of the Southern Baptist Convention, elected at their annual meeting this week.

Such is a fact that I normally would not pay any attention to (I’ve long left my SBC roots since the day I felt a call to pastor), but with the election of Luter making national news (as he became the first African-American president in a mostly European American convention), I paid attention. What a noteworthy day in Baptist life! If you know anything about the history of the northern Baptists (now known as the American Baptists) spilt from the southern Baptists in 1845 over the issue of slavery, you know that a denomination founded on the principal of slavery now has an African-American president. No small thing at all!

Are times changing in the SBC?

While yes, in many ways, they are. Luter’s election comes, though 17 years after SBC leaders finally apologized to their African-American brothers and sisters for the convention’s sins of blessing slavery. It seems that as far as racial issues are concerned the SBC wants to chart a new course. It’s a slow-moving train toward racial reconciliation, but at least the train is moving in the direction of equality. Luter seemed to be just the pastor to take the convention to this historic place.

But, all of this mean what?

From where I sit as a pastor of an American Baptist congregation of diverse membership in Northern Virginia, I applaud the SBC’s progress. My African-American members do too. But, I fear this is a small step, many years too late. SBC has such a public relations disaster on its hands with leaders like Richard Land spouting out racial comments in recent weeks, resolutions being passed that demean one half of its membership– saying that women are to submit to their husbands and not hold leadership positions in church in the past several years, and fundamentalist ideas about scripture which make no room for grace described every Sunday from pulpits.  (And this is not even to mention our gay brothers and sisters in Christ who in the eyes of the SBC are non people). Southern Baptists after all are often know more for what they are against than what they are for.

The future  leaders of the church whom I interact with on a weekly basis in my congregation really have little to no patience for such foolishness. They want to know that God loves them, even when they mess up. They want to know that all their friends are welcome at church. They want the creative wind of the Spirit to blow through their gathered community with fresh interpretation of the scriptures for their life. Even more so, it is almost always a distasteful comment to say you have any personal association to the SBC in the circles I run in. Church abuse of all kinds still wounds hearts and lives of the faithful from this family of the Baptist faith. These are the kind of people who show up on Washington Plaza Baptist’s door each week and we try to help them.

To Rev. Fred Luter, I say congratulations. May God bless your future ministry and leadership with the convention. May God guide you and make the light shine on your future work. But, I fear, my colleague that you are steering a ship that is already sinking– being the first African-American president or not. There are problems greater for even one man to fix, no matter how great you are Rev. Luter.

Will this history making election, will the SBC change? Only time will tell. We all hope for the best.

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June 18, 2012

Surprises in Grief

Yesterday I preached on I Samuel 15:34-16:13, and though I thought I would be writing a sermon about God’s unlikely choices this ended up being a sermon about grief. Surprised me for sure! I just couldn’t seem to get the “How long will you grief for Saul?” verse out of my mind as I prepared. So, I just went with it and here’s a portion of it:

When is the last time you truly grieved over something? I mean a good long cry, a into the night cry, into the next day cry that you thought that you never would get over?

 I remember the spring when my grandmother died. Gran, who had played a central role in my upbringing and joy in my childhood, died as when I was in my second semester of seminary. Gran was more than just a grandmother via biological connections, she was a friend, a confidant, someone in whom I talked my problems over with regularly. She made me feel special always in a way that others did not. When she died, the loss stung deep. It ached. It made me feel like there was no reason in the morning to get out of bed– though trust me, there was plenty of papers calling my name to write! But, I couldn’t seem to get over it as much as I tried.

 Anne Lamott in her book Operating Instructions writes about the first year of her son’s life the experience of getting used to motherhood but at the same time grieving the death of one of her closest friends saying, “And I felt like my heart had been so thoroughly and irreparably broken that there could be no real joy again, that at best there might eventually be a little contentment. Everyone wanted me to get help and rejoin life, pick up the pieces and move on, and I tried to, I wanted to, but I just had to lie in the mud with my arms wrapped around myself, eyes closed, grieving, until I didn’t have to anymore.”

Sometimes as much as we want to get over the loss of someone or something, we simply can’t. Our grief grips us and becoming the central story of our lives to the pint in which we simply can’t even comprehend seeing past our own circumstances.

 Grief, as many of you know, especially those of you who have studied it in workshops and other seminars, is not always about loss via death. Grief over the loss of careers, aspirations or relationship which used to be close but are no longer can paralyze us as deeply as any physical death can. To wake up one morning and find that what you thought was your life work is destroyed by the rejection of others, to come to terms with your best friend no longer is speaking to you, or be let in on a truth about our family after years of secrecy, we can feel smacked in the face. Grief seeks to holding us down for as long as possible. Grief, if we don’t find a way to move through it can destroy our lives.

 In our Old Testament lesson for this morning, we meet the prophet Samuel again.

 Called out as the great prophet of Israel, called out as young boy to be the saving grace leader of a nation in deep decline, called out as the one who would be God’s spokesperson to a people desperate to hear a good word– Samuel  was on top of the world. Things were going great! Samuel was the hope of the nation, after all.  Yet, in this state of extreme responsibility, I can imagine that Samuel  felt  he needed to make just the right choices at just the right time so to ensure that the nation of Israel had a future. And for a while, it seemed Samuel tasted the sweet fruit of his good, seemingly God led choices.

 So, what happens when all goes badly? What happens when the king HE anoints behaves badly and needs to be removed from office?

 And it is at this juncture, we find him in a place of deep grief.  All is not well in his world.  Samuel blames himself. He pouts. He cries. And, see Saul’s failures as a reflection of himself.  How can he ever again show his face in public after Saul has flopped big time? Grief was his primary story.

 And God has a word with him about it saying in 16:1: “How long will you grief over Saul?”

 Or, “How long, Samuel will grief be your story?”

 It is not that grieving is wrong or an inappropriate emotion, but that for every period of grief, (especially the more pity party kinds)– there comes a time when it must end. For as spiritually cleansing and healthy as grief is, it’s an emotion has a time and season. For, if one stays in a grieving process too long, past its time– it can actually be destructive. For Samuel, God says, it is time to move on.

Grief over what could, should, would have been and all the feelings of personal failure internalized held Samuel captive, we learn. In particular for Samuel, his grief held him captive to only what he could see, hear, and feel in the present moment. Grief stole his vision for life and the people he was entrusted to lead.

Thus, the Lord is saying to him, “You are not perfect. All is not perfect in this land.  I know this. But one thing still holds true: I still love these people. I still love you. And, there is work to be done in the future!” And this is the post-grief task one that our text narrates for us, God says: “I have rejected [Saul] from being king over Israel. Fill your horn with oil and set out; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.”

Though Saul has been a disappointment of a king and leader and Samuel wants to keep believing that it was all his fault, such feelings just aren’t helpful. In fact, God is asking him to dust his sandals off from the dirt in which he’s sat and go be a part of the next great thing that God was going to do in the nation: anoint the next king.

And, it’s important to note here that it would have been easy for Samuel, as he went to find the next leader, to fall into the trap that is naturally a part of being in an aggrieved state: the syndrome of “must do anything to fix the pain right now.”

 You’ve met these people if you aren’t one right now: the “hurry up and get this over with” folks. Pain and its effects are despised so much that  these people will do anything not to feel the pain of disappointment, rejection or loss.  Things like:  drinking too much wine  when they get home from work, staying at the gym too long and skipping meals, or even drowning each night away in mindless tv– just avoiding the grief through a distraction.

 Or, the approach of getting to work too rapidly, taking the lead alone to solve the grief right away. Type A things like signing up for every single class or seminar known to man about a particular issue– trying to become the expert of one’s own problems. Things like making lists after lists after lists of what can be done– trying to logically organize their way through your problems. Or even, the simple act of refusing to rest through grief– doing, doing and more doing.

 In all of this, I believe that God knew that Samuel could be in this exact place as well– trying to avoid or solve the problem too quickly. Samuel is given exactly, then what grief needs to keep moving– clarity. Samuel is told exactly what to do, exactly what to say, and exactly who to listen to when he arrives at the hometown of Jesse.  The end of verse three gives us what is most important as a word from the LORD: “You shall anoint for me the one whom I name to you.”

 Specifically Samuel was told in verse 7 not to make a quick judgment just to get the process of selecting the next leader done as quickly as possible. Saying, to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance but the LORD looks on the heart.” 

God saying, “Don’t just go Samuel to who you think meets the criteria that others will approve of. Instead, listen to me. I can show you who has the heart for the work of king. Don’t make this process about you. Listen.”

Or simply stated, Samuel could have rushed through the line of brothers among Jesse’s sons– very easily he could have solved his failure complex quickly– but if he did, then, he’d be missing out on an opportunity to hear God’s leading.

And, thus, this is the surprise– in Samuel’s grief, in his pain, God was about to do a new thing, a new thing in the life of Israel where healing would come from the unlikely choice of youngest son David as the next king as Samuel kept listening. This was all he was asked to do.

I can remember some of the most powerful words said over me (that I obviously still remember to this day) at my ordination service. During the laying on of hands a deacon of the ordaining church came up to me and said, “Listen to God. You’ve gotten to this point in your life through listening and you will do great things if you keep listening.”

Isn’t God funny like this sometimes? We make it so difficult when all we are asked to do is to put one foot in front of the other and listen as we go.  Of course this doesn’t take away the pain or the loss, but we do have direction for what is next. And this can be grief’s greatest surprise . . .

How else have you been surprised by grief in your life? I’d love to know!

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June 11, 2012

Disappointment with God

 Yesterday, I began a series of messages sticking close to the I Samuel lectionary texts– a series which hopes to expand the Biblical literacy of the congregation– really getting into the stories about Israel and come to understand more of the character of God.

Here’s an excerpt from yesterday’s sermon which focused on I Samuel 8:4:4-11, 16-20, the time in the life of Israel when the elders came to Samuel asking him to appoint for the nation a king. Here’s some background: 

… If we read earlier in the book of I Samuel, we realize that the nation of Israel is not in a time of complete peace and prosperity. No, their arch enemies at the time, the Philistines have been at it again.  And the Israelites face much defeat.  So in an effort to be on the winning side again, Israel’s commanders think that if they just take God, literally with them into battle that they will finally will be victorious, the ark of the covenant goes with them. But, the precious ark is stolen. Though later returned, this whole experiences leave the nation as a whole feeling unsecure and afraid. But, most of all, feeling disappointed.

God let them down.

Truly, where was this God– who was supposed to be their ultimate leader, their ultimate protector, their ultimate king– where was this God when they needed help the most?

Sure, the people of Israel were known to make mistakes from time to time, but weren’t they doing the best they couldn’t? Sure, they weren’t perfect or claiming to be, but why was God acting this way?

And, at this juncture of the story, you and I, all know this pain all too well. We have too felt disappointed by God in our lives, if we aren’t feeling that way even right now.

We’ve been disappointed at God as we’ve prayed and prayed till our knees have grown weak and weary about a real need in our family, and still seemingly nothing changed about our situation.

We’ve been disappointed by God when we thought we heard God speak to us at some point about a very specific thing that would occur and we are still waiting 10 years, 20 years, even 50 years later with nothing seeming to ever happen.

We’ve been disappointed by God as we have found ourselves in situations that have made us feel like we unfairly drew the short end of the stick in life’s lottery– we are 45 and still single without a desired life partner; we are 55 and have no savings for our retirement after experiencing lay off after lay off in our younger years; Or, we are 75 and widowed forced to plan our retirement years we once looked forward to alone.

We have been or are now disappointed with God because we’ve expected more from God than God has ever provided for us. We begin to wonder if God is not so great or good after all.

“Aren’t I a good person?” We wonder. “Don’t I deserve some of life’s greatest blessings like everyone seems to get so naturally?” We shout at the sky. “Don’t I deserve a life better this, come on God, really!” We proclaim.

 And, as usually is the case when we are disappointed with life– we do two things. We either grow bitter adopting a permanent woe is me look on our face. Or, we try to fix the problem ourselves. We move to action– asking for a completely different course of action.

In the case of the Israelites, we don’t see them rolling over to play dead in their disappointment, we see them moving to action– going to Samuel and saying in verse 4, “You are old and your sons do not follow in your ways; appoint for us, then, a king to govern us, like the other nations.”

“We’re disappointed in God, Samuel,” they say. We’ve had a good run of things with you, but let’s face it, God is about to completely let us down, even more so than we experienced while in battle with the Philistines because your sons are corrupt. So, fix it, Samuel. Make it better. Give us a king. Give us a king so that we can be like everyone else. Give us a King so we can feel better once again.”

And while commentators of this passage often disagree on who’s right and who is off base in this passage (after all, you always have to read Old Testament narrative through the lens of yes, we are hearing God speak, but he is speaking through human voices)– was God being unfair OR were the people being completely disobedient?

But no matter what answers to these questions– it doesn’t change the experience of deep disappointment with the divine that Israel faced at this time.  After all, don’t they say in business management courses that perceptions of people are reality?

But, this is what we know as we look at the long view of Israel’s history though at this moment, the people might have felt abandoned, left alone and failed by the One person who promised never to leave them, there something else that is true. And that is that God has not left them or forgotten them.

One thing that my spiritual director says to me all the time as I am wrestling through a particular issue in my life is that while I may be fixated on one thing it doesn’t mean that something else is not simultaneously true as well.

That, yes, it is true that in many situations of our lives we might feel lost; we might feel abandoned; we might feel disappointed in God.  (And, all of these are valid emotions full of grief that it is ok to feel and to sit in for a while if we need to). But, such does not change the fact that it is also true: God has not now nor ever will  forget us. While we may feel like God is distant, God is still present among us. “God will never leave us to face our perils alone” says the theologian Thomas Merton.

If we see how God continued to work in Israel’s life as a people, we know that the ups and down tales of disappointment continue, but never less, God never gets to a point when God says, “I’m just finished with you. I can’t take it anymore. I’m through with you. I’m throwing you away”

No, like a loving, patient parent, God continues to abide, surround and love this people, even when they face difficult situations where their expectations aren’t met– even when they get that king and another one after that and another one after that. And, having a king really never solves their problems. God is still there.

When God disappoints us, what then are we to do?

When in college, I sang with a gospel choir with a student director with as much enthusiasm as Whoopi in Sister Act movie. Though I don’t remember a lot about the songs I sang after all these years, I do remember one song that was a crowd favorite anywhere we went called “He’s Never Failed Me Yet.”

The climatic ending was repetitive chorus of “He’s never failed me; he’s never failed me (with a dramatic) yet.” Our choir director was always about a strong staccato ending so much so that this line has always stuck with me. Though the rest of the song contained beautiful lyrics like:

I will sing of God’s mercy,

every day, every hour, He gives me power.

I will sing and give thanks to Thee

for all the dangers, toils and snares that He has brought me out.

He is my God and I’ll serve Him

no mater what the test.

Trust and never doubt

Jesus will surely bring you out,

He never failed me yet. (x2)

It always seemed like such a strange ending to a song that was so confident, so faith filled, and then we had to go and throw on a “yet” at the end. I’ve often thought about that yet, wondering about why it was there. Seemed disrespectful or as if we were putting God to the test. As if asking the question if one day God was going to start failing us.  Wouldn’t that be against everything we believe about our Christian faith?

But since then, these words come back to me sometimes in the shower or in my car and I’ve lived more life, felt more of life’s pains and life’s deepest wounds, I’m so glad that the “yet” is included. Yes, it is good in our most disappointed moments to acknowledge that God has never failed us, but we are human after all so if we need to add the word “yet.” And I think this is just fine. Part of living the life of faith is staying with the “yet” long enough to let God be God and all that this mystery means.

In our disappointment history with our God, sometimes, I know it is hard to keep believing again and again to trust that all will be different as our story goes on.

But, this is our hope for today. This is our hope to claim. There is a long view to our life’s story. We may be disappointed with God, but we are never, never alone. Today I claim God has never failed me. He’s never failed me yet. What about you? . . .

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June 4, 2012

Let’s Feed the Children

Friends-

Today is a purely personal post. It’s a post of celebration and hope and excitement about the future as it relates to my family.

As many of you know, Kevin, my husband, accepted a position back in April to become the new President/ CEO of Feed the Children– one of the largest domestic and international relief agencies. It’s an organization for that helps ensure the 12 million children at risk of going hungry in the United States simply do not. It is an organization that in 2011 delivered over 104 million pounds of food and other life essentials to children in need and their families around the world. They do great work!

Considering Kevin’s master’s degree in international affairs, work experiences in large corporations and most recently as the Chief Operating Officer at a non-profit in DC, and his heart for using his leadership skills to fulfill his Christian calling of service– he rose to become the perfect fit for this organization seeking a visionary and energetic new leader. 

Today is Kevin’s first official day on the job. He couldn’t be more excited to get to work with Feed the Children! I know he will love his new job even with all of the new responsiblity it will bring.

Though the transition will be hard for us in the beginning, as I continue to work here in DC as a pastor and he spends a lot of time in Oklahoma City learning the business, I couldn’t be more proud of him. I am cheering him and Feed the Children on and today, I’m asking you to do the same.

I know it would mean so much to Kevin (and to me too) if you took a moment this afternoon if you are a Facebook or Twitter user and post a comment of support for Kevin and his new work.  Let’s let the great staff at Feed the Children know how wonderful their new leader is going to be for this organization.

Feed the Children on Facebook

Feed the Children on Twitter

Or, even better, consider making a donation in  celebration of Kevin’s first day and all the good that you know he is going to do with this wonderful organization by clicking here. If you know Kevin, you know that your donation will be put to great use, especially in this organization that already has a four star rating with Charity Navigator.

Thanks so much for your support in this new adventure the journey,

Elizabeth

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June 3, 2012

Trinity Sunday: I Saw the Lord

I Saw the Lord: Isaiah 6:1-8

When is the last time you experienced the presence of God in your life? Where were you? What were you doing? How did you feel? What changed in you as a result?

I can imagine that all of us in this room this morning have at least one experience of God’s presence in our lives– or we probably wouldn’t be here in this sanctuary on Sunday morning, up way before brunch time.

Experiences with the divine presence of God come in as many different forms as are number of people who populate this earth.

For some of us, God comes to us when we are in a service like this one. The music, the readings, the sermons (of course) stir our spirits to rest in God. Even more so, for some of us, God comes to us when we are in places of holiness that have stood the test of history:  places like great cathedrals in Europe or visits to places in the Holy Land, or even great religious sites of other faith traditions around the world.

For some of us, we don’t need a particular space for God to come to us. The light of God shines on us when we simply take time to clear out our calendar from distractions and just find a comfortable position to be.  For some of us this might even be on a yoga mat, or in our favorite reclining chair, or in our prayerful posture every night before we go to bed.

For some of us, God comes to us most brilliantly when we are outdoors. We take in the majesty and glory of God’s name when we stand on the edge of places like the Grand Canyon, take a walk in Rock Creek Park in the city or one of the many wonderful walking trails around Reston, or stand at the edge of the beach, our feet buried in the stand as the salty waters roll in and out over our toes.

Whatever our place or space or time frame of such experiences, there is one thing in common to all of them– our hearts are stirred as we see, as we sense and we abide with the Lord.

Today, in the church calendar year is the day we set aside as Trinity Sunday. It’s the one day all year that we see aside everything except our complete attention on who God is and how it is that we as creations of God abide with the divine.  

If we read the Bible cover to cover, the word “trinity” is not something that we would ever find within. The word “trinity” was actually coined in the 3rd century by Tertullian, a Latin theologian, as he sought to describe “God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit” in just one word.

The historical question was this: how could the earliest believers in Jesus as the Son of God also serve the God of Israel and worship the Spirit of God that was sent to them after Jesus left the earth? How could such this be possible in was a monotheistic religion? If you are left scratching your head when it comes to answers– you are in good company.

It was such a hard topic that it took nearly 300 years to get the first major council together to come to some consensus. (You know it is how us church people work . . . when we have a problem we form a committee to fix it). Even though the Council of Nicaea came up with some good ideas that most people in the church accepted, including them in the Nicene Creed (which some of you may know), everyone could still not agree. Church schisms and controversies over the meaning of the Trinity continued for years and would eventually even divide the church in the west from the church in the east.

But, yet the acceptance of the Trinity remained a part of what followers of the Christian faith passed on from generation to generation, even with all of the controversy. So much so, that planners of the Christian calendar year felt it best to mark the Sunday after Pentecost as Trinity Sunday—a day to celebrate the work of the Triune God unfolding before our eyes since Advent. The work of the God who came to earth in Christ Jesus in a manager, grew up to be a man with a ministry of teaching and compassion, faced death and triumphed in resurrection, and then left humanity with the gift of God the Holy Spirit coming on the day of Pentecost.

Then, enter our Old Testament reading for this morning—the call story of Isaiah, the great prophet of Israel. A passage that is read in most churches during the commissioning services for pastors or mission teams because of the hallmark response of Isaiah to God’s presence in his life found in verse 8: “Here am I, send me!” yet is a great text for the call stories of all Christians. But, on this Trinity Sunday, we reach Isaiah’s call in order to see into a window into who God is– what happens to us when we encounter the divine and what then is asked of us in after such sighting.

And this is what is going on: in chapter six of Isaiah, we find Isaiah having a vision after the beloved and righteous king Uzziah dies (an actual historical time and place). And in this vision Isaiah sees the Lord as the “hem of his robe filled the temple.”

Theologian Kate Huey describes this encounter as the original definition of awesome– an overused word in our vocabulary these days that often goes to describe how we feel about everything from soda, to lotions that can cure balding, to weight loss drugs that can make us look 10 years younger, but in this cause, awesome is about Isaiah’s meeting with God that temporarily leaves him without words.

Before he could catch his breath, not only does Isaiah see the Lord sitting on throne but seraphs with six wings flying around. A seraph is a word that literally means: highest order of angels, an angel whose “position” in the heavenly realm would be closest to God.

Those of you who took Richard’s Baum’s class last winter will remember that their six wings symbolize the appropriate responses to the divine presence: with one pair they shield their faces from the Heavenly King’s majestic glory, with a second pair they hide their nakedness from the divine holiness, and with the third they go about their appointed tasks. And in this case the particular task was to speak praise about God. Calling out: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.”

In a moment of ecstasy, Isaiah sees this heavenly court, God seated on his throne with his seraphic attendants and the temple shook and the filled with smoke ¯ something no one is supposed to see. So the only response Isaiah can muster in verse five is: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips . . . “ so that one of the seraphs fly to him holding a live coal and touch it to Isaiah’s mouth saying “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin blotted out.”

As I describe this scene, you might have the same response as a friend of mine did when I told her of today’s text: “so Isaiah feels unworthy and sinful and so an angel who is hiding his face and feet touches this guy’s mouth with burning coal and says he’s good to go?  Yeah… no clue what the point of all that is! Couldn’t you preach on something easier – John 3:16 or something.”

And, while I could have taken her advice and diverted my attention toward a more tame or familiar passage, I feel we might miss something about the Triune life of God if we don’t sit with our text for a bit.

What Isaiah’s vision was and is asking us as readers of the text to do this day, I believe is to take in a moment to  sit with the mystery of God. To recognize God as holy means to acknowledge the set apart being of God all together. God as more than we can wrap our mind around . . . . God as holy, holy, holy (Father, Son and Holy Ghost) is the LORD of hosts the whole earth is full of God’s glory. God as so completely unlike our being that no one can be face to face with God and live! We can only see the hem of his robe. Our own attempts of purity won’t amount to much that the angels of God had to come and purify Isaiah’s words before he was ready to be in the presence.

Many of you have heard the following quote, but it is so true that it is worth repeating again and again, especially on Trinity Sunday.

Anne Dillard, the famous American poet and spirituality writer says this about God: “I am astonished that (at least back in the day) women wore velvet or straw hats to church rather than crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should latch us to our pews. Why? Because the One we court with the eloquence and flattering speeches is a wildfire we are crazy to think we are to contain.”

Following God, as Isaiah’s vision shows us is a bit more like riding a roller coaster that spins and curves upside down than it is God like a causal Sunday drive in the country. If we truly want to be in the presence of the holy, if we truly want to sense where our holy God is taking us—then we might start following Dillard’s advise and bring our helmets with when we seek to worship this holy three in one beyond all comprehension God.

Part of bringing our crash helmets, is beginning as God’s people to think more about what we are getting into as we seek to worship Father, Son and Holy Spirit—the God whose name we call specifically every single Sunday as we bless the offerings and sing the Doxology.

What do we sing? Praise God from whom all blessings flow, Praise Him all creatures here below. Praise Him of the heavenly host. Praise Father Son and Holy Ghost. Amen

For I believe that when begin to see God, I mean really see God and share with others what we see (just as Isaiah tried to describe in this passage for this morning PLUS recognizing that God has and always will be a mystery– beyond all comprehension– so we MUST leave room in our minds for God to do and be the unspeakable, the unexplainable and the unattainable, then our hearts are truly ready to worship the Lord.

One pastor describes the mystery of God’s name like this: “By ‘mystery’ I do not mean a question or problem that disappears when the solution is found, but the kind of amazement that grows as knowledge increases.”

So that as we worship our God,  we are using what to know about God to sense there is always more to God than we could ever dream or imagine. And, in light of this, opening ourselves up to visions of God that might cause our worship to become a little zany every now and then . . . When we are following our God, our Triune God, we might find the plans and hopes and dreams for our own journeys need to grow to fit how BIG our God already is.

This morning, as we approach the table of the LORD, a table that always proclaims the mystery of faith: we have an opportunity to recognize God in some ways we haven’t maybe thought about or done in a long time. We get to proclaim that God is God and we are not. We get to proclaim that we are a people of unclean lips and all our righteous comes from our Creator alone.

We’ll have the opportunity to make peace with our brothers and sisters in Christ before coming to the table knowing that seeing the holy in one another is the first step to seeing the holy in our Creator.

We’ll have the opportunity to drink this morning from one cup, one type of vine—being reminded of the mystery that in Christ we are one.

We’ll have the opportunity to taste and see that the LORD is good through simple elements that become for us signs of the body and blood of Jesus Christ.

As we join our voices together to sense the holy, here in a very midst, let us do so, giving thanks that even as we are people of unclean lips, we are a people who can be made clean through the redemption of Jesus, our Savior and Lord. Let us come to the table today to see God and to see God as mystery as much as we can.

AMEN

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June 2, 2012

Where I’ve Been: Scotland and Ireland in Style

Kevin and I had the opportunity to share a 10 days in Scotland and Ireland along with some time off with family before he begins this new job this coming week.

Can I just say that vacation is so good for the soul?

I had never taken two Sundays back to back off before, but what a break it was. I loved all the time to just be, think, and relax. How grateful I was for the time to be in two beautiful countries and simply be away! It is what the good stuff of life is made of. . .

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