Adv-Christm-any Cheat Sheet: User's Guide for Community Formation

The Cheat Sheets are already (almost) altogether.  For those of you who are staring at the calendar today and wondering what in the world you might do to foster lifelong formation while hearts are warm and attention both more focused and doubly divided??  Perhaps you look at my lists of videos and think - how do I make this work for lifelong learning in my setting??

Here are the links to the cheat sheets for each week (in order).  

Advent 1
Advent 2
Advent 3
Advent 4
Christmas
Epiphany

1.  Look at how much time you have.  If it is the typical 45-minute hour between services then you many not want to use all the videos each time.   What do your people most need to hear at this moment?
2. Sketch out a plan that has an opening of some sort.  An on-board funny question or simply check in (depending upon the familiarity of the expected group.)  If there are strangers please oh please invite people to share their name!!!!!  Schedule out a plan that mingles videos with dialogue, and research time if there are solid 'want to know more about' queries.  Watch the videos on your own and be ready to discuss parts that are important to you. Be ready to cut back as needed and fill as needed. If you can teach from a debate stance, you may want to argue a bit with the way some videos are presented.  I would.
3.  Do not rely on the internet.  Which is funny advice for a formation plan based solely on streaming videos (and human contact).  There are several online services that can help you download and save an online video for your educational (and not selling it as your own) use.  I use one that can be found if you google the word off and liberty.
4. Gather a reasonable library that you know how to use.  If you are book-centric, then bring your van sized concordance.  If you are digital, then bring your device (and hope the internet works).  One of the core questions is what do you want to know more about, and not answering this question is silly.  Your answer may be I don't know, and you may have to call a friend, but many of the basic questions are probably answerable with a basic Bible study library: a Bible dictionary, a study bible, perhaps a commentary.
5. Be hospitable.  Be sure to have a nibble and a beverage of some sort.
6. Pray.  Perhaps a seasonal prayer, maybe the same one each time.  Or you could be extemporaneous.  But please, pray.

It occurs to me that this could be used while a group knits prayer shawls together.  It could also be used as an upsidedown format - where you get the links out and have folks bring their reflections and questions and you work together to learn and reflect.

Whatever you do - just do it with love and hope and the expectation that the love of God is always being born in our lives.

Adv-Christm-any Cheat Sheet - A Bible Project Video Plan (part 2)

2nd Week of Advent

Still with me on this cheat sheet for Advent?  How are the wisdom and insights informing how you encounter the texts of the season - both the official ones and the Winter Wonderland variety?  Now we hear about wildernesses, hanging out down by the river, and highways and byways.

This week the lectionary offers a gospel text for the Psalm - because the song of Zechariah is essentially a psalm.  It just isn't a Psalm.  So first a review of the literary styles of the Bible, and then Psalms (which is strange since there isn't a Psalm this week!)   And I repeat my little bit that I don't always agree with their total presentation of some things (David's is most likely an over credited psalm writer). 

In the actual Gospel lesson, we meet John who is baptizing and rabble rousing and challenging the systems down by the riverside.  This video dives more into the larger ongoings: free reconciliation when the Temple is charging, strange bold generosity and other fascinations! 

Lastly, today is a survey of the letter to the Philippians.  This is a season of sharing and an invitation to fresh discipleship. 

There are always three good questions for your lifelong learning in the way of Jesus. Perhaps you want to journal or comment on your responses.

• What leaped out at you? 
• What do you want to know more about?
• How does God speak to your life in these summaries?

Adv-Christm-any Cheat Sheet - A Bible Project Video plan for Advent - Epiphany (part 1)

I really enjoy the Bible Project videos.  I don't always 100% agree with their scholarship or conclusions, but then I don't usually agree with anyone at that standard.  The videos are engaging and for a basic tutorial in the Bible that doesn't require much reading - the Bible Project is a go to. 

As we approach the Advent - Christmas - Epiphany cycle it occurs to me that this brief but busy time period is a good chance to focus on some biblical lifelong learning.  As long as you can stream a video and have 10 minutes, you are home free.  The suggestions below are all intended to tie in with general learning and the RCL C year scriptural themes.

First Week of Advent
We start at the very beginning - what is this sacred library and how did it come together?

Justice is a theme of the reading from Jeremiah and is as complex as the world is.  Good and evil, how we are made, and how we are reconciled to each other, and God, are all mixed in the concept of justice.

The gospel lessons for Advent this year are from Luke (not surprising really).  Each gospel book has a unique gift to our experience of Jesus.  This summary is in two videos.

There are always three good questions for your lifelong learning in the way of Jesus.  Perhaps you want to journal or comment on your responses. 

• What leapt out at you?  
• What do you want to know more about?
• How does God speak to your life in these summaries?

Learn: Church Life is an Upside-down Classroom

Introducing myself to a new massage therapist I told him I was a pastor.  His response was, I don't know sh*t about that!   My guess is that there are plenty of 'adherents' and 'members' for whom the same reply might be appropriate.  For many adult Christians, the ways to even begin the LEARN part of the WAY OF LOVE are a big oh crud question without an obvious answer. Like a young person being given the tools to make dinner instead of just receive it, some help and directions may be needed.  

My first instinct is a list of fabulous books to read, however, apparently,  not everyone loves to read and read and read (the world is not made of Hermione's). Therefore, everything on this list is either a podcast or a video or audio method of lifelong learning.

Lifelong learning and formation should be a balance of the communal and personal. We need the community to ask questions and discern, but we also need a time of personal study. The way of LEARN is in part an upside-down classroom where some of the absorption is done independently and in the middle of your lives. 

In search of more LEARN in your WAY OF LOVE,  here are six ways to get a quick start on your personal lifelong learning and formation.

1. Bible for Normal People Podcast Coordinated and usually hosted by Peter Enns, a professor of Biblical Studies and author who loves inviting people into informed, creative, and reasonable engagement with the Bible. His guests are frequently excellent fellow scholars, and the hour-ish podcast is both conversational and instructional.

2. The Bible Project An impressive teaching project that is striving to offer animated videos that not only help us quickly learn about parts of the Bible but also to learn more about some of the bigger themes and methods and literature types in the library we know as the Bible. "We simply desire to help others understand the scriptures and all their complex themes in a way that is engaging, approachable, and transformative.

3. Crash Courses  My love and excitement about the Crash Course project (which just keeps growing) is enormous.  Smart and funny and hosted mostly by the legendary Green brothers.  John Green is also a bestselling author (the Fault in our Stars, for example), and his brother is a musician and the creative genius behind The Lizzie Bennet Diaries.  There is so much to learn within the Crash Course universe, however for getting started in your lifelong Christian learning there are two paths to begin with.  The first is the World History series; especially starting with #3 to learn more about the world in which the Biblical and our religious history began.  Almost all of that series is valuable learning, however, you may want to pick and choose a bit.  The World History 2 set has some valuable big themes of history videos, and you might want to look at some of the World Mythology series.  Secondly, do take a look at the Philosophy series, especially starting with #9, to get a bit more of a sense of some of the philosophical issues that are woven throughout religion.

4. Great Courses  This organization focuses on getting world-class teachers and scholars into formats that are easily accessible by people like us.  They have a wide array of DVD courses, all of which are pricey, but some of which can be found at your local library.  I truly appreciate their audio courses, some of which may be available through your library, but many of which are available for purchase and download through Audible (my search says 56).  I have found some of the philosophy of language and sociology titles to be quite relevant as well.

5. On Being   An NPR show that I have never managed to happen upon being broadcast, I find her interviews with a wide array of scientists, artists, religionists, and public figures to be deep and valuable.  I download several episodes at at a time, but sometimes am deeply surprised by the offering of the week.  Dive into the deep library of interviews and find the ones with Brene Brown, David Steindal-Rast, John O'Donahoe,  and Walter Brueggemann, and the one on How to Be a Christian Citizen. The project says that it seeks to look behind and beyond the news cycle, attending to the human change that makes social transformation possible across generational time.  

6.  Pray as You Go  This amazing project is a prayer practice, however, the Ignatian Bible Study methods are a critical part of the daily offering.  While this isn't going to instruct you in Ignatian (Jesuit) practices explicitly, regular use of this prayer app will help you to understand the kinds of questions that can help us 'get into' the texts of our faith.  You can find the daily prayer as a podcast download, on their website, and as an app. 

So friends, what not-a-book sources of lifelong Christian learning and formation feed your regular practices of 'continuing in the Apostle's teaching'?  Leave your suggestions and lifegiving liberating streams of knowledge in the comments section!

More than Planting the Vineyard: Lifelong Formation makes the Wine

This is not the abandoned vineyard.

In the last thirty or so years, Walla Walla county went from no vineyards to nearly 3,000 acres. They grow lots of things around here: mustard seeds, chickpeas, lentils, onions, apples, wheat, alfalfa, and wine grapes.  The geological history and seasonal variations and being the wettest part of the dry side of the state make for world-class viticulture. The industry here isn't very old, yet not far from my house is an abandoned vineyard. It still has the wooden structures and vines that grow wildly and even produce grapes in between the overwhelming blackberry vines. Why I asked a winemaker, why would someone abandon a vineyard?

Disease and changes in water availability are the two primary reasons. There are some vineyards that once made good wine and no longer do. That is good and healthy to name out loud. The same winemaker asked me, why are you planting new churches, isn’t Christianity dying? Maybe, I said, maybe we are evolving into something more authentic and true to the love of God. We used to think we were making a whole lot of wine and that was a verifiable measurement and we felt satisfied with the big shallow number. Lot's of wine, but not particularly remarkable or memorable or eye-opening or daring. Now I think we desire to make more authentic wine that heals and transforms; sometimes in huge volumes and other times in a single barrel garage vintage.

I believe in planting new vineyards and find the work that we are doing in these efforts of church planting and evangelism are damn exciting and good good news. However, I am concerned that if you look at our proposed budget, we are investing in planting new vineyards but not budgeting for their long-term care and feeding; nor are we budgeting for the ongoing re-evangelization of lifelong congregational formation, settings old and fresh. The current draft budget seems to be spending much more on fancy new toys and equipment and new vineyards than it does for supporting the daily work of making wine at all the production facilities. It is hard to escape the impression that we are supporting the showy parts of the whole body of God faith experience, and not the rather tedious but redemptive work of local nurture, education, and formation.  We cannot plant new vineyards, and buy the equipment, and expect any of the wine to get itself to the feasting table.

There are thousands of practitioners, lay and ordained, nurturing and dug into this work of fermentation/formation every single day.  A field that is constantly evolving and changing and demands attention and new learning and re-evangelizing and being re-evangelized all the time. FORMA is the established, collaborative, grassroots network that equips and supports and ferments lifelong formation all across the church for all ages and congregations.  If you teach or pastor or plan or lead in the shaping of Christian lives then you should discover what the networks of FORMA can do to assist your mission.  

Whatever the ecosystem is that your congregation is planted in, you are called to teach and transform across whole lives.  The alliance of experts, experimenters, gardeners, and winemakers is already in place in FORMA. We want to help you make the wine of faithful lives as part of the reign of God. 

Funding FORMA continues the mission and movement and fermentation on the ground all across the church.  Funding FORMA collaborates with the amazing and limited staff at DFMS and helps meet the need they are woefully understaffed and underfunded to meet.  Funding FORMA helps us get from vineyard sprout to cup on the table (and then back out into the world to heal and repair and shine).

Other Way Around - Jonah, Jackie and Lifelong Formation

In 1945 Jackie Robinson was playing Negro League Baseball for the Kansas City Monarchs. He was known to be scrappy, clean cut, multi-talented and willing to confront institutionalized segregation. Branch Rickey was the manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers. He was known to be courageous, devious, brash, conservative and innovative. There was a day where an agent was sent to find Jackie Robinson and bring him to New York, where Mr. Rickey invited Mr. Robinson into what had to be the most frightening and alluring call. The call to stand up against the vast forces of racism and injustice, to shred social norms common conventions because we will be judged by them. What was it like to be Branch Rickey? What was it like to be Jackie Robinson? What experiences, what gifts and skills, what knowledge, what mentorship enabled these people to dare to change an enormous and broken system?

Who were Simon Peter and Andrew? What were their experiences and convictions? How did the work of a fisherman correspond to the journey Jesus was calling them to? Fisherman do messy life-giving work that offers food for others. It's a livelihood that requires you to serve as a team to work together to listen to each other. It's work that requires mercy and patience and Trust in the abundance that God has given.

Who was Jonah? We are sort of told he's a prophet, not so much told as it's implied. However, in the whole text Jonah, the only utters one sentence of something that is sort of like typical prophecy. Yet this text is prophetic even if it does not shout oracles. We read Jonah with a couple of drawbacks. The first is that some of us confuse it with Pinocchio for obvious reasons. And then relatedly, the second is that most of us have only encountered a disneyfied children’s Bible version. Which is too bad because it is only about 1000 words,  and it is unlike so much else in the bible, it is a whole story.

Jonah is a person who been called by God, who is presumed to be a prophet, and he is compelled to go and invite the people of Nineveh to repentance. In the name of the one Lord God of the universe. These are people Jonah hated and assumed were all terrible and dirty and no good at all. The dislike isn’t just the dislike of the unknown and the foreign. Nineveh is a major city of the former Assyrian empire that had been known for its cruelty all across West Asia. The prejudice and misgivings were generations old. Whatever Jonah’s gifts and talents were, they seem not to have been teamwork or ‘get it done-ness’. Jonah’s response to this specific call was to say ‘Heck no’ and get on a boat going in the opposite direction. While he is on that boat terrible storms swell up and after some theological discussion with the shipmates Jonah is sent overboard and swallowed by a really big fish. While cast down to the bottom of the sea, while he is in the bottom of a fish he offers a beautiful work of art of a psalm of lament and petition and thankfulness to the Lord of all.

After three days he is tossed back onto the shore and goes as directed to Nineveh.He follows through with the proclamation, and these people that he disliked and really wanted God to dislike, as we heard today, they repented and praised God. And Jonah, well, he got mad and sulked about it. Biblical Scholars have classified Jonah as an allegory, fable, folktale, historical account, midrash, novella, parody, saga, satire, short story and tragedy to name a few. And usually what they suggest is that it is some combination of those forms. Jonah is a story of resistance, a tale against the keeping of God in our little boxes, and how God can work with our hardness of heart. Jonah is a glimpse into how some lives of faith can be lived in unexpected forms. Jonah is a complicated and compelling story of the mixed-up-ness of the people God invites to establish his field of dreams.

My primary source for knowing anything about the interactions of Jackie Robinson and Branch Rickey come from the movie 42. And every time I watch that film I'm struck by two things. The first is that there's not nearly enough baseball (about 26 days till college baseball begins). And the second thing that captures my attention is the complex theological reflection that is present in the words and actions of Branch Rickey. I don't know if what we get in the movie is true to him or if it's true to the thoughts of the screenwriter. But every time I'm enlivened by the evidence of deep Christian formation that is present in those conversations. Conversations about the radical choice to raise up and stand by Jackie Robinson. You don't get to this understanding of this choice by glancing at ten ways of easy discipleship. You don't get to this call by osmosis. As offered in the film, the daring action and the strength to weather the storm is evidence of a person who has a whole lot of gumption and a plenty of organized spiritual study, and conversation and prayer.

If you're going to learn to play the cello and you sign up for orchestra class, but you never touch an instrument and you only sit in the back of the room you may learn a great deal about music, but you will not learn to play the cello. If you are going to join a baseball team and you never take the field and never practice, well that's called a booster, might even be called a fan. But it's not a baseball player. The discipleship that Jesus calls us to isn’t a casual following. It is a surrender of all that I think I know and all that I am afraid to let go of. Our goal is union with God and each other in Christ, and our call is attending to the fractured mess of this world to pursue that union. It isn't self-help or self-seeking but self-surrendering.  

One of the clear prophetic directions of this unusual prophetic text of Jonah is that all means all means all means all whether I like it or understand it or not. God is more than ready to partner with us in what we can barely comprehend. The ball doesn't come from us, the pitch comes from God. I don’t have to get it, I don’t have to like it, I only have to trust that God believes in us. The whole way of Christian discipleship isn't something we do on our own we do it with a team and the support the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is already out on the field extending mercy to those we least understand and us at the same time. How will you take the challenge of divine call in these lessons to put aside bluster and resistance and lean into the mission of God? How will we learn to extend mercy into the cycles of violence and blame that are a stormy sea all around us?

I am wondering if there is a way for some of you to move from booster to player? It occurred to me recently that I might have been going about the ‘getting together part’ of this all wrong for a while. Clergy leaders like myself are well equipped to be companions and resources for your journey. We are tour guides and librarians. The plethora of clergy and retired clergy at St. Paul’s and among our ecumenical neighbors, we are pretty good at listening to the questions and sometimes we know where to look for answers. What we are less capable of is arranging your schedules for you. In twenty plus years I have never been able to really do that. 

So here is the challenge. Well, some of you - the boosters and rookies and fans and occasional bench players and everyday players - I want you to figure out how to get together with 2 or 3 others and INVITE ONE OF us ALONG. Get together more than once. Sing hymns or old camp songs and wonder about them together. Watch Crash course videos and discuss. Listen to on being podcasts and talk about them. It doesn’t have to be a forever plan but a get-together and plant seeds plan. Let us be a people who are putting ourselves in the direction of being changed through study, and prayer and fellowship.

Jonah was a radically imperfect servant of the Lord. Just like every one of the apostles and all of Jesus’ disciples right down the line to you and me. We cannot wait until we are perfectly ready until all the players align to start swinging. Step on the field, step into the box. Goals tend to go better with a final date - so your get together and invite us along challenge, you have until Opening Day, which happens to be Easter weekend (as it should be) - April 1. Jesus says come and follow me, we would love to come and follow him with you.

Epiphany 3B RCL

St. Paul's Episcopal Church

Walla Walla, Washington

Little Books For Momentary Formation

Little books with little readings are like mustard seeds.  They can sprout large homes for multi-dimensional faith.  Here are 4 little books that I find to be a blessing day in and day out.

PRAYING THE PSALMS

It is not surprising that I start my list with a book by this Old Testament scholar, as my fandom of his work is well known.  Many of us encounter the Psalms in weekly liturgy and the daily office, but we may not know much about the Psalms.  We also might desire some guidance in finding our life and our prayer life within this library of ancient prose.

Here is a beloved quote from another book of Dr. Brueggemann, that applies to psalmody as well.

“Here we are, practitioners of memos:     We send e-mail and we receive it,     We copy it and forward it and save it and delete it.     We write to move the data, and                 organize the program,                 and keep people informed—     and know and control and manage.   We write and receive one-dimensional memos,         that are, at best, clear and unambiguous.     And then—in breathtaking ways—you summon us to song.” 
― Walter Brueggemann, Prayers for a Privileged People

A YEAR WITH RUMI

Folks who have been around me for a while also know that I am a fan of these 'a year with' books.  Whether it be L'Engle, C.S. Lewis, Bonhoeffer or Rilke: these brief snippets can feed daily pondering.  If you don't know much about the poet Rumi, he was a 13th century Sufi Muslim, and is widely regarded as a holy mystic.  Within Islam the people of the Hebrew Bible and Christian scriptures remained vital, interacting with Islamic principles in storytelling and poetry.  So while parts of Rumi's world are 'otherwise', many of the images and motifs in his spiritual poetry are familiar.  His works have been translated into many many languages, and he may be one of the most widely read poets of this era.

“Knock, And He'll open the door
Vanish, And He'll make you shine like the sun
Fall, And He'll raise you to the heavens
Become nothing, And He'll turn you into everything.” 
― Jalaluddin Rumi


LIVING WITH CONTRADICTION

These simple and short reflections on the Benedictine way of life can drive right to the heart of our everyday struggles to live a compassionate Christian life.  Esther de Waal is a historical scholar who specializes in interpreting and sharing Benedictine and Celtic practices for everyday use.  In this book she offers insights for living in a fractured world, for encountering dark moments and the grief that is a part of every life on earth.  My experience with this text is that I will pick it up and just choose a page, and almost always discover something I needed to hear at that exact moment.

“There is no once and for all moment when we can say that at last we are whole, the past is buried and over, the hurts forgotten, the wounds healed. Instead we find that it is to be a search that we must expect to continue throughout our lives.” 
― Esther de Waal, Living With Contradiction: An Introduction to Benedictine Spirituality

PERSEVERANCE

This book of single page readings is designed to poke, prod, and nurture a more connected, whole and balanced community and world.  Margaret Wheatley is the leader of the Berkana Institute, which incorporates research with organizational principles and the metaphors of contemporary science.  She is a mentor and consultant for organizations as different as a small town church and the US Army.  PERSEVERANCE is a breath of hope and a challenge of truth in the chaos of our lives.

"Determination, energy, and courage appear spontaneously when we care deeply about something. We take risks that are unimaginable in any other context." 


So what are the little books that give sustenance to your daily formation?

5 Digital Ways to Grow in Your Lifelong Formation

If you are going to reach a little bit further in your lifelong formation you may be wondering how to do so.  There is so much out there and many of us are rather busy.  Here are five simple additions to your lifelong journey that you can make this week.  All of them are available online, free of charge.

• If you like watching a wide array of short videos that are more inspirational than teach-y, it can be hard to wade through all the ridiculous online.  My friend Randall Curtis curates a collection called Videos for Your Soul.  He focuses the work around Ash Wednesday through Easter, however after several years of this collecting, you could watch one everyday for a long long while.  Here is a video from the folks at Soul Pancake, and my favorite sage, Kid President.

• I don't like mornings.  I can barely function until I get some caffeine and some calories.  Thank goodness for the people who offer daily audio morning prayer.  I can pray and not even use much brain power.  Usually I intentionally draw or color while listening, and find myself much more ready for the day at the end.  The first suggestion is Morning Prayer from Garrett County.  A priest named Chip Lee serves a community in Maryland, and has a wonderful digital mission.  It is Morning Prayer II, with the daily Epistle and Gospel readings, and lasts less than 20 minutes.   Any podcast app should be able to find it!  

• Perhaps one of the most amazing contributions to ongoing spiritual exploration is the show you might hear on public radio called 'On Being'.  Krista Tippett interviews a wide array of people who are contributing to our sense of connectedness and meaning in the world.  I try to listen to one of her broadcasts once a week.  Sometimes it is the fresh program, other times I reach into the archives and find new gems.  You can listen to these online, or as a downloadable podcast, or even when it is broadcast.  Most broadcasts are about 40 minutes long.  This year they released a short form of some of her interviews, called Becoming Wise.  

• d365 is a short meditation and reflection program that is available through links online or as a downloadable app for your mobile device.  Simple and thoughtful this is a lovely way to practice prayer daily. 

• As for knowledge building free videos, I love CRASH COURSE.  These are not 'spiritual or religious' videos; but because they are about humanity, religious and spiritual and ethical issues are everpresent.  Originally aimed at young people, these productions are sassy and fast moving, but also insightful and worth your viewing time.  About 15 minutes each, I recommend you start with World History (One) and keep growing from there.  

Trinity Sails: Play with the Mystery!

The sailboat was 47 feet long,and just wide enough, for nine people to live and move in close quarters.  The food stores were full, the water tanks brimmed.  The stereo could only seem to play reggae music.  We were in and out of the water so often,  passing showers so common, We became used to being neither clean nor dirty, smelling of sunscreen and the salty Caribbean sea. A Texan, an Indian, an Iowan, a Georgian, a Japanese girl, two Floridians,  and Australian and my American nomadic self.  It was sea camp, three weeks learning to sail and scuba and windsurf.  Seven teens, two adults, alongside a dozen other yachts just the same.  We had everything we needed in that fleet and on that sea.  Food for bellies and shelter for bodies and rest for busy souls.  Bold blue firmament above and sparkling blue firmament below.

The captain of my sailboat he loved the ocean.  For decades he loved inviting young people to the paths of the sea.  Teaching us how to hoist the sails,  handing us the steering wheel,  guiding us in how to dwell together, two parts Jimmy Buffett, one part Stephen Covey, one part Mister Rogers.   And this captain of my boat,  happened to be the director of the whole program. There is something quite daring about inviting boatload after boatload of teenagers to sail p precious ships.  Young people with their whimsy and curiosity and enduring sense of their own power, brimming with hope, romance, brokenness and challenge.  I once asked the captain if anyone had run a yacht aground.  He said oh yeah, once a decade ago,  really bent up the rudder. Cost a bunch to get it fixed.  I asked him if that kid was allowed back for another year.  The captain raised his head,  looked around toward shore.  Sure he said.  He is right there…our windsurfing instructor.

The Holy Trinity,  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  This Triune God gives shape to the experience of the disciples and early Church.  The experience that God who is the ground of all, and somehow is the same as this Jesus, inviting us into God’s self, and somehow is the same universal potency of deep wisdom and energy called ruach in the Hebrew.  It is hard to collapse into ink and paper, and the Trinity is a holy mystery, fascinating and tremendous, something to be known and trusted whether or not we can capture it with words.

The Captain figured out early that I was pretty good at cooking, and not so good at cleaning, and rearranged the chores accordingly.  Yet I was not known as the pancake maker, and the captain was never the paperwork filler-outer, even the windsurf instructor was not called ship runner a grounder.  We were called by our names, and not our chores or things we have done.  We related to one another as friend, leader, bunkmate.  A God who is known in plurality can of course be illustrated by a range of words, they do not have to be precise or perfect, they can bend to fit the moment.  

However we should recall that the potent life of the Trinity is rooted in its relationships, not responsibilities, or duties or characteristics.  You can memorize all the orthodox definitions about the Holy Trinity, or lean on a dozen verbal configurations of the triune, but that is not the Trinity itself.  Knowing all the parts of the sailboat is very different than working together to set sail and make it to our destination.

Maybe you would rather just step over this Trinity nonsense, sing the words and hope nobody brings it up.  Let me offer two reasons why the Trinity matters to the practicing Christian.  First it is the hallmark of Christian unity in all our diversity.  The rock bottom characteristic of what makes us Christian and not Christian-ish is: Holy Scripture as word of God, Trinitarian Baptism,

Holy Communion.  A world of graceful diversity and opinions and practices can dwell within that definition.  And diversity is the second reason why trusting in Trinity is not just an abstract argument.  The Trinity tells us that God is diverse within God’s self.  God is plurality within God’s self.  All our bloodshed over theology and practices, who is in and who is out: the testimony of the ages is that this does not matter if we do not act with the love for God and neighbor that has been poured into our hearts.

God can handle our wayward categorizing and over defining, what God wants is for us is a human race that is an image of the divine relationship: self giving,   ever original,  diversity bound to one another.  The Holy Trinity is a sketch of how God is, never-ever ending as the sea nor ever casting overboard, God is a moving community, reaching back and sailing onward.

So here is where I invite you to do something wholly outrageous.  Make a trinitarian metaphor, illustrate with word pictures your experience of the mystery of the Trinity.  Let it be a quark with its three moving parts that are the same stuff and what everything is made of.  Or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, or three ladies dancing. Humans build trust through relationship, people have relationship with ideas and concepts through play.  Metaphor is playing with ideas like a child plays with objects, and God invites us into relationship with Godself in three shapes, or matrixes, or names or whatever frame you need.  So go for it.  Make a trinity metaphor.  Spend enough time with intention and study and originality to make your wise and ancient and modern Trinity metaphor.  I promise, God can handle it.

In case you missed it, here is mine for the week.  God the Boatmaker separated the waters above from the waters below, God crafted the boat, filled it with good things and made it a safe place for us to dwell in, and equipped it so that we can sail home to him.  God the Captain invites us into the sailboat, teaches us to navigate, sings songs about where we are going, gives us the wheel and sails with us on our journey home.  God the Youthful Guest fills the boat with laughter and energy and frivolity, and maybe occasionally tries to get a bucket of water while sailing.  

It’s not perfect, for many reasons, especially remembering the pranks we pulled with all that passion and creativity; I am not to sure what to make of the Holy Spirit being a prankster.  But this holy exploration is essential to living into our Baptism. We promise lifelong formation upheld and guided by God’s foundational, motivational and sustaining help. Whatever creative act can lead you deeper into relationship with the living God, whatever song you need to sing to invite surrender into Jesus’s healing embrace, whatever picture you need to paint of the Spirit’s dream, DO IT.  hoist the sails, take the wheel, you have all that you need, the greater shore lies ahead.  Do it with the love he has poured into your heart.  God rejoices in it and says that it is delightful.  In the name of the Holy Trinity, a fluid foundation, an ongoing guide, and an energy beyond our imagining.  Amen.

Trinity Sunday, May 22, 2016

Year C, RCL

St. Paul's Episcopal Church   Walla Walla, Washington, USA

Journey through Both.And: Gifts of Imperfection for Advent Introduction

The Wholehearted journey is not the path of least resistance. It’s a path of consciousness and choice. And, to be honest, it’s a little counterculture. The willingness to tell our stories, feel the pain of others, and stay genuinely connected in this disconnected world is not something we can do halfheartedly. To practice courage, compassion, and connection is to look at life and the people around us, and say, “I’m all in.” 

Brene Brown, Gifts of Imperfection

Advent is both.and time.  Dismay and promise. Confusion and safety.  Scarcity and satisfaction.  Fear and forgiveness.  It is dark and it is light, there is abundance and there is desperation.  Any day, any time, and it is especially right now, it is the season of Advent.  St. John of the Cross called this liturgical time a luminous darkness.  It is a night sky, electric with the glow of the universe and yet enough darkness to cause us to struggle to walk without harm. There is an approach to the liturgical advent that focuses on the tripping, the falling, the brokenness.  There is another approach that is awe and wonder at the justice that God in Christ is leading us into.  It is not a one or another thing, it is both.and.  We are to prepare to make Christ room by looking honestly at the absence of righteousness, and by bending our hearts toward holy abundance.

If you are just beginning an Advent journey through ‘the Gifts of Imperfection’ you deserve a few warnings. 

• She will talk about uncomfortable things.  Like shame.  Real human shame that can lead to mountains of self-criticism and self-righteousness.  If you want to heal our personal and societal brokenness, then we must talk about shame and the numbing we use to ignore shame. 
• This book is based in university level research, yet this research is shared in stories, and the invitation to journey more deeply through your own.  Every Advent journey calls on us “to tell our stories, feel the pain of others, and stay genuinely connected in this disconnected world.” 
• Many of the personal stories in the book are focused on contemporary parenting and householding in a privileged setting.  Even when this is not our setting, we should find in her work and storytelling a more generous understanding of the social forces that are impacting all of us. 
• She will occasionally use the dialect known as ‘Texan’.  This might include a few choice words, and you are invited to recall that forgiveness is an important spiritual practice. 
• This is not an Advent, Christmas or Epiphany book, yet it is very much full of wide-eyed-compassion, it is very much full of holy gifts that you can use to better be Christ for the world, and it is awash in the whoa’s of Epiphany: enormous and intimate and impactful.  

Finally, it is a both.and book, it is both about our courage, connection and compassion on a personal level, and our courage, connection, and compassion in our congregations and wider community. Of all the gifts we discover this season, perhaps a new way of practicing love for our imperfect selves and neighbors is a holy gift of peace.

Let the Special BE Special: A075 #fundformation

Virtual Elevator Speech for A075: Develop Awareness of Online Christian Formation Resources

Approve the creation and curation of a central digital hub of Christian formation and education resources through DFMS/Episcopal Church Website.  This action will

• serve the questions and needs of the local mission of the church in all dioceses,
• cease needless and wasteful repetition of identical cataloging,
• empower and share the best resources for the Episcopal Church’s mission of discipleship.

The position paper from FORMA can be found here.

For a more interesting exploration of the topic, keep reading.  This might make more sense if you have seen the Lego Movie.  Which if you are interested enough in the Trinity and formation to read this, then you should SEE THE LEGO MOVIE.  And #fundformation.

Subsidiarity.  Let the local folks do what they do best, and let the judicatory levels do what they do best is the Unikitty definition. One could characterize it as anti-federalist.  In its more prophetic construction, you could interpret it as grassroots organizing.  Subsidiarity came up frequently in the Anglican Covenant episode, which also suggests it has shades of' keep your hands on your side of the car!'  

“Matters ought to be handled by the smallest, lowest or least centralized competent authority”. What does smallest mean here?  Can it mean most efficient?  What is not always mentioned when discussing subsidiarity is that the concept does have a role for a central organizing body.  This central organization should handle missions that are the same everywhere, and particularly those that support the local mission yet are broadly neglected by the grassroots level.

The internet is about as close as we come to something that is the same everywhere.  I realize there is a dark-net thing that I know nothing about; and I realize that not everyone has equal access to these resources (nor translation capabilities), however this is evolving rapidly.   The resources cataloged by Ogden in Bluebonnet diocese will be basically the same as those curated by Harper in Peanutville province.  The central organization is best equipped to organize things that are (or we want to be) the same everywhere, and those that are crucial but frequently left lying in the things left undone pile.

Right now there is an empty website framework for formation and education resources for my diocese. It is just sitting there in cyberspace, like the housing division where the roads were paved but the houses have yet to be built.  I already keep a measly assortment of Pinterest pages of interesting resources I find for curriculum and seasons.  Yet it barely skims the surface of what is available.  Every week an interesting and usable 'curriculum' floats past my line of sight. Sometimes I manage to pin it; usually I do not.   10 years ago the pickings were slim and it was hard to learn about the options that were effective, cost efficient and didn't activate my progressive orthodoxy gag reflex.  Right now there are amazing new offerings all the time, many of which are inexpensive and downloadable.  For example the day when a holy geek posted that the Messy Church book was free on Kindle that day only.  Awesome.  Where there is yummy wild fruit there is also just as much free and downloadable chaff.  Yet there it sits in the pile of things left unsorted.

That incomplete subdivision of a formation site, there is plenty to fill it.  And my plan is that once I find the time,  I am going to digitally cut and paste from a Bluebonnet diocese and a Yankee diocese and the Peanut Ministry Center and the Master Builder vault.  My plan is to spend a significant amount of time making digital Xerox copies.  My plan is to be an unmodern monk, wandering the digital highway and hand copying a missal when 3-d printers are a thing!! DIY! (Blech emoticon!) This is time and talent that could be spent visiting and calling (and driving) and offering in-person support and guidance.  Time that hasn't been found because I am engaged in the local part of our church-wide ministry, the serving and visiting and human part.

78th General Convention Resolution A075 directs the communication office and formation office to create a central resource and information hub at the DFMS level to curate and freely share the wide array of resources that can help congregations teach, tend, and transform.  Approve this.  Fund this.  It is not something to cement and make permanent, it is a foundation to build and will need ongoing leadership to maintain.  This is an example of one of the best ways that the DFMS Formation office is most valuable.  

The local level is best equipped with a legion of disciples seeking the reign of God.  The central level leadership is the most efficient site for a digital resource hub.  Because the internet is basically the same everywhere.  Furthermore, the DFMS leadership is particularly called to keep the weakest and smallest among us equipped for our common mission.  The churchwide level office for lifelong formation, properly funded,  is the best zone from which to curate resources and offer this central hub. Multiple dioceses repeating the same material and posting the same material on their various sites that are accessible to everyone is wasteful when, as I have already suggested, the internet is basically the same everywhere.  A075 needs to be passed because it is a wise and efficient use of our talents and resources.  It offers these resources to the whole church, regardless of the wealth or shoestrings of the diocese you serve in.  

Approve A075 to direct the building and continual nurture of a central digital hub of Christian formation and education resources through DFMS/Episcopal Church Website.  This action will

• serve the questions and needs of the local mission of the church in all dioceses,
• cease the talent wasteful repetition of identical online cataloging,
• empower and share the most amazing resources for the Episcopal Church’s mission of awesome discipleship.

FORMA advocacy group member

Digital resource part-time curator

Local lifelong minister

Diocesan missioner

Provincial connector

Computer literate, and ok master builder, since 1979