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.  

Aspire to Climb: Zacchaeus Leaps

I once had a job where my most important asset was not my friendliness, or attention to detail.  My most valuable skill was my willingness to climb.  The back room at the toy store was very narrow, and filled with three sets of floor to ceiling industrial shelving.  When a shipment would arrive it would fill the two of the narrow aisles, with 6-foot-high stacks of boxes.  I would climb up the shelves and brace myself in varying configurations, and as quickly as possible relocate all the contents from the boxes to the shelves. 

The gospel reading today tells us that Zacchaeus was a petite fella, and I find nothing unusual at all about his tree climbing strategy.  Even if it is ‘undignified’, now and then.  There are a few things we know about Zacchaeus and volumes that we do not.  We are given his name, and a place: Jericho.  This episode is situated in time and can be found on a map, being one of the last encounters of Jesus on the way to Jerusalem.  Not only do we know his name, we also know he was a wealthy tax collector.  We know that in Jesus’ society wealth would bring respect, but collusion with the occupying empire would not.

We can tell that Zacchaeus was a notorious person, you can see it by the way the crowds do not let him through.  As a tax collector he interacted with all zones of society and was therefore considered unclean, a rich outcast.  It is fair to say that Zacchaeus had heard of Jesus, and the Jesus movement. The Jesus movement is what scholars today sometimes use to name the earliest phases of community and discipleship around Jesus.  I wonder what it was, what sent this derided and privileged man out into the streets, pushed him into a crowd of people who didn’t like him at all.  What part of Jesus’ life, what part of his word and welcome draws anyone out of their comfy home and into the streets, and then, daring to scamper up sticky lumpy tree?  There is something about that climb, that striving to do something, anything, to get a glimpse of this movement that calls to him, there is something unmistakably aspirational about it.  

We don’t know if he had any friends or family, but I assume he had servants.  I imagine him heading out, and telling a household servant something like,  ‘well, I am going to go check this out.  It is important for me to know about people like this Jesus.  I had better go see what all the fuss is about.’ I imagine that because that is my place in this story.  I did something like that once upon a time.  Early in my young adult encounter with this Jesus Movement, soon after I went from open agnosticism to participating in a church community, when it was still new to me, well, I claimed to other people in my life that I was doing sociological research.  ‘Because religion and the Bible are important influences on society and I should know more about them.’  I actually said that, and I might have even believed it.  So I stepped out into my crowded street and I climbed my tree, and sought to see Jesus.  And he saw me in there, and drew me out of the tree, and invited himself into my life. 

What sent you into your ‘tree’ to seek Jesus?  Perhaps you have no idea why you keep climbing these trees or this tree in particular.  What hunger sent Zacchaeus up that sycamore tree?  Was it a desire for wholeness?  Refuge?  Was he seeking a group of outsiders with which he could possibly no longer be an outsider?  Or was it a hollowness that needed to be filled with a more wonder-full way of living?  Zacchaeus had been on a spiritual journey his whole life.  He may not have known it, but he was, just as I believe that everyone is.  We are all on a lifelong journey of faith formation, even in the parts where we say there is no road, or cannot see the forest for the trees.  Somedays we see the vistas and the rainbows and feel the unity of the forest, and sometimes we are just trying to sludge through the inches of decomposing muck on the floor. 

Tree climbing is a lovely metaphor for faith formation.  Trees are symbols of nourishment, refuge, transformation, and holy insight. We have been blessed with a home that has a solid trunk made of living words and a living heritage, with branches that lead us up and into the edges of God’s longing for this world.  The FIG SYCAMORE that Zacchaeus climbs is a specifically a symbol of regeneration and rebirth.  Our tree should be like that tree, a way of continual reawakening, lifelong striving and wondering,  and a practical tool for when we are brought up short. 

I assess formation in my life and the places I serve by the promises of the baptismal covenant. CONTINUE, RETURN, PROCLAIM, SERVE, STRIVE.  Aspirational formation should continue in learning, worship and prayer.  It keeps studying the branches of the tree and wonders where it can climb to next.  It puts up tire swings and helps neighbors to enjoy the ride.  CONTINUE.  When we fall into sin we are a people who return, confess and forgive, like the arms of a tree as welcoming as Jesus’: limbs of understanding seeking wholeness.  How am I returning?  I also look for proclaiming Good news in word and action. Is this a community that SERVES with Jesus, that learns and grows through serving neighbors and seeking the common good? We certainly SERVE, but is it a limited few and could it be more of us?  And I look for striving.  Aspiring from the roots.  roots are there for trees to live and grow.  Their energy is upward and their being is intertwined.  Roots pull in nutrients and send them up for sharing in courage and daring to live for others.  Roots strive to offer strength to breathe God’s dream in our leaves.    How will we STRIVE this year,  and how will we prepare ourselves to always STRIVE?

You climbed a tree, I can tell because you are here.  Jesus is calling to you to examine your place in his movement, this dream, this hope, this way.  How can this gospel today lead you to renew a promise for lifelong formation for all, including yourself? CONTINUE RETURN PROCLAIM SERVE STRIVE.  Remember how Zacchaeus climbs a sycamore tree?  This isn’t an American type of sycamore, like the one that was planted around here and produces those yellowish seed balls that are easily crushed underfoot.  This West Asian sycamore tree is a fig tree, and its name in Hebrew shik-ma seems to be rooted from the same place as words such as restore and regenerate.  When the wind exposes this sycamores roots, this tree will stretch its roots deeper into the earth.  When the sand covers its low-lying branches, they transform into roots, which give rise to new trees.  

The trees we dwell in together are made of strong sycamore wood and can bear our brokenness and support our questions and renew our hearts.  Jesus sees us in this restoration tree.  Maybe you don’t like heights,  yet here we are and God’s people are looking up at us.  Dare we welcome them up into this holy tree?  Aspirational Membership is the heart of our stewardship campaign and one of the pillars is a commitment to lifelong formation.  We are a lifelong tree climbing, baptismal living, wholeness seeking Jesus Movement group of people.  Can we dig deeper, letting branches become roots?  Can we sprout new trees, and absurdly strive for renewal? How will we reach to do this all the way back to the heart of God? Let us sit in that tree for a moment and ponder psalm 46.  Be Still And Know that I am God.

October 30, 2016

St. Paul's Episcopal Church

Walla Walla Washington
RCL C Proper 26 track 1

Link for the audio if the widget doesn't work.

Carnival Church: The Outrageous Steward and our Practice of Being In Tents

Not the german carnival.

Colored lights and striped tents filled the open spaces on a fall evening.  There was that ride like a top, that lifts up with swiftly spinning swings.  There was a contraption with pretend wild animals to ride.  Oh and bumper cars, there were bumper cars.  Neighbors wandered, children begged for a treat.  An open sided carnival, free flowing with the neighborhood, one could come and look and smell and taste, while someone else could ride and play and dare.  

Small carnivals would appear from time to time in our west German neighborhood.  It was an easy walk from our off base duplex, around the corner and up the hill to where the usually barren field would be transformed.  I can still find in my memory scent notes of what is not an American carnival sensation,  a mystical kind of lightly sweet,  mixed with cloves and ginger and maybe a hint of licorice.   Some of the people who wandered there may have felt lost, some may have worried about what tomorrow would bring,  and so they wandered up the hill and let the lights and the music be a balm for a moment.

Jeremiah is no carnival clown.  He can grasp he will be soon be wading in the debris of imperial marches.  His name in recent centuries became a noun: jeremiad.  To speak a jeremiad is to publicly bemoan and lament the conduct of life among your people, your leaders, your neighbors.  “For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt, I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me.  Is there no balm in Gilead?  Is there no physician there?”  

Perhaps you recall that Jesus’ contemporaries had a hard time placing him in a useful category.  Is he a prophet?  Rabbi? Wonder-worker? Carnival act?  Jesus embodied Gods life and intention for the world.  His proclamation in word and deed is authentic love.  An experience of something wholly different than the everyday plastic existence that makes life dull and fruitless.  Whomever it was that could have possibly written the ancient version of Forbes,  he is long forgotten.  Whatever that person might have advised, it is dust,  having been a flat, plastic and predictable idea of security.  The living word of God is not going to be so flat or conforming.

 

Post harvest wheat fields near Pomeroy, Washington

No one seems to think that Jesus’ words about the good shepherd are an agricultural lecture, so why do we get so bent out of shape about these next words?  I think it is because this subject pokes at our deepest insecurities.  Yet Jesus isn’t really talking about earthly accounting of deutchmarks or denari.  I ask you to take a second and ponder: what is wealth to God?  Hope.  Justice.  Forgiveness.   Grace.  Resurrection.  What is wealth to God?  The prophets say that it is NEVER HAVING TO HEAR THE CRIES of any of God’s beloved creation ever again.  

Looking at the parable,  what are the items of wealth that become free flowing forgiveness?  Oil.  Oil in the ancient world is heat, it is light, it is cooking, it is cleaning, it is healing. Oil is the deliverer of those balms of Gilead, and in a dry land, oil is as precious as water.   And you know about grain.  Grain is nourishment for bellies, and it is straw for mats for burdened bodies.  Wealth for God is measured in love, calculated by free flowing compassion.

If this lesson has advice about any human venture,  it is perhaps about the adventure we call being church.  A carnival knows it is temporary, when the duty is done, the tents come down, rides pack up. There is a thread of query in the Old Testament, wondering if maybe we were better when we were with God in the wilderness, wandering together in our permeable tents.  Building of temples and churches changes us, changes our relationships with each other and with strangers.  Dwelling in tents may have better reminded us of the truth that the past is dust, and the future is always in motion.  The only thing we have to be sure of is we are God’s beloved, right here on this shifting sand, with these strangers and neighbors and friends.

We have spent a month praying through our hopes and fears, resentments and anxieties.  Before we bring it down I want to point out that there are empty clips where unnamed prayers rest.  There are open spaces where the free flowing grace of the Holy Spirit is transforming us as we pray.  As I let the cards rise I read of both sadness’s and gratefulness.  What struck me most clearly was worry about what is to come, and a desire to be more effective proclaimers of Good News.  

I once served with one of the most effective Episcopal congregations in the country, and it was rather like a circus or a carnival.  Like many of the most effective congregations I know of, they have a footprint, but their mission is as unbounded as festival music or pleasant carnival smells.  The good news comes and goes and flows freely.  The second thing I know about effective congregations is that they don’t invest most of their time or energy in 20 years ago or 20 years from now.  They are fixated on the present day, of being incarnate gospel centers for teaching and healing and shelter in their neighborhoods today.  They PRACTICE being CHURCH AS IF WE DWELLED IN CARNIVAL TENTS.

Jesus’ life and ministry offers an un-jeremiad. He laments the way we conduct the business of life.  Our gospel story isn’t about our currency or investments, it is about our generosity and fluidity.  He summons us into stories that jolt like bumper cars, and humor that makes us dizzy.  Jesus makes friends with what seems like crookedness and chaos and fills our flat lines with resurrection.  The number one thing I believe that this Gospel lesson demands is that the Christ figure here today is this outlandish steward!  This example who encourages the better part of us, and discourages anything that makes us smaller and less generous. 

Jeremiah and Jesus may have had deep divine knowledge of what came next,  yet you and I, we have no idea of what the next era will demand.  So we must trust that our longevity will only spring from being a captivating carnival of the good news.  Healing balm over here,  tasty joy over there,  wisdom to the left and new life to the right. 

I have two questions to leave you with.   

What outrageous spin in your life can make the gospel shine brightly today?  

And, what does the Christ carnival look and feel and smell like to you? 

Let us pray.

Gentle us, Holy One,

into an a deep breath, a letting go

of shriveling anxieties

            and dead certainties

so that, surrounded by the light,

            and open to the mystery,

We may be entranced by the simple,

and filled with the joy that is you,

In the name of the Holy Dancing Carnival Like Trinity, One God Forever and Ever. Amen.

September 18, 2016  St. Paul's,Walla Walla
Audio Link if Widget doesn't work

RCL Proper 20 Year C Track 1

Prayer adapted from Ted Loder.

itty bitty green haired reblog

A small piece about PNEUMA.  You should come to this fabulous ecumenical conference for folks who know our call is to shape lives of discipleship.  And it is at the Bishop's Ranch..which is swell.



So ...here is the reblog link.

http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/youthministry/2016/08/12/pneuma-conference-holy-communication/

And for the pool rat memories...http://parliament-pool.com/.  I would post photos from them, but we seemed to never take a photo of my kelp tone hair before cutting it off.  Kelp tone hair might be cool now.  Hmm.

epistles for a friend: say it in print

Hi there Daisy.

It has been cooler than normal thus far here in the Inland Northwest. I was never 'hot' at camp last week, which is amazing since it was July and it was quite warm there in May! Anyways, I have been thinking a good deal about our messages back and forth. I preach and teach all the time, I set goals for formation such as: guests will know the summer gospel well enough to tell it in their own words. I have deeper goals that go unstated, such as 'parishoners will know the difference between practicing Christian-ness and just liking it'.

Yet you have me wondering. How often do I make public personal 'I believe' statements? I was not embedded in this mystery we call the body of Christ, and now I rather am, and there are many reasons why. Yet do I say them, not really. So maybe that needs to change.

Still, our tradition, we also tend to do less of the 'this I believe' statements and more of the 'this is how we live it' declarations. Being an incarnate (in the flesh) focused tradition means we really intend that our actions speak louder than words. However, like you, sometimes we find ourselves in spaces where having the words would make us feel more grounded. We may know the creeds by heart, but that is hardly the words we need in a conversation with dorm-mates.

So here are a handful of 'I believe' statements about our tradition from my‘expert’ point of view.  I say them to set an example of the words of faith you have been steeped in, but may not have seen in print.  I also use I statements because I am speaking for myself and not the branch of church I have served and helped lead for 20 years.

• I believe in God because I see purpose and beauty and creativity in the world that I am certain was not an accident.
• I experience God as intention and hope that surrounds me and leads me in the higher ways.  
• I believe in God when I know I need to say sorry to the ground of being for my brokenness and the brokenness the human race inflicts on the creation.
• Sometimes I connect most to this trust in God when I am singing of God.  There is an Alison Krauss song that always brings me to that space where I know that I really do trust in God and God’s reign. It is not a head thing in that moment, it is a heart and soul place of deep connection.
• I experience my relationship with Jesus as a strange friendship that called to me and drew me in even as I denied it was happening.
• It did this through loving relationships in a community of imperfect practitioners who were Christ to me.  The liturgy, the meals, the ministries together, they soaked into me and changed me into his likeness too.
• I feel that following through with the life prescribed at the conclusion of Matthew 25 (heal the sick, release the prisoners..) is more important to Jesus than any statement of faith I ever could make.   
• I think that belief without doubt isn’t faith; it is stubbornness or laziness.   I should add the IMO, but IMO this isn't an opinion.
• I don’t have an intellectual agreement with our creeds, I ‘believe’ them because I trust that the Trinity is at work in them and with us as fuel for the mystery of faith they try to frame.
• I don’t believe in individual salvation because if I don’t love and care for strangers,  then I haven’t been saved at all.  No one person can be saved without the rescue of all.

I mentioned podcasts in the last message (did I?). Anyways, speaking of listening...I recommend lots of podcasting with On Being, especially her interviews with musicians. The host Krista Tippett (who you should read up on), starts every interview with a question about the faith of childhood for folks whose fame isn't always faith based. Here are a couple to find the podcasts of: Brian McLaren, Joe Henry, David Isay,and the Mary Oliver one, and Yo Yo Ma, Indigo Girls, and the Brene Brown one, and the Rex Jung one (more cause I know him), and the Nadia, Rosanne Cash one, Jaroslav Pelikan, and because I am the church lady fan girl..Walter Bruggemann.

I know you have work and a life, however, the marvelous thing about these is that they are intended to be listened to. Take them to the gym, on drives, whenever. Let them be a gift to your questions and journey and desire to do well by the world.

Love, and Reminders to wear Sunscreen!
Jane

This series of epistles are rooted in actual replies to an actual young friend who found herself far from her faith home. Names have been changed to honor the beloved and the situation has been cloaked for the same reason. Still, while making myself sometimes feel like Paul writing to a distressed congregation, maybe it will do you some good too.

Epistles for a Friend: Episcopal Encounter with 'Other Christians'

Dear Daisy,

I have been thinking about your message, about how you are spending the summer with people you adore and respect, and who clearly love you, yet they sometimes make you wonder if you believe in any proper churchy ideas.  I have a sermon to write, and so I need to download a few thoughts and guesses for you so that I can focus and not get these two topics all mixed up.  So I am going to make a few guesses and share a few points. After I share a little ditty about tension. Which has a few words that are not camp appropriate. It is actually a mashup of two songs, but I love this guy, so here it goes.

I don’t recall I ever told you about my olden days, you know the ones in the 80's. For all except the end of my high school experience, I didn’t believe I believed in God at all.  The God thing didn't seem to be rational and I liked logical things.  I would have told you that I paid as little attention as I could to church or Sunday school until I got out of going (and worked in the nursery) at age 12.  

In the many years since I have discovered that I learned a whole lot more than I realized while I was ‘not paying attention’.  My antagonistic agnosticism, remember that I lived in South Texas for the end of high school, began to slowly dissolve through experiences that I could name, even then, as Grace.

Still, when I was your age I would have told you I was Episcopalian, but I didn’t know enough about Jesus to tell you whether or not I believed that he was anything more than an ancient teacher. I would have unlikely to have checked a box that said 'Christian'. That young person still hangs around in my self-perception, when I wonder what the heck I am doing pastoring people in their faith.  I admit that I still wonder regularly if I haven’t lost my mind, if I made up the holy moments I experienced, and I wonder if I trust in a fantasy novel. Yet I also know that such wondering keeps me searching (and healthy).

The most difficult tensions in religions are not between different ones, but within themselves.  I don’t have any investment in Hindu theological debates, however I care a whole lot about Christians who claim that Jesus is in favor of oppression or sexism or hatred.  You have stepped into this high tension place, not the oppression place but the tension of living together as 'one church'.  

The Episcopal tradition you were raised in has some rather different assumptions, foundations, and understandings of the who what and why of Jesus than your hosts this summer. My guess is that you are encountering people who talk God, Jesus, Spirit in ways that are quite dissimilar from the way you might use such names.  And I am confident that in a worship setting this distance wasn’t as evident.  I have known plenty of folks who love our liturgy, but they don’t know they have any holy imperative to take responsibility for their neighbors (which we teach and preach consistently).

Maybe you will find something you have been missing with the new friends you are spending your summer with.  Or maybe it is going to be like the hymn whose tune you love but whose words make you ill.  There is a gracious space of holy self-giving in that choice. I already recommended the book 'Searching for Sunday', and I want to suggest that again, and add a book that DOES NOT have an audio version, yet is quite elegant to read and look at, 'Tokens of Trust'.

Keep wrestling and thinking and conversing, and singing.  There is deep growth to be found in the act of performing the faith while asking big questions. I am proud that you can name that you are in a place of tension, and that you have asked for help rather than stewing in your discomfort. Rather like a more advanced yoga pose, you have to breathe into it, set your intention and listen. If you fall over, so be it. You can always get up again.

Peace and Camp Appropriate Hugs!
Jane

These two epistles are rooted in actual replies to an actual young friend who found herself far from her faith home. Names have been changed to honor the beloved and the situation has been cloaked for the same reason. Still, while making myself sometimes feel like Paul writing to a distressed congregation, maybe it will do you some good too.