New Year worship thoughts

January 5 - Epiphany

Matthew 2:1-12

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, 2asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.” 3When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; 4and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. 5They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: 6‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.’” 7Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. 8Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.” 9When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. 11On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

Anchor: The Star that everyone can see

Frame: Love is Light

Thread: More Light

Social Issue: Religious Pluralism

The star was in the sky for everyone to see. Yet not everyone read the same significance in that star that our so-called "Wise Men" did. It was so significant to them that they packed up and left the comforts of home to follow wherever that star took them. It took them to Bethlehem and to Jesus. As far as we know, these astrologers were neither Jewish nor Christian (meaning that there is no evidence that after their encounter with the infant Jesus that they in any way continued to follow his life much less his teachings).

This Sunday observes “Epiphany” the day when we proclaim that the world saw the glory of God in the baby Jesus. The word “epiphany” means “manifestation.” For years this was an occasion to herald that the definitive light had come to the world: the Christian light. The story of the Wise Men, people from foreign nations, being led to Jesus is told as evidence of this. Yet I find it odd that nothing much is made of the fact that in the story when all the intrigue and mystery is played out these foreign scholars  “left for their own country by another road.” Presumably they went back to their homes and lives and studies and likely their own religions. They paid homage to what they saw revealed in Jesus, but they didn’t follow him. For most of Christianity’s history we have been touting the goodness and God-ness of the light we proclaim that we have rarely thought about how we make that light look to others.

And Christianity has rarely thought to ask how God’s light looks in other theological or even geographical places than our own. Eastern religions have been recognizing and talking about light for hundreds if not thousands of years longer than Christianity. How might their perspective on divine light illumine our own?

January 12 – The Baptism of Jesus

Matthew 3:13-17

13 At that time Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan River so that John would baptize him. 14 John tried to stop him and said, “I need to be baptized by you, yet you come to me?” 15 Jesus answered, “Allow me to be baptized now. This is necessary to fulfill all righteousness.” So John agreed to baptize Jesus. 16 When Jesus was baptized, he immediately came up out of the water. Heaven was opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God coming down like a dove and resting on him. 17 A voice from heaven said, “This is my Son whom I dearly love; I find happiness in him.”

Anchor: water toys

Frame: playing with God               Thread: More Light

Social Issue: Setting an intention for the Common Good – world citizenship

Baptism has been laden down with the scrim of sin that it seems to have lost its symbolism as a beginning and a way of life. We get involved with questions like, “Why did Jesus get baptized if he had no sin?” “Did Jesus sin?” “Did Jesus repent of anything?”

               

If we remember that “repent” means to turn a new direction (Borg says that its implication is “turning toward home as if from exile”) then the answer to that last question is yes. Each of the synoptic gospels tells their version of Jesus coming to John for baptism at the initiation of his (Jesus’) ministry. In his commentary on Mark’s gospel, Borg refers to this incident as Jesus’ conversion story. It seems that Jesus sensed that he was setting out on something big and he wanted a way of marking that. In many ways he was giving up his conventional life (taking up his father’s trade, finding a wife and having kids, settling down) for the life of pleasing God by inviting others to explore a new Way.

At the beginning of the New Year we tend to make (or joke about making) resolutions that will improve our lives. Eating better. Being more organized. Getting more exercise. None of these are bad things, but it seems that most of our resolutions have to do with ourselves. What if we claimed in our baptized nature that we have the capability – like Jesus – to bring happiness to the God who dearly loves us?  What if our resolution is not to make ourselves better but to live in god’s Creation in such a way as to bring happiness to the Divine?

As a parent I remember specific moments when I set aside my own agenda (whatever I thought was important that I had to do as a responsible adult) and did something one of my kids wanted. My motivation was not necessarily to improve their lives. I have to admit it was kind of a selfish motive: seeing my children smile and hearing them laugh is a unique and life-charging experience. What if we stopped whatever we think it is that is so important and sat down with the single intention to make God happy? What would that look like? For me, that changes my perspective on the things that followers of Jesus often do. Feeding the hungry then is not an obligation, not just serious work but also a cause of joy. Waging peace (in pickets, in polling places, in prayer groups) is not a heavy-shouldered labor but is like chasing butterflies – a celebration of the lightness of life. Caring for Creation (certainly a life-preserving reality in our generation) is not just about rescuing the planet from our own self-centered and rapacious use of the Earth, but is also the planting of a garden of laughter and happiness as we love what God loves.

When we listen to stories like this from the bible, we rarely imagine smiles in them. But I can’t help that think that when Jesus had that feeling of being dearly loved and sensed the delighted laughter of God, that a broad and genuine smile didn’t spread across his heart and his face.

January 19 – MLK Weekend

Psalm 40:1-3 (Nan Merrill’s “Psalms for Praying”)

I waited patiently for the Beloved,

                who came to me and heard my cry

Love raised me from the pits of despair,

                out of confusion and fear,

                and set my feet upon a rock,

                                making my steps secure.

There is a new song in my mouth,

                a song of praise to the Beloved.

Many will see and rejoice,

                and put their trust in Love.

Anchor: Garbage cans

Frame:

Thread: More Light

Social Issue: Racism and Inclusion

To me, there is a difference between prejudice and racism. Prejudice is a personal feeling and pre-judgment (as the word itself literally means). Racism is systemic. Those who live and function in a racist system are affected by it, either as privileged or oppressed. As a straight white male living within the racist system of American culture, I receive privileges withheld from those who are neither male nor white nor straight. While I strive and aspire not to be prejudiced, by benefit of being a member of a racist system I have to confess (and deplore) that I am racist.

Martin Luther King was not only working to change the hearts of the bigots who opposed him, he was working to change the very system that perpetuates the racism that subjugated African Americans in the 50’s and 60’s. And though we have now elected the first African American President, in many ways that election has only brought to light the depths to which the racist American system has not changed since King’s generation.

King’s biblical foundation enabled him to begin that system-changing campaign from the bottom up. It was with the striking garbage collectors that brought him to Memphis. King addressed the United Nations and had conversations with Presidents, but it was for the garbage collectors he gave his life.

The psalmist writes of singing a new song when God, the Beloved, has restored light and life to the poet. Sometimes we have to learn the new song even before liberation is fully attained. We cannot wait until the last stones of racism are torn down before we sing of God’s equal and unconditional love. Maybe the singing can urge us a step or two closer to that day.

The psalm also reminds us that our restoration by God requires a new song. It is a new day and a new world and an old song will not do. The new song may feel strange on our lips, and maybe that newness will tempt us to long for the treasured songs that feel so comfortable in our mouths. But singing only the same old songs of the old empire makes it all the more difficult to root out its foundations.  Fear and confusion beg for comforting old songs. God’s liberation and recreation of life requires a new song!

January 26

Matthew 4:12-23

12 Now when Jesus heard that John was arrested, he went to Galilee. 13 He left Nazareth and settled in Capernaum, which lies alongside the sea in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali. 14 This fulfilled what Isaiah the prophet said:

15 Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,

        alongside the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles,

16     the people who lived in the dark have seen a great light,

        and a light has come upon those who lived in the region and in shadow of death.[a]

17 From that time Jesus began to announce, “Change your hearts and lives! Here comes the kingdom of heaven!” 18 As Jesus walked alongside the Galilee Sea, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew, throwing fishing nets into the sea, because they were fishermen. 19 “Come, follow me,” he said, “and I’ll show you how to fish for people.” 20 Right away, they left their nets and followed him. 21 Continuing on, he saw another set of brothers, James the son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with Zebedee their father repairing their nets. Jesus called them and 22 immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.23 Jesus traveled throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues. He announced the good news of the kingdom and healed every disease and sickness among the people.

Anchor: Headlights and Heartlights

Frame: Entering the Darkness of people’s lives

Thread: More Light

Social Issue: Mental Illness, depression, despair

I’ve often wondered what was so compelling about the person of Jesus that those fishers would drop their nets and immediately follow him. Matthew gives a hint when he more or less quotes Isaiah about the people of Zebulun and Naphtali seeing a light in the midst of their darkness. The story of the call of the first disciples is an example of the people of that region encountering that light. And like moths to the compelling flame, they left their nets and their families and went toward that light.

I took a tour of a cave in the Black Hills a number of years ago (I haven’t made it to see Kartchner Caverns yet). It was a beautiful underground cathedral of crystals and spires. The minerals made the rooms sparkle in the artificial light. At one point on the tour, the guide wanted us to see the cave in its natural setting. We gathered in a wide, flat area and they turned out the lights. I have never seen a dark so impenetrable. There was no sense of direction, or time, and but for the murmuring of the people around me no sense of anything else. I was surrounded by beauty and companionship, but without the lights I could not see them.

It seems to be a hallmark of our society that we tolerate a great deal of darkness and lostness. We have created a culture that fosters isolation, with the particular characteristic that if you don’t fit in (aren't wealthy, happy, secure, skinny, outwardly beautiful, etc.) you are encouraged not to talk about your feelings and experiences. Mental illness especially is a ninja-like condition. It’s all around but nobody sees it and it is striking more and more every day.

The signs of Jesus’ Messiah-hood were that the good news was proclaimed and that every kind of disease and illness were healed. He embodied the light that revealed the beauty of the dark cavern. Today we are called to be the Body of Christ, imperfect for the task we may be but we are called nonetheless. Just as those first disciples saw the light in the darkness when they saw Jesus, so in some way we should strive to shine for others. Some of us are pretty ashamed of the kind of Christianity that gets shown in the world.  What might be ways that we cast a different, a healing light?

October 13 - Plain Jars of Treasure

October 13, 2013              Plain Jars of Treasure

2 Corinthians  4:7-12—Paul writes that our very human lives are containers for the Divine in our world

But we have this treasure in clay pots so that the awesome power belongs to God and doesn’t come from us. We are experiencing all kinds of trouble, but we aren’t crushed. We are confused, but we aren’t depressed. We are harassed, but we aren’t abandoned. We are knocked down, but we aren’t knocked out. We always carry Jesus’ death around in our bodies so that Jesus’ life can also be seen in our bodies. We who are alive are always being handed over to death for Jesus’ sake so that Jesus’ life can also be seen in our bodies that are dying. So death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

Sometimes it is the not so special that is the perfect way that God becomes known. Seas don’t have to part, mountains don’t have to smoke, winged angels don’t have to appear. Just very ordinary human lives, just like plain old clay jars, are all that God’s spirit needs to bring love into the world. What changes might we make if we believe that we are carrying God into the world?

Jars come in all shapes and sizes and serve all kinds of purposes. There are glass jars, plastic ones, tall, short, wide mouth and narrow, jelly jars, mason jars, pickle jars, pottery jars, and cookie jars. What they all have in common is that they are containers.

Human beings come in all shapes and sizes as well, and biblically we, too, are containers. In both the first and second chapters of Genesis (two very different stories of Creation) humans are depicted as containers of God’s Spirit. In the first Creation story, we are told that we are made in God’s image. That word “image” is the same word that the bible uses for a graven image or idol. The belief was that a divine spirit inhabited that image or idol. To say that we are God’s image implies that we are the image that God inhabits. Likewise, in the 2^nd chapter (the Adam and Eve story), the human being is shaped of mud or clay but does not have life until God breathes the Divine Spirit into its nostrils. And so in Paul’s second letter to the church in Corinth, he says we are plain jars that hold the treasure of God’s presence. Paul grooves on this oxymoron. We are ordinary clay and divine light. We are death and life. We are human and we are Christ.

This is the heart of the Benedictine sense of hospitality that I’ve been talking about: we each of us show something of Christ to each other. That hospitality is challenging when we are asked to see the glory of Christ contained in every plain old human jar: gay, straight, whole, infirm, young, old, brilliant, Down’s Syndrome, liberal, Tea-Partier, pacifist, NRA life member, Joan Baez and Ted Nugent.

This also challenges the Church’s traditional understanding of mission. Mission used to be that we good Christians would go to some strange land and people to show them Christ and teach them how to live as good, civilized Christians. But the container idea begs us to look and see what others may have to show and teach us about Christ, whether or not they use that name.

We are plain jars holding divine treasure, and therefore we can be “Jars of Change.” What are we showing other people about God? I once attended a breakfast where the program was a slide show from a mission team who went to Africa to help some people that they had previously worked with. The previous trip they had built a church for the village, but had not been able to put the roof on. The location was so remote that they had to pack in all tools, materials, generators and supplies. They showed us pictures of the conditions in the village. There was the cooking hut with a dirt floor and chickens wandering through. They showed the women of the village toting water from a remarkable distance. They showed the pot where everybody scraped their scraps from supper which would become the soup for lunch the next day. Then they showed us pictures of their work. They showed the guys putting up rafters and sheeting. The last pictures were of the people sitting on simple benches worshiping in their newly finished church. I understand the group’s priority to give the villagers a nice place to worship, but I wonder why they never thought about putting a floor in the cooking hut or helping to dig a well closer to the village. They had a nice church, but the quality of their life was not improved at all. What kind of change is that?

Water is a symbol of the Spirit and water is an essential element of life. Our Jars of Change can carry water, either as symbol or element or both. The CROP Walk was initially set as the average distance that people had to walk for clean water. We can use our jars, our lives and our giving to show the world a God who cares how people live and that their basic needs are met.

Tuning the Heart’s Ear (Listening to the Still Speaking God of the Bible)

Often some issue or other arises in our life and then we ask, “What does the Bible have to say about this?” This series takes another approach. Affirming that we are loved by a Still-Speaking God, we will begin by asking, “What is the Spirit saying to us today?” The Psalms are one of the most beloved books of the Bible. We invite you to enter into a conversation with the Spirit by asking, “What are you saying to us through this Psalm today?”

The Book of Psalms was collected as the songbook of ancient Israel. It reflects the breadth of the emotions and expressions of those people struggling to be faithful and connected to God. Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann says that there are at least three kinds of psalms. .  Psalms of orientation (when all is right with our world), psalms of disorientation (when things fall apart), and psalms of a new orientation (when God creates something new out of the disorientation). What is the Living Spirit saying to us today through these ancient songs?

August 11 – When Life is Good: Psalm 1
When we know that God loves us and all is right with the world. God’s steadfast love and strength protects us and those we care about. We are like trees planted by flowing waters. When life is good, what is God saying to us?

August 18 – When the Storm Hits: Psalm 13
When we experience turmoil and strife, it is often more difficult find that Still-Speaking God. In the middle of the storms of life, we echo the psalmist “how long, O God?”

August 25 – When the Phoenix Rises: Psalm 66
The experience of the Israel is that God never abandons them. God frees the saves, divides the sea, and gives manna in the desert. What the world destroys, God recreates. When the storms subside, the clouds break, and the sun rises, and the psalmist sings, “Come and see what the Beloved has done; wondrous are the deeds of Love.” Where is God working wondrous deeds of Love?

August 4 - Wrestling at the River: Transformation & Grief Week 5: Acceptance

Wrestling at the River: Transformation & Grief
Week 5: Acceptance

While I might quibble with the name of any of the stages of grief, I really think “acceptance” is inadequate. The graphic I’ve been using on one slide says by acceptance “return to a meaningful life.” To me this sounds as if everything gets back to normal. Except that in my experience whatever normal was before the grief-inducing event can never be re-attained. Going through the stages of grief do not return us to anything, certainly not back to where we were. Going through grief and change is a transformative process and at the end of us (hopefully) we are ready embrace the new being we are becoming. So instead of acceptance per se, it is a new orientation, a new perspective. It may be normal but it is a new normal that we walk into.

When the sun rose and Jacob was through with his wracking and wrestling, he crossed the river into a new day and a new life. He even had a new name. Now I recognize that this new reality was not all peaches and cream. His new name, Israel, not only reflects that through the night he had wrestled with God but it states in present-tense that he strives with God. Life is not guaranteed to be easy, just new. The rest of the book of Genesis shows that Jacob and his descendants continue to strive with God, make mistakes, and occasionally live up to the blessing that God has given them.

Henri Nouwen said that "Forgiving does not mean forgetting. When we forgive a person, the memory of the wound might stay with us for a long time, even throughout our lives. Sometimes we carry the memory in our bodies as a visible sign. But forgiveness changes the way we remember. It converts the curse into a blessing. When we forgive our parents for their divorce, our children for their lack of attention, our friends for their unfaithfulness in crisis, our doctors for their ill advice, we no longer have to experience ourselves as the victims of events we had no control over.

Forgiveness allows us to claim our own power and not let these events destroy us; it enables them to become events that deepen the wisdom of our hearts. Forgiveness indeed heals memories."

Nouwen’s definition of forgiveness seems to me as good a description of acceptance as I’ve seen. The process of grieving turns the curse into a blessing, even if it is a hard won one at that.  It is like the sunrise. It does not erase all the days gone before but it offers the freedom of a brand new day. Are we at SCUCC ready to walk into the new day with a blessing and the promise of a new future?

This may be a day when we can provide an experience of crossing the river like Jacob/Israel crossed the Jabbok. It might be a symbol of being done with what is behind us and walking into whatever it is that God holds before us. 

July 28 - Wrestling at the River: Transformation & Grief Week 4: Depression

Wrestling at the River: Transformation & Grief
Week 4: Depression

One of the aspects that we need to focus on this week is that these are stages of grief.  It is normal and healthy that one moves through these stages when one grieves. It becomes unhealthy and even destructive when one gets stuck in any of the stages. And probably the most destructive phase to get stuck in is depression. Let me be clear. There is a marked difference between the sadness and even feelings of hopelessness associated with grief and the medical condition of depression. They are different, though related. Hopefully, the experience of this stage of grief can help us sympathize and understand those for whom depression is an illness and a lifelong struggle. As we explore the stages of grief and seek a vision forward, it is in solidarity and shared experience that strengthen us.

My theological guess is that Jacob’s whole story about wrestling at the river is a description of his depression. He had lost all reason to hope that Esau would reconcile with him. All Jacob’s tricks wouldn’t get him out of the next day’s interaction.  The long, dark night. The self-imposed isolation.  The wrestling and fighting. The wounding. These are all descriptions of what one might feel in the midst of depression.

Those feeling are also described quite articulately by Kevin Breel in a TEDx talk on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3yqXeLJ0Kg This is clearly an explication of the experience of depression as an illness. Yet he opens a window on its depth, its stigma, and the power of truth and acceptance. He also proclaims that it is in standing together that we gain the strength to overcome. It is my intent to run his entire talk in the Gathering.

And this reminded me that we have persons in our family that deal with this quite intentionally. Kim and Anita Brown have trained for L.O.S.S. (Loving Outreach to Survivors of Suicide). Their training has prepared them to meet with those at risk of suicide, offering understanding and most importantly (says Anita) hugs. Kim has already gone out on such a call. They have agreed to dialog with me on Sunday about what they do, and more importantly, why they decided to do this.

So, the heart of Sunday’s Gathering is that we all experience bits of depression. Some of us experience it in grief. Some of us wrestle with it our whole lives. Yet whether in grief or life, when we stand together and support each other, the sun rises and we get blessed and we have a new life to live.

So I see a fairly simple outline for Sunday:
                Our beginning pieces
                Scripture reading: Genesis 32:22-30
                Reflection on the scene as depression
                Kevin Breen’s video
                Song
                Dialog with Anita and Kim
                Community Prayers
                Communion
                Song
                Blessing and Sending

Wrestling at the River: Change & Grief – Week 3: Bargaining

Wrestling at the River: Change & Grief – Week 3: Bargaining

Last week we supposed that one of the sources of anger is loss of control. This week’s phase I believe is a response to that loss of control. Bargaining is an attempt to regain control over the given situation. Bargaining may take place with God, with other people, even with one’s self. But it is always “I’ll give you this if you’ll give me that. “I’ll go to seminary if you’ll let Mom survive this stroke.”  “If Obamacare passes, I’m moving to Canada!” “I’ll let you go if you will bless me.” There is a wonderful little clip from the movie “The Descendants” with George Clooney where his character is begging his wife to wake up from her coma. IT is classic and poignant bargaining. “I’m ready to listen,” he says, “if you will just wake up.”

The complement of bargaining is releasing. Bargaining is us trying to wrest control from an obviously uncontrollable situation. The exit ramp on the bargaining highway is to give up control. As a people of faith, our assurance is that the control is in the hands of a benevolent God. It takes great courage to give up control in the midst of a whirlwind of change. And yet what we call giving up control is just admission that we never truly had control to begin with.

Jacob’s bargaining is not done from a position of power. He had lost the fight, except that he will not let go. He desperately wants a positive result to come from the night’s ordeal (and maybe even from his entire life up to that point?). And it is interesting to note that Jacob’s name change to Israel is not the blessing. His opponent offers the blessing after that exchange, and we don’t have a record of what that blessing was. Dictionary.com says a blessing is the act of invoking divine protection or aid; it seems to me it is something more than that. And it seems to me that God is not stingy about blessing us. I know that is not the impression that the Old Testament gives. Yet when we are in the chaotic grip of change it seems like God’s blessing is hard to find indeed.

So, like Jacob and the angel, what are we desperately holding on to? Despite the pain that the fight causes us, regardless of the wounds that we will carry with us, we hold on hoping to extract some kind of blessing from the situation. Bargaining is holding on. Grace is letting go.

I think our experience this Sunday is in that movement from grasping to releasing. What are we grasping, holding on to that is not really ours to control? How do we find the trust to release?

Wrestling at the River: Week 2 Anger

Wrestling at the River: Week 2 - Anger

Genesis 32:22-31

In the course of the night, Jacob arose, took the entire caravan, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok River. After Jacob had crossed with all his possessions, he returned to the camp, and he was completely alone. And there, someone wrestled with Jacob until the first light of dawn. Seeing that Jacob could not be overpowered, the other struck Jacob at the socket of the hip, and the hip was dislocated as they wrestled. Then Jacob’s contender said, “Let me go, for day is breaking.” Jacob answered, “I will not let you go until you bless me.”  “What is your name?” the other asked. “Jacob,” he answered. The other said, “Your name will no longer be called ‘Jacob,’ or ‘Heel-Grabber,’ but ‘Israel’—‘Strives with God’—because you have wrestled with both God and mortals, and you have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked “Now tell me your name, I beg you.” The other said, “Why do you ask me my name?”—and blessed Jacob there. Jacob named the place Peniel—”Face of God”—”because I have seen God face to face, yet my life was spared.” At sunrise, Jacob left Penuel, limping along from the injured hip.

As usual, the English translation of the text seems to let the intensity of the scene drain out.  One might almost miss the reality that this is a fight scene. It is violent and intense and should be scary. Israel nee Jacob is fighting for his life! He is fighting to give up the old life and name and claim a new life and name. But that it is a fight sometimes gets almost lost. He walks away forever wounded from it.

Many of us walk around with the wounds from our life’s struggles, too. Too many of us know firsthand that life isn’t fair, that the world is unpredictable, and that too many times it seems that God fights dirty. The Christian PR departments love to paint pictures of Jesus sitting with quiet, clean children sitting serenely on his lap. Or Jesus leading the obedient sheep. Or scenes of the first line of the 23^rd Psalm, carefully editing out all the “Valley of the Shadow of Death” part.

Being attentive to the Spirit, following God, or giving your life to Jesus do not guarantee that life will be pleasant, or that your business will be successful, or that your marriage will last 57 years. In fact, one of the bottom lines truths about life on earth is that there are no guarantees. And sometimes, to use the appropriate theological word, that sucks. And to be absolutely human, it likely makes us angry.

I was told once that anger is a response to pain. And like many people I was taught in one way or another that getting angry is sinful. And if the pain of life provokes an existential anger, what does it mean to be angry with God?

I know a lot of people who are angry with God: angry that their father died when they were 13, angry that their spouse has cancer, angry that their life just turned out different from the way they thought it should. Even those of us who have adopted a theology that says God does not micro-manage the events of our lives sometimes experience a hot flash of anger at God, because if we can’t blame someone on earth for our pain who else is there? Moses got angry with God, and so did Job, and Jacob fought tooth and nail and knee-to-the-groin with God. I wonder if reading a little anger into Jesus’ gethsemane prayer doesn’t make sound a little more human.

So, can we get angry with God? Is it all right to do so? My initial reaction is, “Yes, of course, God can take it!” It is better to get angry and express that anger rather than to stuff those emotions and injure our psyches and bodies by repression. On the other hand, I’ve had a couple of recent conversations with people who have said that they experienced the very physical consequences of getting angry with God. So I realize that the question is not an open and shut one.

One of the pieces I want to use this Sunday is a clip from the West Wing where President Jeb Bartlett is alone in National Cathedral confronting God about the death of his long-time secretary, friend, and conscience Mrs. Landingham. In his rant, Bartlett calls God a “feckless thug.” In his anger and despair, Bartlett almost decides to give up the hope of a second term as president.  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYcMk3AJKLk) I will edit the language to make it appropriate, but even planning on that I know this is a challenging clip.

So as we think about what we may experience in worship, what in life makes us angry? What makes us angry at God? What makes us mad enough to fight? To pummel at our parents even as they try to hug us and love us?

Maybe the symbol for this Sunday is a bruise: a recognition that life has bruised us.  Like Jacob or Israel, we walk away limping. Few of us get through our process of grieving without at least a lay0over at anger. Maybe we have to throw our anger out there into the universe in spite of the consequences because to carry it with us wounds us further.

A Safe and Sacred Community - Series Overview for June

Anchor: A Safe and Sacred Community (I’m still search for a good image or symbol) Keys? for unlicking and keeping things safe

Frames: Creating Community

                Fasting/Feasting

                Vulnerability

                Marking Time

                Pilgrimage

Thread: Song “Welcome”?

Welcome (Let’s Walk Together)

Laurie Zelman/Mark A. Miller

Verse 1

Let’s walk together for a while and ask where we begin

To build a world where love can grow and hope can enter in,

To be the hands of healing and to plant the seeds of peace,

Chorus 1

Singing welcome, welcome to this place.

You’re invited to come and know God’s grace.

All are welcome the love of God to share

‘cause all of us are welcome here;

all are welcome in this place.

Verse 2

Let’s talk together of a time when we will share a feast,

Where pride and power kneel to serve the lonely and the least,

And joy will set the table as we join our hands to pray,

Chorus 2

Singing welcome,…

Verse 3

Let’s dream together of the day when earth and heaven are one,

A city built of love and light, the new Jerusalem,

Where our mourning turns to dancing, ev’ry creature lifts its voice!

Chorus 3

Crying welcome!...

A Safe and Sacred Community

                The heart of the Urban Abbey is a safe and sacred community. Safe in all its facets: physically safe, safe from abuse, safe from judgment, safe to grow and explore and experiment. Sacred is both simple and impossible. Sacred community allows us to experience the Holy, the Mystery, directly and immediately, even in the most mundane and/or profane of moments. This series will explore the nexus of safe and sacred.

                There are a number of practices that are being rediscovered as valuable in both the safe and sacred aspects of developing community. Some of these spiritual practices help attune our physical beings to the presence of the Mystery, others help us to mark our time and place with intervals of intention. Fasting/feasting celebrates our physicality and focus on both our need for food and the great joy of being fed. Prayer (especially the kind of prayer that calls us to stop during the day, formally called the daily Office) and Sabbath taking offer a way of regulating our time and orienting toward more than ourselves. Finally, pilgrim invites us to get out of our comfort zones, to travel to sacred space and be changed by the journey. Whether or not we physically travel to Jerusalem or Iona, or make a virtual journey, pilgrimage takes us to holy ground.

                How do we create a safe community? Do we agree on the meaning of safe? How do we create a sacred community? How do we know when we have touched the sacred?

June 2 – Creating a Community

Luke 6:12-16

Common English Bible (CEB)

During that time, Jesus went out to the mountain to pray, and he prayed to God all night long. At daybreak, he called together his disciples. He chose twelve of them whom he called apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter; his brother Andrew; James; John; Philip; Bartholomew; Matthew; Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus; Simon, who was called a zealot; Judas the son of James; and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

                As soon as Jesus’ ministry begins, people start to gather around him. But at this particular point, Jesus names a group of 12 apostles. Most often we see this as the great Teacher choosing the dozen with the most potential to begin an intensive course of discipling.  I think something else is going on. Certainly there was teaching and instruction to come. But I believe that Jesus took the step to form a community, a community bent on God’s kin-dom. It was a community because Jesus needed people, too. It was not just that Jesus was laying the foundation to start the Church (I don’t think he was). It wasn’t simply a Master-pupil relationship. It was a community. Jesus needed people to be with, to confide in, to be a part of.

                I have a sense that in this isolated, threatening world it is community that people are hungry for. We know we are hungry, but we don’t know how to solve the problem. We live in a society that excels in quick fixes, disposables, and fast food. None of that allows the time, the safety, the permission to develop deep relationships. The community that Jesus created, and the community that Christ offers to us, is highly counter-cultural in our society’s context.

                How will we support and invite each other to be a part of a deep and transformative community?

               

June 9 – Fasting/Feasting

Mark 6:32-43

They departed in a boat by themselves for a deserted place. Many people saw them leaving and recognized them, so they ran ahead from all the cities and arrived before them. When Jesus arrived and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Then he began to teach them many things. Late in the day, his disciples came to him and said, “This is an isolated place, and it’s already late in the day. Send them away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy something to eat for themselves.” He replied, “You give them something to eat.” But they said to him, “Should we go off and buy bread worth almost eight months’ pay and give it to them to eat?” He said to them, “How much bread do you have? Take a look.” After checking, they said, “Five loaves of bread and two fish.” He directed the disciples to seat all the people in groups as though they were having a banquet on the green grass. They sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. He took the five loaves and the two fish, looked up to heaven, blessed them, broke the loaves into pieces, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. Everyone ate until they were full. They filled twelve baskets with the leftover pieces of bread and fish.

                I know this story focuses on feasting side of the equation and that few of us give much truck to the fasting part. But both parts remind us that our Christianity is an intensely incarnational expression.  That means that the beginning point of spirituality is our bodies. Fasting reminds us that we are never truly self-sufficient. Fasting cleans us out and opens in us the possibility, the room for something else and most often those who practice fasting find that room is opened up for God or the Holy or the Mystery.

                Feasting helps us celebrate our bodiliness as well. Food satisfies us and gives us pleasure. In the context of Jesus’ day and society, sharing food together was an act akin to making the diners family.  It was an act of love and community. But we also live in times hallmarked by obesity, fat-food, and heart disease. We have taken feasting to its dark extreme.

                How do we shape a community that celebrates the Divine found in our bodies that is safe to be in despite all our diseases, proclivities, and weaknesses? What kind of fasting might make us more ready for God? What kind of feasting?

June 16 – Vulnerability

John 4:4-29

Jesus had to go through Samaria. He came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, which was near the land Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there. Jesus was tired from his journey, so he sat down at the well. It was about noon. A Samaritan woman came to the well to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me some water to drink.” His disciples had gone into the city to buy him some food. The Samaritan woman asked, “Why do you, a Jewish man, ask for something to drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (Jews and Samaritans didn’t associate with each other.) Jesus responded, “If you recognized God’s gift and who is saying to you, ‘Give me some water to drink,’ you would be asking him and he would give you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you don’t have a bucket and the well is deep. Where would you get this living water? You aren’t greater than our father Jacob, are you? He gave this well to us, and he drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks from the water that I will give will never be thirsty again. The water that I give will become in those who drink it a spring of water that bubbles up into eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will never be thirsty and will never need to come here to draw water!” Jesus said to her, “Go, get your husband, and come back here. The woman replied, “I don’t have a husband.” “You are right to say, ‘I don’t have a husband,’” Jesus answered. “You’ve had five husbands, and the man you are with now isn’t your husband. You’ve spoken the truth.” The woman said, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you and your people say that it is necessary to worship in Jerusalem.” Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, the time is coming when you and your people will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You and your people worship what you don’t know; we worship what we know because salvation is from the Jews. But the time is coming—and is here!—when true worshippers will worship in spirit and truth. The Father looks for those who worship him this way. God is spirit, and it is necessary to worship God in spirit and truth.” The woman said, “I know that the Messiah is coming, the one who is called the Christ. When he comes, he will teach everything to us.”

Jesus said to her, “I Am—the one who speaks with you.” Just then, Jesus’ disciples arrived and were shocked that he was talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?” The woman put down her water jar and went into the city. She said to the  people, “Come and see a man who has told me everything I’ve done! Could this man be the Christ?”

One of the characteristics of deep community is a great respect for and honoring of vulnerability. When one has the bravery to expose their true and deepest self, that vulnerability is rewarded with a welcome and cherishing of the gift. Too much of our culture is characterized by parry and riposte. We learn early to hide who we really are and bury the questions we long to ask. Real community, a community graced by Christ, creates an environment that allows us to practice exposing our true selves, and to learn to trust that this exposure will not be the cause of injury or peril. The Kin-dom of God treasures who we really are.

                When Jesus had this unusual conversation with the Samaritan woman, there were multiple reasons why she should never have made herself vulnerable to him: they were from cultures that did not associate, they were unrelated female and male, they worshipped God differently, and the subtext of the story seems to indicate that she was a woman with a problematic past. Nonetheless, somehow Jesus created an atmosphere that allowed the two of them to connect on a very real and transformative level. Jesus did not judge, but accepted her true self.

                In a very compelling TED talk, Brene Brown talks about the power of and the essential necessity for vulnerability: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCvmsMzlF7o. How do we transform ourselves from a social club with spiritual trappings to a place that honors and cultivates true vulnerability> How do we make ourselves  a deeply safe and sacred community?

June 23 – Marking Time

Exodus 34:29-35

Moses came down from Mount Sinai. As he came down from the mountain with the two covenant tablets in his hand, Moses didn’t realize that the skin of his face shone brightly because he had been talking with God. 30 When Aaron and all the Israelites saw the skin of Moses’ face shining brightly, they were afraid to come near him. But Moses called them closer. So Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and Moses spoke with them. After that, all the Israelites came near as well, and Moses commanded them everything that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. When Moses finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. Whenever Moses went into the Lord’s presence to speak with him, Moses would take the veil off until he came out again. When Moses came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, the Israelites would see that the skin of Moses’ face was shining brightly. So Moses would put the veil on his face again until the next time he went in to speak with the Lord.

                Spending time in the presence of the Mystery changes and transforms us. No, I don’t think that any of us will ever glow in the dark. But as a metaphor, I have known those people who have seemed almost to glow with holiness as they have spent regular time in prayer and meditation. Not a physical light, but a glow of love, wisdom, or compassion. A safe and sacred community makes time to spend in prayer, reflection, and meditation. It makes time for the Mystery.

                The Daily Office is an ancient practice where every three hours the practitioner stops whatever they are doing and directs their thoughts and hearts toward the Holy. It is a way of marking the hours of the day and being sure to spend time with God. An ancient practice it may be, but there are even smartphone apps for the Daily Office now! What are significant ways that we might include God in our daily lives?

                Another important time demarcation is the practice of Sabbath-keeping. This practice is memorialized in the first Creation story in Genesis when it is said that God rested on the seventh day. That established the practice of taking one day in seven as a day of rest and reverence. Sabbath-keeping is a way of remembering to whom the world belongs. It is healthy to rest and connect. How will a safe and sacred community take time for the practice of Sabbath?

June 30 – Journey toward Mystery (Pilgrimage)

Genesis 28:10-22

Jacob left Beer-sheba and set out for Haran. He reached a certain place and spent the night there. When the sun had set, he took one of the stones at that place and put it near his head. Then he lay down there. He dreamed and saw a raised staircase, its foundation on earth and its top touching the sky, and God’s messengers were ascending and descending on it. Suddenly the Lord was standing on it and saying, “I am YWHW, the God of your ancestors Abraham and Sarah;  and the God of Isaac and Rebekah. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will become like the dust of the earth; you will spread out to the west, east, north, and south. Every family of earth will be blessed because of you and your descendants. I am with you now, I will protect you everywhere you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done everything that I have promised you.” When Jacob woke from his sleep, he thought to himself, The Lord is definitely in this place, but I didn’t know it. He was terrified and thought, “This sacred place is awesome. It’s none other than God’s house and the entrance to heaven.” After Jacob got up early in the morning, he took the stone that he had put near his head, set it up as a sacred pillar, and poured oil on the top of it. He named that sacred place Bethel, though Luz was the city’s original name.

                There is an odd paradox to holy ground. Sometimes we discover that ground is holy when we are found there by God, such as in this story of Jacob. Sometimes we make ground holy by the associations we attach to it: the place where we met our great love, where a child is buried, a church camp where we first discovered ourselves. But however ground gets holy, it holds for us a power of attraction that sets it apart from what we perceive of as ordinary ground. And because it attracts us, we long to go back there, to feel again the powerful presence of the Mystery.

                Pilgrimage is an important part of many spiritual traditions: for Islam it is one of the five pillars of faith, to travel to Mecca; for Christians in the Middle Ages the height of faith was to journey to Jerusalem and today Holy Land tours are still immensely popular. There is something quite spiritual about traveling the geography to sacred land. Some say the practice of praying the labyrinth and the Stations of the Cross became substitute pilgrimages for the faithful who could ot physically make the journey.

                I think the essence of the thing is the willingness to leave behind the known for the promise of the unknown. It is a giving up of control and a surrender to God’s providence. It has certainly been a practice of relying upon the hospitality of strangers all along the way. Pilgrimage allows us to see the world and our place in it differently.

                Jacob was running from and for his life. He stopped in the middle of nowhere because he was exhausted. His dream told him that the middle of nowhere was really the middle of everywhere, that it had a direct link to wherever God really was. When he awoke, Jacob erected a stele from the stone on which he slept and anointed it with oil. The anointing itself was an act of imparting significance to the place and the events that happened there.

                We are constantly on pilgrimage, and we suffer when we image that the hallmark of the spiritual life is arriving and staying at any given place. How might we prepare our community for a living sense of pilgrimage?

Creation Care, week 2: Hope is a seed.

Hope is a seed.

It seems that once again the weeds of the world have sprouted. The violent actions at the Boston Marathon are the blossoms of seeds of violence. And like weeds gone to seed, that violence has spread anger, fear, and suspicion around the world. On the other hand, we have the opportunity to choose what seeds we will scatter in the wake of this event: fear and anger or hope and peace.

Mark 4:1-8
Jesus began to teach beside the lake again. Such a large crowd gathered that he climbed into a boat there on the lake. He sat in the boat while the whole crowd was nearby on the shore. He said many things to them in parables. While teaching them, he said, “Listen to this! A farmer went out to scatter seed.  As he was scattering seed, some fell on the path; and the birds came and ate it. Other seed fell on rocky ground where the soil was shallow. They sprouted immediately because the soil wasn’t deep. When the sun came up, it scorched the plants; and they dried up because they had no roots. Other seed fell among thorny plants. The thorny plants grew and choked the seeds, and they produced nothing. Other seed fell into good soil and bore fruit. Upon growing and increasing, the seed produced in one case a yield of thirty to one, in another case a yield of sixty to one, and in another case a yield of one hundred to one.”

I believe that the seeds of our violence toward each other find their root in the compartmentalization of the human and the natural worlds. It is a hierarchy that sees the plants and animals as commodities for our use, and then when we dehumanize others we can see them as items for our use as well. We have the power of life and death over them, and too many times it is easier and more gratifying (seemingly) to choose death. Maybe, just maybe, if we learn to love Creation as equals instead of hierarchically we can begin to build a world where violence is a last resort instead of solution. And maybe planting a seed really can be an act of hope.

Jesus’ parable uses a sower as the protagonist. My guess is that the hearers of this story thought this particular farmer must have been a bit of an idiot. Seed was not an unlimited commodity and I’m sure that even when hand-scattered (the original meaning of “broadcast” by the way) it was done judiciously. But Jesus’ farmer throws the seed willy-nilly all over the place: on the good soil, on the path, in the rocks and thistles and thorns and everywhere. In the ensuing explanation of the parable, Jesus says that the seed is the word. In Luke and Matthew the explanation says, “word of the Kin-dom” or “word of God.” The gist of the parable seems to be that we are not to be concerned with where we scatter the seed, our job is to scatter it like idiots everywhere. Some will eventually find its good soil.

What is asked of us, I believe, is to figure out what kind of seed we are casting about. Diana Butler Bass has coined a phrase for the denigrating, fear-mongering stuff on the 24-hour news casts: disaster porn. I believe Jesus thought that we, as his followers, had better stuff to broadcast. Jesus wanted particular kinds of plants to grow in the Kin-dom: peace, justice (NOT revenge), love, equality, compassion, and more.  In science fiction they speak of terraforming: recreating a hostile planet to be more earthlike. Maybe by planting the seeds of Jesus’ teaching we are doing a different kind of terraforming. We are reclaiming the Creation of love that we were meant to be.

Easter - March 31

Easter 2013

What is there to say about Easter? It’s a celebration of life over death that Christians see in the resurrection of Christ. That celebration is overlaid on top of the Spring and fertility rituals of other cultures, and in fact the name “Easter” itself is not of Christian origin. I smile knowing that the highest Christian holiday is named for the goddess of the dawn, Eostre (of Anglo-Saxon origin) or Ostara. Some rather xenophobic Christians say that this is reason enough to stop celebrating Easter altogether. They can quit if they want to, but I kind of like Easter and its life-affirming position so I think I’ll keep it.

                A few observations about Easter, or the resurrection of Jesus, if you will: it is not depicted in any of the four canonical gospels. All we are shown is the empty tomb. We do not get to see the actual event itself. Beyond that, the 4 gospels begin to diverge in some significant ways: In Mark (the earliest gospel), it is the 3 women who find the empty tomb and hear the announcement that Jesus is risen from a youth, who tells them that Jesus will meet them on the road back to Galilee. In Luke, we now have two people (the Greek noun says men) in bright clothing who tell the women not to look for the living among the dead. In Matthew, the earth quakes when an angel rolls the stone back, causing the guard to faint dead away (Mark mentions neither angels nor guards). Again the message is given that Jesus will meet them back in Galilee.  John (the newest of the 4 gospels) tells us that Mary Magdalene is alone when she encounters the empty tomb, but she runs and gets Peter and the guys who run to the tomb and check it out for themselves.

                What I take from these various attempts to describe what happened is this: none of us ever witnesses resurrection itself. What follows in all four gospels are widely divergent accounts of people experiencing the risen Christ in their lives and in their midst. And, I believe, it is this ongoing experience that has fueled the best of the church ever since. People continue to experience the living Christ’s presence in widely divergent and mostly unexplainable ways but it is those experiences that sparked the early believers to continue on the Way, and do so for us as well.

                Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong has written specifically about this ineffable experience when he tries to enter into the mystery of the resurrection: http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Christianity/2001/04/The-Easter-Moment-Drawing-Conclusions.aspx
Maybe for those of us who look at things through a progressive lens this should be added as a fifth account.

                But it brings me to what I think Easter should be: us telling each other our resurrection stories, times and places where we caught a glimpse of something Christ-like on the road ahead of us or a healing presence when part of us was dying, or the love that beckons us to rise when all we thought we wanted to do was die. If Easter, or Christianity itself, is to make any sense in this hurting, crazy world of ours, then we have to tell our stories. Not to prove to disprove anyone else’s experience, just to say this is what I know, what I see, what I feel. Did Jesus bodily rise from death and walk or fly out of the tomb? To me, the answer to that question is irrelevant. What I can answer is how I sense the life of Christ in my own life.

                I’m still looking for music that we can use in worship that gathers all this together, and will probably be looking for a long time. Here’s a couple that I have found. The first is an old Melissa Etheridge song, “Heal Me.” Not a great video, but really good lyrics. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB5p_Vi4HXg
The other is by Christopher Grundy (the “More Light” guy): Every Step of the way https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Wj0cHXzAGTI
Not directly speaking to Easter, but easy to sing and talks about being on the Way.

I’m also wrestling with re-writing Christ the Lord is Risen today, but as usual the Spirit is waiting three days for resurrection to happen.

                How have you experienced resurrection? How can we offer a worship experience that invites people to the possibility of their own experience?

Lessons from Downton Abbey - Palm Sunday

Lessons from Downton Abbey, Week 6 – Palm Sunday, March 24

Bates, the Wounded Servant

Luke 19:29-38
As Jesus came to Bethphage and Bethany on the Mount of Olives, he gave two disciples a task. He said, “Go into the village over there. When you enter it, you will find tied up there a colt that no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here.  If someone asks, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say, ‘Its master needs it.’”  Those who had been sent found it exactly as he had said.  As they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?”  They replied, “Its master needs it.” They brought it to Jesus, threw their clothes on the colt, and lifted Jesus onto it.  As Jesus rode along, they spread their clothes on the road. As Jesus approached the road leading down from the Mount of Olives, the whole throng of his disciples began rejoicing. They praised God with a loud voice because of all the mighty things they had seen.  They said, “Blessings on the king who comes in the name of the Lord.
    Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heavens.”

John 13:1-15

Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, ‘Lord, are you going to wash my feet?’ Jesus answered, ‘You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.’ Peter said to him, ‘You will never wash my feet.’ Jesus answered, ‘Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.’ Simon Peter said to him, ‘Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!’ Jesus said to him, ‘One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.’ For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, ‘Not all of you are clean.’ After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, ‘Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.

                We began Lent by suggesting that the characters of Downton Abbey could give us some clues about following (actually apprenticing to) Jesus in our own world and lives. This Sunday is Palm Sunday, and the traditional texts bring us to what is commonly called the Triumphal Entry. My memory from Sunday School was that Jesus entered Jerusalem being heralded as king. I don’t remember any sense of political intrigue in this event (What would Herod – much less Caesar – think of that proclamation?).  What I remember is that the people would of course recognize Jesus as the true king, the appropriate heir of David’s throne, because of course WE see him that way. At that oung age I knew nothing about political theater or demonstrations and I’m sure my teacher did not read this story with those genres in mind. But today I cannot read or hear this story without that awareness that Jesus and his followers were very likely presenting an ironic critique of the status quo, the kings who upheld it. I don’t believe that Jesus really wanted to wear Herod’s crown any more than he wanted to be the next Caesar in Rome. The “Triumphal Entry” was a way of demonstrating what Mark’s gospel has Jesus saying at the very first: The Kin-dom of God has come near.

                John’s gospel shows that in an equally dramatic, though more intimate, episode. Jesus (an out and proud Messiah the way John tells it) strips to the waist and washes the feet of his students, and imbues this behavior with the implication that they should go and do likewise. For John, Jesus is the king who serves; authority is exercised by caring for the lowliest needs of the other. All four gospels use royal language when speaking of Jesus, but I believe it is used to present an alternative to the present world situation, not to simply put Jesus in charge of the present world situation.

                Throughout this series we have been looking at the various characters, titled and servant class alike, to find hints at how to live under the tutelage of Christ. While we have not explicitly asked “Where is Christ?” in this character, that seems to be the compelling question. If not where is Christ, at least how would the Christ respond? And so on this Palm Sunday we come to the Downton character that I see as the most Christ-like (obviously not entirely but like the rest of us, he’s only human) character: Bates.

                Bates enters the series as a wounded servant. He carries with him a physical reminder of the war in which he and Lord Grantham served together and his limp is a symbol of the wounds that all the other characters have but in not so noticeable ways. It is obvious that Bates has endured violence, and he continues to do so (both physical and psychological) at the hands of his co-workers. Only Grantham’s overwhelming sense of obligation to Bates keeps him from leaving at the end of the first episode. Still, Bates refuses to return harm for harm. And even though Bates has reason to retaliate, and damning evidence against the devious Thomas, he stalwartly refuses to cause anyone to lose their job – even an enemy. He serves his family with humility and honor, and even resigns to prevent even a hint of scandal to come near to the house of Grantham. When Carson’s past as a vaudevillian is exposed, bates offers no judgment.  I realize that this may not be a part of the character study, but the actor portraying Bates has what I believe is the warmest smile on the show, and when he smiles it warms the entire scene.

                And there is one particular episode that I believe speaks to us about how to be followers of Christ in our complicated world. Bates seeks a cure for his limp. He obtains a device that is supposed to correct his infirmity: a steel brace that screws into the flesh of his leg. The device tortures him as he tries to endure the pain in order to attain its promised cure. Finally Mrs. Hughes forces Bates to divulge this secret. At the end of the episode, the two of them gather at the side of the pond where Bates flings the instrument of pain into the waters and accepts himself just as he is: wounded, limping, but whole. Too many times I think Christianity has been offered to people like that leg brace: promising a “cure” for life but instead inflicting unnecessary and ineffectual pain. I believe Christ asks us to fling the instruments of our spiritual and physical torture into the abyss and live the life we are given, even if we limp.

                I see parallels between the Christ who enters Jerusalem on an unassuming donkey and Bates who enters Downton with a quiet dignity and grace. He does not seek equality with Lord Grantham, or any other person there, but he soon becomes an essential presence that they all rely upon. They are both trying to make the world a better place, even if only in the space each inhabits. Bates’ quiet commitment to the principle of “do no harm” is very Christ-like, and in keeping to that principle, Bates suffers for and at the hands of others

                As we wave our palm branches, are we seeking ways to live that make the world more whole, more nurturing, more welcoming (even for our enemies)? Though I do not think bates would describe himself as a good Christian, the way he lives offers us a compelling challenge and in many ways is very Christ-like indeed.

Lessons from Downton Abbey, Week 5

March 17, 2013

Lessons from Downton Abbey, Week 5

Matthew, the Reluctant Heir

Monotations: Inheritance

John 6:10-15

Jesus said, ‘Make the people sit down.’ Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they* sat down, about five thousand in all. Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, ‘Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.’ So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, ‘This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.’ When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

The story of Downton Abbey begins with the tapping of a telegraph relaying the news of the sinking of the Titanic. We soon find out that the heir to the Earl of Grantham was aboard and did not survive the disaster. Because of British law at that time, none of Grantham’s daughters can inherit the title or the estate so they begin a search for the next nearest male relative. They find Matthew Crawley, a third cousin once removed. Matthew is a commoner who works for a living. To our way of seeing, as a lawyer and the son of a doctor, Matthew is already a part of high society but to the nobility he is middle class (a decidedly pejorative designation). Matthew has neither sought nor desired his elevation. When he and his mother arrive at Downton, he is determined to be unchanged by the traditions, values, and ways of the nobility.

Jesus, as best as we can read history, grew up among the poorest of the poor. The peasant class subsisted by raising crops on the land their family owned, hopefully making enough to pay their taxes and feed their household. The word we usually translate as “carpenter” in describing both Jesus and Joseph is “tekton” and it indicates a worker who has lost their land and must hire themselves out to others to earn a living. This may give us a clue as to Jesus’ love and commitment to the poor and destitute. He personally felt the weight of the oppressive systems that kept his family and others he knew in poverty. He could see the opulence that both Caesar and King Herod lived, and knew that lifestyle was supported on the backs of the poor.

However you want to read the miracle of the multiplied loaves (did bread magically appear, or did selfish people magically become generous with strangers?), the implication of story is that in the Kin-dom that Jesus teaches and demonstrates there will be more than enough food for all the people. It is the embodiment of a level field: no one has to compete to survive, no one has a place above any other.

But instead of catching the vision of a whole new system of living together, the well-fed people on the hillside begin to think, “this Jesus would make a better king than the one we have now!” Jesus has no desire to participate in a system that pits the poor against each other so that the rich can live in luxury. So when he sense that the crowd want to make him king, he flees. Still, in one form or another it seems that Christians have ben trying to make him king ever since.

As fascinating as the world of Downton Abbey is for us, the interplay between the titled class and the servants, the struggle to maintain roles in the midst of a changing society, we can ask ourselves where we are in this discussion about titles, kings, and inheritance.

Matthew was reluctant about his inheritance. It challenged his thinking about himself, his role, and his society. We may be reluctant heirs for much of our religious heritage. We have had some vigorous conversations about redefining some of our Christian traditions, practices and definitions. But what have we received from our forebears that are indeed worth carrying forward? What is valuable and helpful in our inheritance?

The original meaning of the word “tradition” is not to hold on or to keep but instead to hand on, to give away. Someone (really, many someones) handed their tradition on to us. Like Matthew, we may in fact be reluctant heirs. But Matthew accepted his role and it changed him even as he brought change to the system that endowed him. The estate that was once simply the opulent home of a distant relative grew to be something he loved and wants to insure its health and continuance. His style and values change the estate, and not without conflict but he pursues the gifts he brings to the estate because he believes it will make it healthier and longer lived.

Jesus inherited his understanding of God and world from his forebears. He was unwilling to leave the world unchanged, to mutely accept a system of oppression and isolation. He changed his inheritance and ours as he envisioned and enacted a different kind of world, one where love of the other was as importance as love of the self.

As reluctant heirs, where are we uncomfortable with our inheritance? What changes to the tradition will our values and understanding bring? And what do we see as valuable enough to hand on to somebody else?