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?