So – in our field ed class, we were talking about money. One priest tried to make a case that we talk about sex more than money in church. I was shocked. I can’t name the number times that we have talked about money – every year there is a month where we discuss “stewardship”. While I understand that some people can avoid money when talking about stewardship, the inference for money is still there. Sex is never discussed. Someone said, “Well, it happens in J2A.” I didn’t do J2A – I don’t think that it was invented when I was in high school. But even if they do, that’s only 2 weeks out of a person’s life.
So – should we be talking about sexuality in church? What might that look like? If we did sermons, what about children that might be in the church? Adult ed?
For field ed, I’ve been reading Leadership and the New Science by Margaret J. Wheatley. It was a great book! I have really enjoyed reading it. There are some great ideas in the book. There is also a challenge to my previous way of thinking. In my final reflections for Al, I have written about two ideas – communication and chaos.
Communicate. Often.
Margaret Wheatley talks about information being the creative energy of the universe (chapter 6). She says that the more information is put into the system, the better the system will be able to respond. When organization heads try to control information, they find that rumors are spread, instead. “A living being is no a stable structure, but a continuous process of organizing information” (95). This was a great new concept to me! She encourages leaders to continually generate, disseminate, and receive information. She regards information as “nourishment” (101) which is a paradigm shift from how I would normally think about it. But when an organization encourages communication and information, more people can get more of it. When the leaders and planners of organizations are open to information, people will provide feedback and will help to further change and shift the (in this case) congregation.
Wheatley’s concept that chaos will form structure. This has been the most personally challenging thing that I have read. Chapter 7 talks about how chaos will eventually form a structure within an organization. I am still struggling with what this looks like and how this can be acted out in a church. I really like the creative side of chaos. I’ve been looking at how my orderly mind can encourage chaos without going crazy. Because I am so orderly and organized, I worry about encountering chaos. I want to fix it and put it in place. I want to stop the disorder and encourage it to line up in neat rows and place it in neat boxes.
It might be my place to help ensure that chaos is completed. Wheatley claims that there will be order that grows out of the chaos. A system emerges when things are left to develop (125). Maybe I need to recognize the big picture for others and encourage them on their way of struggling and developing. I may need to follow up on the good ideas that are produced in the chaos to ensure that projects are completed.
I understand that this would change my core approach to organizations. That if I stick with “guiding visions, sincere values, organizational beliefs” (Jesus Christ as Lord and Savoir), I can help the system maintain disequilibrium while working forever to bring people to God. She references the same ideas made by Collins about having a key concept – the goal for which everyone is working. Within the chaos, that key goal keeps people moving in a direction, wherever the Spirit leads.
I did a reflection during the Wednesday Eucharist. I won’t be posting that (due to the “no notes” nature of the reflection), but I thought that I’d share this idea about this passage…
So, if we picture ourselves as clay that God shapes, how might we respond to that? I thought about surrendering myself to God’s will – I’m like soft clay that is easy to shape and mold and work into a “vessel, as seemed good to him” (v. 4). But, if God is the potter and I am the clay and I decide that I will do my will, I am like a hardened piece of clay – as God tries to mold me, I am stiff and un-malleable.
So – my goal (especially during the job search) – surrender to God and be like soft clay so it doesn’t hurt so much!
St. Michael’s, Barrington
History is the one subject that I just don’t get – I often can’t see the importance. Throughout high school and college, and even into seminary, I just never enjoyed learning and trying to remember dates – so many people, so many things. I can usually give a pretty good chronology – I know the order of basic events – World War I came before WW II, Massachusetts was a state before Illinois, Moses lived before Jesus. See, I have the basics… but I’m usually not very good with history that’s not part of my personal story. However, this week I began to think about history in a different way.
We each have a history – the story of our lives. Our individual history is a piece of thread that lengthens over time. There are also communal histories – the history of the United States, our narratives as Christians, our stories at St. Michael’s. Stories overlap and weave together creating pieces of beautiful cloth. The threads of each person’s life contribute to the fabric and together they create something larger than one could create individually. Being bound together, our stories are told and retold as we explain how we have spun our thread, contributing to the communal tapestry.
I’ve always been told that we need to learn from the past; that when we know the past it can inform our present and our future. By studying our tapestries, we find beautiful patterns – places where people worked well together and helped each other. We can also see where the mistakes were made – where the weaving is crooked and threads are uneven. We will also see snags – these snags are those places where we have sinned. Our stories involve being tempted, and failing to resist those temptations. The tapestry retains all these events – triumphs and failures.
Temptation is part of our story – part of our fabric. Each of us seem to have our patterns of weakness and several examples were listed during the Ash Wednesday service – unfaithfulness, exploitation of other people, anger, envy, self-indulgent ways, and one of my vulnerabilities – love of worldly goods and collecting too much “stuff”. I collect things thinking that they might be useful at some point in my life, thinking that they are important to my well being, thinking that by having the most toys, I will win – whatever the game is. My stuff is part of my story and tends to weight down my thread. I cannot weave as well because the clutter interferes as I try to connect with people and be faithful to God. What snags are in your thread? How have you contributed to the flaws in the tapestry?
What is that adage about knowing history and not repeating mistakes? Knowing our history can help us not repeat imperfections in the tapestry as we continue to weave our thread. We can strive to live faithful lives as we work our story into the communal tapestry. The communal histories inform how we weave the threads together. How do we learn these stories? What stories are helpful to us? I think that stories can come from different places, but for Christians – our Bible can be the source for learning how people interacted with God, how people attempted to stay faithful and sometimes failed, how they returned to God after falling into temptation.
Looking at the Biblical lessons for today, the importance of history took on a new dimension for me. While being tempted, Jesus recalled His history – the history of the Israelites, the history of the Jewish people. This history was part of his human heritage – these were His people. This history was part of his divine heritage – these are the people to whom God made promises and with whom God made covenants.
The tapestry that began with Adam and Eve continues with the threads that Jesus added. Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness parallels the Israelite’s wandering for 40 years. The thread colors are repeated as Jesus faces the same issues that others had faced in the past. He is able to look back and recall important lessons from their experience. Though not quoted directly, Jesus recalls the Shema, Israel’s confession of faith: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” Being part of the Jewish heritage, this commandment was part of Jesus’ basic religious education.
In each of the three temptations, Jesus calls on a different piece of the history written in Deuteronomy – stories that had already been woven into the tapestry. People in Jesus’ time would have been very familiar with these pieces of cloth. In the first temptation, the devil calls on Jesus’ weakness due to hunger. Jesus responds with Deut. 8:3 – Jesus knows that people will always have physical needs, but wants to provide for their deeper spiritual hunger.
In the second, the devil thinks that political power will be appealing. Jesus, however, knows that God has a new plan for the world. He assures the devil that by worshipping God alone, Deut. 6:13, Jesus will be able to do greater things with God’s power than he could do by controlling the human political structures.
Finally, the devil calls upon Scripture – Psalm 91:11-12 – to encourage Jesus to test God. The Israelites had been told to not test God and we find that recorded in Deut. 6:16. Jesus does not fall into temptation, even when the devil tries to misuse scripture to convince him. Jesus knows the history – Jesus knows the commandments and does not become misled by the devil’s tempting. No part of Jesus’ thread is snagged and He weaves his perfect thread into our tapestry. His perfection is not something that we can attain, but something for which we can strive.
God calls us to be faithful in our following. The Father sent his Son to be an example. The Holy Spirit works through us to continue to empower and guide us as we weave. Discerning God’s will is not always easy. We may not know how to next weave our thread into the fabric, and we do not know what the entire tapestry looks like. However, we are able to get glimpses of the past and see some basic patterns. By telling stories and studying patterns, we might find guidance about how to weave our thread. If we forget the past, we are no longer adding onto the tapestry. Creating an independent cloth with our thread leaves us unconnected to the human story. If we continue to add our threads to the communal tapestry, we add our personal experience to the story of our people – people that we know and people that we will never meet on our earthly journey.
When we work faithfully to listen to God’s will for our lives – for God’s will for the tapestry that we are creating – we will find that we can create new and interesting patterns that enhance the overall picture. While we will occasionally snag a thread or weave unevenly, we can be assured that God takes delight in our work when we focus on God’s will in our lives. God blesses the snags and imperfections. They do not distract the viewer, but rather are seen as beautiful attributes that contribute to the tapestry.
Our histories as individuals and communities will continue to influence the formation of our thread, our weaving, and what that tapestry will ultimately look like. How will you use this Lent to develop your thread? How will you use your life to weave your thread into the communal tapestry?
The staff at St. Michael’s went to see The Passion today. WOW. Intense! People have been coming out with such different reviews and reactions. I thought that it was really well done. I think that people who don’t know the story of Jesus would be really lost. As a Christian, I knew the people and I knew the story line. The surprise isn’t in what happened – the intensity is there and the characters are assumed to be familiar. For me, Good Friday is always a tough day. Reflecting, I wonder how this year will be for me. I now have some really graphic images. I don’t know if it will be worse or better than what I’ve imagined in the past.
I only disagree with one small part – but that’s just my part of Biblical interpretation. The way that Mel interpreted it also lines up with some scholars (Mary Magdalen’s past). I’m sure that there will be more upon more reflection, but wanted to put this up tonight.
Well, in the midst of all the leadership reading, I needed to do something entertaining. So, I read this. You need to realize that the author presents himself as an historian. I’m thinking “not so much”. There was a presentation in the community, so I attended that. Jim Kenney, involved with Interreligious Insight actually had some really interesting things to say (not really about the book – but some other stuff – keep reading!). He covered the ‘historical’ aspects and talked about the Gnostic gospels (after 15 minutes, I was bored)
But – the most interesting part was the beginning as he talked about cultural values. (Paraphrasing from the presentation and written materials sent to me.) He spoke about the declining values in our society. Values like patriarchy, exploiting the planet, “warhawk” are declining. There are other values that are now increasing – liberation of women, “greening” of global values, concern for social and economic justice. The wave that is increasing and the wave that is decreasing are crossing now. This creates an enormous amount of stress. The waves are crossing and it’s very turbulent and there are several results that may happen – but as the wave energy continues, it should get easier. But for now, we’re living in a time of great disruption in our societies. The future is unknown.
This really connected with me. I mean – it helps explain the societal issues and stresses that we are now seeing explode around us. By looking at these changing values and the turbulence, I wonder if we can be more reactive to the issues that it brings up for us (and congregations if we’re working in churches). Some of the desire is that church stay the same in the changing world – my question – how can church remain a place of safety for people and not get stuck in an antiquated system?
I would like to compile a list of resources for lectionary and commentary links. Here are the ones that I currently have:
The Lectionary Page
The Daily Office
Commentary on the RCL
The Christian Resource Institute
Process Theology Commentary
TextWeek
Girardian
Sermon and Sermon
Do you know of more?
So – I did the reflection at the Eucharist yesterday. 1 Kings 1:1-10 and Mark 7:14-23
Do you sometimes feel so distracted that you can’t live in the present? Where is your heart today? We are here gathered at Eucharist. Why did you come? Out of habit or because you thought that you should? Are you completely present or are there things that are tugging at your heart and mind? Where is your heart today?
When we open our hearts to God, we can see the blessings in our lives. God blesses Solomon – people from all over had heard of him. The Queen of Sheba came to witness how God has blessed him. I was reflecting on how blessed I am to have a great network of friends. How has God blessed you?
We’ll take a couple of moments of silence for you to reflect on where your heart is and how you have felt blessed. If you feel called to share, I will invite you to speak after the silence.
(Time of silence and sharing.)
Jesus tells us that our hearts can produce evil and draw us away from God. However, God has created good things for us and wishes to bless us if we open ourselves up to the blessing. As we celebrate the Eucharist together, let us be open to God working through us as we are fully present at this time. Let us be thankful for the many ways that we are blessed and center our hearts around those good things.
(There it is - ish... it was done without notes, so what is said above is not exactly what was said in the chapel)
At St. Michael’s, Barrington, they have a gift shop called And All The Angels. It’s a great show with books and gifts and a lot – I mean A LOT of crosses. Every once in a while the buyers go to the Merchandise Mart in Chicago – the building big enough to have its own zip code. I was able to tag along for a recent shopping excursion. It was amazing! There is a bunch of stuff there – some useful, and some not so much so. But it was great to go along and help pick out things that will soon be in the store.
My reflection for the Eucharists today at St. Michael’s:
Do you remember being 12? Today, we celebrate Agnes – martyred at 12. She, at 12, had a strong enough faith to tell the officials that she would be happy to sacrifice her life for her faith and love of Jesus Christ.
Where was your faith at age 12? I was struggling to figure out where I was. I was at the age of confirmation. The church expected that I would get confirmed, but I was really unsure my faith. I wanted to take a year to think about what I really believed. At the end of that year, I did believe in God and was ready to make a public statement – and see where that got me!
Children seem to have an innate connection with God. I love watching children in church. Yes, sometimes they are loud or move around, but sometimes, you can witness their awe of God. They want to be around the altar – they know that the person working there is doing something special. As we contemplate how to grow deeper in our faith (a focus at St. Michael’s right now), maybe we should look to the children. Jesus says, “Become like children to enter the kingdom of heaven.” Maybe we can learn from their awe and wonderment as they approach God. May we always welcome the children into our lives and our liturgy. Perhaps we can learn their utter dependence on God. Let us join with them at the altar and say, “I love you God, and I believe that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior.”
So, there are many times that a congregation refers to itself as a “family”. I have then heard people concerned about this labeling because it limits the way that a new person can join in. I see the concern with this. Though, one could also say that you join the body of Christ through baptism – God’s adoption of humanity into God’s family.
The other day, we were talking about inter-denominational conversation. Michael Hunn from <>Holy Comforter<> compared it to a family reunion – all the different denominations are still part of the Christian faith. I find that this is an interesting comparison. With the “family reunion”, different denominations can gather together and ask questions like, “How have you been since we last saw each other? What new and exciting things have been going on in life?” An attitude could stem from, “We are all part of the same family, but we all live that out a little differently.”
One of the most interesting comments revolved around the idea of how different this would look from UN-type discussions. We wouldn’t be looking for concordats – “agreements which have been negotiated and watered down to which we cannot agree but which we can sign” (paraphrased-ish). Which I thought was pretty funny – and pretty accurate.
What are thoughts on this comparison? Benefits to using it? Drawbacks?
Somewhere along the line, I had a discussion with someone who had been involved a parish-wide spiritual discipline experiment. For Lent (or some other appropriate season), the priest talked with each person to set up a personal spiritual discipline – whatever would work best for them. This might include daily offices, daily prayer, prayer journals, retreats, services, outreach. Do you know where I can get an outline or sheet with which to do this?
I just started work at St. Michael’s, Barrington. I’m excited about working here – great priest, great staff, great parishioners. Definitely more on this later…