A Witness, Part 2

 Continued from Wednesday...

As we were meeting with Sue Nelson Kibbey, she asked us, “What is it that you are looking forward to about General Conference?” There were lots of answers, but one of them from a delegate (who was not me) was something like, “I have so much hope for the church and for a fresh start.”  Those words have brought hope to me about a General Conference around which there is usually such worry, fear, and frankly, hopelessness.

Each year, I ask my studnts to talk about a liminal time in the church.

In a book I’m reading, Walter Brueggeman says liminality is an unsettling feeling at the threshold of something new, when life is gathered into a wholly new configuration.  It most often is experienced when the church doesn’t offer unambiguous answers and certitudes, when we are in a nighttime of the church – when there is bewilderment and confusion – he says these are holy time.  Liminal times. 

Does this feel like a liminal time to you:

The author of the book of Esther would say we are here “for such a time as this.”  In this holy time, when God is waiting for us to let go of fear and bring light in the darkness, I hope you will join me in examining whether we are building a church of fear or a beacon of hope. I pray God takes us by the shoulders, turns us away from fear, and uses us to build a church of hope.  This is a holy time – a time for hope-bringers.  

A Witness, Part 1

 I'm a member of our Annual Conference's delegation to General Conference - I'm a reserve delegate.  Our delegation traveled around the state (and Garrett County, Maryland) to worship with the people of the district and to offer a time to ask quesitons and share concerns.  At each of these meetings, during worshiip, two members of the delegation shared a witness about how we have experienced God in our breathprayer: Return, Renew, Restore.  

Below (and tomorrow) is what I shared yesterday as my witness.

______

Jeff read a passage earlier today that the delegation found helpful when we spoke to Sue Nelson Kibbey about prayer.  Listen to versus 16 and 17 again (from Acts 15):

After this I will return,
and I will rebuild the dwelling of David, which has fallen;
    from its ruins I will rebuild it,
        and I will restore it,
so that all other peoples may seek the Lord—
    even all the gentiles over whom my name has been called.
Thus says the Lord, who has been making these things known from long ago.’

I have to admit that I was not enamored with the passage at first.  To me, the idea of God returning implies that God has left.  I’m much more willing to believe that we have left God, and that we need to return.  Or turn around.

Have you ever had God nag you so much that you eventually had to turn and go a different direction – the direction in which God was leading you?

I volunteer as the AC Director of Lay Servant Ministries.  In late 2020, there was a need for a Conference wide Certified Lay Ministry class.  The courses to become a CLM are intensive, and they take some time.  Some districts had been able to hold the classes, but not most of them, so the need for a Conference class was real.  So I said I would see what I could do about it.

Truthfully, I didn’t want to do anything about it.  I knew it would be hard work, and that it would take a large amount of time to develop the course and to figure out how to make it accessible in a pandemic and to students all across the Annual Conference.  For a couple of months, I kept trying to think up ways to get out of my commitment.  To find someone else to do it.  But God kept taking me by the shoulders and turning me back to the idea that I needed to do it.

Well, you can procrastinate enough that the only solution to a problem is to do what you don’t really want to do.  I turned to the path I thought God wanted me take, designed the course using a model from the Greenbrier district, read the books I needed to read to teach the course, and opened up registration. 

Lots of students signed up.  As of today, three cohorts of students have completed the 10 month course, and another cohort has just started.  I can’t tell you how much of a blessing the students have been to me. They come to this class with an awareness of their call, even if they don’t know everything about it yet. They know their gifts, and they are willing to do hard work.  I’m so grateful God led me to this, turned me to this, because the students have been such hope-bringers for me, and I’m certain for those with whom they minister.  I thank God I turned, and I thank God for what God has built.  I thank God for the hope.

Lent Photo-a-day Week 6

 

Given

Sustain

Weary

Wakens

Gave

Together

Celebrate

New Life

 A prayer of Confession inspired by Psalm 51:1-3, 8-12

O God, I am in need of you.

Your love and mercy are abundant

Unimaginable.

Miraculous.

Remove my sin, please, o God.

Make me clean as you created me to be

Wash me from my wrongdoings.

Only you can remove the stain.

All I can see if what I've done wrong.

It fills my vision, my heart, my life.

I have sinned against you,

I have done what is evil.

I cast down my eyes because

you are justified in not seeing me at all.

In ignoring my plea.

Open my eyes to hear your joy.

Open my heart to know your forgiveness.

Open my bones to be healed by your love.

Let me know gladness again.

Hide my sins from your sight.

Convince me that it is so.

Remove the stain of sin that has darkened my life.

Help me to start again.

Create in me a new heart,

a fresh start,

a new and right life.

Recreate me so that I am worthy

to be near you,

so that I am a righteous place

for your Holy Spirit to dwell,

so that I am not alone.

O, God,

Restore in my the assurance of salvation,

return to me the conviction of your action in my life,

so that I know you again.

Rebuild in my a willing spirit

to start new life with you.

Walk on by...

Today I was looking at Acts 3:1-10.  This is the story of Peter and John healing a person who could not walk who was sitting near the Beautiful Gate.  What caught my eye is this:  verse 1 says, "One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, at three o’clock in the afternoon."  So Peter and John were walking with a purpose.  The man saw them, and asked them for alms as they passed.

What do we normally do when someone on the street asks for money? Walk on by, I think.  But Peter and John stopped to help the man.

The image that came to mind as I read this was Moses and the burning bush.  Exodus 3:3 says, "Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight and see why the bush is not burned up." 

To me, in both of these stories, the will of god was done because people stopped and noticed.  They payed attention.  Moses turned aside.  Peter and John heard the man who was asking them for help. 

Do we do that? Do we turn aside to ask why the bush is not being consumed by the fire, or do we walk on by? Do we seek to help the person who asks, or do we walk on by?

Lent Photo-a-day Week 5

Days

 

Coming

New

House

Write

Teach

Celebrate

Self-denial

I read this the other day in Walter Brueggemann's book, A Way other than our Own:

To deny self means that I cannot be a self-starter, cannot be self-sufficient, cannot be self-made or self-securing, and that to try to do so will end in isolation and fear and greed and brutality and finally in violence.

What do you think of that quote? I posted it on Facebook and had a couple of comments that surprised me.  It could be that my thoughts were different from theirs because I had the benefit of context.

I think it means that when we try to center our lives on ourselves, then we place priority on (and get our identity from) what we earn, what we have, what others see us as.  None of those are very good at defining who we are or why we are here.  Concentrating on ourselves, therefore, can lead to fear and isolation, greed and brutality, and eventually violence.

Alternatively, when we center our lives on God, we do get a sense of who we are, who we are meant to be, and what our purpose is. We know we are loved, and our self-worth can stem from that instead of what we own or what power we have.

I never thought of that as self-denial, but I can see it.

 

Covenant

One of the lectionary readings during Lent is Jeremiah 31:31-34.  I don't usually include a whole scripture passage in a post, but this one is beautiful, so take a moment to read it:

The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.  It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt--a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD.  But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, "Know the LORD," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more. (Jeremiah 31:31-34, NRSV)

As I read this, and think about covenant, a list of what is promised and described in the scripture formed in my mind:

• "The days are surely coming" - This covenant, while it is a hope for the future, isn't a wish.  It is surely coming.
• It is a new covenant - not an old one, not something remade - something new is spring forth.
• It is a different covenant - we're leaving the old behind.
• This covenant isn't something external - it is placed in our hearts by God.
• God will be our God, and we will be God's people. 
• When this covenant is fulfilled, we will ALL know God.  We won't have to tell each other about God, because all of us will be part of this covenant.
• Part of this covenant is that God will forgive our sins - and will remember them no more.

Lent Photo-a-Day Week 4

Thanks

Endures

Gathered

Healed

Delivered

Wonderful

Celebrate

A Flood of Fidelity

After the floods came
and Noah's family stepped into the world,
God started a new flood,
a flood of fidelity.

Great is God's faithfulness.

When we see a cold, hungry person

asleep on the street,

and we turn the other way,

we have a second chance.

A flood of fidelity.

Neighborliness.

Generosity.

Empathy.

When we want to strike out

at the person who disagrees with us.

When the world's divisions

overcome us,

we have a second chance.

A flood of fidelity.

Forgiveness.

Curiosity.

Grace.

When we find ourselves

in the center of our own sin,

and we see no way out.

When darkness is all around us,

we have a second chance.

A flood of fidelity.

Repentance.

Restart.

Rebuilding.

Great is God's faithfulness.

Great can be our faithfulness.

For we float on a sea -

a flood -

of fidelity.

It is our second chance.

It is our way back.

It is our grace from God.

Hope.

Peace.

Love.

A flood of fidelity.

Inspired by a devotion in the book A Way Other than our Own by Walter Brueggermann.

In the World a New Way

From Brueggermann's book, A Way Other than our Own:  "Jesus affirmed that it is possible to be in the world in a new way, to be present to the people and problems around us with some newness and freshness."  He is comparing this to our tendency to live life with an attitude of anxiety and worry. 

He also writes:

"Get your mind off yourself long enough to care; to be so concerned about the well-being of the human community that you don't have to worry about your place, your church your class, your values, your vested interests."

Understand, he isn't talking about anxiety in a medical sense.  He's talking about the anxiety and worry we feel because we are so focused on what we own, what we believe defines us, or even our values.  What is it that we value?  Our stuff? Our money? Our clothes?

What if we were to live life a different way, focusing on the well-being of the person in front of us instead of ourselves?  Or if we took the time to care about someone else instead of just ourselves?

It would be living life in a whole new way.

 

Lent Photo-a-Day Week 3

 This week's Lent Photo-a-Day images:

Spoke

Words

Steadfast

Labor

Rested

Honor

Celebrate

Traveling Mercies

I'm reading the book A Way Other than our Own by Walter Brueggemann during Lent.  The prayer at the end of today's reading says, "Self-giving God, call us to walk the road of newness - a new self, a new society, a new world, one neighbor at a time.  May we have traveling mercies this Lenten season. Amen"

If we consider the time of Lent as a journey, and we pray for traveling mercies, what are we asking for? Traveling mercies in a prayer usually means protection from that which might bring us harm - a car accident, an unexpected acute illness, or a plane crash - anything like that that will hurt us or even end our lives, right? So what would traveling mercies on a Lenten journey look like?

• Protection from our own selfishness so that we can be generous and not self-centered as we interact with others.
• Mercy from laziness, maybe, so that we can uphold any commitments we have made to spiritual disciplines during Lent. 
• A graceful nudge of correction when we stumble off the path God has set for us during Lent so that our paths are  made straight.
• Healing from the blindness of not noticing that God is near and traveling with us.
• A loving hug when we forget to love our neighbors as ourselves.

What Lenten traveling mercy would you ask of God?