Book Review: Always a Guest

 Information about the book

Barbara Brown Taylor. Always a Guest: Speaking of Faith far From Home. Westminster John Knox Press. Louisvlle, Kentucky. 2020. (Cokesbury / Amazon)

Summary

From Amazon's description: From beloved writer and renowned preacher Barbara Brown Taylor comes a new collection of stories and sermons of faith, grace, and hope. Taylor, author of the best-selling books Holy Envy and An Altar in the World, among others, finds that when you are the invited guest speaking of faith to people you don't know, one must seek common ground: exploring the central human experience. Full of Taylor's astute observations on the Spirit and the state of the world along with her gentle wit, this collection will inspire Taylor’s fans and preachers alike as she explores faith in all its beauty and complexity.

Impressions

Our Foundation sends books to donors and other friends every year as Christmas gifts.  This book was one of those Christmas gifts, and I just "got around' to reading it. The title comes from the reality that after Taylor left parish ministry 22 years ago, she has always been a guest preacher. Right away, I could relate to the book - any time I preach, I am a guest preacher.

The book is a collection of 31 sermons, delivered at different churches, seminaries, or conferences. Each sermon starts with a short scripture passage and then continues with the manuscript of the sermon. I found it interesting to start my reading by checking at the end of the sermon for when and where it was delivered.  I decided to read this book one sermon at a time.  Each day for the past 30 days, I have read one sermon, moving through the book. It took me 30 days because I read two sermons (the last two sermons) today.

This is one of those books where every page, every chapter, brings unknown-before-now ah ha moments. It's the best kind of book to read.  My copy is now riddled with highlighter, I used a section during a presentation I made a month ago, and I marked a particular sermon in my colleague's copy of the book so that he would read it. Taylor takes each scripture and brings out new revelations - new thoughts - new perspectives.  Her sermons rarely take the usual approach to a scripture - they are fresh and inspiring.

I loved this book. I highly recommend it. It's wonderful and full of wonder.

Posts about book

Additional posts referencing this book will be tagged with Taylor Guest.

Why Church?

Why Church?  Why, in particular, do you attend the church you have chosen?

Barbara Brown Taylor, in the book Always a Guest, says this about her church:

Like you, I keep coming back here because it is the place I feel most sane, most accompanied, most drawn out of myself to be with people whose lives may be different from mine as they can be, but whose hearts I trust beyond all reason.

I like this reason for choosing a particular church, and it resonates with me. I don't mean that my church is always this place, but when it is at its best, this is what it is. 

I've been thinking about the people we do not reach. We struggle with idea that what we are offering as a church doesn't meet their needs.  I don't think it is all a "they haven't heard about us" struggle.  I think some of it is a "they've tried us, and they don't need what we offer" situation. For me, when my church doesn't meet my spiritual needs, I come anyway. I have a home there.  I belong. For those who are not a part of us, they don't have that draw.

So what do we do? I think God calls us to be the church for all. How do we do that?

Maybe it starts with being the church. Be family for them before they are a part of who we are. When you have a family, you want to serve the other members - you want their needs to be met. So you talk to them. "How can I help you?"  You listen. You serve.

It may be that we have to stop offering what pleases us, and start listening for what would meet the needs of those who do not know us.

 

Beauty

In the book Always a Guest by Barbara Brown Taylor, she shares a sermon called Errors about Beauty.  I wrote about it earlier. 

In this sermon, she shares three of Elainse Carry's ideas about beauty (from On Beauty and Being Just)

1. Beauty prompts a copy of itself.  We see a sunset, and we grab our iphone and snap its picture.  For me, I see a lovely handmade greeting card, and I want to replicate it.  What is so beautiful around you that you want there to be more of it?
2. Seeing beauty awakens in the seer what is not beautiful.  Wendell Berry said, "There are no unsacred places; there are only sacred places and desecrated places." For example, you might see the beauty in the wonder of a child's face, laughing at a story someone has read to him. That beauty will help you to see when a child is hungry, crying, or hurting, and you are moved to do something about it.  What around you is desecrated and needs your work?
3. Beauty has the power to remove us from the center of the universe like nothing else can.  What in your life is so beautiful that it has removed you from the center of your world? What has made your less selfish, less self-center, less "me first?" Taylor says that Christians call this power of "redemption" or "salvation." We are called as Christians, aren't we, to remove ourselves from the center of our world.

I love this description of the effects of beauty. Have you ever been surprised by beauty? I wrote a few weeks ago about North Bend State Park in the rain.  I had the same experience in the West, when visiting our son in Nevada.  I live in West Virginia, where the mountains are green (or a patchwork of autumn colors), and I think it is beautiful. Out West, it looks so different!  And yet, if you open your eyes to what is around you, I think you can see - at least I did - that it is beautiful in its own way.  That kind of awareness of beauty can lead us to seeing what is not beautiful, too, and moving ourselves out of our selfish locations as the center of the world and acting to redeem it.

Genesis Touch

I'm currently reading a book by Barbara Brown Taylor called Always a Guest.  It's a book sermons she has delivered in various places across the country as a guest preacher.  So far, and I'm on chapter 4, it's wonderful - but I expected that to be the case. 

In a sermon called Errors about Beauty, she writes (or preaches):

The Creator made us to co-create, and there is little that gives us as much pleasure as making beautiful things; not just painting, poems, sculptures, and symphonies, but also gardens, cakes, perfect designs in new-mown grass, and babies  When we put something beautiful into the world, it is Genesis all over again  We are engaged in divine work.

We are created to co-create?  Who is or are our co-creators?  First, I think God.  Made in God's image, we are granted creativity.  We are creative in concert with God - and I like that word, because it can feel like dancing and music. When you pray, you step into the dance, asking God to allow you to join in the creative force - asking God to join you in the creative force.  And, together, you create love, healing, comfort, justice, beauty, and an abundance of other wonderful aspects of God's kingdom.

Who else is your co-creator?  I believe the people God would call your neighbors.  You create with other people.  We are the church, and together, we can work to change the world.  It is the creative kingdom work that God has called us to do.

What is God calling you to do with God today? What is God calling you to do with someone else today? What creations await your genesis touch? What divine work is left undone that needs your God-given creativity?