Lent 4: The Daily Dish

I am not alone when I assert that my favorite blog is Andrew Sullivan's The Daily Dish, currently hosted at The Atlantic and about to move to The Daily Beast in the coming month. I don't think anyone could agree with Sullivan all the time on every topic; even his own staff frequently disagrees with him on a variety of topics. Sullivan airs dissent as well as anyone, and is always up for a discussion, an argument, a thoughtful conversation, or some more typical internet silliness. The reason I bring him up today is to note that on Sundays his blog always addresses concerns of a spiritual nature, and as a faithful Christian I very much appreciate the range of views set forth.

Today, a typical Sunday: links and articles on:
- The distinction between religion and faith
- Slowing down for Lent, and a new take on the age-old spiritual discipline of solitude
- Drinks used in religious rituals
- An argument about cohabitation before marriage
- Continuation of a discussion on visual images of Jesus
- An exploration of how we deal with belief structures using the word "random"

All of which is simply to say that you need not be surprised to find links and references to Sullivan's work (and to articles I first encountered at the Dish), especially on Sundays.

UPDATE: predictably, later in the day there was a better Sunday post on religion than any of the others cited above.

Lent 3: On Reading the Bible Together

As we dive into our strong focus on the Bible, with Sunday morning and Wednesday evening education activities for adults, and our usual Sunday School and Children's Messages for children, I think this review of a book by Timothy Beal comparing Christian and Jewish reading of the Bible is quite helpful as an introduction to some of the ways people think about the Bible.

Compare these two statements on the Bible, quoted from Beal in the review:

"The Bible was 'God’s book of answers, which if opened and read rightly would speak directly to me with concrete, divinely authored advice about my life and how to live it.'"

"The Bible 'hosts the human quest for meaning without predestining a specific conclusion.'"

In the coming months at Lutheran Church of the Savior we will explore the Bible together, finding our shared perspectives on our Holy Scriptures, and likely finding where our individual perspectives deviate from those of our brothers and sisters in this community.

Compare the above statements to one of Martin Luther's most famous descriptions of the Bible from his Preface to the Old Testament.  

"[In the Bible] you will find the swaddling cloths and the manger in which Christ lies, and to which the angel points the shepherds [Luke 2:12]. Simple and lowly are these swaddling cloths, but dear is the treasure, Christ, who lies in them." 

(quoted from p. 1524-1525 of Lutheran Study Bible, which a number of LCS members have purchased recently)

How does Luther's view of the Bible compare with the two Beal posits above?

One more view of the Bible, this time from Lutheran Study Bible's article "Lutheran Insights that Open the Bible:"

"So, the Bible is actually more than a book that says what God wants to say; it is also a book that does what God wants to do: a book that affects us, that transforms us.

Best of all, the Bible reveals Christ to us. It draw us into a living relationship with Jesus Christ, who is risen from the dead. Through the Bible, we come to know Jesus and love Jesus and to experience his love for us.

The Bible opens the very heart of God to us. It shows us what God has done for us - what God still does for us - what God always will do for us. 

That's the first and the last thing we Lutherans want to say about the Bible: the Bible is the Word of God."

These views, from Beal to Luther and beyond, are not mutually exclusive, and we will need to think and pray deeply to find how we relate to each. I am excited to explore the Bible together in the coming months, to see what it means for us that this is our Book of Faith, and to find together God's love for us in these sacred pages.

Lent 2: Ash Wednesday Reflection

I suppose it is fortunate that I did not find this excellent meditation on Ash Wednesday and giving up until after the day was over. I would've needed to struggle mightily against the impulse to just read the whole thing in place of a proper sermon. For helpful highlights from the same meditation, see Sullivan.

Also, I love the images in those posts - the campy covers of "The Disembodied" and Bowie's epic "Ashes to Ashes" somehow ground the deep reflection on human nature in the actual world I recognize (and I have a hilarious and mildly tragic story with that Bowie tune as the punchline, for what it's worth).

Even the punk-haired ash-marked head that adorns Sullivan's post beautifully illustrates the vastness and closeness of our shared human experience. We're all individuals, distinct and as different as night and day, each facing our mortality, and yet in this together, people. It makes the mystery of the Trinity not seem so terribly complicated, somehow: I'm me, and you are you, and yet I would not be me if not for my relationship with you. Yes, you.

40 Days of Blogging

Lent is upon us, and this year I'll try something completely new for a Lenten discipline: I aspire to make this blog a more regular part of my life. My plan is to post 40 times during Lent, sometimes with reflections on my Lenten journey, other times with lengthy diatribes or links to interesting corners of the internet, and probably at some point I'll post just to fill in numbers toward reaching my goal. At any rate, I hope that blogging here will encourage mindfulness and reflection and prayer, rather than just be one more thing I have to do in a day. We'll see.

If you have yet to come up with something, consider using this Carbon Free Lent Calendar from Michigan Interfaith Power & Light. You can also use this calendar if you have already come up with another Lenten discipline, but just want to stay mindful of our relationship to God's earth. We at Lutheran Church of the Savior will be celebrating Earth Day again this year, though because Earth Day falls on Good Friday, we will put off our celebration until after Easter, on Sunday May 1st. We have again invited our neighbor Sr. Ginny Jones, CSJ, to preach on that occasion. Following the calendar above would be a great way to build up to the new life we celebrate and share at Easter, followed only a week later by this Earth Day celebration.

What other plans do you have for Lent this year?

March Newsletter Article

Reposted from our March newsletter:

Oh, teach us, Lord, that we may teach

the precious truths which you impart;

and wing our words, that they may reach

the hidden depths of many a heart.

Frances R. Havergal, "Lord Speak to Us That We May Speak" ELW 676, verse 3

In my first year of Divinity School, I took a class called Introduction to Ministry. Co-taught by professors of preaching, liturgy, and ecclesiology, this course was meant to introduce future pastors to the very basic foundations of our life together in Christ: what makes the church the church? Why do we gather, and how do we do so? What is the Word of God, and how do we share it? I’ll never forget how on the first day Professor David Bartlett stated the school policy that no student would be allowed to take a preaching course until they had first completed a year of coursework in study of the Bible. “We don’t let you preach until you might have a chance to know what you’re talking about,” he joked, but his humorous explanation did not obscure the wisdom behind this policy. Before sending us forth to share the Word, it makes sense to teach us how to read and understand our story as found in the Bible.

As a part of 2011 being our Year of Communication here at Lutheran Church of the Savior, a related insight will help guide us as we go forth to share our faith with our neighbors. As such, our Faith Formation committee has scheduled a number of new and very exciting educational opportunities for people of all ages here at LCS, and many of them begin this month. We will begin with two opportunities to dig into the Bible. On Sunday mornings from March 6^th through the Spring, Joe Gleesing and Kerry Thurn will be leading a Bible study through Lutheran scholar Mark Allan Powell’s Fortress Introduction to the Gospels, an excellent way to dive into the primary stories of Jesus’ life and teachings in the words and worlds of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. I hope to read along and participate in this class as I am able, and hope you will be able to join us.

Next, on Wednesday evenings during Lent (beginning March 16^th) we will again be gathering for a simple meal, education and evening worship in a Celtic tradition. Our education time on these Wednesdays will feature a study of how Lutherans approach and understand the Bible, in the form of a book called Opening the Book of Faith. This tremendously helpful resource offers and introduction to the Bible and to historical and current Lutheran perspectives on our Scriptures. Our Faith Formation committee is so excited about this opportunity that we hope to provide copies of the book for everyone who is able to attend our Wednesday Lenten gatherings, so you can read along and see for yourself how we can again fall in love with the book of our faith, the Bible.

For our younger members, on Sunday March 20^th in place of our regular Sunday School we will offer an introduction to Holy Communion. For some time here we have offered the bread and wine of this sacrament to believers of any age, and we want to give our young people an opportunity to begin to understand this great mystery of our life together. In addition to a basic introduction, we will also be learning how to bake the communion bread that we share every Sunday. This event is open to members of all ages, and is particularly designed for children and their families to learn together about God’s love in Jesus Christ that we experience in this meal. Bring your friends. We plan to make communion education a regular part of our life together in the coming years, and these sessions are meant to take the place of more traditional First Communion instruction.

Finally, as is mentioned elsewhere in this Newsletter, this month I get to work with our Faith-Based Wellness Partners to offer education around end-of-life concerns. After worship on Sunday March 6^th, your FBWP will lead a session on medical decision-making at the end of life. The following Sunday after worship, I will lead a session on spiritual concerns and funerals. Each of us will die one day, and our faith tells us that death is not the end for us, that God in the resurrection of Jesus Christ has taken away the finality of death and offered us life in and with Christ beyond this world. Even so, death is confusing and frightening and tragic and terribly sad. Our Year of Communication includes opportunities to talk honestly and compassionately about the most serious and scary times in our lives.

By planning ahead you can ease some of the burden on your family members at the end of your life, allowing them to focus on grieving and remembering rather than focusing so much on the complicated business of medical decisions, funeral arrangements, and more. We hope these gatherings can help make difficult conversations easier for you and your family, and to help our entire congregation support one another in our most difficult times. These meetings begin at Noon on March 6^th and 13^th and are open to friends, family, and the general public.  

I believe the church must be a community in which we can be honest with ourselves and one another about the important things in our lives. In looking at the Gospels, the Bible, Holy Communion and medical and spiritual realities at the end of life, we have a chance to deepen our relationships, to ask difficult questions, and receive support in making choices and to strengthen our life together as a church community. Please join us for as many of these opportunities as you can, bring your friends and family, and contact me if you have questions about any of these events.

On Links

The ELCA's new-ish website livinglutheran.com is very promising, and you should check it out. Just today I read two excellent articles there, related to the same stuff I usually go on about here. Kevin Haug's story about welcome in a sermon interruption speaks for itself, and my former pastor Ken Wheeler from Milwaukee offers a lovely description of his congregation (Cross, the congregation of which I was a member until I arrived here in Kzoo) that is for me both nostalgic and inspiring. This line toward the end really hits home for me: "It is that grace that keeps us open to the other, that compels us to live beyond ourselves." Sign up for Living Lutheran yourself, put it on your RSS feed, contribute to the community there.

There's a lot of good stuff out there, and these cluttered interwebs offer tremendous resources to those of us who dare to slog through the silliness that we might find God speaking to us through people like Kevin and Ken. I have links listed on this blog for a reason, and am happy to update them if you have suggestions.

The best story I read today was about a chicken

Nothing gets this steadfast vegetarian out of blog-writing dormancy like a good story about a chicken. Of course, my being vegetarian has nothing to do with it, and I long for a source of fresh eggs in my own apartment-centered life. Anyway. I love this story because it is about community, how community can build around the unlikeliest of commonalities in the most uncommon places. A neighborhood loves gawking at some chickens. What neighborhood wouldn't?

The story is well-written, much more so than the overwhelming majority of blogs and online news outlets that make up my daily reading list (this one included, of course). The author sets a wonderful scene, invokes sights and sounds and smells and really brings to life this chicken and its admirers, and indeed I cheered the tale's happy ending.

The heart of this story, at least for me, is the experience of the author and her neighbors forming a bond around the tragedy of a stolen chicken, the words in varied languages expressing solidarity with the victims, the anonymous scribbles of support. What is it that really draws people together? What allows us to be honest with one another, to open ourselves to the possibility that today we may meet someone that broadens our perspectives or even changes our lives? What makes us look at the same old anonymous person in a new way, to recognize the humanity shared between us?

More pointedly: what about the way we gather as a church draws people and builds relationships, and what does the opposite? This chicken managed to unite a diverse neighborhood in ways many church leaders only dream of, myself included.  Now look at me: romanticizing a chicken because of a well-written newspaper article. The questions at the heart of my doing so: how do we build community, expand our sense of "us" beyond the us that gathers on a Sunday morning at Lutheran Church of the Savior? How can we really welcome people? Not just "You're welcome to come be like us, with us," but "You're welcome here. You. Really."

It's a slow crawl to that place, the place where a community is truly open to growing not just by assimilation but by welcoming new people with new gifts to take us along new paths. That's the challenge of the gospel for us - not to think we have the answer and wait for someone to come and ask for it, but to build relationships with unexpected people, to see where God is working in their lives and to allow the new us to lead the old us. To be sure, the Holy Spirit is in our traditions, our roots, or oldest and strongest relationships. We have much to share. The Spirit is also in newness, surprising, serendipitous and blessed as the community that springs up around a city chicken. Can we, by the grace of God, find a way to help people feel fully like themselves, yet a part of something bigger, grander, stronger and more beautiful  than just themselves? A part of the body of Christ?

I always did prefer questions to answers, though in regard to the above I'd happily listen to either. If you want to raise chickens on the church grounds, I guess we can talk about that too.