Illuminating the ordinary (Christian Century)[Cross-Post]

Illuminating the ordinary

Matthew 17:1–9; 2 Peter 1:16–21

Feb 28, 2011 by Amy Frykholm

This week we have a bonus lectionary post, which is cross-posted at Journey With Jesus. We'll put up another Transfiguration post tomorrow.

Learning to see in new ways is one of the most difficult tasks of the transformed life. Old habits of selective vision, old choices about what to leave out and what to focus on tend to dominate us, even as we search for new ways of living that are in closer communion with the life of the Spirit. Transfiguration--that mysterious transformation of vision that is narrated in today's readings--is a radical, if brief, way of illumination.

The disciples go with Jesus to the mountain--a place out of their ordinary environment--and there, they are able to grasp, for a moment, a transcendent reality that lives just beyond their normal capacities. In Annie Dillard's essay "Seeing," she recounts the experience of people who had been blind at birth, but had received sight thanks to a restorative surgery. To begin to see the world, the newly sighted had to reconcile preconceived notions of the world with objects, colors and distances. Even with this radical new gift, it was easy to get the meaning of what they were seeing wrong. This suggests a spiritual kind of sight as well as a physical--that a person having received a radical new gift might struggle, like Peter in today's Gospel, to understand precisely how to use it.

Transfiguration might be about learning to see ordinary things in extraordinary ways. In a poem from Christian Wiman's new collection, Every Riven Thing (2010), he addresses transformed sight. The poem is called "From a Window" and can be accessed here.

Wiman, who has described coming to Christianity as "color slowly aching into things, the world becoming brilliantly, abradingly alive," begins the poem in a reduced state, a state in which he is unable to believe in anything, except what he calls the "truth of grieving." Seeing the truth of grieving is ordinary for him, an old habit, and he is stuck inside it. Looking out his window, he sees something that at first appears impossible: "a tree inside a tree/rise kaleidoscopically," as if leaves hidden inside the seemingly barren tree had suddenly taken flight. He feels, in a moment, like he is seeing the spirit of the tree, like he can see beyond it. "Of course," he writes, he knows the tree is just a tree, and that the "leaves" are birds suddenly taking flight.

And yet the event changes his perception. The ordinary world is fuller, more real, endowed with some "excess/of life." He understands that he is participating in the creation of this image, that his mind has helped to create a transfigured understanding. But he resists the idea that this is a sufficient explanation for what he has seen. Instead, he says, the life perceived through the tree and birds is larger than he is and is connected to the holy. When he recognizes this series of connections, he experiences joy. His perspective has shifted--the limits with which he begins the poem have become something else entirely.

Today's New Testament reading alludes to the provisional and yet transformative nature of this kind of sight. "We did not follow cleverly devised myths," the epistle writer asserts, but something more concrete, something the disciples saw with their own eyes, something that kept them from the blindness and nearsightedness that traps Wiman at the start of "From A Window." Despite the instability of their vision on the moment, the disciples believe it is reliable. They urge their followers to hold on to this way of seeing, this light, attentive to it, as "to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts." We begin with the provisional, the momentary, the fragmentary, and reach toward a fuller perception of light.

As we move between the extraordinary accounts of Transfiguration in today's readings and the ordinary events of seeing in our own lives, we do not need to collapse the two. But we can remember, with Peter, that the light of God is not so hidden that we cannot seek it in ordinary life. The Logos lives, enlivens, infuses, illuminates even the ordinary.

For further reflection:

• Are there times when you feel like you see sacred reality better or worse?

• What are the connections between the sacred and the profane, the ordinary and the extraordinary, in our everyday lives?

• Are there ways we can improve our vision?

• How and why do we remain stuck (Wiman) with limited vision?

From the UCC Network: 02/27/2011 "Justice Can Prevail"

Justice Can Prevail

Excerpt from Psalm 2

"Why do the nations conspire, and the peoples plot in vain?  The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and the Lord's anointed."

Reflection by Donna Schaper

As I write, matters in Egypt unfold, like the emptying of an envelope filled with hurt and repression.  The rulers conspire, the people inspire, and all wonder where things will "end."  What happens to people who get fed up because they are not fed?  Will blood pour out in the streets, as well as justice?  Must blood pour for justice to be obtained?

I can't forget that Mubarak's guns were stamped with "Made in the USA."  Nor can I forget how easy it is to get a gun to use in Arizona against a congresswoman.  On Ground Hog Day, I saw my shadow. It was in these guns.

Rulers "set" themselves by their access to force.  What is the force of the Lord in contrast?  It is a belief in the arc of justice, coming like a great snowstorm, covering all things by quiet and the slow certainty of one snowflake falling and taking to the street.  It is as much a belief in non-violence as it is lack of access to the guns that protect and ensure violence.  It is a willingness to stand up to tanks, in Tiananmen Square, in Memphis, in Cairo. Tank power and gun power are not the equal of soul power.

Guns, finally, cannot prevail.  Justice can.  It is utter pragmatism.  When all are fed, there will be peace.  When all have respect, there will be peace.  When we say these things and mean them, with our bodies and our souls, justice has already arrived.

Prayer

O God, when we worrywart the wars, remind us of our power to stop them.  Amen.

About the Author Donna Schaper is Senior Minister of Judson Memorial Church, New York, New York.

Deeper Meanings for Sabbath Keeping [Cross-Post]

Deeper Meanings for Sabbath Keeping:

by Tony Campolo


I grew up in a Jewish neighborhood and I knew that Orthodox Jews make a big thing out of observing the Sabbath. Having a day off from the hectic activities of everyday life for some fun and relaxation always seemed like a good idea to me, but in watching how seriously my Jewish friends took Sabbath keeping I knew there was more to it than that.

The commandment to keep the Sabbath, as many people know, is right up there near the top of the big ten. Of all the commandments, it is the one that is most reiterated and discussed in Scripture. Furthermore, Jesus regarded the Sabbath as a special gift from God. He said, “The Sabbath was made for man; not man for the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27)

Knowing there was a lot about Sabbath keeping that was missing, I asked a rabbi friend of mine to help me understand why this day was so important. The first thing I learned from him was that the Sabbath was a day to stop what we’re doing and to reflect upon who we are in the eyes of God.

We have a tendency to see our significance in terms of what we do. We think that our doing is the essence of our being. We are a busy people and we deem our busy-ness a sign of importance. But the Sabbath destroys such illusions. It is a day, the rabbi told me, when we stop the routines of everyday life and reflect upon who we are apart from our socially prescribed roles.

The Sabbath commandment is the only one that begins with the word “remember.” It is a day when, apart from all we do, we call to mind that God loves us regardless of our accomplishments. Our busy-ness does not impress God as He instructs us to stop what we are doing and remember that there is nothing we can do that can get Him to love us more; and that there is nothing we can do that can get Him to love us less. On the Sabbath we remember that His love is unconditional.

Secondly, my rabbi friend told me that Sabbath keeping was a way for the people of God to differentiate themselves from those who embrace a consumerist lifestyle. In a world in which so many are wrapped up in earning money and believe that not a day should be set aside for anything else, Sabbath keeping reminds God’s people that they are not to be like that. We are to trust God to meet our needs, and this should free us from constantly keeping our noses to the grindstone. Consequently, Sabbath keeping is a counter-cultural act that declares to a world marked by commercialism that our lives are more than just making money.

Thirdly, I was taught that the Sabbath is to be a day for expressing love for others. Martin Buber, the famous Hasidic philosopher, drove home this point with a story of a certain rabbi whose reputation for holiness was such that members of his synagogue jokingly said that after Sabbath services he ascended into heaven to commune with God. Some children, overhearing this, believed it to be true and decided to follow the rabbi on the next Sabbath to see what happened to him.

The following week the children watched as the rabbi left the synagogue. They followed him, and to their surprise they saw that he visited Gentile widows, cleaned their houses, and cooked meals for them.

When the elders of the synagogue heard what the children had done they asked, with tongues in cheek, “Well? Did our rabbi ascend up to heaven?” They were taken back when the children answered, “Oh no! He went much higher than that!”

Lastly, I was told what I already knew — that the Sabbath was created for revitalization. We need physical and spiritual recuperation. Physical and psychological exhaustion makes us vulnerable to temptation and prone to sin.

Rest is essential for spirituality. I know that as a preacher there is a special dynamic to my sermons when I am rested.

Given all of these dimensions of Sabbath keeping, it is no wonder that we are commanded to carve out this special day each week, and to keep it holy.

Common Prayer

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you : wherever he may send you;

may he guide you through the wilderness : protect you through the storm;

may he bring you home rejoicing : at the wonders he has shown you;

may he bring you home rejoicing : once again into our doors.

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It's Here Again

Well, yesterday's post reference the hope for Spring can be ignored. Hope for Spring to break forth is still there, as well as the snow overnight which was still lightly falling all afternoon.

And now there's a weather alert for freezing rain until 8:00am tomorrow.

When? Oh, when?

Common Prayer

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you : wherever he may send you;

may he guide you through the wilderness : protect you through the storm;

may he bring you home rejoicing : at the wonders he has shown you;

may he bring you home rejoicing : once again into our doors.

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Spring; or Not

Well, the snow has finally melted; or at least most of it has, so Spring is just around the corner.


Oh wait: this is Chicago-land, and it's only February. How foolish of me. There's probably another storm just over the horizon, or out over the lake.


I guess the time in which I am living is not Spring after-all.


56 You hypocrites! You can forecast the weather by judging the appearance of earth and sky. But for some reason you don't know how to judge the time in which you're living.

Luke 12:56 (GW)

Destructive Donations? [Cross-Post]

Destructive Donations?

by Tony Campolo Friday, February 25th, 2011

Henry Thoreau once said, “When people come and say, ‘I want to help you’, I flee.” I think that what Thoreau was trying to tell us is that sometimes those who, with good intentions, try to help can do a great deal of damage. No where is this more evident than in Haiti today.

Over the years, Christian folks, in an effort to help and assist the Haitian people, have brought in thousands upon thousands of articles of used clothing. They have flooded Haiti, and the entire Third World for that matter, with secondhand clothing; clothing that often times is no longer desirable by its original owner and instead is sent to become a most prized possession by those in deep poverty throughout the world. The abundance of secondhand clothing donations has created a severe problem though.

In Haiti, and in other places in the Third World, there once was a significant amount of employment created by the production of garments for personal wear. Today, however, such businesses have been destroyed by Christian groups bringing in huge bundles of used clothing and giving them out for free. Residents of Haiti and other Third World Countries prefer to wait and receive the free clothing donations arriving regularly from the Western World rather than using their income to purchase clothing made by Haitians and in Haiti. When clothing is always free and available, why buy it?

Nowadays when I travel to Haiti I am often greeted by boys and girls on the streets with T-shirts that say “University of Michigan” or “Eastern University.” Because of this long history of plentiful clothing donations almost all the clothing in Haiti is secondhand. They have a word for it. It’s called pepe.

Over the years, we have driven Haitian garment workers out of business. Well-meaning Christians have created unemployment on a significant scale. One of the greatest issues that affects Haiti today, especially after the earthquake, is unemployment. When we in the Western World dump clothing into poor communities or builds homes for families (to provide another example) we are taking needed jobs away from Haitians.

What this means is that when it comes to ministry we must take the necessary time and effort to learn about the community and the country we are entering. What is this community or countries greatest need? How can we (whether as a group or individual) address this need in a way that does not involve a messianic complex but instead promotes the community and its citizens as a whole?

I am confident that if groups and individuals, prior to going on missions trips, prepare and educate themselves about the community and country they are dropping in on for one week that any work or relationship they participate in will be beneficial and advantageous for both the citizens and the visitors. Rather than engaging a mission trip to Haiti (or any other Third World Country) with the attitude of building and doing for people lets instead engage the trip as an opportunity to forge relationships and empower the citizens of Haiti to change Haiti.

If this sounds interesting to you I encourage you to get in contact with Haiti Partners. Haiti Partners mission is simple: Helping Haitians Change Haiti. Following the earthquake Haiti Partners sought to rebuild three schools that had crumbled. The process was completed entirely by Haitians: Haitian architect, Haitian general contractor, Haitian builders, Haitians laborers.

This project not only provided jobs for Haitians but also empowered the local community to come together and build for the betterment of each other and their children. This is the kind of work that works towards Haitians changing Haiti for the betterment of future Haiti.

To such an end I say, “AMEN!”

Common Prayer

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you : wherever he may send you;

may he guide you through the wilderness : protect you through the storm;

may he bring you home rejoicing : at the wonders he has shown you;

may he bring you home rejoicing : once again into our doors.

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A Good Story: ‘I’m Going to Kill You’ [Cross-Post]

A Good Story: ‘I’m Going to Kill You’

I often tell people not to ask me for statistics because in this work all the statistics are bad. Ask me for stories instead, I say, because even in the worst of times I always have a good story. Whether it is one of my own or comes from someone else doesn’t really matter to me anymore. What matters is that it rings true. Like this one I picked up on a visit to Philadelphia last week, which was first told to psychologist Jack Kornfield by the director of a nearby rehabilitation program for violent juvenile offenders:

One 14-year-old boy in the program had shot and killed an innocent teenager to prove himself to his gang. At the trial, the victim’s mother sat impassively silent until the end, when the youth was convicted of the killing. After the verdict was announced, she stood up slowly and stared directly at him and stated, “I’m going to kill you.” Then the youth was taken away to serve several years in the juvenile facility.

After the first half-year the mother of the slain child went to visit his killer. He had been living on the streets before the killing, and she was the only visitor (in jail) he’d had. For a time they talked, and when she left she gave him some money for cigarettes. Then she started step-by-step to visit him more regularly, bringing food and small gifts.

Near the end of his three-year sentence, she asked him what he would be doing when he got out. He was confused and very uncertain, so she offered to help set him up with a job at a friend’s company. Then she inquired about where he would live, and since he had no family to return to, she offered him temporary use of the spare room in her home. For eight months he lived there, ate her food, and worked at the job.

Then one evening she called him into the living room to talk. She sat down opposite him and waited. Then she started, “Do you remember in the courtroom when I said I was going to kill you?” “I sure do,” he replied. “I’ll never forget that moment.” “Well, I did it,” she went on. “I did not want the boy who could kill my son for no reason to remain alive on this earth. I wanted him to die. That’s why I started to visit you and bring you things. That’s why I got you the job and let you live here in my house. That’s how I set about changing you. And that old boy, he’s gone. So now I want to ask you, since my son is gone, and that killer is gone, if you’ll stay here. I’ve got room and I’d like to adopt you if you let me.” And she became the mother he never had.

Honestly, for a man like me, in a place like this, a story like that is more precious than any amount of money or any amount of praise.

Lately I’ve been asked how long I can relate to such badly broken people in this particular way, and the truth is that I don’t know. However long it is, I think, will be determined less by the number of healed lives I see, and more by my ability to sense the depth of the compassion and forgiveness that is trying to heal them. Today, with that good story in my heart, it feels like I may last a while longer than it felt like before I heard it. I hope the same is true of you.

–
Bart Campolo is a veteran urban minister and activist who speaks and writes about grace, faith, loving relationships and social justice. Bart is the leader of The Walnut Hills Fellowship, a local ministry in inner city Cincinnati.

How Do We Take Lent Beyond Chocolate and Caffeine? [Cross-Post]

A cross-post from:


How Do We Take Lent Beyond Chocolate and Caffeine?

by Tracey Bianchi 02-23-2011

Lent. It’s an odd word, not exactly one that shows up in the vernacular of our everyday.

“Hey, how’s it going?”
“Good, just coming up with a plan for Lent. How are you?”

Definitely not the material for chatter with co-workers or neighbors.

Those of us who are church-goers or who were raised in liturgical traditions are familiar with the concept, even though the word rarely shows up in our culture. Lent is a 40-day period that marks the journey from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday. After the chaos of Mardi Gras and Fat Tuesday, millions of faithful Catholics and Protestants begin a six-week time of reflection and renewal that is most typically marked by “giving up something.” Things such as no meat on Fridays or fasting on other days.

In the past I’ve used this calendar space to try and shed a few pounds. I’ve tried to give up chocolate or sweets — even caffeine. Maybe if I quite binging on chocolate for Jesus I’d stick to it?

But millions of us are also understandably clueless about the concept and why to bother with it. The word itself simply refers to the lengthening of days, of the coming of spring. Over the centuries we use words like “spring” to explain, well, spring. So Lent has been relegated to this sort of confusing church practice.

But if we demystify Lent a bit, even via this rapid fire blog post, I wonder if we all might consider taking a Lenten journey alongside one another? All religious tradition and confusion aside, Lent is simply an opportunity to reflect on that which weighs us down and hinders us. It is a time to shed negative ideas, habits, and desires that keep us from living as our best for God and one another. The idea is that if we empty ourselves, slow down a bit, and reflect honestly on the chaos of life, we will find there are places where we can improve — maybe cutting the gossip, lowering the yelling at home, or yes, even cutting out the caffeine if it makes us a jumpy spastic mess.

This year, the high point of Lent (Good Friday) lands on the same day as Earth Day (April 22) — a  gorgeous coincidence. What if this year we all considered how a few smarter ecological moves could take us to six weeks of improving our lives and the lives of those around us? What if one little eco-idea a week transformed you into a smarter citizen of this planet come April? What if you challenged your family to grab reusable containers for lunch or to walk to school, to finally remember those tote bags? Or even deeper, what if you considered a spending freeze for a week, or two, or six? Considered how your resources can improve the lives of others?

Tracey Bianchi blogs about finding a saner, greener life from the heart of the Chicago suburbs. She wrote Green Mama: The Guilt-Free Guide to Helping You and Your Kids Save the Planet(Zondervan 2009) and blogs at traceybianchi.com.

Musing about the space between - FROM THE CCBLOGS NETWORK [Cross-Post]

FROM THE CCBLOGS NETWORK

Musing about the space between

Feb 24, 2011 by Tripp Hudgins

There is a region between home and the forbidden, states a friend and colleague of mine. It's not a border in the NRSV, but a region, an actual space that Jesus goes to. It's where the unwanted are.

Up till this point in the Gospel, Jesus seems to be telling people to be quiet. "Don't tell anyone that I've done this," he seems to say. Then he goes to the region between the place we think of as home and the place we think of as forbidden because the unholy is there and, well, who does he find? People in need of a priest.

So, there's a healing and Jesus tells them to go tell the priests. Then this Samaritan turns to Jesus and thanks him. Jesus says to this person, "It's not me. It's you. It was in you all along."

I love this story. I love that Jesus goes to those in between places and does not say "I have come to bring something you don't have!" He says "Look! It's here, too." Then he sends these same people to the religious institution...not so that they might be indoctrinated. Jesus is sneakier than that. He does it to push the institutions around. The institutions created this in between place, this false place with no priest, no temple, and no religion. Let's shake them loose of this insanity and send them the faithful whom they have shunned...deemed ontologically unclean somehow.

At our regional clergy retreat we spoke of this passage. We shared our various insights and this one came to me during the reflection time. It articulates so clearly my own sense of priestly vocation. I'm not called to go and "make Christians." No. I'm not called to tell the un/non/post-Christian that they are unworthy and must change. No. I am called to stand in that in between place that persists and say to the Church "Over here! God is over here!"

Originally posted at Anglobaptist.

Common Prayer

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you : wherever he may send you;

may he guide you through the wilderness : protect you through the storm;

may he bring you home rejoicing : at the wonders he has shown you;

may he bring you home rejoicing : once again into our doors.

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Common Prayer

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you : wherever he may send you;

may he guide you through the wilderness : protect you through the storm;

may he bring you home rejoicing : at the wonders he has shown you;

may he bring you home rejoicing : once again into our doors.

Daily Prayer Meditations

 to Help Guide You Through Your Day

Visit

Common Prayer

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Common Prayer

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you : wherever he may send you;

may he guide you through the wilderness : protect you through the storm;

may he bring you home rejoicing : at the wonders he has shown you;

may he bring you home rejoicing : once again into our doors.

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 to Help Guide You Through Your Day

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From the UCC Network: 02/17/2011 "Confessions of a Picky Eater"

Confessions of a Picky Eater

Excerpt from 1 Corinthians 10:23—11:1

"If an unbeliever invites you to a meal and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience."

Reflection by Lillian Daniel

I have to confess that I am a picky eater.  Not a righteous eater. Just a picky one.

I don't want to be. I want to be the kind of person who tries the octopus, who loves snails and eats whatever is offered. I want to be the person who visits a foreign country and accepts the gift of mysterious organs in the soup as an adventure.

But stop. I can't lie in a devotional. I don't want to be that person at all. I think those people are crazy.

I have a whole list of things I will eat, and things I won't and the second list is way longer. And while I pretend to feel bad about it, and may give lip service to how much I know I am missing, it's not true. I don't think I am missing a thing. Everything on the list of things I don't like is there for a reason. I don't like it. Or at least I think I don't. And to my mind, that should be enough.

But Paul's advice to the early church was to eat whatever was put before you. So why did he say that? I assume it was not simply to torture me.

In the days of the early church, there were all sorts of rules about who you could eat with and what you would eat. There was a sense that good people ate one way, and bad people ate another.

But don't you relate to that? How many of you, when you drive through for something fried, sweet, milky or greasy, make sure you throw away your junk food wrappers before anyone sees them?  Would you be that panicked to have someone catch you eating a seaweed salad?

These days there are a lot of thoughtful people putting a lot of thought into what thoughtful people should eat. I know it's important to think about these things, but it's also important to think about people's feelings. I have seen people use their dietary rules like a battering ram, giving everyone who doesn't subscribe to them a case of heartburn.

We're a nation that has so many food choices, we have had to become the leader in food rules to keep ourselves in check. So let's not begrudge the vegetarian or the locavore or the omnivore with a dilemma. Let's not judge the big breakfast eater, the all-day snacker or the person who thinks that if you eat it standing up and over the sink, it doesn't count.

Let's just sit at the table together in peace and give thanks.

Prayer

God is great, God is good, let us thank God for our food. Amen.  

About the Author Lillian Daniel is the senior minister of the First Congregational Church, UCC, Glen Ellyn, Illinois. She is the author, with Martin Copenhaver, of  This Odd and Wondrous Calling: the Public and Private Lives of Two Ministers.

Common Prayer

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you : wherever he may send you;

may he guide you through the wilderness : protect you through the storm;

may he bring you home rejoicing : at the wonders he has shown you;

may he bring you home rejoicing : once again into our doors.

Daily Prayer Meditations

 to Help Guide You Through Your Day

Visit

Common Prayer

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