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Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Place to Go or People to Be
The Rev. Aron Kramer 5 Easter Sunday May 10, 2009
The Church has become a place to go, not a people to be. This was said by Phyllis Tickle last Wednesday night at Breck school. Many of you heard her say it and I hope it struck home as much with you as it did with me. This is the tension we are being called to live into at this point in our lives together. We have become a place to go, not a people to be. And yet we are making a decision together on how we will be a people called and sent by God, to participate in the work God is already doing in the world.
I would be lying to you if I said that I was overjoyed we voted to remain in the building. What seemed to be the easiest task of the three truly is the hardest. Closing the building was the easiest of all of them, and we resoundingly chose not to take the easy path. Leaving the building would have also been difficult, but oddly enough, not as difficult as staying in this space. The decision we have made together, and over 150 of you voted in total, so it really was together, is a decision that states loud and clear a couple of things, at least I hope it was your intention to state these things.
By choosing the most difficult option, we have made a commitment to never grow complacent, to never be a place to go, but rather, to dedicate our lives to becoming a people to be. The other piece of this decision is that we recognize that if The Garden were to leave this location we would never truly be able to come back to the urban setting we currently hold. The Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota would completely lose its claim to being an urban denomination, a denomination with a strong presence in the heart of the city. So this decision was twofold. To recommit and re-imagine ourselves as a people called and sent by God, and to commit ourselves to being an urban presence for the Episcopal Church in the whole state of Minnesota.
So now we go to work, we go to work making a decision about the direction we want to go, the next vote, we go to work creating new relationships and imagining how we can share in God’s mission for the world. Some of you will breathe a sigh of relief and say to me, “It’s about time we got to work, its about time we became the people God is calling us to be.” Some of you will sigh a heavy sigh and say to me, “I am exasperated, what more can I do, what more is there to do?!” And yet, even some more of you will say, “Whatever.” We all have our way of dealing with these decisions that we have made, we all have our fears and anxieties about whether or not we want to continue on this path for The Garden.
If I were a stupid priest I would stand up here and from this pulpit say that if you don’t do what I want, I will leave. But I am not a stupid priest, at least not that stupid, and so instead I say to you all, I am excited about the possibilities we have in front of us. In fact, I think as we move forward and boldly claim a vision that God has for us, we begin to take a journey back to the beginning of The Garden, back to its roots, back to the heart of the mission that started this amazing community of faith.
Kristine Granias rightly challenged someone the other day, I think at our convocation that suggested Gethsemane started all those churches simply because we outgrew our church. We didn’t have space for people and so started a new church somewhere else. If you read our history, one of the striking things about that history is the deep sadness coupled with the great joy that came with each Church start. Gethsemane did not simply grow big and send a faction of people off to start a church. They saw a need and sent people to fill that need. Most of those people were happy to go, but they were deeply saddened by having to leave the community they had previously called home. This was not an easy thing for those people who started the Churches Gethsemane founded. It took courage, it took faith, it took a great deal of hope, and he were are tapping into that same call, that same experience as we look to our future and ask what it will be.
Jesus talks about being the vine in today’s Gospel, that as the branches of that vine we are rooted in the vine that grows in the world. However, that vine is, once in a while pruned, we are being pruned as we speak, we are being cut back so that we will be more fruitful, so that we can hear God’s dream for us more clearly and be able to respond without the baggage that we normally carry with us. If you listen to the Gospel, and this is one thing I love about the Gospel of John, Jesus says, “You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you.” John does this throughout the entire Gospel and it is a thought that we should all dwell upon on a regular basis, the idea that we have already been cleansed, that we have already been forgiven, that we have already been transformed by the Gospel, by the word of God. So this Gospel, instead of asking us to seek forgiveness and to seek cleansing and transformation, calls instead for a response to that “already”. We are being asked to grow, we are being asked to move, we are being asked to do, because our hearts have already been knit into the fabric of God’s being and the only thing we can do now is respond.
Our ancestors, the people who went before us, experienced this pruning on a regular basis. In those first 50 years, our forebears were constantly being pruned and being asked to respond to the Gospel as they lived it in this particular context. They saw need and they approached it unafraid of the cost. Today, we begin to reach back to grasp the spirit of our forebears and ask, where is the need, and how will we respond. Where is it that God is calling us to participate in God’s mission for the world? There is a DNA that once you have sat in this space, absorbed the living spirit of the community of the Garden there is a DNA that gets implanted into your own, you become a Sower to seed, you become a seed to be sown. For too long we have been languishing on the vine, and now as we finally allow ourselves to be trimmed back to the beating heart of our being there is pain and remorse, but more hope for our future together. I know making decisions has been tough for some of us, but without these decisions we will continue to languish and the closing of the building will be inevitable.
It is a new day, and together we are being sent by God into the world to accomplish the particular mission of this place, of this community of faith. God is at work, and my hope for us all is that we will see the truth and the value in Phyllis Tickle’s statement, “The Church has become a place to go, not a people to be.” Everything we do is raising up the vision of what it means to be a people, not a building to go to. Placing primacy on the relationships that reside within the community not our relationship to this building. If we can do that, we will become a people to be, and transcend the geographical location that has stranded so many churches in this day and age. We believe that God is here, seriously, we do.
The Church has become a place to go, not a people to be. This was said by Phyllis Tickle last Wednesday night at Breck school. Many of you heard her say it and I hope it struck home as much with you as it did with me. This is the tension we are being called to live into at this point in our lives together. We have become a place to go, not a people to be. And yet we are making a decision together on how we will be a people called and sent by God, to participate in the work God is already doing in the world.
I would be lying to you if I said that I was overjoyed we voted to remain in the building. What seemed to be the easiest task of the three truly is the hardest. Closing the building was the easiest of all of them, and we resoundingly chose not to take the easy path. Leaving the building would have also been difficult, but oddly enough, not as difficult as staying in this space. The decision we have made together, and over 150 of you voted in total, so it really was together, is a decision that states loud and clear a couple of things, at least I hope it was your intention to state these things.
By choosing the most difficult option, we have made a commitment to never grow complacent, to never be a place to go, but rather, to dedicate our lives to becoming a people to be. The other piece of this decision is that we recognize that if The Garden were to leave this location we would never truly be able to come back to the urban setting we currently hold. The Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota would completely lose its claim to being an urban denomination, a denomination with a strong presence in the heart of the city. So this decision was twofold. To recommit and re-imagine ourselves as a people called and sent by God, and to commit ourselves to being an urban presence for the Episcopal Church in the whole state of Minnesota.
So now we go to work, we go to work making a decision about the direction we want to go, the next vote, we go to work creating new relationships and imagining how we can share in God’s mission for the world. Some of you will breathe a sigh of relief and say to me, “It’s about time we got to work, its about time we became the people God is calling us to be.” Some of you will sigh a heavy sigh and say to me, “I am exasperated, what more can I do, what more is there to do?!” And yet, even some more of you will say, “Whatever.” We all have our way of dealing with these decisions that we have made, we all have our fears and anxieties about whether or not we want to continue on this path for The Garden.
If I were a stupid priest I would stand up here and from this pulpit say that if you don’t do what I want, I will leave. But I am not a stupid priest, at least not that stupid, and so instead I say to you all, I am excited about the possibilities we have in front of us. In fact, I think as we move forward and boldly claim a vision that God has for us, we begin to take a journey back to the beginning of The Garden, back to its roots, back to the heart of the mission that started this amazing community of faith.
Kristine Granias rightly challenged someone the other day, I think at our convocation that suggested Gethsemane started all those churches simply because we outgrew our church. We didn’t have space for people and so started a new church somewhere else. If you read our history, one of the striking things about that history is the deep sadness coupled with the great joy that came with each Church start. Gethsemane did not simply grow big and send a faction of people off to start a church. They saw a need and sent people to fill that need. Most of those people were happy to go, but they were deeply saddened by having to leave the community they had previously called home. This was not an easy thing for those people who started the Churches Gethsemane founded. It took courage, it took faith, it took a great deal of hope, and he were are tapping into that same call, that same experience as we look to our future and ask what it will be.
Jesus talks about being the vine in today’s Gospel, that as the branches of that vine we are rooted in the vine that grows in the world. However, that vine is, once in a while pruned, we are being pruned as we speak, we are being cut back so that we will be more fruitful, so that we can hear God’s dream for us more clearly and be able to respond without the baggage that we normally carry with us. If you listen to the Gospel, and this is one thing I love about the Gospel of John, Jesus says, “You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you.” John does this throughout the entire Gospel and it is a thought that we should all dwell upon on a regular basis, the idea that we have already been cleansed, that we have already been forgiven, that we have already been transformed by the Gospel, by the word of God. So this Gospel, instead of asking us to seek forgiveness and to seek cleansing and transformation, calls instead for a response to that “already”. We are being asked to grow, we are being asked to move, we are being asked to do, because our hearts have already been knit into the fabric of God’s being and the only thing we can do now is respond.
Our ancestors, the people who went before us, experienced this pruning on a regular basis. In those first 50 years, our forebears were constantly being pruned and being asked to respond to the Gospel as they lived it in this particular context. They saw need and they approached it unafraid of the cost. Today, we begin to reach back to grasp the spirit of our forebears and ask, where is the need, and how will we respond. Where is it that God is calling us to participate in God’s mission for the world? There is a DNA that once you have sat in this space, absorbed the living spirit of the community of the Garden there is a DNA that gets implanted into your own, you become a Sower to seed, you become a seed to be sown. For too long we have been languishing on the vine, and now as we finally allow ourselves to be trimmed back to the beating heart of our being there is pain and remorse, but more hope for our future together. I know making decisions has been tough for some of us, but without these decisions we will continue to languish and the closing of the building will be inevitable.
It is a new day, and together we are being sent by God into the world to accomplish the particular mission of this place, of this community of faith. God is at work, and my hope for us all is that we will see the truth and the value in Phyllis Tickle’s statement, “The Church has become a place to go, not a people to be.” Everything we do is raising up the vision of what it means to be a people, not a building to go to. Placing primacy on the relationships that reside within the community not our relationship to this building. If we can do that, we will become a people to be, and transcend the geographical location that has stranded so many churches in this day and age. We believe that God is here, seriously, we do.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
My Thoughts for Saturdays Convocation
For the past three years The Garden has been one of a handful of parishes who have taken the work of the BCMS and incorporated into the very fabric of our being, into the very culture of who we are as a congregation. We have allowed its wisdom to guide our decision making processes as we journey to a new future together.
Gethsemane was the catalyst for this entire mission discernment process, out of the work around the Gethsemane plan, the BCMS and MSN processes emerged and came into being. For every minute of our renewal experience and around every decision we have made in the Garden (how we affectionately refer to ourselves, no one seems to know how to say Gethsemane) we have held close to our heart and soul the work of the original BCMS plan. It is important work that challenges us at a level that goes beyond the perceived diocesan structural challenges we face.
Three years ago Gethsemane was in an uncertain place, a place not unlike where the Diocese finds itself today. As part of our work to transform the culture, and as part of our ministry and commitment to bring a shift to our thinking about how we do Church, we embraced the work of the BCMS and listened to the Spirit in every letter of the document. We absorbed what it said about vulnerability around the brokenness of relationships to name our current realities. We listened to its wisdom about the need for transformation. We patiently shared our stories of how God was active in our lives and how we saw God active in the world. The BCMS 2007 document approved at Diocesan Convention changed us and it changed us drastically.
We decided not to plan our way out of the mess and simply listen as best as we could for God’s dream for us. As many of us did in the Diocese, we embraced Gospel Based Discipleship and began to try to allow the Gospel to speak to us about how God was active in the world. We held true to the process as laid out in the GBD books and how it was taught to us.
Where the BCMS report encouraged us to use gifts discernment resources, we decided to go a different route. Understanding—from much of our study of the Gospel—that clergy and leadership often get in the way of ministry and mission, as well as understanding that most people who come to church have an idea already of what their gifts are and how God has graced them with the abilities to be accomplished human beings, we decided instead to take on a vision of gifts implementation. Rather than discern what people’s gifts might be, we asked them flat out, what they love to do and how they could envision doing it in the Garden. Clergy and hierarchical leadership stepped out of the way and acted as support resources for people who had a passion to accomplish their unrealized dreams.
To date this model of ministry permeates the entire culture of the Garden, from our Altar Guild to our New Member Ministry, from our Green Group to the UTO collection; people involved in these ministries give from their passions, energy and dreams, not as obligation, have to’s and routine. Too often gifts discernment places too much power in the hands of clergy and other leadership within the church. We have found this leaves a sense that only the clergy have access to spiritual transformation and are the only arbiters of Spiritual Transformation; no one else can have it unless it is given them by the clergy.
Some clergy will think this is too harsh, or may seek to place blame on the lack of initiation of the laity, but it is primarily the unwillingness of clergy and those in established position of power to relinquish the “power over” they have and instead embrace the “power with” we are called by Jesus to have. By stepping out of the way—opening the avenue for all people to have access to spiritual transformation—there is a spirit of collaboration at Gethsemane that is unique.
I wonder if we as a Diocese are not already spiritually transformed. Gethsemane, over the past three years has felt like Thomas from John’s Gospel, Doubting Thomas. Why was Thomas not in the room with the disciples when Jesus first appeared to them? What was he doing, what might he have been doing? I like to think that Thomas was out carrying the mission Jesus asked the disciples to accomplish in the world. I’d love to think that Thomas was out actually engaging the very world that Christ had called all his disciples to transform. The disciples were already transformed, I can’t imagine one walks with Jesus and doesn’t walk away totally affected. Yet even in his ministry, something was missing, in Thomas’ solitary work, it did not feel complete.
The other 10 disciples had locked themselves in a room; scripture says it was out of fear of what might happen to them. This leads me to think that they were strategizing; how could they best carry out the mission they were called to do without being killed or dieing? Thomas would have none of that, therefore decided to go out and do what Jesus had asked, no, commanded them all to do. Thomas was out transforming the world, because he was transformed himself. However, he was one person, and seeing and knowing that he could not do this on his own, he returned to his friends, possibly, to try to convince them to join him. What a surprise he was in for!
Spiritual transformation assumes we have a relationship with God and with Jesus, the living, dying and rising Christ. At its very heart, to me, it is relational, face-to-face, heart-to-heart, touch-to-touch transformation. Spiritual transformation, I wonder, has little to do with the structures and the buildings and the systems that we, as Christians, inhabit.
The MSN report suggests identifying and commissioning our “Spiritual Connectors” and sending them out to connect our congregations. I like this but it is dismissing one thing, the Gospel. The phenomenon we have in Gospel Based Discipleship is a wonderful way to start all our conversations and connections as well as a powerful way to live fully into the idea and reality of being spiritually transformed. But first, we have to believe that we can be transformed.
Where this all must begin is not in our churches, or in our Diocese or in our Diocesan office, but in us, the people that call themselves Episcopalians and live their lives committed to that expression of Christianity. We have to believe that God is here, not far away. We have to believe that God is alive, not distant and disconnected. We have to believe that Christ is seen most clearly in the margins of society. We have to believe that God is at work in the world despite our uneasiness or unwillingness to actually go out and do ministry in the world. We must recognize that God is not done with God’s work, God has only just begun. We may even have to entertain the thought that God has a plan for the transformation of this world and that we are a small part, not THE part of that plan.
What if we said clearly, “We ARE spiritually transformed and we believe that God is here, with us”? What if we said as loud as we could, and with great joy in our hearts that before anything else the Spirit is moving us to those who are in need, and the mission that God is accomplishing already in the world is where we are being called to put our time, energy resources and talents? What if we said, the gifts we have that God has already given us are the gifts we want to offer the Church, not the gifts the Church needs in order to create attractive performances and flawless liturgies, but rather to meet people in the world where they are at?
We are already cultivating communities of love, justice and peace in this Diocese, and that work has deeply transformed us, yet we refuse to speak from that place of transformation and we refuse to allow the new life we see to guide us into deeper relationships with one another. We refuse to allow the vulnerability deeply interwoven in transformation to open our hearts to the possibilities of reconciliation and healing. That is where we NEED spiritual transformation in how we reconcile ourselves to one another as humans and Christians, and Episcopalians in the Diocese of Minnesota.
I imagine that Doubting Thomas’ understanding of his context was vital in how he moved through the city, finding people with whom he could share the story of Jesus. He would have had to have a deep understanding of the city in order to safely maneuver if the authorities and others were as hostile as John tells us they were. Yet, his fear and anxiety did not prevent him from going out, rather his knowledge of the context of his situation, his knowledge of the city, the neighborhoods, where the poor were, who housed the orphans and widows would have been great assurance to him as he carried out his work. Context, and his particular understanding of it, was vital to the ministry he was conducting.
The ministry that really lit the fire under the people in the Garden was one that landed on us like a 10 ton elephant. The housing crisis filled Hennepin County’s temporary shelters, so they began moving families into the Francis Drake hotel next door to Gethsemane. We knew there were families with kids next door in great need, families who would not stay long, but none the less, had need. We knew we had a gym, stage and classrooms that could be used to help those in need, whether it was the families themselves or the county. Our work culminated in a Christmas Party for the families of the Drake none of whom actually attended. What we found was that the people five blocks north of us at People Serving People were much more interested in the work we were doing. So we had several families from PSP attend our party and discovered that sometimes, when looking one way, other opportunities present themselves that you would have never expected.
I once heard someone say that creativity in a relational sense is not making new connections between people and organizations; creativity is discovering unexpected connections that already exist between people and organizations. The Garden has been the most creative place I have ever experienced, from exploring redevelopment opportunities to the Christmas Party, from worship to Episcopal Church partnerships. No other Church I know of has quite the amount of creativity that we have, under the definition named above.
Suffice it to say, the context we live in was never difficult to find, all we had to do was look out our back door. All we had to do is say—with boldness—the people we are here to serve are not the ones sitting in the pews, but rather those who are in the streets, those who are hungry, those who have no shelter, and those whose families are facing difficult times. Then, after saying it, actually do something about it. We, in the Episcopal Church, talk really well, we listen well too, but rarely do we believe that God is actually calling us to do something. It is not rocket science to understand the context one lives in, it is not difficult to see beyond the end of our own nose and experience the lives of those who are in need.
Something I love about the Presiding Bishop, whenever you read about her trips, whenever you hear about her work, one thing you always can bank on is that she is immersing herself in the context of the place she is visiting. She goes to those places where God is most clearly present. She goes to those places where the need for the Church is the greatest, she goes to those places most of us would never go and she gets her hands dirty. She has been an inspiration to me, because she is going about doing the work of Jesus in our world. She is walking in the streets as Thomas might have done and spreading the Good News to all who have ears. Then, I imagine, she comes back to those upper rooms, those big cathedrals and small country parishes and says something like, “What are you doing here? The work is out there, stop talking, and get busy.” But then again, maybe not.
I imagine that is what Thomas came back to say to the disciples. I imagine that is why Thomas went to the upper room, he knew he could not do this work alone, he knew he could not carry out this work without his close friends, but he was miffed, he was upset and he had an agenda that was never able to truly be revealed, he wanted to shake down Peter and his buddies and give them all sorts of trouble. But he never got the chance, because before he knew it, Jesus appeared to him. Jesus interrupted his diatribe, Jesus never allowed him to share his anger and frustration with the Disciples. Thomas, in that moment must have seen the futility in his anger, frustration and instead was reminded of his faith, the faith of those gathered with him, who, notice, did not say, “We told you so!” The transformed were transformed. Again.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus appears and goes directly to Thomas. I wonder if we misplace Jesus’ intention in his approach. I wonder if Jesus wasn’t feeling the same way as Thomas the second time he appeared to the disciples? “I told you to get your butts out last time I appeared; I even gave you the Spirit, now I have to tell you… ah, Thomas is here, the one who has been doing, the one who has been trying, the one who has been despairing most of all, I am glad to be here.” Jesus goes directly to Thomas and fills him with the Spirit, fills him with confidence and in a way says to Thomas, now you can carry on in our work knowing that I am alive, not dead, that I am here, not absent, that I am with you always. I love you Thomas, now go, out into the world filled with passion, love, joy and the spirit to carry on our work. Jesus appeared to Thomas, not the disciples. To Thomas, who had been absent and had possibly been carrying out the Words and teachings of Jesus without passion and joy and love or the Spirit.
Jesus has appeared to us. Jesus continues to appear to us—calling us out of our fear and anxiety, out of the upper room into the world. Some of us are out there already, trying. Some of us are hiding, strategizing. Wherever we are at, we still must be open to Jesus’ appearing and not expecting new connections, rather seeking unexpected existing connections that transform us and point us to the context in which we are called to walk with God.
Gethsemane was the catalyst for this entire mission discernment process, out of the work around the Gethsemane plan, the BCMS and MSN processes emerged and came into being. For every minute of our renewal experience and around every decision we have made in the Garden (how we affectionately refer to ourselves, no one seems to know how to say Gethsemane) we have held close to our heart and soul the work of the original BCMS plan. It is important work that challenges us at a level that goes beyond the perceived diocesan structural challenges we face.
Three years ago Gethsemane was in an uncertain place, a place not unlike where the Diocese finds itself today. As part of our work to transform the culture, and as part of our ministry and commitment to bring a shift to our thinking about how we do Church, we embraced the work of the BCMS and listened to the Spirit in every letter of the document. We absorbed what it said about vulnerability around the brokenness of relationships to name our current realities. We listened to its wisdom about the need for transformation. We patiently shared our stories of how God was active in our lives and how we saw God active in the world. The BCMS 2007 document approved at Diocesan Convention changed us and it changed us drastically.
We decided not to plan our way out of the mess and simply listen as best as we could for God’s dream for us. As many of us did in the Diocese, we embraced Gospel Based Discipleship and began to try to allow the Gospel to speak to us about how God was active in the world. We held true to the process as laid out in the GBD books and how it was taught to us.
Where the BCMS report encouraged us to use gifts discernment resources, we decided to go a different route. Understanding—from much of our study of the Gospel—that clergy and leadership often get in the way of ministry and mission, as well as understanding that most people who come to church have an idea already of what their gifts are and how God has graced them with the abilities to be accomplished human beings, we decided instead to take on a vision of gifts implementation. Rather than discern what people’s gifts might be, we asked them flat out, what they love to do and how they could envision doing it in the Garden. Clergy and hierarchical leadership stepped out of the way and acted as support resources for people who had a passion to accomplish their unrealized dreams.
To date this model of ministry permeates the entire culture of the Garden, from our Altar Guild to our New Member Ministry, from our Green Group to the UTO collection; people involved in these ministries give from their passions, energy and dreams, not as obligation, have to’s and routine. Too often gifts discernment places too much power in the hands of clergy and other leadership within the church. We have found this leaves a sense that only the clergy have access to spiritual transformation and are the only arbiters of Spiritual Transformation; no one else can have it unless it is given them by the clergy.
Some clergy will think this is too harsh, or may seek to place blame on the lack of initiation of the laity, but it is primarily the unwillingness of clergy and those in established position of power to relinquish the “power over” they have and instead embrace the “power with” we are called by Jesus to have. By stepping out of the way—opening the avenue for all people to have access to spiritual transformation—there is a spirit of collaboration at Gethsemane that is unique.
I wonder if we as a Diocese are not already spiritually transformed. Gethsemane, over the past three years has felt like Thomas from John’s Gospel, Doubting Thomas. Why was Thomas not in the room with the disciples when Jesus first appeared to them? What was he doing, what might he have been doing? I like to think that Thomas was out carrying the mission Jesus asked the disciples to accomplish in the world. I’d love to think that Thomas was out actually engaging the very world that Christ had called all his disciples to transform. The disciples were already transformed, I can’t imagine one walks with Jesus and doesn’t walk away totally affected. Yet even in his ministry, something was missing, in Thomas’ solitary work, it did not feel complete.
The other 10 disciples had locked themselves in a room; scripture says it was out of fear of what might happen to them. This leads me to think that they were strategizing; how could they best carry out the mission they were called to do without being killed or dieing? Thomas would have none of that, therefore decided to go out and do what Jesus had asked, no, commanded them all to do. Thomas was out transforming the world, because he was transformed himself. However, he was one person, and seeing and knowing that he could not do this on his own, he returned to his friends, possibly, to try to convince them to join him. What a surprise he was in for!
Spiritual transformation assumes we have a relationship with God and with Jesus, the living, dying and rising Christ. At its very heart, to me, it is relational, face-to-face, heart-to-heart, touch-to-touch transformation. Spiritual transformation, I wonder, has little to do with the structures and the buildings and the systems that we, as Christians, inhabit.
The MSN report suggests identifying and commissioning our “Spiritual Connectors” and sending them out to connect our congregations. I like this but it is dismissing one thing, the Gospel. The phenomenon we have in Gospel Based Discipleship is a wonderful way to start all our conversations and connections as well as a powerful way to live fully into the idea and reality of being spiritually transformed. But first, we have to believe that we can be transformed.
Where this all must begin is not in our churches, or in our Diocese or in our Diocesan office, but in us, the people that call themselves Episcopalians and live their lives committed to that expression of Christianity. We have to believe that God is here, not far away. We have to believe that God is alive, not distant and disconnected. We have to believe that Christ is seen most clearly in the margins of society. We have to believe that God is at work in the world despite our uneasiness or unwillingness to actually go out and do ministry in the world. We must recognize that God is not done with God’s work, God has only just begun. We may even have to entertain the thought that God has a plan for the transformation of this world and that we are a small part, not THE part of that plan.
What if we said clearly, “We ARE spiritually transformed and we believe that God is here, with us”? What if we said as loud as we could, and with great joy in our hearts that before anything else the Spirit is moving us to those who are in need, and the mission that God is accomplishing already in the world is where we are being called to put our time, energy resources and talents? What if we said, the gifts we have that God has already given us are the gifts we want to offer the Church, not the gifts the Church needs in order to create attractive performances and flawless liturgies, but rather to meet people in the world where they are at?
We are already cultivating communities of love, justice and peace in this Diocese, and that work has deeply transformed us, yet we refuse to speak from that place of transformation and we refuse to allow the new life we see to guide us into deeper relationships with one another. We refuse to allow the vulnerability deeply interwoven in transformation to open our hearts to the possibilities of reconciliation and healing. That is where we NEED spiritual transformation in how we reconcile ourselves to one another as humans and Christians, and Episcopalians in the Diocese of Minnesota.
I imagine that Doubting Thomas’ understanding of his context was vital in how he moved through the city, finding people with whom he could share the story of Jesus. He would have had to have a deep understanding of the city in order to safely maneuver if the authorities and others were as hostile as John tells us they were. Yet, his fear and anxiety did not prevent him from going out, rather his knowledge of the context of his situation, his knowledge of the city, the neighborhoods, where the poor were, who housed the orphans and widows would have been great assurance to him as he carried out his work. Context, and his particular understanding of it, was vital to the ministry he was conducting.
The ministry that really lit the fire under the people in the Garden was one that landed on us like a 10 ton elephant. The housing crisis filled Hennepin County’s temporary shelters, so they began moving families into the Francis Drake hotel next door to Gethsemane. We knew there were families with kids next door in great need, families who would not stay long, but none the less, had need. We knew we had a gym, stage and classrooms that could be used to help those in need, whether it was the families themselves or the county. Our work culminated in a Christmas Party for the families of the Drake none of whom actually attended. What we found was that the people five blocks north of us at People Serving People were much more interested in the work we were doing. So we had several families from PSP attend our party and discovered that sometimes, when looking one way, other opportunities present themselves that you would have never expected.
I once heard someone say that creativity in a relational sense is not making new connections between people and organizations; creativity is discovering unexpected connections that already exist between people and organizations. The Garden has been the most creative place I have ever experienced, from exploring redevelopment opportunities to the Christmas Party, from worship to Episcopal Church partnerships. No other Church I know of has quite the amount of creativity that we have, under the definition named above.
Suffice it to say, the context we live in was never difficult to find, all we had to do was look out our back door. All we had to do is say—with boldness—the people we are here to serve are not the ones sitting in the pews, but rather those who are in the streets, those who are hungry, those who have no shelter, and those whose families are facing difficult times. Then, after saying it, actually do something about it. We, in the Episcopal Church, talk really well, we listen well too, but rarely do we believe that God is actually calling us to do something. It is not rocket science to understand the context one lives in, it is not difficult to see beyond the end of our own nose and experience the lives of those who are in need.
Something I love about the Presiding Bishop, whenever you read about her trips, whenever you hear about her work, one thing you always can bank on is that she is immersing herself in the context of the place she is visiting. She goes to those places where God is most clearly present. She goes to those places where the need for the Church is the greatest, she goes to those places most of us would never go and she gets her hands dirty. She has been an inspiration to me, because she is going about doing the work of Jesus in our world. She is walking in the streets as Thomas might have done and spreading the Good News to all who have ears. Then, I imagine, she comes back to those upper rooms, those big cathedrals and small country parishes and says something like, “What are you doing here? The work is out there, stop talking, and get busy.” But then again, maybe not.
I imagine that is what Thomas came back to say to the disciples. I imagine that is why Thomas went to the upper room, he knew he could not do this work alone, he knew he could not carry out this work without his close friends, but he was miffed, he was upset and he had an agenda that was never able to truly be revealed, he wanted to shake down Peter and his buddies and give them all sorts of trouble. But he never got the chance, because before he knew it, Jesus appeared to him. Jesus interrupted his diatribe, Jesus never allowed him to share his anger and frustration with the Disciples. Thomas, in that moment must have seen the futility in his anger, frustration and instead was reminded of his faith, the faith of those gathered with him, who, notice, did not say, “We told you so!” The transformed were transformed. Again.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus appears and goes directly to Thomas. I wonder if we misplace Jesus’ intention in his approach. I wonder if Jesus wasn’t feeling the same way as Thomas the second time he appeared to the disciples? “I told you to get your butts out last time I appeared; I even gave you the Spirit, now I have to tell you… ah, Thomas is here, the one who has been doing, the one who has been trying, the one who has been despairing most of all, I am glad to be here.” Jesus goes directly to Thomas and fills him with the Spirit, fills him with confidence and in a way says to Thomas, now you can carry on in our work knowing that I am alive, not dead, that I am here, not absent, that I am with you always. I love you Thomas, now go, out into the world filled with passion, love, joy and the spirit to carry on our work. Jesus appeared to Thomas, not the disciples. To Thomas, who had been absent and had possibly been carrying out the Words and teachings of Jesus without passion and joy and love or the Spirit.
Jesus has appeared to us. Jesus continues to appear to us—calling us out of our fear and anxiety, out of the upper room into the world. Some of us are out there already, trying. Some of us are hiding, strategizing. Wherever we are at, we still must be open to Jesus’ appearing and not expecting new connections, rather seeking unexpected existing connections that transform us and point us to the context in which we are called to walk with God.
Monday, September 01, 2008
State Fair Goodness
We went to the state fair on Friday, the last day of vacation, and my excellent picture taker sister in law snapped this great one of Naomi finishing off my deep fried Snickers bar on a stick. It was delicious! I wasn't sure what to expect, but I have to say, I was impressed.
Be Well,
A+
Thursday, May 01, 2008
ON THE DRIVE HOME... I got nuffin
So the drives home lately have been relatively quiet. I imagine that some of what happens in the car and some of what is said is pretty noteworthy, would be entertaining, but most of that has been hashed over so much in the past two years that it is no longer entertaining to me or Sara as it once was. You hear it a couple hundred times and its funny, then it eventually stops being funny.
Anyway, Eliot and Naomi both have taken to answering my once brilliantly disguised question, "So, what happened at school today Eliot/Naomi" with "Nuthin." Seriously, Eliot says "Nuffing" and Naomi just sits quietly, or says, I played with my kids.
That is something that is cute beyond measure, whenever we are talking about school and their classmates, we don't call them friends, we don't call them classmates, or anything like that, the other children at school are identified by E & N as "my kids."
Now I am not sure if this is a good thing or not, but it brings to my memory a time when I walked in on the Naomi's classroom only to find her in the middle of a circle of kids laughing and laughing. They were supposed to lined up ready to go to the Commons, but they had all encircled Naomi and seemed to be watching her every move. It was cute, and I never thought much of it till I connected it with her idea of "my kids." Watch out.
The same goes for Eliot, its not just the kids in his class that want to hang out with him, its the kids in the BIG KIDS class. The BIG KIDS, Eliot is awed by these kids but I think they are just as awed by him for whatever reason.
We are watching the Showtime Special, "The Tudors" about Henry the 8th. Its really cool, Eliot has about 4 or 5 servants that are always hanging around him at school and feeding him information about what is going on and what is happening. The big kids run up to him when I get there, and they say, "Your Dad is here!!!" He kind of looks at them as if he knew that or it wasn't all that important of a piece of information, try better next time, get me information I can USE!!!
Maybe that is what I need to do, try another track, find out what information I can feed into them so that the information they have can be released to the world of the blog, I think they are on to me though. It's going to take some extra work...
Game on Baby!
Be well,
A+
Anyway, Eliot and Naomi both have taken to answering my once brilliantly disguised question, "So, what happened at school today Eliot/Naomi" with "Nuthin." Seriously, Eliot says "Nuffing" and Naomi just sits quietly, or says, I played with my kids.
That is something that is cute beyond measure, whenever we are talking about school and their classmates, we don't call them friends, we don't call them classmates, or anything like that, the other children at school are identified by E & N as "my kids."
Now I am not sure if this is a good thing or not, but it brings to my memory a time when I walked in on the Naomi's classroom only to find her in the middle of a circle of kids laughing and laughing. They were supposed to lined up ready to go to the Commons, but they had all encircled Naomi and seemed to be watching her every move. It was cute, and I never thought much of it till I connected it with her idea of "my kids." Watch out.
The same goes for Eliot, its not just the kids in his class that want to hang out with him, its the kids in the BIG KIDS class. The BIG KIDS, Eliot is awed by these kids but I think they are just as awed by him for whatever reason.
We are watching the Showtime Special, "The Tudors" about Henry the 8th. Its really cool, Eliot has about 4 or 5 servants that are always hanging around him at school and feeding him information about what is going on and what is happening. The big kids run up to him when I get there, and they say, "Your Dad is here!!!" He kind of looks at them as if he knew that or it wasn't all that important of a piece of information, try better next time, get me information I can USE!!!
Maybe that is what I need to do, try another track, find out what information I can feed into them so that the information they have can be released to the world of the blog, I think they are on to me though. It's going to take some extra work...
Game on Baby!
Be well,
A+
Saturday, April 19, 2008
ON THE DRIVE HOME... It has happened
When we first started taking the kids to daycare, or school as we call it, Eliot and Naomi both had a really tough time. Eliot sat in his corner in the bathroom, crying for, as he put it, 40 minutes.
I understand now about the significance of the number 40 in the bible. 40 days, 40 nights, 40 years in the desert. 40, biblically speaking, means a VERY VERY VERY long time. Not actually 40 days or 40 nights, it just means that the people experiencing the pain and agony of that moment experienced it for a very long time.
Eliot was in great pain and agony for 40 minute everyday, we still haven't quite figured out what happened, or even what motivated him to end his pain, I like to think it was one of the young women he has grown fond of lately.
Naomi, on the other hand, simply didn't talk, she didn't interact with the kids, just sat around sucking her thumb and holding her blanket and sitting, I assume, in the lap of her teacher.
We discovered Naomi's plight one day when the teacher asked me, "Does Naomi have any words?" This shocked and stunned me, since Naomi is nothing but a jumbling, mumbling, stumbling word filled fool when she is with us. Does she have any words??!!
We thought for sure it would be Naomi who would take to daycare long before Eliot would, his leukemia and all, but we were wrong, Naomi is the one who had the most trouble.
Every morning when I arrived Teacher Edith would always say, someday soon they will not want to go home, they will want to stay here and will cry when you pick them up to go home.
Well, it happened, mostly to Eliot. I picked them up on Wednesday of last week and Eliot wouldn't have any of it. He and his new friend Madeline, Maddy I was told is her name, were running around the jungle gym sliding down the slide having a ball. When I told him it was time to go he cornered himself in the crook of the curvy slide, stuck out his lip and started pouting and crying. He didn't want to go, he wanted to stay with his kids.
Naomi, it seems has not had the same reaction, but she did need to get pulled off the slide in order to get to the car.
So, the combination of being outside, and new friends has finally taken hold of the kids and they are excited to go to school on Monday morning and can't stand coming home in the afternoons. It is very cool!
Be well,
A+
I understand now about the significance of the number 40 in the bible. 40 days, 40 nights, 40 years in the desert. 40, biblically speaking, means a VERY VERY VERY long time. Not actually 40 days or 40 nights, it just means that the people experiencing the pain and agony of that moment experienced it for a very long time.
Eliot was in great pain and agony for 40 minute everyday, we still haven't quite figured out what happened, or even what motivated him to end his pain, I like to think it was one of the young women he has grown fond of lately.
Naomi, on the other hand, simply didn't talk, she didn't interact with the kids, just sat around sucking her thumb and holding her blanket and sitting, I assume, in the lap of her teacher.
We discovered Naomi's plight one day when the teacher asked me, "Does Naomi have any words?" This shocked and stunned me, since Naomi is nothing but a jumbling, mumbling, stumbling word filled fool when she is with us. Does she have any words??!!
We thought for sure it would be Naomi who would take to daycare long before Eliot would, his leukemia and all, but we were wrong, Naomi is the one who had the most trouble.
Every morning when I arrived Teacher Edith would always say, someday soon they will not want to go home, they will want to stay here and will cry when you pick them up to go home.
Well, it happened, mostly to Eliot. I picked them up on Wednesday of last week and Eliot wouldn't have any of it. He and his new friend Madeline, Maddy I was told is her name, were running around the jungle gym sliding down the slide having a ball. When I told him it was time to go he cornered himself in the crook of the curvy slide, stuck out his lip and started pouting and crying. He didn't want to go, he wanted to stay with his kids.
Naomi, it seems has not had the same reaction, but she did need to get pulled off the slide in order to get to the car.
So, the combination of being outside, and new friends has finally taken hold of the kids and they are excited to go to school on Monday morning and can't stand coming home in the afternoons. It is very cool!
Be well,
A+
Friday, April 18, 2008
Oh, what a day
I'm reading a book called "blink" which is about the fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a second decisions our unconscious makes in our lives. It is the millisecond when we know something is right or wrong, real or fake, etc, etc...
For me, I was most in touch with that split second process when I was coaching soccer. I knew exactly when a goal was going to be scored, about 2 seconds or so before it actually happened. I could tell by the curve of the ball, or the location of the forward, or the misstep of a defender. I just knew.
Therefore I was the first to cheer when one of my girls scored, or the first to groan and turn my head when we got scored upon. I just knew. Long after I had stopped coaching that ability remained until one day when I realized I was a bit rusty.
I still remember it well, I hit a shot about as well as I have hit one before, it was about 25 yards out and the thing just knuckled and knuckled, there was no way it was going to miss, heading straight for the upper left corner. The problem was, the goalkeeper for the MN Thunder was the goalkeeper of the other team and he made a spectacular save...
After I had started celebrating, oh the shame.
Today I was not at all operating out of blink mode, it was more like my, deep sleep can't make a decision to save my life...
Or my kids mode.
Sara is out of town, in DC for a wedding, and today we decided to go to the MOA, run around eat crappy food and look for a pair of soccer shoes for Eliot. Everything was going well until we decided it was time for lunch. I decided, instead of walking the 4 miles to the elevator to brave the escalator.
With a stroller.
And two kids.
And an unconscious that was taking the day off.
I saw it all in my head just fine, I would put Naomi in the stroller and Eliot and I would hold hands up the escalator. I saw it all so clearly, it seemed like a sound decision, yes, I have done that before, the problem of course: Sara is usually with me.
It usually is a mutual decision with hands to go around.
Not so much this time.
I should have realized in the moment I went to park the stroller to prepare for loading and Naomi and Eliot raced over to the edge of the escalator and begun calculating the speed, their ability and how much pain they could inflict in one single incident.
Kids do that you know, they calculate all these things to live on the edge, and always add in the piece of what is going to cause the most anxiety, the most craziness, the most awkwardness a person could ever imagine. It's a good thing we lose that ability when we grow old.
Anyway, I am not sure what happened, but as the two of them began to consider the escalator, I charged over, and for some reason only known to my sleeping unconscious, I brought along the stroller, I was able to get Naomi's hand and it looked like, for the briefest of milliseconds that they had decided to wait.
Then Naomi took the step. And when Naomi takes the step, Eliot has to as well, he can not for any reason be seen as lesser than has little sister. And so it happened. Naomi had my hand, she was safely on a step, ascending, when she suddenly decided NOT to let go of my hand so I could be sure Eliot was OK. When I freed my hand, Naomi decided to walk forward, off the step and the slow motion God's went into action.
I looked back and saw Eliot get on his step just fine. Turned to see Naomi fall forward DOWN the escalator, what a sight, legs spread wide and almost straight in the air, arms also wide, heading down the stairs, seemingly on her face, she looked like a seal flailing around in the ocean, it was strangely graceful.
With Naomi secure in my arms, not sure how she got there, Eliot was halfway up the escalator, he was pretty sad, his blanket was about five steps behind him. I turned and it was in that moment that the stroller decided to enter the fray as well, I turned, took a step down and it attacked, seriously it attacked me.
I fell forward onto the stroller, scratching the heck out of my ankle I found out later, but Naomi was secure and just fine, I didn't actually fall, I stumbled over the attacking stroller and at that point was rescued by a few generous and gentle people who helped me up and helped get the stroller up as well. They asked if they could hold Naomi and rock her in the stroller while I went after Eliot.
Thinking that wasn't such a good idea I put Naomi in the stroller, braced it on the escalator and rode up after Eliot who was completely and totally rejecting the strangers who were trying to help him. He actually started walking towards the ascending stairs trying to come get me. I am sure I yelled stop or something, but have by now, effectively shut that part out of my memory.
We got everything settled and the only thing that was ugly was a little cut on Naomi's lip, she'll pry have a fat lip tomorrow, hopefully not, so Sara will never know this all happened.
Oh what a day. Thank God for McDonald's and M&M's, they make the world go round. Although I am sure they won't help me sharpen my unconscious decision making.
On the drive home, Eliot had dropped his toy in the car, and asked if I would pick it up, I said no, I had to concentrate on driving. Eliot asked, "So we don't crash?", I said yes, and Naomi said she wanted to crash. I said, Naomi, if we crashed it would feel a little bit like the fall you took on the escalator today, but it would hurt a lot more. Do you want to feel that again?
As I looked in the rear view mirror, a huge smile came across her face and she said:
"Do it agin!" Oh the shame.
Be well
A+
For me, I was most in touch with that split second process when I was coaching soccer. I knew exactly when a goal was going to be scored, about 2 seconds or so before it actually happened. I could tell by the curve of the ball, or the location of the forward, or the misstep of a defender. I just knew.
Therefore I was the first to cheer when one of my girls scored, or the first to groan and turn my head when we got scored upon. I just knew. Long after I had stopped coaching that ability remained until one day when I realized I was a bit rusty.
I still remember it well, I hit a shot about as well as I have hit one before, it was about 25 yards out and the thing just knuckled and knuckled, there was no way it was going to miss, heading straight for the upper left corner. The problem was, the goalkeeper for the MN Thunder was the goalkeeper of the other team and he made a spectacular save...
After I had started celebrating, oh the shame.
Today I was not at all operating out of blink mode, it was more like my, deep sleep can't make a decision to save my life...
Or my kids mode.
Sara is out of town, in DC for a wedding, and today we decided to go to the MOA, run around eat crappy food and look for a pair of soccer shoes for Eliot. Everything was going well until we decided it was time for lunch. I decided, instead of walking the 4 miles to the elevator to brave the escalator.
With a stroller.
And two kids.
And an unconscious that was taking the day off.
I saw it all in my head just fine, I would put Naomi in the stroller and Eliot and I would hold hands up the escalator. I saw it all so clearly, it seemed like a sound decision, yes, I have done that before, the problem of course: Sara is usually with me.
It usually is a mutual decision with hands to go around.
Not so much this time.
I should have realized in the moment I went to park the stroller to prepare for loading and Naomi and Eliot raced over to the edge of the escalator and begun calculating the speed, their ability and how much pain they could inflict in one single incident.
Kids do that you know, they calculate all these things to live on the edge, and always add in the piece of what is going to cause the most anxiety, the most craziness, the most awkwardness a person could ever imagine. It's a good thing we lose that ability when we grow old.
Anyway, I am not sure what happened, but as the two of them began to consider the escalator, I charged over, and for some reason only known to my sleeping unconscious, I brought along the stroller, I was able to get Naomi's hand and it looked like, for the briefest of milliseconds that they had decided to wait.
Then Naomi took the step. And when Naomi takes the step, Eliot has to as well, he can not for any reason be seen as lesser than has little sister. And so it happened. Naomi had my hand, she was safely on a step, ascending, when she suddenly decided NOT to let go of my hand so I could be sure Eliot was OK. When I freed my hand, Naomi decided to walk forward, off the step and the slow motion God's went into action.
I looked back and saw Eliot get on his step just fine. Turned to see Naomi fall forward DOWN the escalator, what a sight, legs spread wide and almost straight in the air, arms also wide, heading down the stairs, seemingly on her face, she looked like a seal flailing around in the ocean, it was strangely graceful.
With Naomi secure in my arms, not sure how she got there, Eliot was halfway up the escalator, he was pretty sad, his blanket was about five steps behind him. I turned and it was in that moment that the stroller decided to enter the fray as well, I turned, took a step down and it attacked, seriously it attacked me.
I fell forward onto the stroller, scratching the heck out of my ankle I found out later, but Naomi was secure and just fine, I didn't actually fall, I stumbled over the attacking stroller and at that point was rescued by a few generous and gentle people who helped me up and helped get the stroller up as well. They asked if they could hold Naomi and rock her in the stroller while I went after Eliot.
Thinking that wasn't such a good idea I put Naomi in the stroller, braced it on the escalator and rode up after Eliot who was completely and totally rejecting the strangers who were trying to help him. He actually started walking towards the ascending stairs trying to come get me. I am sure I yelled stop or something, but have by now, effectively shut that part out of my memory.
We got everything settled and the only thing that was ugly was a little cut on Naomi's lip, she'll pry have a fat lip tomorrow, hopefully not, so Sara will never know this all happened.
Oh what a day. Thank God for McDonald's and M&M's, they make the world go round. Although I am sure they won't help me sharpen my unconscious decision making.
On the drive home, Eliot had dropped his toy in the car, and asked if I would pick it up, I said no, I had to concentrate on driving. Eliot asked, "So we don't crash?", I said yes, and Naomi said she wanted to crash. I said, Naomi, if we crashed it would feel a little bit like the fall you took on the escalator today, but it would hurt a lot more. Do you want to feel that again?
As I looked in the rear view mirror, a huge smile came across her face and she said:
"Do it agin!" Oh the shame.
Be well
A+
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