Enough

Although I'm not preaching this weekend, the Gospel story of the little boy offering up his five loaves and two fishes to feed the crowd of 5,000 has been very much on my mind lately. Let's take a moment to talk about that.

When I was a child at church camp, our pastor read this story and asked us, "What did this actually look like? Imagine this with me: did the bread and fish magically pop up out of nowhere? Where did it come from?" Then he admitted that he kept some of his favorite snack mix in his shirt pocket, where most folks wouldn't know that he had it, but it was something to tide him over if he ended up working late. He imagined that most folks in Jesus' day might not head out to the edge of town, a long walk, without also packing a little extra food along, "just in case." What if that miracle was sharing? Perhaps folks didn't want to admit they also had extra food along, since they were surrounded by a crowd that also might be hungry, and no one person could possibly have enough to go around. However, perhaps as they saw the example of this little boy, as that basket came around, perhaps many people there were inspired to share some of their extra food as well--and what little extra each person had, was really more than enough to meet the needs.

Do you ever look at the world, especially in these past few weeks, and feel overwhelmed at the needs? Topping the news has been the tens of thousands of children fleeing the violence and crushing poverty of Central America. Meanwhile, I've been learning so much about our local homeless and hungry population, and the numbers there are daunting as well: long waiting lists at each of our existing shelters, thirty families with children in just one of the elementary schools who are living in their cars, sixty or more people living under the bridge. Long lines at the food pantry, and too little food to go around.
It would be quite easy for us, either as individuals or as one congregation, to look at it all and say, "we just can't make a difference, we don't have enough in the face of all this need."

Yet I think it is so important to notice what Jesus *didn't* ask, either of the boy or of the disciples. Jesus did not ask anyone to bake all the bread and catch all the fish by themselves. Jesus did not ask anyone to go buy all of the food from the nearby village, which would have cost far too much and been too cumbersome to transport by any one person, or even all twelve disciples--who realized this as well. Jesus didn't even ask the little boy to give up all his meals forever, so that others may be fed. Instead, Jesus simply took that little bit of a snack, and blessed it. Even had there been nothing left over, the boy would have been slightly inconvenienced for a few hours at worst.

Instead of becoming overwhelmed by the sheer amount of need around us, let's just start by asking ourselves: what are our five loaves and two fish? What is something that may actually seem like a little something to us, that could be blessed by Jesus and become something so much more? What can we share in such a way that it does not diminish us, but instead inspires others around us to share as well? On our own, we can only do so much. But working together, each of us sharing our little somethings, and combining those gifts with the whole body of Christ, we may even find ourselves in the midst of miracles.

Peace,
Le Anne

Epiphany Sunday Watchword: Resilience

Isaiah 60:1-6; Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14; Ephesians 3:1-12; Matthew 2:1-12
(look these up at biblegateway.com or bible.oremus.org)

Each Epiphany Sunday, our congregation distributes paper cutouts of stars with a 'watchword' for the coming year.  These words are often a character trait or virtue to reflect on throughout the year.  A few speakers volunteer each year to give a brief reflection on what their star has meant to them during the previous year.  This year, the sharing was even more poignant, as we continue to worship off-site while our building is under reconstruction due to flood damage from a burst pipe.

Friends, I might not have volunteered to speak about my word this year, except that given the circumstances our congregation has faced in recent weeks, it seemed so especially appropriate:

Resilience.

Last year when I drew this star, I left it in the shelf of the pulpit, and I have seen it there each week as I've stood to lead worship and preach, with its little reminder throughout thick and thin.  It was there right up until the flood when we had to pack everything away for cleanup and reconstruction to begin.

But before I got up to speak today, I thought I'd better look up the proper definition, and it is:  "the ability to bounce back after adversity or tragedy."

For some people this seems to come naturally, but for most of us, this is learned...through adversity or tragedy.

I also found an article online, "10 Ways To Become More Resilient", which had some pretty good advice about how to do so, and it was also quite fitting for our situation.  In that light, let me share a summary:

1.  Believe in yourself, not out of denial of the problem, but with loving acceptance of everything you are.
2.  Have a sense of purpose.  Find some way to bring something meaningful and positive out of this struggle.
3.  Maintain a strong network of friends to help you keep going even when you get discouraged.
4.  Embrace change.  Those who can be flexible and adapt are more likely to thrive.  Branch out in new directions, even in directions you never thought of before.
5.  Maintain a hopeful outlook. Realize that setbacks are only temporary.
6.  Nurture yourself:  don't forget to eat, sleep, exercise, and nourish your spirit (I might add, pray!)
7.  Develop problem-solving skills.
8.  Establish goals.  It will give you something to help you look, and move, forward.
9.  Don't avoid your problems, but take steps to address them proactively.
10.  Keep building healthy coping skills--you may need them again in the future.

It occurred to me that the wise men must have been very resilient, given the adversity they overcame, traveling across the desert, guided only by a star, running into a political entanglement they hadn't expected, and returning home by another road.  In fact, I've crossed that same desert between Bethlehem and Persia in my former life as a human rights worker, and I know how very difficult the journey is.  However, we had nice new climate-controlled Suburbans, and they had...camels.  In the heat of day, the cold of night, and believe it or not, the rain.  But they made the journey nevertheless, and returned home again.

I thought about my own life, and where I have encountered adversity.  A few years ago in our previous church, we discovered that they hadn't been fully forthcoming with us about their financial situation, and could not afford to pay us.  In fact, in the same week we received the much-hoped-for news that we would be parents again, we also received the news that we were about to be jobless and maybe even homeless.

I won't lie to you.  It was an enormous strain on our family and marriage. And it took an incredible amount of work to ensure our family's survival.  But six months later, in record time for a pastoral call search, we arrived here, to this church, and have sojourned with you a little while, and Sam and Maya were both born healthy and safe.

Now, I have no crystal ball hidden away in my office and I do not know the future any more than anyone here, except that I know from here, we begin again.  The future of this congregation is not lost on the whim of the wind, but is placed in our ability to make decisions and work together, to come back stronger than ever before.  During this time, we must reach out and get help we need from our friends and neighbors around us, to become as vibrant a ministry in this community as ever.

And in all that we do, no matter what we face, God is with us.  The Holy Spirit will guide us.  Now, let's get to work, for we have much to do!  Amen.

Prayers This Week:

--for all who lack shelter from the severe winter weather, especially the cold
--for all who are traveling, that they may be safe
--for all who may lose unemployment benefits
--for all in need of healing, in body, mind, and soul
--for all young people graduating this season and beginning a new chapter in their lives
--for our congregation, as we continue to sojourn away from our church home.

I Hate Presbytery*

At least it's not this bad.  From commons.wikimedia.org

I hate Presbytery.*

*Well, not really, but at least now I’ve got your attention. Perhaps I’m simply a defective Presbyterian.  Robert’s Rules do not bring me joy. I read the packet and study the issues in advance, but I often don’t have a strong opinion on whatever is being debated.  More often, I sit in meetings and die on the vine.

I don’t want to offend anyone.  And I'll also be the first to admit I am not God's gift to meeting moderating, either. I see how much work goes into planning all these meetings, and I appreciate and like the people who do that work to make the meetings happen.  I even get why these meetings are (probably) important.  And I like things like meeting or catching up with people, hearing from candidates preparing for ministry, and so forth.  I almost always like the lunch.

++

Maybe it’s all the articles lately about why young people are leaving the church, and I’m not all that old myself.  And while I’m a pastor, and therefore in the church, maybe Presbytery is where I get to be a restless young adult.

So what I find myself doing in the back of the room is trying not to squirm too visibly; I drain the coffee pot, I try to maintain a minimal awareness of the proceedings in the room, and I otherwise let my mind wander.  I try to give myself space to be creative, figure out new ideas for outreach and mission in my context, or a new opportunity for a colleague wrestling on a problem.  This month, I came up with some ideas for using Vine and YouTube on our church’s website, so that going to the website was more like going to church (in a good way), as well as the possibility of a midsummer candlelight outdoor worship on our lawn--wouldn’t that be cool? But I digress...

I realize, in the little meetings out in the parking lot afterwards, that there are ‘gatherings’ and there are ‘meetings.’  Gatherings are fun.  Meetings feel required.  Gatherings are creative.  Meetings are pretty prescribed.

From Newark Presbytery.  Sounds like fun!

I want to learn stuff, and then I want to go do stuff.

If our Sunday mornings are supposed to be little Resurrections, nay, CELEBRATIONS, (oh, don’t get me started on our Protestant Frozen Chosen ways), then why not have presbytery meetings be BIG Celebrations?  Why not be the Big Dance (or, Big Tent, anyone?)  

So relatively few of us can afford to go to the big, nationwide conference or teaching events that are so inspiring.  Why not bring a little of that home?  

When I was in the Presbytery of Chicago, I enjoyed presbytery meetings.  Well, not the meetings part, but the pre-presbytery events.  There were tables lining a large room with the best of each congregation’s programs, as well as all sorts of non-profits and causes and campaigns and what have you going on in the area, anything with some connection to Presbyterians.  I learned a lot, and I met a lot of people working for change in their communities, who helped me to look at my own community and its problems in new ways, with new possibilities.  There were caucuses and teaching workshops.  You could slip in and out of rooms, and toss around ideas in between.  Sometimes there was a book swap in the middle of the room.  Oh, and there were always lots of snacks.

Worship brought in the brightest and best of our presbytery, where we heard and practiced new songs and heard creative prayers and were enhanced by the visual arts and multi-sensory worship.  

Another place I don’t hate is General Assembly.  Sure, the actual meeting is either contentious or tedious, but I would survive a week of being there simply because there’s other stuff to do.  there’s the big room at GA where all the advocacy and mission and educational programs are--I get to reconnect with all the wonderful things our mission dollars do.  Or hang with my PPF peeps.  Or pick up some fair trade coffee, or check out a few good new books.  You get the picture.

So, let’s cut to the chase.  Have the meeting in the afternoon, do all the procedural things that will put me in a coma.  I’ll continue to bear with it until I’m honorably retired, or something like it.  However, in the mornings, or at least at some point:

I want to incubate creative new ministries, and bounce ideas off my colleagues.

I want to recharge our teaching elders and ruling elders together, so we all return to our home parishes with new energy to be disciples for Jesus, whatever that might contextually mean in the communities we call ‘home.’

I want something for my kids, and all kids in our presbytery, that is more than the childcare (where my kids will be the only ones and if I forget to call in advance, it won’t be there) and allow them to meet kids from other churches.  After all, I work in a small church, and whatever faith development my kids get will have to come from me.  Since we’re one of the larger churches in the presbytery, I bet other folks have the same issue.  What if this is the place where we build that cohesion needed to get a good showing at Triennium, Pres House retreats, Camp, and Montreat? (Maybe even Mo-Ranch, or Ghost Ranch?  Stony Point?  Am I dreaming too big here?)  Why not even at the very minimum, a mini-VBS?  And by the way, I am not too old, or too proud, to do “Energizers.”

I want to bring a taste of Montreat, Triennium, the Big Tent, GA, what-have-you that is awesome and cool in our denomination, so that we are left wanting more.

I want some good guest speakers at least a couple times a year, that lots of us would find really energizing and renewing, and I’d pay a portion of my study allowance to make that happen.  

What if we had a Theology Pub going on in one corner?  Or at least a non-alcoholic version thereof?

What if we set up a Genius Bar?  What if we host clinics on how to get started, or pick up new pointers, on our social media presence and share our favorite new apps for ministry?  

What if we open-source this, and make it super easy for folks to set up workshops on a topic of their expertise?  what if presbytery becomes the way to ‘get your geek on’ (in something other than Parliamentary Procedure).

What if we crowd-source what to do with some of our church properties that sit empty six days a week?  Or more?

What if we learn some new music during the worship?  I’ve noticed our presbytery worship is more often than not, uber-traditional.

What if we do a little arts in ministry?  What if we learned to paint the lectionary, illustrate sermons, or even used video clips as illustrations, to learn about the many quality resources available for this very purpose?

What if we make space to try being a tad emergent, radical, and revolutionary?  And very un-frozen?

What if we find engaging ways to disseminate the newest and best ideas into our congregations?

What if we make it a destination not to be missed.  

For that, I’d even be willing to come in on Saturdays.

+++

So, this is the happy, hopeful part:  that the John Knox Presbytery appears to have many folks with similar dreams for what our time together could be like.  They’ve even proposed some great changes, a new vision, and posted it here: http://www.jknox.org under “Draft JKP 2017 Vision Narrative.”  Way to go! This gives me hope, and renewed energy, even to keep coming to meetings, and maybe even to keep encouraging my elders to come to meetings, if we are to begin working towards this vision.  In the meantime, keep the coffeepot full, and I’ll be dreaming in the back row.

Credo: This I Believe

Recently a seminary classmate from my home presbytery was called to a church nearby and mentioned that he had liked my Statement of Faith which I prepared for ordination. I was touched by this, and thought it might be time to go find it again amidst all my ministry papers, and I share it with you here:

Credo

I cling to the church reformed

        And always, still, needing to be reformed

                    Fallible, broken, but worthy of change

                                God alone may be capable of perfection

                                                                    But we are not all for lost.

I believe Holy Scripture is the Word and Event of God in our lives

        Also broken by human doing, despite our best doing

                    Sometimes contradictory and not always clear

                                But also, by and through and with and in God

                                                                                Complete and whole.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

        The Lord, the Giver of Life

                    That she does, indeed, give Life

                                And breath; that she stirs to life

                                            That which seems beyond all hope of being stirred.

I believe in Christ, who came not only to save, despite death

                    But also came to teach us, in life, how to go on living

                                                                    And this, in its own way, also saves.

I believe in Christ

        Speaking truth as well as reconciliation

                    Justice as well as peace

                                Disrupting human convention

                                            Crucified for his ‘sins’

                                                        Would Christ be welcome in our churches today?

I believe in Christ

        Incarnate among us

                    As a human, still facing human shortcomings

                                Foreign women taught him love of neighbor

                                            Perhaps having other things to learn

                                                        By becoming fully us

                                                                    Yet also intimately God

I believe that in worship we encounter the Holy;

        In water, wine, and bread, God touches us still.

                                Here Christ holds us and heals us;

                                            Here the Spirit reconciles us to one another

                                                        In the midst of bitter church conflicts, remember:

                                                                                We are all still standing on holy ground.

I believe in God who created heavens and the earth

All that is, though seen and unseen

        Though heard and unheard, powerful and vulnerable

I believe that God did not walk off

        Leaving us to our own devices

                    That God knew we couldn’t make it on our own

                                And stayed with us, creating, redeeming, sustaining

I believe God is still speaking

        Moving, changing, inspiring

                    Beyond class, race, or gender

                                God calls whom God wills.

I believe God wills for God’s people—

        All God’s people—

                    Justice, freedom, and wholeness

                                That the world alone cannot provide, and often works against

                                            That the church alone cannot provide, and often works against

                                                        God has not yet given up, despite us.

I believe God is not done with us yet,

        Even when life be too painful for words;

                    That in this world we can choose to go on living

                                Or to go on dying

                                            In that desolation God is there

                                                        Even when no one else is

                                                                    And I believe that even when

                                                                                we cannot see the path ahead,                                            

                                                                                                                    There is one.

I do not need to believe

        That God is all-powerful,

                    or all-good

                                or all-just

                                            or all-knowing

                                                        to believe in God.

In truth, I need only to believe that God is Greater.

What To Do….?

Psalm 81: 10-16; Hebrews 13: 1-8, 15-16; Luke 14:1, 7-14

The scriptures tell us today what to do in any number of situations:  How to behave at a banquet or party, and how to host a banquet or party as God would have us do.  How to behave towards our spouse, or towards total strangers.  How to remember people most folks might prefer to forget.  So, on the surface, it’s a little like a shopping list of what to do.  

But, especially around Labor Day Weekend, there is a bigger question looming under the surface of the texts, and that is:   what is God calling us to do in this life?  (Sort of like, ‘why are we here?’) And that leads us to the word, Vocation.

Vocation is more than a job; it is that specific purpose in this life to which God calls us.  And we might hear that calling as a still soft voice; or an endless fascination; or discovering a new skill and finding out how much it brings us joy; or discovering a need and having an idea how to fill it.  As Frederick Buechner once said, “vocation is the place where your deep passion and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

++

Do you remember that book that was making the rounds a few years back, called the 7 Habits of Highly Successful People?  Great book.  I have no real complaints about the book.  However,

I’ll be honest, the Scriptures today in Hebrews and Luke read like the “7 Habits of Highly Un-Successful People.”  After all, if you really wanted to get ahead, wouldn't you take the most advantageous spot at the table, wouldn't you follow the money, wouldn't you do whatever it takes to get to the top?  

But we know, it is so lonely at the top, and the pressure to succeed at all costs, often leads to empty homes and broken relationships.

There is a beautiful cartoon circulating this week by Bill Watterson (and how much more Presbyterian can we get that Calvin and Hobbes)?   You can see it here:  http://imgur.com/gallery/V6KoHbF but I want to read what he writes.

Creating a life that reflects your values and satisfies your soul is a rare achievement.  In a culture that celebrates avarice and excess as the good life, a person who is happy doing his own work is often considered an eccentric, even a subversive.  Ambition is only understood if it’s to rise to the top of some imaginary ladder of success.  Someone who takes on an undemanding job because it affords him the time to pursue other interests and activities is considered a flake.  A person who abandons a career in order to stay home and raise children is considered not to be living up to his potential.  As if a job title and salary are the sole measure of human worth.  You’ll be told in a hundred ways, some subtle and some not, to keep climbing and never be satisfied with where you are, who you are, and what you are doing.  There are a million ways to sell yourself out, and I guarantee you’ll hear about them.  To invent your own life’s meaning is not easy, but it’s still allowed, and I think you’ll be happier for the trouble.

Friends, God asks us to do things that may not get us to the top, but that lead us to even better places in our lives.  Let’s review those 7 Habits that God offers instead:

Do for those who cannot pay us back.

Sit at the lowest place, not the best.

Show hospitality to strangers.

Remember those in prison, as though you were in prison;

Remember those who are tortured, as though you were being tortured;

Keep lives free from love of money and be content with what you have; and

Do not neglect to do good and share what we have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

It is not a path to success as the world might call it.  But it is a path that will be extraordinary. We might be afraid to go down that path sometimes, and wonder if we’ve really done the right things.  However, in those moments, remember that we can know, as Paul writes, that God will never leave us or forsake us.  And we can say with confidence:  The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid.  What can anyone do to me?  God is with us, calling us, and walking beside us.

Thanks be to God!

Prayers This Week:

For those who are wrestling with chemical dependency

People who are looking for work

People who are retired, discerning new directions for their lives

People who are working in unjust, unsafe, or underpaid conditions, that they may be freed from these chains and able to work in ways that produce a sense of purpose, as well as basic standard of living.

Those who are in prison, that they may be rehabilitated and restored to our world, able to contribute in positive ways.

Those who are child laborers, or enslaved, victims of human trafficking, that they may be free.