e-piphanies

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Where There's a Will

This morning we worshipped at Gunnison Congregational Church (UCC) with our hosts who are members there. They don't have their own building and worship in rented space at Western State College. Not having to spend lots of time and money on buildings allows this vibrant congregation to concentrate on it's mission, ..."to be an authentic, inclusive, and open and affirming community of faith centered in Christ.". Besides their Sunday services, educational, fellowship and other congregational activities, they have a remarkable outreach into the community, for which they are known. For example, they started an Alternative Christmas Gifts Market in which 5 other churches now participate, an ESL program for Cora Indian immagrants from Mexico, a free and reduced lunch program at the high school, a Partners program for at risk youth, and a restorative justice program for youth. They also have a Turkey's for Thanksgiving program and are actively involved in Habitat For Humanity, having built half a dozen homes in Gunnison. This outreach is uncommon for a congregation with an average Sunday attendance of about 70 with no edifice. Where there's a will, there's a way, to paraphrase St. Paul.

What I Like Most About the Episcopal Church

I was recently asked what aspects of the Episcopal Church I value and find life-giving and what about it calls me deeper into my relationship with God.  I'd like to share my answer with you.

The Episcopal Church fosters communities of followers of Jesus Christ where “all sorts and conditions of people” are welcome and no one is an outcast.  Those communities encourage each person to be transformed by openness to the wonder and mystery of God’s hand at work in the universe in which we live.  Our corporate worship and sacramental life give us sustenance for the spiritual journey and for service to the world.  By promoting the dynamic relationship of scripture, tradition, and reason, the Episcopal Church provides a broad “middle way” that allows diversity, resists dogmatic certainty, and encourages thoughtful conversation about what God is calling us to be and do.  Our oneness and our mission are not grounded in uniformity of belief, but in gathering for a feast at the invitation of the One who is the Way, Truth, and Life we seek.

Because of our roots in The Church of England, The Episcopal Church is also an Anglican Church.  As Anglicans, our descent from the Early Church is as direct as that of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches.  At the same time, we share a common heritage with Reformed churches.  There are many desirable aspects of this “middle way” and three of them are especially important in my own journey to find and be found by God.

The Book of Common Prayer – The Book of Common Prayer is unique to our Anglican heritage and central to our structure and practice. The Book of Common Prayer provides a framework for our common life by providing central instructions in the Christian faith, requirements for our liturgical and sacramental life, and guidance for living as Anglican Christians.  Certainly, we have canons that govern many aspects of our corporate life.  But our unity is grounded not in polity but in common prayer.  The Church forms and shapes us individually as Christians and the prayer book provides the necessary cohesiveness that preserves corporate faith and order.

Our approach to reading and interpreting the Holy Bible – Avoiding biblical literalism and affirming the necessity of looking at scripture through the lenses of reason and tradition are hallmarks of our Anglican heritage.  We read and interpret the Bible for ourselves, but within the context of a gracious and redemptive community where our interpretations are tested and refined using this approach.  This helps us avoid not only error but also the narrow judgmentalism and pharisaism that has driven many away from life in Christ.  Our approach to scripture helps us explore both ancient truth and God’s unfolding self disclosure in our own place and time.

The possibility of following a spiritual path within an organized church – I find myself in company with many souls in this emerging era who are seeking to be a part of a diverse, inclusive, authentic community of believers with whom they can approach spiritual concerns, wrestle with doubt, live with mystery, and cope with ambiguity.  People are not looking so much for answers as for others with whom they can explore their own stories at the intersection with the story of humanity and with the ancient story of faith in God.  The openness of the Episcopal Church to questions, fresh revelations, and ancient teachings is inviting to me and will be inviting to the emerging generation of people on their spiritual journeys.

It's not a perfect church.  But it has a lot to commend it for anyone looking for an open minded, inclusive, non dogmatic approach to being a Christian.

Earth Day and Hopes for Galveston Recycles

Today is Earth Day.  The Galveston County Daily News carried an article this morning offering new hope that we may have an opportunity to see curbside recycling in this community.  The City Council will have to amend its existing ordinance to allow an entrepreneur to develop curbside recycling and convert the materials into useful products.  The present ordinance requires that any recycled materials that are picked up must be delivered to the city's recycling center.  Since the city doesn't pick up recyclables because it considers it too expensive, why would it care what someone else does with them?  Let's hope Council will change the ordinance and give someone a shot at it.  It will be exciting to see somebody willing to take a risk get something done that will help the environment and perhaps help Galveston set an example for the people who visit our island home.

Here is a prayer from The Book of Common Prayer that is especially appropriate for Earth Day:

O merciful Creator, your hand is open wide to satisfy the needs of every living creature: Make us always thankful for your loving providence; and grant that we, remembering the account we must one day give, may be faithful stewards of your good gifts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Book of Common Prayer, p.259
 

To thine own self be true. And be careful how you prejudge others!

Knowing oneself and being true to one's self are keys to being human.  Respecting the need for others to do likewise is also a key to being human.  Knowing oneself well enough to persist in the pursuit of one's dream, despite what others may think, is of the highest order of humanity.

I seldom beg anybody to do anything.  But, because I believe so strongly that you will be more self-aware and more conscious of your own need to both be true to yourself and to respect the need of others to do likewise, I beg you to watch this YouTube video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY&feature=related.

After you do, please add a comment and contribute to the discussion!

Open to the Great Mystery

Facebook friend Tom Brackett was describing "three categorical responses to our changing world and the impact of those changes on the churches we hold dear": Those who want to go back, those who want to stay the course, and those who want to open up to the future through retradition and reinvention.

While there is something significant about each type of response, Tom and I are definitely in the third group.  Here's how Tom describes it: 

"They are looking for the kind of transformation (individually and collectively) that opens us up to the Spirit's dreams for our future. They are ready to acknowledge our blind spots and ready to take on new patterns of behavior and new patterns of conversation. They are, one might say, looking for Communities of Practice that are committed to retraditioning and reinventing."

Then, Facebook friend Jonathan Priest offered this fascinating perspective on the third group:

"The thing is, we open to the great mystery when we sign up for this road. Also, it seems to me  that this retraditioning and reinventing is probably pretty necessary for getting close to Truth,  though the glue of tradition has its uses. I don't think full circles exist. The earth spirals around a  moving sun, which spirals around a moving galactic center. We have never been here before, so why should we expect to have things work just like they used to? They never did before.  The cesium atom 'spins' at a little more than 9 billion times a second. Our sun rotates around the galactic core once every approximately 225 million earth years, so the whole thing is moving, changing, dynamic. Isn't this vibrant, radiant universe (what fraction of 1% do we even perceive, much less pretend to understand?) the sort of thing we might expect of The Spirit we seek to know?"

It is in this hopeful, cosmic context that I celebrate the Resurrection!  Alleluia!

Between Death and Resurrection: Where Did Jesus Go?

This is an interesting event for Holy Saturday.  Wish I could attend!

Between Death and Resurrection: Where Did Jesus Go?
Holy Saturday at Faith House, Manhattan
274 Fifth Ave, between 29th and 30th   
New York, NY
Saturday, April 11, 2009   
5:00pm - 6:30pm

Speakers: John Snodgrass, Samir Selmanovic, Bowie Snodgrass and Mujadid Shah

The Apostles' Creed's most controversial phrase tells us Jesus "descended into hell." Orthodox icons depict the "Harrowing of Hell", showing Jesus pull Adam and Eve out of Sheol. Some believe Jesus died on Good Friday and only rose in sensationalized stories told later. Others believe Jesus survived the crucifixion and spent the rest of his life traveling outside the Roman Empire, dying finally an old man in India.

Come hear about these traditions - and what the Bible tells us - in a contemplative service with ample silence.

People of all faiths and no faith at all are welcome to come reflect on these possibilities in an evening vigil led by Christians and Muslims in the Faith House Community, on this Holiest Saturday in the Christian year, the day before Christ arose.

Email Contact:  Bowie Snodgrass

* photo from flickr.com/photos/jimforest

Forgot the Password?

Have you ever forgotten the password to an online account you've set up?  Your own, personal, unique, secret password that allows you to have access to important information, services, or products?

It's very annoying and usually inconvenient.  Never happens when we have plenty of time to remember, does it?

But what's more important are those passwords that allow us access in relationships with others, with our inner being, with God.  When we enter times in which we can't remember those passwords, we experience lonliness, anxiety, and loss.  Those times are worse than annoying and beyond inconvenient.  If only we could remember and be allowed in again!

I'm reminded this week that Jesus had such a time.  In the Garden and on the Cross.  What happened to the password to his relationship with his disciples, who drifted off to sleep, deserted, and betrayed him?  How about the password to his inner purpose that caused him to ask that it be removed from him?  Why did God forsake him in his darkest and lonliest hour? 

What profound lonliness, fearfulness, lostness. 

"Let this cup pass from me. 
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 
Is there any sorrow like my sorrow?
Is it nothing to you?"

If only the password could be reset!

Is that what Easter is about?  Jesus, help me to remember my passwords so I can get back in.

How you look at it

That's Dallas down below the wing of an aircraft. 

I took this picture from my seat aboard a Southwest Airlines flight from Dallas to Houston on Friday night.  My eye thought we were perfectly still but my iPhone thought we were moving about 200 miles per hour.  I often think we are not making any progress while, from the perspective of other people, we are changing things at a breakneck speed.

It's how you look at it.

That doesn't mean that perception is reality but it does mean that each of us perceives reality in a different way.  When we share our different perspectives, look at reality through the eyes of the other, eventually we gain insight and understanding.  Eyes are opened, we see more clearly, hearts and minds are transformed, things are changed, and a new reality emerges.

It's how you look at it.

Clouds

One of my favorite Joni Mitchell songs is "Both Sides Now." I'm partial to the Judy Collins rendition because I'm partial to Judy Collins in general. Nevertheless, the line "...but clouds got in my way" has always intrigued me. There are times when clouds are high up and unreachable. At other times, like now in the photo taken from our balcony at Mt. Magazine Lodge in Arkansas, I have been enveloped in clouds and can't see what lies before me. Clouds, high and low, both figuratively and actually speaking, often get in my way!

In Scripture, a cloud is symbolic of the glory or presence of God. In the Hebrew scriptures, a cloud descends on the tabernacle/temple to show that God has entered it. Jesus is enveloped by a cloud at the Transfiguration. From the cloud, the voice of God speaks and Jesus shines with the glory of God. In the Revelation to St. John the Divine, we read that he is "coming with the clouds."

What for me may be an obstacle to seeing is also a sign of the glory and presence of God. Is this another paradox? Is it another example of the "otherness" of the Divine? Is it a reminder of the necessary limits of human life? Is it an invitation to wait upon God?

Perhaps being lost in a cloud or having clouded vision is an invitation to keep looking until what God intends for us to see is revealed in an epiphanous moment.

Brian McLaren's Presentation at SSW

Brian McLaren

Here, from my notes, is the gist of Brian McLaren's March 9 presentation at The Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest in Austin.

In this time of extraordinary change, the Episcopal Church has

ADVANTAGES

~ A Via Media Mindset (many never surrendered to modern reductionism)
~ A Celtic Mindset (vestiges of non-Roman Christianity, non-imperial expression of faith)
~ A Diverse Mindset (space to differ)
~ A Liturgical Mindset (space to experience God, portal & exercises for experience of God)

DISADVANTAGES
~ An Upper Class Mindset (elitist, civilized, uniform, colonial)
~ An Institutional Mindset (centralized, controlled, change-resistant, risk-aversive)
~ A Christendom Mindset (people ought to come to US)
~ A Bi-Polar Mindset (Liberal vs. Conservative, etc.)

In order to overcome the disadvantages and leverage the advantages, the Episcopal Church needs

~ A "Bring Them In" spirit
~ A "Let's Experiment" spirit
~ A "We're Beginning Again" spirit
~ A "Transcend & Include" spirit
~ The Holy Spirit

There is no cosmetic or surgical solution to our problems.

We need a radically new/bold understanding of the Gospel.

The Gospel is NOT about self-enhancement.  It is about "God so loved the world."

The church does not have a message of the kingdom of God, the message has a church to deliver it.

It is not about getting people into heaven, but getting heaven into people - getting the heavenly will done on earth.

What kind of example are YOU?

Would you rather be motivated by desperate necessity or surging creativity?

What would it take for you to be excited about inviting your friends to church?

Our work is forming disciples as agents of the kingdom of God.

Plant new congregations: new ones innovate, old ones imitate.

Find out what "Anglimergent" means...

We need to stop being worried about being Episcopalians and start worrying about people who've written off Christianity as they know it.

The Baptismal Covenant (BCP) is our strategic plan:
~ We believe the story! (Apostles' Creed)
~ We will practice what the story tells us.
~ We will embrace a personal spirituality.
~ We will share the good news liberally.
~ We will work for peace and justice.

We need to abandon civil religion, which blesses and validates the state, and embrace prophetic religion, which may confront the state.  Dr. King had it right, the church should not be either the servant or the master of the state.  It should be the conscience (and imagination) of the state.

We need to avoid sub-contracting our conscience.

We need to stop making "The Church" the issue and make "Jesus Christ" the gift we offer.

RDP+