Where is the Spirit?

It is not my place to impose my calendars on Spirit; in giving too much space to that concern, I can be working out of sync with the Universe.  Dishonesty with experience and trying to contrive Encounter can be detrimental to my relationship with the Divine as well as misrepresentative of the experience that is undoubtedly common to all who attempt spiritual lives.

Honesty

Struggling with vulnerability and shame in the wake of expression is a particular struggle of mine.  I am affirmed by the recognition that perhaps the expectations I place on myself are ones that need to be broken down in order to present authentic experience.  Perhaps the examples I set before myself are not ones I should live up to in every sense… some of the styles and “personas” expected in the preaching context are alienating for those of us who are introverted or find ourselves voiceless.  Whatever experience and insecurity I bring to my moments may be needed by someone else who may feel insecure in trying to articulate something that there is a deep need to articulate.  To be dishonest with the struggle of prophetic voice perhaps makes the task of that voice seem too easy, especially for those who hear it.  Surely the task of ministry is to explore the difficulties and ugliness of our world as much as to bask in the glow of Divine Love.  To portray ease where there is struggle helps anyone I speak to as little as it does me.

A Sermon on Atheism

I would personally love to hear a sermon about being unable to believe in God.  I think that kind of honesty is important to people; it makes them feel okay with their own levels of brokenness.  Certainly most of us have experienced periods where we’ve felt that there was nothing greater.  Maybe that sermon belongs in Pentecost, a time when folks struggling with such feelings might feel especially alone.

Some History, in Case You Think Andrew Jackson Belongs on Our $20

U.S. leaders used a variety of dishonest, manipulative, and violent methods to remove American Indians from their ancestral lands. In many instances, American Indians were forcibly removed from their homes, placed in internment camps, and relocated (without their belongings) to other lands, by foot. Many would die along such journeys. Estimates suggest that 20% of Choctaws died on such a journey and many Cherokees died along the Trail of Tears. Americans would often “negotiate” purchases from land-owning American Indians, knowing that their agreements were manipulative. Andrew Jackson acquired land in such ways. State governments violated treaties and Andrew Jackson, then president, feigned helplessness over state governments and refused to enforce Supreme Court rulings which sided with American Indians.

While the oppression of American Indians and African Americans share common themes (European-American “civilization” vs. “savagery” of communities of color) and similar predatory lending practices that would operate as methods of keeping communities of color in continuous debt, it seems that the ways that European Americans approached each community had to do with power differentials. American Indians were initially given more respect and autonomy (in some ways) than African Americans, perhaps because when Europeans came to the U.S. and encountered American Indians, they often needed their assistance in order to survive.

As time went on and Europeans adapted to their new situation and became the dominant, more weaponized group, they no longer gave American Indians due respect and proceeded to (in more up-front ways) displace American Indian communities and take their land, culminating in the 1871 Indian Appropriation Act, which ceased recognition of Indian government. However, African Americans were brought to the United States (for the most part) with a clear goal of subordination and position as property. While both groups were regarded as “savage” and “less than,” American Indians were free when they first encountered white settlers, whereas African Americans were brought to the U.S. in bondage. This led to Europeans initially treating American Indians as though they had more authority (or, more accurately in most situations, manipulating American Indians into subordinate positions by taking advantage of their trust and unfamiliarity with European language and customs).

People like Andrew Jackson were major players in the disenfranchisement, genocide, and enslavement of Americans.  Celebrating him by singling him out as one of few presidents who deserves placement on currency celebrates the wrong elements of our American history.  Harriet Tubman is someone we should celebrate-- she risked her life time and again to liberate people from enslavement; Andrew Jackson was a racist, genocidal slave-holder who refused to respect the laws of our country in favor of theft and genocide.  He ran the first mud-slinging political campaign, which he won by making up lies about his opponent.  Andrew Jackson was not an honorable man.  He was power-hungry, hateful, and had no problem murdering and stealing from "little people" to get his way.  He had no respect for the authority of our supreme court and is an all-around poo.  Get him off my currency.

Process Theology

"[Life] is the name for originality, and not tradition."

—

Alfred North Whitehead

A soul isn’t about being changeless, it’s about change and relational capacity.  Limiting the diversity of our experience limits our personal growth.  More possibilities allow us to grow more.  

Women in Ministry

Women are close to the issues of silence and voice as members of a group that has been/is silenced.  Representation is important.  Furthermore, our presence allows for dialogue around issues of representation and how our structures may need to change in order to be inclusive and honest to multiplicities of experience.

Process

"The oneness of the universe, and the oneness of each element in the universe, repeat themselves to the crack of doom in the creative advance from creature to creature, each creature including in itself the whole of history and exemplifying the self-identity of things and their mutual diversities."

— Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality

Brief Reflection on Accuracy

20s and 30s Group

So part of what I am working on at my field education site is building a group of folks in their 20s and 30s in the church and helping them create and deepen connection with the church.  It's been really great to watch the group grow.

For those who don't know, folks in their "young adult" stage of life are hard to find in churches.  Many churches in my denomination are shrinking and fail to reach younger generations of the church.

I am so blessed to be part of a growing church with a growing demographic of young adults.

Hope.  This is the future of the progressive church:

20s and 30s brunch after church. So glad to see this group continue to grow, despite our crazy schedules and diverse lives. #myccsm #ccsm #ucc #church #progressivechristianity (at Fiero Cafe)

For Prince

After a great talk by Rev. Dr. Emilie Townes. #ripprince #seminarylife #mdivlife

Earth

Morality is Hard

I am concerned that parishioners will perceive my words as “bad news,” that I will be disliked or admonished, that I am inadequate to the task, and that my witness may not make a difference.  I think that often what we might identify as prophetic preaching might seem aggressive, especially if one finds oneself in a defensive position.  Often such sermons ask us to consider the ways we are complicit in oppressive systems and often we are complicit in ways we don’t want to give up.  I think of responsible consumerism and how frequently calls for vegetarianism, greener products, or products produced without exploiting or trafficking are met defensively and sometimes angrily.  Sometimes the way that my positions are met lead me to ask whether I am being too aggressive or not aggressive enough, or to ask in what ways my position might be hypocritical.  Hmm…

Eucharist: the Holy Meal

The holy meal holds many meanings.  

We remember that Christ shares in all of our suffering and the suffering of the earth.  We hope, then, that this meal is healing for us.  

As this bread was once many grains of wheat, we hope that God’s people, broken into nations and denominations, will all join together in peace to share in the abundance of our planet.  In partaking of the cup and the bread, we are reminded of the ways that the earth provides for us.  Without our planet and its health, we have no clean water or grain.  As we take sustenance from this meal, both physically and spiritually, we are reminded of our responsibility to the earth and our role as stewards of creation.  As this meal exemplifies our relationship with Christ and with each other, we also recognize how it draws us into reciprocity with the planet.  

We remember the ministry of Jesus and are reminded of the diverse spiritual community he created.  

The Eucharistic meal has been shared from the earliest moments in the Christian movement in a variety of ways and in a variety of communities.  We take our part in that beautiful web.  This meal draws us together with our brothers and sisters in different times and places and reminds us of Jesus’ radical act of inviting everyone to the table.  

All are created in the image of God and equally qualified to take part in the spiritual meal and experience it in ways that are meaningful to our own hearts while entering into this act of community.  

I Stretch My Arms

The Feels

I often get caught up on words– on choosing the right words, on being precise with my words, on being true to the words of scripture, on how to contextualize those words.  My focus on what can be “learned” from a text is often lacking in pathos.  My focus can often obscure my own pathos connection.  This truth is part of what leads me to church in the first place… I know I need these insights from others in order to build my spiritual experience.  I need to be able to “listen” for the pathos in the text and in myself and my world as I engage the text.  Bridging this divide between pathos and logos will be important for my sermon process.

Theological Anthropology

Humans, like all other beings in the universe, are manifestations of the Divine.  We act independently, but hopefully with our inherent interrelatedness in mind.  Humans are uniquely conscious and analytical in ways that other beings on our planet are not, which gives us great responsibility to act in ways that benefit the entire system.  God aids us in this journey by luring us toward paths most advantageous to all, to enter into co-creating a better world until we reach a point of harmony.  This goal is one I refer to as “Kingdom.”

You Must Experience the World

"You cannot know what is red by merely thinking of redness.  You can only find red things by adventuring amid physical experiences in THIS actual world."

—

Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality

What shall we insert in place of “red?”  

Justice.  Kindness.  Compassion.  Love.  Fairness. 

The list goes on…

From Holy Thursday 2015

In My Notebook

Living in the tension between rootedness and reform.  I derive great mystical value from engaging in practices that are rooted in the early Christian movement.  It allows me to imagine community as encompassing us together with those who have engaged these rituals throughout history as well as all over the world– who engage these practices today in their own ways and in their own contexts.  It draws the circle wider.

Let's Be Scholars

Viewing the Hebrew texts as individual books is a very freeing way of understanding scripture.  Too often folks try to create a narrative that doesn’t exist or ascribe a kind of continuity that is dishonest.  

Understanding the complex nature of how these books came together and that they came together over centuries is important to being able to give the text the love I think it deserves.  In my first reading of these texts in my teens, I was as often struck by their violence as by their beauty.  In approaching the texts from a scholarly perspective, I can understand that the views that might disturb me were coming from particular people in particular places.  I may not completely understand their circumstances, but knowing some of it gives me the opportunity to acknowledge how different their world was and how different their understanding of it was.  I feel scripture is often treated as though it were written yesterday about people in our personal lives, which is, of course, pretty far from the truth.  I don’t mean to suggest that these books can’t have some kind of transcendent value, because they surely can, but when looking for that value, we need to try to do it through the lenses of people who wrote these books and what was important to them and their very different lives.

As someone who didn’t grow up in a religious family or in a church context, I think it is easier for me to adopt scholarly understandings of texts because I don’t feel as rooted in a particular way of understanding.  In fact, it was scholarship’s opening of these texts that led me to seek a religious community (as opposed to reading conservative authors in my bedroom and thinking their perspective was the only kind… the media did little to dispel that notion).  When I took Religious Studies courses in undergrad, they opened my perspective and freed me from the idea that I had to interpret these texts literally and try to accept some kind of meaningful, sacred value from texts that were talking about slaughtering people.  

Similarly, when I was able to separate the books as representative of different times, places, people, and circumstances, instead of trying to make a continuous narrative out of wildly different books, I was able to imagine some of the people “under” those books and how their different worldviews played a part in producing such different understandings of what a religious life looks like.

That said, sometimes trying to remember the varying contexts and times is difficult for me as I DO try to create some kind of story about the development of the Jewish faith and its people.  Timelines are helpful in that respect as I try to ponder, “Now where was Solomon in all of this?”  Sometimes that development and the “maturation” (to use a word that will hopefully not be construed as condescending) of ideas about God as the world changed and people’s views adapted to meet the needs of their contexts is something I try to think about.  However, I think that “narrative” or somewhat linear story I try to construct in my mind is benefited, not hurt, by being able to separate the texts and see them as representing different circumstances.

Quote

"I want to say what I have said before on another occasion: the Bible is the most revolutionary, the most radical book there is. If a book had to be banned by those who rule unjustly and as tyrants, then it ought to have been the Bible."

— Archbishop Desmond Tutu // The Rainbow People of God (viagodinthebrokenness)

(Source: godoftheoppressed, via notallwhowanderarelostbutiam)

Godding

What is beautiful about God is that I can’t understand. Yet it’s all I want to do.

I want to live God.

I Believe

I believe that time is better measured in becomings than seconds. I don’t believe in yesterdays or regret. I do believe in futures and repentance. I believe that compassion needs to be blind to boundaries set in place by societies. I believe that simple gestures are what make up individuals. It’s offering water at the well. It’s offering rice at the bodhi tree. It’s acts of compassion that characterize Humanity. Sometimes I just stop and can’t help but be overwhelmed with love for this world. Maybe I’m just sugar and spice and all the things that superstitious Christians are made of, but we live in a beautiful world (yeah we do, yeah we do). I love the concepts of agape and ahimsa and strive to realize them in my Life. I like to think that most people are good and try to forgive people their trespasses, hoping that mine will also be forgiven. I have an emotional, naive love for Humanity and am crushed by hatred, ignorance, and intolerance. I believe in progress. If you think I’m cheesy and idealistic– you’re right and I don’t care. These are my tragic flaws. I choose to love them.

God

I would describe God as the form of ideal Humanity and morality that is present in all forms of Life. God is communicated through acts of compassion and cries for justice and God exists in multiple forms. I believe that God is a both/and God that hears the needs of all peoples and tries to inspire humans toward compassion to alieviate the pains all forms of Life experience and strive toward the creation of a world characterized by compassionate mutual understanding.

I am a panentheist.

This

"We are now Christ’s representatives to each other, [but] I am I, and Christ is Christ…. If we forget this distinction, then… we are likely to give the impression that to accept Christ one must accept exactly and only the Christ and the version of his message that we model and teach.  This promotes personal empire building, rather than Kingdom building.  It leads people to ourselves, rather than to Jesus Christ."

— Thomas H. Groome, from Christian Religious Education: Sharing Our Story and Vision

What Is Religion?

I would say that religion is a system of beliefs and values one has that are related to a history and, most often, a community of others who hold similar beliefs and values derived from that shared history. I would argue that religion is one’s dominant paradigm, whether or not that paradigm can be categorized under the traditional understanding of “religion” Therefore, political views, atheism, etc. can be considered religions. One’s religion is, more simply, whatever worldview most inspires one’s morality, values, beliefs, and practices.

Impressing God

"God is not impressed by how many Bible verses you know, He is impressed by how kind, merciful and gracious you are to people you know and people you don’t know."

—

Tom Krause (via simply-divine-creation)

And the people said, “AMEN!”

(via 2ndhalfoflife)

(via 2ndhalfoflife)