Hearing a Calling

If you missed church on January 15^th, you missed a fabulous rendition of the story of the Calling of Samuel, performed by two of our own kids.  In the story, found in 1 Samuel 3, a 10 year-old Samuel hears a calling from God.  He doesn’t know right off, though, whose voice it is, or how to respond.  His mentor and teacher, the old, bearded Eli, finally recognizes that Samuel is being called by God, and tells him how to respond: “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”

The kids are so cute that I hate to block out their faces, but I don't have permission to use their images on this blog.  Alas.

This story speaks loudly to all faith communities trying to raise up children in their midst.  We are the Elis of the world ; we must listen carefully to what our children are saying about their lives, and to help them hear where God might be speaking to them.  If this sounds like a daunting to you (like, if you’re saying to yourself, “I don’t even know if God is speaking to ME, let alone someone else!”), fear not.  Eli wasn’t actually able to hear God, either.  But he was faithful in his attempts to be a good steward of Samuel, and through that both of them were able to hear God.

Here are some practical ways we can do this today:

1.  Talk to the kids.  At the next coffee hour, challenge yourself to ask one of our children what they learned in church school, and what they think about it.  Learn their names.  Ask what sports or instruments they play, or what they’re excited about this week.  Maybe even ask if anything reminded them of God this week. 
2.     Support their parents.  Whether or not you’re a parent yourself, you have a listening ear that can hear what’s going on for parents, and how they might need support in showing God to their children.
3. Volunteer with them.  We need a rotating slate of volunteers for our nursery, because we have a lot of children in there!  We also need help with our special family events, like Shrove Tuesday.  Talk with me for more info.
4. Pray for them.  All of us need prayer, especially our children.  They face so many challenges in this crazy world of technology, bullying, and peer pressure.  Pray for them, and you’ll likely be changed, too!

Let us all pray together: Speak, Lord, for your servants are listening!  Amen.

Seeking Epiphany

Here is my most recent newsletter article:

Seeking Epiphany

“Only in the darkness can you see the stars.”

                      -- MLK (and probably lots of other people, too)

Skeletons of trees line the sides of the road; the winter has turned bitter cold.  Gift wrap has been buried in confetti, which is now buried in the local landfill.  The kids have already broken or gotten bored of some of their toys.  Christmas and New Year’s have passed, and we are faced now with the cold dark of winter, school- and work-weeks that are actually five days long, and very little to anticipate…

What can the church teach us about this time of year?  A lot, actually.  The season of Advent encouraged us to wait with anticipation, and now the season of Christmas, which lasts until January 6^th, teaches us that the story does not end with the birth.  Indeed, the Christmas story gets dark and cold after that beloved manger scene, with the slaughter of the innocents, the fleeing of Jesus’ family to Egypt to escape Herod’s wrath, the continued tyranny of the Roman empire.  The wise men have barely arrived to give the Lord their gifts when the scene turns from joyous December to frigid January.  The bright hope is easily dashed if one dwells too long there.

Enter the season of Epiphany!  January 6^th marks the end of Christmas, but the beginning of a long Season of Light, a celebration of the revelations that this God incarnate, this presence of the holy among us, can bring.   It starts with a fast-forward to Jesus’ 30^th year, when even he – God on earth – got baptized, was renewed and repented of sin (a word that can mean a great number of things!).  He was declared then to be God’s beloved, just as we each are declared to be beloved of God at our own baptisms.

In Epiphany we are reminded by crazy John the Baptist to prepare the way of the Lord.  We hear of the callings of the disciples to drop everything and follow Jesus; we are invited to the baffling Transfiguration of Jesus on the mountaintop.  These strange and wondrous – unbelievable yet in some ways truthful – stories invite us to think upon light and all its strange facets in these dark months.   

We can celebrate this season by being on the lookout for the ways that light breaks through the darkness, where a spark of inspiration, joy, or laughter suddenly lights our hearts.  With our children, we can help them recognize these as God-sightings; like shooting stars, they are easy to miss, but if you look for them, they’re more common than you think!

As we dwell in the dark, cold months, we have the memories of a happy Christmas and the promise of a brightened future; keeping our eyes wide open, we take steps toward getting closer to our God, our light, the hope that we celebrated being born at Christmas. 

Happy Epiphany!

Thoughts on an Occupation

This was my most recent newsletter article for our church's newsletter:

Some of you know my secret: I have been spending some of my free time hanging out with fellow clergy and protesters at Zuccotti Park as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement.  I am part of the 99%.

This week, I was part of a group of faith leaders called Occupy Faith NYC that marched to the occupiers’ new temporary encampment on Canal Street after they were forcibly removed from Zuccotti in a clandestine midnight raid that no media were allowed to cover.  When we arrived there, expecting to see grumpy and disheveled people, we were greeted with cheers.  The crowds parted for us and we were ushered to the center of the crowd, where one of our leaders gave a moving speech and said a prayer.  All of his words were echoed by the “human microphone” of people repeating what the original speaker had said, amplifying it. 

The human microphone system has an amazing power for building community and hearing out differences.  Each listener takes the responsibility not just of hearing what another says, but repeating it, word for word.  You are forced to take in the meaning of their words.  Then, if you disagree, you, too, can call for a “mic check,” and have your words taken in by others.  It is a profound experience of letting ourselves be changed and influenced by one another, and giving each other the space to truly be heard.

An Occupier convincing people to charge the fence because "it is easier to ask for forgiveness than permission."  I did not agree, nor did many of my clergy friends, but we stayed on the public side of the wall as witnesses.

After a lot of discussion, the scene became more troubled; part of crowd decided to trespass onto property owned by Trinity Wall Street Episcopal Church.  Our faith leaders had been in negotiation to get permission to occupy that space, but the occupiers went in before permission was granted (and it never was granted).  We clergy stayed outside, but acted as moral witnesses, and then later human shields separating crowds of people from police in riot gear.  Eventually the occupiers inside the church’s grounds were raided, and we witnessed some violent attacks by the police.

So much, so fast.  So many ethical quandaries in just a few hours.  I know that some of you think that the church should stay out of politics entirely, and some of you might feel alienated by calls to support the 99%, seemingly demonizing the richest 1%.  I assure you that I struggle with these things, too.  But at my first march with OWS in early October, a friend of mine helped me make a sign.  The sign said, “On Earth As It Is In Heaven.”  At that moment, I was convicted.  I was reminded yet again how much of our faith is based on the belief that God celebrates all of God’s children equally.  Our faith encourages us to share, to care for the least, to bless the poor, to offer jubilee (relief from debt) regularly.  The Lord’s prayer, which we say weekly with our children because it is so fundamental, asks God to help us forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors, to deliver us from evil, to enact God’s will on earth, not just in heaven.

Our faith has everything to do with money and power.  It challenges us often in ways we might prefer not to be challenged.  It threatens to occupy parts of ourselves that we might rather remained compartmentalized, sterile, and free from influence.  Our faith is messy, and calls us into sometimes frightening territory.

But what is the reward?  When we delve into these uncomfortable places and allow ourselves to be thrown off kilter, something awakens within us.  Deeper love, stronger compassion, greater strength.  We are moved.  We become occupied by faith.

Whether you find the OWS movement a convicting one or not (and it certainly has some drawbacks), I wonder if you might find within it a lesson on the power of letting ourselves act out our faith, the power of challenging the status quo, even when the status quo seems so fully entrenched.  The OWS movement is shifting the dialogue in this country.  So, too, can we, if we allow ourselves to be occupied by God’s Holy Spirit.  Amen.

A Theology of Fun

Published in our church's August 2011 newsletter:

By the time you read this, several of our church members will have had the opportunity to experience being covered in baby food, cool whip, raw eggs, and shaving cream.  They’ll have slid in spaghetti or found treasures in Jell-O with their feet.  Already, church members have sung silly songs together, made up goofy walks, and told funny and embarrassing stories about themselves.  Where does all this happen?  Family Fun Nights.  Why does all this happen?  Well, that’s a bigger answer.

Raise your hand if, when you think of church, the first word that pops into your head is “fun.”  I’ll wait just a minute… Anyone?  Yes, you, the four year-old in the back.  Thank you for raising your hand.    No one else?  I kind of suspected that…

Somewhere around age six, church stops being fun for most of us.  It becomes serious, weighty, a thing of somber reflection.  Indeed, church is one of the few institutions that provides a place for us to gather and reflect on who we are as moral beings.  But I would argue that this does not have to exclude fun and laughter.  In fact, those things are absolutely integral to a healthy faith!

Theologian Conrad Hyers has said, “Faith without laughter leads to dogma, and laughter without faith to despair.”  My friend Susan Sparks, who is both a professional stand-up comedienne and an ordained minister, suggests in her book Laugh Your Way to Grace that humor and fun are absolutely essential to the Christian faith.  They serve as bridge-builders to forgiveness, protect us from the great sin of sanctimoniousness, give us a sense of perspective on what is really a tragedy and what is just a bump in the road, and serve as a healing balm for sadness and grief. 

Most importantly, though, humor and fun are bonding agents in a community.  In being lighthearted together, our guards are let down, and trust is built up.  On our first Family Fun Night this summer, each participant was given the chance to take as many M&Ms as they wanted, only to find out later that they would then have to share something about themselves for each M&M.   As we went around the circles, hearing about favorite foods, movies, and outdoor activities, and then about memorable and important moments in each others’ lives, I could see barriers breaking down, new relationships being built.  “You, too?”  “I’ve always wanted to go there!” “I LOVE that movie!”  All these comments began new opportunities for deeper intimacy.  Across generations, children taught older people about fun things in their lives, and older people found commonalities with the children.  With every bit of laughter or joy, we became more and more of a church family. 

As the summer draws to a close and we begin to gear up for another active year together, I encourage you to embrace it with love and humor.  Come to our last Family Fun Night on August 16^th; join Parish Life for a concert on the lawn; plan what you’ll perform for the theatrical revue in October…. Opportunities abound!  If you find yourself stuck for inspiration, look to the children; they know how to have fun in church!

"And a little child shall lead them..." in a silly dance!

Finally, I leave you with a joke from comedian Dwayne Kennedy: “Two things they talk about all the time in the bible: wine, and things that are hard to believe.  I think the wine came first…”