Book 13 of 2022 -- A New Kind of Church: Understanding Models of Ministry for the 21st Century

 

For some time now I have been becoming more and more aware that  the way we are doing/being church is not long term sustainable. But how is God calling us to be church differently? So I went shopping for books about ecclesiology. Actually I went looking for one that I had seen recommended and found this one along the way (I also found the one I was looking for and it is next in my reading queue). It looked interesting so I gave it a try.

To be honest I was a bit disappointed. Malphurs is so heavily embedded in an evangelical understanding of the church that much of the time he ends up denigrating other understandings of the church (I stopped counting how many times he described the "liberal" church as not really being true churches). So I spent a lot of the book trying to translate through that rhetoric.

There were some pieces about process that I think I might be able to make use of. However there are time I questioned if the author truly understands the wide variety of church structures and understandings that are out there. Certainly he shows little understanding of the how different church sizes actually operate (and tends to see a small church as a size that many places would consider large).

Doing it again, I may not buy this book. But I think that in the end I might get enough out of it to make it work.

Book 12 0f 2022 -- The Gospel According to Star Trek: The Original Crew

 This was a gift to me during Clergy Appreciation Month in October. Apparently over 12 years the congregation has gotten to know a bit about my tastes....

As a general rule I really enjoy these "Gospel According to..." style of books. If I recall correctly I have previously read them dealing with Peanuts (which was the first of the genre I believe), Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and Star Wars. I like how the authors engage simultaneously with the faith story and the contemporary text to find intersections.

Sometimes the connections are obvious. Sometimes the contemporary text is one that some/many people of faith have decried as being antagonistic to Christian faith (Harry Potter comes to mind), which often tells me that they have not really engaged those texts very well.

I have long found echoes of Christian values and questions in the world of Star Trek. At the same time I can see why some would see that world as being quite atheistic and devoid of much recognizable spirituality -- unless you look a bit deeper in some of the story lines. I think Neece has done a good job of pulling some of those threads out in this book. At the same time I think his desire to make Spock into a Christ figure, while having some merit, is a bit overdone. He stretches the metaphor a bit far for my taste.

Having never seen the Animated Series or the newer "Kelvin Timeline" movies I can not really speak to Neece's comments on those pieces of the canon. However his chapters on TOS and his explication of where he understands Roddenberry to be coming from are quite good. The chapters on the movies are uneven, as are the movies themselves. 

Al in all a good read, and one that has already influenced a couple of sermons this fall.

Book 11 of 2022 On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World

 I have been following Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg on Twitter for some time now. And when I heard of this book coming out I was intrigued enough that I pre-ordered it and started waiting.

Rabbi Ruttenberg talks in the book about how it started with a Twittter thread speaking of Jewish thought in the area of repentance and forgiveness and reconciliation. While I do not remember exactly what was said in that thread I do remember reading it.

In this book Ruttenberg makes extensive use of the work of medieval Jewish scholar Maimonides. SHe explores an approach to repentance that is very different than the one I grew up with. To begin with, apology is something that happens near the END of the process, not at the beginning. Since the rationale for this is that we can not offer a true, meaningful apology until we have fully named and owned what we have to apologize for this makes much more sense than many apologies that I have heard over the years.

The other big difference is that there is a clear separation between the work of repentance and making amends and forgiveness. It also states that reconciliation may or may not be the end result of the process. The goal of repentance in this model is not necessarily to be forgiven, it is to name what has happened, understand what damage has been done, offer a true apology, and make amends as best one can. Forgiveness is something that may (or may not) be offered by the offended person, and even then forgiveness does not have to lead to reconciliation and a return to relationship. Compared to a common Christian teaching that expects forgiveness (and probably reconciliation) after every apology this made me think a lot. I think it many ways it is a healthier approach and avoids a cheap grace view of apology and forgiveness.

It is also worth naming that from a faith stance Ruttenberg makes clear that only the offended/victim can offer forgiveness to the offender. Threfore God can only forgive sin inasmuch as it is an offense to God, God can not forgive us for the ways we have hurt our neighbour -- that is up to the neighbour. This level of accountability would likely be helpful in a Christian sense (and is in accord with the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 5:21-26). When we have to be held accountable by our neighbout and can not get a free pass from God it may push us to take the needs of our neighbour far more seriously.

This book addresses the topic at a personal level, at a community/organizational level, and at a national level. Each different piece carries different complications and obligations. THis discussion helped me sort out my misgivings about the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation  process and why we seem to be stuck and unable to move into true reconciliation.  I think we offered apology too soon in the process and there is still a reluctance to name and understand the harms done, which hampers the movement to true repentance and making of amends.

There is much in this book I could see myself using in the future. Now to see if I can remember it when the time comes....

Book 10 of 2022 --Intercultural Visions: Called to Be the Church

 

Over a decade ago the United Church of Canada pledged to grow into a truly intercultural church (though I suspect many people in the church have no idea about that pledge much less have taken time to work out what it means in how we are the church).

This book offers a series of reflections on what it might mean to be an intercultural church. To structure the book each writer was given a line from the New Creed paragraph "We are called to be the church".

Each of these essays offers food for thought. I was routinely challenged as I read through them. I suspect there may be some things the authors would say differently now, 10 years later, but many of the points raise are still very relevant.

AS the United Church continues to claim a desire to be both intercultural and anti-racist (and really you can't have the former without the latter) more people need to read these essays.

Book 9 of 2022 -- Shame and Grace

 This book has been on a shelf in my parents' house for 25 years or so. Many times over the last 20 years I have looked at it sitting there and thought "I should read that". This year I finally did.

Back in my final year of seminary I went to a graduate seminar where one of the professors was sharing some of her work on shame. Charlotte differentiated between legitimate guilt over something one had done and shame, which is more of an ontological piece. Shame is about how we see who we are. As such, while guilt can be a motivator for change and repair, shame can, in the end, be incredibly debilitating (trust me, I know the effects quite well).

In this book Smedes differentiates between earned/valid shame (which I think is similar to what many of us would call guilt) and unearned shame. He talks about the sources of that shame, the various things like depression that look like or travel with shame. He talks about the ways shame shapes our lives. And he talks about the cure -- grace.

Smedes is (or at least was almost 30 years ago when this book came out) associated with Fuller Seminary. So he speaks not only using the lens of psychology but also the lens of theology.

I have known shame and grace in my life. There was a time when shame shaped my understanding of who I was. Some days that is still true. But it is getting better -- I think..We live in a world that can be really good at imparting shame. WE need to be just as good at reminding people of the reality of grace,

Book 8 of 2022 -- A Short History of Canada (Seventh Edition)

 This was my light vacation reading this summer. Despite the fact that my daughter had trouble understanding how a book with over 1000 pages could be called short and many people would find any sort of history as 'light' reading that is exactly what it was for me.

The first edition of this book came out almost 40 years ago (1983) and so it leaves me pondering how (other than discussion of events that have taken place in the intervening years) has changed in successive editions. Has Morton changed his interpretation and description of events based on newer understandings? Has the book just gotten longer or have conclusions varied over the various editions?

As is relatively common with histories, this is essentially a political and economic history of Canada (and really a survey at that....1000 pages that cover everything from the beginning of European colonization -- with a brief discussion of pre-contact life -- to the first decade of the 21st century is certainly a short survey not a detailed history). It makes reference to how those events impacted the general public but is not a people's history by any stretch of the imagination. It is not about "how did the average population live in these various eras". However the piece I found most lacking was real discussion of the treatment of Indigenous  peoples in Canada over the years. There were some references to the growing political influence of organizations such as the Assembly of First Nations however there was little if any real discussion of what the TRC termed "Cultural Genocide". AS this is one of the greatest issue facing Canadians as we decide who we are as a nation in the 21st Century I find this to be a definite lack in the book.

In the end though it met my desire for a light enjoyable vacation read. I was reminded of some things, I learned some things, I looked at some things is a different light.  Good read.

Book 7 of 2022 Building God's Beloved Community: Discipleship in The United Church of Canada

Over the last few years multiple voices within the United Church have named a need for a new resource to use in confirmation classes. This book is one approach to meeting that need.

The 14 chapters (16 if you include the introduction and the conclusion) of this book are meant to provide an introduction to Christian faith and discipleship, with several chapters that focus that introduction on a specific denomination. The suggestion is to have an extended study group, looking at one chapter a session. I think there is logic in that selection, though I wonder if a couple of the chapters might be combined in one session. And I am not sure I would cover the topics in the order they are found in this volume.

The chapters are well-written and engaging. They have much in them to spark discussion. I think they would work well as an introductory tool and as a tool for more experienced church members to deepen/reawaken their faith. I wonder about  group that would have both new and experienced church folk discussing these topics.

There are two caveats I find. One is that, as Gary Paterson names in the foreword, this sort of study is about the thinking aspect of Christian faith. It has little to engage other aspects of the life of faith, though the one chapter on spiritual practices at least opens the door a bit (personally i am tempted to start a study group with that chapter and then start each successive session with a different spiritual practice. The other shortcoming I found was that there was not a chapter, and no real discussion in any chapter, about stewardship. Stewardship in all its forms is a key part of discipleship so this lack surprises me. However, since stewardship is our response to God's activity in our lives I suppose stewardship questions can be raised in conjunction with some of the topics.

Now to figure out how to structure the study group I intend to offer over the fall/winter season next year.

Book 6 of 2022 --Keys to the Kindom: Money and Property for Congregational Mission in The United Church of Canada

 Seemingly out of nowhere, this book arrived in the mail a couple months ago. The cover letter named that as we prepare for the 100th Anniversary of the United Church of Canada in 1925 a free copy was being sent to every community of faith across the country. After looking at it for several weeks I decided it should be read (a free book is almost always worth the cost after all).

The question of how best to use the assets of the church for ministry is always a challenging one. The question of how best to fund the ongoing work of ministry is a challenge in many congregations. The question of how to grow our mission and ministry in new ways often gets lost in the worry about funding what is already happening.

In almost every church I have worked with the biggest single asset is the property and the building. It is true that sometimes the building is a source of concern due to aging structures and/or deferred maintenance. It is also true that in many United Church congregations the building is a gift shared with the wider community. For many of us part of how we live out our faith is by offering our space to community groups.  Some of those groups would have a hard time finding a space without that opportunity.

Looking forward into the future, we need to ask how we will fund, sustain, and grow our ministries, both as individual congregations and as a denomination. How can we ensure that our communities of faith are around for future generations? This book tells stories that might help us understand how it has been done in the past, is being done in the present, and could possibly be done in the future. The push for all communities of faith to create a multi-million dollar endowment seems overly optimistic to me, as do some of the hopes for events around the 100th Anniversary weekend in June of 2025. However if the book makes us think and dream and vision then it will have done its job.

Of special interest to me was the discussion of how some places are redeveloping and making new uses of their properties. I know of several congregations where this is a needed discussion, one that needs to grow out of a discussion of how they can best help meet the needs of their communities. A lot of us are in buildings that we would not build now, either because the design does not let us gather as we would prefer to, or because they are bigger than we need/space is not used as we would like to use it now. In the United Church of Canada (and many other denominations) we have a lot of value in property, how can we best use those assets to participate in the work God is doing in/around/through us?

PS: in the middle of the book we learn how it is that all congregations could get a free copy. It is part of an endowment agreement made within the authors' congregation.

Book 5 of 2022 -- My Best Mistake

 

I have enjoyed Terry O'Reilly for a long time. I remember listening first to his show The Age of Persuasion years ago (thought I would have sworn that was longer ago than 2006) and now I regularly listen to Under the Influence both on Thursdays and Saturdays (sometimes you need to listen twice to catch everything). Because I have always found him to be a great storyteller I thought this book would be good for a light bit of reading. I was right.

However one of the reasons I so enjoy O'Reilly's work is not just because of the (well researched and well told) stories. It is the way he uses the stories to share key understandings of how the world (particularly the world of marketing) works. In the stories and the reflections I often find bits of wisdom that apply to a variety of settings.

Nobody likes to make mistakes. Naturally enough, most of us avoid it at all costs. But in this book we find people whose lives would have been very different, and arguably much less profitable, if they had avoided making a key mistake. The cover art tells the whole story. Does it say biggest mistake or best mistake? Or possibly both?

I suspect that for each person whose story is told in this book the line between biggest and best mistake is only truly discernible in hindsight. I wonder how many of us can say that in our own history? These are great stories in and of themselves. But looking deeper, should we maybe be more willing to make mistakes because we are taking risks? After a catastrophic mistake (or even a minor mistake that feels catastrophic at the time) many of us are tempted to just give up. Maybe the aftermath of the mistake can in fact lead us to a new way of being, a new resurgence?

Book 4 of 2022 -- The Art of Gathering

 

Why do we gather? How can we make out gatherings more meaningful? What mistakes do we make that take away from our gatherings? These are important questions for the church to ask. Mind you I think we so often fall into repetition and habit and tradition that we don't stop to ask them. And more importantly ,we forget to ask if the answers maybe have changed over time.

To be totally honest, while I sort of knew that these were important questions they were not things I routinely considered (probably still are not). But when I saw this book I realized there was something we needed to talk about as we try to find the way forward for the church these days.

I actually think most leaders should read this book as part of their planning processes. I really do wonder how it might change our Sunday morning gatherings, or our governance meetings, or our social events. Do we really have a clear purpose for why we are there? Do we have a plan to create an alternate space/reality for a period of time? Do we transition in and out of the space clearly and well? Often I think the answer is no when it could be yes.

I may have to re-read sections of this one if I want to re-vision how Sunday morning worship could work....

What Is Your Picture? (A Column for the Newspaper)

August 1994. I am a volunteer counsellor at Camp Maskepetoon. Two cabin groups gather on the front lawn by the main lodge for Devotions. The leader passes out paper and invites us to grab some markers or crayons from the bin in the center of the circle. We are asked to write down what the word God means to us. Some of us write a list of words or phrases. Some of us draw a picture. Some do both. Later, we talk about what we had put down and why. We talked about who God was to us, what God meant to us.

In the years since that day on the lawn I have returned to that program idea a number of times. As people of faith we have to share with each other what images we have of God. We have to listen to each other’s understanding of who God is. We do that sharing in the midst of a great mystery. There is no one right answer to the question “who or what is God?”. There are a whole bunch of right answers. There are a whole bunch of images and metaphors and all of them are partially right.

Can we have the courage to allow for images of God other than our own? Can we have hearts open enough to allow our image of God to be enhanced and broadened when we hear how our neighbour sees God? As I read Scripture, which has an incredibly wide variety of ways to describe the Divine, I think we have no choice. In fact I think that is what God hopes for.

On a shelf in my living room is a children’s book written by Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso called In God’s Name. The premise of the book is that all the people are trying to determine what the one, right, perfect name for God is. After all, everything else has a name, surely God must have a name. So each person suggests a name for God. Names like Mother, Father, Bringer of Peace, My Rock, and many others are suggested. Each person argues that their name is the one, the best, the most perfect name and “nobody listened. Least of all God”. Then one day they all gather around a calm smooth lake. They see each other reflected in the water and all together they each say their name for God. When that happens, the book says, “everyone listened. Most of all, God.” To describe God more fully we must use a wide variety of pictures and metaphors.

So how would you answer? If you had been sitting on that lawn with us what words or pictures would have been on your paper? If you were one of the people in that book what name would you argue was the best name for God? I am sure that day 28 years ago there were people who named the old man with a long white beard. As a child of the Star Wars generation I have always found the idea of the Force to be one of my metaphors for the Divine. One member of St. Paul’s, when asked this question, used the image of a hen gathering her chicks under her wings (an image drawn from Scripture). For Christians God is revealed uniquely in Jesus of Nazareth, the Risen Christ. Many faiths see God revealed in their sacred writings. God is revealed in all of Creation. Who is God for you?

In the first story of Creation in Genesis we are told that we, humanity, are created in God’s image. I think that calls us to to see God’s image walking down the street in every person we meet. That means that God is Caucasian, African, Asian, and Indigenous American. It means God is male and female, cis-gendered, trans, and non-binary, straight and gay and bisexual. It means God is the centenarian and the newborn baby. It means God is seen in the addict, or the person resorting to theft to get money for food. It may be challenging to see God in all these ways. But we have no choice. If we truly believe that humanity is created in God’s image then all humanity needs to be part of our image of God. Otherwise we risk reversing the words of Genesis and create God in our image.

In one of the United Church’s statements of faith God is described as Holy Mystery. God is within and beyond all our words and pictures and metaphors. We can not claim that our understanding is the one right understanding. We have to share the wide variety so that we can try to capture the Mystery. What picture of God feeds your soul?

Book 3 of 2022 Origin

 Earlier this year I happened about an article featuring this book (probably related to its release since it is very new). It sounded very interesting so I went shopping.

This look at how and when humans first arrived in and populated the Americas looks at very current research (it cites 2021 works). It starts by looking mainly at the archaeological evidence and then looks more at what has been learned from genetic research. There is also a naming of the fact that to do the work ethically one needs to build relationship with the modern Indigenous people whose ancestors are being examined. Raff is honest about some of the ways this work has been damaging. She talks about how early archaeology (and some present work in both archaeology and genetics) did a poor job at treating the Indigenous peoples (ancient and modern) with respect. She talks about ways that more current professionals are trying to build relationship and let the Indigenous people have much ore control over the process.

I was fascinated by this book. It does not claim to have a definitive answer to the questions of how humans came to be in the Americas. It does a good job of raising what some of those questions are, what we know to help answer them, and how the professionals in the field are trying to follow the various threads to will lead to a more complete picture.  And because I found it I have a number of suggested books that I may need to explore....

In The Face of Evil -- Newspaper Column

In the March 11 edition of her e-newsletter “The Cottage” Diana Butler Bass writes:
“War is a sin. War is evil. And yet it continues. War is one of the rare things in human history that doesn’t vary. It is what humans do... You might say that our inhumanity to others is a sobering characteristic of being human. That’s really depressing. And it is painfully true.”

It is my firm belief that pacifism is the most faithful way to follow Jesus Christ. Violence of any sort is incompatible with the Jesus I meet in the Gospels. And yet when I see things like the Russian invasion of Ukraine, or the Rwandan genocide, or almost innumerable other examples of one group using violence against another there is a part of me that wants to call out for the use of violence and force to protect the vulnerable. Do we have a duty to protect, even when the only way to do that is inflict pain on another?

What is our best response when we see evil being lived out in the world?

In that same e-newsletter Bass explicitly names what is happening in Ukraine as sinful and evil. She also predicts that it will get worse. Since it arrived in my mailbox the news reports out of Mariupol have proved that prediction accurate. Siege warfare has always been a brutally and punishing form of conflict. It has always meant that non-combatants are going to be killed and wounded. This was true in medieval Europe, in Aleppo a few years ago, and in Mariupol today. Deep in the evil and sinfulness of warfare is the fact that non-combatants are killed, wounded, left homeless, have their lives destroyed.

So what is our faithful response when we see evil being lived out in the world? Do we respond with thoughts and prayers and protests? Do we volunteer to be observers and human shields? Do we resort to the use of violence ourselves to counter the violence we wish to end?

To be honest I find myself conflicted on this one. As I said earlier, I honestly believe that the most faithful way to follow the path laid out by Christ is pacifism. Before being accepted and co-opted by the Emperor Constantine the church was a pacifist group. In the earliest church you could not be both Christian and soldier. At the same time extreme pacifism seems a little bit idealistic in the face of the evil done by empires in our world. What can we do?

To begin with we need to be ready to tell the truth about what we see. As people of faith we need to be ready to name the evil that is being done, no matter who is doing it. Even if it is done in the name of faith. Even if it is done by the empire we support (though it could be argued that to faithfully follow Christ means we support no empire). And then we need to make a stink, shout out into the world, refuse to be silenced. We need to speak truth to power and call people to account for their actions. It is the least we can do. Maybe it is the best we can do, or maybe we need to call for more concrete responses.

Right now we have evil happening and making the front pages. Because there is such a strong connection between Canada, especially in the prairie provinces, and Ukraine we have a heightened sense of outrage. Some call for more militant action, some prepare to support refugees either in Europe or here in Canada. As a multi-national society we are trying to determine how we will respond. Is a no-fly zone the best response? Will other nations need to put boots on the ground? Will those things contain the evil or make it worse? These are complicated questions with no really clear answers.

There is evil happening elsewhere in the world that does not make our front pages. Aleppo was besieged for years during the Syrian Civil War. Terrible things have been happening in Yemen for years. The same thing can be said of Gaza. The invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan earlier this century led to great evil. How did we respond then? How can we respond to the evil that continues?

As a follower of Christ I am called to seek justice and resist evil. As a follower of Christ I am called to proclaim that there is another path to follow. Invasion and warfare, violence that destroys lives, is evil and sinful and wrong. The challenge is to figure out how Christ wants me to respond to that evil.

May God help us all.

Book 2 of 2022 Freeing Jesus

 This is a title that jumped out at me one day while browsing. And since I have always enjoyed Diana Butler Bass I had to give it a try.

The book is memoir theology. It is Bass describing various ways she has known Jesus through the course of her life. She describes what the image at hand has meant to her and why. She talks about how that image intersected with the event of her life. While she lists 6 basic images (all drawn from Scripture and tradition) within each image there are subsets that broaden and deepen the base image.

It is my sincere belief that every Christian is called to answer the question Jesus asks Peter "Who do you say I am?' for themself. I also believe that at various times in our lives different aspects of who Jesus is is the focus of our answer. Jesus is not, as Scripture tries to suggest, the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. Jesus, like any other person, has many different sides. Jesus is the way God reaches into our lives and addresses the big questions we have. My questions are not the same as your questions. They may not even be the same as the questions I had 30 years ago. 

This is a good book. In reading Bass' memoir theology (and I tn to agree with her that all theology is based on our live experiences, it is all memoir to some degree) the reader is pushed to consider their own life and their own understanding of who Jesus is. I suspect that was the point all along.

Book 12 of 2021/Book 1 of 2022 Rescuing the Gospel From the Cowboys

 What does it mean to support an indigenous church? How do we best allow and support folk to experience and express the faith in ways that resonate with their own culture? These are the sorts of questions that this book raised in my mind.

A few years ago the Indigenous community within the United Church shared their Calls to the Church. When I first read them I remember wondering if what was being proposed was a church within a church. I still think that to a degree that may be what is actually needed if we are going to live out those calls if we are to take seriously the intention to give ownership to the Indigenous church. At the same time, based on reflecting on those calls and what Twiss has to say in this book I strongly suspect that the non-Indigenous church stands to benefit from opening the door to different ways of expressing and exploring the faith.

The one thing I, coming from a mainline tradition, would have preferred to see in this volume was some more discussion of how the mainline churches have been a help or a hindrance in the development of contextualized theology. It seemed more focused on the relationship with the evangelical communities. I suspect many of the challenges would have been similar in the mainline community, with the added challenge that the mainline churches in Canada at least were a major partner in the assimilationist policies of the past.

This was the 2nd book that had been recommended for an online course I took last fall.  It raised important questions about our relationships with the Indigenous Christian community. It is well worth a read

What Do You Hear? -- Newspaper Column

“As a Christian leader, how can you allow that to be hanging in the window?” So began one of the most memorable conversations in my ministry career.

The question came from a member of the community who had seen the Pride flag hanging in our front window. It seems that this bothered (or angered) him because his understanding was that to be LGBTQ+ makes you unacceptable in God’s eyes. My response was and is that to be a faithful follower of Christ requires me to support full inclusion regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation. The conversation quickly got very heated and I am sure neither one of us convinced the other of anything. I believe we were hearing God differently.

As a person of faith I firmly believe that God is still speaking to the world. I believe that God speaks through the words of our sacred stories. And God speaks through those who have gone before us in the faith. And God speaks new words in new ways, constantly challenging us to grow. I am reminded of Paul’s great hymn to love in 1 Corinthians 13 where he says “For now we see in a mirror, dimly... Now I know only in part; then I will know fully”. God’s hope and plan is that our vision will grow less dim, that our knowledge will grow more full as the years pass. So God keeps speaking to us, challenging us to grow in faith, in hope and in love.

Because God is still speaking and calling us to grow in faith, in understanding, in love there are times when we will be confronted with a vision of the world that is different than the picture passed down to us by those who have gone before. Some times we will understand that our past practices and beliefs have been an inaccurate reflection of God’s hope for the world. If we are listening carefully those realizations will force us to change how we live as faithful followers of Christ.

Many years ago now Gracie Allen said “Never place a period where God has placed a comma.”. In the early part of the 21st century the United Church of Christ made use of that quote as a part of their “God is Still Speaking” campaign. That campaign pushed people to consider what God continues to say to God’s people. God still speaks to our hearts and souls and minds.

Admittedly it is not easy to follow when the voice of God leads us to a new place and a new way of seeing the world. I remember a story I was told that came out of the 1960’s, as the Roman Catholic church changed the rules about eating meat on Fridays. An older gentleman was trying to make sense of the change, saying “All my life they have told me God did not want us to eat meat on Fridays. Did God change his mind?”. New understandings come hard. But if we truly believe that God is still speaking, if we are intentionally trying to listen to what God is saying we need the courage to explore.

I think this is the harder path to follow. I think it would be easier to assume that God said what needed to be said long ago and all we need to do is follow the old wisdom. I think it is harder to constantly be asking ourselves if what we are hearing is God’s wisdom or just following the social trends. But we are called to the harder path of careful listening and discernment. If everything we hear confirms everything we have ever been taught, then maybe we are hearing the culture and not God. If everything we hear leads us to act just like everyone else in the world, then maybe we are hearing the culture and not God. If what we hear challenges us and makes us think seriously about how the world should or could be, then maybe we are hearing God over the culture.

God continues to speak to the world. God continues to give us a clearer vision, a fuller knowledge, of what it means to live as God’s people. Listening to God has pushed us to rethink how we live in a variety of ways. Listening to God will continue to push us to rethink how we live, will make us change our understandings of how the world works. It has been, and will continue to be, hard work but it is part of being faithful. Martin Luther King reminded us that the moral arc of the universe is long but bends toward justice. We only follow that arc if we listen carefully to the God who is still speaking. What do you hear?

Book 11 of 2021 -- Gilead

 A congregation member read this book in her book group and suggested I would like it.

The book is a letter from an older preacher to the young child of his old age. He is trying to give his son some wisdom to carry him forward. John Ames is nearing the end of his life and will not see the child grow up. He tries to let his son know a bit more about where he comes from.

And so we get some of the history of the Ames family. John is a third generation preacher (I believe in a congregationalist setting) and the church in which he preaches is the church where his father preached. Gilead has been home for his whole life. 

The letter John is writing to his son is written over a period of several weeks. It is a bit of a stream of consciousness piece as John jumps from topic or event to another, then reminds himself what he meant to be talking about. Mixed in with the history of his family and his own personal biography are reflections about theology and faith -- particularly reflections about grace as the book nears its end. 

Good book. One that was often hard to put down.