. . . that I find challenging and inspiring - from Helder Camara
Let every word
be the fruit
of action and reflection.
Reflection alone
without action
or tending toward it
is mere theory,
adding its weight
when we are
overloaded
with it already.
Action alone
without reflection
is being busy
pointlessly.
Honor the Word eternal
and speak
to make
a new world possible.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
CHURCH CROSSING Lesson #37
CHURCH CROSSING Lesson #37
That stuff in the Bible connects . . . with real life . . . a lot
Since I renamed this blog “CHURCH CROSSING” and used the story of the Israelites seeking to cross the desert as a metaphor for our life together at St. Pauls, I’ve been thinking a lot the Moses story. I first learned the story of Moses’ life and leadership in Sunday School when I was a kid – starting with his placement in a basket in the bulrushes to escape Pharoah’s edict of death, continuing through his murderous rage, his encounter with the burning bush, his leadership of the Israelites out of slavery and into desert crossing, and his death on the edge of the promised land. It’s a truly amazing and powerful story.
And wouldn’t you know, I come all the way out here on retreat, and the stories read in Chapel are about Moses. This is clearly no accident.
The story I heard on Wednesday morning was about Moses and the burning bush. The preacher (a priest friend of mine, Pat Hames) put a very interesting spin on it: Moses ended up in Midian, away from his friends and family, because he had murdered an Egyptian who was hurting one of his fellow Israelites. Pat reminded us that Moses committed the murder because he wanted justice: a good desire to be sure, but definitely not a good way of going about it. At the burning bush, God invited Moses to do something he had always wanted to do – help get justice and freedom for his people. And God gave Moses a job (leader) and a plan (plagues then exit across the Red Sea) that would leave no mistake that it wasn’t Moses, but the one and only true and living GOD who was in charge.
I don’t know about you, but one of my biggest fears about getting deeply involved with God is that He’s going to make me do something I don’t want to do, something that won’t let me become all I want to become. According to Pat (and this Bible story about Moses), the opposite is true – God’s always and only about helping us to blossom and flourish – giving us a way to live out the desires of our hearts.
Oh, and then there was another Moses story in Chapel at noon today. This was the story of the birth and saving of the infant Moses, when his mother put him in a basket in the bulrushes and floated him toward Pharoah’s daughter, hoping that Pharoah’s daughter would raise Moses as her own and thus save him from the fate of other Hebrew babies: death. The plan worked and Pharoah’s daughter not only fished him out of the river, but through some conniving on the part of Moses’ aunt (who was servant to Pharoah’s daughter) Moses’ own mother was brought in to be his wet nurse. The powerful thing about the story as it was read in Chapel today was that when we got to the part about the conniving women, everyone (a group of all women) laughed out loud.
Another one of my fears is that God’s promise that “all things work together for the good of those who love Him” won’t come true. Not for me. Not this time – in whatever crazy, deep, fascinating challenge cum problem I’ve stumbled into now. Laughing together in the midst of the Scripture reading today was a spontaneous recognition: it does work and, more than that, we DO know how to follow our instincts and participate in making good happen. God delights in a little crazygood sneakiness. In the name of helping it work. In the name of love.
My prayer for me – and for all of us at St. Paul’s – is that God will use this desert time of figuring out our path to the promised land to free us from all the extra baggage we carry – fear, guilt, anger, hopelessness – and whet our appetites for more milk and honey.
That stuff in the Bible connects . . . with real life . . . a lot
Since I renamed this blog “CHURCH CROSSING” and used the story of the Israelites seeking to cross the desert as a metaphor for our life together at St. Pauls, I’ve been thinking a lot the Moses story. I first learned the story of Moses’ life and leadership in Sunday School when I was a kid – starting with his placement in a basket in the bulrushes to escape Pharoah’s edict of death, continuing through his murderous rage, his encounter with the burning bush, his leadership of the Israelites out of slavery and into desert crossing, and his death on the edge of the promised land. It’s a truly amazing and powerful story.
And wouldn’t you know, I come all the way out here on retreat, and the stories read in Chapel are about Moses. This is clearly no accident.
The story I heard on Wednesday morning was about Moses and the burning bush. The preacher (a priest friend of mine, Pat Hames) put a very interesting spin on it: Moses ended up in Midian, away from his friends and family, because he had murdered an Egyptian who was hurting one of his fellow Israelites. Pat reminded us that Moses committed the murder because he wanted justice: a good desire to be sure, but definitely not a good way of going about it. At the burning bush, God invited Moses to do something he had always wanted to do – help get justice and freedom for his people. And God gave Moses a job (leader) and a plan (plagues then exit across the Red Sea) that would leave no mistake that it wasn’t Moses, but the one and only true and living GOD who was in charge.
I don’t know about you, but one of my biggest fears about getting deeply involved with God is that He’s going to make me do something I don’t want to do, something that won’t let me become all I want to become. According to Pat (and this Bible story about Moses), the opposite is true – God’s always and only about helping us to blossom and flourish – giving us a way to live out the desires of our hearts.
Oh, and then there was another Moses story in Chapel at noon today. This was the story of the birth and saving of the infant Moses, when his mother put him in a basket in the bulrushes and floated him toward Pharoah’s daughter, hoping that Pharoah’s daughter would raise Moses as her own and thus save him from the fate of other Hebrew babies: death. The plan worked and Pharoah’s daughter not only fished him out of the river, but through some conniving on the part of Moses’ aunt (who was servant to Pharoah’s daughter) Moses’ own mother was brought in to be his wet nurse. The powerful thing about the story as it was read in Chapel today was that when we got to the part about the conniving women, everyone (a group of all women) laughed out loud.
Another one of my fears is that God’s promise that “all things work together for the good of those who love Him” won’t come true. Not for me. Not this time – in whatever crazy, deep, fascinating challenge cum problem I’ve stumbled into now. Laughing together in the midst of the Scripture reading today was a spontaneous recognition: it does work and, more than that, we DO know how to follow our instincts and participate in making good happen. God delights in a little crazygood sneakiness. In the name of helping it work. In the name of love.
My prayer for me – and for all of us at St. Paul’s – is that God will use this desert time of figuring out our path to the promised land to free us from all the extra baggage we carry – fear, guilt, anger, hopelessness – and whet our appetites for more milk and honey.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
CHURCH CROSSING Lesson #14
“If it doesn’t belong to you, keep your paws off it.”
Dear Friends in Christ –
“If it doesn’t belong to you, keep your paws off it.” I say this to my young son pretty much every day, because he knows what he wants and when he sees it within reach, he just can’t help himself. A few days ago, after the 47 millionth time I said it, I wondered aloud to my husband, “What’s the problem? Why can’t he just leave it alone?”
Of course, I already know the answer to the question. The reason he can’t keep his hands off it is because he wants it SOOOO badly. And even if it doesn’t belong to him, he thinks that if he can just hold it for a moment, something in his little self will be better, happier.
“If it doesn’t belong to you, keep your paws off it.” The truth is, in over 40 years of living, I still haven’t totally learned this lesson. There are so many things that I want so badly – good things – for myself, for others – that I want to help, to put my hands on things that aren’t mine to do. At home and at church.
It’s dangerous for me not to be able to keep my hands off things. As rector, I’m expected to oversee this parish, but the parish is not “mine.” It’s God’s. It’s ours. But it’s not mine.
It’s hard to remember that it’s not “mine,” though, when I read articles and go to clergy gatherings where there’s talk about leaders who make things happen and a rector’s responsibility to “grow the parish.” I often think, “Oh, I should be doing this.” Or, “Oh, we need to do that, and I should get it started.” I feel pulled toward the glittering goal, and something in me thinks, “Yes, that can be mine, if I just reach out and grab it.
I wouldn’t have accepted this calling if I didn’t want to see traditions thrive and new programs rise and more people find wholeness in relationship with God. I have to remember, though, that THIS whole glorious sandbox is God’s. All of it. The people, the buildings, the vision. God lets me play in His sandbox, but He gets to make the rules about what I can touch, and when.
Summer is a great time to play in the sandbox. To dream and plan, to experiment with building this little thing here, to sketch out something that might fit over there. As your ministry team leaders and I play in the church sandbox this summer, please pray a blessing on our efforts. Pray that, in due time, just enough heavenly rain will come to stick together the things that are supposed to last. And, for those things that don’t belong to me/us, I’ll be able to keep my paws off!
Blessings,
Janet+
Dear Friends in Christ –
“If it doesn’t belong to you, keep your paws off it.” I say this to my young son pretty much every day, because he knows what he wants and when he sees it within reach, he just can’t help himself. A few days ago, after the 47 millionth time I said it, I wondered aloud to my husband, “What’s the problem? Why can’t he just leave it alone?”
Of course, I already know the answer to the question. The reason he can’t keep his hands off it is because he wants it SOOOO badly. And even if it doesn’t belong to him, he thinks that if he can just hold it for a moment, something in his little self will be better, happier.
“If it doesn’t belong to you, keep your paws off it.” The truth is, in over 40 years of living, I still haven’t totally learned this lesson. There are so many things that I want so badly – good things – for myself, for others – that I want to help, to put my hands on things that aren’t mine to do. At home and at church.
It’s dangerous for me not to be able to keep my hands off things. As rector, I’m expected to oversee this parish, but the parish is not “mine.” It’s God’s. It’s ours. But it’s not mine.
It’s hard to remember that it’s not “mine,” though, when I read articles and go to clergy gatherings where there’s talk about leaders who make things happen and a rector’s responsibility to “grow the parish.” I often think, “Oh, I should be doing this.” Or, “Oh, we need to do that, and I should get it started.” I feel pulled toward the glittering goal, and something in me thinks, “Yes, that can be mine, if I just reach out and grab it.
I wouldn’t have accepted this calling if I didn’t want to see traditions thrive and new programs rise and more people find wholeness in relationship with God. I have to remember, though, that THIS whole glorious sandbox is God’s. All of it. The people, the buildings, the vision. God lets me play in His sandbox, but He gets to make the rules about what I can touch, and when.
Summer is a great time to play in the sandbox. To dream and plan, to experiment with building this little thing here, to sketch out something that might fit over there. As your ministry team leaders and I play in the church sandbox this summer, please pray a blessing on our efforts. Pray that, in due time, just enough heavenly rain will come to stick together the things that are supposed to last. And, for those things that don’t belong to me/us, I’ll be able to keep my paws off!
Blessings,
Janet+
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
A Wonder of Creation
Dear Friends in Christ -
I've been watching my garden grow. It's a daily miracle to see what has grown and what has faded due to leaf blight or bug invasion. Hopes, frustrations, joys, agrivations, all tied to a little plot of dirt with things growing in it. A microcosom of life.
There are many things that we didn't plant in our garden plot this year; one of them was strawberries. We still wanted some of those delicious berries, though, so last week I went with my family and my friend Irene to Jones Farm. We picked as many as we could carry, and the result was DELICIOUS . . . jam, pie, frozen berries, and topping for ice cream. WOW!!!
It wasn't until after we had jammed and frozen and pied our way through the day that I sat down to put my feet up and to read the "Barrels of Strawberry Recipe Fun" brochure from the farm. And I learned something I didn't know: "Botanically, strawberries are not even berries at all, but members of the rose family." So basically, when I'm eating a strawberry, I'm eating the flower part of a rose. Wow! Knowing that fact makes sense of the experience I have through my senses; I get the same kind of intense pleasure from smelling a rose that I get from smelling and eating a strawberry. Mmmmmmmmmm . . . a wonder of Creation.
Hope you're enjoying some of the wonders of Creation this summer, too.
Blessings,
Janet+
I've been watching my garden grow. It's a daily miracle to see what has grown and what has faded due to leaf blight or bug invasion. Hopes, frustrations, joys, agrivations, all tied to a little plot of dirt with things growing in it. A microcosom of life.
There are many things that we didn't plant in our garden plot this year; one of them was strawberries. We still wanted some of those delicious berries, though, so last week I went with my family and my friend Irene to Jones Farm. We picked as many as we could carry, and the result was DELICIOUS . . . jam, pie, frozen berries, and topping for ice cream. WOW!!!
It wasn't until after we had jammed and frozen and pied our way through the day that I sat down to put my feet up and to read the "Barrels of Strawberry Recipe Fun" brochure from the farm. And I learned something I didn't know: "Botanically, strawberries are not even berries at all, but members of the rose family." So basically, when I'm eating a strawberry, I'm eating the flower part of a rose. Wow! Knowing that fact makes sense of the experience I have through my senses; I get the same kind of intense pleasure from smelling a rose that I get from smelling and eating a strawberry. Mmmmmmmmmm . . . a wonder of Creation.
Hope you're enjoying some of the wonders of Creation this summer, too.
Blessings,
Janet+
Sunday, July 5, 2009
My Mission Trip Experience by Emma Kaesmann
The witness that Emma gave this morning, in her own words . . .
"This week I experienced something really powerful. On the mission trip, my group went to United Cerebral Palsy. United Cerebral Palsy is a place where people who have the disease can go for the day while their families go to work because they can't take care of themselves. Our job there was to entertain and keep the patients company. While we were there, our group met one of the staff members named Valentine. Miss Leslie had talked to him earlier that day and he had asked her if our church could pray for him later that night during our church group time. Us kids had never met the guy or talked to him. Me, Miss Leslie, Amy, Evan and Joey were just standing there talking and Valentine came over to us and was talking to us about our group and our positions. When he asked me what my position in the group/church was and I said I didn't know, he started to just focus on me. He was asking me questions about my faith. Some of the questions he asked me were, "When was the last time God talked to you?" "What did he say?" and "What is your purpose of being sent to Washington DC?" Then he asked me if I knew who he was and I said no. When I said no, he told me I did know who he was. I was both confused and scared when he said that. He then confessed that he was a prophet of God. He explained to me that only God has the power to bring me from Connecticut and Valentine from Trinidad so that I could stand as proxy as our church prayed for him. Valentine told me to read a section from the Bible because he thought they fit me personally. The section he wanted me to read was Jeremiah chapter 1, verses 1-15. He was right. They did fit me.
Later that night when our church gathered for church time, the whole youth group laid their hands on me and prayed for me and Valentine. During the prayer, I felt a flow of emotions...mainly shock. It was an overwhelming feeling of the Holy Spirit and I just cried.
On Thursday when we went back to UCP, I saw Valentine and told him what had happened the night before. I told him about how I was going to step out of my comfort zone and do something I normally wouldn't do. That is going back to my church and telling my story to everybody. Verse number 8 says, "'Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,' declares the Lord." Before this whole experience, I would never have done something like this. I am normally quieter and would be too scared to do this. After this wonderful experience, I realized I could do it. I am doing this with God right by my side.
"This week I experienced something really powerful. On the mission trip, my group went to United Cerebral Palsy. United Cerebral Palsy is a place where people who have the disease can go for the day while their families go to work because they can't take care of themselves. Our job there was to entertain and keep the patients company. While we were there, our group met one of the staff members named Valentine. Miss Leslie had talked to him earlier that day and he had asked her if our church could pray for him later that night during our church group time. Us kids had never met the guy or talked to him. Me, Miss Leslie, Amy, Evan and Joey were just standing there talking and Valentine came over to us and was talking to us about our group and our positions. When he asked me what my position in the group/church was and I said I didn't know, he started to just focus on me. He was asking me questions about my faith. Some of the questions he asked me were, "When was the last time God talked to you?" "What did he say?" and "What is your purpose of being sent to Washington DC?" Then he asked me if I knew who he was and I said no. When I said no, he told me I did know who he was. I was both confused and scared when he said that. He then confessed that he was a prophet of God. He explained to me that only God has the power to bring me from Connecticut and Valentine from Trinidad so that I could stand as proxy as our church prayed for him. Valentine told me to read a section from the Bible because he thought they fit me personally. The section he wanted me to read was Jeremiah chapter 1, verses 1-15. He was right. They did fit me.
Later that night when our church gathered for church time, the whole youth group laid their hands on me and prayed for me and Valentine. During the prayer, I felt a flow of emotions...mainly shock. It was an overwhelming feeling of the Holy Spirit and I just cried.
On Thursday when we went back to UCP, I saw Valentine and told him what had happened the night before. I told him about how I was going to step out of my comfort zone and do something I normally wouldn't do. That is going back to my church and telling my story to everybody. Verse number 8 says, "'Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,' declares the Lord." Before this whole experience, I would never have done something like this. I am normally quieter and would be too scared to do this. After this wonderful experience, I realized I could do it. I am doing this with God right by my side.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Missionaries Return
Dear Friends in Christ -
Our mission team has returned from Washington D.C. When I talked to the team
leader, our Director of Youth Ministries, Leslie Beard, on the phone this morning,I could feel what I can only describe as waves of the Spirit over the phone. Whatever happened in D.C. with our mission team, it was powerful.
At both the 8:00 a.m. amd 10:00 a.m. services tomorrow morning, members of the mission team will be sharing their experiences. I hope you'll join me in hearing their stories.
Blessings,
Janet+
PS - Thank you for praying and giving to make their mission work possible! It's amazing what God does in and through us, isn't it?!
Our mission team has returned from Washington D.C. When I talked to the team
leader, our Director of Youth Ministries, Leslie Beard, on the phone this morning,I could feel what I can only describe as waves of the Spirit over the phone. Whatever happened in D.C. with our mission team, it was powerful.
At both the 8:00 a.m. amd 10:00 a.m. services tomorrow morning, members of the mission team will be sharing their experiences. I hope you'll join me in hearing their stories.
Blessings,
Janet+
PS - Thank you for praying and giving to make their mission work possible! It's amazing what God does in and through us, isn't it?!
Friday, July 3, 2009
A Prayer for Independence Day
Dear Friends in Christ -
As you celebrate our nation's birthday tomorrow, please join me in praying for our great country. We are so blessed to live here, to benefit from the wisdom and strength of our forebearers. Let us use well that which is entrusted to us, strive for justice and dignity for all, and fearlessly, openly, listen and share.
Blessings,
Janet+
A PRAYER FOR INDEPENDENCE DAY (Adapted from "The Book of Common Prayer")
Almighty God, giver of all good things: We thank you for the natural majesty and beauty of this land. We thank you for the great resources of this nation. We thank you for the men and women who made this country strong. We thank you for the torch of liberty that has been lit in this land. We thank you for the faith we have inherited in all its rich variety. Help us, O Lord, to finish the good work here begun. Strengthen our efforts to blot out ignorance and prejudice, and to abolish poverty and crime. And hasten the day when all our people, with many voices in one united chorus, will glorify your holy name. Amen.
As you celebrate our nation's birthday tomorrow, please join me in praying for our great country. We are so blessed to live here, to benefit from the wisdom and strength of our forebearers. Let us use well that which is entrusted to us, strive for justice and dignity for all, and fearlessly, openly, listen and share.
Blessings,
Janet+
A PRAYER FOR INDEPENDENCE DAY (Adapted from "The Book of Common Prayer")
Almighty God, giver of all good things: We thank you for the natural majesty and beauty of this land. We thank you for the great resources of this nation. We thank you for the men and women who made this country strong. We thank you for the torch of liberty that has been lit in this land. We thank you for the faith we have inherited in all its rich variety. Help us, O Lord, to finish the good work here begun. Strengthen our efforts to blot out ignorance and prejudice, and to abolish poverty and crime. And hasten the day when all our people, with many voices in one united chorus, will glorify your holy name. Amen.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)