conversation – Page 2 – Salvaged Faith

Words and Deeds

Posted on September 2, 2012Leave a comment

How many of you have facebook?

How many of you have no clue what facebook is?

One of the great things about facebook is that you can connect with people from various parts of your life all at once. And my friends span the spectrum from extreme liberals to die hard conservatives.

I don’t have to watch one second of campaign coverage and I can tell you who was speaking, where and when and what lots of different types of people thought about it.

Today, we find ourselves on the Sunday between our two major political party conventions.

And on facebook and in person, I have seen people laugh and cry, jest and jeer, shout praises and mutter criticisms… folks have been angry or excited and rarely anything in between. Some are accused of lying. Others of ignorance. Some people are called stupid. Wealthy has become a bad word – as has the term poor. We point fingers. We refuse to accept blame. We pass around the buck. And rarely are we making these arguments in logical, coherent, calm conversations.

Politics sure brings out the worst in us… doesn’t it?

Or is it just that politics takes all of those pent up feelings we carry around with us every day and it crystallizes our differences, our frustrations, our anxieties?

I started out by asking about how many of you have facebook, because the nasty behavior I see in politics is an every day occurrence in social media.

But it’s also an everyday occurrence in our school hallways.

And in our bars and restaurants.

And around our dinner tables.

And in our private conversations with other people.

The truth of the matter is… we have forgotten how to talk to one another.

This isn’t simply a secular problem. The same thing is seen in our churches as well.

I had more than my share of church politicking this year, as I had the honor of representing our conference of the UnitedMethodistChurch at our quadrennial global gathering.

One thousand United Methodists from all across the globe gathered in Tampa to make decisions about the future of our church and our mission… and a lot of what we did was stand up and make speeches and refuse to listen… which in turn led to a failure to act. We talked our problems to death and in the end have little to show for it.

Each of our denominations has similar meetings – from session and presbytery meetings, to district events and conferences. And it doesn’t matter if you are Methodist or Nazarene or Congregationalist or answer to a pastor or a pope – we don’t always agree and it isn’t always a pretty conversation.

I wonder if that kind of contentious debate about what it means to “be the church” is what led James to write his letter to the people of God.

I think he looked around at the arguments, and the infighting, and the trials people were going through and he felt called to say something… to refocus our attention on what really matters: the word of God that transforms us all.

The passage that Morrie read for us this morning comes from the first chapter of this letter.

A huge problem James discerns is favoritism and conflict between different classes of people in the church… so he starts out by leveling the playing field: we all have tests and trials.

What separates us, James writes, is that some of us stand firm in our faith in the midst of those trials… and some of us are tossed about with every fad and sea change. It doesn’t matter if you are rich or poor…those who stand firm are the ones who are blessed.

Now – this matters, because James goes on to describe how every good and perfect gift comes from God.

What doesn’t come from God are our own cravings, our desires, the things that we hold on to more tightly than we hold on to God.

I want to do a quick thought experiment with you… think of one thing that you hold onto tightly in your life: maybe it is an addiction… or your schedule…maybe it is a way of doing something in the church… or an everyday object like your cell phone.

Imagine that one thing… that thing that you can’t live without…

Now, ask yourself – and be truthful now – how many times in the past year has that “thing” caused conflict?

How many times did it lead you to yell at someone?

How many times did it cause you to act out of character?

How many times did you miss the opportunity to grow in your faith or your relationships because you were too stubborn to let go of it?

James writes his letter to the people of God because they are so focused on what they want and what they think and what they believe that he no longer sees the true word of God in their midst.

They have deceived themselves into thinking that they had the truth – when all they have done is distort God’s word into something dirty and foul to suit their own needs.

And then… they argued about it. They argued about who was more important and who was right. They argued about who was included and who should be forgotten. They argued about how much time they had to put in and why they didn’t need to get their hands dirty any more.

And in doing so, they exchanged the gift of life and peace and love of God for the cares and desires and sin of this world.

You know what? We have, too.

If we were to be truly honest with ourselves, we encourage our youth to use their fists more than words… and teach them to use words that pack a punch that could hurt the toughest soul.

We teach our children they deserve to have everything without regards to the cost.

We as adults are quick to judge when we encounter someone with different political view points. We make assumptions.

We close our doors to the neediest around us and put a check in the mail to make ourselves feel better.

We spend our days working hard so that we can have the finer things in life and then are too tired to enjoy them.

We use and abuse one another so that we can get ahead.

We ask the question, “how will this help me?” more than “how can I help others?”

No wonder the spirit of discourse around us has crumbled. Internally focused, afraid of one another, distrusting of the systems that are supposed to help and support us, wary about the future….

Those words do not describe a people, a community, a nation that has the saving word of God planted within.

The question is what do we have to clear out so that the good and perfect word of God can take root in our souls again?

James has a few solutions for us.

First of all, we need to recapture a spirit of humility. We need to recognize that we are not God’s gift to this earth – but imperfect vessels that the word of God can transform.

Humility means that we treat the word of God as a gift, and not something that we deserve.

Humility means that we make ourselves low so that others might be raised up.

Humility means that we put another before ourselves.

Humility means that we are quick to truly listen to what another person has to say before we butt in with our own thoughts and feelings.

Second, we need to practice every day the words that we hear at bible study or in prayer group or in worship.

David Lose, who writes for Working Preacher, says: “Sunday is not the most important day of the Christian week.” It is every other day, the in-between days that truly show whether or not that saving word of God is taking root.

James tells us that too often we hear the word of God and do not do it. We listen to the sermon on Sunday morning and then go out and forget everything that we heard.

We need to study the word and put it into practice. On Monday morning, we need to let kindness rule our actions. On Tuesday evening, we need to let God’s patience rule our heart. On Thursday afternoon around the water cooler, we need to let the gift of God’s love rule our conversations. In every small act of every single day, we need to let that heavenly gift of God shine through our lives.

Lastly, we need to be careful about our words.

James calls us to listen… but when we do finally speak, we need to ask whether our words are rooted in anger or in love.

Do the words we use come from the word of God planted within? Or from the desires of our imperfect selves?

Are our conversations pleasing to our Lord? Or are we trying to impress others?

In verse 26 of our passage for this morning, James writes, “If those who claim devotion to God don’t control what they say, they mislead themselves.”

Our words matter. They can be used to hurt or to heal. They can be used to encourage or to tear down. They can be used to expand God’s kingdom or to erect barriers for the Holy Spirit.

We who are gathered here represent the people of God in Marengo, Iowa. And our words and our deeds matter. They represent to the world who God is and how he desires us to live.

In your conversations on facebook and in real life… in your actions towards strangers and your best friends… do people see the good and perfect gift of God in your life?

We often cling so tightly to our stuff, our issues, and our solutions that we can’t open our hands to receive the amazing and beautiful gifts of God.

Let go. Open your hearts and your hands to welcome the word of God. And then live it out in every moment of your days to everyone you meet.

Say yes to compassion. Say yes to forgiveness. Say yes to patience. Say yes to kindness and joy and love and peace. Let them take root in your soul and flourish in your life.

If we do… this world truly will be transformed.

Amen.

a day in the life…

Posted on September 21, 2011Leave a comment

7:00am – alarm goes off

8:10am – start thinking about getting out of bed

8:30am – phone conversation with Trustee chairperson about the new shingles for the parsonage roof

8:50am – arrive at church, small talk with folks gathering for the Tuesday morning small group.

9:05am – phone call with Memorial chair about some checks that came in

9:10am – check emails, put checks into envelopes to pay some church bills

9:30am – Tuesday morning small group: food, devotions, prayer, conversation

11:00am – check in with some members of our co-missioned coordinating team to plan event on October 1

11:15am – scripture reading and exploring commentaries to get ready for Sunday

12:00pm – time spent thinking about hymns for Sunday interspersed with facebook (seeing what is going on in colleagues and members lives)

12:15pm – phone call with congregation member about an upcoming wedding

12:50pm – head home for lunch, heat up leftovers and watch an episode or two of Dr. Who

3:30pm – back to church to meet up with a youth… visit with a member and help transport some items being donated to Women at the Well (prison congregation)

4:45pm – conversation on the side of the road to coordinate a visit with some church folk

5:00pm – back home to make dinner: chicken, sauteed musrooms, wild rice

6:45pm – back to church for Lay Leadership meeting

7:10pm – start our meeting with devotions, discuss calling all who serve and changes in our organizational structure

8:10pm – head home. pajamas. computer.

9:30pm – movie with the husband

11:45pm – bed

the disarming power of a story

Posted on February 23, 20112 Comments

Social Justice.

General Board of Church and Society.

Social Principles.

In some circles… those are swear words.

To take a stand, to say that the Bible speaks to our world today, to speak truth to power is DANGEROUS.

But it is also what we are called to do.

I found out about the GBCS Young Clergy Capital Hill Leadership Forum through an email and my first thought was: SIGN ME UP!

You see, I read my bible and I come across those passages where we are supposed to welcome the stranger… and then we have anti-immigration laws being bandied about in our states. How do I preach God’s word in the midst of that?

I read my bible and I find this tension between life that doesn’t completely count as life in the laws of Exodus 21 and the idea that God knows us even in our mother’s wombs in Psalm 139. How do I respond when our state legislature proposes changes to laws about abortion? How do I lead my congregation through a discussion where we can be open to God’s instruction and aware of the reality that surrounds us?

Photo by: Wayne Rhodes. Full article here.

So… I saw this event as an opportunity to educate myself even more about how to navigate the Bible, the positions that we take as United Methodists, and the lived reality of my parishoners.

What I did not expect was to be surrounded for four days by stories.

Day after day, presenter after presenter, we hear stories of call. We heard stories of barriers broken down. We heard stories of hope. We heard stories of awareness and maturity. We heard stories of belonging and stories of being on the outside. We heard stories of mentors. We heard stories of challenge.

Every single presenter told us where they were coming from. They spoke out of their own faith experience. They told us how they got to the place they are today.

And then, and only then, and with very little time remaining, they talked a little bit about the issues.

For a day or two, I have to admit that I was frustrated by this. I was wanting some meat… some practical tools… some things to take home and do.

But then I realized that was exactly what I had recieved.

I realized that the simple act of telling your story changes the conversation. When you tell the story of your faith and invite the person sitting across from you to tell yours – you no longer can hurl labels and threats. You can no longer question that persons faith or sanity or patriotism. You have met them as a person and now you must treat them as a person.

Any discussion of the issue starts from a completely different place. It begins in a place of mutuality, of respect, of awareness that we are both children of God.

It starts in a place where we each have something to tell, we each have a way that this story has personally impacted our lives. And so we move past the soundbytes and the bullet points to a place of real dialogue.

I came home from Washington, D.C. with the disarming power of a story.

my very own cohort… #reverb10

Posted on January 11, 2011Leave a comment

Still catching up on the 31 reverb10 prompts from the month of December. Little by little, I will get through them all!!!
So tomorrow, we start with our first monthly gathering of 2011. We are looking at Carol Howard Merritt’s “Reframing Hope.” (I wrote some about it yesterday) I can’t wait to continue the conversations and to meet some of the new folks who will be joining us for the first time! Plus, Fusion has this Maccu Piccu Mocha that is absolutely to-die-for. Totally yummy. (just saying.)

December 7 – Community. Where have you discovered community, online or otherwise, in 2010? What community would you like to join, create or more deeply connect with in 2011? (Author: Cali Harris)

In the last year, a new group of conversation partners have begun meeting in Eastern Iowa. In some ways, it started with connections made at the JoPa Theological Conversation with Jurgen Moltmann back in 2009. A few of us realized – hey, there are Iowa folks here! And we committed to gather more locally and chat.

I also recieved an email from a guy who wanted to start talking about emergent theology/church themes near the beginning of that year. We live nearby and a coffee shop conversation began.

Since those initial plans, the Eastern Iowa Emergent Cohort was rebirthed. I’m not sure who started it, or who was involved, but the conversation had gone silent for a while. But we have some new faces, some new energy and last year planned three face-to-face conversations.

It has been so strange for me to enter these emergent conversations, because I am what Carol Howard Merritt calls a “loyal radical.” I am firmly planted in the tradition and I wouldn’t leave it for the world, but there are facets of the emergent movement that so speak to me. The deep sense of community, the diffusion of authority, the importance of communal discernment, the focus on a rule or way of life, the place for questions, etc. There aren’t a lot of places to talk about that either in the hierarchical church (although I am making those connections) or in the local congregation I serve. And to be honest, I have not come into the community through traditional venues like blogs and books either. I kind of just discovered it on my own and then sought words to explain what I was thinking/feeling.

You see, I first was introduced to the entire idea of emergent theology and postmodernism back in Nashville, Tennessee. I can still remember walking down the sidewalk with Kay Hereford Voorhees and learning all about postmodern theology on a sunny afternoon. I was working at a large, very traditional, uptown church that had this little quirky group of folks who were exploring other ways of being faithful. We began an emergent worship service before we even quite realized what we were doing. We had an intimate and holy community of faithful folks who weekly walked with one another. I miss that group of folks VERY MUCH!!!

As I prepared to move back to Iowa, I knew what a gap would be left in my life, and so this blog was an attempt to fill that gap. But I also longed for the types of conversations having through cohorts meeting at the Flying Saucer in Nashville, or the Emerging UMC (version 1) event we had. Iowa seemed like a barren landscape, void of partners. Boy was I wrong.

This new community is a breath of fresh air. It is a chance to ask questions and wrestle with folks who think the way I do… and find themselves in congregations like mine. Some of us maintain contact on twitter or facebook, but these three gatherings have turned into a desire to have a more frequent relational contact.

theological hats

Posted on September 10, 2009Leave a comment

In the few days before this emergent village theological conversation event thingy I was kind of nervous. I was thinking about the fact that it has literally been like two years since I read a theological book. I’ve read… a few books between now and then, but nothing with the kind of depth that we will be discussing here. And I miss it. Desperately. And I’m vowing to get back into those conversations as SOON as I get back.

But having not read for a while, I was concerned about whether or not the theological hat would still fit. Would my head have shrunk? Can I make it work?

We started off the conference with Moltmann 101 – which was AMAZING. We covered his 7 major works in two hours. And it was like it all came back to me. No strange funny words, I got the connections, and I was AMAZED at how quickly I wanted to just jump right back into the conversation. I literally took 5 pages of TYPED notes. I couldn’t absorb it all fast enough – it was thrilling.

I think the big thing that I struggle with being the pastor of a small town church is that lack of theological engagement on a regular basis. I know that kind of community exists online in blogs and discussion posts, but I really haven’t gone there and sought it out. And I certainly haven’t been contributing to that part of the conversation. But I want to!

In particular I’m struck by the idea that our theology comes from the conversations we have and the experiences of God we find in our communities – I’m really wanting to do some diving in my own community and explore what kinds of theology are emerging from our small town. But as Shroyer said yesterday – in her reading of Moltmann – we have to hold any of these theological discoveries at the foot of the cross and see if they fit. And that kind of willingness to take our beliefs and set them before God and see if they are merely idols or truly where God is speaking is so hard!!!

Fear of the Unknown

Posted on August 19, 2009Leave a comment

This morning my husband and I were rudely awakened by a very loud rustling and movement zooming into our bedroom. The commotion stopped dead underneath the bed. As I shrieked, sure that some kind of creature the size of a racoon was surely about to attack me, I kind of halfway woke up. And then it was quiet.

A minute or two later, there was a zooming from underneath the bed to behind the bookcase – nothing has ever moved that fast in my life ever… I was a bit terrified.

Then there was nothing.

Two more minutes went by and as my husband assured me it was just the cats fighting, ZOOM! the ball of confusion split out of the bedroom, down the hall, to who knows where.

Our cat Turbo had gotten tangled in a grocery bag after he tried to get the garbage out of it. His midsection had squeezed through the handle, and now he couldn’t get it off – and he was running for his life trying to escape the terrifying rustle of very thin plastic behind him.

The faster he ran, the more noise it made, the more he was scared and the faster he ran.

When we finally tracked him down, we lifted him from behind the tv stand in the basement and pulled the bag from him. And he cowered in fear and trembling.

Now – bear with me a minute – but I wonder if the current health care reform mess isn’t a lot like that bag.

For whatever reason, the cat was curious about the bag – he wanted what was inside. But halfway through the process he got all tangled up in it, and not fully understanding what was happening, he became frightened of it.

As people who live in this country, we too are in this health care bag already. We got the government in the bag to regulate the health care industry, through the FDA, through Medicare for grandma. We got ourselves in the bag through our employeer based insurance, through not taking care of our bodies, through seeking a better quality of life for ourselves and our loved ones. Even those who don’t have health care insurance are in the bag because they find themselves in life or death situations where they have to turn to hospitals and the rest of us pay. Our faith communites are in the bag because we have vital and important words from scriptures about what it means to care for the least of these and whole chapters in the gospels where Jesus goes around healing people without asking for their HMO card.

We’re already in the bag. And the bag isn’t working. It’s tearing, it’s pulling too tightly on some parts of us. It’s broken and our relationship with the bag is broken.

So now the question is how to get out of this mess we are in. How do we make sure that people are taken care of? How do we provide quality affordable care?

So there was an initial rustle of movement – and all hell broke loose. And now we are running around like chickens with our heads cut off (or like cats stuck in a plastic bag) desperately afraid of what might happen, this bag attatched to us transformed into a crazed monster that is about to destroy the world.

Let’s chill out people. Calm down. And let’s gently figure out how to get the cat out of the bag.