postmodern – Page 3 – Salvaged Faith

time to get back in the swing of things.

Posted on November 10, 2008Leave a comment

i’ve been a bit absent from the blogging recently.

but like everything in life, there are ups and downs and highs and lows and maybe i’m on the upswing.

I am very excited and inspired by how this latest political election has turned out. Not just that my favored candidate won. (although, I do break out into a smile whenever I think about how amazing of a thing we did on Tuesday and whenever I think about that beautiful family moving into the White House)

I’m inspired by the fact that Obama’s speech was a sober speech. That he understood the weight of the moment and that we are all going to have to work together (those who supported him and those that didn’t) and sacrifice a little bit more (time, service, energy, money) to get to that place we are all dreaming of getting – of being a better nation.

I’m inspired by the fact that he talked about “we” instead of “I.”

I’m inspired by fact most of all though that all of this is nothing and absolutely meaningless because we have someone else that we follow.

This morning, the refrain for the morning office was: “Because the needy are oppressed, and the poor cry out in misery,* I will rise up,” says the LORD, “And give them the help they long for.”

This Sunday, I preached on Genesis 28:10-22 – “I am God, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. I’m giving the ground on which you are sleeping to you and to your descendants… Yes. I’ll stay with you, I’ll protect you wherever you go, and I’ll bring you back to this very ground. I’ll stick with you until I’ve done everything I promised you.”

Until everything that God has promised comes to pass, God will be with us. the Lord will not forsake us. God will not let us go. No matter how much we either screw things up or get things right, God will give us the help that we long for.

Patriotic Grace

Posted on October 8, 20082 Comments

So, I’ve heard about this book from a variety of places and I decided to buy it yesterday. And I finished it this morning. I think Noonan was a speech writer for Ronald Regan and now writes for the Washington Post. It was really insightful and really made me think about what is necessary – what we have to do as the people of the United States of America to move forward.

Much of her argument is that we had the opportunity to really come together as a nation after 9/11, and for a while we did and we saw in the midst of one of our greatest tragedies our greatest glory. We helped one another out. We demonstrated what Americans were about. And we promised to never forget.

But she talks about actions in the years since then – and some of it she places on carelessness within the administration, but also in the fingerpointing of congress – that have ripped our nation in two. Her book is called patriotic grace because she believes we need to find the maturity and grace to not only listen to and treat others with respect, but also have the grace enough to ask for help when we need it.

I want to post a few thoughts on particular sections of the book in the next week or so, but at least want to get my ideas started.

Have you read the book? What are your thoughts?

perception and judgment

Posted on April 17, 20087 Comments

I have been struggling with how we can stretch our minds and start to think of the bible from another perspective within the church. How, in a postmodern world, we can acknowledge the multiple lenses we use to read the bible, without somehow destroying the fact that this is a tradition and a heritage we want to hold on to. With all that thought about how we read and what we are trying to get out of it, I was directed to this New York Times article.

Op-Ed Columnist
Divided They Fall
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: April 17, 2008
Even
though the policy differences between the two Democratic candidates are minimal,
each camp is becoming increasingly aggravated at the other.

I was particularly intrigued by the title of a book referenced – and the idea of a “post-fact society.” It think that it is a true (eek – can I say that?) description of our world! we live as though there were no set truth – only what is right and true for me. Truth – as in capital “T” Truth, is elusive, if not downright dismissed, ignored, denied, well – you get the picture.

I am more prone to acknowledge that truth is NOT something that we can grasp in and of ourselves. I would be willing to talk about truth being held between us – as a collective truth (which some people would say is just a larger idea of relativity). But it’s also kind of Wesleyan – you know, that whole notion of christian conferencing and the spirit helping us discern the truth in our midst.

But if we are going to allow the Spirit to help us discern the truth – be it in the bible or in society, then we have to get out of the way and let the spirit work. We need to let go of our own presumptions. The article talks about getting in better “mental” shape – by reading thoughts and opinions that aren’t our own and getting used to thinking critically. I agree. But I also think that prayer plays a role.

roundtable preaching

Posted on February 13, 2008Leave a comment

This past semester I got to work on my senior project with Dr. John McClure, a professor of homiletics at Vanderbilt Divinity. My project has been on the intersection of so-called postmodern church practices with rural churches in Iowa and one of his suggestions, as a homiletician, was that I incorporate some kind of collaborative preaching model.

And to be honest, with my leadership style and my own values, I desperately want to do so. I truly believe that the Holy Spirit brings us to and reveals to us the Word of God as we read scriptures and as we pray about what to preach. And I also believe that I am not the only person the Holy Spirit speaks to in my church! There is a word to be proclaimed and who knows who might have the message from God this week. I think there is also something that we each bring to the text, experiences that we have that need to be shared with others. And that whenever two or more are gathered, Christ is present.

So I made the invitation to people in the church to join me on Monday afternoons for a “roundtable” discussion about the text for the week. And unfortunately the weather both weeks so far has been awful – snowy, icy, foggy. And as I might have expected this early in my ministry at this church, the participants are all the same faithful people who show up for each and every other church group. The good thing about this group is that it is designed to change completely every few months, so in May I will be asking those individuals to stop coming and to help me recruit others.

One of my greatest temptations in this group is to talk too much. I really want to hear what their perspectives and their questions in relation to the text are. I spend monday afternoons doing some serious research so that I can at least begin to address whatever might come up. So far, there have been good outcomes! Last week we were looking at Jesus in the wilderness and the temptation, but because the lectionary places that text alongside Adam and Eve in the garden we got to talking about how as humans we can resist temptation… and that got us thinking about holding each other accountable. I don’t know that I ever would have gone the direction of accountability with the sermon had it not been for the group, but they are aware that as a church we need to be more actively supporting one another. It turned into a great message!

I’m still learning how to incorporate their ideas into the sermon in more compelling ways, however. I realized halfway through the sermon that I said “in our roundtable group this week we discussed..” or some variation of that too many times. I need to refresh myself on the last chapter in McClure’s book “The Roundtable Pulpit”

Untitled

Posted on October 6, 20071 Comment

wow, I haven’t blogged on here for a while. I guess that’s what happens when life gets busy and different priorities are set. I really want to get back into this, however, as I prepare for heading back to Iowa… yeah, I’m doing that in a few months, and I have been appointed to a church there. Nothing is “official” yet… so I’ll tell you for sure in a few weeks. It is a small town congregation in Iowa, though.

I’ve been attending emergingumc: a gathering for the past few days… and i think i have a billion notes and insights. ideas about how to move forward in my faith. and feelings that i am NOT alone in this whole process. practical suggestions about how to begin changing the ethos of congregations and respond to the people around me.

i’m also currently working on my senior thesis… maybe i’ll post a few insights here when i have time. its about how to take postmodern wesleyan theology and “emerging” practices and contextually bring them to the “farmlands of iowa.” someone suggested I should try to publish it… and while that would be nice, it will be at least a year of loving on this congregation before I can earn enough trust and have enough conversations that in actuality i might be able to do it. so maybe my writing will be how i did the prep work, and the rest of the publication will be my own reflections on being a minister in that context and then how it starts to be fleshed out in the life of that particular church. and i think that WOULD be helpful to others.

why “salvaged” faith?

Posted on June 27, 20072 Comments

i’ve been struggling lately… deeply deeply struggling with how to be faithful to my experience of God and my experience of the church in the vocational path i’m am currently treading.

3 weeks ago, i was commissioned as a probationary elder in the united methodist church. and i love my tradition. and i feel called by God to be a part of the church and to share the sacraments of God’s love and grace with the world. but i also feel deep within my soul a calling to locate myself, to plant deep roots within a community and live simply. and i can’t for the life of me figure out how to do both of those things. to be an elder in my church is to be itinerant – to move at the decision of the bishop/cabinet and the church.

so, i’m trying to figure out where i stand. i’m trying to pick up the various pieces of my experience of God and my tradition and piece them together in a way that makes sense vocationally. in some ways, i feel as if i am out at sea, abandoned, and need to figure out what to take with me.

but i am also realizing that my vocational struggle has as much to do with insecurity about how my faith and theology will be recieved in the church as anything. can i truly be faithful to who I am within the four walls of a church? I have experienced so far that I can at an extremely unique congregation in nashville – but what if that isn’t always the case? how do i work to create communities such as this?

the american heritage dictionary includes these two definitions for the word salvaged:

tr.v. sal·vaged, sal·vag·ing, sal·vag·es
1) To save from loss or destruction.
2) To save (discarded or damaged material) for further use.

I think in some ways I am trying to do both… I am part of a faith journey and experience that includes many people all over the world. in some ways, what I have been experiencing lately is out of tune with what the tradition or the people around me have been doing, trying, teaching, following, etc. I want to salvage the bits of that faith that are important to carry into a postmodern world and church. I want to make sure that the “stuff” of our experience makes it and can still be of use to people in my generation and beyond.

but this is also about keeping myself from losing something vital to my soul – to share my story in a way that is authentic and real and to get it out there before it slips away. by sharing it, i hope to find people who want to walk this path as well… companions on the journey (which is kind of hokey)… who can help me remember that yes, i am walking in the right direction. this blog is about being real about who I am… the I that i am only recently discovering and remembering and living into.

thomas merton has a quote that reads:

in order to become myself, i must cease to be what i always thought i wanted to be.

for me, this means i have to stop listening to the expectations and voices of the world around me and look really really deep within and find and accept the me that is there. i need to stop trying to be someone i’m not. that’s true relationally, theologically, you name it. so – that’s what i’m doing…