Aside – Salvaged Faith

Posted on May 2, 2016Leave a comment

I serve on the Rules of Order Committee for our Iowa Annual Conference. These rules are basically the organizing and structural principles that guide our shared work and life together – both within our 3-4 day conference sessions and for the rest of the year.

We’ve been working hard to clarify and “clean up” the rules. We had stuck a number of standing reports within our Rules of Order at one point that really didn’t belong. And now, we are working to examine which of the rules help us to live effectively into shared ministry together, and which are hindering us from the work before us. A colleague on the committee shared with lament: “it’s like we didn’t know how to trust each other, so we just wrote all of these rules instead.”

Maybe you are familiar with the feeling. An employee leaves under bad circumstances, so you change the job description before hiring someone new… so that all of the previous person’s faults can be avoided. Or one person oversteps an unwritten boundary and the entire system reacts by making a complex set of rules.

Rules are good. They guide and shape our life together. They provide the foundation or the framework upon which our homes and churches grow and flourish. Done well, they provide just enough support and instruction to enable us to be creative and joyfully share in our work together and then they get out of the way.

And I’m also acutely aware of the ability of rules to protect and defend the innocent, the marginalized, and the powerless. Rules can keep us from running amok and forgetting to look around and see who we have neglected to create space for at the table.

But that comment from my colleague keeps sticking with me. Too often, because of distrust, or instead of doing the hard work of learning how to trust or trying to build trust, we just create new rules. We fill our churches, our institutions, our Discipline, with do’s and don’ts.

As I pour over the nearly 1500 pages of legislation brought to the General Conference, that comment keeps ringing out in the back of my mind.

Is this piece of legislation a symptom of our distrust of one another? Or is it a tool that will help us work together towards God’s future?

Over and over, I ask these questions.

Will this addition or deletion help us be more faithful to the witness of God in our world today as the people called United Methodist? Or are we simply adding or deleting a rule because we aren’t happy with what Mr. Smith said at the last Ad Council meeting?

Does this legislation lift up possibility of God calling us in a new way? Or is it filled with fear that holds us back from living out God’s dream?

I don’t believe our work at General Conference 2016 is to legislate trust. We can’t “whereas” and “therefore” our way out of our disagreements. So I pray for the God of hope to fill our proceedings. I pray for a Spirit of direction that will help us to create a framework for ministry that can reach every corner of this globe. I pray that the Living Word would be heard afresh so that God’s vision for today might be heard a new.

Posted on February 29, 2016Leave a comment

We have probably 20 volunteer red bud trees growing in the landscaping of our back yard. If we simply let them be, they are in the wrong spots and far too crowded for sustained growth. The best choice is to pick two or three and move them to where they will have a chance to flourish.

As I have been researching this, one article I came across suggested cutting the roots in roughly a 15″ radius around the base of the tree in all directions. By cutting directly down and through the longer roots, it forces root growth near the ball that will allow the tree to transplant better.

This same information was learned in a different context by a colleague this Sunday.

The lectionary scripture for the day is about the gardener, the owner, and the fruitless fig tree in Luke 13:6-9.

In the parable, the fig tree isn’t dead… but it also isn’t bearing fruit. The owner wants to cut it down, but the gardener wants to give it another year. He wants to “dig around it and give it fertilizer.”

Dig around it… maybe like cutting the roots in all directions?

My colleague had a parishioner come up after her sermon and share her own anecdote about digging around to help something bear fruit:

…She grew up in Eastern Washington state, on an apple and pear farm. And she said she didn’t know anything about figs, but with the apples and pears trees, if a tree was otherwise healthy and fine but not bearing fruit, as a last resort they would take a spade and about a foot out from the trunk they would chop all the roots all around the tree. This makes the tree kind of “panic” and think it is dying, for some reason the reaction to the panic is that it bears fruit!

Plants like fig trees or apple trees or even my raspberry bushes can grow vibrantly and abundantly… and still not put forth fruit. Sometimes this has to do with it being too crowded or having a bad season or putting too much energy into other places like leaf production. And sometimes, they need a radical kick in the rear to jump start production.

And I think our faith is a lot like that, too. I think sometimes we need someone to dig around us and cut all of the long roots that keep us healthy, but also keep us from bearing fruit: wealth, comfort, success, health, freedom…

It’s not that these things are bad – but we can put so much focus on them, that we forget all about the bearing fruit part. Maybe “digging around” and cutting the roots can help us to not take those things for granted; help shift our focus and our priorities so that there is room for other roots to grow; help create energy towards fruitfulness and not simply stability.

And sometimes in the process, we find ourselves uprooted and transformed and transplanted as God sees our renewed strength and thinks: I have just the place for that disciple to bear fruit…

Posted on February 28, 2016Leave a comment

I confess…

Tonight our confirmation students were asked to state their faith. To imagine that they had been arrested for their faith and had to write their confession for their “crime”.

And, it’s important for all of us as adults and teachers and mentors in the faith to do the same.

As I think about my confession, I really do believe in the power of God to transform this world.

I see signs of love and mystery all around me in creation and in the lives of other people. And I see so many ways that we have completely failed to take care of the gift of this world and one another.

I confess that I have been part of that failure. I confess that my church has been part of that failure. And I confess my sincere desire to live differently.

I confess that I believe God wants to help us find abundant life and sent leaders and prophets, strong men and women to speak a word of hope and possibility. I believe that God came to show the way as Jesus… Flesh and blood and as much as the world wanted and needed the message of transformation, we crucified him. But our NO to God was trumped by God’s YES to us… And not sin or death can stop the love of God.

I believe Jesus rose from the grave and I believe eventually we will die and will rise again. I believe in between, we have a chance to do the best we can to learn from and to follow Jesus every day of our life.

I believe through the Holy Spirit we can heal. I believe we can conquer addictions and sins. I believe God has called me to be light to the world and yeast in the lives of others and to make trouble for those who are making trouble for the least of these. And if I get arrested for those things… Then I’m probably doing exactly what God has called me to.

And I confess that not having been arrested for my faith, I sometimes feel like I’m probably not doing enough and I’m probably a bit too comfortable and fearful to really step out and stand up against evil, injustice, and oppression.

You know… The things we are asking our youth to stand and say on confirmation Sunday.

Posted on February 22, 2016Leave a comment

I spend a good chunk of time every week preparing to preach the word of God through liturgy choices, attention to hymns, exegetical work, praying, listening, dreaming, and writing.

And I forget sometimes that I need to hear the good news preached, too.

I am, after all, just as human as the rest of the world.

When you are the one responsible for bringing the word each week, you aren’t always sure where to look and you don’t always have time to seek it out.

Sometimes, the gospel shows up on your desk.

In a little bundle of notes, all folded into one another, with instructions: Open one at a time until you reach the end.

Notes about prayer, and faithfulness, and trouble and hurts, God’s love and grace, the cross and the thorns.

All ending with the simple reminder:

Posted on November 2, 2015Leave a comment

I was never someone who was really concerned about style growing up. I had some hand me down outfits from cousins, I wore a lot of t-shirts and jeans. I remember a pair or two of stirrup pants in there. Fashion wasn’t my thing.

As an adult, however, I’m starting to lean into fashion.

I think part of it has to do with being in a semi-professional type of position, standing in front of folks who are dressed for church on a regular basis, and wanting to be taken seriously in my work… in spite of my age and gender.

I never quite knew what to wear to my first church. It was the county seat of a rural community and people came to church in everything from sweatpants to suits. How do you dress in that situation to help everyone feel comfortable? How do you dress so you aren’t ever “above” or “below” someone? I got very comfortable in nice jeans and a jacket… or a dress with more casual shoes. And to be honest, I have kind of stayed in that place. Casual chic? Dressed down dresses? oh, and lots of accessories….

My first day at my new church, in my position as the lead pastor, I walked in wearing this sleek black dress, black heels, and I straightened my hair. I wanted to make an impression. I wanted to let the world know that I was serious business. And I felt so completely overdressed all day long.

I have mostly drifted back to my casual, but “fashionable” wardrobe. I have discovered I love dresses and skirts because they really can be dressed up or down to suit the occasion. I’m trying to simplify my basics and expand the accessories.

But can I tell you… there is nothing better on Sunday morning at church than being able to put a robe over whatever I’m wearing that day. It takes off all the pressure. It takes away all the comments. It allows me to simply preach and do my job without anyone, including myself, worrying about what it is that I’m wearing.

Posted on October 27, 2015Leave a comment

When I was in high school, my youth group went on an international mission trip to Peru. Forty youth plus chaperones set out from Cedar Rapids determined to make a difference in the lives of other people. We even made t-shirts.

I remember the night that we came up with the slogan for the back of our shirts. We were at a planning meeting… a barbeque in someone’s backyard. We divided into crews and we all did our own brainstorming and came up with ideas, and then we merged into larger groups and condensed ideas and eventually we came up with this:

Building Hope, Changing Hearts… one nail at a time.

What I remember most profoundly was the idea that we were the ones who would be doing all of this. That as high school students we had the power to truly transform lives. That we could give of our time (in the middle of summer no less) and our talents (as meager as they might be) and other people would be changed.

Sometimes, I think back to how naïve we were. To really think that a group of teenagers could work for 8 days and completely change a community.

But in the end, people were transformed. Only, it was us, far more than the children at “El Refugio de Esperanza” (the Refuge of Hope).

When we give, we are changed. It is as simple as that.

Posted on December 22, 2014Leave a comment

Everyone is gone for the day.

The church is quiet and still.

And here I sit, pouring over the words in the hymnal and songbooks.

Looking for just the right combination of joy and reflection. Of longing and praise. Of reality and possibility. Of the familiar and the uncomfortable.

Sometimes I forget we also have to sing the tunes.

Posted on November 22, 2014Leave a comment

It has been a rough couple of days.

Charges were brought up against a colleague in Iowa who officiated a same-sex wedding.

I had far too many interpersonal conversations which left me kind of exhausted.

And in the midst of if, I sometimes wonder what my role is as a pastor. Am I the chief administrator at the church? The head prophet? The comforter?

I’m struck by how Jesus navigated the expectations and roles in his life. Tomorrow, we celebrate Jesus was both our King and Shepherd. But it wasn’t like he took off one hat amd put on the other. He was always a King who ruled like a shepherd: from the middle of the people, leaving the flock to save the lost, concerned about the individual lives of people more than the laws that governed the Kingdom.

So which hat is my primary hat? And how will it change every other role in my life?