MONDAY MATTERS
Reflections to start the week
Monday, February 9, 2015
All things to all people
There are a bunch of sayings that people think are in the Bible that actually aren't there. For instance, "God helps those who help themselves." Appealing social policy to some, but not in scripture. Or "When God closes a door, he opens a window." Perhaps, but the Bible doesn't tell us so. There are also phrases that may not mean what we think. "An eye for an eye" may sound like permission for retribution, even vengeance, but what if it's about limits not license? Then there's a phrase that Paul used in the first letter to the Corinthians, as he talked about his ministry. It turned up yesterday in the lectionary, and caught my eye (see below). He said he had become all things to all people. In our culture, that suggests pandering, leaders lacking conviction, losing identity and integrity for the sake of expediency, comfort or popularity. Not for Paul. It was the work of the gospel.
It was my privilege last week to interview some church leaders about discipleship. In a phone conversation with Dr. Dwight Zscheile, I was struck again by his gift for talking about what it means to bring God's good news into the contemporary world. (Plug: Read his book People of the Way and also his new book The Agile Church. Good stuff.) In People of the Way, he describes how Episcopalians are called to live in our world as disciples. One of the chapters talks about the importance of finding out what God is up to in the neighborhood, not assuming we know, but rather listening, and experiencing what others experience. He talks about what it means to accept the hospitality of the world (as commanded by Jesus in Luke 10, a portion of which you can find in the column on the left), to meet people where they are, to let them be our teachers, getting ego out of the way, so that we can be all things to all people.
Speaking of ego (which a wise counselor to whom I happen to be married tells me is an acronym for edging God out), I commend to you David Brooks' column from last Friday, entitled Ego and Conflict. He discusses the way he navigates conflict and criticism that comes his way. Here's how he starts the column, with echoes of the Sermon on the Mount: "If you read the online versions of newspaper columns you can click over to the reader comments, which are often critical, vituperative and insulting. I've found that I can only deal with these comments by following the adage, "Love your enemy." He talks about how easy it is to get offended, to engage in righteous indignation, to wonder how anyone could treat me this way, as he encounters expressions of ego especially unappealing in religious folks. What Paul was talking about, being all things to all people, was finding a way to get the ego out of it, to do the challenging work of loving enemy, way easier said than done.
Which leads to this thought this Monday morning. This kind of expression of love, the commitment to be all things to all people is really nothing more or less than a commitment to be of service. It is not about getting people to recognize how good or right or smart or compassionate we are. It's about opening a way for them to see the goodness of God, the meaning of grace in their lives, wherever they may be. Wherever they/we may be, they/we need to know about acceptance, about compassion, about love. How will you be of service in that way this Monday morning? Who has God put in your path that provides that spiritual growth opportunity? What do you think it means to be all things to all people? Will you take a stand for that?
- Jay Sidebotham
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For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them... To those under the law I became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law) so that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people. -I Corinthians After this the Lord appointed 70 others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, 'The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest. Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, "Peace to this house!"And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the labourer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, "The kingdom of God has come near to you." -Luke 10:1-9 |
Contact:
Rev. Jay Sidebotham
jsidebotham@renewalworks.org
RenewalWorks is a ministry of Forward Movement.
www.renewalworks.org
MONDAY MATTERS
Reflections to start the week
Monday, February 2, 2015
What are you waiting for?
Anna gets her fifteen minutes of biblical fame in the second chapter of Luke's gospel. Her story is told each year on the second of February, the Feast of the Presentation. Anna had been married for seven years, a widow after that. She was now 84 years old. Do the math: she'd been a widow for more than 50 years in a culture where widows didn't count for much. Luke tells us that she had spent those years in the temple, praying, fasting, waiting to see how God's promise might be fulfilled. When the infant Jesus is brought to the temple for ritual presentation, Anna sees what she has been waiting for. She echoes what has just been said by Simeon: "My eyes have seen the salvation." What must it have been like to wait all that time? To be faithful. To battle resentment. To keep hope alive.
Her story echoes other biblical stories of faithfulness, persistence, expectancy, hope, maybe even holy stubbornness. Back in the book of Genesis, Sarah had been promised a multitude of children, as many as the stars in the sky. Just one problem. She was 90 years old and had yet to birth a baby. When told by visiting angels that she would have a son, she laughed. When that son arrived, she named him Isaac, which means "to laugh". What was it like for Sarah to wait, day after day, year after year during which no angel visited? Moses fled Egypt and worked for 40 years watching sheep. I imagine mornings when he wondered where he had gone wrong, how he had squandered opportunity. What was it like for Moses to waken and watch sheep, day after day, year after year, when no burning bush said anything? The people of Israel wandered in the wilderness for forty years. There were lots of Monday mornings that must have seemed like every other morning, with no sense that promise would ever be realized. What was it like for them to put one foot in front of another, day after day? I think of contemporary witnesses of people of faith who wait. Nelson Mandela, decades in prison when there was so much work to do, day after day constrained by prison bars. Mother Teresa, morning by morning, Monday after Monday, faced waves of overwhelming poverty. When asked how she could keep on keeping on, she answered that God called her to be faithful, not necessarily successful.
On this mid-winter Monday morning, another week begins. Maybe you're in some valley or on some mountaintop. More likely, you face routine which may leave you wondering when God will act, or what God is up to, or if God is around, or if things could be different. That's where we live a lot of the time. But we are people of promise. We watch and wait in faith that God is at work. So how do we wait? I had the privilege of hearing Brene Brown speak last week. (If you don't know who she is, that's why we have google.) She talked about how she and her family put faith to work in the world. She said that we don't so much need an attitude of gratitude as we need a practice of gratitude. She and her family begin each meal not only with a prayer of grace. They also go around the table and name things for which they are grateful. I've mentioned before a friend, a rabbi, who invites her congregation to list 100 blessings each day. These are ways that some folks navigate the journey of faith, often about faithfulness, persistence, holy stubbornness. And today we remember Anna, who reminds us that God shows up. We give thanks for what we know about her. Not a lot, but enough to help us through this day, enough to help us when it's hard to wait.
- Jay Sidebotham
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There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day. At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem. -Luke 2 A waiting person is a patient person. The word patience means the willingness to stay where we are and live the situation out to the full in the belief that something hidden there will manifest itself to us. -Henri J.M. Nouwen We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. -E.M.Forster |
Contact:
Rev. Jay Sidebotham
jsidebotham@renewalworks.org
RenewalWorks is a ministry of Forward Movement.
www.renewalworks.org
MONDAY MATTERS
Reflections to start the week
Monday, January 26, 2015
Waste
We went to see the movie "Wild", a story about ways to navigate wilderness, a persistent biblical theme for sure, a theme of powerful pertinence because every one of us, even the most entrenched urbanite, knows about wilderness. Our most crowded cities can feel like the most isolated places. The movie tells the story of two women, a mother and daughter. Each find that the circumstances of life lead them into wilderness, literal, figurative. And while there are tragic challenges faced throughout the narrative, while brokenness abounds, I was struck with the ways that each of the two women discover a pathway marked by gratitude. The mother speaks of gratitude for the difficulties she experienced because she ended up with two children who she loved more than life. The daughter reflects on the painful and destructive ways she screwed things up and hurt people she loved. The journey of her life, with all its wounds, some self-inflicted, led to a new place, a new future. She was able to forgive others and forgive herself. She expresses gratitude for that journey.
I gather the movie is up for Oscars, but the takeaway prize for me? A call to gratitude in the attitude, giving thanks in the wilderness. I thought about that perspective last Friday when our church observed the feast of Phillips Brooks, a great Episcopal preacher (note: not an oxymoron) who served at Trinity Copley Square in Boston and who said the following:
You must learn, you must let God teach you, that the only way to get rid of your past is to make a future out of it. God will waste nothing.
This Monday morning, perhaps you find yourself in the wilderness. We've all been there. I'm wondering how you will regard that experience, how you will think about the circumstances that brought you to this place. I'm wondering if there is a way to regard those experiences, and your life in this moment, with gratitude. To put it mildly, that's not always easy to do.
But if our faith really is about the promise of transformation, of renewal. It calls us to that leap whereby we claim that God will waste nothing. Sometimes we see that most clearly when we're in the wild.
- Jay Sidebotham
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Waste by Kay Ryan Not even waste This one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. -Philippians 3 |
Contact:
Rev. Jay Sidebotham
jsidebotham@renewalworks.org
RenewalWorks is a ministry of Forward Movement.
www.renewalworks.org
MONDAY MATTERS
Reflections to start the week
Monday, January 19, 2015
In one of his several amazing books about the Civil Rights movement, Taylor Branch describes a pivotal moment in the ministry of Martin Luther King. The phone at Dr. King's home had been ringing with messages of threat and terror, implying peril not only for him but his family. King sat alone after his family had gone to bed. Taylor Branch writes: "
King buried his face in his hands at the kitchen table. He admitted to himself that he was afraid, that he had nothing left, that the people would falter if they looked to him for strength. Then he said as much out loud. He spoke the name of no deity, but his doubts spilled out as a prayer, ending, "I've come to the point where I can't face it alone." As he spoke these words, the fears suddenly began to melt away. He became intensely aware of what he called an "inner voice" telling him to do what he thought was right. Such simplicity worked miracles, bringing a shudder of relief and the courage to face anything. It was for King the first transcendent religious experience of his life. . . . For King, the moment awakened and confirmed his belief that the essence of religion was not a grand metaphysical idea but something personal, grounded in experience -- something that opened up mysteriously beyond the predicaments of human beings in their frailest and noblest moments." (from Parting the Waters, by Taylor Branch, Simon & Schuster, 1988)
This Monday matters because as a nation we honor this prophet, a prophet in the sense of a seer who has a dream about the future, but also a prophet in the sense of one who has courage to speak truth to power.
This Monday matters because as a church we celebrate this saint as one of the great cloud of witnesses who models what discipleship means, what it means to put faith to work in the world. For the feast day of Martin Luther King, we read about the call of Moses, noting comparisons between the prince of Egypt and Dr. King. We read from Exodus 3 (below), the story of the call of Moses to take on the enslaving, oppressive Pharaoh, to be God's instrument in the world because God had heard the suffering of God's people. Moses turns aside to see the burning bush and says the three most dangerous words in the Bible: "Here am I.' In response, God describes the task ahead. "Tell old Pharaoh to let my people go." In response, Moses moves from "Here am I!" to "Who am I?" Specifically, he asks, "Who am I to do this job, to change what can't be changed, to face a problem that cannot be overcome, to counter evil that is too strong?" And what is the divine answer to Moses' question: "Who am I?"
God says to Moses: "I will be with you."
The Monday matters because we face problems that defy our cleverness and reveal the limits of our competence. There is still too much work of justice and peace to be done. Perhaps we've come some distance since Dr. King's day but today's news reveals that it is not enough. Injustices and inequity, violence and treachery persist. They can overwhelm. Our tradition tells us that God not only hears the suffering of God's people, but also calls us to address that suffering. Who me? Who am I? How will we do that when the problems seem so big?
Once when I was whining with doubts about my effectiveness, a mentor asked me to name the one thing (or more) that I knew I simply could not do without God's help. She said to pray about that particular thing. She predicted that would be the place where God would work, echoing that translation of the beatitudes: Blessed are those who know their need of God. This Monday morning, the news of the day from around the globe, the challenges of our lives as we face another week, may overwhelm. Who are we to tackle them? If that question is bothering you, I wonder if you can hear God's response: "I will be with you."
- Jay Sidebotham
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Then the Lord said, 'I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey...The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.' But Moses said to God, 'Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?' He said, 'I will be with you." -Exodus 3 But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame will not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour. -Isaiah 43 Fear not I am with thee |
Contact:
Rev. Jay Sidebotham
jsidebotham@renewalworks.org
RenewalWorks is a ministry of Forward Movement.
www.renewalworks.org
MONDAY MATTERS
Reflections to start the week
Monday, January 12, 2015
I raked in at Christmas. Now that we've moved from the season of Christmas to the season of Epiphany, I'm mindful of many wonderful gifts I received, some of them found under the tree, some of them bits of good new. (Not to be mysterious: my wonderful son announced his engagement to a wonderful young woman, all of which is wonderful.)
It's probably dangerous, perhaps unseemly and possibly ungrateful to highlight gifts which are among my favorites, but I'll go out on a limb here. As I write, I'm looking across the top of my laptop at a small necklace, one of four that my daughter purchased for each member of our family, a small gold chain with a simple medallion. On each of the medallions is engraved the same citation: Joshua 1:9. If your trip down Sunday School memory lane doesn't bring the text of that verse to mind (below). Our family has encouraged each other over the years, in times of adventure and adversity, with this call to courage. We are bound to each other by that call, which is why we each got that same necklace.
That verse from the book of Joshua was given to the children of Israel as they were facing new challenges, forging a new community, ready for the new thing God had for them to do. That call bound them together.
A variation of the verse occurs in several places in the psalms, that book which is really a guide to liturgy. Episcopalians may note that the call to courage surfaces in our own liturgy. The prayer we say after communion, as we are sent into the world, asks that we will have "strength and courage to love and serve with gladness and singleness of heart". The call to courage has for centuries found its way into worship. Who knew that worship was meant to give us courage? It binds us together to face the world.
Think with me this Monday morning about the word courage. It connotes bravery, the willingness to face fears and failure. Brene Brown writes powerfully about the call to be courageous, noting how responding to the call with vulnerability can bind communities together. Her book Daring Greatly was prompted by a speech given by Teddy Roosevelt, especially this excerpt: "It is not the critic who counts...the credit belongs to the [man] who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming...at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly." A call to courage.
But perhaps more than bravery, the power of the word comes from its link to the French word for heart (coeur), which is to say that on some level, the courage to which are called, the courage binding us together and provides a way to move forward, is a matter of heart. As we note in the work we do focused on spiritual growth, that movement is really about the deepening of love of God and neighbor. So if we are called to be of good courage, we are called to deeper love. As Brene Brown says: "Our communities need love and a sense of belonging. In their absence, there is always suffering. We all need to be seen and loved. We all need to belong. We all need to be brave."
As a hack, amateur cartoonist, I've been so saddened by what unfolded in Paris last week. The events have caused me to think about who "je suis". My thoughts have been led to the ministry of Karen Armstrong, former nun, now prominent religious scholar with a vocation to think about how the world's religions can possibly get along, how we can have courage for the facing of this hour. We need her now more than ever. She has devoted time, talent and treasure to presenting compassion as the highest common value among the great faith traditions. Consider her insight: "Religious people often prefer to be right rather than compassionate. Often, they don't want to give up their egotism. They want their religion to endorse their ego, their identity."
Her call to compassion seems to me to be a lot like the call to courage. That call to be compassionate (literally, compassion means suffering with) seems currently compelling. Will you join me with strength and courage to consider what a more compassionate world might look like, daring to shift the focus from self to the other, praying for those like the people of Paris now called to courage? Will you join in the challenge of considering courageous ways to be more compassionate this Monday, January 12, with the people you'll see in the next moments: family, friends, co-workers. This is hard work. Jesus knew how to do it. He teaches how to do it. I wonder if we will learn.
- Jay Sidebotham
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I hereby command you: Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. -Joshua 1:9 Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage. Wait for the Lord. -Psalm 27:14 Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord. -Psalm 31:24 Grant us strength and courage to love and serve you with gladness and singleness of heart; through Christ our Lord. -The Book of Common Prayer page 365 |
Contact:
Rev. Jay Sidebotham
jsidebotham@renewalworks.org
RenewalWorks is a ministry of Forward Movement.
www.renewalworks.org
MONDAY MATTERS
Reflections to start the week
Monday, January 5, 2015
It's become a habit, maybe on a good day a spiritual discipline, always a gift. I hop in the car, dogs in tow, and drive a few miles down to the beach to watch the sun break the horizon. It means a lot to me. It's quiet. It's stunningly beautiful. It's awesome, in the true sense of the word. It puts me in my place. It offers perspective. It's different every morning. It's a place to focus on the things for which I'm grateful, to offer the intercessions on my heart, to focus on how I may be of service in the next 24 hours. As a discipline, it's given me time to be mindful that each day is a gift and to challenge myself to use the days wisely. On most days, I'm pretty much alone, perhaps one or two folks in sight as I look up and down miles of beach.
The spirit led me in this ritual last Thursday, a.k.a., New Year's Day. I had gone to bed pretty early the night before (a huge surprise to those who know me) so it was not a big deal to get up early. I expected to be alone, revelers still recovering. But as I drove down towards the beach in the moments before sunrise, cars sped by me. When I got to "my" parking lot, there were no spaces left. I had to find a new place to park That was annoying. I'm an Episcopalian, and we don't like liturgy interrupted.
As I walked on to the beach, I realized I was not the only one on this first day of 2015 to think about starting it by watching the sun come up. The place was crowded. There were groups of young folks who had clearly not gone to bed yet, or sobered up yet, still very much in a party mood. There were couples who sat looking over the expanse of water, blankets wrapping them in a huddle. Individuals stood or sat, some with cameras, waiting and watching until the blaze broke the surface of the sea and another day began. With that new light, 2014 was behind us, not an altogether bad thing, since it's been a rough year for many. We were all there together, a congregation celebrating the gift of a new day, a new year, with new challenge, new opportunity.
That this one sunrise marks a new year is arbitrary, I suppose. The sun is just doing what the sun has been doing for a while. The earth is spinning just like it always does. Thosee waves roll in, indifferent to whether I was watching or not. But that community of strangers on that beach on that morning at 7:12am EST was expecting something new.
On New Year's Eve, one of the readings for the day, assigned by the lectionary in the Book of Common Prayer came from the Second Letter to the Corinthian church. It's a reading (below) that also surfaces on Ash Wednesday, another season that has renewal as its intention. It's a reading about God's habit, God's spiritual discipline, God's ritual of making things new. St. Paul speaks of God's ministry of reconciliation. He invites his readers (including you and me this Monday morning) to be ministers of that reconciliation. He calls us ambassadors of that work. Ambassadors for Christ. Who knew?
So as the sun rises on your new year, how will you carry out that ministry? How will you represent God's new work in the world? How will you participate in it? How will you open yourself so that it can happen in your life, in your heart, in this day which the Lord has made, in the coming year which will be filled with challenge, opportunity and surprises.
- Jay Sidebotham
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A Collect for Grace: Lord God, Almighty and everlasting Father, you have brought us in safety to this new day: Preserve us with your mighty power, that we may not fall into sin, nor be overcome by adversity and in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. -II Corinthians 5:17-20 |
Contact:
Rev. Jay Sidebotham
jsidebotham@renewalworks.org
RenewalWorks is a ministry of Forward Movement.
www.renewalworks.org
