Psalm 50:7-15
7 Hear, O my people, and I will speak: "O Israel, I will bear witness against you; for I am God, your God.
8 I do not accuse you because of your sacrifices; your offerings are always before me.
9 I will take no bull-calf from your stalls, nor he-goats out of your pens;
10 For all the beasts of the forest are mine, the herds in their thousands upon the hills.
11 I know every bird in the sky, and the creatures of the fields are in my sight.
12 If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the whole world is mine and all that is in it.
13 Do you think I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?
14 Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving and make good your vows to the Most High.
15 Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall honor me."
This year, Monday Matters is focused on wisdom conveyed in the treasures of the book of Psalms. We'll look at the psalms read in church before Monday Matters comes to your screen.
A sacrifice of thanksgiving
I’m puzzling about this phrase “sacrifice of thanksgiving.” The phrase comes up in the psalm we may have heard yesterday in church, and in a bunch of other places in the Bible. What kind of sacrifice is that?
On the one hand, it strikes me the psalmist is talking about a sacrifice that is no sacrifice at all. In other contexts, a sacrifice is transactional. If I give up this, if I offer this, I will earn your approval. I will earn forgiveness. A sacrifice of thanksgiving abandons that transactional dimension, and simply admits that all is grace. It brings to mind the wisdom of Rob Bell who, along with others, said that there is nothing we can do to make God love us more and nothing we can do to make God love us less. That love from which we can never be separated comes without condition. Nothing can separate us from that love. See Romans 8. Thanks be to God.
Looked at another way, there may be some kind of sacrifice when we offer thanksgiving. When we do so, we are saying no to that ego driven conviction that by virtue of what we offer, God will be more pleased with us. For many people in our culture, that’s a hard pill to swallow. It hurts to let go of that mindsight. It’s built into our operating system. We want salvation the old-fashioned way: we want to earn it. (Think Javert in Les Mis.) The gospel of the Old Testament as well as the new points us in another direction.
Ask yourself the question I’m asking myself in light of this phrase: what do I need to give up, to let go, in order to live a life increasingly marked by thanksgiving? It may not simply be the need to prove ourselves, to prove our worth. It may be we need to give up resentments that block our ability to be thankful. It may be that we need to place our jealousy or covetousness on the altar. Maybe we need to extend forgiveness to others or perhaps to ourselves as a measure of our sacrifice.
From another point of view, we can return to the idea that the best kind of sacrifice we can offer is no sacrifice at all. Scripture tells us it’s not at the top of the list of what God wants. In several places we read that what God really desires is mercy not sacrifice. We heard that in the gospel yesterday, as Jesus calls out the Pharisees who are criticizing him for hanging out with the wrong crowd. We hear it in the prophets like Hosea (Hosea 6:6) or Samuel (I Samuel 15:22) who say that mercy is what is expected of us.
By now, it’s probably clear to readers that I’m not sure what a sacrifice of thanksgiving really means. Consult your local clergy for more clarity. But whatever it means, we can’t go wrong by focusing on thanksgiving, by increasing gratitude in the attitude. That’s a spiritual practice, which means that like any practice, the more we do it, the more proficient we become at it. Maybe that means establishing a list of things for which you are grateful, and reviewing it every day. Maybe that means setting aside 5 minutes in the morning and 5 minutes at the end of the day to attend to your gratitudes. Maybe it’s making a commitment to acts of mercy, wherever you see a need for mercy. Those needs surround us.
Offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving this week. Find out what that means for you.
- Jay Sidebotham
Psalm 8
1 O Lord our Governor, how exalted is your Name in all the world!
2 Out of the mouths of infants and children your majesty is praised above the heavens.
3 You have set up a stronghold against your adversaries, to quell the enemy and the avenger.
4 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars you have set in their courses,
5 What is man that you should be mindful of him? the son of man that you should seek him out?
6 You have made him but little lower than the angels; you adorn him with glory and honor;
7 You give him mastery over the works of your hands; you put all things under his feet:
8 All sheep and oxen, even the wild beasts of the field,
9 The birds of the air, the fish of the sea, and whatsoever walks in the paths of the sea.
10 O Lord our Governor, how exalted is your Name in all the world!
This year, Monday Matters is focused on wisdom conveyed in the treasures of the book of Psalms. We'll look at the psalms read in church before Monday Matters comes to your screen.
Mindfulness: God's and ours
Mindfulness is apparently all the rage, for good reason. It’s an important spiritual practice, as many religious traditions indicate. As the priest, Nicolas Malebranche (1638-1715) noted: Attentiveness is the prayer of the soul. In a world marked by innumerable distractions as close as the smart phone, a mindfulness practice is increasingly difficult to practice. But it wasn’t until I thought about the psalm we heard in church yesterday that I realized that the God of scripture practices mindfulness too.
The psalmist says it plainly: What is man that you should be mindful of him? I imagine the author looking up at the star lit night, tracing the path of the moon across that vault, awestruck by that display. From our perspective, a few thousand years after the psalm was written, the biblical vision of the heavens seems small, that biblical vision imagining the sky as a kind of superdome holding back waters of chaos, the earth at the center of it all. One wonders what the psalmist would say now, as Hubble telescopes reveal an apparently unending universe, the earth shrinking in size, no longer the center but a fleck of dust. The psalmist’s question becomes all the more powerful.
It makes me wonder what we need to do to recover the meaning of the word “awesome.” We apply the word to a good meal, a great song, a fun party, a three-pointer, whatever. I suspect that a key element in our spiritual lives, in our relationship with the Holy One, is to spend time in amazed reflection on the wonder of it all. In many ways, we’ve lost that. We sometimes find ourselves boring people in church. In our own lives, we spend time as functional atheists, not recognizing that we live in the presence of God the creator. My own spiritual challenge is to recognize each day that my life unfolds in the presence of God, in relationship to God, a mindfulness that calls for both accountability on my part and gratitude for grace.
There’s yet another factor causing the psalmist to break into praise. The psalmist notes the amazing grace that the God of this vast and awesome creation is mindful of us. This psalmist, mindful of God’s mindfulness, anticipates the greatest example of God’s mindfulness of us, the mystery of the incarnation, God with us (Immanuel) in the person of Jesus. Like the mystery of the Trinity we heard about yesterday in church, I don’t know how it is possible that the God of creation took human form, indeed siding with those on the margins of human community. All of it we embrace in faith, allowing it to shape our lives, leading us to worship not only with our lips but with our lives.
I keep on the wall of my study this quote from Richard Rohr:
I do not want to belong to a religion that cannot kneel. I do not want to live in a world where there is no one to adore. It is a lonely and labored world if I am its only center.
We are meant to live our lives mindful of the miracle that the God of all creation is mindful of us, paying attention to us, meeting us with grace and love. It does not mean we understand it. I admit I find it in some respects unbelievable. At the same time, that kind of mindfulness provides a guiding principle for our spiritual journeys.
Giving thanks that God is mindful of us, how might we grow in our own mindfulness this week?
- Jay Sidebotham
From RenewalWorks Director Loren Dixon
I bring some exciting news from Forward Movement that was announced earlier this week. As you may remember, RenewalWorks, a discipleship offering of Forward Movement, has become a part of the Center for Discipleship and Renewal (Cedar) at Forward Movement. On Tuesday, the Cedar team launched our first weekly newsletter, blog and website, which we hope will be of interest and inspiration to you in our work to draw closer to each other and God.
Regarding Cedar, a note from Scott Gunn, Executive Director of Forward Movement:
“From the founding of Forward Movement to the present day, our work has remained constant: we aim to support ordinary Christians in their daily walk with Jesus Christ. We Episcopalians have welcomed many, but we have not always done an effective job at encouraging members to go deeper. The Center for Discipleship and Renewal seeks to help church leaders put discipleship at the center of congregations. By the power of the Holy Spirit, this can lead to transformed lives, growing churches, and a better world.”
Robert Hendrickson, Cedar's Director, wrote a reflection to introduce Cedar's work. To dive deeper into reflections like this and resources for discipleship and spiritual growth, sign up for the Cedar newsletter.
Cedar's work is fully integrated with Forward Movement’s other ministries and resources, and its mission to inspire disciples and empower evangelists, and our work is focused on:
- creating transformational discipleship resources for the Episcopal Church including digital, video, podcasts, webinars and print
- supporting leaders as they form disciples in their congregations and ministry contexts
- sparking conversation on discipleship and church renewal
- becoming a hub of connection for clergy and lay leaders
RenewalWorks will continue its focus on providing qualitative assessment and guided curriculum and facilitation to support churches in their focus on spiritual strategic planning, creating church cultures of discipleship, and encouraging spiritual vitality in the broader context of Cedar.
Psalm 104:25-35, 37
25 O Lord, how manifold are your works! in wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.
26 Yonder is the great and wide sea with its living things too many to number, creatures both small and great.
27 There move the ships, and there is that Leviathan, which you have made for the sport of it.
28 All of them look to you to give them their food in due season.
29 You give it to them; they gather it; you open your hand, and they are filled with good things.
30 You hide your face, and they are terrified; you take away their breath, and they die and return to their dust.
31 You send forth your Spirit, and they are created; and so you renew the face of the earth.
32 May the glory of the Lord endure for ever; may the Lord rejoice in all his works.
33 He looks at the earth and it trembles; he touches the mountains and they smoke.
34 I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will praise my God while I have my being.
35 May these words of mine please him; I will rejoice in the Lord.
37 Bless the Lord, O my soul. Hallelujah!
This year, Monday Matters is focused on wisdom conveyed in the treasures of the book of Psalms. We'll look at the psalms read in church before Monday Matters comes to your screen.
Amazement
Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement…get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible. Never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed. - Abraham Heschel
It’s been a privilege (and an education) for me to spend time each week reflecting on psalms we have heard in church. I hope it’s been helpful to readers. I continue to be amazed at this collection of poems, some probably 3000 years old. What’s particularly amazing to me is how they address the range of issues that are currently part of our story. There are psalms of fear, of loneliness. Some psalms sound like they were written in the depths of depression. Some sound like someone has realized that they had really messed up. There are psalms that give guidance for how to deal with opposition, psalms that help us come with enemies, and some that seek vengeance, psalms that reflect fear of oppression, psalms that baldly and boldly ask what God is up to. Where did God go?
And then there are what I would call psalms of amazement, psalms that look at the world and burst into praise and thanksgiving. The psalm we heard in church yesterday falls into that category, a psalm appointed for the Feast of Pentecost, that day when the Holy Spirit descended on that motley crew of disciples and created something new. Psalm 104 marvels at how God’s works are manifest. We read how that is particularly evident in the creatures God made to fill the seas. I love that bit about God making the leviathan (i.e., the whale I guess) just for the sport of it, just for the delight of it.
It sends us all the way back the six days of creation, when according to scripture, the same Spirit that descended on the disciples at Pentecost was active in creation, days of work that brought such pleasure to the Holy One that God declared it all was not just good. It was very good. The psalmist invites us to offer praise for all that God has done, praise which delights God’s heart, just as expressions of gratitude delight any parent’s heart. And the invitation to a life of praise, to radical amazement is not something that simply delights God’s heart. It is also something that has the power to change us, and to delight our hearts.
That kind of praise for amazing grace is not our only expression. Our lives are filled with the variety of emotions reflected in the 150 psalms. But psalms like this one, wisdom like Abraham Heschel’s, can remind us to pay attention. Einstein said that there are two ways to look at the world. One way is to look at the world as if nothing is miracle. The other is to look at the world as if everything is miracle.
In his book, The Practice of the Presence of God, Brother Lawrence (1614-1691) outlines essential practices for the spiritual life. He writes: Whatever we do, even if we are reading the Word or praying, we should stop for a few minutes – as often as possible – to praise God from the depths of our hearts, to enjoy him there in secret. Since we believe that God is always with us, no matter what we may be doing, why shouldn’t we stop for awhile to adore Him, to praise Him, to petition Him, to offer Him our hearts, and to thank Him?
Why shouldn’t we, indeed?
This week, may we be given vision of radical amazement, vision to see miracles all around us. May our praise be lifted up. And in doing so, may we be lifted up as well.
- Jay Sidebotham
Psalm 68:1-10, 33-36
1 Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered; let those who hate him flee before him.
2 Let them vanish like smoke when the wind drives it away; as the wax melts at the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.
3 But let the righteous be glad and rejoice before God; let them also be merry and joyful.
4 Sing to God, sing praises to his Name; exalt him who rides upon the heavens; YAHWEH is his Name, rejoice before him!
5 Father of orphans, defender of widows, God in his holy habitation!
6 God gives the solitary a home and brings forth prisoners into freedom; but the rebels shall live in dry places.
7 O God, when you went forth before your people, when you marched through the wilderness,
8 The earth shook, and the skies poured down rain at the presence of God, the God of Sinai, at the presence of God, the God of Israel.
9 You sent a gracious rain, O God, upon your inheritance; you refreshed the land when it was weary.
10 Your people found their home in it; in your goodness, O God, you have made provision for the poor.
33 Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth; sing praises to the Lord.
34 He rides in the heavens, the ancient heavens; he sends forth his voice, his mighty voice.
35 Ascribe power to God; his majesty is over Israel; his strength is in the skies.
36 How wonderful is God in his holy places! the God of Israel giving strength and power to his people! Blessed be God!
This year, Monday Matters is focused on wisdom conveyed in the treasures of the book of Psalms. We'll look at the psalms read in church before Monday Matters comes to your screen.
Refreshments, anyone?
“You refreshed the land when it was weary.” So claims the author of the psalm heard in church yesterday. The action of God is compared to gracious rain, a healing image for any of us who might be feeling weary. It caused me to reflect on the idea of refreshment. In the church setting, that often means snacks after church in the Parish Hall. (Let me be clear: I’m a big fan of such refreshment, especially those that include white chocolate chip cookies.) But is there something more going on here, a deeper understanding of refreshment?
We hear over and over again that the God we worship in the Christian tradition is one who makes all things new. Think of the ways we talk about that holy activity. God renews. God restores. God revives. God resurrects (i.e., God causes us to stand again, which is the meaning of the word “resurrect”). And God refreshes.
The psalm which is our focus this morning suggests that that kind of renewing work comes especially to those on the margins: to widows and orphans, the solitary and those in prison, to the poor, to those in need of a home. Ministry to those on the margins runs as a thread through the scripture.
The Daily Lectionary has had us reading recently from the book of Leviticus, which I admit has never been my go-to place for a message of grace. Yet as I read these instructions given by God to the people through Moses, I noticed how often a holy people is called to care for those on the margins. Some of the crops were to be left for those who would glean. The hungry shall be fed. Strangers, aliens, immigrants were to be welcomed (not put in detention centers). Debts were to be forgiven and equity built into the systemic structure of the community, as every 50 years would be a jubilee year in which inequalities would be corrected. Those were the days.
I imagine we can all imagine ourselves in one of those marginal categories, at least metaphorically. We may feel spiritually hungry, imprisoned, orphaned, alien. Where in your life do you sense a need for refreshment? What makes you weary? Where would you look for restoration? Our faith, our spiritual practices, our engagement with community can provide relief.
Having noted that, it occurs to me that we are not given the option of dismissing the call by spiritualizing it, making it simply a figure of speech. To be God’s holy people, to be followers of Jesus, we are meant to put that graceful, merciful, refreshing work into action. I commend to you Miguel Escobar’s fine book called The Unjust Steward. Escobar reflects on the ways that people of faith have handled wealth from the first days of the church, how they do it well, how they fall short. He notes that in the early church, the gathering of community consisted of three elements: the word (reading scripture, preaching), the sacraments (Holy Eucharist) and an offering of money for poor people. As I understand it, that offering was not the same as money offered to support the church building and staff, not the same as money pledged to balance a budget. Rather it was targeted especially for those who don’t have enough, those in the church and those outside the church. That offering was as much a part of the liturgy as word and sacrament. Most churches are good at the first two. The third element, offering for the poor, not as much.
I’m wondering what that process would look like in our day. We don’t have to look far to see people in exigency, people in need of holy refreshment. I suspect it would be hard these days to make such an offering part of our liturgy every time we gathered for worship. I’m not particularly hopeful that it would happen. But it may be something we can do as individuals, setting aside some support for those in need any time we go to church. Even if it’s just a small offering (e.g., the cost of a nice cup of coffee), the offering puts us in mind of God’s holy activity.
The so-what factor in all of this? It is to see ourselves as Christ’s hands and feet in the world, following Christ who said he came not to be served but to serve. As we find ourselves in need of refreshment in our own lives, it may well be that one of the best ways to find refreshment is to offer refreshment to those around us. It’s what followers of Jesus do. As Jesus said: Whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward. (Matthew 10:42). Give thought this week to refreshment, in your own spiritual journey, and in the lives of those in need around you.
- Jay Sidebotham
From RenewalWorks Director Loren Dixon:
Over a few years, Forward Movement and RenewalWorks have partnered with the Rev. Chris Corbin of the Diocese of Wisconsin as he conducts research into the attributes of growing Episcopal churches.
Amidst a narrative of denominational decline, Chris sees "bright spots" for growth. He is looking for churches to participate in a detailed survey due May 26th. RenewalWorks churches are invited to participate, and findings will be shared in July through the RenewalWorks and Forward Movement websites.
Read on for a message from Chris and details on participation:
Your RenewalWorks data has a sibling—and your parish's voice is in the right place to help with it.
If your parish has done RenewalWorks, you already know how much can shift in a congregation when leaders take the time to learn what their people are actually saying about spiritual life and discipleship. The same posture—paying close, structured attention to what's happening on the ground—is the heart of the TEC Trajectory Study, the Forward Movement-funded denomination-wide research project closing its main data-collection window on May 27.
If your parish was invited and hasn't yet participated, this is the last meaningful window. If you weren't invited and you think you should have been, we'd like to fix that—keep reading.
What it is, briefly
The Trajectory Study groups roughly 5,600 Episcopal congregations into four trajectories based on 14 years of attendance data (2011–2024)—Growth, Bounce-Back (post-COVID recovery), Decline, and Representative (the full denominational baseline). Each parish in the frame takes the same three-part survey covering worship, evangelism, welcome and fellowship, belief, ministry, leadership, finance, and demographics. About 15 to 25 minutes per survey, three surveys total. Most of the variables you'd expect a RenewalWorks-engaged parish to care about—how a congregation invites people in, how it forms them once they're there, how clergy and lay leaders share the work—are exactly what the survey is asking.
The payoff: instead of saying "growing churches tend to do X," the study can say "Growth churches do X significantly more than Decline churches, with Representative churches falling between." That's the comparative leverage the Episcopal Church hasn't had before—and which RenewalWorks-engaged parishes are uniquely positioned to help produce, because you're already attuned to the questions.
Why RenewalWorks parishes' data is particularly valuable
Two reasons:
1. You're already practiced in the discipline. Parishes that have done RenewalWorks know what it's like to surface congregational realities honestly through structured questions. That habit shows up in survey responses that take the questions seriously, give specific rather than aspirational answers, and pay attention to how the parish actually functions—which is exactly what makes the dataset useful.
2. The discipleship gradient is the under-studied dimension. Most denominational research on growth-decline focuses on structural variables (size, demographics, location). The Trajectory Study includes those, but the more interesting findings are likely to come from the practice variables—formation, evangelism, worship pattern, lay-leadership culture—which are exactly the variables RenewalWorks has been pressing on for years. Without RenewalWorks-engaged parishes in the dataset, those findings will be thinner.
"Our parish hasn't done anything special—why would our data matter?"
This is the single most common reaction we hear, and it's worth answering plainly: your data is what makes the rest of the study possible. The Representative group is the denominational baseline—the picture of what's typical. Without it, the findings about growth and decline have nothing to compare against. Parishes that have been struggling are if anything more important to the dataset, not less. The study is built to honor that complexity, not flatten it—there are no "wrong" answers, and there's no comparative scoring of parishes against each other published from the data.
Who's in the frame
The study covers Episcopal congregations with an Average Sunday Attendance of 15 or more in either 2011 or the most recent reporting year. The cutoff isn't a judgment about whether smaller parishes matter (they do); it's a technical floor below which year-to-year attendance noise gets so large that trajectory analysis becomes unreliable.
How to participate
If you've received an invitation—from survey@forwardmovement.org or frchris@trinityosh.org—please complete the three short surveys before May 27. The first question of each survey asks for your church code; that's how responses match across the three pieces. Clergy can complete them, a senior warden or experienced lay leader can complete them in lieu of clergy, or the three can be split across people in the parish. One completed set per parish is all that's needed.
Congregations that complete all three earn a 25% discount on a Forward Movement title.
If you should have received an invitation but didn't—our contact data has gaps, and that's part of what this final stretch is meant to fix. Please email survey@forwardmovement.org from a parish address and we'll get you set up with your church code and the survey links. Check your Promotions tab, spam folder, and parish-office account first; the message may have been routed somewhere you don't usually look.
If you're not sure whether your parish is in the frame—email survey@forwardmovement.org and we'll check.
For RenewalWorks-engaged parishes, this is a meaningful chance to put the discipline you already practice in service of the wider Church's self-understanding. The findings of the study will be shared freely through Forward Movement, and the strength of what we learn about the Episcopal Church depends entirely on how broadly parishes participate.
Faithfully,
The TEC Trajectory Study, in partnership with Forward Movement and RenewalWorks
Psalm 66:7-18
7 Bless our God, you peoples; make the voice of his praise to be heard;
8 Who holds our souls in life, and will not allow our feet to slip.
9 For you, O God, have proved us; you have tried us just as silver is tried.
10 You brought us into the snare; you laid heavy burdens upon our backs.
11 You let enemies ride over our heads; we went through fire and water; but you brought us out into a place of refreshment.
12 I will enter your house with burnt-offerings and will pay you my vows, which I promised with my lips and spoke with my mouth when I was in trouble.
13 I will offer you sacrifices of fat beasts with the smoke of rams; I will give you oxen and goats.
14 Come and listen, all you who fear God, and I will tell you what he has done for me.
15 I called out to him with my mouth, and his praise was on my tongue.
16 If I had found evil in my heart, the Lord would not have heard me;
17 But in truth God has heard me; he has attended to the voice of my prayer.
18 Blessed be God, who has not rejected my prayer, nor withheld his love from me.
This year, Monday Matters is focused on wisdom conveyed in the treasures of the book of Psalms. We'll look at the psalms read in church before Monday Matters comes to your screen.
Finding a foundation
One of my favorite hymns in the Episcopal hymnal is #665. The first line of the first stanza: All my hope on God is founded. The hymn tune was composed by Herbert Howells. He gave the hymn tune the title “Michael,” the name of Howell’s son who had died in childhood the year before the tune was written. I’m always moved by that fact that as Howell bore that unspeakable and unimaginable loss, he let his considerable musical gifts be applied to a text that affirmed a strong foundation of hope.
That ability to take a stand on hope seems to be the experience of the author of the psalm heard in churches yesterday and reprinted abovel. It’s a psalm blessing God as one who holds our souls in life and will not allow our feet to slip. It’s not pie in the sky stuff. It does not deny or sugar coat the difficulties life throws our way. The psalmist describes the ways that life has been hard, including the ways that God has presented him with challenges. Yet it is a strong expression of confidence that God is in charge, that God will not allow our feet to slip, that in relationship with God a strong foundation can be discovered.
How do we find such steady footing? What can we be sure of? All kinds of surveys indicate that confidence in institutions has dissipated. Things that we may have always relied on may no longer prove reliable. In our culture, the church, government, and media have all surrendered the ability to provide a sure foundation. In individual lives, there are curve balls, challenges, and unscripted events which come out of left field to shake our foundations. People around us (parents, children, bosses, employees, clergy) inevitably disappoint, even as we disappoint others.
One of my current vocations is to spend time with a 2 year old granddaughter. She is a light. It is a delight. We build towers together, with wooden blocks that have been in the family for decades. If I ask her how we’ll start, she says we need a good foundation. A good word to learn as a toddler. Or as an adult. The preacher in me can’t help but hope that there’s a life lesson.
A bishop came to visit our church recently. The liturgy for that service began with the hymn, “The Church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord.” We closed the service by singing “Christ is made the sure foundation.” (Sometimes when we have a hard time stating our confidence, we can draw strength by singing about it.) Those of us who swim in the Christian stream are led to consider the ways that Jesus provides a firm foundation.
Christ as foundation is an idea set forth by St. Paul when he wrote that crazy Corinthian church, a church which was fighting about all kinds of things (food, sex, liturgy, rules). They were especially at odds about leadership and who they thought was the real deal. Paul acknowledges in the third chapter of this letter that there are indeed a variety of styles of leadership. That’s still true in the church today. But he says that while these leaders in their own ways are building the church, the foundation is Jesus Christ. I take that to mean that our foundation is found as we follow the one who came not to be served but to serve and who stretches out arms of love on the hard wood of the cross.
What does it mean to you when we sing about Christ as sure foundation? On what kind of foundation are you building your life? Do you ever contend with that sinking feeling? Maybe those are good Monday morning questions. Our faith calls us to trust in the One who holds our souls in life and will not allow our feet to slip, will not allow us to fall, will not allow us to sink. There are practices available in our tradition that help us to build on that foundation: prayer, reflection on scripture, contemplation, service. How might you practice those things this week?
-Jay Sidebotham
Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16
1 In you, O Lord, have I taken refuge; let me never be put to shame; deliver me in your righteousness.
2 Incline your ear to me; make haste to deliver me.
3 Be my strong rock, a castle to keep me safe, for you are my crag and my stronghold; for the sake of your Name, lead me and guide me.
4 Take me out of the net that they have secretly set for me, for you are my tower of strength.
5 Into your hands I commend my spirit, for you have redeemed me, O Lord, O God of truth.
15 My times are in your hand; rescue me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who persecute me.
16 Make your face to shine upon your servant, and in your loving-kindness save me.
This year, Monday Matters will focus on wisdom conveyed in the treasures of the book of Psalms. We'll look at the psalms read in church before Monday Matters comes to your screen.
Refuge
This Monday morning, I’m wondering where you might be experiencing a need for security, stability, protection. If you’ve looked at the news today, you would find all kinds of reasons to wonder about the shaking of the foundations, to wonder if things are falling apart, if the center will hold. In our individual lives, unscripted events can make us feel vulnerable to the changes and chances of life, with no place to hide, no shelter from the storm.
This, apparently, is nothing new. The psalm recited in church yesterday indicates that its author had been in serious need of help. Deliverance came to him from his relationship to the Holy One, who is described in a variety of images: tower, castle, refuge, stronghold, crag, rock. Those images of strength and safety are embraced with a deep trust, allowing the psalmist to say: Into your hands I commend my spirit (words of trust that Jesus spoke to the Father from the cross. See Luke 23:46). The psalmist indicates dependence on the Lord, with this admission: My times are in your hand.
What can we learn from this? How can we deepen that kind of trust?
It often starts with the realization that we have nowhere else to go. In the Gospel of John, we read that Jesus spoke to the multitude with challenging words. Many people left him. With crowd size dwindling, Jesus looks at his disciples and asked if they were going to leave as well. Peter, the disciple who never has an unexpressed thought, says: Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. In this moment, Peter knew he had nowhere else to go.
A deepened trust often starts with the realization that our own resources are limited. Maybe we’ve tried everything else. Maybe like a toddler we’ve said: I do it myself. Maybe we’ve found that an attitude like that just won’t go the distance, which may make us look for a tower, a castle, a stronghold outside or beyond or above ourselves.
A deepened trust can be bolstered by community, including whatever faith community we belong to. Sure, those communities can be flawed. We can all cite examples. But they nevertheless, perhaps in spite of themselves, can encourage confidence in the God who draws us together. We deepen trust as we consider the community of saints who have gone before, folks who over the centuries, have weathered the storm and found that God is indeed a refuge and strength (Read Psalm 46 if you need reassurance on this front). Our trust can be deepened by engagement with the stories in the Bible which tell us how people like Abraham, like Moses, like Peter, stepped out in faith, moving forward without knowing where God was leading, walking through waters, walking on water.
A deepened trust can come as we follow Jesus, exploring what it means these days to be one of his disciples. When I was a teenager, our family went through a rough patch, a shaking of the foundations of our life together. My mother, a woman of faith, tried to help us navigate these unscripted challenges. One of the ways she did that was by making us memorize the text of the hymn: How firm a foundation. I was adolescently annoyed by the task, but compliant. Decades later, the words stay with me as a kind of refuge. Especially this stanza: The soul that to Jesus has leaned for repose, I will not desert to my foes. That soul that all hell should endeavor to shake, I’ll never, no never, no never forsake. (Thanks, Mom). We deepen trust as we seek to follow Jesus with a closer walk. That may look different for each one of us, but that kind of relationship can be a safe space.
The deepening of trust is a spiritual practice. Like any practice, it is strengthened as it is exercised. I’m wondering what kind of exercise in trust you might practice this week. Let me know if you come up with any good suggestions. I’m still working on it.
- Jay Sidebotham
This week's reflection is offered by The Rev. David Langille, Rector of Messiah Episcopal Church in St. Paul, MN.
Come Holy Spirit, come like a fire and burn. Come like a wind and cleanse. Convict, convert, and consecrate our hearts to our great good and to your great glory. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. -- Fleming Rutledge
Spiritual renewal is in Messiah’s DNA. This is a Renewal Church, a Holy Spirit Church, a Day of Pentecost Church. That is what Messiah is known for, and how Messiah sees itself. But here’s the thing about Renewal Churches, and as someone who grew up in a Pentecostal Church, I know this history all too well. An era of renewal tends to last three generations before the soil is prepared for another era of renewal, or the renewal ends. From John Wesley’s Methodism to the Pentecostal Revival of the early twentieth Century, to the Charismatic Renewal in the mainline Churches in the 1980’s, they all had a shelf life. Messiah is in the second generation of the renewal that swept through this Church almost 40 years ago now. The current generation are inheritors of this renewal. Messiah tended and cared for the fruits of that renewal: the praise music, the healing ministry, the intercessory prayer, the house groups, and other signs and wonders. Messiah has been faithful. And, just like all Churches, conflict happens. Even in eras of great conflict, Messiah has known what NT scholar Wes Hill calls, “the comforting presence of the Spirit,” that has kept this Church going and from collapsing under the weight of it all.
Messiah Episcopal Church is the last of the Charismatic Renewal parishes in the Episcopal Church in Minnesota, filled primarily with those who grew up in Evangelical churches. When asked by Rector friends what one thing I most value about serving here, I half-jokingly reply that I am free to preach without an “Episcopal Decoder Ring;” in other words, that I am free to preach exegetical, biblical, and lectionary-based sermons. Messiah’s commitments in its Mission Statement are clear: The Worship of God; the Lordship of Christ; Renewal Through the Holy Spirit. And its values are biblically inspired: Following Jesus through Christian Formation, Spiritual Renewal, Human Diversity, Evangelism & Biblical Justice. And yet, even a congregation with these commitments can grow stale. After a year of some growth in 2024 that included Messiah’s largest Confirmation Class—of youth and adults—in living memory, the Church seemed to have stalled in 2025. It was challenging to develop a welcome ministry here, with few taking advantage of the gift of the Alpha course to invite friends and neighbors to meet Jesus. There has also been the challenge of new folks feeling welcome, of being able to join existing ministries, or, more importantly, of being discipled. All of this led to the discernment by parish leaders to participate in RenewalWorks. Why RenewalWorks? Because it came highly recommended by friends of Messiah elsewhere in the Episcopal Church and its commitment to “help churches grow in love of God and neighbor within their unique contexts and needs”.
Over seventy households responded to the RenewalWorks survey, and a team of lay leaders—from a diversity of backgrounds—worked through the data set applying it to Messiah. Beginning at our Annual Meeting we began rolling out these findings that have begun to shape this Church’s future. Simply put, we have learned several things, including that most adults at Messiah take being disciples of Jesus seriously, and that most respondents read Holy Scripture daily. And yet, there was a deep dissatisfaction with how their Church helped them as disciples. We also learned from those here five years and less that there was no clear pathway for them to become part of this community.
Messiah has been granted a great gift with the RenewalWorks process. The team so well led by gifted lay leaders has made four recommendations to which every ministry is now called to respond:
Welcome: To create clear, simple pathways for newcomers to belong, learn, and build relationships
Grow: To develop visible discipleship pathways for people at different stages of the faith journey
Serve & Lead: To see the healthy movement of leaders and volunteers across ministries
Bless & Go Out: To develop meaningful acts of service in Messiah’s local community as a natural expression of our faith
Clergy and staff are now meeting with every ministry, to ask how they will apply these recommendations. Then we will revisit this conversation quarterly over the next year.
As we sing at Pentecost: Revive us again; fill each heart with Thy love. May each soul be rekindled with fire from above. Hallelujah! Thine the glory! Hallelujah! Amen! Hallelujah! Thine the glory! Revive us again.
Psalm 23
1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not be in want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures and leads me beside still waters.
3 He revives my soul and guides me along right pathways for his Name's sake.
4 Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
5 You spread a table before me in the presence of those who trouble me; you have anointed my head with oil, and my cup is running over.
6 Surely your goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
This year, Monday Matters will focus on wisdom conveyed in the treasures of the book of Psalms. We'll look at the psalms read in church before Monday Matters comes to your screen.
Love your enemies. Really? Do I have to?
After the Civil War, many people in the North felt it was their right and duty to crush the South. Members of Lincoln’s party pushed for swift retribution. At one gathering, as President Lincoln spoke about binding up the wounds of the nation, working for reconciliation and forgiveness, Representative Thaddeus Stevens pounded the table and said, “Mr. Lincoln, I think enemies ought to be destroyed.” Mr. Lincoln responded, “Mr. Stevens, do I not destroy my enemy when I make him my friend?”
Psalm 23, maybe the most familiar of all the psalms, includes this vision of the Lord, our shepherd: “You spread a table before me in the presence of those who trouble me,” or perhaps more familiarly, “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.” The psalm suggests that there’s a need to be in relationship with all of God’s children, even those we don’t like. Even those who trouble us and threaten us. Even our enemies.
There’s a lot about enemies in the scripture, and especially in the psalms. For a people clearly threatened with extinction, the calls for violence against enemies are undeniably brutal, so harsh in fact that the lectionaries often leave out those passages. In the many voices we hear in scripture, we can certainly find rationale for violence, as contemporary leaders have discovered.
In the early 1950’s, Howard Thurman made this observation (which he could be saying this week). He wrote: “One encounters persons of deep piousness and religiosity who are intolerant and actively hostile toward their fellows. Some of the most terrifying hate organizations in the country are made up in large part of persons who are very devout in their worship of God.” He continues: “I cannot be at peace without God, and I cannot be truly aware of God if I am not at peace with my fellows. For the sake of my unity with God, I keep working on my relations with my fellows. This is ever the insistence of all ethical religions.”
Alongside those scriptural voices calling for vengeance, we hear the voice of Jesus who says that we are not only to love our neighbor. We are to love our enemy. The expansive nature of that commandment sets Jesus apart. These days we may not be facing enemies who would try to physically destroy us. We can give thanks for that. We can recognize that in some places on our globe, people of faith do face that kind of danger. But in our time, we do all face those who threaten to undo us. How is a table set for us in the presence of those who trouble us? What does that mean for us?
While many of the psalms seem to call for rather violent destruction of our enemies, I’m grateful for that short passage from Psalm 109. The psalmist acknowledges that “the mouth of the wicked is opened against me. They speak to me with a lying tongue, they encompass me with hateful words and fight against me without a cause. Despite my love, they accuse me. But as for me, I pray for them.” In other words, this ancient psalm echoes counsel I’ve been given when I encounter people who trouble me. I’ve been told that the first step is simply to pray for that person.
And as we pray blessing on our enemies, as we extend forgiveness even when it hasn’t been requested, we acknowledge in confession the ways we have participated in division, the ways in which we need to be forgiven, the ways in which we have troubled others.
Finally, we commit ourselves to the promises of baptism, which says that we seek and serve Christ in all persons (even our enemies). We respect the dignity of every human being (even our enemies). Let’s be clear. I don’t want to do it. Harboring hatred toward enemies is so deliciously satisfying, feeding righteous indignation. Let's also be clear that love of enemy does not mean tolerance of injustice. This is not easy.
Which is why when we make our baptismal promises, we say “I will with God’s help.” Experiment with loving your enemy this week. With loving those who trouble you. Lincoln was onto something.
-Jay Sidebotham
