Spark of Community

I like movie trailers.  Maybe it is because I don’t have the time or money to see all the movies I find interesting.  Maybe it is because watching a movie trailer is a quick break while working at my desk at the office or home.

“The Purge” will be coming out on Memorial Day weekend, starring Ethan Hawke, Lena Headey, Adelaide Kane, Max Burkholder.   The premise is that our nation has been reborn with 1% unemployment and all time low crime rate because one night per year every crime is legal.  One night a year the emergency services of our nation are suspended, including police and hospitals.  All crimes, including murder, are legal for 12 hours.

What a fascinating idea.  Would not we be more kind to our neighbor if we knew that there was an annual big trash pick up day for our bent up anger?  Would not we be more generous to our co-worker, fellow commuter, stranger homeless person we pass on the way to church - if we knew that one night a year all those people could track us down and harm us with no consequences?  I assume these are the questions of the movie rather than it being merely a foil for another horror flick.

Upon reflection, this is simply the opposite ethic of the gospel.  The movie seems to purport an ethic of do unto others so they won’t do unto you.  The golden rule is to treat each others as you wish to be treated.

Rather than leverage the lowest common denominator, the base immorality - the gospel of Jesus Christ reaches to the depth of our created being for that spark of divinity glowing within all God’s children.

Contrast another movie theme ... that of Lord of the Rings and the relationship of Frodo and Gollum.  How often does the faithful Sam question Frodo’s kindness toward the creature Gollum?  Sam knows the obsession in Gollum’s twisted being.  Frodo’s response is innocent, naive, and gospel-like.  Frodo is kind to Gollum because Frodo sees his own brokenness (to a different degree) in the brokenness of Gollum.  If Gollum is un-lovable, un-redeemable, irreconcilable, beyond salvation - then so is Frodo.  

I hope that “The Purge” is at least in part a critique or reflection upon our experience of community.  If it is not, I recommend a different read ... Matthew, Mark, Luke or John.  

Ashes and Oil

While preparing my last sermon for this season of Lent, I was struck by a frame to our Lenten journey.  Many of us began our Lenten trek with the imposition of ashes.   The gospel reading for the last Sunday of Lent was the story of Mary anointing Jesus’ feet with oil.

Both acts are intimate, sacrificial and transformative.

Never have I felt worthy of the task of marking others with ash, yet I perform it out of an understanding of its benefit to their journey.  My upbringing did not include this rite and so I lack the shaping as a child that might gird my activity.  As much, it is an act that invades my sense of personal space and decorum.  Finally, there is something uncomfortable about being reminded of our finitude and frailty as the ashes speak to us ... “dust to dust”.  Deep in my soul, I find it right and good to mark and to be mark by these ashes.

There was a level of discomfort in the room as Mary performed her intimate act of anointing Jesus’ feet, with oil, using her hair, before others.  Using expensive perfume, she sacrificed significant resources for this rite.  Her act transformed her relationship with Jesus.  Jesus makes Mary a model for others because of her action.

What of this frame of ash and oil?  

As the frame of any meaningful journey, a desire and intent may be discovered in the elements.

Lent is a season of preparation.  We examine our lives in preparation for Holy Week, most specifically for celebration of the empty tomb and our risen Lord.  How appropriate that we would begin with an element that humbles us.  Rather than a journey begun of confidence and sure footedness, we begin as penitent pilgrims.  

We leave the season of preparation with the element of oil.  Oil that anoints kings who enter triumphant into the capital of our souls.  Oil that anoints the body for burial into a tomb that cannot hold the life of our Lord.  O death where is thy sting?

The elements of ash and oil are symbolic of a desire and intent.  We receive the ashes upon our skin.  Jesus received the oil upon his feet.  

We receive the Good News of Easter.  The humility of ashes is a posture of the soul that prepares us to receive the Good News of God’s love and forgiveness.  We anoint our risen Lord with our adoration and thanksgiving in response to the grace of God discovered.

May your celebration of Holy Week find you moved from receiving that which humbles you to giving adoration to the one who saves you.

Lent: Becoming a Collectable or Just Claimed

Have you ever collected coins, or trading cards, or dolls, etc?   If so you know what makes an item especially worthy of collecting.  It is best if nobody has touched the item since it left the factory.  The fewer the finger prints, dings, scratches the better.  The item is even better if still in the original packaging.  A true collector will keep the item behind glass or on a high shelf.  My piece of the basketball court from Purdue University is secure in a cabinet in my home office where it sits just behind the glass door.

It would be tempting to make our Lenten journey toward Easter into a quest to be a collectable.  We would hope our repentance removes the dings and scratches of our transgressions.  We would image our return to a pristine state of being, maybe the innocence of childhood.  We would wish to be perfect for our Lord to greet upon leaving the tomb.

A more meaningful journey through Lent might embrace those dings and scratches.  While I keep that piece of Boilermaker history in my home office, I have it because of the memories of the ball dribbled on it, the sneakers squeaking against it, the diving defense played on that piece of wood flooring.  Maybe our acquiring the dents of life is part of being claimed by Jesus.

Nancy Rockwell shared the following reflection upon Jesus’ words in Luke 13:31-35: “Part of the way Jesus spreads his wings over us is that we, too, find in our work courage to face ugly dangers,  to let life bite deeply into our flesh and shelter those in our care.  Work is for us what it was for Jesus, a compass in the midst of the devouring days in which we walk, pray, open doors, share bread, speak, weep, call out to one another, write something in the sands of time.”

Preparing ourselves to celebrate Easter is not about becoming perfect to meet our risen Lord.  Preparing ourselves to celebrate Easter IS about receiving the forgiveness that sets us free to meet and to follow Jesus.  Forgiveness is about moving forward as a person freed from past transgressions rather than a return to undo what has transpired.  Undoing what has transpired may be necessary to repair a broken relationship.  Imagine how deep a relationship that holds fast even the wounds of our transgressions and greets us with a smile.

So here is to a journey to Easter that includes the mess of life, the relationships of trust, and the facing of fears that give us grey hairs.  The opportunity of the journey is for those given the breath of life and the spark of soul.    Journey well!

Transmogrifier and Transfiguration

Transmogrifier and Transfiguration

If you have read much Calvin and Hobbes, the comic, you may recall the great transmogrifier.  It was a device (upside down cardboard box) that could change you into anything you wished, instantly, if you climbed inside.  In addition to the great potential for many hilarious episodes of Calvin and Hobbes, the transmogrifier is the dream of many on a spiritual journey.

How many with a terrible hangover have lead to a promise to “never” drink again, and felt they truly and instantly became a person who would never make the mistake of partaking of too much beverage?  How many in crisis have attempted to make the deal, “If you will save me, I’ll never miss another Sunday of church (or some other dramatic promise) with the belief that they can fulfill that promise?  How many have simply desired enlightenment and chased every fad or trend in a quest for instant results?  

It is not only diet pills that offer immediately change.  We seem to be vulnerable to many a quick fix.

This coming Sunday is known by many on the planet as Transfiguration Sunday.  My church will be reading from Luke 9:28-43.  Jesus and a select few disciples travel up a mountain where Jesus is seen with Moses and Elijah (who are both long ago religious heros and both passed onto to heaven) and Jesus is “transfigured” appearing in sparkling white.  That is the very quick version.  I encourage you to read the text from the Bible.

I find it easy to become obsessed with the “moment” of transfiguration.  It reads as if in a flash that Jesus’ divinity is revealed, that he is changed from whatever he was before into a something even more glorious and spiritual.  In truth, it might have taken a long time on top of the mountain.

What I do know is that my obsession with the immediacy of the moment of transfiguration distracts me from the long climb up the mountain.  Skipping an academic discussion of which mountain it might have been and the true height of that mountain, I want to lift up that all mountain tops require a climb to reach.

My experience of spiritual renewal, personal improvement, church revitalization, relational restoration, systemic reconciliation is that they require a journey of many small steps, trips, dances, and sometimes pure slogging through the muck of brokenness.  

Very true that there are opportunities for leaping and skipping when great distances can be traveled in few moments.  The opposite is of course true.  And if this were a linear process we might be able to find an average and maybe even a quick fix.  However this is not a linear process.

I am reminded of a recent conversation with a new friend colleague where I referenced some work by Dave Ramsey.  Ramsey made the reflection that money is never static but always in motion -- growing or becoming debt.  I believe the same is true of our quest for change, improvement, wholeness.

Fascinating how many of us think the perfect vacation is the beach.  I assume from listening that it is a holy place of rest.  And yet, it is a place of continual change as surf alters turf, tides both hide and reveal.

My reflection is not that life is hard so buck up.  My reflection is that life is full of potential for amazing experiences of God and God’s love with God’s people - again demonstrated in the transfiguration of Jesus.  Would the story be remembered had not friends traveled with him up the mountain to witness the glory?

What is your favorite mountain top experience?  What did it take to get there?  How much was your effort, the effort of others and or pure happenstance?  Life is continual motion.   A stick in the mud suffers the tide and a suffer rides the wave.

Purpose Points: Counting our Blessings

I have always felt that a healthy practice is to count our blessings, from time to time.  I keep a file in my office of notes that I have received which encourage me.  It is a lift on cloudy days to pull that file and review so many gracious notes from over the years.

We have recently counted the blessings from our shared ministry in 2012.  On our website (fccedwardsville.org) you can find a one page snap shot of our past year of ministry.  Without reviewing the numbers you can readily examine, I want to lift up a couple of trends inside the numbers that require a bit of explanation.

Financially speaking, I want to thank the congregation for being so amazingly generous!   The cost of ministry continually rises.  From salaries for a growing staff to the cost of energy, we have experienced an increase in the cost of ministry.  I am ever thankful that we have continually supported our growing ministries with the funds necessary.  I know that your giving is meaningful to the life of the congregation and pray that it is as meaningful in your personal faith journey.

Within our worship numbers are at least two points of celebration, beyond the joy of worshipping with more people on average than the year prior.  I looked at the number of people who attended only once in 2012, who attended more than once but not monthly, and those who attended more than once a month.  

At our Traditional Worship service, we are blessed by the participation of family and friends who celebrate the holidays with us.  These are part of the number who attend more than once but not monthly.  We see those numbers staying fairly steady which is a sign that group continues to chose to travel and to worship with their parents and family we who see the rest of the year.  What a blessing!

At our Contemporary Worship service, we note that the number of those who attended more than once but not monthly declined from 2011 to 2012.  In the same period, those who attended more than once a month increased dramatically.  We celebrate that people have chosen to increase the frequency of their worship with the church.  We claim the opportunity to invite more people to avail themselves of this worship more than once.

The way we educate people is changing.  A decade ago, the majority of our education ministry happened on Sunday morning and with adults.  Inside the numbers, we find that our Sunday morning education ministry is reaching more children and youth than adults.  We also find that the majority of adults engage education ministry outside of Sunday morning, such as small groups.  What a blessing that we have nearly doubled the number of people reached by our educational ministry in a decade!

I believe that if we continue to engage ministry with God and neighbor so as to share the Good News that entices us to worship and praise, we will be unable to count all the blessings discovered in the year to come.  What a joy to be in ministry with you!

Intensity, Intimacy, and Incarnation

Intimacy, Intensity, and the Incarnation

December 18, 2012

Dr. James R. Brooks

A while ago, I saw a headline about intimacy and intensity.  I did not read the entire article, but the gist was that our society is more about intense experience than it is about intimate experience.  I resonate with that reality.  Not that I affirm it, but I get what they portray.

The easy first look is media.  Social media or reality television, the gambit confronts us with intense experience.  The quick hitting head line that grabs our attention away from other things and focuses us upon the source that sold the advertising.  Could be a cynical view of mine.

What of our daily relationships outside our home?  With social media as the sequa to water cooler talk and parking lot gossip, are our daily relationships more intense or intimate?  At happy hour, do we garner more attention if we have the “scoop”?  In a more helpful vane, when a co-worker’s “insert relative title” is dying of “insert terminal illness” do we all respond to the intense moment with an out pouring of our own intense compassion?  Compassion is rarely wrong.  However, what does intense experience lack?

Like a sugar high, intense experience has a down side.  The first felt by many is the lonely dark of night.  When our “fb” friends all go to sleep and the kids are at their other parent and the sun is long down and the house is quiet and the infomercials are bleeding into static and we stare at the blank ceiling then the vacuum left behind by the intense experience rattles our souls.  Like a chain smoker, we crave yet another intense experience.  Why?

Do intense experiences distract us from the call for intimacy?  The grand adventure that gives us tales to regale our water cooler co-workers might be a distraction from intimacy.  A life as a cheerleader who rallies the team to yet another amazing happy hour, winery trip, zip line, 5k / 10k / 13.1 or 26.2 charity run could be a distraction.  As much as I thirst for the edge moments where I see God most clearly, at times striving for the edge is itself a distraction from what we could discover.

Intimate experiences are intense and yet different.  Intimacy demands a vulnerability not necessary in intensity.  Where pornography seems more about intensity, a healthy marital relationship of 50 years shares a profound intimacy.  Intimacy demands more of and provides more for the participants.  A power of intimacy is the ability to enjoy intensity while equally embracing when intensity is lacking.   Intimacy is found when we return to our “other” assured acceptance for who we are not what we’ve done nor what has been done to us.  Even more, in spite of what we have done and what has been done to us, intimate relationships (lover or friend) receive us well.

Though I could continue volumes regarding intimacy, we are in the Christmas season.  Soon we celebrate the birth of Jesus.  In that event, God becomes incarnate among us in a new way.  

Merriam-Webster says of “incarnate”...

a : invested with bodily and especially human nature and form

b : made manifest or comprehensible : embodied incarnate

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We are made in God’s image.  As incarnate, God becomes our image so that we might comprehend God.  What a gift beyond intensity and intimacy.

Intensity can be the experience of our shadow’s edge.

Intimacy can be the experience of our redeemed wholeness.

Incarnation can be the experience of divine eternity.

At the edge of the water, much life resides.  The lion and the lamb come to drink.  We make the sand castles that celebrate both our creativity and finitude.

In the pasture of redeemed wholeness life giving relationships flourish.  In the earthy cycle of seasons, life in the pasture grows.  Across the ages, we discover each other as is only possible over time and accessibility.  Given opportunity, we each redeem relationship and are redeemed by those to whom we relate.

In a manger eons ago, the Most High God, Creator of All, Thou Who breathed life into the dust was born a fragile baby at the mercy of the chaotic world you and I know to well.  Incarnation full of trust beyond the bounds of intimacy was born.  Incarnation with story and star beyond the intensity of embellishment was born.  The mystery and magic, excellency and eternity of divine incarnation known as much for the lack of language as by the perfection of known meaning.  

Not the last will I write of these three kings in our lives: intensity, intimacy, incarnation.  The strings of these kings strike many a cord to be sung in future blog.

As we approach this holy night so silent, I pray we grow from intensity to more intimate relationships.  And may God become incarnate in the midst of our intimacy.

And may God bless us everyone.

Thanksgiving Reflection

November 2012

(I wish to begin by apologizing for the mixed metaphors, and other errors of formal writing.  I was moved to mix metaphors to engage other linguistic features and to enliven the imagination through dissonance and minor chords.)

Giving thanks can be a powerful and life-giving discipline.

Giving thanks is an activity so different than taking or consuming.  It is an action so akin to generosity.  Yet, it reflects on what has been had, enjoy, etc.  More importantly, it points to a relationship.  Giving thanks is a participation in relationship.  A thank you note moves the relationship forward from the blessing remembered toward an encounter to be cherished.

Giving thanks names our best experience of poverty.  A poverty of self-reliance is the experience of thou who givest thanks.  Our thanksgiving is our nod to our need for the other.  The other of our community that raised us, educated us, employed us, encouraged us.  The other of our God who created, saved, and sustains us.  Giving thanks denies our boot straps a hand up.  As much as naming the very reality of our existence in a web of relationships, giving thanks labels the possibility pregnant in the push and pull of each strand of the web that embraces our lives.  

Giving thanks lifts up the one expressing abundance.  Those who bless us are sharing their own experience of abundance.  Loving others is always an experience of the abundance of love that grows as it is given away.  Giving thanks is a naming of the angels in our lives.  

Giving thanks to God on a daily basis is life giving.  On a daily basis we assume a position of poverty that has the potential to create in us a vulnerability to the transformative and renewing love of God.  Giving thanks is our soul prostrate before our creator.  More than a position of rest and respect, our prostrate soul is focused upon the source of eternal life.  Our thankful praise of God is our claim that God’s abundance ultimately drives away the worries of scarcity.  As truly as Jesus was raised from the dead, so does the abundance of God’s love overcome the fear created by scarcity.

More than a season for turkey and twinkies, though that would be tasty, Thanksgiving is a discipline that is powerful and life-giving!