Real or Robot?

This week I found myself noodling around the Episcopal Cafe website and came across a video about the Nicene Creed.  In the opening seconds of the video it read, "When you recite the creed are you being real?  Or are you being a robot? Do you even know what your saying?"  

The questions posed by the video are true not only for the creed, but for many things we recite in church.  For many of us, the words of our liturgy are so much a part of the fabric of our being we can skip through them with little or no thought. But in doing so, are we being real or robots?  

This was a welcomed and well overdue reminder for me.  I need to remind myself to be intentional and mindful in worship -- no matter how many times I've said the words, no matter how many times I've heard them.  There is transformational truth in the words of our liturgy, in the words of the collects, the Psalms, the confession, the offertory, the eucharistic prayer, the Lord's prayer, and the post communion prayer.  Far too often, we engage them rather mindlessly, lifelessly -- but they are the words of our faith.  The words of our common worship experience that we share with our sisters and brothers throughout the ages.  Whether or not you "agree" with every word or "believe" every word -- say every word and pray every word with mindfulness and soulfulness, and let the Holy Spirit work.

The video closes by saying, "So the next time you proclaim the Creed...don't be a robot.  Make it real.  Don't just say it...pray it. Love it.  Live it."  We may just be surprised how these old and very familiar words find new life and refresh us in a new and wonderful way.

Watch the video

Peace,

Paul+

Religiosity vs. The Living God

While on holiday at the shore, I read a classic (at least a classic for an Episcopal Priest) The Christian Priest Today by Michael Ramsey former Archbishop of Canterbury.  The book is a collection of addresses he gave to those preparing for ordination in the Church of England.  Covering topics such as calling, prayer, preaching, teaching, humility, obedience, politics, doctrine, and discipline, Ramsey gives thoughtful insight into the ministry of the ordained.  But, even more so he offers wise counsel for lay and ordained people who come together in this great incarnational community known as the Church.  How do we fulfill God's vision for us and the world?

One most needed reminder and striking challenge came when he quoted F.D. Maurice, words written over a century earlier,"We have been dosing our people with religion, when what they need is not that but the living God."  (p. 20)  So often the Church can get caught up in the theoretical black hole of religiosity and completely lose sight of God.  Our world will not be healed by "religion", but by an encounter with the living God.  I am not saying to do away with religion, but rather I want remind us of the subtle seduction of religiosity and to encourage us to be faithful and intentional in how we live out our faith as individuals and together as the Body of Christ, the Church.

 

We must continual ask ourselves, "Where is the living God in all of this?" Being good Episcopalians doesn't mean much if we are not grounded in a deep and abiding relationship with God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

In Christ,
Paul+   

Ubuntu

This past week I began reading God has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for Our Time by Desmond Tutu.  Of the many beautiful images Tutu offers us in his wonderfully accessible and yet poignant way is the notion of "ubuntu". "You know when ubuntu is there, and it is obvious when it is absent.  It has to do with what it means to be truly human, to know that we are bound up with others in the bundle of life." (p.26) 

We live with the false belief that we are independent.  "The 'self-made' man or woman is really an impossibility." (p.25)  We pride ourselves on self sufficiency.  The power and autonomy of the individual denies our true self.   Tutu points out that at the heart of creation is to be in relationship.  We are made to live in community, not in isolation.  He shares the African idiom, "A person is a person through other persons." (p.25)

We need to remind ourselves of this essential truth that to be truly and fully human is to be in intimate and life giving relationship with others.   We at times are so scared of being seen as overly dependent that we miss the life giving truth of interdependence.   Tutu writes, "The world is going to have to learn the fundamental lesson that we are made for harmony, for interdependence.  If we are ever truly to prosper, it will only be together." (p.28)

All for one and one for all! (Tutu didn't say that.)

Peace,

Paul+

Why be reasonable?

For Christmas I was given A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix, by Edwin H. Friedman.  The book is filled with notions that challenge me on many levels.  Early in the book, one such notion that struck a chord was Friedman's belief that having an "unreasonable faith in 'being reasonable'" puts a leader and the group s/he leads at risk.  Sometimes we need not to be reasonable. 

How many times have you heard someone say, "Let's be reasonable." Or, "You're not being reasonable."  Why are we so concerned with being reasonable?  There are times not to be reasonable, but rather bold and outrageous.  There are times to simply do what must be done, even when it's not the "reasonable" thing, the "popular" thing, nor the "prudent" thing, but it's simply the right thing to do.

Our faith at its essence and core is NOT reasonable.  There's nothing reasonable in the bold and prophetic story of Holy Scripture. There's nothing reasonable about death on a cross and resurrection to new life.  There's nothing reasonable about the call to follow Jesus as Lord.  Our faith calls us to put our faith in an outrageous and unreasonable Savior.  Our world will not be transformed into a fuller vision of the Kingdom of God by reasonable faith and reasonable leaders and reasonable actions.    

Do we have the nerve?  Do we dare?  I'm afraid we are all too often held captive by our failure of nerve and our need to play it safe and be "reasonable".  God give us the courage and strength to be "unreasonable" Christians, to be bold and prophetic people of faith in a world where far too many are held captive by a "reasonable" faith of playing it safe.

In Christ,

Paul+ 

O Holy One Thou Didst Come

It's been a long while since I've posted anything.  I've wanted to, but...I just didn't and I'm not exactly sure why.  Finally today though I thought I would post a poem that I wrote earlier in Advent.
Peace to you in this most holy season.
Paul+

O Holy One thou didst come

to bid my soul to thee.

The Son of God through pain and groans

thou wast born for me.

This night thou sleeps in angel’s arms

upon the Virgin’s breast.

But Calvary is thy fate dear child

for there salvation rest.

The saints rejoice and heaven sings

                  for death has lost its sting.

Sin no longer claims my soul

                  God’s mercy thou didst bring.

O Holy One thou didst come

                  to live and die for me.

For in thy love, the Word made flesh

                  thou hast set thy people free.

The best is behind us!

Recently I went to see the new Woody Allen movie, "Midnight in Paris" - a pleasant, romantic and thought provoking movie.  The main character Gil Pender, played by Owen Wilson, is a Hollywood writer who wants to be a "real" writer.  Traveling in Paris with his finance and her family, he longs to stay, rent a little apartment and make a go of it.  He dreams of life during what he feels is the "Golden Age" of Paris - the 1920's, the days of Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Eliot.  Surely this time was more alive, more vibrant, more real than 2011.  If he had only been born then, surely that was the time to be alive! 

 

One evening after a few drinks and getting lost on his way back to the hotel, he is magically transported through time back to the 1920's in Paris.  There he finds himself having drinks with Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dali and Pablo Picasso.  He returns night after night confused and in disbelief, yet so alive by his remarkable encounters.  Surely this time was like no other and there would never be time like that again.  One encounter leads to another and then another.  (I don't want to tell you the whole story!) 

 

Finally, however, he realizes the meaning of this sacred journey...the best was NOT in the past.  There was NO Golden Age.  No perfect time.  The "age" in which we live is measured by how we live in this time and this place.  WE make the time in which we live either "Golden" or "Rusted". 

 

We can either live with the assurance of the miraculous work that God is doing today and the hope of what God will do tomorrow, or we can constantly look over our shoulder and think, "God's not doing it like he used to. God used to really do some miraculous things. Boy - in the good old days, the church was really the church, priests were really priests, a man was really a man and woman really a woman, America was really America!  Oh, if we could only return to 19?? - those were the good days, the Golden Days."

 

We live in the time in which we live.  There is no magical manipulation of time which can transport us to some idyllic period which we believe was "better".  Today is going to be as "Golden" as we want to make it.  Today will be as full and alive, as vibrant and rich, as pregnant with possibility and creativity as we allow it.

 

Let us open ourselves to the possibilities of today!  Let us live today as the Golden Age of hope, the Golden Age of life, the Golden Age of God...the best is NOT behind us - the best is still before us - if we open ourselves to it!!

"Moderates can no longer afford to be silent."

I recently finished reading The Tenth Parallel: Dispatches from the Fault Line Between Christianity and Islam, by Eliza Griswold, the daughter of our former Presiding Bishop, Frank Griswold.  This engaging book is the result of seven years of work, as Griswold traveled the globe between the equator and the tenth parallel in an "urgent examination of the relationship between faith and worldly power."    

Though there are many points worthy of discussion, one quote continues to come to mind. While in Indonesia Griswold met with the founder of the Sisters in Islam, a Malaysian NGO that protects women's rights, who said, "Moderates can no longer afford to be silent." (p.203) This Griswold believes "is a sentiment one could easily hear among American Christians, be they Episcopalians, Catholics, or evangelicals." (p.203)  I agree!

I'm growing weary of the dominate voice of faith whether Christian or Islamic being that of radical extremists either on the left or right.  I'm tired of hearing Christian voices that in no way reflect the faith that I understand and hold dear.  I'm not saying that we should not hear these perspectives, but I fear that drown out other voices.  Other voices, moderate voices, reconciling voices need to be heard.  

Episcopalians can make a difference!  I believe we have a unique and wonderful way of understanding God and engaging the world.  Though Episcopalians are a rather small minority in the USA, our voice needs to be heard.  Our churches need to take active service and leadership roles in the world.  We have a great message that needs to be shared.  We have wonderful Anglican way of being and worship that needs to be experienced by more people.  We have an engaging and challenging theology that has ample room for many across the theological spectrum. 

     

Moderates can no longer afford to be silent!  Not only for the health of the Christian faith, but for the health and well being of our relationships with those who differ from us.

In Christ,

Paul+