To Create a Space in which Obedience to Truth is Practiced

Tags

Harriet the Spy, Letters to a Young Poet, parker palmer, reverb10, Rilke

It all came together this morning as I sat with my spiritual director.  Okay, may it didn’t all come together but some of the pieces that have been stirring within me came together, much like discovering that one puzzle piece that moves you forward in significant ways. 

Puzzle piece number 1.  Earlier this week I came across a hand-crafted book that was given to me by the friend who gave the charge at my ordination back in 1993.  In it she had copied the words from Ranier Maria Rilke from his essay Letters to a Young Poet. 

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions

It is amazing how the Spirit works.  Call it serendipity if you like, I call it the work of the Sp

irit that moves in and through us and others in ways we can’t even imagine and with a timeline that often causes me grief.  The one and only entry in that book describes how I sat in the center aisle of the wealthy, suburban church the night before my ordination, lit the dancing candles Jeff had given me as a graduation gift, read a bit of Harriet the Spy and wrote about my desire to create a safe space for the overlooked ones, the ones who struggle with a healthy sense of self and wonder if they make a difference in the world. 

 

Puzzle piece number 2. In that same journal that included the words of Rilke, I had written this quote from Parker Palmer. 

Teaching is to create a space in which obedience to truth is practiced

I had no recollection of even knowing Palmer’s work back then.  Go figure!  This understanding of teaching was the thesis for my doctoral work in 2006.  I posed the question how can preaching create a space in which obedience to truth is practiced?  Palmer later changed the word obedience to community to reflect the mutuality of that is necessary for learning to take place in a positive manner. 

Puzzle piece number 3.  This morning my spiritual director asked me what my mission was for myself.  I trust the words and images that first pop into my mind:  I want to be comfortable in my skin. What a weird mission!  How self serving! Then the next question:  how am I going to practice loving the skin I am in for the next month.  It was then that these pieces came together.  I’ve love to create a safe space for others.  It is important to me that people feel included in the group so much so that I’ll make people rearrange their chairs to do such that.  But I’m not sure I do that for myself.  So that is the challenge before me.

Puzzle piece number 4.  Today’s Reverb:  Beautifully Different – Think about what makes you different and what you do that lights people up. Reflect on all the things that make you different – you’ll find they’re what make you beautiful.

Seriously?  I don’t wanna talk about myself that way!  I feel self-conscious enough with those blog thing to begin with and now I am supposed to brag/promote/boast?

But…I do have gifts.  I am beautiful.  I need to create a safe place for myself.  I need to love the skin I’m in (at least for the next month!).  So here goes:

• I see those who often go unnoticed and work to include them and value them
• I remember the little things about others
• I’m willing to speak up when I see injustice
• I’m a good mom and spouse, a good sister, a good daughter, a good friend

That’s enough for now.  By the way, I love doing puzzles.

Being a Pastor on Memorial Day – Again

Tags

biblical foundations, memorial day, prayer

A year ago I was the fill-in pastor for a neighboring community’s Memorial Day service.  It was a deeply moving experience for me.  I was asked to participate again this year and happily showed up early this morning only to learn that another pastor had been asked and he was none too pleased when the organizing veteran offered me one of his prayers.  I could tell he was none to happy and told him that I had no need to participate.  I stood amongst children and parents and grandparents and watched that same man carry the wreath while gripping his crutches under his armpits.  The same bugler played the haunting melody; the salute to the dead caused me to gasp with each shot.

It is hard not to critique the work of those in my field.  I assume the same is true for opposing lawyers; teachers across the hall from each other; even parents do it!  However, I worked hard to be open to the prayers offered by this pastor today but I couldn’t.  I couldn’t when the words forgot those who died who were not Christian.  I couldn’t when he claimed that we must return to the biblical foundation on which this country was formed (whose version of the biblical foundation?).  I couldn’t when every image, every image, was masculine and militaristic.

And then I wondered… how often do I use the pulpit (whether it be at Pioneer or the Newbury cemetery) as a soap-box?  Too often, I fear.

What about you?  What words would you have offered on this Memorial Day?

Back to School in More Ways than One

Tags

Bruce Reyes-Chow, Calvin, Carol Howard Merritt, Garrett Evangelical, GodComplex Radio, PCUSA, Stephen Ray

School started back up this week and with it some routines.  After K2 gets on the bus I usually head off for a walk.  This week I’ve been catching up with some of the podcasts from The GodComplex Radio.  Carol Howard Merritt and Bruce Reyes-Chow are two PCUSA pastors on opposite coasts who have put together some amazing interviews with an incredible folks.  If you haven’t listened to it – go check them out now.  I’m trying to re-work my Monday schedule so that I can listen live and engage in the online conversations that happen. 

Yesterday I listened to the Calvin episode with Dr. Stephen Ray.  Listening to him speak made me want to sit in on one of his classes or read one of his books.  If you haven’t read Calvin’s Institutes or have even seen them here is what you need to know:  Calvin’s Institutes are dense, thick, at times confusing, challenging – and printed in two volumes.  On thin paper.  With a really small font. 

So when Dr. Ray was asked to summarize Calvin’s work he said this:

The sum of Calvin’s Institutes is this:  either you trust God or you don’t. 

Wow.  I’m pretty certain I would have failed my ordination exams if I had given that answer but he is so on target.  I can think of countless conversations with good, faithful folks who struggle with Calvin’s understanding of predestination and the sovereignty of God.  It is hard to not make it all about us and what we must do in response to God’s gift of grace.  Or that we have to somehow initiate our own salvation.

Ray’s words make me think of that image that God grabs hold of us long before we grab hold of God and that ultimately, whether we grab hold doesn’t matter. 

Thanks Dr. Ray.  I think I’ll pull out Calvin’s work and do some reading.

Either you trust God or you don’t.  I’ll be pondering that for awhile.