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Rector's Blog
Saturday, June 28, 2008
This weekend we explore sabbath-keeping. Here's an exercise to get you thinking about your time and practice of making Sabbath.
Draw a sketch of your life’s "floor plan." Map it out. Work, commute, school, etc. Now make an outline of your house, and each room, including any outside space where you may spend time. Put a number in each room representing the hours (or minutes) you normally spend in each room on a given day. If you live with others in your house, you can ask them to try the exercise and compare notes to see where you agree or diverge. Consider these questions:
• What would an outside observer learn from your drawing?
• How much time do you spend alone, and how much time do you spend face-to-face with others?
• How much time do you spend in each room “plugged-in” to work or appliances?
• What would you like to deepen or change about the way you work and rest in your home?
This exercise will tell you a lot about your relationship to Sabbath-keeping.
Here are also a couple links to worship resources that you can print and use if you're keeping the Sabbath while away from home or a worshipping community this summer. Both are from the Book of Common Prayer. One is called Morning Prayer; and the other is a series of shorter worship resources for morning, noon, and night, including Compline--a beautiful worship service for late evening.
Morning%20Prayer.pdf
Compline%20and%20Daily%20Devotions.pdf
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Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Getting It
At some point, you get it. Perhaps you open your accounts online, and there it is. You call the bank and learn the total. It comes in the mail. It's handed to you as you leave the office. Or it's placed on your desk. In times of work in some capacity it comes. At some point, you get your money.
And then what do you do? These days, how do you translate your money into what you have? What do you get with your money?
Here's a bottom-line truth about Jesus: in the gospels he never tells people what to do with their money. The gospel writers do not record Jesus saying anywhere: "everyone, tithe!" Instead, Jesus teaches people what to do with their love of money. He challenges them to love something more valuable. It's outlandish, but Jesus actually tells one man to give all his money away and then to come and follow him—why? Because here is a secret about us: you and I are worth a lot more than as suckers for loving our money. Instead, we can put over our love of money our love for God.
You, too, can give everything you have away. Why not? It's your money! Here's how: you can practice your faith by letting your money follow your love for God. The biblical standard of tithing to God puts our love of money out by the curb. And tithing, many people here can affirm, teaches you that your money—the other 90%—is both yours to have as well as God's for you to steward. It's yours, and it's not only yours. You effectively give it all away by putting your love for God first. That is, with God's help, you can really get it.
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Friday, October 19, 2007
Most of us would like more of both—more money and more happiness. We may look out our windows and see houses that cost more than ours and look more appealing. Our friends may seem a little happier than us because of what they have. We can believe in these times that increasing the former increases the latter: "if I just had a little more money, I'd be happier." Yes, we can understand that the recent research show us otherwise. (According to researchers at University of California, Berkeley, publishing in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, June 2003 once enough money is earned to meet basic needs, money and happiness cannot be objectively correlated. "Once you get basic human needs met...more money doesn't make a lot more happiness," notes Dan Gilbert, a psychology professor at Harvard University and the author of the new book Stumbling on Happiness.) But knowing these results doesn't change the way we can feel. In the consumer culture in which we all participate, money—and having more of it—gets translated into increased happiness.
But each year at this time we have the opportunity to commit to seeing our money in another way. We can commit ourselves to viewing our money, and what we have through it, not as a commodity to compare ourselves to others with, but as an expression of our values. Our money follows our values, and our values follow what we worship. And to worship God as an intentional follower of Jesus is to practice our faith with our money. Through tithing, or committing 10% to God, we can give joyfully to God in thanks for all that we have. The other 90% through giving 10% becomes more clearly abundant than we could have seen before. We can become happier with what we have. The capacity for our happiness with what we have increases.
100% of life is a gift—what we have, and what we can have. And we can be happy with it. We don't have to let the more costly houses down the street, or the seemingly happier people with whom we may associate, rob us of being happy ourselves. We can be happy with what we have. We can have gratitude. And our gratitude becomes stronger through generous giving: attaining the biblical standard of giving 10% back to God in joy and thanksgiving is a worthy and faithful practice. To tithe means putting first who we worship, and letting our values and our money follow. To tithe means moving beyond comparing ourselves with others, and into gratitude with what we have, and even more happiness.
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Wednesday, September 12, 2007
This month we're exploring in a sermon series "The Faith Questions Kids Ask." (And the truth is they ask great ones!) Here's a note I received the other day after the first sermon. Following this parent's response is my response. What's yours?
Thanks for the great sermon today—I just thought I'd tell you about a big question I got from xxxxx (7 years old) about two weeks ago—
Each night as he settles into bed at night, he wants to talk—about anything—but the other night he asked me "How do we know the stories in the Bible are true, Mom?" As I stared at him like a deer in the headlights, he added "they were written such a long time ago, are we sure those people got them right?"
First, we talked about accepting the stories on faith and what that means. Then we discussed some of the scientific evidence historians have found to support some biblical stories. Finally, we talked about Enoch. When Enoch and God walked together, did you really see two men walking down the street? Or does that story tell us that Enoch was a good man who 'stayed close to God' by observing his law... Anyway, we talked well past bed time, but it was OK I am not sure I gave him great answers but I am sure I'll get more questions...
My response:
Hi xxxxxx, thank you for sharing xxxxx's great story. I like what you said. I think that at our best we help our kids see that all stories have truth to them, and some even have factual truth to them. Scientific and historical evidence can add to the dimensions of stories, but the stories in themselves continue to point beyond themselves, including those in the Bible. I think it's great that you helped him see that stories point to things—the story of Enoch points to a truth beyond the story itself of walking close to God. To help kids rephrase from "is this story true or not?" to "what truth does this story point to?" is holy work, and plenty of adults don't get there, either. The stories in the Bible point to a living God whom we can have faith in, and the stories may or may not be factually verifiable or correct or intended to be so (many writers aren't writing with interests in our questions about evidence), but the stories are nonetheless true. That is, the Bible doesn't give us faith in God, we can have faith in a living God and the stories of the Bible can further point us to consider his life among us.
What about you: do you trust the stories of faith? How do you make sense of stories in Scripture and their relationship to scientific evidence and historical accuracy? What would you say?
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Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Jesus said also to the one who had invited him, "When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind."
Do you ever wonder if a host invited Jesus back for supper a second time? The gospel writers, of course, don't say. It is, I suppose, a rather irrelevant question. But from this episode it would be a surprise to me if a host ever had the nerve to do it.
Look at what Jesus does here: he is an invited guest, reclining this evening at the Sabbath meal, and he has the audacity to tell his host in front of everyone else what he thinks would be a much better dinner party: "when you give a luncheon or dinner [next time]" Jesus says, "don't invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors"—and perhaps you can imagine how Jesus, as he says these words, sweeps his hand in the air, pointing at his fellow guests who recline around him. Better yet, perhaps you can even imagine the host's face, how it pales and slides into a frown as Jesus speaks. The host has shown hospitality to Jesus, but Jesus is not returning the favor. Jesus is not being a good guest: he does not repay his host.
We love quid pro quo—literally, "something for something." It just feels right. But isn't this precisely what Jesus challenges us to consider, whether true service to others is really quid pro quo? It's a hard question to ask and consider, but I think the passage calls us to question: how much of our serving others is done with an underlying expectation, or at least a hope, that somehow we will get back what we've paid in? Here's a personal question for you to reflect on: are your "guests" in your life whom you serve able to repay you? If so, are they really guests?
Jesus today demonstrates the basis for service, and it will not make the next edition of Emily Post. (Criticizing hosts who invite us to their homes is not going to become fashionable.) He challenges his host and us to serve people who don't repay ("the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind") by becoming his challenge. Jesus as the host of our life is the guest in our life whom we cannot repay. Think about that for a moment: Jesus as the host of our life is the guest in our life whom we cannot repay.
Take into your service today this encouragement: that beyond quid pro quo, God has shown you through his Son real service: something for nothing. And on this basis you have a new orientation to serve others without thought of repayment, and in ways they cannot repay. Like Jesus, you may serve others as a true host, and even challenge them as their true guest.
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Saturday, August 18, 2007
Day 4: Friday
The jambalaya is in the pot cooking, we are in the parking lot playing (football), and the cicadas are singing their evening song.
Yesterday we finished working at the park in the morning and Mr. Jones house in the afternoon. Today we met "Buddy," a retired, older man and his wife, Jean, whose house needed outside work along the base of it. We built knee walls—a day long project and got to spend some time with him. He told us about the destruction of his house, in which he'd lived for many years: how the waters came in at 7 and a half feet (he's about 4 or 5 miles from the coast). His neighbors, who came back before he did, found fish swimming in their house. He came back home after two weeks to find everything ruined.
Slowly, church groups have come through over the past two years and helped him rebuild everything. They demolished everything inside and left just the studs. Starting from that, he has done what he can and church groups have worked hard to make him a new home. And this week for him and wife was big: they moved out of their FEMA trailer (behind their house) and into their home once again. He showed me around his house, the closet space, the new tub, the details—he's very proud of his new home and is very glad to be in it.
It was great to end our work here on this high note: icing on the cake for Buddy and Jean—in a new home with us doing some finishing work on the outside—and icing on the cake for us in the form of a one day, accomplishable project.
We worked hard and cut out by 5. The jambalaya smells great—we've got to eat!
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Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Day 2
Now at the end of a long day, as I sit near the quonset hut, a little yellow sliver of the moon gets brighter as the sun slips below the trees at the edge of camp.
Today we had a productive morning and a relatively frustrating, unproductive afternoon.
Morning: We tore it up this morning. We started at 7:00 a.m. on Mr. Jones' house. We finished placing hurricane straps around the edge of the house.
 So we went on to another project.
In the town in which we're working, in the "black" part of town as some say here, there is a playground that is really pitiful. An old swing set, basketball court, and a trenched out but unfinished baseball diamond are surrounded by a large chain link fence. (It is a telling contrast to some other, more beautified city-owned parks that we've seen in other parts of town.)
We spent the latter half of the morning making the park better for kids in this neighborhood to play in it.
SHUNK was the sound our shovels made as they dug deeply into large piles of sand at the end of the park. Soon our wheelbarrows were full, and we steadily wheeled them back and forth, dumping them on the diamond and the pitcher's mound. We stomped sand down and got it done—and, then in celebration, played baseball until noon.
 Afternoon: After such a productive morning, our last two and a half hours were relatively unproductive (remember, we got up early to avoid working more in the hottest parts of the day, so we were going to be off at 3). With the baseball diamond finished, we came back to Mr. Jones' house but found that there was really nothing to do that we could do as a group. What needed to be done involved skilled carpentry in some very few areas. And these areas left most of the group sitting on their haunches, staying well-hydrated but really without business.
I expected, but did not articulate, that we would come here and—wham!—walk right into work well laid out for us—work that would clear, fully engaging, and at the groups skill level. But guess what? We're finding that that's not where people are here. Even well after the relief and recovery effort, and well into the rebuilding effort, there is more chaos than I can appreciate. When the work is clear as to what we're to do, we can do it. But sometimes the work simply isn't clear: the contractor needs to come by to tell us what to do here or there (and so we lose time waiting) or we don't have the right tools, etc. It reminds me that we're here to help as we can: to be productive and yet contribute as we can.
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Day 2 in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi
The man (Mr. Jones) whose house we're building is looking forward to it being finished. After the hurricane, it was flooded beyond repair. When his house is finished, he can bring his wife home. She's in a nursing home and he has no way to care for her at home because the FEMA trailer they have isn't that large. So he's anxious for this to be finished soon.
We're putting up hurricane straps on the outside walls, interior walls today, and helping to put up the tresses when they arrive.
Yesterday we got oriented on the site and hit it hard from the late morning through four. The heat here is intense. With the heat index, it was near 110 and very humid. We are drinking lots of water. The kids are really putting themselves into this work.
Last night after getting back we went for a dive in the gulf, showered, ate, and then headed over to the church (also a quonset hut: the church blew away) to reflect on the day. We talked about how this effort we're making is joining God in his mission down here. We looked at how Jesus takes bread, and in this choosing we can see a great theme throughout Scripture and our lives—how we're invited to join God to serve others in our world. We were quite tired, but we pulled through with some worship and then headed to bed.
This morning we got to the site at 7 a.m. to work and we'll end at 3—it's going to be hotter today than yesterday, so we're adjusting to make the most of cooler hours.
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Archive:
09/01/2006 - 10/01/2006
10/01/2006 - 11/01/2006
01/01/2007 - 02/01/2007
02/01/2007 - 03/01/2007
03/01/2007 - 04/01/2007
04/01/2007 - 05/01/2007
05/01/2007 - 06/01/2007
08/01/2007 - 09/01/2007
09/01/2007 - 10/01/2007
10/01/2007 - 11/01/2007
06/01/2008 - 07/01/2008
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