Monthly Archives: August 2016

Monday Matters (August 29, 2016)

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Sunday School lessons

In a week when presidential candidates focused on racial divides, I joined a study group based on Jim Wallis’ book about racism in America. The book is called America’s Original Sin. As I read and reflected, I came away with the feeling that we’re all implicated in the complex of racial division. Said another way, we all have a story to tell. Jim Wallis invites readers to reflect on those stories. I found that the news of the day, the call of our Presiding Bishop to focus on racial reconciliation, and this challenge by Jim Wallis combined to cause me to reflect on early memories of Sunday School, of all things. No offense to my Sunday School teachers, but there’s not a lot I remember from those classes, except watching the clock. I do remember this:

I was about 12 years old. Each person in our Sunday School class, meeting at a church in a New York suburb, got a magazine, a small aspiring-to-be-hip publication for young teens. I remember one particular issue. It included an article by J. Edgar Hoover of all people. It made such an impact that long before I got into graphic design for a living, and many decades hence, I can still picture the layout of that 2 page spread.

In that article, Hoover wrote to this church audience, which I presume was assumed to be predominantly receptive to his message, about the danger Martin Luther King, Jr. posed to our nation. (This article was published before Dr. King made his fateful trip to Memphis.) I remember the claim, not uniquely held by the former Director of the FBI, that Dr. King was a tool of communists, that his Christianity was a front for something sinister and unpatriotic, that he was a person devoid of moral fiber. I remember the vitriolic tone, which might make current candidates blush (or not).

Even at that young clueless age (as opposed to my present older clueless age), I thought if I had to pick between J. Edgar Hoover and Dr. King, I’d go with Dr. King. I wondered what editorial staff called Hoover and said: We need help with Christian formation. I was confused as to why we were reading this in Sunday School. That article shifted something for me, sending early warning signals that I might not belong in that church. I regard it as a milestone in my migration to another tradition, since that article seemed to have little to do with the Jesus movement (to use a phrase floating around the Episcopal Church these days). As I’ve reflected on that article, and the fact that I remember it after all these years, I thought about what a mentor told me. He said: When working with young people in formation of faith, the first and foremost duty is to fulfill the Hippocratic Oath: Do no harm.

We’ve come distance from the publication of that article. We’ve learned more about Mr. Hoover, now diminished in public perception. We’ve come to regard Martin Luther King as one of the great figures of the last century. Not a perfect human being (who is?) but one worthy of honor, maybe reverence as his work in the world was shaped by the Sermon on the Mount. I’m struck that in most towns of any size around the country, north and south, you now find a Martin Luther King Boulevard, in communities where in another time he might have been arrested for walking on that street. I also recognize as I read this book, and watch the news, and examine my heart, that there is distance to go.

Yesterday, in church, we began our liturgy by praying that we come to know true religion. What do you think true religion is? That prayer is below, along with excerpts from scripture we read yesterday. Those scriptures call us to new ways to think about our life in the world. True to the spirit of Jesus, they comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

I believe we are called as disciples as part of our spiritual practice to pastor the community. That begins with introspection, as we consider where we can grow in love of God and neighbor, those two things inseparable. That becomes a broader view, where we explore the brokenness of our world and ask how we may have participated in it. And then we ask, we hope and we pray about how we might contribute to the healing of the world, and of course, how we might teach our children well. It’s amazing what they will remember.

-Jay Sidebotham

The Collect read in church yesterday:
 
Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all good things: Graft in our hearts the love of your Name; increase in us true religion; nourish us with all goodness; and bring forth in us the fruit of good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
 
 
From the Epistle to the Hebrews:
 
Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured. Let marriage be held in honor by all…Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have; for he has said, “I will never leave you or forsake you.
 
 
From the Gospel of Luke:
 
Jesus said: For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. He 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. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

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Jay SidebothamContact:
Rev. Jay Sidebotham
jsidebotham@renewalworks.org
RenewalWorks is a ministry of Forward Movement.
www.renewalworks.org

If you’d like to join in this donor-based ministry, donate here.

Monday Matters (August 22, 2016)

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Being Ananias

I try to read some of the Bible each day. Sometimes I don’t get much out of it. Other times characters come to life and stir my imagination. That happened when I read about Ananias last week.

His name came up in the daily readings as our lectionary makes its way through the New Testament book of the Act of the Apostles. That book tells the story of the early church. If the book were a movie, Ananias would not even be considered for supporting actor. He gets a cameo role at best. He fails to qualify for Andy Warhol’s fifteen minutes of fame. You get the idea. But without him, or someone like him, the story of the church would be really different.

Here’s a recap of his story which you can find below. Ananias lived in Damascus, at the end of the road where Saul (henceforth referred to as Paul) had a dramatic conversion experience. On that road, Paul became a penitent former-persecutor of Jesus (which is one definition of a Christian, according to the theologian James Alison). Paul was struck blind in the conversion process and stumbled his way into town, where he starts praying. Ananias hears a call from God to go and bring healing to Paul. Ananias wonders if the call is a wrong number, as is true in many biblical accounts of call stories. Ananias knows of Paul’s reputation as someone out to get Christians. It was not safe to be around Paul. Ananias could not believe Paul could be changed. But God’s voice spoke of Paul’s mission. So when God told Ananias to go, Ananias went. He prays with Paul, helps him regain his sight, baptizes him, welcomes him into the community.

I don’t think we hear about Ananias again. But he’s been on my mind and in my imagination. I sense he has lessons for me this Monday morning. Maybe they’ll resonate with you as well:

Ananias says “Here am I.” Somewhere in his inner being there was a willingness to be of service, even if he has no idea what that would look like. In what sense can I say “Here am I” today?

He listened for God’s voice. Somehow he was paying attention enough to hear God ask him to do something totally counter-intuitive. What would it look like if I was that spiritually attentive today? How can I pay more attention? Some call it mindfulness.

He changed his own mind. At first, he was not open to going, but he was on some level a learner. Where do I find the courage and humility to recognize that a course correction might be in order?

He believed Paul could change, or at least, be changed. Do I deny the possibility that others can change? Or is it just easier for me to slot folks into categories?

He is willing to see possibility, no matter how unlikely that potential was. Do I have the trust and the courage to see a threshold where most people see a dead end?

He welcomes Paul, providing a pathway for Paul’s inclusion in the community. He could have tried to get revenge. He could have savored resentment. It was within his rights. He could have set up litmus tests. He could have stood in the way. But he opened the door. Where am I being called to that kind of ministry?

The fact that we know little about Ananias allows us to wonder, in a way that challenges our faith this morning. His story calls us to think about how we might be useful in someone else’s life, for God’s sake.

Who are the people who have been like Ananias for you?

Is there a way that you can be Ananias for somebody today?

-Jay Sidebotham

From Acts 9:
 
Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, ‘Ananias.’ He answered, ‘Here I am, Lord.’ The Lord said to him, ‘Get up and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. At this moment he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.’ But Ananias answered, ‘Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem; and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who invoke your name.’ But the Lord said to him, ‘Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel; I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.’ So Ananias went and entered the house. He laid his hands on Saul and said, ‘Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.’ And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and his sight was restored. Then he got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength.

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Jay SidebothamContact:
Rev. Jay Sidebotham
jsidebotham@renewalworks.org
RenewalWorks is a ministry of Forward Movement.
www.renewalworks.org

If you’d like to join in this donor-based ministry, donate here.

Monday Matters (August 15, 2016)

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I have the privilege of officiating at a wedding at the end of this week. It got me thinking about my favorite wedding stories. I’ve got a bunch of them. (A collection will be published upon my retirement.) Here’s one, a kind of a parable:

Before the wedding, I had a long conversation with the photographer, occasional nemesis of officiating clergy. Let’s just say that their mission often differs from the mission of the officiant. We agreed that the photographer would stand in the side aisle, near the back of the sacred space, not move around, not distract from the liturgy.

The procession occurred, a gathering of handsome young people making their way to the chancel steps. I delivered the opening words of the liturgy, several paragraphs about the meaning of marriage. As I delivered them with compelling sincerity, I became aware of a presence looming over my left shoulder. I heard the rapid-fire, digital clicking of a camera. The photographer had moved to stand right behind me, inches away to catch the faces of the couple close up. With him in my personal space, the liturgy continued.

As I invited the congregation to be seated for the readings, I beckoned the photographer to meet me “off stage” in the ambulatory where I proceeded to lose it, expletives included. I was mad. He agreed that he would abide by our agreement for the rest of the service.

I took deep breaths after my tirade, listened for the conclusion of the readings and reached into my pocket to turn my mike back on. Wait a minute. Had it been on throughout my tirade? I wasn’t sure. Had the congregation heard me holler at this guy? How would I know? I couldn’t really ask the congregation, now, could I? What were my options? I could leave. No. that won’t work. I decided that when I returned to the worship space, I would make eye contact with the mother of the bride. If she was smiling, I was okay. If not, I knew Starbucks was hiring.

Turns out I had indeed turned off the mike. The congregation had not heard me cuss. I proceeded to offer my sweet homily about the power of love in human relationships. In my mind, I was still fuming.

This story took place a while ago. But it comes back to me often, a parable with numerous spiritual lessons. I reflect on it, mindful of how close I came to a career ending moment, one that these days would go viral. On one level, there were no winners in my showdown with the photographer. He remains in my mind a jerk, though I’ve forgotten his name. More memorable is the awareness of my own hypocrisy. I almost expected to be struck by lightning as in my homily I rambled on about God’s love.

The story continues to teach me. Here’s one lesson: When people talk to me about the failures of the church, they often say that they can’t be part of church because it’s filled with hypocrites. All I can say (based on this wedding story, and others) is: Guilty as charged. Yet the work of the church goes on. The homily I preached about God’s love got preached, even though the preacher didn’t know enough about that love and was limited in ability to show that love. Maybe in some ironic way, the fraudulence of the preacher underscored the depth of God’s love and mercy and forbearance and grace. Let’s call it accidental preaching.

As I’ve noted before, a church leader I admire has said that he never met a motive that wasn’t mixed. Your spiritual journey and mine, both are marked by mixed motive. I wouldn’t be totally surprised if in each one of us there could be found some measure of hypocrisy.

But we can still proclaim love. On this very Monday. And we should do so in word and action. And we should not be so ego-driven and self-absorbed to allow our own lapses to stop us from doing that. After all, the good news is about God’s faithfulness, not our own.

-Jay Sidebotham

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God-not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what God has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.
-Ephesians 2:8-10
Hypocrites in the Church? Yes, and in the lodge and at the home. Don’t hunt through the Church for a hypocrite. Go home and look in the mirror. Hypocrites? Yes. See that you make the number one less.
-Billy Sunday
Not going to church because of hypocrites is like not going to the gym because of out of shape people.
-found on Facebook

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Jay SidebothamContact:
Rev. Jay Sidebotham
jsidebotham@renewalworks.org
RenewalWorks is a ministry of Forward Movement.
www.renewalworks.org

If you’d like to join in this donor-based ministry, donate here.

Monday Matters (August 8, 2016)

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Years ago, in my ministry as parish priest, I was charged with design of a new worship service to be held on Sunday nights. It was meant to be innovative, distinct from traditional Sunday morning services. People would be encouraged to dress casually. The mood would be informal. Sermons would be conversational. We would streamline the liturgy. Music would be eclectic. We would bill it as contemporary.

It took discernment, praying and planning over several months. We weren’t exactly sure how it would unfold, so we did a trial service, a dress rehearsal. I remember the date: October 10. There were a lot of rough edges that night. The service went way too long. Some things were confusing to worshippers. Some seemed kind of cheesy.

So after that first service, we met during the week, made adjustments and offered the liturgy again the next Sunday night, October 17, our official debut. It went better, with notable differences from the first night. I was pleased with it. Pleased until I was greeted at the end of the service by angry worshippers: “That’s not how we did it last week.”

It took one week, one service to forge immutable tradition. It reminded me that we are creatures of habit. How quickly we form patterns of ritual! We’re not wild about change.

Two days ago, we observed the Feast of the Transfiguration. It’s a story about change, told in the passage from Luke in the column on the left. Jesus with his best buddies Peter, James and John head to the mountaintop. Something happened up there, something glorious and awesome (in the true sense of the word). It’s scary and wonderful. Jesus gets all radiant (Think Steven Spielberg). Moses and Elijah appear with him (though I’m not sure how the disciples recognized those guys. Nametags?).

Peter, unfettered mouthpiece for the disciples and all of us, thinks it’s grand. He says to Jesus: “Let’s fix this moment in time. We’ll build a shelter, a home, a museum, a religious theme park for you and Moses and Elijah on top of the mountain.” A cloud from heaven intervenes, suggesting that while the moment was indeed marvelous, it was not meant to be fixed in time. The disciples were meant to move.

There are a lot of directions a preacher could go with this story. To me, on this Monday, the story says that in life, in the spiritual journey, nothing is certain but change. We can’t stay where we are. As Pope Francis said in a homily: There is no such thing as a stationary Christian. We may be blessed with extraordinary epiphanies, moments of insight and awe. They are not destinations. They are instruments, leading to the new thing that God has for us, sending us into the world to do God’s work.

This Monday morning, listen to your life. Think about the new thing God might have in store for you. Imagine it. Prepare for it. Are you open to it? It may be a change of circumstances, heading down from the mountain. It might be an interior shift, a movement of the heart, involving forgiveness and healing and grace. We worship a God whose business is apparently to make things new. What will that look like in your journey? Pray for the grace to welcome the new thing God intends. It’s all part of the spiritual adventure.

-Jay Sidebotham

Jesus answered Nicodemus: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
-John 3:3, a portion of today’s reading from the Daily Office
 
 
Change is good. You go first.
-Dilbert
 
 
It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad. 
-C. S. Lewis
 
 
Luke 9:28-36
Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah” -not knowing what he said. While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.

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Jay SidebothamContact:
Rev. Jay Sidebotham
jsidebotham@renewalworks.org
RenewalWorks is a ministry of Forward Movement.
www.renewalworks.org

If you’d like to join in this donor-based ministry, donate here.

Monday Matters (August 1, 2016)

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Maybe it comes with the job. I couldn’t help but notice the ways people prayed at both political conventions. There was a good deal of what I call horizontal praying going on. What do I mean by horizontal praying? Though the message is bracketed with a “Dear God” and an “Amen,” it’s really meant to make a point with those hearing the prayer, for example, the prayer at the dinner table: “Dear God, help my sibling, spouse, parent, child to stop being such a jerk. Amen.”

In the past two weeks at the conventions, I heard some beautiful prayers. I also heard some prayers I thought were really political speeches. Some seemed manipulative. A few seemed heretical. After a long time of trying to sort through the nexus of faith and politics, I am finding this election cycle distinctively vexing and perplexing. How about you?

To address my vexed perplexity, I started reading a new book by Miraslov Volf and Ryan McAnnally-Linz. I confess that Dr. McAnnally-Linz was new to me, but I’ve admired Dr. Volf for many years. His experience as a political prisoner in Eastern Europe, an ordeal he survived with hope and joy intact, gives him lots of credibility, in my humble opinion. He knows a lot about grace.

Their new book is called Public Faith in Action. The two authors move through a number of key issues for our day, offering ethical questions for the reader to consider, suggesting ways that faith might inform these issues, gracefully recognizing that we as disciples live in a world marked by ambiguity. Noting that Jesus spoke of the kingdom of heaven, the authors suggest that the message of Jesus cannot be separated from our life in political community. We have a public faith. For that reason, I’m hoping their insights will help me make it to election day. We’ll see.

I was struck with one passage in particular. Authors describe the Civil Rights movement in the early 1960’s, specifically preparations for marchers in Birmingham in 1963. The Southern Christian Leadership organized training for marchers. In order to be permitted to be part of the march, each volunteer had to sign a “commitment card,” promising among other things to do the following:

  1. To pray each day
  2. To meditate daily on the teachings and life of Jesus
  3. To walk and talk in the manner of love.

In other words, according to the authors, “public engagement with Jesus Christ as the center and norm calls not only for commitment to following Christ, but also for the formation of a certain kind of character.”

This election season calls us to explore public faith in action. We could do worse than to follow the three steps on that commitment card. (I can pray that candidates for political office do the same. Is that a horizontal prayer?) What spiritual practices would be helpful to you, as you think about your public life? What would it mean to have our character as Christians who are also citizens, citizens who are also Jesus-followers, shaped by spiritual practices, backed by spiritual action, offered in a spirit of love.

What would you put on a commitment card?

-Jay Sidebotham

But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
-Matthew 6:33
 
Christian faith has an inalienable public dimension. Christians aren’t Christ followers just in their private and communal lives; they are Christ’s followers in the public and political lives as well. Christ must be the center and norm for Christian engagement because Christ and his Spirit are at work, not just in our hearts, families and churches, but also in our nations and the entire world.
 
Jesus’ life and message are unmistakably public, even political, though not in the usual sense of the term. After all, the core of Jesus’ preaching is that “the kingdom of God has come near” (Matthew 4:17; Mark 1:15). Whatever else it might be, kingdom is surely a political term….The book of Revelation portrays the final advent of God’s reign as the “holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God” to be established on earth (Revelation 21:2). We get our word political from the Greek word for city.
-from 
Public Faith in Action
by Miraslov Volf and Ryan McAnnally-Linz (pp. 3-4)

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Jay SidebothamContact:
Rev. Jay Sidebotham
jsidebotham@renewalworks.org
RenewalWorks is a ministry of Forward Movement.
www.renewalworks.org

If you’d like to join in this donor-based ministry, donate here.