Monthly Archives: January 2019

Monday Matters (January 28, 2019)

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I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, God may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Ephesians 3:16-18

Q: Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers?
A: I will with God’s help.

From the Baptismal Covenant

Spiritual practice is not just sitting and meditation. Practice is looking, thinking, touching, drinking, eating and talking. Every act, every breath, and every step can be practice and can help us to become more ourselves.

Thich Nhat Hanh

For the rest of your life to be as meaningful as possible, engage in spiritual practice if you can. It is nothing more than acting out of concern for others. If you practice sincerely and with persistence, little by little, step by step you will gradually reorder your habits and attitudes so as to think less about your own narrow concerns and more about others’ – and thereby find peace and happiness yourself.

The Dalai Lama

What happens on Sunday morning is not half so important as what happens on Monday morning. In fact, what happens on Sunday morning is judged by what happens on Monday morning.

Verna Dozier

Practice

Shortly after we moved to Chicago, I received one of those wonderful spousal Christmas gifts, an offering subtly (or not) suggesting area of improvement. I was signed up at the local gym. I began to show up daily, religiously, when the doors opened before dawn. I was joined by other religious folks who also showed up every day for exercise. Some were buff. Why did they need to exercise? For some, like me, it was clear why exercise would be a good idea. But we all showed up, regardless of proficiency. As we did, a community was forged.

Since moving to North Carolina, my current pre-dawn routine involves a daily yoga class. The same folks show up every day, religiously. It’s like an 8am service in an Episcopal church. We park our mats in the same place. We know who puts their mat where. Newcomers beware of unwittingly altering the arrangement. We rarely speak beyond good morning and have a good day. We say Namaste to each other in the same way 8 o’clockers exchange the peace. A community is forged through this practice.

One member of our early morning yogic community is really good at yoga, as far as I can tell. (I know. One is not supposed to compare.) He’s in really good shape. All muscle. He can defy gravity in his poses without breaking a sweat. I recently learned that he is a yoga teacher. I’m intrigued with the fact that as a teacher he practices each day with the rest of us. Why does he need to practice, especially before the sun comes up?

A friend who teaches at a seminary said that one of his colleagues did a study of main-line clergy. A large percentage of those clergy have no daily practice of prayer or engaging with scripture. If those spiritual practices are done, it is only in preparation for Sunday worship. I found it a sad commentary that spiritual leaders don’t feel like they need to continue to practice, that they don’t need to engage in spiritual exercise, that they are not being nourished and strengthened and challenged in that way.

It brings to mind Pablo Casals, the great cellist who died in 1973. He would practice for hours each day, even into his nineties. Somebody asked him why he needed to do that, since he was arguably the best cellist in the universe. He answered that he practiced because he got better. He understood that his engagement with music was not about destination. It was about that open-ended opportunity for discovering new horizons.

The spiritual life is sort of like that. (A rector I admire describes his church as a spiritual gym.) For each of us, for all of us, it takes practice. First, practice in the sense of practicality, putting muscles to work, continuing to learn and grow. Second, practice in the sense of getting better at it, deepening, dare I say, improving. Practice in the sense of growing in our love of God and love of neighbor. We get in spiritual trouble when we imagine we don’t really need to do that anymore.

The practices can come in great variety. Beware those who get too prescriptive about what those practices might be. But also beware of those who think the practices don’t matter. Take this week to think about your own spiritual practice. How are you being intentional, mindful about it? If you’re looking for a practice, consider the Way of Love, proposed by the Presiding Bishop www.episcopalchurch.way-of-love.org Or shape your own way of love. It works if you work it.

-Jay Sidebotham

AN INVITE:
As part of The Good Book Club, I’ll be leading an online Bible Study for 8 weeks. It started on January 9, but it’s not too late to dive in!
Time: Wednesdays at 8pm EST Topic: Paul’s letters to the Romans. Learn more here. I hope you will join me!

4
Jay Sidebotham

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

Monday Matters (January 21, 2019)

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Almighty God, by the hand of Moses your servant you led your people out of slavery, and made them free at last: Grant that your Church, following the example of your prophet Martin Luther King, may resist oppression in the name of your love, and may secure for all your children the blessed liberty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

A prayer for the day we remember Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Jesus said: But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

Luke 6:27-36, chosen for the day we remember Dr. King

MLK

We set aside today to remember the life and ministry and witness of Dr. Martin Luther King. In a season when our nation seems more divided than ever, here are thoughts about how to navigate division, wherever it turns up: at home, in a workplace, at church, in our country, on our globe. Like Mahatma Gandhi and Leo Tolstoy, Dr. King shaped his strategy with an eye on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. It’s a great example of how important scriptural engagement can be. A selection from that sermon (Luke’s version) is printed above. In that sermon, Jesus offers a counter-intuitive call to love enemies.

Here’s how Dr. King spoke of Jesus’ teaching:

Now there is a final reason I think that Jesus says, “Love your enemies.” It is this: that love has within it a redemptive power. And there is a power there that eventually transforms individuals. Just keep being friendly to that person. Just keep loving them, and they can’t stand it too long. Oh, they react in many ways in the beginning. They react with guilt feelings, and sometimes they’ll hate you a little more at that transition period, but just keep loving them. And by the power of your love they will break down under the load. That’s love, you see. It is redemptive, and this is why Jesus says love. There’s something about love that builds up and is creative. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. So love your enemies.

It is in fact a spiritual practice, and I come back to Dr. King, who offered specific guidelines for those who would join him in non-violent resistance. Dr. King, often compared to Moses, came up with his own ten commandments for those who would choose to be part of his movement. Here they are:

  • Meditate daily on the teachings and life of Jesus
  • Remember always that the nonviolent movement seeks justice and reconciliation-not victory.
  • Walk and talk in the manner of love, for God is love.
  • Pray daily to be used by God in order that all might be free.
  • Sacrifice personal wishes in order that all might be free.
  • Observe with both friend and foe the ordinary rules of courtesy.
  • Seek to perform regular service for others and for the world.
  • Refrain from the violence of fist, tongue, or heart.
  • Strive to be in good spiritual and bodily health.
  • Follow the directions of the movement and of the captain on a demonstration.

We can take a broad view of what it means to love enemies. We all have them. They turn up in many places, in many ways, evoking varying degrees of intensity and complication. It takes practice to relate to them in the transforming way Dr. King describes. 

You may not feel able to embrace all of his commandments, tackling them all at once. So do what you can today. Because this day, honoring Dr.King’s birth, and this week, and this new year all offer opportunity to hear these commandments, and set them to work in a world that sure could use them.

-Jay Sidebotham

AN INVITE:
As part of The Good Book Club, I’ll be leading an online Bible Study for 8 weeks. It started on January 9, but it’s not too late to dive in!
Time: Wednesdays at 8pm EST Topic: Paul’s letters to the Romans. Learn more here. I hope you will join me!

4
Jay Sidebotham

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

Monday Matters (January 14, 2019)

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Seek the Lord and his strength. Continually seek his face.

-Psalm 105:4

The path of spiritual growth is a path of lifelong learning.

-M. Scott Peck

Working life has extended so much in the last fifty years that it exceeds life expectancy of even the most successful businesses. Very few businesses are successful for more than 25 or 30 years. And yet most educated people who go to work in their early twenties will keep working until they are 70. And so they had better be prepared for a second career whether it’s in another organization where they are doing what they have been doing or in a new line of work. They must be prepared to learn again. They must be prepared to position themselves. They must be prepared to want to learn- to see it not as something they need to do, but as something they enjoy doing. They will have to learn how to learn.

-Peter Drucker

Disciples Are Learners

If I were ruler of the universe, I might lose the word “disciple” for a while. Just for a while. I’d replace it for a season with the word “student” or “learner.” There is no limit to the reasons why it’s a good thing I’m not ruler of the universe. Just ask my family.

But here’s one paradoxical thing I’ve learned about being a learner. Times of deep learning came for me when I was asked to be a teacher about something I may not have been entirely comfortable teaching, times when I had to be a learner in order to be a teacher.  We’re talking stretch goal.

This has happened for me recently as I have been asked to teach a couple classes that feel like the deep end of the pool for me. Fun but not always easy. I was asked to speak at a day on discernment, a day about figuring out what God is calling us to do and be. I feel like I’ve been in discernment my whole life. The more I’m at it, the less sure I am how much I really know about it. 

So when I got this assignment, I was grateful to have a guide, a book about discernment entitled Decision Making And Spiritual Discernment: The Sacred Art of Finding Your Way, written by Nancy L. Bieber. This wise author identified three aspects to discernment, not necessarily a sequence as much as a braid, interwoven dynamics that strengthen the process of figuring out what God calls us to do and be.

The first of these elements is willingness. What does it mean to say yes? To God? To life? Prophets in the Bible put it this way: “Here I am.” Dag Hammarskjold described his own moment of assent: “I don’t know Who or – What – put the question. I don’t know when it was put. I don’t even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer Yes to Someone –  or Something – and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life, in self-surrender, had a goal.” To what degree do we meet God’s invitation to new life with willingness?

The second element is attentiveness. Are we paying attention, or are we asleep? The question surfaces in other traditions as a matter of mindfulness. Of all the problems that the disciples had, as described in the gospels, insomnia was not one of them. At critical moments (the Transfiguration, the Garden of Gethsemane), they snore. That strikes me as both recognition and caution. We too often sleepwalk through life. And if we’re not asleep, we’re often distracted. What do we miss because of it? To what degree do we meet God’s invitation to new life with attentiveness?

The third element is responsiveness, which is all about showing up, putting faith into action. It’s about taking a step, like Abraham leaving homeland for a new land, not knowing where he was going. It’s Peter seeing Jesus walking on the water, and then putting one foot over the gunwale, then the next, stepping out in the confidence (a bit fleeting) that he could too walk on water. To what degree do we meet God’s invitation to new life with responsiveness?

The author promotes these three strands of discernment, interwoven, interdependent. She makes no claim that they promise success from the culture’s point of view. Neither did Jesus. In terms of the times in which he lived, he was not such a great success. But according to the author, these strands do provide a foundation for living. So does Jesus.

I’ve been told that as we write the narrative of our own lives, we have options. We can look at ourselves as hero, victim, or learner. Be a learner this week. Discernment is really another word for learning. Seek the path God intends for you, the path into which God invites you. As you tackle that work, do so with an eye on willingness, attentiveness and responsiveness.

-Jay Sidebotham

AN INVITE:
As part of The Good Book Club, I’ll be leading an online Bible Study for 8 weeks. It started on January 9, but it’s not too late to dive in!
Time: Wednesdays at 8pm EST Topic: Paul’s letters to the Romans. Learn more here. I hope you will join me!

4
Jay Sidebotham

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

Monday Matters (January 7, 2019)

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O God, whose blessed Son made himself known to his disciples in the breaking of bread: Open the eyes of our faith that we may behold him in all his redeeming work.

-A prayer from Easter Week

Open our eyes that we may behold the wonders of your law.

-from Psalm 119

I heard a story this weekend told by a woman in her 60’s. She remembered her father, now deceased, a military man who was away a lot as she grew up. But when he was home, he would have a pre-dawn breakfast with his daughter. Just the two of them, meeting over bowls of Grape Nuts. And they would each talk about miracles they had seen the day before. Decades after these breakfasts, this woman still remembers the early morning God-sightings. Not a bad spiritual practice. Not a bad way to begin a day. Not a bad way to be family. Not a bad breakfast.


God-sightings

When I was rector in Chicago, it was my privilege and joy to travel with our young people for a mission trip each summer. We boarded busses, headed for communities where people needed minor construction done on their homes. We pledged to leave places better than we found them, which happened most of the time.  I invoked the Hippocratic Oath, which most of the time was fulfilled.

The program was well organized, so that many youth groups came together, with hundreds of teenagers staying for a week in a high school. I’ve had better night’s sleep. (I usually found a remote corner for my sleeping bag which I called “The Rectory.”) The teenagers were divided into work teams, serving along side people from other churches. At the end of each workday, we’d reunite for dinner, fun, games, and worship. Let’s just say that the latter wasn’t Anglican chant. Not particularly contemplative. Lots of lively music, funny skits, teaching and preaching. And the following interesting feature.

At one point in the liturgy, the worship leader would invite young people to come forward and share God-sightings. Open mic testifying. Where had they seen God that day? So picture this. We’re all in a gym, in bleachers. Our group, good Episcopalians, climbed to the absolute back row, a bit skeptical, smugly resistant  to this exuberant worship, suspicious of the theology. The first night or two, our group sat back, with arms folded.

But I remember that night, as I sat with our young people, when one of our young people clomped noisily down the bleachers, making his way to the mic where he shared his God-sighting. Not exactly an Anglican thing to do. But it was simple and beautiful and authentic. In nights that followed, other members of our group did the same. They spoke of small kindnesses, a homeowner who brought a cool glass of lemonade to break the summer heat. Others spoke of the faithful courage with which homeowners navigated poverty and illness.

We returned to the parish. Young people were given opportunity to preach, to talk about work trip. Their sermon text? They offered God-sightings, which launched a new dynamic in the congregation. People began to keep an eye out for God-sightings. Parishioners of all ages, including most reserved and proper pillars of the church, shared the ways that they saw God at work. Unprecedented in my experience. Epiphany began yesterday. It’s a season (a long one this year) when the church talks about God-sightings. We began with the three wise men from the east, ending with the transfiguration of Jesus on the mountaintop. In between those two stories, we find a great variety of God-sightings that show up in the gospel reading in Sunday. Listen for them on upcoming Sundays.

And then look for your own God-sightings. Where do you see God at work in your world? You might see God on a walk in the woods or a ride on the subway. You might have a God-sighting when you have dinner with those who share your household. You might have a God-sighting when you watch the news with stories from the other side of globe. The sightings are there. And there is great, transformative value in living life with an eye open for God-sightings.

The reason for this season? Remarkable epiphanies happened in the story of Jesus. Ordinary epiphanies happen to us all the time. Do we have eyes to see them? Are we expecting them? Can we wake up to them this week? Start each day asking God to help you see them. End each day noting how that happened.

-Jay Sidebotham

AN INVITE:
As part of The Good Book Club, I’ll be leading an online Bible Study for 8 weeks, starting on January 9, Wednesdays at 8pm EST. Topic: Paul’s letters to the Romans. Learn more here. I hope you will join me!

4
Jay Sidebotham

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

Monday Matters (December 31, 2018)

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O sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. -Psalm 96:1
 
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.   -Psalm 51:11

You have heard; now see all this; and will you not declare it? From this time forward I make you hear new things, hidden things that you have not known.                 -Isaiah 48:6

 
And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.      -Rev. 21:5
 
For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.                   -Isaiah 65:17

But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home. 

           -II Peter 3:1
 
So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! 
       -II Corin. 5:17

Whenever

It’s one of my favorite words in the Prayer Book. It appears in the promises we make at baptism, when we say that whenever we sin, we will repent and return to the Lord. It doesn’t say if ever. It says whenever. It’s gonna happen.

The word also appears in the prayers at a wedding. As we pray for the couple, we ask that they receive grace whenever they hurt each other. Not if ever. Whenever. It’s gonna happen (as one who has been married 33 years can attest).

So why do I like this word? It champions the premise and promise that there is always a chance for a new start. God does not write us off. God is in the forgiveness business. And just to make sure that we get the point, the Bible is full of stories of folks who screw up and find a new path forward. Moses, a murderer and fugitive, becomes the greatest leader in the Hebrew Scriptures. Jonah is told to go east so he heads west, ends up as lunch for the whale, and proclaims grace to great effect. The prodigal son creeps home filled with shame and receives a party. Peter denies. Thomas doubts. Paul persecutes. You get the idea.

All of which is worth thinking about on the cusp of a new year. What will you do with the new? We often make resolutions, teeth-gritting determinations to be better, to be different, to improve self, to assert power when we may at our core know our selves to be powerless. I saw a billboard on Saturday. Big headline: New Year. New You. It was for a team of plastic surgeons. I may well be a candidate, but I don’t think it gets to the heart of the matter.

The Christian faith, the gospel, approaches all of this in a different way. It goes to the heart. God is in the business of making our hearts new. Jesus told Nicodemus, an old really religious guy, perhaps the Episcopal clergy of the day, that he must be born again, born from above, born anew. Resurrection means to stand again. Paul speaks of the possibility that we can become a new creation. The psalms repeatedly invite us to sing a new song. The Revelation to John envisions a new heaven and a new earth.

You can look at our world, our nation, our church, our own lives and reasonably conclude that old ways are not working. (File by title: Government shutdown.) Perhaps that’s precisely what we need to see in order to invite God to do some new work in our hearts. How might we offer that invitation?

One suggestion: In the church in which I serve, over the next two months, we are going to explore the Way of Love: Practices for a Jesus-centered life. These are seven simple (but not necessarily easy) things we can do to live in a new way, proposed and promoted by our Presiding Bishop Michael Curry. Check it out at https://www.episcopalchurch.org/way-of-love.

One of my favorite prayers in the Prayer Book intercedes for young persons. That’s all of us, isn’t it? Here is the prayer: 

God our Father, you see your children growing up in an unsteady and confusing world. (I’ll buy that.) Show them that your ways give more life than the ways of the world, and that following you is better than chasing after selfish goals. Help them to take failure, not as a measure of their worth, but as a chance for a new start. Give them strength to hold their faith in you, and to keep alive their joy in your creation; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

Did you catch that part? Failure is not a measure of our worth, but a chance for a new start. You’ve got that chance today, on the last day of 2018. Fact is, you have that chance every morning. That’s good news, worth celebrating. Happy New Year.

-Jay Sidebotham

4
Jay Sidebotham

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