Monthly Archives: July 2020

Monday Matters (July 27, 2020)

July 27, 2020

Philippians 2:5-11

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death-even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Chapter 53: The Rule of St. Benedict

All guests who present themselves are to be welcomed as Christ, for he himself will say: I was a stranger and you welcomed me (Matt. 25:35). Proper honor must be shown to all, especially to those who share our faith (Gal. 6:10) and to pilgrims. Once a guest has been announced, the superior and the brothers are to meet him with all the courtesy of love. First of all, they are to pray together and thus be united in peace, but prayer must always precede a kiss of peace because of the delusions of the devil. All humility should be shown in addressing a guest on arrival or departure. By a bow of the head or by a complete prostration of the body, Christ is to be adored because he is indeed welcomed in them. After the guests have been received, they should be invited to pray; then the superior or an appointed brother will sit with them. The divine law is read to the guest for his instruction, and after that every kindness is shown to him. The superior may break his fast for the sake of a guest, unless it is a day of special fast which cannot be broken. The brothers, however, observe the usual fast. The abbot shall pour water on the hands of the guests and the abbot with the entire community shall wash their feet. After the washing they will recite this verse: God, we have received your mercy in the midst of your temple (Ps. 47 [48}:10). Great care and concern are to be shown in receiving poor people and pilgrims, because in them more particularly Christ is received; our very awe of the rich guarantees them special respect.

Welcome

Back in the day, I did a fair amount of traveling for RenewalWorks, often meeting in churches in towns I’d never visited before. I loved the adventure, the exploration, the learning. With the help of Google, I’d find my way, but I was always glad to see signs that confirmed I was on the right track. The signs read: The Episcopal Church welcomes you. I could spot them a mile away. I’m grateful for them. Good branding. As far as it goes.

In recent days, I’ve had occasion to think about what it means to be welcoming. Our church is putting together a parish profile. I’m reminded that every profile I ever read describes the church as welcoming. My experience of church visits can suggest otherwise. The folks who craft those profiles are usually folks at the core of those communities, folks who feel the welcome, which is wonderful. I contrast that with the young woman I met on the steps of a church in a big city. She looked up at the imposing façade and asked: Am I allowed to go in there?

Last week, Scott Gunn, Executive Director of Forward Movement, smart guy, faithful disciple, creative Christian, wrote a reflection after nine years as leader of that ministry. He’s done an amazing job, and we are all grateful to him for his leadership. His reflection included comments about the state of the wider church. He explored the quality of our welcome. He wrote: “We need a new slogan. ‘The Episcopal Church welcomes you,’ sets up a dynamic of a club to which new members of many kinds will be admitted, rather than a mission-focused, outward facing movement in which we seek to make disciples of all nations. It isn’t enough to be nice to people who show up in our churches. We need to get out there and invite people to know the transforming grace of Jesus Christ. We need an active urgent slogan – because we need to be urgently active in the world.”

I’ve played around with supplemental slogans over the years, as I’ve sensed what Scott more ably articulated. Our slogan has been plenty nice. It’s key. But it may not go far enough. Our church in Chicago embraced the following vision: If you come here, you will grow. That helps get at the transforming quality we seek in church, the challenge of the gospel we need in our culture these days. But I’m not sure it says enough about how we connect with the world, or how in the language of RenewalWorks, how we pastor the wider community.

I was thinking about this in morning reflection time last week, as I read from the final chapters of Paul’s letter to the Romans. The passages represent his summing up comments, his so-what factor for this church in a culture not unlike our own. Among other things, he offers this instruction, which might not be a bad slogan: “Welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you.” (Romans 15)

I like this, because it is rooted not in our own benevolence but in belief about God’s action in Christ, the ways we have been welcomed. It is rooted in a doctrine of grace, of love from which we can never be separated. Think about ways that you in your spiritual journey have been welcomed by Christ. How would you describe that experience? (Maybe you want to journal a bit about that this week.)

Think about how Christ welcomed those he met. By going outside his comfort zone, emptying himself as the letter to the Philippians describes it (included above). By crossing religious, ethnic, social, gender boundaries of his day. By meeting with people he shouldn’t have met with. By offering them a path to transformation, a new way of life. By finding what God was up to in the neighborhood, among Samaritans and other foreigners, criminals, outcasts, scary people possessed by demons, lepers, pariahs, Pharisees, tax collectors, soldiers, rebels, rich people, poor people, and marvel of marvels, good, religiously observant people. Each one of us fits in there somewhere. Each one of us has had grace extended to us. A sign that we really know that grace will be our ability to show that grace to others.

And once we’ve reflected on how we have been welcomed, perhaps we can explore ways to welcome others in that spirit. What would that look like?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m grateful for those signs of welcome on street corners. Maybe they just need to say more, something like “The Episcopal Church welcomes you as Christ has welcomed all of us.”

-Jay Sidebotham

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

RenewalWorks: Connect
What happens after RenewalWorks?

We invite you to join us for a new monthly online series to discuss how to continue this work of spiritual growth and to support one another on the way.

Next call: Thursday, August 13, 8pm EDT

Join us via Zoom video conference.

Register here

Monday Matters (July 20, 2020)

July 20, 2020

From Psalm 30, an example of orientation, dis-orientation and new orientation:

7 While I felt secure, I said, “I shall never be disturbed. You, Lord, with your favor, made me as strong as the mountains.”

8 Then you hid your face, and I was filled with fear.

9 I cried to you, O Lord: I pleaded with the Lord, saying,

10 “What profit is there in my blood, if I go down to the Pit? Will the dust praise you or declare your faithfulness?”

11 Hear, O Lord, and have mercy upon me; O Lord, be my helper.”

12 You have turned my wailing into dancing; you have put off my sack-cloth and clothed me with joy.

13 Therefore my heart sings to you without ceasing; O lord my God, I will give you thanks for ever.

A prayer for the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene, observed later this week:

Almighty God, whose blessed Son restored Mary Magdalene to health of body and of mind, and called her to be a witness of his resurrection: Mercifully grant that by your grace we may be healed from all our infirmities and know you in the power of his unending life; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

2 Corinthians 5:17,18

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.

From Psalm 98

1 Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things.

Summer reading

This summer, I’ve been part of a group studying a book entitled The Spirituality of the Psalms, by Dr. Walter Brueggemann. It’s a great find, a succinct offering (74 pages…we like that) that describes the psalms in their great variety. Dr. Brueggemann identifies psalms of orientation, psalms of disorientation, and psalms of new orientation.

Psalms of orientation celebrate the goodness that surrounds us. They are often filled with praise and gratitude, a key part of the spiritual life. But they can sometimes spill over into self-congratulation and complacency. Isn’t God lucky to have me on the team?

Psalms of dis-orientation seem especially appropriate now, as we contend with coincident crises any one of which would normally send us reeling. They suggest times to discover our need of God, our absolute dependence. They can also be times when we feel overwhelmed by forsakenness and despair.

Psalms of new orientation emerge from that disorientation. They call us to sing a new song, to find a new way of being, perhaps move to the new normal for which we all pine. They do not describe a return to the good old days. Instead they speak of new creation.

We can note these varied voices not only in the Psalms, but in other stories in the Bible as well. We see it as communal experience, in the exodus of the children of Israel, the Babylonian exile, the persecution of the early church, as communities of faith ride a roller coaster and come to a new place. It’s the story of individual characters like Joseph, who went from favored son to slave to prisoner to prince of Egypt, a progression which according to the book of Genesis represented the salvation of Israel in a time of global famine.

It’s the story of Mary Magdalene, whose feast we celebrate this week. She was grateful for the ways Jesus delivered her from spirits that bedeviled her, becoming one of Jesus’s most faithful disciples and ardent supporters. Then she came to the disorientation that took her to the foot of the cross when other disciples fled. In that disorientation, she made her grief-stricken way to the tomb, where she met the risen Lord and became the first witness of Easter faith. Perhaps that’s why one of the readings for her feast day speaks of new creation (See the passage above). In Christ, God makes things new.

We see the progression not only in the psalms, not only in the Bible, but in our own lives. Take a look in your own spiritual rear-view mirror this morning and see if you can identify periods of orientation, dis-orientation and new orientation in your own biography. See if you can identify those stages unfolding in a communal sense.

I’ll go out on a limb here, but I’m guessing that right now we can best be described as living in unprecedented disorientation. We face unsettling threats to our most fundamental concerns: our health, our financial resources, and our relations with each other in a world where too many people are disregarded and marginalized. It’s true of our families, our churches, our nation, our world.

In the thick of all that, we’ve got to hold on to the possibility, the prospect, the hope of new orientation, new creation. I’m pretty sure we’re not going back to the old normal, the old orientation. I’m not sure I want to. But God is faithful. Something new will be created, and we can be part of that new creation. What will you do this week, even in massive disorientation, to be part of that new creation? Let me know your thoughts. I’m all ears.

-Jay Sidebotham

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

Consider this great resource for personal spiritual growth during this pandemic (when many of us find ourselves sheltering in place).

RenewalWorks For Me is a personal guide for the spiritual journey, providing coaching to help individuals grow. It begins with a brief online survey which assesses where you are in your spiritual life. We call it the Spiritual Life Inventory.

Once your responses have been processed, we’ll email a helpful explanation of our findings, along with some tips for improving your spiritual journey. You’ll also be given a chance to sign up for an eight-week series of emails that will offer some suggestions, coaching for how you can grow spiritually, and ways you can go deeper in love of God and neighbor. Learn more at renewalworks.org

Monday Matters (July 13, 2020)

July 13, 2020

Just about every time I say the Confession, I stop at the lines that admit that I have not loved God with whole heart or loved neighbor as self. There’s not a day in my life when that is not true. Some days, I can get discouraged that I don’t make more progress on this front. Other days, I’m relieved that I don’t need to be perfect. I can look at this as something to work on, something to strive for, something to pray about, something of a growth opportunity.

This weekly column comes as part of the RenewalWorks ministry, an effort to focus on spiritual growth opportunities, to make those opportunities the priority in our congregations. As that work has unfolded over the past 7 years, we’ve often been asked what we mean by spiritual growth. How would you answer that?

Our working answer: spiritual growth is about love, about growing in love of God and neighbor, following Jesus’ instruction that this kind of love is the path to his abundant, endless life. We believe we grow in love by deepening the relationship with God and neighbor, engaging in spiritual practices that help us know God better, being of service to those around us, spending time in God’s presence, in conversation with God and neighbor. It seems to me those are ways that love grows.

So this morning, as preacher preaches to himself, I wanted to share some thoughts about love from sources wiser, deeper, holier, lovelier. Carry these thoughts with you this week, and see if you can discover the ways that loves wins.

Love wins.

Love wins. But don’t take my word for it. Hear from these folks this Monday morning.

Jesus (in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5)

You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.

St. Paul (Romans 8)

In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

St. Augustine

To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; to seek him the greatest adventure; to find him, the greatest human achievement.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.

William Sloane Coffin

May God give you grace never to sell yourself short, grace to risk something big for something good, and grace to remember that the world is too dangerous for anything but truth and too small for anything but love.

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry (from his homily at the royal wedding)

The late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, and I quote: “We must discover the power of love, the redemptive power of love. And when we do that, we will make of this old world a new world, for love is the only way. There’s power in love. Don’t underestimate it. Don’t even over-sentimentalize it. There’s power, power in love.”

Presiding Bishop Curry has also famously noted:

If it’s not about love, it’s not about God.

Marian Wright Edelman, President of the Children’s Defense Fund, wrote this prayer

O God, who can turn our worries into wings of joys and our sorrows into songs of thanks, let not our hearts be so troubled by the tragedies of this life’s moment that we lose sight of the eternal life in your kingdom…Strengthen our resolve to replace hatred with love, tension with trust, and selfishness with caring and community. Heal, O God, all our children so that those who hate and those who are hated, those who hurt and those who are hurt, may grow up in an America and in a world of peace, opportunity, and justice. Amen

Rob Bell

Love wins.

Bubba Wallace, Nascar Driver

Never let anybody tell you [you] can’t do something! God put us all here for a reason. Find that reason and be proud of it and work your tails off every day towards it! All the haters are doing is elevating your voice and platform to much greater heights! Last thing, always deal with the hate being thrown at you with LOVE! Love over hate every day. Love should come as naturally as people are TAUGHT to hate. Even when it’s HATE from the POTUS. Love wins.

Jesus (John 13:35)

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

-Jay Sidebotham

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

Consider this great resource for personal spiritual growth during this pandemic (when many of us find ourselves sheltering in place).

Monday Matters

July 6, 2020

What’s the core problem? Damon Linker is on to a piece of it: “It amounts to a refusal on the part of lots of Americans to think in terms of the social whole – of what’s best for the community, of the common or public good. Each of us thinks we know what’s best for ourselves.”

-from David Brooks’ column in the NYTimes last Friday. A good read.

Selections from readings chosen for the observance of Independence Day

The Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome who is not partial and takes no bribe, who executes justice for the orphan and widow, who loves the stranger, providing them food and clothing.

-Deuteronomy 10:17,18

The Lord upholds all those who fall; he lifts up those who are bowed down. The eyes of all wait upon you, O Lord, and you give them their food in due season. You open wide your hand and satisfy the needs of every living creature.

-Psalm 145:15-17

All of these died in faith without having received the promises…but as it is they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one.

-Hebrews 11:13,14

Jesus said…Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven.

-Matthew 5:43

We’re in this together

We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.

-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The story is told of Mayor Laguardia (airport namesake…not necessarily an honor, but that’s another column). He showed up at a night-time courtroom in 1935. An older woman was on trial for stealing a loaf of bread. The Mayor had taken the place of the judge, as mayors were permitted to do. The woman explained that she stole the food because her unemployed daughter (a single mother) and children were hungry, presumably victims of the Great Depression. The woman admitted her guilt. The Mayor sentenced her to a $10 fine or 10 days in prison. The woman noted that if she had $10 she wouldn’t have stolen bread. She agreed to be imprisoned, but wondered who would care for her family. The Mayor pulled out $10 and paid the fine. Then he addressed the whole group gathered in the courtroom. He said that he was charging everyone in the room 50 cents for living in a city where an old woman has to steal bread to feed her family. They collected almost $500 and gave it to the woman.

These days, I’m feeling like someone in that courtroom. That may be why I love this story, so much so that I’ve probably included it in this column before. Scanning the internet, some doubt its veracity. I’ll simply say that if it’s not true it ought to be. If nothing else, it’s a parable shedding light on what systemic challenges are all about.

This story came to mind as I thought about the community in which I now reside. A wonderful place. In the middle of the night last week, without fanfare, protest, or violence, several Confederate memorials were taken down by the city. They weren’t destroyed. It’s yet to be decided where they’ll be placed (A museum? A cemetery?), but for me, it showed wisdom, courage and initiative from our civic leaders. In the very same week, three policemen in our city made national news, caught on tape making vile, racist comments about violent intentions toward local African-Americans. I’ve been thinking of how, as citizen of this fine town, I’m part of both these developments.

We’ve just celebrated Independence Day. We give thanks for exceptional freedoms many have enjoyed over the years. The day is one of few secular/national holidays (Labor Day and Thanksgiving are the others) that have made it into the church calendar, with readings and prayers to inform our celebration. It is a holy day, set apart to recognize that our common life is both gift and responsibility. It’s interesting to me that the word “independence” does not appear in the Bible but the word “freedom” is all over the place. And that freedom has a purpose. It is meant for service, for life in community. St. Augustine spoke about this responsibility by talking about the God in whose service is perfect freedom.

In the news, there’s debate about whether challenges we face are systemic or just the result of individual, rogue actors. It’s convenient to attribute the brokenness to a few bad apples. It’s more challenging to ask: What’s my part?

Our baptismal covenant calls us each to strive for justice and peace. That’s a call to connect with our community, to recognize our participation or complicity or indifference to systems that are not just, to seize opportunity to change those systems. We see injustice in those systems: our courts, workplaces, families, schools, neighborhoods, churches.

We are called to work for a world marked by respect for the dignity of every human being. We are the body of Christ, connected to all God’s children. Maybe this week, we’ll find opportunity to grow in that, to pastor the community, to see what God is up to in the neighborhood, to share good news in word and action, even if it’s just a small step. Maybe.

-Jay Sidebotham

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

RenewalWorks: Connect

What happens after RenewalWorks?

We invite you to join us for a new monthly online series to discuss how to continue this work of spiritual growth and to support one another on the way.

Next call: Thursday, July 9, 8pm EDT

We welcome the Rt. Rev. Rob Hirschfeld (Bishop of New Hampshire) and Ms. Tina Pickering, Canon for Congregations in New Hampshire to be our presenters.

Join us via Zoom video conference

Register here