Monthly Archives: August 2020

Monday Matters (August 31, 2020)

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To listen is very hard, because it asks of us so much interior stability that we no longer need to prove ourselves by speeches, arguments, statements, or declarations. True listeners no longer have an inner need to make their presence known. They are free to receive, to welcome, to accept. Listening is much more than allowing another to talk while waiting for a chance to respond. Listening is paying full attention to others and welcoming them into our very beings. The beauty of listening is that, those who are listened to start feeling accepted, start taking their words more seriously and discovering their own true selves. Listening is a form of spiritual hospitality by which you invite strangers to become friends, to get to know their inner selves more fully, and even to dare to be silent with you.
-Henri Nouwen
There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something.
-J.R.R.Tolkien
Leadership is energizing a community of people toward their own transformation in order to accomplish a shared mission in the face of a changing world.
-Tod Bolsinger

Listening & Looking

It wouldn’t have happened without Zoom. Earlier this month, I joined a conversation with clergy gathered from places as far-flung as Hawaii and Scotland and North Carolina. Our conversation focused on how we do church these days, given coincident crises, especially a health crisis that precludes the kind of church gatherings that have been going on for centuries. In prep for the call, we read a short book by Tod Bolsinger entitled: Leadership For A Time Of Pandemic. Good stuff. You may or may not think of yourselves as a leader, spiritual or otherwise, but there are lessons for all of us as we think about how we navigate extraordinary times.

The springboard for this latest work is a book he wrote a few years ago called Canoeing the Mountains. That book takes as guiding metaphor the search of Lewis and Clark for a northwest passage. They followed the Missouri River to its source and assumed an easy connection with a river that would then empty into the Pacific. Excellent plan. Except when they got to the end of the Missouri, they encountered hundreds of miles of mountains. Canoeing skills were not going to help. They needed to think differently about the next steps.

Sound familiar? The pandemic presents a similar challenge. The advent of the fall season marked by social distancing, going back to school, new ways to work, many unable to work, churches and other organizations trying to begin again, making it up as they go along, all indicate a new normal. Old ways may never come back. They may no longer be helpful.

It’s easy to get bummed out about what we’ve lost. Tod Bolsinger says that people don’t resist change. They resist loss. Too many are grieving these days, as we approach 200,000 dead from this virus in our nation, yet another black man killed by police, economic security dissipating. We long for days when we can gather in church or school or our favorite crowded restaurant. As we confront all that longing and loss, matters great and small, can we imagine a new thing unfolding, a new thing God has for us?

Tod Bolsinger invites two practices for leaders. I include all of you in that group, if only that you are leading your own life this Monday. I hope the practices might be helpful. The two practices: listening and looking. (Alliteration strikes again.)

What does it mean to practice listening? Henri Nouwen, uber-pastor, described listening as the highest form of hospitality. Mr. Bolsinger describes it as paying attention to the longing and losses of people in our care, again, noting that we all deal with the kinds of loss that trigger resistance to growth and change. Anxious voices can keep us from hearing longing and losses. In light of that, we are called to be attuned to two things at once: to the pain of the world and to the longing and losses of our people.

And we listen to God. Scripture gives us ways to do that. Abraham was called to a land he would be shown. He listened and left home (Genesis 12). Moses paid attention to a burning bush bringing liberation (Exodus 3). Elijah heard a still small voice (I Kings 19). More Bolsinger wisdom: Such listening leads to a new way of acting. We are surrounded by so much noise it’s hard to hear God. That’s where spiritual disciplines can help. It may be creating a daily quiet time. It may be time in nature. It may be meditation on a piece of scripture. It may be reading scripture with others. In this political season, Tod Bolsinger’s advises the practice of communal meals, captured in the slogan:  “Making America Dinner Again”

The second practice is looking. Again, that calls for doing two things at once. First, it involves looking at the current moment from a bit of a distance. Tod Bolsinger describes it as getting up on the balcony, where one can gain perspective lost once we’re on the dance floor. We need to not only see what’s happening in the moment (i.e., on the dance floor). We need to take the broader view, the longer view. Both are important. We need to be in the game. We have to get some distance, as we seek a broader view, a longer view. Maybe that’s what hope is all about.

Again, scripture gives us ways to do that.  From the moment of creation, there was light. The psalmist prays: Open my eyes that I may behold the wonders of your law. Jesus came to be the light of the world. So many of his miracles involved healing of blindness. As God regards us with unconditional love, so we are to look that same way at the world and at all our neighbors. And there’s always the practice of God-sightings, noticing each day where you’ve seen God at work.

Blessings in this new season. As you begin, how will you listen and look this Monday, this week? Lead on.

-Jay Sidebotham

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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.
 
—> we’re changing days! RW:Connect will now be on the 1st Wednesday of the month
Next call:  Wednesday, September 9, 7pm EDT
Join us via Zoom video conference
 

Monday Matters (August 24, 2020)

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Singing a song of the saints of God
There are hundreds of thousands still; The world is bright with the joyous saints who love to do Jesus’ will. You can meet them in school, or in lanes, or at sea, in church or in trains or in shops or at tea; For the Saints of God are just folk like me and I mean to be one too.

 

John 1:43-51
The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.”
 
Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote-Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” 
 
“Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked. 
 
“Come and see,” said Philip.
 
When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”
 
“How do you know me?” Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.”
 
Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.”
 
Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.” He then added, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.”

St. Bartholomew

For a number of years, I served at a church named St. Bartholomew’s. I’m reminded of that church today, the Feast of St. Bartholomew. Some churches make a big deal about the saint for which the church is named. At St. Bart’s, we didn’t make much of the observance. Partly because it fell at the end of August when many of our folks (including clergy) were on vacation. We also downplayed the day, because the truth is we don’t know a lot about this saint.

There’s a hymn created for use on saint’s days. It has an intro and closing stanza, but then some stanzas pertinent to any  number of saints. You can plug in that stanza for your feast day. Customized hymn. Great idea. Here’s the stanza for St. Bartholomew:

Praise for the blest Nathaniel, surnamed Bartholomew;
We know not his achievements but know that he was true,
For he at the Ascension was an apostle still
May we discern your presence and seek, like him, your will.

I always get a chuckle out of this stanza, not only because the writer found a rhyme for Bartholomew. It essentially says that we don’t know anything about this guy, but because he gets mentioned in the gospels, we assume he was a pretty good guy. Apart from the rather gruesome way that he was martyred (I’m going to let you look that up on your own), we find almost no other information about Bartholomew in scripture.

As the hymn suggests (and some scholars doubt) Bartholomew and a character named Nathaniel may be one and the same. What we know about Nathaniel comes from the first chapter of John’s gospel (see column on the left). Jesus calls his first disciples and in the process, has an exchange with Nathaniel. Nathaniel’s friend, Philip, is all excited about meeting Jesus, the one promised by Moses and the prophets. He tells Nathaniel about Jesus of Nazareth. Nathaniel responds: Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Jesus soon meets Nathaniel and commends him for being a straight shooter.

Kudos to Nathaniel for his freedom to ask questions, bordering on impertinence. In that regard, he reminds me of many Episcopalians. I love that his story is preserved in scripture. He models honest, holy conversations. And he discovered what we all must learn: God can handle our hard questions, our skepticism. We need not try to hide or disguise them, as if God didn’t know we had them.

Then join me in thinking about that question: Can anything good come from Nazareth? How do you translate that question into your own context?  I suspect we all find it easy to put people into categories, to help us make sense of the world. We all have preconceived notions of how God can work, or what kind of people God can use. We are tempted to limit that group. We may be totally surprised by who might be our teachers, our guides. I’ve had Episcopalians look down their noses at folks from other denominations, even those that are clearly attracting many people. I’ve had evangelicals tell me that Episcopalians don’t love Jesus as much as they do. We may be inclined to look in the mirror and wonder: Can anything good come out of me, out of my life? Can God work in my shambles of a life?

Let’s let Jesus answer. He said that children could be our teachers. He noted that a hated Roman centurion had more faith than anyone he had met in Israel. He indicated that the most educated religious scholars of his day were blind guides. He commended a foreign woman for audacious faith. He held up despised lepers as models of gratitude. He told a thief on the cross that he would join him in paradise.

And then there’s this quiet, unsung saint, Bartholomew or Nathaniel or whoever he was. He teaches us that God’s saving work for all people for all time can begin in podunk, backwater towns. It can happen through the most unlikely people.

Even you and me. Celebrate that this Monday. Live into it.

-Jay Sidebotham

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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:  Wednesday, September 9, 7pm EDT
Join us via Zoom video conference
 

Monday Matters (August 17, 2020)

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Genesis 45
Joseph could no longer control himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried out, “Send everyone away from me.” So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it. Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?” But his brothers could not answer him, so dismayed were they at his presence. Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come closer to me.” And they came closer. He said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years; and there are five more years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God; he has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me, do not delay…Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, while Benjamin wept upon his neck. And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them; and after that his brothers talked with him.
 
Romans 8:28
We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. 

Respect

It’s all good

I was enjoying lunch a week or two ago with a good and wise friend. As we were winding up, he said: Let me ask you a question. I had a sense I should fasten my seatbelt. He asks good questions. This was what he wanted to discuss: Does God have a plan for our lives? He spoke of friends who are crystal clear that God has mapped it all out. It’s all scripted. We just need to play our part, act out the role. As an Episcopalian, more qualified, uncertain answers went through my mind as he asked about God as strategic planner. I thought of responses like: It depends. It’s complicated. It’s a mystery. I’m not sure.

I’m pretty clear in my own belief that there is not just one course our lives can take and if we screw that up, God gives up on us. I’m not certain God has it all planned out, as if we’re chess pieces or automatons or actors in a drama with a foregone conclusion. It’s a mystery for sure, God’s knowledge (omniscience) and power (omnipotence) intersecting with our agency. I’m oddly comforted to know that theologians have debated this for centuries.

But I do hold this creed. I do believe that in all things, God has intention for good, for each of us, for all of creation. God intends healing, wholeness, deliverance, salvation, peace. And if we are working towards any of that, we are in the zone.

Yesterday in church, the lectionary gave us the option of reading one of the final scenes of the story of Joseph, of amazing technicolor dream-coat fame. It’s one of my favorite stories. If you’re looking for a good summer read, catch the whole saga in the book of Genesis, chapters 37-50.

It’s one of those stories that makes people regard the Bible as just one big story of sibling rivalry. (Maybe that’s the story of human history.) To review, Joseph, favored son of Jacob whose sons represent the 12 tribes of Israel, didn’t seem to mind playing favored son status with his siblings. It didn’t go over well. So they planned to kill him. They threw him in a hole in the ground to figure out what to do with him. They decided to sell him as a slave. He ended up in Egypt. He was a smart, capable boy and he rose in position in Egypt until he was falsely accused of a crime. Thrown into prison, he languished there until his gift for interpreting dreams put him in a place of power. As model administrator, paragon of wisdom, he governed Egypt, making preparations for a global famine. Before long, his brothers made their way to Egypt to get food. They appeal to Joseph for help, though it’s been a while and they don’t recognize him.

The passage read in church yesterday (included above) describes the moment when Joseph’s identity is revealed to his brothers. They worry he will exact revenge. But Joseph speaks of God’s good intention. His brothers meant to do him evil. Joseph says God meant it for good. All of it resulted in the rescue, the deliverance, the salvation not only of Joseph but of his brothers, and thus, the people of Israel. One could argue that if this story hadn’t happened, the story of the Bible might not have gone any further.

Was it God’s plan for all these bad things to happen to Joseph? That’s hard to understand and embrace. Just as it is hard to understand and embrace the mystery of why bad things happen to good people. But what does seem to come through is that God has ability to work in any situation and bring good out of it. Case in point: the cruelty of the cross. We call it redemption and it occurs to me that in the coincidental crises we face right now, and in the personal crises that come to each of us, we could use some redemption. We each have to find ways to look forward, to hold on to hope, to trust in one whose intention toward us is goodness. How is that as a challenge for you this Monday morning?

As I was mulling this mystery, I heard a fine sermon preached by a friend in which she quoted Phillips Brooks, great Episcopal preacher (no, that’s not an oxymoron) and Rector of Trinity Church in Boston in the 19th century. Check out this quote: You must learn, you must let God teach you, that the only way to get rid of your past is to make a future out of it. God will waste nothing.

It’s all good.

-Jay Sidebotham

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Jay Sidebotham

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

 

 

Monday Matters (August 10, 2020)

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I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
-John 17:20-23
I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.
-Ephesians 4:1-6
As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.
-Galatians 3:27-28

Respect

From the Baptismal Covenant: Will you strive for justice and peace and respect the dignity of every human being?

Every human being? Really?

When I was 17, I traveled to India on a student exchange program, where I encountered a depth and breadth of poverty I had not witnessed before as a sheltered, suburban kid. That was a few years ago, but one indelible memory lingers, a moment as I passed through a crowded train station. A boy about my age was lying face down on a dolly with four wheels, pulling his way along the platform at breakneck speed, asking for money. His misshapen legs were nothing but bones, clearly unable to support his body. I wondered about his journey. I found myself thinking about our connection, our brotherhood. Why were his circumstances so different from mine? As you can tell, I still think about that.

Years later, I accompanied my daughter as she began work at a school in Tanzania. It was a five hour drive from the airport to the school, a trip through desolate terrain. As we bumped along a rugged two-lane road in the desert, I saw a herd of sheep led by a young boy, maybe ten years old. He was out in the middle of nowhere. No village, no parent in sight. Why wasn’t he in school? Did God have his eye on this young man as much as God had his eye on my own son?

Last Thursday, an editorial appeared in the N.Y.Times written by Elizabeth Bruenig, discussing ways that the American Catholic church is responding to the current crisis in race relations. The column quoted Gloria Purvis, who hosts a popular Catholic radio show. Her show recently featured episodes devoted to saints who resisted racism, and the reality of systemic racism itself. Her comments set off a wave of recrimination from indignant listeners. Those attacks caused her to say: Racism makes a liar of God. It says not everyone is made in his image. What a horrible lie from the pit of hell.

Nkose Johnson died of AIDS at age 12 in South Africa. Before he died, he spoke to an AIDS conference of thousands, sharing the wisdom of John Wesley who said: Do all you can with what you have in the time you have in the place you are. The experience of this young boy was chronicled in a book by journalist Jim Wooten. The title of the book: We Are All The Same.

I’m not sure why all these images came to me this past week. I’m not entirely clear on the message behind them.  But we are experiencing so much division in our world. Tribalism of the worst sort. The church at its best hears words of scripture that we are in this together. We are all the same, if for no other reason than the one articulated by St. Paul: All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The gospel invites us to another way, reflected in biblical passages above.

Our Prayer Book speaks of the bonds of our common humanity. In the baptismal covenant, we not only promise to respect the dignity of every human being. We also claim to see Christ in all persons, reflecting Gloria Purvis’ creed that says everyone is made in God’s image. Everyone. We are all the same. Or as Dr. King said, we are “caught in an inescapable network of mutuality” and “tied together in the single garment of destiny.”

Think about the expansiveness of that vision this week. In your mind, and in your practice, how do you see the dignity born by every human being? Is it hard to believe? Is there anyone outside of that window? Is it someone in your family, your church, your workplace? Is it someone with a different religious or political point of view? Is it someone who looks different than you? How might you grow just a bit this week in respecting the dignity of every human being? Every one.

I guess what I want to share this morning is that it’s a growth edge for me. Maybe it is for you, too.

-Jay Sidebotham

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Jay Sidebotham

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

 

 

Illustration of path

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 (August 3, 2020)

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A reading from St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians (Chapter 3)

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us then who are mature be of the same mind; and if you think differently about anything, this too God will reveal to you. Only let us hold fast to what we have attained.

May the seeds of peace be scattered, birthing trees whose shade gives us rest.
-from the song “All is not lost” by The Brilliance

Do no harm

Years ago, in the first years of my ministry, I attended an orientation session for Sunday school teachers, led by a wise mentor. He spoke with the teachers as they began a year of classes, and offered this simple instruction, borrowed from another healing profession. He told the teachers: “Do no harm.”

I carried that wisdom with me throughout ministry. It’s been important over the years as I have come to hear too many stories of folks wounded by organized religion (or disorganized religion in the case of the Episcopal Church). Maybe you are one of them. If so, I pray you will know healing and blessing.

As a representative of organized religion (i.e., clergy), I am haunted by this verse in the psalms: Let not those who hope in you be put to shame through me. (Psalm 69:7) I confess that I’ve done that.

“Do no harm.” In subsequent years, I would apply that wisdom with teenagers when we participated in work trips. Small groups of teenagers would be sent to do home repairs. Very few had construction experience. Many had short attention spans. Some were more interested in, how shall I say, social life. There was no way I was qualified to serve as foreman. So as we would begin our work, I prayed with fear and trembling for the safety of our young people. I prayed for the well-being of the residents. I implored the teenagers, as we were given opportunity to enter these residents’ lives, to work on their homes: “Do no harm.”

Over the years, that didn’t seem quite enough. I added a related bit of guidance. I offered a simple challenge for our efforts: “Let’s leave the place better than we found it.” It was reassuring to me when I heard that same instruction from a wise guide, Cookie Cantwell, who does amazing work with young people at our church. Again and again, as she gathers, leads and inspires our youth, she teaches them that they don’t have to do anything super-human. They simply have to take a step toward something better. They are called to make a difference, even if it’s a small one.

That challenge applies to our own journeys of faith, in our homes and churches, in our culture. As we have celebrated the life, ministry and witness of John Lewis, I came across words he addressed to a group of young people: “We must use our time and our space on this little planet that we call Earth to make a lasting contribution, to leave it a little better than we found it, and now that need is greater than ever before.” Leave it a little better than we found it. John Lewis did that. In the face of daunting challenges, this wisdom provides accessible steps forward. You don’t have to do everything. But you can do something. Progress not perfection.

It’s wisdom expressed by St. Paul in the letter to the Philippians, an excerpt printed above. Paul reflected on his own spiritual journey. There were things about his past that he regretted, ways he had done damage. He had fallen short. But giving up the hope of a better past, he instead strained forward to what lies ahead, keeping his eyes on the prize. For us, it’s the same, keeping our eyes on the prize, language from the New Testament that animated the movement for civil rights in this nation. It can help us take the next steps in our own journey.

I don’t know if you’re feeling this way, but as I think about our broken world, about the considerable coincidental crises we face, crises of health, economics and race relations, the enormity of these challenges seems daunting. That’s precisely the moment to ask the Holy Spirit to guide us this week to maybe just that one thing, perhaps a very small thing, that we can do to make things better, more healthy, more holy, more whole.

-Jay Sidebotham

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Jay Sidebotham

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

 

 

Illustration of path

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