The architecture of your life

Jesus concludes the Sermon on the Mount with a parable, which has been turned into a Sunday School ditty you may know. (See Matthew 7:24-27) It’s about a wise person building a house on rock, set in contrast to a foolish person building a house on sand. (It’s totally irrelevant that I’m writing from a North Carolina barrier island.)

Jesus invites disciples to think about how they are building a life. What is the foundation?

How would you answer that question about your own life? On what foundation are you building? How is construction going? What does the architecture look like? How’s the supply chain? What helps you make progress? What gets in the way?

There are a variety of foundations on which we can build. Some people build lives on the foundations of their own skill or proficiency, their education, title, income, class or zip code. God may have little to do with it.

Others can have a theological foundation which suggests what kind of God they believe in. It can be a God to be feared. I refer to Gary Larson, favorite theologian and snarky cartoonist. In one cartoon, God with long white beard sits at computer. On the screen, a clueless pedestrian walks down the street. A grand piano plummets toward the sidewalk, about to crush aforementioned pedestrian. God is at the keyboard about to press the “Smite” button. If that notion of a judgmental, fearsome God is the foundation, that can lead to a life structured on fear, judgment, division, exclusion.

The collect we heard in church yesterday (see above) invites us to build on a different kind of foundation, the sure foundation of God’s loving-kindness. It suggests a life based on grace, a life built on the premise that God regards us and relates to us with loving-kindness.

What do you make of that word: loving-kindness? The kindness part indicates the way God’s love is shown. It speaks to God’s forbearance, a holy willingness to forgive, to give us a break. It speaks to God’s awareness of who we are, our strengths and weaknesses, joys and sorrows. It speaks of divine grace in action, the amazing grace that the fundamental, foundational fact about us is that we are accepted.

Speaking of foundations, in his book Shaking of the Foundations, Paul Tillich spoke of this divine loving-kindness in terms of grace. Noting challenges we face, he said:

Sometimes at that moment a wave of light breaks into our darkness, and it is as though a voice were saying: “You are accepted. You are accepted, accepted by that which is greater than you, and the name of which you do not know. Do not ask for the name now; perhaps you will find it later. Do not try to do anything now; perhaps later you will do much. Do not seek for anything; do not perform anything; do not intend anything. Simply accept the fact that you are accepted.

Tillich has crafted a vision of God’s loving-kindness. If we build on that foundation, the architecture of our lives will reflect that foundation. Our lives will be a holy structure, even if not perfect, shaped by the foundation on which we are built.

As we consider that God regards us with loving-kindness, accepting us as Tillich described, we then are called to build on that, thinking about how we relate to people around us with loving-kindness. It means meeting them with gentleness. It means extending forgiveness, giving other people a break. It means asking: How can I help you today? It means listening before speaking. It means honoring the other person, finding out what might be best for them. It means showing grace as it has been shown to us. It means accepting others as we have been accepted.

In my time in church, I have noted that often church people can be really unkind. Downright mean. I am struck with the way that religious folks from Eastern traditions focus on loving-kindness. Case in point, the Dalai Lama who said: My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.

We could learn from that.

How might you practice that simple religion this week. If you need help, pray yesterday’s collect as it notes that God is there to help and govern us in this particular construction project.

-Jay Sidebotham

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RenewalWorks is about re-orienting your parish around spiritual growth. And by spiritual growth – we mean growing in love of God and neighbor.

Churches can launch as part of a fall or spring cohort or go on their own schedule.  Sign up now!!

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Boldness/Compassion

As I reflected on the collect we heard yesterday in church (above), there were two words that stood out for me: boldness and compassion. I thought of two women who I admire greatly to help me think about these words as part of what it means to live faithfully in the world.

Starting with boldness, I thought of the brand new book written by the Rt. Rev. Marian Edgar Budde, bishop of Washington, and a leader I greatly admire, someone who has taught me a lot. Her new book is entitled How We Learn To Be Brave. It’s described as “an inspirational guide to the key junctures in life that, if navigated with faith and discernment, pave the way for us to become our most courageous selves.”

According to this book, decisive moments in life are points when we’re called on to push past fears and act with strength. Have you ever had to do that? Bishop Budde teaches us to respond with clarity and grace even in the toughest times (and being bishop in our nation’s capital means she knows something about tough times). She says that being brave is not a singular occurrence; it’s a journey that we can choose to undertake every day.

She explores the full range of decisive moments, from the most visible and dramatic (the decision to go), to the internal and personal (the decision to stay), to brave choices made with an eye toward the future (the decision to start), those born of suffering (the decision to accept that which we did not choose), and those that come unexpectedly (the decision to step up to the plate).

The boldness for which we pray involves bravery, and the related virtue of courage. Courage is a quality prayed for at the end of communion, as we ask for strength and courage to love and serve God. I’m taken with the word courage, because as it shares root with the French word for heart (coeur), it tells us that as we pray for boldness, we are also called to pray for compassion, which again is about the heart. It is about love.

Which leads me to the second word, and the wisdom of Karen Armstrong, the second hero I wish to cite. She’s a gifted scholar, and someone with great focus on interfaith conversation. She lives out her premise that compassion is the common virtue in all faith traditions. In the same way that being brave is described as a journey, Armstrong says that the attempt to become a compassionate human being is a lifelong project.

According to Armstrong, compassion derives from the Latin patiri and the Greek pathein, meaning “to suffer, undergo or experience.” So “compassion” means “to endure [something] with another person, to put ourselves in somebody else’s shoes, to feel her pain as though it were our own, and to enter generously into his point of view.”

Compassion impels us to “work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the center of our world and put another there, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.”

It strikes me that we need both to be at work in our faithful lives. Boldness without compassion can become a steamroller. Compassion without boldness leads to timidity and complicity. Yesterday’s collect underscores that need for both. I’m wondering how you might live out your faith with boldness and compassion this week.

Where are you being called to be bold? Where can you be compassionate? How can you do both?

-Jay Sidebotham

Interested in RenewalWorks for your parish? Learn more about how RenewalWorks works!

RenewalWorks: Helping churches focus on spiritual growth

RenewalWorks is about re-orienting your parish around spiritual growth. And by spiritual growth – we mean growing in love of God and neighbor.

Churches can launch as part of a fall or spring cohort or go on their own schedule.  Sign up now!!

Learn more in our digital brochure.

RenewalWorks – Digital Catalog

Thought/Action

What’s on your mind these days? What occupies the real estate in your brain? Mindful that Rene Descartes said: I think therefore I am, I’m wondering how our thought processes shape our identity. The collect offered yesterday in church (see above) begins with a prayer that we be inspired to think those things that are right. I hear an echo of the various places in scripture where we are challenged to examine the interior life.

Psalm 19 asks that the words of our mouth and the meditations of our heart be acceptable in God’s sight. In a penitential psalm (Psalm 51), we read “Create in me a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me.” Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, says it’s all a matter of the heart, that the inner life is the source of either goodness or division. St. Paul said: “Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” Not a bad checklist. Elsewhere, St. Paul tells readers to have the mind of Christ, the mind of a servant. How would our lives unfold differently this week if we focused on having the mind of Christ?

It’s all a matter of how we are shaping our interior life. How do the books we read, the movies we watch, the social media with which we engage shape our inner life? Do resentments and envy fill our thoughts? Do those thoughts block out lovelier ones? Where do our thoughts go when we have down time? Think about what you think about this week. And take yesterday’s collect as a chance to pray for God’s grace to shape that inner life.

But it doesn’t stop there. Thoughts and prayers are not enough. That’s true not only in our response to the current epidemic of gun violence. It goes to the heart of our faith, as the letter of James says that faith (which can correspond to the interior life) without works is dead. We are meant not only to think those things that are right, but also to do those things that are right, based on the fact that what we think about shapes what we do.

So we pray for God’s merciful guidance in our actions. For some in our tradition, there has been a split between that inward journey and outward expressions of faith. I’m grateful for the ministry of people like Thomas Merton, Thomas Keating and Richard Rohr who have provided guidance in the interweaving of the contemplative life and holy action in the world. The faithful dedication to the inner life gave them strength to work for justice and peace. Richard Rohr described the connection this way: “The effect of contemplation is authentic action. If contemplation doesn’t lead to authentic action, then it remains only navel-gazing and self-preoccupation.” He founded the Center for Action and Contemplation, about which he writes: “The most important word in our Center’s name is not Action nor is it Contemplation, but the word and. We need both action and contemplation to have a whole spiritual journey. It doesn’t matter which comes first; action may lead to contemplation and contemplation may lead to action. But finally, they need and feed each other.”

Returning to the mind of Christ, I refer you to the beautiful hymn found in Philippians 2:5-11. Christ’s saving action came from his own inner life, his inner intention to offer himself to God for us. As his followers, his students, we pray for grace to have that same mind. What might that look like for you this week, to have that mindset? How will it shape your actions?

-Jay Sidebotham

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RenewalWorks: Helping churches focus on spiritual growth

God in three persons, blessed Trinity

These days in our culture, words like doctrine and dogma don’t go over so well, as in the bumper sticker: “My karma ran over your dogma.” Associations with words like doctrinaire or dogmatic are hardly positive. They suggest to some that one had better toe the line, no questions asked. Believe it or else. A scan of definitions of dogma underscores the point.

Oxford Language describes dogma as “a principle or set of principles laid down by an authority as incontrovertibly true.” That’s enough to make many Episcopalians head for the door. Merriam-Webster talks about “a point of view or tenet put forth as authoritative without adequate grounds, a doctrine or a body of doctrines concerning faith or morals formally stated and authoritatively proclaimed by a church.” That reminds me of how Mark Twain described faith: “Believing what any fool knows is not true.” (I deleted an expletive or two.) I kind of like the reference to the Greek translation which says that a dogma suggests something that seems to be true.

So how do we respond to a Sunday dedicated to a doctrine, a dogma of the church, the mysterious doctrine of the Trinity? The standard joke for clergy is that this is a Sunday to invite a guest preacher. No two ways about it. The doctrine is mind-bogglingly mysterious.

Yesterday in church we read the collect for Trinity Sunday, printed above. It’s a prayer that speaks of the confession of a true faith by which we acknowledge the glory of a God who is understood (by our pea brains) as both trinity and unity. It became a dogma as it was deduced from what we read in scripture, which references God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit in a number of places. I’ve heard plenty of far-fetched sermons (and probably delivered some) that struggle to explain all this, or provide the perfect metaphor. I can’t recall any that totally eliminate the truly mysterious reality of the Holy One. As St. Paul said: We see through a glass darkly. We now know in part. (I Corinthians 13)

I do like what one of my teachers said about the doctrines, the dogmas of the church. He said that they are like buoy markers floating on the surface of the ocean. They indicate depths beyond our perception. They are pointers to deep truths, mysteries beyond our ken. They don’t explain everything. They are not the object of worship themselves. As Evelyn Underhill reminded clergy of her day: “God is the interesting thing about religion.”

So why bother? What truth is conveyed here, even if we can’t fully comprehend? Michael Curry reminds us that if it’s not about love, it’s not about God. The mystery of the Trinity points us to the fact that God is love. God is in God’s self a community. Augustine wrote a lot about this. In my limited understanding of his work on the subject, he presents God as lover, God as beloved, God as the love that goes between lover and beloved. A trinity. A unity. A community.

And perhaps the greatest mystery, the wonder of wonders, is that you and I are invited to participate in that community, to worship the Creator, to follow the Son as Lord and Savior, teacher and friend, to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

And maybe here is the so-what factor: In that participation, we are equipped to extend that love beyond ourselves. The doctrine, the dogma, the buoy marker that is the Trinity gives us a way to move forward in this world, participating in the love that is at the center of all that is. And as Burt Bacharach wrote, as Dionne Warwick sang, that’s what the world needs now. Love, sweet love. How can you enter into the life of the Trinity by sharing that love this week?

How about that for a Monday Matters? Citing Burt Bacharach, Dionne Warwick, Michael Curry, Evelyn Underhill, St. Paul and St. Augustine. Time for a cup of coffee.

-Jay Sidebotham

Interested in RenewalWorks for your parish? Learn more about how RenewalWorks works!

RenewalWorks: Helping churches focus on spiritual growth