Power

What do Jimi Hendrix, Mahatma Gandhi and Michael Curry have in common? Apparently, each have said something along these lines: “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.” I thought of their common ground as I reflected on the collect heard in church yesterday (above). That prayer speaks about power and the church.

When we talk about power and the church, the mind can easily go to ways the church over centuries has identified with those with power in this world. These have not been the church’s best moments. Go all the way back to Constantine, who found it useful to identify the Christian faith as the faith of the Roman empire. Consider the ways that church leaders have linked up with political or military enterprises like the crusades or colonial enterprises. In the category of nothing new under the sun, we currently find church leaders cozying up to political and economic powers of the day. I’ve succumbed to that as a parish priest, when I paid a bit more attention to parishioners who made big pledges or who had influence that might help me to be a successful rector (whatever that means).

Let’s take a closer look at the collect. It says that it is God’s power, not our own, that makes the difference. It is the Holy Spirit that gathers people in community. Not us.

I’ve been reading books by Andrew Root, a Lutheran theologian, who has a lot to say about the church these days, and especially its decline. My best reading of his message is that the contemporary church needs to increase focus on the transcendence of God. He says we live too much in the immanent frame, acting as if God is spectator, maybe a sleepy one at that. Here’s a way to understand what he means. He says: The church is not the star of the story. God is the star of the story.

It is God’s power that, through the Holy Spirit, will allow the church to gather in unity. When I think about the kind of wacky characters that populate our pews (and our pulpits), I can embrace the notion that it is only by a power beyond ourselves that a powerful community can be brought together.

It is God’s power that shines through the church, as if the church is a stained glass window, radiant with beauty only when light (God’s light) shines through it. That can actually be delightfully good news for the church. We don’t need to rely on our own ingenuity or innovation, our crafty, creative cleverness to bring the impact God intends for the church to have in the world. We simply are called to rely on the power of love (not the love of power). We are called to trust in it.

Last Saturday was the 60^th anniversary of the March on Washington, when the dream of Martin Luther King was proclaimed in one of the most powerful speeches of the 20^th century. The speech, in keeping with Dr. King’s ministry, relied on the power of God, the power of love, the conviction (which Dr. King learned from Gandhiji) that non-violence bore its own transcendent and transforming power.

The vision of Dr. King’s dream may seem now to be clouded or fading in some places (e.g., tragic events on that same Saturday in Jacksonville, Florida, an explicit hate crime fueled in part by public divisive discourse), I remain hopeful that the power Dr. King invoked, the power of love, is what our broken world needs now. The church, by the power of the Holy Spirit, can shine with that power.

Let me add one more voice to Jimi Hendrix, Mahatma Gandhi and Michael Curry. It’s St. Paul, who in the beginning of his letter to the Romans spoke of power. He said, in the theme verses of that letter (Romans 1:16, 17) that he was not ashamed of the gospel because it was the power of God, the power of love. The Greek word for power which he uses in that letter is dunamis, which shows up in our lingo as dynamic or even dynamite.

The church has been given access to that transforming, indeed explosive power. Too often, we stand in the way of its activity, or act like it’s something we have to conjure up, or simply ignore it. But it is there for us. Pray with me for that power to be unleashed.

-Jay Sidebotham

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WWJD

My preparation for yesterday’s sermon got me thinking about those WWJD bracelets. What would Jesus do? Excellent question. Perhaps it comes with being an Anglican, but I regard the question with ambivalence. That ambivalence was captured by Nadia Bolz Weber in a recent sermon. She said: “When I’m struggling in life, I don’t know if ‘What would Jesus do?” is the most helpful question. What would Jesus do? I don’t know. Something super cool like raise the dead or cast out demons or turn water into wine…none of which feel like a fair test of faith for someone who can’t even remember to send thank you notes.”

The collect heard yesterday in church (see above) offers insight into what Jesus would do. The collect talks about the ministry of Jesus in this twofold way. He came as sacrifice. He came as example. As sacrifice, what he did was something we could not do for ourselves. As example, what he did is apparently something we might also be able to do. Which gives us a fair amount to think about this Monday morning as we pose the question: WWJD?

First, Jesus comes to be for us a sacrifice. Over the centuries, the notion of sacrifice and atonement has been variously interpreted by people a lot smarter than I am. What I know is that it matters a great deal how we think about ourselves and our God as we reflect on the meaning of sacrifice. I like how Marcus Borg stated it: Sacrifice for sin means that God has already taken care of whatever it is that we think separates us from God.

It’s a reminder that we need help from beyond our own selves. In whatever way sacrifice is understood, the point of the collect is that what God did in Christ is something which we are to receive thankfully. We are beneficiaries, enjoying the fruits of his redeeming work. It’s a reminder that all is grace. We need not, in fact we cannot earn those fruits. That attitude of gratitude is the foundation of our spiritual life, which is why Meister Eckhart said that the only word we need to say in prayer is thanks. What would Jesus do? He would do for us what we cannot do for ourselves, which should keep us humble, hopeful and grateful.

Second, Jesus provides for us an example. There are ways that we can imitate Christ, ways we can follow in his footsteps, ways we can be more like him. When Jesus washed disciples’ feet at the Last Supper, he told them to do the same thing to each other, to take on the role of a servant. Repeatedly, Jesus invited his disciples to take up the cross and follow him. He told his followers to love one another as he has loved them. Those are our marching orders.

And that is where those little bracelets might come in handy, as they invite us to be like Christ. St. Paul told the Christians gathered in the church in Philippi to have the mind of Christ. He told the Christians in Rome to welcome one another as Christ had welcomed them.

So with the help of yesterday’s collect, we gratefully commit to follow daily in the blessed steps of his most holy life. What does it look like for you to follow Jesus’ example this week?

-Jay Sidebotham

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Ask for it

What does yesterday’s collect (see above) say about what we believe? It asserts that we need the spirit to think and do those things that are right. We need God’s help to live according to God’s will. It’s the counter-punch to the adage: God helps those who help themselves. Many people think that adage comes from scripture. It may convey the spirit of our age, a commitment to rugged individualism. But it’s not in the Bible. So where does that leave us?

Yesterday’s collect reminded me of the seventh chapter of St. Paul’s letter to the Roman church. In that chapter, in a most personal way, St. Paul describes his own spiritual crisis, maybe even a breakdown.

The first chapters of this important letter have been focused on the human condition, how all of us are caught up in powers beyond our control, powers greater than ourselves. Paul speaks of the power of Christ to bring new life. Deep theological stuff. A broad vision covering all of history. Then in the seventh chapter, he gets personal, speaking about challenges he has faced in his own spiritual journey.

He writes: I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate…For the desire to do the good lies close at hand, but not the ability. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that, when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand… Wretched person that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

I know not everyone likes St. Paul. Some regard him as cranky and legalistic. But for me, St. Paul is a spiritual hero. He recognizes and wrestles with his urges to be a control freak. I get that. (Maybe it’s an occupational hazard for clergy.) He was willing to share his struggles. One of the marks of great spiritual leaders is transparency, a revelatory dimension that shows the ways they work on their own spiritual lives, the ways they work on their own discipleship. St. Paul shares that in this and other letters.

We don’t know the particulars of St. Paul’s struggles, but it is clear he feels ill equipped to meet them. He believes he lacks resources in himself to overcome them. I am grateful that his struggle is included in scripture. It offers freedom to move forward. It offers permission to recognize our own imperfections. It offers companionship and comfort: “I’m not the only one who struggles.” And it points to a place to find help.

A wise friend and mentor, the Rev. Carol Anderson, told me a story about leading a church when she had no money, and no music. She knew she needed music. So she prayed for a musician who could help. Shortly thereafter, a Juilliard PhD student in piano called to ask if the church needed help. The student arrived with about eight musicians. As an additional gift, Carol was offering an evening service, again, in dire need of musical leadership. In short order, a very accomplished jazz bass player, who had a gig in the Village, and who had Sunday nights off, arrived with a few pals to “help”. The lesson that my friend and mentor took from this? She said: What is the thing, now, you cannot do without God’s help? Ask for it. This was her experience: To say that God will give us more than we can desire or pray is an understatement.

I’m wondering what is the thing you face this week that you just know you cannot do without God’s help. A relationship? A predicament? An inner struggle? Ask God to work precisely in that place. See what happens. Pray the collect which asks that we, who cannot exist without God, may by God be enabled to live according to God’s will.

-Jay Sidebotham

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Disquietude

Yesterday in church we observed the Feast of the Transfiguration. Many, if not most, of the feast days in the church calendar recognize a person. From time to time, we remember an event in Jesus’ life or in the lives of one of his followers. This year, August 6 fell on a Sunday, so in church we focused on this mysterious story of Jesus taking his best buddies up a mountain. (Read about it here: Matthew 17:1-13, Mark 9:2-13, and/or Luke 9:28-36.) There they experience this remarkable event, with special effects that would make Steven Spielberg jealous. We know it’s an important event because we not only celebrate it in August. It also shows up each year at the end of the season of Epiphany, right before we transition into the season of Lent.

Have a look at the collect for this feast day, included above. The word that caught my attention was disquietude, a word I don’t think I’ve ever used in a sentence. I looked it up to find that the word suggests anxiety or agitation. I thought: Well, that’s a word that might prove useful in all that we face in our world these days. Whatever anxiety or agitation you feel, prompted by what you see on the news, or what you experience at work or at home, what do you think is the key to deliverance from disquietude, which is the focus of this prayer?

A scan of biblical stories indicates that mountaintop experiences are places where that kind of deliverance can come. Has that ever been your experience? Religious leaders from all kinds of traditions head for the hills to figure things out, to find wisdom. Moses climbed a mountain to have his encounter with the Holy One. When he was beset with disquietude, Elijah went to Mt. Horeb where the divine presence was revealed in a still small voice. Matthew tells us that Jesus gave his seminal teaching in a sermon on the mount. And for Peter, James and John, the mountaintop experience provided a chance to “behold the King in all his beauty.”

The revelation that came to those disciples on top of that mountain was indeed a gift, prompted by God’s gracious revelation. At the same time, they had a part to play. They had to climb the mountain. Whether or not they knew something would happen, they intentionally pulled away from routine making room for this encounter.

So here we are at the outset of August. For some, the summer months provide an interlude before all kinds of activities crank up in the fall. It can be a useful time for retreat, opening the way for deliverance from disquietude. Maybe you can find some kind of mountaintop experience this week or this month, a way to take the long view and gain some perspective.

That may take intentionality on your part. We can practice that kind of intentionality on small scale, a few minutes of quiet each morning. A walk in the park. A break from screen time. A stop by a local church for some kneeling prayer. Shavasana.

My guess is that we each know something about disquietude. Whatever your version of that state of mind, pray for deliverance. Pray for the vision to take the longer view, to see something of Jesus in his beauty. Pray for the help of Jesus who spoke to the storm and said, “Peace be still.” And know that your prayer can be offered not only with your lips but with your life. What might that look like as we move through this week?

-Jay Sidebotham

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RenewalWorks: Helping churches focus on spiritual growth

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Life is Short

Life is short and we do not have too much time to gladden the hearts of those who travel with us. So be swift to love. Make haste to be kind. And the blessing of God be with you.

I had the privilege of introducing this blessing to a congregation where I was serving. They thought I was brilliant. It became Jay’s blessing, despite how many times I told them that it had been used in many churches, and that the prayer apparently was originally crafted in the 19^th century by a Swiss philosopher, poet and critic named Henri Frederic Amiel. None of that seemed convincing, and I’ve had worse things happen in church than getting credit for something I didn’t do. Regardless of source, I have been struck with how this prayer resonates with people. I have wondered why it is so engaging.

It may be the directness of its start. The older we get, the more we recognize the fleeting aspect of life. That’s hardly news, as the psalmist notes that even those who stand erect are but a puff of wind (39:5), or that our days are like a passing shadow (144:4). Accordingly, we recognize the wisdom of the collect heard yesterday in church (see above) which offers prayer that we may pass through things temporal without losing sight of things that are eternal.

Think with me about the things that are temporal. They are fleeting. Early in my ministry, in the cocky snarkiness that can mark those who have been recently ordained, I made a slightly derisive comment about someone who was only serving in an interim capacity in a church, bless their heart. The wise person who heard the comment responded: “Jay, we’re all interim.” I’ve not forgotten that. It’s useful to keep that temporal aspect in mind. It can help us through rough passages. “This too shall pass.” It can also help with some immunity to hubris. It can prevent us from giving our hearts to that which will not ultimately satisfy our hearts.

It does not mean we focus only on pie in the sky and forget about the ministry we’re given to do right now. C.S.Lewis put it this way: “If you read history you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next.” He said: “Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.”

Think with me about the things that are eternal. In St. Paul’s famous hymn in I Corinthians 13, he concludes by saying that in the end, faith, hope and love will abide but the greatest of these is love. In some respects, faith and hope are by definition temporal. There will come a time when we no longer walk by faith, but by sight. Hope anticipates something that will come, with the implication that there will be a time when hope will not be necessary. But love does not end. Someone once posed this question about heaven: “Will everyone I love be there?” A wise person responded: “Even better. You will love everyone who is there.”

Think this week about how you might focus on the eternal. It matters. More from C.S.Lewis: “It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this one.” Maybe that kind of eternal focus will come with a prayer for vision, maybe a repetition of this week’s collect. Maybe it will come with a prayerful act of love, unconditionally offered, expecting nothing in return. Life is indeed short, but whatever time we have is filled with opportunity to be swift to love, and to make haste to be kind. Those opportunities when met have lasting value.

-Jay Sidebotham

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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.

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It’s okay

He came pretty regularly to church, at the outset mostly for the sake of wife and kids. We had any number of conversations about why faith didn’t make sense to him. It might have been generous to call him an agnostic. He was one of the smartest people I’d met in church, a well-read philosophy major. I was no match for the intellectual sparring, but he kept coming to church.

After a while, he made an appointment to tell me that he had come to a place where faith actually did make sense. He seemed to affirm the adage that faith is more often caught than taught. Slowly, over time, after hanging around the community, he was becoming a believer, in his own way. He offered his synopsis of the gospel. He said that the gospel sounded to him like this: I’m not okay. You’re not okay. And that’s okay.

I wanted to fine-tune that. But I believed he had grasped a basic truth. Maybe without knowing it, he was underscoring the message of the collect we read in church yesterday (above).

In a nutshell, the collect says we need help. The collect says that God knows our necessities, our ignorance, our weakness, our unworthiness, our blindness. An interesting if not entirely chipper assessment of the human condition. The collect also suggests that God, the fountain of all wisdom, is not surprised by any of this. God knows all this about us. And God hangs in there with us anyway.

We’ve been reading Paul’s letter to the Romans on Sundays. One of the key points the apostle makes in that letter is that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. No exceptions. But that’s not the whole story, because Paul describes in soaring language the marvel and mystery that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Nothing, not even our deficits. We call that grace. It’s amazing.

Here’s one way to know what love is. It’s when someone in your life knows the bad or dumb things you’ve done, knows your quirks and deficits, and loves you still. Parents on a good day show that kind of love. Spouses can do that. It doesn’t happen enough in church, where contrary to the gospel, we often act like we expect people to have it all together. We are often less than gentle with other people’s failings, even if we coddle our own.

Our faith tells us about the wideness of God’s mercy, like the wideness of the sea. To the extent that we’re able to grasp that, to believe that, to trust that, we have heard the gospel. We are saved from the ways in which our world makes everything conditional, the persistent ways that our world tells us we don’t measure up, tells us we’re just not good enough.

When I began my course of study at Union Seminary, we had a week of orientation. I’d been out of school for a while and I was excited about a return to serious academic work. Heady stuff. One of the speakers at orientation was James Forbes, seminary professor who went on to be Senior Pastor at Riverside Church. He said he had just one bit of advice for us students. Memorize Psalm 139. He said it would change our lives. I thought: I didn’t come to this high-falutin’place to memorize bible verses. I did that in Sunday School.

But I took him up on it. Years later, I can still recite a good amount of the chapter. Have a look at that psalm this week and think about why he recommended it. Think about how it might be transformative. The premise of the psalm, thousands of years old, says that God knows us better than ourselves. (Just a few of the verses are printed above) God knows all the ways we fall short. With all that knowledge, God still is with us and for us. On some holy level, in some divine economy, it’s all okay.

I believe that good news a fair amount of the time. Sometimes I find it hard to believe and I don’t act as if it is true. But to the extent I can embrace that good news, it provides a way to live in the world, a break from all the ways that I regard love as conditional. It means that my necessities, my weakness, ignorance, unworthiness do not define or limit me. I hope I can receive the grace to live into that truth, and to regard others with a bit of the grace that God extends to me.

-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!!

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Clueless

Truth be told, we wouldn’t pray yesterday’s collect (above) if we weren’t somewhat clueless. Printed below that collect, I’ve included the popular prayer about unknowing, written by Thomas Merton. I’m guessing that its popularity springs from the fact that we all know something about not knowing where we’re headed. Accordingly, we ask for help, that we might know and understand what to do, and know how to accomplish.

My first instinct is to challenge the collect. The fact is, we know what to do. It’s clear in scripture. Micah puts it this way: He has told you, O mortal, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6.8) Very clear. Maybe not easy, but clear. Jesus said the greatest commandment was to love God and neighbor. Most religious traditions have some version of the Golden Rule, which is to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Rabbi Hillel famously said that all the other commandments are just commentary on that one rule. We might add to that the Hippocratic Oath, which I’ve often asked Sunday School teachers to embrace: Do no harm. What we ought to do seems to be spelled out pretty clearly.

G.K.Chesterton said: The problem with Christianity is not that it has been tried and found wanting, but that it has been found difficult and left untried. The Nike slogan comes to mind: Just do it. I laughed when I saw a t-shirt on a person who maybe had eaten a few too many cheeseburgers. It showed the Nike logo upside down with the words: Don’t want to.

We may know what we ought to do. But it is entirely possible we may not understand what we ought to do. The kind of life to which we are called, the kind of love we are called to show, may be beyond comprehension. Grace is truly amazing. As the hymn speaks of the wideness of God’s mercy, the hymn text says that the love of God is broader than the measure of our minds. In the course of our lives, we rarely experience the kind of unconditional love we are called to know and show. We come to life, to our relationships with mixed motives, with the underlying question: What’s in it for me? So maybe we do need help to know and understand what that love looks like.

And if we need help with that kind of understanding, we most certainly need help accomplishing it, in putting it to work. Where do we find that help? For starters, it’s worth noting that we can’t do it on our own. When we commit to the promises of the baptismal covenant (another place where it’s stated pretty clearly what we are to do. See page 304 in the Book of Common Prayer), we say that we will with God’s help. That help may come in our communities. On a good day, we can find help in the body of Christ, in the church.

I invite you to see how you can live this prayer, yesterday’s collect, in your life this week. Consider what you are being called to do. Is that clear to you? Where does the call to love God and neighbor intersect with your circumstances, with your daily rhythm? What are the opportunities to put love to work in your world? And then ask for the grace to accomplish that, to live into that call. Seek that grace from the one from whose love we can never be separated.

-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.

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Standing on shoulders

Over the years, as I served as parish priest, I would chaperone lock-ins, events by which any number of rambunctious young people spend the night in the church. These events were wildly popular. Emphasis on wild. Sleep was apparently not on the agenda. I recall that each time I led one of these things, about 3am in the morning, I thought about alternative careers. Starbucks barista looked pretty good in those early morning hours. My role in this event was to make sure that everyone was safe, that no laws were broken, that the church was still standing in the morning.

In the course of these events, I made efforts to bring some spiritual component to the gathering, which sometimes was met with eye rolls from the teenagers, along with other forms of resistance. These efforts were not always successful.

One particular lock-in was held on the weekend closest to All Saints Day. I gathered the young people for a midnight eucharist. Because that was way past my bed-time, I invited the young people to offer the homily, answering this question: Who has been a saint in your life?

As we went around the circle, young people again and again cited a grandparent as a saint, a role model. The stories were sweet and powerful. I was impressed that I didn’t hear names you might expect: Mother Teresa or Nelson Mandela or Mahatma Gandhi. I mostly heard about saints who never gained fame. But they had shaped these young peoples’ lives. They had provided a foundation for these young people to grow spiritually. It made the lock-in effort totally worth it.

Spiritually speaking, we stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before, who have modeled for us what it means to put faith to work in the world. That goes all the way back to the characters in the Hebrew Scriptures. (For instance, Abraham has always been a teacher and guide for me.) And throughout the centuries, saints have shown us what courage looks like in the face of great opposition, resistance and persecution. Some were world famous. Others, not so much. I wonder which biblical characters, which saints throughout church history, have been that kind of guide for you.

The collect heard in church yesterday speaks of the foundation of apostles and prophets, folks who have paved the way, shown the way, lived the way of love. The collect continues to use the metaphor we noted last week, making reference to a foundation, a holy construction project. We find ourselves living our life of faith in a great communion of time, a great global communion. Yesterday’s collect asks that we’ll do so in a spirit of unity (even if it’s not a spirit of agreement or uniformity or unanimity). We’re asked to recognize how others have helped us grow in faith, how others have helped us build our faith.

Take time today to think about who those people have been in your life. On whose shoulders do you stand? Offer thanks for them. If they are still around, you might want to send a note of thanks for their help along the way. I’m certain that would be well-received. It might be a source of great encouragement.

Then think and pray about how you might be part of this building process, how you can help someone else. Who might that be in your life this week?

As I write, I’m waiting to hear about the arrival of my third grandchild. I hope and pray that I can help that person build a life of faith. I hope and pray they will have people in their life who will do that. And I hope and pray they survive any future lock-in, and that they will show mercy to their chaperones.

-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

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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