You’re welcome

For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? -Matthew 5:46-47

Over the years, I’ve had occasion to read many parish profiles, documents that aim to capture the character of a congregation, shared in the most positive light. I have never, ever read of a church that didn’t describe itself as welcoming. Episcopalians make that boast as a denomination, with ubiquitous road-signs that say “The Episcopal Church welcomes you.”

Yet I’ve heard too many stories of how folks have visited a church and felt invisible, folks bravely going to coffee hour, ending up reading literature about estate planning or feigning interest in a bulletin board of pictures of people they don’t even know because no one would talk with them. I’ve heard church described as family, which has a wonderful element of truth to it, but also can cause people to wonder: What do I have to do to be part of the in-crowd?

I served for a number of years at a church that was experiencing rapid growth. Someone who had been at the church for many years complained to the rector: “Who are all these people? What are you going to do about this? There are so many people I don’t know.” The rector replied, without missing a beat: “Yes, isn’t it wonderful?”

Brian McLaren put the question this way, asking about the character of our churches and denominations: Are we a club for the elite who pretend to have arrived or a school for disciples who are still on the way? It reminds me of the woman who challenged me on why I spoke about church growth or evangelism so much. She said: “I don’t know why you harp on that. Everyone in town who ought to be Episcopalian already is.”

Club or school? Obviously, McLaren aimed for the latter. One of the things I imagine about a school for disciples on the way is that in that movement, there is always a readiness to welcome folks, fellow travelers along the way.

by Jay Sidebotham

And this discussion presents just one aspect of the issue. These verses come after Jesus has told his disciples that they are called to love their enemies, to pray for them. If it’s hard for us simply to welcome people we don’t know to our churches, people who look a little different, how hard will it be to include those who we might consider to be enemies? Those who disagree with us. Those who have harmed us. Those who don’t like us. Maybe hate us. Maybe deep in the secret places of our hearts we hate them.

Jesus knew that the way of the world was to like the people who are like us, to withdraw into our bubbles, to settle into communities of agreement, cultures of affinity. That’s apparently the way the world operates. Even tax collectors and Gentiles know that. But he envisions another way, the way of love.

Where is that a challenge this week for you? Maybe it comes in your church, in your family, in your workplace. Maybe it comes with people who disagree on issues political or social or theological? How can you reach out this week?

And if the challenge feels beyond your capability, make it a focus of your prayer life.

Ready to begin your RenewalWorks journey?

Join the September 2022 cohort of congregations on the journey of discipleship.

A lawyer approached Jesus, putting him to the test with this question: “Which is the greatest commandment?” Jesus’ response was simple, if not easy. He said it was about love of God (with all your heart and soul and mind) and love of neighbor as self.

That singular emphasis on love of God and neighbor provides the foundation for RenewalWorks, a ministry that focuses on spiritual growth by deepening love of God and neighbor in the lives of congregations, in the lives of ministries that animate those congregations, and in the lives of the individuals who bring life to those ministries.

When the details of life press in, parishes, like individuals, can inadvertently move away from this singular, simple focus on discipleship to the more mundane but necessary actions of running a church. RenewalWorks brings the focus back to Jesus’ response to the lawyer.

Loving enemies (Happy Valentines Day)

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. -Matthew 5:43-45

Regardless of the fact that today is Valentine’s Day, the Sermon on the Mount seems to indicate that our lives unfold with enemies all around us. G. K. Chesterton starkly put it this way: “The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because generally they are the same people.” That gets carried over into the history of the church.

David Brooks recently wrote a column (published on February 4) that spoke about infighting in the evangelical movement. Brooks mentions the song “We are one in the spirit, we are one in the Lord, and they’ll know we are Christians by our love.“ He states the obvious: the world envisioned by that song seems very far away right now. Bitter recriminations have caused some believers to wonder if the whole religion is a crock. (I confess that as I survey contemporary Christian culture in our country I can see their point.)

Brooks quotes Tim Dalrymple, president of Christianity Today: “As an evangelical, I’ve found the last five years to be shocking, disorienting and deeply disheartening. One of the most surprising elements is that I’ve realized that the people who I used to stand shoulder to shoulder with on almost every issue, I now realize that we are separated by a yawning chasm of mutual incomprehension.”

I don’t know how many readers identify as evangelical, but they aren’t the only ones to experience that yawning chasm of mutual incomprehension, with neighbors, co-workers, relatives, not to mention people in the next pew. The chasm clearly dominates our politics. It’s showing up in school boards and classrooms. It’s happening in workplaces. It’s evident where different racial groups convene. And of course, there’s social media. Since the Sermon on the Mount is addressed to disciples, perhaps we should focus on how that chasm surfaces in faith communities. How are we to bridge the yawning chasm of mutual incomprehension? Are there ways we can move toward love of enemies? Nice idea, but how do we do that?

We get a practical answer from Jesus. His call to love our enemies is linked to the call to pray for those who persecute. It’s the wisdom of the psalmist who says of his enemies: “They beset me with words of hate, and attack me without cause. In return for my love they accuse me, even while I make prayer for them. (Psalm 109:2,3) The psalmist prays for his enemies. It’s the wisdom of Jesus who on the cross prayed for forgiveness for his executioners. They knew not what they were doing. It’s the witness of St. Stephen, the first martyr, disciple who similarly prayed for those stoning him to death.

Prayer for enemies accomplishes a number of things. It breaks the cycle of hate, as enmity can breed enmity, hate can trigger hate, resentment repeats injury, only widening the chasm. Prayer for enemies recognizes that God holds in loving regard the person who is giving us a hard time, or doing us wrong, or out to get us. It’s an act of empathy, seeking to bridge that chasm of incomprehension. When we pray for those who oppose us, we put ourselves in their shoes. When we pray for them, we trust God to do what we cannot, which is change somebody else. And this kind of prayer can shift our own propensity for lingering resentment and festering animosity, perhaps even helping us realize our part in the chasm. I’m reminded of Anne Lamott’s insight: “You can safely assume you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.” Jesus notes that the rain falls on all of us.

One of the great examples of bridging the chasm of incomprehensibility came in the ministry of Martin Luther King. Dr. King affirmed that we are “woven together into an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.” He goes on: “Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the inter-related structure of reality.”

I’ve come to believe that the gospel can be summed up in two words: love wins. Seems like we can choose either to widen the chasm of incomprehensibility or weave ourselves into the winning network of mutuality, by which we are all tied together in a single garment of destiny. This is something worth praying for. Taking steps (even small ones) in that direction would be a good way to celebrate Valentines Day.

Good Book Club to start 2022 with Exodus

Start the new year with a renewed spiritual practice of reading God’s Word. Forward Movement, with support from partners from around the Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion, will celebrate the time of Epiphany with a new round of the Good Book Club by reading the first half of the Book of Exodus.

Exodus recounts the journey of the Israelites from slavery to freedom. We hear the great stories of Moses, from his discovery by Pharaoh’s daughter on the bank of the river to the burning bush to his presentation of the Ten Commandments. Along the way, we encounter God’s covenant and explore the grand theme of redemption.

This year, we have a bonus time of scripture engagement: the Good Book Club will dive into the first twenty chapters of Exodus from Epiphany, January 6, to Shrove Tuesday, March 1. For those who want to keep reading, we’ll offer a daily reading guide and an overview of the second half of Exodus. That reading period will conclude on Easter.

The full schedule, including the list of daily readings is available at www.goodbookclub.org.

Sign up to receive updates on Exodus.

Joining the Good Book Club is easy: Open your Bible and start reading!

Eye for an eye?

You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile.  Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.

-Matthew 5:38-42

Every now and then, when I’m trying to take in some of Jesus’ teaching, I confess a need to pull the guy aside and fill him in on how life really works. The gospels tell us that his family members and his disciples occasionally tried to do the same thing. I want to inform him of what it’s like to walk city streets where there is someone asking for money on each corner, or where disheveled persons stand at busy intersections with scrawled signs requesting help. I want to clue Jesus in that I just can’t give to any random person. I just can’t give to everyone.

Today’s reading from the Sermon on the Mount is just one more example of Jesus calling us to a higher standard, that expansive and rigorous standard of love. Again, he quotes the law, which said an eye for an eye, etc. That has been interpreted in our culture as permission for revenge. I’m told that its original intent was to limit vengeful spirit, so that in responding to injury, one was not allowed to exceed the injury in that response.

But then we hear those words that make us sit up and take notice. Jesus says: But I say to you…

And here’s what Jesus has to say: Don’t resist an evildoer. Turn the other cheek. Give extravagantly. Give more than one asks. Have you seen that in action? Jesus talked about such in parables, like the father of the prodigal son, who welcomes his boy home with a grand party, before the kid even has a chance to explain himself, apologize or ask forgiveness. It’s the story of the bishop at the beginning of Les Miserables who is robbed by a guest and when the culprit is brought back before him, the Bishop gives even more silver to the thief, showing grace instead of vengeance, mercy instead of judgment. It’s Ted Lasso immediately offering forgiveness to the club owner who had messed with him. When this kind of thing happens, it’s notable. In fact, extraordinary. And on some level, it makes little sense. Where have you seen amazing grace?

We run across Jesus’ rigorous standard in the promises of baptism. We promise to seek and serve Christ in all persons, not just the ones we like, not just those we deem deserving. We promise to respect the dignity of every human being, even those that we think are undignified.

Like the call to love God with all our heart, soul and strength, like the call to love neighbor as self, this call to extravagant generosity may not be fully realized by any of us in this lifetime. But it is the goal Jesus sets for us, illustrated in his arms stretched out on the cross. I’m not sure what to make of this high bar that Jesus sets. I miss the mark daily.

But I guess we face this choice. We can look for ways to limit our generosity, to try to figure out whether the person asking for assistance deserves it, or will use it according to our wise standards, or will ask again. Or we can look for ways to be generous.

Perhaps it’s not in our wheelhouse to be totally unconditional in our generosity. But we can try to move in that direction, with God’s help. How about starting each day this week with a prayer that we might have at least one opportunity to practice the kind of amazing grace that Jesus advocates in this sermon?

Good Book Club to start 2022 with Exodus

Start the new year with a renewed spiritual practice of reading God’s Word. Forward Movement, with support from partners from around the Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion, will celebrate the time of Epiphany with a new round of the Good Book Club by reading the first half of the Book of Exodus.

Exodus recounts the journey of the Israelites from slavery to freedom. We hear the great stories of Moses, from his discovery by Pharaoh’s daughter on the bank of the river to the burning bush to his presentation of the Ten Commandments. Along the way, we encounter God’s covenant and explore the grand theme of redemption.

This year, we have a bonus time of scripture engagement: the Good Book Club will dive into the first twenty chapters of Exodus from Epiphany, January 6, to Shrove Tuesday, March 1. For those who want to keep reading, we’ll offer a daily reading guide and an overview of the second half of Exodus. That reading period will conclude on Easter.

The full schedule, including the list of daily readings is available at www.goodbookclub.org.

Sign up to receive updates on Exodus.

Joining the Good Book Club is easy: Open your Bible and start reading!

What we believe and refuse to believe

It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that anyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. 

-Matthew 5:31, 32

A mentor once helped me with a way to read scripture, given that the books of the Bible were written so long ago. How do we go about applying the text to the realities of life today, when the times, they are a-changin’? He spoke about what he believe and what he refuse to believe. We might want to consider those alternatives as we reflect on what Jesus said about divorce. To our ears, where divorce is a reality in so many families (including my own), can his pronouncement serve as a blanket ban on divorce?

We might think that if any group was likely to embrace such a ban, it would be the biblical literalists in our midst. Which makes it interesting that a 2018 study by the Barna Research Group indicated that the highest divorce rates are in the Bible Belt: “Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama, and Oklahoma round out the Top Five in the frequency of divorce…the divorce rates in these conservative states are roughly 50 percent above the national average” of 4.2/1000 people. Nine states in the Northeast (Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and Maryland) have the lowest divorce rates, averaging just 3.5/1000 people. Go figure.

Having said all that, I choose to refuse to believe that these verses call for a ban on all divorce. In my experience, divorce is never pain-free, but it is sometimes the best course of action. At the same time, I’m not dismissing what Jesus has to say.

What I do believe is that Jesus is providing an interesting and helpful way to bring the ancient tradition into our own time. In several places in this long sermon, Jesus says “You have heard that it was said…” It’s his way of acknowledging the tradition. And then he says: “But I say to you…” In other words, he himself was no biblical literalist. And like the E.F.Hutton commercial, my ears perk up when we hear Jesus say: “But I say to you…”

He moves beyond the letter of the law to explore its spirit. He recognizes that the law of his tradition made provision for divorce, a certificate that served as protection for a woman who may have been dismissed for inconsequential reasons, like cooking a bad meal. Jesus speaks of a higher calling, one marked by values of mutuality and fidelity, two guiding principles of committed relationships. He says that the law of love which he came to incarnate does not allow for people simply to be dismissed.

His standard moves beyond legalism to a more rigorous standard, found in the greatest commandment which he gave: love of God with everything we have, and love of neighbor as self. Those two loves are inextricably intertwined, which is what makes this such a rigorous standard. I’m not sure I’ve run across anyone who has been able fully to live into that call.

You can decide what you make of Jesus’ pronouncement on divorce, believing or refusing to believe what you want. But it’s clear to me that he was calling his disciples to have a new heart, filled with love of God and neighbor, described in that famous chapter from I Corinthians printed in the column on the left. He sets a standard I’m not sure any of us can meet this side of glory. But we can take steps, even this week, to live more fully into that call, to let the way of love be the way we move forward, even if it’s only very small step by very small step.

Good Book Club to start 2022 with Exodus

Start the new year with a renewed spiritual practice of reading God’s Word. Forward Movement, with support from partners from around the Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion, will celebrate the time of Epiphany with a new round of the Good Book Club by reading the first half of the Book of Exodus.

Exodus recounts the journey of the Israelites from slavery to freedom. We hear the great stories of Moses, from his discovery by Pharaoh’s daughter on the bank of the river to the burning bush to his presentation of the Ten Commandments. Along the way, we encounter God’s covenant and explore the grand theme of redemption.

This year, we have a bonus time of scripture engagement: the Good Book Club will dive into the first twenty chapters of Exodus from Epiphany, January 6, to Shrove Tuesday, March 1. For those who want to keep reading, we’ll offer a daily reading guide and an overview of the second half of Exodus. That reading period will conclude on Easter.

The full schedule, including the list of daily readings is available at www.goodbookclub.org.

Sign up to receive updates on Exodus.

Joining the Good Book Club is easy: Open your Bible and start reading!

Lust (That’ll get your attention)

Jesus said: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

-Matthew 5:27, 28

After a break for the Christmas season, we’re back with weekly reflection on the Sermon on the Mount, taking it in small bits to see what Jesus has to teach us about being a disciple these days. And as promised, this morning we get to reflect on lust and adultery. Don’t worry (or don’t be disappointed): content is PG.

Those of us of a certain age will remember that Jimmy Carter, a president who actually read the Bible, referenced these verses during his 1976 campaign. He admitted that while he’d been true to Rosalynn, he did at some point have lust in his heart. For a culture that was probably not as biblically literate as he was, it triggered both outrage and ridicule. These days, his offense seems tepid, given that one of his successors was caught lying about an adulterous affair with an intern and another was caught on tape boasting about sexual assault.

Jimmy Carter, a committed disciple of Jesus who demonstrates indefatigable discipleship well into his nineties, seemed to appreciate that Jesus is saying that what matters is what is in your heart. It’s in our nature to look at notorious, egregious acts of sinners and say: “Thank God I’m not like that person.” Jesus told parables to that effect. Meanwhile, we can easily mask, or perhaps deny what’s in our own inner world.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is speaking to disciples, people closest to him, ostensibly spiritual/religious folks and not notorious outsiders. While Jesus affirms the law forbidding adultery, he takes it further. He says that one needs to look at where that kind of action comes from. That lustful heart regards other people as objects. It ignores mutuality and fidelity, virtues that are key to committed relationships. And it is never quite satisfied. If that lustful regard is in the heart, Jesus says it’s not all that different from committing that sin forbidden by the law.

Again and again, in this sermon and elsewhere, Jesus says that the bottom line is what’s in the heart. If we harbor hateful or lustful thoughts, that puts us in the same boat as those who act on them with murder or adultery. So there’s no need to get all worked up about someone else’s failings. It’s better to begin with a look inward and see where we are giving our hearts.

I don’t know about you, but I often feel powerless over my own hateful and lustful thoughts. I often regard folks as objects, wondering what they can do for me. I can let resentments get the better of me, which brings out the worst in me. Those resentments are often fueled by a willful unwillingness to extend forgiveness, and a bit of amnesia that the dark terrain of my heart needs forgiveness too. I can imagine the joy of getting revenge and indulging in schadenfreude. Basically, I need help. In the face of powerlessness, where do we go for that kind of help?

We’re in the Epiphany season now, a season about light shining in darkness, about coming to see things in new ways, about Jesus showing up to help. As we launch out on this new year, perhaps each day we could pray the Collect for Purity which kicks off our worship when we gather for eucharist (conveniently reprinted above). It asks God to cleanse the thoughts of our hearts. Perhaps we could pray with the psalmist, asking God to create in us a clean heart (also found above). Perhaps we can cut each other some slack, suspending judgmental perspectives on others, a particular challenge for religious people. And maybe we can give thanks for the wideness of God’s mercy, God who knows our innermost thoughts and loves us anyway. Feel like giving that a try this week?

-Jay Sidebotham

Good Book Club to start 2022 with Exodus

Start the new year with a renewed spiritual practice of reading God’s Word. Forward Movement, with support from partners from around the Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion, will celebrate the time of Epiphany with a new round of the Good Book Club by reading the first half of the Book of Exodus.

Exodus recounts the journey of the Israelites from slavery to freedom. We hear the great stories of Moses, from his discovery by Pharaoh’s daughter on the bank of the river to the burning bush to his presentation of the Ten Commandments. Along the way, we encounter God’s covenant and explore the grand theme of redemption.

This year, we have a bonus time of scripture engagement: the Good Book Club will dive into the first twenty chapters of Exodus from Epiphany, January 6, to Shrove Tuesday, March 1. For those who want to keep reading, we’ll offer a daily reading guide and an overview of the second half of Exodus. That reading period will conclude on Easter.

The full schedule, including the list of daily readings is available at www.goodbookclub.org.

Sign up to receive updates on Exodus.

Joining the Good Book Club is easy: Open your Bible and start reading!

Searching for joy: a poem in anticipation of Epiphany

If I could meet the magi, the question on my mind:
What made them take that road trip? What did they hope to find?

Assume their lives were comfortable. It paid well to be wise.
They spent their days at camel chase. At night they scanned the skies.

They knew the stars like back of hand. They’d studied well and hard.
Advanced degreed astrology, In school they got gold stars

Another way to ask it: What was it they were lacking?
Was there some royal restlessness that sent them westward packing?

One eastern night when moon was hid and stars were shining bright,
They wisely cast a glance above and spied a different light.

Next night the same, but brighter. Where did that star come from?
How could they have been missing it? And had it been there long?

Mounting camels, off they went following that light.
No need to go to mapquest. The star would steer them right.

I’m sure you’ve heard the gender jokes, how men can’t ask directions.
Not so for these astrologers: They made a course correction.

By calling on a colleague. King Herod, deemed much wiser.
They asked if he would point the way. He called in his advisers.

Who searched the scripture for a text to pass along to them
They told the Magi where to go “Head straight for Bethlehem”

We each are like the magi. I wonder if you know it.
(Though you may think it less than wise for priest to pose as poet)

Our lives become predictable. We live out our routines.
But then a light makes us look up and restlessness creeps in.

We realize then we’re seekers for things that fill the bill.
Will money make us happier? Relationships fulfill?

We sometimes shop at Herod’s (the king, and not the store)
To see if power fills that place. We’re always after more.

If we could just work harder. The next promotion reach.
If we could just act better. And practice what we preach.

We each are on a journey to find joy in our lives.
In many ways, we try to fill the gaps that life supplies.

What are you seeking in your life? Is search for joy your quest?
Have you a clue where it is found? Or where it’s best expressed?

A search for joy can lose its way when clouds obscure the star.
And pain of life can hide the light and then we don’t get far.

Our search for joy can get bogged down, get gridlocked spiritually
Our lives get in a traffic jam. There’s no green light to see.

We focus on what others have. But what we fail to do
Is seek for joy by looking up, by looking for what’s new.

What’s new is represented in Bethlehem’s young boy.
That’s where we find an answer if we’re really seeking joy.

Like those kings who made that trip and left their status quoing.
There’s new life to be found by all if we will start let going.

Let go. Let God. Our travel tip. Let star become the guide.
And know that when we take a step we go with God beside.

We each are on a journey that’s guided by the Spirit.
It sometimes is a bumpy road. It’s sometimes hard to steer it.

But the journey is a gift itself when made by me and you.
When traveling with other folks we come on something new.

A life we’d not expected. Grace that helps us cope.
A light that shines in darkness. Amid the cold night: Hope.

Community in loneliness. A place to bring our gifts.
A common spirit traveling. A star that spirits lifts.

It’s possible to travel far and never leave this place.
A journey of the spirit starts with one small step toward grace.

The biggest trek can be one step of welcoming God’s love.
Of worshipping with eyes raised up. That is the way we move.

Our world sure needs us magi. Needs wise folk seeking love
Who look beyond the glitter to see a star above.

So let’s head back 2000 years to what these magi teach us.
Across the miles, across the years their witnesses still reach us.

We find the magi traveling. The Exit: Bethlehem
They’re slouching in their camel seats. The next step’s up to them.

They’ve traveled far. They’re tired. They’ve quarreled just a bit.
Go right. Go left. Head north. Head south. But it was worth the trip.

For when they met the infant king, entitlement surrendered.
They offered gold, incense and myrrh, the best they had to tender.

The star they followed led them to the child they now adore.
The one they flood with presents has given them back more.

It all made sense, so quickly clear, the reason for those miles
The search for joy now ended with holy family smiles.

It all made sense in worship. They found it filled their needs
And when we worship Christ child king, our search for joy succeeds.

This ending a beginning. Move ahead they must
They headed home another way, left Herod in the dust.

Their story teaches lessons still, through years more than 2k
It teaches us to move ahead. Go home another way.

Go forward from the place you offered gift on bended knee.
Go forward to the journey next based on Epiphany

Go forward based on glimpse of light that guides when dark surrounds.
Go forward on your journey. There’s more joy to be found.

-Jay Sidebotham

Good Book Club to start 2022 with Exodus

Start the new year with a renewed spiritual practice of reading God’s Word. Forward Movement, with support from partners from around the Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion, will celebrate the time of Epiphany with a new round of the Good Book Club by reading the first half of the Book of Exodus.

Exodus recounts the journey of the Israelites from slavery to freedom. We hear the great stories of Moses, from his discovery by Pharaoh’s daughter on the bank of the river to the burning bush to his presentation of the Ten Commandments. Along the way, we encounter God’s covenant and explore the grand theme of redemption.

This year, we have a bonus time of scripture engagement: the Good Book Club will dive into the first twenty chapters of Exodus from Epiphany, January 6, to Shrove Tuesday, March 1. For those who want to keep reading, we’ll offer a daily reading guide and an overview of the second half of Exodus. That reading period will conclude on Easter.

The full schedule, including the list of daily readings is available at www.goodbookclub.org.

Sign up to receive updates on Exodus.

Joining the Good Book Club is easy: Open your Bible and start reading!

Tis the season

We’re going to take another week in this season of Christmas before we return to reflection on the Sermon on the Mount. While the culture has been celebrating Christmas since Labor Day, the church sees December 25^th as just the beginning, with a season of observance that lasts until January 6.

It’s a season filled with special feast days, and if you’re looking for more holly-jolly, you might be disappointed. We got a hint of this when we observed the Feast of St. Thomas, of doubting fame, right before Christmas (Dec. 21). And this week, there are a few special days that make us realize why we so desperately need good news of great joy which shall be to all people.

Today, we observe the feast of St. Stephen (as mentioned in the carol “Good King Wenceslaus”). Stephen’s story (not Wenceslaus’) is first told in the book of Acts. As one of the deacons of the church, one of the folks set aside by the church to address the needs of the poor, Stephen was the first martyr of the church. St. Paul was cheerleading those who stoned Stephen to death.

Tomorrow, we observe the feast of St. John, apostle and evangelist, who by tradition was exiled to the Isle of Patmos. Though he seems to be the only one of the twelve disciples that didn’t give his life for the sake of the gospel in some gruesome, violent way, he had his own experience of persecution. That may have made the book attributed to him, the Apocalypse (a.k.a, the book of Revelation) all the more vivid.

Day after that comes the feast of the Holy Innocents, which marks the day when King Herod put all two year old boys in Bethlehem to death. I will always remember doing a funeral on this day for an 8-year old boy who died of brain cancer. I loved that kid. The feast reminds us that the suffering of innocents continues. Why is it so often the children who bear the brunt, especially the brunt of foolish and heartless political leaders?

Later in the week, we observe the feast of St. Thomas a Becket, that troublesome priest that King Henry II wanted to get rid of. The king thought he had succeeded when murder took place in the cathedral. Of course, Thomas is remembered with reverence. Henry, not so much.

And then comes a lesser known feast as we recall the life, ministry and witness of Frances Joseph Gaudet, an African American woman born in Mississippi in 1861 (just those facts indicate a challenging life). She dedicated her life to prison reform, coupled with provision of education for those who would otherwise not receive it. Her death in 1934 marked the conclusion of a life dedicated to prisoners, a reminder that our culture that seems to think the solution lies in mass incarceration needs to hear the good news of the liberating love of Jesus.

I’m not sure what the thinking was way back when to fill the Christmas season with these stories reflecting the challenges that mark the human condition. It’s a season filled with martyrs, a word which is loaded in our culture. We often think of a martyr as some unattractive, whining self-righteous person who says something like “Don’t mind me. I’ll just sit here in the dark corner by myself.” But martyr means witness, someone who shows that the good news of Jesus, the news of that loving, life-giving, liberating Lord is news of greatest value, more valuable than life itself. That’s news we all need to hear.

Maybe your life is free of challenge. Maybe you’ve had no encounter with the hard heartedness of our world and its people. Bless you if that’s the case. But if you’re like most of us, you know that life is difficult, that there’s a crack in everything God has made. The Christmas season tells us that that is where the light can shine through.

Of course, saints lived not only in ages past. There are hundreds of thousands still. And we lost one of the great modern saints in this Christmas season. Desmond Tutu showed us what it meant to meet the ugliness and injustice of our world with love and joy. He countered the love of power with the power of love. May God grant him peace as the Archbishop sought to bring peace to the world. And may God grant comfort to those who mourn, and to those who look for others to continue the fight against injustice.

Each of these saints call us to be witnesses of the light this week, which comes to us with grace and truth. Perhaps we can resolve to be that kind of witness in the coming year, in the new year, in all the days ahead.

What might that look like in your life?

-Jay Sidebotham

Good Book Club to start 2022 with Exodus

Start the new year with a renewed spiritual practice of reading God’s Word. Forward Movement, with support from partners from around the Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion, will celebrate the time of Epiphany with a new round of the Good Book Club by reading the first half of the Book of Exodus.

Exodus recounts the journey of the Israelites from slavery to freedom. We hear the great stories of Moses, from his discovery by Pharaoh’s daughter on the bank of the river to the burning bush to his presentation of the Ten Commandments. Along the way, we encounter God’s covenant and explore the grand theme of redemption.

This year, we have a bonus time of scripture engagement: the Good Book Club will dive into the first twenty chapters of Exodus from Epiphany, January 6, to Shrove Tuesday, March 1. For those who want to keep reading, we’ll offer a daily reading guide and an overview of the second half of Exodus. That reading period will conclude on Easter.

The full schedule, including the list of daily readings is available at www.goodbookclub.org.

Sign up to receive updates on Exodus.

Joining the Good Book Club is easy: Open your Bible and start reading!