Sacred Space

I did not write this Wednesday (okay let's be honest, I've been posting most regularly on Thursdays despite this blog title) because I was attending a conference at Columbia Theological Seminary, my alma mater.  It was a strange feeling to return to campus without being a student, and there were several times I almost turned on my blinker to turn into the married student housing parking lot on accident when we were returning from dinner outings.

I found it odd the sense of nostalgia I already feel for the seminary as I walk the brick sidewalks, smell the books as I enter the library, walk past my old student mailbox that now belongs to someone else.  I found myself peering into former classrooms and remembering the voice of a particular professor or a specific day when some theological concept "clicked" for the first time.  There was a sense of something holy, memories of the past coming alive in the present.

In Celtic spirituality there is a term for spaces like this, and they refer to them as "thin places," sacred locations where it appears the definitive line between the temporal and the eternal is made fuzzy and that which is beyond creation seems to be nearer than in other locations.  In these spaces it is not only the memories of the past that come back but a spiritual presence that seems to hover in the present.

For many in our congregation, our sanctuary has been that thin place, a piece of holy ground where the Spirit of God hangs heavy.  Memories of wedding vows taken, funeral hymns sung, water poured over the heads of newborns and adults, particular days of welcome or farewell.  It is a great privilege to hear many of these stories when I have had the chance to visit in your homes.

The Bible reminds us, however, that "thin places" are not only designated religious sites but can be anywhere in creation.  Jacob enouncters God while sleeping with his head on rock and recognizes that "surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it" (Gen. 28:16).  Moses was minding his own business with his herd when a bush caught fire next to him and he encountered I AM for the first time (Exodus 3:2).  The Elder Samuel was visiting Jesse in the nowhere town of Bethlehem, when he heard the voice of God to anoint the youngest son to be the next king of Israel (1 Sam. 16:12).  Peter encountered the risen Christ on a beach (John 21:1-19):, and the Apostle Paul was blinded on the way to Damascus to persecute followers of Jesus (Acts 9:1-19).

It is not only in temples or sanctuaries that we experience the momentary lifting of the veil between heaven and earth but in ordinary earthy places.  Maybe it's a family farm, passed down for generations, and when you walk it in the early dawn with the dew on the grass, you can almost hear the voices of those from the past beckoning you to continue their work.  Maybe its an ancestral home, where each creak in a floorboard reminds you where you came from and to whom you belong.  It may possibly be a vacation spot or a school you once attended or a summer camp where you spent weeks year after year. 

We all have these thin places, and when we make our pilgrimage to them we feel a restoration, a deep peace.  In these spaces we remember the events and the people who have formed us, we release the anxiety, fear, or anger that seeks to cling to us, and we are regenerated, mysteriously, into our truest selves.

Deep peace of the running wave to you.

Deep peace of the flowing air to you.

Deep peace of the quiet earth to you.

Deep peace of the shining stars to you.

Deep peace of the gentle night to you,

moon and stars pour their healing light on you.

Peace of Christ, light of the world, to you

             -a Gaelic Blessing

Sailing

In February and March we will be having new officer training during the Sunday school hour, and one of our resources for that class is going to be Joan Gray's Spiritual Leadership for Church Officers.  in this book, Gray, who is a former moderator of the PC(USA), describes the importance of the spiritual life of church leaders if they are to guide God's people with integrity and wisdom.

She uses the image of a boat to describe the church.  This is actually an ancient image, often depicted in chrismons and hung on evergreen trees in the winter time.  Gray discusses the contrast between understanding the church as a rowboat versus a sailboat. 

The rowboat church understands that they are the workers in the church, charged to tug and pull on the oars, fighting the current, adjusting to the waves.  Uniformity is encouraged over creativity, because that is what is necessary to effectively propel a rowboat through the water, everyone stroking to the same rhythm.  Gray writes,

The bedrock reality of life in the rowboat church is that God has given the church a basic agenda and then left it up to the church to get on with it.  The dominant attitude in this congregation is either "We can do this" or "We can't do this."

The image of the church that hangs on our chrismon tree, however, is the sailboat.  In this image, the church is propelled forward not by the efforts of the members but by the power of the Holy Spirit, that wind that moved over the watery chaos at creation (Gen. 1:2) and swept through the apostles on Pentecost (Acts 2:2).

The dominnt attitude in a sailboat church is that "God can do more than we can ask or imagine."  Its leaders know that what they have or lack in the way of human and material resources is not the decisive factor in what they can accomplish as a church.  Rather, they look on church as a continuing adventure with a God who leads and empowers them to do more than they could ever have dreamed.

My father-in-law is a sailor and has on occasion given me a tutorial in how to operate a sailboat, and it is by no means an easy job.  There are ropes to be pulled and tied down, you have to be constantly aware of the rudder in relation to the wind, the boom must be pulled from one side to the other (we have some members of our congregation who are sailors who can share more of the complexities of sailing that I certainly can!).  There is hard work involved in operating a sailboat, but in the end the sailor is ultimately reliant on the wind to move the boat anywhere.  The sailor prepares the boat as best he can, but without the wind he just bobs on top of the water.

Gray reminds us that a sailboat church is not a passive church; there is hard work to be done.  Without God's guidance and power, however, all our work will be for naught, and are left bobbing on top of the water.  We certainly put out our best effort, but we also serve with a humility and an expectancy that with God we can achieve what seems impossible.  Our job is to lick our fingers and hold them in the air to see where the breeze is blowing and then raise the sails to see where God will lead.  For this adventure we must trust God's guidance, we must be ready to adjust our ship to harness the wind, and we must remember that while we have a role to play we do not control the path. 

Let us be a sailboat church, who serves in humility, who seeks God's will above all else, and who raises our sails to catch with wind of the Spirit into many new adventures.

Family Life

One of my morning rituals when I arrive in the office is to read through the daily lectionary scriptures and to have a time of prayer.  One of today's readings is Genesis 4:17-26, recounting the family and descendents of Cain.  This is the passage immediately following Cain's murder of his brother Abel and being exiled east of Eden.

And maybe it's because we just finished with all of the family Christmas celebrations, but this brief passage, filled with names I can't pronounce very well and characters I've never really studied, left me thinking about families. 

First I thought about the primordial first family:  Adam and Eve with Cain, Abel, and later Seth.  I find it amazing that the very first family in all of scripture is one messed up bunch!  What must their life have been like?  How did Adam and Even respond when they heard one of their sons had killed the other and had left the home?  You can picture the couple, trying to decide if they remove Cain's pictures from the wall and maintaining Abel's childhood bedroom as a shrine to his memory.

You can imagine Adam and Eve among the people, trying to keep their eyes downcast and act as if they can't hear the whispers, "You heard about what happened with their two sons haven't you?"  Or even the anxiety that rises with the innocent question from a new acquintance, "Do you have any children?"

And what about Cain?  Did Cain ever come home for birthdays or other celebrations or was he an outcast for the rest of his life?  Was there ever forgiveness? 

And what about Seth, the child who was born after all of this betrayal and murder?  Did Adam and Eve try to raise him protected from these painful stories of the past?  You can imagine a lot of pressure to redeem the family name was placed on this final child in the family, a pressure to make good grades, get into a good college, never get arrested or as much as a speeding ticket.

This is the first family we're given in scripture.  I don't know about you but I find that actually more of a comfort than a problem.  I come from a family with Cains and Abels and Seths and Adams and Eves, and I suspect you do as well.  If we learn anything from this story, though, I think we learn that God works even in the midst of messed up families and life situations.  The one consisent character throughout all this family drama is God, working to redeem, working to reconcile, working to restore.

There is a hope, then, that God remains at work in our lives and in the lives of those we love, just as God did with Cain and Adam and Eve.  God does not demand that your family resemble a Norman Rockwell painting in order to be a part of our community of faith, but God calls broken people who carry shame and grief, guilt and heartache into our church. 

A prayer I have for us is that we will continue to become a community that creates a space for honest sharing about these situations in our lives.  What a gift it is to be able to tell someone, "I'm having a really hard time dealing with _________" and to have them hold your hand, cry with you, pray with you, and covenant to walk alongside you.  Oftentimes when we are willing to share those things about ourselves, others begin to share their own struggles and we realize that none of us have it all together.  There is a comfort in that community, a sense of solidarity, a sense of belonging. 

God works through broken people like us and God works to restore and heal us.  Let us look, then, at our ancestors in the faith and find where they reflect us; let us look at how God worked in their lives, and then look around in our own life to see where the Good News is beginning to shine.

Staying Connected

It seems as though in these days of Facebook, twitter, blogging, e-mail, text messaging and all over forms of technological advancement, we are more connected to one another than ever.  You can now order a pizza from your cell phone, picking the toppings, and watching the stages of preparation before it is delivered to your home.  You can instantaenosuly send video and pictures of your life to friends and family.  You can read the news from around the globe and call most anywhere in the country without long distance charges.

There are many positive elements about our technological connection.  I enjoy staying in touch with friends, seeing high school buddies get married and have children, sharing files online with other graduates from seminary to help one another navigate our lives of ministry, using my smart phone gps to guide me to the homes of church members I go to visit, and "liking" or commenting on a church member's facebook status as a means of pastoral care.  Technology provides me with ways of keeping in touch and staying organized that go far beyond the possibility of generations ago.

It is possible, however, that in the midst of all this connection, we can become so busy, or so engrossed in technological distraction that we neglect real relationships.  Social media outlets are wonderful for keeping us up to date, but we become voyeur's of other people's lives instead of participants in them.  GPS is wonderful but we miss geographic changes, how different roads connect, and the beauty of the world around us as we stare at the little screen on the dashboard.  A Skype conversation is wonderful but you miss the ability to touch or randomly get up and go on an adventure like you can when you visit in person.

Many of you will notice some technological changes in our church website (one of those being this blog).  We have intentionally tried to find ways to keep you connected technologically to your church.  You can "like" us on Facebook, listen to sermons from past Sundays, read the weekly announcements and the newsletter, and look for upcoming activities in the calendar.

This blog is one instrument we are using so that I am able to stay connected with you, the members of First Presbyterian Church.  My intention with this outlet is to reflect on life in Jefferson City, to think theologically about what is going on in the world around us, to try and utilize our imaginations in thinking about what God is doing here.

For me, then, this blog is a spiritual discipline, to stay connected to the source of our life when it would be easier to finish the to-do list of church activities, schedule another visit, swing by the nursing home, or order the next youth study curriculum.  These activities are important, but if they are done unconnected from the God who claims us and calls us, they devolve into fruitless busyness. 

In my "Wedneday Wondering," therefore, I hope we can reflect together on what God is doing among us, using this technology as a way of staying connected to the one who gives us life.  This forum will be less informational and more devotional, an intentional practice of keeping our eyes and ears and hearts tuned to the song of the Holy Spirit.

So I hope you will be part of this spiritual practice, using this technological connection to connect to your God.  You can "subscribe" to the Wednesday Wondering blog to the right of this text by entering your e-mail address.  You will then receive e-mail notifications when the blog is updated.  Or you can "like" the First Presbyterian Church Jefferson City, Tennessee facebook page and updates on the blog will appear in your newsfeed.

Stay connected, to one another, and to God.  I look forward to continuing to grow together.