Waking Up

I must confess I have conflicted feelings about my blackberry. Well, no, I actually like my blackberry very much, but I have become increasingly sensitive to how my blackberry (or, rather my looking at it and using it) can be a distraction to personal relationships. A friend and I were out with our two sons this past week and we (my friend and I) both reached for our blackberries at some point in the conversation to google the topic of conversation. Our boys immediately picked up on the fact that their mothers were using their phones during dinner! I was embarrassed. My husband is great about leaving his phone at home when we go out for a date, but I can’t do that. I protest that I can’t leave it behind .. someone might need me, but then I have been quick to pick up for something that I know is not an emergency. It is hard for me to just let the phone ring or press “ignore.”

I will continue to struggle with appropriate blackberry etiquette, but I have discovered one wonderful thing about the blackberry: I can wake up and reach over to receive some daily inspiration before I ever get out of bed in the morning. After I have pressed the snooze once or twice, my groggy hands reach out for my phone and I fumble at the keys to read three emails that are sent in the very early morning hours every day. I only have to have my eyes open to enter this spiritual discipline. It is a great way to wake up in the morning … I think of it as simmering time – those moments when I am awake but not at full boil: a perfect time to reflect and ponder.

Here are the sites that shoot me a morning email:

http://www.gratefulness.org/

http://i.ucc.org/FeedYourSpirit/Subscribe/tabid/101/Default.aspx

http://www.cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/subscribe.php

Made Whole

What if we weren’t alone after all?

What if you were really a fragment of a

Great and glorious mind

Like an individual wave

Is part of the magnificent ocean?

Then anything would be possible.

This poem, by Joan Borysenko, captured my feeling as I left our Service for Healing of Body, Mind and Spirit yesterday. During the service everyone had the opportunity to write prayer concerns that were then shared during an intercessory prayer at the end of the service. The mounting of concerns – Haiti, cancer, marital difficulties, financial concerns, and more – could have been overwhelming to some, but I experienced it differently. As I watched person after person bring forward their concerns, and I had the honor of giving them voice, I was reminded of how every single person faces challenges. Every single person present had something weighing on his or her heart. Often we bear these burdens silently, but yesterday we named them out loud, and I felt us pulling together. Through this process, I felt a deeper connection with all who were present. I also felt a sense of hopefulness that God will help bring us through our personal and collective trials and make us stronger.

As I prepared for this healing service I was very aware that there were some people in our midst who were praying for cures so that they might be made well. I share in their hope and prayer, but I also have found myself reflecting on what it means to be well, what it means to be “made whole.” As I looked out on the congregation I saw persons who are filled with vitality, creativity, and a love for life who happen to have a disability. I saw persons who move a little more slowly and need to have some things repeated every so often because they are losing their hearing, but whose very lives embody love and wisdom. I saw persons who live with cancer, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and Parkinson’s who exude an inner peace and a reverence for life that bears witness to the living Christ within them.

My favorite communion chalice is a cup that appears as though it was broken and put back together again. For me, it resembles not only what happened with Jesus but happens with all of us. God welcomes and loves us, however it is that we are; God takes all of the broken pieces, nurturing and shaping us into something that is perfectly whole and all the more beautiful. Today, I am giving thanks for all of the people who make up this community of faith, who through sharing their brokenness as well as their strengths, make a beautiful whole.

Resolutions?

Here is an interesting approach to new year's resolutions. Mary Yost, in her blog, suggests that we have the whole thing backwards. She writes,

By making resolutions at the beginning of the year, it's like we slap our worst flaws on a neon sign and then announce to the world what we are likely to fail at in the coming year.

If you are really committed to doing whatever it is that you "resolve" to do in the new year, wouldn't you have done it already? And if something really is a resolution, doesn't that word mean a problem has already been fixed?

Instead, as one year winds down and we plow toward the next, we continue the bad behaviors and problem habits that we swear we're going to address as we flip the calendar over.

My New Year's Day thoughts played with this notion yesterday. What if we instead celebrate the fresh new calendar by acknowledging our successes of the previous year? Wouldn't that give us extra momentum to deal with our shortcomings throughout the year so that we really will have new victories to hail with the new year?

I love this idea! What successes are you celebrating that you can build on? What do you see at St. John's that can give us extra momentum as we move forward in 2010? What other strategies help you stay focused on what is most important?

The light shines in the darkness

Christmas is upon us. As we prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ, I am aware that there are many around me who are grieving sudden and difficult losses. Today I am holding these people in prayer, praying that as they show up to places where they likely don't feel like going, they will experience the peace of Christ and the love of God in ways that bring them comfort and strength, even joy.

One of the great blessings of my work is that I must "show up" even when I don't feel like it. I need to read and reflect on scripture every week. I need to come to worship. And when I simply show up and pay attention I am nearly always blessed by the people around me, by the scripture I read, and by the Spirit which is so evident to me in this place. Woody Allen said "80% of life is just showing up."

It may take everything some people have this week to get out of bed, to attend a funeral service, to wish someone "Merry Christmas," or enter our church doors for our Christmas Eve service. I am praying that God gives each of these people the strength to "simply show up." And the blessing will follow.

"The light shines in the darkness and the darkness will not be overcome." John 1:5

Women in the Church

As I was pouring a cup of coffee yesterday morning, I heard Matt Lauer announce that Maria Shriver's special report on A Woman's Nation would look at women in church and religious institutions. My ears perked up and I sat down eager to see who would be highlighted.

Immediately, several possibilities came to mind. Would it be The Right Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori, the 26th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, or The Rev. Dr. Sharon Watkins, General Minister and President of the Disciples of Christ? Perhaps it would be The Rev. Dr. Barbara Lundbland, a professor of preaching at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, and a pastor of an ELCA church in New York. Or, if focusing on local congregations, perhaps The Rev. Dr. Kelly Brill, Senior Minister of Avon Lake UCC, or Rev. Amy Miracle, Senior Minister of Broad Street Presbyterian Church in Columbus, Ohio. There are countless other women who could have been chosen for this segment who are highly effective and respected leaders of the Church. As I continued to listen, I was astounded and disappointed to see who was featured.

Follow this link to see the video:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33247001/vp/33411440#33411440

While there is clearly meaningful ministry being done by the women who were featured in this segment (Victoria Osteen, Taffi Dollar, and Lisa Young), Taffi Dollar is the only woman who is technically listed as a pastor of her church; she is a co-pastor with her husband. If this had been a segment on "pastors’ spouses," my response would be entirely different. Pastors’ spouses (female and male) are important, and often provide an important ministry component to the church. However, this was to be a segment on "prominent women in churches and religious institutions."

While it may be newsworthy to demonstrate that women are beginning to have influence on the stages of mega-churches, I think it was a significant omission in a piece that was to feature "prominent women in churches and religious institutions" to not highlight that over 50% of people enrolled in seminary are women and that there are many highly credentialed and very effective women who hold significant church posts throughout our country.

I am not one who has felt as though gender has been a large barrier to my ministry nor am I one who often feels a need to be in dialogue about gender issues. However, listening to this segment made me feel as though our society had reverted back 30 years or more! There are many mainline churches today that are much more progressive about women than this segment portrayed. I am grateful to be serving one of them.

Loving One Another into Wholeness

A couple of people had suggested we consider having an Animal Blessing Service. I had heard about these services but had never attended one nor could I really imagine what to expect, but I was glad to try to create a service that would honor and bless our animal companions. Nearly 100 people, with their animal companions, came to the Animal Blessing held in Schiller Park on Saturday, October 17th. Some people came with their cats in crates or their dogs on leashes. Others brought photos from home, or some hair from the tail of a horse to receive a blessing. One by one, I had the privilege of blessing these creatures and I left that evening feeling as though I was the one who received the blessing. Never before have I had such intimate contact with so many animals. Never before had I experienced the wide array of personalities in animals! I heard stories of animals who had been abused or abandoned and then welcomed into a home. I heard stories of companionship. I heard stories of animals who were struggling with cancer, bone decay, or diabetes. I witnessed people who are loving their animal companions into wholeness and animals who are loving their human companions into wholeness. A blessing indeed!

I am thankful to everyone who helped create such a wonderful experience. Brenda Burris and Susan Olson passed out lots of flyers in German Village. Karen Corcoran designed a poster we used for publicity. The choir, as always, provided leadership through song. Laura Kuntz accompanied the choir on All Things Bright and Beautiful with her guitar, and lots of people played bells to All Creatures of Our God and King. Earl Wurdlow provided us with a sound system. Ralph Quellhorst, Walt Adams, Mike and Diana Rangel helped with the set up, greeting, and refreshments. Drew Klamar made tasty homemade dog and cats treats in the shape of crosses for the animals. Sara Cosgill, Walt Adams, Meredith Reece, and Earl Wurdlow all served as readers. Bonnie Vallette created the wonderful program and certificates. Diana Rangel even arrived with complimentary “poop kits” for those who might have forgotten to bring along supplies!

“All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all”

Sit Down and Shut Up!

As this week began I was concerned that there were so many things scheduled that I wouldn't have much time to think or reflect or prepare for any of them, but then a scratchy throat quickly gave way to strep and my concerns immediately changed. Instead of figuring out how to fit it all in, I kept calling one person after another canceling my commitments. I found myself with nowhere to go and plenty of time to think and reflect. My physician has told me that strep has "colonized" in me, meaning that whenever my immune system is down strep is the first thing to appear. With no voice, I am quickly put in my place. I have decided it is some divine way to tell me to "sit down and shut up."

I am incredibly grateful to everyone who helped me this week, picking up pieces I could not handle. I am grateful, too, for the perennial lesson I need to be reminded of: none of us, for the tasks we do, are indispensable. All of us, for the people we are, are irreplaceable. We all need time to be still and quiet if only to remember these truths. I know I do. Perhaps if I took more time to be still and quiet on a daily basis, nature would not need to force it upon me.

Tonight is our first TAIZE service of the season (first Thursdays from 6:00 - 6:30 p.m.). There are few ways I like to be still and quiet more than when I am surrounded by candlelight and beautiful music in our sanctuary. Even though I am feeling better, I am still planning to sit still and be quiet tonight. I hope you will join me there.