How do we know what matters? As I scroll through social media or various news apps I am inundated with endless commentary. It seems that everyone has an opinion on everything, but why? Why expel energy on something that has absolutely nothing to do with you? Just yesterday I decided to look at the comments on a post about a missing girl in my town and the first one I came across was “If someone runs away are they actually missing?” which, to be honest, is a perfectly fine philosophical question, but was that really the right place to ask it? Of course not. Further reading revealed that this person regularly posts bait like this to get people riled up, my question is why? Why would you purposefully seek to get people angry or upset them? What is missing from your life that causes you to feel the need to do such a thing?
King David, God’s chosen leader of the Israelites, the man who God made king of not only Israel, but also Judah, uniting the kingdoms under one royal house, the man who literally had all he wanted still wanted more. He wanted the wife of Uriah for himself, so he arranged for the man’s death; not through murder, but by sending him into battle. Is this any different than the internet troll who posts inappropriate things just to get a rise out of people?
The theme emerging here is that humanity has an issue with desire. We see it in John’s Gospel as well. The people who have followed Jesus have experienced the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand, and they want more, but what they want is more miracles, they want God to show them why they should follow this new teacher called Jesus. They are hung up on the experiences that have helped them understand instead of stretching their mind and trusting God’s wisdom. They want a daily reminder that God is present, instead of just knowing it to be true. They want to see God directly intervene in the world, as they did when they sent Mana from heaven or with the feeding of the five thousand. The issue here is that they will never be satisfied, there is no level of divine intervention that will cause them to believe without seeing. Which is why God chose a different way, God chose to reach us through Jesus, who has told us that “he is the bread of life,” but not the bread we need to survive physically, God has already provided us with all we need to survive on earth. The earth provides us with food and with the means to shelter from the elements, if there are any issues in these areas it is because we have broken the system. The bread Jesus is referring to is the bread we need to survive spiritually and emotionally, yet the people in Capernaum sought only more visible proof, proof that would lead to the desire for even more proof and in many ways don’t we do the same.
When we speak about our community of faith, or even go as far as to invite people to join us, what do we talk about? Do we talk about the spiritual connection to God we encounter here? Do we talk about the love we have for each other? Do we talk about the ways in which God’s love has manifested in our hearts? Or do we talk about the social justice committee, and the Green Team, and the book groups, and the racial reconciliation work? All the things we do as a community, all of the education work, all the social justice work is not from God. It is not God’s work, nor should it be our primary work as people of faith; it is the work we choose to do as we are inspired and called by God to love our neighbor and it is a sign that we are people of faith; but how do we know this and how can we share the good news of Jesus, the news that if we believe and follow his teachings then we will forever feel the presence and love of God, because that is what has been promised.
I am by no means arguing that communities of faith should not develop social justice programming, but it can’t be all that we do, and more importantly it cannot be our primary focus. We must also be keenly aware of why we engage in these activities because our reasons can quickly become our own and our efforts can quickly become idolatry instead of an outward sign of our faith.
When I was teaching ethics the most difficult question for students to answer was why something is unethical. I was trying desperately to get them to think about why they thought the way they did, what was the underlying reason for why they believed that stealing is wrong. Rarely were they able to articulate their belief about any topic, but they were sure in their convictions. As people of faith the underlying reason for everything we do and believe should be the love of God and to ensure that it is, we must spend more time endeavoring to feed on the bread of life so that we can internalize the teachings of Jesus to the point that they become second nature. How life giving would it be to be sure in our decisions, to understand and trust that God is at the center of all that we do? David realized his mistake because of the wisdom passed to him by Nathan. He realized that his decision to cause the death of another man so that he could have his wife was about him and not God. Just like his desire to build a temple was about him and not God. The people of Capernaum sought proof of God, just like we seek to prove that we believe in God by touting the work that we do, instead of internalizing the teachings of Christ Jesus and trusting that the work is in fact a consequence of faith. When we truly internalize our belief of love of neighbor and self, we will notice a difference. We will realize that the internet trolls are simply people who need attention and need to feel important. We will realize that it is not worth my time to get upset over changes at work because if our boss makes a change, it is likely because they believe it is necessary. We will realize that most people have good intentions and that our assumptions about their actions have far more to do with us and our desire to be in control than it does with what they are doing. Trusting God requires that we trust each other because it is through us that God reaches the world.
Tag: church
Take a rest, but be ready
I find it a bit ironic that we are gathered in a building that was built to be a place to encounter God to hear a passage of scripture that makes I clear that God did not ask for a permanent house. Of course, in the first book of Kings Solomon is instructed to build a temple in Jerusalem, but if we were to go deep into the scholarship, we would find that the temple was really built for the people, not for God. God does not need a house, and we do not need a church to encounter God.
What we do need is a sabbath or a period of rest. Human existence has never been easy, in ancient times your day was filled with some sort of labor, and when the sun set you ate the food that had taken someone most of the day to prepare. We no longer need to spend large amounts of time preparing food, but the extra time has not been filled with periods of rest, it has been filled with other things. When we have kids, we spend our time carting them from one activity to the next, dragging them to the grocery store, going to the park, then dance class, soccer, play dates, and so many more things. If we don’t have kids, we do the same, we find things to fill our time. Why? Because we subconsciously believe that being idle is a waste of time. The puritans thought that idle hands were the devil’s workshop, meaning that if you are not working then you will sin. Our deep-rooted desire to be busy all the time has led to the creation of things like playdates for children and the belief that we need to entertain our children all the time. I am certainly not saying that children shouldn’t have playdates or that we shouldn’t play games with them because socialization is key to their development, but so is alone time. As an only child who was raised in a time when playdate meant go outside and don’t come back until it’s time to eat, I was left to my own devices most of the time. I did all kinds of things on my own. I pretended I was lord of the manner, giving orders to my servants. I explored the woods behind my house, discovering the old bridge abutment, I built little campfires on the rocks, I played baseball with the older kids next door, was it awesome all the time? No, but I was happy, and I am still here. Was it necessary for a single mother in her twenties to get some needed quiet time? Absolutely.
Sabbath does not necessarily require quiet time, but it is vitally important for all of us, including our little ones, because we all need time to recharge our batteries so that we can be effective members of the body of Christ. I am sure that we are all here for different reasons, I know that some of us seek community, some healing and a sense of wholeness, some connection with God and for whatever reason we all feel that we can find what we are seeking in this place, but more importantly among this community.
One of the reasons churches are called sanctuaries is because they are seen as a place for rest, for quiet contemplation and as an escape from the craziness of the world. The word sanctuary was used, early on, to mean a space that a person was immune from arrest. I assume because the church building was considered God’s domain, the laws of humanity did not apply within its walls. So very quickly church buildings were separated from the rest of society, which I believe is problematic. Once we designate a specific space as holy, we stop seeing all of creation as holy. The same thing happened in ancient Israel. Once God let Solomon build a temple in Jerusalem the Hebrew people pointed to it as the only place you could truly encounter God, but it wasn’t and it is not this building that brings us to God, it is the people we encounter here and the things that we do together that connect us to God. It is the joy and wholeness we experience here that gives us the energy and the will to be the hands and feet of Christ over the course of the week, until we once again come together to renew our faith and sense of community. It is vitally important to remember that while this is a place to encounter God, it is not the only place. God is found throughout creation and most especially in the places we encounter people in need of love. This building is a source of solace for many who seek rest. Jesus and his disciples sought rest, but when confronted with people in need of healing they found the energy needed and rose to the occasion, trusting that the Holy Spirit was with them. My fear is that the church has clung to our buildings for far too long and neglected to recognize that these spaces are for us, not for God. We gather, week after week, expecting the people who need God’s love most to walk through the door, but that is not going to happen. Jesus and the disciples took the church to the people and ministered to them where they were, they did not move into the temple and then wait for everyone to come to them.
Whether we are one month old or one hundred we need time to rest. We need time to be alone with our thoughts so that we can figure out who God wants us to be, but we also need to be prepared to answer God’s call to address the issues of our time when they are right in front of us. Now being alone with your thoughts does not necessarily mean that we are literally sitting in silence, it might mean that we just need to be away from the regular stimulation of our life, it might mean we simply need a change of scenery, it might mean we need to be around other people that hold a similar belief, it might mean, in the case of the little ones, that we need to be left to your own devices for a little while. What we do here, as the body of Christ, should be giving us a renewed sense of love for God, a renewed sense of purpose for ministry, but also remember that our faith is not only about us, it is about caring for all of humanity and in order to do that we need to keep God in the forefront of our minds so that when we are presented with the opportunity to serve we are fully prepared to act because faith is not passive, it is not about simply loving God and feeling warm and fuzzy about it, it is about loving our neighbors by taking action when called to do so, both within these walls and more especially outside of them, and when we fall short, that is the things we confess and then after our weekly reminder, we go outside those doors and try, and try, and try again. Amen.
Deacons log, star date 6282024
There were several measures that I didn’t talk about last night because I was tired, so I will fold them into todays update.
A135 Compensation for Non-stipendiary Clergy is an important step for the church. I think that most people don’t realize what this resolution actually does, but I see it clearly. What it does it is encouraging every diocese of The Episcopal Church (TEC) to ensure that all clergy remain active in the Church Pension Group so that we all have access to the benefits of the organization. While it is not a mandate, it is as close as it gets. The measure is clear that it apply to clergy in all orders under the age of 72 and implies that the diocese should pay the stipend if congregations cannot.
A092 Access to Ordination and deployment cannot be denied to any cleric or lay person because of their theological beliefs. Effectively this is an anti-discrimination resolution.
A091 was a resolution that would add a definition of doctrine to Title IV. The concern was that if clerics use authorized liturgies, such as the new marriage liturgy that they could be brought up on disciplinary charges for not upholding the doctrine of TEC. I voted against this resolution because I saw it as noting more than an attempt to insure that the liturgy and catechism in the 1979 prayer book would remain the doctrine of the Episcopal church, even if changes were made to it. While I understand that the point of the resolution was to create harmony between the various view points about marriage and other issues, I emphatically do not believe that we should be enshrining the 1979 prayerbook in such a way. The resolution failed the House of Deputies (HOD) by a narrow margin. While we did vote to amend Article X of the Constitution, which redefined the prayerbook, it clearly says “The Book of Common Prayer, as now established or hereafter amended by the General Convention, shall be in use in all the Dioceses of this Church.” Which means that when we vote to change it, it is changed and that is now the new doctrine of the church. So with the passage of A160 which passed today, marriage is now defined as a life-long union between two people, and an “unconditional, mutual, exclusive, faithful and lifelong commitment intended for the couple’s mutual joy.” If we had passed A091 clergy would be able to adhere to the catechism as printed in the BCP and be safe from disciplinary action. I feared that this would have led to the creation of two churches and slowed the progress of the church.
The bishops spent 45 minutes discussing the term apartheid and determined that they would not be able to agree with the HOD on calling the actions of the Israeli Government such a thing. While the HOD was very disappointed with this decision, we agreed to adopt the compromise resolution D013 which called for the condemnation of “the acts and laws of the Israeli Government that result in the fragmentation, segregation, and dispossession against the Palestinian people and the Occupied Territories.” which is apartheid, it just doesn’t use the language. One might think that such a resolution is meaningless, but I promise you that it isn’t. When a mainline Christian denomination condemn the acts of others it will be reported in the news and leaders will notice that. It also gives us something to point to as people of faith, so when we are discussing it with friends or when we decide to call our leaders we have something to point to in making our argument.
We applauded as we approved the juncture of Eastern and Western Michigan to create the Diocese of the Great Lakes and when we approved the merger of the Dioceses of Eau Claire, Fond du Lac, and Milwaukee, into the Diocese of Wisconsin.
By the end of the day many of us were queuing into the system to speak in favor of resolutions simply to keep debate moving, and when I say speak in favor I mean we would go to the microphone and say, “I rise to concur”. Many of the resolutions today we no brainers, such as should we approve Harriet Tubman to be in Lesser Feasts and Fasts, obviously we all agreed, but as the rules of debate require 6 minutes of debate or three people to speak in favor or against in order to end debate we were doing whatever we had to do to move on.
Ultimately we dealt with 396 resolutions. What that means is that we either Approved them, Rejected them, Referred them to an Interim Body for Study, or agreed to Take no Further Action, which is code for this needs more work. We spent an inordinate amount of time debating about debating, which I found quite frustrating at times because even though I agree that rules of order are important, the HOD often gets caught up in word smithing and losing sight of the bigger picture.
Ultimately I have greatly enjoyed my time at General Convention. I am told that I am apparently good at the legislative process, I can see through the fancy words and get to the heart of what is being attempted. I can say that in most cases my decision of whether to vote in favor or not was easy, but there were many times when discerning the right way to vote proved difficult. I was fully in favor of using the word apartheid, I was even in favor of using the word genocide but voted against it hoping the bishops would then go along with our wishes on apartheid. When it came to A091, the definition of doctrine, I kept flipping back and forth as people spoke to their reasoning both for and against, but ultimately I decided I was against, which was my original inclination. There were other resolutions I struggled with, but in all honesty I can’t remember which ones at the moment as I am quite tired.
I had a wonderful time getting to know my fellow deputies and I look forward to coming again in 3 years, assuming I am reelected.