Challenging words for the season

Lenten Fast: John Chrysostom

Do you fast? Give me proof of it by your works.

If you see a poor man, take pity on him.

If you see a friend being honoured, do not envy him.

Do not let only your mouth fast,

but also the eye and the ear and the feet and the hands

     and all the members of our bodies.

Let the hands fast, by being free of avarice.

Let the feet fast, by ceasing to run after sin.

Let the eyes fast, by disciplining them not to glare

     at that which is sinful.

Let the ear fast, by not listening to evil talk and gossip.

Let the mouth fast from foul words and unjust criticism.

For what good is it if we abstain from birds and fishes,

     but bite and devour our brothers?

May He who came to the world to save sinners,

strengthen us to complete the fast with humility,

have mercy on us and save us.

Amen.

— John Chrysostom (347-407)

Another Morning Prayer

O God, we who are bound together in the tender ties of love, pray to you for a day of unclouded love.  May no passing irritation rob us of our joy in one another.  Forgive us if we have often been keen to see the human failings, and slow to feel the preciousness of those who are still the dearest comfort of our life.  May there be no sharp words that wound and scar, and no rift that may grow into estrangement.  Suffer us not to grieve those whom you have sent to us as the sweet ministers of love.  May our eyes not be so holden by selfishness that we know your angles only when they spread their wings to return to you.  Amen.

I’ve been thinking about this prayer a lot lately.  It’s so easy for me to think that the point of my work in the church is to make things go a certain way… you know the “right way”, the way that I think they should go… I’m trained in all this stuff, after all.  I’ve got some legit student loans to prove it.

And yet when I read Scripture and pay attention to the words of people who have gone before us in the life of faith, folks like Dietrich Bonhoeffer and here in this prayer by Walter Rauschenbusch, I’m struck by a different aim.  It seems like the aim is to, in all things, strive to find ways to enact Christ’s love for those we share our life with — All people, but perhaps of particular importance (and particular challenge) are the ones we go to church w/, the folks God has given us as brothers and sisters.  And it seems to be assumed that there will be ALL kinds of occasions in which we get to practice love and forgiveness among this family God has given us.

May God give us what we need today to live well w/ the people God has given us as a gift…. even the ones who might make that most difficult.  Amen.

Why not mention saving “the strong”

One of the lectionary readings for today was 1Corinthians 9:16-23.  It got my mind thinking and praying about what’s happening in it.  Here’s some of what that looked like…

In this passage Paul is doing something he does a good bit, showing folks how to follow Jesus by showing the concrete ways in which his life and work takes its cue directly from Jesus.

So it’s as if he’s saying, “I don’t make full use of my rights or freedoms because Jesus didn’t do that.  Jesus offered himself as a servant to us all and so in my work of sharing the Good News I have to find ways to do that very thing.  I am to be a servant to all people that I may perhaps win some of them to Jesus, that I may be able t direct them to Jesus through living a life that is specifically formed and shaped by his way of being w/ us.  And Jesus didn’t come as someone different than us, but as our friend and brother, one who was like us and knew us.”

Then he goes on to mention three examples of the kinds of people that he becomes like in order to be like Jesus.  He mentions the Jews.  He mentions the Gentiles.  This is in some ways, I suppose, a way to say he’s become like “EVERYBODY” cause in that world (for Jews) there were Jews (God’s people) and there was everyone else (the pagans or gentiles).  I suppose in other ways it is to say what Paul says in Ephesians (I think) that in Jesus God is working to make one family out of the two, tearing down the dividing wall and Paul then has to be in on the same work.  And in both of these what is at least implicit is that these two groups of people are opposites.  And yet Paul, like Jesus, is to become like them both in order to direct them to Jesus.

But then Paul moves on to say, “To the weak I became weak, to win the weak.”  The end.

There’s no inverse here.

Why.  Why is Paul silent here about the strong?

Is he saying there really is no such thing?  I think I could see that.  I can buy that.

Or is he saying something like what Jesus means when he says after seeing the rich young ruler walk away from him, sad in the gospels and said, “You just can’t save the rich.  That’s nearly impossible.  But God can do anything.”

Or perhaps (maybe not all too different from that thought) is Paul saying you can’t be like Jesus and become like the strong.  Cause Jesus showed us God through weakness, humility, suffering and death.

 

A New Book

Reading is pretty important to me.  When I’m reading I’m learning, thinking, putting together  new thoughts & ideas.  When I feel too busy to read, I might as well be saying, “I’m too busy to think, I can only do what’s sitting right in front of me” or, “I’m too busy to use my brain, I can only do exactly what I’ve done before.”

I have not been reading much lately.  So, I feel pretty stodgy & stuck lately.

But I’m shaking that off at the invitation of our associate pastor, Ryan, who asked if I’d like to read Eugene Peterson’s “The Contemplative Pastor” w/ him.  I said, “Yes.”

Over the next few weeks I hope to share some of what it’s stirring up in my mind.

The way the Lord taught us to pray

Tonight @ the HUB we’ll begin 5 weeks of practicing different ways of praying.  We begin w/ the way Jesus said to pray.  In the little prayer book by Walter Rauschenbusch I’ve been working through he offers a brief but significant commentary on the meaning of the Lord’s Prayer.  He says it is, “the purest expression of the mind of Jesus.  It crystallizes his thoughts.  It conveys the atmosphere of his childlike trust in the Father.”  He goes on to say that in this prayer Jesus “..demanded simplicity and sincerity in all expressions of religion & offered this (prayer) as an example of the straightforwardness with which people might deal w/ their Father.”

And I guess the thing I picked up on most in this part of Rauschenbusch’s book was his insistence that this prayer really only finds its true meaning when it is those who pray it pray it as a prayer of offering themselves to “… the vaster purposes of the kingdom of God, and approaches all personal problems from that same point of view.”

To be honest I’m not sure how to do that.  I guess the good news about that is that this is not a prayer I pray on my own, but a prayer to “Our Father”.  The only thing I can say about it for now is that Jesus is not offering us a prayer that lets us get what we want from God.  But instead the heart of our Lord’s prayer is that more & more God’s kingdom, will & future would become a visible & present reality & that we may be the ones through whom God is pleased to bring this to bear in the world.

Tonight @ the HUB we’ll be seeking to get into the spirit of this prayer. One of the main ways we’ll do this is by seeking to write the prayer out in our own words.  Seeking to flesh out a little more clearly & concretely what Jesus is teaching us to pray & therefore do.

Here’s my offering of this, Our Lord’s Prayer:

Our Father, who dwells in heaven, may your Kingdom & Government come, may your will & desires be carried out, here, in the places where we live even as it is now being done in the place where you reign & rule on high.  In our offering ourselves to this work of yours, give us this day what we need — food, friendship, shelter, strength, forgiveness.  Yes, forgiveness.  Forgive us we pray, even as we forgive those who hurt & wrong us.  Keep us from the places & ways of temptation & deliver us from the grasp of evil.  We ask this of you, because yours IS the Kingdom, yours IS the Power & yours IS the Glory, now & forever.  Amen.

 

Another Morning Prayer

This is another morning prayer from Walter Rauschenbush’s little prayer book.  This particular prayer is difficult but necessary for me.  It is a prayer to be made the kind of person who is postured to be in ministry to people in a way that doesn’t propagate a spirituality that necessitates a certain place in society, in particular, a certain economic place in society.  It is a prayer that says, may we have the simple life of Jesus both as our way of living & as the gift we have to offer to others… all others, no more & no less.

O God, We beg you to save us this day from the distractions of vanity and the false lure of inordinate desires.  Grant us the grace of a quite & humble mind, & may we learn of Jesus to be meek & lowly of heart.  May we not join the company of those who seek after things that never satisfy and who draw others after them in the fever of covetousness.  Save us from adding our influence to the drag of temptation.  If the fierce tide of greed beats against the breakwaters of our soul, may we rest at peace in the higher contentment.  In the press of life may we pass from task to task in tranquillity of heart & spread your quietness to all who come near.  Amen.

Morning Prayer

As we begin to spend the next 5 weeks looking at some different ways of praying @ the HUB, I want to share some different prayers that I have been praying lately from a book of prayers by a pastor from New York around the turn of the 20th century.  His name was Walter Rauschenbush & the little book is called “Prayers of the Social Awakening.”  It is broken down into several different sections: morning prayer, evening prayer, prayers before meals, prayers for a guest, prayers in times of trouble, etc.

For the next few days I simply want to share some of the morning prayers. Praying these prayers reminds me of my good friend, the Rev. Spencer Turnipseed.  He has taught me a lot of things.  But one of the greatest things is to pray real & honest prayers that say something to God that is specific & that matters.

May this prayer guide you into following Jesus more closely today.

 

Once more a new day lies before us, our Father.  As we go out among people to do our work, touching the hands & lives of our fellow people, make us, we pray, friends to all the world.  Save us from blighting the fresh flower of any heart by the flare of sudden anger or secret hate.  May we not bruise the rightful self-respect of any by contempt or malicious talk. Help us to cheer the suffering by our sympathy, to freshen the drooping by our hopefulness, and to strengthen in everyone the wholesome sense of worth and the joy of life.  Save us from the deadly poison of class-pride.  Grant that we may look ALL people in the face with the eyes of a brother or of a sister.  If any one needs us, make us ready to give our help ungrudgingly, unless higher duties claim us, and may we rejoice that we have it in us to be helpful to our brothers & sisters.  Amen.  

@ the HUB

For the next five weeks, beginning Wednesday night, January 18 we’ll be doing a little less at the HUB.  Normally our nights there are so busy!  We come in from long days of school, from practice, from tests, from study groups, etc… We come upstairs hang out for a few moments only to be hurried into our time of worship.  We sing, we pray, we listen to some one talk for a while, then we usually all talk about that.  And we try to do all that in a little less than an hour & 1/2.  

I love what we do at the HUB.  I think it’s all very good.  But it’s a lot each week.  And I’ve come to value two things in particular about our time together on Wednesday nights: 

1. We get to hang out together, talk, caught up a little, play some ping pong, tell funny stories about our weeks so far, etc.  And I don’t want to rush us past that part.

2. I think what’s best about our times together in the HUB room are the times when we are discussing our faith together or learning to practice a particular part of our discipleship together.  

So in order to let those two things really shape our time together on Wednesdays we are going to spend a bit more time hanging out.  I’m going to spend a bit more time hanging out.  And when we do begin, it won’t necessarily follow our pattern of sing, pray, talk, talk together.  

In fact for the next 5 weeks we’ll be looking at some different ways of praying.  In order to give this our full attention there will be little to no singing & me & Wes will not be giving full blown talks.  We’ll help you have enough information to begin practicing these ways of praying & then we’ll practice them & talk all together about how that’s going & what that way of praying is like to you.  

I’m looking forward to it!  I think this will be a great way to start off the new year & get us ready for Winter Retreat.

Conversation Killer

This week in the gospel of Matthew (ch. 22) I read a story of Jesus being asked questions by the pharisees.  For the last few chapters they have been seeking to trap Jesus in his words so that they might find a way to take “legal action” and shut him up for good.  Finally when we get to the end of chapter 22 Jesus asks THEM a question about whose child the messiah is.  After a short discussion about David it says that none of them could “give him a good answer and from that time on no one dared to ask him any more questions.”

The way I read this, it sure sounds as if Jesus was just tired of this game, weary of their attempts at “dialogue”, pretending to be genuinely interested in conversing w/ Jesus, when really all they wanted was to get their way.

Just before this part of the gospel Jesus tells them that loving God w/ all your heart, soul & mind AND loving your neighbor as yourself are at the heart of everything that God has been up to in seeking to cultivate a people who would be God’s people.  Everything God has said or done or commanded hangs on these two things: Love God, love people.

Perhaps this is why Jesus kills the conversation at this point.  When love of God and love for others is not holding the center, not motivating our prayers and conversations that Jesus wants to drop a one liner that shuts us up and move on.

How often are my prayers and conversations w/ Jesus aimed at getting my own way — of trying to get Jesus to say what I want him to say instead of being genuinely interested in what Jesus would say to me and how he would want to direct me to be a better lover of God and those around me.

Does it trouble you to think that Jesus would respond this way to religious folks like you and me expecting that our conversation would be constrained by the gospel rather than our desire to get our own way?

How we prayed @ the HUB

We youth pastor-type folks have a reputation for saying things like, “you should pray… you should read your bible…”
Call it an occupational hazard or something. But one of the things that I try to keep in front of me all the time and one of things we try and do fairly often during our mid-week worship gathering is to learn some specific ways to pray, some specific prayer practices. Like telling a hungry and cold person to keep warm and well fed, I worry that we are doing no good to others when we tell them to pray and read Scripture but don’t offer to do that w/ them and to give them some concrete ways of putting those things into practice.

So this week at the HUB we learned a new way of praying together. It’s a version of an old prayer that was first used as part of a larger liturgy. It’s called the Sarum Primer, but I just call it the “God be in my head” prayer.

Here’s the way we prayed it together. As you say the beginning of each part, place your hands on the part of your body that you’re asking God to be in: your head, your ears, your eyes, your mouth, your heart, you get the idea. As you ask God to be in those parts of your body, what you’re doing is opening up a conversation between you and God about your thoughts, the things you’ve seen, heard, said, etc. Let God speak to you about this and you do the same to God. Take as much time as you need before moving on to the next part.  Let’s Pray:

God be in my head,
and in my understanding.

God be in my eyes,
and in my seeing.

God be in my ears,
and in my hearing.

God be in my mouth,
and in my speaking.

God be in my heart,
and in my desiring.

Amen.

I hope this can be helpful to you.