Moving towards the cross

As we near the end of Lent moving toward the cross and resurrection, the need of forgiveness commands our attention. This post from Scot McKnight says it well.

March 30, 2007

Friday is for Friends

Filed under: Books: Remarks and Reviews — Scot McKnight @ 2:30 am

Any study of the disciplines that shape Christian community eventually comes face to face with forgiveness, and Darryl Tippens, Pilgrim Heart, turns to this theme in chp. 9. I remind readers that we touched on forgiveness and memory when we looked for weeks at Miroslav Volf’s The End of Memory; Tippens gets us there once again. The theme must remain central to any understanding of the

The chp is called “Forgiving: The Love that Travels Farther.”

We are back to the same question: How might we learn to forgive more? Are we ready to be the genesis of forgiveness in our world?

Tippens opens up with stories of those who were about to die, at the hands treachery, but who publicly declared their forgiveness of perpetrators. “The reciprocal giving and receiving of forgiveness is one of the central features of the Christian faith, surely one of the most challenging, kenotic [self-sacrificing] dimensions of our faith” (115).

Ira Byock, a physician who spent his life caring for dying patients, said there are four things that matter most: Please forgive me. I forgive you. Thank you. And, I love you.

“Forgiveness may be the one miracle that we can experience daily, if we are but willing to risk our pride and renounce our need to be ‘right’.”

Forgiveness begins with God; we see it visibly in contemplating the cross; it can only be comprehended in light of the last chapter of our life; and we are challenged to absolve even ourselves (self-forgiveness).

“Vengeance never settles the matter. The Gospel way can, however, end the cycle of violence…. [forgiveness] is conterintuitive and ‘against our nature’.”

http://jesuscreed.org/

Grunt Work

Is any work done for Christ's glory insignificant? Check out this article.


The following article is located at:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/workplace/articles/attitude/praisegruntwork.html

In Praise of Grunt Work

By Robert Darden

A great storm mercilessly lashes a small island. The clouds pass, and a father and his son
walk down to the beach where the sea's surge has washed tens of thousands of starfish onto
the beach, all dying in the sun. The little boy frantically begins throwing them back into the
sea, and the man puts a gentle hand on the boy's heaving shoulders.

"Son, there are too many. You can't make any difference." The boy pauses to
consider a starfish in his hand. "It makes a difference to this one," he says. And
he tosses it back into the sea.

The unsinkable Titanic breaks apart and a thousand souls perish because of a six-foot gash.
The small bolts securing the massive steel plates are inferior material carelessly welded. On
impact with the iceberg, they sheer off.

The mighty Challenger, America's first shuttle disaster, hurled to the earth in flame because
of defects in its small rubber O-rings.

"For want of a nail the shoe is lost, for want of a shoe, the horse is lost, for want of a horse, a
rider is lost," George Herbert wrote.

When we think we're too good, too busy, too proud, too important, too valuable for the
small jobs, then it is the small job that will eventually cause our undoing.

Jesus didn't pastor a mega-church in California or head a mighty para-church organization
from Colorado Springs. He focused on children, lilies, sparrows, the wounded, the weak, the
lame. He heralded the woman giving the widow's mite, not the rich and powerful magistrate.

Mother Teresa once said, "We cannot do great things on this earth. We can only do small
things with great love." Jesus never ranged more than a few dozen miles from his humble
place of birth.

So what is grunt work? Nothing less than the business of heaven.

"For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have
the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually
members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that
is given to us, let us use them …. " Rom. 12:4-6a

By Robert Darden.

Women in Ministry from a Different Perspective

In the blog JesusCreed, Scot McKnight posted this about women in ministry:

March 29, 2007

Women in Ministry: First Mary

Filed under: Women and Ministry, Mary — Scot McKnight @ 2:30 am

The most neglected texts about women in ministry in the entire Bible are texts about Mary, and because our class has been looking at Mary of late, I thought I’d make a few suggestions about Mary and Ministry for women. It won’t do to dismiss these points as nothing more than what only the mother of Jesus could do.

(read more…)

I’ll suggest that Mary was first in many ways.

1. Mary was the first to know about arrival of the Messiah, the Son of David, the Son of the Most High God (Luke 1:26-38).

2. Mary was the first to surrender to God’s new redemptive plan in Jesus (Luke 1:38). One could say she was the “first disciple” from this.

3. Mary became — however you care to say it — the first witness to Jesus Christ. Only she was there at the very beginning, so only she was able to tell this story.

4. This leads me to this conclusion: Mary became the first human font of the “Christian hermeneutic.” Let’s admit up front that the “Christian hermeneutic” — the grid of learning to read the entire story of God through the story of Jesus — is revealed to Mary by the Holy Spirit, but that entire grid was passed on from the Holy Spirit through Mary to others. In other words, though not alone, Mary is the first one to know what has become the orthodox Christian view of Jesus: we now believe Jesus as Messiah, as Son of the Most High God, because Mary “passed on that hermeneutic” to others. (She’s not alone, but she’s first.)

The words we use, the words that shape what we believe, are words that have their human origins in Mary.

5. Mary is the first “follower of Jesus” (while still in her uterus) to declare what that kingdom ministry would look like when it occurred — even if she had to adjust her thinking, her Magnificat announces what God will do through her Most High God Son (Luke 1:46-55). Both Zechariah and Simeon confirmed this, and then Jesus himself preached it and lived it out (Luke 4:18-19 and Matt 11:5-6).

6. Mary is the first (along with Joseph) to hear that her Son would not only cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, but that the “sword” would pierce her own soul — surely an indication of the crucifixion at some level (2:33-35).

7. Mary is the first (perhaps along with Joseph) to hear that her Son had a unique and transcending relation to his Father (Luke 2:41-50).

8. Mary, perhaps along with Peter, was the first to struggle with the unique kind of Messianic ministry Jesus would actually carry out — from the incident in the Temple (#7) to the wedding at Cana (John 2:1-11) to her brush with Jesus’ vision of the true family (Mark 3:20-21, 31-35) — and one of the first to be a witness to the crucifixion as God’s saving event (John 19:25-27).

9. Mary, with others, was the first to participate in the Spirit of Pentecost (Acts 1:14).

Put together, we’ve got Mary as not only a unique person in history but a dynamic woman minister — she verbally and theologically shaped how you and I understand who Jesus is.

Can anyone tell me why Mary is so often neglected when it comes to talking about women in ministry?

And, if you are interested in helping more churches get women connected to ministry, check out this blog by Ben Dubow at St. Paul’s.

The Call to Die

How apropos as we travel through to the end of Lent to the cross and the grave.

March 29, 2007

The Call to Die

Jesus's summons to the rich young man was calling him to die, because only we who are dead to our own will can follow Christ. In fact every command of Jesus is a call to die, with all our affections and lusts. But we do not want to die, and therefore Jesus Christ and his call are necessarily our death as well as our life. The call to discipleship, the baptism in the name of Jesus Christ, means both death and life. The call of Christ, his baptism, sets the Christian in the middle of the daily arena against sin and the devil. Every day we encounter new temptations, and every day we must suffer anew for Jesus Christ's sake. The wounds and scars we receive in the fray are living tokens of this participation in the cross of our Lord.

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer -


from A Testament to Freedom 314
from A Year with Dietrich Bonhoeffer Carla Barnhill, Ed., HarperSan Francisco, 2005

Holy Week Announcement

The schedule of services for Holy Week for St. Mary of Grace parish has been posted -- please visit www.inclusivecatholics.org to see it.

In addition, I will be holding Tenebrae at 9 am on Maundy Thursday (April 5) and Good Friday (April 6) in my home chapel -- email me at stmikeandsttim@yahoo.com or call me at (267) 909-3333 for more details. (Tenebrae for Holy Saturday will be sung by the parish at UUCDC at 9:30 pm Friday night.)

We will use the traditional service for Matins and Lauds from the Monastic Diurnal with music from the Monastic Diurnal Noted (both reprinted by Lancelot Andrewes Press) -- the Anglican Breviary has the identical order with slight differences in translation. All are welcome to attend.

A powerful piece on discipleship

Dietrich Bonhoeffer presented us with quite a challenge. Consider this...

BONHOEFFER for MONDAY

March 26, 2007

Serious Discipleship

If our Christianity has ceased to be serious about discipleship, if we have watered down the gospel into emotional uplift which makes no costly demands and which fails to distinguish between natural and Christian existence, then we cannot help regarding the cross as an ordinary everyday calamity, as one of the trials and tribulations of life. We have then forgotten that the cross means rejection and shame as well as suffering. The psalmist was lamenting that he was despised and rejected...and that is an essential quality of the suffering of the cross. But this notion has ceased to be intelligible to a Christianity which can no longer see any difference between an ordinary human life and a life committed to Christ The cross means sharing the suffering of Christ to the last and to the fullest. Only those thus totally committed in discipleship can experience the meaning of the cross.

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer -

from A Testament to Freedom 315
from A Year with Dietrich Bonhoeffer Carla Barnhill, Ed., HarperSan Francisco, 2005

Friendship in the Twilight Zones of Our Heart

Henri Nouwen made an interesting observation about hiddenness. See what you think.

Friendship in the Twilight Zones of Our Heart

There is a twilight zone in our own hearts that we ourselves cannot see. Even when we know quite a lot about ourselves - our gifts and weaknesses, our ambitions and aspirations, our motives and drives - large parts of ourselves remain in the shadow of consciousness.

This is a very good thing. We always will remain partially hidden to ourselves. Other people, especially those who love us, can often see our twilight zones better than we ourselves can. The way we are seen and understood by others is different from the way we see and understand ourselves. We will never fully know the significance of our presence in the lives of our friends. That's a grace, a grace that calls us not only to humility but also to a deep trust in those who love us. It is in the twilight zones of our hearts where true friendships are born.

How do you view work?

Take a look at this. It brought me up short and reminded me what my attitude should be.

Work Is a Sacred Trust

by Nancy Ortberg

March 22, 2007 |

The summer I was 15, I locked myself in the bathroom. Not for the typical reasons. There was no fight with my parents or disappointing love interest. I wasn’t trying to hide tears or cool down a temper. I had just received my first paycheck.

It wasn’t just the paycheck I loved. That was just symbolic. It was work I loved. I loved the feeling of doing something that mattered, something that helped other people, something that I could accomplish.

Growing up, I awoke each morning to the smell of coffee and the sight of my dad in his crisp white shirt and tie, sitting at the breakfast table reading the newspaper. His aftershave gently filled the room and there was a sense of anticipation in him as he readied to start the work day. My dad loved what he did, and he was good at it. That was a dynamic combination.

Every morning my mother drove me to school. After she dropped me off, she continued on the few more miles to her workplace. In the 1960s, I had one of the very few moms who worked. She was always dressed up for work and her mood seemed to match. My mother loved what she did, and she was good at it. That is a dynamic combination.

“Thank God it’s Friday.”

“I hate my job.”

“Can’t wait until I retire; then I can start living.”

I don’t get that.

I love to work. I love getting up in the morning and getting dressed for work. I love looking over my calendar for the day and seeing what lies ahead. I love working with a team to make things happen. I love the relationships at work; I love the tasks. I love dreaming and imagining what might be, what the future could look like, how we could make a difference. I love starting to change things, and setting things in motion that might make those changes happen. I love celebrating the wins along the way and learning from the losses. I love watching the team getting healthier and happier as it gets better and better at the work it does.

I love how when people are led well. Not only do they accomplish great things, but they become better people in the process. There is that kind of redemption in work.

God gave work to Adam and Eve before the fall. Work was not the result of sin; it is another way of working out the image of God that resides in all of us.

Work is a sacred trust and there are a few things you can do to treat it as such in your role as a leader:
1. Yourself. I first heard the concept of “self-leadership” when I was on staff at a church. Here’s the main idea: You are responsible for carving out a life that has a rhythm that renews you. It is not anybody else’s job. As a leader you take responsibility for your own self-renewal which includes things like reading, planning alone time to do thinking and processing, and maintaining a schedule that allows you to keep your promises, which is one of the key jobs of a leader. Self-leadership will not only increase your leadership capacity and skills but will also work to prevent burnout.

2. Others. Leadership is the promise of development. People need three things to grow: opportunities, challenges, and relationship. It is your job as a leader to be sure, over time, that your people are getting all three. They need opportunities to use their abilities to make a difference, challenges that stretch them without breaking them, and relationships in which they are known and celebrated and told the truth about themselves.

One of my most memorable moments working on staff at a large hospital was when I was speaking for the first time to one of the top executives. I introduced myself and she immediately said, “I know who you are.” I was 22 years old. I have never forgotten that phrase. It was powerful to be noticed and made me want to do a good job.

3. The Organization. Organizations—not just individual people—are important. Organizations, as a collection of people, allow us to accomplish things we could not do on our own. As a leader it is your responsibility to make sure that meetings are compelling, that they are places where collaborative (not consensus, which Patrick Lencioni defines as “mutually agreed upon mediocrity”) decisions are processed and made, a place where goals are set and people are held accountable for those, where short-term and long-term gains are celebrated and lack of success is autopsied and learned from.

Leadership is a sacred trust.

Teamworx2

Nancy Ortberg is a founding partner of Teamworx2, a consulting firm that works with organizations, helping leaders overcome the team dysfunctions that are obstacles to high performance and work enjoyment. She and her husband John live in the Bay Area and have three children, Laura, Mallory, and John.

Annotation of Dietrich Bonhoeffer | International Dietrich Bonhoeffer Society

Click here to view an annotation of Dietrich Bonhoeffer | International Dietrich Bonhoeffer Society

Let us pray: Make us like you, please make us like you. By your grace may we interact with our friends, co-workers and family in a way that ministers your healing love. Amen.

Nigerian Divestment

The Nigerian government is on the verge of passing extremely draconian anti-gay legislation, which would mandate 5-year prison sentences for any expression of homosexuality or support for homosexuality. A coalition of anti-gay people led by Peter Akinola, the leader of the Anglican organization in Nigeria, is behind this horrible legislation.

In the past, divestment has been used against South Africa for its apartheid regime, which helped bring an end to that regime. I would like to see a similar movement for divestment from Nigeria -- and government sanctions as well, including an end to government aid -- if this law is passed, until it is reversed. Similar moves should be taken against other governments with severe anti-gay penalties.

Sorry for Not Blogging

March 5 - 10, I went to Missouri to visit my parents and celebrate my father's 90th birthday. While there, I came down with a nasty cold that sidetracked my blogging.

Also, while some people, like Chris Tessone, are great at blogging daily, I'm just not, so I am reverting to my blogging when I feel like it mentality.

Start the week with this...

This thought could make a real difference in how we treat all we come in contact with at work, school, wherever.

BONHOEFFER for MONDAY

March 19, 2007

Love versus Hate

How then does love conquer? By asking not how the enemy treats love but only how Jesus treated it. The love for our enemies takes us along the way of the cross and into the community with the crucified. The more we are driven along this road, the more certain is the victory of love over the enemy's hatred. For then it is not the disciple's own love, but the love of Jesus Christ alone, who for the sake of his enemies went to the cross and prayed for them as he hung there. In the face of the cross the disciples realized that they too were his enemies and that he had overcome them by his love. It is this that opens the disciples' eyes and enables them to see their enemy as a brother or sister. They know that they owe their very life to One who, though he was their enemy, accepted them, who made them his neighbors, and drew them into community with himself. The disciples can now perceive that even their enemies are the object of God's love, and that they stand like themselves beneath the cross of Christ.

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer -


from A Testament to Freedom 319
from A Year with Dietrich Bonhoeffer Carla Barnhill, Ed., HarperSan Francisco, 2005

Lenten devotional

Revelation 3:1-6

If the Christian life is all about God’s grace and our inability to please God on our own, what is all this talk of works in Revelation? Obedience and repentance??? The good news is God know us intimately, better than we know ourselves. We can’t fool him. The church of Sardis had a “name of being alive” (v. 1), but instead they were dead. The outside looked good, but what was on the inside? Remember Jesus telling the Pharisees “You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean” (Matthew 23:27 NIV). What preventative measure is there for this problem? We must carefully tend the garden of our inner life. Those in Sardis and the Pharisees had it reversed. The outside looked great and the inside was full of death and decay. The inner garden is a delicate place, and if not properly maintained it will be quickly overrun by intrusive undergrowth. God does not often walk in disordered gardens. And that is why inner gardens that are ignored are …empty. Bringing order to the spiritual dimension of our private worlds is spiritual gardening. It is the careful cultivation of spiritual ground. That was the predicament of the church in Sardis. They had let the weeds grow and choke out the life in their inner spiritual garden. May God help us to water and fertilize his living word in the garden of our hearts.

Against the Wall

As always, God is faithful. I still have my job. My husband, Ray, wisely suggested I act as though I never heard the rumor about my termination. It was extremely difficult to do so on Tues., but then as the week progressed, I had peace. The realization slowly dawned upon me that no one, including my boss, could do anything to me, firing included, unless God allowed it. And if he allowed it, it must be for a good reason. Take a look at this post from Scot McKnight at JesusCreed. After my experience of last week, it resonates with me.

Against the Wall: Rescue

Filed under: Psalm 119 — Scot McKnight @ 2:10 am

Have you ever had your back to the wall? Ever wonder if you were going to make it? Ever wonder if the enemy would do you in? Ever wonder if you would live another day? The psalmist knows the experience, and the Resh section (119:153-160) reveals how the psalmist faced the future when his back was to the wall.

(read more…)

The theme of the Resh section is an old one: the psalmist is being opposed and persecuted and chased, and he appeals to God for deliverance and anchors his appeal in his own faithfulness to the Torah. Old themes sometimes reveal fresh light. I hope this one does this week for you.

The psalmist’s back is against the wall — opposed by those opposed to God — and simply faces God and petitions God and pleads his case:

“Look on my misery and rescue me,
for I do not forget your law” (119:153).

He asks God to look; he then asks God to rescue; he then argues his case on the basis of his obedience to the Torah.

Seek the face of God, seek deliverance through God, and keep your integrity. That’s how to face the future when our back is against the wall. He did not plot; he did not scheme; he did not appeal to powers. He faced God, asked for rescue, and kept on going on with what was right.

In the day of trouble

Psalm 27 is a powerful testimony to the faithfulness and protection of God. Today I was meditating on verse 5, "For in the day of trouble God will give me shelter, hide me in the hidden places of the sanctuary, and raise me high upon a rock." That's good news. Now comes the hard part.
Last Friday a co-worker was let go. I was told tonight by her that the boss said I was next on the list. Why, I don't know and it really bothered me because of my work ethic. But God says, that in the day of trouble he will give me shelter, hide me, raise me up. Even though I fully intend to give my resignation in the near future to go to school full time, the duplicity bothered me nonetheless. This is where the rubber meets the road, so to speak.
Now to go to work in the coming weeks and love with the love of Christ in spite of lies. I have never been fired before and I have worked since was 14 years old. I guess it's a pride thing that needs working out. Lent is a good time to have some spiritual wilderness training. Please pray with me that I can be light in the darkness and internalize the truths I've been meditating on.

A hen as a stronghold???

Today's readings are powerful and interesting. Psalm 27 portrays the God of light, salvation, a stronghold who delivers us from trouble. The gospel shows Jesus' missional orientation. He will not depart from his calling in spite of the threats of Herod. So far, so good.

Jesus as a mother hen? We don't consider hens that strong or powerful, certainly unlike the imagery of Psalm 27. As a hen gathers her young chicks to protect them from danger, she leaves herself most vulnerable, exposing her breast. She gives her own life for the chicks. Even so, Jesus, arms open wide in love upon the cross gave himself for us. The Jerusalem chicks were rebellious, refused to be gathered. What about us? We are offered protection and shelter, salvation. Willful rebellion brings on a desolate house, void of God's presence. Rather, let us be gathered together and declare, "Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord."

Good work

Good Work

In this process work does not cease to be work; but the severity and rigor of labor is sought all the more
by those who know what good it does them. The continuing conflict with the It remains. But at the
same time the breakthrough has been made. The unity of prayer and work, the unity of the day, is found
because finding the You of God behind the It of the day's work is what Paul means by his admonition
to "pray without ceasing" (I Thess. 5:17). The prayer of the Christian reaches, therefore, beyond the
time allocated to it and extends into the midst of the work. It surrounds the whole day, and in so doing
it does not hinder work; it promotes work, affirms work, gives work great significance and joyfulness.
Thus every word, every deed, every piece of work of the Christian becomes a prayer....

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer -
from Life Together 75-76
from A Year with Dietrich Bonhoeffer Carla Barnhill, Ed., HarperSan Francisco, 2005

God's faithfulness and ours

From a website that sends daily meditations by Henri Nouwen.

God's faithfulness and ours

When God makes a covenant with us, God says: "I will love you with an everlasting love. I will be
faithful to you, even when you run away from me, reject me, or betray me." In our society we don't
speak much about covenants; we speak about contracts. When we make a contract with a person, we
say: "I will fulfill my part as long as you fulfill yours. When you don't live up to your promises, I no
longer have to live up to mine." Contracts are often broken because the partners are unwilling or unable
to be faithful to their terms.
But God didn't make a contract with us; God made a covenant with us, and God wants our relationships
with one another to reflect that covenant. That's why marriage, friendship, life in community are all
ways to give visibility to God's faithfulness in our lives together.

Prayer--Strength for the Day

Strength for the Day

Prayer offered in early morning is decisive for the day. The wasted time we are ashamed of, the
temptations we succumb to, the weakness and discouragement in our work, the disorder and lack of
discipline in our thinking and in our dealings with other people - all these very frequently have their
cause in our neglect of morning prayer. The ordering and scheduling of our time will become more
secure when it comes from prayer. The temptations of the working day will be overcome by this
breakthrough to God. The decisions that are demanded by our work will become simpler and easier
when they are made not in fear of other people, but solely before the face of God. "Whatever you do,
do it from your hearts, as done for the Lord and not done for human beings" (Col. 3:23). Even routine
mechanical work will be performed more patiently when it comes from the knowledge of God and
God's command. Our strength and energy for work increase when we have asked God to give us the
strength we need for our daily work.

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer -
from Life Together 76
from A Year with Dietrich Bonhoeffer Carla Barnhill, Ed., HarperSan Francisco, 2005