What Gives You Life?

For the next 30 days, I will be be receiving an amazing gift from my amazing church. Broadneck has the remarkable practice of giving their pastors a sabbatical of 30 days after three years of service. After three and a half fantastic years at Broadneck, I will be taking my sabbatical now through the month of January, taking time to get married (an unusual use of sabbatical, I know!) and to rest and find refreshment for continued ministry.

As I have prepared for this time, I was convicted that I wanted January to be a "sabbatical" of sorts for you What Gives Us Life?" I have asked them to consider not only what they see as life-giving in the lectionary passages for each week, but also to share some of what is giving them life currently as they continue the journey of faith.
all as well--a chance for you to find renewal and restoration as a congregation. I also wanted to lend some coherence to the month even as you have the gift of hearing four different amazing preachers--Cherie Smith, John Roberts, Leslie Copeland-Tune, and Brent Walker. So I asked all four preachers to offer reflections on a common theme: "

This theme idea was inspired by one of my favorite writers, Barbara Brown Taylor, who had this to say in her book An Altar in the World (my recommended reading for you this month!):

Many years ago now, a wise old priest invited me to come speak at his church in Alabama. “What do you want me to talk about?” I asked him. “Come tell us what is saving your life now,” he answered. It was as if he had swept his arm across a dusty table and brushed all the formal china to the ground. I did not have to try to say correct things that were true for everyone. I did not have to use theological language that conformed to the historical teachings of the church. All I had to do was figure out what my life depended on. All I had to do was figure out how I stayed as close to that reality as I could, and then find some way to talk about it that helped my listeners figure out those same things for themselves.

This is my prayer for you this month--that you might rediscover what your life depends on, or discover it anew--that you may find a way to connect to the things that give you life and to stay close to them. Most of all, that this may be a life-giving time for you as you consider the one in whom "was light, and that light was the life of all people" (John 1:4). What is saving your life right now? What does your life depend on? And how might God want to help you connect to new life, rest, and renewal?

Some people will be sharing their testimonies addressing this question in worship in the coming weeks, and I hope you will consider how you would answer these questions for yourself. Share your answers with me when I return!

Year in Review

This coming Sunday, as part of our worship, we will offer a litany that includes a paraphrase of a simple prayer that has been one of my favorites since I first heard it on a New Year's retreat as a teenager:

“For all that has been, Thank you. 

For all that is to come, Yes!” 

(Dag Hammarskjold) 

We will say these lines together as part of a litany blessing the year that has been in the life of our church, and blessing the many, many transitions that surely will be part of 2014.

All this got me to thinking about what a truly amazing year 2013 has been in the life of our church. From our incredible, congregation-changing week of hosting 25 homeless guests for the first time through the Winter Relief program in January; to an amazing art-infused Church Council retreat in April; to an intergenerational Seder dinner in March followed by a beautiful celebration of Easter; to the youth group trash pick-up in April; to the Strawberry festival in early June followed by Music and Arts Camp at the end of the month; to serving through My Brother's Pantry in July and in West Virginia in August; to Tea and Parables in September and our Bryan Moyer Suderman concert and chili cook-off in October; to a beautiful All-Saints Day and baby dedication in November, and now this Advent of a Holy Pause--it has been a remarkable year, one that has made me more grateful than ever to call myself Broadneck's pastor.

2014 promises to bring new things--some of which we embrace, some of which we wish were otherwise, some of which we have no idea yet. Births, deaths, marriages, retirements, sabbaticals, moves, illnesses, new relationships and opportunities--all of these are part of our journey as a family of faith. As we move into this new year, my prayer is that we will continue to walk together with joy and intentionality, and most of all with love for one another. Join us on Sunday as we say "thanks" for what has been, and "yes" to what will be.

A Poem for Christmas Eve

Take the time today: read Isaiah 9:2-7 and Luke 2:1-18 here.

Then read the poem below from one of my favorite poets, Mary Oliver. Though I hope today won't bring snow (I want to worship together tonight!), I feel like it captures the sense of Holy Pause we have been aiming for throughout Advent. How do you need to pause tonight, to experience the silence immense, the heavens holding a million candles, welcoming the light of the world?

A blessed Christmas to you all.

"First Snow" by Mary Oliver

The snow
began here
this morning and all day
continued, its white
rhetoric everywhere
calling us back to why, how,
whence such beauty and what
the meaning; such
an oracular fever! flowing
past windows, an energy it seemed
would never ebb, never settle
less than lovely! and only now,
deep into night,
it has finally ended.
The silence
is immense,
and the heavens still hold
a million candles, nowhere
the familiar things:
stars, the moon,
the darkness we expect
and nightly turn from. Trees
glitter like castles
of ribbons, the broad fields
smolder with light, a passing
creekbed lies
heaped with shining hills;
and though the questions
that have assailed us all day
remain — not a single
answer has been found –
walking out now
into the silence and the light
under the trees,
and through the fields,
feels like one.

What Wilderness Do You Wander?

Our texts for this third Sunday in Advent are Isaiah 35:1-10 and Matthew 11:2-11, which you can read here.

Have you ever been to the wilderness? I don't have a lot of wilderness experience, but I do remember the shock of my one major wilderness trip: to the Grand Canyon. As we were driving from Nevada through Arizona to reach the canyon, I was stunned to pass a road sign that said, "Next gas station 57 miles." 57 miles? Who knew there were still places in America you could travel 57 miles without finding a gas station...or even an interstate exit! Where was I?

Then I got to the canyon, in all its majestic rugged beauty, and my favorite picture of all the MANY I took there is this one:

It sounds silly, but maybe not so much I guess after I professed my draw to trees and my desire to be one in the sermon last week: I fell in love with this stubborn, scraggly thing that had stubbornly taken root in rock, pushing through the most hostile of climates and circumstances to find life. This is what you find in the wilderness: stubborn, resilient beauty. Life in unexpected nooks and crevices.

Today's passage from Isaiah reminds us that there IS life even in the wilderness--where there seems to be just nothing. Matthew's Gospel reminds us that even in the dark wilderness of a prison cell, just beyond the walls (and even within them) there IS God at work, even in places where it can be hard to see just what's going on. 

We all find ourselves in different wildernesses from time to time. Look at the various wilderness pictures below. Which one resonates with you? Where might you need claim that "The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing"--even the one you may be walking, wandering, or driving through this day?

The Peaceable Kingdom

Our texts for this second Sunday in the season of Advent--our season of Holy Pause--are Isaiah 11:1-10 and Matthew 3:1-12, which you can read here:  http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=253272695.

At our first Tuesday night "Holy Pause" gathering this week, a variety of reflection stations were set up around the worship space to allow people to practice pausing and opening themselves to God's holy presence in different ways. One of the stations was entitled "Looking," and at it was an art print of the above painting by John August Swanson, "Peaceable Kingdom."

The instructions on the station read, "Read Isaiah 11:6-9, then spend some time looking at John August Swanson’s painting entitled “Peaceable Kingdom.” Consider these questions:

         How do the image’s colors and lines illuminate the scripture’s meaning?

         Where do you see God in this image?

         Had you been the artist, how might you have illustrated this passage?

Here were some things that occured to me as I meditated on this image:

         I wonder why the scene was set at night time? 

         Why are there pairs of some animals, and only a single one of others?

         With peace, I often think in pastel colors...I love how rich and full these colors are. This scene is not docile...it is VIBRANT.

What captures you in this art image? What captures you in the images painted by the author of Isaiah? What might this vision really look like lived out?

Advent Resources

Our texts for this first Sunday in Advent are isaiah 2:1-5 and Matthew 24:36-44, which you can read here:  http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=252852732.

           

Tomorrow we begin a new church year and a new season--my favorite season of the church year. Advent is a beautiful season of possibility, and this year we will be focusing on the Advent theme of "A Holy Pause"--our need to interrupt business as usual and prepare space in our hearts and lives for Christ to be born within and among us.

Need help pausing in this busy season? I would encourage you, this Advent season, to take on the discipline of a daily moment of pause--time to reflect, to engage scripture or other forms of inspiration, to breathe and find yourself rooted in God's goodness and peace amidst the chaos. Below are some resources I recommend. Which of these might you want to engage in this season?

• Our theme is inspired by the small but beautiful book The Art of Pausing, a collection of images, poems, and reflections on the names of God. This is what I will be using during this season, and I encourage you to consider getting yourself a copy: http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Pausing-Judith-Valente/dp/0879465093
• You can sign up to get daily emails from the "Following the Star" daily online Advent Devotional at www.followingthestar.org. I have written for this site in the past, which is geared towards teenagers but I think appropriate for all ages. It also includes some beautiful music.
• My colleague Elizabeth Hagan edited an ecumenical collaboration called the "Baby Jesus Blog" that is making its debut this Advent, with daily reflections written by men and women who have waited or are waiting for babies. Check it out at at www.ElizabethHagan.com  
• Upper Room is sponsoring a couple of really interesting online Advent retreats, where you can be led in your reflection and dialogue with others about what you are experiencing. Check them out at http://beadisciple.com/upperroom.html
• Nancy and Joann recently went to a peacemaking conference addressing the conflict in the Middle East and found a lovely print daily devotional put together by the Bright Stars of Bethlehem, a ministry in Bethlehem sponsored in part by the Alliance of Baptists. I think Nancy is going to get some copies of this devotional for people who are interested in taking one home, or learn more about this ministry in Jesus' birth town at  http://brightstarsbethlehem.org/.

Above all, I hope you will join us on Tuesday nights throughout the season for "A Holy Pause." At 6 pm each Tuesday, we will gather in the sanctuary for a simple time of prayer, singing, and reflection. For the first two Tuesdays, we will have Advent vespers in the sanctuary and also have a labyrinth laid out for you to walk. On the third Tuesday, Eloise's sister Trish, who is retired from running a retreat center in Canada, will be with us to teach a simple workshop on "A Introduction to Mindfulness" that can help us learn to be present. Finally, on Tuesday, December 24 we will gather to worship and welcome the Christ Child.

Be with us on Sundays and Tuesdays throughout the season so we can practice pausing together, making the space we need in our hearts and our lives. I look forward to hearing about the ways you find to pause during this holy season!

A Time to Celebrate

"Celebration" by John August Swanson

Our text for this Sunday--the last Sunday in Pentecost, also known as Christ the King Sunday and, here in America, also the Sunday before Thanksgiving--is Esther 7:1-10 and 9:18-28, which you can read here.

This week, as we finish our three week series on Esther (and our 8 weeks on the little-read books of Nehemiah and Esther--congratulations, you have almost survived, and hopefully you have gleaned something from these stories!), we will be learning about the historical origins of the Jewish festival of Purim--a time for rejoicing and celebration observed every year and first "officially" introduced in the book of Esther.

As we read this story of celebration, and consider the importance of celebration in our own culture and lives, we also move towards a day that has been celebrated in American culture for centuries, if officially only for about 150 years--Thanksgiving. It is a day set aside to intentionally express gratitude, and to rejoice over the bounty of what we have been given, to give thanks for God's provision even through times of difficulty. As we prepare to celebrate next week, I would like to offer for your consideration and meditation a prayer from one of my favorite Christian thinkers, Walter Brueggeman. How might this prayer shape your celebration of Thanksgiving this year?

The witnesses tell of your boundless generosity,

and their telling is compelling to us:

You give your world to call the worlds into being;

You give your sovereign rule to emancipate the slaves and the oppressed;

You give your commanding fidelity to form your own people;

You give your life for the life of the world...

broken bread that feeds,

poured out wine and binds and heals.

You give...we receive...and are thankful.

We begin this day in gratitude,

thanks that is a match for your self-giving,

gratitude in gifts offered,

gratitude in tales told,

gratitude in lives lived.

Gratitude willed, but no so readily lived,

held back by old wounds turned to powerful resentment,

slowed by early fears become vague anxiety,

restrained by self-sufficiency in a can-do arrogance,

blocked by amnesia unable to recall gifts any longer.

Do this yet. Create innocent spaces for us this day

for the gratitude we intend.

In thankfulness,

we will give,

we will tell,

we will live,

your gift through us to gift the world. Amen

--from Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers of Walter Brueggemann (Fortress Press, 2002)