Communion Part 4

 

[Christ's] mission and work it is to help against sin and death, to justify and bring life. He has placed his help in baptism and the Sacrament [i.e., communion/Eucharist/Lord's supper], and incorporated it in the Word and preaching. To our eyes Baptism [capitalized in original] appears to be nothing more than ordinary water, and the Sacrament of Christ's body and blood simple bread and wine, like other bread and wine, and the sermon, hot air from a man's mouth. But we must not trust what our eyes see.  Martin Luther

 

Unfortunately, the arguments about communion didn’t stop at Corinth or in the earliest centuries of the church.  People kept being so human and demanding that their understanding be accepted and assimilated by all people.  In the 16^th Century, the reformer Martin Luther was in a conversation with another reformer, Huldrych Zwingli, about communion.  Okay, they were in major disagreement.  Zwingli said that communion was a nice remembrance, like when you look at photos from a vacation years ago.  Zwingli emphasized hearing Scripture and preaching as vital to worship, and communion was okay - but not necessary.  Some UCC churches today follow this theology by celebrating communion quarterly.  I have heard members say that if you celebrate communion too much, it spoils the specialness.  I have always said that I tell my wife I love her every day and that frequency doesn’t diminish the specialness but rather reminds me of our connection.  Likewise, I could take communion every day to remember God’s love and connection with me.  And believe me, some days I need that reminder!  Zwingli said communion was a remembrance meal, that the bread and wine stayed ordinary/everyday elements.  Luther said an emphatic “NO”.  Remember, Luther was initially a Catholic monk.  Catholics say that the bread becomes the actual body and the cup the actual blood of Christ.  You need to handle the elements with care.  Luther wanted to back away a bit from this.  Luther said that while the bread and cup don’t get transformed, nevertheless Christ is there around the elements.  If it feels like splitting theological hairs, in some ways I get that.  In other ways, it is good to ponder what the elements themselves are communicating.  Does communion remind us that every ordinary piece of bread is holy because the wheat grew in the soil of God’s creation?  Is every sip of juice refreshing and renewing because of God’s love found there?  Or does the mystery of God transform the bread and juice/grape on the table into something more than what we bought in the store?  I pray you ponder what communion means to you.  On Monday, I asked you to rewind and remember past communions that were meaningful and even ones that left a bad taste in your mouth.  Those experiences inform your understanding today.  And the invitation is to open our hearts to other perspectives of other people we pull up a chair alongside to feast at Christ’s table.  May you and I continue to find ways to connect with what this sacrament means and how this ritual moves our souls toward the Holy. Amen. 

Communion Part 3

 

The names of the organs of sense are frequently applied to the soul, so that it may be said to see with the eyes of the heart … so it is said to hear with the ears when it perceives the deeper meaning of a statement. For this reason we also say that it makes use of teeth when it chews and eats the bread of life which comes down from heaven.  Origen A.D. 230

 

One of the powerful parts of communion is that Christians have been celebrating this sacrament for centuries.  The quote from the early Christian writer, Origen, above reminds us that people have reflected on what communion means since the very beginning.  And, because the church is a very human institution, we have also been arguing about communion and the “right” way or “my preference” since the very beginning too.  In Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth, we hear this:

 

For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part, ¹⁹ for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. ²⁰ When you come together, it is not the Lord's supper that you eat. ²¹ For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. ²² What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? (1 Corinthians 11:18-22)

 

It isn’t just the modern-day church that likes to argue/debate/disagree on everything.  That is as old as our earliest ancestors.  In Corinth, we hear that some people stuff themselves with food.  Imagine someone taking a whole handful of bread and gulping down the whole cup/chalice of juice, not leaving anything for the next person in line.  Imagine some people not receiving anything, while someone else is finishing off the bottle of Trader Joe’s wine in the sacristy.  What was happening in Corinth was that individual preferences were dominating the discussion.  What was happening in Corinth was that the rules of meals from Roman culture were laid over communion ~ where the wealthier people ate first until they were full and the lower class or servants at last with whatever crumbs were left over. This leaves Paul with smoke billowing from his ears.  Paul says that in Christ all our differences and distinctions fall away.  There is no longer wealthy and poor; there is no longer religiously righteous and outcast; there is no longer male or female.  Christ bursts and breaks down the walls we try to build religiously, culturally, economically, and societally.  We, in turn, start building those barriers and blockades again and again. 

 

What does it mean that at Christ’s table all are welcome?  What does it mean that your faith has teeth and tongue that can either be used to include or exclude?  How does communion reorder and re-author your life every month?  May we continue to dive and dwell in the invitation to gather at Christ’s name (not yours or mine or any church/denomination/religious authority) with an openness and curiosity of God’s meeting and moving in and through us.  Amen.

Communion Part 2

 

Sacraments are ritual actions in worship which, according to Scripture, were instituted by Jesus. In the sacraments of baptism and communion we ask the Holy Spirit to use water, bread, and wine to make visible the grace, forgiveness, and presence of God in Christ.  From the UCC Website

 

There are a variety of ways to celebrate communion; each way communicates something a little different.  The method matters and makes a difference.  For example, this summer, we observed communion through intinction.  You came forward, took a piece of bread, dipped it into a cup of juice, and ate.  What you may not have realized is that this form of communion was about God meeting you individually where you are.  When observed this way, communion is about God’s love enfolding us and sustaining us individually.  The unconditional grace found in bread and juice is elastic and expansive; it is diverse to meet your uniqueness.  This is why I invite you, when you come forward, to form your hands into the shape of a cup ~ this is a receiving posture.  In your hands is your life, which God meets and blesses.  I will add that this reminds us we move toward God.  Recall the parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15, where the younger son makes the journey back to the home/family he left behind.  One step toward God, and God starts running toward us. 

Contrast that with the way our church practiced communion before COVID, which was passing the bread and tray of cups down the pew.  There was relatively little movement in this way of celebrating communion.  This way reminds us that we can be surprised by grace.  Sometimes we stub our toe on grace without ever intending to do so.  Grace meets us, not because of our agenda or our will, but because of God’s will.  Moreover, often, I would have you all hold the bread until everyone received it so we could eat together, and the same with the cup.  This emphasized the community of communion, the connection of our whole church to the Creator.   

Last Sunday, we mixed and matched these two ways of communion.  You were still invited forward to receive the cup of grace that you carried back to the pew, and then we ate together.  I reminded you of those who worship online because we connected not only to the person beside us, behind us, but also to the very people not in the room, who join us from their homes.  Christ’s table connected to kitchen tables and living room end tables through the screen of livestreaming. 

Pause today, remembering that all theology is autobiographical, that we all have opinions and preferences that we want others to agree with; can you see a time and place for each way of communion?  Sometimes, we need communion with God on an individual level; we need to recall God’s blessing of belovedness on us as uniquely created in God’s image.  Other times, it is good to practice communion as a community ~ the Spirit weaving a thread from my heart to yours to someone worshiping with us in Illinois.  Ponder not only your preferences, but 

Communion

 

I remember I was sitting with my confirmation class in the front pew at Urbandale UCC the first time I took communion.  I was thirteen.  I vividly recall spilling a few drops of Welch’s grape juice from the thimble-sized cup onto my khaki pants, leaving a stain.  I remember a youth retreat with grapes and animal crackers for communion.  I remember a clergy group in the North Carolina mountains where an Episcopal priest led us through the beautiful liturgy as the sun was setting outside the windows of the chapel, soaking us in the warmth of the sacred.

 

What memories of communion do you carry in your soul?

 

Throughout our last series on the Creeds, I said that all theology is autobiographical.  What we say about God says more about us than it does about the One who spoke creation into being.  Like God, we try to bring order to the chaos of the ineffable.  There is always a more-than-ness of the Divine.  What do you feel, hear, experience, and respond to when we gather around Christ’s table?  What moments from the past mix and mingle with the present as you took the bread and grape yesterday?  You carry around cardboard boxes of memories that are evoked and provoked when you are invited to the table.  Most of these memories might swim beneath the surface of your consciousness, until you intentionally and prayerfully go to the storage of your soul to rummage around that box of the past.  What positive experiences of communion do you have?  What negative feelings get caught in the back of your throat when you think about communion?  Maybe it was an early experience of being welcomed at the table that warms your heart.  Or the time you were at a service and the pastor made it clear that non-members were not welcome to partake ~ as if you needed a membership card to receive the bread and juice.

 

Pause with me: what memories of communion are stirred up when God invites you to the table? 

 

Fun theological nerd point: communion is often called Eucharist ~ which means ~ thanksgiving.  Communion is God’s self-giving love.  Communion is us tasting on the tip of our tongue who and whose we are ~ we are God’s beloved.  Note the intentional use of plural in the last sentence.  It isn’t just you; communion is about community.  The early church celebrated communion every week to recall, remember, and receive a tactile blessing, in the form of food, from God.   Okay, seminary lesson is done.

 

Today, recall an experience of communion.  What made the moment meaningful?  Don’t worry if it seems difficult to describe.  There is a mystery to communion.  Through bread and juice, we are connected to the One who creates us and loves us.  Words often want to raise their hands and be excused because they cannot carry the weight of what it means to taste God’s love.  I invite you, encourage you, even implore you, to go get a piece of bread/cracker or cookie and a cup of juice, water, coffee, or whatever you have in your cupboard.  Take a breath, ask for God’s blessing on the ordinary, everyday items from your pantry, then slowly take of this meal that reminds you of God’s love meeting you right where you are today.  Amen.

Prayer

 

God, the wisdom writer of Ecclesiastes, was right: there is so much we encounter in life that can evaporate quickly.  We cannot cling to the mist of moments in our life.  At the same time, we can still feel the wetness of the past.  Life is lived in paradox; the both/and reality.  There is birth and death; joy and pain; hope and despair.  Meet us where we are today.  Meet us especially in what we carry, which is contradictory and complex.  For moments of laughter and lament, for times of digging in and wondering why bother, for experiences that fill us and those that drain us.  You are there in, though, around, and beneath our whole lives.  Continue to move and breathe in us each day this November as we awaken to the mystery and marvel of our lives.  Amen.  

New

 

What is one new thing you tried this year?  Could be a food, visiting a place, or a friendship that was planted in the soil of 2026.  What is one new thought you had this year?  Could be a book you read, a podcast, a conversation, or a hymn/painting/poem you wrote.  What is one new way you experienced the Sacred?  I mean, besides my sermons.  Just kidding.  We are constantly becoming.  Some of this is welcomed, and some is not.  On Monday, we named that the negative can stick to our memories like Velcro.  This shapes us.  Your mom was right again; you are what you eat.  But this applies not only to food for breakfast, but also to the news, social media, conversations, and connections with others.  What you consume becomes part of you.  Sometimes we cannot control what we encounter.  A medical illness we did not want, a divorce that breaks our hearts, trust that is shattered, and countless other ways life is like the weather we cannot predict or control.  And at the same time, we do have agency in our response.  Life can be complicated and contradictory.  I can acknowledge hurt and hope; I can hold both moments of human wounding words and human healing actions. 

 

What has stirred hope in you this year?  Perhaps it was an event.  I have been blessed by a group of new friends in a continuing education experience.  I have been blessed by being drenched in your singing on Sundays.  I have felt your love.  This is as true and trustworthy as the hurtful/hateful things I hear on the news.  It is not either/or, but both/and.  Today, sit with hope as you glance back at your calendar, naming and noticing where the Holy One knocked on the door of your heart for an unexpected visit.  May you find a new thing to try this week that would delight God.  Amen.

Who We are Becoming

 

The Bible is an adult book written for adults, so said C.S. Lewis.  Eugene Peterson said that telling someone to go read the Bible alone was like giving a ten-year-old keys to your luxury car.  The Bible doesn’t hold back on the issues of brokenness, becoming, and belonging.  In chapter 4, we hear how Cain kills Abel.  The story is confounding, complex, and contradictory.  First, you have God apparently more pleased with Abel’s offering than Cain’s.  This can touch a nerve because I can be lured and led into thinking that God likes other pastors’ sermons better than mine.  God gives an “A” to the preacher down the street while saying, “Needs LOTS of improvement!!” in red ink on my sermon.  We all rate and rank each other; often we end up with the short end of the stick.  After Cain murders Abel, God confronts Cain about the violence.  Cain denies and defends himself.  Cain doesn’t honestly say to God, “It was because You liked him better, God!”  How often do we act out because we believe God is blessing someone else more?  Notice that God doesn’t give in to violence or revenge.  God marks Cain to protect him.  Wait, what?  Is God going to let this murderer off the hook?  How is that just?  How is that holy?  I don’t know.  I am troubled by this story and continue to be heartbroken that we repeat it today.  We dismiss and deny our human siblings who are immigrants, returning citizens from prison, LGBTQIA+, beloved whose shade of skin is not white or whose accent is not Midwestern. 

 

Who are we becoming is a vital question.  And the twin question this week is to look at the groups that you belong to.  Let’s be specific: how has our church shaped you this year?  Please be honest about the good and bad parts.  Humans are not perfect, and this especially applies to me as a pastor.  I will do boneheaded things that I regret; I will say things I want to pull from the air and shove back in my mouth!

 

Keep exploring the ways you’re belonging and becoming.  You are both unique, and you have a deep desire to connect in ways so twisted and tangled, like the Christmas lights you will soon be pulling out of storage.  May you sense the Sacred stirring, supporting, and sustaining such prayerful reflection.  Amen.

A Holy Woundedness

 

God took one of Earthling’s ribs and closed up its place with flesh. (Genesis 2:21)

 

Relationships are not all chocolate rivers and pony rides.  If you have spent any time around other featherless bipeds, you know this to be true.  Other people can be amazing.  Other people can be annoying.  Other people can be hurtful or helpful or ambivalent.  In Genesis 2, after crafting the first earthling (that is what adam means – a dust/earth being), God recognizes and realizes this being needs a companion, helper, friend, and someone to share life with.  Initially, God makes all the animals as potential friends.  God makes the giraffe, but this animal is too tall for face-to-face conversation.  God makes the porcupine, but the hugs are too painful.  God makes a dog, and everything is perfect, and they live happily ever after.  Even the dog couldn’t quite meet all the humans’ emotional/relational/spiritual/intellectual needs.  So, the first human falls asleep, God performs surgery, removing a rib, creating a wound.  I don’t need to know if this actually happened to know it is true.  Our words wound one another.  Our actions hurt worse than sticks and stones.  We dehumanize one another and turn to violence as the only means too often. 

 

Is there a wound from this last year you are carrying?  Is there a pain that is left unprocessed?  Yesterday, I mentioned open memories.  These are the ones that, when I tell the story of being embarrassed at calling someone the wrong name ten years ago, I still feel my face flood with warmth hot enough to roast a marshmallow.   For you, it could be encountering a situation that is far more traumatic, such as discrimination, violence, hate, or abuse.  Those open memories remind us there are unholy ghosts that haunt us even as Halloween passed last week.  Please note that open memories can still cause us joy too.  Ever tell a story to someone that you cannot finish because you are still laughing so hard your stomach aches?  Both can be true.

 

Today, I invite us to think about an open memory that still hurts ~ could cause your mind to spin so fast you get dizzy, or your heart to race, sounding like the horses at the Kentucky Derby, or making your stomach a bit nauseous.  If you are starting to feel that pain, I want to invite you to place one hand on your heart and another on your belly.  Now take a deep breath and slowly exhale.  Breathe in the breath of God whose love never lets you go and exhale the pain.  Breathe in the promise that you are safe right now and exhale the thoughts that this memory doesn’t need to have the last word.  Ruptures in relationships happen (that is Genesis 3).  Systems are built often on the backs of those we refuse to see: immigrants and those clinging to the last rung of the socio-economic ladder with their fingernails.  Breathe and be.  Trusting that God hears/knows the pain.  This is the truth of Exodus 2:24: God heard their groaning, and God remembered the covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  The word “heard” is not distant or disconnected, but God felt the pain deep in God’s very being.  It is good to point out that God’s plan to resolve this groaning was to send Moses, a wanted criminal who had killed an Egyptian guard in chapter 1 who was beating up/bullying a fellow Israelite.  Because violence begets violence, Moses kills the guard, buries the body in the sand, and tries to cover his tracks, but Pharaoh hears about it and puts up “Wanted for murder” posters on the pyramids. 

 

We all have wounds; some just cover them better.  Today, ponder gently one moment from this year that has not been resolved or reconciled; share that with God.  If you want to talk more about this, reach out to me.  May God’s healing love wrap around you this day.  Amen.  

Becoming and Belonging

 

Most of us long to belong, but we settle for fitting in.  We want community, but struggle to balance our uniqueness with the group’s need for unity.  Plus, community is made up of people, and have you been around people recently?  Martin Luther in the 16^th Century said that humans are both beloved and broken, saint and sinner, marvelous and messy, exhilarating and exhausting.  Community can both shape our soul with help/healing and hurt.  When has this been true for you?  When do you feel a twinge in a meeting, or your stomach/soul somersault when talking to family/friends?  Groups have personality, energy, and influence that shape us.  We are hardwired to seek community and connection.  Genesis 2 is about the first human longing for a companion.  God said, “It is not good that the human should be alone; I will make the earthling a helper and partner.”  (Genesis 2:18).  Pause with me: who is a helper and partner for you right now? 

 

As Dr. Curt Thomason says, our becoming and belonging are intertwined.  Who we become is impacted and influenced by who we are connected to.  Your mom was right: be careful who your friends are.  People shape us positively and negatively.  People can bless us or bring the sharp shards of their brokenness into our lives.  Unfortunately, the software in our brains tends to ruminate on the negative.  Pain sticks to us like Velcro, while joy can roll off us like Teflon.  We can tend to recall the wounds or losses easily, but forget the love or severely discount it.  Scientists say we developed the trait of flight, fight, freeze, flock, and fawn because it is what protected us out in the wilderness.  Our ancestors needed to know if that rustling in the nearby bushes was a lion licking its lips at you as lunch or if it was a harmless squirrel trying to find its next meal.  That reality persists and pervades our lives today.  Research suggests that when we see negative news, our brains convince us that the event can/even will happen to us, so you better keep your guard up.  Your body has a collection of bruises.  You also have open memories; when you recall that experience, you still feel the heartbreak and soul ache.  Of course, open memories can be good and still cause us to laugh at an awkward experience from decades ago.  Again, we tend to cling to the brokenness rather than the blessedness.  As we wrap up and wind down 2026, it is holy to look back, look around, and look forward.  This week, I encourage you to write down moments that gave you energy and ones that drained your energy.   This is going to take some time.  There is no due date for this assignment/invitation/prayer practice.  You could be well into 2027 before the fog around something you are carrying clears.  Yet, to set aside time to be with God in this is holy.  Please feel free to reach out to me to talk more about such holy reflections.  I pray this week that the saints who hover and hum continue to infuse and inspire your life.  We are part of a great cloud of witnesses, and you are part of someone else’s cloud as well.  May God’s love, peace, presence, and possibility hold and enfold you each day.  Amen.

Prayer

 

Holy One, thank you for the life-giving and soul-shaping ways we collect each day of encounters with You.  Thank you for moments that fascinate us, like a cloud sailing overhead or sinking our teeth into our favorite candy for Halloween.  Thank you, even, for moments that frustrate us, because You invite us to explore the why of pain, struggle, stress, and suffering too.  Why did that word hurt?  Why did that action offend?  Is there another way to hold, understand (or stand under) that moment?  And how can we release that wound from living rent-free in our minds for the rest of our lives?  Help us, O God, as our life continues to write a theological essay on who You are, who we are, and who we are together with others.  We know this invitation is never complete, but part of the calling to let Your love take hold of the story we tell ourselves and the story we live from.  Inspiriting, editing, revising, re-storying, God, restore us to Your light and love that we need as we turn the calendar to November on Sunday.  Amen.  

Here I Stand ~ Statements of Faith

 

One more set of questions today as you consider your theology and how you have witnessed the with-ness of God in your life:

 

What are my strengths?

Who are the role models and mentors who inspire me?

What practices and exercises will I employ in my everyday life?

What communities can I participate in and accompany?

What do I want to give back to the world?

 

The above questions invite you to explore the mystery of your one wild and precious life.  Please remember, you don’t have to answer every question.  There is no turning this in as an assignment.  Of course, if you want to talk about these questions, I welcome conversation and connection with you.  I also encourage you to give thought to any resistance or reluctance you have to these questions.  Sometimes the very questions we want to take a hard pass, refuse, refute, or call “silly” are the very questions where we discover the Divine in a new way.  God is not just some Genie in a bottle here to grant your every wish and make your dreams come true.  God stretches us in sacred ways and into sacred shapes.  To be clear, not every experience I have had is saturated in the holy.  Some experiences are drenched in humanness that drain me.  Yet God can be there even in brokenness and in moments I wish had never happened.  This is what makes faith endlessly fascinating and (honestly) frustrating.  Faith is not math to be solved, but a poem, a prayer, a praise to enter fully with our whole lives.   This week, we have paused to look at our lives.  Who is God, who is the other, and who am I?  Jot down thoughts today on this, and then, maybe at the end of December, make a cup of hot cocoa and review these questions and your thoughts.  In a few weeks, go back and notice what is shifting and what is stable, persisting.  May you and I continue to let loose your inner theologian, for the world needs to hear how God is at work in your heart/life ~ and we need to hear from each other.  Amen.  

Here I Stand ~ Statements of Faith

 

As we play with our theological toybox, we are discovering what we believe about God, Jesus, ourselves, and others.  I remember when I went through my toy box as a child; I would sometimes find, at the very bottom, a toy I forgot I had.  I would find a Matchbox car I thought was lost forever.  When we delve and dive into theology, the same is true.  You may discover in your theological toybox an idea about God hidden in the cobwebbed corner of your soul that you thought you gave away, let go of, lost years ago.  I know several people, for example, for whom referring to God as only/exclusively male can be hurtful and pick at the scab of a wound that has never healed.  This could be because their own father was abusive or abandoned them.  This could be because referring to God only as “Father” feels like your soul is cramped and confined.  This could be for a thousand reasons unique to each person’s experience and encounters.  Perhaps this week, one of the questions I’ve asked surfaced, stirred up the sand in the ocean of your soul, causing you to recall God as an old white man with a beard on a throne.  There are ideas in each of our theological toyboxes that we are called to ponder prayerfully.  I know this: God creates us in God’s image, and too often, in turn, we create God in our image.  What we say about God says more about us than the Holy Other of the Divine.  Remember all theology is autobiographical ~ talking about God is talking about ourselves.

 

While the last two mornings have been about you and God/Jesus/Spirit/Church ~ there is a whole world where you are not the main character of the play.  Ponder these questions:

 

What are my responsibilities to my neighbor?

What are my responsibilities to the poor and disenfranchised?

What do I want to give to the world?

What are the elements of a well-lived life? 

As you rummage and roam around your theological toy box with these questions, look for threads and themes that connect your response to each.  For example, is there a connection and consistency between your neighbor and the poor/marginalized?  For example, how is my love for my literal neighbor like my love for my siblings who are unhoused?  How might my love be different/distinctive for different people?  Is there a connection to how I view a life well-lived?  Perhaps all of this grows from thinking about my responsibilities to others in my life.  We live in a culture that worships at the altar of the individual.  We demand and decree that things be done our way, on our timetable, and to our liking, thank you very much.  Yet, the life of faith calls into question whether our life is ever isolated from others.  Faith challenges the myth of the “self-made” individual ~ which is biologically impossible and theologically irrational.  You are a collection of fingerprints, DNA, smudges and smears of others ~ some chosen and some you’d rather not have experienced.  Let these questions open you to the mystery that your life has never been lived on an island, but in community.  The price of community can be annoyance and ache and joy upon heaping helping of joy.  Let these questions move us beyond thinking to ways we embody and experience life in this beautifully broken/bruised world.  Amen.

Here I Stand ~ Your Statement of Faith

 

Yesterday, you let loose your inner theologian by talking about God, Jesus, the Spirit, humanity, church, and blessedness/brokenness.  Remember, this is not some assignment to turn in and forget; it is the work of our entire lives.  It is good to look both at our responses to questions and the very questions themselves.  Here is another set of prompts to help you think about how you think about God:

 

What do I believe about God/a higher power? 

What was your earliest image of God?  Compare that to images of God today.

What does it mean to me to be successful as a human being?

What comes into my mind/heart/stir in my soul when I hear the phrase, “a good life”?

 

Perhaps this set of questions awakens new thoughts about God.  I, especially, find the last two questions meaningful, if we are willing to be earnest, honest, and vulnerable.  Because you are reading this Morning Meditation, written by a pastor, your inner Sunday School student may want to say, “A successful human serves God with joy.”  Or maybe you studied Westminster Catechism (which is a set of questions about faith and answers to those questions) as a teenager.  The first question in that book is, “What is the chief end of (hu)man beings?”  The response is, “To glorify God and enjoy (him/her/them).”  Wait.  Linger with me on this.  How does that question and response land in you?  Maybe you are frustrated and flummoxed by the language of the question.  I get that.  Maybe you even think it is the wrong question.  I get that.  Maybe you want to raise your hand and ask, “How do I glorify God?  What are the benchmarks or key performance indicators that will be evaluated by St. Peter at the Pearly Gates of Heaven?”  I don’t know.  When we grow up in a church where every question has an answer in a Catechism book, it can do two things.  First, it can teach us that if we disagree with the answer, we have no room in the church.  This breaks my heart.  Second, it can teach us that every question in faith must have an answer, which it does not.  There is mystery in our lives.  Part of the mystery is coming back to questions of faith, setting in dialogue our lives and our beliefs that were handed/shaped by the past and need to continually be updated to the future.  Your faith, like an Apple/Samsung phone, is continually getting software updates.  This week, we are seeing what the latest version of software for our minds/hearts/souls and lives is needed for this time and place.  I pray you are finding moments of joy in exploring your faith and being a theologian this week.  Amen.  

Here I Stand ~ Your Statement of Faith

 

In April of 1521, Martin Luther was called to Worms, Germany, to answer for posting his 95 Theses on the door in Wittenberg.  This was one way to begin a public conversation in Luther’s day; please don’t nail anything to the church doors today ~ they are made of glass.  One of the main reasons he was summoned before the religious authorities was to defend, or more accurately denounce, his objection to the selling of indulgences.  This was money you paid the church to free a loved one’s soul from purgatory ~ this was where your soul went after death ~ a waiting room between heaven and hell.  Before we chuckle, I caution us to consider that some of the practices we cling to in the church might not look good to future generations either.  We don’t know what will stand the test of time.  We don’t control how future generations evaluate our lives; we only pray for grace and understanding. At that trial, Luther would not take back what he wrote.  Instead, he said, “Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God.  Amen.”  This moment sparked and lit the fire of the Reformation.  There were other faithful people who wanted to reform the church prior to 1521.  Luther was not the first, nor would he be the last.  We are a reformed and reforming church.  The work of God in the church is never finished. Over the last few weeks, we have played with and pondered prayerfully Creeds/Statements of Faith.  I pray you have discovered new insights and have new ideas about who God is/what God is up to in the world.  Who Jesus is and the ways Jesus still impacts/inspires our lives.  Who the Spirit is (what Proverbs refers to as Sophia/Holy Wisdom), as She dances, weaves, and works to open us to the holiness of every day.  This week, in honor of Reformation, I invite you to think about your own creed/statement of faith/ideas about who God, Christ, the Spirit, humanity, the church, and our work in the world today.  I know this is a big invitation.  Maybe you’d rather talk about Halloween on Saturday.  I could talk about how we all wear masks to fit in and how we all live with unholy ghosts of the past that haunt our lives.  Wait.

Did you realize that previous sentence was a creed/statement of faith about humanity and community?  Saying we all wear masks unveils a thought I have about humanity.  Writing about unholy ghosts that haunt our lives from memories that still have power in the present is an idea about the world as I experience it.  Theology is not some separate, special task of people with degrees on the wall.  We are all theologians.  We say things about God, hold tightly to beliefs about others, and direct our energy/attention toward certain things.  Our lives are a living statement of faith, if we listen.  Remember, your theology is impacted by your autobiography; your past religious experience shapes your present beliefs.

 

Today, I invite you to find a piece of paper or open the notes app on your phone.  Jot down, fill in the blanks, to the following invitations:

God is…

Jesus is…

Spirit is…

Humans are…

I am…

The church is…

Salvation means…

Missing the mark/Brokenness/Sin is…

A few things about this exercise.  It is never one and done.  Our theology is being influenced and impacted by our experiences and encounters each day.  We may make sense of God one way today that tomorrow seems antiquated and out-of-date.  Secondly, notice if there is any thread woven through your statements.  For example, I could say God is unconditional love, Jesus is God’s love in flesh/breath/bone, and the Spirit enlivens each of us to live God’s love.  The theme is love.  I could talk about how humans choose fame/fortunate/followers online rather than love ~ because we trust more in the gospels of the world.  Play with your sentences, not just today, but in the week and days to come.  You are a theologian; you hold and are held by beliefs.  You have a recipe of faith you feast from and serve to others each day ~ let’s listen to that this week.

Prayer

 

Creator of all that was, is, and will be.  You continue to recycle the energy of life in the music of today.  You continue to call us to live from our reconciled spirits, rather than from wanting to be recognized and rewarded.  Help us, God, for too often this goes against the powerful gospel of the world.  Clean out our ears to hear anew Your conducting/composing ways.  Guide us to seek listening for understanding/insight rather than just thinking, “I’ll just do it myself, thanks anyway, God.”  Challenge us to notice that we are being shaped by what we give our attention and energy.  Savior, heal what is broken, especially when, as humans, we keep repeating history in heartbreaking ways.  We cannot erase the hurt of what was, so repair our woundedness of what is today.  We cannot eradicate all that divides us, because there is division within us.  Continue to open us to what You are up to in this world that we might delight in Your way and join our voices with others in the choir of all creation.  May each of us recognize that we spend time on the mat of the beloved in the story from last Sunday (Mark 2:1-12).  Help us honor that we all get by with more than just a little help from our friends.  And may this prayer provoke a new way of living as we let these words ground and guide us.  Create in us, through us, and help us cooperate with You. Amen.  

Statement of Faith ~ Week 4

 

We believe that our smallness can never diminish God’s vastness; that our frailties can never overcome God’s will for wholeness; that our sin can never crush God’s power for new life even in the face of death.  We believe, and in this belief, we need one another, as a choir needs every voice and every part for the harmony to be complete. An Affirmation of Christian Unity

 

When was the last time you felt your full humanness in the presence of God’s inexhaustibility?  I bristle a bit at the word “smallness” in the above creed.  Part of this is because of my own ego.  I don’t want to be small.  We have negative connotations of small, which is too bad.  Because there is holiness in all that is seen and unseen.  God is there in the bug crawling along the carpet.  God is in the atom we cannot see, and we know that the atom is in us and has been here since the beginning of time.  God is there in the mystery of the stars above and the depths of seas we have yet to explore.  Suddenly, I do feel a bit small.  I will never travel to space; I get motion sick in a car that goes too fast, let alone a rocket!  I will never dive to the deepest part of the ocean; I don’t even like swimming in my pool.  Maybe it is holy for me to name and notice that I am not the center of the universe.  Perhaps it is holy to remember my own fragility.  The creeds proclaim and propose that vulnerability is essential for community.  Recall moments of community from this past week, whether that was with one other person or a whole group.  How did that group help, and how did that group hurt?  Maybe you felt you couldn’t speak up or say what was on your mind, or maybe you shared too much (I often fall into the latter category).  Just as a choir seeks to bring/blend voices for sound, so too, our lives seek prayerfully to do the same.  In our world, it can feel like not only are we on different pages of the music, but we aren’t even in the same venue when we sing!  We can feel like we are singing from different pieces of music altogether.  We can feel like others are blaring and blasting sounds that send shivers down our spine.  To come back to center, to return to the One who is composing and conducting ~ God at the heart of all the music of our lives.  Ponder ways that you can relish and rejoice in smallness and share your voice as part of the unfolding larger choir of God.  What does that mean in your life?  How will you participate in singing out, not to overpower, but to cooperate and conspire?  May this invitation move within us today and in the days to come.  Amen.

Statement of Faith ~ Trinity as Holy Dance

 

We believe in God the Saviour revealed in the world as Jesus the Christ, who died and is risen, the one Lord of the church.  We believe in God the Reconciler, the Holy Spirit, who is always with us, bearing witness with our spirits that we are the children of God. An Affirmation of Christian Unity

 

Yesterday, we noted that creeds begin by speaking about God.  The next part of most creeds speaks of Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  The above speaks of Jesus and the Spirit being infused and inspired by God.  God is not only the Creator that we explored yesterday, but also the Savior and Reconciler.  God accomplishes God’s work in committee or in connection with Jesus and the Spirit.  God is relational in God’s activity.  I don’t claim to understand the Trinity.  I sense this as the holy dance of the Divine revealed in more ways than I will ever know.  I delight in the truth that God is not confined nor contained.  God is more than our words/thoughts/ideas.  As Karl Barth said, God is “The Holy Other”.  God in Jesus comes into the world, walks on the soil of the earth, and shares God’s love.  Because Jesus confronted the Empire of the World, the powers that be killed him.  The truth is that Good Friday isn’t just about the past, but the present.  We continue to hurt, harm, wound, and kill each other and the earth through violence as well as abuse in all its awful forms.  We keep choosing to use our creativity to come up with new ways to divide each other.  The “isms” of the world multiply in heartbreaking, soul-aching ways.  Racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, agism, ableism, political dehumanization, economic oppression, and religious exclusionism, to name a few.  In fact, the way we treat others is how we treat the earth/God’s Creation.  I know that I can’t fix all of that alone.  That doesn’t mean I just veg out and binge-watch dog videos online.  I seek to engage where I can and how I can, knowing that God continues God’s salvific work today.  What is saving your life today?  Put another way, what is helping to align your head, heart, soul, body, and God’s fingerprints of love on your life?  I can be saved by a piece of music, a hug, a good lunch, a heartfelt discussion, or quietly standing outside as the sun sets.  Salvation is never one and done, but continual in our lives.  The church is called to be a safe space where we can be honest that we don’t have it all figured out.  The church becomes the place where we practice God’s love.  Yet, the church is made up of humans who can be and do very human things ~ see the list of isms above to recall this truth.  Those isms exist not just outside the walls of our homes/church but inside the confines of our very hearts.  We all carry around biases and brokenness.  Reconciliation isn’t only to God, but additionally to each other/Earth and continually day-by-day.  When was the last time you felt reconciled to someone?  Maybe a ruptured relationship with a friend found some duct tape of healing when you talked.  Or maybe you let loose your anger at God that things aren’t going so well and felt the cathartic healing of honesty.   Our lives preach a sermon that goes all over the place, taking unexpected exit ramps and getting way off course.  Our lives are a sermon: where and when are we practicing reconciliation because we are being renewed/saved/held by God?  May that question stir within you and sing from your life this day.  Amen.

Statement of Faith ~ Week 4

 

We believe in God the Creator, who is always creative and invites us to affirm and explore who we are, with all our differences, and who is the source of our faith. An Affirmation of Christian Unity

 

You may have noticed after the past three weeks that most creeds begin with a statement about God.  Sometimes the creed describes God’s activity.  You can look back at the UCC Statement of Faith.  In that creed, God creates, sets, seeks, saves, and judges.  All those are active verbs in the present tense.  The words from An Affirmation of Christian Unity give God a title: Creator.  We could also say Artist, Innovator, Inventor, or Sculptor.   Pause with me: how would you describe or define God’s activity, and what titles do you give to God?  Are the two in harmony, or is there a disconnect/dissonance?  There can be a gap between our descriptions of God and our lived experience of God.  Sometimes we talk about God as love but then act as if we must earn God’s affection and affirmation.  The words above affirm that the Creator is creating.  What new art piece is God working on within you or around you?  I can tell you, as a writer, a piece is never truly finished.  Rather, the time and day comes to publish and post this morning meditation after edits and revisions.  I know there are grammatical errors and things I want to rephrase, rework, and rethink.  But I offer these words, trusting and praying that God will work with/through and despite my mistakes and grammatical errors in your mind/heart/soul in response.  I am fascinated that, according to the above words, part of God’s creative work is to affirm and encourage us to explore who we are.  What did you discover about yourself last week?  What have you learned anew or again about yourself in the last year?  I invite you to stop reading and ponder those questions.  Finally, the creed affirms that we are all distinctive and different.  This is the beauty of diversity, and we know it can also, heartbreakingly, lead to divisions.  God can hold all that is unique in us in unity with each other, even/especially when we cannot.  I pray these words of the creed, and my words above, might awaken your thinking and living in these days as you explore your inexhaustible and exceptional life today.  Amen.  

Statements of Faith ~ Week 4

 

This week we will explore one more Creed.  Wait, you think, how many creeds are out there?!? And you thought your only choices were the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed!  As humans, we are wired to put words around the mystery of God we encounter and experience in our lives.  Remember that theology, including creeds, is autobiographical.  All we say about God says something about us.  Slowly read these words below with me:

 

An Affirmation of Christian Unity

We believe in God the Creator,
who is always creative and invites us to affirm and explore who we are,
with all our differences; and who is the source of our faith.
We believe in God the Saviour revealed in the world as Jesus the Christ, who died and is risen, the one Lord of the church.
We believe in God the Reconciler, the Holy Spirit, who is always with us bearing witness with our spirits that we are the children of God.
We believe that our smallness can never diminish God’s vastness; that our frailties can never overcome God’s will for wholeness; that our sin can never crush God’s power for new life even in the face of death.
We believe, and in this belief, we need one another, as a choir needs every voice and every part for the harmony to be complete.

We believe - that in the Holy Spirit, in Jesus Christ and in the love of God -we are one!
We believe - and may our lives reflect our belief.

 

Which words above caused you to nod your head vigorously in agreement?  Which thoughts/sentences above did you shake your head emphatically, no, in disagreement?  And the deeper question: why do you think this was your reaction/response?  It is good to ask, when reading a creed, which words we connect with and where we want to take a red ink pen and rewrite the idea.  But it is also good to ask why this is our response.  It is good to remember that where we emphasize one word, the original author or authors might have had a completely different intention in writing.  For example, in the Apostles’ Creed, the line “born of the Virgin Mary”, we tend to debate and discuss the word “Virgin”.  But the intent of the authors was to emphasize the word “born”.  Among early Christians, some contended that Jesus wasn’t really born.  I guess he just magically appeared out of thin air?  Poof!  The early Christians debated and were divided between the group that emphasized Jesus’ humanity and the group clamoring/claiming divinity.  In some ways, this forced binary choice still exists.  Holding Jesus as both human and God is difficult, like trying to pick up a single grain of sugar.  When we read the creeds, the words are filtered through our experiences, encounters, histories, biases, and beliefs.  Usually, we tend to agree only when the idea is aligned with our experiences.  Sit with this creed over a cup of tea/coffee/favorite beverage of your choice.  Listen to the words - not to poke holes or point out its errors ~ because none of us appreciate others offering color commentary on our lives.  Listen like you are meeting a new friend with curiosity and openness.  Amen. 

Prayer

 

God, You form and fashion us and all creation with a Word.  Open our ears to hear.  Open our hearts to Your warmth.  Open our lives to Your still-singing voice. You continue to re-author, edit, and write anew/afresh on our hearts.  Open us to the mystery of Your ways, not that we can ever fully understand and articulate who You are and what You are up to.  Grant us renewed energy to be fascinated by discovering You each day.  Help us hold our opinions, beliefs, and theologies lightly, for what we say today might be stretched in a new way tomorrow.  God, You are endlessly knowable.  Thank you for human words that help us explore and examine our theologies and our own lives.  Thank you for different creeds that we can let loose our curiosity in seeing where we agree and why we might find certain ideas like sandpaper to our souls.  Keep us questioning and on a quest to discover the ways You are here, right now, in our lives, communities, and world.  Thank you, God, for the delight of our relationship with You.  Amen.