Church, Why Bother? (Hanna Lyle)

Welcome, welcome! I actually wrote this post up a while ago, on my smart phone, and then it decided to delete itself. Smart phone my donkey.

 Anyways, let’s envision it’s a Sunday morning. Hymns have been… Well they’ve been. The sermon just didn’t resonate, and the cookies, the ones left over after the hoard of famished seven year olds were done pilfering, were… flax bran raisin. Or cardboard. You’re not quite sure. And oh yes, you’re thirteen. So in your thirteen-year-old wisdom you come marching up to me, your youth leader, and announce that you’re just not sure why you even come to church.

Now, presuming that I am having a particularly enlightened morning, and managed to win the race against the seven year olds, here is the answer I would give you:

Church is not about “Church”. It’s about you and me. It is about having a home, a family and a community. Let me take you back to when I myself was thirteen. The first year I went to Naramata. I was there for four days and in those four days grew up about four years. I learned what it meant to be unconditionally accepted, to laugh freely and not in turn be laughed at. To exist in intentional community. Then, then we would fast forward to age fourteen, finally old enough to participate in the crew program at Camp Pringle. Learning to lead and to teach, to be validated and to validate, to build friendships that are still going strong today. An extra strong dose of intentional community.

Then I’d tell you about the tough stuff. As you looked up at me, eyes wide and mouth slightly ajar, I would tell you about age nineteen. Nineteen, when death introduced herself to me, and began a cascade of toils and trials that systematically mangled my soul. When for a few months, life became a shadow. And yet through it all, never have I come closer to my creator, felt such powerful community – absolute grace.

I’d tell these things to you, my little cauliflower, because they were all experiences that were deeply intertwined with the church and my own faith. They all shaped who I am now.

Okay, let’s ground this idea in theology. The B-book. La Biblia. Let’s go back about, oh, 1982 years or so, to when there was a dude going around creating a bit of havoc in the Roman empire. When asked “Teacher, what is the greatest commandment in the law?” He did not respond “Go to church every single Sunday, try to stay awake, and learn something” he said “love the lord your god with all your heart and soul and mind… and love your neighbour as yourself”. (It’s probably frowned upon to edit quotes from the bible, but hey, I’m not the first…). Please note the words ‘love your neighbour’. Now, I understand these words to mean, ahem, to build community. To show others true, deep, and complete love.

So. When you ask me, “Church, why bother?”, and I tell you all of this, what I want you to take away is the power of the United Church, the power of this awesome community that can be found in all of its ministries, from pews to canoes. And I’d remind you that it’s a package deal - if the buck stops with you, what about that little boy who’s never felt like he’s belonged? That little girl who desperately needs acceptance? Just sayin’.

Until we meet again, I'll bring the paragraphs, you bring the licorice,

- Hanna

Real Things

Cover of Brave New World

My daughter was telling me about "Brave New World", which she had just read, as I drove her to choir practice this morning.  The book describes a world in which humans have been conditioned (among other things) never to feel passion or pain, and to mask any feeling of unhappiness with the happy-drug 'soma'.

An unconditioned "savage", John, who visits the civilization, points out to a World Controller that this avoidance, by conditioning and drug use, denies people access to any spiritual experience, or any contact with God.  Well, yes, says the Controller; we've chosen comfort over those things.

John answers,"But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin."

"In fact," the Controller replies, "you're claiming the right to be unhappy", and John agrees.

So I've been thinking about this.  Is it true that God is most accessible, most present to us, when we're miserable?

I remember years ago a very devout friend of mine telling me about the time his then-fiancée had told him she didn't want to marry him after all, and had returned his ring.  He was devastated, and although he rarely drank, that night he went out and got very drunk.  The next morning he had to drive back to his home city, feeling very sick indeed, and had finally had to stop in a roadside café to be wretchedly, incapacitatingly ill in the public rest room. But what he really remembered, he said, was that the whole time he was in the rest room, too weak even to stand without support, he had never felt God so close, all around him, holding him in his grief; he had never felt so sure he was truly loved.  It was an odd time for a beatific vision, he said, but he welcomed it.

It's true that when we are desperately unhappy we can sometimes see, feel, God in ways we usually don't.   Is pain, misery, a necessary part of being able to feel the presence of God? That's what Brave New World seems to suggest.

I am no expert but I don't think so. I think what we really need, to experience God, is to to be open to what's real; not to mask our perceptions with - other stuff.  Soma.  Internet surfing. Food as a distraction instead of a need or even a pleasure. Whatever it is we use to draw ourselves away from our actual perceptions, from what we actually see and hear and feel.  Maybe we notice God more when we're miserable, because misery has a way of getting our attention even when we try to avoid it; it overwrites our distractions and insists, FEEL THIS.  But I don't think it's misery that's necessary; I think what's needed is just paying attention to what's really there.

I think we make it possible for ourselves to feel and see the presence of God whenever we pay attention to real things; our real feelings, our real experiences.  Because God is real and is part of all of this.

The way God was part of driving my daughter to school, half-asleep in the pre-dawn darkness, talking about Brave New World. Compared to still being peacefully asleep in bed it wasn't comfortable; but it was a pleasure, and it was real.

Bible Study - Matthew 6 (Keith Howard)

Read: Matthew 6: 19-21, 24-33

As Gail Miller suggests read the text and sit with it for a while. After you have identified some of the words and images that seem to strike a chord then you might be interested to note:

Treasure – anyone thinking “Pirates?” Once you have Johnny Depp out of your mind the word treasure implies more than just a stack of cash. It implies something that will go towards meeting a deep desire of the heart.

The Aramaic word for “mammon” doesn't simply mean cold-hard-cash or wealth, it

comes from a Hebrew word meaning "that in which we trust."  When Jesus says, "You cannot serve God and mammon" (Mt. 6:24), he's unmasking the remarkable and powerful influence of something (i.e., money and wealth) that we typically see as "neutral and [something that becomes] a problem only if people  thought about it inordinately or acted to gain it immorally." (http://www.nwumf.org/images/radical_gratitude/year_a/radical_gratitude_may1908.pdf)

3. “do not worry” – really?

David Lose says:

we live in an incredibly anxious culture. The evening news certainly depends upon worries at home and abroad to attract viewers. Commercials are constantly inviting us to worry about one more thing -- usually about ourselves! -- … home security signs in their front lawns. … : everywhere you turn, everywhere you look, there are visible reminders of just how much there is to worry about.

http://www.workingpreacher.org/dear_wp.aspx?article_id=458

More about money from David Lose:

“notice that Jesus doesn't say money is evil, or even bad, just that it makes a poor master. Actually, the word in Greek is kurios, often translated "lord." The lord is the one who demands and deserves your loyalty, allegiance, and worship. (Which, by the way, explains the courageous and treasonous nature of the earliest Christian confession, "Christ is Lord" in a world where the more expected confession was, "Caesar is Lord.")

I wonder about the relation of this passage to a perspective on the world that is dominated by a deep sense of there not being enough. Scarcity creates fear, and fear creates devotion to those who will protect you. Abundance, on the other hand, produces freedom.

The world Jesus invites us into: a world of abundance, generosity, and new life. But it is also a world of fragility, trust, and vulnerability.

Once we believe that money can satisfy our deepest needs, then we suddenly discover that we never have enough. In a world of scarcity, there is simply never enough.

Questions to Ponder

• Do you have a treasure box? If you do – or wish you did – what is/would be in it? What do your treasures tell you about the deep desire of your heart"
• That in which we trust” – this can be a hard phrase because once we get past saying what we know the right answer should be we realize that, actually, we trust in very many things, depending upon circumstance. One of the gifts of disaster planning is that it can force us to think about what or who we trust to “get us through.” Perhaps a more helpful question is: with whom am I entrusting what? The answer might vary depending upon whether we are holding in our heart our children, our spouse, our health, our car.
• If you worry, what ramps up the intensity of your worrying? What calms you?
• One of the key differences between the world view of baby boomers and those of WWII and the Depression relates to their early expectations of what the world might provide. Boomers grew up with affluence and, most, in some part of their being expect life to yield this. Other generations know in their bones that circumstances can turn in a moment and so feel a deep need to protect against scarcity.  Where do you fit?

Lectio Divina (Rev. Gail Miller)

Isn't this just a great way to read the bible?  Well . . .  maybe.  In conversations here and there I am hearing that people feel they  "aren't doing it right"  . . .  in all kinds of ways.   Becoming still and quiet means suddenly you are napping!  You can't slow down enough to let any word really sink in!  Lectio divina as a practice not only gives us opportunity to read the bible in a different way but gives us an awareness of what it means to slow down, stop, simply be.   The practice creates space for us to notice that we are tired or distracted or  . . .  There is great value in this insight alone.

In my mind, the most important thing about lectio divina is not being still and quiet - that is simply a way to prepare ourselves for the task, for a different conversation  . . . a conversation with an ancient text that is "alive" with the Spirit.  What is important about lectio divina is that it teaches us to be in relationship with the Word.  We are not reading for intellectual understanding as we would most other things we read.  We are reading for encounter, embrace, relationship, intimacy.  Lectio divina isn't reading.  It is a conversation, an engagement,  with the Holy One.

So whatever way you do it  . . . is the right way.

At least that is what I tell myself when I awake from my lectio divina induced nap feeling strangely refreshed.

How do I do this Thing Called Christian? (Hanna Lyle)

Well hello there and welcome to my inaugural blog post! I think I'll take this first post to expand a bit more on what this blog is all about. It started back in May, although perhaps it really started almost a year before hand, but we'll leave that be. It started because a wonderful person from the church I attend, as the youth leader no less, asked me about my confirmation. Erm, awkward - I was never confirmed. I've pondered the why's and the why not's of this, but alas that's a subject also best left untouched, for now.

So. My flirtation with the idea of confirmation culminated in a meeting this summer with the gracious Gaye Sharpe. There it was decided that I, being a fledgling (wannabe?) writer, should get my blog on and write. And so here we are, me, the writer, exploring, imploring, perhaps even destroying and rebuilding, and you, the reader, along for the ride. You may be a member of my own community since birth, or perhaps a perfect stranger, but fundamentally, you are a participant in this adventure.

So Hanna, what exactly will you be talking about? I'm glad you asked. We'll start with "Church, Why Bother?". As a youth group leader I feel the very baseline question of why one should even cast the covers aside before 10:00 am on Sunday morning needs to be relevantly addressed. From there, we'll touch on scripture, experience, and tradition through a myriad of rivetingly delicious topics.

Until we meet again,

- Hanna

The Widow's Offering (Rev. Gail Miller)

Jesus is in Jerusalem.  He has made his entry atop a colt, greeted by shouts of Hosanna.  While Jesus and his disciples continue to make forays out of the city to Bethany, his focus now is Jerusalem and the action begins to intensify.  We are given story after story of Jesus engaging with those who hold power and authority.  There are conversations and questions from the Herodians, the Pharisees, the Sadducees.  Very soon the story will turn toward the cross.  It is here that Mark places his story about the widow and her offering.

http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=219397771

Mark's gospel is always a challenge for me because there isn't a lot to chew on.  I don't find him to be much of a story teller.  He does not use dramatic tension.  He is not given to creative embellishment.  Nothing wrong with that. But I tend to "feel" my way into bible study.   What a story feels like is important to me.  My heart looks for an energetic hook.  Then later my head joins the conversation.


So let us gather . . . on the rough stone steps of the temple court, amid the noise of the crowd.  It is chaotic. Your eyes dart around taking in the sights and the sounds.  Each person you see holds a story  . . . any of which you could just dive into.  Which one catches your attention?  Is it the teacher of the law, dressed in long flowing robes walking as one with authority, across the court?  Is it the one dressed in fine linens who has just placed a  large sum of money into the temple treasury . . . coins glinting in the sunlight?  Is it the wild looking one over in the corner with the dust of the road still on him?  Yeah, he has a magnetism.  It is hard to peel your eyes off of him.  Is it the group of equally wild and dusty ones gathered around him  that catch your eye?  Or is it her?  Over there  . . . the burdened one . . . a woman . . . alone . . . no fine linens  . . . only two very small and dull coins.  She is reaching out now and dropping them into the treasury.


It happens in slow motion . . . yet so quickly you wonder if any one other than Jesus even noticed. What do you notice?  How does your heart make sense of this?  What draws you in? And how does it feel?


Lectio Divina
Those who walk a contemplative path or tend toward the mystical may be familiar with the notion that our ancient text is alive.  Rather than mere ink and paper, more than the sum total of its interpretive history,  it is actually the sacred presence of Christ.   Christ living in and living as the Word.  As we engage in study and reflection of the biblical text we are hosting a holy guest.  "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God."  (John 1)

The following is a method for doing a sacred reading (lectio divina) of the text.  You will need to take 15 minutes or more if you have time!

• Take a few minutes to become still and quiet.
• Invite the Spirit to be present.  Ask for an experience of God.
• Read the passage out loud and very slowly.
• Read the passage through a second time, but this time pause on any word that catches your attention and slowly repeat that word, until it feels like it is time to move on.  This may be as far as you get in the passage.  The intention is not to finish the passage as much as to listen for what God is saying to you.
• When you have taken whatever time you need, give thanks and take a "Word"  - a word or a short phrase -  and let the presence of Jesus Christ living in that Word be your companion, a gentle teacher revealing a deeper wisdom.

Bible Study - Ruth 1 (Keith Howard)

Ruth 1:1-18

The story of Ruth is not a warm fuzzy story about two girlfriends on a road trip. It is a story that begins in dislocation and death. As a political piece it is a powerful counter-story to the reforms of Ezra and Nehemiah whose strategy for the re-establishment of the Temple and the people was to “get back to the fundamentals.” One human implication of this was that all foreign wives – like Ruth – were banished from the country. Against this “keep on message” story of purification and focus the tale of Ruth and Naomi shows a God quite capable of working outside the lines.

Through Ruth the arc of Naomi’s story moves from despair and death to hope and new life until, if we sneak a peek far ahead to the Gospel of Matthew, Ruth is listed as a foremother of Jesus, the great- grandmother of King David. Now that’s a reversal of type, a transformation of story.  For Ruth was from the Moabites, a people usually portrayed as outside any sphere of God, loose in sexual and religious morality. They did, using a phrase from Judges, “what was right in their own eyes.”  (almost a Baby Boomer ethic!) A foreigner, an unwelcome alien, becomes a vehicle of salvation not only for Naomi but for the nation. That kind of thinking is almost Biblical!

The tale reeks with humanity. Naomi, after the deaths of her husband and sons, names herself as a bitter person. Life had not turned out as she hoped. Her husband and she had been forced to leave Bethlehem because of famine and then, after having endured the battles of all immigrants, the family disintegrates in the new land, and she feels forced to make her way back home, uncertain of what she will find there.  Wow! That’s an uncertain future at a time when all resources and energy feels depleted.

Questions to Ponder

1. Naomi and Ruth found themselves on the edge, without power, influence or resource. Has there been a time in your life where you have felt similar things? Did you feel alone during those times – aka Naomi – or did support come from elsewhere?

2. One of the key turning points of the story is Ruth’s profession of faithfulness and loyalty to Naomi. Have there been times in your life when the faithfulness and loyalty of some one or group has tipped the balance for you?

3. God does not appear as a front and center player in the story. We are left to infer God’s preferences and movement. Have you found that God has often been more visible in your life when you look in the rear view mirror or have you sometimes been aware right away?