Spending Time with Siblings in Christ

Jen and I have been in Kansas this week at the Leadership Institute of the Church of the Resurrection. It has been an amazing week in which we have been reflecting on Christ Crossman as we hear presentations. I am sure you will hear about this from us before too long.

Right now, I am filled with awe and gratitude at how our God works amazing connections. I was able to introduce Jen to some friends of mine. We stayed with some of my college friends on Tuesday night, Susan and Loren. We had only reconnected in January, 2012, after many years. It seemed as though Jen and Susan had been friends for years. We have also spent time with a newer friend, Hedy, and found that the world is indeed a small place. That discovery will be Jen's to share.

Spending time in community with sisters and brothers in Christ is an awesome privilege and a great joy. Every time I get to go to a conference and spend more time with Jen, I give thanks more and more for her passion and compassion, for her intense love of God and God's people, and for her deep commitment to Christ Crossman. 

Colossians 3:12

As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.

Lost in the Beauty

My soul cries out holy, holy
My heart is lost in your beauty
All hope is found in your mercy*

Wednesday night as I sat listening, amid all the standing--and jumping--to the music of the Rend Collective, I was caught by the phrase “My heart is lost in your beauty.” I remembered the image I had last week of Chip, Jeff and Elmer standing in awe and wonder in the glory of our God whose heart is the center of all creation. God is the center, and yet God also encompasses all of creation. How can God be both the very center and that which surrounds us all? All I can do is be lost in the beauty of God’s mercy, singing “holy, holy.”

The wedding banquet is a great image that Jesus uses for the kingdom of God. The problem is that we think of this banquet as somewhere off in the distant, far away future. The reality is that the kingdom of God is already among us. Eternity began the moment of Creation’s beginning. God has invited all of creation from the very beginning into relationship. God is both the host of the banquet, and yet God is the very feast itself.  How can God be host and feast? All I can do is be lost in the beauty of God’s mercy, singing “holy, holy.”

*Rend Collective, “Finally Free,” 2014.

Revelation 7:9

After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands.

When Someone Dies...

“When someone dies, you don’t get over your grief by forgetting; you get through your grief by remembering.” I read this on Facebook this evening. It is appropriate for this week. A college friend we loved died this week after a journey with cancer. In his caring fashion, as he realized that treatment was not working, he reached out thinking of his wife, and how Charlene and I have been through what she is now facing, losing a husband to cancer.

I have never forgotten Chip, though as so often happens in life, we got busy and did not stay in touch as much as we could have. We talked on occasion, once after Hurricane Katrina made them evacuate from Beaumont. We emailed a bit. The last time I saw him was eons ago, just before I started at Duke, and while he was in law school at the University of Texas in Austin. I took a solo road trip visiting family and friends along the way, ending with Chip. After he finished his final exam, we had a cookout with his law school friends—the first brisket I ever had. He went with me to visit my childhood hometown in Taft, and to see the white, white beaches at Corpus Christi. We waded in the almost bath-warm waters of North Padre Island.

I met Chip in our Fireside fellowship at the Wesley Foundation at UVA. Neither of us had signed up for the “Contract” meal plan, so many, if not most nights found us eating together in different eateries at The Corner. He took me to the Moot Court, when his father, a graduate of the law school at UVA, visited. That night, we were able to witness the great Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall preside over the Moot Court.

I remember Chip’s deep intelligence and his compassion, and the light that would gleam in his eyes when he engaged in a discussion. Though they never, ever met in life, I wonder if he and Jeff, and Elmer might find a pause in their wondrous gazing upon the glory of our God to find common ground, and share a laugh about the naiveté of their two Wahoo women, and stand amazed at how we all grew into what God called us to be. Here’s to the memories! I hold them dear.

1 Corinthians 15:41-42

There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; indeed, star differs from star in glory. So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable.

Get Your Game On!

Get your game on! Come dressed as, or sport gear from your favorites!

What is your favorite cartoon character? You will have to come to worship at Christ Crossman this Sunday (September 7) to see mine! What can cartoon characters teach us about conflict?

Which is your favorite sports team? Personally, I’d like to find a Gryffindor quidditch robe to wear on September 14, but I will settle for something a little more earthbound. What can we learn about forgiveness in sports?

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Superman! Or whoever is your favorite superhero? With all their superpowers, what could we possibly learn about humility from them on September 21?

The breadth of history is wide open for your choice of a favorite historical character. The good, the bad, the ugly—all have something to teach us about our faith on September 28. Did you know that Maggie our new intern majored in history in college? She will be preaching that Sunday.

And on October 5, we hope to see a panorama of our favorite nations (other than the good ol’ USA) as we celebrate World Communion Sunday.

Why on earth are we doing this? It’s because laughter and mirth can bring joy to the heart. And why not! Sarah laughed.

Genesis 21.6:

Now Sarah said, “God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me.”

Luminous Beauty

Luminous Beauty

I walk and walk along the way

Sometimes with my focus mainly on

The obstacles that would cause me

To stumble

To take a tumble

Rey sees a rabbit, a squirrel

And pulls as if to give chase

He sees a friend—known or unknown—

And with his growl asks to be petted

We walk many of the same paths

Each day

We learn the patterns of some

With whom we cross paths

The writer who takes time to shoot baskets

            And loves to give Rey a tousled head

The dog who charges from across her yard

            But cannot cross her invisible fence

The gardener who is making order among her

            Seemingly chaotic plantings

But then I look up

And see a luminous beauty

Of trunks with shedding bark

The blossoms fading amid the leaves

And all my questions vanish for a moment

Of absolute delight

And pure joy                             

Trying to Avoid What Can't Be Avoided

I first heard Mitch Albom speak about his book Tuesdays with Morrie shortly after it was published in 1997. I was touched by the subject since it was about Albom’s conversations with his former professor Morrie Schwartz as the latter was suffering from ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease). I avoided reading the book for several years even though it was highly popular. It brought my father’s last months and his death from ALS too closely to mind for me.

When a colleague, Cheryl Simmons, was diagnosed with progressive bulbar palsy, it felt as though a scab was pulled off a wound. Across the Conference, and on Facebook, I watched, and prayed, as she bravely fought for every moment she could. When she gave away her piano and her car, I saw Daddy’s frustration and tears again as he knew he could no longer play golf.

I had some of the same feelings of avoidance over the last couple of weeks as Facebook has been overwhelmed with the “ALS Ice-bucket Challenge.” In reality, I hoped I would escape being “nominated” for the challenge, but that was not to be. I had to think about it long and hard. Don’t get me wrong. I am grateful for the funds being raised for research.

The reality is that each one of us will have to face a moment, either suddenly or perhaps slow in coming, when we will no longer have any control in this life, and we will have to say our goodbyes. And before we reach that moment, more likely than not, we will have had to face it with someone we love. Even those of us who deal with death and dying more than many others will sometimes try to avoid it, but sometimes it slaps us in the face like ice cold water.

[You can see what I decided to do here: my ALS Challenge]

United Church of Canada Creed’s final phrase:

“In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us. We are not alone. Thanks be to God.”

Oh, the Lies that We Believe

What are the lies that we believe? Henri Nouwen, a Catholic priest, professor, spiritual director, found his deepest sense of purpose in being the companion of a core member of a L’Arche community. He said that there are three lies we believe:

         We are what we have.

         We are what we do.

         We are what others say about us.

When we believe these lies, we forget what is the singular most important truth: we are God’s beloved. That’s right—God’s beloved. God loves us not for what we have, not for what we do, not for what anyone says about us. God loves us for a very simple reason: we are God’s children. I am God’s child; you are God’s child.

Maybe in our best moments we can believe this, but there are so many more times when we do not-- and even more times maybe that we do not even love ourselves. If, in God’s infinite triune wholeness, the love of the Three-in-One flows so freely that we—you, I—are invited to sit at the table, to come into the fellowship, into the embrace, doesn’t that say something about being beloved?

I know that there are moments when we may find ourselves deep in darkness and cannot see any possibility of light, or love. In those times even the love that is expressed for us does not feel like enough of a cord to lead us to the light. Instead, we can only think of a “final solution” that might end the pain, the darkness.

And so tonight, I weep for those who know such utter darkness, who have believed the lies. I do not condemn them. And most of all, I do not despair completely, because I believe in One who is so powerfully Love itself that even death cannot end the invitation, the embrace.

Isaiah 49:15b-16a

Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.