Tag Archives: sacramental life

Lenten Book Study – Discovering God the Creator: Third Sunday in Lent

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We begin chapter three of Mark McIntosh’s book, Mysteries of Faith, with a challenging statement: “What would you think if I told you that Christians believe God does not exist?” I was a bit startled at McIntosh’s statement for a few reasons: I suppose it’s startling to me when someone speaks for all Christianity, and to speak with such certainty about a subject that is large, complex, and mysterious…God’s creation, is a bit surprising. McIntosh goes on to develop his statement by saying that if God “existed” as other concrete realities “exist” in the world, that would imply that God was created as well. And God was not and never has been “created;” God is the eternal source of all created things. He also develops more nuanced understandings of God’s being throughout the chapter, with thoughts like, “a crucial difference between the Creator and all creatures is essence and existence: for while essence and existence are two quite different things for creatures, the very essence of God is to exist – not as something, but as the sheer loving act of existing itself.” And so, the mystery of creation is not something we might unwrap and understand in a single sentence.

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Lenten Book Study – Encountering the Trinity of God: Second Sunday in Lent

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If you were asked to assemble a list of “the mysteries of faith,” I believe most people would have a rather long list; and the mystery of “God the Trinity” would be pretty high on most people’s list. The Christian idea of a trinitarian God: “One in Three and Three in One” is an idea that often sits just beyond the grasp of most people’s minds…at least most people I know. The trinitarian understanding of God is a belief that distinguishes the Christian faith tradition from many others; and is a mystery that helps describe some of the most intimate and important characteristics of God’s eternal love. This is the mystery that Mark McIntosh takes up in this week’s chapter of his book, Mysteries of Faith. The mystery of discovering God in our daily lives is often revealed to us as we reflect on the deepest desires of our spirits…it is there we often find resonance with the Spirit of God. McIntosh writes, “The beauty and power we long to possess are only the whispers of One who cannot be possessed but who lives by giving all away freely in love.” The beauty we discover in life is often the reflection of the true and everlasting beauty of God’s love.

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Lenten Book Study – Talking with God: First Sunday in Lent

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Where do we find God in our daily lives? I guess the first part of answering that question leans on one important assumption: we are looking for God. The complex and hidden mysteries of life can be searched out with many different lenses, depending on one’s belief structure. In our discussion here, we will presume that the lens that leads to greater understanding and wholeness of life is illuminated by finding and conversing with God. And, to be even more specific, (because the divine nature of “God” is a complex thing as well), we proceed with a particularly Western Christian understanding of God. I preface all that follows with this statement because our book study group reflected on what people throughout the world might think of the subjects we will soon encounter, and we agreed that the conversation would take different paths, depending on where the conversation was held. This follows an important point made by Mark McIntosh in his first chapter of Mysteries of Faith: context provides clues to conversation and helps us to discover greater meaning.

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Lenten Book Study – 2024: Mysteries of Faith

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Once again, welcome to the holy season of Lent! As I skim through my web journal, it seems that Lent has become the time I return to this space. Maybe one of my Lenten practices this year will be to try and cultivate a more sustained practice of writing here…at least, one can hope! This year our book study is focused on one of the books in the New Church’s Teaching Series. The book we will study is Volume Eight of the Series: Mysteries of Faith, by Mark McIntosh.

This book centers itself in a discovery of the mysteries of life…the mysteries of life that are centered in the ongoing creative being of the divine presence of God. There are many, many things we can easily see in life, and there are as many (if not more) things that are invisible; things we can only imagine, or maybe theorize from clues we discover. The focus of McIntosh’s book is on the mysteries of the invisible work of God in our lives…which becomes a bit less mysterious if we dedicate ourselves to deepening our relationship with the divine source of creation. The focus of McIntosh’s book is the practice of “theology,” which for some folks might seem like a scary word. However, I appreciate that McIntosh quickly spends some time describing the “practice of theology” and, in doing so, quickly disarms the potentially overwhelming aspects of the word and brings the practice to something we all do in our daily lives. McIntosh writes in the opening Acknowledgments: “If prayer is ‘something understood,’ theology is the struggle to put what has been understood in prayer into words…Theology, I believe, is a sharing in the mystery of God’s life; it is what happens as God the Holy Spirit works within us the mystery of the Father’s Word made flesh. And it is, I believe, a deeply Anglican intuition to draw our theology from our life of common prayer throughout the ages.”

We will explore the Mysteries of Faith, chapter by chapter, as we make our way through Lent. The book also provides a few study questions for group discussion, and I will share parts of those questions throughout our journey through this Lenten book study. I hope you can join me.

Blessings on your Lenten journey, where ever it may take you. Peace be with you.

Lenten Book Study – “Receiving Jesus: To Go”

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The sixth practice of following the Way of Love is the practice “To Go.” Bishop Budde once again provides spiritual guidance with wonderful insights (her own and quotes of wise people) and an even measure of encouragement and thought provoking questions to help the reader wrestle with the practical aspects of living and witnessing to their faith in God. Budde’s book, “Receiving Jesus: The Way of Love,” continues to help dive deeply into one more practice of living an active and fruitful life in relationship with Christ. The holy work of “going” requires patience, trust, and encouragement to overcome the obstacles we might encounter. As Budde writes, “There is risk in going, a vulnerability in crossing boundaries that conspire to keep us separate from one another. Yet such risk is an expression of love. Our going activates love within and among us that would otherwise lie dormant. Paul writes in his letter to the Philippians (2:5-8) of Jesus’ love as the ultimate border crossing and urges us to follow his example.” How can we begin the process of trusting God enough to have the confidence “To Go?”

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Book Study: Road to Character Part I

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Road to Character by David Brooks is the new book study for July…and I guess I’m already a bit behind schedule! But, hey, it’s summer, right? I’m glad to say that of what I’ve already read (through ch. 2 of 10) I am really enjoying the writing style, the stories, and insights presented by Brooks…maybe that’s why I’m reading it so slowly?

The introduction sets up Brooks idea of “character” by presenting the reader with an Adam I and an Adam II (very biblical), and what these two personas mean. One character is “of this world” and the other is “of a humble and self-sacrificing” centered type of character. The book, as broken into chapters, presents major themes or morality and virtue, as made real through the lives of different people. Chapter 1 (The Shift) continues this theme, generally, as Brooks comparatively presents the culture of the 1940’s vs. today. He examines the cultural differences through the lens of “Little Me” vs. “Big Me.” Little Me was a time “of more understated presence, self-effacing style.” The Big Me of today’s generation is rooted in “self-importance and a tendency to proclaim accomplishments.” Brooks’ point is that we’ve lost our way to follow the humble path in life, and that humble path is that idea, “humility is the freedom from the need to prove you are superior all the time.” I agree with Brooks that in our fast-paced, notice me society, we can often feel the need to highlight our accomplishments…I suppose there is a fine line is joyously proclaiming your delights and becoming a bit full of yourself. Here, Brooks quotes a good Anglican, the late Michael Ramsey, Archbishop of Canterbury, regarding how thankfulness and graciousness helps us prevent us from becoming too boastful: “Thankfulness is a soil in which pride does not easily grow.” Brooks’ point is that self-reflection and honesty about one’s strengths and weaknesses leads to a willingness to improve. Again, I wonder if our culture has lost the ability to take moments of silence for genuine self-reflection. A final thought of chapter 1: Brooks offers that many people who follow the path of humility were brought there through some difficult circumstances. “They had to descend into the valley of humility to climb the height of character,” says Brooks. He continues, “In the valley of humility they learned to quiet the self. Only by quieting the self could they see the world clearly. Only by quieting the self could they understand other people and accept what they are offering.” Continue reading →

Wolves, Rivers, and changing God’s World

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Pentecost 19A (Matthew 22:15-22)  10/19/2014

“Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” (Matt 22:17), said the disciples of the Pharisees, along with the Herodians, to Jesus as they stood in the temple. An interesting question posed by an interesting group of people; a strange group of “friends” you might say. The Pharisees were more concerned with religious “correctness” and righteousness, while the Herodians, supporters of the royal family of Herod, would have been more concerned with political power. But these strange friends found common ground in their challenge to Jesus…a question that by its very nature had a lose-lose response: if you suggest paying tax to the emperor, you are a friend of Caesar and the Roman empire which was set against the Jewish people; and if you suggest withholding your tax payment, well you are a religious zealot and a dangerous insurrectionist. These Jewish authorities had been listening to Jesus teach the crowd about the kingdom of God and they seem to have had enough of his rhetoric…they were determined to entrap him with a unanswerable question. The problem for the Jewish authorities, however, was that the question is only a trap if you think in black and white, right and wrong: the Roman empire or the kingdom of God, devotion to my worldly life and its success or devotion to God and all that God invites us to be. In this black and white world, the question posed to Jesus was fraught with challenges beyond belief! Jesus’ response to their tricky question might appear black and white in our hearing: “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” (Matt 22:21b) But Jesus does not live in this black and white, earthly or divine world; Jesus lives in the fullness and abundance of God’s creation, and his response amazed the authorities and sent them away as they considered all that was given to them from God; and how their lives would change if they listened to Jesus. Continue reading →

Witnessing God’s love in Community

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Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Matthew 18:15-20)  9/07/2014

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These last few days there has been a lot going on in the world, both near and far; the news media would say, “it surely hasn’t been a slow news day!” There has been continued unrest in the Middle East, with continuing reports of extremist activity; there has extreme weather, with tornadoes as close as Worcester; and of course, there is the busy time of packing up the summer vacation period and heading back to school. As you might imagine, even with all the activity going on, I cannot help but be preoccupied with the idea of community. Yes, that’s right, the change of communities and the community of St. Francis in particular. And as I have considered this topic, I have wondered…how is it that we are “community” in the Christian sense? Some characteristics of community are obvious, while some are not so obvious. The obvious ones might be easy to pick out: we gather in the same building for worship and meetings, we support the same ministries, and hopefully we are setting our future in the same direction. The “not so obvious” ones may be a bit harder to plainly see: we faithfully pray for each other, our lives are transformed by the presence of others, and our communal presence transforms our broader community and the world in grace filled ways. And some characteristics of community can be just plain hard to do, like forgiveness and open-hearted conversation. These last characteristics, these challenging characteristics are the ones on the mind of Jesus today in our Gospel lesson. Continue reading →

Trinity Sunday: In relationship with a loving God

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Trinity Sunday (Matthew 28:16-20)  6/15/2014

A little more than a week ago, many people throughout the world took a moment to pause and remember the 70th anniversary of a day we call D-Day. This day continues to hold great significance in our common history; significant because we may personally know people who were present on the beaches of Normandy that day, significant because of the sheer scale of the event and its importance in world history. In remembrance of this day, Brian Williams, NBC News Anchor, presented a special broadcast titled, “Journey to Normandy.” His news story highlighted the lives of four men, all near 90 years old, who were returning to the same beaches they encountered 70 years ago, at a time when they were just a few years removed from their high school days. As they traveled back to Normandy they remembered their first trip, an experience that was beyond words in many ways, and they shared their memories of that day and the many days that followed. As I listened to these brave men share their thoughts about their upcoming visit to that far away beach in France, I was quite moved by the men’s stories and the hopes they had set for their visit. One man hoped to finally discover the future of a wounded teenager he had seen those many years ago, another simply wanted to throw a flower into the water where a dear friend was lost forever, and another brought his family along so they would understand his story in a deep and personal way. Their hopes and dreams, after all these years, were rooted in relationships with others: some relationships were only momentary (like the wounded teenager), while others were life-long relationships of family and close friends. The hopes of these veterans reveal an important truth for all of us: the spiritual connections we share with God and with each other are nurtured by our relationships. These brave men’s stories, begun in the crucible of the frightening moments on a distant beach, continued and was transformed to something profound and valuable due to their intimate relationships with family, friends, and God. Each transformation was made manifest in their personal story, the story of the past 70 years since that first day on the Normandy beach. Continue reading →

No worries, just be a Witness!

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Seventh Sunday of Easter (Sunday after the Ascension) (Acts 1:6-14)  6/01/2014

“As they were watching, Jesus was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up towards heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up towards heaven?'” (Acts 1:9-11) These three short verses of Scripture from the Book of Acts are among my favorite verses in the Bible, for many reasons. Just prior to this description of the Ascension of Jesus into heaven, we are told of the many post-resurrection appearances of Jesus and the final lessons he hoped to give to his followers, teaching them how to spread the Good News of Christ. But now the time has come for Jesus to leave them, and leave them he does…and they are left standing by themselves, filled with awe and more than just a little worry in their hearts. Suddenly, two heavenly beings burst into this dramatic moment with a question: “Why are you standing there looking up to heaven?” I really love this question because it is so simple, yet so challenging at the same time. I feel some kinship with the disciples as they gaze to the heavens with their mouths hanging open, the universal sign of “my goodness, what’s next?” The Ascension of Christ marks the 40th day of Eastertide, and in those forty days Jesus continually prepared his disciples for the next chapter of their ministry in the world. And we have heard throughout these past weeks that the disciples often did not really understand Jesus’ lessons to them; again, I feel some kinship with these earliest followers of Christ! And now, Jesus has departed from their midst; their great rabbi, their teacher, has ascended and left them to carry on…a bit overwhelming! What should we think of this story; what can we say about our first class of Christians? Should we understand the Ascension as a graduation story or something else entirely? Continue reading →