Getting in and Fitting In

 I loved our Parish Forum on Sunday. Patricia and I had some bittersweet news about our departure, but in spite of that (and perhaps because of it) I felt great energy in the room. The presence of God was in our church on Sunday.

In particular, I loved something James Pettigrew said right at the end. (I love it when someone gets the floor and ends a meeting better than I could! Makes my job easy. Funny how that works- the Lord gives a word to just the right person at just right time sometimes, huh?)  He said, “You get in where you fit in…”

A few people voiced some legitimate concerns.  Barbara talked about how we need to do better with the grounds. We also heard several people talk about how we needed folks to step up and commit to getting things done around here. But James’s pithy statement really summed up how I feel about work at the Church. I think some passion was displayed about some issues- in particular apathy, a few people doing most of the work and the building and grounds. However, in the end, Sunday’s forum was a healthy church on display. Words and ideas were shared with love and with a common vision towards God’s kingdom.  We gathered and were the Church.

The Church is different from other groups. God’s Church is not a civic organization or a social club- she is not a fraternal order or a sorority- she is not even an outreach organization. The Church is the Body of Christ- God’s body! Gathered together-  we make up the very substance of who God is on this earth.  (Think about that for a second.  Whoa….)

I love what the Apostle Paul says about the Church being God’s body. He says, in 1 Cor 12: 12, “Christ is just like the human body—a body is a unit and has many parts;and all the parts of the body are one body, even though there are many.” (CEB)

Some of us are hands that operate weed whackers or lawnmowers, fingers that knead dough, chop vegetables or braise legs of lamb. Quite a few of us are heads: people who think,  have great ideas and share practical skills that are put to great use. Just about everyone here is the heart- we never fail to see great passion for not only the survival of Incarnation but the desire for her to flourish. We are God’s body!

So, when you contribute time and talent to Incarnation, you are doing so for the betterment not of a building or a liturgy or a social event or even a group of really nice people who gather, sing and pray each week- you are doing your part to bring and keep God’s body in good health. Every second you spend here working, thinking, teaching, singing, pulling weeds, pressure-washing, studying scripture (and whatever else you can think of) is a blessed miracle!

I don’t know about you, but I find it thrilling to be able to take part in being God’s visible presence in this world. All of the tiny things you do here are building God’s Kingdom, one tiny act at a time. Every weed you pull, every bean you cook, every blade of grass you cut and every bulletin you fold, you are moving as a part of God’s body.

Hurry Up and Stop!

 Jesus with some Fans... Taking a Moment to chat with some really well-dressed little kids. 

(They look like they are in Scotland or something... How strange).

Quiet and stopping....

 So easy to forget about these two "inactivities."  All of us get busy very quickly- especially folks with families or other people of any sort who depend on us daily. From waking until sleeping, so often we are scheduled for every minute.

Jesus was a really unscheduled dude!

One of my favorite scenes in the Gospels is the one in which little children come running up to him.  I imagine that it came at the end of a long day- his robe grimy with the dust of the town, little street urchins running up all around him, probably begging for alms or food.  His disciples shoo them away like so many pests… One of the guys says something like, “Yeshua, we have to find someplace to sleep tonight before it gets dark… We just don’t have time for this nonsense!! ” Jesus stops, though,  and asks one of the little children her name…. Gives some of them whatever food or money he has…. He squats down to talk with them- these nobodies… He stops in the middle of a busy day! 

Jesus didn’t have a schedule, other than the weekly rhythm of Sabbath that was central to the life of all Jewish people. Given how we are so time obsessed, it is kind of surprising (and not a little bit funny) that we never read about any of the apostles keeping a calendar. In fact, in the few instances where he is challenged with a “We don’t have time for this!” from one of his people, he often  answers them with a rebuke.

In the Gospels, Jesus is someone who knows how  to stop. He naps (Luke 8:23, Mark 4:37-38). He takes time off  (Matthew 12:22-23, Luke 6:12-13, Mark 6:30-32.) Jesus even hides on occasion during a stressful time  (Mark 7:24). Jesus, by today’s standards, might even be considered to be quite the slacker!

I was reminded of how essential stopping and being quiet with God is just this week. I was at the church all alone and for some reason, I found myself sitting in the second row of the nave. I just sat there. My mind raced around for a while, but finally I began to breathing and saying a favorite centering prayer, “God of love, Mother of my soul, Send me your peace.” I think I might have prayed about some other things, but I am pretty sure I just sat there. Nothing hugely miraculous happened: no voices, visions or revelations. However, in the stillness a genuine presence of love and peace settled upon me. (God, perhaps??)

All the rest of this week, that time has anchored me and drawn me back to silence and stopping at different times of the day and in the midst of my busyness. Once I remember to stop and be quiet, I am reminded of how natural, life-giving and all present our Living God really is. (The only trouble is, until I actually get to “the quiet place,” it seems like the hardest thing in the world to do!)

I encourage you to find your quiet place right now. Take 5 minutes- go for a short walk, stare out the window, or just remember to breathe in and out as you are driving along. Try a centering prayer that is keyed to your breath.  (For some good suggestions, visit http://www.kyrie.com/cp/  or www.contemplativeoutreach.org )

As you have success or failure with your quiet time, stopping and/or centering prayer, share them with someone else. (If anything, come and talk to me about it- I would love to learn how you are doing with this practice). I pray that you find time to “stop” and take in the love our God has for you!

As always, I love you and am praying for you

Father Tim+

Interdependence Day

Incarnationally Speaking… July 6^th Edition

 

Some of you probably remember the  bicentennial. 

I was 10 years old. My Mom has this great picture of me pulling a float I designed and constructed for my neighborhood’s parade. I made a chicken wire and crepe-paper birthday cake and my dad constructed a rolling platform for it. On the 4^th, the kids and adults in my neighborhood congregated on a cul-de-sac and we had a parade from one end of High Harbor Lane to the neighborhood pool and tennis courts.

I got Mom to make me a pair of breeches out of some old pants by cutting them off below the knee. I got a pair of white, knee-high socks and tucked the pants in them. I borrowed a button-on ruffle from my brother’s hot handbell-choir tuxedo, co-opted a vest from one of my plaid Sears wash-n-wear suits, stapled the sides and back of a felt cowboy hat I won at a county fair into a tricorner and, by golly, I made a convincing Johnny Tremain. I was an exuberant patriot at 10 years old, because I rang a bell as I paraded, yelling, “Happy Birthday, America!”

I am, as I was back then, grateful for the USA.

 I love this place and the opportunity, safety and abundance it has afforded all of us. Who can complain? Even on our worst days in the USA, the poorest among us is safer and healthier than many people with money in developing nations. At the very least, we live reasonably sure that we are not going to be blown up by an IED or hunted down by a drone.  The great majority  of us have access to clean water and sanitation and our stores feature an uninterrupted supply of readily available (if often unaffordable) food and goods. Life is easy, safe and (on some days) fairly pleasurable in Good Old America.

Not only that, but in spite of the nasty rhetoric we read from the right and the left making “the other guy” out to be the next great Satan, we have a competent political system that enables a peaceful (if not often controversial) transfer of power. We do not have dicators who cling to power through violence and we don’t usually take up arms and murder folks who disagree with us.

So, I am most thankful for the many blessings we have here in the USA, many of which I am probably forgetting.

However, I am also praying for this country as well.  I don’t want to tip my hand for this week’s sermon, but I am praying that we are less independent, and more interdependent as a nation.

As Annie Lamotte once said, God, unfortunately, does not have the same taste in people as we do. So, that means that all the folks out there who give me a pain in my neck: lunatics on the fringes of political issues, that hatemongers, Ayn Rand libertarians,  Fundamentalist “Christianists, “ anti-abortion crusaders,  ultra-righties and the ultra-lefties,  break-away Anglicans and  lovers of top-40 radio- all of you-  (and I mean  all of you) are Children of God and precious in her sight. Perhaps my greatest sin (and I am sure I am not alone in this) is that I frequently forget this as I get my daily dose of “truthiness” from various news sources. I am interdependent  upon (and with) all of  you in one way or another.

I pray, as our country enters a new year of existence, that we begin to remember our interdependence. With God’s help, may all of us, as our prayers say, “be one.”

Father Tim