Blog for the week of October 4, 2009

Read the opening chapters of Job. Go emotionally, if you dare, to the place of his suffering. If you lost your wealth and children, and your friends were of little comfort to you, would you go mad? Would you be overwhelmed by despair? Job responds by recalling the goodness of God in the past: Job's own past and the distant past, the past of his ancestors. He "goes" to the place of tradition, that which was handed down to him or that which he handed down to himself (that which he could recall from his past). The Latin root for the word tradition means that which is handed down.

In your suffering, are the stories of God's goodness (say in the Bible), your memories of God's goodness, and the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper that communicates God's goodness, enough? Why or why not? These are what have been handed down to us, our tradition. How do you feel now? How has God blessed you in the past? What do you believe about tomorrow?

Dear sisters (and brothers?),

Please forgive me for being so lax with this blog. In truth, after returning from my summer studies and jumping into ministry, I didn't see too many responses to the blogs I had offered, so it appeared therefore that others were also otherwise absorbed. But a couple of you have prompted me nicely, and I will try to keep in touch.

I invite you to read the entire Biblical book of Esther. It concerns a heroic woman who saved the Jewish people through her courage and her gifts. Veeda Javaid from Pakistan's Presbyterian Education Board preached today from this text, and she described the "can do" attitude of faith.

Her sermon struck me personally today because I am challenged. Session has decided to put the issue of same-sex relationships and marriage on the table of discernment for congregational dialogue. As my core values revolve around hearing God speak through dialogue and the Scriptures and prayer, I am gratified at our Session's leadership. But I grieve how tough this is for some in our church. Some are gay or lesbian, or have children or grandchildren who are gay or lesbian. They have hurt for a long time, and while they have joy over the dialogue, their pain surfaces. Others have been raised traditionally, and struggle with the question of same-sex marriage while they also want to share the love of God. All are good people of good conscience, and all are in need of my affirmation and encouragement.

Complicating these questions is a denomination, equally struggling, that contradicts itself at every turn for the best of reasons, and I mean this sincerely and lovingly.

We will need courage to walk this path of dialogue with kindness, intelligence and faith. These are all gifts from God, and I pray that God will give these gifts freely. I pray for wisdom, compassion, and gentle speech for me. I can do this, God willing.

What are your thoughts? More generally, in what arena do you need God's gifts and a "can do" attitude?

Blog question for the week following August 23, 2009

1. Please read Ephesians 6:10-20. Visualize the images presented by the writer: the armor of God, praying in the Spirit constantly, wearing chains. All speak to our calling to provide an assertive Christian witness to the world.

I saw a poll the other day in which 81% of Christians professed to be open-minded. In the same poll, only 56% of non-Christians found Christians to be open-minded. What does this mean? Does any attempt to speak of faith in Jesus Christ, or to live as a Christian, come across as intolerant in a world in which everyone lives in his or her own private universe? Or is there a problem with Christians that they themselves don't recognize? What is the correlation between being a person of conviction and being open-minded? What are the limits to the church's hospitality? Do we have standards?

Blog question for the week following August 16, 2009

Read Ephesians 5:15-20. The writer urges us to "make the most of the time (literally, to redeem or buy back the time)." As you reflect on your past, what time have you used well? What time have you abused, or what amount of your time have others abused?

The writer gives 5 admonitions about buying back the time, i.e. taking responsibility for it:

1. Be conscious of time as God's time, that is, be fully aware of the passing of time.
2. Allow God's Spirit to give you strength and guidance for the good use of time.
3. Gauge your words carefully, knowing that your words construct the social reality that you and others experience in time and space.
4. Let all words and deeds be acts of worship that honor God and love neighbor.
5. Live a life of thanks giving.

Think deeply about what all this might mean for you, and please post your blog.

Blog Question for the week following June 14, 2009

After the week of June 14, I will be taking a break from blogging during my time away for study. The next blog question will be based on the Scriptures for August 16.

Thank you for the depth of your engagement for the past several weeks. Naturally, you are able to continue dialoguing with each other on the blog during my absence.

For June 14: Please read 2nd Corinthians 5:6-10. Paul states that we walk by faith and not by sight. He does so in the context of the question of life and death: He doesn't know when he will die, what heaven will be like, etc., but he has faith that God has charge of such matters. This leaves Paul free to engage in ministry without fear.

I believe it begs a question: What do we trust to God? What lies within our control? What does it mean to walk by faith, and not by sight? Where is our margin, our shadow place, where we experience fear?

Blog question for week following May 24, 2009

Please read Philippians 2, the great hymn of servanthood shared by the apostle Paul. Our preacher of the day was Beverly Hovenkamp, whose 20 years of ordained ministry we celebrated today. Beverly invited us to embrace humility, our gifts and limitations in our respective lives and ministies; and she challenged us to reach beyond ourselves as a congregation. During one part of her sermon, Beverly mentioned the empowering work of women theologians who recognize that too often women are the ones called on to submit.

I am wondering if this is not a good week to ask a question regarding gender in our culture. What challenges do women in particular face in home, work, and community? What role does humility play for them? I will not pretend to have an answer.

Blog question for the week following May 17, 2009

Our Scripture lessons speak of love: John 15:12-17 and 1st John 5:1-6. This is not romantic love, or the love of friendship or for a pet, but the love of God that fulfills and makes durable every human love. Although always with us by the power of God's Holy Spirit, this love is often observed by us in the exceptional moments of life, e.g. when we find the power to forgive, or let go, or make a sacrifice.

Begin by seeing yourself being submerged in the cold waters of baptism. You are held down; all around you is water, bubbles rising, shimmering reflections, light. You are bathed in God's love, you are dying into it. Suddenly you are yanked out, cold air strikes you! Love remains - you are still sopping wet and there is no means to get dry - but now you are experiencing God's love in a new life.

You have drowned all except for love. Equipped only with love, how will you love and who will you love? Recall that even animals love their own kin and we humans love our friends: But how will you love as God loves?

Blog Question for the week following May 10, 2009

Last Sunday we heard selections from the Messiah sung and played by our musicians, and hence no blog question arose. I could not find a question that matched the beauty of our worship experience.

This week George Minot is preaching from John 15:1-11. Read this passage three times, and imagine Jesus saying these words to you sitting at the dinner table. You have grapes in one hand, and a glass of wine in the other: His words hit you between the eyes. What do you think? What do you feel? What does "abiding in his love" mean? What does it mean to be clean and how do you bear fruit? Does this have any relationship to the forgiveness explored after April 26? Can God love through us people that we cannot love on our own if we try to "go there (as in, please don't go there)?" Some passages invite something more than intellectual wrestling or emotional reflection. They take us . . .

Blog Questions for the Week following April 26, 2009

Read Luke 24:46, 47. Reflect in silence on what it means to be forgiven. Is this important to you, that God completely forgives you? Does this become more important if you recognize that accepting God's forgiveness means that you agree to forgive others? What do you need to forgive? Consider that to forget, in Old English, can mean to set aside or to neglect (rather than losing a memory). Can you forgive others and set aside your desire to harbor anger and to seek vengeance? In other words, can you forgive and forget? What impact will this have on you and on the person who has sinned against you?

Blog question for the week following April 19, 2009

Read Isaiah 42:1-9. Reflect on this statement: "Humans tends to see their physical environment as an object separate from them to be exploited, with science being paradigmatic of this approach. The Christian calling is to recognize that all of creation, living and non-living, human and non-human, is the crucial community upon whose health we depend, and our primary approach to it must be loving nurture."

Blog Question for the Week following April 12, 2009

Read Mark 16:1-8. Read the text slowly and multiple times, until you can envision and feel the experience of the women.

Then go for a walk, and allow your feet to wander. Where are you going? Down familiar paths? Toward or away from something? In circles? If you saw and felt what the women at the tomb saw and felt, where would you go, to whom would you go, and what would you say? Why? What is it like to walk (or even run) by faith in response to a revelation of astoundingly good news?

Blog Question for the week following April 5, 2009

How have you grown during this season of Lent, i.e. what is the one lesson that you have learned worth holding on to?

Welcome to our blog!

Dear esteemed guests,

The title for this ministry comes from a parishioner of mine some years ago. The church newsletter in that ministry was entitled, "Steeple to People." The parishioner queried, "So how do we respond Pew to You?" Technology has caught up to vision and expanded it. Now we can share together in a continuing dialogue about the deep matters of life.

The purpose for this blog is interaction with one another regarding our experiences with the Divine. I would describe tentatively these varied experiences as being embedded in the one experience of being merely human and conscious of it. Thoughts might come in response to a sermon (I invite you to go to http://www.firstpresiowacity.org/ and look for worship information; you should find sermons there), or some world event, or some circumstance in your life or mine, or a poem, or a song . . . An offering by one might lead to speculative abstraction or to responses very much "on the ground" by others.

Other than requesting courtesy in language and urging the charitable treatment of other bloggers, as your host I welcome your sincere participation. I will, as much as my own limited humanity allows, strive to keep this blog relevant and responsive.

Let our operating principle be that you and I can assist one another in understanding fully our questions; but that each one of us must engage Ultimacy and flesh out our own answers individually, even if we discover that our answers are ones that have been fostered by many in a long tradition. As it is rumored that the Buddha taught, "If you find the Buddha on the road, kill him." Or, as Jesus put it more expansively, "You are not to be called teacher, for you have one teacher, and you are all students. And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father - the one in heaven. Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah. The greatest among you will be your servant. All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humbles themselves will be exalted" (Matthew 23:8-12). Humility, nurtured by the experience of worshipful transcendence, leads to our appreciation of our mutual deep need and our vast potential to learn gently from one another.

Indeed, perhaps you chafe, as I do, that all those whose comments come after mine in this blog are termed "followers." This linguistic convenience alone can cause misunderstanding if it implies some sort of subordination or hierarchy. So, as best you can, I invite you to accept the title without embracing its substance.

Welcome! I invite your posts.