In his book, Desert Solitaire, Edward Abbey observes life in what was then Arches National Monument. He uncovers the immense spiritual matter that is revealed in the material life of the desert. Here is a description of the prickly pear flower and its irresistible attraction for the honey bee.

            I have yet to look into one and not find a honeybee or bumblebee wallowing drunkenly inside, powdered with pollen, glutting itself on what must be a marvelous nectar. You can’t get them out of there – they won’t go home. I’ve done my best to annoy them, poking and prodding with a stem of grass, but a bee in a cactus bloom will not be provoked. (Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey)

 The honeybee in the cactus flower is the position in which God wants us: to be so completely covered and infused with the love of God, to be so completely cradled and secure in God’s Spirit that we cannot be provoked, we cannot be annoyed.

 The work of prayer, of worship, of meditation is like that of the honeybee filling up on the nectar of God. When we fill up enough and frequently enough, we can be sustained through the poking and prodding of life’s varied circumstances. We will have the vigor to sustain our spirits through difficulty and trials.

I invite you to participate in one or more of the opportunities during the season of Lent to fill yourself up with the Spirit of God.

The picture below is full size. Please move the horizontal cursor to see a close up of the bees in the prickly pear flower and notice how they are covered in pollen.

Warning: written while hot under the collar.

Wanting spirituality without the trappings of church is like wanting democracy without the trappings of representative government. It’s like wanting an education without the trappings of a school or university. It’s like wanting the love and community of family without having to clean the toilet or take out the trash.

I understand that there are countless people who are turned off by “the church” for countless good reasons. What I don’t understand is how people can blithely believe they are providing the so-called spirituality people seek without any trappings. Recently I read on Disciples News Service a story about a couple, a minister and his wife, starting such a venture. He left a Disciple congregation feeling a call to a new kind of ministry. It’s called Pneu Project. Pneu is a Greek word for life, spirit and breath.

The main tenants of the project are:

• We exist to share Jesus with people who don’t go to church.
• We believe God deserves better. (followed by something about becoming the most creative, caring and effective organization….which means INFRASTRUCTURE; more about that later.)
• We believe everyone is included. . . No restrictions, no politics, period. (Okay, that is REALLY political. Everyone means gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgendered, etc. Everyone means Libertarian, Democrat, Republican.)

 Infrastructure: Without infrastructure, the trappings of church:

1. There would be no seminary where the pastor got his theological education
2. There would be no Committee on Ministry to insure he was “safe” to do ministry.
3. There would be no Pension Fund for him to have a secure retirement.
4. There would be no legal protection for him if ever accused of unethical/illegal actions.
5. There would be no accountability to be related to the whole body of Christ beyond the one circle of community.
6. There would be no accountability to actually be the body of Christ in a hurting world which does require Christians get up off our butts and do something about the poverty and hunger in the world. It’s not enough to feed the hungry; one must also ask WHY people are hungry. That, my friends is a political question. We cannot get off that hook so easily as to say, “Well, we’re just not going to be political.”

 I’m weary of the way criticisms are launched from catapults of casual arrogance with ammunition of vague generalities like, “trappings of church”. Yes, congregations have allowed committee structures to supersede ministry. There are also congregations whose committees are DOING ministry, getting things done for the sake of building the kingdom of God.

Yesterday I was reminded by the words of a colleague that one important part of infrastructure that helped our congregations stay in tune with Global Ministries has weakened over the years: Disciples Women. Congregations and the Global Ministries relied on this part of the body to keep the connection strong between missionaries and church partners around the world and the people in local congregations in the U.S. and Canada. Our collective effort to be a presence in the world is weaker because this “trapping of the church” no longer functions in more and more congregations. And nothing else is filling the vacuum in these congregations, ours included.

Other words for trappings include: accessories, trimmings, frills. I don’t know precisely what Pneu Project will look like, but I hope it will include the accessories of lay Elders and Diaconate, the trimmings of valued musicians who are paid for their time and creative efforts, the frills of a group of committed, visionary lay leaders with gifts of administration (yes, that’s a spiritual gift!) who will spend time meeting together to manage the often unexciting but necessary bits and pieces of community life.

We finished the second act of “When the Levees Broke” by Spike Lee; we’re half way through this United States  tragedy. Why revisit old wounds? Why recount the tragedy? Why remember the shamefully lethargic response of the rest of our government? Because the wounds are still fresh and unhealed. (Ask Cristina Kurtek who was there last year on a mission trip.) The tragedy lingers in the classicism and racism that pervade our country. And we the people, whose government it is, must demand that even “the least of these” deserve “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Happiness was impossible to pursue for over 50,000 people told to evacuate and then given no means to do it.

FEMA came late and left early, but the presence that persists is the presence of the faith community. Our church, our denomination continues to send volunteers, money and other resources to the communities still trying to heal after Hurricane Katrina. Entire neighborhoods are still left abandoned with debris piled on the sidewalks, but people of faith continue to face the daunting task and do what they can to help clean up.

Week of Compassion made it possible for you and I to be present with resources from the moment recovery began. This offering provides emergency relief and development resources throughout the whole world. God has the whole world in God’s hands and we take to heart our call to care for all, not just for some.

Every February, the Week of Compassion offering is emphasized. Fortunately for the places where people are hurting, Week of Compassion lasts more than a week and more than a month. Week of Compassion makes it possible for us to provide a presence of healing and hope all year long to people in places we can’t otherwise reach.

The link below will take you to the list of places Week of Compassion has helped us have presence in the year 2011. I encourage you to click the link and simply scroll down. It is impressive and encouraging. It makes me grateful to be part of a company of disciples of Jesus, committed to bring God’s healing to the world, ready to respond to tragedy as it is happening. Jesus met people in their need; we are privileged to stand in his place.

http://www.weekofcompassion.org/2011-responses/

I asked the Board members to answer this question. “How do you practice the Christian faith?” All of the answers had to do with doing something outwardly. Practicing the Christian faith in the context of one’s work, one’s vocation helped bring a sense of purpose and patience. Practicing the Christian faith by being kind, generous and loving gave a sense of meaning and hope. 

Practicing the Christian faith is indeed an outward expression of an inward reality, so how about that inward reality? Tending to the inward reality is also practicing the Christian faith. I am all for the outward expression, the actions that make Christ’s love more apparent in the world. I am also aware that a sporadic connection to the inward reality of our spirit and God’s Spirit leaves us more susceptible to the strains of doing.

Practicing the Christian faith includes tending your spirit. I continue to contend that quiet listening with God is critical to practicing our Christian faith. Being still to know God must precede all the doing, inform all the doing and even be part of the doing. Sometimes the most productive action we can take is to stop and do nothing. How can God inform and inspire us when we won’t stop long enough to be still and listen, just listen?

I dare you to stop what you are doing right now and listen for one minute. Say to God, “God, I’m listening.” and listen for a full minute. Go on now.

There was an 18^th century rabbi who is looking at people rushing to and fro in the town square and he wonders why they’re running so frenetically and he stops one and says, “Why are you running?”

 The man answered, “I’m running to make a living.”

And the rabbi says to him, “How come you’re so sure that the living is in front of you and you have to run to catch it up. Maybe it’s behind you and you’ve got to stop and let it catch up with you.”

 I heard this story told by the chief rabbi of Great Britain, Lord Jonathan Sacks who went on to say, “Which bits of contemporary culture do we stop and let our blessings catch up with us? That is called the Sabbath which we all share: when we celebrate the things that are important, but not urgent.”

 Many of us live according to the tyranny of the urgent, whether it’s a deadline at work or an important appointment with a doctor. Regardless of our age or life circumstance all of us deal with the tyranny of the urgent. Our Sabbath is Sunday; a time to reflect on what is important in our life, individually and collectively in a way that doesn’t give in to what can be the oppressive tyranny of the urgent. Worship is our window of opportunity to breathe in the Spirit of God, to breathe with the Spirit of God, recalibrating our internal pace.

 Go ahead, breathe, anticipate Sabbath rest and let its blessing catch up with you.

Recently, I read this about conviction:

            Conviction is not belief, but rather a profound inner knowing that supports us through times of challenge, a compassionate knowing that is steady and deep without being rigid or positional. The process of developing conviction is gradual and developmental. It happens invisibly as we practice consistently over time, and we cannot fast track it.

Christmas approaches and we may or we may not believe in actual angels and a virgin birth. What we SHARE is the conviction, the confidence that God’s eternity intersect our own time, repeatedly. What we SHARE is the conviction, the confidence that the Christ comes into the world over and over again, like the tidal forces of the ocean that cannot be stopped.

Deep down, we know that God is with us. We don’t need to be rigid about it or defend our position. Our position, our location is with God, in the fullness of time. We come to this position and fullness gradually over years of stretching our imagination into the imagination of God.

We are imagined by God as the image of God: imago Dei. We are God made flesh in our time so that Christ is born again and again in every generation, like tidal forces of the ocean that cannot be held back.

The love of God flows through your life and you are swept up in the great ocean current of God’s love made flesh with power. We SHARE this conviction, this confidence that we are invited by Christ to be the substance of God’s tidal forces of love and hope, peace and joy and we cannot be stopped.

The first week of the Advent Bible Study is complete. We heard Mike preach about Zechariah and I got to lead and listen to 30 of you reflect together on this passage. The story about Zechariah in Luke 1:5-25 is full of references to
occurrences in the history of Israel:

• Casting of lots – See Esther 3:7
• Vision in the temple – Samuel is called by God in the temple
• Heavenly messenger – Jacob wrestles with an angel, heavenly visitors come to Abraham and Sarah
• A promise from God – to Abraham and Sarah that their descendants would outnumber the stars, to Noah that God would not destroy the earth again
• A sign – the rainbow
• A childless old couple – Abraham and Sarah

These are parts of the Zechariah story too, but now it’s about something new that is happening. That something new stands on the foundations of what already is, namely the nation of Israel and Judaism. God is at work from within the institution of the Temple, from within the rituals and practices of Judaism, transforming the world.

God is at work within the institution of our church, our congregation, transforming the world. We are also part of God’s salvation history on the corner of Park and Artesia.

We asked ourselves these three questions:

1. What do we really need to tend and care for inside our institutions?Over and over the answers resonated with the word “relationship”. One response I found particularly provocative. It employs a verb we don’t usually associate with church community: pursue. “We need to pursue our relationship with Christ and our relationship with each other. If we are not pursuing relationships with each other we are not building the body of Christ.” To pursue requires each of us to be in an active role, not a passive role. Another person recognized how hard it is for people to give themselves to another person.
2. What rituals and practices of our faith will help usher in the new?     Over and over the answers began with the Table. It is the centralizing point of community. Appreciation was expressed for the open table, that there is no litmus test of faith or age requirement to participate in the Lord’s Supper. Bible study and prayer were named and so was mission. “Who we are, our identity is something we need to keep at the fore. Our mission is what brings us together and galvanizes us to act together.” I wonder, though, how each of us might define that mission.
3. What is new?                                                                                                          You said, the teachings of Jesus. You said, new people. Whatever is new is likely still unknown.

Matthew’s gospel wants to eliminate the old for the sake of the new: old wineskins can’t hold new wine. Luke has a different perspective. He proclaims the new can’t come into being without the support of what has come before. In some ways they are both right. Sometimes we have to let go of ways of doing things that no longer support the work of the church. And sometimes we have to tend and care for the ways that have served the work of the church. Our work is carefully discerning the difference.

I hope you are provoked as I am by the word pursue and will pursue your
relationship with Christ this Advent season and pursue one another to build the body of Christ that gathers at the corner of Park and Artesia.

The gospel of Luke begins “Since many have undertaken to set down an orderly account…I too decided to write an orderly account.” As I prepared our Advent Bible study, focusing on the personalities that appear in the first chapter, reflections of God’s orderly account appeared in a vision, not of ethereal quality, but of material quality. How appropriate that as we approach the celebration of incarnation that the vision of God’s orderly account appears in a vision of the world I saw with my eyes, walked upon with my feet and touched with my fingers. 

Thousands of them shimmering

Pieces of gold illuminating the space in which they hang

From gray limbs and branches, brighter now as silver for the reflection of the golden glow.

Thousands of gold leaf pieces, perfectly shaped

Petaled on the ground, carpeting the trail

Walking on light, the golden radiance lifting

the countenance of my despair and disquiet

To contented stillness

Perfect order of chaotic placement

Let the leaves fall where they may

This is the orderly account

Of God’s chaotic created order

Set down in seasons of gold and orange

Barren and gray

Green and growing.

Jacqueline Beckley heads a product development group and helped design a study sponsored by McCormick (the spice company). The study was called “Crave It!” and was “one attempt to find out what gets people excited about certain foods.” (The End of Overeating, Dr. David Kessler, p. 126) Food manufacturers and restaurants design foods to be craveable. When asked what makes a hamburger craveable, Beckley responded, “A hamburger has all the required flavors, all the texture. It gets you excited, gets your juices running. You begin to chew through it, you feel alive. It suspends time for a brief moment. . .craveability is about the body. Your body is trying to modulate its happiness. It is trying to get to a state of bliss.” (Ibid.)

Is it any wonder our country has a problem with obesity and other countries aren’t far behind. There are entire industries pooling their resources to pursue our hard wired need to experience bliss. It’s not enough to say, “Well, just resist,” because we are bombarded with seductive invitations to literally feed that bliss everywhere we go.

What else can feed this bliss our bodies and spirits so desperately crave. I know it may not sound as thrilling as a hot fudge sundae (Norm’s anyone?), but the practices of our faith tradition can be a place where we experience bliss. Granted, the experience is sometimes fleeting, moments long, but so is the experience of a hamburgers with bacon and cheese.

When I read that sentence, “it is trying to get to a state of bliss,” I thought, “That is one purpose of spiritual practices, at least I think it is.” There are numerous ways we try to comfort ourselves: watching TV, eating, shopping, etc. Could we see that blissful moments are available to us in worship, in prayer, in the study of the scriptures? If we gave ourselves over to worship the way we might immerse ourselves in the experience of a hot fudge sundae, what would our experience of worship be like? If we could anticipate being with other Christians in study, the way we look forward to a TCU or LSU game, would learning be more engaging, more fun?

“Follow your bliss” is a phrase used to encourage people to do what brings them joy, lasting joy. I will be going to Norm’s for a hot fudge sundae at some point, but what sustains me and stokes the embers of lasting joy is prayerful reading of the scriptures (four stranded garland – email me for instructions), music as an expression of connection with God, practicing Reiki and more. What opens you to a state of bliss?  What modulates your happiness? Your Christian faith is on the menu of choices.

Because I’m not convinced anyone reads these articles, let me know by email or phone call or in person that you did. And let me know if it was interesting, boring, helpful, confusing, clear, etc.

We talked about the church and family for about 30 minutes, sharing news of people and remembering friends now gone from our sight. I looked at the clock and knew I’d have to leave soon and asked, “Would you like communion?” “Yes, that would be nice,” she replied.

 I first took out a Bible, which is digitally condensed on my phone. I wasn’t prepared for how deeply moved and connected I’d feel in the simple sharing of the text; simply reading out loud together, without comment or question, our common text.

 Psalm 90: 1-6, 13-17 was the first text. It ends with these words: May the graciousness of the LORD our God be upon us; prosper the work of our hands; prosper our handiwork.

 In an instant I thought of all the work of this woman’s hands in ministry at church, of her handiwork by which the church prospered and was fed, not only with food, but with grace and joyful acceptance.

 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8 was the next. It ends with these words: So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us.

 I thought of how dear this woman is to me and how dear I am to her, even though we see each other infrequently.

 We shared the cracker and the juice, the body and the blood, and prayed. We prayed for other members of our congregation and we prayed for the people of Libya.

 I left with a Butterfinger, small size candy bar from her Halloween stash and as I nibbled it on the elevator ride to the lobby was aware that Christ had been with us and was still with each of us. We had together built up the body of Christ a little more this day, both strengthened for our journey of discipleship and service.

 What will you do today to build up the body of Christ?