I made 68 refrigerator magnets last week and I loved
it! They are a project for my home
church: King Street United Church of Christ in Danbury. (http://www.kingstchurch.org/)

I am working on stewardship this year with the church and
our theme is:

From Jesus’ fullness we have all received grace
upon grace.

John 1:16

So last week as I put the magnets together that was the
phrase that I saw over and over again.
It is now ingrained in my brain and that is a good thing!

It feels so wonderful to focus on all that we have, instead
of things that have been lost. All of
us have had a rough year. But I think that we are tired of hearing
about how tough things are and I know that we are tired of living it!

But we do have the
fullness of Jesus and that gives us grace upon grace.

For me, this has been a big year for endings and beginnings. Yesterday was the second time a week that I said goodbye to longtime friend who is moving away.

A small group of women ate lunch together and talked about our memories of Linda and shared with her about what her presence has meant in our lives. We all agreed that Linda has been our “Go-To” woman whenever we had a crisis. She always has words of wisdom and the ability to make us laugh. One of our favorites of her sayings is: “Even now God is blessing you in this”.

Even now God is blessing you in this.  And if you don’t see the blessing now, you will.

Just keep looking.

One of Linda’s gifts to us yesterday was fine jade beads from a necklace she had received from Thailand. They are beautiful to see and feel. I will use them as prayer beads and to help me to remember

Even now God is blessing you in this.

Even now…

Our spiritual lives are journeys and I know that when I was unchurched I felt like I was in uncharted waters.  Who could I talk to who knew anything about the spiritual path?

I know, I know – many of us in churches feel like we can’t talk to anybody there about our spiritual journeys.  But the way is charted – voices of the past and present speak of their experience and, believe me, the history of Christian experience is a rich one.  Francis of Assisi, Teresa of Avila, Ignatius of Loyola, and John of the Cross are just a few of the writers and teachers who provide us with tools to chart our spiritual way.   Just look them up on Wikipedia.

I get frustrated when folks I know leave the Christian path to explore Buddhism or other paths saying that there is not meditation in Christianity – haven’t they heard of Father Thomas Keating?   

 It is hard to describe how much our pets can impact our souls.

  Many people would say that a dog has no place in a conversation about the spiritual life.  But all I know is that my life has been deeper and richer because of Sheba and that I have experienced God in her presence.   She helped me to be more faithful. 

I miss her.

Lord Byron had a Newfoundland dog like Sheba who also died young.  This is what he said:

Near this spot
Are deposited the Remains of one
Who possessed Beauty without Vanity,
Strength without Insolence,
Courage without Ferocity,
And all the Virtues of Man without his Vices.
This Praise, which would be unmeaning Flattery
If inscribed over human ashes,
Is but a just tribute to the Memory of
BOATSWAIN, a DOG
Who was born at Newfoundland, May, 1803,

A Memorial to Boatswain
by
Lord Byron
Newstead Abbey, November 30, 1808.

We live in a time when the experience is everything.  We want to have a shopping experience; we want to have a coffee experience.  We want to experience worship, we want to experience God. 

But this past Sunday my pastor, Rev. Cindy Maddox, (King Street United Church of Christ www.ksucc.com ) made an excellent point in her sermon.  I have been thinking about it ever since.  She was talking about how the disciples waited in the upper room after the resurrection of Jesus, apparently just waiting to see him again.   And she said “The disciples were missing the point.  It is not enough to just see Jesus – the point is to be changed by him.”

Jesus brings change.  For those of us that long for comfort and strength from him, it is easy to forget that his comfort and strength means change for us.  In the Gospels, we see that no one who met him leaves unchanged.   We see it today – no one who meets Jesus is the same as they were before.

Why then do churches think that they can get by without changing?

For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure – WNTW is a personal makeover show on TLC.   All of these shows follow the same kind of pattern, each episode takes a person needing a personal  makeover and shows the the viewer their life “before”,  then shows all things that are done to them (hair, makeup, shopping, etc), then, finally, there is the “reveal”, when all their friends and family see their transformation and the madeover person usually is very emotional about the whole thing. 

 I can’t really recommend  other personal makeover shows as spiritual growth models – but WNTW is different in three major ways.

 First, the hosts, Stacy and Clinton, work to help the client see themselves as they really are, not who they think they are, or wish they were.  You would be surprised at how many controllers of small companies act (and dress) like they were Grateful Dead groupies.   You would not be surprised at how this hampers their growth both in their professions and in their personal relationships.  So many churches and people live in a fantasy about who they are.  They seem to think that because they wish it they will be in prosperous suburb instead of a commercial block in an inner city.  How can we grow into who God created us to be if we don’t even know who we are?

Second, Stacy and Clinton take the old clothes and throw them away!  You see the trash can right there! (Actually I think the clothes go to Goodwill or Salvation Army ).  This is great because then the person knows that there is no turning back.  Churches and people need to know that there is no turning back when we seek to make changes in our lives.

Third, Stacy and Clinton make the client choose their new clothes.  The client has to take responsibility for themselves.  Sometimes, S & C will step into give a little guidance, but usually the client is on their own and then discusses their experience later.  Spiritual growth is not something someone else can do for you.

If you do – and I hope you do – where (and how) do you experience His presence?

I am asking because I have been visiting various churches lately and I have met some nice people and I have heard some good sermons – but I haven’t experienced God in those churches, and I doubt anyone else did either.

But I was at really great concert the other day – and I’m pretty sure some folks  experienced God there.  Today I overheard a conversation between two people who agreed that running in the woods on a cold afternoon is a sure way to be with God.  Last week, I sat in a quiet hospital room not doing much of anything, and I think I experienced God there.

A longing for the Holy, for the presence of God, is part of being human.   This experience is what the church should offer – but do we?  We can teach you a lot about the Bible and Christian history, we can serve great coffee, we can involve you in lots of good projects, but can we give you an experience of God?

So if you are a church person – Do you experience God there?

If you are not a church person – How do you experience God?

Just the other day, my mother asked me if I had said thank you to someone who had given me a gift.  Let’s be clear here – I have not lived at home for well over thirty years.  My own children are mostly grown.  I should be beyond my mom reminding me about manners.

But the core value of politeness and its deeper bedrock belief of gratitude are so central to my background that my mother still seeks to convey them to me.  And I find myself doing the same with my adult children.  It is as much a part of us as the big mouth and music lover genes that are in our DNA.

These are hard times for churches and for individuals.  We need to have clarity of direction as we move forward.  And the way to find it is to be very sure of who we are and whose we are.  When the world is crashing around you – do you know where to turn?  When all the rules are changing – what rules do you live by?

The answer to these questions point to the DNA of our behaviors and beliefs.  Don’t let the anxieties and demands of the present deter you from who you are and whose you are. 

Remember to say thank you.

Over the past few weeks, I have had the fun of singing in a choir preparing John Rutter’s Gloria for performance next week.   Although, I have done quite a bit of solo singing, it has been years since I worked intensively on a choral piece.  I had forgotten how different it is!

First, singing in a choir is not about how beautiful your voice sounds, it is about how beautiful all the voices sound together.  And secondly, when you are a solo singer good pronunciation is about keeping your vowels and consonants as clear as possible.  When you are in choir – pronunciation is about how the audience will hear what you sing.  For example:  if I sing as a soloist “Bless you” – I pronounce it “Blehss you”.  But in a choir, we sing “Bliss you”, because that way the audience will hear “Bless you”.

Choirs are pragmatic and I wish churches would be more like them.   Too many church people focus on how comfortable they feel instead of how comfortable a newcomer or visitor is.  They maintain comfort by doing things the same way (We can’t do it that way) even though that way really no longer makes sense in 2008.   Recently I heard of a church (growing smaller by the day)  lodging an official complaint against their pastor because he dresses casually and is seen regularly hanging out in town.  They want him in a suit, sitting in his office.  It doesn’t matter that he is doing his best to make the church more visible in the community and to bring in new people.  The church people don’t feel comfortable with where he is and what he is wearing.  We can’t do it that way.

When will we learn that it is not about each individual feeling comfortable, it is about making the stranger feel comfortable.  When will we learn that it is not about what we say – but what the potential visitor hears?

In broken English, she said that she had come from her pastor to pay the rent.  The congregation I serve is in a poor Northeastern city with a large immigrant population.  We make ends meet by renting the building to four other churches.  The monthly rent for her church is $430 and she paid for November with a wad of twenties, tens, fives, and 80 one dollar bills.

This was not the crisp money you get from a bank when you cash a check.  This was wrinkled, tired money that has passed through many hands, and been counted many times.  She watched me with pride and determination as I counted it again and wrote out the receipt. 

And I thought of the bickering and unfocused congregations that I have worked with who have never had to think about gathering enough one dollar bills to pay for a place to worship.  And I thought of the vital church workshops I have gone to where there was a lot of talk about patience and balance and little about passion and risk.

But it takes passion and risk for a church to thrive.   My friend, Tom Bandy, says that dedicated Christians are inherently unbalanced people.  Would balanced people risk not having food or clothing, in order to pay the rent for worship space?   This is the cost of discipleship for most North American churches – are we willing to be unbalanced risk-takers for the sake of the Gospel?