Sent

John 20:21 is a mantra here at Saint Paul's.

As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.
As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.
As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.

Sometimes we are sent to far away places like Haiti or Kenya or General Convention.
Sometimes we are sent to not-so-far away places like Birmingham, New Orleans, or the Diocesan Office.
Sometimes we are sent to nearby places like the Family Promise Day Center, a Habitat Build, or Camp Beckwith.
And sometimes we are sent next door.

Truth be told, and despite what we may come to believe over time, God's sending never stops. We have 85 year old members who help their "elderly" neighbors with yard work. These folks hear the Spirit moving and follow her lead. Others don't. Other's choose to act like the disciples by shutting the door, drawing the blinds, and sticking close to home.

I guess they just choose not to listen. That has to be it, because the Spirit is always moving, always calling, always leading. If we find ourselves comfortable and complacent, then we have tuned the Spirit out. Maybe it is time to reinvigorate our mantra. Time to pick it up again. Time to speak it, as a community engaged in God's work of restoration.

As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.
As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.
As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.
Amen.

Gifts

The Vestry of St. Paul's gathered on Saturday morning along the beautiful banks of the Magnolia River with a fire in the fireplace and scones on the table to pray, listen, reflect, and dream. And, for the third year in a row, the Holy Spirit showed up with vigor pointing us in the direction that God would have us go. When 10 people go off to pray as individuals and then at least 5 of them return and share a vision that is almost exactly the same, it isn't funny, it is awesome.

I believe that 2010 will mark the transition of St. Paul's from a Church to a community of faith. Together we will make the change from clerical driven organization to a laity empowered to do the work that God has called us to do. And I believe that transition begins this week. The Wedding at Cana is a fun story, but the famous gifts passage from 1 Corinthians 12 is what we need to hear. If we are going to begin the works of shared ministry from age 2 to 92 then we have to take seriously that God gives each of us gifts for the building of his Kingdom. And we have to recognize that all of us have gaps in which we are not gifted. The key is finding those gifts and those gaps and as a body of believers building a unified structure where my gift bridges your gap. Keith and I have that relationship, and now begins the process of modelling it to the rest of St. Paul's.

I'm excited beyond words for what God has in store in 2010. I think generations will look back on this year as one of not just renewal, but the time when St. Paul's became a flagship Parish, shining the light of the nations for all the world to see. Grab a cup of coffee and get ready because the Spirit is at work and the ride is going to be amazing.

Inaugural five15 conversation starter

Our first five15 service was on Oct 3rd at, well, five15 pm. The conversation ran way, way longer than I expected, but it was good and fruitful. Click here to see the conversation starter presentation. More info about five15, including a youtube link will be available soon.

John 17.18 and John 20.21

In the midst of his prayer for his disciples Jesus says to God the Father, "As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world." (John 17.18)

After his betrayal, arrest, trial, crucifixion, and resurrection, Jesus appears to his followers offers them peace, shows them his hands and side and says to them, "As the Father has sent me, so I send you." (John 20.21) and then he breaths on them and offers them the Holy Spirit.

The context is different.

The audience is different. (Sort of - I think both parties hear in both instances)

The meaning is the same.

We can't sit in our pews and follow the risen Lord who has gone on ahead.  We can't stand and sign hymns and live out the gospel.  We can't kneel at the altar and bring others to the knowledge of the Lord.

All these things that we normally associate with "church" are good.  They nourish us, enrich us, empower us - but they are not what Jesus had in mind when he prayed for his rag-tag group of followers.  What he hoped for is what God hoped for in sending his Son - that real people, walking and talking and living and working in the world would have more a real impact on those who had not yet seen, heard, or experienced the love of God.

730 or 10am on Sunday is good, but it is not the purpose of our lives as followers of Christ. No, it is, instead, the time from "Let us go in peace..." until "Alleluia, Christ is risen" that matters.  We are sent just as Jesus was sent to a good world that has been broken.  It is when our sleeves are rolled up, when our hands are dirty, when our eyes are swollen with tears that God's kingdom is known.  730 and 10, well that's meal time.

Great Post @ Church for Starving Artists

Jan is at it again.  This time she is pondering, and ivites you to do the same, what 10 things we should throw out of the 21st century church.  There are some great ideas, and the comments sections is ripe with conversation starters.  And, much to Marcus Borg's surprise, the empty tomb is not on the list.

Read it here.

2021 March Gathering - THIRST

Humans have a tenuous relationship with water.  It covers 71% of the earth's surface.  The human body is anywhere from 55 to 78% water.  We're told to drink at least 8 glasses of it a day.  Civilizations have historically formed around major bodies of water.  It is just a huge part of our lives, especially here in Baldwin County.  Rivers, bays, creeks, bayous, lagoons, canals, the intercoastal, the Gulf - water is a huge part of our lives.

Yet, like I said, our relationship is somewhat tenuous.  Too much or too little water, and things quickly go from balanced to wildly out of control.  Remember the lady in 2007 who died of water intoxication after the "hold your wee for a wii" radio contest?   Who can forget the pictures of a flooded New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.  Even six inches of moving water can take your car from safely on the road to deep danger in a flash flood.  Too much of this good thing is most certainly not good.

And neither is too little.  Drought affects huge swaths of the earth in any given year.  Which leads to too little drinking water, even less crop production, and starvation.  Human beings can survive about 2 weeks without food, but only a few days without water.  Thirst is a condition known by too many.

In the fourth chapter of John's Gospel, Jesus finds himself thirsty.  Jesus had begun to gain the wrong sort of attention from the religious authorities.  So, Jesus decided to leave the Judean countryside and return to Galilee - home base for his ministry.  To get there, he had to pass through Samaria.  There were, in fact, other ways to get home, but the most direct route took you through the land of the half-bloods, the Samaritans.  For a religion based on purity of body, mind, and spirit, this trek through Samaria was a less than desirable one.  Jesus came into Shechem, a Samaritan village that bordered the field Jacob later known as Israel had given his son Joseph.  The well that Jacob dug for his family was still there, and Jesus, already worn out by the trip, sat down at the well to rest while his disciples went into the village to buy food for lunch.

A Samaritan woman came, strangely enough in the middle of the day, to draw her water.  Himself quite thirsty, Jesus said to her, "Would you give me a drink of water?"

The Samaritan woman was shocked and asked, "How come you, a Jew, are asking me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?"  First of all, Jews in those days wouldn't be caught dead talking to Samaritans.  And secondly, men in those days wouldn't be caught dead talking to a woman without her husband present.

Undeterred, Jesus answered, "If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be asking me for a drink, and I would give you fresh, living water."

The woman said, "Sir, you don't even have a bucket to draw with, and this well is deep. So how are you going to get this 'living water'? Are you a better man than our ancestor Jacob, who dug this well and drank from it, he and his sons and livestock, and passed it down to us?"

Jesus said, "Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again and again. Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst—not ever. The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life."

The woman said, "Sir, give me this water so I won't ever get thirsty, won't ever have to come back to this well again!"

The thirst that Jesus was talking about quenching really had nothing to the water that the woman could draw from the well.  Jesus was talking about thirst for life, for meaning, for love.  The sort of thirst every human being understands.  Even the youngest child thirsts after the affection of her parents.  Later on in life we thirst for friends that understand us.  We thirst for relationships that fill us.  We thirst for all sorts of things.

Jesus promised this woman, and promises us, that he has living water to offer.  Artesian springs that will gush forth with endless life.  [Show Cat Waterfall] 

And yet, so many of us us are still thirsty.  So often, the faith handed down to us leaves us wanting.  This Church, for its part, has spent a lot of time and energy bottling up the ever flowing living water, and selling it like a commodity.  Many of us have purchased those bottles over and over and over and in the midst of tough times found what is supposed to be an endless supply instead is merely another empty water bottle.  We find ourselves standing looking at the water source, but unsure where to get out of the water commodity market and into the everflowing stream.  We are often afraid or angry or unprepared to step in.  So we go about trying to find water elsewhere, but it is never as refreshing as the spring that Jesus offered - it is never enough.

I think a lot of us are here tonight precisely because we know that we are thirsty, we understand that God offers refreshment, but the faith tradition we've known has left us parched.  Over the next few months we would like to offer the chance to move from purchasing water bottles one at a time to residing permanently in the midst of living water, to address what has left you thirsty in faith, in church, and in life.  

What if we started meeting weekly to address our collective thirst?

Would you come?

Could you come?

When?

Where?

How long?

I too am thirsty.  I long for the living water Jesus offers to overflow in my life, all the time.  I've tasted it.  I know it is good, but I know that from time to time I fail to drink it in; I fall back into the cycle of limiting God by purchasing water bottles.  I want to help you find living water, just as I want you to help me find it.

I want to move into the pool of living water, and I hope you do too.  In the next few minutes of silence, I invite you to reflect on the water sources in your life.  If you feel compelled to move into this terrible representation of the spring of living water, you can take a ridiculous fireman or policeman (sorry ladies, there is no gender equality in the world of dollar tree plastic toy people) and place it in there.  If you feel weird doing that, which you no doubt will, you don't have to.  Just ponder for a few minutes -

What am I thirsty for?

How can this community help channel the living water in your direction?

As we wrap up and move back into conversation and break bread together I will offer a prayer for refreshment, during which you'll have time to offer prayers for those who, for whatever reason, need the spring of living water.

--SILENCE--

O God, you have created all things by the power of your Word, and you renew the earth by your Spirit: Give now the water of life to those who thirst for you, that they may bring forth abundant fruit in your glorious kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

history is important

As an arrogant emergent, I am often accused of throwing out the baby with the bath water.  As a relative conservative, this makes me laugh.  As a theologian it makes me cry.

History is important to the faith.

The story of salvation is one of history - a story told and retold and re-retold over and over again.

Take, for example, the 10 Commandments.  The core of the covenant between God and the people of Isreal begins with history - I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.  REMEMBER!?!?!?

The story of the past cannot be thrown out.  It is too rich.  It is too important.  It carries too much weight.  God created out of nothing.  God saved for no real reason.  God forgives.  God wants to restore.  We need to hear these things over and over again.  We need to be reminded of the story, the history, of the faith.  As NT Wright says, without a knowledge of the history, there is nothing to draw on to improv.

History is important

What does "boldy proclaim" mean?

Keith, my Rector, is reading Rob Bell's latest book, Jesus Wants to Save Christians, and I think it is safe to say is having his mind blown and his spirit refreshed.  I ordered it yesterday based on the strong impact it seems to be having on him spiritually.  Here's what the About the Book section of the website says:

Jesus wants to save us from making the good news about another world and not this one. Jesus wants to save us from preaching a Gospel that is only about individuals and not about the systems that enslave them. Jesus wants to save us from shrinking the Gospel down to a transaction about the removal of sin and not about every single particle of creation being reconciled to its maker. Jesus wants to save us from religiously sanctioned despair, the kind that doesn't believe the world can be made better, the kind that either blatantly or subtly teaches people to just be quiet and behave and wait for something big to happen 'someday.'

I cut my spiritual teeth in the world this describes; one focuses on heaven vs. hell, personal salvation, and washing oneself clean in the blood of the lamb.  In seminary I began to see that perhaps that was a very narrow understanding of God's dream.  Now I am often lumped in with the "crazy liberals" who want to argue that Jesus was much more concered with restoring all things to God than he was with making sure I personally go to heaven when I die.

So as we pray on Sunday that God might "grant that all who are baptized into his Name may keep the covenent they have made, and boldly confess him as Lord and Savior<>

No answers today, just more and more questions.  What does "boldly proclaim" mean?

Worship with/in a Postmodern Accent day 3

Communion by Numbers made for an interesting worship experience. We began by opening envelope #1 at 8:10pm and finished up envelope #9 just before 10am. I enjoyed the service, though I ended up at a table with a guy who was having a sneezing fit and another who was in charge of the conference so there was a lot of stopping and starting and getting up and coming back. Anyway, I recommend it as a "Worship Trick" to continue using Jonny Baker's bad name for his liturgical idea log.

The Q&A Session that ended things on Saturday morning gave two answers that I think are worth noting. The first was around the question, "how do I start something like this?"

Jonny Baker suggests this model: 1. build a team. 2. get some space. 3. eat, drink, and dream together. I add two substeps to #3 - 3a. do the theology and 3b. do it well.

Ed Phillips adds a thought as to our motivations, which I think is very, very important: Don't be defined by desperation. This is probably the best piece of information for any community looking to think outside the box. If you are doing it "to get the young people" who are lacking, STOP, take a breath, and pray. Maybe in the "mixed economy" of God you are being called to reach the group you are reaching - high church politicians, low church farmers, WWII vets, etc. The "young people" that the church started talking about now in their late 40s. The "young people" I represent are in their late 20s and early 30s. The "young people" we all picture are in their late teens and early 20s. Be careful to lump people together in desperation.

The other question, which I promised to anwser here, is around resources. The single best resource available for emerging/alternative worhsip is your community and the imaginations God has blessed them with. To spur that imagination, here are a couple of things to check out. The link above to Jonny's "Worship Tricks" is a good one - it is full of high and low tech "rituals" that help do the work of taking the everyday into the church and replanting God back into everyday life. Another good site is alternativeworship.org. The three book series, Imaging the Word is also worth perusing. Finally, I think it must be mentioned that we are living in a post-literate culture. The word and book has been replaced by the image and link. Don't discount that, as hard as it might be for many of you. It might very well be sad that people don't read like they used to, but complaining abou it and ignoring it won't change the fact that the change has happened. So, utilize images in your teaching and in your worship. Do it in various ways, but don't ignore their power. Flickr.com is a great resource for open/limited source images.

All in all it was a good conference, and I'm glad I went. I met some fine folk and had a few opportunities to worship God in new and exciting ways. If you have questions, drop me a note, and I'll be happy to point you to the right place.

worship with/in a postmodern accent day 2

Today was all about inculturation/contextualization. We began with that well-worn story about the 6 blind men who went to "see" an elephant. It is sorta kitch, to me, in the whole "inculturation" conversation, but the point is well made.
Jonny Baker then began his presentation entitled "an adventure of the imagination." His tag-line is "working out how the gospel connects with our context." Something I echo with as a part of our community at 2021 (which I'll get to later).

He began by setting up the current [false] dichotomy is worship; Prayer Book Worship vs. Contemporary Worship. Prayer Book Worship, he argues, can dry up, and contemporary worship is razor thin. alt/emerging worshpi attempts to be the 3rd way, a via media, bringing cultural relevence into the tradition and making church out of the stuff of the "real world." I found this interesteing as he talked about the ethos of his community, Grace.

1. Creativity 2. Risk 3. Participation 4. Engagement.

The tie that I felt closely to the 2021 as he actually used our foundational text in his discussion of mission (engagement) in postmodern times. His argument for an incarnational approach (over and ending the imperialistic approach) to mission was based in our text, Jn 20.21 with Jn 1.1 as its backbone. Jn 1.1 in The Message says, "The Word became flesh and moved into the neighborhood." And then in Jn 20.21 Jesus tells his disciples, "As the father sent me [into the neighborhood] so I am sending you." To expect people to come to us is inauthentic to the mission set forth by Christ himself. As Rob Warner of the UK says, "My heart years for the 90% who will not traditionalize to become Christians." All of this, Jonny argues, should be done by way of ritual, relocating God back into the everyday.

As an Anglican, he pointed to the freedom given his own Church Mission Society by ++Rowan calling for a "mixed economy." We need to celebrate what IS working while looking after those for whom it will not speak. "Allowing for the new to walk alongside the old."

The role of clergy in all this, he argues, and I tend to agree, is 1. create space, 2. give permission, and 3. get out of the way. Sounds like the short lived name of this blog - digging up my own foundation.

My thought in the midst of all this, espceially the conversation that followed, that was, on many levels, banal, is this - if you haven't done the theological prep work, you aren't doing anything - you are just doing stuff.

Ed Phillips talked this afternoon about worship as the work of the people. This, I had a hard time following as my Episocpal background rubbed up against the majority United Methodist group gathered here. So, I'll suffice it to say, a lot of what he said is summed up in the Anglican tradition of lex orandi, lex credendi - what you pray shapes what you believe. To say it another way, we come to worship to model, to practice, the life that being a follower of Christ calls us to live every day. Or as Ed said it, "Christian woship ist he way God forms us in the truthful practice of the story of Jesus Christ."

I'll finish this post by talking about the Open Space Conversation process we took part in today, and had to skip today. I don't know where they got this so I can't give you a reference, but here is the basic worksheet.

How it Works

1. You will be invited to take turns generating topics related to the focus question and to announce these to the group.

2. Each topic is written on a piece of paper and posted on a wall along with the time and place to meet.

3. When all topics have been generated, you are invited to select the topics taht you are most interested in.

4. When choosing a topice, consider the following two questions.

a. What topic do I want to explore.

b. What am I passionate about?

5. Participate in the discussion according to the Four Principles and the Law listed below.

Four Principles and Law

1. Whoever comes are the right people - those participants present are the only ones who are here.

2. Whatever happens is the only thing that could have - don't get bogged won by what could've or should've happened; focus on the here and now.

3. When it starts is the the right time - creativity happens when it happens.

4. When it's over, it's over - move on when the conversation loses its steam; make plans for continuing when it needs extending.

The Law of Two Feet - every participant has two feet and must be prepared to use them to move to whatever place he or she can best contribute or learn.

My group was based on a topic I suggested - the art/science of contextualization. We had a great conversation on the dangers of events like this - taking back what we've seen and the books we've bought without critically thinking about what it means to and how it might speak to our communities. I was encouraged by the conversation, and sorry that we missed out on the open space converations today.

Our worship service -communion by numbers - is tonight. I'll let you know about it tomorrow. Also reading lists will be coming soon.

postmodern accent - day 1

As I mentioned yesterday, I am in Oklahoma City for an event called "worship with/in a postmodern accent." It is a very interesting event put on and attended mostly by United Methodists from Oklahoma. Most didn't even realize that it had been advertised nationally - of the 35 in attendance there are probably only 5-8 who aren't UM from OK. That makes it wierd because they have lots of inside lingo and people in common that I don't get, but I'm finding it a spectacular event anyway.

It began with a presentation by Dr. Ed Phillips of Candler Seminary and a bit of "postmodern humor." Not having audio/video for the "joke" made it tough. So I give you this

The question - "Is this anything" is the question being asked in our churches. When I pray, is it anything? When we celebrate the Eucharist, is it anything?

In a world where novelty is the status quo, how do you have true innovation?

Dr. Phillips' presentation was an enlightening journey through liturgical history. His assertion is that we are in the midst of a paradigm shift from worship as experience to worship as event. I have trouble with the nuance of experience v. event so I would rather use another word - worship as happening. Worship is no longer an audience viewing an expert do some cool things but an opportunity "to be with I am."

Jonny Baker of the Church Mission Society in the good ol' Church of England then presented on creativity. I immediately said to myself, "I am not creative." And he debunked my own myth when he pointed to research done by some major corporation that said the only difference between those who are creative and those who are not is perception. If you think you aren't creative then you won't be. If you think you are, then you will be. Damn! His advice to spark creativity was remarkably ironic - "deliberately schedule interruptions." Ha!

We then worked in our small groups on tomorrow night's "Communion by Numbers" service. I'm in group 7 which is in charge of the bread and wine portion of the evening - you know, the easy part. We worked very hard, and I think that we are being both genuine to our overwhelmingly UMC group while moving beyond everyone's comfort zones.

After dinner the conversation went back to Jonny who used a favorite metaphor of mine, one by Tom Wright - the Christian walk as improvization. Basically it says that salvation history is a 5 act play that has a scene missing in the middle of the 5th act - which is where we live. We must improvise that scene while staying true to the larger story (the tradition). The one thing I wish he would have mentioned was that some people improve by using the 1979 Book of Common Prayer and some people improvises by using ipods and macbooks and both are OK. We also were kinda fearful of the whole improvisation thing and nobody mentioned, though I stronly believe, that communities tend to be self-correcting.

Finally, a great analogy for people like Jonny, Brian McLaren, and hopefully me - and that is being bilingual - we speak both institution and alt.worship.

All in all a good day one. I'll talk more tomorrow about the "open space" conversations we're having each day.

Two other things

2021 "talk" on the economy

I ran into a friend of mine in the coffee shop on Wednesday morning. We exchanged the usual pleasantries and I asked him how he was doing. His answer surprised me. "You know," he said, "I've been in a fog for the past few weeks. I think this situation with the economy has really been weighing on me. I've got a friend who after the whole challenger explosion thing wasn't right for more than a month. I think that's happening to me."

I left the coffee shop and returned to my office where my google desktop updated the news every 15 minutes, but it never really changed. "Fed, central banks cut rates to stem meltdown." "Market slides despite rate cut." "McCain and Obama disagree on use of $700b in bailout money." And I got to thinking. What is the role of faith communities in all of this.

Part of me wants to say, "people seek out faith communities to avoid all of this. It is the job of the body of Christ to talk about kingdom oriented stuff and forget about all the sloppy stuff that happens in this world." But most of me knows that that part of me is full of it. People who are in debt up to their eyeballs need somebody to give them hope. People who have watched their 401k dwindle to half of what it was last year need somebody to give them hope. We all need somebody to give us hope. There is no way to really separate this world from the stuff of the kingdom. To say it another way, the separation of the kingdom of God from this world is how we ended up in this mess in the first place.

Dishonest lenders gave out loans to people who they knew couldn't afford them in order to make a buck. Dishonest home buyers lied on applications to buy homes they couldn't afford to keep up with the Jones'. The cycle of distrust, greed, and envy perpetuated itself to the point that subprime - a nice way of saying less than ideal - loans were given to subprime - a nice way of saying less than qualified - candidates in every income bracket of every race, color, and creed. The subprime mortgage meltdown has nothing to do with the prime interest rate, as the name might suggest, and everything to with poor decision making on the part of millions of people costing the world's economies trillions of dollars.

Tonight, I want to give us the opportunity to be creative about economics, even and especially if we have no idea how the invisible hand works or where Wall Street is located. I want us to think about economics in the context of two pieces of Scripture. The first is Genesis 1.31. It is the sixth day of Creation and God has just wrapped up making humankind, male and female, and "God looked over everything he had made; it was so good, so very good!" Contrary to the way I learned the story, God didn't look at Adam and Eve and see that they were very good, God looked at everything he had made, everything that he had spoken into existence, everything that he had just set into order - into relationship one with another - he saw those perfect relationships and saw THAT as "so good, so very good!"

If the subprime lending meltdown teaches us anything, it is that somewhere between day six and today those relationships became royally screwed up. Relationships between people and God. Relationships between people and people. Relationships between people and animals, plants, rocks. Every relationship that God looked upon and saw as so very good, has, at one point or another, been busted up, battered, and bruised.

?????So what does economics, which comes from the Greek words for the rules of the household, look like when the relationships within the household are restored to their perfect condition? Is it possible to even dream of it? Is the system so broken that we can't even fathom that "very good" sixth day?

Hold that in your mind, as we move to explore what God the Son had to say about economics. Did you know that second only to the Kingdom of God, Jesus spent most of his time talking about money? In the sixth chapter of Matthew he talks quite frankly about money, in terms that seem to have a lot to say to us in 2008. Beginning in verse 19,

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Let me be clear and say that I am not arguing against, nor do I think Jesus was arguing against, prudent financial planning. I don't think he was banning ownership of possessions. I don't think he was telling us not to "save for a rainy day" or buy life insurance policies. And as I mentioned before, I don't think he was calling us to despise the good gifts which the God of Creation has offered us.

What I do think he is banning explicitly, and I draw heavily on mission theologian John Stott for this, is "

1.the selfish accumulation of goods (do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth";

2. extravagant and luxurious living;

3. the hardheartedness which does not feel the colossal need of the world's underprivileged people;

4. the foolish fantasy that a person's life consists in the abundance of his possessions;

5. and the materialism which ties our hearts to this earth."

In the days of Jesus nothing was safe; moths ate clothing; mice ate stored grain; worms ate anything else; and thieves stole what was left. Today we can protect a lot with insecticides, mouse-traps, rustproof paints, and alarm systems, but as we know all too well we can still "lose it all" through inflation or devaluation or recession.

Our "treasure in heaven" on the other hand, is incorruptible. Practically speaking, our treasure in heaven are the things we do whose effects last for eternity. Things like: the development of a Christlike character; the increase of faith, hope, and charity; growth in the knowledge of Jesus who we will one day see face to face; the active endeavor by prayer and witness to introduce others to Christ; the constant work of restoring relationships; and the use of our money for the Kingdom of God, which is the only investment whose dividends are everlasting.

This all assumes that the kingdom of God, the restoration of all of God's created relationships, is "not some getaway vacation after our death", but it is a real possibility in the here and now. By focusing our attention on God's dream for today instead of our hope for tomorrow we become open for God to use us in the restoration work that keeps the kingdom wheels in motion. Working with God to return the systems of the world to their so very good starting point will help us avoid future crises like the one that stares us in the face today. Store up your treasure in heaven by bringing heaven to earth today.

?????

What are the "treasure in heaven" practices that you can do? Where do you feel God's hand leading you in the restoration of relationships? How does moving heaven from up there to down here change the way you interact with your neighbor? with God? with creation? How do we remove the tethers of materialism and instead place our treasure in heaven?

the heart of worship

You know that Michael W. Smith, "I'm getting back to the heart of worship... its all about you Jesus"? You know the one? If it hadn't played in my office for a year straight I probably wouldn't mind it, in fact theologically it is one of the better P&W songs out there (MWS is one of the better lyricists of this stuff in my opinion). Anyway, because I heard that song on a daily basis for more than a year it is one of those songs that sits deep within me and shows up on occasion to remind me one of two things. First, it reminds me, an Episcopal priest, that no matter who refined the language or how lavish the manual actions, worship ain't about me, the prayer book, or the church - it is about the blessed and undivided Trinity. Second, it reminds me of that great line from Paul in Romans 12.1-2 - "I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God-- what is good and acceptable and perfect."

We've done a bunch of work here at St. Paul's reflecting in thought, prayer, conversation, and study on what a gathered community must do in order to worship together. As part of our planning and dreaming for our new ministry twentytwentyone we've followed the pendulum from it requiring a collect, a lesson, a sermon, the peace, and the eucharist TO just showing up at a habitat build. Right now we feel fairly settled with the Acts 2.42 model of apostolic teaching, fellowship, breaking bread, and prayers. But once again today God is reminding me to "let it happen, not make it happen." Maybe even Acts 2.42 is prescribing too much. What about Romans 12.1-2?

Seems here that worship is two things - offering ourselves (souls and bodies) and renewing our minds toward God's will. I sorta get how we can renew our minds, but what does that look like? How does a community gathered offer themselves (souls and bodies)? To be honest, I'm not sure, but I think it means that we gather as open people - open to God and to one another - completely vulnerable to the everlasting Word and to the Christ we see in the face of another. Still it seems hard to ask a group of people to come together to do this without a structure - without a plan for openness - without something... more worshippy.

Hmm. More drawing board material.