Money, Power, and Wonder

I recently read an article by Arianna Huffington, founder and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post, a prominent online news website. It brought out her views about the seemingly most important metrics of being successful in today's world—money and power! Well, she has proposed a Third Metric, based around "well-being, wisdom, our ability to wonder, and to give back". In her speech at Smith College in Northampton, Mass., Ms. Huffington told graduates not to settle just for breaking through glass ceilings, but to change the system by "going to the root of what's wrong."

"Don’t buy society’s definition of success," she said. "Because it’s not working for anyone. It’s not working for women, it's not working for men, it's not working for polar bears, it's not working for the cicadas that are apparently about to emerge and swarm us. It's only truly working for those who make pharmaceuticals for stress, diabetes, heart disease, sleeplessness and high blood pressure."

She has also tried to connect this Third Metric concept with Biblical writing and principles. You can read about this at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/31/biblical-third-metric_n_4826824.html?utm_hp_ref=religion

My first thoughts were that it is tricky to try to take small parts of anything, especially the Bible, and make one's point about any subject, without any sense of the context, history, or culture around the cited passages. There are some good passages mentioned here that tie in with her Third Metric philosophy. However, I thought more about the overall message that Ms. Huffington was bringing forth, and it has a clear parallel with what Outside Church Walls is trying to honor.

The Three Metrics for a meaningful life proposed by Ms. Huffington are money, power, and “focusing on our own well-being, cultivating a sense of wonder, passing on our wisdom, and practicing compassion”. Note that it is hard to define the third one as one word, like the first two. But also, the first two are not thrown out or just replaced by only the last one.

Our OCW efforts are looking at how to be “church” in these times, and connecting to those outside the church walls to find and extend the faith we all have. This means not necessarily throwing out everything we have traditionally thought of being church, but to look at new ways that change our perspective and actions. This COULD mean “throwing out the old, and bringing in the new”, but probably more realistically WILL mean changing the overall purpose of the physical church, its people, and its traditions to connect it well with our communities and those who we (in the church!) interact with in our lives. OCW is still working on what this can look like, and likely will be long after we end as an organized group, but for everyone now in the church, this is the essence of acting out our faith is—working with what we have and connecting with what the world is and making it a more faithful and compassionate place for all.

Jim

The Silent Treatment

Recently my fourth grader’s teacher has adopted a new disciplinary approach in response to talkative children – the silent treatment. He will go for an afternoon or an entire day without speaking to the class, and simply writes instructions and lessons on the overhead. This is very disturbing to my daughter and her friends, who wonder why exactly he is being quiet, who in the class misbehaved, whether they did something wrong, and when will their teacher begin talking again. The lack of interaction and communication with the teacher they look up to is disorienting and upsetting.

As I thought about this dynamic, I realized that I have from time to time felt this way about God. While I don’t think God is withholding communication and connection as a disciplinary tactic, I sometimes cannot hear or connect with what He may be trying to say. Often it feels like a barrier or wall is interrupting that flow of insight, guidance, comfort, and strength I have felt in the past. And as with my daughter, this makes me anxious.

Being cut off from connection with someone you have long relied on is confusing. But with God, unlike with the teacher, I know the barrier is not of His making but of mine. I know He is constantly reaching, caring, trying to connect with me. All I can do in those times is continue to pray and move forward with faith that the connection will ultimately be restored.

Kelly

Lent – A Time To Reach Out!

In my Feb. 24 blog “A Time For Reflection and Preparation”, I mentioned members of “Outside Church Walls” who were REACHING OUT into their communities from their congregations to prepare for where the Lord may lead us in Lent and the Easter season.

Pope Francis’ message to all Christians is to REACH OUT to the poor, homeless and down trodden – walk the walk with Jesus. Terry Kyllo and his reaching out is through his Catacomb Church ministry. Closer to home you can REACH OUT to R.C. and have lunch at noon at St. Luke’s in Ballard (we did) and become acquainted with Rev. Nyer Urness and the Compass Housing Alliance in Ballard. Contact Jim Caldwell at this Church in Montesano and he can give you a blueprint for a Pancake Day event that included eight Churches and a real community gathering, reaching out. Spend a special Ash Wednesday with Deacon Sarah Monroe in Aberdeen at St. Andrew’s Church and under the bridges REACHING OUT to bring Christ to the homeless.

These last two Sundays in Lent, we have had Bible lessons about REACHING OUT to Jesus. Lent 2: John 3:1-17 a Pharisee named Nicodemus, who came at night in fear of being seen REACHING OUT to Jesus (a Rabbi-teacher who has come from God), he cannot comprehend spiritual rebirth, but who found a tomb for Jesus?

Lent 3: John 4:5-42 a Samaritan woman comes to fetch water from Jacob’s Well at high noon, for she was despised in her own community, she REACHES OUT to Jesus on a literal level, knows He is a Prophet and that a Messiah is coming. Jesus responds “I AM HE” and she believes. She tells the community of Sychar and the REACH OUT after two days and proclaim Him Savior of the world.

Monday, March 24 Forward Day by Day Mark 5:28 “For she said, if I but touch His clothes, I will be made well”. She REACHES OUT and touches the hem of His garment and is healed. We must all REACH OUT before we can RECEIVE!

AMEN! 

Chuck

The Call of Discipleship

“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12

When I first joined the Episcopal Church, I realized two things. First, I was struck by how much we read the Bible. Not only do we include multiple readings from Scripture in every service, a good portion of the liturgy is directly quoted from the Bible.

Second, I was equally amazed by the lack of familiarity with the Biblical text itself in many Episcopal circles. The general scope of its history, a sense of its larger story, or an ability to locate texts and stories were not skills often in the purview of adult education classes. I wondered how a tradition so permeated with the Bible could have so little working knowledge of it.

I was raised on the Bible, steeped in the Bible; I gained my sense of identity from the Bible and found my own story mirrored in its text. Perhaps the one greatest gift of growing up evangelical was that it gave me a love for the Bible. What if people said that about Episcopalians, about all Christians? As I seriously questioned dominant evangelical interpretations of Scripture—salvation and ethics that are solely personal and not collective, atonement that is vengeful and not in solidarity, an eschatology that is futuristic and not immediate—I found myself turning back to the Bible for answers.

It was Desmond Tutu who said; “There's nothing more radical, nothing more revolutionary, nothing more subversive against injustice and oppression than the Bible.” A people who know their own story through the story of the Bible will be a people on fire, a people prepared to change the world.

What if what we need for renewal is not another program, not plans for church growth, not a better church structure, but simply a commitment to discipleship, a discipleship grounded in the scriptures? A discipleship that wrestles with the words of Jesus, that hears the voice of the ancient prophets, that locates our story in the great story of liberation? A discipleship that calls all of us to follow Jesus and be transformed by the living word?

I believe our churches are hungry for such discipleship.

Sarah

Do NOT Explain Inside

In the Holy Land this past January, in Capernaum to be exact, I walked up to the Church of St. Peter's House, a church built in the 60s over the ruins thought to be the House of Peter. It is a beautiful church and beautifully done in order to be present in, but not take away from or destroy, the ruins beneath. I highly recommend you enter in if ever you go there. What intrigued me on this visit was the sign outside, which along with other instructions, says, "Do not explain inside."

 

I surely got the point, that they do not want tour groups going into the church and explaining, or looking at the ruins and telling the people what they were looking at. They were asking that all of that be done outside. I got it, and yet I was so enthralled with, what I perceived to be, the irony of it all. It made me think of something I heard a few years ago and am still processing, that the Church keeps answering questions no one is asking. The irony for me is just how much we try to "explain" inside, and yet I have to wonder if we are touching on anything the people who venture in really want to know? And then, there is the other angle on this, perhaps we don't need to explain anything inside, just let it be. Maybe the "explaining" needs to be done outside, and maybe we, being the Church, are not the only ones to do the "explaining." The inside of the church is not, ultimately, about explaining the ruins. It is about pointing to the transforming of the world and even more about becoming part of that, not inside, but outside the walls.

Bishop Greg

The Dare to be Christian Project

I love the way ideas spread; the way we can take hold of an idea or concept and make it our own; running with it and watching it take on a life of its own.

This is exactly what happened at my congregation recently with the Outside church walls project to engage life outside the walls of our church. One of our youth leaders came up with an idea to engage our youth in conversations about our faith outside our walls. He called the youth project, “Dare to be Christian”.

Basically, kids come up with inventive ways to talk about their faith with their friends, they wrote these “dares” down and then picked out a dare to try during the week at school.

One person had to anonymously doing something kind for someone else. She left two quarters taped to a gumball machine. Another kid picked saying hello to the class out cast. Yet another chose to talk about God with someone at school.

As some of our kids have come back to talk about their experiences, they have some really good questions. How come some Christians hate gay people? How come some don’t like science? How come others feel differently than we do in our church?

Our youth group then dared our adults to write and try their own “dares”.

What would you choose?

A new college student from our church family practiced his own version of dare to be Christian at University. He recently came home and shared with his mother he’s really glad that he was raised in the Episcopal Church. “Some of my classmates that are Christian were raised with so much hate,” he told his family. “And some kids don’t have any faith.” One of his friends lamented that he wished his family observed and believed in something. “Its not too late, our college student responded, “ you could come to church with me.”

I always find it so interesting that kids are so much more at ease with being authentic than we adults are. This dare game has helped our youth consider ways of talking about their faith in Christ AND changing the conversation about what it means to be Christian.

No, Jesus’ followers don’t have to hate science or gay people.

We have so much to offer our communities—why are we in the Episcopal church so reticent to share our good news.

I wonder: can we dare to be Christian like the kids of my congregation’s youth group? Can we change the conversation? Talk about our love reason as well as scripture? Talk about the beauty of our tradition?


Go on… I dare you!

George

Ashes on the Streets of Aberdeen

The man’s sneakers squished with water and he looked worn and tired. Seeing our collars, he waved us down and stopped to tell his story. He’d spent the storm outside last night. “What’s that on your forehead?” he queried; joking, “Only I get to have tattoos on my face.”

“Ashes,” I told him, “Its Ash Wednesday today.” He looked interested. “You want some?” I asked, taking out my little baby food jar with a scant bit of ash left.

I looked him in the eye, tracing the cross on his forehead. “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.” I shivered with the words, remembering his own words moments before. I wondered if I was going to survive last night. The wind blew over our faces, promising more storms tonight.

I added, on impulse, “And may God bless you and hold you in the palm of his hand.”

I saw tears in both our eyes.

When I turned to leave, he stopped me. “Thank you, thank you for doing that. I was feeling terrible today. I needed that.”

This is what Ash Wednesday does. It reminds us who we are. It reminds us of our common humanity—all made of dust, all returning to earth, all one in that sacred mystery of death, bound together by common life.

Over and over, as I walked the streets with the local Lutheran pastor, we heard those words. “Thank you.” “I needed that.” “Thank you for not giving up on me.” One man repeated back the words of imposition to me in his native tongue, his eyes closed in a face furrowed by sorrow and hardship, chanting in prayer. Some were drunk, some wanted to tell their stories; some shivered in cold, some were so strung out they couldn’t hold their hands steady.

In the ally, next to a graffiti sign for porn, standing together in the mud from last night’s storm, a Native elder exclaimed; “I am glad you came! A white supremist just came by showing off his swastika.”

To the Latina women, mother and daughter perhaps, who watched from the sidelines in the clothing bank, I said;

“Recuerda que eres polvo y al polvo volverás.” I might not have said the words quite right, but they bowed their head; “Gracias,” they told me, with shy smiles. “Que Dios le bendiga.” God bless you.

I knew most people I talked to. For six months now, I have been a regular presence in Aberdeen, under overpasses, on the streets, and in the back alleys, getting to know the nearly 375 people counted as homeless or at risk of homelessness in a town of barely sixteen thousand. One of the critiques of imposing ashes outside of church is that it is done outside the context of community. In this case, I was taking ashes out to my community, to my people, to those I had prayed for and prayed with and loved. To people who believe that they are unworthy to enter a church building.

And, as I imposed ashes today, I was saying; “You are worthy. For the kingdom of God is given to you.” We affirmed a common humanity in this broken town on the edge of empire, on the banks of the overflowing river, under the bridge, outside the clothing bank, in the graffiti filled alleys. For a moment, in a town that has been hit hard too many times, we glimpsed the promised land and we had church, outside the walls.

Sarah

On The Street Where I Live, Please Mind Your Pigeon-Holes

We are in the passageway between the Seasons of Epiphany and Lent; and I could be blogging about passageways, but not today.  I have something else I need to talk about. It’s this; Nones.  I’m making my case here for stamping out the word Nones.  What does Nones mean, really?  None means: nothing, no one, no body, nil.  Somebodies have chosen to pluralize it to Nones as a word to “pigeon-hole” the folks - our neighbors - who have not chosen to identify with any particular religion or religious denomination.  Why in God’s name allow that?  (Look up nones in the dictionary for its accurate definition.)

The street on which I’ve lived for fourteen years is five blocks long.  Our homes along my street are modest.  My neighbors are good citizens, and my neighborhood is relatively stable.  Among my neighbors are an outstanding craftsman, a nationally known artist, a wizard gardener, two exceptional environmentalists, a fun loving country singer- guitarist, a nurse, a teacher, two teen internet magicians and five small cottages that are home to somebodies whose lives are in transition.  I, of course, have more neighbors, than I’ve mentioned here. I am the only one on my street who, to the best of my knowledge, regularly attends church.  So what?  

So plenty, from my point of view.  All of my neighbors are somebodies who love and are loved.  They are whole and holy somebodies created in the image of God and enlivened by the holy spirit. They are being about the work God has given them to do in our world.  They are loving and serving their neighbors as themselves. For whom and for what reasons is it important for them to go to church?  What does it say about me if I see them as nones?   Please, you tell me. 

The Greek word ecclesia, accurately translated, means “the called out ones”.  It does not translate to “church”.  Kyriakon is the New Testament Greek word for “church” – defined as a building that is used for Christian religious services.

What I take this to mean for myself and my Christian friends is that we are called out to follow in the Way of Jesus; to proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ. . .to seek and serve Christ in all persons; to love our neighbors as ourselves; to strive for justice and peace among all people and to respect the dignity of every human being.*

A super majority of my neighbors do not go to church.  From that fact, am I then to conclude that they are not building up the Body of Christ in the world?  I think not. We are all beloved children of God.  We are all beloved Somebodies. 

Not one of us is a Nones.  

Oh, by the way, use of the word “un-churched” makes me twitch, too.  Does it you?

MaryAnn

* Extrapolated from BCP, p. 305