Intentional Effort

Last week I returned from a service trip to rural Coast Rica. Together with 23 other people, my family spent a week working with a local community on a building project. Our group included people from age 9 to over 70, and many of us had never met before. Over the week when we worked on our project, we encountered construction challenges and torrential rains. As expected, we also experienced a language barrier and differing cultural norms.

This week was challenging physically and mentally, but was also exhilarating. It was amazing to see our group, who had been strangers, work alongside the local community with such focus and drive. As unlikely as it looked at the beginning, we were all determined to complete our project no matter what. All of us, as different as we were, shared a single goal and were willing to do whatever it took to achieve it.

With such teamwork and shared vision, it was no surprise that we completed our project. The pictures of the entire team and the local community members celebrating at the end captured our joy at reaching our goal. It was amazing!

Now that I am back home, I have been reflecting on this experience. What our group was able to accomplish by working together toward our shared goal was incredible. We had given it our all and succeeded. How can I replicate this here at home? How could our churches, schools, or communities benefit from such a focused and intentional effort?

Kelly

What the Church Should Be

I’d like to continue the theme of what the church, specifically the Episcopal Church in Western Washington, should be.

My vision for the church is to be an institution that stands against fear and recognizes each person for who he or she is. Our culture tends to stereotype people into caricature-like categories. In reality, human beings are immensely complex—often self-contradicting—creatures. And when people see things differently, as people inevitably do, we tend to question the motives or good faith. In mischaracterizing others, we not only encourage others to stereotype and mischaracterize us, we shortchange ourselves by squelching an opportunity to learn. For an illustration of this, see the comments on just about any website, which quickly tend to degenerate into ad hominem attacks and name-calling.

We live in a culture of fear: where a mother can be arrested for leaving a third grader in a car while she runs into the store, but without a thought for the potential risks of taking they child inside with her. I call this fake fear. It’s inspired not by actual experience with other people, but by a menacing picture of The Other presented to us by a relentless, always-on media. So we fret and hover over our children rather than sending them to school on their own. (While looking into the perception of risk versus the reality with respect to children, I found an interesting website: freerangekids.com ).

I think that fear, which is aggravated and encouraged by the media, arises because our society has become so atomized. We’re alone in a crowd, wearing headphones and texting with people hundreds of miles away rather than conversing with people right next to us. Everyone is a stranger. We don’t know our neighbors. The opposite of love isn’t hate, it’s fear. And fear is often grounded in ignorance. Sure, there are things in the world that we ought to be afraid of, but those things are the exception. Instead, we’ve made fear the rule. “Encourage your hopes, not your fears.” That’s a bumper sticker slogan and somewhat of a cliché, but it would be a wonderful slogan for the church (in Latin, of course!).



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It has been almost a month since I’ve been of my social media of choice. In a sense, it has been liberating because I’m not obsessively checking it every few minutes. But there is a substantial downside: the reality of our culture is that social media is how many of us do stay in touch. I have no idea what most of my friends are up to, and am missing parties and events. It remains to be seen how or even if my relationships will adjust to take account of being unplugged. I’ll let you know.

Brad

Sunday Morning at a Small Episcopal Church

Our church is SMALL!! Like 10-15 attendance at Sunday service small! That said, there are interesting aspects of being in a small church community, and one of those is attending worship and fellowship on Sunday morning. I tend to be the first one there (about 9am), to ensure things are cleaned up and put back in place in the parish hall, as we have several 12 Step groups meet during the week, and we are not in the building much ourselves after Wednesday morning Bible study. Usually our clergy arrive next by about 9:30am, followed by everyone else up until we start the service at 10am. And whoever is there gets out the coffee and tea water and sets us for the treats, which are brought in by whoever signs up for that week. Others ready the flowers for the old altar and our other stands—as many as four vases full, most always brought in from someone’s garden or bushes.

Early fellowship time happens, and can even delay the start of the service a bit, but no one generally cares. This particular day we had two of our older women members attend (who have both been fighting cancer for years), and it is always great to visit with them as much as we can. Note, we are all older (or as young, as we feel we are!) Another of our regulars had her 5-6 year old granddaughter visiting her, and brought her along (it’s a treat when we have young children with us). She got to ring our large bell to tell the neighbors the service was starting. And, our one family with a teenager was back from two weeks of vacation, so they read the two lectionary readings for the day.

Our music is from the Church of Canada hymnal, which is newer than our own 1982 Episcopal hymnal, so it has a few more newer songs from more laid back, folk type genre and also more inclusive language with many of our recognizable favorite hymns. Our 90 year old organist does a great job playing our simple but effective organ when he can be there. Today’s hymns/songs: God, We Praise You for the Morning; Like the Murmur of the Dove’s Song; Breath on Me, Breath of God; and In Christ There is No East or West. Our Gloria song is a simple version of This is the Day That the Lord Has Made, and our Sanctus hymn is the fairly familiar version of Holy, Holy, Holy.

We use various Prayers of the People and Eucharistic Prayers, depending on the season of the church year calendar. Our worship bulletin is printed up so it can be reused for an entire season, and contains the entire service in larger type, so the Prayer books are not really needed. (This helps with visitors, who always wonder what we’re doing—so at least they only have a worship bulletin, a lectionary of the readings, and a hymnal to manage.) We are all encouraged to really participate fully in the service--with great voices or weak ones—we are all worshiping and celebrating God together! This Sunday, I gave the sermon, discussing the Old Testament reading about Joseph as a teen and how he became so hated by his older brothers to the point they sold him to Midianites heading for Egypt. The soap opera this family line of Jews acted out is something that we all can wonder about, and then believe we all should be able to do better, as families, and also just as society living together. (10 minutes max!)

We say the Nicene Creed and then move quickly to the Prayers. For this Pentecost season, we are using a PoP version that we found somewhere that we like and has all of us participate in reading, and we bring up those people by name aloud we remember for prayers at each type of issue. We say the short version of the Confession, are blessed by the priest, and then we greet each other warmly, some hugs, some handshakes and try to keep the fellowship to a dull roar. I gave the short announcements, which consisted of asking we not have a Bishop’s Committee in August (just provide the latest finances report), remind all that our schools supplies drive is on and to get out there and buy things they can use (we ask the schools for their lists), and also that our annual church picnic is in three weeks (at the church—we don’t challenge Mother Nature!). Rev. Sarah Monroe will be presiding and preaching that day, and we are to also supply the food for her Chaplains on the Harbor homeless ministry dinner for that Sunday night.

On to the bringing forward the gifts of our money, bread and wine, with the granddaughter getting to do this for us (with direction). The Doxology is still sung (old tradition!) and then the Eucharistic Prayer for our Pentecost season is C (the so-called Star Trek version), which allows us to participate more than normal, and then we all come up for communion. A short post communion, a blessing from the priest, the final hymn and the deacon’s words, which we respond to and say multiple Amens! Under one hour, and I feel is an uplifting time for all.

Fellowship this Sunday brought us treats of some kind of lemon tart and a chocolate cake too, and fresh blueberries. Most everyone sat around the one large circular table we always seem to use and discussed various things they are doing, including lots about gardening and food and travel and the county fair. Three of us sat on the side and discussed the usual sports teams, with a special talk about the upcoming high school football season and the changes to the district 4 teams and the new league. Somewhere in this the reader board was agreed to be changed, and was handled (it now says “JOYFUL JOYFUL WE ADORE THEE”). And the money was counted quickly and dealt with.

We clean up, and hustle off to our many Sunday things we are doing, and another Sunday of worship and fellowship is complete at about noon.


Jim

Are We On Fire?

“Zeal for your house has consumed me” (Jn. 2:17), John says of Jesus, following Jesus’ trashing of temple property as he comes into Jerusalem.

“I have counted all things as loss,” says Paul, so that I can “know Christ, and the power of his resurrection, so I might share in the fellowship of his suffering” (Phil. 3:10).

An old Anglican bishop once said; “Let everyone who professes to be a Christian beware of suppressing zeal. Seek it. Cultivate it. Try to enlarge the fire in your own heart, and the hearts of others, but never, never stop it.”

I am always struck by the urgency of Jesus’ message and the urgency of the New Testament community. If the church needs anything in these days, perhaps most of all it needs zeal—passion, purpose, conviction, urgency. For the gospel, for the work of Christ in the world—a zeal so powerful that it will push us to work and sacrifice and hope and pray in the midst of all of our bad news, and dismal statistics, and collective sense of dread.

I have been privileged to meet many zealous lay and ordained leaders in Christ’s church. I have also noticed that, in times like our own when it is so easy to withdraw into ourselves and our budgets, zeal can be discouraged. Risk taking is frowned on. And, our message and our mission is lost.

When Jesus proclaimed the coming kingdom of God, he was inexorable in his mission. He spoke to a people stripped of land, resources, dignity, and freedom by an occupying empire. Where the Empire brought hunger, Jesus brought a crowd together to find abundance. Where the Empire degraded a whole people, Jesus taught they were beloved children of God. Where the Empire rewarded an elite few with the lion’s share of money, power, and land, Jesus demanded that Zacchaeus and the rich young ruler return what they had stolen and relinquish their power. Where the Empire promoted division of peoples, Jesus healed a Roman slave and a Jewish son, a Canaanite girl (albeit reluctantly) and a woman possessed.

What attracted people to Jesus was not a good and safe marketing strategy. What ensured the future of his mission was not a well balanced budget (and there is nothing wrong with having one of those).

Jesus was on fire with message of good news to the poor, freedom for the prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind, and setting the oppressed free (Lk 4:18). Our mission and our message, in the end, must be the same—our purpose and our passion toward the same aim.

It is this message, proclaimed and lived out with courage and conviction, that changes the world. It is this message that is needed as Gaza’s children die, as Detroit’s residents face water shutoffs, as Aberdeen’s young people live by the river in old mill foundations, as Brazil’s children live in overcrowded slums while vast tracks of land are unused, as Honduras’ teenagers flee death across U.S. borders. If we want relevancy, this is it.

In the urgency of the early Christian community, Luke’s Jesus says; “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” (Lk. 12:29). Are we prepared for such fire?

Sarah

Finding "Trust"

Many times the further you get away from a subject you are anxious or thinking about, the closer you can stumble on an answer. Our Outside Church Walls (OCW) group for the last two meetings has talked about core values and principles for a faithful vital 21st century Episcopal Church in Western Washington.

My children had made plans during this past year to gather the family and whisk me away in July to Trout Haven Resort at Wallowa Lake in Northeast Oregon for a special birthday celebration. Then, one of my granddaughters decided that Grandpa’s birthday celebration would be a good wedding date for her and her fiancee`. So, as you well know, these things can grow a little bit over time and a special day becomes an “extra special day,” a week, two, three, and needless to say I did not make our July 25th meeting. I was thinking about it, maybe not full time but part time, amidst all the love and activity of birthday, wedding, and family.

Reading my Forward Day by Day (FDxD), as I have for 40+ years, on my birthday July 10th prayers were asked for the Diocese of Eastern Oregon, a Missionary District when my wife & I met for the first time in 1946-47 at Ascension Church Camp, Cove, OR. If you still have your July copy of FDxD, grab it and reflect with me.

The author for July was Frank Wade, an Episcopal Priest from West Virginia, with a long pastorate at St. Albans, Washington D.C., then as interim Dean at Washington National Cathedral. He is Adjudent Faculty at Virginia Theological Seminary and has been a frequent contributor to FDxD over the years. While I was fixed on this month for many readings it was his treatment of Jesus’ life through the gospel of Matthew that caught my attention. From July 1-31, with the exception of July 22nd, he went to John 20:18 and Mary Magdalene telling the Disciples “I have seen the Lord.”

On July 1, Matthew 21:23, he speaks about authority and the fact that we live in a fallen world where “TRUST” must be carefully placed. As I walked with him and Jesus through the month it wasn’t until we were back in the Blue Mountains out of Pendleton, OR in the quiet and serene (although by this time a little smokey) with just my wife that a light came on! July 15 Matthew 25:23, “you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things.”

“TRUST”- How is it built, or more often, how is “TRUST” rebuilt. The Parable of Talents provides one of the clearest answers.

1. Trust cannot be earned without first being given.
2. Trust is built gradually. It takes time as well as generous vulnerability.
3. Trust is delicate, essential to life, slowly built, easily damaged, rebuilt with difficulty, and well worth pursuing. Amen!

Read on through July 31 and thank Jesus, the Gospel of Matthew, Scott Gunn & FDxD, and Frank Wade for revealing that TRUST must be a core principle in our OCW search for a faithful and vital 21st century Episcopal Church in Western Washington.


God Bless,
Chuck