2-28-19 - In a Cloud

(You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.)

Have you ever found yourself in a cloud (not counting in airplanes)? A fog rolls in and you are completely enveloped in white, your visibility of anything beyond your own form completely obscured. It is a deeply disorienting experience. And what if that cloud began to speak?

…a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!”

Of course, on the mount of Transfiguration, it was not the cloud speaking, it was God. But why a cloud? Maybe the blocking of other senses allowed the disciples to focus more on the aural experience, the voice of God, and its message. And what a message, so similar to what some heard at Jesus’ baptism, "This is my Son," but with the added command, “Listen to him.” Their ears confirmed what they had seen with their eyes. when Jesus was transfigured before them. Later, if tempted to doubt, they had another form of authority on which to rest. And when they were ready to talk – perhaps after Jesus’ resurrection? – they had quite a story to tell, supported by three witnesses.

How does God get our attention? We are often so enveloped in activities and media and dashing here and there, responding to so many messages, it can be hard for the voice of God to get through. Perhaps we should put ourselves in a cloud periodically, dramatically reduce the stimuli. One might say that is what the practice of centering prayer achieves – we enter a cloud of soft quiet, where we see little and hear only silence.

That is also what happens on retreat, whether for a few hours or a few days: we slip into a simpler rhythm of meals, rest, walks, study, prayer, with fewer choices to make. As we give ourselves to the simplicity and the silence, eventually God’s voice begins to get through.

One of the great classics of Christian spirituality is a 14th century book called The Cloud of Unknowing (the link is to an edition I like), whose author suggests that God is to be found not in knowledge and evidence so much as in absence and mystery. It’s not the way we might think of seeking God in our take-charge, work-for-what-you-want culture. But that medieval mystic was on to something.

Perhaps that’s what God does when we are in the clouds, reminds us that the deepest knowledge is not found in what we can see or figure out for ourselves. The deepest Truth can only come from God, who speaks in a sound of sheer silence.

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2-27-19 - Company You Keep

(You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.)

Confession: I am a name-dropper. If I have a connection with someone considered important or influential in some realm or other, and I can work it into the conversation at all naturally, it’s in. I’m not unique; Facebook shows that many people bask in the reflected glow of the company they keep.

Well, Jesus one-ups all the name-droppers in the world. His important friends – about as influential as they come in the history of Israel – simply materialize up on that mountain, to the astonishment of his three followers:

Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.

Not only can Peter, James and John see these men with Jesus, they can hear their conversation. Moses and Elijah and Jesus are speaking outside of time as we know it. They are discussing future events, Jesus' upcoming passion, death, resurrection and ascension, as fully as if they had already occurred. In God-time, eternal time, they already had.

Why would Moses and Elijah show up in this transcendent experience? Maybe because they represent the Law and the Prophets, the foundation of Israel’s religious tradition. Maybe because they were among the few who are recorded as having seen God, or had close encounters with God. And maybe they were there as a confirming sign to Jesus’ followers that the claims he made about himself and his mission in this world were true. At times when they might doubt him, they had this memory to keep them on track.

When we’re beginning to get close to someone, we soon find ourselves curious about their friends and connections. People can rise and fall in our esteem based on who they surround themselves with, who admires and respects them, or not. So these disciples, already drawn close into a relationship with Jesus, aware of the lowliness of many of his companions, are given this glimpse into how exalted his connections could be. "Imagine, he even hangs out with Moses!"

As we try to get to know this Jesus better ourselves, without the benefit of his incarnate form, we too can explore who his friends and connections are. And as we seek to make him known, we can “out” ourselves as his friends, so others might learn more about him through knowing us. What kind of representatives are we? How well do our churches at large convey the grace and love for which Jesus is known?

It’s a big responsibility. Thankfully, it gets easier the more comfortable we get knowing Jesus. There is no higher name to drop - and he told us to drop his name liberally. Indeed, heaven and earth are waiting for us to do so.

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2-26-19 - Dazzling

(You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.)

The word “dazzling” doesn’t appear enough in the Bible, in my opinion. Nor do “marvelous,” “enchanting,” “super” or other movie poster adjectives. No wonder some people think it’s a dull book, full of platitudes and proscriptions. But we do get dazzled in this week’s story – blindingly so.

Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white.

It’s funny how you can read a story a hundred times, and on the 101st reading see it in a new way. I’ve always thought Jesus was glowing, radiating light from within, as though the veil of his human body became translucent and revealed his form as pure energy. Maybe. But then why would his clothes become dazzling white? How would light from within do that?

Now it occurs to me that maybe he was reflecting the light of God, suddenly revealed up there on that mountain, that God was both within Jesus and without, all around. The Exodus story (our Hebrew Bible reading Sunday) tells us “Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God.” Maybe Jesus was reflecting light, not generating it; enough light to make Jesus’ face look different, to make his whole being to dazzle.

What difference does it make, you may ask, whether the light came from within or without? Not a lot. What interests me is whether and how we might reflect the light of God, and what it might do to our faces. I don’t mean that our faces will light up like Christmas trees in the presence of God – though that would surely get some attention. But what if others could see that we are reflecting a holiness, a power from outside us? I’ve been told that sometimes when I sing or lead worship, my face glows, and sometimes when I pray for healing, I feel an exhilaration that must show on my face. Is that a tiny, tiny bit of what Jesus manifest that day?

Perhaps you’ve known someone’s facial expressions to change when they’ve begun to center their lives on Christ. Our “default expressions,” which we sometimes catch in store windows or mirrors, often reflect care, anxiety, weariness, or bitterness. What if they always reflected the love and grace and assurance of God?

How might that happen? By catching the God-reflection off holy people and holy places. By spending more time intentionally in God’s presence, and letting that relationship shape us. It always seems to come back to that. Shedding our human nature and taking on God-Life doesn't come from a book or a building; it comes from relationship with Jesus.

I don’t know that we will see Jesus lit up this side of glory, but I do believe that his light reflected on us can be dazzling. So dare to dazzle!

2-25-19 - Up the Mountain Again

(You can listen to this reflection here.)

We have had a long Epiphany this year, augmented by the invitation to go deeper in faith in the Way of Love. No matter what stories we visit or people we meet during this season, though, we always end up on the mountaintop with Jesus and three of his closest followers, with what I think of Jesus’ big “reveal” – the Son et Lumiere show of transfiguration.

Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray.

In the Bible, mountains are places where people encounter God. On Mount Moriah, Abraham offers to sacrifice his son and is spared by God. On Mount Sinai, Moses meets with God, and when he descends, his face shines so brightly people are blinded. On Mount Horeb, Elijah catches a glimpse of God. People meet God in deserts and towns and watery places too, but the height and majesty of mountains seem to make them particularly conducive to theophanies.

Maybe it's because mountain tops are “away places.” They generally take some effort to reach. We need to plan our expeditions, bring lunch and water - or, if it’s a really big mountain, weeks’ worth of supplies. We have to make sure we’re fit enough to make the climb, and maybe surround ourselves with people we want to hike with.

And we have expectations – of beauty and grandeur, of great vistas and intimate moments with the natural world. We expect hard climbing but also some flat ground and downward slopes. And we hope to see something at the top that we can see from nowhere else on earth, the big picture that puts our lives into perspective.

The life of faith can be like that, with hills and valleys on its route. We know God is present in the lowlands (as Jesus’ followers discover at the base of the mountain in our gospel reading this week). But we think maybe we’ll have a close encounter with God in on the heights, one that will help us through the more challenging parts of our life's journey.

I don’t know what Peter, James and John expected when Jesus invited them along on his hike – certainly not what they experienced. They probably anticipated some rich time of conversation and contemplation with their master and friend. And so should we. Let’s make this climb with Jesus this week as a training run for the deeper excursion into God we might make during Lent.

What are your expectations of time with God? What do you dread?
What provisions do you want to carry for going deeper in the Spirit? Who else do you want along?

This story is very familiar to lifelong churchgoers, but I pray we will have a new encounter with it this week. After all, we can hike up the same hills time and again, and never experience them quite the same way. May it be like that with this strange and extraordinary tale of Encounter.

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2-22-19 - The Way of Love: Rest

You can listen to this reflection here. 

This season my congregations are exploring the Way of Love, with different gospel readings. Each Friday, Water Daily looks at this week's practice – this is the last: Rest.

The seventh spiritual practice in the Way of Love shares an attribute with the seventh day of Creation: rest. Genesis speaks of God creating the world and all its life in six “days” (epochs…),  and says, “And.. God rested on the seventh day from all the work that God had done.” Does God need rest? Isn't God unlimited in vigor and resilience? (Just like us...?)

We can only guess at nature of God, but could it be that a regular period of inactivity, a time to digest and process events, to refresh and recharge, is necessary even for this God in whose image we are made? Keeping the Sabbath holy – set apart from the ordinary – is an invitation and a command, the only commandment many Christians blithely ignore. This is like being given the deed to a beautiful house and not moving in. Do we really prefer to stay in our shacks of fatigue and stress, while God offers us the gift of time, even a whole day each week, in which to be unproductive?

That is my definition of Sabbath – a day (any day of the week) to just be, to unplug, enjoy, be creative if desired, but do nothing that would be on a to-do list. In seasons when I have managed to keep sabbath on my day off, I have woken up the next day so ready to work. But when I keep asking my brain and body to generate and respond to work without a break, I become less productive, and certainly less peaceful. Just as our bodies need time to digest meals, and our brains need sleep time to process all the data and experiences we’ve encountered all day, so our spirits need times to refresh. Jesus regularly sought times apart, to pray, to listen, to be still. Why is it so hard for us?

A host of obstacles work against the practice of Rest – not only does our culture not support rest, it promotes the lie that our progress is defined by our productivity, that we are only as valuable as our latest accomplishment. Many of us also carry an inner demand for achievement, borne of a deep insecurity about our identity. When we work, we know who we are. But hear this: when we rest, we know whose we are. God says, “You are my beloved. With you I am well pleased.” I once received this word in prayer, “I am delighted with you. There is nothing you can or need to do to make me more delighted with you, because I already love you the most. You could stop working right now and have all my love.” The practice of Rest says “Yes!” to God’s love and grace.

The “tyranny of the urgent” also inhibits our ability to live into God’s gift of Rest. And with our technology, where the urgent thrums constantly through our devices, it’s even easier to get caught up in what seems most pressing. It takes maturity and discipline to step out – ideally at least once a day – and say, “Hmmm – that felt like the most urgent task. But was it the most important thing I could have done with that hour/day/week/year?” Rest gives us that space.

Another disincentive to living into the gift of Rest is our discomfort with feelings that might emerge when we stop. Busyness is an effective anesthetic, distracting us from fear, anger, grief or anxiety that might be stirring in us. When we stop, we often become aware of our feelings. And feelings, like 2-year-olds, can kick up some tantrums if ignored. Acknowledge them, attend to them, and they often subside. Rest helps us do that.

To commit to the spiritual practice of Rest requires some decisions and some discipline. Beyond the imperative of getting enough sleep, it is best to set aside time(s) to rest within each day, and longer times within each week. Going for a walk, taking a few minutes to pray, napping, a cup of tea with a friend – these are all ways we can Rest. If you cannot fathom the idea of a 24-hour sabbath, try a half day. (Though it is actually easier to do a whole day than partial.) The practice of Rest also invites us to step out of the rhythms and pressures of our lives one or more times a year, to take a day or several of retreat. (My Christ Churches will have an opportunity for a Lenten Retreat Day on March 23.)

Like most of the practices, this one gets easier as we make it habitual. Rest is where all the other practices in the Way of Love become integrated. They are all designed to help us center our lives on Jesus. And Jesus said, “Come unto me, all who are weary, and I will give you rest.”

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2-21-19 - What Goes Around...

(You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.)

Many “New Age” teachings assert that we make our own reality, form our own destiny, are fully in charge of our lives. While this is not the Christian understanding (I am relieved to know there is a loving God who has authority over my life, even as s/he allows me the freedom to make choices for good or ill), Jesus does suggest there is a connection between what we put out and what we receive:

‘Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.’

I have experienced this truth. In areas of my life where I am trusting and generous, I experience plenty. Where I am grudging, tight-fisted and judgmental, I see only paltry blessings. But I don't think Jesus is teaching karma, or suggesting that God punishes or withholds according to our attitudes. He is making a profound observation: only freedom can beget freedom, just as only love can beget love.

When we regard others with compassion rather than judgment or condemnation, we seek the best in them; such an outlook leads to more freedom. In fact, when I catch myself judging, I pray for the ability to see where that other person hurts. Compassion can break that cycle. (We need to practice this on ourselves too…). 

When we are able to forgive people who have hurt us, and really release that debt, costly as it may be, we are set free and so are they. And when we give, our hands are open to receive. Not only our hands – our hearts, for giving makes us joyful, and joyful people are attractive. As we cultivate an attitude of giving, things get unjammed, and gifts flow to us as well as from us.

This teaching, “the measure you give will be the measure you get back,” is another way of saying, “Do unto others as you would have them do to you.” Go through life pinched and puckered, that will likely be the way you experience the world. Go out in joy, sharing your gifts and your compassion, and just see how much blessing surrounds you.

Jesus uses such an exuberant image to describe the abundance God wants to pour on us – good measure, pressed down, shaken, running over into our laps. We need to affirm and forgive and give our hearts out just to make room for all the blessing God desires for us to have. Are you ready?

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2-20-19 - Nothing in Return

(You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.)

Like most people, I’ve had my share of unrequited love, yearning for the regard and affection of someone either unavailable or uninterested. But it never occurred to me to see this as a spiritual virtue! Jesus said,

‘If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.'

Of course, Jesus is not talking about romantic fixations, but friendship and favor. To merely return the love or generosity of someone is a low bar indeed. To love as God loves requires us to love when it’s challenging, when we do not get back in kind or volume what we've given, when we don’t even know we’re loved back. If this seems impossible, we need only flip the perspective and see ourselves as the often ungrateful, neglectful and grudging recipients of God’s unconditional love and grace. Jesus’ message starts to make more sense.

Every time we make the choice to love another person, especially in intimate relationships, we are in a sense making a loan. And if, as Jesus commands, we could extend those loans without expectation of repayment, we’d be a lot happier and love with more freedom. I’ve made more than a few loans that I’ve forgotten about. If the money is repaid, it’s a delightful surprise, but I’m not counting on it, or disappointed if it is not. It has never occurred to me to see my offers of love or friendship in the same light.

To give this open-handedly risks allowing people to take advantage of us. To love this open-heartedly leaves us vulnerable to pain, for it is human nature to desire love in return for love given, and to hurt when we don’t receive that. And if we’ve ever known the joy of mutual love, that can become the standard by which we judge our interactions. But if we judge that way, we might miss the gifts that are being offered by friends and lovers; they might seem like lesser gifts but they could be something we need to help us grow.

Can you think of a relationship in which you feel you give more than you get? How does it change your perspective if you focus on your generosity more than on deprivation?

Just as our physical hearts have muscles to be exercised, so do our metaphorical hearts – the more we love without expectation, the stronger our capacity for love grows. Unconditional love is a spiritual practice, as is giving without expectation of return. We need to practice it. And since our expectations are so often the root of our unhappiness, it wouldn’t hurt to take a few off the table, and be set free to love without measure, as we have been loved.

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2-19-19 - Do Unto Others

(You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.)

Can you imagine being robbed, learning the identity of the robber, and saying, “Oh, that’s okay, keep it?” Or walking down a busy sidewalk and giving to every panhandler you meet? Is that really what Jesus was asking of us when he said to his disciples: "Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you."

Every time I have studied this passage in a group, I watch people turn themselves into pretzels trying to find the loopholes. “We’d go broke,” “Nowadays many beggars are addicts or con artists,” “I work hard for my stuff.” Is this message even for us, or was it only intended for Jesus’ first disciples, who were sent on mission forays without no money or purse at all, told to rely completely on the generosity of others? Are there meant to be people who beg, and people who give, or are we all either or both at different times?

As with most passages of scripture, we do best when we look at it as a whole rather than individual verses. We can start where Jesus ends up: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” known as the Golden Rule. If we were truly guided by this principle, all our interactions would flow better, from living with other people to co-existing with global neighbors. If you like to find the kitchen counters clean when you come to them, clean them for the next person. If you would like your citizens to thrive, help your neighbors’ citizens to thrive.

That's all fine. But do we have to let people steal from us? Perhaps Jesus is saying, “If you want people to accord you dignity and ultimate value as a human being, you need to extend that same regard to people who harm or steal from you” – which might mean valuing the person who stole more than the goods stolen. That’s a scary thought. And if we offer our plenty, then it’s not being stolen. If we make a loan without expectation of return, we extend freedom both to ourselves and to our debtors.

It depends what angle you’re looking from. It’s easy to forget that, in cosmic terms, we come into this life with nothing. Everything we have is given to us by our loving God, even what we earn as a result of abilities or assets we’re born with. Should we hold quite so tightly to the fruits of those starting gifts?

Who do you feel has taken something from you? What would help you release that obligation now, treating them as you would hope someone would treat you? Make it specific.

I’m flailing; I am no better at living into this teaching of Jesus than most. I do know that the place to start is by identifying other people with ourselves. “Do unto others as you would have them do to you” sets up a comparison and a connection. And when we see ourselves as connected to other people, and they to us – by common humanity, if nothing else – giving to them, even not quite voluntarily – isn’t such a stretch.

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2-18-19 - Love Your What?

(You can listen to this reflection here. This week's gospel reading is here.)

Of all the big "asks" that Jesus lays on his followers, perhaps the most extreme is this one:
‘But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt.'

It may be hard to see sometimes, but all humans have some innate capacity for generosity, compassion, collaboration. Jesus asks these attributes of us. But to love your enemy and do good to someone who hates you? That runs counter to human nature and most cultural norms. How can we structure societies and kinship groups if we have to love our enemies the same as we love our friends and relations?

Jesus held kinship relationships very lightly – witness his dismissiveness of his mother and brothers. In fact, he redefined family altogether, saying, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.” (Luke 8:21). And we can see what he thought of social and ethnic categories in his parable of the Good Samaritan, where the hero of the tale is the social “other.” But what about human nature? Are we not hard-wired to protect ourselves and those we love, as well as our possessions? How can we go around loving our enemies?

With only our human nature, I don’t believe we can. But we do not operate out of merely human nature. At our baptisms, God installs God's operating system in us, and when we run on our God-nature, we access unimaginable power. Here’s how we can go about loving our enemies: Let God do it. Bring God into the triangle.

Like it or not, there is a line running between us and our enemies – we are bound to them by mutual hatred/fear/prejudice/anger/all of the above. It can be hard to pray along that axis, let alone open ourselves to communication or blessing. So I direct my prayers for those persons to God, and ask God to bless, forgive, heal and restore them. It is a powerful thing to ask God to bless someone you are unable to bless. We can’t know the effect it will have on the other person (though surprisingly often we see changes in behavior…), but it releases something in us.

As we begin to be freed of our own fear and hatred, we become better able to imagine doing good to those who hate us. There is self-interest as well as altruism in ensuring that those who hate us have enough to eat, safe places to sleep and solid education. If we are victims of abuse from someone else, sometimes the only power we hold is to pray for the abuser, as we are able to do so. There is no downside to praying that a vile and evil human being be blessed and healed and restored to his or her full humanity. Such conversion can only help us and protect other victims. Think of John Newton, the slave-trader (and Anglican clergyman…) who came to see the evil he perpetuated, and wrote of his conviction and conversion in the hymn Amazing grace!

In these days of national divisions deeper than most of us have known, it’s not hard to imagine people who hate us, or even people we’d consider enemies. So we have no shortage of opportunities to practice Jesus’ biggest ask.

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2-15-19 - The Way of Love: Go

(You can listen to this reflection here. This season my congregations are exploring the Way of Love, with different gospel readings. Each Friday, Water Daily looks at this week's practice – today that is Go.)

The sixth Way of Love practice for a Jesus-focused life is Go. Go where God sends you. Go where you hear someone calling for you. Go across boundaries of culture, economics, race, age, gender, experience… go and bear Christ’s love to people who are different from you. Get out of your comfort zone and join Christ on the road. The road is where Jesus spent most of his time – why do we mostly hang out with him in a building for a few hours on Sunday?

Many used to equate being a Christian with going to church. But these days fewer and fewer people go to church. So, many churches put their energies into trying to get people to Come. Evangelism becomes synonymous with welcoming, programming, marketing, strategies of attraction. Meanwhile, so many people hungry for God’s word of life are outside our doors, doing other things, on society's margins.

Jesus never invited anyone into a building. He said, “Follow me.” His disciples learned to travel, to live on the road, supported by a group of women who also heard Jesus’ call to Go. He sent them out, saying, “Go. Proclaim the Good News. Heal the sick. Don’t get too comfortable anywhere. Go."

To Go in Jesus’ name requires us to get out of our comfort zones. Many people associate church with comfort, a place of refuge. But Jesus said: “Go and make disciples of all nations.” We do need to gather in community as disciples, in our practice of Worship; church is where we recharge and rejoice in what God is doing through us out in the world, are refreshed in God’s Word and renewed at Christ’s Table. But it is not where we are to rest – we go apart again as Christ’s apostles, sent out to refresh the world with living water.

One of the most profound boundary-crossing encounters in the Gospels happened between Jesus and a woman he met at a well one day at high noon. Here we see a Jewish man, a holy man, talking with a Samaritan woman, an outcast both ethnically and because of her “lifestyle choices.” These two talk across so many barriers, and do their share of sparring; this woman is feisty. But Jesus says that the water in the well will leave her thirsty again; the living water he can give will well up inside her for eternal life. He tells her truth about herself, and that he is the Messiah she has been awaiting – and she believes. She drops her bucket, runs back to town and says, “Come and see!” Her neighbors do, meet him for themselves, and the whole town comes to believe in Jesus.

When we go in Jesus’ name, transformation follows. Because we go where he will go (and has already been…). In Luke 10:1 we read, “He sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go.” Jesus is still sending us on ahead, to go, to meet, to listen in humility and grace, building relationships in which we can introduce him easily and naturally. How exciting it would be if our churches found ways to go out in groups, to offer worship and service among different sorts of people to whom we feel called – single mothers, citizens returning from incarceration, retired executives, healthcare workers…

To whom do you feel called to go, and where? Have you shared that with anyone?

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2-14-19 - Where's the Love?

(You can listen to this reflection here.)

Happy Valentines Day, everybody. Now let’s talk about being unloved for Jesus’ sake! In his "sermon on the plain" he said:

‘Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets…
‘Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.'

It can be awfully tempting to take these words and say, “If everybody hates me, I must be doing something right!” Many a clergyperson (or despot…) wielding his or her will over a community has employed such false logic to justify themselves. “I’m just like Jesus, persecuted and holy!”

Let’s assume that is not what Jesus meant. Remember, this whole teaching is directed to his disciples, those who have already committed themselves to following him and the way of life and love he was teaching. That Way ran profoundly counter to the ways of culture, not to mention human nature. He is warning them that people don’t respond well to having their assumptions challenged, their power threatened, their world turned upside down. In his service, they will encounter exclusion, derision, persecution and worse. He cautions them not to let their value be determined by what others think about them, nor to adjust their teaching or actions according to their popularity.

Jesus wisely frames the rejection his followers would often face in the tradition of the prophets of old, many of whom persisted in giving dire warnings that kings did not want to hear, despite persecution and punishment. Jesus wanted his followers to know that if they claim to act for God, they should expect trouble.

And of course, those who claim to act for God better be certain that’s what they are doing. How can we know? We can always check our preaching and teaching against what we find in Scripture, the whole sweep of Scripture, that is, not just individual passages. And we need to ground our missional life in prayer, in that relationship into which God invites us daily. And we need to look for good fruit.

If people are coming to faith through our ministries, lives are being transformed, and energy being released for mission, we know God is with us. We can withstand the discontent of those who disagree or feel left behind, and continually invite them to join in. But if the only fruit resulting from our teaching or actions is discord and hurt, it’s likely the Holy Spirit is not with us in what we’re doing.

The Holy Spirit is the key. Jesus did nothing without the Spirit, and neither should we. Not only does the Spirit empower our ministries and inspire our preaching, the Spirit is also called Advocate, one who stands with us against our accusers. Whether people speak ill of us or well is not all that important. If we are moving on the winds of the Spirit, we are aligned with God. And God delights in us. Who needs any more valentine today than that?

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2-13-19 - Now or Later?

(You can listen to this reflection here.)

I generally like gospel stories best the way Luke tells them – but his version of the Beatitudes troubles me. I often rant about what I consider to be the negative effect on Christianity of using the words “Kingdom of heaven,” to refer to the reign of God. This translation and usage distorts our understanding of Jesus’ message, because we also use the word “heaven” to describe that place in which we will dwell with God for eternity. “Heaven” is a “there and later” place. The Realm of God, as Jesus proclaimed it, is here and now.

If we think the Good News is about what happens to us after we die, we become less invested as agents of transformation in this world, less engaged in naming and mediating God’s presence and peace and power active in our earthly life. Too often, Christianity has been sold as an individual thing, far too focused on salvation and not enough on incarnation, God present with us in human flesh – physically in Jesus Christ, and now spiritually in us through his Holy Spirit.

This split has perhaps been reinforced by Jesus’ teaching as we read it in Luke’s “Sermon on the Plain.”

Then he looked up at his disciples and said:
‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh…
‘But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.’

Is it really a zero-sum game; if we’re full now, we’re sure to be hungry later; sad in this life, we’ll yuck it up in the next, and vice versa? This kind of “either/or” thinking leads to legalism and rigidity. Doesn’t Jesus proclaim a “both/and” realm, in which all things are possible?

Or have I misunderstood, thinking Jesus is speaking causally, when he is simply making an apt observation of human life? Take the “blessings” part of his discourse: it is full of wonderful promises, reminding us that poverty, hunger, and sadness do not represent God’s will for our lives, and are not permanent states. It doesn’t say the only place we’ll be blessed is after we’re dead. It just says, “Hold on, you have inherited the kingdom of God. Better things are coming.”

And the “Woes” which follow are where I’ve always been hung up, because they suggest we’re punished for happiness in this life. But maybe Jesus is not speaking eschatologically about rewards or punishment, simply observing that wealth is its own consolation, which can keep us from putting our full trust in God; a full belly can dull our hunger for justice and righteousness; joy can blind us to loss, but it’ll catch up with us eventually.

It is both/and… all at the same time we are blessed and full of woe, often in different areas of our lives. I’m enjoying great fruitfulness in ministry, and just had to let a beloved cat go. I am both rejoicing and grieving, full and hungry. I am wealthy – and hope that is not all the consolation in store for me. If I understand the fullness of what Jesus said about this God we serve, consolations will abound, now and later.

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2-12-19 - Power Came Out

(You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.)

When trying to come up with a name for a church newly formed out of two parishes, I knew I wanted “Christ” in it. People have heard of Christ, even if they’ve never been introduced. The rest of the name also needed to be something people could connect to, a word in use nowadays. “King” seemed too monarchical and male-centric; “Redeemer” not particularly relatable – these days we only redeem points and coupons. We ended up with “Christ the Healer,” which was great, but what I really wished we could have used was “Christ the Transformer.”

They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.

Electric transformers take energy running on one current (say, that used in America) and transform it so it can be used by appliances wired for a different current (such as in Europe or Africa). Jesus was the Transformer extraordinaire, taking the energy current that birthed the universe and translating, mediating, making it usable for God’s creatures in this earthly realm. More than once the gospel writers refer to Jesus’ power being something that people could feel, that came out of him. Here we see a whole crowd trying to touch him, just to get a dose of what Jesus was mediating to the world. This is yet another bible passage suggesting to me that God is pure energy, of a frequency we could not withstand were it not transformed for us.

That power coming through Jesus didn’t just “zap” people – it healed and restored. It cast out “unclean spirits,” whether demonic forces, or mental or physical diseases, or both. It forgave and released people. God’s power coming through Jesus transformed in body, mind and spirit – and transformed individuals become transformers in their communities.

We are called to be transformers as we grow into Christ's likeness and ministry. We receive the power of the heavens and transform it into a current that “runs appliances” – lifting up the lowly, feeding the forgotten, healing the infirm, forgiving the unforgivable, loving the unlovable. As we grow in faith, exercising the power of God in prayer and ministry, we become able to withstand and channel a higher and higher frequency, or voltage, of spiritual power. God’s power has not weakened from the time of Christ to now; it is as strong as the wiring able to carry it.

Every single time we exercise faith in the name of Christ we mediate the power of the heavens to bring transformation and life to the things and creatures and people of this world. The more we channel God's power and love, the stronger and deeper our capacity grows. Christ the Transformer is alive and eager to work through us, his Body in the world. How much can your wiring take?

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2-11-19 - Hearing and Healing

(You can listen to this reflection here.)

We are coming to that part of Jesus’ story where we see his ministry gathering steam. Everywhere he goes he draws crowds – sometimes so many, he has to be creative about where to stand so he can be heard and not mobbed. He has also come to the point of organizing his growing community of disciples; in the passage immediately before this week’s, he spends the night on a mountain in prayer and chooses twelve men to be his closest companions. Now he comes down and enters the fray once more.

He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases…

People came from far and wide to see Jesus, Jews and Gentiles alike. They came both to hear him, and to be healed by him. Hearing and healing – such similar words, yet distinct activities which we don’t associate together. But often Jesus spoke healing upon people. He didn’t always touch, and he rarely prayed; he just pronounced healing.

Maybe they also found healing in his teaching. He proclaimed the nearness of God, and God’s power to deliver them from captivity of every kind, to poverty, power, demons, disease. No doubt hearing him awakened their faith, and made them more receptive to his word of healing and release. It’s no accident that every time Jesus sends his disciples out in mission he commands them to “proclaim the Gospel and heal the sick.” These two activities go hand in hand, the proclamation enabling the healing, the healing confirming the proclamation. A church that does not keep these ministries at equal strength undermines its effectiveness as an agent of the Good News.

I have always, even at seminary, sown the seeds of healing ministry, and I am eager to raise it up at my churches now. How is that ministry practiced at your church? Are there healing ministers equipped to pray with people during or after church services, or teams trained to offer prayer for more intense concerns? Is the healing ministry, where active, accompanied by proclamation of the Good News?

That proclamation need be no more than people’s stories of God’s healing power and love. Our stories are how the Gospel spreads. Our stories of God’s activities quickens the faith of others – just read any of a number of excellent books on Christian healing (email me if you want a list), and see how reading those stories emboldens you to invite God to release his healing stream in your life. (For several years now, I have retained the domain name for a website devoted to healing, which will include a repository of people’s stories of being healed and being agents for God’s healing of others. I invite your prayers for me to finally make that a reality soon!)

People still want to hear from Jesus, the Jesus we meet in the Gospels. And they want to be whole. If we make both his Word and his Power known in our ministries, they will come to hear, and to be healed.

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2-8-19 - The Way of Love: Bless

You can listen to this reflection here. 

This season my congregations are exploring the Way of Love, with different gospel readings. Each Friday, Water Daily looks at this week's practice – today that is Bless.

The fifth spiritual practice to cultivate for a Jesus-focused life is blessing. The Way of Love defines that as sharing our faith, and unselfishly giving and serving. Blessing is verbal and physical as well as spiritual, an activity as well as an orientation.

We all know how to bless superficially – we do it whenever someone sneezes. But do we know how to bless so that lives are transformed?

That is a somewhat flawed question – it is not our own blessing that we give; it is God’s. All blessing begins with God. The first step in fostering the practice of blessing is to orient ourselves to expect it. I realized this one day when my beloved cat was seriously ill. While waiting for her vet appointment, I went to work, and walking down the stairs of my church, praying anxiously, received this thought, “Expect blessing.” And I remembered, “Oh yeah. God is in the blessing business!” We don’t get to specify the blessing, and it may come in areas other than where we’re craving it, but we are to expect blessing. It completely changed my outlook, and then my sister’s and her friends.

This week in prayer I felt God lead me even deeper into this mystery: we are walking in blessing; we are swimming in blessing. We don’t need to ask God to bless this or that – the practice is cultivating our awareness of the blessing that already surrounds us, always, as we live in God. Cultivating that awareness includes learning to identify the “un-blessings,” the negatives that have hijacked our attention, and turn from them back to Jesus.

God is always blessing, because it is God’s nature to bless – and God invites us to join him in blessing. Here's my second Bono quote this week - some years ago, he spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast in DC. His words stay with me:

"A number of years ago, I met a wise man who changed my life. In countless ways, large and small, I was always seeking the Lord’s blessing. I was saying, you know, I have a new song, look after it…I have a family, please look after them… I have this crazy idea… And this wise man said: stop. He said, “Stop asking God to bless what you’re doing. Get involved in what God is doing—because it’s already blessed.” Well, God, as I said, is with the poor. That, I believe, is what God is doing. And that is what He’s calling us to do."

So the spiritual practice of blessing involves a very active component: being blessing to those around us, to those whom God loves (and, as we know, God loves everyone…). Blessing includes giving out of our abundance, and beyond, stretching our plenty to meet another’s scarcity. Our offerings to support God’s mission through our congregations are blessing. Stopping to help someone who is hurt, and doing all we can to see them restored, as the Samaritan outsider did in the parable Jesus told about pleasing God, is blessing. Helping to resolve conflict, standing for justice and fostering peace are blessing – in the power and love of God’s Spirit. We join God in the blessing God is already giving.

And we are to speak blessing. We know the power of words to build up or tear down; most of us have experienced both in how we speak to others, and to ourselves. Deepening the practice of blessing means training ourselves to use our words only to give life, to give God glory and other people affirmation, to let our words wrap a web of light and love around other people. Just as we were “worded,” spoken holy by the decision of God, through Christ, so God invites us to participate in that blessing by “wording” others whole, chosen, beloved. What a world we can help bring into being!

So, as we deepen our engagement with the spiritual practice of blessing, we learn to expect blessing, to be blessing, to speak blessing, knowing that we are awash in the blessing of our glorious God. Bless and be blessed!

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2-7-19 - The Effect of Holiness

(You can listen to this reflection here.)

After Jesus’ fishing miracle, Simon Peter has an odd reaction to seeing his nets filled to the breaking point with fish. He doesn’t exult or gleefully anticipate the profit ahead:

But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.” When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.

The fancy spiritual word for what Peter was going through is “compunction,” when we become aware of our sinfulness or a particular area of sin in us. In this action, Jesus had revealed to Simon beyond a shadow of doubt that he was the Holy One – and Peter’s reaction to being in the presence of the holy was to become hyper-aware of his unholiness. Isaiah, in his vision in the temple (also a reading for Sunday) has the same reaction, “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!"

In both instances, God redirects the repentance into mission. Isaiah hears, “Whom shall I send,” and answers, “Here am I! Send me!” Jesus, in that boat with Peter, says nothing about sin – he knows Peter will continue to struggle with those things that make him less than who God made him to be. Neither does he offer forgiveness – that is a given with Jesus. He simply says, “Do not be afraid. I have plans for you. From now on, you will fish for people and catch them.” That’s all he says in the way of recruitment. Yet after what they have just experienced with him, Peter and Andrew, and James and John in the next boat, come to shore, leave it all for others to sell, and set off to follow Jesus.

Has there been a time when you’ve felt the presence of Jesus with you? What effect did that have?
Was there ever a time when you felt filled with an awareness of your sinfulness? What inspired that?

So often, when I do connect with Jesus in prayer, I trot out my sins and repentance – and find he seems little interested in them. God is not in the business of punishment; our own consciences do enough of that. We may go through times of chastening, but those are really boot camp for mission. God is in the business of transformation. All that we offer up in confession is met with an overwhelming love and grace that invites us into new ways of being. We can spend years and a lot of energy feeling guilty or ashamed for how we operate or things we’ve done – and discover that God is much more interested in calling us into mission in Christ’s name.

We may not have an explosive experience like Peter did that day in the boat, but we can, anytime, anywhere, come into the presence of the Holy through prayer. And in that presence, the presence of pure Goodness, we can be real about who we are and experience a love we cannot manufacture. And then we can move beyond that encounter into relationship, as we follow Jesus and develop the capacity for more and more of his life in us.

It isn’t always one decisive moment, but gradually we are invited to bring our boats – all that we rely on in this life – to shore, and leave them behind to walk with Jesus, trusting in his amazing power and love.

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2-6-19 - Too Many Fish

(You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.)

I was going to call today’s reflection “Abundance,” but I’ve used that for quite a few posts already. It’s hard to get away from it in the Gospels - abundance is a core principle of God-Life. It is one of the ways God most often shows her hand – when there is unexpectedly enough, and even too much. That is what Simon Peter and his fisher-friends experienced on the lake that morning, when Jesus said,

“Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.” When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink.

I experienced this abundance when I was preparing to go to seminary at Yale and invited fellow congregants at my church to help me pay for it. I thought I might get a few hundred or thousand dollars to help defray the costs… and the money just kept rolling in, sometimes in four figures at a time. In the end some $20,000 was given to support my theological education, and every time I expressed astonishment, I could sense God laughing and saying, “See? Now do you believe me?” I've had a similar experience in our recent pledge campaign. God is amazing, and so are God’s people.

If abundance is a principle of God’s realm on earth, why is there so much scarcity? In part, it’s because we’re more wired to see scarcity, to expect scarcity than we are abundance. We default to “not enough” – that’s what Jesus’ disciples saw when faced with the challenge of feeding a crowd of thousands. But God invites us to look beyond the “not enough” in front of us to the “what else?” all around us. God invites us to look beyond what we can see, period, and call God’s power to flow into situations of need.

Scarcity on a global level is due to human choices and sin – greed, fear, and the damage to our planet which those forces wreak. The earth has the capacity to feed everyone on it, but some nations hoard food and water and play havoc with the environment, and most often the ruinous consequences of disease, famine and flooding fall upon the poorer nations. We can make choices as people of prosperity – if not because Jesus commanded us to love our neighbors, then because it is in our own best interest. Bono, the lead singer of U2, has written, “In the not-too-distant future, the rich world will invest in the education of the poor world, because it is our best protection against young minds being twisted by extremist ideologies - or growing up without any ideology at all, which could be worse. Nature abhors a vacuum; terrorism loves one.” We are still waiting for that day.

I have wandered far from our lakeshore and its boats sinking with the weight of such a large catch. That day in Galilee, the abundance was all from God. It was a sign to these fishermen in their own language that Jesus meant business, that this was what they could expect in a life in God – along with hardship and hunger. Over all, there would be enough, and often too much to handle.

This miraculous catch of fish, as the story is often entitled, was Jesus’ work. Yet it could not have been fulfilled without the participation of the men on those boats. Abundance comes from God – yet God always reveals it through people. Are you ready to catch a boatload of fish?

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2-5-19 - Experts

(You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.)

Would a Wall Street whiz take financial tips from a wizard? A maestro adopt singing techniques from a Zen master? An athlete take coaching from an ascetic? Why on earth would a lifelong fisherman who knows his home waters like his own face take angling advice from an itinerant rabbi?

Jesus got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.”

What exhaustion and exasperation Simon may have felt. When the fish aren’t biting, they’re not biting – or in this case, swimming into your nets. Try again tomorrow. They’d already come home, were already cleaning their nets. Why go out again now? And what does this guy know about it?

But Simon agrees. He calls Jesus “Master.” Is he already a follower of Jesus? The way the Gospel of John tells it, Simon’s brother Andrew met Jesus first, became convinced he was the long-awaited Messiah, and brought Simon to meet him. Perhaps a relationship is already growing; perhaps Jesus has set the bait and is just waiting for Simon to bite. Whether out of trust or politeness, Simon heads back out into the deep waters and lets down the nets.

Have you ever felt an instruction from Jesus, a Holy Spirit nudge? Did you act on it? What happened?

It can be hard to hear or respond when these nudges come in areas where we are experts. Even clergy, who are supposed to be moving on the winds of the Spirit all the time, can become so locked into techniques and patterns that we are slow to respond in new ways, to even see that God is offering new opportunities, new places to set our nets. But everyone can find themselves working more effectively and grace-fully when we invite Jesus to be part of our work – teachers, doctors, actors, lawyers… you name it. God wants to work through us, especially where we are gifted and trained.

We have to be willing to listen, and we have to be willing to go back out when we’ve failed, if Jesus invites us to. Often we need to go to the deep water, where we can’t see the bottom, where the risk might be greater, where the outcome is unclear. The deep water also means going deep into our spirits, where we can we can dwell with God and be formed as Christ followers.

Going to the deep water requires us to let go and trust Jesus. When we let him work through us, instead of drawing on our own limited strength and insight, we soon find our nets full to bursting.

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2-4-19 - Hungry for God's Word

(You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.)

This Thursday I celebrate the fifteenth anniversary of my ordination to the priesthood. What a gift to find that the gospel we will explore this week is the one I chose for that blessed service. It tells the story of how Jesus baited, hooked and reeled in a fisherman, and made him a leader in God's’ mission to reclaim, restore and renew all of creation to wholeness.

Yet in my ministry thus far I have not encountered what Jesus did that day: so many people crowding in to hear the Word of God, they nearly pushed him into a lake:

Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets.

Has hunger for God’s word abated in our culture? To some extent, yes –prosperity and security can certainly dull the yearning for transcendent truth. And many people have only vaguely heard of Jesus. Yet there are churches with 25,000 people a weekend crowding in to hear about life in God. People are still hungry. How might we better feed them?

For one thing, stop squabbling. I had a vision in prayer once of a crowd of agitated, ravenous people, facing upward, mouths open, like baby birds in a nest. And nearby stood a group of bakers, angrily arguing about who had the best bread recipe. It was clear to me that this represented the church of our time. Conflict is not appealing.

And we need to go out more, to where people are, not expecting them to find us in the few hours on a Sunday morning we’re gathered in our church buildings. I know of a church in England that formed “mission-shaped communities,” groups of parishioners sent out to build relationships and host casual worship and prayer services among people to whom they felt called – young mothers, ex-cons, skate-boarders, bankers. (I think the book that tells this story, Breaking Out, is out of print, but you can read about its author, Drew Williams, and the concept here.) The church implemented this strategy when a much-needed expansion of their sanctuary forced them out for eight months. During that time, so many people joined these mission-shaped communities, that when the congregation got back into the church building, it had grown so much they were again short on space! Could we try this here?

An even more basic strategy is for those of us who have been “caught” in Jesus’ nets to speak our love and joy and gratitude easily and often among those we know. Christian faith has never spread through lectures about theological concepts. It spreads by people talking about their experiences of God. If we all speak more of our spiritual lives with people outside the church, we might start to see just how many people around us are hungry for the Word of God.

What story do you have to tell? And to whom will you tell it?

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2-1-19 - The Way of Love: Worship

(You can listen to this reflection here.) This season my congregations are exploring the Way of Love, with different gospel readings. Each Friday, Water Daily takes up the week's Way of Love practice – today that is the fourth one: Worship.

When I think of spiritual practices, I think of quiet, focused, soul-searching activities – prayer, bible study, confession, fasting, retreat. Even as I consider regular engagement in corporate worship as fundamental to a thriving Christian life, I never thought of it as a practice. But spiritual practices for a Jesus-focused life are those activities of the heart, body and mind which bring us more fully into relationship with Jesus – and we often meet Jesus most fully when we come together as the church.

In the gospels, we most often see Jesus interacting with people in groups, whether his chosen disciples or throngs of thousands. He was present for people, even in great crowds. So he is present when we gather in his name – that was a promise he made. When believers gather, we make a space for seekers and newcomers to enter and encounter God in community. Christian faith cannot thrive in isolation.

And when we gather in Jesus’ name, we are his Body; we reconstitute the Body of Christ so it is visible to the world. Each of us can make Christ known, but when we put our faith together, God’s power to love and transform and make whole becomes concentrated and explosive and world-changing.

We also gather for worship because Jesus always shows up. The Way of Love gospel for Sunday tells the story of an encounter two men had with Jesus as they walked to a village called Emmaus on what we now call Easter Sunday. They were still in Good Friday mode, grief-stricken at the brutal death of their Lord, and now confused by reports that his body was missing from the tomb where it had been laid. They are joined by a stranger, who asks why they are sad. When they tell him of the recent events, he links those with their scriptures, explaining the meaning of the sacred texts.

When they arrive at Emmaus, they prevail upon him to have supper with them – and at table, he takes bread, blesses, breaks and offers it. The familiarity of that movement ignites their awareness: they realize they have been with Jesus this whole time. “Were not our hearts burning within us, when he opened the scriptures to us?” They high-tail it back, seven miles in the dark on the road they’d just traveled, to tell their companions in Jerusalem, “We have seen the Lord!”

Our weekly worship mimics the movements of this story. We come, bearing the joys and sorrows and stresses of our lives. We are invited to view those in the context of our sacred story of redemption and restoration – at its best, a sermon offers the space for that. We gather at table and discover Jesus again in the breaking of the bread and sharing of the cup. The power of that encounter can send us out onto the road again, telling our companions, “We have seen the Lord.” And if, as happened for those disciples, Jesus vanishes as soon as we recognize him, we know he’ll materialize again somewhere else, often when we least expect it.

When Christians gather for worship, we praise God joyfully, we offer the prayers of the community, we tell again and again the stories of God’s great love for God’s creation. And we participate in the holy meal which is itself a re-telling of our most central story, of how Jesus, God in flesh, gave himself up to restore all of creation to wholeness, and told his followers to recall him (call him back) in the simple, quotidian substances of bread and wine. We can see in the patterns of Christian worship a form of play, serious play, the way children will celebrate and express themselves and play through a story over and over again, finding new ways into it, drawing new meanings from it. So, In our worship we “make believe” and come more deeply into relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ.

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