“Worship is mission, and Mission is worship.”
The Rev. Dr. Ruth Meyers
Or words to that effect.
I was sitting in a conference room at a hotel in Lincoln City watching the sun set into the ocean after a perfect day at the beach and listening to my former liturgics professor give the first of her talks to the clergy of the diocese about worship and mission. Coming from my former professor, she is not saying anything I haven't heard her say before; but there are plenty of people who need to hear what she has to say.
As I’ve said before, and many people have said before me, a lot of organizations can offer the plethora of services that churches offer; but it is only the Church that offers worship. Above all else, we worship God. And since worship is our prime reason for existing, we need to offer worship that is good, holy and engaged. How we worship reflects how we feel about the place of God in our lives. In short, do we worship like we want to be there?
The other thing that the Church does is proclaim the good news of God in Christ. This is known in a variety of terms: mission, evangelism, preaching, living your faith, etc. Our goal, our mission, is “to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ” (BCP 855). We do this in a variety of ways, the number one way is by inviting people to come and worship with us and experience our community.
Ruth is asking people to consider the implications of further intertwining worship and mission. For too many people, worship is only what happens on Sunday morning from 8 – 9 a.m. or 10 – 11:15 a.m. For too many people, worship ends when the dismissal is given. On the other end of the spectrum, too many people see mission as something done “out there.” For too many people, mission is only seen as doing something for someone else. Ruth is arguing that we need to integrate these two aspects of the Church more often and more intentionally.
Can worship be used to bring people into the Church and support mission? Can mission be seen as a driving force to attract people and bring them into the church? The answer is yes. But we need to understand that worship and mission are not two different things but they are connected to each other like two sides of a piece of paper. Sometimes we can only see one side, and sometimes we can see both sides.
There really are only two things for which the church exists: Worship and the fulfillment of the Mission of God. As we move forward, as we consider how St. Luke's can impact the lives of those around us, I challenge you to change how you see worship and mission. I challenge you to see worship as the holy work we do for the common good of God's people; and I challenge you to see mission as everything you do in an attempt to embody the reign of God.
Worship is Mission, and Mission is Worship.
Amen.
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
April 22, 2015
“When you're a kid, the glass is small. It gets bigger as you grow up, but they still put the same amount in, so there's a lot more that needs to be filled up.”
Thomas McCarter
None of you know of Thomas McCarter. I didn't know of him until he knocked on my door Monday morning looking for assistance. He had recently been released from jail and was looking to get on the right track; meeting this month's rent would certainly help and he was $40 short. He had been sent to me by another downtown church that, for whatever reason, was unable or unwilling to offer assistance. Thomas McCarter and I talked.
I asked him the standard question, “Do you attend church anywhere?” Not because any help I give is based on whether or not a person attends church, but because I want to know if they are working with their own congregation as well as every other church in town. And, if they aren't attending anywhere, it's an easy way to invite them into our congregation.
In that conversation he expressed a lot of dissatisfaction with the church. Things he had been told as a child no longer seemed to hold true. Things he was being told now didn't match his experience and, more importantly, things he was being told now seemed to reflect not the immensity of God but the petty biases of church leaders and their own small god.
And that's when Thomas gave the above analogy. As children, we are given small cups because our little hands aren't able to handle bigger cups, nor are we dexterous enough to manage a larger cup filled with more liquid. I also suspect there's a desire on the parents' part to limit the amount of damage a spilled cup can do. As we grow, however, we are given bigger and bigger cups. The problem, he thought, was that the amount of God we are given by churches tends to be the same amount of God we got as a child – easily handled, easily controlled and easily cleaned up if dumped out.
We have grown up. There's more to our lives than there was when we were children. We have bigger cups. Are we allowing the immensity of God to fill our cups? Do we give thanks for having too much to drink? Do we not worry about God spilling out from our edges?
Or would we rather have a God we can easily handle, easily drink from without too much effort and who doesn't make too much of a mess if dumped from our cup?
Thomas McCarter may not ever show up at church, but he had a great observation about how some churches can be. That observation led me to ask a question:
Does your church fill up your cup?
Amen.
Thomas McCarter
None of you know of Thomas McCarter. I didn't know of him until he knocked on my door Monday morning looking for assistance. He had recently been released from jail and was looking to get on the right track; meeting this month's rent would certainly help and he was $40 short. He had been sent to me by another downtown church that, for whatever reason, was unable or unwilling to offer assistance. Thomas McCarter and I talked.
I asked him the standard question, “Do you attend church anywhere?” Not because any help I give is based on whether or not a person attends church, but because I want to know if they are working with their own congregation as well as every other church in town. And, if they aren't attending anywhere, it's an easy way to invite them into our congregation.
In that conversation he expressed a lot of dissatisfaction with the church. Things he had been told as a child no longer seemed to hold true. Things he was being told now didn't match his experience and, more importantly, things he was being told now seemed to reflect not the immensity of God but the petty biases of church leaders and their own small god.
And that's when Thomas gave the above analogy. As children, we are given small cups because our little hands aren't able to handle bigger cups, nor are we dexterous enough to manage a larger cup filled with more liquid. I also suspect there's a desire on the parents' part to limit the amount of damage a spilled cup can do. As we grow, however, we are given bigger and bigger cups. The problem, he thought, was that the amount of God we are given by churches tends to be the same amount of God we got as a child – easily handled, easily controlled and easily cleaned up if dumped out.
We have grown up. There's more to our lives than there was when we were children. We have bigger cups. Are we allowing the immensity of God to fill our cups? Do we give thanks for having too much to drink? Do we not worry about God spilling out from our edges?
Or would we rather have a God we can easily handle, easily drink from without too much effort and who doesn't make too much of a mess if dumped from our cup?
Thomas McCarter may not ever show up at church, but he had a great observation about how some churches can be. That observation led me to ask a question:
Does your church fill up your cup?
Amen.
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
April 15, 2015
“Do not be always wanting everything to turn out as you think it should, but rather as God pleases, then you will be undisturbed and thankful in your prayer.”
Abba Nilus
Prayer can be a tricky thing.
It is used for giving thanks. It is used for offering praise. It is used as an intercession on behalf of others. It has been used to invoke calamity on enemies (such as Ps. 137). It is used to ask God for what we need. And sometimes the shortest prayers are the most honest, as Anne Lamott wrote in her book, Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers.
“What do you think prayer is?” I ask people. As you would expect, I get answers that run the gamut from one end of the spectrum to the other, touching on all of the aspects of prayer I mentioned above.
One of the things I think we all forget is that prayer is how we connect with God. Prayer is how we deepen our relationship with God. Like lunch with a friend or a game of cards or time spent on the river or any number of activities that we spend with our friends, prayer is how we spend time with God. It is how we converse, how we listen, how we express our feelings, and how we grow.
A good relationship needs time for both sides to speak and time for both sides to listen. It is in the speaking that we open up to another person. It is in the speaking that we take risks and share our own thoughts with another person. It is in the listening that we learn about another person. It is in the listening that we value and honor another person.
Prayer is the activity of developing our relationship with God. The problem, though, is that, unlike any other relationship we have, God doesn't always give immediate feedback. Oftentimes it seems as if God isn't listening. But maybe that's because we are spending too much time talking and not enough time listening ourselves.
When we pray, maybe we need to not only spend more time listening ourselves, but listening TO ourselves. What do our prayers sound like? If we were God, how would we receive our prayers? Do our prayers sound like the chorus from Toby Keith, “I wanna talk about me, wanna talk about I, wanna talk about Number One”?
“But when you pray, pray like this: Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
Prayer, among other things, is a time of discernment. Where are you leading me? How can I help usher in the kingdom? Do I need a course correction? How might I best use my talents? Where do I go from here? Am I doing the right thing?
There are times when we express our doubts, anger, thanksgivings, gratitude and concerns through prayer. A good relationship with God will allow for all of that. But when we pray, in all times and in all conditions, maybe we should end our prayers with, “Your will be done.” Among other things, this might help us to remember, as Abba Nilus suggested, that we truly belong to God and are living in God's time, not ours.
Amen.
Abba Nilus
Prayer can be a tricky thing.
It is used for giving thanks. It is used for offering praise. It is used as an intercession on behalf of others. It has been used to invoke calamity on enemies (such as Ps. 137). It is used to ask God for what we need. And sometimes the shortest prayers are the most honest, as Anne Lamott wrote in her book, Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers.
“What do you think prayer is?” I ask people. As you would expect, I get answers that run the gamut from one end of the spectrum to the other, touching on all of the aspects of prayer I mentioned above.
One of the things I think we all forget is that prayer is how we connect with God. Prayer is how we deepen our relationship with God. Like lunch with a friend or a game of cards or time spent on the river or any number of activities that we spend with our friends, prayer is how we spend time with God. It is how we converse, how we listen, how we express our feelings, and how we grow.
A good relationship needs time for both sides to speak and time for both sides to listen. It is in the speaking that we open up to another person. It is in the speaking that we take risks and share our own thoughts with another person. It is in the listening that we learn about another person. It is in the listening that we value and honor another person.
Prayer is the activity of developing our relationship with God. The problem, though, is that, unlike any other relationship we have, God doesn't always give immediate feedback. Oftentimes it seems as if God isn't listening. But maybe that's because we are spending too much time talking and not enough time listening ourselves.
When we pray, maybe we need to not only spend more time listening ourselves, but listening TO ourselves. What do our prayers sound like? If we were God, how would we receive our prayers? Do our prayers sound like the chorus from Toby Keith, “I wanna talk about me, wanna talk about I, wanna talk about Number One”?
“But when you pray, pray like this: Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
Prayer, among other things, is a time of discernment. Where are you leading me? How can I help usher in the kingdom? Do I need a course correction? How might I best use my talents? Where do I go from here? Am I doing the right thing?
There are times when we express our doubts, anger, thanksgivings, gratitude and concerns through prayer. A good relationship with God will allow for all of that. But when we pray, in all times and in all conditions, maybe we should end our prayers with, “Your will be done.” Among other things, this might help us to remember, as Abba Nilus suggested, that we truly belong to God and are living in God's time, not ours.
Amen.
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
April 8, 2015
Ayeka?
Genesis 3:9
If you were at the 10 a.m. Easter service, you will recall that my sermon tied together the second story of creation and the resurrection. In that creation story, God placed humans in a garden to work as co-creator and to till it and tend it. But the humans disobeyed God, eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and were banished from the garden before they could eat from the tree of life.
When Jesus was taken down from the cross, he was placed in a tomb in a garden. Early in the morning on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb only to discover it was empty. While standing there in tears, and trying to figure out where Jesus' body had been taken, she meets someone she supposes to be the gardener. It turns out that the gardener was, in fact, Jesus.
These two stories, creation and resurrection, are the beginning and the end for us. In the story of creation, humanity lives in perfect relationship in a garden created by God. But humans disobeyed God, ate fruit from the forbidden tree, and their eyes were opened. Later in the evening, as God is walking in the garden, he calls out to them, “Ayeka? Where are you?” but they hid from God because they were naked and ashamed. It was because of this breaking of trust and an inability to take responsibility for their own actions for which they were banished from the garden. This is the beginning of the story of God working throughout Scripture to mend that broken relationship.
Jesus' body was placed in a tomb in a garden. The Gospel of John records that when Mary first saw Jesus she mistook him for the gardener. On the one hand, she was wrong in thinking he was the gardener. On the other hand, she was right without knowing she was right. She met the resurrected Jesus, the Master Gardener, at that tomb in the garden. And, like God in Genesis, he called out to her.
In an online community where I participate on a regular basis, I pointed people to my Easter sermons. A person who goes by the name of Shiphrah99 made a comment that has stuck with me: “Perhaps the hiding in Eden is redeemed with refusing to hide in Gethsemane.”
Ayeka? Where are you?
In a garden we hid because we had broken our relationship with God and were naked and ashamed.
In a garden Jesus prayed, “Not my will but yours be done;” and in a garden Jesus refused to hide from God and from those who would take him away.
We are being called by name back into the garden to eat from the tree of life that is Jesus and back into a right relationship with God.
God is calling. Ayeka? Where are you?
Are we willing to answer?
Amen.
Genesis 3:9
If you were at the 10 a.m. Easter service, you will recall that my sermon tied together the second story of creation and the resurrection. In that creation story, God placed humans in a garden to work as co-creator and to till it and tend it. But the humans disobeyed God, eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and were banished from the garden before they could eat from the tree of life.
When Jesus was taken down from the cross, he was placed in a tomb in a garden. Early in the morning on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb only to discover it was empty. While standing there in tears, and trying to figure out where Jesus' body had been taken, she meets someone she supposes to be the gardener. It turns out that the gardener was, in fact, Jesus.
These two stories, creation and resurrection, are the beginning and the end for us. In the story of creation, humanity lives in perfect relationship in a garden created by God. But humans disobeyed God, ate fruit from the forbidden tree, and their eyes were opened. Later in the evening, as God is walking in the garden, he calls out to them, “Ayeka? Where are you?” but they hid from God because they were naked and ashamed. It was because of this breaking of trust and an inability to take responsibility for their own actions for which they were banished from the garden. This is the beginning of the story of God working throughout Scripture to mend that broken relationship.
Jesus' body was placed in a tomb in a garden. The Gospel of John records that when Mary first saw Jesus she mistook him for the gardener. On the one hand, she was wrong in thinking he was the gardener. On the other hand, she was right without knowing she was right. She met the resurrected Jesus, the Master Gardener, at that tomb in the garden. And, like God in Genesis, he called out to her.
In an online community where I participate on a regular basis, I pointed people to my Easter sermons. A person who goes by the name of Shiphrah99 made a comment that has stuck with me: “Perhaps the hiding in Eden is redeemed with refusing to hide in Gethsemane.”
Ayeka? Where are you?
In a garden we hid because we had broken our relationship with God and were naked and ashamed.
In a garden Jesus prayed, “Not my will but yours be done;” and in a garden Jesus refused to hide from God and from those who would take him away.
We are being called by name back into the garden to eat from the tree of life that is Jesus and back into a right relationship with God.
God is calling. Ayeka? Where are you?
Are we willing to answer?
Amen.
Wednesday, April 1, 2015
April 1, 2015
“Lord God, whose blessed Son our Savior gave his body to be whipped and his face to be spit upon: Give us grace to accept joyfully the sufferings of the present time, confident of the glory that shall be revealed; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.”
Collect for Wednesday in Holy Week
This is a hard week. We move from shouts of, “Hosanna!” and the singing of, “All glory, laud and honor, to thee Redeemer, King!” to shouts of, “Crucify him!” and the singing of, “Ride on! Ride on in majesty! In lowly pomp ride on to die.”
This is a hard week. We participate in the last supper, both in the form of the agapé meal on Thursday evening and in the final Communion of Holy Week.
This is a hard week. We silently watch as Jesus is taken away from us and we actively desert him, both being symbolized in the stripping of the altar.
This is a hard week. We walk the way of the cross, stopping fourteen times to pray and meditate on that event. We hear the seven last words of Christ spoken from the cross as he is dying. And we see the tomb where his lifeless body is laid, symbolized by the empty sanctuary and funeral pall over the altar.
And while this may be a hard week for us, it is nothing like the week experienced by Jesus, for we are not likely to be whipped or spat upon. What Jesus did was to take the sin of the world upon himself for our sake. He allowed himself to be whipped and spit upon for daring to give a voice to the voiceless. He allowed himself to be whipped and spit upon for having the audacity to treat all people as equal in the eyes of God. He allowed himself to be whipped and spit upon for challenging the deeply held religious beliefs of certain people. He allowed himself to be whipped and spit upon because love is greater than obedience.
There is a lot to pay attention to this week, not the least of which is our own personal acts of betrayal and denial. But as we spend time reflecting on those mighty acts, may we also look to see how we can follow in the footsteps of Jesus. How might we give voice to the voiceless? How might we work to treat all people equally? How might we challenge certain beliefs, choosing love over obedience?
Those are often unpopular stands to take, and taking those stands may cause us a certain amount of suffering. But if we choose to follow Jesus down that path, let us pray for the grace to accept that which comes our way.
May the movement of this week affect you deeply. May you have the courage to follow in the way of the cross. May you accept what comes with grace. And May you have the faith to see through to Resurrection.
Amen.
Collect for Wednesday in Holy Week
This is a hard week. We move from shouts of, “Hosanna!” and the singing of, “All glory, laud and honor, to thee Redeemer, King!” to shouts of, “Crucify him!” and the singing of, “Ride on! Ride on in majesty! In lowly pomp ride on to die.”
This is a hard week. We participate in the last supper, both in the form of the agapé meal on Thursday evening and in the final Communion of Holy Week.
This is a hard week. We silently watch as Jesus is taken away from us and we actively desert him, both being symbolized in the stripping of the altar.
This is a hard week. We walk the way of the cross, stopping fourteen times to pray and meditate on that event. We hear the seven last words of Christ spoken from the cross as he is dying. And we see the tomb where his lifeless body is laid, symbolized by the empty sanctuary and funeral pall over the altar.
And while this may be a hard week for us, it is nothing like the week experienced by Jesus, for we are not likely to be whipped or spat upon. What Jesus did was to take the sin of the world upon himself for our sake. He allowed himself to be whipped and spit upon for daring to give a voice to the voiceless. He allowed himself to be whipped and spit upon for having the audacity to treat all people as equal in the eyes of God. He allowed himself to be whipped and spit upon for challenging the deeply held religious beliefs of certain people. He allowed himself to be whipped and spit upon because love is greater than obedience.
There is a lot to pay attention to this week, not the least of which is our own personal acts of betrayal and denial. But as we spend time reflecting on those mighty acts, may we also look to see how we can follow in the footsteps of Jesus. How might we give voice to the voiceless? How might we work to treat all people equally? How might we challenge certain beliefs, choosing love over obedience?
Those are often unpopular stands to take, and taking those stands may cause us a certain amount of suffering. But if we choose to follow Jesus down that path, let us pray for the grace to accept that which comes our way.
May the movement of this week affect you deeply. May you have the courage to follow in the way of the cross. May you accept what comes with grace. And May you have the faith to see through to Resurrection.
Amen.
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