High Highs, and Low Lows...

February 28, 2019

This Sunday is the last Sunday of the season of Epiphany.  On Wednesday March 6th, Ash Wednesday, we start the 40+ day season of Lent.  So this Sunday is a transition Sunday -- a Sunday to transition from one season to another.  As one way of making that transition, the Gospel assigned for Sunday is the  Transfiguration story -- the story of Jesus taking three of his closest disciples - Peter, John and James, up to the top of a mountain to pray.  It's literally a high "mountaintop experience." While they're up there, amazing things happen: the appearance of Jesus' face changes. His clothes become dazzling white. A cloud descends. They have a vision of Moses and Elijah. They hear the voice of God.  Glory! A powerful vision, a moving spiritual experience! But the very next day, coming down the mountain, a crowd meets them. Someone shouts, "Teacher, please, take a look at my son. Often a spirit seizes him. Suddenly he's screaming, thrown into convulsions, his mouth foaming. I asked your disciples to deliver him but they couldn't." What a contrast! One day, the disciples go from having a "high mountaintop experience" in the intimate company of Jesus and the mystical company of the greatest representatives of the Law and the Prophets.  The very next day, they run into a huge noisy crowd, from which a suffering child and his desperate, helpless father emerge. The father begs Jesus directly for help because he'd found that Jesus' disciples were incompetent to help him. A high "high."  A low "low."  Sound familiar? A little bit like our life sometimes?    As I hope to explore a bit more on Sunday, it's easy to find God in the mountaintop experiences, but it's important to remember that Jesus is present in the crowded, noisy, and even accusatory "valley" every bit as much as on the mountaintop.  See you Sunday,

John

Jesus (and the Bible) are far more interesting, wild, sunny, and originaL..

...than the church has made him (and it) out to be

February 21, 2019

The past couple weeks, Rev. Kelly and I have been co-leading Adult Forum, using a quote from the Franciscan friar and author Richard Rohr.  I've long been intrigued by the idea that Jesus (and the Bible) are far more interesting, wild, sunny, and original than the church has made him (and it) out to be.  As Kelly and I wrap up this class, I'm realizing that we're really only just beginning to explore that idea.  This Sunday, I'll be inviting a discussion based on an idea Richard Rohr popularized, which is the "4 M's" cycle -- what happens when thechurch (Christianity in general through its 2000+ year history) and achurch (an individual parish) go through various stages -- 

-from the God-given vision of a man or woman who sees a static monument dedicated to a great purpose and seeks to recover the spirit of that purpose, and who

-starts a dynamic movement which over time others join,

-which in time becomes a machine intended to sustain the movement, 

-but which over time can become a static monument dedicated to honoring the (wo)man...

-which -- to start the cycle over again! -- has its value and purpose questioned by a God-given vision to a man or woman...

The trick for churches is to fight as long and as hard as we can to stay in the movement phase of this cycle, while at the same time realizing that mechanizing has its rewards and benefits as long as the machine(s) are not ends in themselves, but rather are in service to the movement, and more importantly THE "man" -- the "pioneer and perfecter" of our faith, Jesus. See you Sunday,

John

Two insights from a Baptist Church my Nephew once attended...

This photo is from the fantastic movie The Shawshank Redemption. I never noticed until just now that the page is open to the Exodus story! "Salvation lies within." Brilliant.

February 15, 2019

Years ago, one of my nephews, who was at the time still in high school, invited me to come to join him for Sunday services at a Baptist church he'd been attending.  Two things about that experience have stayed with me. (There's a whole separate story I might tell one day about why he was attending a Baptist church, but for now, let's just say "girlfriend.") After the worship service, I sat in on the Bible study my nephew attended. The first thing that stayed with me from that morning was something the preacher said during his sermon. He said our tendency as Christians is to "make sense of the Bible in light of our lives."  But, he said, the better approach is just the opposite: "to make sense of our lives in light of the Bible." 

This photo is from the fantastic movie The Shawshank Redemption. I never noticed until just now that the page is open to the Exodus story! "Salvation lies within." Brilliant.  The Bible not only helps us make sense of our lives, it points to the "way out" of whatever enslaves us, at any given time. That's why I'm so excited that one of our goals for 2019 is to introduce more Bible studies and other adult Christian formation and education experiences, as we learn, together, to make sense of our lives in light of the Good News.  The second thing that stayed with me from that visit is that the class my nephew attended was for 10th graders. And only 10th graders. There was one combined classroom for all the elementary-age children, and there were separate classrooms for 6th graders, 7th graders, 8th graders, 9th graders, 10th graders, 11th graders, and seniors.  I'd never seen that before in any Episcopal Church. In fact, that approach -- combining elementary school kids but treating each grade in middle and high school as their own, separate classes with their own, separate needs and learning styles -- is pretty much the opposite of what we see in most Episcopal churches.  Part of the reason is demographics: there's simply many more elementary-age kids than middle and high school kids.  But that begs the question: WHY? It's not as if those kids are not still around after elementary school. (Or more accurately, is IS the case they're not around...around on Sunday morning!)  But again, why? Why do most Episcopal churches assume attrition from Sunday morning Christian formation as kids get older? If anything, a stronger argument can made for separate classes for older kids than for younger ones: as anyone who has raised teenagers knows, there's as much a difference between an 7th grader and an 11th grader as there is between a water-dwelling tadpole and an air-breathing frog (or, if you prefer, between a chrysalis, caterpillar, and adult butterfly).  That vision -- that investment in all ages, cradle to grave -- has always stayed with me. And I'm happy to say that as of mid-2018, we at The Falls Church Episcopal are not making the "attrition assumption" -- and that is part of the reason I'm so excited that we've invested heavily in not only a full-time Director of Children's and Family Ministries, but a full-time Director of Youth Ministries. As the huge number of young children in our parish metamorpihize into young adults, we'll be ready to help them "grow into the full stature of Christ."  See you Sunday,

John