I am patient? I am kind?

January 31, 2019

The first reading this Sunday is the famous "First Corinthians 13" passage on love. You know, the one you often hear read at weddings, which says, "love is patient, love is kind, love is not arrogant or boastful..."  A few years ago, I heard someone say that if you want to take a test that'll humble you pretty quickly, try reading the passage out loud, but as you do, try substituting the word "I" for the word "love," as in,  I am patient; I am kind; I am not envious, or boastful, or arrogant, or rude. I do not insist on my own way; I am not irritable or resentful; I do not rejoice in wrongdoing, but I rejoice in the truth. I bear all things; I believe all things; I hope all things; I endure all things. Yipes.  Brings us up short, doesn't it?  How could we possibly love like that?  In answering that, I have bad news and good news. The bad news is for most of us, we can't. For most* people, it's just not humanly possible. *(There are, I know, some people for whom loving like that on a regular basis just seems to be natural. It seems to just flow from who they are. Those folks are rare, however.) For most of us - for me anyway -- it's a challenge to love like that on consistent basis. At least it's impossible to love like that from willpower-- from what I can summon up on my own.  For most of us, the ability to love like that doesn't come from willpower or education or deep inside our self.  The good news is, if WE can't love like that, God can. Love may not be humanly possible, but is is divinely possible. If I'm to love on any kind of consistent basis, I need to go to where love is -- the inexhaustible spring of love: God. God, who not only loves, but IS love.  We can do that in at least these three ways:  One, spend time in prayer - a minimum of fifteen to twenty minutes a day in prayer. It's there we marinate ourselves in God's love. It's important to not just glaze ourselves in love -- that'll rub off in the first five minutes of traffic! -- but to marinate ourselves in God's love. Because it's impossible to give away what you don't have, we need to receive love until we are saturated in it and are overflowing with it.  Two, in addition to daily prayer, to remember to pause for 10 seconds or so throughout the day to say "thank you God,"  or "wow God," or "help me God" - to say little extemporaneous prayers throughout the day like,  "God, I'm about to go into a difficult conversation. I sure could use some help here...help me love like you love. Help me see this person the way you see them..." And three, in addition to those two, it's important to consciously become disciples, or apprentices, of Jesus. In fact, I'd say the whole point and purpose of "joining a church" is to become an apprentice of Jesus. It is possible to un-learn habits of complacency, comparison and self-centerdness, and to learn habits of love instead. But I don't think it's possible to learn that on one's own; our powers of self-delusion are too strong. We need others to "afflict us when we are comfortable, and comfort us when we are afflicted."  The good news is, loving like Jesus loved is in fact learn-able. We can be trained in it. That's why Adult Forum classes, Bible study classes, and other opportunities to connect with a ministry outside of Sunday morning is so important, and will be such a big emphasis for The Falls Church Episcopal in 2019 and beyond.  See you Sunday, 

John

Looking Away from the "Brights" and Concentrating on our own Road Ahead

January 25, 2019

A risk of writing about current affairs is that things change quickly, and as I was about to hit "send" on this week's e-news, I learned that, thank God, it appears a way has been found to end the government shutdown, about which I've been writing the past several weeks.  Because the shutdown, serious as it is, is/was "only symptomatic" of larger problems we face as a nation and because bad theology is, I believe, part of those larger problems, I'll resume writing about it later.  Kelly and I are very much aware of the pain -- financial, morale, and otherwise -- this shutdown caused and will continue to cause. The ripple effects from the President's unnecessary, irresponsible, immature, demoralizing and even dangerous shutdown are only now beginning to be felt, and those ripple effects will be felt for a long time. 

But for now, for today, perhaps it's better to take a deep breath together and be glad a temporary fix has been found -- or more accurately, forced.   For now, for today, in light of this Sunday's Annual Meeting, let us focus on our life together as a local congregation. (Local, but with wider impact: see article and photos below (scroll down!) about our Haiti medical mission trip).  Here is a link to our brand new and very encouraging Annual Report. Here is a separate link to my cover letter of our Annual Report, where I share again a "driver's ed" analogy: that a common 3-5 year visionis the "road ahead" for us together, and our challenge is not to stare at or be distracted by those driving toward us with with their brights on. (Hard copies of the Annual Report will also be available on Sunday).  See you Sunday, 

John

Opening up About Shutting Down, Continued

January 18, 2019

Are you affected by the government shutdown, or concerned for those who are?  Rev. Kelly and I want you to know that on behalf of the entire Falls Church Episcopal, we would like to help. Scroll down to "a note from Rev. Kelly and Rev. John" below, for more on that.  And click here if you would like to continue reading my thoughts on the crisis of leadership which I believe is an underlying cause of the government shutdown. (I started this series last week; you can read part one here.  On this or any other matter, I'm open to your thoughts and comments: email me at johmer@thefallschurch.org. See you Sunday, 

John

A note from Rev. Kelly and Rev. John: Have You Been Affected by the Government Shutdown?

You may not be aware that we (Rev. Kelly and Rev. John) have been reaching out to all of the furloughed workers (whom we are aware of!) to check in on them, offering to meet one-on-one for lunch or coffee. We've also been encouraging people to let us know if they are furloughed from contractors or if their businesses have been impacted as well.

And while in the e-news, Rev. John is writing about the underlying causes of this problem, addressing the issue from a spiritual point of view, we also want to do something more tangible and visible.

We already planned to be less behind-the-scenes and more public in our reaching out, through some Sunday morning announcements and through the Outreach ministry presentation this coming Sunday. We think one of the roles we can serve is as a kind of "clearing house" for information about other organizations and agencies that are offering services, likely more efficiently than we could.

One idea we've heard is in response to a kind of social isolation that some people feel in this situation, and a wearing down of the self-esteem that can come from feeling their years of faithful service is being devalued. And so one parishioner is offering a luncheon at their home, hosting neighbors who they know feel cut off or isolated. Because each of us is an individual member of the Body of Christ the Church, those kinds of initiatives ARE, by definition, "the church doing something." 

But we want your ideas. No one is in this alone. That's part of the beauty of being a part of a faith community. If you're affected by the shutdown, or concerned about those who are, please make a point to attend Sunday's Outreach Adult Forum, and please make a point to reach out to Rev. Kelly or Rev. John. And please know that The Falls Church is here for you.