Shoved by Grace

So last week was rather eventful around here. On Tuesday morning, after a lovely relaxing Labor Day weekend, I was woken up by an acrid smell and a haze of smoke rapidly filling up the house. I'm so thankful that my husband, rather than his usual "open a window, it will be fine" attitude, recognized the seriousness of the situation and got me out of bed and out of the house. I called the fire department and they soon located the source of the smoke - smoldering insulation in the attic caused by faulty wiring. We were lucky. We were home, we called the fire department immediately, they were able to locate the source and put it out before it caused much damage. Other than some charred insulation and wiring and a house that smells like a BBQ pit, we didn't suffer any lasting damage. But it was certainly scary! And, to my amazement, I was surprisingly calm through the whole thing. It brought to mind Philippians 4:7, " Then you will experience God’s peace, wh...

I think we can all agree that the political world is getting uglier and uglier. Ideological lines have been drawn over health care, tax policy, immigration and the Mueller investigation. The latest battleground is over sexual misconduct and how we should react when those we elect, or propose to elect, are accused. Now the idea that our male politicians are hound dogs (no offence to the poor puppies) when it comes to women comes as no surprise. Infidelity and sexual scandals involving our leaders go way back. King David comes to mind. And don't forget that Thomas Jefferson had children with one of his slaves (wrong on so many levels). But the cultural climate is changing. Things that were acceptable even a couple decades ago are being called into question. I admit that I voted for Bill Clinton twice and still supported him even after the Monica Lewinsky scandal. I felt that his policy positions outweighed what I felt was consensual activity among adults. I now feel differently....

Today is All Saints' Day, the traditional day upon which Christians remember all the "saints" who have gone before us. And for us, all Christians are saints, maybe not capital S Saints but saints nonetheless. They have held on to this strange faith in a resurrected God for almost 2000 years. So today, of all days, makes me wonder why? In our age of science and reason and over-explanation, why have people hung on to this primitive belief, and more specifically, why do I? We have all heard that there has been a sharp rise in "nones" over the past decade - people who claim no religious faith. Some of these people, atheists,  claim no belief in any supernatural phenomenon, while others are in that nebulous category of "spiritual but not religious." According to Pew Research, these folks make up only about 23% of the American population (much higher in Europe for some reason). So estimating that maybe 10% are the "spiritual" folks instead ...

Let me say at the outset - I mourn for those lost and injured in the Las Vegas shooting on Sunday. I mourn for those targeted in the daily shootings that occur in this country. I cannot minimize or take away the suffering of the victims or their families. But my empathy for the victims of gun violence has led me to, once again, take a look at our society that permits and, yes, encourages these tragedies to happen over and over again. Let me be quite clear and say it quite loudly, in the spirit of the prophets of old - ya got trouble, folks, right here in River City, trouble with a capital I... (OK my parody of old musicals falls flat here)...and that stands for Idolatry. Whether it is the flag or the national anthem or 2nd Amendment or guns themselves, our nation seems to have chosen to revere these "things" over our devotion to God, the Bible, or simple moral decency. In their book, The Altars Where We Worship , Juan Floyd-Thomas, et al., write, "Though we claim to se...

One of my favorite things to do these days is to visit the new wineries that have sprung up like weeds in the Hill Country of Texas. Nothing like sitting out on a patio, enjoying the beautiful countryside, maybe listening to some local musicians, enjoying a new wine. Of course, some of these new wines are pretty dreadful, some our delicious. You never know what you're going to get when it is a "new" wine. Jesus talked about new wine. He warned us about putting new wine in old wineskins, which might burst. He was referring to how new understandings or new teachings cannot fit in our old paradigms. We must shift our paradigms to allow for new understanding. I see his wisdom and agree, but I am also I'm struggling with understanding how something that Jesus said 2000 years ago can still be so "new" to us today. Even in Jesus day, his teachings weren't really new. The prophets, stretching back over a thousand years had been telling the people o...

Those of us of a certain age (OK, old-timers) can remember a car commercial from about 20 years ago with the tagline, "This is not your father's Oldsmobile." Apparently, it wasn't anyone's Oldsmobile, as the brand disappeared shortly afterwards. But that phrase kept going through my head for the past 24 hours as I sat and listened to the "rock star" preachers at the Festival of Homiletics in San Antonio. But in my mind, I kept hearing the tagline, "This ain't your Daddy's church." If I could find one theme that bound together the first four speakers that I heard (Rob Bell, Walter Brueggemann, Nadia Bolz-Weber and Amy Butler) it is this: The old paradigm that we have of church and Jesus and Christianity is no longer relevant in today's world. We need to sweep away what is in the past and speak into the future, even if it makes us, or our congregations, uncomfortable. "Do not remember the former things, or consider thing...

  This week, my mind goes to the idea of "purpose." I suppose it is because, after more than six months in Texas, I still don't feel as though I've found a calling. Also, I just spent a great weekend with my family at my son's senior voice recital for college. Listening to him sing, with such obvious joy, I was reminded of the words from the movie Chariots of Fire . In the movie, Eric Liddell, who was training to be a missionary, told his sister, "Jennie, I know God made me for China someday, but he also made me fast. I feel his pleasure when I run." God created each of us for his pleasure, purely out of love. Like a loving parent, I know that God is pleased to see us each find our place in the world. As my children grew up, I often told them that "God has given you each gifts and talents and it is your job to figure out how to use them for the glory of God." It's all part of that "thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven...

I woke up this morning to the news that there had been yet another horrific act of violence, this time in St. Petersburg. And I'm still trying to get my head around the death of so many civilians in a US-led coalition bombing of Mosul last week. And the terrorist incident on Westminster Bridge. Everywhere I turn, I see another example of human beings inflicting terrible violence on their so-called enemies. Even our President has now been accused in court of "inciting violence" with his words. And today in my Scripture study, I read "Do not love the world, or anything in the world." (1 John 2: 15) That seems like an easy instruction for us, in the face of such actions. But how do I reconcile the words of 1 John with the statement, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son." ? (John 3:16) How am I, as a Christian, supposed to respond to the violence and hate around me? Am I to just give up and declare, "Of course this world is rott...

It's been quite a while since I posted here. Life has gotten pretty busy. I enjoyed a great two week visit back to England, catching up with friends and continuing my quest of visiting every cathedral in England. (As a side note, I have to comment on how friendly English people were the farther north I got. Although, since I couldn't understand their accents, they may have been insulting me with a smile!) But the main reason that I have slacked off lately has been a move to a new house. It is our second move in six months, third in three years. While it is nice to finally be settled for a while (we hope), the act of moving has been a chore. Being empty nesters, my husband and I had thought that we would be downsizing. That, combined with an international move, led us to be ruthless in our purge of things over the last few years. We had to constantly ask ourselves, "Why am I hanging on to this? What purpose is this serving in my life?" Which brings me smack up agai...

Maybe it’s just that I’m over 50 and arthritis is setting in, but today, this verse stuck with me, “Lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees and make straight paths for your feet so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.” (Hebrews 12: 12-13) Yep, many mornings I have drooping hands and weak knees. Speak to me, God. The metaphor of journey is one of the underlying currents of both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament – Abraham and Sarah leaving their home and journeying thousands of miles to find the land that God had promised; the Israelites wandering for forty years in the wilderness on the way to their new home; Jesus setting his face toward Jerusalem and beginning the journey toward his death and resurrection; Paul traveling all over the known world to spread the Gospel. It’s all about the journey, folks. We were never meant to stay where we are.  But the writer of Hebrews borrows on the words of Isaiah and John th...

One phrase in the Rev. John Elford's sermon (University UMC, Austin, TX) from this past Sunday has stuck with me - "words create worlds." The phrase is attributed to Rabbi Heschel, but probably go back much farther in Jewish tradition. It reflects the creation of our world, when God spoke and new life emerged. It also speaks to the irrevocable nature of our own words. Once spoken, our words shape our reality - for good or bad. I have had a lot of cause lately to be thinking about the nature of speech. We have all heard some astonishing rhetoric in the past few months. Some of it has been hateful and cringe-worthy, some of it encouraging and hopeful. But much of it has been said in haste, or anger, or depair, without much thought to the "world" that it is creating. In thinking about the power of our speech, I am drawn, of course, to the book of James. A curious book in the New Testament. It doesn't seem to fit in with the other epistles. Instead of addres...

RESIST! This is quickly becoming the slogan of the American 'left' - those who feel that the current administration is trying to restrict the civil rights and the freedom of the most vulnerable in our nation. Of course, this slogan, and the goals and motives of this movement are called into question by many, even those within the church. I have seen several posts on facebook that use the Bible to justify blind allegiance toward any government or authority. The scripture most commonly used is Romans 13:1-2 - 'Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God.  Therefore whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.'  However, I believe that the key to interpreting this scripture comes much earlier in Paul's letter to the Romans.  'Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the ...

I am a person that likes to organize my days. Even now that I am "between churches", I need to have a schedule and a routine. For example, today I was going to wake up, drink a lot of coffee, do my daily devotional, work on some Sunday school lessons, and after lunch, drive to the Pottery Barn/West Elm outlet to look for things for my new house. Yeah, that was the plan. Until I opened facebook. There, I saw a posting from a local colleague about a press conference this afternoon given by clergy in opposition several proposed anti-LGBTQ state bills, including Texas Senate Bill 6, the "bathroom bill" which will, if passed, prohibit transgendered people from using the bathroom in which they are most comfortable and safe. The organizers of the press conference are calling on all supporting clergy to show up, in collars and stoles, to lend support. And, my plans have now changed. Now it would be easy for me to assume that other folks have got this covered and go on my ...

At the National Prayer Breakfast last week, the President made a statement to the gathered pastors that he wanted to "get rid of and totally destroy the Johnson Amendment and allow our representatives of faith to speak freely and without fear of retribution." I'm sure that you're like many people, including me, that had no idea what the "Johnson amendment" was. To be honest, I knew that churches and pastors could not endorse political candidates but I didn't know the exact law that prevented it. The Johnson Amendment (named after Senator Lyndon B. Johnson) is part of a 1954 bill that amended the US tax code. It states that "churches and other nonprofit organizations that are exempt from taxation are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office." What this means in real-life is that churches cannot su...

Even though I left my church in London in September to repatriate, I volunteered to continue writing Sunday school lessons for the children, since it is my absolute favorite thing to do! Plus, it makes me focus on the lectionary and pare each passage down to its essential elements. It's tempting to pour all of my seminary education into each lesson for four to eleven year olds, but I'm not sure that they'd appreciate the nuances between ontological and operational Christology. Nope, when writing lessons for kids I ask myself, 'What is the one nugget that I want them to remember?' Today, I was working on a lesson about the Woman at the Well (John 4: 5-30). It's a strange one for several reasons: It is one of the few times that Jesus talks directly to a woman. It's a private conversation that somehow gets recorded. Jesus seems to be a fortune-teller, telling the woman all about her, perhaps 'shady', past. She is a foreigner, an outsider, but one of t...