iHOPE

Pastrix: The Gospel According to Nadia

 

God said 'yes' to all our polite 'no thank yous' by rising from the dead. Death and resurrection. It is the Christian story as it has been told to me...and it has been confirmed in my experience

That's how Nadia Bolz-Weber summarizes the gospel in the opening pages of her book, Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner & Saint. We'll be discussing her book and her thoughts at our next Pastor's Book Club on Sunday, August 10 @ Noon. 

Like all three books* this summer, it is a witness to the surprising movement of God in people's lives.

This is not a book for everyone. The language alone will make it unreadable for some. If you get past the language, you are then confronted with the scandal of grace. I haven't read many books that talk about grace with this kind of raw honesty and disarming vulnerability. Did I mention that the book is full of humor, too?

We are not selling the book at church because you can buy it cheaper at some of the local bookstores (we would probably have to sell it in a plain brown wrapper if we did!). So it is not as easy to get (unless you download it to a tablet). But its worth it. For all the obstacles, it is one of the best books I have read in years. That's why it is one of the selections for the Pastor's Book Club and why I'm looking forward to discussing it on Sunday. 

More than a book, I want to discuss the surprising ways God works in our lives. It is still about death and resurrection.  God is still at work and the News is stil "Good", or Nadia puts it:

It’s about how God continues to reach into the graves we dig for ourselves and pull us out, giving us new life, in ways both dramatic and small.

 

 

*Last month we discussed Faith Unravelled by Rachel Held Evans. Next month we discuss Barbara Brown Taylor's book, Learning to Walk in the Dark.

Faith Unraveled: More Thoughts

We had a great discussion yesterday around Rachel Held Evans' book, Faith Unraveled.  It was the first book of this summer's Pastor's Book Club. We shared favorite quotes, discussed the issues this book raises and finished by thinking through some implications of what this means for the Church.

At the end of the day, a few more quotes emerged for me:

 We are not saved by information. We are saved by restored relationship with God, which might look a little different from person to person, culture to culture, time to time. 

When we recognize that our theology is not the moon but rather a finger pointing at the moon, we enjoy the freedom of questioning it from time to time.  

Maybe God wants us to have these discussions because faith isn’t just about being right; it’s about being a part of a community.  

Those seem like an important reminders for a church that wants to 'Invite people to a Big Table'*. God is at work through Christ. How God does this work is up to God, and history has shown that God is pretty creative. It's the Church that seems to want to limit what God can and can't do.  Yesterday's discussion and Rachel's book were good reminders that if we can't participate with God in this saving work, we should at least try not to get in the way. 

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* This is one of the the five Core Values that emerged from our recent Mission Study.  When we are at our best, we...

…Invite People to a Big Table

…Choose to Err on the Side of People

…Discover Our Joy in Serving

…Seek the Sacred in the Ordinary

…Foster a Holy Discontent

Faith Unraveled: A Different Jesus

We are discussing Rachel Held Evan's book, Faith Unraveled: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask Questions this Sunday as part of the Pastor's Book Club.  I have heard from several people how much they have enjoyed this book and are looking forward to discussing it. I posted one of my favorite quotes yesterday and am inviting others to do the same. 

Here is another one from me:

I encountered a different Jesus, a Jesus who requires more from me than intellectual assent and emotional allegiance; a Jesus who associated with sinners and infuriated the religious; a Jesus who broke the rules and refused to cast the first stone; a Jesus who gravitated toward sick people and crazy people, homeless people and hopeless people; a Jesus who preferred story to exposition and metaphor to syllogism; a Jesus who answered questions with more questions, and demands for proof with demands for faith; a Jesus who taught his followers to give without expecting anything in return, to love their enemies to the point of death, to live simply and without a lot of stuff, and to say what they mean and mean what they say; a Jesus who healed each person differently and saved each person differently; a Jesus who had no list of beliefs to check off, no doctrinal statement to sign, no surefire way to tell who was “in” and who was “out”; a Jesus who loved after being betrayed, healed after being hurt, and forgave while being nailed to a tree; a Jesus who asked his disciples to do the same.  

Faith Unraveled: Discussion this Sunday

Have you been reading Faith Unraveled: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask Questions ?It's the first book of the Pastor's Book Club and the discussion is this Sunday (July 20) from noon to 1:30.

If so, what is a favorite quote or insight for you? That is one of the questions I'll start with on Sunday, but we don't need to wait until then. 

I have several and will be sharing them over the next couple days. Here is one of my favorites:

This radical Jesus wanted to live not only in my heart and in my head but also in my hands, as I fed the hungry, reached out to my enemies, healed the sick, and comforted the lonely. Being a Christian, it seemed, isn’t about agreeing to a certain way; it is about embodying a certain way. It is about living as an incarnation of Jesus, as Jesus lived as an incarnation of God. It is about being Jesus . . . in tennis shoes.

I like this quote for a couple reasons. I think it captures one the big themes of "Faith Unravelled": what it means to follow Jesus instead of just embrace ideas (doctrines) about Jesus. That captures one of the key lessons in my Christian faith as well.

 What is one of your favorite quotes?

Moving Pictures is Back!

This Sunday (July13) is the first of our summer series, Moving Pictures.

Moving Pictures is a summer tradition at New Hope. We let movies tell their stories and raise questions- questions that are addressed in scripture and faith. Each summer we choose a "theme" for the movies and plan accordingly.  This summer the theme is "Taking Your Faith to Work".

We have been talking about building an Everyday Spirituality- a spirituality where God is engaged and encountered in everyday events. Nowhere is that more critical than in the arena of "work". Some of you are participating in the Plan for Growth (there is still time!) and have chosen "work" as the arena of life where you want to focus. I think more would- if they understood there is a deep connection between our work and our faith. Too many people believe there is a great gulf between Sunday morning and the weekday work. 

Until now, laypeople have not found much help in seeing any part of their work as a spiritual experience. If laypeople cannot find any spiritual meaning in their work, they are condemned to living a certain dual life; not connecting what they do on Sunday morning with what they do the rest of the week. They need to discover that their very actions of daily life are spiritual, and enable laypeople to touch God in the world, not away from it. 

Confident and Competent, by William Droel & Gregory F. Augustine Pierce, as quoted in The Monday Connection by William E. Diehl

"Taking Your Faith to Work" is one way to address the gap and help make the "Monday Connection."  Erik and I will be showing clips from various films that raise key questions about faith and work. Of course, by "work" we mean more than the place we draw a paycheck. It is much bigger than that. 

We begin with the film Wall-E. What can a little robot teach us about being human and work?  Come and see!

 

The Prayer of Examen: An Invitation

On Sunday, I invited the congregation to use The Examen as a way to deepen and enliven their prayer life. As people put together their Plan for Growth (it's not too late!), "Prayer" is one of the habits that is often targeted for growth. We know its important and we know we want  to do better.  What we don't know, is "how" to do it.

 That's where the Examen can help. The Examen was created by St. Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556) as a way to be aware of and respond to, the presence of God. There have been several variations over the years (some grim, some gracious), but the intent is the same. The version I have been using comes from A Simple, Life-Changing Prayer: Discovering the Power of St. Ignatius Loyola's Examen by Jim Manney (we have copies at church, if you are interested). 

One reason we don't develop more of a consistent and growing prayer life is that we don't know what to "say". Prayer devolves into a laundry list of things we want God to do or a series of platitudes we think God wants to hear.  Examen cuts through all that and invites us to realize that the best language of  prayer is the language of our lives.  

Quotes from Easter

I know this is a little late in the week to be posting quotes from last Sunday, but I have been asked by a couple of folks about the two that I used, so here they are!

The first is from Stanley Hauerwas. He was co-author of a book that changed the way I think about church and ministry in 1989: Resident Aliens. 25 years later and I still think it is one of the most relevant and challenging books I have read about being the church in the modern world. Hauerwas has continued to be prolific and profound. This quote is from his commentary on the gospel of Matthew: 

The real challenge of the resurrection is whether we live lives that would make no sense if in fact Jesus had not been raised.

The second quote is from an author I discovered this year. His name is Christian Wiman and the book is, "My Bright Abyss: Meditations of a Modern Believer". I find myself going back to this book time and again.

“The task is not to believe in a life beyond this one,
but to perceive it.”

Christianity is more than just embracing a set of beliefs and propositions. It's more than just hoping that someday, God will bring new life. It's about being open to the realities of what God is doing in our midst- right now. It's about living into the possibilities of what God has made possible in Christ.

 

Recent Readings from Worship

Several people have asked about the prayer from Ted Loder that I used in worship on March 2. It is titled, "I Need to Breathe Deeply, Lord" from his book, Guerrillas of Grace and I copied it below.  We have used a Loder prayer from time to time in worship, and with good reason. He is a constant source of inspiration.

The second request was from last Sunday (March 9) and the reading I used in the sermon. It was from a piece called "When Christians Love Theology More Than People." It was originally written by Stephen Mattson and relayed through a post by Jerry Kieschnick. If you are familiar with the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church, you'll appreciate this even more.

I love finding nuggets of wisdom and insight, and I love passing them on. Enjoy!

Done, Undone, or a New Beginning?

   Have you ever felt like we need to find a better way to talk about God?  The language we use and the images they create may have been useful at one time, but now they get in the way?   The issue isn't God, it is the way we think and talk about God that is the issue. It is familiar and comfortable- and that may be half the problem right there.

  When  Isaiah has a vision of coming into the presence of God, he is "undone" (Is. 6:5- one of the few times I prefer the KJV!). I love that phrase. Most of us most of the time, have a pretty well settled view of God. It makes sense. It is understood. It is manageable. It is wrong.

  When was the last time thinking about God caused you to become un-done? Everything you thought you knew is out the window. What used to satisfy and bring comfort now seems so insufficient, so...inadequate.

  That is one reason I chose Rob Bell's book, What We Talk About When We Talk About God, as a selction for the Pastor's Summer Book Club. Bell has a way of seeing things that is sometimes startling, sometimes troubling and sometimes breathtaking. Here is what he says about his book:

I’ve written this book about that word (God), then, because there’s something in the air, we’re in the midst of a massive rethink, a movement is gaining momentum, a moment in history is in the making: there is a growing sense among a growing number of people that when it comes to God, we’re at the end of one era and the start of another, an entire mode of understanding and talking about God dying as something new is being birthed.

  Interested? Copies of the book (at least a few) are still available at the church, or can be picked up, ordered or downloaded in all the usual places.  Read it at your own pace and then come on Sunday, September 15 after the second service (we genearlly start about noon)to share insights, ask questions and get some new ways to think about God.

Faith & Doubt: Shall We Dance?

"Doubt is often a sign that your faith has a pulse, that it’s alive and well and exploring and searching. Faith and doubt aren’t opposites; they are, it turns out, excellent dance partners."

Rob Bell, What We Talk About When We Talk About God

I like the quote above and am posting it for two reasons:

1.  It's a shameless plug for my next Pastor's Summer Book Club, featuring the book, What We Talk About When We Talk About God (details below).
2.  It gives a helpful way to look at Doubt.

For too long, people have been told that Doubt is the opposite of Faith. Faith is Good, so Doubt must be bad. But Doubt is not the opposite of Faith, any more than Fear is the opposite of Courage.