Rev. Dr. Dale Milligan is the creator of the Logos program we use at St. Marks.
It started as Youth Clubs and turned into Logos; and now Logos is part of GenOn Ministries. Here is a sermon he preached that articulates the vision he had. It always moves me.
The last few days I have been reading about the virtue of humility.
Humility is vexing. Seriously.
Ever hear someone say that he or she is great at humility? Being ‘great’ at humility is something of an oxymoron. If we get very proud of our ability to be humble it seems to defeat the purpose or be at odds with what humility actually is all about.
Humility is at odds with our sense of the world. I was reading that psychologists state that the leading issue they deal with is the issue of narcissism. Indeed, we are a society that says celebrates individualism and celebrates the “I” to the point of absurdity. We have lost a sense of community and with it, humility.
I’ve been pondering humility a big and here are some thoughts.
First, in terms of being a people of faith, we need to recognize that we aspire to the ways of God as opposed to the other way around. The idea of ‘God’s will” is rarely about God but about our will and blaming God for our will. The will of God gets translated into how we live our lives, how we vote, and often our ideology. God becomes a Democrat or a Republican, all based on our viewpoint.
I was fascinated most recently about people debating if Jesus would have approved food stamps or the Affordable Healthcare Law. I’ve read two sides of this and when people talk about there being two sides to every story, they miss this one entirely. Jesus fed people and never charged them a penny. Jesus healed people and never charged them a penny. If we aspire to do exactly what Jesus did then we’d say we need to feed everyone for free and provide totally free healthcare. Would Jesus approve of food stamps? Probably not, but not because of the reasons people usually give. He’d just feed everyone.
Am I saying this is a good idea? Not really as it would devastate the economy and destroy people’s livelihoods in farming, stores, etc. Conversely, he would probably object to charging people for food stamps. The argument becomes circular. My point is that, ultimately, bringing Jesus into the debate is more about us than it is about Jesus. We often lack the humility to see that our will and God’s will aren’t always very comparable.
Secondly, I’ve been thinking in terms of John the Baptist in the Gospel of John. John steps aside when he sees Jesus and quietly says that “he, (John) must decrease so that Jesus could increase.”
If you have ever ventured up to Mount Saint Francis in the Knobs, that locale is run by the Conventual Franciscan Friars. The Franciscans have had their own ecumenical issues and there are a variety of types of Franciscans. Francis of Assisi’s followers called themselves the Ordo Fratrum Minorum, or, in English the Orders of Friars Minor. The translation of Friars Minor, however, is actually something of a distortion of the Latin phrase, fratrum minorum which means, literally, ‘lesser brothers.’ Built into their understanding was that they were humble servants of God.
The Franciscans have had varying degrees of success with this concept and often, ironically, they compete with one another in terms of humility and poverty and try to outdo each other in terms of being great at humility and poverty. Like everyone else, they often fall into the trap of failing at humility.
My prevailing philosophy of ministry is that our role as clergy is to serve God and serve God’s people. Ministry and discipleship ought to be sans agenda other than serving God and serving God’s people. Anything else and we fall victim to hubris.
I wish I could say that I’ve never been guilty of this. I wish I could say that I’ve never had an agenda and that I’ve never twisted God’s will into my will and blaming God for it. I wish I could say that I’ve always been great at humility….
But, alas, that oxymoron lives on.
Today is Trinity Sunday in the Christian Church and the Trinity is something that defies a really good definition. I had an entire graduate level course on the Trinity and we all finished the course just as flummoxed as we began. The Trinity, God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, God as Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. God is one, but three. God is three but one.
God is…
I keep thinking this is also a narrative of God in relationship to God.
One thing the Bible keeps reminding us is that God is always in relationships with people. God never seems to move (except in the instance of creation) without human partners. God’s existence is revealed by Abraham. God’s Law is revealed by Moses. God’s will is revealed by prophets. God’s love is revealed by Jesus as Jesus redeems humanity. Jesus himself chooses partners. The Holy Spirit comes and lays herself down on Christianity to sustain and nurture the Christian Church.
In an era of individualism the whole concept of God in relationship to God seems, somehow wrong. An age of individualism should be telling us that God is God and in no need of relationship with anyone, least of all God with God. In an age of individualism, it would seem that we should be talking about an autonomous God who lives and moves and breathes with really no interest in others.
Yet, here it is, Trinity Sunday. God in relationship to God, defying and denying any sense of a world of individualism.
Who does God think God is? God?
America Magazine, a Jesuit, Roman Catholic publication, has an article entitled, Pursuing the Truth in Love. Something the author put in the article struck me:
“America understands the church as the body of Christ, not as the body politic. Liberal, conservative, moderate are words that describe factions in a polis, not members of a communion.”
(The word ‘polis’ comes from Greek for city and we derive the word ‘politics’ from ‘polis.’)
What is fascinating is that in the comments section several people expressed distress and asked, “How will we know what we agree with or disagree with unless someone tells us if it is a liberal or conservative statement?”
Have we come to this? Have we come to the point of using labels so much, so often, and so freely we cannot determine if an argument is good or bad, valid or bogus, meaningful or worthless unless it has a label attached?
The Christian Church is the Body of Christ.
St. Paul wrote:
There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28
I played with it and wrote:
There is no longer conservative or liberal or moderate, there is no longer Democrat or Republican, there is no longer Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, or Evangelical, there is no longer male or female. All are one in Christ Jesus.
The words are a variant but the meaning isn’t. The Christian Church is the Body of Christ. We often forget Jesus’ prayer:
"I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me”. John 17:20-21
“That they may all be one.” My denomination, the United Church of Christ, has those words as a motto. They are words that remind us that the Christian Church is the Body of Christ.
Take note of what Jesus doesn’t say: “That they may all be the same.”
Ecumenism, churches working together, does not imply that churches all need to be the same and agree on everything. People come to God in a variety of ways. There are people who find Christ in very liturgical denominations with great structure and hierarchy. God bless them when they do. There are people who find Christ in free church traditions with less liturgy. There are people who find Christ in Sacraments; others find Christ in the Word. Many find Christ in both. Some people find Christ in traditional hymns; others find Christ in praise music. Some people find Christ in holding hands and singing Kumbaya. Others find Christ in Latin liturgies.
Who is right?
Perhaps this question is the very problem and miss’s one little thing; the Christian Church is the Body of Christ.
St. Paul writes in 1st Corinthians that the church is a body with many parts. We are all gifted spiritually and differently. The sad reality is that we truly don’t like ‘different’ all that much. Often, as much as we like to celebrate diversity, we like diversity more in theory than in practice. Often our idea of diversity is having a lot of people like ourselves with slight variations of opinion. It is rare to find people who truly love great diversity. Lest I sound self-righteous about this I say this about myself as well. I always claim to love diversity, but, down deep, too much diversity gets on my nerves!
Sometimes I read blogs and I read a lot of apologetics that speak mostly to denominational and theological traditions. Very often the premise is why the blogger and his or her church or tradition is right, and why other people who disagree are wrong. I do understand the desire to be right. Most of us who belong to churches tend to mostly agree with many of the premises and styles of our faith tradition. This does not make is right.
The truth of God is far greater and far richer than any one of us can possible know and understand. My sense is there is truth and fallacy in every tradition. There are enough ‘one true churches’ in existence that pretty much assures us that no one has cornered the market on truth and the totality of God’s truth. We simply cannot.
It is a reminder that the Christian Church is the Body of Christ. All of us. We are sisters and brothers in Christ. Our challenge is to embrace our family members as fully as we can.
My Sabbatical is in its final month and I am currently spending the last month at the beach with my wife, Janet. It has been a time of renewal for us enjoying the beach and one another’s company.
The theme of my Sabbatical was learning and experiencing spirituality and hospitality from a Benedictine perspective. The hope, of course, is to integrate this into my life and find ways to integrate it into the life of my congregation. The people at St. Marks are reading and learning about Benedictine spirituality as well and have a retreat opportunity to experience it more fully. I hope everyone takes advantage of this.
Benedictine spirituality is remarkable ecumenical. There are non-Roman Catholic Benedictine monasteries and the majority of clergy who are Benedictine Oblates at monasteries are not Roman Catholic. Many of the Benedictine fit very nicely into the prayer life and spirituality of Protestant clergy.
There is much to this. One is praying the Psalms every day and one is reading and reflecting on Scripture. There is always one word, however, that keeps cropping up. The word is listen.
As the pastor of a church I have preached a lot of sermons over the years. I figure I’ve probably preached over 1400 sermons over the years. That is a lot of preaching and a lot of talking. Right not, however, I haven’t preached since the beginning of March. Often, on retreats, I would write sermons and get myself ahead. I have not written any sermons while on Sabbatical----though it has been tempting. The reason I haven’t written any sermons is that even sermon writing is ‘talking.’ This has been a time for listening.
Listening is difficult for me. I like to have opinions and share my opinion. Often when someone else is speaking, I am thinking of what I’m going to say in response more than I am actually listening to what the person has to say. I doubt I am the only one like this. We are a society that likes to talk first, listen second.
A significant amount of my time has been spent largely alone. I have had large amounts of time with no one to talk to. It has made me sit and listen. Not preaching has compelled me to pray the Psalms and actually listen to the words. Not preaching has compelled me to read Scripture and listen to the words rather than preach about it. Listening to God, who is still speaking, has become an interesting journey for me. A good one.
My hope and prayer is that I learn to maintain some sacred silence for myself and continue to listen.
We have a wonderful oceanfront balcony at our condo. Every morning I pray looking at the sun dancing on the ocean; at night, I sit in darkness and listen to the waves not seeing very much while praying. I find, to me, the ocean reminds me to be in awe of God. We often like to make God portable and small so we can understand and almost control God. The reality is God is neither portable, fully understandable, and certainly not controlled. The ocean reminds me of this in amazing ways. I am learning to fully appreciate being in awe of God.
In watching the devastation from Oklahoma my heart breaks. There were so many lives lost and so many lives devastated. Many people lost children and loved ones. Many more lost their homes, their cars, and everything they owned. Sadly, among things people owned were precious, precious memories of time together. It is so amazingly sad.
Another story out of Oklahoma has also been the heroism of a group that always seems to rise to the level of heroism and that happens to be teachers. So many educators lost their lives and saved lives in Newtown and, again, we are hearing stories of teachers lying on children to protect them. I spent a short time as a teacher and my daughter is a teacher, but one thing is for sure. I really did not appreciate my teachers growing up the way I should have. These people serve us with honor and courage and wisdom each day.
I read a bit about Jodi Arias’ defense today in seeking life imprisonment instead of death. I do not believe in the death penalty. I do not believe the state, any state, has the right to kill its citizens. There are times, in law enforcement, and war, where it becomes necessary. Many lives have been saved by law enforcement shooting an armed criminal and saving the day. That is, sadly, necessary. Is society protected when we take a person out of a prison cell, march them down the hallway, and kill them? It isn’t and we delude ourselves into thinking it is. We are simply giving citizens the right to kill other citizens----for what?
Often it is about revenge. It isn’t about justice. What Jodi Arias did was barbaric and she has earned the right to be locked away for the next 50-60 years, never to walk in freedom and never to see the sun rise or set. She murdered her boyfriend and justice entails she be locked away for the rest of her life. We have no right to kill her.
Often people lament that it is wrong that we have to pay for this person to be in prison for their entire life. We do. We have no right to kill people because they are too expensive to keep around. We live in a culture of death and, at some point, we need to recognize that killing one another improves nothing. It makes is the same as those we kill.
There is been a lot of joking about Jodi Arias and this is not funny. This is a tragic story from beginning to end. Period.
Lastly there have been many poignant Facebook posts about the last day of school in New Albany and Floyd County. There are children hitting milestones. Kids are moving from grade school to middle school; middle school to high school; high school to college. For some, this is entering their senior year and for parents of seniors preparation for major changes is taking place. It is amazing to see our children grow up and move on. It is a good thing I’ve experienced this and now have adult children who I love and appreciate for what they have grown into. I continue, however, to miss the little children who used to live with me. I celebrate with folks as they see their children grow into wonderful adults; but I share the sadness of the long gone memories of little ones.
In a small Congregational Church in South Butler, New York, a church that is a predecessor church of the United Church of Christ, something amazing happened on September 15, 1853. A young woman named Antoinette Brown was ordained into the Christian ministry. A church had done something people weren’t even talking about doing very much. They had ordained a woman into the ministry.
The Spirit had moved.
A couple of years ago I heard a minister, not from my own denomination, refer to the Holy Spirit as ‘He,’ and I sat wondering what planet this man had come from.
The Hebrew word for spirit is Ruah which is definitely a feminine noun. The coming of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, is very distinctly a remarkable instance of the coming of the divine feminine.
The Hebrew word for God is YHWH, literally translated as “I am.” We use the pronoun “He” in reference to God Abba, literally, “Daddy,” and gives us a sense of God as a Heavenly Father. For me, who had a loving Dad, there is no real problem with this. For people who struggled with their fathers, this can be a major issue. Sadly, for many, being a father is a biological thing and they never get around to being Dad.
Jesus, of course, was a male. We refer to Jesus as ‘He’ and do so appropriately.
But the Holy Spirit is ‘She.’ The Holy Spirit moves in our midst and reveals the feminine side of God in creative, imaginative, and amazing loving ways. The Holy Spirit inspires, sustains, and nurtures us in amazingly profound ways each and every day.
Today is Pentecost and the Spirit moves in the church, often in scary ways. The Holy Spirit, not unlike a loving mother, teaches us to walk, talks to us, and challenges us each day. The Holy Spirit is the nurturing presence in our lives each and every day. The Holy Spirit also terrifies the organized church! When the Holy Spirit comes through things change and things get disrupted.
Things happen like they happened in September of 1853. People listen and do something profound and different.
As people gather to Worship as Christians today, let’s be mindful of the coming of the Holy Spirit in unique ways; and when we celebrate with those women who have followed the same path as Antoinette Brown let us celebrate and be glad. They are proof the Holy Spirit is alive and well and in our midst; and some are still listening!
