Grace

Grace

“Like the unexpected call of a friend just when you need it most, grace arrives unannounced. A door opens. A path becomes clear. An answer presents itself. Grace is what it feels like to be touched by God.” Bishop Steven Charleston Daily Facebook Writing

I stand waiting to walk out and read the gospel as we sing the hymn before the gospel, Dear Lord and Father of mankind.  I glance at the last verse that the congregation will be singing just before the gospel reading. There, faintly written in pencil is the word, “softer,” just before the beginning of the last line. It is my mother’s distinctive handwriting. I had forgotten that my mother sang in the choir at her small Episcopal church in Virginia, and this must be a directive from the choirmaster.  My mother has been dead for over nineteen years. We did not always understand each other, but when she died, I wanted to honor her in some way and decided to start using her personal hymnal prayer book in church. As you can see, her name has worn off the front cover, the gold cross will soon be gone, the red leather cover is now coming apart, particularly the back board of the spine of the book is gone. I have not repaired it because for some unknown reason what remains of this book just as she used it seems to be connecting me to her.

When I saw my mother’s writing, I gasped and sent up a small prayer of thanksgiving. We had some very difficult times, but over the time since her death I have begun to feel healing. This morning, in this split second, I felt reconciled with my mother and was grateful for the life she gave me and her support.

Healing of family relationships takes time and constant prayer for that person and ourselves. Today I realize that prayer works. Attempting to connect to an estranged family member through something that family member treasures and we can share with them over time works. I know this sharing of what we have in common rather than our differences brings about healing in life as well as after death. My mother and I shared our love of the Episcopal Church and singing in particular.  I almost felt my mother beside me.

Today I experience one more way that God’s Grace continues to heal and care for us over time if we only put ourselves in position to receive.

Joanna  joannaseibert.com  

Koinonia

Koinonia

“All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.” Acts 2: 44-45.

In her brilliant sermon this morning, June 3, 2018, Patricia Matthews, reminds us of the winning word in this year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee this weeknd. Koinonia,

You can read Patricia’s sermon online at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Little Rock website and listen and see it on St. Mark’s Facebook page. Fourteen-year-old Karthik Nemmani from McKinney, Texas, correctly spells this word of Greek origin meaning Christian fellowship or communion with God especially with other Christians in community. Patricia reminds us that this 91st National Spelling Bee with the 515 participants who qualified was televised on none other than ESPN, a sport’s network where we more often watch football or basketball or baseball or soccer!

When I heard the winning word this weekend and today from Patricia, my heart skipped a beat. Koinonia has been on my heart for almost a week. Our oldest granddaughter recently graduated from high school and is headed to the University of Georgia. I have been praying about how I can support her in this decision.  It came as I was reading a review of two book about Clarence Jordon in Christian Century.   I want to remind Langley about Mr. Jordon, who is perhaps one of the most outstanding graduates of the University of Georgia. His competency in Greek led him to his “Cotton Patch” version of the New Testament as he attempted to translate the Bible into everyday language. Jordon also founded Koinonia Farm as a farming community of believers sharing their lives and resources following the example of the first Christian communities. Out of this movement came Habitat for Humanity International by Millard Fuller and later The Fuller Center for Housing as well as Jubilee partners and much support for the Civil Rights Movement.

Today after church a group of women met to begin discernment of a Daughters of the King Chapter at St. Mark’s, another group seeking koinonia, fellowship with other women seeking a deeper spirituality and relationship to God through prayer, service, and evangelism.

I am going to keep koinonia on my heart for a few more days and see if  I observe any more serendipitous connections or synchronicity in our world.

Joanna  joannaseibert.com

Hope out of Shameful Acts

 Hope out of Shameful Acts

“In the Cross and the Lynching Tree, James Cone highlights a paradox of the gospel: out of the shameful and humiliating act of crucifixion comes hope.” Debra J. Mumford, “Living the Word,” Christian Century, March 14, 2018, p. 21.

We drove through Montgomery, Alabama, the week before the opening of The National Memorial and Museum for Peace and Justice or better known as the Lynching Memorial and Museum. We think we caught a glimpse of it in the distance. We felt a call that we must return to Montgomery someday to visit both parts.

 Between 1950 and 1877 more than 4400 African American men, women and children were lynched by being burned alive, hanged, shot, drowned, or beaten to death. The memorial structure on the center of the site is made of over 800 steel monuments, one for each county in our country where a racial lynching took place. The adjacent museum is built where there once was a former warehouse where black slaves brought in by boat or rails were imprisoned before going to the slave market.

James Cone, one of American’s best-known advocates of black theology and black liberation theology, ironically died two days after the opening of this memorial and museum.

In her Good Friday message this year in Christian Century, Debra Mumford reminds us how the horrific lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till in the Mississippi Delta in August of 1955 sparked national outrage that led Rosa Parks to move from the back to the front of the bus in Montgomery that December. Her arrest began the 381-day Montgomery bus boycott that was a groundbreaking event in the civil rights movement.

The cross many of us wear is the symbol of an unjust public execution. We more often relate to the resurrection that came out of it rather than the brutal killing of an innocent man. The cross’s message of resurrection is hope to all who are oppressed, but we must also remember the injustice.

The Lynching Museum and Memorial and the yearly Good Friday services we participate in will hopefully remind us of the shameful acts that did and still take place in our world. We are to remind each other, especially our spiritual friends, that our hope, our small part is not unlike that of Rosa Parks.  We are to change the world by remembering the cruelty and standing our ground with trembling hearts in love wherever we see injustice.

Cone and Mumford are reminding us that when we talk with spiritual friends at some point we are also to remind them that our traditions teach us about great hope that can follow horrendous and unjust tragedy. 

Joanna    joannaseibert.com