Buechner: Surprise Visits

Buechner: Surprise Visits

“Jesus is apt to come, into the very midst of life at its most real and inescapable. Not in a blaze of unearthly light, not in the midst of a sermon, not in the throes of some kind of religious daydream, but . . . at supper time, or walking along a road. This is the element that all the stories about Christ's return to life have in common.. He never approached from on high, but always in the midst, in the midst of people, in the midst of real life and the questions that real life asks.”

Frederick Buechner, originally published in The Magnificent Defeat 1966.

Resurrection Chapel, National Cathedral, Washington DC

Buechner describes how we see Jesus in our lives, in our real lives. We do not necessarily need to go on some great pilgrimage or be in an ancient cathedral. God is all around us in our everydayness. Our ministry as spiritual friends is helping each other see God in our everyday lives.

All of these resurrection stories give us many clues as to where and how to find Jesus. Jesus’s resurrection appearance is a surprise to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, to Mary at the tomb, to the disciples locked in the upper room, to the disciples fishing. It is off of the agenda. Jesus is usually not immediately recognized. Jesus does ordinary things like cooking and eating and walking. Jesus looks like an ordinary person but may do extraordinary things like walking through walls. Jesus still bears his wounds, but they are healed. Jesus feeds us. Jesus calls us by name. Jesus appears to ordinary people. With the exception of Jesus’ appearance to Paul on the road to Damascus, Jesus appears to those who know him. Most importantly, Jesus speaks truth and love and peace.

If you want to know more about resurrection, meditate again on these resurrection stories which we will soon hear again.

Joanna. Joannaseibert.com

2 Opportunities in next 2 weeks to purchase a signed copy of A Daily Spiritual Rx for Lent and Easter
St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Little Rock, Narthex after 8 and 10:30 services on March 3 and March 10

Proceeds from this book go for Hurricane Relief in the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast

Keller, Tillich, Lamott: Faith, Doubts

Keller, Tillich, Lamott: Faith, Doubts

“Observers in the full enjoyment of their bodily senses pity me, but it is because they do not see the golden chamber in my life where I dwell delighted; for, dark as my path may seem to them, I carry a magic light in my heart. Faith, the spiritual strong searchlight, illumines the way, and although sinister doubts lurk in the shadow, I walk unafraid towards the Enchanted Wood where the foliage is always green, where joy abides, where nightingales nest and sing, and where life and death are one in the Presence of the Lord.”

Helen Keller, Midstream: My Later Life, Sun Dial Press 1929.

How beautifully Helen Keller describes faith. Someone who is blind describes faith as light, a light in her heart. She also does not negate doubt. The words of Paul Tillich which Ann Lamott has popularized ring in my ears, “The opposite of faith is not doubt but certainty.” Faith implies believing in something or being in relationship with something that is a mystery, that is not defined by our human understanding.

Our rational minds can just take us so far in understanding faith.

When a person has difficulty with mystery, doubts move in. Our doubts can be stepping stones to a deeper faith as we read and share our doubts with others and learn and experience the mystery together.

I so often speak with spiritual friends about doubt and reassure them that this is not unnatural or the enemy or unhealthy. I tell friends, “Let ‘s talk about the doubts. If you come to a place of unbelief, let me carry your faith, until you are ready to take it back. I am counting on you to do the same for me, when doubts overcome me.”

Joanna. Joannaseibert.com

3 Opportunities in next 2 weeks to purchase a signed copy of A Daily Spiritual Rx for Lent and Easter
Wordsworth Books, Little Rock, Saturday March 2, 1-3 pm

St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Little Rock, Narthex after 8 and 10:30 services on March 3 and March 10

Proceeds from this book go for Hurricane Relief in the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast

Kelsey:Outreach

Kelsey: Outreach

“A Christian meditative practice that does not result in horizontal outreach to suffering and lost human beings has gone astray.”

Morton Kelsey, p. 27, Companions of the Inner Way, The Art of Spiritual Guidance, Crossroad 1983.

Morton Kelsey was a teacher, counselor, Episcopal priest, former teacher at Notre Dame and author of over 30 books on spiritual development.

He writes about the tension that develops between the peace we find in relationship to God and the lack of peace in our outer world. This is similar to what we heard Gordon Cosby from Church of the Saviour write about recently. Cosby called it the real and unreal world. In fact, the Church of the Saviour’s website is Inward Outward.

Just as the inner peace is found with love, the same is true for birthing the outer peace. The love we find in staying connected to the God of our understanding calls us out of ourselves to those who are suffering in the world. The paradox is that in reaching out to those in need, we again find God, for that is where God promises to be most present.

Spiritual friends or guides who have encountered the creative love of Christ within themselves and in others can be guides to practices that help put us in position to experience this kind of love. Often spiritual guides are helpful in pointing out to us where God was working in our life, where we experienced God’s love, God’s protection and were not aware of it. Spiritual friends help us find the Christ already within us which always is calling us to find the Christ in our neighbor, especially our neighbor in need.

Joanna. Joannaseibert.com

3 Opportunities in next 2 weeks to purchase a signed copy of A Daily Spiritual Rx for Lent and Easter
Wordsworth Books, Little Rock, Saturday March 2, 1-3 pm

St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Little Rock, Narthex after 8 and 10:30 services on March 3 and March 10

Proceeds from this book go for Hurricane Relief in the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast