Butler Bass: Belonging

Butler Bass: Belonging, Behaving, Believing

“Instead of believing, behaving, and belonging, we need to reverse the order to belonging, behaving, and believing. Jesus did not begin with questions of belief. Instead, Jesus’ public ministry started when he formed a community.”—Diana Butler Bass in Christianity After Religion: The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening (HarperOne 2011), pp. 11-64.

Diana Butler Bass tries to help us understand what is happening in the present-day changing Christian landscape, where religion is no longer the center of a member’s life. She reminds us that our religion started with community, not confession. Thomas Watkins from Wilson, North Carolina, also tries to explain how our church might change using the South’s love of football in an article in the Journal of Preacher (“Game Day: Becoming a New Church in an Old South,” Pentecost 2017, vol. 40, no. 4) “They (fans) are not asked to show their diplomas at the stadium gate.”

One of the most frequent questions of those seeking spiritual direction is, “I don’t know if I believe or what I believe anymore. Maybe I am no longer a Christian.” If the person belongs to a confessional denomination or church of orthodoxy, where they must believe a specific set of doctrines, this can sometimes be a problem. Some denominations are churches of orthopraxy, where members are held together because of how they worship or practice their faith. In that circumstance, a changing belief is considered, at times, an asset, a sign of growth. Our relationship to God will change as our God becomes larger, as we see the Christ in more and more people, people who are very different from ourselves.

 I often quote that line I first heard from Alan Jones at a Trinity Wall Street conference at Kanuga in the early 2000s: “The opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty.” Doubting signifies that God is working in us; our relationship is changing. Sometimes, this change in the relationship can feel like the movement of the earth’s tectonic plates. Sometimes, it can be like a volcano erupting. But, if we can take it as a good and not a bad thing and try to stay steady, a new relationship and a new life will arise. I remember a quote from Catherine Marshall, “Those who never rebel against God or at some point in their lives have never shaken their fists in the face of heaven have never encountered God at all.”

Community is so important in this process. In a church alive with the spirit, there will be many others who have experienced this awakening who can walk and hold a steady hand when the foundations that we thought were our beliefs are threatened. We see that these beliefs are not endangered but enlarged. We learn about these enlarging connections to God through belonging to a community.

Joanna                https://www.joannaseibert.com/

Morning prayer

 Morning wake up

Canticle G: A Song of Ezekiel
Ezekiel 36:24-28

I will take you from among all nations; *
and gather you from all lands to bring you home.
I will sprinkle clean water upon you; *
and purify you from false gods and uncleanness.
A new heart I will give you *
and a new spirit put within you.
I will take the stone heart from your chest *
and give you a heart of flesh.
I will help you walk in my laws *
and cherish my commandments and do them.
You shall be my people, *
and I will be your God.

Enriching our Worship, I, Supplemental Liturgical Materials prepared by The Standing Liturgical Commission (Church Publishing Incorporated New York, 1997), p 34.

heart of stone Power Poetry

 When people ask how to start their day, this is one suggestion, especially if they begin with a daily bath or shower. A priest I knew in my diaconal training shared that he sings this canticle each morning in his shower. This image has stayed with me for many years. I am not good at memorizing scripture, but for those who are, I cannot think of a better way to start the day.

Even if I cannot learn all the scripture, perhaps I can remember some lines. I am asking God to sprinkle clean water on me, to purify me from false gods. My favorite false gods are fame, recognition, work, and busyness. I am asking God for a new heart, a new way to love, especially loving those who seem unlovable and different, those who seem to punch all my egocentric buttons that become harder and harder to hide, and those I perceive have harmed me. I pray for a new spirit, the Holy Spirit, God’s will, not my own will, to live inside of me and to lead me.

I am well acquainted with and do not like the stone heart that quietly and subtly sneaks into me, judging others and myself.

Take that hard-stone heart out of my chest. It is too heavy and too painful to carry. I pray for a heart that accepts my humanness and the humanness of others. I will try to follow the guidelines I think God has given me. Help me not believe in my hubris that I am better than others, and above the laws you have asked us to follow.

I want to stay connected today to you, God, even if it is a thin thread.  

Perhaps I can remember clean water, no false gods today, a new heart, a new spirit, no stone heart, no hubris, staying connected for one more day.

This reading from Ezekiel is also one of the suggested Old Testament readings at the Easter Vigil. Listen for it.

Joanna       https://www.joannaseibert.com/

De Waal: Crossing Life's Borders

De Waal: Living on the Border, Community

“The first step in listening, learning, and changing is to see that different is not dangerous; the second is to be happy and willing to live with uncertainty; the third is to rejoice in ambiguity and to embrace it. It all means giving up the comfort of certainty and realizing that uncertainty can actually be good.”—Esther de Waal, To Pause at the Threshold, Reflections on Living on the Border (Morehouse).

 When de Waal wrote this book, she had returned to the home where she had grown up on the border between England and Wales. I met this prolific Benedictine and Celtic spirituality writer at the College of Preachers at the Washington National Cathedral. She often took up residence there and was accessible during meals to weekly pilgrims like myself, seeking respite and learning in this sacred space.

This small pocket-sized book is a gem to read and re-read. De Waal talks about how we relate to borders and boundaries, as she directly experiences borders in her day-to-day living experience.

Do we build walls, barriers, and fortresses, or do we engage in conversation and learn about something different, another culture?

She describes the world’s diversity as an icon to let us know God loves differences. She entices us to be like a porter waiting at the gate of a Benedictine monastery, standing at the “threshold of two worlds.” He welcomes those who ask to enter no matter the time of day, treating each stranger as if it were Christ.

This resonates with me as a deacon. Our ministry calls us to go back and forth between two worlds: the church and the world outside the church.

De Waal also teaches us to honor the threshold of the two worlds and be open to the change, the uncertainty, and the contradictions that the different worlds may present to us.

De Waal’s concept of thresholds has been helpful in visiting those in hospitals or the homebound. I have learned to pause as I cross the threshold of the hospital room. This is a time to wash my hands at the patient’s door. The threshold is a symbolic reminder that I am entering another world. The hand-washing is a reminder to leave my agenda at the door. I am there to honor that person, and listen and be present to them.

During the recent pandemic, I again encountered this ritual with the many times we washed our hands. I tried to let loose or wash away the cares that previously consumed me. It was a reminder to live in the moment and be open to passing through a new threshold.

Some of the time, I continue to remember.

Joanna https://www.joannaseibert.com/