Working-class Spirituality

Working-class spirituality

“I think you have to put a little sweat equity into what you believe. You have to practice what you preach. Justice does not just happen.

Compassion is not a spectator sport but something I have to exercise as I roll up my sleeves to do my part in creating a better community.

I need to put in my hours as a volunteer. I have to join the prayer crew and put my life on the line to make a difference. The world will not change by wishes, but by the labor of love we call faith. Spirituality is not a spa but a construction site where we build hope one heart at a time.”—Bishop Steven Charleston, Daily Facebook Post.

Oh goodness! I love to sit and meditate, walk, write, read, sit in silence, and go to the weekly Eucharist. Bishop Charleston reminds us that being a Christian is not a spectator sport. Eventually, all our spiritual practices connecting us to God will call us to some action, reaching out of ourselves in some way. Even when homebound, we can call or write, cook or knit, or invite others to visit. 

My experience is that we do not have to go out of our way to realize what God calls us to do. The call will present itself to us daily. A person will come to guide us or suggest something. Someone in need will appear. Suddenly, we will see a situation that was always present that calls us to reach out.

 Often, we see so many needs around us that we become overwhelmed.

Frederick Buechner gives us an excellent formula for finding our next step. First, we are called to the place where the world’s deep hunger and our deep gladness meet. Then, we look for where our passion is, where the ministry energizes us.

We will soon learn that we are not necessarily called to the ministry of our parents or friends or what the world thinks we should do. Instead, we are called to the ministry that is our passion, and we would do it for no compensation. We begin to do things we never thought we could do, as we gain energy, working in this ministry instead of in an arena where we have no energy.

Often, finding our passion begins with a spiritual gifts workshop.

When we find our calling, we start becoming the person God created us to be.

Joanna   joannaseibert.com

Spiritual Directions in the World

Barbara Brown Taylor: Spiritual Direction in the World

“People can learn as much about the ways of God from business deals gone bad or sparrows falling to the ground as they can from reciting the books of the Bible in order.

They can learn as much from a love affair or a wildflower as they can from knowing the Ten Commandments by heart.” Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World, HarperOne 2009

I remember this morning this quote from Barbara Brown Taylor in Synthesis. It was a Weekly Resource for Preaching and Worship in the Episcopal Tradition: http://www.synthesispub.com. I look to my right, where my husband bought a new bookcase to house the books closer to me that I want to share with you on this blog. Then I look straight ahead out of a floor-to-ceiling window to the outside and watch a wintry sleeting rain strike at the trees just outside between our house and our neighbors. I can also hear the rhythm of the sleet on the roof above, where there is very little insulation in our “modern” 1960’s home.

 I remember having dinner with our children and grandchildren in their new home across the street. What a blessing just to walk across the road to be with grandchildren, our greatest gifts, our most important visitors we will entertain.  I learn from them whenever I see them about simple joy, unconditional love, and wide-eyed excitement about life. All of these are learning experiences. I hope to hold on to my gratitude for them, which I learned from Barbara Brown Taylor. She was once a speaker at the Buechner Writing For Your Life Conference in Nashville at Belmont University, which I attended. She is still the amazing writer, speaker, and teacher she was when I first read her over thirty years ago. If you have a chance to hear her, don’t miss it.

She has taught us so much about an awareness of the altars in the world that keep us constantly connected to the God of our understanding if only we have eyes and ears to see and hear and hands to touch and even noses to smell. Yes, the smell of icy winter rain and sleet is not unlike the scent of the well-known costly incense from Smoky Mary’s in Manhattan (Church of St. Mary the Virgin). The sound of the winter piper on the beach is not unlike the prelude from any cathedral organ.

The altars in our churches are also thin places where we especially go to give thanks for our altars in the world.

Joanna             joannaseibert.com

Blessing

Blessing

“The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the Israelites: You shall say to them,

The Lord bless you and keep you;

the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you;

the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.

 So they shall put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.” Numbers 6:22-27

This passage from Numbers is a frequent benediction in so many congregations. This morning, for some reason, I stop and listen to the words. We are giving God human characteristics. Using human terms and feelings for God, as you know, is a big word with rolling syllabuses called anthropomorphism.

Sometimes, this is our only way to express what we want to say about God. It has its traps, but it can occasionally give us the tiniest glimpses of the magnitude of the love and care we receive from God. How wonderful to pray that God will direct God’s face to us so that God’s face will shine on us and we will receive God’s Grace. We ask God to look directly at us, look us right in the eye, and give us peace.

We are asking for a connection, an ancient blessing God gave to the Hebrews and now to us many centuries later.

I love knowing that the ancient Hebrews were just people like us, asking for a blessing, a relationship, calling on God to look directly at us and bring us peace.

What is the face of God? Is it the horizon, the stars, the oceans, the forests, the moon as far as we can see? Is it the solar system, the planets Mars and Jupiter, or a multitude of solar systems and beyond? We are full circle back to the word solar, which pertains to the sun, a brightness that shines above all others for us. Yet, we know that the brightness of our sun pales in the face of the love of our God, which still shines on sunny and dark days and nights.

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