Sacred Grounds

Sacred Grounds

Guest Writer: Kimberly Applegate

sacred ground. Murfee Labyrinth

Understand that this is sacred ground, and it hurts to walk here.  But at the same time, I "need" to walk here. I need the strength, the sense of purpose, and the knowledge of self that walking here imparts.  …  What do I want from you?  I want you to be my sister and to walk here with me.  I know it's a challenging walk.  I know it causes you pain.  But this much I also know: If ever we learn to tread this ground together, there's no place we can't go.—Leonard Pitts, Jr.
Especially this weekend, I am reflecting on the painful and tragic events that occurred on January 6, 2021, at our nation's Capitol. But, of course, we cannot do it without understanding our 400-year history of race and faith in America. But how many of us genuinely know these histories?

The COVID pandemic provided me with this opportunity through an amazing program called Sacred Ground, curated by the Black Episcopal Church: https://episcopalchurch.org/sacred-ground

"Sacred Ground" is a film- and readings-based dialogue series on race grounded in faith.  It invites small groups to walk through chapters of America's history of race and racism, while weaving in threads of family story, economic class, and political and regional identity.

The 10-part series is built around a powerful online curriculum of documentary films and readings focusing on Indigenous, Black, Latino, and Asian/Pacific American histories as they intersect with European American histories.

"Sacred Ground is part of Becoming Beloved Community, The Episcopal Church's long-term commitment to racial healing, reconciliation, and justice in our personal lives, ministries, and society. This series is open to all and specially designed to help white people talk with other white people. It invites participants to peel away the layers that have contributed to the challenges and divides of the present day–all while grounded in our call to faith, hope, and love."
 It cannot be more timely.

Kimberly Applegate, MD

Joanna. https://www.joannaseibert.com/

How God Calls to us During the Day, Both in Doing and Being

How God Calls Us During Our Day

“The many things we have to do, the hundred and one calls on our time and attention, don’t get between ourselves and God. On the contrary, they are to us in truth, his Body and his Blood.”—H. A. Williams in The Joy of God (Templegate, 1992).

Well, this is a novel idea! Of course, we anticipate the quiet time when we will write, walk, or practice Centering Prayer during the day. Still, our interactions with people during the day and at work are as much a part of our relationship with God!

The God within us meets with the God in our neighbor, the patients we work with, our co-workers or partners, the children we teach, or our fellow students. This is like turning on a switch in our brains. Our life is not divided into parts. Every part of our being is an offering. Every second, every hour, is an opportunity to share the love we have been so freely given. We should tape this Williams quote to the back of our cell phones to read whenever we get that last-minute phone call just as we leave our office.

My experience has been that such calls are among the most important we receive. It could be a novel idea to imagine God is calling each time.

Such awareness is a blending of the doing and the being aspects of our lives, our Martha and Mary parts. Perhaps we are called into a state of being; at other times, we are led to concentrate on doing. Williams asks us to consider both of these states as offerings to God.

I wonder if Jesus’ story of his visit to Mary and Martha would have been different if Martha had believed her doing was as important, but not more important, than Mary’s being?

Joanna. https://www.joannaseibert.com/

All Saints, All Souls, Having a Generous Heart, A Man Named Columbus

All Saints and All Souls: Generous Heart, Columbus

“In his holy flirtation with the world, God occasionally drops a pocket handkerchief. These handkerchiefs are called saints.

Many people think of saints as plaster saints —men and women of such paralyzing virtue that they never thought a nasty thought or committed an evil deed their whole lives long. As far as I know, real saints never even come close to characterizing themselves that way.”–Frederick Buechner initially published in Wishful Thinking and later in Beyond Words. 

Buechner reminds us that being a saint is less about being ourselves, but more about the way God, for some reason, works through and redeems the mess of our lives. November 1 is All Saints Day, when we remember the saints of the church who have died. November 2 is All Souls Day, when we remember all the faithful departed.

all souls. stuart hoke

 I cannot help but remember Columbus, well known in the recovery community in Little Rock, Arkansas, only by his first name. Every year, usually early in the morning on the birthday of your sobriety, you receive a phone call from Columbus. You wait in anticipation for that call, celebrating one more year of an alternative life with someone you knew only over the phone lines.

Columbus’s wife of forty-six years would leave him three times before he went into his last rehabilitation, after many DWIs and missed work, and days when she admitted not knowing where he was. Columbus died in the thirty-eighth year of his sobriety and was credited with having led thousands of men and women worldwide to sobriety.

Columbus made 15,000 calls a year and almost half a million calls before his death. He also called people he knew were no longer in recovery and told them he cared about them. As a result, many people say they returned to recovery because of Columbus.

Columbus’ wife described his change when he went into recovery as “truly unbelievable. He became a dedicated and involved father and grandfather after he came so close to losing his family.”

When I hear people wonder what they could do to make a difference in the world, I tell them Columbus’s story: one man with a generous heart, picking up the phone every day and changing lives with a simple phone call. One day at a time.

This may be the way saints live. They are resurrection people. They know all too well what Good Friday is like. Yet, God continues to change them and the world one day, one phone call at a time.  

Joanna. Joannaseibert.com