The Practice of Prayer...Discussion

A few weeks ago, I asked people in the congregation to begin the dual practice of praying for someone in particular (by name) and asking someone to pray for them. If you have been doing this, I would like for you to comment below on your experience. I offer these questions as primers, feel free to answer these or make comments generally about your experience:

What was it like to ask someone specifically to pray for you? Was it difficult or easy?

Did you feel a genuine need for prayer?

Did you share with the person particular things about which to pray?

As you are praying for a particular person, have you gone out of your way to learn more about them, their needs, what hurts or helps them?

Has your prayer for another shaped you in any way? How?

Has your prayer for another affected your relationship with God in any discernible way? How?

Shalom Y'all!

The Practice of Meditation...Discussion

For the past several weeks now, I have invited my congregation to practice meditating on psalms of praise, specifically Psalms 145-150. The particular practice has been to eat a piece of chocolate and then say over and over again (a biblical understanding of 'meditate') one of those five Psalms - see the previous post entitled "May God's Praise Be Ever Sweet on Your Lips". If you have been doing this practice, I would like for you to comment below about your experience here so that we might have some dialog about the practice. I offer these questions as 'primers', feel free to answer them or others as you talk about your experience:

Have you enjoyed the experience?

Have you experienced any change in the way you understand the Psalm? In what ways?

Has the practice helped you praise God differently than you have before?

Does God's praise remain sweet on your lips at other times during the day or week?

What does it mean to you for God's praise to be sweet on your lips?

Shalom Y'all!

Relationship and Garden Crisis

Genesis 2:18 – And the Lord God said, “It is not good that the human being should be alone. I will make for him a helper as his partner.”

Sunday evening as the day was winding down Lori (my wife) and I were talking about the sermon I preached on Sunday (October 4, 2009 - the text of the sermon can be found @ http://www.fcc-stw.org/Owen/Owenhome.htm). In her wisdom she asked me, “Okay, so what about single people?” How single people might hear and respond to what I said was something that had not occurred to me as I was writing or preaching my sermon. Though, honestly, even if it had occurred to me I am not sure I would have said anything different; one cannot say everything in a single sermon.

For those of you who were not in worship on Sunday let me catch you up a little. When Jesus is questioned about the permissibility of divorce he turns the question on its head to engage a conversation about what marriage is (Mark 10:2-9). In his response he turns back to the end of Genesis 2 identifying marriage as the gift that responds to the crisis in the garden identified in Genesis 2:18 (the first time in the Bible God refers to something as “not good”). Human beings are designed to be in relationship – to God, to creation, and to other human beings; it is a part of our wiring deep within our DNA.

While marriage was given as a gift in response to the garden crisis, please do not hear that marriage is the only form of human companionship that responds to human loneliness. Indeed, human life is full of different kinds of relationships and a life of varying relationship is important. Friendships, companionships, partnerships are all relationships that help us resist that which God calls “not good”. They along with the special relationship of marriage help us become the people God has created us to be, namely not alone.

Despite claims made popular by The DaVinci Code, there is no direct evidence that Jesus might have been married. However, he fed and was fed by many different relationships with people around him. He did not fall short of resisting the garden crisis. Instead, he challenged relationships that kept people from being the persons God created them to be. Where the world offered death-dealing relationship, Jesus offered life-giving relationship.

I did not give you all homework this week in the sermon, though I would like you to continue the work you have been doing weekly. Instead, I offer you a challenge today: If you are married, do something this week to share with your spouse a moment of companionship. If you are single, find a friend (maybe one you haven’t spoken to in a while) and share a moment of companionship. It is not good for the human being to be alone.

Shalom Y'all!

Response to One "Lost"

I recently received an email from a college student who was self-described as "lost". This person grew up in two different Christian traditions but doesn't now understand either one of them. The inquiry was for a Pastor to explain what Christianity and faith are, with the overt stipulation that I do this without saying others are wrong. Here was my response:

Thanks for your email and your questions. Indeed, they are deeply important questions, ones that I hope my congregation is struggling with right now. I would be happy to meet with you at some point to explore answers with you.

I would say a couple things via email to you:

First, the questions you are raising about what Christianity is and by implication what faith is, are questions that most Christians struggle with. Faith, in general, is best described in terms of a journey. It requires exploration, study, partners, expansion of ideas. It is not something that is ever known perfectly. For example, I was baptized when I was 12 years old. I do not have the same set of beliefs now as I did then. My baptism set me on a journey of faith that has changed over time. I have had varying experiences in the church and outside of it that have all shaped my faith and my understanding of who God is. These experiences have included anger with God, doubts, serious questioning, and arguments, even as they have included faithfulness, love for God, longing for answers, hoping for justice, being certain and so on. I have had and continue to have many companions on my journey, both inside and outside of the church. People who help me explore my questions and doubts, call to me when I am lost – though the best ones never impose a direction “home” – rather they call to me and help me discover my own way home.

The other thing I would say about faith is that it is more than a set of beliefs into which one is indoctrinated. Faith is also a set of practices. Practices help us shape our lives. Christianity is, then, more than just a set of beliefs but also a set of practices that shape who we are as our lives unfold before God. Practices can be shared among religions – prayer, meditation, helping the poor, worship, and so on, but usually take a particular shape in the context of that religion. Simply put, I am Christian because I believe certain things about God, namely that God has revealed the divine self most fully in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth a first century Palestinian Jew, but also because I engage in practices that shape my life as a follower of Jesus.

When it comes to people of other faiths and my faith being ‘right’ and theirs being ‘wrong’, I tend to practice what is described as “holy envy”. That is I can find things that are good and attractive about another faith – their practices and beliefs – and still remain unabashedly Christian. I don’t have to take on another faith because I like something about it, nor do I have to say another is wrong to validate my faith (as both belief and practice). I can also proclaim and live what I believe without expecting someone else to share that belief or practice. That is not to say that we don’t say different things about God, but then again, different Christians say different things about God as well.

I hope this is helpful to you in your quest. It was as thorough as I could be briefly. I am available to be in conversation with you if that is what you would like to do. I can also talk to you further about the specific practices of our congregation. You are also welcome to come to worship or any of the activities we have at the church. Worship is at 9:00 and 11:30 on Sunday morning. Sunday School is at 10. We also have Wednesday Night Fellowship beginning at 6 p.m. with a meal. College students always eat free. You will find people at our church all over the spectrum – from people who question their faith on a daily basis, to people who seem to have certainty about what they believe.

Blessings to you as you search for answers.

What do you think of my response? What would you say to a person with the same kind of inquiry?

Shalom, Y'all!

Confession is Good for the Soul...

It is said that confession is good for the soul. Well, I have a confession to make. Don’t get too excited, it really isn’t anything juicy. It may not even be very interesting to you. And, well, it may not even qualify as a real confession. Here it goes anyway. The sermon I preached on Sunday morning was not the sermon I sat down to write.

Now I certainly don’t claim that it was somehow “a miracle” sermon or one immaculately conceived. It was, however, a sermon that took its own course as I was preparing it. In fact, I sat down to write a completely different sermon, one that included a bit more bible study flavor and less exposition on the ideas of the text. As I was doing my study for the sermon, I really fell in love with the passage: James 5:13-20 (not an uncommon occurrence, but sometimes it surprises me). I wanted to point out all (well many anyway) of the cool features of this passage, its theological underpinnings and assumptions, the powerful ideas contained in these short 7 verses, the beautiful way the last sentence of the passage (also the last sentence of the book) reflects the way of redemption as moving from “the dispersion” (Jas. 1:1) to “bringing back” (Jas. 5:20).

Well, maybe it is a good thing I preached the sermon I did. I have found that sometimes the things I get excited about may be things others find boring. Hard to believe, I know. I will wear my “Bible Geek” badge proudly!

Nevertheless, there is one aspect of the passage I brushed on in the sermon but did not explore; the connection between sin and sickness, forgiveness and healing. Verse 16 says, “Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you (plural) may be healed.”

Please, do not hear me, or this passage for that matter, to claim that the cause of a specific illness is a specific sin, i.e. someone being struck blind because they stole a piece of gum. Yet, mind, body, and spirit are not disconnected from one another. There are, at times, physical and mental consequences to things like guilt and grudges, just as there may be spiritual consequences to cancer in the body.

In one of the sermons I read in conjunction with my preparation there was a story of a person who was terminally ill with cancer (full text of the sermon can be found here http://day1.org/1436-to_make_the_wounded_whole). His confession of his long list of sins was the opening of a door to healing. Prior to his death he was able to reconcile with his estranged son and was able to die in peace.

Confession is a lost art in the church, a lost spiritual discipline. We tend to equate it with ‘airing our dirty laundry’ or providing fodder for gossip. Confession can be nerve wracking, difficult, painful, shameful and embarrassing. However, confession can set us free from the power that sin holds on us. Confession can open the door of healing to us: healing in our relationships with God, others and creation. Confession as a spiritual discipline, especially as engaged by a community of faith, can also be a reminder to us and each other, that none of us is perfect and that we all might just do better in cutting people a little slack. Where confession abounds so also does grace!

Shalom Y'all

Appointment with God, 3 Crickets and a Labyrinth

The Friday morning before last, I kept my appointment with God, and as I recommended to my congregation, I also added the component of being outside to listen to creation in its praise of God.

In the courtyard of the church one of our Eagle Scouts constructed a labyrinth. The pattern is marked by bricks, but the path itself is grass. I decided as a further connection to creation, I would walk barefoot so I could feel the grass on my feet.

My first thought as I took my shoes off was, "Gee, I sure hope there aren't any stickers!"

As I began walking the labyrinth I opened my ears to hear the sounds around me. At first, the dominant sound was the traffic steadily flowing on Duck Street: engines, tires on the pavement, and radios mostly. I continued to walk and listen more deeply - past the cars on the street, and tried to be aware of what was around me.

Perhaps because of my apprehension about possible stickers, the first thing I noticed was the moisture on the grass and how soft the ground was. Most of the grass was soft, but sometimes I would come across a spot where it was a little more firm and stiff. I became aware that the ground was uneven and noticed places where my foot would sink a little bit as I stepped. The sounds of the street where not the only sounds present. The wind blew against the building. Every now and again a bird would sing. But the most obvious sound was the sound of a cricket chirping.

Along with the sounds around me and the feelings of the grass on my feet and the wind against my face, I also saw several spiders as I walked. They were sort of mixed in with the grass and they were small - I would not have noticed them had I not really been looking down, focused on the ground right in front of me.

When I moved into the center of the labyrinth and stood there silent and still for a while, two more crickets joined in the chorus. In my moments of silence, my appointment with God, all sorts of stuff was happening. In my short time of pause, activity was taking place all around me completely independent and possibly even unaware of my presence.

It seems obvious now as I reflect on my appointment with God, but the second verse of an old hymn entered my mind as I began my journey out from the center of the labyrinth, "This is my Father's world; the birds their carols raise, the morning light the lily white, declare their Maker's praise. This is my Father's world! He shines in all that's fair. In the rustling grass I hear him pass. He speaks to me everywhere."

The simplicity of that verse lies at the heart of its truth: nature praises God in being that which it was created to be; the birds in their caroling, the sun in its shining, even the lily being the color that was placed upon it. Similarly, the spiders were praising God by simply working as spiders, the crickets by chirping, and the breeze by blowing.

It occurs to me that one of the simplest ways we can praise God is by being the person God created you or me to be. God has created you and graced you with the ability to do something that no one else on earth can do nearly as well as you: be you. No one else can 'do' you the way you can! So often we get caught up in the expectations of others or society; or we set our own expectations of ourselves based on what we see other people do that we forget our uniqueness is a gift and is that through which we can best praise God. It is also the case that at times we are less than God created us to be. When we exploit ourselves, others or creation, we fall short of who we are.

"This is my Father's world; O let me ne'er forget that though the wrong seems oft so strong God is the Ruler yet. This is my Father's world! The battle is not done; Jesus who died shall be satisfied and earth and heav'n be one."

Shalom Y'all

Be Still and Know that I am God (Psalm 46:10a)

Not too long ago I began to have a regular time of silence, to listen for God’s voice. This time of silence is a bit different than my usual prayers and Bible study. It is a time of awareness and of openness. More than that, it has been a discipline.

I started out with 30 minutes of silence on my day off. I would go and set the timer on the stove and then sit in my chair just listening. Now, you have to know that silence and I don’t get along too well. I almost always have to have some sort of ‘noise’ going on to even concentrate on something (though I think that is changing), either music or television – just something.

When I sat down for that first 30 minutes of silence, I discovered why: my mind was simply racing. It was all I could do to stick on a single thought. I began thinking about all the things I needed to do, replaying conversations and disagreements, considering the options for lunch, and the like. It was chaos…far from the peace that I’d heard silence would supposedly bring. It was really all I could do to sit in my chair, especially when I had an idea (a really good idea too!); I wanted to get up and start working on it right away.

In that first 30 minutes of silence, God revealed something to me. It was probably something I already knew about myself, but in reflecting on my experience it became very clear: I am very impatient.

I did make it through that 30 minutes, and the timer helped keep me from adding “look at your watch” to the chaos that was going on in my mind (though to be honest, I looked at it at around 20 minutes in). And, I think even in all that chaos I still heard the voice of God. It wasn’t a ‘magical’ moment or even a mystical moment, it was simply a moment of awareness.

Since that first time of silence, it has gotten easier. I no longer feel quite so chaotic and I no longer have the urge to jump up and ‘do’ something. I have not tried to still my mind, I have just practiced sitting in silence and the practice has become easier and more fruitful.

Galatians 5:22-23a “By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”

What has your time of silence been like for you?

Since all of creation praises God, perhaps nature can teach us ways of praising! For your 10 minutes of silence this week, do it outside. Observe the ways that nature praises God. Listen for God. If you like find a way to connect to nature, to touch it, feel it, smell it as well as hear it.

What is it like to be connected to creation in listening to God? What did you hear? What did you experience?

Shalom Y'all!

May God's praise be ever sweet on your lips!

Psalm 148 is a wonderful psalm about how all of creation praises God. It is not "thank you God for all of creation". Rather it is an observation of the chorus of creation praising God all together: Choirs of sun, moon, stars, plants, animals, wind, fire, rain, angels, and yes, us human beings.

Our praise of God should be sweet. The words, the feelings, the time we spend doing it should all taste good in our mouths.

As human beings we learn not only by reading and listening, but also by experience - through our senses. In fact, most often we learn better that way (there have even been studies that prove it). To that end, as we are learning to praise God, our mouths should be sweet as we speak the words of praise.

So...take a piece of chocolate (Hershey's kiss grade or better!) and eat it just before you join the chorus of praise by reading Psalm 148 aloud (don't just read it once, but several times through - and with some passion!).

What is it like to praise God with a sweet taste in your mouth?

Shalom Y'all!

Let's start at the very beginning...

...its a very good place to start. About the title of my blog: I often have a candle burning in my office. One day Rick (my Associate Minister) stopped in to talk to me while I was pressing in the outer edges of the candle toward the flame. Curious, Rick asked what I was doing.

It helps the candle burn evenly and straight all the way down to the bottom if you work every now and again to shape the top of the candle. In addition, by pressing in the edges you are able to see the flame as it burns.

A properly constructed candle in the right environment should burn all the way to the bottom, flame visible, melting the wax and burning it as it goes. However, so many things effect the way a candle burns: the type of paraffin wax, the candle’s thickness, the size and make-up of the wick, room temperature, air currents, and perhaps as important as any of the factors the amount of time the candle is burned each sitting. Even a perfectly constructed candle in the perfect environment can burn poorly if only burned for a short time. That is how a candle gets ‘high edges’ and you can’t see the flame anymore. Indeed, the best way to ‘fix’ a candle in such a state is to burn it for a long period of time and shape it as it burns. It takes a lot of patience and time as the wax has to warm up sufficiently to press without cracking and breaking.

Throughout the history of the church candles have been used to symbolize Christ’s presence as light of the world. In the sanctuary at First Christian Church, Stillwater (www.fcc-stw.org), we have a Christ Candle that sits on the table in front of the cross reminding us of Christ’s presence in our worship and at the table. That light, that presence of Christ is shared with each believer so that the light of Christ shines through us as well.

Just like candles were made to hold a flame and be shaped by the heat, so we are created to stand in the presence of and be shaped by the triune God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit). The longer we stand intentionally in the presence of God and are aware of God around us, the more we are shaped by God.

Standing in the presence of God and being shaped by God’s presence takes time and patience. Sometimes it is hard to hear God’s voice when we haven’t been listening for a while and we have to focus our attention so directly. It is hard to see Christ’s light when there are so many obstacles in our way. It takes commitment because sometimes it does ‘burn’ a little as God confronts and challenges us to be the people God created us to be! And yet it can also be warm as we sit in the embrace of God we so desperately need.

Shalom Y'all!