hollaback girl?

Ok, I admit that I've been allowing myself to enjoy a king-sized follow-the-tangents trail as I explore this week's scripture.

It all starts with the beautiful story of Jesus calling Simon, James and John to follow him. Jesus shows them that he has power--and knows to they can catch lots of fish--and Simon immediately recognizes Jesus' deeper authority. And they leave everything to follow him.

This is incredible enough.

But then, my thought continues through a question raised by Karen at a staff meeting this week: are we teaching and showing people that God is calling each one of us today? Sure, we talk about preachers, and maybe even church musicians being "called." But are we open to the callings and promptings God puts on each one of our lives?

Deep stuff.

Then, my thoughts take a sharp detour. I start thinking about the work "call." As in "I just called to say I love you," and "You just call out my name, and you know wherever I am, I'll come running." Phone calls, call-backs, and call-and-response singing. Which, naturally, reminded me of my foray onto urbandictionary.com to see what it means for Gwen Stefani to (not) be a Hollaback Girl. (I know, I'm slow. It's been years since Gwen first went b-a-n-a-n-a-s.)

My favorite explanation was that Gwen was riffing on accusations from Courtney Love that Gwen is a "cheerleader." And everyone knows that cheerleaders have some folks who start cheers, and some folks who lead the response (or, the holla-back girls). So, perhaps, Gwen wanted to say that she may be a cheerleader, but she's the top banana cheerleader?

In any case, I then started thinking about the older tradition of call-and-response preaching and singing. A leader calls out the first line, which brings a rousing response from the people. I know it best from our African-American musical tradition. It's the kind of singing that would lift spirits in church, and while doing back-breaking work together. It relies on a shared community knowledge, and a beautiful interplay of leadership and following.

Which made me wonder if Gwen isn't distracting us from the point: perhaps there is rich blessing in being willing to "hollaback"--especially to God. To continue the story God has begun, and to pass it along to others?

In any case...

I hope you're thinking about how God has called and is calling you.

-

And, as a bonus this week, we'll consider the question a couple of you asked about what resurrection means. (We won't, however, cover this topic completely...) ;) Check out Paul's first letter to the folks in Corinth for more thoughts in preparation for this...

think about what this is saying...

Reading the scripture passages for this week, my mind jumped to thought of the Yes Men. These guys have made a little career out of posing as representatives from institutions they want to criticize, using a kind of mockery that goes beyond what I've seen before... Posing as World Trade Organization representatives, they've shown up at REAL conferences, after people who visited their mock website invited them. They give presentations on utterly shameful, taken-to-the-extreme, ethically bankrupt ideas.

The amazing thing is that people think they're real. They get away with it, because no one seems to be ready to question them.

All of which makes me think how far we've come from the sharpness of that crowd Jesus talked to in Nazareth. (Or, perhaps, how easy it is to trust someone with a good website and a nice suit?)

In Luke's gospel, when Jesus spoke in Nazareth, he proclaimed, plain and clear, in the words of the Hebrew prophet, Isaiah, what he was about: bringing good news to the poor. Setting the captive free.

Then, the people quickly turn on him. They're quick to see the implications of what he's saying. It's bold and it challenges.

Perhaps the didn't look like the prophet they imagined. Maybe they could sense that he really meant it.

So he has some tough words for them, suggesting that he's not coming for their comfort, but for the lost and marginalized people. This doesn't make them any happier.

But, then, when did Jesus promise a life of easy happiness?

Which brings us, naturally, to our second text, from First Corinthians. This text may sound familiar. We often read it at weddings.

(Which, by odd coincidence some people believe might just be the happiest moments in their lives...)

It's all about love. Not just the love between husband and wife, either: it's the love that's to be shared in the Christian community. And it's not all white doves and flower petals... It's patience and it insists on the truth. It requires that we avoid arrogance, boastfulness, rudeness. I'm still working on these things.

This love, when you read the fine print, is hard stuff. I wonder if we should react more at the boldness and craziness of it all?

power and love

This week, we get to welcome a special guest to help us worship: Lori Persons. Lori is one of our congregation's Covenant Missionaries--which means that we covenant with her to share support. Lori and her husband, David, have been missionaries on our behalf for, well, quite a while. They have spent all that time in the Congo, where they are leaders at in a place called Mulungwishi. She is director of the Women's School of the Faculte Methodiste Theologie in Mulungwishi, Katanga in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Lori will speak with us and lead us in conversation. I suspect that her life of serving God in the Congo gives her rich perspective as she imagines what God might be ready to say to us, back here in the States.

I invite you to consider what Paul wrote in 1 Timothy as we get ready to boldly welcome Lori:
"I am grateful to God--whom I worship with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did--when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you. For this reason I remind you to rekindly the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline."
-1 Timothy 1:3-7

You are God's beloved

This week we consider the baptism of Jesus, and as we do, we reflect on our own baptism.

Molly's back, fresh from the shimmering waters of Hawaii, and will be talking about the role of water and Spirit in the baptism of Jesus and in ours.

The scriptures this week are
Isaiah 43:1-7
Acts 8:14-7
Luke 3:15-17,21-22

The last verse of the passage from Luke about the baptism of Jesus tells us: "the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, 'You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.'"

It is a beautiful moment of the presence of God, the Spirit and Jesus.

The words apply to us, too. We are God's beloved children, in whom God is well-pleased.

That is the gift of grace.
And, it is an awesome gift to live into.
What can we do to help our faith in God grow nearer to God's faith in us?

(I'm hoping Molly isn't anywhere near a computer this week, but if she is and wants to repost this, have at it.)

Resolutions

We gather together this Sunday on the morning of New Year's Eve.

Many of us take a moment or more at the turn of the year to reflect on the year past and to project hopes on the year to come.

As Christians, we enter into these reflections in the aftermath of the joyous celebration of the birth of Jesus.

My question is this: What is our response to that gift of grace embodied in the birth of the infant Jesus and realized in his resurrection? What gifts can we share as our response to God's gift of grace to us?

Our scriptures this week offer some suggestions.

The writer of Ecclesiastes tells us in Ecclesiastes 3:1-13
that there is a time and place for everything and our response is to find joy in all things -- all things. Given the litany of things there is a time and place for, though, this is a bit of a challenge for me.

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus
provides a description of discipleship: feed the hungry, provide drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, care for the sick, visit the imprisoned.

Often with New Year's resolutions, we set goals for ourselves that are hopeful but not necessarily realistic. However, we each have gifts that we can draw from as our response to the gift of grace we experienced in the arrival of Jesus. Realistically, what gifts can you resolve to share in the coming year as a response to God's gift of grace?

a nativity

The father of a dear friend helped install this nativity scene at his United Methodist Church in Claremont, CA.

Christ's birth may not be what we expect.

peace on earth

Ok...so a lot of things make me think of U2 songs: reading Mary's story, and her daring song of celebration in Luke's gospel strikes me as more than a bit like "Peace on Earth":

Jesus, in the song you wrote/the words are stick in my throat: Peace on Earth.
We hear it every Christmas time/but hope and history won't rhyme, so what's it worth: Peace on earth.

Her song is a wild promise--so complete that it may seem like pure fantasy. God's promise has been fulfilled.

And yet...

Mary dares to sing a song of celebration. She sings about the work already DONE in God--even as she's just pregnant with Jesus. An unwed mother, destined to be talked about by others, who's gonna have to lay in a manger after he's born, because there won't be any room in the inn--she sings about the work already DONE. (Past tense!)

I wonder what amazing sings of God's reality are all around us--promise as wild as incarnation--but unnoticed or not believed by the rest of us.

I wanna sing like Mary.

And then I wanna live like it's true.

john the baptist's guide to christmas preparations

Surprisingly, there's nothing about trimming the tree or baking gingerbread in John the Baptist's advice about how to prepare for Christ's coming.

(There is some talk about an ax cutting a tree, but I think he's talking about something else...)

The juxtapositioning of wild, prophetic, going-to-be-beheaded John the Baptist and our sweet Christmas traditions seems downright twisted.

Of course, technically, this was already many years after that first Christmas when he gives the advice in today's scripture, since it's an adult John who talks here, and we know that he and Jesus were both in their mothers' wombs at the same time. Time complicates things...

NONETHELESS, we talk about John B as we get ready for Christmas. And, helpfully, he has some advice about how to get ready. (I wonder if Martha Stewart ever feels indebted to John for pioneering this field?)

He says some pretty smart things, things that may really, literally, help us. Even today:

If you have 2 coats, give one of them to someone who needs one.

Don't cheat other people, by taking more than is fair.

This is good stuff. He seems to be imagining a more-fair, more beautiful world.

His advice would lead us to live in a world very unlike the one the Old Testament prophet, Zephaniah, describes. There, things are so bad that God has to turn everything over--making the "lame and outcast" into the most powerful and celebrated.

I invite you to think about what that would look like today--who are the most outcast in our midst, or in our world? And what would it look like for them to be lifted up, exalted, celebrated?

Waiting or preparing?

Advent is often described as a time of waiting for the arrival of Christ in the manger on Christmas Eve, celebrated each year in Christ's Mass -- Christmas.

Last week on the first Sunday in Advent, we were told of signs of something yet to come, signs of something spectacular, signs of the bold presence of God among us.

Every second Sunday in Advent, like a crazy uncle (sorry, Mom) come early for the holidays, we get John the Baptist,
wild-eyed and intent on delivering the word of God that has come to him in the wilderness.

John tells us to prepare the way for the Lord. He even offers a few helpful tips: repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins. He foretells of the one who will come to baptize not with water but with the Holy Spirit.

But what is our response to that grace? How do we prepare ourselves not just for the arrival of Christ at Christmas but for the presence of Emmanuel -- God among us -- every day?

We'll also hear from the prophet Malachi and we may even spend some time with the prophetic song of Zechariah.

What are your thoughts?

the signs are everywhere

Our scripture passages are telling it to us, loud and clear: it's time to get ready. The signs are all around us, that it's just about time.

Trick is, the signs that the scripture are talking about don't have much to do with making sure our presents are all purchased (wrapped, and, if necessary, mailed...) They're actually not at all like the signs that invite us to buy more, for cheaper.

Instead, these are signs of the inbreaking of God's spirit--which is getting ready to come into the world as a little bitty baby.

Jeremiah and Jesus, in Luke both tell us to get ready, to be on guard, and to notice the signs around us.

Which brings me to the question Karen and I want to pose for us all, this year, during Advent:
where do you see signs of God's light, of the (subtle?) inbreaking of God's world, this year?

get in on the action

Since I'm not preaching at Water's Edge this week, I thought I'd use a post to shamelessly recruit for our church's "big mission project." (Shameless because I share it with the joy of the Lord...)

We've been talking a long time about doing a "big" project, to be in ministry with people living in poverty in San Diego.

Now, we have some basic values, some priorities that come of our a bunch of interviews our church folk did with folks in Mid-City San Diego, and some next steps.

You can take those next steps.

We're looking for people who will volunteer during the rest of this school year for 3 things (but, especially, the first):
1--volunteer in a school in Mid-City, helping with an existing program. This could be as easy as reading with a 3rd grade student who is behind in reading level. There are volunteer options for a variety of interests and skill levels.
2--help us shape longer-term plans and do research and planning
3--pray

If you're willing to jump on-board, or just want to know more, visit the church website for the project. (And you can see a stunning quicktime movie about the project, starring some of our Water's Edge own!

giving birth to something new?

My first reaction, as I turned to this week's scripture was: "Oh geez. Another good story--but why do all these stories end with women giving birth, as if that's the end-all, be-all?"

Last week, it was Naomi (through Ruth's childbearing) being restored to motherhood.

This week, it's Hannah, finally bearing a child, after all those years of suffering in childlessness, comparing herself to the other wife: the fertile but less-loved Peninnah. Despite her husband's assurances that she's loved abundantly, she prays so fervently for a child that the PRIEST thinks she's drunk or crazy. God hears her prayer, and "opens her womb."

And Samuel is born.

I admire her faithfulness, and her determination. Her willingness to look like a fool, for the sake of seeking after God's blessing.

I just wonder why God's blessing so often is portrayed in the shape of a child. I've known plenty of women (and men, for that matter) who have lived faithful and inspirational lives, without ever having given birth...

Then, I turned to the Gospel lesson. And her, the birthing is metaphorical. And big-time. In Mark, we experience birth pangs--not from the birth of a little child, but from the birth of God's new creation.

Oddly, this is reassuring to me: perhaps all this talk of giving birth is about much, much more than little babies. Perhaps this talk is again reminding us that we are all suitable for the work of bringing God's creation into the world.

Just last week, I was chatting with a father before Water's Edge. We were talking about one of his kids. And delighting in her personality, intelligence, and thoughtful concern. "I've never though of my kids as 'my' kids," he said. He said it's more like they are these strange creatures of God who he's given responsbility to take care of, for a time. And it's incredible to watch them.

Perhaps our scripture records so many stories of God working to fulfill us, in stories of women giving birth, because they help us know something about the wonder of God's work: it begins in our care, but grows and far beyond our reach.

figuring out who to learn from

As we watched "Invisible Children" at our movie night on Saturday, I was moved by the gratitude of children living in the midst of human atrocity in northern Uganda. At night, when these children walk into the city to sleep in crowded, makeshift shelter so they won't be abducted by the LRA rebel army, they often sing praises.

Sing praises?

I think about our own singing. Sometimes we catch the spirit, but it doesn't much compare to the joy of the songs and dances I saw children in Uganda share in, in this film.

Maybe we need to learn something from their joy and gratitude.

Then, I read this week's scriptures.

In the end of Ruth's story Ruth's story, we see how Ruth, a widow who chooses to become a foreigner to remain in community with her mother-in-law, makes possible Naomi's restoration. (We're not going to read all those verses in worship, so you'll want to see what's all in there so it makes sense when we skip some...)

Then, in Mark's gospel, we get the story of a widow who showed-up the scribes in her faithful giving. Though she had just "two small copper coins, which are worth a penny," she puts in everything she has. She gives her whole self.

Just like Ruth, I think--two widows who give their whole selves for the sake of faithful living.

I wonder what it would look like for us to give our "whole selves"?

______________________________________________

And, while you're meditating on that, I want to remind you that we're looking for folks who want to help with worship during Advent. On these four Sundays in December, we get ready for Christ's birth. If you have gifts or passions for decorating and designing spaces, for creating videos, for writing prayers, please let Karen or me know--we would love to have you be a part of our worship planning.

Getting closer

By the end of last week, I came to believe that "restoration," for both Job and Bartimaeus, has more to do with being reconciled with a community than it has to do with gaining wealth, children, or even vision.

And this week, it seems like our Bible stories just keep luring us to draw even more closely together.

First, Ruth's story begins with tremendous grief (and you thought things would get better when we finished Job's story!). Right on the heels of grief, though, is a bold choice: Ruth chooses to cling to her mother-in-law, and to return with her (Naomi) to Naomi's homeland, a foreign place for Ruth. Now, choosing belonging to mothers-in-law may sound odd in our own culture, but Ruth's choice was daring for even more reasons. Somehow, though, God lures her to take up this solidarity. And we know the end of the story: Ruth enables Naomi to become a mother again, and one of her descendents will be Jesus.

Then, Jesus reminds us of the greatest of all the commandments: to love God with heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love neighbors as ourselves. The closeness comes not only in loving neighbors as ourselves, but in how close this work brings us to God's kingdom.

This is good stuff: after all those weeks when the disciples kept getting it wrong, we finally get a glimpse of what would be right (or close-to-right, which may now count in horseshoes, hand grenades, and God's kingdom-building...). It's in loving others.

And I suspect that when he says "neighbors," Jesus means to direct us to love others who may be more difficult for us to love.

(Maybe even as difficult to love as that creepy guy who seems to lead the "Others" on Lost... I digress.)

Film Series--films for thought

Join us on Saturdays in November for a series of 3 thought-and-dialogue-provoking films. We'll watch them the first 3 Saturdays in November, at 6:30 p.m. in the Cove. All are welcome, and it's FREE.

Nov. 4--Invisible Children
discover the atrocity in Northern Uganda through the eyes of 3 young SoCal filmmakers

Nov. 11--Gunner Palace
a view of the war in Iraq, told through the voices of soldiers stationed in a former palace
(my husband, Matt, who was stationed breifly at the Palace where this film is set during his year in Iraq, promises to come for this one...)

Nov. 18--Wal-Mart: the high cost of low price
a look at the deeper costs of Wal-Mart’s policies, and an invitation to look at what we value most

We hope you'll join us as we let these films raise questions for our discussion.

See you there?

happy ending?

This week we get to the end of Job's story (literally, even--he dies, old and "full of days").

Here's a link to Job 42

At first read, it looks like a happy ending.

But there are still some questions--
like that it's not entirely satisfying that he suffered so much at all, or that God would allow us to be used in a contest with Satan;
and that it feels odd he had to "repent" before receiving his blessings, when he hadn't really deserved the suffering that raised his questions;
and that, even though he got new riches and new kids, God certainly didn't undo the depth of grief he went through. As Karen keeps reminding me when we talk of Job, the kids in the "happy ending" weren't the same kids.

The Gospel lesson this week provides similar challenge, especially as we seek to be a community that is truly inclusive of people living with disabilities: we read of and celebrate Bartimaeus's healing from blindness, but resist believing that blind people need to be healed to be whole.

You can read Mark 10:46-52

Perhaps the "happy ending" we seek is much harder to describe and to envision.

My own experience is that good endings in the stories of my friends' lives are seldom tidy. New love kindled out of grief does not erase grief. New joy in a child's birth does not undo the pain of a long struggle for fertility.

Instead, new restoration invites us to a place we've never been before, to a new possibility and hope lived out not in getting back to what we knew before (in the "good old days"), but in moving forward to new possibilities.

perspective

We continue to follow Job's story this week. And now, after having seen this "deal" between God and Satan, the suffering of Job, the inadequacy of his friends' answers, and Job's big questions, we finally get God's answers. And it puts everything in a whole new perspective.

Makes me think of that Far Side cartoon where two bugs sit back (on a blade of grass or mushroom or something), look up at the stars, and muse about how the night sky makes them feel small...

God is so much bigger than we are--it's mindblowing to even begin to imagine God's own perspective.

Our reading this week is Job 38:1-7, 34-41. Plus, to deepen the conversation, Mark 10:35-45.

a bigger picture of God

Last week, our scripture in worship let us in on the tragic part of Job's story: he loses everything he has (children and property), and even his own health. All this is organized as a sort of a test--to show Satan that Job is more faithful that he belives possible.

We become aware of at least one time that the suffering experienced in a lifetime is not necessarily a result of the sin of that person.

This week, we hear Job asking demanding questions of God. His friends have given him unsatisfactory explanations for his suffering. He has questions for God that he longs to have answered.

The view he has of God--certainly the view of God shared by his friends--isn't big enough for his experience of life.

I think this is how we so often grow in faith, too--the things we thought we believed become unsatisfactory answers, and we're pushed to deepen our relationships with God.

And the beautiful part, as I see it, is that God is way, way deeper (and more complex) than any of the explanations we know how to offer.

Our questions take us into that depth.

They do not disqualify us from the community of those trying to be faithful.

Have questions you asked to God deepened your own relationship with God?

homework, suffering and Job

For the next four weeks, we're going to be using pieces of the book of Job in worship. I invite you (here's the homework) to read the whole book.

The book wrestles with questions like why bad things happen to good people. But it all starts from the perspective of a story, Job's story.

So check it out. There'll be a lot to talk about...

christian unity? (or, what if they do it without us!)

Our scripture for Sunday is from Mark 9:38-50. It starts with the disciples sounding (I think) a lot like kids who want to have exclusive control of Jesus' brand of coolness.

"Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us..." they say.

I feel a bit that way sometimes. I think my way to God is pretty good, and that others should follow it.

Or, on worse days, I think that I've worked hard to get to this place, and other people should have to go through the same stuff. They should FOLLOW me. (I had a college instructor like that once--it felt like she had suffered to get her PhD, and thought that we should suffer, too...)

Jesus is more expansive. He says that if folks aren't actively against us, they're as good as for us.

On our team. (And they may not have to follow US to get to God!)

It's been a while since I felt like I was really "on the same team" as all other Christians.

I wonder what that would look like today?