Over the course of this next year (Aug 2012 to Aug 2013) I will be blogging about my time as a PC(USA) Young Adult Volunteer in Tucson, AZ. I am volunteering with the intention of finding a deeper understanding of God's love as it is presented in different settings around the world. Thus far, that hope is coming to fruition.

Saturday, October 29, 2011

who's that writin? john the revelator!

I had my first opportunity to share the message at one of Woodvale's services last week when I was able to speak at the Sunday evening service. It was a small crowd, as it usually is at that service, which allowed me to be a little more discussion oriented and engage the congregation in ways that one couldn't do so well on Sunday morning. I spoke on Revelation 1:9 through 2:7. This passage was given to me by Margaret, the minister at Woodvale, since the Sunday evening group is working through Revelation. Alright, first time up and I get to run with Revelation. My initial thought was, hope I fair better than Robin Ventura when he went up against a legend. (The first 30 seconds of the video below might clear up any confusion on that one for you.)


The first part of the passage I dealt with, verses 1:9 through the end of chapter 1, dealt with a lot of imagery. I worked through this passage explaining some of the imagery. The combination of some notes from Margaret and my Disciple Bible study class last year made this a much less daunting task than it would've been before. Then, in 2:1 through 2:7, I took the group into a deeper look at the address to the church at Ephesus. I'll take you through some of my notes now.

  •  Ephesus was a pagan city and the majority of people worshipped the goddesses Diane and Artemis. It would've been quite difficult to be a Christian in this setting.
  • In verses 2 and 3 the church is commended for what they've done well. For hard work and perseverance, not being led astray by false prophets and testing those prophets claim to leadership, and not growing weary despite hardships. What are your church's strengths?
  • In verse 4 the church is then condemned for their failures, mostly that they have forgotten their first love. That is, they've lost their passion for Christ. The same church that was commended by Paul in Ephesians 1:15 for their loving attitudes as now lost touch with that.
  • The church at Ephesus would've been a busy church. It is likely that they were doing much to benefit the community around them but at this time their mission and programming was of the wrong motive. The work of the church must be motivated by our love of God and the desire to bring equality and a heaven like attitude to this earth. It must be our response to God's love in our lives. Mission and programming for the wrong reasons will not result in sustainable ministry. After looking at this condemnation of the church, are there ways in which our church would be condemned? Have we lost touch with our first love? In light of this criticism, how can we go about reclaiming this first love?  
  • In verse 5 the church is counseled. They've been condemned but now they're given some useful pointers. They're told to repent. First and foremost, we must repent. By acknowledging what we've done wrong we recognize our fault and can make changes. On an individual level, repentance is necessary to find Christ within ourselves. If He dwells in us, then we have to work through all the muck within us to get to Him. Much of our relationship with Christ is dealing with the stuff we don't want to deal with but it is that mess that separates us from God and the person He intends us to be. 
  • In verse 7 we get the age old advice to listen to the Spirit. God is always working but almost never in the same way. We must be tuned in with the Spirit to know how God wants to reinvent and direct us both as individuals but even more importantly as the Church. What's the consequence of tuning out the Spirit? How's God challenging our church and the wider Church right now? 
You probably weren't looking for a lesson on Revelation or a video of Nolan Ryan beating up a young Robin Ventura. You got both. I would definitely call this post a twofer. But in all honesty, the book of Revelation holds some great advice for churches that is, in fact, relevant in today's society, even when we take it in the correct context and seek to understand what the imagery meant for early Christians. So thanks to Margaret for giving me the opportunity to do a little preaching and to Woodvale for encouraging me in my doing so! It was a great experience to try preaching to a church with a different background than what I've been in before and set in a much different community than I've been in before.

leading the revival!

Monday, October 17, 2011

a visit to the Benedictine community in Rostrevor

Zoe and I during our wee tea break in the bus
Today we visited the Holy Cross Monastery near Rostrevor and had the incredible opportunity to worship and pray with the group of monks there. Additionally, we were able to engage in a Q&A session with Brother Thierry. In the short time we were able to spend with Brother Thierry he gave us many great ideas to think about through the sharing of both his and the monastery's stories.

First and foremost, one has to commend the monks for the way they treat their guests. It is an example of the way many of us strive to welcome others. Brother Thierry shared that anyone who comes through the doors of the monastery is Christ. They are treated in the same way Christ would be. Whether Buddhist, Muslim, Christian, Jew or something else, that person is Christ. I nearly broke down as he looked directly at us and declared "You are Christ." And because each person who comes through the doors is Christ that person blesses the monastery. To hear these words simultaneously humbled me and lifted me up. What an amazing attitude: we are Christ and we bless each other.

As conversation continued, Brother Thierry commented that their are three things he believes makes us human beings and are essential to our being: prayer, work and community. Brother Thierry then elaborated on community and talked about ways to build successful communities. One way which stuck out to me was that we have to find how to look at the same person each day in a new way. To look at them continually in the same way is to trap them in a certain stage. It is to inhibit their growth. It is to kill them and the relationship. The other thought that stuck with me was that labelling kills community. At the current moment I'm blanking on the thoughts I had earlier about this but I'm sure you're coming up with examples and thoughts of your own that support this idea. Maybe you're even coming up with counter-examples. If so, please inform me of your thoughts. I'm always looking to hear different interpretations and thoughts on ideas.

a view of Holy Cross Monastery
A bit of background on the monks at Holy Cross Monastery before this next bit. They came to Northern Ireland in 1998, a small group from the Abbey of Bec in France, as a response to the Catholic church's decision to engage in spiritual ecumenism in parts of the world where Christians were (and are still in most cases) divided. This led Brother Thierry and, I believe, five other monks to relocate and begin a ministry of prayer for healing and reconciliation. The monks ministry plays well into their location in Northern Ireland. It is a country that has long had division between Christians. Thus, we found that Brother Thierry had more great thoughts to share. This time on why reconciliation is important and why the monks chose to come to Northern Ireland. And those thoughts let to the quote below from Brother Thierry.

"Self-sufficiency will be the death of the church."

If we let it and strive for it, then yes, I agree. The more divided we become, the less we are the Church and the more we are a broken, splintered group of individual, albeit well-meaning, bodies of believers. Furthermore, as Brother Thierry shared, we cannot be who God intends us to be without each other. Catholics cannot be Catholics without Presbyterians. Presbyterians cannot be Presbyterians without Baptists. Baptists cannot be Baptists without Catholics. So the circle goes round and round. We all bring different things to the table, especially in terms of theology, but when we get down to it, as I believe, the Church is called to be this world's comfort and light. The Methodists aren't called individually to do this. The Lutherans aren't called individually. No one faction is called individually. And no one faction can handle the needs of the world by themselves. They just aren't equipped to, even if they believe so. Because each church is not self-sufficient. Though we sometimes strive to be, God doesn't intend us to be. He intends us to work together. We need each other. Plain and simple. Theological differences aside, we must realize that we worship the same God. We sang praises to the same set of ears. We pray for the same loving arms to wrap themselves around this world. We do the work of the same God because we are responsible for caring for the same broken world. When we begin to understand those simple commonalities, theology isn't such a big deal. What is a big deal is how the Church responds as a whole because I believe the Church IS equipped. The church (emphasis on the lowercase here) is not. We all strive to be a light in this world. Right now we're thousands of candles burning together but placed all around. It isn't impossible for our lights to merge into one bright beam. It will take time but let's pray that the beam will get brighter each day. Then, let's suffer to make it happen. Because, as Brother Thierry shared with us today, "The question will not be 'did you achieve unity?' The question will be 'did you pray and suffer for it?'" (I believe he said this came from Pope John XXIII.)

There's a lot to think about and my mind has been running all day but I thank Brother Thierry for planting all of these ideas in there for me to wrestle with and for taking the time to speak with us. I'd also like to thank all of the monks at Holy Cross Monastery for their kindness and letting us worship with them. Lastly, I thank you for taking the time to read my blog and I hope this post helps to get some questions going in your mind. Blessings and peace!

Saturday, October 8, 2011

rollin' up the sleeves


Every once in a while we just get into a mess. No one knows what to do and people just stand around hoping everything will sort itself out.

One of the streets which the 174 Trust's mini-bus must go down while making the after school pick-ups is incredibly narrow. It's the kind of street I was told I'd find in Ireland. You've got to be methodical about when you get there and where you park if you're even going to venture down it. You hope that all of the grades don't get out at the same time because the resulting mass of children rushing out to the vehicles all at once will be the perfect storm.

As a walked back to the bus with the child we had picked up, I noticed the street looked especially crowded. I shrugged it off and we got into the vehicle. Usually this is sorted out by a nice alternating system where a few cars going one direction go through, then a few going the other way and then repeating this process. But after sitting in the vehicle for a few minutes and noticing that none of the cars up the street had gone anywhere, it was obvious something wasn't quite right. Yet, no one was doing anything about the mess!

It was at this point that Pat, the do-it-all guy at the 174 Trust who also drives the mini-bus, got out and walked up the street to check the mess out. It turned out that a lady's car had died right in the middle of the street and in her confusion, not knowing what to do, she just sat in the car. Compounded with that was the fact that a humongous garbage truck was trying to make it down this tiny street. But Pat rolled up his sleeves, got the dead car pushed out of the way, and then directed traffic through in a manner that would then allow the garbage truck to somehow make it down the street. He rushed back to the mini-bus so we could jump in the queue going through and get out of there.

 
Looking back, this mess that we were in was in no way Pat's fault. But he didn't stand by and watch. He took some initiative and got it sorted out. This is a great illustration for what we are called to do as Christians in this world. Sort things out. We've stood by far too long simply because we didn't cause the problems and they weren't affecting us. But the problems are affecting God's creation so we must be forces of change. Matthew 25 says we have to feed the hungry, invite in the stranger, clothe the naked, and visit the sick and imprisoned. We might not have caused poverty. We certainly didn't cause many diseases that exist. But we're obligated because of our faith to sort out these messes. Not halfheartedly by throwing the man on the street a few coins but by taking him to dinner. By feeding him because he's hungry.

It's tougher to do than it is to write but when we roll up our sleeves and get down to business, we can change the world, even if it's for just one person.