“The Eucharist is the beating heart of Christian worship. It brings transformation in a way that even the best sermon can’t. It speaks to the whole person, not just the mind.“
Author: J. Barrett Lee
Running Away from the Resurrected Life
Abbot Andrew of St. Gregory’s Abbey on the Resurrection.
The ending of Mark’s Gospel is abrupt and enigmatic. So much so that the early Christian community added a “completion” that doesn’t connect well with what Mark wrote. There has also been speculation that the ending broke off from the manuscript or that Mark was nabbed by the Romans and thrown to the lions just before he could quite finish it.
The conclusion where the women run away because they are afraid is so strong that it is enough to make us forget that it is preceded by a ringing proclamation that Jesus has been raised and has already arrived in Galilee where he is waiting for them and the disciples. When we remember this proclamation and let it sink in, we realize that this enigmatic ending is not pessimistic or skeptical about the risen life about Jesus, but perhaps it is pessimistic, maybe even skeptical, about the ability of…
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Eating the Being of Jesus
Thoughts on the Eucharist from Abbot Andrew of St. Gregory’s Abbey:
The Holy Eucharist has been accused of being a cannibalistic rite. René Girard would accept the accusation. In a snippet from an unpublished interview, he suggests that the Eucharist recapitulates the entire history of sacrifice and its violence and that history includes cannibalism. When I took a college course on African and Oceanic religions, one of the essay questions I was confronted with on the final exam was to discuss a few anthropological eyewitness accounts of cannibalistic practice. This was the first time I had encountered anything like it. What struck me about the accounts was how these people were intentionally absorbing, through ingestion, the being of the person, sometimes in mockery but more often in respect. (My take on these documents was affirmed by my professor with a top grade.) This is also Girard’s take. He ties this data into his analysis of the dynamics of mimetic rivalry where…
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The Divine Office
This is a short introduction to the Liturgy of the Hours (a.k.a. the Divine Office) by Fr. Jeremy Driscoll, OSB of Mount Angel Abbey. It is beautifully and simply done. Very much worth a few minutes of your time, especially if you’ve ever wondered what monasticism is all about.
The Feast of Oscar Romero, Martyr – March 24, 1980
TRIGGER WARNING: There is an image of graphic violence in this video.
Oscar Romero’s last words.
Universal Salvation: Drawing ALL people?
Sermon for the Fifth Sunday in Lent
The text is John 12:20-33.
As promised in the sermon, here are some key biblical passages in favor of both Particularism (God will save some) and Universalism (God will save all).
Universalism
Particularism
Paradise
It was the way back in,
the only way.
I thought it would be different.
Maybe work harder,
maybe dream bigger.
It never occurred to me
that getting
everything I ever wanted
would mean losing
everything I ever wanted.
I would have to go through
the angel
with the sword.
The door is open,
so long
as I don’t mind
impaling myself
in the process.
Paradise.
I wanted in.
But now I hold
this broken corpse
and wonder,
“Was it worth it?”
The angel never flinched.
I walked up
and kissed him
full on his flaming lips.
Slash and burn.
Purifying embers.
The way is open,
I can go now,
so long as I leave
what’s left of you at the door,
hanging on a hook,
waiting to be picked up
when it’s time to go
back out
into the cold.
Where you wait.
Where I’ve always belonged.
Where
you will be impaled
with those
who will be impaled
to get back in.
Except,
once we get it,
we don’t want it.
So we take up twice as fast
and bite down twice as hard.
We get kicked out
now that we know.
This paradise isn’t for us anymore.
Our home is in the east,
where you wait.
Longing to See You
“8First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed throughout the world. 9For God, whom I serve with my spirit by announcing the gospel of his Son, is my witness that without ceasing I remember you always in my prayers, 10asking that by God’s will I may somehow at last succeed in coming to you. 11For I am longing to see you so that I may share with you some spiritual gift to strengthen you — 12or rather so that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.” – Romans 1:8-12
These words from St. Paul reflect his pastoral heart. The apostle says to his parish, “I am longing to see you”.
At the center of the pastoral vocation is a deep longing. It is a longing to be in relationship: to bear witness to the presence and activity of Christ in the people with whom I do ministry.
When people ask to see me, they often say at the end of our meeting, “I’m sorry to have taken up so much of your time.” I want to say back, “Are you kidding me?! This is the best part of my job! If I could just do this all day, I would.”
The pastor’s first job is to be in relationship with God’s people: not to be “professionally religious”, not to solve their problems, not to entertain them, not to teach theology or correct bad behavior, and certainly not to maintain buildings and manage institutions. All of the above are important and necessary parts of ordained ministry, but they are not the heart of the pastoral vocation. The heart is the relationship: the “longing to see you” that Paul wrote about.
To be sure, there is an exchange of something that happens in this relationship: Paul says that he wants to “share some spiritual gift” in order to “strengthen” his people. But he goes on to say that the exchange is a two-way street: “that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.” Every relationship is a matter of simultaneous giving and taking. All of us are constantly being both filled and emptied by love in the relational network of the Trinity, “in whom we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17).
As Christians, we believe that we are saved by a relationship. The Incarnation is a relationship in which God “takes on flesh” and “moves into the neighborhood”, as Eugene Peterson put it. Jesus Christ is Emmanuel: “God with us.” Each Sunday, we further celebrate the Real Presence of Christ in our celebration of the Eucharist. By faith and the power of the Holy Spirit, we receive the Body and Blood of Christ into our very selves.
If we, as Christians, truly want to bear witness to the saving activity of our Incarnate Deity, then our action must mirror God’s in its relational nature. We must follow that deep, inner longing to be with one another in the flesh, as God is with us. When our fellow human beings come to believe that they are loved, that they are not alone, then can we say that we have truly done our job as witnesses of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It is the longing to be in relationship that brought God from heaven to earth in the person of Jesus Christ; it is that same longing that fuels the pastoral vocation. It is the longing to be in relationship that draws the Church together in covenant community; it is that same longing that sends us out into the world as witnesses of the Gospel.
“I saw the person before I saw his or her poverty. And I realized that the person who is hungry, abandoned or in need is first of all a heart who needs to find another heart; someone who will listen, understand and love. People who are poor and discouraged need to hear someone say to them, “I love you. I have confidence in you. You are beautiful. You can give life to others.” This helps them find confidence in themselves, new strength, new hope. The poor do not need to hear a lot of words, not even pious words. They may need people who will do things for them. Above all they need friendship: friends who love them and are willing to do things with them. This will help them grow and develop both humanly and spiritually.” – Jean Vanier
The Way of the Cross
This week’s sermon recording from North Presbyterian Church…
Sermon from the Second Sunday in Lent
Text: Mark 8:31-38
“Infinitely more than we can ask or imagine” – Pastor’s Report for 2014
My annual Pastor’s Report to North Presbyterian Church
Wow, it has been quite an eventful year at North!
2014 was our first full calendar year together as pastor & congregation. We faced many challenges & opportunities, overcoming obstacles with faith in God, “whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.”
Family
In the life of my family, it has been a delight to really start to put down roots and become part of the Kalamazoo community. Our daughter started kindergarten this year at El Sol Elementary School. We have become invested in the fabric of the Vine neighborhood, where we live. We saw God’s hand at work there when a condemned former crack house on our street was finally razed by the city. Neighborhood residents then joined forces to transform the empty lot into a community garden. Through this common cause, residents on the block have come to know and care…
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Hopping Hadrian's Wall 