Learn - December 11, 2018

Photo by Bill Burkhart

I’ve been in school for the last 6 years. Occasionally I try to convince myself that it would be better (easier, more fun, less controversial) to return to being spiritual but not religious rather than a practicing Christian. I have failed miserably. Entering into a tradition of prayer, Bible reading, church-going and communion has changed not only me but the very context of my life. It has changed what frames my life in ways that simply being open and available for spontaneous spiritual experience could not. (Come to think of it, I should re-center myself around a regular yoga practice. I really should. I know I’d be happier, healthier, more in tune with myself and spiritually revitalized if I did. But Christianity is something else again.)  Practicing Christianity has given me not just a newly refurbished or reinforced center but a new story.  Who I am and who I am meant to be is re-shaped by this story and yet, oddly I feel more like myself as a result. I am not simply re-centered but reframed in something greater than myself that simultaneously makes me more available.

Participating in this story requires first of all a suspension of disbelief. This is the open attitude Aristotle recommended for appreciating a play. And guess what: I’m good at that. I like plays! But it turns out, I am not just watching this play. I am in it. This requires an act of the imagination and an embrace of risk more than an act of faith. To tell the truth, it’s more like my experiences in improv dance and comedy than my childhood experiences of “going to church”.  I have chosen to live my life within the framework of a passion play whose story I won’t ever completely understand and whose ending I can’t control. My particular lines have not yet been written. I will have to figure them out as I go along but they require that I be authentic. Playing my part makes meaning for me and other people so it is important that I tell the truth. Other texts and other plays are always involved. Christianity isn’t the only drama that matters. But it is the story I have chosen and that has chosen me.

I suppose in a way I am still spiritual but not religious in the sense that being religious is not my goal. Living in the story of Jesus is. If anything, this commitment has made my critique of religion much sharper.

My participation is a choice.  After all, I could always leave the stage. The play is the thing.  But it is my job to make it matter that I stay.

*

What story shapes your life?

How are you shaped by the stories you tell yourself or the stories other people tell about you?

Do you think of yourself as smart and successful?

As lost and confused?

As victim or victimizer?

As privileged or oppressed?

Take a moment.

Tell the truth.

Pause

         *

Now, consider this: would you be interested in backing up and finding yourself in a larger story?

A story where it is revealed that you are always both?

     *

I kill Jesus every day.

And I await his resurrection.

This is the story of hope because it is true.

                            *

Learn (for the practically inclined)

Open your BCP.

Don’t have one?

Borrow one from church next week and bring it home with you.

(If asked what you are doing with a BCP under your arm, you can blame me.)

Or find it online here: https://www.bcponline.org

Find Daily Office Lectionary in sidebar menu and click on it

(p. 937 in actual Book)

Now Click on Advent

Scroll down to week of 2 Advent, Year 1

That’s today.

Find Tuesday

Read one of these

Psalm 26 and 28

Isaiah 5:13-17

I Thessalonians 5:1-11

Luke 21:29-38

A link to the Bible is right there!

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/r/rsv/rsv-idx?type=DIV1&byte=4782437

Ponder, wander, free associate.

There is no official interpretation.

Just a doorway to reflection.

The BCP is a tool for prayer and faith exploration FOR YOU at home alone

not just a means of making community in church

or a complicated service manual for priests.

This is what I have learned.

Steal this book.

Make it yours.

Amen.

Post by Mary Barnett

Learn

Growing up I was very close to my Grandfather – Papa, as my sister and I called him. Through a lifetime of experiences, he gained a wisdom that we looked up to, and he freely shared with us. His one-liner bits of wisdom stay with me even today – “One convinced against their will is of the same opinion still” and “Better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt” – were a couple of my favorites. While he would never claim to be the author of many of these one-liners, there was one that I think was born deep in his soul, and he was particularly fond of sharing with my sister and me.

“The only way you have wasted the day is by not learning anything”

Papa did not have the benefit of great, formal educational opportunities; so, he took advantage of being a student of life and supplemented it with a class here or there and countless hours at libraries. His life’s education seemed to mirror one of his favorite authors, Louis L’Amour, chronicled in Education of a Wandering Man.

He understood, and instilled in us, that each second, of each minute, of each hour, of each day is a precious gift from God. We must make the most of it.

The time we are graced with, we must explore it and all that is in it. We need to keep ourselves ready for the Divine presence around us. Give thought and meditate on the trail we have walked with God. As we learn about and from one another, our natural world of which we are all stewards, the vast reaches of God’s creation only visible in our mind’s eye, and God’s Incarnation, God with us, we find that the knowledge we gain serves something greater, love.

Brother Keith Nelson, SSJE reminds us –

“In the end, knowledge is not enough. Knowledge – like technology – is like a very good, very capable servant. Love is its true master. Without love, our knowledge is lifeless. In the service of love, it finds its place and purpose.”

I think Papa would agree.

As we learn, chase after knowledge, we gain a new perspective, a deeper understanding of the source of our being – our Creator, Redeemer and the One who loves our soul as though it is the only one in the universe – God; and in this we find love grows, served by our learning, as we walk with God with mind, eyes and heart wide open.

Post by Mike Corey