Gnaw On This ... The Gospel for This Sunday

The Gospel isn't meant to be gulped down on a Sunday morning, but gnawed on through the week so it really becomes a part of us. 
You've got to work at it ... like a dog with a good bone! 

Here's the Gospel for this Sunday ... with some notes and more "food for thought"

13th Sunday After Pentecost - John 6:56-69

Jesus said, “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever." He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum.

When many of his disciples heard it, they said, "This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?" But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, "Does this offend you? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But among you there are some who do not believe." For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one that would betray him. And he said, "For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father."

Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. So Jesus asked the twelve, "Do you also wish to go away?" Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God."

The Backstory - What's Going On Here?

This is the end of the long discourse on bread in John's Gospel that has carried us for the past five weeks, starting with the feeding of the five thousand. If we were to go back and read all of chapter 6 as a piece, we would notice that the tension and conflict is continually growing in breadth and depth throughout.

After the feeding, the people are crying with one voice, "This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world," But as soon as Jesus starts revealing more and more not only what the feeding was about, but who he is ... there is more and more discontent and more and more people turn from praising Jesus to turning against him.

The lectionary unfortunately cuts us off just before the climax of this passage. Even some of Jesus' disciples have turned against him and we are left with two paragons -- one of ultimate virtue and one of ultimate vice. Just after Peter (representing ultimate faith and virtue) confesses that he is all in with Jesus, John completes the passage with verses 70-71:

"Jesus answered them 'Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?' He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was to betray him."

We see Jesus for who he really is ... and it's not easy. The lines are drawn. John asks us -- which side of that line will we be on?

A few things to chew on:

Flags? Banners? Icons? What goes in our worship spaces?

In preparing to host the Icons in Transformation exhibit last year, we cleared pretty much everything out of the Nave that wasn't a chair or the altar to make room for Ludmila's art. We were amazed how many items had accumulated over the years!

It's been seven months since the icons left, and the question is "What goes back in the Nave?"

That question is an opportunity.

When it comes to liturgy and liturgical spaces, everyone has an opinion -- there are plenty of likes and dislikes. Because of that, those conversations often never get beyond the level of personal preference. When that happens, we end up with zero-sum games with lots of winners and losers ...  and more than that no unified sense of what we believe about worship as a church community.

The decisions facing us about the Nave are no different. Flags or no flags? Congregational banners hanging from the catwalks or not? And what about that angel font?

Instead of having a vote or instituting mine or others' personal preferences, we're going to use this as a chance to think deeply about what the Nave (and Bofinger Chapel) are to us, to the Diocese and to downtown St. Louis.

I've identified a thoughtful group of people to come together and undertake this process. My hope is that this group will develop a set of values for what goes in the Nave and the Chapel that we can then apply to specific questions … not just now but in the future.

This team will make recommendations to me and will make a presentation of those recommendations to Chapter. As it is his Cathedral, the Bishop will have "veto power" over any decision, should he choose to exercise it.

As decisions are made about what goes in the Nave and the Chapel, they will be communicated in terms of the identified values so we can all understand not just what is being done but why.

The team (which still has one vacant seat ... for a young adult) is made up of Bob Schleipman (sr. warden), Pat Partridge (canon precentor), the Rev. Canon John Kilgore (canon minor), Shug Goodlow (head verger), Paul Anderson (Cathedral archivist) and the Rev. Dr. Lydia Agnew Speller (priest of the Diocese of Missouri), and me.  Please feel free to talk with any of us about this endeavor!

As information comes in from the Cathedral congregation, the people of the Diocese and representatives of downtown St. Louis in chapter's process of identifying our shared, core values, that information will be made available to this team so that it may be considered as well.

We had our first meeting on Monday and laid out the process. We wil start with six questions to frame our work:

I – What pieces of scripture might be helpful to us as guides as we go through this process?

II – What personal opinions (micro to macro) do we bring to this conversation before it starts? (This is about owning our baggage up front)

III - What factors (physical realities, constituencies who use the space, purposes for the space, etc.) do we need to keep in mind as we develop the values that will guide our recommendations?

IV – What history can we be aware of that is essential to or will help us in this process?

V – What values data do we have from other people/constituencies that we need to consider?

VI – Are there other Cathedrals or sources of wisdom we can tap to help us in this process?

We believe that as we engage these questions a way forward will emerge and that a set of values will emerge. While I don’t want to drag our feet on this, this shouldn’t be driven by an artificial deadline. So we're going to do it as quickly as we can and still do it really, really well. We hope that timetable will emerge in the coming weeks. (remember ... We Have Time!)

Throughout the process, I'll use this blog and the On The Table forums to share how the conversation is proceeding and what we are learning. I have asked all the members of this team to engage people in conversation and listen deeply so that we can bring everyone's voice to the table. Please keep this process in your prayers.

Why is this important for Christ Church Cathedral?  This is definitely one of those instances where the journey is at least as important - if not more - than the destination. And in that, it has a lot in common with much of what we are doing at Christ Church Cathedral. Following Jesus and loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength is not just about doing the right thing but about being thoughtfully, prayerfully aware of WHY we are doing it. The decisions we make about what we put in our worship spaces send messages to everyone who enters about what the life of Christ is like (or isn't like) in those spaces. It's worth spending time considering.

What do you think?

Love is patient. We have time.

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails." - 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

If you've ever been to a wedding, you've probably heard this passage from Corinthians. Because of that, we usually think of it as applying to the relationship between two people. But Paul was writing to an entire Church community. He is holding up a vision for community for all of us.

I don't think it's an accident that the first thing Paul says about love is that "Love is patient."  It is like a wonderful deep breath -- inhale and exhale --  at the beginning of this litany. It's a reminder, even to a first-century church that wasn't texting, tweeting and driving kids to three different baseball practices, of an eternal truth they needed to hear:

We have time.

The past 30 years have probably seen a greater increase in the pace of life than any other similar time in human history. And at least in our culture, that has made we Americans a most impatient people. We want everything right now, be it economic recovery or our order of fries. And so Paul's words speak wonderfully to us.

Love is patient.

We have time.

Yesterday, we restarted our "On The Table" dean's forums that we have had in the past. We're going to be having them monthly on the second Sunday after the 10 am service, (except in September, when Dale Kuhn will be leading us in a conversation about alcohol and family systems)  and they are a chance to bring any and every issue or question up and lay it "on the table" for us to wrestle with together.

During yesterday's OTT, we talked about liturgy, outreach, communication and other important things. And I found myself saying these three words over and over again.

We have time.

"We have time" is a statement of faith. It is a statement that God is in control and as long as we are diligent and faithful, all will be well. We can be patient with one another and with ourselves. And we can be incredibly grateful that God is infinitely patient with us!

Someone suggested a liturgical change in how we receive communion ... which prompted several other comments pro and con. Every one of them was worth considering. But what I said was that right now, what we're doing with our liturgy is sticking with what we have and concentrating on carefully defining and organizing our liturgical ministries. We want every person who serves at the altar to know exactly what they are doing and why ... which will free them up to lead worship with love and joy and without anxiety. I have delegated this work to Amy and she is working with our head verger, Shug Goodlow, and others to do this work. (Click here for more information on this)

This is not to say we will never make liturgical changes. But it is to say don't expect any major ones right now. Liturgy is an offering all of us make to God together. And we need to get to a point where we can have conversations across our community about how our liturgy reflects what we believe about God and the life of Christ in this place. About how the "shared, core values" we are discerning right now are expressed in our worship.

We're not there yet. We're not ready or set up to have that conversation. And that's OK. We will get there.

We have time.

We have time is not a dodge. It's not an excuse to do nothing or to drag our feet. Remember -- diligence and faithfulness! But it is saying that we are not going to be driven by anxieties or artificial deadlines. Barring extreme circumstances, we are going to take as much time as it takes to do things well.

We are going to pray through everything. We are going to look for wisdom in scripture. We are going to listen to each other deeply.

There will always be moments of truth. Moments where we have to make a decision right here, right now. And when those moments happen, we will be as faithful as we can. But we will not impose those deadlines on questions that don't require them.

Christ Church congregation has been around almost two centuries. God has seen us through this far and God will lead us home.

In the coming days, I'm going to be posting more to this blog and sharing about some of the conversations that are happening about things like how we will decide what things will be displayed in the nave and the chapel, what is happening with outreach, and other areas of our life. A common theme you will see is that we are taking the time we need to be diligent and faithful.

Why?

Because love is patient.

Because we have time.

What do you think?

What does God dream for Christ Church Cathedral -- A view from West Convocation

What does God dream for our Cathedral?
What does Jesus long for us to love?

Throughout 2012, Chapter is re-imagining the answers to these questions for today and the years to come by reaching out to the Cathedral congregation (our house meetings this summer), downtown St. Louis (more to come on this soon) and Episcopalians throughout the Diocese of Missouri.

The Diocesan representatives on Chapter have framed this conversation with seven questions for conversation (scroll to the bottom to see them ... you can also click here  - http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6NFMCF8 - and give your own answers on an online survey).

I spent this morning in Jefferson City listening to clergy and laypeople from West Convocation (congregations in the Western part of our diocese) give there answers to these questions. It was a wonderful and energetic hourlong conversation, and here is what I heard:

*The Cathedral is important to the people of the diocese as a visible, tangible sign of unity with the larger church (diocese, Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion.) There is a sense of disconnect among the congregations in this region with the diocese (both in terms of the congregations and structures). The Cathedral has an important role in fostering a sense of community combating congregationalism and filling a void we are feeling for face-to-face contact with one another.

*The Cathedral building is important. There is an aesthetic experience at the Cathedral (architecture, worship, music, etc.) that you can't have in any other worship space in the diocese.

*What the Cathedral does is important. The ministries of the Cathedral are a source of pride to other Episcopalians in Missouri.

*The Cathedral can be a place of celebration and also pilgrimage. Invite everyone in to use the Cathedral as a place of reflection and prayer. 

*Some ideas for sharing in mission together included:
     -Episcopalians throughout the diocese encouraging direct involvement in Cathedral events.
     -Having guest preachers at the Cathedral from different churches in the diocese, perhaps having different "congregational Sundays" (e.g. Trinity, Kirksville, Sunday) with clergy, choir and people coming.
     -Cathedral hosting events in partnership with other churches that "engage our imagination, creativity and joy."

*There is a role for the Cathedral taking a stand on social/political issues, but we also need to be a place where everyone from across the political/theological spectrum can gather. Remember that there is a way what the Cathedral says and does represents all of us.

Diocesan chapter representatives and I are convening conversations like this in all the metros and convocations around the diocese. The Chapter will take this information and use it as we set out our answers to what the shared, core values of Christ Church Cathedral are ... what we believe God wants us to be and love.

So stay tuned ... and feel free to add your own thoughts below!

Framing Questions:
*What has Christ Church Cathedral meant to you and your congregation in the past?
*What does Christ Church Cathedral mean to you and your congregation today?
*What, if anything, do you see as the distinction between the Offices of the Bishop and Christ Church  Cathedral?
*What should the mission of Christ Church Cathedral be as the Cathedral of the Diocese?
*How might we share in this mission together?
*What should the mission of Christ Church Cathedral be as a sign of the Episcopal Church's presence in Eastern Missouri?
*How might we share in this mission together?

Jesus, love of enemy, and "crappy fast food chicken sandwiches"

“It's sad that the level of debate in this country has sunk to the point where the ‘Conversation’ about what the sacrament of marriage should be is happening on the level of  ‘Do I or do I not buy this crappy fast food chicken sandwich.’”

After I posted this Facebook status yesterday, I received several comments – both public and private – saying that I had missed the point and was trivializing the power of boycott. That is a legitimate response and worth examining. I have not been persuaded that I did “miss the point,” and my opinion is based on taking the power of boycott very seriously. In fact, what troubles me is that the boycott/counter-demonstration of Chick-Fil-A seems reactive rather than reflective and in many ways counter to the role and purposes of boycott in our Christian tradition.

Let’s start with what Jesus has to say on the subject:

“’You have heard that is was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” (Matthew 5:43-44).

This is part of a larger section of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus talks about how we treat our enemies. It is, as Nelson Mandela has said in our day, never seeing an enemy, but always a future friend … and not only treating the person as you would a friend but in such a way as looks forward to that friendship blossoming. The goal is transformation and changing hearts. If we believe we are in the right, our goal is not to defeat the other but to move their hearts. And the most powerful force in the universe for change is sacrificial love.

That is the message that Jesus “who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross.” embodied with his life and with his death.

If we are not just to follow Christ but to trust in Christ fully, the goal of every encounter with an enemy must be together to strive for the truth and wisdom that is beyond us. To have all of our hearts transformed by God’s love so that together we are shaped into the image of Christ. Our goal must never be to defeat or humiliate or shame or do violence in any way to the other.

Boycott is a legitimate and powerful tool of nonviolent resistance to injustice. But remember the goal – the goal is not to beat our enemies into submission but by the power of our dedication and self-sacrificial love to convert their hearts – even as our own hearts are still being converted. It is always done with great care to the pain it causes particularly to the poor and working class people who are inevitably caught in the middle. (Gandhi traveled to England and apologized to the mill workers who were put out of work by India’s boycott of British cloth … and found that far from being upset at him, they understood and were awed by this burgeoning nonviolent movement for independence)

Let’s look at the situation with Chick-Fil-A. The owner of the company said something invoking the name of God that I and many believe is counter to the Gospel Jesus embodied and proclaims. The pain and anger this causes is real and natural. But Jesus calls us not to react out of our pain and anger in kind but to bear the blows and respond in love.

Let’s put aside for a moment the very real question of whether it is appropriate to boycott not based on the practice of an organization (e.g. the Montgomery Bus Boycott was in protest of an unjust policy) but because of a statement of opinion of the owner. That in itself raises a whole bunch of other very tricky questions. But for the sake of argument, let’s just go to the extreme. Let’s say that the owner of Chick-Fil-A had said, “I’m not going to hire anyone who is in a same-sex relationship.”

What is the Christian response?

I submit that the Christian response would not be … as the mayor of Boston did … to tell Chick-Fil-A “there is no place for your company here.” but instead to say,

“Here in Boston some of us who once felt as you do have had our hearts changed by the deep love and commitment of same-sex couples. Those of us who, like you, are people of deep faith, have seen God’s love in new and wonderful ways through them. And many of us have come to understand that marriage is not about the gender of the people involved but the depth of the sacrificial commitment of love they pledge to one another. We hope you will come to Boston and experience what we have learned and are learning, because we want the joy for you that we have found for ourselves when we celebrate the love of all God’s people.”

WOW! How different that would have been! Instead of us mimicking the response of “Begone, sinner!” that so many of our LGBT sisters and brothers have received, it would have been us demonstrating to those who would say “Begone, sinner” once more to us the very expansiveness of love that we say we believe in.

So let’s look at the boycott. A Christian boycott is always nonviolent. That means the goal is not to shame or do violence, but to convert hearts by the power of our sacrifice.

The Chick-Fil-A boycott both in theory and in practice falls short of this on pretty much every level.

First off, let’s be honest about the level of sacrifice involved in not eating at Chick-Fil-A … particularly when we are instead going to KFC. It’s basically no sacrifice at all. This is not a level of sacrifice that is going to change hearts.

Second, the whole intent of the boycott is punitive and violent. And because of that, the reaction is predictable. Instead of hearts being changed, hearts will be hardened. We will lose the high ground of being the people of love who are willing to reach out in love even when we receive blows and will sink into the valley of just being another giver of blows – indistinguishable to the observer from our opponent. And that will, in turn, not convert but rally and solidify the opposition.

… which leads us to yesterday, where this is precisely what happened. There was no conversion of hearts yesterday. There was no triumph of love over hate. There was only anger and self-righteousness on all sides. There was no conversation, no raising of consciousness on what marriage is and might be … just a choosing up of sides based on “Do I or do I not buy this crappy fast food chicken sandwich.”

Of course we should use our purchasing power wisely. But that means we should use it reflectively and not reactively. Remembering that our goal it to change hearts even as we ask Christ to change our heart, our choices should never be made out of anger or with the effect of doing violence, but with the goal of turning todays enemy into tomorrow’s friend.

How can we do better next time?

What does this have to do with Christ Church Cathedral? Part of our embodiment of Christ’s love is that we are an Oasis congregation, which means we are intentionally welcoming and embracing of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered persons and families. That welcome and embrace is a part of our understanding of the Gospel. Jesus tells us that the Good News of Christ is not to be kept to ourselves but to be spread to the ends of the earth. How we have experienced Christ through our understanding of love and marriage is a piece of the Good News we have to share, and we are called – as a part of “restoring all people to unity with God and each other in Christ” -- to draw the world into it. This is about us because Christ calls us to embody his love in converting hearts. Christ calls us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. This is about Christ Church Cathedral because it’s about how we will show EVERYONE Christ’s surpassing love.

What do you think?

Basic Discipleship V - Give

Opening Prayer – Charles de Foucauld

God, I abandon myself to you.
Do with me as you will.
Whatever you may do with me, I thank you.
I am prepared for anything, I accept everything.
Provided your will is fulfilled in me and in all creatures I ask for nothing more, my God.
I place my soul in your hands. I give it to you, my God,
With all the love of my heart
Because I love you.
And for me it is a necessity of love,
This gift of myself, This placing of myself in your hands
Without reserve
In boundless confidence
Because you are my God
We started with 15 minutes in small groups - brief sharing about where we were on the journey of where our deep longing meets the needs of the world. Also anything on prayer. 


Asked everyone to think about their money stories – what messages about money did you receive from your family or origin or church growing up. Were they about scarcity or abundance?


Matthew 11:30 -"Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." 


John 21:15-19 - When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my lambs.’ A second time he said to him, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Tend my sheep.’ He said to him the third time, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ And he said to him, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my sheep. Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.’ (He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ 


Give is about how we answer Jesus command: Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 


Give is about how we answer Jesus question: “do you love me more than these?” 


Giving is about freedom. It is about letting go of what we hold most dear and saying “Jesus, I love you more than these.” It is about money (which is what our culture holds most dear) but it’s also about letting go of grudges (for-giving), agendas and many other things. 


There is a key word that is a fail-safe indicator of what “these” are for each of us. It is the word “mine.” (think Finding Nemo and the pelicans … and any 3 year old). 


Mine is a fiction. At the offertory we say “All things come of thee, O Lord, and of thine own have we given thee.” We don’t own anything. Nothing is ours. All is God’s. That’s true for everything. Even time! How many times have we said “I don’t HAVE the time.” Of course you don’t, time is not ours to have. It is God’s. 


Think of your whole life as a giant arts and crafts table. You don’t own anything on it – including your life itself – but you get to use everything that is on it to create something beautiful for God. 


So where do you say “mine”? What do you hold most dear in your life? Don’t hold back. Name it. We named things and put them on easel paper.


Luke 9:59-62 Jesus said, ‘Follow me.’ But he said, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’ But Jesus said to him, ‘Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.’ Another said, ‘I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.’ Jesus said to him, ‘No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’ 


What is it like to imagine giving it up. Entrusting it to God. Freeing yourself of the worry of whether you will have enough.  


Matthew 19:16-30 - Then someone came to him and said, ‘Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?’ And he said to him, ‘Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.’ He said to him, ‘Which ones?’ And Jesus said, ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; Honour your father and mother; also, You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ The young man said to him, ‘I have kept all these; what do I still lack?’ Jesus said to him, ‘If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ When the young man heard this word, he went away grieving, for he had many possessions. 


Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’ When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astounded and said, ‘Then who can be saved?’ But Jesus looked at them and said, ‘For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible.’ 


Then Peter said in reply, ‘Look, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man is seated on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first. 


When I was raising money for EGR and Rockwell House, I used to tell people, "I’m here to liberate you from your money. " This is the challenge of stewardship – we are trained to think that our money is something that we own that others are trying to get from us. We are always being marketed to … so we assume the church is doing the same thing. And so we get defensive and protective about our wealth. 


Believe me when I tell you that it is more important to me that you give than that you give to Christ Church Cathedral. 


Give is a habit of discipleship because  
-it is our liberation and rest (“trapped under something heavy”) 
-it is a statement of “I love you more than these”
-it is our salvation 


Working toward a tithe. Tithe is a goal. Biblically based. It is a minimum. This is all part of kenotic living. 

Everyone had the opportunity to sign up for a two-month trial with a discipleship group!

Basic Discipleship IV - Serve

We are finishing our second round of Back to Basics classes at Christ Church Cathedral. Basic Discipleship is the lynchpin course -- during the five weeks we learn about and experience the spiritual practices of prayer, worship, learning, serving and giving -- and build a community of support and accountability for integrating them into our lives. For each week of the class, I'm posting a very truncated summation of the ideas we discussed and the homework given. It's not meant to be a substitute for the class ... but I hope it will whet your appetite. 
 

We started in small groups.
Q1: Prayer: How is it going? What are you noticing? Barriers/gifts?
Q2: Learning: How did you incorporate it into your life. What did you notice? Did you do an inventory of your life of what is “junk food” and what is “only the finest”? What did you notice.

We shared the story of Gordon Cosby, founder of Church of the Savior in Washington D.C. Gordon had been preaching since he was a 15-year­-old in Lynchburg, VA. Raised Southern Baptist, he went into the seminary and then became an Army chaplain in Europe in World War II, an experience that reshaped his faith perspective.

He said he came back feeling that denomination and race were artificial constructs and that people should live in regular life as they would in war-­-willing to lay down their lives for their neighbors, viewing their faith as an urgent tool to change the world. He and his wife, Mary, began to craft an unusual church structure: Members had to commit to an inward journey of daily quiet prayer, meditation and courses on Christianity as well as an outward journey of social justice work. People would be held accountable by working in small groups.

Never more than 200 members, the church actually seemed to discourage growth. You can only join for one year at a time. If you do not re-­apply each year, your membership automatically lapses. You have to attend the School of Christian Living one evening a week for two years before you can move from apprentice membership to full membership. No congregation has ever taken more seriously the path of discipleship.

What were the results? Hundreds of faith-­based ministries have been started over the years, including a community health center, a residential treatment center for women with AIDS, hundreds of units of low-­cost housing, a jobs program that placed 800 unemployed individuals last year, FLOC (For the Love of Children, a movement that revamped how foster care is done in DC), Alabaster Jar (a movement of artists who are people of faith and express faith in their art), the influential Wellspring retreat center, a small college, and Potter's House, what many consider the original Christian coffeehouse ministry which still operates in the Adams-­Morgan neighborhood on Columbia.

Cosby interpreted the call to discipleship as the integration of two journeys in community-­-an inward journey to grow in love of God, self and others and an outward journey to help mend some part of creation.

The foundation was small groups – but they discovered the groups need a mission focus or they become support groups. Nothing wrong with support groups, it's just not discipleship.

The inward journey without the outward journey becomes self-­centered.

The outward journey without the inward journey becomes rootless activism.

Service is not just because we’re “supposed to” or to earn points to heaven. Original sin is self-focus/putting self in place of God. Life in Christ is “love God with heart, soul, strength and mind and love your neighbor as your self. It is God/Christ-­focused (inward journey) and other-­focused (outward journey). Self-­focus is seductive. Jesus really did say “get over yourself.”

This is true from the early church. It comes through perhaps most clearly in Philippians 2 (click here to read):

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus – Inward journey

Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death - even death on a cross. - Outward journey.

Therefore, God highly exalted. - The combination of the inward journey and the outward journey is glory.

The outward journey is about one word -­ Kenosis - self-emptying. We are called to live kenotically.

How do we empty ourselves? By making a big internal shift: Our lives are not our own but are given to us to be given away. That’s radical thinking. We think of MY LIFE. But that’s not the baptized life. The baptized life is dying with Christ and rising to new life -­-­ the resurrected life. We die to the old way of “my life” and we rise to the new life of “God gave me this life to live kenotically, to give it away.”

When we believe we own our lives, we believe we have to protect it. We believe it is a scarce resource that we have to hoard. That invites fear. But our lives are not our own, they are God’s ... and that means our life springs from an infinite abundance. “I have come that they might have life and have it in abundance.” We don’t need to fear losing our lives ... in fact we are told that we have to lose them to save it “Whomever will save their life will lose it, and whomever will lose their life for my sake will save it.”

Giving our lives away is our salvation, but we are afraid so we do it as if it were painful extractive surgery. We give of ourselves with eyedroppers. God is inviting us to give like a firehose.

But we do it. And we do it more than we know. We serve, we give ourselves away all the time. A lot of times in the church we think that things only "count" as Christian service if they are church ministries. Not true. The primary locus of ministry is not the church but the world.

We then did a service inventory. Everyone named every ministry or organization or act of service they had participated in the past year. It easily filled up a sheet of easel paper.

This isn't to say "OK, we're all cool, we're fine with service, what's next." It's to expand our thoughts of what service is.

Frederick Buechner said, "Service is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet."

Most of us are well aware of the world’s deep hunger. It’s all over the place. The challenge for us is to help each other find the deep gladness. The sense of deep connection.

"We cannot do everything and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for God's grace to enter and do the rest.” Archbishop Oscar Romero

That is a process of discernment. What is it that we are called to do very well? What is that place where our deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet?

At Church of the Savior, the small groups gathered around a mutually discerned mission. They gathered not around geography or time they wanted to meet or any other criteria save sharing that hinge point of deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger.

This week’s homework: 
*prayer 
*1 hour of worship 
*1 hour of learning 
*Ponder and listen to where your deep longing is. Spend time looking at the world’s deep hunger. Come back with an idea of where God might be calling you to give your life away.