Welcoming fellow travelers to our urban adventure and pilgrimage.

At 10:30 last night, the Journey to Adulthood (J2A) group from Christ Church Cathedral in Lexington, KY, pulled into our parking lot. They're staying with us ... sleeping in sleeping bags in our second floor Christian Education area ... through Sunday afternoon.

J2A is a middle school/early high school youth curriculum we use (in an adapted form because of our smaller numbers) at Christ Church Cathedral. It generally involves two trips. At the end of the first year there is an "Urban Adventure" - a trip to an unfamiliar city to learn about and work with organizations that are healing urban poverty. At the end of the second year is a pilgrimage to a holy site. Some churches take their groups to the Holy Land or Canterbury, but most don't have those resources and find places that can be reached by car and van.

This group is on their Urban Adventure. They will be spending two days working at our partners The Bridge at Centenary United Methodist Church down the street.

Cathedrals are natural locations for both urban adventure and pilgrimage. In the nearly two millennia that cathedrals have existed, they have been centers for urban ministry and also places of pilgrimage. Hospitality has always been a hallmark of Cathedral ministry ... a place where travelers could not only find shelter but experience the transcendent love of God in Christ.

Christ Church Cathedral regularly hosts mission groups of young people (we've had a group from Gonzaga come here for the past three years on alternative spring break and many J2A groups come through). We do not charge for this, though we accept any donation the traveler wishes to give to support this way station we call home.

We do this not just because we are on a pilgrimage and an urban adventure, too. Every day at Christ Church Cathedral is an urban adventure! It is full of challenge and heartbreak and many, many instances of grace. It is full of feeling like a failure and falling short in the face of the enormous challenges of urban life. It is full of deep, deep joy at knowing that just by being here with open doors, praying hands and listening ears that we are reminding people that they are indeed made in God's image and deeply loved.

We are also on a pilgrimage. Each and all of us are on a journey deep into the heart of God. We are at different places on that journey, but we take it together. And so we welcome the good people from our sister Christ Church Cathedral not just as guests but as fellow adventurers and pilgrims.

Pray for them this week ... and I've asked them to pray for us. They'll be joining us for worship at 10 am on Sunday. When you see them, embrace them well.

What is *Christian* outreach at Christ Church Cathedral?

"Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?"

"Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, 

and respect the dignity of every human being?" 

(Baptismal Covenant, BCP p. 305)

We all have a sense that following Jesus and being the church involves service (particularly with the poor) and working for justice. Christ Church Cathedral has a long history of embracing this. Lately, many people have come to me saying it feels there is no coherent vision for outreach here, that we're sputtering without a clear sense of what we're supposed to be doing. 

As our congregation, the diocese and representatives from the neighborhood and region go through the process of discerning the shared, core values that will guide this Cathedral, much of that vision will emerge. But after hearing so many of these voices, Amy Cortright, Mark Sluss and I decided that even as that process was happening, it would be good for us to convene a diverse group of Cathedral parishioners to wrestle with some foundational and structural questions about outreach that will enable us to be ready to move once our values are discerned. Questions like:

*Why we as Christians are called to outreach with the poor and to work for justice (i.e. what makes us different from the United Way?)

*What are the opportunities and challenges for outreach and social justice based on location/population/etc.?

*What process can we propose for Chapter to consider that will help the Cathedral identify outreach ministries for the congregation to engage in and also for helping figure out whether a ministry proposed by a parishioner is something the Cathedral as a body should support or whether this is something the person should be encouraged to support individually as part of their baptized life in Christ?

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: