Tag Archives: journey

Rediscovering Baptism

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RESPONSIVE READING: Psalm 29

Leader: Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
People: Ascribe to the Lord the glory of his name; worship the Lord in holy splendor.
Leader: The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord, over mighty waters.
People: The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.
Men: The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon.  He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, and Sirion like a young wild ox.
Women: The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness; the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.
Choir: The voice of the Lord causes the oaks to whirl, and strips the forest bare; and in his temple all say, “Glory!”
Leader: The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord sits enthroned as king forever.
All: May the Lord give strength to his people! May the Lord bless his people with peace!

 SCRIPTURES: Isaiah 42:1-9 & Matthew 3:13-17

REFLECTIONS

Baptism marks the beginning of our Christian journey, and most clearly symbolizes the transformation from our old life to the new. By remembering the baptism of Jesus, and recalling our own, we have the opportunity to rediscover our first enthusiasm for the call of God on our lives.

Paul teaches us that baptism represents our participation by faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus. (Romans 6) The transition from not-yet-believer to faithful follower of Jesus is so distinct, so all encompassing, as to parallel the experience of passing from this life to the next through death. If our before-faith and with-faith lives are identical, then something is missing.


Baptism also connects us to the church. Paul likens baptism to circumcision, by which Jewish boys are marked as members of the community of faith and people of God. (Colossians 2:8-15) Baptism is actually our outward enacting of what God alone can do – break down the dividing walls and bridge the chasms that separate humans from one another, from their own lives, from the created world and from a deep and intimate experience of the divine.

The incarnation itself emphasizes that we are physical beings in need of a physical experience that grounds our spiritual reality. What happens to us in the physical world affects us spiritually, and visa versa. There is a reason we gather together for worship and don’t simply stay at home or wherever else we might be and imagine that we are connected spiritually. We need physical connection – both proximity and touch. Baptism roots our spirituality in our embodied experience of the world.

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These are initial planning notes and reflections for my sermon on 1/8/17 at Central Christian Church of Dallas.

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Image credit Sermon Central

Lent – the original mud run

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As I was out in the community yesterday offering ashes, I was struck by the wide variety of facial and body-language responses of the people who seemed to notice my presence. The least common seemed to be a knowing recognition and appreciation of why I was there – to offer a companioned experience of renewal to those who might desire it. A subset of these people actually came over and engaged me in conversation, some of them requested and received prayer and the imposition of ashes.

Ash WednesdayFar more common were the variations of folks who didn’t really seem to get what I was doing, even though I had a sign that clearly stated the offer —

I did not ask any of them about their thoughts – It seemed important not to insert or impose myself into their worlds any more than I already was by my mere presence and posture. Even so, I couldn’t help but wonder.

Granted, the mall or a metro station are not where one typically looks for experiences of forgiveness and renewal. Transformation may be sought many places and in many different kinds of experiences, but there was definitely a disconnect for these folks.

I thought about the work of Angie Thurston and Casper ter Kuile, two scholars from Harvard Divinity School – How We Gather. Their research took them into relationship with an array of leaders in new expressions of community designed to foster and facilitate individual, community and social transformation. CrossFit may be the most well known manifestation of this “new” trend in “non-religious” community formation. In the process, Angie and Casper identify six recurring themes that these gatherings have in common with religious expressions of community. As with religious groups, all six are not emphasized equally, and some are ignored completely. These six themes are:

Community  ~  Personal Transformation  ~  Social Transformation
Purpose Finding  ~  Creativity  ~  Accountability

HWG- six themes

How We Gather, Angie Thurston & Casper ter Kuile, 2015. p8

As I looked hopefully on the people around me, those with smudged foreheads and those who wondered why I didn’t wash my face, it occurred to me. People are always searching for journeys of transformation. And often these journeys connect us with the earth in one way or another. Some people walk the Appalachian Trail. Others walk on hot coals with Trever McGhee. The journey will include at least 4 elements:

  • It is both a solitary and communal act – As the person making the journey, it is you against the elements. And yet you are also surrounded by a “great cloud of witnesses” who have traveled the road before you, or are on the journey with you now.
  • It is an arduous process – The journey includes various forms of pain (physical, emotional, spiritual, relational, mental) and deprivation (going without some creature comforts, or even things typically considered essential).
  • It is transformative – The participant expects to be changed in some way – perhaps to prove to oneself an inner strength, a mastery of the elements, the mind or the body.
  • It leaves a mark – Often the mark is some form of dirt or ash. The road takes its toll, and the marks are a kind of badge of honor for the wearer – and perhaps a cause of bewilderment for the disengaged onlooker (“You people must be crazy…” is a phrase often spoke of or at those who make such journeys.)

And then I realized – Lent, beginning as it does with Ash Wednesday – is the original Mud Run. The Mud Run meets all four tests listed above, though it is certainly briefer than the AT or Lent.

mudrun 1Lent is a journey of transformation, marked with the initiating challenge to runners “You are dust, and to dust you will return.” Perhaps things like the Mud Run exist because the way church has offered transformation journeys over the recent centuries has lost meaning and power for many people. Perhaps the church, without coopting (ripping off) the culture’s innate creativity, might take some notes. As Angie and Casper have demonstrated so capably, the culture will create responses to the very real human need for such journeys, whether inside or far beyond religious communities.

One other thing. The people who make such journeys in the wider culture – they really seem to be enjoying themselves, individually and together, despite the pain and deprivation. Personal sacrifice does not result in misery for these folks. I’m reminded suddenly of Jesus counsel to his contemporaries for how to undertake their own Mud Run disciplines:

16 “And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that your fasting may be seen not by others (Matthew 6)

Wherever your journey of transformation takes you, may you have companions by your side, and all the provision you need. And may you be truly different at the end – more fully yourself, and more fully alive.

Multivocal Story: My Path To Being a Realtor

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Dan’s story is a great example of why I do the work I do. Pastor? Yes. Realtor? Yes. Many other things in his multivocal life and ministry? YES! If you know folks like Dan who are serving in pastoral ministry AND doing other kinds of work that they find personally fulfilling and financially rewarding, please point them in my direction. I’d love to hear their stories.

Source: My Path To Being a Realtor

Set your face – the meaning of Ash Wednesday and Lent

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Ash Wednesday
“Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust.”
A day of repentance. The beginning of Lent.
ash-wednesday1-940x250
Perhaps the real meaning of Lent is found in this passage from Luke 9:51-62. Lent is about us turning and setting our face toward the cross of Christ that he bore, and the one which he calls us to bear. Jesus’ harsh words in vs 62 may actually be self-talk. Perhaps he is drawing into his inner thought life, his prayer life, and acknowledging that from this point forward, the journey will not waver to left or right, at least not for him. All of the apostles will abandon him in the garden, even Peter who swore he would never desert Jesus (Mark 14).

The structure of Lent, with forty days bookended by Ashe Wednesday and Easter, is certainly reminiscent of Jesus’ baptism and 40 days of temptation in the wilderness (Mark 1:12-13). This harkens back to the periods of 40 found in the Hebrew Scriptures. In the story of the flood, it rained for 40 days and nights (Gen 7:12). Moses went on the mountain of the Lord for 40 days (Exodus 34:28). The spies, including Joshua and Caleb, spent 40 days spying out the Land of Canaan as the Lord instructed. When they returned with ten giving a bad report, the Israelites decided they would not go where the Lord was trying to lead them. And so God said that the Israelites would wander in the wilderness for forty years, one for every day spent spying the land. (Numbers 14) In fact, Moses’ life is marked by three periods of forty years – the first growing up as a prince of Egypt, the second in Midian tending his father-in-law’s flocks, and the third leading the Israelites toward the promised land. Forty signifies transformation, a shifting in way of life, a laying aside the old and taking up the new.

And that period of forty begins with one step. That is the point here. Ash Wednesday is that one step for us, the beginning of the journey of transformation for this year. It is worth noting that at his baptism Jesus did not set his face resolutely toward Jerusalem. He seemed to wander randomly from town to town, with intermittent trips to Jerusalem for the festivals, for three years.

The beginning of his earthly ministry was in a sense the start of his path to the cross. Even so, a second decision was needed. There came a time when all that he was doing and saying up to that moment would coalesce into one singular vision – the cross. The cross represents Jesus’ final confrontation with self-centered power. Ash Wednesday (as figured in Luke 9:51) represents the commitment to walk that road and not turn back.

Repentance is a turning from one posture and direction in life to another. Repentance from sin is turning from a life focused on serving only self to a life directed toward serving God first. Jesus himself received the baptism of repentance from his cousin John. What this means, at least in part, is that Jesus was repenting of – turning away from – his life as a carpenter focused on his family and community obligations in Nazareth. Instead, he turned his face, not specifically toward Jerusalem, but more broadly toward the ministry of the Messiah who came to proclaim in word and work the inrushing of the Reign of God.

As we begin this Lenten journey, may we join with all who have followed the Christ, turning once again away from a self-serving life and choosing instead a life that embraces all as we are embraced by God. We enter anew into a process of transformation. We recognize that the life we have been living does not work. We turn away from the destructive habits (behavior and thought patterns) that have shaped our lives. We set our faces toward the New Jerusalem – the City of God that is descending, even now, as God seeks to dwell in our midst and redeem and restore all things.

The church is a community of travelers

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The church is meant to be a community where each person can find safe space to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling, without making it unsafe for others in the process. Each of us need time, space, and permission to be who we are at each moment. We need to be allowed to feel our feelings and think our thoughts, and even have a place to engage in conversation about these things. The role of church leadership is to help equip people for the journey of faith, not to make the journey for them or even to lay out every stop along the way. The only limit is that in your journey you cannot demean, abuse or oppress others as they make their journey. Together we learn how to pack for the journey, learning to consider what is needed, and what is just extra baggage and dead weight – but the ultimate choice of what to bring is up to each person. We describe the journey as we and others have made it, so some things will be familiar along the way. We tell them where the “port keys” are, so they know that no matter where they end up, getting back can be a short trip. And we travel, some on one road, others on another.

The different paths often parallel, then diverge, and later intersect. One has a tough climb, while another is on an easy descent. Some are resting in the valley, while others are taking glory in the summit for a moment. Sometimes a particular spot is simply a rest stop along someone’s way. We give them food and water and a place to rest. We listen to their story, and share some of ours. Then we wish them well as they travel on. We certainly do not begrudge their departure, nor think it signals our failure, any more than their arrival signaled our success. The journey is theirs to make. Success or failure of any given venture will not be known until the journey’s end, when all things are weighed by the one who is Way, Truth and Life – in whom we journey, in whom we trust, in whom we live.