It is raining in Brooklyn today, and between the rain and the cold that I’ve managed to catch, my plans for a hike through the North Woods in Central Park are on hold. Instead, I am curled up under a blanket with a cup of tea, my favorite fall candle (a souvenir from that apple-picking trip) burning merrily across the room on my cluttered kitchen table, and Josh Schicker’s excellent album, Faith, the Poor and Politics playing in the background as I write, reflecting on what was a very full and rather thoughtful week.
There has been a lot of death this week. Several people close to me are grieving the loss of dear ones, and the part of our nation that hasn’t taken leave of its senses is mourning the senseless deaths of eleven members of a synagogue in Pittsburgh today. Eugene Peterson, perhaps most famous for penning a paraphrase of the Bible called The Message, also died this week. Multiple journals, including Christianity Today, published full length articles by way of obituaries, but one of the articles I most appreciated was Jonathan Merritt’s in The Washington Post, which highlighted the public outcry that erupted around Peterson last year, regarding his stance on same-sex marriages.
Peterson has been no stranger to controversy throughout his career, but this particular scandal almost resulted in a major Christian bookstore pulling all of his books off their shelves – until Peterson recanted his opinion. “Fans who had become haters in a blink miraculously morphed into fans once more,” Merritt writes. He goes on to point out that this type of behavior is unfortunately normalized in North American church culture: “The modern church is often a movement that will love you — so long as you behave according to its rules,” but go against the flow, and you can just as quickly find yourself a pariah. What we can learn from reflecting on both the wonderful and more difficult parts of Peterson’s story is that Spirit-led transformation – of our words, our thoughts, our faith, our ideas – is possible, and something to lean into. Easier said than done, especially when that transformation goes against the mainstream, but important.
Phyllis Tickle, in The Great Emergence, explores patterns in church history, beginning with the Rt. Rev. Mark Dyer’s observation that about every 500 years or so, the church tends to undergo a sort of rummage sale – a time of upheaval and transformation that results in not only bettering previous forms of Christianity but birthing new ways of living into faith. I believe, along with Sarah Bessey and others, that we are in the middle of one of those shifts right now. I’m a bit sad to be missing out the Evolving Faith conference this weekend – it just wasn’t in the budget – but even just following the hashtag on Twitter has been rewarding; there are so many great voices for change speaking out this weekend.
I’ve been thinking a lot about that post I took down a couple years ago, in which I basically asked the question, “What does it mean to be the church?” It’s still a question that keeps me up at night, with its various derivatives: what does it look like to be a Christian in this political climate? How can I be an active member in my church community when I live so far away from the majority of people I am getting to know? How do I talk about my faith in a city that seems to forget it’s even possible that I might have one? What is my role in God’s kingdom? How do I use my voice to foster positive change without alienating and offending people? And is that even something I should be concerned about? I remember a mentor telling me once that Madeleine L’Engle had observed that she would be a bit concerned if she wasn’t offending certain sorts of people.
In a speech to the Library of Congress, L’Engle said, “We need to dare disturb the universe by not being manipulated or frightened by judgmental groups who assume the right to insist that if we do not agree with them, not only do we not understand but we are wrong. How dull the world would be if we all had to feel the same way about everything, if we all had to like the same books, dislike the same books…”
I’m still thinking about it, but maybe I will put that post back up – or at least, perhaps I will rewrite it. I’m a different person today than I was when I first wrote it – but at any rate, I still think it’s an important question, and one worth asking. If you have thoughts on what it means to be the church, send them my way, and let’s talk about a guest post.
Oh, hey! So I finally got around to setting up a newsletter mailing list again. During the season shortly after I took that post down when I wasn’t writing very much for awhile, the plugin I was using was phased out, and all of the data in it was wiped out. If you’re on computer, you should see a new sign-up form to the right. On mobile, it’s likely towards the bottom of the page, so scroll down – and sign up, please! I promise I won’t spam you, or share your info with anyone else. I also promise that you probably won’t get a weekly or even a routinely monthly newsletter, because most of the time I will probably forget to write it. But if and when exciting things are happening around here, you’ll be the first to know.
Okay, so while I was looking for that Madeleine L’Engle quote, I found this lovely article: Dare to Disturb the Universe: Madeleine L’Engle on Creativity, Censorship, Writing, and the Duty of Children’s Books. I highly recommend giving it a read-through. Lots of great stuff there.
And if you’re a L’Engle fan, I highly recommend The Madeleine Podcast. (The episode with Lucy Shaw is my favorite. And for the record, I don’t agree with Sarah Bessey about Susan.)
Speaking of podcasts, this one is fantastic: Maybe Jesus Doesn’t Want You to Follow Him. I’ve listened to it twice now, and have every intention of listening to it a third time and taking notes. (The title doesn’t mean what you think it does.)
I’ve started listening to Annie F. Downs’ podcast recently as well: That Sounds Fun. In Episode 105, she introduces her new book Remember God (which I am really looking forward to picking up next month), and talks about what it was like to write it. I was surprised to learn as I was listening that “obedience” is a religious word that I personally need to re-imagine – which got me thinking (again) about Learning to Speak God from Scratch. There are so many words that the North American church needs to re-imagine, and I think we could have some interesting discussions about the words we trip over sometimes. What are those words for you? I’m curious. Please post in the comments below, or on Facebook.
Grace and peace, friends.
More to come,
Happy
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