Encouraging "a mature and wise body of believers"

Like many people, I subscribe to a number of e-newsletters. They are usually a quick read and its easy to “unsubscribe” if I no longer find them helpful. (I’ve long since given up any hope of keeping my email address “private” convinced as I am that the luxury of privacy no longer exists in the age of the internet). One of the most consistently interesting and provocative is news and pews from the publisher, HarperOne.

HarperOne is a beacon of light in the vast wasteland of religious book publishing in America (a subject for another blog post!). Mickey Maudlin, Senior Vice President and Executive Editor at HarperOne, uses his monthly column to showcase new titles. But he also offers some interesting commentary on the current religious scene. What’s intriguing about Maudlin and HarperOne is that their publishing philosophy seems to be anchored in a belief that conservative and fundamentalist Christians—the market that most religious book publishers regularly target—are not the only ones who read or buy books. HarperOne appears to believe that there is large group of thoughtful, curious, spiritually committed, intelligent folks out there who are hungry and eager for more meat than the pablum that most religious book publishers are selling these days. To put it in Biblical terms, “May their tribe increase!” Maudlin and HarperOne have taken this philosophy to the bank by regularly featuring authors like Marcus Borg, Bart Ehrman, Barbara Brown Taylor, John Shelby Spong and many others who sell hundreds of books to this other-wise underserved market. 

When I was teaching a weekly adult class, I often made use of these authors in an effort to reassure people in my congregation that it was OK for them to ask questions, have doubts, and to color outside the strict theological lines of whatever denomination they grew up in. It was not only OK, it was absolutely vital to a living faith. I have always believed that doubt is not the enemy of faith. Fear is. And its fear, I’m convinced, that keeps so many Christians from digging deeper into the Bible and their beliefs. Its also fear that keeps their pastors from sharing the fruits of their seminary education with their parishioners. 

Nowhere is this more the case than when it comes to the Bible. Although historical-critical insights into the books of the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament have been around for almost 200 years, they come as news to most people sitting in the pews. One major reason is that pastors have given up their role as the primary theologian and Biblical scholar in their parish to become the CEOs of their congregation. There are genuine reasons for this change but one result has been that lay people are not challenged to grow in their faith by their pastors.

Maudlin addresses this phenomenon in a recent column. 

Despite the fact that more scholarship on the Bible accumulates and despite the fact that more information is accessible to more people today, there remains a chasm, a difficult-to-bridge gap between Christians who believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God and the best and deepest knowledge about that book. Why the gap?

Part of the reason is fear, of course. Evangelicals and other conservative Christians see themselves as emerging from the ashes of the modernist-fundamentalist wars of the twentieth century where “liberal” theology cast out the orthodox from mainstream institutions, such as seminaries and universities. So it is no wonder people are suspicious about what passes for “knowledge” about the Bible in these circles. The funny thing is, though, today many of those allegedly “liberal” scholars are the sons and daughters of conservative Christians who learned to love their Bibles at home and went off to universities to discover its history and deeper content. There are few truly hostile, anti-Christian liberals left.

And of the remaining hostility in this world, some of it comes from what I am getting at—namely, that some people treat as “enemies of the church” those who talk about the fruits of scholarly research of the Bible. Who wants to be the target of persecution? Who wants to be seen as a persecutor? Better to keep these two worlds apart.

But there are brave souls who are not content to leave matters alone—thank God.
You can read the entire article here.

Some of those brave souls are parish pastors who regularly make an effort to share the fruits of current Biblical and theological scholarship with their people in a pastorally sensitive way that refuses to patronize them. That’s what good teachers do. They stretch us and challenge our beliefs. They move us out of our comfort zones rather than simply re-enforcing our prejudices.

This is important work, more important than some of the other distractions that regularly compete for our attention as pastors. I want to quickly add that the pastor isn't the only one who can take a leadership role in adult education. Many congregations are blessed with all kinds of folks who can make this a vital part of any parish. But at the end of the day, no one is better equipped to serve as the resident theologian and Biblical scholar in most congregagtions than the pastor. That's what she was trained to do! Maudlin sums it up this way:

The church needs a mature and wise body of believers in order to live up to its calling in the world. But unless we put aside our fears and our us-versus-them thinking, we cannot become that body. Reading [and encouraging others to read] the works of those who are working hard to equip the church so that our beliefs match our collective knowledge of the Scriptures will help. 

So will pastors recovering their roles as teachers. You can read Mickey Maudlin’s blog at newsandpews.com. jpr

Slow

On a recent trip to Italy, my companions and I walked over the Col du Gran San Bernardo and passed through the Piemonte region in the north. This is the home of great wines—Barbera, Barolo, and others, as well as great food. It’s also the birthplace of the “slow food” movement, an idea that has been making more and more sense to me over the past few years as I’ve tried to think about ways in which place matters when it comes to caring for creation. Briefly put, I’ve come to the same conclusion that others have before me; in the words of Stephen Jay Gould, “we will not fight to save what we do not love.” I have a deep suspicion that this may also be true from a theological perspective.

In digging through some old files, I discovered that this isn’t the first time I’ve thought about this. Here’s a newsletter article from April of 2010 where I first began thinking out loud along these lines.

I was feeling beleaguered the other day by a series of deadlines and due dates.  It occurred to me that perhaps someone should start a “slow church” movement.  It could be patterned along the lines of the “slow food” movement that began in Italy in 1986.  The McDonalds Corporation was planning to build a new fast-food restaurant in the heart of one of Rome’s oldest neighborhoods near the famous Spanish Steps. Carlo Petrini, a local restaurateur and resident, led a successful protest against what he considered the corporate blight of one of the city’s loveliest plazas. 

From those beginnings, “slow food” has become an international movement with thousands of members in over 132 countries.  In addition to slow food – slow travel, slow shopping, and slow design are part of an emerging slow planet movement.  One description of the slow movement is that it is, “opposed to the culture of fast food, [slow food] seeks to encourage the enjoyment of regional produce, traditional foods, which are often grown organically and to enjoy these foods in the company of others. It aims to defend agricultural biodiversity.”[1] Think of the Olympia Farmer’s Market or Fish Tale Brewing!

What might a “slow church” look like?  The mascot of the slow movement is a snail which provides a clue.  Slow is about literally slowing things down.  My quick list of characteristics of  “slow church” includes the following:

·      Taking time for discernment and prayer as we go about our individual and corporate lives of discipleship

·      Paying attention to our relationships including our relationship with each other (which is very important!) but also our community, watershed, and bio-region

·      Learning and celebrating our local history and traditions as individuals, families, and as a congregation and community

·      Drawing on the rich spiritual heritage and resources of the Christian tradition (think “heirloom seeds” here) along with other spiritual traditions to enrich our spiritual lives and sharing these with our children and grandchildren

·      Taking time to breathe, be silent and bask in God’s graceful action in the world and in our lives

You are welcome to add your own ideas about “slow church.”  Please share them! 

One of the best practitioners of “slow worship” is Dan Erlander.  Before every worship service, Dan always takes off his watch.  “We’re on God’s time now,” he once told me.  Perhaps we a “snail” banner could grace our worship space to remind us. If I seem a little slow, just start without me. jpr

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[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_movement

Capitol Lake reflects our inability to make hard choices

Like some of you, I've been thinking about Capitol Lake and it's future. Here are some thoughts I shared in yesterday's Olympian: 

A simple act of hospitality

We recently hosted the ordination of a Roman Catholic Woman Priest at Good Shepherd. Here’s a short message I shared with the congregation the next day in response to some phone calls, emails, and traffic on our Good Shepherd Olympia Facebook page:

Yesterday morning (May 31, 2014), something amazing happened at Good Shepherd. Kathleen Bellefeuille-Rice was ordained as a Catholic priest in our sanctuary. Kathleen is a member and now pastor for the Holy Wisdom Inclusive Catholic Community in Lacey. We provided space for her ordination in our sanctuary as an extension of our ongoing efforts to be a welcoming congregation. Like many of the good things that happen here at Good Shepherd, the person who did the most to bring it off without a hitch was also the person who received the least amount of credit—Darcy Huffman.

The responses we’ve received for this simple act of hospitality have been most gratifying. Countless people came up to me yesterday to tell me how grateful they were for our congregation’s willingness to host Kathleen’s ordination. Apparently, people who are better informed about these things than I am have turned down the opportunity that I so blithely accepted on behalf of the congregation. They were afraid of the blowback.

My first hint that this might be bigger than I imagined came at 5:45 A.M yesterday morning when my cell phone rang as I was enjoying a cup of coffee with my daughter. The caller was from Ft. Myers, Florida, (apparently unaware of the time zone difference) and declined to give his name. He wanted me to know, however, that he hoped I was uneasy about the upcoming ordination service. He inferred that I was single-handedly setting ecumenical relations back to the sixteenth century. I was stunned.

If you’ve been following our Facebook page, then you know my caller isn’t the only traditional Catholic who was upset about the events of yesterday. When I realized that my dialog partners did not share the same sense of humor as me, it became apparent that some sort of thoughtful response was necessary.  So here’s my response.  And then on this issue at least, in the words of Chief Joseph, “I will fight no more forever.”

Women’s ordination: One Facebook comment read: “Wow, Fake ordination of a "Catholic" Womynpriest coming up? Stay classy, Lutherans!” To which I responded that women pastors have been sharing their gifts with Lutherans in the U.S. since 1970 when Elizabeth Platz was ordained. [Incidentally, I was privileged to be a colleague of Beth Platz when we both worked together in campus ministry during the 1980’s.] Women pastors have enriched our ministry immeasurably and (dare I say it?) added a touch of class. We were pleased and proud to be the site of Kathleen Bellefeuille-Rice's ordination this morning. May God bless her ministry with the people of Holy Wisdom Inclusive Catholic Community.”

Ordination: On this particular issue, we Lutherans have a very different understanding than our Catholic sisters and brothers who believe that ordination is a sacrament, like baptism or Holy Communion. Since they believe it to be a sacrament, they also believe it is under the control of the church and specifically the local bishop. Our Lutheran theology of ordination grows out of our theology of Baptism which holds that we set aside and ordain candidates for the office of Word and Sacraments “for the sake of good order” and not because of any special power on the part of the bishop or the ordained one. All baptized Christians are part of what Luther called “the priesthood of all believers.” The ordained ones, including bishops, have no special powers or privileges that any baptized follower of Jesus doesn’t have by virtue of God’s grace.

The fact is that we Lutherans have been practicing illicit (that is, literally, “outside the law”) ordinations since the sixteenth century. Rick Jaech, my classmate and our current bishop, along with many of our Seminex classmates was ordained outside of normal church policies and procedures by his father, Pastor Emil Jaech. Ordinations outside the norm are nothing new for us. We are Lutherans after all! What better place for a woman to be ordained as a priest than in a Lutheran church. I’m proud we were blessed to be the host! This is a longer discussion, of course, but not one for Facebook.

Ecumenical relations: We, of course, always try to be gracious and desire unity with all people of faith and all people of goodwill. This is especially true for our Catholic sisters and brothers. We came from the Catholic Church. The founder of our movement was a Catholic priest who retained much of Catholic tradition as reflected in our worship and theology. But desiring unity with our Catholic sisters and brothers does not mean that we abdicate to every doctrinal nuance in canon law, particularly when, in our opinion, there is no Biblical or theological support for it. This includes issues that have been in dispute since the Reformation like priestly celibacy, the power of bishops, and the theology of ordination. It also includes more recent issues like the role of women in the church (which we believe is any role!) and the right of local assemblies to identify qualified candidates, including women and members of sexual minorities, in order to train them and call them to the office of Word and Sacrament. On matters such as these which go to the very heart of the gospel, like our founder, Martin Luther, we reserve the right to follow our own consciences and obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29).

We are sorry if our decision to host Kathleen’s ordination has offended some of our Catholic sisters and brothers. That was not our intent. We are not sorry we hosted it, however, and we wish her and the members of Holy Wisdom Inclusive Catholic Community God’s richest blessings as they share the Good News of God’s inclusive love in Jesus Christ with the people of Lacey.  jpr

My Billy Frank story

A great leader in the cause of civil rights and the care of creation died this week. News of the death of Billy Frank, Jr., brought back a flood of memories of the fish wars in the 1970’s that led up to the famous Boldt decision (U.S. v. Washington) that forever changed the politics of salmon in the Pacific Northwest. It was our regional equivalent of Brown v. The Board of Education and Billy Frank was one of the key leaders who helped to make it happen.

My Billy Frank story dates back to the fall of 1975 when I was serving my internship year with the campus ministry at Pacific Lutheran University. There was a severe fall storm and many of the rivers in western Washington were overflowing their banks including the Nisqually. I was living in the guest room of Hinderlie Hall, a men’s dorm on campus and my room was near the only pay phone in the building (this was long before cell phones and computers!).

One night a call came through from a group of students at The Evergreen State College in Olympia asking for volunteers to drive over to Frank’s Landing to help fill and stack sandbags. I gathered some volunteers from the dorm and we made the 20-minute drive through the pouring rain and began filling sand bags. We joined students who’d been recruited from other area colleges—UPS, PLU, St. Martin’s, and Evergreen. The Evergreen students were the only ones who seemed to be aware of the political significance of Frank’s Landing—home for the extended Frank family and the nerve center of tribal protests that led up to U.S. v. Washington. It was the place where Billy Frank and his family and friends had been arrested numerous times along with people like Dick Gregory, Marlon Brando, and Buffy St. Marie. God bless them but the young men from PLU were mostly oblivious and I, having been in the Northwest for only a few months, had only a vague idea of the significance of the place we were all trying to save from the ravages of the roiling, silt-laden waters of the Nisqually.

When we’d completed our task for the night and were standing around eating cookies and drinking coffee supplied by the local Red Cross, a man with dark hair tied back in a pony tail stood up to a makeshift microphone and began speaking. It was Billy and he was thanking the students as well as providing a brief but colorful history of the fish wars and the importance of Frank’s Landing. The PLU students' eyes got big. Several of them whispered that they’d simply come to help out some poor, flood-stricken Indians and hadn’t realized they were becoming a small part of something much bigger and more significant. If I knew then what I know now, I could have assisted them in processing their experience. As it was, we were each left on our own to reflect on our time on the river.  

I count that night as a significant one in my development as a pastor and a citizen of the Pacific Northwest. I went on to serve in ministries throughout the region and eventually went back to graduate school to earn a degree in Northwest history. It wasn’t until years later that I realized that I’d witnessed a small piece of it being made and met one of its most important players, Billy Frank, Jr.

May the salmon that he so loved flourish again and may his legacy of courage and care for creation live on in the countless people he inspired and was teacher to.  Rest eternal grant him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. jpr

Why poetry matters

It is difficult to get the news from poems, yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there.—William Carlos Williams

April is poetry month and I’ve been thinking about poetry and preaching. In college, I majored in English, which meant I read a lot of poetry. My choice of majors also made me part of the tribe of English majors that Garrison Keillor enjoys poking fun at almost as much as Lutherans!

Like artists and musicians, when you major in English, it’s important to have a day job. Mine was being a pastor. The connection between preaching and English became clear to me in the midst of preparing my first sermon. I suddenly realized that my most important task was to communicate the gospel to people I barely knew in the clearest and most convincing way. The only tools for accomplishing this formidable task were words.

The relationship became even clearer under the influence Joseph Sittler, a man I never met but who continues to have great impact on how I see the world. Sittler taught for many years at the University of Chicago Divinity School and then at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago. He loved language and God’s creation in equal measures and he saw the two as being intimately connected. When asked what one piece of advice he would give to campus pastors (a group of which I was a part at the time), he said, “Watch your language!”

Throughout his life, Sittler’s focus was on the centrality of grace in our understanding of God and the world. He frequently used poetry in his writing and preaching. When asked, “Why poetry?” he answered, “It is the peculiar function of the poet sometimes to say out loud and with resonant clarity what we all would wish to say had we the dark music and the language.” He encouraged us to read poetry and to make use of it in our own preaching and writing.

It was a lesson that stuck. As I read more poetry, it didn’t take long to realize that many of the lyrics to popular songs were also poetry; sometimes profound. It was poetry that people who claimed not to like poetry and who might never darken the door of a church could relate to and understand. I soon found myself re-listening to songs by Van Morrison, U2, Joni Mitchell, and Paul Simon to name only a few, mining them for memorable phrases and lines that could illuminate the gospel of God’s grace at work in the world. It transformed the way I thought about my vocation. I began to think of myself as a poet—not necessarily a very good one, but a poet nevertheless. I came to see that good poetry, like the best preaching, was about using language to reflect on life in all its complexity.

In his book about preaching in contemporary culture, Finally Comes the Poet: Daring Speech for Proclamation, Walter Brueggemann reminds us that the Hebrew prophets were poets. You can easily see it in the way our English translations of the Hebrew Bible are formatted, e.g,

For as the rain and snow come down from heaven,

      and do not return there until they have watered the earth,

making it spring forth and sprout,

      giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;

      it shall not return to me empty,

but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,

      and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.—Isaiah 55:10-11 (NRSV)

That’s not just a claim Isaiah is making on behalf of God; it’s also poetry—poetry that speaks against what Brueggemann calls a “prose world” in which truth is greatly reduced to a closed and manageable ideology that robs the gospel of its promise of a just, adventurous, and hopeful future that is full of possibility.

Like the prophets, poets are often not welcomed by those who presume to run the affairs of the world. Plato wanted them banned from his ideal Republic and they are often the first to be arrested during revolutionary times because of their inconvenient habit of telling the truth (think of Vaclav Havel, Fela Kuti, Pete Seeger, and the members of Pussy Riot to name only a few).

Regardless of their unpopularity—or maybe because of it—poets inspire us and help us see a world of surprises that dictators and demagogues try their hardest to eliminate. They help us hear the Gospel in new and daring ways and inspire us to leave the security of the “prose world” and set out on the journey of faith. During Poetry Month, thank God for poets! jpr

House Blessing

Thanks to my family and friends, many of you are aware that I was in Washington, D.C. last Tuesday (March 25, 2014) to offer the opening prayer for the House of Representatives. This honor came my way through the efforts of my friend, Congressman Denny Heck, along with the Chaplain of the House, Fr. Pat Conroy, S.J. If you'd like to read about it, you can find a story and a short video at Olympian pastor opens U.S. House with prayer. This was truly the experience of a lifetime for me and I will be reflecting on it in more detail in the next several weeks. If you're interested in the prayer, here it is.

Holy One,

We know you in an infinite variety of ways.  By whatever name we call you, you are the One in whom we live and move and have our being.

We ask your blessing upon the members of this House as they carry on the business of our nation at this critical time in our history. 

Give them courage in the face of immense challenges, a spirit of cooperation despite their differences, and trust in your divine guidance as they work together for the common good.

When the path ahead is unclear, remind them that throughout the ages, your prophets and holy ones have shown us what is good; that you require nothing more of us —and nothing less—than to do justice, to have compassion for one another, and to walk humbly with you, the beginning and the end of all things.

Amen