Moments of Grace

Southside Abbey is a small church. We can't offer much in the way of pomp and spectacle. (Unless by spectacle you mean chaos). We rent our space, and so we worship around art that is not necessarily religious. The nightmarish teddy-bear with claws comes to mind as a prime example. It can be a bit noisy, and yet, even with the noise, the artistic oddities, and the unpredictable people, there are moments of striking beauty and grace. In fact, these moments are essential to Southside Abbey. They are our ministry. A bunch of strange people get together and there are little hints that life could be another way. Maybe God is Love. Maybe Jesus is the Lord of the Cosmos. Maybe we should actually do what Jesus tells us.  Maybe we are saved by grace. Maybe we are all forgiven. It isn't always spoken, but you can see it, if you have eyes to see.
Here are some moments that have struck me:

Sudanese children blessing the eucharistic host with the priest

An ex-convict, ex-motorcycle gang enforcer leading worship

Lutherans, Episcopalians, and dis-enchanted Baptists singing in unison

Praying over pizza crust to become our communion bread

A drunk asking for quiet during the sermon

Repeatedly reminding a man with a traumatic brain injury that he is, in fact, one of the saints of God

A formerly Mormon wild-woman bringing the cookies every week

A sermon from a quiet and kind policeman asking us to reflect on how we respond to suffering


You can't make this stuff up.
What are some moments of grace that have struck you?

What is the Church?

Let's start by defining what we do not mean.

1. The Church is not the building
Many folks would assume that the church is the building. Many folks would be wrong.
A body without blood ceases to be a body. It is a corpse.

2. The Church is not the people
There are those who think that church is whenever their buddies get together and pray a bit. They may have a point, for Christ is present, but they are also missing out on a lot: eg. the Eucharist.

3. The Church is not the institution
It is foolishness to conflate God's redeeming work in the world with human power structures. Such confusion causes people to claim that their denomination, and their denomination only, is the true church. The Holy Spirit is not beholden to any organizational chart or doctrinal point. The wind blows where it will.

So there we have it. The church is not those things.
However, we should also define what we mean by church.

1. Sometimes the church is the building
Or put better, churches are places. A building isn't necessary, but a place is. People live in place and place shapes our spirituality. In that same vein, art and architecture shape our spirituality. Having a beautiful building in which to worship God means something. It means that we associate God with beauty. It meant something when God told the Israelites to worship him in a tent. It meant God can be worshipped anywhere. Place matters.

2. Sometimes the church is the people.
In prayer, in the ministry of their daily work done well, in the love of their neighbors, in their care for the poor, the people in the pews act as the body of Christ in the world. This is where the rubber meets the road. It is one thing to love all of humanity, abstractly and safely. It is another thing entirely to love the person next to you.

3. Sometimes the church is the institution
If there are no sacraments, if there is no process for ordaining leaders, if there is no tradition, no carryover between generations, no capacity to meet the needs of the community, then you may not be involved in the church. It is mostly likely a dysfunctional bible study. Organization brings stability, and stability keeps people safe. God likes that sort of thing. It gives him something to work with: eg. the ordinary means of grace.

So the church is not these things, but the church is definitely these things. The church is a mysterious intersection between the people, the place, and the institution that is somehow more than the sum of its parts. It's a mystery, and you can bet the Holy Spirit has got something to do with it.

Now some rational types may be complaining at this point, ''C'mon, I can't throw a rock without hitting another so-called 'mystery' in Christianity." The rational types can chew on those rocks for all the good it will do them. Reality is mystery. Truth rests on paradox. And the beauty in that reality is that it releases us from determinism. Logic won't let us see all the way to the end of where this whole cosmic endeavor is going. Love maybe, but not logic.

Table Talk - Surprised by God

The Good News of Jesus Christ according to the evangelist John, chapter 1, verses 29 to 42.

John saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, "Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, `After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.' I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel." And John testified, "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, `He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God."

The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, "Look, here is the Lamb of God!" The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, "What are you looking for?" They said to him, "Rabbi" (which translated means Teacher), "where are you staying?" He said to them, "Come and see." They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o'clock in the afternoon. One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first found his brother Simon and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which is translated Anointed). He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, "You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas" (which is translated Peter).

The discussion over dinner reflected on these questions:

1.  How has God surprised you?

2.  How is God surprising you now?

Sunday Supper, Prayer, Theology-on-Tube

Bob wrapped up the conversation with these thoughts:

The overarching theme that I got from what I heard [in the discussions around the table] is God’s ability to surprise.  So many of us are locked into – or feel that we’re locked into – this schedule of ‘this is what I have to do today’ and ‘I have to get this next thing done because of this other thing.’  My eyes were really open to this at Thanksgiving.  [Lisa and I] had eleven guys from Sudan sharing Thanksgiving with us, and one of them said to me, “You Americans, all you do is work, eat, and sleep.”  Work, eat, sleep.  

Work.  

         Eat. 

              Sleep . . . .  

                               And I thought, wait - what else is there?  

I was surprised that he saw that so clearly . . . and reflected that back to me.  We can get locked into that, can’t we?  Work, eat, sleep.  But there’s really so much more to this life.  

And if we just have the eyes to see it, God has the capacity and the ability [to surprise us], and he’s surprising us all the time – 

all of the time.

Even if we have an expectation and things don’t go well or the way we expected, God has the ability to surprise us.  And God often surprises us in way that our expectations are blown away.  We had a great gathering last Sunday evening for our first Sunday supper, prayer, and theology-on-tube dry run.  And I had expected that we’d have a few folks and it would go well, but we had whole lot of folks and it went incredibly well.  The discussion was really deep and wonderful.  What a surprise!  Even though we were expecting good, it was great. 

So the question I think I’ll leave you with to ponder as we leave this place is, where might you be surprised?  If you’re feeling sort of locked into that schedule of work-eat-sleep, work-eat-sleep, where are some places for to pick your head up, open your eyes, and be open to those surprises – to God’s surprises?  This is the season of Epiphany, so where might you have an epiphany – or, as the Greeks say, a theophany?  Where is God opening your eyes in this season of Epiphany?