madavison

Knowing that commitment unleashes energy, what can I commit myself to today? 
(Daily Question, Gratefulness.org, Jan 31, 2018)

It’s that time of year that followers of Jesus begin thinking about a discipline or practice for the season of Lent.  This year, Ash Wednesday is February 14.  Yes, if you’ve not thought about it yet: Ash Wednesday on Valentine’s Day.  If I was in Godspell, I would expect to receive a heart imposed on my forehead rather than a cross.  Maybe that’s what we need in our context.  To have our hearts and heads better connected, realigned, or reset.  Realigned head and heart religion instead of “you are dust and to dust you shall return.”  There is an abundance of dusty death throughout the centuries and in our midst.  All kinds of Christians still struggle with “love God and love your neighbor as yourself.”

When you think about Jesus of Nazareth, without a christological faith claim, a heart on the forehead represents how Jesus met people at wells, along the road, and at banquets.  Jesus had a heart for people seeking better health, inclusive community, and for the comfortable complacent ones assured they would be first rather than last.  Would it be an edgy faith statement to sport a heart rather than a cross this Ash Wednesday?  It would invite conversation, which we need more of, and less debate.

On Ash Wednesday, members of the Regional Youth Council will post a weekly devotional on my blog page, Old Camp Hat, hosted on the Region’s website.  Yes, you may not know that Pam, Leslie, and I each have a little blog page on the Region’s website.  I confess that we are not very active writers, but we want to be.  Each Wednesday, one or more RYC members will offer some thoughts about Lent and their experience of being a follower of Jesus.  So, please stop by each week, as RYC unleash the energy of a discipline during Lent.

I’ve been asked what my discipline will be this year.  I’ve ‘practiced’ a variety of disciplines, from thirty minutes of silence to learning to roller blade.  Quick aside, I’ve got a nice set of roller blades, size 8, and accessories, if anyone is interested.  Rather than give something up, I add something to my living during Lent, which requires me to shuffle my priorities and let something go.  This year, I’ll be adding sermon prep as my discipline and posting thoughts on the Lectionary texts each week on Old Camp Hat and my personal blog, davisonsdoodle.com.   Why is this a discipline? I’m not an every week preacher.  I’ve been a witness to ministers’ schedules and preaching preparation, so this will help me deepen my understanding of what local ministers experience.  If I was a weekly preacher, I most likely would blog about the process — kind of a ‘back of the house’ look at the formation of the sermon and my thinking.  It would not really be a full blown text, but thoughts working on me as part of the process.  I’ll post on Tuesday afternoon during Lent.

Commitment unleashes energy.  What will you commit to this Lenten season?

“The true price of anything you do is the amount of time you exchange for it.”  
Henry David Thoreau, Walden

The cool northern breeze, however brief of late, reminds me that soon fall and winter will sweep into life.  Daylight is growing shorter as the earth spins the sun below the equator and another year into memory as the two busiest holidays approach.  Halloween, All Hallow’s Eve, Day of the Dead, All Saints Day, provide a moment of pause to remember the significant ones, loved ones, and moments: grace, wisdom, love, life lessons, hard conversations, and people on whose work and living provide me (us) opportunities for which I (we) can never say thank you, enough.  As I’ve done in the past I invite you to ponder:

Are you a good steward of your experience?

When we where children my mother required my sister and me to write a list of people and situations for which we were thankful this past year.  This task kept us out of her hair on Thanksgiving morning, but it was more than  busy work.  It was mother’s way of teaching gratitude and reflection.  The other instruction: fill the blank page you are given no matter how long it takes.  Sometimes we shared names and moments from our list.  Names spoken through tears.  Moments spoken of between belly laughs.  The metaphor of life lessons shared.
“You know, it’s like . . .”

Here is some space for you to ponder and create a list.  It might help you determine how you will covenant to participate in your congregation or the Region next year.  You are a blessing.

Peace . . .
Michael

The Children’s Defense Fund created the idea of a National Observance of Children’s Sabbath back in 1992.  During October of each year many places of worship, non-Christian and Christian alike,  will participate in Children’s Sabbath by following a devotional, holding a special worship service, participating in service projects benefiting children, holding an educational event, or adding something to worship through October 22.

This year’s theme is, Moving Forward with Hope: Love and Justice for Every Child.

That is an ambitious vision here in 2017.   I say that because the past 60 days have been full of events to which we can only react.  And, react is something we’ve become good at doing.  Social media is often the tool of choice for many as we post messages of thoughts and prayers, we donate dollars (Week of Compassion has one of the lowest overhead costs of all non-profits receiving money for natural and human made disasters), create Clean Up Buckets and Hygiene Kits for Church World Service to distribute, and prepare for the mission trips to help neighbors recover and rebuild.  All good reactions.

Individuals cannot stop hurricanes, flooding, tornadoes, earthquakes, or other creation events that damage lives.  Systems, public and private, cannot stop hurricanes, flooding, tornadoes, earthquakes, or other creation events that damage lives.  Individuals and systems cannot stop all bad things from happening that are human made events that damage lives.

But, individuals and systems, public and private, can mitigate the potential that children will want for or dream about having basic necessities: food, shelter, healthcare, safety, education, equality, an opportunity to make their dreams of life real.  Individuals and systems can mitigate the potential that children or adults will be shot or injured with weapons created by the industrial military complex.  All this starts with individual and systemic, public and private, proaction that is based in universal desires for justice, love, and hope.  These are ideas and feelings that transcend race, nationality, religion or political ideology; or at least they should be.  Maybe that is the first step to reconcile and be proactive. Reclaiming justice, love, and hope as universal needs.

Exalted and hallowed be God’s great name
in the world which God created, according to plan.
May God’s majesty be revealed in the days of our lifetime
and the life of all Israel, and all who dwell on earth — speedily, imminently.

Blessed be God’s great name to all eternity.
Blessed, praised, honored, exalted, extolled, glorified, adored, and lauded
be the name of the Holy Blessed One, beyond all earthly words and songs of blessing, praise, and comfort.

May there be abundant peace from heaven, and life, for us and all Israel,
and all who dwell on earth.

May the One who creates harmony on high, bring peace to us
and to all Israel and all who dwell on earth.

To which we all say, Amen.(1)

______
Note
1. An adaption of the Kaddish Prayer from Reformed Judaism [http://www.reformjudaism.org/practice/prayers-blessings/mourners-kaddish] with the edition of “all who dwell on earth.”

“Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” Romans 12: 17-18

Noble or nobility are not words we use much in our context.  When we do it is associated with board games, the latest HBO or Netflix period piece, or with European history of a hereditary class of persons.

Noble (def): of an exalted moral or mental character or excellence; admirable in dignity of conception,  manner of expression, execution, or composition.(1)

Watching the drama of Hurricane Harvey on TV and social media we saw the nobility of humanity on display. Neighborhood flotillas, strangers rescuing persons from cars and homes, it was hard to watch and inspiring as we see the best of what the human family can be and do.  There are, no doubt, hucksters out there that will demonstrate our need to profit at another persons pain, loss, and despair.  And, it is not only the scam artist taking advantage of tragedy because our system of supply and demand effects all of us flooded our not.  Have you filled up a car this week?  It is a scarcity/abundance cycle we’ve yet to tame as a system of government and as the Church universal.

A guy named Paul, that many Christians revere, suggests another way people who claim Christian faith might behave and interact with one another and our neighbors (Romans 12).  If it is true that one’s character or true self is on display in times of tragedy or high stress, then we have another example of the good that is in each one of us.  It is more than a compassionate melody of ‘heart strings” when we think of loading up our own boat, giving to the Week of Compassion or the Red Cross, creating clean up buckets or hygiene kits for Church World Service, giving blood, clearing our calendar to be ready to go and lend a hand, or other ways we might help our neighbors in south Texas, Louisiana, India, or in our own home town.  Somehow, we need to learn how to harness that “goodness” to address everyday tragedy to break the cycles of hunger, poverty, injustice, and violence.  It starts with us and trickles up, maybe becoming a wave racing toward those in government that are tasked with problem solving and governing for the common good.

Children and youth know how to do this “common good” thing.  Goodness is instinctive, I think, that is buried as a learned response to negative experience.  We cannot mitigate all negative experience, because those are learning opportunities, but we can “transform ourselves by the renewal of our minds.”  It is why, I think, images of selflessness become moving human interest stories of unbelievable courage.  In times of tragedy people can embody the nobility of, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”  How do we do that in ordinary time?  Reconcile?

———
Note
1. noble. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. http://www.dictionary.com/browse/noble (accessed: September 1, 2017).