Michael Davison Blog

During Season 1 of my sabbatical I finished work on resources for children’s ministry. Specifically, the resources are designed to help the persons, lay or clergy, that are crafting the children’s sermon each week.  The resources, Sacred Steps, follow the Lectionary and offer ideas for ways one could craft a children’s sermon on the texts each week.

Sacred Steps provides a starting point for your imagination and thinking about the Lectionary texts as they pertain to the lives of children.  Sacred Steps treats each text as its own work, trusting that each text, blended with your community’s experience and your life experience of the week, can inform your work to make the biblical story alive in the mind’s eye of a child.

I’ve made these resources, and others found at Sacred Steps, free for Oklahoma Disciples congregations and clergy.  I have a limited number of codes I can provide to use as check-out on iBooks.  Please email me to receive a code OR you can choose to purchase one or more of the books.  The proceeds from the sales through June 1 will benefit our Mission Camp Road Show trip, July 7-13.

And it is that time of year when congregations are selecting VBS curriculum.  Click here to download a review of the major titles this year from the folks at buildfaith.org

I created this acrostic prayer for one of my books, Scared Steps: Lectionary Year B. I didn’t do the full on acrostic style, like Psalm 119, where each stanza and each new sentence in that stanza begins with the same letter of the alphabet. As you can see, I decided to complete a thought or sentence with a different letter of the English alphabet. Yes, that is cheating a bit.  I’ll be back to my responsibilities on February 2 as the first Season 1 of my sabbatical this year comes to a close.

A Sabbatical Acrostic Prayer

At this hour I pause, O God
before the sun fully rises on the day.
Creation wakes to the majesty of possibility that you embed
daily; and into me, my friends, family, and neighbors.
Enable me today to be more:
faithful in my discipleship;
generous with my time, talent, and tolerance;
humble in my presumptions;
informed and just.

Judge me by my actions today.
Kindness, let me give more than I receive.
Look upon me as worthy of Your image,
magnifying the lessons of being known by You.
Nuance guides my journey in faith that claims
openness to ideas, people, vision, experiences, and You.

Protect humanity from ourselves.
Quarantine our violent nature, for a day, a week, a year; and
reprise in humanity, in me, the goodness we knew as children.
Supplant my need to win with the knowledge of
trust, of right and wrong, so justice may be done.

Uncovering the universal Truth that Jesus lived is the
verb that resets the compass of my discipleship.
When, O God, I fail, when humanity fails, trust enough to
xerox Your spirit, Your vision, Your willfulness, and Your
zest for creation into me and all humanity.

Rev. Michael Davison (27 January 2019)

Go find a ladder.

While it might be fun (or appear expedient, or brave, or heroic) to try to scale a cliff with no tools, it turns out that ladders are a more effective way to level up.

When it’s time to drive a nail, a hammer is a lot more useful than a rock. Even if you have to invest in obtaining one.

Often, we spend most of our time throwing ourselves at the wall instead of investing the time to find a useful ladder instead.

Perhaps, instead of restating our audacious goals, we can spend more time finding useful tools–insights, skills, trust, attention, access–instead.

It’s worth the search.(1)

Seth Godin is a marketing guy whose daily ideas I follow.  He has an interesting worldview and way of seeing projects.  When I read the post about ladders, I thought about sabbatical time.  You may remember I announced a couple of months ago that I am gifted sabbatical time this year.  I am grateful to the Regional Board and our staff for these three segments of time, when I will pause and unplug from Regional responsibilities.

One of the things I’ll be doing is searching for useful tools to help me be a better minister.

Sometimes, ministers do this kind of thing as part of their routine each week or during a year, but the pace of life in the 21st century can blur one’s best intentions.  That seems true for all humans.

As we wander into a new year I encourage you to spend more time finding useful tools — if possible ones that require little re-engineering to make them fit your context or theological perspective.  That doesn’t mean we should cease learning, exploring, or trying new ideas.  The Internet and sharing-economy make it easy to borrow these days.  That is good and bad.  You can copy the latest filter on Instagram, Snapchat, or Facebook banner, and join that social community or movement for a while.  But, I don’t think Christian syncretism is the same thing as Christian unity.  Maybe it is better to use the 3-D printer in our minds, spirit, and faith to learn from the past — to invent more and copy less.  It seems to me that is how generations of disciples before us, (little d and big D), impacted their time.  Maybe, that is what we are called to do as well.

My first sabbatical segment is January 7 – February 1.  I will finish self-publishing an eBook.  It is a resource to help the process of creating the children’s sermon.  It follows the weekly Lectionary reading and it will be free for Oklahoma Disciples.

May God continue to bless you with ministry to do and Gospel to be in 2019.

——–
Note
1. Seth’s Blog, “Go find a ladder.” December 28, 2018.

What is on your Christmas watch list or play list?

I’m one of those people that doesn’t want to see Christmas ads or hear Christmas music before Thanksgiving.  Growing up, we didn’t do Christmas kinds of things until you saw Santa appear in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade and finished the Thanksgiving feast.  Then, let the Christmas ritual and routine begin.  I won’t go into those details here.  And, to be liturgically accurate, Advent, not Christmas, begins this Sunday, December 2.  We are weeks away from Christmas day and Christmastide.

The last few years Lisa and I have focused on the Twelve Days of Christmas, not in any religious sense as our Catholic, Lutheran, and Episcopalian siblings do, but as a way of remembering that there was a time that commercial Christmas didn’t exist the way we know it now.  We are getting better at packages after Christmas during the twelve days and our tree stays up until Epiphany.  I guess you could say we try not to do Christmas before Christmas.  We have been less successful than we want.

Nonetheless, Lisa loves Christmas music and we both have some favorite films, feature length and shorts, we watch this time of year.  I don’t know if watching these films or hearing familiar melodies is meant to curate memory or induce confession?  Maybe, like much of scripture it is a both/and.

Here is some of my watchlist and playlist for Advent and Christmas.

My Watchlist Includes

• A Christmas Story, 1983
• National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, 1989
• The Little Drummer Boy, 1968
• How the Grinch Stole Christmas, 1966
• It’s a Wonderful Life, 1946
• The Santa Clause, 1994

My Playlist Includes

• “Christmas in Hollis” Run DMC, 1987
• “Christmas is the Time of Year” Ray Charles, 1985
• “Christmas in the Caribbean” Jimmy Buffet, 1985
• “I Saw Three Ships” Sting, 1997
• “Do They Know It’s Christmas” Band Aid, 1984
• “Christmas Pipes” Celtic Women, 2006
• “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” John Lennon, 1971
• “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” 1979
• “Santa Clause is Coming to Town” Bruce Springsteen, 1975

However you journey, wander, or bounce through Advent be sure to go and see what God has made know to you, again, or for the first time, or like the Grinch, with his feet ice cold in the snow, puzzle till your puzzler is sore.  Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means something more.

High Value

… is not the same as low price.

The price is obvious. It can be seen from a mile away. But value is more subtle. It often needs to be experienced to be understood.

The price is the same for every person who buys that item at retail. The value is different for everyone.

Low price is the last refuge for marketers who don’t have the patience or guts to demonstrate value for those that need it.
(Seth Godin, “High Value.” September 27, 2018)

What kind of value would you assign to your practice of faith or to your congregational experience?  

One of the lessons that took a while for me to learn in congregational ministry was that neither I nor the youth sponsors could make youth group a mountain top experience for every person each week.  And the same was worship or fall retreat or mission trip or any other event we might offer.  We could be intentional about the details and structure of youth group (or those other things mentioned) that could make mountain top experiences possible (maybe God sightings is a better term), but we could not control what each youth or parent brought to youth group, and what each one invested in it.  In the end, we each have to determine what we value about ourselves, our relationships, and about God.

Intentional Christian community is messy work.  It is the tough work of following Jesus and balancing belief with everyday living.  It is attention to the essentials that create unity among a diverse people.  It is a willingness to name, and let go of, the nonessentials to unity, and bless each person’s search for liberty.  It is an attitude of charity and humility, as if you are meeting Jesus or the image of God in persons, that makes intentional Christian community possible and counter-cultural.

This is the subtle value our program ministries for children, youth, and adults are seeking to create.

Sometimes that happens on the mountain tops.

More often, that value happens in the space in between.

What connects me to a sense of the sacred?
(Daily Questions, gratefulness.org, Sept 1)

For me, I experience a sense of the sacred through nature, music, art, people, and silence.

And you?

What connects you to a sense of the sacred?

What are my greatest hopes and aspirations for how I want to be in this life?
(Daily Question, Gratefulness.org, July 27, 2018)

What would others say are my greatest gifts? What can I learn from this?
(Daily Question, Gratefulness.org, August 1, 2018)

Summer break ends for many this month.  Teachers are back in classrooms preparing to greet students, and in a few instances, some have already begun school again.  Let’s begin the school year 2018-19, saying thank you those that teach in our public schools and private schools: primary, junior high, and high school.  Thank you, because along with teaching the material of any given day, (as well as reading, writing, and arithmetic daily), teachers manage.  Teachers manage: politics, expectations, student need and outcomes, parents that helicopter and are absent, personalities, technology, lesson plans, drama of all kinds, and manage their own life circumstances.  Obviously, this is not an exhaustive list, but it can be exhausting.  I wonder how often a teacher’s day is energizing?  Thankfully, I think most teachers find ways to stay centered as they manage all those in their care each day.

So, a tip-of-the hat to a few teachers that never knew they made a difference in my life.

Ms. Duncan (2nd grade, Paris, TX).  I was a new kid in school.  I was a talker and didn’t sit still well.  My mother enjoys saying that Ms Duncan was my first “crush” experience.

Coach Cain (10th grade football coach and biology teacher, Hardin-Jefferson High School, Sour Lake, TX).  Coach decided I would be the best to lead our biology class to the parking lot if the building was on fire or some other emergency.  The football players objected.

Coach Dre (pronounced Drew – tennis coach, grades 9-11, Hardin-Jefferson High School, Sour Lake, TX).  Dre was a Canadian women’s tennis champ of some kind.  She also coached volleyball. Not sure how she ended up in South Texas.  In those days I was known to have John McEnroe moments on the tennis court.  Coach Dre broke me of that behavior by making me run a mile for every outburst during tournaments.

Mr. Knipper (chemistry teacher 11th & 12th grade, Richfield High School, Waco, TX).  Unlike any teacher I had previously met, Mr. Knipper, was a German who taught in the States during our school year, and returned to Germany during the summer to teach.  He was known for allowing students to blow things up in class, and requiring students to pay for what was damaged or destroyed before releasing grades.  Choices.  He had an agreement with coaches, drama and choir department, debate club, even the cheerleader coaches.  If a student did not come prepared for his class, you missed whatever extracurricular practice or performance that day to learn the material.  I never saw him make an exception.

I’m grateful for these teachers that helped educate and shape me.  I wonder if they would be surprised by how I turned out?

Walls turned sideways are bridges.
Word for the Day, gratefulness.org, April 30, 2018

Reconcile (def)

1. to cause (a person) to accept or be resigned to  something not desired
2. to win over to friendliness; cause to become amicable
3. to compose or settle
4. to bring into agreement or harmony; make compatible or consistent
5. to reconsecrate
6. to restore (1)

This summer, Chi Rho and CYF youth will explore ways to reconcile and pathways to reconciliation through engaging biblical stories, reflecting on their own lives, their discipleship, our culture, and the traditions of the Church.  The day’s themes:

• What Can You Accept? (Genesis 30:14-16 & Philemon)
• Friendship Changes Us (Ruth & 2 Corinthians 5:16-21)
• Avoidance Solves Nothing (Genesis 33:1-17 & Luke 18:1-8)
• Fairness and Justice (Genesis 45 & Matthew 20:1-15)
• We Can’t Restore What We Won’t See (Joshua 24 & John 3:1-17)
• Restoration and Holy Imagination (2 Samuel 14 & Luke 15:11-32)

Discovery Campers, Junior Campers and Grand Campers will explore the curriculum, “Beyond Belief! The Universe of God”.  They will encounter some of these daily themes exploring belief and God:

• What If We Belong to God? (Psalm 139)
• What If God is Bigger? (Luke 1:35-55)
• What If Hope is Real? (Mark 2:1-5)
• What If there is More than Enough? (John 6:1-14)
• What If We Speak Up? (Mark 7:24-30)
• What If We Change the World? (Matthew 5:13-16)
• What If We Go Beyond? (Luke 10:1-9)

Intentional Christian Community at summer camp is a blend of play, prayer, worship, study, and service.  Our children and youth are the Church today and tomorrow.  Their spirituality, questions, and service can remind adults of our best selves, our responsibility, and obligation to make the world a better place as we follow the way of Jesus.

Walls into bridges.

Balancing Gratefulness and Ungratefulness During Lent
by Drew Kirtley

One of my favorite books is a collection of prayers and meditations called The Prayer
Tree(1), by Michael Leunig. It is a thin, green, pamphlet-sized booklet (of which I need
a new copy because I should know better than to lend out my favorite books)
compiled of prayers, meditations, and illustrations. The little cartoon person on
every page is illustrating a scene, which mirrors the prayer/meditation that
precedes it. In one of the illustrations, Leunig offers a prayer during a time of illness,
which he describes, both beautifully and unpleasantly realistic, saying, “Nature has
entered into me…”(2).   Well, nature has entered into my family and me during this
season of Lent.

When we get sick, we can typically feel it coming. Our body communicates to us
through aches, pains, itchiness, soreness, and all kinds of not-fun symptoms. I had
hoped to avoid that so far this year. I decided to give up soda (mainly Coca-Cola) for
Lent and in turn, maybe lose some weight and feel a little healthier. And it worked
for a while. That is until, you know, nature.

Nature entered into me first in the form of what I had thought was a cold and cough.
I was able to dispense of it rather quickly, but then it came upon my two-year- old
daughter.  Most parents would tell you that having a sick child is the least fun thing
in the world, and I would agree. It is, for some reason, easier to fight off those irritating and painful symptoms oneself than it is watching a toddler struggle through it. It’s heartbreaking and fills me with anxiety. And for that I am ungrateful.

The weird thing is that on a “normal” day, I find myself filled with gratefulness for
these exact same things.  I, like many people, am grateful for spring and all the life it
brings. I’m grateful for the grass, the trees, the color in nature, and all the bird noises
that return to everyday life. I’m also grateful every day for my family. I’m grateful for
the laughing and playing that comes with having a healthy two-year- old kid. And I’m
grateful for this season in which we can return to playing outside.

But as we churchgoers spend time during lent reading, studying, and hearing about
the end of the life of Jesus of Nazareth, I can’t help but be reminded of all the seasons
for which I am ungrateful, but remain part of life nonetheless. Like being grateful for
nature, even when it causes illness. Or being grateful for children, even when they’re
misbehaving. Or being grateful for faith, even when I’m lacking in it.  So, as we begin to wrap up this season of Lent and continue to reflect on everything about it,

May you be grateful, and ungrateful, and everything in between.

Amen.

_____

1 Leunig, Michael. The Prayer Tree.  Illustrated Edition. Australia: HarperCollins,
1998.
2 Leunig. The Prayer Tree. 1998.