Michael Davison Blog

Lent (def) verb: simple past tense and past participle of lend.

Lend (def) verb

1. to grant the use of (something) on condition that it or its equivalent will be returned.
2. to give (money) on condition that it is returned and that interest is paid for its temporary use.
3. to give or contribute obligingly or helpfully;
4. to adapt (oneself or itself) to something;
5. to furnish or impart;
[lent. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. http://www.dictionary.com/browse/lent (accessed: February 8, 2018).]

I am beginning the season of lent at sea.  My companion and I are on holiday touring the southern Caribbean on a cruise ship.  We like cruising and we’ve been to the ports of call many times.  What we can see from our limited perspective are islands recovering using tourist’s dollars and the other aid they can get.  May the odds be ever in your favour.  If you live in an area that is prone to nature’s cleanse, it will be your turn to lend a hand cleaning up or seeking a hand to rebuild what is lost.

The first full day and night and the second day at sea we sailed for Puerto Rico.  The wind was blowing 25-35 knots from the south southeast.  The ship navigates along a similar course sometimes head on and sometimes broadside the wind and wind driven sea.  Normal seas are 4-6 feet.  The first full day and night the seas were 8-12 feet and transitioned to 12-15 feet.  I can be prone to motion sickness on the sea.  My sea legs are not deep within me.  That disorienting queasy feeling settled into my brain and stomach.  Pressure point bracelets that once helped were adorned too late to make a significant difference.  Non-drowsy motion sickness medication eased the disorientation and queasiness, but it did not completely go away.  Now, calmer seas and moored at the dock of our second port of call I still have a sensation that the ship is pitching and rolling through the water as I write and reflect on the experience, though without the sick feeling.

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” And the Spirit immediately drove Jesus out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by the Satan; and Jesus was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” [Mark 1:9-15]

Maybe that is what I need to experience: a queasy lent, O God.  Something disorienting that is not soothed by reading the sacred stories, singing the hymns, or participating in the ancient rituals.  The ancient ways and stories are meant to disorient, but have become a medication for the sensations caused by believing in Christ instead of following Jesus.  Being a follower of Jesus can make, will make, you queasy more often than not.  My “Jesus legs” may not as deep as I thought.

And from the rolling sea rises a response.  Michael.  Why is following Jesus disorienting?  Is he not what being fully human looks like?  Don’t you want to be fully human and touch the Imago Dei, the divine spark, in you?  Is it not tempting?  The kindom is near.  Believe the good news.

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).

How would you tell it?

Has your discipline during lent done for you, or to you, what you hoped it would?  Have there been surprises?

We’ve wandered in lent seeing Jesus through the eyes of the writer of John.  This gospel is more a theological handbook than a story of the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth.  From it’s opening word, John has gone about providing a theology of Jesus as the Christ of faith more than telling a story about Jesus the traveling prophet, turned preacher from Nazareth.

One of the best practices of lent, I think, is writing the gospel according to . . . [fill in your name].  You have had parable experiences, and have a story to tell about your circle of disciples following Jesus.  You have a personal story to tell.  Writing that story is not an easy assignment.  What part of the story do you leave in or take out?  And here is the somewhat harder choice.  What is important about Jesus’ last visit to Jerusalem.  What disciple do you identify with most as the events in Jerusalem unfold and Jesus washes your feet?

At the beginning of March I was the keynoter at the Kansas CYF retreat.  Those keynotes focused on knowing your own disciple story and being able to tell it, or at least a spark notes version, if asked.  Writing your story about being a disciple, a follower of Jesus, is an important thing to do now and again.  It helps you make sense of your experiences and gives you a voice when asked to talk about your experiences, your faith and belief.

You’ve followed Jesus to Jerusalem.  You’ve heard the Palm Sunday story and the Easter story many times. Now, you show up to the tomb with Mary Magdalene.  What happens next?  How will you speak of the good news you have experienced?  How are you living it?

I pray the events of Holy week and Easter will be surprising for you.  I look forward to hearing the story of the good news of God that you have to tell.  Take a risk and be a blessing.

This year we meet Jesus through the experiences of Matthew.  He probably used a few of the letters of Paul and the Gospel of Mark as his source material filling in the details that Mark leaves out.  Yes, the author of Matthew may have embellished a bit based on his experiences and the time he lived.  All the gospels and epistles do it.  You may think that never happens today, but well, you know different.  A couple of weeks ago we met the first disciples (Matthew 4:18-23) that Jesus called: Simon Peter, Andrew, James, and John.  It was the beginning of their disciple story.  Have you ever thought about how your disciple story begins?

Did it begin with a parable?  Try this to begin remembering. “Look in a mirror and see if you can see yourself without seeing your eyes seeing yourself.”(1)

The parables that Jesus told flip our thinking and our vision.  New Testament scholar John Dominic Crossan notes, “First, parable is story, that is, a tensive sequence of beginning, middle, and end in a narrative that lures you into its plotted micro world to participate as an outsider-insider in its ongoing adventure.”(2)  The parables describe the world, relationships, and community as the way it could be, should be, would be, might be were those that believe in the God that Jesus proclaimed experiencing good news; and being living good news.  Often, it takes walking around in another person’s shoes to see the world through another lens.  Yes, that takes a lot of work.  My guess is your disciple story begins with you seeing or experiencing God differently, and that there is something more to your story than accepting Christ as your savior and being baptized.

Maybe one or two of the parables can connect us as followers of Jesus. Which one or two of the parables best frame the good news of God or describe the kindom of God?  Which parable provides connections to community and to practicing the way of Jesus which, in our current context, might be different than what is called Christianity.

I think the parables have the power to connect us, we disciples of Jesus, because they work on us and help us be better people.  Many of the people I know, non-Christian and Christian alike, work a parable or two every day.  Most often without any thought.  So, I’ll be thinking about the parables this spring, with a few colleagues and friends, trying to choose one or two that connect us and our discipleship following Jesus, whom we call Christ. I look forward to the journey.  Join us.  I’ll be posting the conversations here.

——
Note
1. John Dominic Crossan, The Power of Parable: How Fiction by Jesus Became Fiction About Jesus (New York: HarperOne, 2012), 243.
2. Crossan, The Power of Parable, 243.

“Time may change me, but I can’t trace time.”
David Bowie, “Changes” 1972

The flow of information into our lives has increased.  Some by choice and some simply by being awake. It is the product of living in an information age.  Every TV service offers users a way to create a favorites list.  SiriusXM encourages users to create a favorites list and within a specific music channel gives users the ability to filter the kind of music heard on that channel.  Email programs can be set up to filter our email to different folders: spam, inbox, work, friends, family. Most of us have created filters to help us manage, choose what information gets to us. It is an important skill to own in the early 21st century.

With this in mind, this little eNews has made a format change.  Each month we will highlight resources, information, and stories trusting that you will choose to be connected to your Disciples sisters and brothers.  This eNews will contain snippets of stories and articles with links if you want to read more in depth.  We will include more writing from members of our Children, Youth, and Young Adult Commission, from our Regional Youth Council, and from others in our Region and beyond our Region. We will do our best to be device friendly knowing that many of our subscribers use a small screen rather than a big screen.

We start off 2017 with gratitude.  Thank you for being a part of our movement, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).  Thank you for allowing this eNews into your circle of attention.  Thank you for supporting ministry, presence and program, with children, youth, and young adults in your congregation and through the Region.

Happy New Year!  May God continue to bless us with gospel to be and ministry to do.

Peace . . . Michael D

I may have said it before, so my apologies if this is redundant.  Christmas is not my favorite holiday, sacred or secular.  I’ve lived long enough to remember how it was ‘back then’ knowing that the old days were not always good, but those days and the experiences shaped who I am.  I am in touch with how my past informs my present and continues to teach me how I follow that inner moral compass into the future.  My past has a voice, but not a vote.  Hard as it is to change your narrative, change it can; and this time of year people believe that idea a little more than they do at any other time.  Maybe it’s because culture markets this feeling more in late November and December.  About this I don’t mean to sound cynical, but ‘selling’ Christmas begins in October.  Over twenty years ago I stopped listening and buying.  I’m content with the responsibility of recognizing the context before I wish someone I know, or that is unknown to me,  “Happy Holidays” or “Merry Christmas.”  I’m not on the ‘war on Christmas’ team, because it’s always been about selling the feelings that get consumers to spend more even if that means taking on debt.  Been there.  Done that.

That cynicism aside, that is not what Christmas or the holiday season is all about. Think about your favorite Christmas cartoon or movie.  Imagine the characters or a scene in your mind.  There is a character or group that experiences an “aha” moment of vision that changes the way the character or group sees the world, interacts with the world, or expands the heart.  My favorites are: How the Grinch Stole Christmas, A Charlie Brown Christmas, It’s A Wonderful Life, and Love Actually.  Yes, I’m admitting that last one in print, but I also think Die Hard is a Christmas movie.  Odds are your favorite holiday film encourages self reflection about your motives, desires, and communal life using the “olden times and ancient rhymes of love and dreams to share.”(1)

Oh, that we could always see
Such spirit through the year.(2)

That last bit of lyric that Lee Mendelson wrote invites us to go, and see, and ask.

What would that spirit look like in your community?

What dreams do you share with your neighbor?  Not the neighbor you like, but that other neighbor?

What kind of maintenance plan do you have for your moral compass?

Christmas day is in our grasp
So long as we have hands to clasp

Welcome Christmas bring your light

Welcome Christmas while we stand
Heart to heart and hand in hand.(3)

May the Spirit of Christmas inhabit your dreams, and your living, as you make your way to Bethlehem to see this thing that God  has made known to you.

______

1) Mendelson, Lee / Guaraldi, Vince. “Christmas Time is Here.”  Lyrics © Lee Mendelson Film Prod., Inc., 1965.

2) Ibid.

3) Geisel, Theodor S. / Hague, Albert. © EMI Music Publishing, 1966.