Calling an Audacious Community

I was asked recently to preach for the installation service for a PhD student at her new church in central Pennsylvania.  I was happy to agree to preach at the service and enjoyed greatly seeing the affirmation of her calling and the acceptance of her by the congregation. Present were her Bishop, Synod Dean, extended family, colleagues, and her church community – both past and present.  It was a moving service.  The congregation affirmed the call of the pastor to their church through ritual, symbolic gifts, and an acclamation of her family’s presence.

The text she chose for me to preach on was Isaiah 42: 1-9 – the Servant of the Lord.  The image I love so much in that passage is the image of a communal calling.  God is calling on the community – Israel – to bring righteousness and justice to the nations.  It is a communal message calling the people of Israel to open the eyes of the blind, to free captives from prison, and to free those who sit in darkness.  The community is called to be the instrument through which the nations are called into relationship with the Divine.  It was to be through Israel that the nations came into the light of God’s salvation.  This is the power of community called to act.  That is an audacious notion – a whole people being called into servanthood.  It is a stunning call. 

This passage is later seen as a Messianic prophesy of God’s servant bringing justice, eyesight to the blind, freedom for the captives, and light in the darkness in a more individual manner but this passage in Isaiah is about the community being who God called them to be.

Being a called community is important.  It is a sacred and holy thing to respond to God’s call on our lives as individuals and as communities.  It is vital to acknowledge and accept that calling.  Acting on that call is sometimes more difficult. 

God calls us into community and God calls our communities to act.  To do this God chooses us, calls us, anoints us, equips us, and commissions us.  Some communities answer their call by being involved in prison ministry.  Some answer through advocacy around issues of hunger and poverty.  Some answer their call by working for a greener world.  Some answer their call by being the place for youth and children ministries.  Some answer their call by working on health care issues.  Some answer in other ways.  But all are called to answer that call – to be the community of faith called into action by God.

Being part of a community of faith is a wonderful thing.  But it takes more than gathering in community for worship and praise – even though that is a vital part of their communal lives.  Living up to the call of a community of faith means being the hands and feet of Jesus in the world. And that means getting up off the pews and putting one’s faith in action.  Living and working as a community means making a difference in the world – and that is an audacious thing! 

So communities of faith out there – answer the call of God and go be audacious!

We Can’t Always Get What We Want

There are few things that I like less than being reminded that there are times in life when things do not go my way – or the way I want them to go.  I heard it as a child from my parents and I found myself saying it to my son recently.  Being able to hear that is hard sometimes – despite your age or life experiences.   Being willing to accept that is a sign of maturity. 

I think it comes most often when I am being impatient with issues of control in my life.  I want things the way I want them and when they aren’t happening like I want – I feel it and express my displeasure. Sometimes I do it quietly and maturely.  Sometimes … not so much.  I get frustrated like everyone else.  I try to handle it well.  Sometimes I fail.

I was with a friend some time back who has an infant.  I love babies.  They are so cute, sweet, and cuddly … until they aren’t.   When babies are not happy – they express it with their bodies and their voices.  They are not able to differentiate when they should be patient.  They want something NOW.  There is no waiting.  And they cannot speak to tell others what they need without screaming their little lungs out!

The funny thing (and it’s not really funny) is that I have seen grownups doing the same thing. Stomping their feet in frustration when they don’t get their way. Sometimes they scream and cry out against the injustice of it all.  They moan about others not tending to their needs or others not treating them right.  And I have been guilty of it, too.  But injustice?

Seeing injustice in these situations is just so far from the truth most of the time.  In my life – and in the Christian faith - justice is something that is extremely important.  The astonishingly high number of people without jobs, parents and kids without adequate health care, folks waiting for justice from their government for equal rights, people living without appropriate housing or enough food to feed their families, rampant gun violence on the streets, and a government unable to work for the greater good are stunningly wrong.  These things are unjust. 

Recently people were in the streets crying out for justice for Troy Davis, are right now marching on Wall Street to demand financial accountability, and are working for immigration reform that is just and fair.  People are creating community organizing frameworks to work with their local officials to create jobs and education opportunities.  People are demanding that their government officials work across the aisle to make decisions that will move our country forward (whether they will do it or not is another story).  People are participating in the process of justice making to change the systems that keep folks in poverty. 

All of these things are positive.  All of these things make me smile.  They remind me of my favorite scripture passage – Micah 6:8: “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”  Doing justice is hard work.  Doing justice, though, is what we are called to.  It takes action, patience, and community.

We may not get what we want – but trust me – we definitely won’t if we don’t work for it.

Blazing Colors

I grew up in the Texas Panhandle.  The county I lived in had a chain link fence around and an historical marker by the first tree planted in the county – and no I am not kidding.  There were no massively tall trees from centuries of growth.  I grew up in a flat, hot, dry place that had its own kind of beauty – but fall was not a time for beauty.  It always seemed to me that one day the trees were full of amazingly beautiful green leaves and the next day they turned brown.  I have been told that the ground water levels and extreme heat just do not support slow, gradual color changes in the fall.  (I know it also has something to do with the changing length of days, cooler temperatures, and chlorophyll changes.)  So fall was not a time of the year that I spent much time thinking about – it was a time for football and cooler weather but not much else.

As an adult I moved to Kansas City, MO to attend seminary.  It was a beautiful early fall day and I was riding with my seminary roommate to a store when it happened – I screamed and she almost wrecked the car.  She asked quickly – “what happened?”  I could barely speak to answer. I had screamed because I saw the most amazing thing I had ever seen – and I still remember it vividly to this day. What I saw was an entire hillside of blazing colors.  I had seen pictures of fall leaves in magazines.  I had seen fall leaves on TV and in movies.  But I had NEVER seen them for myself.  I was overwhelmed.  I was stunned.  I was awestruck.  It took my breath away.  I was so overwhelmed that I just sat in tears looking at the glorious colors.

It was the most beautiful and spectacular sight of my life.  Red, purple, maroon, yellow, and orange blazed with stunning glory. To this day I pull over when I see the first fall foliage and take pictures.  The leaves simply leave me breathless.  They are the thing I look forward to more than anything else in nature.  My eyes and heart long for them each year.  My spirit soars when I see them.

And I am not the only one.  There are websites that track the color changes for “leaf peepers” to know where and when to see the colors.  There are apps for smartphones so that you have the changes at your fingertips on the go.  One of the most amazing things about fall colors is the short duration of the spectacular colors.  They do not last very long and that makes them ever more special.

Those beautiful fall moments make me pause, praise the Creator, and enjoy the breathtaking colors.  I love fall and fall colors!  I also love that God has gifted us with a creation that screams at us to notice, calls on us to pay attention, and needs our care.  May we notice more often, gaze with awe, and care more deeply in all things we see and do!

Thank you, God, for the gift of fall.