“Z” is for Zeal (March 28, 2012)

Published on by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

There is a green hill far away, outside a city wall, where our dear Lord was crucified who died to save us all. O dearly, dearly has he loved! And we must love him too, and trust in his redeeming blood, and try his works to do. (Cecil Frances Alexander, from The Hymnal 1982)

…Listening In…

[Jesus] it is who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds. (Titus 2:14; context)

…Filling Up…

This Lent, we are exploring our faith by running through the alphabet. Today, “Z” is for zeal. Last year, I reached to Greek for “Z is for Zoe,” and I thought I was pretty clever until one of my youth pointed out that “zeal” is a perfectly good English word that I could have used instead. There’s always next year, I told her. And here we are.

The word “zeal,” I think, is used most often in our contemporary culture as part of the word “overzealous.” We hear of “overzealous police officers,” which is a euphemistic way of talking about cops that were too violent when they arrested someone. We hear that the estimates about how much money the new film would rake in during its first weekend were “a bit overzealous.” In each of these cases, the word “zeal” gets forced into service as a negative – too much zeal is a bad thing, these situations teach.

In the Christian context, the word is most often used to talk about “convert’s zeal”; that is, the extra exuberance shown for the faith by it’s newest members. Again, convert’s zeal is often seen as a negative – i.e. they’ll calm down when they’ve become a bit more seasoned.

But we can reclaim “zeal” from these negative connotations. At it’s truest and best, “zeal” describes the state when potential energy converts into kinetic energy. Put another way, zeal happens when talking about faith turns into living out faith. Zeal is not just a good feeling, but a state of being, closely related to bliss, but with an active component that I think bliss leaves out.

Zeal is the electricity of faith, the current that pulses through us when we are serving and loving as Jesus did. I’m not sure there’s a way to be “overzealous” if you think of zeal like this.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you plant in my heart the zeal for serving you. Help me to show others the joy I feel when I am serving so that they may know for whom I live my life. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, continuing my walk with you along this path through Lent and almost come to Jerusalem where I will wait and watch with the Lord.

“Y” is for Yeast (March 27, 2012)

Published on by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

There is a green hill far away, outside a city wall, where our dear Lord was crucified who died to save us all. O dearly, dearly has he loved! And we must love him too, and trust in his redeeming blood, and try his works to do. (Cecil Frances Alexander, from The Hymnal 1982)

…Listening In…

He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast, which a woman took and hid in a bushel of wheat flour until the yeast had worked its way through all the dough.” (Matthew 13:33; context)

…Filling Up…

This Lent, we are exploring our faith by running through the alphabet. Today, “Y” is for yeast. Yes, the end of the alphabet is tough, but at least I didn’t have to resort to a gimmick like I did yesterday. While you might use the word “yeast” mostly in your baking, the word comes up a surprising number of times in the Bible.

First, yeast plays a part in the escape of the Israelites from Egypt in the book of Exodus. Or perhaps I should say, yeast is conspicuously absent from the account of the Israelites flight. To show the urgency of their departure, the writer of Exodus keys in on this small detail.  They didn’t have time to wait for the yeast to rise in their bread, so they resorted to unleavened bread for their journey. And to this day, unleavened bread is an important part of Jewish ritual.

Moving to the New Testament, Jesus speaks of yeast on at least two occasions. In possibly the greatest display of the disciples’ thickness, they don’t understand when Jesus says, “Watch out and be on your guard for the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” The disciples don’t have any bread themselves, so they at first think that Jesus is telling them to go borrow some yeast from the Pharisees. I imagine Jesus took several calming breaths at this. “Don’t you know that I wasn’t talking about bread?” he says, no doubt exasperated. Then they realize he is using “yeast” to mean teaching – as in, something that helps you grow.

Finally, Jesus uses yeast in one of his parables about the kingdom of heaven, which you can read above. Here Jesus emphasizes the hidden aspect of the kingdom. It is there, inside each of us, working, reacting with the spiritual chemicals within us to turn us into agents of the kingdom. In the Bible, yeast is slow, it works in secret, but its affects are visible, and it helps us rise.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you help me rise by infusing my life with the leaven of your grace. Make me more and more aware of your kingdom growing within me so that I can be an agent of your reign in this world. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, continuing my walk with you along this path through Lent and almost come to Jerusalem where I will wait and watch with the Lord.

“X” is for Marking the Spot (March 26, 2012)

Published on by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

There is a green hill far away, outside a city wall, where our dear Lord was crucified who died to save us all. O dearly, dearly has he loved! And we must love him too, and trust in his redeeming blood, and try his works to do. (Cecil Frances Alexander, from The Hymnal 1982)

…Listening In…

Stop collecting treasures for your own benefit on earth, where moth and rust eat them and where thieves break in and steal them. Instead, collect treasures for yourselves in heaven, where moth and rust don’t eat them and where thieves don’t break in and steal them. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:19-21; context)

…Filling Up…

This Lent, we are exploring our faith by running through the alphabet. Today, “X” is for marking the spot. (Yes, yes, I’m cheating again. I hope you’re used to it by now.)

X is for marking the spot on a map containing the location of buried treasure. (Ya savvy?)  How many of us have seen films where pirates race to unearth the cache of golden doubloons after a creased and burned map surfaces in a tavern or an attic (Goonies, anyone?). Indiana Jones himself once said that X “never, ever” marks the spot. Then he went to Venice and found the knight’s tomb buried right under a Roman numeral ten in an old library.

What’s interesting about all of the literary and pop cultural references to X marking the spot is that the treasure must necessarily be hidden. There’s no story otherwise. But Jesus sees this X differently. For Jesus, the heart marks the spot, for “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” There shouldn’t be anything hidden about this at all if we use Jesus’ map. Go to your heart’s desire and you’ll find your treasure.

Of course, it’s not that easy. We fallen humans rarely set our hearts on the right things. We choose to mark all the wrong things with the X of our hearts – wealth, fame, material comforts, you know the drill. Perhaps the real treasure is hidden after all. Perhaps this is why our hearts are always restless. As Saint Augustine says, my heart is restless until it finds rest in God. In the end our true treasure is not hidden – a life lived by the riches of Christ’s grace.

But the maps we choose to follow often lead us astray.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you are always more ready to be found than I am to search. Help me to discern which course to follow so that I may find the treasure of your love, store it in my heart, and give it to all I meet. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, continuing my walk with you along this path through Lent and almost come to Jerusalem where I will wait and watch with the Lord.

“W” is for Will, Word, and Why (March 23, 2012)

Published on by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

For me, kind Jesus, was thy incarnation, thy mortal sorrow, and thy life’s oblation; thy death of anguish and thy bitter passion, for my salvation. Therefore, kind Jesus, since I cannot pay thee, I do adore thee, and will ever pray thee, think on thy pity and thy love unswerving, not my deserving. (Johann Heermann, from The Hymnal 1982)

…Listening In…

Abraham remained standing in front of the LORD. Abraham approached and said, “Will you really sweep away the innocent with the guilty?What if there are fifty innocent people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not save the place for the sake of the fifty innocent people in it? It’s not like you to do this, killing the innocent with the guilty as if there were no difference. It’s not like you! Will the judge of all the earth not act justly?” (Genesis 18:22-25; context)

…Filling Up…

This Lent, we are exploring our faith by running through the alphabet. Today, “W” is for will and a few other words that start with “W” (There are so many!). Many of the characters in the Bible (like Abraham in the passage above) and many of us struggle with what might be termed “divine inscrutability,” that is, our inability to understand why God does what God does. Two approaches spring from this inability. One accepts the inscrutability, saying, “We’ll never know why God does what God does.” The other attempts to explain it, saying, “It’s God’s will.”

Of course, saying “It’s God’s will” is paradoxical – it claims knowledge of God while springing from an inability to explain God’s actions. The “It’s God’s will” approach can be very damaging to people asking the “why” question. Often it is used as a platitude or defense mechanism. Yes, the will of God certainly exists, but we neither know it nor is it the organizing principle by which we live.

The organizing principle is, instead, reserved for the “Word” of God. (“Everything came into being through the Word, and without the Word nothing came into being.” (John 1:3))  This Word is both the foundation of existence and the incarnate being of Jesus Christ. Affirming this premise does not answer the “why” question, but rather supersedes it with the person of Christ, who is present with us in our pain and suffering. The inscrutability of God is maintained because we can never fully know God, but our “why” questions are answered by a relationship with Jesus Christ (rather than an explanation).

…Praying For…

Dear God, when I struggle to understand the “why” of my life, help me to seek both solace and direction from the “who” of my life, your Son Jesus Christ, in whose name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, counting myself blessed that you would choose to make me the person I am and love me into the person I am becoming.

“V” is for Vow (March 22, 2012)

Published on by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

For me, kind Jesus, was thy incarnation, thy mortal sorrow, and thy life’s oblation; thy death of anguish and thy bitter passion, for my salvation. Therefore, kind Jesus, since I cannot pay thee, I do adore thee, and will ever pray thee, think on thy pity and thy love unswerving, not my deserving. (Johann Heermann, from The Hymnal 1982)

…Listening In…

When Jacob woke from his sleep, he thought to himself, The LORD is definitely in this place, but I didn’t know it. He was terrified and thought, This sacred place is awesome. It’s none other than God’s house and the entrance to heaven.  After Jacob got up early in the morning, he took the stone that he had put near his head, set it up as a sacred pillar, and poured oil on the top of it. He named that sacred place Bethel,though Luz was the city’s original name. Jacob made a solemn promise: “If God is with me and protects me on this trip I’m taking, and gives me bread to eat and clothes to wear, and I return safely to my father’s household, then the LORD will be my God. This stone that I’ve set up as a sacred pillar will be God’s house, and of everything you give me I will give a tenth back to you.” (Genesis 28:16-22; context)

…Filling Up…

This Lent, we are exploring our faith by running through the alphabet. Today, “V” is for vow. How often in our lives do we vow something? We might give assurances that we’ll get the paperwork done or promise to pick someone up after school, but we don’t “vow” to do these things.

Vows don’t happen too often – the solemn vow during the marriage service is the only one I can think of off the top of my head. Witnesses swear to tell the whole truth in court; government officials, new citizens, and military folks pledge to uphold the Constitution or obey officers. These are as close to “vows” as people make outside of the covenant of marriage. But the “solemn vow” of marriage is unique in society, and that makes it all the more special.

A vow is in a category by itself. It is neither time nor place specific. It covers more than the limited scenario during which one might make a promise. Indeed, a vow is not a promise, but the framework on which promises are hung. The vow in the marriage service begins “In the name of God.” The vow would mean nothing if God were not part of it. Just as the vow is the framework for all promises, God is the framework for the vow.

Have you ever vowed something? If so, how did the vow change your life? Was God a part of the vow? If not, how could you invite God to help you fulfill it?

…Praying For…

Dear God, you are the source of all trust and confidence, and the foundation of all promises and vows. Help me to be unwavering in my fulfillment of every promise and vow I make. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, counting myself blessed that you would choose to make me the person I am and love me into the person I am becoming.

“U” is for Understanding (March 21, 2012)

Published on by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

For me, kind Jesus, was thy incarnation, thy mortal sorrow, and thy life’s oblation; thy death of anguish and thy bitter passion, for my salvation. Therefore, kind Jesus, since I cannot pay thee, I do adore thee, and will ever pray thee, think on thy pity and thy love unswerving, not my deserving. (Johann Heermann, from The Hymnal 1982)

…Listening In…

The woman said to the snake, “We may eat the fruit of the garden’s trees but not the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden. God said, ‘Don’t eat from it, and don’t touch it, or you will die.’ ” (Genesis 3:2-3; context)

…Filling Up…

This Lent, we are exploring our faith by running through the alphabet. Today, “U” is for Understanding. Usually, when we think of understanding we think of comprehension, of gaining knowledge that makes something clear. “She’s so understanding” means “She gets me, she knows what I’m going through.” “I don’t understand the math” means that some piece of knowledge or skill is eluding you.

These are perfectly good uses of the word “understanding.” But when we transport the word over to our talk about God, we can run into trouble. “I don’t understand God” clearly means that some piece of knowledge is eluding you. But unlike math, it’s not knowledge that you are likely to come by on this side of death. Lack of understanding is often cited as a reason people do not follow too far along the path of discipleship.

But there’s another way of looking at the word that turns things around. In fact, all you have to do is turn the word “understand” around. It becomes “stand under” in the sense of “these bridge supports stand under the bridge, holding it up and taking its weight.” Now the word applies not to our lack of understanding, but to God’s “standing under” us, supporting us, holding us up. We do not have to understand to believe. In fact, I’m pretty sure that God forbidding Adam and Eve from eating of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil is a fine indicator that we aren’t meant to understand everything. And that’s okay because no matter our limited understanding, God will always be standing under us.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you are the foundation of existence and the framework on which you are weaving my life. Help me to believe you despite my limited ability to understand. Help me to take that belief and turn it into action so that I can be an instrument that shows you standing under your creation. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, counting myself blessed that you would choose to make me the person I am and love me into the person I am becoming.

“T” is for Trust (March 20, 2012)

Published on by Adam Thomas1 Comment

…Opening To…

For me, kind Jesus, was thy incarnation, thy mortal sorrow, and thy life’s oblation; thy death of anguish and thy bitter passion, for my salvation. Therefore, kind Jesus, since I cannot pay thee, I do adore thee, and will ever pray thee, think on thy pity and thy love unswerving, not my deserving. (Johann Heermann, from The Hymnal 1982)

…Listening In…

But I am like a green olive tree in God’s house; I trust in God’s faithful love forever and always. I will give thanks to you, God, forever, because you have acted. In the presence of your faithful people, I will hope in your name because it’s so good. (Psalm 52:8-9; context)

…Filling Up…

This Lent, we are exploring our faith by running through the alphabet. Today, “T” is for trust. In how many different pieces of our experience do we encounter this word? Of the top of my, I can think of a couple. It’s on American money: “In God we trust.” Disney’s Aladdin says it to Jasmine when they are running from the guards and again when she is hesitant to get on the magic carpet: “Do you trust me?” It’s the first part of the first trait mentioned in the Boy Scout law: “A scout is trustworthy…” It’s used in banking – one can set up a “trust,” which gives rise to the caricature of the spoiled “trust fund baby.”

In our society, the word “trust” runs the gamut. But what does it really mean, and what does it mean in the context of following Jesus Christ?” Trust is the closest synonym for “faith” that the English language can provide. “Confidence” is a close second. Trust happens when you jump into your father’s arms from the top bunk. Trust happens when you let go of the steadying shoulder the first time you venture into the deep end. Trust happens when you give your keys to your teenager for the first time.

There are no guarantees with trust. Trust happens in the absence of guarantees. Rather, trust is the name for the energy and the courage necessary to believe. I believe that God will never betray my trust. I believe that God is trustworthy. And I also believe that God helps me have trust – that is, faith – precisely because God trusts me. God trusts me to be the person God made me to be, a person who struggles to believe, but in the struggle finds belief. Finds trust. Finds faith.

And in trusting God, we can love God. And in loving God, we can serve.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you have never broken your trust and I believe you never will. Help me to live my life with the confidence that comes from knowing that you are trustworthy. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, counting myself blessed that you would choose to make me the person I am and love me into the person I am becoming.

“S” is for Symbol – or Sacrament (March 19, 2012)

Published on by Adam Thomas1 Comment

…Opening To…

For me, kind Jesus, was thy incarnation, thy mortal sorrow, and thy life’s oblation; thy death of anguish and thy bitter passion, for my salvation. Therefore, kind Jesus, since I cannot pay thee, I do adore thee, and will ever pray thee, think on thy pity and thy love unswerving, not my deserving. (Johann Heermann, from The Hymnal 1982)

…Listening In…

After taking the bread and giving thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, he took the cup after the meal and said, “This cup is the new covenant by my blood, which is poured out for you.” (Luke 22:19-20; context)

…Filling Up…

This Lent, we are exploring our faith by running through the alphabet. Today, “S” is for symbol. We have a lot of symbols in church: the cross, the dove, the living water, the commandments, (fill in the blank here _________ ).

But before we go any further, I want to dispel from your mind any notion of the phrases “it’s only a symbol” or  “it’s merely symbolic.” Symbols are woefully misunderstood things in American culture – like soccer and irony. A symbol is an object that points beyond itself to a deeper truth. Too often, “sign” and “symbol” are used interchangeably, but they are not synonymous. A stop sign lets you know you are supposed to brake at an intersection, but that’s all it tells you. The red octagon doesn’t compel you to ruminate on why you should stop. But a symbol – the cross, for instance – stirs within us all of the historical and theological and emotional resonances of the truth to which it points.

In church, we have a special sort of symbol called a “sacrament.” Take communion for instance. The bread we use is laughably ordinary, but the situation we put it in is not. The juxtaposition between the normal loaf of bread and the strange way it is being treated invest the ordinary with new meaning. The bread connotes the bounty of harvest, the fruits of the earth, the goodness of creation, the nourishment of our bodies. And when we put it on that table, and a priest (in the presence of God’s people) asks God to indwell that bread with the Spirit of Christ, the bread becomes a sacrament. The bread becomes one part of the Eucharistic meal, an outward and visible connection to our inward spiritual lives. Special sacramental symbols take ordinary things – bread, water, even our own actions and personhoods – and set them ablaze with physical and emotive evidence of the presence of God.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you give us sacraments to help us see you in this world. Help me to by a symbol for your love, mercy, and grace to all I meet. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, counting myself blessed that you would choose to make me the person I am and love me into the person I am becoming.

Choosing the Light

Published on by Adam Thomas1 Comment

 (Sermon for Sunday, March 18, 2012 || Lent 4B || John 3:14-21)

I’d like to go to a Red Sox game and hold up a sign that says, “John 3:17.” Perhaps, a row-mate would ask me why my sign is wrong and I can say that the sign’s not wrong, but a different verse entirely. The verse after the most famous verse of the Bible says, “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

Now, before we really get down to the business of this sermon, let’s talk about this “world,” a word John uses three times in this one verse. For John, the world is the creation that rebelled against God – the good works, which God made, but which fell into disrepair because of bad human choices. One of the reasons that John starts his Gospel with, “In the beginning,” is so we readers might make the link back to the story of creation in Genesis, in which God created the heavens and the earth. Three chapters into Genesis, things start to fall apart because of Adam and Eve’s dreadful choices.

Fast-forward to John’s time or even to our own, and the broken state of the world is evident – there’s no need to list all of the broken things in relationships or in society or in the environment (for we know them all too well). Much of the brokenness stems directly from bad choices made over and over again. And because these decisions are made again and again, they become part of the system, the machinery of brokenness, and we feel helpless in the face of a crumbling world. Nevertheless, God so loved this world that God chose to send God’s Son into the brokenness in order that he might show us what is broken. And in showing us, he gave us the gift and duty of helping him restore the broken world to wholeness.

But even though John expands the Son’s salvation to include the whole world (literally the “cosmos” in Greek), the restoration starts taking place in the hearts of God’s children – in us and ever other person who has every walked the earth. The brokenness began in the hearts of Adam and Eve; thus, the healing, the saving of the world takes hold at the origin of the brokenness, in the hearts of all people.

Just like Adam and Eve had the choice to obey or disobey God, each of us has a choice, which Jesus names using the imagery of darkness and light: “The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil,” he says. “For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”

We have a choice to stumble in the darkness or to walk in the light, to be part of the problem or part of the solution, to add to the brokenness or to participate in the healing. And we don’t make this choice just once. Rather this choice is part of every single decision we make. Every decision either pulls us back to the darkness or pushes us further into the light. Perhaps you can remember a choice you made that turned out to be the wrong one – failing to stand up to a friend’s bully or taking out your frustration on your spouse or deliberately not noticing the homeless veteran on the street or knowingly purchasing a product that was fabricated under unbearable conditions, or…or…or — the list is endless. I don’t know about you, but when I make a choice the pulls me towards the darkness, I feel just a little bit unmade, like a little bit of me has eroded away. If I continually choose the wrong path, if I continually embrace the darkness, I wonder — will there be anything left of me?

This question points to the condemnation that Jesus talks about. God does not condemn; rather, we condemn ourselves when we choose the darkness over the light. Indeed, each time the verb “condemn” happens in the middle of our passage, the word is passive. God takes no active part in our condemnation, but only patiently and constantly calls us back to the light. And I firmly believe this call is what keeps us from eroding away entirely, what keeps us from total annihilation (which is another way of talking about hell). God’s constant call back to the light gives us a beacon to turn to, a lighthouse, if you will, that can guide us through the darkness and keep us from breaking up on the rocks. God does not force us to choose the light, but rather invites us to steer toward the harbor of God’s radiance.

As we answer God’s call and choose the light over the darkness, we discover that we can be part of the healing of the world. In our own experiences of the darkness, in our own vulnerability, we find the common ground of brokenness that Christ found when he came to earth and when he was lifted up on the cross. When we choose the light, we choose to be partners with Christ in healing the brokenness of the world even as Christ is healing our own brokenness.

So how do we translate the imagery of walking in the light into our everyday lives? What does choosing the light look like on the ground, in our day-to-day lives, at the office or at school or at home? Everything comes back to inviting God into our decisions, about orienting toward the light in each choice so that we do not feel like we are being eroded away to nothingness.

Here’s one practical way to help make decisions. Margot and I have been participating in a Lenten devotional series done by the Society of Saint John the Evangelist in Boston. Each day, a brother of the order talks about a piece of their Rule of Life, and about how each of us can benefit in our walks with God by writing a Rule for ourselves. A personal Rule of Life helps you to figure out how to be the best version of yourself, the version that God created you to be. When faced with a choice, remembering your Rule can help you walk in the light.

Writing out a Rule for yourself could be a simple as praying for clarity about the five things that are most important to you, then writing them on an index card and trying to live with those priorities in mind. Or perhaps, you might feel called to write out a longer, more in-depth set of guidelines for how you relate to yourself, to others, to the world, and to God. I’ve been working on my own Rule, and I’d like to share a few short passages with you so you can see how I am, with God’s help, trying to choose the light.

“I will nurture my relationship with God through praying, listening, serving, and loving.

“I will love my family. I will be loyal, honest, caring, and present to my wife and our (future) children.

“I will live my life with an attitude of thanksgiving, always seeking to choose abundance over scarcity, trust over fear, and relationship over isolation.

“I will live my life with an attitude of invitation, always seeking to choose engagement over apathy, encouragement over criticism, and listening over selling.”

In each of these pieces of my Rule, God has given me guidance for how to choose the light over the darkness. Does this mean I will always choose the light? Of course not, but the Rule will help me see when I have failed and help me turn back to the right paths. I invite you to consider making your own Rule, so that you may more effectively choose light over darkness. Please come see Margot or me if you’d like guidance in doing this incredibly fruitful practice.

Speaking of practice, spring training is going on, which reminds me of my sign from the beginning of this sermon (like that segue?). John 3:17 – “God sent the Son into the world not to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” Christ’s saving of this world began in his life, death, and resurrection, and continues in the hearts of all people. When we choose the light over the darkness, we choose to be part of the healing of this world, we choose to show the world that God is moving in our lives. In this witness, we bring God’s light into the darkness of this world. And do you know what happens when light is introduced into darkness? Darkness flees.

“R” is for Religion (March 16, 2012)

Published on by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

Therefore, we pray you, Lord, forgive; so when our wanderings here shall cease, we may with you for ever live, in love and unity and peace. (Gregory the Great, from The Hymnal 1982)

…Listening In…

Those who accepted Peter’s message were baptized. God brought about three thousand people into the community on that day. The believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the community, to their shared meals, and to their prayers. A sense of awe came over everyone. God performed many wonders and signs through the apostles. All the believers were united and shared everything. (Acts 2:41-44; context)

…Filling Up…

This Lent, we are exploring our faith by running through the alphabet. Today, “R” is for religion. Finally, you say – a real word! Huzzah! So, the word “religion” gets a bad rap in modern parlance. The idea that it’s groovy to be “spiritual” but totally square to be “religious” is partially to blame. But also to blame are the things people do and say in the name of “religion.” In a recent book, Brian McLaren tries to reclaim the word religion by making up a new word – “de-ligion.” This new word tries to take up all the negative press that “religion” has been getting in recent years because of one thing or another. I think it’s a great new word – but, sadly, I don’t see it catching on.

And this is too bad, because “religion” is a great word for a pretty spectacular concept. (Fair warning: a lot of people have talked about what I’m going to say next, including McLaren, and me in this video. Sorry if this is repetitive.) “Religion” comes from the same Latin root as the word “ligament.” A ligament connects parts of a joint. I’m sure you’ve heard about football players tearing their ACLs – well, the L in ACL is “ligament.” The “lig” in the word comes from the Latin “ligare,” which means “to bind.”

Now look at “religion.” See the “Re-” at the beginning of the word? Yep – that means “again.” So, at the etymological level, religion is about reconnecting or connecting again. Now let’s bring God in. Religion isn’t just about connecting with God, but about re-connecting because God has always been connected with us. The church has discovered that the best way to reconnect with God is to do so in the company of other like-hearted people, thus the gathering of the church comes into being.

So let’s reclaim the word “religion” for its fundamental purpose – that of reconnecting with God. I don’t know about you, but that sounds a lot like “spirituality” to me. Groovy.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you have always been connected to me. Help me deepen my connection to you by reaching out for support from others who are also working to deepen their connections. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, counting myself blessed that you would choose to make me the person I am and love me into the person I am becoming.