Always we begin again

Posted on by livinggodsmission

by Brandon Beck

In January, many of us celebrate the promises of our lives together in our church through annual parish meetings and parochial reports.

Some of us celebrate a Recovery Sunday with liturgical, musical, and educational focus on the sacramental and covenantal relationship of recovery people and programs among us.

Some of us celebrate Lunar New Year – this is the Year of the Rabbit, in case you were wondering – respecting the dignity of the diversity of ways of being people in this world.

Wikimedia – Triquetra

Perhaps we lifted up the saintly Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on his birthday and will again on the day, in April, when he was taken from his earthly mission by gun violence.

Perhaps we held memorial vigils in remembrance of the genocidal violence of the Holocaust.

These are all parts of life in the church in January.

Supposedly, St. Benedict said, “Always we begin again.” This 6th century Italian hermit-turned-father of monasticism drew people into themselves, onto a path he followed, and along The Way with his divinely inspired meditations and writings, contemplations, and connections.

Whether or not he actually said, “Always we begin again,” is neither here nor there; for, we do always begin again.

What better way to live into the promises of our baptismal covenant than to weave these two sacred triangles together – God, ourselves and others with past, present, and future?

What symbols in the church, in nature, in your life remind you of this idea?

I see the triquetra and think of these 6 words which I say with gusto every time I witness a baptism because they remind me that always we begin again, together, to expand Love for creation: believe, continue, persevere, proclaim, seek, strive. These words that begin the versicles of our covenantal pledge weave together God, ourselves and others with past, present and future in a spinning, spiral, triquetra that always begins again and helps us celebrate just as we do every January, every year and shall every day.

Amen.

Receiving and being

Posted on by livinggodsmission
Pexels.com – Hassan Ouajbir

by Demi Prentiss

For those of us who choose to be partners in baptismal living, we aim to live our lives following Jesus, walking the road he described as The Way. One frame for that style of living is to understand the life we live as abiding in sacrament. I’m not talking about The Sacrament: the Body and Blood of Christ.  Instead, I mean sacrament as “outward and visible signs of inward and spiritual grace.”

When I examine my life through that lens, I notice that I often move between receiving sacrament and being sacrament.  In life, I’m frequently receiving those signs of grace, those signs of God at work:  a smile, a life-giving word, a gift of time, a token of encouragement, a flood of forgiveness.   What I notice less often – and usually only in after-the-fact reflection – are the times God’s grace allows me to BE sacrament: being the cup of water for a thirsty soul, laying down time or money as a life-giving sacrifice, allowing God to transform my poor offering to anoint another with healing and support. Most of those occasions are less the fruit of my own work, and more of God making the most of my offerings. And I notice that often, the catalyst for moving me from receiving to being is heartfelt gratitude. That seed produces the fruit of generosity.

Our faith communities move along that same continuum between receiving and being. We who gather with our siblings in Christ often come together to receive: washing, feeding, anointing, blessing, and fellowship.  Gratitude and the power of God enable us to become water, food, healing, and forgiveness – blossoming into God’s justice, peace, love, and resurrection in a hurting world. It takes faith to open our eyes to perceive God at work, in and through us, and our communities. Commissioned by our baptism to be co-creators with God, we can learn to recognize that we are receivers of God’s grace, and that we can be bearers of that grace to those around us. That work – observing God at work in the world and joining as God’s partner – is the essence of baptismal living.

Church is just the beginning!

Posted on by livinggodsmission

by Pam Tinsley

Fr. Ed Sterling and friend.
Photo courtesy of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Tacoma, WA

“Go in peace, remember the poor, visit the sick, love and forgive one another, and praise the Lord always, Alleluia! Alleluia!” says 101-year-old retired priest Fr. Ed Sterling energetically as he sends the congregation forth at the end of worship. We have been nourished by the Word of God and Eucharistic meal; we have praised God and prayed for the needs of our world, our community, and our church; we have been forgiven; and we may even have renewed our baptismal promises. In fact, church is just beginning!

As our dear departed friend, the Rev. Fletcher Lowe, used to say to us, our time in church with fellow parishioners is like being at a basecamp. Just as a basecamp is integral to supporting and equipping hikers who are headed to the mountaintop, the church equips us for our baptismal pilgrimage in daily life. The church walls cannot be our destination. We are sent forth every Sunday, just as Jesus sent his first-century disciples. We are sent out through our church doors to be the church by serving God in our daily lives. And we serve God in our daily lives by proclaiming the Good News of God in Christ by word and action and by being Christ’s body in the world – by living in peace, remembering the poor, visiting the sick, loving and forgiving one another, and praising the Lord always.

Alleluia! Alleluia!

Our sewing saints!

Posted on by livinggodsmission

by Pam Tinsley

Each Sunday at worship, Naomi, an internationally renowned organist and musician, blesses our congregation with her gift of music. And prior to the pandemic, she regularly performed locally, nationally, and internationally. Music is not only her profession and passion – it is her vocation. Naomi’s faith radiates whenever she interacts with others, be they musicians, choir members, or parishioners. And the love for Jesus that she has instilled in her four-year-old son, both at home and in church on Sunday, is recognized by all.

With concerts cancelled because of the pandemic, Naomi discovered another way she could serve Christ in her daily life. Naomi has close contacts in her home country of Japan, which led her and her husband to become an aunt and an uncle to students at an orphanage school in Osaka. Once the pandemic has passed and it’s safe to resume gathering, Naomi hopes to do some fundraising concerts and events with the pastors at the church that runs the orphanage.

A thank you letter sent by one of the Osaka school children, along with a gift of his origami art made with special colors reserved for special occasions: a boy in gold, a crane in orange, and a cicada in silver.

In the meantime, Naomi learned that the school had a need for masks. Without hesitation Naomi offered to make 100 masks for the children! Unfortunately, after sewing just a few masks, her sewing machine broke – at a time when inexpensive sewing machines were sold out everywhere.

And then Naomi experienced God’s work first-hand. A friend gave her a sewing machine – a super fancy one at that. And then, because she was a beginner seamstress and also making masks of all sizes, she realized she needed help – at a time when many people were tiring of making masks. That’s when the sewing saints appeared! Two women stepped up and, with their help, Naomi was able to send 100 masks to Japan in less than two weeks!

Now the kids wear them when they go outside and when they are in class. The principal wrote that the kids think their new masks are the coolest. Not only are they handmade, but their aunties in America made them for them! (And they came with American candies.)

‘Walk worthy of your vocation’

Posted on by livinggodsmission

by Demi Prentiss

http://dtlifecoach.com/vocation/

The writer of Ephesians urges us to “walk worthy of the vocation to which you’ve been called.” (Eph 4:1) In the midst of daily life, that can be a challenge, especially in our daily work. In a recent blog, Bob Robinson offered six markers that distinguish a “job” from a “vocation.” He thinks the distinction is important.

Robinson founded the non-profit Reintegrate to equip “God’s people to reintegrate the Christian faith with vocation so that they can participate in God’s mission on earth.” He understands “vocation” to be “something bigger, something more meaningful, something that makes us want to get up in the morning.”

Robinson names six distinguishing factors of having a vocation:

      1. We are responding to a “calling” from a power greater than ourselves.
      2. We are tapping into our uniqueness, regardless of whether we’re paid for the work.
      3. We can engage some aspect of that “calling,” wherever we find ourselves.
      4. We are participating in a mission whose scope is larger than ourselves.
      5. We are aiming to manifest God’s love in life-giving ways, both large and small.
      6. We understand our mission to be increasing others’ experience of love at work in the world.

Participating in God’s mission of reconciliation can take many forms, expressing the nature of God whose name is love. Our vocations, sometimes manifested in our occupations, also show up in our home life, our hobbies, our service to others, and our relationship to the wider world:

      • While our job might be framing houses, our vocation might be creating homes.
      • While our job might be caring for children, our vocation might be shaping young people to be kind.
      • While our job might be driving a truck, our vocation might be safely delivering what people need.
      • While our job might be mopping the floor, our vocation might be providing clean, safe spaces for people.
      • While our job might be writing contracts, our vocation might be assuring fairness for all parties.
      • While our job might be serving restaurant meals, our vocation might be feeding the hungry, in body and in spirit.

Each of us, in our daily life and work, can touch the lives of those around us in ways that are liberating and life-giving, whenever we claim our vocation. In some ways, those of us in “ordinary” occupations are positioned to have even greater impact than those who are working as pastors and faith leaders, and not only because there are more of us. Often, seeing God at work through “ordinary” people speaks more clearly to those who are hungry for connection.

Find your vocation: change the world, starting from the inside out.

Who do you say that I am?

Posted on by livinggodsmission

by Demi Prentiss

“Who do you say that I am?” Jesus asks (Matthew 16:15, Mark 8:27, Luke 9:18). And how do we answer? The response that we express through our daily life speaks more loudly than any creed or prayer or promise that we might read or recite.

And what might God say if we were to ask the same question? “Dear God, who do you say that I am?” That’s a question that launches many a quest and walks alongside us on the spiritual journey that is our life. “Who has God made me to be? How do I live into that calling?”

Brother Geoffrey Tristram, SSJE, provides encouragement to all the baptized, guiding us to listen with the ear of our heart:

If you have been baptized, then you have a vocation!  So what is a vocation?  Some people think it must be something that you suddenly get.  You’re walking along quite happily one day, and God suddenly “zaps” you with a vocation!  I don’t think that’s quite right.  I believe that your vocation is that which lies at the very heart, the very core of your identity.   It is discovering who it is that you most truly are.

There are particular moments in life, perhaps when you experience something, meet someone, hear some words, which touch that deep core within, and it resonates.  And you say – “Oh – that’s who I am,” or “That’s what I want to do or be in life.”  Sometimes you forget it, or you try to put it out of your mind, if it doesn’t fit in with other plans.  But it usually comes back, and deep down, you just know that it’s truly who you are meant to be.

The Creator’s call can be powerful and persistent. Some would even say that God calls everything and everyone in Creation – baptized or not – to walk God’s Way of Love.  Baptismal living embodies our choice to live the truth that God proclaims in each person, so that through our God-given identity we are blessed to be a blessing.