by Pam Tinsley

On November 1 the Church celebrates the Feast of All Saints’. On All Saints’ we remember all the saints – past, present, and yet-to-come – and well-known and revered saints with a capital S, as well as lesser-known saints. Saints with a capital S include apostles, such as Peter and Paul; the Church fathers, such as Augustine of Hippo and Pope Gregory the Great; or prominent women who shaped the Church, such as Catherine of Siena and Teresa of Avila. Most folks, including non-church folks, can come up with the name of a saint with a capital S.

Last week, on October 25, the Church remembered a lesser-known saint: Dorcas, in Greek – Tabitha, in Aramaic. We learn in Acts that Tabitha was a member of the early Christian community in Joppa, a coastal town of Israel. She was a disciple and was also known for her acts of charity, in particular for making garments and giving them to needy widows. She fell ill and died, and Peter went to see her; prayed over her; and raised her to life.

As I was re-reading the story from Acts, I realized that in the past I’ve always paid more attention to Peter than to Tabitha. After all, Peter not only heals Tabitha, but he raises her from the dead!

However, reading more closely, we hear that Tabitha’s healing isn’t the end of the story. Because of her healing, Tabitha is now able to continue her ministry in daily life – her acts of charity and her work as a seamstress making clothing for the needy. And as she engages in her ministry, she also bears witness to a miraculous healing that can come only from God. It’s pretty easy to recognize the extraordinary contributions to God’s Kingdom that the apostles and saints – with a capital S – have made. But, without God’s lesser-known saints serving as Jesus’ hands and feet in the world, the essential work of the Church can’t be done. In fact, the “Tabithas” of the church – you, me, all of us – are the heart of the Church. Although Tabitha and her ministry as a seamstress may seem ordinary, she’s extraordinary in God’s eyes. We, too, are extraordinary in God’s eyes and our own small acts of service – that is, our ministry – matter, and we just might inspire others!

by Demi Prentiss

Seeds – We need Jesus’ resurrection power in order to face tomorrow. Resurrection comes small, like seeds and leaven. One little word of encouragement, one affirmation, perhaps evoking one smile or laugh. One little gift can change us. – Br. Luke Ditewig, SSJE

Day after day, the news we consume fills us with fear and grief – news of insurrection, retribution, indiscriminate violence, political misbehavior, crippling moral failings. How can any person find a glimmer of hope, the source of resilience and resurrection?

Our failure to deal with our fear and our grief begets anxiety that becomes chronic.  As Seth Godin wrote, “Anxiety is experiencing failure in advance.” Perhaps our calling in an increasingly turbulent and anxious world is planting seeds, or kneading leaven into the dough of our lives. Receiving a seed – a little word of encouragement or affirmation, a smile or a laugh – is a gift. A gift that can change us, if we dare to receive it and allow it to grow.

Even more so, having enough hope to offer such a seed is a transformational act. Perhaps our willingness to be such a courageous giver is the power of God at work through us.

May the resurrection seeds you receive grow and blossom. May the seeds you offer to others leave a trail of hope that marks your path through life.

by Brandon Beck

The Enneagram Institute describes Oscar Ichazo’s Traditional Enneagram of Personality as a system by which we can understand ourselves and others in order to draw nearer to God. The Sacred Geometry of The Enneagram, pictured above, labeled with the Holy Ideas (top left) and corresponding Ego-Fixations (bottom left), Virtues (top right) and corresponding Passions (bottom right), can guide us in prayer, daily reflection, and at-one-ment.

The Enneagram Institute offers a test to help us see the number on the gram with which we most align. Teachers share that each of us is innately in tune with the characteristics of one number more so than others, but that we each carry the characteristics of every number in some measure. Our strongest number guides our path in our relationships, though. The lines in the gram indicate our movement in ascension and in disintegration from our true nature, offering us insight into personality characteristics we can observe in ourselves and others in order to journey to the center of ourselves again and again…drawing ever nearer to God.

October 15 is the Holy Feast Day of St. Teresa of Avila (1550-1582), Nun, a Doctor of the Church. As we contemplate the memorial of St. Teresa, we remember one of her great contributions in the writing of Interior Castle or The Mansions. St. Teresa explores the soul of us and encourages us in our search for “knowledge of ourselves,” saying it “is so very important,” and she wishes that we “never to admit any relaxation therein, however highly elevated [we] may be, because while we live on this earth, nothing is more necessary for us than humility.” (p 11) She goes on to say, “We shall never be able to know ourselves, except we endeavor to know God. By considering His greatness, we discover our own baseness; by contemplating His purity, we discover our own filthiness; and beholding His humility, we shall discover how far we are from being truly humble.” (p 11-12).

St. Teresa’s Interior Castle approach says we know God by reflecting on ourselves, looking inside our hearts, bodies, and minds. Oscar Ichazo and contemporary interpreters of his Enneagram offer a way to do that. It does not matter with which number you most align; every number has something to teach us about our soul and the souls of others. We strive to embody the Holy Ideas and Virtues and to see them and empower them in others. We recognize when we are losing them and expressing Ego-Fixations and Passions in their place, and we forgive ourselves and others when the Ego-Fixations and Passions arise. And always we notice the interconnectedness of us all and rely on the strengths of each other. As St. Teresa teaches, we listen to God’s call “so that [we] would desire even to be dissolved into the praises of that great God, who created [our] soul to His image and likeness.” (p 200)

by Pam Tinsley

As the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi approaches with its beloved – and joyful – tradition of the Blessing of the Animals, this year I’m particularly struck by St. Francis’s relationship to Creation Care. Thanks to Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, Creation Care is one of the three priorities of the Episcopal Church’s Jesus Movement. And the Episcopal Church now joins other faith traditions around the world in marking the Season of Creation from September 1 to October 4, St. Francis Day.

The season is set aside as a time of prayer and action focused on protecting the Earth that God has entrusted to our care. The devastating wildfires, hurricanes, floods, and other natural disasters over the past several months, along with the loss of biodiversity, are stark reminders of the effects of a changing climate, exacerbated by human behaviors. Even starker was the matter-of-fact statement from a young adult: He expects his generation to be the last because of the dire condition of our Earth.

During the past several years, trial usage of Creation Care language has been approved at General Convention for our Baptismal Covenant and our liturgies. One option for the Baptismal Covenant was the proposal of a sixth baptismal vow: Will you cherish the wondrous works of God, and protect and restore the beauty and integrity of all creation? Another option expanded the current fifth baptismal vow to read: Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of the Earth and every human being? Creation-focused liturgies are being developed to recognize mourning and lamentation, joy and celebration, and repentance and reconciliation.

Creation Care is a serious matter, even without revised liturgies and baptismal promises to call attention to it. As Christians we need to ask hard questions about our choices in daily life and how they impact the world. And so I ask: How will you cherish the wondrous works of God, and protect and restore the beauty and integrity of all creation – with God’s help?

by Demi Prentiss

Jim Burklo, who serves as pastor of United Church of Christ of Simi Valley, CA, recently mused whether Christians might be able explain our faith in one paragraph in entirely non-religious language, with no reference to God or Jesus or the Bible. The challenge is increasingly experienced in everyday American culture, where growing numbers of people identify as “nones,” meaning people with no religious affiliation – now about 20 to 29 percent of Americans.

Burklo explains,

If we really believe that God is love, then we can describe the essence of our faith entirely in terms of that love, leaving out the G-word.  Not that the G-word is bad:  it is integral to the rich mytho-poetic language of our faith tradition.  But if we want to get our message across to people who either don’t relate to the G-word, or associate it with bad experiences, we need to start with purely secular language.

I believe that if we practice this kind of secular description of our religious faith, we’ll do a better job of welcoming “nones” into it.  And at the same time, we’ll go deeper in our own understanding and practice of our faith…..

So here is my paragraph, briefly describing Christianity in purely secular terms:

Out of billions of years of the universe churning with creation and destruction, a breathtaking reality has emerged: love.  On earth, love has evolved from the bond between family members into a deeper love that is unconditional and universal.  The emergence of this love marks a profound turning point in natural history.  This love flows through deeply attentive, open, all-embracing consciousness.  This love lifts people out of selfishness and shallowness and into lives of selfless compassion, creativity, service, and activism for justice.  This love manifests in humble awe and wonder.  This love is more extraordinary and beautiful than everyday prose can describe.  It inspires poetry, music, ritual, and mythic narrative, and it brings people together in community to celebrate and practice it more fully. 

The Christian church is one such community.  Welcome to it!

How about you? In the context of your work, or school, or social club, or athletic team, or perhaps even your family, could you meet Burklo’s challenge? How fluent can we become in speaking “None”?

_{“We draw people to Christ not by loudly discrediting what they believe, by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it.” – Madeleine L‘Engle}