A Big Thank-you to my All Saints homies...

This is an update for the April "Beacon," All Saints' Newsletter. The thing is, though, I realized as I was writing it that some of the people in this "story" don't attend All Saints anymore and it is as much to them as the people who will be reading it. So, my church friends -- old and new -- you know who you are, here goes...

I’m writing you with joy in my heart, both for the hope we find in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and for the things he is bringing to fruition in my life.

I am scheduled to graduate from Asbury Theological Seminary on May 24 with my Master of Divinity degree. But perhaps of more interest to you, my ordination date is Saturday, May 31 in Fresno!

As I look toward these culminating events, I again must thank God for you and thank you for the important role that you, my home congregation, have played in my life, faith walk and ministry journey. From the time I first entered the doors of All Saints nine years ago (Second Sunday of Easter, 1999), you welcomed me into your worshipping and discipling community. During that first year, my heart was transformed and Christ got a hold of my life in a new way. From there, you encouraged me and helped me grow as we read, studied, prayed, retreated, ate, and worshipped together. You listened and prayed as we discerned God’s call on my life together and then in 2004, you sent me to seminary with so much love that tears were streaming down my face.

But your support didn’t end there. Through prayers, parish outreach support, personal checks, and encouraging notes, you constantly reminded me of your love and support for me, which also served as a sign of God’s faithfulness and his extravagant love for me. When I accept my diploma in May and wear my deacon stole for the first time, I want to remember that this is all about Christ and his body. I was called by Christ to serve his body (the Church) and, in turn, the Body of Christ has supported me. In other words, YOU ARE PART OF THIS. God called you to be part of it, you responded, and I believe we both have been richly blessed by it.

I eagerly look forward to seeing you the end of May.

The Holy Family

Joseph, righteous Joseph
Even when it seemed your betrothed had betrayed you
You did not seek revenge.
Your patience and forgiveness prepared you to digest your dreams.

Your pregnant wife risked your reputation
Yet you honored her, even postponing your marital rights.

You left all you knew for Egypt,
For the sake of Mary’s child.
Then you returned to Nazareth,
Caring more for his life and destiny than any other desires you once carried.

Although it was out of ignorance,
What a joy it must have been when they called him,
“Jesus, son of Joseph.”


Mary, blessed Mary
Your plans were set:
you would move from your father’s house to your husband’s
you knew what was coming –
until that strange and wondrous day when you learned that God had chosen you.

You did not understand – how could you?
But in humility, you obeyed and glorified God.
You risked your honor and your engagement for the sake of God’s son.
You suffered the indignity of birthing him in a stable,
You travelled with him to and fro, trusting your husband’s dreams.
You did not understand your son’s words
And yet you sensed his power and prompted it,
Like only a mother could.

You treasured all these things
Even as a sword pierced your heart.



Jesus, Christ Jesus
Your very existence transformed your family.
You gave Mary and Joseph, a simple and humble couple,
a royal purpose for their life together.

You remained part of the invisible Trinity
Even as you entered an earthly one:
Father, mother, child.

Though God, you underwent the humiliations of the flesh:
Born of woman, circumcised on the eighth day,
Subject to your parents’ discipline.

You honored your family by your willingness to become one of them,
Being the only baby who ever chose to be born and to bless.

When you tried to tell us your true origin
We used your family against you,
Claiming to know who your father was.

You shocked us with the way you overturned bloodline loyalties,
Accepting as mother and brothers anyone who obeyed God’s will.
Even as you gave your life away for your family and for the whole world,
You placed your mother in a new family
That transcended ancestral allegiances.

And you reconciled all of us to your heavenly father,
That we would be adopted into your family forever and ever.
Amen.

Thinking out loud about Liturgy and Sacraments

Martyrdom of St. Stephen

So, I read this chapter from a book that my uber-cool seminary advisor wanted me to read as I prepare for my December canonical exams. It was the first chapter of Beyond East and West: Problems in Liturgical Understanding by Robert Taft. I met with my advisor this afternoon and I’m still processing what we talked about and what this article is about.

Basically, Taft argues that Liturgy and Sacraments are ways in which the eternal, permanent results of God’s gift of himself to Christ in the Spirit (quoting Patrick Regan, 1977) and Jesus’ death, resurrection and ongoing priesthood and sacrifice in Heaven on our behalf becomes present and real to us and dwells in us by faith.

OK, let’s see if I can say that more simply in a way that I can understand it! The purpose of liturgy and sacrament is for us to recall God’s saving acts, which are ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ. But not just to recall them, but to be united with Christ and enter into them, ourselves. To be Christians is to be “little Christs,” and as such, our lives are to repeat the story line of Jesus’ life. Not necessarily in the sense of being part of an oppressed people-group, being unfairly taxed, born in a manger, etc. But rather that of accepting suffering, dying with Christ, and being raised with Him. Now I don’t know about you, but those words and concepts have been pretty muddled to me. When I read and hear people say, “I have been crucified with Christ,” I sort of intellectually understand hear what they’re saying and I sorta don’t.

In reading this article and talking about it with my advisor, my eyes began to open a little wider; I began to process this more. Here’s a passage that I’ve been chewing on:

Paul uses several compound verbs that begin with the preposition syn (with): I suffer with Christ, am crucified with Christ, die with Christ, am buried with Christ, am raised and live with Christ, am carried off to heaven and sit at the right hand of the Father with Christ (Rom 6:3-11, Gal 2:20, 2 Cor 1:5; 4:7ff, Col 2:20, Eph 2:5-6).

This is one of Paul’s ways of underscoring the necessity of my personal participation in redemption. I must “put on Christ” (Gal 13:27), assimilate him, somehow experience with God’s grace and repeat in the pattern of my own life the principal events by which Christ has saved me, for by undergoing them he has transformed the basic human experiences into a new creation.

How do I experience these events? In him, by so entering into the mystery of his life that I can affirm with Paul: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20) (p. 5).

OK. Here’s the part that really jumped out at me: “repeat in the pattern of my own life the principal events by which Christ has saved me.” Whoa. That’s just astounding to me. Incredibly astounding. I, in a sense, live the life of Christ because Christ lives in me. On one hand, part of me wants to simply say, “Of course!” while another part of me cries, “What? How can I even dare to aspire to live the life of Christ?” The answer is, I think, if I have died to myself in Christ, I have no other option.

Taft writes, “Henceforth, true worship pleasing to the Father is none other than the saving life, death and resurrection of Christ” (p. 4). How do we please God with our worship? We enter into the life of Christ: we die to self and rise to new life in Him.

Now here’s where it gets hairy for me. Paul talks in Colossians 1 about completing in his body what is lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of Christ’s body, which is the Church. OK. What is LACKING? How can ANYTHING be LACKING in Christ’s afflictions? Hey, I know it is divinely inspired, but my first reading of it just goes against my conceptions of the gospel. Jesus did it all, right? Died for the sins of the whole world! “It is finished.”

But… Jesus did raise up disciples and told them to preach the good news to the whole world. And the Holy Spirit did come at Pentecost and anoint them and Saul/Paul was knocked to the ground and blinded by the already ascended Christ.

So, maybe the entirety of salvation history wasn’t over yet.

Nothing more needed to be done to take away the sins of the world, but there was still kingdom work to be done. Who would it be done by?

By those who came into the Kingdom of God, responding to the grace and call of God.

By those who would live out the life of Jesus: to die to self with him and to rise to new life in him. In doing so, we can participate in the work of redemption. In fact, God invites into that miraculous work, which can become our greatest desire and joy.

I’m not talking about clergy here; I’m talking about the call of Christians.

So, what does that have to do with the sacraments or liturgy? Well, Taft writes that liturgy for Paul is “a life of self-giving, lived after the pattern of Christ” (p.5) That is the liturgy of life.

As for the liturgy of formal worship, it is to contribute to the liturgy of life. He says a liturgy is successful when it “builds up the Body of Christ into a spiritual temple and priesthood by forwarding the aim of Christian life: the love and service of God and neighbor; death to self in order to live for others as did Christ” (p. 11).

In other words, our liturgy and sacraments should be designed to draw us into the being of Christ, to lead us toward self-denial (wow, talk about an UN-popular concept!) and into living the life of Christ, our risen Lord.

If you’re still with me, I’d love to hear your comments.

God bless!

I'm Spider(wo)man, Who are you?

Your results:
You are Spider-Man

Spider-Man 80% Green Lantern 75% Superman 65% Wonder Woman 57% Hulk 55% The Flash 50% Iron Man 50% Robin 47% Catwoman 45% Batman 40% Supergirl 37%

You are intelligent, witty, a bit geeky and have great power and responsibility.

Click here to take the "Which Superhero am I?" quiz...