We’ve done EIGHT episodes of Liturgical Rebels so far!
Episode 1 – Inaugural episode with Christine Sine and Forrest Inslee
Episode 2 – Poetry as Spiritual Practice with Christine Sine and Drew Jackson
Episode 3 – Explore Art with Scott Erickson
Episode 4 – Block prints & Faith journeys with Kreg Yingst
Episode 5 – Curating Worship with Mark Pierson and co-host Lilly Lewin
Episode 6 – Creative Worship with Lilly Lewin
And our two most recent episodes:
Episode 7 – Author & Activist Shane Claiborne
In this conversation, Christine Sine interviews Shane Claiborne, a Christian activist and author, about his journey and his work in advocating for social justice. They discuss topics such as community living, gun violence, the death penalty, and the ongoing conflict in Gaza. Shane shares his experiences and insights, highlighting the importance of love, nonviolence, and solidarity with marginalized communities. The conversation culminates in a discussion about the recent pilgrimage walk and protest at Lockheed Martin, a major weapons contractor.
Episode 8 – Into the Wild with Tony Jones
In this conversation, Tony shares his journey from being a pastor in the Emerging Church Network to finding solace and connection with God in the wilderness. Tony emphasizes the importance of nature in spiritual experiences and how it can be a place to interact with God. He explores the presence of death in life from composting and gardening to hunting. The conversation explores the paradox of valuing animals and of hunting and eating them, the responsibility humans have for the death of animals, and the need for honesty about animal deaths. The conversation concludes with a discussion on mortality and the focus on living the best life in the present.
Little kids love to dance. They move their bodies easily to music. They feel the joy of the music and aren’t afraid to move with it. I have a friend named Anna and her little daughter has learned all the River Dance moves by watching the videos. She started this at 3 and now at 5 is taking lessons in Irish dancing. She is passionate and free! I saw a video on instagram recently of a young toddler watching the music video of Jon Baptist’s “ Freedom.” He was moving with the music. His mom said this was his favorite song! It’s become one of my favorite songs too. It’s helping me relearn to dance! The joy in the music just makes me want to move.
I used to dance. I took ballet when I was in early elementary school. I loved it. There is even an old home movie of me trying to teach my little brother how to dance with me wearing a tutu. But somewhere along the way, I lost that love of dancing I lost how to dance!
I didn’t make it to pointe in ballet so never had toe shoes….If I had, I might have continued to dance. But I have that “not good enough” or “not perfect enough” thing and I tended to stick with things I that weren’t too hard to learn, things that I felt already good at like art.
As I grew up, I got into other hobbies and dance wasn’t one of them. It sadly wasn’t a natural part of me. While I loved listening to music, dance parties weren’t a part of my daily life. Instead, I was singing Broadway tunes in the barn to the cows as I threw down their hay.
When I had young kids, I tried another dance class at a local college. But there I felt out of place and uncorodinated. I’m not sure I even finished the class. My hips definitely lied to me.
Maybe it’s hard for me to dance because I haven’t done a lot of it. I don’t naturally move in that free way that real dancers do. What about you? Are you a dancer? Was dancing a natural part of your life as a kid ?
As an enneagram 7, I am much more in my head than in my body. This year as I’ve started doing strength training, I am learning just how disconnected I am from my body and my breathing. I’m learning how to breathe all over again. I am learning how to pay attention to where I feel emotions in my body and how my muscles all work together. It’s been a very good but rather humbling process.
Breath and Breathing and Dancing are all invitations of the Spirit.
dance 1
Author Joyce Rupp, in her book, MAY I HAVE THIS DANCE, invites us to consider the Invitation of Jesus to dance with Him.
But just when
The old heap of bones seems most dry
And deserted,
A strong Breath of Life
Stirs among the dead.Someone named God
Comes to my fragments
And asks, with twinkling eye:
“May I have this dance?”
“God constantly visits my valley of dry bones and invites me to dance. “ Joyce Rupp
I think we all need to accept the invitation to DANCE with JESUS!
One year at the Abbey of Gethsemani, The Sprit invited me to go dance before God on the Cross hill…I went up the hill and danced with Jesus …and Jesus asked me to leave my shoes as a symbol of leaving behind the old things …Jesus invited me to leave behind my fears and dance freely in the love and grace of the protected one.
More recently I was invited by my friend Katherine to attend an experiential dance class led by Hillary Mcbride and Lisa Gungor. It was a step of faith for me and getting out of my comfort zone. But I decided to accept the invitation of Jesus and went for it!
While I wasn’t as free as some of the folks there to move and dance the entire session…through the dancing and movement that I did do, Jesus met me and showed me some powerful things.
I found myself swaying to the music and holding my arms as if I was holding a baby. I have taught myself and others that we need to be wrapped in God’s love just as Mary wrapped Jesus in swaddling clothes. In this dance experience, Jesus showed me that I needed to be rocked in God’s love as an infant in the arms of LOVE, and know too that I can rock myself and love myself. I backed against a wall as I moved and this reminded me that Jesus has my back….I smiled broadly as I danced up against that WALL OF LOVE.
How do you view dancing with Jesus now?
Did you have any experience dancing in a church or worship setting? Or was dancing illegal?
In 2 Samuel 6, King David Danced before the Lord with all his might!
Ecclesiastes 3:4 reminds us that there is a time to mourn and a time to dance.
And the prophet Jeremiah gives us hope….
Then young women will dance and be glad,
young men and old as well.
I will turn their mourning into gladness;
I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.
Jeremiah 31:13
How do you feel about dancing? What does dancing feel like to you?
Is it easy for you to dance?
Does music bring you to your feet and get you moving?
How does it feel to be invited to dance with Jesus?
Joyce Rupp says “Prayer is a time to dance with our Divine Partner, to let God take the lead, and to enjoy the true delight and source of life that God is for us. “
What if we practice movement/dance as an act of prayer? What would that be like for you? What music would you put on to dance to? Would you be inside or outside for you dance party?
In these days following Pentecost, let the Spirit fill you with love and freedom to dance again! Let the Spirit BREATHE into you again! Accept the Invitation to Dance with Jesus!
The Valley of Dry Bones Ezekiel 37: 1-5
The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”
I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”
4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath[a] enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”
LISTEN to Jon Batiste’s Song Freedom and practice your Dancing! and receive the Freedom and Love of Jesus!
by Carol Dixon
May 26th is the feast day of the Venerable Bede who was born around 673 AD. The first we hear of Bede is as a 7 year old sent to the abbey of Monkwearmouth to be educated by the abbot Benedict Biscop, a well- travelled cleric who often visited Rome, taking illuminated manuscripts from Northumbria and bringing back books for the monastery, along with that at their sister house at Jarrow, to which Bede was later sent under the tutelage of Abbot Ceolfrith, and their library was known as one of the greatest in the Anglo-Saxon world. In 686 a plague broke out and many of the local population including all of the monks at Jarrow died, apart from Ceolfrith and Bede. Bede was later to refer to it in one of the many books he wrote, which included the lives of the Saints (such as Aidan & Cuthbert) and his now famous ‘Ecclesiastical History of the English People’.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bede – Public Domain
One of the amazing things I find about Bede that seems relevant to us today is that he made very few journeys and rarely left the monastery where he lived yet his writings were well-known in his own time across the whole of Europe and became stalwart reference books for people like Alcuin of York, who was invited by the emperor Charlemagne to be the leading scholar and teacher in his court.
In our times of the coronavirus ‘plague’ when so many of us were only able to leave our homes occasionally I found it heartening that the faith of this devout man had such a resonance at home and abroad, despite him being in ‘lockdown’ most of the time in his monastery. He still performed his daily chores and stopped for times of prayer, yet his insatiable thirst for learning, spreading his faith and encouraging others from the sanctuary of his own home kept him busy and his example even in his own time was a blessing to many.
Not all of us are called upon to write classics of English Literature but, as fellow followers of Jesus, we are also called by God to serve faithfully wherever we are and whatever circumstances we find ourselves in – whether doing chores, making times for regular prayer, or serving our neighbours and society in any way we can. One of Bede’s most famous prayers is still used regularly at St Paul’s Church, Jarrow which stands on the site of his monastery:
The Prayer of St. Bede “I implore you, good Jesus, that as in your mercy you have given me to drink in with delight the words of your knowledge, so of your loving kindness you will also grant me one day to come to you, the fountain of all wisdom, and to stand for ever before your face.” – See more at http://www.stpeters-wearmouth.org.uk/.
In my home church we sometimes sing an ascension hymn, A hymn of glory let us sing’ written by Bede (who wrote a number of hymns, including some music).
1 A hymn of glory let us sing!
New hymns throughout the world shall ring.
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Christ, by a road before untrod,
ascends unto the throne of God.
Alleluia! (x5)
2 The holy apostolic band
upon the Mount of Olives stand.
Alleluia! Alleluia!
And with his faithful followers see
their Lord ascend in majesty. Alleluia! (x5)
3 To whom the shining angels cry,
‘Why stand and gaze upon the sky?’
Alleluia! Alleluia!
‘This is the Saviour!’ Thus they say,
‘This is his glorious triumph day!’ Alleluia! (x5)
4 O risen Christ, ascended Lord,
all praise to you let earth accord;
Alleluia! Alleluia!
You are, while endless ages run,
with Father and with Spirit one. Alleluia! (x5)
Hymnum canamus gloriae The Venerable Bede (673-735)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bede – Public Domain
Here’s a slightly different version incorporating his prayer:
At Godspace, environmental issues and creation care are two things we are passionate about.
This document is designed to help you celebrate Earth Day by making a positive impact on the environment. It can be easy to feel overwhelmed by the scale of environmental issues facing our planet, but by taking small, simple steps, we can all make a difference!
It is a grey drippy day in Seattle, more like what I expect of March than May. In spite of the inclement weather we managed to plant our tomatoes yesterday, 28 beautiful plants now ready to grow into the sky. We have found that a post hole digger is the perfect implement to dig deep holes for the plants so that they can form good root systems. It was a very satisfying accomplishment.
Last Sunday was Pentecost Sunday and we are now in what is known as ordinary time a term that I must confess I hate. I know that all it means is that there are no major feasts to celebrate in this season but it still seems a misnomer. To me this is extraordinary time, the time when we are out fully engaged in God’s world. Perhaps you are planning a special vacation over the next few months, or are involved in working with the marginalized or with the preservation of God’s good earth.
At least we do have some things to celebrate during this season. I love that the first Sunday of this season of the liturgical calendar is Trinity Sunday when we celebrate a doctrine that is at the very centre of our faith – the triune nature of God. This theme was particularly important for Celtic Christians who embraced the Trinity as a family, and each human family unit (be it family, clan or tribe) was seen as an icon of the Trinity. The Trinity was a very real presence in all aspects of life and creation, and an almost tangible Comforter and Protector who could ward off evil forces. We see this theological perspective reflected in the simple prayer above and I love the implication that this triune nature of God is reflected in the created world around us. Maybe you would like to go out and see how many tripartite flowers and leaves you can find.
Today we published the 8th episode of Liturgical Rebels podcast. This is a fascinating episode with Tony Jones about his new book The God of Wild Places. Tony shares his journey from being a pastor in the Emerging Church Network to finding solace and connection with God in the wilderness. Tony emphasizes the importance of nature in spiritual experiences and how it can be a place to interact with God. The conversation explores the hunting and eating of animals, and the role of hunting in conservation and the importance of respecting and caring for creation.
My Meditation Monday – The Spiritual Practice of Remodeling really seemed to strike a chord with many of you this week. Many of us experience God’s desire to repurpose, recycle and reuse the challenging experiences of the past as something we find compelling to reflect on. “What is your vision for the transformation God would like to accomplish in your life?
What do you think God wants to refurbish, preserve, repurpose or fix now to avoid disastrous consequences in the future?”
My Friday post on Substack Spiritual Practice: Look Up and See the Lights continued my thoughts on the aurora borealis and my sadness at discovering that “light pollution prevents nearly 80 percent of people in North America from seeing the Milky Way in the night sky. Our home galaxy is now hidden from more than one-third of humanity.” What would our world look like without all these artificial lights I wonder? I hope you took opportunity to go outside at night and gaze up at the awe inspiring beauty of the Milky Way.
On Godspacelight, in the spirit of repurposing, we reposted Lyn Domina’s fantastic post from 2018 Foolish Diversity in honor of International Diversity Day. “What was God thinking, creating us all so different and yet so opinionated? We argue about baseball teams, cookie recipes, whether the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son or only from the Father, daylight savings time, guns, beer, abortion, rock and roll or rap, and who makes the best pancakes. Why didn’t God just create us as more similar and more agreeable?”
On Saturday Joy Lenton’s post was a great preparation for Pentecost Sunday. I found her meditation exercise to be particularly powerful.
On Friday, Lilly Lewin’s Freerange Friday https://godspacelight.com/
Next week Tom and I are heading to Britain for a couple of weeks. We begin our journey in Brighton and London then to Malmsebury near Bristol and on to Durham and then Edinburgh. We are looking forward to catching up with friends and learning more about what is happening in the church in Britain. Because of our travels, Melissa will compose next week’s Keeping Up With The News.
We appreciate your prayers for our travels.
Many blessings
Christine Sine.
In this conversation, Tony shares his journey from being a pastor in the Emerging Church Network to finding solace and connection with God in the wilderness. Tony emphasizes the importance of nature in spiritual experiences and how it can be a place to interact with God. He explores the presence of death in life from composting and gardening to hunting. The conversation explores the paradox of valuing animals and of hunting and eating them, the responsibility humans have for the death of animals, and the need for honesty about animal deaths. The conversation concludes with a discussion on mortality and the focus on living the best life in the present.
Tony Jones is the author of The God of Wild Places and contributing writer to several outdoors periodicals. He’s written a dozen books, including Did God Kill Jesus? and The Sacred Way: Spiritual Practices for Everyday Life, developed the iPhone app, hosts the Reverend Hunter Podcast, and teaches at Fuller Theological Seminary and The Loft Literary Center. He writes a weekly newsletter on Substack. He holds an A.B. from Dartmouth College, an M.Div. from Fuller Theological Seminary, and a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary.
—-
Takeaways
- Tony’s journey from being a pastor in the Emerging Church Network to finding solace and connection with God in the wilderness
- The challenges and advantages of being an Enneagram 8
- The importance of nature in spiritual experiences and connecting with God
- The metaphor of composting for the cycle of life and the interconnectedness of all creation.
- Humans are responsible for the death of animals, whether we eat meat or not, and it is important to be honest about our choices.
- Respecting and caring for creation is an important aspect of our relationship with the natural world.
- Focusing on living the best life in the present and embracing our mortality can lead to a deeper appreciation for life and the world around us.
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Contact Information for Tony Jones
Email: tj@tonyj.net
Mobile phone: 612-597-0441
Website: ReverendHunter.com
Facebook: facebook.com/jonestony
Twitter: @jonestony
Instagram: @TheReverendHunter
By Lynn Domina
originally posted in 2018
Difference, Glorious Difference
We could have been alike. By “we” I mean all of us. We could have been imagined into being as multitudes of the same creature, each one of us identical, our DNA exactly the same, our appearances distinct only because that one spent more time in the sun, this one ingested less calcium as an infant, the other one failed to catch a ball and so has a scar on his cheek. We could have been called to duplicate each other in a preference for oranges over pears, basketball over football, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire over Jeopardy. Instead, we’re unique, our skin bronze or olive or ivory, our voices rumbling or breezy or hushed, our dominant responses patience or fear or nonchalance.
What was God thinking? Life would be so much easier if we all wore the same size shoe and so didn’t have to spend half a morning wandering from store to store, searching for a pair that was narrow enough at the heel and wide enough at the toes. If our taste buds were all the same, well-meaning friends could stop trying to foist brussel sprouts on us, convinced that in this recipe, we’d come to love them. Ditto tofu. Ditto oysters. And what was God thinking, creating us all so different and yet so opinionated? We argue about baseball teams, cookie recipes, whether the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son or only from the Father, daylight savings time, guns, beer, abortion, rock and roll or rap, and who makes the best pancakes. Why didn’t God just create us as more similar and more agreeable?
As a writer myself, as someone who enjoys bringing poems and stories into being, creating something out of—if not nothing, then language alone, I appreciate the pleasure of creation. I like to imagine God’s joy and astonishment every time God brought something new into being—a three-toed sloth, a hippopotamus, a flowering cactus. The color blue and the color green and the color teal. Cinnamon, fennel, turmeric. People with freckles, people who can curl their tongues, people with bushy eyebrows. What diversity I imagine God thinking, what fun. When God called everything good, maybe God was thinking only about morality, but I think God was filled not only with satisfaction but with delight, observing all of creation, the yellow and purple, the light and darkness, the males and females. God called it very good our Bibles tell us, but I think God meant, “This is great!”
But, alas, of course, arguments ensued. Adam, Eve, the serpent, and their short debate followed by that first juicy bite of a Granny Smith. Cain, Abel, the grain, the flocks, Cain’s left hook, Adam’s corpse. If only God had created us to be alike rather than different, maybe we’d all still be living in paradise. Perhaps all this diversity is just a foolish result of a foolish decision.
Or not. Perhaps, as is so often true, we’re the fools. Some of us see difference and feel fear. Some of us feel anger. Some of us feel disgust. Others of us feel surprise or excitement or wonder. Let’s be like those people. God called all of creation good. Let’s receive it that way. Good. Good. Good.
This bundle includes items to enrich your Spring experience: the Godspace Community Cookbook, a copy of Digging Deeper: The Art of Contemplative Gardening by Christine Sine, and a set of Gift of Wonder prayer cards.
by Christine Sine
We just completed a bathroom remodel. The room has probably not been touched for 70 years or more and was desperately in need of a redo. It may be the smallest room in the house but boy has it challenged us to lose our use of it for the last 2 weeks. The whole process was exhausting yet filled with expectation and anticipation. There was much noise, hammering and unexpected discoveries. Along the way I find myself reflecting a lot on the lifelong repurposing and refurbishing God does in all our lives.
Think Refurbish not Demolition.
We love watching house remodel shows on T.V. but always get frustrated when demo day means everything is destroyed. We may have stripped it to the bare bones, but I made sure everything that was still functional in our bathroom was kept whole either for us to repurpose or to go to someone else who could repurpose it.
Question: How often I wonder do we want to come in with a sledge hammer to someone’s life, even to our own life, and totally demolish it it when God is saying no, no no, there is perfectly good stuff here. All it needs is some repositioning and refurbishing?
Preserving
Several years ago we were gifted a new toilet by some young men who stayed with us for several months. They came to our door one day and asked if they could sleep in our backyard. At the time our basement apartment was empty (which it is now if you know anyone who may be interested in living in community). When the apartment was rented they move up into our prayer room and slept on the floor… for almost a year. They were so grateful for a place to stay that they did lots of jobs around the house including re-polishing our dining room table, and replacing the toilet. For a few days this still perfectly good toilet sat in an otherwise totally demolished room waiting to be surrounded by beautiful newness. It’s good to know we were able to preserve it.
When we embarked on a kitchen remodel seven years ago we were even more concerned about preserving parts of the room that evoked good memories. We did not touch the backsplash behind the counters. It is made from tiles we purchased in Jerusalem on our honeymoon 32 years ago. They are made by Armenian Christians who have used the same patterns for hundreds of years. One of the challenges the remodellers faced was ripping out the old counter without breaking any of these tiles. Then they had to finding matching tiles for the new countertop. Not easy 24 years later. Tiles are fragile. It took more work to preserve them, but now they stand out like new.
Question: Some things from the past need to be held on to. What aspects of your life and history are need to be preserved? What are the fragile memory objects from your past that are worth saving? How would God like to enhance and highlight these so that they stand out more beautifully in your life?
Avoid Future Disasters.
One of the reasons for our remodel is that Tom and I want to be able to stay in this house for many years to come. Yet we know that 80% of falls occur in the bathroom and in order to “age in place” we needed to make changes to keep us safe. In the process there were other unexpected surprises that could have caused catastrophe in the future. First when the walls were pulled out, two electric wires hanging free but alive were exposed. A fire waiting to happen. Then when they pulled out the toilet temporarily and exposed the pipes to it, we discovered the sewer pipe was corroded. It could have caused a disastrous leak into the basement.
How has God prepared you so that you are less likely to face disaster in the future? What unexpected surprises has God exposed in your life that can be repaired now but could have had disastrous consequences if left hidden into the future ?
Repurposing
We did rip out the old bath. It is at least 75 years old and weighs about 250lb. The construction workers put it by their truck ready to go to the dump but I didn’t let them. It now sits in our side garden with wildflowers growing in it.
Question: Are there aspects of your life that needed to be saved from the garbage and repurposed? Perhaps you have found healing for past traumatic experiences. You have ripped them out and are ready to throw them away, but is it time to think about repurposing them instead?
Recreating
Just before our kitchen remodel 7 years ago, we were on vacation on Mayne Island Canada. I found a bone on the beach, probably from a dolphin, bleached by the water and sun for many years before it was washed up for me to find. It still sits in my sacred space as a reminder that God is in the business not just of remodelling but of recreating all things.
Today, as we finished the bathroom remodel, I pulled it out again. After all we took our bathroom back to dry bones and it seemed like an appropriate reminder of the whole process. I then read through the words of Ezekiel 37:5, 6 when the prophet sits in a valley of dry bones and God asks him: Son of man, do you think these bones can live? then says:
“Dry bones, I will breathe breath into you, and you will come alive. I will attach muscles and tendons to you, cause flesh to grow over them, and cover you with skin. I will breathe breath into you, and you will come alive. After this happens, you will know that I am the Eternal.”
Question: We have remodelled and repurposed our bathroom and transformed it into something beautiful, and as I sit with a dry bone in my hand I wonder, in the renewal of all things, what beautiful thing will God be able to recreate from it? When God once more breathes life into it what will the renewed, restored creature look like?
Sit quietly for a few minutes and think about your own life. Do you feel you are sitting in a valley of dry bones or somewhere like our old dilapidated bathroom longing to see it renewed and restored? I dreamed about this remodel for years before it was accomplished and now as I look at the beautiful transformation I am amazed and delighted at what I feel God is able to do with dry bones.
God Can Renew All Things
What is your vision for the transformation God would like to accomplish in your life.
- What do you think God wants to refurbish in you?
- What does God want to preserve in you?
- What does God want to repurpose in you?
- What are some of the unexpected surprises God exposed in your life but was able to “fix” now that could have had disastrous consequences?
- What does God want to give new life to and recreate in you?
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