Doesn’t it seem strange that Easter is a season of 50 days, Christmas of 12 and Pentecost, celebrating the birth of the church only gets one day? The weeks on the liturgical calendar from now until the beginning of Advent are labelled “after Pentecost.
Ordinary time sounds so drab doesn’t it? However it helps to realize that “Ordinary” does not mean boring or mundane. The origin of the name Ordinary Time comes from the Latin word ordinalis, which means “numbered.” This is the season that is not named for a major feast. The weeks are numbered instead. It is meant to be the season when we are God’s people focus on our work out into the world. This is the time for mission, for compassion, for caring and sharing. This is the season when we show ourselves as the people of God with the values of peace and justice and love that are the hallmark of God’s kingdom.
Being the liturgical rebel that I am, I don’t like the idea of numbers so I give the months different names instead. A growing number of churches call the season from September 1st until St Francis Day (October 4th) Creation Time. After that I like to add a gratitude season from Canadian Thanksgiving ( second Monday of October) until American Thanksgiving (4th Thursday of November) However that leaves a gap between now and September 1st. For me personally June through August is the hospitality season. I also like to add pilgrimage to that, though it is more like a moveable feast depending on what else is on the calendar. I increasingly appreciate the U.S. observances of Womens’ History month, African American History month and now Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and Gay Pride Month. Part of what I like about this is that it gives me a framework for spiritual practices that open my eyes to the diverse expressions of God’s presence in our world, strengthen my faith and equip me to go out into God’s world seeking for justice, showing love and sharing generously. What practices best prepare you for hospitality or pilgrimage? How do you practice gratitude? What about your concern for creation? I encourage you too, to name the coming months in ways that help you focus your spiritual practices so that you are fully equipped to engage in God’s world.
In yesterday’s Meditation Monday: Pentecost Has Come: I said: “One of the keys for me has been sitting down with people from other cultures and listening intently to what they say, then being prepared to change. My perspectives were disrupted by Native American and African American friends who have challenged me in life changing ways. My LBGTQIA friends educate me about the cultures of sexual orientation and how I need to change to accept them.
I see the story of Pentecost and this season beyond Pentecost as a time to view the world differently. I love the diversity of our Godspace authors who challenge us with fresh perspectives that stretch and reshape our faith. Lilly Lewin’s Freerange Friday: Go Back and Wait, written from Nashville, gives a very different look at Pentecost. I love her breath prayer suggestions for this celebration. Australian writer Rodney Marsh in his post Receive asks if we are takers or receivers, an important distinction to reflect on. James Amadon, writing from Washington state U.S. encourages us to look from altars in the world that fill us with awe and connect us to the “More” that lies within, behind, and beyond all things. Carol Dixon writing from the north of England fills us with the delight of her poetry about Ascension and Pentecost. Megan Bollen from Colorado provocatively writes about the Eco-Spiritual Practice of Picking Up Trash
Next Sunday is Trinity Sunday when we celebrate the triune nature of God. I talked about this last week, and reminded us of how important this was 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. Many of the Celtic prayers reflect this trinitarian nature.
I also mentioned that last year I walked around my garden photographing all the red flowers, to give me an extra boost of pentecostal fire. I then looked for tripartite flowers and leaves as symbols of the Trinity. I documented this in last year’s post Celebrating the Trinity Using Flowers. This reminder was all I needed to get out and do the practice again. I particularly love looking for tripartite leaves and flowers. The reminder that we are surrounded by so much that reflects the triune nature of God is an awesome and wonderful inspiration for all of us.
You may have noticed that I am once more trying to end these letters with a poem. This week’s is a little different as it was written to remind me that not all the ideas and thoughts that flit through my mind are meant to be shared. Sometimes they are like intimate love messages between my God and myself.
Sometimes words,
Flit through my mind,
Like the blowing wind,
Then pass beyond my grasp,
Leaving a fleeting moment
Of deep serenity,
A glow of God’s embracing love.
These words are not for sharing.
They touch my soul,
With an intimate caress
Like a kiss,
Of divine light and love.
Digging Deeper: The Art of Contemplative Gardening
“My healing garden inspired by Digging Deeper has been a comfort to me in this time of transition.” – M Christine Sine’s latest book is packed full of contemplative wisdom and inspiration for creating your own meditative focus. Click for more details!
By Jenny Gehman
reprinted with permission from Anabaptist World magazine
It was during my recent weeping years, as I’ve come to call them, that God
introduced himself to me in a new way.
Raised in the Methodist tradition, I first learned of God as Father, Son and
Holy Ghost. In prayer one day, much to my surprise and delight, God revealed
himself as Father, Son and Holy Host. In doing so, he spoke my language,
captured my attention and healed my aching soul.
My husband and I have made hospitality the heartbeat of our marriage as
we’ve opened our home to throw parties, host internationals and have others
live with us.
In fact, for the first 31 years of our marriage, we lived alone as a nuclear
family for only a handful of months. We are well-seasoned hosts.
So imagine my surprise when, after a lifetime of offering hospitality, God
introduced himself to me as a Host — the Host revealed throughout all of
Scripture.
How had I not seen this before?
God, the Holy Host. The Host who waits for and longs for us, who runs to
gather us up in his goodness.
The Father, Son and Holy Host who feeds us till we want no more.
God, the Welcoming One at whose table and in whose presence we are
healed.
During the previously mentioned weeping years, my husband and I lost
parents, jobs, finances, communities, plans, dreams, hopes and health. We
went from being hosts to being hosted. Hosted by a new community of faith.
Hosted by generous strangers.
But mostly, hosted by God himself.
During this time, I had a front-row seat to the healing that is central to
hospitality. The word itself shares a Latin root with that of hospital, and I can
now testify that it also shares its definition of offering a place and space where
strangers who suffer can come and be cared for.
Throughout my life, I’ve looked to the parable of the Good Samaritan as an
example of this kind of healing hospitality. However, I’ve incorrectly cast
myself as the Samaritan, and my neighbors as the wounded. Sometimes this
may be true, but mostly it is not.
I’m not the center of the story. In fact, these weeping years have found me
playing the role of the beaten traveler. A role for which I certainly never
auditioned but am, perhaps, more perfectly suited.
The truth is, I don’t want to be the traveler. My preferred role is the healer, the
helper, the hero, the host. Like many of us, I’m more comfortable in the
position of the giver. But that role belongs to one much more worthy than me.
I believe the Samaritan of Jesus’ parable to be none other than Jesus himself.
I met him one day on the dusty road with my wounds spilling out. He bent
down low, scooped me up and whispered his name in my ear: Father, Son
and Holy Host.
The weeping years have been worth their weight in gold, for they have carried
me to the hospital that is God. To the place and space where strangers who
suffer can come to be cared for. It is here that I was introduced to our Holy
Host. Here, I was healed.
In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus instructs us to love our neighbors
as ourselves. But in John 15:12 he also instructs us to love them the way
we’ve been loved by him.
So, friend, may you be loved by him. This is my grandest prayer.
May the Holy Host introduce himself to you and bring you to his table. May
you know the bending, tending and mending of God. Then may you, like him,
stop, stoop and step in close to aid fellow travelers along the way.
Digging Deeper: The Art of Contemplative Gardening “My healing garden inspired by Digging Deeper has been a comfort to me in this time of transition.” – M Christine Sine’s latest book is packed full of contemplative wisdom and inspiration for creating your own meditative focus. Click for more details!
by Christine Sine
Yesterday was Pentecost Sunday, and those of us that remembered were dressed in red!
Pentecost Sunday is about far more than wearing a splash or red to church. For some it is about celebrating the birth of the church, for others its about the infilling of the Holy Spirit, and for still others it is about praying for peace, but for me it is an invitation to see the world differently.
Preparing for Pentecost brings back wonderful memories of a gathering Tom and I attended in England several years ago. It was the 200th anniversary of the British Bible Society and we joined 2,000 others in the magnificent St Paul’s cathedral for an inspiring celebration.
At the beginning Genesis 11:1-9 was read while a group of liturgical dancers all dressed in black swirled around the stage, reenacting the story of the Tower of Babel. They ended by dancing out through the congregation in different directions symbolizing the dispersal of the people. About half way through the service Archbishop Rowan Williams read out the Lord’s prayer, first in English and then in Welsh. It was very moving. The service ended with the reading of Acts 2:1-11. The dancers, now dressed in white returned to the stage in a joyous dance of reconciliation, and renewed understanding.
It was particularly impacting because just a few weeks before that I had met a Welsh theologian, Dewi Hughes who struggled with the traditional interpretation of the Babel story. He was very aware that the English had tried to annihilate his culture and language by forbidding Welsh speaking and celebrations. He believed that it was God’s intention for human kind to spread out throughout the whole earth carrying their ethnic diversity into all the corners of our world and enriching it with the plethora of languages and cultures that God created.
Dewi believed the building of the Tower of Babel interrupted the story of the scattering of humanity. He saw its building as the first proclamation of empire in human history with, in this case, one city seeking to dominate the rest of humanity and keep people from moving apart from each other and filling the earth as God intended. Seeing that a united humanity with one language would have an endless capacity for rebellion, God confused their language, thus hindering their ability to communicate freely and to cooperate with each other in opposition to God’s will.
The final outcome was precisely what God originally intended for the human race, that is, for the whole earth to be filled with people of ethnic diversity.
I don’t think we realize what an incredible miracle Pentecost was. People didn’t come together as a homogenous mass that spoke the same language and expressed the same culture wanting to dominate those around them. Each person understood the other in their own language and culture. The diversity God desired was preserved. Collaboration was once more possible. I think in today’s world we can appreciate that this is not just about acceptance of ethnic diversity. It is about acceptance of all the different cultures of sexual orientation, as well as those of different age groups, disabilities and marginalized communities. It is about seeking to understand and accept other faiths and other perspectives within the Christian faith too. It is accepting that creation too has a voice that needs to be heard and understood.
Wow that’s a big order, that stretches all of us well beyond our comfort zones if we take it seriously. It will indeed take a miracle to accomplish, a miracle that requires us to see the story of God and the people that fill our world, differently.
When I was writing my book The Gift of Wonder someone sent me a link to a delightful video in which a kid is paired with a friend and asked “What makes you different from each other” Their answers are completely different from what any adult might say. To our adult eyes each kid is very different from their friend. Some are Caucasian, some Asian, some Afro-Caribbean. Some in wheelchairs. Their replies have nothing to do with wheelchairs, or race however. “She never stops talking! Says one white boy of his Asian friend. “I have smaller toes than Artie says another athletic child of her wheel-chair bound companion.The best of all is two little boys the video cuts back and forth to. One is Indian, the other Caucasian, though they are in matching school uniforms. They look at each other in puzzlement, unable to observe any differences. Finally with many sighs they decide they like different games.
Jesus saw people differently too, maybe because he never lost his childlike eyes. He ate with tax collectors and prostitutes as well as synagogue leaders. And he didn’t just heal on the Sabbath but he touched outcasts and unclean women in the process. He even healed gentiles. Talk about different.
I think that some of this ability to look at life differently brushed off on Jesus disciples, otherwise I am not sure that they would have coped with the amazing and miraculous gathering of Pentecost and their ability to suddenly understand, appreciate and therefore collaborate with all the cultures gathered together.
Do we really get the message? Or do we still look at those who are different with the spirit of Babel and want to control them?
It’s not easy to accept and appreciate other cultures. Growing up in Australia with one Scottish and one Greek parent, I was often confused by the acceptance or lack there of I experienced. It was a little like My Big Fat Greek wedding only more so. The Greeks were noisier and the Scots were quieter. Yet behind it all there was the Australian cultural dynamic. In the 1960s Scottish was good, Greek was bad. So I hid my Greek identity. It was not until I was in my 30s and visited Greece that I learned to appreciate this rich culture which is so much a part of who I am.
During my 12 years working as a physician on board the mercy ship Anastasis my cross cultural understanding was stretched out of shape again and I saw how easily we move towards the tower of Babel model rather than the Pentecost one.
Sometimes we would have 20 different nationalities on our medical team and it is amazing what we found to argue about and try to assert our authority over. How strong do we make the coffee? Do we stop for coffee break? Do we read temperature in centigrade or Fahrenheit? All of these created major conflict, making me realize what a miracle it was that we were ever able to work together in any sort of collaborative way. Only by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Now as an Australian living in the U.S. I am still very aware of the challenges of being from another culture. I have had to change my language, my diet and even the way I dress. My love of Vegemite fills most Americans with horror. G”yday mate how’d ya be” gets me blank stares. And calling someone “a silly galah” makes them think I’m bonkers.
The great British theologian, missionary and author Lesslie Newbigin said “The fact that Jesus is much more than, much great than our culture bound vision of him can only come home to us through the witness of those who see him through other eyes.” We need cultural diversity to fully understand who Jesus is, but how do we get beyond our culture bound vision of Jesus and of those who inhabit our world? How do we learn to collaborate with those who are different?
Only with a miracle and that miracle is the coming of the “Advocate that will be with us forever” that Jesus promises. The Spirit of God that sweeps through that diverse gathering at Pentecost and makes it possible for them to collaborate and communicate across their diversity of cultures.
I wonder however if part of God’s intention we still don’t do well at is taking that new found spirit of understanding and collaboration between cultures manifested at Pentecost and scattering it out across all the cultures of the world. My Indian friends still resent the fact that Paul’s journeys around the Mediterranean made it into the New Testament but Thomas’s to India didn’t. Chinese friends grieve that the early spread of the gospel into China is almost entirely unknown. And of course we are all well aware of the cultural tensions and misunderstandings that exist throughout our world today.
It’s hard but the Spirit still calls us to work for understanding and I think we need a fresh “Pentecost” in every generation.
One of the keys for me has been sitting down with people from other cultures and listening intently to what they say, then being prepared to change. My perspectives were disrupted by Native American and African American friends who have challenged me in life changing ways. My LBGTQIA friends educate me about the cultures of sexual orientation and how I need to change to accept them.
I still remember sitting in a tee-pee with Native American evangelist Richard Twiss not long before he died. I was the only white person in the circle. The others were leaders from African American, Asian and Native American backgrounds all frustrated because white people invited them to speak at their conferences but never really wanted their input on how to plan the event. I still grapple with his words: “We don’t want to come and sit at your table. We want to sit down and build a new table together.”
African American leader Leroy Barber made me aware of how white my images of Jesus are and the Interfaith gatherings we have held here at the church make us all aware of how we need to move across barriers to understand the cultures of other faiths.
There are however things that we can do to make us receptive to the building of that new table, just as Jesus actions made his disciples receptive to the “new table that Pentecost built in their midst.
Here are a few things I encourage you to do:
Diversify your images of Jesus. I deliberately look for African, Asian, and Native American images of Jesus to enrich my understanding of him. I particularly love those by Chinese artist He Qi and the African group Jesus Mafa from the Cameroons. Mafa Christians in North Cameroon wanted pictures of the gospel in their own culture. They acted out Bible stories in their villages photographed them and enlisted French artists to create sketches. The resulting images are probably closer to what Jesus culture looked like than anything Western artists produce.
Some of the most powerful cross cultural Gospel paintings I have seen were created to help us understand Jesus journey to the cross from different perspectives. Gwyneth Leech used refugees from Iraq and the Sudan as spectators in her paintings and Karel Stadnik in Prague uses contemporary images of human suffering to make the journey of Jesus more real.
Second, diversify your music. Listen to gospel music from other cultures. This helps all of us shape new joy filled images of God’s worldwide community and opens us to collaboration.
Diversify your traditions. One simple way to explore other culture is to ask your friends about the traditions they grew up with. I would love to see our church host a multicultural Pentecost feast, maybe a potluck, where we could all share about our cultures of origin. I am sure it would bring new appreciation for who we are and the wealth of diversity that is here in our midst.
The coming of the spirit at Pentecost, that Advocate that Jesus promises in our gospel reading, was a miracle that makes it possible for all of us to understand each other and collaborate together just as those gathered at Pentecost did. May we continue to allow the spirit to draw us together not so that we become one big homogenous mass, but so that we continue to seek to build a new table together based on understanding and collaboration across ethnic differences.
So let us end with a prayer adapted from my book The Gift of Wonder
Let us go forth today,
In the joy of our Creator,
In the love of our Redeemer,
In the wisdom of our Advocate,
In the company of family
From every tribe and nation and culture.
Let us go forth today,
United in the Sacred Three,
In the image of the Holy One,
Made in diversity,
Desiring understanding,
Proclaiming with enthusiasm
All people matter,
We care,
God loves
All lives are extraordinary.
Amen
by Rodney Marsh
Today we celebrate the Day of Pentecost – the last of the three great feasts of the Christian year – Love came to dwell among us (Christmas); We killed Love, but Love remains (Easter); Love is birthed in us (Pentecost). Today we find ourselves with Jesus’ friends hiding in fear, locked away in a secluded room. Jesus appears and offers peace, gives a task (“I send you, as I was sent”) and ‘breathes on them/us and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit”’ (John 20:22). Jesus here offers three pentecostal gifts: freedom from fear, a mission and his presence. I say ‘offers’ because these gifts came, and still come, with a command: “Receive”. God is a Giver who loves to give. That’s obvious – just look at the natural world around us. But to become the GiverGod she is, God needs Receivers. Are you a Receiver or just a Taker? A Taker grabs and holds a ‘gift’, ignores the Giver, and turns the gift into a possession. The Giver now has no relationship to the gift or the taker. God goes on giving but has not become the GiverGod he is. So, when Jesus offers his pentecostal gifts they come with a request addressed to each one of us: ‘Receive’. To receive we must be open. That is all it takes – simple openness. Our senses (hearing, seeing, tasting, touching) need openness to receive to be effective – and we need an openness of heart to live. We don’t do anything except be open to receive when we see a wren hopping, or hear a magpie warbling, or bite into a fresh apple or feel the joy of a loving hug, but we do need to be open to see, hear, taste and feel these things. So open your heart today and “Receive the Holy Spirit”. Only you yourself, can open your own heart to ‘receive the Holy Spirit’.
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This Sunday, we celebrate the birthday of the Church, Pentecost. The day that the gift promised by Jesus fell upon his followers gathered in the upper room. They had returned to Jerusalem to wait and pray.
So they went back to Jerusalem. Those Followers who watched Jesus ascend into the clouds.
They actually listened to Jesus and his command.
They went back to Jerusalem.
They went back to that upper room that was so special, so sacred and so familiar and normal.
But they had to wait…
They had to receive …
They returned to their friends and shared the story
They waited and they prayed.
All before they could go out again and share the Light .
All before they could go make disciples around the globe.
Jesus is telling us there’s so much more…
We just need to wait and see!
We don’t need to run ahead of Him!
Instead, we need to wait on Him.
We need to seek Jesus in prayer, in the scripture, in silence and solitude and we need to experience Him in nature.
And we need to receive his gift of the Holy Spirit so our cups, our lives, can be filled
And then we can pour out his love to those around us!
Take time to wait today.
Take time to allow the wind of the Spirit to refill you.
Get outside and stand in the wind and imagine the power of God flowing through you and over you!
Pause, Breathe, Be Still, Be Filled!
Use this breath prayer to help you pause.
Use this breath prayer to help you receive the Holy Spirit.
Pray this Breath Prayer:
(sit down somewhere comfortable and relax your muscles.
Take a few deep breaths, roll your shoulders and relax your neck and breathe)
Breathe in God’s Peace
Exhale your fear
Breathe in God’s Spirit
Exhale conflict
Breathe in God’s Peace
Exhale confusion
Breathe in God’s Spirit
Exhale unforgiveness for others
Breathe in God’s Peace
Exhale unforgiveness for yourself
Breathe in God’s Spirit
Allow The Spirit to fill you with new life, new mission and
New hope for the days to come.
Breathe deeply and allow God’s Spirit to fill you.
Breathe, Rest. Be with God.
So I will go back to Jerusalem.
I will Wait and Receive….The Helper, The Advocate, The Counselor, The Teacher, The Power that is the Spirit of God.
You might need to talk to Jesus today about what you are waiting for and how you feel about waiting. We aren’t good at it usually. We get impatient and want to run ahead. We want to fix the problem or just have it go away. As you prepare to celebrate the season of Pentecost. Take time to wait with Jesus. Take time to notice the wind. Take time to receive new gifts from the Holy Spirit. Don’t be afraid to wait on the Gift!
©lillylewin and freerangeworship.com
Paintinge…Pentecost by Jesus Mafa
by James Amadon
This is the fourteenth installment of a series on Exodus written by James Amadon for The Ecological Disciple. Take a minute to read Exodus 24 HERE. You can access the whole series HERE. We will walk through the text and highlight aspects that are not typically noticed, and then conclude with a few themes for ecological discipleship.
Consecrated on the Mountain
The Israelite community has been camping in the shadow of Mount Sinai, on which the divine presence has settled in an unsettling manner, complete with thunder, lightning, and a warning not to come too close. But in addition to this display of transcendent glory, God has drawn near to Israel and spoken ten key words (what we call the ten commandments), followed by specific examples of how to apply these commands to everyday life. These instructions constitute a formal invitation to a communal vocation of serving God and furthering God’s purposes for creation. When Moses shares God’s words and commands with the people, their response is unequivocal: “Everything the LORD has said we will do.”
Moses proceeds to construct a place for worship at the foot of the mountain. He builds an altar and sets up twelve stone pillars to represent the twelve tribes. Animals are sacrificed, and their blood is splashed on the altar and sprinkled on the people. While we no longer practice animal sacrifice – rightfully and thankfully – we can appreciate the physical, visceral, and psychological nature of the moment. There is nothing tame or tepid about this worship service. At the foot of a rugged mountain pulsating with divine energy, in a wilderness where life and death are ever-present realities, a blood-speckled people hear the word of God and respond with one voice, “We will do everything the LORD has said; we will obey.”
Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy elders move higher up the mountain, where they have a direct encounter with God. No words are spoken; it is a moment of awe, wonder, and, I assume, trepidation. The written description is terse and limited; we are only told what God’s footstool looks like. It is a real encounter, but it is also shrouded in mystery. Although God had warned them against coming too close, they are not endangered during this encounter. In fact, we are given this short but suggestive line: “they saw God, and they ate and drank.” In other words, they communed with God on the mountain.
Moses is invited to keep climbing. “For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh day the LORD called to Moses from within the cloud.” If you have been following our discussions of Exodus, you will probably note another connection here to the Genesis creation story. God continues the work of creation; here at Sinai, God continues to form a people called to work with God to bring creation to its fulfillment. Moses tastes the fulfillment of this creative moment as he enters the cloud and rests in God’s presence on the seventh day. We are told that Moses stays on the mountain forty days and forty nights – another biblical connection that looks back to Noah’s creation-preserving experience on the ark – and looks forward to the forty-year sojourn that lies ahead of the people.
God has called, and they have answered. What might this story say to us, as ecological disciples seeking to worship and serve God in our time of great transition and upheaval? Here are two themes to consider.
Find Altars in the World
In her brilliant book, An Altar in the World, Barbara Brown Taylor articulates a longing shared by many Christians who find themselves dissatisfied with the status quo. Despite the deep meaning that church-based life brought Taylor (an Episcopal priest) and her community,
“…some of us were not satisfied with our weekly or biweekly encounters with God. We wanted more than set worship services or church work could offer us. We wanted more than planning scavenger hunts for the youth group, more than polishing silver with the altar guild, more than serving on the outreach committee or rehearsing anthems with the choir. We wanted More. We wanted a deeper sense of purpose. We wanted a stronger sense of God’s presence. We wanted more reliable ways both to seek and to stay in that presence – not for an hour on Sunday morning or Wednesday afternoon but for as much time as we could stand.”
In a shaded area just outside my house, two logs support a stone plank that holds rocks, twigs, and moss – an altar left behind by my friends, Tom and Diane Ruebel, who were the previous owners of our home. It reminds me each day that God is present everywhere, and that worship is never meant to be centered in, or limited to, constructed sanctuaries. We need altars in the world to remind us that the whole world is an altar!
I have spent a lot of time recently near that altar, on my hands and knees, slowly weeding a walking path. As I inch along the path, pulling and digging with my hands, I am sprinkled with soil, marked by the life force of the earth and the gifts and sacrifices that make my life possible. There is a richness to these moments that is hard to articulate, a communion that is often deeper than the sanitized rituals of church life. Life feels more sacramental with dirt under my fingernails.
Finding altars in the world isn’t just for individuals. Church communities can find, and create, new altars together. Many church properties have underutilized outside spaces that can become gathering places for worship and communion. Local parks can offer places to gather as well. Intentional excursions can help people begin to see the altars all around them. A church in San Leandro, CA started a ministry in 2010 called Holy Hikes, which helps people “renew their love-relationship with the earth, the universal church, and with their Creator.” There are now eighteen Holy Hike chapters across the United States.
Finding an altar in the world is easy – if your eyes are open, you’ll see them everywhere.
Reconnecting Ritual and Vocation
My ordination to pastoral ministry occurred on a Hilton hotel ballroom stage in Portland, Oregon. It was a deeply meaningful moment, but I wonder how the experience would have been different had it been held outside, or along the banks of the Willamette River, which runs through Salem, OR, where I was pastoring at the time. How would it have affected my vocational understanding if I had been anointed with river water alongside the laying on of hands by the community?
What I think was missing was a deeper understanding of vocation, and a more intentional connection between ritual and ethics, worship and discipleship, devotion and vocation. Or as one scholar puts it, we need to connect the “contemplative eye” with the “ethical ear.” This is not just for pastors, however. We all share a common vocation to worship God and serve creation. Do our common rituals make this connection?
The scene at Sinai brings these dynamics together seamlessly and provides the framework for Israel to create an integrated life in relationship to God, one another, and the community of creation. The story can help us unlock our imaginations and create integrative experiences today. We can see, for instance, the connections between the covenant of Sinai and the new covenant begun in Jesus, who offers his body and blood for the forgiveness of sins and the renewal of creation. But many churches have made the ritual around this meal – what we often call Holy Communion or the Lord’s Supper – overly individualistic and virtually devoid of ethical/vocational content. How might we connect the bread and wine we share to our relationship with and service to the wider creation? What would happen if we celebrated this meal outside official sanctuaries, at altars in the world? I wonder if we would feel a deeper communion with God and creation, and a renewed call to love and care for all that God has made.
In a recent episode of the Earthkeepers podcast, Wesley Willison tells the story of bringing together a group of struggling young adults for a time of healing and learning at the Farminary, Princeton Seminary’s 21-acre educational farm. For their last night, they gathered for a communion meal around an outdoor table. When they shared the bread and the cup, everyone grew silent, and the only sounds were the grasshoppers, cicadas, and the voice of the person offering the elements to their neighbor. Here is one participant’s reflection:
“This was the most beautiful thing ever. Why doesn’t communion happen outside at a farm every second? It was so beautiful, and it was like, my heart was cracking open and the world was cracking open, and possibilities and moments together were so beautiful, and it all made sense.”
https://open.spotify.com/episode/66q5gcYjf3c4UvoV5xHfey?si=jWFSXSPnQjGYGcJKVInmOw
Look for altars in the world that fill you with awe and connect you to the “More” that lies within, behind, and beyond all things. Find some companions, and let your hearts be cracked open to the pain and possibilities that this world has to offer. That is a pathway to true communion, a way forward as we follow Jesus together.
With you on The Way,
James
Feel free to email James at james.amadon@circlewood.online
Did you know that alongside Christine Sine’s book The Gift of Wonder, we have many resources available to you? The free downloadable bonus packet or beautiful prayer cards featuring prayers from the book, for example – something to hold and behold! Or perhaps you’d like to journey through the book alongside a retreat – we have that too! You can check it all out in our shop!
by Carol Dixon
The time between Ascension and Pentecost in the church calendar always seems a bit of a
limbo to me. Easter has past and Jesus has ‘disappeared from sight’ as far as the disciples
were concerned, though they continued to meet and pray but what were they thinking? How
were they feeling?
I know how I feel in my ‘between’ times when I am waiting for things to happen – painkillers
for arthritis to kick in so I can continue to do my housework or to go to sleep, hospital
appointments to come through so things can move on, my blood count to rise so I can be
placed on the waiting list for the operations I need to make my life easier and less painful. It
takes faith to remember how God has worked in my life in the past and patience to believe
that everything will work out in God’s good time.
And that’s what the disciples seemed to be doing when they met in the upper room.
Remembering the wonderful time they had when Jesus was physically with them, pondering
on his mysterious words that he would send someone to be with them, and looking forward
to what great things would happen next. Using the time joyfully and prayerfully instead of
impatiently shouting ‘Why are we waiting?’
So as you live through this limbo time between Ascension and Pentecost here are a few
things to reflect on – a couple of imaginative Meditations and a Song.
May God richly bless you in your limbo times. and grant you hope, joy and peace.
Ascension
On top of the world – A disciple reflects
I don’t really remember our journey.
It didn’t seem to take very long,
yet in a way, it went on forever.
We climbed higher and higher in a mist
then suddenly we reached the summit,
the sun broke through the clouds,
and Jesus was there with us again:
our world was aglow with glory.
We wanted to ask him all sorts of questions
and get some answers to help us make sense of it all.
All he said – as he had before –
‘I’m sending you out to spread the good news
of God’s love, to everyone, everywhere.’
It didn’t seem strange at the time,
it was afterwards we began to ask ourselves,
‘How can a few ordinary people change the world?’
Later he talked again of loving us,
of going back to his Father – who was our Father too.
I ask you, can we call the Holy Lord of all the universe,
whose name was too sacred even to speak, ‘Abba’ – Dad?
But because he said it, we knew it was alright.
At that moment we were bathed in the beauty of God,
the beauty that radiated from Jesus himself.
He was so aglow with God’s love he almost shimmered.
‘Don’t forget’, he said, ‘I am always with you,
to the end of time’; we could barely take it in.
Then the cloud came down on the mountaintop
And when it lifted, he was gone,
though something of his presence remained.
We see him all the time – in our mind’s eye,
in our hearts, in the depths of our being,
and, best of all – when we talk about him,
we see Jesus in others too: in each one of us,
in you.
© Carol Dixon 2016 [Published by Iona wild Goose publications who are happy for it to be used with a mention of them]
Pentecost
A day to remember
We crept into the Upper room in twos and threes
as usual not drawing attention to ourselves.
We had continued to meet on the first day of the week
to remember Jesus rising from the dead
and how he had met with us all in the Upper Room
after his resurrection, showing us his hands and his feet,
sharing our simple supper of fish and bread.
Peter was there – a new man since Jesus walked with him
along the shore of Lake Galilee – we hadn’t heard
what he and Jesus talked about, not then, but he
was different, lighter, as though a great weight
had been lifted from him and he was freed
from his shame of denying he ever knew Jesus,
so we guessed it was something to do with that.
He had a faraway look in his eyes too as though
he bore a great responsibility and wasn’t sure what
to do about it; and he kept looking at John surreptitiously.
As if on cue John came in, along with Mary, Jesus’ mother
who is with him most of the time now, her ‘extra’ son
they call him, and finally we begin.
We should have been full of joy – yesterday was Shavuot,
the festival the Greek Jews know as Pentecost,
the Sabbath when we celebrate Moses receiving the Law
on Mount Sinai, along with the blessing of the first fruits
which was one reason we were back in Jerusalem.
Yet we were subdued since this was the first time
we had met for worship all together since Jesus left us
to return to heaven, yet we obeyed his final instruction
to stay in the city to await what was next. What was next?
James, John’s elder brother started the prayer as usual –
‘Our Father’…. and we all joined in the wonderful words
Jesus had taught us when we asked him how we should pray –
‘Hallowed be your name, your kingdom come,
your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven…’
and then it happened!
I’m still not sure how to describe it, only that there was
A strange, rushing sound, similar to wind rustling in leaves,
growing louder and louder, and I noticed light dancing
just above the heads of those across the room from me.
The top of my own head felt hot, like the warmth
of a candle flame and we all started talking at once,
praising God in ways we never had before.
Peter rushed to the door and threw it open,
running down the outside steps into the crowds
who were here for the Festival, dancing among them,
laughing and crying and embracing people with joy,
and we all followed – little wonder some thought
that we were drunk. The rest as they say, is history.
Then Peter stood on the steps and began to speak
about Jesus, of his life and death and resurrection
– how God sent him to save us and teach us
a new way of living in God’s kingdom, here and now.
A learned Rabbi couldn’t have explained it better.
People of all nationalities heard and understood
and asked to join us that day – the day
the Church was born at Pentecost, the day
the news of God’s love for all humanity exploded
across the world when Jesus’ promised gift,
the Holy Spirit, moved across the face of the earth,
and we became the new Creation, born to share
God’s grace and peace with all – It felt like a birthday party.
It still does. Come on in and join us!
© Carol Dixon 2023
Song for Pentecost (Tune Ode to joy)
Join in songs of jubilation
on this happy, holy day!
Join the glad commemoration
for the church was born today!
Friends are waiting, fearful, anxious,
gathered in an upper room,
watching, praying, listening, hoping
for the Lord to lift their gloom.
Hear the sound – surprising, sudden
mighty rushing wind so strong.
See the tongues of flame appearing,
flickering, dancing on each one.
‘God lives in us, live and active’,
let the joyful message ring:
‘Welcome Spirit, here among us’,
through the world your people sing.
© Carol Dixon 2011 (altd. 2023)
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