Beliefs in Action

‘But when we are in the context of mission (or post-Christendom),

what we are saying no longer makes sense to people

who are not Christians. Beliefs, when separated from

practices, have over time become rote for Christians. The way

they are articulated loses touch with real life because they have

not been enfleshed in daily living. This is why, when renewing

the church (or planting it over again) in mission, the church

must refocus on cultivating the practices of Jesus among

a people. Beliefs cannot make sense to people outside the church

without seeing the belief lived in practice.‘

-David Fitch (What is the Church?)

Sacrament of the Ordinary

At our Living Room this past Tuesday we were revisiting our practice of the Sacrament of the Ordinary. I think it would be fair to say that this has become one of the defining practices of our community. That being said, it is not always easy to grasp either. Let me review what we have learned so far about that which undergirds the practice, and then add a couple of thoughts which may help our understanding. 

When we share the sacrament of the ordinary, we are encouraged to reflect upon: 

• where you were alerted to the glory of being fully human – either in great wonder and delight, or, in great sorrow and pain

• where you caught a glimpse of the luminous in the common

• where love has captured your attention

 It occurs to me that to participate in the Sacrament of the Ordinary requires an enchanted view of the universe and the world. Simply put, it understands that there is more going on beneath the surface of things and that there are spiritual realities that animate the physical world which humans can access and intuit. Sometimes these things catch us by surprise, and we're not sure how to categorize what we have experienced; but over time, we can learn to tune our senses to these possibilities, which requires cultivating the art of noticing and paying attention to the ordinary details of our days. Finally, faith invites us to see the Triune God of grace as the source and content of those encounters, the ineffable mystery of God-with-us, inexorably revealing the heart of love.  GS

'I Believe in the Maker'

As we continue to engage with the Apostle’s Creed this summer, several participants have noted Ben Myers’ point that these words emerged as a framing of the baptismal experience of early converts to Christianity. Saying ‘I believe’ was not abstracted from the body being plunged naked into a river and then being covered in anointing oil. Your commitment to offer your body to follow in the way of Jesus was intimately connected to the story of God in its full Trinitarian mystery and glory captured in the words of the Creed.

As further example, in this past week’s discussion we noted that to say ‘I believe in the maker of heaven and earth’, was to ‘re-mind’ and ‘re-place’ you in the Creator’s love of the earth. The Creed is there to help us reimagine one’s relationship with the earth; to eschew a posture of disregard for, and exploitation of, the creation in the pursuit of an abstracted heaven (a gnostic position). Rather we proclaim our allegiance as careful stewards of our Maker’s beautiful earth. How relevant is that for today as we are desperate to change our way of inhabiting creation? In sum, the Creed is there to help us embody the faith in more beautiful and constructive ways. There is further delightful recreative learning to come as we read and reflect on the Creed this summer, so please join in! GS

Two Quotes

Two quotes today pointing to a centred place. They describe it differently, but they are both imagining and seeking the same place:

“What lies between individualistic judgemental coercive fundamentalism and bland tolerant promiscuous self expressivism is the mutual discerning community daily following Jesus.”

- David Fitch

“The verse ‘Be still and know that I am God’ is not an escape from the problems of the world but it is the answer to the problems of the world, because this stillness and knowledge of God is the most powerful central reality. It is the city, it cannot be moved. It is the most central reality of the world. And the fact that the world is in turmoil with terrorism, with craziness, with hate, with self-centred militaristic politics, despite all those horrific aspects of the world, the stillness and the knowledge of God are central. And this stillness and knowledge is greater than the turmoil, greater than the violence, greater than the hatred. And nothing describes more directly the connection between our meditation and the needs of the world.”

- Laurence Freeman

The One Who Remains at the Beginning

‘The Christian faith is mysterious not because it is so complicated but because it is so simple. A person does not start with baptism and then advance to a higher mysteries. In baptism each believer already possesses the faith in its fullness. The whole of life is encompassed in the mystery of baptism: dying with Christ and rising with him through the Spirit to the glory of God. That is how the Christian life begins, and to move beyond that beginning is really to regress. In discipleship, the one who makes the most progress is the one who remains at the beginning. And this is where theological thinking comes in handy. Theology does not have all the right answers, but it can help us to contemplate the reality of baptism and to penetrate more deeply into its meaning for life.’

Ben Myers from the Preface to ’The Apostle’s Creed: A Guide to the Ancient Catechism'

What is the Apostle's Creed?

This summer we are going to explore the Apostle’s Creed together every Tuesday night. Why? What is the Apostle’s Creed? Creed comes from the Latin word credo, which means ‘I believe’. The Apostle’s Creed is the first ecumenical creed to gather the core beliefs of Christian orthodoxy into an easily memorable formula. Our desire to is to explore these core articles that have been at the foundation of historic Christian belief. Do they still matter? How do they help us into theological reflection? How do they motivate us to be a missional community?

Our guide to answering those questions this summer is Australian theologian Ben Myers. Ben states in the preface to his book however, that theological reflection will not add one thing to our faith. The beautiful mystery is that baptism for the Christian opens the door to the fullness of God’s free gift to us, which can never be added to or taken away. We are not learning the Creed to jump through hoops which makes us into super Christians, but, bringing our faith, curiosity, and context to bear on what has sustained the church over the centuries. This communal activity can bring us into a fuller appreciation of this mysterious gift we’ve been given.

So that is our goal this summer: to let the simple formula of the Creed immerse ourselves in the ancient wisdom and story of God’s revelation in Jesus Christ through the Spirit, so that we may be delighted once again by what God has done for us in Christ and empowered to live fully for Jesus’s sake.

Christ's Mission

Contemporary Christianity would phrase Jesus’s mission as something like ’to save us from our sins’ which is partly right. However, early Christianity as it developed just after Jesus’s death and resurrection would say something more holistic like ’the mission of the Son was to turn humanity back to the Father, in every aspect of sinful human life.’ For the earliest Christians, Christ’s mission was not to change God’s mind about us, nor was it to do some ‘deal’ or ’transaction’ over our heads. It was to grab hold of us from within, heal us, recreate us, and reorient us back to the Father.

- Julie Canlis (in A Theology of the Ordinary)

Affirmation

This week the Presbyterian Church in Canada, at its General Assembly, made a significant change in its polity. After a very long and challenging process, the denomination has discerned the Holy Spirit’s leading by making a way for the affirmation of LGBTQI+ persons in marriage and ordained ministry.

While we here at TRC have been a generous space community since the beginning, we are grateful that the denomination has now adopted an official position, while also allowing the freedom of conscience for those persons and congregations who have not arrived at the same conclusions. In other words, where you were not previously free to disagree with the traditional position (even though there were dissenting practitioners in the tribe), now we are trying to co-exist as a denomination that will allow disagreement and freedom to act according to one's discernment of the Spirit’s leading.

It may well lead to some congregations breaking away from the denomination, which would be sad, but not unprecedented. Our hope is that the people who are still willing to sit under the guidance and authority of our denomination’s polity, will treat each other with respect, love, and plenty of grace as we continue to pursue the mission of Christ's church.

Reconciliation

The Presbyterian Church in Canada has done a significant amount of reconciliatory work around its role in the Residential School program. However, the newest revelations are a devastating reminder that the pain of our former actions is not very far away. Here is the statement that was issued this week by our denomination:

We grieve with the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation, who has just released news that the unidentified graves of 215 children have been found on the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in Kamloops, B.C. The devastating pain and loss this news triggers are not isolated to Kamloops, but is shared by all who lost family, friends or community members to Indian Residential Schools. So many Indigenous children never came home from the schools where they were forcibly taken, and the weight of the trauma that loss has wreaked in Indigenous communities, in which the church shared a large role, is still causing intense harm today.

In humility, the church calls for a time of prayer and lament to honour the lives of those children whose graves were just found and for all family, friends and communities who have lost loved ones through the Indian Residential School system—for whom this news opens fresh wounds. We also call for a time of reflection and recommitment to reconciliation. As we approach the month of June, which is National Indigenous History Month, we encourage all church members to reflect on the harmful history in which we have been involved, and from that reflection seek renewed ways to work for healing and reconciliation with Indigenous people.

Prayer

Creator God of love and justice, Comforter of those who mourn,

We have learned of more Indigenous children lost, more children who never were able to return to their families from schools they should never have been forced to attend in the first place. This news is devastating. We pray first for healing for the children’s families and communities, who are met again today with pain no one should ever have to bear.

We also acknowledge the actions of your church, our complicity in running residential schools and taking children like these, who were just found, from their families. We repent for the pain and ongoing harm we have caused, and ask for the will and wisdom to act to end that harm. We have asked for forgiveness and committed to work for healing and reconciliation. But we recognize that for many, that change came too late.

Comforting God, we pray for healing in the communities and families of all who experienced residential schools, comfort for all those grieving, and strength for all to pursue reconciliation.

Amen.

What Kind of Spirit Power?

We have entered the Season of Pentecost, which always starts off with a bang, but, often ends in a whimper. What I mean is that we see the Spirit come upon the original disciples in the Upper Room and think flame, energy, and rising out of the ordinary to impressive feats of ministry. These things can, and do, happen from time to time, we shouldn’t dismiss the possibility and maybe even desire it. That being said, it may also distract us from a different way of thinking about power.

I’m talking about the amazing power to persevere.

To stick with something, to keep on keeping on; we shouldn’t take this for granted. As the church collectively wrings its hands over what it will look like post-pandemic, and as it worries over who will return to the church’s regular rhythms, we might consider that whoever is going to stick it out will have been inspired to do so by the power of the Holy Spirit. Faith represented by dogged commitment and inexplicable devotion to a task is not spectacular, but is most certainly a way in which the Spirit empowers us. These are not small things in days of confusion, crippling doubt, capriciousness, and the precarious nature of employment, markets, and relationships. If you are still following Jesus in the company of the committed once the worst of the pandemic is over, give thanks for the power of the Holy Spirit who has sustained us through it all. GS

Practice Resurrection #7

“Resurrection says that life is a cycle. In order to have resurrection you have to have life, death and then to live again. Grief is part of the process, hardship is part of the process. Nostalgia and memories are part of the process. And we take all of that with us as we come out of the tomb. We take those memories with us, just like the scars on Jesus’s hands and feet. Life moves forward and will always find a way. Christ is with us as we choose life, helping us to walk out of our tombs in all that that means. To choose life is to choose to walk the journey to wholeness. Practicing resurrection is an act of healing, about walking through fear and grief and disappointment to the light on the other side. And every day we choose to live our lives, we are healed a bit more, one mighty step closer to being whole. It is hard to think of anything else our world needs right about now.”

From Brother Thomas, Society of Saint Francis

https://www.ssfamericas.org/post/practice-resurrection

Practice Resurrection #6

“Unless you let the truth of life teach you on its own terms, unless you develop some concrete practices for recognizing and overcoming your dualistic mind, you will remain in the first half of life forever, as most humanity has up until now. In the first half of life, you cannot work with the imperfect, nor can you accept the magical sense of life, which finally means that you cannot love anything or anyone at any depth. Nothing is going to change in history as long as most people are merely dualistic, either-or thinkers. Such splitting and denying leaves us at the level of mere information.”

Richard Rohr (Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life).

Practice Resurrection #5

This week I want to suggest that sometimes the best way to practice resurrection is to do nothing. Sam Phillips is a wonderful singer/songwriter whose work I highly recommend. Here are lyrics from her song 'Don't Do Anything’: 

I, I love you

When you don't 

When you don't do anything

When you're useless

I love you more

When you don't do anything

When you don't move, when you don't try

When you don't say anything

When you don't move, when you don't win

When you don't make anything look

I, I love you

When you don’t When you don't do anything

When you don't want, when you don't lie

When you don't make any sense

When you don't go, when you don't hide

When you don't think anything

Sometimes the best practice is to give up practicing for a bit because practices have a sneaky way of grabbing the spotlight rather than operating behind the spotlight. Holding a practice too tightly can lead to death not resurrection. The God who sustains resurrection loves us, and surrounds us with grace in times of good practice and inconsistent practice, or when you find you can’t do anything. If your practice has started to take up a disproportionate amount of space in your psyche, step away for a bit, or hold it more loosely than you usually do and you just might find it returning a happier companion.  GS

Practice Resurrection #4

Resurrection is not a theological category or resource upon which we draw and then carry into our ministry practice, as some procedural instruction manual. Christian practice is encountering the reality of God's resurrection power through the actions we take, and in which that power becomes manifest. Practicing resurrection is a dynamic process of acting and reflecting in dialogue with scripture, tradition, and other sources of knowledge. To say it another way, you can't wait for some revelation or rush of adrenaline from God to go and live for God; you just have to do it, and discover the God who was already acting and waiting to be encountered all along. GS

Practice Resurrection #3

Earth Day today. What better time and place to practice resurrection but right here on the part of the earth you call your home.

Practice sticking your fingers into the moist humus. Practice rubbing your hands on the bark of a tree. Practice walking to the store instead of driving. Practice watching a cloud move from one end of your skyscape to the other. Practice riding your bike. Practice weeping for the groaning creation. GS

Practice Resurrection #2

This past Sunday, we reflected upon the oxymoronic juxtaposition of these two words: practice is what we do, and resurrection is what God does. As those who inhabit a culture of death, we lack the ingenuity or the power to overcome death's hold on us; we can only move to true life through embracing the power of God's Spirit in us. This requires a yielding to the Spirit of the resurrected Jesus (who has already united us to himself) which frees us, and teaches us, to get in on God's reconciling activity in the world. Eugene Peterson says it this way: The practice of resurrection is not an attack on the world of death; it is a non-violent embrace of life in the country of death. It is an open invitation to live eternity in time. GS

'Practice Resurrection'

Wendell Berry's Poem Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front ... introduces this oft quoted line 'practice resurrection'. This phrase is provocative and generative in the pairing of these two words. This Easter season, we are going to come at that phrase from a variety of angles and perspectives to see what it yields for apprenticeship with Jesus. Let the poem guide you into some initial thoughts about what that looks like.

Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front

by Wendell Berry

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,

vacation with pay. Want more

of everything ready-made. Be afraid

to know your neighbors and to die.

And you will have a window in your head.

Not even your future will be a mystery

any more. Your mind will be punched in a card

and shut away in a little drawer.

When they want you to buy something

they will call you. When they want you

to die for profit they will let you know.

So, friends, every day do something

that won’t compute. Love the Lord.

Love the world. Work for nothing.

Take all that you have and be poor.

Love someone who does not deserve it.

Denounce the government and embrace

the flag. Hope to live in that free

republic for which it stands.

Give your approval to all you cannot

understand. Praise ignorance, for what man

has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers.

Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.

Say that your main crop is the forest

that you did not plant,

that you will not live to harvest.

Say that the leaves are harvested

when they have rotted into the mold.

Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.

Put your faith in the two inches of humus

that will build under the trees

every thousand years.

Listen to carrion — put your ear

close, and hear the faint chattering

of the songs that are to come.

Expect the end of the world. Laugh.

Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful

though you have considered all the facts.

So long as women do not go cheap

for power, please women more than men.

Ask yourself: Will this satisfy

a woman satisfied to bear a child?

Will this disturb the sleep

of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.

Lie easy in the shade. Rest your head

in her lap. Swear allegiance

to what is nighest your thoughts.

As soon as the generals and the politicos

can predict the motions of your mind,

lose it. Leave it as a sign

to mark the false trail, the way

you didn’t go. Be like the fox

who makes more tracks than necessary,

some in the wrong direction.

Practice resurrection.

Prayer of Catharine of Siena

This prayer of Catharine of Siena often comes to my mind. It is a brilliant integration of the Incarnation and the Atonement which grounds the events of Good Friday, this most weighty of events in Christian time. 

And you, high eternal Trinity

acted as if you were drunk with love,

infatuated with your creature.

When you saw that this tree could bear no fruit

but the fruit of death

because it was cut off from you who are life,

you came to its rescue

with the same love

with which you had created it:

you engrafted your divinity

into the dead tree of our humanity.

O sweet tender engrafting!

You, sweetness itself,

stooped to join yourself

with our bitterness.

Catharine of Siena

A Glimpse of the Mystery

When all is said and done, what the world needs from the church is not so much instruction about the nature of the mystery as a glimpse of the mystery itself operative in us.

It already knows its own passion, and the vastness of the shipwreck of history; it waits for us to show it the power of the Christ’s passion and to lift our agony to his.

Robert Farrar Capon

For Anyone

Some organization out there (I don't know which it is) uses this phrase: 'we may not be for everyone, but, we are for anyone.' Yes! I think that really captures the Two Rivers Church vibe. We are not a conventional church by any stretch of the imagination, but we are exactly what some people need and are looking for.

To name one's community as inclusive is tricky because it seems that so many words these days become tinder to ignite people's immediate categorization of you within their pre-conceived notions. You also set yourself up to be judged on whether you are actually walking the talk (probably not!).

So, let's just say that whether we are achieving the standard we desire or not, I'm happy to claim that our intention is to be 'for anyone'. The only way that you will find out if it's true, is to get to know us. No web-site statement or symbol is a guarantee of anything; it only hints at the beautiful possibility of Jesus in us engaging the whole world in his love and his name. GS