Mother Nancy's Coffee Thoughts

Lord, My Lord

I was going to start this out by saying I’m a huge Downton Abbey fan but the truth is that I’ve been a fan of all things British and Royal long before Lord Grantham and the Crawley family. (Yes, I got up at 3am on July 29, 1981 to watch Princess Diana marry Prince Charles and I follow the Royal family more closely than I usually admit in polite company.) But, for now and for the sake of brevity, just know that what I want to get us talking about with or without a clever introduction is the word “Lord.”

It is the English word used to translate the Hebrew word YHWH, the unpronounced proper name for God, which comes from a primitive root word meaning “to be”. In the New Testament, the Greek word translated to the English “Lord” is kyrios which means the one to whom a person or thing belongs. As the culture of our faith ancestors changed, the word used to refer to our Creator changed, not just from one language to another but also in the way the relationship between Creator and Created is perceived. The reference to God changed from a relational way to address the nameless One to a title denoting rank and power.

As Americans, we bristle (whether consciously or unconsciously) at the use of the word Lord because of our understanding of its use to denote possession of one person to another. Our country was born because we didn’t like the idea of being ‘owned’ by another country.

We promise at our baptism to follow and obey Jesus as Lord but how do we understand the relationship intended by the use of the word “Lord”? Do we use Lord as a form of address for the One who is Love? Or do we let it carry all of the etymological baggage of being controlled or possessed by another?

And, so, I wonder how the expression of our faith in our worship, writing, song, and every day life would be different if we had maintained the Hebrew tradition of using a name for God rather than using a title with existing cultural meaning. Titles that denote rank or class are used so that people know where they fall in the ranking system, their ‘place’ if you will. God didn’t come to us as Jesus in order to ‘put us in our place’ but to draw us into relationship as God’s beloved children.

When we choose to follow Jesus, to obey him as our Lord, we are entering into a life-changing relationship with the One who knows us better than we know ourselves. In all of the stories we have of Jesus’ ministry, never does he seek to possess or control another. On the contrary, he gives them every opportunity to walk away* if they decide that following him is too much. The way of life that Jesus shows us isn’t about control but about growing in relationship with the very One who gave us the gift of free-will to choose love and life as it is intended for us or to go our own way.

How does letting go of the possession and control meaning of Lord change the way you will address God?

*See John 6:27-71, Luke 18:18-30, Matthew 19:16-30, Mark 10:17-31

Our Mortal Nature

In our conversation on Ash Wednesday, I quoted the Invitation to a Holy Lent from the Book of Common Prayer and said we’d spend some time throughout this season talking about the language used. The invitation concludes with the asking us to “mark” our mortal nature by kneeling before God. “So,” I hear some of you asking, “just what is our mortal nature and how do we acknowledge it by kneeling before God?”

Kneeling is an act of devotion and submission. In our 21st Century western world culture, most of us have a difficult time with the submission part. We may be willing to follow rules and stay (even loosely) within cultural norms but to admit submission to another really dents our egos.

In the ordination service for deacons in the Episcopal Church, there is a place in the service where the person being ordained kneels facing the bishop and the bishop places her or his hands on the ordinand’s head and prays. For me, as I’m sure it is for others, this was the most significant moment of the whole service. It seemed as if Bishop Reed’s hands weighed more than my whole body and would crush me. My first impulse was to push against the weight and stand. Thankfully I didn’t.

As Bishop Reed prayed these words, “Therefore, Father, through Jesus Christ your son, give your Holy Spirit to Nancy …” the weight lifted and I knew I had no need to fight against this, that whatever may come, I’d be given the strength I needed and that there was no greater freedom in this life than to submit my will to God’s.

And this understanding of submission isn’t limited to deacons and priests. When we are baptized, we are submitting ourselves to Jesus. In the Episcopal Church, one of the promises we make at our baptism is to follow and obey Jesus as our Lord (we’ll discuss the title Lord tomorrow, so stay tuned).

Jesus tells us that when we follow him, when we submit ourselves to God, we find our true mortal nature because this is the life we are created to live¹. God created each and every one of us to live in loving relationship with God. Developing the wisdom that we are the created and God is our creator doesn’t take away our value or worth, it unmasks our invaluableness (is that a word?).

I still find myself from time to time fighting against this submission. I think, that too, is part of our humanness. And God is always lovingly waiting for me to return and rediscover my true mortal nature as God’s beloved child.

How and why do you find yourself fighting against the wisdom of submission?

¹See the 10th and 16th chapters of Matthew’s telling of the good news story and the 9th chapter of Luke’s telling.

Good News

For the first Sunday in Lent: http://lectionarypage.net/YearB_RCL/Lent/BLent1_RCL.html

I interrupt our regularly scheduled program to stop and ask: How are you doing? For those of us in Texas, this past week brought a(nother) forced time in a wilderness of sorts. What a disorienting first-world thing to be in our homes with no electricity or water and unable to get anywhere because of impassable roads.

In the reading for today from the good news story of Jesus, Mark introduces Jesus time in the wilderness after his baptism with the words, “and the Spirit immediately drove him into the wilderness.” Matthew and Luke also tell us that the Spirit led or drove or pushed Jesus into the wilderness. This is one of the very rare (the only than I know of) time when Jesus isn’t actively fulfilling God’s plan by his own actions. Throughout his ministry Jesus tells those he heals not to speak of it because his time hasn’t come. He fussed at his own mom because she was asking him to do something before the time was right. Even at his arrest and trial, he gave himself over to the authorities, they did not forcefully take him. And he willingly gave his life.

I know a lot of resilient and courageous people but I don’t know (m)any who would or even could actively plan a week such as we’ve had to test their mettle. If you plan it, it doesn’t count because you’re prepared and don’t have to figure out which pile of snow is the cleanest to bring in the house and let melt so you can flush the toilet or figure out why you are being sent a boil water notice when you have no water and no means to boil it.

I’m also aware that it feels like it’s been lent for about a year now and that we just keep going deeper and deeper into the wilderness and darkness. I mean, what more can come our way – pandemic, social and civil violence, the politicalization of issues that should be simple acts of human kindness and compassion, a violent attack on our government, and in Texas a near collapse of our electrical system (and the cascading effect of loss of water and the disruption of the food supply system) as a result of profits being put above people.

Ash Wednesday and Lent, even without disaster happening around us, remind us of two things: although the ash process is painful, with intention and effort, good stuff comes from ashes. Ashes can be used to enhance the soil in your garden and boost your compost, as a de-icer, to repel slugs, and to make soap.

I don’t know why the writers of the good news story chose the words they did to convey that Jesus was forced, led, and driven into the wilderness. Perhaps they chose to write it this way so that when we find ourselves in situations not of our active choosing, we know that Jesus meets us there, too, with the compassion and love that enables us to make good stuff from the ashes.

The season of Lent and the actions we choose to observe this time are to enable us to grow deeper in relationship with God. The intentional act of giving something up helps us learn how much of our lives we’ve let get in the way of our awareness of God. When we have all that we need and want we come to depend too much on ourselves.

When the life we have defined and constructed for ourselves begins to crack and crumble we become afraid. Jesus says to us “do not be afraid, follow me toward God, so that even in the wilderness, you will know the abundance of life God intends for you.” This is the message of Good News we all need to hear. With God there is hope, there is light in the darkness, there is ever-flowing living water of life. Together with God’s help lets live into the kingdom Jesus shows us, in this wilderness time and always. Amen.

God’s peace,
Mtr. Nancy+

Who’s Driving?

As we talk about seeing the signs and being the signs of God’s kingdom, we begin to realize that everything about us, our behaviors, words, and habits, all reveal what we really believe. Even the simple, seemingly harmless words we use to describe our response to the events of our life reflect what we really believe deep down.

I have a friend who whenever things get stressful says, “Jesus, take the wheel.” Recently I asked her, “wouldn’t it be better to just let Jesus drive all the time?” Don’t fret, we are still friends. And my question led to an excellent conversation about what it looks like to let Jesus not only drive but actually be the gps which guides us.

When we have to stop and let Jesus ‘take the wheel’ we must admit we weren’t following him to begin with. When we think of Jesus as our ‘co-pilot’ it means we are flying the plane and just hoping Jesus will tag along to be available to get us out of whatever scrapes we get ourselves into.

In the first steps of our journey toward being who God created us to be, we need to follow the signs toward the image of God within us. For many of us, we will find more roadblocks and obstacles on our inner journey that we will ever have walking out into the world to reveal the loving, life-giving God who created us and all things. Most of us find it far more difficult to look at our own faults and foibles than we do pointing them out in others.

Do not be afraid. Courage and comfort come with Jesus meeting us where we are, as we are, with the continuous invitation to “follow me”. As we discover these roadblocks we’ve put between the person we think we need to be and the person God created as an integral part of God’s kingdom-on-earth plan, we will find the freedom and abundance of life we are seeking¹.

This work to keep the path of reflecting God’s image in us clear from clutter is part of our daily walk as we follow Jesus. And for me, the song at the top of my playlist is “You make Beautiful Things.” What’s yours?

¹If you missed this Living Sunday School post, I encourage you to check it out.

Being Signs

Yesterday we talked about how the signs of God’s love and God’s kingdom on earth are all around us even if we choose not to see them. Have you ever thought about how we, the beloved children of God, are also signs of God’s love?

We are God’s image bearers, God’s beloved children. It is through us that God chooses to reveal God’s divine self so that those who haven’t yet discovered they are image bearers and beloved children can know that they are.

Every single human being that ever was or is or will be are all created in God’s image and Jesus calls us to be godly people, to live into that divine image. Jesus is our human example of godly behavior, what we strive for as we follow him.

Being godly doesn’t mean we are “in charge” or better than others. We can’t let our egos get away with such thoughts. We’ll never be God. We’ll never be divine. But we do have the God-given ability to reflect God to others, to let others see the God-image in us, not for our own glory but for the benefit of God’s entire kingdom.

Through us – our words and behaviors and habits – God gives signs of the now-and-not-yet-Kingdom-on-earth-as-it-is-in-heaven to the world. In the tenth chapter of Matthew’s telling of the good news story Jesus tells those who follow him to proclaim the good news: that the kingdom of heaven is here and that we are the very instruments by which this kingdom is to be on earth as in heaven.

In what way can you be a sign of God’s love in this world today?

Signs along the Way

When I was a child, whenever we’d be traveling by car with my Granddaddy, we stopped at every historical marker. Every. Single. One. It didn’t matter if we’d stopped at this particular marker before or if we were on a schedule, or if one of us needed instead to find a rest stop (that’s Texas lingo for needing to find a bathroom and our roadside rest stops are fabulous). We’d pull over, read the information on the sign, look around for a bit, and then get back in the car as Granddaddy tried to engage us in conversation about the event the marker was commemorating. And it wasn’t just historical markers that sparked Granddaddy’s interest – he’d read out-loud most every sign we passed: it’s so many miles to such and such town; if we were to turn at this road we’d get to this farm or that town; look to see if this creek or draw or river has water; there’s a Dairy Queen in 10 miles.

Granddaddy taught us how to discover the world through the signs around us. Signs help us navigate and know where we are and where we are going and if we look for them, we just might discover something we didn’t know before.

In Matthew’s telling of the good news story of Jesus’ ministry (The Gospel according to Matthew chapter 16), we learn of a group of religious leaders demanding a “sign from heaven” to build their case against him. Jesus points out to them that they regularly get all sorts of signs from heaven and accept what they mean without question, yet they can’t see the love of God in the healing or feeding thousands from a single sack lunch that Jesus has done.

Jesus is the sign pointing to God’s love and God’s Kingdom on earth, right in front of them and they choose not to see it. They know that if they acknowledge that Jesus is the son of God, the chosen one, the Messiah, then they’ll have to listen to him. All that Jesus teaches undoes their earthly power and prestige and so if they just pretend they don’t see, they won’t have to change. The signs weren’t kept from them, they chose not to see them just like, as Jesus points out to them, in the story of Jonah¹.

The signs of God’s kingdom on earth are all around us and in us, if we choose to pay attention to them, even when they are pointing out what we don’t want to see or hear.

What signs of God’s kingdom are you seeing today? What signs are you trying to ignore?

¹The people Jesus was speaking to would have been very familiar with the story of Jonah. Jonah tried to ignore God’s plan and in doing so put others in danger. And, yet, even through Jonah’s rebellion, God fulfills the plan for the people of Nineveh. You can read the whole story here , it isn’t very long. Or, even better watch Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie!

Let us Begin Together

Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.

What a depressing opening, Mother Nancy! Can’t we be more positive? Didn’t you say Jesus came to show us the abundance of LIFE? Why do you even need to talk about this mortality thing?

We could talk for hours about how our culture tries to undo death simply by ignoring it or fight it off by spending our energy and money and time attempting to make ourselves look younger but taking either of these stances doesn’t give full credit to our humanness as God created us, of which our mortality is part.

Jesus said: “I came so that they could have life—indeed, so that they could live life to the fullest.”
John 10:10

Acknowledging our mortality isn’t a weakness or admitting any type of defeat. It is knowing who and whose we are: God’s beloved children created in God’s image to bear the divine image through all that we are and all that we do. Mortal life as we know it here on this earth will end for all of us some day, but our life with God is everlasting. God’s greatest desire for us is the abundance of life found by following Jesus into God’s kingdom here and now.

This season of Lent is a time of self-reflection to help us all peel back the layers we’ve created as we have attempted to interpret and respond to the events of our lives by our own methods rather than in the abundance of life God created us for. This is an intentional season of renewal and growth, with God’s help (re)orienting ourselves to God’s plan and purpose for the creation God calls “very good.”

In the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church, the Ash Wednesday service includes these words:

“I invite you to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word. And to make a right beginning of repentance, and as a mark of our mortal nature, let us now kneel before the Lord, our maker and redeemer.”
The Book of common prayer, page 265

We’ll talk about some of this ChurchLand language in the days to come as we begin to look deeper into ourselves and our relationship with God. Please join in the conversation. Ask questions. Share your concerns and your fears knowing you are not the only one who has them. Our faith is lived in community with each other and God and together we walk this journey of life and love.

I am grateful we are entering this season together.

God’s peace,
Mtr. Nancy+

The Truth for which We are Made

Did you know that the use of the word ‘truth’ has more than doubled in books written in American English in the last 40 years*? Did you know that this kind of thing was even tracked? Do we even know what such a fact can tell us? Do we really care?

(And for full discloser: I am not a statistician nor have I ever played one on TV; statistics was the most challenging of all of my college courses and the lowest grade I ever received. One of my favorites jokes to throw into classes is to say “87 percent of statistics are made up on the spot” just to see if folks are paying attention. And you’d be surprised how many opportunities I get to use this while teaching discipleship, church history, and/or theology.)

But seriously, the words ‘true’ and ‘truth’ have been thrown around a lot in recent years and it got me to thinking that if we are all after the same thing why can’t we agree on what that ‘thing’ is? So, being the word nerd that I am and with my passion for demystifying church words and jargon, I thought talking about how we use these words would be helpful as together we prepare for our Lenten journey.

In his telling of the good news story of God, John shares with us these words that Jesus says to a group of folks who had come to believe what Jesus was teaching, “If you stick with this, living out what I tell you, you are my disciples for sure. Then you will experience for yourselves the truth, and the truth will free you.” (John 8:31-32 The Message)

These folks go on to argue with Jesus about the factual accuracy of what he’s just said claiming “we aren’t slaves so we don’t need to be free.”

But the truth about which Jesus speaks isn’t factual knowledge. Jesus is speaking about the truth of who and whose we are.

We like to think of truth as being completely objective and absolute, but the truth is, it isn’t (see what I did there). Just look at the development of scientific theories. As we gain more information about a particular topic, the truth about it evolves. We can say the same about history and medicine and yes, even about God.

Jesus tells us that our knowing God is a life-long process, that as we intentionally live what he teaches, our understanding of God and our relationship with God and each other will grow.

Sometimes, this growing understanding exposes truths we are not yet ready to face, just like these folks Jesus was talking with didn’t want to face the idea that they were more loyal to Abraham than they were to God. Jesus doesn’t shy away from the hard stuff even when he knows some folks will walk away because he knows this difficult growth is necessary. And although it is very uncomfortable, Jesus is walking with us to bring us the comfort of knowing we are not alone and we walk with each other with the comfort of knowing we aren’t the only one doing the hard work of knowing ourselves better.

Doing this self-discovery work isn’t selfish or self-centered. It is the most humbling work we can do because it gets us to the truth of who we are as God’s beloved children. When we seek to know ourselves authentically as God does, we are on the journey of truth of which Jesus speaks. And we will be freed from all of the barriers and walls that keep us from being who God created us to be.

Are you ready for our Lenten journey? What assurances would help you prepare for this work we will do together, intentionally, and with God during this season?

God’s peace,
Mtr. Nancy+

What’s Love got to do with it?

Y’all can all thank me later for that ear worm.

I was having a conversation with my sister the other evening and she asked if I’d read “that book about love wins”. I immediately started throwing titles and authors at her and she stopped and asked, “just how many books with love in the title are there?” Looking at just one shelf in my office, I have at least 3.

We talk a lot about love in ChurchLand and yet we all still get our feelings hurt and hurt others with our words and actions. Love isn’t supposed to do that, is it? I think the real issue is that we have so many different ideas and definitions about just what love is that a conversation about love doesn’t get us very far unless we first stop and ask “what do we mean by love”.

We say we love our family and we say we love our car and y’all know I love coffee. How can one word be used for our emotional response to both people and objects?

In his letter to the church in Corinth, Paul gives us a list of what love is and isn’t and although we are all probably most familiar with this because it is often used at weddings, Paul isn’t talking about romantic love but about God’s divine love, the original source for the many ways we can love others. This agape love is unconditional and sacrificial. It active, seeking the best for and of others. Agape love is other-focused, not self-centered.

God doesn’t love us to get anything in return. God loves. Regardless of our behavior, God loves. God doesn’t change the way he loves because of the way we do or don’t love him. God loves. God always wants the best for and of us and God is always waiting to welcome us back home when we realize that our self-serving ways are really self-defeating.

This amazing agape Love means that we know that God loves us equally and that we will never love perfectly as God loves yet we do our best with each other and with God’s help.

Love means that I’m always going to try and give you the best of me. Love means that even if I don’t experience your best, I don’t wish harm upon you or say ugly things to you or about you to others (even disguised as a prayer request). Love means you may not be willing to put up with my behavior but you still want the best for and of me. Love means we will stand with each other as we face the consequences of our behavior.

Love is so much more that just an emotion, secondhand or otherwise. It is a many splendored thing. I can’t say that it’s all we need but it is the foundation of all that we do as we follow Jesus. We are, each and everyone of us, God’s beloved children. It is through us that others experience this amazing agape love so that they come to know they are beloved as well.

Jesus says, “I give you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, so you also must love each other. This is how everyone will know that you are my disciples, when you love each other.” (John 13:34-35, Common English Bible)

And, so, as we approach this season in which we together, intentionally, and with God seek growth and renewal, love has everything to do with it. Following Jesus is loving God, our neighbors, and ourselves with all that we are and all that we do and love is the mortar that binds us together as the building blocks of God’s kingdom on earth. Let’s show the world what love has to do with everything.

God’s peace,
Mtr. Nancy+

Questions and Answers

Happy Monday, Y’all. It’s a new day and the beginning of a new week of following Jesus into the abundance of life. Let me refill your coffee and let’s visit a bit.

As we continue to prepare together for our Lent journey I want us to be as ready as we can be to ask and answer some challenging questions. Because let’s be honest, easy questions and answers may do a lot for our comfort and boost our egos but they don’t really help us grow, do they? Jesus understands this all too well and uses questions often to help us better hear God’s loving voice.

In John’s telling of the Good News Story of God, Jesus encounters a man who has been sitting by a healing pool for almost 40 years (See the fifth chapter of John). Jesus asks the man, “do you want to get well?” but the man avoids the question. Instead of answering he makes excuses as to why he hasn’t made it to the pool after all this time: no one ever offered to help him and everyone else kept getting in ahead of him.

Regardless of the man’s response, Jesus doesn’t withhold healing. He offers God’s grace freely. The gift of being well is ours, period. This gift comes with (but wait, there’s more!) the understanding that we can’t follow Jesus on the way of wellness if we don’t get up and move when he calls us. Gifts don’t do much good when left in the box. One of the greatest shows of gratitude is to use the gifts God gives us to reflect God’s love to the world around us.

Sitting by the pool doesn’t make us well. Watching other people getting well doesn’t make us well. Passing the blame doesn’t make us well. And, not asking for help does not make us well. Ours is a faith in movement – walking with Jesus toward the abundance of life God desires for all of us. This man by the pool is going to have to learn to live and do everything in a different way than he’s always known. That’s the risk we take when we choose to follow Jesus.

How do you respond to Jesus’ question “Do you want to get well?”

Here’s how the conversation goes for me most every day.
Me: Yes, I think so. Will it hurt?
Jesus: Sometimes. And I’m here to comfort you and be your strength and courage. You’ll be ok. You’ll be better than ok. You’ll never regret it, I promise.
Me: Ok. Can I refill my coffee first?
Jesus: Of course. And would you warm mine up, too, please?

Staying where we are, stuck in our ways, fearful and resistant of change doesn’t make us well¹. Looking backwards doesn’t get us there. Refusing to reflect on where we are and where we’ve been with honesty and openness to our own faults doesn’t move us forward.

Receiving the gracious gift of God’s love, hearing Jesus tell us to take up our mat and walk, and accepting that we share the responsibility for our own wellbeing and the wellbeing of each other is what moves us forward into an abundance of life.

So, as we prepare to journey together through Lent, I pray that we all have the ears to hear Jesus ask, “do you want to be well?” It will be worth it, I promise. And I’m certain there will be plenty of coffee.

¹Word Nerd side note: the Greek word translated into English as ‘well’ comes from a root word that means “to cause to grow, to increase, to become greater.” Cool, huh?