Christchurch. Responding with Holy Mischief.

Through my study window I see the spot!      

                           

It's still covered in snow, but this Spring, I'll get my hands gloriously dirty again, planting my Jerusalem Cross Garden in this new place in north Spokane that we call home. And through Jerusalem-cross-gardening, the "gardening of soil and soul," I look forward to surrendering again to the way of the cross. It is the way that helps us through events like those of Christchurch, New Zealand. 50 Muslims murdered, 50 wounded as they prayed. And all live-streamed as poison to the "it is good" of God.

How do we get through such times and still believe love wins?

In worship this Sunday we were invited to join Father, Son and Holy Spirit around the Lamb (the chalice in the icon to the right). Rublev’s icon of the Holy Trinity encouraged us to take our place with the One-in-Three, the Three-in-One, in the circle of love around the altar, and to dwell there in the house of love rather than the house of fear. There is a space left before the altar for each of us. And it is here, in joining the circle, that we are loved into loving like Jesus did, by surrendering to the Trinitarian flow. Living constantly in the house of love makes a Jesus-type witness possible. And the witness our Lenten journey reminds us of again this year is that there is no circle of love without a cross. From the fullness of our place in the circle of love, the Spirit helps us respond with holy mischief, even though it costs us, to say, “'No’ to the way of the sword, ‘yes’ to the way of the Lord,” and to act boldly for love in Christ's name.

During worship we hung a green crane (photo to right) for Christchurch beneath the white and red ones to remember the dead and wounded. We hung this green crane to mark our deep sorrow that Christendom still has not learned that we follow the Prince of Peace who told Peter, with no equivocation, "Put away your sword.” 

And as the shadow of the Lenten cross suspended above the altar falls over the circle of love projected onto the wall (see photo), we quietly hear Jesus' loving words, “Father forgive,” as he chooses to gift his own life rather than take the life of another.

Jesus did it. We can too. And love wins. Again! - as we learn to pray compassionately even for perpetrators, and follow prayer with courageous action, the Christ alive within us, to love like Jesus and Paul, and Bonhoeffer, and King, and Ghandi, Romero, Kolb, and so many other unsung heroes. 

How do we get through these times and still believe love wins? We become Christ's church, loving as Jesus did.

Grace is Found in a Garden

The Sacraments¹

I once spoke to my friend, an old squirrel, about the Sacraments—
he got so excited

and ran into a hollow in his tree and came
back holding some acorns, an owl feather,
and a ribbon he had found.

And I just smiled and said, "Yes, dear,
you understand:

everything imparts
His grace."

I daily divide the sacred and profane by the way I eat - buying industrial food in a cold cash transaction from the clerk at Fred Meyers with no thought of the farmer who grew it or the farm s/he produced it on. 

And so I miss out on the grace imparted by, not the acorn, owl’s feather or piece of ribbon brought by the squirrel visiting Francis, but the soil teeming with life; seeds miraculously sprouting; plants growing, seeding and fruiting to feed me in body. I miss out on the grace too that nourishes my soul because soil, seed and fruit is also about the gift of friendship with creation and Creator. 

It’s all one.

Dividing the sacred from the profane results in what humanity is faced with today – a soulless, progressive destruction of the very creation that, if lived with in unity, would care for us for generations to come. And we humans are diminished because of it.

It’s time to live gracefully again. This Spring I begin my own Garden Granary where all is holy, and I take my place alongside the Master Gardener for a gardening of soil and soul on the sacred ground of my own backyard and heart.

I daily divide the sacred and profane. St Francis does no such thing. We shouldn't either.  ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

1St. Francis of Assisi, translated by Daniel Ladinsky, Love Poems from God: Twelve Sacred Volumes from the East and West, copyright © Daniel Ladinsky 2002, Penguin Compass.  

"Oh No! He's Dreaming Again!"

"ANAKEPHALAIOSASTHAI" - Christ uniting, gathering up, bringing together

It has not happened in a very long time. But recently it did! And it's both terrifying and exhilarating.

Yes, as the title suggests, I am dreaming again. Not just any dream. But one of those dreams that grips ones imagination and just won't let go, making you feel, very presumptuously, that God is trying to tell you something. That is always terrifying for me.

My dream.

Carla and I were in a house I didn't recognize. But it was ours. We lived there. We felt safe. Secure. Provided for.

Sometime in the middle of the night, I awoke.  I got out of bed and climbed the stairs to the second floor. As I emerged onto the landing, which opened out onto a large room, I noticed a brown-like shape trying to crouch behind a chair, or a piece of furniture like it. I knew it to be some kind of animal. It was sizable, and it was trying to make itself as small as possible. Clearly I had come upon it unexpectedly and the furniture it had chosen for cover was too small and inadequate to hide behind.

Instinctively I knew this creature wasn't supposed to be there. In my house.

I don't know if it was out of fear or anger or surprise, but I shouted in a loud and threatening  voice, "What are you doing here?"

At first the creature kept silent, trying to make itself smaller, desperately trying to disappear.

I shouted out again, "What are you doing here?"

Grabbing a dining room-type chair for protection should I need it, I shouted some more. Slowly I began advancing on this unknown creature that had invaded my house, intending, with the chair, to direct it towards the stairwell up which I had just climbed so that I could chase it down and out of my home and life.

Realizing it could not escape detection, the creature unfurled. I could now see it's full size and it's face. It's eyes were making furtive glances towards the stairs, the direction of escape. Then it would look back at me, hesitating, like it didn't know what to do and was struggling to make up its mind. The creatures eyes seemed to show both fear and a desperate appeal for mercy. It was anything but threatening in its' hesitation, looking back and forth from escape route to me.

The creature turned out to be a female lion. And as I advanced on her, shouting and wielding my chair, she began in desperation, her anxiety level very high, to shake her head back and forth in anguish, crying out, "I don't want to go. I don't want to go."

The creature spoke!

Much to my surprise we began a conversation. "What do you mean you don't want to go?" I asked.

"I don't want to go" she repeated, adding, "I've been living here for six months" [she might have said for a number of years but that detail blurs here].

I was incredulous.

"What do you mean you've been living here for six months?" I asked.

"Yes" she said, "I've kept very quiet, but I've been here for six months. You didn't know. And furthermore, I have three babies with me."

"What?" I asked.

My complete and total disbelief would have been obvious to any observer as I lowered the chair, finally realizing I had nothing to fear. Totally disarmed now in more ways than one, I understood that this mother was just trying to protect her children and keep them in a safe and secure place, even if it meant hiding in some one else's home.

"Well," I responded, "I want to see them."

And into the room rolled three little bundles of joy, much like any dog lover experiences when their dog has a litter of puppies who just want to cover you with sniffs and licks and unbounded joy.

I was totally won over at this point, captured by this gentle mother and her three children who I didn't even know had taken up refuge in my home.

Then it ended! I woke up. My dream was over. And I was left wondering what it all could possibly mean.

*   *   *

My interpretation.

Remarkably, this turned out to be quite simple.

The mother lion represents creation. For millennia earth has cared for us, absorbing our waste while providing an abundance of resources. But now she is unable to continue doing so. We now need to care for her. After all, she has moved into our homes and is asking for care and protection.

How will we respond? Life, in all its beauty, wonder and joy is itself at risk.


                                                                               * * *

Want "A Brief History of God's Unfolding Promise to Mend the Entire Universe?" Consider taking the class, Bible 101 - "Manna and Mercy." Covenant Community Classroom will offer this class again early in the new year. (The graphic above comes from that graphic novel).

FRIENDSHIP - with God, with each other, and with all creation

Gardening of Soil

Each child had a Tiny Greenhouse
to sprout some bean seeds

Well, it's happening! And it is so encouraging to see.

Tiny seeds, planted by tiny hands, are sprouting into more than just a tiny bit of hope.

Camden Sparkes helping children
plant their bean sprouts to grow their
bean teepee

It began last week in each child's Tiny Greenhouse. A bean seed, wrapped in a wet towel, sealed in a zip lock bag and taped to the sun-bathed gym window, produced the green miracle of life in barely a week. 

Carmen Green, Eden Kids Garden
Club co-director with two helpers,
David Yarbrough and Roger Hudson

This Tuesday the  children planted their sprouting beans around a wigwam trellis, dreaming of a food-producing, shelter-from-the-sun (a bean teepee) they'll be able to step inside. 


Our hope is that one day soon, in being able to enter their bean teepees, the children will feel themselves wrapped in the green love and care of the Creator. We'd love them to learn about God as the Creator who wants all children to have food and shelter, and who has made the earth to do exactly that - provide food and shelter for everyone. That is, if we learn to live as "FRIENDS - with God, with each other, and with all creation."*

Gardening of Soul - Acts of Compassion

Compassion. 

Once again, in engaging in an act of compassion as part of my witness to Jesus Christ, it was I who received. 

Joining Tom Latimer and Nancy
 Morlock at Shalom Ministries

Yes! In giving, I received.

Carla and I were invited by Ted and Diane Ketchum to join the Covenant Shalom Team this past Monday evening at Shalom Ministry located at New Community Church in downtown Spokane. Broken and scarred, poor and lonely, hungry in body and soul, they came. And in adding salad to their plates as almost everyone offered their "please" and "thank you" for those few hours, I was reminded in real time what it means to do as Jesus did - live compassionately towards all people, unconditionally, no strings attached.

Carla and I both left as better people, better Christians, having learned again how to live as FRIENDS (with God, with each other, and with all creation).
__________________________________________________________________________
* Consider taking Bible 101 as part of the Covenant Community Classroom course offerings. The course uses the book Manna and Mercy, "a 100-page hand-printed paraphrase of the bible, from Genesis to Revelation - a graphic novel of sorts, written with imagination, clarity, humor and cartoons. Built around the twin themes of food sharing and forgiveness, it helps us to look at scripture with new eyes and rediscover how it can become a means of life and grace rather than destruction and death."

The Kin(g)dom of God. Our Best Kept Secret.

 The kingdom of God, from the text book for Covenant's
Bible 101 course, "Manna and Mercy," which is a survey
of the whole bible 

The kingdom of God, the Christian church's "best kept secret."

Sobering to think that way about God's reign, or, the kin(g)dom of God. But I think, unfortunately, it's true. We don't seem to make much of it never mind demonstrate its' reality to the world.

Well, Covenant Methodist wants to change that. We want the secret known! By the whole neighborhood. By the whole world!

And that's just what we'll be doing this Tuesday when the Eden Kids Garden Club meets for the first time during our Summer program. Fifty pre-registered children will be learning this "secret" that Jesus wants everyone to know about - how to live as "FRIENDS - with God, each other, and with all creation."

And they'll begin with seeds. Planting seeds in their own little plots within Eden Community Garden will expose them to the marvel of LIFE. They'll learn that watered seeds grow to produce carrots and climbing beans, food to make us strong and healthy because God wants us to enjoy life. And they will begin to experience the love of the Creator who made creation to work so beautifully, perfect in every way, when we learn to live as FRIENDS, with God, with each other and with all creation (ladybugs, chickens, worms too).

The Jerusalem Cross Garden at Leavenworth
United Methodist Church, WA

Slowly Eden is emerging at my home too, helping me too to live as a FRIEND with God, others and all creation. The Jerusalem cross raised-bed will remind me, as it yields food to nourish my body, of the other food, as important, that nourishes my soul - the acts of devotion, worship, compassion and justice. Doing these keep me nurturing my relationship with the God of love (prayer and worship) and, like Jesus, behaving lovingly in the world (compassion, justice).

Don't you feel it? God really does want to bring Eden back to our zip code. Then to God's zip code which is all the earth. And God wants to do it with and through us. Amazing!

Won't you join us?

The text this Sunday: Mark 4: 26-34
"The kingdom of God is as if...," and, "With what can we compare the kingdom of God,..."

Sunday's Reading     Mark 3:20-35

I'm building a Jerusalem Cross raised-bed at home, the fourth such bed I've been a part of constructing. My prayer is that it will help me personally do some "gardening... of soil and soul" each day so that I can wake up every morning to a life of "FRIENDSHIP - with God, with other people, and with all creation" (Daniel Erlander).

Sure, once the Jerusalem Cross raised-bed is build and planted, I'll harvest healthy, organic veggies on which to feast and thrive. But this raised bed, in the shape of a Jerusalem cross, will remind me that the Master Gardener, God, wants to feed my soul too through a life not only of faith, but of action as well.

The Jerusalem Cross symbol, so tarnished historically by the Christian Church's failure to understand and live Jesus' message, reminds us Wesleyan Christians that one of the four acts we're to do regularly is the act of compassion.

Jesus in the Gospel reading this Sunday does multiple acts of compassion by healing many people. And the "Sunday School teachers," as Clarence Jordan, the writer of The Cotton Patch Gospel call the scribes (read "religious authorities"), in response spread a rumor that Jesus was able to do this because "he had an unclean spirit" (Mark 3:30).

What? Jesus? An unclean spirit? What gives?

Eugene Peterson records Jesus' sobering response this way.  “... if you persist in your slanders against God’s Holy Spirit, you are repudiating the very One who forgives, ..." (Mark 3:29).

The implication here is the last thing we want to do is separate ourselves from being in relationship with the One in whom we find fullness of life by resisting, if not opposing, the good the Spirit is doing in and through Jesus.

The acts of compassion Jesus did are sure signs that Jesus was of God. How important it is today for us not only to do acts of compassion regularly, but also to recognizes in the acts of compassion by others the Spirit at work building the kin(g)dom.

Pentecost. Colored Green, not Red, at Covenant this Year?

Next Sunday's Readings
(Click the above to connect with next weeks Scripture readings)

Anton Rublev's icon, the Holy
Trinity, painted in the 1400's, is
the "embodiment of spiritual
unity, peace, harmony, mutual
love and humility." 

It's always been red! So why would we even
contemplate coloring Pentecost Sunday (May 20) green this year at Covenant?

Well, perhaps for three exciting reasons that have everything to do with Covenant's vision of ministry for the next 36 years (2017 - 2053).

1. The Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit 

Not the prettiest of paintings this painting of the Holy Trinity on the left. But then we learn it's not meant to be pretty. Rather, it's designed to share deep insight into the nature of God as we learn to pray with it.

Notice the Spirit's cloak is colored green as a sign of endless creativity, the color of the chloroplast that turns light into life-giving plants which green all creation. Notice too how the Spirit points to a rectangle beneath the chalice, God's personal invitation to each of us to take our place, to join the circle of God's love, therein to experience union with the living God.

2. Blessing of green Seedlings and Seeds  

Pentecost red. Covenant continues to tell the Story,
"shining the Christ-light into the darkness" from our  towers.

You are invited! If you plan to plant a raised bed, patio container or a humble window sill garden this year, please do join in. Bring a sampling of seeds and/or a green seedling with you to worship on Pentecost Sunday. We will invite you to place these alongside a bowl of water around the altar before they are blessed, praying...

O God, "bless these seeds, pregnant with life. They show us the Easter mystery of new life coming from death and burial. May they burst forth soon with verdant growth from earth, rain and sun." 

This will be a wonderful way of celebrating growth in the Spirit at the start of the gardening season as all creation greens up. We will also mark the start of Eden Community Gardens in thanksgiving for the hard work of Covenant's Guild of Gardeners.

The Jerusalem Cross, used to Guide
Methodists "in making disciples of Jesus
Christ for the transformation of the world."

3. The Greening of Souls  

Building on the strength of the other small groups at Covenant, four new ones have been launched. The purpose of these Covenant Discipleship Groups is the Jerusalem-cross-gardening-of-souls, or, "in simple humility, [to] let our gardener, God, landscape [us] with the Word, making a [green] salvation-garden of [our] lives" (James 1:21) (MSG).

The groups meet weekly or bi-weekly to contemplate the Scripture reading for the coming Sunday. They explore it with head and heart, inviting the Word to re-shape who each person is and how they live. The hour-and-a-half ends with a time of "watching over one another in love," being accountable for the four acts of devotion, worship, compassion and justice as symbolized by the four little crosses of the Jerusalem cross. This portion is designed to mutually encourage participants  "to love and good works."

Conclusion

This Pentecost Sunday promises to be unique. We will hear the Pentecost story read in multiple languages and experience again the red fire of the Spirit creatively working to "green" both souls and gardens alike, that God's kin(g)dom might come "on earth as it is in heaven." 

Please do join us.