We are launching a new sermon series this Sunday called Parables in Reverse. Jesus’ parables are some of the most iconic of Jesus’ teachings throughout the gospels. We’ll be exploring from unique angles and discover new insights and possibilities. I hope you will join us for this conversation that will challenge us “hearers” to grow. See you Sunday!
Rev. Douglass Anne and I sat down for a conversation about her background in theater and performance and how it intersects with her journey in theology. Do church and theater have lots in common? How do they feed each other? How do they challenge one another?
Good stuff!
We are blessed to have Douglass Anne share her gifts through the Table community. She has a lot to offer, including words and movement and voice that inspire and challenge. If you are looking for a community that seek ways to intersect our various gifts in the spiritual journey, join us at the Table. We’d love to hear your questions and ideas too.
Our new Wholeness Group is still in its infancy. We are meeting for the third time tonight, looking at chapter two from Addiction and Grace. There is still plenty of time to catch up and join in the conversation. I still have about three extra books for anyone who needs one.
Remember, this group is less about recovery and more about finding balance and healing. We are not trying to fix anyone in our sessions together. There is opportunity to share stories, struggles, hopes, and ideas.
The two big keys for me out of the reading for this week are these two lines, both on page 31:
“First, although God calls us all toward more perfect life, we cannot personally achieve the state of perfection. … Second, we need to recognize that the incompleteness within us, our personal insufficiency, does not make us unacceptable in God’s eyes.”
Struggling with our addictions, whether they are chemical, relationship, work, or whatever, is about realizing our limits. We can’t fix ourselves. We can’t easily solve this addiction. And that fact does not make us less lovable. We are still loved. God still finds great value in us. There is always hope. Once we admit that we cannot simply overcome these issues, the more likely we are to begin the path toward healing.
If you know someone who is looking for a safe place for this kind of conversation or if you need an informal, supportive group of folks to vent about your struggle to find wholeness, join us this evening, 6:30 PM in the Disciples Room at East Dallas Christian Church (629 N. Peak St., Dallas, TX).
We are meeting at the Bottle Shop (2116 Greenville Ave, Dallas, TX) for conversation tonight. I am going to get some Quesa-D-Yas on their way as soon as we can. Delicious stuff. Our question, though, is a tough one. I’m not sure where we will go with it yet:
Did Jesus understand himself to be God, in line with God, or something else? Did he understand this from birth? If not then, when did he begin to understand it and how?
Part of the question comes from the fact that the four Gospels each define Jesus slightly differently, with a bit of a unique attitude and vocational path. In Luke, Jesus seems to know his purpose as a boy in the temple. In Matthew and Mark, it is the baptism scene where Jesus is announced as God’s beloved child. In John, it is from the beginning of time.
But did Jesus think of himself as God? Was Jesus just really close to God? How do we really know Jesus is God? We don’t have as clear answers. Certainly, Jesus used cryptic language to say things like, “if you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” Sometimes, he affirms others who call him the Anointed One, Messiah. But did he have an internal dialogue going on? “I’m God’s Son. Wonder what I should be doing now? Maybe I’ll heal that lady over there!” That we don’t know.
It should be good conversation tonight. I expect I’ll use a little of NT Wright’s stuff. Bring your answers and questions tonight!
I keep hearing from co-workers, friends, and neighbors that bad things happen in threes. For example, here in Dallas, you could easily count the following three as bad:
Dallas Mavericks get swept in the opening round of the playoffs. Except this was not really a big surprise, I guess. Anybody who had seen this Mavericks team play this season figured that they wouldn’t make it very far without some lucky breaks. The lucky breaks did not come.
The new Museum Tower is destroying the beautiful works of art at the Nasher Sculpture Center. This is really bad to be honest. This is a product of poor planning and investment. The Arts District in Dallas is an area of real growth and energy for Dallas. Why crush it with a super sun multiplying, heat ray tower of doom?
GCB got cancelled. Okay, maybe this isn’t bad either. I didn’t watch GCB, but television without a series based on events in or around Dallas isn’t really tv. Oh wait, I almost forgot about the Dallas remake coming. Crisis averted.
I am not being completely serious, although #2 above is something that should be swiftly dealt with, even if it means closing down construction. The truth is… there are always bad things happening in our fair city. Whether it is the realization that we put too many Dallas teens in adult jails, attempted kidnappings on a highway, some sort of alleged high school sex club in Prosper, or an ex-priest who hired someone to kill a young man who he may have once sexually abused, you don’t have to dig to deep to discover all the unfortunate, disappointing things happening in our city.
I’m not trying to bring a downer to your day, but I am trying to poke a hole in the myth that bad things happening to people is rare or just a short term reality.
Rabbi Kushner wrote a book called – “Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People”. One of my church members, Rev. Ron Somers-Clark, pointed out the better title would have been – “Why Do Bad Things Happen to People”.
Point is – it’s part of life to go through periods of struggle, sometimes randomly, often without reason or purpose.
Sometimes, we can find growth and meaning in our bad days. That’s great. Often, bad times do not last forever, though occasionally they last for years.
Our challenge as people who are on a spiritual journey is not to understand such bad things as an aberration, like they are always easily prevented, but to see them as part of the fullness of life. God has given us the capacity to love and be loved. Therefore, when our world is disrupted by unloving, horrific, or uncomfortable events, we recognize that we may lose things we care about. As Mitchell and Anderson put it in All Our Losses, All Our Griefs, “to be a follower of Christ is to love life and to value people and things that God has given to us in such a way that losing them brings sadness.”
What we do with our grief and pain from the losses that we experience makes all the difference. Often, we need to find a comforting community to heal. Other times, we feel called to step out in prophetic action, working for justice for those who have been wronged. We may use our voice to call for change or advocate for those who have been left behind. These are all responses which help us accept the unfortunate dips, bumps, and pits of living but move us into action to join with God’s plan for renewal and reconciliation of our world.
What do you think? Does your understanding of life and of God include room for these bad things that can happen, sometimes without meaning? How do you accept them and yet move forward in some way? I’d love to see your response below.
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