Reformers in the Church - Krause Corner

Awakening to Reformation
by Leslie Young Marks

Change is inevitable.  Our choice is to be agents of change. 

For many in the church today, there is a feeling that things are not right, not as they should be. Those who seek to change this status quo may follow one of three pathways; anarchy, iconoclasm or reform.

“Anarchist” is a pejorative label for many people, a designation implying lawlessness and amorality. “Iconoclast” is a milder designation, implying a particular vendetta on a volatile issue. “Reformer” has a positive aura, but can imply hopeless and unending do-goodism, talk without results.

A reformer sees the inefficiencies and offensiveness of a system and seeks to repair or replace corrupt elements, thereby revitalizing the whole.

A reformer does not see the current state as irredeemable, but also knows that reform is a never ending process, that we can always do better.

The reformer’s agenda is never-ending. Tough questions are asked and hard answers are given. Yet as with any organization, reform is slow and can be frustrating.  

Karl Barth wrote, ecclesia semper reformanda est, the church is ever-reforming. The church we grew up in was not the church our grandparents grew up with. Change is inevitable. Our choice is to be agents of change.

The full article is available here

Look Closer - Celtic Prayer

The Pope's Environmental Encyclical - Cal DeWitt in Do Justice!

Francis mirrors his namesake from Assisi and with a biblically and scientifically founded proclamation invites everyone to enter “a dialogue with all people about our common home.”

The long-standing Stewardship Tradition—emerging in antiquity and continuing into the 18th century until it flickered and was extinguished in the heat of the industrial revolution—has been remarkably rekindled!

In his beautiful yet powerful encyclical letter, Laudato Si’—On Care for Our Common Home, Pope Francis gifted all people with a remarkably comprehensive letter. It is a letter that brings substantial hope as it bridges across both all creation and human society, inspiring everyone to envision an “integral ecology” for which creation and human society have been waiting in eager expectation.

In this, Francis mirrors his namesake from Assisi and with a biblically and scientifically founded proclamation invites everyone to enter “a dialogue with all people about our common home.”

Pope Francis reminds us that the biblical texts are to be read in their context, with an appropriate hermeneutic, recognizing that they tell us to “till and keep” the garden of the world (cf. Gen 2:15). “Tilling” [avad] refers to cultivating, ploughing or working, while “keeping” [shamar] means caring, protecting, overseeing, and preserving. This implies a relationship of mutual responsibility between human beings and nature. Each community can take from the bounty of the earth whatever it needs for subsistence, but it also has the duty to protect the earth and to ensure its fruitfulness for coming generations.”

The pope’s encyclical is wide-ranging as it is powerful. Covering climate change, loss of biodiversity, degradation of the oceans, pollution of the air we breathe, human and social degradation, and more, it simply must be read by all. Most importantly, the approach of integral ecology—the theme of the encyclical—must now hear “both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.” Francis perceptively identifies “an excessive anthropocentrism” that in disguise “continues to stand in the way...”

The full article is available here

Reflection and Renewal: The Pharisee and the Tax Collector (based on Luke 18:9-14)

God,

We seem to struggle with the same things over and over again.  For some of us, it's brokenness and failure, and we think that keeps us from being able to connect with you.

For some of us, it's judgmentalism and lacking spiritual humility that keeps us from being honest about not having it all together.

We're grateful that you strive for connection with us despite the things that we put in the way. It’s thanks to who you are and what you do that we can connect with you.  You took human form and lived among us to bridge the gap between us and to show us how to follow your way of life.

And even though we often have our attention fixed on how bad we think we are or how great we think are, your Spirit is continually making itself visible all around us.

Help us to be both honest about our failures and to not disqualify ourselves because of them ... so that we can relate to you and connect with you.

Amen

Building Nests For The New Community - Kayla McClurg

The Gospel Is A Journey - Father John Dear

How We Can Choose Love - Henri Nouwen

When We Pay Attention - Rick Fields

Pray Without Ceasing? - Jeff Wiersma

Spirituality isn’t mountaintop experiences and other-worldly bliss far from the cares and concerns of life below. Rather, spirituality is part and parcel of our everyday lives, as hectic and imperfect as they are.

Have you ever struggled with the idea of prayer, let alone actually doing it or "praying without ceasing" like the Bible mentions in one verse?  Maybe you wouldn't know what to say? Maybe you think that you're too messed up to even know where to begin?

I know I that I've certainly felt and thought things myself when it comes to prayer.  I've especially had difficulty with the idea of praying to ask God for something or to do something.  It always felt too transactional to me.  God isn't a vending machine and doesn't just suspend the natural laws of the universe if we but ask.

I think the root of the problem is two-fold.

One: our post-enlightenment culture has all the different aspects of life divided into rigid compartments (we have this mind set to blame for the false dichotomy of "Christian" and "secular”).  Among those, spirituality is often perceived as residing in a distinct compartment that is other-worldly and transcendent.

Two: we think of prayer as closing our eyes, folding our hands, bowing our heads, and conversing with an invisible entity (more on that later).

David Steindl-Rast wrote, "Sometimes people get the mistaken notion that spirituality is a separate department of life."

Somehow we get the notion that spirituality is the luxurious, top floor, executive suite of our existence.  I suppose that's to be expected when so much of Western Churchianity has been expressed that way for centuries and marketed that way within the last several decades. 

Steindl-Rast continues. "But rightly understood, spirituality is an all-encompassing awareness."

Another way of saying that would be to describe spirituality as the lens we see all of our universe through.

So spirituality isn’t mountaintop experiences and other-worldly bliss far from the cares and concerns of life below. Rather, spirituality is part and parcel of our everyday lives, as hectic and imperfect as they are.

One way that I’ve found to be helpful in thinking about prayer is to see it as “connecting with God.” Here's how I’ve experienced that playing out:

• Just like spirituality and our everyday lives are interrelated and interconnected, so are God and everything in the universe. 
• Because we’re all connected, we can learn to see God in everything we’re connected to. 
• All that’s required for us to be connected is to have a mindset of awareness; to always be on the lookout for God in anything and everything on a daily basis.

What a relief! I mean, if the only way to pray without ceasing was to continually have one’s eye closed, head bowed, and hands folded  ... then the dishes wouldn't get done, the kid wouldn't get their lunches packed, your boss would certainly fire you before long, etc.  Obviously I'm exaggerating, but I'm trying to show where the logic leads us.

But if prayer is a mindset, an awareness, an attitude ... that sure sounds like something anyone can do. 

Then prayer wouldn't be just for someone who has endless hours to sit in solitude and pray. Prayer isn't some spiritual super power that only someone who has gone to church their whole life can wield. It wouldn't be just for someone who seems to have it all figured when it comes to prayer, not just for someone whose life doesn’t seem to be pock-marked with failure and brokeness like mine is and yours probably is too.

Obviously it’s vital to work to heal the brokeness in our lives and to make time for stillness and contemplation. But you don't NEED to be some kind of a saint and you don’t to make a retreat away from everyday life to some spiritual oasis to pray.

You can come as you are and pray where you are. It’s as simple as being on the look out for God, honestly and sincerely.

Are we paying attention?

Integral Joy: God Is Everywhere - Carl McColman in Shalom Institute

God is everywhere: in the celestial regions as well as the underworld, and of course everywhere in between. Perhaps this is why we can say with confidence, all are related: because everything is knit together in the silent presence of God.

A phrase from the Lakota language, mitakuye oyasin, means “all are related” or “all my relations.” It’s a way of seeing: of recognizing that we exist not as some sort of isolated cells over and against our environment or are communities, but that our existence, our very lives, are indeed integrally bound up together with all other beings, with the world and the cosmos. We are all related. We are all connected.

This in turn reminds me of Julian of Norwich, who wrote “the fullness of joy is to behold God in all.” So not only are we connected to all, but that if we learn how to see, we can behold God in all to which we are connected. In scripture we read, “If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there” (Psalm 139:8).

What all this means, of course, is that silent prayer or contemplative practice cannot be divorced from the rest of life. Spirituality is not something apart from everything else we do; it is knit into the fabric of our undivided lives, the same way that breathing is. In silence we pay attention to our breath, and then for the rest of the day we continue to breath, whether we attend to it or not.

In contemplation we rest in God’s presence, whether we feel or consciously experience it or not. Likewise, throughout the day we rest in the Divine, regardless of how attentive we may be to this fact. But the invitation is more than just cognitively acknowledging the Divine, but rather to enter into the fullness of joy. Learning to see God means learning to find joy.

Now, in truth, much of life may seem anything but joyful. We suffer, we hurt one another, we encounter disease or abuse and death. Where’s the joy in all that?

I don’t believe God calls us to rejoice in suffering itself, but rather to rejoice in God even in the midst of suffering.

The full article is available here

Let's Partner Towards Reducing CO Emissions - CRC Network

Climate change is one of the most pressing moral issues of our lifetime, but when it comes to offering lament, seeking forgiveness, and working toward solutions, the church is often nowhere to be found.

In a warming world where local fisheries are collapsing, soil is degrading, sea levels are rising, and more and more people are being driven from their homes, why has the church remained so quiet?

The Christian Reformed Church believes that the global church has a crucial and necessary role to play if the world is to begin adequately addressing the threat of climate change. It’s high time that the church stands up and is heard, and the CRC is planning an exciting campaign to begin to do just that. Here are the basics:

Governments from all over the world will be gathering in Paris in November/December, 2015 for the 21st Conference of Parties (COP 21), where a potential global treaty on carbon emissions will be negotiated.The CRC will spend the summer and fall of 2015 recruiting 30 congregations in the United States and Canada and providing them with resources to educate themselves on creation care in general and the COP 21 process in particular.

In November, a group of 3-4 CRC members will travel to Paris to represent the CRC and participate in the negotiation process. They will also communicate regularly with the 30 congregations back in North America with on-the-ground updates and analyses.

After COP 21, these 30 congregations will be empowered to engage in a number of advocacy efforts to make sure that the progress emerging from the meetings in Paris is translated into concrete policy back home.

The full article is available here

Precious Lord - tribute to B.B. King

instrumental with piano playing vocal melody parts