Just yesterday Jenni Ovenstone Smith and I were discussing 'youth' ministry. Ministry is ministry, sharing the Good News of Christ's life, bringing people closer to Christ and one another, sharing joys and sorrows, support and challenge. The 'youth' added to ministry means more creativity, more direct comments and talk, more opportunity to deeply touch lives.
So, this morning when I read the following meditation I am again reminded that ministry is ministry is ministry and talking about God is talking about God.
From Daily Feast, Meditations for Feasting on the Word, Year C, Page 99.
"Tuesday, Jeremiah 1:4-10
Reflection
Jeremiah is ushered into something bigger and better, into God's truth and life of service to the Almighty. Perhaps this is the edge young people have: they are not too big themselves just yet, either physically or in the soul. Jeremiah's solid excuse for why he cannot speak God's word is that he is 'only a youth'- as if grownups know how to speak of God! Never do we speak of God capably. We try, we mumble impotent sounds; but does this not happen with babies who coo or with young lovers? The most eloquent words we can muster seem ridiculously inadequate, and the stammer voices the truest affection.
James C. Howell
Response
What excuses have you given to God about your call?
Prayer
God who calls me into life, help me remember that it is so much bigger and better than I can every imagine. Amen."
Reflecting on the every day, practical dimensions of faith. Practices to shape our lives each day as followers of Christ. Stories to share our practical experiences of wisdom, faith, hope, and love.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Monday, January 28, 2013
You are the Body of Christ
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 1 Corinthians 12:12
The apostle Paul employs the analogy to human body to the church in a new way. Instead of going with the familiar approach of his time that likened the hierarchy of social status found in the human community to the hierarchy of importance in the parts of the body, Paul uses the compatible and necessary functioning of each part of the body to the compatible and necessary functioning to each part of the church. No one part can claim superiority. And, no one part can claim superiority because what holds the body together, its unity, is the same for all-The Spirit of Christ among everyone.
The unity of the church universal as well as any congregation is our organic connection to Christ. Our connectedness is a gift even when parts do not all function together. However, instead of turning our attention to how we support one another in sorrow and in joy, instead of turning our attention to how we balance our functioning together within our congregation, instead of looking at our congregation in the compassionate ways we compensate for one another, let us turn our attention how our connectedness functions to benefit all.
Connected as a body, our congregation literally spiritually supports hundreds of thousands of lives each week. We gather to worship, pray, serve and share in the spiritual nurture of the church community. That spiritual nurture feeds its members. And those members go out into the world. Our community nurtures a drug counselor in one of the worst neighborhoods in Baltimore, a social worker who finds community homes for the mentally ill, CEOs who employ thousands of people, teachers from graduate level to elementary school, teachers from the gifted to the learning disabled, carpenters, those who are oversee national security, physicists, researchers, doctors, all who use their spiritual nurture from our congregation to touch people's lives with their gifts.
In the Epiphany season when the church universal and our congregation remembers that as the Body of Christ we bring Christ's life and love to the world, we can ask what difference can any one congregation make? As the Body united to one another so that we function as a church and are thereby nurtured and sustained, we make a lot of difference through the lives we live.
The apostle Paul employs the analogy to human body to the church in a new way. Instead of going with the familiar approach of his time that likened the hierarchy of social status found in the human community to the hierarchy of importance in the parts of the body, Paul uses the compatible and necessary functioning of each part of the body to the compatible and necessary functioning to each part of the church. No one part can claim superiority. And, no one part can claim superiority because what holds the body together, its unity, is the same for all-The Spirit of Christ among everyone.
The unity of the church universal as well as any congregation is our organic connection to Christ. Our connectedness is a gift even when parts do not all function together. However, instead of turning our attention to how we support one another in sorrow and in joy, instead of turning our attention to how we balance our functioning together within our congregation, instead of looking at our congregation in the compassionate ways we compensate for one another, let us turn our attention how our connectedness functions to benefit all.
Connected as a body, our congregation literally spiritually supports hundreds of thousands of lives each week. We gather to worship, pray, serve and share in the spiritual nurture of the church community. That spiritual nurture feeds its members. And those members go out into the world. Our community nurtures a drug counselor in one of the worst neighborhoods in Baltimore, a social worker who finds community homes for the mentally ill, CEOs who employ thousands of people, teachers from graduate level to elementary school, teachers from the gifted to the learning disabled, carpenters, those who are oversee national security, physicists, researchers, doctors, all who use their spiritual nurture from our congregation to touch people's lives with their gifts.
In the Epiphany season when the church universal and our congregation remembers that as the Body of Christ we bring Christ's life and love to the world, we can ask what difference can any one congregation make? As the Body united to one another so that we function as a church and are thereby nurtured and sustained, we make a lot of difference through the lives we live.
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Spiritual Conversations
Over the next few days we will greet one another with the question, "How was your Christmas?" Or, "How were your Holidays?" Or, "Were the kids home?" The usual answer to these questions are, "it was great, or, we had lots of fun, or, we ate too much, or, can't wait to get back to a routine."
Over the next few days, instead of asking the usual questions, try asking "Did you have any spiritual conversations in the last week?" Likely you'll get a quizzical look that says, "what is a spiritual conversation?" The reply is "A conversation of thankfulness, integrity, clarity, or, compassion, a conversation that affirms that God is among us in our everyday moments."
Spiritual conversations are not long conversations about searching for meaning but conversations about belonging. Spiritual conversations are not debates over the tenets of belief but conversations about where Christ's life meets ours. Spiritual conversations are not about if its found in scripture but where scripture finds us.
A spiritual conversation is presence and being present to one another. It asks another, "How are you doing?" and you really want to know. Its a compassionate conversation between doctor and family when there are no other treatments to offer. Its a conversation that appreciates the gifts of a co worker, or, when parents risk to speak about what is really happening with their child in an effort to love their child better. A spiritual conversation celebrates childhood, and adolescence, and young adulthood, and 55 and better, and retirement, and beyond as a gift from God to be in that particular stage of life. A spiritual conversation speaks of gratitude rather than happiness for as one scholar observed, "Thankfulness is harder to come by than happiness, but immeasurably better to count on." (David L. Bartlett)
Did you have any spiritual conversations last week?
Over the next few days, instead of asking the usual questions, try asking "Did you have any spiritual conversations in the last week?" Likely you'll get a quizzical look that says, "what is a spiritual conversation?" The reply is "A conversation of thankfulness, integrity, clarity, or, compassion, a conversation that affirms that God is among us in our everyday moments."
Spiritual conversations are not long conversations about searching for meaning but conversations about belonging. Spiritual conversations are not debates over the tenets of belief but conversations about where Christ's life meets ours. Spiritual conversations are not about if its found in scripture but where scripture finds us.
A spiritual conversation is presence and being present to one another. It asks another, "How are you doing?" and you really want to know. Its a compassionate conversation between doctor and family when there are no other treatments to offer. Its a conversation that appreciates the gifts of a co worker, or, when parents risk to speak about what is really happening with their child in an effort to love their child better. A spiritual conversation celebrates childhood, and adolescence, and young adulthood, and 55 and better, and retirement, and beyond as a gift from God to be in that particular stage of life. A spiritual conversation speaks of gratitude rather than happiness for as one scholar observed, "Thankfulness is harder to come by than happiness, but immeasurably better to count on." (David L. Bartlett)
Did you have any spiritual conversations last week?
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