Voices

I speak in many voices.  Not the sound of my words but the experience and roles of my  life: spouse, mother, priest, administrator, friend, advisor, mentor, supervisor, colleague.  While the context directs  which voice I use, none of the voices are distinct.  Sometimes to be a thoughtful administrator the mother layer is in my voice.  Sometimes to be a mother the administrator voice organizes home life.

Yet, there is one voice that is in every layer, the Christian voice.  On this sabbatical, I am reflecting on my heart core.  That which gives me life.  That which is my inner scaffolding, central support, architecture of my beliefs. Naming my roots in Christ, literally, continues to be very supportive.

So, when I came across the following, paraphrased from the Collegeville Institute web page, developing my Christian voice became that much more important. "It is not enough to preach.  It is not enough to teach.  It is not enough to update the church's Facebook page.  We must learn to write and speak theology accessible for everyone". Write and speak theology for everyone are at my core.  It is what this blog is about as well as the many other voices of my life.  What are the practical, everyday dimensions of a Christian voice?  How is it heard?  Where? Am I speaking out loud or whispering in my own head? What inspires others to speak in their own Christian voice?

What inspires me is to know and feel that my Christian voice makes two profound differences.  First that everyday I choose life with God and I am grateful.  Second, that I make a difference in the lives of others everyday. I am not measuring the difference.  The size, impact, is less important than the difference Christ in me makes. In that way I am developing my voice and speaking to connect with others.

Illuminations

At one time in church history, monks copied manuscripts, primarily The Bible, and adorned them with illuminations on the page.  The act of copying is an art and the painting of illumination is an art.  Few of those manuscripts of the sacred Word for living survive today.

The art of illumination happens still today but not in prized manuscripts or copied pages.  More often than not its in today's disposal mediums, print and digital.  Their life is intended to be while the reader's eye is on the page.  The art is clarity.  We miss many illuminations because their production is daily and fleeting.

One illumination appears in today's Washington Post.  An opinion column written by Michael Gerson entitled, "Elevated by the Common Good."  His writing is an act of common good because he does not agree with the book he describes, Common Good by Jim Wallis.  He illuminates where he and Mr. Wallis agree and disagree and why.  He makes his points based on a thorough knowledge of faith principals and values yet he does not share about his own faith or question Jim Wallis' because they disagree.  The article is an illumination of religion speaking in the public square to build up our human and civic community.  Worth reading both Mr. Gerson and Mr. Wallis. 

Bible Reading Easter Season

This morning I posted on  St. John's Bible Reading Challenge Facebook:

It was bound to happen.  After Lent discipline moves into Easter Season, I have fallen behind on the daily ready challenge.  I am catching up.

Romans 5:21 from The Message reads, "All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that's the end of it. Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life--a life that goes on and on and on, world without end."

So what about those do to lists, do they save us?  What about the jammed packed schedules and all the good we do for others, does that bring us life?  While we might find meaning there and joy and connection, life begins and continues because "...God is putting everything together again through the Messiah..."

Bible Reading Challenge

Taking the challenge?  Will you share your thoughts.  Richard Foster in Life with God,  Reading the Bible for Spiritual Formation, says that scripture is border territory, the place my life merges with yours.

We find our true selves, as wonderful and diverse and different as each of us, in the pages of scripture. Will you take the risk and share that which most deeply yours from God?

You can through the Bible Reading Challenge SJEC.  This is a closed Facebook group.  Let me know you want to join and I'll add you to the group.  (If you don't already have a facebook page, you will need to create one.)  Closed on Facebook means only those in the group can see one another's posts.  Its a way we can network with one another and share among us.

Today Genesis tells the story of Jacob and Laban, an illustration of how wonderful, diverse, different in motivation and perspective we all are!

Join me!

Bible Reading Challenge

Today I caught up.  The challenge began on Ash Wednesday and I started yesterday.  So today I've read through, Genesis 22-27, Psalm 9, and, Matthew 9.

I noticed, again, how much of Matthew we hear read aloud in church yet we hear it in a completely different order.  The teachings that begin with Matthew 5 continue in a sequence through Matthew 7.
Those chapters could be Lent reflection for spiritual growth in 2014!

What did you notice?

For my Bible I am using The Life with God Bible, New Revised Standard Version, published by Harper Bibles.  The editor is Richard Foster, a well known writer on the Christian Spiritual Life.  In addition to notes on the texts there are more extensive notes on spiritual disciples and how to use the texts for spiritual formation.

Did you go to Bible Reading Challenge or Diocese of Maryland website to download the daily reading?  Are you with me and our bishop as we read through the Bible Ash Wednesday 13 to Ash Wednesday 14?  Follow my blog, comment, and share.

Prayer, Reflection, and Study

The season of Lent invites not only the spiritual disciplines of putting oneself aside, fasting and giving to others, but also going deeper into our inner spiritual lives.

Resources abound.  Two for going deeper are right, literally, at our fingertips.  First, The Daily Lenten Devotions written by members of St. John's appear on our home page, www.stjohns.org.  A reflection that brings one closer to members of our community and to God is there in a few key strokes.

Second, read the Bible along with others in the Diocese of Maryland.  The diocese is offering the Bible Reading Challenge to read the entire Bible in one year from Lent 13 to Lent 14. Go to www.ang-md.org for the click through to the daily reading list.  Don't worry it started Ash Wednesday.  I am starting today too and I invite you to join me.  Want to form a facebook group or email list to encourage one another?  Then, email me at my st john's email address.  Accountability in community supports our individual goals!

Lent is the season a spiritual disciplines.  A Spiritual Discipline is an intentionally directed action by which we do what we can do in order to receive from God the ability (or power) to do what we cannot do by direct effort. Richard J. Foster Life with God.  Page 16.  Intentionally direct your action to Devotions with St. John's and reading the Bible in community.  May this Lent draw you closer to God.

Another reflection to share

As I read for spiritual challenge and nurture, as I read for sermon preparation, as I read to pray, I am always glad to discover reflections written by colleagues.  In parish ministry while my life and times focus on the congregation I serve, often I have colleagues and friends with whom I have shared a project or season of ministry but who I do not see face to face on a regular basis. Reading a colleague's writing brings me back into that friendship.

So I share today a reflection written by a colleague found, like many others I have shared, in Daily Feast, Meditations from Feasting on the Word, Year C, by Lewis F. Galloway.

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

"Receiving the Gospel is not simply giving assent to the articles of a creed.  Receiving the Gospel is not a matter of accruing one more good thing to a life that is already full of good things. Receiving the Gospel is discovering in Christ a new center of existence, a new power for living, a new perspective from which to view all things."