Our Prayer is as Important as Our Action

This blog post is the third in a series of three posts inspired by the most popular post from the archive of 99Brattle, “Do Progressive Christians Pray?” by Chris Glaser, published two years ago. The first installment was by Margaret Bullitt-Jonas ’88 and the second installment was written by Dr. Kwok Pui Lan. 

By Christi Humphrey '08

The line that stands out for me in the blog post, “Do Progressive Christians Pray?” is the following: "God brings justice and mercy into the world one person at a time."

Hidden within this line is the belief that God’s work was not completed in seven days, but rather, God continues to create in the world today. God works in and through each of us—as co-creators—and our individual transformation ripples out into the world. The foundation for this transformation is our own prayer mixed with God’s grace. 

Prayer comes in many forms. Some prayers are dear to us because of their familiarity, the memories and tradition associated with them. “Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be your name,” or “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.”

There are prayers offered in a worship service—corporate prayers offered for the Church and those in authority. Prayer for the welfare of the world and for those who suffer, are in any trouble or have died.

There are also spontaneous prayers offered throughout the day, for the need of a loved one or in confession. And there are those moments of silence and meditation when the prayer simple rests in the presence of the Divine, whether it is behind the wheel of a car, in response to a beautiful sunset, or on a meditation stool as part of a daily practice. 

All of these forms of prayer make up a conversation with God—a conversation as unique as we are and the basis for our transformation into the beings God intended us to be.  Through a dialogue with God—if we are open to it—we can learn about ourselves and our place in the world. 

For centuries, people of faith have stopped throughout the day to pray, to commune with God. The way we pray, what we pray for, and how often we pray, says something about how we understand our place in the world and who we believe God to be. 

If we are to be co-creators with God in realizing the dream God had for the world at its creation—a place of unity, mutuality, and beauty—we must know ourselves.  We must understand our gifts, talents, and passions, our shortcomings and our dark places. We must know God—God’s love, grace, strength, comfort, and encouragement. In the same way that we are in relationship with those we love, we must be in relationship with God, through prayer. 

George Herbert says the following in his poem “Prayer”:

“God’s breath in man returning to his birth, The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage. . .reversed thunder. . .A kind of tune, which all things hear and fear; Softness, and peace, and joy, and love and bliss,  . . . Heaven in ordinary man . . . the soul’s blood . . .” 

Do progressive Christians pray?  Yes, because our prayer informs our action. Our prayer is as important as our action.

Christi Humphrey ’08 is the Director of Alumni/ae and Constituent Engagement at Episcopal Divinity School and a certified spiritual director and ministry developer.

My Heart is a Raging Volcano of Love for You

By Kevin G. Thew Forrester

What if liturgy and prayer reflected at-one-ment rather than redemptive violence? Love rather than retribution? Embrace rather than condemnation? Forgiveness rather than judgment?

My Heart Is a Raging Volcano of Love for You reflects my experience of liturgy and ministry as being of a single compassionate whole. The liturgical life of the church is the deep well from which ministry draws its divine vitality.

From the divine well flows the grace to freely serve. Otherwise baptismal ministry quickly devolves to egoic attempts to save the lost world.

I believe that a challenge before us as Christians is that we live in a time of much cultural change and fear. The predominant mythic-literal ways of understanding ourselves, God, and church are in transition.

As created beings, change and evolution are part and parcel to our life as creatures of God’s creation. And yet, it is also true that the break of the 21st century seems to have ushered us into a teeming flow of accelerated changes.

As the church in worship of God, engaged in baptismal ministry, we cannot help but be affected by the cultural whirlwind. However, perhaps we may perceive within the shifting winds a divine invitation to revitalize and reform our tradition.

The eucharistic liturgy of baptism especially celebrates the Living Font from which flows our Trinitarian call as Christians to seek and serve Christ in all persons, to love our neighbors as ourselves, to strive for justice and peace among all people, and to respect the dignity of every human being – divine invitations of life that flow from the one Holy Source.

In the book, My Heart Is a Raging Volcano of Love for You, I explore how meaningful and authentic baptismal ministry cannot take place apart from liturgical renewal. The images of God and Christ and church and world and self inexorably shape our sense of dignity, our notion of justice, and our image of neighbor. How we celebrate in our worship greatly determines how we serve.

To paraphrase ancient wisdom – lex orandi, lex vivendi. This pithy affirmation points out that the church has traditionally recognized that worship and life are inextricably connected, one reinforcing the other; for better or worse.

In this second volume of my At-One-Ment series I develop new forms of prayer and liturgy that draw upon our ancient catholic tradition in dialogue with our contemporary, postmodern, cultural context. These prayers reflect what I describe as an integral sacramental experience and vision of life, which invite us beyond both the individualism of modernity and the fragmentation of postmodernity.

We need to realize that the liturgy at its heart is a shout, a song, a whisper, a plea, a thanksgiving, of love. We long to be united with the Beloved who ceaselessly gives us birth and calls us home. We cast about for words that might begin to express the cry of our soul to receive the divine kiss whose moisture gives us life.

My Heart Is a Raging Volcano of Love for You is an invitation to transcend the destructive redemptive violence of conventional atonement spirituality enshrined in prayer, liturgy and hymnody. Through conversation with mystics of both east and west, I invite the church to creatively express itself in prayers and liturgies flowing from our gracious at-one-ment with God, the Font from which flows all life.

Here are collects for Years A,B,C. Here are new liturgies for Great Three Days. Here is new expression of baptismal living reflective of ancient tradition, postmodern science, and our interfaith world. Here are prayers of a progressive Christianity with ancient roots.

* The Rev. Kevin G. Thew Forrester, Ph.D., has served in the Diocese of Northern Michigan for the past ten years. He is the author of Leadership and Ministry within a Community of Equals (InterCultural Ministry Development, 1997) and I Have Called You Friends (Church Publishing, 2003).

God’s Trickster: Rethinking Satan as Absolute Evil

By Miguel A. De La Torre and Albert Hernández

The search for the historical Satan is an attempt to justify God’s grace while legitimizing the reality and presence of evil in human history. The biblical text does not begin by introducing its readers to Satan as the Prince of Darkness and enemy of God whose primordial spiritual warfare continues to manifest itself in our times. Rather, this concept developed over centuries as religious ideals commingled with popular culture and the flow of history.

We argue that a simple good versus evil binary understanding of reality leads to an ethical perspective that might cause more evil than good. A world where everyone and everything is either with or against God leads to great atrocities by those “with God” in their defense against the perceived threat of those “against God” (who those on God’s side usually define as Satanic).

What if instead our understanding of Satan was influenced by the concept of the “trickster” figure, which seems to be present in the Hebrew Bible? Learning to interpret Satan as the ultimate trickster, rather than the embodiment of absolute Evil, can lead to ethical praxes that are more liberative because they deal with the causes of oppressive structures in the physical world rather than simply blaming the present reality on the metaphysical reality of evil or on the moral depravity of humanity.

Tricksters create situations that force the one being tested to look for new ways by which to deal with the discord that has entered their life. Unfortunately, an original understanding of Satan as trickster has been lost by Christians. History has conditioned Christians to read into the biblical text an understanding of Satan as the evil antithesis of God.

We propose to return to the early biblical Satan because it leads to a better ethical framework from which to operate in the bringing about of justice and redemption. For example, Satan in the book of Job leads Job beyond simplistic theodicy solutions that assume unfortunate circumstances are the result of God’s punishment for peccadilloes. The Satan who confronts Jesus in the desert helps Jesus, in all his humanity, to understand his own divinity and the important public ministry he undertakes after the sojourn in the desert.

Satan as trickster serves a crucial role. Can we as humans ever truly advance without moral conflict? Without tragedy? Without struggle? How do we practice righteousness unless there is temptation in our lives? Although Satan as a trickster-hero becomes a scapegoat upon which humans can project their unrealized aspirations, their fears, and their failures his trials and tests force humans to flex their moral muscles and, in the process, raise their own consciousness and self-knowledge.

Without the darker side of the spiritual, we might never strengthen our own resolve to do good. In the final analysis, Satan as trickster is an agent of change. And here is the ultimate paradox: Satan as trickster teaches humanity how to walk humbly in the paths of the Lord. While possibly taking pleasure in testing human weaknesses and strengths, Satan can create situations that can lead humans to make proper moral choices.

God can use Satan, as God did in the case of Job and Jesus to assist those who are seen as “non-persons” to uncover their identity and the causes of their station in life. The situations in which the marginalized find themselves, due to these “satanic” forces, becomes the starting point for all critical analysis. God can also utilize Satan to cause those who benefit from the status quo to discover their own salvation. Oppressors and sinners are also trapped in structures that dehumanize them due to their complicity with repressive structures.

Viewing Satan as trickster is not without problems, specifically the ambiguity that exists between Satan and God—an ambiguity that can find its full expression in the trickster figure. Rather than being God’s antithesis, God’s opposite, a certain ambiguity, if not complimentary position, is held by Satan.

If Satan has no power except that given by God, we are left wondering whether evil can come from God, a proposition that the early biblical writers and ancient Church Fathers like Augustine raised. We heard the prophet Amos asking “If there is evil in a city, has Yahweh not done it?” (Amos 3:6). More disturbing is the passage where God sends evil spirits to torment King Saul (1 Sam 18:10).

Such a proposition has the potential of dismissing any notion regarding God’s ultimate goodness. Once we eliminate Satan as some type of quasi-deity who can be blamed for all of the evils, which befall humanity, we are left asking if God has a dark side. What is more, if Satan is only carrying out God’s divine will, then does this mean that God is the ultimate trickster?

*This article is based on Miguel A. De La Torre and Albert Hernández, The Quest for the Historical Satan (Fortress Press) scheduled to be released August, 2011.

** Miguel A. De La Torre is Professor of Social Ethics at the Iliff School of Theology and his most recent book is Latino/a Social Ethics: Moving Beyond Eurocentric Moral Thinking (Baylor University Press, 2010). Albert Hernández is Associate Professor of the History of Christianity at Iliff School of Theology and is the author of Subversive Fire: the Untold Story of Pentecost (Emeth Press, 2010).

Prayer for Our Nation: Be rid of hearts of stone

By Frank Clarkson

When I was a child in North Carolina, segregation was legal and was the norm. That we have come, in a half century, from segregation and oppression to electing an African-American president is real progress.

Progress is often two steps forward, and one step back. In his Letter from Birmingham Jail the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr wrote, “Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of [people] willing to be coworkers with God.”

If you are discouraged by the news these days, as I often am, then take heart, and take the long view. We, who believe in freedom and justice, have come a long way. Do not let your hearts be discouraged. You need an open heart, a loving heart, for the living of these days. How do you get one? And how does our country trade in its heart of stone for a heart of flesh?

For the answer we need only look at Rev King, a living example of love in action. He shows us the power of nonviolence as a force against evil and for good, a transformative power for the oppressed and for the oppressor.

What do we need in this hard-hearted time in our country? How do we transform our heart of stone into a heart of flesh? It’s simple, and it’s difficult - we need to commit to nonviolence.

Nonviolence means you don’t respond to hatred with hatred. You give up the
desire to get in the last word, or land the last blow, or make the final point. A commitment to nonviolence means giving up the use of power in the conventional sense - the power of intimidation, coercion, and force. You lay those weapons down. But what you gain is soul force, what Gandhi called Satyagraha: satya means ‘truth’ and graha ‘holding to’ or ‘power.’

Our times cry out to us, and ask, “Where are you going to stand?” On the side of distrust, fear and violence, or on the side of love, and faith and hope? Where are our leaders, and our institutions, and our country going to stand?

Will you say no to the violence in our society? Turn off the TV and radio when they spew hatred, and let them know you will no longer patronize them. Call our leaders to account when they malign others, and say “You will not get my vote when you tear down or target another person.”

For those who are privileged, because of skin color or national origin or wealth, these can be scary times. The old world is falling away, and the future is uncertain. What is certain is that violence is not the answer. As Gandhi said, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”

Now is the time to drop our defensive posture, lay down our weapons, and pray to be transformed. To pray for a new heart, a heart open to the beauty and the pain of this life, a heart emboldened with soul force--with the power of truth and love.

Rev King knew this because he lived it. He inspired others to stand up to their oppressors; to say, “I am no longer going to participate in my own oppression.” They put their lives on the line for the cause of freedom and justice. They suffered together, went to jail together, sang and prayed together. And together, they changed our nation.

Now is our time. These days, I’m praying for our country. That we will be transformed. That America will lose her heart of stone, and it will be replaced with a heart of flesh. That we will see what a gift we have been given to live in this country at this time, and we will commit ourselves anew to the work that lies before us. To build the kingdom of heaven right here on earth. To carry on the work of Rev King and all those who have brought us so far along the way.

Will you pray with me?

God of our weary years, God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has by Thy might led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Take away this heart of stone, and put in us a heart of flesh,
that peace and justice will reign,
and we will be your people, and you will be our God, Amen.*

*The prayer is adapted from the hymn Lift Every Voice and Sing by James Weldon Johnson.

+ The Reverend Frank Clarkson, MDiv ’05 is the parish minister at Universalist Unitarian Church of Haverhill, Massachusetts.

 

Tucson and the myth of redemptive violence

by Carol Bradsen

I write to you from Tucson. Many are in shock and mourning. Flowers and notes are piled outside of the hospital where our congresswoman and several others still need healing and our prayers. Thousands have packed into synagogues and churches over the last few days to find solace. To hear that we are not alone. To attempt to make meaning out of this madness.

Meanwhile, across the nation some are saying this act of violence means we must change our gun laws and tweak our political dialogue. Perhaps. But we fool ourselves if we think this is the answer. Guns and tongues are not the root. We need to go deeper.

Tucson is a flashpoint for our times. The loneliness, fear, anger, violence, and misplaced hope that seemed to have spurred the shooter are buried everywhere. In communities. In government policies. Even our own hearts to some degree, if we have the courage to be honest.

Something is clearly broken. Something needs to change.

If we really wanted to get at the root of things, we’ll need to do something much harder than changing some laws and being nicer; we’ll need to discard redemptive violence.

For far too long we have put our collective hope as a nation in the myth of redemptive violence. Redemptive violence is the idea that good, that peace, that healing and reconciliation can come from violence. If we want to see a different future, we will need to loosen our grasp and untangle ourselves from this deeply rooted lie. And it will not be easy.

“But I would never shoot anyone,” you say. “Jared Loughner acted alone. And he seems mentally ill.” “What does redemptive violence have to do with me? With him?”

Redemptive violence is systemic. It is in the air we breathe. And it will shape us if we do not have a clear vision of our true, God-given nature.

Redemptive violence is a spirit that has woven its way into the very fabric of our nation’s life and cultures. Our wars, weapons, military conflicts, execution chairs, gun laws, even many popular movies, are evidence that we as a nation have bought the lie that good can come from killing.

And this unchallenged, and very old belief, is killing us.

Jesus did not provide an easy path to follow. But he did show us another way. A life-giving vision of domination-free community that is just as radical and needed as in his day of Empire. He said to love our enemies. He had a special fondness for those discarded by the powerful. He said our allegiance was to be to God and to God’s way of love. He said to put the weapons away.

Within this new beloved community of God, the dignity of every human being is respected. We have not done a good job of this in Arizona. Many here call other humans “aliens” and “illegal.” It has been reported that a note found in the alleged shooter’s home said, “Die Bitch.” It is easier to dominate, and eventually, eliminate, another if you think they are not quite human. It is anticipated that the alleged shooter, if found guilty will be given the death penalty and eventually killed by the state of Arizona. Where will the violence end?

Are we brave enough to say, “Stop this.” Can we disentangle ourselves, our livelihoods, our language, and even parts of our liturgy from domination, war, and redemptive violence? It may leave us vulnerable. And in some places, we will be seen as un-American.

Are we creative enough to create spaces in our community where we love across our differences to share a meal, stop an injustice, build a home, really listen to one another, and lament instead of plan retaliation? It may leave us uncomfortable.

Are we faithful enough to live counter-cultural lives when the gospel demands it? Are we willing to let go of all violence once and for all as an option, even if it seems “just” or “needed.” It may leave us unpopular.

But this is the path of life. And joy. And hope. And God knows we need it.

The African-American theologian, Howard Thurman once wrote that God’s way will create, “a friendly world of friendly folk beneath a friendly sky.”

May it be so. And may Christians and the church have the courage to really live into this vision and bring it to reality, with God’s help.

* Carol Bradsen, MDiv '05 is a cofounder of the Restoration Project community in Tucson, Arizona, an ecumenical community dedicated to hospitality, playful spirituality, simple and sustainable living, and peaceful, prophetic action. (http://restorationproject340.wordpress.com)

Opportunities to start over

By Jim Merritt

I once weighed 384 lb. I was a bariatric surgery patient whose weight is now normal. My last round of blood work was absolutely perfect for the first time in my adult life.  

We are blessed here in North Central Florida with a variety of good food options. Farmers Markets abound offering an amazing assortment of locally grown, often organic, seasonal vegetables. We enjoy a number of health food stores along with a nice offering of vegetarian and vegan friendly restaurants. Many local options make it easy for me to follow through with my commitment to good eating.

Another important aspect of my good health is my own spirituality and spiritual practice. The church where I am pastor sits on nearly seven acres of heavily wooded land. There are nature trails cut out all around the property. Quite often, in the middle of a busy day, I take a few minutes out to walk the trails, notice the changing colors of the leaves, and in the Spring take note of each day’s new offering of flowers. I return to my breath there, quietly breathing in and out while releasing whatever stresses or worries have come my way.

Sometimes I lie down at a particular spot on one of the benches in the outdoor sanctuary. From this position, the trees offer a clearing to the sky where I can look up and simply breathe.

I remind myself that interruptions are merely opportunities to start over.

These moments are very important for my overall well being and good health.

I am an avid student of Buddhist Zen Master, Thich Nhat Hahn. I listen to his recordings in my office and in my car.  On many Sunday mornings I listen to the nuns and monks of Plum Village chanting as I prepare to lead worship. Because I have been on retreat there, I can return in my mind and soul to places and times at Plum Village where I experienced complete peace and harmony with the world around me. I read and reread his books about peaceful living. These moments nourish my soul in wonderful ways.

I have been blessed by the presence in my life of a few very effective spiritual directors and spiritual teachers.  Because it is my tendency to rush through life from one event to another, at least two of them frequently told me I needed to make bread. They knew making bread would slow me down for a few hours.

I began that practice a little over a year ago and it worked!  Tonight I am making bread. I thought about the sugar and the place from which it came and all the various people who worked to bring it to my pantry.

I remembered the water and the sun and the soil that nourished it and said a prayer of thanksgiving as I added it to the newly forming dough. I did the same with the flour and with the butter and with the salt and with the yeast.  With each new element I prayed for all those involved in making them available to me for my own physical and spiritual nourishment.

This will be very good bread because it contains all the good energy of those who have assisted me in making it. It has also been prepared with a loving and grateful heart.

One of Thich Nhat Hanh’s books is called Peace is Every Step. Peace is essential for my own good health; peace with my sisters and brothers of the all inclusive human family, peace with this amazing planet on which I am blessed to live, peace with the animals and elements around me, and peace with God. My practice of peaceful living leads me both to good physical health and to good spiritual health. 

These are the ways I do it in North Central Florida. What’s your practice? Peace and good health to you!

Jim’s Special Bread Recipe

*  1 (1/4-ounce) package active dry yeast or 2 1/2 teaspoons
1 cup warm water
4 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon garlic salt
3/4 cup sour cream
1 cup pitted black olives, sliced
4 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, diced
1 1/2 cups pitted black olives, sliced
Dissolve yeast in warm water.
In a bowl, combine flour, garlic salt, sour cream, and 1 cup sliced black olives. Stir in the yeast mixture and knead to form a soft dough.
Add diced cheddar cheese and the remaining 1 1/2 cups sliced black olives. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to coat, cover, and allow to rise until doubled; about 1 1/2 hours.
Punch down, form in a greased loaf pan, and allow to rise again; about 1 hour.
Bake at 350*F. for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the top is browned.

* The Rev. Jim Merritt, MDiv ’08 is Senior Pastor of Trinity Metropolitan Community Church of Gainesville, Florida.

Why 99 Brattle?

by Kwok Pui-lan

We start this new blog to share our ideas about how progressive Christianity can transform the world.

 

Every year we hear fabulous speeches and lectures at 99 Brattle Street. The faculty and students share new ideas about being a progressive Christian in the contemporary world. 

In 1998, the faculty initiated EDS Occasional Papers, and we published the works of Manning Marable, Valerie Batts, Denise Ackermann, Bishop Barbara Harris, Iza R Hussin and those of our faculty. The circulation was about 350, with a copy sent to each of the seminaries and theological schools in North America. The Papers were discontinued because of a lack of funding.

Then some of the faculty began blogging and publishing in online journals. I became a blogger accidentally. I was watching President Obama’s speech in Cairo on June 4, 2009 and I had something to say. I checked with a professional guild of religion scholars and was told that it had no forum for comments on current affairs. Since my response was time sensitive, I sent it to a religious website, and it was published three days later. To my amazement a staff member and a student at the School told me the morning after it was posted that they had read it. They said it came to their attention via RSS.

We are witnessing a shift in media and communication more dynamic than that following Johann Gutenberg’s printing press of 1450. Before Gutenberg, there were about 30 000 books in Europe, most of them Bibles and biblical commentaries. Many of us have seen those exquisitely handwritten and elaborately decorated medieval Bibles in European museums. Martin Luther would have died an unknown monk if his religious tracts and treatises had to be copied and were not popularized by the new printing press.

Today paper printing is being replaced by e-books and e-journals. “Still reading a book made out of paper? That’s so 2009,” says one commentator. Since Apple launched the iPad, an e-reader tablet, in April 2010, about 10 million units have been sold. With an estimated 3m Kindles and more than 1m Nooks sold, books on paper may become relics of the past, much like those handwritten Bibles. Barnes & Nobles recently reported that it sold more e-books than physical books on its Web site. On Christmas day alone, nearly 1m e-books were purchased.

Christian churches and theological seminaries need to learn to use the latest technology to communicate our message.

Through technology, EDSConnect provides resources for Christians in rural and small parishes and the School can offer a distributive learning option for students unable to study on campus at Cambridge.

We are publishing this blog to encourage constructive debate and careful thinking, and to reach out to those who form part of God’s greater community. We welcome your comments and we hope to hear what you are doing to advance God’s kingdom beyond 99 Brattle Street.

(Note - we welcome your blog and comments, for editorial guidelines please write to comms@eds.edu. When writing a blog limit your word count to between 500 to 700 words and do a spell and grammar check US English before sending. Blogs on this site are the personal opinions of authors and do not reflect, unless specifically noted the views of the institutions they work for, nor do they necessarily reflect the views of Episcopal Divinity School.)

* Kwok Pui-lan is William F. Cole Professor of Christian Theology and Spirituality at the Episcopal Divinity School. She has written for Episcopal News Service and her blogs also appear in Religion Dispatches and Patheos.