The Triangle of life: Faith, Actions and Love

Theology is not meant to stay in the realm of the theological. It is meant to impact your life and make us live like Christ. How do we do this? I am constantly torn between my desire to see all people being the people that Christ sees them as and the suffering that is going on in the here and now. The only hope I can find in this is that we are ultimately responsible and at the same time God is ultimately responsible. We are called to be God's hands and feet and body in the world. Yet we are a body of believers, not individual believers. If it were up to me (or any one person) to make sure the world was a good place, this world would be in bad shape indeed. Luckily, it is not up to me, it is up to the Holy Spirit, acting through people everywhere.

It is this tension that calls me into more service at all times. This tension of knowing that I am not responsible for everyone's well being, but I am responsible for what I can do. I felt this tension this afternoon as I walked away from the Convention Center. I was asked by many people for money for basic necessities. Inside this massive building we are discussing things like: Which comes first our welcome into God's family through baptism or our welcome into Christ's life through communion? Or how do we faithfully respond to the diversity in our Church? Or how do we reimagine the Church for the future? These are important questions. Yet for many outside of the Convention Center the questions are much more practical: How will I pay for my daughter's new shoes if I go see the doctor today? How will we have food to eat tonight? If I leave this abusive relationship will I ever see my children again? Where will I sleep tonight? These are the questions of the people in the streets. These questions, just like the questions about theology do not have an easy answer. I believe that we need to be the people that live in this tension.

We all bear the image of Christ, who came into the world to show us that true life is possible. However, when we begin to segment our lives into the “religious” side and the “real” side we begin to lose the vision that of Christ's light for the entire world. My faith matters. My action matters. It is through faith that all things are possible, (Mark 9:23) but this faith creates action. Faith without works is dead (James 2:13). Our actions and our faith are two sides of a triangle. The third is love. Love is what gives our faith and our actions life. No matter what we do, if we do not do it in love, it is useless. (1 Corinthians 13: 1-3). It is love for God the Creator, as experienced in the resurrected Christ and in the life giving Holy Spirit that drives us into being a people of the new covenant.

We love all well by living in this tension of a God who has already created a new vision for society but is giving us the opportunity to be a full partner in creating this new society. This society does not depend on me or you individually, it depends on us as the Body of Christ to follow the Holy Spirit who guides us into the just actions so that the answers to our theological questions generate responses to the practical questions asked by people both within the Church walls and outside of them.

The Triangle of life: Faith, Actions and Love

Theology is not meant to stay in the realm of the theological. It is meant to impact your life and make us live like Christ. How do we do this? I am constantly torn between my desire to see all people being the people that Christ sees them as and the suffering that is going on in the here and now. The only hope I can find in this is that we are ultimately responsible and at the same time God is ultimately responsible. We are called to be God's hands and feet and body in the world. Yet we are a body of believers, not individual believers. If it were up to me (or any one person) to make sure the world was a good place, this world would be in bad shape indeed. Luckily, it is not up to me, it is up to the Holy Spirit, acting through people everywhere.

It is this tension that calls me into more service at all times. This tension of knowing that I am not responsible for everyone's well being, but I am responsible for what I can do. I felt this tension this afternoon as I walked away from the Convention Center. I was asked by many people for money for basic necessities. Inside this massive building we are discussing things like: Which comes first our welcome into God's family through baptism or our welcome into Christ's life through communion? Or how do we faithfully respond to the diversity in our Church? Or how do we reimagine the Church for the future? These are important questions. Yet for many outside of the Convention Center the questions are much more practical: How will I pay for my daughter's new shoes if I go see the doctor today? How will we have food to eat tonight? If I leave this abusive relationship will I ever see my children again? Where will I sleep tonight? These are the questions of the people in the streets. These questions, just like the questions about theology do not have an easy answer. I believe that we need to be the people that live in this tension.

We all bear the image of Christ, who came into the world to show us that true life is possible. However, when we begin to segment our lives into the “religious” side and the “real” side we begin to lose the vision that of Christ's light for the entire world. My faith matters. My action matters. It is through faith that all things are possible, (Mark 9:23) but this faith creates action. Faith without works is dead (James 2:13). Our actions and our faith are two sides of a triangle. The third is love. Love is what gives our faith and our actions life. No matter what we do, if we do not do it in love, it is useless. (1 Corinthians 13: 1-3). It is love for God the Creator, as experienced in the resurrected Christ and in the life giving Holy Spirit that drives us into being a people of the new covenant.

We love all well by living in this tension of a God who has already created a new vision for society but is giving us the opportunity to be a full partner in creating this new society. This society does not depend on me or you individually, it depends on us as the Body of Christ to follow the Holy Spirit who guides us into the just actions so that the answers to our theological questions generate responses to the practical questions asked by people both within the Church walls and outside of them.

Transforming the Self, the Church and the World

Transformation is the church's business.  We are not called to fill every pew on Sunday mornings.  As soon as we begin to live to be the Church we are no longer living.  We are called to be alive with Jesus and bring Jesus' light to the nations.  One of the institutions that has done this thus far has been the Church.  However, God will find a way to bring God's light to the world if we fail or if we cannot.
I had a very enlightening discussion with a Bishop this morning.  We disagree on many issues, but it was amazing to see how much we agree on.  We are both convinced that the Church must change in order to continue being the Light of Christ.  We both understand that this change will be radical and painful for all, but that without this change our Church is not able to live into the life that the Holy Spirit is putting before us. 
He spoke of the assumption that people would come back to the Church when they have children.  Right now, there are not many young adults in the Church.  There are also trends showing the people in the US are waiting longer to have their first child.  If we expect people to leave the Church during the formative years of early 20's, college and post-college work we are losing the opportunity to inform the decisions that have life long ramifications for many.  Jesus did not only call those that were married and had children.  He did not only call those that were living the normative life.  Jesus called his disciples into a transformed life.  He called them into a new life.  If our plan for growing the Church is to wait for those who grew up in the Church but then left in their 20's to come back once they have children we have missed the point.  We are holding onto tradition at the expense of the Church. 
During our conversation this morning this Bishop explained that, as Episcopalians, we are very good at creating loving communities of believers.  We are very good at asking people of faith to grow and challenge themselves.  However, we are not very good at bringing people into the faith.  We have become so afraid of being exclusive that we have forgotten to tell people that there is more to our inclusivity than a social club.  The discussion of open table theology brought up the idea of open baptism theology.  We are so quick to share God's love through Christ that we often forget to share that Jesus also called us to die.  This death is necessary in order to have new life.  We cannot have one without the other.  God's love is magnificent and available to all, but then we must show that love in the world. We are calling people into something new and different.  We need to define what that is so that we can challenge people to follow this crazy carpenter that has been changing the world for thousands of years. 
The change that this Church needs is massive.  We are all aware of the necessity for change.  If we focus on living out our calling to follow Jesus we will be able to transform the lives of those around us and the world.  It will take time and it will be challenging.  I am renewed and enheartened to see that all of us, no matter where we stand on certain issues, are looking to be the nomadic people of God that live in tents, going wherever the Holy Spirit is leading us.  As we follow the Holy Spirit we will be transformed, the Church will be transformed and the world will be transformed into something we cannot imagine, but something that brings a small piece of the Community that God is building into reality.

Taking Jesus to the People

This morning I attended a hearing on D069 which I heard about last night through Twitter.  The testimony that was being given was on Twitter almost as instantly as it was said in the committee.  The Chair of the Committee responded to a Tweet from another member of the Committee during their discussion.  This subject of D069 was Social Media in the Churches. 
This afternoon I followed the proceedings in both houses via Livestreaming and Twitter.  I knew exactly which resolutions were being discussed and what the testimony was about.  I was sitting in my hotel room. 
It is still official policy that no one can Tweet from the House of Bishops.  Social Media is a tool that the Church needs to embrace.  In this morning's testimony a member of the official Youth Presence argued that since Jesus reached out to the People where they were, we too are called to reach out to people where they are.  They are on the Social Media. However, we cannot begin to be believe that any interaction on Twitter or Facebook or Four Square will replace any face to face interaction.  We can use this media to encourage and meet people where they are at so that we can invite them into deeper relationship with Jesus.
Just as the Church is expanding to embrace Social Media we are also expanding our definition of “all”.  At some points in Church history “all” meant all men or all those who were circumcised or those who happened to have fairer skin or the list goes on.  I am proud to be in a Church that is continuing the work to expand that “all” to as many members of the Queer community as want to be part of it. Two resolutions passed today that will grant Transgender people full equality within the Church.  We also approved A049, which will create a blessing for Same Sex Unions.
In his sermon tonight Bishop Gene Robinson reminded us that God is calling us to be people that live in tents.  He went on to say that in this Hebrew's passage Paul is talking about the fact that we are transient and we only dream of the foundation that God is creating for us.  Our calling is to be people that are constantly moving to the new inclusion and full love that God is calling us to. 
In including members of the Queer community in our Church and in moving onto the internet the Church is moving out of her comfort Zone.  We are becoming a Church that is taking Jesus to the people rather than expecting he people to come to us.

Seeing the Possibility

Convention, like real life, is a series of ups and downs.  Sometimes it feels like there is no way forward and that peace and change is impossible in this world.  Sometimes there is a glimmer of hope that perhaps the prophets who demanded a better world were crazy, but they were crazy enough to make a the impossible possible. 
Yesterday I posted about the dire necessity for change. This post came out of a low moment in a valley.  It came out of a moment of seeing the need for change but not seeing where this change would come from.  I still believe that change is needed, now more than ever, but today I have a more hopeful attitude that this change might actually happen in my lifetime.  There are many events in the past 24 hours that have brought me to this more hopeful position. Two events have particularly stood out to me.
The first was last night. I attended the Structure Committee hearing. This meeting was held at the same time as the Same Sex Blessing hearing, the PB & F hearing and a final committee hearing on the Israel/Palestine issue. For some reason, (read Holy Spirit) I chose to go to the boring structure committee.  In this meeting the committee introduced a substitute resolution which they had written.  This resolution (C001) gives me hope that change in the Episcopal Church is possible. This resolution, if passed would open the door to having the serious conversations that the Church needs to have about her future.  There are two items in this resolution that I am particularly excited about.  First, the task force that is being created is independent and the committee specifically asked that those appointed are not already involved in Church governance.  Hopefully, that means that the people appointed will have a fresh perspective.  Secondly, I glad that the necessity of including younger people in the decision making processes.  (In whose concept, except the Church, does young adult go all the way up to age 40!?)  This resolution offers a possibility of real change and it gives me hope.
The second was this afternoon.  I spoke with an alternate deputy that I had met a few days ago at a committee meeting.  We were pretty much on the same page about a lot of things.   This deputy is not considered young, but he is still well under the median age of Episcopalians (57).  I began to lament that I felt that although young adults were being represented at general convention in larger numbers but that our presence was mere tokenism.  Since there are so few deputies under 30 our presence does not have a “real” impact.  He corrected me and said that this was not true.  In fact he had seen that the testimony given by the young adults in the committee meetings, and the youth presence in the House of Deputies, had a large impact on the outcome of resolutions.  I left that conversation feeling lifted up, that although I was not a Deputy I was still an integral part of the Convention process. Then later this evening over ice cream one of my colleagues in the Young Adult Initiative told me that committee members shared that since she was the only one that testified on a resolution for prison ministry they are now recommending that it be adopted.  If no one had testified they would have dropped it and this important work within the Church might not have gone forward.  Although we do not have voting power, we do have power. 
It seems that in Convention life has a different speed.  The highs and lows of life that sometimes takes weeks, months or even years to change are changing in 24 hours at Convention.  Perhaps I shall be back in a valley tomorrow, but today I saw the possibility that can be seen from the top of the mountain.  I hope that I can remember these feelings and ideas the next time  I am low and seeing only the obstacles to the change that needs to happen in this Church. 

The Church needs new Shoes

July 7^th 2012

I had to buy new shoes while I was here in Indianapolis. I was told before convention started that we had to dress “Business Casual” and that flip flops were definitely outside of that dress code. I looked in my closet and pulled out the shoes that I never wear and put them in my suitcase. I thought that these shoes would be what I needed during convention to participate.

The first day I noticed that I was getting a blister on my small toe as I walked around from hotel to hotel and within the convention center. Luckily, I had brought another pair of shoes. I tried those on. These gave me a blister on my heel. After lunch on the second day I went and bought two new pairs of shoes. Both of them “flip flops.” My feet are much more comfortable now and I am able to walk about the halls and continue the important work that I am here to do.

I tell this story because I think that it is an allegory for what the Church is doing now. We have been wearing shoes that are tearing our feet apart. These shoes are preventing us from being the Body of Christ. They look pretty on the outside but are literally tearing us apart on the inside. Whenever we put right theology over and above love we are denying the Gospel. We are so concerned with being right in our theology that we do not see how that relates to our lives. These shoes of our theology are hurting our body. We are so concerned with keeping up appearances we forget that we do not exist for these 'shoes'. They exist for us.

This morning in during Eucharist the gospel stated, “Do whatever they (Pharisees and Scribes) teach you and follow it; but do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they teach. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them.” (Matthew 23:1-12)  Our Church is very good at imitating the Pharisees. This morning Bishop Curry preached on the necessity of being crazy. We would rather have an appearance of justice than real justice. Last night one of my fellow Episcopal Peace Fellowship talked about the feeling like this was all useless because of our lack of ability to act on the resolutions we pass. I feel the same sometimes, but we have to be crazy to believe, in the face of the history and in the face of the multitudes of injustice in this world that God is, in fact, acting to create God's community here on Earth. 

The change that this Church needs is radical. But we are already suffering the pains from not making these changes. We are at a crossroads in the Church. (Perhaps the Church must constantly choose the path but that is for a different post). We have the option of choosing to hobble along with these shoes that are literally killing us, or we can discard these shoes and get new shoes that will carry us into the future that we need. We can delay this choice. However, God is present here and the building of God's Community requires something different than a broken hobble down the wrong path. Whenever we finally get to the point where we can no longer walk we will begin to look for those shoes that will support us in rebuilding our broken feet. It is our choice when we get new shoes.

-Maryann Philbrook

Loving all well: the People vs. the Church

I have been thinking about the rationale we use within the Church to justify our actions. Occasionally the right action is clear in a given situation. Often path to right action is not set out before us. I saw this demonstrated in the testimony I heard about two different controversial resolutions today.

The first resolution I listened to testimony on this morning was C029 which would have changed the canon to no longer require baptism for those who receive communion. It was clear in the testimony that we all want the Church to be open and inclusive. Every person, on either side of the debate, was looking for a way to grow our Church. We want to reach out to those that are unchurched. We want to reach out to people who desperately need to hear about God's love.

The second resolution was actually a series of resolutions (B010, C064 etc) on how the Church will go forward in relation to the continuing occupation of Palestine by Israel. One of the people testifying opened his testimony by saying that his opinion on the issue was as complicated as the issue itself. The issue is complicated, but mainly because we are failing to boldly proclaim Jesus' love for all people.

Today's struggle for me has been to remain present in this convention as I have become more convinced than ever that Church is not something that happens within four walls (and especially not something that happens within four non-unionized hotels). Church is that what happens when we go outside these walls. God is found everywhere, but God chose to become human and then die as a political prisoner. Jesus' harshest words were for the members of the religious ruling class that took their religion and tradition more seriously than compassion and love.

One of my favorite stories in the Gospel is the story of Jesus' healing of the bleeding woman (Mark 5:21-43). The framing of the story of this woman is just as important as her story. The story opens with the leader of the synagogue telling Jesus that his daughter is dying. While on the way to his house this woman, who would have been banished from religious society, touches Jesus' robe because she believes “If I can just touch his clothes, I shall be saved.” (v28 New Jerusalem Translation). The woman is, in fact, cured of her sickness. Since Jesus waited to cure this woman the daughter of synagogue leader dies. (SPOILER ALERT– Jesus then goes and wakes her because she was only sleeping). This story speaks to me tonight. We are called to emulate Jesus. He was not about the hierarchy of the Church. He did not believe that we had to follow the rules in order to be included. If anything he believed the opposite. Love and compassion heal. I love this story because it demonstrates how Jesus goes out of his way to heal and show love for those that are normally excluded by the Church.
Today both of these resolutions are attempting to address how we as a Church react to and include those that are different from us. Do we allow those that are unbaptized to share in Jesus' body? I believe that we should. We are only giving what God has given us. We do not have the right to keep that from anyone. In Palestine, in the land where Jesus walked, we see people living in occupied territories. We see the suffering. We need to be able to offer them compassion because they are in a powerless situation. As a Church we need to expand beyond our walls and our comfort zones. We need to take God's love to the streets to the people that have been excluded.
General Convention should be a place where we recommit the Church to it's mission. I am being conflicted because I am beginning to be jaded. I am beginning to think that this convention is about Church politics and having the right colored shirt rather than about teaching each other how to love God's people better. This conflict in my heart is not new, it is a one that I have been believing with and struggling with for some time. How do we stay relevant in this Church while remaining true to our tradition and learning to love the world around us?