Tag Archives: others

On Needing Each Other…

16 Thursday Nov 2017

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This morning I attending a symposium about housing in the greater Williamsburg area.  The theme of the symposium was the effect of housing on health, both for individuals and the community.  One of the ideas that stuck with me was about the consequence of a lack of affordable housing.  What the researchers found was that a lack of affordable housing had a negative impact on the entire community – not just those struggling to make ends meet, but also on those in upper-income brackets.  When communities do not have affordable housing, service industry workers can eventually opt out of living and working in the community altogether, creating a void of laborers, and an increase in the cost-of-living for all.  Whereas many wealthy community members may not be concerned about affordable housing, in fact, a lack of affordable housing hurts the property values and economy for all.

The idea of affordable housing being a problem for everyone reminded me of an idea I have been pondering lately:  we need each other.  In the United States, we have long-held ideals about individualism, independence, and industriousness.  We value an “every man for himself” ethic.  But that kind of ethic only gets us so far.  Sooner or later, we eventually discover that every man (or woman!) cannot do everything for himself or herself.  In fact, we need each other.  I suspect that our need for one another is not a surprise when we are really honest.  But many of us have a hard time being honest about our mutual need because it means admitting vulnerability, dependency, and incompleteness.  Whether we like it or not, we need one another.

This Sunday at Hickory Neck Church, we are finishing a series on discipleship, using Rowan Williams’ book Being Disciples.  Williams argues that there are two principles of Christian faith and discipleship that we need to form the basis of a moral society:  we are each of equal value to God, and we are all dependent on each other.  His second point is what connected with me today.  Williams argues, “The community that most perfectly represents what God wants to see in the human world is one where the resources of each person are offered for every other, whether those resources are financial or spiritual or intellectual or administrative.”[i]  When we allow each person to be needed, to play a role in each other’s lives, we begin to be able to see that we are not just being kind – we actually need each other.

I invite you to take a look around this week, and try to imagine what each person you meet has to offer the world.  From infants to wise elders; from wealthy to homeless; from male to female; from convict to free – imagine what gift each person has for the world, and how you can honor and respect the dignity of each person you meet.  Even when someone is rude, unkind, or on the other side of the political aisle, I encourage you to find what you need in each other.  God will help you find the answers, and I hope you will share them here!!

[i] Rowan Williams, Being Disciples:  Essentials of the Christian Life (Grand Rapids:  William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2016), 69.

On Honoring Christ in Others…

28 Wednesday Jun 2017

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Hungry

Photo credit:  https://www.shutterstock.com/video/clip-7207990-stock-footage-shaking-hand-begging-for-spare-change-giving-money-to-beggar.html

At my local yoga studio, the teachers share a common practice.  At the end of every session, they say, “The love and light in me honors and respects the love and light in each of you.  Namaste.”  The repetition of the refrain every class, by every teacher, makes the end of our class feel like a liturgy – as though the teacher is sending us out into the world with a blessing.  But what I also love about the words is that I can easily substitute Christian language into their words without feeling like I change their meaning that much.  I have talked about a priest-yoga instructor once before here.  Based on his teachings, I always hear, “The Christ in me honors and respects the Christ in each of you.  Peace.”

With that transformed refrain, I find myself each week wondering how I take that mantra out into the world.  Am I honoring and respecting the Christ in each and every person I encounter?  Am I honoring and respecting the Christ in myself?  Those two simple questions are actually really difficult outside of the yoga studio.  In the yoga studio, we are people who are fairly similar – people of privilege who have the time and money to tend to their physical, mental, and spiritual well-being.  But out in the world, we encounter a much wider diversity of people – people of all types of socio-economic, gender, racial, ethnic, and sexual-orientation backgrounds.  Is the Christ in me honoring and respecting the Christ in others when I listen to political rhetoric, when I’m driving around town, or when I make financial decisions?

The last couple of days I have noticed a few more community members pan handling near stop lights.  I am not sure why there has been an increase, but it has been noticeable.  I usually carry small bags of supplies in my car for homeless individuals, but I recently cleared out my car and they are sitting in my garage.  So yesterday, knowing I was empty handed, I sat at the stoplight, intentionally not making eye contact with a particular panhandler.  But as we drove by, my youngest daughter waved and shouted, “Hi!”

Clearly my daughter has mastered the art of honoring and respecting the Christ in others.  She did not see class, status, or dirt.  She saw a person whom she would honor like anyone else.  That’s the wonderful thing about being a part of a faith community.  When we are struggling with our Christian witness – with truly allowing the Christ in us to honor and respect the Christ in others – other faithful witnesses will model that behavior for us.  Who are your faith models?  How might you engage more faithfully in honoring and respecting the Christ in others – especially those in whom you struggle to see Christ?

Homily – Ephesians 3.14-21, Phillips Brooks, January 23, 2014

12 Wednesday Feb 2014

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We all have someone in our lives who has brought us a little closer to God.  Maybe it was an outstanding preacher, who opened up a connection between your everyday life and Holy Scripture.  Maybe it was a friend who always could see God moving in the midst of everyday events.  Maybe it was a public figure who seemed to live the life of faith in ways we can only dream to do.  For me, it was my Old Testament professor in seminary.  To be honest, I never really liked the Old Testament; I found it to be full of violence, an unfamiliar God, or even just books that were hard or cumbersome to read.  But then I had this professor, who seemed to come alive with every word in the Old Testament.  She overflowed with passion, joy, insight, and light.  She opened up the Hebrew text in ways I had never understood and made me fall in love with a set of books I had written off as irrelevant.

In some ways, Phillips Brooks, who we honor today, offered that same insight to others of his time.  Born in 1835, Brooks served as a priest in Philadelphia and Boston.  He was a dynamic preacher – in fact, he is often called the greatest preacher of the century.  Though his sermons are engaging to read, many say they don’t capture the warmth and vitality of his delivery – in fact, many say that he spoke to his audience as a person might speak to a friend.  Brooks inspired men to enter the ministry, and was able to appeal to conservatives and liberals alike.  In 1891, he was elected bishop of Massachusetts.  His personality and preaching, along with his deep devotion and loyalty, gave that diocese the spiritual leadership they needed.

The joy for God that Brooks seemed to have sounds a lot like Paul in our epistle lesson today.  Paul says, “I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”  What Paul wanted for the Ephesians is the same thing that Brooks wanted for the people of Massachusetts and my seminary professor wanted for that community – a taste of the love, grace, and abundance that can be found in our God.

Perhaps you already know this experience of God.  But if you are looking to reconnect with that experience or find that kind of experience with God for the first time, I invite you to take a look at the people God has already placed around you.  One of them, maybe even a stranger for now, is present already to show you the enormity of love that comes from the Lord our God.  Amen.