Dear Edwards Church Community,
“Why do you look for the living among the dead?” With this question, the people standing in the empty tomb, those messengers of God, redirected the attention of the faithful. Other messengers continue to do that. Are we open to recognizing signs of the resurrection that call us to redirect our attention?
I think we are hungry for such signs, but do not practice noticing how much we live in a post-resurrection world. If we really believe in The Resurrection, then as followers of Jesus, we are called to notice and respond to the signs of it everywhere. Yes, poverty and injustice, disease and armed conflict are real. But so are the beauty of creation, in nature and in human response to God in nature, and so are the acts of fellow humans to bind up the broken hearted and love their neighbors.
In his poem “God’s Grandeur,” written in 1877, Gerard Manley Hopkins declares, “The world is charged with the grandeur of God.” He then surveyed how we had already abused creation and almost despaired over how alienated we had become from nature, itself a stunning instance of divine self-disclosure all around us. But we can still be saved by responding to that divine self-disclosure.
And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs —
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
It may sound quaint to the modern ear, but Hopkins was a close observer of nature. Though not a scientist, he fully appreciated the creative force in nature. The mere existence of the daily cycle of sunset and sunrise gave him hope, because he trusted the abiding Presence in which we live and move and have our being. He believed that if we are open to its movement and let it move us, then we have hope.
On Earth Day, the Washington Post carried a story with the headline “Seeds of hope: How nature inspires scientists to confront climate change.” Reporters collected the observations of scientists and conservationists who are actively working on climate change and resilience strategies to learn how and where they find hope. Their reasons for hope include the capacity of the Amazonian rainforest to regrow, the way plant and animal species migrate and adapt, literally moving with the temperature zones (some on their own, others with human collaboration), the regrowth of coral from grafts grown by biologists, and other interventions.
Of course, we will also need large systemic changes, such as changes in how energy is produced and distributed, but the article shows that there are still reasons to hope. There can still be a climate resurrection if we are willing to midwife its emerging seed sprouts into flourishing full-grown plants in the emerging world. Generating enough collective will may be the biggest challenge we face.
Rev. Carl Scovel, pastor of King’s Chapel in Boston for many years, said of the resurrection, “Christ died on the cross and rose as the church.” People of faith, gathered to embody all that faith gives them and requires of them, are the best evidence of the ongoing reality of the resurrection. Could we, in our community of faith, find more ways to give up those things that are toxic for the earth and human flourishing on it? Could we take on more practices that cultivate new life, living into the challenge given by Jesus to find the things we need to let go of, to “take up our cross” and follow him?
In an Earth Day post on social media, the Quaker writer Parker Palmer shared his poem “The Earth Once Green Again,” in which he unfurls the image of his own expressive process being like a tree that is acted on in nature and naturally responds as part of nature’s larger process. (https://onbeing.org/poetry/the-world-once-green-again/)
Our words, like leaves, in season spring
and then in season fall,
but at their rise they prove a power
that gentle conquers all.
Palmer has been writing for over 50 years. As a person engaged in living intentionally, faithfully, and responsibly, Palmer knows that not all his words or other acts “land” as he hopes or intends, not all of his expressions succeed. But as a person living the way he does, he trusts the larger process in which he is engaged.
And when speech fails, the dark trunk stands
’til most surprising spring
wells up the voice that ever speaks
the world once green again.
It would be easy to surrender to cynicism, even to despair, in the face of some of the conditions in our world. Parker Palmer has described in his writing his own struggle with chronic depression. But, as Hopkins wrote long ago, there “lives the dearest freshness deep down things,” and as Palmer himself observes today, there is “a power that gentle conquers all.” Our lives are often a mixture of new life emerging alongside, and only because, some earlier life has fallen away and given itself up to the larger process.
May all our lives unfold in the awareness of, and in service to, that which renews and restores the best within us and the world around us. Christ is risen indeed!
In faith, with hope, for love,
Michael
From the Minister of Faith Formation
Dear Beloved of God,
Welcome to Eastertide – a liturgical season of seven weeks leading to Pentecost. And a season in the secular world as we watch with anticipation and thanksgiving for signs of resurrection around us.
At our most recent gathering and as part of checking in with each other before proceeding with the agenda, members of the Thriving Congregation Team were invited to offer 6 words from our Covenant (printed below) that spoke to them as we gathered. In no particular order words offered were: Holy, brave, equal, wonder, grace, accountability, safe, seek, diversity, humble, truth, spirit with us, wonder, grace, lightness, Holy Spirit, bless, wonder, grace, celebrate. Each of these words continue to speak to me of the candor, trust and respect the members of this team have for one another and the holy work we are about.
It will probably come as no surprise to many of you that I smiled inwardly – and still do – with the repetition of the verb “wonder.” In part, wondering has informed and formed my years engaged in faith formation and spiritual direction with participants across the lifespan. Active wondering can be an invitation into conversation and discovery. “Active wondering invites us to participate without judgement, to participate without seeking perfection and to try without the fear of being corrected or being presented with the correct answer.” 1 It is a spiritual practice that opens space for Holy Listening and participating in the Divine Dance of making meaning with each other along our journeys of faith.
Holy Listening is about creating safe and brave spaces where respect, active wondering and active listening go hand-in-hand. A plethora of publications, symposiums, conferences, curricula, etc. which I have read or attended promote these three components in ministry with children and youth. I suggest they are just as apropos for adults and that adults would benefit from practicing them in our daily and faith life. Children and youth are just much more open, receptive and willing participants. I wonder, if that might be one reason why Jesus invited the little children to join him.
Adults – without judgment and understandably – are predicated upon moving agendas, end results, meeting expectations, whatever the governing curricula of our vocation may be. I get it and I wonder if that be might be one reason the disciples wanted to keep the children from Jesus.
One of my mentors for active listening remains the late Rev. Fred Rogers. He understood and authentically modeled listening to children. He helped me – and others – see how in listening to the stories of others we can grow to understand and love our neighbors.
One of the mentors of the author quoted above, in learning from her research stated: “if we are not paying attention to children (and I would say adults as well), it isn’t that we are missing an opportunity to teach them – but we run the risk of missing God at work in our communities and the world.” 2
In my personal call to delve deeper into active wondering, holy listening, and creating safe spaces for that to occur, I will be participating in five 2-hour online sessions through the Center for Courage and Renewal founded by Parker Palmer beginning Saturday, April 30. Of particular interest to me is the Center’s Circle of Trust Touchstones and the use of the touchstones in small groups, ministry and personal settings.
I offer, for your wondering, theologian Marjorie Suchoki’s metaphor of a kaleidoscope in describing how God moves through all that life presents us with. She suggests that the creative work of the Divine and of Creation is reflected in the multiple pieces and possibilities held in the image seen in the toy. With just a slight turn, a new image can be observed. With just a small decision, the whole world can shift. God is present and moving with us in all those shifts just as God has always been. Who might you share this metaphor with?
As we move through this season of Eastertide, look and listen expectantly for signs of new life, wonder about which of the disciples in the resurrection appearances of the Risen Christ you are. Wonder how we might engage in the Divine Dance of making meaning intergenerationally.
Blessings,
Deb
Thriving Congregations Team Covenant
Holy Spirit, come and be with us, and hear our prayer:
May this team inhabit a safe space and a brave space.
May this be a space of equality, of support, of hearing and seeing one another.
Help us ask what the team needs; make us larger than our roles.
Remind us that we are equals who celebrate our diversity and difference, and
make us as candid with one another as we are loving.
Let us not judge, but rather seek to wonder and to understand.
Bless us with a balance of accountability and grace.
Fill our hearts with truth, our minds with clarity.
Humble us with the gravity our work, and
lift us up with the lightness of laughter.
Make ours a thriving team,
within a thriving congregation.
Amen.
- Campen, Tayna Marie Eustace. Holy Work With Children: Making Meaning Together. OR, Pickwick Publications. 2021. Pg. 44.
- Ibid. pg. 50
To read the full SPIRE click here.