.really live- not merely exist.

This prayer/poem/scripture by Howard Thurman is a constant source of strength and joy and challenge in my life. Finding it particularly helpful and relevant these days...

(This image is of the poem as it hangs on the wall next to my bed. I wrote it out and emphasized the words with color. In case it's hard to read, you can read it in full here.)

.covenant.

For those of you who don't know, I recently accepted a field education position at Community Congregational Church of Belvedere-Tiburon. This means that during the next school year, I will intern with this church as a "Minister-in-training" (which sounds ridiculous, but that's the legit term) for 15 hours a week... in addition to taking three other classes and a seminar class in which we process our experience.

This past Sunday I went to CCC so the pastor/my mentor, Rev. Dr. Curran Reichert, could introduce me to the congregation. I was welcomed with so many open arms, it brought me to tears. They are so excited to have me and I cannot express how mutual that feeling is.

On top of this introduction, they were also welcoming three new members into the fold. As part of this ritual, the congregation recited together the covenant, which might be the most eloquent/poetic covenant I've ever read. It says this:

To live out the questions together hand in hand,

supporting the fragile,

protecting the wounded,

giving the angered space and time,

dancing with the freed,

celebrating moments of balance and 

not fearing the unfolding of imbalance. 

Believing in the power of God's revelation

we share a living awareness

that faith and hope and love

are the inhaling and exhaling of life...

...as necessary and real as the air we breathe. 

Therefore, while praying, studying, working

and celebrating together

we shall experience the moments

of our lives in the spontaneous response

to the call of God. 

This was written sometime in the 1960s or 70s but is still incredibly present and visible in the community today. I am thrilled to be embarking on this internship experience with this church. Here's to a year of growth, change, transformation, and joy! 

Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.

So, friends, every day do something
that won't compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.

Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion - put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn't go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.

                 .wendell berry.

.bubble forth.

It is not a coincidence that one of the literary forms used in the Prophets of the Old Testament is narrative.

One word for prophet in the OT is "nabi," which literally means 'to bubble forth'... another way of looking at it is as a 'truth-teller,' someone who speaks the Truth(s) of God to a misguided and beloved people.

prophets=truth-tellers
narrative= story-telling
Prophets wrote narrative.

Our story-telling is an act of truth-telling, an act of prophecy. When we speak the Truth(s) of our life, we are invoking the Holy to be present in that act because it is God who helped fashion that story. Stories can be a life saving act, as so many of the prophets proved, even when the message was delivered with tough love. On several occasions, when prophets were called by God, God assured them that She would speak through them.

"Do not say,'I am just a child,'... I will put words in your mouth." (Jer. 1).

The stories we have to tell are full of Truth and strength, resilience and love, faith and doubt, lost and found, peace and anguish. They speak honestly of our experience and look boldly to the future. They give us a way to connect with others and bring new life to the lifeless. They are an entry point to relationships and a way to dig deeper into others' lives.

Stories are connection. Stories are truth. Stories are hope.

Tell yours and be not ashamed, for others may be carrying the same joy and/or burden.

.gather.

Seminary cannot be done outside of community. Period.

Here's the deal. I have an ethics paper due tomorrow. Yesterday I met with a friend to talk about the case study we were reading so as to figure out how to identify key points and then construct an argument. Our first task is to identify the main question or problem.  I had proposed what I thought the answer was, but the other person did not agree.

Sidenote: This is new territory for me. I have never taken an ethics class before and it is rare for me to make a solid, logical argument. Though this class is daunting, I have not doubt in its ability to help me in the long run. After all, our professor said on the first day of class that his job was to help us be able to make an argument and not sound like a moron. Perfect.

So my friend and I are sitting out on the quad at PSR and next thing you know, someone else from our class walks up and sits down to talk it out. Half an hour later, another classmate walks up and starts chatting about the case and his opinions about it. Before you know it we are breaking down the case in a way which we could all understand. At the end of the conversation, we felt as though we successfully defined the key issue at hand. To my satisfaction, it was in fact the originally question I posed. And while I relished in that moment for a brief time, I recognized that all the conversation that happened in between was ultimately beneficial to my understanding of the text.

Without that conversation, this paper would have been hell.


"For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am with them..." (matt. 18:20)

"It is an error to isolate oneself... If God dos not call one to solitude, one must life with God in the multitude, make [God] known there and make [God] loved."(raisa maritain)