Thursday Thoughts

A stand against perfectionism

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.
--Leonard Cohen, Anthem

The cult of perfection. I see it all around me. And is usually my practice, when I see something in others that I find destructive, or distasteful or even annoying, I look inside first. And so, of course, as someone formed by western and American culture, by standardized tests and college entrance exams, by corporate performance reviews and the underlying message of modern life that I'm not fit enough, smart enough or cool enough--and if only I'd buy Brand X all would be well--I too worship at the altar of perfectionism. And it is soul killing.

It starts early. I saw it last night at Curriculum Night at my son's school. We parents imagine that the right teacher, the right math classroom, the right formula for balancing soccer, band practice, homework and 'quality" family time, and spiritual practice (our addition to the list) will ensure that Johnny cannot only read, but be valedictorian at Harvard. It made me sad for Will and for me and it made my stomach hurt.

Worshiping at the altar of perfectionism starts early and lasts a lifetime. When I talk to people about joining the choir, I hear, "My voice is terrible," or "I can't sing anymore." Or when we ask one of Emmanuel's many instrumentalists to share their gifts and talents, we hear "Oh, I'm not good enough for anyone else to hear." Or when I ask people to consider teaching Sunday school, I hear, "Oh, I don't know enough about the Bible."

In the church, the question is not, "Am I competent enough" or "perfect enough," but "what might I share with my community that might equip us all to more fully welcome, worship, witness, and serve?" Please, let us borrow Leonard Cohen's words--forget our perfect offering-- and instead ring the bells that still can ring. The world needs much more light. We need your light and the light of all who gather at Emmanuel.

For kicks and possibly a little edification, watch this video of Cohen singing Anthem. I would love a conversation on-line or in person about what this topic or the lyrics evoke in you.

Your brother in Christ,
Hunt+

Calling Us Together

I believe that's what the Spirit of God does: calls the people of God together to pray, to sing, to heal, to teach and learn, to give thanks for all that we are and to be willing and able to do the work we are given to do. I see it happen all the time here. And yet, we can never be too open to the Spirit.  

I felt the Spirit gathering us this past Sunday as we welcomed in Baptism a new Christian brother into the household of God. I sense God's presence in meetings of ministry groups and in conversations at Vestry meetings, in the huge Tuesday afternoon Study group, in the smiles and enthusiasm of our acolytes and young percussionists, in the conversations I have with faithful longtime members of this congregation who are honest about changes we've made in music and liturgy. I will feel God's presence when Jack and I gather with the Adult  Choir for a kick-off social this Sunday evening.

God works and moves and acts everywhere in the cosmos. And God works and moves and acts on Sundays at Emmanuel when a psalm refrain catches us off guard and we're touched somewhere deep inside. The Spirit is moving when a new person or family walks through our doors and they see a place they might just be able to call home. Being welcomed means experiencing a gathered community that doesn't want to turn them into a clone of themselves, but is open to being changed by those we welcome in the name of Christ. A life in God as revealed in Christ is about transformation.

 Welcome and hospitality and transformation are hardwired into the DNA of Emmanuel. Our work this fall is to share it with reckless abandon. See you Sunday in church!

Blessings upon us all, Hunt+

Ministry as Slow and Consistent Work

Much of our work as Christians takes place over years, a lifetime, generations. I think the work of our friend and sister in Christ, Bobbie Morris, provides an example for all of us of how our own gifts and interests can and should intersect with the needs of our church community. She picked up the baton of leadership for our garden ministry and is now ready to pass it on, making sure she and our other gardeners left the grounds in better shape than they found them. Our gardens are spectacular and sacramental--outward and visible signs of God's presence in the world and what loving and caring people can create and share. It is now time, however, for others to pick up where Bobbie is letting go. She'll be around to consult and weed and help out, but not to lead.

And so it is in other ministries, picking up and letting go: working with our children and teens, our choirs, the Social Action Commission, the vestry to name just a few. The Spirit of God is always at work, calling individuals and communities into new life, new work, new ways of being in the world. This is is not about an older generation biting at the bit to unload some work, or guilting someone into doing a task, but about all of us wondering to ourselves and each other, "is it time for me to drop one piece of our common work and pick up another."

Please pay attention to what the Spirit might be calling you to here at Emmanuel, then talk to Arienne, Beverly, Jack or me and we'll help you figure out how best to make it happen.

With gratitude for all who serve God in and through the Church,
Hunt+

Unpacking

I've been back for 10 days following my pilgrimage to Israel and Palestine. Let the unpacking begin! And I don't mean my luggage. I mean unpacking the experience: wondering what it means to have been in Galilee, Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Golan Heights; remembering the rhythm of our days that included experience, reflection, prayer, community building, sharing every meal with 21 clergy colleagues from around the country.

Photos are being shared on Facebook (what would Chaucer's pilgrims have done with that?), emails coming in from Memphis, Austin, Richmond, Nashville, Chicago, asking of the trip the same questions I am. Questions like "how is actually seeing the landscape already impacting the way I read Scripture?" or "how can I make sure I can maintain the space I was able to create for prayer time, conversation, sharing a meal with friends now that I'm back to my busy life?" or "how might I be able to go back?"

Pilgrimage is an experience shared by the faithful of all the world's religions. On my flight from Washington, DC to Frankfurt, I sat  next to an older Egyptian couple who had been in the states for 25 years. They asked what I was up to and I said, "I'm going on Pilgrimage to Galilee and Jerusalem." The wife got quiet for a minute, grabbed her husband's hand and said, "We'll never forget our pilgrimage. To Mecca," she added.

Throughout the trip, when I saw families of Orthodox Jews rushing into the old city of Jerusalem to their prayers on Friday evening, or Muslim women sitting outside the Dome of the Rock, or the busload after busload of Christians from around the world pouring into Jerusalem or milling around a small church in Galilee, or around the breakfast table with my fellow pilgrims, I had such a strong sense of God's presence in the world and in my own life.

I have been changed by my pilgrimage and I'm grateful to all who made it possible. I'll be unpacking it for a very long time.

Pilgrimage and Reconciliation

In the summers of 2006 and 2007, I had the privilege to work with twenty-four 12-year olds. Half were Episcopalians from the Atlanta area, including 4 from the parish I was serving. The other twelve were from Jerusalem: 4 Israeli Jews, 4 Palestinian Christians and 4 Palestinian Muslims. It's a program called Kids 4 Peace and is a joint effort of the Episcopal Church in several US dioceses, including Atlanta, and the Anglican Diocese of Jerusalem.

I mention "K4P" because it's where the seeds of this trip I'm about to take were planted for me. I have to be honest, a trip to the war-torn lands of Israel and Palestine was never too high on my bucket list. But then I met some people. Some children and their adult leaders who were doing the hard work of reconciliation. Doing work that most adults are unwilling or unable to do. For Christians, it's how we understand the work of Christ--reconciling all people to each other and to God and reconciling all of creation, including us, to itself and to God. So for two summers, I learned from them and made myself available to them in any way I was able. And I was changed by that experience.

I leave on this trip with a real intention to avoid preconceived notions of my fellow pilgrims, of what it will be like there, what it will be like to stand on the shores of the Sea of Galilee or in Bethlehem or at the Wailing Wall. It is our preconceived notions of how people and situations will be that get us in trouble and cause us to miss the face of Christ and the movement of the Spirit in our midst. Preconceived notions leave us at war within ourselves, within our communities and between nations.

Continuing to open our hearts to God, to each other, to the goodness of creation, that is our Hope. It is my hope for us in our journey together as a congregation and my hope for myself on this pilgrimage to the lands of our spiritual mothers and fathers, to the lands of our brother Jesus.

Salaam, shalom, peace,
Hunt+

Seeds of Renewal

I took last week off from posting to this blog. We didn't send out the weekly email either. We, the entire staff, were tired. It had been a tough couple of weeks. Betty Rosenwald, friend to so many and a person actively involved in the life of Emmanuel, had died suddenly. The entire congregation gathered to care for the Gardners and to remember Betty. Very important work.

And then the staff and many adult members of the congregation plunged into VBS. It was an active week (some would say chaotic!) because we were learning about the Christian call to care for creation. We learned about it and we did it. We prayed, we sang, we played instruments, we even danced a little. We weeded the gardens and took a some nature walks. There were healthy snacks and creative crafts and teens and adults of the congregation who took time to be with 23 kids. To just be.

I hope that this summer, all of us can take some time "to just be." The culture we live in tells us not to, to stay busy, to stay connected, to always be plugged in and on call. But God calls us to rest and to pray and to reflect. God calls us to wonder how we might go deeper, to turn off the noise, to drop down into a place of healing and rest and wholeness.

My time away, my pilgrimage to Galilee and to Jerusalem, is intended to be a chance to do all of those things. To drop down into the desert, to walk up the mountain, to go back to the source, to go home. I give thanks to God that I have a family, an employer and a faith community that offer me the chance to do that. It is a gift, as are you, and I give thanks for it all.

salaam, shalom, peace,
Hunt+

Breaks in the Web of Connections

In the last couple of weeks, three women, all integrally involved in the life of the Emmanuel Community, have died: Alice Wall, a former parish secretary and friend to many here, Jane Staats, a longtime member and Betty Rosenwald, also a longtime member and mother of Emmanuel's previous rector. Their cremated remains will be at rest in our Memorial Garden, Betty and Jane in adjacent niches.

After her time at Emmanuel, Alice Wall and her husband went on to become the resident directors at Camp Huston in their retirement. Jane Staats was a committed and long-term member, her father having been the organist and church musician here. Her sister Ruth continues to be in our midst every Sunday. Betty Rosenwald reared her children in this faith community, was away for a while and returned when Randal was called as rector and remained here after he was called away. She was incredibly supportive of the new guy (me) and his family. I will never forget her generosity of spirit.

As a Christian community, we are held together by the  love of Christ and supported in our journey through our interconnected lives. This interconnectedness is most evident, I think, when we gather around the One Table and share of the One Bread and the One Cup. That is the outward and visible sign of how, in the great mystery of God, we are knit together as the Body of the Risen Christ.

On Friday we will gather once again to say together the ancient prayers of the church. They are the prayers that remind us that those we love have died, but are not lost. Never lost. We will give thanks for Betty's life, as we did for Jane's and will soon for Alice. We will then gather around the table, share equally in in the body and blood of Christ, and then, before we leave the church we will remember "that even at the grave we make our song: Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia."

It is at times like this, when the air is thick with grief, that I am most thankful for my baptism into the Christian life. And grateful for those with whom I share the journey.

Open Heart as Christian Practice

I'm preaching at the morning services this Sunday. A line from the Epistle lesson ("Open wide your hearts")and a line from the Gospel lesson ("Peace! Be still!") grabbed my attention last week as I started thinking about how I might preach. And then something I read several years ago from the poet and songwriter Leonard Cohen came to mind as well. Cohen is not a practicing Christian, but seems to really "get it" in many ways. During the Adult Christian Formation time on Sunday, I'll also be sharing some of Cohen's music and poetry and reflecting on the Sunday lessons. Read Cohen's quote below, plus the two lessons and let me know what comes to your mind. Cohen was asked his "take" on Christianity.

“I don't really have a ‘take on the state of Christianity.’ But when I read your question, this answer came to mind: As I understand it, into the heart of every Christian, Christ comes, and Christ goes. When, by his Grace, the landscape of the heart becomes vast and deep and limitless, then Christ makes His abode in that graceful heart, and His Will prevails. The experience is recognized as Peace. In the absence of this experience much activity arises, divisions of every sort. Outside of the organizational enterprise, which some applaud and some mistrust, stands the figure of Jesus, nailed to a human predicament, summoning the heart to comprehend its own suffering by dissolving itself in a radical confession of hospitality.”

Goodbyes & Hellos

I want to take one more opportunity to thank the Emmanuel congregation for the warm and thoughtful send-off given to Terry this past Sunday. It washeartfelt and generous, as was the purse we collected for him. He has a very nice note in Sunday's bulletin, an electronic version of which is iincluded in the main part of this weekly email as well. How we say "goodbye" to people, whether they be staff members or parishioners says much about who we are as a gathered community.

Over the course of the summer, we will all have a chance to meet our new musician, Jack Barben. I'm so glad this next chapter of Emmanuel music is beginning in our informal season. Once he's settled in and the Emmanuel family has gathered back together in the fall on a more regular basis, we'll welcome him "officially." Please plan to come to church ready to sing. My hope for the summer is that more and more voices will be heard during the services and that many of you will consider "trying out" the summer choir, with the possibility of joining that incredible bunch of Emmanuel folk in the fall.

When you see Jack and Melanie, who is looking forward to being a part of this community as well, please welcome them in your usual manner. My family and I were on the receiving end of that this time last year and it made all the difference.  Hunt+

The movement of the spirit

There is a blessing I sometimes use on Sunday mornings at the end of the Eucharist that has a line in it that I want to highlight as we look toward Pentecost this coming Sunday. Before the Trinitarian Blessing--"and now the Blessing God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit...," I say, "Rejoice in the power of the Holy Spirit at work in your life, and in the life of this congregation."

The Spirit is always at work in the world: cajoling, empowering, comforting us, and sometimes upsetting our plans. The work of the Spirit is about the unexpected and we are called to be on watch for those movements and to do what we can to join up. The difficult part is that we sometimes misread what the Spirit is up to and we fail to do our part or we actively work to subvert what is trying to break in. It's also difficult business because it can't be up to one person or one faction of the whole to discern how this movement-of-the-Spirit work is happening. And, it's not science, but art. There is no formula that allows us to be certain. It takes an openness to one another and a willingness to make mistakes, and to know that even in mistakes, all things are redeemed for those who believe.

As we celebrate Pentecost and then move into the Season after Pentecost or Ordinary Time, the growing season of church year, my hope and prayer is that we'll all be on watch and open. I want us to be willing to water and fertilize what is growing and life-giving and to ask questions about what is not. But we must always make those decisions after prayer, conversation, and with fear and trembling.

In Christ, Hunt+