Sticks and Snakes

Great Idea

For the last two years I have been meeting a couple of times a month with a small group of other seminarians. We get together--sometimes with food, sometimes without--and check in about what has been going on in our lives and then share in a spiritual exercise of one kind or another. We take turns planning the group and we each bring our personal styles and spiritualities to our time together. The group has been an invaluable source of strength, friendship, and faithful accountability for me and I am going to miss the other members so much after graduation!

This morning our group met for the last time and my friend Richard organized our gathering. Last week he emailed all of us and asked us to submit the titles of a few of our favorite songs without telling the rest of the group what we we chose. He then downloaded all of the songs on iTunes and made a playlist out of them. 

When we arrived this morning, Richard gave us each a sheet of paper with the name of the song, the name of the artist, and then a blank space where we could write in a guess for who picked the song. After taking some time mulling over the list and making as many  guesses as possible, we sat around and listened to a portion of each song, trying to figure out who chose it. It was amazing how right we were most of the time--after three years of studying, worshipping, and just hanging out together, we have really come to know each other's tastes! After going through all the songs, Richard gave us each a CD with the entire playlist on it--a great way to commemorate our time together!

I thought that this was a great idea and it is one that I probably use in the future with other small groups, at retreats, or just with groups of friends. Music is a powerful insight into people's lives, imaginations, and souls, and sometimes a song can say more than we ever could. Also, now I have a whole bunch of new music to add to my library!

(And yes, that is the Virgin Mary on my iPod!)

Holy Home Design!

Seeing as my stint as a dorm resident is short lived and I will soon be venturing into the wonderful world of apartment living, I have been thinking and reading a lot about home design and decorating lately. Many a late night in front of the computer have been spent looking at blogs and magazines, dreaming about my future abode. 

I particularly love area rugs (they are like art for your floors!), and lately I've been continually running into a beautiful round labyrinth floor rug on various websites. First, I saw it on Design Sponge, then on Apartment Therapy, and I even saw a picture of it decorating a friend's new apartment! I am totally smitten.

photo/Design Sponge

photo/Apartment Therapy

photo/Design Sponge

The labyrinth is an ancient pattern/structure that dates back to early Greek mythology. It has recently been appropriated (rediscovered?) as a spiritual tool for contemplative prayer/meditation. Like a maze with only one corridor, the labyrinth forms a pathway from the outside of a circle to the center "rose." The idea is that people can walk along the pathway and pray with each step. A lot of churches--including Grace Cathedral in San Francisco--have a labyrinth as a permanent part of their worship space or outside garden. 

Anyway, aside from its spiritual meaning, I think that this rug is really beautiful! From what I can tell, it was part of Ikea's 2007 catalogue but has since been discontinued. At the time, it ran for only $60! Oh, I hope that Ikea decides to bring this gem out of the vault and sell it again!

Bible Study

In the last several months I have continually run into preaching, writing, and blogging (none from my own denomination, mind you) about how being a good Christian woman means behaving and living within narrowly defined gender roles.

This type of theology really bothers me, especially because my faith and my understanding of the Bible has really lead me to believe that there is no one way of being or doing anything. The men and women whose lives we read about in the Bible were multi-faceted, interesting, and often quite counter-cultural. So, since part of my Lenten discipline includes daily, extended periods of reading Scripture, I have decided to take a look at some women in the Bible and see what they might teach  me right now. 

I have decided to write up a little bible study curriculum meant for groups. The purpose of the study is to take a look at some of the women in Jesus' family tree--from Tamar to Mary--and try to learn something from the stories told about them in the Bible. I have decided to make these Bible studies available here on my blog. They are free and available for use, so go ahead and download them and distribute to your heart's content. I am writing these studies as I go, so I can't say for sure when the next one will be available, but I will be sure to let you know. Enjoy!

The first study outline in the series is an introduction to the topic. It is pretty brief and should be a good place to start out for groups that don't already know each other very well. As the studies continue, they will include more content and more questions meant for spiritual growth. You can download Scandalous #1 right here:

Download BibleStudy.ScandalousOutline1.pdf (73.5K)

Dust to Dust

Just reminding you all that today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. Just to get you off to a good start, here is the Ash Wednesday invitation, from the Book of Common Prayer:

Dear people of God: The first Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord's passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them by a season of penitence and fasting. The season of Lent provided a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism. It was also a time when those who, because of notorious sins, had been separated from the body of the faithful were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to fellowship of the Church. Thereby, the whole congregation was put in mind of the message of pardon and absolution set forth in the Gospel of our Savior, and of the need which all Christians continually have to renew their repentance and faith.

I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God's holy Word. And, to make a right beginning of repentance, and as a mark of our own moral nature, let us now kneel before the Lord, our maker and redeemer...

GPRS #2: Dakota

I just finished book #2 of my Great Plains Reading Series--Dakota: A Spiritual Geography, by Kathleen Norris. I have read some of Norris' work before, so I was not at all surprised by how beautifully written and spiritually edifying this book turned out to be. Norris is a theologian as much as she is a writer, and her prose speaks magnificently about the intersection of the holy and the mundane. 

Dakota is a collection of essays about Norris' twenty years living in Lemmon, South Dakota, a small town on the plains that she moved to from New York City when she was a young woman. Norris' love for the land and the people jumps off the page, but so does her amazing love for God and for the strange ways that God moves in our lives. Part spiritual biography, part telling investigation of modern plains life and the challenges of the contemporary family farm economy, Norris' evocative book made the region come to life for me. 

I highly recommend this lovely read, as well as her more spiritually-minded Cloister Walk. 

Liz's Guide to Lent: Part III

Ash Wednesday--the official beginning of Lent--is only days away. Ash Wednesday is a powerful way to enter the season of Lent because of how it so simply and beautifully speaks to the brevity of life, the transitory nature of all things. In the Ash Wednesday liturgy, real ashes--palm fronds that were blessed on Palm Sunday last year and then incinerated on Shrove Tuesday (Mardi Gras)--are placed on your forehead, intended to remind you that "you are dust and to dust you will return." It is a powerful symbol and statement and a very tangible way to wander into the wilderness of Lent. 

Anyway. In my final Guide to Lent I wanted to touch on the issue of choosing a Lenten discipline. The following advice comes from my own experience of Lent over the years--things that have worked for me and things that haven't. They are highly subjective, so take them with a grain of salt...

Part 3: How to Fast

As I mentioned earlier, Lent is a forty day fast that lasts from Ash Wednesday until Easter. Back in the day, "fasting" was interpreted primarily as abstaining from food--either all food for certain hours of the day or certain foods for all hours of the day. Now days, a lot of Christians experience Lent as a time to abstain from certain things--either foods or activities--or as a time to take on a new spiritual discipline. However you do it, Lent is intended to be an intentional, prayerful period of time spent in the wilds of your own spirituality. 

Self-denial is an important part of Lenten discipline, although that concept is being challenged more and more these days. A lot of people believe that self-denial for spiritual purposes is dangerous, especially if you are the the type of person who constantly denies yourself things that you want or need. If you live in a sector of society, for example, where your basic needs are never met or if you are part of a family system/relationship where where you are constantly serving others and never taking time for yourself, then denial/fasting might not be the best place to go for Lent. In that case, it might be more spiritually rewarding for you to "take something on" during Lent--develop a positive spiritual discipline instead of a negative one. 

For most of us, however, self-denial is profoundly counter-cultural. Many of us live in a society where we hardly ever deny ourselves anything, and are often told that we should get everything that we want whenever we want it. Lent challenges this concept by affirming the importance of some healthy suffering for the sake of your own spiritual development. This doesn't mean that you should turn into the monk from The Da Vinci Code for forty days, but denying yourself dessert never shed any blood, you know? 

Tips for Choosing a Discipline:

• Remember, this is not a New Year's resolution. Don't give up something that is already bad for you, like smoking or excessive partying. You should give those things up anyway. My experience has been that the discipline is a lot more meaningful if you really miss what you gave up and get to enjoy it in a guilt-free manner when Easter rolls around.  
• Your discipline is between you and God and maybe one or two trusted friends or advisors. Again, because this is not a resolution, per se, you don't need the accountability of people watching to see if you "mess up." You can't mess up. Lent is a daily journey that is mostly private.  
• Sometimes taking something on also means giving something up--this is what I call the "perfect storm" Lenten discipline. For example, if you just love sleeping in on Saturday mornings (or Sunday mornings, let's be honest here!), you could spend the weekends of Lent "giving up" an hour of late sleeping in favor of volunteering at a local homeless shelter or food bank. This way, you experience the denial of that glorious, lazy hour while also reaping the spiritual benefits of justice work. Perfect storm!
• Know your demons. Don't take on a discipline that "triggers" harmful behaviors for you. I know plenty of women who fasted from food during certain days of Lent and it ended up bringing up a lot of body issue/food issues for them. Trust me, that's not how God wants you to prepare for Easter!  
• If you've never done this before, start small and see where God takes you. Keep track of how you feel, what you think about, and how you encounter others in relation to this small act of denial. Lots can happen in forty days!

Finally, remember that the forty days of Lent do not include Sundays! In the Christian tradition Sunday is always a feast day because it represents the day that Jesus was resurrected from the dead. So, on Sundays in Lent do not feel guilty for breaking your fast--enjoy it! That's what Sundays are for.

Happy fasting!! 

Liz's Guide to Lent: Part II

Lent is just around the corner, and as I encounter more and more folks curious about the ancient Christian tradition of fasting for a forty days, I have decided to post a short blog series on this season. So, today, part two...

Part 2: Lent in Community

The Episcopal Church is a liturgical church, which means that the common identity of our denomination is grounded in ritual worship. Part of our liturgical life is the recognition of certain seasons, which change throughout the year and affect what we say and do in church and in our lives. Lent is the liturgical season that precedes Easter. As I mentioned last time, Lent is a penitential season, and the theme of repentance is represented throughout our liturgies--both on Sunday and on other days of the week, depending on how your church observes the season--all the way until the Great Vigil of Easter. 

How are the themes of Lent represented in Episcopal liturgies?

• During Lent, we no longer say, sing, or proclaim "Alleluia" until Easter
• The liturgical color is purple--which means that all of the vestments and fabric on the altar are purple for the entire season (purple is the color of penitence and mourning, but is is also the color of royalty)  
• Crosses and crucifixes are shrouded in fabric and hidden from sight  
• Sermons, prayers, and church activities are generally oriented toward fasting and almsgiving (giving money or other resources to our poorer neighbors and those especially in need of justice)  
• Although Lent is a season of fasting, Sunday is still a feast--a break from the fast. So,we still have Eucharist/Communion on Sundays and many people choose to not observe their Lenten fasts on that day 
• The season wraps up with what liturgical churches call the Triduum, the three services that bring us from Lent into Easter. These services begin on the Thursday before Easter and are:     

  

•  Maundy Thursday (or "Holy Thursday): This feast commemorates the last supper that Jesus had with the apostles and is also celebrated as a remembrance of Christ giving the Church the sacrament of the Eucharist (the bread and wine becoming the body and blood of Jesus). On Maundy Thursday, the altar is stripped of all linen and ritualistically cleansed like a body being prepared for burial. 
• Good Friday: Good Friday is one of the ultimate fasting days of the Church because it represents the day when Christ was tried, crucified, and killed. Good Friday liturgies are very solemn and include the reading of scripture, the veneration of the cross, and Communion provided from the reserved sacrament (bread and wine from a previous church service, because we do not say the prayers over the bread and wine between Maundy Thursday and the Great Vigil).   
• The Great Vigil: This liturgy represents the passage from Lent into Easter. It is basically the  most important liturgy of the entire year, where we get to celebrate Jesus' Resurrection and change our fast into a feast. The Easter Vigil is the primary service for baptisms (you can get baptized on other days, though), and the first time that you get to hear and say "Alleluia!" since Lent began. The liturgy includes light and fire, a lot of scripture reading, the Holy Eucharist, and hopefully baptism. It is generally very long and takes place late at night.    

As you can see, Lent and Holy Week are very important to the liturgical life of Christian churches (particularly Episcopal, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox churches), and how one understands, appreciates, and encounters the season is made all the more meaningful by the opportunity to observe it within a community that is journeying alongside you.

If you are interested in joining a community for Lent, visit a local church this Sunday and see what it's all about!  

Liz's Guide to Lent: Part I

A week from today (February 25) is Ash Wednesday, the official start to the Christian season of Lent. After living it up on Tuesday night (whether you are a Mardi Gras person or a Shrove Tuesday person), you can arrive at Church on Wednesday and be smeared with the ashes of last year's palm fronds, reminding you that you are dust and to dust you will return. 

I am always surprised by how many people I run into who are not particularly religious but are still fascinated by the concept of Lent. Whether they grew up with Lent or not, a lot of people are eager to "give something up" until Easter, taking on a seasonal discipline that is meant to stretch and strengthen them. 

So, in the next week I am going to post a little series I call "Liz's Guide to Lent," starting today. Whether you want to experience the season for yourself or just know a little bit more about Lenten traditions before you see all those folks with black smudges on their heads walking down the street, I hope that the posts in this series provide you with a good place to start. 

Part 1: The Reason for the Season

Lent is a period of fasting during the forty days before Easter. Prior to the 4th century, the fast only lasted a few days, but it was later extended as a period of preparation for those being baptized on Easter. Periods of 40 days are significant to both the Christian and Jewish traditions, as Moses, Elijah, and Jesus all underwent fasts of the same length themselves. 

Back in the day, the fast was very strict and lasted for the entire season. Christians were expected to only eat one meal a day, and meat, fish, and sometimes even eggs and milk, were totally forbidden. After the 9th century, however, Lenten expectations became more and more relaxed. These days, people have different ways of interpreting what it means to fast. I will explore these different perspectives in a later post, and will even dare to dole out some advice about Lenten disciplines. 

Lent is a penitential season, which means that it is focused on repentance--or, the contrite acknowledgment of sins. Christians are usually "Easter people," putting the majority of our emphasis on the resurrection of Jesus and on the gift of the Incarnation (God becoming a human). In Lent, however, we allow ourselves forty days to focus on Christ's suffering and death, getting ourselves right with God before we celebrate the great feast of Easter! 

Source (other than my own brain): The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.

Geek. Out.

As a seminary student and all-around lover of scripture, I find myself (and my dorm room) swimming in all kinds of bibles. Even though I am experiencing no shortage of the word of God, I couldn't help but snatch up Zondervan's NoteWorthy New Testament as soon as I heard about it. Part shameless marketing ploy, part brilliant idea, the Noteworthy bible looks just like a pocket-sized Moleskine notebook--black leather cover, elastic strap, folding pocket in the back--and is intended for extensive note taking and journaling with scripture. The Noteworthy New Testament leaves every other page totally blank so that you can journal on pages opposite of text--perfect! I tend to journal a lot with scripture, so I think that this is a pretty neat innovation. It is perfect for preachers, too! When I journal with scripture, I can't arrange my musings in any recognizable order, so I hardly ever return to them when I am working on a sermon. With this handy little edition, my notes and thoughts are included alongside of the scripture, so when I need to look up a passage to preach on, I won't have any trouble finding my previous thoughts on the matter. Very cool.

Pray. Vote. Pray

First of all let me state what you have probably heard a thousand times in the last few days—don’t forget to vote! Of course, it is probably impossible that you would actually forget to vote this year, as this has been one of the most public and media-frenzied elections in a long time (perhaps ever), but just in case you are wavering or wondering whether your vote really counts—it does! Exercise your rights and hit the polls on November 4, wearing your sticker with pride!

As a person of faith, I am especially interested in how to focus my prayer life during this election season, especially in these final days. There are a lot of emails going around urging Republicans to pray that McCain wins and Democrats to pray for Obama. I’ve thought a lot about this. Should I pray that my candidate win the election? Isn’t that a lot like praying for a snow day when you haven’t studied for your math test (something I repeatedly tried throughout my childhood and adolescence despite the poor return)? Praying that the candidate that I support will win on Election Day sort of presupposes that God is in charge of our political life—an assertion that makes me a little uncomfortable, especially as the act of voting seems to obviously be an exercise of our God-given gift of free will. So, for what do I pray?

I was inspired by a recent conversation about preaching and politics with Josh’s family when I was in Nebraska. Rather than preaching support for a particular candidate (which is illegal, by the way, if that preaching is coming directly from your church’s pulpit), it seems like it would be a lot more fruitful to preach about how a faithful person/faithful community should act if the candidate that they support does not win the election. With so much energy being put into both presidential campaigns, a lot of hearts are going to be broken on Election Day, regardless of who wins. Would this be a good way to focus our prayers?

When I was a kid, I learned quickly that I would be disappointed if I prayed for a snow day when I had a math test. At the same time, I learned that my prayers were fruitful when I focused on inviting God into my studies, asking God to help me be calm and non-anxious at the moment of my test, to help me gather the knowledge that I had, and to be with me in support and comfort if I ended up not doing well. If I did get the grade that I wanted, I asked God to celebrate with me.

It is my sincere prayer in this election that when people step into the privacy of the voting booth God will be with them, allowing them the freedom to see through the polarity of campaign advertisements and political rhetoric and allow them to use their reason, their faculties of discernment, and their morality to vote according to their conscience. I also pray that God comfort those who feel deflated when their candidate loses, giving them grace to continue political dialogue and political life with a president whom they did not vote for. I pray for those whose candidate wins, that they may be sensitive to those whose choice was not affirmed and that they may continue in the passionate pursuit of their values and beliefs as they are expressed in government and public life.

I hope that you pray with me, or send your positive vibes into the universe, or whatever. J