Sacred Threshold ::

Need some input? ::

Here's an invitation to an intriguing Worship, Art, Liturgy and Preaching conference from a famous author.

History of the Emerging Church ::

For those of you who would like more context and historical background on the emerging church, read Alan Creech's latest article.

Of Heresy and Such ::

Yesterday in my brief wanderings on the net, I googled "the emerging church," a normal Saturday activity for me.  About six listings down, I ran across a site referring to the Emerging Church and Contemplative Spirituality so I clicked on it.  Lo and behold there was Ray Yungen's website,  author of the book Time of Departing, a.k.a. contemplative prayer heresy hunter.

As I clicked through his pages, I saw listings of some of my "friends"--Dallas Willard, Todd Hunter, Julian of Norwich, Emilie Griffin, Richard Foster, Brain McLaren etc. Many of my contemporary "friends" and emergent "friends" have bios with educational backgrounds and a series of misquoted quotes nicely situated next to their photographs. How lovely.

This is not the first time I have run into Ray and his thoughts on contemplative prayer. Last year, about this time, someone at church gave his book to a staff member and it circulated through a few of us.  When I flipped through the book, his fiery fervency against contemplative prayer and his out of context understanding struck me. What is this all about? His book gave me the creepy craw-lees.

I didn't want to even mention I went to his website. I didn't want to tell anyone more about it so they would visit and give him the satisfaction of more hits for his counter. I think it is better to talk and teach about what Christian contemplative prayer is and not what it isn't. (For Ray there is no such thing as Christian contemplative prayer.) But for those who desire to be more informed about what Ray is saying click here.

Ray seems to be setting out the wood and tinder for the burning of the current leaders in the emergent world.

For those on the list, I'm standing by with water. 

I thought the burning of the saints went out with the dark ages.

Christian Meditation ::

In the book After Our Likeness, Miroslav Volf references Cardinal Ratzinger as his primary source for understanding Roman Catholic ecclesiology.

Here is question posed to Cardinal Ratzinger about meditation found in an on-line article.  I share it for all who would like more language and understanding of the differences between Christian meditation and other forms so prevalent today.

Q: Given the present quest for spirituality, many people take recourse to transcendental meditation. What difference is there between transcendental meditation and Christian meditation?

Cardinal Ratzinger: In a few words, I would say what is essential of transcendental meditation is that man divests himself of his own "I"; he unites with the universal essence of the world; therefore, he remains a bit depersonalized.

In Christian meditation, on the contrary, I do not lose my personality; I enter a personal relation with the person of Christ. I enter into relation with the "you" of Christ, and in this way this "I" is not lost; it maintains its identity and responsibility.

At the same time it opens, enters a more profound unity, which is the unity of love that does not destroy. Therefore, in a few words, I would say, simplifying a bit, that transcendental meditation is impersonal and, in this sense, "depersonalizing." Christian meditation, meanwhile, is "personalizing" and opens to a profound union that is born of love and not of the dissolution of the "I."

Questions Raised ::

Here are a few question elicited from my reading of the first part of chapter one in After Our Likeness.

How does the foundation of sola scriptura (scripture alone) impact our understanding of how church is to be? What are the limitations?

What are the organizational implications of truly embracing the reality of Christ as head of His church and we as members of His body?

How does a Protestant heritage impact one's willingness to receive and be with others in the church?

How does our American culture shape and limit our understandings of what it means to be the Body of Christ?

When and where is me and mine in conflict with we and ours in the ways we are together as a communities of faith?

The reading is tough going. I have more questions than answers.

Because of Winn Dixie ::

Because of Winn Dixie won over my heart last year while I was on vacation. Through a children's book, the author Kate Dicamillo, captures the language of the heart to tell a formable tale about loss, relationship and redemption. The sweetness of the book's telling is now released to be retold on the big screen.

The movie, on the par with some of the old Disney classics, holds very true to the book.

Grab a young one, especially the female variety, and venture to heartland to see Because of Winn Dixie.

A Trinitarian Church ::

I grew up in a church called Most Holy Trinity. It was a rather nondescript Catholic parish with a really BIG name. As a young girl, I gazed regularly at the red velvet altar drapery containing an image of three circles interconnected by a triangle. Wondering what the the golden threaded images meant, I asked. "It is the symbol for the most holy Trinity, Father, Son and Spirit--the Godhead." Hum, whirl, click, went my tiny child brain. How can God be three persons and yet one God? How do they relate? If Jesus came to earth, how was He not the really the Father if they were one? And the Holy Ghost, who is that? Some Spirit haunting the local churches in the area? I remember singing with boldness "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty...God in three persons, Blessed Trinity." If I could only sing the verses loud and long enough maybe I would get this great mystery of Christian faith. I think I have been a hunt for understanding ever since.

So I ordered a book, After Our Likeness: The Church as the Image of the Trinity by Miroslav Volf. As a student of and leader in the church, the book seemed right on target. I like Miroslav, he is a great theologian of our day. He thinks really LARGE and very DEEP. His words are rooted in the Gospel, truly challenging our western mindsets. He makes me think.

Opening the introduction, I read:

The purpose of this book is to counter the tendencies toward individualism in the Protestant ecclesiology and to suggest a viable understanding of the church in which the person and the community are given their proper due. The ultimate goal is to spell out a vision of the church as an image of the triune God.

There it is again--the Most Holy Trinity.

There is something deeply wrong in the common expression of the Protestant church. The very nature of its beginning as a protest movement holds very little promise as a long time viable option. How long can a person or an institution sustain an identity as always being against something else? Its independent nature has stayed with it for five hundred years. Maybe its time to grow up a little. Maybe we are beginning to see the end of the road (or the beginning of a new one).

I am anxious to read on and I promise to keep you informed as I go. So I must sign off, heavy thinking is ahead.

My heart is really ready for this book.

Statured Stillness ::

Be still and know that I am God.

When reading a book by James Finley, the phrase statured stillness caught my attention. Statured stillness is the fruit of a consistent practice of meditation. It is the outcome of consistently setting aside time to quiet one's heart in the presence of God resulting in the transformation of the soul.

Statured stillness speaks to me of a deep resting in the knowledge of the bigness of God and our smallness in relationship to Him. As we experience God more and more as He truly is in the place of prayer, Christ's imprint is left in us. From this formational place, we can stand tall in who we are, not in an arrogant, self serving or self protecting way, but in a confident knowing of the Life of God within us.

Like most moderns, the pull and tug on who I am and what I should become, is constantly challenged by the world around me. Only when I am still enough, long enough, in God's presence, do I have a chance to be who I desire to be, a person of statured stillness marked by the image of God.

A Celtic Tale ::

"I beg you in the name of Brigid to let me be."

One day from a lofty crag on the island Brendan saw two sea monsters coming from the depth of the sea, and fighting desperately together, each of them trying to drown the other. Then one of the monsters tried to fly, and the other pursued it. And the flying monster said with a human voice: "I beg you in the name of Brigid to let me be." The other monster at once left and went into the depth of the sea.
                                     --from Voice of the Saints by Bert Ghezzi

Lesson: Brendan, although present to the battle, was incapable to help the embattled monsters of the deep. Brigid, miles away, in another land, still and centered in God, was available to do battle when called.

My Playground ::

I have always struggled with the concept of play. As a firstborn, in a motherless home, play died a untimely death at the age of eleven.

The first playground I remember was in kindergarten at Brookside School. The tall chain linked fences told us where we could be and where we couldn't. Swings, one lone slide, painted circles and squares on the asphalt provided a rough but spacious surface to play. Every once in a while a brave soul got tired of the flat ground, seeking adventure in the starked metal mountains surrounding us, always shooed down, in case they might fall. This was not a very good first playground.

Through my adolescent years, the closest I got to play was cheering--cheering boy's soccer moves on grassy field through the extreme temperature swings of heat and cold in autumn and then in winter, yelling my vocal chords to stiffness the well padded, sharp skated boys of hockey behind the Plexiglas boards. As a varsity squad, we practiced, repeated in time, cheer after cheer, sometimes creating new moves, new lines, to spice up our repertoire. In the creativity, there was joy and artistry. For me, it was play of teenage-hood, a playground of a new sort, still with some borders and boundaries, but more open and free.