Reflection Roundup: “This is the way; walk in it” (Is. 30:21)
Each week we gather news stories, notable pieces, and other important items for Christian leaders today. As always, listening broadly draws together differing perspectives from which we can learn but may not concur. Here are 10 things worth sharing this week.
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1. Writing for Sojourners, Gina Ciliberto in “Minnesota Churches Building Together in Year After Floyd’s Murder” evidences ways in which our sovereign God utilizes dysfunction and pain. She highlights one man’s “Listen and Lead Sessions,” which are fueling “commitment, listening, reflection, and action among multiple congregations. There are pastors, gang leaders, every community member you could think of holding space and standing vigil.” The Christian Chronicle’s editor-in-chief Bobby Ross Jr. writes “About our recent coverage of racial issues in Churches of Christ,” reminding of the priority we continue to place on holding this space, keeping these stories front-of-mind and utilizing them in our efforts to quell all varieties of divisiveness. Ross holds up two churches in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, who are doing just that.
2. As Luke Timothy Johnson reminds us in his writings, Catholic and Protestant are branches of the same faith. So we have much to learn from one another. James Martin, SJ, shares a conversation on prayer – specifically the practice of the Ignatian prayer of Examen – with Jenn Giles Kemper on the Sacred Ordinary Days podcast. This episode, “On Prayer: Imagination, Invitation, & the Voice of God With Fr. James Martin,” includes such compelling remarks as, “While lectio divina has Scripture as its text, the Examen has our daily lives.” Martin and Kemper marvel together with the listener at such truth; the Holy Spirit that hovers near, touching you and I in myriad ways, is the same that accompanied Christ Jesus himself.
3. Continuing the line of thinking shared by Father Jim above, our inclinations toward God are prompted by God. Hence we can respond to those promptings anywhere, anytime, and in any situation. There’s no need to clean up our acts so God will be impressed or like us more. Kimberly Fosu’s nontraditional perspective has much to remind us about prayer in “3 Tips for Praying to God When You Don’t Know.” This read might call to mind a friend who’d like the plain language-sharing Fosu offers.
4. Jessica Young Brown, assistant professor of counseling and practical theology at Virginia Union University, writes “Ministers cannot thrive if they neglect themselves” for Faith & Leadership. “God does not just call us to a vocational position. God also calls us to a vocational process,” and one to which we bring our whole selves at the various seasons and stages of life. Real ministry requires us to be real with God and experience our humanity authentically. “Reflection and restoration are not bonuses when we get a break; they are necessities for doing effective ministry.” Who do we think we are? Balance “is an act of stewardship that honors what God has given us.” We must submit to God’s process in ministering to us in order that we might pour worship, through our lives, right back to God. Is it not our spiritual responsibility?
5. Sterling Terrell writes that, “The problem with a calling is that a calling – is just that.” It’s a calling, and must be answered with a life. Terrell’s offering of few words leads our minds to reflect on the life of Christ and the sacrifice that is our ultimate privilege.
6. Talbot Davis, pastor of Good Shepherd United Methodist Church, a modern congregation in Charlotte, North Carolina, writes “Causes and Their Effects” for Ministry Matters. Davis describes the refreshing discoveries of diversity the body at Good Shepherd has made by lifting up the preeminence of Jesus Christ and his love for all people while expressing this in concrete ways.
7. In Christianity Today’s “Reading God’s Word like a Poem, Not an Instruction Manual,” Jessica Hooten Wilson interviews Matthew Mullins, associate professor of English and history of ideas at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, on his recent book, Enjoying the Bible: Literary Approaches to Loving the Scriptures. The telos, for Mullins, is this: “Being better Bible readers makes us better lovers of God – and, in turn, better lovers of our neighbors.”
8. Samuel Rahberg, spiritual director at Saint John’s School of Theology and Seminary, reflects on “Living into joy, late in the pandemic” for Faith & Leadership. Rahberg takes a walk along a stream near his Minnesota cabin and notices the shoreline following the path of the bubbling water. The shoreline isn’t all bent out of shape with the inconsistencies of the stream asking, “Why can’t you just choose a straight path and follow it?!” Rather, it is flexible and forgiving, making room for wherever the water needs to flow and cultivating a joyful desire to emulate this type of edge in the eye of the beholder. What metaphor draws your eye toward a path forward in your corner of the world of uncertainties?
9. Maybe you’re on a journey right now of reconnecting in some way. Many of us are simply trying to jigsaw our current life circumstances together amid the many transition points COVID continues to impose. Richard Beck’s book, Hunting Magic Eels: Recovering an Enchanted Faith in a Skeptical Age, is doing its work, chiseling away at the cynical crust that can develop on our hearts. In “Finding Awe in the Ordinary,” “Iraq War veteran and outdoors educator Stacy Bare” describes an instance of this practice and its impact on both his and his family’s life. “This is the way; walk in it” (Is. 30:21).
10. Putting even one idea into action from June’s “Happiness Calendar” (PDF download) sponsored by Cal Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center will certainly provide fuel for reflection. Practicing two will get you extra credit. Once a week, and you’re just outdoing yourself. Consider the June 20 questions as fuel for memorable Father’s Day table conversations with family, friends, and mentors.
