Monday, April 16, 2018

Doctor of Ministry Project Learnings


Easter 3B 2018 RCL
                                                        Rev. Dr. Adam T. Trambley                               
April 15, 2018, St. John’s Sharon
Ministry Project Learnings

Last month, I defended my Doctor of Ministry dissertation. While we have a formal graduation in May, I am now officially the Reverend Doctor Adam Trambley, although Jane said when I called Sharon Regional, I wasn’t allowed to introduce myself as Dr. Trambley. I wanted to share some of the practical results of the thesis work I did with you this morning.  Over the past three years, I’ve actually shared more of my school work than you are probably aware of.  A few summers ago, I did a presentation on some of the results from the congregational study that was my first project toward the degree.  Those presentations are still on the church website, and a number of folks in the parish helped me put together the data.  Other class projects and papers have turned into sermons or other kinds of projects. While school work included a variety of theological and theoretic readings, the focus was on practical ministry development in the context of this parish and our community.

For my thesis project, I took nine community leaders on prayerwalks and brought them together for a ninety-minute focus group afterwards. Everyone I worked with had a Christian background, so we had a common basis to understand what we were doing, but they all had different levels of belief and church involvement today.  Most who were active in a church are Roman Catholic, which isn’t surprising for this area. 

I decided to take people on prayerwalks for a couple of reasons.  The most primary one is that I’ve seen a lot of people doing what I would consider God’s work in the community, but without understanding that their passion is also a real vocation.  The Bible contains a number of places that describe characteristics of a redeemed city for God.  For example, Isaiah chapter 65 describes a vision of people having meaningful jobs, extended families networks, adequate food and shelter, health and long life, and an absence of violence.  Striving to create communities with these characteristics is basic Christian ministry. Church outreach ministries are based on this kind of vision, and we do some of this work on a weekly basis at St. John’s.  A lot of the work that helps determine whether a city can take strides being such a community, however, is accomplished in work that rarely turns up on a church committee agenda.  Work like community development, neighborhood clean-ups, zoning, municipal bond financing, personnel policies, and community policing can all make a huge difference when done with integrity, courage, and vision.  Helping people who are already doing that work see their work as God’s work is important for their own understanding, as well as allowing us all to be the church for our entire community.  Most folks, even those in church every week, do most of their ministry in places besides the church, and we need to recognize and value the importance of those ministries.

The second reason I chose to take community leaders on prayerwalks is because I believe prayerwalking transforms communities.  Prayer matters.  Prayer changes lives. Prayer is the spiritual work we do to shine light into dark places, to invite God’s transforming power into the situations around us, and to make known to God our hopes and dreams for our lives and our communities.  Prayerwalking is, as one author puts it, “praying on-site with insight.”  When we prayerwalk, we walk through a section of town and lift up to God what we see, taking the time to really notice what is going in our community.  When prayerwalking we give thanks for where we see God at work, ask God to bless good things that are happening, and ask God to intervene in those situations that seem to require a transformation.  Prayerwalking can be done alone, but is even better with two or three people walking around and just talking to God together about what they see.  As one of the people in my thesis project said, “it was like being on a three-way call with God.” 

Over the years, I have done a lot of prayerwalking personally in this community, and we as a parish have also had teams of people prayerwalking at times.  When people have gone out into the community, whether into residential neighborhoods or through downtown or to the Mercer courthouse or around schools or wherever, we have seen God show up in noticeable ways.  By taking community leaders on prayerwalks, I hoped that they could see where God was at work in the city in new ways while also recognizing the importance of their own work.

Through interviews following the prayerwalks and the focus group afterwards, I found that a number of important things happened for people. One outcome was that some leaders realized the need to connect prayer with their other work.  One person, for example, said he didn’t realize God had anything to do with economic development, but now saw that we need to bring God into our economic development conversations and bring the right intentions to the table.  Another person noted how much he thought about the community needs and how after the prayerwalk he felt he could just talk to God about them. 

A second outcome was that people learned how to pray.  So often, churches have presented a very formal, complicated sense of prayer that should be left to clergy or other “spiritual” people.  Any of us can pray, however.  All we need to do is invite God into a conversation about what is going on around us.  After the prayerwalk, one person talked about how she never knew that she could just pray, even though she has been active in church all her life.  She said she regularly takes her children for walks in their neighborhood, and now she could encourage them to thank God for good things they see on their walks.  Another participant said she isn’t sure she believes in God. Yet, when I talked to her a few weeks after we went on two prayerwalks, she could point to at least two different times when she saw something going on and started praying, which she described as putting good energy out.  Even if she doesn’t use churchy words, she is lifting up needs in the community and shining light into them. 

Other participants were able to identify the work they were doing as participating in God’s vision for the community in ways they wouldn’t have articulated otherwise.  One participant, who rarely attends church, works tirelessly as a volunteer in different neighborhoods.  He talked about how God’s vision is that people are taken care of, and if a couple of blocks away people are suffering, God would want us to do something about it.  Another participant described how he felt called by old buildings that needed to be rehabilitated, and how helpful and meaningful taking the time for prayer was when we prayerwalked around some of the places he was working on. 

These results are some of the direct fruits of taking people on just two prayerwalks.  On one level, simply by prayerwalking with others, people’s understanding of God at work in the community and the value of our own work in the community deepened.  I think those from the parish who participated in prayerwalks at different times would also say they experienced similar things.  On another level, I know that these prayerwalks made a difference for the community, even if I can’t point specifically to what that prayer accomplished. I would also note than anyone can not only prayerwalk through their neighborhood, but they can also invite someone else to join them – and probably see similarly important changes.  If you have further questions about how to get started prayerwalking, let me know and I’ll work with you. 

For my project, those who went on two prayerwalks gathered afterwards for a focus group.  In that conversation, they touched upon places that the church could make a difference in the community.  These topics arose as people talked about what they experienced and where they saw God at work.  As I went through what I heard, I distilled these areas as places that community leaders saw a need that is also smackdab in the middle of what churches are supposed to do.  These areas are natural places of entry for as we seek to make a difference outside our doors and share God’s love with people.  Here are some of the ways we can live out our purpose while meeting the community’s needs.

First, leaders, and the community in general, found God in beauty, both in natural beauty like the river and in public art projects like those that have recently been installed downtown.  Yet, just because people can find God in beauty doesn’t mean that they will.  People can look at a sunset and just feel calm or look at an art display and just see an economic development opportunity.  Often, folks need a connection to spark their recognition of God’s presence, and we can provide that spark.  Just saying something that gives thanks or praise or glory to God when we see beauty can help other people make that connection.  If we practice recognizing God in the beautiful, and share that recognition, we are helping other people deepen their relationship with God.  As a church community, we can also help support art and beauty both inside the church and in other places.  Part of why we bring in guest artists is not only to make our liturgies more beautiful, but also so that they can experience their artwork as giving God glory in a different way.  If we sponsor artwork, even if it isn’t explicitly Christian artwork, with the understanding that God is present in beauty that lifts the human spirit, then we are also evangelizing in a way that many people can instinctually understand.

A second issue that community leaders raised was the need to have hope.  Christians have hope.  Easter is all about hope.  Yet so many areas of our community do not have hope.  They think they are stuck where they are and have no way out.  They need someone to offer them hope and we can do that.  We offer hope in a couple of important ways.  First, we know that people are children of God who live in communities that God has a vision for.  We lift up hope as the eventual working out of God’s plan for his children, which means that the hope is not in the next exciting plan or new proposal, however helpful those might be.  Hope also means that the negative aspects of our current life need to be recognized so they can be removed.  Hope is not ignoring our present difficulties.  As a church, we show we believe in that hope by sticking with our community and living like we believe things can and will be better.  We take care of our facilities, we are present to those around us, and we work with people who want to make our community better.  Everyone here who decorates the outside of the church or who weeds the lawn or does any work stemming from the belief that God is doing something at the foot of the West Hill in downtown Sharon is proclaiming hope to this area, and the community needs that hope.

Third, people in the community are hungering for spiritual practices. People are eager to learn how to pray, how to connect themselves to something transcendent, and how to find peace. These disciplines are the basic framework of Christian daily life.  At the same time, most unchurched people, and especially unchurched young people, are not going to break down our doors to ask us to teach them.  We need to be out in the community sharing our own practices in different contexts, including in informal one-on-one situations.  Self-help books, on-line forums, and places like the Emerald Tablet are all testaments to people looking for the kinds of answers that the church can provide, but we have to be where people are instead of waiting for them to find us.

A place to belong is another huge need that everyone has.  Churches can offer places to belong on a variety of levels from being able to anonymously sit with others in a liturgy to working together on projects to developing significant friendships in a small group.  Ensuring that we are welcoming and loving and respectful of what kind of belonging people are looking for can make a huge difference for people’s lives, as well as their faith.

Memory was another area that mattered to people.  By memory, I mean being able to have a place where someone can come to terms with what has happened in their lives, feel loved and accepted regardless of their past, and be able to integrate those past memories into their current life in a healthy way.  Such integration doesn’t necessary require lots of intense sharing of people’s past, although in some cases it could.  What is necessary is proclaiming in both word and deed that God does love everyone, the Jesus died and rose for all of us to destroy sin and death, and that we believe that forgiveness is real.  Such a message that comes through in all a church does allows people to come for the healing and wholeness they need and to experience it as the Holy Spirit works with and through them.

The community is also looking for partners in doing good, and the church can stand beside secular organizations and people of other faiths or of no faith to feed the hungry, to clean up neighborhoods, and to live out any of the ways that whatsoever we do to the least of our brothers and sisters, we do for Jesus.  An important aspect of partnering, however, is letting our partners know that we are engaged in this work because we believe in Jesus and that God is calling us to do it.  Such clarity allows us to make a difference in the community ad while explaining how and why we do it.

Finally, the participants in my project noted that in many cases the community needed permission to make positive changes, whether collectively for the city or even to do personal spiritual work themselves.  For a variety of reasons, including the increasing secularization of society, people are looking for credible leadership with faith and vision to say that good things matter and can be done.  The church can do that by pointing at community needs, by blessing a fledgling initiative, or by leading the way ourselves.  We have more credibility than we sometimes give ourselves credit for, especially when we are willing to live by what we profess.  People are sometimes afraid or too confused to step out and do good, but we don’t have to be.

I know this is a lot.  If you want to read the entire thesis, I’m happy to provide a link to a PDF of the entire thesis, complete footnotes and appendices. (That links is here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=17sIjhbM_UQA4Q7BVm87r9MVVl9qmc9ho ) I close with three quick summary points, however.  First, a whole lot of people in the community are not in our churches, but are searching for a deeper faith and spiritual life.  If we can meet them where they are and provide what they are longing for, we have a chance to share God’s love and good news in powerful ways.  Second, prayer and prayerwalking matters.  When we prayerwalk we can change our communities and see God at work in important ways.  When we bring others with us, we can connect them to God just by helping them see through new eyes.  Even if prayerwalking seems like a stretch to you, going out and doing it can be transformative.  During the focus group, one participant said, “Collectively, we all thought it was going to be weird.”  Then another person said, “And it was weird…[Then] you suddenly realize that this isn’t weird, in fact I was weird before [for not prayerwalking].”  Third, personally, I want thank you for your help and support during this process, and there is cake in the lounge after the service.      


Monday, April 9, 2018

Easter 2018 -- April Fool's Day!


Easter 2018 B RCL
                                                        Rev. Dr. Adam T. Trambley                               
April 1, 2018, St. John’s Sharon
Knock, knock
Who’s there?
Jesus
Jesus who?
Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Son of God who has all his enemies, including the last enemy of death, under his feet.

This is what you get when Easter is on April Fool’s Day. 
Jesus playing the best joke in the universe in his resurrection is a very old Christian theme, however.  Here’s how it went down.

In a stable in Bethlehem some two thousand years ago, the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.  Jesus went about healing the sick, casting out demons, and proclaiming the good news.  Jesus, the Light of the world, shone into the darkness, but too many people still loved the darkness.  The leaders of the people and others eager to hold onto their power and prestige plotted against him.  Satan put it into the heart of one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, to betray him for thirty pieces of silver.  His rock, Simon Peter, denied him three times.  Others scattered.

Death and hell and the Devil saw the prospect of success.  This Son of God, the Holy One of Israel, was now in their power.  They schemed with principalities and powers, with Roman pride and the pseudo-piety of the professionally religious.  Jesus was placed in front of Pontius Pilate and condemned to crucifixion.  A few hours later, Jesus was dead.

Death in those days can be pictured as darkness and shadow.  Hell was a place without life or light, where the shades of those who were died were kept, perhaps waiting for some salvation, or perhaps just stuck in eternal slumber.  The Devil, who despised life and the living, held sway, keeping the doors of death locked tightly, lest anyone escape.  That hell is precisely where Jesus descended into, taking with him every sin and curse that could be committed or come against us.  It all showed up on the Devil’s door, and Satan was smug and satisfied. He thought he had won.

His victory, of course, was short-lived.  He was an incompetent criminal kidnapping Clark Kent.  He was a birthday boy blowing trick candles.  He was the naïve mark who honestly believed he could open the can of mixed nuts and get mixed nuts, instead of those springy snakes that launch out everywhere once the lid is opened.  The Devil was not going to be able to keep the Son of God in an eternal tomb.

Instead, Jesus, even with holes in his hands and feet and side, let the Light shine.  Even the ultimate darkness of death could not overcome it.  The disguise glasses came off and the cape came on – and if you wonder, look on the cross on the reredos and Jesus is wearing cape.  (Technically, it’s called a cope and it symbolizes that he is our great high priest.)  Still, Jesus is wearing a cape.   The fire of God’s power and love could not be quenched by Satan’s putrid breath.   The joyful exuberance of the Son of God was popping out everywhere and not even the despair of death could contain it. When Jesus said, “Knock, knock,” hell did not expect the punchline that was coming.

And that punchline packed a real punch.  The early iconography of the resurrection depicts the devil splayed out under Jesus feet.  The doors of hell are broken in two – sometimes Jesus is standing on them with the Satan stuck underneath.  The locks and chains that had barred the door are broken and lying on the ground.  Jesus goes through the doors to the other side, ascending with Adam and Eve holding his hand and all those who have died before following behind.  Jesus, no longer dead, is in the tomb when the angels roll away the stone and Jesus appears to his disciples before ascending to his Father.

Brothers and sisters, that is the greatest April Fool’s Day prank of all time, even if it wasn’t precisely on April Fool’s Day that year, and even if April Fool’s Day hadn’t been invented yet.  In that great joke, all of human life becomes a comedy.  Certainly, there are tragic elements.  Suffering can be real.  Pain is all too common.  We still follow Jesus through death before we can come with him out the other side. 

But the tragic elements do not have the last word.  Whatever sins we commit, however heinous, can be forgiven with healing and restoration achieved.  Whatever evils are done to us, even as horrific as the crucifixion, can be transformed, in the end, to new life.  Whatever diseases and decay, whatever evil and wickedness, whatever addiction and oppression would seem to hold sway over us for a time and a season, or even for a lifetime, we know that we will die with Christ, be buried with Christ, and be resurrected with Christ.  Death is never the last word.

So we rejoice.  Some days we rejoice with more abandon than others.  Some days our rejoicing is more a matter of faith than of feeling.  But we always rejoice in the love of God and the new life of the risen Christ.  The joy of the resurrection renews the whole world, and we are in on the joke.

Alleluia! Christ is Risen! The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!