Today is a special audio Sunday Musing.
This past week, I was at Theology Beer Camp, an event hosted by Homebrewed Christianity and my friend, Tripp Fuller. It was three days of lectures and panels, great conversations and intense theological discussions.
Most of the people there were ex-evangelicals, theological misfits, the religiously-traumatized, those at the edges of institutional church, and people who find themselves spiritually homeless. Tripp asked me if I’d preach the “sending sermon” at the end. I almost turned down the request, but I’m glad I didn’t.
Today’s Sunday Musings is that sermon — “Pray Always, Trust the Work of Justice,” based on Luke 18:1-8, the gospel text assigned for October 16 in the lectionary. The sermon was directed specifically to the beer campers, but it is universal in prophetic hope.
You are invited to this final session of Theology Beer Camp. There’s no other gathering quite like it.
Luke 18:1-8
Jesus told his disciples a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, `Grant me justice against my opponent.' For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, `Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.'" And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"
INSPIRATION
One of the Theology Beer Campers quoted this poem to me several times. I share it with you — a haunting piece about our increasingly post-church world.
Once I am sure there's nothing going on
I step inside, letting the door thud shut.
Another church: matting, seats, and stone,
And little books; sprawlings of flowers, cut
For Sunday, brownish now; some brass and stuff
Up at the holy end; the small neat organ;
And a tense, musty, unignorable silence,
Brewed God knows how long. Hatless, I take off
My cycle-clips in awkward reverence,
Move forward, run my hand around the font.
From where I stand, the roof looks almost new-
Cleaned or restored? Someone would know: I don't.
Mounting the lectern, I peruse a few
Hectoring large-scale verses, and pronounce
"Here endeth" much more loudly than I'd meant.
The echoes snigger briefly. Back at the door
I sign the book, donate an Irish sixpence,
Reflect the place was not worth stopping for.
Yet stop I did: in fact I often do,
And always end much at a loss like this,
Wondering what to look for; wondering, too,
When churches fall completely out of use
What we shall turn them into, if we shall keep
A few cathedrals chronically on show,
Their parchment, plate, and pyx in locked cases,
And let the rest rent-free to rain and sheep.
Shall we avoid them as unlucky places? . . . .
— Philip Larkin, “Church Going,” read the entire poem HERE
The Cottage community is going explore GRATITUDE in a month-long series coming up in NOVEMBER. Instead of doing an Advent calendar in December as we did last year (there will still be Advent posts — just not every day), we are going to take a four-week gratitude journey including reflections from my book Grateful, gratitude prompts, some video lessons, and poetry. Together, we’ll remind each other of a world of gifts that call forth gratitude.
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SOUTHERN LIGHTS 2023 is back to its regular January schedule!
This coming January, Brian McLaren and I are hosting extraordinary guests including Irish poet Pádraig Ó Tuama, theologian Reggie Williams, and Franciscan sister and scientist Ilia Delio in a weekend festival of reimagining faith in words, for the world, and in context of the cosmos — poetry, theology, and science!
We’re also going to do some live podcasts (pod hosts TBA soon!) and great musicians including the wonderful Ken Medema.
Please join us in Georgia at beautiful St. Simons Island or virtually online. CLICK HERE for info and registration!
Sunday Musings