"The Temple's Not What You Think: It's God Pitching His Tent In Your Backyard"

In this chapter, Bethke speaks of the movement in scripture of God in the temple, God in Jesus, God in us, and finally, no need for a temple because God is our very dwelling place. Throughout time, he says, God has sought to pitch tent with us - to dwell with us. He then asks, "What if we believed that."

Do we think of God wanting to dwell with us?
How might this change the way we live?
How might this change the way we worship?

"People Are Not Who You Think: They're Neighbors To Love, Not Commodities To Use"

Speaking about shame and intimacy, Bethke emphasizes the importance of relationship and community. The law, he says, is given to redirect the value of humans away from being commodities and toward being God's image-bearers. Intimacy, he says, is to be fully known, and at the same time fully loved.

What are some of the ways that people are treated as commodities in our culture?
Are there ways that people are treated as commodities by the church?

​For next time, read chapters 4 & 5

For Lent this year we will be discussing Jefferson Bethke's book, "It's Not What You Think." There will be in in-person discussion on Wednesdays at 7pm, and reflections will be posted here each week, where you can make and read comments. Bethke's book is available from Amazon and Barnes and Noble for $8.49.

Here's the description:
New York Times best-selling author of Jesus > Religion challenges the accepted thinking of contemporary Christianity with the world-changing message Jesus actually brought. Jesus was most upset at people for seeing but not seeing. For missing it. For succumbing to the danger and idolatry of forcing God into preconceived ideals. What if there were a better way? What if Jesus came not to help people escape the world but rather to restore it? Best-selling author and spoken word artist Jefferson Bethke says that 'Christians have the greatest story ever told but we aren't telling it.' So in this new book, Bethke tells that story anew, presenting God's truths from the Old and the New Testaments as the challenging and compelling story that it is - a grand narrative with God at the center. And in doing so, Bethke reminds readers of the life-changing message of Jesus that turned the world upside-down, a world that God is putting back together.

This is our last installment.  Thanks so much to all who have shared, as well as those who have been following along.  I hope that our discussions have enriched your reading of the book. If you have ideas for further book discussions please pass them along.

The Cup of Salvation & To the Bottom

I recall seeing a news segment several years ago about a display of portraits that had been created to honor U.S. troops who have died while serving in Iraq.  One woman who was on the show talking about it is the widow of a soldier.  She is now raising their 5 children by herself.  In speaking about how difficult it has been for the children to deal with the death of their father, she noted that one young son has said that he doesn'’t ever want to be a daddy, “because daddies die.”

Too often we try to deal with life by not living.  We fear entering into loving and caring relationships because we may get hurt.  We keep our distance, never really creating close bonds, in order to lessen the potential pain of loss.  We hide in drugs, or alcohol, or food, or television, or whatever else, in order to avoid reality.  But, the fact is, we can'’t really avoid the truth that life contains pain, and sorrow, and loss.

Jesus understood this, and even though he longed for something different, the cup, held it, and drank it, all the way to the bottom.  However, in doing so, he showed us that pain, and sorrow, and loss are never the final word -- not when a life is lived in relationship to God.  Daddies die, sometimes for the wrong reasons.  But God is with us through it all.

Until we develop the ability to trust in that divine presence, we will go on hiding, and avoiding, and pretending that much of life isn’'t really there. That deep trust, that profound appreciation for the presence of God, is what the cup of salvation is about.  That should be the goal of our journey, knowing and trusting deeply that the God who is the source of all life, all love, all joy, all hope, is with us always.  That is what it is to drink from the cup of life – to trust.

As Nouwen suggests, in order for us to be able to do this, we need to do more than wish for it.  He suggests silence, word, and action as a model for moving toward this ability to trust. Listening in the silence, sharing our own lives in community, and making use of our divine gifts can help us to be aware of the presence of God in our lives, and in the lives of others. When we begin to trust in God, we will become able to trust in others, and when we become able to trust in others, we will trust even more so in God.

Conclusion & Epilogue

I will leave this to you.

Next time we will have our final installment covering chapter 8 to the end.

To Life

"A life story book is a collection of photographs, letters and stories put together as a sort of biography."  Heather and my mom both like to scrapbook.  They decoratively arrange pages with photos and stories of birthdays, holidays, weddings, vacations, bar mitzvahs, births, dedications, baptisms, and all sorts of family life events.

Very recently I was thumbing through the book my mom made about my Grandma, and I noticed that she had included a very serious illness and long hospital stay, far from home, that my Grandma had endured.  It hadn't struck me how unusual this was until I read about Bill's life story book.  This was a significant event in my family, and in my Grandma's life.  In many ways it forced her, and all of us, to appreciate life more.  But how often would be include such an event?

Nouwen says lifting our cup to life, "means we take all we have ever lived and bring it to the present moment as a gift for others, a gift to celebrate."  It is to say, "I am grateful for all that has happened to me and led me to this moment."  Are there events in your life which you might regret, or which have caused you pain, which in some way have led to joy, or hope, or peace, or some other good?  Has gratitude been transformational?

Drinking

Hae Jung Park was one of my best friends in seminary.  We are about the same height, dressed similarly, and seemed so much alike that people would joke that we were twins, separated at birth (he's Korean).  One of our favorite pastimes was to have "tea time."  It wasn't about the tea (usually coffee), but rather a time to talk - about life, theology, baseball, Korea, the U.S., the church, the campus, the seminary, whatever.

Tea time was about taking time to be together.  It was also about sharing our joys, frustrations, sorrows, doubts, and hopes.  Hae Jung has gone back to Korea, but I know that I could see him ten years from now and we could have tea time, and pick up right where we left off. We shared a deep trust that will endure.

Nouwen says that, "Drinking our cup is a hopeful, courageous and self-confident way of living."  This implies a willingness to put in the time, an ability to trust, and attitude of celebration for all that life is.  Is it perhaps our unwillingness to make time that so often keeps us from being able to move into trust and celebration.

For this week we read chapters 4 & 5. Next week we'll look at chapters 6 & 7.

Lifting

Nouwen writes, “…as we lift up our cup in a fearless gesture, proclaiming that we will support each other in our common journey, we create community.” He then notes, “Nothing is easy or sweet about community.” Often we speak of the church, or the congregation, as a community (community of seekers, community of believers, community of love, etc.).  However, creating community in such a setting seems somewhat difficult, so say the least.

I’'m reminded of a song that was in the curriculum materials when my dad taught Sunday school many years ago.  It went:

            I can be a Christian by myself
            Leave my dusty Bible on the shelf
            Sing a hymn and pray a bit
            God can do the rest of it
            I can be a Christian by myself

Often I think that we believe that by showing up and singing and praying together that we're somehow in community, when in reality we’re still doing it by ourselves, along with a group of other people doing it by themselves.

Our individual wounds, when shared, become sources of healing, according to Nouwen.  However, many in church community are reluctant or unwilling to share themselves.  How might relationships of trust be established that lead us beyond the types of relationships we often find in the world around us?  And, what of someone who places their own agenda ahead of the common journey?

The Cup of Blessings

“Staff and patients cannot have lunch together…we have reserved the Golden Room for this occasion, and no patient has ever been allowed in that room.  It is for staff only.” That statement from the hospital reminds me of the church.  Trevor's toast produced a very church-like response with the panic it wrought. Imagine if such a thing happened in worship!

Perhaps in our desire to keep things moving, safe and convenient, we miss the potential for blessing.  Perhaps we are too self-conscious to risk being a blessing to others, or to allow them to be a blessing to us.  How might we allow ourselves to be surprised, and blessed by, "the mystery of the Eucharist" (Holy Communion)? 

For this week we read Chapters 2 & 3.  Next time we will discuss Chapters 4 & 5.
 
The Cup of Sorrow:

Nouwen says the cup of sorrow is also the cup of joy.  How can this be? 

In writing about the sorrows of Adam, Michael and the others at l’Arche Daybreak, his own personal sorrows, and those of the world around him, Nouwen paints what could be considered a somewhat bleak picture of the human condition.  Our radical aloneness is also a radical interrelationship, for as Nouwen says, “For each of us our sorrows are deeply personal.  For all of us our sorrows, too, are universal.” 

The reality is that this bitterness is often too much for us to bear, and so we never get to the lifting and drinking.  Even Jesus, he points out, tried to avoid it.  However, because of, “a trust beyond betrayal, a surrender beyond despair, a love beyond all fears,” an, “intimacy beyond all human intimacies,” Jesus is able to drink the cup.  What experience do you have of this intimate relationship to God?  Or, how has it been elusive?

The Cup of Joy:

Nouwen continues his discussion of our interrelationship by describing the intimacy of his relationship with Adam.  The level of trust exhibited by Adam for Henri Nouwen exemplifies how our relationship to God should be.  Perhaps this is something of why Jesus says we need to be like children – they know what it is to rely on someone else.  Is it that if we are able to trust, rely on, surrender to God that we will find joy?  Perhaps our sorrows allow us to do just that.

Often we fear messy emotions.  Nouwen’s description of Bill moving from laughter to tears and back again reminded me of my grandfather telling jokes in the funeral home at calling hours.  Life is to be lived, even in the midst of death.  If we have the courage to uncover the sorrow, the courage to face it, the courage to acknowledge its existence, the joy will be uncovered.  The question is, how can we help one another to do this?

For this time we read the Prologue, Introduction, and Chapter 1.  What follows are thoughts and questions to start discussion.  Please don't feel to the need to respond to all, or even any.  If there are other points you would like to discuss please feel free.  For next week we will read Chapters 2 & 3. 

Introduction:

*Nouwen describes the movement in his life from the ornate chalice of his ordination to the simpler glass cups of the l'Arche Daybreak Community.   What might the cup of your life look like?  Has that changed over time? 

*In telling about his enthusiasm for ministry balanced against his naiveté, Nouwen describes a moment of mixed excitement and fear.  Is this like, or unlike, moments in your relationship with God?

*Have you ever considered Jesus' question, "Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink?"  What does that question mean to you?  What could it mean for us to drink the cup?  What might that cup contain?

Chapter 1:

*Nouwen writes that first we must hold the cup, saying, "It belongs to the essence of being human that we contemplate our life, think about it, discuss it, evaluate it, and form opinions about it.  Half of living is reflecting on what is being lived?"  Do you feel that contemplation and reflection are that important?  Do you ever take time to consider life -- your own, those around you, others? 

*"Poverty and wealth, success and failure, beauty and ugliness aren't just the facts of life.  They are realities that are lived very differently by different people, depending on the way they are placed in the larger scheme of things," says Nouwen.  How is your uniqueness affecting the way in which you live out who you are?