On the Verge of Sleeping in My Car

One of those calls you don't want to get as a pastor happened to me this week. A church member called me at home and said, "I wanted you to know that Sheila (not her real name) has run out of money and can't extend the lease on her apartment. She doesn't have a job, so she can't get another apartment. We might need to take Sheila in to stay with us, because she's on the verge of having to sleep in her car."

Please know that Sheila is a member of our church. She is a professional with graduate degrees. She has been unemployed for about a year, and without family support Sheila is running out of money. We have been supporting her in many ways, but I was just about out of ideas.

So instead of panicking, I tried something novel. I prayed about Sheila and her situation. I asked God to help me find the right person who could give her a place to live, rent-free and safe. A place Sheila could bring her cat. A place she wouldn't have to move out of in a week.

Guess what? A few people came to mind. All of the people I called are prayerful people, serious contemplative people. Within hours, one of those good people called me and said he had found an apartment for Sheila. Three months, rent-free. In a neighborhood where Sheila would feel safe as a single woman.

I cried when I got off the phone with this man. God is at work through him, and through us. As Tilden Edwards from the Shalem Institute says:

One of the most important things for a congregation is a group of spiritually disciplined, committed people at the core of the community, people whose personal and communal identities and actions are grounded in openness to God as liberating and loving light.

This group sees the community primarily as an organism mysteriously growing from God's grace, rather than as an organization that they can effectively construct from autonomous rational decisions.

All I know is, Sheila doesn't have to sleep in her car tonight. Thank God.

I'm Home. I've Arrived. In the Here. In the Now.

I am engaged in a 16-month program in Contemplative Leadership. Inspired by teachers from the Shalem Institute, I seek every day to spend time in contemplation. Sometimes this is 10 minutes, sometimes 20 or 30. I'll use this blog to help lead you into a more contemplative life, so we can all be on this journey together.

The title of this post is a phrase I learned from Shalem that I recite daily. It's a great temptation for us to be constantly preoccupied and distracted. We dwell on issues from the past. We worry about things coming up in the future.

To still our mind and to quiet our heart to be attentive to what is now, it's good to take a SLOW walk and simply say out loud or to yourself, I'm home. I've arrived. In the here. In the now. We experience God's presence with us in the present moment. The first step in a more contemplative life is to hit the "pause" button on our activities for a few minutes, to be attentive and mindful of what is happening inside us in this moment.

Allow me to share some quotations that help define the nature of contemplation.

"Contemplation is a continual condition of prayerful sensitivity to what is really going on." - Douglas Steere

"Contemplation is looking deepy at life as it is in the very here and now." - Thich Nhat Hanh

"Contemplation is awareness absorbed and amazed." - Teresa of Avila

Before the end of this day, take 10 minutes to sit quietly, with your eyes closed, and recite this phrase: I'm home. I've arrived. In the here. In the now. Then just listen.

Rainbow clergy

So if I ask you to picture a class of seminary students at the Presbyterian seminary in Chicago, what would you imagine?

Fifty years ago, that class might have looked like a bunch of white European men wearing beards and smoking pipes.

Today that class looks like a rainbow of diversity. I know, because I spent a day at McCormick Seminary in Hyde Park with other clergy who are supervising seminary interns. When I entered the room, I saw clergy and seminarians who were black, white and Asian; young, middle aged and senior; male and female; gay and straight; Presbyterian, UCC, and Baptist; wearing jeans, wearing dresses and wearing suits.

Our new pastoral intern is Rick Steele, who started seminary at age 60 after a long career in telecommunications. He spent the summer leading a mission trip of 80 people to rural, impoverished Kentucky; teaching Vacation Bible School; and supporting a not-for-profit children's center on the south side of Chicago.

The face of our church leaders is changing as quickly as the face of our culture and society. Both McCormick (Presbyterian) and Chicago Theological Seminary (United Church of Christ) are training a diverse, dynamic, Spirit-led group of students to lead the church into the future.

Let's give thanks for a rainbow of clergy, who will bring God's Word new life! Let's give thanks for our seminaries and their hard work in training clergy for this new world! And let's give thanks for the people -- young and old, gay and straight, male and female -- whom God will call into ministry from our very own congregation. Do you see someone who has gifts for Christian ministry? Let them know. Let me know.

We will be blessed, challenged and transformed by our pastoral intern this year. Get to know Rick Steele. He's been sent to us for a reason.

Buying a cup of coffee

I learned last week that our local PADS organization is facing some significant funding cuts. This outstanding ministry to homeless men, women and families has experienced a 40 percent reduction in government funding. PADS (Public Action to Deliver Shelter) usually begins operating in mid-September, but this year the season will begin Oct. 1.

Emily Akers, the PADS staff member who works with First United, asked if we might be able to donate the cost of thee coffee that is served to the 50-60 people who spend the night in Centennial Hall on Monday nights once a week. She asked if we could donate the cost of plates, napkins and flatware, too, because the PADS budget has been so sharply reduced.

"Of course," I said. Our operations manager, Fred Henders, will look at the church coffee budget to see if we need to order more to serve for the PADS clients. We will offer PADS the use of our reusable dishes, cups and glasses, and ask our custodians to run the dishwasher every Tuesday morning after the clients have left. These are such small things to ask.

But it troubles me greatly that our most vulnerable neighbors are facing these cuts. Walk-In Ministry executive director Cristy Harris said that their monthly visits have risen dramatically over the summer, and they too are challenged to find more resources to meet the requests for assistance.

Martin Luther King Jr. said the church is called to be the conscience of the nation. The day after I learned about these cuts to PADS, I had a meeting with my Congresswoman Judy Biggert. I told her in no uncertain terms that I cannot accept this shrinking support for the most impoverished members of our society. I hope you will join me in speaking to your state and federal legislators on behalf of those who do not have a voice in our political system.

They deserve much more than just a cup of coffee.

Help for Somalia

Every time I get hungry, I think about Somalia.

Ten million people in East Africa are hungry. Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya have the lowest level of rainfall in more than 50 years. It's a crisis. Crops are dead, livestock have perished, and local food prices have gone up.

It's a famine: acute malnutrition exists among children (exceeding 30%); more than two persons per 10,000 die daily; and people are not able to access and sufficiently utilize food and other staples.

This causes thousands of people to flee to Kenya from Somalia, and now they have a drought and a refugee crisis.

Meanwhile, I will be attending a 25th anniversary party tonight for a couple I love. Tomorrow, I will be celebrating our church organist, Cathryn Wilkinson, at her farewell party. And finally this morning I put it all together.

Instead of buying an unneeded gift for my friends' anniversary, I will donate money in their honor to the United Church of Christ for famine relief in Somalia. Instead of giving a gift to Cathryn for her farewell, I will donate money in her honor to the Presbyterian Church disaster relief fund for East Africa.

This weekend, while I go to the refrigerator to get what I want for each meal, our denominations are at work in East Africa to provide family food packages, nutritional supplements for children, water for livestock, as well as emergency shelter, clothing and hygiene materials.

The United Church of Christ has issued a $250,000 emergency relief appeal for people in the Eastern Horn of Africa. The Presbyterian Church is at work with other partner agencies, including Church World Service, to help save lives.

If you'd like to be part of this, you may send gifts to:

United Church of Christ
Financial Services
700 Prospect Avenue
Cleveland, OH 44115

or

Presbyterian Church USA
P.O. Box 643700
Pittsburgh, PA 15264-3700

Mark your gifts for East Africa Famine Relief. Be grateful for the love of Christ and for the work of the wider church.

Learning Spirituality on You Tube

This morning I went to Blue Max for a breakfast meeting with our Faith in Action committee and ran into another church member buying a cup of coffee. This man (I'll call him Dan) had talked with me a few months ago about his spiritual life, saying he wanted to go deeper in his prayers but wasn't sure how to move forward.

I told Dan about centering prayer, and suggested that he look up a few books by Thomas Keating, who developed this prayer method. While Dan was in my office, I did an internet search on "centering prayer" and found a You Tube video of the man himself -- Thomas Keating explaining centering prayer! Nice. The world of technology is like a virtual church.

So this morning Dan told me that he uses centering prayer every day and it has changed his life. Thanks, You Tube.

I was part of a contemplative prayer retreat for clergy a week ago, and we were talking about the importance of humility in the life of a pastor. Our leader Tilden Edwards said we could think about our work in developing a sermon as being similar to making a Tibetan Buddhist sand mandala. I'd heard of these, but didn't know the details.

A quick Google visit brought me to a You Tube video of the Dalai Lama and other priests creating a gorgeous sand mandala, only to destroy it as soon as it was finished. This spiritual practice helps demonstrate the reality of impermanence. It helps Buddhists learn to let go of the results of their efforts on the material plane.

Who knew that You Tube could help us go deeper in our life with God?

Keeping the Sabbath Holy

This weekend I am at a contemplative prayer retreat for clergy. We are staying at a Church of the Brethen conference center in New Windsor, MD. On my morning jog, I see more cows than people. The center is placed in a lovely farm community, surrounded by fields, and the sky here seems enormous.

We have had a silent Sabbath today, practicing silence together since 8:00 pm last night. All of our meals are eaten silently. I've learned to eat for pleasure, rather than just to fuel my body. I've learned that food tastes a lot better when you actually pay attention to what you're eating. I can remember every single thing I've eaten in the last 24 hours, because there were no distractions to my meals, and I was not in a hurry. I'd like to eat this way more often!

Tonight we gathered for a silent communion service. We have learned to sit in a circle in quiet reflection, and only the presider spoke during the service. We shared the bread and juice quietly, and passed the peace by grasping each other's hands and looking into each other's eyes, with no words. I could feel the joy of the sacrament, and my heart was full of gratitude at the end of the service.

I walked outside to watch the sun set. Clouds created shadows around the apricot and scarlet rays of the setting sun. And when I looked to the south, I could see lightning flashing across the sky. To the east, the sky was light and to the north, there were just a few clouds. Though the storm raged many miles away to the south, the rest of the horizon was peaceful. An image of life, when you take the time to keep the Sabbath holy.