November 2019

1 Corinthians 2: 12
Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God.

I am a lifelong Episcopalian though there were years when I was not a churchgoer and not thinking too much about spiritual things. When my kids were young I wanted to reignite that part of my life as well as provide a foundation for my children in the way of religion and spirituality. As I type these words and imagine the trajectory I have taken in my faith life, I feel awe-inspired to notice how this journey has deepened and expanded in ways that were unimaginable to me as a younger person. This offers me a sense of wonder about my trajectory going forward, where will it lead me, what amazing things are ahead? Where will our combined trajectories lead us as a church community?

Many years ago, as I listened to what the church was telling me, the second great commandment rolled around in my mind “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself”. I thought -- well that’s all fine and good but I have no idea how to do that! And I recognized that I “failed” over and over again when it was hard (disclaimer, I still do)!

When I began to learn about Nonviolent Communication in 2009, I had the aha moment of “oh, that’s how!!!”, this is it – here’s a toolbox for my faith!! It is not so easy, however now I have the tools and greater clarity to see what is blocking me! It was at this moment that the growth in my spiritual life progressed more exponentially. I like to think of it as a deep pool that I dove into and I am swimming and swimming, deeper and deeper. It is a journey that has significantly strengthened my relationship with others, and myself, and provided clarity where there was often confusion. As we are called over and over again to love our neighbor, so here we are in community.

That reminds me of the following quotes from the book Amazing Grace by Kathleen Norris, that I read many years ago: “… conversion is no more spectacular than learning to love the people we live with and work among. It does not mean seeking out the most exotic spiritual experience, or the ideal religion, the holiest teachers who will give us the greatest return on our investment. Conversion is seeing ourselves, and the ordinary people and our families, our classrooms, and on the job, in a new light. Can it be that these very people – even the difficult, unbearable ones – are the ones that God has given us, so that together we might find salvation?”(p. 44)

and later in the same book:

“Another insight of Thomas Merton’s, that “theology really happens in relations between people,” was of great use to me when I began to consider, with much fear and trembling, that I would have to join the church. And that my grandmother Totten’s church, just up the street from my house, would have to be it. Because it’s where I live, and the Christian faith is best lived out among those who see us without pretensions, in the day-to-day circumstances of life.”(p. 108)

So about those combined trajectories – what can we accomplish together? I don’t know but I have seen over and over again that the most powerful things happen when each of us searches for the Yes inside and follows that. The Yes inside, in my view, is God’s call to us and different for each of us. I believe that hearing the Yes takes a discerning heart, which comes from practices in our lives that create the space to hear the call and the will to answer it, as well as support, encouragement and insight from others. Nonviolent Communication provided me with a huge YES that has captivated my mind and heart for ten years and has provided a toolbox for the most challenging experiences of my life, as well as a community of other trained individuals that support me as well. I am proud that this year, after years of hard work, I became a certified trainer with the Center for Nonviolent Communication (www.cnvc.org).

I’ve heard it said that “polarization” is one of the biggest problems facing mankind today. Learning to communicate effectively in community has the potential to impact every cause with which we wrestle: environmental concerns, social concerns, family concerns, organizational concerns.

Many of you may know that I have been offering Nonviolent Communication workshops at St. James the Less – my first was in 2015 to the youth group.  After two intros for the 4th Quarter group in the last year, we started a six month practice group which I have to say was one of the most rewarding experiences I have had at St. James the Less in my 21 years here. The level of connection engendered in this group was wonderful and at the end of each session I felt renewed hope for our world. We are about to begin another six-month group, which we are opening to the community beyond SJTL. I imagine I will continue to offer some form of this work as long as I have breath. If you have a group to which you would specifically like me to make an offering, let me know! (jbericksen2013@gmail.com)

Rock is encouraging us to dream together at St. James the Less. I have a dream of a congregation where each of us has a Yes calling as loud and clear as mine is to me, that cannot be ignored. What’s your Yes? Can you hear it? Are you making space in your life to hear it? Are you asking God to show it to you? What’s the next step toward your Yes that you can make with fear and trembling and the support of a loving community and a loving God? How can we help you, how can I help you?

With love,
Julie Ericksen

This Means … 

“The body of Christ, the bread of Heaven; the blood of Christ, the cup of salvation”

When I say these words to our children, our youngest faithful, during Communion, these are some of the things I tell them to explain what these words mean:

This means God loves you.
This means God knows your name.
This means God thinks you are absolutely great.
This means that if you ever get lost, God knows where you are and will find you.
This means that when you are sad, God is sad, too.
This means that whatever happens, God will always be close by.
This means that God understands.
This means that God is your home and, guess what?  It means you are His.  For ever. Selah. 
Amen.

By Harrison Higgins, October 2019

Yearbook Entry #2 The Amazing Sushi

Yearbook Entry #2

The Amazing Sushi by Michele Murphy

After celebrating my former church’s centennial, everyone moved to the parish hall where a bountiful reception was held. I was part of the team that worked in the kitchen and the game plan was a pass-around appetizer affair. Each member of the team had prepared a signature appetizer, as well as soliciting our town restaurants and markets for donations. My son was the chef at the local Irish Pub and planned to contribute a noteworthy presentation. His appetizer consisted of raw sushi-grade tuna in a small dice served on a triangular fried wonton drizzled with a soy chive oil. It was beautifully presented on a large black platter. Since the platter was so large, I decided to bypass our young servers and pass the dish around to the guests myself. As I made my way through the crowded room and eased my way into the small groups, I announced my presence with a call of, “sushi-grade tuna,” sounding like a fishmonger on Barnegat wharf.

The reaction to my arrival was animated to say the least. Some guests stopped talking and immediately scooped up a crispy wonton with the delectable highly mounded tuna and made sounds and moans not usually heard in the church parish hall. Others scrutinized the platter with its beautiful appetizer and asked cautiously, “What is it?” To my reply, they demurely lowered their eyes and with a slight shake of the head and a whispered, “No thank you,” they turned away. Were they embarrassed because the tuna was raw? Should it be covered with another wonton chip? Did they not want to offend me since I was presenting this treat to them? Whatever their reasons, the reaction was repeated by numerous guests.

Then there were the angry responses, “No, no! I don’t do sushi!! Take it away!” While others waved their hands back and forth saying, “Yuk! No, no, not sushi!” Was their waving to prevent me from forcing a tuna-covered wonton down their throat? Should I wave back?

After the second time of passing the platter around the room to the same reactions, I decided to project my personality into the situation. “My son is a chef and he prepared this and if you’ve never had sushi before, you will be hooked with this delicacy.” A couple of very brave souls took the bait, but most held their ground and their strong denial.

After the fourth time of passing the replenished sushi platter around the room, I felt like the pied piper with a trail of raw-fish eaters following in my wake. One of the followers even suggested that people should pay me for this delectable treat. There was still resistance by some but not as blatant as initially observed. (Perhaps the cheese puffs had mellowed them.)

As I continued to interject myself into the little clusters of people calling out with my fish-monger greeting, I became stronger and suggested to the hand-wavers and the angry non-sushi eaters that they could perhaps tone-down their inappropriate responses and be a bit more tolerant of the raw tuna and that a simple, “No, thank you,” was all that was necessary. My comments seemed to shame them into acknowledging their rudeness to sushi and they immediately became humble (after all it was a church affair). Wanting to appease me (and possibly the tuna) they volunteered to try an appetizer. It was amazing to see. I thought I was on the “Sushi Reality Show.” I was prepared to cheer them on, perhaps hold their hand, or find them a quiet corner in which they could perform their miraculous deed of bravery.

When reflecting on people’s reaction to the amazing sushi, I wondered if we react to all things passed before us with the same energy as was demonstrated.

Is our “sushi behavior” a reflection of who we are?

Do we just want the sure thing, or are we willing to extend ourselves and try something that makes us uncomfortable?

Do we need a hovering cheerleader? Someone to encourage us and acknowledge our bravery?

Is this how we face all obstacles when they intrude on our life?

Not being a philosopher but a mere “passer of sushi” I leave the answers to others much wiser on such matters.

Yearbook Entry #1 "By Our Fruit"

Yearbook Entry #1

Year A Proper 21 WEDNESDAY, 2 October 2019
St. James the Less Episcopal. Ashland, VA
“By Our Fruit”

Collect: O God, you declare your almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity: Grant us the fullness of your grace, that we, running to obtain your promises, may become partakers of your heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Matthew 7:13-21
“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will know them by their fruits.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.”

We begin looking through the focus of “Lead Holy Spirit Into the Depths of God”-- our new yearly theme. On Wednesdays, we have a little more time to play and unpack some things, to filter things through these ideas.

Jesus warns us that those who try to follow him will not be the crowd. We will have to get off the interstate and take the side route. We will need to avoid the main entrance and come in the service door. There will be large gatherings following false prophets. I saw an online satire article about a certain mega-church pastor who had started a new line of Pastor Suits under the title of “Sheep’s Clothing.” I snorted. Having heard some of this man’s talks, it is hard to call them sermons, I doubt he would catch the reference from today: false prophets are wolves in sheep’s clothing.

Then Jesus talks about us bearing fruit. It is how to know the good tree from the bad. What is its fruit? Bearing fruit is something we all do. But what kind of fruit do we bear?

Here is one of the key things about the life of following Jesus. For too long in my life and leadership in the Church, I have thought the fruit I was trying to bear was outcomes, product, stuff I could point to and say done. (Looking at through the Rohr book Falling Upward, this was not bad but more likely the first half of life.) But more and more I think that our fruit is far more intangible, and all the more necessary.

In Galatians, Paul unpacks the Fruit of the Spirit, and not a one of them is something we do, but rather it is who we are. It is the difference from being an apple farmer and being an apple tree. An apple farmer may produce apples. An apple tree cannot help but make apples. St. Paul gives us two lists in Galatians 5. The works of the flesh, and the fruit of the Spirit. The works of the flesh are things we do, or rather should not do. “Fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these.” [Gal. 5:19b-21a] Notice how many of these are about being divisive. In these divisive times, think on that. If people are working toward Us v. Them, no matter how righteous the cause, be wary.

But when we are the apple tree, when our DNA is structured in such a way for us to bear fruit, what does that look like? “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” It takes a long time and a lot of work to rewrite your DNA. Or as Jesus put it, “For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

This year, I trust that the Holy Spirit will lead us together into some deep places. Deep can be scary. Deep can also be awe-inspiring. We drove by the Luck Stone Quarry out in Goochland the other day. I tried to describe it to my kids. I remember going out there on a field trip with my school. Looking into it from the top, HUGE earth-movers at the bottom looked smaller than Hot Wheels cars. It is scary on the rim. But from the bottom looking up, the amount of work to make this inverted mountain, this hole as big as a mountain, was inspiring. It is all about how we view things.

If we are led by the Spirit, the nature and tenor of what we do will be like these fruit of the Spirit. In the midst of what is setting up to be some dark days, (I pray that they will not be but we all can see the clouds forming) living lives led by the Spirit will be all the more required and all the more necessary. May we pray it together, “Lead Holy Spirit, into the Depths of God!” Amen