The Rise and Fall of Mike

It was early on in our recovery journey as a community where our fantasies turned to dust. Or at least mind did. I was baptizing this guy named Mike. He had been with us awhile, coming in early each Sunday morning to angrily set up chairs. Then he's sit in one and glare at the practicing musicians. He wasn't a fan of the music, he wanted to get to the meeting part of Sunday. Eventually he decided that he wanted to get baptized.

This took awhile to figure out. Our pilot project start up had not considered that anyone would show up and attend it, much less stick around long enough to ask to be baptized. We figured it out. I cannot remember now if he was in the first group of people who were baptized in the borrowed baptismal font in the sanctuary of our home church or if his was later, in the river. But what I do remember is what happened as he rose out of the water and slicked his hair out of his eyes.

"I can feel it. This is what I needed. This is the thing that is going to change everything for me." He declared this with conviction and shivers ran up my spine.

Look, I love miracles. I believe in miracles. I am scared to death of presumption and magical thinking. I've lost track of the timeline but I do not think he survived the year. The disease took him and I do not think this is at all what he had in mind when he rose up from those waters, cleansed and renewed, my brother in Christ.

Paul says something like this in Romans 6:3, "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?" Yes. Yes. I know this. But I forget.

Jesus lived without illusion. This is our work too.

"We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life."

Romans 6:4

Mike rose out of those waters and into a new life. It turned out it was not quite what he hoped for but it pleased God to give it to him anyway. I was hoping for longer for Mike - a miracle. I'm learning that faith does not guarantee miracles for us to have a renewed life but it will ask us to live without illusion and no small measure of courage.

The Dynamic Duo

The first baptism I ever performed was in a church. It totally freaked out those who came to be baptized. We were meeting in a school but walked across the street to a church for the baptism. I lacked imagination for what a jolt that would be to the system of our community. The church had graciously allowed us to use their baptismal font after their traditional 11 am service. Perfect. They would leave and we would arrive - no problem. Except that my friend freaked out. She was intimidated by the steeple, its people, and the formality of the environment. We survived the trauma. Barely.

Her shame attack was associated with past experiences in a church that sounded more like John the Baptist than Jesus. Remember? John was all about repentance. He went around in grunge attire shouting, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." People traveled great distances to take him up on his offer to wash away their past and start fresh.

To us, John the Baptist sounds like he is issuing some sort of threat. Why can blame us? That is how it is presented in many churches. To the people who followed John this was a promise. My friend had years of triggered messaging from a church that preached a message of fire and brimstone to her, a young woman who feared she was dancing very close to the flames. Her experience resulted in shame and guilt but their experience, those who heard the message of John, was one of pardon. My friend heard her pastor demanding that she own up to her depravity, ego and pride. But this message was ineffective because these were not her core issues!

My friend's core issue was hopelessness. John the Baptist preached the message of repentance BEFORE Jesus stepped up and taught us the concept of grace. This was not a haphazard or mixed message from God to us. God gets us. God is not focused on us as miserable sinners; he is well aware that what we need is faith in HIS commitment and power to renew and restore what humanity breaks. Soon the weather will be warm and our community will return to the water for another opportunity to wash away the past and start fresh. Our usual spot is the James River. The bottom is rocky, the water often brown with swirling mud; I usually see a snake or two observing our ritual. I'm always glad when it is over and we all manage to safely return to shore. It seems more fitting, somehow, to enter into those rocky rapids with a little fear and trembling.

What Does Easter Mean to You?

Technically, Easter is the period of fifty days from Easter Sunday to Pentecost Sunday. So although our traditional Easter Sunday has passed...I'm still thinking about the resurrection. I guess it means more to me this year, this promise of God's breath resurrecting dry dead bones. This past year has been one of great losses for many. One of the things I think about on Easter are some of the ways I see people believing in the power of resurrection. My friends, who before they met lost spouses through divorce, each lost a children through death related to SUD and Mental Health issues but somehow in the intervening years found each other. Today they are married and living a resurrected life. They have certainly not forgotten their losses, but have found their dry, dead bones breathed on by God, revived by love when they least expected it.

Or my friend Lori who finds a sense of purpose in sitting with other mom's who have lost children. Or another who, having lost a child pours all his energy into finding ways to help other families maybe save their own children before it is too late. What generosity of spirit! They have not run from their deaths; they have leaned into resurrection. And it is hard.

Or someone who early on in the pandemic donated extra that she had to help pay rent for someone in our community who could not have kept her home without that support. Totally unsolicited, unaware of the need, she gave at a time, just the right time, to revive a young couple who was losing all hope.

This is not just an individual matter. Consider St. James Church here in Richmond, Va. which burned in 1994. Built in the 1770's it burned to the ground. But what did they do? They carried on. They even acquired a motto: "Let us rise up and build" Nehemiah 2:18.

How might we all benefit from a new motto, after a long year of losses?How might we rise up and build?

Day 22: Very Human

“The goal of the Christian spiritual journey is not to become less human and more divine; it is to become more fully human. Salvation is not to rescue us from our humanity; it is to redeem our humanity.”

Sacred Companions, David Benner, p.35

What if…we were willing to embrace our humanity while working out our spirituality within the context of our very human selves? Would that change how we view self and others, even God?

The purpose of salvation is to restore to wholeness that which is broken.

Creatures break stuff. God heals broken people.

If the goal of life is to avoid breaking things, then life is hopeless. But if broken things can be healed, repaired, restored, renewed and transformed….then, let the adventures begin!

Do you respond to obvious signs of the human condition as if being human is offensive? Think about this. Sit with the question. See where it leads you. We are approximately halfway through our Advent season.

Breathe.

Day 22: Very Human

“The goal of the Christian spiritual journey is not to become less human and more divine; it is to become more fully human. Salvation is not to rescue us from our humanity; it is to redeem our humanity.”

Sacred Companions, David Benner, p.35

What if…we were willing to embrace our humanity while working out our spirituality within the context of our very human selves? Would that change how we view self and others, even God?

The purpose of salvation is to restore to wholeness that which is broken.

Creatures break stuff. God heals broken people.

If the goal of life is to avoid breaking things, then life is hopeless. But if broken things can be healed, repaired, restored, renewed and transformed….then, let the adventures begin!

Do you respond to obvious signs of the human condition as if being human is offensive? Think about this. Sit with the question. See where it leads you. We are approximately halfway through our Advent season.

Breathe.