Lingering Questions...

I recently heard a speaker who posed a question and it captured my imagination as we, at Zacchaeus' Tree, develop as a community of faith I wondered how it might invite us into a different way of being "the Church."

He asked this, "Is the Church a place where difficult questions are asked and allowed to linger?" 

In my experience talking with people in all different walks of life, I have not gotten the impression that most people expect "the Church" to be a place where we ask questions or much less where it is safe to ask them.  I wonder if over time the communities of faith that developed fell into patterns of community that gave stability but turned into a rigid adherence to rules, rather than a commitment to continued discovery.  Isn't that how most of us work?  We start something and as we get settled into the routine we do less of the things that created the routine and made it exciting in the beginning.  Then it becomes the norm and changing it means that we have to be uncomfortable again and experiment with new things.  During time of high creativity we expect lots of changes and energy around what is new.  When we begin to get comfortable and edge into maintaining things it is easy to forget to keep trying new things and looking for new opportunities for growth.   We can also do so many new things that we never get settled into living giving routines and customs that invite us to go further in our faith and the development of community. 

Part of developing new communities and routines is in order to create a better system to maintain but if we do not consistently evaluate the things that we are maintaining we will miss opportunities for further growth and discovery.  It isn't easy to be a place where we ask difficult questions.  All people aren't ready to deal with the same difficult questions at the same time.  How can we endeavor to honor these questions, accept the discomfort and support one another as we navigate the questions with integrity, hope and love?  I want to be a part of a community where the questions that lay upon our minds can be asked safely and with the support of those around us.  What would that look like for you?  Would you participate?  And how would we know that we were that kind of place for the new people we meet? 

The second part of the question refers to letting things linger.  If you are at all like me, you prefer to have an answer--yes or no.  I tend to run quickly to an answer, even if it is painful simply so I don't have to live with uncertainty.  As much as I value uncertainty and its invitation to grow...I don't like it and it is a discipline for me to practice letting things linger.  In community it can be even harder to let things linger because we each are trying to manage our own anxiety and to gauge the anxiety of others.  We can reach out for any certainty, even a wrong one simply so we don't have to live with the unknown anymore.  How can we practice the discipline of letting things hang around for a while, unanswered and see what possibilities develop?  What does it look like for a group of individuals to figure out ways to linger together around particular questions and care for one another while we wait?   How can we as a small community cultivate a culture of question asking and a comfort with allowing our questions to linger--unanswered but not forgotten?

There are lots of questions...let's become a place and a community to ask them!

Introducing new blogger

My name is Melissa Landau and I am starting a new blog for Z Tree church in Indianapolis. I hope to include news about discussions from Bible study, Congregational Reflection time during worship services, and book studies so that others can share in the conversation. Inviting thoughts, comments, and observations about participation in opportunities to minister around town would be included as well. There are no doubt plenty of things to talk about that I have not even thought of yet! Maybe other folks will have some good ideas, too.

I enjoy attending Z Tree because it offers an accepting environment for spiritual exploration within the context of the Christian tradition. I can ask questions and receive responses that reflect depth of thought and knowledge. The questions that come up from others are thought-provoking and often challenge me to look at issues from a different perspective and think them through more thoroughly than I have in the past. My ideas and comments are met with respect. More importantly, I am met with respect.

I am proud to come from a church background that has a history of people holding fast to their faith and staying together even when enduring persecution during the Protestant Reformation. They suffered because they dared to challenge the status quo and bring forth new ideas and ways of worshiping and serving. But they never lost sight of the message of Jesus and they eventually journeyed to places all over the globe to bring the Gospel to new areas. We at Z Tree share in the challenge of this tradition as we seek to come together in community and find ways to minister to those who could use some Good News.

I am looking forward to bringing ideas and information to others and looking forward to hearing what people have to say.

Love is not Tame

"Love is an untamed force.  When we try to control it, it destroys us.  When we try to imprison it, it enslaves us.  When we try to understand, it leaves us feeling lost and confused."  Paulo Coelho

When I read, The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis for the first time I was drawn into the description of Aslan.  Aslan is the Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer of Narnia and is also a lion.  The thing about Aslan is that he is always close to the people and talking beasts of Narnia but he cannot be held or captured.  Throughout the story we are reminded that he is not a tame lion.  As I read this quote, it reminded me of the way that characters in the book long to hear from and talk to Aslan but there is no way to control him.  He comes...always at the right time but not a moment before.  Or maybe he is there all along but just doesn't appear until the moment of decision.  


As the "Church" has developed over time and into institutional structures, many of which are valuable and helpful to the edifying of the Body of Christ in the world, we have sometimes sought to control God or at the very least humanity's understanding of God.  Keeping God safely within our expectations and comfort levels.  It is hard for me when I don't understand things.  Part of me would love to get "it" and never have to deal with the ambiguity of living my life without all the answers.  But the truth is that the more I live into the Good News of God's love for the whole world I get further from the black and white and go deeper into a fullness of grace and peace than I ever imagined.  Accepting that I won't understand it all, makes it easier for me to live into Jesus' challenge to "Love the Lord with all you heart, soul and mind" and to "Love your neighbor as yourself."  

God is Love!  Here I begin...

There is rarely an explanation that really shows how and why love happens here or there.  There is nothing that explains how love can be so difficult and even sometimes lead to our own suffering and yet we continue to search for it.  Love in all its manifestations is  powerful and motivating while also being very unpredictable.  It seems that love picks us not the other way around.    

Love is a word and an idea that many of us use to talk about our passions, to push us to do better and sometimes it is also the excuse for why we do not do enough.  When we love the lines get blurred and our ability to be objective goes with it, at least that is true of me.  But I don't think that is all bad...when we are subjective, we are less likely to make judgements based on assumptions, stereotypes, or extremist opinions.  What if we were able to make our decisions always based on personal experience?  What if we "always" knew someone who was affected?  How would that change our rhetoric about family, human sexuality, politics, immigration, workers' rights, gun control, abortion...and the list goes on?  How might we begin to see the world through the eyes of love?  What would it be like if every agenda became the life or reality of our child?  How might our reactions be different? 

I imagine that we would all see ways that we had over simplified our arguments due to lack of knowledge or experience.  I imagine we would be more compassionate with others and ourselves as we began to delve into the complexities of an issue that connects to our lives.  I imagine that we would listen more than talk.  I imagine that we would be less efficient but more effective in our relationships and world.  I imagine that we would find great abundance and joy in the living of life.  

Love is tangled web...and with faith and hope I pray we will weave together a story of reconciliation and redemption for all!  I believe that love like Aslan, always shows up just in time!  As God leads us by loving us despite our faults and failures we can do the same for one another.  I imagine that love will continue to transform the world as we learn to let it control our lives rather than our lives trying to control love.  

What’s In A Story: A Study of Jesus’ Parables at Z Tree!

Jesus often used short stories, called parables, to teach people about God. He used ordinary symbols, ideas and things that most people are familiar with to open eyes to the larger realities of God’s love and Kin(g)dom in the world. In the next 8 weeks, beginning Saturday April 9, 2011 at 4pm we will be studying 8 of these parables.

We will focus each week on a particular parable. You are invited to read the parable each day and consider three questions. As a group we will reflect on those same questions and explore the meaning, context, and application of the parable on our lives.

Are you read the parable consider these questions

What is the story about? (characters, theme, plot)

How does the story affect you? (provoke, challenge, confuse, entertain, etc)

What do you think it means?

Readings

Week 1: Mustard-seed & Leaven. Matthew 13:31-33

Week 2: Ten virgins. Matthew 25:1-13.

Week 3: Wise and foolish builders. Matthew 7:24-27.

Week 4: Laborers hired. Matthew 20:1-16.

Week 5: Tree and its fruit. Luke 6:43-45.

Week 6: Prodigal son. Luke 15:11-32.

Week 7: Vine and branches. John 15:1-5.

Week 8: Good Samaritan. Luke 10:30-37.

Join us in reading and exploring these stories through you own personal devotional time and on Saturdays at 4pm!

How do you know you are living?

In Deuteronomy 30:15-20 Moses leaves the Israelites with these words as they prepare to go into the promised land without him.  Moses had led them through 40 years of faith, complaining, misunderstanding, and developing an identity.  As he looks into the land that he will never see he highlights the choice that is set before them.  You can choose life or you can choose death.  But how do you know which choice you made?  What does it look like to live?  As I thought about the ways that we can tell we are alive I thought about this movie I used to love, well I still do :), as a little girl.  In the movie this little girl, who doesn't know how to be jaded reminds a whole town about what it means to live!  Here's the clip that I thought is a great example of her ability to show others they were alive.

Polly Visits Miss Snow

As much as I believe that life is what you make it and that your attitude can make a huge difference...choosing life is not always easy.  Some times it means that we will feel more deeply the pain of loss, need to sacrifice our own desires for the betterment of the ones we love, or simply exist in the ambiguity of a middle way.  As a community it is an important question that we ask...how do we know that we are living?  What are the signs of health and vitality even as we are small and beginning?  What actions of the community will help us to continue to choose life and to embrace the opportunities for service in God's name?

It is my hope that we will journey together and challenge one another to bring together our spoken Christian values and our lived values...in my experience the more closely our values line up, the more coherent our message of the love of God for all.   So that we may live in the way of Christ who walked among and with us and continues to inspire our lives and our community!

We are God's Creation!

“While I know myself as a creation of God, I am also obligated to realize and remember that everyone else and everything else are also God's creation.” --Maya Angelou

It's been a great weekend of fun, worship, and challenges to move beyond our own hopes and to engage in God's hopes for the world.  In worship we talked about what it means to follow Jesus.  (Check out the text for the day from the Gospel of Matthew 4:12-23)  

Following isn't always how our world suggests we learn.  Although it does seem to be one of the best ways to learn.  As children we learn most things by watching and following the lead of our parents and caregivers.  Haven't you ever talked to parents who began to watch their language or realize some of their own habits when their children start to mirror their actions back to them?  When we watch others and are in relationship with them we take on some of their way of being.  So it makes sense that as we grow in relationship with Jesus we will take on his way of being.  But in many ways that is a scary prospect...how can we begin to follow one who was willing to give up his whole life for the sake of those who cried out for his Crucifixion?  What does it mean for us that Jesus was homeless?  How do we reconcile our desire for comfort and stability with the always moving ministry of Jesus as he traveled through all of Judea and sometimes even Samaria?  

I wish I had the answers...but as i read the quote from Maya Angelou I began to see that in following it isn't just a change in our walking but also in our seeing.  And while we may need to imagine what it was like for Jesus to see the people around him, I believe that he always saw first that we are all God's creations!  It does change things when we begin to see the world through eyes of love.  So maybe for me today, I can work on seeing God's creation with the love that I see when I look at those I hold most dear.  That would change a lot for me and while I am sure that I will always have to work, sometimes harder than others, to see the world through Jesus' eyes I want to try.  What might it be like for you?  

At Zacchaeus' Tree we are working to use these new eyes as we join in what God is doing to create a community where people are safe to participate and learn about God surrounded by love.  There are so many questions...let's not ask them alone!  

Sitting Is Powerful!

Yesterday I had the pleasure of sitting-in with almost 100 other community supporters of the Indianapolis Hospitality Workers!  As workers ask for fair process in their desire to unionize, I am invited to lift my voice to support the dignity of humanity for all of God's children.  It made me think more about the tremendous work of Dr. King and his faith to keep on even in the face of huge odds.  He was a man who saw that the world was choosing to ignore some realities in favor of an "easier" way.  So through his work and non-violent civil disobedience he made us see that "Truth does not cease to be truth according to our ability to stomach it"--a paraphrase from Gandhi.  Because of King's courage, faith and witness we sat yesterday in a restaurant in support of workers who want to be able to do their job with dignity and without making their families suffer because of inadequate funds, time with parents, chronic pain and intimidation at the workplace.  It was amazing to get just a little taste of what it might have been like to sit at the counters, ride in the front of the bus, march in Montgomery, or to hear for the first time that their is a dream for us all!

But King was not the first to offer us a vision of a different world...nor will his voice be the last.  The belief that this world was created for a purpose and on purpose has been around forever and I believe has been true since then too.  So if we were created for a purpose how do we choose to live into it?  How might we engage our world, employers, friends and families in the often difficult conversations about things we may be choosing to overlook in order to live an "easier" way but not necessarily a better way?

I wish I had the answer but the best I have is to follow the Way of Jesus Christ in the 21st century.  In Matthew 25: 31-46, Jesus tells a story about the final judgement.  The judgement isn't based on the things often shared in the media or by the loudest among us.  People are separated based on these particular consistent actions in their living: feeding the hungry, giving water to the thirsty, inviting the stranger into your home, clothing the naked, caring for the sick, and visiting the imprisoned.  Maybe this isn't the whole answer but I have chosen to start here.  It isn't easy and it takes practice but much like sitting at a counter or in a restaurant, one action can start a movement over time that engulfs us all!  May the peace that brings wholeness and eyes for God's vision come into our lives and world!