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!  

Got Questions????

Well so do I...I meet lots of people who are ready for "church people" to embrace personas of answer keepers.  You know people who don't live in the ambiguity of life but who know the answers and don't need to struggle to understand the things that happen because the answers are right there!  (I believe this is a faulty stereotype, most people I have met are filled with questions and those that have it all figured out can't hold onto the facade for long)  This isn't really about answers though, its about questions.

Unfortunately the "church" has been perceived and in some place is a place where questions are unwelcome.  But then where should we ask questions?  I think that our communities of faith are the perfect places to ask questions about everything.  Surrounded by people who love you, who are journeying with you towards understanding what our lives should love like, and people who struggle with their own questions about life, faith, family, culture, hope, fears, doubts...you get the point--everything!  That sounds like it could be a safe place to explore and maybe even live your way into the answers you seek.  It will also be a good place to realize that some questions have answers that we may never know and we can learn together how to hold those questions lightly and with respect.

So, if you could ask any question in church what would it be?  There are not right or wrong questions.  What might you like to hear about from the church's perspective?  What questions would you be shocked to hear in the context of church?

At Z Tree we will be exploring questions in worship as we begin the new year, so your thoughts would be very helpful!  Thanks!

A New Life

Yesterday I met Phoebe, my friends' newest family member.  She is beautiful and while I held her and waited for a bottle I wasn't surprised that she cried.  She was hungry and I wasn't helping her out.  Babies do not distinguish between needs and wants, they don't struggle with their needs in relation to the needs of another; they simply ask for (cry) what they need until someone answers.  As we get older it seems that some of us forget that we are allowed to have needs and some of us forget that our needs may not always be top priority.  There is a balance here between recognizing our needs and our wants.  I often wonder just how I can get so distracted by things in my life that are pretty insignificant when I believe they are needs.  Upon reflection I am pretty sure that my needs are minimal and so is my gratitude.  So there I was holding this brand new life, and I realized that in the presence of such possibility I had forgotten the things in my own life which had been so important in the car.  Somethings just serve to distract from our vision, and in no way giving us energy for the future.  What things get in the way of your vision?  Do you ever feel like you can't see the forest for the trees?  What helps you clear the view?      


As I marveled at how small she was and how amazing it is that we participate in creation in such a wonderful way, it reminded me that building a community is similar.  We start small, with tremendous needs and amazing possibilities.  It is in the beginning that we have all the energy of new life and all the possibilities of clean blackboard.  What do we want to see?  How will we accomplish the things that God is calling us too?  Who will join us?  In any new life there are lots of questions and hopes--I believe that if we live into our dreams we may find that God has been giving them to us and will continue to see them through.  There are lots of things to do and many things to try and if we leave distractions behind we may be able to celebrate the amazing life we have in these precious beginning moments!  


In a season of preparation for the coming of the Christ Child, it seems right to see the world with wonder and amazement! May you also find new life in your daily living and be reminded of the love that God has for you in each and every wonderful moment!  

Spirit2 Discussion Gatherings!

Our world is full of lots of voices, answers, questions, ideas and choices.  But there are very few places where we come together to talk about things that are happening and think about how they affect our lives.  As a community we want to make room for conversations about how our lives intersect with our faith, experiences and the world.  Here are some pictures from the last year of discussions, laughter and community at Spirit2!  

Why We Do What We Do (article from Moravian Magazine December 2010)

Here’s a little story about man and a tree, and why that story makes all the difference to me…Zacchaeus was a man who no one liked and that did lots of things that were harmful to others.  So when Jesus came into town and sought out Zacchaeus, instead of the other more suitable candidates, it was shocking and unexpected.  It wasn’t showy or miraculous, but it was a simple invitation to dinner that made the difference for Zacchaeus.  The invitation to relationship with Jesus started to transform this man from the person no one cared for, into a person that cared for everyone.  It is that transformation that I invite people to experience when they participate in the life of Zacchaeus’ Tree Congregation (formerly New Hope Community Church in Indianapolis, IN). 

As a community we are called to seek out those people who don’t believe they are included in what God is up to or who have been excluded by stereotypes, negative experiences in churches, or media distortions of “who” Christians are.  We work together to live more like Jesus, and to follow in his footsteps, by making our faith an intentional journey towards building the kin(g)dom of God on earth.  Our congregation is shaped by many of the ideals shared by leaders of intentional communities.  Responding to their call to live in community and discover how God can use those relationships and complexities to shape the Christian witness, these leaders have many thoughts and challenges to offer to the established church and its developing congregations. 

Our church plant does not currently have in its development plan the creation of a live-in community, but it is not divergent or impossible that the future may bring such a witness to our congregation.  For now we are studying, praying, serving, worshiping, and following the call to be a congregation of people whom God seeks out to invite into relationship.  The conversations that help build our vision for the community of faith are inspired, in part, by the lives of those people in the early church, early Moravian History, and current leaders in intentional communities.  They help us challenge the assumptions that church is a place to go rather than an invitation to be the Body of Christ in the world; that church must look like it always has in order to be the church; or that church is a place where we come when we know things rather than a place we come to ask questions and learn. 

I have met many people in my 18 months in Indianapolis who are looking for community.  People who are dying for a place to ask questions, to find hope, and I believe to be told how much God loves them and wants to know them!  I am heart broken when I hear stories filled with hate, hostility and mistrust connected with their experience of the church, which often translates into their experience of God.  I grew up in the church and have known such great and amazing love, forgiveness and hope—it is this church I hope to share with others.  I hope to be unexpected in the same way that Jesus speaking to Zacchaeus was unexpected.  I hope that our congregational life will live out Jesus’ hospitality and presence in the lives of those most unexpected people. 

There seem to be lots of people hanging around in trees in every community in the world, wanting to see Jesus.  I believe that it is our invitation as believers to call out to them and invite them to the table for the bread of life and the blood of grace.  So at Zacchaeus’ Tree we intentionally seek to be a community that embraces the call to find those people who seem to be furthest from Christ and invite them to learn with us what Jesus meant when he came to give life and to give it abundantly—right now and forever more. 

Worship is Starting Up Again! Come Join Us!

This is an invitation to worship with us! I hope to see you!

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