Is the Holy Spirit a Dove or Wild Goose?

It started with a spider plant.

A little over two weeks ago, a mourning dove decided that the hanging spider plant just outside my back door was the perfect place to build a home. I watched her — patient, deliberate, unassuming — weave together a modest nest in the trailing green fronds. Then came the eggs. And then, this past weekend, those eggs became two small, fuzzy, miraculous lives: Francie and Bingo, named with all the authority that nieces and nephews rightly claim over such matters.

I have watched the parent doves take turns. I have watched them sit through rain and wind and the occasional startling from a curious pastor stepping too close to the door. I have watched them keep vigil — steady, gentle, unhurried — over something fragile and becoming. And I have found myself, on more than one occasion, undone by it.

Then Sunday came. Pentecost Sunday. The day we celebrate the arrival of the Holy Spirit — that wild, rushing, fire-breathing breath of God that descended upon the disciples and set the whole world spinning differently. And as I prepared to preach, I kept thinking about the bird outside my door — and the question that has followed Christian theology from its very beginnings:

Is the Holy Spirit a dove? Or is the Holy Spirit a goose?

It is a more serious question than it might first appear. The symbol we assign to the Spirit shapes the Spirit we expect to meet. And the Spirit we expect to meet shapes the faith we dare to live. 

The Dove: A History of Gentle Certainty

The dove is, without question, the more familiar image. It is the one printed on bulletins and embroidered on stoles and carved into baptismal fonts in churches across the world. Its roots in Christian imagination run deep and begin in the Jordan River.

"And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, 'This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.'" — Matthew 3:16–17 (NRSVUE)

All four Gospels record some version of this moment, making the dove one of the most well-attested images in the New Testament (Matthew 3:16, Mark 1:10, Luke 3:22, John 1:32). The dove descends. It alights. It rests. It is a moment of holy stillness — the Spirit settling upon the Beloved as witness and blessing.

But the dove's symbolic roots reach further back than the Jordan. In Genesis, it is a dove that Noah sends out from the ark, and it is a dove that returns with an olive branch — the first sign that the waters of chaos are receding, that God is keeping covenant, that dry ground and new life are on their way (Genesis 8:8–12). Peace. Promise. Providence. The dove carries all of it.

The early church embraced the image enthusiastically. By the second and third centuries, the dove had become standard iconography in Christian art, appearing in catacombs and on sarcophagi as a symbol of both the Holy Spirit and the soul in God's keeping. The church father Tertullian drew explicit connections between the dove of Noah and the dove of Jesus' baptism, seeing in both a God who hovers over chaos and brings forth new creation.

And there is something genuinely true in the dove image. There are moments when the Spirit does feel like this — tender, arriving quietly, resting gently upon a thing. A still small voice. A peace that passes understanding. The Spirit that broods over troubled waters and does not abandon us. The dove tells us: God is near. God is gentle. God can be trusted.

I have felt that Spirit watching Francie and Bingo's parents hover over that nest. Steady. Faithful. Present through wind and weather. There is something of the divine in that kind of constancy — the love that shows up every day, that doesn't leave when it gets hard, that keeps its warmth over small and fragile things.

And yet.

For all its beauty, the dove image has a shadow side. Doves are domesticated. They are manageable. They can be caged. And throughout history, a domesticated Spirit has served institutional comfort more than prophetic fire. A dove-Spirit can be trained to stay in the sanctuary, to bless the status quo, to descend only on approved occasions. A dove-Spirit rarely overturns tables.

Something about the Pentecost story resists the dove. Because what came in that upper room was not gentle. It was not quiet. It was not tame. 

The Goose: A History of Holy Wildness

Enter the Celtic church — and the wild goose.

While the Roman church was building cathedrals and systematizing theology, the Celtic Christian tradition flourishing in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales was developing its own vivid, earthy, Spirit-saturated faith. Deeply rooted in the natural world, attentive to the presence of God in every creature and every turning of the season, the Celtic church listened to the Spirit differently. And what they heard sounded less like a cooing dove and more like the sharp, startling, impossible-to-ignore cry of a wild goose in flight.

The Celtic term for the Holy Spirit was An Geadh-Glas — the Wild Goose. This was not accidental. Geese migrate across vast distances, driven by instincts they did not choose and cannot explain. They are loud. They are communal — they fly in formation, taking turns at the front, supporting one another in the slipstream. They are fierce protectors of their own. And they are fundamentally impossible to control.

The Iona Community, founded in Scotland in 1938 by George MacLeod on the ancient Celtic island where Columba first brought Christianity to Scotland, recovered and championed the Wild Goose image as central to their understanding of the Spirit. Their worship and music — much of it created through the Wild Goose Resource Group — has spread this image across the global church, reclaiming something old that many traditions had forgotten.

And when we read the Pentecost story without our stained-glass filters, the goose makes far more sense.

"When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability." — Acts 2:1–4 (NRSVUE)

There is nothing domesticated about this moment. This is not a Spirit that alights gently and rests in holy stillness. This is a Spirit that arrives like a storm — loud, disorienting, physically overwhelming. The disciples do not look peaceful. They look, by all accounts, as if they might be drunk (Acts 2:13). The Spirit has blown the roof off their expectations and is now doing something entirely new, entirely beyond their management.

The prophet Joel had seen it coming centuries before:

"In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy." — Acts 2:17–18 (quoting Joel 2:28–29, NRSVUE)

All flesh. Sons and daughters. Young and old. Slave and free. This is not a Spirit that respects the categories human beings have erected to sort themselves into hierarchies of worth. This is a Spirit that honks loudly at every wall and keeps flying straight through.

Jesus himself, in his conversation with Nicodemus, reached for the wind as the Spirit's closest analogue:

"The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." — John 3:8 (NRSVUE)

You do not know where it comes from or where it goes. The Spirit is not trackable. It is not controllable. It does not ask our permission before it shows up, and it does not linger because we want it to stay. It goes where it will, and our calling is not to cage it but to follow.

Paul's letter to the Romans offers one of the wildest descriptions of the Spirit's work — the Spirit that intercedes for us with sighs and groans too deep for words (Romans 8:26), that helps us in our weakness, that works all things together for good in ways we cannot see and did not plan (Romans 8:28). This is not a Spirit content to sit decoratively atop a baptismal font. This is a Spirit actively at work in the groaning and becoming of the whole creation. 

Back to the Spider Plant: What Francie and Bingo Taught Me

So here I am, two weeks into watching a dove family outside my back door, arguing that the goose is the better symbol of the Holy Spirit. I want to be transparent about this paradox — and I think it is actually the point.

Because what the dove outside my door has shown me is both the beauty and the limitation of the dove image. The parent doves are faithful, and they are lovely, and watching them has cracked my heart open in ways I did not anticipate. There is genuine grace in their patience, their steadiness, their refusal to abandon what is fragile and small (they have to keep those eggs at a toasty 99 degrees). I believe the Spirit is capable of that tenderness. I do not want to lose it.

But Francie and Bingo are not going to stay in that nest. That is the whole point of a nest. It exists for the leaving.

At some point — and it will be soon — those two squabs will edge toward the rim of the spider plant. They will look out at the wide and terrifying expanse of the backyard. And something in them — some ancient, uncontrollable, God-given instinct — will launch them into the air before they are entirely sure they are ready. They will fly because they were made to fly, not because anyone assured them it was safe.

That is the Spirit I want to proclaim. That is the Spirit I believe is calling the church — calling each of us — in this moment.

The dove-Spirit whispers: stay where it is warm. The goose-Spirit honks: there is somewhere you have not yet been, and I will meet you there.

The dove-Spirit says: I will keep you safe. The goose-Spirit says: I will keep you faithful — and those are not always the same thing.

The dove-Spirit settles. The goose-Spirit migrates. And we were made for migration — made to follow the Spirit into uncomfortable and life-giving territory, formed in community like a skein of geese, taking turns at the front when the headwinds are hardest, trusting that the wind beneath us is the same wind that has been blowing since before the world was made.

The Goose and the Fire: Why the Wild Spirit Wins

In the end, I do not think we have to choose between the gentleness of the dove and the wildness of the goose. God is large enough to be both. The Spirit that broods patiently over Francie and Bingo is the same Spirit that blew through the upper room like a hurricane.

But when I ask which image will keep the church alive and honest and humble and brave — when I ask which image we most need in a world crying out for prophets who will speak truth and communities that will cross every dividing wall — the answer feels clear to me.

We need the goose.

We need the Spirit that we cannot predict, the movement of God that refuses to be institutionalized, the holy wildness that shows up in unexpected people in unexpected places and says: yes, you too. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old ones will dream. Your young ones will see visions. All flesh. All of it. The Spirit is on the move and is not waiting for an invitation.

Ancient Celtic Christians were not naive about this. They knew the wild goose was not comfortable. Geese honk when you are trying to sleep. They get in the way. They poop a lot and everywhere! They do not quietly bless the arrangements you have already made. They call you out of your settled places and into the open sky.

But they also fly together. They share the burden of the wind. They are relentlessly oriented toward the destination — and they do not leave the struggling ones behind.

That is the community of the Spirit. That is the church at its best. That is Pentecost — not a gentle benediction, but a launching. Not a quiet descent, but a wild rising.

"For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God." — Romans 8:14 (NRSVUE)

The wind is blowing. The geese are calling. Francie and Bingo will leave the nest.

And so, beloved, will we.
 

Come, Holy Spirit — come as the wild and unbridled goose.

Honk loudly over our settled places.

Call us out of our nests and into the wide open sky.

We are ready - or we will be - when the wind catches us.

Scripture & Prayer

"We have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord . . . May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light." (Colossians 1:9b-10a, 11-12)

Cleansing and Renewing God, we come before you this day filled with so many emotions—fear, uncertainty, and frustration—as well as faith and hope. We know the way in which you have walked beside us through the many ups and downs in our lives and yet we call upon your presence now more than ever. We want to know what the future holds for us, yet the fear of what that might be threatens to consume us. Calm that fear, Divine Love. Wrap your loving arms around our sister/brother and help him/her feel your peace and confidence to face the unknown, to realize that you are always with us. Gracious God, just as Jesus asked if it be possible that this cup would pass from him, there is part of us that wants to ask the same; that we not have to face the news we may hear and what that will mean for our lives. But God, we ask now that you give us the courage that Jesus had. Help us know that what you want is for us to walk in relationship with you through both the good and the bad that life may bring. All this we ask in the name of our Advent coming Savior, Jesus the Christ. Amen.

Scripture & Prayer

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In God's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.” (John 14:1-3)

Most Holy God, you are the Ancient of Days, present in all times and places. We come to you now, praying on behalf of ______, who so desires to be home. Grant her/him strength for the period of continued recovery and patience to understand your purposes, even in this illness and unknown time. We pray for all who minister to him/her—doctors, nurses, technicians, family, loved ones, and friends—may their every action be an expression of your sustaining grace. Give _____ your comfort, and may s/he know the peace from you that passes all understanding; through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Advent Study - Session 2

RESOURCE: Adam Hamilton's "Prepare the Way for the Lord." eBooks and Kindle version can be purchased and accessed immediately via Cokesbury or Amazon.

Check-out this version of Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence.

General questions:

1. Hamilton says most key decisions in our lives require a leap of faith. Do you agree? Why or why not?
2. Who has been someone in your life that had tremendous influence (mentor) over you - investing in your life, and finding meaning and joy in walking alongside you? Who is someone you have mentored - having tremendous influence over while you found meaning and joy in walking alongside them?

Our study from tonight, "Pregnance, Birth, Circumcision, and Zechariah's Prophecy" allowed for great discussion and far short of covering all the aspects of the key Scriptures:

• Luke 1:18-22:
• "Our brains were wires for questioning, for critical thinking, and doubts that inevitably arise are meant to lead us to dig deeper, to search for answers," writes Hamilton. "We are meant to ask questions. Sometimes our doubts are well founded." When have your doubts about something led you to discover and void trouble? In what other situations can skepticism prove healthy and productive?
• When, if ever, have you or someone you know asked or wanted to ask God, "How can I be sure of this? What happened?
  
• Frederick Buechner said, "Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving." What does this quote mean? Do you agree? Why or why not? How, if ever, have doubts led you to deeper faith?
• Hamilton writes the longer he lives, the more comfortabl he is with uncertainty and simple trust in God. Do you share this experience? Why or why not?
• "While we, like Zechariah, crave certainty, God gives us mystery..." writes Hamilton. How does or how could your congregation recognize God's gift of mystery - in its worship, in its education ministries, in its service to others, or in other ways - while encouraging people to both trust God and ask questions?
• God was asking Zechariah to talk less and to listen more. When have you found less talking and more listening, whether to God or to other people, the right approach, and why?
• When, if ever, have you heard God speaking to you in and through silence? How? Where do you go when you wnat or need to take time for silence?
• Luke 1:40-45:
• When, if ever, have you heard prophecy for yourself?
• Hamilton points out Elizabeth is the first person to make "the fundamental confession of the Christian faith," that Jesus is Lord. Who was the first person you heard make this confession? If you made this confression yourself, when did you first make it? How can and do Christians make this confession with more than words?
• Hamilton sees Mary's visit to Elizabeth as evidence of a deep relationship that likely formed over many years, beginning when Mary was younger. What long-lasting relationships with older adults have positively influenced you, and how?
• "Everyone needs and Elizabeth," writes Hamilton, "but as we grow older, we also fidn ourselves needing a Mary." When and how, if ever, have you mentored, encouraged, and celebrated a younger person?
• Luke 1:57-64:
• The name, "John," in Hebrew means "The Lord is gracious." The Greek word for grace appears more than 150 times in the Second Testament. Christians believe grace is a defining characteristic of God (along with attributes like love). How do you define grace?
• Hamilton calls receiving and giving grace "the rhythm of the Christian life." What does Ephesians 2:8-10 teach about the rhythm of grace? When was a time you experienced grace? When was a time you extended grace to another person?

Advent Study - Session 1

RESOURCE: Adam Hamilton's "Prepare the Way for the Lord." eBooks and Kindle version can be purchased and accessed immediately via Cokesbury or Amazon.

Our study from last Wednesday, "God Has Heard Your Prayers," sparked great conversation in our Zoom gathering. As a follow-up here, we can continue the discussion. Here are some key points and questions to keep the conversation going:

• Scriptures: Malachi 3:1, Malachi 4:2, Malachi 4:5-6 Luke 1:5-17
• God hears our prayers, though God's way of answering them is often different that we sometimes prayed.
• How much comfort and encouragement do you think the Bible's stories about infertile couples offer to infertile couples today? Why? How does or how could our congregation minister to women and couples who want to have children but find themselves unable to have them?
• Why do you imagine Zechariah felt fear when he saw the angel (Luke 1:12)?
• "The miracles God works," writes Hamilton, "sometimes come in ways that are different from what he had imagined when we pray." What "miracles" in this sense can you point to, in your own or in others' experience?
• Why does Malachi say "the day of the Lord" will be "great and terrifying"? How do you react to the prophet's words?
• This Advent, what are you doing to prepare the of the Lord?

Workshop on Community Transformation

In a collaborative effort of the four "downtown" United Methodist Churches, Brown Street UMC, under the direction of Rev. Barb Marshall has organized a Bible Study / 4-week workshop on Community Transformation. We're encouraging out-of-the-box thinkers, perhaps those newest to our congregation, to participate. It'll be on Tuesday evenings, 6:30-8:30pm, beginning on Sept. 29 at Brown St. UMC (corner or 9th and Brown streets) in the basement.

If you plan on participating, please email Barb.Marshall@inumc.org with your name and church affiliation.

PREPARATION:

Week 1: There are readings suggested for our first gathering. You are invited to read the first part of Job (in the Bible), Chapters 1-28. We will be working from 2 excellent books. If you have not come across them before they are well worth reading. I have included a link to the synopsis for each book if you would prefer to read that.

• Job, Chapters 1-28
• The synopsis Civic Engagement and the Restoration of Community, Changing the Nature of the Conversation http://www.peterblock.com/_assets/downloads/Civic.pdf
• Block, Peter. Community: The Structure of Belonging. :Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2008.

Week 2:

• Job, Chapters 29-42
• The synopsis: http://southwood.org/files/pdf/WhenHelpingHurtsSummary.pdf
• Corbett, Steve; Fikkert, Brian, When Helping Hurts, How To Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor... and Yourself. Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2009.

No further reading is planned for weeks 3 and 4. However, a list of reference materials will be available at our first meeting.

Further information how our workshop conversations connect:

BOOK OF JOB
In Job we are witness to his experience of a range of emotions as he struggles with the incomprehensibility of his fate. His connection with his family, friends and community are all impacted as each imparts their own wisdom. Sure of his faithfulness, Job rejects their worldview that insists he repent of his sin. We will look at the folly in wisdom as Job comes to a new understanding of his relationship with God and his place in God’s creation.

EMERGENT DESIGN
We will look at simple but fascinating discoveries of modern science to arrive at new insights in our worldview. Then along with Job, we will reconstruct what new knowledge suggests for our interactions, with and place in, community.

COMMUNITY
Drawing from Peter Block’s writing on community, we will look at the current state of our communities and the place they hold in life. As Block suggests, rather than looking at fixes for current problems, we will begin to look at ideas of what might be possible using our own inter-church community as an example.

MISSIOLOGY
We have some wonderful examples within our INUMC conference of how the UMC is active in partnering with and serving in community. We will touch on the topics of evangelism, charity, and missiology and what they have to offer to our conversation on community in making disciples for the transformation of the world. We will reflect on how our community interactions connect with the mission and vision of our churches.

APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY
Appreciative Inquiry will be introduced as a tool for use in guiding the continuing work of a conversation circle to better discover and name connections and resources already at hand.

EPIC: Relational Evangelism

One way we communicate, which has been a part of human existence since the beginning of time, is through storytelling. In fact, until things were written and people had ready access to printed materials, storytelling and oral tradition were the ways information was transferred from person to person and generation to generation. Storytelling is still the primary mode of communication today, even with so many tools and gadgets to deliver the story or message. That's why developing your storytelling skills is essential to communicating faith in the 21st century.

Jesus, as you may be aware, was something of a storyteller, and he went to significant lengths to make himself heard. If you doubt this, try giving a sermon while standing in an open boat. But Jesus was more than just a good storyteller. He had something urgent and extremely important to say, and he said it in extremely creative ways. His message: The reign of God is at hand.

One storytelling technique that Jesus used was the parable. Through this technique, Jesus explained complex theological truths in language that fishers, tax collectors and those living on the margins of society could understand. He told stories that were vivid, memorable and open to deep exploration.

Jesus understood how important it is to speak in fresh and inventive ways. Jesus let his audiences know he understood their world, their hopes, their failings and their fears by infusing his stories with characters, landscapes and situations familiar to those with whom he spoke.

What does this mean for us today? We are called to share compelling accounts of what our faith means to us through clear explanations of the nature of our spiritual experiences, descriptions of our church communities as places where people are committed to working for justice and peace, and stories about the ways God has changed our lives and the lives of people we know. We do this most effectively by sharing something in which we are experts, such as our own faith journeys and lives. Tell the stories of what God is doing in your life. Tell the stories of what God is doing in your community.

As Leonard Sweet suggests, we must tell stories that are EPIC: Experiential, participatory, image-rich and connective. These stories, Sweet says, are told as though our lives depended upon it.

Relational Evangelism

So, at Congress Street we're taking a fresh new approach to evangelism. We're valuing the stories and the light that others have to contribute to their society, community, and maybe even Jesus and the church in significant and powerful ways. In a three-week reflection series, we're diving into more specifics, but I have heard from some that they desire more interaction and feedback.

This blog post is being set-up just for this. Please feel free to share your recent experiences in sharing your faith or journey story; post questions about relational evangelism; or, perhaps, just receive some positive feedback and encouragement from your peers about what this CAN look like as we continue as evolving followers of Jesus for the transformation of the world!

Remember: THE WORLD IS NOT DARK! You do not necessarily have the "light" that every one else needs to be judged to be lacking. Instead, every one has light within them that needs hope and encouragement -- and the world needs every one's light to shine brightly!

Beyond Your Easter Sunday Obligation...

Easter, more so than Christmas, challenges a pastor in understanding those individuals who choose to only attend worship on that day of celebration. Now, this isn't referring to those who are visiting from out-of-town to be with family. I'm talking about those folks who live locally, claim such-in-such church as their home, and make the choice to only worship on Christmas or Easter. Now, why is it harder to for the pastor at Easter than Christmas, since both these times tend to be irregularly high attendance moments?

The reason for this is simple. At Christmas, we celebrate the birth of Jesus. It can be experienced in its fullness at a one-time event, just like most any other birth. But Easter.... Easter is different. One cannot at all understand the Resurrection unless having experienced the life in Jesus in ways that can't be done outside of community.

I have seen and heard and experienced real life stories all the time of people who were spiritually dead, with spiritual obituaries, with spiritual death stories, and God put new life back into them. That is also what Easter is about and I hope and I desire so much that if you are considering Congress St. UMC to be your church home that you make the decision this year to be involved in something offered beyond Easter Worship. Am I talking about being present in worship EVERY Sunday? No. Heck, I won't be there EVERY Sunday. But there are new things starting and Congress Street's vitality can only be as strong as those who want Congress Street to be a vital, alive, breathing, world-changing church! There are regular, small groups (and these have VERY diverse offerings) throughout the week where you can offer your voice in the spirit of community. Your thoughts, ramblings, stories, musings, experiences can only have significant value when shared.

“Most likely.” No, that is not a strong enough phrase. “Inevitably,” there will be people in attendance Sunday who are spiritually dead or who are so close to being spiritually dead, you would never be able to tell that they were alive. Looking at them and talking with them, you feel that they are spiritually comatose. You put a spiritual stethoscope on their religious heart and it would go (repeat slowwwwwly), “boop…..boop…..boop…..boop.” You think that their hearts are almost dead; at least, their spiritual hearts seem dead; they seem to be in a spiritual coma. Too busy for things of Ultimate Reality. Too preoccupied making their daily bread, no time for spiritual bread. Too busy running in circles and God is not part of their circle. “Boop…boop…boop… boop.”

For some, your spiritual life is as dehydrated as the dry bones described in the book of Ezekiel. Your life is relatively unaffected by spiritual things. On Thursday, how much will you be contemplating Jesus' final hours? Experiencing the community of communion, prayer, servitude? On Good Friday, how will you be spiritually experiencing Jesus being nailed to the cross?

The monitor of your brain, the line of your brain waves, is almost flat, and you'll barely remember Jesus on Good Friday, and you probably won't experience the community of Congress St. for Holy Thursday / Good Friday service at 7pm on Thursday (See? We have one service to help make your week a little easier.) and you will barely allow Jesus to enter into your daily decisions in life. The study of Scripture, theological conversation, spiritual story-telling, and daily prayer are beyond your world of comprehension. Spiritually – little frightens you and little attracts you. This life is so all-consuming for you and your brain. And deep down inside, in all honesty, you may – as people would say – not give a rip about God or Jesus or life lived under and with the Divine daily. Oh, you may pray when in a jam, just like about everybody else. Oh, you may believe in the “Man Upstairs,” (which I should add, God doesn’t have a sex and God isn’t upstairs – God WANTS to be within you, among you, and beyond you) but that daily authentic walk with God, as understood through the incarnate Jesus – for Christians – is not part of your life. “Boop…boop… boop…boop.”

So, attend your Easter worship service, but don't kid yourself into thinking God and the World doesn't expect more from you. Through new initiatives happening at Congress St., through a new journey group program, through a new evening prayer service, and through community outreach and increased emphasis on the spirit of volunteerism, there is a place for you beyond your obligatory, lackluster, self-appointed incarceration known as, "I attend church on Easter."

Conference of the Birds

Chicano Park

http://chicano-park.org/

JRLC Community Organizing

http://www.jrlc.org/

PICO Community Organizing

http://www.piconetwork.org/

Immigration Study: Day 1

(Disclaimer: All times will be listed as local.)

This will prove to be more of a humour post as it deals with traveling.

First, a Seinfeld moment when the pilot tells us we are at 10,000 feet and we may turn on our mobile devices. Why is 10K feet such a special number for this?  Is it because above 10K feet if one's mobile device causes the plane to crash, we're all assured death so it's okay?

Second Seinfeld moment, the pilot came over the  cabin airwaves and said, "we have reached cruising altitude, you may undo your seatbelt and roam about the cabin..."  So, I did.  As I was pacing the aisle, a flight attendant stopped me and asked me to take my seat. I said, "But the pilot said I was free to roam about the cabin." Well, if that wasn't enough to set off security alarms for "suspicious activity" please keep reading.

As we made our approach to Phoenix for our connecting flight, the pilot informed us the temperature in Phoenix was 108 and it felt like 114. Now, being from Indiana, I have experienced heat indexes of 108+, but never have I felt 108 as an actual temperature and never have I been able to discern for myself if it's a "dry heat." Well, we traveled from concourse B way across to concourse D. Went to the bathroom and within 10 minutes we were boarding our second flight. By this point I was nuts with the inability to be outside in this weather.  So, while walking down the airbridge to board the San Diego flight, an airport employee, TSA agent -- I don't know, he had a lot of ID stuff around his neck and a uniform (not a pilot or flight crew) -- was exiting a secured door (numerical keypad) at the end of the airbridge near the airplane. It must have been because of this dry heat, but that door sure did close slowly behind, so I stopped it; walked out onto the top of the stairs; closed my eyes and was in the middle of a huge exhale when he was on the ground, looked up and yelled, "Close that door!'" Sorry, Mister, but I loved that weather and I wasn't going to let it pass me by. Thank you for allowing me to step outside of the airbridge for a moment.  Oh, yes, it felt gooooood!

Southwest flight crews are amazing. The woman flight attendant talking to us during the flight had such quotes as:
"In the event of an emergency, just listen to us and do everything we tell you."
"If you are traveling with children, I'm sorry. If you aren't traveling with children, you have to put up with the ones that do."
"...Once the oxygen mask is deployed, it will fill with alcohol..."
(upon touchdown in San Diego, she gets on and in an out-of-breath fashion, after a couple heavy breaths into the microphone, proclaims, "We made it!"

(no kidding...it was a great experience and with good personality and humour...Loved it!)
We have arrived safely at the airport Hilton in San Diego. The weather is almost as beautiful as Phoenix.  It's currently 65 at 10pm with highs around 70. We dined at a place called the Boathouse Restaurant. It sits on the harbor and overlooks may gorgeous sailing vessels and yachts. It was quite the place and with quite the offerings - similar to Mountain Jacks, but better seafood (for those reading from the Lafayette area). We ate well and had many laughs and good conversation. In the words of one young man I know, "Thank you, Grandpa Lilly."

Tomorrow our group will depart at 9:15am to visit Chicano Park and meet with a past City Council Representative in San Diego before heading to and crossing the border around 2pm.

Myself, along with a pastor from Delphi, led devotions this evening.  My portion was: Matthew 4:18-22: "As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the lake—for they were fishermen. And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.’ Immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him."

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Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers . . . . Then he said to them, “Follow
Me.” —Matthew 4:18-19

This week we will have opportunity to be with the beauty of life, in context unfamiliar to our ordinary, and at times messy, but such is the life walked with Jesus - some "luxurious slavery" and picturesque beauty and others miniscule with heart-wrenching pain and disgust. I’m often reminded that these treks through the picturesque beauty and wildernesses of fear are symbolic of our spiritual journey, for the Christian life is simply walking—with Jesus alongside as our companion and guide. He walked through the land of Israel from one end to the other, gathering disciples, saying to them, “Follow Me” (Matt. 4:19).

The journey is not always easy. Sometimes giving up seems easier than going on, but when things get difficult, we can rest a while and renew our strength. In Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan describes the arbor on Hill Difficulty where Christian caught his breath before continuing the climb. His scroll provided comfort, reminding him of God’s continual presence and sustaining power. He got a second wind so he could walk a few more miles.

Only the divine knows where the path will take us, but we have our God’s assurance, “I am with you always” (Matt. 28:20). This is not a metaphor or other figure of speech. Divine energy is real company. There is not one hour without God's presence, not one mile without Jesus' companionship. Knowing the Spirit is with us makes the journey lighter. 

When life becomes a heavy load / An upward climb, a winding road, / In daily tasks, God, let me see / That with me you will always be.

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We were asked tonight by our leaders to ruminate on a short, but compex question: "What is a border?"  So, I ask you, "What is a border?"  And I really prefer you to give me some answers because I'm exausted from giving airport security and flight crews such fits.

Here We Go!!!

All 16 pastors and 2 leaders - of different Christian denominations from Indiana - are awaiting to board our flight to Phoenix/San Diego at the Indianapolis International Airport.  We are traveling to Tijuana and Tecate, Mexico, as a part of the Lilly Endowment-funded Wabash Pastoral Leadership Program.  The purpose of the tour is to learn, see, and acquire a better sense and awareness of the current immigration situation. I will be checking in here to share the experience along the way. You may join me here and I will also pose questions for interactive participation.

Jesus Economics, John 2:13-22

     If examining Jesus Economics, there are three things to take into consideration.  First, the Gospel favors the poor.  Secondly, the way we think of wealth in America today is not really grounded to our scriptural foundation because we assume an importance to individual wealth and without connection to a larger community.  This takes us to the third point: Jesus urged his disciples to think of wealth in terms of the community as opposed to the individual.
     It seems everywhere we look, we see Jesus in ministry to the poor and proclaiming good news to those considered poor.  Jesus began the sermon of the Mount, the Beatitudes, with the proclamation of blessing to the poor.  When Jesus taught the disciples to pray, he specifically mentioned debt.  Some of our favorite Jesus stories have economic themes: the young ruler who seeks eternal life in Luke which leads Jesus to encourage him to ‘sell all you own and give to the poor.’  The Good Samaritan, in which an unlikely foreigner becomes the hero, pays money out of his own pocket to care for the injured Israelite he finds on the road-side.  The story of Zaccheaus…who turns from Bernie Madoff to a great humanitarian by repaying all those he has defrauded and then redistributing his own wealth to the poor.  This, Jesus calls salvation.  In Mathew 18, Jesus would describe the Realm of God in terms of a King who forgives debt.
     Without a doubt in my mind, Jesus meant to be talking about wealth and finance.  “Debts” was not a metaphor, but a real concern for Jesus and he purposely challenged the wealthy elites who grew rich on the labor and oppression of the peasantry.  He purposely challenged his disciples to care for the poor and put their very salvation in economic terms.
     We assume our wealth is our own.  This is a popular concept in our culture, perhaps a bedrock belief.  We tend to admire those who build wealth, attain impressive houses, cars, clothes and retire early to Florida or Arizona.  They have worked hard for their money and deserve to reap the benefits.
     But in the Gospel we have a parable of a successful business man.  He is so successful he cannot find enough room for all his harvest.  So he decides on an expansive building project to protect his wealth and plan an early retirement.  In our culture’s terms, he is a success!
     He did what see people do with their wealth all the time – expanded, invested and used the excess for his own benefit.  2,000 years ago Jesus told a success story for today – except Jesus does not let it stay a success story for today.  He has God call this man a fool.  He has only considered himself in this parable and the use of this wealth for his own benefit.  His view of wealth, which I suggest isn’t so different from our own, God labels foolish.

Fighting Poverty With Faith

FPWF

Indiana Coalition for Human Services

Indiana Coalition for Human Services

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

The Urban Institute | Research of Record

The Urban Institute | Research of Record