Give Thanks and Pray: Pastor's article for The Shelby Star

By: The Rev. Dr. Valori Mulvey Sherer, Rector

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 Thes 5:16-18) It seems like St. Paul is asking the impossible. How can we do this in the real world?

First, we can remember that prayer is more than we sometimes allow. As our response to God's call to us to be in relationship, prayer is a discipline, a strength we build through practice.

There are many kinds of prayer: adoration is prayer without a goal, just going into the presence of God and resting there, as in centering prayer. Praise is glorifying God simply because the love and grace of God causes gratitude to overflow from us. In prayers of thanksgiving we acknowledge our awareness of God's many blessings and in penitential prayer we confess our sin, those things that put a barrier between us and God and promise to amend our lives. In prayers of oblation we offer ourselves, our lives, and all we do, to God, in union with Christ, for the working out of God's purpose in the world. Intercessory prayer brings before God the needs of others, and petitions bring our own needs to God. There are prayers of healing, often accompanied by anointing with oil.

We pray by reading Holy Scripture as in the discipline of lectio divina, using Rosary or prayer beads, walking a labyrinth, or contemplating an icon. When we watching a sunset paint the sky and it fills us with joyful awareness of God's majesty, creativity, and tender love for creation we are praying. When we sing hymns to God or listening to music that inspires us to love and serve. we are praying.

We pray by joyfully tending to mundane tasks, grateful for the gift of life and for health which enables us to do them. We pray when we hear and respond to the cry of a neighbor in need, respect the dignity of a homeless person, or protect the innocence of a child.

When we pray we are submitting ourselves and our world into the care of God, seeking only God's will. That’s different from seeking to bend God's will to ours by rattling off our lists of things or people we'd like God to change.

Jesus told his disciples about “their need to pray always and not to lose heart” in the parable of the unjust judge (Lk 1:1-8) Jesus teaches us that unlike the unjust judge, God will act quickly to grant justice. God cares deeply about the powerless, unimportant widow and God desires a close relationship, granting respect and dignity even to the least, unlike the unjust judge.

What God ultimately desires from us is relationship which is why prayer matters. It's how we go from knowing about God to really knowing God. When we enter into that kind of relationship, we realize that God's really does live within us and we begin to see the world with God's eyes, to hear with God's ears, and to love with the heart of God. Then we begin to see how very possible it is to give thanks in every circumstance, to rejoice and pray without ceasing.

Article in Shelby Star: Radiate Love

Published August 29, 2014

I read a book years ago called “Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia” by Dennis Covington. It’s a true story about snake handling Christians in the Sand Mountain area of Alabama, near where AL, GA and TN share a border. The story begins with a pastor who gets drunk and deliberately tries to kill his wife by placing her hand into a crate full of rattle snakes. Though bitten several times, she lives, and he goes to prison.

The Sand Mountain believers live out a rigid devotion to the law as they find it in Scripture. For these believers, the Bible is literally understood. Everything you could want to know about how to live, what to eat, how to dress, how to cut your hair (or not cut it if you’re a woman), they say, can be found in the Bible. Their faith centers on Mark 16:16-18: “And these signs will accompany those who believe: by using my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes in their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

For the Sand Mountain folk, there’s no question, no alternative. You do what the Bible tells you, and they believe the Bible tells the saved to handle snakes and drink strychnine. They refuse medical treatment and heal snake bites by prayer and laying on of hands. This is what is called the ‘Galatian error’ which St. Paul addresses in his epistle to that church: “Stand firm and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. For you were called to freedom…” (Gal 5:1)

As individuals and as a Christian community, we are called to freedom, which is to live being guided by the Spirit of God. This is risky, however, because it means letting go of all the safety and certainty the law and the world seem to provide and steadfastly refusing to be divided again by gender, race, class, sexual orientation or any other worldly and ‘lawful’ distinction.

Living a life of faith means trusting that Almighty God, who is always faithful, can and will act to redeem and restore “shalom” the way things ought to be. It means working to learn how to hear God who is still speaking to us, not only in our hearts, minds, and bodies, but also in and through our varied and diverse communities.

Living in the freedom of our faith requires that we remember how we all came to have salvation. We are saved because God acted to save us, and God acted to save us because God loves us. Our salvation is a gift freely given by our loving Lord, Jesus Christ. The only thing we can actually do is respond to that gift in faith and humble gratitude, living the life of freedom we were given and opening the way for all people to do the same.

While it can be tempting to spend our lives chasing after spiritual law-breakers,” that isn’t our purpose. We aren’t called to judge. We’re called to manifest the love of God in the world. As Mother Theresa of Calcutta once said, “When you know how much God is in love with you then you can only live your life radiating that love.”
Radiate some love. It’s transforming.

My statement on the 4th Circuit US Circuit Court of Appeals ruling on marriage on July 28, 2014

I’m a priest, not a lawyer, so my perspective on what this ruling will mean for NC is concerned with the people, not the law. I am witnessing so much joy and hope from the LGBTQA community since news of the ruling hit yesterday. Neighbors who have been excluded from marriage because of their sexual orientation and who experience discrimination on a regular basis, now express renewed hope. Some of my LGBTQ friends are contacting me to begin discussions about getting married.

The Christian community is one of hope. Our purpose is to work to reconcile all to God and one another in Jesus Christ. Our journey began in the first century when Paul suggested Gentiles be welcomed into the church. Even Peter balked a that until God opened his heart and mind with a dream that made the early church an inclusive one. Fifty years ago, the Christian church struggled to welcome people of color. Today we are struggling to welcome people of differing sexual orientations. We’ve been here before and the love of God in Christ always shows us how to widen our tent posts and include the excluded who are also beloved of God.

I think this ruling will also cause many in the Christian community to grieve. I pray for kindness, grace, and respect toward all as we continue the journey this ruling begins for us in NC.

This ruling doesn’t make some winners and some losers. It simply prohibits one group of people from discriminating against another using the force of law. Churches and Christians who believe gay marriage is wrong will not be forced to marry gays. Churches and Christians who believe in marriage equality will soon no longer be inhibited from living out our beliefs and conferring this sacramental grace on all who seek it.

As an Episcopal priest, the marriage of anyone in my church is at my discretion. My decision on whether or not to marry a couple is made during a six-week course of pre-marital counseling. I take the sacramental rite of marriage very seriously. It is a sacred union which, as our Book of Common Prayer says, “signifies the mystical union between Christ and the church… and Holy Scripture commends it to be honored among all people… Therefore, marriage should… be entered into…reverently, deliberately, and in accordance with the purposes for which it was instituted by God.” (p. 423) That purpose is the mutual joy of the couple and the building of a life together that bears the fruits of Christian love. My great joy is that this ruling by the 4th circuit court opens the way for marriage equality and I look forward to blessing relationships that reflect the covenant love of Christ for us – gay or straight.

Article in the Shelby Star: Marriage reflects God's love

By The Rev Dr Valori Mulvey Sherer, Rector
Published Friday, May 30,2014

Many modern Christians hold the idea that marriage, that is, the union of one man and one woman in a life-long covenantal relationship, is an institution created by God in the Genesis story of Adam and Eve. It is clear, however, from the Old Testament that many of the Jewish patriarchs had multiple wives, e.g., Abraham, Solomon, Jacob. Polygamy was still in practice, though less so, during Jesus’ time. Divorce was an accepted practice as well, but only the husband had a legal right to demand it. For centuries, marriage was a private, family matter and most marriages were arranged by the father of the family or the legal guardian.

It was St. Augustine of Hippo who, in the fourth century, first described marriage as “a sacred sign, a sacramentum, of the union between Christ and the church.” In the fifth century ecclesiastical blessing on marriage was only required for priests and deacons. It wasn’t until the eight century that “church weddings” became common practice.

The Christian perspective that has remained consistent is that marriage, as a covenantal relationship of persons, reflects God’s covenantal relationship with creation as described in Scripture. The fruits of any marriage, therefore, must reflect God’s saving plan for the whole world. The marriage must be a sign of Christ’s love to a broken world.

Historically, the concept of marriage has evolved from polygamy to monogamy, from property exchange to consent, from duty to love. Each cultural shift in understanding has led to a shift in theological understanding and in the development and application of sacramental rites for marriage.

Our cultural, theological, and ecclesial understanding of marriage continues to evolve. We are confronted almost daily with changes in legislation around the country on the issue of marriage. As we study, legislate, and enter into marriages in the world we live in today, it may help to remember that in the thirteenth century, the only legal marriages were those conducted in a church because the church and the state were the same entity. Such has never been the case in American history or in American church history. It hasn’t “always been this way” as some voices say. It has always been evolving.

In the Episcopal rite of marriage, we pray for the couple, asking that by God’s Holy Spirit “they may grow in love and peace with God and one another, that their life may be a sign of Christ’s love to a broken world, and that they may be given such fulfillment of their mutual affection that they may reach out in love and concern for others.”

Christians are a New Covenant community commanded by Jesus Christ to love God, one another, and ourselves as he loved us. St. Paul’s letter to the Romans assures us that the sacrifice of Christ for our salvation was made once, for all. Christians, whether heterosexual or homosexual, form a community whose individual members constitute equally important parts of one body, Christ’s body; and we are all saved through faith, by grace. Marriage is one way we all can reflect this truth is our world.

What we can do about Domestic Violence

Published in the Shelby Star on Oct 11, 2013

Early in my career as the director of a shelter for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, my life and my approach to my work were transformed by a toddler, a little 4-year old girl I'll call Lizzie (not her real name). Lizzie suffered from fits of rage, something commonly seen in children who witness or suffer extreme violence at a very young age. Her rages usually lasted 10 to 20 minutes at a time and were triggered by sounds, smells or events that were connected to her memories of abuse. During these rages, Lizzie was unresponsive to reason. In fact, she would try to hurt anyone who tried to comfort her or stop her from hurting herself.

The doctors and therapists brought in to diagnose and treat Lizzie, told her mother and me that Lizzie needed to learn very clear boundaries around her behavior, and that we all had to be diligent and consistent, immediately interrupting Lizzie’s violent behavior and rewarding her good behavior. Lizzie will respond, they said, when the limitations on her behavior are clear to her.
Well, we tried. For weeks, every time Lizzie went into one of her rages, her mother, supported by our staff, worked hard to gently, but firmly interrupt the violence, using time outs, rewarding good behavior, putting Lizzie in what they called a “restraining position” so she couldn’t hurt herself or the one holding her. We did everything the therapists had suggested, but Lizzie wasn’t responding. In fact, her violence towards herself and others during her rages was increasing.

One late afternoon, I was talking with Lizzie’s mom in the living room when another woman who was staying in the shelter returned home, carrying a large package. She asked one of the kids playing outside to help her close the door behind her. As sometimes happens, when the little boy closed the door, he slammed it shut. Lizzie, who had been playing quietly on the floor in front of us, jumped up, ran behind the little toy kitchen in the corner of the room, and curled up on the floor in a fetal position. A rage began to overtake her, and her mother responded immediately, per the instructions given by the therapists.

But Lizzie would not be comforted. She hit and kicked at her mother, biting at her and screaming ugly things. When her mother tried to pick her up to put her into the restraining position, Lizzie wriggled out of her arms and began running at full speed into the furniture. Her mother, totally overwhelmed, sat down on the floor, put her hands over her face, and began to cry.
I caught Lizzie in my arms as she ran across the room, sat down on the floor, and began to rock her in my lap. As Lizzie screamed and struggled to get free, I spoke softly to her, saying only that she was loved and that everything would be OK. I held her firmly, but not in the restraining position. She punched and swung at me, even bit me once on the arm, but I continued to softly speak words of love to her.

Eventually, Lizzie stopped struggling and rested in my arms, her breaths short and sharp from her recent tantrum. A minute later, Lizzie looked up at me, her eyes still puffy from crying and asked, “Am I a good girl?” “Yes, darling, Lizzie. You’re a good girl.” I assured her. A moment later, Lizzie was asleep.

That was the last fit Lizzie ever threw. By the grace of God, I realized in that frantic moment that what Lizzie needed wasn’t boundaries or limits or discipline. What she needed was tenderness and the assurance that she was loved.

Being only four years old, Lizzie lacked the words she needed to describe how the violence she had witnessed and suffered made her feel. She was too scared to tell anyone that she thought she must be bad and somehow to blame for the nightmare she lived. She was too little and too vulnerable to speak her greatest fear – that she wasn’t loved. So instead, she acted out. It was the only way she knew how to “tell” her story.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness month. During this month we, as a community, call upon ourselves to hear the stories of those in our midst who suffer and commit to working for safety, healing, and justice for them, with them, until it is achieved. To do this we must make ourselves ready by informing ourselves, willingly taking in the dreadful truth of this terrible problem, setting aside our judgments and opening ourselves to a new understanding by listening to the stories of the brave victims who are willing to speak.

Looking at domestic violence from the outside, many people ask, “Why does she stay?” The truth is, victims of domestic violence are at an increased risk of harm when they make the choice to leave their batterer. According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, in 70-80% of intimate partner homicides, no matter which partner was killed, the man physically abused the woman before the murder. Many women witness their pets being killed as proof that their abuser means business, coupled with an explicit threat that they are next. In addition, many don’t have access to money or a car in order to leave. Batterers isolate their victims over time, convincing family and friends that they are “crazy” or “liars.” They may also have moved their victims away from anyone who might be of help to them.

Then there is the fact that many victims love the person who has become their batterer. From the outside that may seem confusing, but abandoning a loved one isn’t something one does easily. Even if she can find safe haven and support her family on her own, leaving the father of her children or the person with whom she has shared marriage vows, is a very hard thing to do, especially with little or no outside support for doing it.

Domestic violence is also cyclic. The violent behaviors and expectations are passed from one generation to the next. Growing up in homes where domestic violence is present normalizes it in the experience of the children. Children who grow up in violent homes learn that love will be violent at times. They learn to minimize the danger of it and tend to be attracted to people who fulfill their expectation for it. In violent relationships, jealousy and control is misinterpreted as love, and violent threats and behaviors are misinterpreted as passion and strength.

Even though most cases of domestic violence are never reported, last year, the Abuse Prevention Council here in Shelby, provided shelter to over 150 women and children. They advocated and filed for 846 orders of protection keep victims and their families safe from their abusers. The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence reports that:

• an estimated 1.3 million women are assaulted by their intimate partners each year.
• boys who witness domestic violence are twice as likely to abuse their own partners and children when they become adults.
• 30% to 60% of those who abuse their intimate partners also abuse children in the household.
• the cost of intimate partner violence exceeds $5.8 billion each year, $4.1 billion of which is for direct medical and mental health services … and yet…
• less than one-fifth of victims reporting an injury from intimate partner violence sought medical treatment following the injury.
(Taken from the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence Facts Sheet at ncadv.org)

Statistics like these can cause us to lose heart. How can we approach a problem of this magnitude? The answer is: together. Together we can wake ourselves up to the truth about domestic violence, then, armed with the truth, act as a community to end it. Here are some concrete steps we can take to get started:

• we educate ourselves on the facts about domestic violence. Our local Abuse Prevention Council (APC) can help, or go online to ncadv.org;
• we financially support the APC and their efforts to rebuild the broken lives of the women and children they serve so that the generational cycle of abuse is interrupted;
• we volunteer our time, talents, and expertise to strengthen the services the APC provides;
• we join our voices to the voices of the victims crying out for justice.

Ensuring that safe, professional, healing comfort is available to each of these brave persons who risk leaving their abuse for a better life is all of our responsibility. Ensuring that there is effective treatment for the batterers is also our responsibility. Without that we are only addressing half of the problem. Working to end domestic violence is the right thing to do. That it makes economic sense as well is simply a bonus.

Shelby Star article: Righteous Anger

Re-titled by the Star: "Examine your motivation for righteous anger" and published Sunday, May 19, 2013.

There’s a lot of talk lately about righteous anger: anger at the Boston bombers, politicians, radicals and enemies of various descriptions. The gospel story about Jesus turning over the tables of the money-changers in the temple is often used to illustrate what motivates righteous anger.

In those days, Jews were obligated to journey to the big city of Jerusalem at the Passover to pay the annual temple tax and offer sacrifice according to the Law. Hundreds of thousands of faithful Jews made this pilgrimage each year and were greeted by thousands of priests, attendants, and soldiers who managed the event.

The Temple had become a huge institutional machine. The law required that only unblemished animals could be offered in sacrifice, and since the rigors of travel would have spoiled their own animals, most pilgrims bought their sacrificial animal at the temple. Money changers were needed to convert Roman and other foreign money into money that could be used to pay the temple tax, money that had no idol or image imprinted on it. All of this took place in the outer precincts of the temple known as the Court of the Gentiles. There was so much “business” going on that any semblance of reverence or solemnity would have been lost to the chatter of people, the cries of animals being sacrificed, and the smell of their blood.

It’s true that the money changers and animal sellers were providing a service in accordance with the customs developed under the authority of the religious leadership. As often happens though, faithful pilgrims were getting ripped off as huge profits from the vendor “fees” benefited the religious leadership and the representatives of the Roman government.

The very reason the people were coming to the temple, to pray and worship God, was lost to the “business” of the institution under the guise of keeping the Law. It’s no wonder Jesus wasn’t happy. Throwing over the tables Jesus demands repentance, demonstrating what motivates righteous anger: interfering with those whom God draws into worship and relationship.

Jesus’ actions also delineate an important change. The old way of approaching God in the temple is over and Jesus ushers in something new, something unprecedented: himself. Jesus is the temple of God, and people may go directly to him; no money changers, no animal sellers. The only requirement for admission to this temple is faith.

This was such a new thing that even the disciples didn’t fully understand it until well after the resurrection. That’s because developing a mature faith takes time, diligence in prayer, and participation in a worshiping community.

When we face trials, our faith and our community carry us through. The disciples couldn’t have imagined that God would redeem the crucifixion by the resurrection, even though Jesus kept telling them that it would happen. But they stayed together, prayed together, and let God lead them in surprising ways that spread the kingdom to those outside of it. Remember Peter’s dream in Acts: “kill and eat” (10:9-15) which led him to testify that “God shows no partiality.”(10:34)

As we live out our faith, it is important to examine what is motivating our righteous anger whenever it arises and let go whatever ideas, habits, and rules we have that interfere with those whom God is drawing into worship and relationship in our time. Who they are might surprise and discomfort us as they did Peter, but our faith assures us that God has it all in hand: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the LORD.” (Isa 55:8).

Shelby Star article: It isn't easy being inclusive

Note: I wait to publish these on my blog until they have been published in the paper (as a courtesy to the Shelby Star). The Star changed the title of my article. I post it here with my title. Here is the link to the article in the Shelby Star: http://www.shelbystar.com/articles/rights-64810-civil-systems.html


Each year in January, Americans honor slain civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., remembered for his work advancing the human rights of people of color and calling for their full and equal inclusion in the social, political, and religious systems in America. With all the progress we have made since the signing of the Civil Rights Act, however, we still struggle with the sin of racism.

That’s because it isn’t easy being inclusive. Yet this is our calling as God’s people, and it requires extraordinary effort.

It is also our tradition. In the Book of Nehemiah, the priest, Ezra, went against the religious tradition and authority of his time, and read from the Torah to people assembled at the Water Gate, a location outside of the temple precincts. Women, children, “and others who could understand,” people who would have been excluded from temple worship, were given the opportunity to hear Scripture and enter into the joy of relationship with God.

But Ezra went even further, building a platform so that all the people could see and hear him as he read. He enlisted the help of thirteen priests to walk among the people teaching them about the Scripture they were hearing. What an extraordinary effort to include the excluded!

In the epistle to the Corinthians Paul discusses the grounding of the body of Christ in our baptism: “For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit… Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” (1Cor 12:12, 27)

Paul uses the ‘one body, many members’ metaphor to show how all who are baptized in Christ
are called to live together in unity while honoring and maintaining the great diversity present
in the individual members. For Christians, Paul says, our unity is tied to our interdependence. “The eye cannot say to the hand, nor the head to the feet, I have no need of you.” (1Cor 12:21-22) On the contrary, Paul says, “God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another.” (1Cor 12: 25-26)

Christians have been dealing with disagreement over who should be counted among the faithful since the earliest days. Paul wanted to include Gentiles in his ministry, but Peter refused to allow it, until God spoke to him in a vision about eating with the Gentiles and sent him to the household of Cornelius. Peter obeyed God and, as a result, hundreds were added to faith that day.

We are heirs of that first great Gentile mission, beneficiaries of their faithfulness to God’s call to be truly inclusive. Now it’s our turn to be faithful, seeking out those who are excluded and going to extraordinary measures to include them, living together in unity even as we honor our diversity.

May Article for Shelby Star: Not Wrath but Salvation

I saw a statistic recently that caught my attention: nearly 15% of people worldwide believe the world will end during their lifetime and 10% think the Mayan calendar shows it might happen in 2012. Personally, I am comforted by what our Savior said about that in all three of the Synoptic Gospels: “But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” I’m thinking that includes the Mayans and the tabloids.

The Day of the Lord is a concept found throughout the Old Testament, primarily in the Prophets. As modern readers, however, we need to understand that the wrath of God, as described throughout the Old Testament, is a term full of meaning, beyond the surface implication of anger in judgment. God’s wrath is evidence of God’s judgment and God’s judgment is always motivated by God’s steadfast love, mercy, and desire to save.

The prophet Joel says the all-mighty power of God is proclaimed along with the message that God is an ever-present refuge for God’s people. (3: 14, 16) In Ezekiel, the day of the Lord is the way the power and love of God are made known. (38:23) Zephaniah calls upon God’s people to draw together and seek the Lord in humility, or else, be destroyed by sin. Obadiah clarifies how God’s judgment is to be understood, and this is affirmed later by Jesus in the gospel of Matthew: “For the day of the Lord is near… As you have done, it shall be done to you.” (1:15)

In the letter to the Thessalonians, the apostle Paul is seeking to comfort a church which is worried because the anticipated second coming has not arrived as they expected and they are becoming confused about the meaning of eternal life. Paul comforts them, reframing for them the concept of the day of the Lord according to the revelation of God in Christ: “For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord, Jesus Christ…so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him.” (1Ths 5:9-10)

Paul reminds the church that God’s plan of salvation was always for the whole world: “I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” (Isa 49:6) He calls the faithful “children of the light,” the light of salvation promised by God and fulfilled in the Christ. He reminds them that the promise of God has always been salvation and he encourages them to live as children of the God who is faithful to the promises made.

This is as relevant to the church today as it was to the ancient church in Thessalonica. Our hope is in Jesus Christ, the Word of God, the light of life, not in a calendar or in predictions made by any human. Our lives are in the hands of God alone whose faithfulness is witnessed in the Old and New Testaments.

Held in Love - VMS article in the Shelby Star

This is my third February in Shelby, and frankly, the turning of the seasons here has me a bit confused. I don’t recall the season of winter happening at all this year, yet it looks like Spring has sprung already. The daffodils are in full bloom at the churchyard!

This brings to my mind the greatness of Almighty God, by whose hand creation came into being, and who continues to care for and guide it. In the book of the prophet Isaiah, the voice of God reminds us: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (55: 8-9)

Thankfully, we aren’t expected to comprehend God or God’s plan. We are called to trust that God is faithful, kind, and full of compassion, and that the promises of God given to us in Scripture are true. We are called to trust that it is from Love we were created, by Love we were redeemed, and in Love we are sustained. The ebb and flow of the ocean tides, the annual cycle of seasons, the daily reality of night following day which follows night, and the internal rhythms of our breathing, our heartbeats, our sleep and wakefulness – all held in the loving hands of our Creator who is beyond our comprehension and control.

Resting in the Love that exceeds our comprehension and control is the perfect posture for practicing a holy Lent. Remembering that the word “Lent” means “spring,” and that it refers to a time when new life is being formed in us, we have a wonderful opportunity to let go and trust God.

When Jesus, our Redeemer, was filled with the Holy Spirit and led by that Spirit into the wilderness, he showed us how to do this; how to let go and let God form new life in us so that we can be prepared to respond faithfully to God’s call on our lives. Choosing to enter our interior “wilderness,” translated from the Greek as “desert” or “uncultivated place” as Jesus did, provides us opportunity to let go and let God cultivate in us the faithfulness we need to live and serve in a world full of temptations.

Lent is not a time for us to wallow in the misery of our wretchedness as hopeless sinners, and we don’t fast in order to atone for sin. We fast to allow ourselves to experience emptiness, even though emptiness scares us. The nothingness of it feels kind of like death. Remembering, however, that we are a resurrection people, we have no fear of death, not even the little ones, like the death of a habit, or the death of an idea we hold about God, or ourselves, or our neighbors, because we rest safely and securely in the hands of Love who created us, redeemed us, and sustains us.

The Radical Truth of Christmas

VMS+ article submitted to The Shelby Star for Dec, 2011:

A few years ago I saw a television commercial that asked the question: “…who’d have thought the biggest thing to ever happen to you would be the smallest?” The visual was a parent holding a baby, and the tag line was: “Having a baby changes everything.”

For Christians, the biggest thing to ever happen in the history of human experience came to us in the form of the least - a baby. Yet this baby, conceived in Mary’s womb by the Holy Spirit of God, changed everything. Sometimes, however, we pass through this holy season, caught up in shopping, parties, and decorating, and we forget to allow the transformative truth of Christmas to penetrate our hearts and minds, the truth St. Paul said so well to Titus: “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all.”

In a speech calling for Christian unity and inclusion, Archbishop Desmond Tutu once said, “Jesus did not say, ‘I if I be lifted up I will draw some… Jesus said, ‘I if I be lifted up will draw all, all, all, all, all. Black, white, yellow, rich, poor, clever, not so clever, beautiful, not so beautiful, gay, lesbian, straight. It’s one of the most radical things… All belong… All are meant to be held in this incredible embrace that will not let us go. All.” The radical truth the Archbishop is pointing out is the nature of the extravagant love of God, recounted for us over and over again in Scripture, and finally, most definitively, revealed to us in the birth of the Messiah.

Luke affirms this in his telling the Christmas story. The first to hear of the birth were the shepherds in the fields. We need to remember that back then, shepherding was a despised occupation. They were scorned as shiftless, dishonest people. Shepherds didn’t bathe much so they didn’t smell good and worse yet, they were ritually unclean, which means they wouldn’t have been allowed in church. And this particular group of shepherds to whom the angels appeared, was the lowest of the low. These were the shepherds working the grave-yard shift.

But God, who sees differently than the world does, chose these shepherds to be the first to see the light, the glory and presence of God, which “shone all around them” when the angel spoke. And the angel proclaimed “good news of great joy” to this lowly audience: the birth of the Savior.

And this is good news for all people! Including them! Including us!

The good news of Christmas is a present reality, not just an event in ancient history that we remember together. Christ is being born in us today, now - when we, like Mary, give our consent, when we, like the shepherds, seek the Savior. In this holy season, we are called to remember that God came to save each of us and all of us. Remembering that, we can respond with love to the God who loved us first, to the God who loved us enough to become one of us, sharing our vulnerabilities and making them strong, and welcoming in all whom the world would keep out.

God took the form of the smallest and the least and changed everything. That’s why we sing out our praise: “Glory to God in the highest heaven! For unto us is born a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

Doing Justice

Doing Justice

Prior to being clergy, I served as a shelter director and advocate for victims of violence. One little girl I served, a 4-year old named Lizzie (not her real name), suffered from fits of rage, something often seen in children who witness or suffer extreme violence at a very young age.

Lizzie’s rages were triggered by sounds, smells or events that connected her to memories of her abuse. Doctors and therapists were brought in to treat Lizzie and they instructed us on how to immediately interrupt her violent behavior while rewarding her good behavior.

Well, we tried. For weeks, every time Lizzie went into one of her rages, we did they said but Lizzie wasn’t responding. In fact, her violence toward herself and others was increasing.

One afternoon, as I was talking with Lizzie’s mom in the shelter, a little boy came in from playing outside and slammed the door shut behind him. Lizzie, who had been playing quietly on the floor in front of us, ran to the corner of the room and curled up in a fetal position. A rage began to overtake her. Lizzie’s mother responded immediately, but Lizzie would not be comforted. She began trying to hurt herself, running at full speed into the furniture. Lizzie’s mother, totally overwhelmed, sat down on the floor and began to cry.

I caught Lizzie in my arms as she ran across the room, sat down on the floor, and began to rock her in my lap. I spoke softly to her, telling her that she was loved. Lizzie punched at me, even bit me on my arm, but I continued to hold her and softly speak words of love to her. Eventually, Lizzie stopped struggling and rested in my arms, her breaths short and sharp from her tantrum. Then she looked up at me, her eyes still puffy from crying and asked, “Am I a good girl?” “Yes, darling, you’re a good girl.” A moment later, Lizzie was asleep.

That was the last fit Lizzie ever threw. By the grace of God, I knew in that frantic moment that what Lizzie needed was the assurance that she was loved. Being only four years old, Lizzie lacked the words she needed to describe how the violence she had witnessed and suffered made her feel. She was too scared to tell anyone that she thought she must be to blame for the nightmare she lived, and she was too vulnerable to speak her greatest fear – that she wasn’t loved. So instead, she acted out.

This reminds me of the woman in the parable of the unjust judge (Lk 18:1-8). To those who listened to her with earthly ears, she was an annoyance. But to God she was a beloved child, and God acted swiftly to bring about justice for her. God cares deeply about the powerless, the vulnerable, and the abused, and so should we. (Mt 25:40)

October is Domestic Violence Awareness month. Last year, the Abuse Prevention Council (APC) here in Shelby, provided shelter to 287 women and 173 children. They advocated and filed for 827 orders of protection to keep these women and their families safe from their abusers.

The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence reports that:

· an estimated 1.3 million women are assaulted by their intimate partners each year.

· boys who witness domestic violence are twice as likely to abuse their own partners and children when they become adults.

· 30% to 60% of those who abuse their intimate partners also abuse children in the household.

· the cost of intimate partner violence exceeds $5.8 billion each year, $4.1 billion of which is for direct medical and mental health services (Source: ncadv.org)


As people of God, we are called to open ourselves to hear the pleas of those in our midst who suffer. More than that, though, we are required to act, to do justice. (Micah 6:8)

How can we do that? We can be the mouths that speak love and offer hope to victims of abuse in our area. We can inform ourselves about domestic violence, and support the APC and their efforts to rebuild the broken lives of the women and children they serve, volunteering our time, talents, and expertise to strengthen their services. We can be the place where the grace of God touches the wounded children of God. We can, and we must.

Healing Witness: July 2011 article for the Shelby Star

When we open ourselves to come to know God in the power of Jesus, everything we once knew from a human point of view about God, ourselves, and the world is changed; transformed by the love of Christ that fills us and urges us on as witnesses of his resurrection. An important example of this is found in the story of Mary Magdalene (whose feast day is July 20), a story about healing, transformation, and faithful witness.

Unfortunately, aside from the Biblical record that Jesus healed her of seven demons (none of which was named), we don’t know much about her. In the gospels, she is a minor character who is recorded as following Jesus and his disciples around and ministering to them. (1) She is recorded as being present at Jesus’ crucifixion and burial, and all four gospels tell us that she was the first witness of the resurrection sent by Jesus to tell the disciples the good news – which led early church writers to call her the apostle to the apostles.

It was St. Gregory the Great, at the end of the 6th century, who identified Mary Magdalene with the unnamed sinner in Luke who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears, and the woman caught in adultery whose stoning Jesus forestalled. “From this conflation, now rejected by scholars as well as the church, there came about the popular representation of Mary Magdalene as a penitent sinner, [a] prostitute.” (2)

For nearly two millennia Mary Magdalene, the faithful follower of Jesus, the apostle to the apostle, has been dismissed as a minor character and slandered as a prostitute. Yet the healing Jesus began when he freed her from the grip of seven demons continues to this day, restoring Mary Magdalene’s reputation and her rightful place of honor in the Christian community.

That’s how healing works. We know from the many stories of Jesus’ healings in Scripture, that whenever Jesus heals, he heals more than a person’s body or mind. Jesus’ healings always restore a person to wholeness of life. The lepers who were cleansed, for example, were able to return to their families and live in the communities from which they had been exiled due to their disease. The blind beggar and the demoniac who were healed became evangelists who told of the mercy they had received from Jesus – and all who heard their stories were amazed.

That’s the other thing about healing – it is for us, but not just for us. When we have been restored in body, mind, or spirit, we come away with a new awareness of God’s powerful love and mercy, and that is what is meant to be shared.

When Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb and finds it empty, she cries. But in the most unexpected way, her tears are turned to joy as she hears her teacher and friend, call her by name. Suddenly there is nothing present but transforming love. We don’t know how long they stayed together in that moment, but we do know that at some point Jesus tells Mary not to cling to him, but to go and tell the others, that they might be transformed too.

Mary doesn’t stop to ask Jesus to explain how he did it – she doesn’t ask to understand at all. She simply responds to the love of Christ that fills her and urges her on, and she goes to tell the others, taking with her an unexpectedly new awareness of God’s reconciling love in Jesus. What she had once known from a human point of view, Jesus her Rabboni, has been transformed, and because of that everything has become new (2Cor 5:17).

When someone has been beaten down by the demons of fear, loneliness, or depression, when they have been oppressed by poverty, marginalization, or anger, when they have been forsaken by friends and family, it is as if they are living in exile – cut off from the reconciliation Jesus died and rose to give us all. And the longer someone lives in exile, the more their hope and sense of self-worth dwindle away. It is to these beloved, thirsting ones that God sends us as witnesses, because, as we hear in the book of Judith, God is the God of the lowly, the helper of the oppressed, protector of the forsaken, and the savior of those without hope.(Jud 9:11)

Witnessing means carrying the life-giving waters of Baptism out to those who are athirst for the living God (Ps 42:2). It means trusting God and God alone to judge them. It means inviting them into relationship just as they are and trusting God to take them and us where we need to go. Witnessing means proclaiming by all we say and do the Good News of God in Christ.

History did not treat Mary Magdalene well as a witness, and may not treat us well either - but that isn’t what matters. What matters is that Mary loved Jesus so deeply that she was open to receive his Holy Spirit and to be sent - healed, forgiven and renewed - to tell the Good News of his resurrection.

Our Savior continually calls us to wholeness of life, allowing him to turn our tears into joy by entering into the presence of his transforming love. Then having been healed by him, we are made ready to go and tell others, that they might be transformed too.


Footnotes:
(1) James Keifer, http://elvis.rowan.edu/~kilroy
(2) Robert Ellsberg, All Saints, Daily Reflections on Saints, Prophets, and Witnesses for our Time (The Crossroad Publishing Co., NY, 2002), 312.

Mother Valori's article for the Shelby Star: God's Love Descending

…and when Jesus…had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form, like a dove…

There are four things to notice about this very short bit from the Gospel of Luke. First, Jesus had been baptized. Why would the one who was without sin need to be baptized? Well, it wasn’t for him as much as for us. Like so many other times in the stories about Jesus in Scripture, the revelation was intended for those who were witnessing the event.

Second, Jesus was praying. Still in the company of those with whom he had just been baptized, his faith community, you might say, Jesus modeled inviting God’s action into his life and into the world by praying…communally and privately. All four of the gospel writers often describe Jesus praying alone or corporately at the temple.

Third, heaven was opened (or more literally – ripped open, it was a cataclysmic moment). The boundary between heaven and earth was torn apart, ushering in great change. And God’s Holy Spirit became present in such a way that everyone who was there could see it and know it. By using the phrase, in bodily form, Luke was making plain the point that this thing that was happening was REALLY happening. (Jerome Commentary, 687.) People could SEE it, even if they couldn’t quite understand or describe it.

And Fourth: God is not a bird, nor did God look like a bird that day. When Luke says that God descended in bodily form like a dove, he’s not trying to describe WHAT was happening, but HOW it was happening. As the boundary between heaven and earth was being ripped open, the Spirit of God descended softly, gently (like a dove would) on Jesus, revealing the great change being ushered in by God. Suddenly, this man, Jesus, whom everyone knew up until then as Mary’s son, the cousin of John the Baptizer, was understood to be the beloved Son of God, the light of God’s love radiating in the darkness, the One sent to bring salvation to the whole world.

We, like Jesus, are transformed by our baptism into beloved daughters and sons of God, into lights radiating in the darkness in our world. And this is the covenant to which we, God’s children, are called by our baptism.

The covenant we make in our baptism is our response to the covenant made first by God: As we read in Isaiah: I am the LORD, I have called you in righteousness… I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.

This was the ministry Jesus claimed and his ministry was characterized by humility and hospitality, mercy and forgiveness, and reconciliation. He broke bread with Gentiles and sinners, women, and others who were outcast in his culture. Boldly proclaiming a new revelation of God’s mercy and forgiveness, Jesus freed people from the bondage of their sins, or from the bondage of those who sinned against them, and expanded the boundaries of God’s kingdom to include the least and the lost, the outcast… the outsider.

Sometimes, living out God’s covenantal call can cause some discomfort. It can definitely cause insecurity, even fear, about what we should do next. But being faithful means being willing to pray, together and privately, to listen for the voice from heaven which will guide us as God ushers change into our world.

Being faithful means resisting the temptation to determine how things ought to go, and instead, making space in our lives (and our life in community) for the Spirit of God to descend upon us softly, gently, like a dove, so that we can be transformed by God’s love, and radiate that love into our world according to God’s will.

Mother Valori's October article for The Shelby Star: Living Resurrection Life

I love the story of doubting Thomas found in the Gospel of John (20:21-31) because it goes straight to something most of us fear - our doubt. Yet we all experience doubt somewhere along the way on our Christian journey. The story of doubting Thomas gives us permission to doubt and Jesus’ response to Thomas gives us comfort that our own doubt won’t cast us away from our Savior, but will lead us to living the resurrection life he died to give us. Jesus doesn’t make Thomas feel bad for doubting. He allows Thomas to put his fingers in the crucifixion wounds, and he does so graciously.

Maybe Jesus responded tenderly to Thomas and the other disciples who doubted because they had important work to get to - Jesus was preparing to send the disciples out to continue his work of bringing in the kingdom of God. When Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit onto the disciples, he said: “If you forgive someone’s sins, they are forgiven; if you retain their sins, they are retained.”

Forgiveness interrupts the cycle of sin, and when the cycle of sin is interrupted the grace of God can heal and restore wholeness. Forgiveness is something God gives us first. God doesn’t wait until we deserve forgiveness (thank God!). God just forgives us. But, Jesus said, if you don’t forgive someone’s sins, then the cycle of sin is not interrupted, and the harm from the sin will continue to affect the generations that follow. We retain sin by withholding forgiveness, holding onto our righteous indignation. We retain sin when we reject forgiveness which is offered to us because we are afraid or too proud to own up to our sin. Whenever we retain sin we lose the opportunity to bring God’s healing and wholeness to the brokenness in our world.

We are called to live our lives as believers in the power of Jesus’ resurrection. If we believe, then we participate with Jesus, bringing his radical forgiveness into our world - our families, our communities, and beyond - so that the healing power of God can interrupt the cycle of harm caused by sin.

This kind of forgiveness is almost as hard to comprehend as the resurrection itself. But, just as Jesus was gracious with Thomas who doubted, Jesus will be gracious with us as we try to get this forgiveness thing right. Jesus knows how hard this is… He came to live as one of us and he forgave from the cross. Jesus also knows that we can’t do this on our own, that we can only do this by the power of his life-giving Spirit, so he gave it to us saying, “Do not doubt, but believe.” Believe and live in the power of the resurrection of Jesus! Believe…and forgive.