Streams of Living Water: The Charismatic Stream

Over the course of Lent, we are exploring different streams or types of spirituality found in the life of Jesus and others in the Christian tradition. Using Richard Foster's Streams of Living Water, we are looking at the many varied ways we grow in our relationship with God, as individuals and as communities. Last week we opened our series by looking at the concept of holiness. We discussed some of the most common misconceptions about holiness and looked at some concrete ways we could work towards becoming more holy in our own lives.

This week, we pair Luke 13:31-35 and 1 Corinthians 12-14 with the Charismatic Stream - the Spirit-empowered life. Where holiness centers on the power from God to be something, the charismatic stream focuses on the power from God to do things. Those who are centered in the charismatic stream are infused with and guided by the Holy Spirit in their work in the world. They feel the immediacy of God’s presence around them and act on that power in their lives.

Streams of Living Water: The Holiness Stream

As we enter the season of Lent this year, I am working on leading the people in this congregation deeper into relationship with God using the spiritual streams identified in Richard Foster's book, Streams of Living Water. Throughout his life and ministry, Jesus modeled several ways of being in relationship with God. From holiness to contemplation, from compassion to incarnation, from the work of the Spirit to the sharing of the Word, this relationship does not take on any single form. While Jesus, the only one to ever be perfect, was able to incorporate all of these ways of being into himself, for us it can be a different matter.

So I will be taking on one of these streams each week to explore what they look like and how we can use them in our own spiritual journeys. In some ways, these different streams of spirituality are something like love languages for our relationship with God. (Some may be familiar with the concept of the 5 Love Languages that ha been around for about 25 years now.) And just as not all of us speak the same love language in our everyday relationships, I suspect we will find along the way that no single spiritual language for our relationship with God works for all of us the same either.

This week, we looked at the Holiness Stream using the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness found at the beginning of Luke 4 (Luke 4:1-13).

A House Divided (or, The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same)

I have struggled with how best to publicly respond to the recent General Conference of The United Methodist Church. I have struggled because I don't want to react uncritically to what has happened. I don't want to belittle the actions that have been taken or the very real pain, grief, and sorrow that many, including myself, are feeling right now. I don't want to uncritically lay the blame for this at the feet of others. I don't want to react in an attempt to apply a balm to my own feelings of guilt. I don't want to shame those that don't agree with me (or those that do for that matter).

But I also can't not respond. I can't simply sit back and say that all will be well because as a white, cishet male everything will be fine for me. But I struggle with how best to respond. Not because I don't care, but because I care deeply about what happens next.

Songs for the Journey: Hope in the Midst of Lament

Several years ago the first blog series I ever did was a series of reflections on various songs that reflected the themes we encounter during the season of Lent. This idea of looking for signs of God in the midst of the mundane things of everyday life has stuck with me. And I still find myself hearing theological themes on the radio and on TV.

Over the last week or so, I have noticed a song on the radio that keeps tickling at something inside me. It is somewhat haunting, and I hear in it a note of lament tinged with hope. As I rode into work this morning with the UMC General Conference on my mind, I heard it again and knew that I would need to reflect further.

The song is "In My Blood" by Shawn Mendes. In this song, the artist has tried to put into words his own struggles with anxiety. You can hear the pain as he names the many ways that  this anxiety manifests itself. And in the midst of the past three days in the life of my beloved denomination, I know that I have been feeling that pain, too. Feeling overwhelmed. Feeling insecure. Feeling anguish. Feeling heart ache. Thinking I am numb to the pain until the next round of words are spoken as if we are talking about a table that is not quite in the right spot rather than real, live human beings who are attempting to live into that same love of God as the rest of us.

Manifestation: Teacher Jesus 2 - Jesus Loves Your Enemies

This week we continue our look at Jesus' teaching as found in the Sermon on the Plain in the Gospel of Luke. (Luke 6:27-38) What does it mean for God is merciful to the wicked and unjust? What do we do with the fact that Jesus calls us to do the same?

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There are many difficult doctrines and beliefs in Christian teaching. Many of these things were also difficult in Jesus’ time, though we like to think they are more difficult for us with our modern sensibilities. From the virgin birth to the Resurrection, from miraculous healings to miraculous feedings, what are we to do with those things that our experience and intellect tell us are simply not possible? From the Trinity to the Sacraments to the Incarnation, what are we to do with concepts so convoluted it almost doesn’t make sense to even bring them up?

We talk about the unwed teenager who becomes pregnant with the Son of God, but we don’t often dig too deeply into what that means whether out of an inability to believe this girl was really a virgin or because we don’t want to think about how our modern culture treats unwed mothers. What does it mean for us today that this is how God chose to come into the world?

We hear the stories of Jesus feeding the multitudes, how a handful of bread loaves and a couple of fish turned into enough to feed thousands with more leftover than they started with. But is the miracle in so little being turned into so much, or in the people present actually sharing the food they had brought with others? Either of these thoughts can be hard for us to believe.