Yesterday was “Buy Nothing Day” here in the U.S. I participated in this. I hate shopping the day after Thanksgiving. It’s a fate worse than … well … it’s not worse than being accused in Singapore of selling drugs. But it’s pretty close. LightHusband did purchase some pingpong balls, but this was for the purpose of playing on the newly re-established pingpong table. He and the LightChildren had cleared space for said table and wanted to play. I think it still counts as non-participation.

I am steadily attempting to unhook from the economic machine. It’s impossible, I know, to do so completely. But our culture has an unhealthy attachment to the opiate. I’m not sure what would replace it. I know I haven’t thought this through adequately, but still … being able to make do without being attached is making more and more sense to me. Excepting, of course, for when I’m sick and need to be a princess and have my groceries delivered. Then, all bets are off.

It was reassuring to read that “Buy Nothing Day” has an international element. People are doing this in other countries, particularly the industrialized nations of Europe, I would imagine. I can’t imagine that many people in the Third World need to be told to “Buy Nothing” today. “No, I know you have no money, but just in case you were thinking of buying some food for your family to eat today, it’s Buy Nothing Day, so just wait, please.”

Maggie Dawn is talking about “Buy Nothing Day” on her side of the pond. She didn’t think that “Buy Nothing Day” had much impact there. I don’t want to disabuse her, but I don’t think it has much impact here either, except for in the characters and psyches of those of us who participate. She also has a link to a great new religion on her site. Really, I think it’s the religion for our age. It’s time has come to fullness and fruition. Seriously, tho … check out the new religion. I’m sure you know someone who is a novitiate, or perhaps even a high priest/priestess.

As posted on RevGalBlogPals …

So this is a “Black Friday” Five (aka Buy Nothing Day) in honor of the busiest shopping day of the year:

1. Would you ever/have you ever stood in line for something–tickets, good deals on electronics, Tickle Me Elmo?

Well … I’ve never stood in a literal line.  But I’ve stood in a virtual line … I had access to early tickets to U2’s Vertigo tour.  I had to load, reload, reload, until I finally got into the site and got my tickets.  It was high energy and sort of fun.

There was another time when LightGirl was little and a special Barbie was on sale early on Black Friday.  I refused to stand in line and thus lost out on this super special dealio.  So did LightGirl.  Oh well.

2. Do you enjoy shopping as a recreational activity?

No, not really.  I’m more tolerant of browsing than LightHusband, but generally I need to have a list in mind to venture into a store.

3. Your favorite place to browse without necessarily buying anything.

Oh well … that would be any one of several on-line fabric stores 😉 … I often play on their design walls for an hour or two and then “go home” empty-handed.

4. Gift cards: handy gifts for the loved one who has everything, or cold impersonal symbol of all that is wrong in our culture?

The tired, overworked part of me says they are handy gifts for loved ones … especially my nieces and nephews who love to pick stuff out for themselves.  On the other hand, the creative artist in me loves to make small gifts for friends and family and is horrified by impersonal pieces of plastic.  I think they have their place, but they can also be overused.  And, I would much rather have a gift card from a fabric store than another tchochke that I have to dust (speaking as a recipient).

5. Discuss the spiritual and theological issues inherent in people coming to blows over a Playstation 3.

Hmmm … well, actually I think this is a cold impersonal symbol of all that is wrong in our culture.  It would be easy to say it’s greed.  But I don’t think it is.  I think it’s short-sightedness.  It’s more like an inability to wait one’s turn.  Even when it appears that the turn may take several weeks.  I’m not sure why this happens.  But people decide that they have a “right” to have a certain thing at a certain time and decide to assert their rights over that of someone else.  I see this failure of our ability to wait our turn at many levels in our culture, and I wonder if this is how we handle Playstation 3’s what will happen as we begin to run out of oil?  Or perhaps we handle Playstation 3’s in this manner precisely because of how our leaders are handling the potential for oil shortages?  I’m not entirely sure which comes first….

A couple of weeks ago, our church service featured a fireside chat/discussion about prayer. We spent the whole service talking about what prayer is for each of us, what kinds of baggage we might have coming from our various institutional churches. We pondered what exactly it is that prayer does. How does it work? What is the purpose of prayer, we wondered. As is fairly usual for my church we didn’t come to any conclusions. I don’t think I was alone in leaving with the tiniest frustration that we spent the whole service talking about prayer and then, um, didn’t pray. My largest fear with my wonderful little faith community is that we tend to over-intellectualize things, especially those issues which might bite too close to the bone.

In any case, I’ve spent a fair amount of time since that Sunday thinking about prayer and about my particular journey with prayer over the past 17 years. Whoosh … that’s a long time.

I’ve read many books on prayer. The most influential was Richard Foster’s Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home. I’ve read it a couple of times. His writing and beliefs on prayer have become internalized and I have no ability to review the book with any sense of objectivity. I’ve read other books which promise to unlock certain aspects of God, they promise health, wealth, vitality, etc. if one will just follow this or that particular prayer formula.

I’ve certainly had my ups and downs with prayer. I remember the young father of 2 little boys in our community group, diagnosed with cancer. We laid hands on him. Anointed him with oil. We prayed over him, for him. If effort counted for anything he would still be alive. But he died after 6 months. There was nothing the doctors could do … and they did try. Prayer, seemingly, did nothing. But maybe it did. Who knows. Perhaps he lived longer, perhaps he lived easier. Perhaps his wife felt stronger for all of it. I remember my cousin’s child who died after 3 days in intensive care and after my cousin donated part of his liver in an effort to save his dying son. Four churches were praying for the boy and still he died.

I came to learn that God does not call us to pray because we can have control over a situation. It should be obvious to all of us that we do not. There are scientific studies which prove that prayer has a positive effect on people with chronic and terminal illness, but no one knows why. Some things must remain a mystery.

I’ve come to a place where I’m beginning to understand that God has asked us to pray because He wants the pleasure of our company. It’s so simple that it’s mind boggling. He just wants to be in communion with His creation. Sometimes that communion will cause a change in events. Sometimes it will not. Sometimes it will cause a change in us. Sometimes it won’t. Sometimes it will ease our burdens. Sometimes it will cause them to be heavier. But we cannot change outcomes with our words, we can only participate in redemption. There is no magic formula that will change our lives. We cannot do it at a specific time each day or in a specific way and hope that the mere chanting of words will create a cleansed soul within us. We can merely turn ourselves little by little, degree by degree until we are facing in the direction of God and learning to pray and breath at the same time.

Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals and Senior Pastor at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, CO, has been the latest domino to fall. It’s alleged that he’s been having an affair, bought and paid for, with a man for about three years under an assumed name. He’s admitted to having purchased (but not consumed) methamphetamines with this man.

Here are the things I find interesting about this. The first is that until late in the day yesterday, many articles did not give the male escort/prostitute a name. He had a name and I’m sure it was known since he came out in a radio broadcast on Wednesday. But the news articles did not use this name for quite some time.

The second is the startling similarities between Pastor Haggard’s response to the allegations that he used methamphetamines (i.e. he bought them, but never used them) and President Clinton’s response to allegations that he used marijuana (i.e. he smoked it, but never inhaled). President Clinton’s response has been the butt of jokes and fodder for hate and fear for many years. It will be interesting to see how the evangelical community responds to Pastor Haggard’s claims.

I feel very badly for Pastor Haggard. If the allegations are true (and it appears that they may be), his body has been saying one thing, but his mind has been saying something else. He cannot be true to one without being false to the other. He has been living with his feet in two worlds. He has been caught in a bind for many years. On the other hand, if the allegations are false, he and his family have been put in a terrible position. Either way, here is a family in a terrible crisis and pain. I sincerely pray God’s peace, comfort and grace in their midst as they walk through this valley of shadow.

I can see people in both camps lining up, preparing their slings and arrows. Preparing their armaments to defend their virtue and honor. The reality is that we have all failed. Whether or not Pastor Haggard actually did anything is really beside the point anymore. The fact that so many are willing to believe that he did means that we have failed. The fact that so many are willing to believe that he didn’t without any evidence means that we have failed. The fact that the church has done so little to protect and nurture its leaders means that the church has failed and failed catastrophically. This incident points to a catatonic failure in our culture on many levels. The fact that so many on both sides of the issue are counting coups and waiting for the votes to fall their way because of it, frankly sickens me.

For me, of course, it’s the church that is of great concern.  Not simply the New Life Church that Pastor Haggard led, not just the National Association of Evangelicals, but the church worldwide, the Body of Christ if you will.  It seems to me, that not only has the church failed in allowing this to happen but it might even be said that we set Pastor Haggard up for this.  The institutional church in north America is structured in such a way that the leaders must fractured lives of perfection in front of their flocks.  Smiling, straight teeth, combed hair, suits, wives either in the choir or gazing adoringly from the first row of pews with children lined up in a row.  The sermon must be neither too short nor too long or his livelihood will be cut short.  Everyone must be kept happy.  Suddenly it is not the paradoxes of the Gospel which must be held in tension, but the desires of Mrs. Snooty-nose and Mr. Grabby-fingers.  The leaders above him in his denomination are preaching a straight-jacket theology of graceless adherence to codes of conduct rather than the Law of Love.  The wonder is not that this happened to Pastor Haggard, but that it doesn’t happen more often.

We need to be able to come to a place in our society where we are able to love the people we disagree with. Where we do not objectify or feel threatened by those who do things that make us feel uncomfortable. I wonder how things might have been different for Pastor Haggard or someone else in a similar position if we didn’t just condemn and throw stones at wrongdoers. Despite the fact that we’ve done away with physical stoning, we still manage to do terrible damage to people with metaphorical stones and I think back to the story in the Bible of the woman caught in prostitution who was brought before Jesus for proper judgment, condemnation and punishment (stoning). He sank to the ground and began writing in the sand with his finger. Then he said, “He who is without sin may cast the first stone.” When everyone had left the square (except the woman) he turned to her and said, “What? is no one left to condemn you? Then I won’t condemn you either. Go and sin no more.”

About a month, or maybe more, ago I got me a personalized Google account. It didn’t change much about my life. I know I now have access to g-mail and a whole bunch of fantastic other things that I can wait to find out about. One thing that I have taken advantage of is that I have a personalized Google home page in my browser window. This has also not changed much in my life. Except that I now occassionally read a news item or two that catches my eye.

This article on duct tape caught my eye yesterday. It’s a fairly shocking story about a woman who has been charged with child abuse. Apparently she left her two small children at home alone while she went to work. In order to keep them safe, she duct taped them together and perhaps to some large piece of furniture (?). The article says that she was serving in the Navy at the time. There isn’t much information in the article.

I don’t know much, if anything, about the woman in the article.  But her story got me thinking.  I wonder what pushed her to the point of thinking that leaving children duct-taped in a room was a feasible alternative?  Surely she was under some sort of pressure.  That was not rational.

Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the past month, you’re aware that we’re in the midst of a hotly contested mid-term political campaign.  I’ve heard many people say that the “life” (i.e. abortion) issue is a litmus test for them.  I have to wonder tho.  If we force women to have their babies, what is our responsibility for helping to care for the children?  If Ms. Vincent is convicted and spends time in prison, who will care for her children then?  Indeed, who is caring for them now?  Does she continue to have custody of them?  I wonder all of this as I watch an acquaintance who is homeless with two children.  She is working; a supervisor at a department store.  She is the process of getting Section 8 housing approval.  At the moment, if she has to work while her children are not in school she has some built in help with her children.  But I’m wondering what is going to happen when she is living on her own in her house.  How is she going to arrange/afford childcare on weekends when she has to work?  She can’t afford to live on her own and support her children without this job, but she can’t afford to have the job because of the childcare considerations.  She is caught in a terrible catch-22.  She is not alone.  There are millions of women in her situation or a situation with similar circumstances.  We require these women to work, but the only jobs available are those which require them to work when their children need expensive care.  So what are they to do?  What is a pro-life position in this situation?  I have to wonder …

We’re in Raleigh this weekend.  LightGirl has a couple of hockey games down here.  We spent Friday night with LightHusband’s brother and his family.

The first hockey game was Saturday night.  It was in an old rink that had wooden seats and a low ceiling.  This was simultaneously delightful and disturbing.  The wooden seats were wonderful.  If you’ve ever been to an ice rink and sat on the metal bleachers … well … just imagine how much more comfortable wood might be in an environment devoted to keeping a large sheet of ice frozen.  The low ceiling did two things.  Well … perhaps three.  It made for fantastic lighting for LightHusband’s photography!  It kept the cold air near to the ice.  It kept the cold air near to the spectators.  Ahhh … it’s that last that was discomfiting.

Due to a series of strange events, CoachWonderWoman could not be with her team this weekend.  She is having a much deserved weekend with her husband.  So the girls are being lead by the very capable coach of the U19 team.  I met him briefly before the game last night.  He seems very nice and has the girls’ best interests at heart.  He also seemed to be coaching with the same philosophy that CoachWonderWoman has.  They did well.  But it was obvious that something was awry.  They weren’t quite playing as a team.  They weren’t looking for each other in the manner that they often do.

It struck me as I sat in the stands.  Most of the other teams we face have male coaches.  Their coach is a woman.  They know how to sort out her voice from all the other voices easily.  It comes naturally.  And, they are used to her voice calling to them.  They practice with the U19 team and usually they filter CoachU19’s voice out and Coach WonderWoman’s in.  Their norm is to NOT listen to him.  Not because his advice is bad, wrong or misleading, but because normally it’s not meant for them.  Now, in the heat of a game they were having to re-filter which voice to listen to.

Later on, I thought more about that.  I thought about how that analogy effects all of us.  How do we filter the voices we listen to?  Do we know when to change the filter?  How do we know when to re-filter in the heat of a moment?  What voices are we listening to?  Do they have our best interests at heart?  More importantly (for those of us who believe in God) how do we filter out the loud voices to hear His still small voice?  Do we recognize it when we hear it?  Or have we changed coaches so often we no longer know who or what we’re listening to?

I’d be remiss if I didn’t welcome another friend to the blogging world. So, step back one step to make the circle bigger and welcome Phreaq77. He’s blogging from his view of the world where he’s got a little bit o’land … enough to call a farm, some thoughts on church and God, music (excellent taste in music) and even vegetables (terrible taste in vegetables 😉 ). I’ve called him, and his wife, “friend” irl since their daughter was tiny, so I’m very glad to see his brilliant thoughts in the outloud world.

BlazingEwe and I took our children out to lunch at favored spot yesterday.  The fare is grilled hamburgers, fabulous fries, blistering buffalo wings and old-fashioned milkshakes.  During the warmish months there is outdoor seating.  The LightChildren and the FlamingLambs had their own table next to ours where we could keep our eye on them but have our own conversation.  Sometimes tho, we like to listen in on theirs because it’s hilariously funny.

We’ve discovered that our children have a fascination with appetites.  Theirs.  And that of adults.  They love to observe how much everyone else eats and compare it with how much they can eat.  This is not a judgemental thing.  They do not do this and then think things such as, “Well … of course they’re so FAT look how much they eat.”  They just sit in awe of how much food someone else can consume because in their minds it is a mark of greater adultness.  Or something.  It means more greater to them.  They remark constantly on the ability of FlamingLamb1 to eat an ADULT burger AND fries AND shake from the above establishment.  They tell this story to their friends with big eyes and nodding heads and the eyes of friends grow big and heads nod in return.  FlamingLamb1 must indeed be a heroine of great distinction.

So yesterday, when I heard the following story from LightBoy I had to bite my tongue and and cheeks to keep from laughing out loud.  iPete became legend to these 5 children round about the lunch table as they sat in the sun.  Here’s how it happened.  They had just finished going around discussing what they had ordered and how much each of them could eat of their lunch and gotten back to LightBoy.  He stopped the conversation with, “NO!  Wait.  You don’t understand.  Mr. Pete came here once.  He ordered the ADULT hotdog AND the ADULT hamburger and he ate them BOTH plus ALL the fries AND both drinks.”  With that he sat back and basked in the glory of having the best story of the day.  And three pairs of eyes the size of dinner plates stared back at him.  The fourth pair (his sister’s) just nodded in agreement.  For she too had born witness to this feat of glory.

We celebrated Sukkot yesterday and I’m shameless enough that I wanted to post my content for the morning.  As an addendum to this whole idea – it bears remarking that there are many who believe that Jesus based the so-called Lord’s Prayer on the Jewish Kaddish.  If you read the Kaddish, it’s pretty clear that that is entirely possible and probable, especially since He considered himself a rabbi or teacher.   It makes me wonder what else we are missing from our understanding of our faith?

Without further adieu ….

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The weather is starting to turn and FINALLY we are beginning to be able to wear our jeans again WITH socks and shoes. I’ve been loving the rainy days and the crock pot has been going non-stop in my kitchen … pot roast, chili, jambalaya … the foods of fall and winter. I can feel the season turning and I love it. On an e-list list I’m on, someone mentioned apple cider donuts … and I became insanely jealous.

Everywhere you look, the leaves are beginning to change color and from our CSA farm we are getting fall vegetables. Those vegetables one associates with “harvest.” Squash … acorn squash, crookneck squash and (a new one for me) cheese wheel squash. Pumpkin stands are appearing on road sides. Children are plotting their Halloween attire. We are going to have Mr. Spock trick or treating … on the home front our front stoop in going to be transformed into an abandoned house and LightGirl into a crazed old lady handing out candy to poor little children. I believe the plot also includes some whipped cream to turn our beloved Sam into a rabid beasty.

It is the season of harvest. Bringing in the sheaves. Gathering together the fruits of the labor of spring and summer and reveling in them, whilst simultaneously squirreling them away so that there will be something to eat during the short cold days of January, February and March.

Aesop had a fable for this time of year immortalizing the ant and the grasshopper. Pixar made a movie of it lionizing the ant’s behavior and vilifying the grasshopper. Short sighted. Ill-prepared. Unwilling to work. Wanting others to care for him while he played around. He was shown as a bully of sorts.

Yet, these are precisely the paradoxes that Sukkot asks us to examine. Sukkot is a festival which sets the things we imagine to be holy on their ear. We normally consider vows of poverty to be holy, yet Sukkot celebrates material wealth. We of often consider those with large well-established homes to be “good stewards” of the things God has given them, yet Sukkot asks us to celebrate in shaky, leaky temporary structures. We consider that a large harvest is a blessing from God, yet Sukkot asks us to celebrate God’s daily blessing, his daily Bread, his daily life’s sustenance for us. Our culture (both secular and saintly) celebrates the ant, yet Sukkot asks us to celebrate the grasshopper.

As a harvest festival, Sukkot incorporates frank recognition and celebration of material goods. Jewish tradition sees material possessions as a necessary but not sufficient basis for spiritual fulfillment. As Maimonides writes: “The general purpose of the Torah is twofold: the well-being of the soul and the well-being of the body. The well-being of the soul is ranked first but … the well-being of the body comes first.” The well-being of the soul is more important, but the well-being of the body comes first, for it is the context for spiritual development. Thus, appreciation and enjoyment of material things is a legitimate spiritual concern. It all depends on how it is done. Prosperity frees the individual for personal development; but worshiped or made absolute, wealth disrupts personal growth.

In many ways, Sukkot has become the model for this worldly enjoyment, which is why it is called the time of rejoicing. The depth of the joy also grows out of its relationship to Yom Kippur. Sukkot comes just four days after Yom Kippur, the most ascetic, self-denying, guilt-ridden, awesome holy day of the Jewish year. On the Day of Atonement, Jews reenact their own death, only to be restored to life in the resolution of the day. Only those who know the fragility of life can truly appreciate the full preciousness of every moment. The release from Yom Kippur leads to the extraordinary outburst of life that is Sukkot. On this holiday, Jews are commanded to eat, drink, be happy, dance, and relish life to the fullest in celebrating the harvest and personal wealth.

But making joy holy means being selective in the enjoyment of God’s gifts, not worshiping those gifts or those who own them. The first and foremost expression of this insight is to share the bounty and the joy, especially with the poor.  From “Joy As A Religious Obligation”

If Sukkot is meant to relive (in some fashion) the wanderings of the Israelites in the desert, then one would think that the festival would be tied in some manner to Pesach (or Passover). But Sukkot is more than an encore of Passover. On Passover, Jews restage the great event of liberation. Sukkot celebrates the way of liberation–the march across a barren desert to freedom and the Promised land.

Passover celebrates a brave departure through a festive meal. Sukkot marks the hasty lunches and the endless wandering in the desert. Sukkot expresses the deeper Exodus–the reflective, gritty days of marching, during which a new generation grew up. Freedom came as the end result of pitching tents (booths) and taking them down over the course of 14,600 days. Sukkot honors the forty-three thousand meals prepared on the desert trek, the cleanups, the washing of utensils. Passover celebrates a moment of pure triumph. Sukkot celebrates a seemingly endless 40-year journey. Passover is the holiday of faith; Sukkot is the holiday of faithfulness.  (From “First Liberation, Then What?”)

Sukkot celebrates daily life. It celebrates the monotony of snails trails of snot on a child’s sleeves, the taking in of families to homes of introverts, the hard daily work of daily life for which there are no awards or rewards. The monotony of breakfasts, lunches and dinners made for no other reason than to keep body and soul together. The trudging through the desert that was done by the Israelites for 40 long years. I can hear the children whining now, “Manna, aaaaaagain! When do we get some meat???”

I believe that Jesus lived a life that embodied the values of Sukkot. He understood the frailties of his human frame. He understood that those very frailties demanded a daily, even momentary, dependence upon his Father. He spoke of them, and he taught them rigorously to his followers. We read of them when he told his followers to go out with nothing but a cloak and leave nothing but their peace behind. This dependence allowed Him to be present and in the moment with whomever He was with in such a deep manner that when a woman touched the hem of his robes in the midst of a crowd He was immediately aware of it.

He taught those values even in the prayer he taught us to say … “give us this day our DAILY bread.” We Christians tend to make this very ephemeral and intellectual, talking about Jesus being the bread of eternal life and nattering on about it. In this way we are able to keep this at an arm’s length. But I think Jesus was talking about some very real stuff here. He was telling us to thank God every day, every, every, EVERY day for our daily bread … for our manna that He will provide. To be glad and rejoice in it. That no matter how small or how great, it will be enough.

So, my question for us is, how do we be present in this way? How do we, who know so well how to celebrate ants, learn how to become joyful grasshoppers? How do we drop back a step or two or three and learn how to become present for God and our loved ones? Take joy in the daily tasks for which there are no rewards?
We’re going to take some time today to practice this a little.  There are cards on your tables with Scripture that is pertinent to understanding how to live in the present and depend on God for His provision.  We’re going to spend some time discussing those Scriptures with each other with the following stipulations.  When each person is talking, those who are listening must try to be fully present without thinking about what they are going to do this afternoon, how they would answer the speaker, what they really think about the Scripture.  Just listen to what s/he is saying.  Then respond if you have something to say.  At the end of this time, we’ll close the service with our Eucharist.

The evil liberals at The New York Times are dissing the evangelicals again.

Evangelicals Fear the Loss of Their Teenagers

This article is really making the rounds on blogs that consider things churchy and otherwise. Having spent a number of years working in youth ministry I’ve got some thoughts on this issue.

The first is why all the fear? As with all things evangelical these days the fear-mongers seem to be out in full force. They were running rampant when I was in the evangelical church and the cries became more shrill after 9/11. The culture wars are being won by the heathens and pagans. As I began to look around with a more objective lens, I saw that the so-called culture wars were being fought on one side. No one else was fighting. The same goes for some of the statistics mentioned in this article such as the 4 percent solution. This begs the question 4 percent of what? What does that statement mean … Bible-believing? How is it defined? How does one live out those tenets?

When we’re talking about the next generation using narrowly defined texts seems to severly limit the number of those who will follow in our footsteps. Having made a hobby of history throughout my life, it seems that each generation likes to do this. It gives them a sense of self-importance. A sense of legacy that will not be lived up to. “No one can do what we did so it will die with us,” if you will. We like to think we’re the only ones who can carry the banner and no one will be available to pick it up for us.

Having said all of that, I believe that this article does indeed indict youth ministry in this country. It does so quite fairly. I believe we are raising children in our churches to believe some very backward ideas about what church is and how they should respond to it and behave within it. I think that the emerging church/conversation is on the verge of changing some of those ideas. But it’s going to take some radically different solutions to how we view and raise children within the context of the Body of Christ to swing the pendulum in a different direction. Here’s the quote that really caught my eye:

Apparently, the strategy can show results. In Chicago, Eric Soto said he returned from a stadium event in Detroit in the spring to find that other teenagers in the hallways were also wearing “Acquire the Fire” T-shirts.

“You were there? You’re a Christian?” he said the young people would say to one another. “The fire doesn’t die once you leave the stadium. But it’s a challenge to keep it burning.”

It’s the final two paragraphs in the article. It caught my eye for a couple of reasons; they are all wrapped in together so I’ll try to unwrap them in a logical manner.

We’re studying the Jewish holidays at my church this year. I’ve been given the lead on doing the research to find the theology behind all of them. So we are not simply finding the rituals and copying them; we’re diving into the theology and re-inventing it for our church to find out how Jesus might have reimagined it for the people of his day. It’s been a joy for my researcher’s heart and lead me down some wonderful paths. I am discovering quite a bit of marvelous synchronicity in the Jewish faith. Most of the holidays have a yin and a yang (for lack of a better term).
Today we celebrated Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths) a few days early by Jewish reckoning. As best I understand it, Sukkot celebrates the tension between storing up the harvest one has just brought in and the daily reliance upon God for survival modelled by the Israelites during their 40 years in the desert. Day in and day out they harvested manna, not too much though or it would rot and become infested with maggots. This is contradictory to the philosophy of farming and harvesting crops to tide a family and community over through not just one winter, but potentially several winters.

It is said that Sukkot is the epilogue for Passover. That Passover celebrates faith and Sukkot celebrates faithfulness. Sukkot is the holiday that celebrates 14,600 days and nights in the desert … 14,600 raising of the booths and lowering as well. Gritty, hasty lunches. Children whining, “Manna aaagggain. We just had that last night.” It celebrates perserverance and tenacity. It is the holiday for marathoners, quilters, artists, musicians, mothers, fathers, lawyers, doctors, programmers, athletes, and in short anyone who believes that s/he can methodically move a mountain one rock at a time.

Paradoxically, I believe this is where we are selling our children short. If we sell them a faith that is all about mountaintops and Passover and fail to help them through to the celebration of Sukkot we are not helping them to become fully fledged adults who are ready to take on life. Adults need the occasional Passover, but mostly we know that life is about Sukkot; it’s putting one foot in front of the other. It’s not about keeping a whole fire burning, but about keeping the ember from dying.

I believe the whole idea of youth ministry and youth group needs to be reimagined. Currently we segregate the youth and give them fun and games church until they are 18 or perhaps 21. Then we deem that they are old enough to be “with the adults.” This they find boring (as would I if I’d been in youth ministry for my whole life). Not surprisingly, they leave the church in droves, because church is no longer fun, no longer a mountain top and no one has given them any tools for remaining there. There has to be some middle ground between creating segregated youth and adult church systems and fully integrated systems which is, admittedly, not wholly appropriate for teens.

Preparing for this service, as for all of the Jewish holidays, has forced me to think and then rethink many of my unspoken and often unacknowledged assumptions about my faith, my faith practices and their roots. This looking backwards for thousands of years has also given me hope to look forward. The coming generations will have faith. It may not look like mine. Future generations may not remain in organized church systems; they may reimagine church entirely. But I’ve found a way to look beyond the fear and see that the ways of faith are as diverse as the people on this planet. It’s a beautiful thing!