Diana Butler Bass

Yesterday and today I was the sexton for lectures by Diana Butler Bass. She was speaking on her latest book A People's History of Christianity as well as our Alumni Reunion Week theme "From Gutenberg to Google." The picture's not great, but it proves that it happened. She also signed my Practicing Congregation. Dr. Bass, or as she's known around campus "D.B.B.", has her PhD in church history from Duke and has done incredible work about the modern Mainline church. Her new book is the first history of the Christian church written for mass reading (not as a textbook) since 1965. She's an Episcopal layperson who is calling for the renewal of the Mainline denominations to ask good questions about how we live our Christian faith in this new digital age. She said that the reason the 95 Theses had such an impact was because Luther had the gall to ask the tough questions that were coming out of the culture that other church people weren't asking or thought weren't important. She lectured on how the digital age is changing how we think, and apparently I'm a "digital native." uch of computer, internet, etc. is "natural" to me while perhaps some of my readers might not know about the purpose of the hyperlinks on my blog or what they do.
I highly suggest reading her books and seeing her in person if you can. I'm currently reading A People's History, and I really like it. If this is what writing church history is, I may jump on that wagon.

Psalm 100 Sermon

I promised my mom that I would post my sermon on Psalm 100 on the blog, but I have to be honest... I can't. During my sermon last Monday I realized I wasn't connecting with the students at all. So I stepped to the side of the lectern and began telling a story. Almost everyone sat up a bit, and connections were made. So while I can't exactly post the stories and sermon-ing I told, I can give you an idea of what I said.

Psalms are awesome, and God loves us.

There you go. :)

Adventures in Hiking

Yesterday some friends and I set off for Tyler State Park in Pennsylvania for some hiking and looking at scenic trees. Afterward we ended up at this kooky, fabulous ice cream shop called Zebra-Striped Whale in nearby Newtown. Then it was back to PTS for some sermon writing!

God-Language

This semester I am in a class entitled Feminist and Womanist Theologies taught by Drs. Pierce and Taylor. Yesterday we were talking about Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, and Dr. Taylor played this song. It's incredibly moving and thought provoking. This song is to the tune of "Come Thou Font of Every Blessing" (known otherwise as Nettleton). You can listen to it online here. Below are the lyrics.

God, I Cannot Call You Father
© Linda Allen 1993
words: Linda Allen
melody: Nettleton, J. Wyeth 1813

God, I know you as a spirit
Blowing through me like a wind
You are the spirit of the water
You are the source, you are the end
God, I know you as a mother
Giving birth to all I am
But I cannot call you Father
And I know you understand

God, how many names we've called you
Great Jehovah, Great I Am
You are the lion, you're the shepherd
Mother Eagle, gentle lamb
And Jesus called you "Abba"
He knew Joseph's loving hand
But I cannot call you Father
And I know you understand

And now I hear the hymns around me
Heavenly Father, Lord of hosts
And the child is blessed with water
Father, Son and Holy Ghost
But how many father's daughters
Feel like strangers in this land
Silent tears to bear the sorrow
God, I know you understand


From the CD: Lay It Down: Images of the Sacred. October Rose Productions, 1996.

First Sermon for Preaching Class

Sermon based off of Luke 1:39-55. Below is Luke 1:39-45.
39 In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, ⁴⁰where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. ⁴¹When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit ⁴²and exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. ⁴³And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? ⁴⁴For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leapt for joy. ⁴⁵And blessed is she who believed that there would be^* a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.’


Today I’m going to be preaching on Luke 1:35-55, and I’m going to preach something a little different. I’m going to be preaching about a teenagers’ need for safe space.

I was in a church a couple months ago that had a depiction of Mary. She was white, was wearing a soft blue toga, had her eyes cast down modestly, and was wearing a crown. And I thought to myself… I just can’t get there. I can’t get to that picture of Mary in my mind. Then I was reading in a commentary about how Mary went to Elizabeth’s house because of how happy she was, and I just can’t get there either. We read that Mary went ‘with haste’ to Elizabeth’s home, but it does not mention what her feelings were. When the angel Gabriel had appeared he told Mary that Elizabeth was also miraculously pregnant. I don’t think that was an accident. I think God knew Mary was going to freak out… because God knew Mary was human. After all, pregnancy is a big deal. Unwed teenage pregnancy that results in the birth of the Messiah is a big deal. I think she got scared and ran. She ran to someone she knew she could trust, someone outside of her immediate family. Isn’t that often part of growing up? We run to people we trust outside of our immediate family to find a safe space. I think Mary ran to Elizabeth to find a safe space.  

How different would the vulnerable teenagers in our world be if someone created a safe space for them and exclaimed “Blessed are you!” or even the simple “God loves you!” Granted, there’s a difference between Mary the mother of our Savior and, well, everyone else; but I think there’s a pattern here that we can follow. The author is making a claim on how we are living our lives, on what we count as a blessing in our lives, and on the safe spaces we find in our lives. According to Mary and Elizabeth’s society, it is Elizabeth who is blessed, who has finally found a safe space in The Motherhood. She has finally overcome the bareness which has shamed her… and here Mary is entering a condition which will shame her. People will judge Mary, and people do shame Mary as we sometimes shame others. I see Mary as a scared teen girl in this passage, and I see that, perhaps, because I was a scared teen girl. Although I was never pregnant, I experienced shame and ridicule. You expect ridicule once word gets out in your high school that you are the president of the poetry club and that you spent your summer at Shakespeare Camp, but I had one great blessing in my life. I had many Elizabeth’s who offered me safe spaces. The associate pastor of my home church. My friend from youth group. My friend’s mom. These people and others told me that God loved me, that I had spiritual gifts, that my faith was stronger than I knew, and who taught me to trust in the promises that God has made. These people had the Holy Spirit working in their lives, and it is partially because of them that I find myself here at PTS, training to go into ministry. It is because of the Elizabeth’s in my life that I have the freedom to be a Mary! A Mary who has Jesus growing in her, in a spiritual way not in a physical way.

Because of the Holy Spirit working in my life and because of those safe spaces I experienced, I have been able to provide that same safe space for teenagers going through difficult times. I remember especially sitting with my friend Jon in his dorm room. We were freshman in college, and we were playing Street Fighter. Then Jon’s phone rang. It was his mother who told him she was divorcing his father and was going to marry a man she had been seeing for quite some time. She said she would be moving to a different city to escape the shaming looks from her church. Now Jon wasn’t a guy who let his emotions show. He’s a big guy with a quick smile and will always tell you everything is ok especially when it’s not. But that day he hung up the phone and started crying. I sat with him in that space, and for whatever reason he felt safe enough to cry. Providing a safe space for Jon didn’t bring his parents back together. Safe spaces don’t make everything ok. Safe spaces don’t numb the pain of your experiences, and they can’t make others change their mind about your own situation. Safe spaces can, however, create a place to express emotions and a place for support without denying what is going on. Safe spaces can remind you that even in the midst of great pain, distrust, disbelief, shock, confusion, discernment, joy, and questioning God is still there. Can we imagine how Tyler Clementi’s life may have turned out differently if he had an Elizabeth to run to rather than a deserted bridge… a waiting river…

We are people who see God’s blessings in others and who can provide safe places for them to grow and safe spaces for them to run to when life gets overwhelming. But there’s a key part here. The text says that Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. The joy spilled over from her womb, and she could not contain it. The Spirit empowered Elizabeth helped Mary see God’s strength and her own faith; we know that because Mary’s Song is a song of strength and faith. The song does not come right after Gabriel leaves. No. The song comes after Mary finds a safe space with Elizabeth. Mary’s Song is a song of strong trust in God. Mary can see her own blessings, how she can and will pour out those blessings and change the world.

May we be so moved in our own lives that we seek out people like Elizabeth when we need them, and may we be so courageous that we can be like Elizabeth when someone runs to us. May the Holy Spirit work in us to see Jesus growing inside of each other when society may only see shame. May we have an open heart to the Holy Spirit working in our lives, to help us not judge those society may deemed shamed; but instead to have God’s love through the Holy Spirit pouring out of us to strengthen the people who feel they need to run and give them the chance to sing in praise and trust and about the overwhelming-ness of God’s love—the ultimate safe space. By creating safe spaces for teenagers we can nurture Christ growing in them through the power of the Holy Spirit, like Elizabeth did for Mary. And we can create safe spaces just by being there and by being open to the Holy Spirit. Amen.