An online discussion of Diana Butler Bass's Christianity For the Rest of Us by members of St. Paul's Episcopal Church. How do we want to be church in the 21st century? Where have we come from and where are we going, personally and collectively?
Thursday, April 19, 2007
What selection spoke to you?
A simple question. Answer as short or as long as you wish.
What passage in Bass's book reverberated in you? How and why? What moment in the first four chapters do you want other people to read or revisit?
1 comment:
Anonymous
said...
There was so much in these chapters that resonated on a personal level, and also when I applied it to my experiences at St. Paul's. The concept of "radical hospitality" kept rolling through my head. What does that mean? What would that feel like?
Do you remember the cart guy that I wrote about in my previous entry? Today, like nearly every day, he was at Vons, hustling carts. It was raining hard. I noticed something different, though: he had a sleeping bag, carefully and tightly rolled, wrapped in plastic, stowed on the back of his bike. He doesn't usually have his sleeping bag with him.
While I always bless the rain because of its importance to the water table - and in sustaining local agriculture (which sustains my family both through my vocation as an Extension agent and because it feeds us) - today I felt acutely the discomfort that the cart guy must feel on days like this. Cold. Heavy, wet jeans, and no opportunity to dry. Soaked socks and shoes.
I tried hard to think about that today, because frequently, we look away from the homeless and disenfranchised, rather than confronting our own discomfort and sense of helplessness in the face of their suffering.
Radical hospitality. What would that be? What would that feel like? While purchasing my coffee, I bought the cart guy a cup of hot coffee and a blueberry muffin, and took it out to him. He was very surprised, I think. He thanked me. Our contact was brief, but I think the door is open for me to speak to him and acknowledge him on a regular basis.
I write this not to be self-congratulatory. I certainly don't consider buying a cup of coffee and a muffin for a homeless man radical hospitality (radical hospitality would be inviting him into my home). I report this only because I'm observing some things about myself and our "village" church, (or the village church I hope we become).
Do we transform the church, or does our personal transformation then effect change in the order of things? Or is it both things simultaneously? Can I conceive of radical hospitality in a churchwide setting without practicing it on an individual basis?
I'm coming to the conclusion that personal transformation is a necessary component of transforming our larger life together.
1 comment:
There was so much in these chapters that resonated on a personal level, and also when I applied it to my experiences at St. Paul's. The concept of "radical hospitality" kept rolling through my head. What does that mean? What would that feel like?
Do you remember the cart guy that I wrote about in my previous entry? Today, like nearly every day, he was at Vons, hustling carts. It was raining hard. I noticed something different, though: he had a sleeping bag, carefully and tightly rolled, wrapped in plastic, stowed on the back of his bike. He doesn't usually have his sleeping bag with him.
While I always bless the rain because of its importance to the water table - and in sustaining local agriculture (which sustains my family both through my vocation as an Extension agent and because it feeds us) - today I felt acutely the discomfort that the cart guy must feel on days like this. Cold. Heavy, wet jeans, and no opportunity to dry. Soaked socks and shoes.
I tried hard to think about that today, because frequently, we look away from the homeless and disenfranchised, rather than confronting our own discomfort and sense of helplessness in the face of their suffering.
Radical hospitality. What would that be? What would that feel like? While purchasing my coffee, I bought the cart guy a cup of hot coffee and a blueberry muffin, and took it out to him. He was very surprised, I think. He thanked me. Our contact was brief, but I think the door is open for me to speak to him and acknowledge him on a regular basis.
I write this not to be self-congratulatory. I certainly don't consider buying a cup of coffee and a muffin for a homeless man radical hospitality (radical hospitality would be inviting him into my home). I report this only because I'm observing some things about myself and our "village" church, (or the village church I hope we become).
Do we transform the church, or does our personal transformation then effect change in the order of things? Or is it both things simultaneously? Can I conceive of radical hospitality in a churchwide setting without practicing it on an individual basis?
I'm coming to the conclusion that personal transformation is a necessary component of transforming our larger life together.
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