Back to Basics

Monday Morning Meditation—January 11, 2010

He who formed you, O Israel:  Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.  When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.  Isaiah 43: 1-2

The baptism of Jesus.
It seems like we have just knelt at the manger in Bethlehem beholding the tiny Prince of Peace.
We have hailed him as our hope with the Shepherds and the Three Kings.
For a brief moment, we saw him rushing home with his parents after being separated from them at age 12—in the temple, teaching and conversing with the temple elders.
Today, we stand along the banks of the river Jordan and watch John baptize Jesus along with all the other people.
Jesus’ public ministry begins today.
Around the age of 30.
And although we have several weeks of seeing the light of hope around Jesus in his ministry, Jesus was not so lucky.
After being baptized, Jesus is led, driven, into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tempted by devils and ministered by angels.
Meanwhile, we have a few weeks before Lent to think about how we want to enter again our own ministry in the world.  Our relationship with God.

I like to think about this time of year—the Epiphany—the time between Christmas and Lent as a time to get Back to Basics.
A time to look back and to look forward.
As Christians, and indeed Christians who are Episcopalians, the most basic action that we have in our journey are our two sacraments.
Baptism and Eucharist.
A sacrament is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace.
A sacrament manifests on the outside what has already been happening on the inside.
Just like marriage.  Just like ordination.  The actual celebratory events mark a long journey that has taken place beforehand.
Like Jesus’ baptism, his first thirty years had been preparation and baptism into ministry.
In that time where many years later, we wonder—what was Jesus actually doing?
He was trying out habits and ways that would serve him as he matured.
Like all teenagers and young adults, he wondered.  I believe he probably had some missteps along the way—missteps that Joseph and Mary counseled him through.
But at some point he knew he was ready for baptism.
How do we know when we are ready for the next step in our life?
How do we know that we are ready to move closer to God spiritually?
But there is one catch to Back to the Basics.
And that is avoiding the fear.

In her book  Fear and Other Uninvited Guests, psychologist Harriet Lerner says this:

“If you pay attention, you may find that it is not FEAR that stops you from doing the brave and true thing in your daily life.  Rather, the problem is AVOIDANCE.  You want to feel comfortable, so you avoid doing the thing that will evoke fear and other disquieting emotions.  Avoidance will make you feel less vulnerable in the short run, but it will never make you less afraid.”

I wonder how long Jesus had been avoiding what he knew was the ministry God was calling him to.
I bet it was a good bit of time.
I know for myself I avoided going to church---except Christmas and Easter for the most part—for at least the good part of 15 years—because I wanted to avoid the uncomfortable feelings that came upon me every time I entered the church doors.
I wanted to avoid the feelings that I felt when I sat in the pew, said the prayers that I knew by heart, sang the hymns that I loved and learned as a child, and walked up to kneel before the altar and receive the Body of Christ and the Bread of Heaven.
Those feelings that I felt represented so very much that I needed to look at, work through, embrace.
Those feelings that I was trying to avoid were the very way to my own healing and life.
But I did everything that I could to avoid them---especially going to church regularly.

Dr. Lerner writes that “avoidance can be directed to particular objects, like cars, green parrots, elevators, airplanes, and crowds.  We may avoid particular challenges, like opening an anxious conversation and saying something the other person doesn’t want to hear.  But avoidance can also become a lifestyle.”

Dr Lerner tells the story of Jill who was”thirty-one years old and married”  when she told Dr. Lerner that she was “afraid of everything.”  Yet, on closer examination, Jull realized that rather than being afraid, “she never let fear in the door---and THAT was her problem.  AS she described it, “When I put myself in a new situation like yoga class (or going to church or a new opportunity) it’s like there is a magnet pulling me back to my own house where I’m comfortable….No sooner do I arrive in a new place than I’m figuring out how to leave.”

We’ve all done this.  Tried to start a new discipline.  Yet revert back to the comfortable without it forming into a habit.

Experts say it takes about 6 weeks or so to begin to get a habit going.
The initial two weeks are the hardest.  Then the next six weeks are the true test.
If you can stay with a habit through six weeks (about the length of Epiphany) and make it even further to about three months (from now to Easter), you have a good chance of making your discipline into an established habit.

And some habits are very good things.
“A Chinese proverb tells us that habits start as silken threads that slowly, invisibly thicken and harden into cables.” (quoting Lerner)
And cables can withstand great burdens.
Think of the Golden Gate or Bay Bridge.
The disciplines of faith are not to punish us or just be one more responsibility that wears us out.
The disciplines of faith are there to give us that foundational strength that we can draw on all the days of our life.
When towers fall and worlds collide and suffering comes.
The disciplines of faith give us communities to weep with us and to celebrate with us.

So the very basic, basic piece of church life is to come together in worship.
Come to church on Sunday.
Just show up—even if you aren’t feeling so spiritual, ESPECIALLY when you are not feeling so spiritual.
And once you feel like you have that habit down, then begin the next part of the journey.
Praying during the week.
Taking a class to study scripture or the history of the Christian communities over the centuries.
Begin to volunteer your time by building relationships and giving back to the community.
Of course, sometimes—like many of you---you find your way to Sunday morning worship by starting with prayer, education, volunteering or relationships.
Like I said before, it’s all been going on before within---new action is a way of saying to yourself and to the world---yes, this is my life.  The life that matters to me.

So along with Jesus on the day of his baptism, what are the new waters you are ready to step into?
Could it be time for Inquirer’s Class this year?
A dedication to work for the improvement of the city school and the lives of all the children and youth in our city.
Time spent with the elderly—such as Memorial Apartments.
Maybe it’s a prayer practice.  An online class with me.
Writing a Lenten mediation.
A quiet space in the morning or evening to disconnect with the electronic world and reconnect with God.
A commitment to show up at church more Sundays than not.
This year, I invite you to give it a try!

Watch in this Wednesday’s e-mail and the Sunday goldenrod for ways to get Back to Memorial Basics.  One way will be my on-line class on the Book of Ephesians which will begin next Monday, January 18 on my blog- MMMeditation on blogger.com-which can be accessed through the Memorial website.  (click on Sermons and go down to Blog).  The course will run for six week—with a chapter of Ephesians per week. All you need is a Bible, your computer and yourself!   I will follow the study of Ephesians with a course on a book chosen for the Lenten season.