PEACEBLOG

God is a Mother.

Mon, 14 May 2012 14:10:56 -0700

By: Zac Harmon-McLaughlin

Happy Mother’s Day! Yesterday was that special day where we go above and beyond for those that embody the spirit of Mother. We send them flowers and cards, we take them to brunch, lunch, and dinner. We do whatever our mom’s want to do on that special day.

Yesterday at church we announced to all the mothers at church how deeply loved and appreciated they are.

But here is the thing, if this blog were just about a regular old understanding of Mother’s Day it wouldn’t be the courageous peace blog that we have all come to love and cherish so deeply!

God is a Mother! God is a beautiful woman who cherishes her children. God is the comforting and compassionate presence when we are suffering or lost. God is that sweet woman that nurtures us to life. God is so many things, but yesterday I was struck by how profoundly truly God is a mother.

Simply thinking back through my own life, I recognize God more through the kind actions of peace and love more than any other image. These experiences are synonymous with experiences I have had with my own mother. In the book of Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah even expresses to the Jewish people that God is like a mother. He says, “As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you….” (Isaiah 66:13) God walks with us. God experiences with us. God rejoices with us and suffers with us. God gives comfort and compassionate grace through good times and through bad. Even at the very beginning of the bible, God gives birth to us from the earth that was also created. God creates just as a mother creates.

God is a beautiful woman. God is a mother tending to her small child, nurturing that child into this world. God is a mother walking with her child to school. God is a mother sitting with her child while the cry in pain and frustration. God is a mother rocking her grandchild to sleep. God is a mother laughing in the joy of life with her family. God is a mother who weeps with her children as they make destructive decisions. God is a mother, who regardless of anything, still shares love freely, comfort kindly, and peace abundantly.

Today, may we all pray to God our mother with the same joy and excitement we shared yesterday with our mothers. May we understand the feminine power and beauty that is expressed daily in the God that fills us with awe, love, and peace. May we see God as the brilliant creator mother of this amazing creation. But, above all may we see God today as the kind mother of love and peace. Amen.

Communion

Mon, 7 May 2012 11:17:20 -0700

By: Katie Harmon-McLaughlin

Something really beautiful has happened.

I sent out a request for affirmations about a month ago. I asked our congregation to write a sentence or two about three or more people in the congregation who had impacted their lives. For the last month, they have been trickling in, sometimes affirmations for ten people at a time! In the car driving, an email would buzz on my phone and it would be positive things about people in the congregation. I would be working in the office and another email would come in. My life has been flooded with gratitude and I have spent the last couple of weeks drinking in the blessings of each person in our congregation!

Over the course of the last month, I have spent a lot of time collecting and cutting and pasting and writing my own. Then finally, printing and cutting and putting into envelopes. Was all of this time worth it for a 5 minute portion of the service? Absolutely!

Here is what is really beautiful: every single person in our congregation yesterday, regular attendee and guest alike, had a message in their hands of love and gratitude. As we prepared to take communion together, there was a sense of connectedness, appreciation, a silent sigh settling out of our shared space of renewal, of hope.

As I looked out over the congregation while we read our affirmations, I felt love’s invisible embrace entangled among our gathering.

Lately, I have just felt like we need to feel that we are loved. Burn-out and frustration are ripe potential when we lose a sense of connectedness and worth in community. As our lives rush by us, community must be that safe haven where we can retire for a while to rest, be renewed, reconnect, and remember what is most important in this life in the first place.

This happens when we love each other boldly, radically, openly. In the midst of all the un-love in our world, our voices of love must ring out loud! We cannot let what threatens to divide get the best of us. We need each other- that is what communion is all about! All are welcome at the table- the feast experience is diminished if any of us are absent in body or in spirit. It is a message we cannot hear enough, so please hear it again; YOU ARE LOVED. YOU ARE LOVED. YOU ARE LOVED!

After we dwelt with our affirmations, the service progressed into communion. Before us was a large table with many cups and types of bread. Each person was invited to choose a cup that spoke to them and then take it home with them as a reminder of renewed covenant and connectedness in community. We allowed people to share about why they chose their cups, and the sharing poured out;

Like this cup, I am small, but sturdy- ready to serve for the long haul...
This cup is broken, reminding me that if I don’t pay attention to what is broken within me, I may get hurt...
This cup reminds me of cookouts in the backyard with my family, and you are all my family- you are why I am here...

As people shared about the cups that spoke to them in a space of love and connectedness, I was overwhelmed by the beauty of our community. We are each so unique! Each cup represented a different life story and a different way of seeing the world, and yet we share together at this common table.

I had started my homily for the morning out in this way: “Lately, I have been acutely aware of how deeply I am falling in love with you, my community.” As the service ended, a congregation member embraced me, “I am falling in love with you too.”

I am still soaking in the depth of experience we had together.

Do you see that this is the vision of communion lived out, the kingdom of God on earth?
Do you see that these are the roots of peace?

The Peace Garden

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 11:37:53 -0700

By: Zac Harmon-McLaughlin

Let me just tell you the things that peace can create. Peace can move a congregation with such wonder and possibility to approve a budget for the creation of a peace garden. Peace can make people excited and cause a dozen volunteers to give of their one day off on Saturday to come and get their hands dirty in creating a peace garden. Peace can create a bond of friendship that mimics that of family and begins to cultivate an authentic expression of communities of Christ. And let me just tell ya, I experienced all these things last week!

Our congregation is in the midst of an experiment. We are calling this experiment the peace garden project. We are going to create a space of prayer and meditation. This space will be a California drought tolerant garden with benches and a peace pole. It is going to have beautiful rocks and grasses. It is going to be a space of renewal and refreshment. Right next to this space is going to be eight raised vegetable beds. These beds are going to grow produce of all sorts. This produce is going to be available for our congregations, our neighbors, and anyone else who wants fresh organic produce. We are also going to put in a pumpkin patch and a melon patch. It is going to be amazing.

We had a special service of dedication where we broke ground. We shared in beautiful prayers of blessing and possibility for our garden. The following Saturday we began work. We began to shape and create what is so much more than just a garden.

This is a symbol. It is an expression. It is a model. It is an experience. We are creating this garden because God has created something in us. We are trying to respond authentically to this new understanding of what it means to live missionally with God. By asking the question, “What would it look like for the kingdom of God to come a little closer to this place?” we are beginning to see God active in things all around us.

There is so much hope for this garden. It represents the peace that we believe in. It gives opportunity to share with our neighbors in a positive way. It shares who we are with those that use our facility. The possibilities are so great. This could turn into a small CSA. It could turn into a small community garden. It could turn into an opportunity for an after school program. It could become a way for the school that uses our facility to get involved with our mission of peace as a church.

The point is, this is so much more than a garden. This is step of discipleship. It is a journey of living into our relationship with God. We don’t have it all figured out. But we know that this isn’t about having the best programs, the perfect theology, the nicest sanctuary, the biggest membership. This is about cultivating authentic communities of Christ, deepening our relationship with the one that calls us forward, and proclaiming to the world our testimony of love and PEACE.

For more pictures check out our Facebook page @ http://www.facebook.com/groups/135064373222306/

Together

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 14:35:58 -0700

By: Katie Harmon-McLaughlin

“The person who loves their dream of community will destroy community (even if their intentions are ever so earnest),  but the person who loves those around them will  create community.”  ~ Bonhoeffer

It all starts with love. I am beginning to realize that LOVE really is the answer. I know that probably sounds corny and cliche! Recently, I read from Thomas Merton that the answer to hate is not the will to love, but the BELIEF that one is loved! For some reason, that idea really resonated within me and connected the dots of something obvious that I had overlooked before.

Do I believe that I am loved? I mean, really, more than just “Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so,” but do I believe in the essence of my being that I am LOVED with an unconditional love? If I don’t believe that, how can I possibly love others with that same type of love? If I don’t believe that I am deeply loved by God, how can I be deeply in love with her? If I don’t believe that my community absolutely loves me for who I am without judgement, how can I feel safe to live in and respond to that love? In that line of thought, the following scripture from recent counsel to the church makes much more sense to me;

Doctrine & Covenants Section 163: 10 a. Collectively and individually, you are loved with an everlasting love that delights in each faithful step taken. God yearns to draw you close so that wounds may be healed, emptiness filled, and hope strengthened. b. Do not turn away in pride, fear, or guilt from the One who seeks only the best for you and your loved ones.

I believe that we have a very difficult time reaching our full potential as community because we do not always believe that we are really deeply, authentically loved by one another or even our God. This may sound strange. I am not saying that we don’t love one another. I know there are people who would drop just about anything for me in my congregation if I was in need. I feel the blessings of community weekly! But I sometimes wonder if we really each KNOW fundamentally how loved we are.

We live in a society full of “not-good-enough” permeating the fabric of our lives and it sneaks its way into the church. I am guilty. I have high expectations. I see things for how they can be and often forget to appreciate the community that IS right now. The above quote by Dietrich Bonhoeffer from Life Together causes me to pause and be humbled. We create authentic community here and now through loving those around us, not dreaming of the community we could be “if only...”

“The person who loves their dream of community will destroy community (even if their intentions are ever so earnest), but the person who loves those around them will create community.” ~ Bonhoeffer

Barbara Kingsolver shares this similar piece of advice in community living, “What a rich wisdom it would be, and how much more bountiful a harvest, to gain pleasure not from achieving personal perfection, but from understanding the inevitability of imperfection, & pardoning those who also fall short of it."

I know we have talked a lot about wishing we would grow as congregation, as a church. This is not a bad thing, but I do want to encourage us to take a few moments to pause and reflect on who we are as a community RIGHT NOW. Are we truly loving those who are already in our fellowship? Are we welcoming one another all throughout the week with hospitality and care? Are we in relationship with one another in THIS COMMUNITY as it exists today in the ways we yearn to be? Are there any that are being overlooked or neglected in our fast paced life together? Do we regularly cherish the community we actually are? And isn’t that the type of community that people long to be part of in the first place?

May you know how deeply you are loved. May you recognize the abundant blessings of who we are at this point in our journey right now. In the name of peaceful, loving community living, I would like to close this post with the following quote. Thank God for all of you; my community, my spiritual companions, my friends!

“A man is to be compared to a beast if he has no one to rejoice with him in adversity; no one to whom to unburden his mind if any annoyance crosses his path or with whom to share some unusually sublime of illuminating inspiration... He is entirely alone who is without a friend. But what happiness, what security, what joy to have someone to whom you dare to speak on terms of equality as to another self; one to whom you can unblushingly make known what progress you have made in the spiritual life; one to whom you can entrust all the secrets of your heart and before whom you can place all your plans.” -Aelred of Rievaulx

The Upper Room Experience

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 13:52:56 -0700

By: Zac Harmon-McLaughlin

Yesterday church was an experiment and an experience. We didn’t have a traditional service, in fact we didn’t even meet in our sanctuary. We met in our fellowship hall. Our fellowship hall is a really bright room with windows covering almost one entire wall.

We wanted to create an upper room experience like the disciples had following the crucifixion of Jesus. So we got some black table cloth stuff and covered all the rooms and made it really dark in their. Then instead of a traditional preaching service we went on a journey through the story as if we were a part of it.

A couple of amazing things happened:

1. People welcomed each other with giant hugs and smiles as if they hadn’t seen each other in years. I was doing the welcome and I planned on this taking about 2 minutes, about 7 minutes later after I had asked them to find a seat multiple times, the family reunion simply kept on going. People were so excited to welcome each other into a worship experience. It was a beautiful sight to see.

2. We shared in small groups. This was amazing. Katie led us in a homily, but her homily was broken up into three parts and each part led us to more discussion and a different perspective of the story. People shared, and they didn’t just share briefly or surface level, they were vulnerable with each other. They shared true experiences. It was a blessing.

Now, I’m not sure how knowledgeable you are about the “Upper Room” story in John. Basically, it is a story of fear and calling. The disciples had just experienced the death of their teacher, mentor, savior, healer, lover, and overall spiritual guru. They are devastated, beyond that they are thinking that they are going to be killed as well because they followed this man. So they lock themselves in a room. Well, Jesus comes to them and gives them Peace, he then calls them to go out in the world just as he was called out and breathes the Holy Spirit on to them. It is a pretty cool story. You would think that this point in the story that they would respond by leaving the locked doors behind and going out into the world as Jesus had shared with them. Well they don’t. So a week later they are still in the room locked up and scared when Jesus returns again. Now, rather than chastising them or criticizing them for remaining in fear, Jesus again says, “Peace be with you.” This is powerful.

Don’t we find ourselves in that same situation? I don’t know about you, but I have had some amazing experiences with the Spirit. These experiences have been more than internal, they have been communal and social. Often my experiences have called me to go forth and proclaim the good news or to stand up to injustice. However, I remain locked behind the doors of fear. The amazing thing is that Jesus always returns to me and gently comforts me with compassion and peace. I am called out, just like Jesus. You are called out, just like Jesus.

Our world is suffering. Our world can’t afford our hesitation and fear any longer. We are being called to no longer sit with peace, but rather to walk with it. We, as disciples, are called out, just like Jesus. No difference. We aren’t meant to stay hesitant in the shadows of fear or insecurity. We are meant to boldly and courageously change the world.