All posts by Johnna

I am a Christian educator and writer.I have worked in churches, denominational offices, and seminaries. I have a PhD in Theology from Princeton Theological Seminary, with a focus on Practical Theology and educating in faith. In 2010, my book, "How the Other Half Lives: the challenges facing clergy spouses and partners," was published by Pilgrim Press. I believe that words can build doorways that lead to encounters with God through the Spirit.
Advent2018, Biblical Reflection

Baggage

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Readings: Luke 1:68-79; Malachi 4:1-6; Luke 9:1-6

Then Jesus called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. He said to them, “Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money – not even an extra tunic. Whatever house you enter, stay there, and leave from there. Wherever they do not welcome you, as you are leaving that town shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” They departed and went through the villages, bringing the good news and curing diseases everywhere.

Luke 9:1-6, NRSV

Compared to most of the people in line to board an early morning flight to Pittsburgh, my son and I travelled light – just a small duffel and a backpack with the essentials for a two day stay. Everyone else had those things plus computers, rolling carry-ons, briefcases, and oversized purses/beach bags. Who knows what checked baggage each traveller dragged along. We were in our seats and settled in under a minute while others were still settling in well after takeoff. Most of them missed the sight of Boston falling away in the early morning light, with stars still visible on the horizon. The same was true when the plane landed: people were so busy collecting belongings and checking devices that they didn’t see the glorious sunrise that began the day. Carrying baggage may be necessary for travel, but it takes attention away from the unexpected magnificence each day can bring. 

 I am easily distracted by baggage, and when combined with my tendency to stick to a pre-arranged schedule it can bring on a blindness to whatever and whomever is around me. Trying to get all my ducks in a row might be industrious, but is that really the point of the journey? I think that’s why Jesus sent the disciples on their way carrying nothing – they had nothing to distract them and no way to avoid engaging with the people they were sent to serve. He isn’t asking them to be irresponsible, just insuring that they will be responsive.

As for the “shake the dust off your feet,” I think that’s less of a testimony against the inhospitality of others as it is sound advice for letting go of the past rather than dragging it along as a new piece of baggage…

Come, Lord Jesus, Come.

[Photo by Jared Fredrickson]

Advent2018, Biblical Reflection

Rescue

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Readings: Luke 1:68-79; Malachi 3:13-18; Philippians 1:18b-26

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them…

Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors, and has remembered his holy covenant, the oath he swore to our ancestor Abraham, to grant us that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. Luke 1:68, 72-73 NRSV

In the reading from Luke, Zechariah speaks of God’s mercy, His promise to rescue His people from their enemies and give them the ability to serve Him without fear.  Zechariah knew that his son John would be the prophet who would remind people of this covenant and prepare the way for the One who would guide their feet in the way of peace. 

Just as in Jesus’ time, our world is wrought with violence and divisiveness.  Do we believe God’s promise to rescue us from our enemies?  Who are the prophetic voices that can guide us on the path of peace, continuing to prepare the way of the Lord in 2018/2019? Could you or I be that voice?  Absolutely!!  I believe that God calls each of us to be like Paul in his Letter to the Philipians, encouraging each other, reminding each other that our hope lies in God’s trustworthy promises not in the false promises of this world. 

We hear so much about fake news but we need reminders that the only truth lies in the Good News of Jesus.  If we preach this Good News in the ordinariness of each day we will be able to reject cynicism and rejoice as Paul did.  Columba Marmion, a Benedictine monk, wrote: “Joy is the echo of God’s life in us.“  May our families, friends, neighbors, co-workers, and strangers experience that echo through us.  I’m counting on your voices to encourage me!

Offered by Ann Fowler, spiritual director, writer, seeker of the Christ Child.

Come, Lord Jesus, Come.

Advent2018, Biblical Reflection

Same Old, Same Old

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Readings: Luke 1:68-79; Malachi 3:5-12; Philippians 1:12-18a

Then I will draw near to you for judgment; I will be swift to bear witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterer, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress hired workers in their wages, the widow and the orphan, against those who thrust aside the alien, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.

For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O Children of Jacob, have not perished.

Malachi 3:5-6 NRSV

The message of the prophets doesn’t vary: stop mistreating my neighbors, especially those in need. Honor the God who created the whole universe (including you and me). Do these, and I will live a holy, blessed life – not necessarily an easy life, but a blessed and holy one.

To do more than half-listen to such words, I’ll have to start with God (that’s what fear the Lord means). When I recognize that God holds me fast, that I can’t possibly be lost to God even when I’ve managed to lose myself, I just might be able to see through illusion, be a steadfast friend, speak the truth, pay my fair share to those who earned it, help those in dire straits, and welcome strangers into the community. I might just have enough about me to see in others the holy face of Jesus.

God will always be God, no matter what mess I make of my life and the world. I will always have a home with God. And so will everyone else – the holy truth that can turn us and this whole world around. As it was, it shall ever be.

Same old, same old. Thank God!

May my life be yours, O God, and a blessing to everyone I meet. Amen.

Advent2018, Biblical Reflection

Along came Jonah

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Readings: Psalm 90; Isaiah 1:24-31; Luke 11:29-32

[One of the reasons we read the same Advent passages every three years is to give us a chance to give them more than a cursory glance – and to remember that what was true of human nature two thousand years ago is still true today. Jesus isn’t speaking only to his contemporaries; he is speaking to us, to our generation. So it is to us that the sign of Jonah is given.]

When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, “This generation is an evil generation; it asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so the Son of Man will be to this generation.” Luke 11:29-30 NRSV

Nineveh was a whole city of the bad part of town: dodgy, dangerous, difficult to navigate for strangers and natives alike. Swindlers, crooks, and con artists were on every street corner, taking advantage of anyone who came their way. It was to this city that God sent Jonah, a prophet who wanted to be sent anywhere else. He preached “repent or die!” with a vengeance. To everyone’s surprise, repent they did. They turned away from the life that brought them only death and began a new life that honored God. If that wasn’t a miracle, what else could be?

Every city has its dark corners, as does every human heart. Flashy special effects that claim to be miracles but are really just entertainment can’t make much of an impression in these dark places. A true miracle is required: someone who loves this world so much that a prophet arrives, the living sign of God’s love and concern.

Just such a person came into the world, and is present in ours even today. Miraculous.

Come, Lord Jesus, Come.

Advent2018, Biblical Reflection

Who Am I, O Lord God?

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Readings: Psalm 90; 2 Samuel 7:18-29; Revelation 22:12-16

Then King David went in and sat before the Lord, and said, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far? And yet this was a small thing in your eyes, O Lord God; you have spoken also of your servant’s house for a great while to come.”

2 Samuel, 7:18-19a NRSV

David wasn’t raised to be king of anything. For reasons beyond his ken, he was chosen by God to rule – and he was honest and humble enough to know it wasn’t out of his own strength. Well on his way to being the greatest king of Israel, he sits himself down before God and asks the question that reveals his true nature: “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far?”

Without God, David can do nothing. His house isn’t great because he is great: his house is great because God holds him and his family. David knows he lives before the Lord and because of the Lord. Who David is, his life and his being, cannot be understood in isolation; he is God created and God related, and he is wise enough to know it.

The same is true of you and of me. We cannot answer the “who am I” apart from God because we are just as God created and God related as David. For reasons beyond our ken, we are chosen by God to live our particular lives. And who knows what those lives may offer to this world? If shepherds and carpenters end up as God’s royal messengers and children, who’s to say we won’t end up being the same?

Advent2018, Biblical Reflection

Time is Relative

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Readings: Psalm 90; Numbers 17:1-11; 2 Peter 3:1-8

Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.

Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world,

From everlasting to everlasting you are God.

You turn us back to dust, and say, “Turn back, you mortals.”

For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past,

Or like a watch in the night.

You sweep them away; they are like a dream,

Like grass that is renewed in the morning;

In the morning, it flourishes and is renewed;

In the evening it fades and withers.

Psalm 90:1-6, NRSV

Young children don’t have much use for clocks or calendars. For them, time is how long it takes to get from breakfast to play time, or to walk from the front door to the playground. Time is how it is experienced.

From elementary school on, we are very aware of clocks. Time becomes the distance between the 12 and the 12. Seasons aren’t measured by the activities that we do in them as much as they are noted by where they fall on the calendar. But there’s something unreal about the clock-and-calendar concept of time that gets us to appointments on time: it’s not how time works in the largest sense. Post-Einstein, time is relative to the physical universe – much closer in reality to how children experience it. Perspective matters; where you are in the universe (or how fast you might be traveling) affects time. That simplistic version of time we left behind with diapers and naps turns out to be the simple truth of reality at its most profound.

Psalm time is God’s time: Real, related to how, where, and when we experience it. The decade that seems endless for a twenty-something and a passing fancy for a ninety-something, is just a blink of an eye for God.

I think this psalm is meant to remind us that our time is limited. There are a few precious days in even the longest life, and none of them are repeatable. This would be a bleak reality if it weren’t for the first line: God is our home, our dwelling place. We only last for a short period of time, but we return to the love that created us. We go home. And if we are wise, we realize we never really left in the first place…

Gracious God, grant us the wisdom to fill our days with love and our lives with your holy presence. Amen.

Advent2018, Biblical Reflection

On Our Knees

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Readings: Jeremiah 33:14-16; Psalm 25:1-10; 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13; Luke 21:25-36

And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all… I Thessalonians 3:12

As we begin our new Advent adventure,  there is much strife in the land just as there was amongst the young church in Thessalonika, the capital city of Macedonia (today’s Salonica). In this letter, the earliest extant Christian literature, Paul responds to a crisis in the local church concerning behavior in response to the expectation of the return of Jesus-an eschatological crisis.

Today we struggle with the expectations we have for our governance. The political scene is awash in strife with warring factions, 24/7 news cablecasts, name-calling—not much love showing through. Max Lucado writes in The Applause of Heaven:
“A small cathedral outside Bethlehem marks the supposed birthplace of Jesus.  Behind a high altar in the church is a cave, a little cavern lit by silver lamps.
You can enter the main edifice and admire the ancient church. You can also enter the quiet cave…there is one stipulation, however. You have to stoop.
The door is so low you can’t go in standing up.
The same is true of the Christ. You can see the world standing tall, but to witness the Savior, you have to get on your knees.
So at the birth of Jesus…
while the theologians were sleeping
and the elite were dreaming
and the successful were snoring,
the meek were kneeling.
They were kneeling before the One only the meek will see. They were kneeling in front of Jesus.”
May this first day of the new Church year find us on our knees in expectation of the coming of Messiah, and may the above blessing from the apostle Paul be ours as well.
Offered by Bill Albritton, writer, teacher, seeker of the Christ Child. 
[Lucado, Max; The Applause of Heaven (Thomas Nelson, publisher,1990) ISBN#0849937523]
gratitude, Meditation, observation, Thanksgiving

Taking a turn

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To turn, turn, will be our delight,

’til by turning, turning we come ’round right.

[These are the last lines of Elder Joseph Brackett’s Simple Gifts, a Shaker song. The last lines were a reference to turning one’s life toward God, and also an instruction for the dancers to turn back to their original starting places.]

Turning means a change of direction – up to down, left to right, front to back, over to under and any of these in reverse. Turn is found in all kinds of contexts, and all of them hold the possibility for change. We can turn over a new leaf, give someone a turn, turn something over in our minds, have a turn, take turns, and lose a turn. Turning cartwheels on the grass or spinning around and around seems to turn the world over and over, making us dizzy. It isn’t really the world that’s turned, but it sure feels that way. What a wonderful feeling such turning can give us.

When the world isn’t the way I wish it would be, sometimes I’d like to turn the whole damn thing over and give it a shake. But the world isn’t my personal snow globe, and it’s much too big for me to spin in my hand. Perhaps there’s another way, though: turning myself, giving my perspective a shake, is well within my abilities – an existential spin or cartwheel that can help me see the world from a different angle. Sure, it might make me dizzy, but isn’t that part of the fun? And such a turn might be the best way for me to come ’round right…

[Liz Story, artist. Click Simple (gifts) Thanksgiving above for details.]

gratitude, Meditation, observation, Thanksgiving, Theology

We shan’t be ashamed…

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‘Tis the gift to be simple, ‘tis the gift to be free,

          ‘Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,

               And when we find ourselves in the place just right,

                    ‘Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gained,

     To bow and to bend we shan’t be ashamed,

          to turn, turn will be our delight,

               ‘til by turning, turning we come round right.

Simple Gifts, Joseph Brackett

From high school through grad school, I washed dishes, cleared tables, sat diners, waited tables, catered, and tended bar. I worked in hospital cafeterias, fine dining establishments, and a couple of Mexican food restaurants. With such a background (and because no one else knew or would admit to knowing how to tend bar), it was inevitable that I’d work in the seminary’s catering service. I oversaw hundreds of special dinners, and mixed more drinks than any other student in the seminary’s history. It was a lot of fun, the pay was decent, and the commute was a walk across campus. That’s why I found it puzzling that many of the other students found such work distasteful. Why was setting tables and refilling coffee cups, laying plates of food before professors and administrators somehow beneath the station of a graduate student?

I never felt that way about serving food and drink. Arriving before a function to set up, serving guests throughout the meal, then breaking down the room when it was over was elevating the biological necessity of eating into an aesthetically pleasing social experience. I made sure the socially awkward didn’t stand alone, making introductions among guests and bowing out once the conversation got going. Getting everyone seated in the right place and making sure the food arrived warm and beautifully plated was an exercise in good timing. It was forthright and literal service to others: simple work, done well, filling a basic need. Where’s the shame in that?

Was it because I was paid for my service, or because it was hands-on work in a place that set great store in the cerebral and intangible? I’m still not sure. I do wonder if part of the issue was the implied servant status that accompanied food service work. If that was the real issue, the irony is really hard to miss:

Jesus bent down to wash the feet of his disciples and he bowed his head to God in prayer. If such are the actions of God-With-Us, how can there be shame in any simple act of service?

[For more on Joseph Brackett and Simple Gifts, click Simple (Gifts) Thanksgiving above.]

gratitude, life basics, Meditation, Prayer, Thanksgiving

Finding Ourselves

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A few years back, the book club I joined read two books by women whose first books had sparked marvelous discussion and admiration. One was autobiographical in nature, the other fictional; both were full of pain, difficulty, and loss – but infused with a hope that difficulties can lead to greater understanding and love. The same could not be said for the second books by the same authors. Both were autobiographical, but without a larger love that could offer generosity to the great wide world. Both authors “woke up,” convicted by the belief that only by putting their wants first could they mature into the people they wished to be. Families were left, temporarily or permanently. Friends and lovers were notable for their shortcomings, not their attempts to overcome them. Women who grew in different ways were discounted as immature or sleepwalking through a world not of their own making. Neither book ended on a particularly good note as neither women seemed to feel embraced by their own lives.

Many of the book club members saw the authors as only selfish, self-promoting, and defined by anger. The writing was admired, the women’s conclusions contested. The conviction both authors professed – that women whose life paths went a different way were immature or somehow inferior in their understanding of the world – didn’t set well. Many decided they wouldn’t bother reading any more works by either author.

I understood how the book club members felt, and I also understood the authors’ newfound acceptance of the importance of their own stories and voices. The world is not a fair place, and women’s contributions have been undervalued and suppressed. Waking up to the injustice of it is not an easy experience. The question is whether this waking up inevitably leads to a single interpretation or stance for all women (not much is said about men in either book).

I believe the authors were women who were growing into their potential, and that their second books were autobiographies of a transition rather than of a final resolution or destination. Rejecting what demeans the self and limits the soul is necessary, but not something that can support a good and holy life by itself. The next step must be taken: loving the brokenness of others as much as our own shortcomings. Unless and until love and joy define how we see self and others, we aren’t yet where we need to be. Or, as Joseph Brackett put it:

And when we find ourselves in the place just right,

‘Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

Lord, help me love everyone who comes my way – and love the person you made me to be! Amen.

Elder Joseph Brackett, Simple Gifts, The Carols of Christmas: A Windham Hill Collection; Windham Hill Records, 1996; Liz Story, performer, recorded at Luna Recording Studio, Prescott, AZ, 1996