Blessed to Be a Blessing Resources: Pace

Week Two: Pace

...slowing your speed of life so you can notice people with compassion and still have some time and energy to serve them.

Eugene Peterson asks, “How can I lead people into the quiet place beside the still waters if I am perpetual motion? How can I convincingly persuade a person to live by faith and not by works if I have to constantly juggle my schedule to make everything fit into place?”—from “The Unbusy Pastor"

This week we will consider what this kind of slowed pace might mean in our own lives, families and communities.

Resources for further reflection:

• Sacred Chaos by Tricia McCary Rhodes

  • This book focuses on practical ways that we can learn to meet God in our present lives, no matter how chaotic they feel to us. Rhodes teaches her readers how to be present to the presence of God and prayerful in the life they have right now.

• “God Is in Our Moments” by Tammy Tkach: https://www.gci.org/articles/god-is-in-our-moments/

  • This article encourages us to slow down and notice God’s presence in individual moments in our lives. Slowing down and focusing on a particular moment can teach us to be fully present in our lives and to pay attention to God’s incremental work.

• Godspeed: https://www.livegodspeed.org/watchgodspeed/

  • This is a brief documentary about one pastor’s journey to discover the slow work of God in his small Scottish parish. Father Matt Canlis begins his ministry with big ideas about how to change the world for the sake of the Gospel, but by walking his parish, he learns that God’s work is done in slowing down and spending time with people.

• Activity: Spend one day—or even an afternoon or a couple of hours, whatever time you have—intentionally slowing yourself down so that you can notice the people and circumstances around you. We all fall into habits of multitasking--doing more than one thing at a time, like making phone calls while we drive, listening to podcasts while we cook dinner, or working while we eat lunch. As you are able, practice doing one thing at a time, and when you do so, ask God to make you more aware of your surroundings.

Listen to the accompanying sermon here.

Blessed to be a Blessing Resources: Place

Week One: Place

The first practice for us to be a blessing to people around us is to root in a place. Often, we can be ambivalent about where we live, or work, or the family we’re in. So we withdraw emotionally and relationally; we keep ourselves on the edge. But God calls us to “work for the peace and prosperity” of the place where we live (Jeremiah 29:4). This week, we want to consider what this might mean for all of us.

Read:

• “This Time, This Place: An Excerpt from Eugene H. Peterson’s The Pastor”:

  • This is a brief reflection from Peterson on our situatedness. His reflection encourages us to notice where we are and see the uniqueness of our own time and place.

• Theology of the Ordinary by Julie Canlis

  • This book is about living an ordinary life in the presence of God. Born out of her family’s experiences of living in a small parish in Scotland, and then in a small community in Washington state, Canlis explores the practical theology of slowing down and noticing where God is in our everyday lives and learning to do his work there.

Listen:

• Kingdom Roots Podcast, “The Neighboring Church (Conversation with Rick Rusaw),” Episode 24

  • This podcast is a conversation between Scot McKnight, one of C4SO’s Canon Theologians, and Rick Rusaw, a pastor. They discuss how Christians can learn to follow Christ’s teaching to love our neighbors as we build relationships with people right where we live.

Act:

• Take a prayer walk around your neighborhood, or sit on your porch and pray as you watch people walk by. As you begin, ask God to remind you of how he has worked in your neighborhood before and to open your eyes to how he might be working now.

  • This activity can encourage us to notice where we are and who is here with us. It’s a small step toward blessing others by engaging in the life of our community or neighborhood more intentionally.

To listen to the sermon, click here.

Revelation Resources

As we go through the book of Revelation in our current sermon series "Revelation: Visions for a Church Under Pressure," many resources are available to help us understand this challenging book.

First, read Father Kevin's letter to the Church of the Savior, in the style of the letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2-3. (Listen to his sermon on these letters here.)

Next, Senior Warden Deb Nickerson's prayer in response to the letter is here.

For a deeper dive into the context, genre and interpretation of Revelation, Father Kevin and Richard Kepner led a seminar on August 27th on these topics. Below is the audio for Richard Kepner's historical context and Father Kevin's guide to the genre and interpretation of Revelation.

Finally, for those who want to know even more about Revelation, a list of recommended resources:

The Bible Project -- creative videos to give you the quick overview:

• Chapters 1-11

• Chapters 12-22

Short article to help you get the tone right:

• “Spirituality and the Book of Revelation” by Michael J. Gorman

Commentaries being used by our preachers:

• Richard Bauckham, The Theology of the Book of Revelation

• Greg Beale, Revelation: A Shorter Commentary

• Michael Gorman, Reading Revelation Responsibly

• Eugene Peterson, Reversed Thunder

• Peter S. Williamson, Revelation (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture)

Sermons on Revelation:

• “The Son of Man” (Rev. 1) — Kevin Miller

• “The Seven Lampstands” (Rev. 2-3) — Kevin Miller

• “Worthy is the Lamb” (Rev. 4-5) — Sarah Lindsay

• “The Fall of Babylon” (Rev. 6-20) — Ted Olsen

• “New Heaven, New Earth, New City” (Rev. 21-22) — Kevin Miller

Expanding our Ways of Connecting with God

A few weeks ago, Savior hosted one of our three annual silent retreats. These retreats offer us a chance to slow our busy minds and set aside time to connect with God.

For our most recent retreat, Savior's Pastor of Adult Formation, Sandy Richter, put together a wonderful resource for expanding our ways of connecting with God. This booklet has images for the practice of visio divina, a guide to centering prayer, and a series of reflections on the Psalms and the natural world.

For anyone unable to come to the retreat, Savior is making this booklet available here. Some of you may be familiar with all of the practices described, others with none of them; regardless, we hope that these suggestions help to expand the ways in which we connect with God.

Click to access the retreat booklet.

Image: Christ in the House of Mary and Martha, Johannes Vermeer, c. 1654-56.