An unfinished person (in this unfinished universe)

Entries categorized as ‘Devotions’

Of little faith

March 5, 2010 · 5 Comments

I am participating in a discussion group (for me online; for others, either online and/or IRL) with the First Lutheran Church of Jamestown, N.Y. on the book, Holy Conversation: Talking About God in Everyday Life by Richard Peace. I was invited to the group by Tara Lamont Eastman, with whom I have become acquainted through the blog Sleeping with Bread and now her own blog Uphill Idealist. This will be my fourth post as part of that group. The first post can be found here; the second, here; and the third, here.

In your own words – tell a Jesus story that is important to you and tell us why you choose it.

He got into a boat and his disciples followed him. Suddenly a violent storm, came up on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by waves; but he was asleep. They came and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us, we are perishing!” He said to them, “Why are you terrified, O you of little faith?” Then he got up, rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was great calm. The men were amazed and said, “What sort of man is this, whom even the winds and the seas obey?”

Matthew 8:23-27

Why I chose this story is partially because of the humor inherent in this story: In the midst of the storm, Jesus was asleep. His reaction: “Dudes, relax, my Father, I and the Holy Spirit have it under control.” Then he yawns, gets up, calms the winds and the sea and goes back to sleep, I like to imagine. Their reaction: “Whoa, who is this guy who we’re hanging out with?”

Also I chose this story because I think that often it is our habit to call out to God in those times of storms in our lives instead of realizing he is there all the time. I think of something as simple as a couple nights ago when I was calling out for him after eating hot wings: “Lord, help me!” but when I’ve had a home-cooked meal, I don’t say, “Hey, thanks, dude.”

The footnote in my Bible, The Catholic Bible: Personal Study Edition, on Matthew 8:26 on the phrase: “Of little faith” says to see the footnote on Matthew 6:30 (“If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?”). The footnote reads:

Except for the parallel in Luke 12, 28, the word translated of little faith is found in the New Testament only in Matthew. It is used by him of those who are disciples of Jesus in whose faith in him as not as deep as it should be (see Mt 8, 26; 14:31; 16, 8 and the cognate noun in 17, 20).”

Even Peter was one of those disciples whose faith in God wasn’t as deep as it should have been, as evidenced in Matthew 14 when after starting to walk on the water, he began to doubt (“O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”). Yet it is this same Peter who later will have enough faith to answer Jesus when he asks who does Peter think Jesus is:

“You are the Messiah, the son of the living God.”

Then just like that (Bam!), he is, at least, in terms of Catholic theology, made the founder of the Church and, in terms of other Christian traditions, given the keys to the kingdom.

If Peter can change like that, maybe there is hope for us also to change.

So if you are a Christian, what is your favorite Jesus story and why? If you are of another faith, what is your favorite story about a/the major religious figure(s) to your faith: Muhammad, Moses, Buddha, and why? If you are of no faith, what is your favorite story of Nietzsche (ahem, partially said tongue-in-cheek) or another philosophical figure like him, and why?

(After looking through all the music videos of “Walk on the Water,” including songs by Aerosmith and Eddie Money, I decided on this one. Yes, still apropos of nothing, but I always liked the Violent Femmes.)


Categories: Devotions · Soul
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This Pilgrim’s Progress

February 16, 2010 · 3 Comments

I am participating in a discussion group (for me online; for others, either online and/or IRL) with the First Lutheran Church of Jamestown, N.Y. on the book, Holy Conversation: Talking About God in Everyday Life by Richard Peace. I was invited to the group by Tara Lamont Eastman, with whom I have become acquainted through the blog Sleeping with Bread and now her own blog Uphill Idealist. This will be my second post as part of that group. The first post can be found here.

The second discussion point is based on the questions: “What was your pilgrimage to God like? Consider the phases you went through in your pilgrimage of faith. What helped you move toward God? When you think of all the stages of your own transformation, what does that do to your perspective on other people’s pilgrimage?”

In talking about my pilgrimage to God, I don’t like to talk in the past tense. It’s not what it “was” like, but what it is like. It is a continuing pilgrimage toward God Much like my namesake for this blog, unfinished person, I am not complete.

That said, my pilgrimage to God began at a young age, as I believe I mentioned last week, when I recited the Sinner’s Prayer at the age of four. Through elementary school and early high school, it continued in the Assemblies of God denomination. Later in high school, it branched out ever slightly into other independent Pentecostal-like churches.

In college, I can disenchanted with the “Pentecostal movement” and eventually doubted my faith in God even though I attended a Christian liberal arts college. Throughout my four years in college, I bounced from church to church, at first among  Pentecostal churches, then moving out wider to evangelical and finally more “structured” churches like Lutheran and Episcopalian.

Before graduating, I met a “cradle Catholic” at our school who began me on my journey, again which is ongoing, toward Catholicism. In addition to him, I later met a young woman, who also graduated from my alma mater, who converted to Catholicism. Through the help of that young woman, who later became my wife, and the assistance of the “cradle Catholic,” I began to learn more about the Catholic faith. In April 1995, I was confirmed in the Catholic Church and have been continuing that journey ever since.

For more on my journey into the Catholic Church, I have written about it previously here and here on my now-defunct blog, Journeying with the Saints, the posts from which eventually will be transferred to this blog.

Considering all the stages of my own continuing transformation, and that I continue to have close contacts with members of my immediate family who are Protestant, I tend to look at other people’s pilgrimage toward (and even away from, and no journey at all toward or away from) God in an ecumenical or catholic (small “c”) light. I count among my friends those of other faiths beside the  Christian faith, including Muslims, Jews and those with “no faith” at all in a “Higher Power.”

As Dolly sings in this song:

Questions I have many, answers but a few
But we’re here to learn, the spirit burns, to know the greater truth

or as Bono (well, in this case, The Boss) sings in this one (one of so many great versions of this song available on YouTube):

I believe in the Kingdom Come
Then all the colors will bleed into one
Bleed into one
But yes I’m still running

Categories: Devotions · Soul
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When God first came alive to me

February 9, 2010 · 7 Comments

I am participating in a discussion group (for me online; for others, either online and/or IRL) with the First Lutheran Church of Jamestown, N.Y. on the book, Holy Conversation: Talking About God in Everyday Life by Richard Peace. I was invited to the group by Tara Lamont Eastman, with whom I have become acquainted through the blog Sleeping with Bread and now her own blog Uphill Idealist. This will be the first post as part of that group.

The first discussion point is based on the question: “We are all on a spiritual journey, so…Tell a brief story about when God first came alive to you.” What is your story?

God first “came alive” for me when I was two or three years old. I had burnt my hand on an plug I plugged into an outlet in an upstairs room of our house. My hand, which normally is white (well, pinkish flesh as I was, and still am. Caucasian), turned black. I remember crying out and my aunt Joan, who lived with us at the time and was in the same room, rushing to me. According to my mother, my aunt took me downstairs to where my mother was to get it cleaned under a faucet, prayed for me and my burnt hand, I don’t remember which one. Then afterward as my mother read a book to me, she noticed that my hand was no longer burnt.

This was before I said the Sinner’s Prayer with my mother at the age of four and “accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.” Did I know what I was doing? No more than an infant in the Catholic Church knows, but I believe God’s hand was placed on me just the same as an infant who is baptized. Does this mean I was “saved” at that moment in terms of eternal security and all that jazz? I don’t believe so as the choice was, and is, still mine to choose or reject — just as the Israelites in Deuteronomy — did the blessing or the curse.

Regardless of that question, that moment was my first concrete experience with God for better and sometimes worse – since as for those of us who are Christians and even for those of you who are not Christians, but of others faiths, or no faith at all know that God, life, the universe and everything doesn’t always work in such dramatic ways. Often God, life, the universe and everything works in extremely more quiet ways than that, with a whisper and not a shout.

Categories: Books · Devotions · Soul
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