Silent Prayer

Prayer: what is the first thing that comes to mind? Perhaps a familiar phrase from an ancient prayer or a line from a Psalm. Perhaps you recall gathering with others for morning worship or evening prayers, or you remember those quiet minutes at the beginning of the day when you pause to read and pray for your family and friends. For most of us, prayer is an essential part of our life, or it is a dimension we would like to live more fully.

Very often, the hyperactivity of our days and our minds creates obstacles that keep us from praying well. We may find ourselves saying the words, but we notice that we are not really present; our lips move, but our minds wander. Something within us yearns to simply rest in the presence of God. Silence may not feel like prayer at first, because we are so used to saying words, but silence allows our hurried souls to arrive in the present moment. Silence can help us become more attentive to the still, small voice of God.

For six weeks in January and February, we will offer an opportunity to explore silent prayer in a group. At each gathering, we will begin with a brief teaching, no more than 5-7 minutes, and then we will simply sit for 20 minutes, quietly following our breath as it leads us from busyness to stillness.

Does that sound like something you would like to do? It gets even better. This group is not only an exploration of silent prayer, but also an effort to discover new possibilities for interfaith spirituality, and so it will include Jews and Christians. Rabbi Kliel Rose from the West End Synagogue and Rev. Thomas Kleinert from Vine Street Christian Church developed the format together, and the group meetings will alternate between the synagogue and the church.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact Rabbi Rose or Rev. Kleinert. The first meeting of the group will be on Wednesday, January 19, at 6:30pm at the West End Synagogue, and meetings will continue for five more weeks (until February 23) on Wednesdays at 6:30pm. The group is free, and there will be no homework. We will sit in chairs, and people of all ages are encouraged to participate.

Please register by submitting the form below. Thank you!



Naming Our Hope

Bonnie Carenen works with Church World Service in Indonesia. She and I never met in person, but a couple of years ago I read a series of excellent meditations for Advent she wrote when she was a Week of Compassion intern, and since then we have stayed in touch. Last week she wrote a brief update about the work she does in Indonesia.

Those of you who receive Week of Compassion updates via email, Twitter or Facebook may have read it; I also sent it to those of you who subscribe to our electronic prayer list (and I only mention this to remind you how easy it is these days to stay informed about the good work of Week of Compassion and Church World Service).

On a recent Saturday, Bonnie and her team were rained in in the town of Sikakap, the main city for aid distribution and relief work after the October 25 earthquake and tsunami in the Mentawai Islands. The sea was too rough to travel by boats, and the roads were too muddy for aid vehicles, even the trusted motorcycles Church World Service frequently relies on. So they spent the afternoon in the makeshift hospital into which the local Protestant church had been converted. More than one hundred patients and their families had been welcomed there and received treatment, and fortunately, many of them had recovered and found other places to stay.

They heard about one recent patient, an infant, whose parents both had died; rescue workers found him two days after the earthquake – still alive. No wonder the locals talked about him as the miracle baby, Baby Emmanuel. You’d think that if you wanted to write a brief article about your work in the aftermath of a natural disaster, and you heard this story about a little child who miraculously survived, and you’re told that the child’s name is Emmanuel, God with us – you’d think that would be plenty to write a moving Advent reflection on the urgency and promise of the work of Week of Compassion and Church World Service in a place of great need. But Bonnie started a new paragraph.

One young woman and her family were still at the hospital, living on rolled-out mats on the concrete floor of the church building. She had given birth at the hospital two months prematurely, just three days after the tsunami. She had lost her home in the disaster, and not just her home, but also her husband. Her child was seriously jaundiced and had to be treated at the nearest real hospital, on another island, more than twelve hours away by boat.

The mother was lost in her grief. The loss of her husband and home, and the premature birth of her baby had happened almost a month earlier, but her child still didn’t have a name. They all knew it wasn’t because there hadn’t been an opportunity for a proper christening or baptism – the young widow and first-time mother was severely traumatized and completely overwhelmed.

Somehow the mother’s friend overheard that Bonnie was a minister, and – imagine that – she asked her to name the child. Bonnie couldn’t believe she was serious, but she said, “I can’t name the baby unless the mother says it is okay.” Translating into the local language, the friend asked if it was alright, and the mother gave a short shrug, and said that was fine.

The baby was a girl. How do you name a child that isn’t your own? It’s difficult enough to pick the right name for your own son or daughter – you want them to bear a strong name, one that becomes an anchor of their identity, a source of strength. But how do you name somebody else’s baby? Holding the child, Bonnie thought about the importance of a person’s name and what an honor it was to have been asked to name this girl. She looked at her and she asked her who she wanted to be and who she already was and how the world might be blessed through her.

And the name came to her. Amelia. This little girl would be Amelia, a name that means “to make better.” Bonnie describes her deep hope for this girl: May you make things better for your mother, your family, your entire community after the unimaginable loss they have endured. May you be a gift of hope, and may you find strength in that calling.

According to the local tradition, Amelia also needed a middle name. Bonnie continued to hold her, wondering what her middle name would be. She considered many of her favorite women in the Bible as well as women from her own life. She thought about this child’s birth in a church after her family’s life and community had been shaken and carried away by a wave. She thought about Advent, the season of expectation, the world’s waiting and wanting to be the world God created it to be. It was Saturday, and the next day another Advent candle would be lit, and the whole world was ready for the dawn of joy. “Joy will come in the morning,” Bonnie remembered the words from Psalm 30. Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning. Amelia’s middle name will be Joy: the anticipation, expectation, and ultimate fulfillment of God’s promise.

Bonnie named the child by giving a name to our hope for the girl and her mother and their community. May Amelia be the gift that makes life better for them, and may the circumstances of her life continue to improve. Bonnie told the family that Joy means “holy happiness from God,” and now we pray for those who hold the little girl, and sing to her, and feed and bathe and rock her, that she will remind them every day of the miracle of Emmanuel, God with us.

I told Bonnie that we would hold Amelia Joy in our prayers and, better yet, that we would put her in the crib with the little boy from Bethlehem. We go to Bethlehem and we gently lay our hope in the cradle that holds God’s salvation – our hope for the world, our hope for all the children born into it, and our hope for a peace that excludes no one, not even the dead. We lay our hope next to Jesus who came to save us from our sins, and who is with us always, to the end of the age.

We go to Bethlehem, because that is where, according to Luke and Matthew, the story begins. For Luke, it’s all about Mary. Mary is visited by the angel Gabriel. Mary asks good questions. Mary says yes to God’s wondrous plan. Mary sings the exuberant words we spoke together in worship. Joseph? He stands on the edge of the scene.

But Matthew tells the whole story differently. For Matthew, the story begins when Mary is found to be with child before she and Joseph lived together. Nobody sings in the first chapter of Matthew. The spotlight is on Joseph, a good man whose world just fell to pieces. All he knows is that Mary is pregnant, and that the child isn’t his.

Joseph faced a serious dilemma. On the one hand, he needed to consider the demands of the law of the God he loved. On the other hand, he needed to consider Mary, the young woman he loved. In those days, you couldn’t just cancel the wedding and take the ring back to the jeweler for a refund. Publicly filing for a divorce meant condemning Mary to life-long shame. Accusing her of adultery might also have resulted in some hot heads demanding that she be stoned to death (Deuteronomy 22:21, 23), and Joseph didn’t want anything like that to happen. Yet the law, the honor of his family, and his personal honor required that he break off the engagement. So Joseph chose of all the options he had the most loving one: he would dismiss her quietly.

I imagine that he was completely exhausted after looking, from every possible angle, at the mess his hopes and dreams had become. Just when he had decided what he would do to honor both the law of God and the love he shared with Mary, he fell asleep. And in his sleep, a messenger from God spoke to him; this was an option not written in the law, an option even his love could not envision: “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” Do not be afraid. This child is entirely God’s initiative. Mary will bear a son, and you are to name him.

Joseph didn’t say a word, but he said ‘yes’ with his life to God’s saving initiative. He took Mary as his wife and he named the little boy Jesus.

You know what it’s like when your dreams crumble, not necessarily in an earthquake or under a tsunami wave – but it can feel just like that, overwhelming. Your plans in pieces, you find yourself presented with circumstances you did not, would not choose. You don’t know how it happened, let alone why, and all you can think about is how to get away from what has become of your life. You are so exhausted and tired, you can’t think of a name for your hope.

Matthew tells us that’s the moment when Joseph heard the voice of an angel, “Don’t be afraid. God is faithful and true and at work. Say yes. Don’t be afraid.” And Joseph believed the messenger and laid his hope in the cradle and he gave it the name he gave his son, Jesus.

Joseph said ‘yes’ with his life, and Mary said ‘yes’ with hers, and the Messiah was born. And as we get ready for Christmas, that’s all we do as well: learn to say ‘yes’ with our lives to God’s desire to save and heal and make whole. We learn to give a name to our hope. A strong name, one that rhymes with Emmanuel and Amelia.

Leading in Conflict

We are pleased to invite members, friends, and the community to this year’s Wayne H. Bell Lecture on Ministry, on November 6 and 7.

Our speaker is Dr. Dan Moseley, Professor Emeritus at Christian Theological Seminary and former Senior Minister of Vine Street Christian Church.

The workshop and lecture will focus on a common experience in congregational life: conflict. The lightning speed of change in our culture creates a context of intense feelings of anxiety. Churches, which for decades were able to deal with the conflict produced by change, are now finding themselves in more profound struggles.

In the workshop, we will explore the psychodynamics of conflict and the multiple layers of tension that characterize congregational conflict. Since conflict is a natural part of change and transformation, we will explore the spiritual significance of this conflict. We will discover that conflict, when processed with pastoral sensitivity and care, can be an occasion for hope and new life.

Click to download a flyer for this event.

Dr. Moseley is Professor Emeritus at Christian Theological Seminary, Indianapolis, IN. He is a graduate from the Vanderbilt University Divinity School in Nashville and has served in three roles at Vine Street Christian Church. He was a ministerial intern while at Vanderbilt and then served four years as Associate Minister under the leadership of Dr. Wayne Bell. Dan was called back to Vine Street to serve as Senior Minister from 1983-1997. He became the Herald B. Monroe Professor of Practical Parish Ministry at Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis in 1997 and retired in July, 2009. Dan is author of "Living With Loss" (Xyzzy Press) and "Healing Relationships: A Preaching Model" (Chalice Press) and is currently working on a book "Leading in Conflict: Helping Congregations Navigate Change and Loss." He currently travels extensively lecturing and leading workshops. He lives with his wife Deborah in Indianapolis and between them they have five adult children and eleven grandchildren.

The Wayne H. Bell Lectureship on Ministry

Vine Street Christian Church has been a leader throughout the decades in calling and training ministers for the Christian ministry.  Its leadership has included ordained clergy from judicatory offices and university for decades.  It has nurtured hundreds of students who are training for ministry and has ordained dozens throughout the decades. 

Dr. Wayne Bell, senior minister of Vine Street Christian Church from 1960-1974, was instrumental in developing and stabilizing a ministerial intern program at Vine Street that has since produced dozens of clergy who are in leadership roles throughout the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).  His commitment to the future of the church and the importance of well-mentored ministers was such that it led him to accept the presidency of the Lexington Theological Seminary a position which he held from 1974 until  his retirement in 1986. 

In 1992, the Congregation of Vine Street adopted a long-range plan calling for the establishment of this lectureship in honor of Dr. Bell and to highlight Vine Street’s role in ministerial training.  Through the generosity of individuals and families, this memorial lecture ministry continues into the future.  If you would like to contribute to the Wayne H. Bell Lectureship on Ministry Fund, you are invited to do so by writing a check to Vine Street Christian Church and indicating your designation to this special fund.

What Do Muslims Say?

When Gallup Polls asked Americans in 2005 what they most admire about Muslim societies, the most frequent response was “nothing.” The second most frequent response was, “I don’t know.” Combined, these two answers represented 57% of Americans.

Many of us tend to conflate the mainstream Muslim majority with the beliefs and actions of extremist minorities who tend to get most of the media attention. Nevertheless, we are curious about many things:

• Why is the Muslim world so anti-American?
• Who are the extremists?
• Is democracy something Muslims really want?
• What do Muslim women say?
• What do Muslims think about the West, or about democracy, or about extremism?

Over the course of six years, the Gallup Organization conducted tens of thousands of hour-long, face-to-face interviews with residents of more than 35 predominantly Muslim nations – urban and rural, young and old, men and women, educated and illiterate.

Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think is a book based on those interviews representing 1.3 billion Muslims – more than 90% of the world's Muslim community, making this poll the largest, most comprehensive study of its kind.

What the data reveal and the authors illuminate may surprise you:

• Muslims and Americans are equally likely to reject attacks on civilians as morally unjustifiable.

• Large majorities of Muslims would guarantee free speech if it were up to them to write a new constitution and they say religious leaders should have no direct role in drafting that constitution.

• Muslims around the world say that what they least admire about the West is its perceived moral decay and breakdown of traditional values – the same answers that Americans themselves give when asked this question.

Vine Street Christian Church invites members, friends, and neighbors to a five-week study group based on the book, Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think.

We will meet on Wednesday evenings, 7pm – 8pm, starting on September 29 (October 6, 13, 20, and 27). We will read about 30 pages per week and get together to talk about what we discovered and what questions remain for us.

If this is something you would like to do, get a copy of the book from your favorite book merchant and complete the form below to let usknow you are coming. Thomas Kleinert will serve as convener of the group, and he will be glad to answer any additional questions you might have about this study opportunity.

In 2008, Charlie Rose did an interview with the authors of the study, John L. Esposito and Dalia Mogahed; watching it may help you decide if you want to read their book with us. Esposito is Professor of Islamic Studies at Georgetown University and a prolific scholar and author. Mogahed is the Executive Director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies.

Worship at Vine Street

Vine Street’s Worship Task Group finished the first phase of their work and presented their report to the Board of Elders. Congratulations, Kathy Berhow, Pat Cole, Sarah Ligon, Stephen Moseley, Greg Rumburg, and thank you! Thomas Kleinert was the convener of the group.

The Elders heard and discussed the report at their June 14 meeting, and recommended that we implement all proposed changes. What does this mean?

When we began The Journey process, it soon became clear that we wanted to take a close look at our worship services. In the story that draws us into what we have identified as God’s future for  Vine Street (the story we commonly refer to as our future story), we call for worship services that “each have a clear profile. Each has its own unique format, but all of them are also clearly us.”

We will continue to look at our Sunday morning worship services as events that give focus to our community’s Sunday morning gatherings (in addition, of course, to the rest of our week): God’s hospitality to all at the Table implies that we show hospitality to all, and not only after they have crossed the threshold to the chapel or the sanctuary. This, of course, has significant consequences for what we do before and after worship – but more about that soon.

What will change? We will continue to have two services on Sunday morning, a service at 8:30am in the chapel and a service at 10:45am in the sanctuary.

In the chapel service, we will build on the sense of intimacy and informality it has developed over time. We will remove the remaining pews to allow worshipers to see each other face to face, and encourage a more conversational style “in the round.” We will explore new ways of preaching, praying, and sharing the meal around the table. These changes will be introduced in the near future, but not in the summer.

In the sanctuary service, we will follow an order that maintains the current overall structure (gathering, listening, giving thanks, and being sent), while improving flow and disrupting patterns of too much predictability. Many of the recommended changes will be introduced beginning July 4:

We replace the Passing of the Peace with an informal greeting at the very beginning of the service.

We move the Scripture reading that is the basis for the Children’s Conversation, so the children can hear it with the rest of the congregation. Occasionally, we use a very child-friendly translation or story-telling instead of reading from the New Revised Standard Version (which is our standard version).

Service leaders occasionally introduce elements of the service (“this is why we do this, this is what we are doing here”) without becoming overly didactic.

We continue to select music of various styles that support the flow and fit the thematic structure of the service, and we include as much special music (sometimes harp, sometimes trumpet or viola or guitar or…) as we can.

We will begin to introduce these changes on July 4, and we invite your comments in person and at www.vinestreet.org/worship-feedback

Update on 2010-06-22 13:08 by Thomas Kleinert

Printed copies of the Worship Task Group report to the Elders are available in the reception area at the church, or via mail from the church office.

Summertime

by Thomas Kleinert

No more exams for a while. No more tests. No more papers overdue or homework turned in late. School’s out. Summertime. It’s Meet-you-at-the-pool season. It’s “Off to camp, to the mountains, to the beach, to Italy and France” season. Summertime.

I don’t know if you noticed, but this year, after the final half-day of school was over and after the commencement speeches were delivered, the cry of relief wasn’t quite as euphoric and loud as in the past. Some of that lack of enthusiasm can be explained as post-flood soberness: we’re still working, still cleaning up, still trying to figure out what’s next, and we’re just not quite ready yet to go party or do our usual lazy-summer-stuff. Then there is the economic uncertainty where too many are still looking for work and too many are still worried they might lose their job if the markets don’t start humming again soon. And there is the hole in the bottom of the gulf with millions of gallons of crude spewing into the water – and who knows what this means for life in the ocean and on the coast, and for our demand for energy or our standard of living? It’s summertime, and we wish we could sing, ‘…and the living is easy,’ but we can’t because it isn’t.

My mom and my brother have been with us for a few precious days. Sometime last week, I took my mom to Green Hills Mall; she wanted to do some shopping. I dropped her off between Panera and Davis-Kidd, told her that Panera would be a good place for lunch, and off she went. She had a great morning; she loved Pottery Barn and Williams Sonoma, and especially Coldwater Creek.

When she got hungry, she started looking for a place to eat. More specifically, she started looking for the food court. Now, you all probably know that there is no food court at Green Hills Mall, but she kept looking for a while, wondering if she was on the right level or at the wrong end of the building. Eventually she decided to ask a couple for directions.

She could have said, “Excuse me, where is the food court?” or “Pardon me, can you recommend a restaurant in this mall?” Instead she began by telling them the reason for her quest. She said, “I am hungry.”

She meant to add, “Where can I get a sandwich here?” but never got there, because the lady immediately took a step back. When my mom told us the story, I started laughing and said, “Did she offer you a couple of dollars or a cookie from her purse?” No, she didn’t. With both hands raised in a defensive gesture she sought protection behind her husband’s back. She was afraid.

She wasn’t afraid of my mom, a slender woman without any of the traits you expect to see in the large women in a Wagner opera – No, the lady was afraid that real human need had intruded what was for her a safe place, a place where she could look at pretty things and forget the world for a while.

It’s summertime, and we wish we could sing, ‘… and the living is easy,’ but we can’t because it isn’t. Whether we care to admit it or not, there’s uncertainty in the air, even fear.

Don’t you wish Jesus were here? Don’t you wish he simply appeared in all the places where fear threatens to overwhelm hope? Don’t you wish he had sneaked into a commencement celebration somewhere and given the speech the whole world needed to hear right now?

We have these fantasies of God having created the world just a little different or of intervening now with one decisive action from on high to set things right. We have dreams of God sending a strong leader who won’t get corrupted by power or crushed between the wheels of interest groups. We wish Jesus were here.

Beginning with chapter 13, John tells the story of Jesus’ last night with his friends. They didn’t know it would be there last hours together. They didn’t know that he would be arrested, convicted, and crucified the very next day. They didn’t know what was coming next, but Jesus did [for this view of the “farewell discourse,” I follow Eugene Peterson, The Story Behind the Story, Journal for Preachers Vol. 26, No. 4, Pentecost 2003, pp. 4-8].

And so he spent that last night with them preparing them for what they couldn’t even begin to imagine: how to follow him without seeing him; how to do his works without him there to teach and admonish them; how to hear his voice in the noise of the world.

During supper, Jesus got up from the table, got a towel, poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet. And after he had washed their feet, he asked, “Do you know what I have done to you?”

And then he began to talk, and he talked for a long time – it’s more than three chapters, the longest conversation we know of between Jesus and his friends. It’s actually not much of a conversation, because the disciples listened the whole time, only occasionally did they throw in a comment or a question.

And after he had spoken, he prayed. He gathered up the life they had lived together and the life they would continue to live without him. He prayed his life and work and their life and work together into one – one life, one mission, one movement of God’s love to the world and in the world.

That is how he prepared them for the difficult transition. That is how he helped them move from seeing in his life who God is to letting others see in their own lives who God is.

He washed their feet, down on his knees before each of them, teaching them to do to each other what he had done to them, choosing the lowly task of a servant.

He prayed to the one he called Father that their mission and his would be one.

He worked and he prayed, and between those focal points of service and worship, he created a tapestry of images, promises, and commandments. Two things he said over and over again.

I am with you only a little longer (13:33).

Now I am going to him who sent me (16:5).

I am leaving the world and am going to the Father (16:28).

Fifteen times in this conversation, Jesus told his disciples, in one way or another, that he would be leaving them.

The second thing he said, and this also over and over again, was that he would send them the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth (14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7).

Two things he said over and over again, “I am leaving…, I am sending…; I am leaving…, I am sending.” Jesus would leave, but he wouldn’t abandon them. He would no longer be with them, but the Holy Spirit would be in them and continue to connect their life and work with his.

The repetitions in these chapters may seem reduntant, but this speech isn’t just information about God, Jesus, the Spirit, and the church. The rhythms and patterns are themselves formative, and listening attentively and reading receptively become the very gates through which the Spirit comes and speaks.

We wish Jesus were here, but he isn’t. But in continuing to live the Jesus way, we are not left to our own strength and imagination. Jesus is sending the Spirit. “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now,” Jesus said. “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.” Jesus’ words are not locked in the past, restricted to a particular period in history. The Spirit allows all generations to receive the word of Jesus in the changing circumstances of our lives, and not just to recall the life of Jesus but continue to live it.

There are words of Jesus that we need to hear to make sense of the church’s role in the current messes of the world, and it is the Spirit who helps us to remember faithfully what Jesus has said and receive obediently what Jesus is saying. We believe that the Spirit has been poured out on all flesh – men and women, young and old, poor and wealthy – and to me that means that we who long to hear the word of God for this day must be attentive to all flesh. Women and men, old and young, poor and rich, trust fund babies and undocumented immigrants. We must listen for the word of God not just in the reading of Scripture or the proclamation of the word, but in every word spoken, whispered, sung or censored among us. We must listen very carefully.

I keep thinking about the two women at the mall. One says, “I am hungry,” and the other is afraid. Of course it is just a simple misunderstanding. Of course it is one that can be easily resolved. And it is soo funny. But it is also true. There is much hunger among God’s children; hunger for bread, for justice, for meaning, hunger for community. And there is much fear; fear of strangers, of the unknown, of losing control, fear of moving down the ladder. I can hear the Spirit speaking: There is hunger and fear, and God wants to make us partners in addressing both, in the name of Jesus.

God is in the midst of the city

by Thomas Kleinert

God is in the midst of the city. The line is from Psalm 46.

God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change,
though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;
though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble with its tumult.
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy habitation of the Most High.
God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved;
God will help it when the morning dawns.

The Cumberland River is a river of blessing for the city of Nashville, but in the last few days it has brought devastation and loss. The Cumberland and its many smaller tributaries, every river, brook, and creek, bring gladness to our city, but in the last few days they brought fear and suffering.

The Cumberland has crested, and the waters are receding, and in many places the destruction is only now becoming visible. But there is another river flowing through this city: it's a river of healing mercy, a river of neighborliness, a river of compassion and generosity, a river inspiring service, prayers, and songs. May its waters continue to rise, and may it wash the muddy places and heal the broken hearts.

God is in the midst of the city.

Hands on Nashville - volunteer coordination

Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee - donations for flood relief

Will you be a part of the river?

Little Words of Power

by Thomas Kleinert

Little words of power, you know them. Words like please (there’s a reason that parents and teachers refer to it as the magic word), or no (a small child’s discovery of self-assertion infuses this little word with considerable physical and emotional energy), or yes (it opens arms and doors). Nothing, however, is more powerful than why – since every why begets another why.

Moms and dads (and children) know that sometimes the only way to stop the next why from popping up like the next pearl on an endless string is the ancient parental reply, “Because I said so.”

Quite often the only good response to why is, “I don’t know,” and occasionally the best reply is to hand it back, “Good question. What do you think the answer might be?”

Why quickly takes us to the heart of things. Why is the sky blue? Why do the stars only shine at night? Why does skin get wrinkly?

And why takes us to the places where we find ourselves completely surrounded by deep mystery. Why do some people suffer more than others? Why does love end? Why is there something rather than nothing?

A couple of weeks ago, one of our children raised a beautiful question in Sunday school, “Why did God make us?”

What do you think? Is it because God loves stories? Is it because God needs company? Is it because people are more interesting than other creatures? Are we? Is it because God delights in creatures that ask questions?

Sometime this summer, I will preach a sermon in response to this fine question. I decided to do that the moment Sarah Ligon told me how the question emerged in her group of children one Sunday morning. Later I wondered if there were other questions that hang around the corners of the hallways, waiting to be asked.

Do you have a question you would like me to address one Sunday morning? Would you share it with me? We may have a lovely little series of sermons triggered by when, why, what, who, where and how. Please send me an email or simply leave a comment below, will you?

At the Heart of Worship

“Worship at Vine Street is home. I come for the message. I get to sit and listen to something. It slows me down. It’s not about me. It gets me outside of my world; reminds me of the world outside of my own.”

Vine Street's worship task group met on Maundy Thursday for a meal and conversation.  We talked about what is, for us personally, at the heart of worship at Vine Street, and how other Vine Streeters name that heart, that soul of worship. The text with quotation marks aren’t exact quotations, but snippets of conversation.

“For me, at the heart of worship at Vine Street is the focus on social justice, social issues. A connection with outreach in our city, not just “the world” in a global sense. I come to be inspired to action. Sometimes it’s the music, sometimes a story, etc.”

“For me, it’s about centering, learning, focusing on God. I get to cut out all the noise and get my priorities straight. I remember there’s something outside of my life that is bigger, it helps me make sense of the world, and the world is often crazy. I love communion. Worship keeps me going in the direction I need to go, and just being there is comforting.”

“For me, word and table are at the heart of worship. Centering and being called to respond outwardly. God’s kingdom through social justice. It’s very “Disciple” in the intentionality of the table and the connection to mission.”

• Music can be powerful, and we desire more opportunities for being touched deeply by images, clips, stories, moments, etc. We want to make room to include creative and memorable elements that break the mold of predictability, room for a little playfulness within the pattern/flow of the service. 

• We want to find ways for worship leaders to introduce elements of the service in a way similar to the invitation to the table (“this is why  we do this, this is what we are doing here” without becoming overly didactic).

At our next gathering, we will discuss how we will include the characteristics mentioned in the previous two paragraphs into the current order of our 10:45 worship.

Mapping the Pantry

by Thomas Kleinert

The sweater I’m wearing today was made in China. My socks in South Korea, pants in Lesotho, shirt in Hong Kong, underwear in Honduras, shoes in Slovenia.

For breakfast I had coffee from Sumatra/Indonesia, milk from Middle Tennessee, cereal from somewhere in the United States, and an apple from New York State. Before I left for work (in a car from Japan), I filled my thermos (made in Nashville!) with tea from India. I’m typing this on a laptop made in Malaysia while listening to music from Italy on a device designed in California and assembled in China.

I’m amazed at how connected my life is with people in so many other places around the world, and how most of the time I’m not aware of that reality.

As part of our hunger:360 ministry project, we invite you to do a little domestic geography and economy research. We call it Mapping the Pantry in phase one, and Mapping a Meal in phase two.

Phase one. Between now and the end of March, take a moment (ideally in the company of all members of your household, especially the children),find a pencil and a piece of paper, and pick up all the food items in your pantry and/or your refrigerator and/or your cupboard, and write down where they came from. List their place of origin as accurately as possible – countries, states, and cities.

Phase two. This is a very similar research project.  Between now and the end of March, choose a meal and write down where all its ingredients came from, again, as accurately as possible (the honey in my tea is from Goodlettsville, depending on how far Mr. Johnson takes his beehives around Middle Tennessee).

On two Sundays (March 21 and 28) and on the days in between, we will transfer all the results to a couple of maps in our sanctuary, one of the U.S. and one of the world. We want to get a visual impression of just how connected we are with people all over the whole world in the things we eat. We want to create opportunities for questions and wonder.

You can use the form below to report your results, or return one of the “grocery lists” from the hunger:360 bulletin board (these lists will also be available in the Sunday bulletins). Better yet, bring your list to worship on March 21 or 28, and transfer the results to the maps yourself!

hunger:360 continues

We are happy to announce upcoming events and programs in our hunger:360 ministry project.

On Saturday, March 6, from 5-7pm, we have the opening reception for muddy hymnal, a photography exhibit in our sanctuary. The artist, Tallu Schuyler will be present and give a gallery talk at 6pm about her experience in Nicaragua.

Also on Saturday, March 6, the Vine Street youth group will host another fantastic Fair Trade Coffee House.

On Sunday morning, March 7, at 9:30 a.m. we look forward to welcoming Prof. Douglas Heimburger, the Associate Director for Education and Training at the Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health. Prof. Heimburger will help us understand what happens to our bodies when we don't get proper nutrition, and what the impact is on an individual's as well as the larger community's development.

Hunger in Nashville

Perhaps you think of hunger only as something that happens in far away countries, but there are men, women, and children in our city who know hunger. Not just the kind of hunger anybody knows who has ever skipped a meal; people in our city experience the kind of hunger where you never know where your next meal will come from, and when you will eat it.

There is hunger in Nashville. Food security is a term from the dictionary of bureaucrats. Hunger is a human experience that impacts body, mind, and spirit. There is hunger in Nashville, and there are people who help us see and understand and address it.

Following the 10:45am worship service on Sunday, February 28 (approximately at 12:30pm), Tallu Schuyler will be at Vine Street to talk about food security, food deserts, and hunger. She is the Executive Director of Mobile Loaves and Fishes, a ministry named after a miracle. We will eat a simple, nutritious meal (rice, beans, and cornbread) and we will learn together - statistics, terms, facts, numbers, and the human experiences that so easily get lost behind them. Come and join us for this Sunday afternoon opportunity to eat and learn together!

This lunch & learn is part of our hunger:360 ministry project, and more events and programs are coming up soon. Check the calendar for details, and watch for more information early next week.

Garlic And Other Magic

by Thomas Kleinert

Friday I had the pleasure of spending a couple of hours in the kitchen with friends. We browned turkey breast, cooked rice, chopped  and sauteed onions, sweet peppers, broccoli, sweet potatoes, and celery. And when we were finished - the last ingredient we added was a handful of fresh oregano - there were several trays of delicious lunch, ready to be served.

It all began with the lovely fragrance of garlic from the marinade that had infused the turkey. With the magic of heat and olive oil, all the other flavors emerged and blended, sweet and salty, meaty, malty, musty, hot and mmmh. Cooking a meal is alchemy, beautiful magic.

We loaded the food on a truck - a great truck equipped with heated compartments - and then the miracle continued in the streets of Nashville. We had made lunch for men and women who spend the night in shelters and tents, under bridges, or just walking until morning. We had cooked a good meal for people who spend the better part of the day hoping for better days.

There is hunger in Nashville. Food security is a term from the dictionary of bureaucrats. Hunger is a human experience.

There are food deserts in Nashville. And there are people who help us see and understand and address those realities.

Next Sunday, February 28, following the 10:45 worship service, Tallu Schuyler will talk to us about hunger in Nashville. Tallu is the Executive Director of Mobile Loaves and Fishes, a ministry named after a miracle. We will eat lunch together (rice, beans, and cornbread) and we will learn together - statistics, terms, facts, and the human experiences that so easily get lost behind them.

On Saturday, February 27, you have an opportunity to be part of a little kitchen magic. There will be rice, black beans, onions, peppers, garlic, corn meal, eggs, salt, milk, water and fire. Would you like to be part of turning all that into a meal for many? The cooks will meet in the Vine Street kitchen sometime on Saturday. Just complete the form at the bottom of this post.

Before you scroll down: on Friday, February 26, a group will gather at 9am in the kitchen at Woodmont Christian Church's South Hall to prepare lunch for the homeless. Contact Caitlin Dally caitlin.m.dally@vanderbilt.edu or Tallu Schuyler talluschuyler@gmail.com for details.

hunger:360

In our 360 projects, we bring together what belongs together. Too often, we treat church life and ministry like a pizza: a slice of worship, a slice of education, a slice of service in the community, etc.

At Vine Street, we want to integrate what we do in those areas: the life of faith is not a pizza, but more like a circle where all points are defined by a common center. Our work, our worship, our family life, our study, our hopes, our fellowship – they all share, we all share a common center in the God who meets us in Jesus Christ.

360 is the sum of all angles. 360 is our way of saying, “We want to look at this from as many angles as possible. We want to experience this as completely as possible. We want to bring together what we know belongs together.”

hunger:360 is our second 360 project. Why hunger? That’s the question. Our gardens, fields and farms produce more than enough food for all, and yet there is persistent, deadly hunger on every inhabited continent. In November, the Department of Agriculture reported that here in the United States the number of Americans who lacked consistent access to adequate food soared last year, to 49 million. The government began tracking what is now commonly called “food security” 14 years ago, and the number of men, women, and children lacking “food security” has never been higher.

During Lent this year, beginning with Ash Wednesday on February 17, we will bring hunger and faith together to see how and where they touch.

We will study, we will fast, we will prepare and serve meals, we will pray, we will map our pantries, we will walk, we will read, we will trust the God of abundance in the deserts of scarcity.

hunger:360 offers us opportunities to

• talk with Tallu Schuyler, Executive Director of Mobile Loaves and Fishes, about hunger in Nashville, and how we can address it
• hear Kevin McCoy, Coordinator of the Nashville CROP Walk, who is passionate about the work of Church World Service and its fight against hunger
• prepare meals and serve them in unfamiliar places in our city
• walk through a photography exhibit in our sanctuary
• pray with Jesus, the bread of life
• watch a movie about a community garden project in L.A.
• tour Second Harvest Foodbank
• ask ourselves what hunger drives our insatiable consumerism
• talk with Prof. Douglas Heimburger from the Vanderbilt Institute of Global Health about the effects of hunger and malnutrition on the human body
• read Sara Miles, Take This Bread and discuss it in a small group
• participate in the Nashville CROP Walk
• map our pantries and refrigerators and find out where all this food comes from
• worship God with our whole being

Watch for updates on individual events on this website.

The calendar below looks best in Agenda view.

Ashes to Ashes

by Andra Moran

[This is from the liner notes of Andra's 2009 Insta-Rock Records Release: In Small Things. We know that after reading this, you'll definitely want to check out her website]

It was February of 2006 and I had a tall order:

The children’s choir I direct had been asked to sing in our church’s Ash Wednesday service.  Now, I don’t know if you are familiar with any children’s choir anthem that addresses our mortality, our need to repent, or our general insignificance, but I couldn’t seem to find any in our filing cabinet in the choir room.

I sat on the floor of my living room and as I mulled it over, I somehow found myself thinking about middle school science class and Carl Sagan and a rock concert I’d been to the previous winter.  Here’s what happened:

In 1990, NASA sent Voyager 1 into space.  After it had travelled about 4 billion miles away from Earth, Voyager 1 was directed to turn around and take some pictures.  Astronomists were very surprised to find that Earth showed up in the picture.  Can you see it?

It became known as the Pale Blue Dot picture, because that was all our Earth looked like in the vast expanse of space.

Carl Sagan, an astronomer, author and scientist affiliated with the space program since its inception, gave a talk the year these photos were released.  These are his words:

Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader”, every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

Alright, now I was cookin’.  This is definitely Children’s Choir Anthem material, right?

The answer is YES! It’s EVERYBODY ANTHEM material!  We’re all in this together: our hopes, dreams, frustrations, loves, losses, significance, insignificance — all of it.

We are all in this together as one tiny speck of dust on a sunbeam, the sunbeam that God holds in His hand.

The way I see it; the way I sing it, we live our lives to know that we are called by love.

So.

After all that worry and effort into trying to find an appropriate anthem for the kids to sing, I wrote the song for Ash Wednesday in twenty minutes.  The song just arrived.

The only part missing was a bridge.  I talked it over with Thomas Kleinert, the minister of our church.  Thomas recommended Psalm 42:2.

My soul is thirsting for You.  When will I see You face to face?

When the kids and I gathered to rehearse, I wondered how to preface the song.  I decided words like “cosmos” and phrases such as  “mote of dust suspended on a sunbeam” might  be a little much for these second and third graders.

I decided to keep it simple and preface the song with “We’re going to sing a new song. Here’s how it goes.”

To my astonishment, the kids were captivated by this song from the get go.  By the second chorus, they were singing along, and when we got to the end, the kids and I sat silent with only the buzz of the yucky fluorescent church light overhead.

It was one of those holy moments.

I was struck by the brilliance of the miracle that we are significant to God.

For the past three years, the children’s choir at Vine Street Christian Church has sung “Ashes to Ashes” each Ash Wednesday while our congregation comes forward to receive the mark of the cross, made from the ashes of last year’s palms on their foreheads.

I am so thankful to all the children and youth from Vine Street who came into the studio to finish this track with me (watch them singing along to the playback in the studio).  After all, this song started out with their sweet voices in mind.  You’ll also hear Ben Harper singing a sweet, sweet harmony in the bridge, Will Harrison’s mournful guitar, Stephen Daniel King on bass and Jason Cheek on drums.   

This year, we’ll come together for our Ash Wednesday service on February 17th at 6:00 in the chapel.  I hope you can be there with us.  Feel free to sing along!

Download here or listen below (and sing along!)

 
Ashes to Ashes
by Andra Moran

We watch, we wait
We hope, we pray
We try to take
A path that returns to You

Ashes to ashes, water and rust
We are but dust on the sunbeam You hold in Your hand
You call us by name
And we rise from ashes again

A breath of life,
A thirst, a fire
We live our lives
To know that we’re called by Love

Ashes to ashes, water and rust
We are but dust on the sunbeam You hold in Your hand
You call us by name
And we rise from ashes again

My soul is thirsting for You, I long to see Your face
My soul is thirsting for You.  Fill me up.

andramoran.com

Haiti Earthquake

As the reports continue to come in, the initial shock and the growing fears give way to ever clearer knowledge of what has happened and what actions must accompany our prayers.

Again, we are proud to be part of Week of Compassion and its approach to ministry: we work with local partners, we cooperate with international partners, all of our disaster relief gifts go to disaster relief (and not to overhead). "Earthquakes are acts of nature, extreme vulnerability to earthquakes is manmade," wrote Tracy Kidder in the New York Times (Country Without a Net). Our response will always address the immediate need as well as reduce the systemic, extreme vulnerability to natural disasters.

Our current focus, as part of the coordinated effort of Church World Service, is on transporting basic material supplies like tarps, blankets, hygiene kits and baby supplies to Haiti's capital area. We are grateful for our strong relationship with our historic partner from the Dominican Republic, Servicios Sociales de Iglesias Dominicanas. Their proximity makes our response possible.

The second prong of our response addresses another basic need: clean water. Our response is targeted and effective because we work closely with ecumenical church partners. This is a powerful reminder that church unity is not a mere matter of opinion or doctrine, but of faithfulness in witness and service.

At Vine Street, we want to make sure that our response always includes even our youngest members. They overhear the news reports, they ask questions, they remember the people of Haiti in their prayers, and they want to help. And we want them to always be part of our mission and ministry.

The hygiene kits that are being shipped to Port-au-Prince via the Dominican Republic come from Church World Service warehouses, and the shelves are now empty. On Sunday, before we gather in worship, we will assemble one hundred of these basic kits from hundreds of towels, tooth brushes, bars of soap, etc. we have already purchased. This is one small thing even the youngest member of our community can do. We will dedicate those gifts in worship together with a special offering for Week of Compassion and with our other gifts.

Because we work with our partners on the ground and in countries around the world, we will soon know what else we can do to honor God in our brothers and sisters in Haiti.

Update on 2010-01-16 15:13 by Thomas Kleinert

Kim Bentrott has written a powerful and moving account of the earthquake and its aftermath. She and her husband, Patrick, are currently living and working in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti.

They are employed through our Global Ministries and partnered with the ecumenical Haitian church organization CONASPEH.

New Orleans a.k.a. NOLA

This has become a Vine Street tradition. Every year after Christmas, a group of children, youth, and adults travel to New Orleans to get dirty for Jesus. The tradition started in 2006, when we came to NOLA to help with putting the finishing touches on West Side Mission Center. Since then, we have come to help rebuild homes, and every time we stay at the West Side Mission Center with our good friend, Brother Vance.

This year, there are about twenty of us (more are coming during the course of the week), and we are working on Mrs. Banks's house. Her home was flooded after Katrina, but she never had the resources to rebuild. The first floor of the house was gutted, and she and her family continued to live on the scecond floor. Now, thanks to churches paying attention and pooling resources, we are able to gut the remainder of the building, do some necessary repairs, and get it ready for new insulation and sheet rock, fresh paint, new floors, new windows and doors.

While it is sad to think that so many years after Katrina people are still living in these circumstances, it is a joy to be part of making a difference in a very significant way.

Update on 2010-01-04 19:31 by Thomas Kleinert

We created a web album with some of our pictures. Come and see!

Update on 2010-01-04 19:17 by Thomas Kleinert

While we were in NOLA, the New York Times published this article (December 29) about issues in helping the most vulnerable.

Merry Christmas

On Christmas Eve, we  celebrate the birth of Christ in three worship services. We begin with a Family Service at 5 p.m., with our friends from Nouvelle Alliance, a congregation of families and individuals from the DR Congo. We hear the Christmas story and sing the beautiful Christmas carols, the children create the nativity scene, we pray together for peace in the world, and we light our candles.  Special music with harp, piano, and viola will begin at 4:45 p.m.

Our second worship service will take place at 8 p.m., and it will bring together members of our congregation and our Room in the Inn guests.  To make room for those without a home or a place to rest for the night is always an occasion of mutual blessing, but on this night it is especially meaningful. If you wish to join us on Christmas Day for a great breakfast with our Room in the Inn guests, we invite you to come to the fellowship hall around 8 a.m. - and feel free to just stop by and say "Hello, merry Christmas!"

At 11 p.m. on Christmas Eve, we gather in the sanctuary for a celebration of Lessons & Carols.  Once again, special music with harp, piano, and viola will begin at 10:45 p.m.  This quiet night service includes the celebration of the Lord's Supper (and since the table is the Lord's, not the church's, all who receive Christ's invitation are welcome to share the meal).

From all of us here at Vine Street, a merry Christmas to you and yours!

Christmas Around the Hearth

Wednesday, December 16, 5:30 P.M.

Are you thinking, “Mmmmh, chestnuts roasting on an open fire…”? Close. Our hearth won’t have a fire in it, but we’ll gather around it anyway to sing our yuletide carols.

This cozy evening in our fellowship hall has a long tradition at Vine Street. We get together at 5:30 PM for dinner, and then we sing all our favorites and watch a program of music and skits (we haven’t had folks dressed up as Eskimos lately, but the Grinch showed up last year!).

Feel free to bring a dessert or some cookies to share, and if you want to get on the program (with a song or a dance or a story or a surprise?), please put your name on the poster by the door in the reception area.

Christmas Around the Hearth is festive fun for kids from one to ninety-two!