A Walk In The Woods

Spiritual Reflection from Sunday, December 2^nd, 2012
(edited & revised 1/31/2017)

I woke up this morning at 3am and then dozed until around 4am.  I got up and made some tea and toast. I reread my last spiritual direction entry as preparation for today's assignment from my spiritual director.  The assignment was to take a walk in the woods and be with my True Mother -- the Earth.  After reading the entry and reflecting on it, I fell back to sleep, perhaps around 5:30am.

I subsequently woke at 7:30am to find the sun shining through the windows from a partly cloudy sky.  It was beautiful -- a moment that I felt was all for me.  Words followed, "Time to wake up, Brad, time to go to the trail."  I was so delighted the rain had stopped since it was to have rained non-stop the whole day.  It had been raining very hard just after the tea and toast I fixed earlier.  I assumed my planned hike at Moulton Falls would be in the midst of heavy rain the whole time I would be there – but now it wouldn't.

As I drove to Moulton Falls Trail Park, the mostly cloudy sky with patches of sun breaking through here and there spoke to me in ways that are hard to describe.  It seemed that light was peeking through and saying, “Hope is on the way, Brad.”  I saw flocks of geese heading southeast in formation and felt that to be significant as well.  The thought that kept coming to me while driving toward the park and seeing the geese was, "Take flight!"

At the Moulton Falls Park, I roamed around a bit before I finally located the trail head.  I then follow it along the Lewis River.  The trail rises above the river to a nice height and thus provides a wonderful vantage point from which to see the rocks and rapids that are quite dramatic at three or four different points.  The sounds of the river rapids are so powerful, prevalent, and overwhelm everything else.

I walk further and come to a bridge over the river.  I take photos from the bridge and then eventually walk a switchback to higher ground that is a picnic area with several tables.  The tables are covered in leaves, obviously the will remain until next spring or summer.

I feel drawn to one table in particular right next to a leafless tree covered in moss.  The tree is probably beech or ash. The trunk is covered with a draping kind of moss and at the base is a beautiful mature fern.  I clear leaves from a portion of the picnic table bench nearest the tree and sit down.  I sit, close my eyes, and simply listen.  The sound most significant at first is the river's intensity from its rapids.

What I then note is the absence of animal sounds.  No birds, no crickets, no nothing.  Occasionally, there is the far away sound of a passing car.  But as I listen more closely, I pick up the sound of moisture dripping off the tree canopy and off the moss clothing the trees.  I hear drops hit dead leaves on the forest floor and but also fern branches that are quite alive.  I hear drops impact the raincoat I’m wearing.  I am thinking the drops land on both that which is alive and that which isn't.  I then realize that that which is seemingly lifeless on the forest floor is being prepared for its return to life through the raindrops and moisture that help it decompose and eventually become part of something living again.

I find that as each drop falls from the trees or from the sky or from the moss and hits a living leaf or a living fern branch, it's as though the leaf or fern branch shudders powerfully alive in the moment -- shaking and reverberating sympathetically into my body so that my body convulses in nearly symbiotic response.

Finally, I leave the bench and move to a part of the trail that's the entrance to the picnic area and I begin a prayer and speak this blessing:  "Bless all that is living.  Bless all that is dying.  Bless all that has been received and all that begins its path back toward life."  Why have I offered such blessings?

I start to leave the area and my vision captures part of the river's rapids obscured by the brush and trees.  I want to investigate further.  I wonder if there will be a trail down to the river’s edge that offers me a better viewpoint.  I find such a path.  I take it down to the river.  Eventually the path ends.  If I move to get closer to the river in order to view the magnificent rapids upstream, I must go where this is no path.  I decide to do so.  My footing is unsure.  Some of the rocks are quite slippery. Sometimes the moss on the rocks helps.  Other brush, now leafless, helps in that the branches are sturdy and I can hold on to them to keep my footing safe and not fall onto the rocks or into the river's rapids.

At this point, I notice a dark object flying from out of the forest near me yet a little above me and over the river.  It has a white head.  As it passes, I see the distinct white tail plumage of a Bald Eagle as it glides so effortlessly over the river.  I am confounded and astonished at the beauty of the moment.  This trail had been so devoid of animal life and had I been a second earlier or later, had I not responded to the urging to get closer to the river, I would not have seen this magnificent sight.  What can this possibly mean?

It seems that the miraculous moment involving the river and its immense power and the majestic eagle with its freedom of flight are saying, "Take flight.  Go with the flow.  Let everything flow. Hold nothing back, for nothing can be held back.  There is no force strong enough or powerful enough to hold back that which is and that which is coming and that which will in time be gone."

It's then that I begin my return to the trail from the river's edge.  Again, I am so grateful for rocks that make steps toward the trail easier and I am most glad for leafless strong brush that grows between the rocks so I can hold on to it.  It assists me as before with keeping my balance and not falling on the rocks or into the rapids – something I nearly do a time or two.  It's then that I notice a piece of wood lying on the ground.  It looks to me like a wooden representation of Samson's jawbone of an ass.  I can't resist.  I pick it up and take it with me thinking of the physical strength and stamina of Samson. A little further, my vision is drawn to a tree branch large enough to be a walking staff and as I look on it, the words impressed on me are, "The staff of a prophet, even one like Moses.  It is to be your staff for the freeing and healing of others."

Why do this thoughts come to me.  Aren’t they but self-delusion.  What is God’s Mother Earth telling me?  What is she trying to have me remember, reconnect to?  What is the message?  Am I a modern day Moses?  Am I Moses returned?  I hardly think so.  Such thinking is simply the grandiosity of ego not yet subdued.  For if it were true, there would be a place to go, a place to flee and be free.  As it is, there is no physical place any longer to lead present day slaves.  There is only a state of mind to be found, discovered, and through that state of mind be freed, allowed to explore, and live life fearlessly before the pharaohs of today’s world.

Where are the true prophets, God.  Where are the true apostles?  Where are the true messengers and teachers for you and your coming that will usher in a world like that which the Hebrew Prophet Isaiah envisioned so very long ago – a world that will have the majesty of a mountain – even a holy mountain in which nothing shall hurt or destroy?

Humanity, to heal yourself and the world and earth on which you reside, means an end to the pharaohs of wealth, influence, power and prestige.  You, Humanity, have tolerated them in one form or another for far too long.  Compassionately, yet bravely, you must help them find and live out other means to assuage their passions and lust for wealth, unseemly influence, prestige and power.  They must find it in other things more satisfying than that to which they have attached themselves.  Let the healing begin.

Brad Shumate, M.S., M.A., LPC, LMHC, BCPC

Free of Encumbrance 

© Copyright Brad Shumate

But the Beginning of Birthpangs

For Sunday, November 18th, 2012

Lectionary Scripture - Mark 13:1–8 (NRSV)

As he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!”  Then Jesus asked him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.”

When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, “Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?” Then Jesus began to say to them, “Beware that no one leads you astray.  Many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray.  When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come.  For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birthpangs.

Reflection on the Lectionary

Jesus predicts the fall of the Temple and immediately his disciples sit up and take notice.  How is that he prophesies the fall of religion in their time?  Easy, Jesus in not bound by organized religion of his day.  He is free to speak whatever God places in his heart to say.  Ultimately -- then like today -- religious authorities displeased with dissident voices that challenge their authority find a way to make dissidents pay and even way to silence them.  Then, like today, such things make clear that there is no longer any need whatsoever for religious authorities or their fantasies of spiritual authority over others.  Time to give up it boys – and sorry ladies, it’s also time for you to do so too if you’ve bought into the illusion.

“Church” was never meant to be an institution.  It was only ever meant to be an opportunity of gathering, of coming together and supporting and encouraging one another along our individual and collective journeys.  There was never meant to be one true religion of any kind – or that we should pursue “separate, but equal” paths of faith.  Such sentiment only supports self-delusion and provides for secretive places in the heart where one whispers to oneself, “My God is better than yours,” or “My Gods are better than yours.”

As the religion scholar and author, Reginald Bibby, put it in Fragmented Gods  when trying to describe Canadian spirituality, the life of faith for most Canadians is a rich and fascinating mosaic.  Canadians chose something from one faith tradition and incorporate it and then chose something from another tradition and assimilate it.  It drives systematic orthodox and neo-orthodox theologians nuts because they like everything tied up together in a neat little systematic package.  Sorry ladies and gentlemen, time to give that one up too.  God planted a plethora of traditions in the world to try and keep us honest and seeking engagement with each other.  Your Temple to the one true religion is crumbling right before your eyes.  Wake up and smell the coffee cause it ain’t half bad.  Take it from a self-defrocked bishop that life and spirit on the other side of faith that’s free of the encumbrances of your organized religious world is actually quite amazing.  The birthpangs have been well worth it.

How so?  Well for me, I love how freely my writing/preaching comes to me now in this blog compared to early postings when I had to worry about upsetting religious authorities in my former faith tradition and thus worry that I didn’t say anything too provocative so I still had a paycheck.  Frankly, it feels good to nip a bit at the heels of my former overlords while they run away from me or ignore what’s happened to me spiritually since May 2011.  I can smile now at a dog who loves chasing after cars or after sheep and can say, “Hey buddy, I get it what makes that so absolutely wonderful for you!”

Too bad organized religion authorities didn’t get it while they had a chance.  All that the world ever asked of you was unencumbered faith.  All the world ever needed from you was help interpreting the experiences that unencumbered faith brought into their lives.  All you ever needed to be and provide was safety and well-being within community lovingly embracing rich and diverse spirituality that brought recovery and healing from all the world’s evils and greed and competition which you gladly supported and participated in.  Instead you contented yourself with labeling people heretics.  Instead you made them feel unsafe relative to their livelihoods or sense of community if they spoke out.   Many dissidents you hideously tortured and executed in the most humiliating ways you could think.  In these last few centuries, you managed to tone it down a bit but still you repressed women and you repressed God’s calling in their lives until the lid finally blew off and they would have it no more.  Next it was gays and lesbians and bisexuals and transgendering persons that you assailed – still today you fight over the legitimacy of God’s authority and Spirit at work in their lives and fail so damn miserably to be prophetic over something that should never – ever – have been a question in the first place which is their right to serve their God and their human family.  You owe an abject apology and you owe a debt to our LGBT brothers that can never be repaid or forgiven.

These days when I drive to a mental health clinic that serves severe and persistently mentally ill, I realize that I am driving to church.  I am driving to a place where healing and recovery takes place by means of the phenomenal gifts God has placed in the lives of each one of my staff.  On the way I sing hymns like, “Touch Me Lord with Thy Spirit Eternal” or I sing, “Brothers and Sisters of Mine are the Hungry”.  I go there celebrating that some small aspect of personal insight will happen for someone hungering for counseling that day.  I go there celebrating that medication from one of the prescribers will calm the demons and horrors of past trauma.  I go there realizing we offer a seminary where each and every person awakens to the priesthood of possibility residing in their soul.  I go there each and every day feeling blessed that I am allowed to serve as the senior clinician and thus the shepherd and this does my pastor’s heart more good than I ever experienced in any brick and mortar church building.

Organized religion, your temple is crumbling and not one stone will be left upon another.  When you finally figure out that your time is over, call me.  I’ll be happy to help you try and reclaim your soul, for something wonderful is on its way and if you listen closely you will hear it breathing.

Brad Shumate, M.S.,M.A., LMHC

Free of Encumbrances

Vancouver, Washington

                 

"All that You Tell Me, I Will Do"

For Sunday, November 11th, 2012

(Painting by Marc Chagall, 1887-1985. Ruth and Naomi, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN.)

Lectionary Scripture – Ruth 3:1-5, 4:13-17 (NRSV)

Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, "My daughter, I need to seek some security for you, so that it may be well with you.  Now here is our kinsman Boaz, with whose young women you have been working. See, he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor.  Now wash and anoint yourself, and put on your best clothes and go down to the threshing floor; but do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking.  When he lies down, observe the place where he lies; then, go and uncover his feet and lie down; and he will tell you what to do."  She said to her, "All that you tell me I will do."

So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When they came together, the LORD made her conceive, and she bore a son.  Then the women said to Naomi, "Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you this day without next-of-kin; and may his name be renowned in Israel!  He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age; for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has borne him."  Then Naomi took the child and laid him in her bosom, and became his nurse.  The women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, "A son has been born to Naomi." They named him Obed; he became the father of Jesse, the father of David.

Reflection on the Scripture:

“I see that I have things to learn from you,” were the generous words from the psychiatrist I work with at the clinic where I oversee intensive outpatient mental health services for 900 consumers.  A woman in her mid to late sixties with obvious and painful arthritis, the doctor then added, “Everyone is so glad you’re here.  I wanted to be sure we met and got acquainted.”  Querying me as to my background and credentials, we had a lovely but brief ten minute visit -- patients and clients to be seen and cared for.

I couldn’t leave our visit however without asking, “How is it that you think you have things to learn from me?”  She then replied, “Ministry and public mental health, they’re much the same aren’t they?  You see, I have only ever done private psychiatry.  I’ve been practicing here four years, mostly because the board members here know me and asked me to do so and I do know most of them quite well.  But I only participate in a very small part of what makes all this run, Brad.  Your experience and practice has been far broader.  You’ve done it all.  I’m glad you’re here.  Now let me take your photo...”  I had a photo spot on the staff bulletin board that the psychiatrist maintains in the staff lounge so she needed to get my picture taken.  Discussing the staff photos she takes, the doctor said, “They all come and go so fast, Brad, it’s hard to know who’s ever really here or not.”  I nodded knowingly given the high staff turnover clients typically experience in public mental health.  With those words, the good doctor and I look forward to further conversations.  Suspecting she’s got a bit of photographer in her, I was positioned perfectly for the photo with the best light on my face and my head and chin tilted to just the right angle.

 

As I left to return to my office, a joyful feeling began rising within me.  Finally, finally, I accepted the truth the doctor’s words revealed and that I’d known in my heart for many years, i.e. that ministry and public mental health are the same.  Try as hard as I did in the domain of organized religion as a denominational bishop and as a pastor with my lay ministers and parishioners and denominational overseers, I could never get that message home to the hearts and minds and souls of those I served and tried to develop.  Always I was told that mental health work is social work and social work is not church work because it doesn’t lead to new converts -- and it certainly doesn’t lead to new congregations and that’s what was mattered most.

Yet in my hearing this past month, in the kindness this gentle psychiatrist offered me, she unwittingly helped me see that I had finally come home -- and most of all that I had come home to myself.  Not only that, but she helped me to see that I had finally found my church home and it was not a formal religious organization, but rather that it is the church that is life.  And while I was no longer an ordained minister of substantive standing in the eyes of some religious institution, I was free now to fully embrace an unencumbered faith – a faith free of the encumbrances of the world that have chained the soul of organized religion today with need to compete among all its various factions.  Now I was free to embrace the priesthood of all believers, whether those believers were Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Native Peoples and their spirituality.  It no longer mattered what faith.  All that mattered is that I was giving my all in a place of healing to bring and provide safety like Ruth did for Naomi.  So now I cleave to a God who loves, honors, embraces all wisdom and all spiritual diversity that seeks to be God’s Love in the world -- that seeks a truly egalitarian way of life for each and every living soul on the planet.

I can’t say that this kind of mindfulness would have been possible even a year ago.  It’s only possible because of focused time spent with those who love and care for me, including a skilled therapist, and twice a month sessions with a gifted spiritual director the past year.  She is also a doctor -- a doctor of interfaith spirituality teaching here in one of our local universities in Portland, Oregon.  I have been so fortunate to have her guide me through much needed, yet continuing, healing of my soul.  She helped me to overcome what organized religion has done to me and to finally accept the responsibilities I personally have in this life to be a mystic and a prophet.   As she told me a year ago, “Sorry pal.  God has chosen to work with you directly.  God does not need or want a church between the two of you.  You are a mystic.  You are a prophet.  Time to step up to the plate.  People don’t want religion anymore.  They want Spirit.  You have a responsibility to carry your calling forward.”  (See My RecentJourney, My God Encounter)

As with Ruth to Naomi, all I can say to God at this point in life is, “All that you tell me, I will do.”

May the Peace of all God’s prophets, teachers, healers, apostles, and saints be upon you,

Brad

Brad Shumate, M.S., M.A., LMHC

Free of Encumbrances

Vancouver, Washington

God is Opposite!

Lectionary Scripture Focus - Isaiah 50 verses 4-9a NRSV

The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. Morning by morning he wakens-- wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught.  The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I did not turn backward.  I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting.  The Lord GOD helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame; he who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who are my adversaries? Let them confront me.  It is the Lord GOD who helps me; who will declare me guilty?

Reflection on the Scripture

I heard a Bible commentator say this week:

We are trained from birth to move from the lesser to the greater, from what you have to having more, from not having power to having power, from rags to riches.  The movement of God however is absolutely opposite, that is from riches and glory to rags and powerlessness.  It feels so absurd to us except when it comes to the people we deeply deeply love.  And that’s when it’s called out of us.  We live by two logics.  We live by the logic of the world and we live by the logic of relationships and love, the last of which is the character of God.

In 2003, I was functioning as the judicatory administrator of the Community of Christ for the western half of the states of Oregon and Washington, the state of Alaska, and Canadian Province of British Columbia.  That year, I faced a situation of need by a lesbian couple.  Ultimately the situation ended up being a test of church policy regarding committed same-sex relationships and solemnizing those relationships within their faith community.  I knew the couple and respected and loved both for the persons they were.  I had no problem understanding their desire and need to come before their faith community in Eugene, Oregon to have their church family witness their vows of love and commitment to one another.  Yet in the paternalistic hierarchical church structure of that denomination, everything had to pass the smell test of up-line church administrators and authorities in a tradition that has yet to resolve this simple matter.  If things didn’t pass the smell test, then I was assured that I could kiss my professional ministerial behind goodbye.

So with a mortgage needing to be paid, two kids closing in on the start of their college studies, fear of all the various ways the church hierarchy could take out their distain on me, and not wanting to have a hell of a lot of my time taken up traipsing all over the Pacific Northwest to put out fires started by the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth by supposedly “Christian” people offended at gay love, I caved and insisted on a modification of the “commitment service” that I swear to you I will never ever tolerate or participate in again!

As the field officer administrator on the scene and charged with reviewing and approving the order of service, I caved in by telling the presiding ministers for that service that when it came time for the couple’s vows and exchange of rings, they would have to move off to the side of the rostrum and let the couple preside over their own exchange of vows and rings.  I remember that moment so vividly when it finally happened in their standing room only church.  I remember the symbolism that was intended.  And then I remember how utterly offended I felt toward myself and my faith tradition for its ungodly lack of compassion that forced such an unforgivable scene like the one taking place before me.

And then I remember the equally offensive behavior of a lay minister in the congregation who before the day was out had faxed the order of service and his own “witness” of the event to the church hierarchy in Independence, Missouri.  And then I remember how my name was plastered on various websites for allowing a gay marriage to take place.  I also remember how the following day I received a call from my supervising general officer warning me about the outrage felt toward me by the First Presidency of the church and how I had done an end run around them and church policy and how the service hadn’t been a “commitment service” but a “wedding” instead.  I was furious at such childish immature behavior.

Not knowing what to do and stunned by the intensity of my own feelings, I got off the phone.  When my head cleared enough to think, I thought, “I won’t sit still for this kind of behavior and I won’t be treated like this.  These supposed prelates of God were not at the commitment service.  They had no opportunity to witness the profound beauty of God’s Spirit that attended the moment and attended the couple.  Who were these supposed spiritual authorities to sit in judgment of what happened?”  It was then that I picked the phone back up and called my superior and made it as clear as I possibly could that if there was any communication back to me or anyone else under my supervision that I or they were to be in anyway disciplined or counseled that they had done something wrong or inappropriate, then I would resign immediately and I would be very loud and outspoken doing so.  There was no longer a place for this way of handling such things.

As I look back on that day nearly nine years ago, I realize that the untoward antics of church hierarchy never ceased in the years after that incident and I am all too glad to have finally ended “official” ties with the organization.  I’m also glad to be done with the unsavory manipulations of far too many general officers in that tradition.  It’s no wonder that organized religion has lost faith and face with society and culture and is losing ground at such a frightening pace that it will become nothing but a shadow of its former self in the not too distant future.

What gets me are all the people still willing to play the church game.  I understand my beloved friends about the need for community, but so many churches are basically Sunday morning social clubs.  Having said that, believe me I do understand the need.  But given the choice between being enablers of a system and process that no longer works (locally or globally), that’s far too concerned about maintaining a human institution rather than becoming free of the encumbrances of the world and making apostles of each and every one of us so we can prepare the world for the coming of God’s just and peaceable reign – why do we choose to be enablers of something decidedly dysfunctional?  If you're unsure or confused by my use of the "enablers" word, I would strongly urge that you watch Bill Maher's 2008 documentary "Religulous."

Join with me!  Join with me in discerning what a church free of the encumbrances of organized religion is to be now and what it is to become.  Join with me for the most incredible adventure of all time that awaits humanity worldwide.  Not because of me or the church I’ve been called to establish, but because of something my professor/spiritual director recently stated, i.e. that there's a planetary shift in consciousness taking hold and what people want is not religion!  What they want is spirituality!

If we offer spirituality, then we offer what it real and authentic.  We offer what the scripture above identifies as sustenance for the weary.  Yes, it means opening our ears and eyes to the movement and teaching of God.  It means we may experience insults and distain so powerful that it's as though someone is spitting on us.  But if we will not hide, if we will set our faces like flint.  We will not be shamed or disgraced.  For me, as is stated in the scripture, these words are my comfort:  "Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who are my adversaries? Let them confront me."

If we move the opposite direction of what competitive religions and their institutional realities or hierarchies tell us, then truly we offer the movement of God.  It is opposite of what we have known for this kind of energy no longer seeks after getting more new members so there are more dollars for keeping the institution afloat globally or locally.  Instead, it is a movement toward “the church universal and prophetic” -- one that goes from riches and glory to rags and powerlessness.

“The church universal and prophetic” is something that feels so utterly absurd to us – until we see people being drawn to it who are people we have come to respect and deeply love.  For when that kind of thing is happening, when we see those we love and respect going seemingly off the deep end, it is only because they have profoundly encountered “Love” that calls them out, Love that is calling each and everyone us out from dead or dying systems or processes or faith communities.  Such loved ones choose no longer to live by the logic of the world, i.e. the logic of a human institution, a logic which pits faiths and churches against each other.  Instead, they (we) live by the logic of relationships fully and completely connected to the Divine, a love which is and can only be the real character of God.

If the head of your faith, or the head of your religion, or the head of your denomination, or the head of your local faith community isn’t professing his or her love for those who are completely and totally other from them -- if they aren’t confessing or professing a love and understanding and affirmation of the others’ faiths and theologies and spirituality and saying they’ll do so with their dying breath, then run beloved -- run away.  Run as fast as you possibly can.  For there can be no pursuit of peace, no reconciliation of humanity, and no healing of the spirit until your life has been emptied of bigotry and narrow-mindedness.

Let us do what we must.  Let the discernment of a church free of the encumbrances of the world begin.  The time for beginning approaches.  I hope with all my soul that you’ll be part of the discernment task since I’m far from the kind of smarts to do it on my own.  If you’re uncertain you should participate, consider these words from scripture:

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.    

Brad Shumate, M.S., M.A., LMHC

Free of Encumbrance

Vancouver, WA

Email:  brshumate@freeofencumbrance.net

    

God's Planting, Hearts Loving, Symbols Resulting

Lectionary Scripture Focus - John 12:24-25 NRSV

Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.  Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 

Reflection on the Scripture:

“The cross is what must happen when someone becomes human.”

It was a comment I heard last Sunday from a Luther Seminary professor, Karoline Lewis.  When I first heard the comment, I really liked it.  I still do.  But as the week wore on and I considered things from an interfaith perspective, I realized that the professor’s statement may not go far enough.  For instance, how would one of my Muslim friends respond to such a statement?  Or how would one of my Jewish friends feel about such words?

I think a Muslim friend might say that the crescent moon and star is what must happen when someone becomes human given the Pillars of Islam, one of which is charity, and the Articles of Faith represented in the symbol, one of which is to respect God’s messengers and prophets.  A Jewish friend might say one becomes human when one accepts that the Star of David which is a representation of awe and trust, i.e. that God rules over the universe and people are protected no matter from what direction danger or evil comes.

Symbols can say and represent so many things.  They can even make us laugh and find release from some of the tension and stress of our daily lives, thus making us feel more human -- more like ourselves.  For in the end, many of us will probably wish that we had laughed far more often in life than we did.  Laughter and memories of laughter should probably be written on our hearts just as often and deeply as anything else.

One lighthearted memory for me as a child, when visiting my paternal grandparents, is that I was always on the lookout for a time when I could sneak into my grandpa’s study alone and explore things on his desk and bulletin boards.  One thing I always looked for and delighted seeing was a set of four monkeys sitting on a bookshelf over his desk.  You probably know already what each monkey said, but if you don’t, enjoy the graphic below from ironydesign.com:

As a kid, it was a symbol for me about my grandpa.  Though his humorous side didn’t show through very often, those four monkeys assured me that it existed.  Also as a child, I never knew what to make of the naked girl soap bar my grandpa kept in the bathroom medicine chest.  It always fascinated me and I wondered why, that is until puberty hit and finally I got it.  I did wonder why Grandma let him keep it around and eventually figured out that it wasn't any of my business.  Then there was the poem I would read and reread on his bulletin year and year.  I’m sure some of you will recognize it, supposedly the author is anonymous:

Old age is golden, or so I’ve heard said,
But sometimes I wonder, as I crawl into bed,
With my ears in a drawer, my teeth in a cup,
My eyes on the table until I wake up.
As sleep dims my vision, I say to myself
Is there anything else I should lay on the shelf?
But, though nations are warring, and Congress is vexed,
We’ll still stick around to see what happens next!
 

How do I know my youth is all spent?
My get-up-and-go has got up and went!
But, in spite of it all, I’m able to grin
And think of the places my getup has been!

When I was young, my slippers were red;
I could kick up my heels right over my head.
When I was older my slippers were blue,
But still I could dance the whole night through.
Now I am older, my slippers are black.
I huff to the store and puff my way back.
But never you laugh; I don’t mind at all:
I’d rather be huffing than not puff at all!
 

How do I know my youth is all spent?
My get-up-and-go has got up and went!
But, in spite of it all, I’m able to grin
And think of the places my getup has been!

I get up each morning and dust off my wits,
Open the paper, and read the Obits.
If I’m not there, I know I’m not dead,
So I eat a good breakfast and go back to bed!
 

How do I know my youth is all spent?
My get-up-and-go has got up and went!
But, in spite of it all, I’m able to grin
And think of the places my getup has been!

    

These things became symbols to me of a man I loved and called, “Grandpa.”  His life in turn became a symbol for me of what it meant to live with honor, passion, and integrity before the world, especially during his years serving as a Justice of the Peace.  My adult life has in many ways been a reflection of the example he lived in loving his family, loving his community, and loving his God.

Two of the greatest hopes that ever resided in him were the just and peaceable reign of God and that one day, when he passed from this life to life with God, he would see again his beloved young adult daughter lost so tragically and suddenly in a motor vehicle accident.  It was a cross that my grandpa bore his whole life.  The suffering of it made his humanity something I’ll always treasure, especially for the seeds of compassion it planted in me and the importance of the fruits of spirituality it taught me -- no matter what faith a person takes to oneself in this life.

Family lore has it that one day late in life while Grandpa shoveled snow after a heavy storm, the snowy ground in front of him took on a dazzling brilliance and his attention was drawn up from the sidewalk to see his daughter, Gwen, standing before him.  With love so full in her eyes and expression, she spoke these gentle yet simple words, “It won’t be long Dad.  Soon, we’ll be together again.”

May God’s Peace be with you,

Brad Shumate

Free of Encumbrance

Email:  brshumate@freeofencumbrance.net

Three Idols

(Illustration titled, “The Brazen Serpent”, a Bible card published by the Providence Lithograph Company in 1907.  In the public domain)

Lectionary Scripture Focus - John 3 vs14-21 NRSV

And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God."

Reflection on the Lectionary:

A theologian and professor named Warren Quanbeck preached three sermons at the seminary where he taught.  Each sermon was on a modern idol in the Christian faith.  So the idol he identified in the first sermon was the church.  The idol in the second sermon was scripture.  And the last idol in his third sermon was the cross itself.  When I heard those words this week from another Luther Seminary professor, my jaw dropped.  What brave, amazing, and powerful things to say that can free us of the encumbrances these idols wield over our lives.

Topping it off, I stumbled onto Bill Maher’s 2008 documentary titled “Religulous” which is available on Netflix, and found myself spell bound the whole hour and a half.  Maher’s premise for the documentary is that we have surrendered far too much of our hearts, minds, blood, souls, resources, and intellect to organized religion for far too long.  And he makes his point very convincingly as he takes us face-to-face with faith leaders from several different religions.

One of the conversations I enjoyed most was Maher talking to a senior Vatican priest who labeled much of his religion as bunk and nonsense.  My sense from the priest’s anger and dismissiveness of his religion is that it is much like my own.  What I mean is that far too often we service the self-interests of our church institutions rather than service the things God needs done.

I can imagine there’s someone somewhere out in the world annoyed by that last comment and wants me to plainly spell out what I think God’s wants done.  Well here’s a list for starters in terms of what God wants God’s love to accomplish through us:

·         End human suffering

·         Establish full and complete social justice for all persons

·         Reconcile humanity and end its warring and greedy nature

·         Return God’s earth and creation to sustainable health and well-being

·         Prepare the world for God’s coming and God’s just and peaceable reign

I am convinced that if each and every one of us summons the courage for these tasks, rather than holing up in the comfort zones or safety zones we fantasize our religious communities or their edifices to be, things which cost us greatly to support and maintain, then we might just accomplish some much needed work for the common good.  And when I mean the common good, I mean it not in the terms of the niceties and respects people pay one another in the pew on Sundays at church.  I mean it in the sense of what needs to be done in the communities and neighborhoods where we reside so those become healthy for every living soul.

Perhaps there was no better example for me this week than during my usual visual field test that I have every six months at the eye clinic.  At one point, the technician curiously asked me about the non-profit mental health and addictions organization I work for.  I explained what we do and who we serve and that we’re focused on creating healthy community.  She then asked if I was a mental health professional to which I answered yes.  I also shared that I had been a minister and pastor for nearly eighteen years.  My disclosures then took us to a much different kind of conversation than I normally have during the test as the woman shared her heartache quite openly about her son who’s on methadone and what it took for him to kick heroin and get to that point.

She went on to say how she secretly followed him around town to figure out from whom and where he was getting the heroin.  She talked of one instance in the parking lot of a store near the main shopping mall in our community.  Reportedly as she watched her son from a safe distance, the heroin supplier showed up.  Not only did the supplier show up, but startlingly another ten cars suddenly arrived and buyers were everywhere trying to make quick deals with the supplier and be on their way.  The woman spoke of taking as many photographs of people and cars and license plates as she could.  She talked about how she had done this kind of thing on many occasions and provided the information to police.  Soon she discovered there was little the police did with the information, mostly due to insufficient resources to follow up the leads she provided.

It’s here that I look at the huge amount of resources we expend creating comfortable houses of worship for ourselves, places that are often edifices and monuments erected to human ego needs, basically idols of one kind or another.  I am left to wonder what those dollars invested more sensibly might be accomplishing for the community’s common good, for example more police officers.  I then think of the incredibly beautiful and ornate cross I saw this week at a church which bore the likeness of Christ upon it and wonder if those dollars invested more sensibly in the community might have provided another unmarked police vehicle by which to track and build cases against the heroin suppliers in our community.  And then I wonder that if the scriptures used to guilt us into these excesses no longer had power over us in the way they do, would we still choose to erect the religious idols that we do and expend precious resources on their behalf?  Might we finally say that enough is enough?  Might we try to find a much better sense of balance between representations of faith and the desperate needs of our communities?    Might we instead be out in the community trying to find out where the next heroin deal is going down?  Might we instead create enough disruption so that this poison never leaves the supplier’s hand but goes with these serpents to the local jail?

Sounds like a plan to me!

Brad Shumate, M.S., M.A., LMHC

Free of Encumbrance

Vancouver, WA

Email: brshumate@freeofencumbrance.net  

What's an "act of faith"?

  

(Graphic is titled “Christ Expelling the Money Changers in the Temple” ca 1600 by artist, Greco.  Housed in the National Gallery of Great Britain in London)

Lectionary Scripture Focus - John 2 verses 13-22 NRSV

The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables.  Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.  He told those who were selling the doves, "Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father's house a marketplace!"  His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for your house will consume me."  The Jews then said to him, "What sign can you show us for doing this?"  Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."  The Jews then said, "This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?"  But he was speaking of the temple of his body.  After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

Reflection on the Scripture Focus

Do you wonder what “an act of faith” is anymore?  A seminary professor asked that question this past week.  He asked it in light of the dramatic changes occurring in the North American religious landscape.    For a quickly declining number of us, the “act of faith” has been “going to church”.  In times gone by, ministers and pastors entrenched in this concept flaunted their “numbers” as a sign of how effectively they called people to acts of faith and supposedly then a life of faith.  The pastors’ badges of success were then the large numbers of people attending the congregation’s religious services, or the huge numbers of people baptized the past year, or better yet the growing number of financial contributors and thus the growing number of dollars churches could gloat over.

I know this because I used to be one of those ministers.  Heck, I remember the weekend our denominational general officer came to our Pacific Northwest judicatory and held a breakfast meeting with all the pastors.  All the pastors were asked to stand up and then we ran through the baptism numbers.  Every pastor who had one or zero baptisms were the first made to sit down.  Then it was those who had four or less who were to sit down.  Then it was six or less and then it was eight or less, at which point I, as a pastor, had to sit down.  Finally, the last pastor standing had to sit down when the number twelve was called.

It was an interesting exercise at that time six years ago, but those kinds of numbers no longer mean anything.  Why?  Well, church attendance is declining so fast that only 25% of us attend church regularly anymore.  So the question of what is an act of faith, especially in God’s eyes, probably means something altogether different any more than what we humans and our religious institutions have defined it to be.  More and more, it seems to be something that people want to be undefined, to be as free as the wind blows, and not confined or limited by human contrivances or human institutional contrivances.

Ultimately, it means asking ourselves the simple and basic question of, “Where is God to be found today?”  In Jesus’ day there was a great debate between the Jewish and Samaritan peoples.  The Samaritans thought God resided on Mount Gerizim where Abraham nearly sacrificed Isaac.  The Jews thought God resided in the Temple at Jerusalem.  When the Samaritan woman asked Jesus where God should be worshipped?  Jesus said neither on the mountain nor in Jerusalem.  In essence, Jesus was telling the woman that Immanuel, i.e. “God with us”, was right in front of her.  What’s next my friends is this:  Anyone who genuinely loves God and selflessly loves God’s creation and selflessly loves people and selflessly seeks after their well-being and selflessly seeks after a just and peaceable world is simply “Immanuel”.  And your acknowledgement of that person, your support of that person, and to the extent that you are a person like that yourself is an “act of faith” in today’s world.  And whenever such things happen, regardless of where they happen, there God is.  God is no longer confined to the places of Temple (i.e. our buildings representing our faiths) that we have erected all over the world.

There is a new nature of the intimacy God wants to have with us, as one seminary professor put it this week.  Taking that notion further she said, “This is as close as it gets.  God has become us.  God is who we are.  God is no longer contained.  God has broken loose for all who believe.”  Her words made complete sense for me in terms of the church God has called me to establish (see post “My Recent Journey, My God Encounter”).  They make sense to me in the way that the blind man healed by Jesus was cast out of his community by the religious authorities of his day.  The subsequent blessing was that the blind man found a new community willing to embrace him and willing to embrace the healing and new calling he received from Jesus – a calling and healing that the religious institutions of his day contested, dismissed, belittled, and maligned.

C.S. Lewis once said that when you know and have experienced the revealed God, you experience the inklings of God everywhere.  No single house of faith or temple can therefore contain God.  There does remain the need for community and means for God’s family and God’s community to gather.  This will always be important so we can help one another to remain grounded and balanced in “acts of faith” together.  And in the month of May, I will begin the process of gathering together persons who feel similarly called as I do “to establish a church free of the encumbrances of the world.”  I pray and hope that those who gather to such a process will genuinely be open to an “act of faith” unlike any other in their lives so far.  Not that it will be draining of your time or you energy or other resources that are precious commodities given the time we find ourselves in, but simply that you will allow the opening of your mind and opening of your spirit to a form of church and being the church that God has yet to reveal.  As one friend told me recently, “I don’t even think you know what this is going to be or what it will look like.”  His words couldn’t have been closer to the truth.

Be prayerful my friends, be open and seeking and alert to the inklings of God everywhere.  Please write those down, please journal about them.  Feel free to share them with me if you desire to do in advance of our first discernment gathering in May.

May the blessings of God’s Peace be upon you!

Brad Shumate, M.S., M.A., LMHC

Free of Encumbrance

Email:  brshumate@freeofencumbrance.net

     

"God's Call is God's Gift"

(Graphic is "Icon of Abraham, Sarah, and Moses"; ca 2000, Dmitry Shkolnik; St. Paul Orthodox Church; Dayton, Ohio)

Lectionary Scripture Focus - Gensis 17:1-7,15-16 NRSV

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless.  And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous.”

Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations.  No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations.  I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you.  I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.”

God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.  I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.”

Reflection on the Scripture:

I ran into a question for the above scripture.  The question asks preachers to speak to the following this coming Sunday:

• Have you received God’s call and if so how has it changed your life?
• What gift has God offered you and how did you receive it and then share it?

I don’t know about you, but I think that God’s calling for you is one of God’s most important gifts.  So what do you think?  If you think “yes”, then there’s probably another question or two to consider, such as, “Have you found the faith needed for living out God’s gift?  And if you have, where is God trying to lead you with it?”

Having asked such questions, I fervently hope you will take some time this week to consider truly unencumbered unfettered responses.  Please get your head outside of your normal routine.  Get it outside your usual frame of thinking, particularly as it relates to the ways that organized religion governs us.  Let your mind and spirit be truly free from those encumbrances.  Let God get you outside of the God-management system you installed in your life some time ago.  Ask yourself, “Am I genuinely open to what God needs me to be and where God needs me working – especially in light of God’s calling and gifts to me?  If so, am I willing to let all that change me in the ways that it will sacrificially require?”  All I can say is that if you’re going to let God be God, then it will be crucial to realize how fantastic a job we humans have done domesticating God and minimizing God’s influence over our lives.

Abraham is actually a great example to look at for such things.  If you’ll come to the truth of who Abraham was, you’ll discover that by the age of 99, he was a complete and utter jerk.  He thought of himself before he thought of others.  He lived a paranoid life.  He didn’t trust anyone.  His God-management system (a term from author, Samir Selmanovic) involved not trusting God at all.  In fact, it took quite a few times of God directly and dramatically stepping into Abraham’s life before he started trusting God in the slightest.  Abraham even put his wife in danger to protect himself!  Now if that doesn’t say something in terms of how foolish and detestable the man was, then I don’t know what will.  Straight and simple, Abraham gladly deceived others.  Lying, for Abraham, was a perfectly acceptable art-form.

As I listened this week to a podcast of Luther Seminary professors talking about the deeply flawed character of Abraham, they said things that struck me as quite important.  One is that our God-management systems have domesticated us so thoroughly that most of us in the developed world have very little understanding or appreciation of what it means to live out our faith in a manner that genuinely and sacrificially lets God be God.  For example, our weekly gatherings of our God-management systems have mostly evolved into a form of a social club.  Our faith communities often make this choice rather than gathering for the purpose of decidedly determining what our next step will be in the coming week toward transforming the world into a just and peaceable place – at least our little corner of it.

Now, I can hear annoyance from people already, but let’s be truthful.  We only let God be God up to the point that it discomforts us.  When that begins to happen, we humans are more often like Abraham.  We immediately turn to looking after ourselves and protecting what makes us comfortable and secure.  If need be, some of us will lie and plot and scheme and disguise our words and try to find refuge in the language of being a victim.  We’ll even put others at risk.  As a pastor and mental health professional, trying to be responsive to the leadings of God in my life and for the congregations I served and supported, I have seen this dynamic occur far too often.  In one congregation, I couldn’t believe the number of times a small circle of seniors -- supposed persons of faith -- willingly engaged in lying and outright deceit in their efforts to derail the Spirit at work in their midst.  They were not about to let God change their comfortable God-management system so their congregation’s resources could be put to better use for God’s just and peaceable reign.  The sad difference between that congregation and Abraham is that Abraham finally came around to accepting God’s calling and God’s gifts to him – from there a multitude of nations resulted.  Last I heard about the congregation, it’s numbers continue to dwindle.  Likely it will die and close down or have to merge with some other dying or dwindling congregation given the declining attendance trends underway in most churches.

Who knows or can say what accepting the gift of God’s calling will entail.  For Abraham and Sarah, their remaining years of life would be planting and nurturing the seed and children that would “give rise to nations.” 

There will be no rise of nations from the ministry I do in the years ahead.  I have no illusions about that, but I remain surprised at the uniquely different ways that God continues to bring me back to the calling and gift of calling that occurred May 26^th of last year (see post “My Recent Journey").  In very direct and dramatic ways, as I encounter God at work in the lives of others, I don’t know what to make of all that God intends for ”a church free of the encumbrances of the world.”  For instance, meeting with a good friend recently who for months has wanted to query me about my experience of May 26^th, the person said that even before reading my experience, God impressed upon the individual that they would be called to help establish this “free of encumbrances” church.  The person also said to me, “I don’t think you even know what this is going to become.”  To which I said, “You’re right, I have no idea.  I have no idea what this is going to look like or be.  But I believe God is in the process of calling persons to that conversation and I sense that I should invite you to the discussion.  And if nothing more happens than a small gathering of friends meeting in my home a couple of times a month and trying to accomplish social justice in the community, I am assured that such ministry will be a faithful response to the call.”  My friend decided to give the matter further consideration for which I am very grateful.

If God is calling you to this conversation and you haven’t said anything to me yet, please do so.  Please do so because the time for the conversation to begin is drawing closer and God, for some incredibly important reason, needs you outside and beyond your present God-management system.  And it’s happening because the unique gifts and calling God has placed in you and your life have something uniquely important to contribute toward God’s coming and God’s just and peaceable reign over the world. 

This week, the importance of momentum toward God’s just and peaceable reign was reinforced upon me again as I sat in a 25^th floor conference room visiting with a senior engineer of a corporate engineering firm.  While enjoying a phenomenal view of downtown Portland with the rainclouds hanging dramatically low and some clinging to the top of other tall buildings, the engineer began talking about a minister friend who walked with Martin Luther King, Jr. in the Selma to Montgomery marches in March 1965 for voting rights.  He then mentioned how the minister’s church fired him for participating in the civil rights marches.  The friend then left ministry to become a psychologist.  The whole incident left the engineer with bad feelings toward organized religion.  He then said to me, “You really remind me a lot of him.”  Not knowing exactly how to respond to such kind words, I said, “I know and have experienced the sacrifices your friend made, for I too have had to move on from a faith community unable to embrace social justice the way it should have a very long time ago.”  The engineer then shared how much our visit had meant and that he looked forward to further visits.  I sensed in this man, another person whom God might be trying to reach and call to a church free of the encumbrances of the world.

With that, I will close with an adaptation of the lectionary scripture:

“As for me, this is my covenant with you:  I have made you.  I will make you exceedingly fruitful.  I will establish my covenant between me and you, to be God to you and to offspring after you.  Amen.”

God’s Peace be with you,

Brad

Brad Shumate, M.S., M.A., LMHC

Free of Encumbrance

Email: brshumate@freeofencumbrance.net