Month: May 2015

Searching for Sunday Rachel Held Evans

Emotional Response-4

Scholarly Response-4

My husband surprised me by ordering this book for me after seeing it sitting in my amazon cart. I started reading this book the day it arrived, and I read it very quickly. It is easily readable and still contains so much depth. In the forward, Glennon Doyle Melton says, “Searching for Sunday helped me forgive the church and myself and fall in love with God all over again” (ix). With such high praise, who wouldn’t want to keep reading? I would agree with this statement even though I’m not at a place where I need to forgive the church. I love the church with all its bumps and bruises. This book helped me love the church even more.

This book is organized around seven sacraments. I appreciate the way she names the sacraments. This Protestant can get behind seven sacraments when they are described in this way. “The church tells us we are beloved (baptism). The church tells us we are broken (confession). The church tells us we are commissioned (holy orders). The church feeds us (communion). The church welcomes us (confirmation). The church anoints us (anointing of the sick). The church unites us (marriage)” (xvii).

Not surprisingly, my favorite sacrament remains communion. I love communion. One of the things I miss most is serving communion. I love presiding at the table. I love inviting all to Jesus’ table. I love inviting people to remember. I love serving communion by intinction to a faith community I know. I miss calling people by name as I say this is the cup of salvation or this is Christ’s blood shed for you. For now, I receive the elements from the hands of someone who doesn’t know me, and it is enough because God knows me.

I read the section on confirmation the night before seeing nine youth I did not know confirm their faith. We still do not know each other. And yet, we are bound together in the promises we made and our love of Jesus. I can faithfully say I will support them on their faith journey because I believe in the church universal and the brother and sisterhood of all of God’s children.

My least favorite sacrament, as presented in this book, was marriage. I want marriage to be open to all who love each other and until it is I struggle with seeing it as a sacrament. Not everyone gets married, and that makes this sacrament feel as if it is reserved for only some. (The same argument could be made for Holy Orders, however, I believe by commissioning mission trip participants, blessing those who serve, and thanking everyone who takes seriously the call to love all and serve all-the Holy Orders are open for everyone.) I worry that calling marriage a sacrament encourages people to stay in hurtful or abusive relationships. Also, I worry about feelings of guilt or shame when a marriage ends-sometimes without the consent of one spouse. Maybe, if marriage had been earlier in the book, I might have enjoyed it more. I wanted the book to end with the same energy I felt for the other sacraments. Sadly, I didn’t feel it.

I recommend this book for those wanting a new look at the sacraments. I recommend this book to anyone who hasn’t found a church home. Read this book before you stop your search. I recommend this book for those who love the church and those who wish they could love the church.

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Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith Barbara Brown Taylor

Emotional Response-5

Scholarly Response-3

What an interesting book and what an interesting time for me to read it. Since leaving my position in the church more than six months ago, I have been discerning what is next. For many reasons including geography, a full-time position in the church may not be where God is calling me next. This book is the story of an ordained woman feeling the call away from parish ministry and a call into teaching religion in a college. Our stories are not the same, and yet, there are similarities too.

Months ago while visiting a friend, she let me borrow this book. It has sat on my bookshelf for a bit. Once I began reading the book, it went very quickly. You could say I devoured it. Since I first read Barbara Brown Taylor (or BBT as my friends and I call her. Truth be told, the one time I met her I don’t think I said much of anything to her. Just hi. I was too awestruck. BBT is our kind and quick way of addressing her when discussing her books), I have always found something in her writing that resonated with me. I expected nothing less in this book and I was not disappointed.

This book made me wonder about the ways in which we support our clergy. I wonder if the author had reached out for help if she might have continued as a parish priest. What safe places exist for our clergy to express their doubts, failures, concerns, needs, and desires? This is not to say that I think she should have continued as a parish priest. I think moving on to a new things was the best choice for her. I just heard some pain in her words and wished that a better support system had been available to her or she had made use of it.

Toward the end of the book, the author raises some excellent questions about the church and how we are the church. I thought of this as I sat in a church on Sunday morning that needed weekly offerings of $9000 to support itself. And right down the street only two blocks away was another church of the same denomination. I wondered about the history of these two churches, and I wondered how we might create more partnerships between churches.

I would recommend this book for all clergy-even if you aren’t considering leaving your current call, this book may help you support someone who is leaving or it may offer you support to ask the question and share your own doubts. I recommend this book for church people who want an inside look at what life is like for clergy. I recommend this book for any faithful people who have doubted. I recommend this book for people who would like to look at faith in a new way.

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A People’s History of Christianity: The Other Side of the Story Diana Butler Bass

Emotional Response-3

Scholarly Response-5

Who knows the story of our ancestors in the faith? What happened after Jesus? The time I have most often taught this is in confirmation. Church history, as it is usually called, is often condensed to 30 to 45 minutes or one class. Only the highlights are mentioned. Much is overlooked, neglected, or skipped. It isn’t easy sharing 2000 years of history in less than one hour. I selected this book from my library because I wanted to see how someone else would condense it. “Unlike formalized church tradition, something that often appears as an approved list of what to believe and how to act, this is an open-ended history. Great Command Christianity invites us to participate in a living tradition, to reconsider faith as a community of people who practice God’s love and mercy through time” (11-12). She describes her quest like this, “A People’s History is a scrapbook of traditions that may have been forgotten, mislaid, or misinterpreted, rearranged on a page to evoke memories of the Christian God. It is an attempt to find the history of the prophetic Jesus in the church, the Jesus who spoke for the poor and the oppressed, who broke bread with sinners, who wanted his followers to give up all and follow him, and who believed–even when dying on a cross–in a world of justice, beauty, and love” (16-17). She searched for people being Christians throughout history and shared their stories. The book is divided into sections by historical periods much the same periods you would find in a church history class.

This book was not what I hoped it would be. I wanted the words and lives of my ancestors in the faith to come alive. I wanted to be introduced to people I did not know and reintroduced to others I had forgotten. This book didn’t give me that feeling. Was the problem my expectations or this book? I do not know.

After reading “Early Church: Devotion”, I knew I wanted more stories. I wanted more quotes from that time. I realize these may be hard to come by, but I had hoped to hear their own  words. “Jews and Muslims as Neighbors” beginning on page 122 is a reminder that we still have much to learn from the past. I loved “Inner Light” beginning on page 223. I am thankful for the Quakers who believed “women and men were equally enlightened by Christ” (225).

From this book I learned that Harriet Tubman was born on the Eastern Shore of Maryland (where I live). This geographical connection peaks my interest in learning more about Harriet Tubman. This fulfilled a hope of the book for me, I wanted to want to learn more about some of my ancestors in the faith. I wasn’t expecting it to be Harriet Tubman, but I do believe with our geographical proximities she might be the person with whom I need to deepen my connection.

This book was a slow read for me. I love history and wanted this book to be a page-turner. Sadly, it was not. It contained so much great information. Overall, I’m glad I read it and I believe it is a good, short history of Christianity. It is hard for me to recommend to all readers because I fear that many people would not finish it. If you are teaching a church history class at your church, this is a good read for you. If you love church history, this is a good read for you.

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