We have started our new series, "Lectio in Your iPod." If you want to try out the practice of Lectio Divina via podcast, than our new site will not disappoint. I will continue to blog there as well on issues of life, faith, spiritual formation, and the emergent church.

See you there! 

I registered a new domain: www.dogwoodgreensboro.org

Come check it out. I'll be sure to message everyone via e-mai or this site with a more official launch soon. I'm hoping the new site will become a place where folks can engage in contemplative practices from wherever they are via podcasted prayer liturgies and Lectio readings. I also plan to get into a rhythm of weekly blog posts on the topics of Scripture, Theology, Contemplation, and Emergent. I've got two posts up already.

The plan is that the new site be a little cleaner style-wise, and a little clearer in content. I hope to see you over there.   

Judas is a difficult figure and rightfully so. The attempt of theologians and biblical scholars to explain him only agitate the mystery of this man and his role in the gospel. I like the untidiness of this character, and I find his suicide one of the most instructive episodes I've encountered this Lenten season.

I do not believe Judas had to commit suicide. I am not willing to trust a God who foreordains someone to do so. Judas’ suicide happened like most suicides; in isolation from loving community. A number of factors could have attributed to Judas’ choice to end his life. He may have believed that the community of followers would never forgive him. It could be that the community of followers turned Judas away or made him feel unwelcome. We are not privy to such information, and appropriately so. We are left to make our own conclusions about this.

From what I have seen in Christian communities, I would imagine that it was a little bit of both. Overwhelming shame can blind us to the genuine compassion and good intentions of those who would try to reach out. At the same time, all of us categorize failures and wrongdoers outside of ourselves. We approach them as something we are not, and can often be self-righteous if not altogether condemning. There were walls between Judas and the community of followers. The only way out of that open prison in Judas’ mind was suicide. Judas could not breech the wall of shame on his side. The community could not breech the wall of condemnation on their side. In the case of Judas, there was not adequate forgiveness for creating new life together.

The truth is that all of the disciples betrayed Jesus. They all fled and they all denied him. They overcame their guilt in community together. All except one. This scenario still plays itself out today. It will always play itself out as long as we continue to categorize the Judas' around us outside of ourselves. As long as we scapegoat them as "not me" we will never reconcile them, nor be fully reconciled ourselves. This Lent I learned that Judas is one of the most important characters in the story of Jesus' death. We can know that we live the atonement when we are willing to embrace Judas and forgive him.

We die on Friday to the way of judging Judas as the powers of this world do. We are resurrected on Sunday to the way of embracing Judas as new agents of the kingdom of God.
  

1. First Baptist Greensboro has a phenomenal passion pilgrimage experience that is open every day this week from 7AM - 8PM. It is set up in the Narthex and can be accessed by the side doors of the Narthex off of the main parking lot. There are 5 prayer stations that each engage a certain element of spiritual practice. Give yourself a good half hour to experience the space. It will be worth it. Map

2. Our friends at St. Mary's house in Greensboro will be doing their stations of the cross service this Friday at 7PM. This a wonderful communal experience as various St. Mary's members read moving personal reflections in response to each station. Map

3. Our friends at Knollwood Baptist in Winston are having a stations of the cross service for their Maunday Thursday observance. It was designed by their youth. The service begins at 7PM. Map  

4. Our friends at First Baptist Winston-Salem have a stations of the cross experience open Mon-Fri. 9AM - 5PM. It is open Wed. nights 5PM - 9PM. The stations are set up in room 100. Map  

If you are looking for some space to contemplate, pray, reflect, and listen, these are some wonderful venues for that. I encourage you to prepare for Easter Sunday by not avoiding the horror and darkness of the cross and the tomb.  

She has volunteered in various booths during the Race for the Cure, but this year she has entered a team in the race and will be running. She would never consider herself a runner, but she has always been one for a challenge, and when she puts her mind to something you can consider it done. The race is a 5K and we've been mapping routes through our neighborhood using google's pedometer. She's committed and excited, and I am very proud of her. I really like seeing her get fired-up for a cause since she always accuses me of being a rebel who's always looking for one.

Cancer sucks! It robs families of mothers, sisters, and daughters; fathers, brothers, and sons. I would like for any of you who are friends of the Abbey, or just casual readers to consider supporting my wife in the Race for the Cure. She's running for her mom...a memory of someone she only had eight years with. I'm sure you know of stories like this, or have perhaps experienced the loss of someone to cancer. Let's not let cancer have the last word.

You can see her web-page and make a donation here. She will appreciate any amount.

This is why I have no desire to watch the 24hr. color commentary that has come to be known as cable news. That and I can't afford decent cable. Anytime I see cable news on its like chattering monkeys trying to get my attention with something sensational. Its like a bunch of ego maniacs trying to outdo one another. Of course the ailing networks have taken their cue from these goof-balls as well.

If I watch the news on a cable channel, its the Daily Show. Otherwise I listen to NPR & the BBC, and I read Reuters online.

How often are we foiled by our own plans to foil someone elese? How often do we become the very thing we wage war against? We've seen men like Spitzer, Larry Craig, and Ted Haggard all get blown-up by the very weapon they used against their enemies. More than the knee-jerk reaction of moral outrage that tends to come from the public, this phenomenon deserves ample time and reflection by anyone. Are we not susceptible to the same foibles?

The magnitude of these cases have everything to do with the positions these men held.  We should certainly be bothered by what they have done, but we should pay ample attention to the narrative that gets played out in all of these cases. In addition to outrage, we should offer a prayer of thanks that our hypocrisy never makes the headlines. Then, after humility sets in, we should ask for God's mercy on these broken men and their families.

If all we do in response to cases like this is put these guys in a category outside of ourselves, we start walking the same doomed path that they  have trod ahead of us.     

Southern Baptists have been quick to add that they are not going all soft and liberal. I find it a bit comical that they would consider the state of creation to be the private franchise of a political identity. The health and well-being of the earth belongs to all of us. How can one read Genesis and not know that we were made to create, bless, tend, and sustain the earth? I guess conservative evangelicals are only literalists sometimes...like when it serves their political agenda. I'll digress here.

I am thankful that SBC leaders are seeing the need for an intelligent engagement of the issue of climate change. They shouldn't pressure themselves to come out with any definitive policy or some sort of commitment to a scientific study. They will do enough by letting people know they care about the environment, and that they are willing to make it a conversation that will evolve into projects that actually make a difference. I wish them the best in that work...and I pray that it will be more than rhetoric.

Frank, Jack, and Jimmy...good-on-ya mates.  

Things started to turn around on Thursday. We had a new person visit our Thursday meditation. The great thing was the she's not a Christian and she felt totally fine participating in a Lenten liturgy of the hours. That's the kind of space we have been dreaming of within the Abbey community. She even plans to invite her yoga class. They meet in the same building where we hold our Thursday meditation.

Also on Thursday I was asked by my good friend Ken Myers to lead a time of reflection and prayer for a peer learning group he is a part of. I was able to inhabit the presence of God with some really great people. As always, that was as much a blessing to me as it was to them. I led them in the Lenten liturgy of the hours for that morning as well, and we spent some time talking about what words and phrases captured our attention. I then asked them to sit in silence with this question: "What do you need from God today?" There we sat around a table in the middle of Krankies coffee shop for over ten minutes in silence listening to the white noise of the bean roaster, music, and other people talking. After that we each went around and shared what it is we learned in that silence. It was a really good time together.

Out of that silence I learned that I needed an embrace from God. This prompted some hugs from some in the group which I really appreciated. I have faith that the embrace I need from God is coming. Thursday was a picture of what I want to do with every day of my life: inhabit the presence of God with friends, and to participate in the work of reconciliation.

There was a day when I had that, and it was taken away by an institution that worshipped its own identity over and against the diverse mosaic that is the kingdom of God. It wanted to make people over in its own image rather than naming the image that resides in every person, and liberating them to live into that image. I think that's evil, so I left. Since then I have been struggling to create a space where the naming and emancipation of the image of God can take place...and that's the big question mark of the present for me. Will it take place? I don't know.

This weekend I spent my free time reading Nelson Mandela's autobiography A Long Walk to Freedom. Its preparatory reading for my trip to Africa in May with Amahoro. I haven't been able to put it down. I got it on Friday and have read 300 pages. 325 to go! It has been very appropriate for me to pick this book up at this time. The weekend itself has helped restore some hope and energy in me. I plan to put it to good use this week. I've got my portable trash bag with me and I am ready to go.