A WING AND A PRAYER "Alternative Universe" & "Practicing Resurrection"

There is so much pain in this world, but what do we crazy Christians see? Promise. Alternative universes. Dreams and possibilities.... Saints are those crazy visionaries who say hello to death, and then greet what lies beyond it. Saints, however, are not so crazy that they fail to mourn the good part of God's creation that is gone in death. They do, and they shed tears abundant, and rail at God for making us mortal, but in the very scream they find God present with us, the God who suffers and dies with us, and points us to the new life that lies beyond. - p. 98

Practice resurrection. Live in open expectation of the new thing God is doing at all times and in all places. It means opening ourselves to that new thing, recognizing that the change it brings will cause some distress. But there is always more abundant life on the other side of the pain and grief that comes with change and growth. - p. 101

What is it about our egos that wants everything to be exactly as it was yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that? If there is are and certainties in this life, it's that each day is going to be different in some way than the day before, and that at, at some point, in spite of all of our efforts and protestations, our time on this sphere must come to an end. Inevitability of change and inevitability of the end of life are both part and parcel with our existence.

Christ shows us both of these in his life and in his teaching. He was constantly confronted with the temporary nature of daily life, with the ever changing circumstances that surrounded his life and ministry, with the vacillating devotion of his disciples and friends. He faced his impending and inevitable death, sometimes with fear and sometimes with force, but always with the recognition that it was inevitable.

If we can see beyond ourselves, and see that while we may not make a mark that will last beyond a generation or two, we are still active in participating in God's creation, helping to promote life and love on this wonderful planet, helping to teach acceptance and appreciation to our children and all others under our charge, helping one another to recognize that life is fragile and that every day brings us closer to that moment when we leave this plane of existence and enter into eternity with our creator.

Neither change nor death should be seen as less than wonderful moments in our existence, and we should embrace both as gifts of the life God gives us. If we did, we'd see each day and each moment as an opportunity to experience God at work in the world and in us.

A WING AND A PRAYER "Dream a Little Dream"

Be bold enough to dream of a world where all people speak a language of dignity and mutual respect. Bringing that dream to reality will not be easy, because you and I will have to help tear down those towers of power every day. We build them ourselves when we're not well-grounded in God. And the fearful around us build them higher every day. - p. 95

++Katherine begins the fifth section of her book, "Opening Up to the Vision of God," with this vision of the Peaceable Kingdom, or as they say in GHOSTBUSTERS, "Dogs and cats, living together, MASS HYSTERIA!!!" There are always boundaries, there are always walls, there are always suspicions. And the need to preserve is always greater than the desire to change. It's Friedman's family systems, that we would rather prepetuate the status quo than to try to change or shake the system.

But can you dream? Can you imagine a world in which we can see one another with love and acceptance, instead of doubt and suspicion? Can we allow ourselves to embrace change, not just in others, but in ourselves?

It's the argument of The Episcopal Church's desire to break down the walls of prejudice that have for two millennia kept gay/bi/lesbian persons outside the doors of the Church, outside the realm of God's salvation. The labels don't help us define who we are; they help us establish and maintain who are not JUST LIKE US! "Thank God I'm not one of those____!" Go ahead...fill in the blank! Who are you blessed by God NOT to be? How has God placed you in an ivory tower of Christian purity?

Guess what...those towers were TORN down on Golgotha almost two millennia ago. It's Biblical, it's Holy, and it's TRUE.

A WING AND A PRAYER "Everybody in the Pool"

The good news is that God loves us no matter what we do or don't do. We can't earn God's love by keeping all the rules. And we can't lose God's love by not keeping them. That sounds like bad news to some people--especially folks who think they do a pretty good job of keeping the rules. - p. 89

And that's my gospel of inclusion! I don't mind those who are able to keep all the rules of the Torah. All the more power to you, if that's how you're going to keep holy. But there is a problem when the rules of one culture are somehow transferred to another culture. Why are we insistent on trying to recreate the holiness of first century Palestine, when we are so very different from then and there? For some of our Christian sisters and brothers around the globe, their culture may have much more in common with that culture.

But this is democracy, a relatively recent experiment in society, that no longer has homogenization as its main effort. Now, we celebrate the infinite diversity in our American culture. Our rules are less an effort to make us all uniform as they are an effort to allow us to express a unified love of diversity, celebrating that which makes each of us different.

Rules that force us to wear the same clothes, watch the same movies and television shows, or even worship in the same way, are rules that oppose God's wonderful creativity. Creation is diverse, human beings are diverse--why should we try to defy that creativity by enforcing rules that squelch God's wonderful love of individuality in human expression?

A WING AND A PRAYER "Live Long and Prosper"

There will come times in our relationships when some will be convinced that some of the rest are aliens, foreigners, strangers, or even just plain weird. There will be times filled with common rejoicing. And there will be lots of other times when our work and our lives feel pretty ordinary, as we just keep on keeping on. The times of rejoicing may not seem like they need a good deal of courage or boldness, but the other times will. - p. 86

So I hoped that this would be a sermon about STAR TREK, and it started out that way. I was a BIG Trekkie growing up. While the rest of the world seemed so different from myself (being a rather un-talented youth when it came to sports), I found in the entertainment of the science fiction series, and in others, that there was a kind of solace. You see, being different wasn't a curse when it came to "other worlds and new civilizations" in outer space. It was the status quo.

Why do we imagine that we can somehow determine what is "normal" by looking at what is "average"? Isn't there a kind of diversity every time we gather together as a people of faith? You look around the congregation, and you will see multiple expressions of belief and worship...we are NOT all the same. We do not all hold the same beliefs, attitudes and values when it comes to our response to the world.

Not one of us holds all of the answers to where we are headed. We may very well each have some piece of the puzzle as we determine as households, as congregations, as national churches, and even as worldwide communions what God has in store for us. It takes energy, patience, and a great deal of empathy to sit at the table and respectfully disagree, with one another, with those in authority, with those who are marginalized, with those whom we distrust. But that is what God is calling us to do when we are called to "boldly go where no (wo/)man has gone before."

A WING AND A PRAYER "Sibling Rivalry" & "The Family Table"

Perhaps our work of reconciliation means we'll have to tell a hard truth, or be vulnerable enough to apologize, or risk getting to know someone really different. Or perhaps it will be the hard work of learning about the root causes of homelessness, and working in a soup kitchen. It may be the dangerous work of peacemaking in the Sudan or Palestine. It is all gospel work that leads to new life. - p. 81

Communion is about learning to live and thrive with those obnoxious people around us, whether they are in our homes, our churches, our nation, or around the globe. The communion of saints is our natural home, and it is the only place where true joy is to be found! We, too, need to learn how to fight fair and dignify our neighbors who stand with us before the throne of God. We will only learn to be fully present before that throne when we can see the fellow child of God in the odious person who stands next to us. - p. 84

Seeing the good in the odious person next to us. Seeing them as a child of God. I must need some serious glasses, because I'm having trouble with ++Katherine's vision chart here!

I just finished sharing JESUS CAMP, the Oscar nominated documentary, with my Contemporary Issues in Media and Theatre class, and I am having some serious difficulties reconciling myself to the extremists represented in that film. Part of my response might be that I and my family are GREAT fans of the HARRY POTTER series of films. We enjoy the mystery, the intrigue, the battle between the archvillain Valdemort and the reluctant hero Harry. In it we find a great story of standing up for the disenfranchised, for the acceptance of one another regardless of weakness or popularity, and the recognition of one's strenghts in adversity. This epic, like many before and since, is a work of fiction, pointing metaphorically to some very real and very human experiences. Many contemporary theologians would even see in Harry a figure that is trying to emulate the hero who stands up for the rights of the poor, the weak, the suffering, and the humiliated, and to destroy the evil that corrupts society.

Camp administrator, Pastor Becky Fisher's vehement abhorrance of the books and films as celebrating the Devil hit a little too close to home. It's not that I deny her the right to her opinion--in fact, I very much support her right to buy or not to buy the novels, to view or not to view the films. What challenges me is that she directly attacks all of those who claim to be Christian and yet support this "homage to Satan." I am somehow supposed to embrace her opposition to me and my Christian beliefs. She would not even call me a Christian. Many evangelicals are challenged by inclusivist Christianity, and their track racks are filled with attacks on sacramental theology, accusing the catholic traditions of canabalism in our celebration of Christ's presence in the Holy Eucharist.

All in all, I am just not Christian enough for Pastor Becky or for Christians like her, in the radically pentecostal tradition. I am judged to be merely a "wannabe." And still, in these sermons today, ++Katherine calls me to reconcile with this person who equates me with the non-believer. How do I feel about this identification? How am I supposed to bury my own disappointment in her brand of Christianity that labels non-believers (and marginal believers--including, I suppose, me and my family) as eternally damned? How do I carry that in my heart as I approach the altar in faith each week?

I carry it, because that is the example that Jesus gave me in his Passion and Death. We all carry the barbs of the accusers, and we turn back to them, not with vengeance and pay backs, but with love and forgiveness. We are Christians, in the Jesus sense, not Christians in the Pauline/Deuteronomist sense. Our example was one of love, not one of hate; one of acceptance, not one of exclusion; one of peace, not one of war. This is the gift of Jesus Christ--to be able to respond with kindness in the face of accusation and disdain.

A WING AND A PRAYER "Traveling Light" & "Lab Report"

Traveling light means going with open hands and open hearts, ready to embrace what the moment offers. It means traveling undefended, without rigid expectations or high walls or self-defense. Finding a welcome has something to do with being vulnerable, being open to the hospitality that another offers. If we're not ready to receive, if our hands aren't open, then who's going to be able to get in? - p. 73

At its best, Anglicanism has always held up comprehensiveness as one of its highest values. We don't all have to agree. There can be more than one right answer. This turf is God's, not ours, and it's broader and more expansive--even greener--than we are capable of imagining. We have said, from our Celtic Christian beginnings, and explicitly from at least the time of Elizabeth I, that the middle way, the middle road, is the most important, because there is something vital to be gained and learned from the people on both shoulders. Gamaliel, the perennial pragmatist in the book of Acts, says, "Well, what you're about may NOT be right, but we'll just have to wait and see what comes of it. If it is of God, then there won't be any stopping it." - p. 75

I wholeheartedly believe that both of ++Katherine's observations are true. Before we can do anything, we must open our hearts and our minds to recognize that there are so very many ways that God is working in the world. It is one of our own fundamentals, as progressive Christians, that God/Christ/Spirit is bigger than any book, any doctrine, any church, and is certainly capable of working in any way that God/Christ/Spirit chooses to work.

At the heart of the great struggle in Christianity at this time is that neither extremists, conservative/fundamentalists or liberal/progressivists, are willing to "travel light," and let go of their own biases or prejudices regarding God at work in the world. Every time we try to lock God within covers of the Bible, we are confronted with our own limitations of understanding that God is bigger than that. God is all in all. Who are we in our limited capacities to say that God is ONLY in the written text of Holy Scriptures, or ONLY in observeable Holy Creation? We say, in our catechism, that all things necessary to salvation are in Holy Scriptures. BUT we do not say 1) that they are ONLY found in Holy Scriptures, nor do we say 2) that ALL things in Holy Scriptures are necessary to salvation.

Our openness to seeing God in the wonders of diverse Creation AND in the complex and often contradictory Bible, and using the divine gift of human reason to discern how God is working in the both, calling us to reconciliation, is very frustrating to our more extreme friends who can't move beyond their own interpretation of Holy Scripture. Radical fundamentalists see it as the transcribed, word-for-word utterances of God dictating to humanity how it is to live into right relationship. Radical progressivists see it is flawed and even purely human invention that is corrupt, with authorship and motivation bringing most if not all of it into serious doubt.

We need to let go of our baggage, as we interact with one another, especially within the boundaries of the Episcopal Church. We are the "Via Media" (perhaps the only true Via Media remaing in the Anglican Communion), and the less ecclesiological doctrine we formally legislate, the better. The doors must be open to all, the pews must be comfortable to all, the table must be inviting to all, and the challenge and call to ministry in the world must be announced to all. It is the only way that we will effectively reconcile all to God and to one another. And it certainly was the example given to us by our Savior, Jesus Christ.

A WING AND A PRAYER "Walking on Water" & "Finding God In the Differences"

Jesus himself could walk into many churches and be ignored, and, indeed, is forgotten and missed when we fail to engage the stranger. Inviting people to the feast is not about making my table more attractive than yours, and it's not about eating only with your friends. It's about transforming this world so that the party goes on all the time, so that the banquet feeds everyone. It's about tikkun olam--"the repair of the world"--and all creation living in shalom. - p. 63

God is revealed in relationships. God's own self is about community. God is the one who created us with the freedom to choose to enter community. God is not about control. We don't have to be in community, but relationships are the only place we're going to learn what wholeness, holiness, or salvation is really about. God draws us into community, invites us, even lures us, but God does not pull strings to get us into relationship, and God does not compel us or shame us into it. - 69

Call me a radical, but I know that God's table should be an open table. I always feel a bit put off, when attending Mass at Gannon where I teach, because the Roman Catholic understanding of communion is that it is the Communion of the Roman Catholic Church that is being affirmed in participation in the Eucharistic liturgy. To receive is to make an absolute affirmation of full participation in all parts of that faith tradition. Therefore to be a participant, one must be able to say that they are in communion with the Bishop of Rome, a.k.a. Pope Benedick XVI. When they ask that those who are not Roman Catholic please not receive, they are doing so with an ecclesiological theology that has a particular understanding of the word "communion."

I can explain it...theologically. But I can't understand it in Jesus Christ. Nor can I agree with our own Episcopal Church view that one must be baptised using the Trinitarian form ("In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit"). While attending Holy Eucharist at the National Cathedral during Epiphany this past January, they invited everyone...meaning EVERYONE to the Lord's Table. Full participation, regardless of where anyone was on their faith journey.

We are a tradition with many gates, and many of them come from Holy Scripture. "No one comes to the Father except through me." "Unless you be baptized of the water and Spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven." And somehow we become gatekeepers, in our sundry traditions, of how we allow those to enter into our liturgies and participate in our worship.

++Katherine begins her next unit, "FUNNY PURPLE SHIRTS: The Church in the New Millenium," with challenges to clergy about how we celebrate servanthood and respond to God's call to invite others to God, especially those who have been shunned or neglected by our two-thousand year old Christian tradition, and with challenges to all of us to enter into community with others who we may not normally relate.

It is exactly what we as the Episcopal Church have done for two centuries, opening our doors to the marginalized and making ministry a possiblity for all who are called to a holy life of leadership and service. It is why we're in trouble with many of the more medieval (not necessarily meaning less intelligent but certainly meaning pre-Enlightenment) theologies of the conservative Christians who want to drive us out of the mainstream. We are a place of the understanding not just of grace, but of the radical, unrestricted, ungated grace of God in Christ bestowed on all of God's creation. It calls us to a holy life, both clergy and laity, and building relationships with all of God's holy people.

A WING AND A PRAYER "Sharing the Wealth" & "Ready for Grace"

(As the month of March fills with theatrical commitments, the opportunities to post on the blog are fewer and farther between, so I'll be doubling up to keep up with all you faithful readers. Thanks for your loyal postings and readings!)

The gifts and talents that have been so abundantly showered on us are not ours alone. They are given to us with the understanding that we will act as stewards, guardians, and investors. We're meant to invest them, to risk them, for the good of all. Joy and abundant life come when we're willing to risk all that we have, to lay down our lives. - p. 57

When we eat of this bread, it truly can relieve those fears that keep us turned inward. It truly can engender courage to reach beyond our comfort zones to feed others. But only if we believe, in the root sense of what that word "believe" means--to give our hearts to that truth. We can help to feed the world's hunger only if we invest our hearts, and minds, and souls, and strength in sharing that word-bread with the world. - p. 60

In these two sermons, we are called to share a wealth that we possess beyond the wealth of our bank accounts and credit surpluses. We are reminded of what is given to us each and every week: Holy Word and Holy Eucharist.

How often, as we sit in Sunday morning services, do we think about how the Word of God and it's explication by those who are preaching is a gift that we are not just to hold on to, to store in our minds and hearts, but as a gift that is meant to be shared with others after the service and coffee hour are over? Many people stop to say, "I enjoyed the sermon," or "I needed to hear that this morning." But not many say, "I know someone at work who needs the message I heard this morning--I can't wait to take it to them tomorrow." This Word of God is meant to challenge us and to support us in both powerful and subtle ways. If we hear the Word of God and it enlivens or quickens us, why wouldn't we want to share it with others? It's very much a part of our Christian call to share the love of God with others: "evangelical" is an adjective that ALL Christians share.

In a similar manner, the Bread of Life which we share weekly is also meant to empower us to go out into the world with conviction and courage. We celebrate Christ's presence in the here and now, and we are invited to His table to share in this heavenly and eternal meal. All food sustains us, but the food we share at the Eucharist feeds our spirits, empowering us to share the Word of God with others. The liturgy of Word and Sacrament in the catholic traditions has a vast appeal to many because we've discerned that this order of worship does indeed feed us in ways that we personally need fed AND empower us to reach out to others with our special and individual gifts.

We are not to leave the service on Sunday morning and go home happy content that God reached us and that we've done our duty as church-going Christians. We are emboldened to reach out to others, we are fed for ministry, and we are called to share the abundance of joy and love with others.

Listen closely to the Word this Sunday. Feel intimately Christ's presence in the Eucharist. And then ask yourself, "How will I share the abundance of this Good News with others?"

A WING AND A PRAYER "A Cup of Starbucks"

In Jesus' parable, the sheep get the blessing, but not the goats. The fascinating thing is that the sheep, the blessed ones, are simply the ones who take care of the least among us, who feed the hungry, or water the thirsty, or visit the prisoners. The blessed are the ones who act like a blessing--not necessarily the ones who believe correctly, or repeat a statement of salvation, or even kept the finer points of the ritual law. The blessed are ones who love God and love neighbor as themselves. - p. 52

After a few days off for seminary and Gannon responsibilities, I woke this morning and thought, "I've got some catching up to do." But I didn't think that this reading would be waiting for me. I have to admit, ++Katherine is starting to sound like a broken record here... AGAIN with the "feed the hungry"!

But this time it's more than just doing if because of the gospel mandate. In fact there is admonishment for doing it because you have to. You don't blindly follow the rules of the religion. Those who do so are legalists, arguing over fine points of the law. In fact, with all the energy we exert arguing over legal interpretation, we take energy away from something more pressing: helping our fellow human beings.

After the debacle in Dar es Salaam, ++Katherine, having been raked over the coals for our Church's inclusivist sensitivity, stated that there were more pressing things than our ecclesiological interpretations. On the same continent, there were those who struggled for simple sustinence each and every day. There were those who fought terrible disease, inhumane treatment from power-seekers, and famine.

Why do we spend so much time arguing over scriptural interpretation, when there are more pressing matters? Do we not understand that while we are dividing and condemning one another as Christians and Anglicans, there are those who are in dire need of the blessing that we have been called to share?

A WING AND A PRAYER "Doing is Believing"

Our giving can do something about the sixty thousand people who die every day from hunger and lack of basic medical care. Paul says in his wonderful letter, "We have this treasure in clay jars so that it may be clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us." The extraordinary power he's talking about is a result of believing and doing something about that belief. When we know the powerful reality of God's love, we can change the world. The same attitudes that permit or overlook poverty and racism in our towns and cities lead to similar realities in Louisiana and Mississippi, as well as in Asia and Africa. Our neighbors are not just the folks next door, and we are meant to be servants of them all. How we use our abundance is a very real statement about what it is we do believe. - p. 50

I hadn't planned on writing on a Sunday, but I thought I'd read ahead, and this sermon just does me in. I am reminded that God does not ask us to check anything at the door when we enter the sanctuary to worship. We bring it all--our wealth, our strength, our minds, our hearts--and we bring it willingly to share and to see how it is actually God's gifts that we offer at the altar.

If we're wondering what to do with our offering, we are given plenty of opportunity, locally and globally. We have wealth--we share it with the needy here in our community but also in generous donations toward the Millenium Development Goals. We have strength--we use it to better our facilities, or we offer it during summer projects here and abroad. We have intelligence--we engage one another in discussions, we teach our children, we use that gift to learn even more about God's wonderful and diverse ongoing revelation in creation. He have passionate hearts--we lift are voices in praise, in song, in speaking out.

God's gifted each of us so abundantly. How are we using God's gifts, not just on Sunday mornings, but throughout the week? How is God's love made manifest in how we reach out to those in need?

A WING AND A PRAYER "God Bless the Whole World, No Exceptions"

We celebrate the Incarnation all year long, as we look for God's gifts in people of other nationalities and traditions. It's often harder to see the gift in something or someone unfamiliar, so take time to search, and then appreciate what you find. We can look as well for the gifts in our own ancestors--and give thanks. Finally, let's be ready for opportunities to share those gifts. God needs them all! - p. 46

There are enough barriers in the world to separate peoples and nations. These barriers allow us to ignore the common tie that binds the planet: that we are ALL human. Christ became human, fully human, and in the Incarnation we are joined one to the other, regardless of race, gender, orientation, wealth/poverty, or educational background.

This became very evident to me when I had the opportunity to be an exchange student to Argentina. There is was, in another hemisphere, and I was shocked that language was the only difference. We had the same hopes, the same fears, the same frustrations, and we had so many miles and decades and even centuries of cultural differences. I am very thankful for the experience, and sing the praises of A.F.S. (American Field Service) for allowing me this watershed of understanding. Almi, Seamus and I have been blessed to have been able to host four very different students from all over the globe: from Roberto from Italy, Man Ho from China, Anya from Russia, and Stephane from Belgium. In addition to sharing their cultures with our family and enhancing our home life, each experience has also been a lesson in reminding us of how our similarities from culture to culture outweigh any differences. They've also reminded us that distance is the only thing that really separates peoples of different cultures and nationalities.

As ++Katherine begins this third unit, "A BILLION PEOPLE, A DOLLAR A DAY: Working for Justice and Peace," we are all reminded that what binds us is our common humanity, a humanity embraced by Jesus Christ. This understanding is our first step in understanding global peace and justice.

Who in this world challenges your notion of humanity? Who have you been able to dismiss because they can be perceived of as less human than yourself? Who cries out on this planet Earth to be seen as fully human, though many have turned their back and ignored their cries?

A WING AND A PRAYER "Shalom around the World"

Going naked into the font says something about your openness and vulnerability to whatever God has in store for you. That's a piece of baptismal leadership that is still central today. Our ability to die to self, to be openly vulnerable to the moving of the Spirit, or to God's latest surprise, is a mark of a growing Christian leader. Where has God surprised you lately? - p. 41

++Katherine ends this second unit titled "SHALOM EVERYBODY" by calling to mind that each of us has already made a commitment to establishing peace in our baptismal covenant. That covenant calls us to be peacemakers, to reconcile all people to God and to one another. Any time that we put up roadblocks or divide we are not fulfilling our promise to God, and we are also preventing others from doing so.

Vulnerability to God means being open to the wonderful experiences and challenges that God has in store for us. Most people feel that being vulnerable is a weakness, but in fact it is not just being gullible or setting one's self up to be a willing victim. It is also being open to an intensity of relationship. It is letting God into the very core of ourselves--our hearts, our minds, our souls.

Frequently, we don't want to seem weak, so we don't let God in to do the work that God has in us. How have you seen God trying to work in you? How is God trying to call you to be an instrument of peace in this broken world? How do you struggle with allowing yourself to be vulnerable to God?

A WING AND A PRAYER "How Can We Keep from Singing?"

Rules can often become fences and defenses that keep some folks safe inside the corral and keep others out. ...rules can become an idol, an excuse for shutting out those human beings we would rather not have in our backyards--or our living rooms. The rules of Christianity or the canons of the Episcopal Church or the laws of this nation are no different--they can be occasions of grace that shape our growth, or they can become dead or even demonic idols. - p. 37

Perhaps there is an innate rebel in me, or maybe its my subconscious "puer" that keeps surfacing. (I know...most people would say that the "puer" is not beneath the surface at all!) The point is, I love rule breakers and breaking rules myself because I love to "shock the system"! Granted, I am not a rule breaker when it comes to threatening the honest well being of another, but sometimes what another might perceive as their well being might just be staying comfortable within walls that they have constructed or blindly following habits that they just cannot seem to break.

A few years back, I had a student in my speech class, a senior, who just couldn't seem to make it to his Tuesday/Thursday 9:30 a.m. class. He needed to complete the course to graduate, and I was tired of marking him absent. No matter what I said or did, he just didn't respond. In fact, we were becoming somewhat adverserial, which is a no-win scenario for a teacher/student relationship. (It's pretty much a no-win for any relationship).

SO finally, one morning after taking role and noting he was not in class...AGAIN...I told the rest of the students to pack up their bags and that we were going on a field trip. We marched out of the building and walked two blocks to this young man's apartment. I knocked on the door, and there he was, with his roommates, sitting around in their underwear. I said to him, "I'm tired of marking you absent, and I am NOT going to let you throw away your diploma because you are too unmotivated to get to my class. We're having class here today in your apartment. It would be kind for you to offer your classmates a refreshment after our long walk to be with you this morning." His roommates howled, the other students, for the most part, laughed, I lectured, and we had a relatively early dismissal from class. He never missed class again, and each day he entered the classroom, he looked at me and we both laughed.

Shock the system! Do something unexpected! Break a rule! What habits are you in? What Christian dogmas have you bound to the point that you cannot reach out to others? What rule in Leviticus is the line in the sand that you just cannot cross?