Uncategorized – Page 3 – Spiritual Life @ Bucknell

Joy

Posted on February 24, 2020February 25, 2020 by kdn004

During my last few years at Colby College,
I taught a class, each January, called “ The Good Life”
in which we pondered an array of wisdom traditions’
and philosophies’ answer to the question, “What does it mean to live well?”
And before the class started,
I asked our students to write a little essay,
answering the question, “What makes for a good life?”
And invariably,
the top answer,
boiled down to the word:
“Happiness.”

This is not surprising,
we live in a moment in which shared values are a little hard to come by,
and some days, “Happiness” is the best we’ve got.
and we’ve become, I think, a little happiness obsessed.
I recently got a receipt from Chipotle
which read “Build your own happiness.”

A Wide Place – Tabitha Fisher M’20

Posted on February 23, 2020 by kdn004

Psalm 31: 7-8 NKJV:
I will be glad and rejoice in Your mercy,

For you have considered my trouble;

You have known my soul in adversities

And have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy;

You have set my feet in a wide place

What I love about Psalm 31 is that it, like many psalms, is a rollercoaster of praise and lament. The verse immediately following our scripture is, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am in trouble” (31:9), which seems counterintuitive to the message of the previous verses. Can David be so inconsistent? Why, in praising the Lord, does David not provide a more cohesive image of salvation from suffering?

As I reflect on my experience with Christ and my experience here at Bucknell, the flip-flopping of David’s psalm appears more and more a holistic interpretation of life rather than a fragmented one.

When I arrived at Bucknell in August of 2018, I had been saved for two months. During the summer between my undergraduate graduation and my entrance to Bucknell, my best friend convinced me to work at a Christian summer camp. I was to be a camp counselor. Leading bible study. Never mind the fact that I was terrified of kids and most decidedly agonistic. The fact of the matter was that I was broke, needed part time work, and, contrary to popular opinion, no one would hire me to cashier with an English degree. My options were slim, and the space I had to maneuver was narrow. Camp seemed like my only option, the barest toehold to push myself onto the next stage in life where I would be back to feeling comfortable in academics. I figured that the kids I could get used to, and the religion I could fake.

The Fruit of the Spirit

Posted on January 27, 2020 by kdn004

1.19.20, Rooke Chapel Congregation
Galatians 5: 1, 13-25

Welcome back, friends,
to our humble Ecumenical Christian Worship service.
The angels’ songs have quieted. And the wise travelers from the east have returned home by another road.
And we are here again in the midst of holy, ordinary time,
to sing, pray, worship God, and love one another.
We will ponder, this semester,
“the fruit of the spirit.”
Laid out in Galatians Chapter 5,
and we will encourage our seniors,
to come share the pulpit,
and share with us how
“love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, ²³gentleness, and self-control”
shape their lives.
Or how they might like them to,

This is Paul’s reminder,
that life is Christ can look different,
that things do not have to be the way they have always been.
not because we’re bound to a different set of rules,
but because we are free,
to grow in real and deep love.

The only thing that matters,
he says in verse 6,
is faith working through love.

Our seniors – those who have signed up to speak, and those who haven’t! –
we’ll encourage to take one of these fruits,
or one of the many more we could conjure,
justice, humility, perseverance, etc.
Paul’s list is not meant to be exclusive,
simply instructive.
to take those fruits and run
with whatever they might inspire or evoke in their lives.

But today, I thought,
we’d examine the fruit,
in its context,
We’ve all likely encountered this snippet of scripture, disembodied,
as church banners,
or wall hangings,
“fruit of the month” calendars
or personal prayer guides.
Warm, inviting, positive.
But it’s wedged,
actually amidst some passionate and fascinating discourse.
Those who would suggest that scripture,
or theology is boring,
would do well to read Paul’s letter to the Galatians.
In which he calls his readers fools,
his detractors, dogs,
and suggests that those who advocate the necessity of circumcision,
might consider castration instead. (actually, though.)

But, we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

What is Church?

Posted on December 9, 2019December 12, 2019 by kdn004

Matthew 18:15-20

The story goes.
That a year ago, or so.
On a Sunday not unlike this one,
late in the semester,
A congregation – A church –
gathered at this very time and in this very space,
that was made up entirely,
of the Jansson family,
a small choir,
our student managers,
and a guest preacher.

The details are not all that important,
but suffice it to say that this congregation,
this church,
had hit a rough patch,
and not for the first time.
Pushing the boundaries of Jesus’ assurance,
regarding 2 or 3 being gathered.

I came to interview around that time,
and it wasn’t clear to me then,
that this church was a sustainable enterprise.

Most universities in on the East Coast and Midwest,
were founded by churches,
and most of them held Sunday services,
through most of their history,
but most have similarly abandoned the practice.

I’m glad we did not,

My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?

Posted on October 29, 2019 by kdn004

PSALM 22, Sunday 10/27/19

Have you ever been to an HR training?
Or a leadership development session?
They tell you.
if you are seeking to give someone “Constructive Feedback”
which is HR speak for critique,
they say you’re supposed to make a “compliment sandwich.”
Like, “Eric, three things:
1. great work on the year-end report last week.
2. Your verbal abuse of your deskmates is proving a distraction.
3. I’m loving the office birthday parties you plan.

There are many ways to interpret Psalm 22.
Which seemingly takes a dramatic turn
around verse 25:
Individual and then communal
past and then present.
present and then future.

But I like to think of it as a compliment sandwich for God:
God:

What Should I Do Then?

Posted on October 7, 2019 by kdn004

A Sermon for our Gospel Choir Sunday,
Rooke Chapel Congregation, 10/6/19

1 Corinthians 14: 1-15

Our semester’s theme,
as many of you know by now,
is big questions.
And it’s likely, upon reading our text today from
1 Corinthians,
that you had a few questions of your own,
including, perhaps,
“What is Paul prattling on about?”
And, perhaps also,
“Why would Kurt choose this text?”
And finally, I imagine,
“Can’t we get back to the music?”

To the last of these questions I say, “Yes, very shortly.”
But I do wish to address the first two ever-so-briefly first,
if you’ll allow me.

The Corinthian Church –
which Paul loved, and also probably hated,
had a problem.
Actually, they had a lot of problems.

If God is for us, who is against us?

Posted on September 15, 2019 by kdn004

Romans 8: 26-39
9/8/19, Rooke Chapel, Bucknell University

At first blush,
the answer to today’s question might seem obvious:
If god is for us, who is against us?
No one.
or nothing of consequence anyway.

If the source and summit of the universe,
the fount of love and understanding is for us –
and I believe deeply that God is for us –
What could possibly be against us?

Of course there are those who see resistance
as evidence that we are being truly faithful in a fallen world.
but more prevalent, in my experience is a certain kind of belief that says
everything will be alright in the end.
We’re just passin’ through this life anyway.
God is for us,
and nothing else matters.

But,
suffering exists,
and evil is real,
and bad things happen to good people.
These seem self-evidently true.
Not so many years ago,
I might have needed to defend those statements in certain audiences,
but I rarely do these days.

And the more we try to deny suffering and sin and evil, I think,
the worse it gets for us.

Another week, we’ll take up the problem of evil,
the question, “why do we suffer?”
for which I most assuredly do not have an easy answer.

But for me,
the question, “If god is for us?”
leads in a straight line to the question,
What gives us hope?

What are we here for?

Posted on September 3, 2019September 3, 2019 by kdn004

Rooke Chapel, Bucknell University
Sunday, September 1, 2019

1 Peter 4: 8-11

We gather each week to sing, pray, and build a community,
which attempts to respond to the immense gifts we’ve been given.
We gather each month,
to share bread and wine,
and remember the great feast to which we’ve all been invited.

And we gather this week,
having lost a great light in our community.
Carmen Gillespie – professor of English and founding director of the Griot institute,
was a scholar, teacher, poet, and visionary of the highest order.
And she will be missed desperately.
We hold Carmen’s daughters in the light,
and honor the grief that passes throughout our community when such a great tree falls,
we gather knowing that life is fragile,
and hoping that love is not.
And knowing it can turn to grief when mixed with loss.
And in the meantime, let’s to our work, of loving one another the best we can.
Welcome

As we mentioned last week,
we’re going to try a theme, this semester.
Big questions.
Because, I argue,
it is in sitting with the big questions of our scripture,
our faith, and our lives,
that we (or at least I)
experience God most fully.
Our scriptures are rich with narrative and poetry and questions,
and offer precious few simple, easy answers –
which is both wonderful and frustrating.
But this semester,
we will repose together in the questions.
And as always, I want to hear about your questions:
Both big and small.

Our question today:
“what are we here for?
is the question of purpose,
of calling.
Of vocation.
An old, and unfashionable, and lovely word,
which is drawn from the Latin vocare, voce,
meaning call and voice.

Which always made me wonder,
If God wouldn’t tell me,
over the divine loudspeaker,
what I was meant to be doing.

Who Is My Neighbor?

Posted on August 26, 2019August 27, 2019 by kdn004

Rooke Chapel Congregation, Sunday August 25, 2019.

Luke 10: 25-37

I have chosen for our theme, this semester,
“Big Questions.”
because it is in the asking of life’s biggest questions,
living in the biggest mysteries,
that I experience God most fully.

Our scripture is full of big questions,
And I hope you have some too,
And I want to hear about them.

Though you should know from the outset:
I don’t have a bunch of easy, big answers for you,
it’s I think good to be suspicious of anyone who does.

So we’ll gather this morning and this semester to sit with the questions,
and sing and pray,
and maybe from time to time, get a glimmer of an answer.
And I hope you find this place to be a home for you,
but either way, I want to get to know you,
and if we can help you connect to another community,
that’s what I’m here for too.

You may have noticed,
that two big questions were posed to Jesus in today’s text:
What must I do to inherit eternal life,
and who is my neighbor?
And he responds,
with two questions of his own, a story,
and an injunction: Go and do likewise.
Classic, right?
Couldn’t he have just told us exactly what to do?
But that’s not Jesus’ way.

And I hope it’s the asking of big questions,
that brings you to a place like Bucknell,
Wondering big wonderings is,
in essence,
our job while we are here.
And questions matter, I think,
as much as answers, in our life of faith.

It is, of course, possible to avoid big questions.
Either with our attention jumping,
like Doug the dog from the movie Up,
from one issue to the next: “Forest Fires!”

Lost and Found

Posted on April 1, 2019 by kdn004

Lost and Found
Luke 15: 1-10
3/31/19

As we wade deeper into the season of Lent,
A season set apart for reflection and repentance,
The lectionary puts before us the story of the Prodigal Son –
Which we will save, annually, for parent’s weekend,
For obvious reasons.
And instead ponder those two little parables
About lost sheep and coins,
That pave the prodigal’s way.

I don’t know a lot about shepherding,
I’ll admit.
but it seems to me a poor shepherding choice to abandon 99 sheep,
for the sake of one who was lost.
That’s just bad math.
“Which one of you?”
Jesus’ asked, “wouldn’t do the same?”
None. No one.
Who does that?
His audience probably thought.

I think these parables are meant to make us laugh a little bit.
To ponder to the absurd,
To poke funny at the stodgy Pharisees and scribes.
The lay and professional religious leaders of his day.
as we ponder the ridiculous possibility,
of an all-forgiving God,
an actual all-loving, all-forgiving God.

This pair of parables is but a prelude,
to perhaps Jesus’ most famous –
the story of the Prodigal Son,

Charles Dickens called it the “best short story ever told.”

And so naturally, most weeks,
We skim over the sheep
And the coins.
In favor of those insufferable sons,
With whom it’s a bit more palatable to identify. Continue reading “Lost and Found”