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Text of the page (random words):
ely gulp down massive quantities of water means that she frequently puddles on my otherwise carefully kept carpets and her anxious climbing of furniture to watch at the windows means we ve taken to storing odd bits of furniture on the sofas at times my compassion wears thin i understand that these bad behaviors come from the deprivations of food and water and the multiple abandonments this poor creature has endured but what will it take to convince her little doggie self that she is safe with us trauma has a way of destroying a good relationship before it gets deep enough to bring about its healing potential oddly enough i see a similar dynamic at work in the samaritan woman s encounter with jesus in john 4 5 42 we can only guess at the ethnic social and relational trauma that lay behind her awkward responses to jesus but the signs are all there at one moment avoidant and the next assertive and accusatory the woman seemed to do all within her power to hijack what bore the potential of becoming a healing relationship and yet for one with eyes to see and ears to hear underneath her odd barrage of questions and claims unfolds this cowering creature s backstory racism are you greater than our ancestor jacob our ancestors worshiped on this mountain but you jews say that the place where people must worship is in jerusalem misogyny how is it that you a jew ask a drink of me a woman of samaria abandonment i have no husband deprivation sir give me this water so that i may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water shame who treks to the well in the heat of the day jesus answered her if you knew the gift of god and who it is that asks you for a drink you would have asked him and he would have given you living water everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again but whoever drinks the water i give them will never thirst indeed the water i give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life jesus the one who came to reconcile us to the father romans 5 1 11 recognized the festering wounds that hindered this woman from healthy relating and graciously absorbed her blows placing himself at her mercy with a request for something to drink the son of god approached in the most nonthreatening way possible he answered her defensive questions with statements of his own gently inviting her into the sort of safe relationship with himself that could begin to address her true deepest needs to her obsession with wells and water he responded with an invitation to ask for living water to her hang up over the exclusivity of temple worship he responded with a promise of spirit infused worship that could take place wherever and whoever she was and to her hunger for belonging that had led to repeatedly sell herself short in her relationships with men he responded with an invitation into relationship with himself the one who had left the ninety nine insiders to come after this beloved stray like nicodemus the well educated gentleman who came to jesus by night this marginalized woman whom he met at midday found it difficult to understand the things he was saying truth be told i join these intelligent seekers in sometimes getting hung up on the surface level meaning of his words i stumble over comments like being born of the spirit and asking for living water that somehow becomes a self perpetuating well which overflows into eternal life perhaps part of the reason we struggle with these teachings is that we like nicodemus and the samaritan woman lack the spirit of truth who alone can open the intellect of our hearts to perceive them as jesus explained god is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth believe me a time is coming when you will worship the father neither on this mountain nor in jerusalem yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the father in the spirit and in truth for they are the kind of worshipers the father seeks how can we relate to god the eternal spiritual being from minds and bodies that are still not fully formed in their spiritual nature the longer i sit with jesus words the more i conclude that we are incomplete still in the process of being created what we lack is what jesus came to offer the holy and life giving spirit without this spirit we are functioning in a two dimensional world incapable of perceiving spiritual reality and incapacitated in our human relating it is as if we need a new switch to be installed a new lens to look through a new life to inhabit our flat reasoning and fleshy frame this is the gift jesus comes to offer each one of us he shows up at our wells the dry places we compulsively return to out of the neurotic hope we will be able to extract some drop of satisfaction to keep us going in life we cry out with frustration and despair wondering why he doesn t make our vain efforts work why he hides his face when in fact we are looking in the wrong direction we anxiously chase after satisfaction through food and drink security through money and position love through accomplishment and success but these are shoddy stand ins for the one who offers us life and that abundantly that life is the holy spirit who takes god s love and pours it into our hearts until they are so full that they can t contain it all the spirit meets us at our places of deepest wounding and of greatest longing offering the spirit s own self as the satisfaction that we seek perhaps this is what jesus himself spoke of when he told his surprised disciples that he had food to eat that they did not know about living water spiritual food these are the elements we gather around and partake of not as lifeless rituals but as spirit infused realities they are material means through which we relate with the spirit of god taking his life into our own bodies so that we may be renewed but the sacrament extends beyond this holy space inviting us to go out into the world as earthen vessels filled with the transformative power of the holy spirit wherever and whoever we are we bear the holy spirit in our mortal frames making it safe for us to proclaim to those around us come and meet the one who introduced me to myself come and meet the one who is loving me into goodness originally presented as a sermon at christ church georgetown on sunday march 12 2023 share this share on x opens in new window x share on facebook opens in new window facebook share on pinterest opens in new window pinterest email a link to a friend opens in new window email like loading abuse gospel healing holy spirit lent loved into goodness sacrament safety shame trauma defining metanarratives identity relationships spiritual formation polarization and the root of our identity wars september 24 2021 tiffany clark 4 comments my children joke that every few years i go through an identity crisis they aren t completely wrong the upheaval of each international move followed by a change in role and community does give rise to a certain identity angst and its accompanying quest for belonging decisions over how to dress and what labels to use in introducing myself give rise to the deeper questions of who i am from where i derive my value and with whom i belong without the taproot of a secure connection to god we are unable to relate securely with each other the more i look around i suspect our society is in the midst of an identity crisis whether this crisis is the inevitable aftermath of soul denying modernism or the product of media induced hyper connectivity at the cost of local community the signs are obvious we are scrambling to stake out who we are what matters to us and with which tribe we belong issues such as our opinions on health practices racial narratives and political parties suddenly define us more than where we live to whom we are related or to whom we belong interestingly it is not enough for us to simply know these things about ourselves we feel compelled to make sure that everyone else knows them about us and while we are at it that everyone associated with us identifies themselves in the same way yet our fierce insistence on our labels only reveals how deeply insecure we really are but what is making us insecure why is this new form of tribalism suddenly so urgent that it would transcend our former relationships and suck us in to virtual position wars while recently working with a cohort of christian leaders in nigeria we identified displacement loss of livelihood and loss of cultural or religious identity as threats that give rise to oppositional identity this posture of my identity at others expense comes from fear of scarcity or loss and leads to distrust division hostility and eventually violence it doesn t take much to see the similarity between ethnic conflicts in nigeria and tribal polarization in america we erect media barriers dig positional trenches and lob slander grenades to preserve an identity that we feel is under threat praise be to the god and father of our lord jesus christ who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in christ for he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight in love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through jesus christ in accordance with his pleasure and will i wonder however if the real threat is from within we don t know who we are what gives us value and to whom we belong our identity dysphoria leads us to lash out at anyone whose difference exposes our inner insecurity untethered from any deeper sense of meaning value or belonging we frantically lash ourselves to those labels and groups which provide the illusion of a stable identity and community his purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two thus making peace and in one body to reconcile both of them to god through the cross by which he put to death their hostility he came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near for through him we both have access to the father by one spirit consequently you are no longer foreigners and strangers but fellow citizens with god s people and also members of his household built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with christ jesus himself as the chief cornerstone the human need for a secure identity is primal knowing who we are forms the foundation for interpersonal relationships and social functioning years ago i took a seminary class on the book of ephesians while at the same time discipling a group of south asian women who were new believers in christ they had left behind their former cultural religious narrative and needed a new sense of history belonging and purpose my professor emphasized the major theme of identity in ephesians pointing out paul s agenda to root pagan background greek christians in a narrative that would hold them together with their jewish christian counterparts that shed new light on paul s labelling them as god s holy people in ephesus his retelling of the story of their adoption inclusion and eternal purpose his prayer for them to be rooted and established together in love and his instructions on how to live in community this was just the sort of identity formation my south asian sisters needed they needed a taproot of secure connection to god and each other if they were to flourish for this reason i kneel before the father from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name i pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being so that christ may dwell in your hearts through faith and i pray that you being rooted and established in love may have power together with all the lord s holy people to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of christ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of god perhaps the same could be said of us without the taproot of a secure connection to god we are unable to relate securely with each other we need his direct steady affirmation of love for us we need to know who we are in his eyes and what we are in his telling of our story this comes as we sit long in his presence consume a steady diet of his media and imbibe deeply of his spirit deepened intimacy with god produces a security within ourselves that will in turn enable greater elasticity in our engagement with others far from encountering difference as a form of threat we will experience it as an opportunity to learn and grow as i have learned through my many life transitions identity crises present a beautiful opportunity to return to our source and deepen our roots in his love the questions they raise can lift our eyes to the grand narrative from which we derive our meaning and in which we currently participate if we know who we are from where we draw our value and to whom we belong we can be open to those around us able to receive the gifts and absorb the shocks that come through our interactions far from encountering difference as a form of threat we will experience it as an opportunity to learn and grow i urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received be completely humble and gentle be patient bearing with one another in love make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace there is one body and one spirit just as you were called to one hope when you were called one lord one faith one baptism one god and father of all who is over all and through all and in all but to each one of us grace has been given as christ apportioned it in 2021 our tribalism is competing with our identity in christ threatening to transcend the unity we share as his church among the saints at ephesus just as in the church of our day one lord one faith one baptism does not negate our differences rather it encompasses them tethering us all to a shared center this is the holy common ground on which we take our stand until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the son of god and become mature attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of christ ephesians 1 3 5 2 18 20 3 14 18 4 1 7 4 13 share this share on x opens in new window x share on facebook opens in new window facebook share on pinterest opens in new window pinterest email a link to a friend opens in new window email like loading attachment belonging belovedness church community ephesians identity crisis identity formation intimacy labelling oppositional identity polarization relationship leadership spiritual formation weak humans safe leaders our need for ongoing nurture of the soul june 7 2021 tiffany clark 2 comments good leadership is a big ask it entails unravelling intricate relational knots settling ruffled emotions overseeing controversial decisions and guiding others forward through trying circumstances all while experiencing them ourselves we hold ideals for what our leadership should look like participatory humble wise meeting people where t...