Fish Out of Water - This Kind Old Lady Embraced by Love

On Friday night I walked into the foyer of Pope Chapel to find it filled with students, none of whom I knew.  Music pulsed from behind the closed inner doors to the chapel, providing a soundtrack to the low roar of chatter and laughter filling the room.  It was all so loud.  An introvert's nightmare.  I had arrived a few minutes later than planned because I had to park further away than expected.  A lot happening at CNU on a Friday night.  I made my way to the ladies room.  After the drive down from Williamsburg, I needed a pit stop, plus it was a good place to hide for a few minutes and prepare myself to walk up to strangers.  As often as I'm up in front of people, it still surprises me how shy I am in a room full of people I don't know.

When I emerged from the bathroom, I saw that the doors to the chapel had been opened and most of the students had gone inside.  It was time to go to Thrive.  I've been invited many times, but this was the first time I've been able to attend.  Thrive seeks to unite all the campus ministries at CNU in a monthly worship service.  I went in to the chapel where a band was playing on the stage and perhaps a hundred people were singing.  Tylor was on the keyboard - he was the first student to talk to me when I started the prayer station.  Anderson was playing violin.  He's the one whom I wrote about in this post.  Violin Guy, who sometimes serenades the campus with his music from the balcony of the Administration Building.  I really enjoyed how his playing enhanced the music.  In addition to Tylor and Anderson there were people on acoustic and electric guitars, singers, and a drummer.  They were really good!  Even though I didn't know a single song, I appreciated the passion and skill with which they played.

I have to admit, I was a fish out of water.  I am a cradle Episcopalian, and I am used to hymns accompanied by an organ, prayers read out of a book, and very structured worship.  Walking into Thrive felt like I was attending a rock concert for God.  I could see the appeal.  Most of the faces I saw radiated with joy.  Students danced in the aisles.  Voices were raised in praise and worship as everyone sang with the band.  In the foyer art supplies were available for those who wanted to worship through art.  Luke, the young man who started Thrive when he felt God calling him to bring the ministries together to worship, led everyone in prayer and invited people to pray in whatever way they felt God calling them.  Occasionally I saw students sitting near each other, bent over, clearly praying for one another.  The message of the night was clearly about how much God loves us and how we do not need to fear.

One song was so upbeat and joyful that people were jumping up and down to the rhythm, and in another that talked about running into Christ's embrace, students ran around the perimeter of the chapel almost like a Conga line but faster.  It reminded me of how I used to dance around the edges of the room at fraternity parties in college, caught up in the joy of the music and the movement and the release of stress and tension. 

I stood in the back for the first half and was able to greet Luke and some others whom I've met either at the prayer station or around campus.  Several students introduced themselves and said they had seen me but hadn't come up to the prayer station yet.  At one point the band stopped playing and we were invited to find another person and pray together.  My friend from the admissions office who shines with the light of Christ came back from where she had been sitting in the front.  It was delightful to see her and to hear about the happenings at her church.  She invited me to come sit with her on the 2nd row, so I did.  Shortly after I joined her, Tylor invited us all into a time of silence.  At last, something that was familiar to me!  I thanked God for all these young people who may worship differently than I do but who are choosing to spend a Friday evening in college praising God. 

Toward the end of the evening, a little over two hours in, Luke invited me to come up on the stage.  He told the crowd that I was the Episcopal Campus Minister and that I'm the one who sits at the prayer station.  They cheered.  He said, "This kind old lady sits and prays with students on our campus."  (Ouch!  There goes my delusion of hipness.)  He expressed how much he values the prayer ministry.  He quoted Corinthians and talked about how we're all part of the body of Christ.  And then he asked them to sign some pieces of paper that were put on tables at the edges of the room to say that they wanted me to continue my ministry at CNU.  "We need her on our campus," he said.

You see, the students learned last week what I have known for a couple of months - this is my last semester as the Episcopal Chaplain to CNU.  The diocese is interested in funding new models of campus ministry, and so the money for my position will only be available through June of this year. 

When Luke invited those attending Thrive to sign the papers in support of me, everyone got up and moved into line at the tables.  Tears crept into my eyes.  92 people signed.  Luke had written "We love Lauren" at the top of two of the pages.  Humbled does not begin to express how I felt.  Students came up and hugged me, and my friend from Admissions was the first to sign on one of the sheets of paper. 

At about 10:45 I found Luke and said that the "kind old lady" was turning into a pumpkin.  He told me they were on their last song, but I found that a Thrive song is kind of like time in a basketball game.  It may say 3 minutes on the clock, but those 3 minutes can take an hour.  When the Spirit moves, you gotta keep singing!  I still needed to drive back to Williamsburg, and I wanted to absorb all that I had experienced. 

I love the way we worship in the Episcopal Church, and nothing fills me with greater joy than the great honor and privilege of celebrating the Eucharist.  But I'm glad for the opportunity to worship in a more evangelical way, to experience how another part of the body of Christ expresses their love of God.  They were singing and dancing before the Lord, like David.  Many of the songs were based on Psalms, and several Psalms were read out loud.  In Morning Prayer we say the Venite, Psalm 95:   
Come, let us sing to the Lord; *
   let us shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving *
   and raise a loud shout to him with psalms. 
That's what Thrive was doing, singing to the Lord, shouting for joy to the Rock of our salvation.

This kind old lady is grateful to Luke for inviting me and having the idea for a petition in support of my ministry, to the band for their wonderful music, to all those who embraced me and spoke to me, and to God, for another lesson that we have been created in infinite and glorious variety, and our worship reflects the diversity of our creation.  

Small Humans, Big Difference

When I was in college at Sewanee I often got stressed out over tests and papers and plays.  Adding the angst of relationships, sorority drama, and the general difficulties of being a young adult, I could get quite overwhelmed.  One of my strategies for dealing with the stress was to walk out to the dairy.  It sat on a hill near a couple of trees, and at that time there were no lights around it at all.  I would stand in the road listening to the snuffling of the horses in the field nearby and stare up at the sky.  So. Many. Stars.  I could see the Milky Way clearly and pick out the stars and planets I had learned to name in my Astronomy class.  I have heard people say that when they look up at the vast expanse of space they feel insignificant and disoriented.  That's what I loved about it.  Feeling insignificant.  I would remind myself that I was one small human on one small world in one small galaxy in the whole universe, and suddenly whatever I was worried about just didn't seem quite as overwhelming.  I would spin around in circles while looking at the stars until I got dizzy and fell down laughing.  It was almost as if the spinning shook up my brain and reorganized it so that worry was no longer at the forefront.  Recognizing my insignificance has always been good for my ego and my compulsive worrying.  I'm just not that important in the scheme of the universe.  And that's okay. 

On the other hand, sometimes we can get to feeling so insignificant and powerless to have any affect on the principalities and powers and systems of the world that we can lose hope and give up trying to make a change.  On those days we may need a sign that even as insignificant as one individual is, our presence on the planet makes ripples that extend far beyond the tiny ponds we inhabit.

Today I sat inside the rotunda of the student union at the prayer station.  At one point I got up to take a picture from across the floor.  The sign and chairs looked so small in the rotunda area.  A little spot of peace and comfort on the edge of a room on the first floor of a building in the middle of a campus.  What difference could it possibly make?  And yet it has.  I get credit for showing up.  But God gets credit for making a difference.  Several new people walked by the station today, read the sign, paused, and then came back to ask for prayers.  Probably 50 people walked by and smiled or waved.  More walked by and read the sign and kept moving, but I could see something clicking inside their brains.  Regulars stopped by to check in and share a hug.  I even got to see the Humans of CNU guy again! 

There are many religious groups on this campus, most of them more extroverted and evangelical than we are.  One of them is called Thrive, started by a young friend of mine named Luke.  He has a vision of unity among Christians.  One of the main purposes of Thrive is to gather all the Christian campus ministries at CNU to worship together once a month.  Hundreds of students attend their events, and they have made a huge impact on the campus.  That's one way.  How I've connected with Thrive is through the prayer station.  Some of their leadership members come and sit and chat with me and ask for prayers.  Although I have been unable to attend a Thrive event so far, I have enjoyed my connection with these bold students who are on fire for the Gospel, and I'm looking forward to their event tomorrow night.  The prayer station is a much quieter expression of the Gospel than Thrive, but it has also had an impact on hundreds of students.  One by one.

How grateful I am for the body of Christ, infinite in its variety, each part with its own gifts, all contributing to the whole.  How grateful I am that we, merely human beings, can make a big difference with small acts.  How grateful I am that even a tiny prayer station can offer something that strengthens, encourages, and uplifts those who stop by.  God loves all God has created, small and large, in incredible diversity, each one of us and all that is around us.  Thanks be to God!

CNU - Share the Love

Today's sermon - about the Plaza Drama a week and a half ago at CNU.  You can read more about the event in the Captain's Log here.

 "Share the Love"

The Rev. Lauren McDonald

Mark 9:38-50

Every Thursday between 12 and 2, I carry two chairs and a sandwich board sign into the Plaza at CNU between the Trible Library and the David Student Union.  My sign says, “How may I pray for you?  Prayers, blessings and conversation.  No strings attached.”  This is the second year that I’ve offered this ministry, and I’ve had the great privilege to talk with students, staff, and faculty who have stopped by with prayer requests or just to chat.  Many times I get to talk with students who are Christian but not Episcopalian, who are part of other campus ministries and who want to talk about faith and Christ or to ask for a prayer but who aren’t looking to join another group.

A week ago during my time at the Plaza Prayer Station, I heard from several students and staff members about an event that had taken place the day before.  On Tuesday night of that week, the entire CNU community received a notice from the Dean of students saying that a street evangelist was going to be in the Plaza during lunch the next day.  Apparently he had been there before, and I was told that there had been some heated exchanges as he told students to repent of their sins lest they find themselves spending eternity in flames.  This time he reserved the Plaza for his preaching, and the dean explained that he was exercising his First Amendment right to free speech.

What happened next is that CNU’s LGBTQ- alliance organization, Spectrum, decided to sponsor a “Share the Love” event that would take place at the same time as the preacher.  Their goal was to talk to students about love and acceptance and to make their presence known.  They respected the open air preacher’s right to speak and peacefully gathered nearby with rainbow flags and signs that said, “Free hugs” and “Carry the Love.”

Thrive is another organization that showed up that Wednesday.  They are a campus ministry group that seeks to unite all the campus ministries.  They sponsor a large worship gathering one Friday evening a month.  Several of their members come talk to me at the prayer station and have participated in our Campus Blessing of the Semester.  They decided to partner with Spectrum in order to share the love that they believe God has for everyone. 

So let me recount who was there.  A street preacher who was preaching about sin and the need to be saved, Spectrum, the LGBTQ group who wanted to share the love, and Thrive, a campus ministry group who wanted to tell everyone gathered that Jesus died for them and that God loved them.  And then there were a whole lot of other students who showed up to see what would happen.  Some came because they were part of one group or another.  Some came because they were curious about what would happen or because they wanted to engage with one of the groups.  Some came because they were expecting, maybe even hoping, to see some sort of a confrontation or show down.

What happened was a peaceful gathering of groups who ordinarily would not coexist in the same space.  Everyone’s rights were respected.  The preacher preached.  The Spectrum students hugged people and carried banners and flags.  The Thrive people brought guitars and led the whole group in worship songs when the preacher took a break.  The CNU newspaper interviewed all parties and did an article and TV segment on the event.  There were some police at the edge of the Plaza, but they didn’t need to do anything because of the peaceful nature of the proceedings. 

Which of these groups was speaking in Jesus’ name?   

Which of these groups was putting a stumbling block in front of others? 

I’m not going to answer those questions. 

I’ve shared this story because of the way it ties in to our Gospel today.  The disciples have witnessed a healer who is not part of their group casting out demons in Jesus’ name.  When they complain to Jesus – like one sibling telling on another – “Dad, make him stop, he’s not one of us,” Jesus tells them not to worry about it.  Whoever is not against us is for us.

In this passage Jesus seems to have an eye on what the man has done – he has successfully cast out demons in Jesus’ name.  The fact that the man has been a catalyst for wholeness and healing is more important than whether he’s hanging out with Jesus and the disciples.  I might argue that there are some who use Jesus’ name to put stumbling blocks in front of others rather than to work for wholeness and healing.  But I think that Jesus would call me out, too, for judging my neighbor.  

Jesus doesn’t seem to want us to focus on what our neighbor is or is not doing or whether this group or that group is doing something the way we think they should do it.  He seems instead to be asking us to focus on ourselves - what we need to do to serve others and what we need to do to keep from putting stumbling blocks in the way of others.  How are we going to contribute to the healing and wholeness of the world?  How are we going to participate in God’s mission to reconcile the world to God’s self?  It’s so much easier to focus on what that one over there is doing than to focus on what we need to be doing.

What makes me proud of the CNU students is how the different groups assembled peacefully and promoted a message of love.  They didn’t all agree with each other, but they did respect each other, and they did, in fact, share the love.  I understand that the street preacher’s message became more positive under the influence of the students’ message.

In this passage I hear Jesus calling us to self-examination.  Looking at where we are contributing to healing and wholeness in the world as well as looking at where we are putting up stumbling blocks. 

This week I have also heard Pope Francis calling our country to that self-examination – to look at ways we need to work together to share the love of God with those in need.  There are so many ways we can offer a cup of water in the name of Christ.  So many ways we can tear down the barriers between us.  So many ways we can contribute to the healing and wholeness of the world.