Bringing Darkness to Light

What a joy it was to sit in community at Belmont on Wednesday evening and engage scripture. 

This week's scripture passage is Isaiah 42:1-9 (found below), and it speaks of God's servant as one in whom God delights and whose call is to bring forth justice as a result of God's spirit being placed upon him.

As I initially read this passage and as we discussed it on Wednesday, a couple of questions arose, "Can we apply this passage to Jesus?"  Or, "Is Jesus the servant that Isaiah foresaw?"  To be sure, we see Jesus as one who brings forth justice, and Jesus does seem to tell a lot of people not to talk about him, however, we also know that Jesus was crushed by the principalities and powers and injustice still seems to have plenty of sway in the world.

So, what if we, as people of faith, are the servant that Isaiah describes?  What if it is our job to bring forth justice?  What if it is our job to preach the gospel always and use words when necessary?   What if it is our job to keep pursuing faithful following of the Triune God, even as people try to crush us?  This is one of those times when we gain insight by holding onto a both/and theology, rather than an either/or dichotomy.

Finally, I'm grateful to Allison Connelly, a relatively new UKIRKian, for pointing out the movement in this passage from darkness to light.  God offers Israel, and all God's faithful people, as a light to the nations and calls us to reach out to those who sit in darkness.  Allison wondered aloud what it must be like for those who have sat in darkness for so long to finally be "in the light."  It might be painful at first.  We might need to be patient with those who have sat in dungeons of despair.  Encountering the new things that God is accomplishing might just be overwhelming for some of us, and so we might need some time to adjust our eyes/hearts and minds.

As always, I welcome your thoughts, questions, concerns, insights, etc.

Isaiah 42:1-9

Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
   my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my spirit upon him;
   he will bring forth justice to the nations.
He will not cry or lift up his voice,
   or make it heard in the street;
a bruised reed he will not break,
   and a dimly burning wick he will not quench;
   he will faithfully bring forth justice.
He will not grow faint or be crushed
   until he has established justice in the earth;
   and the coastlands wait for his teaching.

Thus says God, the Lord,
   who created the heavens and stretched them out,
   who spread out the earth and what comes from it,
who gives breath to the people upon it
   and spirit to those who walk in it:
I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness,
   I have taken you by the hand and kept you;
I have given you as a covenant to the people,
   a light to the nations,
   to open the eyes that are blind,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
   from the prison those who sit in darkness.
I am the Lord, that is my name;
   my glory I give to no other,
   nor my praise to idols.
See, the former things have come to pass,
   and new things I now declare;
before they spring forth,
   I tell you of them.

Prayer Stations at Belmont

This week at Belmont, UKIRK tried something a little bit different.  It was a spiritual emphasis week for the entire campus, and all campus ministries were encouraged to host events that connected with the week's theme of Emerge.  We chose to explore that theme through the story of The Prodigal Son, especially the celebration of table fellowship at the end of the story.  We were registered as an official Convocation Credit event, so we had a number of visitor in our midst, and that was wonderful.

At one the stations, the instructions read as such:

1. Take a stickie note and write down names or groups of people you see missing at the Table; people who may be yet to feel welcomed at the Table of Love.
2. Add your stickie note to the cross, and whisper a prayer for all whom you might invite.

Here's what they wrote:

• Those struggling to see God in their lives
• People with big questions
• For all afraid to put their trust in God
• Those lost in the struggles of addiction
• For people who don't feel like they are "perfect" or "fit in"
• outcasts
• those who haven't been brought up in Christian homes
• those who have doubts
• Those struggling with belief
• LGBTQ
• The forgotten
• People who are lost, alone, or confused
• The broken-hearted
• Nancy
• Atheists and Terrorists
• Those battling addiction
• People who suffered loss on 9/11
• Kyle, Daniel, Atthar
• Roommate
• Refugees in America
• Friends who don't know the Lord
• Those who feel hopeless and lost

Lord, in your mercy...
...Hear our prayers

People who love UKIRK Nashville

Over the past few days, I've spent a good amount of time with people who love UKIRK Nashville.  On Saturday, our non-profit board members gathered to explore how they can better equip our ministry through fundraising and friendraising.  We were all encouraged to come up with a 30 second "elevator speech" about how great UKIRK is that we can share with anybody and everybody.  I'm still tweaking mine, but here's a first crack:

UKIRK Nashville is a safe space for students to explore their faith and discern how to incorporate faith into their daily lives. As a ministry, we invite students into a lifelong journey of following Jesus Christ.  Through worship, Bible study, fellowship and service, we encourage students to live according to the values of the kingdom of God as we see it lived out and proclaimed by God incarnate in Jesus Christ.  I’m convinced that UKIRK Nashville makes a deep and lasting impact on the faith journeys of students.

I'm looking forward to sharing these at our next board meeting.

Then, on Monday, our student council met at my house to dream big about the coming year at Vanderbilt and Belmont.  It really is amazing to watch students get excited about this ministry.  The energy that filled the room as we talked about worship, Bible study, service, fellowship, and hospitality was exhilarating.  These students are energized to ENGAGE (our theme for the year) their faith with body, mind, soul, and strength. 

As the year kicks into gear, we ask for your prayers and your ongoing presence with us a ministry.  Come join us for worship on a Tuesday at 6:00 pm at St. A's on the Vanderbilt campus or on a Wednesday at 6:30 pm at University Ministries on the Belmont campus.

Student Reflection: Jessie Light

Here are words offered by Jessie Light at the 824 breakfast at the beginning of April.

Saying I would be a different person if not for PSF is not only true, it's an understatement.  As a senior with less than a month left at Vanderbilt, my life would look a whole lot different without this ministry.  To begin with, without PSF, I wouldn't even be here.  I wouldn't be at Vanderbilt.  When I met Jennifer Fouse for the first time at Montreat Youth Conference as a rising Sophomore in high school, it was the first time I'd ever heard of Vanderbilt, but I was SOLD on coming here.  Besides my major and the location of the school, PSF is the reason that I came to Vanderbilt.  Knowing that there would be a strong and welcoming Christian community waiting for my arrival was all I really wanted. Without PSF, I wouldn't be heading in the direction I am because I wouldn't have received as many empowering leadership opportunities and moment of affirmation, and I wouldn't have had so many incredible experiences in which I have discerned that sometime in the near future, seminary is where I want to be.  Without PSF, I would be lacking in a home away from home, in a support system that I cherish and rely upon, and in so many priceless and life-changing relationships.

When I think about who I was four years ago and who I am now, I can't help but identify PSF as the source of so much of the positive growth I have undergone.  Two mission trips to Guatemala pushed me way outside of my comfort zone, exposed me to a world beyond my own, and made me passionate about traveling and experiential learning.  Multiple leadership positions have given me the chance to practice and develop both task-oriented and interpersonal skills.  Most of all, I have had this place and this community as a refuge and a safe place to process everything that has happened during this crazy and wonderful time in my life.

This ministry is invaluable.  Though we balance budgets and manage spreadsheets and host fundraisers, no dollar amount can be put on the impact that PSF has on people's lives.

Looking forward, despite the fact that I won't be involved in the day-to-day life of PSF, I see so many opportunities for this ministry to grow.  A new official partnership with Belmont (which has been in the works for a very long time) doubles the pool of potential students to reach out to- students who would add (and are already adding) new color and energy to this community.  I can't help but be excited about the many students younger than me who are filled with just as much passion as I am about this ministry, and who will do incredible things in leading this group into new realms.

I look to each of you today with gratitude.  Because of you, and people like you, who have given so willingly and freely of your time, energy, and resources, I've been shaped and molded, supported and loved, by an irreplaceable community.  This place exemplifies an open table.  So many have come hungry or lost, many more have come confident and faithful.  The time we have spent together and will continue to spend together, sharing bread and cup, has filled and will continue to fill us up and change us for good.

A season of transitions

A season of transitions is upon us. 

God's beautiful creation is transitioning from the cool days of winter to the warm days of spring.  In the past few days, we have seen hot, sunny, almost summer-like days, and as I type this, rain is steadily falling, as is the temperature outside. 

Students at all levels of education are marking the transition from one year of schooling to the next by taking exams, writing papers, and making sure they're registered for next year.

Students and families are transitioning from the rigorous schedule of the academic year to the somewhat more laid back schedule of "summer."  Instead of rising early each and every day, people may sleep later and enjoy leisure time.  Or, as my mother used to say on our last day of school, "Well, I guess my vacation is over."

For many young adults across the world, this is a time of major transition as they prepare to graduate from high school or college or graduate school.  They are stepping out of comfort zones and known routines to face new realities and maybe even uncertain futures.  These transitions can be the most frightening and the most exhilarating.

Last night at PSF we celebrated another year of shared community.  A big thanks goes out to Decker Chaney for hosting us in her home and for putting together a wonderful slideshow of pictures featuring our graduating seniors.  Last night was a beautiful night, and I will testify to the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit in our midst.  The energy in Decker's home was palpable as students, staff, board members, and friends of PSF all gathered to share table fellowship and honor our graduating seniors.  Letters from parents were read.  We laid our hands on the seniors.  Prayers were spoken.  Photos were taken.  And, when all the official festivities were over, we all stood in the front yard and basked in the glow of Christ's presence among us.  I witnessed meaningful embraces between friends, deep joy-filled laughter, somewhat sorrowful "see you soon"s, and a reluctance by anyone to be the first to leave.  Without having to name it aloud, I think everyone there knew we were experiencing a mountaintop moment, right there on Decker's front lawn.

A season of transitions is upon us.  PSF will soon become UKIRK.  Rooted will give way to Engage.  Seniors will set out to make a difference in the world.  New leaders will rise as a result of encouragement and guidance from those seniors who are moving on.  Summer jobs and internships will begin.  Other summer opportunities will blossom.  And, before we know it, we will be gathered together again as a community called forth by Christ to worship and share table fellowship.

Two passages from Isaiah seem to capture this season of transition quite well:

Isaiah 43:19-21 
¹⁹ Look! I’m doing a new thing; now it sprouts up; don’t you recognize it? I’m making a way in the desert, paths in the wilderness. 
²⁰ The beasts of the field, the jackals and ostriches, will honor me, because I have put water in the desert and streams in the wilderness to give water to my people, my chosen ones,²¹ this people whom I formed for myself, who will recount my praise.

Isaiah 55:8-12 
⁸ My plans aren’t your plans, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD .⁹ Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my plans than your plans. ¹⁰ Just as the rain and the snow come down from the sky and don’t return there without watering the earth, making it conceive and yield plants and providing seed to the sower and food to the eater, ¹¹ so is my word that comes from my mouth; it does not return to me empty.Instead, it does what I want, and accomplishes what I intend. 
¹² Yes, you will go out with celebration, and you will be brought back in peace. Even the mountains and the hills will burst into song before you; all the trees of the field will clap their hands.

 

They Just Know

It’s hard to believe that another school year is almost over.  As cherry blossoms burst forth in all their glory, and tulips blanket the landscape, I can’t help but think that this year’s theme of Rooted has come full circle.  Throughout the dreary, rainy, cold winter months, we sometimes forget about the beautiful colors and warm days of spring, and yet throughout that time, seeds were in the ground, taking root so that lovely spring time flowers might blossom.  During those dark days, trees of various shapes and sizes relied on their roots to hold them steady and to give them the nutrients that need for dazzling displays of color come April.  I remember asking my Dad once how the trees know how to blossom all at the same time.  “They just know,” he said.  How zen of Michael Bancroft.  In light of our theme, I’d like to offer up that “they just know” because they are deeply rooted and that some level, their rootedness in the earth connects them in a way that is deeper than any of our human understanding.  To borrow a phrase from C.S. Lewis, the trees are rooted in a “magic deeper than time.”

This entire year we have been rooting ourselves in the gospel of Matthew and all it has to tell us about God’s special revelation to us in the incarnation of Jesus Christ.  This week in worship we will hear Jesus’ challenge to “go therefore, and make disciples” and we will also explore Ephesians 3:14-21 in which we are challenged to root and ground ourselves in love.  Just as ancient trees survive and thrive and offer a pageantry of colors for the enjoyment of all creation, so we are called to root deeply in God’s abiding love so that we might survive, thrive, and offer a vision of God’s beautiful love to the world.

Matthew 28:16-20
16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. ¹⁷When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. ¹⁸And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’

Ephesians 3:14-21
14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, ¹⁵from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. ¹⁶I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, ¹⁷and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. ¹⁸I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, ²¹to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever. Amen.  

UKIRK Video

Check out this great PSF/UKIRK Video.

Many thanks to Jessie Light who produced the video, and all the students who were willing to sit down and tell us what PSF/UKIRK means to them.  Check back over the next week or so to read testimonials offered by our students at our 824 Breakfast.