God-Spotting
Encounters with the Unknown God
Dear Friends,
Ah, the odd Wednesday dispatch. That means it’s been a busy time in one fashion or another – this time because I was in West Virginia for a long weekend of Godly Play training with their Seeds of Faith program. It was such a joy and also I’m tired and behind on a dozen things, which is par for the course. But as such, here I am on a Wednesday.
I’m glad to be home, certainly, but as I think about this Sunday’s lectionary, I find myself thinking about the various places my work takes me, specifically in light of the reading from Acts, which has long been among my favorites. We get to hear the radically converted Paul’s admiration for the complex faithfulness the Athenians, saying to them, “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’”
Getting to know new places (this was my third time in West Virginia, the second for this grant project; earlier this year were my furthest trips west - to Denver and then San Francisco) is a way of getting to know the God Paul proclaims in unknown-to-me ways. In local lore and parish stories, in turns of phrase and flora and fauna and most of all in the people that God has planted and sent to those particular places. I may be a homebody at heart, but if I’m going to go places, this is how I want to be doing it.
A God For All Places
Usually when I read this excerpt from Paul, I haven’t just told the Godly Play Great Family story. It’s a spring lectionary selection and that’s usually a fall story (at least as program planning goes), but because I’m coming off a training, the Great Family is right at hand.
What Paul observes to the Athenians is that this God they can’t seem to know in fact made them and the whole earth and does not live in man-made shrines, which is at least part of the question at the heart of the Great Family: is there one God in all times and all places or is there a God that is contained and particular?
The lessons of the Great Family include encountering the God of all things in new places and ways, in strangers and unlikely promises. From Abraham and Sarah to Paul and the Athenians, our search does not necessarily change terribly much. And maybe being reminded about the desire to better know God that is at the heart of building a shrine to an unknown God is useful to all of us.
When we talk about children’s spirituality in Godly Play, we note that children know about God but may not have language for what they know. But of course, sometimes grown-ups don’t have words either or sometimes we all just want something other than words. Thinking about this unknown God made me think about this simple “prayer frame” project.
The musician Semler, an Episcopal PK, sells merch that says “God is other people” and this is part of the wisdom - for us and for children – that can help us move from “an unknown God” to a God we can see, in the same way we can come close to God in flowers and birds and paintings and pepperoni rolls (thank you, West Virginia). I grew up seeing God in stained glass shafts of light and by walking through corn and picking fresh raspberries. The trick is remembering to capture those fleeting experiences, creating tools as simple as a prayer lens of sorts for spotting God through – and giving thanks when we remember.
Resource Round-Up
Summer is when I lean into intergenerational connection. Not necessarily in ways I name out loud, but rather in the way I plan, especially a few years into my current role. As a you think more about your summer offerings, I want to point you towards the new Hallmarks of Intergenerational Worship Toolkit. You may remember the hallmarks themselves from earlier roundups; this iteration will help you assess where your community is and think about where you’re going.
It’s a tight turnaround, but if you’re free this afternoon, Forma is hosting our Spotlight On conversation focused on programming with neurodivergence in mind and I’ll be co-facilitating. Bring resources to share and questions to ask! (This is me saying: there’s a lot of good in Forma membership - stuff like this! - and it’s very affordable!)
Did you see Be A Heart’s new Saint Francis puzzle?! I adore their puzzles and this one is so extra charming –
I’m so exciting about this announcement from L’Arche USA that they’ve received a storytelling grant from the Lilly Foundation for a project that will strengthen the connections between faith and disability communities, explore the faith experiences of folks with and without IDD, and model innovative approaches to storytelling, and much more.
After acquiring one of the Be A Heart crinkle books recently, I said that you so rarely see either those or bath books anymore – and now I’ve spotted this Jesus the Miracle Worker bath book! The shop itself seems a little weird, but nonetheless, I’m not looking a gift horse in the mouth.
Be back properly on Tuesday next week.
Until then - Peace,
Bird