Jesus Love Club

Are you a member of any groups or clubs? The orchestra, bridge club, robots? All very royal, I'm sure. I bet your club is like many others in that it has rules. Rules on who can be a member, who can be a leader. Rules that govern your actions as a participant in club activities. 

Let's think back to our imaginary, High School Jesus and consider the kind of club he would start up. 

First up, the activities. Well, besides miracle working, which of  course would be activity numero uno. 

We think Jesus would start up an eating club. He was always, "Let's eat! Anybody got some fish?" In fact, the disciples didn't recognize Jesus post-resurrection until he suggested sitting down to a meal together. Besides breaking bread together, the eating club would serve as a jumping off point for activities out in the world such as community services, walks in the woods, and perhaps even protests. We could also imagine the club being a place to tell stories and be a place for active puzzling.

Next, what would be the rules of initiation into club?

An idea was offered to have a riddle be a rite of passage, but this felt a bit arbitrary, especially for those that did not have a working knowledge of average air speed velocities of unladen swallows. 

We think that everyone would be welcome, but club membership would be require you to leave your frustration at the door. This would not be a club where everyone would conform to the rules, but rather a place to expand boundaries. We wanted a place where there were not many rules, save that members would be willing to hold each other accountable to being our best selves.

Back in Biblical Jesus's day, religions leaders enforced numerous rules for their followers. Take a look at last week's gospel reading: full of rules. The cool thing about Jesus is that he didn't have much use for the rules and he always had a knack for turning them on their head. Bishop Keith visited today and had some things to say about this very topic. Check it: when everyone was saying love your neighbors and hate your enemies, Jesus said love your enemies.

Puzzle on that for a while and let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Vibin on Deacons

Today we're hearing from two of our deacon's: Georgia and Joshua. Georgia is a "real" deacon, where Joshua is a transitional deacon on his way to be a priest.

Deacon comes from the word to be servant. Both literally and figuratively, their role is to set the table and clean up afterwards. The first deacon was called to make sure widows and orphans were distributed food, serving the marginalized.

To be an priest, you must be a servant of all. Each of us have ministry in the church and in the world, it is just the special emphasis we carry, the "real" deacons being more focused on the world: the poor, sick, suffering, and helpless.

The misisters of the church are the lay persons first. The role of the deacons is to call the laity to responsibility by their actions in the world. They should push us out of our comfort zone.

Perhaps, we don't have enough deacons because we are afraid of where they will take us. Makers of holy mischief.

The church is not a business, we all share in the vocation of the church based on our baptismal function.

Tweetin' Jesus

High School Jesus and his trusty Uke

Imagine a modern, teenage Jesus. I picture him with a scraggly half-grown beard and Birks (maybe Toms, but I think he would dig the open toe thing better). 

Would he be that kid doesn't say much, but when he does, its really deep? A "WOAH, Dude, my mind has just been blown" type kid. 

Or would he be a natural leader, president of the student body? Someone who everyone respects his opinion, but doesn't blindly follow?

Would Jesus hang out with "them" - the cool kids - or would he fit in better with the nerds? Maybe he is someone that would cross over and be part of every group in school.

One thing we agreed upon is that Jesus would join a ton of extra-curricular clubs. Everything from Beta to the Feminist club. Despite Mary's constant requests for Jesus to be a better student, we see him paying more attention to changing the world than his algebra homework.

What would be the best thing about a high school Jesus? His twitter account, of course. He would be an automatic follow. We imagined what the hashtags would be for today's Gospel reading Matthew 5:13-20.

Here are a couple:

#saltless,  #lartern, #can'thidethehill #lightupthehouse, #gonnaletitshine, #bushel_no!, #lampstand, #don'tbeahippo, #NOH8, #fulfill, #prophetluv, #powerup, #LOVE

Take a read yourself and let us know if you would add some new hashtags in the comments section below. 

In the beginning...

Welcome to Jesus Shaped Things! This is an experiment of sorts to share some of the grace and joy we experience in our Youth Formation class each Sunday at Holy Innocents Episcopal Church in Sandy Springs, GA.

A word on our name: Jesus Shaped Things came from a sermon given by Zack, a priest here at HIEC. When I first heard the phrase, I pictured a church full of artifacts shaped in the form of Jesus (kind of like animal crackers are shaped like their namesakes) and I had a little chuckle. Of course, Zack was not intending to mean things shaped like Jesus, but rather shaped by Jesus.

To me, this double meaning captures the spirit of what we hope to share: insights that are at the same time irreverent and holy.

God's peace,
Chris