Seminary Prague, Third Day

It is my second full day of study after the exhaustion of traveling across the pond. Yesterday was productive and relational and full. I have read and studied, worshipped and prayed with my fellow students. Across ethnic and language and cultural barriers we have shared in this wonderful gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, that we can be one at the table of reconciliation.

After chapel, yesterday, I went traveling around the campus in the cold, ice and snow. Then all campus coffee time and met more new friends. Then began study in the library. Met a wonderful woman from England, with whom I shared lunch. We have become friends. Once I again I learn, that listening, truly listening, is the best form of love, respect, honor among us human types. At the end of lunch she laughed and said, "I have told you my story....how did that come out of me, I don't do this...." Perhaps she would, or could, if we all just practiced listening.

I wonder again how that affects our relationships in the church. How would the church be seen in the world if we offered listening? What if with us, we listened, really listened to people's stories, to their hurts and their fears? How would it change the church....how would it change our congregations?

In the afternoon, back I went to the library for more reading. Found several sources that I read on Leadership in the 21st Century. Some of the questions that came to me I noted in my writings yesterday, but today, I am consistently reminded of the quote I read from Parker Palmer yesterday who quoted the great medieval mystic of Flanders, John Ruysbroeck, "you are as holy as you will to be."

In this context, where I am, here and now. at an International Seminary, with Christians from all over the world, I am being constantly reminded again and again of the idea of Christian Character....seeking righteousness, the spiritual disciplines of prayer, fasting and the Eucharist.

We are as holy as we will to be. Without being trite I am reminded of a saying I learned as a teen-ager.....the trouble of a living sacrafice is that they are always trying to crawl off the altar....or if you aren't close to God, guess who moved.

Seriously, we can joke but Tony Compolo brought this point home to us on Saturday...."We are Christians to a point." Well, to what point? To the point of the cross? Truly....to what point are we practicing our faith? How does it inform our daily living? How disciplined are we in these Christian Practices? How far do we seek to go in our discipleship?

Not excluding the theology and understanding of "by GRACE you are saved, not by human works lest we are tempted to boast" (translation, mine)...the depth of our Christian experience, the level of our passion, is it not to what extent we are willing to walk the path of obedience? So how shall our community of faith call us into discipleship, and what might that look like?

These are troubling questions. Troubling questions indeed.

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On a personal note: I slept horribly, awoke to loud bangs in the night....then read til my eyes were crossed. Am missing James and the homefront, the dog and my washing machine.
How does it change our perspective when we live with less.........?

J