Leaving Church
Barbara Brown Taylor
2006
These quotes are from the last chapter of her book, which I enjoyed very much. She was ordained an Episcopal priest and resigned after 20 successful years.
P.224 ff
I have learned to prize holy ignorance more highly than religious certainty and to seek companions who have arrived at the same place. We are a motley crew, distinguished not only by our inability to explain ourselves to those who are more certain of their beliefs than we are but in many cases by our distance from the centers of our faith communities as well.
This wilderness experience sets up a real dilemma for some of us, since we know how much we owe to the traditions that shaped us. We would not be who we are without them, and we continue to draw real sustenance from them, but insofar those same traditions discourage us from being with one another, we cannot go home again. In one way or another, every one of us has gotten the message that God made us different that we might know one another, and that how we treat one another is the best expression of our beliefs.
That smell (of candles and communion bread) alone was enough to tell me that I would never leave church, not really. I am too in need of the regular reminder that falling is the way of life. Where else do human being recognize the bread of heaven in a broken body, or know that heir lives depend on eating that food?
Many years ago now, when I was invited to speak at a church gathering, my host said, “Tell us what is saving your life now.” It was such a good question, I make a practice of asking others to answer it even as I continue to answer it myself.
Although we might use different words to describe it, most of us know what is killing us. For some it is the deadly rush of our lives, for others it is the inability to move. For some it is the prison of our possessions, for others the crushing poverty that dooms our children to more of the same. Few of us can choose our circumstances, but we can choose how we respond to them. To be saved is not only to recognize an alternative to the deadliness pressing down upon us but also to be able to act upon it….
I would have to say that at least one of the thins that almost killed me was becoming a professional holy person…as many years as I wanted to wear a clerical collar and as hard as I worked to get one, taking it off turned out to be as necessary for my salvation as putting it on…
Living in relationship with creation is saving my life now (lives on a farm).
Observing the Sabbath (privately) is saving my life now.
Encountering God in other people is saving my life now. (Teaching)
Committing myself to the task of becoming fully human is saving my life now.
…Things I have decided I will keep: I will keep faith—in God, in God’s faith in me, and in all the companions whom God has given me to help see the world as God sees it—so that together we may find a way to realize the divine vision.
p.222
What if people were invited to come tell what they already know of God instead of to learn what they are supposed to believe?
P219
I think I finally heard the gospel. The good news of God in Christ is, “You have everything you need to be human.” There is nothing outside of you that you still need—no approval from the authorities, no attendance at temple, no key truth hidden in the tenth chapter of some sacred book. In your life right now, God has given you everything that you need to be human.
I will keep the Bible as a field guide.
Faith is not about certainty, but about trust in God.
---------------------------------------------------
Comments & Questions? Email: womenbefriends@yahoo.com
2006
These quotes are from the last chapter of her book, which I enjoyed very much. She was ordained an Episcopal priest and resigned after 20 successful years.
P.224 ff
I have learned to prize holy ignorance more highly than religious certainty and to seek companions who have arrived at the same place. We are a motley crew, distinguished not only by our inability to explain ourselves to those who are more certain of their beliefs than we are but in many cases by our distance from the centers of our faith communities as well.
This wilderness experience sets up a real dilemma for some of us, since we know how much we owe to the traditions that shaped us. We would not be who we are without them, and we continue to draw real sustenance from them, but insofar those same traditions discourage us from being with one another, we cannot go home again. In one way or another, every one of us has gotten the message that God made us different that we might know one another, and that how we treat one another is the best expression of our beliefs.
That smell (of candles and communion bread) alone was enough to tell me that I would never leave church, not really. I am too in need of the regular reminder that falling is the way of life. Where else do human being recognize the bread of heaven in a broken body, or know that heir lives depend on eating that food?
Many years ago now, when I was invited to speak at a church gathering, my host said, “Tell us what is saving your life now.” It was such a good question, I make a practice of asking others to answer it even as I continue to answer it myself.
Although we might use different words to describe it, most of us know what is killing us. For some it is the deadly rush of our lives, for others it is the inability to move. For some it is the prison of our possessions, for others the crushing poverty that dooms our children to more of the same. Few of us can choose our circumstances, but we can choose how we respond to them. To be saved is not only to recognize an alternative to the deadliness pressing down upon us but also to be able to act upon it….
I would have to say that at least one of the thins that almost killed me was becoming a professional holy person…as many years as I wanted to wear a clerical collar and as hard as I worked to get one, taking it off turned out to be as necessary for my salvation as putting it on…
Living in relationship with creation is saving my life now (lives on a farm).
Observing the Sabbath (privately) is saving my life now.
Encountering God in other people is saving my life now. (Teaching)
Committing myself to the task of becoming fully human is saving my life now.
…Things I have decided I will keep: I will keep faith—in God, in God’s faith in me, and in all the companions whom God has given me to help see the world as God sees it—so that together we may find a way to realize the divine vision.
p.222
What if people were invited to come tell what they already know of God instead of to learn what they are supposed to believe?
P219
I think I finally heard the gospel. The good news of God in Christ is, “You have everything you need to be human.” There is nothing outside of you that you still need—no approval from the authorities, no attendance at temple, no key truth hidden in the tenth chapter of some sacred book. In your life right now, God has given you everything that you need to be human.
I will keep the Bible as a field guide.
Faith is not about certainty, but about trust in God.
---------------------------------------------------
Comments & Questions? Email: womenbefriends@yahoo.com
posted by MJS at 6:05 PM
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