Rector's Blog: The Air You Breathe
We’ve been using the word “Inspired” a lot lately, and sometimes I get nervous about it. Not because I don’t believe in inspiration – I do! It makes me nervous because I’m always apprehensive of churches that, in seeking to be inspirational, become manipulative – trying to manufacture specific feelings and emotions within the community. That feels more exploitative than spiritual to me.
But we’re using the word “Inspired” anyway because we believe it’s a natural part of being a healthy, living, loving church.
The actual language in our Vision Statement is that we envision becoming a church “Inspired by our understanding of why we are Christian, why we are Episcopalian, why Redeemer matters to us.”
So, when we talk about being inspired, we’re rooting that inspiration in a deeper sense of who we are and why we are. Jesus says, “you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” He’s reminding us of the liberating, empowering, reality of understanding not what we could be or would or should be – but of what is. I know sometimes you think Jesus came to teach us about our potential, about what we could be. But Jesus seems so much more interested in who God actually is, and who we actually are because of who God is.
We are beloved. Fully and utterly. We belong to the One who made us. We belong in this world. Jesus’ life, healing, and teachings don’t point to the idea that we could become loved someday if only we would get it together. Jesus points passionately and repeatedly to our current status as totally belonging to God just as we are, loved and saved and redeemed right now. Jesus’ deep hope seems to be that we know it. Not so that we become better people, whatever that is, but because in knowing it, we will be liberated from all the spiritual lies that bind us and keep us from really experiencing love.
We as a community should know why we are Christian. We should know why we are Episcopalian. And we should have a strong sense of why this particular Church of the Redeemer matters so much to us. I am convinced that a deeper understanding and knowledge of who and what we are frees us up to more fully love and be loved. What’s more, I think it will inspire us.
Last week, parishioner Anna Calhoun shared her story at our most recent Feast Day – The Feast of St. Luke. Anna spoke about being inspired, and she reflected on the reality that, to her, inspiration isn’t about a moment of blinding emotion or epiphany, but about a daily reality. She said, “Inspiration isn’t so much the weather as it is the climate.” I needed to hear this. She was reminding me that inspiration is ongoing rather than momentary. As she was speaking, I remembered that the term “Inspired” comes from the phrase “breathed into,” and that the Biblical word for breath is the same as the word for spirit – it’s the word that’s used to describe God’s Spirit! Inspiration – the empowering indwelling of God’s Spirit – is experienced less as a moment and more as a sustained reality. Inspiration is like breathing. It’s not the weather – it’s the climate.
When we talk about being inspired in and by and through Redeemer, we’re talking about the air you breathe. We’re talking about you having a deeper sense of who you already are when you are connected here. We believe that if you discover the words to describe what is happening in your life in and through this community you will be liberated, empowered, and equipped to experience the climate of love for which you were born.
It is my hope that you will take the time to understand more fully why you were brought here, why we were brought together. Knowing this is knowing Jesus. Knowing this is growing in love
