A tribute to Edward Friedman and his role in shaping leaders in the Episcopal Church

Edwin H. Friedman is saving my life. Not in the way Jesus does, but gosh sometimes Friedman's stuff is just what the doctor ordered. Who's Freidman? Edwin H. Friedman is a deceased rabbi who was a practicing family therapist. He wrote several books, and before his death in 1996, he was all the rage on the speaker circuit with religious institutions and therapy training centers. He was funny, wicked smart, and right-on. A lot of us grew up with Generation to Generation and in the past several years any number of judicatories (of nearly every denominational stripe) have focused on his first posthumous book, compiled by his widow and a former student, Failure of Nerve. There are two other books published posthumously: The Myth of Shiksa (which I have not read), and What are you going to do with your life? Unpublished Writings and Diaries (2009 Seabury Books). The latter has been my reading-food the past month. The book is largely autobiographical because Friedman discusses his understanding of why he wanted to be a rabbi, as well as his questions about the decline in his health. In some ways typical Friedman material. But what makes this book stand out, I think, are all the sermons. I don't think any other book of his--published before his death (1996) or afterwards--gives us a picture of how he himself pastored.

I'll leave you with one nugget. I think asking questions of God is essential to a grown-up faith. My best "mountain tops" have been when God and I have been intensely engaged, not necessarily arguing, but marked with strong questions on my part, and in those moments I've often felt closer to God than any other time of prayer or worship.

In Friedman's book, What are you going to do with your life?" there is an address he gave at a high school's  commencement service. Here's what he wrote:

As one rabbi friend said, who was also speaking to a graduating class, 'if you don't have answers do not feel too badly. But if you do not have questions, you better feel your pulse.'

Hope your pulse is strong today!
Faithfully,
Thomas

Lessons from the Camino to Santiago

Six years ago today I walked into the Spanish city of Pamplona, which was day two of my 22 day trek to Santiago. There's any number of things to read about the pilgrimage, and far better writers than I have given voice to the beauty and the struggle of making the trek, and now there's even a modern film with Martin Sheen which captures some of the imagery, as well as the intensity of the Way.

Here's what I learned:

1) Walking alone is a great gift. Insights emerge, "fightings within and without" which made me turn closer to God, rather than toward self or others.
2) The "engine" inside of me which can sometimes propel me with anxiety and unsettledness is the same engine that needs to rest, and to move more slowly on the path. Still, the engine has integrity and should never be belittled.
3) Friends are given every day...always.
4) In darkness we need only enough light for the next step, not the whole journey.

TJB

Ephesians x4

These past three weeks, with one more to go, I've been preaching from the Letter to the Ephesians, which you can read or listen to here. The idea for this series came not from a great brainstorming session, or even a brief moment of quiet prayer, but from the 29 June 2012 edition of The San Francisco Chronicle in which the death of a retired United Methodist bishop, Leontine T.C. Kelly was reported. You can read her obituary here.

Reading the obituary was an immediate flashback to a "report card" from my last semester in seminary, in which Bishop Kelly, from whom I'd taken a preaching class at a neighboring seminary, wrote "the student would do well to read St. Paul's Letter to the Ephesians. Being happy and having a purpose are not the same as being fulfilled!" The comment sprung from a long and difficult conference with her following a sermon I had preached in which she basically said, "you need to work on your understanding of what Christianity is, and whether Jesus is the Lord of your life."

A perfect image for this Sunday's reading, taken from Google Images.

Then I remembered that Ephesians is the New Testament letter for this year's lectionary (Year B in the Season after Pentecost)...what a perfect time to unpack some of the riches of this letter. So I looked at the passages appointed for 22 July, 29 July, 5 August, and 12 August, and came up with some nit-witty titles: Be In, Be Fulfilled, Be Mature, and Be Kind. 

The thing I most love about the Letter to the Ephesians is the bright hope it conveyed to Christians then, and that message's timelessness. The writer's dual focus on doctrine and worship as well as practical ways to be a Christian inspired the four week series, which concludes this Sunday with "Be Kind."



May God bless the gifts stirring up within you, and throughout the church.
Faithfully,
Thomas