This year, during "40 Days of Faith," one of the spiritual practices we are exploring together is called Breath Prayer.

Breath Prayer is an ancient form of prayer that connects short, memorable phrases with deep breathing. This embodied practice can help us to connect with the Spirit, to release tension and stress, and to ground ourselves in the present moment.

On the "40 Days of Faith" Prayer Bracelet, the blue bead will help us to remember that God's presence is as near as the air we breathe and will remind us to practice Breath Prayer.

Instructions on how to practice Breath Prayer are included below (and in the "40 Days of Faith" Guide).

​Also included in the Guide is a calendar with a different Breath Prayer for each day of “40 Days of Faith.” These prayers have been drawn from Bible verses, @blackliturgies (Cole Arthur Riley), and @liturgiesforparents (Kayla Craig).

You are welcome to use these Breath Prayers in whatever way resonates with you. You may want to follow our daily calendar, to skip around to the prayers that stand out to you, to use the same prayer for multiple days, or even to write your own!

Last Sunday, Pastor Alison led us through Conversation Church — a special service format we use from time to time on Sundays to help facilitate connection through guided conversation. During the service, Pastor Alison helped us begin to think about the season of "40 Days of Faith" (the River's name for Lent) and shared about the River's tradition of creating Prayer Bracelets. Each bead on the bracelet symbolizes something and serves as a reminder of a truth about God, a spiritual practice, or something we are praying for.

As part of this year's "40 Days of Faith" Guide we have included a page with reflection questions connected to each bead on the Prayer Bracelet. (You may recognize some of these questions from Conversation Church!) We hope that they will be a helpful tool as you begin to think about the sermon series theme and your personal prayer practices and requests. The guide is available on our website as a PDF and we will also have some printed copies available at the church on Sundays.

Last Sunday, Ministry Assistant Maddie Abbott wrapped up our sermon series titled "Can Faith Help Us Navigate Difference?" with a message called "Experts Say." Maddie spoke about the limits of expert culture, the ways that Jesus invites us into possibility rather than certainty, and how letting go of our need to be right can help us to connect across difference. And so this week, we'd like to offer two resources that can help us think more about the limits of certainty.

1) The first resource is a book by Bible scholar Pete Enns called The Sin of Certainty: Why God Desires Our Trust More Than Our "Correct" Beliefs. 

Here is a description of the book:

​"Enns offers a model of vibrant faith that views skepticism not as a loss of belief, but as an opportunity to deepen religious conviction with courage and confidence. This is not just an intellectual conviction, he contends, but a more profound kind of knowing that only true faith can provide. Combining Enns’ reflections of his own spiritual journey with an examination of Scripture, The Sin of Certainty models an acceptance of mystery and paradox that all believers can follow and why God prefers this path because it is only this way by which we can become mature disciples who truly trust God. It gives Christians who have known only the demand for certainty permission to view faith on their own flawed, uncertain, yet heartfelt, terms."

2) The second resource is the movie Conclave, based on the book by Robert Harris. 

In the film — which stars Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, and John Lithgow, among others — "Cardinal Lawrence (Fiennes) is tasked with one of the world’s most secretive and ancient events — participating in the selection of a new pope. Surrounded by powerful religious leaders in the halls of the Vatican, he soon uncovers a trail of deep secrets that could shake the very foundation of the Roman Catholic Church."

As I (Alison) watched the film, I was very moved by a homily (sermon) that was delivered by Cardinal Lawrence at the beginning of the conclave. Lawrence cautioned against the sin of certainty and argued that doubt is an essential aspect of faith. He said this:

“Saint Paul said ‘Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.’ To work together, to grow together, we must be tolerant. No one person or faction seeking to dominate another. And speaking to the Ephesians, who were of course a mixture of Jews and gentiles, Paul reminds us that God’s gift to the Church is its variety. It is this variety, this diversity of people and views, that gives our Church its strength. Over the course of many years in the service of our mother the Church, let me tell you there is one sin which I have come to fear above all others. Certainty. Certainty is the great enemy of unity. Certainty is the deadly enemy of tolerance. Even Christ was not certain at the end. ‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?’ He cried out in his agony at the ninth hour on the cross. Our faith is a living thing precisely because it walks hand in hand with doubt. If there was only certainty and no doubt, there would be no mystery. And therefore no need for faith. Let us pray that God will grant us a pope who doubts. And let him grant us a pope who sins and ask for forgiveness, and who carries on.”​ ​

Last Sunday, RiverKids Director Amelia Cunard preached a sermon titled "From Inner Storm to Outer Peace" as part of our sermon series "Can Faith Help Us Navigate Difference?" She addressed the idea that Jesus had to navigate internal struggles even as he bore public witness and talked about the dangers of viewing Jesus dualistically.

As part of this sermon, Amelia cited Franciscan Friar and public theologian Richard Rohr, who says that "How we in organized Christianity got in trouble is we largely, overwhelmingly read the words of Jesus -- who was talking nondually-- with a dualistic mind." Rohr elaborates on what it means to view Jesus through a non-dual lens in his book, The Universal Christ. Here, Rohr presents a nondual understanding of Jesus by distinguishing between Jesus (the historical figure) and Christ (the divine presence that permeates all of creation). He argues that many Christians have been trapped in a dualistic mindset, seeing Jesus merely as an individual rather than as part of a greater, cosmic reality. Rohr invites readers to see Jesus not just as an exclusive savior for Christians, but as a revelation of a universal reality that transcends religious boundaries. A nondual approach to Jesus moves away from rigid doctrines and toward a mystical, experiential faith that sees Christ everywhere.

If you're interested in reading more about Rohr's thinking on viewing Jesus nondually, check out ​The Universal Christ.

Last Sunday, Ministry Assistant Maddie Abbott gave a sermon titled "Virtue Signals" as part of our sermon series, "Can Faith Help Us Navigate Difference?" Maddie used the Sermon on the Mount as a way to demonstrate how and why people who read the same biblical text can walk away with radically different interpretations. She also drew upon her theological education and her professional political campaign experiences, to share helpful insights around how seeking to read people generously can allow us to form the kinds of meaningful connections that can actually lead to political change.

If you enjoyed Maddie's sermon and want to read more from her, check out The Abortion Challenge, A Bipartisan New Testament Bible Study. A major premise of the study is that in order to understand how the Bible speaks to the modern abortion debate, Christians need to first examine different perspectives on some underlying questions like: 

• What was Jesus’s message and how has it been interpreted politically?
• How does the Bible depict the relationship Christians are meant to have with government and power?
• What is the role of tradition in the Christian faith?
• And what kind of relationship should humanity have with the rest of God’s creation?

And so, Maddie designed a study to help Christians explore these questions. The Abortion Challenge (based on a Politics & Christianity discussion group that she led at the River) is a roadmap through the New Testament that can help you to get an overview of how Christians across the political spectrum have interpreted various passages, with the ultimate goals of giving participants the tools they need to engage confidently at the intersection of faith and politics and to open dialogue around complex topics. The study includes reflection questions that you can engage on your own or through group discussion. Consider inviting a friend to work through the study with you!

Last Sunday, Pastor Alison gave a sermon titled "Can Faith Help Us Navigate Difference?" inspired by the insightful writing and preaching of the Rev. Dr. Angela Parker, a Womanist New Testament scholar at the McAfee School of Theology.

For those interested in engaging with some of Dr. Parker's work, please check out the links below, as well as a description of her book, If God Still Breathes, Why Can't I?: Black Lives Matter and Biblical Authority.

Lectures and Podcast Episodes:

• 11th Annual Stanley Grenz Lecture Series: “America’s Failing Empire: A Womanist New Testament Response to Rising White Christian Nationalism”
• The Bible for Normal People podcast (Episode 216): "The White Supremacy of Inerrancy"
• For the Love podcast (Episode 22: Series 64): "Hope and Liberation in Advent: Dr. Angela N. Parker on Womanist Theology"
• "Reading Texts, Reading Cultures" lecture

If God Still Breathes Book Description:
"Angela Parker wasn’t just trained to be a biblical scholar; she was trained to be a White male biblical scholar. She is neither White nor male. Dr. Parker’s experience of being taught to forsake her embodied identity in order to contort herself into the stifling construct of Whiteness is common among American Christians, regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation. This book calls the power structure behind this experience what it is: White supremacist authoritarianism. Drawing from her perspective as a Womanist New Testament scholar, Dr. Parker describes how she learned to deconstruct one of White Christianity’s most pernicious lies: the conflation of biblical authority with the doctrines of inerrancy and infallibility. As Dr. Parker shows, these doctrines are less about the text of the Bible itself and more about the arbiters of its interpretation—historically, White males in positions of power who have used Scripture to justify control over marginalized groups. This oppressive use of the Bible has been suffocating. To learn to breathe again, Dr. Parker says, we must 'let God breathe in us.' We must read the Bible as authoritative, but not authoritarian. We must become conscious of the particularity of our identities, as we also become conscious of the particular identities of the biblical authors from whom we draw inspiration. And we must trust and remember that as long as God still breathes, we can too."

We have some copies of Dr. Parker's book in the River Lending Library! Feel free to check them out!

Last Sunday, Caroline Park gave a sermon titled "God in Our Messy, Complicated World." Caroline encouraged us to be intentional about noticing the world around us and seeking meaningful connections within it, particularly "with people who are different from you, in places where you don’t feel completely at home, with books that stretch you" and "with the larger world, with the other-than-human world around you."

For those who are interested in learning more about living in respectful relationships with the earth and other species who share space with us, Caroline recommended the book Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, an Indigenous botanist. Caroline said this, "Her beautifully written book is readable, moving, and deeply wise." 

Here's Kimmerer's author bio:
"Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants as well as Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses. Kimmerer is a 2022 MacArthur Fellow. She lives in Syracuse, New York, where she is a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology, and the founder of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment."

We've ordered some of Kimmerer's books for the River Lending Library! Feel free to check them out!

This past week the Episcopal Bishop of Washington, Mariann Edgar Budde, made headlines for the final portion of her homily during the inauguration prayer service. Budde made a plea to President Trump "to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now." As a result of these words, Budde has simultaneously been praised for preaching the heart of Jesus's gospel message and prophetically speaking truth to power, and has also been accused of weaponizing the pulpit in order to attack the president.

Though the final portion of Budde's homily is what went viral, it is worth giving her entire message a read. Budde spent most of her time speaking about unity as an antidote to divisiveness and a culture of contempt. Budde said this about unity:

"Joined by many across the country, we have gathered this morning to pray for unity as a nation—not for agreement, political or otherwise, but for the kind of unity that fosters community across diversity and division, a unity that serves the common good. Unity, in this sense, is the threshold requirement for people to live together in a free society, it is the solid rock, as Jesus said, in this case upon which to build a nation. It is not conformity. It is not a victory of one over another. It is not weary politeness nor passivity born of exhaustion. Unity is not partisan. Rather, unity is a way of being with one another that encompasses and respects differences, that teaches us to hold multiple perspectives and life experiences as valid and worthy of respect; that enables us, in our communities and in the halls of power, to genuinely care for one another even when we disagree."

Budde acknowledges that unity is not something we can just hope and pray for. Instead, it requires commitment and must be built on the foundations of dignity, honesty, and humility.

If you are interested in reading more from Budde, you may want to read one of her books!

In her sermon last Sunday, Alison shared some frameworks to help us think about God's power in the world. One of those frameworks was theologian Thomas Jay Oord's concept of God's "amipotence" — a term he coined by combining a Latin word for love with a Latin word for power.

According to Oord’s conception of amipotence, God is neither omnipotent (all-powerful) nor impotent (powerless). Instead, God’s power in the world is the non-controlling, non-coercive power of Love.

​Oord (and co-writer Tripp Fuller) says this:

“Amipotence describes God’s uncontrolling love for all creatures and all creation. It’s an amipotent God’s nature to love everyone and everything without forcing anyone or anything. An amipotent Spirit will be neither overriding or absent, neither inactive nor the sole cause of everything, neither utter mystery nor an impersonal force. Like a good mother who neither manipulates nor neglects her children, God can be seen like a universal Mother always influencing for good. The idea that God can’t control better fits our experience of making free choices among limited options. We aren’t controlled; we really choose. It fits the agency, spontaneity, randomness, and indeterminacy of the universe. We think existence isn’t entirely determined by the Creator, nor by creation. Rather, moment by moment, creation is made free, and creatures can work in tandem with God.”  —Thomas Jay Oord and Tripp Fuller in God After Deconstruction 

To learn more about "amipotence," and open and relational theology, check out these and other writings from Thomas Jay Oord!