“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”
Psalm 19:1
"the [natural] world...is a cathedral erected for displaying the glory of God."
John Calvin
Two weeks from today I will begin a 4 month Sabbatical. Here is some of the background to it and what I will be doing on it and why.
Throughout Scripture, elements of the “wilderness” (God’s creation, natural world, desert, mountains, water, space) are mentioned as places of encountering God. The Bible begins with God’s creation of the world. God is seen and experienced in creation. We get to know God not only through the Scriptures but according to Romans 1:20 “Since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” The Belgic Confession states that the first way we know God is “by the creation, preservation and government of the universe, since that universe is before our eyes like a beautiful book in which all creatures great and small, are as letters to make us ponder the invisible things of God: his eternal power and his divinity as the apostle Paul says in Romans 1:20 (Art.2.) Throughout the Bible, we see God meeting His people in various wilderness elements of his creation. Moses and Israel encountering Jehovah on Mt. Sinai; Israel wandering 40 years in the wilderness; Jonah facing God in the depths of the sea; Elijah experiencing the Lord in a “still small voice” on Mt. Sinai; many of the Psalms of David celebrating creation (8, 19, 23); Jesus spending 40 days in the wilderness at the beginning of his ministry; Jesus frequently going to “a quiet place” on a mountain and using the Mount of Olives and Garden of Gethsemane as places of prayer; and envisioning the new heavens and new earth of Revelation’s Holy City with the River of Life flowing through it. Personally, I love the city and the wilderness and I find great personal renewal in the wilderness. I would like to use the time of sabbatical to experience new places of wilderness and more deeply explore how the wilderness helps us encounter God. This includes exploring how personal “times of wilderness” can lead to spiritual growth. It also includes exploring how the development and use of the spiritual disciplines coming out of the early monastic experience are connected with experiencing God in the wilderness. As I use this time for personal renewal, I also want to explore how to help those living in the city to meet God in the wilderness and find the wilderness in the city.
My plan is to go to places of beauty and “wilderness” from the Atlantic to the Pacific, North to South and even from Egypt to the Promised Land. It will also enable me to further explore the Spirit’s prompting for greater ministry convergence between the city and “wilderness.” I have always loved and functioned in both. However, my “wilderness” experience has been more personal and separate from my ministry here in Paterson. Recently I have felt a calling to integrate more “wilderness” into my urban ministry. My motivation comes from meeting men, no longer involved in our church, but for whom camping 30 years ago remains an important life memory. The Lord then led me to restarting our Cadet Club and beginning boys’ camping once again. This calling contributed to the development the River of God School of Paddling, helping kids experience God’s creation right here on the Passaic River of Paterson in kayaks. I believe God wants me to explore using wilderness and outdoors as a means of discipleship for adults also. I want to exploring how people miss experiencing God if they never stop to experience God’s presence in creation (Rom. 1:20) and how to bring that experience in to people in the city. In addition I want to explore the relationship of wilderness and spiritual disciplines, most of which were developed by the Desert Fathers in the wilderness.
I will spend the first week of the sabbatical at home finding a new rhythm as I rest, play, pray, read the Bible and begin to read some of the books I have been collecting for the last year on the theme of experiencing God in the wilderness. I would also begin meeting with a spiritual director on a monthly basis. During the second week, I will go on retreat at two Camaldolese monasteries on the west coast. For the last 7 years, I have spent the first week of the year in a prayer retreat at a monastery. This has become a significant way to begin the year that I will continue in the sabbatical. I will spend my first few days of this retreat at Incarnation Monastery, in Berkeley, CA. This provides an “urban” monastery experience, as I not only retreat, but also reflect on bringing the wilderness to the city. While here, I will spend a day at Muir Woods National Monument and in Muir Woods. John Muir was one of the earliest advocates of preserving the wilderness in America, founder of the Sierra Club and known as the “Father of the National Park Service.” The second half of this retreat will be at the New Camaldoli Hermitage in one of the most beautiful places in the world, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. This will provide an introduction for me to a retreat of total “silence & solitude” while still attending communal prayer. The third week I will spend in a “home routine” of prayer, scripture, reading, rest and play. I will also begin to visit local urban areas that bring the wilderness to the city and continue to do this one day each week that I’m home throughout the sabbatical. These visits will include places such as NY Botanical gardens, NJ Aquarium, Bronx Zoo, Museum of Natural History and Planetarium and other local parks. Such outings could become a great testimony to our creator in new ways with teaching and interpretation. In addition on the Sundays I am home, I will worship at churches that are in some way helping people in the city to meet God in the wilderness or bringing the practices of wilderness to the city. The fourth & part of the fifth week I will go on a personal retreat of complete silence and solitude. I will snowshoe to a cabin at the top of East Haven Mountain in Vermont and spend this week in prayer, to read Scripture and the Desert Fathers in the midst of a winter wilderness wonderland. The rest of the fifth and sixth week I will spend in my “home routine” and begin work on the adult class I am writing. Weeks seven through nine of the sabbatical, I expect to drive to Florida for participation in the Watertribe Everglades Challenge with my son Ben. We both love the outdoors and have a common interest in building, paddling and sailing small boats. The Challenge will give us an opportunity to be together in a unique father-son expedition while we experience the beauty of God’s creation in the ocean and bay from Tampa to Key Largo. We will paddle/sail our kayaks for 300 miles in the Gulf of Mexico, Intercostal Waterway, Everglades Wilderness Waterway and Florida Bay. In addition to the challenge of physical endurance, which will force me to get in shape before we go, there is also an inner challenge in an expedition like this that leads to deep reflection. At the conclusion of the challenge we will celebrate with our wives (Debra & Emily) and our new grandson who will meet us in Key Largo for four days of rest and renewal. Debra and I will spend an extra day to visit her father who lives in Boynton Beach. She will fly home and I will take a few days to drive back. Week ten I will be back home in my usual “home routine” and continue work on the adult class and experiences for the church. Then I will set out on the next big trip of my sabbatical with my longtime friend, colleague in ministry, accountability and prayer partner, Rev. Stafford Miller. The Biblical Study Tour led by Rev. George DeJong is called “Out of Egypt -into a Good Land.” This “study tour” involves 6-10 miles of hiking each day and will take us from Egypt, to the top of Sinai, through the wilderness to Jordon and into Israel. After another week home I will go to the northern Georgia mountians with a former church member and fly fishing partner Dick Luscher who taught me how to fly fish. Standing in a stream or river fly fishing is an experience of worship and renewal for me and certainly makes my heart sing. After another week home Debra and I will experience the wilderness of the desert and mountains in New Mexico Colorado & Arizona during week 13. We will begin at Christ in the Desert, a Benedictine monastery situated in a beautiful canyon. This will enable Debra to experience the life at a monastery and share some of my wilderness experience. We will then hen drive from the New Mexico through the San Juan Range of the Rockies in Colorado and then to the Grand Canyon. The last week of the sabbatical I will wind down at home, finish work on the class, experiences, and create a report to the leaders and congregation.
One post-sabbatical experience will be with a ministry called “Renewal in the Wilderness.” They are doing what I hope to be able to do in a more urban context. I have much to learn from their founder Rev. John Lionberger whose goal is to help people from all faiths to meet God in the wilderness in ways that civilization usually doesn’t allow. Since their schedule does not permit me to join them during the sabbatical time I will join them for a sea kayaking expedition in Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska as a post-sabbatical experience.
No comments:
Post a Comment