Twelve Enough

What does it mean that we call churches “sanctuary”? Is it a safe place? It is a holy place? During this time of COVID-19, when many churches are not able to worship face-to-face, and in the space that many are used to, is it possible to find a sense of “sanctuary?”

Jonathan is joined by Doug Avilesbernal, the Executive Minister of the Evergreen Association of American Baptist Churches, USA. Doug brings insight, history, and does the majority of the academic heavy lifting for this episode.

One of the things to consider is if the church is a holy place or a safe place, because the two are not always the same. If the church is meant to be a safe space, then to what end and for what purpose? Some may use the idea of sanctuary as a political statement but that may be at the expense of some individuals. Some try to embrace the idea of a specific space as a sense of safety.

Yet is worship safe? Worship is not supposed to be a place where we are only comforted and made to feel safe. When people are protesting in the streets, when people are being murdered because of the color of their skin, worship should not be an experience that is comfortable and easy, but powerful and convicting. At this point, the idea of “sanctuary” may not mean a safe place, but a holy place. It may mean more a place where we encounter the divine and that is not always safe.

As always, thanks for listening. Check out the website: www.twelveenough.com Send your comments and questions to [email protected], and don’t forget to rate the show on iTunes.

We start our month long read of Merton’s Thoughts on Solitude

Pastors Jonathan Malone and Charley Eastman have a devotional and prayer to talk more about the protests and unrest in America around racism.

Here is the prayer for the devotional:

Christ

has no body now on earth but yours.

no hands but yours,

no feet but yours.

Yours are the eyes through which Christ’s

compassion is to look out to the world.

Yours are the feet with which Christ is to

go about doing good.

Yours are the hands with which Christ is to

bless all people now.

Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)

KTS PBC (Pandemic Book Club)!

In July we will be reading  and discussing Thomas Merton’s Thoughts in Solitude. 

You can purchase a copy of the book here. 

The book is broken up into thirty-seven very short chapters. Let’s read two chapters a day from July 1st-8th, which would take us through Chapter 16. Then let’s read one chapter a day for the remainder of the month, finishing on our last session of the Podcast for the month, on July 29th! 

Each week, we’ll review what we’ve read in preparation, and then share our thoughts and reactions. If you’d like to interact or provide questions for us to address, then you can email them to either [email protected] or to [email protected]. 

We’d be happy to hear how you’re moved by this work. Many of us will not be living in solitude while we read this book, but for the few that are, we hope this study will give an extra dimension and possibility to your faith practice. The rest of us are going to have to carve out pockets of solitude where we can find it! 

Here is our schedule: 

• July 1: Overview and introduction to the book. 

• July 8th: Reviewing  Chapters 1-16. 

• July 15th: Review Chapters 17-23

• July 22nd: Review Chapters 24-30

• July 29th: Review Chapters 31-37 and WRAP PARTY! 

An evening devotional with Charley Eastman and Jonathan Malone

The topic this week - Holy Spirit

Here is the prayer for this episode:

 Breathe in me, O Holy Spirit,

That my thoughts may all be holy.

Act in me, O Holy Spirit,

That my work, too, may be holy.

Draw my heart, O Holy Spirit,

That I love but what is holy.

Strengthen me, O Holy Spirit,

To defend all that is holy.

Guard me, then, O Holy Spirit,

That I always may be holy.

Augustine of Hippo - (354-430)

An evening devotional with Jonathan Malone and Charley Eastman. This week’s topic - Being the Church in this time.

‘Here is a link to the movie Marshall that Charley recommended you watch.

Here is the prayer that was read:

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following Your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please You does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that, if I do this, You will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust You always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for You are ever with me, and You will never leave me to face my perils alone.

  - Thomas Merton, 1915-1968

Pastors Jonathan Malone and Charley Eastman offer a time of devotion and prayer. Topic for this week: Racism, especially in response to the murder of George Floyd

Here is the link that Charley mentioned about the Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes teaching:

https://youtu.be/1mcCLm_LwpE

Here is the prayer that Jonathan read:

Most Gracious and all wise God; Before whose face the generations rise and fall; Thou in whom we live, and move, and have our being. We thank thee [for?] all of thy good and gracious gifts, for life and for health; for food and for raiment; for the beauties of nature and the love of human nature. We come before thee painfully aware of our inadequacies and shortcomings. We realize that we stand surrounded with the mountains of love and we deliberately dwell in the valley of hate. We stand amid the forces of truth and deliberately lie; We are forever offered the high road and yet we choose the to travel the low road. For these sins O God forgive. Break the spell of that which blinds our minds. Purify our hearts that we may see thee. O God in these turbulent days when fear and doubt are mounting high give us broad visions, penetrating eyes, and power of endurance. Help us to work with renewed vigor for a warless world, for a better distribution of wealth, and for a brotherhood that transcends race or color. In the name and spirit of Jesus we pray. Amen.

-       Martin Luther King. Jr. (1929-1968)

12s12e4

Mentally Healthy

This month (May) is National Mental Health Awareness month, so it made sense to have Christine King on the show. Christine is the Executive Director of the Interfaith Counseling Center in Providence, RI.

There has been a lot of progress made in the area of mental health in the past couple of decades, and yet there is still a stigma, uncertainty, and lack of information about mental health in our culture. People wrestle with their mental health in ways that often are not seen or known by others. And especially in this time of COVID-19, those who struggle with mental health may find their struggles even greater.

It is important to take care of ourselves, to take care of others, and to be aware that the struggles of mental health are real. In our faith communities it is essential that we speak to the struggles that so many have in a way that is couched in compassion and empathy. Find someone to talk to. Don’t isolate yourself. And know that you are not alone!

For our Rhode Island folks – check out the Mental Health Association of RI

For immediate help, contact BHLink

For people who live elsewhere, please know who you can reach out to and who you can recommend to people who are struggling.

As always, thanks for listening. Check out the website: www.twelveenough.com Send your comments and questions to [email protected], and don’t forget to rate the show on iTunes.

An evening devotional with pastors Jonathan Malone and Charley Eastman. Today’s topic: relationships

Here is the prayer that Jonathan read:

Our little lives, our big problems – these we place upon your altar! The quietness in your temple of silence again and again rebuffs us: for some there is no discipline to hold them steady in the waiting, and the minds reject the noiseless invasion of your spirit. For some there is no will to offer what is central in the thoughts- the confusion is so manifest, there is no starting place to take hold. For some the evils of the world tear down all concentrations and scatter the focus of the high resolves. We do not know how to do what we know to do. We do not know how to be what we know to be. Our little lives, our big problems – these we place upon your altar! Pour out upon us whatever our spirits need the shock o, of life, of release that we may find strength for these days – courage and hope for tomorrow. In confidence we rest in your sustaining race which makes possible triumph in defeat, gain in loss, and love in hate. We rejoice this day to say: Our little lives, our big problems – these we place upon your altar!

-       Howard Thurman (1899-1981)

Here are some of the links mentioned:

Domestic Abuse Hotline - RI

Domestic Abuse Hotline - MA

For Family Games:

Jackbox

Drawphone

An evening devotional led by Pastors Jonathan Malone and Charley Eastman. The topic this week: Prayer

Here is the prayer by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

O God, early in the morning I cry to you.

Help me to pray

And to concentrate my thoughts on you;

I can’t do this alone.

In me there’s darkness,

But with you there’s light;

I’m lonely, but you don’t leave me;

I’m feeble in heart, but with you there’s help;

I’m restless, but with you there’s peace.

In me there’s bitterness, but with you there’s patience;

I don’t understand your ways,

But you know the way for me.

O Heavenly Father,

I praise and thank you

For rest in the night;

I praise and thank you for this new day;

I praise and thank you for all your goodness

and faithfulness throughout my life.

You have granted me many blessings;

Now let me also accept what’s hard from your hand.

You will lay on me no more than I can bear.

You make all things work together for good for your children.

Lord Jesus Christ,

You were poor and in distress, a captive and forsaken as I am.

You know all man’s troubles;

You abide with me when all men fail me;

You remember and seek me;

It’s your will that I should know you and turn to you.

Lord, I hear your call and follow;

Help me.

O Holy Spirit,

Give me faith that will protect me

from despair, from passions, and from vice;

Give me such love for God and men

as will blot out all hatred and bitterness;

Give me the hope that will deliver me

from fear and faint-heartedness.

Amen.

And the prayer by Philaret:

Lord, I do not know what to ask of you. You know better than me what my needs are. You love more than I know how to love. Help me to see clearly my real needs which I did not see. I open my heart to you. Examine and reveal to me my faults and sins. I put all trust in you. I have no other desire than to fulfill your will. Teach me how to pray. Pray in me. Amen.

Orthodox prayer; prayer of Philaret – metropolitan of Moscow – 1782-1867

A Wednesday night devotional led by Jonathan Malone and Charley Eastman. The topic for this week: Community.

Here is the prayer that Jonathan read:

Lord God of all times and places, we pray for your Church, which is set today amid the perplexities of a changing order, and face to face with new tasks. Baptize her afresh in the life-giving spirit of Jesus. Bestow upon her a great responsiveness to duty, a swifter compassion with suffering, and an utter loyalty to your will. Help her proclaim boldly the coming of your kingdom. Put upon her lips the ancient gospel of her Lord. Fill her with the prophets’ scorn of tyranny, and with a Christlike tenderness for the heavy laden and downtrodden. Bid her cease from seeking her own life, lest she lose it. Make her valiant to give up her life to humanity, that, like her crucified Lord, she may mount by the path of the cross to a higher glory; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

-       Walter Rauschenbusch, 1861-1918

Thanks for listening!