Have I Told You About My Diet?

The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel

Erik Meyer, our music director, told me a great joke: An atheist, a vegan, and a cross-fitter walk into a bar. How do I know? Because they told everyone within two minutes of entering the place.

The joke was told because the staff and I were talking about the zeal with which people share what diet they are on. There are some things people love to share; diets, vacation locations, good books, good movies, and the list goes on.

“Imagine if folks shared about Jesus as much as they shared about their diet?” I wondered out loud eliciting warm laughter around the staff lunch table.

Clearly we are more comfortable on the topic of food than discussing our relationship with “the true bread that come down from heaven.” Why is that? Diets are scientific, you might say. Diets make me feel good, you might say. Diets address things we all share in common, you might say.

The faddish quality of diets makes me doubt the first objection. The second objection makes me wonder if our relationship with God also makes us feel good? For the third, if our faith does not address things we share in common, then what good is it?

So what is it? I would propose that elite cultural despisers (Schleiermacher's term, not mine) have taught us to be ashamed to admit we are people of faith. Every time I study the Bible I hear a voice in my head saying, “Only stupid people read the Bible!” Lord deliver us from “sitting in the seats of the scornful (Psalm 1),” I pray. In addition, some of the loudest voices of Christianity today are repellant and I completely understand people wanting to avoid an association with that version of the faith. Finally, it is hard to overestimate the damage the sexual abuse scandals in the Roman Church and now the Southern Baptist Convention rightfully does to the reputation of the church. If I risk opening my mouth about God’s love, will I be forced to give a long defense for everything Christianity has done wrong?

The onus is on us to find a reasonable account of the faith that is in us. The time is ripe for us to learn this skill. In fact, it is crucial. Our approach to the faith needs to be represented because it brings liberation to the oppressed, good news to the poor, release to the captive, and loving embrace to the outcast. When we avoid representing a sober and reasonable faith in the world we leave the most vulnerable in the hands of the most vicious.

How do we start? We practice. Try it out with someone you trust and love. Explore the words that best describe your experience of God even if it means bumbling and stumbling and babbling for a bit. Identify what you might need to learn to better articulate what you believe. Talk to the clergy if you feel like you have this gift or an opportunity to try it. We will help and we are learning too!

The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel
Rector

What's your experience of God? What story would you share with others? Tell us in the comments below!

Before the Crisis

The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel

Mortality has a way of focusing our attention. Suffering, anguish, and crisis put daily distractions in perspective and focus our minds on what is essential. Most people seek out pastoral support in times of crisis. We are always here for you in that moment whatever time of day or whichever day of the week. Always make that call. We have the spiritual resources most needed in crisis - love, listening, compassion, prayer, community, and most importantly the presence of Christ in sacraments and in the midst of believing people. “Wherever two or three are gathered, I will be in the midst of you,” said Jesus.


In a sense we can be grateful for crisis and suffering when they encourage us to “wake up,” “seek help,” “go deeper,” and “depend on God.” On the other hand, I would like to advise all of us to engage our spiritual growth and development well before the moment of crisis hits. Imagine getting the horrible news that you have only months to live. Do you want to cram a lifetime of spiritual growth and development into those months when coping will be hard enough? The Good News teaches us that God will complete our healing on the other side of death. But, we will be better equipped to meet all our challenges on this side of mortality if we have embraced the learning and growing made available by grace each regular, normal day.

If I have learned one thing in 23 years of ministry it is that people who embrace the baptismal cycle of dying to self and rising to new life in Christ during their quotidian life are more prepared for the final instance of that cycle when death comes.

Perhaps it all depends on what you think the end game is. If you are only preparing for eternal life with God in the hereafter, perhaps you can leave your spiritual growth to the last minute. On the other hand, if your desire is to witness to the Gospel in this life - for your life, your love, your energy to radiate the life-shaping freedom of the Good News now - then we need to delve deeply into prayer, scripture, community, service, and intentional spiritual reflection daily.

The latter path requires virtues acquired through habit, through practice. Only through daily prayer, weekly study, steady service, and ongoing, faithful relationships do we build a heart attuned to what God is saying to us. Such a life of habitual approach to God both requires and builds up the virtues of endurance, perseverance, courage, and patience in us. These virtues bring a steadiness to our life that we desperately need in tumultuous and distracting times. Reacting to every provocation, chasing every fad, making every minute productive, chasing immediate gratification - these habits pull our souls apart, leaving us exhausted, fragmented, and ungrounded. The Good News is that we know a better way.

Blessings,
The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel
Rector

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Contact the clergy in crisis:

Rev. Jarrett Kerbel, rector
jkerbel@stmartinec.org | 215.247.7466 x101 | 215.704.5499 cell

Rev. Anne Thatcher, associate rector
athatcher@stmartinec.org | 215.247.7466 x105 | 509.876.1924 cell

Rev. Carol Duncan, deacon
carol.duncan8031@gmail.com | 330.705.4795 cell

Barbara Ballenger, associate for spiritual formation & care and postulant
bballenger@stmartinec.org | 215.247.7466 x102

Announcing the Helen White Memorial Lecture

“Why Read the Bible?” is the title for the inaugural Helen White Memorial Lecture which will be held on Saturday, April 13 at 4 p.m. at the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Philadelphia. The annual lecture will cover a wide range of topics in biblical studies over the next ten years while honoring Helen White for her long and vital ministry of spreading biblical literacy in southeast Pennsylvania.

The inaugural lecture of the series will be delivered by the Rev. Dr. Eric D. Barreto who serves as the Weyerhaeuser Associate Professor of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary. Professor Barreto is a New Testament scholar whose work focuses on the Acts of the Apostles. He is known at PTS as a popular, engaging, and inspiring professor who encourages deep investigation and wide-ranging application of the biblical text. He is looking forward to addressing a favorite subject, “Why Read the Bible?”, when he delivers his address at the Helen White Memorial Lecture.

Helen White, who died January 11, 2018, was an effective and passionate creator of biblical studies opportunities for - in her words - “the people in the pew.” Starting in the 1970s at St. Thomas, Whitemarsh, and then as a staff member for the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania, Helen planted group after group organized to study the Gospels and then all the texts of the Old and New Testament. Four groups she started are still studying at her home parish, the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields.

Because Helen felt so strongly that biblical literacy was so easily within reach and so crucial for all followers of Jesus, and because she dedicated her life to this ministry, the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields has established this annual lecture in her honor to advance and celebrate her mission and ministry. The event is free and a free-will donation will be collected to support the ongoing lecture series.

Professor Barreto, an ordained Baptist minister, lists among his publications Ethnic Negotiations: The Function of Race and Ethnicity in Acts 16 (Mohr Siebeck, 2010), Exploring the Bible (Fortress, 2016) and In Tongues of Mortals and Angels (Lexington, 2018). He is the editor of Reading Theologically (Fortress, 2014), and is a is also a regular contributor to ONScripture.org, the Huffington Post, WorkingPreacher.org, and EntertheBible.org. For more, go to ericbarreto.com and follow him on Twitter @ericbarreto.

The Inaugural Helen White Memorial Lecture,Why Read the Bible, will be held on Saturday, April 13 at 4:00 p.m., with a reception to follow. The Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields is located at 8000 St. Martin’s Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19118. RSVP for the lecture at StMartinEC.org/events. A free-will donation will be collected to support the ongoing series. For more information, call St. Martin’s at 215.247.7466.

Blessings,

The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel

Rector

Aesthetic, Ethical, or Religious?

The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel

I apologize in advance that this Rector’s Note is rooted in the writings of Soren Kierkegaard. On sabbatical in the library at Princeton Theological Seminary, I renewed my love for this Danish philosopher and spiritual writer. Kierkegaard observed that the spiritual life moves through three phases; the aesthetic, the ethical, and the religious. 

Episcopalians famously flock to the first and the second phase. The aesthetic phase is all about our enjoyment of beauty. Music, art, liturgy, poetry and literature all contribute to our immediate aesthetic experience of pleasure. Kierkegaard states - and I agree - that all of these experiences are good except when they are treated as ultimate goods in their own right. Pleasure in beauty serves its full function when it leads us to transcend ourselves toward God in praise and thanksgiving.

The ethical phase concerns ordering and shaping our lives toward right action. Many mainline Christians would identify with this phase. We want to live a good life and make good decisions and contribute to the common good. The odd problem with the ethical phase is that often we merely import our existing commitments and sprinkle the holy water of the church on them, rather than derive them from the teachings of Jesus. Liberal Christianity - which is practiced by the whole range of political stripes - goes even further and says that doubt prevents us from making any ethical claims based on our faith. More on this in my next note!

Finally, we have the religious phase. This is the phase where we orient our whole life toward relationship and ultimately union with God. Our preoccupation with self goes on the back burner and we seek God as our ultimate end. All else becomes secondary to the unmatched importance of our dependence on God. Through prayer, worship, sacrament, service, study, conversation, and contemplation we strive to accept God’s invitation to participate in God’s life. 

In my experience, this last phase is most difficult because we resist dependence and we resist submission. The gateway to God is trust and devotion to the God we know in Jesus through the Gospels. For many modern people this feels foolish and embarrassing. While I know those feelings, my life has only grown healthier and more honest, the more I put myself under the teachings of Jesus. When we embrace the religious path, we receive the aesthetic and the ethical again in a new way, with freedom, love, hope, and endurance to fuel our enjoyment and our ethical striving.

Blessings,
The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel
Rector

What's a post about ice cream doing here?

I posted a request to our Facebook page the other day - did anyone have any questions about us, even silly ones? The folks over at DioPA Youth wanted to know how the staff would answer, "The best ice cream flavor in the world is…" So, I took a poll at our staff meeting yesterday. 

The first person to respond was Harriet. "Ben & Jerry's Pistachio," she answered quickly. Carol went next with Bryers' Mint Chocolate Chip - a classic. Jarrett then responded that he was having a hard time deciding but chose Thomas Sweet's Vanilla-Strawberry-Banana Blend-In. Callie chose a local small batch producer/food truck - Zsa's Salted Caramel (a flavor, by the way, that always sells out quickly at the twice-annual Food Truck-a-Thon at my local Co-op in Swarthmore). Connie didn't know the brand of hers, but the flavor for sure - Mocha Chip.  I named Ciao Bella's Key Lime Graham.  It turns out that both Erik and Angelique aren't big ice cream eaters so they had trouble with this. Erik finally named a banana milkshake and Angelique chose simple strawberry.  Just as we were closing out, Jarrett changed his mind. "No, not the blend-in. Change mine to chocolate soft serve from…what's it called...that gross roadside place…" (laughter around the table).

We had a great time talking about our small distraction from regular business. It got me thinking some more about ice cream. A few years ago I embarked upon making my own ice cream. My husband had bought me a Kitchen-Aid stand mixer for a birthday and there was a special deal where it came with a bonus attachment of his choosing. Smart man, he chose for me the ice cream maker attachment.  However, I had let a couple years pass before giving the ice cream making a try. I imagined it would be complicated. I thought I'd try what seemed a simple enough French Vanilla from the accompanying recipe book. The custard base was involved, and though I got through it and even tried again to make a few variations - it was more than I'd bargained for, especially on my own, and the results were only okay.

Then my co-op offered an ice cream making class. I signed up and that's when I met Philadelphia-style ice cream. Much less cooking required. Very simple recipes. Now this was going to be a lot easier! I can do this regularly! And I can play around too!  I was excited to jump in and soon I was even creating my own flavors with my new found methods - Blueberry Buckle ice cream. Strawberry-Basil-Balsamic ice cream. The fantastic thing about Philadelphia-style ice cream is that it starts off with only 3 key ingredients: Cream, sugar, and your flavoring (you add an acid if you're using non-citrus fruit as the flavor). To make Strawberry-Basil-Balsamic, for example, my total list of ingredients was: Fresh strawberries, fresh basil, balsamic vinegar (my acid), sugar and cream. Simple. Fresh. Cold, creamy wonderfulness.

It was a revelation to find that I could do this myself. We're told in so many ways by our current society that we're too dumb to make or do things ourselves. I've become much more interested in making my own food from scratch since reading the following quote by a friend of chef Michael Ruhlman, "Americans are being taught we’re too stupid to cook and it’s simply not true."(from his blog post: America: Too Stupid to Cook).  

It has changed my thinking about food, for sure, but other things too. What else have I been taught is more difficult than it really is? Praying? Reading and understanding the Bible? Talking to others about what I understand things to mean, and what that means for my faith and my life. All of those for sure. 

I have a hard time starting a prayer. Where to begin? Well with ice cream it is cream, sugar, flavor. With prayer, you can start with thanks, confession, and asking (actually, prayer can be even simpler - you could just do one piece to start with!) Reading the Bible? Well, with ice cream I started with a recipe. Take it from the top. Just open it up and start in. Or, even better like I did - find a class. Some other people to read the recipe over with and ask questions, someone else who's done it before to guide the way. Before you know it, you're reading on your own! 

It turns out that it doesn't have to be as hard as it might at first seem. Start off slowly, get your feet under you, and you'll be making ice cream with ease and enjoying an enriched faith life you weren't sure you could have. And you can always move up to custard-style ice creams later when it feels right. ;-)

~ Natalee Hill  

PS: I didn't intend it this way when I came up with my blog post idea, but this post feels like a good plug for our Biblical Studies at St. Martin's. So, I'll just mention that we currently have three sessions running. NO experience with the bible and NO homework is required for any of them. This is your ice cream class!

PPS: Some ice cream recipes to get you started
1: The absolutely most-simple ice cream recipe ever - perfect for kids! (NO maker necessary!)
2: When you're ready to commit to an ice-cream freezing device. (There's a link for how to make it if you don't have the ice cream maker too - it will take longer, but it can be done!)
3: Custard-style for the truly committed. (From Food & Wine Magazine, so it must be good, right?)