What good news to discover neighbors finding ‘common ground’ in discussing the Bible!

‘Please, show us what you’ve been reading!’ Several members of Holy Comforter Episcopal Church in Spring, Texas, posed for us with their well-read copies of The Word Made Fresh, by George A. Mason. Left to right: Richard Blumberg, Shawn Henners, Alice El-Hamaki, Linda Barry, and Linda Astala.

By ANN WORLEY
Contributing Writer

Click on the cover to visit the book’s Amazon page.

“This is the best Bible study I’ve ever been part of,” Gwen told me with a hug. “I was just telling a friend about it the other day.”

I was thrilled: Really!?! The best Bible study I’ve ever been part of!?!

But Gwen wasn’t exaggerating as she described the impact of this book and our conversations on her daily life during our 12 weeks together. Who knew that a book of sermons written by a Baptist minister would make such an impression on seasoned Episcopalians? This warm greeting for George A. Mason’s The Word Made Fresh was just one of many welcome surprises in the several months we devoted to discussing the book at Holy Comforter Episcopal Church in Spring, Texas.

A lot of friends at our church seemed to be making their own “fresh” connections as they reflected on Mason’s book. For example, a couple of class members found common ground through the book for connecting with friends in their local interfaith group. One in particular, Linda Barry, shared this personal reflection starting with her admission that she was leery of a Baptist preacher as an author:

“When I first started to read this book, I was doubtful that I would read more than a chapter or two. I was brought up in a faith tradition that was full of judgment and I expected this book would be filled with the judgment and dogma from which I fled. But that is the farthest thing from the truth. There is none of that kind of judgment in this book. It is full of inclusion, compassion, and love. This book is for every Christian no matter what church you attend or if you have given up on church altogether.”

I couldn’t agree more.

Why am I so proud?

I organized this book discussion at our church because I knew there were rich connections awaiting us in every sermon in this book. I’m personally invested in both George’s ministry and The Word Made Fresh. Twenty years ago, George was my mentor in the pastoral residency program at Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas. I was fortunate to serve as lead editor of The Word Made Fresh when the book was in its infancy several years ago—an idea to surprise George at his retirement with a retrospective volume drawn from his 33 years of service in the same congregation.

After my time in the Wilshire residency, I had returned to my roots in the Episcopal church. Then, within my congregation, this was the first class I had offered to coordinate. And, as I have admitted: I was anxious at first about how George’s messages as a Baptist preacher would resonate among Episcopalians.

That’s why I was so proud that George’s denominational affiliation did not prove to be a barrier. My own instincts in respecting George’s inclusive wisdom over the decades were not wrong. Right away in my congregation, readers recognized George as a friend in faith whose sermons connected with their lives. That made it easy to spark thoughtful conversations in which friends could share their own stories from their faith journeys—the sure sign that a small-group in a congregation is truly going to be memorable.

The one lament from our class was that there are so many sermons in this book that twelve weeks only allowed us to skim the surface. But I’m happy to report that the book’s influence in my own congregation continues—and George’s work
remains part of our culture of constructive conversation.

Continuing the Conversations

Following our book study, I had a wonderful visit with our new Deacon Tony Kroll about some of the rich discussions in our class—and about how to encourage further thoughtful discourse as Christians in the world today. As we talked, Tony invited me to serve as one of the facilitators for adult formation classes this year, expanding on those very conversations.

Here is a description of the first course Tony has planned:

Civil Discourse Class: Sunday mornings at 10:45 a.m., October 20 through November 24. In our baptismal promises we are asked, “Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?” We will explore loving our neighbors through scripture and the voices of modern-day prophets (e.g. Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, Bishop Doyle, George Mason, Pauli Murray, Carter Hayward, among others). The class will use a discussion format and focus on our responsibility in civil discourse as we empower one another to be God’s people in the world.

I wish everyone reading this column could join us!

One of many reasons The Word Made Fresh is so compelling is that George is particularly skilled as a preacher at navigating “the hard things” that many of his contemporaries choose to avoid, favoring the easier, repetitive call to personal (and private) salvation. But how else do we learn to live as Christians in a world so full of hard things—violence and political polarization and religious posturing and more—if we cannot talk about them as friends?

These sermons not only teach us how to engage the world around us as Christians, but they also serve as a model of the power of preaching for pastors and priests. I have read each of these sermons many times and I still find them instructive, life giving, and new. There is a reason The Word Made Fresh received the Religion Communicators Council’s coveted DeRose-Hinkhouse Memorial Award earlier this spring. It should be in the library of every church and the hands of every minister—or better, every Christian.

I know I’m biased. I’ve explained that honestly—and, now, I am thankful that ReadTheSpirit magazine has invited us—me and the good folks at our church who have embraced this book—to tell our story in this way.

May our story inspire someone who reads this to take one more chance on connecting through a congregation—or, if you’re a long-time church veteran, perhaps one more boost of encouragement to organize a “fresh” small group.

We’re so glad we did.

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Ann Bell Worley is a Houston-based writer and editor with a background in theological education and ministry. She is the author of two children’s books with additional publications in religion and parenting and a broad range of editing credits. Much of her recent writing focuses on the challenges of raising a medically complex child. You can find more of Ann’s work and her family’s story on her website: www.graycoloredglasses.com.

During Lent 2024, these Texas Christians commit to being “cross yielding rather than cross wielding”

Central window in the sanctuary of Holy Comforter Episcopal Church in Spring, Texas. (Photos of the church provided by Ann Worley.)

Hearing George A. Mason’s call for a different way of seeing our world

By ANN BELL WORLEY
Contributing Columnist

I was surprised last week as I showed up to lead a new series of discussions in my congregation, Holy Comforter Episcopal Church in Spring, Texas. We already had set up chairs—but so many people arrived that volunteers had to fetch more seating!

Such enthusiasm was an inspiring sign for all of us as we started Lent, the annual season of reflection before Christians reach Easter each year. I thought this series of Sunday-morning discussions might be a challenge, because the series’ focus is the work and wisdom of a famous Baptist preacher, George A. Mason, the author of the new book, The Word Made Fresh

I wondered: Would Episcopalians coming for worship spend even more time on a Sunday morning considering what a Baptist has to say about our world?

As it turns out, indeed, they would!

After a “tour” of the book, I posed a question. “We can all think of examples of people being ‘cross wielding,’ beating others over the head with their beliefs. What would it mean for us to be cross-yielding instead?”

Click the cover to visit the book’s Amazon page.

In 2001, George introduced that turn of phrase in a 50th-anniversary sermon for the church where he served as senior pastor for many years: Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas. He declared, “Jesus says if we are to be his followers, we must take up our cross, not as a weapon of war but as a promise of peace.”

We must be “cross-yielding” rather than “cross-wielding,” he concluded.

Earlier in my career, I served on George’s Wilshire staff. In recent years, I helped some of George’s friends at Wilshire pull together this particular collection of his sermons into The Word Made Fresh as a special gift for George for his decades of service. As we collectively edited this volume, we agreed that this particular sermon should be the first one readers would see.

What are we as Christians “yielding” in this world? It’s a question millions are asking in 2024.

Some “give up” in Lent; we are “adding to” our theology of welcome

During Lent each year, millions of Christians “give up” something they typically enjoy, or conversely, devote extra time to spiritual practices as a way of identifying more closely with Jesus.

With all of the division and polarization that dominates our news cycles, The Word Made Fresh is a timely read, offering a theology of welcome and inclusion that can reinvigorate our faith and provide a clear path forward. Reading and reflecting on this book of sermons—either on one’s own or with a group like we are reading the book—can be a spiritual affirmation of hope and a commitment to making our world a better place.

Through all the years he served Wilshire, George kept challenging Christians to look carefully at what our faith is yielding each day, each week and each year.

After introducing this idea in the first sermon in this book, George returns to the question of our “yield” much later in his book in a sermon titled, “Cross-Eyed.” It’s one of the most powerful sermons in this entire collection.

He preached this particular Sunday message during another especially troubled Lent—in the year 2019 after a white-supremacist who claimed to be defending Christian civilization had shot up two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. The terrorist killed 51 people, wounded another 40, and was heading toward a third mosque, when police stopped him. Although that tragedy unfolded half a world away, George was thinking about his traumatized Muslim friends and neighbors in Dallas, who were reeling from the news.

George was angered by the killer’s twisted idea that Christianity called for such violence. As George preached that morning, he also condemned other similar hate crimes. That sermon still stands as a powerful condemnation of any form of religiously inspired violence—and an affirmation of what the cross of Christ should yield.

Just a few excerpts of what George said that morning:

“Our theme this Lent is the grace of seeing. Paul wants us to see the cross in such a way that we live through it. … Paul wants us to see the world through the corrective lenses of the cross. … The cross symbolizes the love of God. Period. It forever stands as a powerful warning against using the name of God to do violence. … Every and any use of the cross as an excuse to oppress, suppress, or repress any human being is a disgrace to our religion. … This is what it means to view the world cross-eyed: Our witness to the way of Christ is powerful when the grace of seeing through the eyes of the cross yields tears of love in solidarity with those for whom Christ died, whatever their religion, wherever they come from, however they look.”

You can read the entire sermon in this new book—and you can even see the 2019 video of George preaching that sermon (via a link provided in the book). That sermon is a good example of the dozens that are so memorable today that they’re worth the price of a copy of George’s book.

“George Mason is an ecumenical thinker,” I told my Episcopal friends at Holy Comforter. “His later sermons in particular speak to social justice, equity, and interfaith relations, all driven by the gospel.”

I encouraged people not to miss a single page, even though this is a big book, “because George leaves little nuggets of gold everywhere.”

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Care to learn more?

Ann Bell Worley is a Houston-based writer and editor with a background in theological education and ministry. She is the author of two children’s books with additional publications in religion and parenting and a broad range of editing credits. Much of her recent writing focuses on the challenges of raising a medically complex child. You can find more of Ann’s work and her family’s story on her website: www.graycoloredglasses.com.

Ann tells us this week: “I set out at the beginning of the year to tell our story in chronological order, starting with The Very Beginning and followed that with “Not Knowing” and “Still Not Knowing.” Soon, I’m planning to post the next installment.”