Rev. Eric Elnes - Gifts of the Dark Wood: Seven Blessings for Soulful Skeptics (and Other Wanderers)

Praise for Gifts of the Dark Wood

Praise for Gifts of the Dark Wood

Many of us have known Eric Elnes as a brilliant theologian, daring communicator, and creative genius. But in Gifts of the Dark Wood, we get to know Eric as a sensitive pastor and wise spiritual director or guide. In his care through these pages, readers will be touched by insight, humility, inspiration, consolation, and profound joy, and they will find themselves discovering rich treasures in most unexpected placesin their failures, their darkness, their disappointment. Brian D. McLaren, author and activist, brianmclaren.net

Eric Elnes is one of post-liberal Christianitys most thoughtful, effective, and influential leaders. An informed and teaching pastor to both his local congregation and to his communion-at-large, he ministers also to the thousands from around the world who worship with him each week in the cyber-church, Darkwood Brew. Phyllis Tickle , author of Emergence Christianity

As both a friend of Erics work and of the man, let me say that Gifts of the Dark Wood is his finest achievement. Eric writes with the fierce honesty of a mystic, the soul of a true priestone who truly ministers to othersand the pen of a prophet. This is a road map giving us a path for following the Spirit. Frank Schaeffer, author of Why I Am an Atheist Who Believes in God

In a dark time, the eye begins to see, wrote the American poet Theodore Roethke. This paradox is at the heart of Eric Elness deeply felt book. Drawing on examples from his own life, from his ministry, and from the scriptures, he shows how bewilderment may yield insight and how, by getting lost, we may find our way. Whether the dark time that concerns you is personal, due to private suffering, or public, due to widely shared afflictions such as war and social injustice and environmental devastation, you will find wise guidance in these pages. Scott Russell Sanders, author of Earth Works: Selected Essays

Title Page

Copyright Page

gifts of the dark wood

seven blessings for soulful skeptics (and other wanderers)

Copyright 2015 by Eric Elnes

All rights reserved.

No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission can be addressed to Permissions, The United Methodist Publishing House, 2222 Rosa L. Parks Blvd., PO Box 280988, Nashville, TN, 37228-0988 or e-mailed to permissions@umpublishing.org.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Elnes, Eric.

Gifts of the dark wood : seven blessings for soulful skeptics (and

other wanderers) / Eric Elnes.

1 online resource.

Includes bibliographical references.

Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by

publisher; resource not viewed.

ISBN 978-1-4267-9414-8 (e-pub)ISBN 978-1-4267-9413-1 (binding: soft

back) 1. Spiritual lifeChristianity. I. Title.

BV4501.3

248dc23

2015016407

All Scripture quotations unless noted otherwise are taken from the Common English Bible. Copyright 2011 by the Common English Bible. All rights reserved. Used by permission. www.CommonEnglishBible.com.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from The Authorized (King James) Version. Rights in the Authorized Version in the United Kingdom are vested in the Crown. Reproduced by permission of the Crowns patentee, Cambridge University Press.

Scripture quotations from THE MESSAGE. Copyright by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

Scripture quotations marked NRSV are taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to Bob and Gretchen Ravenscroft and
to the memory of my father, Conrad Elnes.

Contents

Contents

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments

American poet and essayist Walt Whitman once observed that, a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars. As I turn through the leaves of this book, I find myself in awe over how many brilliant stars have contributed significant insight, guidance, and affirmation over the course of various drafts of this humble work. Among them are authors, including David James Duncan, Scott Russell Sanders, Phyllis Tickle, Frank Schaeffer, and Lauren Winner. Others include my literary agent, Kathryn Helmers, as well as many friends including Patti Tu, Chris Alexander, Cary Sharkey, Cyndi Kugler, Leslie Murrell, Deb McCollister, Margaret McGrath, Bob and Gretchen Ravenscroft, Donna and Paul Knutson, Dove DoVale, and Scott and Anna Griessel. My family played an enormous role as well with respect to both content and moral supportespecially my wife, Melanie; her sister, Corrie Gant; my daughters, Arianna and Maren; and my parents, Phyllis and Conrad. My hope is that these pages reflect at least a portion of your brilliance.

Most of all, I am grateful to the members and friends of Countryside Community Church (UCC) in Omaha, Nebraska, two hundred of whom read the first draft of this book and contributed meaningful feedback. Another fifty of these helped create an engaging video series, Gifts of the Dark Wood, produced by Darkwood Brew (www.darkwoodbrew.org) to accompany this book. Guests appearing on this series engaged with this book from their own perspective, adding depth, insight, and frequent humor. These include Parker Palmer, Diana Butler-Bass, Brian McLaren, Lillian Daniel, Frank Schaeffer, Melvin Bray, Chuck Marohnic, and Semisonics drummer, Jacob Slichter. All of you inspire and amaze me.

Finally, significant portions of this book were written while on various writing retreats. I am grateful to Dr. David and Judy Magill, who graciously allowed me full use of their beautiful Sed-ona, Arizona, home, as well as to the good folks at Spirit of the Desert Retreat Center in Carefree, Arizona. The stars at Arcosanti, an environmentally sustainable community in Mayer, Arizona, are particularly dear to my heart. Portions of this book and two others have been written while enjoying their hospitality, vision, and creative spirit at their high desert oasis.

introduction: A Place in This World

introduction

A Place in This World

Easedale Tarn. Cresting the brow of a ridge overlooking a small mountain lake in the north of England, most of my hiking companions stopped for a brief lunch before moving on to the next ridge. After the lunch break, I swallowed my pride and decided to stay behind with a couple of others. It was against my nature, but my knees, which hadnt quite been the same since walking across the United States in 2006, were still protesting the arduous ups and downs of the preceding days hike.

Finishing lunch on top of a sun-warmed boulder a few yards up from shore, I found the waters of the lake too tempting to be left alone. Their depths seemed to be held in place by two knobby hands cupped and held tightly together, as a wanderer in the Lake District might cup her hands before dipping them to drink from a stream.

The mountains granite peaks looked down over the lake in front of us like guards standing watch on a castle wall. The grassy slopes coddling us from behind held the wind at bay, allowing the lake to rest in perfect stillness, beckoning the sky to come down and lay upon it.