Reader Report: Best Books of 2017

For 2017, I set a goal to read 100 books.

I spent a LOT of this year reading. Sometimes it was boring, but mostly, it was awesome. I crossed so many books off my to-read list. I laughed and I learned. I don't think I'll read 100 books next year, but I will keep reading.

As the year draws to a close, I wanted to compile a list of some of the best books I read this year.

Nonfiction - Religion

The Faith Club: A Muslim, A Christian, A Jew - Three Women Search For Understanding

Rayna Idliby, Suzanne Oliver, and Priscilla Warner

In this book, three women meet to collaborate on a children's book promoting religious literacy and interfaith dialogue. On the way, they realize their own misconceptions and work towards greater interfaith understanding. Religious people - read this!

What We Talk About When We Talk About God

Rob Bell

Rob Bell, man. Rob Bell is a pastor of an American church and a theologian for the common people. Bell is treading new paths and redescribing the way we look at God and the Bible - and you don't need a doctorate to understand. This books presents God as bigger, fuller, more complex than what we have thought in the past. Bell challenges us to think of a God who is bigger than us and what we've been thinking, a God who challenges us to be more.

Mormon Feminism: Essential Writings

Joanna Brooks, Rachel Hunt Steenblik, and Hannah Wheelwright

This book is so, so good. Brooks, Steenblik, and Wheelwright compile a new collection of essays, fiction, and poetry on Mormon feminism from the 1970s onward. Some if new historical studies into Mormon history and Mormon women's involvement in the women's movement early on. Others describe current issues and offer alternative paradigms and possible solutions. Whether you agree or not, this is a good book to understand where Mormon feminists are coming from. Mormons - read this!

How Do You Spell God?

Mark Gellman & Thomas Hartman

A rabbi and a priest team up to write a religious education book for older children and preteens. Covering the world's six major religions (and some smaller ones!) this book compares ideas of God, heaven, morality, clergy, and more. Heart information, accessible even to kids. Religious literacy is so important, and this book is a wonderful tool!

The Power Of Myth

Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers

Joseph Campbell, a scholar of comparative mythology, covers all kind of topics - sin, salvation, heroes, ritual, marriage, and more. What is the value of myth to religion? And how do various mythologies convey the same religious truths? Campbell addresses this and more with Bill Moyers.

Excavating Jesus

John Dominic Crossan and ‎Jonathan L. Reed

A former Catholic priest and an archaeologist team up to present the historical Jesus in his first-century Palestinian context. With detailed descriptions of archaeological evidence and careful readings of written evidence in the gospels, Crossan and Reed build an engaging portrait of what this man's life may have looked like. Christians - read this!

Fiction

The Jungle 

Upton Sinclair

First described to me as a novel about unsanitary meat packaging, this novel is so much more. Sinclair tackles life for immigrant families at the turn of the 19th century, life for the poor, life for working class. The protagonist family suffers repeatedly at the hands of the wealthy. Injustice exposed. Eye opening. Rich people - read this!

Franny And Zooey

J.D. Salinger

This book doesn't really have a plot. But it's one of those novels that has such beautiful prose that you just want to drink. You just lay there looking at this book and read it over and over and try your best to soak up the beauty. 

Journey To The East

Herman Hesse

Another of those "drink it up beautiful" novels. It's about a pilgrim who, you guessed it, journeyed to the East looking for spiritual fulfillment. 

The Stepford Wives

Ira Levin

One neighborhood, a men's club up on a hill, and women who only want to keep house. Suspicious? This one keeps you on the edge of your seat, for sure.

A Lesson Before Dying

Ernest J. Gaines

Two black men struggling to live fully in southern Louisiana. One in jail, one a poor teacher. Both are changed. Enlightening on issues of race. White people - read this!

Emmanuel

Emmanuel. "God with us."

Before Jesus was born, an angel visited Joseph and told him what to call Mary's baby. One of those names was Emmanuel. Translated, "God with us."

Sometimes, we think Emmanuel means that nothing bad will ver happen. Sometimes, Christians of all varieties imagine that life with God will be free from strife. Sometimes non-Christians or non-religious people think that God and religion are an opiate that solves problems. Not so.

And I don't think that's what was meant by "Emmanuel."

Instead, Emmanuel means that the worst thing will never happen to us - being away from God. Being completely, eternally alone.

Emmanuel means that God is with us always. That God cares.

We couldn't go all the way to God on our own, so God came. Emmanuel. God with us.

Emmanuel means that even though we're imperfect and messy and confused, God wants to be with us.

Emmanuel means that there will never be any space between us and God.

Emmanuel means that we are never alone.

Emmanuel means that God wants to be with us forever.

Emmanuel means that God will always be as close as our breath. Breathe in, breath out. There. That's God. Right up in our noses. So close. The words originally used in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles for Holy Spirit are in Hebrew ruach and in Greek pneuma. Ruach is the Hebrew word for wind. In Genesis, when God's spirit brooded over the waters before creation, that word is "wind." God's wind was there, God's breath. The Greek pneuma is recognized in English pneumonia. Breath. God is breath. Emmanuel.

Emmanuel. What a miracle. Emmanuel for all. Emmanuel not only for the rich and powerful, but those like babies and children - those who are small, helpless, without rights. Those who cannot help themselves. Those who have nothing at all to offer. Emmanuel. For those like this. For us.

Emmanuel means that everyone's invited and there's nothing we can do to earn our invitation and there's nothing we can do to take it away.

Emmanuel means that God already came down and delivered our invitation and scooped us up and brought us to the heavenly banquet.


When we worry we're not good enough - Emmanuel. God with us.

When we're scared  - Emmanuel. God with us.

When we're sad - Emmanuel. God with us.

When friends aren't being so friendly - Emmanuel. God with us.

When the prognosis is bad - Emmanuel. God with us.

When college and work is real tough - Emmanuel. God with us.

When there's no job and no money - Emmanuel. God with us.

When there's cancer - Emmanuel. God with us.

When there's depression and anxiety and eating disorders - Emmanuel. God with us.

When we don't know what's up next - Emmanuel. God with us.

When faith is hard to come by - Emmanuel. God with us.

When we wonder if we've ever felt the Holy Spirit speak peace to us before - Emmanuel. God with us.

When we've messed up REAL bad and feel we'll never be able to make restitution - Emmanuel. God with us.

When oppression seems to reign - Emmanuel. God with us.

When the fight for justice feels neverending - Emmanuel. God with us.

When racism and sexism and homophobia and islamaphobia and antisemitism and xenophobia seem rampant - Emmanuel. God with us.

When children are homeless and cold and hungry and we can't save them all - Emmanuel. God with us.

When the justice system puts innocent people away - Emmanuel. God with us.

When abusers run free and victims have to live in fear - Emmanuel. God with us.


And, when life is rainbows and sunshine and bowls of ice cream - Emmanuel. God with us.

All the time.

Highs and lows.

Hills and valleys.

In the harvest and in the famine.

Both/And.

Emmanuel.

God with us.

Advent & Annunciation

As I said in my previous post, I have been teaching Sunday School to a group of crazy awesome elementary schoolers. I inherited a curriculum organized around the church year - All Saint's Day, Reformation Sunday, Advent, Epiphany, Lent, Pentecost. We're teaching our kids about all of those little holidays that have been honored by Christians for hundreds of years but are often overlooked. Now, we're in Advent, the time when the church universal prepares for the coming of Jesus Christ, both his coming as a baby and his coming again.

As I'm growing up into adulthood, I am appreciating more and more the seasonal changes that help us as humans keep time through the year. While I usually complain about holidays in terms of "why the heck do we have to have like one day that's randomly different from all other days for no reason?? why do we have to change our schedules and stress over family and big meals??" Despite that, I am beginning to understand and value these seasons that allow us to focus more specifically on certain parts of life or faith. While we can definitely celebrate Jesus' birth, for example, at any time through the year, there is value in dedicating a season to meditating on the lessons of this story each and every year.

These stories are rich with metaphor and symbolism. Most scholars agree that Jesus probably wasn't born on December 25. We don't have any recorded dates, and Christmas wasn't celebrated until a couple hundred years after the fact.

Christians began celebrating Christmas on December 25 because they were recycling and repurposing a pagan holiday. Before electricity and advanced agriculture practices, humans relied on the patterns of the sun and moon - days, months, years. They noticed patterns that we, with 24-hour light and vegetables that are in season all year long, overlook. Winters can be hard now, but they were deadly for humans past. They watched the passage of the sun, they noticed when the days got shorter, and they celebrated the winter solstice as the day that the sun returned. They celebrated the return of light to the world. It was not uncommon for this day or time to be celebrated as the day of the birth of the Sun God.

Later, Christians co-opted the holiday to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, who from very early in the Jesus movement was called the "Light of the World" (John 8:12, 9:5). Jesus - the Son of God - replaced the Sun God, and His birth began to be celebrated near the winter solstice.

Advent, as the time when we prepare our minds and hearts for Christmas, is a time when we meditate on the Light. We think about how no matter how dark the world gets, God will always send light. This world has been going around for thousands of years, so winter has ended thousands of times. God has sent light to the world all those times - will not God do so again?

Traditionally, the church universal has assigned a certain theme to the four weeks of Advent - hope, love, joy, and peace. In this second week of Advent, I taught a Sunday School lesson about Love. We talked about how God loved us by sending Jesus, by sending the Light. We watched some darling videos about Mary, Joseph, and Elizabeth. Click below to watch (they're kiddie, but so so good):

• Mary visited by Gabriel
• Joseph has a dream
• Elizabeth visited by Mary

We talked about how God loved us, so God sent Jesus. We talked about how God showed love by telling us about the gift of Jesus - God sent an angel to Mary and a dream to Joseph. Then, Mary loved Elizabeth by sharing the news of Jesus. 

I so love the little video of the annunciation. It's a story I love in general. I love Mary's hymns in Luke. What I really love about this video is how it handles Mary's "but I'm a virgin!" questions. I love that when the angel says, "you're going to be his mom," Mary knocks the stool over and falls down. It's so cute and so relatable. 

Then she says, "Are you sure you've got the right girl? God must have meant someone else." The implication is - "I'm nobody. I'm not cool or great or especially faithful. I'm just a normal person. Are you sure God wants to use me?"

And isn't the the question we all wonder upon receiving a calling? God, are you sure you want me? 

But the angel says, "Yep! God wants you." Why? "Heaven only knows." Just cause. Just cause I want you. Just cause I love you. Because I'm God and I get to pick whoever I want and I pick you. "I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee" (Jeremiah 31:3). 

God loves, so God calls and God gives gifts and God sends messages. 

Artwork depicting the Annunciation (Google Images)

 And the angel answered and said unto her, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. . . . For with God nothing shall be impossible." 

And Mary said, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word." And the angel departed from her. 

And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Juda; And entered into the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elisabeth. And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost: And she spake out with a loud voice, and said, "Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? . . . Blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord." 

And Mary said, "My soul doth magnify the Lord, And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name."

(Luke 1:35-49)

Not Your Average Mormon

For quite a while, I've been meaning to try to write here more often. Obviously, that hasn't really happened.

Instead of aiming for any deep theological reflections, my goal will be simply to post weekly - small reflections or meditations about what I've been studying, talks I've heard, things that have happened. Fingers crossed, and maybe hoping to receive some grace to keep up with it?

I'll start today with a little bit of a background of what's going on lately.

I unofficially left the LDS church in April 2016. That was really rough for me. I spent a couple months believing there was no god, then spent a couple months exploring various expressions of faith and spirituality. For nearly a year, I have been attending a nondenominational church in my area off and on, and flirting with the idea of returning to my LDS ward. I've watched every general conference since I was baptized, and have read the Book of Mormon infrequently since leaving. Like I said, going back is an idea that's been tugging at my mind lately. That's a whole big bag of complicated that I can't get into now. It would take way too long, and besides - I don't even know where I am with that exactly, so I surely am not in a place to explain it fully. As Liz Gilbert said regarding one aspect of her life in an interview, "It's something I'm living in right now, so I can't really say too much about it." I'm going to focus on being present in my faith journey, rather than trying to turn it into a story prematurely. The point: Mormon, not Mormon, kind of Mormon - confused.

For about two and a half years, I have been employed at a Methodist church (the church where I grew up), as an assistant in the children's ministry.

One month ago, my supervisor at work resigned unexpectedly. I have since stepped up into some of her roles, including teaching Sunday School to about 60 elementary schoolers and dealing with extra programming. This has given me a great opportunity to do some good studying and evaluation of what I believe. It has been enlightening and a lot of fun. I have stepped into these roles prayerfully.

I say that because some of the things I bring up in these reflections or meditations will be inspired by the things that I'm studying and teaching on Sunday mornings.

It's kind of funny, my boss stepping down. For over a year, as I've toyed with religion, I have explored many traditions, but felt that nothing fit exactly. There's a lot that I like from all different places, but nothing seemed to work exactly. After a while of this, I realized that every religion and every denomination would have things that weren't perfect, things that I didn't exactly believe, problematic pieces of history. I knew that I'd find a depth of religious experience as I chose one - though imperfect - and devoted myself to a tradition and to a people. I was frozen, though, because I didn't know which tradition to choose! And now I teach children about Jesus in the Methodist tradition. I'm learning all kinds of things about the Bible and Methodism. I don't know if I'd call myself Methodist right now, but I do think it's . . . interesting that God kind of shoved me into a faith community.


Despite this all - the questioning, the Methodist church - I write on this blog which has attached the identifier "Mormon."

I love the LDS church. I love the Book of Mormon, and I love our prophets. I love Joseph Smith and the movement that he started.

I love the Relief Society. I love Mormon women. I love Emma Smith and Eliza Snow and Emmeline Wells. These are the women I call my spiritual ancestors. They came before, and I follow their footsteps, because they were faithful, courageous, strong- and I want to be those things, too. I love every Mormon woman I have met in my wards; they have all taught me something valuable about life and love. I love the sister missionaries (those who were full-time and those who personified the call "every member a missionary") who met with me when I was in darkest night, who loved me when I was unlovable, who courageously accepted the call to serve their God, who persevered in proclaiming their faith boldly. They are an inspiration, and thinking of them brings tears of gratitude to my eyes.

I love this church. I may not love everything about it, but I love it. People say you can't choose your family, but you can choose your friends. Well, this church is my family. This is where my heart is, and may always be. This church chose me, sought me out, loved me when I was alone, and healed me when I was broken. I am forever indebted to this church; it will always have a place in my heart and in my life.

I'm not orthodox. Not even close. I never will be "just your average Mormon." Nevertheless, I remain glued to this church by my baptism and by the spiritual bonds that have been built by heaven's hands.

Kirtland Temple (source)