Note: Christmas Trees should remain up through January 6!
Excerpt From For the Time Being by W.H. Auden
Well, so that is that. Now we must dismantle the tree,
Putting the decorations back into their cardboard boxes –
Some have got broken – and carrying them up to the attic.
The holly and the mistletoe must be taken down and burnt,
And the children got ready for school. There are enough
Left-overs to do, warmed-up, for the rest of the week –
Not that we have much appetite, having drunk such a lot,
Stayed up so late, attempted – quite unsuccessfully –
To love all of our relatives, and in general
Grossly overestimated our powers. Once again
As in previous years we have seen the actual Vision and failed
To do more than entertain it as an agreeable
Possibility, once again we have sent Him away,
Begging though to remain His disobedient servant,
The promising child who cannot keep His word for long.
The Christmas Feast is already a fading memory,
And already the mind begins to be vaguely aware
Of an unpleasant whiff of apprehension at the thought
Of Lent and Good Friday which cannot, after all, now
Be very far off. But, for the time being, here we all are,
Back in the moderate Aristotelian city
Of darning and the Eight-Fifteen, where Euclid's geometry
And Newton's mechanics would account for our experience,
And the kitchen table exists because I scrub it.
It seems to have shrunk during the holidays. The streets
Are much narrower than we remembered; we had forgotten
The office was as depressing as this. To those who have seen
The Child, however dimly, however incredulously,
The Time Being is, in a sense, the most trying time of all.
For the innocent children who whispered so excitedly
Outside the locked door where they knew the presents to be
Grew up when it opened. Now, recollecting that moment
We can repress the joy, but the guilt remains conscious;
Remembering the stable where for once in our lives
Everything became a You and nothing was an It.
This selection is excerpted from Auden’s long poem “For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio” (1942), which can be read in full in W.H. Auden: Collected Poems (Modern Library, 2007, Copyright by The Estate of W.H. Auden).
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Sunday, December 31, 2017
Saturday, December 30, 2017
AT THE END OF THE YEAR
As this year draws to its end,
We give thanks for the gifts it brought
And how they become inlaid within
Where neither time nor tide can touch them.
Days when beloved faces shone brighter
With light from beyond themselves;
And from the granite of some secret sorrow
A stream of buried tears loosened.
We bless this year for all we learned,
For all we loved and lost
And for the quiet way it brought us
Nearer to our invisible destination.
John O'Donohue
Excerpt from 'At the End of the Year'
TO BLESS THE SPACE BETWEEN US
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
We give thanks for the gifts it brought
And how they become inlaid within
Where neither time nor tide can touch them.
Days when beloved faces shone brighter
With light from beyond themselves;
And from the granite of some secret sorrow
A stream of buried tears loosened.
We bless this year for all we learned,
For all we loved and lost
And for the quiet way it brought us
Nearer to our invisible destination.
John O'Donohue
Excerpt from 'At the End of the Year'
TO BLESS THE SPACE BETWEEN US
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Monday, December 25, 2017
Christmas Day Sermon 10 AM
Faithful God, you chose Mary, full of grace, to be the mother of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now fill us with your grace, that with her, we may understand your ways, rejoice in your salvation, and embrace your will; through Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
On this holy morning of Christmas, let us ponder anew the birth of our savior, of Jesus surrounded by love in the manger. On WMNR on Tuesday, our local classical station, I heard a Middle English lyrical poem or Carol of the 15th century that frames the Nativity with a song sung by the Virgin Mary to the infant Christ - "Lullaby, mine liking" Refrain Lullay, mine Liking, my dear Son, mine Sweeting,
Lullay, my dear heart, mine own dear darling.
I saw a fair maiden, sitting and sing,
She lulled a little child a sweet lording:
Refrain
That very lord is He that made all things
Of all lords He is Lord (and) King of all king.
Refrain
There was mickle (much) melody at that Child's birth,
All that were in heaven's bliss, they made mickle (much) mirth.
Refrain
Angels bright they sang that night and saiden to that Child,
"Blessed be Thou, and so be she that is both meek and mild."
Refrain
Pray we now to that Child, and to His mother dear,
Grant them His blessing that now maken cheer.
Refrain
I love this lullaby. It is such a soothing tale, I can see Mary giving a lullaby (Lullay, my dear heart, mine own dear darling) . So let us ponder how we welcome the holy family. In his book Once Upon a Time in Africa, Father Joseph Healey recounts a true story of a young couple expecting their first child.
Late on December 24, the young mother-to-be sensed something was wrong. The couple was alone: all their neighbors were away or busy with preparing for the great Christmas feast; some were involved in campaigning for the general election that was just a few weeks away. The couple went to the nearest maternity hospital, but there was no one to attend to her because the doctors and nurses were on strike and the watchman wanted a bribe before he would let them in.
On the way home, they met a homeless family who were living on the streets. They immediately recognized what was wrong and made a comfortable place for the expectant mother to lie down. Then they helped with her delivery. She gave birth to a healthy baby boy whom they named Samuel. Street children gave the newborn baby simple gifts, including their only toys: glue and a ripped ball. The couple made their way home, deeply grateful for the help offered by this homeless family. Could Mary and Joseph and the Child Jesus have been better cared for?
Remember this story today as you enjoy this wonderful holy day - and keep in mind that those you welcome, those you share the holiday with, are Christ, and that the love of God is in your midst.
Welcome them as you would welcome the Holy Family; offer them not only the hospitality of your table and hearth but welcome them with the compassion and peace of the heart that makes the simplest gift and fare celebrations of the love of God in our midst.
And may all you do be a lullaby, a caring for the Christ child in your midst for the stable is our heart. Amen.
Sunday, December 24, 2017
Christmas Eve 10 PM Sermon
Faithful God, you chose Mary, full of grace, to be the mother of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now fill us with your grace, that with her, we may understand your ways, rejoice in your salvation, and embrace your will; through Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
That poem from 1973 from Madeline L’engle gets me thinking about Love being born for us this night. God risking it all with the birth of a child.
On WMNR on Tuesday, our local classical station, I heard a Middle English lyrical poem or Carol of the 15th century that frames the Nativity with a song sung by the Virgin Mary to the infant Christ - "Lullaby, mine liking" and in those words from Mary to Jesus, I could imagine love surrounding him there in the manger. Here are the words:
Refrain:
Lullay, mine Liking, my dear Son, mine Sweeting,
Lullay, my dear heart, mine own dear darling.
I saw a fair maiden, sitting and sing,
She lulled a little child a sweet lording:
Refrain
That very lord is He that made all things
Of all lords He is Lord (and) King of all king.
Refrain
There was mickle (much) melody at that Child's birth,
All that were in heaven's bliss, they made mickle (much) mirth. Refrain
Angels bright they sang that night and saiden to that Child,
"Blessed be Thou, and so be she that is both meek and mild."
Refrain
Pray we now to that Child, and to His mother dear,
Grant them His blessing that now maken cheer.
Refrain
I love this lullaby. I can picture Mary near Jesus at the Nativity, giving him a lullaby (Lullay, mine Liking, my dear Son, mine Sweeting, Lullay, my dear heart, mine own dear darling), soothing him while Joseph watches. It is a beautiful scene. Such a blessing. We too are called to be such a blessing…
In a story I read recently, I read this snippet:
Every evening she could hear the newborn in the apartment next door cry and cry. The parents put the child to sleep alone in the dark. The baby cries for a long time; the exhausted parents clearly are oblivious to their child's anguish or are at a loss as to what to do.
What can and should she do? She's not sure. Speaking to the parents might make what is just an annoying situation into something much worse. So she decides to sing.
Just as she can hear the baby, the baby can hear her. So every evening when her mom and dad put the child to sleep, she sings lullabies and cradlesongs, talks softly and reassuringly to the baby through the walls, consoles and comforts the child. The baby hears her invisible friendly voice and falls asleep peacefully, without a tear or whimper. [From The Power of Kindness by Piero Ferrucci.]
Let us in word and deed proclaim our saviors birth, following Mary’s example, sharing her love for Jesus in quiet and serene ways. We can be such a voice of compassion, comfort, forgiveness and peace in even our smallest and simplest songs of love & kindness, in a world filled with too much hate and noise.
Let us celebrate in joyous sounds the birth of our savior. Amen.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Christmas letter to his Parents
December 17, 1943 - Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Christmas letter to his parents. He had been held for several months with no formal charges being made. In several earlier letters he had expressed the hope of being free by Christmas to celebrate the holiday with his family and close friends. By the time he writes this letter, he has given up on the hope of being free for Christmas…
Dear parents,
Above all, you must not think that I will let myself sink into depression during this lonely Christmas. It will take its own special place in a series of very different Christmases that I have celebrated in Spain, in America, in England, and I want in later years to be able to think back on these days not with shame but with a special pride. That is the only thing that no one can take from me.
I don’t need to tell you how great my longing for freedom and for all of you is. But you have for so many decades provided us with Christmases so incomparably beautiful, that the grateful memories of them are strong enough to outshine even a dark Christmas.
From a Christian point of view, a Christmas in a prison cell is no special problem. It will probably be celebrated here in this house more sincerely and with more meaning than outside where the holiday is observed in name only. Misery, poverty, loneliness, helplessness, and guilt mean something entirely different in the eyes of God than in the judgment of men.
That God turns directly toward the place where men are careful to turn away; that Christ was born in a stable because he found no room in the Inn—a prisoner grasps that better than someone else. For him it really is a joyous message, and because he believes it, he knows that he has been placed in the Christian fellowship that breaks all the bounds of time and space; and the months in prison lose their importance.
On Holy Evening (Christmas Eve) I will be thinking of all of you very much, and I would very much like for you to believe that I will have a few beautiful hours and my troubles will certainly not overcome me.
If one thinks of the terrors that have recently come to so many people [with the heavy allied fire bombings] in Berlin, then one first becomes conscious of how much we still have for which to be thankful. Overall, it will surely be a very silent Christmas, and the children will still be thinking back on it for a long time to come. And maybe in this way it becomes clear to many what Christmas really is. . .
Your Dietrich
Sermon: Advent IV
Almighty and everlasting God, you have stooped to raise our humanity by the child-bearing of blessed Mary; grant that we who have seen your glory revealed in our human nature, and your love made perfect in our weakness, may daily be renewed in your image, and conformed to the pattern of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (David Silk)
If John the Baptist helps us begin our Advent season, it is Mary who helps bring it to the end.
Advent as a season waiting, faithful, patient waiting, is a season to sit with Mary the mother of Jesus and ponder this pregnancy. Announced by the Angel Gabriel, proclaimed by Mary in her song, the Magnificat, it is a pregnancy that would bring redemption and change to the world.
I think of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a pastor who sat waiting for redemption & change to come in the midst of the Nazi terror of WW II, who said this about Mary.
Mary in many ways helped Bonhoeffer who waited in prison for a release that was never to come. But he understood her song and the perspective of her life.
It is such a perspective from prison that guided Bonhoeffer’s last years. “From a Christian point of view, a Christmas in a prison cell is no special problem. It will probably be celebrated here in this house more sincerely and with more meaning than outside where the holiday is observed in name only.”
As we sit with Mary and wait. As we ponder what God has done. As we await the glory as Bonhoeffer once did, may we know that God’s will continues to break forth all around us, if we have ears to listen and eyes to see.
Let me end with a poem written by Bonhoeffer in a Nazi prison camp at Christmas, 1944.
If John the Baptist helps us begin our Advent season, it is Mary who helps bring it to the end.
Advent as a season waiting, faithful, patient waiting, is a season to sit with Mary the mother of Jesus and ponder this pregnancy. Announced by the Angel Gabriel, proclaimed by Mary in her song, the Magnificat, it is a pregnancy that would bring redemption and change to the world.
I think of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a pastor who sat waiting for redemption & change to come in the midst of the Nazi terror of WW II, who said this about Mary.
“Mary, filled with the Spirit and prepared. Mary, the obedient handmaid, humbly accepting what is to happen to her, what the Spirit asks of her, to do with her as the Spirit will, speaks now by the Spirit of the coming of God into the world, of the Advent of Jesus Christ. She knows better than anyone what it means to wait for Christ. He is near to her than to anyone else. She awaits him as his mother. She knows about the mystery of his coming, of the Spirit who came to her, of the Almighty God who works his wonders. She experiences in her own body that God does wonderful things with the children of men, that his ways are not our ways, that he cannot be predicted by men, or circumscribed by their reasons and ideas, but that his way is beyond all understanding of his own will.”
Mary in many ways helped Bonhoeffer who waited in prison for a release that was never to come. But he understood her song and the perspective of her life.
“Who among us will celebrate Christmas right? Those who finally lay down all their power, honor, and prestige, all their vanity, pride, and self-will at the manger, those who stand by the lowly and let God alone be exalted, those who see in the child in the manger the glory of God precisely in this lowliness. Those who say, along with Mary, “The Lord has regarded my low estate. My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”
It is such a perspective from prison that guided Bonhoeffer’s last years. “From a Christian point of view, a Christmas in a prison cell is no special problem. It will probably be celebrated here in this house more sincerely and with more meaning than outside where the holiday is observed in name only.”
As we sit with Mary and wait. As we ponder what God has done. As we await the glory as Bonhoeffer once did, may we know that God’s will continues to break forth all around us, if we have ears to listen and eyes to see.
Let me end with a poem written by Bonhoeffer in a Nazi prison camp at Christmas, 1944.
By Benevolent Powers (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)(Amen.)
Faithfully and quietly surrounded by benevolent powers,
wonderfully guarded and consoled,
- thus will I live this day with you
and go forth with you into another year.
Still will the past torment our hearts
Still, heavy burdens of bad times depress us,
Ah, Lord give our startled souls
the grace for which we were created.
And if you pass to us the heavy, the bitter
cup of pain, filled to the brim,
we will accept it, without trembling
from your good and beloved hand.
But if you wish us to rejoice once more
in this world and the brilliance of its sun
then the past too we will remember
and so our entire life will belong to you.
With warmth and light let flame today the candles
that you have brought into our darkness.
If it can be, bring us together once again!
We know your light is shining in the night.
When the silence spreads around us deeply,
let us hear that full sound of the world
stretching out invisibly around us;
let us hear the children's praising song.
Warmly protected by benevolent powers,
with confidence we wait for what may come.
God is with us at evening and at morning
and most certainly at each new day.
Friday, December 22, 2017
For some Christmas Perspective...
I came across this and thought it would be very helpful with the seasonal stress...
1 Corinthians 13 Christmas Style
©By Sharon Jaynes
If I decorate my house perfectly with lovely plaid bows, strands of twinkling lights, and shiny glass balls, but do not show love to my family, I’m just another decorator.
If I slave away in the kitchen, baking dozens of Christmas cookies, preparing gourmet meals, and arranging a beautifully adorned table at mealtime, but do not show love to my family, I’m just another cook.
If I work at the soup kitchen, carol in the nursing home, and give all that I have to charity, but do not show love to my family, it profits me nothing.
If I trim the spruce with shimmering angels and crocheted snowflakes, attend a myriad of holiday parties, and sing in the choir’s cantata but do not focus on Christ, I have missed the point.
Love stops the cooking to hug the child.
Love sets aside the decorating to kiss the husband.
Love is kind, though harried and tired.
Love doesn’t envy another home that has coordinated Christmas china and table linens.
Love doesn’t yell at the kids to get out of your way.
Love doesn’t give only to those who are able to give in return, but rejoices in giving to those who can’t.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.
Love never fails. Video games will break, pearl necklaces will be lost, golf clubs will rust.
But giving the gift of love will endure.
Sunday, December 17, 2017
From the Pageant
Prologue
Narrator: The nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, based on the Gospel writings of St. Luke and St. Matthew. But before we tell the story, we need to remind ourselves:
Before the universe existed, there was God. There was no time and no space, but there was God. Then God spoke and Creation came to be. One of the things God created was freedom, which was the ability to say “yes” or “no” of your own free will and not be compelled to answer one way or the other. God yearned with all of God’s heart that the Creation God made would say “yes” to a deep relationship with God its creator. But more often than not, parts of that Creation said, “No.” People said, “No.” We said, “No.”
Saying “No” to relationship with God led people down some dark paths. They ruled each other instead of serving each other in love. Fear controlled the day. And yet God did not give up. God decided to send God’s own Son into this wayward Creation to show us the path back to the God who never broke the relationship like we had done. All God needed was someone to say, “Yes.”
Epilogue
Narrator: And so God sent God’s only Son to teach people to use their freedom to remain open to God, to say “Yes” to that deep relationship. A few decades later, he would die for his convictions. But then he rose again to show that nothing, not even death, can separate us from God’s love.
All the Cast (on Poster board) Speak:
So when you are searching for God…
now that God is always with you…
And when the Prince of Peace calls to you…
Say “Yes!”
Arranged in 2013 by the Rev. Matthew Kozlowski for St. Mary’s in Stuart, FL; additional parts in 2014 by The Rev. Adam Thomas of St. Mark’s in Mystic, CT. Adapted, etc. by Rev. Kurt – 12/2015 for St. Peter's, Monroe.
5 Years Later - 12/14 - We remember...
Thinking of Sandy Hook 5 years later.
These articles were very thoughtful...
How Faith Helped My Son After He Survived Sandy Hook (Time)
Sandy Hook School Shooting: The Police Five Years On (WSJ)
Newtown Is ‘Still So Raw,’ 5 Years After Sandy Hook Shooting (NY Times)
On the anniversary of Sandy Hook, a mother’s gratitude for her child’s faith (RNS)
Sandy Hook five years later: Can Christians find common ground on guns? (Wash Post)
The prayers of a grieving Sandy Hook mother (Newstimes)
Advent 3 - Becoming the Beloved Community
Why Beloved Community?
Jesus laid out the fundamentals for any who would follow him when he said, “The first [commandment] of all is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Mark 12:29-31). The Beloved Community is the body within which we promote the fruits of the spirit and grow to recognize our kinship as people who love God and love the image of God that we find in our neighbors, in ourselves, and in creation. It provides a positive, theologically and biblically based ideal toward which we can grow in love, rather than framing our justice and reconciliation efforts as fundamentally “against” (as in anti-racism, anti-oppression, etc.).
Charles Skinner describes the vision this way: “Beloved Community is not an organization of individuals; it is a new adventure of consecrated men and women seeking a new world … who forget themselves in their passion to find the common life where the good of all is the quest of each.” Quoting Karl Barth, Charles Marsh writes of the Beloved Community, “[T]he Christian regards the peaceable reign of God as the hidden meaning of all movements for liberation and reconciliation that ‘brings us together for these days as strangers and yet as friends.’”
In other words, Beloved Community is the practical image of the world we pray for when we say, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” We dream of communities where all people may experience dignity and abundant life, and see themselves and others as beloved children of God. We pray for communities that labor so that the flourishing of every person (and all creation) is seen as the hope of each. Conceived this way, Beloved Community provides a deeply faithful paradigm for transformation, formation, organizing, advocacy, and witness.
Pray the Collect for This Sunday
Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins, let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and forever. Amen.
Reflection: Stir Us Up
The Prophet Isaiah (see Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11) envisions a holy community where all people flourish and seek the good for each other, and it all begins with the anointing of the Holy Spirit. How often do we pause in our efforts and ask God to stir, anoint, and equip us for the journey? Remember that we are always learning and practicing the way of Jesus, who blesses and teaches us to live his way of love.
In the Labyrinth: Practicing the Way of Love in the Pattern of Jesus
Loving our neighbor takes formation, practice, and commitment. How will each of us learn to be reconcilers, healers, and justice-bearers in Jesus’ name? How could we practice sharing stories, growing relationship across dividing walls, and seeking Christ in the “other”?
-----------------------------------
The Kingdom of God could use some demonstration plots [of the Beloved Community]. Dr. Clarence Jordan used this image in founding Koinonia Farms outside of Americus, Georgia. The idea is to carry out the Christian faith in some places in such a public way that others see the Gospel of Jesus Christ being lived out today. How might your congregation be a demonstration plot for the Kingdom of God? First, you would need to be living out the love of God as revealed in Jesus Christ in such a way as to get others thinking. Second, “demonstration plots” are created in public places so that farmers can watch the progress of the crops or methods used in the experimental garden. How might your congregation live out the Gospel in a way the neighbors will notice, not for the sake of your church so much as for the sake of the Gospel? ~ The Rev. Canon Frank Logue, Canon to the Ordinary (Episcopal Diocese of Georgia)
Advent 3 Sermon
This was given at the 8 AM.
Holy One, you have come among us to lead us in paths of righteousness. Guide our feet through the wilderness toward the living water of your grace, following in the steps of our Savior: Jesus Christ, the light of the world. Amen.
This third Sunday of Advent, John the Baptist for a second week in a row calls us to repentance. We are invited to turn away from evil, to reject the temptations of Satan and turn toward the good and the path of following Jesus. We need to hear his message once again this Advent, “at a time in our world when some flourish beyond imagining while others starve for lack of resources and love.”
John the Baptist, as the forerunner, lives in a way that we should emulate. John the Baptist always pointed toward the one who was to come, Jesus. His message was never about him, but about Jesus. “His deeds mattered, but Jesus' deeds mattered more. His proclamation was compelling, but Jesus' proclamation was all consuming.”
Decrease our focus on ourselves and increase our love for our neighbors…
Isn’t that what John the Baptist expects of us?
In what our Christian tradition has come to call the "Incarnation," that is God with us, the God of love becomes one of us so that we might become one with God. The Incarnation is not only an event but a practice: that we "embody" the love of God for the sake of others.
A barber in Canada becomes the "incarnation" of God's love when he puts aside his adult world to bend down and crawl on the floor to enter the world of his young autistic client.
May this Christmas be the beginning of our own "practice" of incarnation: to leave our own self-centered world to travel humbly in the world of those in need and, through our patience, understanding and generosity, to make the compassion and peace of God a reality in their lives.
Amen.
Holy One, you have come among us to lead us in paths of righteousness. Guide our feet through the wilderness toward the living water of your grace, following in the steps of our Savior: Jesus Christ, the light of the world. Amen.
This third Sunday of Advent, John the Baptist for a second week in a row calls us to repentance. We are invited to turn away from evil, to reject the temptations of Satan and turn toward the good and the path of following Jesus. We need to hear his message once again this Advent, “at a time in our world when some flourish beyond imagining while others starve for lack of resources and love.”
John the Baptist, as the forerunner, lives in a way that we should emulate. John the Baptist always pointed toward the one who was to come, Jesus. His message was never about him, but about Jesus. “His deeds mattered, but Jesus' deeds mattered more. His proclamation was compelling, but Jesus' proclamation was all consuming.”
When Jesus appears on the scene, John the Baptizer immediately acknowledges the greatness of Jesus, greater than all that is past—greater than John, greater than all ancient memories and hopes. When Jesus comes into the narrative, John quickly, abruptly, without reservation says of Jesus, "He must increase, I must decrease."
What to do while we watch and wait this Advent season? Move from the large vision of Isaiah to the small discipline of John. If John embodies all that is old and Jesus embodies all that is new, take as your Advent work toward Christmas that enterprise: decrease/increase which is a form of repentance. Decrease what is old and habitual and destructive in your life, so that the new life-giving power of Jesus may grow large…
Decrease our focus on ourselves and increase our love for our neighbors…
Franz Jacob is a barber in a small town outside of Quebec. One of his regulars is six-year-old Wyatt Lafreniere. Wyatt is autistic - he has trouble sitting still and he's hypersensitive to being touched.
So Franz will follow Wyatt around his shop as needed. He'll crawl on the floor with Wyatt and clip the boy's hair a snip and a shear at a time. Wyatt will sometimes just lie down on the floor, so Franz will lie down on the floor, too, taking as much time as Wyatt needs.
Many barbers and hairdressers don't know how to deal with clients with disabilities like autism, but Franz Jacob has several regular customers with autism, Wyatt being the youngest. He's learned how to adapt to their needs. He schedules them for the end of the day so he can take the time he needs, as long as an hour to 90 minutes. "I lock the front door. It has to stay quiet," explains Franz. "I'm just being really patient because they are [the ones] driving those moments."
Franz Jacob also works with people who are terminally ill, who want to enjoy a last trim. "When you shave someone who is probably going to die within 48 hours ... it's indescribable . . . I'm really proud to be doing all this,' he says.
To Wyatt's mom, Franz Jacob is a hero.
"He welcomes him like his best friend. To see that he accepts these differences is just fantastic," she says.
A few weeks ago, Mrs. Lafreniere published a photo she took of the burly, grizzly-bearded, tattooed barber lying on the floor of his shop giving her son a haircut. The photo was posted online and in newspapers throughout Canada, and made the barber a hero - but Franz says, "I don't see myself like that, but I'm just doing my best all the time for my community." [CTVnews.ca; CBC]
Isn’t that what John the Baptist expects of us?
In what our Christian tradition has come to call the "Incarnation," that is God with us, the God of love becomes one of us so that we might become one with God. The Incarnation is not only an event but a practice: that we "embody" the love of God for the sake of others.
A barber in Canada becomes the "incarnation" of God's love when he puts aside his adult world to bend down and crawl on the floor to enter the world of his young autistic client.
May this Christmas be the beginning of our own "practice" of incarnation: to leave our own self-centered world to travel humbly in the world of those in need and, through our patience, understanding and generosity, to make the compassion and peace of God a reality in their lives.
Amen.
Tuesday, December 12, 2017
Becoming the Beloved Community - A Reading List
– Prayer for the Human Family (Book of Common Prayer, p. 815)
Q: What is the mission of the Church?
A: The mission of the Church is to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.
Q: How does the Church pursue its mission?
A: The Church pursues its mission as it prays and worships, proclaims the Gospel, and promotes justice, peace, and love.
Q: Through whom does the Church carry out its mission?
A: The Church carries out its mission through the ministry of all its members.
– An Outline of the Faith (Book of Common Prayer, p. 855)
Some reading that would be helpful (in Becoming the Beloved Community):
- Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
- Kelly Brown Douglas, Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God
- Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption
- Howard J. Ross, Everyday Bias: Identifying and Navigating Unconscious Judgments in Our Daily Lives
- “Under Our Skin,” Seattle Times project on race and racism
- Jim Wallis, America’s Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege and the Bridge to a New America
- Martin Luther King Jr., Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?
- James Cone, The Cross & The Lynching Tree
- Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World & Me
The end is reconciliation; the end is redemption; the end is the creation of the Beloved Community. It is this type of spirit and this type of love that can transform opponents into friends. ... It is this love which will bring about miracles in the hearts of men. – The Rev. Dr. Martin L. King, Jr.
The Lord's Prayer - Make a Change?
There has been much talk of Pope Francis and his suggestion that we use a better translation of some of the words of the Lord's Prayer:
https://www.npr.org/2017/12/11/569983706/pope-francis-suggests-translation-change-to-the-lords-prayer
In a new television interview, Pope Francis said the common rendering of one line in the prayer — “lead us not into temptation” — was “not a good translation” from ancient texts. “Do not let us fall into temptation,” he suggested, might be better because God does not lead people into temptation; Satan does. (from a NY Times article)
An Episcopal Priest, Scott Gunn had this to say (and I agree):
Why Pope Francis' Lord's Prayer suggestion is so tempting
if you look at our Book of Common Prayer, often in Rite II, you will find two versions, see page 97 for example. (https://bcponline.org/)
Jerusalem - Our Happy Home?
I had the opportunity to be on pilgrimage in Jerusalem, in Israel and the Palestinian Territory in 1999. It was an amazing trip and I was treated very well by all the people I met. After President Trump on his own recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital, I began to think of the people there and what our response should be. I can only imagine the anguish of the Palestinian Christians who live there.
But what do they say? Here are some responses:
Archbishop calls for tolerance, harmony and mutual respect in the Holy City of Jerusalem
The voice that cries in the wilderness (sermon) By Archbishop Suheil Dawani
Church leaders criticise President Trump over recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital
Jerusalem's Christian Leaders Implore Trump: Do Not Change Status of our Ancient City
Christian groups raise alarm over Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital
and from the Episcopal Church's Office for Government Relations:
Statement Regarding the U.S. Embassy in Israel
Today, President Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and announced that he intends to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, a move that would reverse more than 50 years of U.S. foreign policy. This decision could have profound ramifications on the peace process and the future of a two-state solution, and it could have a negative impact throughout the region and with key U.S. allies. The Episcopal Church Office is joining with Churches for Middle East Peace and many other organizations in opposing any effort to move the Embassy.
Since 1985, the Episcopal Church has had policy opposing the movement of the United States Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Our policy states that the status of Jerusalem must be “determined by negotiation and not by unilateral action by any one community, religion, race or nation.”
+Archbishop Suheil Dawani, Archbishop of the Episcopal Church of Jerusalem and the Middle East, has joined with patriarchs and heads of local churches in Jerusalem in opposing this move. We support Archbishop Suheil and value his perspective and expertise. As Episcopalians and Anglicans, we reiterate our view that the final status of Jerusalem, a city important to Jews, Muslims, and Christians, needs to be negotiated by Israelis and Palestinians with the support of our nation and the international community.
Sunday, December 10, 2017
Advent 2 Sermon
Shepherding God, guide us through this season of anticipation and hope. Comfort our troubled minds, and strengthen our tired bodies. Restore the hope this season offers, that we might lift our voices with strength and joy! Straighten the crooked paths that we might walk in your ways. Level the rocky ground that we might prepare for your arrival in our world. In Christ's name, we pray. Amen. (Ministry Matters)
Our Advent season of hopeful anticipation continues with our reading from Isaiah, from which, the Gospel of Mark uses a few lines to describe John the Baptist this morning.
Prepare the way of the Lord. That is what the season of Advent is for us. To prepare ourselves for God who is coming. John the Baptist is here to shake things up. To remind us that things are not the way God wants them. To repent. To fix. To make things straight.
But Isaiah, starts us not with repentance but comfort: “Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem…” So we begin with comfort...
The little clip was a piece of an amazing story filled with comfort even with death staring at that young man, who isn’t ready to stop yet. And Isaiah doesn’t stop with comfort, the announcement of God with God’s people. Think of what Isaiah is saying to us:
But for God to do this, to bring comfort, to bring salvation, to bring hope in the midst of darkness, we must take our part in God’s plan. How will we make the crooked road straight? (and in Monroe!)
Let me tell you about Daryl Davis. He is a southern blues musician. He is African American who has an interesting hobby. He collects Ku Klux Klan robes. He's got about 200 of them. How he gets them is the story…
A blues musician reduces the ranks of the Ku Klux Klan by his message of music and kindness; he straightens a very crooked path by his courage to sit down and talk with those who see him as beneath them, whose reaction from them is to see him destroyed. Daryl Davis is a prophet in the spirit of John the Baptist. In baptism, each one of us has been called by God to the work of prophet: using whatever talents and skills we possess to transform the wastelands around us into harvests of justice and forgiveness, to create highways for our God to enter and re-create our world in his compassion and peace.
May we hear Isaiah’s call in the lives of the prophets and in our lives too, to change all that is crooked, broken, uneven, so God can bring comfort, hope, and love in our world. Amen.
Our Advent season of hopeful anticipation continues with our reading from Isaiah, from which, the Gospel of Mark uses a few lines to describe John the Baptist this morning.
“See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight…”
Prepare the way of the Lord. That is what the season of Advent is for us. To prepare ourselves for God who is coming. John the Baptist is here to shake things up. To remind us that things are not the way God wants them. To repent. To fix. To make things straight.
But Isaiah, starts us not with repentance but comfort: “Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem…” So we begin with comfort...
(On Twitter) “After 20-year-old Chris Betancourt's cancer came back and was given a year to live, his best friend dropped out of college to help him fulfill his bucket list. This day, they crossed off feeding the homeless.” (ABCNews)
The little clip was a piece of an amazing story filled with comfort even with death staring at that young man, who isn’t ready to stop yet. And Isaiah doesn’t stop with comfort, the announcement of God with God’s people. Think of what Isaiah is saying to us:
Look, this is how our God arrives…
1: Mountains: leveled
2: Highways: smoothed
3: Valleys: filled
4: Roadways: straightened
5: Ruts: plugged
6: Rocks: rolled
Look, this is how our God arrives…
With a shout, a cry
With a revolution, a reshaping
With a promise, a new world
This is your God!
Road-maker, Journey-taker, Path-builder
Way-maker, Trail-blazer
God’s glory will then be complete
And the world will see it
Just as God has said
— from the archives of the Church of Scotland (This is your God, slightly adapted)
But for God to do this, to bring comfort, to bring salvation, to bring hope in the midst of darkness, we must take our part in God’s plan. How will we make the crooked road straight? (and in Monroe!)
Let me tell you about Daryl Davis. He is a southern blues musician. He is African American who has an interesting hobby. He collects Ku Klux Klan robes. He's got about 200 of them. How he gets them is the story…
Davis got his first robe 30 years ago while playing in a bar in Frederick, Maryland. After his set, a white gentleman approached him. "I really enjoy your all's music," he said. "You know this is the first time I ever heard a black man play piano like Jerry Lee Lewis." Davis thanked him and then asked, "Where do you think Jerry Lee Lewis learned how to play that kind of style?" And then the musician explained the roots of rock 'n roll in the black blues tradition, that the rockabilly style he liked was not invented by Jerry Lee Lewis but developed by black artists like Fats Domino and Little Richard.
The two talked for some time. As the conversation went on, the man said, "You know, this is the first time I ever sat down and had a drink with a black man.'" He then said he was a member of the Ku Klux Klan. Davis laughed at first, not believing him - but he man pulled out pictures and produced his Klan card. Davis immediately stopped laughing. But the man was very friendly and asked Davis to call him the next time he played at the bar.
"The fact that a Klansman and black person could sit down at the same table and enjoy the same music, that was a seed planted," Davis recalls. "So what do you do when you plant a seed? You nourish it."
Davis decided to go around the country and meet and talk to as many Klan members as he could - music always being the entrée. First he learned all he could about the Klan to understand what they really think - that enabled Davis to sit down and talk with people who instinctively hated him. Davis deflated the racial stereotypes that fueled their anger and hatred. "How can you hate me when you don't know me?" he asks.
"If you spend five minutes with your worst enemy - it doesn't have to be about race, it could be about anything . . . you will find that you both have something in common. As you build upon those commonalities, you're forming a relationship and as you build upon that relationship, you're forming a friendship. That's what would happen. I didn't convert anybody. They saw the light and converted themselves."
Once the friendship and trust blossom, the Klansmen realize that their hate may be misguided. When they renounce their membership, Davis collects the robes and keeps them in his home as a reminder of the dent he has made in racism by simply sitting down and having dinner with people & sharing a love for music.
Daryl Davis has been having those conversations for three decades now. And he has their robes as testimonies. [NPR, August 20, 2017.]
A blues musician reduces the ranks of the Ku Klux Klan by his message of music and kindness; he straightens a very crooked path by his courage to sit down and talk with those who see him as beneath them, whose reaction from them is to see him destroyed. Daryl Davis is a prophet in the spirit of John the Baptist. In baptism, each one of us has been called by God to the work of prophet: using whatever talents and skills we possess to transform the wastelands around us into harvests of justice and forgiveness, to create highways for our God to enter and re-create our world in his compassion and peace.
May we hear Isaiah’s call in the lives of the prophets and in our lives too, to change all that is crooked, broken, uneven, so God can bring comfort, hope, and love in our world. Amen.
Saturday, December 9, 2017
Advent 2 - Becoming the Beloved Community
Daryl Davis is a southern blues musician. He is African American who has an interesting hobby. He collects Ku Klux Klan robes. He's got about 200 of them. How he gets them is the story…
Davis got his first robe 30 years ago while playing in a bar in Frederick, Maryland. After his set, a white gentleman approached him. "I really enjoy your all's music," he said. "You know this is the first time I ever heard a black man play piano like Jerry Lee Lewis." Davis thanked him and then asked, "Where do you think Jerry Lee Lewis learned how to play that kind of style?" And then the musician explained the roots of rock 'n roll in the black blues tradition, that the rockabilly style he liked was not invented by Jerry Lee Lewis but developed by black artists like Fats Domino and Little Richard.
The two talked for some time. As the conversation went on, the man said, "You know, this is the first time I ever sat down and had a drink with a black man.'" He then said he was a member of the Ku Klux Klan. Davis laughed at first, not believing him - but he man pulled out pictures and produced his Klan card. Davis immediately stopped laughing. But the man was very friendly and asked Davis to call him the next time he played at the bar.
"The fact that a Klansman and black person could sit down at the same table and enjoy the same music, that was a seed planted," Davis recalls. "So what do you do when you plant a seed? You nourish it."
Davis decided to go around the country and meet and talk to as many Klan members as he could - music always being the entrée. First he learned all he could about the Klan to understand what they really think - that enabled Davis to sit down and talk with people who instinctively hated him. Davis deflated the racial stereotypes that fueled their anger and hatred. "How can you hate me when you don't know me?" he asks.
"If you spend five minutes with your worst enemy - it doesn't have to be about race, it could be about anything . . . you will find that you both have something in common. As you build upon those commonalities, you're forming a relationship and as you build upon that relationship, you're forming a friendship. That's what would happen. I didn't convert anybody They saw the light and converted themselves."
Once the friendship and trust blossom, the Klansmen realize that their hate may be misguided. When they renounce their membership, Davis collects the robes and keeps them in his home as a reminder of the dent he has made in racism by simply sitting down and having dinner with people. Daryl Davis has been having those conversations for three decades now. And he has their robes as testimonies. [NPR, August 20, 2017.]
Reflection: Proclaim Good News
God sent John the Baptist to proclaim the good news that we could repent, be forgiven, and return to God’s dream of restoration and salvation. John didn’t just cry out in the wilderness; he prepared people to enter the waters of baptism, to share their deepest truths, and to rise up ready for healed and reconciled relationship with God and with their neighbors.Proclaiming the Dream of Beloved Community
Healing, reconciliation, and justice are big ideas, but they all begin with exploring our stories, shared history, and deepest longings. If you listened closely to your church and your neighbors and civic partners, what might you hear? What experiences have people had around race, ethnicity and culture? Is there a shared vision of Beloved Community? What collective commitments and behaviors could you all make that would begin to foster the Beloved Community?
The Common Cup (during Flu/Cold Season)
The 1979 prayer book restores the most ancient name for this tradition on making Eucharist: the Great Thanksgiving. there are four primary actions within the Great Thanksgiving, and these are based on the actions of Jesus in the Last Supper as well as on the Jewish pattern of thanksgiving suppers: we offer bread and wine, we bless them, we break the bread, and we give the bread and wine to all who have gathered. In the church's vocabulary, these four actions of offering, blessing, breaking, and giving are called the offertory, consecration, fraction, and communion.Source: Vicki K. Black, Welcome to the Book of Common Prayer. Morehouse Publishing: Harrisburg, PA, 2005, pp.53, 56, 57.
In the Episcopal Church today we receive communion in a variety of ways. In some congregations you will go forward to the altar and kneel at an altar rail. In others, you may stand and receive in front of the altar or at various communion stations located throughout the church.
Some people receive by eating bread first and then drinking directly from the cup; others prefer to did the wafer or morsel of bread into the wine and then consume the bread and wine together-a process known as intinction, or to receive just the bread. (Gluten Free wafers are often available.)
From time to time, people have asked me about our use of the common cup and if it transmits colds, etc. Here are articles on this...
Holy Communion and Infection Risks: an Age-Old Concern (1999)
Eucharistic practice and the risk of infection (2001)
Does Communion Cup Runneth Over With Germs? (2005)
Can You Catch a Cold at Communion? (2013)
The Common Cold and the Common Cup: Does Communion spread germs? (2014)
******
To summarize:
"It must be stressed that the present use of the common cup is normal for Anglican churches, follows the practice of the universal church from its beginnings until well into the middle ages, and poses no real hazard to health in normal circumstances."
"No episode of disease attributable to the common cup has ever been reported. Thus for the average communicant it would seem that the risk of drinking from the common cup is probably less than the risk of air-borne infection in using a common building."
"A microbiologist shows, through scientific studies, that receiving Holy Communion does not increase one's illness rate when compared to the general population which does not take communion."
My suggestion:
If you have the flu, a cold, or a cold sore, then don’t drink from the cup. I would suggest washing your hands before communion (or using the hand sanitizer) and just receiving the wafer alone.
Sunday, December 3, 2017
Advent 1 Sermon
O God of salvation, you sent your Son Jesus to be among us, but we have been little aware of his presence. Wake us up to see him all around us, that he may be the light of our lives and that we may be part of his kingdom of peace and love where we serve you in one another, as we move forward in hope to your home of endless joy and rest. We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
By the time we got to the last pile of leaves here on Friday, the sunset had long vanished, we were working by the light of the parking lot lights. Such is the darkness that we experience as our days continue to grow shorter and shorter.
But for many of us, the darkness of our lives is experienced every day, whether it is the darkness that comes with depression and the feeling of hopelessness, or with addiction & a feeling of powerlessness. Whether it is the darkness of feeling that we don’t have enough as we live pay check to pay check… We can feel that we are far too often running on one of those hamster wheels that we can never get off.
Jesus said that in our lives, there will be darkness, but he calls us to stay alert, keep awake for the sign of God, our master, in our midst… and maybe we need a little help.
This charming little commercial is about the patience to help one another through life's scary passages, selflessness to walk together in hard times; I think of those who have gone through the long, dark road of addiction, and who on the other side become sponsors to help those navigating the darkness now.
Such words from Jesus are not about the scary darkness, but about the life we live now in the midst of it, to keep watch for the presence of hope, life and goodness that is all around us, and to help one another.
Jesus said, “And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.”
Jesus calls us to the same challenge: to pay attention, to watch for the signs of God's presence in our midst, to be awake to the most important and lasting things of life. Our lives are an Advent in which we come to realize that our time is precious and limited, that our lives constantly change and turn and are transformed - whether we are ready or not, whether we comprehend what is happening or are overwhelmed by it. Advent calls us to "watch," to pay attention to the signs of God's unmistakable presence in our lives, to live life expectantly and gratefully as a gift from God, like the monk finding that strawberry.
Pastor & author Richard Rohr writes that faith and spirituality begin with "seeing. It's not about earning or achieving but about "paying attention": paying attention to the presence of God in every joy and sorrow, in every pain and trauma, in every victory and setback before us.” Advent calls us to "watch," to be "alert", to be mindful of the presence of God all around us, in the love of family and friends & even strangers, in the best and worst of times, and to find the true meaning and purpose of our lives in moments of compassion, forgiveness and generosity that we extend to ourselves and each other. Amen.
By the time we got to the last pile of leaves here on Friday, the sunset had long vanished, we were working by the light of the parking lot lights. Such is the darkness that we experience as our days continue to grow shorter and shorter.
But for many of us, the darkness of our lives is experienced every day, whether it is the darkness that comes with depression and the feeling of hopelessness, or with addiction & a feeling of powerlessness. Whether it is the darkness of feeling that we don’t have enough as we live pay check to pay check… We can feel that we are far too often running on one of those hamster wheels that we can never get off.
Jesus said that in our lives, there will be darkness, but he calls us to stay alert, keep awake for the sign of God, our master, in our midst… and maybe we need a little help.
There is a 30-second ad for Home Goods, a little boy is going through the "monsters under the bed" anxiety stage. Each night at bedtime, his understanding parents patiently check for monsters behind the closet door, under his bed, in the dresser. And to further assure him that he has nothing to be afraid of, they place a special lamp, with a friendly whale at the base, to keep him company at night as he falls asleep. The whale lamp works like a charm.
Well, the little boy soon becomes a big brother. And the first night his new baby sister comes home, he gives his little sister his first big-brother gift: his friendly blue whale lamp to keep her company as she falls asleep, and then he goes through all the doors of the nursery and searches under the baby's crib himself to make sure there are no monsters lurking.
This charming little commercial is about the patience to help one another through life's scary passages, selflessness to walk together in hard times; I think of those who have gone through the long, dark road of addiction, and who on the other side become sponsors to help those navigating the darkness now.
Jesus said, “Therefore, keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly.”
Such words from Jesus are not about the scary darkness, but about the life we live now in the midst of it, to keep watch for the presence of hope, life and goodness that is all around us, and to help one another.
An honor student, frustrated with his life and with school, worried about what tomorrow may bring, approached his teacher asking for some guidance.
“The story goes,” says the teacher in response to his students request for help, “That a Buddhist Monk was walking through the mountains one day. Then, out of nowhere, a tiger appears, chasing the monk towards the edge of a cliff. The monk, in his quest to escape the tiger, runs to the edge of the cliff and climbs over the side, where he sees five other tigers 15 feet below him, waiting to eat him.
So the monk is just hanging there, holding on to a vine on the side of the cliff, waiting there for the little chance he has to escape or for his imminent demise. Then, as the monk hangs there, exploring his options, he turns to the left and sees a strawberry. He smiles, “Wow what a magnificent strawberry!” he says to himself. So, he picks it and he eats it.
The student waited for his teacher to continue but it was clear that the teacher was done with the story. “That’s it? That’s the story? The monk is about to be eaten by tigers so he reaches out to pick and eat a strawberry?” the student exclaimed. “What’s the point?” he added.
The teacher replied, “The lesson is to know and embrace the experience of being alive. You must be alive every second you are alive.”
The student responded, “But teacher, everyone is alive when they are alive.”
“No,” said the teacher. “It’s the experience of being alive in each moment, in each experience, good and bad. We must be alive every second we are alive and not simply exist and live out our days.”
The student, confused, questioned his teacher, asking, “But everyone alive is alive, aren’t they?” he insisted.
“No. Look at you now,” explained the teacher. “You are running around being chased by tigers, consumed with your thoughts of how it could be better, how you could be better if only things were different. You can’t be alive if you are living in fear and if you’re living in fear you can’t see and experience life; the magnificence of your life that is right in front of you in each moment.”
The teacher asked, “Are you running around, grinning over the feeling of being the luckiest, most fortunate and appreciative person in the world because of what IS present in your life today, or are you consumed with fear, what you DON’T have in your life or what may possibly happen sometime in the future?” The student thought for a moment, looked up at his teacher, smiled, and continued on with his day…” (adapted from a Zen story retold by D.T. Suzuki)
Jesus said, “And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.”
Jesus calls us to the same challenge: to pay attention, to watch for the signs of God's presence in our midst, to be awake to the most important and lasting things of life. Our lives are an Advent in which we come to realize that our time is precious and limited, that our lives constantly change and turn and are transformed - whether we are ready or not, whether we comprehend what is happening or are overwhelmed by it. Advent calls us to "watch," to pay attention to the signs of God's unmistakable presence in our lives, to live life expectantly and gratefully as a gift from God, like the monk finding that strawberry.
Pastor & author Richard Rohr writes that faith and spirituality begin with "seeing. It's not about earning or achieving but about "paying attention": paying attention to the presence of God in every joy and sorrow, in every pain and trauma, in every victory and setback before us.” Advent calls us to "watch," to be "alert", to be mindful of the presence of God all around us, in the love of family and friends & even strangers, in the best and worst of times, and to find the true meaning and purpose of our lives in moments of compassion, forgiveness and generosity that we extend to ourselves and each other. Amen.
Saturday, December 2, 2017
Advent 1 - Becoming the Beloved Community
In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God ... Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together. - Isaiah 40:3,5
Advent is a season of preparation: shopping for gifts, decorating our homes and sanctuaries. Advent is also a time to prepare our hearts and communities for the coming of Christ, the Almighty God who came among us poor and homeless, a stranger and a child. There may be no better time to reflect on how we as the Episcopal Church embrace the Holy One who continues to draw near in the neighbor, the stranger, the refugee, or the one who seems most “other” to you. It is the ideal season to commit to becoming Beloved Community and growing loving, liberating, life-giving relationships across the human family of God.
“During Advent, Christians focus on how much we need Jesus to bear light, healing and hope in a broken world,” noted the Rev. Canon Stephanie Spellers, the Presiding Bishop’s Canon for Evangelism, Reconciliation and Creation Care. “This is a mysterious, vulnerable time. We’re opening to Christ. We’re opening to different neighbors and strangers who are Christ among us.”
Presiding Bishop Michael Curry regularly welcomes us to live not just as the church but as the Episcopal branch of the Jesus Movement: the ongoing community that follows Jesus into loving, liberating, life-giving relationship with God, each other, and creation. May God bless and grow us into vibrant embodiments of the Christ we welcome and follow, this Advent and always.
As we enter Advent together, consider these prayers and what they might ask of each of us…
Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. (Collect for the 1st Sunday in Advent)
Look with pity, O heavenly Father, upon the people in this land who live with injustice, terror, disease, and death as their constant companions. Have mercy upon us. Help us to eliminate our cruelty to these our neighbors. Strengthen those who spend their lives establishing equal protection of the law and equal opportunities for all. And grant that every one of us may enjoy a fair portion of the riches of this land; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Collect for the Oppressed)
We cannot become what God created us to be unless we also examine who we have been and
who we are today. Who are you, as a church community? What groups are included and excluded? What things have you, as a church, done and left undone?
Monday, November 27, 2017
Follow-Up on My Sermon
More thoughts on Matthew 25:
On Serving the Goats (Abbott Andrew)
On Sheep and Goats: Division and Judgment in Ferguson and Beyond
More on St. Thérèse of Lisieux:
The Little Way of Hospitality
her little way
Christ the King Sermon (Nov 26)
Given at the 8 AM service.
Open my eyes that they may see the deepest needs of people;
Move my hands that they may feed the hungry;
Touch my heart that it may bring warmth to the despairing;
Teach me the generosity that welcomes strangers;
Let me share my possessions to clothe the naked;
Give me the care that strengthens the sick;
Make me share in the quest to set the prisoner free.
In sharing our anxieties and our love,
our poverty and our prosperity,
we partake of your divine presence, O Lord. Amen.
(Canaan Banana, Zimbabwe)
That prayer came from Zimbabwe, and it is good for us to remember in prayer those throughout our world who are enduing great suffering like in the Egyptian bombing at a sufi mosque there, and those who are waking up to a new dawn full of hope and freedom like in Zimbabwe.
One of Norah’s books we read to her at night says something like this: “The geese and the donkey, the sheep and the goats, were making funny noises down in their throats.” On the farm, they are all together.
But in today’s Gospel parable – Jesus tells us about a King who separates people, as if he were separating sheep from goats, it is a stunning parable if we sit with it…
This concluding parable of Matthew 25, the final teaching of Jesus in the Gospel, shows Christ as a king separating the people of the nations but neither the sheep or goats thought they were either serving or rejecting their heavenly king. What both the sheep and the goats failed to see were the vulnerable people who were starving or naked or in prison. “This teaching has inspired a spirituality of “seeing” Jesus in vulnerable people, the rejects of society, & what is at stake is seeing the people, seeing their need, and showing one has seen them by serving them.” (Abbott Andrew)
But as we sit with this parable, we also have sit with the ending; the separation, the judgement…
Indeed, we are not Jesus. We are his disciples and he calls us to love and care for those in need, the sheep and the goats, the vulnerable, the lost, even the hard hearted…But what does this look like?
Protestant author, professor & therapist Richard Beck searched for an answer until he came across the teaching of the “Little Way” in the writings of St. Thérèse of Lisieux. “Beck says that this “little way” seems simple until one tries it. The “little way” begins with noticing. Thérèse says that she noticed that some sisters in her Carmelite convent were saintly and popular and other sisters were difficult and ignored as much as possible: a separation of sheep and goats. Thérèse then had to move beyond her comfort zone and seek out the neglected, difficult sisters.” (Abbott Andrew)
Such kindness, hospitality, love is what we can offer to everyone, but how far do we go?
You're scrolling through the news or thumbing through the paper and you come across a story about a kid who overdosed or was bullied to the point of such despair that the kid took his or her own life. You might shrug for a second, shake your head, sigh that this is just another case of [name your reason]." Or, you might not even notice the story at all as you move on to the business section or the sports page.
But if that kid lived in your state or city or town, you'd notice. Hey, this kind of thing just doesn't happen here! You'd demand accountability; you'd want to know what's being done to help kids like this.
Now if the kid went to the same school as your son or daughter, you'd immediately join other parents in asking some hard questions of school and law enforcement officials. If the kid lived next door to you, you'd be right there for that family. It would be as if your child had died. And if it was your own son or daughter . . . That fact is: It is our own kid. Every kid is our kid.
Which is Jesus' point in today's Gospel parable: Every kid is our kid. We are our brother’s keeper, sheep or goat. Every person in trouble is our responsibility. Every injustice endured by another is our responsibility. Because every kid, every person in trouble, every innocent is Jesus to us. To be a disciple of Christ is to possess the vision & heart of God that enables us to see the goodness and image of God in every human being, we are all on this beautiful planet together. Our care for the poor, our work to alleviate despair and injustice in our communities, our holding ourselves accountable for creating more opportunities for the under-educated and under-employed is our first and most meaningful response to our baptismal call to proclaim the coming of God's Kingdom in Jesus Christ.
May we practice the Little Way with all, the agreeable and not so agreeable, with every kid, with every sheep and goat before us, so Jesus may say to us, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” Amen.
Open my eyes that they may see the deepest needs of people;
Move my hands that they may feed the hungry;
Touch my heart that it may bring warmth to the despairing;
Teach me the generosity that welcomes strangers;
Let me share my possessions to clothe the naked;
Give me the care that strengthens the sick;
Make me share in the quest to set the prisoner free.
In sharing our anxieties and our love,
our poverty and our prosperity,
we partake of your divine presence, O Lord. Amen.
(Canaan Banana, Zimbabwe)
That prayer came from Zimbabwe, and it is good for us to remember in prayer those throughout our world who are enduing great suffering like in the Egyptian bombing at a sufi mosque there, and those who are waking up to a new dawn full of hope and freedom like in Zimbabwe.
One of Norah’s books we read to her at night says something like this: “The geese and the donkey, the sheep and the goats, were making funny noises down in their throats.” On the farm, they are all together.
But in today’s Gospel parable – Jesus tells us about a King who separates people, as if he were separating sheep from goats, it is a stunning parable if we sit with it…
This concluding parable of Matthew 25, the final teaching of Jesus in the Gospel, shows Christ as a king separating the people of the nations but neither the sheep or goats thought they were either serving or rejecting their heavenly king. What both the sheep and the goats failed to see were the vulnerable people who were starving or naked or in prison. “This teaching has inspired a spirituality of “seeing” Jesus in vulnerable people, the rejects of society, & what is at stake is seeing the people, seeing their need, and showing one has seen them by serving them.” (Abbott Andrew)
But as we sit with this parable, we also have sit with the ending; the separation, the judgement…
“Edifying as this teaching of serving Christ through serving vulnerable people is, the grim sending away of the “goats” at the end of the parable, those who failed to serve the vulnerable is disturbing. One way to understand this grim ending is to suggest that if our hearts shrink to the vanishing point so that we become permanently blind to the plight of vulnerable people, we end up in our own darkness. This is a salutary warning. But perhaps these “goats,” need to be served too...” (Abbott Andrew)
Indeed, we are not Jesus. We are his disciples and he calls us to love and care for those in need, the sheep and the goats, the vulnerable, the lost, even the hard hearted…But what does this look like?
Protestant author, professor & therapist Richard Beck searched for an answer until he came across the teaching of the “Little Way” in the writings of St. Thérèse of Lisieux. “Beck says that this “little way” seems simple until one tries it. The “little way” begins with noticing. Thérèse says that she noticed that some sisters in her Carmelite convent were saintly and popular and other sisters were difficult and ignored as much as possible: a separation of sheep and goats. Thérèse then had to move beyond her comfort zone and seek out the neglected, difficult sisters.” (Abbott Andrew)
I have noticed (and this is very natural) that the most saintly Sisters are the most loved. We seek their company; we render them services without their asking; finally, these souls so capable of bearing the lack of respect and consideration of others see themselves surrounded with everyone's affection...
On the other hand, imperfect souls are not sought out. No doubt we remain within the limits of religious politeness in their regard, but we generally avoid them, fearing lest we say something which isn't too amiable. When I speak of imperfect souls, I don't want to speak of spiritual imperfections since most holy souls will be perfect in heaven; but I want to speak of a lack of judgment, good manners, touchiness in certain characters; all these things which don't make life agreeable. I know very well that these moral infirmities are chronic, that there is no hope of a cure, but I also know that my Mother would not cease to take care of me, to try to console me, if I remained sick all my life. This is the conclusion I draw from this: I must seek out in recreation, on free days, the company of Sisters who are the least agreeable to me in order to carry out with regard to these wounded souls the office of the Good Samaritan. A word, an amiable smile, often suffice to make a sad soul bloom...I want to be friendly with everybody (and especially with the least amiable Sisters) to give joy to Jesus. (St, Therese of Liseuix)Beck ends by saying “I must seek out. That's the practice of the “Little Way.” Seeking out, approaching and moving toward people you might not have normally approached, for whatever reason. All with the goal of extending a small act of welcome and hospitality, a kind word or a smile.”
Such kindness, hospitality, love is what we can offer to everyone, but how far do we go?
You're scrolling through the news or thumbing through the paper and you come across a story about a kid who overdosed or was bullied to the point of such despair that the kid took his or her own life. You might shrug for a second, shake your head, sigh that this is just another case of [name your reason]." Or, you might not even notice the story at all as you move on to the business section or the sports page.
But if that kid lived in your state or city or town, you'd notice. Hey, this kind of thing just doesn't happen here! You'd demand accountability; you'd want to know what's being done to help kids like this.
Now if the kid went to the same school as your son or daughter, you'd immediately join other parents in asking some hard questions of school and law enforcement officials. If the kid lived next door to you, you'd be right there for that family. It would be as if your child had died. And if it was your own son or daughter . . . That fact is: It is our own kid. Every kid is our kid.
Harvard Professor of Public Policy Dr. Robert Putnam, author of Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis, writes: "Our sense of 'we' has shriveled. Now when people talk about 'our kids,' they talk about their own biological kids; they don't talk about all kids. This leads to a situation that's bad for the economy & bad for democracy. But it's just not right. We have an obligation to care for other people's kids too."
Which is Jesus' point in today's Gospel parable: Every kid is our kid. We are our brother’s keeper, sheep or goat. Every person in trouble is our responsibility. Every injustice endured by another is our responsibility. Because every kid, every person in trouble, every innocent is Jesus to us. To be a disciple of Christ is to possess the vision & heart of God that enables us to see the goodness and image of God in every human being, we are all on this beautiful planet together. Our care for the poor, our work to alleviate despair and injustice in our communities, our holding ourselves accountable for creating more opportunities for the under-educated and under-employed is our first and most meaningful response to our baptismal call to proclaim the coming of God's Kingdom in Jesus Christ.
May we practice the Little Way with all, the agreeable and not so agreeable, with every kid, with every sheep and goat before us, so Jesus may say to us, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” Amen.
Wednesday, November 22, 2017
Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanksgiving Prayer (Grace) for Harvest Time
Loving God, all that we have
comes from your goodness
and the work of those who love us.
Bless us and the food we share.
Watch over those who care for us.
Open our eyes to the needs of the poor
during this time of harvest and thanksgiving.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
(From Blessings and Prayers through the Year, Elizabeth McMahon Jeep, Liturgy Training Publications 2004)
A Thanksgiving Prayer
O God, when I have food,
help me to remember the hungry;
When I have work,
help me to remember the jobless;
When I have a home,
help me to remember those who have no home at all;
When I am without pain,
help me to remember those who suffer,
And remembering,
help me to destroy my complacency;
bestir my compassion,
and be concerned enough to help;
By word and deed,
those who cry out for what we take for granted. Amen.
(A Thanksgiving Prayer by Rev. Samuel F. Pugh)
Thanksgiving Day Prayer
Almighty and gracious Father, we give you thanks for the
fruits of the earth in their season and for the labors of those
who harvest them. Make us, we pray, faithful stewards of
your great bounty, for the provision of our necessities and
the relief of all who are in need, to the glory of your Name;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with
you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
fruits of the earth in their season and for the labors of those
who harvest them. Make us, we pray, faithful stewards of
your great bounty, for the provision of our necessities and
the relief of all who are in need, to the glory of your Name;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with
you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
(from the Book of Common Prayer, p. 246)
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