Easter Vigil Sermon & Blessing

How blessed is this night, when earth and heaven are joined and humankind is reconciled to God! May the light of Jesus shine in us to continually drive away all darkness — he who gives his light to all creation, and who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.

Tonight, we come to the conclusion of our 3 act story…

Part 1 began with love on Maundy Thursday with Eucharist and foot washing, and ended with the betrayal & desertion in Gethsemane.

Part 2 was Good Friday and the brokenness of our world was brought home to us in the crucifixion of Jesus.

Tonight, Part 3, God has shattered the silence of Good Friday, when evil and darkness seemed to have won. We who stood by the cross as witnesses in prayerful silence waited and hoped.

Now it is God who shouts out new life to our world! God has renewed the earth and this has happened through Jesus’ death and resurrection.

“God has turned all our sunsets into dawns.” – St. Clement of Alexandria

And in that light, we live into the resurrection; not as some best kept secret we lock away in our vaults for no one to see. But we shout our Alleluias! For in our baptism we are called to live the joy of the resurrection in our daily lives, in how we care for ourselves, each other and the world God has created. But, do we fear living out our faith?

Certainly Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome who went to anoint Jesus were so shocked at the Good News, they fled in terror and amazement…could it be true? He lives? For a time, they kept the news to themselves afraid … But we would not be here celebrating if they never told anyone, for they did tell Peter and others, and all came to believe that Jesus burst from the tomb, and was indeed risen from the dead.

Maybe what we fear is the change in our lives if we truly celebrated and lived that promised resurrection in our lives. If we truly celebrated the resurrection, would people see us as crazy? What would it look like in our lives? The author Megan McKenna tells a story about such a time when she was leading a Bible study. She writes,

"Once in a parish when I was studying scripture (Luke 7: 11-17) with a large group, someone called out harshly, 'Have you ever brought someone back from the dead?' My response was 'Yes. Every time I bring hope into a situation, every time I bring joy that shatters despair, every time I forgive others and give them back dignity and the possibility of a future with me and others in the community, every time I listen to others and affirm them and their life, every time I speak the truth in public, every time I confront injustice — yes — I bring people back from the dead.'" [Not Counting Women and Children: Neglected Stories from the Bible by Megan McKenna]

Do we see such changes from death to life before us? Will we let go of fear and bear witness to life? Will we share the beautiful light?

The Swan - Mary Oliver

Did you too see it, drifting, all night, on the black river?
Did you see it in the morning, rising into the silvery air -
An armful of white blossoms,
A perfect commotion of silk and linen as it leaned
into the bondage of its wings; a snowbank, a bank of lilies,
Biting the air with its black beak?
Did you hear it, fluting and whistling
A shrill dark music – like the rain pelting the trees – like a waterfall
Knifing down the black ledges?
And did you see it, finally, just under the clouds -
A white cross Streaming across the sky, its feet
Like black leaves, its wings Like the stretching light of the river?
And did you feel it, in your heart, how it pertained to everything?
And have you too finally figured out what beauty is for?
And have you changed your life?

Jesus has brought us new life, new beginnings. It is there for us to live, to experience, to celebrate in our lives. The resurrection is God’s gift of redemption to us, the cross and tomb are empty. As Mary Oliver would ask…

· And did you feel Easter, in your heart, how it pertained to everything?
· And have you too finally figured out what beauty is for?
· And have you changed your life?

We have to make that new start, we have to love, to forgive, to listen, to hope, to change our lives… As Dietrich Bonheoffer Lutheran Pastor & Martyr put it:

It is “from the resurrection of Christ that a new and purifying wind can blow through our present world… If a few people really believed that and acted on it in their daily lives, a great deal would be changed. To live in the light of the Resurrection – that is what Easter means.” (Letters & Papers from Prison)

May our lives live in that light and help share that resurrection to all who are still living Good Friday lives. Amen.

Easter Benediction:

And now to God who is able to keep us from falling, and lift us from the dark valley of despair to the bright mountain of hope, from the midnight of desperation to the day break of joy; from the sunset and darkness of Good Friday to the dawn and light of Easter; to God be power and authority, for ever and ever. Amen. (slightly adapted from Martin Luther King (1929-68)

Good Friday Sermon

Blessed Savior, Send me into the world, so that, like you, I may bear witness to God’s light and life. Turn me loose, Lord, to be a channel of your love, and instrument of your compassion,
a minister of your grace. Amen. (SSJE)

Good Friday is about brokenness. Act 2 of what could have been such love and hope on Maundy Thursday that seemingly ends with betrayal, denial and defeat. Lots of images represent that brokenness – a crucifix with Jesus on the cross or a plain wooden cross, remind us of what happened.

I recently saw an image of what is called El Cristo Roto – the Broken Christ – and thought it’s image was a Good Friday image.

“Broken Christ” (Cristo Roto) is located on an island in the town of San José de Gracia, Aguascalientes, in México. It is a concrete and steel sculpture of Christ, as if he were hanging on a cross, without one arm and missing part of a leg, a mutilated Christ without a cross.

 Beneath the 92 foot high statue is a plaque:

“Leave me broken…
I’d like that when you look at me broken like this,
you’d remember many of your brothers and sisters
who are broken, poor, indigent, oppressed, sick, mutilated…
Without arms: because they are incapacitated, left without any means to work;
without feet: because they are impeded to walk their way;
without face: because they have been robbed of their honor and prestige.
They are forgotten… those who see them turn away
since they are like me – a broken Christ!”

A broken Christ. Heart wrenching.

But it is image that bids us look not only to the cross but to the world around us.

To see the broken among us.

Forgotten. Mutilated.

That statue like Good Friday itself makes us uncomfortable and it should. But we cannot leave it as something long ago. So many today live Good Friday lives as that Broken Christ tells us.

It is heartbreaking. But what we do with that heart ache is important. Author Parker Palmer put it this way…

“Heartbreak is an inevitable and painful part of life. But there are at least two ways for the heart to break: it can break open into new life, or break apart into shards of sharper and more widespread pain.

A brittle heart will explode into a thousand pieces, and sometimes get thrown like a fragment grenade at the perceived source of its pain — there’s a lot of that going around these days.

But a supple heart will break open into a greater capacity to hold life’s suffering and its joy — in a way that allows us to say, “The pain stops here.”

The broken-open heart is not restricted to the rare saint. I know so many people whose hearts have been broken by the loss of someone they loved deeply. They go through long nights of grief when life seems barely worth living. But then they slowly awaken to the fact that their hearts have become more open, compassionate, and welcoming — not in spite of their pain but because of it.

So here’s a question I like to ask myself: What can I do day-by-day to make my heart more supple?

In her poem, Lead, Mary Oliver invites us into heartbreak — not because she wants us to wallow in suffering, but to help us become more open and responsive to our suffering world.” (An Invitation to Heartbreak and the Call of the Loon by Parker J. Palmer)

Lead by Mary Oliver

Here is a story
to break your heart.
Are you willing?
This winter
the loons came to our harbor
and died, one by one,
of nothing we could see.
A friend told me
of one on the shore
that lifted its head and opened
the elegant beak and cried out
in the long, sweet savoring of its life
which, if you have heard it,
you know is a sacred thing,
and for which, if you have not heard it,
you had better hurry to where
they still sing.
And, believe me, tell no one
just where that is.
The next morning
this loon, speckled
and iridescent and with a plan
to fly home
to some hidden lake,
was dead on the shore.
I tell you this
to break your heart,
by which I mean only
that it break open and never close again
to the rest of the world.

May the God of mercy, forgive us when we have shied away from heartache and pain. May God break our hearts open, never to close again to the rest of the world, so that El Cristo Roto, the Broken Christ, Jesus may help us reach out to the forgotten & broken among us. Amen.

Jesus Was a Refugee

Jesus the refugee child in the Gospel of Matthew by Joan E. Taylor
An excerpt:

The unstoppable force of refugees fleeing to Europe has in various places hit the immovable object of an attitude that there is no room at the inn. Spaces are filled. Migrants should be kept out, in order to preserve jobs, health and welfare services. In an environment of austerity, where economic cuts have hit people hard, this cold-heartedness in part derives from a deep sense of insecurity.

At this time it is worth remembering that Jesus of Nazareth is in the Bible presented exactly as one that would be rejected by such European countries: a refugee child.

Woodcut from Die Bibel in Bildern (1860) by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld. 

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus’ (adoptive) father, Joseph, and mother, Mary, live in Bethlehem, a town in Judaea near Jerusalem. It is assumed to be their home village. Certain magoi (“wise men”/astrologers) come from “the East” to Herod, the Roman client king of Judaea, looking to honor a new ruler they have determined by a “star,” and Jesus is identified as the one. All this is bad news to Herod, and Herod acts in a pre-emptive strike against the people of Bethlehem and its environs. He kills all boys under two years of age in an atrocity that is traditionally known as “the massacre of the innocents” (Matthew 2.16–18).

But Joseph has been warned beforehand in a dream of Herod’s intentions to kill little Jesus, and the family flees to Egypt. It is not until Herod is dead that Joseph and Mary dare return, and then they avoid Judaea: Joseph “was afraid to go there” (Matthew 2.22) because Herod’s son is in charge. Instead they find a new place of refuge, in Nazareth of Galilee, far from Bethlehem.

 Read the whole article here.

Maundy Thursday Sermon

God of love, help my love become more tangible, more luminous, more clear today – and every day. Amen.

Tonight we begin ACT I of a 3 ACT story – The Supper, Foot Washing, an agony in the Garden of Gethsemane (of which the Gospel gave us a taste of the foot washing)

Put Love First

It is what Jesus did around the table.
He served them by washing their feet.
He served them by offering the bread and wine.

All of them. All 12.

One would betray him.
One would deny him.
Others would vanish from the scene, when the going got tough.
3 of them could not stay awake and watch with him in the Garden.

And yet, Jesus gave that first communion, the bread and wine, as a way to remember, and he gave it to them all. Just as Passover was built as a reminder of what God had done for the Israelites back in Egypt. The Eucharist is built as a reminder of what God in Jesus has done for us. Not because we have earned it; but as grace. A gift.

For we still betray Jesus. We still deny him. We vanish from the scene when the going gets tough. And when he asks us to stay awake, we don’t.

But Jesus keeps at it. He offers. To all of us. His love.

Put love first – in how we serve others.
Put love first – in how we share communion with one another.
Put love first – just as Jesus has done for us – we are to offer one another & the world.

And he does this, knowing, that all will not be roses. All will not be right.

Not this night.

What started off with such hope. Such love.

Will end. In darkness. In violence.

In Gethsemane.

This is a poem from Mary Oliver.

(Gethsemane by Mary Oliver)

The grass never sleeps.
Or the roses.
Nor does the lily have a secret eye that shuts until morning.

Jesus said, wait with me. But the disciples slept.

The cricket has such splendid fringe on its feet,
and it sings, have you noticed, with its whole body,
and heaven knows if it ever sleeps.

Jesus said, wait with me. And maybe the stars did, maybe
the wind wound itself into a silver tree, and didn’t move,
maybe
the lake far away, where once he walked as on a
blue pavement,
lay still and waited, wild awake.

Oh the dear bodies, slumped and eye-shut, that could not
keep that vigil, how they must have wept,
so utterly human, knowing this too
must be a part of the story.

It is part of the story. The disciples don’t get it right.

They could not keep vigil or put love first …They wept, so utterly human.

We all weep, for we are like those disciples, but God doesn’t forget or let us go. In the words of the poet Malcolm Guite

…Here God shows the full extent of love
To us whose love is always incomplete,
In vain we search the heavens high above,
The God of love is kneeling at our feet.
Though we betray Him, though it is the night.
He meets us here and loves us into light.

Behold this family of God, gathered around these tables, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was
willing to be betrayed. Let our love become more tangible, like the Lord who kneels at our feet – may we put love first in our lives – for God loves us all into the light. Amen.

We are called to be Peacemakers

 

An excerpt from Peaceful Neighbor: Discovering the Countercultural Mister Rogers

Fred Rogers was concerned. Ellen Goodman, a syndicated columnist for the
Boston Globe, had just criticized one of his public service announcements
for preschool children during the Persian Gulf War. “Mr. Rogers decided to
make a special public service announcement to anxious children that ‘you’ll
always have someone to love you, no matter what,’ ” she’d written. “But the
dateline of his report is the Kingdom of Make Believe.”

The words stung, but rather than simply stewing, Rogers took to the pen,
as he often did, writing Goodman a heartfelt response. “Having been an
appreciative reader of your excellent work for years, I was concerned when I
read the column in which you ‘clicked’ our public service announcement for
preschool children in this horrendous world crisis,” he wrote.

Rogers did not launch at Goodman, but he did feel the need to explain his
actions, gently but firmly, so she might better understand. “When PBS asked
if I would speak about conflict to families of preschoolers, my first reaction
was not to do anything about the war in this medium which seemed to broadcast
nonstop the ‘Scud v. Patriot Show,’ ” he offered. “But then I started to
hear more and more about young children’s fears, and I prayed for the inspiration
to do something helpful.”

Rogers added that the result of his prayers, the PSAs Goodman criticized,
echoed his earlier work in another time of crisis. After the assassinations of
President Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., and Robert Kennedy, he had
written and taped a program in which he asked families to include their
children in the grieving process. “Our country was in mass mourning,” he
explained. “It was then that I realized more fully how speaking the truth
about feelings—even on television—could be exceedingly curative.”
So in spite of his initial reticence, Rogers accepted the invitation from PBS
by doing what he did best—speaking directly to children and their families
about their hopes and fears. He summed it up for Goodman:

Even though I don’t make policy in this country, I do feel an obligation
to give the best I know how to families with young children when policies
(of government and television) are affecting those families so directly.
That’s why I agreed to do anything at all. I lament for the world (not the
Neighborhood of Make-Believe!) because the abuses of war breed abusers
who grow up to sow the seeds of future wars. Anything I can do to bring
a modicum of comfort to a little one, I will do. (How I would love for my
2½-year-old grandson to be able to grow up in a world which refuses to
abuse its children!) Even though I felt helpless in some ways (because of
the onset of the war), I was grateful (as I imagine you must be at times) to
have an avenue in which to express the truth as I felt it for the children I’ve
always tried to serve.

But it wasn’t just gratitude that Rogers was feeling as he finished his letter.
“You can imagine my grief,” he wrote in a postscript, “when I think of the
many 20+-year-old men and women on ‘active duty’ in this war who grew
during their earliest years with our ‘Neighborhood’ program. How I long for
them to be able to come back here and live the rest of their lives in peace.”

There is a documentary coming out in June on Misters Rogers.

Why I Marched - #MarchEpiscopal #MarchForOurLives

Some have asked me why I Marched.

• I marched for Norah and all of my kids.
• I marched for those who lost their lives in Sandy Hook.
• I marched for those students from FL who are asking to march with them.
• I marched for all those children of color who have lost their lives to violence, for whom society forgot.

I have seen the damage gun violence has done to families. A cousin of mine was murdered in California in a convenience store (he was at the wrong place at the wrong time). I have seen how civil war in Mozambique has continued to deprive the people of that country with the freedom and life they deserve. Violence destroys many lives and has many victims.

I marched because I also believe that we cannot continue to embrace the guns the way that we do.

The Episcopal Church has adopted the Sandy Hook Principles developed by the bipartisan United States Conference of Mayors as an expression of this Church’s commitment to stemming gun
violence in America. I wholeheartedly agree with them:

1. Require permits to carry concealed weapons and criminal background checks for every
gun purchase, including those made at gun shows; and
2. Except for the use of military and law enforcement agencies, ban the sale, transfer,
importation and manufacture of military-style assault weapons and high-capacity
magazines; and
3. Ban the importation and manufacture of Full-Auto Conversion kits that convert guns
into automatic weapons; and
4. Tighten laws against gun trafficking, and increase penalties for those who engage in
"straw purchases" of firearms for ineligible persons; and
5. Prohibit persons from purchasing guns without evidence of gun safety training; and
6. Recognize the impact of existing inheritance laws on the transfer of gun ownership; and
7. Promote funding for research into the prevention and causes of gun violence.

I would only add that I believe the use of "Red Flag Laws" to be consistent with these principles:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/03/25/red-flag-laws-allow-temporary-restrictions-access-guns-gain-momentum-across-nation/454395002/

and finally I would add that as this conversation continues, I continue to look to all sides of the debate as how we best can proceed. I recently found this article on former SCOTUS Justice Scalia to be enlightening:

https://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/12/11/justice-scalias-gun-control-argument/

Easter Message from the Presiding Bishop

The Presiding Bishop is traveling in the Holy Land during Holy Week.

The Festive day of Easter is Sunday, April 1.

The video is available here.  

The following is the text of the Presiding Bishop’s Easter 2018 Message:

Hello on Palm Sunday from St George’s Cathedral in Jerusalem.

There is a passage in the 27th Chapter of Matthew’s gospel where religious leaders, political leaders come together once again after Jesus has been crucified and executed, after he had been buried in the tomb. Once again they come together to seal the tomb, to make sure not even a rumor of his resurrection will happen.  And this is what some of them say:

Therefore command the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may go and steal him away and tell the people he has been raised from the dead. And the last deception will be the worse than the first.

It is easy to overlook, and sometimes convenient to forget, that Jesus was executed, Jesus was crucified by an unholy alliance of religion, politics, and economic self-interest.

Politics represented in Pontius Pilate, governor of the Roman Empire, representative of that very empire and all of its power.

King Herod, who heard Jesus at one of the trials, representative of the Herodian and economic self-interest at the time.

The Chief Priest, representative of religious aristocracies who had a vested interest in the status quo.
These three powers came together - economic, religious and political - to crucify the one who taught love the lord your God, love your neighbor, and actually live that way.

The truth is the message of Jesus was unsettling to the world then as it is unsettling to the world now.

And yet that very message is the only source of hope in life for the way of the cross, the way of unselfish living, the way of sacrificial living, seeking the good, the welfare of the other before one’s own unenlightened self-interest. That way of the cross is the way of love. That is the nature of love. And that way is the only hope for the entire human family.

The reality is the way of Jesus was a threat to the way that the world is, and hope for the way the world can and will be.

But on that third day after the crucifixion, when by the titanic power of God, by the power of the love of God, Jesus was raised from the dead.  God sent a message and declared that death does not have the last word. Hatred does not have the last word. Violence does not have the last word. Bigotry does not have the last word. Sin, evil do not have the last word. The last word is God, and God is love.
On our pilgrimage here, we stopped and spent two days in Jordan. In Amman, Jordan, we were able to spend some sacred and blessed and painful time with Iraqi Christians. These are Christians, many of whom are Anglican, who have fled their country in Iraq because of war and violence and hatred and desecration. They have given up everything, refusing to renounce their faith in Jesus Christ. And there in Jordan, with the help of the Anglican Church there and many other relief agencies, they are at least safe, hoping to find safe and permanent homes in other countries.

In the course of our conversations, and listening to them, at one point I found myself quoting a hymn, a song that many folk have heard around Easter, certainly in our country.  And I didn’t expect a response. You probably know how it goes – it says, “because he lives,” referring to Jesus and his resurrection, “because he lives, I can face tomorrow.” When I quoted that song, those who have lost their homes, people who have lost everything except life itself, those who have lost loved ones, actually responded to the words of that song. When I said, “Because He lives I can face tomorrow.” When I said Jesus is alive, He’s been raised from the dead, I saw them lift up their heads and respond with the words amen, hallelujah.

My brothers and sisters, evil could not stop him. Death could not stop him. Violence could not stop him.  For the love of God, the heart of God, the reality of God is stronger than anything else.  And Jesus really rose from the dead on that first resurrection morning.

God love you.  God bless you. And, may this Easter season be the first day of the rest of our lives.
Amen.

The Most Rev. Michael B. Curry
Presiding Bishop and Primate
The Episcopal Church

The Triduum

The Triduum is a period of three days of preparation for a feast day. The term is most frequently used for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday, the three days prior to Easter Sunday that are the concluding days of Holy Week, also known as the Easter Triduum. Other usage for the Easter Triduum reckons the days from the evening of Maundy Thursday through the evening of Easter Day. The term may indicate any three-day period of preparation for a feast. 

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Glossary definitions provided courtesy of Church Publishing Incorporated, New York, NY,(All Rights reserved) from "An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church, A User Friendly Reference for Episcopalians," Don S. Armentrout and Robert Boak Slocum, editors.

Prayers of the Triduum:

Maundy Thursday
 
Almighty Father, whose dear Son, on the night before he suffered, instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood: Mercifully grant that we may receive it thankfully in remembrance of Jesus Christ our Lord, who in these holy mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life; and who now lives
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Good Friday

Almighty God, we pray you graciously to behold this your family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed, and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

[Holy Saturday

O God, Creator of heaven and earth:  Grant that, as the crucified body of your dear Son was laid in the tomb and rested on this holy Sabbath, so we may await with him the coming of the third day, and rise with him to newness of life; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one
God, for ever and ever. Amen.]

Easter Day 

O God, who for our redemption gave your only-begotten Son to the death of the cross, and by his glorious resurrection delivered us from the power of our enemy: Grant us so to die daily to sin, that we may evermore live with him in the joy of his resurrection; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Palm Sunday Sermon

We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you: because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world. Amen.

We always begin Palm Sunday with a first reading: Jesus triumphant entry into Jerusalem. Crowds waving palm branches. Laying garments along the way as he rides by. It must have been quite a spectacle to see. The one who has come in the name of the Lord and yet we know the authorities, those in power, were watching. Any disturbance to the pax romana would be dealt with…

Our opening reading has set the scene for what’s to come with the passion story. In Fred Velardi’s stations of the cross:

“In the first Station, "the Stage is Set" for the events that will follow. I did a number of drawings trying to represent Jesus standing before Pilate, but decided on the torn curtain, and the barren stage to represent that this was somewhat of a "show" by the Romans.”

It was a show. The pax romana would be kept. No one would endanger it. No King of the Jews. No Messiah. The stage was set when Jesus road the donkey into Jerusalem.

On the outskirts of Jerusalem
the donkey waited.
Not especially brave, or filled with understanding,
he stood and waited.

How horses, turned out into the meadow,
leap with delight!
How doves, released from their cages,
clatter away, splashed with sunlight.

But the donkey, tied to a tree as usual, waited.
Then he let himself be led away.
Then he let the stranger mount.

Never had he seen such crowds!
And I wonder if he at all imagined what was to happen.
Still, he was what he had always been: small, dark, obedient.

I hope, finally, he felt brave.
I hope, finally, he loved the man who rode so lightly upon him,
as he lifted one dusty hoof and stepped, as he had to, forward.

That poem (from Mary Oliver) got me thinking about the part that the donkey played, obedience. Did he feel brave? Did he love Jesus? What part will we play in the scene: The obedient donkey. The traitorous Judas. The faithful Mary Magdalene. The denier Peter. The disciple who ran off or the disciple who stood near. The crowd who celebrated his entry or the crowd who yelled Crucify him. The scene is set. We move forward to play our part…

As I pondered the story, I thought of the poem Encounter by Langston Hughes:

I met You on Your way to death,
Though quite by accident
I chose the path I did,
not knowing there You went.

When I heard the hooting mob
I started to turn back
But, curious, I stood my ground
Directly in its track
And sickened suddenly
At its sound,
Yet did not
Turn back.

So loud the mob cried,
Yet so weak,
Like a sick and muffled sea.
On Your head
You had sharp thorns.
You did not look at me—
But on Your back
You carried
My own Misery.

On his way to the cross, Jesus carries your misery, my misery, the world’s misery. Be it the death of children in eastern Ghouta, Syria, or Parkland, FL, or the streets where opioids kill in quiet ways, all of our tears are gathered with Jesus and on that holy cross, Jesus has redeemed the world.

And yet, there is still death. Fear. Violence. The scene that was set long ago, still plays out today. A grim charade that too many experience in their lives. So what will we do? Watch the mob around us or will we muster the courage and the love others just as Jesus had?

To fulfill what Jesus has done on the Sunday of the Pasion, we must play our part to which we are called, but a part that lies beyond the passion story to what we do with our lives in our world today. These words come from the poet Malcolm Guite, and his sonnet for Palm Sunday. Ponder these words:

Now to the gate of my Jerusalem,
The seething holy city of my heart,
The saviour comes. But will I welcome him?
Oh crowds of easy feelings make a start;
They raise their hands, get caught up in the singing,
And think the battle won. Too soon they’ll find
The challenge, the reversal he is bringing
Changes their tune. I know what lies behind
The surface flourish that so quickly fades;
Self-interest, and fearful guardedness,
The hardness of the heart, its barricades,
And at the core, the dreadful emptiness
Of a perverted temple. Jesus come
Break my resistance and make me your home.

May Jesus through the Spirit break the resistance in us, so that God may make a home in us and the love of God can redeem the world. Amen.

#PrayFastAct to Support Women and Girls

The Episcopal Church and the ELCA continue our united call to Pray, Fast and Act in support of good policies and programs that provide opportunities for and respect the dignity of all people.

This month, our focus is on international programs that support women and girls across the world. Although the U.S. government has historically been a leader in funding programs that address the needs of women and girls globally, there are indications that such initiatives are in danger of being significantly reduced or eliminated. Cutting essential funds and eliminating programs would hurt communities that depend on the support of our government to improve the lives of women and girls.

On March 21, Join The EPPN, ELCA Advocacy, and presiding bishops of the Episcopal Church and the ELCA as we #PrayFastAct.

Pray for our nation’s elected leaders to courageously invest in programs that address the needs and basic human rights of women and girls, as well as provide opportunities for them to thrive. We also pray for the ordinary men and women who continue to work tirelessly to improve the lives of women and girls around the world.

Equal Partners

Grant, O God, that all may recognize women as equal partners in creation and prophesy. By the grace of the Holy Spirit, empower women at home, at work, in government, and in the hierarchies of churches, temples, mosques, synagogues, and all other places of worship. Provide safety and protection, O Gracious Divinity, and inspire just laws against all forms of violence against women. We ask this through Christ our Savior, Amen. — Lifting Women's Voices--Prayers to Change The World

Fast in solidarity with women and girls across the globe, who continue to face gender inequality and other challenges in many aspects of their lives.

Act Tell Congress you support funding for programs that support women and girls.

Prepare for action by reading our one-pager on programs that help prevent gender-based violence, educate and empower adolescent girls, discourage child marriages, increase leadership opportunities for women, and foster women’s inclusion and economic empowerment.

Our Call to Discipleship: The Episcopal branch of the Jesus Movement

Our part in the Jesus movement is our Call to Discipleship: to follow Jesus. Discipleship means learning to lead the lives as God’s people. Growing in discipleship involves prayer, study, worship and service.

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” (e.g., anti-racism, anti-oppression).

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.

Our call to discipleship as the people of St. Peter’s Church, is to work on becoming the Beloved Community for Monroe, a place where God’s love welcomes all, where strangers become friendsW

"When I act as charity bids, I have this feeling that it is Jesus who is acting in me; the closer my union with Jesus, the greater my love for all without distinction." ~ St. Thérèse of Lisieux

The Vast Ocean Begins Just Outside Our Church: The Eucharist

Something has happened
to the bread
and the wine.

They have been blessed.
What now?
The body leans forward

to receive the gift
from the priest’s hand,
then the chalice.

They are something else now
from what they were
before this began.

I want
to see Jesus,
maybe in the clouds

or on the shore,
just walking,
beautiful man

and clearly
someone else
besides.

On the hard days
I ask myself
if I ever will.

Also there are times
my body whispers to me
that I have.

–Mary Oliver

Poems from Mary Oliver (Lent 5)

Mindful
by Mary Oliver

Everyday
I see or hear
something
that more or less

kills me
with delight,
that leaves me
like a needle

in the haystack
of light.
It was what I was born for —
to look, to listen,

to lose myself
inside this soft world —
to instruct myself
over and over

in joy,
and acclamation.
Nor am I talking
about the exceptional,

the fearful, the dreadful,
the very extravagant —
but of the ordinary,
the common, the very drab,

the daily presentations.
Oh, good scholar,
I say to myself,
how can you help

but grow wise
with such teachings
as these —
the untrimmable light

of the world,
the ocean’s shine,
the prayers that are made
out of grass?

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

To Begin With, the Sweet Grass
by Mary Oliver

1.

Will the hungry ox stand in the field and not eat
of the sweet grass?
Will the owl bite off its own wings?
Will the lark forget to lift its body in the air or
forget to sing?
Will the rivers run upstream?

Behold, I say - behold
the reliability and the finery and the teachings
of this gritty earth gift.

2.

Eat bread and understand comfort.
Drink water, and understand delight.
Visit the garden where the scarlet trumpets
are opening their bodies for the hummingbirds
who are drinking the sweetness, who are
thrillingly gluttonous.

For one thing leads to another.
Soon you will notice how stones shine underfoot.
Eventually tides will be the only calendar you believe in.

And someone's face, whom you love, will be as a star
both intimate and ultimate,
and you will be both heart-shaken and respectful.
And you will hear the air itself, like a beloved, whisper:
oh, let me, for a while longer, enter the two
beautiful bodies of your lungs….

4.

Someday I am going to ask my friend Paulus,
The dancer, the potter,
To make me a begging bowl
Which I believe
My soul needs.

And if I come to you,
To the door of your comfortable house
With unwashed clothes and unclean fingernails,
Will you put something into it?

I would like to take this chance.
I would like to give you this chance.

5.

We do one thing or another; we stay the same, or we change.
Congratulations, if
You have changed.

6.

Let me ask you this.
Do you also think that beauty exists for some fabulous reason?

And if you have not been enchanted by this adventure-
Your life-
What would do for you?

7.

What I loved in the beginning, I think, was mostly myself.
Never mind that I had to, since somebody had to.
That was many years ago.
Since then I have gone out from my confinements,
through with difficulty.
I mean the ones that thought to rule my heart.
I cast them out, I put them on the mush pile.
They will be nourishment somehow (everything is nourishment
somehow or another).
And I have become the child of the clouds, and of hope.
I have become the friend of the enemy, whoever that is.
I have become older and, cherishing what I have learned,
I have become younger.

And what do I risk to tell you this, which is all I know?
Love yourself. Then forget it. Then, love the world.

Lent 5 Sermon (March 18)

God of wonder and delight, help me notice the miraculous today, and write your love in my heart that I may live it out in my life. Amen.

The Lord said, “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts;
and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

What is the law that the Lord speaks of? What should be on our hearts? Simply God’s love.

A love that connects us to the one who created us, the stories that frame our minds about where we have come from and where we are headed, a love that bonds us to one another.

In our first reading, God says to Jeremiah, “I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, "Know the LORD," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.”

Know the Lord. It is true for our journey today as it was in the day of Jeremiah the Prophet.

But people forgot, it wasn’t on their hearts. They walked away, generations later, the question and the hope resurfaces, a longing for connection to the Divine. A yearning we all have. In the Gospel we are told, Greeks at the festival in Jerusalem came up to Philip saying, “We want to see Jesus.”

To see Jesus is to Know the Lord. It is to see with our eyes and hearts open, and to know that God is always speaking, always present. But we need to listen.

The late author and priest Henri Nouwen put it this way, “The church is a spiritual director. It tries to connect your story with God’s story. Just to be a true part of this community means you are being directed and you are being guided. The Bible is a spiritual director. People must read Scripture as a word for themselves personally, and ask where God speaks to them.”

Holy Scripture is not only a story of long ago, but it is our story today, connecting with each of us here and now. The church and the bible speaks to you and me in our lives. And sometimes, we find in our lives that it is the grain of wheat that Jesus talks about in the Gospel of John, how in its death, new life is brought forth…

A film from a few years ago, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is the story of one boy's search for understanding and healing in the wake of the horrors of 9/11.

Oskar Schell is a very bright but socially detached 11-year-old. He is closest to his dad, Thomas, who understands his son's intelligence and develops all sorts of ingenious games to challenge Oskar. When Thomas is killed in the collapse of the World Trade Center on 9/11, Oskar is devastated. Oskar grows increasingly more isolated and distant from the world, especially from his mom.

After the funeral, Oskar is poking around his dad's closet. There he finds an envelope with the word Black written on it; inside the envelope is a key. Oskar believes the key is Thomas' last "game" for him - and Oskar sets out on an improbable trek across New York City to find the lock the key will open.

Without giving away the movie, Oskar's quest does not turn out the way he expects. But during his search and the meticulously organized system he designs to go about it, Oskar meets all kinds of people who greet him with smiles, tears, hugs and prayers. In the course of his search, Oskar begins to understand that he is not alone in his grief and fear, that others - especially Linda, his mom - have suffered losses as great and painful as his, and begins to see his connections to the stories that others carry with them.

Oskar slowly lets go of his fears and the behaviors that mask those fears: his rudeness, his obsessiveness, his impatience, he detachment from others, his obliviousness to the feelings of others. Oskar takes his first step in discovering that he is capable of loving and being loved, of forgiving and being forgiven, of coping with life when it doesn't make sense. It is his dad's last challenge for Oskar, his most important gift to his son: enabling Oskar to carry on “on his own,” showing his son how to move beyond the worst day to much better ones.

In Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (the title indicates Oskar's most basic fears), Oskar learns that life demands change, risk and a certain amount of dying to our fears, despair and sense of self; but if he - and we - are willing to risk loving and allowing ourselves to be loved, in connecting our stories, Jesus promises us the harvest of the Gospel wheat.

In our willingness to nurture healing and forgiveness, with our openness to God's grace and the compassion of others, there will always be new beginnings, second chances, constant plantings and unlimited bounties. Only by loving is love returned, only by reaching out beyond ourselves do we learn and grow, only by giving to others do we receive, only by dying do we rise to new life. For through such actions we will know the Lord and it will be written on our hearts.

I will put my law of love within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ~ Jeremiah

Let me end with a poem by Mary Oliver. Not the one chosen for this day (Mindful) but one of the alternates. Because the story the poem tells, for me, brings me back to Jeremiah’s reading and how that law of love that comes from God is written on my heart, to share the story of God in creation & in me…

(To Begin With, the Sweet Grass by Mary Oliver)

Amen.

National Student Walkout #Enough!

Whether or not you agree with the students walking out on March 14, it is an opportunity to learn and to pray...

Consider these words:

Walk the Talk: A Reflection on the National School Walkout (link)

Rizpah: Five months alone, totally alone

Prayers:

learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.
(Isaiah 1:17)

Lord, we are your voice in the world today.
Help us to speak out when we see injustice. 
Give us courage to fight for the rights of others. 
Watch over those being held as prisoners [to violence]. 
Keep those who are afraid, strong in their faith in you.
For your ways of peace and love will overcome all evil.
(By Jenifer Lee Gamber and Sharon Pearson) from "Call on Me: A Prayer Book for Young People"

Almighty God, who created us in your own image: Grant us grace fearlessly to contend against evil and to make no peace with oppression; and, that we may reverently use our freedom, help us to employ it in the maintenance of justice in our communities and among the nations, to the glory of your holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP)

Lamentation for Gun Violence (March 14)

As students & others walk out to remember the victims in Parkland, FL. We take time to pray...

Lament (from Chicago)

God the Father, you gave the Law that your people might live in peace, have mercy upon us.
God the Son, you suffered violence for the sake of the world, have mercy upon us.
God the Holy Spirit, you bind us together in a community of love, have mercy upon us.
Holy Trinity, One God, you model for us the perfect and holy relationship in which you intend for all people to live: have mercy upon us.

For all victims of violence, especially those affected by the shooting in Parkland, we pray to you, O Lord: Lord, hear our prayer.
For those who have been injured, that they might be restored to health, we pray to you, O Lord: Lord, hear our prayer.
For those who are afraid, that they may know your perfect love which casts out fear, we pray to you, O Lord: Lord, hear our prayer.
For those who mourn, that they may be comforted in their distress, we pray to you, O Lord: Lord, hear our prayer.
For all who have died, that they may be received into your compassionate embrace, we pray to you, O Lord: Lord, hear our prayer.

For first responders, firefighters, chaplains, nurses, and all others who work to restore order, heal the wounded, and care for the needs of the community, we pray to you, O Lord: Lord, hear our prayer.
For all volunteers who give of their time and resources to meet the needs of those affected by this tragedy, we pray to you, O Lord: Lord, hear our prayer.
For leaders, both in the Church and in the government, who strive for greater peace, compassion, and understanding in the world, we pray to you, O Lord: Lord, hear our prayer.

That the world may one day be free of violence, we pray to you, O Lord: Lord, hear our prayer.
That war and bloodshed may one day be no more, we pray to you, O Lord: Lord, hear our prayer.
That we may no longer desire revenge when we are wronged, but your justice, which is mercy and grace, we pray to you, O Lord: Lord, hear our prayer.

That each of us might be empowered and equipped to work toward a just and peaceful society, we pray to you, O Lord: Lord, hear our prayer.
That all people might be united to seek the cause of your Kingdom, we pray to you, O Lord: Lord, hear our prayer.

We ask your forgiveness for the ways in which we ourselves are complicit in the problem of violence in the world. Lord, have mercy upon us.
We ask your forgiveness for any harm we have done to one another. Lord, have mercy upon us.
We ask your forgiveness for any unkind words we have spoken against one another. Lord, have mercy upon us.
We ask your forgiveness for any prejudice, bitterness, or hate we harbor in our hearts. Lord, have mercy upon us.

We ask your forgiveness for any ill we have wished upon one another. Lord, have mercy upon us.
We ask your forgiveness for the times when we have repaid evil for evil. Lord, have mercy upon us.
We ask your forgiveness for the times when we have been slow to forgive. Lord, have mercy upon us.
We ask your forgiveness for all we do, think, and say which falls short of your command to us to love one another. Lord, have mercy upon us.

Lord, have mercy upon us, and help us to show mercy to one another.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

Remembering All Who Have Been Affected By Gun Violence (Connecticut)
(Adapted from Moral Call: a Vermont Interfaith Prayer and Remembrance Vigil, December 15, 2015)

Leader: We raise our prayers in remembrance of the victims of gun violence, both those who have been injured and those who have been killed, in Parkland, Florida; in cities and towns across our country, and close to home in Connecticut. We hold their memories dear. We treasure those lives permanently altered through injury or those taken in senseless acts of violence, and we pray that they might find rest and peace. May their lives continue to make a difference in our world. Together we pray.

All: God of Mercy, heal our broken hearts.

Leader: We raise our prayers in remembrance of the families and friends of the victims of gun violence in our nation and in Connecticut. Comfort those who mourn. Dry the tears of those who weep. Sustain those who feel diminished. Impart courage to the hearts of those who
feel helpless. Together we pray.

All: God of Peace, sustain our broken hearts.

Leader: We raise our prayers in remembrance of all communities torn apart by gun violence. We are too familiar with places like Parkland, Florida; Columbine and Aurora, Colorado; Orlando, Florida; Newtown, Connecticut; Roseburg, Oregon; Charleston and Townville, South Carolina; and the cities of Connecticut. Each incident of violence affects all of us in our daily lives and work. Renew our resolve to pursue peace in our cities and towns and to respect the dignity of all human beings. Together we pray.

All: God of Comfort, encourage our broken hearts.

Leader: We raise our prayers in remembrance of school teachers and administrators who put their students’ needs ahead of their own safety We pray for first responders, including police, fire and rescue personnel who witness the horror of gun violence while in service to our communities, and we pray for all those with responsibility for law enforcement. We give thanks for their call to protect and serve and to seek justice, which is inspirational to others, and we pray that their emotional wounds will be healed. Together we pray.

All: God of Courage, inspire our broken hearts.

Leader: We raise our prayers for those lives taken by gun violence through suicide, and also for those lives taken through accidental shootings, especially when those shootings involve children. Console
and strengthen those whose despair is great. Together we pray.

All: God of Hope, comfort our broken hearts.

Leader: We raise our prayers in remembrance of all people impacted by gun violence, as gun violence knows no boundaries but can affect all nationalities, races, cultures, faiths, genders, and socioeconomic classes; it can affect us where we live, where we worship, where we work,
where we study, and where we play. Together we pray.

All: God of Love, transform our broken hearts.

Leader: We raise our prayers for those who have committed acts of gun violence and for their families, in our nation and especially here in Connecticut. We remember those suffering from mental illness who have gone untreated, and those suffering from loneliness and isolation. We pray for those who would use guns, power and violence rather than respect and dignity to reconcile differences. Grant us the strength to pursue justice with a voice of love. Together we pray.

All: God of Forgiveness, enlighten our broken hearts.

Leader: We raise our prayers for all community leaders and elected officials. We pray especially for the young adult leaders of the March for our Lives movement. Give them insight, wisdom, and courage to address head on the epidemic of gun violence. Pour forth your Spirit on all our neighborhoods and break the chains of violence that bind your people.

All: God of Power, strengthen our broken hearts.

Leader: We pray today for ourselves and for others in our lives who have been touched by gun violence. During the silent pause, I invite you to offer the names (either silently or aloud) of those for whom you pray. Together we pray.

All: God of Astonishing Mercy, Compassion and Immeasurable Love, restore our broken hearts and enliven our confidence to find new ways to revive our world to become one of peace. Amen

A Litany in the Aftermath of Gun Violence (Maine)

Giver of Life and Love, you created all people as one family and called us to live together in
peace. Surround us with your love as we face again the tragedy of gun violence.

For the children and adults who were killed _____ , (the brave ones who died protecting others), the many who were wounded and hospitalized, the traumatized, grieving survivors, and those known to you alone, Loving God
Make us instruments of your peace.

God of Righteousness, you have granted our leaders, especially Donald, our President, and _________, our Governor, the members of Congress and of our courts and legislatures, power
and responsibility to protect us, and to uphold our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Strengthen their devotion to our common life and give them clarity of purpose. For all who bear such responsibility, for all who struggle to discern what is right in the face of powerful political forces, Loving God
Make us instruments of your peace.

God of Compassion, we give you thanks for first responders: police officers, firefighters, EMTs, and all those whose duties bring them to the streets, the schools, the malls and the homes where the carnage of gun violence takes place every day. Give them courage and sound judgment in the heat of the moment and grant them compassion for the victims. For our brothers and sisters who risk their lives and serenity as they rush to our aid, Loving God
Make us instruments of your peace.

Merciful God, bind up the wounds of all who suffer from gun violence, those maimed and disfigured, those left alone and grieving, and those who struggle to get through one more day. Bless them with your presence and help them find hope. For all whose lives are forever changed and broken by the scourge of gun violence, Loving God
Make us instruments of your peace.

God of Repentance and Forgiveness, we hold before you ____ (the one who fired the weapon) and seek your grace for transformation. We cannot forgive - not yet - but we trust in your power to make all things new. For those who from malice or illness are the instruments of violence and death, Loving God
Make us instruments of your peace.

God Who Remembers, may we not forget those who have died, more than 30,000 in the past year, in the gun violence that we have allowed to become routine. Receive them into your heart and comfort us with your promise of eternal love and care. For all who have died, those who die today, and those who will die tomorrow, Loving God
Make us instruments of your peace.

God of Tender Mercy, be with those who are overwhelmed, enraged, frustrated and demoralized by the plague of gun violence. Give them a sense of your presence and plant in them the seed of hope. For those whose hope for life in this world is shattered and broken, Loving God
Make us instruments of your peace.

God of Justice, help us, your church, find our voice. Turn us from the worship of power. Give us courage to confront our false gods and to protest the needless deaths caused by gun violence. Help us rise above our dread that nothing can be done and grant us the conviction to advocate for change. For your dream of a world where children are safe and all of us live together without fear, Loving God
Make us instruments of your peace.

All this we pray in the name of the One who offered his life so that we might live, Jesus the Christ. Amen.

"Story Is Where We Look for Truth" #MadeleineL’Engle

‘Story Is Where We Look for Truth’ An Interview with Madeleine L’Engle
[Episcopal News Service, January 19, 1995] By Neil M. Alexander

What are you seeking to discover and share through your writing?
I wrote my first story when I was five, because I wanted to know why my father was coughing his lungs out from mustard gas he was exposed to in the First World War. Why is it that people hurt each other? Why don’t people love each other? I learned quickly that a story is the best place to explore these unanswerable questions. Facts are limited; they don’t carry us very far. Story is where we look for truth.

Which questions do you find yourself asking over and over again?
All the big ones. The questions that adolescents ask — and that we should never stop asking. Unless we continually bring questions to our faith, it will become sterile and cold. And so we ask: Why did God create the universe? Is there a purpose to it? Why did God take the incredible risk of making creatures with free will? And this leads us to ponder why, if God is good, do terrible things happen? Of course, there are no simple answers. If you have people with free will, they are going to make mistakes, and our actions do have consequences.

Is too much emphasis given to the importance of individual freedom? Would it be better if our communities provided more narrow boundaries?
I remember many years ago being in Russia with my husband. After a concert we were walking back to our hotel late at night, with no fear whatsoever, through tunnels beneath Red Square. When we came up on the other side of the square, I turned to my husband and said, “The price for this sense of security is too high.” With freedom there also comes risk, but it is worth it.



Ava DuVernay’s movie version of the classic children’s book “A Wrinkle in Time” was released March 9 and has renewed interest in the book and its author. It has also prompted a host of other books related to the story and the movie. Photo: Walt Disney Pictures


Where do you find the resources to sustain your search, to help you struggle with the ambiguity of being human?

Reading the Bible has always been a part of my daily life. My parents were Bible-reading people, and I grew up reading the Bible as a great storybook, which indeed it is. It is remarkably comforting to me that of all the protagonists in scriptural stories, not one is qualified to do what God is asking. In a sense we are all unqualified. If you were going to start a great nation, would you pick a hundred-year-old man and a woman past menopause? That’s the kind of thing God does.

I also read in the area of quantum mechanics and particle physics, because these are disciplines where people are dealing with the nature of being. These writers describe a universe in which everything is totally interrelated, where nothing happens in isolation. They have discovered that nothing can be studied objectively — because to look at something is to change it and be changed by it. I find such discussions helpful in framing theological responses to questions about the nature of the universe.

You have an incredible ability to draw upon your memory, to discern truth from events in your own life. How might others be helped to develop this capacity?
One thing that is helpful is keeping an honest and unpublishable journal. What you write down you tend not to forget. I’ve been keeping journals since I was eight. It is a way of having a say in the telling of our own stories. The act of writing it down helps set it in our memory. For storytellers, memory is very important because we can’t write a story without drawing on our own experience.

How does that apply to our spiritual pilgrimage as Christians? Do you think the faith community has developed a good memory to draw upon?
I don’t. I think we have forgotten far too much. I am concerned, for example, that we take Jesus’ parables out of context. We treat them as isolated illustrations in and of themselves, but they make much more sense if you know when they were given in the course of Jesus’ ministry and to whom he was speaking.

I don’t believe you can be a Christian in isolation from the support and collective memory of the believing community. My church is very important to me, and so is the group of women I meet with every Monday for study and prayer. We are in this life together, not alone.

Some time back there were reports about folks speculating that you are a “new age” thinker. What was that all about?
I haven’t the faintest idea. I once asked someone what led people to say I was promoting “new age” concepts. The response was, “You mention the rainbow, and that’s a sign of new age thinking.” I said, “Hey, wait a minute. The rainbow is the sign of God’s covenant with his people. Don’t hand our symbols over to those promoting ‘new age’ spirituality. Don’t let faddish groups take away what God has given us.”

I was sent a newspaper clipping that cited my book “A Wrinkle in Time” as one of the 10 most censored books in the United States. When it first appeared in 1962, it was hailed by many as a Christian work. In the intervening years not one word of that book has changed. So, what has happened to cause people to want it banned?

What do you think happened?
I think there are some people who are terribly afraid … afraid that they cannot control or manipulate God, that God might love people they don’t love, that God’s love is too all-embracing, and that we don’t have to earn it. All we have to do is say we are sorry, and God throws a big party.

That is frightening to some people. They seem to feel that they can’t be happy in heaven unless hell is heavily populated. I don’t really understand that.

Do you worry that an overemphasis on unconditional grace might lead to giving license for the self-centered pursuit of personal comfort without accountability?
Unconditional grace is not the same as permissiveness, though I think it gets confused with that sometimes. We are creatures who sin. I don’t think that makes God angry. On the contrary, I think that makes God incredibly sad.

I think we hurt God by our sinning and by manipulating the idea of unconditional grace into something that makes it easier for us to go on sinning. Grace does not give us permission to be destructive people. God’s grace ought to give us the courage to try to give pleasure to God.

At night when I read my evening prayers, I ask myself, “What have I done that would have hurt God today?” and “What have I done to give pleasure to God?”

How do your books help people experience God’s grace and grow in faithfulness?
I have had many letters from people who say that the loving God revealed in my books has changed their lives. They tell me that they have discovered that they no longer have to be afraid of God.

“The Summer of the Great Grandmother” is about my mother’s 90th and last summer. I was very angry about what was happening to her. I wrote about walking down the dirt road in front of the house shouting, “God, don’t do this to my mother. You take her!”

I have received letters from readers who said, “I didn’t know I was allowed to be angry.” Well, of course we are allowed to be angry, but we are also called not to stay stuck in our anger.

In “The Irrational Season” you say that male and female will not be completely reconciled until Christ returns. Yet in “Two Part Invention” you describe the extraordinary harmony of your own marriage. We seem to be in a time of struggle over male and female roles and relationships. What are your current thoughts about this subject?
There is a lot of antagonism in the world between male and female. I think we are paying much too much attention to gender conflict. What I hear people asking is: Does God really love me? Will I continue as who I am after death? Will God continue to help me grow? Why is there so much pain? Why, if God is good, do we do so many wrong things? I wish the church would address itself to that.

We see violence, deprivation, suffering and hatefulness close to home and across the world. As you survey what is happening, how do you dare to be hopeful?
I am hopeful because I don’t think God is going to fail with creation. I think somehow or other love is going to come through. Christ is with us.

After my husband died, I lived several years with my two granddaughters who were in college. They questioned things, and sometimes we didn’t agree, but at least we were all struggling to find truth.

Because we are human and finite, and God is divine and infinite, we can never totally comprehend the living, wondrous God whom we adore. So, there are always unanswered questions as God pushes us along and helps us grow in love. But my granddaughters and the other young people I meet are willing to ask and struggle with the important questions. That gives me hope.

William Stringfellow - lawyer, theologian, saint

Who was he?

Interesting articles on William Stringfellow:

https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/inconvenient-theology

https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/road-peace/world-and-word-according-william-stringfellow

He was also someone who was not afraid to take on the power structures...

‘When is political authority legitimate? When does the state have a status and function that may be considered “ordained by God”? When are those who rule – emperors or presidents, parliaments or police – due honor, not out of fear, because they wield the sword and command the means to intimidate, dominate and coerce human beings, but as a matter of conscience?

These have not been abstract issues in the American context. The founding premises of the nation define legitimacy in government, both with respect to a rule considered so obnoxious to human life in society that it was to be resisted and overthrown (the Declaration of Independence), and, thereafter, with respect to the limitations upon political authority and the institutionalization of public accountability (the Constitution). Between the Declaration and the Constitution, political legitimacy concerns how political power is established and how such power is used. Incumbency in itself is not enough to validate any exercise of political authority.

Nor is the matter abstract nowadays. In the past decade the opposition, notably that of Christians, to the war and to the war enterprise in Southeast Asia has upheld the position that the illegal and unconstitutional conduct of the war renders incumbent political authority illegitimate. It is this very point that occasioned the witness of the Berrigan brothers in becoming fugitives at a time when they had been ordered to submit to imprisonment. To have surrendered to illegitimate authority voluntarily would have seemed to condone it. For the Berrigans, there could be no obedience to criminal power.

At a time when the President is reported to be frustrated and angry that his rule lacks credibility and that he does not receive automatic homage, it is edifying to recall that many who have all along opposed him and his regime – and also the Government of Lyndon Johnson – have not done so as weirdos, cowards, far-out radicals or malcontents. In truth, they have upheld the classic American view of political legitimacy. The very citizens President Nixon has been so desirous to watch and spy upon, defame and persecute, humiliate and ostracize, prosecute and punish have been those who have acted to redeem legitimacy in government so that political authority could be conscientiously honored (again) in this nation.

And, more than that, such persons have acted within the traditional doctrine of Romans 13. John Calvin’s comment could hardly be more emphatic or more immediately relevant to both the war and Watergate as manifestations of political illegitimacy:

Understand further, that powers are from God … because he has appointed them for the legitimate and just government of the world. For though tyrannies and unjust exercise of power, as they are full of disorder, are not an ordained government; yet the right of government is ordained by God for the well-being of mankind. As it is lawful to repel wars and to seek remedies for other evils, hence the Apostle [Paul] commands us willingly and cheerfully to respect and honor the right and authority of magistrates, as useful to men …

If that be the truth, for citizens who are biblical people, the way to expose illegitimate authority is to oppose the incumbent regime. In that case President Nixon may not invoke Romans 13 to indulge vanity, induce tribute, evade guilt or compound deceit; rather, he is consigned to suffer Romans 13 as a stunning and awesome rebuke – and as a fearful and timely warning’.

William Stringfellow, "Watergate and Romans 13" in Christianity and Crisis, June 11, 1973, vol. 33, pp. 110-12.

Lent 4 Sermon (March 11)

God of mercy and hope, help us expand the circle of those we love. As you have protected us in the time that is past, so be with us in the coming days; keep us from every sin, every evil, and every fear; for you are our light and salvation, and the strength of our life. To you be glory for endless ages. Amen.

Mary Oliver in her poem “Sometimes” give us,

Instructions for living a life:

• Pay attention.
• Be astonished.
• Tell about it.

Good instructions but it is hard for us to pay attention and be astonished, while we live in fear.

In our 1st reading, the Israelites in the wilderness failed to tell the stories of their freedom. To pay attention to the God who rescued them and walked with them. Their constant complaints and murmuring led to the poisonous snakes ravaging the people. Its only when they stopped and confessed their sin, asking Moses to intercede on their behalf that God put a stop to it.

In the wilderness, the Israelites lost their way. They allowed the darkness to enter in and fear became their companion. Finally they saw their error and God was able to help them.

The cure that God offered was staring at the very thing they feared. The serpent on the pole was offered to allow the people of God to face their terrors, to heal them and set them free. They looked into the image of death on that pole, not to worship it, but to see the power of God at work and know it was God who was saving them.

And light overcame the darkness as fear took flight and faith settled in.

Instructions for living a life:

• Pay attention.
• Be astonished.
• Tell about it.

"Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” (Gospel of John)

Looking at Jesus on that cross, we see what we fear; agonizing suffering and a horrible death. But it is that fear that is transformed by God, for now we look to it, we see that indeed if we believe we will have eternal life. It is God’s promise, for just as God promised in that wilderness that the power of God would heal those looking at the serpent, God promises to those who look to the cross will be saved. And not only look but to believe and live that faith in our lives. For our faith is not just understanding with our minds and hearts but an active faith of what we say and how we live.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” (John)

Christ was lifted up, so all could come to him, to find release, healing, freedom, life, to live into the light and not the darkness.

As one author put it, “That promise is about facing the terror of pain and death in the world, and being blessed in the facing of it. That story underlies all the other terrors we need to deal with, and if we do not face it, we cannot face them. We need to turn and face that serpent because only by looking steadily on its face can we hope to gain healing for our other ills.” (Rosemary Hannah)

But fear can be such a powerful force in our lives. Even as the cross stands before us to beckon us onward toward what God has done. We hunker down and fail to see that “the light has come into the world, for people loved darkness rather than light…”

When he was seven years old, Jacques Lusseyran was blinded in a schoolroom accident. In France in those years before World War II, the blind and disabled were swept to the margins of society, many left to a life of begging. Doctors urged Jacques' parents to send him to a residential school for the blind in Paris, but they would not hear of it. They kept Jacques in his local school where he would learn to function in the seeing world. His mother learned Braille with him; the principal of the school ordered a special desk for Jacques large enough to hold his Braille typewriter. But the best thing his parents did for him was never to pity him. His father constantly encouraged his son, "Always tell us when you discover something."

Lusseyran quickly learned that he was not a poor blind boy but the discoverer of a new world. Barely ten days after his accident, he writes, he discovered a "light" within himself that enabled him to "see" things he might never have found any other way. Lusseyran remembers that, from that moment on, he was now guided by a light that was as real as the light he could no longer see:

"I felt [this light] gushing forth every moment and brimming over; I felt how it wanted to spread out over the world. I had only to receive it. It was unavoidably there. It was all there, and I found again its movements and shades, that is, its colors, which I had loved so passionately a few weeks before.

"This was something entirely new, you understand, all the more so since it contradicted everything that those who have eyes believe. The source of light is not in the outer world. We believe that it is only because of a common delusion. The light dwells where life also dwells: within ourselves."

Lusseyran also came to see how that light changed with his inner condition. When he was sad or afraid the light decreased at once. Sometimes it went out altogether, leaving him deeply and truly blind - but when he was joyful or attentive, it returned as strong as ever. He learned very quickly that the best way to see the inner light and remain in its presence was to love.

Lusseyran went on to become a brilliant student, with an uncanny ability to read people, to hear what was not said, to grasp immediately what was being kept hidden. In 1940, at the age of 17, he joined the French Resistance, helping to smuggle French POWs across the border. He was arrested in 1944 and sent to the Nazi death came at Buchenwald. That he was one of only 30 to survive Buchenwald was extraordinary - but to survive so as a blind man was miraculous. But Lusseyran later wrote in his memoir And Then There Was Light that it was that light he found within himself that enabled him to survive.

"That is what you had to do to live in the camp: be engaged, not live for yourself alone. The self-centered life has no place in the world of the deported. You must go beyond it, lay hold on something outside yourself. Never mind how: by prayer if you know how to pray; through another man's warmth which communicates with yours, or through yours which you pass on to him; or simply by no longer being greedy . . . Be engaged, no matter how, but be engaged." [From Against the Pollution of the I by Jacques Lusseyran and Learning to Walk in the Dark by Barbara Brown Taylor.]

Today's Gospel speaks of Jesus as the light that has come into the world - a light that we behold within ourselves that has the power to illuminate the wisdom and truth outside of us, a light that is the very love of God. Jacques Lusseyran, in his blindness, discovered this light of compassion, humility and selflessness within himself - a light that the darkness beyond his eyes could not diminish – a light that fear could diminish.

This season of Lent, when we travel with Jesus from the desert of discernment to the cross of completion, challenges us to embrace that same light within ourselves and to let that light lead us to the cross & to the truth of God's presence even in the darkness of despair and fear.

I would add only one thing to Mary Oliver’s:

Instructions for living a life:

· Pay attention.
· Be astonished. (Be engaged.)
· Tell about it.
· Share the light!
Amen.

Some Longer Poems

Listen, are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life? ― Mary Oliver

A couple of longer poems by Mary Oliver can be found here:

https://readalittlepoetry.wordpress.com/2014/09/10/sometimes-by-mary-oliver/

http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/blog/2009/12/16/mary-oliver-have-you-ever-tried-to-enter-the-long-black-branches/

Statements from the Bishops on Sexual Harrasment/Violence & Gender Bias and on Gun Violence

The House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church are meeting in retreat at Camp Allen in Navasota, TX. During the March 7 session, the bishops unanimously accepted the following statement on sexual harassment, gender-based violence, and gender bias and inequity.

This is the first time the House of Bishops has met as a body since the #MeToo movement began last fall, bringing to light the reality of sexual harassment, gender-based violence, and the cultural stronghold of gender bias and inequity. We continue our own work of reconciliation within our branch of God’s Church, honoring what we have learned and accomplished, as well as acknowledging the distance we still must travel. Reconciliation is the long work of healing offered by the Spirit, made possible by grace, which requires our truth-telling and repentance.

Many of us have experienced sexual harassment and perhaps sexual violence. Bishops who are women know the “me-too” experience. Some bishops who are men know it as well. We live with different experiences of the cultural endowment of power. We know the Church has fallen short of our responsibility to listen and respond. In this time of heightened awareness it is with greater intention that we now invite the church to a deeper examination of what God intends for our relationships.

This work will take courage. As many women and men bravely come forward to speak the truth of their experience, courageous men and women will listen, where appropriate repent, and take an active role in repairing the brokenness, working to change the culture of our church.

We will offer a listening process in an open meeting at General Convention to hear more fully the stories of those who have been victims of sexual harassment and violence in the church. The date and time is July 4, 5:15 pm to 7:00 pm in the House of Bishops convention meeting space. The design of this process is being developed. Further details will be posted via social media and through Episcopal news outlets.

Together women and men can form partnerships for reconciliation.We seek a more faithful, just and holy life together. We welcome the Spirit’s renewing work among us as we seek faithfully to walk in the way of Jesus. Note: Methods for submitting information to the listening process will be announced shortly.

On March 7, the House of Bishops unanimously accepted the following statement on gun violence.

“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live.” (Deuteronomy 30:19)
At this critical moment young people of the United States are inviting us to turn away from the nightmare of gun violence to the dream of choosing life. The young people of Parkland, Florida are calling for elected officials to:

• ban the sale of assault weapons
• prohibit the sale of high capacity magazines
• close loopholes in background checks (https://marchforourlivespetition.com)

Others are seeking to:

• ban the sale of bump stocks
• raise the age to 21 years to purchase firearms
• challenge the National Rifle Association to support safe gun legislation.

We, the bishops of The Episcopal Church, wholeheartedly support and join with the youth in this call to action.

At the same time, we acknowledge that black and brown youth have continuously challenged the United States to address the gun violence that they and their communities are experiencing. We repent that, as bishops, we have failed to heed their call.

As bishops we commit to following the youth of the United States in their prophetic leadership. To that end we will observe a day of Lament and Action on March 14, one month to the day after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.(Bishops United Against Gun Violence: http://bishopsagainstgunviolence.org ) We pledge ourselves, and we invite our dioceses, to participate in the “March for our Lives” on March 24 in Washington DC and in cities and towns across the United States. We recognize the urgency of this moment and we recommit to working for safe gun legislation as our church has called for in multiple General Convention resolutions (https://episcopalarchives.org/cgi-bin/acts/acts_topic_search.pl?topic=Gun+Control.) In addition, we pledge ourselves to bring the values of the gospel to bear on a society that increasingly glorifies violence and trivializes the sacredness of every human life.

We will walk with the youth of the United States today and into the future in choosing life.

Read the news story here.