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This I believe... (from NPR)

I heard this the other day on NPR, important stuff for us to hear and remember. It is a great series!

A God Who Remembers
by Elie Wiesel

I remember, May 1944: I was 15-and-a-half, and I was thrown into a haunted universe where the story of the human adventure seemed to swing irrevocably between horror and malediction. I remember, I remember because I was there with my father. I was still living with him there. We worked together. We returned to the camp together. We stayed in the same block. We slept in the same box. We shared bread and soup. Never were we so close to one another.

You can read the rest of his essay here.
(You can listen to Elie Wiesel read his essay by following the above link as well.)

To read more essays, you can find them here.

Remembering Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Today is the feast day of Dietrich Bonhoeffer in the Episcopal Church's calendar.

“We are not Christ, but if we want to be Christians, we must have some share in Christ's large-heartedness by acting with responsibility and in freedom when the hour of danger comes, and by showing a real sympathy that springs, not from fear, but from the liberating and redeeming love of Christ for all who suffer. Mere waiting and looking on is not Chris­tian behavior. The Christian is called to sympathy and action, not in the first place by his own sufferings, but by the sufferings of his brothers & sisters, for whose sake Christ suffered.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers From Prison)

A prayer for today:

Gracious God, the Beyond in the midst of our life, who gave grace to your servant Dietrich Bonhoeffer to know and teach the truth as it is in Jesus Christ, and to bear the cost of following him: Grant that we, strengthened by his teaching and example, may receive your word and embrace its call with an undivided heart; through Jesus Christ our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Learn more here.

The Last Wish of Martin Luther King

The Last Wish of Martin Luther King
By TAYLOR BRANCH
Published: April 6, 2008 by the NY Times

FORTY years ago on March 31, at the National Cathedral, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered what would be his last Sunday sermon, on his way back to Memphis. That same night in 1968, President Johnson shocked the world by announcing that he would not seek re-election.

I was a senior in college. My mother was visiting four nights later when all conversation suddenly hushed in a busy restaurant. A waiter whispered that Dr. King had been shot. Civil rights, Vietnam, Dr. King, Memphis — these are historic landmarks. Even so, this year is a watershed. Because Dr. King lived only 39 years, from now on, he will be gone longer than he lived among us. Two generations have come of age since Memphis.

This does not mean that our understanding is accurate or complete. A certain amount of gloss and mythology is inevitable for great figures, whether they be George Washington chopping down a cherry tree, Honest Abe splitting a rail or Dr. King preaching a dream of equal citizenship in 1963. Far beyond that, however, we have encased Dr. King and his era in pervasive myth, false to our heritage and dangerous to our future. We have distorted our entire political culture to avoid the lessons of Martin Luther King’s era.

Read the rest of the article here.

How do we preach?

I came across this article on preaching, tell me what you think...

Emerson’s portrait of the preacher: ‘Life passed through the fire of thought’
by Jay Cormier

In July 1838, the faculty of the Divinity College at Harvard invited an alumnus, Ralph Waldo Emerson, to address the seminarians. The speech was not well received. Emerson had left the ministry a few years before: the death of his young wife drove him to question both his beliefs and profession. Emerson’s Divinity College address challenged what he saw as a lifeless Christian tradition and humanity’s inability to encounter God in the hearts of every man and woman.

You can read the rest here: http://www.connections-mediaworks.com/notebook.html#emerson

Sermon: April 6 (3rd Easter)

Growing up, I was the only one in my family that didn’t have glasses. I was proud of that fact. I didn’t need them. My older brother and sister had them since they were kids. When I started seminary, Ellen noticed I squinted to see the chalkboard, or to read the road signs. One pleasant Saturday afternoon, when Ellen and I were dating, we went for a drive and she wouldn’t tell me where we were going.

We parked the car on a street lined with shops and she still wouldn’t tell me where we were going. She lead me to “Site for Sore Eyes” and had an appointment for my eye exam already set up. An hour after that exam I had my first pair of glasses. I still remember the difference it made. How sharp and clear everything seemed, how I didn’t need to squint to read things. It was a humbling experience but one I needed in order to see so much better, the world was made new.

In our journey of faith, there comes a time when we need to have our eyes opened to God’s work around us. When we walk our road to Emmaus… And there are many so roads we can call Emmaus:

“A mother and father rush their child to the hospital in the middle of their night. They have done everything they can, but the baby's fever will not subside. It has been a long night of waiting, of trying not imagine the worst, of second-guessing, of desperate prayers. From their child's room to the hospital, from the emergency room to the waiting room, this young mother and father walk the long road to Emmaus.

And another...

While not a complete surprise, it was still a blow. Her job was one of many that were eliminated in the merger. There would be a modest severance package, of course, and some outplacement help, but to find another job in her field at her salary would mean a move to another city -- or she would have to “retool” and begin a new career. So begins her journey to Emmaus.” [from Connections April 2008]

Like the disciples who had hoped that Jesus was the one to redeem Israel who walked away in sadness and disillusionment, or the examples that I just read remind us that in the disappointments in life, in the moments of sadness, despair, anger, that we walk the road to Emmaus but God promises in God’s Easter that God walks with us and will make God-self known to us, if we have eyes of faith to see God in our situations.

How do we get our eyes to see? Do we need some special pair of glasses to help?

Jesus shows us as he did to Cleopas and the other disciple on that road to Emmaus, he opened up the Scriptures to them, but it wasn’t until they broke bread together, that they realized what was happening and in the blink of an eye he was gone and everything changed! "They said to each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?" That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread."

Our eyes of faith on our journey will be open if we realize that to understand Easter, to understand that new life of Jesus is to experience the Risen Christ around us, to find him in the scriptures and when we gather to break bread together. But sometimes that road to Emmaus, full of our disappointments, sadness, may seem so much easier to travel than to come here with hope and faith.

Frederick Buechner eloquently wrote about the experience of “Emmaus” in his book The Magnificent Defeat (New York: Seabury, 1966): “‘Emmaus’ is where we go when life gets to be too much for us: ...the place we go in order to escape—a bar, a movie, wherever it is we throw up our hands and say, ‘Let the whole damned thing go hang. It makes no difference anyway.’ Emmaus is whatever we do or wherever we go to make ourselves forget that the world holds nothing sacred.”(p. 85 - 86)

Those two disciples leaving Jerusalem, going to Emmaus, maybe they were going home or maybe they were just getting out of Dodge, afraid of what might happen to them back there. Everything seemed to die on that cross and they wanted to leave. It was easy for me to keep saying my eyesight was fine, to deny what I really knew, that my eyes needed real help to see better. Sometimes in the midst of all this we need someone to help us on our road to Emmaus. Maybe its our spouse, our child, a friend maybe even Jesus who comes and breaks into our fear, our sadness and anxiety, who breaks bread with us and we feel again that we are not alone that indeed God is with us. And it is then that our eyes are open to the Lord.

It is as Frederick Buechner put it in another part of The Magnificent Defeat, he writes: “It is not the objective proof of God’s existence that we want, but… the experience of God’s presence. That is the miracle we are really after. And that is also, I think, the miracle that we really get.” (p. 47)

The Easter miracle is to experience God’s presence, God’s reality in our daily lives. As the “Tuesday evening team at the soup kitchen gathers. It’s nonstop from three in the afternoon until well after seven, preparing, cooking and serving supper for as many as three hundred guests. When the last guest has left and the tables are all cleared, the Tuesday team sits down to eat. Their meal begins every week with a simple ritual: After everyone is served, the evening’s captain takes a big slice of bread and breaks off a piece; then the captain passes the bread to the volunteer next to him or her, who breaks off a piece and hands the bread to the next volunteer, and so on. No words are spoken; none are needed. There could be no better reminder of why they do what they do than a broken piece of bread.” [Connections – April 2008]

Others can help us with our glasses, to help us see that indeed Christ is at work in you and me and this terrible hurting world. So whether or not, you are travelling your own road to Emmaus this Easter, if you are wondering, if you have doubts, if you had hopes and you want to have that experience of God.

Then come to this table this morning, come to the altar, kneel or stand at the rail receive Christ in bread and wine and remember that Jesus invites you and I to come together and take again the bread that he blessed and broke and gave. And open your eyes and your hearts and be hopeful for God is with us. The women who went to the tomb were right, Thomas was right, Cleopas and the other disciple were right: Christ is risen. He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! Amen.

The Feast of Baseball

Now that Opening Day has taken place, we ought to observe a moment of silence and a prayer for the season:

For the absolution and remission of our sins and offenses this baseball season, and for the lifting of your ancient curse upon the Chicago Cubs, let us pray to the Lord.

Lord, have mercy.

For granting another Detroit Tigers World Series victory overs said Cubs, let us pray to the Lord.

Lord have mercy. Hallelujah! Amen.

and don't forget to sing...

TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALL GAME
by: Jack Norworth (1879-1959)

ATIE Casey was base-ball mad,

Had the fever and had it bad;

Just to root for the home town crew,

Ev'ry sou Katie blew.

On a Saturday, her young beau called to see if she'd like to go,

To see a show but Miss Kate said "no,

I'll tell you what you can do:"




Chorus

Take me out to the ball game,

Take me out with the crowd

Buy me some peanuts and cracker jack,

I don't care if I never get back,

Let me root, root, root for the home-team,

If they don't win it's a shame

For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out, at the old ball game.




Katie Casey saw all the games,

Knew the players by their first names;

Told the umpire he was wrong, all along good and strong

When the score was just two to two,

Katie Casey knew what to do,

Just to cheer up the boys she knew,

She made the gang sing this song:




Chorus

Take me out to the ball game,

Take me out with the crowd

Buy me some peanuts and cracker jack,

I don't care if I never get back,

Let me root, root, root for the home-team,

If they don't win it's a shame

For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out, at the old ball game.