St. Peter's wikispace

You can find our wikispace here:

stpetersonthegreen.wikispaces.com

This is what's on our wikispace (help add stuff!):

Look here for some pictures from Shrove Tuesday. Yum!

Look here for a couple pictures of St. Peter's during "Earth Hour."

Look here for a page of remembrance for Sean Rice.

Look here for some pictures from our Touch a Truck event.

Look here for some pictures from 2009 Relay for Life at Masuk HS.

Look here for pictures from our outing to see the Bluefish play baseball.

To find a page of my sermons in audio form, please go here.

Sermon: June 14

Dirt. That’s all we had. Dirt. The tree cover at the rectory made some areas inhospitable to grass, it never grew, so even if it rained, it just became mud. But now the trees are trimmed, sunlight gets in and the grass seed was planted. Sure enough, without my having to do a thing, the seed has sprouted and grass is growing. And that is what the Kingdom of God is like.

Jesus loves in his parables, to turn our thinking upside down. The Kingdom of God is like a tiny seed, a seed that is planted, sprouts and grows because God wills it, not because we have anything to do with it. Jesus compares the kingdom of God to a mustard seed, a very small seed, but when it grows it becomes a mighty shrub for the birds of the air to make nests in its shade. From something seemingly insignificant comes the kingdom of God, bursting forth in our world, creating a place where we can be sustained.

In 1992, the beautiful city of Sarajevo was being torn apart in the ethnic strife of the Bosnian civil war. On the afternoon of May 27, a bomb was dropped on one of the last functioning bakeries in the city - 22 people who were waiting patiently to buy bread were killed. Vedran Smajlović witnessed the bombing from his apartment window. He was horrified and enraged at the massacre. But what could he do? He was not a politician or soldier. He was a musician, an accomplished cellist. All he knew was music.

So that is what he did for 22 days ­- one day for each of those killed - Smajlović played at the same spot. Every evening after that, at 4 P.M., the time of the fatal explosion, the 37-year-old cellist, dressed formally as if for a concert performance, took his cello to the site of the crater created by the bomb. And there he would play one of his favorite pieces, Albinoni's "Adagio in G minor." All around him mortar shells and bullets would fly, but he would continue to play. He played for the sake of human dignity that is the first casualty of war. He played for life, for peace, for hope. He was also known for playing for free at different funerals during the siege, even though such funerals would often be targeted by enemy fire.

Today, Vedran Smajlović is revered as a hero by the people of Sarajevo. A statue of a musician, sitting on a chair and playing a cello, was erected on the sport where Smajlović first played. But Smajlović says in all humility, "I am nothing special. I am a musician, I am part of the town. Like everyone else, I do what I can."

A simple act done by a man of the town to do what he can through his gift of music. From something seemingly insignificant comes a recognition and it grows to something much bigger, and God bursts through, and hope and peace are once again front and center in the midst of despair. Smajlović’ story embodies the parable of the mustard seed.

For our faith, Mustard seed faith, is centered in the conviction that, in the smallest acts of compassion and generosity, life can be transformed from barrenness to hope. We may have little or no expectation of a harvest from our small seeds; even nurturing what we have planted may be frustrating and futile, but Christ calls us to embrace the faith and hope of his parable: to be willing to plant seeds of hope and compassion that we possess, wherever and whenever we can, in the faith that it will result in God’s kingdom coming near.

For the Kingdom of God is all around us, in very simple ways, sometimes sprouting from the smallest of acts, and in it, God is at work in our world.

As Mother Teresa put it, “There are no great acts, only small acts done with great love.”

Like walking around a track celebrating life, in witness with those who survived cancer, remembering those who didn’t and walking to fight against cancer in the Relay for Life. A small act and yet it is there the Kingdom of God is proclaimed in our actions. It reminds me of one of my favorite stories: The Starfish Story adapted from The Star Thrower by Loren Eiseley (1907 - 1977)

Once upon a time, there was a wise man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began his work.

One day, as he was walking along the shore, he looked down the beach and saw a human figure moving like a dancer. He smiled to himself at the thought of someone who would dance to the day, and so, he walked faster to catch up.

As he got closer, he noticed that the figure was that of a young man, and that what he was doing was not dancing at all. The young man was reaching down to the shore, picking up small objects, and throwing them into the ocean.

He came closer still and called out "Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?" The young man paused, looked up, and replied "Throwing starfish into the ocean.” "I must ask, then, why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?" asked the somewhat startled wise man. To this, the young man replied, "The sun is up and the tide is going out. If I don't throw them in, they'll die."

Upon hearing this, the wise man commented, "But, young man, do you not realize that there are miles and miles of beach and there are starfish all along every mile? You can't possibly make a difference!" At this, the young man bent down, picked up yet another starfish, and threw it into the ocean. As it met the water, he said, "It made a difference for that one."

The Kingdom of God is all around us, sprouting and growing in the smallest acts of compassion and kindness. Look around and see, for the parable that Jesus tells is true. So what will you do today to bring the Kingdom of God that much closer? What will you do today to proclaim your faith in a small loving act? Whatever it is, go and do it and have faith that God will indeed make it grow! Amen.

What am I reading?

Here's what your Rector has been reading...

God's Three Step Plan by David Lee Kirkland

I found God's Three Step Plan a wonderful read. I have always liked Micah 6:8 even had it as a bumper sticker on my car. I have read a number of books that have tried to draw out the meaning from Micah and I have always found them wanting. This book wonderfully draws out the meaning to each part of God's message to us in Micah (act justly, love mercy, walk humbly with God). I loved how lots of different voices, many from outside the Christian tradition, helped illuminate God's three step plan. It is a very Christian book but refreshingly aware of the voices outside of our religious tradition who can help us see what Micah's words are saying to us. I especially liked how the Jewish voice was raised up since its part of the Hebrew Scriptures. I recommend this book!


Columbine by Dave Cullen

Is a good book and helped dispel myths I had believed about the Columbine tragedy. I continue to read about how good people do evil things, how two teens lost the ability to see the humanity in others. A very tragic event. And its aftermath is still with us...


I am reading now...

Inheriting the Trade: A Northern Family Confronts Its Legacy as the Largest Slave-Trading Dynasty in U.S. History

More on this book later...

Relay for Life: Monroe/Trumbull

Here are some details about Friday's Relay for Life:

Where: Masuk High School

Brief Schedule:

6 PM - Opening Ceremony & Survivor's Lap
(6:30 PM - Survivor Reception Dinner)

9 PM - Luminaria Ceremony

11 PM - Fight Back Ceremony

7 AM (Saturday) - Victory Lap

7:30 AM - Closing Ceremony & Clean-Up

Prayer:

Strengthen your servants, O God, to go where they have to go and bear what they have to bear in their fight against cancer; that, accepting your healing gifts at the hands of surgeons, nurses, and technicians, they may be restored to wholeness with a thankful heart; strengthen all survivors and caregivers that they may feel your presence upholding them; guide us who walk in solidarity with them and all who have cancer; and give us all the courage to fight back against cancer and have hope for a future free of cancer. We ask all this through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

(adapted from Enriching our Worship 2)

Sermon: Trinity Sunday

My walk this day with God,
My walk this day with Christ,
My walk this day with Spirit.
Ho! Ho! Ho! The three-fold all-kindly.

My shielding this day from ill,
My shielding this night from harm
Ho! Ho! Both my soul and my body,
Be by Father, by Son, by Holy Spirit:
By Father, by Son, by Holy Spirit…[Amen.]

This journey prayer that originates from the islands off of Scotland, reminds us how our ancestors relied on God, in very intimate ways, in their daily lives. As their journeys took them out into the fields, tending to their animals, their prayers reminded them of the companionship of God. As they prayed & walked, God walked with them, and shielded them. This confidence that God, God the father, Son and Holy Spirit was with them at every turn, helped guide their lives. Even as they washed their faces, many prayed:

The palmful of the God of Life
The palmful of the Christ of Love
The palmful of the Spirit of Peace
Triune of grace.

Simple acts and yet a profound connection to God. Something I dare say we all long to have in our lives.

As I was reading the latest alumni magazine from my alma matter, the University of Michigan, I found an article on my favorite professor who has just retired after 39 years at UM. Professor Ralph Williams taught in the English Department, and I first came to his class, the Bible as Literature in my sophomore year. It was an extraordinary class. He made the Bible for me, come alive. The stories were no longer just in the text but the stories and the issues came alive with his passion and his energetic style, and their interacted with my own life. I credit him for helping me with my faith, for putting wonder back into the bible, and a renewed connection to God. He opened our eyes to see God with us.

It is all about our connection to God. Be in simple daily prayers reminding us we walk with God or a professor that helps us see our faith stories in a new light, who helps us with our connection to God. Dame Julian of Norwich was a renowned 14th-century English mystic. In perhaps her most famous prayer, she had a vision in which she found herself holding a hazelnut.

"It was as round and perfect as a ball," Julian wrote, "I looked at it with the eye of my understanding and thought: What can this be? I was amazed that it could last, for I thought because of its littleness it would suddenly have fallen into nothing."

Julian then heard a voice explain:

"[This simple hazelnut] is everything that is made . . . It lasts and always will, because God loves it; everything has being through the love of God." In that hazelnut, Dame Julian was holding all creation in her hand.

Look at it, the voice said, and realize three things: "God made it, God loves it, God preserves it."

The voice continued:

"Do you wish to know your Lord's meaning in this thing? Know it well, love was his meaning. Who reveals it to you? Love. What did he reveal to you? Love. Why does he reveal it to you? For love. Remain in this, and you will know more of the same. But you will never know different, without end."

Dame Julian never said so, but one can guess that she never looked at as much as a peppercorn the same way again. How could she, once God has shown her the whole world in the palm of her hand? Paying attention to it, she learned how God paid attention to her. Holding it, she learned how God held her.

[From An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith by Barbara Brown Taylor.]

No matter how God calls to us, reveals God’s self to us, it is God who wants to be in relationship with us. That is the meaning of the Trinity, it is an attempt to describe our experience of God, Three in One, to be in relationship with Father and Son and Holy Spirit. It is to seek out God. As one theologian put it: “In the trinity God is one, good, true, and beautiful because God is essentially Love…” (Hans Urs von Balthasar)

As we leave today, let us remind ourselves that our triune God is present with us in our lives and who wants us to seek him out in love. And there is no better way, than in prayer, so let us end with how we began, with another prayer from the coast of Scotland, summing up our hope to have God always near us in all we do:

God to enfold me, God to surround me,
God in my speaking, God in my thinking.
God in my sleeping, God in my waking,
God in my watching, God in my hoping.
God in my life, God in my lips,
God in my soul, God in my heart.
God in my sufficing, God in my slumber,
God in mine ever-living soul, God in mine eternity. Amen.

Sermon: Pentecost (May 31)

Holy Spirit, still me. Let my mind be inquiring, searching. Save me from mental rust. Deliver me from spiritual decay. Keep me alive and alert. Open me to your truth. O Lord, teach me so that I may live in your Spirit. Amen. (adapted from The Sacrament of the Word by D. Coggan)

It was a Billboard on I-84 outside of Waterbury…

It asked, Are you going to heaven (which had a nice picture of clouds and a blue sky) or hell (picture of dark flames)? It had a scripture verse, of course, from the Gospel of John, and also a phone number… I presume that the phone number was to make reservations?

I always find such billboards odd because fear is the worst motivator for faith. Jesus never employed it nor did his disciples. At that 1st Pentecost we heard in the Acts of the Apostles this morning, when the Spirit came down upon the disciples, it gave them the ability to speak so all could hear the Good News in their own language. There was no threat of hell…

Some thought the disciples drunk, are they speaking gibberish? No, God gave the Spirit to the disciples to proclaim the Good News to the ends of the earth and on that day in a symphony of voices, they spoke in many languages so that could all hear it in their own mother language, the Good News of Jesus and that salvation has come to all the peoples for all who believe because the Spirit of God has been poured out. No threats. No damnation. But truth and love…

It is Truth that is embodied in the life and witness of Jesus. And the truth did not end with Jesus, it is the Holy Spirit poured out on those disciples who now bear the Truth to us, and the Spirit of Truth that rests upon us and is with us forever. Jesus said, "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth."

In a world that sees Church as optional that takes little commitment in community, I see the Spirit of Truth leading two of our young men to their confirmation yesterday, another parishioner to reaffirm his baptismal vows and a family to seek baptism for their child. Today John Carleton Marcoux will be baptized and the Holy Spirit will rest upon John and the Spirit of Truth will be with him. He will join the ranks of the household of God, the community of believers that are witnesses to the Spirit of Truth that still guides us in our lives today. We are to embody that Spirit of Truth today, by following the example of Jesus.

For our witness and example is not a passive life but one involved in living out the truth in our world today. I think of Desmond Tutu who lived under Apartheid in South Africa. A priest than bishop during that time, he worked for the elimination of that terrible racial discrimination.

He said, “[In the land of my birth I cannot vote, whereas a young person of eighteen can vote. And why? Because he or she possesses that wonderful biological attribute - a white skin.] I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights.”

Apartheid did fall, and the years of oppression and violence would come to an end in S. Africa. But the work did not end, for Desmond Tutu then worked toward repairing the whole community both black and white so all could live in that true freedom.

He said, “Forgiveness gives us the capacity to make a new start. It is to say, "I have fallen but I am not going to remain there. Please forgive me." And forgiveness is the grace by which you enable the other person to get up, and get up with dignity, to begin anew. Not to forgive leads to bitterness and hatred, which, just like self-hatred and self-contempt, gnaw away at the vitals of one's being.” The Spirit of Truth led Desmond Tutu to speak against the unjust system of apartheid and then lead in the work of truth and reconciliation after that system fell.

I think of Iqbal Masih a Pakistani Christian child sold into slave work at age four. At ten he escaped from his horrible work as a rug-knotter. He told his story to the world, offering his voice and experience to support the freeing of thousands of child-slaves like him and teaching rug buyers around the world to ask who was making their hand-tied rugs, how the workers were being treated and whether they were being paid fairly.

In 1995, when Iqbal Masih was twelve, he testified before the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. At Easter he went home to his village to go to church, and that afternoon was shot dead. Masih spoke in the Spirit of Truth to the injustice of child labor and was martyred in the street for helping other children find freedom. It is the Spirit of Truth that leads us to fight against injustice, to speak out for victims and to work towards the healing of our societies. It is that same Spirit also called the Advocate and Comforter that guides us in helping those in need around us.

In a recent story on NBC News, it focused on a supermarket in Minnesota…

A woman was in line waiting to check out when she was passed an envelope from the person in front of her. Someone had written on the envelope, “there is $50 in this envelope for your groceries. Take it if you need it or pass it on.”

The woman passed the envelope on to the person behind her. She then watched it go through the line and then over to the next line and the next and so on. What struck her most was not that people passed the envelope on but that several people actually added money to it.

“The Spirit of God moved through that line of shoppers in an envelope. Any time, any place, where compassion and generosity, selflessness and humility, compel people to do what is right and just, the Spirit of God moves among them.” (Jay Cormier)

Today, we celebrate Pentecost, of that Spirit dwelling within us - within us as the church, within us as the baptized. It is the Spirit of Truth that brings two people together as spouses, that forges strong and lasting friendships, that transforms a group of individuals into a community of faith and that same Spirit sends us out to do good in our world today. The Spirit of Truth enables us to be God’s witnesses of truth and love by what we do today. Amen.

Tiananmen Square 20th Anniversary

Thinking of all those who stood up for freedom and human rights 20 years ago and for those still fighting for them today...

O HOLY GOD, you love righteousness and hate iniquity: Strengthen, we pray, the hands of all who strive for justice throughout the world, and, seeing that all human beings are your offspring, move us to share the pain of those who are oppressed, and to promote the dignity and freedom of every person; through Jesus Christ the Liberator, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.