Father Paul's Blog

Grumpy......Grieving

2011-05-05T10:28:00.000-05:00

I've been grumpy ever since Easter. Little things that normally don't bother me are extremely irritating. I want to snap, lash out, and let someone have it.

I thought to myself "I'm just tired, I've been putting in lots of hours. Anne and I have both been practically living in at our jobs, and falling into bed exhausted, up early and at it again for days. There are lots of little things that need to be fixed around the house, the car, and I had to file an extension on my taxes. That's what this is."

But then I got a message from a friend whose husband died a few weeks before Easter and sorrow and grief welled up inside and I choked up. And then I knew. I was tired of loss. Big losses and small losses, and almost no time to say goodbye, to really reflect, to hash them out with God.

There was a time when we valued a year of mourning. People wore black for several months, sometimes a year, so that others would know, and they would have a reminder.

So, for the last several mornings, I've been telling God who I miss, what I miss, and asking for grace to live with loss, and to live in hope that we will someday be re-united with those we love.

Colossians 1:15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. ¹⁶ For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. ¹⁷ He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸ And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. ¹⁹ For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, ²⁰ and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

Hunger

2011-05-01T17:47:00.003-05:00

Christ Church Youth just finished doing the 30 Hour Famine this Sunday after Easter. Anne and I participated, didn't eat, and slept in the parish hall with the kids. (I am getting a bit old for sleeping on the floor!) But it was a thought provoking event for the kids and for the adults.

In some ways I wish we had done it as a parish event, not just a youth event. After all, many of us can give up food for 30 hours, and seek to set aside or to get money to help feed the truly hungry. And most of us become much more compassionate when we have felt the initial stage of hunger.

In 1971 I remember feeling overwhelmed the first time I went to the grocery store after living in Guatemala for 5 years. There was so much stuff. And people threw jars and bottles and cans away! I was shocked by choice and consumption. I thought about how so many poor people I knew in Guatemala would have been able to re-use all that trash and how sad it was that we just threw it away.

Gandhi said, "Live simply, so others can simply live." Yet how simply? I know that Americans, self included, consume disproportionate amounts of the worlds goods. Yet, if we were to completely stop, what happens to the people who produce the goods we consume? There is some truth to trickle down economics.

I am no longer shocked by conspicuous consumption, but when I find plastic trash out in wild places, or snokeling, or walking along the beach I am saddened. I am thankful for technology, and yet I wish that as a species we were more thoughtful about the long term effects of our actions. I wish that we could think generations ahead, not just a few years ahead.

Of course to each his own consumption. Some people would be shocked by the number of books I have. (There is no such thing as too many!) Others might be shocked that by the sheer amount of electric power Anne and I consume to cool a house that we are not in for at least 12 hours a day.

Ultimately there are no simple, easy answers. But it would do us all good to reflect on what we need versus what we want. Jesus reminded us to store up treasures in heaven, and not to be overly greedy for this world's goods. It seems to me that he and a great many other wise people have thought the same. Perhaps they know something I need to learn.

48 days and counting

2011-04-26T22:11:00.001-05:00

Easter Sunday is over. But the season lasts for 50 days. Jesus apparently kept showing up for the next 40 days, usually unexpectedly. And then at the end of those 40 days, he tells the disciples to gather and pray. So for the next ten days they gather daily and pray. And suddenly on the 10th day, the Holy Spirit descends. So if you wonder where that custom of a novena comes from, you can stop wondering!

So what comes next. Next is being the church. Praying, loving, working, sharing, caring. And expecting God to do things in our lives and the lives of those we love.

So, time to get up and enjoy these next 50 days. Consider praying at a regular time for 10 days, starting on June 2, 2011 until June 12, 2011, and see if God does something new in your life.

Of course you could start praying now and see what happens if you pray for 48 days!

Pearls

2011-04-25T08:16:00.001-05:00

In a drawer in a safe at Christ Church are several pearls. They are part of an old necklace that belonged to a maiden parishioner whose belongings were willed to the church when she passed away more than 20 years ago.

They're not in great shape, nor particularly valuable as jewelry. But they represent someone who was deeply loved by many of that church.

Jesus speaks of God's kingdom by talking about a merchant on a journey who finds a pearl of great value. He sells all he has and returns to buy that one pearl.

The events of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter are God's way of showing us that the valuable pearl is us. The merchant is God's Son. He "sells" all he has to acquire us.

Like those pearls in the drawer, we may not seem particularly beautiful or valuable. But to God we are people of infinite value and worth.

The Father raised Jesus from the grave to show that his offer of eternal life, of everlasting companionship with God and one another is what God most longs for.

And deep inside if we will allow ourselves to set aside our fears that this can't possibly be true; if we remove our cynical shell that keeps us from ever really giving ourselves deeply to Christ; if we move past the fear of possible hurt and grief - we will find that we are the pearl so valuable to God, and that God is the pearl we tried to find in other activities and pleasures that never quite satisfied us.

Jesus knew his life would end and he made it count. May we know that our lives will end and make them count.

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."
Jim Elliot

Hell

2011-04-23T09:07:00.000-05:00

"Suffered under Pontius Pilate,Was crucified, dead, and buried:He descended into hell;

What lies in hell that Jesus would go there?

Power...

2011-04-22T11:48:00.000-05:00

John Claypool, (1930-2005) once preached that if he was God, and if Jesus was his son, he would have done three things:
1) raise Jesus from the dead,
2) Destroy the world for it's hatefulness and evil,
3) Take his Son back to heaven and turned his back on the world for evermore.

Think about it. Good Friday God's power is profoundly conspicuous by it's absence. No last minute miracle to save Jesus, no thunderbolts of lightning falling on those who rejected and killed him.

In a world that worships power and glory, God flips the table on both.

May I learn the mystery of that amazing power. Amen.

The problem of good again....

2011-04-21T07:22:00.000-05:00

Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Oh - oh - oh - oh...
Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

Passover, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Earth day tomorrow. Lots happening on the calendar.

This Lenten Blog started with something I called "The problem of Good". Why is there so much goodness in the world?

It was one of my favorite authors, C.S. Lewis who first helped me realize that there is no such thing as "pure badness" or "pure evil." He noted that all evil and all bad are themselves corruptions of the good they were meant to be. And even the worst of beings have attributes and qualities that are good. They have just been perverted.

Thus we call tomorrow "Good Friday" when it probably deserved a title like "Bloody Friday" or "Torture Friday".

How does such a gruesome event get a title like that? If it were cynical we could understand. But Christians don't seem to be using cynicism when they call it good.

In a stunning reversal, instead of the firstborn of Egypt dying, the firstborn of God dies on behalf of all who face with certainty the angel of death. And death becomes forevermore the slave of God, no more the ultimate end, only the beginning of something unimaginably glorious.

Sometimes it causes me to tremble...

Temptation

2011-04-20T06:45:00.001-05:00

Father,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil."
(The Lord's Prayer in Luke 11 from "The Message")

"Keep us safe from ourselves..." There is an old Clint Black song where the refrain goes:
"Wherever you go there you are
You can run from yourself but you won't get far
You can dive to the bottom of your medicine jar
But wherever you go there you are"

Most of my temptations and struggles come from inside me. Going somewhere else, or self medicating myself will not work for long.

I am a person capable of great good and generosity. And I have a dark side capable of great evil and self-centered egotism.

Buddha recognized this inner battle and argued that desire needed to be eliminated. St. Paul recognized this. He wrote to the Colossian Christians: "Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry." Colossians 3:5

Both recognized that it this is not the path of least resistance but that it will take a lifetime of effort.

For lazy people like me, we want this to be a one time deal. I prayed as a young person for God to free me from those temptations in Paul's list, sexual immorality,lust, greed. I wanted an instant cure.

It took me a while to realize that the putting the selfish, greedy, self-centered part of me to death was a daily, hourly, sometimes minute by minute way of living.

AA has a line, "Fake it till you make it." By that people mean: "Do the actions of a sober person even when they feel unnatural to you. Eventually the reverse will happen."

Ask for help from God, and then take a cue from Paul's advice a few verses later: "Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience."

In other words when temptation comes, go and find something good and positive to do and do it.

And when you blow it or someone else blows it then take his advise from the next line: "Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you."

Obviously Paul and many other wise people who have traveled this road know the ups and downs themselves, and have wisdom to give us.

Finally, don't try to do this alone as he says a few verses later: "Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts."

Share your struggles and victories, prayers and worship with each other. Paul seems to think that the message of Christ lives not just in us, but among us. This spiritual life is not a solo journey but a corporate one.

Leap of faith

2011-04-19T07:55:00.003-05:00

I have always been a Christian, but I have not always believed. I was baptized as a child, and therefore a Christian.

However, as I reached adolescence I ceased to believe in the “fairy tale” of Jesus resurrection. Atheism seemed a much more rational choice. I enjoyed making fun of other people's foolish faith in God.

And then one night, I had a vision of Jesus and experienced a transformation in my life I could not explain.

The next few days I read the Gospel of Mark and the Acts of the Apostles. In them I met people who seemed to have experienced Jesus in the way I just had. In them I met skeptics and people hostile to the faith who suddenly realized they were wrong.

Over the years since then, while praying to Jesus I have seen people healed immediately, unexplainably of cancer, deformities, and serious illness. I have seem people experience deep emotional and spiritual healing. I have seen skeptics like me come to faith in Jesus.

The irony is, that despite that encounter I still have to have faith daily. Even though I have repeatedly experienced the power of Jesus in amazing ways, I still must make the leap to believe every day.

It was years before I realized everyone has to have faith every day. Only our object of belief varies.

The materialist who believes there is no spiritual reality, is dependent upon faith that there is no God.

The pantheist who believes that the universe and all that is in are God, has to take that on faith.

The spiritualist who believes that the material universe is an illusion, must take that leap of faith to get there.

And the person who believes Jesus is who he claims to be, and rose again on the third day, must also take that leap of faith.

I cannot prove Jesus rose from the dead. I used to try. Now I simply testify that I believe the writers of the New Testament to be telling the truth, and tell my story.

After all, if Jesus did rise from the dead he does not need me to prove it. If he is who he says he is, the universe was made through him and its very existence depends upon him.

I simply tell what I believe and why, and make myself available to answer the objections and answer the questions. Everyone already has faith. The question is: faith in who or what?

The Fisherman

2011-04-18T07:32:00.003-05:00

Years ago on a very hot summer day, some friends and I who worked for a contractor, ended up having the afternoon off. It was a Friday, and the home was between Giddings and Brenham, Texas. We grabbed some things to eat and drink and went up to Lake Summerville.

On a dare, two of us swam across what seemed to be a fairly narrow part of the lake. However, after about 40 minutes of swimming we could no longer tell which shore was closer and we were pretty tired. So we continued toward the far side, which seemed just a bit closer.

Thankfully a bass fisherman who wasn't catching anything saw us as we neared that far shore. He motored out to us.

"Are you boys crazy, that's near a mile swim! You want a ride back?"
"Yes, please." we gasped.
We climbed into the boat with that far shore just a hundred yards away and headed back.

From St. Paul's letter to the Philippians, Chapter 3 verse 10
"I want to know Christ
and the power of his resurrection
and the sharing of his sufferings
by become like him in his death,
if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead."

I do want to know Christ, the power of his resurrection, and attain the resurrection from the dead. But the suffering and death part I want to avoid. Yet death is coming for me sooner or later. The only question is how will I have lived.

Following Christ is like that foolish swim across the lake. It is exciting and fun at first, and then it becomes downright hard, and sometimes dangerous. But the truth is that there is a fisherman on the lake of life who will ferry me when it gets too hard. His boat may keep me on this side of life for now, but there will come a day when I will head with him to the far shore.

We do not do this alone. Come Lord Jesus.

Domingo de Ramos

2011-04-17T05:47:00.002-05:00

Note: This is from a post for Palm Sunday two years ago with a few modifications.

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive hate; only love can do that." Martin Luther King, From: "Strength to Love"

Domingo de Ramos

It was life in Guatemala in the late 1960's and early 1970's that brought the passion to life for me. I was a young teenager, living in a country where guerilla warfare kept the country on edge. Bombs would go off on buses, or in a marketplace. There were drive by assasinations, bodies that were tortured dropped by the roadside, or in front of the family home.

Holy week was full of street processions, where the Roman Catholic churches would bring forth their most gruesome statues of the passion, or sometimes hand carried floats with people portraying the stations of the cross.

These floats would parade throught the streets. In some cities families or neighborhoods would craft elaborate carpets in the streets formed of flowers and leaves. They were works of art, beautiful, yet ephemeral, soon to be trampled by the tread of marchers carrying the crucified Christ.

It was one such Holy Week, when during a procession there was a large armed presence of soldiers, each carrying a rifle or a submachine gun. At one intersection, a young man stood in the back of a jeep with his hands on a 50 caliber machine gun, with one belt loaded, and 3 ammo boxes open ready to load.

It was then that the impact of the original crucifixion hit me. Suddenly I could see the Roman army, surrounded by a hostile crowd. Some of the crowd wanted them to kill Jesus, but they were no friends of Romans. I could sense the tension in the air, the confusion.

And I could see Jesus, dragged down the street, the Lord of Glory. This was just how the world has always worked. One more troublemaker tortured, put on display as a warning to anyone who might pose a threat to Rome. All glory extinguished. Horror and beauty are slammed into one another in a groteque cosmic conflict.

I watched the soldiers and the marchers, stunned that after 2000 years we were still at it. Still torturing, still killing, still intimidating.

A few years later, after my family was thrown out of Guatemala, I found myself working with Guatemalan and Salvadoran refugees. It was then that I realized that the powers of this world, which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God, the spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against God, and my own sinful desires and rebellion against God are no match for the power of the cross.

Every act of hate meets its match when confronted with matchless love.

Danger...

2011-04-16T07:40:00.002-05:00

I posted a brief note on Facebook about kayaking on the Rio Grande. I got all kinds of post back worried about my safety.

The irony is that Laredo is a very safe city by U.S. standards. We live near Nuevo Laredo where there is a high level of violence between rival drug gangs and law enforcement. But Laredo is pretty safe.

Statistically and experientially, living in the East End of Houston, Texas from 1973 to 1983 was far more dangerous. I had guns pointed at me twice, just missed a shootout where a policeman and two witnesses were gunned down during a routine traffic stop a block from my home, was robbed several times, and foiled two break in attempts while I was actually in the place being broken into. There were numerous times I heard gunshots. And yet most of the people who lived in that part of Houston were not criminals or dangerous.

I lived in Guatemala City from 1967 to 1971. Now that was a dangerous place to live in those years. There was a high level of violence and a high level of tension.

So why do people perceive Laredo as so dangerous? In a word, news. News media needs to sell advertising and so it has become increasingly sensational. Most Americans don't seem capable of distinguishing Laredo, from Nuevo Laredo.

Does that mean there is no danger. No. But Laredo, Texas is a fairly quiet place most of the time, where most people think the truly important news in town is on the front page of the sports section of local paper.

The truth is that all of us live in places where there is danger.

And for Christians danger needs to be measured differently. In the late 1990's I was at a presentation by the Rev. Mark Nikkel, a missionary to the Dinka people in the Sudan during a very dangerous time.

Someone asked if it wasn't very dangerous to do what he did. After a very long pause he said, "No. If I believe that God has my life in his hands, and that God has called me to minister in the Sudan, then I am perfectly safe unless God decides otherwise. But if God want me in the Sudan, and I disobey and go somewhere else then because of my disobedience I would be in a very dangerous place indeed."

"He guides me along the right paths
   for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk
   through the darkest valley,[a]
I will fear no evil,
   for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
   they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me
   in the presence of my enemies."

From Psalm 23,(NIV)

The shepherd of souls

2011-04-15T05:12:00.001-05:00

One day in 1988, as I turned around with my tray, a group of women at McDonald's invited me over to join them. We knew each other. They were all semi-homeless, working girls, who sold themselves to pay for an occasional room, and more often another drink or another hit of their drug of choice.

We knew each other because I worked at at St. Francis Center, in Denver, a homeless center, and we had met many times.

But now we were out of our roles. I wasn't the "shelter worker" and they weren't the "clients". We were simply people who knew one another, and actually cared about one another.

For the next 30 minutes they told stories, and laughed, and they occasionally tried to embarrass me, and enjoyed watching me blush when they got really risque. And then, as we were finishing our meals one of them touched my arm and said, "Don't go. We didn't pray before we all ate, and I want you to pray now."

And so we sat in McDonald's on East Colfax, holding hands in a circle around the table and prayed, ending with the Lord's prayer together. Then we got up hugged each other, and went our separate ways.

God loves those who are desperately lost and caught in desperation. May he move us to love them too.

Airport Idolatry

2011-04-14T05:01:00.002-05:00

Reggie McNeal has a wonderful line. He says there are no coffee table books, "Great Airports of Europe" or "Beautiful Airports of the World". And then he compares churches to airports. And he challenges us to see ourselves not as the destination, but as a transit hub. The goal of what we do is not to get people to church, but to help them connect with God in this life, in ways that will make them love God passionately in the next.

Even the great Cathedrals of the world were only made beautiful to teach lessons about God. In many cases they were the work of centuries of labor, and those building them knew that they were simply a place to help the passengers arrive safely at an even more majestic destination.

I’m getting all kinds of email about how to get people to come back to church after Easter. But I am not getting lots of emails about how to get the church to go out into the world after people after Easter.

We must decide, are we primarily a destination or a hub?

But there is another question that cannot be addressed by the answer to that question. Churches are built of bodies, not bricks. We are believers, not buildings. We are a community of people traveling together, trusting that we are on an inter-dimensional journey with a foot in two worlds.

“Thy kingdom come, on earth as in heaven” we pray, and then are surprised when it sometimes happens.

Because sometimes God visits the airport, to assure the passengers they’re flying to the right destination. May God pay you a visit today.

Man of la Mancha

2011-04-13T05:24:00.000-05:00

I spent most my teenage years in Guatemala City, Guatemala. It is a beautiful city and a beautiful country. Nevertheless, it was in the midst of serious political problems and regular acts of terrorism, car bombings, random machine gunning of people in public places, and the like were common and sometimes daily occurrences. So perhaps I am more attune to violent, dangerous situations than some people.

Shortly after we were married, Anne and I went to see the musical, “Man of la Mancha”. If you know the play, you know that it takes place in a jail, where the main character has been imprisoned by the Spanish Inquisition.

The lights dimmed in the theater, suddenly, there was a blast of submachine gun fire, and a group of about 10 men burst into center aisle near where we were seated. One grabbed a man out of his seat and putting a weapon to his head twisted his arm roughly behind his back and the rest then menacingly covered the audience with their weapons.

Even before the gun had been fired, I had seen the movement and the weapon out of the corner of my eye and pulled Anne’s head down.

Of course she understood what I didn’t. This was part of the play. Memories from life in Guatemala had kicked in, and it took me about 30 seconds longer to grasp the concept while Anne wondered if she had married a crazy man. (Now she no longer wonders!)

At that point, my adrenaline was pumping very effectively and I remained alert through the entire performance.

The next day was Passion Sunday, and I couldn’t help but compare the theater experience to Jesus arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane.

From that day forward every time we go through the Palm Sunday service, I have a mental image of armed men bursting into church and grabbing Jesus, and roughly hitting him and yanking him to his feet, hauling him away while the disciples suddenly awakened fight and flee.

My prayer is that we never separate ourselves from the passion of the passion. Let us never lose sight of the love demonstrated even to enemies.

Peace.

Water

2011-04-12T07:36:00.001-05:00

It is so dry here in Laredo and most of the rest of Texas this year. Last year we had rain almost every month until September. And then it was as if the faucet turned off.

Tumbleweeds, dry arroyos, dust, barren rock formations, yucca, prickly pear, and scrub vegetation. I am from Colorado. And spend early childhood in New Mexico. Much of Colorado and New Mexico looks pretty dry much of the year.

Perhaps that is why I am not shocked by the same terrain and vegetation in South Texas. It is familiar looking. The only thing missing is the mountains. And the only thing added is intense heat!

This year, the Jewish Passover and Holy Week for both Western and Eastern Christians are all very close together. Passover starts on the 18th, and Easter for both sets of Christians is on the 24th.

Perhaps because this year is so dry, I have been thinking a lot about water and how it fits into Holy Week. On Thursday the 21st many Christians wash feet to remember that Jesus did the same.

And Friday, we read from St. John's Gospel where he deliberately mentions the following: Jesus thirst and the response to it.

Why would Jesus humble himself and act like a slave? Is there someone or somewhere I am called to serve?

What was Jesus thirsting for? Just water or something even greater? What do I thirst for?

Dry Bones

2011-04-11T07:05:00.002-05:00

This past Thursday, I arrived early to Waco, Texas for a continuing education event. I called Suzanna, my daughter and suggested we visit the Waco Mammoth Site which is an active archeological dig where the largest collection of Columbian Mammoths have been found. The bones date from two primary eras: 68,000 years ago, and about 15,000 years ago. Baylor University faculty and students have been directing the dig since 1978. And the bones are actually bones, not fossilized, but preserved because of the high clay content of the soil.

Walking through the small site, looking at the enormous bones, I couldn't help but think about the passage from Ezekiel 37, where he sees a vision of a valley full of dry bones.

God speaks to him and says “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “Sovereign LORD, you alone know.”

Ultimately the bones in stages receive flesh and sinews, then skin, and finally the breath of life. As Suzanna and walked around we saw the artists representation of a live Columbian Mammoth and it would have been an impressive animal.

This Lent has been "dry" feeling to me. There are things that feel lifeless and dead. And yet, underlying the dry feeling is a sense of anticipation.

When I asked myself where that sense of anticipation comes from I realized it is from a long experience in my life of God's provision, and abundant life. There are times when it comes as a flood, and it seems that that sense of God's power and presence will last forever. But it is not meant to last in this life. The wisdom of the scriptures and of the Church through the ages is dryness and wilderness, rains and fertile fields are gifts of God in their due season.

So while things are dry right now, I know life is coming.

Mary

2011-04-10T16:03:00.000-05:00

In John 11 and Luke 10 we run into Martha and Mary.

Mary seems to be the spiritual one. In Luke's gospel we know she sits with the disciples and scandalizes her sister.

And in John 11, we discover that she is the one who poured perfume on Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. (This may be the story that shows up in Mark 14, Matthew 26, and Luke 7) Since none of them mention the woman's name we cannot be sure that what John is talking about is the same story, but it does seem likely.

Mary seems to see something in Jesus that calls out to her deeply. She seems to feel deeply. She perfumes him and washes his feet with her hair.

But here in her grief she speaks one line, her only line in the gospel and it is the same thing her sister had said moments before: "Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died."

Now Mary who thought she "got" Jesus has to learn a very difficult lesson in faith, just like her sister Martha.

Both these women who seem to both love Jesus, but be very different in their approach to him, are about to learn about faith in a new and powerful way.

When evil and death come to us and those we love, we can be tempted to believe that somehow Jesus was not with us, was not "on the job."

Even the mourners whisper, "This is the guy who healed that blind man. Why couldn't he have healed Lazarus?"

Why is the impossible question. But who Jesus is, he will make very clear.

Martha

2011-04-09T04:22:00.003-05:00

In John 11 and Luke 10 we run into Martha and Mary.

Martha takes the verbal lead in both stories. And in both stories, she takes on Jesus both times.

In the Luke passage she is scandalized that Jesus lets her sister sit as a disciple and learn from the master. Women as disciples! Scandalous! She tries to be tactful and suggests that Jesus send her sister away to help her do the cooking and cleaning. He is tactful back and says no, that Mary, and by implication Martha can become a disciple.

In the next encounter, the sisters have sent for Jesus to come and heal their brother. Jesus comes too late to do any good. And this time Martha is more direct. "Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died."

What I love about Martha is that she doesn't have any trouble giving Jesus a piece of her mind. She has a real relationship with him. Not very pious, not very respectful, but very real.

Jesus chooses one of the most difficult times in her life to push her to a new level of understanding and faith in him.

She has to choose: trust or not trust. She trusts, but keeps her voice and personality. A few moments later she tells Jesus to not have the grave opened.

Jesus told her she should trust, she claims she will, and few moments later she begins to waver.

I love Martha. She believes, but struggles with her beliefs. She trusts, but struggles to trust. And she sees the power and glory of God.

Lazarus

2011-04-08T07:02:00.001-05:00

"Lord, he whom you love is ill."

We know just a few facts about Lazarus. He lives in Bethany near Jerusalem, has two sisters, Martha and Mary, he is seriously sick, and Jesus speaks of him as "our friend" when talking with the disciples.

There are no recorded words of Lazarus.

I find it very interesting that in the three accounts in the Bible where Jesus raises people from the dead we never hear from them. The widow's son, the synagogue ruler's daughter, and Lazarus. Perhaps the writers didn't think it important.

I also find it tremendously encouraging that despite their being dead they can all hear Jesus.

"Young man I say to you get up." Luke 7:14
"He took her by the hand and said to her, "Talitha koum!" (which means "Little girl, I say to you, get up!" Mark 5:41
"When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" John 11:43

There are times when I think some person is beyond help, beyond any hope of change or healing.
If I look at these impossible situations I remember to pray without losing hope.
And when I think of those who I love who have died I simply speak to them during my prayers. Not because they can hear me, but because they can hear Him. And if there is anything of mine that would be a blessing for them to hear I trust the message will be relayed.

Dead?

2011-04-06T23:34:00.000-05:00

This coming Sunday one lesson is about Jesus friend Lazarus who was sick and died. Four days after his burial Jesus raised him back to life.

In many ways this one story sums up all of Jesus work. Giving life back to the dead.

Many years ago, when I was still in my teens, I sat in a grimy cabin, trying to negotiate a deal to buy a large quantity of marijuana from a dude and his girlfriend. We had reached the point where I and my friend were to sample the product. We lit up. At about the same time their two year old daughter came into the room. I began to put the joint out when the man took it from me and handed it to his daughter. As she inhaled I began to feel sick inside. Something in me died or perhaps I realized it was already dead.

I knew I was in the thrall of whatever evil power has been unleashed on the earth.

It was about a year later that I discovered the person who can raise the dead. Thank you Jesus.

I never saw those folks again. But I have prayed for many years for all of them that they would all discover and know the Lord of life in this world and the next.

More tomorrow about Lazarus and his sisters.

System overhaul

2011-04-05T04:07:00.007-05:00

"If the universe is so bad...how on earth did human beings ever come to attribute it to the activity of a wise and good Creator?" C.S. Lewis, from "The Problem of Pain"

Isn't it interesting that when Jesus heals someone it seems extraordinary, not "normal." When Jesus raises someone from the dead, it's not "normal." It's not natural. In fact we call it "Supernatural."

But what if we are sub-normal, sub-natural, and what we call "Supernatural" is really the natural order of things?

I am not a systems engineer, but I wonder what report a systems engineer would write if they were charged with recommending changes in our planetary systems for resource distribution, energy consumption, water use, waste management, and more.

Where would they start? What would the opening sentence be? Would they predict some of the chaos we often find ourselves in. Would they notice that many parts of the current system seem to be patched together or even non-existent? Would they say that as the 21st Century starts, much of the system seems stretched to the breaking point?

And then what kind of recommendations would they have to make?

Fortunately they don't have to write the report. Jesus has already written the report and made recommendations.

His recommendation is not to junk the project, even though it has some major problems. Despite massive liabilities he has decided the project is worth every effort to rescue. And so instead of cancellation, the report recommends a comprehensive overhaul. It is expensive, but he is so sure it's worth the effort that he's paid the costs.

From Revelation 21:1ff
Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,”for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. ² I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. ³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ⁴ ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

⁵ He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

Starfish and ripples of kindness

2011-04-04T07:21:00.000-05:00

Pessimism is counterfeit realism. Yes there is evil, in the world. Yes there are great intractable problems that face us on planet earth. But pessimism would have me believe that nothing I do will matter. I see the problems of the world, the problems of my life, the problems of the lives of the people I know and love. And I am tempted to simply become passive and disconnect.

Pessimism leaves no room for God, and no room for individual love and courage. And it is never the final word.

In the old parable, an early morning wave washed thousands of starfish up onto the beach. As the sun was coming up there were the first few beachcombers looking at the miles of beach littered with starfish. One older man saw a young man walking down the beach briskly picking up starfish and throwing them back into the water. As the young man got closer, he said, “Son there are thousands of starfish, and miles of beach. What you’re doing won’t make a bit of difference.” Without missing a beat, the young man picked up the next few starfish several feet away flinging them into the water and saying, “It will for this one, and this one, and this one.”

We have a choice when we see war, poverty, injustice, disaster, hunger, and so many other needs. We can retreat into passivity and impotence or we can make a difference for the ones we can reach.

Hunter, our great Pyrenees dog who, who died a few years ago, was rescued from the pound. Pancho, our current dog, was a mangy puppy living in the gutter who Anne rescued and brought home.

Every month, about $30 is debited from our bank account. That money helps care for a young woman in a Central African Country. Over the years we have gotten to know RK from correspondence which has changed from very childlike scribbles to the words of a young woman, now studying at an adult level. An AIDs orphan she and her older sister have formed a family of siblings and cousins.

From our dogs we have been given great affection and joy. Our lives are enriched by every animal we’ve ever known.

And those few dollars that go to our dear RK. Those few dollars have not just changed her, but she has become a caring young woman, seeking to help others in her family, her village, her country.

“Remember there's no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.” Scott Adams, creator of “Dilbert”

“Let us not lose heart in doing good.” Galatians 6:9a

Catch a glimpse

2011-04-03T04:00:00.002-05:00

A church had invited a famous preacher, who led healing prayers. During the service many people came up for prayers for various ailments. A young man in his 20’s came up and asked for prayer. The preacher said, “What do you want prayer for son?” “Pastor, I need prayer for my hearing.” So the preacher laid hands on both the young man’s ears and prayed up a storm. After a few minutes he stopped, and looked at the young man and said softly, “Son, how’s your hearing now?” “I don’t know preacher, my hearing isn’t till Tuesday.”

Communication is not an exact science! And in this Sunday’s Gospel reading there is lots of miscommunication. What happened? How did it happen? Did it really happen? What about healing on the Sabbath?

The Episcopal Church, (and many others), read the story in the 9^th Chapter of John’s Gospel where Jesus heals a man born blind.

And it is a funny healing story. A man is dramatically healed, but since he was blind, he can’t identify the man that healed him. He acts more like a stand up comic than anyone else in the Gospels.

But in today’s story, the religious good people get mad at Jesus for doing something good. And the man born blind stands up for Jesus and becomes his follower.

And that is the real punch line. We are all blind. But if we admit we are blind, and stop pretending we can see, we just might catch a glimpse of God.

Other benefits...again

2011-04-02T06:00:00.000-05:00

There is no Facebook, no email, no cell phone service, in the life to come. But somehow we are still in communion with those who have gone before us.

Jack Lemmon, the actor, once said “Death ends a life, not a relationship.”

The older I get, the more I realize how true that is. I have relationships with many people whose life on planet earth has ended. They are different, and often seem distant, but not gone.

The irony of course is that we are ones who are most distant, most disconnected. We think of the dead as ephemeral, when actually the opposite is true. We are the ones who are just watching the previews, waiting for the coming attraction.

Those who have gone on before are the ones who have begun a life in perfect communion with Christ.

“All other benefits of his passion.” 1979 Book of Common Prayer, pg. 335

Could one of those other benefits be the communion of saints?

Easter is coming! Hallelujah!

Healed and whole relationships...

2011-04-01T04:36:00.001-05:00

“What Every Man Thinks About Apart From Sex” by Sheridan Simove is a new book that is selling quite well. When you open the book, every page is blank apart from the front and back covers!

Personally, I think the author should have put at least a page about sports, a page about fishing, a page about hunting, and about a dozen half page about a few other subjects, like cars, music, movies, video games, dogs, and money.

Of course that would increase the size of the book by at least 15 or 20 pages, so perhaps it is best to leave it alone.

We joke about the differences between men and women because they're real.

The truth is that differences are what make all our marriages, families, friendships, and workplaces exciting and frustrating. Usually at the same time.

We are made for relationship. We crave healed and whole relationships. But Genesis tells us the trinity of relationships is damaged: human with God, human with human, and human with the planet.

A few days ago I quoted from the Book of Common Prayer Rite one communion service.

"...grant that.....we....may obtain remission of our sins, and all other benefits of his passion." 1979 Book of Common Prayer, pg. 335

I submit that the remission of sins is the starting point in healing our relationship with God.

But another benefit of Jesus passion is the healing of relationship between us and others. He puts us in communities where we get to practice charity and forgiveness over and over. We call this the Church.

If we stick with it we discover that there are some times we even want to forgive “those who trespass against us.”

May we obtain all other benefits of his passion. Amen.

Goodness and mercy follow

2011-03-31T07:46:00.001-05:00

About 7 years ago, Anne and I were part of a church mission team to several Anglican Churches in and around Salta in Northern Argentina. After flying about 18 hours, first to Buenos Aires, and then back up to Salta, we settled in that evening, met a few people who were hosting us, and then geared up for what looked like a busy schedule.

After two busy days, we discovered the third morning that there was a last minute change of schedule. We were shuttled off to a church that wanted us to participate in a regional gathering of leaders.We quickly revamped what we had prepared for a very different mission, and launched in at the leaders gathering.

We had couple of intense morning sessions and then a break before the afternoon meal. During the break, a car pulled up and an older couple got out. Several older people glanced at them, and then recognized them and hurried up to greet them with hugs and kisses. They were an English couple who had been missionaries in the area, but had been called back to the UK almost 30 years ago. This was their first visit since they had left.

When the meal arrived, the conference coordinator decided to put all the English speaking guests at the same table. The older gentleman and I traded names, and as we were both clergy, a bit of clerical chit chat. Then of course we sorted through places and names to see if we had any in common.

Surprisingly to both of us, we had several connections to places and people in common. And one church in particular had been a very painful one for this couple. Anne and I looked at each other, because we too had been injured in an almost identical church setting and knew that this meeting was not a coincidence. In fact we knew of the church, the situation, and actually knew some of the people involved. We sensed that this meeting was not accidental.

At that moment, our host came up and said due to a slight change in plans we were not going to start the next part of the sessions for about 2 hours. He hoped we understood. We looked at this older couple and said, "Do you have some time to talk and would you like to?" Their eyes teared up and they both said "Yes" in unison.

Over the next two hours we talked and prayed and sensed that many of the deep wounds in this couple's life were being healed. Then, almost as quickly as they had arrived, they had to head back so they would not miss their flight and we had to resume the conference.

Many months later, we received a letter from wife.

A twenty year old wound in both our souls was healed that afternoon. Who would believe that two people from England, and two Americans from Texas, would be brought together in Argentina, and that such healing and grace could occur? Why God waited until this moment to do this work, we will never know. Over the years we knew that those hurts made us more caring, sensitive ministers. But they also left deep scars that often hurt. We were willing to accept those wounds, in fact resigned to taking them to the grave with us. What a great gift to have them healed so suddenly and unexpectedly. God is so good."

Goodness and mercy do follow us all the days of our life. They do not always precede us.

May God grant us the serenity to accept those things we cannot change, until such a time as he changes them, in this life or the next. Amen

Goodness and mercy

2011-03-30T04:02:00.004-05:00

"Surely goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life..."

I can still remember the smell of the opthomologist’s office in downtown San Jose, Costa Rica. I can remember the strange sensation of the drops used to dilate my eyes, and the amazing things the doctor did with the phoropter, that funny machine with all the lenses. Going back to the office a few weeks later and walking out with my first pair of glasses, I was shocked!

With my horned rim “coke bottle” glasses I could see things all the way down to the end of the street and read the signs a block away! I could see the ant’s crawling across the sidewalk and the small wasps buzzing the flowers high in the trees.

My glasses could change my vision, but they couldn’t change my perspective. If there is a gene for pessimism and cynicism, I got it. I still saw all that was wrong with the world, and rarely noticed when things were going well. This has been a lifetime struggle for me.

This Lent I began by pondering the "Problem of Good." Why is there so much good in the world? Why do so many wonderful things happen every day, even to bad people? Why is there so much joy and laughter and fun in the world? Why are there so many caring, compassionate people?

It is a serious theological problem. Why does God allow so much good? Why does God allow any good?

I am blessed with the ability to notice all that is wrong with the world. I can see real problems, potential problems, and very unlikely future problems.I notice the bad and I can deal with the "Problem of Evil." But I am working hard this Lent to deal with the "Problem of Good."

We used to have an old Chevy. There could be 6 or 7 things wrong with the car, and yet it would start and run, morning after morning. The transmission needed work, the power steering needed work, the fuel injection system needed work, the oil needed changing, the air filter looked like a dirtball, the master cylinder had a small leak. Yet the car never seemed to notice! I swear that car had a cheerful, helpful disposition!

At 56, I have a few mechanical defects too. A stiff joint here, an ache there, too much of this, not enough of that, and more. If I’m not careful and intentional I can focus and complain about what is wrong and not notice that most important equipment, like heart, lungs, stomach, kidneys, and more is still working!

So, God grant me grace to be like that old Chevy, cheerfully starting, and being ready to face each day with grace and thankfulness.

Blessed be He

2011-03-29T07:27:00.000-05:00

"May His great Name be blessed forever and ever. Blessed, praised, glorified, exalted, extolled, mighty, upraised, and lauded be the Name of the Holy One Blessed is He. beyond any blessing and song, praise and consolation that are uttered in the world. Now say: Amen." (part of the Mourner's Kadish)

We trust you with the life of those we love. "The Lord giveth and the Lord hath taken away."

A wonderful man passed away Sunday. And many people came to mourn his passing. He is not famous or well known, but was faithful, kind, caring, generous and loving. Bright and curious, and a natural salesman, Ken Zoltan befriended many, many people. He will be greatly missed.

Back to blogging tomorrow.

Other Benefits

2011-03-28T06:23:00.000-05:00

"And we earnestly desire thy fatherly goodness mercifully to accept this our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving; most humbly beseeching thee to grant that, by the merits and death of thy Son Jesus Christ, and through faith in his blood, we, and all thy whole Church, may obtain remission of our sins, and all other benefits of his passion." 1979 Book of Common Prayer, pg. 335

In the older Episcopal communion service we pray for God to forgive our sins based on Jesus love and death for us and that we receive that forgiveness by putting faith in that act.

"...grant that.....we....may obtain remission of our sins, and all other benefits of his passion."

Benefits. What kind of benefit package do you hope to get from work? If you are your own employer, what kind of benefits to you try to purchase for you and your loved ones?

Forgiveness for me is a great benefit. I have done more than my fair share of foolish, hurtful things. So that is for me a great comfort.

But what else is in this "all other benefits" package from God?

A river runs though

2011-03-27T04:27:00.000-05:00

From yesterday's post:
Fly fishing last summer in the Rio Grande near South Fork, the south fork of the Rio Grande, I reflected that I was standing in the same water, that a week or two later I might be drinking.

Standing in the middle of the Rio Grande in Colorado, pine trees swaying up the slope from the banks, mountain sides sweeping upwards on both banks, the smell of cool water, sage, and pine in the breeze, with patches of snow on the upper reaches, I thought to myself how different the same river appears over its long journey.

Months later I thought about how the Church is like the River. Starting fresh 2000 years ago in Jerusalem, small and vulnerable, much like the small rivulets that make their way down the slopes of Wolf Creek Pass joining together to form part of the Rio Grande.

But as she flows through time and space the river changes, and her surroundings change. Minerals and other waters flow in, vegetation and terrain change. And by the time she reaches my home in Laredo, she has carried tons of sediment, some contaminants, and massive amounts of water, giving drink to many towns and cities, farms, to domestic and wild animals. And she has picked up and filtered waste and debris.

Yet even with the debris, waste, and changes, she remains a thing of beauty. She still brings liquid life to those along her banks. She washes away the waste.

So like the Church, who picks up debris and contaminants, yet still continues to bring life, and to take away the waste of the world.

And neither the River nor the Church do this without help from above. The river must be filled with rain from the heavens. So too the church without God is just a dry and empty wash. But when she allows God to flow through her, however imperfectly she is a thing of great beauty, no matter the setting she finds herself in.

Father Water

2011-03-26T04:41:00.000-05:00

For the last 12 years I've lived near the banks of the Rio Grande, (the Rio Bravo in Mexico). It always amazes me that the water that melts in Southern Colorado runs all the way through New Mexico, and down much of the Texas border, until it runs into the Gulf at Brownsville and Matamoros.

Fly fishing last summer in the Rio Grande near South Fork, the south fork of the Rio Grande, I reflected that I was standing in the same water, that a week or two later I might be drinking. It made me think about what I was putting into the river, thinking about the fact that I might see it later.

Water is such simple stuff, and yet such miraculous stuff. Until you don't have it, you don't appreciate it.

Watching the horrible tragedy of the Tsunami in Japan, followed by the reactor disasters. People lining up to buy water bottles because the local water supply is already too radioactive for small children.

Perhaps that is some of what Jesus is trying to get at with the Samaritan woman is that the basics of this life, all have some contaminants. Some more and some less. Even our religious systems, as good as they may be have become damaged.

As they argue about who is right about religion, the Jews or the Samaritans. Jesus tells her the Jews are closer to the the truth. But in the end he says, something more than religion must prevail.

Worshipping the Father in Spirit and in Truth. Somehow Jesus means for us to give up religion and take up relationship with the Father.

Water cravings

2011-03-25T04:17:00.000-05:00

“If I find in myself desires nothing in this world can satisfy,
I can only conclude that I was not made for here
If the flesh that I fight is at best only light and momentary,
then of course I'll feel nude when to where I'm destined I'm compared.”

(From the C.S. Lewis song by Brooke Fraser)

On occasion I still take a drink from small rivulets high in the Colorado mountains where I know it's all snowmelt and the chance of contamination is low. It is a taste like no other, and it transports me to childhood. Yet even after slaking your thirst with that wonderful water you still need more a few hour later.

When Jesus talks with the Samaritan woman, he captures her imagination. Water is such a basic essential. And for most of the human race, for most of time, finding, carrying, and using water has involved vast amounts of work.

So when he talks about a constant flow of water, she is intrigued. Engaged enough that he manages to steer her into a conversation that gets to the root of pain in her life. She’s had a difficult time in relationships. Either she’s been divorced or widowed numerous times and she’s living with yet another man.

Perhaps she thought that there was a perfect man out there, or a relationship that might be able to fix the emptiness inside.

Yet somewhere in the talking and sharing she discovers that Jesus believes she is meant to have more in her life.

But his insight into her life makes her uncomfortable so she tries to switch the conversation to religion. (Which seems a safer subject when talking with a preacher!) But again Jesus switches gears. He manages to open her up to the idea that the God of the Universe has made her for an eternal purpose; that only that God will satisfy the craving inside.

God craves an ever deepening relationship with us. When we begin to drink that in, our craving may actually increase. For the first time we are drinking the water from the home country; the land of eternity. In this life we will never get enough. Because we are made for something even more glorious.

Metaphorical Water

2011-03-24T06:02:00.000-05:00

The last really good rain was in September. That month we got almost five inches of rain. Then the totals for October, November, and December were all zero. In January we got a bit over an inch. February and March so far are both at zero again.

Even in this part of South Texas which is dry, we are dryer than usual.

When you listen to ranchers you hear all kinds of one liners about the need for water.

"It’s so dry here the all the fish have ticks.
It’s so dry the Red Cross has launched a wet blanket appeal.
It’s so dry that the trees are whistlin’ for the dogs.
It’s so dry the Red Cross has launched a wet blanket appeal."

Partly because it is so dry, I've been thinking about the Gospel for this coming Sunday, which starts with a conversation about water, while Jesus is sitting by himself at the side of a well. The story takes up most of the fourth chapter in the Gospel of John.

It is a wonderful, funny story about Jesus and a woman from Samaria.

But I've been thinking about one verse for many days now. Verse 13 reads: Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Is that my experience as a Christian? Do I find myself overflowing with the metaphorical water of God's life and love? And is that what most Christians experience?

My suspicion is that it is only an occasional experience for most of us, including people like me. So I am praying for some metaphorical hydrological wisdom as we go forward this Lent.

More reflections tomorrow and the rest of the week...

Perspective

2011-03-21T04:11:00.001-05:00

John 4:34,35 Jesus said to them, 'My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. Do you not say, "Four months more, then comes the harvest"? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting."

Jesus has just finished talking with a woman. A stranger, a foreigner, a lady whose life was a complete mess.

And what does he say to the disciples. "Wow! Isn't this exciting. The harvest is ready...it's time to bring in the crop."

What's he talking about. Obviously not agriculture. His encounter with the Samaritan woman has given him new energy.

The disciples could only see the Samaritans as half breeds, foreigners, dangerous people. But Jesus could see people valuable to God.

Channel flipping I happened to catch a small part of the 2009 movie "The Blind Side" . Based on the true story of Michael Oher, the films power is in showing that no person is disposable.

Jesus saw how valuable that messed up Samaritan woman was to God and spent an afternoon talking with her, and brought her to faith.

Who are the people I think are disposable? When I look at homeless people, illegal people, jailed people, etc. do I see a harvest like Jesus sees? It's only a matter of perspective. I hope I learn to have his.

Sunday, Sunday...

2011-03-20T04:07:00.000-05:00

(This is a re-post of something from two years ago

Psalm 122:1 I was glad when they said to me, * "Let us go to the house of the LORD."

There are Sundays when I feel like not going to church. I have a favorite editorial cartoon. It shows a man in a bathrobe sitting in a Lazy boy recliner, with a newspaper spread on his lap, a remote control at his side, with a football game on the television screen in front of him. He’s holding some papers in one hand and a small microphone in the other. The caption reads “Pastor Smith was able to make Sunday mornings much more relaxed when he realized the wireless mike worked from the pastors residence.”

Sometimes getting up on Sunday, getting out the door, getting to church takes a huge amount of energy. It can feel like there is some invisible force field trying to slow my every move. Reasons to skip church come to mind: “Too much to do, need time for myself, I loose my whole morning”, and others flood my mind. And I’m the pastor!

I think there is an invisible force field that tries to prevent us from worship. It uses tiredness, busyness, sadness, hurt, frustration, and anything else it can to prevent our meeting with other Christians to worship the living God.

The irony is that sometimes the mornings that I find most difficult to arrive for worship turn out to be the most profound. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

I’ve had the privilege of meeting Christians who lived in parts of the world, where going to worship put them in danger: An Anglican bishop in Pakistan who lost a son who was shot and killed to send a message to his father, a bishop from Nigeria, whose family has been assaulted twice, and their home robbed twice, a priest from Vietnam who spend 5 years in a “re-education” camp, a woman from a middle eastern country who would be killed by her male relatives if she ever sets foot in her home country again, a priest in the Sudan who was kidnapped and held at gunpoint twice, and survived air raids on several of the church buildings where he served.

All of them could have been free from this persecution if they would stop worshipping. Yet for each of these people, it is worship where they discover the strength to persevere. When you worship with these people, you know that they are glad to be in the house of the Lord. Their lives are full of joy.

I take freedom to go to church for granted. I may experience some mild hostility for being a Christian. I may experience some spiritual warfare trying to prevent me from showing up for worship.

But when I arrive I am glad to be with my brothers and sisters at the house of the Lord. It is in worship that I again hear Jesus voice, know his mercy, grace, forgiveness, and love. It is in worship that I get strength to serve and follow him again.

Psalm 84:10 Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.

The problem of Good, Again

2011-03-19T04:39:00.000-05:00

I have a friend who is dying of cancer. We sat and prayed the other day. It is terribly unfair, and I find myself reminding God what a wonderful, loving, gifted, caring man this is. A man who loves life, loves God, and many, many people is dying and you God don't seem to be doing anything to stop it!

Yet if he were not such a good man, and if his wife and friends did not love him, his death would not matter. But it is because it does matter, that again we see goodness. Goodness in the support and prayers of a community. Goodness in the deeds of this wonderful person and the years of good life that he did enjoy.

God allows a lot of goodness in the world. May I never lose sight of it.

Mini Funerals

2011-03-18T04:04:00.001-05:00

I went to seminary at Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, a few miles north of Pittsburgh.

One day I, reading the Beaver County Times, there was an story on a local woman who had attended her own funeral!

She'd gone to see the local funeral director, arranged the service, and invited all her friends to come to her funeral. She thought it would be a shame to have everybody come once she'd died since she wouldn't get to see them.

It was a funny story. But as I read, it dawned on me that we hold funeral services for the living all the time in many churches. We baptize people claiming that they have died with Christ. In fact each baptism is a funeral service. In Holy Communion, we claim to celebrate Jesus death until he returns. We are once again seeking to share in his death, and share in his resurrection.

At baptism we offer the old self to God, the self that is spiritually dead, and whose body will someday die. And we ask to be put to death with Jesus, so that we may also accompany him at the Resurrection. Each baptism is in fact a funeral of that old self.

So, it may be that you've already attended a funeral for yourself and just didn't know it.

Enjoy your mini-funerals each time you get to attend. Peace.

Slavery and St. Pat

2011-03-17T04:04:00.003-05:00

Today is St. Patrick's Day.

Patrick, an Englishman, was captured and sold into slavery at age 16. At age 22, the year 412 he escaped and returned to his home and studied for the priesthood. And then in an amazing turn of events, about 435, he returned to Ireland, as a missionary bishop. Those six years captivity had led Patrick to seriously seek God. And now he returned to Ireland, this time a slave to Christ.

He had come to love the Irish people despite their ill treatment of him. Over the rest of his life Patrick traveled vigorously about Ireland. It is estimated that he personally baptized over 300,000 people.

He also is the author of a wonderful Christian repudiation of slavery. His letter to Coroticus is an articulate and impassioned plea to abandon the buying and selling of human beings.

This past Fall, Anne and I got to listen to Somaly Mam, a Cambodian women who was sold into sexual slavery as a young girl. Like Patrick she managed to escape. And she has used her new found freedom to forge a ministry to other young women helping many women to escape slavery and get the help they need.

I keep the picture of Anne and Somaly on my phone. It reminds me that the battle to end slavery is still going on.

May we celebrate Patrick, give thanks for the work of those seeking to end slavery in our day, and pray that the work of setting people free continues in our own day. Amen.

"Take two asprin and call me in the morning"

2011-03-16T04:12:00.009-05:00

Psalm 119:67 Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word. 71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.

Dr. Paul Brand was an amazing man who led an amazing life. I remember hearing him lecture and talk about the gift of pain. Just those three words, "gift of pain" jolted me. He went on to say pain can help us realize that something is wrong. It makes us seek medical help.

Then he told that God might use emotional and spiritual pain to move us to seek his help.

The truth is that some of us stubborn, willful types, need pain to come to our senses. I was one of those people. God reached me at a low point in my life. I was sick of the person I had become, and tired being sick. The pain led me to find people who could help me recover balance and wholeness.

In these two verses of Psalm 119 the writer is thankful for pain. Affliction helped him come back to God, and learn about God.

So what about compassion? Certainly we are also called to alleviate pain and suffering. There is great good in that. But there are times when we treat the symptoms of people's pain and forget about dealing with root cause.

I hate pain, and hate to see people in pain. I want those two asprin and I want them now. Yet, sometimes pain, emotional, spiritual, physical, and mental is the one thing that turns us to God.

At the very least, pain can tell us there is something in our body, or in our life that needs attention. And at the very best it can lead us to find healing for both body and soul.

May whatever pain is in your life become part of grace. Amen

Not ashamed

2011-03-15T04:25:00.001-05:00

Hebrews 2:11b “For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters”

I went flying off the high dive into the pool. And I swam around for a few minutes before I realized that the impact had split the seam on my suit. I was 12 years old and suddenly realized that others had probably seen more that I wished to display. Swimming swiftly to the side of the pool, I dashed for my towel and ran to the dressing room.

As I ran, I just knew that every laugh, every whisper, every voice, was about me. With the horrible self consciousness of an almost teenager, I turned bright red with shame as I sped away.

Early on in life we learn to be self conscious and eventually we learn shame. Sometimes we have done things which are shameful. And sometimes, we are just so acutely sensitive that we can feel shame simply because of peer pressure.

Shame. We’ve all felt it. Shame for something that was not our fault, like my high dive and shame for things that were certainly our fault.

Sometimes it becomes a vicious circle. When I drugged, I felt bad afterwards, ashamed of how stupid I'd been, and of some of the things I'd done, or things I couldn't remember. Of course eventually getting high again removed the shame, at least for a while. And it started the circle all over again.

Over the course of my life, the desire to be part of the "in" crowd, to not be shamed, caused me to do things I would probably never have done otherwise, make fun of people I actually liked, and do many things I wished I now wish I had not.

Living out the fear of shame and humiliation makes us do and say horrible things to each other. There are very few of us who don't wish we could take back an insult, a put down, or hurtful word that we know left someone else drenched in shame.

Thankfully God begins to heal us. The writer to the Hebrews says that Jesus is not ashamed of us. In fact he calls us brothers and sisters. The Lord who knows the awful things I've done is not ashamed to hang around with me and to tell people I'm part of the family.

May God give us grace to know that acceptance to the very depth of our being and grant that same love and acceptance to others. And may he give us opportunities to put right the hurt we have caused. And may we know that his love has put away our shame.

Tsunami

2011-03-14T04:22:00.001-05:00

From Sunday's Lessons

Romans 5:12-14 (The Message version)
"You know the story of how Adam landed us in the dilemma we're in— first sin, then death, and no one exempt from either sin or death. That sin disturbed relations with God in everything and everyone, but the extent of the disturbance was not clear until God spelled it out in detail to Moses. So death, this huge abyss separating us from God, dominated the landscape from Adam to Moses. Even those who didn't sin precisely as Adam did by disobeying a specific command of God still had to experience this termination of life, this separation from God."

In December of 2004, we were overjoyed to hear from Anne's brother Pat. They had been on a beach in Thailand during the Tsunami. They came close to being numbered among the victims. We could imagine all kinds of horrible outcomes as we watched the scenes on TV. Hearing their voices was a great relief.

Now, just over six years later, we finally just heard last night from a family friend who lives in Tokyo and has family all over the country. We have been praying for her and her family, not knowing what was happening with them.

Haiti, New Zealand, Japan. Our beautiful, amazing planet, is also dangerous. The version of the passage above, said that Adam's sin disturbed relations with God in everything and everyone. Our relationship with our planet is disturbed, and our earth's relationship with us is disturbed.

But a bit later Paul writes this (Romans 8:18-28)

That's why I don't think there's any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what's coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens.

All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it's not only around us; it's within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We're also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.

Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.

This time of disturbance is not the permanent state of affairs. God is going to heal this broken and damaged relationship. So what do we do in this time of waiting.

First, we pray. That impulse to pray is from God, so by all means let us pray. God promises to work through our prayers. So pray for those who are doing rescue work, those who are putting themselves in harms way to prevent nuclear reactor disaster, those who are doing the painful work of finding and caring for the dead, and those who have lost homes, possessions, and especially those who have lost loved ones.

Second, we give when disaster strikes. I know someone who raises money for a local charity clinic. When people tell her they can "only" give $5, or $10, she says "No, "only" is not in my giving vocabulary. Your $5 or your $10 can buy this, help pay for that, and is the percentage of this. So don't tell me only. Because your gift matters."

So let us pray and give, and may God honor both.

Fear

2011-03-12T04:00:00.016-06:00

From Today's Readings

Deuteronomy 7:17 If you say to yourself, ‘These nations are more numerous than I; how can I dispossess them?’ 18do not be afraid of them. Just remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt, 19the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs and wonders, the mighty hand and the outstretched arm by which the Lord your God brought you out. The Lord your God will do the same to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.

I live in Laredo, Texas on the safe side of the U.S. - Mexico Border. I am not worried about the violence there spilling across the Rio Grande.

But though I have been protected by God many times, I am afraid to cross into Nuevo Laredo, Mexico.
When you have met people who have been kidnapped, when you meet families fleeing violence, you think twice. The very real danger, though statistically slight, has kept me on my side of the river for almost two years. I think of my wife Anne, my children, Colin and Suzanna, and others, and I don't want to die in a random incident.

The drug cartels seem to operate with almost unfettered impunity. And it is tempting to believe that they will never be dealt with. It is also tempting to believe that God is not able to protect us, or has somehow abandoned us.

In today's reading God speaks to Moses. “Yes the promised land is full of enemies. But don't fear them. If I can handle the Egyptians, I can take care of those other guys.”

I know that God can and does protect people. Yet I also know that we are not to put ourselves in harms way for no good reason.

At this brief moment in time, evil has an upper hand in the city I live next door to. But just as God promises that Israel's enemies will not last forever, I believe that these enemies will fall too.
Pray for the conversion of the young men who are caught up in narco terrorism. Pray for the people who put their lives on the line to try to stop them.
Pray for the addicts who are the root cause of this evil commerce, that they find God and his healing, saving power.
Pray for those in our country who supply weapons to the narcos to repent and become ashamed of what they do, and to turn back to God.
And pray for the victims of the violence, the innocent, the guilty alike. May God have mercy.

March 11th, "The Problem of Good"

2011-03-11T04:00:00.001-06:00

As a pastor you get used to the question. "How could a good God allow so much evil?" But I have never been asked, "How could a good God allow so much good?" or "Why does an evil God allow so much good?"

Sometimes the speaker is wrestling with a real evil in their life which has shaken their faith. Sometimes the speaker is using the problem of evil as a proof against the existence of a Divine Being.

Isn't it interesting that we see the existence of evil as a conundrum. Why does it exist? Why is there so much suffering, hurt, and deliberate malice in our world?

But I have yet to have anyone come up to me disturbed about the presence of so much goodness in the world!

But if we probe at that assumption, it means that we think that goodness should be the status quo. We assume goodness should be the normal state of affairs.

Where in the world did we get that idea? Why should goodness be the status quo any more than badness?

Why when I see evil do I wonder if God is good, or if there is a God? Why when I see good don't I wonder the reverse. Why don't I wonder whether God is evil, or whether there is a God?

This Lent I plan to focus my attention each day on some aspect of goodness in my life. Thanks be to God.

March 10th "Push the button"

2011-03-10T04:00:00.009-06:00

Symbols are amazing. They communicate powerfully.

Thanksgiving two years ago, climbing Enchanted Rock outside of Fredericksburg, Texas, I reached the summit, when a young boy ran up to me very excited and animated. It took a moment but I realized he was deaf, and signing something to me very emphatically and quickly. Fortunately an older girl with him who was also deaf, simply pointed at my hat. I pointed back at my hat and mouthed Denver Broncos, and held up my finger saying "They're number 1." He yanked open his jacket and smiling ear to ear revealed his Denver Broncos t-shirt.

Symbols have power to communicate and to connect us.

When we step into an elevator, we are presented with a panel of symbols. Most of them have numbers. Each of them represent a real physical location in the building. They are symbols.

Yet those small button symbols have the power to connect us to the actual reality. If you push the button, that small symbol will connect you to a real place.

Churches are full of symbols that are like those buttons. By themselves they are pretty plain things. But they connect us to a reality beyond themselves.

So why in the world would we want to use ashes?

Ashes are so dirty, so dark, so unfriendly looking. I would prefer gold dust or glitter.

But those ashes connect us to the reality of our mortality, our powerlessness over death.

And when we connect with that utter powerlessness, then an even greater reality can break into our lives. God. God who patiently waits until we admit that we are powerless, and that we utterly, desperately, need him.

Ash Wednesday - "To the cloud!"

2011-03-09T03:31:00.001-06:00

Hebrews 12 "1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race
that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the
sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has
taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God."

"To the cloud!" proclaim the commercials hawking the new Window's 7 operating system. We are surrounded by the great cloud of the internet. All kinds of information, web-based programs, calendars, emails, blogs, pictures, facebook, twitter, voicemail, texts, and more. A great swirling mass of electronic signals and software stored somewhere and replicated, and distributed globally.

But the writer to the Hebrews was thinking of a different "cloud"; a cloud whose existence did not depend upon access to electricity, computer hardware, and software.

Allow yourself to connect to the cloud, that great cloud of witnesses, though their writings, their stories of faith, their struggles so much like ours, and through the supernatural encouragement that they give us to keep going forward. They crossed the finish line at this marathon, and they now line the track, shouting encouragement, to keep our eyes focused on Jesus.

And sometimes, just sometimes, the veil will clear and we can sense that Jesus is also in the crowd, for he not only raced the same marathon, but ran it all the way, not just to the cross, but through death into the resurrection.

Standing at the finish line, he's calling to us, coaching us to keep running, to let go of the things that try to get us to stop, to forget the other voices which criticize our running style, the voices that tell us we shouldn't have even been allowed in the race.

Lent is coming....

2011-02-21T17:52:00.000-06:00

Two years ago I blogged almost every day as a Lenten Discipline. This year of 2011 I plan to do it again.

It focused my thoughts and my prayer life.

It seems narcissistic, and yet about halfway through the second week I discovered I didn't care if anybody was reading besides me.

Is it immoral to contribute to the flood of information, misinformation, urban legends and spam?

Thomas Aquinas wrote that near the end of his life, that all his great works of writing were "as straw".

It that great man's impressive works are straw, then most of mine is "recycled straw" if you take my drift. Yet occasionally even the manure has something to contribute to growth.

Peace - paul frey

When in Rome?

2009-09-10T15:28:00.003-05:00

This September I started preaching on Romans. I am so used to using the lectionary, but it has been energizing to actually look an a book of the New Testament and go through it sequentially. Of course we are just starting. I may get sick and tired of Romans in a few weeks.

What's amazing to me is what a Jewish book it is. So much of the letter is devoted to theological questions about what it means to be Jewish and believe Jesus is the Messiah.

It is also full of "Chutzpah". Here is the author of a letter who has never been to the Church in Rome. (We don't know if Paul had been to Rome before his conversion or not.)

But he writes a letter, claiming authority over a group of Christians, most of whom he has never met.

The other remarkable thing is that so much of the stuff Paul addresses is the same stuff we struggle with today. How to live in peace cross-culturally, how to live in peace with your government, how to live in peace with others, and most important, how to live in peace with God and find the serenity that comes from that relationship.

Of course the best part of preaching is always what you learn. I am always astonished that no matter what part of the Scripture I read or study, even the parts most familiar to me, still have something new.

Of course, one of my friends says, "That's because of all the brain damage from your wild youth. You did know this stuff, you just think it's new because you don't remember anything not written on the palm of your hand in indelible ink!"

While some of that may be true, I am still amazed by how God seems to surprise me in the bible.

peace - paul f.

Harry Potter flies again!

2009-08-18T06:32:00.004-05:00

This July, one of my favorite fictional characters returned to the big screen. Harry Potter, the amazing boy wizard, once again returns for a summer appearance. I don’t know about you, but I have been grateful for Harry’s reappearance in print or the big screen.

Harry hit the bookshelves in 1997, and for the last 12 years, in print or in movies, J.K. Rowling returns her fans to Hogwarts each summer. The last book of the series broke all previous sales records for any publication when it sold more than 15 million copies globally within 24 hours of being released!

Why are these stories so captivating? I can only speak for myself. Somehow, J.K. Rowlings characters bring to life the hard work of growing up. Harry and his friends face death and its loss, the ups and downs of friendships, discerning good from evil and the hard work of choosing good especially when we’d rather choose evil.

And through it all, even the most evil characters are portrayed with understanding and when merited, compassion, without justifying their wrongdoing, Sometimes the evil people return to goodness and their evil is conquered. And sometimes their evil is simply vanquished when they die.

But what I like best is that good always conquers evil in the end. Harry’s adventures remind me that good will always eventually triumph over evil, including the evil that is part of us.

There is much that is evil in the world. I could make a list, but just read the newspaper, and you’ll find a few examples. Christians believe that evil is real, dangerous, and destructive. But we also believe that evil will be defeated.

We believe it’s defeated on a small scale in daily ways. Simple acts of kindness, compassion, and mercy defeat evil. Decisions to forgive those who have wronged us, decisions to ask forgiveness from those we have wronged. Each of these acts destroys an evil.

We believe that it will be defeated on a cosmic scale at the end of time. Someday God will renew the world in such a way that evil will cease.

We believe that our own evil will be defeated and removed from us by God’s forgiveness and love. And we believe that the evil we have experienced will be redeemed, transformed, and somehow turned into something good and holy.

Finally in Harry Potter’s world, the victories over evil are always won by sacrifice. So too in our world, for good to triumph over evil means sacrifice. Sometimes it is my small sacrifices that prevent or undo an evil. But most often evil is undone by Jesus love shown on the cross.

So get some tickets, grab your popcorn and watch the battle!

HOT ! DRY !

2009-07-10T18:29:00.002-05:00

When we moved to Eagle Pass 11 years ago in the summer one very hot day the clouds built up in the sky. A huge thunderstorm moved in from the west. Thunder boomed, lightning flashed, but no rain materialized on the ground.

The next morning my older next door neighbor, Jack, who had lived many years in South Texas told me, "I estimate I got at least 3 or 4 inches, what did you get?" I looked at him wonderingly and asked "Did you get rain out on the ranch?" "Rain!?, I waern't talkin' 'bout rain! I'm talking about lightning!"

A few days later another storm came through, and a few drops fell and spattered dusty cars and streets. Another older fellow put his hand up to the windshield and measured the distance between the drops. "I figure this to be about a 4 inch rain he stated, and the other old timers all chuckled.

I learned quickly that it takes a sense of humor to live through the hot, dry, summer in this part of the world.

Finally in late September, it rained hard one evening. The next day I stopped by Jack's shop to pick up some hardware, and he said "Pay attention, everybody in town will be cheerful today." He was right. People were unfailingly happy, laughing, walking around with a smile on their face.

I learned to be grateful for rain.

Over these last few weeks I've been praying hard for rain, and giving thanks for clouds and shade. God knows when it will rain again. And the fact is that God does know. And when it does make sure to say "Thanks".

And for fun read this poem, "Said Hanrahan". It could have been written in South Texas.

peace - paul f.

Re-Creation

2009-05-28T19:39:00.002-05:00

Recreation.

The word means to re-create. It is interesting that we choose such a word to describe activities that we consider fun.

Fun is essential to wellness.

We have a person in our Episcopal Church community, the Diocese of West Texas who works with churches and vestry in areas of evangelism and church growth. One of the things he does is some basic personality inventories of leaders and leadership groups.

A few years back I took the test. It showed that I like being a leader, but I also like to have fun. I am best at leading when what we do is creative and fun.

(That may explain why puppets show up in church so much!)

For the last week, Anne, Suzanna, and I have been in Oregon meeting up with our son Colin and other friends and family for some much needed re-creation. And I plan to have fun!!

I am so grateful to God for the opportunity to take a few days to simply be, to visit with family, and to let my brain wander off in different directions for a while.

Thanks be to God for opportunities to be re-created.

Peace - paul

Spiritual Warfare - 3 Floors or 1 Floor?

2009-05-11T07:30:00.001-05:00

Does our spiritual universe have 1 floor, 2 floors or 3 floors?

Anthropologists have noted that the modern, scientifically sensitive,Western world reduces the spiritual universe.

What they mean is that people can conceive of spiritual reality in 3 different ways.

Historically most peoples have used a 3 tiered model that looks like this:

Heaven, God, Hell, etc.
--------------
Earth’s spiritual world: Angels, demons, spirits
--------------
Earth’s material world: People, animals, all matter

But in the West, the universe gets reduced to a 2 tiered world that looks like this:

Heaven, God
--------------
Earth’s material world: People, animals, all matter

Or reduced even further to this:

Earth’s material world: People, animals, all matter

You can see the assumptions that are made with each view of the universe. The 3 tiered model assumes a world that has both seen (material) reality and unseen (spiritual) reality. It assumes that the spiritual world influences the material world. In other words, it believes that spiritual forces are at work all the time, not just a spiritual reality that we find after we die.

Most Westerners assume that that view is the result of leftover primitive superstitions that have been disproved by modern science. We assume that the world of angels, demons, miracles, etc. is the result of ancient peoples attributing powers to parts of the material world which they did not understand. But given the advent of the microscope, the telescope, particle physics, etc. we now know that such a world does not exist.

Some Western people still believe that Heaven is real. (Far less believe that Hell might exist!) And many Westerners have dispensed even with any afterlife at all. They are complete materialists.

I have gone from believing in a materialist one tiered universe to a full fledged belief in a more traditional (primitive?) view of a 3 tiered universe. In my next post, I’ll explain why.

Peace in Christ - Paul

Spiritual Warfare continued...

2009-05-04T09:17:00.003-05:00

Spiritual Warfare

I quoted C.S. Lewis “Screwtape Letters” book in the May edition of the Christ Church Newsletter. But a longer quote is helpful when writing about spiritual warfare. It is perhaps the best intro about the issue of fallen angels ever written. By examining the portrayal of angels and demons in the arts, Lewis uncovers the root of much of our own beliefs. In doing so, he forced me to examine not what I thought I knew about the subject, but to look again at the biblical passages, and to reflect about how much my worldview is shaped by an comic visual images coupled with an Enlightenment perspective which minimizes or eliminates substantive spiritual reality altogether.

Here is the rather long quote from the intro: (Highlights are mine.)

“The proper question is whether I believe in devils. I do. That is to say, I believe in angels, and I believe that some of these, by the abuse of their free will, have become enemies to God and, as a corollary, to us. These we may call devils. They do not differ in nature from good angels, but their nature is depraved. Devil is the opposite of angel only as Bad Man is the opposite of Good Man. Satan, the leader or dictator of devils, is the opposite, not of God, but of Michael.

I believe this not in the sense that it is part of my creed, but in the sense that it is one of my opinions. My religion would not be in ruins if this opinion were shown to be false. Till that happens -- and proofs of a negative are hard to come by -- I shall retain it. It seems to me to explain a good many facts. It agrees with the plain sense of Scripture, the tradition of Christendom, and the beliefs of most men at most times. And it conflicts with nothing that any of the sciences has shown to be true.

It should be (but it is not) unnecessary to add that a belief in angels, whether good or evil, does not mean a belief in either as they are represented in art and literature. Devils are depicted with bats' wings and good angels with birds' wings, not because any- one holds that moral deterioration would be likely to turn feathers into membrane, but because most men like birds better than bats. They are given wings at all in order to suggest the swiftness of unimpeded intellectual energy. They are given human form be-cause man is the only rational creature we know. Creatures higher in the natural order than ourselves, either incorporeal or animating bodies of a sort we cannot experience, must be represented symbolically if they are to be represented at all.

These forms are not only symbolical but were al- ways known to be symbolical by reflective people. The Greeks did not believe that the gods were really like the beautiful human shapes their sculptors gave them. In their poetry a god who wishes to "appear" to a mortal temporarily assumes the likeness of a man. Christian theology has nearly always explained the "appearance" of an angel in the same way. It is only the ignorant, said Dionysius in the fifth century, who dream that spirits are really winged men.

In the plastic arts these symbols have steadily de- generated. Fra Angelico's angels carry in their face and gesture the peace and authority of Heaven. Later come the chubby infantile nudes of Raphael; finally the soft, slim, girlish, and consolatory angels of nineteenth century art, shapes so feminine that they avoid being voluptuous only by their total insipidity -- the frigid houris of a teatable paradise. They are a pernicious symbol. In Scripture the visitation of an angel is always alarming; it has to begin by saying "Fear not." The Victorian angel looks as if it were going to say, "There, there."

The literary symbols are more dangerous because they are not so easily recognized as symbolical. Those of Dante are the best. Before his angels we sink in awe. His devils, as Ruskin rightly remarked, in their rage, spite, and obscenity, are far more like what the reality must be than anything in Milton. Milton's devils, by their grandeur and high poetry, have done great harm, and his angels owe too much to Homer and Raphael. But the really pernicious image is Goethe's Mephistopheles. It is Faust, not he, who really exhibits the ruthless, sleepless, unsmiling concentration upon self which is the mark of Hell. The humorous, civilised, sensible, adaptable Mephistopheles has helped to strengthen the illusion that evil is liberating.

A little man may sometimes avoid some single error made by a great one, and I was determined that my own symbolism should at least not err in Goethe's way. For humor involves a sense of proportion and a power of seeing yourself from the outside. Whatever else we attribute to beings who sinned through pride, we must not attribute this. Satan, said Chesterton, fell through force of gravity. We must picture Hell as a state where everyone is perpetually concerned about his own dignity and advancement, where everyone has a grievance, and where everyone lives the deadly serious passions of envy, self-importance, and resentment. This, to begin with. For the rest, my own choice of symbols depended, I suppose, on temperament and on the age.

I like bats much better than bureaucrats. I live in the Managerial Age, in a world of "Admin." The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid "dens of crime" that Dickens loved to paint. It is not done even in concentration camps and labour camps. In those we see its final result. But it is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voice. Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the offices of a thoroughly nasty business concern.”

In my next post I'll look a bit at the worldview issues involved.
Christ's peace - paul
-

April 12, 2009 "Right here, right now!"

2009-04-12T18:46:00.004-05:00

Alleluia Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Lent is over, and this is the last of my lenten blog. This is mostly adapted from this mornings sermon.

After seminary, my wife Anne, and my children, Colin and Suzanna, and I moved to Virginia just a few miles from the Manassas / Bull Run battlefield.

A few weeks after settling in we went to visit the battlefield. Suzanna had was not quite 4 years old. In the visitor center, we’d seen an interactive presentation, with sound, and video clips, and loud recordings of rifle and cannon fire.

That night she wouldn’t go to sleep. Finally when I asked her what was the matter she told me she was afraid, because that war we’d visited earlier in the day was scary and very close to her house.

I explained to her that the war was over, and that the fighting we’d seen was a story about something long ago.

In fact there were annual re-enactments of both of the battles at that place, sort of a historical "memorial service."

There is a tendency to think about Easter that way too.

Sometimes we act as though our Easter services are a sort of memorial service. A service to commemorate something that happened a long time ago.

But Easter is much more like something else I saw when we lived in Virginia. Living as close as we did to Washington, D.C. for 6 years, I had many opportunities to go to the city and many opportunities to play tour guide.

If you’ve been, you know it’s a city full of memorials. You can walk past the Vietnam Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, the World War II Memorial.

And when you go past these memorials you hear snippets of conversations. And there are three kinds of people you hear.

You hear the tourist, for whom the memorial is just that, a memorial.

Then you hear the "second generation" conversations. The memorial holds some meaning because a grandfather, father, son, uncle, brother, mother, sister, grandmother, or other relative was in the war.

But the third group of visitors are the veterans. When they get to the memorial, it is not just a memorial. They are often transported to a very real and still very present reality that shapes their lives to this day. For them, the memorial brings something that happened in the past right into the present.

And that is why Christians celebrate Easter. Not to memorialize something that happened a long time ago.

Easter is more like a party being given for a special guest. And our guest is Jesus. Because what happened on Easter is still happening. The one who rose on Easter is not far away, a long time ago, but here, right now by the power of the Holy Spirit.

I love the Narnia books, have very much enjoyed the Harry Potter books, and have read some of the Twilight series books.

And what I enjoy most about those books is that there is another world, living right beside us in what seems to be our so humdrum world.

Easter means that the Risen Jesus is right here, right now, and we can ask him to enter our lives just as he entered the lives of the disciples that Easter morning.

Come Lord Jesus. Amen.

April 11, 2009 "Holy Waiting"

2009-04-11T12:30:00.002-05:00

From the office of Compline in the Book of Common Prayer, page 134

We give you thanks, O God, for revealing your Son Jesus
Christ to us by the light of his resurrection: Grant that as we
sing your glory at the close of this day, our joy may abound
in the morning as we celebrate the Paschal mystery; through
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Guide us waking, O Lord, and guard us sleeping; that awake
we may watch with Christ, and asleep we may rest in peace.

In Easter Season, add Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

April 10, 2009 "A Good Friday Meditation"

2009-04-10T18:58:00.002-05:00

In August of 1973, I was faced with a life changing choice. I’d just been through a couple of life-changing events.

First, I’d left Guatemala in October of 1971. We were evicted due to something my father and other pastors had written and published in the paper. It was a document that said it was wrong for Christians to kill one another for political power, and a call for warring factions to come to a peace process and end a guerilla war. After it hit the press we had three days to leave the country or suffer more serious consequences.

Next, a few months later, I’d become a committed Christian and was leaving behind a world of drug addiction.

Now, I was faced with choosing one of the colleges I’d been accepted to, or going off to live in near an Episcopal Church, that had a huge ministry of a residential Christian Community gathered around Church of the Redeemer in Houston, Texas. I’d visited this Church earlier in the summer and wondered if God might not want me to move there.

After some soul searching I chose the Christian Community. It undoubtedly saved my life. My addiction to drugs was a strong power, and I needed support and accountability. Moving in to a residential Christian community I got both.

I suspect that I would have had a lot of support to remain addicted to drugs had I chosen any of the college I was contemplating.

It would take too long to explain this community. But briefly, it was Christians who committed to living together. A few single adults might live with a family, or a few single adults or single parents might live together.

But beyond living in the same residence, we committed ourselves to daily prayer, at least one meal a day together, to sharing resources and to working to support the ministry of our local Episcopal Church. It was a life changing experience, and I discovered that Christians really are a new kind of family.

Earlier this Friday I spoke at an ecumenical 7 Last Words service. I was to speak on the seventh word. I could not help but reflect on the reality that God in his mercy creates a family of the church, that includes and redeems our “natural” family.

My family at Church of the Redeemer in Houston continues to be a source of grace and strength even after moving away in 1983. God taught me to love the church, and to allow my heart to grow in my understanding of family.

My meditation from the service this afternoon follows.

John 19:25 ....But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26* When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son!" 27 Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother!" And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.

This is one of those gut wrenching scenes. Jesus is dying in a public execution. He looks down and sees his mother. We have no description of Mary. We do not know if she was standing there stoically, weeping hysterically, silently mourning.

We know that Jesus is near the end of his life, and seeing her he gasps out those two quick phrases.

Woman, see your son.
Son, see your mother.

Mary is losing her son.
But it is not the first time.

Jesus as a young boy is somehow left behing in Jerusalem. Here is a child missing for three days, with parents frantically searching for him. When they find him his response is this: In Luke 2:49 we read “Why were you searching for me? Didn’t you know I would be in my Father’s house?”

And his response must have stung Mary and Joseph that day. This temple, here is my house.

And as a young man near the beginning of Jesus ministry, Mark tells us that his family comes looking for him.

Mark 3:32 And a crowd was sitting about him; and they said to him, "Your mother and your brothers are outside, asking for you." 33* And he replied, "Who are my mother and my brothers?" 34 And looking around on those who sat about him, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does the will of God is my brother, and sister, and mother."

Again, imagine how Mary felt. In public he says, "Look around at all these women sitting here following me. Here is my real mother and my real brothers!" Again ouch!

Jesus is not against family, But he is clearly going to say that his family will never be defined in purely human terms.

And now at the foot of the cross, he is saying, "Here is the nucleus of my new family. Woman behold your son, Son behold your mother."

At this moment what we call the church begins. A new family is created, that shares a new bloodline.

Not a human bloodline.

Here at the foot of the cross, we hear the echo of the words from the first part of this book.

Here we hear the words of that this beloved disciple penned earlier. (John 1:11,12)

“Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God- children born, not of natural descent, nor of human decision, or a husband’s will, but born of God.”

Look around you today. Behold your mother, your father, your brother, your sister, your son, your daughter.

Amen.

April 9, 2009, "Unsolvable Mysteries"

2009-04-09T08:09:00.001-05:00

One of the “unsolvable mysteries” of the Gospels is the mystery of exactly when and how Passover was celebrated in first century Jerusalem. Was the last supper a Passover meal? Was it a pre-passover meal? Did people from out of town celebrate Passover a day before the residents of Jerusalem to accommodate the huge crowds that gathered?

In the three synoptic Gospel’s the last supper on Thursday seems to be the Passover meal. But in John’s gospel, the lambs being sacrificed for the Passover meal are being killed in the temple prior to the evening feast on Friday, at the same time that Jesus, the Lamb of God is being killed on the cross.

And the oldest mention of the last supper is extremely brief and raises some very interesting questions too.

1st Corinthians 11: 23 "For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." 25 In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me."

Paul’s description of the Lord’s supper is written no more than 30 to 35 years following the event described. Paul claimed to have seen Jesus in his conversion vision, (see Acts 9:1ff). Here he seems to be claiming another direct revelation from Christ: “I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you…”

It’s possible that he received it from the other Apostles and is passing it on and simply relaying that he believed their witness that it came from the Lord. But he seems to say that Jesus himself told him about the Last Supper.

These questions help us realize that we are dealing with very old documents. We see that we still have a limited grasp of first century history, and the customs of the second temple period. We don’t know as much as we would like about Paul.

I love the technical questions, and they are important. But beyond them is something even more important. The Gospel differences and seeming inconsistencies tells us that these accounts were not just a dry historical record. Each of the evangelists is taking what happened but emphasizing certain events, and things Jesus said to make a theological case.

In the three synoptics and 1st Corinthians we see Jesus who takes bread and wine, and calls it his body and blood. In John’s gospel Jesus actual body and blood are poured out on the cross as the Passover.

We have Luke who seems to say the Jesus did not drink the fourth cup, the last cup of the Passover, and John who portrays Jesus as drinking sour wine from a sponge moments before he proclaims “It is finished.”, perhaps implying that Jesus was drinking the final Passover cup as he transforms it forever.

All four gospels, and Paul’s account in 1st Corinthians, tell us in no uncertain terms that a New Covenant has begun.

For those of us who are not Jewish the word covenant may not carry any great weight.

For first century Jews it was a slap in the face, a punch to the solar plexus, a statement of unbelievable audacity or outright heresy. It was a statement that deserved a death sentence. Jesus is saying that he is God, and that as God he is now making another agreement in the line of covenants he has made with his people. Wow!!

In the middle of the supper in John’s Gospel, Jesus gets up, goes to get water, strips down, and washes the disciples feet.

When I juxtapose Jesus claim of divinity, and his act of absolute servanthood, I am unable to say anything but “Thank you for your love.”

When I hear his words from John 13:34 “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." I say, “Lord, save me, help me, give me grace.”

May this night be for us a night where the technical mysteries, and the much greater mystery of the God of the universe showing his unending love for the world, bring us back to his table to receive all that he has for us.

April 8, 2009 "It's a draw"

2009-04-08T04:44:00.001-05:00

John 12: 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself."

So much about Christianity is offensive. Start with the claims of Jesus divinity. Nowadays, it has become popular to assume that Jesus never claimed divinity. Many say the “divine” and “miracle” part of the Gospel was added by the disciples after Jesus death.

The argument goes that the early Christians took a radical rabbi’s teaching and added elements of divinity and miracles to gain approval for their dearly departed leader.

I meet with a rabbi and a Baptist minister for lunch pretty regularly. And the rabbi is happy to confirm that idea that a human might be divine is a pretty strongly repudiated idea in Judaism.

And the idea that a bunch of first century Jewish fishermen would try to promote a their rabbi by adding divinity to his claims just seems ridiculous. If anything, those guys would have taken any of those claims out!

Of course there are other possibilities. The whole story could be made up. There may have never been a Jesus.

There is the possibility that Jesus was a more “new age” figure along the lines of the Gospel of Thomas, Peter, Judas, etc. But a great deal of evidence suggests that most if not all of those works were written even later than the four canonical gospels.

There is the possibility I started with: that Jesus was a first century radical religious teacher, but that all the other ideas, divinity, miracles, resurrection were later accretions.

Then of course there is an even more challenging and disturbing possibility: that the Gospels are faithful records of Jesus teaching, action, and miracles.

In which case as C.S. Lewis pointed out, Jesus is a) Who he claims to be, the Son of God, b) A deluded lunatic, or c) A misleading charlatan.

This week while walking on the treadmill in the gym, the Discovery Channel was running a show purporting to show the real Jesus.

Of course he was not the divine savior, but just a radical reformer. Yet most of their information was simply selectively taken from the Gospels, doing what Thomas Jefferson did a few hundred years earlier. Take out the miracles and all that talk about being the Son of God.

But, while I acknowledge that the other ideas might be true, I remain convinced that Jesus is who the Gospels say he claims to be. I don’t always like that answer because it commands an allegiance that I often do not want to give. But after lots of thought and examination I cannot bring myself to any other conclusions.

A few days ago, a friend sent me a quote from a novel during a Facebook discussion. She wrote: “There is a sentence in one of my all-time favorite books, "The Shack": Mack, the main character, after talking about people of different faiths, etc., is asking Jesus, "Does that mean that all roads lead to you? 'Not at all', smiled Jesus...'Most roads don't lead anywhere. What it does mean is that I will travel any road to find you.' (p. 182).

John 12: 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself."

No one but Jesus seems to be able to meet my innermost desires. May we all be drawn to him.

April 6, 2009 "Following in the faith"

2009-04-07T03:38:00.002-05:00

Phiippians 3:16 Only let us hold fast to what we have attained.

The old picture is my great grandfather, the Rev. Louis E. Ripley. He was a Methodist Minister, who served in Iowa in from about 1900 to 1943 when he passed away.

I've got a few of his old sermons. They are not bad. I also have his old Hymnal and Service book. It's kind of fun to look at his notes, and sometimes I am deeply moved to hold a book that has passed down several generations.

When I look at the religious history in my family, I have a family tree that has been Christian for a long time, was Roman Catholic, became Protestant and Puritan, with folks who attended and served Congregationalist and Presbyterian Churches, then some became Methodist.

Then my grandmother on my mother's side, (Mr. Ripley's daughter), became a Roman Catholic when she married, and an Episcopalian after she divorced!

On my father's side they seem to have been Episcopalian for a good while, and we're not sure exactly how far back.

But regardless of denomination, all of them were Christians. When my great-grandfather passed away, his wife continued to serve as a lay preacher in the congregations they were serving.

These ancestors on both sides were hardy people. They crossed the continent, (and like their contemporaries probably stealing land from the Native people), and founded what is now this country. They were flawed, and probably shared many of the prejudices and societal sins of their day.

Yet I do not judge them. From a distance I am grateful to them for persevering in the faith. I don't doubt that many of them had serious sins, problems, doubts, trials, and crisis's of faith. But they persevered and tried to pass the gospel message down to their children.

Yesterday I mused about what it means to be the church in the 21st century. I don't have all the answers, but I do know that one part means to continue to pass on what we have received. And another part is to see the church as much larger than any one denomination or "brand". And a third is to listen carefully to the Holy Spirit for wisdom to be faithful in our own day and time.

As we move through this Holy Week, may we seek charity with all those who share our faith, and seek to love those who do not with the love of the one who commands love.

April 6, 2009 "Meta-Narrative"

2009-04-06T12:27:00.002-05:00

This past week, I’ve been thinking a lot about Church. What precipitated it have been comments like, “Well, your busy week is coming up.”, “Are you ready for Holy Week?” and other similar comments.

What struck me was the difference between my perception from the “inside” of the parish office preparation for Holy Week, and the outside.

Yes, Holy Week is busy, but it is much harder on the parish secretary and the parish custodian than the parish priest! I get everything ready, but Connie, our faithful secretary, and Fina, our faithful custodian have lots to do.

The busier times for me are times when the unexpected, a death, a serious pastoral situation, or other crisis interrupt in the middle of our normal preparations. That is when I have a busy week.

But in thinking about that I returned to something that I’ve been thinking about a great deal for the last ten years.

What does it mean to “be” the church in the 21st century? I’m not alone in thinking about this. For 1500 years, the Western world was defined by Christendom. To be European was to be Christian.

But for the last 200 years, that understanding has been undergoing a great change. The best articulation of some the issues surrounding how to be church continues to be Reinhold Neihbur’s “Christ and Culture.”

Neihbur observed that throughout history the church or at least parts of the Church tend to try different approaches to dealing with the society in which it finds itself.

There is the radical, Christ against Culture model, where the Church is seen as a haven of safety against the world.

Then the Christ of Culture model, where the Church engages in kingdom work and recognizes Jesus in the world.

There is the Christ above Culture model, where the Church sees that some of what is in the culture is God given and can be accepted as good, but where other things in the culture are fallen and must be transformed or rejected.

There is the Christ and Culture in Paradox model, where the Church recognizes that in a fallen world, we cannot hope to reconcile cultural demands and the radical ethical demands of the New Testament and so we live in faith and hope with our present imperfections.

Finally he postulated the Christ transforming Culture model, where the Church through conversion converts the members and institutions of society.

Why bother restating this?

Because we now live in a world of where the very thing we call culture is increasingly fragmented and constantly scrutinized and redefined, sometimes by members of a culture and sometimes from without. We live in a time where some sub-cultures are media driven or commerce driven.

We live in a time when there is competition between and suspicion of what some have called “Meta-narratives.” A simplified definition of a Meta-narrative is a worldview that explains nature, humanity, and culture in a relatively coherent whole.

But in a world where people see the differences and sometimes oversimplifications of the Christian, Islamic, Buddhist, Communist, etc., etc. meta-narratives, some have become increasingly suspicious that there could be such a thing. (Of course skepticism in meta-narrative might be it's own meta-narrative!)

Now, I do believe in the broad Christian meta-narrative: Creation, Fall, Redemption, and final Consumation. I think that it makes the best sense out of the universe in which we find ourselves and I believe it is true.

But it still leaves the question. How do we "be" or "become" church in a world of increasing competition between and distrust of meta-narratives?

How does the church engage culture in a time where you have to ask “which culture” sometimes within the same neighborhood, or even within the same church?

And perhaps more importantly, why ask the question?

I believe that God is the author of the great meta-narrative. That each person, whether they lived a few hours, or more than 100 years, is part of that great opus. And I believe that each person is not just a passive participant. It is as though an artist painted a painting where the elements in the painting took on life and the painting changed on it’s own, or a film maker made a movie where the characters took on their own life apart from the film.

And so, it is important to ask, how can we participate in this great work of God, not passively, or antagonistically, but faithfully.

Peace and blessed holy week.

April 5, 2009 "Domingo de Ramos"

2009-04-05T07:42:00.002-05:00

Domingo de Ramos

It was life in Guatemala that brought the passion to life for me. I was a young teenager, living in a country where guerilla warfare kept the country on edge. Bombs would go off on buses, or in a marketplace. There were drive by assasinations, bodies that were tortured dropped by the roadside, or in front of the family home.

Holy week was full of street processions, where the Roman Catholic churches would bring forth their most gruesome statues of the passion, or sometimes hand carried floats with people portraying the stations of the cross.

These floats would parade throught the streets. In some cities families or neighborhoods would craft elaborate carpets in the streets formed of flowers and leaves. They were works of art, beautiful, yet ephemeral, soon to be trampled by the tread of marchers carrying the crucified Christ.

It was one such Holy Week, when during a procession there was a large armed presence of soldiers, each carrying a rifle or a submachine gun. At one intersection, a young man stood in the back of a jeep with his hands on a 50 caliber machine gun, with one belt loaded, and 3 ammo boxes open ready to load.

It was then that the impact of the original crucifixion hit me. Suddenly I could see the Roman army, surrounded by a hostile crowd. Some of the crowd wanted them to kill Jesus, but they were no friends of Romans. I could sense the tension in the air, the confusion.

And I could see Jesus, dragged down the street, the Lord of Glory. This was just how the world has always worked. One more troublemaker tortured, put on display as a warning to anyone who might pose a threat to Rome. All glory extinguished. Horror and beauty are slammed into one another in a groteque cosmic conflict.

I watched the soldiers and the marchers, stunned that after 2000 years we were still at it. Still torturing, still killing, still intimidating.

A few years later, after my family was thrown out of Guatemala, I found myself working with Guatemalan and Salvadoran refugees. It was then that I realized that the powers of this world, which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God, the spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against God, and my own sinful desires and rebellion against God are no match for the power of the cross.

Every act of hate meets its match when confronted with matchless love.

April 4, 2009 "Easter's coming!"

2009-04-04T04:26:00.000-05:00

It was one of those warm days that happen sometimes in spring in Denver. The sky was a robin egg blue, and the breeze felt warm and fresh. The snow of two weeks earlier was gone.

I worked for the St. Francis Center, a ministry to homeless people. In the mid-morning, “Danny” came in, and said to me “I think there’s a dead guy in an old building down the block. I was picking up cans in the alley to sell, and I saw what looked like a guy sitting on an old couch, but he didn’t move when I yelled and then I saw some flies.”

By the time I arrived at the old, abandoned house, and opened the door, the warm spring day gave clear evidence that indeed someone had died, and it had been a few days back. Even if I had not seen the body I would have been quite sure. Death stinks.

Over the last several days readings, John’s Gospel tells the story of Lazarus of Bethany, a man whom Jesus knew well, and part of a family he loved. His two sisters tried to get him to come heal Lazarus who was quite sick. But Jesus doesn’t arrive until four days after Lazarus burial in an above ground cave or rock tomb.

When he arrives he tells the people with him to remove the stone. Martha, the sister, ever practical says “You might not want to do that, it stinks out here and he’s been dead for four days.”

Dying can be a relief, sometimes full of peace, even when the circumstances around the death are hard. But here in the gospel we are confronted with the blunt fact. Even in a “good death”, death stinks. Death stinks, literally and figuratively.

Death stinks. There is something wrong with living breathing creatures having the life taken out of them. And here is Jesus standing in that stink.

He gently reminds Martha. “Didn’t I just tell you that if you believe you would see the glory of God?”

And so they roll back the stone. Surely the odor increased. But Jesus stands there and prays. And then dramatically, perhaps ordering death to be undone, yells: “Lazarus come out!!”

In a scene made for Hollywood, the (formerly) dead man comes out, still wrapped in burial cloth. The accusations of the previous verses, “Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” are suddenly meaningless. Jesus who called Lazarus back to life, could have prevented him from dying whether he was near Bethany or not.

Some new change is happening. Some new order is coming into being. Death’s stink is reversed. Decomposition is recomposed! The impossible is happening.

If we follow John’ account of the next few weeks, another will die. But this one, when he comes out of the tomb, will be a the new man, not just the old man renewed.
And now let me finish the story.

It took a few days, but once the medical examiners did their work, we discovered who the fellow in the old house was. Bill Webb had been a regular among the many Denver “wino’s” in the downtown area. No family came to claim him, and he had no close friends. We knew him from his many visits to St. Francis for coffee or a shower.

After the legally required few days, we at St. Francis petitioned the city to allow us to have Bill’s body and give him a burial. We put fliers out at all the other shelters, and put the word on the street that there would be a funeral for Bill Webb.

And we ordered a brass plaque to place on our wall in the worship space so that somewhere, Bill’s name would be remembered.

The afternoon of the funeral St. Francis center was standing room only. Except for a few policemen who’d known him for years from the drunk tank, and we shelter workers, it was a great crowd of his fellow homeless.

We sang Easter hymns, and said the burial office. We celebrated Holy Communion. And we remembered that we are the people who know the Risen Lord. We are those who proclaim: Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!

April 3, 2009, "Long term planning"

2009-04-03T04:07:00.000-05:00

Long term planning

In October of 2006, the last Rabbi left Iraq. It was a sad day. There had been a Jewish population in that part of the world since at least 605 B.C., (or B.C.E. if you prefer!), when Nebuchadnezzer first invaded Judah, and took captives back to Babylon. That is a span of more than 2,500 years!

In today’s lesson, Jeremiah writes a letter. The Kingdom of Judah has been taken over by the Babylonians. Huge numbers of citizens have been sent as slaves or indentured servants. And apparently some were predicting that this migration would be a short-term event.

But Jeremiah writes on behalf of God and says, “don’t believe these people who says this will be a short term event. Build houses, plant gardens, marry, have children, and plan for the long haul. Be good citizens of the city where I have sent you.”

Obviously Jeremiah’s interpretation of what God was saying was right. It was a long haul. We know from the book of Daniel, that 70 years passed before the Jews living in that part of the world were given freedom to travel and some returned to Judah.

Amazingly, God seemed to say that good would come of this tragic and painful exile. Jeremiah continues speaking for God and in these verses which are a favorite of many, including me he writes: “11 For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. 12 Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. 13 When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart,”

Yet it was the Babylonian captivity where the seeds of scholarship developed, where the what became synagogue worship was instituted, and where the seeds of belief in the resurrection began to take root.

The world that shaped Jesus and his disciples, the synagogue, the reading, studying, and interpreting of the scriptures began in Babylon. God knew that this would all precede Jesus coming, and was essential to the spread of the Gospel.

God knew that the Jewish presence in that part of the world would last far beyond what the Jews of Jeremiah’s day could imagine. And because they obeyed, they remained a vital part of that part of the world through many changes and upheavals.

That longevity gives me great confidence in the end of today’s passage from Jeremiah. God’s words about his people proved to be true. How much more must his words about his own character be trustworthy?

12 Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. 13 When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart,”

The God who told Jeremiah the truth about the captivity speaks truth about his desire to be found by, and known by us. “Call on me, pray to me. I will hear you. Search for me, you will find me if you put your whole heart into it.”

If that sounds familiar it may be because Jesus says this: Matthew 7:7 "Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. 8* For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”

The God who loves his creatures, longs to be prayed to, to be sought, and to be found. Amen.

P.S. – And though it is terribly sad that the Jewish people are almost all gone from Iraq, due to persecution, I am confident that in God’s everlasting plans and economy some great good will someday come of this sad tragedy.

April 2, 2009 "Debate Team"

2009-04-02T04:29:00.000-05:00

Debate team

Jesus is the kind of guy you want on your debate team. He’s very quick on his feet. We don’t know if he mastered Aristotle’s rhetoric, but he certainly understood how to use it. Of course he was Jewish, and lived in culture that valued education, study, argument, and thinking.

In the lesson today from John’s Gospel we see that while Jesus was persuasive to many he was not persuasive to all.

And of course what he has to say is outrageous.

First, when asked if he is the Messiah, he essentially says yes. And then he goes on to say that he is not just the Messiah, but that he and God are one and the same.
It is an in your face kind of claim. I am God. It sounds presumptous because it is.

Of course if the Gospels are trustworthy he backed up that extraordinary claim by miraculous signs. We get a hint of that in the opening verses of today’s reading.

John 10:19 Again the Jews were divided because of these words. 20 Many of them were saying, "He has a demon and is out of his mind. Why listen to him?" 21 Others were saying, "These are not the words of one who has a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?"

“Listen, this guy healed the guy who was blind for years, there is no way he is possessed.”

Two things strike me about today’s reading. First, if Jesus is God, he shows the limitations that God places on God’s self when it comes to persuading people that he is who he says he is.

Jesus uses reasoning, cleverness, word play, and even miracles to try to convince people of who he is and what he has to say. Yet, while he debates and says clearly what he believes, he doesn’t use his divine power to force people to believe.

Two, it shows the amazing respect that God has for his creatures. People are never coerced or forced into belief.

Years ago someone told me, “ I’ve read the New Testament and I’m not persuaded that Jesus was God or that any of the miraculous events in it really took place.”

“Good for you” I replied. “I know lots of Christians who have never read the New Testment. It’s awesome that you made the effort. Can I ask you one question?”

“Sure” he said.

I asked, “ Are you not persuaded because you are sure it’s not true, or are you not persuaded because if it is true, you know you would have to change your life.”

“Ouch!” he said, “I have to confess that it is because I don’t really want to change.”

“Can I ask one more question?” I said.

“Maybe” he said tentively.

“OK, here it is. Would you be willing to let me pray for Jesus to persuade you, even if you don’t believe he exists, and are hoping he doesn’t?”

“That would be Ok”

About two years later that man let me know that he had done a 180 degree turn around and become a Christian.

I don’t fully understand how free will, and God’s power to convert us work. But I do know that if God respects his creatures enough to give them free will, he expects those who follow him to do the same.

God make me a witness to Jesus. Help me to be persuasive, but never demeaning or demanding. Amen.

April 1, 2009 "Inside and Outside"

2009-04-01T08:18:00.002-05:00

Inside and Outside

O God, you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth, and sent your blessed Son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near: Grant that people everywhere may seek after you and find you; bring the nations into your fold; pour out your Spirit upon all flesh; and hasten the coming of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Book of Common Prayer pg.100)

Richard Dawkins, the Oxford biologist, is highly critical of religious belief in God. He sees it, (often rightly I'm afraid), as the source of many of our current problems. He argues that there might at one time have been an evolutionary, genetic advantage to a belief in a transcendent being, even though no such being exists. But he says that now that we know better, we should discard this belief that no longer is helpful. Rather faith in God is a delusion.

Of course the truth is that faith is part of any human life. Faith in God, or faith in no God are simply two faiths. Both often use the same evidence to support their claims.

Those who hold the no-God faith look at the scope, magnificence, complexity, and seeming indifference of the universe and say, it is obvious that there is no transcendent being that created this.

Those who hold to the God faith look at the scope, magnificence, complexity, and seeming indifference of the universe and say, it is obvious that there is a transcendent being that created this.

I often find people arguing with atheists saying things like “There must be a God, the Bible says so.”

Of course the problem is that to believe that anything in the Bible is true, you must be on the “inside” of faith. For many of us, a belief in God must precede a belief that God actually spoke through the complex and messy books that make up the Bible.

Those who try to speak to those on the “outside” of faith, using the Bible to support their claims are wasting their breath. Those “outside” do not see the Bible as having any special authority or relevance. To them, faith in what the Bible says seems just as irrational as faith in God.

I never worry about those who do not believe. If there is a transcendent, all knowing, all powerful, God who created the Universe, then he is quite capable of reaching those who do not believe in him.

I know, because I was one of them. In today’s lesson from Romans Paul declares that: “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” In other words, God is able to let people hear his voice. It may be that they will hear by the words of a preacher, or reading the words of the Bible. It can happen in numerous ways. When it does, then the scripture will come alive with the power and presence of God.

I said I do not worry about those who do not believe. I do not worry, but I do pray. Like Paul who is desperate that his Jewish family comes to know Jesus, I am desperate for many to be touched by Christ. I want them to know what a great gift awaits them when Jesus becomes the object of their faith. And I will preach as persuasively as I know how.

But in the end I trust all those who believe and those who do not to the great shepherd. (Jesus said) John 10:14 “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father."

March 31, 2009, "Home"

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Psalm 122:1 I was glad when they said to me, * "Let us go to the house of the LORD."

There are Sundays when I feel like not going to church. I have a favorite editorial cartoon. It shows a man in a bathrobe sitting in a Lazy boy recliner, with a newspaper spread on his lap, a remote control at his side, with a football game on the television screen in front of him. He’s holding some papers in one hand and a small microphone in the other. The caption reads “Pastor Smith was able to make Sunday mornings much more relaxed when he realized the wireless mike worked from the pastors residence.”

Sometimes getting up on Sunday, getting out the door, getting to church takes a huge amount of energy. It can feel like there is some invisible force field trying to slow my every move. Reasons to skip church come to mind: “Too much to do, need time for myself, I loose my whole morning”, and others flood my mind. And I’m the pastor!

I think there is an invisible force field that tries to prevent us from worship. It uses tiredness, busyness, sadness, hurt, frustration, and anything else it can to prevent our meeting with other Christians to worship the living God.

The irony is that sometimes the mornings that I find most difficult to arrive for worship turn out to be the most profound. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

I’ve had the privilege of meeting Christians who lived in parts of the world, where going to worship put them in danger: An Anglican bishop in Pakistan who lost a son who was shot and killed to send a message to his father, a bishop from Nigeria, whose family has been assaulted twice, and their home robbed twice, a priest from Vietnam who spend 5 years in a “re-education” camp, a woman from a middle eastern country who would be killed by her male relatives if she ever sets foot in her home country again, a priest in the Sudan who was kidnapped and held at gunpoint twice, and survived air raids on several of the church buildings where he served.

All of them could have been free from this persecution if they would stop worshipping. Yet for each of these people, it is worship where they discover the strength to persevere. When you worship with these people, you know that they are glad to be in the house of the Lord. Their lives are full of joy.

I take freedom to go to church for granted. I may experience some mild hostility for being a Christian. I may experience some spiritual warfare trying to prevent me from showing up for worship.

But when I arrive I am glad to be with my brothers and sisters at the house of the Lord. It is in worship that I again hear Jesus voice, know his mercy, grace, forgiveness, and love. It is in worship that I get strength to serve and follow him again.

Psalm 84:10 Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.

March 30, 2009 "Open my eyes"

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John 9:1 As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" 3 Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him. 4 We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world."

Writing a blog for Lent has been an eye-opening experience for me. I've missed a couple of days and I actually missed writing. I usually read the lessons for morning prayer each day. And occasionally I think about one of the verses or passages. But when I write, I notice things more. I'm more aware of places in the scriptures that move me and also the ones that bother me. Today I'm aware of the things that bother me.

All three lessons today deal with the “why” of suffering, sin, and evil. And none provides a particularly satisfying answer. Jeremiah simply states, that this is how things will be. Paul writes to the Romans speculating that God creates some people who he allows to do evil, and endures their evil, to show how great is his goodness to the others.

And in Jesus answer to the disciples, who essentially are trying to figure out a tragedy and come up with the “right answer” Jesus give an answer that may have satisfied them, but has never satisfied me.

“Rabbi who sinned, this man or his parents?” The presupposition is that individual illness is the result of someone’s sin. And Jesus says, “Neither this man nor his parents did anything wrong; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.”

Perhaps the reality is that the mystery of the answer to suffering is always individual. If we read the rest of the blind man story, we discover from the dialogue that the man is at least thirteen years old, and probably older.

And the blind person seems to be truly grateful for being healed, and does not seem to resent the years of blindness that precede his healing.

I’ve been privileged to pray for physical healing for people. I have known cancers to disappear, a severe spinal injury to be healed, a destroyed joint to be instantly restored, and other healings. And in all the cases, the folks healed were grateful. And in several, they gave thanks for what they learned from being ill.

I’ve also been privileged to pray for healing when people were dying of cancer, injuries, and illness, and seen them not be healed or restored. In many of those cases, the people were peaceful and grateful. And in several, people gave thanks for how their terminal illness had blessed them.

Jeremiah doesn’t fully answer the question, Paul can only speculate, and Jesus gives an answer that may only make complete sense to the blind man himself.

God give me grace to have compassion on those who suffer, and to put my suffering into the hands of Christ. Amen.

March 27, 2009 "Glorious Food"

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Pizza ranks high on the list. So does ice cream. But there are surprises. Salad sometimes makes the top ten. And once oatmeal ranked high.

When I teach children who are preparing to receive communion, one of the first things we do is talk about food. And of course an easy intro is to get the kids to list their favorite foods.

Food holds a high place in the scriptures. God tells Adam and Eve about the foods they can eat. And it is a forbidden food that gets them in trouble. A few generations later Esau sells out to his brother Jacob for a bowl of stew. That same Jacob tricks his father Isaac with another dish.

When the people of Israel are called to leave Egypt, God tells them to hold a special meal. And when they are in the desert and need food he gives them manna six days a week.

In today’s reading from John 6 we read: 57 (Jesus said) “Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever." 59 He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum.”

John’s gospel is full of allusions to the first five books of the bible. In today’s lesson, we run into another of those allusions. Jesus claims to be the new manna, the new bread from heaven.

When I was a child growing up in the Episcopal Church, communion was forbidden to children until they had been confirmed, usually as late elementary or junior high kids. But I can remember desperately wishing that I could have communion. When I asked, the answer was, “not until you are old enough to understand it.”

I am 54, and I still don’t understand. But I do believe. I cannot explain how the forbidden fruit of the garden is redeemed by the fruit of Christ. I cannot explain how the Passover lamb becomes Jesus the Lamb of God. I cannot explain how the sin offering in Leviticus become the crucified Christ. And I cannot explain how the thank offering in the same book becomes the living bread, the living presence of Christ.

Oneof my favorite movie scenes,(click here for the Youtube clip), of all time is from "Antwone Fisher". In the clip a young boy stands in a field before a closed barn door. Then he is ushered in past ranks of people, and seated at the head of a vast table. For me it is image of what happens to us when we come to the Lord’s table.

When I come to communion, I know that I am being fed and nurtured, mothered and fathered by God, united to a great host of people, living on earth and living on heaven. I know that as we celebrate the Lord’s supper that somehow we are connected to the great table in heaven, and that Jesus, and the Father, and the Spirit stand, eyes blazing with joy and love saying, “taste and see that the Lord is good.” Amen.

March 26, 2009 "A Universe reborn"

2009-03-26T05:03:00.001-05:00

Romans 8:18 I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; 20 for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; 23 and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.

I remember reading in elementary school that someday in a few billion years the entire universe will be reduced to just a large, cold, dispersed low level energy field. It made me sad. I thought of all the glory and majesty of the universe, galaxies, our solar system, the amazing planets in our system, and all the trillions of other stars and systems. I could not imagine that it would all someday be reduced to just electron buzz.

In 1824, the second law of thermodynamics was originally called Carnot’s principle. “Energy flows from highly organized and concentrated forms into less organized and dispersed forms.” Or you can say: “The total entropy of the universe is always increasing.”

In practical terms this means that the universe is slowly running down. All the matter and energy will slowly be turned into a huge very low energy level blob.

Paul seems to know this same thing, although not in terms of physics. He rights in Romans 8:21”…that the creation itself will be set free from it’s bondage to decay, and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.”

The Universe is declining. Our bodies decline. All is headed for death and decay. But Paul says that this time is actually not death, but labor. The universe is groaning with labor pains. She is about to give birth to a new creation, new creatures.

“The whole creation is waiting for God to reveal himself and his family, his children.” I think that Paul is telling us that there is a day coming when the second law of thermodynamics will be repealed! A day, when the universe becomes herself, in all her glory and entropy will be nor more!

Lord, help to appreciate the beauty of creation, and to carry within me the hope of the redemption of our bodies in your NEW Creation. Amen.

March 25, 2009 "Announcments"

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Today is the Feast of the Annunciation. When the Church calendar set Jesus birthday as December 25th, March 25th became the day to celebrate the Incarnation. We celebrate Mary who said yes. And we celebrate Jesus who said yes.

John 6:38 (Jesus said) “…for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day."

"I have come down from heaven." Apparently so did the angel Gabriel when he appeared to Mary. The Chariot of fire that picked up Elijah came from heaven. The angel that touched Jacobs hip, and others, apparently came down from heaven.

But what is contained in those words of Jesus. “I have come down from heaven.” Come down, but not like the angel, able to simply zip back to wherever they came from. He has come down from heaven binding himself to the flesh of Mary, and through her to the flesh of each of us. In some mysterious way he has tied himself forever to our humanity.

Our wounds, illness, joy’s, triumphs, sorrows, trials, sins, and all we are contained in these bodies, he binds to himself. He takes our flesh upon himself, and begins to transform us.

“I came down from heaven.” Not a tourist, not a temporary visitor, but as one who lays claim to every atom under heaven.

“Come abide within me; let my soul, like Mary, be thine earthly sanctuary” **. Amen.

** Verse 4 of "God himself is with us" Hymn 475, Episcopal Hymnal, 1982

Colossians 1: 15* He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; 16* for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers--all things have been created through him and for him. 17* He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18* He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything.

Philippians 2 5* Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, 6* who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, 7* but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, 8* he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death-- even death on a cross. 9* Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, 10* so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11* and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Ephesians 1: 9* he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, 10* as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

March 24, 2009 "Shabbat"

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Jeremiah 17: 24 “But if you listen to me, says the LORD, and bring in no burden by the gates of this city on the sabbath day, but keep the sabbath day holy and do no work on it, 25 then there shall enter by the gates of this city kings who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their officials, the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city shall be inhabited forever.”

When my brother Peter moved back to the States after a number of years in Israel, I asked him one day what he missed most. Without a pause he said “I miss Shabbat.” (Sabbath) One of my favorite books of the last few years is Lauren Winter's "Mudhouse Sabbath". I think we Christians need to listen to the centuries of wisdom about Shabbat from our Jewish grandparents.

When God gives the 10 Commandments to Moses, the fourth is to keep Sabbath. When Jesus heals on the Sabbath, he does not mean not to keep Sabbath, but not to over legalize it. In fact he says “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

God intends that we keep a time of rest, of worship, of family. Working too many hours, too many days, too many weeks, too many months, with no breaks is not a badge of honor. We have made it so, but God intended a different rhythm to life.

The first people to observe a 7 day week seem to be the Jewish people. The first writing to set the week at 7 days belongs to the Jewish people.

Weeks in the ancient world varied from 4 days to 10 days. In the New World before the Conquest, they were between 10 and 13 days.

In the lesson, God speaks to Jeremiah and says if the people will stop and keep Shabbat, then the destruction coming will not occur.

Could it be that when we don’t keep Sabbath, work and money cease to be tools, and become gods?

I have deliberately tried to slow down this Lent. My blood pressure is lower. I enjoy reading the scripture, rather than racing through it. I actually listen when people are speaking without thinking of what I am going to say next. I pray with thoughtfulness.

We need to learn to keep Sabbath, to start the night before, to begin slowing down. It doesn’t affect God, but it keeps us whole.

Slowing down in Christ. Amen.

March 23, 2009 "Mushy movies"

2009-03-23T04:40:00.000-05:00

Psalm 89:1 Your love, O LORD, for ever will I sing; *from age to age my mouth will proclaim your faithfulness. 2 For I am persuaded that your love is established for ever; * you have set your faithfulness firmly in the heavens.

Mushy movies move me. Not bad for alliteration and also true. My brother Matthew and I recently sat through “Marley and Me”, a movie about a family and a dog based on the true dog stories of Philadelphia Inquirer columnist, John Grogan

There are scenes in the movie that are very touching. By the end, we were both sniffling, but as I looked around the theater we weren’t the only ones. I loved the movie, because it was a story of love and faithfulness.

I love stories where love and goodness triumph. The writer of Psalm 89 writes “For I am persuaded that your love is established for ever...”

Not every story in this life or this world has a happy ending. It is not self-evident that a) there is a God, b) that God is good, and c) that God is love.

Perhaps that is why the writer says “I am persuaded...” Because it is not immediately obvious that God’s love is established for ever. It is not obvious that God’s faithfulness is firmly in place.

God must persuade, for if he forces, then he is not love. John said it simply “God is love.”
God will use all the force in the universe to make us seek that love, but will never force us to accept it. God will demonstrate that love over and over. And if we will let our hearts open up, and be willing to be “mushy” on occasion, we may find ourselves persuaded, that despite all the evil to the contrary, “that your love is established for ever.”

John the apostle said it simply. 1John 4:8b “God is love.”

Shakespeare was talking of his own love, yet it holds true for God as well.

Sonnet 116

Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come:

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

William Shakespeare

(1564 - 1616)

March 22, 2009 "Rescue Me"

2009-03-22T16:41:00.001-05:00

I like to write skits for children’s sermons. Sometimes the characters are puppets and sometimes they are people, and sometimes both. I often have skit ideas in mind even when I can’t find a cast or puppeteer to work with.

In my mind, this Sunday’s readings deserve a true “Monty Python” style skit. In my minds eye it would take place in one of the dining rooms on the Titanic. A reserved Englishman sitting at a table, that’s begun to list, is completely unfazed by the panic around him.

A steward approaches urging him to get to the deck and get a lifejacket on. “Well I haven’t finished the second course now have I?” he’d reply. And the skit would go on from there. There would be all kinds of reasons raised to stay on the ship.

“But, sir, the ship is sinking!” someone would say. “Now, now,” my "Monty Python character would reply, “Just a bit of list, sure the captain will get it straightened out, what.”

Eventually, in my skit, my Englishman would drown, clinging to his after dinner port.

The lessons for this Sunday, remind us that we are on a ship that is sinking. We’ve collided with the iceberg and need a lifeboat.

Following his description of Nicodemus and Jesus conversation, John says that the rescue operation is underway. Jesus himself is the lifeboat. God’s Son is the rescue operation. But John says, there are some who are unwilling to be rescued. They want to hang on to their pleasures and agendas. Some in fact might even see that the ship is sinking, but can’t bear the thought of giving up some pride or pleasure, and would rather sink, than be rescued.

But the rescue is ongoing. God’s desire, God’s hope is that everyone believe in the Son, and not perish, but gain eternal life.

March 21, 2009 "Warfare"

2009-03-21T09:40:00.002-05:00

Warfare

Ephesians 2:1 You were dead through the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient.

From 1967 to 1971 my family lived in Guatemala City, Guatemala. During that time there was a protracted guerilla war between various communist factions, the army, and right wing death squads.

There were bomb scares, and bombings, people gunned down in the streets in broad daylight. People you knew were killed or “disappeared”. You kept your guard up and were vigilant and protective. To this day, certain sounds can put me on instant “alert”. There were times of calm, but you never forgot there was a war going on.

The New Testament says the world is in a spiritual war. Paul says that some of us were combatants on the enemy side, serving an evil power, until we saw the light and came over to the good side.

The Church has gone through times when it pretends it is not at war, or times when it mistakes the enemy’s human combatants for the real enemy who has deluded them.

Blessedly we are not always aware of the war, and certainly God grants us many times of peace. Even more blessedly we are given opportunities to see some of the victories in this combat.

But we must never forget that we are in a war against “the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now at work in those who are disobedient.” There is an enemy who hates all the people God has made.

Our mission is to reach out to those who are still deluded into fighting for the other side, with the same forgiveness and charity that won us to the army of the crucified Christ.

March 20, 2009 "Humility"

2009-03-20T04:58:00.002-05:00

When I was a child, I heard the phrase, but didn’t know what it meant. “Don’t argue about religion or politics.” Age has brought me enlightenment. If you want to make people mad, argue politics. If you want to make them rabid, argue religion!

I remember in high school reducing a couple of sincere Christian kids to tears. I was vicious in my arguments and attacks on Christian belief, and the foolishness of believing in God. My hostility was visceral. Of course it turned out that I was hostile because I was beginning to wonder if maybe the Christians were right.

In the 8th chapter of John’s gospel Jesus is arguing religion. He is passionate and seems to be goading his opponents. And his opponents have a visceral response. Jesus has just said “You will know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”

He’s met with instant defensiveness. “You think we don’t know the truth! We’re children of Abraham.”

Jesus is not going to win any popularity contests. John’s description of this dialogue puts Jesus one pebble away from being killed by stoning. He keeps provoking people!

But he seems to have a purpose in provocation. He’s trying to reach people who are so sure they are right, they have no room to examine other options. He has to provoke them to the point that they want to kill him. But he is trying to break through to allow new thinking and new living to transform them.

I have a t-shirt that each male in my family got last Christmas. It reads “I may be wrong, but I don’t think so!” It is not a badge of humility! And when I am so sure I am right, it can distance me the very truth that can set me free. I may not be able to hear.

But if I humble myself, God might teach me something new, or help me to see the old in a new light.

“John 8:47Whoever is from God hears the words of God. The reason you do not hear them is that you are not from God.' "

God help us to hear your Word, Jesus who you have sent.

March 19, 2009 "Stupid Shepherds"

2009-03-19T06:52:00.001-05:00

Jeremiah 10:21 For the shepherds are stupid, and do not inquire of the LORD; therefore they have not prospered, and all their flock is scattered.

Verses like the one above, reach up and slap me in the mornings when I am reading the lessons. Before 1992, I might have thought a bit about them. But after ordination as a pastor, a “shepherd”, the words are like a double shot of expresso, They perk you up.

All through Jeremiah he talks about the sins of the people. They’ve made false Gods. The people who know that every grain of sand, and every star in the heavens were made by the true God, have surrendered to worshipping trashy trinkets. And God is not pleased.

But it is the shepherds who have missed the boat. God says “They’ve become dull of heart, and stopped seeking the LORD.” That is the reason why things are going wrong and now the people are being scattered.

It is as though God is saying, “If the clergy had been really doing what they were supposed to do, the flock would not be doing the things they aren’t supposed to do.”

Of course the shepherds of Jeremiah’s day include the king, and the other officials of government as well.

Yet the visceral impact remains. Do I really want to inquire of the LORD? He may ask me to say some things that aren’t going to be popular. He may ask me to challenge certain cultural certainties. I may even have to use the “S” word. Sin!

This coming week I’m headed to the annual Lenten Clergy Retreat. It’s always in the third or fourth week of Lent. Unlike some of our other clergy gatherings, it is optional. It is a very inconvenient time. But my hope is that I will spend time and “inquire of the LORD.”

Perhaps the prayer at the end of today’s passage is because Jeremiah himself is one of the shepherds and knows all too well his own weakness.

Jeremiah 10:24 “Correct me, O LORD, but in just measure; not in your anger, or you will bring me to nothing.” Amen. Amen.

March 18, 2009 "Perfect timing"

2009-03-18T04:18:00.000-05:00

Timing is everything. I’ve heard that phrase my whole life. Sometimes people were talking about selling a house, or starting a business. Sometimes they were talking about avoiding an accident, or bemoaning an accident. Occasionally they were discussing a happening in a sporting event.

In today’s lesson from Romans, St. Paul writes: “At the right time Christ died for the ungodly.”

I don’t understand God’s timing. Why not have Jesus come and die for Adam and Eve the day after they’ve ruined their relationship with God. Or why not have Jesus come and heal things before Adam and Eve’s two sons behavior gets to bad that one kills the other.

Years ago, my wife Anne and I were in Salta, Argentina. We met a couple we did not know, who had coincidentally come to Salta and overlapped with us one day. During that one day we discovered that we’d had some amazing coincidences and relationships in common. And we discovered that we had a critical piece of information that would relieve a great burden this couple had carried around for more than a decade.

Timing is everything.

I don’t understand why God allows so much that is not good to happen. Yet there have been enough moments where timing has been very good to me and for me. When that happens I’m sure God is still in charge.

“At the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” The beauty is that the effects of that death are not confined to time as we know it in its linear fashion.

Christ died for the ungodly, past, present, and future. Since I have enough in my life to qualify me for the ungodly category, I can only bow my head and say “Thank you Lord.”

And may I have enough faith to trust my times to God. And may I seek to use that time to show God’s love “all the time.”

March 17, 2009 "Fill my cup"

2009-03-17T06:38:00.003-05:00

When I came back to Christ I went for a while to a small Assembly of God church. One of their favorite songs was an old gospel tune, "Fill my cup Lord" Each time I heard it I would weep, knowing that my life which had been so empty was being filled with new life. The music was often sloppy and sentimental, but that didn't matter. The song would overwhelm me each time.

In today’s Gospel Jesus stands up during the last day of festival, the feast of booths. We can’t be sure, but it is probable that the Jewish people of Jesus day celebrated Shmini Atzeret and Simchat Torah on that day, which is really the day after the days of Sukkot, the feast of booths.

Shmini Atzaret is a day to remember the special love God has for the Jewish people, and a day when prayers for rain were offered, since rain is essential to life, and always one of the signs of God’s love. And on Simchat Torah, the yearly reading of all five books of Moses is completed, and starts again. If you’ve ever been to a synagogue on that day, you will see people rejoicing, and the rabbi carrying the scroll around as people give thanks for God’s word and kiss the scrolls, with dancing and singing.

John 7:37* On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. 38* Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." 39* By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

For John the meaning is clear. He writes in the first verse of his Gospel that Jesus is the Word. The active, living, breathing, and incarnate Word always being spoken by the Father.

And so when Jesus stands and declares “If you are thirsty come and drink” he is proclaiming that he is the love of God for God’s people. He is the heart of the Torah. He will give new life to those who believe in him.

John then explains that Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit, who would be received by Jesus followers, but not until Jesus had been glorified: crucified, dead, buried, raised, and ascended to the Father.

Jesus proclaims that those who believe will be filled with the Holy Spirit. Yet many Christians today are like the believers described in the passage below. They have forgotten or perhaps not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.

Acts 19:1* While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples 2* and asked them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" They answered, "No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit." 3 So Paul asked, "Then what baptism did you receive?" "John’s baptism," they replied. 4* Paul said, "John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus." 5* On hearing this, they were baptised into the name of the Lord Jesus. 6* When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.

As we go through this Lent, let us pray to Jesus, asking that he send the Holy Spirit so the dry places of our lives, where unbelief and sin live, will become a place where rivers of living water flow. Pray that we become springs of living water for the thirsty people God brings to us.

Fill My Cup Lord
Like the woman at the well I was seeking
For things that could not satisfy;
And then I heard my Savior speaking:
"Draw from my well that never shall run dry".

Fill my cup Lord, I lift it up, Lord!
Come and quench this thirsting of my soul;
Bread of heaven, Feed me till I want no more--
Fill my cup, fill it up and make me whole!

There are millions in this world who are craving
The pleasures earthly things afford;
But none can match the wondrous treasure
That I find in Jesus Christ my Lord.

Fill my cup Lord, I lift it up, Lord!
Come and quench this thirsting of my soul;
Bread of heaven, Feed me till I want no more--
Fill my cup, fill it up and make me whole!

So, my brother, if the things this world gave you
Leave hungers that won't pass away,
My blessed Lord will come and save you,
If you kneel to Him and humbly pray:

Fill my cup Lord, I lift it up, Lord!
Come and quench this thirsting of my soul;
Bread of heaven, Feed me till I want no more--
Fill my cup, fill it up and make me whole!

March 16, 2009 "Spiritual Immunity?"

2009-03-16T04:26:00.001-05:00

Microscopic pathogens, viral and bacterial, are the most dangerous animals on our planet. So small, and yet some of the most dangerous infections can kill 9 of 10 people they infect.

Yet in many other cases, such as typhoid, tetanus, diphtheria, smallpox, polio, and a host of others, we actually have learned to harness the power of the infection and our own immune systems.

After some simple inoculations some of the most dangerous animals on the planet cannot hurt us. The vaccinations usually work without us ever knowing we were under attack!

Years ago, I met several young parents. They had small children who had never been vaccinated against tetanus, diphtheria, whooping cough, polio, and other potentially fatal diseases.

The parents claimed there was no need, because those diseases weren’t a problem anymore, and besides we now had antibiotics and other medication that could take care of those problem diseases.

When I pointed out that there was still no cure for polio or tetanus, they smiled at me condescendingly. They had an irrational, blind faith in the power of medicine. I could only pray that none of them discover the danger they were putting their children in.

Medical science has made significant progress in healing and disease prevention. But for medical help to be most effective, we need to use that help responsibly. Just being around people who have been vaccinated does not give you immunity!

In the lesson from Jeremiah, the prophet writes on behalf of God:

Jeremiah 7: 3 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your doings, and let me dwell with you in this place. 4 Do not trust in these deceptive words: "This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD." 5 For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly act justly one with another, 6 if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, 7 then I will dwell with you in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your ancestors forever and ever.

The people of Israel believed they were safe from harm simply because they were God’s chosen people, and lived where God’s temple had been built.

They had a false sense of security. Their behavior was seriously wrong, and un-Godly, yet they thought there would be no consequences, because they hung out near the temple!

They were like the young parents I met who thought because they lived near well people and good doctors they and their children were safe. But the people of Jeremiah’s day had not “inoculated” themselves with real faith, with real obedience, and with real devotion to God.

Responsible faith and blind faith are not the same. Responsible faith is a faith that is responsive to God’s call to truly amend our ways and our doings, to truly act justly one with another, and not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood ... or go after other gods to our own hurt.

God may I have faith, responsive and responsible faith. Amen.

March 15, 2009 "Lost and found"

2009-03-15T04:22:00.000-05:00

1 Corinthians 1:17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power. 18 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

It was just after lunch when the call came in. It was midsummer and although the church was large with many clergy, there were only two of us in town. The church secretary said, “There is a young man on the phone who’s in the hospital and wants to talk to a priest. Joe’s still out and I don’t think he’ll be back for a couple of hours.”

“I’ll take the call.” I replied.

The voice on the other end was hesitant, and young sounding. “You don’t know me” he said, “The nurses said that your church was pretty close to he hospital. I need to talk with somebody about God.” “That’s sort of a main interest of mine.” I said, “Tell me what is going on.”

What unfolded was a story of a 23 year old man. He was dying. He’d found a Gideon New Testament the day before and had begun to read.

He had no church background or religious background. His parents had divorced when he was young, and neither of them had ever been religious. He’d been reading the Gospels and some of Paul’s letters.

“I always thought there might be a God, but never really bothered to find out anything more. But in this letter of Paul’s he lists some things that are serious sins. I found some of my behaviors on this list. I’m worried about what might happen to me when I die.”

After a little more discussion, he got more specific, and a life of teenage and young adult dissipation poured out. I asked if we could continue to conversation in person, or if he’d prefer to talk to an older priest friend of mine.

“I’ll talk with anybody. I need to know what to do.”

At that moment the secretary appeared at the door, indicating that I needed to take another call.

“Can you hold on a moment? I promise I won’t hang up, I’ll be right back”

“OK”

I picked up the other line, and it was Father Joe. In his northern English accent he said “I just popped round hospital, saw a parishioner and am about to head out. Thought I’d best check to see if things are OK before I go on.”

“Well, as a matter of fact…” I began.
A few moments later, Joe was at this young man’s bedside. After about an hour of conversation, the young man asked if he could pray and invite Jesus Christ into his life. Joe led him in a simple prayer.

Joe visited each day for the next four days. The afternoon of the fourth day, the young man passed away.

A couple of days earlier he told Joe. “All my life, I’ve searched for love and happiness. There were times when I thought I’d found them, but they never lasted. Thank you so much for coming. Because of you, I found Jesus.”

Joe said to him gently, “No lad, he found you. He’s always got his eye turned toward the lost sheep. Trust me, I know, for I was one myself.”

What Wondrous Love Is This
By: American Folk Hymn ca. 1835

What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul!
What wondrous love is this, O my soul!
What wondrous love is this, That caused the Lord of bliss
To bear the dreadful curse for my soul, for my soul,
To bear the dreadful curse for my soul!

When I was sinking down, sinking down, sinking down,
When I was sinking down, sinking down,
When I was sinking down, Beneath God’s righteous frown,
Christ laid aside His crown for my soul for my soul,
Christ laid aside His crown for my soul.

To God and to the Lamb I will sing, I will sing;
To God and to the Lamb I will sing;
To God and to the Lamb, Who is the great I AM,
While millions join the theme, I will sing, I will sing,
While millions join the theme, I will sing.

And when from death I’m free, I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on;
And when from death I’m free, I’ll sing on.
And when from death I’m free _I’ll sing His love for me,
And through eternity I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on,
And through eternity I’ll sing on.

March 14, 2009 "Family Feud"

2009-03-14T04:38:00.001-05:00

When I got serious about God, I can remember being teased mercilessly by one of my younger brothers. And my cousins thought I’d gone crazy. They’d make fun of me, and say things like “Be careful drinking that water, it might turn to wine.”

Sometimes it was funny, but usually it was hurtful. I remember one day reading the passage from John’s gospel appointed for today. I realized that Jesus’ family was unkind to him. For a teenager trying to hold onto his faith, it was a real encouragement.

In today’s reading it is probably near September or October, as the gospel says that Sukkot (the Festival of Booths) is at hand. Many observant Jewish families still celebrate Sukkot, often living outdoors and at the very least eating their meals outdoors.

It should be a time of family closeness. Of course if you’ve ever gone camping with your own family you know that sometimes there can be too much family closeness! This seems to be one of those times. Jesus is getting on his siblings nerves.

We don’t generally think about Jesus family, and the images we do have tend to be romantic images from Christmas pageants. But the little we do have in the New Testament shows Jesus family as pretty normal, perhaps even jealous of his new found fame and popularity.

John writes to show that Jesus teaching and actions were not universally received, even by the people closest to him. In the first part of Chapter 7 Jesus’ brothers try to get him to leave town and go to Jerusalem. It seems that even Jesus siblings, (or possibly cousins), did not believe in him.

“Why don’t you head down to Jerusalem to the festival and show all your disciples that you’re a real leader. Don’t stay up hear in the north where nobody knows what’s going on.”

Jesus replies to his brothers “Go there yourselves. I’m waiting for the right time, but your right time is now, because you’re in sync with this world, while I’m challenging this evil world to change.”

When family is frustrating or hurtful, it might help to remember that when Jesus calls us to love our neighbors, (and our enemies!), he personally knows what that means when it comes to loving family.

March 13, 2009 "Now I see how you really are"

2009-03-13T06:55:00.002-05:00

Jeremiah 5:5b “But they all alike had broken the yoke, they had burst the bonds.”

Romans 3:9 “What then? Are we any better off? No, not at all; for we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin…”

John 5:39 “'You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. 40Yet you refuse to come to me to have life…”

“You’re no good”
written by Clint Ballard, Jr.
© Edwin H Morris & Co Inc

Feeling better now that we're through
Feeling better 'cause I'm over you
I learned my lesson, it left a scar
Now I see how you really are

You're no good
You're no good
You're no good
Baby you're no good

Today’s lessons stack up to persuade me that the problems of the world start inside, not outside. Jeremiah looks for a good person, and finds that rich and poor alike are ignoring God. Paul charges that Jews and Gentiles are both caught in bondage under something he calls “the power of sin”. And Jesus tells the crowd that the one person they need help from, is the one person they refuse to ask.

This Easter we will be baptizing some folks here at Christ Church. One of the baptism vows is: “Do you renounce all sinful desires that draw you from the love of God?” The vows assume that the power of sin lives inside each of us.

The danger is to move from recognizing sin in others, and calling people to legalism instead of repentance. That is why earlier in the same letter Paul writes about circumcision. He himself knows how tempting it is to believe that because we do many good things, that we are good; or even worse, to believe that we are actually better than others.

In Psalm 69:6 & 7 the psalmist writes: “O God, you know my foolishness, and my faults are not hidden from you. Let not those who hope in you be put to shame through me, Lord GOD of hosts; let not those who seek you be disgraced because of me, O God of Israel.”

God wants us to recognize both our good and our evil impulses and to live is such a way that we seek to do good, seek justice, love mercy, and when we fail in these, repent and return to the Lord.

Let not those who seek you be disgraced because of me, O God of Israel. Amen.

March 12, 2009 "Soul Food"

2009-03-12T06:52:00.001-05:00

Soul Food

Thursday mornings at 9:00 I go to church. Each week, our congregation gives groceries to those in need. Since the need is so great, we ask that people come once a month. Just before the food distribution we worship.

The people who come for food are not obligated to come to worship, and they don’t get more food for coming to worship. But about half the people for food do. They come an hour earlier, to go to church before waiting for their turn to get groceries.

About three months after arriving at Christ Church, I began to see people that I’d seen the week before. I asked them, “Did you get mixed up? Weren’t you here last Thursday for food?” “Yes, Padre” one man said. “I’m not due for groceries for another three weeks. But this Thursday I need groceries for my soul.”

Lent is a good time to remember that much of the world lives on less than a dollar a day. If we give up a coke, a cup of coffee, a half a gallon of gas, and give it to hunger relief, we can literally double someone’s livelihood somewhere in the world.

Lent is a good time to remember that the world cannot live on bread alone. If I give up 1 coke, a cup of coffee, a half gallon of gas, and give it support missions, I may be giving someone the bread of eternal life.

John 5:24 (Jesus said) Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life. 25'Very truly, I tell you, the hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

March 11, 2009 "You are what you eat"

2009-03-11T06:44:00.001-05:00

“You are what you eat.” “Eat it today, wear it tomorrow.”

Two expressions that quickly capture to truths. First, what we eat affects our health. Second, how much we eat affects our health.

Food is essential to life. But too much of the wrong kinds of food, or too much food period actually become detrimental to life, and can even shorten our lives.

Recently our local paper told of a young man, a hit man for a drug gang, sentenced to death for two murders. After killing his teenage victims, he collected some of their blood and drank a toast to “Santa Muerte”, “Holy Death”. Santa Muerte is the invented God of many of the drug cartels.

Worship is not just fun and games. It shapes our being. Today’s lessons from Jeremiah and Romans and John, raise the issue of feeding our spiritual life. To paraphrase the expressions above. “You are what you worship.” “Worship today, wear it tomorrow.”

Jeremiah uses metaphorical language, comparing God’s people to a wanton woman. Many had ceased to worship the true God. We forget or perhaps don’t know that many of the local Caananite gods required temple prostitution, and child sacrifice. God’s people began to give their sons and daughters up as prostitutes and sometimes sacrificial victims.

In Romans, Paul catalogues the behaviors that afflict us when we worship false Gods. Wickedness, evil, envy, murder and a whole catalogue of others follow.

In John, a lame man is made well. But when Jesus finds the man in the temple, he challenges him to stop sinning. But the man, who has received a great gift of healing, runs to the authorities to tell on Jesus. The man’s body has been healed, but his heart is hard.

The good news is that in all three lessons, God calls his people to return. God calls us to give up the things we worship. God asks us to soften our hearts and let him back in.

The gods of this age are easy to see: greed, sensuality, apathy, coldness. Does my worship lead me to generosity, self sacrifice, action, charity?

When I come to eat the Lord's supper, do I pray "Lord, make me what I eat. May I eat and drink today, and wear you tomorrow."?

Finally, do I pray for those who have gone astray, like the young man I mentioned above? God is still working, seeking the lost. May our worship lead us to do the same.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009, "Sign language"

2009-03-10T03:38:00.002-05:00

Sign language

If you are reading the daily readings the Episcopal Church appoints for each day during lent, you are reading most of John’s gospel in sequence. There is a first miracle of Jesus at a wedding party, where he takes water that is supposed to be used for washing feet and transforms it into wine. John calls this event Jesus first “sign.”

A bit later, he encounters a political opponent, Nicodemus, who comes to see him at night so that no one knows he’s coming.

Next Jesus engages in conversation with a Samaritan woman, the equivalent of a dialogue between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, or Serbs and Croatians in Kosovo, or Indians and Pakistani’s in Kashmir.

And in today’s reading, Jesus is being sought out by a Roman Centurion, a leader of a company of men, enemies of the Jewish people. Imagine if you will, a Shiite Iraqi itinerant preacher, who has his rally interrupted by a U.S. Army Captain, who begs the preacher to heal his son.

Jesus audience was not people who loved the Roman invaders. They were people whose lives had been made difficult by their heavy-handed invasion, by puppet rulers like Herod, by blackmail, by heavy taxes. They were people whose sons and fathers had died fighting the Romans, whose daughters had been raped.

John says that the people in Cana were glad to have Jesus back. Imagine the damper the Roman Centurion’s appearance put on the crowd. I’m sure the air was electric with tension. The officer, a man used to commanding, begs Jesus to come with him as his son is about to die. And Jesus refuses, saying “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” Again the official pleads, “Sir, come down before my little boy dies.”

Jesus replies “Go, your son will live.” As the father leaves, his slaves find him on the way and inform him that his son has recovered. The centurion figures out when all this happened and he and his whole household believe. John says that this is Jesus second “sign”.

When C.S. Lewis wrote his radio talks that later became the book “Mere Christianity” he wrote this introductory sentence to his talk on forgiveness:

“I said in a previous chapter that chastity was the most unpopular of the Christian virtues. But I am not sure I was right. I believe there is on even more unpopular. It is laid down in the Christian rule "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Because in Christian morals "thy neighbour" includes "thy enemy", and so we come up against this terrible duty of forgiving our enemies."

Jesus second “sign” is not the miracle of healing, but the miracle of loving our enemies.

Monday, March 9, 2009 "A whole lot of shaking goin' on"

2009-03-09T03:53:00.000-05:00

In today’s lesson from Jeremiah, God is raising up Jeremiah to warn his people one last time to return to him, and to abandon their false Gods. And God warns Jeremiah that his will be a painful, difficult task, full of opposition. But he also says that he will give him power and make him as strong as iron.

Prophets are dangerous people. They remind us that the world we live in physically unstable place. The politics of our world are unstable. And as we’ve seen, the economies of our world are unstable.

The prophets among us remind us that the only real stability is found in God. They call attention to our sins, and our flaws. And they remind us that God is not above using the instability around us, physical, political, and economic, to shake us and call us to return

In 1972, I heard a young wild eyed Pentecostal preacher. I’d never actually been to a service with a real live revival preacher. It was different from TV. It was also more discomforting because I knew that the person preaching was not a fake, but a genuine believer. I was not.

This preacher had some very uncomfortable things to say to people like me, who were drug addicts, and hedonists. It was not vindictive, but it was passionate. It sounded and felt prophetic. It was the beginning of me seriously searching for God.

I’d sensed the same power when I’d heard Martin Luther King on the radio or TV. I’d heard it occasionally in my own church. It was not volume, or passion, but some intangible reality, where I sensed that the preacher had some unseen power.

Now I know that the power I sense in these “prophets” is something God gives to them. They see a future where God’s kingdom is becoming a reality, and they challenge us to live like that now.

May God give us grace to look at the instability of our world, and realize that God allows things we think are stable to be shaken. He reminds us that the only thing that cannot be moved is God. And when we are called to be the prophets may we have grace to do our work with boldness and charity.

This prayer is from the second Sunday of Advent, but it fits well for the second week of Lent.

Second Sunday of Advent

Merciful God, who sent your messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins,
that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

March 8, 2009, "Peculiar, Painful, Faith"

2009-03-07T23:16:00.002-06:00

I love Chapter 17 of Genesis. We read a small section of it for this Sunday’s lectionary.

In the first lesson this Sunday from Genesis 17, we skip over some of the verses. We leave out the fact that God asks Abraham to demonstrate his commitment to God by circumcision.

It has been a long time since God spoke so dramatically to Abraham. The last time it was so dramatic, was 24 years ago, when Abraham was 75. At that time God promised him descendents, and Abraham struggled to believe then. Now he’s 99!

Yet he’s so in awe of God’s presence that in verse three it says he fell face down. After all he’s in the presence of Almighty God.

But a bit farther along, after God tells him the sign of his convenant will be circumcision, God tells him that Sarah, his 90 year old wife is going to have a baby.

“17Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, "Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?" 18 And Abraham said to God, "If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!"

Abraham on his face twice. First out of awe, and a second time trying not to laugh out loud at God. Who can blame him? Even in our day of Viagra, it seems pretty strange to believe that a 90 year old woman and a 99 year old man would actually find themselves in a position where pregnancy could occur!

I suspect that is why Abraham is laughing! When he gets his composure, he suggests to God that maybe just blessing Ishmael, his son by Sarah’s slave Hagar might be the best solution.

But God says “Nope, Sarah is going to have a baby, a boy named Isaac in just about a year.”

In this passage it doesn’t say Abraham believed, but it does say that right then and there they had a circumcision party for every male in his household including him. (I suspect it did not increase Abraham’s popularity with his hired hands!) But it was this action that proved his faith, in a peculiar and painful way.

In the passage for today from Romans, written centuries later, Paul explains that Abraham’s faith is one of the great keys to understanding the scriptures. Abraham did not do a particularly good job keeping all the rules and regulations of good behavior, but he did believe that if God made a promise,. God would keep it.

Paul realizes that this one of the great principles of the entire bible. God approved of Abraham not because of his behavior, which was a bit erratic, or because he was circumcised. Instead God approves of Abraham because of his faith. Circumcision was the proof of his faith. And Paul then says that our faith is what binds us to God, not our good deeds.

I keep trying to remember this. And I keep trying to remember that if God makes a promise he will keep it. May we all have an increase of faith this lent.

March 7, 2009 Jesus: Slumdog Millionaire

2009-03-07T06:45:00.002-06:00

Slumdog Millionaire is a popular movie. If you have not seen it, you may want to stop reading now or this might spoil the plot. The heart of the movie is a profound love story. Jamal, the hero, spends his life seeking his true love, Latika.

The movie carries us through all kinds of scenarios where Jamal has every reason to forget her, and to stop loving her. Yet there seems to be nothing that will stop him from demonstrating his love for Latika.

That is how Jesus feels about us. He has every reason to forget us and stop loving us. We are not faithful, and even when we wish we could follow him we are often unwilling to take the risk. Yet that does not put Jesus off. Eventually he will sacrifice all he has for the chance to show us that he will not stop loving us. We are as precious to him as Latika is to Jamal.

In the daily lectionary reading from John’s Gospel Jesus loves the Samaritan woman at the well. As the story unfolds Jesus breaks taboo after taboo. He talks with a woman he does not know, he talks with a Samaritan, he talks with a woman about whom the cultural cues of Jesus day tell him that even her own people consider her an outcast.

Here’s a woman, a community outcast in a group of people that most Jewish people of the day considered outcast. So socially she is at the bottom of the barrel.

And Jesus seeks to draw her in. He uses her curiosity to begin a conversation with her. In a wonderful dialogue he manages to slowly bring her in.

Jesus ignores certain very important taboos of his day: a man talking with a woman he does not know, the cultural and racial barriers between Jew and Samaritan, and the barrier of talking with a sinner. Does he approve of all that she has done? No. But he knows that he will not win her with moralizing, but by love.

I’m not very good at that kind of charity. But I hope to get better. I’m better at it when I remember that I am the Samaritan woman, the thief on the cross, the tax collector, and yes even the Pharisee. Jesus came for them and he came for me.

Friday, March 6, 2009 "To boldly go..."

2009-03-05T21:21:00.001-06:00

“Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. 16Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

The author to the book of Hebrews argues that Jesus managed to get through the obstacle course of life without blowing it. This means he is the best person to come to for help, support and comfort when we’ve blown it, made a wrong turn, aren’t sure which way to go.

The original Star Trek motto, or the slightly altered motto of Star Trek, the Next Generation goes in part ‘…to boldly go where no one has gone before.” But the author of Hebrews says that “someone” has gone before. **

In these first few chapters , the author of the book of Hebrews warns people to not fall away from faith, to not give up. He (she?) sounds very legalistic, and moralistic until we reach this verse. Suddenly we realize that the author is reminding us that we are not alone on our faith journey. We follow a Jesus who looks just like us, with one exception. He was tested in every way, but did not sin. This is not someone who can’t sympathize with us, but someone who is intimately like us.

Bruce Olson, was a 19 year old missionary to the Motilone-Bari indigenous people of Colombia and Venezuela over 40 years ago. He has spent most of those years living among this small group of people. He lived with them almost 7 years learning their language, their customs, and their stories. He knew that to share what he knew of Jesus, without knowing them, would be premature.

After many of the particular tribal group he was with became Christians, he asked them one day what they thought Jesus looked like. “Like us” they replied. “Jesus is a Motiloni, just like us.”

When I had the privilege of working with homeless people at the St. Francis Center, near downtown Denver, one of our volunteers brought in a large, wooden carving of Jesus head and face, bearing the crown of thorns. It was made of ebony, and Jesus was clearly ebony too. Tom, the donor, said that he needed to see a Jesus who looked like him, and believed that perhaps others might too.

A few days later, an elderly African American gentleman came in and looked up at the image of Jesus. With tears in his eyes he simply said “Thank you. I need a Jesus like that today.”

“Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. 16Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Amen.

** (Before I hear negatives from all the Trekkers please know that I too worship Star Trek! Gene Roddenberry was a saint!)

Thursday, March 5, 2009

2009-03-05T06:31:00.003-06:00

John 3:16 God loved the people of this world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who has faith in him will have eternal life and never really die. 17God did not send his Son into the world to condemn its people. He sent him to save them! (Contemporary English Version)

I still occasionally see the signs. Held up in the end zone during a field goal try, or in the crowd behind the backboard when someone is trying a foul shot. They read “John 3:16”

The irony of course is that the signs seem trivial and silly, but the message of the verse is profound.

God holds up a sign too. But his sign is a bloody cross, a broken body, a life extinguished. The cross is a sign that says “Look. Here is what all your best efforts and worst deeds have accomplished.”

Some theologians dislike the cross so much that they reject it. One calls it, a grotesque parody of divine child abuse. How could such a violent symbol be the sign of a loving God, they ask?

I suppose it might depend upon how much guilt we carry around. By the time I was a senior in high school, I had accumulated a lot. There were people I’d lured into my addictions (drugs) who had previously been “straight”. Some had their lives ruined, and at least one later overdosed and died.

There was no doubt in my young mind that I had caused great injury. But addiction, geography, and death made it impossible to right the wrongs.

Inside I asked “What can heal that sort of guilt? Who can grant absolution, remission, and forgiveness of such sins?”

One evening it dawned on me that I’d heard the answer many times. The old Episcopal prayer book contained a series of bible verses read before each communion service. One reads:

“Hear also what Saint Paul saith. This is a true saying, and worthy of all men to be received, That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. 1 Tim. i. 15.

Somehow I realized that Jesus died to save sinners, that God loved the world in spite of its evil and horror!

I became a primitive. I needed a sacrifice to offer to God for the wrongs I had done. And when I asked the questions “What can heal that sort of guilt? Who can grant absolution, remission, and forgiveness of such sins?” I suddenly knew the answer. “Nothing, but the blood of Jesus.”

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

2009-03-04T04:07:00.001-06:00

I remember taking the SAT test back in the dark ages of High School. It was 1971, and I was a junior at the Colegio Americano de Guatemala. It was a cool morning, and I was anxious.

Tests are an inevitable part of life. There are formal tests like the ones in school. There are events that test our character. There are people who evaluate us, and we them.

God seems to put tests in front of us. God is all knowing, and must know the result even before the test. The test must then be for us.

I did well on the language skills of the SAT, and not so well on the math skills. The test revealed what I already knew.

But there have been other tests in my life that have shown me things about myself that I did not know. Sometimes I have discovered hidden strengths and virtues. Sometimes I have discovered hidden flaws and sin.

In Deuteronomy 9 verse 13, Moses is talking with the people of Israel before they enter the promise land. He is reminding them of the events of the last 40 years. He says “The Lord said to me, "I have seen these people. They are so stubborn! 14 Do not try to stop me. I am going to destroy them. I will wipe them out from the earth. Then I will make you into a great nation. Your people will be stronger than they were. There will be more of you than there were of them."”

In verse 14, God says to Moses, “Do not try to stop me, I am going to destroy them.”

What is going on here? Is God playing mind games with Moses? Or is God testing Moses?

God seems to be testing Moses, to see if he has really adopted God’s people, as stubborn, unfaithful, sinful as they are. Moses is offered a chance to replace Abraham, to be the new father of a great people. Yet he turns it down, instead devoting 40 days to intercede for the people and for his brother Aaron.

What just happened? Did God change his mind when Moses prayed, or did God show Moses how much God had changed him?

As Christians, we face the same test as Moses. Will we love God’s people, and intercede for them, even though they are stubborn, unfaithful, and sinful? Or will we be swayed by the temptation to believe that we can do better than the people God has gathered and called the Church?

For me, I know the answer. The tests in my life have shown that I am stubborn, unfaithful, and sinful. And yet, despite repeated failures amid occasional success, God still loves me. May I have grace to love and serve his people as he does.

Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009

2009-03-03T06:28:00.002-06:00

Some of us have a tendency to believe that actions don’t have consequences. Unfortunately I am one of those people. My mind says things like “Sure I can stay up and finish this movie. I won’t feel too tired tomorrow.” Or “Hey another serving of dessert won’t hurt, I’m sure I’ll burn it off tomorrow.” Folks in Twelve Step groups have a word to describe that type of thinking and subsequent behavior. We call it denial.

Isaac Newton codified the law of consequences in the physical world. His third law of motion states “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.”

Newton’s third law applied to physics, but the same principle holds true in other areas. What I do or don’t do results in an effect in the physical and emotional world, and yes, in the spiritual world.

All three lessons in the daily lectionary today warn that certain behaviors damage and harm, and can even destroy our relationship with God.

People like me tend to minimize the warnings. “Oh well if I do this, God will forgive me, he always does.”

The truth is that God will forgive me. But what I fail to see is that if I persist in certain activities, there will come a day when I prefer my sins so much I won’t want forgiveness anymore.

And who knows what I will miss while I am indulging myself? Years ago, when I was actively getting high, I came home late one night. I discovered that I had missed a birthday party for one of my siblings. I’d promised to be there. Instead, I had gone with a friend, scored drugs, and forgot the event and my promise.

My brother forgave me. One would wish that because of my gratitude at that forgiveness my life changed. It did not. In fact the shame made me decide to go out and get high again!

Fortunately, eventually God mercifully brought me to a place where I wanted God’s help and health more than anything else. Through the help of many people I began to move from death to life.

May God give me grace to continue to want him more than anything else.

Monday, March 2nd, 2009

2009-03-02T07:41:00.000-06:00

Deuteronomy 8:11-18
Deuteronomy 8: “18But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today. 19If you do forget the LORD your God and follow other gods to serve and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish.”

I had picked up our guests from Texas A & M International University that afternoon. Both men were from Korea and were part of a Fulbright Scholars teacher exchange program. While living with Anne and I the next two weeks, they were to be in various schools learning and observing how our local schools offered English instruction, and they were to share some of the cultural wealth of Korea with their host schools.

As we were headed home, I was working hard to listen and to understand, since their English was somewhat accented. But while concentrating on their speech, I neglected to focus on the road sign that warned me that the speed was going to go from 45 miles per hour to 30 miles per hour.

Our guests got a lesson in me trying to persuade the law enforcement officer to give me a warning rather than the $200 plus ticket that I wound up with.

In Deuteronomy, Moses warns people that not paying attention to what God wants and to God’s commands, will begin a two fold process. First we will let the distractions of wealth and comfort creep in. Then we will begin to serve powers that the bible describes as “other Gods”. Finally if we keep on that road we will perish.

Just like traffic signs, God places warnings in our lives. He gives us a conscience, he gives us the scriptures, he gives us his Son as an example and teacher, and he gives us the Holy Spirit, to live inside of us, to bring our conscience back to life.

Lent is a time to get our eyes back on the road, to pay attention to the warning signs. What are the “other Gods” that distract me? What are the warning signs that I am not paying attention to?

My traffic ticket was actually a great gift. It was a reminder that excessive speed is dangerous. What if my distraction had resulted not in just missing the sign, but an accident?

Just like traffic warnings are meant to protect us and others from harm, so too are God’s warnings meant to keep us healthy and safe.

1st Sunday in Lent, March 1, 2009

2009-03-01T07:13:00.000-06:00

Mark 1: 9At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."

The call came in one morning. My secretary said someone had asked if they could talk to the pastor about baptism.

I got mentally prepared to tell the person that yes I would love to baptize their child, but no we could not do so unless they were willing to start coming to church. After all, when you baptize a child or an infant, the parents and godparents promise to raise the child within the Christian community, teaching them to attend worship, to become an integral part of the Body of Christ.

So, getting my mental script ready I took the call.

A friendly male voice was on the other line. "You don’t know me" he said, "but you do know people I know. I live near the East Coast, but I am coming to Piedras Negras, Coahuila in about a month and a half and I would like to see if you would be willing to baptize me."

I threw away my mental script.

After a few moments of conversation I discovered that “Frank” came from a faith background that was not Christian. However a year earlier he’d come down with a friend to help on a veterinary mission trip that was working with a wonderful ministry in Piedras Negras called Constructores Para Cristo.

As the conversation unfolded, “Frank” told me that he’d enjoyed the trip very much. He’d gone back to his home city and thought a great deal about his time there. A few weeks later, he’d run across a book of apocalyptic Christian fiction. On a whim he’d decided to read it.

While reading it, he became convinced that Jesus was really the Son of God. That Sunday, he went with his wife, who was a Christian, to her Episcopal Church. After church he spoke with the rector.

Following a brief conversation, “Frank” prayed, asking for his sins to be forgiven, and committing himself to Jesus as Lord. Then the rector said, “Now Frank, you need to be baptized.”

Frank asked the rector if it might be possible to get baptized in the Rio Grande in a few months time, since he was going back to work with Constructores Para Cristo. He said “It was really crossing that river that was the first step for me in this faith journey.”

A few months later, I was standing in the river, when “Frank” and his daughter, who had also become a Christian were baptized.

As I gently immersed them, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, I thought to myself about the power of the Holy Spirit, gently leading this man and his daughter to faith; about a wife and mother praying for their conversion for many years, standing smiling and weeping on the banks of the river, with a teary eyed crowd.

And I thought about Jesus, stepping into another river, many years before. As “Frank” and his daughter came up out of the water, I sensed that God was once again saying “This is my beloved son, this is my beloved daughter. I am well pleased with them.”

Friday after Ash Wednesday

2009-02-26T22:40:00.000-06:00

Titus 2:1-15
4Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, 5to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.

9Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, 10and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.

11For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 12It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, 14who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

Parts of Paul’s letter to Titus sounds dreadfully old-fashioned. Train the young women to be subject to their husbands. Teach the slaves to be good slaves.

Other parts seem profound, “We wait for the blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ….”

What do we do with this? Do we ignore it, or do we dig deeply enough to find out what kind of society Paul wanted Titus to reach?

We Americans are near sighted. We have cultural myopia. We need cultural glasses. We forget that in much of the world, men rule over women. We forget that there are probably more slaves or essentially enslaved people than at any time in that past few hundred years. What kind of missionary has any hope of reaching these peoples and bringing the good news?

Paul seems to believe that our present state, whether male or female, master or slave, is not particularly important compared to showing the power, love and attractiveness of Christ.

Does this mean that he thinks Christians should ignore inequality, injustice, oppression, sexism, and the like? Probably not, since in other writings he offers that in Christ there is neither male or female, Jew or Gentile, slave or free. And in a very personal letter, (Philemon), he urges that a slave be freed.

We have the luxury of living in a world with 2000 years of Church history, and church power. Paul was writing to people who might be executed if they raised too high a profile. Paul is writing to a new pastor, who is pastoring new believers, in a place where they are a very small minority.

Context is critical. Paul may hope for more for Titus little church. But right now he is trying to keep them growing, developing, and becoming a witness to others in their culture. Perhaps he knows that as people seek to be good and serve Jesus, that the Holy Spirit can convict, convince, and change them even more than they would believe possible.

In our own day, who are the people we must first understand culturally in order to share Christ with them? Do you pray for them? Will you pray for them? Do you ask God to transform their culture? Do you think they might see some of our culture's sicknesses and be asking God to transform us as well?

May our Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself to redeem us from all wickedness, purify us and make us a people that are his very own; eager to do what is good. Let us seek to influence others, walking by Jesus example of charity, humility, and peace. Amen.

Thursday after Ash Wednesday

2009-02-26T07:14:00.000-06:00

"Remember that you are but dust, and to dust you shall return."

I had the privilege of being with a parishioner at a funeral home yesterday. It was a reminder that Ash Wednesday, the day we discover that we are but dust, comes to all of us.

Later, before the final Ash Wednesday service, while I was sitting, trying to prepare myself I read this in the 5th Chapter of 2nd Corinthians, the chapter that precedes yesterday's Ash Wednesday reading.

2 Corinthians 5:1-3
" ¹Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. ²Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, ³because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. ⁴For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. ⁵Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. "

I love the image of my body as a tent. I have an old tent in the garage. It still works, but it shows lots of wear, and there will be a day when it can no longer hold anyone.

My body will someday no longer be able to hold me. At that point St. Paul says I will get a body that has been shaped to live in the continuous presence of the living God.

So, what do I do with the tent I live in now? Do I leave my trash on the tent floor, do I relieve myself in the tent, do I let the dirt and grime accumulate? Or do I sweep the tent, throw away the trash, and cleanse myself?

Lent is the chance to come clean. A chance to confess to God, and perhaps to our priest, to a 12 step sponsor, to a trusted confidant, our sins, seeking pardon from God, and amendment of life.

While we have these old tents, let's use this Lent to sweep them clean.

Finally, let's remember that we have a guest who lives in this tent with us, and that our guest is with us wherever we are. Paul says the Holy Spirit is the guarantee of our heavenly dwelling. He means that Holy Spirit came into us when we were baptized, when we accepted Christ, and that He is with us. So when we get ready to clean the tent, we have a partner who will help, who will show us what to throw away, and give us the strength to do so.

Come Holy Ghost and help me sweep this old tent. Blow new life in through the window and the door flaps. And when this old tent fall apart, carry me to that new land. Amen.