The General Convention of the Episcopal Church is meeting in Anaheim CA for 2 weeks. Periodically I will cut and paste some testimony or news coming out of the Convention. Below is something I received through the Episcopal Peace Fellowship today the "Catherine" who is speaking is not me. If only I could be that eloquent:
Episcopal News Service today reports testimony is overwhelmingly in favor of moving beyond B033 with new legislation.
A YAP Speaks:
Resolution C028 (or: Weddings and Wakes)
On Thursday afternoon, I testified before the Liturgy Committee in favor of Resolution C028, which would direct the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music to prepare additional, gender-neutral Book of Common Prayer rites for the celebration and blessing of marriage. My thoughts went roughly like this:
I am a proud Episcopalian, and I am also proud to announce my recent engagement to my partner of five years. We've set the date for 2011, and we want to be married in the Church we love - so, members of the committee, I'm counting on you.
I come from a sprawling Irish Catholic clan, for whom Vatican II is still a radical concept. My family has always treated my partner and me kindly, but with caution and restraint, and this is what I expected when I told them I was engaged. I did not expect my many cousins and aunts to greet the news with an outpouring of joy, but to my astonishment and delight, that is exactly what they did. Finally, I figured it out: They may not understand my sexuality, but they do understand weddings - and this, I think, is the critical lesson to our communion of believers.
I ask you today to submit yourselves to that same startling joy. Marriage is a good thing. It's a sacrament, a blessing, and a cause for celebration, and I believe opening its doors will draw our church together, not tear it apart.
Remember, I'm an old Irish Catholic - we party hardest at weddings and wakes. Please make this decision in time for my wedding, rather than my wake. Thank you.
Catherine
Friday, July 10, 2009
Monday, June 15, 2009
The Parable: Cracked Open
Sermon Preached on Sunday June 14, 2009
Parables as Jerome Berryman, the creator of Godly Play our church school curriculum says, are difficult to engage and we need to be ready for them. You see parables, when we’re ready to hear and explore them usually tell us just what we need to hear.
Parables are, at their core, morality tales which are dynamic stories, designed for us to re-visit again and again, each time taking a little something else out of them, something different, something more. What we need to hear, not necessarily what we want to hear. Oftentimes they remain closed to us, inexplicable, meaning nothing more than what the story says on the surface---regardless of how hard we try we don’t get it, the insight they’re designed to engender just doesn’t happen. Jesus encountered that a lot as he exclaims, “you mean you still don’t get it?” It’s not uncommon to stay on the top layer of the parable and move on, none the richer for it.
This week I was staying on the surface of the Gospel, ready to preach a fairly typical sermon about how the kingdom of heaven, God’s grace if you will, is like the mustard tree—a large shrub spreading all over and when its gained a foothold? Impossible to move.
But just as Berryman says in Godly Play, sometimes parables crack open and surprise us.
The seeds described in today’s parable, the growing and the mustard are pretty persistent—we’re told the growing seed sprouts and grows without the planter doing anything ---he sleeps through the whole process, and the mustard seed, smallest of all the seeds sown grows into the largest shrub on earth. These seeds have odds stacked against them, yet they prevail, they prevail because they are fed by a faith in God which creates things far beyond our wildest imaginings.
The odds, at times, seem stacked against us. The economy is terrible and our cathedral resources are strapped—we are really hurting. But if something so small, can grow into something so great then what’s stopping us from taking the seeds of our declining Cathedral resources and planting them, nurturing them and watching them grow into something greater than we could ever imagine?
Times are tough, our pledge income is down, our endowment is down, our loose offering receipts are down. Just this week we said good bye to our Cathedral Secretary her job eliminated due to budget constraints. The need in this City is great—the hungry, the homeless, the illiterate, the drug addicted, the mentally ill---there is a steady stream of need knocking on our Cathedral doors. If we can’t balance our budget how will we ever meet the increasing need of the world?
BUT, our donations to the food pantry are up, the Liberian community will graduate 60% more of their high school seniors this year than last, due in large part to the tutoring program we host ,my email request for some help with a Burmese refugee family has rendered very positive response—in the midst of deprivation and decline we have these bright spots.
Some small actions on the part of several of you does make a big difference. And right there---that’s the parable of the mustard seed … even though our financial situation feels weak what we’re able to piece together continually grows into something bigger and stronger than we, individually can imagine. That’s the lesson: each of us here has something we can give and we should for even if it seems meager, joined with others through faith it will grow into something much stronger.
Each of us sitting here today is gaining something by being here. Likewise, each of us here today is responsible for this place—the building, the worship and most importantly each of us sitting here today is responsible for the Word of God, as given to us through the love of Holy and Undivided Trinity. This love, and our work in its name, is what we are all about. Whether it’s giving a world class music education free of charge to children, whether it’s preserving a national historic landmark –a building which draws people in through its sheer beauty, whether it’s offering our space to refugees desperately trying to make a new life in the United States, whether it’s protecting people from the changes and chances of this life through the work of our Hunger Outreach committee---food for the hungry, clothes for the naked, housing for the homeless--or showing a four year old through Godly Play what the great stories of the Bible mean in our daily lives, our ministries at this Cathedral spread the Good News of Christ .
This place and you its people provide, like the mustard tree, a place of healing hope and hospitality to the world. I know it is scary right now and I know it is easy to cut your pledge ---or to not pledge at all—thinking that someone else will pay the bill---but that’s not how it works.
One big seed doesn’t grow into a beautiful house of worship, a variety of ministries to serve the world, a wonderful music program and glorious liturgies. No this place, and all that we do in its name, is sown through the individual seeds of each of us. A dollar here, a dollar there, teaching when asked, hosting when asked, helping when asked---these are the seeds of our faith and when sown together they grow into something more magnificent than we could ever imagine, something more stupendous than we could ever do alone.
In the words of the grace ending Morning Prayer (BCP page 102) remember:
Glory to God whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.
Just like the Mustard Seed.
Amen.
Parables as Jerome Berryman, the creator of Godly Play our church school curriculum says, are difficult to engage and we need to be ready for them. You see parables, when we’re ready to hear and explore them usually tell us just what we need to hear.
Parables are, at their core, morality tales which are dynamic stories, designed for us to re-visit again and again, each time taking a little something else out of them, something different, something more. What we need to hear, not necessarily what we want to hear. Oftentimes they remain closed to us, inexplicable, meaning nothing more than what the story says on the surface---regardless of how hard we try we don’t get it, the insight they’re designed to engender just doesn’t happen. Jesus encountered that a lot as he exclaims, “you mean you still don’t get it?” It’s not uncommon to stay on the top layer of the parable and move on, none the richer for it.
This week I was staying on the surface of the Gospel, ready to preach a fairly typical sermon about how the kingdom of heaven, God’s grace if you will, is like the mustard tree—a large shrub spreading all over and when its gained a foothold? Impossible to move.
But just as Berryman says in Godly Play, sometimes parables crack open and surprise us.
The seeds described in today’s parable, the growing and the mustard are pretty persistent—we’re told the growing seed sprouts and grows without the planter doing anything ---he sleeps through the whole process, and the mustard seed, smallest of all the seeds sown grows into the largest shrub on earth. These seeds have odds stacked against them, yet they prevail, they prevail because they are fed by a faith in God which creates things far beyond our wildest imaginings.
The odds, at times, seem stacked against us. The economy is terrible and our cathedral resources are strapped—we are really hurting. But if something so small, can grow into something so great then what’s stopping us from taking the seeds of our declining Cathedral resources and planting them, nurturing them and watching them grow into something greater than we could ever imagine?
Times are tough, our pledge income is down, our endowment is down, our loose offering receipts are down. Just this week we said good bye to our Cathedral Secretary her job eliminated due to budget constraints. The need in this City is great—the hungry, the homeless, the illiterate, the drug addicted, the mentally ill---there is a steady stream of need knocking on our Cathedral doors. If we can’t balance our budget how will we ever meet the increasing need of the world?
BUT, our donations to the food pantry are up, the Liberian community will graduate 60% more of their high school seniors this year than last, due in large part to the tutoring program we host ,my email request for some help with a Burmese refugee family has rendered very positive response—in the midst of deprivation and decline we have these bright spots.
Some small actions on the part of several of you does make a big difference. And right there---that’s the parable of the mustard seed … even though our financial situation feels weak what we’re able to piece together continually grows into something bigger and stronger than we, individually can imagine. That’s the lesson: each of us here has something we can give and we should for even if it seems meager, joined with others through faith it will grow into something much stronger.
Each of us sitting here today is gaining something by being here. Likewise, each of us here today is responsible for this place—the building, the worship and most importantly each of us sitting here today is responsible for the Word of God, as given to us through the love of Holy and Undivided Trinity. This love, and our work in its name, is what we are all about. Whether it’s giving a world class music education free of charge to children, whether it’s preserving a national historic landmark –a building which draws people in through its sheer beauty, whether it’s offering our space to refugees desperately trying to make a new life in the United States, whether it’s protecting people from the changes and chances of this life through the work of our Hunger Outreach committee---food for the hungry, clothes for the naked, housing for the homeless--or showing a four year old through Godly Play what the great stories of the Bible mean in our daily lives, our ministries at this Cathedral spread the Good News of Christ .
This place and you its people provide, like the mustard tree, a place of healing hope and hospitality to the world. I know it is scary right now and I know it is easy to cut your pledge ---or to not pledge at all—thinking that someone else will pay the bill---but that’s not how it works.
One big seed doesn’t grow into a beautiful house of worship, a variety of ministries to serve the world, a wonderful music program and glorious liturgies. No this place, and all that we do in its name, is sown through the individual seeds of each of us. A dollar here, a dollar there, teaching when asked, hosting when asked, helping when asked---these are the seeds of our faith and when sown together they grow into something more magnificent than we could ever imagine, something more stupendous than we could ever do alone.
In the words of the grace ending Morning Prayer (BCP page 102) remember:
Glory to God whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.
Just like the Mustard Seed.
Amen.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
And Then A Miracle Happens
Sermon preached at St. Paul's Cathedral, Trinity Sunday, Yr B
+
One of my favorite comic strips is The Far Side. One of the best shows a man resembling Albert Einstein standing in front of a blackboard upon which is diagramed some complex equation divided into three steps. Under the heading Step One are scribbles numbers and equations; likewise, Step Three, at the other end of the board, has similar markings. But under step Two, right in the middle of board are just five words: “And Then a Miracle Happens.” I love it----the notion that something so intriguing, an idea so historic, a formula which explains so much…could be boiled down to a “and then a miracle happens,’ is funny…and refreshing.
I empathize with the Einstein figure—how hard it is to explain something which seems so logical to you, yet it is so difficult to convey. No doubt the real Einstein had times when he wished he could just use Step Two! At times what we know so clearly deep inside is almost impossible to put into words.
It’s the same with certain Christian doctrines...the incarnation, resurrection, ascension, the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and The Trinity. No doubt the Bishops in Nicaea at the fourth century council which gave us the doctrine of the Holy Trinity struggled mightily to find the words to describe our faith. Words we recite each week in our Creed, words which, to this day, cause a lot of consternation both within Christianity and beyond.
Let’s face it, it can be very difficult to explain our faith to another. Just because we have experienced it doesn’t mean we understand it. It can be so big and overwhelming that words fail us and we end up with “Step 2:” and then a miracle happens!
Jesus may have felt the same way speaking to Nicodemus…Nicodemus, you see, wasn’t thinking BIG enough, he was so constrained by his adherence to the law and to the ways things had “always been done” that he couldn’t open himself up to understand the full magnitude of what he was experiencing through the ministry of Jesus. Nicodemus, a Pharisee had been raised to follow the rules—rules designed to please Yahweh a distant, all powerful loving yet also wrathful God. But being pleased isn’t God’s ultimate goal--
God’s ultimate goal is to be in relationship with us. Through the ages of prophets, patriarchs and matriarchs God has been trying to reach us—to connect with us. God wants to experience us and God wants us to experience God.
This is the purpose of the Trinity: God in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit gives God various routes to us and we, in turn gain various routes to God. A roadmap of sorts*.
The Trinity gives us, and God, a variety of ways to communicate, to connect, to relate.
Some of us connect to the parental “Father God” because we have caring nurturing parents or we long to have a caring nurturing parent---either way, for some of us the image of God as parent, as Father/Mother is comforting.
For others, the fleshy God, the incarnate word of Jesus is an easier image to connect with---a friend, a companion someone more accessible, more real, more tangible for us.
For others, there’s a sense that God is all in all—everywhere, in all things, of all things and deep within us experienced as intuition, inner voice etc. The Holy Spirit, while not physically present, is deep within us, expressing itself in our innermost thoughts, our soul searching and our heart’s desire.
Our heart’s desire, when we let ourselves feel it, is to receive God’s love, to accept God’s pursuit of us. The Holy Trinity comes for us in a number of ways because, beyond all human reason or reckoning, God wants to reach us!
When Jesus says in today’s Gospel “the wind blows where it chooses” I see an image of God in the person of the Holy Spirit, seeking us out reaching into the recesses of our hiding places to offer to us what God most wants to give: Love.
That’s the real miracle of our Christian faith: God so loves us, so wishes for us to accept that love, that God continues to come after us—as we heard in the Gospel: God so loved the world he gave his only Son (John 3:16)- his incarnate self to see and touch and taste that love, God gave us his eternal and all encompassing self, the Holy Spirit, to course through our very being at all times and in all places. This is a miracle indeed…and one we are called to proclaim…if only we could find the right words!
The three persons of the Trinity are traditionally described as Father Son and Holy Spirit but others prefer: Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier or: Artist, Rescuer, Companion and many other permutations to numerous to mention here. It is a challenge to find the right words to describe the mesmerizing, fantastic and most amazing experience of God working in our lives. This struggle continues to this day—not because God is elusive, but because God is so big, so ever-present that language proves insufficient in describing it.
That is why this Cathedral, each Sunday, offers three distinct liturgies utilizing various styles to express our love of God and God’s love for us.
In the course of 4 hours we in-- three distinct ways---proclaim the Glory of God. We do this because as Jesus explained to Nicodemus: We speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen….and what we know and what we have seen of God is so huge and so varied we must use a variety of words and images to express it. And that’s ok, because it doesn’t matter so much how we say it. What matters is that we experience it; that we delve into a relationship with God dying to our limited human roadmap, allowing ourselves to be reborn into the life of “And then a Miracle Happens”---the Holy and Undivided Trinity, One God Creator Redeemer, Sustainer, Artist Rescuer Companion, Father Son and Holy Spirit.
Amen.
*CS Lewis Mere Christianity considers the doctrines of Christianity to be roadmaps to reality
+
One of my favorite comic strips is The Far Side. One of the best shows a man resembling Albert Einstein standing in front of a blackboard upon which is diagramed some complex equation divided into three steps. Under the heading Step One are scribbles numbers and equations; likewise, Step Three, at the other end of the board, has similar markings. But under step Two, right in the middle of board are just five words: “And Then a Miracle Happens.” I love it----the notion that something so intriguing, an idea so historic, a formula which explains so much…could be boiled down to a “and then a miracle happens,’ is funny…and refreshing.
I empathize with the Einstein figure—how hard it is to explain something which seems so logical to you, yet it is so difficult to convey. No doubt the real Einstein had times when he wished he could just use Step Two! At times what we know so clearly deep inside is almost impossible to put into words.
It’s the same with certain Christian doctrines...the incarnation, resurrection, ascension, the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and The Trinity. No doubt the Bishops in Nicaea at the fourth century council which gave us the doctrine of the Holy Trinity struggled mightily to find the words to describe our faith. Words we recite each week in our Creed, words which, to this day, cause a lot of consternation both within Christianity and beyond.
Let’s face it, it can be very difficult to explain our faith to another. Just because we have experienced it doesn’t mean we understand it. It can be so big and overwhelming that words fail us and we end up with “Step 2:” and then a miracle happens!
Jesus may have felt the same way speaking to Nicodemus…Nicodemus, you see, wasn’t thinking BIG enough, he was so constrained by his adherence to the law and to the ways things had “always been done” that he couldn’t open himself up to understand the full magnitude of what he was experiencing through the ministry of Jesus. Nicodemus, a Pharisee had been raised to follow the rules—rules designed to please Yahweh a distant, all powerful loving yet also wrathful God. But being pleased isn’t God’s ultimate goal--
God’s ultimate goal is to be in relationship with us. Through the ages of prophets, patriarchs and matriarchs God has been trying to reach us—to connect with us. God wants to experience us and God wants us to experience God.
This is the purpose of the Trinity: God in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit gives God various routes to us and we, in turn gain various routes to God. A roadmap of sorts*.
The Trinity gives us, and God, a variety of ways to communicate, to connect, to relate.
Some of us connect to the parental “Father God” because we have caring nurturing parents or we long to have a caring nurturing parent---either way, for some of us the image of God as parent, as Father/Mother is comforting.
For others, the fleshy God, the incarnate word of Jesus is an easier image to connect with---a friend, a companion someone more accessible, more real, more tangible for us.
For others, there’s a sense that God is all in all—everywhere, in all things, of all things and deep within us experienced as intuition, inner voice etc. The Holy Spirit, while not physically present, is deep within us, expressing itself in our innermost thoughts, our soul searching and our heart’s desire.
Our heart’s desire, when we let ourselves feel it, is to receive God’s love, to accept God’s pursuit of us. The Holy Trinity comes for us in a number of ways because, beyond all human reason or reckoning, God wants to reach us!
When Jesus says in today’s Gospel “the wind blows where it chooses” I see an image of God in the person of the Holy Spirit, seeking us out reaching into the recesses of our hiding places to offer to us what God most wants to give: Love.
That’s the real miracle of our Christian faith: God so loves us, so wishes for us to accept that love, that God continues to come after us—as we heard in the Gospel: God so loved the world he gave his only Son (John 3:16)- his incarnate self to see and touch and taste that love, God gave us his eternal and all encompassing self, the Holy Spirit, to course through our very being at all times and in all places. This is a miracle indeed…and one we are called to proclaim…if only we could find the right words!
The three persons of the Trinity are traditionally described as Father Son and Holy Spirit but others prefer: Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier or: Artist, Rescuer, Companion and many other permutations to numerous to mention here. It is a challenge to find the right words to describe the mesmerizing, fantastic and most amazing experience of God working in our lives. This struggle continues to this day—not because God is elusive, but because God is so big, so ever-present that language proves insufficient in describing it.
That is why this Cathedral, each Sunday, offers three distinct liturgies utilizing various styles to express our love of God and God’s love for us.
In the course of 4 hours we in-- three distinct ways---proclaim the Glory of God. We do this because as Jesus explained to Nicodemus: We speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen….and what we know and what we have seen of God is so huge and so varied we must use a variety of words and images to express it. And that’s ok, because it doesn’t matter so much how we say it. What matters is that we experience it; that we delve into a relationship with God dying to our limited human roadmap, allowing ourselves to be reborn into the life of “And then a Miracle Happens”---the Holy and Undivided Trinity, One God Creator Redeemer, Sustainer, Artist Rescuer Companion, Father Son and Holy Spirit.
Amen.
*CS Lewis Mere Christianity considers the doctrines of Christianity to be roadmaps to reality
Saturday, May 30, 2009
The Descent of the Holy Spirit Gives us Life
Tomorrow is Pentecost, when we remember the moment Christ, sitting at the right hand of God sends the Holy Spirit to fill us, lift us, inspire us, guide us, and at times carry us. We wear red and celebrate the birth of the church, the occasion of us being given the tool needed to carry on and to do God's will in all that we do. Tomorrow, we will welcome the newest member of the Church of God, Jaiden Cooper as he is baptized at the 11:15 Eucharist. At both 9 and 11:15 everyone will be offered a red balloon to carry in procession and hold throughout the day as we welcome the tongues of fire brought to inflame our hearts minds and souls. It is a GRAND day in the church and I hope as many of you as possible will join us. The Holy Spirit is our lifeblood, the Holy Spirit is the person of the Trinity who fills us, leads us and follows us. If we let the Holy Spirit have room and if we listen carefully for her direction, her nudging, we will know peace.
Tomorrow we will also recognize our Sunday School teachers and later in the day we'll bid the program a year a final adieu with the annual choir banquet (you don't want to miss the skit---Mother Liza and Mr Bruns in a Name that Hymn contest orchestrated by Ms Rockwood and Mother Cathy.
Tomorrow we will also recognize our Sunday School teachers and later in the day we'll bid the program a year a final adieu with the annual choir banquet (you don't want to miss the skit---Mother Liza and Mr Bruns in a Name that Hymn contest orchestrated by Ms Rockwood and Mother Cathy.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
'Calgon Don't Take Me Away"
Sermon preached at St. Paul's Cathedral, Buffalo NY 24 May 2009
+ “Calgon take me away” That is my sister Anne’s favorite saying when life gets too hectic and she’s feeling stressed. Remember that ad campaign from the 1980’s? A harried woman busy at work and at home, she would , at the end of the day finally achieve some sense of peace through the tranquility and solitude of a Calgon bath.
Calgon take me away was a promise of relief from the world, a respite, an escape.
We all have times when the world becomes too much for us and we just want to escape for a while. Bubble baths, vacations, zoning out in front of the computer or the TV, taking a long walk in the woods or along the waterfront, a bike ride through Delaware Park—these are all ways we escape the stress of the world. During the everyday world of our lives, at our jobs, in our classrooms, doing the mundane tasks of housework, yard work etc. don’t we yearn for, dream of and hope for the time of escape—a reprieve from the daily grind of the world? But can we ever find complete escape? We have a respite here and there, get re-charged, revitalized, but it always comes back to the same routine, and soon we find ourselves longing to be taken away again, be it via a Calgon bath or something else. We spend a lot of time trying to divide our lives—separate the necessary drudgery of day to day life from the joy of respite, of vacation, of the weekend.
Today’s reading from John is called Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer. In it Jesus is asking God to help us be in the world, but not of the world. To help us keep our focus on all God has given us, as opposed to focusing on all those earthly items we think we need---commodities vs. love, things vs grace. Jesus knew that we, in our humanity are drawn to things we can earn all the stuff we can acquire, instead of accepting all that is simply given to us.
He prays that God will help all of us see that it is US who make this world so tough. It is us who allow our existence to be divided between drudgery and joy. Yes this world does have temptations, responsibilities and duties which can drain us, distract us and lead us down an unfulfilling path, but the answer is not to leave the world, the answer is to be in the world to be fully in the world and to gather our strength, to refresh ourselves, through the love of God as shown to us in the person of Jesus. How do we do that? How do we stay in the world yet hold onto our faith? Especially when Jesus, our great high priest has just left this world, ascended to be at his Father’s right hand.
At this point in the church year we are in what anthropologists call a liminal state—we are betwixt and between. Right now we are between the glorious miracle of resurrection and the sustaining power of the Holy Spirit. The temporal example of death’s defeat at the hands of the resurrected one has given way to a less concrete guide---Jesus has left us with a promise, a promise that we’ll always have an advocate that if we’re patient and trusting the advocate will come in the form of the Holy Spirit—who is offered as guide, as respite, as hope as re-assurer.
How easy it is, during these in between days to long for the world as it was before---when Jesus was still here, when his wounds were in front of us when the miracle was something to be seen—making it much easier to believe. When the challenge, temptations and struggles of this world could be ignored, could be refused could be run from because we could turn to the Risen One, we could turn to the person of the Resurrected Jesus and he would tell us what to do and where to go.
A time when we didn’t need to rely on each other or on ourselves. A time when Jesus would be there—right there—to guide and direct us until we are finally through with this world and on to the next.
But you see, that’s what Jesus is trying to explain in today’s Gospel-- Calgon doesn’t need to take us away, we need to plunge into the world armed with the love of God as given to us in the person of Jesus, not to endure the world, but to improve the world. Not to deny the world, but to embrace the world, not to wait for the last day when all will be ok, but to live fully into today where we celebrate the gift of life given to each of us at our birth and renewed in each one of us as we come to the altar as a community of faith, eager to be fed.
That’s the point of Jesus’ prayer as heard today---he prays that we will learn from him and be fortified through the love of God so that our presence in the world will help creation not hinder it. Jesus wants us to be instruments of God’s love. Right here on earth. Our job is not to endure this life but to enhance this life. Our job isn’t to bide our time until the last day. We needn’t look for respite or escape. We need to simply practice our faith. Our job is to go forth into the world rejoicing in the power of God’s immeasurable love for us. In this time between Ascension and Pentecost, in between our daily grind and our peaceful vacation respite we are to live into the world and to bring to all those we encounter the peace and love of God, which surpasses all understanding. We can offer the world an eternal respite, something which lasts longer than a bubble bath, provides rest never attainable on a two week cruise, we offer the world what is promised us each week as we are invited to communion: The Gifts of God.
For together we are the people of God. +
+ “Calgon take me away” That is my sister Anne’s favorite saying when life gets too hectic and she’s feeling stressed. Remember that ad campaign from the 1980’s? A harried woman busy at work and at home, she would , at the end of the day finally achieve some sense of peace through the tranquility and solitude of a Calgon bath.
Calgon take me away was a promise of relief from the world, a respite, an escape.
We all have times when the world becomes too much for us and we just want to escape for a while. Bubble baths, vacations, zoning out in front of the computer or the TV, taking a long walk in the woods or along the waterfront, a bike ride through Delaware Park—these are all ways we escape the stress of the world. During the everyday world of our lives, at our jobs, in our classrooms, doing the mundane tasks of housework, yard work etc. don’t we yearn for, dream of and hope for the time of escape—a reprieve from the daily grind of the world? But can we ever find complete escape? We have a respite here and there, get re-charged, revitalized, but it always comes back to the same routine, and soon we find ourselves longing to be taken away again, be it via a Calgon bath or something else. We spend a lot of time trying to divide our lives—separate the necessary drudgery of day to day life from the joy of respite, of vacation, of the weekend.
Today’s reading from John is called Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer. In it Jesus is asking God to help us be in the world, but not of the world. To help us keep our focus on all God has given us, as opposed to focusing on all those earthly items we think we need---commodities vs. love, things vs grace. Jesus knew that we, in our humanity are drawn to things we can earn all the stuff we can acquire, instead of accepting all that is simply given to us.
He prays that God will help all of us see that it is US who make this world so tough. It is us who allow our existence to be divided between drudgery and joy. Yes this world does have temptations, responsibilities and duties which can drain us, distract us and lead us down an unfulfilling path, but the answer is not to leave the world, the answer is to be in the world to be fully in the world and to gather our strength, to refresh ourselves, through the love of God as shown to us in the person of Jesus. How do we do that? How do we stay in the world yet hold onto our faith? Especially when Jesus, our great high priest has just left this world, ascended to be at his Father’s right hand.
At this point in the church year we are in what anthropologists call a liminal state—we are betwixt and between. Right now we are between the glorious miracle of resurrection and the sustaining power of the Holy Spirit. The temporal example of death’s defeat at the hands of the resurrected one has given way to a less concrete guide---Jesus has left us with a promise, a promise that we’ll always have an advocate that if we’re patient and trusting the advocate will come in the form of the Holy Spirit—who is offered as guide, as respite, as hope as re-assurer.
How easy it is, during these in between days to long for the world as it was before---when Jesus was still here, when his wounds were in front of us when the miracle was something to be seen—making it much easier to believe. When the challenge, temptations and struggles of this world could be ignored, could be refused could be run from because we could turn to the Risen One, we could turn to the person of the Resurrected Jesus and he would tell us what to do and where to go.
A time when we didn’t need to rely on each other or on ourselves. A time when Jesus would be there—right there—to guide and direct us until we are finally through with this world and on to the next.
But you see, that’s what Jesus is trying to explain in today’s Gospel-- Calgon doesn’t need to take us away, we need to plunge into the world armed with the love of God as given to us in the person of Jesus, not to endure the world, but to improve the world. Not to deny the world, but to embrace the world, not to wait for the last day when all will be ok, but to live fully into today where we celebrate the gift of life given to each of us at our birth and renewed in each one of us as we come to the altar as a community of faith, eager to be fed.
That’s the point of Jesus’ prayer as heard today---he prays that we will learn from him and be fortified through the love of God so that our presence in the world will help creation not hinder it. Jesus wants us to be instruments of God’s love. Right here on earth. Our job is not to endure this life but to enhance this life. Our job isn’t to bide our time until the last day. We needn’t look for respite or escape. We need to simply practice our faith. Our job is to go forth into the world rejoicing in the power of God’s immeasurable love for us. In this time between Ascension and Pentecost, in between our daily grind and our peaceful vacation respite we are to live into the world and to bring to all those we encounter the peace and love of God, which surpasses all understanding. We can offer the world an eternal respite, something which lasts longer than a bubble bath, provides rest never attainable on a two week cruise, we offer the world what is promised us each week as we are invited to communion: The Gifts of God.
For together we are the people of God. +
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Youth Ministry
After reading a blog entry at:
http://raphael.doxos.com/2009/05/16/genx-ministry/comment-page-1/#comment-11241
I wanted to talk about youth ministry. Am I wrong to think that ministry to teens should focus on those who are no longer teens mentoring current teens? I fear that too much "youth ministry" is an attempt by people who are no longer teenagers holding onto a past which is, due to the passage of time, over.
Life is dynamic. Our job as living beings, is to move toward what's next. God's creation is a motion packed work in progress. No do-agains, no looking back...it's a movement toward the next, using the wisdom gained from what happened before to take the next step, to do the next right thing as best we can.
When given the honor of leading young people shouldn't we keep THEIR interests, THEIR goals, THEIR desires in the forefront? Not ours now and not what we wanted when we were teens? To use the teens of today to hold onto our youth is, at worst, abusive and at best, selfish.
http://raphael.doxos.com/2009/05/16/genx-ministry/comment-page-1/#comment-11241
I wanted to talk about youth ministry. Am I wrong to think that ministry to teens should focus on those who are no longer teens mentoring current teens? I fear that too much "youth ministry" is an attempt by people who are no longer teenagers holding onto a past which is, due to the passage of time, over.
Life is dynamic. Our job as living beings, is to move toward what's next. God's creation is a motion packed work in progress. No do-agains, no looking back...it's a movement toward the next, using the wisdom gained from what happened before to take the next step, to do the next right thing as best we can.
When given the honor of leading young people shouldn't we keep THEIR interests, THEIR goals, THEIR desires in the forefront? Not ours now and not what we wanted when we were teens? To use the teens of today to hold onto our youth is, at worst, abusive and at best, selfish.
Friday, May 8, 2009
NEXT YOUTH GROUP MEETING
May 17th after the Friends of Music Concert we will have a cook out and game night. OR instead of games we may need to practice our softball skills as St Martin in the Fields has a trophy which the Cathedral would dearly love to re-claim. Show up May 17th at 4:30 for more details......
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