Wednesday Word

In the first story of creation (Gen. 1:1 – 2:4a), six times God saw what was created as “good,” and once God sees that everything created was “very good.”

I think about this every so often, especially when something doesn't go as expected or as I had planned (primarily in the case of worship services).

This coming Sunday is the First Sunday after Pentecost, also known as Trinity Sunday because it is the Sunday specifically dedicated to the Holy Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  This Sunday also marks the end of what is often referred to as “Liturgical Time,” that time of year when we are focused on the events of the life of Christ: birth, baptism, preparation, death, resurrection, ascension, and the coming of the Holy Spirit.

If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained. – John 20:23

This is the final verse from the gospel reading for this upcoming Sunday.  For years I would read this passage, and this verse, and immediately think that the disciples whom Jesus is addressing, and by extension the Church, were being given the authority to pass judgment on people.  They were being given the authority to forgive sins and/or continue to use a person's sin as a form of punishment, giving this whole thing a kind of Law & Order feeling: “In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: the police, who investigate crime, and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders.”

Our vacation last week took us back to Maryland to visit good friends and spend some time with our daughter and her boyfriend.  All in all it was a good trip, and United didn't lose our luggage.

While there I had a conversation with a clergy friend of mine (a non-denominational pastor who has served several churches and now also teaches a couple of courses at the local community college) that started when he asked, “Do you ever get tired of doing this?”

In case you missed it, Joelene and I are off on vacation this week.  We left last Thursday evening and will return sometime this coming Sunday.

We pray that N. may be to us an effective example in word and action, in love and patience, and in holiness of life. – BCP 535

What does a priest do?  They write sermons.  They preside at the Eucharist.  They pray.  They anoint.  They listen.  They offer guidance.  In the ordination service (BCP 531), they are tasked with “proclaiming by word and deed the Gospel of Jesus Christ . . . to love and serve the people among whom they work, caring alike for young and old, strong and weak, rich and poor.  They are to preach, declare God's forgiveness to penitent sinners, pronounce God's blessing, and celebrate the mysteries of Christ's Body and blood” – among other things.  Another place says that the job of a priest is to “administer the saving benefits of Christ's passion through word and sacrament.”  And still another source says that the priest acts on behalf of the gathered congregation.  If you look, you can probably find other descriptions of what a priest is and does.

The gospel passage for this coming Sunday is John 10:1-10, the first half of what is known as “the Good Shepherd passage.”  It is here that Jesus talks about being the shepherd who leads his flock.  He talks about being the gate that protects the sheep.  And he describes those who try to climb into the sheepfold by another way as thieves and bandits who come to steal, kill, and destroy the sheep.  This is in direct opposition to himself who comes to give the sheep abundant life.

A church is a community that exists as, and only as, a participation in God's life-giving movement. – Anthony D. Baker, Wisdom, Knowledge, and Faith, pg. 20

The Episcopal Church hosted a Zoom seminar a few weeks ago that featured Episcopal theologians from a variety of schools and disciplines.  The seminar was not quite what I was expecting, but the various participants (and some who were not present) had written essays collected in this book.  In his essay, Baker puts forth the idea that Christian theology is “a study of motion;” that is, it's the study of our journey from and back to our home with God.

O God, whose blessed Son made himself known to his disciples in the breaking of bread: Open the eyes of our faith . . . Collect for Wednesday in Easter Week, BCP 223

The gospel appointed for this day is the story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus.  This is one of the most famous resurrection stories – two unnamed disciples are traveling to Emmaus after the crucifixion and have an encounter with the risen Christ.  They don't recognize with whom they are talking until Jesus takes bread, blesses it, and breaks it.  It's at that point that their eyes are opened.

Lord God, whose blessed Son our Savior gave his body to be whipped and his face to be spit upon: Give us grace to accept joyfully the sufferings of the present time . . . – Collect for Wednesday in Holy Week, BCP 220

What does it mean to “accept joyfully the sufferings of the present time?”  Are we asked to not complain about what we're going through?  Are we asked to lie there and take it?  Are we asked to say, “God knows best,” and give up?

Deal graciously with Daniel, Jamai, and Mackenzie in their grief.  Surround them with your love, that they may not be overwhelmed by their loss . . . – BCP 494

I use this prayer from the Burial Office to remind people attending funerals that the family members of the deceased are in the midst of grief and need support.  I also use it to remind the family of the deceased that they are being upheld in prayer and support.

I've been pondering hope lately.

Hope is one of the three theological virtues – faith, hope, and love (or charity) – as put forth by Saint Paul in his First Letter to the Corinthians.  Widely defined, hope is the desire and search for a future good that is difficult, but not impossible, to attain.  In the First Letter of Peter, we are told that the resurrection of Christ has given humanity a new birth into a living hope – that is, we now live our lives with the hope of resurrection where there is no more pain or sorrow, only life everlasting.  Our life with Christ may often be difficult – after all, Christ told us to take up our cross, not put up our hammocks and eat BonBons.  Following Christ is a difficult proposition, just ask the disciples; but it is in that following and in those difficulties of discipleship where hope flourishes.

In the Lenten devotional book, Honest to Goodness:  Discovering the Truth and Beauty of a Loving God, the topic for this Second Week of Lent is, “Dear Mortal, here's what I expect from you.”  This Second Week of Lent is all about learning and meditating on what God requires of us to uphold our end of the covenant we have entered into.

This Lent a group of us are reading Honest to Goodness: Discovering the Truth and Beauty of a Loving God.  It's a book of daily Lenten meditations focusing on “some of the most profound, surprising, and even hilarious words attributed to God.”

Ash Wednesday is the beginning of the Season of Lent, those (roughly) 40 days in which we participate in self-examination, repentance; prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and meditating on God's holy Word.

Lent begins next week with Ash Wednesday.  This is a season of penitence, self-examination, repentance, prayer, fasting, and self-denial.  In addition to fasting from certain activities or behaviors, it has become fashionable to take something on as a Lenten discipline.  This year our youth group is encouraging everyone to take on the practice of purchasing extra personal hygiene products which will then be given to the Food Pantry.

This is the second clause of our Vision Statement.  And while I think it's a good phrase, you might be wondering just how, exactly, do we do that? How do we “extend hope to all people?”

If you think about it, there are multiple ways to do this.

Holy Communion is the foretaste of the heavenly banquet.  Holy Communion is the sacred meal of bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Jesus.  As Episcopalians we do not hold that the elements of bread and wine are changed into the substance of body and blood, but we do believe that the bread and wine are substantially changed such that they are infused with the real presence of Christ’s Body and Blood through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.

Joelene and I went away this past weekend for some much needed rest and lazy time.  We made a short trip to Thermopolis where we drove through the park taking pictures of a small bison herd and drove up to Cody to visit the Buffalo Bill museum.  Tickets there are good for two days because the museum is so massive.  Unfortunately that was about all we did because we both suffered from head colds.

Joelene and I are going away this weekend for some much needed rest and lazy time.  We’re making a short trip to Thermopolis, leaving tomorrow and returning sometime Sunday afternoon.
 
I’ve spent these past few days working on my portion of Annual Meeting stuff (Reminder:  the Annual Meeting is Sunday, February 1, with 9:00 worship followed by breakfast and the meeting) and working with Monica to get the bulletins ready for this coming Sunday service.

No matter what the calendar says, it certainly doesn’t feel like Christmas – especially with temperatures running in the mid-50’s.  It may not look like a Currier & Ives postcard out there, but it’s still Christmas.

For all the Advent talk about slowing down, focusing, and breathing in an effort to appreciate the season of Advent, as well as bringing more meaning to the season of Christmas, we (I?) sure have a hard time making that happen.  Between shopping for Christmas gifts, decorating the house, planning or attending parties, writing Christmas cards, and mailing said presents and cards so they arrive “in time,” we can often forget what Advent is calling us to do.

This coming Sunday is the Third Sunday of Advent.  It is known as Gaudete Sunday, which is a Latin word meaning Rejoice.  The color of Advent is traditionally purple because it was seen as a penitential season similar to Lent – as Lent was the season of preparation for Christ’s resurrection, Advent was the season of preparation for Christ’s birth.  That penitential tone was broken up on the third Sunday when a pink/rose candle was lighted and some churches would use rose-colored vestments and hangings.  Many churches have recently switched to blue for Advent as a way to more overtly honor the role of Mary.

Advent is the season of expectation.  It is the season of active waiting.  It is the season of the already and the not yet. 
 
We live with the expectation that God’s messiah will come.  We actively wait for that time through any number of seasonal preparations such as the lighting of Advent candles or maybe through finding and participating in holy activities.  We also recognize that Christ has come and Christ will come again.

This is less of a mid-week meditation and more of a mid-week infomercial (of sorts).
 
For the past two years I have been involved with a program that connects clergy in somewhat similar settings around the country to discuss common issues.  Over those two years I've gotten to know the participants fairly well, or as well as you can through once-a-month Zoom meetings.

With the Twelfth Night Party on Monday, the Twelve Days of Christmas officially came to a close.  Those who gathered celebrated with good food and a lively gift/theft exchange.

 
Yesterday we celebrated the Feast of the Epiphany, also called The Manifestation of Our Lord Jesus Christ to the Gentiles.  This is the day when the Church remembers and celebrates the arrival of magi (of an unknown number) from the east who journeyed to Bethlehem and presented gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

All good gifts around us are sent from heaven above . . . Hymn 291
 
Yesterday Marilyn oversaw a group of cooks that included Dollie, Kim, Mildred, and Nikki, as they put together several lasagnas (16 to be exact) for the Surprise You Sale on December 6.  If I remember right, last year was the first year that people could purchase and take a lasagna home.  It was such a success that they’re doing it again this year.

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down . . .
 
This past Monday was the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior.  Yesterday was Veteran’s Day, originally designated as Armistice Day to remember the end of WWI and those who served in that war and was then changed to Remembrance Day in other countries to remember all men and women who served in the military.  And, of course, November 2 was All Saints’ Sunday when we remembered all the saints of God.

Nobody gets out of here alive.
 
Over the last few days I’ve been thinking a lot about death.  Last weekend was the triduum of All Hallows’ Eve, All Saints’ Day, and All Faithful Departed (or Day of the Dead).  On Saturday afternoon I attended a gathering sponsored by Hospice advertised as a “Death Café,” where people come to discuss death and dying.  Later that evening I got a call from Mary Fowlkes’ daughter-in-law saying she had taken a turn for the worse, and I’ve been to Amie Holt each day to check in on her and pray with her.  Sunday we commemorated All Saints’ and All Faithful Departed where I read the names of those who have died this past year at the beginning of the liturgy and which included the baptism of the perfectly adorable Astrid Grant.

One of the things I like about the Episcopal church is that we’re okay living into and with mystery.  And when I say, “mystery,” I’m not talking about a Nancy Drew or Agatha Christie whodunit mystery to be solved.  When I talk about mystery in the church, I’m talking about “the deep dimension of life where meaning dwells.”

As Episcopalians, we believe that the Holy Eucharist is celebrated together as a community, and worship is not whole without the active contribution of every member of the congregation. – Dustin Seo, Cellist
 
I ran across this quote while reading an article by Mr. Seo entitled, “Worship as an Invitation to Belong.”  In that article he talks about church shopping, being a contract cellist for church music programs where he was seen as simply another vendor, to finally finding a church home.  He found a home in the Episcopal church through the liturgy and through the welcome and hospitality of parishioners. 

Our keynote speaker and preacher at Diocesan Convention was the Rt. Rev. Michael Hunn, Bishop of the Diocese of the Rio Grande, an area consisting of all New Mexico and southwest Texas.  During his convention talks he told stories about an old Episcopal priest who rode the trains and walked throughout the diocese meeting people, collecting funds for mission work, and establishing churches. 

A friend of mine often uses that phrase often when a coincidence, usually good, pops up.  Maybe it’s a phone call from an old friend at a particular time, or maybe it’s an unexpected flower delivery, or whatever.  There are times when we need something in our lives and what we need just happens to appear.  My friend will tell you there are no coincidences and that God is doing something remarkable

This past Monday was the feast day of Saint Michael and All Angels.  Angels play an important part of our Christian faith, even though we may not recognize that in today’s world.

Wednesday Word . . . Soul Shop
Today is the Soul Shop workshop on suicide prevention and awareness.

The most recent Confirmation class began this past Sunday.  We have six participants and I’m looking forward to exploring with them their questions about faith and life in general.

The program we are using is called Confirm Not Conform and is a new-to-me format.  In short it values questions over answers and encourages the participants to explore the faith rather than be receptors of what they must believe. 

What is a habit?  A habit is a way of doing something regularly and consistently.  It might be the route you take home or what you eat for lunch.  I remember the first time Joelene and I returned to Sheridan, MT, for a visit.  We were going to stay at a friends’ house, but when I got into town I automatically drove to our old house.  Habits.

I was thinking about liturgy yesterday as I attended the graveside service for Dave Hackert.  He was an Army vet, so there was the liturgy of the honor guard, rifles, flag folding, and presentation of the flag to his daughter.  There was the liturgy of the service which incorporated scripture, remembrances, and the obligatory, “ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”  All this got me thinking about our liturgy.

I guess it may have been about a year ago when we were working toward acquiring new hardware to enable us to stream our services.  We did some special fundraising and you may recall that a few of my former parishioners in Maryland helped us reach that goal.  When all was said and done we ended up with a system that provides a very good viewing experience for those who worship with us from different locations.

What is the mission of the Church?  The mission of the Church is to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ. – Catechism, pg. 855

Tomorrow, August 14, is the Feast Day of Jonathan Myrick Daniels.  He was a 26-year old seminarian who had gone to Alabama to help with voter registration during the Civil Rights movement.  While there, he and several others were arrested for participating in a voters’ rights demonstration.  They were released six days later, on August 20, 1965.

Generally speaking, I am not fond of surprises.  I won’t go into the psychology of why that may be, but it’s enough to know that they tend to make me nervous.  Every so often, though . . .

Last September I was in Gillette for a Soul Shop seminar.  Soul Shop is a faith-based suicide prevention/awareness program and I went to learn more about how to identify and speak to people about suicide.  I was then asked to be trained as a Soul Shop facilitator/trainer, which is what I was doing in Casper most of last week.

Last month Joelene traveled back to Maryland for the wedding of a former co-worker, to visit old friends, and to see our daughter.  While she had a good time and enjoyed catching up with people, she was also glad to be back home.

We have had a busy first few weeks of July.
 
First, we began our historical journey through the various BCP’s of the Episcopal church.  This meant putting together bulletins reflecting Holy Communion from 1798, 1892, and 1928.  It also meant moving the altar back against the reredos and modifying how the Altar Guild prepped for service.

This past Sunday was our first in the BCP series that fills our July calendar.  As you know by now, we are looking at Communion services from the 1789, 1892, 1928, and 1979 prayer books.  As we go through those services, take note of what’s familiar, what has changed, and the overall feel of each service.

Yesterday was the Feast Day of Saint John the Baptist.  In the Christian tradition, he is the last of the prophets before the arrival of Christ.  Christianity sees Jesus as the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets, and John is seen as the embodiment of the prophets pointing the way to Jesus.

Tomorrow is June 19 and the celebration of Juneteenth, which originated at the end of the Civil War.  On September 22, 1862, President Lincoln announced that the Emancipation Proclamation would go into effect on January 1, 1863.  On June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, TX, and announced the final enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation – 900 days after the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect, 71 days after Robert E. Lee surrendered, and 24 days after the Confederate army in Texas was disbanded.

This coming Sunday is Trinity Sunday.  This is the only day of the year when we specifically honor the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  And while our Collects, Creed, Prefaces, Blessings, and some other parts of the service all often reference the Holy Trinity, this is the only day specifically dedicated to our understanding of God.

Pentecost is this coming Sunday.  This is the day the Holy Spirit descended on the twelve apostles and they began speaking in other languages to all the people gathered in Jerusalem.  People had come from far and near for the Feast of Pentecost, a Jewish festival that took place fifty days after Passover to celebrate the harvest.  And on that day the people in Jerusalem heard the apostles speaking in their own languages:  Parthians, Medes, Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, and others.

Tomorrow marks 40 days after Easter and is celebrated in the Church as the Feast of the Ascension.  There is only one place in scripture where this event is told in this way – 40 days after Easter – and that is in Acts 1:1-11.  It’s in this section of Acts where we are told Jesus appeared to his disciples over the course of 40 days before ascending to heaven.

The frequency illusion, or the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, is a cognitive bias event in which a person notices a specific concept, word, or phrase more frequently after becoming recently aware of it.  For instance, if you have just discovered that a baguet is a long, narrow loaf of French bread, you might suddenly begin seeing these in bakeries where you’ve never noticed them before.

I learned a long time ago that if you start planning and organizing for Holy Week a month in advance, you’ll have all the hard work completed the week before Holy Week.  This means that all of the bulletins and supplies for Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, the Easter Vigil, and the Easter Day services are ready to go by the time you actually get to Holy Week.  Being prepared for these events is also necessary for the health and sanity of clergy, office staff, and altar guild members.

Monday I received notice that Pitchy Gammon had died.  Yesterday I was informed that Dick Naill had died.  This is shaping up to be a difficult week for Saint Luke’s.
 
I have been to my share of funerals – most have been services I officiated and fewer have been services I’ve simply attended.  Those services have ranged from very good to very bad.  It has been the bad ones that have remained in my memory as cautionary tales of how not to conduct a funeral.  Because of that I have always worked to balance the needs and desires of families with the rubrics of the BCP.

Last Friday, April 25, was the Feast of Saint Mark; but because the Easter Octave (the first eight days of Easter) takes precedence over any other feasts, his feast day was transferred to this past Monday.

Joelene and I are off on vacation this week.  We took the time to head back up to Washington to see her mom whom we haven’t seen since she made the trip out to Maryland several years ago, and I took part of that time to pop over to the west side and see my mother.  Since we drove, we were also able to visit friends in Bozeman, Spokane, and a few points in-between.

The function of freedom is to free someone else – Toni Morrison (Feb. 18, 1931 – Aug. 5, 2019)
 
I came across this quote yesterday morning while eating breakfast.  As we are in the middle of Holy Week with the Triduum beginning tomorrow evening, my first thought went to Jesus.  There are plenty of examples in Scripture claiming Jesus acted to free us from sin and death:

Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace:  So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your Name.  Amen.

O God, by the passion of your blessed Son you made an instrument of shameful death to be for us the means of life:  Grant us so to glory in the cross of Christ, that we may gladly suffer shame and loss for the sake of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Teach your Church, O Lord, to mourn the sins of which it is guilty, and to repent and forsake them; that, by your pardoning grace, the results of our iniquities may not be visited upon our children and our children’s children; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

As they led Jesus away, they came upon a man of Cyrene, Simon by name, who was coming in from the country, and laid on him the cross to carry it behind Jesus.

“As soon as it was morning, the chief priests, with the elders and scribes, and the whole council, held a consultation; and they bound Jesus and led him away and delivered him to Pilate.  And they all condemned him and said, ‘He deserves to die’.”

At this past Monday’s weekly prayer group, we were talking, of all things, about prayer.  It was said, “Sometimes I think people view prayer only as an emergency lifeline that is used when things get tough.”  They went on to say (and I’m paraphrasing here) that prayer should be the engine that drives everything and not simply the spare tire used when we’re in a crisis.
 
To which I responded with something like, “Prayer should be the boat we’re in to navigate the waters of life, not the rescue boat that comes to save us when we’re drowning.”

Michael Curry was born on March 13, 1953, in Maywood, IL.  Both sides of his family were descended from slaves and sharecroppers in North Carolina and Alabama.  He has a long line of Baptist ministers in his family, with both his grandfather and great-grandfather serving as Baptist ministers.

Frederick Douglass was born a slave in either 1817 or 1818 on a plantation in Talbot County, Maryland.  Having an unspecified birthdate, he chose February 14 as his birthday because his mother called him her “Little Valentine.”

Martin Luther King, Jr., was the son and grandson of Baptist preachers, and became the pastor of a Baptist church in Montgomery, AL, in 1954.  He became the face of the equality movement following the arrest of Rosa Parks when he led the Montgomery bus boycott.

Absalom Jones was born a house slave in 1746 in Delaware.  As a child he taught himself to read using the New Testament and other books.  When he was sixteen he was sold to a store owner in Philadelphia where he attended a night school for Blacks operated by the Quakers.  He married another slave when he was twenty and purchased her freedom with his earnings.  He was eventually able to purchase his own freedom in 1784.

“I choose now to pause.”
 
I have a number of prayer apps on my phone.  Some are Roman Catholic based and some are Episcopal based.  A couple of them have an audio option, while most of them require you to read through the prayers.  These apps are especially helpful when I don’t have a Prayer Book with me, since the Daily Offices are right there on my phone.  They are also helpful for those times I just want to sit and listen to someone else read through the Office.

“In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan, earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone; snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow, in the bleak midwinter, long ago.” – Hymn 112

We have all seen the devastation of the wildfires in California, and while I can’t be sure, I think it will become one of the biggest natural disasters in our history, if not the biggest.  Pictures of lost homes, businesses, churches, and schools are almost beyond comprehension.  And while we know firsthand the devastation wildfires can inflict, we were fortunate to not have the destruction seen in California.

On January 5 we had our first real snow of the year. Coming on the 12th Day of Christmas, I guess, technically, we still got our white Christmas. But even with the snow, both Sunday and Monday were rather dreary days. Yesterday, however, was glorious! The sky was bright blue, the sun was shining, and the sunlight reflecting off the new snow was almost blinding. Although the temperature only reached 26, it felt much warmer than that.

[An angel said to Elijah], “Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.”  Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind, and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake, and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire, and after the fire a sound of sheer silence.  When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.  Then there came a voice to him that said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” – 1 Kings 19:11-13