4.45 in the morning

This trinity of felines that took over the entire bed was so much fun that even though it was 4.45 in the morning on my big work day, I had to take a photo of them. I did so without turning on the light or putting on glasses and simply holding the camera up so it's a bit out of focus. But it is fun.

I presume that MABFP was in the igloo, also in the same room. I don't think I will ever see a co-existing quartet.

Epiphany 3B

Back in 1984 when I went to Nicaragua, there wasn’t a road map to be found. For that matter, there weren’t any road signs either. If someone gave you directions, they’d tell you to turn at the corner where the beaten up house is, go along for three blocks, then turn at what used to be such-and-such hotel and so forth. [It's sort of like getting directions in Vermont: turn right at Miss Creed's house, even though Miss Creed has been gone for thirty years. I was so glad when we got 911 addresses!] For a country in the midst of a war, and still badly damaged from an earthquake, maps seemed inconsequential. Somehow people got around, but for a foreigner, it was very confusing. Even ten years later, when I first went to El Salvador in 1994, it was very hard to get a map for the same reasons. As one who likes and needs to be oriented visually, it was frustrating not to see on paper where we were headed.

So it may seem for us in the beginning of Epiphany with the readings of the lectionary. Normally, I steer away from tackling all four and I am not going to do it here, but I do think it useful to look up from the particular readings in front of us to have an overview. If we are a little better oriented, then perhaps the readings, when taken in their entirety, won’t seem such a jumble.

The epistle readings from 1 and 2 Corinthians rather stand on their own as a letter to a nascent congregation, as do the psalms, though there is an attempt to link the psalms thematically to the first and gospel readings.

On the other hand, the overall theme of the Hebrew scripture and gospel readings serve almost as bookends or brackets. The readings from the Hebrew scriptures bounce around, taking selections from narrative texts, such as 1 Samuel, 1 Kings, and Deuteronomy and portions of texts from the prophets — Jonah and Isaiah. For the first four weeks of Epiphany, the overall theme of the Hebrew scripture selections focuses on the call of the prophet and how the prophet discovers and uses his voice — Samuel, Jonah, Isaiah and Elijah. Gradually, the focus will shift to dovetail more closely with the gospel readings.

The gospel readings, alternating between the gospels of Mark and John, initially relate the callings of the disciples and Jesus. This morning’s gospel reading, from Mark, repeats some of what we heard last week from John. I am always reminded of a French novel, Jealousy [La Jalousie], that I had to teach to undergraduates, wherein a few small events are retold again and again but always from a different point of view. The lectionary does likewise. What Mark’s gospel doesn’t tell us, perhaps John’s will fill in the gaps. And so we go back and forth. Next Sunday, the overall trajectory of the gospel shifts to a four-week series of healing stories. The Hebrew scripture readings reflect that shift somewhat though some readings will continue in the prophetic vein.

So here’s your map of where we are heading overall. And that’s your sermon-within-a-sermon. But I am going to continue.

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Since I reflected last week on the simple conversation that takes place between God and us, in which God says: Follow me! Come and see!, and our response, which hopefully is: Here I am, I want to think some about Jonah.

Maybe it’s because Jonah always makes me smile because Jonah is one of those biblical characters that seems so real. We know Jonah’s story so well — one that unfortunately is incomplete.

Jonah embodies so many believable human responses to God’s call. He runs away from God because he is afraid of doing what God wants him to do — namely, tell the great city of Nineveh to repent [it's as though God asked us to stand on the corner of Rte 4 and Rte 7]. He’s not completely hopeless — when the ship on which he is hiding from God (or so he thinks) encounters rough seas and the mariners cast lots to find out who is responsible for their misfortune, and they land on Jonah, he offers to be thrown overboard. But before extending that offer, he tells them he worships the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land. So he does profess his faith in God, but clearly under duress.

Even after God saves Jonah by sending a great fish that will swallow him up, a seemingly hopeless place to be, Jonah prays to God stating his trust that God will rescue him from Sheol and the depths. We know God does.

When God comes to him a second time asking him to tell Nineveh to repent, Jonah does so, having gotten the message that it probably isn’t too wise to mess around with God. However, as a prophet, his heart is not in it — he wants Nineveh to get it good. When Nineveh turns its collective life around, repents and is spared God’s judgement, Jonah behaves like a curmudgeon, sulking under his shrub (we’re not really sure what it is because the Hebrew, ha qiqon appears only here so it's a shrub, bush, tree, plant, however you imagine), complaining that they should have been punished. That’s where the fragment ends (literally with the two words, ‘many cattle’) — we’ll never know if Jonah gets beyond God castigating him for his lack of mercy vis-à-vis the Ninevites. It’s fun to imagine….

Like Nathanael in John’s gospel, Jonah eventually gets around to saying yes to God but only after protesting and running away. Even after he says yes to God, he still whines. Whether this story is meant to demonstrate God’s patience or forbearance, it always makes me smile because ultimately, God’s message of mercy is heard — despite a lot of static and interference from its human transmitter.

Archbishop Oscar Romero said that all of us are God’s microphones. Think about how you, as individuals, and all of us, as Trinity, are God’s microphones. How do we transmit God’s message of mercy, love and compassion to this city, where so many people are indifferent or not exposed to it or have been so badly burned by the institutional church that they want no part of it? How do we get beyond whatever internal static there is so that we can tell our community there is a better way to live, a way that brings life, real life that comes from our faith in God? How do we use our prophetic voice, given to each one of us in baptism, to work for justice and respect the dignity of every human being? How do we share all of this goodness beyond the doors of this church building?

We do not all have to be priests to open a window through which someone else may see our world, God’s world, in a new light. We may be parents, teachers, nurses, salespeople, students or whatever. But when we treat the people we encounter as fellow citizens of God’s kingdom, God’s world, then we are doing the work of discipleship. We are living out a life of constant conversion back again and again to Jesus. We are following Jesus and living into the reign of God.

Let these ideas and questions become part of your daily life; let them percolate in your prayers. Then, when God calls us again and again to follow, we can do so with minimal internal static and lots of outward joy… for we have all been called to proclaim the good news.

Friday cat blogging on Saturday

OK, better late than never.


Young Guy started out watching the inauguration but fled when Compa yelled out, 'No more Cheney!!!!!!' (after Biden's taking the oath of office). He was gone from there on in.


Miss Agatha Birch Funky Paws usually parks herself on this pillow (right by a radiator) after breakfast. She has becoming increasingly audacious and has become quite teh beggar.


Thursday afternoon Orange Guy shot into the guest bedroom whose door I usually keep shut. I decided to leave him in there for a while. When I checked back, initially I couldn't find him and then I looked again and saw that the lump on the bed was actually an orange cat hiding in the quilt.


The front radiator provides a perfect perch to watch the comings and goings in the neighbourhood and there is room for two cats at least.


I think things are finally settling down. Young Guy has refound the basket by my desk. Maybe it's because I have installed a feliway diffuser in the study, too.

There's no photo of la Doyenne but she's fine.

Leadership beyond charisma

Bob Herbert sums up well for me why I am enthusiastic about Obama:

We’ve been watching that something this week, and it’s called leadership. Mr. Obama has been feeding the almost desperate hunger in this country for mature leadership, for omeone who is not reckless and clownish, shortsighted and self-absorbed.

Go read the rest of his column here.

Then for fun here's a photo that is flying around the world. I can at least say I know someone who has met the President. That probably is going to be as close to a president as I'll ever get though I pray that maybe this one will come to Vermont. We've been kind of neglected.

Yes, I am still star struck

I can't help it. Seeing Barack Obama and NOT Shrub in the White House makes me weep tears of astonishment.


Yeah, roll up the sleeves and get to work but where are all the papers on the desk? And is it landline calls from here on in? (I think of going years ago to the embassy in San Salvador, El Salvador and there was some discussion about how the ambassador didn't know how to make a local call beyond the confines of the embassy.)


Another reason why there is hope? He is a southpaw. (I know, so was Shrub, but there's no comparison.) Look, look, doesn't it blow your mind to see 'President of the United States' on that little writing desk?

Yeah, I am star struck. Mostly, I am so happy to see an African American person in the White House.

Oh Teddy, don't

Our prayers are with you. You can't go... not yet, even though you have seen this momentous day... it's not time for you to say the Song of Simeon. Please....

Good try but no cigar

According to the New York Times blog:

Wild Oaths | 1:51 p.m. For those who remain really upset about Barack Obama’s election, here is a new argument contesting his legitimacy, courtesy of Fox News Channel. Noting that Chief Justice John Roberts flubbed his recitation of the oath of office during the swearing-in ceremony, Chris Wallace, the Fox News anchor, said: “I’m not sure that Barack Obama really is the President of the United States. Because the oath of office is set in the Constitution, and I wasn’t at all convinced that even after he tried to amend it that John Roberts ever got it out straight and that Barack Obama ever said the prescribed words. I suspect that everybody is going to forgive him and allow him to take over as president but I’m not sure he actually said what is in the Constitution.”

Brit Hume, the Fox News senior political analyst, came to Mr. Obama’s defense. “If it ever got to the Supreme Court, you have to know there would be at least one vote in favor of letting it stand,” Mr. Hume said — specifically, the vote of Chief Justice Roberts.

How can I stop from singing?

And how can I stop from weeping?

We have once again transferred peacefully the authority and power of the office of president from one person to another. That action unto itself is remarkable and worthy of note (as I think of so many countries where this is not possible).

To add to that transferral the fact that for the first time the person assuming the presidency is (finally) not a caucasian is almost mind-blowing.

For all my frustration and anger at the actions of the 43rd president, I can't help but wonder what went through his mind as he left DC in a helicopter no longer in charge (hooray!).

With the exception of Rick Warren, the prayers have been interfaith, also a relief. Was Gene Robinson's announcement that he was going to pray to the God of many understandings an invitation to the others to do likewise?

Free at last

thank God, we are free at last!

We have a new president!!!!!!!

Photos later.

THIS IS THE DAY!

May God keep Obama and his family safe.


Early this morning, the scene on the Mall.

Freebie Song for Inauguration Day

Go here (Opra's site) to get this free download of 'America's Song' with Faith Hill, Mary Blige, Bono and Seal. The offer is good until 5.00 EST tonight.

Under twelve hours

Technically, does Obama become president in half an hour or do we have to wait until 11.00 tomorrow morning to consider him president?

The eight-year nightmare is about to end. I can scarcely believe it.

On a cosmic scale, what does it mean that Cheney pulled his back moving out and will be in a wheelchair tomorrow? No matter.

In short time, Bush will no longer be president and we won't have to listen to him mangle the English language (or facts). This day has been a long time coming.

This Land is Your Land

Watching Pete Seeger yesterday lead the mobs at the Lincoln Memorial in 'This Land is Your Land, This Land is My Land,' I couldn't help but think of all the little places in this vast continent and beyond that are part of this entity called the 'United States of America.' How united we are remains to be seen but for the time being, we call ourselves that.

Maybe, too, No. 44 will come to Vermont unlike 43 who made it a point not to visit this fair state, the only state in the union he did not see... not that I am disappointed. But if Obama comes here, oh my. After all, Vermont was the first state to send in its returns with a resounding victory (I can't remember — 70% or thereabouts — second only to Hawai'i).

As a way of marking the night before the inauguration (only 14 hours left!!!) here are some photos of the small hamlet where Calvin Coolidge grew up and to where he returned even as president.


Coolidge would stay in this house when he'd come back; it is also where he grew up.


Inside the church is a pew with a flag to indicate the President's pew. The interior is all wood and panelled like Gothic vaults. The exterior is typical of many Vermont churches. It is non-denominational (Christian) though could easily pass for a Congregational church.


Beyond the little tea house and 1930s cottages lie the mountains that form the Notch wherein Plymouth is located.


I've always loved this barn that is also part of the historical site. Inside are all manner of farm implements, a summer and winter hearse, mail truck (pulled by horse) — the compartment has a little stove inside.


Up the road some, you'll find sights like this — new snow that clings to the trees and a grey winter sky.



As Coolidge wrote, 'Vermont is a state I love.'

Gene's Prayer

Like everyone else out in blogland, I am posting the You Tube video of Gene Robinson's prayer yesterday. So, listen to it each time you run across it. It's worth repeating.

Episcopal Cafe has a good report on the possible reasons (excuses) why Gene's prayer wasn't broadcast. It's discouraging to say the least.

17 years ago

the peace accords were signed in El Salvador that ended the conflict between the powers-that-be and the opposition (the army vs. the FMLN) and today Salvadoreños are still voting in their mayoral elections.

This photo snagged from Diario Co-Latino shows Salvadoreños celebrating the anniversary at the Plaza Cívica, in front of the cathedral.

[more later, this is not yet finished]

Epiphany 2B

It seems fitting on the Sunday when we have our annual meeting that the first lesson and gospel reading both talk about God’s calling us into an active journey of faith. The Book of First Samuel describes Samuel’s initial misunderstanding of who is calling him; the gospel according to John describes Philip’s invitation to Nathanael to ‘come and see,’ using the very words that Jesus has used to call others to discipleship.

Listen… come and see. Such are the twin invitations the lectionary readings issue us this morning.

First, listen. What does it mean to listen for God’s voice?

Sören Kierkegaard describes holy listening this way:

As my prayer became more attentive and inward
I had less and less to say.
I finally became completely silent.
I started to listen
— which is even further removed from speaking.
I first thought that praying entailed speaking.
I then learnt that praying is hearing,
not merely being silent.
This is how it is,
To pray does not mean to listen to oneself speaking.
Prayer involved becoming silent,
and being silent,
and waiting until God is heard.

When Samuel finally realises it is not Eli calling him but God, he then is able to say: Speak, for your servant is listening. Only when Samuel falls silent does God reveal what God has in mind for Israel: I am about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle.

Out of this attitude of prayerful silence Samuel is able to say with conviction: Here am I!

Here am I!, the response to the second part of this morning’s invitation, to ‘come and see.’

What comes out of this response to God’s call beyond the simple words, ‘Here am I?’ What do we see when we follow Jesus?

A life of commitment. A life of service. A life of prayer. A life of joy.

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Through these two readings is a basic, simple conversation. The first person speaking is God, and the second person is us. God calls us, saying: Follow me! Come and see! And our response is: Here I am.

It is so simple, isn’t it? Or is it?

When was the last time that someone invited us to do something different, unsettling or unexpected and we responded without hesitation: Here I am… ready to go, ready to do.

When was the last time that God called us to reach beyond ourselves, to stretch ourselves in faith, to take a risk and we answered without any bargaining or conditions: Here I am… ready to see, ready to trust.

Follow me. Come and see. Here I am.

It is so, so simple. And it is so, so hard. It is so much easier for us to be like Nathanael, questioning, doubting, even at times making snide remarks that cover our discomfort and our unease with something new. It is so much easier to believe in that which we can see, and touch, than to trust in that which is unseen, intangible. It is so much easier to hang back than to jump up in the middle of the night to answer a voice crying our name.

Yet as we look around, we realise that we are part of the communion of saints that has responded to God’s invitation to follow and come and see. Maybe our initial response was that of Nathanael, but we have stuck it out. Maybe we have reached a point that when God calls us by name — as we are at the moment of our baptism and from thereon in — we respond instantly: Here I am.

Surely those who formed Trinity, and those who in the past 200 plus years that have kept Trinity alive and well, have heard God’s call, and have answered to it. It has not been easy — this parish, like so many others, has had its real ups and down. But throughout it all, the people who make up this parish have trusted in God, trusted enough to keep following even when the path was unclear. We are part of this journey, continuing where our forebears have walked. It is up to us, now, here, to answer God’s call with an unflinching, unconditional, ‘Here I am.’

Indeed, both of these readings — First Samuel and John — move us beyond the sacrament of baptism (as was described last week) to the life that follows it. We are not promised a controlled, managed, no-risk response to Jesus. We are called to a life that engages with the world, being those who make the world tingle with the wonder of God’s revelation through Jesus the Christ. We are invited to roll up our sleeves, plunge our hands into the mess of daily life, knowing that where love and charity reside, there God is also.

On this Sunday when we, Trinity Episcopal Church in Rutland, God’s people, gather for our annual meeting, let us remember that what we are about this morning is not merely passing a budget or electing vestry members and delegates to convention, but one of the ways in which we listen for God’s still, small voice, and respond with a clear voice, Here am I! Pray that through our holy listening, we will make good decisions that will enable us to be God’s hands and feet, eyes and ears in a broken and needy world.

I never thought I'd hear...

The Rolling Stones, Brucie Springstein, Aretha Franklin, Bono, U2, and so forth on National Public Radio. But there they are as NPR broadcasts the 'We are ONE' concert at the Lincoln Memorial.

This concert takes me back to the other big concerts of the 1980s — the benefit concert for Africa in 1985, the concert later on for farmers... this is the same large-scale concert.

They skipped Gene Robinson's invocation. Well, c'mon. Why didn't they broadcast it? Fie. But this photo says he was there and here is his prayer:

By The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire

Opening Inaugural Event
Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC
January 18, 2009

Welcome to Washington! The fun is about to begin, but first, please join me in pausing for a moment, to ask God’s blessing upon our nation and our next president.

O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will…

Bless us with tears – for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women from many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.

Bless us with anger – at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

Bless us with discomfort – at the easy, simplistic “answers” we’ve preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth, about ourselves and the world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.

Bless us with patience – and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be “fixed” anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.

Bless us with humility – open to understanding that our own needs must always be balanced with those of the world.

Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance – replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences, and an understanding that in our diversity, we are stronger.

Bless us with compassion and generosity – remembering that every religion’s God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable in the human community, whether across town or across the world.

And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States.

Give him wisdom beyond his years, and inspire him with Lincoln’s reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy’s ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King’s dream of a nation for ALL the people.

Give him a quiet heart, for our Ship of State needs a steady, calm captain in these times.

Give him stirring words, for we will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.

Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United States.

Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.

Give him the strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters’ childhoods.

And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we’re asking FAR too much of this one. We know the risk he and his wife are taking for all of us, and we implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand – that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace.

AMEN.

Gene wrote on his blog: I have received a lot of critical email since announcing that my prayer would not be overtly or aggressively Christian, as most of the inaugural prayers of the last 30 years have been. My plan is to address this prayer to the "God of our many understandings," acknowledging that no one Christian denomination nor no one faith tradition knows all there is to know about God. Each of us is privy to a piece of God, as experienced in our faith tradition. My hope is to pray a prayer that ALL people of faith can join me in.

And let the people say AMEN.

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Isn't this the US's big block party? We are finally coming out from under the cloud of the past eight years and I am ready to party (and then keep on working)!

It's a ghost

Tuesday when I got back from an all-day meeting up in my former stomping grounds, I came upstairs to find my alb hanging in the middle of the hall. Compa had done laundry that morning and wanted to be sure I didn't forget to iron it before going to church.

I've yet to go up into the attic; I figure if I don't go there, I won't be tempted to stash suitcases or boxes up there. But the handle to the stair/ladder sure works as a good hanger spot.

I thought I had escaped furnace woes but when I got back today the carbon monoxide detector was beeping furiously and it wasn't a bad battery. So over came the furnace repair guy (glad for these extra-hour trips). He couldn't figure out what the problem was but assured me that cats and I are in no danger.

It's time now to hang it up and go to bed so that I can get through three liturgies and still be coherent for my first annual meeting in my new parish. Ay.

People get ready, there's a train a'comin'

picking' up passengers....

What can one say that isn't trite or dumb? The photo says it all. Change is en route, though it will come slowly and with effort but si se puede.

The NYT reports on the train car itself:

Slow Train Coming
By Michael Falcone

The shiny blue vintage rail car that carried Barack Obama on a whistle-stop tour through Pennsylvania during the presidential campaign will take him on a pre-inaugural ride from Philadelphia to Washington on Saturday, the symbolic last leg of his road to the White House.

The train trip, an abbreviated version of Abraham Lincoln’s 12-day journey to the nation’s capitol before his own inauguration in 1861, is another nod to history, kicking off a week when the parallels between the 16th and 44th presidents will be plentiful.

President-elect Obama and his family will be riding in a private rail car called the Georgia 300 that has carved out a place in presidential history. Former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton have also been passengers as well as Senator John Kerry during his 2004 White House bid.

Owned and maintained by John Heard of Fernandina Beach Fla., the car was built in 1930 and includes several compartments, a dining room and an observation platform.– a presidential must for rail travel. It features an early-century style interior with polished wood and brass fixtures throughout, but the technology on the train will be decidedly 21st century.

A Cambridge, Mass.-based company, Waav, was busy outfitting the rail car with stacks of wireless broadband routers to keep members of Mr. Obama’s traveling party, and the throng of press who will accompany him, connected throughout the estimated nine-hour long trip.

Mr. Obama and his family will board the rail car Saturday morning at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, stopping for events in Wilmington, Del. and Baltimore, Md. In Wilmington, the Obamas will pick up Vice President-elect Joe Biden and his family. The train station there is a familiar one for Mr. Biden, who commuted almost daily on Amtrak for decades. He’ll be greeted by Gregg Weaver, the conductor of the train the former senator usually rode.

The inaugural train will also make several “slow rolls” through communities along the way, giving the onlookers who are expected to line the 135-mile route, a chance to wave at the incoming president (and maybe get a wave back).
[...]

Mr. Obama’s private car will be pulled along its route by Amtrak locomotives. And the inaugural train procession will get first priority on the tracks. The railroad issued an advisory warning the passengers on regularly scheduled trains to expect to wait “due to the extraordinary security measures in place and the special operations required” by the inaugural train procession.

The final whistle-stop of the day will be at Washington’s Union Station where the president-elect and company are expected to arrive at about 7 p.m.

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Meanwhile, pray for El Salvador as it has its mayoral elections tomorrow. May they, too, finally see a season of change after so many years of the same old, same old (i.e., may the Frente gain more seats at the expense of Arena). Their presidential election will be in March and I'll remind you of it then (!).

Meanwhile, we have only two more days!!!!!

Things I never thought I'd see in the news

... a sinking airplane drifting down the Hudson River.

Thank goodness everyone is mostly OK.

What is interesting is that Shrub's last address to the nation doesn't even make it 'above the fold'; you have to scroll down past the initial screen to see anything about it.

THAT catastrophe is soon, soon over. But how long will it take for us to dig out, restore our image and heal?

More later... it has been a busy week. I no longer quite have the life of leisure I used to have and so blogging has suffered exponentially.

Epiphany I

In the Eastern Church the focus is not on the birth of Christ but on his manifestation to us as the incarnate God. The great festival among Orthodox Christians is not Christmas but Epiphany. On the feast of the Epiphany, 6 January, Orthodox Christians celebrate two manifestations: Christ’s baptism and his birth, included because they assume Christ was baptised on his thirtieth birthday. The moment at which Jesus is endowed with the Holy Spirit and acknowledged publicly as God’s beloved is the true manifestation of Christ.

Mark’s gospel operates under the same principle. It plunges us right into that moment in time when John baptised Christ. The baptism serves almost as an inauguration ceremony, after which Jesus is launched into the desert and then returns to walk among the people for three years. The gospel even presages Good Friday with its mention of the heavens being torn open at the moment of the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus like a dove. The whole story is there in a few verses with no preamble.

Perhaps because Mark’s gospel was the first of the four gospels to be written, its author felt that no time should be wasted and that the real story of Jesus’ ministry should start up right away. Mark’s gospel is characterised by a sense of urgency. The adverb, ‘immediately,’ appears 27 times in the gospel. Its use is not limited to Jesus; the disciples, spirits and relatives of suffering people react with the same alacrity. For whatever reason, there are no infancy stories or stories of Jesus’ youth in Mark’s gospel. Instead, the gospel starts off with a bang: the encounter of Jesus with John the baptiser at the river Jordan.

The writer of the gospel portrays John with a lot of detail. We know where John appeared, what clothes he wore, what he ate, and what he did. It is hard to know whether what he wore was common or rare — we’ve always assumed that John was somewhat of an odd character, but perhaps the camel’s hair was normal for a nomadic sort of person. The gospel informs us that John preaches repentance for the forgiveness of sins, not judgement. And the story relates that John knows someone greater than he will baptise not with water but with the Holy Spirit.

Unlike John’s portrayal, Jesus is barely described. For such an important figure in the history of humankind, Mark’s gospel simply says: ‘In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptised by John.’ A listener to the gospel a generation or two after Jesus’ life might have been able to fill in the details of the story of his life that writers didn’t think important to set down but for someone unfamiliar with him and without the aid of the other gospels, Jesus could have been anyone.

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And perhaps that is the writer’s point. Jesus, the Son of Mortals, God-enfleshed, nonetheless is baptised with water and the Holy Spirit in the very same way you and I have been and countless generations have, are and will be. When doctrinal differences have been cast aside, what unites one Christian to another is that he or she has been baptised.

Through baptism, you and I have been called to a rich ministry of proclaiming Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, and his continued presence in the Church, the body of Christ in the world, here and now. This proclamation is the ministry of the Church, and all the people of God share in this ministry through baptism. Ordered ministries, like those of deacons, priests and bishops, are specialised ministries set apart by God and the people to help them — the people, the primary ministers of the church — to be equipped with everything they need to be Christ’s sacramental presence in this world. The ministers of the church are not primarily the bishops, priests and deacons, but the faithful, the people of God, all of those set apart by God through baptism to bear witness by word and action that the realm of God is active and present in this world.

The Episcopal Church is only thirty years into realising this new, yet ancient, vision of what it means to be the church. It is learning how to retain those aspects of the church that make it uniquely Anglican and catholic (i.e., universal), such as its sacramental theology of holy orders, while expanding the presence, importance and contributions of the baptised.

When I speak of the ministry of the baptised, I am not thinking of solely what we do here inside this building. Reading the lessons, serving chalice, acolyting, swinging the thurible, singing in the choir, preparing the altar, setting up the flowers, cleaning the church, ushering, bringing forth the bread, wine and alms at the offertory, and all those other good ministries we do inside these four walls are but a piece of what our total ministry is.

As I have come to understand better the ministry of the baptised, I have arrived at the realisation that this ministry is what we do outside these four walls in our daily life and work. Speaking from the perspective of one who taught for many years, I used to ask myself: How do I, as a teacher, make Christ present in my class, even if I cannot mention Christ’s name? How does my faith inform my values? How do I spread God’s good news of redemption, grace, mercy, pardon and love in my daily interactions? Perhaps you have asked these same questions in your daily work.

I heard once of a man who wrestles with the same questions. He is a long-distance truck driver for an organic food company. For the longest amount of time he couldn’t make the connection between driving all hours of the night across the country with his faith in Christ and the baptismal covenant. One day he realised that by driving this truck, he was providing people with good food so that they could have healthier lives. Through his work, he was able to provide for the common good and perhaps touch the lives of others he would never meet. His daily log book of miles driven has become an icon of this human connection.

The task of making the connection between daily work and life with our faith is a challenging one, largely because so much of our culture teaches us that our worth is determined by our monetary value. When we think of ‘vocation’ we tend to get it mixed up with ‘profession.’ Many people go to work because they have to, not because the job they do excites them. Figuring out what our calling is has to do very deeply with one’s self, one’s understanding of self, of asking, ‘Who am I?’ and not living being who others want me to be. In learning to find one’s call by God in this world, we have to do a lot of interior listening. And that is hard.

Novelist Frederick Buechner once said that Christian vocation is discovered in the connection of where we find our deepest joy and where we encounter the world’s deepest need. These connections differ from person to person. What is your joy? And where does it meet the needs of the world? How are you called to minister in that special place with the gifts God has given you?

Finding one’s vocation, one’s unique call by God, is a life long journey. But the hints that we are close to it are found in where we fall in love, where our deep imagination is seized, in what gets us out of bed in the morning, what breaks our heart, in what amazes us at times with deep and surprising gratitude. Knowing and saying Yes to God’s call to us is indeed something like falling in love again. When we know what our call is, it will decide everything for us. [based on a prayer by Pedro Arupe, S.J.]


Photo: Nourse Hall, where we will be worshipping at the 10.00 until Palm Sunday.

Post Script: You can call this sermon my baptismal manifesto, not to be confused with manifestation... but it is how I understand baptismal ministry after a lot of wrestling.

Getting there

So seven and a half weeks after the moving van disgorged my belongings in a heap in various parts of the house, I have some sense of getting there. I am wanting to pick up the pace some because on the 3rd of February, we'll be having the pro forma service of a new season of ministry or renewal of ministry — what we used to call the installation of the rector, except I am not a rector, I am a priest in partnership on a three-year contract. Nevertheless, in case anyone is going to be staying here, I had better get the house bearable. I am down to about ten or a dozen boxes and now there is only one small collection of candles I brought back from the pilgrimage that I really want to find.


I like chimes and finally figured out how to hang the indoor ones without inflicting any damage to the ceiling by tying them to the curtain rod. (The drapes are from the previous inhabitant and I don't like them so I axed them from the photo.) The house outside has a piercing spotlight that blares visually into the west of this house; it is totally obnoxious and seems to stay on all night, ugh.


The upstairs hall is so big, kind of wasted space so I decided to make a sort of book nook by the stairs. The likelihood of my ever sitting there is remote but you never know. Out of the photo but next to the chair is another basket for the cats to sleep in if they ever discover it. On the far wall is the hanging the son of mi hermana salvadoreña made me when I left after my sabbatical. To its right is the door to the master bedroom, the cat-free zone. They are never allowed in there for Compa's sake.


For the time being, my FMLN banner is tied to the stairs. Vamos a ver.


I left the other prayer flags tied to the back steps of the other rectory; they were still flying when I last was up there after Christmas. I bought another set for here and took time to think of where I could place them and see them. I settled on tying them up between two rows of raspberries. That can work at least for the winter time. They will get their first snowstorm tonight.

Slowly, slowly, this place is beginning to feel like home. Quelle corvée.

Friday cat blogging

It's a feast of feline fotos! There are so many I just going to put them up in alphabetical order rather than subject.


Young Guy was so happy sprawled out on the blanket that I didn't have the heart to move him.


I just took this photo of La Doyenne, who still looks just as content. I don't think life gets any better than this.


I guess the cats are relatively settled in since they are reverting to familiar behaviour, such as La Doyenne's honing in on whatever chair someone else is on. Amazingly, Young Guy didn't fend her off.


Exhibit 'B.' Orange Guy was on the rocker first and she arrived and he wasn't too pleased so he wrapped his paw around her and nipped at her.


Why should she look annoyed?



Eventually he gave in or up.


Meanwhile, Young Guy takes advantage of the rare occasion that my desk is clear (partially).


MABFP has recently rediscovered the igloo and has taken over it.


I caught this scene before I took off to work this morning. Wow! The two grey ladies try out the hammock. Smart because it's parked right in front of a radiator.


Here's the model in front of his portrait.


This photo gives the semblance of 'normal,' but there are still about ten boxes left to unpack and figure out where to put the junk and I am still missing a few items. Still, it's good to see two kittehs in the study.


Now, you may wonder why Michelangelo's Night and Day is mixed in with a bunch of cat photos but when you see the next two, you will see why I thought of it.


Here's Night...


and here's Day.

Oraciones para la gente de Costa Rica

Mis compañeros y compañeras salvadoreños/as conocen desmasiado bien que es sofrir un terremoto, dado que el aniversario del gran terremoto de 2001 que mató a casi 600 personas es el 11 de enero.

Ayer, un terremoto de 6/2 grados socorró Costa Rica y dicen en este momento que hay más de 2000 damnificados y 4 muertos confirmados pero muchas más personas disparecidas.

Oren para este pueblo.

Miembros de IARCA, obispos, clero y laícos, estuvieron a San José por una reunión pero todos están sanos y salvos.

My sister and brother Salvadorans know too well what it is to suffer an earthquake, given that the anniversary of the 2001 earthquake that killed almost 600 people is the 11th of January.

Yesterday a 6.2 earthquake shook Costa Rica and they say right now that there are more than 2000 homeless and 4 confirmed dead though there are many more missing people.

Pray for them.

Members of IARCA — bishops, clergy and laity — were in San José for a meeting but they are all safe and sound.

Like everyone else

Off to vestry tonight where we will contemplate a large deficit budget.

We are in the same boat as countless other entities — churches, businesses, non-profits. We are all caught up in this mess.

Call me naïve but we will figure out a way. We will not raid the endowment. Those glory days are over.

We need to rethink stewardship.

I will tell the vestry this story:

I wear a cross tonight that is the emblem of common cathedral, ecclesia ministries in Boston. My friend, the Rev'd Dr Deborah Little Wyman, started this amazing outreach to the homeless of Boston in 1996 and within a year or so, the Rev’d Liz Hall (now in Vermont), designed this cross. When someone new comes to common cathedral, they are given this cross. Members of the congregation recognise one another in the streets, t stations and down and out places of Boston and realise they belong. After some time, the community, which gathers rain or shine at Boston Commons by the Tremont Station and the fountain, decided that they had been given so much in this community, that they should give to others. So they took up a collection that yielded several hundred of dollars and gave it to the women’s shelter. If they can do it, so can we.

It's snowing in odd places

While checking out Le Monde (Paris) and El Pais (Madrid) to see European coverage of the attacks on Gaza, I saw this image and recognised it immediately.

Though I haven't been to Milano, my parents have so I have seen their photos of this cathedral, which I think is lovely. Evidently it is unusual for them to have snow.

As for Gaza, there are no words sufficient... so I turn back to the psalms.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken [them]?