After six weeks of tarrying in the gospel of John, the lectionary suddenly drops us back into the gospel of Mark in the middle of a debate between Jesus and the Pharisees. Jesus and his disciples are eating, but not in the manner proscribed by their faith tradition. The religious leaders of his day, in shorthand, the Pharisees, ask him, ‘Why, Jesus, do your disciples not live according to the tradition (read “rules”) of the elders....?’ Thematically we move from a long meditation on the significance of the Bread of Life — Jesus — to an argument that revolves around purity and following the letter of the law to the point that it excludes people. Quite a shift, indeed!
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One of the primary questions that this morning’s gospel reading poses is: What happens to us when we get too caught up in minute, legalistic interpretations of scripture or the law? This question is not limited to people of Jesus’ time — hardly so. We see such debates going on in the world-wide church, The Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion today, too, with those who tend toward a more literalistic approach to the bible lamenting the lack of discipline in the rest of the church.
While Jesus is not asking the Pharisees if they know what God hates, he is asking them where their hearts are: Are their hearts open to what God has to say and teach them, or are their hearts hardened? From what Jesus says, quoting directly from the prophet Isaiah, his answer is clear: ‘This people honours me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.’ And then he accuses the Pharisees of abandoning the commandment of God and holding to human tradition.
What is the commandment of God? Simply, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. This commandment comes straight out of the Book of Deuteronomy (its name comes from the Latin, The Second Law, but in Hebrew, its name is derived from the first word of the book, debarim, ‘words’). Much later in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus will tell the community what the second commandment is: The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these. Love of God, love of neighbour. These are the foundations of one’s life in God.
Jesus faces a group of people who uses a myriad of laws to keep people away from God rather than find ways to include them in the richness of God’s promise of mercy for humankind. And that is why Jesus’ ire is up.
Since purity laws are not part of our reality, perhaps it would be useful to explain some of what is going on here. The Pharisaic custom of purity laws created a system in which those who could observe the laws were part of the in-group and those who could not were part of the out-group. The purity code was basically a form of maintaining group boundaries. In this particular system, that which is dirty or impure was out of place in the system and that which was clean or pure was in place. The purity code not only determined what was polluted but also when one should pray and with whom one could associate and where one could go. But most important was a hierarchy of things clean and unclean.
Keeping purity laws was a near impossibility for peasant farmers who may not have had the required water for ritual baths, or for fishers who came in constant contact with dead fish, animals and the like. Equally at a disadvantage were those like Jesus and his disciples who travelled about.
Jesus consistently got himself into trouble with the Pharisees because he disregarded their boundaries. He did not observe their rules of worship or their rules about places or people. Jesus touched (and in some cases was touched by) those considered impure: women, the dead, tax collectors and sinners. His disregard for the Pharisees’ total system was not out of contentiousness but rather out of his understanding that rules can sometimes mask what lies in the heart.
What lies in the heart? Good things and bad things. Jesus recites in the gospel passage what is commonly known as a ‘vice list.’ These lists were used frequently in Greek philosophical teachings of the times and referred to acts against the community as well as acts against the individual.
By reminding us that it is not that which we consume that defiles us but what comes out of our hearts, Jesus basically calls the Pharisees to examine the real motivations behind their lists of purity laws. Do they follow them out of a genuine desire to follow God, to love God and neighbour alike, or do they follow these laws as a way to construct a fence around themselves so they will not have to deal with people different from them?
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What James, in the Epistle we read this morning, was trying to say was the same: that religion and faith, have little to do with keeping the rules, and everything to do with how we respond to our weaker sister or brother. ‘Religion that is pure and undefiled [kosher] before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.’
The gospel asks us as well: What fences do we construct around us? How do we use purity laws, the bible, or other tests to determine who is in and who is out? How does the church today define who is in and who is out? Is that what the church should be about? Isn’t the church called to gather and leave the sorting to God? Shouldn’t the church be a place for all?
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There is a raft of moral and ethical and pastoral questions that we deal with day by day that our traditions and laws do not give us room to respond in human and faithful ways. Laws and canons are made for people, not people for laws and canons. Even scripture used literally and rigidly can be oppressive of God’s people.
So we are constantly challenged to see the world and the human family with the eyes of Jesus who made choices from his heart, choices for mercy, justice and with a special option for the vulnerable and poor.
How urgent it is, then, for us to live and proclaim a faith in God, a following of Jesus that sets people free, that holds up love, mercy and justice, no matter how far outside the box we need to live.
Living faithfully is almost always about relationships, with God, with others, with self. Whenever these relationships of faith, trust and love are threatened by rules, the rules have to go. When they are threatened, we need to find other ways to live together, ways that ask us to colour outside of the lines.
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My dream for Trinity is that when necessary to be faithful to Jesus’ call of mercy and love of neighbour, we may find ourselves colouring outside of the lines. I pray this means that this place may be a house of prayer for all people. My dream is that we live into the mission articulated in Isaiah 61: that we bring good news to the oppressed, bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to the captives from whatever sort captivity holds them, release to the prisoners, proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour, comfort all who mourn and give them the oil of gladness instead of mourning.
I pray that we see God in one another, and remember that judging what lies in people’s hearts is up to God, not us. I pray that this community can be a witness to God’s love extended to all. And I pray we will find ways to extend that message to others, especially to those who have not yet known God’s gracious love.
With God’s help we can begin to open our hearts to one another, not being afraid to be who we really are. Let us tear down the walls that divide us, and strengthen the bonds of trust. Let us return to the foundations of our life in God by loving God and our neighbour. If we can do that, we will no longer need all our fences and walls. And we can do that, trusting in God. So, let’s begin.
31 August 2009
30 August 2009
C'est fini
It is all over... and more than just the funeral and burial.
Where will be the leaders to take on the challenge?
Ted Kennedy's death has made me sadder than I anticipated.
But one passing thought in all of yesterday: thank goodness it was Obama and not Bush who gave the eulogy. God spared us that at least.
28 August 2009
Back to reality
[Northfield Range of the Vermont Greens from between Griffin Mountain and Mount Abraham]
We walked out of the Long Trail at the Lincoln Gap yesterday after a three-day/night walk from the Brandon Gap, through MUD and MUD and more MUD, through rain and fog, and finally yesterday some sun and views to find out that Edward Kennedy died.
Oh.
In 1968, Compa returned to civilisation, as it may be, after a week-trip of cross-country skiing in the Rockies to find out that Martin Luther King, Jr. had been assassinated. It was déjà vu all over for her. Ted Kennedy represents for her all her adult life of politics.
He represents for me all my life of politics.
His death truly marks the end of an era.
May he rest in peace and rise in glory.
And in 2005 we emerged from the NH Whites to find out about Katrina. So much can happen in such a short amount of time... and it usually has to do with the fragility of life.
22 August 2009
What a mess
From the Rutland Herald [with snarks and comments from Caminante]
The look on restaurant owner Allen Frey's face told the story of what happened in downtown Rutland Friday.
The basement of his Merchants Row eatery, Three Tomatoes Trattoria, and the Asa Bloomer State Office Building were the worst hit, inundated with an estimated 2 feet of sewage and water following a bout of heavy rain that hit the downtown Rutland area at about 1:20 p.m. [We ate there last Saturday night.]
The city was doused with more than an inch of rain in 40 minutes, according to the National Weather Service in Burlington. [No kidding.]
Streets were blocked off. [Uhuh.]
Downtown business owners waded in waters up to their knees searching for leftover sandbags.
The sound of car alarms and racing fire trucks echoed through neighborhoods.
Rutland Police Lt. Kevin Geno took to a local radio station to urge people to stay away from downtown if at all possible.
Frey watched with concern as firefighters used multiple pumps to subdue the flooding that crept high up the walls of the basement in the Asa Bloomer building, the result of water rushing down West Street into the Marble Valley Regional Transit Center and into city storm drains incapable of holding all the rain.
The lowest point in the city was transformed into a lake with no boundaries.
"Water … I don't know," is all Frey said.
State employees, some of the 200 who were evacuated from the building at about 2 p.m. before a river of rushing water caved in the metal doors to the outside, looked down from the second floor of the parking garage with their hands covering their mouths.
Moments before they were told to leave, electricity in the building surged then died. [I am sure that's going to help their computers. A parishioner works in that building.]
The elevators stopped dead on their tracks. [It doesn't say if anyone was stuck in them.]
Many shook their heads at the scene unfolding below them.
"The door is about ready to collapse," said Gary Jaquith, a senior employment consultant with the state.
Other employees questioned if the owner of a white car parked behind Gus' Tobacco Shop had insurance — the car's alarm was blaring as water seeped into the locked doors.
State employees who work to disperse food stamps, Medicaid and cash benefits worked in Rutland's Stafford Technical for three weeks after last year's June 15 flood, according to case manager Karen Trombley.
Last year, portions of the Bloomer building became contaminated with mold and there was a half a million dollar loss in electrical infrastructure, causing the relocation.
Workers Friday said they expected the same thing to happen this time around.
"We had to be up and running," Trombley said.
Over the radio waves, city police alerted each other to what was beginning to happen downtown for the second summer in a row — "It's pretty treacherous," one officer said.
Water rushed toward Rutland's Brenda Fish as she quickly went from waiting for a bus inside the transit center to making her way out of it.
"It's awful," she said. "The water is just rising."
Geysers shot up out of manholes inside the bus depot on West Street and on Center Street. [The bus depot is across the street from the church.]
Water shot up from a hole on the second floor of the parking deck as it started flooding and those parked there raced to move their cars out.
"We're in trouble again," Bloomer Building Manager Ralph Claudio said over a cell phone.
Rutland County State's Attorney James Mongeon said he would find a new place to do business today.
"I've got some planning to do," he said.
For seven hours, 35 firefighters from Rutland City and Rutland Town and the city's Department of Public Works responded downtown to offer help to Clem's Café, Gus Tobacco Shop, The Back Home Again Café, Sidelines Tavern, the state office building and other establishments that needed help, said Fire Chief Robert Schlachter.
There were no injuries as a result of the day's flooding, Schlachter said.
The basement of Hawley's Florist, the Opera House and Chittenden Bank were flooded, causing damage to floral goods, office equipment and carpets, according to Mike Coppinger, executive director of the Downtown Rutland Partnership. [The bank is right next to the church and uses our parking lot.]
"It's one thing to have a 50-year event or a 100-year event but not a yearly event," Bonnie Hawley said.
"There was no way to stop that water," she said. "I don't care if you had 8 to 10 feet of sandbags."
Hawley said her insurance will only cover her water damage if the toilet there backs up. [A whole lot of use that is!]
"That's the problem everyone (Center Street businesses) had before," Hawley said. "Insurance wouldn't cover it."
Proprietors of the tobacco shop, Clem's, and Back Home Again Café on Center Street said they were better prepared and didn't suffer as much of a loss as a year ago.
"He (Gus Louras, owner of the tobacco shop) feels bad for downtown," said sister Marie Louras at the shop. "We've been here all our lives."
Rutland City Hall will need to replace computers after lightning struck the building, according to Mayor Chris Louras.
The Last Friday Night Live of the season was canceled and Clem's and Three Tomatoes closed early. The Dan Tyminski show at the Paramount Theatre went on as planned.
After Friday's deluge, Clem's owner Geraldine Knox said her establishment survived but if it rained again she said, "I'm in big trouble."
Today's forecast calls for 1 to 3 more inches of rain in Rutland beginning noontime, according to the National Weather Service in Burlington.
cristina.kumka@rutlandherald.com
The look on restaurant owner Allen Frey's face told the story of what happened in downtown Rutland Friday.
The basement of his Merchants Row eatery, Three Tomatoes Trattoria, and the Asa Bloomer State Office Building were the worst hit, inundated with an estimated 2 feet of sewage and water following a bout of heavy rain that hit the downtown Rutland area at about 1:20 p.m. [We ate there last Saturday night.]
The city was doused with more than an inch of rain in 40 minutes, according to the National Weather Service in Burlington. [No kidding.]
Streets were blocked off. [Uhuh.]
Downtown business owners waded in waters up to their knees searching for leftover sandbags.
The sound of car alarms and racing fire trucks echoed through neighborhoods.
Rutland Police Lt. Kevin Geno took to a local radio station to urge people to stay away from downtown if at all possible.
Frey watched with concern as firefighters used multiple pumps to subdue the flooding that crept high up the walls of the basement in the Asa Bloomer building, the result of water rushing down West Street into the Marble Valley Regional Transit Center and into city storm drains incapable of holding all the rain.
The lowest point in the city was transformed into a lake with no boundaries.
"Water … I don't know," is all Frey said.
State employees, some of the 200 who were evacuated from the building at about 2 p.m. before a river of rushing water caved in the metal doors to the outside, looked down from the second floor of the parking garage with their hands covering their mouths.
Moments before they were told to leave, electricity in the building surged then died. [I am sure that's going to help their computers. A parishioner works in that building.]
The elevators stopped dead on their tracks. [It doesn't say if anyone was stuck in them.]
Many shook their heads at the scene unfolding below them.
"The door is about ready to collapse," said Gary Jaquith, a senior employment consultant with the state.
Other employees questioned if the owner of a white car parked behind Gus' Tobacco Shop had insurance — the car's alarm was blaring as water seeped into the locked doors.
State employees who work to disperse food stamps, Medicaid and cash benefits worked in Rutland's Stafford Technical for three weeks after last year's June 15 flood, according to case manager Karen Trombley.
Last year, portions of the Bloomer building became contaminated with mold and there was a half a million dollar loss in electrical infrastructure, causing the relocation.
Workers Friday said they expected the same thing to happen this time around.
"We had to be up and running," Trombley said.
Over the radio waves, city police alerted each other to what was beginning to happen downtown for the second summer in a row — "It's pretty treacherous," one officer said.
Water rushed toward Rutland's Brenda Fish as she quickly went from waiting for a bus inside the transit center to making her way out of it.
"It's awful," she said. "The water is just rising."
Geysers shot up out of manholes inside the bus depot on West Street and on Center Street. [The bus depot is across the street from the church.]
Water shot up from a hole on the second floor of the parking deck as it started flooding and those parked there raced to move their cars out.
"We're in trouble again," Bloomer Building Manager Ralph Claudio said over a cell phone.
Rutland County State's Attorney James Mongeon said he would find a new place to do business today.
"I've got some planning to do," he said.
For seven hours, 35 firefighters from Rutland City and Rutland Town and the city's Department of Public Works responded downtown to offer help to Clem's Café, Gus Tobacco Shop, The Back Home Again Café, Sidelines Tavern, the state office building and other establishments that needed help, said Fire Chief Robert Schlachter.
There were no injuries as a result of the day's flooding, Schlachter said.
The basement of Hawley's Florist, the Opera House and Chittenden Bank were flooded, causing damage to floral goods, office equipment and carpets, according to Mike Coppinger, executive director of the Downtown Rutland Partnership. [The bank is right next to the church and uses our parking lot.]
"It's one thing to have a 50-year event or a 100-year event but not a yearly event," Bonnie Hawley said.
"There was no way to stop that water," she said. "I don't care if you had 8 to 10 feet of sandbags."
Hawley said her insurance will only cover her water damage if the toilet there backs up. [A whole lot of use that is!]
"That's the problem everyone (Center Street businesses) had before," Hawley said. "Insurance wouldn't cover it."
Proprietors of the tobacco shop, Clem's, and Back Home Again Café on Center Street said they were better prepared and didn't suffer as much of a loss as a year ago.
"He (Gus Louras, owner of the tobacco shop) feels bad for downtown," said sister Marie Louras at the shop. "We've been here all our lives."
Rutland City Hall will need to replace computers after lightning struck the building, according to Mayor Chris Louras.
The Last Friday Night Live of the season was canceled and Clem's and Three Tomatoes closed early. The Dan Tyminski show at the Paramount Theatre went on as planned.
After Friday's deluge, Clem's owner Geraldine Knox said her establishment survived but if it rained again she said, "I'm in big trouble."
Today's forecast calls for 1 to 3 more inches of rain in Rutland beginning noontime, according to the National Weather Service in Burlington.
cristina.kumka@rutlandherald.com
What will we find tomorrow?
This photo in today's Rutland Herald is of the street that runs parallel to the church. The black fence (barely visible above the man in yellow's shoulder) in the photo is our memorial garden.
Thank goodness we disconnected from the storm drains last year!
Carumba
I went down cellar this morning to do laundry and discovered that it had flooded during yesterday's torrential rain (1.21 inches in half an hour). Not only is the cellar damp but it is also covered with heating oil. I think the pressure of the water was so great in the storm drain in the street that it backed up into the cellar. It did with such force that it flang the cats' litter pans around and it is clear they also floated somewhat. This view is the mild view with less water. As the bottom boxes caved in, so came down the top ones so it's double the mess.
It's getting me to pitch stuff I didn't get to when I moved. So far, nothing too important has gone into the trash but I am only a third of a way through the boxes.
Not what I had planned on doing today. Needless to say, blogging will be light.
Carumba.
21 August 2009
Rhetorical question
Given that TEC and ELCA are in full communion with each other, does this now mean that discontent Lutherans will consider joining the alphabet soup of 'Anglican' bodies in North America? Hitting more closely to home, will unhappy members of the local ELCA congregation join the ACNA congregation that meets just up the road in a Missouri Synod Lutheran church? Just wondering.
The ELCA people have joined us (updated as of 7.20 PM EDT)
[5.45 PM EDT] They just voted 55% yes to approve seeking the way for partnered GLBT to be rostered clergy.
RESOLVED, that the ELCA commit itself to finding a way for people in such publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous, same-gender relationships to serve as rostered leaders of this church.
[6.30] So they have just amended their fourth resolution to allow for what I would call a 'conscience clause' to allow those churches who don't want to have a LGBT pastor.
Yes, they speak of 'bound conscience.'
Wonderful line in the prayer: 'May the airlines not charge us extra on Monday for the bags under our eyes.'
Seems like a bishop from North Dakota is trying to stall the vote on resolution 4 until tomorrow, by moving onto the next item in the agenda. It failed massively.
And now we are hearing the litany of those saying how much suffering will happen if the church dare to accept LGBT people.
Gee, sounds familiar.
[7.01] They are praying before voting on resolution 4. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only knowing that your hand is leading and supporting us....
And someone has asked for supplemental liturgical materials for those who will leave.
The motion has been adopted with a solid majority.
To my ELCA brothers and sisters we stand with you. God's blessings with you as you move forward on this new path. This life-long Episcopalian is very, very proud of you.
Bishop Hanson reads from Romans 8 for those who are against this resolution and feel as though the church has abandoned them: Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. Now he speaks to those who have received a clear affirmation and feel as though they are finally being recognised by the church. To them he would read from Ephesians: You who once were far off have now been brought to the love of Christ... he has broken down the dividing wall....
Finally he speaks to those in the middle, reading from Colossians: Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience. Bear with one another...
Bishop Hanson seems almost in tears and so, so weary.
[7.12] Now comes the opposition's remarks of capitulating to the culture, surrendering to the latest fad, and repudiating 2000 years of Christian witness.
Also so, so familiar.
Given their time crunch, only one such statement is read.
RESOLVED, that the ELCA commit itself to finding a way for people in such publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous, same-gender relationships to serve as rostered leaders of this church.
[6.30] So they have just amended their fourth resolution to allow for what I would call a 'conscience clause' to allow those churches who don't want to have a LGBT pastor.
Yes, they speak of 'bound conscience.'
Wonderful line in the prayer: 'May the airlines not charge us extra on Monday for the bags under our eyes.'
Seems like a bishop from North Dakota is trying to stall the vote on resolution 4 until tomorrow, by moving onto the next item in the agenda. It failed massively.
And now we are hearing the litany of those saying how much suffering will happen if the church dare to accept LGBT people.
Gee, sounds familiar.
[7.01] They are praying before voting on resolution 4. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only knowing that your hand is leading and supporting us....
And someone has asked for supplemental liturgical materials for those who will leave.
The motion has been adopted with a solid majority.
To my ELCA brothers and sisters we stand with you. God's blessings with you as you move forward on this new path. This life-long Episcopalian is very, very proud of you.
Bishop Hanson reads from Romans 8 for those who are against this resolution and feel as though the church has abandoned them: Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. Now he speaks to those who have received a clear affirmation and feel as though they are finally being recognised by the church. To them he would read from Ephesians: You who once were far off have now been brought to the love of Christ... he has broken down the dividing wall....
Finally he speaks to those in the middle, reading from Colossians: Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience. Bear with one another...
Bishop Hanson seems almost in tears and so, so weary.
[7.12] Now comes the opposition's remarks of capitulating to the culture, surrendering to the latest fad, and repudiating 2000 years of Christian witness.
Also so, so familiar.
Given their time crunch, only one such statement is read.
Where's the ark?
Posted on the Rutland Herald web just fifteen minutes ago:
A huge thunderstorm is pounding the Rutland area dropping more rain than the area can handle it.
Rutland City Fire Chief Robert Schlachter has said many buildings are flooding and people should stay away if they can.
"People should avoid downtown if at all possible," Schlachter said.
Flooding is being reported throughout the downtown area including the Asa Bloomer State Office Building, Bardwell House, the Transit Center, Granger Street, Pine Street. Hopkins Street and Clover Street.
Rutland City Police Lt. Kevin Geno warned people to be careful of driving during a radio interview.
"If (drivers) approach the water, they should be very careful going through," Geno said. "We're asking people to be really careful."
When the rain first started falling, Schlachter warned fire crews to prepare for a flooding situation.
"Get ready because it's going to be interesting," Rutland City Fire Chief Robert Schlachter over the department radio.
Fire crews and the police department is [sic] running from place to place answering a deluge of calls for assistance.
Lightning strikes created chaos with alarms. A power pole was struck on Main Street.
"The fire alarm here at City Hall is going off like a Christmas tree," Schlachter said.
The fire department has called in extra firefighters to help with the calls for assistance.
The Red Cross has been called in to help shelter people who have been displaced by the flooding.
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It is nuts. Our street is a river; the yards are ponds but so far, all is OK with the church (i.e., no fire alarm has been tripped). Last June the church flooded, so we spent $6000 to disconnect it from the city sewer line. Money well spent, given what this summer has been. The photo in the newspaper is of a restaurant right down the street from the church. So much for the last Friday downtown event tonight for the summer.
A huge thunderstorm is pounding the Rutland area dropping more rain than the area can handle it.
Rutland City Fire Chief Robert Schlachter has said many buildings are flooding and people should stay away if they can.
"People should avoid downtown if at all possible," Schlachter said.
Flooding is being reported throughout the downtown area including the Asa Bloomer State Office Building, Bardwell House, the Transit Center, Granger Street, Pine Street. Hopkins Street and Clover Street.
Rutland City Police Lt. Kevin Geno warned people to be careful of driving during a radio interview.
"If (drivers) approach the water, they should be very careful going through," Geno said. "We're asking people to be really careful."
When the rain first started falling, Schlachter warned fire crews to prepare for a flooding situation.
"Get ready because it's going to be interesting," Rutland City Fire Chief Robert Schlachter over the department radio.
Fire crews and the police department is [sic] running from place to place answering a deluge of calls for assistance.
Lightning strikes created chaos with alarms. A power pole was struck on Main Street.
"The fire alarm here at City Hall is going off like a Christmas tree," Schlachter said.
The fire department has called in extra firefighters to help with the calls for assistance.
The Red Cross has been called in to help shelter people who have been displaced by the flooding.
+++
It is nuts. Our street is a river; the yards are ponds but so far, all is OK with the church (i.e., no fire alarm has been tripped). Last June the church flooded, so we spent $6000 to disconnect it from the city sewer line. Money well spent, given what this summer has been. The photo in the newspaper is of a restaurant right down the street from the church. So much for the last Friday downtown event tonight for the summer.
And here be....
the author of Preludium in his natural habitat (Delaware, not necessarily an alb) in today's New York Times no less! Congrats.
Even better, the people are smiling leaving church.
20 August 2009
It's the truth!
It's almost midnight and the humidity is at 80% and it's 76 degrees outside.
This is Vermont, not somewhere way down south. I put up with this type weather in El Salvador because they know nothing else there but in Vermont, I know the weather can be dry and lovely.
Poor cats are dying of this heat. Orange Guy is lying on his back, paws in the air, by a window. La Doyenne is on the living room rug on her back, paws in the air. Young Guy is lying on the floor under my bed, receiving the breeze from two fans. And MABFP is under the dining room table.
As for me, I sit with a fan blowing on me. Soon a shower to try to get unsticky and then a fitful sleep, I am sure.
These days no cat wants to be near me.
What a crummy summer this has been. Pouring rain (all those days in July) and then into the sauna. Wretched.
18 August 2009
To the hills
Today it was off to Chittenden Reservoir (after a full day at work) for a swim. The place was hopping with people sitting around drinking beer, smoking (legal stuff), eating, swimming, boating... their dogs milling around. It was fun to swim with a bunch of ducks. I did keep my mouth shut, very shut!
We have canoed several times here. But more important, last summer we walked the Long Trail that goes along the ridgeline you see in the photo. We walked on a similarly hot and sticky day (today it was 91). The LT just goes up and up and up gradually (this photo does not show Telephone Gap), in a rather tedious fashion. There is one point where there is a lookout over the reservoir. Oh, how I wished I had wings to fly me down into the water for a swim and then take me back up to the trail!
Today, from the water, I thought of all those hot, hot hikers. Next week I will be one of them.
Now the sky is greying up which means we may well have a thunderstorm.
17 August 2009
Hot days in the summer
After slogging it out in the city where it was 93 degrees, staying in the rectory in the one AC room to work, I headed for the hills, gaining 1000 feet in elevation and... best of all, going to Woodward Reservoir for a swim. Lots of kayakers out and one other swimmer.
It helped lower the core temperature some for a while. And it was good to be back in the water.
Tomorrow, photos of HOT kitties.
Proper 15B
One of the funniest Russell Baker columns in the New York Times I remember from years ago was his explaining the best book to take on summer vacation: Marcel Proust’s In Search of Times Past (A la recherche du temps perdu). Baker wrote this column well before the publication of the Harry Potter books, one consisting of 732 pages. Chosen because Proust’s writing goes on forever and would certainly last the reader a whole summer (it took me three months to get through half of it in French), his book is a monumental 3000 page opus, divided into seven or nine books (depending on who publishes them). The act of remembering the past begins when Proust dips a madeleine cookie (something like pound cake in the shape of a sea shell) into a cup of tea. Suddenly, he is transported to his childhood and his aunt’s house, doing the same thing. What is most remarkable about Proust’s writing is his capacity to take a single event — a three hour dinner for example — and create 60-70 pages about it. In one memorable description, one sentences goes on for some three pages. I can’t remember how many words it is — I counted them up once and it was something between 500 and 800 words, but then again, French has so many one and two-letter words.
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John’s Bread of Life discourse does pretty much the same thing on a smaller but much more important scale. This Sunday we hear the last installment of a forty-verse teaching on the significance of the bread that Jesus gives his followers. If there is a sense of déjà vu having heard this morning’s gospel, one is correct. But the teaching also progresses and this morning John’s Jesus gets to the heart of the matter: namely, to eat Christ’s flesh and drink his blood, one must also participate in the crucifixion. Indeed, verse 58 of this gospel passage is the crux of the entire teaching in chapter six: The one who eats this bread will live forever.
John’s Jesus goes far beyond the metaphorical interpretation of Passover bread and wine familiar to us from the last supper scenes in the other three gospels. Here, he speaks with shocking literalness of eating his flesh and drinking his blood. (The Greek term is to ‘munch’ on him.) To Christians familiar with the eucharistic rite, this language would have been dramatic; to outsiders it would be completely scandalous.
The place in which Jesus speaks furthers the dissonance between his teaching and those listening. He teaches in the synagogue in Capernium. Speaking words about eating his flesh and drinking his blood would have certainly offended those who lived their lives according to the teachings of Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Their way of living was based on maintaining a high level of purity. Eating anything that had shed blood was considered unclean. How could this Jewish teacher then invite people to break with the approved norms in such an offensive way?
No doubt about it — Jesus as we meet him in this gospel is demanding, almost aggressive. He takes on the crowds, and through them attacks their and our ignorance, listlessness and spiritual comfort. He challenges them and us to consider the connections among four things we might not necessarily bring together: Jesus’ passion, bread, life and God.
Once again Jesus says that he is the bread of life. But this time he insists on the sheer physical nature of this bread. It is his flesh — the flesh that will be crucified, the body that will be raised up on the cross. This bread, this flesh, he states, I will give for the world.
And then he talks about his blood that will be shed, the blood that flow from his pierced side. He speaks to us in life and death terms. Terms that shock us into awareness that the meal of which we partake week in and week out is something awesome, beyond our real understanding, but something so necessary to our well-being that its shocking nature sustains us. For the meal of which we partake is the only one that can bring us close to God. Jesus makes clear that those who eat his flesh and drink his blood will have eternal life, they will be raised up on the last day; those who eat his flesh and drink his blood abide in him, and he in them.
The idea of abiding in Christ and Christ abiding in us is what gives us life — not just now but always. John’s gospel is fond of the term ‘to abide’; it appears over and over again throughout the gospel. Knowing that through our receiving of the body and blood of Christ we are joined to him and he to us surely is something which sustains us.
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I know that however it is possible, I will want to receive communion up until the very end, even on my deathbed. I will want to be connected with Christ in that intimate way for as long as it is possible, because I have known over the years how the eucharist has sustained me, even through the desert times. I have seen how the familiar eucharistic words — This is my body, this is my blood — reach and touch the dying, even those who are past the point of communication. Even if in great pain, the person seems to relax, having received communion whether it be by actually consuming the bread and wine or a receiving by a simple placing of a drop of Christ’s blood on their lips. There seems to be just that much more serenity in the person’s soul as she or he travels closer to God and eternal life. I pray that in that moment, the dying person knows that Christ dwells in his or her soul and that he or she dwells in Christ and that Christ has come very close.
A couple of years ago, I attended the funeral of the husband of a colleague. We clergy types were seated off to the side of the church and, as things ended up, I was next to the font. When it came time for communion, it was clear that we weren’t going to be able to get up to the altar rail so we passed the paten and then the chalice amongst ourselves. In our neck of the woods, that meant reaching over the font to the next person. Somehow it all made sense and wonderfully so: in the midst of death, there is life. And the life that sustains us is the bread of life and cup of salvation. And how do we get there? Through baptism, expressed through those living waters in which we die to the old to be born anew in Christ, baptism that will carry us to our dying day. My sister priest later commented on how powerful it was to receive communion, her hands outstretched, over the font. It really was.
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What about us? Those of us gathered here this morning are perhaps not physically dying but perhaps there is a part of our lives or souls that is dying…dying to the old, dying to the unhealthy, dying to the familiar. How does partaking of the eucharist bring some life to those desert places in our hearts that are dying? How does partaking of the eucharist sustain the weary body? How does partaking of the eucharist remind us that Christ abides in us and we in Christ? How does partaking of the eucharist bring us hope?
Come, eat of Christ’s flesh and drink of his blood… for those who do so will live for ever for he will abide in us and we in him.
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John’s Bread of Life discourse does pretty much the same thing on a smaller but much more important scale. This Sunday we hear the last installment of a forty-verse teaching on the significance of the bread that Jesus gives his followers. If there is a sense of déjà vu having heard this morning’s gospel, one is correct. But the teaching also progresses and this morning John’s Jesus gets to the heart of the matter: namely, to eat Christ’s flesh and drink his blood, one must also participate in the crucifixion. Indeed, verse 58 of this gospel passage is the crux of the entire teaching in chapter six: The one who eats this bread will live forever.
John’s Jesus goes far beyond the metaphorical interpretation of Passover bread and wine familiar to us from the last supper scenes in the other three gospels. Here, he speaks with shocking literalness of eating his flesh and drinking his blood. (The Greek term is to ‘munch’ on him.) To Christians familiar with the eucharistic rite, this language would have been dramatic; to outsiders it would be completely scandalous.
The place in which Jesus speaks furthers the dissonance between his teaching and those listening. He teaches in the synagogue in Capernium. Speaking words about eating his flesh and drinking his blood would have certainly offended those who lived their lives according to the teachings of Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Their way of living was based on maintaining a high level of purity. Eating anything that had shed blood was considered unclean. How could this Jewish teacher then invite people to break with the approved norms in such an offensive way?
No doubt about it — Jesus as we meet him in this gospel is demanding, almost aggressive. He takes on the crowds, and through them attacks their and our ignorance, listlessness and spiritual comfort. He challenges them and us to consider the connections among four things we might not necessarily bring together: Jesus’ passion, bread, life and God.
Once again Jesus says that he is the bread of life. But this time he insists on the sheer physical nature of this bread. It is his flesh — the flesh that will be crucified, the body that will be raised up on the cross. This bread, this flesh, he states, I will give for the world.
And then he talks about his blood that will be shed, the blood that flow from his pierced side. He speaks to us in life and death terms. Terms that shock us into awareness that the meal of which we partake week in and week out is something awesome, beyond our real understanding, but something so necessary to our well-being that its shocking nature sustains us. For the meal of which we partake is the only one that can bring us close to God. Jesus makes clear that those who eat his flesh and drink his blood will have eternal life, they will be raised up on the last day; those who eat his flesh and drink his blood abide in him, and he in them.
The idea of abiding in Christ and Christ abiding in us is what gives us life — not just now but always. John’s gospel is fond of the term ‘to abide’; it appears over and over again throughout the gospel. Knowing that through our receiving of the body and blood of Christ we are joined to him and he to us surely is something which sustains us.
+
I know that however it is possible, I will want to receive communion up until the very end, even on my deathbed. I will want to be connected with Christ in that intimate way for as long as it is possible, because I have known over the years how the eucharist has sustained me, even through the desert times. I have seen how the familiar eucharistic words — This is my body, this is my blood — reach and touch the dying, even those who are past the point of communication. Even if in great pain, the person seems to relax, having received communion whether it be by actually consuming the bread and wine or a receiving by a simple placing of a drop of Christ’s blood on their lips. There seems to be just that much more serenity in the person’s soul as she or he travels closer to God and eternal life. I pray that in that moment, the dying person knows that Christ dwells in his or her soul and that he or she dwells in Christ and that Christ has come very close.
A couple of years ago, I attended the funeral of the husband of a colleague. We clergy types were seated off to the side of the church and, as things ended up, I was next to the font. When it came time for communion, it was clear that we weren’t going to be able to get up to the altar rail so we passed the paten and then the chalice amongst ourselves. In our neck of the woods, that meant reaching over the font to the next person. Somehow it all made sense and wonderfully so: in the midst of death, there is life. And the life that sustains us is the bread of life and cup of salvation. And how do we get there? Through baptism, expressed through those living waters in which we die to the old to be born anew in Christ, baptism that will carry us to our dying day. My sister priest later commented on how powerful it was to receive communion, her hands outstretched, over the font. It really was.
+
What about us? Those of us gathered here this morning are perhaps not physically dying but perhaps there is a part of our lives or souls that is dying…dying to the old, dying to the unhealthy, dying to the familiar. How does partaking of the eucharist bring some life to those desert places in our hearts that are dying? How does partaking of the eucharist sustain the weary body? How does partaking of the eucharist remind us that Christ abides in us and we in Christ? How does partaking of the eucharist bring us hope?
Come, eat of Christ’s flesh and drink of his blood… for those who do so will live for ever for he will abide in us and we in him.
15 August 2009
Feast of Mary, mother of Jesus
Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary 2009
92nd anniversary of the birth of Oscar Romero
It seems as though every year around this time, I find myself looking up at the sky, wanting to see a shooting star. Of course it is the season of the Perseids, the annual meteor shower, that graces the second week of August. It just seems right to stand outside, looking heavenward, hoping to see a falling star.
Even though it is an annual celestial occurrence, scientifically noted, I love the coincidence that the meteor shower always happens the week of that we observe the feast of the Virgin Mary. After all, we celebrate the feast of the woman who was the God-bearer. It is almost impossible not to be partly transported to Christmas Eve, when we look heavenward to find the guiding star. It is almost impossible in the middle of summer not to think of Mary with her new-born child, and want to touch the hope that comes with that moment, found in a bright star.
My mind jumps to the heavens again. Whenever the weather is going to change, the Fairbanks Museum guys speak of a disturbance in the skies. The disturbance might be halfway across the country in Minnesota, but we know that eventually it will make its way to Vermont and do whatever it is going to do.
God’s asking Mary to be the God-bearer truly was a moment of Holy , heavenly Disturbance. Did Mary have any idea when she said YES to God just what sort of a disturbance was going to happen in her world? Did she have any idea really that the child she was going to bear would turn her world upside down? Did she understand how her life would be forever changed by that conversation with the angel?
Her words certainly speak of that upheaval. Even at the moment of saying YES to God, Mary proclaims outrageous words of reversals. And I still wonder, Did she really know what she was doing, what she was saying? Did she really want the world to be so changed? How did she do it? How did she trust?
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Today also is what would have been Archbishop Oscar Romero’s 92nd birthday. I can see the decorations and signs that surely have been placed at his tomb in the cathedral crypt in San Salvador. Even though the powers that be gussied up his tomb in 2005 and tried to block it off from world-wide pilgrims, I am sure that the people have prevailed and have connected with their saint. (The tip of his mitre in the bronze relief that makes up his new tomb has already become burnished from people, including myself, touching it in attempts to connect with Romero.) Romero exemplifies what it means to say YES to God in the way Mary did, and how that YES leads to holy disturbances that create upheaval in the community, upheaval that leads to a more just society. Not all of us, however, will be martyred as was Romero for saying YES to God.
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I sometimes struggle with complacency. I wrestle with how I do or don’t say YES to God with the same openness and honesty that scripture portrays Mary doing. I tend to gravitate away from Holy Disturbances.
So am I surprised when in today’s mail I receive a publication that has the following prayer? It is a four-fold Franciscan blessing and the only change I am going to make in it is to change the pronouns from ‘you’ to ‘us’ and ‘we.’ I think this prayer speaks to the example that Mary gave us of saying YES to that Holy Disturbance of God —an example that if we say we are followers of her son, we should live out in our daily life. I invite you to pray this with me silently as I read it aloud.
May God bless us with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships, so that we may live deep within our heart.
May God bless us with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that we may work for justice, freedom and peace.
May God bless us with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war, so that we may reach out our hand to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy.
May God bless us with enough foolishness to believe that we can make a difference in this world, so that we can do what others claim cannot be done.
And I add to this prayer, May our lives be touched by a Holy Disturbance so that we, too, can say YES to God as our sister Mary did so long ago.
Amen.
92nd anniversary of the birth of Oscar Romero
It seems as though every year around this time, I find myself looking up at the sky, wanting to see a shooting star. Of course it is the season of the Perseids, the annual meteor shower, that graces the second week of August. It just seems right to stand outside, looking heavenward, hoping to see a falling star.
Even though it is an annual celestial occurrence, scientifically noted, I love the coincidence that the meteor shower always happens the week of that we observe the feast of the Virgin Mary. After all, we celebrate the feast of the woman who was the God-bearer. It is almost impossible not to be partly transported to Christmas Eve, when we look heavenward to find the guiding star. It is almost impossible in the middle of summer not to think of Mary with her new-born child, and want to touch the hope that comes with that moment, found in a bright star.
My mind jumps to the heavens again. Whenever the weather is going to change, the Fairbanks Museum guys speak of a disturbance in the skies. The disturbance might be halfway across the country in Minnesota, but we know that eventually it will make its way to Vermont and do whatever it is going to do.
God’s asking Mary to be the God-bearer truly was a moment of Holy , heavenly Disturbance. Did Mary have any idea when she said YES to God just what sort of a disturbance was going to happen in her world? Did she have any idea really that the child she was going to bear would turn her world upside down? Did she understand how her life would be forever changed by that conversation with the angel?
Her words certainly speak of that upheaval. Even at the moment of saying YES to God, Mary proclaims outrageous words of reversals. And I still wonder, Did she really know what she was doing, what she was saying? Did she really want the world to be so changed? How did she do it? How did she trust?
+
Today also is what would have been Archbishop Oscar Romero’s 92nd birthday. I can see the decorations and signs that surely have been placed at his tomb in the cathedral crypt in San Salvador. Even though the powers that be gussied up his tomb in 2005 and tried to block it off from world-wide pilgrims, I am sure that the people have prevailed and have connected with their saint. (The tip of his mitre in the bronze relief that makes up his new tomb has already become burnished from people, including myself, touching it in attempts to connect with Romero.) Romero exemplifies what it means to say YES to God in the way Mary did, and how that YES leads to holy disturbances that create upheaval in the community, upheaval that leads to a more just society. Not all of us, however, will be martyred as was Romero for saying YES to God.
+
I sometimes struggle with complacency. I wrestle with how I do or don’t say YES to God with the same openness and honesty that scripture portrays Mary doing. I tend to gravitate away from Holy Disturbances.
So am I surprised when in today’s mail I receive a publication that has the following prayer? It is a four-fold Franciscan blessing and the only change I am going to make in it is to change the pronouns from ‘you’ to ‘us’ and ‘we.’ I think this prayer speaks to the example that Mary gave us of saying YES to that Holy Disturbance of God —an example that if we say we are followers of her son, we should live out in our daily life. I invite you to pray this with me silently as I read it aloud.
May God bless us with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships, so that we may live deep within our heart.
May God bless us with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that we may work for justice, freedom and peace.
May God bless us with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war, so that we may reach out our hand to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy.
May God bless us with enough foolishness to believe that we can make a difference in this world, so that we can do what others claim cannot be done.
And I add to this prayer, May our lives be touched by a Holy Disturbance so that we, too, can say YES to God as our sister Mary did so long ago.
Amen.
Feast Day of Mary
After all these years of observing the Feast of Mary with a high mass, incense, bells, music and all, it is a bit anticlimactic to say a eucharist this evening but it is better than nothing. My new congregation is not accustomed to having many of the feasts observed, but in time, maybe more will show up. I am feeling rather nostalgic right now... I did so love being at a parish called 'Mary.'
Meanwhile, YG decides that the only way to understand the BCP is to stick his head in it.
Bernie Sander's town hall meeting
Given that his town hall meeting was at the Unitarian Universalist church right next door to my church, I figured I should show up [it's the only time our parking lot is stuffed, sad smile]. It's a pity it was there because the church only seats 200 and there had to have been about 500 people. So 300 poor souls ended up standing in the blazing sun while the rest of us sweltered in the stuffy but shady church.
Bernie started off by saying that many town hall meetings have been disrupted by loud protesters and that 'this is not the Vermont way.' For the most part, people kept things in check but, oh!, the anger that is out there is scary. Worse, the gullibility of people is depressing.
It didn't take too long for someone to make a veiled reference to 'death panels' and an hour later someone came out and spoke of 'euthanasia.' Bernie emphatically refuted that nonsense. There was one woman bordering on being out-of-control who brought up the 'socialist' bit as in, 'I don't want my country to become socialist.' And there were those who said they did not want a single payer system.
Bernie retorted: How many of you want to see Medicare go away? No one raised their hand. How many of you want Dr Dinosaur [Vermont-based program that guarantees medical coverage for children] stop? No one raised their hand. How many of you want the VA to go away? Only a few hands. Raising his voice: THOSE ARE SINGLE PAYER SYSTEMS!
I left after an hour and a quarter mostly because I couldn't countenance the anger in the room. It was disturbing. I had gotten the flavour of it. I was discouraged but not really surprised to see signs like: Barack Hussein Obama (that was the barely in control woman) and there were a bunch of people dressed up like colonialists à la Boston tea party (there's some organisation out there).
On the other hand, there were more supporters than not, though not in an overwhelming majority.
As I sat there, I thought back to General Convention... Since there were people outside, Bernie would take four pro and four con questions from inside, then go outside, do the same... sort of shuttle diplomacy. He also answered and commented on questions so I doubt more than 35 people actually got to speak.
There were cards for us to fill out so I did, reflecting on my $815 trip to the ER, how the woman who stitched me up didn't see that money and how for someone without insurance, that could put them over the edge.
Now to get ready for family visiting, the Feast of Saint Mary tonight, and tomorrow.
12 August 2009
Blogging slow down
Just so you know I am still alive... photo does not apply to why I have been silent — it just makes me laugh. That cat is sitting upon the towel rack (initially I thought it was the curtain rod but it's too low)!
07 August 2009
Friday cat blogging
Some updates on the felines.
I put MABFP in the window so of course YG decided he had to be in it, too. I moved him so she could stay put but she watched warily.
MABFP spent the day at the vet today because she has been having accidents around the house. Nothing conclusive yet though the diagnosis was unthriftiness, that is her ability to thrive isn't great... no kidding. Poor old girl... after her past, it's amazing she is still alive. We'll know more on Monday from the lab work.
Every once in a while YG gets the crazies which means he jumps from a small table onto a rickety CD holder (the screws all stripped as I assembled it) to the top of the bookcase. He still hasn't figured out the ceilings here are a foot or so lower than in the previous rectory.
We know how this sequence goes... Friend....
... foe (it always disintegrates)...
They stayed in this frozen position for quite some time until YG gave up and jumped in the window.
The next day they were in the same places. These were muggy days so they were all stretched out. The towels are to protect the bedspread from MABFP's accidents (under the towels are shower curtains).
Ever since I first saw YG eight years ago on a hot August day, he has liked to stretch out this way between two places that hold him in place.
Tempting tummy to snorgle.
Does he qualify for the silly sleeping poses olympics?
And yet another hot summer day....
Hi there.
Orange Guy is around but wasn't doing anything extraordinary (other than sleeping).
I put MABFP in the window so of course YG decided he had to be in it, too. I moved him so she could stay put but she watched warily.
MABFP spent the day at the vet today because she has been having accidents around the house. Nothing conclusive yet though the diagnosis was unthriftiness, that is her ability to thrive isn't great... no kidding. Poor old girl... after her past, it's amazing she is still alive. We'll know more on Monday from the lab work.
Every once in a while YG gets the crazies which means he jumps from a small table onto a rickety CD holder (the screws all stripped as I assembled it) to the top of the bookcase. He still hasn't figured out the ceilings here are a foot or so lower than in the previous rectory.
We know how this sequence goes... Friend....
... foe (it always disintegrates)...
They stayed in this frozen position for quite some time until YG gave up and jumped in the window.
The next day they were in the same places. These were muggy days so they were all stretched out. The towels are to protect the bedspread from MABFP's accidents (under the towels are shower curtains).
Ever since I first saw YG eight years ago on a hot August day, he has liked to stretch out this way between two places that hold him in place.
Tempting tummy to snorgle.
Does he qualify for the silly sleeping poses olympics?
And yet another hot summer day....
Hi there.
Orange Guy is around but wasn't doing anything extraordinary (other than sleeping).
Feast of the Transfiguration
taken with my iPhone — yes, that is the thurible to the left of the photo. Since people are not accustomed to smoke, I crank it up 45 minutes before the service, get the place smelling right and then retire the thurible before the liturgy begins. Some love it and are delighted to have incense and others.... The red candles represent the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Photo quality isn't very good so you can't tell the different colours of green — the pulpit fall is material from Kenya, I think — I bought it at the San Diego Zoo! The altar frontal is material from Guatemala I bought 22 (yikes) years ago.
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The Feast of the Transfiguration, one of the major church feasts of the year, always seems out of place to me because it comes a week before the Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It’s also peculiar because we also observe the Transfiguration on the Last Sunday of Epiphany (January or February) and lastly because it comes in the middle of the summer, in the thirteenth week of ‘common’ or ‘ordinary time.’
I can’t help but come to the Feast of the Transfiguration aware of the other levels of significance attributed to this day. Just as the day seems jumbled to me by its timing in the church year, the many layers of significance to this date in history make my mind jump all over. Here are some of my unrelated thoughts (!):
Not only is it a major feast in the Anglican Church, it is the national feast day of El Salvador. On or near to the Feast of the Transfiguration, the country and its expatriates celebrate the Saviour of the World, Salvador del Mundo, with masses and processions. Up to 13000 people will gather in San Salvador, in front of the Metropolitan Cathedral to process a statue of Our Saviour.
I’ve always loved the fact that after I visit the Cathedral in San Salvador, when I hop on microbus 44 to get back up to the church where I stay, I have to say: El Mundo—the World—short for Saviour of the World. Maybe locals are inured to what this means — it’s a statue of Christ with uplifted hands in the middle of a roundabout but I have always appreciated that a bus stop really is a symbol of Christ’s love for the world.
We can remember today the people of El Salvador as they recognise the One whose name they call their own, ‘Saviour.’ They have had many prophets lead them to new life-giving ways of life and they are trying now to be a people of hope, despite so many difficulties.
Today also is the 64th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. People gather in Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima to mark the anniversary of the world's first atomic bomb attack.
Doubtless, the following scene will take place, as described in a report from the 60th anniversary observances:
‘For a brief moment, the trolleys stopped and the city fell silent. Then, with offerings of water and flowers for the dead, Hiroshima remembered how a flash in the early morning sky 60 years ago turned life to death for more than 140,000 and forever changed the face of war.… Hiroshima officials now put the total number of the dead in this city alone at 237,062.
‘The ceremony was an austere one.
‘A moment of silence was observed at 8:15 a.m., the instant of the blast, and after a flock of doves was released into the sky. Then wreaths and ladles of water — symbolizing the suffering of those who died in the atomic inferno — were offered at a simple, arch-shaped stone monument at the center of the park.’
Today is also the 49th anniversary of signing of the Equal Voting Rights Act, which enabled all people to exercise their right to vote. Lyndon Johnson signed the bill, created in response to many civil rights marches in the south. Perhaps the largest march was in Montgomery, Alabama where twenty-five thousand people, called together by Martin Luther King, Jr, marched to demand their right to vote. The 1965 Voting Rights Act outlawed literacy tests, poll taxes and all other barriers, which prevented blacks from voting.
[Someone added in at the HE that I should have said something about Judge Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation going through today as a historic moment. Consider it added.]
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How do these three threads relate to the Feast of the Transfiguration? In a word, the Incarnation, God becoming flesh in Jesus, God taking upon God’s self our human nature, our human suffering, and our human limitations. The Incarnation, God, in Christ, who suffers with us, and walks still with us and dies with us so that we might live eternally because God loves us so deeply.
And since God has created us, we find in each other God’s glory and God’s image… despite all the tragedies and sadness that surround us, despite the wrong choices we make, despite the wars we create (even if we believe they are just, the very nature of war is death).
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The gospel reading begins by saying that eight days have happened after Peter’s confession to Jesus, the Messiah of God. Peter, James, and John accompany Jesus up the mountain, away from the plain where he has finished preaching. The end of Jesus’ Galilean ministry has come; Jesus now resolutely turns his face to Jerusalem and the passion, his death. At this turning point of the gospel and where the focus now shifts to the march to the cross, the action literally picks up.
While up on the mountain to pray, Jesus is joined by two well known historical figures, Moses and Elijah. They speak to Jesus about his exodus, which he is about to fulfill in Jerusalem. Jesus’ witnesses, Peter, James, and John, sleep through the encounter, perhaps explaining Peter’s garbled response when he finally comes to.
As the disciples are figuring out what is going on around them, a cloud overshadows them. Once again, Jesus is identified for who he is but this time, the identification comes from a heavenly voice which declares, ‘This is my Son, my chosen One.’ The voice adds a directive, ‘Listen to him,’ a command that in other gospels and this one also happens at the moment of Jesus’ baptism.
If we listen to Jesus, we also must keep in mind the two figures that appear to Jesus on the mountain, Moses and Elijah. Moses seemingly represents the prophetic office that Jesus will occupy — the voice calling us to be people of the Beatitudes, while Elijah pictures the hope of the world to come — the promise that we can hold out to those around us. Jesus will function as a Moses-like figure who will draw people around himself in much the way that Moses drew together the nation of Israel. With Jesus comes a new period, a new age, a new way of living and being God’s people, a new way of relating to God. And so Elijah is present on the mountain as a reminder of another time when people related to God in new, life-giving ways.
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Each age has had its prophets; each generation has had its saints and martyrs.
Whether it is the people of El Salvador processing their statue of Jesus through the streets of their capitol city, or the world citizens gathering at the Peace Palace in Hiroshima, or US citizens gathering at voting booths throughout the land, we strive to live out Christ’s teachings and listen to God’s beloved Son. One by one, voice by voice, person by person, you and I can bring about God’s dream of a new age where all is made perfect, all is made new. All we must do is listen… listen to God’s beloved, God’s chosen—not just Christ, but each one of us because we are all God’s chosen, God’s beloved, God’s saints.
05 August 2009
Call it as it is
This came in an email this morning and I can only credit it as below:
RNS
COMMENTARY: Memo to Canterbury: Episcopalians have a life
By TOM EHRICH
c. 2009 Religion News Service
(UNDATED) Now that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has slapped my church's wrists for refusing to marginalize homosexuals and has threatened to have us become second-class citizens in the Anglican Communion, I say this to Archbishop Williams:
The Episcopal Church has a life. Not a perfect life. In fact, a messy one, a life that could be more than it is. But we do have a life. That life preceded the formation of the Anglican Communion. That life will survive our being marginalized within the Anglican Communion.
There's nothing we do in our congregations that depends on the Anglican Communion. You have become a weapon in a siege war being waged by a minority who has been resisting change in the Episcopal Church for 50 years.
The first votes were close, but the anti-change position has steadily lost ground. Not because the church came under an evil spell, but because people's minds and hearts shifted and their understandings of God and mission changed. That happens.
The anti-change minority fights on, however, for by now their fretful arguments against changing “Thou” to “You” and “he” to “he or she” have advanced to holy war against homosexuals.
The battle isn't about God. It's about fear, control and property. The anti-change minority wants to reclaim a world that no longer exists. They want to seize property that doesn't belong to them. Archbishop, you are being used.
If it's any consolation, Archbishop, I don't like some of the changes in my church, either. I think we have rewarded institutional tinkering and stopped dreaming. We depend on style and not substance. We worry about inherited property and not about the world outside our doors. We fuss about who is ordained when we should be nurturing healthy congregations.
Fear abounds. Fear of offending longtime members and deep-pocket givers. Fear of speaking freely and dreaming grandly. Fear of trying hard and maybe failing. Fear of preaching a Gospel that is far more radical than anything we have said.
But many are determined to get beyond fear. Not by instilling more fear, but by taking one brave step at a time, learning to be nimble and to listen, learning from our failures, taking risks.
The dilemma facing Episcopalians is that “soon and very soon we are going to see the King.” Our buildings may crumble, our endowments may tumble, and all we have left is each other and our faith. We could be worshipping in open fields and strip malls.
Will we have any song to sing when the great pipe organs are stilled? Will we have any prayer to say when comfortable pews are gone? Will we sit in circles of love when nice parlors are sold? Will we love our neighbors when we cannot hire staff to do it for us?
I think we will have that faith. I think we already have it. It's just hard to see when so much energy goes into institutionalism and fighting.
I think our best days lie ahead. I doubt that our future will bear much resemblance to our past. But we will discover, once the burden of inherited overhead is lifted, that we have much to give.
And so, Archbishop, rather than try to stir even more fear in a church struggling with fear, I suggest you join Jesus in the commandment he actually did give: “Do not be afraid.”
(Tom Ehrich is a writer, church consultant and Episcopal priest based in New York. He is the author of “Just Wondering, Jesus,” and the founder of the Church Wellness Project, www.churchwellness.com. His Web site is www.morningwalkmedia.com.)
RNS
COMMENTARY: Memo to Canterbury: Episcopalians have a life
By TOM EHRICH
c. 2009 Religion News Service
(UNDATED) Now that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has slapped my church's wrists for refusing to marginalize homosexuals and has threatened to have us become second-class citizens in the Anglican Communion, I say this to Archbishop Williams:
The Episcopal Church has a life. Not a perfect life. In fact, a messy one, a life that could be more than it is. But we do have a life. That life preceded the formation of the Anglican Communion. That life will survive our being marginalized within the Anglican Communion.
There's nothing we do in our congregations that depends on the Anglican Communion. You have become a weapon in a siege war being waged by a minority who has been resisting change in the Episcopal Church for 50 years.
The first votes were close, but the anti-change position has steadily lost ground. Not because the church came under an evil spell, but because people's minds and hearts shifted and their understandings of God and mission changed. That happens.
The anti-change minority fights on, however, for by now their fretful arguments against changing “Thou” to “You” and “he” to “he or she” have advanced to holy war against homosexuals.
The battle isn't about God. It's about fear, control and property. The anti-change minority wants to reclaim a world that no longer exists. They want to seize property that doesn't belong to them. Archbishop, you are being used.
If it's any consolation, Archbishop, I don't like some of the changes in my church, either. I think we have rewarded institutional tinkering and stopped dreaming. We depend on style and not substance. We worry about inherited property and not about the world outside our doors. We fuss about who is ordained when we should be nurturing healthy congregations.
Fear abounds. Fear of offending longtime members and deep-pocket givers. Fear of speaking freely and dreaming grandly. Fear of trying hard and maybe failing. Fear of preaching a Gospel that is far more radical than anything we have said.
But many are determined to get beyond fear. Not by instilling more fear, but by taking one brave step at a time, learning to be nimble and to listen, learning from our failures, taking risks.
The dilemma facing Episcopalians is that “soon and very soon we are going to see the King.” Our buildings may crumble, our endowments may tumble, and all we have left is each other and our faith. We could be worshipping in open fields and strip malls.
Will we have any song to sing when the great pipe organs are stilled? Will we have any prayer to say when comfortable pews are gone? Will we sit in circles of love when nice parlors are sold? Will we love our neighbors when we cannot hire staff to do it for us?
I think we will have that faith. I think we already have it. It's just hard to see when so much energy goes into institutionalism and fighting.
I think our best days lie ahead. I doubt that our future will bear much resemblance to our past. But we will discover, once the burden of inherited overhead is lifted, that we have much to give.
And so, Archbishop, rather than try to stir even more fear in a church struggling with fear, I suggest you join Jesus in the commandment he actually did give: “Do not be afraid.”
(Tom Ehrich is a writer, church consultant and Episcopal priest based in New York. He is the author of “Just Wondering, Jesus,” and the founder of the Church Wellness Project, www.churchwellness.com. His Web site is www.morningwalkmedia.com.)
04 August 2009
We're not crazy here... yet
July Rainfall: "It's brutal."
By SUSAN ALLEN
TIMES ARGUS STAFF - Published: August 4, 2009
MONTPELIER – It didn't just rain in July. It poured.
As the sun's rare appearance Monday sent Vermonters flocking to pools and golf courses to take advantage of the dry day, Worcester meteorologist Roger Hill said the July rainfall might have set records statewide.
"We've been blowing the doors off the norm," Hill said. Normal rainfall for July, based on numbers from 1970 to 2000, is about 3.6 inches; last month, Hill said, Vermont saw more than twice that amount, with 7.4 inches of rainfall.
Just as grim, he added, were the number of days that experienced some rain during the 24-hour period. In Montpelier, for example, it typically rains 12 to 14 days in July, but last month rain fell on 22 of 31 days.
"It's brutal," Hill said. And the rain-soaked forecasts have made him a wanted man, he joked, adding, "People are really nice, but they joke constantly – witness protection program for Roger.
"I hate to forecast it," he said. "It affects me just like it affects everybody else. People hate it. Psychologically, I have really let them down."
Hill said that while the news was bad all over the state – if you think excessive rainfall is bad news, that is – Rutland took the brunt of the pain. Typically, the Rutland area receives 4.58 inches of rain in July. Last month, he said, just under 13.6 inches dumped on the Rutland Southern Vermont Regional Airport.
More at the Times Argus website.
By SUSAN ALLEN
TIMES ARGUS STAFF - Published: August 4, 2009
MONTPELIER – It didn't just rain in July. It poured.
As the sun's rare appearance Monday sent Vermonters flocking to pools and golf courses to take advantage of the dry day, Worcester meteorologist Roger Hill said the July rainfall might have set records statewide.
"We've been blowing the doors off the norm," Hill said. Normal rainfall for July, based on numbers from 1970 to 2000, is about 3.6 inches; last month, Hill said, Vermont saw more than twice that amount, with 7.4 inches of rainfall.
Just as grim, he added, were the number of days that experienced some rain during the 24-hour period. In Montpelier, for example, it typically rains 12 to 14 days in July, but last month rain fell on 22 of 31 days.
"It's brutal," Hill said. And the rain-soaked forecasts have made him a wanted man, he joked, adding, "People are really nice, but they joke constantly – witness protection program for Roger.
"I hate to forecast it," he said. "It affects me just like it affects everybody else. People hate it. Psychologically, I have really let them down."
Hill said that while the news was bad all over the state – if you think excessive rainfall is bad news, that is – Rutland took the brunt of the pain. Typically, the Rutland area receives 4.58 inches of rain in July. Last month, he said, just under 13.6 inches dumped on the Rutland Southern Vermont Regional Airport.
More at the Times Argus website.
Behind the headline
Many headlines and lead sentences about the candidates in Los Angeles and Minnesota read something like this: 'Two Episcopal dioceses have nominated gay and lesbian priests in same-sex relationships to become bishops, testing a weeks-old policy and the Episcopal Church's place within the global Anglican Communion.'
What they don't always say is that the selection process had been going on well before what General Convention decided on the 14th of July (la fête de la Bastille!). Who knows what these dioceses might have done had GC not passed a resolution similar to D025... would they have gone ahead with the names or not?
My prayers are for all of them. May God hold them close.
+
Getting elected is going to get harder and harder with the news hounds on the net sniffing out people's sermons and newsletters. I probably would get hoisted up on a gibbet for some of what I have written in sermons. Just this past Sunday someone said at the end of the service that they liked the sermon but wanted me to say one more thing, that Jesus' death and resurrection forgave our sins. Knowing the person's background, of a much more Calvinist bent than Anglicanism, I knew that what they were getting at was that Jesus' death atoned for our sins. I have a real hard time with atonement theology, especially the notion that Jesus died for my personal sins and that it is all about personal salvation. I answered that when I get working on the Hebrew Scriptures, I tend to stay there and don't make the leap to the New Testament; it is implicit but I don't necessarily talk about it.
I appreciated the presiding bishop saying in her opening sermon that personal salvation was a heresy. Yes, because we are all connected and it is not just about Jesus and me.
But for this, I can be shot down for faulty theology.
[This post needs more fleshing out but it's time to go to work.]
What they don't always say is that the selection process had been going on well before what General Convention decided on the 14th of July (la fête de la Bastille!). Who knows what these dioceses might have done had GC not passed a resolution similar to D025... would they have gone ahead with the names or not?
My prayers are for all of them. May God hold them close.
+
Getting elected is going to get harder and harder with the news hounds on the net sniffing out people's sermons and newsletters. I probably would get hoisted up on a gibbet for some of what I have written in sermons. Just this past Sunday someone said at the end of the service that they liked the sermon but wanted me to say one more thing, that Jesus' death and resurrection forgave our sins. Knowing the person's background, of a much more Calvinist bent than Anglicanism, I knew that what they were getting at was that Jesus' death atoned for our sins. I have a real hard time with atonement theology, especially the notion that Jesus died for my personal sins and that it is all about personal salvation. I answered that when I get working on the Hebrew Scriptures, I tend to stay there and don't make the leap to the New Testament; it is implicit but I don't necessarily talk about it.
I appreciated the presiding bishop saying in her opening sermon that personal salvation was a heresy. Yes, because we are all connected and it is not just about Jesus and me.
But for this, I can be shot down for faulty theology.
[This post needs more fleshing out but it's time to go to work.]
03 August 2009
Lazy 24 hours
I finally took a real day off... leaving the city for the mountain last night (in the pouring rain) and then hanging out today in what was a perfect Vermont day, what we live for and what has been sorely lacking this summer.
We played Scrabble last night. Naomi's family gave me her Scrabble set as a reminder of her. While I was not playing with it last night, she inspired me. I drew an 'A' at the beginning, no question who would go first. And then I drew enough letters to go out on the first word. Not exciting: TARTARS, but it was worth 64 points. I thanked Naomi. And then this morning in the flower bed, Compa found a blue jay feather, not really common on our hill. So Naomi was very close.
After a morning of weeding and yanking out blackberry bushes from the asparagus, and picking lavender, it was time to put up the hammock... which the mice in the garage chewed up this winter.
Here's your idyllic summer scene with rocking chairs, view, hammock and pond.
And here is your Caminante enjoying hammock with iPod, New York Times magazine... and, yes, bug dope because the black flies are out.
Perfect day off.
We played Scrabble last night. Naomi's family gave me her Scrabble set as a reminder of her. While I was not playing with it last night, she inspired me. I drew an 'A' at the beginning, no question who would go first. And then I drew enough letters to go out on the first word. Not exciting: TARTARS, but it was worth 64 points. I thanked Naomi. And then this morning in the flower bed, Compa found a blue jay feather, not really common on our hill. So Naomi was very close.
After a morning of weeding and yanking out blackberry bushes from the asparagus, and picking lavender, it was time to put up the hammock... which the mice in the garage chewed up this winter.
Here's your idyllic summer scene with rocking chairs, view, hammock and pond.
And here is your Caminante enjoying hammock with iPod, New York Times magazine... and, yes, bug dope because the black flies are out.
Perfect day off.
02 August 2009
Proper 13B
The readings over the next couple of weeks make us deal with the nitty-gritty, nuts and bolts aspects of living our lives as followers of Jesus and God. They are not easy readings, some of them; they confront us and don’t leave us room to back away.
Last week after church, someone said to me: I was waiting for one thing in your sermon. I asked what it was. The answer: I was waiting for you to make the connection between the story of David and Uriah with the gospel reading about the feeding of the multitude. My answer: I wasn’t going to touch that with a ten-foot pole.
But today I am.
Since June we have been hearing from the Books of Samuel and the story of Samuel and then David. It would be far easier to ignore parts of it — such as what we have heard the past couple of weeks — but sometimes we have to enter into the tough places to be authentic.
Such is this morning’s narrative of David and Natan. The story of David and Bat-Sheva is considered the turning point in the Second Book of Samuel and it certainly is one of the greatest, if not most problematic, biblical tales. It is problematic because God seems supportive of a polygamous society (God gives David Saul’s harem) and now threatens to give David’s harem to another man. We have to deal not only with a distant social order but also with a strange deity.
Beyond that disconnect, tradition has always had a difficult time reconciling the important symbolic figure of David with the base way he appears in this story. Yet Second Samuel considers this story as the root of much that is to follow. Since part of our Anglican understanding of scripture is to look at everything without whitewashing it, we must also consider this story.
I won’t rehearse David’s adulterous raping of Bat-Sheva, but perhaps to clarify the reading we have just heard, you should remember that David has ordered Uriyya to be killed, since he would not sleep with his wife, Bat-Sheva. Uriyya, being a good Jewish warrior, knew that to do so before battle would make him unclean, and so he refused, thereby demolishing David’s alibi that Bat-Sheva was made pregnant by her husband and not by him.
Our reading starts with her learning of his death and David calling for her to come live with him. Life to seems to go on. But enter Natan — in Hebrew, ‘gift from God.’ He knows what David has done—the sin waged against Uriyya, Bat-Sheva, God and himself, David.
He doesn’t directly indict David; instead, he tells him a story. Since it’s a parable, David lets down his guard and doesn’t realise that the story is about him. He becomes outraged and calls for maximum punishment, death, for the man who killed his neighbour’s beloved sheep. Only then does Natan reveal to David that the story is about him.
David’s response is genuine, ‘I have sinned against the Lord.’ It is perhaps the first admission of weakness for this man who is God’s chosen, God’s favourite, God’s anointed. His words echo those of Psalm 51, a psalm of repentence, which we always say on Ash Wednesday.
Despite David’s calling for death for the slayer of the sheep, Natan — now the relayer of God’s gift — will assure David of God’s mercy and that God will not put him to death for his gross misdeed but God will put away his sin. The question is whether David can accept God’s generosity and learn from having received that forgiveness to extend it to others.
How does David react to this forgiveness of his grave sin? David, is not able to receive God’s gift of forgiveness, he can’t open his heart to it, despite having a messenger from God telling him of this gift. It will take him a long, long time to accept God’s gracious forgiveness.
+
Martin Smith, formerly of SSJE, wrote in his classic book on reconciliation, ‘God’s forgiveness is not the reward for having changed one’s life, but the source and condition of that change. Persons forgiven by God can be expected to show by their behavior the new life they enjoy.’ [I loaned the book to someone four years ago, never got it back but it is his 1980s book, Reconciliation, Cowley Press, Cambridge MA.]
+
Jesus never promised that this life of Christian discipleship would be easy. I think extending and receiving forgiveness might be one of the most difficult but life-giving tasks of a disciple.
Radical forgiveness, mirrors God’s absolute love for us. Forgiveness in God’s way means we respect one another. One example comes from Archbishop Desmond Tutu (who is slated to receive a Presidential Medal of Honor) who explains that in Ubuntu theology (that of his homeland), the word ubuntu speaks about the essence of being human: my humanity is caught up in your humanity because a person is a person through other persons. 'Ntu' means human being. In Ubuntu thinking, one sets great store by communal peace and harmony. Anything that subverts this harmony is injurious, not just to the community but to all of us, and therefore forgiveness is an absolute necessity for continued human existence.
‘Forgiveness is not pretending that things are other than they are,’ explains Tutu. ‘Forgiveness is the willingness to face up to the awfulness of what would require forgiving but foregoing the right to retaliate.’ Forgiveness ‘wanting to give others a chance for a new beginning.’
The question is: are our souls so hardened that not even a kind and compassionate God who forgives endlessly can touch us? And, are our souls so hardened that we cannot extend that same forgiveness to others?
What unites us all is God’s vast, unceasing mercy, a mercy so great that it forgives where no human being would ever be able to forgive. With that knowledge, we can take tentative steps toward forgiveness — against God, our neighbour and ourselves. I always add in that last word, ‘ourselves,’ because we just as easily hurt ourselves as we do others. We need to acknowledge that sin as well.
Part of forgiving lies in these six simple words: ‘Deal with it and move on.’ There are different ways of looking at forgiveness. Sometimes it’s forgiving, then living into the feeling, rather than waiting to be ready to do it. And sometimes forgiving entails a more careful, methodical approach. Whichever way we approach forgiveness, it must be a mainstay of our Christian journey.
On thing people in a twelve-step program do is write up a list of their resentments. It’s part of the fourth step of making a searching and fearless moral inventory of oneself — like the steps one takes before making a confession. Periodically doing this step can be useful for us too if seeking forgiveness and letting go is what we need in our life. You start off in the first column with the who. Then in the second, you write the what, what the person did to you. Some can go way back. Next, you look at what aspect of your life is being affected — self-esteem, pocketbook, ambitions, personal relationships, where you were hurt or threatened. Then you write about their part in it — this is where you need to spend the most time because it always involves you.
Then you go back to the list and acknowledge that those who have harmed you are also weak or have behaved inappropriately or have their own issues. As the Big Book says, ‘We avoid retaliation or argument,’ since we don’t treat sick people that way. ‘We ask Gd to show us how to treat them with tolerance, pity, and patience. We pray that Gd will do for them all the things we want Gd to do for us.’ These steps are essential for recovery or, in our terms, forgiveness, or these resentments will continue to dominate us.
But there is more:
We then list next to each name our role in what happened. We look for our own mistakes. Where have we been selfish, dishonest, self-seeking or frightened? Where were we to blame? We do not take the other person’s inventory but our own.
Sometimes when it’s in blue and white on paper and ink, you realise that some resentments aren’t that important any more. Once you narrow it down the list to the ones that still have emotional power over you, then you pray your way out of them because that’s the only thing you can do. Sometimes forgiveness doesn’t come from within but from without, from God. It may come from your subconsciousness but it can just as much come from God. Offering up these discords through prayer is a helpful step for moving on.
These steps are very helpful, not only in identifying issues but moving beyond them. And that’s what we all want. Healing.
+
Regardless of where you are — a David not able to accept God’s forgiveness or a Natan calling someone else to forgiveness — remember that God has loved you from before the beginning. That knowledge can carry you through a lot. As proof of that love, God has given us the Eucharist. So come, be fed, and rejoice in God’s abundant mercy spread out before you.
Last week after church, someone said to me: I was waiting for one thing in your sermon. I asked what it was. The answer: I was waiting for you to make the connection between the story of David and Uriah with the gospel reading about the feeding of the multitude. My answer: I wasn’t going to touch that with a ten-foot pole.
But today I am.
Since June we have been hearing from the Books of Samuel and the story of Samuel and then David. It would be far easier to ignore parts of it — such as what we have heard the past couple of weeks — but sometimes we have to enter into the tough places to be authentic.
Such is this morning’s narrative of David and Natan. The story of David and Bat-Sheva is considered the turning point in the Second Book of Samuel and it certainly is one of the greatest, if not most problematic, biblical tales. It is problematic because God seems supportive of a polygamous society (God gives David Saul’s harem) and now threatens to give David’s harem to another man. We have to deal not only with a distant social order but also with a strange deity.
Beyond that disconnect, tradition has always had a difficult time reconciling the important symbolic figure of David with the base way he appears in this story. Yet Second Samuel considers this story as the root of much that is to follow. Since part of our Anglican understanding of scripture is to look at everything without whitewashing it, we must also consider this story.
I won’t rehearse David’s adulterous raping of Bat-Sheva, but perhaps to clarify the reading we have just heard, you should remember that David has ordered Uriyya to be killed, since he would not sleep with his wife, Bat-Sheva. Uriyya, being a good Jewish warrior, knew that to do so before battle would make him unclean, and so he refused, thereby demolishing David’s alibi that Bat-Sheva was made pregnant by her husband and not by him.
Our reading starts with her learning of his death and David calling for her to come live with him. Life to seems to go on. But enter Natan — in Hebrew, ‘gift from God.’ He knows what David has done—the sin waged against Uriyya, Bat-Sheva, God and himself, David.
He doesn’t directly indict David; instead, he tells him a story. Since it’s a parable, David lets down his guard and doesn’t realise that the story is about him. He becomes outraged and calls for maximum punishment, death, for the man who killed his neighbour’s beloved sheep. Only then does Natan reveal to David that the story is about him.
David’s response is genuine, ‘I have sinned against the Lord.’ It is perhaps the first admission of weakness for this man who is God’s chosen, God’s favourite, God’s anointed. His words echo those of Psalm 51, a psalm of repentence, which we always say on Ash Wednesday.
Despite David’s calling for death for the slayer of the sheep, Natan — now the relayer of God’s gift — will assure David of God’s mercy and that God will not put him to death for his gross misdeed but God will put away his sin. The question is whether David can accept God’s generosity and learn from having received that forgiveness to extend it to others.
How does David react to this forgiveness of his grave sin? David, is not able to receive God’s gift of forgiveness, he can’t open his heart to it, despite having a messenger from God telling him of this gift. It will take him a long, long time to accept God’s gracious forgiveness.
+
Martin Smith, formerly of SSJE, wrote in his classic book on reconciliation, ‘God’s forgiveness is not the reward for having changed one’s life, but the source and condition of that change. Persons forgiven by God can be expected to show by their behavior the new life they enjoy.’ [I loaned the book to someone four years ago, never got it back but it is his 1980s book, Reconciliation, Cowley Press, Cambridge MA.]
+
Jesus never promised that this life of Christian discipleship would be easy. I think extending and receiving forgiveness might be one of the most difficult but life-giving tasks of a disciple.
Radical forgiveness, mirrors God’s absolute love for us. Forgiveness in God’s way means we respect one another. One example comes from Archbishop Desmond Tutu (who is slated to receive a Presidential Medal of Honor) who explains that in Ubuntu theology (that of his homeland), the word ubuntu speaks about the essence of being human: my humanity is caught up in your humanity because a person is a person through other persons. 'Ntu' means human being. In Ubuntu thinking, one sets great store by communal peace and harmony. Anything that subverts this harmony is injurious, not just to the community but to all of us, and therefore forgiveness is an absolute necessity for continued human existence.
‘Forgiveness is not pretending that things are other than they are,’ explains Tutu. ‘Forgiveness is the willingness to face up to the awfulness of what would require forgiving but foregoing the right to retaliate.’ Forgiveness ‘wanting to give others a chance for a new beginning.’
The question is: are our souls so hardened that not even a kind and compassionate God who forgives endlessly can touch us? And, are our souls so hardened that we cannot extend that same forgiveness to others?
What unites us all is God’s vast, unceasing mercy, a mercy so great that it forgives where no human being would ever be able to forgive. With that knowledge, we can take tentative steps toward forgiveness — against God, our neighbour and ourselves. I always add in that last word, ‘ourselves,’ because we just as easily hurt ourselves as we do others. We need to acknowledge that sin as well.
Part of forgiving lies in these six simple words: ‘Deal with it and move on.’ There are different ways of looking at forgiveness. Sometimes it’s forgiving, then living into the feeling, rather than waiting to be ready to do it. And sometimes forgiving entails a more careful, methodical approach. Whichever way we approach forgiveness, it must be a mainstay of our Christian journey.
On thing people in a twelve-step program do is write up a list of their resentments. It’s part of the fourth step of making a searching and fearless moral inventory of oneself — like the steps one takes before making a confession. Periodically doing this step can be useful for us too if seeking forgiveness and letting go is what we need in our life. You start off in the first column with the who. Then in the second, you write the what, what the person did to you. Some can go way back. Next, you look at what aspect of your life is being affected — self-esteem, pocketbook, ambitions, personal relationships, where you were hurt or threatened. Then you write about their part in it — this is where you need to spend the most time because it always involves you.
Then you go back to the list and acknowledge that those who have harmed you are also weak or have behaved inappropriately or have their own issues. As the Big Book says, ‘We avoid retaliation or argument,’ since we don’t treat sick people that way. ‘We ask Gd to show us how to treat them with tolerance, pity, and patience. We pray that Gd will do for them all the things we want Gd to do for us.’ These steps are essential for recovery or, in our terms, forgiveness, or these resentments will continue to dominate us.
But there is more:
We then list next to each name our role in what happened. We look for our own mistakes. Where have we been selfish, dishonest, self-seeking or frightened? Where were we to blame? We do not take the other person’s inventory but our own.
Sometimes when it’s in blue and white on paper and ink, you realise that some resentments aren’t that important any more. Once you narrow it down the list to the ones that still have emotional power over you, then you pray your way out of them because that’s the only thing you can do. Sometimes forgiveness doesn’t come from within but from without, from God. It may come from your subconsciousness but it can just as much come from God. Offering up these discords through prayer is a helpful step for moving on.
These steps are very helpful, not only in identifying issues but moving beyond them. And that’s what we all want. Healing.
+
Regardless of where you are — a David not able to accept God’s forgiveness or a Natan calling someone else to forgiveness — remember that God has loved you from before the beginning. That knowledge can carry you through a lot. As proof of that love, God has given us the Eucharist. So come, be fed, and rejoice in God’s abundant mercy spread out before you.
01 August 2009
Expensive
Dang, that was expensive — this unhappy finger last month (the photo is four days after I dinged it, now it is completely healed with a slightly funky scar) cost $815 to have sewn up, x-rayed and my getting a tetanus shot, of which BCBS covered $48. I still don't think I could have taken care of it myself, that is, cleaned it and gotten it wrapped up enough but there's a bit of sticker shock in getting the bill today from BCBS. I knew by walking into the ER it was going to cost but I didn't think it was going to be that much. Sheesh. I saved money later when I got a bishop's wife, a nurse I know, to take out the six stitches for free. Had I gone to a walk-in clinic, it would have been another $100 or so. Yikes.
I am fortunate: I have an insurance bank plan (I am not expressing it properly but I will get 100% coverage for what BCBS doesn't pick up), that will cover the difference but what if I were someone without that? How would I come up with an unexpected $800?
These are the people who arrive daily on our doorstep (it being an urban parish). This cost could put them over the edge and sadly it does. We could whip through the discretionary fund in one day if we allowed ourselves to give money to everyone who came in the door.
These are tough, tough times, indeed.
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