Five years out

The reasons behind the war were a lie in the beginning.

The self-justification in the 'decider's' speech today is delusional.

The war is criminal.

Let your logic go where it shall.

The photo says it all for me.

Go here for other bloggers' responses.

Wednesday in Holy Week

When we read the passion story on Palm Sunday, I always see in my mind the way we used to enact it at the church I used to attend in the mid-to-late 1980s. There, they had an altar in the middle of the crossing on a hexagonal platform. The narrator, Jesus, and assorted characters stood around the platform and, as the narrative moved forward, they would move clockwise around the it on the points. It was as though the gears of inevitability grinding away had become manifest. I no longer remember who ended up in the front at the end of the passion; probably it was the narrator.

So it is today. Every year when we hit Wednesday in Holy Week, I feel as though we have turned a major corner. No longer is this journey to Golgatha theoretical; it has become real. No longer are we talking about friendships; we are talking about betrayal. It is a huge shift. I always have a hard time proclaiming this gospel (John 13). We have moved a quarter round on the clock to half-past the hour.

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The combination of the words ‘betrayal,’ and Jesus’ term of affection for his disciples, ‘little children,’ stand in stark contrast to one another. This is the only place in the entire gospel of John where the tender term, ‘little children’ shows up (teknia in Greek, a diminutive). It appears before Jesus’ handing the disciples the commandment to love one another. Jerome of the fourth century relates the story that in John’s old age his message was reduced to this: ‘My little children, love one another.’ (1)

Before exploring that exquisite summation, we must remember that Jesus says these words in the context of the last supper in his last discourse to the disciples. In other literary genres, it would be akin to the dying father handing over his testament to his children. Jesus announces his imminent departure just before announcing to them what they are tasked to do after his death, ‘love one another.’

Raymond Brown, whose in-depth commentary, The Gospel According to John, is the apogee of biblical scholarship, writes:

‘Yet love is more than a commandment: it is a gift, and like the other gifts of the Christian dispensation it comes from the Father through Jesus to those who believe in him.… The love Jesus has for his followers is not only affective but also effective: it brings about their salvation. It is expressed in his laying down his life, an act of love that gives life to [all] (612-13).’ Brown emphasizes that for John this love is for all Christians, but not for all people. Again, we must remember the context of the gospel, written at the end of the first century, when Christians were still considered thrown out of the synagogue. There tended to be a ‘circle-the-wagons’ survival mentality and that is expressed here.

Brown continues: ‘This new covenant was to be interiorized and to be marked by the people’s intimate contact with God and knowledge of Him — a knowledge that is the equivalent of love…. The mark that distinguishes God’s love expressed in the covenant from even the noblest forms of human love is that it is spontaneous and unmotivated… (614).’

Jesus gives this new commandment to love one another just after he has washed the disciples’ feet, an act of submission in his culture, an act of love. It is that action that could well have been the unifying act of Jesus’ followers instead of the eucharist.

‘My little children, love one another.’

As always, there are questions:

What is loving one another in the selfless, spontaneous nature that God loves us?

How do we love one another in ways that are genuine, no-strings attached?

How aware and thankful are we aware of the gift of God’s love for us and the fact that we humans have the capacity to love?

And how do we live with the realities of our lives where we fall so short of expressing this divine love?

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Without going into the depth of it all because in this short time I couldn’t, I find myself struggling for words about love on the fifth anniversary of the US bombing of Iraq. Regardless where one stands on the justness of this war, one cannot help but mourn the thousands of deaths — the nearly 4000 deaths of US forces and the untold number of Iraqis and the countless maimed survivors.

It is in this frame of mind that I remember the context of Jesus’ words of love that are then followed by his betrayal by Judas. The Last Supper— when Jesus was about to offer himself up not only to the twelve but for humankind. The Last Supper, the time at which Jesus commanded us to love one another — the one commandment, mandatum, by which we have the name, Maundy Thursday.

In the midst of the betrayal, Jesus commands us to love one another as he has loved us. Love — not a romantic or sappy emotion, but a God-based love. For it is in loving our neighbour that we find God and we are to love God, too.
The other part of the foundation of love is our neighbour. We find our identity not only in God but in other people. Our life and death are inextricably intertwined in the lives and deaths of our neighbours. As children of God, we are interconnected.

Yet, as we have seen over and over again, one human or one people has killed another. In those deaths, we lose a piece of ourselves.

When Judas betrayed Jesus, it was night. Right now it would seem as though collectively this past century and now in this new century humanity has entered night. (The Nobel Peace Laureat, Elie Weisel even entitled his first book, about his concentration camp experiences, Night.)

Somehow we have to trust that it is always darkest before the dawn but that the dawn does come. We walk toward that dawn, Easter, knowing we have yet to walk further into the night. But may our journey be only spiritual. Somehow, may you and I make a difference in our own neck of the woods so that our entire world not be enshrouded by night, but shine with the radiance of God’s light.


END NOTE
(1) Raymond Brown, The Gospel according to John, XIII-XXI, Vol. 2 (New York: Doubleday, The Anchor Bible, 1970), 607. All subsequent citations are from this volume.

[image: Enigmatic Jesus and Judas in a depiction from a National Geographic display; New York Times, 9 April 2006; Without Judas, History Might Have Hijacked Another Villain]

Blogswarm against the war

Today marks five years since the US started bombing Iraq.

While others out there will offer reflections on what it has meant, I am simply going to post the service, readings and meditation we had the day after the bombs started to fall. Context is everything: I serve a congregation that is half a mile from the nation's oldest private military college and needed to be aware of people's thoughts even as I was and always have been totally against this so-called war.

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A Service for Peace in a Time of War
20 March 2003 • 6.00 PM

The Holy Eucharist

Gathering
Blessed be the God of our salvation:
Who bears our burdens and forgives our sins.

Iona Litany for Peace
In the midst of hunger and war,
we celebrate the promise of plenty and peace.
In the midst of oppression and tyranny,
we celebrate the promise of service and freedom.
In the midst of doubt and despair,
we celebrate the promise of faith and hope.
In the midst of fear and betrayal,
we celebrate the promise of joy and loyalty.
In the midst of hatred and death,
we celebrate the promise of love and life.
In the midst of sin and decay,
we celebrate the promise of salvation and renewal.
In the midst of death on every side,
we celebrate the promise of the Living Christ.

Readings

A reading from Jeremiah
My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain! Oh, the walls of my heart! My heart is beating wildly; I cannot keep silent; for I hear the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. Disaster overtakes disaster, the whole land is laid waste. Suddenly my tents are destroyed, my curtains in a moment. How long must I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet? ‘For my people are foolish, they do not know me; they are stupid children, they have no understanding. They are skilled in doing evil, but do not know how to do good.’ I looked on the earth, and lo, it was waste and void; and to the heavens, and they had no light. I looked on the mountains, and lo, they were quaking, and all the hills moved to and fro. I looked, and lo, there was no one at all, and all the birds of the air had fled. I looked, and lo, the fruitful land was a desert, and all its cities were laid in ruins before the LORD, before his fierce anger. For thus says the LORD: The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end. Because of this the earth shall mourn, and the heavens above grow black; for I have spoken, I have purposed; I have not relented nor will I turn back.

A reading from Paul’s Letter to the Romans
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly…. Do not pay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends upon you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves…. No, if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink… Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

The Holy Gospel of our Saviour Jesus Christ according to Matthew
Jesus said to them: You have heard it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.

Reflection
The first reading you heard this evening is from the prophet Jeremiah. It is also the first reading in today’s daily office lectionary. Imagine how those words stopped me as I read them this morning. Sometimes scripture and life come too close together for comfort.

I have been struggling to put into words the heaviness of my heart and the conversation I have been having internally about where I stand on this war. I speak as a committed Christian, as an individual, but also as a priest and servant of this community.

As we gather tonight, remember that it is 2.00 in the morning in Baghdad. There are bombs falling as we gather. Call it an over-active imagination, but I can’t help but think that the same moon shines over that city, as it would here if the heavens weren’t weeping tonight. I try to imagine the million civilians of Baghdad hunkered down in their homes, hoping to ride out this hurricane of military force. The words of Abraham’s bargaining with God over the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah echo in my heart:

‘Will you really sweep away the innocent with the guilty? Perhaps there are fifty innocent within the city. Will you really sweep it away? Will you not bear with the place because of the fifty innocent that are in its midst? Heaven forbid for you to do a thing like this, to deal death to the innocent along with the guilty….’ Abraham gets God to spare the city for fifty, then twenty, then ten.

I get stuck because surely there will be innocents who will suffer on account of their leader’s cruelty and this attack on their country. I get stuck because the colour of their blood is the same as mine.

I get stuck because people might interpret my opposition to this war as being unpatriotic and unsupportive of the US troops that are over there. Hardly so. A priest from Delaware wrote into the House of Bishops/Deputies list serve this morning words that reflect this dilemma:

‘Under the banner of patriotism, members of my Episcopalian congregation are being labelled unpatriotic and called traitor if they express any opinion contrary to that of the current administration.

‘The best support we could give our women and men serving in the military today is to continue not only to exercise our rights and liberties for which they have been sent to fight, among which are the right to freedom of speech and the liberty to dissent, but also to support those who speak their minds when they dissent, even in war, even if we do not agree with that dissent.

‘Those of us who dissent appear to be only 25% of the population, according to a poll I saw on the news this morning. For the majority to demand that we shut up or toe the party line is tyranny, just as it would be if the shoe were on the other foot.

‘Meanwhile, although most of my primarily elderly, otherwise conservative congregation do not support war against Iraq, they are going about collecting articles needed by those being deployed — Bibles, chapstick, non-fragranced lotion, stationery, etc. — to be collected by the USO for distribution. Dissent does not preclude supporting those sent to fight in our name.’

And that is where I come down. I will continue to exercise the right to free speech granted each one of us in the constitution and more important because the baptismal covenant demands my speaking.

While in El Salvador, I spent two hours talking with a Nicaraguan woman who had moved to El Salvador twenty years ago and now is a naturalised citizen of El Salvador. She was upset with another member of the congregation because she felt that the other was acting in an unchristian manner because of her involvement with the FMLN, a left-of-center party. She felt that the other shouldn’t be involved in politics in any shape or form. What I said to Esperanza (her name means, ‘hope’!) was that there are times when injustices in the world demand that a Christian speak out. There are times that the vows of the baptismal covenant, especially the fourth and fifth ones, dictate that I speak out against oppression and injustice and I do so as an individual.

Most of all, I pray. Dr Robert Pierce, founder of Samaritan’s Purse wrote: ‘Let my heart be broken with the things that break the heart of God.’ Tonight my heart is breaking. But I pray, trusting that God hears our prayers as well as those of the world and that even in moments like this, there still will be hope and rebirth. I pray that for all who are involved in this current conflict that they will have hope and be safe… and that this broken world somehow be reborn into a world where we will finally learn war no more, where nation shall no longer take up sword against another, no longer become the violence we abhor, and where none shall be afraid.

Prayers of the People
In peace let us pray to the Lord, saying “Kyrie eleison.”
For the children of God, for all humankind, that we be become people of peace in our time.
Kyrie eleison
For the Holy Church of God that we may live the prophetic dream to turn swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks, and do war no more;
Kyrie eleison
For this congregation here present, that we may become known as instruments of peace in our communities and places of work;
Kyrie eleison
For our nation, and all the nations of the earth, that we might take risks for peace, and cease resolving our differences and hatreds through violence and war;
Kryrie eleison
For all who live in times and places of fear, hunger, homelessness, in the midst of war and violence, without safety or care;
Kyrie eleison
For prisoners of war, refugees, political prisoners, for people abandoned and forgotten;
Kyrie eleison
For children, widows and orphans, for the wounded and dying, especially those in Iraq, Kuwait and any other country affected by the current military campaign tonight, those who live constantly with the violence of disease and suffering;
Kyrie eleison
For ourselves, our families and friends, our neighbors and colleagues, that we might find peace in our hearts, and peace in all our relationships, being reconciled, one to another, and be agents of God’s reconciliation;
Kyrie eleison
For all nations at war, and for those who this day suffer violence and terror, especially for the people of Afghanistan, of Palestine and Israel, of Northern Ireland, India and Pakistan, and all other places torn by war and strife and for the safety of our armed forces currently deployed in Iraq and Kuwait.
Kyrie eleison
For all who have died this past year through violence and war, and for all who gave of their lives for peace, for all the saints and martyrs;
Kyrie eleison
Jesus our brother said in the Gospels, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for theirs is the realm of God.”
Help us, O God, to be instruments of your peace.

The World Peace Prayer (together)
Lead me from death to life,
from falsehood to truth.
Lead me from despair to hope,
from fear to trust.
Lead me from hate to love,
from war to peace.
Let peace fill our hearts,
our world, our universe. Amen.

The Peace

Eucharistic Prayer A

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More thoughts will emerge as the day goes on.

Tuesday in Holy Week

Today at the eucharist at which the clergy of the diocese renewed their ordination vows and the bishop blessed the holy oils we use for baptism and healing, the preacher, Julia Slayton (from the Bethany House of Prayer, spoke about the opening line of the gospel reading:

Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’

I want to go with this thought because I had never looked at today’s gospel reading in quite these terms.

‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus. We want to get closer to see and know him for ourselves.’

She reflected on how there are people whom we want to see, those people who draw you to them for reasons you sometimes don’t know. Perhaps you’ve had that happen?

We want to know those people in life who bring Jesus closer to us, don’t we? They exist. Some of us have been fortunate enough to have had the opportunity in our lives to meet such a person. Desmond Tutu always comes to mind but there are others.

Upon arriving home from the cathedral, no sooner had I walked in the door, when I got a phone call from someone I have never met but who is almost a blood brother to me. He is a 77 year-old retired Episcopal priest in Buffalo, dealing with asthma, congestive heart failure, and the issues of mortality that come along with ageing. Our connection is through El Salvador. He knew Oscar Romero and worked with him for five years. He was there at the time of Romero’s death and burial.

I said it must have been incredible to have been in Romero’s presence. He answered that Romero was one of those people who could take your pain away. Just spending time in his presence was enough to release the suffering. The church’s human rights officer, who would come into Romero’s office with 100 new cases of disappeared or tortured people in his hands, would walk out a restored person because of Romero’s healing touch on his forehead.

‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus… now.’

There is the desire of meeting the person of Jesus and then the desire to meet him now.

‘Now’ is the operative reality for the gospel. Now, the present moment. Now is the time to live fully our baptism that has been given us through Christ’s life, death and baptism. Not tomorrow, not yesterday but fully in the present.

The Ash Wednesday epistle, which we heard six weeks ago says: ‘See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation!’ Now is the time to enter into the life of dying and rising anew.

Our Christian life can be lived on the spot where we stand. This spot can encompass dying and rising anew. It can encompass the cross and resurrection. We just need to make our hearts open to that journey that happens in the present.

Do we know the hour, the now, the here?

The now is in Darfur. The now is in Sudan. The now is in the children’s hospital. The now is in the Anglican Communion. It is here now and always.

‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’

Of course, when we say ‘We wish to see Jesus,’ it sometimes will take us where we don’t want to go. There are ‘now’s which seem too much for us. Taking care of an ageing parent. Walking alongside a dying person. Dealing with a child suffering from learning disorders. Giving up everything to follow Jesus. Don’t we go through those moments saying: ‘There’s no way I can be doing this. It has to be God who is doing this through me’?

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This Tuesday in Holy Week, the gospel asks us: Where are you bidden to abide, to stay, to watch, to pray?

Is it in the home of Mary and Martha with Lazarus?
Is it at table with Jesus and the twelve?
Is it at the trial?
Or in the garden?
Or on the cross?
Or at the tomb?

Where and when will Christ’s hour come for you?
Where is God’s glory redeeming the world now?

Remember, we cannot limit God’s power to our own terms or imagination — God’s power is far greater than that. So where do we see God’s glory redeeming the world now?

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Hymn 333 uses the words of Jaroslav Vajda that express this sense of here and present:

Now the silence
Now the peace
Now the empty hands uplifted
Now the kneeling
Now the plea
Now the Father’s arms in welcome
Now the hearing
Now the power
Now the vessel brimmed for pouring
Now the Body
Now the Blood
Now the joyful celebration
Now the wedding
Now the songs
Now the heart forgiven leaping
Now the Spirit’s visitation
Now the Son’s epiphany
Now the Father’s blessing
Now
Now
Now

Christ’s now is here with us. Here, now. Let us glorify God now, here.

This should not be

Nepali police beat people protesting China's occupation of Tibet with sticks including this Tibetan monk.

Holy Monday

[This is the written text of a sermon that wasn't quite preached this way insofar as there was only one person in the congregation at the time. For daily reflections on the readings from Holy Week, go to Father Jake Stops the World.]

Every year we hear the same texts during Holy Week. They have become like friends to me, familiar poem-like words despite the harsh truths they may contain. As known and comforting as they are though, I have to pay attention to the story they tell — namely, Jesus’ walk to the cross. So, in their beauty paradoxically lies suffering.

Today’s reading from the gospel according to John tells the story of one woman’s outrageous and risky act of anointing Jesus. No one around understands what she is doing except for Jesus who tells them to back off and respect that she has anointed him in preparation for burial that will shortly take place.

The extravagance of Mary’s love for Jesus, symbolised by both the amount and quality of the perfume used, provides a model for faithful discipleship. In Mary’s act, she holds nothing back in expressing her love for Jesus, her love for the man who brought her brother back from the dead, for the man who will make all things new.

Later in the gospel of John, at the Last Supper, Jesus will suggest another way to express this love and discipleship — and act toward one another in love — with the same extravagance that Mary embodies in her anointing of Jesus. In the later example, Jesus washes the feet of his disciples.

When we love as Jesus does, we begin to experience the fullness of life that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus make possible. Mary holds nothing back; Jesus holds nothing back. It is part of our vocation as recipients of that extravagant gift to hold nothing back. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux said, ‘The limit of our love for God should be to love God without limit.’ That same love of God should transfer to love of neighbour.

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Nicaraguan Claribel Alegría, writes in her poem, ‘Maria Magdalena’, about Mary’s anointing Jesus. The poem reads like something from the Song of Songs:

I loved you Jesus
I loved you
and you also loved me
of all the faces you looked for me
and yearned that I be closer.
Your voice seduced me
the serene passion
of your word.

She writes in sensual terms about Mary’s anointing Jesus:

I felt your flesh tremble
I felt the tremor of the man
when I anointed your body
with perfumes
and rinsed your feet
with my hair.
I could have bewitched you
but I didn’t do it
your look stopped me
your renunciation.

The poem ends:

Of all the men
you were the man
and I don’t want to cure myself
of this love.

When I first saw this poem, I was struck by the line, ‘I don’t want to cure myself of this love.’ I thought, no, never. I don’t ever want to lose my love for Jesus. It’s odd perhaps to think of a relationship with Jesus in these terms, but other people have as well.

George Herbert’s poem, ‘Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life,’ is his expression of his deep love for Christ. The last stanza, ‘Come, my Joy, my Love, my Heart: such a joy as none can move; such a love as none can part; such a heart as joys in love,’ is a powerful statement of his love for Jesus and how that love affects his life.
With this love come many questions:

How do we have and nurture a love as deep as that for Jesus? Are we also at a point where we will never cure ourselves of this love for Jesus? How do we love without limit as Maria Magdalena did and as Jesus did? How do we love in a way that invites us to take risks for God?

On this Monday of Holy Week, as a reminder that we are called to love extravagantly, let us pray the prayer of Saint Francis, found on page 833 of the Prayer Book. And then let us live that out in our lives.

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Te amé, Jesús
te amé
y tú también me amaste
entre todos los rostros
me buscabas
y me anhelabas cerca.
Me sedujo tu voz
la serena passion
de tu palabra.
Sentí temblar tu carne
sentí temblar al hombre
cuando ungí tu cuerpo
con perfumes
y enjugué tus pies
con mis cabellos.
Pude haberte hechizado
y no lo hice
me frenó tu Mirada
tu renuncia
entre todos los hobres
fuiste el hombre
y no quiero curarme
de este amor.

[photo comes from Sakribal Spanish School of Maria Magdalena Cobol]

Five years ago tonight

Five years ago tonight, on Sunday 16 March 2003, about 500 of us joined in the world-wide silent candle-light vigil/protest against the impending folly in Iraq. We stood out on the capital steps in Montpelier on a cold March evening, holding our candles, remaining in silence (after initially singing Dona Nobis Pacem) until almost an hour had passed when someone started to sing some of the old Vietnam War and civil rights protest songs like We Shall Overcome and Ain't Gonna Learn War No More and gradually the whole lot of us started singing, sadly... knowing in our hearts that the so-called 'decider' didn't give a damn about what we thought.

I NO LONGER PRAY FOR PEACE

On the edge of war, one foot already in,
I no longer pray for peace:
I pray for miracles.
I pray that stone hearts will turn
to tenderheartedness,
and evil intentions will turn
to mercifulness,
and all the soldiers already deployed
will be snatched out of harm’s way,
and the whole world will be
astounded onto its knees.
I pray that all the “God talk”
will take bones,
and stand up and shed
its cloak of faithlessness,
and walk again in its powerful truth.
I pray that the whole world might
sit down together and share
its bread and its wine.

Some say there is no hope,
but then I’ve always applauded the holy fools
who never seem to give up on
the scandalousness of our faith:
that we are loved by God......
that we can truly love one another.
I no longer pray for peace:
I pray for miracles.

Ann Weems
Ash Wednesday, March 5, 2003

Copyright © 2003 by Ann Weems. All rights reserved.

Palm Sunday

Which is it? Palm Sunday or Passion Sunday? Can we have it both ways? In some places the palm procession is like hors d’œuvres, lightweight food to nibble on before the main dish is served. We view it as an amusing preliminary. Afterward we all hunker down in our pews and put our minds to the more solemn business of the eucharist, introduced by the reading of the entire passion according to Matthew.

But, really, a joyous procession followed by an abrupt shift to a minor key can be defended. The mood shifted just that way in Jesus’ last days in Jerusalem. Perhaps the change also reflects the chronic fickleness of humanity: we greet Jesus with palms and loud hosannas one moment and cry out, ‘Crucify him!’ the next.


Viewing the Palms and the Passion as a single event yields a single, complex truth: the resurrection follows suffering, something we don’t like to acknowledge. This Sunday emphasises that Christ’s resurrection does not happen all by itself—Jesus must walk through the Passion and so must we. The risen Christ is the crucified Christ and no other. We can’t get to the resurrection without going through the journey to the cross ourselves.

With Palm/Passion Sunday Holy Week begins. Passiontide—the intense and exclusive concentration on the suffering and death of Jesus—unfolds in seven days. It has been in the past the custom of many to make Lent a remembrance of the passion, complete with thorns, whips and nails, but these symbols miss the point of Lent. The ancient and still appropriate focus of Lent is baptism and its implications for living given that it was the period of preparation for baptism which would take place at the Easter Vigil. Holy Week—first observed formally in the late fourth century—is the appropriate and useful time for attention to the cross, the symbol so associated with Christianity. This attention is exclusive for, in the Orthodox, Roman and Anglican traditions, no other celebrations are appropriate during this time. No holy days that may fall during this week are celebrated, no weddings. For example, Saint Joseph, whose feast day is the 19th, is postponed until March 31st. All that can be postponed is moved out of these seven days to make room for the unique meditation and reflection upon the suffering and death of the Son of God.

We now have officially entered into that intense period of reflection. We sang the ninth- century hymn, ‘All glory, laud and honour,’ and we marched in procession waving palms, praising Christ as sovereign, yet as a sovereign who will reign from a tree. Do we realise that our procession is also an expression of our willingness to take up the cross and follow Christ on the way of sorrows, through death to the life that lies beyond? And yet that is where we are headed this week.

The procession of palms is but the introduction to the purpose of this day: the proclamation of the passion of Christ. On this first day of the week, we read about how Jesus died as he becomes increasingly isolated and alone. Taunted by the two robbers who surround him, Jesus utters perhaps the most terrifying cry of dereliction in scripture, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ He dies isolated from his followers, the priests of his religion, the people, and the two executed with him. Isolated from the human race, he is at last abandoned by God. And yet… and yet. For Jesus and us that is not all. The passion account, for all of its desolation and terror, does not leave us in that abandoned place. The crowd, who witnesses the crucifixion, confesses, ‘Truly this man was God’s son.’ And so we know. We know this story is about God’s son, our salvation and it is for all humanity.

Telling this part of the story is not reserved until Good Friday. In the richness of our worship and celebration, we are not just walking in Jesus’ steps from entrance (today) to controversy (Monday and Tuesday), to betrayal (Wednesday and Thursday) to death (Friday) to the tomb (Saturday morning) to resurrection (Saturday Vigil and Easter morning). Today sets the week’s tone of deep emotional and spiritual involvement in receiving and exploring the richness of a mystery ever new and ever old.

Ponder the gospel message and then come back, day by day, this week, to be drawn ever deeper into the journey to Golgatha, the cross and the tomb. For, without this journey, Easter morning light will seem less bright and, quite honestly, not make sense.



END NOTE
Based on Gerard S. Sloyan, Holy Week, Proclamation 4, Series C (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1988), 7; Robert H. Smith, Holy Week, Proclamation 5, Series A (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992), 7; Philip Pfatteicher, Holy Week, Proclamation 6, Series B (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1996), 7, 10-14; Patricia Wilson-Kastner, Holy Week, Proclamation 6, Series C (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1997), 11.

Simple prayer

Just back from visiting Naomi who is once again in the 'spa' or the 'big house' (i.e., the big hospital an hour away) depending on her mood. She has become a frequent flier there and her journey through cancerland thus far has had a lot of twists and turns which have slowed things down quite a bit.

So, if you would, please pray that she can move forward without all these roadblocks. While God might write straight on the crooked lines of our lives, it would be nice if once in a while, there were some help in straightening out the road ahead of time.

Frankly, after spending two hours with a courageous 24 year-old battling cancer, the debate over whether or not the consitution and canons were followed at the HOB meeting pales in comparison, though I know that I have not suffered at the hands of a bishop the way my sisters and brothers in San Joaquin, Pittsburgh and Fort Worth have. I beg their indulgence and pardon... it's just that the local burden bearing weighs a bit heavy tonight. That is not a complaint, for it is a privilege to be thus invited into someone's journey; it is what priesthood is about, in part, to be a companion burden bearer... but it does take a lot out of one.

Late night shuffle

Jon Mark • The Stag, the Running Stream
Vivaldi • Concerto in C, bassoon
Alain Souchon • On avance
Enya • If I could be where you are
Jean Michel Jarre • Oxygène Part 4
Enya • The Sun in the Stream
Jackson Brown • No Crows in the Cradle (No Nukes)
Touré Kunda • Rapida (salsa)
Dobet Gnahoré • Keyiyi
Karl Jenkins • Lacus Serenitatis

This is all over the place. I never can figure out when shuffle gives almost back-to-back tracks by the same artist (as in Enya tonight). And the Jon Mark is sort of Celtic, too. There are two French artists, though Souchon is labelled 'French' and Jarre is 'electronic.' (The Jarre was a big hit when I lived in Paris 1977-78 — another time when the dollar tanked, in this case, against the franc.) The rest of this is just a mishmash.

Friday cat blogging

And here is the weekly round-up.


Peace does descend upon this household every once in a while.


This is the look I get just before Miss Agatha Birch Funky Paws squawks at me with her usual, 'meh!'


It works quite well to plop la Doyenne into the basket when she starts chomping on papers.


Young Guy decides to read up on his hoomin's antecedents. She thought the book might keep him off the sweaters. Not.

Une surprise

Four years ago a parishioner gave me this orchid. For four years, it never did anything. And then, suddenly, last week, I noticed it had sent up a shoot with little curlyque things on it. Fearing that Young Guy would chomp them off, I surrounded the branch with a chicken-wire cage.

Today the orchid bloomed! It has these green flowers with tiger-lily type spots and little spikey things.

I have no idea what sort of an orchid it is but am laughing that it finally did something and just in time for Holy Week. Nature knows, no?

Parting shot for the night

Too good to pass up....

from icanhascheezburger.com, of course

Signs of spring

No, this post is not about the cute signs of spring, like loud blue jays, or old-fashioned maple sugar buckets on trees, or little buds setting on the lilacs or other niceties all of which are beginning to show up, but about the less desirable signs, like the church smelling like skunk (it is mating season) and the state of our roads.

The frost heaves are amazing and we haven't even gotten to mud season. (Frost heave season always comes before mud season.) It's like driving on a roller coaster, sort of a WHEE! up and down one goes as one hits a rise in the road. One can go flying, it feels, off the road if one hits a heave just right. Or one can imagine breaking the car axle if the wheel hits a pothole just so. Simply put, it is wild driving out there right now. I don't dare go above 50 on the straight aways because of the unpredictability of the road surface.

Sometimes they are posted officially and sometimes they are announced by simple signs like this.

Right around the corner will come mud season for sure when the roads are posted (i.e., weight limits are set and posted), which they aren't yet.

But for right now, it's watching the pavement fall apart... which in the fall always becomes a good source of political fodder.

By the way, when you see a sign, 'Frost heaves,' it has nothing to do with the late poet's digestive system.

Paradox

In regards to the deposition of J-D Schofield and William Cox, ENS quotes the PB as saying:

"Abandoning the Communion of this Church does not mean we abandon a person as a member of the Body of Christ."

May the bishops act accordingly with our brother Gene and not forget him this summer. The ABC might say that Gene has no right to be at Lambeth but Gene's words of the shepherd going out of his way to kick him out of the flock instead of leaving the 99 behind to look for the one are beyond poignant.

They did it

Episcopal News Service
March 12, 2008

House of Bishops consents to deposition of John-David Schofield, William Cox
By staff

[ENS] The House of Bishops voted March 12 to consent to the deposition from the ordained ministry of the Rt. Rev. John-David Schofield, bishop of the Diocese of San Joaquin, and the Rt. Rev. William Jackson Cox, bishop suffragan of the Diocese of Maryland, resigned.

Members of the House of Bishops are preparing a statement regarding these actions and for release after a March 12 afternoon session.

The process used to work through these resolutions took into account the importance of prayer and careful reflection before each vote was taken. Specifically, in both cases the House was first led in prayer by a chaplain, followed by small-group discussion, and then plenary discussion. After this, voting commenced. Each vote was cast clearly in the majority, with some nay votes, and some abstentions.

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori asked the bishops assembled "to continue to reach out" in pastoral care to both Schofield and Cox.

"Abandoning the Communion of this Church does not mean we abandon a person as a member of the Body of Christ," Jefferts Schori said.

Full texts of the resolutions follow. Each resolution was considered and voted upon separately. The resolution pertaining to Schofield was acted upon first.

RESOLUTION

RESOLVED, that pursuant to Canon IV.9.2 of the Episcopal Church, the House of Bishops hereby consents to the Deposition from the ordained ministry of the Rt. Rev. John-David Schofield, Bishop of the Diocese of San Joaquin.

EXPLANATION: On January 9, 2008, the Title IV Review Committee certified to the Presiding Bishop, pursuant to Canon IV.9.1, that the Rt. Rev. John-David Schofield, Bishop of the Diocese of San Joaquin, has repudiated the Doctrine, Discipline, and Worship of the Episcopal Church and has abandoned the Communion of the Church by, inter alia, departing from the Episcopal Church and purporting to take his Diocese with him into affiliation with the Province of the Southern Cone. In the intervening two months since the Presiding Bishop gave notice to Bishop Schofield of the foregoing certification, Bishop Schofield has failed to submit to the Presiding Bishop sufficient retraction or denial of the actions found by the Title IV Review Committee. Accordingly, the Presiding Bishop has presented the matter to the House of Bishops and requested consent to Bishop Schofield's Deposition.

RESOLUTION

RESOLVED, that pursuant to Canon IV.9.2 of the Episcopal Church, the House of Bishops hereby consents to the Deposition from the ordained ministry of the Rt. Rev. William Jackson Cox, Bishop Suffragan of the Diocese of Maryland, resigned.

EXPLANATION: On May 29, 2007, the Title IV Review Committee certified to the Presiding Bishop, pursuant to Canon IV.9.1, that the Rt. Rev. William Jackson Cox, Bishop Suffragan of the Diocese of Maryland, resigned, has repudiated the Doctrine, Discipline, and Worship of the Episcopal Church and has abandoned the Communion of the Church by, inter alia, departing from the Episcopal Church and stating his intention to continue to perform episcopal acts solely under the oversight and jurisdiction of a bishop outside the Episcopal Church without conforming to the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Church. In the intervening two months since the Presiding Bishop gave notice to Bishop Cox of the foregoing certification, Bishop Cox has failed to submit to the Presiding Bishop sufficient retraction or denial of the actions found by the Title IV Review Committee. Accordingly, the Presiding Bishop has presented the matter to the House of Bishops and requested consent to Bishop Cox's Deposition.

Sans paroles, sin palabras

There's too much on my heart and mind to night to say anything so I leave you all with a photo of one of my spiritual places, the 11th-century abbatial church of Conques, France. It is tucked into a valley, like a shell which is what 'conques' means. It is a living church that still has a monastic community that worships there. And it is on the Chemin de Saint Jacques.

So, linger here for a moment and in the time that you would spend reading some nonsense from me, say a prayer for all those who have asked for them. And then have a gentle night.

We are not the only ones

Lest we think that we are the only ones who have undergone an attack, let us remember today the people of Madrid who suffered their own 11th, the 11-M as they write it, four years ago.

And London, who was surprised on 7 July 2005.

And there's Chile who had their 11th-September 1973.

And there are countless other places who have suffered. Just look at the morning headlines. The horror is as much because the daily routine we take for granted has been shattered.

But for today, pray for those who died on 11-M, for those injured, and for those whose lives were irrevocably changed.

+

The above stamps were still being sold when we walked our first segment of the Camino in April/May 2004. The postcards we sent back to the US all received this stamp.

+

I was in El Salvador on sabbatical when the attack in Madrid took place. Specifically, I was in a microbus (#142 Proyecto) going to Santísima Trinidad in San Martín, an hour out of San Salvador. We had just turned into the town off the Pan-American highway and were stuck in traffic. I thought it odd that someone was hawking a newspaper in the afternoon (though Co-Latino comes out in the afternoon). As the bus turned the corner, I saw the headline, Atentado a Madrid — Attack in Madrid. For the rest of the afternoon I wondered what was going on. When I got back to home base, San Juan, the ERD group staying at the Casa Anglicana told me what was going on.

In a way I am glad I didn't buy the paper. The photos were too graphic.

In any event, pray.


candles at the Atocha train station in Madrid after the attack

Beyond words

ENS just posted this news:

The House of Bishops was informed March 10 that full invitation is "not possible" from the Archbishop of Canterbury to include Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire as a participant in this summer's Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops.

God forbid that those bishops find out that Gene is a real human being.

I can't even speak because there are no words for my anger, disgust and sadness at the spinelessness of the ABC who thinks that by not inviting Gene he can placate the likes of AB Akinola. No way; they'll just up the ante again.

Others will certainly have far more to say than I. And so I turn this over to them.

Experimenting

Blogger hasn't let me upload any photos to my sermon so I am going to see if I can get them up in this note. Nope.

Even early afternoon I can't upload any. Maybe there's a bug in this posting or with my computer? I can't get it to work either in Camino or Firefox. Now to try Safari. Nope. No go. I give up quite annoyed.

Late afternoon. I still can't get blogger to respond. Is anyone else having this problem? I seem to be the only one out there who can't upload photos.

Any ideas?

[17.15] I don't get an error message; it's the little pinwheel going round and round with the message: waiting for blogger2.com. This is almost 24 hours that I can't get anything up there and it's frustrating.

[19.00] FINALLY! But cheez, uploading photos is so slow.

Other question: do any of you have this all of a sudden show up in your text after you've added a hyperlink:
http://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif? It pops up anywhere -- in the middle of a word, in between paragraphs. It's another annoying feature of publishing.

We return now to our regularly scheduled programming.