Hope begins in the dark
Hope begins in the dark,~Anne Lamott (1954- )
the stubborn hope that if you just show up
and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come.
You wait and watch and work: you don't give up.
Labels: quote
Irenic. The word means peaceful. This web log (or blog) exists to create an ongoing, and hopefully peaceful, series of comments on the life of King of Peace Episcopal Church. This is not a closed community. You are highly encouraged to comment on any post or to send your own posts.
Hope begins in the dark,~Anne Lamott (1954- )
the stubborn hope that if you just show up
and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come.
You wait and watch and work: you don't give up.
Labels: quote
Labels: Passover
At 3/31/2010 2:13 AM, The Bosom Serpent said…
It is true that we cannot be free from sin,~Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)
but at least let our sins not be always the same.
Labels: quote, Teresa of Avila
Passion is a kind of waiting - waiting for what other people are going to do. Jesus went to Jerusalem to announce the good news to the people of that city. And Jesus knew that he was going to put a choice before them: Will you be my disciple, or will you be my executioner? There is no middle ground here. Jesus went to Jerusalem to put people in a situation where they had to say "Yes" or "No."- Henri J. M. Nouwen, "Action to Passion"
That is the great drama of Jesus' passion: he had to wait upon how people were going to respond. How would they come? To betray him or to follow him? In a way, his agony is not simply the agony of approaching death. It is also the agony of having to wait.
Labels: Henri Nouwen
Labels: Holy Week, Palm Sunday
That we call these long, dense narratives “liturgies” reminds us that when we read and hear them we are not innocent bystanders–we are implicated in the stories; we have “work” to do in them (“liturgy” = leitourgia = “work of the people”). We are the crowd along the streets of Jerusalem shouting, “Hosanna! Hosanna!” and we are the same mob on Good Friday screaming, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” As Fleming Rutledge has noted, “the liturgy of Palm Sunday is set up to show you how you can say one thing one minute and its opposite the next. This is the nature of the sinful human being.”The full text of her post is online here: Palms and Passion: The Work of Holy Week.
In looking at the cruxifixion, Rutledge also says this: “What we see and hear in Jesus’ death is not just his solidarity with the victims of this world. It is that, but it is not only that. What we see and hear in the Cry of Dereliction is Jesus’ identification in his Cross not only with the innocent victims of this world but also with their torturers . . . What Jesus assumes on the Cross is not only the suffering of innocents but also the wickedness of those who inflict suffering.”
And when Jesus says, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34), “he makes himself one, not only with my pain but with my sin–because I myself, and you yourselves, and all of us ourselves, are sometimes victims of others and sometimes torturers of others and sometimes both, and when we recognize this we are, as Jesus says to the scribe, ‘not far from the kingdom.’”
To know this deeply is to do the “work” of Holy Week.
Labels: Palm Sunday
Labels: Gospel reading, Palm Sunday, sermon
Labels: religion column
At 3/26/2010 11:11 AM, said…
After Joe's accident, my King of Peace family understood so well "Is this a good time?" They also gave me the enormous gift of "We're here for you. Just let us know what to do and when." That was the BEST gift ever!
Unfortunately, many of our friends who meant well, and were so appreciated by us, didn't see our overwhelming need for the time and space to adjust. I became increasingly stressed from several weeks of organizing and comforting them, taking 50 to 100 phone calls a day, trying to give answers when there were none to repeated questions and pleas, "entertaining" visitors when I really just wanted to be with Joe, or rest with the boys when I got home from the hospital. I reluctantly had to turn off the phones, not answer the doors, and send out emails asking for time and space. I tried not to sound rude, but to some, it was taken the wrong way and they still look at me as ungrateful to this day--even though that was not the case.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that sometimes responding to tragedy does not have to be immediate. Many times the gifts of friends and family are better suited to the future where there is time for hand holding, prayers, talking and the need for some return to normalcy.
Labels: Kids in the Kingdom
Labels: The Olive Branch
If grace is so wonderful, why do we have such difficulty recognizing and accepting it? Maybe it's because grace is not gentle or made-to-order. It often comes disguised as loss, or failure, or unwelcome change.—Kathleen Norris (1947- )
Labels: Kathleen Norris, quote
Labels: Apocalypse
At 3/24/2010 6:44 AM, said…
What the New Testament does not say is, 'unless you hold the following propositions to be true there is no life for you'. What it does say is, 'without a vital relationship with Jesus Christ who is the word of God made flesh, you will not become what you were made to be. You will not live into the fullness of your human destiny.' And it's this claim—not so much about unique truth in a form of words but about unique relationship with Jesus—which I want to explore a little with you.Then jumping to the end without all the middle parts that make the connection (which is always dicey), I will share his concluding words:
'No one comes to the Father except through me', says Jesus. In other words if you are to be reconciled as a son or daughter with the God that Jesus calls 'Father' then it is in association with him and in walking his way that that becomes a reality: walking his way, not just having the right ideas about him, not even just repeating what he says, but following him. Then if we turn to Acts put into slightly plainer English, what Peter is saying to the authorities in Jerusalem is something like this: 'If you are to find life and healing, you must turn towards the one you rejected and despised; because there is no name on which you can call for rescue, except the name of the one you crucified'. I emphasize the word 'you' there. Peter is not preaching in the abstract. He is saying to those who crucified Jesus, 'If you want to be rescued from the trap in which you have locked yourself, the only name on which you may call for rescue is the name of the one you killed.' And that is the conversion or repentance he asks for.
Now I say this about the texts before us not to try and evacuate them of the meaning that has traditionally been given, but to note how both of them in their different way are presented as a challenge to change your life. What is the way to the Father? The Father cannot be shown as an object in the sky—something you can point to. The Father is discovered as you walk with Jesus towards cross and resurrection, and the challenge in Acts is the challenge, 'turn towards the one you have rejected and there you will find your hope'.
In short and in conclusion, belief in the uniqueness and finality of Jesus Christ—for all the assaults made upon it in the modern age—remains for the Christian a way of speaking about hope for the entire human family. And because it's that, we are bound to say something about it. We are very rightly suspicious of proselytism, of manipulative, bullying, insensitive approaches to people of other faith which treat them as if they knew nothing, as if we had nothing to learn and as if the tradition of their reflection and imagination were of no interest to us or God. God save us from that kind of approach. But God save us also from the nervousness about our own conviction which doesn't allow us to say that we speak about Jesus because we believe he matters. We believe he matters because we believe that in him human beings find their peace. Their destinies converge and their dignities are fully honoured. And all the work that we as Christians want to do for the sake of convergent human destiny and fullness of human dignity has its root in that conviction that there is no boundary around Jesus—that what he is and does and says and suffers is in principle liberatingly relevant to every human being; past, present and future.The full text of his lecture is online here: The finality of Christ in a pluralist world. While not on parr with Williams, I have written along similar themes, such as in the sermon God Shows No Partiality or the religion column Can Other Religions Be True?.
The challenge is partly re-connecting our christology (what we say about Jesus and the Trinity) with our anthropology (our sense of what belongs properly to human beings); and rightly understood, I think that the belief in Jesus' uniqueness and finality allows us to do this. And, rightly understood, I believe it also allows us to encounter both the religious and the non-religious other with the generous desire to share, and the humble desire to learn, and the patience to let God work out his purpose as is best in his eyes.
Labels: Rowan Williams
At 3/23/2010 10:52 AM, said…
But the happiest person in the study, based on self-reports about satisfaction with life and other happiness measures as well as reports from people who knew the subject, had twice as many substantive conversations, and only one-third of the amount of small talk as the unhappiest, Dr. Mehl said. Almost every other conversation the happiest person had — 45.9 percent of the day’s conversations — were substantive, while only 21.8 percent of the unhappiest person’s conversations were substantive.In summary, the journal article states,
Together, the present findings demonstrate that the happy life is social rather than solitary, and conversationally deep rather than superficial.Of course I like the study as I readily agree with the results. I have preached and taught for years that we are created for connectedness. For example, there is this sermon from May 2003, Koinonia—A Deeper Connectedness which uses the writings of Father Maximillian Kolb in comparison to the lead singer of Queen, Freddy Mercury. We were created for communion with God and with one another, so when we, by deeper conversations rather than small talk alone, connect to others we find greater happiness.
Labels: news item
Labels: Kids in the Kingdom, King of Peace event
At 3/21/2010 7:54 PM, said…
One of the great Prayer Book collects asks God that we may 'love the thing which thou commandest, and desire that which thou dost promise.' That is always tough, for all of us. Much easier to ask God to command what we already love, and promise what we already desire. But much less like the challenge of the Gospel.~N.T. Wright
Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Labels: N.T. Wright, prayer, quote
"Why wasn't this perfume sold for a whole lot of money and given to the poor?" That's what Judas wants to know, but Jesus brushes him aside.The full text of her reflection is online here: The Prophet Mary.
"Leave her alone," he says. "She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me"--which is
about as odd a thing for him to say as what Mary did. Here is the champion of the poor, always putting their needs ahead of his, suddenly reversing course. Leave her alone. Leave me alone. Just this once, let her look after me, because my time is running out.
Whatever Mary thought about what she did, and whatever anyone else in the room thought about it, Jesus took it as a message from God--not the hysteric ministrations of an old maid gone sweetly mad but the carefully performed act of a prophet. Everything around Mary smacked of significance--Judas, the betrayer, challenging her act; the flask of nard--wasn't it left over from Lazarus' funeral?--and out in the yard, a freshly vacated tomb that still smelled of burial spices, waiting for a new occupant. The air was dense with death, and while there may at first have been some doubt about whose death it was, Mary's prophetic act revealed the truth.
She was anointing Jesus for his burial, and while her behavior may have seemed strange to those standing around, it was no more strange than that of the prophets who went before her--Ezekiel eating the scroll of the Lord as a sign that he carried the word of God around inside of him (Ezekiel 2), or Jeremiah smashing the clay jar to show God's judgment on Judah and Jerusalem (Jeremiah 19), or Isaiah walking around naked and barefoot as an oracle against the nations (Isaiah 20). Prophets do things like that. They act out. They act out the truth that no one else can see, and those standing around either write them off as nuts or fall silent before the disturbing news they bring from God.
When Mary stood before Jesus with that pound of pure nard in her hand, it could have gone either way. She could have anointed his head and everyone there could have proclaimed him a king. But she did not do that. When she moved toward him, she dropped to her knees instead and poured the perfume on his feet, which could only mean one thing. The only man who got his feet anointed was a dead man, and Jesus knew it. "Leave her alone," he said to those who would have prevented her. Let her finish delivering the message.
So Mary rubbed his feet with perfume so precious that its sale might have fed a poor family for a year, an act so lavish that it suggests another layer to her prophecy. There will be nothing economical about this man's death, just as there has been nothing economical about his life. In him, the extravagance of God's love is made flesh. In him, the excessiveness of God's mercy is made manifest.
This bottle will not be held back to be kept and admired. This precious substance will not be saved. It will be opened, offered and used, at great price. It will be raised up and poured out for the life of the world, emptied to the last drop. Before that happens, Jesus will gather his friends together one last time. At another banquet, around another supper table, with most of the same people present, Jesus will strip, tie a towel around his waist, and wash his disciples' feet. Then he will give them a new commandment: Love one another, as I have loved you.
Labels: Barbara Brown Taylor, Gospel reading
Do you fast? Give me proof of it by your works.~John Chrysostom, (347-407 a.d.)
If you see a poor man, take pity on him.
If you see a friend being honored, do not envy him.
Do not let only your mouth fast,
but also the eye and the ear and the feet and the hands and all the members of our bodies.
Let the hands fast, by being free of avarice.
Let the feet fast, by ceasing to run after sin.
Let the eyes fast, by disciplining them not to glare at that which is sinful.
Let the ear fast, by not listening to evil talk and gossip.
Let the mouth fast from foul words and unjust criticism.
For what good is it if we abstain from birds and fishes, but bite and devour our brothers?
May He who came to the world to save sinners, strengthen us to
complete the fast with humility! Have mercy on us and save us.
Amen.
At 3/20/2010 4:34 PM, The Bosom Serpent said…
Romantic love is blind to everything except what is lovable and lovely, but Christ’s love sees us with terrible clarity and sees us whole. Christ’s love so wishes our joy that it is ruthless against everything in us that diminishes our joy. The worst sentence Love can pass is that we behold the suffering which Love has endured for our sake, and that is also our acquittal. The justice and mercy of the judge are ultimately one.~Frederick Buechner (1926- )
Labels: Frederick Buechner, quote
Labels: YouTube
At 3/20/2010 10:43 PM, said…
Things Jesus never said with what Jesus did say.
A knock came to my door just last week on Wednesday afternoon, I answered the door expecting to be greeted by a friend. Instead I was confronted by two people I had never met before.
They announced themselves as mes angers of Christ, that they were here to inform me and teach me of the true prophet. His name is John Smith and he is the only way.
Being a Christian and a believer of the Episcopal Church, I was kind and listened to what they felt they needed to say to me. Things Jesus never said with what Jesus did say. Being Mormons, they told me that there belief was the only true and right way.
I in my heart I know that this is not true but I felt the need to let them explain there belief. In doing so I have to say I at a point started to become angry with the way they did not believe that we all could have a separate belief in the same GOD.
No matter what I said to these two very young adults, my belief was wrong and there way was the only way to heaven. I tried to explain that my religions belief and fallowing was leading me in the right direction. As I knew they would they said they were the only true way to heave.
On this Wednesday I was tested, I ask them where their bible was and why they did not carry one.
Was I wrong??
I am Patrick, a sinner, most uncultivated and least of all the faithful and despised in the eyes of many.
If I be worthy, I live for my God to teach the heathen, even though they may despise me.
No one should ever say that it was my ignorance if I did or showed forth anything however small according to God's good pleasure; but let this be your conclusion and let it so be thought, that - as is the perfect truth - it was the gift of God.
Before I was humiliated I was like a stone that lies in deep mud, and he who is mighty came and in his compassion raised me up and exalted me very high and placed me on the top of the wall.
The Lord opened the understanding of my unbelieving heart, so that I should recall my sins.
Labels: quote
No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting it, not by giving in. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later.~C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it.
Labels: C.S. Lewis, quote
,When the “American Idol” judge Simon Cowell recently predicted the departure of the contestant Jermaine Sellers, the young singer shook his head in disagreement. “I know God,’’ he replied, pointing upward.According to Scott Schieman, professor of sociology at the University of Toronto,
Two days later, when Mr. Sellers failed to make the cut, he still had faith. “What God has for me is for me,’’ he said. “In God there is no failure.’’
The interesting thing is that when you press people to start talking about things like speeding tickets or losing weight, a lot of people will weave a divine narrative in, describing God as somehow setting up situations or setting up scenarios for success or failure.Pooling data from two large, national surveys, they found:
Labels: news item
At 3/15/2010 8:58 PM, said…
I agree with the idea that somehow God is implemented into everything good and bad, as his name comes up in each situation, whether through thanksgivings for the good or looking to him for healing the bad. I feel that if everyone remembered during these times that God IS always present, the world would be in a much better situation than it is right now.
I need to remember to pray for his plan rather than my own. It makes me so happy when someone talks about God on national television.
Like many other parishoners, I pray that precious words from God which are delivered through you will continue to touch our lives.
And May God Bless You, Fr. Frank
Melodie
When we pray, ‘Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire,’ we had better know what we are about. He will not carry us to easy triumphs and gratifying successes; more probably He will set us to some task for God in the full intention that we shall fail, so that others, learning wisdom by our failure, may carry the good cause forward.–William Temple (1881-1944)
He may take us through loneliness, desertion by friends, apparent desertion even by God; that was the way Christ went to the Father. He may drive us into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. He may lead us from the Mount of Transfiguration (if He ever lets us climb it) to the hill that is called the Place of the Skull. For if we invoke Him it must be to help us in doing God’s will, not ours. We cannot call upon the Creator Spirit, by whose aid the world’s foundations first were laid in order to use omnipotence for the supply of our futile pleasures or the success of our futile plans.
If we invoke Him, we must be ready for the glorious pain of being caught by His power out of our petty orbit into the eternal purposes of the Almighty, in whose onward sweep our lives are as a speck of dust. The soul that is filled with the Spirit must have become purged of all pride or love of ease, all self-complacence and self-reliance; but that soul has found the only real dignity, the only lasting joy. Come then, Great Spirit, come. Convict the world; and convict my timid soul.
Labels: quote, William Temple
Labels: King of Peace event
1 Comments:
At 4/04/2010 5:10 AM, Rhonda said…
I love this post; I have yet to give up on HOPE!!
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