Hope begins in the dark

Hope begins in the dark,
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.

~Anne Lamott (1954- )

Passover Photos

King of Peace held its 10th Passover Seder tonight, as usual on the second night of Passover, which allows Jewish families to hold their own Passover on the first night at home. We recounted once more how G-d has brought us out of slavery to freedom. If Adonai had not brought the children of Israel out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, we would still be slaves. This seems to be a story of ancient history until we recount it and realize that to this very night, if God does not set us free, we are enslaved. The story of how the Lord brings us freedom is a story for each generation.






This picture acknowledges the awkward setting of an Episcopal Church for a Jewish feast, but our seder is a traditional Jewish one in which Jews enjoy their feast alongside Christians.

Not always the same

It is true that we cannot be free from sin,
but at least let our sins not be always the same.

~Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)

To betray or to follow?

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."

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.

- Henri J. M. Nouwen, "Action to Passion"

Palm Sunday Photos

Holy Week began today with our Palm Sunday worship. The incense couldn't quite keep the gnats at bay, but we braved the bugs to start our worship outdoors. Retired Bishop Henry Louttit and his wife Jan joined us for worship. The sermon is online with other recent sermons at Our sermon page. Worship continues this week with services each night at 7 p.m. with the sole exception being the Easter Vigil which starts Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Come journey with us through Holy Week.

Into your hands...

Christ,
we have seen
how much you love us.

You set your face toward Jerusalem,
gave your body to the whips,
your face to the slaps.

And with your last breath
taught us how
to live.

“Into your hands, Father, I commend my spirit.”

Help us be truly present
at your
cross
all
our lives.

The poem above is from The Center for Liturgy at Saint Louis University.

Debra Dean Murphy writes of Palm Sunday in a blog post Palms and Passion: The Work of Holy Week:

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.”

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.

The full text of her post is online here: Palms and Passion: The Work of Holy Week.

What language does God speak?

Tomorrow's Gospel Reading is Luke's account of the Passion. We hear Jesus proclaim from the cross, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." In preaching on this passage previously, I wrote a story in which a Tanzanian man sets out on a pilgrimage to discover God's own language:

In the summer of 1998, I journeyed to Tanzania to take part in a cross-cultural internship sponsored by the Seminary. I worked in western Tanzania in an Anglican Church led by a Tanzanian priest. While there, I was asked several times, “What is your mother tongue?” You see in East Africa, everyone speaks Swahili, and many people speak English. But these are not the languages of home. Among their own tribe, their own family, most East Africans speak their tribal language. This language is their mother tongue. Whenever I explained that English was my mother tongue, people always felt sorry for me. They knew that I was a much poorer person for not having a mother tongue, a special language spoken only among my own people.

This concern about a mother tongue is reflected in a story told in East Africa of a man from the Dodomo district of Tanzania named Msafiri. Msafiri followed the traditional African religion of his people, the Wagogo. He believed in one God, the creator who is the source of all good things. Msafiri approached God by praying to his ancestors who he believed still watched over their people.

An Anglican evangelist came to his small village and began teaching the people about Christianity. Msafiri listened to the evangelist as he told about God sending his son Jesus to live among us. The stories of Jesus life, his death and resurrection touched Msafiri and he converted to Christianity. He studied with the evangelist and was baptized, taking the name Simon, for Simon of Cyrene, the African saint who had carried Jesus’ cross to Calvary.

Simon Msafiri went to church faithfully, always attending the Wednesday fellowship meetings and Sunday services. Gathered with the other Christians under the grass roof of the mud-walled church they had built together, he learned the stories from the Bible.

Simon Msafiri prayed to God in Kigogo, the language of his own people instead of the Swahili that he used in town with others. This was Simon’s mother tongue and was part of Simon’s ties to his extended family. Simon knew that God understood him when he spoke Kigogo, but he decided that God, too, must have a mother tongue—a language that was God’s own language from before time. Simon wanted to learn to pray to God in God’s own mother tongue. One day he asked the evangelist, “What is God’s mother tongue?” The evangelist thought for a moment and then said that God doesn’t have a mother tongue—all languages are the same to God.

Simon listened and thanked the evangelist. But as he went home, he began to wonder about the evangelist’s answer. Everyone Simon knew had a mother tongue they learned as a child and used among their own people. If the people Simon knew had a mother tongue, then God must as well. He decided to ask some of the elders of the village to get the answer to his question. One man said that God, as the great ancestor, must speak the language of their ancestors, Kigogo. Another said that surely God’s mother tongue is Swahili. These answers didn’t sound right to Simon and he decided to set out on a great safari, a journey to find his answer.

The full text of the sermon is online here: What language does God speak?

A How-to Guide for Responding to Tragedy

From a dreaded diagnosis or traffic accident, to a death in the family or a natural disaster, tragedies large and small send out ripples across a chain of human connections. As Christians, we are to share God’s love with those in need, but how can we make a difference in the lives of those who are hurting? While you won’t be able to take all the pain and suffering and make it go away, you can have a positive effect on those suffering emotional or physical pain.

In his Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), Jesus showed how we are to be neighbors to others. A man is beaten by bandits and left for dead on the road. A temple priest and a Levite, who was also part of the priestly tribe, pass by the man without helping. Instead it was a Samaritan, whose people were at odds with the rest of Israel, who helped the man in need.

The question Jesus asked as he finished the parable is most telling. He asks, “Which one of the three was a neighbor to him who fell among thieves?” The story started with the question of who is my neighbor and ended with the answer that it matters who acts as neighbor to the one in need.

In other words, Jesus shows that God does not start with me as the person who wants to provide aid and answer with limits on who I have to help. God begins with the person in need and asks, “Who do I have in the area who can help?” Looked at in this way, you will sometimes be the person God has in the area who can respond in a time of tragedy.

How you respond will depend on the gifts God has given you. As the Apostle Paul taught in writing about the Body of Christ (I Corinthians 12), we each have differing abilities given to us by God. The key is to discover your gifts and then use them to help others in time of need.

The most commonly heard statement in the wake of some personal tragedy is “Let me know how I can help.” It is generally sincere and largely unhelpful. This statement puts the burden on the one in need.

Try something more specific based on your abilities. For a cancer patient with young children, if you have the time and talent, offer free childcare. To the caregiver of a dying spouse, offer to mow the grass. Or to the family in grief offer meals, or to handle phone calls coming into the house, or to keep up with the help coming in to organize thank you notes. When the offer is more specific, the answer will more frequently be “Yes.” Find the way that you can best help others and then be open to making the offer as needed.

Beyond these offers of direct assistance, there is the question of how to respond. What do you say and how do you say it. When writing, opt for a hand-written note. It is generally best not to try to explain the tragedy or make it better. Words like “well at least you have other children” or “he had a long, full life” may be true, but they sometimes wound rather than heal.

Instead of trying to make it all better, you can just be honest with something more like, “I don’t know how you feel or what you are going through, but I wanted you to know I care.” This line of writing opens the connection to the person in physical or emotional pain without trying to jump to solving the problem.

With that said, I don’t want to discourage you from writing a note. Even a note that gets off track and says the wrong thing will still convey that you care. Erring on the side of being in communication is most helpful.

Even better than writing is to go in person. When you show up and are able to listen, you have offered the greatest gift of all. What a person going through medical treatment, dealing with grief, or otherwise making sense of tragedy needs most is a safe place to be able to process what he or she is thinking. Listening without judgment, and without trying to make it all better (which will take much more time than a single conversation) is the best you can offer.

Whenever you go in person or call on the phone, begin with “Is this a good time?” If the answer is no, then respect that answer. Let the person know that you are available to listen and then check in the next day or the next week. When the time is right, try to listen much more than you speak and allow for longer than comfortable pauses to make room for the other person to think. When it feels right, a hug or touch of the hand may be the most healing thing you can offer.

For men, going and listening does not come easy. But if it is a man dealing with tragedy, he may only open up and talk with another man. If you have a good friend dealing with a personal tragedy, then even if you do not think this is your gift, you may still be the person God has in the area. It may take you out of what you think you can do, but remember, you don’t have to be good at it, you just have to be present to your friend. God will make up the difference by being with the two of you.

And remember to call the pastor. Make sure that your pastor and the pastor of the people most directly affected by the tragedy knows what is happening. Do not assume that he or she already knows. But having called a pastor does not mean that your job is completed. For while a pastor can and will want to help, it is the close friends and family who will be able to stay in touch day by day and week by week for the year or years ahead. Be open to being the person who takes on that role and you will find that God will bless you as you show love to your neighbor.

The above is my religion column for today's issue of the Tribune & Georgian.

Kids in the Kingdom Week, May 24-28

Applications for our Kids in the Kingdom Week 2010 are now online. The Vacation Bible School will be held May 24-28 from 9 a.m. to 12 noon daily. The cost is just $10 per 5-11 year old child with a max cost of $25 per family. Additional information is on the form itself, which you can download by clicking the image below:

The Olive Branch

The Easter edition of The Olive Branch is now online and will go into the mail today. The PDF of the newsletter can be viewed by clicking on the image above or following this link: Easter Olive Branch.

Recognizing Grace

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- )

Jesus is Coming, Look Busy

This Sunday we celebrate Palm Sunday and then we will have services every day for a week so that by noon on Easter, we will have enjoyed 11 worship services in eight days. It'll be a busy week next week and we are counting on God showing up for our worship. But what if God shows up first in the form of the Second Coming? What do you want to be doing when Jesus' returns?

I'm not saying that you can't get to heaven if you are eating wings at Hooters when Jesus returns, but really, is that where you hope to be when the last trump sounds?

I hope I'm preaching, teaching, or doing something pious. I hope I am not wandering around Blockbuster trying to decide on which movie I'm in the mood for. Or on second thought, maybe the Second Coming would get me out of that dilemma.

So what do you wish our Lord found you up to on his return? And then the obvious follow up is what are you waiting for? Because we kinda think God will see you either way, right?

Just sayin'.

For a more serious take on the same subject is the sermon from our archives The problem with the Rapture on our page of study materials Demystifying Revelation.

Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Pastor

William Butler Yeats: “The Second Coming” (1921)

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
hings fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand;
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries
of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

The Way, The Truth and The Life

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams gave a recent talk The finality of Christ in a pluralist world during a visit to the Diocese of Guildford. He was speaking on the texts of Jesus saying (John 14:5-6) that he is The Way, The Truth and The Life and Peter later saying (Acts 4:8-13), " This Jesus is 'the stone that was rejected by you, the builders; it has become the cornerstone.' There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved." Williams taught,

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.

'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'.

Then jumping to the end without all the middle parts that make the connection (which is always dicey), I will share his concluding words:

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 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.

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?.

That's what the archbishop and I believe. Where do you stand on the uniqueness of Christ in a pluralistic culture?

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, One who tries to stay on The Way

Talk Deeply, Be Happy

Less small talk and more deep discussions about import things. According to one new study, this pattern of conversation is common to those who are happier. Matthias Mehl, a psychologist at the University of Arizona, study, published the study in the journal Psychological Science, which found a correlation between conversations on important topics and happiness.

What one small study can not show is whether talking about the meaning of life leads to happiness or whether it is happier people who spend less time on small talk. So we don't know cause and effect, but we do know that those who struggle with the meaning of life are those who find more meaning in their lives.

Not relying on self reporting, they actually recorded slices of conversation at random over a period of time. The study also did not rely on self-reporting alone with regards happiness, but interviewed persons who knew the subjects. According to a New York Times blog post on the study,

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.

That's my take. What do y'all think?

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Sometime Deep Conversationlist

Stations of the Cross for Kids

Kids in the Kingdom for March was a special Stations of the Cross for children with object lessons for each station on the last hours of Jesus' life. We also jumped ahead to the joy of Easter and resurrection in our stations. Usually this would have taken place outdoors on our Stations of the Cross Trail, but with a drizzling rain outdoors, we projected the stations on PowerPoint and walked around the nave from station to station. Thanks to Amber, Kelly and Rhonda for putting the event together.

To Love What You Command

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

Wright is quoting the prayer we used in today's worship, which in contemporary language reads:

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.

Extravagent Excessiveness

In tomorrow's Gospel reading, Mary of Bethany takes a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anoints Jesus' feet, and wipes them with her hair. Judas Iscariot, who keeps their common purse, is incensed that the money was not given to the poor.

Noted preacher Barbara Brown Taylor reflects on this passage for Day One, writing in part,

"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.

"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.

The full text of her reflection is online here: The Prophet Mary.

A True Lenten Fast

Do you fast? Give me proof of it by your works.
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.

~John Chrysostom, (347-407 a.d.)

Terrible Clarity

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- )

Dream Video - Jesus Said...Love

I was awakened this morning from a dream in which I was creating a short video contrasting things Jesus never said with what Jesus did say. The video was fairly fully formed, ready to go and so I got out of bed and made the video. Within a couple of hours, it was done. It was an intriguing experience to say the least. The 30-second video is above. Enjoy!

Saint Patrick Quotes

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.

Bad People Know Little About Badness

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.

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.

~C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

In What Way Is God Involved?

How directly involved is God in your personal affairs? The March Journal of Sociology of Religion takes up just this question by way of a survey. Top consider the question, look at the start of this New York Times article, Most Believe God Gets Involved,

,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.

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.’’

According to Scott Schieman, professor of sociology at the University of Toronto,

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:

82 percent of respondents said they “depend on God for help and guidance in making decisions.”

71 percent believe that good or bad events are “part of God’s plan for them.’’

One in three respondents agreed with the statement: “There is no sense in planning a lot because ultimately my fate is in God’s hands.”

As for me, I absolutely agree that I depend on God for help and guidance. I believe that not all things good and bad are God's plan, but that people by free will can do things that are not what God willed, yet God will work all things together for the good. So I therefore think that I should make plans, but include God in the planning, asking for God's will rather than mine.

That's where I come down on this. How about y'all?

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Pastor

We had better know what we are about

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.

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.

–William Temple (1881-1944)

Winnnie the Pooh Lunch

The Daughters of the King sponsored a Winnie the Pooh Luncheon today at King of Peace which was a smashing success. Grandparents/grandkids and Parents/children had great fun with their stuffed animals at church today. All of the proceeds go directly to pay down the debt on our current building at King of Peace. Thanks to all who made the day such a fun and successful event, especially Bervely Vye.