Irenic Thoughts

Blog Archives

2010-06-15T09:19:00.004-04:00

This Irenic Thoughts blog is no longer active, but remains posted here as an archived conversation of 2,185 posts. Thanks for the roughly 350,000 visits to this blog over the past 5+ years!

Many of the posts from this blog made it into A Season of Healing while the sermons and religion columns shared here are also found in:

The proceeds of the above books created by King of Peace, continues to go the discretionary fund of King of Peace, assisting those in need in Camden County. Use the promo code SUMMERREAD305 and get 10% off plus free shipping.

There are no goodbyes

2010-06-15T09:13:00.003-04:00

The following is my religion column for the Friday, June 18, 2010 issue of the Tribune & Georgia.

When my wife, Victoria, and I hiked the Appalachian Trail, we enjoyed a lot of single-serving friendships. As we were hiking north for six months, we often ran into someone hiking south. We would sometimes just nod and keep walking, but more typically a brief conversation would ensue. And in these brief snippets we would often just learn the basics of who someone was, where they were coming from and how far they were going.

We did use these short meetings to find out about folks further up ahead and to share news of others we had passed along the way. Then one such single serving friendship was transformative. A hiker I will never forget, whose name we never heard appeared out of a dense fog one morning to say that he decided that these brief exchanges didn’t have to start at the beginning “Hi, I’m Frank and this is my wife, Victoria.” Instead, we could begin in the middle. Then without a name or other introduction, he shared how the morning was more science fiction than trail fact and people just appeared from the fog as if transported from no where. With that, he vanished into that same fog and we learned to take conversations further, faster if we wanted to really benefit from our short-lived exchanges in days full of hiking. That briefest of conversations left us changed for the better.

This is my farewell column for the Tribune and Georgian and as such, the last brief conversation we will have through this newspaper. I am thankful for you, gentle readers. Many of you have been with me for the more than 200 columns I have written. We have been through a lot together since my first column “How much sin is too much to forgive?” debuted in this space on June 22, 2001 to wonder aloud about American terrorist Timothy McVeigh’s last minute confession.

Since then, the worldwide tragedy of September 11 and smaller, closer to home grief of dealing with the paper mill closing and taking with it hundreds of jobs as well as the many other events large and small have taken up our thoughts and been in our prayers. We have considered cloning, stem cell research, just war theory and the ethics of torture alongside forgiveness, stewardship and how to live more fully into the faith that is in us.

Writing a column can be a one-sided affair, with me off writing in my little office in my home in Sugarmill and y’all reading wherever you make time for the paper. There is no reason that the writing and the reading need intersect. But it has never worked that way in Camden County. I have often been stopped at Publix or WalMart or Blockbuster to continue a conversation begun in this column. Many readers have shared with me favorite thoughts, including the columns that were hung on the refrigerator or laminated. I have also enjoyed it when someone emailed to let me know how the follow-up discussion went in a Bible Study at their church.

Rather than a column in which I write and you read, the column evolved into something more like a conversation. The word conversation comes from Latin root, which literally means “to turn about with.” The same root gives us “conversion.” Real conversation is a genuine back and forth in which those conversing change direction together. I thank you for being conversation partners with me and for the ways you have helped me to change direction over time. I hope that even if you haven’t agreed with me, that you were given pause to think about your own beliefs.

In this idea of conversion through conversation, we see that it has not just been a conversation between writer and reader, but the Holy Spirit has been in the conversation as well. For my words alone do not have the power of conversion unless God uses my words to get one’s attention and then do something with them beyond the ability of words alone.

This is just like what happens in a sermon. Each week, more than 100 pastors prayerfully consider how to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with those in the pews in Camden County. Certainly the God-given skill of the preacher comes into play. But even more important is what God does with the words as they are spoken.

I have never spoken to a pastor about preaching who has not been able to tell of a time when someone referred to something not said outright in the sermon, which proved significant to the hearer. What is heard is not identical with what is preached and thanks be to God that this is so. The rest of what happens in sermon (and the most important part) is what the Holy Spirit does in the heart of the hearer. And so it is with the readers touched by something they read from me in this space.

Now this conversation comes to an end. I begin work July 1 as Canon for Congregational Ministries of the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia. That mouthful of words means that I will share with our bishop in the task of tending the clergy and congregations of south Georgia. I feel called by God to this vocation. Yet every call to something is a call away from something else. In part, it is a call away from this conversation carried on through the newspaper. Someone new will take over this column, just as I took up where Bob Moon left off. The conversation continues with a new person writing alongside my conversation partner Donna Grice.

But this is not goodbye. There is no such thing as goodbye in the Kingdom of God, in the sense of a final parting. For as the faith we have is not in vain, we will see one another again, if not on earth, then in heaven. It is only farewell we say, or ta ta for now. For if the words I have written have been used by God to good effect, then we will be together again.

(The Rev. Frank Logue was the founding pastor of King of Peace Episcopal Church in Kingsland, serving that congregation from its beginning in 2000 until this past Sunday.)

The Logues Final Sunday

2010-06-13T15:07:00.011-04:00

Founders Frank and Victoria Logue finished their ministry at King of Peace today.

The bell choir played, there was a lot of great music and Vera and Cole were initiated into Christ's body, the church, through the sacrament of baptism. Father Doug Renegar, who will serve as the interim rector, also officiated in the service. A covered dish followed with lots of wonderful food.

Let us begin

2010-06-13T04:00:00.001-04:00

King of Peace's first public event. 16 people attended Questioning Your Faith at the Rec Center in September of 2000, when it ended 8 weeks later, more than twice as many were present.

On his death bed, Saint Francis of Assisi told the gathered members of his Orders of Friars Minor,

Let us begin, brothers, to serve the Lord our God for up to now we have made little or no progress.

I quoted this before in a sermon Let Us Begin as King of Peace entered its fourth year. We had just completed reading through the lectionary and so in three years of worship we had read through most of the Bible. We read that day from Paul's Letter to the Thessalonians, the earliest Christian writing. On this, my final day after a decade at King of Peace, those words come back to me. I finished that sermon referring to Francis and Paul,

Even though they had made much progress, there was room for improvement. The same is true for us. Each of us, no matter where we are on our own spiritual journey, has room to grow. If you don’t think you have much room to grow in your knowledge and love of God, that is the surest sign that you do have progress to be made. Francis understood this. That’s why he could look back and say that they had made little progress by the ends of his days. But, rather than being filled with despair by this, I can imagine the Francis who could write so eloquently about joy, could feel joy at the challenge of room for growth.

King of Peace has seen a lot of growth in the three years since we first started the lectionary cycle of readings. We have grown from 30 that first Sunday to have had as many as 107 in worship. We have grown in awareness in our community as King of Peace has become well known, especially considering the size and age of us as a church. A 7,900-sq. ft. building has taken shape out back and will soon be home to us, the church. We have seen lives transformed by the power of the Gospel we preach and the sacraments we celebrate. We have rejoiced together over births, in more than 20 baptisms at weddings and numerous meals. We have mourned together in the wake of the tragedy of 9-11 and more personal tragedies of deaths within our families.

Yet, with all the things God has done and is doing in our midst, it is not the time to get a big head or to rest on our laurels. Compared to all that God has done for us. Compared to all God has in store for us, we have but just begun.

There is so much more room to increase and abound in love for one another. There is vast room for change as God strengthens our hearts through our common worship and in our daily lives. Now is not the time to feel that we have arrived. Now is the time to feel that we have so far to go, and to see the joy in that realization.

Let us begin, sisters and brothers, to serve the Lord our God for up to now we have made little or no progress.

The full text of that sermon is online here: Let Us Begin.

We have progressed much in this decade, but God will always have more for us. One day, King of Peace will look back on this past decade and it will be not of the congregation's best time, but of its beginnings, which enabled even greater things later. I give thanks to have been used by God for this time. I also give thanks that greater days lie ahead.

Closing Out Irenic Thoughts
This blog (which also posts to Facebook) is nearly finished. I have shared Irenic Thoughts for more than six years and am thankful for the ministry. I will close it out with my religion column for this Friday's Tribune & Georgian. Thanks for reading. It's been a great journey together!

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Founding Rector
King of Peace Episcopal Church

King of Peace on Easter 2010 with more than 200 in a single worship service and more than 300 total for Easter.

Go in Peace to Where?

2010-06-12T04:00:00.001-04:00

In tomorrow's Gospel reading, Jesus is at the home of a Pharisee for a dinner when Luke's Gospel recounts,

a woman in the city, who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment. She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair. Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him—that she is a sinner.

I preached a first-person sermon on this text found here: Go in Peace, to Where? The sermon is dramatized in the video below created by Brandon Watson with Craig Wells playing the role of the Pharisee. For those seeing this blog in Facebook, the video is found here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WaNXiW11uc.

Community Farewell

2010-06-11T20:43:00.006-04:00

On Thursday, June 10, King of Peace hosted a community-wide farewell for its founders, the Rev. Frank and Victoria Logue. The event included a prayer by the most hated Bishop Scott Benhase, who hired Frank away to work as his Canon. Bishop Benhase had a prior commitment at 8 p.m. on St. Simons, but made time to kick off the evening. There were lots of tributes including Girl and Boy Scouts, Habitat for Humanity, Camden Chamber of Commerce, Dueling resolutions from the cities of Kingsland and St. Marys presented by their mayors, and a bit of roasting by long-term King of Peace members. All in all, it was a night of giving thanks for all that God has done in our midst these past 10 years.

Prepare Now for the 7 Weeks of Advent

2010-06-11T04:00:00.001-04:00

In 2009, King of Peace took part in an experiment toward a Seven-Week Season of Advent, instead of the typical four Sundays before Christmas. We learned how things could have gone better and I want to share those learnings as I think the experiment is worth widening. I am an evangelist for a 7-week Advent and want to encourage you to consider giving the expanded season a try.

The expansion of Advent is not some out-of-the-blue idea as Advent was once seven weeks long and remains so for the Orthodox Church (Russian and Greek Orthodox, etc.) to this day in an unbroken tradition. The goal is to reclaim the time for preaching and teaching about the second coming as was traditionally part of the season and remains so in truncated form now. I know how how counter-cultural Advent already is and find the expansion back to its historic length to be something worth considering, especially as the Revised Common Lectionary readings fit this without making any change.

How a 7-Week Advent Was Done Last Year
Our liturgy as we ended the Sundays after Pentecost was Rite II Prayer A with chairs which face the front very much as pews would. Green frontal on altar and ambo.

As we moved into Advent, we had no cloth on the ambo and the altar was moved to the center of our worship space with chairs arranged in a circle around it. The 4-foot square altar then has no one-sided frontal, but a blue cloth batiked in white by Anglicans in China. As we have a 36-foot wide Chartes-style labyrinth on the floor, this means the altar was in the center of the labyrinth and the round shape to the chairs feels organic and not forced.

We used Rite II Prayer B Penitential Eucharist. The prayers of the people are changed weekly, adapted from those in Liturgy Training Publication's Intercessions for the People. We used a seasonal blessing for Advent from the Book of Occasional Services. We also used liturgist Bill Petersen's seven Advent collects written for this project.

In previous years, we has an Advent wreath on the way into worship and replaced that with a seven candle stand so to show the same season is lengthened. That stand was on the altar but in retrospect, I would certainly move it off the altar, top a table as one enters the nave.

We do not have a choir and music is by piano except on fourth Sundays when it is guitars, dulcimer and drum. I used O Come, O Come Emmanuel in the spot of a hymn of praising with verses 1 and 2 in week one, verses 1 and 3 in week two and so on.

Preaching reflected seasonal themes found in the texts each week.

Music was a huge challenge, but we made it work. This needs improving over time. Some hymns from the Lutheran Book of Worship helped us expand available music on the fly.

We experienced not one single complaint, but that may be the nature of starting from scratch 10 years ago as much as anything. Positive comments have been few and centered on our beginning the church's anticipation before the craziness of Christmas season got cranked up. Largely I think the 7-week Advent experiment was greeted with an attitude of enjoying it mildly while being mildly indifferent.

What I Would Change
I think that my wife, Victoria, hit on the issue in naming the distinction between Lent and Advent. For Episcopalians, Lent involves some changes to both corporate worship and one's daily life, where Advent involves solely changes in corporate worship. This would need to change in order to transform a congregation's experience of Advent.

In past years, we have pushed materials we created on Celebrating Advent in the Home (see www.kingofpeace.org/advent/ ). As we have a lot of young families, getting them to do a nightly devotion helped cross this divide. I didn't have the time this year to create as a seven-week version, and so did not promote that in-home devotion. A seven-week Advent, needs other ways to encourage a sort of Adventen discipline, hopefully different from Lent. This would take thought and preparation, but could be important. I think suggesting that families take on an Advent discipline specifically designed to counter the rampant concumerism of the season is the direction to go.

What do y'all think? Are you game to gear up for Seven Weeks of anticipation? Why not make Advent even more counter-cultural at a time of year when the message of the culture (Buy More Stuff to Be Happy) most needs to be overturned.

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Advent Evangelist

Everything that is not God

2010-06-10T04:00:00.000-04:00

To believe in God is not a decision we can make...It is not for man to seek, or even to believe in God. He has only to refuse to believe in everything that is not God. This refusal does not presuppose belief.

It is enough to recognize, what is obvious to any mind, that all the goods of this world, past, present, or future, real or imaginary, are finite and limited and radically incapable of satisfying the desire which burns perpetually with in us for an infinite and perfect good... It is not a matter of self-questioning or searching. A man has only to persist in his refusal, and one day or another God will come to him.

—Simone Weil (1909-1943)

Interim Rector Called for King of Peace

2010-06-09T07:47:00.003-04:00

The vestry (church board) of King of Peace announces that it has called the Rev. Douglas Renegar to serve during the 12-18 months needed for a search process for a new pastor and president.

Father Renegar grew up in a military family, graduating from high school in Nebraska. He was a teacher and principal prior to his attending to seminary and has a Masters in Education from East Carolina University. Ordained in 1984, he served churches in South Carolina and Virginia before coming to south Georgia to be Rector of historic Christ Church Frederica on Saint Simons Island. After more than a decade there, he worked for the church in Tanzania and at the United Nations. He has one grown daughter. Father Renegar will begin his work at King of Peace on July 11.

The contract is for six months and will be renewed one or two times as needed on mutual review by Father Renegar and the Vestry. Many of of the congregation will remember Father Renegar, as he celebrated and preached on the Sunday after Easter when I was away to officiate at a wedding in Rome, Georgia. Father Renegar will also be with us on June 13, for my last Sunday, to celebrate the Liturgy of the Word. I will preach and celebrate the liturgy of the table. I am thankful that we have such a good and faithful priest on board as interim.

I know that some anticipate a church will dwindle some during an interim. But with Father Renegar as the interim and the many gifted members of King of Peace still continuing as they have in leading music, greeting and welcoming newcomers and so on, I anticipate continued strength and growth.

Farewell Event, Thursday 6-8 p.m.
There is a farewell reception at King of Peace tomorrow evening and all in the community are invited to attend. It will be a time for giving thanks for what God has done in our midst this past decade.

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Soon to be Loose Canon on Deck

WWJT - What Would Jesus Tweet?

2010-06-09T04:00:00.000-04:00

The video above was created by the Anglican Church in Canada for its own context. For those seeing this blog on Facebook, the video is online here: Catch the Buzz.

I share it here in hopes of hearing what others think of it. I kinda like it, and think it leans once more toward the church as non-profit working on social services. The church may do many things to live into its faith that do have us caring directly for those most in need, but this is our way of incarnating (making real) the Gospel in our lives. This is a natural outgrowth of worship and so a byproduct of our purpose, which is a good way of seeing the fruit of our worship life. But divorced from the Gospel (they don't go that far, and yet...) and the worship life of a community of Christians, the works we do would be as dead as faith without works. That's my rant. What's yours?

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Video Critic

Spirituality Without Prayer

2010-06-08T04:00:00.000-04:00

Spirituality without a prayer life is no spirituality at all, and it will not last beyond the first defeats. Prayer is an opening of the self so that the Word of God can break in and make us new. Prayer unmasks. Prayer converts. Prayer impels. Prayer sustains us on the way. Pray for the grace it will take to continue what you would like to quit.

~Joan Chittister (1936- )

Prayer for the Oil Crisis in the Gulf

2010-06-07T04:00:00.000-04:00

Guide those who labor to contain the oil that endangers the creatures of sea and land; Strengthen those who work to protect them; Have mercy on those whose livelihoods will suffer; Forgive us for our carelessness in using the resources of nature, and give us wisdom and reverence so to manage them in the future, that no one may suffer from our abuse of them, and that generations yet to come may continue to praise you for your bounty; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

This is from a page of prayer at the website for the Episcopal Diocese of the Gulf Coast: Prayers for the oil crisis in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Center of the Gospel

2010-06-06T04:00:00.000-04:00

If one does away with the fact of the Resurrection, one also does away with the Cross, for both stand and fall together, and one would then have to find a new center for the whole message of the gospel.

~Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-1988)

Speak God's Word of Truth

2010-06-05T04:00:00.000-04:00

In tomorrow's Gospelreading, Jesus raises the only son of widow of Nain. This is paired with an Old Testament reading in which the Prophet Elijah raised a boy to life. The Rev. Dr. Susanna Metz has preached on this passage concluding,

One of the many lessons we might learn from both these Scripture passages is that what Jesus and Elijah did, we must do also. We’ll probably not literally raise people from the dead, but we are called to be conduits of God’s grace, and we are called to be prophetic. Being prophetic doesn’t mean that we have to be dramatic. We are prophetic when we are aware of the needs in the world around us and we speak the truth about it. The power of prophesy is in the truth of the words and the challenge those words offer people to change for the better.

But we also know that prophets often get in trouble. The Old Testament is full of stories about prophets being reviled, ignored, harassed – and sometimes killed. John the Baptist lost his head. Jesus was crucified. Certainly we’re not supposed to be prophets like that are we?

The thing is – we are. Each one of us is called to speak God’s word of truth in a difficult world. Each one of us – not just the Dorothy Days or the Oscar Romeros, the prophets of our time – each one of us has our times to be prophetic. Different situations will affect us in different ways. Often, when we’re most prophetic, we so love what we’re doing that we don’t see ourselves as prophets.

There’s a man in Chattanooga, Tennessee, who left a very lucrative theater job in New York City to join the Brotherhood of St. Gregory. He gave everything away – absolutely everything he owned – to follow a call to serve the homeless poor as a monk in that southern city. Brother Ron lives in the shelter with the homeless. He helps them find medical assistance and food. He counsels them. He lets them know that God loves and cares for them even when they feel most alone and hopeless. Brother Ron also shares the stories of homeless people with congregations, seminarians, and city officials. The interesting thing about Ron is that even when people could be amazed and impressed by the work he does, that’s not what people see first. Ron is a prophet. He speaks the word of God to a hurting world, and he does it with power and truth. People see the graciousness of God through Ron, and they could use the same words the widow of Zarephath said about Elijah: “We know you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.”

That sounds pretty extraordinary, but Ron isn’t all that different from you and me. Our vocations are unique. The ways we’re called to be prophetic are unique. Like any prophet, we only need to take our connection to God seriously. That connection might be through the Torah, through Baptismal promises, or through whatever our tradition holds as a means of being faithful to God. God will work wonders through each of us if we’re open. God’s word of truth can be in each of our mouths. What greater compliment could people say about us than that we are people of God?

The full text of her sermon is online here: Speak God's Word of Truth.

Engineering, Faith and the Master Plan

2010-06-04T04:00:00.003-04:00

My dad, Tom Logue, is at center above in a photo for Dixie Contractor magazine taken for an article on his innovative work in interstate construction tested in paving I-20.

I love construction. That’s why I have been more intrigued and less bothered by the construction project many of us in Camden County have been driving through lately as they rework the intersection of Laurel Island Parkway and Gross Road.

I am fascinated not just by the end product. I enjoy watching how the engineers plan the order of the project. I wonder at times if they know what they are up to and enjoy wondering what comes next and why this or that hasn’t been done yet.

I come by this love of watching a construction project come together honestly. My dad was a civil engineer who spent his life in building roads, bridges and tunnels. His parents were both paving contractors who spent their careers paving primarily roads and parking lots. I love few smells like that of fresh asphalt. I am reminded of the golden days of my preschool youth when I rode with my grandfather to see projects underway. Along the way, I picked up an appreciation for the proper sequence being essential to a project.

The Gospel of John shows an important sequence in the chain of events that leads to Jesus’ death on a cross. Even what can first seem like some random happening in Jesus’ life, is an essential step. For example, once Jesus was just outside of Jerusalem in the village of Bethany. He was at the home of the siblings Mary, Martha and Lazarus. Lazarus was Jesus’ good friend who died. Jesus wept at his tomb and then raised Lazarus from the dead. John’s Gospel makes it clear that raising Lazarus from the dead set in motion the sequence of events that leads Jesus to Calvary.

Lazarus’ death was well attested. His being raised to new life, therefore, caused a big stir in the village of Bethany and spilled over into nearby Jerusalem just as pilgrims were flooding into town for the Passover.

Mary of Bethany made an extravagant thank offering to Jesus. She poured out a pound of perfume on Jesus’ feet, which she wiped with her hair. The perfume was worth 300 denarii. A denarii was the usual pay for a day of work for a common laborer. Today, a minimum wage worker earns $17,400 in 300 eight-hour days.

John says Judas Iscariot proclaimed that the perfume should have been sold and the money given to the poor. Judas’ anger over the waste of perfume was significant. Within a week of this celebration as Mary, Martha and Lazarus’ home, Jesus would be dead and buried. The betrayal later that week would require this sort of event preceding it.

We can see with hindsight how God was working through human choice to bring Jesus’ life and ministry to its conclusion. Like a vast construction project, there was a sequence that was essential. The high priest Caiaphas already stated that Jesus was a threat to Israel’s tenuous relationship with Rome and “It is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.”

Caiaphas placed a call for anyone who was connected to Jesus to help them find him away from the crowds. Next someone would need to turn against Jesus and betray him, then others would flee, then he would die, and finally he would rise to new life. I jump ahead of the story just to say that there is a trajectory here. God’s plan is working through human actions, and while we can wreak havoc, cause pain, and even thwart God’s will for our own lives, God’s plan proceeds.

It’s not that God made Judas betray Jesus, but that Judas was always the one who would choose willingly to do so. God’s view takes in all time as well as place and so God could see that Judas always would make that choice.

None of this is merely academic. How we live our lives day to day depends on these very issues. There are times when you or I beat our heads against a wall wondering why God doesn’t make this or that thing happen. Yet, with the wisdom of hindsight we can see again and again how something else needed to occur first. God is working on the issue, but there are steps and the steps are not incidental, but essential to the ultimate success of that very thing God wills. Often we are looking for a “yes” or “no” answer from God when the true answer is “not yet.”

Equally often, there are ways in which, through our own free will or that of others lots of unnecessary suffering comes into the world. This is not because God willed it or wants it, but because love demands choice we have the ability to choose the evil as well as the good. As surely as Judas’ choice to betray led not just to death, but also resurrection, so too can and will God weave all things together for the good for those who love Him.

I can go to the construction site at Laurel Island and pull every surveyor’s stake out of the ground. It will not help the contractors who need the stakes to make the planned road widening a reality. Yet even if I were to pull all the stakes, the job will get completed. I can come back day after day to pull the stakes or otherwise try to sabotage their efforts. But I grew up with contractors and I know that they will see the job through to completion.

Like some vast construction project with plans unseen by us, God works through and in spite of human choices toward an ultimate plan. We can make our own choices, live out the consequences of our own actions, but we can not thwart God’s ultimate plans or purposes any more than individual choices could have caused or prevented either Good Friday or Easter Sunday if they had not been God’s will.

While the master engineer leaves much to your choice, the master plan is God’s alone. He is working out that plan of salvation in and through our actions. Our choice is not whether God will redeem. Our choice is whether we are redeemed and whether we will live into that redemption through our own actions and take our part in working things together for the good.

The above essay is today's religion column for the Tribune & Georgian.

All the Commandments in One

2010-06-03T04:00:00.000-04:00

I observed, "Love is the fulfilling of the law, the end of the commandment." It is not only "the first and great" command, but all the commandments in one.

"Whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise," they are all comprised in this one word, love.

~John Wesley (1703-1791)

Fellowship & Communion

2010-06-02T04:00:00.000-04:00

The Episcopal Church and the Visual Arts has a new online exhibit up as part of a year long series devoted to baptism. The current exhibit is based on this affirmation from the service:

Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers?

The image above is James Mangum's "Prodigal Son" a painted wood carving relief based on a painting by Van Gogh. You can see all of the work of the exhibit here: Thumbnails.

Victoria and I will be curating an Advent exhibit. My contribution to the current exhibit is a photo I took in the Dominican Republic earlier this year: And in the prayers. A better version of the same idea was included in the exhibit. Steve Polston tells of his photo below,

Marge has been a member of this congregation since birth — 1923 — and worships in the church several times a week. She is present as often as the doors are open. She does continue in the prayers and the fellowship and the breaking of the bread. Even when there is no literal bread to be broken, Marge offers her prayers as a sacrifice. In this photo, Marge is waiting for the other worshippers to join her in the choir pews.

There Is No Technical fix

2010-06-01T04:00:00.003-04:00

A New York Times article, Our Fix-It Faith and the Oil Spill quotes Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press,

Americans have a lot of faith that over the long run technology will solve everything, a sense that somehow we’re going to find a way to fix it.

He cites a 1999 poll in which he says they found us to be "naïvely optimistic about the fruits of technology: 81 percent said there would be a cure for cancer, 76 percent said we would put men on Mars." The article ends with Kohut referring to complaints when an Icelandic volcano sent plumes of ash over the continent, grounding airlines for a week. He said, "The reaction was: ‘Fix this. Fix this. This is outrageous.’" But there was no technical fix. The planes needed to wait until the ash dissipated. Not all our problems can or will have technical solutions.

The problems facing those seeking to master the deep sea oil leak reveals the problem of putting our faith in technology as not all our problems have technical solutions. Turning from such larger matters as volcanos and oil leaks to the more personal, we find folk looking for technical solutions in cosmetic surgery and abuse of alcohol and drugs. Instead of dealing with problems more directly, realistically, we can opt for technical solutions. Here again, there is not always a technical fix, but that does not mean we can get beyond God's redemption.

I am reminded me of a quotation I have shared previously in this space. Albert Rhett Stuart, the Sixth Bishop of Georgia told the techno-tuned folks of 1956,

People are discovering that a life full of gadgets is no satisfactory substitute for a life lived in the power and presence of God.

I am not seeking to minimize the natural disaster taking place deep under the Gulf, but to use this to point beyond the current crisis to the problem of relying on technology to save us in some larger sense, and while redemption is possible, it doesn't come through technology, but in relationship.

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Pastor

The Price That They Paid

2010-05-31T04:00:00.001-04:00

King of Peace's Memorial Garden with the flags out for Memorial Day

The following poem written by King of Peace's own Dale Bundy is one to share this Memorial Day as we remember all who paid the ultimate price for our freedom.

You rest now dear,
She told him,
As she sat down,
On the bench nearby.

Every day,
She'd make the walk,
And this time she swore,
She'd not cry.

But the memories came,
Of their life.
And their love,
'Till a war took his life away.

And the tears that she shed,
Every time she came here,
Meant more,
Than could words ever say.

Sometimes she brought flowers,
To place on his stone,
Or she'd read him,
A letter she wrote.

And when she got to the end,
It was always the same,
An "I love you",
Would catch in her throat.

It was hard to leave him,
Alone in that place,
But she carried him home,
In her heart.

When he died,
She vowed,
To never forget,
His sacrifice and she did her part.

This Memorial Day,
Remember the ones,
Who may be forgotten,
And gone.

Take a moment,
And remember,
The price that they paid,
Don't leave their memories alone.

Prayer of a Magnanimous Heart

2010-05-30T04:00:00.001-04:00

Oh God, keep us from all pettiness:
Let us be large in thought, in word and deed.
Let us be done with fault finding and
leave off all self-seeking.
May we put away all pretense and
meet each other face to face
Without self pity and without prejudice.
May we never be hasty in judgment
and always generous.
Let us always take time for all things,
And make us grow calm, serene and gentle.
Teach us to put into action our better impulses,
To be straight forward and unafraid.
Grant that we may realize that it is the
little things that create differences,
That in the big things of life we are as one.
And, Oh Lord God, let us not forget to be kind.

~Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots (1542-1587)

Both/And

2010-05-29T05:00:00.000-04:00

105 years ago, Albert Einstein wrote a scientific paper that changed the world of physics. Among other things, Einstein proclaimed that light was both a particle and a wave. This notion was so radical that it took 20 years to really be acknowledged and even longer to be adequately validated by research to become part of a scholarly consensus.

Einstein's work was at the forefront of what we now call Quantum Physics. As physicists dove under the layers of the visible world to explore subatomic particles, they found in their mathematic equations an interconnectedness that surprised and sometimes frightened them.

The problem with light had been described in either-or terms. Light was either disconnected particles or an interconnected wave. But Einstein theorized and others proved that light is both particle and wave. Neither particle theory nor wave theory can describe light. This understanding of light has now become scientific dogma. In fact, this discovery has been part of the push in Quantum Physics to understand the interconnectedness of all things.

In the Quantum universe, relationships are more important to study than the particles themselves. We once saw the world as filled with more than 90% dark matter, or the absence of stuff. But now scientists can find and show connections between particles where no matter connects the two. There is an essential connectedness among all things.

I write this as tomorrow is Trinity Sunday, the only day of the church year devoted to a doctrone of the church. The readings for tomorrow from the New Testament are ones in which references to Father, Son and Holy Spirit are named in one passage. The word Trinity itself does not appear in scripture, but the idea of the one God being Father, Son and Holy Spirit does. And so I look to scientific understandings which show both/and as possible as I prepare to speak of God as both three and one.

These understandings from Quantum physics would not surprise St. Patrick, or early Christians for that matter, who understood God to be both three persons and one God. Neither the idea that God is three, nor the idea that God is one, could work alone to describe the attributes of God. God is three persons so completely interconnected as to be one. And we, who are made in the image of God, long to be part of that interconnectedness, that koinonia (the New Testament Greek word for communion). This is why St. Augustine wrote, that our hearts are restless until they find rest in God. We who are created in the image of God’s communion long for communion with God and with others.

We act out this Christian belief in koinonia each time we celebrate a communion service. Each of us comes as an individual (particle). We bring our own uniqueness. Through the words and actions of the service we are drawn together (wave). We say the same words, in order to commune with God. Through that communion with God, we realize that as children of God, we are brothers and sisters to all the other people on earth. Our connection to God allows for a deeper connection to other people. This is how we in our imperfect ways participate in the very life of the Trinity.

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Pastor

God gives us a family

2010-05-28T13:47:00.007-04:00

Our Kids in the Kingdom Week finished with a day devoted to how God gives us a family. We learned how Joseph regained his brothers and his father through forgiveness and how as children of God we are part of a big family. To share the love of the big family, the kids tied knots onto the edge of a blanket being sent to keep kids warm on cold African nights. And so we share the love of God with the larger family of God in a tangible way as we close out our Kids in the Kingdom Week.

God gives us forgiveness

2010-05-27T20:44:00.004-04:00

Today in our Kids in the Kingdom Week we discovered how God gives us forgivness. Along the way, we learned how difficult it was for Joseph to forgive his brothers. We also made a Walk Like an Egyptian video embedded above at the blog and for those on Facebook, it is here: Walk like a kid in the kingdom

God gives us wisdom

2010-05-26T10:27:00.009-04:00

Today in our Kids in the Kingdom Week, we have discovered through the story of Joseph found in Genesis how God gives us wisdom.

Joseph is now known in Egypt as Zaphenath-Paneah, but he still worships only the one true God and trusts in God to give him the wisdom he needs to prepare Egypt for the coming famine. He also prays for his family, Israel, his wives and children.

God gives us special abilities

2010-05-25T12:23:00.008-04:00

We had a second great day with Kids in the Kingdom. Today we learned how God gives us special abilities. We discovered how Joseph's God-given ability to interpret dreams was used to save all of Egypt. We continue the story tomorrow.

Kyle dumped water on his face while acting in a skit.

God gives us hope

2010-05-24T11:18:00.006-04:00

Our Kids in the Kingdom Week is off to a great start. Today we have learned how Joseph came to be first a slave and then a prisoner in Egypt, but that he never lost hope because of his faith in the one true God. Along the way, the kids made jewelry, tried on makeup, played games and sang songs.

Stations of the Cross

2010-05-24T04:00:00.001-04:00

Yes, I know that we are just on the other side of the fifty-day season of Eastertide and no where near Lent when the Stations are more common, but Father Matthew's latest video is one on the Stations of the Cross filmed on his recent trip to Israel.

For those who see this post at Facebook rather than as originally posted at the Irenic Thoughts blog, the YouTube video linked above is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_ol1VWqC7M.

Exodus into Egypt

2010-05-23T14:30:00.004-04:00

It's beginning to look a lot like Egypt at King of Peace. After our Pentecost worship service, we transformed the church into Egypt in the time of Joseph and the other sons of Israel.

This week our Exodus into Egypt theme will help us to explore how God gives us hope, special abilities, wisdom, forgiveness and a family. All the while we will be immersing ourselves in the land and culture of Egypt imagining Joseph's journey from the prison to the palace. Look for daily updates here in photo and video.

Pentecost Photos

2010-05-23T12:20:00.002-04:00

Jessie and Riley Bennett and Caroline Rose Alford were initiated into Christ's Body the Church today through the sacrament of baptism.

It's Pentecost

2010-05-23T04:00:00.001-04:00

For those who see this blog post in Facebook, the video embedded above at the blog is here on YouTube: It's Pentecost.

Come Holy Spirit

2010-05-22T04:00:00.000-04:00

Sunday is Pentecost, the day in the church year when we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit to Jesus' disciples. At King of Peace, as with many other churches, it's a day for the congregation to all wear red, the color associated with the Holy Spirit because of the "tongues of fire" seen over the heads of the disciples on Pentecost (readings for this weekend are online here: Pentecost. The Rev. Rob Lord previously wrote about Pentecost at his blog, A New and Unending Kind of Life.

Alan Jones, Dean of Grace Episcopal Cathedral in San Francisco, once said, “only a fool would pray for the Holy Spirit” and then went on to say “only fools for Christ do”. To ask for the Holy Spirit may indeed be a dangerous thing. But to experience it we must ask for it. We must be willing to abandon ourselves to it. We must begin by an acceptance that the Spirit is not somewhere ‘out there’ or in some Never Never Land; but here, waiting to be invited in. The distance between us and the Kingdom of God is but a thin film that can easily be penetrated - if we intentionally seek to do so. Sadly, most of us intentionally seek other things...

In my own life, the Spirit comes not only in the "rushing mighty wind" of felt presence, but also in the still, soft dew, of waiting in silence and solitude, the lifeline of my relationship with the Lord.

Veni Sancti Spiritus - the ancient prayer and chant of the Church, is answered in so many suprising and generous ways, when we pay attention to our desire and thirst for the living God.

Are you willing to pray: Come Holy Spirit?

The Power of Disturbing Faith

2010-05-21T04:00:00.001-04:00

The high altar and reredos at Washington National Cathedral
Great cathedrals are by meticulous design, sermons in stone. From the overall architecture to every detail, a cathedral speaks of our faith in Jesus Christ. The sixth largest cathedral in the world, Washington National Cathedral is one such sermon in stone and what they placed at the center of the center of the church speaks to what is central to the Christian faith.

Within its inspiring Gothic edifice flanked with flying buttresses, the building houses a breathtaking array of architectural sculpture, wood carving, mosaics, leaded glass, artistic metal work, and many other works of art, including more than 200 stained glass windows. The focal point of the entire design is the high altar. Behind the altar is an intricately carved back wall piece called a reredos. The wall carving boasts 110 saints, prophets, martyrs, angels, and faithful Christians and at the center is Christ in glory—his right hand is held up making a gesture of blessing while his left hand holds a cross-topped globe signifying his sovereignty over the entire world.

The most prominent statues flanking this central figure of Christ in glory are not the apostles or other saints, but six allegorical figures. The statues show persons who are hungry, thirsty, in need of a place to stay, naked, sick and imprisoned. The persons most prominently close to Christ right at the focal point of the entire 150,000 ton cathedral are those Jesus refers to in his parable of the last judgment.
Jesus said when he comes in glory to judge the world there will be a pop quiz of sorts. But on this test, you will find no fine points of doctrine. Rather than sorting out the fine points of exactly what you believed, Jesus will want to know how you treated the least of those with whom you came in contact.

Jesus said that the faithful will be told in judgment, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.”

The righteous will be unaware of the times they did these things, for they did not do them to impress Jesus, it just came naturally. Then, the unrighteous will discover that they never did any of these things for Jesus. It wasn’t that they meant to slight God, they just didn’t understand that, “just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.”

How would Jesus judge your life now? What about others around you? There’s the question, “If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” What if they through out church attendance as proof of your faith? Could you still get convicted as a Christian?

But what happened to faith? Don’t we teach that it is your faith that counts? Yes. But scripture also teaches that if we really have faith, our faith will be active. James wrote, “Faith with out works is dead.” And “show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”

We show what we believe by the things we do. If what you read in the Bible doesn’t bother you on occasion, then you aren’t reading your Bible enough, for there is disturbing stuff in scripture. Scripture will disturb you enough to get you to want to reach out in love to those around you.

Reading your Bible, taking part in the worship of your church and praying will disturb you. They are supposed to disturb you. These practices of the Christian faith will move you from knowing about Jesus to knowing Jesus. And once we know Jesus, it is more and more difficult not to live into the faith we profess. Just believing is fine, but if you really believe, then you will also act.

Jesus wanted to know how your faith has disturbed you enough to get you to reach out to those who are hungry, thirsty, in need of a place to stay, naked, sick and imprisoned. Your checkbook and your calendar are your statements of faith. If how you spend your time, energy and money are no different from those who are not Christian, then in what sense are you Christian?

The carvings in Washington National Cathedral of the hungry, thirsty and naked are visible reminders that at the center of our faith in Jesus is Jesus teaching to not simply love God, but to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves. The parable of the last judgment when sheep and goats are separated based on treatment of those in need shows this to be at the center of the Christian faith.

So the question commonly asked is applicable here, “When they drag you in to court for your faith in Jesus Christ, will there be enough evidence to convict you?” Jesus words in the parable of the sheep and the goats are not condemning, but fair warning. Think of Jesus’ parable of the judgment as a self test. If you ever wonder where you are on your spiritual journey, assess your life based on how you show the love Jesus’ has for those most in need. Jesus said that how you treat those in need reveals everything about where you stand before God.

If your faith has troubled you enough to change your life, it will show not in your concern for yourself, but in whether you have been disturbed enough to show love for others, even your enemies. This is Christianity. This is the faith that conquers even death. It begins with dying to yourself enough to see the world and those around you as God sees them. Find this idea disturbing? Good. It should be.

The above text is my religion column for today's Tribune & Georgia, which reminds me of this day three years ago (May 21, 2007) in which the community gathered in large numbers to pray at a dumpster in The Pines apartments because we were disturbed on behalf of our neighbors after a body was found there: Light in the Darkness

Most Christians are "Practical Atheists"

2010-05-20T04:00:00.001-04:00

Most of us professing Christians, from liberals to the fundamentalists, remain practical atheists in most of our lives. This is because we think the church is sustained by the "services" it provides or the amount of "fellowship" and "good feeling" in the congregation. Of course, there is nothing wrong with "services" and "good feeling"; what is wrong is that they have become ends in themselves.

- - -

What we call "church" is too often a gathering of strangers who see the church as yet another "helping institution" to gratify further their individual desires.

- - -

To the extent that the church and its leaders are willing to be held accountable to the story which is the gospel, ministry is a great adventure of helping to create a people worthy to tell the story and to live it.

- - -

Pastors fail if they have not evoked an exciting sense of adventure among their parishioners.

- - -

Power arises from truthfulness. The power of Christian clergy lies, not in their cultural significance, but in their service to the living truth who is Jesus Christ.

- - -

No clever theological moves can be substituted for the necessity of the church being a community of people who embody our language about God, where talk about God is used without apology because our life together does not mock our words.

~Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon, Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony

Be the Church

2010-05-19T04:00:00.001-04:00

As the concluding verses of the Sermon [on the Mount] make explicit, disciples turn the other cheek, go the second mile, avoid promiscuity, remain faithful to their marriage vows because God is like this.

- - -

The question is, What sort of community would be required to support an ethic of nonviolence, marital fidelity, forgiveness, and hope such as the one sketched by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount?

- - -

Christians are not about the business of urging ordinary people individually to launch out on heroic, individual courses of action. The Sermon on the Mount cares nothing for the European Enlightenment;s infatuation with the individual self as the most significant ethical unit. For Christians, the church is the most significant ethical unit....Through teaching, support, sacrifice, worship, and commitment of the church, utterly ordinary people are enabled to do some rather extraordinary, even heroic acts, not on the basis of their own gifts or abilities, but rather by having a community capable of sustaining Christian virtue. The church enables us to be better people than we could be if left to our own devices.

- - -

We already have too many people who know something about Jesus, about the church. What we need is people who will follow Jesus, who will be the church.

~Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon, Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony

A Heroic God

2010-05-18T04:00:00.000-04:00

Scripture being read in worship at King of Peace

The Bible is fundamentally a story of people's journey with God. Scripture is an account of human existence as told by God. In scripture, we see that God is taking the disconnected elements of our lives and pulling them together into a coherent story that means something.

- - -

Story is the fundamental means of talking about and listening to God, the only human means available to us that is complex and engaging enough to make comprehensible what it means to be with God.

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In Abraham and Sarah, Cain and Abel, Noah and Shady Grove [a contemporary church], what we have is not first of all a heroic people, but a heroic God who refuses to abandon God's creation, a God who keeps coming back, picking up the pieces, and continuing the story: "And then..." "And next..."

- - -

Here, with our emphasis on the narrative nature of Christian life, we are saying that salvation is baptism into a community that has so truthful a story that we forget ourselves and our anxieties long enough to become part of that story, a story God has told in Scripture and continues to tell in Israel and the church.

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An important gift the church gives us is a far richer range of options, commitments, duties, and troubles than we would have if left to our own devices.

~Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon, Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony

Resident Aliens

2010-05-17T04:00:00.000-04:00

Sometimes, when one misses a book or movie when it is new, it is difficult to get around to it later. This is the case for the book Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony, which I missed when it came our in 1989. I also didn't read it when many classmates in seminary did, opting for another book from a list of options. But the time came recently for me to get around the the provocative book written by then Duke Divinity School work mates ethics Professor Stanley Hauerwas and minister to the University William Willimon. There lives have since changed and Willimon has for some years been the Methodist Bishop in northern Alabama. But their 175-page book has remained worth reading as an assessment of being a Christian in America at this time.

The title Resident Aliens comes from the Old Testament and connects the experience of Jews living as strangers in a strange land to that of Christians in an environment where Christianity can no longer be assumed. This week, I want to share quotations from the book. For the many who have read the book, it will remind you of its themes. For those who haven't, it may encourage you to add the book to your reading list.

A colony is a beachhead, an outpost, an island of one culture in the middle of another, a place where the values of home are reiterated and passed along to the young, a place of distinctive language and life-style of the resident aliens are lovingly nurtured and reinforced.

We believe that the designation of the church as a colony and Christians as resident aliens are not too strong for the modern American church—indeed, we believe it is the nature of the church, at any time and in any situation to be a colony. perhaps it sounds a bit overly dramatic to describe the actual churches you know as colonies in the middle of an alien culture. But we believe that things have changed for the church residing in America and that faithfulness to Christ demands that we either change or else go the way of all compromised forms of the Christian faith.

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You see, our parents had never worried about whether we would grow up Christian. The church was the only show in town, On Sundays, the town closed down. You could not even buy a gallon of gas. There was a traffic jam on Sunday mornings at 9:45, when all went to their respective Sunday schools....A few years ago, the two of us awoke and realized that, whether or not our parents were justified in believing this about the world and the Christian faith, nobody believed it today.

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In the church's view, the political left is not noticeably more interesting than the political right; both sides tend toward solutions that act as if the world has not ended and begun in Jesus....We must be transformed by the vision of a God who is righteous and just, who judges us on the basis of something more significant than merely what feels right for us now.

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Like an aging dowager, living on the edge of town, bankrupt and penniless, house decaying around her but acting as if her family still controlled the city, our theologians and church leaders continued to think and act as if we were in charge, as if the old arrangements were still valid.

That's a taste of the prologue and first chapter of Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony. For those of us on the buckle of the Bible Belt, many of the old arrangement stay true. I prayed the invocation for Armed Forces Day Saturday on the steps of the courthouse in Woodbine. I write openly on faith for the local newspaper. These sorts of arrangements, which continue here in Camden County, are the exception to the new rule. And even here, Church competes with soccer and other events on Sunday morning.

More from Hauerwas and Willimon will follow for the next few days as they offer a provocative assessment of life in the Christian colony.

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Resident Alien

The Side of the Oppressed

2010-05-16T04:00:00.001-04:00

Human beings are so made that the ones who do the crushing feel nothing; it is the person crushed who feels what is happening. Unless one has placed oneself on the side of the oppressed, to feel with them, one cannot understand.

—Simone Weil (1909-1943)

Make Us One

2010-05-15T04:00:00.000-04:00

In tomorrow's Gospel reading Jesus prays for those who will come to believe because of the testimony of his first disciples. He prays,

I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

My friend Sarah Dylan Breuer has written on this passage saying in part,

Jesus asks that "those will believe in me through (the disciples') word" "may all be one." He asks that we may also "be in us" (Jesus and the Father) as the Father is in Jesus and Jesus in the Father, "so that the world may believe" that the Father sent Jesus.

That seems like a very tall order indeed, doesn't it? It may seem especially so in these days of headlines about schism and ecclesial invasions and traded accusations of heresy. Some use Jesus' words from this Sunday's gospel as a finger-wagging warning — "Jesus said we were to be 'completely one,' so who are you to step out of line?" I know that when this passage is read, some will sigh. How could Jesus' motley and feuding followers around the world not sigh when thinking about the distance between Jesus' words here and what we see around us?

We forget amidst those sighs that the words of this Sunday's gospel come not as marching orders delivered by Jesus to disciples, but as a prayer of Jesus to the Father. In other words, the unity — the communion — that we share is God's gift. Jesus asks God to grant it, not us to create it. If we doubt our own abilities to achieve unity with one another in Christ -- and well we should — we can be confident that God will answer Jesus' prayer. Unity in Christ is not a medal to be won, nor is it a negotiated settlement achieved by some at the expense of others. It is a gift flowing freely to and through us out of God's grace.

In other words, this is GOOD news, word at which our hearts can leap all the more with wonder when we recognize how deep the brokenness is that God is healing and reconciling in Christ. It's a word that is Good News not just for "my side" or my tribe, but for everyone.

The full text of her reflections is online here: Sarah Laughed.

From Above

2010-05-14T04:00:00.003-04:00

Thanks to Mike Helton, I was able to take aerial photos on Thursday of our church and school land. This helped show parents where the land is at our informational meeting last night for King of Peace Episcopal Day School. Above is a photo with the property line for King of Peace added in white.

The school land is shown here with a white line and a white arrow toward the top right shows the location of the proposed temporary school building.

The school land is shown in white. Allison Funeral Home is at the bottom, just left of center. The view below is cropped to emphasize the marsh in the foreground and our neighbors land behind. While King of Peace is actually immediately adjacent to a 3,000-student high school, this photo looks like we are in a wilderness.

Ascension Day

2010-05-13T04:00:00.001-04:00

What follows is a sermon I wrote for today on behalf of The Episcopal Church's Sermons That Work series:

Now is the turning of the tide. In our readings for this Ascension Day, we encounter an important shift for those who follow Jesus from being turned inward, focusing on their common life and learning at Jesus’ feet, to that same group looking outward to the needs of the world. In this way, the Gospel of Luke completes the incoming tide of Jesus’ life and ministry and the Acts of the Apostles begins the outgoing tide which has the Gospel flowing forth to the ends of the earth.

The Evangelist Luke is the beloved physician who wrote both the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. This two-volume set is fully a quarter of the entire New Testament. Our readings for today are at the seam where these two texts overlap to recount the last moments of Jesus’ earthly ministry and the genesis of the Christian Church. Through these readings we encounter a dynamic that is important not simply to understanding that point in history, but is vital to our own journey as followers of Jesus.

The Book of Luke begins in the temple in Jerusalem. The Gospel begins the Good News of Jesus with the priest, Zechariah, serving in the Holy of Holies. There the angel Gabriel appears with the news that Elizabeth, Zechariah’s aged wife who was thought to be barren, will give birth. The son born to Elizabeth and Zechariah is the forerunner, John the Baptist. The Gospel of Luke will then continually return to the temple, for Jesus’ naming, his teaching the elders when on a trip with his family at the age of twelve. Then through his ministry, Jesus will return to the temple. Finally the Gospel ends, with the final line verses, “They worshipped him and then went back to Jerusalem full of joy; and they were continually in the Temple praising God.”

The temple has a gravitational pull in Luke’s Gospel, everything is always pulled back to that center. Then in the Acts of the Apostles, Luke opens in Jerusalem, but then goes outward to Judea, Samaria, and while not to the ends of the earth, he will reach to Rome and beyond. Along with the journeys of Peter and the other apostles, we get Saul the persecutor becoming Paul the Apostle.

In Luke, everything was focused inwardly on building up the group. In Acts, that group is shot out from the center point. Pentecost will come like a bomb going off, which sends out a creative rather than destructive force. Ascension Day is the seam that holds those two narratives together. This is where the inward focused turned and after a ten-day wait for the tide to turn at Pentecost, the outward focus began.

It is worth pausing for a moment to acknowledge that Ascension Day is a stumbling block for some. They will remark rightly that we know better than to conceive of a three-storied universe with heaven above, hell beneath, and earth sandwiched in the middle. We have pierced the sky, traveled to the moon and are even now being watched over by astronauts working at the international space station. What sense does it make to talk of Jesus disappearing off into the sky, a vanishing point of distance from earth ending his earthly ministry?

This knowledge need not distract us as we know through our own faith journeys that God has a knack for giving us not just what we need, but what we are ready to receive. The disciples, or followers, were becoming apostles, or ones sent out, and they needed Jesus to leave in such a way that they would stop hanging around and get about the work of the Gospel. Ascension Day accomplished that essential purpose.

On all the days leading up to that one, the disciples looked for their Lord. Their lives were centered on Jesus. Knowing more about the heavens, doesn’t change the truth of Jesus’ leaving his earthly ministry to become once more the second person of the Trinity, no longer limited by the incarnation to being in one place at a time. After the ascension, the apostles began to pray and wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit. Then with Pentecost, they were empowered to go out in ministry.

The truth is that Ascension Day worked. With Jesus’ ascension into heaven, the disciples became apostles. They stopped looking for Jesus here and there, and began to pray for the Holy Spirit who would be with them always. On that day, Jesus’ followers were given what they needed to begin to change their focus.

What would it take for us to change our focus? After all, it is easy for a church to go from being about the mission of sharing the love of God found in Jesus with a lost and hurting world, to turn our mission stations into clubs. A church does not exist for its own sake, but as preparation for those who gather to take part in Christ’s work of reconciliation in the world. The word member should probably not even be used of aligning oneself with a given congregation. We are not to be members of a club, exclusive or otherwise, as if Jesus’ ministry, death and resurrection were for the purpose of starting a new institution. The institution of the church exists to further the mission which is God’s mission—reconciling the world to God. We are missionaries working on the front lines of the mission of the church, which is what we each encounter every where we go.

This need to turn outward is so crucial, that it is a good idea to have someone at the end of Eucharist to step up and take the role of the two men robed in white who said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven?” These words were the push the apostles needed to stop focusing on the spot where they last saw Jesus. The words of the angels turned the disciples gaze outward to a lost and hurting world and so made them into apostles, ones sent forth on a mission. After that push, the apostles would be prepared when the Holy Spirit came ten days later on Pentecost to begin the work of taking the Good News of Jesus to the ends of the earth.

In the dismissal, we have such a moment. The deacon or priest says, “Alleluia. Go in peace to love and serve the Lord” or similar words that focus us outwardly. This is no idle moment. This is an active moment, a push to tell us to stop looking toward the altar—that point where we last saw the Lord. The dismissal is a reminder as our worship service is ending that while the worship is finished for now, the service is just beginning. We are sent out from every service to love and serve the Lord through loving and serving others in his name.

Most of us do not go out loving and serving the Lord right away. It is more likely that we go out to get something to eat rather than going to serve in a soup kitchen, or to console a grieving friend. That is fine. But we should not leave worshipped untransformed. We should look at our server differently, knowing that this is a person who we depend on not being in church, so that we can enjoy a meal after we worship. Treat that server as you would treat Christ if he were serving your table. For having seen Christ in worship, we should become better at seeing Christ in others. Then loving and serving the Lord will be much simpler as we will find Jesus everywhere we look.

This is the transformation of Ascension Day. The tide is turning. Before many minutes pass, we will have been spiritually fed and empowered to act. Flow forth from this place to begin to fulfill that mission anew. This is the day for turning our eyes outward. This is the day for changing our focus to see Christ in the world anew. And having seen, we can begin anew to love and serve.

Amen.

King of Peace Episcopal Day School

2010-05-12T04:00:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow night (Thursday, May 13th) at 6 p.m., we'll hold an informational meeting at King of Peace to shares plans for The Primary School. We need the meeting to get community feedback and to gauge interest as a part of discerning whether this fall is the time to move ahead with the K-2 program that will grow a grade a year for severall years. All is falling into place, but community feedback and parents ready to commit to the school are essential. More information is online at www.kopeds.org.

The video above offers a look inside The Preschool which opened in July 2004.

Terribly Probable

2010-05-11T04:00:00.003-04:00

Atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning....

Now that I am a Christian I do have moods in which the whole thing looks improbable: but when I was an atheist I had moods in which Christianity looked terribly probable.

~C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Spirituality without a prayer life

2010-05-10T04:00:00.001-04:00

Spirituality without a prayer life is no spirituality at all, and it will not last beyond the first defeats. Prayer is an opening of the self so that the Word of God can break in and make us new.

Prayer unmasks. Prayer converts. Prayer impels. Prayer sustains us on the way. Pray for the grace it will take to continue what you would like to quit.

~Joan Chittister, In a High Spiritual Season

Nothing Else

2010-05-09T04:00:00.000-04:00

Dear God,
Your will,
nothing more,
nothing less,
nothing else.
Amen.

~Bobby Richardson (Yankee 2nd basemen)

Finding Tomorrow Today

2010-05-08T04:00:00.000-04:00

In tomorrow's Gospel reading, Jesus says,

the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, `I am going away, and I am coming to you.' If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe.

The Rev. Dr. B. Wiley Stephens, senior minister of Dunwoody (GA) United Methodist Church wrote the following for Day 1 on this passage:

On this second Sunday of May it is our custom to honor our mothers. For those still blessed with their mother, we treasure the lessons we have learned or are learning in her love for us. For us who no longer have our mother, we treasure the memories that become more precious with each day.

For the disciples it was the same with Jesus. They would be pulled in many directions, but they would hold fast to what God had given through Jesus. To love him was to stay true to his word.

There is a contemporary hymn written in the l980s by Natalie Sleeth as she worked through her grief dealing with her own mother's death. The words speak of both the potential that is love and the truth that holds the future as well as our ability to trust beyond our understanding. It is called the Hymn of Promise. The words say this:

In a bulb there is a flower, in the seed an apple tree
In cocoons a hidden promise, butterflies will soon be free!
In the cold and snow of winter there's a spring that waits to be,
Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.

There's a song in every silence, seeking word and melody;
There's a dawn in every darkness, bringing hope to you and me.
From the past will come the future, what it holds a mystery,
Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.

In our end is our beginning, in our time, infinity
In our doubt there is believing; in our life, eternity
In our death, a resurrection; and at last, a victory,
Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.

We can live with this mystery of what the future holds because we trust the one who holds the future. We are finding tomorrow today as we find the one who will go with us into all our tomorrows. For Jesus then gives the key to this hope when he calls for us to be open to even greater things to come. "I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you."

Mark Twain is quoted as having said, "Faith is believing what you know ain't so." We are not limited to the world we know but can with open hearts and minds seek a world that still will be revealed to us. The disciples had some great challenges ahead of them, and the gift they were being given was one that would go with them and lead them in ways they could not fully understand. They knew they were not ready. Perhaps this is one of the reasons they prayed and worshiped together for 40 days before Pentecost. Perhaps this is one of the reasons the church would struggle so as it reached out to the Gentiles. They had to believe in a world that was still coming.

But we don't start over every day. The future brings the joy of new experiences with God, but they are based on what Jesus has shown in his teachings, in his life, and in the days following our lesson in his death and resurrection. One of the great works of the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, is to reinforce what Jesus did and is doing.

For in the face of uncertainty and change, Jesus gives us the gift of peace. "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give as the world gives." It may seem a strange gift to speak of in the middle of this talk of leaving, of death, and of persecution. But there it is. And it's far more than what we mean by peace being the absence of conflict, more than mere calmness or tranquility but rather the wholeness that is captured by the word Shalom. Unlike the world that would give a peace that is only a pause in the conflict. The gift that Jesus would give would keep on giving in the hard days ahead.

And with that promise of peace that would hold came the words of assurance that have spoken to countless souls through the ages, "Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid." Like the kiss of a mother on a child's hurt, it may not solve all the problems, but it brings an assurance that all will be better.

Jesus was telling them of the future. Sure he would be taken, but he was coming to be with them. He wanted them to be assured of his presence, his peace, and his power before their world was torn apart. There was a center that would hold if they would believe.

The full text of his reflection is online here: Finding Tomorrow Today.

Making Faith Real

2010-05-07T04:00:00.000-04:00

If you see someone check the time on their watch, and walk up to that person moments later to ask, “What time is it?” What will that person do next?

tell you the current time? or
look at his or her watch again and then tell you the current time?

The answer is easy. Most of the time, the person will look at his or her watch a second time.

If you want someone to learn to tie a knot with a length of rope which of the following will work best:

1) tell the person how to tie the knot. For example say, “When tying a bowline, they must make a loop with the rope that forms something like a tree with a whole at its base, then pretend the opposite end of the rope is a rabbit. The rabbit goes out of the whole, around the tree and back into the whole, then pull the rope tight and you are done.” or
2) You give the same directions, but this time you take a rope and show the person the actions you are describing. or
3) You do everything in B, but now you get the person who is learning to tie the knot to actually take a rope in their own hands and do the actions alongside you, so that he or she ties the bowline while watching you both describe how to do it and tie the knot.

Once again. The answer is easy. Every human I know would learn better by doing the knot tying for his or her self rather than just hearing about it or watching it being done. That is how humans work best.

Sometimes in describing this means of learning, the term muscle memory is used. We say that doing the same action again and again gives you muscle memory. That is why a soldier drills taking apart a rifle and putting it back together over and over until he or she can do it with eyes closed or seemingly while asleep. The muscles remember the actions and taking apart a rifle and putting it back together becomes second nature.

The Book of James tells us that we are not just to be people who sit and listen to the Word of God, but we should also put the words into action. James calls it being a doer of the Word. James writes, “For is any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like” (James 1:23-24).

This is like looking at a watch and then moments later rechecking the watch if someone asks the time. You saw the time, but it didn’t sink in deep. Before you are ready to answer again, you have to check again. By comparison, James writes that those who are not “hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed by their doing.”

First, you need to hear something that you should act on that comes from the Word of God. I will give you the shortest and best version of that I can. Jesus teaches that the essence of everything he taught is that we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves.

What would it be like to put that teaching of Jesus into action? There are several ways this could work, but we will take one that Jesus returned to over and over, loving your neighbor. Jesus taught that everyone in need is the neighbor you are to love. And as everyone is in need at some point, then everyone is your neighbor.

Let’s make it literal though. Let’s imagine that your literal next door neighbor is going through cancer treatment. You know that he usually cuts the grass himself and that there is no way his wife can do it. Sure, they probably could hire a lawn service, but who can afford that while going through cancer treatment. You walk next door and let them know that you would like to cut the grass until he gets cancer free and feeling better again. He will balk at the idea, but you insist. Then you start cutting his yard. That is a very concrete example of what I mean.

To add one more level to this, Jesus would say that this is all well and good, but if you only did this so others would see what a great guy you are then it is meaningless. If you just started cutting his lawn so that you could brag about it to others, then you were not doing it out of love. If you wave at all the neighbors as you mow to say, “Look how nice I am to mow this lawn,” and then go tell folks at work and the woman behind you in line at the grocery store how you are so nice to cut your neighbor’s grass, then your intentions are not in line with the action. But if you really are out there just caring and concerned about the guy next door who needed a hand, then you are being a doer of the word and not a hearer only.

Putting your faith into action with the right intention of heart will change you for the better. The more you put your faith into action, the more you develop the muscle memory to love your neighbor as yourself. This is why groups like Habitat for Humanity are crucial as they give us a place to make the idea of loving your neighbor real. But you can do the same thing by volunteering to be a scout leader, or by any one of a number of actions.

Notice what you are not doing. You are not doing good deeds to chalk up brownie points with God. You are not impressing God, or earning favor with God. What you are doing is teaching yourself by example. Look to Jesus life and teaching. Pattern your life after what he said and did as well as you can. And each time you take some concrete steps to actually live in to what Jesus’ taught; those teaching will become more real to you.

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

National Day of Prayer

2010-05-06T04:00:00.000-04:00

Today is the National Day of Prayer, which will be honored tonight at 7:30 p.m. at King of Peace with a service of sung evening prayer led by the combined voices of the choirs of First Presbyterian Church in St. Marys and King of Peace together with voices from other area churches. We will pray together Holden's Evening Prayer while hearing from scripture and a brief sermon in a 45-minutee service which will be a community-wide expression worship service.

Almighty God, you sent your Son Jesus Christ to reconcile the world to yourself: We praise and bless you for those whom you have sent in the power of the Spirit to preach the Gospel to all nations. We thank you that in all parts of the earth a community of love has been gathered together by their prayers and labors, and that in every place your servants call upon your Name; for the kingdom and the power and the glory are yours for ever. Amen.

Affecting for Good

2010-05-05T04:00:00.000-04:00

Each and every one of us has one obligation, during the bewildered days of our pilgrimage here: the saving of his own soul, and secondarily and incidentally thereby affecting for good such other souls as come under our influence.

~Kathleen Norris (1947- )

The New Apostolic Era

2010-05-04T04:00:00.000-04:00

Randy Ferebee presenting at Honey Creek.

Since Sunday evening, I have been at Honey Creek for the Spring Clergy Conference of the Diocese of Georgia. Our main presenter has been the Rev. Randy Ferebee of Epiphany Institute. I know Randy through a clergy group I take part in and have enjoyed his presentation this week. He's been talking about three great eras in Christianity:

The Apostolic Era when Christianity was surrounded by a culture hostile to the Gospel.
The Christendom Era, when Christians predominantly lived in a culture that was all Christian
The New Apostolic Era, which is his term for the present age in which Christianity can no longer be assumed and while the culture (particularly in Georgia) is not hostile to the faith, it is increasingly indifferent.

Randy has been working to show that, this time in which we can no longer assume that Sunday morning is reserved for church has much in common with the earliest days of Christianity. Following Bishop Mark Dyer, he observed that "The dominant spirituality today is consumerism." In this climate, the mission field is all around us. The way to engage in this New Apostolic Era is not to capitulate to the culture, but to reach out to our communities in mission.

The conference has not been about offering some silver bullet solution as sometimes found at conferences. I'm glad. If the answers churches need were found in conferences, we would have dispensed with all our problems long ago.

Instead, Randy has been offering various tools (including appreciative inquiry and asset mapping). The purpose of these tools is to enable a church to better serve the community around it and so live into the mission of the church. In this way, every church can be a blessing to its community. This is being like the Sea of Galilee (which has both water coming in and flowing out) than like the Dead Sea (which has input, but no water flowing out of it). Randy says rightly that every church has what it needs to be the Body of Christ in its place. Not all churches will have the same gifts and abilities, but all can be faithful. To find out more, look at the resources page at www.epiphanyinstitute.org.

This morning, I will be the presenter, picking up where Randy left off. We'll be looking at how to make the learnings real in our congregations.

peace,
Frank+

The knowledge of God

2010-05-03T04:00:00.000-04:00

There is something beautiful about a billion stars held steady by a God who knows what He is doing. (They hang there, the stars, like notes on a page of music, free-form verse, silent mysteries swirling in the blue like jazz.) And as I lay there, it occurred to me that God is up there somewhere. Of course, I had always known He was, but this time I felt it, I realized it, the way a person realizes they are hungry or thirsty. The knowledge of God seeped out of my brain and into my heart. I imagined Him looking down on this earth, half angry because His beloved mankind had cheated on Him, had committed adultery, and yet hopelessly in love with her, drunk with love for her.

~Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz

Good News for All or None

2010-05-02T04:00:00.000-04:00

If the gospel isn't good news for everybody, then it isn't good news for anybody. And this is because the most powerful things happen when the church surrenders its desire to convert people and convince them to join. It is when the church gives itself away in radical acts of service and compassion, expecting nothing in return, that the way of Jesus is most vividly put on display.

To do this, the church must stop thinking about everybody primarily in categories of in or out, saved or not, believer or nonbeliever. Besides the fact that these terms are offensive to those who are the "un" and "non", they work against Jesus' teachings about how we are to treat each other. Jesus commanded us to love our neighbor, and our neighbor can be anybody. We are all created in the image of God, and we are all sacred, valuable creations of God. Everybody matters. To treat people differently based on who believes what is to fail to respect the image of God in everyone.

As the book of James says, "God shows no favoritism." So we don't either.

~Rob Bell (1970- )

As I Have Loved You

2010-05-01T05:00:00.000-04:00

In tomorrow's Gospel reading, after Judas goes out to betray him, Jesus tells those remaining,

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

In the early 400s, Cyril of Jerusalem (died 444 a.d.) wrote on this passage,

I give you a new commandment, said Jesus: love one another. But how, we might ask, could he call this commandment new?

Through Moses, he had said to the people of old: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.

Notice what follows. He was not content simply to say, I give you a new commandment: love one another.

He showed the novelty of his command and how far the love he enjoined surpassed the old conception of mutual love by going on immediately to add: Love one another as I have loved you.

To understand the full force of these words, we have to consider how Christ loved us. Then it will be easy to see what is new and different in the commandment we are now given.

Paul tells us that although his nature was divine, he did not cling to his equality with God, but stripped himself of all privilege to assume the condition of a slave. He became as we are, and appearing in human form humbled himself by being obedient even to the extent of dying, dying on a cross. And elsewhere Paul writes: Though he was rich, he became poor.

Do you not see what is new in Christ's love for us? The law commanded people to love their brothers and sisters as they love themselves, but our Lord Jesus Christ loved us more than himself.

He who was one in nature with God the Father and his equal would not have descended to our lowly estate, nor endured in his flesh such a better death for us, not submitted to the blows given him by his enemies, to the shame, the derision, and all the other sufferings that could not possibly be enumerated; nor, being rich, would he have become poor, had he not loved us far more than himself.

It was indeed something new for love to go as far as that!

Christ commands us to love as he did, putting neither reputation, nor wealth, not anything whatever before love of our brothers and sisters. If need be we must even be prepared to face death for our neighbor's salvation as did our Savior's blessed disciples and those who followed in their footsteps.

To them the salvation of others mattered more than their own lives and they were ready to do anything or to suffer anything to save souls that were perishing. I die daily, said Paul. Who suffers weakness without my suffering too? Who is made to stumble without my heart blazing with indignation?

The Savior urged us to practice this love that transcends the law as the foundation of true devotion to God. He knew that only in this way could we become pleasing in God's eyes, and that it was by seeking the beauty of the love implanted in us by himself that we should attain to the highest blessings.

Doubt is useful for a while

2010-04-30T04:00:00.000-04:00

From Yann Martel's thought-provoking novel, Life of Pi:

I'll be honest about it. It is not atheists who get stuck in my craw, but agnostics. Doubt is useful for a while. We must all pass through the garden of Gethsemane. If Christ played with doubt, so must we. If Christ spent an anguished night in prayer, if he burst out from the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" then surely we are permitted to doubt. But we must move on. To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.

The Measure of Your Love

2010-04-29T04:00:00.000-04:00

Some quotes from Catherine of Siena (1347-1380), the great peacemaker and Doctor of the Church, on this her feast day:

"You are rewarded not according to your work or your time but according to the measure of your love."

"There will be love in proportion to faith and faith in proportion to love."

"They love their neighbors with the same love with which they love me."

"The service you cannot render me you must do for your neighbors. Thus it will be evident that you have me within your soul by grace."

"The soul is in God and God in the soul, just as the fish is in the sea and the sea in the fish."

Do Not Wait

2010-04-28T04:00:00.000-04:00

Do not wait; the time will never be "just right." Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along.

~George Herbert (1593-1633)

Why I Finally Joined a Church

2010-04-27T04:00:00.003-04:00

The title is from a Salon.com article of the same name by Jane Roper in which she answers Why I Finally Joined a Church? Roper grew up as a part of a Congregational Church and her husband's mother was Jewish and father Episcopalian, but both functionally secular. She turned away from the church and other organizations in her 20s. In the article she describes how her kids made her join anew, this time a Unitarian Universalist Church:

Our twin daughters are only 3. Currently, their Big Questions are mostly along the lines of "Where is my Cookie Monster doll?" and "Why can't I have more raisins?"

But it won't be long before they'll start asking what happens to people after they die, and why so many bad things happen in the world, and whether or not there's a God. There will be other, less metaphysical religious questions we'll need to answer. Like: Who is that lady in the blue dress standing in the clamshell in our neighbor's yard? And can we get one?

She goes on to write,

I want my children to see that a group of people can work together, give of their time and talents, and support each other through life's joys and sorrows not because they're family or even necessarily friends, but because they believe that it's an important part of being human.

I also want to expose them to good, old-fashioned community in a world where, increasingly, community happens only in virtual spaces....I want to make damned sure they understand kindness, empathy and respect for other people. Of course, joining a religious community isn't the only way to do this. But it's a way to practice and think about these values on a regular basis, with intention. Lord knows I could use the practice, too.

Those of us who spend out lives in church don't see this perspective enough, that of someone whose life has not revolved around the church's schedule. Christian churches struggle to compete in a secular society and I think part of that problem is that we fall into line and try to compete. But we do not have something to serve you needs alongside other things to serve your needs. Christianity really wants to give you needs you never knew you had, like the need to love God and love you neighbor as yourself. In this, we do not offer a product to be consumed, but a God to be known and loved and a changed way of seeing all creation.

To be honest, I am strongly Trinitarian and am not exactly pleased as punch that the church she found is UU, which in its very name drops Trinitarian language. It's odd that I have that reaction as I am pleased that my nephews in Tennessee are part of a UU congregation where they live. It is a way to bring spiritual questions into your life and I am glad they have that community.

All that aside, Roper's story shows us the longing for what a church offers in someone who was, in her own words, one for whom joining a church was, for a long while, unthinkable? The answer is simple and not easy. Those of us who know and love our congregations and the difference they make in our lives must tell our friends about it. Just like we easily suggest a restaurant or a movie, we need to suggest our congregation. Don't varnish over the fact that Christian community can be messy, but let them know why it is worth your time and energy to be in church on Sunday. But the goal is not more church members, but more people finding a place and a people with whom to discover needs they never knew they had.

That's my take. What do you think?

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, E-vangelist

An Episcopal School for Camden County

2010-04-26T04:00:00.001-04:00

King of Peace Episcopal Day School will have a meeting at the church at 6 p.m. on May 13th to share with all interested parents information on expansion plans.

Since 2004, the school has operated a preschool for children aged 18 months through four years of age, which has been honored by the State of Georgia as one of the top 1.5% of programs in the state.

Excellent, Not Exclusive
As with its preschool program, King of Peace Episcopal Day School will maintain the lowest possible fees while riaisng the bar for education. Some scholarships will be offered from the first day and the school will seek additional funding to assure that the school remains excellent, but never becomes exclusive.

K-2 Program and Beyond
Last year, the school purchased 12 acres near the intersection of Kings Bay and Colerain Roads for a future private school. The school is considering starting a private K-2 school this fall in a leased building and later moving to our own building on our land, but we need to gauge parent interest. Students entering as second graders will be able to continue into at least fifth grade as a part of The Elementary School program.

The meeting on May 13th will give the school an opportunity to share plans, answer questions and then receive community feedback. Information forms will be collected from interested parents that evening.

The meeting will be held at
King of Peace Episcopal Church
6230 Laurel Island Parkway, Kingsland, Georgia
(912) 882-7067
We are located just west of Camden County High School

Slamming the Door

2010-04-25T04:00:00.000-04:00

When you say a situation or a person is hopeless,
you are slamming the door in the face of God.

~Charles L Allen

Our Shepherd Leads Us

2010-04-24T04:00:00.000-04:00

A Roman mosaic in Ravena of Jesus as the Good Shepherd
The Psalm for tomorrow is that most familiar of Hebrew poetry, the 23rd Psalm, which in the King James Version says,

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures;
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul;
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his Name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil; for thou art with me;
Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies;
Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

The Gospel reading has Jesus in Jerusalem for the Festival of the Dedication of the Temple (which we call Hanukkah) saying,

My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.

My friend and fellow church planter, the Rev. Susan Snook, has drawn these two passages together in a sermon written a few years ago in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shooting that says in part,

At the Feast of the Dedication, the feast we now know as Hanukkah, the people remembered how the nation rededicated the temple after a great leader, Judas Maccabeus, defeated the Greek conquerors in 164 BC. The festival remembered the suffering of the Jewish people under the Greek Empire, and rejoiced at their great victory. Against this background, with Roman soldiers hovering and memories of thousands of crucified would-be rebels and other unjust suffering fresh in their minds, people asked Jesus, “Are you the Messiah?” Would Jesus be the new hero who would drive out the Roman invader? Would the nation be free and independent once more?

The people crowding around Jesus want a clear and decisive answer. Instead, he is cryptic and evasive. The people want him to speak with authority about weapons and strategies; instead, he talks about sheep. To their demand that he assume the leadership for which they have been hoping, he answers with a claim of leadership so astounding that many of them pick up stones to kill him on the spot: he claims to be one with God the Father.

This is no gentle, clear-eyed Jesus on a green, rolling hillside; this is a fierce, uncompromising Jesus, a Jesus who refuses to meet any earthly expectations, a Jesus whose frame of reference is so far removed from that of the people around him that it is a wonder he escapes with his life. And indeed, John tells us that the next time Jesus dares to show his face in Jerusalem, the chief priests cook up a scheme to have him crucified.

How do we reconcile the gentle, kind shepherd Jesus, the one who would go anywhere and risk anything to save even the smallest lamb, with the Jesus who provoked his enemies to violence? And how does this Jesus have anything at all to do with the worries and dangers of our lives? How can our faith in Jesus help us through a tragedy like the one at Virginia Tech? What can the gentle shepherd do to help?

The wonderful thing about Psalm 23 is just how realistic it is about the darkness of life. Perhaps the picture we get of the Good Shepherd from art and music and childhood memories is an image of pure light and pure sweetness. But the psalm itself knows darkness and fear. Like the writer of the psalm, many Christians have traveled through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. They too have known the threat of the unknown. And yet many have also known the comfort of God’s presence, walking alongside them through that dark valley. Many people have felt the exquisite sweetness of Jesus’ love surrounding and enfolding them in the most difficult moments of their lives. Many have experienced transcendent holiness and light in the darkest of times.

People who spend much time with those who are ill or bereaved begin to know what kind of help brings true comfort. Comfort does not come from assurances that everything will be all right or from platitudes that try to explain why everything that happens is God’s will. Comfort comes from the simple presence of companions who are willing to sit alongside us in our darkest hours, to walk through the darkness with us, to help us make the darkness holy, and to rejoice with us when small glimmers of light finally begin to shine.

And at the heart of it, that is what our Christian faith can tell us. It tells us that our Lord and Savior, the great hero who liberates us, is not the God of light alone. Jesus is sovereign over the darkness too, because he too has been enfolded by darkness. Like us, he has grieved over the senseless waste and tragedy of life. Like us, he has agonized over those who suffer. As all of us will eventually, he has entered into the darkness of death. And with all of us, he promises to walk that road so that we do not have to walk it alone. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.”

The ultimate truth of our Christian faith, the truth we remember this Easter season and every Sunday as we celebrate the Lord’s Resurrection, is that our Shepherd leads us out of death into life.

The full text of her sermon is online here: Our Shepherd Leads Us.

Christians Have an Essential Unity

2010-04-23T04:00:00.000-04:00

There’s the joke that I have heard told with several different denominations inserted into the punch line. A person dies and goes to heaven. On the first-day-in-heaven tour, they see a high wall surrounding a portion of paradise. The person asks St. Peter (who is always the tour guide in jokes like this) why the wall is there. St. Peter motions the person off into the distance and then whispers, “That’s the area for the [insert name of denomination here]. They think they are the only ones here.”

It’s as if you can’t get into heaven if you don’t believe exactly what I believe. That sort of we-are-the-only-true-Christians attitude is a real turn off for folks who have not come to faith yet. Sometimes a non-Christian can get the idea that if Christians cannot even agree on what to believe, why should they bother to try to sort it out?

This attitude is a problem that Jesus saw coming. The night he was betrayed, Jesus prayed with his disciples. That prayer, recounted in John 17, ends with a prayer for “those who will believe in me through [the disciples’] word.”

That means us. We have come to believe in Jesus because of the word of the first disciples. Had they never gone out and told Jesus’ story, we never would have heard it. We believe today because of an unbroken chain of believers back to the time of those first disciples. So when Jesus prays for “those who will believe in me through their word,” Jesus is praying for those of us gathered here today and for all the Christians around the world.

Jesus prays, “that they (meaning us) may be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they (Jesus is talking about us again) also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” Jesus prayed for unity among all Christians. Jesus’ heart’s desire is that we may be one with God and through that oneness with the triune God we may be one with one another. This unity leads to Jesus’ true desire, that through our unity, the world may see and know that Jesus is God’s own Son, the savior of the world.

So what’s the answer? The end of denominations? A stop to all distinctions among Christian groups? If that were to happen, which denomination would we be? What exactly would we believe? How would we worship?

I believe the answer is in Jesus’ own prayer. Jesus prayed, “Father make them one as you and I are one that the world may believe.” If we are to be one as Jesus and the Father are one, then how are Jesus and the Father one? God is a Trinity of persons—one being, yet three distinct persons. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are one and yet each unique. We, too, are to be unique persons, separate from one another and yet in communion with each other.

We are not all created just alike and so we will each approach God a little differently. Denominations allow us to express this diversity. Our various churches allow us each to find the best way for us to approach God within a loving community of fellow Christians. There is no need to break down the uniqueness found within various branches of the Christian faith. However, we must find some ways to show that we have an essential unity, even in our diversity.

The solution is not to squish all Christians into a one-sized-fits-all faith. The solution is to present an outward face that shows the world that we know that our similarities matter more than our differences. Churches are not in competition. Churches are allies in the cause of spreading the Christian Gospel. The Bible does not teach that all heaven rejoices when a person or family changes from one church to another. All heaven rejoices when someone trapped in a life of sin learns that God loves her or him, God wants what’s best for them, and God desires a relationship with them. A child of God coming to that knowledge is what makes all heaven rejoice. The more we show the world our unity as the Body of Christ, the more we prepare the way for more people to experience that life-changing encounter with Jesus Christ.

The above is my religion column for today's issue of the Tribune & Georgian. The same page of the paper carries news of King of Peace hosting a community-wide worship service for the May 6 National Day of Prayer with a multi-church choir singing Holden's Evening Prayer.

Training and Correction

2010-04-22T04:00:00.000-04:00

You will never know how much you believe something until it is a matter of life and death....If you think of this world as a place intended simply for our happiness, you find it quite intolerable: think of it as a place of training and correction and it’s not so bad.

~C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock

Life is on a stroll

2010-04-21T04:00:00.001-04:00

It is always the simple things that change our lives. And these things never happen when you are looking for them to happen. Life will reveal answers at the pace life wishes to do so. You feel like running, but life is on a stroll. This is how God does things.

~Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz

The moment God is figured out

2010-04-20T04:00:00.000-04:00

The moment God is figured out
with nice neat lines and definitions,
we are no longer dealing with God.

~Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith

Wounded by a Church

2010-04-19T04:00:00.002-04:00

The Bible tells us to love our neighbors,
and also to love our enemies;
probably because generally they are the same people.
~G.K. Chesterton
The Barna Group has been studying the 100 million Americans who haven't been to church in six months or more. The study found that most of those who have are not in church on Sunday (61%) do not define themselves as having no faith or no religion, but self-identify as Christian.

Why are Christians not in church? Here I wish the answer was surprising, but it's not. They are out of church because the church has hurt them. A previous Barna study of the adults in this group showed that nearly four out of every ten non-churchgoing Americans (37%) avoid churches because of negative past experiences in churches or with church people. The Barna Report notes:

Bestselling author Stephen Mansfield has written a new book (ReChurch) that digs into those experiences. As one who has been wounded by past church behavior, Mansfield encourages those who have been hurt by the local church to overcome that pain and suffering – if not in response to a biblical command or for the benefit of the church, then for their own healing and maturation.

Citing numerous examples, Mansfield notes that God uses people’s pain – and their own immaturity, in some cases – to reshape us. There is no denying that many churchgoers get wounded by the insensitive or ignorant actions of others in the church. Mansfield points out, though, that those instances are opportunities for us to love others who, like ourselves, are simply “flawed sinners.” Fleeing from the source of pain and suffering, rather than addressing and overcoming it, leaves us wounded and bitter, and does nothing to enhance our lives or those of the people responsible for that suffering.

The solution, according to Mansfield, is forgiveness – the same forgiveness that Jesus offers to each of us who have wounded Him. Christianity, after all, is about receiving freedom through God’s forgiveness extended to us. Offering that same forgiveness to others is the only means to us becoming healthy and whole again.

The full article is online here: Millions of Unchurched Adults Are Christians Hurt by Churches But Can Be Healed of the Pain.

This is not surprising as Christian community is messy. We are humans and humans have a tendency to let one another down and to cause each other pain. Sticking with such a fallen institution is not easy, but it has its rewards. This quote captures how I feel fairly well:
How much I must criticize you,
my church and yet how much I love you!
You have made me suffer more than anyone
and yet I owe more to you than to anyone.
I should like to see you destroyed
and yet I need your presence.

You have given me much scandal
and yet you alone have made me understand holiness.
Never in this world have I seen anything more compromised,
more false, yet never have I touched anything
more pure, more generous and more beautiful.

—Carlo Carretto (1910-1988)
Yet, I believe that even if every Christian gets it wrong in how we live out our faith in our daily lives, that Jesus is still right. This does not excuse the way churches hurt people, in fact it shows how important that it is to work to be safe places of healing. As we are the Body of Christ, we must live worthy of that calling. This applies to the gross injustices recently being reported about the Catholic Church. While the unconscionable acts reported must be stopped and the perpetrators removed from ministry, this does not begin to touch on all the way churches cause harm.

I am aiming my sights lower if you will at the quite legal, but also deplorable forms of judgment and condemnation meeted out in Jesus' name but unworthy of the title Christian. In my office I have heard through the years many painful stories of the ways in which churches have left Christians wounded, but still seeking that connection to God they felt in Christian worship.

What does this bring up for you? What has your experience been?

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Pastor

Asking to be changed

2010-04-18T04:00:00.000-04:00

Prayer is not asking for what you think you want,
but asking to be changed in ways you can't imagine.

~Kathleen Norris (1947- )

Plenty of Room in the Net

2010-04-17T05:00:00.001-04:00

In tomorrow's Gospel reading, Jesus' post-resurrection appearance occurs on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. The disciples are back at the nets and have turned up no fish. He tells them to cast on the right side of the boat. They do as he says and catch more than they can haul in, landing 153 fish.

I have preached on this odd detail of knowing how many fish are in the net, saying in part,

With the impetuous Peter paddling to shore, the remaining disciples struggle in the hundred yards with bulging nets in tow. Once on shore we are told that they have caught large fish, 153 of them.

I want to pause here for a moment. 153 fish. Really. Who counted them. John, the future Gospel writer stops being the disciple whom Jesus loved long enough to turn into reporter. This will make a great scene in my book John thinks and starts stacking up the fish. “One, two, three, four. No Nathanael don’t move them, I’m counting. One, two, three, four.” And on he counts until “151, 152, 153.” So much for breakfast on the beach with Jesus.

The great commentator on scripture, Jerome, offered a different possibility. Jerome cites a source that Greeks taught of 153 species of fish. If Jerome is right, this number may be symbolic of what is actually happening on the beach that morning. When they followed Jesus’ instructions, the disciples did not just catch fish, they caught big ones. And they didn’t just catch a lot of fish, but all the kinds of fish there are to be caught. Now that’s the fishing story to end all fishing stories. They didn’t just have a good haul of fish, symbolically they caught them all. It is the fish story version of the line from Revelation that says, “You ransomed for God saints from every tribe and language and people and nation.”

What I think is going on here is that the spiritually-in-tune John is telling us what they really learned that morning they had the big catch, and it was not a fishing lesson. These men were apostles, which means someone who is sent out. Jesus was sending them out to start fishing for people in a big way and he provided an object lesson to bring the point home.

The Kingdom of God is not just for people who look like you, think like you, act like you. The Kingdom of God is for all the peoples of the earth. And the net is big enough to hold them all without tearing. John makes this point clear in writing, “Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred fifty-three of them; and though they were so many, the net was not torn.”

There is room in God’s kingdom for everybody, all kinds of people. In fact, the net won’t be full until it has every kind of person in it. Every tribe, language, people and nation. Don’t worry. It won’t tear. There is plenty of room in the net.

Then came breakfast. Jesus feeds his disciples again. Bread and fish, just like with the thousands on the hillside. This is making the message even clearer. See the net that catches all the kinds of fish and does not break. See the meal of bread and fish, just like before. Now remember that you are to go into all the world with this message of God’s love.

The hard part would have been leaving the beach...Yet, if those guys stay on the beach, then the Good News of Christianity never reaches you and me. Jesus longed for a relationship with all that he had made and the way to get it was for these guys around the campfire to get going....

It happens again and again. A church feels like a family. We all know and love each other. We may rub each other the wrong way now and again, but when it is family-sized, it feels like family. Every family has its little problems, folks who go on and on at family reunions and bore you with their stories. But, you just know that you took your turn with Uncle Joe at the last get together and so cousin Sally is taking her turn this time. It will be OK. Yet families grow. Folks marry, babies are born. Things change. But with churches, if we don’t watch it, we get that cozy breakfast on the beach feeling and forget that the net isn’t even close to full. We can look at a congregation and feel satisfied, everything is just about right. Jesus looks around and sees a lost and hurting world that needs someone to reach out to it in love and finds all the folks holding nets feel like their net is just about topped off. I’m sorry Jesus. This boat is full. No more room for smelly fish here....

Our loving God wants all creation to love like Jesus loves, and guess what? You are the one holding the net. Since the net is the Kingdom of God, you might not even be sure if there is a net, or if you are in the net yet. But God is still giving you the chance all the time to love as Jesus loves. You can sit back by the fire and decide to listen a bit more to the fish stories, or you can reach out in love with confidence that there is plenty of room in the net.

The full text of the sermon is online here: Plenty of Room in the Net.

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Fisher of Men (Women and Kids too)

A Piece of Mud

2010-04-16T04:00:00.000-04:00

Jacksonville native Lillian Trasher (1887-1961) began working in a North Carolina orphanage after one term in a Bible college. At the orphanage, she heard a missionary from India speak of her work there. Lilly knew that God was calling her to help people. Ten days before her wedding in May 1910, she broke off her wedding engagement to serve as a missionary to Africa.

In 1911, she arrived in Assyut, Egypt, and took in an infant whose mother had died. She rented a small house to care for the baby and the first donation she received was 35 cents given by a local telegraph boy. Within five years she was caring for 50 children. The locals called her "The Child Saver."

By the time of her death in 1961, the Lillian Trasher Orphanage had grown to some 1200 children. During her lifetime, Lillian Trasher cared for 25,000 Egyptian children. A primary school, dormitories, a chapel, and sports facilities were built on the orphanage grounds. She loved the children who came into her care, but she never forgot that it was Christ in her giving her the capacity to love them. She said, "When Jesus healed the blind man in John chapter 9 by putting clay on his eyes, it wasn't the mud that healed, but the power behind the mud. God can use me or any other piece of mud."

God, whose everlasting arms support the universe: We thank you for moving the heart of Lillian Trasher to heroic hospitality on behalf of orphaned children in great need, and we pray that we also may find our hearts awakened and our compassion stirred to care for your little ones, through the example of our Savior Jesus Christ and by the energy of your Holy Spirit, who broods over the world like a mother over her children; for they live and reign with you, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Social Justice

2010-04-15T04:00:00.004-04:00

At The Washington Post and Newsweek's On Faith online forum, the panelists are hitting the recent hot button debate over justice and Christianity in answering

Fox News commentator Glenn Beck claims that faith-based calls for "social justice" are really ideological calls for "forced redistribution of wealth . . . under the guise of charity and/or justice," and that Christians should leave their churches if they preach or practice "social justice."

Rev. Jim Wallis disagrees, saying social justice is a faith-based commitment "to serve the poor and to attack the conditions that lead to poverty," central tents of the teachings of Jesus and at the heart of biblical faith.

Who's right? How does the pursuit of justice fit into your faith? Is 'social justice' an ideology or a theology?

The responses include my friend Rabbi Jack Moline who wrote in part,

Arguing from presumptions about the American form of government and economy about the mandates of the Bible is dishonest, specious and irresponsible. It is also irrelevant. The values taught by the diverse interpretations of religious communities in the United States do not determine, individually or collectively, what kind of government we ought to have. Likewise, American values do not determine the beliefs and practices of diverse communities of faith.

It is irresponsible for a religious figure to lay claim to government policy by dint of his or her faith. It is likewise irresponsible for a self-proclaimed "rodeo clown" to lay claim to understanding of religious teachings by dint of his television ratings.

What is responsible is for each of God's children to take responsibility for a just society and a just world.

Quaker recorded minister Max Carter wrote in part,

Query #41 in Britain Yearly Meeting's book of faith & practice says, "Try to live simply. A simple lifestyle, freely chosen, is a source of strength. Do not be persuaded into buying what you do not need or cannot afford. Do you keep yourself informed about the effects your style of living is having on the global economy and environment?"

I'm not the one to start throwing stones, myself, though. I am among the privileged of the world and have, even on a Quaker educator's salary, more than my share of the earth's wealth. I gladly re-distribute what I have been blessed with - but I should do more. I would hope Glenn Beck does the same, voluntarily, from the enormous wealth he gains from his "bully pulpit." I would hope that his major complaint is about "government mandated" re-distribution of wealth, not about Jesus' advice to a person of wealth in his day seeking advice about gaining "eternal life." Jesus' response? "Go; give all that you have to the poor, and follow me."

Sounds like re-distribution of wealth to me! Maybe Jesus should leave the church.

R. Albert Mohler Jr., President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, offered a nuanced response both conceding the point on justice, while wanting to hold churches accountable if that is their only Gospel. He wrote in part:

As an evangelical Christian, my concern is the primacy of the Gospel of Christ — the Gospel that reveals the power of God in the salvation of sinners through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The church's main message must be that Gospel. The New Testament is stunningly silent on any plan for governmental or social action. The apostles launched no social reform movement. Instead, they preached the Gospel of Christ and planted Gospel churches. Our task is to follow Christ's command and the example of the apostles.

There is more to that story, however. The church is not to adopt a social reform platform as its message, but the faithful church, wherever it is found, is itself a social reform movement precisely because it is populated by redeemed sinners who are called to faithfulness in following Christ. The Gospel is not a message of social salvation, but it does have social implications.

Faithful Christians can debate the proper and most effective means of organizing the political structure and the economic markets. Bringing all these things into submission to Christ is no easy task, and the Gospel must not be tied to any political system, regime, or platform. Justice is our concern because it is God's concern, but it is no easy task to know how best to seek justice in this fallen world.

You can read the full statements of any of these writers by clicking on their name in the text above to go to their own full response. All the panelists responses are linked from here: Social Justice.

I agree with Mohler's central argument, if not with all of his text. We are to be all about the Gospel of Jesus. The whole Gospel. So, yes, we are to be about justice. We should not ignore the needs of those around us. The Book of James states it this way:

Judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment. What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and be filled," and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? (James 2:13-16)

Justice is something that God will bring about in the fullness of time, but that we are to be about in the meantime as we share the love of God with others. Liberation theology is on to something important in saying that persons of faith should help end oppression and injustice in the here and now.

Yet we must admit that this good theology can become an ideology if we divorce the justice itself from the connection to God whose love for us is what spurs us to reach out in love to others. This is not a political view. This is much more important than the merely political. We should not trade the Good News of Jesus for the news of any political idea or system as it is always a bad trade. In the process, we miss any idea of sin and redemption as well as forgiveness and healing. The shalom of God is not simply a lack of hostility, but health, healing and wholeness and we don't want to lose this theology.

The love of God is broader and deeper than any ideology. I am dancing along the edge of politics to make the apolitical statement that we are to love God with all our hearts and love our neighbors as ourselves, which is always Good News.

That's my take, what's yours?

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Pastor

The above fits with my earlier video Jesus Said...Love

Facebook users can find the video here: YouTube—Jesus Said

More of The Present Future

2010-04-14T04:00:00.001-04:00

I mentioned yesterday that I meet with a group of Episcopal clergy to discuss the future of the church and how we can better prepare for the changes brought about by our changing cultural landscape. That group has read and just discussed The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church by Reggie McNeal. Here are some more quotes from the book itself:

The deal is this: we have assumed that if people come to church often enough they will grow. We've got to be much more intentional than this.

Let me ask you: If the world could be changed through conferences and seminars, wouldn't it have happened a long time ago? We don't need a conference on prayer. We need people to pray!

I can tell you within minutes of arriving on a church campus whether or not a guiding vision is operative, Does the landscaping look like it's been left up to God to take care of? Does anyone greet me when I enter? Are staff members begging for volunteers? (I don't mean recruiting—that goes on in organizations with vision. I mean begging, badgering, cajoling, guilting people into service.) Are lackluster or mediocre efforts expended on ushering, singing, custodial services, teaching, signage, and so on?

I know plenty of churches that have capitalized on their strengths in the face of glaring weaknesses. In fact, their strength is what fills in their brand content, gives them ministry identity, and distinguishes them from the pack.

The key is the presence of mission. Missionless religion that calls itself Christianity is an affront to God, however it styles itself.

Basically, he sees that the institutional church, which is about and for the institution, is dying out. In a postmodern culture, fewer and fewer people will be interested in supporting the institution for its own sake. However, he remains convinced that the mission of God in the world begun in Jesus, will continue and will prevail. He is against churchianity and for a return to Christianity, which he feels will be more like the book of Acts than recent years of church history.

That's his take. As I have been big on saying that we need to set about BEING the Body of Christ, and emphasized the mission of the church as serving our community in Jesus' name and so spreading the Gospel beyond our walls, I tend to agree with him. What do y'all think?

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Missionary

King of Peace in Bloom

2010-04-13T19:04:00.001-04:00

The Present Future

2010-04-13T04:00:00.002-04:00

I meet with a group of Episcopal clergy to discuss the future of the church and how we can better prepare for the changes brought about by our changing cultural landscape. For that group, I've read the book The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church by Reggie McNeal. McNeal has been a denominational leader in the Baptist church who teaches seminary, serves as a leadership development coach, and challenges the church from within. I wanted to share some quotes from his intentionally provocative book:

The North American church is suffering from severe missionary amnesia. It has forgotten why it exists. The church was created to be the people of God to join him in his redemptive mission in the world. The church was never intended to exist for itself.

The church that wants to partner with God on his redemptive mission in the world has a very different target: the community.

What you must do is two things: create a culture informed by missiology and create venues where people can practice being missionaries.

What if denominational reporting inquiries asked, "What percentage of your congregants feel they grew to be more like Jesus this past year?" What if church leaders asked each other, "How is God at work in your people?" or "Where do you see Jesus bustin' out?"

Here are his six tough questions:

1. The collapse of the church culture.
•Wrong question: How do we do church better?
•Tough question: How do we deconvert from Churchianity to Christianity?

2. The shift from church growth to kingdom growth.
•Wrong question: How do we grow this church?
•Tough question: How do we transform our community?

3. A new reformation: Releasing God's people.
•Wrong question: How do we turn members into ministers?
•Tough question: How do we turn members into missionaries?

4. The return to spiritual formation.
•Wrong question: How do we develop church members?
•Tough question: How do we develop followers of Jesus?

5. The shift from planning to preparation.
•Wrong question: How do we plan for the future?
•Tough question: How do we prepare for the future?

6. The rise of apostolic leadership.
•Wrong question: How do we develop leaders for church work?
•Tough question: How do we develop leaders for the Christian movement

I will share some more on this tomorrow.

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Neo-Apostolic Leader Wannabe

Going Home Again

2010-04-12T08:19:00.004-04:00

The nave of St. Peter's Episcopal Church, Rome, Georgia

Saint Peter's Episcopal Church nurtured me and my family in our faith and supported me as a leader in the years leading up to my answering God's call to ordinained ministry. I was a 31-year old father of a three-year old and the 150-year old church made room for Victoria and I in significant leadership. Through leading children's church and Senior High EYC, we gained experience that continues to help us in ministry. But most importantly, we shared our lives in that wonderfully messy, not always easy creation from the heart of the Trinity—Christian community.

It had been 13 years since we last stepped foot in St. Peter's when we went to Juliet Voccio's wedding rehearsal this past Friday evening. Walking into the church was an experience in returning to a place of significant spiritual growth, a homecoming, in a way I had not anticipated. How great it was to take in the church building and see again the stained glass that had looked over us in our time at St. Peter's. Then officiating at wedding itself and even moreso attending the 10 a.m. worship service on Sunday, we reconnected with the congregation. The Rev. Don Black has since retired, but we keep in touch. The Rev. Roger Ard is doing a great job as Rector at St. Peter's. In 13 years, there were many new faces to be sure, but so many more familiar faces grown a bit older. The very people who had supported me and my family, making the ministry which has followed possible.

I discovered that several parishioners have kept up quite closely with our progress. The internet makes reading sermons and religion columns easy enough, and also allows for news to flow freely. A recent issue of our newsletter The Olive Branch hung on the St. Peter's Newsmakers bulletin board in Daniel Hall. I was humbled. I find that my words fall short of conveying what it was like. But I am reminded of Brandon Watson's video about King of Peace. It showed in words and pictures this concept of discovering your own name amid a group whose names you don't always know, but who are a part of your spiritual journey nonetheless. So, as I fall short of conveying the experience, I will let Brandon do so for me:

Facebook users go here to see the video: You Will Know Them.

It was an enriching experience to go home to St. Peter's. It also brings to mind the significant support and experience gained at St. Philip's in Baden, Maryland; St. Hilary's in Kibondo, Tanzania; and Church of the Spirit in Alexandria, Virginia. Each of those congregations also nurtured my journey toward ordained ministry in important ways. I return to them now in my mind, looking around their spaces and seeing the faces of those with whom I worshipped. I trust that a return to King of Peace would be similarly meaningful for those nurtured in our congregation.

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Pilgrim

Equal Neighbors

2010-04-11T04:00:00.000-04:00

"You shall love your neighbor as yourself"...dethrones feeling and good fortune and replaces them with the 'shall'....

According to Christ, our neighbor is our equal. Our neighbor is not the beloved, for whom you have a passionate preference, nor your friend, whom you prefer. Nor is your neighbor, if you are well educated, the learned person with whom you have cultural affinity - for with your neighbor you have before God the equality of humanity. Nor is your neighbor one who is of higher social status than you, and you love him because he has higher social status. This is mere preference and to that extent self-love. Nor is your neighbor one who is inferior to you, and you love him because he is inferior to you, because such love can easily be partiality's condescension and to that extent self-love.

No, Christian love, this 'you shall', means equality. In your relationship to people of distinction you shall love your neighbor. In relation to those who are inferior you are not to love in pity but shall love your neighbor. Your neighbor is every person, for on the basis of distinctions he is not your neighbor, nor on the basis of likeness to you as in contrast to others. He is your neighbor on the basis of equality with you before God.

~Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), Provocations

How do we know Jesus' resurrection was real?

2010-04-10T04:00:00.000-04:00

In tomorrow's Gospel reading, we will read of the disciple Thomas doubting Jesus' resurrection after Jesus appears to the others while Thomas was away. I preached on this passage making a case for what we know about the resurrection and why I believe:

Last Sunday was Easter and we joyously celebrated the miracle of Jesus’ resurrection. A week has passed. The joy has subsided enough to look at things in the light of day. I want to dare to ask the question, “How do we know they didn’t just make it up?”

After all, we were all born centuries after that first Easter. On a morning when we have just read how Jesus’ own friend Thomas doubted whether the resurrection was true, we should feel emboldened to ask a couple of questions of our own. How do we know that the disciples did not just wish Jesus had been resurrected? How do we know they didn’t have something at stake in fooling everyone else into thinking that Jesus came back from the dead?

First, I want to give the standard answer and show the problems some folks have in accepting it. Then we will look a little harder to see if we might have something more to say on the matter to see if it holds up.

Here is the way the standard answer goes. The best proof of the resurrection is the change in Jesus’ own disciples. Before the resurrection, those same apostles were scared, hiding from persecution. After an encounter with their risen Lord, they were brave enough to take to the streets as Peter does in this morning’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles.

Yes, the disciples might have told a lie to keep the Jesus’ myth going, but not once it came at the price of their very lives. The disciples were in a position to know whether the resurrection stories were the truth or a lie. They were the very witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection. They might lie to keep the story going if it meant filling their purses with money, but when persecution came, they would back away from their claims of Jesus’ resurrection. When push came to shove they would not die for a lie?

That’s the standard answer and it works pretty well. The Bible does describe to us the beginnings of persecution against the early Christians. We hear of the first Deacon, Stephen, being stoned to death. But, we have no reason to believe he was a witness to the resurrection. We also read of the death Jesus’ brother James, who was himself converted by an encounter with the resurrected Christ. James was pushed off the top of the Temple for refusing to renounce his faith in Jesus. James would have been in a position to know the truth. Would he have died for a lie?

As for the other disciples, their fates are not described in the Bible. In fact, there is no good solid historical evidence for what happened to them, just traditions, that sometimes contradict one another. Yet, the traditions all have the apostles dying for their faith with the sole exception of John, who is said to have died of old age in Ephesus. Even if a skeptic were to grant that the traditions about these men having been put to death for their belief in Christ were true, would this prove that Jesus was really and truly raised from the dead? Not exactly.

Let’s be honest. It could have been a delusion—mass hysteria fed by a desire for the resurrection to be real. Maybe they felt that Jesus was somehow still present to them and they wished it into a historic fact. Or maybe they talked of Jesus’ teaching still being with them and later believers worked with the story until they told it that Jesus’ was resurrected. A symbolic event could have been confused as being an historic event by people living a few generations later.

The full sermon is online here: The Resurrection: An Apology and it continues by taking an honest look at the evidence for the resurrection.

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Pastor

Faith Like a Lion

2010-04-09T04:00:00.000-04:00

Christianity is not just a thought or an idea, but a way of life. Faith in our Trinitarian God should fully involve our whole beings. However, it is easier, safer, to keep God at arms length. One would not want to go overboard with this whole faith thing.

There is a time-tested way to avoid getting carried away with faith. Get inoculated with a weak case of Christianity early in life to avoid stronger strains of the religion later. Get involved, but not too involved. Have faith, but do not really do anything about it. Don’t pray, avoid reading or otherwise studying the Bible, skip worship on Sunday and every other day. Then when someone mentions Christianity, remind people that you already are a Christian. Let the pushy people who bring up faith know that you do have faith, but that you don’t have to go to church or read the Bible to believe in God or pray. That weak form of faith will help you keep a full-blown infectious faith at bay.

The only downside is that a weak form of faith offers little comfort when the world dishes out epidemic-sized problems. A weak faith may inoculate you against catching a stronger faith, but it will offer little help when your company downsizes you out of a career or the lump in your wife’s breast proves to be malignant.

Faith that will see you through the hard times in life must be more than head knowledge. Not just, “Oh yeah, I know all about that God stuff.” Faith should be something that is part of every part of you. That level of faith is not merely a vain hope that something might be right. Deep faith that infects your whole being comes through sure and certain knowledge that the thing you believe is true. That committed faith comes through trusting God and then experiencing that you can rely on God’s promises.

Begin by talking honestly to God about your hopes and fears. Pray for the things that concern you. At first it is the empty hopeful faith wondering if there could even be a God. But as you experience the ways that prayer changes things for the better, you will gain confidence and nurture a more active faith.

There is a story from Africa of what it means to have faith that is more active. Vincent Donovan was a Roman Catholic missionary among the Masai people of East Africa. In his book, Christianity Rediscovered, he writes of the challenges of translating the Gospel into the Masai language. He did his best to learn the Masai language and to tell the Masai people of Christ in their own words. One Masai elder listened to missionary each week for many months and came to except the Christian faith. Then he challenged the missionary on the word faith itself. He told Donovan that the word he used in Masai for faith means literally, “to agree to.” The Masai elder explained that faith does not just mean to agree to something. It is much more demanding, much more personal than that.

The elder explained that faith that only means “to agree to” something is like a white hunter who comes and kills a lion with a gun. The man stands a great distance from the lion and pulls a trigger. Only his eyes and his finger take part in killing the lion. The man is in little danger and is hardly involved in the kill. The Masai elder said, “This is not faith.” For one to really have faith, to truly believe” he said, “is like a lion hunting its prey. The lion’s nose, ears and eyes all search out the Savannah for the prey. The lion’s legs give him the speed to catch the prey. The lion throws all of his body into terrible death leap and the killing blow from her front paw. As the prey falls, the lion wraps her front legs around the prey and pulls it to her and makes the prey part of her as she devours it.” The elder finished, “This is the way a lion kills. This is the way people are to believe. This is what faith is.”

The Masai elder was right. Faith is meant to be more than simple agreement with an idea. If you want your faith to stand the test of all that life has to dish out, then you will need a more active faith. Trust God. Let God in to more and more of your life and you can have lion-like faith which others will find infectious.

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

Angels out of demons

2010-04-08T04:00:00.000-04:00

If pride turned some of the angels into demons,
then humility can doubtless make angels out of demons.

~John Climacus (579-649)

Be Not Angry

2010-04-07T05:00:00.000-04:00

Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be,
since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be.

~Thomas A` Kempis (1380-1471)

The Purpose of the Bible

2010-04-06T05:00:00.000-04:00

The whole purpose of the Bible, it seems to me, is to convince people to set the written word down in order to become living words in the world for God’s sake. For me, this willing conversion of ink back to blood is the full substance of faith.

~the Rev. Barbara Brown Taylor

The Sound of Silence

2010-04-05T04:00:00.001-04:00

"For God alone my soul in silence waits."
—Psalm 62:1a

A Salon.com article considers silence in interviewing George Prochnik, the author of, In Pursuit of Silence: Listening for Meaning in a World of Noise. Salon writes,

For most Americans, silence is hard to find these days. Traffic, airplane noise and public transport fill most major cities. Cellphone conversations have taken over the parks and sidewalks, buzzing electronics have invaded our homes, and each store has its own carefully shaped "sonic environment."

Most of us accept these noises as a normal byproduct of our gadget-obsessed times, but in his new book, argues that this barrage of noise is more than just a nuisance; it poses a real threat to our cardiovascular system and mental health, our ability to concentrate, and, perhaps most dangerous of all, it turns our political discourse into a shrill barrage.

The full interview is here: In Pursuit of Silence.

Noise seems omnipresent. Where and how do you find silence? What is its value?

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue
Pursuer of a post-Lent, Post-Easter silence

We need to find God,
and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness.
God is the friend of silence.
See how nature - trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence;
see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence...
We need silence to be able to touch souls.
—Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997)

Easter Photos

2010-04-04T14:36:00.009-04:00

We had wonderful worship at both 6:30 and 10 a.m. The small sunrise service was nice, ending in the Memorial Garden as the sun rose. The 10 a.m. service was a vibrant celebration of the resurrection with two baptisms, special music and a wonderful feelings all through it.

Easter Vigil Photos

2010-04-04T14:24:00.005-04:00

In the gathering darkness on Holy Saturday, we kindled new fire and went into the church to retell sacred stories by candle light. We also renewed our baptismal covenant via candlelight, before moving into the light as we began our Easter worship with the Queen of Feasts, the Great Vigil of Easter.

Sepulcher

2010-04-03T06:00:00.000-04:00

by George Herbert

Oh blessed body! Whither art thou thrown?
No lodging for thee, but a cold hard stone?
So many hearts on earth, and yet not one
Receive thee?

Sure there is room within our hearts good store;
For they can lodge transgressions by the score:
Thousands of toys1 dwell there, yet out of door
They leave thee.

But that which shows them large, shows them unfit.
Whatever sin did this pure rock commit,
Which holds thee now? Who hath indicted it
Of murder?

Where our hard hearts have took up stones2 to brain thee,
And missing this, most falsely did arraign thee;
Only these stones in quiet entertain thee,
And order.

And as of old, the law by heav’nly art,
Was writ in stone; so thou, which also art
The letter of the word,3 find’st no fit heart
To hold thee.

Yet do we still persist as we began,
And so should perish, but that nothing can,
Though it be cold, hard, foul, from loving man
Withhold thee.

_____
1. toys. Trifling things.
2. took up stones. See John 10:13.
3. The letter of the word. See Hebrews 8:10 and Proverbs 3:3, 7:3.

Source (for poem and footnotes): George Herbert: The Country Parson, The Temple (The Classics of Western Spirituality; 1981)

Were You There?

2010-04-02T04:00:00.002-04:00

Those seeing this note in Facebook need to go to this YouTube link to see and hear this video.

Stations of the Cross
Victoria and I wrote meditations and prayers for a Stations of the Cross service a few years ago. It is available onlie as an Adobe PDF file. Print pages 2,4,6 on the back of pages 1,3,5 and you will be able to collate, fold and have a booklet of your own: Stations of the Cross Booklet.

Maundy Thursday Photos

2010-04-01T22:03:00.003-04:00

"After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, 'Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them....I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.'"

~Jesus in the Maundy Thursday reading from John 13

Holy Foolishness

2010-04-01T05:00:00.002-04:00

It is appropriate that April Fool's Day should come in Holy Week as a reminder not to take ourselves too seriously even as we take seriously our proclamation of Christ crucified.

Throughout the history of the church, there have been Holy people who poked fun at Christians who were feeling a little too self-righteous. Their stories, still revered in the Greek and Russian Orthodox Churches, sound absurd, but there is a deeper spiritual point to their foolishness.

Take for example Simeon of Silos who retreated to the Syrian Desert in the 6th century to devote his life to prayer. A few decades later, Simeon returned to town a changed man. Simeon would throw nuts at the priests during the worship service and publicly ate sausage on Good Friday, which is not only a fast day, but at that time no one ate meat during the season of Lent. Simeon’s behavior was anything but saintly. Yet, there was another side to Simeon. The seemingly nutty monk also helped people in the town, though never when someone else might notice. Simeon’s saintly deeds were done in secret. And no one could dispute that Simeon was a very Holy person, even the priests he pelted with nuts on Sunday. Simeon just poked fun at every attempt people made to feel holier than thou.

Simeon is not alone in Christian history. There was the great Holy Fool of Russia, Basil the Blessed, a man so revered that the Cathedral in Moscow was named in his honor. Basil walked through Moscow wearing nothing more than a long beard. Basil threw rocks at wealthy people’s houses and stole from dishonest traders in Red Square.

Few, if any, doubted Basil’s holiness. Czar Ivan the Terrible feared no man but Basil. Basil was also given to eating meat on Good Friday. Once he went to Ivan and forced the Czar to eat raw meat during the fast saying, “Why abstain from eating meat when you murder men?” Countless Russians died for much less, but Ivan was afraid to let any harm come to the saintly Basil.

Simeon and Basil are examples of what the Russian Orthodox call yurodivi, meaning Holy Fools. George Fedotov, a scholar of Russian spirituality, explains that for persons who have achieved a high degree of holiness, they do not want people to praise them for their holiness, so that play the fool to remain humble.

The Apostle Paul knew something of holy foolishness too. He wrote to the Christians in Corinth, Greece, “God deliberately chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose those who are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important, so that no one can ever boast in the presence of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:27-29).

Holy Fools perform an important function in reminding us that when we start to feel the most worthy of God’s love that we are getting further from God’s presence. When we boast of our saintliness, we are the least worthy of God’s love and favor.

Paul points out that the Holy Fools are on to something when they remind us that we are not as wise as we think. For when we have got everything figured out, we aren’t being wise, just wise in our own eyes. When you think you are so holy that God must be in heaven giving thanks to himself for creating you, you are not righteous. You are just being self-righteous and holy fools were always ready to poke fun at any who thought themselves deserving of God’s love.

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Fool for Christ

PS: April Fool's Day is a great time to treat yourself to a visit to the Christian Humor website, Ship of Fools.

Hope begins in the dark

2010-03-31T03:00:00.000-04:00

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

2010-03-30T22:06:00.005-04:00

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

2010-03-30T04:00:00.000-04:00

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?

2010-03-29T05:00:00.000-04:00

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

2010-03-28T13:28:00.007-04:00

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...

2010-03-28T04:00:00.001-04:00

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?

2010-03-27T04:00:00.000-04:00

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

2010-03-26T04:00:00.000-04:00

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

2010-03-25T07:48:00.003-04:00

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

2010-03-25T07:14:00.003-04:00

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

2010-03-25T04:00:00.000-04:00

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

2010-03-24T04:00:00.000-04:00

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

2010-03-23T05:00:00.001-04:00

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

2010-03-22T05:00:00.001-04:00

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

2010-03-21T19:14:00.004-04:00

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.