christmas-eve-2019-st-peters.md

Christmas Eve, St. Peter’s 2019

December 24:Christmas Eve 2019

St. Peter’s Great Falls

Pre-liturgy

Announcement

The liturgy this year will be different from any you’ve experienced. I tried to structure our worship and celebration tonight around a couple of requirements.

• We should sing as many Christmas carols as we can
• We needed to not go too late
• We don’t have a professional choir – it’s just us

To that end the key element you will notice is a series of readings that are in fact selections from a longer piece. I will say more about it in the homily. For now my minimal hope is that at the end of it we can all say, “I’m glad I was here.” And for all of you who help make it possible tonight – Thank you!

Introduction

It was many months ago that Cindy had invited me to be with you tonight. Most liturgies I have led at this time of year have presumed that there were numerous gatherings in the church in the weeks leading up to this holy night. It’s a different story here. I tried to think of how we could celebrate a Christmas Mass with the solemnity that it deserves.

I wanted there to be lighted candles. I thought about the emotions I felt as a teenager when being up past midnight was an adventure all to itself. At our house in those days Christmas didn’t really start until Christmas eve mass. My mother kept Advent pretty strict for us.

I also thought about the tradition started in England over a century ago. King’s College, Cambridge. Truro Cathedral in Cornwall. There the singing of Christmas carols was accompanied by the readings from scripture, beginning with Adam and Eve in the garden, their rejection of the blessings of the garden, the human compulsion to prefer our own ways over God’s ways, the prophetic call to return to faith, and finally God’s response to the whole mess in the gift of His Son, Jesus.

I knew we didn’t have a professional choir here at St. Peter’s, so the enjoyment of singing was going to be up to us and our good cheer.

The main puzzle piece that fell into place for me was the thought of hearing some selections from a narrative I first learned about in the early 1990’s. Gretchen Pritchard told the story of the Bible – all in one sitting – at a workshop on the Easter Vigil and the baptism of adults in the Catechumenate. ¹

I have often read the entire narrative at the Easter Vigil in the various parishes I have served. I love its beginning and ending. She starts off saying, “It all begins the way all good stories begin, ‘Once upon a time …’” and she ends it – doing a fairly good paraphrase of Revelation 22 – by saying, “The prince and princess get married and live happily ever after.”

No of course the Bible’s message is more complex and sophisticated than that of a children’s fairy tale. Sort of like Christmas is more than the sum total of the Christmas carols we sing tonight.

It comes down to something as plain as:

There was a very great need for Redemption. God saw the need and had an un-dying love for humanity. He provided the Redemption in Jesus.

Grand Story of the Lessons

The big story is that God is a great and mighty God. He loves to make things. He loves to love. He is willing to do whatever it takes.

We in this place and this time are the characters in God’s great story. We may be small and insignificant in the larger context of the universe, but we are the most important people right here and right now, for telling the story. Tonight we celebrate and remember the power and meaning of the Incarnation. And we give thanks. To God.

A few weeks ago Mary Pat and I watched an amazing movie called Beasts of the Southern Wild. The main character in the movie is a 6 year old girl named Hushpuppy. Her wisdom is so far beyond her years that you can scarcely believe it when you hear it. And yet it is so true. At one point she says:

Hushpuppy: The whole universe depends on everything fitting together just right. If one piece busts, even the smallest piece. the whole universe will get busted.

What we celebrate tonight is God’s fixing the whole universe, all the busted pieces. And you and I are certainly included in that category: small and seemingly insignificant, but without us the universe is busted.

We are here to celebrate our place in the whole universe and in God’s redemption of that creation – His creation. That’s what the Incarnation is all about. The redemption is real – even, yea especially, when we can’t see it.

You may have heard the phase: “It will be all right in the end. If it’s not all right yet, it’s not the end.” That’s it. That’s the message. Or in the final words of the Gospel of Matthew:

“And look, I am with you always; yes, to the end of time.” (NJB)

Notes

lectionary

Seasonal Blessing

Christmas Season Blessing

May Almighty God, who sent his Son to take our nature upon
him, bless you in this holy season, scatter the darkness of sin,
and brighten your heart with the light of his holiness. Amen.

May God, who sent his angels to proclaim the glad news of the
Savior’s birth, fill you with joy, and make you heralds of the
Gospel. Amen.

May God, who in the Word made flesh joined heaven to earth
and earth to heaven, give you his peace and favor. Amen.

And the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit, be upon you and remain with you for ever. Amen.

or this

May Christ, who by his Incarnation gathered into one things
earthly and heavenly, fill you with his joy and peace; and the
blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
be among you, and remain with you always. Amen.

---

1. Gretchen Wolff Pritchard is the author of Go, Tell It on the Mountain, a collection of pageant scripts, currently being revised and expanded. She also creates, illustrates, and publishes The Sunday Paper lectionary series for children. Other projects include Beulah Land felt story kits; Alleluia! Amen; and New Life. Check out Gretchen’s book Offering the Gospel to Children, and her blog at thesundaypaperblog.wordpress.com. ↩︎

advent-4-2019-monroe.md

December 22, 2019:The Fourth Sunday of Advent – St. Paul’s

Opening

Normally I would say “Thank you for inviting me back.” And, “I’m glad to be here.”

It’s not appropriate, somehow, today. "It’s good to be here. The reason for being here is decidedly not a happy thing.

Fr. Jim called me shortly after seeing the doctor back in November. Mostly I think he just wanted me to know. Further conversations and here I am this morning. I assured Fr. Jim and Susan and Charlotte that I would help in whatever way I could as you, the people of St. Paul’s, Monroe, journey through this conflicted time.

I am glad to be here, for all kinds of big and little reasons and with emotions that cover a range – and are all too human.

It’s one of the things I like about being here at St. Paul’s , Monroe – it feels real.

A couple of weeks ago we watched a movie.

Watched tonight Beasts of the Southern Wild. An utterly one of a kind movie that successfully portrayed metaphor (glaciers melting, wildebeest like animals tramping across the landscape portending doom).

A kind of aside – I realized while watching this film something that has troubled me about movies for a long time. It gets at the difference between reading a book and seeing a film made from the book. Movies tend to kill metaphors. They are made explicit and they are no longer metaphors. Movies have a subtle way of taking away the power of imagination.¹

In Beasts of the Southern Wild, The main characters are a father and daughter off the grid on an island forgotten in a Louisiana bay – called in the movie Bathtub. The film portrays the violence as well as the deep love of folks living in deep poverty.

The star is a 6 year old child. Amazing performance. Youngest person ever nominated for best actress (2012). The lead actor a baker by trade who at first preferred to keep baking for his people than to be a part of a movie. The directors wanted him, though, and they prevailed.

In a strange sort of way I can totally relate to the movie.

• Cosmic ordering.
• Small packages living in a big universe
• The deep significance of even the smallest package.

Hushpuppy I’m recording my story for the scientists in the future. In a million years, when kids go to school, they gonna know: once there was a Hushpuppy, and she lived with her daddy in The Bathtub.

Hushpuppy “There is an order to the universe, even if I am too stupid to see it”

Hushpuppy The whole universe depends on everything fitting together just right. If one piece busts, even the smallest piece. the whole universe will get busted.

Hushpuppy When you’re a small piece of a big puzzle, you gotta fix what you can.

Miss Bathsheba (the teacher): The most important thing I can teach you? you gotta learn to take care of people smaller and sweeter than you are

Time of year a powerful blend and mixture of emotional forces.

It is often observed that this time of year is a strange amalgam of different emotions.

Like the mixture of reasons for my being here this morning. Both joy and sadness. It’s like love. I’ve thought for a long time that the popular sentimentalism of that word was completely misguided. To love someone is to enter into both the celebration and the mourning, … marriage vows: “sickness and health, richness and poverty, birth and death.”

Christmas blues is a time that brings all that together. The thoughts and memories and emotions can take on mythic power, like the movie we saw. Joining the smallest child to the universe which is so big – all of it under the dominion of a big, big, God.

Sometmes the news is joyful, like: “Behold a young woman is with child” and it’s spectacularly good news. Sometimes the phrase, “Behold a young woman is with child” is a great bittersweet news, like if the father was killed last week while rescuing survivors of a disaster.

Truly this time of year brings the whole range of reality and truth together, under the umbrella of the one who shelters and shields it all – the God and Father of us all.

Joseph

In our scripture readings we get a similar shift of themes. We started Advent – in fact we ended the month of November – with Apocalyptic messages.

Then the prophet John the Baptist takes center stage for a couple of weeks.

Now we shift the focus and aim for Christmas. Today we get the Christmas story with Joseph. If you come back in a couple of days you will get the Christmas story with Mary as the lead actor. But for today, Joseph.

I honestly think that hearing Joseph as the focus is almost like – “Wait, what? That’s not the Christmas story!”

The gospel of Matthew is distinctive in the way in which it treats the Birth narrative. Joseph from the book of Genesis you may recall has dreams. His parents and grandparents had all talked directly with messengers from God. Joseph in Matthew’s gospel also encounters angels through dreams.

When I was in my 20’s, and testing the “new” translations of the Bible that were coming out – I thought a test was to see how it treated Isaiah 7 and Matthew 1 – today’s readings. The passage from Isaiah that I was taught was a “prediction” of Jesus – or at least Mary’s virginity. I knew by then a little about the Hebrew and Greek words in the two passages.

I’m quite a bit less interested in those kind of nuances and details today and more interested in questions like, "What is this passage saying to us today. If Isaiah was addressed to King Ahaz in the 8th c. BCE and Matthew’s gospel was aimed at a community of the 1st c. wrestling with the separation of the Jewish and fledgling Christian communities, what do either or both of them have to do with us today?

For myself the connection is at least partly illustrated in that movie that we saw, Beasts of the Southern Wild. I hear God telling us that each of us has a vital role to play in the unfolding of the universe, no matter how insignificant we may feel ourselves to be.

Maybe we’re a “Hushpuppy”. Maybe we’re a leader. Maybe we’re all alone, having lost the connections that once bound us to community. We may be at the beginning of things or at the end. Nevertheless …

“There is an order to the universe, even if I am too stupid to see it”

And no matter where we are in the scheme of things, no matter how insignificant we may feel, we can make a difference.

The most important thing I can teach you? you gotta learn to take care of people smaller and sweeter than you are.

“Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.”

Closing

Today we have been handed a platter. Like Joseph we may be inclined to say, “What am I supposed to do with that?”

Today one thing I know with a certainty is that the angels are telling us: “Do not be afraid.”

Today one thing I hear Jesus telling us through the words of Matthew is “Emmanuel. God is with us. I am with you.”

And, indeed, the very last words of Matthew’s gospel in Chapter 28 is: "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Notes

lectionary

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1. See also the death (Nov. 15) of Sallie McFague. She had a profound impact on the way I think about theology, talking about God, Christian faith. Cf. her book Metaphorical Theology and David Tracy’s Analogical Thinking. ↩︎

2-advent-2019-our-saviour.md

December 8:The Second Sunday of Advent – Our Saviour

Homily

Bumping into …

Some years ago I was at a retreat center to the west of Chicago. I was there for a provincial working group dealing with issues related to small churches. It was a Catholic retreat center and had what I thought was a wonderful chapel. I am a sucker for places with significant baptistries, having been taught way back when in seminary of the primacy of baptism for understanding who we are as Christians.

There was a wonderful pool for a baptistry at a Protestant seminary in Indianapolis. I like the font at Mary Pat’s family parish back in Dayton. There is a large pool, about 10’ across and then a small font that flows into it – obviously used for dabbing infants with a few drops of water.

At this particular retreat center there was a great baptismal font – not as large as the one in Dayton – but it was placed in a small chapel at a small retreat center. You walked in through the back doors and within a few steps there you were at a tiled font. It was about 5 feet high, with a large basin, that flowed in stages down to a larger basin at the floor level.

I had occasion to discover and talk to the person who had designed the font for them. I related how much I liked it. The designer said that he particularly likes the way anyone who comes into the chapel will immediately bump into their baptism.

I, too, like that a lot.

John the Baptist is a little like that.

Before we encounter Jesus, we have to bump into John the Baptist. Here we are – Advent 2 – and we bump into John.

And not just because he was a baptizer.

All four gospels provide testimony that John was the forerunner of Jesus. He was older and part of an older tradition.

You may not be aware of how few elements of the gospel narrative are present in all 4 gospels. They tend to be the basic building blocks of the narrative:

1. crucifixion and death
2. condemned to death by the Romans
3. accused by Jewish authorities
4. betrayed by one of his own
5. triumphal entry into Jerusalem
6. feeding of the multitude
7. Peter’s profession of faith
8. calling of the disciples
9. John the Baptist was a forerunner and (as it were) introduced Jesus

Clearly John’s place in the Good News of Jesus Christ is important.

He was preparing the way for Jesus.

When I taught at a college in the 80’s, I was especially blessed by the core curriculum we taught with. One of the things that it allowed was a good rationale for inviting significant speakers to campus, often the speakers were authors of books that all of the student body read together in the core curriculumand that much of the faculty taught. Two that I remember were Maya Angelou and Martin Marty.

My place in the faculty was to revive a Philosophy and Theology department that had been disbanded some years previous. I was the theology guy – so I was the one they asked to introduce Marty when he came to speak. He was a major church historian from the University of Chicago. The work he did on the rise of fundamentalism in the 1980’s was important and still relevant today.

I felt intimidated and inadequate to the task of introducing him. I think I did ok – but the point of it all was not me, but Marty.

John the Baptist was a little like that in “preparing the way” for Jesus.

John’s message had to do with threshing.

Separating the true believers from those who were just hangers on.

This is threatening to many of us because for many centuries the church has been dominated by hangers on. Really century after century there have been reformers, looking out at a church that seems to be just coasting, and they have proclaimed “out with the chaff – in with the wheat.” They are the voice of John the Baptist for new generations.

It can sound like fire and brimstone preaching. It’s really about harvesting, getting the job done.

We have to encounter John on the way to Jesus. He is preparing the way for Jesus. He is preparing for those who come after so that they will be able to meet and know the Lord. He himself is not the Lord.

His message was: Baptism for forgiveness. Baptism as a chief sign of conversion of life, a turning from going in the wrong direction.

Taking stock of John

For much of my adult life I have regularly prayed the Morning Prayer canticle Benedictus Dominus or Song of Zechariah – canticle 16 (p. 92) in the BCP. The prayer, from the gospel of Luke, was offered by John’s father at the time of John’s birth. It includes the following:

And you, little child, you shall be called Prophet of the Most High,
for you will go before the Lord to prepare a way for him,
to give his people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins,
because of the faithful love of our God
in which the rising Sun has come from on high to visit us,
to give light to those who live in darkness and the shadow dark as death,
and to guide our feet into the way of peace.

That prayer has allowed me to absorb the vocation of John into my own life. To appreciate and incorporate the spirit of John, the initiator, the preparer, the forerunner of the Gospel.

I have imagined that I was the “little child” being referred to here. That it was I who was charged with preparing the way for the Lord. That it was I who was the advanced man sent to arrange for the major entrance of the only one who’s really important. That I had some importance because if I screwed up, the ones who come after may not get to hear or see the Lord.

John is a strong reminder that there can be no hangers on. Everybody is important in making sure that the world knows and hears and meets the Lord – who is to come.

If we are to follow in John’s steps we must be ready to be advanced laborers, preparing the way.

If we are to follow in John’s steps we must be patient to introduce all comers to the one who is to come after.

If we are to follow in John’s steps we must be prepared to discard the chaff for the sake of the wheat.

We are all prophets. We are all called to live into our Baptism – for we have been baptized with the fire of the Holy Spirit, in the name of the Trinity.

How might you be ready to prepare the next person you meet to encounter the Risen Lord?

Notes

lectionary

Blessings

Advent

May Almighty God, by whose providence our Savior Christ came among us in great humility, sanctify you with the light of his blessing and set you free from all sin. Amen.

May he whose second Coming in power and great glory we await, make you steadfast in faith, joyful in hope, and constant in love. Amen.

May you, who rejoice in the first Advent of our Redeemer, at his second Advent be rewarded with unending life. Amen. And the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be upon you and remain with you for ever. Amen.

May the Sun of Righteousness shine upon you and scatter the darkness from before your path; and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be among you, and remain with you always. Amen.

Wreath

Lord our God,
we praise you for your Son, Jesus Christ:
he is Emmanuel, the hope of the peoples,
he is the wisdom that teaches and guides us,
he is the Savior of every nation.
Lord God,
let your blessing come upon us
as we light the candles of this wreath.
May the wreath and its light
be a sign of Christ’s promise to bring us salvation.
May he come quickly and not delay.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
R. Amen.

advent-1-2019-winnsboro.md

Dec. 1 St. John’s Winnsboro: Advent 1

Introduction

I want to talk about time¹ this week. Well, I really started talking about time last week when I reflected on beginnings and endings.

Last week’s concept of time was endings and beginnings. This week I turn to the contrast between two different kinds of time. I frequently remember the joke I heard long ago about there being two different kinds of people. There are those who divide the world into two different kinds of people … And there are those who don’t.

When it comes to people I come down firmly on the side of there being just one kind of people not two. Well in this case I come down on the side of two kinds of time. But time, well time can fairly usefully be divided into two: there is sacred time and there is ordinary time. One religious thinker from earlier in the 20^th century divided things between sacred and profane. For our purposes it’s probably enough to just use the word ordinary.

There is the kind of time that is measured by the alarm clock that goes off beside my bed. In retirement I have tended to keep the alarm clock off. But sometimes I still need to get up at a certain time. Sometimes – I don’t wake up until the alarm clock wakes me up. That’s ordinary time – or profane time.

There is another kind of time. The moment that came to mind for me was the moment when the doctor held up my healthy, breathing, first born. In those days we didn’t know if it was a boy or a girl. And all I wanted was a healthy child and mother. The doctor looked at me and asked, “What is his name?”

That was a sacred moment. It utterly changed my life. I burst into uncontrolled tears – for the first time in many years. In some important way I learned in that moment what it really meant to love.

Sacred

The most wonderful time. link to recording

It’s that time of year. In the words of the legendary song: ²

It’s the most wonderful time of the year
With the kids jingle belling
And everyone telling you be of good cheer
It’s the most wonderful time of the year
It’s the [hap-] happiest season of all
With those holiday greetings and gay happy meetings
When friends come to call
It’s the [hap-] happiest season of all

What makes it that? Is it what Andy Williams sang about? Or is it something less obvious? Less tangible?

Is there some kind of clock that can measure sacred time? Is there something about it that makes it clear? At this time of year the words of Jesus encourage us to pay attention – don’t just rush through time without noticing the sacred when it slips on by.

Kairos

Some of you may watch late night television. Do you have a favorite comedian? If so, then you know something about the importance of timing. Those entertainers are acutely aware of timing.

They know time not with their head so much as in their gut or maybe in their heart.

Knowing time like that means that you may be able to recognize when ordinary profane time slips into sacred time.

We are referring to a special kind of time when we say "this would be an opportune time to … [fill in the blank] Ordinary time is quantitative. We count the minutes, days, years. Sacred time is all about quality time. When we are living in quality time the time on the clock really doesn’t matter very much.

Scripture

In fact the Greek used in our NT has two different words used for two different kinds of time: kairos and chronos.
Kairos refers to sacred time. It is used to refer to the “appointed time”, the time of the Lord, It is especially prominent in Matthew and Luke. Chronos is chronological time. It is the kind of time we count with a clock – of course in the New Testament there weren’t clocks as we know them. But people kept track of that kind of time – clock and calendar kind of time.

The Lessons are all about time. And the New Testament in particular distinguishes between sacred time and profane time by the use of two words: kairos and chronos. It is clearly more interested in kairos which is used almost twice as many times as chronos. ³

Isaiah the prophet is …

… about focusing on a time to come. It’s a time not yet apparent but just around the corner. Isaiah is anticipating a time to come. Hope for what we cannot yet see.

At this time to come the people who are scattered among the nations will be gathered together.

At this time to come swords will be beaten into ploughshares, then there will be a peace which passes understanding.

Paul (Romans)

Paul says to us: "You know how to tell time. You know how to respond to the alarm clock when it goes off. You know how to keep appointments – more or less. But all too often you don’t recognize the kairos time that is almost upon us. “Salvation is nearer now than ever before,” he says.

When my first child was born I became aware of new dimensions of life and love that I had not been able to recognize before that. When Paul tells us its time to wake up that’s something of what he means. It’s time to notice the sacred moments that want to be woven into our lives.

[perhaps skip?] The day is near at hand. I caught some of my students off guard when we were discussing Elie Wiesel’s book NIght. The setting of the book is Auschwitz and from one perspective it can be pretty depressing. But I explained that the Jewish reckoning of time, the Jewish understanding of what constitutes a day is that the day begins at sundown. That means that sunrise comes after the night is spent. Day follows night.

Paul tell us to forget about the trappings of our life, the clothes we wear, the comforts we come to depend on – and instead put on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Matthew

We hear from almost the end of Matthew’s gospel. It is the first reading from this gospel during this year of Matthew. Most Sundays – until next December – we will hear from Matthew’s gospel.

It is distinctive at many levels. Listen through the year for some of those distinctive elements of the book. You might want to do a bible study, alone or with others, to learn about it.

But today we hear from Matthew’s account of the last days of Jesus’ life when he is teaching his followers about how to live at a time that feels like the last days.

He tells them keep awake! and he urges them to be ready.

Jesus directs us to:

Act as if – at any moment we may encounter the face of God, or hear the most important words of our life or see the most beautiful sight we will every see.

Act as if the next moment may be our last and this moment is the most important of our life.

Act as if the next moment is the beginning of the rest of our life. That moment I was asked for the name of my first born changed my life forever.

Act as if you are about to meet a new friend who will someday save your life.

Act as if the next conversation you have will change a person’s life.

Jesus tell us to wake up, to be ready. That’s not a literal command. It is a command about how to live our life. To see in the world around us the “grandeur of God” – to borrow a phrase from the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins.

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?

The poet Emily Dickinson said:

We turn not older with years but newer every day.

And on my business cards you will read from William Blake:

“To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.”
― William Blake, Auguries of Innocence

Sacred time is all around us. All the time. Take the time to notice.

Notes

This coming week:

• December 1:Nicholas Ferrar, Deacon, 1637

• December 2:Channing Moore Williams, Missionary Bishop in China and Japan, 1910

• December 4:John of Damascus, Priest, c. 760

• December 5:Clement of Alexandria, Priest, c. 210

• December 6:Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, c. 342

• December 7:Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, 397

• kairos cf. summary

• Advent 1 lectionary

Blessings

Advent

May Almighty God, by whose providence our Savior Christ came among us in great humility, sanctify you with the light of his blessing and set you free from all sin. Amen.

May he whose second Coming in power and great glory we await, make you steadfast in faith, joyful in hope, and constant in love. Amen.

May you, who rejoice in the first Advent of our Redeemer, at his second Advent be rewarded with unending life. Amen. And the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be upon you and remain with you for ever. Amen.

May the Sun of Righteousness shine upon you and scatter the darkness from before your path; and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be among you, and remain with you always. Amen.

Wreath

Lord our God,
we praise you for your Son, Jesus Christ:
he is Emmanuel, the hope of the peoples,
he is the wisdom that teaches and guides us,
he is the Savior of every nation.
Lord God,
let your blessing come upon us
as we light the candles of this wreath.
May the wreath and its light
be a sign of Christ’s promise to bring us salvation.
May he come quickly and not delay.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
R. Amen.

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1. After I had delivered this homily I read a marvelous article on bbc.com that provides an empirical justification for discarding our over-emphasis on linear time. ↩︎

2. “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” is a popular Christmas song written in 1963 by Eddie Pola and George Wyle. It was recorded and released that year by pop singer Andy Williams for his first Christmas album, ↩︎

3. kairos 86 times, chronos 54 times. ↩︎

christ-king-2019-winnsboro.md

Sun, Nov 24, 2019 at St. John’s Winnsboro

Christ the King

Color: White Assigned Readings (Proper 29 )
Track One Lesson 1: Jeremiah 23:1-6 Psalm: Canticle 4 or 16
Lesson 2: Colossians 1:11-20
Gospel: Luke 23:33-43

Endings

Endings are important. That’s a big subject. I only want to scratch the surface here today. Endings are important for making possible New Beginnings.

I had a lesson in endings recently when I smiled to myself at the Charlotte Symphony when the whole audience was blown away by the virtuosity of a pianist. We burst into applause and then slowly began to realize that it was only the end of the 1st movement (out of 4).

The etiquette is that one applauds only at the finale.

For the past 2 years Mary Pat and I have had season tickets to the Charlotte Symphony. It has been a wonderful experience, involving a large collection of sensory satisfactions. There has been good company. We often attended with good friends. Good food. We often went to a nice dinner with our friends. Good church services. We sometimes went to church with our good friends. Good music.The Charlotte Symphony is really good.

We have seen and heard some breath-taking performances by artists: pianists, violinists, oboeists, trumpeters, and others.

I thought about ways we identify the conclusion to a symphony, a concerto, or any major musical work.

• theme, drawing together the major themes of the work
• key signature, the tone of the music at the finale can be different or a culmination in some way
• it can grow in volume, reaching a crescendo that is unmistakable
• flair and spectacle
• all the instruments on stage are usually involved in the ending.

We can tell it’s the end is important. Could you tell it was the end of the church year by the lessons from Scripture? I think we are intended to hear them as something like the end of a major symphonic work. The work is called the Gospel

ekklesia

The end we observe today is the end of the church year. Next Sunday we begin a new church year – 4 Sundays of Advent preceding Christmas. You will notice that it is not the end of society’s year. We call that New Year. New year’s eve is big deal in many places.

As we remember the year that is past we prepare and anticipate the year to come.

Ever since my family began observing the church year – translate “observe Advent” – in my home when I was about 11 or 12 – I have appreciated the way in which the church year is decidedly not society’s year. When we organize our lives by the faith of the Church in Jesus Christ we are drawn more and more into a different model, a different schedule of beginnings and endings. It all leads to life. A different lifestyle.

To become a Christian means to increasingly by led away from the ways of society at large. It’s not surprising that in the earliest years of the church it was called ekklesia – which in Greek means “led out or away from.”

When I pay attention to the end of the church year I am reminded that as a Christian we are called (out) to do things differently from the way everybody else does.

This Sunday is the finale of the year’s proclamation of the truth of the Gospel. It is like a summary of all the minor themes. It is a recapitulation of the major theme. It is meant to get our attention and make us ready to stand and respond with, “Now I’m ready to go and do and be the Gospel for the world.”

Lessons like 3 movements of the final symphony of the year

Jeremiah

Decidedly looking forward, anticipating a time

Woe on the leaders who divide the people and scatter them rather than gather them

therefore God will do the fathering, God will gather a remnant

God will raise up new leaders

• especially one from David’s house

Letter to the Colossians

Behold the grandeur of Christ’s work

He rescues from the powers of darkness

He offers redemption

He offers forgiveness

Since he has been from the beginning and reigns forever the offer is for all times: past, present, and future

For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross. (v. 20)

On the Cross in Luke

What victory from the cross looks like:

• mocking is turned to glorification
• jeering is turned to entrance into Paradise
• it looks like forgiveness
• it transforms catastrophe into a blessing that is better than creation itself

I grew up thinking that Luke’s version of what happened on the cross was the definitive one. We’ve heard it today. Golgotha. Two criminals on either side of him. Jesus is mocked at and jeered at by soldiers and one of the criminals. One of the criminals knows himself. He recognizes in Jesus God’s innocent suffering and dying on the cross. He receives the invitation to redemption and salvation.

It is the basic story of salvation which is the gospel. It is the whole deal. This is our story. As one person put it, “If it’s true it’s important.” This is the story that is our story.

That’s what a finale does. It recapitulates the whole deal and sends us out rejoicing and committed to its truth. It is the ending that sets us up to begin anew, strengthened and ready for the task ahead.

“Ode to Joy”

The ending of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony is a grand closing. Some of you may know it. There’s a large orchestra and a 90+ choir. youtube Chicago Symphony

“Ode to Joy”

These three lessons today provide an exquisite finale to the church year. Bringing together and in conclusion a proclamation of the basic reality and truth of the Gospel, from Jeremiah’s forward looking prophetic word, to Paul’s vision of a cosmic reigning Christ, to Luke’s presentation of Jesus’ acceptance and forgiveness in the process his gift of salvation. A magnificent finale today.

Perhaps the most dramatic musical finale was the first performance of Beethoven’s 9^th symphony. The symphony was the first to incorporate a choir with the orchestra. It was the final symphony of the composer, who had become profoundly deaf. The final movement has the choirus singing. a poem – the “Ode to Joy”.

At the first performance, Beethoven was on the stage with the players, urging them on. He couldn’t hear a thing. He was completely deaf. This was his life’s work. ¹ At the conclusion, with the audience giving thunderous applause, someone on stage had to turn Beethoven around so he could see how his work had been received.

For over a hundred years there has been a tradition of playing on New Year’s Eve this symphony, in particular the final movement, with the chorus singing. Somehow the music and the words of the chorus produce an eloquent ending. They are words of hope and the music has lifted the spirits of millions.²

… Be embraced, Millions!
This kiss to all the world!
Brothers & Sisters, above the starry canopy.
There must dwell a loving Father.
Are you collapsing, millions?
Do you sense the creator, world?
Seek him above the starry canopy!.
Above stars must He dwell.

If I could I’d play that finale – then perhaps you’d stand in applause – as they did on May 7, 1824 for Beethoven as he stood beside the orchestra, cheering and imploring them on, but deaf to everything they sang and played. It was the ears of his soul that heard that day.³

Jesus answered him, “What I’m about to tell you is true. Today you will be with me in paradise.”

If it’s true, it’s important.

A good finale recapitulates the whole deal and sends us out rejoicing and committed to its truth. It is the ending that sets us up ready to begin anew, strengthened and ready for the task ahead. As you walk through those doors today, be ready to be the gospel for the world.

Notes

• Thanksgiving Day
• lectionary
• universalis Gives e.g. the greek and New Jerusalem text
• Which person do we identify with? - Jesus - Criminal 1 - Criminal 2

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1. The Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, also known as Beethoven’s 9th, is the final complete symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven, composed between 1822 and 1824. It was first performed in Vienna on 7 May 1824. One of the best-known works in common practice music, it is regarded by many critics and musicologists as one of Beethoven’s greatest works and one of the supreme achievements in the history of western music. In the 2010’s, it stands as one of the most performed symphonies in the world wikipedia ↩︎

2. The German workers’ movement began the tradition of performing the Ninth Symphony on New Year’s Eve in 1918. Performances started at 11pm so that the symphony’s finale would be played at the beginning of the new year. This tradition continued during the Nazi period and was also observed by East Germany after the war. The Ninth Symphony is traditionally performed throughout Japan at the end of the year. In December 2009, for example, there were 55 performances of the symphony by various major orchestras and choirs in Japan. ibid.
   The final stanza (in translation) reads: ↩︎

3. Beethoven’s deafness created one of the most touching stories in music. When the symphony was completed, he remained facing the orchestra and could not hear the thunderous applause of the audience for his new symphony. Caroline Unger, the mezzo-soprano soloist, had to tap the deaf composer’s arm and have him turn around so that he could see how the crowd’s response. Many of those in attendance, including Miss Unger, had tears in their eyes when they realized the extent of Beethoven’s deafness. unique story
   If I could I’d preach the gospel on this day – especially on this last Sunday of the church year – as if the whole world depended on it. For it really does depend – not on my preaching but on the gospel itself. ↩︎

proper-21-2019-winnsboro.md

Sun, Sep 29, 2019 St John’s, Winnsboro

Pentecost 16

Opening

We conclude this week a series of readings from the gospel of Luke that have had to do with priorities and the value of money or service. I recognized in my first year of ordained ministry, having to preach on these texts that they serendipitously fall during the traditional time of pledge drives, preparing church budgets, basic fiscal management in the churches.
Next month we continue reading from the gospel of Luke, hearing Jesus teach and heal. The focus shifts toward healing and prayer, sincerity of heart.
Goodness, the Christian life is complex. At least there are a lot of moving pieces to it. What do we make of it? How is what we hear today helpful to our lives as Christians?

Stories (religious)

What does a story mean? Take e.g. Good Night Moon

In the great green room
There was a telephone
And a red balloon
And a picture of-
The cow jumping over the moon …

Goodnight little house
And goodnight mouse
Goodnight comb
And goodnight brush
Goodnight nobody
Goodnight mush
And goodnight to the old lady whispering “hush”
Goodnight stars
Goodnight air
Goodnight noises everywhere

Little children have loved the story for generations. You can tell because they say, “Daddy, read it again” over and over again. Children still know how to appreciate stories. Adults – at least many of them – have lost the ability to love stories.
How do you say the meaning of that story? In some sense you can’t say the meaning of the story, because the point of it is lead a child into a peaceful sleep, fully confident of the love and security of the parent.
Jesus’ stories are a little like that. And today’s reading from Luke’s gospel is all story – just story, without any commentary from Jesus. There’s no Jesus speaking. It is a story that he has told.

It’s about religious language

The stories we encounter in the gospels are called parables in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
They are a particular kind of religious language, and it’s possible pick apart some of the ways that parables work. It turns out that the way we have interpreted them for a long time tends to miss the point. Not unlike if we were to write an essay about the construction and word usage in the story “Good Night Moon.”
Religious language has as one of its basic purposes to change us. To startle us into a new awareness that is really a new life.
A group of students at Winthrop University gave me an analogy for this function of parables. They pointed out that the word “parable” sounds like the word “parabola”.
Very interestingly, when you graph a parabola you draw a line that at some point turns and heads in a new direction.

parables // parabola

Parables are about metanoia – “conversion” – which is to say “turning and going in another direction”

• The simplest equation for a parabola is y = x2
  
• x-squared is a parabola
  
• link
  
• 
  

I thought of an interesting illustration of the point I am making. When my youngest daughter was learning to ride a bicycle she was determined to join the federation of her friends that could travel by bicycle. She was ready to leave the world of tricycles behind. I can still picture her getting up for the first time, riding around the cul de sac we lived on. There was joy on her face.
But there was something missing. She didn’t know fully how to ride a bicycle. She didn’t how to brake and didn’t yet know the importance of that change in her understanding of how to ride a bike. She didn’t learn how she needed to change her understanding of how to ride a bike from anything anybody told her. She learned it at the end of her first ride as she crashed into a large bush in a neighbor’s yard. She needed to change and it was only when she came up against a problem – her crash – that she recognized the need for change and had the motivation to actually change.
Religious parables are intended to bring about a change in the lives of those who hear the story.
Parables are intended to give us something essential for our life as Christians. They are not giving us information. They are not teaching us a lesson. They are guiding us to a change in our life.

What do we do with the story of the rich man and Lazarus?

We can learn things that are interesting, like the fact that it is the only parable in the New Testament where the character has a name.
We can observe that the name of this character, Lazarus, is the same name as the key figure in John’s Gospel, Mary and Martha’s brother who was raised from the dead.
There is much we could learn about this religious story. But the point is for us to be confronted in some way that we leave changed, ready to head in a new direction.
That will vary somewhat from person to person. But one thing we have to get from the parable is a confrontation with the inequities between rich and poor, in our communities, in our nation and the world.
We would have to recognize that as much as we might like the poor to show us what to do, it is we who have to change.
The result of our change of life would have to reflect in some way the resurrected life of Jesus.
The concluding words of a long theological book on Jesus said it plainly for me.¹
Epilogue:
postscript to the story of the crippled man
[674]
[paraphrase this]

This book begins with the story from Acts (4:10-12)² about the village cripple who was cured when he heard Peter tell the story of Jesus. Martin Buber, too, recognizes the power of story telling, when he has a rabbi relate the following: “My grandfather was paralysed. One day he was asked to tell about something that had happened to his teacher, the great Baalshem. Then he told how the saintly Baalshem used to leap about and dance while praying. As he went on with the story my grandfather stood up; he was so caught up in the story that he had to show whal the master had done and started to caper about and dance. From that moment on he was cured. That is how stories should be told.”

If this book, the story of the living Jesus, serves to rekindle faith which tells stories with practical, critical impact based on prayerful lingering in the precincts of God’s kingdom and its praxis, I would consider myself blessed. If not, then as far as I am concerned it may join the list of second-hand books tomorrow.

We can make the same kind of judgment about our attending church, making pledges, hearing the gospel read. The point of it all is that our hearts would be set on fire. The point of it all is that we would change the direction of our lives – if only, perhaps, a portion of it. In the words of Graham Kendrick from his album No More Walls :

Turn our hearts to one another
Let your kindness show
Where our words or deeds have wounded
Let forgiveness flow
Turn our hearts (x 2)
Turn our hearts from pride and anger
To your ways of peace

Notes:

Lectionary

The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost Color:
Green Assigned Readings (Proper 21 )
Track One Lesson 1: Jeremiah 32:1-3a,6-15 Psalm: 91:1-6,14-16
Track Two Lesson 1: Amos 6:1a,4-7 Psalm: 146
Lesson 2: 1 Timothy 6:6-19
Gospel: Luke 16:19-31

• Contentment
• brought nothing into the world, take nothing out
• love of money
• Man of faith] “pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith;”
• Lazarus at the gate
• He said to him, “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.”

Only parable with a name – n.b. “dives” = L. for “rich man”
confusion with John’s Lazarus?
1 story? a parable? 2 stories? or 1 story with an addition
Listen to the prophets.

Saint Michael and All Angels Mon, Sep 30, 2019

Saint Michael and All Angels Transferred from September 29 Color: White Assigned Readings Lesson 1: Genesis 28:10-17 Psalm: 103 or 103:19-22 Lesson 2: Revelation 12:7-12 Gospel: John 1:47-51
Miriam’s birthday: “Glory”
Michaelmas: Michael, Gabriel, Raphael (sometimes Uriel (God is my light– in apocrypha
Known to Quran

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1. Schillebeeckx/Buber collected works ↩︎
   
2. Peter had healed a lame man and was now being accused of blasphemy by the teachers of the law. He responds that it is by Jesus’ name that the man was healed and by the power of the Resurrection. ↩︎
   

proper-15-2019-great-falls.md

Sun, Aug 18, 2019 St. Peter’s, Great Falls

Pentecost 10 – 08/18/2019

Cloud of witnesses

There’s probably something that you enjoy doing just to relax. What is the thing that makes you feel good deep down inside when things haven’t been going great and you just need a break?

The other day we saw something on TV where one of the characters experienced that. He was too overwhelmed with things and he announced that he would be gone for a while to go fishing.

I thought to myself well now that’s a good manly thing to do and I have known people like that.

Now I don’t mind going fishing but it’s never been a relaxing thing for me. There are so many things to think about gathering together just to get out the door; and I don’t really know what I’m doing; and it just becomes a chore.

Mostly facetiously I turned to Mary Pat and asked if she wished that I was the kind of man who would go away fishing for a while just to relax and to get away from the pressures of life. And her response was kind of funny because she looked at me like I was crazy and said, “Of course not.”

There probably are things like that for others. Knitting or needle point might be something like that. Running might be that for some. Woodworking was like that for me at one point. Also sewing. The kind of thing you do that gives you satisfaction and relaxes you and takes you away from pressures that are overbearing.

I thought of these things as a way of getting in touch with who the great cloud of witnesses might be for each of us – the cloud we heard about in today’s second reading. Whoever it was that taught you how to do that thing that gives your life satisfaction and peace – that person would have been a great hero for you.

Chapter 11 in the letter to the Hebrews always gives me chills and resonates deep within me. It causes me to reflect on the people who have made me who I am, the great ones who have passed on wisdom, or talent, or examples of life that have given me peace.

It causes me to reflect and remember who the fathers and mothers are for me. Many young people have told me over the years that the person who passed on their deepest faith was their grandmother. My own grandmother modeled and taught me her Methodist faith when I was still very young. My earliest memory of her was teaching us Sunday school at her little country church. I was eager to learn from her one of her childhood prayers, in German, and at some level I think I probably thought that prayers were originally composed in the German language.

I remember also the priest who taught me that laughter and gaiety could be and perhaps ought to be associated with Christian faith. The bishop who showed us the teething marks on his pectoral cross that had been made by his now ordained son whom I also knew.

I remember hearing about Nicholas Ferrar from my parish priest. Ferrar was a famous lawyer and politician in England in the 1600’s. He gave it all up to live in the country with an extended family, creating a kind of pseudo-monastic religious community. The prayed 24/7 in a restored chapel in the village of Little Gidding. The story of his life inspired me and taught me some important lessons about the most important poem in my life, the Four Quartets by TS Eliot.

I think of the priest who first opened up for me the depth and power of the New Testament. I was taking an adult class and he was the teacher. We spent about three weeks on chapter 5 of Paul’s letter to the Romans. And at that point I knew something of how the Bible can speak to us of the depths of life and faith.

This chapter of the letter to the Hebrews reflects in the same way as I have tried to do briefly here about the great fathers and mothers who have come before us. The great ones who have given us life. Adam and Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac Jacob Esau. Joseph. And that only covers the highlights found in Genesis.

The writer of the letter becomes breathless at the thought of all those who make up the great cloud of witnesses that have come before us. And none of them was able to get to what God had promised them. We might say, none of them got to the promised land. Each of them was walking by faith although they couldn’t see fully where they were going. They walked by faith.

Walk by faith

“39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 40 since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.”

They sought the “founder and perfector of our faith.” And so he urges them not to grow weary.

“let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.”

I believe that there have been many such fathers and mothers of the faith who have brought you, the people of St. Peter’s great Falls, to where you are today. And with you I give great thanks and praise for all that they have done and been for you.

Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought. (Basho)

It doesn’t take very much looking around the town of Great Falls to see that in many ways the ruins of the past lie around us. We grow old and recognize that better times lay in our past than what seems to be nearing us on the coming horizon.

The great ones of old may seem like heroes who can never come back. Men and women who knew how to live in the fullness of what God intends for us. And in their reflection we may feel discouraged.

Live forward

We gain wisdom by looking back at what has gone before. But we must live going forward, (Kierkegaard:)

Which is always like looking through a glass darkly at best.

Whether we live in a place like Great Falls that shows all the signs of decline that one could want or in a place like Charlotte that is bursting forth with young people and energy and anticipation of what is to come. In either case and in both cases the way forward is for us to be in touch with the passion and vision of those who have made us who we are today.

Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought. (Basho)

What are the virtues of those heroes who brought us to this place? Hope and perseverance to build what they couldn’t see. The grit and determination to overcome the forces of disintegration that faced them. The peace that allowed them to put one step in front of another even when they could not see where it led. They carried with them a passion for the one that they sought above all, the Lord and creator of the universe.

Ours is not to copy them. Ours is to hold their passion and their delight before us as we step forward into our unknowns.

Liberation of the Gospel

The gospel intends to set us free from any looking back that may trap us in regrets or guilt or second thoughts. It is intended to shake us from the inertia of lethargy and to light a fire.

It is what it literally says in Luke 12.

Jesus said, “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!”

Jesus asks us about how we can be so numb to what’s right in front of us that we can’t take the step forward that so readily awaits us.

“When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, `It is going to rain’; …” Jesus says, but you don’t know how to read the signs of the times.

These words sound harsh and even unforgiving. The way I hear them, though, they are the first part of a two-part plea for the people whom he cares for more than he can possibly say. One the one hand, “Wake up.” That’s today’s passage. On the other hand, “I will be with you unto the end of the age.” That comes at the end of the gospel of Matthew.

The great cloud of witnesses bears witness to the relentless love that the Lord gives to us. On that we can rest no matter what happens.

Step forth in faith. Amen.

Notes

The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
Color: Green Assigned Readings (Proper 15 )
Track One Lesson 1: Isaiah 5:1-7 Psalm: 80:1-2,8-18
Track Two Lesson 1: Jeremiah 23:23-29 Psalm: 82
Lesson 2: Hebrews 11:29-12:2
Gospel: Luke 12:49-56

lectionary

Isaiah:

• Let me sing for my beloved
  my love-song concerning his vineyard:

  My beloved had a vineyard
  on a very fertile hill.

  [and then]

• And now I will tell you
  what I will do to my vineyard.

  I will remove its hedge,
  and it shall be devoured;

  I will break down its wall,
  and it shall be trampled down.

Hebrews:

• faith … people passed through Red Sea
• “we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses”
• cf. e.g. the reading last night from Zen re. receiving from the great ones

Luke:

• I came to bring fire to the earth … father against son … but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?"
• cf. we are so blind to what’s going on closest to us – what we have the most invested in

Sat, Aug 24, 2019

Saint Bartholomew 08/25/2019

Saint Bartholomew the Apostle Color: Red Assigned Readings Lesson 1: Deuteronomy 18:15-18 Psalm: 91 or 91:1-

proper-14-2019-chapel.md

Sun, Aug 11, 2019 Chapel of Christ the King

Back when I was still in my 20’s in Colorado, my parish priest invited me to a presentation by a monk by the name of William McNamara in the nearby town of Pueblo. He wrote about contemplative prayer and I was interested. We drove to the auditorium of a Catholic parish there and found our seats.

There, sitting on dais was man with a huge beard, almost to his waist, wearing a cassock, carrying himself with a kind of awesome confidence in himself together with a contagious aura of submission to a mighty God.

When he stood up and began to speak, I had the distinct sense that he was one of the Old Testament prophets who had walked right out of the Bible and into this auditorium. He sounded like a prophet.

It was as if he announced, “Pay attention.” And he got my attention.

I hear the words of God himself being spoken by the prophet this morning:

From the opening of Isaiah:

I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
and the fat of well-fed beasts;

I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
or of lambs, or of goats.

…

seek justice,
rescue the oppressed,

defend the orphan,
plead for the widow.

Come now, let us argue it out,
says the Lord:

though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be like snow;

God himself is speaking to us. We need to pay attention.

This past week I felt bombarded with signs of the times that seemed to speak no less loudly as the words of the prophet. Calling us to acts of mercy not solemn pronouncements. Demanding justice when we are too often content with complacency.

Seemingly in rapid succession over the last week we have had powerful events that we have to pay attention to.

August 6^th was the feast of the Transfiguration. A day recalling Jesus’ transformation on a mountain, pointing so powerfully to who he was in the deepest possible sense. It was also the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. A day that marks a new high water mark in humanity’s ability to destroy.

Often I have focused on these events on the Sunday following because the meaning of the solemn days seems powerfully pregnant and poignant.

But the signs of the times didn’t end there.

Mourning:

We had a weekend of mass killings.

• El Paso, Dayton, … (were these addressed last week?)

• the target of the El Paso massacre appears to have been Hispanics – “people of color” for those who identify people by the color of their skin

• the events raise the alarm about the overwhelming presence of guns in our society and not just guns but guns that are designed for use by soldiers.

• After a pro-gun legislative session applauded by the National Rifle Association, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed new laws that eased restrictions on where firearms can be carried, from schools to churches, apartments and foster homes, and barred cities from passing their own gun and ammunition sales limits. API

• Friday was the 5 year anniversary of the death of Michael Brown Jr., … shot by 28-year-old Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the city of Ferguson.

• Tomorrow is the 2^nd anniversary of the Charlottesville violence by white supremacists and the killing of Heather Heyer.

The signs can and ought to set us to weeping. It did in our household. Perhaps it did in yours as well.

There is so much violence. So much injustice. Too often the Church is more interested in solemn assemblies than in justice and defending the orphan.

Into the maelstrom Jesus speaks. It is a little like the setting of Leonard Bernstein’s Mass where the orchestra builds and builds until we can barely stand it, and then with a crash there is stillness. Into the stillness speaks Jesus.

The Gospel

Our gospel reading from Luke 12 this morning reads like a summary of what the Gospel is all about. …

• Do not fear. Fear interferes with your ability to love.

• The kingdom of God is ready for you – get prepared.

• Sell your possessions and do all you can to help the poor and outcast, it’s a part of making yourself fit for the kingdom.

• Be prepared for the holy banquet which is coming for the Son of Man will be here at an unexpected hour.

What are we to do? How to respond and be faithful? There is a temptation to be freeze. But it is times like these that the church must be present. We must not be complacent. To be complacent is to be complicit.

Quote / Refrain

When a great moment knocks on the door of your life, it is often no louder than the beating of your heart, and it is very easy to miss it. Boris Pasternak

Discernment requires us to listen to the beating of our heart. We live in challenging times that fight to drown out the stillness where we can hear the beating of our heart.

Our armor as well as our arms are to be found in the gospel. It is there we know what we must do (or not do).

We fight for justice. Our allies are the oppressed. We defend the orphans and the widow. We are not called to make orphans and widows but to defend them.

We may not see the full fruit of our endeavor.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Though may not see it, we shall, to quote Pete Seeger, “… travel with the good people.”
Lori True wrote this prayer for our journey:

May your travels be well. Traveling mercies.

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Notes

Pentecost 9 08/12/2019

The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
Color: Green Assigned Readings (Proper 14 )
Track One Lesson 1: Isaiah 1:1,10-20 Psalm: 50:1-8,23-24 T
rack Two Lesson 1: Genesis 15:1-6 Psalm: 33:12-22
Lesson 2:Hebrews 11:1-3,8-16 Gospel: Luke 12:32-40

lectionary

Hebrews: Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. …

Thu, Aug 15, 2019: Saint Mary the Virgin 08/16/2019

Mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ Color: White Assigned Readings Lesson 1: Isaiah 61:10-11 Psalm: 34 or 34:1-9 Lesson 2: Galatians 4:4-7 Gospel: Luke 1:46-55

proper-12-2019-our-savior.md

Sun, Jul 28, 2019 Our Saviour

Proper 12

The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
Color: Green Assigned Readings (Proper 12 )
Track One Lesson 1: Hosea 1:2-10 Psalm: 85
Track Two Lesson 1: Genesis 18:20-32 Psalm: 138
Lesson 2: Colossians 2:6-15,(16-19) Gospel: Luke 11:1-13

Introduction

It just seemed to me wonderfully serendipitous when in the space of a week I read today’s gospel and someone who is very dear to me asked, “What are some bible references to help teach me how to pray.” I actually have given some thought to that question over the years, having been asked it, oh, maybe a 100 times or more.

It took me back to when I tried to teach and model prayer to my children. I could remember my own grandmother teaching me prayers, including a German one from her childhood. Sometimes it seemed productive and sometimes not so much.

Children and Lord’s prayer

Take, e.g. these stories about children and the Lord’s Prayer:

I had been teaching my three-year-old daughter, Caitlin, the Lord’s Prayer. For several evenings at bedtime, she would repeat after me the lines from the prayer. Finally, she decided to go solo. I listened with pride as she carefully enunciated each word, right up to the end of the prayer: “Lead us not into temptation,” she prayed, “but deliver us some E-mail. Amen.”

And one particular four-year-old prayed, “And forgive us our trash baskets as we forgive those who put trash in our baskets.”

Prayer (xxx’s question the other day)

The person who asked me the question about prayer was not a child. Although when it came to prayer I suspect he thought of himself as a child. Teach us how to pray. What a question!

The answer to such a question has to pay attention to the circumstances of the person asking it. It has to listen to try to discern what it is that the person is asking. I think of the story I heard many years ago:

A child returns from school and asks her mother, “Mommy, where do we come from?” The mother thinks to herself, "Oh my, now is the time that we’re going to have that talk. So she takes the child aside and begins to tell her in age-appropriate ways where babies come from. After a time the child says, “Oh, well, okay. You see today in school I met a new friend and she said that she was from Cleveland. And I was wondering where we’re from.”

ACTS

The answer I gave the person last week was to say that there are many ways to approach “prayer” but one very widely recognized one is think of 4 different aspects of prayer, following the acronym ACTS: adoration, contrition, thanksgiving, and supplication.

Now part of what’s wrong with the acronym is that it uses words that nobody uses in ordinary language today.

Adoration

It’s really what I call awe. It’s being speechless, so it’s a kind of prayer that is familiar with not using words. I remember myself as a 12 year traveling across the country on a train. I wrote a diary that summer. I was traveling alone with my sister from Colorado to Illinois. I wrote in a little notebook. There was considerable Awe and Amazement as I looked out those train windows. It seemed that I could see God in those corn fields passing me by – or at least God’s handiwork.

Mary Pat looked at pictures from the Hubble telescope this past week. For 30 minutes she kept saying to me, “Oh my!” “It’s so awesome!”

The experience of seeing the familiar with new eyes, in playful splendidness in the glory of how the earth sustains us.

It is experienced in fathomless depths of relationships, love, communication of two souls.

Confession

The prayer of confession is, perhaps, more familiar. In our Sunday liturgies we weekly have a “confession” with forgiveness. We know the words. But it turns out that deep confession is not easy. It comes as one reaches the end of their rope. The prayer of confession, when a person accepts forgiveness that gives new life, is often expressed in wordless gestures. It truly gives life in a manifold of different circumstances.

Thanksgiving

Gratitude, it turns out, is something way beyond a “Thank you” card. It’s really an important courtesy that ought to be a habit that we would send “thank you” cards. And in spite of my mother’s nagging me when I was young and in spite of trying hard to develop the habit, I’m not that good at it.

But what I am convinced of is that the single most important thing I hope for is that I can get to the end of my life and say, “Thank you.” Now that’s a prayer.

Supplication

A, C, T, and we come to S – “Supplication”. Another word that nobody uses in today’s English. Asking God for … (whatever). I think that possibly this kind of prayer is what most people think prayer is. Ask and it shall be given … I first heard these words at a Summer Bible School at Trinity, Wauwatosa that I was in charge of. We compiled a songbook that included this song. It’s one of only a relatively few praise songs that made its way into the 1980 hymnal. I still love to sing it – especially if we can make it a round.

Seek ye first

1. Seek ye first the kingdom of God
   And His righteousness;
   And all these things shall be added unto you.
   Hallelu, Hallelujah!
2. Ask, and it shall be given unto you;
   Seek, and you shall find.
   Knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
   Hallelu, Hallelujah!
3. Man shall not live by bread alone,
   But by every word
   That proceeds out from the mouth of God.
   Hallelu, Hallelujah!

Jesus is making a clear case that in fact God the Father provides for us, not just a little bit, but in unbelievable measures. It’s not just here but other places that Jesus makes the case, most notably in the parable known as the Prodigal Son.

Counter examples

I have seen children as well as adults struggle with their faith, learned at a young age, when what is asked for in prayer does not seem to be delivered. My daughter when she was age 11-12, suffered a great disillusionment after praying for months for grandma to be healed of her Cancer. But then she died. My daughter, I think, lost faith in God and her father at that moment.

For adults it’s something of the opposite. There is a deep conviction that everything costs. That life is unfair. Adults want us all to get the lesson that nobody gets – something for nothing.

daddy – “father”

Jesus’ response to the question about prayer is to give us the Lord’s Prayer. The Bible gives it in 2 different forms, in Matthew and in Luke. I have preferred for a long time to call it “The Our Father” after the opening words of the prayer as I learned it as a child.

If we can pray so as to know the father as Jesus knew the father, we shall be changed. I think of a story about a girl and her father. I want all children and adults who don’t know the Father as Jesus knew the Father to hear it:

Once upon a time there was a four year old girl who was lost in the mountains of Tennessee and her parents frantically looked for her. They reported her missing and an all-out search ensued to find the little girl as quickly as possible. As daylight faded into dark and the stars settled into the sky, they feverishly searched every square inch of the area. Meanwhile, the little girl found a soft spot under a tree and fell asleep with her stuffed bear in hand. As the sun rose the next morning, her father rounded a bend after searching all night and found the little girl just awaking. When she saw her father, she ran and jumped in his arms and declared, “oh good, Daddy, I found you!”
blog

What counts is not specific words, or even specific intentions, but a change of heart.

The Our Father

It is not as simple as we might first imagine. As those stories at the opening of this message show, what we learn as children is not always what we come to know as adults. And adults can get bogged down with details. The King James and BCP tradition of the Our Father are different from one another. And Matthew and Luke’s versions differ.

We have dutifully memorized at a young age these words. But I am convinced that the words themselves – in some literal fashion – are not what Jesus was getting at. (cf. “The finger and the moon”)

Not any particular words, but a conversion of heart, a new life, a changed trajectory in what one lives for.

Teaching a child to pray.

When I was in my 20-30s I was convinced that it was just plain important to learn prayers and scripture verses by rote, by memory. An illustration is the powerful testimony that Bp. Waite gave re. his captivity in Lebanon. For those of you who don’t remember:

Terence Hardy “Terry” Waite (born 31 May 1939) is an English humanitarian and author.

Waite was the Assistant for Anglican Communion Affairs for the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, in the 1980s. As an envoy for the Church of England, he travelled to Lebanon to try to secure the release of four hostages, including the journalist John McCarthy. He was himself kidnapped and held captive from 1987 to 1991.

After his release he wrote a book about his experiences and became involved in humanitarian causes and charitable work. wikipedia

I myself was impacted and still am by his accounts of years in solitary, chained to a wall. Like John McCain. Waite befriended a rat. He kept his sanity by repeating over and over the psalms and hymns that he had memorized as a youth.

But I am just as firmly convinced today that we have to learn to pray over and over again, throughout our life. There is a well-known saying about prayer that it is not about changing God, but about changing us.

We must leave off childish ways and put on the full armor of Jesus’ prayer. As children we learned “lead us not into temptation” – and generations of human beings have “learned” that God is the sort of person who relishes leading people into temptation, testing them to see if they are good enough, strong-willed enough. Not the kind of Father that Jesus was introducing us to.

We must continually hear with new ears.

To prayer Lord’s prayer with single-mind focus – Simone Weil

In a collection of letters and essays by Weil, titled Waiting for God, there is an extended reflection on the Lord’s Prayer.

• She starts off with “Our father which art in heaven.” Just that is a ton to take in. “Our” – not mine, but ours. “Father” – not like any father I’ve known.
• And then we might observe that Luke doesn’t say Our father, he just says Father.
• We might continue through the whole prayer. But, as Weil says, that is a daunting task. In the end she concludes – (the last words in the slim volume):

“The Our Father contains all possible petitions; we cannot conceive of any prayer not already contained in it. It is to prayer what Christ is to humanity. It is impossible to say it once through, giving the fullest ossible attention to each word, without a change, infinitesimal perhaps but real, taking place in the soul.”

New Zealand prayer

Perhaps it can be enough for us to learn the prayer in many different varieties and variations.

Mary Pat and I achieve that in a tiny way by using a different version of the Our Father to pray in our daily prayer together. I have a few copies of the prayer if you are interested.

It goes like this:

From The New Zealand Prayer Book

Eternal Spirit,
Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver,
Source of all that is and that shall be,
Father and Mother of us all,
Loving God, in whom is Heaven:

The hallowing of your name echo through the universe!
The way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the world!
Your Heavenly will be done by all created beings!
Your commonwealth of peace and freedom sustain our hope and come on Earth.

With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In times of temptation and testing, strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil, free us.

For you reign in the glory of the power that is love, now and for ever. Amen.

pentecost-6-great-falls.md

Sun, Jul 21, 2019 St. Peter’s Great Falls

Sun, Jul 21, 2019 St. Peter’s Great Falls
Pentecost 6

The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost Color: Green Assigned Readings (Proper 11 ) Track One Lesson 1: Amos 8:1-12 Psalm: 52 Track Two Lesson 1: Genesis 18:1-10a Psalm: 15 Lesson 2: Colossians 1:15-28 Gospel: Luke 10:38-42

Introduction

My first instinct is to just say, “Hi. It’s been so long since I’ve seen you all.” October by my reckoning. I’ve heard some about you from others. You had a gathering here last month, I think, that I would have like to have attended. We were out of town and unable.

Seriously, It’s good to see you. For both of us.

Prophets in the church

I want to pay attention today to Amos. We heard from him last week and we will again later in the church year. Amos the prophet. Partly what I want to do is to try to take the prophet’s message seriously. Kind of an introduction to interpreting the prophets.

Secondly, it seems that Amos in particular is exceedingly relevant to our present circumstances.

For readers and listeners new to the prophets, the most common understanding of who they are is that they somehow tell the future. They are a sort of soothsayer. Even many skilled readers will understand them as a kind of advanced soothsayer because, by long Christian tradition, prophets are read as pre-figuring the Messiah.

That’s the way the church has mostly presented the prophets in our Sunday lectionaries. It’s mostly the way folks hear the prophets on Sunday. Bible studies are generally organized that way, so even advanced students of the Bible read the prophets that way.

In more recent times we have begun to listen to the prophets separately from the gospel reading. We might say we have begun to “hear them on their own terms.” The “Common Lectionary” that was authorized earlier this century encourages that style of reading.

The process invites us to begin to ask, “How do we find meaning in these texts?” What are the important things to look out for as we ask the question, "What is the importance or meaning of this text for us me? For us? For the contemporary world?

Hermeneutical triangle

Something called the hermeneutical triangle has been important to me and many others in discerning the meaning. The word hermeneutic generally means the more familiar term – “interpretation”. How do we go about interpreting the prophets?

A simplified way of thinking about the method is to recognize 3 things about a passage that are important for finding meaning. Each of them is important.

1. Author, 2) Text, and 3) Reader

Amos

Author

try to appreciate who he or she was as a historical figure

what their message to their contemporaries was

read somewhat differently by Jews and Christians. Jewish history runs in a continuous line (albeit a very crooked line) back to the time of the kings and the prophets and the patriarchs and matriarchs who went before.

Who was he?

A prophet from the early period of ancient nation of Israel

Again and again, G‑d sent His messengers, the prophets, to admonish the people and to warn them that unless they mended their ways, they and the land would be doomed. Yet the admonitions were, for the most part, unheeded. Chabad

Followed a long tradition of prophets who were critical of the leaders of their nation. In reading the prophets as a group from the Hebrew scriptures, it’s not a far stretch to say that the primary function of ancient prophets was to criticize and call to justice the leadership of the nation.

He was a shepherd. From Tekoa in the northern part of the country. From the opening of the book of Amos:

• … Here is the vision he saw concerning Israel. It came to him two years before the earthquake. At that time Uzziah was king of Judah. Jeroboam, the son of Jehoash, wams king of Israel. (Amos 1)

Message to his audience?

A prophet’s message to his audience was an extension of the criticism aimed at the leaders. “Be faithful to God above all. Where the leadership has abandoned or betrayed the faith of the God of our forefathers and foremothers, do not be surprised when catastrophe happens.” A Jewish note on Amos says:

Together with the good political situation came economic prosperity. Many people in the Northern Kingdom became very wealthy, and began to lead a luxurious life. Friendly relations with the Phoenicians, who were the greatest merchants and seafaring people of those days, brought things of rare beauty and luxury into the Jewish Kingdom. Unfortunately, the unusual prosperity brought a collapse of moral standards. Ignored were the great ideals and commandments of the Torah to help the poor, and to practice justice and loving kindness. The rich oppressed the poor; might was right; it was an age of corruption. Hand in hand with this degeneration of the morals of the people went increased idolatry. People built many altars on mountains to serve the Canaanite gods, Baal and Ashtarte. The Golden Calves, which the first Jeroboam set up in the north and south of the country to turn the people away from the Beth Hamikdosh in Jerusalem, were worshipped more than before and the teachings of the Torah and the holy commandments were viewed with contempt. Chabad

I can’t imagine anything that sounds more like 2019. Yet it is describing the circumstances of the book of Amos.

Why important to us?

What is the meaning of all this for us, today? Scripture itself is at the heart of who we are as Christians. It is appropriate and essential that we ask that question.

Unless this is in some sense the foundation of our lives, then we are no different from any other member of society

Meaning for us?

A contemporary evangelical voice (Chuck Swindoll) had this to say about the book of Amos:

Injustice permeates our world, yet as Christians we often turn a blind eye to the suffering of others for “more important” work like praying, preaching, and teaching. But the book of Amos reminds us that those works, while unquestionably central to a believer’s life, ring hollow when we don’t love and serve others in our own lives. Chuck Swindoll

Why listen today?

Prophets shake us from complacency. If they say anything to us it is: “To do nothing, to ignore what is happening, is no different than faithlessness.” Do something. Even though it be a small thing, do it. Mother Teresa said, “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” Judy Small wrote a song many years ago. My brother shared it with me.

I’ve lived a life of previlege
I’ve never known what hunger is
I’ve never laboured with my hands
except to play guitar
Middle class my middle name
life’s been morer less a game
but in the end its all the same
The buck stops where you are
and we are foolish people
who do nothing because we know
how little one person can do
…
you may be
one voice in the crowd
but without you we are weaker
and our song may not be heard
One drop in the ocean
but each drop swell the tide
so be you one brick in the wall
be one voice in the crowd

The Gospel

This Gospel passage from Luke has been interpreted for so many years – yea, centuries – as a call to prayer over action or service.

This follows on a line of interpretation that is at least as old as St. Bernard of 1,000 years ago, who interpreted the text as a contrast between the contemplative and the active life.

Many altar guild members have come to me after preaching on the text and been defensive about how they are faithful in prayers but what they really are gifted to do is the work that seems like what Martha is up to.

Jesus, of course, says that Mary has chosen the better part. But go back to our questions about interpretation. What does it mean? To Jesus? To his audience? To us today?

The prophets help us to hear what is Jesus’ point in the exchange. It is not a contrast between the contemplative and the active. It is a contrast between doing what you do with peace and calm about you versus doing what you do with worry and anxiety.

Today

The world around is full of the kinds of things that Amos saw.

• There is economic success on the stock market front – but desperation for many of the people who live paycheck to paycheck and can’t afford to invest.
• There is an abundance of food for some (I heard on the radio this week that our nation throws away 70% of the food we produce), but 1 in 7 people in the world today are hungry Food Aid Foundation
• Military success on the national front leads to the building of empire, but every empire has fallen, generally with much pain and destruction.
• We see all around us the decline and failure as experienced by many in rural America while those in power have no plan to share the success of the few.
• Small churches fail in their attempt to be like the so called real churches– the successful large churches that continue to be the measure of what is a “healthy, successful church.” All the while we have lost a sense of what it means to be faithful in mission and ministry. Faithfulness can look like failure to the ways of the world. Jesus pointed to a single person’s act of faithfulness and called it the better part.

You know something about all of that here in Great Falls and at St. Peter’s.

Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law (Proverbs 29:18, ESV)

It is not enough to send thoughts and prayers – even when they look like Mary’s did that day at Bethany. Be one voice in the crowd if you must.

“Anxiety is love’s greatest killer. It makes others feel as you might when a drowning man holds on to you. You want to save him, but you know he will strangle you with his panic.” ― Anais Nin

The better part is to love. Love the Lord your God. Love your neighbor as yourself. And to do so with singleness of purpose and with the peace of God which passes all understanding.

Notes

lectionary

• Amos: all the ways to be unjust
• Colossians: “you who were once far off …”
• I Paul became a servant of the Gospel
• Mary and Martha – the better part

Next Week

• Saint Mary Magdalene 07/23/2019
  • Saint Mary Magdalene Color: White Assigned Readings Lesson 1: Judith 9:1,11-14 Psalm: 42:1-7 Lesson 2: 2 Corinthians 5:14-18 Gospel: John 20:11-18

Thu, Jul 25, 2019

• Saint James 07/26/2019
  • Saint James the Apostle Color: Red Assigned Readings Lesson 1: Jeremiah 45:1-5 Psalm: 7:1-10 Lesson 2: Acts 11:27----
    Pentecost 6

The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost Color: Green Assigned Readings (Proper 11 ) Track One Lesson 1: Amos 8:1-12 Psalm: 52 Track Two Lesson 1: Genesis 18:1-10a Psalm: 15 Lesson 2: Colossians 1:15-28 Gospel: Luke 10:38-42

Prophets in the church

• mostly what folks hear on Sunday-
• some do bible study
• most familiar perhaps the way lectionary on Sunday was structured for many centuries:
• OT reading intended to support or “anticipate” – an ancient term used was “pre-figure” – the gospel reading
• In more recent times we have begun to listen to the prophets separate from the gospel reading.

Hermeneutical triangle

meaning generally “interpretation”

Amos

Intro

try to appreciate who he or she was as a historical figure

what their message to their contemporaries was

read somewhat differently by Jews and Christians. Jewish history runs in a continuous line (albeit a very crooked line) back to the time of the kings and the prophets and the patriarchs and matriarchs who went before.

Who was he?

A prophet from the early period of ancient nation of Israel

Again and again, G‑d sent His messengers, the prophets, to admonish the people and to warn them that unless they mended their ways, they and the land would be doomed. Yet the admonitions were, for the most part, unheeded. Chabad

Followed a long tradition of prophets who were critical of the leaders of their nation.

A shepherd

• … He was a shepherd from the town of Tekoa. Here is the vision he saw concerning Israel. It came to him two years before the earthquake. At that time Uzziah was king of Judah. Jeroboam, the son of Jehoash, was king of Israel. (Amos 1)

Message to his audience?

Together with the good political situation came economic prosperity. Many people in the Northern Kingdom became very wealthy, and began to lead a luxurious life. Friendly relations with the Phoenicians, who were the greatest merchants and seafaring people of those days, brought things of rare beauty and luxury into the Jewish Kingdom. Unfortunately, the unusual prosperity brought a collapse of moral standards. Ignored were the great ideals and commandments of the Torah to help the poor, and to practice justice and loving kindness. The rich oppressed the poor; might was right; it was an age of corruption. Hand in hand with this degeneration of the morals of the people went increased idolatry. People built many altars on mountains to serve the Canaanite gods, the Baal and Ashtarte. The Golden Calves, which the first Jeroboam set up in the north and south of the country to turn the people away from the Beth Hamikdosh in Jerusalem, were worshipped more than before and the teachings of the Torah and the holy commandments were viewed with contempt.

Again and again, G‑d sent His messengers, the prophets, to admonish the people and to warn them that unless they mended their ways, they and the land would be doomed. Yet the admonitions were, for the most part, unheeded. The people went their own way. Chabad

Why important to us?

Because Scripture is at heart of who we are as Christians.

Unless this is in some sense the foundation of our lives then we are no different from any other member of society

Meaning for us?

Injustice permeates our world, yet as Christians we often turn a blind eye to the suffering of others for “more important” work like praying, preaching, and teaching. But the book of Amos reminds us that those works, while unquestionably central to a believer’s life, ring hollow when we don’t love and serve others in our own lives. Chuck Swindoll

Why listen today?

Prophets shake us from complacency

This Gospel passage from Luke has been interpreted for so many years – yea, centuries – as a call to prayer over action or service.

This follows on a line of interpretation that is at least as old as St. Bernard of 1,000 years ago, who interpreted the text as a contrast between the contemplative and the active life.

Many is an altar guild member who has come to me after preaching on the text and been defensive about how they are faithful in prayers but what they really are gifted to do is the work that seems like what Martha is up to.

Jesus, of course, says that Mary has chosen the better part.

The prophets help us to hear what is Jesus’ point in the exchange. It is not a contrast between contemplative and active, it is a contrast between doing what you do with peace and calm about you verses doing what you do with worry and anxiety.

Today

The world around is full of the kinds of things that Amos saw.

• economic success on the stock market front
• military success on the national front
• decline and failure experienced by many in rural America
• small churches fail in their attempt to be like churches.

You know something about that here in Great Falls

Notes

lectionary

• Amos: all the ways to be unjust
• Colossians: “you who were once far off …”
• I Paul became a servant of the Gospel
• Mary and Martha – the better part

Next Week

• Saint Mary Magdalene 07/23/2019
  • Saint Mary Magdalene Color: White Assigned Readings Lesson 1: Judith 9:1,11-14 Psalm: 42:1-7 Lesson 2: 2 Corinthians 5:14-18 Gospel: John 20:11-18

Thu, Jul 25, 2019

• Saint James 07/26/2019
  • Saint James the Apostle Color: Red Assigned Readings Lesson 1: Jeremiah 45:1-5 Psalm: 7:1-10 Lesson 2: Acts 11:27––12: Gospel: Matthew 20:20-28