Friday, June 1, 2012 -- Week of Proper 3, Year Two
Justin, Martyr at Rome, c. 167

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 969)
Psalms 31 (morning) // 35 (evening)
Proverbs 23:19-21, 29 - 24:2
1 Timothy 4:1-16
Matthew 13:24-30

[Go to http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html for an online version of the Daily Office including today's scripture readings.]

Proverbs: Do not be among winebibbers, or among gluttonous eaters of meat... Who has woe? Who has sorrow? ...Who has redness of eyes? Those who linger late over wine....

1 Timothy: No longer drink only water, but take a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.

The wisdom and practical advice of Proverbs urges a young noble to live a disciplined life of moderation. Gluttony in all of its forms has its own consequences.

In many ways, portions of 1 Timothy pick up the same tradition as Proverbs, intending to offer sage advice and wisdom to a still young, but maturing church. The elders who lead well are to be paid and respected. There is a provision for dealing with disciplinary issues. Both writings presume that justice and virtue will prevail over time.

Picking up the mantle of wisdom, Jesus too teaches in proverbs. Like a master teacher he adds drama and illustration to his instruction, offering his insights through parables. The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed..., like yeast, ...a pearl of great value. In the tradition of the proverbial wisdom, Jesus points toward the small things that yield big consequences. Virtues practiced for their own sake do indeed have their rewards.

Virtue, discipline and moderation. These are subjects that sometimes do not have a lot of sex appeal or entertainment value. Reading Proverbs and 1 Timothy can feel a bit tedious, especially compared with the drama of the passion of the Psalms or the narratives of the Gospels. But there is great value in the traditions of pithy wisdom.

Maybe it is no coincidence that some of the greatest proverbial wisdom of the twentieth century comes from the spirituality of the twelve-step recovery traditions. We see Proverbs and 1 Timothy address the powerful destructive tendencies of gluttony and addiction. In our age, recovery disciplines have offered some of our wisest collections of proverbs for living with virtue, discipline and moderation:

Let go and let God. One day at a time. First things first. Live and let live. Time takes time. Cultivate an attitude of gratitude. Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less. Live life on life's terms. You can't think your way into a new way of living... you have to live your way into a new way of thinking. Your worth should never depend on another person's opinion. Learn to listen and listen to learn. Nothing changes if nothing changes. Feelings are not facts. Progress, not perfection. Keep it simple. This too shall pass. Easy does it. Keep coming back.

Pearls of wisdom. They are much more than ornaments or decoration.

With patience a ruler may be persuaded,
and a soft tongue can break bones.

If you have found honey, eat only enough for you,
or else, having too much, you will vomit it.

Let your foot be seldom in your neighbour’s house,
otherwise the neighbour will become weary of you and hate you.

Like a war club, a sword, or a sharp arrow
is one who bears false witness against a neighbour.

Like a bad tooth or a lame foot
is trust in a faithless person in time of trouble.

Like vinegar on a wound
is one who sings songs to a heavy heart.

Like a moth in clothing or a worm in wood,
sorrow gnaws at the human heart

If your enemies are hungry, give them bread to eat;
and if they are thirsty, give them water to drink;
for you will heap coals of fire on their heads,
and the Lord will reward you.

The north wind produces rain,
and a backbiting tongue, angry looks.

It is better to live in a corner of the housetop
than in a house shared with a contentious wife.

Like cold water to a thirsty soul,
so is good news from a far country.

Like a muddied spring or a polluted fountain
are the righteous who give way before the wicked.

It is not good to eat much honey,
or to seek honour on top of honour.

Like a city breached, without walls,
is one who lacks self-control. -- Proverbs 25:15-28 NRSV

When I was a kid, I'd occasionally cross my eyes for fun only to hear Mama tell me I'd better stop that or they'd stay crossed. Same thing if I would pout about not getting my way on something. "You'd better stop pouting or your face will freeze like that!" I know Mama didn't believe those things would really happen to me, but she sort of convinced me of it -- which was probably the point of the whole exercise.

It's funny how much of our life is shaped by proverbs. Ben Franklin was famous for proverbs such as "A penny saved is a penny earned," "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," and, "God helps those who help themselves." Actually, a lot of people think that last one comes directly from Holy Writ and are somewhat surprised to find out it really wasn't. Still, it's wisdom that is short and memorable -- and with a purpose.

The book of Proverbs offers us some choice pieces of wisdom, including this selection from the Daily Office reading for today. The one that seems most familiar, probably because it was often quoted in the church of my childhood, was the paraphrase "Do good to those who treat you badly and it will pour coals of fire on their heads." I never really considered why coals of fire on the head but it sounded rather painful, a fitting punishment. I know it made me feel lousy when I was mean to someone and they turned around and did something nice for me. It was a lesson I needed and still need to learn.

I found "It is not good to eat much honey, or to seek honor on top of honor" to be one that carried a lot of sense in it. Too much of anything -- honey, money, fame, food, possessions, power -- is seldom a good thing because it encourages accumulation of yet more and more while often producing negative or dangerous results. I was taught that bragging about accomplishments was a negative thing because it led me to think better of myself than I should. It was okay to receive compliments but I shouldn't put too much store by them because it would give me a swelled head. Hmmm. I wonder if any of the Hollywood stars or televangelists or politicians had parents who told them that?

One that strikes me this particular day, though, is "Like a muddied spring or a polluted fountain are the righteous who give way before the wicked." It reminds me of the saying attributed to Edmund Burke, "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing" or a variation of that. We can look back at history and see countless times when "good men" (and women, who don't get a pass to skip this) did nothing while tremendous evil took place all around them. Famine, wars, slavery of all sorts, atrocities, pogroms, and even just plain old selfishness and greed have created untold havoc in the lives of those unfortunate enough to be in the path of destruction of body, mind and spirit. It's pretty universal, and I can't think of too many groups who haven't succumbed to the wiles of promised power and wealth even if it meant some of their own people -- or the people in the next village, city, or country -- paid a very high price. It is still painful to think of the Holocaust and think, "Why didn't someone, anyone, do anything to stop it? Why didn't we?" Perhaps the words of Proverbs should have been spoken more prophetically from the pulpits, street corners, courthouse steps and legislative podiums, I don't know. All I can know is that it happened then and, in different places and circumstances, it is still happening.

I now have to ask myself, "Where should my voice be? What prophetic word can I, should I say to make a difference in the lives of people I may or may not know? Where do I see wrong and do nothing to try to correct it? It's more than having my face freeze in a pout or being a bit too proud of myself. It could mean life or death for others who are suffering. Maybe as one person I can't do a lot, but I can be one of many who could change the world if we really put our minds and voices to it.

Now the question is, where to start --- and why am I wasting time when there is so much to be done?

Linda Ryan co-mentors 2 EfM Online groups and keeps the blog Jericho's Daughter

Psalms 146, 147 (Morning)
Psalms 111, 112, 113 (Evening)
Job 38:1-11, 42:1-5
Revelation 19:4-16
John 1:29-34

Today's readings, particularly in the interplay between our reading from the Hebrew Scriptures, and the Gospel, might best be classified as examples of what happens when God launches an "air assault." God speaks to Job straight from the eye of a whirlwind, and through John the Baptist's testimony that the Spirit descended from Heaven upon Jesus like a dove.

Now, at first glance, one might think hearing God thundering from the whirlwind is a lot scarier than the spirit of God descending like a dove--but don't bet on it.

In northeast Missouri, the dove we're most acquainted with is the mourning dove, and they are some of the fanciest, most elusive fliers going. Doves are seed eaters, and frankly, they look for easy pickings. Their little legs are not all that efficient at scratching, so they tend to prefer eating in open fields, where they know they are an open target for predators. They are incredibly patient when it comes to seeking a meal, often loafing and lounging in trees or on power lines until they are absolutely sure the coast is clear. But when they think they can eat safely, watch out! They will come in by the flockload, zipping through lanes of trees so narrow that one would think they'd be hitting branches on the way in. They zip, zig-zag, and zoom in with unmatched skill and speed, and eat like there's no tomorrow as fast as they can, then zip out in the same crazy convoluted way they came. They can dive bomb so fast and purposefully, that if you listen carefully, their wings make a whistling noise as they put on the brakes and hover in for the last few feet.

Likewise, if you've ever seen a pair of mourning doves defend their nest, you'll give up every notion you ever had that they are peaceful. I've seen a mated pair of doves send more than one tom cat under the porch, whooshing and pecking, the poor cat's Cheshire grin replaces with a total look of "What just happened?"

Yep, given the choice, I'd take the whirlwind. At least with the whirlwind, I know what I'm up against. So did Job. It's pretty easy to figure it's time to shut up and listen up when God thunders, "Excuuuuuse me! Where were YOU when I was cobbling the universe together, Mr. Fault Finder?"

In contrast, one can almost hear behind the surety of John's testimony, a little twinge of "I'm telling you, it really happened like this," as if his audience was going to have a hard time buying it. I wonder if he did not expect the fulfilling of the prophecy to be so swift and deliberate. "I mean, I didn't even KNOW the guy from Adam's housecat, but I could tell who he was when I saw that!"

Our Gospel today is a reminder that no matter how confused or puzzling it seems when we are trying to discern God's call to us, to have the assurance and trust that when God has chosen us for a task, we'll know it when we see it--but don't be surprised if we don't feel a little like that old tom cat when it happens.

Maria Evans, a surgical pathologist from Kirksville, MO, writes about the obscurities of life, medicine, faith, and the Episcopal Church on her blog, Kirkepiscatoid

Monday, June 4, 2012 -- Week of Proper 4, Year Two
John XXIII (Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli), Bishop of Rome, 1963

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 969)
Psalms 41, 52 (morning) // 44 (evening)
Ecclesiastes 2:1-15
Galatians 1:1-17
Matthew 13:44-52

[Go to http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html for an online version of the Daily Office including today's scripture readings.]

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field...

Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old. (Matthew 13:44, 52)

Today we have the observance of the feast day proposed for John XXIII, elected Pope in 1958 when he was 77 years old. During the first year of his pontificate, he called the Second Vatican Council which revitalized and renewed the Roman Catholic Church. Some would say Vatican II brought the Catholic Church into the twentieth century. John XXIII was certainly a breath of fresh air for those of us in other branches of Christianity.

I can't account for its historicity, but the story is told that when John announced that Protestants would be invited to observe the council, a conservative cardinal objected, saying, "But Your Holiness, Protestants are heretics!" "Do not say, 'heretics,' my son. Say, 'separated brethren.'" "They are in league with the devil!" "Do not say, 'devil,' my son. Say, 'separated angel.'"

Our reading today from Matthew starts with the brief parable of the treasure in the field and of the pearl of great value. Upon finding what is precious, the wise one sells all for it. The reading ends with Matthew's example of the good scribe who "brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old." John XXIII saw the deep value of embracing the church's tradition and "selling all" to re-formulate it faithfully for a new generation.

From his opening address to the Second Vatican Council, October 1962:

The major interest of the ecumenical council is this: that the sacred heritage of Christian truth be safeguarded and expounded with greater efficacy...

Our duty is not just to guard this treasure, as though it were some museum-piece and we the curators, but earnestly and fearlessly to dedicate ourselves to the work that needs to be done in this modern age of ours, pursuing the path which the Church has followed for almost twenty centuries. Nor are we here primarily to discuss certain fundamentals of Catholic doctrine, or to restate in greater detail the traditional teachings of the Fathers and of early and more recent theologians. There was no need to call a council merely to hold discussions of that sort.

What is needed at the present time is a new enthusiasm, a new joy and serenity of mind in the unreserved acceptance by all of the entire Christian faith. What is needed -- and what everyone imbued with a truly Christian, Catholic, and apostolic spirit craves today -- is that this doctrine shall be more widely known, more deeply understood, and more penetrating in its effects on people's moral lives. What is needed is that this certain and immutable doctrine, to which the faithful owe obedience, be studied afresh and reformulated in contemporary terms. For this deposit of faith, or truths which are contained in our time-honored teaching, is one thing; the manner in which these truths are set forth (with their meaning preserved intact) is something else. (from Celebrating the Saints, Robert Atwell, Canterbury Press, 2004.)

How can each of us in our lives today make the great treasure we have inherited more alive and more vital through our witness and service, with "a new enthusiasm, a new joy and serenity of mind"?

Tuesday, June 5, 2012 -- Week of Proper 4, Year Two
Boniface, Archbishop of Mainz, Missionary to Germany, and Maryr, 754

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 969)
Psalms 45 (morning) // 47, 48 (evening)
Ecclesiastes 2:16-26
Galatians 1:18 - 2:10
Matthew 13:53-58

[Go to http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html for an online version of the Daily Office including today's scripture readings.]

"All is vanity and a chasing after wind" we read today as the Teacher is finishing his prologue of Ecclesiastes. The wise and the foolish alike die, he says. Maybe I am wise and industrious. So what! I may leave it all to a fool. "There is nothing better for mortals than to eat and drink, and find enjoyment in their toil." Enjoy life as much as you can, remembering the nearness of death. One doesn't work to become rich -- you can't take it with you and a fool may get it when you die. One doesn't work to create something great or become powerful. You'll die like anyone else. But as you can, find enjoyment in the work you do for its own sake. That's enough.

Eat and drink. And find enjoyment in your toil. Be wise. Die. That's about as good as it gets. Be satisfied with that, he says.

Today is the feast of St. Boniface, who built on the foundation of St. Willibrord in Frisia, areas along the coast of the North Sea now parts of Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands. Willibrord had labored for around 50 years to plant the church in that area, but virtually nothing had survived from his labors.

Here's a portion of a letter that Boniface wrote to Cuthbert, Archbishop of Canterbury, as Boniface was trying to succeed where Willibrord had seemed to fail.

My dear brother, I fear we have undertaken to steer a ship through the waves of an angry sea, and we can neither succeed in our task, nor without sin abandon it... In the Church of which I have oversight, I have dug the ground over, manured the soil, but I am conscious that I have failed to guard it. Alas, all my labor seems to me like a dog barking at the approach of thieves and robbers, but because he has no one to help him in his defense, he can only sit there, whining and complaining... I take refuge in the words of Solomon: 'Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insights. In all your ways, think on the Lord and he will guide your steps...'

Let us never be dogs that do not bark, nor silent bystanders, or hired servants who flee at the approach of the wolf. Instead let us be watchful shepherds, guarding the flock of Christ. And as God gives us strength, in season and out of season, let us preach to the powerful and powerless alike, to rich and poor alike, to all people of every rank and of whatever age, the saving purposes of God. (quoted in Celebrating the Saints, Robert Atwell, Canterbury, 2004, p. 303-4)

Mother Teresa said, "God doesn't require us to succeed; he only requires that you try." The Teacher of Ecclesiastes would add to that an invitation to enjoy the work as you can. Sometimes we get into situations where success does not seem to be an option, only faithfulness. We can only hold on, we cannot steer. In his letter to Cuthbert, Bonface amplifies his situation of trying to steer in an angry sea, saying, "it is our duty not to abandon ship, but to control the rudder."

We are reading Paul's letter to Galatia, a fierce and at times furious defense of his gospel which is under attack. Paul is trying to hold on to the rudder, asserting that the Gentile converts in his congregation will not submit to circumcision or follow the Jewish law no matter what.
Today we read also of Jesus' teaching in his hometown synagogue, where the locals refuse to let him grow up. Jesus fails there.

"All is vanity and a chasing after wind." (Ecclesiastes) "We did not submit to them even for a moment." (Paul) "And [Jesus] did not do many deeds of power there, because of their unbelief." (Matthew)

Life is hard. Life is mysterious. Eat and drink. Be wise. Enjoy your work as you can. Accept death. That's enough, says the Teacher of Ecclesiastes. Hold on to the rudder, says Boniface. Persevere, says Paul. Sometimes even Jesus can't succeed, says Matthew.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012 -- Week of Proper 4, Year Two
Ini Kipuria, Founder of the Melanesian Brotherhood, 1945

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 969)
Psalms 119:49-72 (morning) // 49, [53] (evening)
Ecclesiastes 3:1-15
Galatians 2:11-21
Matthew 14:1-12

[Go to http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html for an online version of the Daily Office including today's scripture readings.]

Today Paul recounts when he challenged Peter. Peter had been eating unkosher food with the Gentiles until the arrival of some conservative Jews (the circumcision party). "But after they came, he drew back and kept himself separate for fear of the circumcision faction."

In "The Access Bible" there is a footnote for Galatians 2:14. The original verse reads (in translation, of course) "If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?" The footnote offers an alternative paraphrase: "How can you meet gentiles half way (not keep food laws), then require them to go the whole way (be circumcised)?"

It struck me how similar this dispute is to the arguments we have had for years in the church, particularly through our resolutions at General Convention. We say that homosexual persons are children of God with a claim on the pastoral ministry of the church (1976). But some of us say that homosexual persons cannot act upon their sexual orientation, but must remain celibate or act as heterosexuals. Some heterosexuals will require that impediment of their gay neighbors even as they themselves freely admit that they cannot live fruitfully as celibates. I hear the echo of Paul's question: How can you meet homosexual persons half way (you are a child of God), then require them to go the whole way (but you must remain celibate forever)? If you, a heterosexual, cannot live as a celibate, how can you compel homosexuals to do so?

I know that will not be convincing to those who believe same-sex orientation is disordered. I'm not expecting to change minds. But I am struck how similar it feels to me to be one of those who is urging the church to apply the same high standards of faithfulness and commitment to homosexuals that we apply to heterosexuals in our intimate relationships. I hope the church will choose to offer to gay people the same blessing of support that we offer to straight people.

Paul argued similarly for full inclusion of Gentiles into the church -- as people equally called, redeemed and challenged. The Gentiles are to be part of the body of Christ without having to become circumcised "like us Jews." Paul's great struggle was just this. Can Gentiles be admitted to the church on an equal footing with Jews? Or will Gentiles be required to be circumcised and to adopt the Jewish laws? Paul forcefully argued that the Gentiles are to be freely included and incorporated into the Church. No double standards.

_________________

A quick note about Ecclesiastes. Today we read the famous "To everything there is a season" passage. (I always hear the Byrds "Turn, turn turn" song underneath this passage.) The Teacher's point is that there is a time appointed by God for every extreme and every situation, but human beings know little, if anything about those times. The Teacher includes not just the good times, but also all of the evils and tragedies of life in those divine appointments. And he insists that our knowledge of any of this is extremely limited.

Therefore says the Teacher, trust God in the present, and enjoy life as much as you can enjoy it, given the limitations of circumstance and the near inevitability of death.

His counsel is not unlike that of Jean Pierre de Caussade whose 18th century teaching is often titled "Abandonment to Divine Providence." Accept the circumstances of the present moment with complete abandonment and trust, says Caussade. God is fully present to you in the "sacrament of the present moment." Do not judge the goodness or badness of your circumstances. Accept these circumstances as the form that God is present to you now. The past is done; the future is not; all that is, is in the present moment. Here only is God.

Even if the moment seems evil, simply accept this as the context of God's presence working with you for good, and commit yourself singularly simply to do God's will as it presents itself in the present moment. That is perfect life, says de Caussade. Or as he might say in the language of the Teacher, "all else is vanity."

The very life of God is one of goodness expressing itself generously, fully. This divine goodness lives in personal communion. God is interpersonal and relational.
This communion has at its center the Word, the core or middle of God’s life as Trinity. Wishing to express overflowing goodness, God wishes to pour out an expression of the divine life.

God’s desire to share goodness is expressed as creation. But creation is not merely to receive some partial, limited sharing in God’s goodness and life. God will actually give away even the very heart of the divine life, the Word.
William Short, OFM, The Franciscans (Collegeville, Minn.: Michael Glazier, 1989), p. 105.

These words come from William Short, a Franciscan friar and scholar, who is interpreting the basic insight of the Franciscan theological tradition, especially in Bonaventure and Duns Scotus. There are antecedents for viewing the Trinity in terms of God’s self-communicative goodness in Dionysius and Richard of St. Victor. But this view owes as much to Francis and his insight into poverty and the absolute goodness of God. It’s as if God is so radically non-possessive that God shares God’s own life within the Trinity and then that goodness spills out in creation and Incarnation. God holds on to nothing, so that “God will actually give away even the very heart of the divine life, the Word.”

On Trinity Sunday, I was struck by how the doctrine of the Trinity is meant to describe the “conditions of the possibility” of total divine, self-giving, such as we experience in Christ and the Holy Eucharist. The Father sends the Son and the Spirit into the world. There is differentiation within God and yet the persons sent are fully God. What the doctrine is about is radical grace that embraces sin, finitude, and death without fear, because in the context of such immortal and abundant life, the self is found in having one’s being from and toward Another.

And we, by the power of the Spirit, have been caught up in this eternal, reciprocal self-giving, which comes into sharp focus in Christ’s self-emptying and obedience “unto death.” (Philippians 2)

A little later in the same chapter of his book, Short puts it this way: “God gives away all, holds nothing back as property. This is the poverty of God, showing in the visible things of creation the invisible and constant self-giving which is the life of the Trinity. The world mirrors, now clearly, now obscurely, the inner divine life of unending bowing over in generosity.”

The Rev. Bill Carroll serves as rector of Emmanuel Parish, Shawnee in the Diocese of Oklahoma. His new parish blog is Emmanuel Shawnee Blog

Friday, June 8, 2012 -- Week of Proper 4, Year Two
Roland Allen, Mission Strategist, 1947

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 969)
Psalms 40, 54 (morning) // 51 (evening)
Ecclesiastes 5:1-7
Galatians 3:15-22
Matthew 14:22-36

[Go to http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html for an online version of the Daily Office including today's scripture readings.]

As I read today's story from Matthew, my mind is filled with pictures from our trip to the Holy Land a couple of years ago.

There is a fishing boat from Jesus' era that has been preserved after it was discovered in the Sea of Galilee a few years ago during a drought. The story of its delicate exhumation and preservation is a good story in itself. The remains of the craft have been reconstructed, and there are fascinating graphics of its original construction and repeated repair with twelve different kinds of wood. It seems remarkably small, almost 27 feet long, 7 1/2 feet wide, and less than four feet deep. Not the kind of ship you would want ride in a storm.

There is a little bay called Tagba, which has several springs that carry fresh water into the Galillean sea. Because of the flow of water it was a traditional place for fishermen to wash their nets. It was easy to imagine Jesus calling the disciples in a similar setting as they washed and repaired their nets along the sandy, rocky shore.

Above Tagba on the bluff, is a place called "Eremos" -- "a lonely place." There is a shallow cave there that imagination and some tradition identifies as a lonely place where Jesus may have retreated for prayer. It is this place that is in my mind when I read today how Jesus, "after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray." For me, sitting in that cave was a thin place of contact with Jesus and those days.

They say that storms can come up quickly on the Sea of Galilee. Warm, moist air blows in from the Mediterranian, hits the mountains just west of Galilee and combines with the local atmosphere pushed by the inland water and desert influences. Quick, fierce storms can hit without much warning.

From the cave at the lonely place overlooking the sea, Jesus could observe the approach of menacing weather and see a ship foundering off shore.

In Hebrew Scripture there are several passages that speak of God's walking upon the sea. I've heard stories from Asian traditions about holy men who were able to tread across water. I don't know about such things. They are beyond my experience or observing.

But I do know that Jesus walks into our storms, when our small emotional boat feels threatened with capsizing. When the wind and waves of circumstance appear beyond our capacities to navigate or even endure. In such storms, Jesus comes and invites us to have enough courage to risk walking through the fears. It is so easy to look at what threatens us, and to panic. But sometimes we can keep our eyes on Jesus, the stillpoint of calm in the center of the storm, and we can walk through the storm. Focus, trust, perseverance, hope. These things can carry us, especially when our boat is so small and the stormy sea is so big.

Commemoration of Columba, Abbot and Missionary
Psalm 97:1-2,7-12
Isaiah 61:1-3
1 Corinthians 3:11-23
Luke 10:17-20
These, O my children, are the last words I address to you - that you be at peace, and have unfeigned charity amongst yourselves, and if you follow the example of the Holy Fathers, God the Comforter of the good will be your helper, and I abiding with him will intercede for you, and he will not only give sufficient to supply the wants of the present life, but will also bestow on you the good and external rewards which are laid up for those who keep his commandments. -- last words attributed to St. Columba.

Ask just about anybody to name an Irish saint, you'd probably get close to 100% naming St. Patrick. There would be many who would also name St. Brigid, but only some would think of St. Columba. Oddly enough, Patrick was born in Britain, not Ireland, but he spent his missionary life in Ireland had has become their patron saint. Brigid was Irish and stayed there and is nearly as beloved as Patrick, but Columba was born in Ireland and, after working there and establishing two monasteries, ended up in Scotland where he converted the Picts and Scots, and founded one of the most famous monasteries of the period, Iona. Iona is still a great pilgrimage site, revered as one of the world's "thin places" where heaven and earth are felt to be separated only by a thin veil rather than a concealing one, and where the nickname "Holy Isle" seems to be a common description as much as an identifying title.

His last words seem to be a summation of good advice not just for his monks but for those who read them centuries later. Instructions to live in peace and charity, follow the example of holy people, trust in God to guide and believe that their beloved Columba himself would intercede with God on their behalf was not only a statement of utter faith but a concern for their future wellbeing, a condensation of the gospel message and an instruction in living a holy life. It's the kind of thing that strikes me as very sagacious advice even in these modern and much less monastic-minded times.

There must have been something about Columba that strangers and friends alike would recognize as a touch of the holy about him. I once met a man, a Russian Orthodox priest, who struck me as such. He spoke no English and I no Russian, yet I, blind to auras and that sort of thing, was almost dazzled by the sense of God in this man. It was as if I could see the hand of God resting on his head at every moment. Perhaps for the Irish, the Scots and the Picts, Columba had that same sort of impact.
There must be something, too, about the Holy Isle of Iona that people can sense a more immediate and tangible presence of God. Perhaps it was the prayers of Columba and his monks, followed by those of all the pilgrims who have visited since that time. Perhaps it is the remembrance of the creativity and dedication that produced such as sacred treasure as the Book of Kells. And maybe, just maybe, it's because God has a more-than-usual fondness for the place.

Columba's challenges to his monks probably weren't easy to follow, but then, the monks were more accustomed to attuning themselves to many of them than we are today in the material world. Still, there is a roadmap there for us to follow: live in peace and charity, follow the examples of the holy who lived among us, trust God to be a comforter and helper, and follow the commandments.

It probably wouldn't hurt either to remember that Columba promised to be an intercessor, a sort of ecclesiastical and celestial amicus curiae before God on our behalf. One can never have too many of those.

Linda Ryan co-mentors 2 EfM Online groups and keeps the blog Jericho's Daughter

Psalms 24, 29 (Morning)
Psalms 8, 84 (Evening)
Ecclesiastes 6:1-12
Acts 10:9-23
Luke 12:32-40

There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy upon humankind: those to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that they lack nothing of all that they desire, yet God does not enable them to enjoy these things, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous ill. A man may beget a hundred children, and live many years; but however many are the days of his years, if he does not enjoy life’s good things, or has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. For it comes into vanity and goes into darkness, and in darkness its name is covered; moreover it has not seen the sun or known anything; yet it finds rest rather than he. Even though he should live a thousand years twice over, yet enjoy no good—do not all go to one place?

The more words, the more vanity, so how is one the better? For who knows what is good for mortals while they live the few days of their vain life, which they pass like a shadow? For who can tell them what will be after them under the sun?
--Ecclesiastes 6:1-12 (NRSV)

"Why are we doing this?" It's a question many of us ask in the most productive, wage-earning years of our lives.

So many of us carry in the back of our minds what I call "The pipe dream of the American Dream." It's that notion that we will work hard to achieve and reach a certain level of wealth and comfort and then one day, we'll say "that's enough," and then we'll kick back and enjoy the fruits of our labors.

But the problem is, well...it's never enough. So many of us live our lives just a little harder at the workplace, put in a few more hours or take on another job, so we will have "enough" and get that one more thing--another car, the last kid through college, the last mortgage payment on the house...then we turn right around and want a different car, or want to save for the grandchildren's education, or want a bigger house. Meanwhile all the things we wanted from that pipe dream--mostly related to time--slip through our fingers and disintegrate. "I'll spend more time with the kids." But the kids grow up. "I'll spend more time with my parents." The parents up and die before that happens. "I'll spend more time with my spouse." The spouse leaves. "I'll spend more time doing volunteer work." But that never seems to materialize. "I'll write, or do more art, or knit/sew/do carpentry." But the half finished projects clutter the house.

A recent article in the New York Times piqued my interest. What if...(horror of horrors!)...instead of a 40 hour work week being standard, a 21 hour work week were the norm? The theory is that there would be enough work for everyone to be satisfied and more mentally healthy. The article describes an inverse relationship in the health care professions between productivity and empathy. Believe me, I get that. It is why I chose a less stressful (and less financially rewarding) practice environment over my previous one, which had the potential for high esteem, the comfort of being viewed as an "expert in the field," but also gave me very little time for myself. I look back now, and I realize I am still paying for a few things that I sacrificed at the altar of productivity. I see my young medical students incur mountains of debt, which definitely influences their specialty choice and their practice geographical choice. I fear they are having to sacrifice much more than I ever did at the altar of productivity.

Could it be true? Could we really be a rich enough nation in the U.S. that we could give up some things so everyone has more? My educated guess is "yes," but I am pretty certain it would take some tremendous attitude adjusting--including my own.

Perhaps we see a blueprint for that in our other readings.

In Acts, Peter is instructed in his trance that to do the work of God, he might well have to kill and eat some things he's been told all his life are profane or unclean. Our Gospel reading exhorts us that we ought to be "ready for anything"--not ready in that survivalist hoarder sort of way, but ready to serve God in any way we might be asked. Our Psalms remind us that this notion of our possessions, our "stuff" being ours is...well...a delusion. Really, it's all God's. We only think it's ours. Honestly, I think God humors us a lot with that delusion.

Dialing back our lives feels nonproductive. It feels lazy. It feels "wrong" in some ways. Yet, if it were wrong, why do so many of us carry those pipe dreams in the back story of the American dream?

What happens when we acknowledge the places in our life where we actually do have "enough?" How does "enough" change when the goal becomes relationships and stability for all, rather than only ourselves?

Monday, June 11, 2012 -- Week of Proper 5, Year Two
Saint Barnabas the Apostle

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer)

EITHER the readings for Monday of Proper 5, p. 971
Psalms 56, 57, [58] (morning) // 64, 65 (evening)
Ecclesiastes 7:1-14
Galatians 4:12-20
Matthew 15:21-28

OR the readings for St. Barnabas, p. 998
Morning: Psalms 15, 67; Ecclesiasticus 31:3-11; Acts 4:32-37
Evening: Psalms 19, 146; Job 29:1-16; Acts 9:26-31

[Go to http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html for an online version of the Daily Office including today's scripture readings.]

[I chose the readings for St. Barnabas]

One who loves gold will not be justified;
one who pursues money will be led astray by it.
Many have come to ruin because of gold,
and their destruction has met them face to face.
It is a stumbling block to those who are avid for it
and every fool will be taken captive by it.
Blessed is the rich person who is found blameless,
and who does not go after gold.
Who is he, that we may praise him?
For he has done wonders among his people.
(Ecclesiasticus 31:5-9)

Today we celebrate the feast of Barnabas the Apostle and companion of Paul, who sold his estate and gave the money to the apostles for distribution. We read in Acts today that the community of the resurrection practiced a form of communal living. "Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common." (Acts4:32) That's a passage that's not commonly quoted among those who commonly quote.

No private property; communal ownership. It seemed to work -- "There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold." (Acts 4:34) Barnabas is a shining example of that practice. He sold his estate and brought the money to the apostles. We learn later in Acts that there was a dispute alleging prejudice in the distribution, the widows of the Hellenists complained that they did not get as much as the Hebrew widows. So, the apostles appointed deacons to see to the just and equal distribution. Fourth century emperor Julian the Apostate complained that "the impious Galileans support our poor in addition to their own."

We live in a time when U.S. economic inequality is more extreme than it has been since 1929 on the eve of the Great Depression. Institute for Policy scholar Chuck Collins has recently published a book 99 to 1: How Wealth Inequality is Wrecking the World and What We Can Do About It. He cites evidence that extreme disparities of wealth and power breakdown civic cohesion and social solidarity. Historically when there is great income inequality we tend to offer less support for education, public health care, affordable housing and other programs to level the playing field. Those who can afford to make large contributions to political elections tend to influence public decisions to their own benefit. We've seen a thirty year trend favoring the wealthy and powerful, and now we have more money and power concentrated in fewer hands than since right before the Great Depression. Collins believes there is a connection between income inequality and unhealthy economies.

Ben Sirach, the author of Ecclesiasticus, poetically describes some of the effect of these inequalities. "The rich person toils to amass a fortune, and when he rests he fills himself with his dainties. The poor person toils to make a meager living, and if he ever rests he becomes needy." (31:3-4)

Those of us who toil in the non-profit world know that there are many wealthy persons of conscience like Barnabas, who make significant contributions to the organizations that serve the vulnerable. We are thankful for the charity and generosity that underwrites so many outreach programs.

But how much better served we would be if our whole society had a generous commitment to the common good. Bill Gates, Sr., plainly describes some of the building blocks of a healthy society: "The ladder of opportunity for America's middle class depends on strong and accessible public educational institutions, libraries, state parks and municipal pools. And for America's poor, the ladder of opportunity also includes access to affordable health care, quality public transportation, and childcare assistance." These are things that must be done in the public sector, underwritten by fair, adequate and progressive taxation.

Yesterday our congregation joined many others in participating in Bread for the World's annual "Offering of Letters" campaign, asking congress to place a circle of protection around the programs that are so crucial to the poor. Bread for the World is a Christian voice for the hungry.

Compassionate care for the poor and vulnerable seems to be a characteristically Christian stance in the world. What would it take in our day to create a society where "there was not a needy person among them"?

Readings for the feast day of Enmegahbowh
Psalm 129
Isaiah 52:7-10
1 Peter 5:1-4
Luke 6:17-23

Almighty God, you led your pilgrim people of old with fire and cloud: Grant that the ministers of your Church, following the example of blessed Enmegahbowh, may stand before your holy people, leading them with fiery zeal and gentle humility. This we ask through Jesus, the Christ, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God now and for ever. Amen.
--Collect for the feast day of Enmegahbowh

Our readings today center on the act of being a messenger of God's peace, even when everything about human nature tells us we have every right to be righteously angry. The life of Enmegahbowh serves as a reminder of that virtue.

John Johnson Enmegahbowh was set aside at an early age to be a healer in the traditional Midewewin fashion (the secret society of healers among the First Peoples of the Great Lakes and Maritimes,) yet he embraced Christianity, ordained in the Episcopal Church as a deacon by Bishop Kemper in 1859, and a priest by Bishop Whipple in 1867. His last name literally means, "The one who stands before his people," (In some translations, literally, "The one who stands and prays before his people,") and as serendipity would have it, did that in amazing ways.

Enmegahbowh was a deacon in Crow Wing, Minnesota at the time the American Civil War commenced. In those days, it was common practice for young men of means who had been conscripted, to pay someone as a proxy to be enlisted into the Army. Some of the whites in the area took a "Why buy it when you can get it for free?" attitude and started tricking young Ojibway men to accompany them to St. Paul, whereupon they would get them drunk and sell them to other white men looking to avoid conscription. Some parents of the Ojibway youth came to Enmegahbowh from Leech Lake and told him of their plans to kill a Mr. Horn, the whiskey trader behind all this. His response to them was, "I am glad to hear you think me worthy to make known to me your object in visiting Crow Wing. My friends, I presume you all understand what it will bring about. If you kill the white man, you will cause a general warfare and the whites will drive us away from our country and perhaps will eventually sweep us away from the face of the earth." He begged them to give him seven days to reach General Sibley to obtain the support and paperwork to end the practice. Enmegahbowh made good on his promise, traveling by foot to St. Paul in three days.

Enmegahbowh's life as a missionary deacon and priest was far from peaceful. He was frequently involved in peacekeeping when the First Nations people had every right in the world to be angry and retaliatory. Two of his children died of exposure. He fled for his life more than once. Despite his efforts, the natives of Gull Lake were removed from the area, first to the Leech Lake reservation and later the White Earth one. Constant tension was the norm--not only tension between the Sioux and Ojibway, but religious tension between the mixed race French-Native Americans (who were mostly Roman Catholic) and the Native Episcopalians, as well as tension between natives who converted to Christianity and natives who, sick of political abuse, returned to native religions and warrior societies. He suffered from depression, and his memoirs reveal great angst and sorrow--rightly so, I believe, given what we now know through the lens of history and the treatment of Native Americans, the residue of which persists, yet today.

Yet wherever Enmegahbowh was stationed, his churches, by accounts, brimmed to overflowing, and he forged the beginnings of what we now consider "a given" in indigenous ministries--the ability to incorporate and nurture native values within the scope of the Christian experience. It's a reminder that the seeds of hope can still flourish amidst the storms of despair and angst.

None of us, as individuals, can ever fully make reparations for the cultural "sins of our fathers" that dog the American story and the story of the church. Yet God always calls to us in hope, and time and time again, we are given do-over after do-over to get it a little more right than we did before. Where is God calling each of us to put our own righteous indignation aside and hear the teachings of Jesus to spread the Gospel message, not just by words, but by a humble and contrite spirit?

Maria Evans, a surgical pathologist from Kirksville, MO, writes about the obscurities of life, medicine, faith, and the Episcopal Church on her blog, Kirkepiscatoid

Tuesday, June 12, 2012 -- Week of Proper 5, Year Two
Enmegahbowh, Priest and Missionary, 1902

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 971)
Psalms 61, 62 (morning) // 68:1-20(21-23)24-36 (evening)
Ecclesiastes 8:14 - 9:10
Galatians 5:1-15
Matthew 15:29-39

[Go to http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html for an online version of the Daily Office including today's scripture readings.]

You cannot expect justice, says the Teacher of Ecclesiastes. "There are righteous people who are treated according to the conduct of the wicked, and there are wicked people who are treated according to the conduct of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity."

Study as we may, we will never truly understand truth; we will never comprehend the depths of wisdom or reality. Every scientist knows that each new discovery only brings new questions. "No one can find out what is happening under the sun. However much they may toil in seeking, they will not find it out; even though those who are wise claim to know, they cannot find it out."

Whether we are good and noble, or we are corrupt knaves, we all will die and eventually be forgotten. It is the same end for the good and for the evil, "since the same fate comes to all, to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to those who sacrifice and those who do not sacrifice." Death is the great equalizer. It is better to be alive than to be dead, says the Teacher, "for living dog is better than a dead lion." But the Teacher has no theology of an afterlife of paradise and justice -- "the dead know nothing; they have no more reward, and even the memory of them is lost. Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished; never again will they have any share in all that happens under the sun."

Today's reading in Ecclesiastes summarizes the Teacher's philosophy: Accept the reality that there is no justice; we cannot comprehend wisdom and truth; and we all will die, good and bad alike. The Teacher faces these realities fully and tells us to live while we may live. Enjoy your work while you can. Enjoy your life while you can. "Go, eat your bread with enjoyment, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has long ago approved what you do. Let your garments always be white; do not let oil be lacking on your head. Enjoy life with the wife who you love, all the days of your vain life that you are given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do with might; for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going."

The appeal is not to mere hedonism. The Teacher advocates virtue and righteous dealing. He only urges us to be modest in our expectations. Do good for its own sake, and enjoy the doing. But don't expect that you will right the wrongs of the world or that you will be rewarded for your good doing. Do good when you can, and enjoy whatever enjoyments you are given.

In a way, Paul makes a similar argument in today's reading from Galatians. He wishes to pop the balloon of those who think they have a system that will assure them of standing before God. Those who follow the law of Torah claim that in their following, they are righteous, they are in the right with humanity and God. Paul says they are only slaves. Slaves to the rules, and thus self-centered in their actions and anxious in their being. Throw it all away, says Paul, and be free. The law is only slavery bringing death. True life, true freedom is a gift. The gift is justification by grace through faith. So enjoy. Accept the gift. You are accepted. Accept the fact that you are accepted. Be free. Alive. Enjoy. When you can, do good. Look toward the needs of others. Be free.

And Jesus feeds the multitude. Everyone. The good and the bad. The lazy and the industrious. Everyone present gets fed. Matthew reproduces word for word much of Mark's earlier account of the feeding of the 4,000. Mark's version makes it clear that this crowd is a Gentile crowd -- foreigners, of a different religion. Although they are not the people of the promise, although they know nothing of the scripture and the traditions, although they do not observe the prayers and ethic of Jesus' people -- Jesus feeds them all. And there is an abundance left over. We might hear an echo of the ancient Teacher's voice: "Go, eat your bread with enjoyment, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has long ago approved what you do."

Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favour to the skilful; but time and chance happen to them all. For no one can anticipate the time of disaster. Like fish taken in a cruel net, and like birds caught in a snare, so mortals are snared at a time of calamity, when it suddenly falls upon them.

I have also seen this example of wisdom under the sun, and it seemed important to me. There was a little city with few people in it. A great king came against it and besieged it, building great siege-works against it. Now there was found in it a poor, wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city. Yet no one remembered that poor man. So I said, ‘Wisdom is better than might; yet the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are not heeded.’

The quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded
than the shouting of a ruler among fools.

Wisdom is better than weapons of war,
but one bungler destroys much good. -- Ecclesiastes 9:11-18 (NRSV)

Of all the books of the Bible in their various categories by type, Ecclesiastes is probably the one I learned the least about in Bible studies - except possibly Song of Solomon which was a bit too, well, indelicate for young dears despite its canonical acceptance, Ecclesiastes' fellow poetry/wisdom books (Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Songs (which I learned as "Song of Solomon") are a varied group, and it seems difficult to put them together in one group unless it was labeled "miscellaneous that won't really fit anywhere else." Psalms is familiar because the various songs are read so often, even the whiny, angry, God-punish-those-nasty-people-over-there-who-are-after-me-and-I'm-not-being-paranoid ones. Proverbs are sayings, often in the form of contrasting phrases that illustrate wise doings vs. foolish ones. Job is familiar because of its story of bad things happening to a good person for no other reason than God giving the Adversary permission to test the strength of Job's faith in God. Song of Songs is definitely erotic, celebrating the love of two people but usually interpreted as an allegory of the love between Jesus and the church. Ecclesiastes, though, a series of wisdom sayings that have an edge to them - a bit of cynicism, perhaps - that, like Proverbs, contrast a life of wise choices vs. a life of foolish ones, but with an underlying feeling that people are usually going to choose the foolish ones, no matter how sagacious the advice.

Reading the opening verses, it feels a bit obvious that life is definitely not fair. I think of a child who is denied something s/he wants and can't understand why. "That's not fair!" Things don't always happen the way we think they should, like wise people never being in want and the best athletes always being victorious. The British colonies in America in the 1700s took on the mother country, and despite being up against a better-trained, armed and organized force, used trees, hunting guns, and sheer determination to win the independence they so earnestly sought. I think it was a surprise to George III, and perhaps even to George Washington, but it just illustrated the point that Ecclesiastes' writer, known as Quoheleth, was making.

Looking at today, I see wise people speaking words that seem to be swept aside because what they are saying doesn't match what people want to hear. The prophetic voices that call for Biblical ethics Jesus himself taught are shouted down and booed when they call for care for the poor, food for the hungry, shelter for the homeless, medical care for the injured and the like. No, the interest seems to be in maintaining benefits for the rich and denying them to those who need them but can't afford it without help. People do make bad choices, but there are a lot of Job-like people in this world who have tried to do the right thing, live within their means, provide for their families and help others but who find themselves one paycheck or less away from homelessness. Quoheleth seems to have been able to see that and not had a lot of faith that things would come out right for them.

What would Quoheleth say if he saw educational programs that produce well-rounded and well-educated people are cut while multimillion-dollar corporations find loophole after loophole in the tax laws that enables them to pay far less than a fair share to support those educational programs? I've been watching America's place in world rankings in educational performance by students drop year after year. What happened to wanting to be the best? We say we want our kids to have the best education, but then why do we vote to cut classes, programs and opportunities to teach our children not to just regurgitate facts but to actually think and reason out answers? I know there are corporations that have refused to consider some places in our country as opportunities for expansion because the potential work-force isn't well-educated enough. Wisdom seems to be a luxury we can't afford.

What I gain from Quoheleth in this passage is that even though people may follow a wise person for a time, when it is expedient, they usually wander away to a flashier, more glib-tongued one who promises that they and only they only can make things better. I think that's why I (and others) have such a hard time reading the Prophets; they don't promise sunshine, lollipops and rainbows. They weren't foretelling the future like a crystal ball gazer or reader of cards or sticks, they were looking about them, seeing what was happening and commenting on the potential consequences of such a course. Quoheleth simply took a pithier way of pointing out that same kind of thing. Despite the brevity, I fear that the wisdom in this passage is doomed to be often overlooked or pooh-poohed away in favor of a silver tongue or a hundred of them promising quick fixes without either understanding the depth of the problem or the actual "Christian" values they claim to represent. It's a lot easier for them to try to legislate morality than it is to balance a budget in a way that is fair and equitable. It's easier to court the rich than serve the poor.

I have a feeling I need to delve more deeply into the wisdom of Quoheleth. Perhaps in his words I can see my own cynicism and perhaps find a better way to see and react to the world around me. I wouldn't mind being a wise person for a change.

Linda Ryan co-mentors 2 EfM Online groups and keeps the blog Jericho's Daughter

Wednesday, June 13, 2012 -- Week of Proper 5, Year Two
Gilbert Keith Chesterton, Apologist and Writer, 1936

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 971)
Psalms 72 (morning) // 119:73-96 (evening)
Ecclesiastes 9:11-18
Galatians 5:1-15
Matthew 16:1-12

[Go to http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html for an online version of the Daily Office including today's scripture readings.]

(note: yesterday I mistyped today's reading from Galatians. Yesterday's should have been Galatians 4:21-31)

In one of his most exemplary sentences, Paul exclaims, "the only thing that counts is faith working through love." (Galatians 5:6b)

We are at the core of Paul's teaching here. It starts with the mystery of the gift of God through Jesus -- the gift of acceptance, justification. We are offered a whole and right relationship with God. It is a gift. Pure gift. No strings attached whatsoever. You don't have to do anything to be offered the gift. No laws, no performance, no circumcision. All you need do is accept the gift. That's what faith is. The acceptance of the gift of acceptance.

"The only thing that counts is faith working through love." There is an alternative translation. "The only thing that counts is faith made effective through love." You have been lovingly accepted, therefore, love your neighbor -- live in love. For Paul, Christian ethics is acting upon the commandment to love.

First we are accepted and made free as a gift. Accept the gift in faith, says Paul, then make that free gift effective by living in love toward your neighbor. "For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'" Paul says, if there is anyone who compromises this gift by demanding the observance of laws and traditions outside the simple commandment of love, that person is the yeast that is corrupting the gospel. Such teaching is so damaging, Paul says, that he cries out in frustration, "I wish those who unsettle you would castrate themselves!"

Well! That's how strongly Paul feels about those who would turn Christianity into a religion of behavior according to rules and conventions rather than a mysterious living relationship of love grounded in the abundant grace and gift of God.

One more warning. You may activate your faith by living in love, but that doesn't guarantee that you'll have a pleasant, effective or just life. The New Testament reminds us of that by the story of the cross and our invitation to pick up our cross and follow in the way of Jesus, the good and just One who was crucified.

And the ancient Teacher of Ecclesiastes gives voice to that warning today -- "the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to the skillful; but time and chance happen to them all." The teacher cites an example of a small city that is saved by the wisdom of one man, but that same man is forgotten later and his advice ignored. It is good to be wise, but don't expect people to pay attention to your wisdom.

Enjoy what you can, says the Teacher. Love, say Jesus and Paul. And be aware that there is much that corrupts and destroys the best we can do.

We find in the Christian fathers vigorous denunciations of all keeping of private wealth such as is not needed for the support of the possessor’s own family. Such selfish keeping of wealth from the common fund they call—not lack of generosity only, but injustice or theft. It is not that they deny the necessity of private property. In a world of sin private property must exist, and the law must maintain it. But it is only to be justified when it is reduced to the minimum needed to meet the reasonable requirements of life according to a man’s condition. God gave the earth with its resources for the common good; and the spirit of love and justice must keep it so.
Charles Gore, Christ and Society (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1928), pp. 89-90.

If we take Jesus seriously, nothing could be more basic to the Christian Faith than economic justice. Vast inequalities, such as we often take for granted (or even try to justify), simply cannot be reconciled with our heritage as Christian people. For the Church Fathers, they constitute not only a failure of generosity but “injustice or theft.”

Gore may have gone too far when he claims that private property must be reduced to the “minimum.” Surely, we can have more than that, so long as others are not in misery. But so long as others are in misery, as they clearly are, it is a question for careful discernment (and democratic politics) how much we may legitimately possess, even in a “world of sin.” As I’ve said before, I think that a good rule of thumb is the “difference principle” articulated by John Rawls. Social differences are permissible to the extent to which they benefit the least well off. I can see quite a bit of capital accumulation consistent with this standard, but not so much that it subverts democratic institutions, so that those who have much are able to dictate to those who have little or nothing. Nor can we ever justify the kind of hand-over-fist thievery that exists at the top of the economic pyramid in just about every age.

Seeing our property, whether a lot or a little, as held in trust for our neighbors is the solemn duty of all Christian people. Even though they have less to begin with, the poor are often better at this than the wealthy, because they know that they are one crisis away from needing their neighbor’s help themselves. The rich, by contrast, may well be tempted by illusions of self-sufficiency which are an affront to the Creator, who “gave the earth and its resources for the common good.” In light of our never failing capacity for rationalization, whether what we have truly benefits others is a question that calls for careful self-examination. If the Gospel is to be credible in our society, we need to be better at answering this question honestly and changing our lives accordingly.

The Rev. Bill Carroll serves as rector of Emmanuel Parish, Shawnee in the Diocese of Oklahoma. His new parish blog is Emmanuel Shawnee Blog

Reflections on Mark 4:26-34

It wasn’t until I was given an IPod Nano that I began to notice how many other people have the regulation earpieces in their lugholes, trailing thin wires like bunting on Mt. Everest. I am a dinosaur and blind, it seems.

Many of us humans can’t even walk down the street without noise filling our headspace and my guess is that the more we are bombarded by this cacophony, the less we actually hear.

Because of this, I think that we don’t need to work at hearing; we need to work at not hearing. Case in point: airline travel. Next time you are flying somewhere by plane, watch the other travellers during the safety demonstration and see if we are intent on not hearing a spiel that is intended to save our lives.

For us, however, this may be a problem because we employ this tactic of not listening when we come to worship. Living in a world that spends much of its time working at not hearing, when we come to church we can easily allow the familiarity of the Liturgy to lull us into la-la land.

Rather than switching off when we come to the Kirk-house, we need to actively work at hearing. Unless we make a conscious effort to listen differently, to listen with attentiveness to the reading of Scripture and the preaching of the sermon, we may do to public worship what we do to the airline safety demonstration.

This process has a particular and immediate application because, for the next wee while, as the New Zealanders say, we’ll be walking through Jesus’ “Kingdom of God Parables” in Mark’s Gospel.

One thing’s for sure: these parables can’t be understood by a switching off the listening hole or by a folding of the arms in feigned objectivity or even by a ho-humming ourselves down the ‘heard-it-before’ track, although some will try.

The only way to understand Mark in this is to allow the stories to lay their own claim on us. How? By hearing, by letting the parables have their intended effect on us by hearing them.

Like the first three Chapters of this high-powered Gospel, Marks Chapter 4 is alive with action and determination as Mark allows the narrative to carry the message he wants to deliver. In Mark, the essential convictions and teachings are shown rather than told.

We stand a better chance of understanding if we first see it demonstrated. Mark’s vigorous narrative is designed to prepare us to hear what Jesus has to say to us.

Hearing is difficult, as we have discovered, so Mark postpones the teachings of Jesus until our familiarity with him helps us understand him, so he starts with the Parables.

Parables can be deceptive. Many of us grew up on the “Parables-are-earthly-stories-with-heavenly-meanings” theory and, for the most part, that’s fine, except that this shows a misunderstanding of the purpose of parables.

These Parables can’t be understood by standing outside and peering into them, like looking at goldfish in a fish tank. They can only be understood by getting out of our seats and becoming part of the action.

Each of the three Parables in Chapter 4 has two things in common: first, they’re each about seeds and second they’re each surrounded by Jesus’ own encouragement for us, his hearers, to actually hear.

By themselves, seeds don’t grab me greatly but I do know they have tremendous potential. I know, for example, that this or that little seed can become a carrot or a carob tree, buffel grass or banksia, given the right circumstances.

The clue for the Gospel hearer lies in what happens next: just as the seeds have to be planted and watered and waited for expectantly, so the Gospel has within itself the power to become something other than what it appears to be. The stories also require some additional activity.

The Parable of The Mustard Seed, proverbially the smallest of seeds, makes a point. Though almost invisible, the mustard seed grows into a shrub large enough for birds to nest in. That something so large could come from something so small is unfathomable. What we have here is an analogy.

When we first hear the gospel, when the gospel is first declared to our world, it seems small and insignificant. Many other things seem more important: there are plans to be made; careers to be considered; proposals and marriages and children to reckon with; houses to build; relationships to pursue, and so on.

Yet the Parable is about the power inherent in the gospel to supersede the eye evidence and to produce something else that is wholly unexpected. In comparison to such things, the gospel seems like a dark speck in the palm, something to be looked over for a moment, and then overlooked for ever.

However, the gospel will not be relegated to an insignificant place. If this was just about human stuff then, perhaps, we might ditch it. But it is something more than that; it’s God’s work, His creative, redeeming and restorative presence.

Maybe the beginnings are small and inauspicious but slowly, even imperceptibly, it creeps into our spirits and begins to intrude into our lives to the point that we can’t ignore it, despite the many competing sounds of a world that, at first, seem more important.

The transformative power of the gospel produces the qualities of life that we most long for, but that most elude us, by encouraging us to hear the story to the point of heeding. The Parable of the Sower in each of its complexities promises that those who hear the gospel in this way receive it, and “it bears fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold” (Mark 4:20).

The Rev. Ian McAlister is the Ministry Development Officer in the Diocese of Queensland and blogs at Reflections from the HIll

Commemoration of [George Berkeley &] Joseph Butler

Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: ‘Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.’ Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I; send me!’ And he said, ‘Go and say to this people:

“Keep listening, but do not comprehend;
keep looking, but do not understand.”
Make the mind of this people dull,
and stop their ears,
and shut their eyes,
so that they may not look with their eyes,
and listen with their ears,
and comprehend with their minds,
and turn and be healed.’ -- Isaiah 6:6-10 (NRSV)

Isaiah was an advisor to King Ahaz, a real rapscallion who was determined to undermine all the religious tradition, worship and laws his grandfather, Uzziah, had followed so devotedly. If there was a commandment, Ahaz seemed bound and determined to break it. That must have kept him quite busy for a while, so it was a good thing to have a wise advisor like Isaiah to help keep an eye on things, even if his advice wasn't particularly welcome or even worthy of having attention paid to it.

The passage today is a two-parter, the first one dealing with Isaiah's call to be a voice of prophecy with God's stamp of approval on him. Isaiah was a righteous man, capable of seeing all the wrongs that were being done and being able to draw a straight line between those wrongs and the eventual result of them. Still, God could call and Isaiah would have had the opportunity to practice free will to say "No, thank you." Had that been the case, we possibly would have had the words of some other prophet in the Bible instead of Isaiah, which would have been a loss for all of us. Luckily for us, though, Isaiah was willing to undergo a trial, a burning coals on his lips, in order to be purified and perhaps even to make him take time to think about his words before he spoke them to make sure they were 100% truthful and 100% God-inspired. He passed that test, even to the point of answering God's question of "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" with the same response heard over and over in the Old Testament, "Here am I."

The second part was God's message for Isaiah to note and to pass along. It's funny, but it feels like that message was written for this time as well as for Isaiah's. Newscasts, magazines and newspapers, conversations among people, all seem to reflect the same things spoken of in the message from God. It's impossible not to read the passage and not remember the Holocaust, surely a case where eyes were blinded, ears were stopped, and minds were carefully and skillfully diverted from the atrocities that were happening right under their noses. Germany was not the only one guilty: genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Argentina, Bosnia, and Darfur, and the list keeps growing because they still keep happening. Evidently we haven't learned enough yet to see much less eliminate genocide. Newscasts, newspapers and magazines may fit them into soundbytes, but it feels like we're more interested in which celebrity or which legislator got caught doing what with whom. We seem to want diversion, not challenge.

One other thing I've noticed and that is that people are willing to be led. I look at the current economic problems and what I see are elected officials and others saying, in effect, "Vote for me and I'll take care of you" or "Trust me, I am looking out for your best interest", especially if it means the status quo remains the same or grows while the widows and orphans of whom Jesus spoke and the prophets prophesied are increasingly marginalized and the hope of the poor is taken away. Like the scribes and Pharisees, the whited sepulchers conceal corruption and decay while the exterior looks pristine. By focusing our attention on issues like gay rights and abortion which are important issues, yes, but not the only issues on the table, we have been distracted from the real problem of the economy, the increasing marginalization of the working-class poor and the uncertain employment picture. We're busy reading about Khardassian kapers while the family down the block reaches the point where they quietly close the front door and walk away from a house they bought in good faith just a few years ago but which they can no longer afford to pay for or even live in. We are busy hearing about the latest scandal on Capitol Hill while starvation runs rampant, gang rape is widespread and children are forced to become terrorists elsewhere in the world. What is wrong with this picture? What would Isaiah say to us and about it?

The main question in my mind is how would I answer the question put to Isaiah, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" I wonder if I would have his courage and his determination in the face of knowing that what he says would fall primarily on deaf ears? Could I, would I answer "Here I am, send me"? Even if I were not a recognized prophet or felt an overwhelming call from God to do this, could I still make some effort to be mindful of the things happening around me and speak out about them, hoping that even one person would see the message and answer in turn, "Here I am"?

Prophets tend to meet nasty ends, or at least periods of real trial. Today we have prophets, but our concern is more with profits. What can I do to help change that? How can I unstop my ears and eyes, open my mind and allow truth and rightness to be the guideposts?

I hope I don't open the door one morning and find a seraph on the front step with a hot coal in a pair of tongs...

Linda Ryan co-mentors 2 EfM Online groups and keeps the blog Jericho's Daughter

Psalms 93, 96 (Morning)
Psalm 34 (Evening)
Numbers 6:22-27
Acts 13:1-12
Luke 12:41-48

Peter said, “Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for everyone?” And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and prudent manager whom his master will put in charge of his slaves, to give them their allowance of food at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master will find at work when he arrives. Truly I tell you, he will put that one in charge of all his possessions. But if that slave says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and if he begins to beat the other slaves, men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour that he does not know, and will cut him in pieces, and put him with the unfaithful. That slave who knew what his master wanted, but did not prepare himself or do what was wanted, will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know and did what deserved a beating will receive a light beating. From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded. (Luke 12:41-48, NRSV)

Our Gospel reading today is one of those times I'm grateful for the Daily Office, because the Revised Common Lectionary pretty much hides from this snippet of Luke, preferring the more "generic" version of watchfulness in Mark 13, and totally avoiding the even more gruesome version at the tail end of Matthew 24, complete with weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The Parable of the Faithful or Unfaithful Slave is a parable that doesn't register well with modern sensibilities. Transposing "servant" where we see "slave" doesn't always fully make the cut, and most of us find "a light beating" an unacceptable outcome for that poor third slave, who didn't know any better but did the wrong thing in ignorance. It might be a doubly uncomfortable parable on Father's Day, if one grew up with the capricious whims of alcoholic or addict fathers and endured the beatings (light or otherwise) that also resulted seemingly from nowhere. We all have a twinge of righteous indignation for that poor third slave, who's standing there going, "But what'd I do?"

Let's look at this, though, through the opening words of Peter in this passage. Peter basically asks Jesus, who has just delivered the Parable of the Watchful Slave (Luke 12:35-40,) "Are you tellin' this to us, or to them?" Notice Jesus doesn't really answer the question, but Peter's question is covered in Jesus' answer--he answers in a way that fails to make a distinction between "us" and "them," in a way that no one gets off being righteous. It's a reminder that the Gospel of Christ is not The Gospel of It's All About You--that sin is probably far more corporate than it is individual, and in reality we probably add more trouble to this broken world unknowingly more than we do knowingly. Only time has the power to sort that out.

Take something as innocuous as hopping in the car and taking a joy ride around the countryside simply to improve our mood or because we're bored. Although infinitesimally small, that single little joyride did change in a tiny way the milieu of the system of supply and demand for oil, and, if we buy the chaos theory, could well be something that affects the fact the Chinese keep bidding more and more for barrels of oil in their quest to become a more fully industrialized nation against the continually increasing demand in the U.S. for oil. This could prompt more exploration of oil, more trashing of the environment, more greenhouse gases, and more woe to the planet. That's just how it is. I don't say that to make anyone feel guilty--guilt is really not a feeling, it's an outcome of judgment. The fact is, there are an infinite number of things every day that every action we take, makes us guilty of something. Period.

On the other hand, that little joy ride might have also done something to the positive. Perhaps it improved our mood to the point we went out and did something that honored The Good News in Christ, and brought the Realm of God a little closer to Earth. Perhaps it gave us impetus to call on someone who was homebound, or volunteer at the soup kitchen, or simply be present for someone who needed us. We are never shown the ultimate end of any of the good deeds we do on this planet, either--maybe because, ultimately, there is no end to that chain of events. What happens when we believe in the possibility that evil becomes an end to itself, but God's grace provides a never-ending source of good?

It's so easy to get enamored with our righteousness every time we recycle, or buy organic over commercial, or choose a vegetable over a hunk of meat, and put ourselves on this little pedestal touting the glory of "us" vs. the great unwashed-ness of "them," isn't it? It's a reminder that, in the end, we've all done something wrong and no one has a corner on owning neither a special guilt, nor a special righteousness. The best case scenario is we muddle through life, making the best choices we can, trying our darndest to hear what God is telling us, hoping we are ultimately doing right. When it's all said and done, we'll probably discover we were fairly right about some things and pretty wrong about some others. I suspect that, at our deaths, the judgment we wished upon the bad "others" of the world will be reflected back on us when we discover some of our choices in ignorance created equal harm to the world. Yet I am equally hopeful that we will see pleasant surprises in the good choices we made with equal unknowing. Can we accept the possibility of a "light beating" at the risk of amazing joy?

What transformations await us when we begin to give up the "us" vs. "them" mentality?

Maria Evans, a surgical pathologist from Kirksville, MO, writes about the obscurities of life, medicine, faith, and the Episcopal Church on her blog, Kirkepiscatoid

Monday, June 18, 2012 -- Week of Proper 6, Year Two
Bernard Mizeki, Catechist and Martyr in Mashonaland, 1896

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 971)
Psalms 80 (morning) // 77, [79] (evening)
Numbers 9:15-23; 10:29-36
Romans 1:1-15
Matthew 17:14-21

[Go to http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html for an online version of the Daily Office including today's scripture readings.]

How do you know when to get up and move -- to act decisively -- and when to wait? ...when to simply persevere?

There is something about the image of the Israelites in the wilderness that speaks to me. Today's reading from Numbers says that the Israelites would camp and settle down as long as the cloud rested over the tabernacle. They would not move, but would remain in that place, until the could lifted. How long the cloud might stay upon the tabernacle was unpredictable. "Whether it was two days, or a month, or a longer time, that the cloud continued over the tabernacle, resting upon it, the Israelites would remain in camp and would not set out; but when it lifted they would set out." (Numbers 9:22)

The cloud is the sign of God's presence, and as such an encouraging sign. It is also a symbol of mystery and unknowing. According to Numbers, the tabernacle dwelt at the center of the camp, inside a tent, served by the dwellings of the priestly tribe of Levi.

The scene creates something of a metaphor. God dwells in the center of our being, our source of life and light, yet shrouded in mystery and unknowing. That is holy space, rightly served with consecrated action and devotion. It is each person's priestly role to attend to the holy center of our being.

So often the cloud is there. We experience the cloud of unknowing, the desire for direction as we move through the wilderness. There are times when we feel stuck, with no sense of direction. It seems the best we can do is to stay put and survive -- look for water and nourishment in this place. Let go of the lure to move in a new direction. Just settle in and tend to the nearby essentials.

There is the cloud that can cover our mood and emotions. We have no direction. We feel the lack of a future. We go through the daily motions, but each day we wake in the same wilderness, not knowing when things will change.

In the scriptures, the cloud is often the sign of the presence of God. It is not a comfortable presence. A sense of foreboding or awe often accompanies the cloud. The cloud of life is so much stronger than we are. We do not know what it will do or where it will take us. In the presence of the cloud, we are so small.

When the cloud rests upon us, there is nothing we can do but wait. To flee, to run into the wilderness without direction would be folly and would only complicate and threaten our survival. When the cloud settles, there is nothing to do but to rest, and to take care of the common chores of life and reverence.

Yet it is an anticipating, active rest. We rest trusting that the cloud will lift, whether it will be "two days, or a month, or a longer time," the cloud will lift. Eventually there will be time to move. And when that time comes, we will have the energy to move, to travel through the wilderness, to make some progress in the journey toward promise.

It takes trust -- faith -- to believe that the cloud will indeed lift one day and you will be able to move.

Jesus says something about faith in today's reading from Matthew. Jesus tells his disciples, "truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you." (Matthew 17:20)

I now read that verse with a bit of tweaking to its interpretation. I used to think, if I could just muster enough faith ("mustard-seed" enough faith) then God would make things happen almost magically. There may be another way of thinking about this word. Mark sets this passage as being spoken while Jesus and his disciples are on the road between Bethany and Jerusalem. Jesus says to his disciples, "Truly I tell you, if you say to this mountain, 'Be taken up and thrown into the sea,' and if you do not doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you." (Mark 11:24)

A portion of the road between Bethany and Jerusalem is dominated by the Herodian fortress. It was built under the direction of Herod the Great. Workers literally moved a mountain, bucket by bucket, to create a palace and military fort some fifty years before Jesus' ministry. Spoken in that context, Jesus' words about the faith that moves mountains could be an encouragement to simple perseverance. One shovel-full at a time, one bucket at a time, one step at a time -- and over time, the mountain is moved.

The cloud and the mountain are both images of divine presence, and they beautifully combine in the story of Christ's Transfiguration.

Every day we live in the presence. Some days and for some long periods, the cloud stays over us and does not move. So we stay in that place and we persevere with trust. One shovel and one step at a time. Believing that the mountain will move. Trusting that the cloud will lift and lead us. Lead us through our wilderness. Lead us ultimately to the promise of divine union.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012 -- Week of Proper 6, Year Two

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 971)
Psalms 78:1-39 (morning) // 78:40-72 (evening)
Numbers 11:1-23
Romans 1:16-25
Matthew 17:22-27

[Go to http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html for an online version of the Daily Office including today's scripture readings.]

I'm thinking out loud here. It may not make any sense when I'm finished.

The scene is in Capernaum, Peter's hometown and the headquarters for Jesus' ministry. By now Jesus is known as a rabbi with some following. Someone approaches Peter to ask about his rabbi's opinion on a topic of rabbinical debate -- the Temple tax. The tradition called for the payment of a half-shekel (didrachma) tax by all registered adults age twenty and above for the upkeep of the Temple. From the perspective of Exodus 30:11f it seems to be a one-time donation at one's original registration. But from the context of Nehemiah 10:32f it sounds more like an annual tax. Rabbis had various interpretations to defend their views on whether this obligation was annual or singular. So the question posed to Peter might have been, "Which interpretation does your rabbi teach?"

But there is another interpretation of the question that might have been inserted by Matthew. After 70 CE, Rome imposed a two-drachma tax on Jews for the upkeep of the temple to Jupiter. Many Jews found that tax to be humiliating and blasphemous. So to Matthew the question might have been, "Does your teacher pay the tax to Jupiter's temple or does he promote rebellion?" Peter's response, "Yes, he does (pay the tax)" works better in this context. Matthew offers documentation for political cover that Jesus, who was executed as an enemy of Rome, was not a rebel or a threat to the empire's order. He paid the Roman tax. The Christian movement is not a threat and is not disloyal to Caesar. No cause to persecute us.

The conversation that follows between Peter and Jesus has some depth of color. "What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tribute? From their children or from others?" Easy answer -- from others.

Here I am poised to go on a rant. For the past thirty years the wealthy and powerful in this country have consistently manipulated the tax system to their advantage, further concentrating wealth and power in fewer hands. In our state of Arkansas, it takes a 3/4th majority to pass a progressive tax like the income tax, but only a simple majority to pass a regressive sales tax. Therefore we end up in the ironic situation where the lowest 20% and the next lowest 20% and the middle 20% all pay about twice the percentage of their income in taxes as the top 1%.

During the first decade of the 21st century, politicians more aligned with the interests of the wealthy than the poor inherited a budget surplus and created a massive federal deficit by not funding two wars, by not funding a needed Medicare drug benefit and passing the expensive version favored by the drug industry rather than by consumers, by creating large tax cuts predominately benefiting the wealthy, and by failing to regulate financial speculation by the super-wealthy. It all devolved to bust the economic system and create a massive deficit. Now, those who are largely responsible for the deficit seem to want to lower it by cutting programs that benefit the poor and vulnerable. "From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tribute?" [end of rant]

"Then the children are free," said Jesus. What does that mean?

This story follows closely upon the heels of the Transfiguration, where we have heard the voice from heaven proclaim, "This is my Son..." Elsewhere Jesus identifies himself in union with his disciples, especially in John. The children of God, the King of kings, are free. There is a higher law, a higher identity, a higher obligation.

Yet for the sake of community peace, Jesus says: "However, so that we do not give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook." Fishing is Peter's business. It is his work and his source of income. Jesus sends him to pay the taxes (whether Jewish or Roman) through his working income. Yet God provides the miraculous catch for Peter the fisherman. In the mouth of the first fish will be a stater, the equivalent of two didrachmas, the temple tax for two persons (either Jerusalem or Jupiter's temple).

So, for the sake of community, for the sake of the common good, Jesus pays the taxes without making a statement of judgment about them other than asserting the child of God's ultimate freedom from such things. Jesus doesn't weigh in on the rabbinical debate about the minimalist once-in-a-lifetime or the more demanding annual Temple tax. Matthew doesn't form an interpretation for a tax revolt against the hated toll for the temple of Jupiter. Jesus simply asserts the children's freedom under God, and he then acts for the sake of community peace.

As a free child of God I am particularly pleased to pay taxes when they support the common good and when they go to the cause of creating a healthy and vibrant community. I want the finest educational opportunities to be available to all, adequate security, modes of public transportation available for all including those who may not afford a car, infrastructure for creativity in business and other human pursuits, parks and museums that welcome everyone, shelter, security in old age, and universal access to health care. These seem like the building blocks of a healthy and just society. It takes a temple tax to support a temple.

I am not so pleased to pay taxes for foolish wars and for the promotion of prejudicial or elitist policies. But there is no way to parse out the taxes. So, in order not to give offense, I go fishing every day -- I go to work -- and God provides. But I do wish that God would provide more for the poor and a more generous spirit among the wealthy and powerful, for the sake of community and the common good.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012 -- Week of Proper 6, Year Two

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 971)
Psalms 119:97-120 (morning) 81, 82 (evening)
Numbers 11:24-33 (34-35)
Romans 1:28 - 2:11
Matthew 18:1-9

[Go to http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html for an online version of the Daily Office including today's scripture readings.]

Many years ago I noticed that our Daily Office Lectionary skips two verses in Romans 1, verses 26-27. They are two of the most controversial verses in the New Testament. I thought to myself, "Ah, ha! A little political correctness in the new Prayer Book." (The new Book of Common Prayer was authorized in 1979). So I looked up the lectionary in the old book, the 1928 Prayer Book. The second lesson for Evening Prayer on the 7th Sunday after Trinity is Romans 1:17-21, 28-32. What do you know? These verses haven't been used in the lectionary for a very long time, if ever.

But I've heard them quoted more than nearly any other two verses with reference to the church's debate over same-sex relationships.

Yesterday we read the beginning of Paul's argument. He is setting up to make his case for justification by faith apart from works. He wants to emphasize that all have sinned -- the Gentiles who followed their futile ways in idolatry and the Jews (his primary audience in this book) who have followed the law in vain.

First he is speaking of the futility of Gentile idolatry. Yesterday he said they should have known better, because what can be known of God is plain through the creation. But instead of looking through the created order toward the God who created it, they looked to creation itself and worshipped idols, part of the created order. The next part (verse 26 on) is Paul's indictment of the Gentile idol worshipers.

Here are the omitted verses that have had so much play recently:
(26) "For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, (27) and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error."

This is the most significant passage in all of scripture cited to condemn homosexual behavior. I've heard at least four interpretations.

1. It's plain and straightforward. God, through Paul, condemns all acts of same-sex intercourse.

2. The passage is about the rites and rituals practiced in temples of idol worship, which included acts of intercourse with temple prostitutes. Has nothing to do with the love of committed gay couples.

3. Paul is using Jewish polemic and caricature about Gentiles to goad and shame his Jewish readers into abandoning circumcision and the law. This is prejudiced, exaggerated language about Gentiles and their debauchery as motivation for his Jewish readers. (The nasty litany continues through the end of the chapter.)

4. Appropriate instructions for heterosexuals. It is unnatural to have same-sex relationships. But for someone whose sexual orientation is naturally toward the same-sex, a similar admonition would apply in the other direction.

I know good, faithful Episcopalians who find themselves convinced by each of these interpretations. (and there are probably other ways of interpreting that I don't know)

A gay friend of mine engaging this section of Romans told me that when he reads this, he doesn't see himself being described. "I've been gay all my life. It's as natural for me as I suppose your love for your wife is for you. And I'm a sinner, all right. But when I read what Paul has to say about these people -- 'debased mind... filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, craftiness, ...gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, rebellious toward parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless...' Well, I've gossiped before and you could say I'm haughty every once in a while, but that's not me. That list doesn't describe me or my partner or our relationship together or our lives apart."

A straight friend of mine reading this passage and reflecting on her own experience says of homosexuality, "I think it's wrong. I just do. I think its wrong and the Bible condemns it. It's not natural. And if someone feels an inclination toward someone of the same sex they shouldn't act on that any more than I should pick up something that doesn't belong to me just because I'm attracted to it."

Most of the letter to the Romans deals with the question: "How should Gentiles and Jews relate to each other 'in Christ'?" They come from different worlds, and yet they are bound together in Christ. During the upcoming weeks reading Romans, we might let our sub-text be "How should Episcopalians with different world views relate to each other 'in Christ'?" Let's see what we can learn.

A brother asked Abba Poemen, “Why should I not be free to do without manifesting my thoughts to the old men?” The old man replied, “Abba John the Dwarf said, ‘The enemy rejoices over nothing so much as those who do not manifest their thoughts.’”
Benedicta Ward, SLG, trans. The Sayings of the Desert Fathers (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1975), p. 181.

The manifestation (or disclosure) of thoughts has a technical meaning in the traditions of desert monasticism. It lies close to the origins of what we would think of as spiritual direction, but also to the sacrament of the reconciliation of a penitent. This is help given by a spiritual elder (father or mother, seldom a priest) to a less experienced monk struggling with thoughts and temptations, often conceived as prompted by demons.

However we understand the demonic, I think there is an important insight here for those of us who struggle with various forms of temptation and sin. Keeping these a secret is no way to triumph over the enemy. The very act of disclosing a thought in the light may open up space for God’s grace to work. I would never discount the particular grace of sacramental absolution from an ordained priest, but in its own way something powerful is also at work when brothers and sisters disclose their hearts and seek wisdom and counsel from discrete and trusted elders, whether or not they happen to be priests. Indeed, in the instant our temptations, sins, and struggles are named as such, they lose some of their power.

Again, however we conceive our ancient enemy, the enemy works best in secret. And the “enemy rejoices over nothing so much as those who do not manifest their thoughts.”

The Rev. Bill Carroll serves as rector of Emmanuel Parish, Shawnee in the Diocese of Oklahoma. His new parish blog is Emmanuel Shawnee Blog

Thursday, June 21, 2012 -- Week of Proper 6, Year Two

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 971)
Psalms [83], or 34 (morning) 85, 86 (evening)
Numbers 12:1-16
Romans 2:12-24
Matthew 18:10-20

[Go to http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html for an online version of the Daily Office including today's scripture readings.]

The story in Numbers 12 is a fascinating tale of racism. Moses' sister and brother, Miriam and Aaron "spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married." Usually the region of Cush refers to Ethiopia (occasionally to Midian). Moses' wife Zipporah was from Midian. Ethiopian Africans are black. The effect of the charge against Moses is not unlike someone calling another's wife a "Nigger" regardless of where she is from, simply because she is dark skinned or foreign.

God's reaction is swift and unambiguous. God reaffirms an intimate relationship with Moses, then God makes Miriam unclean with leprosy. In a gracious act of inclusion and forgiveness, Moses intercedes on Miriam's behalf, and the community pauses on their journey long enough for her to be restored to them.

How much of our human story is marred by racism and prejudice.

Paul also addresses some racial and cultural boundaries in the portion of his letter to the Romans that we read today. Paul insists that everyone stands naked before God. None of us is privileged by reason of our race, religion, or standing. Everybody has sinned. And many people behave rightly even though they are outside our religious boundaries. God honors their goodness regardless of their religious standing. There is no special privilege accorded to one religion over another. Especially if the behavior of the religious ones is hypocritical to the values they espouse. Paul says, "God shows no partiality."

And Matthew's Gospel tells the story of the lost sheep and announces that "it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost." The little, the lost and the leprous are the ones that God seeks especially. God will not let anyone out of God's net.

But for those of us who are insiders, when we sin against another, the Gospel gives us a process for truth and reconciliation. If that process fails, "let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector." But of course, it is the Gentiles and tax collectors that Jesus says go first into the kingdom of heaven anyway.

So much of the Biblical witness turns our privilege and presumption on its ear. God's mercy is abundant and extraordinary. God special outreach is always directed compassionately toward the lost sheep. The only ones who tend to catch God's particular ire are the proud and those who are pretty certain of their own standing and rightness. They get jacked around for awhile. But, Moses and Jesus intercede, and the community will wait on them. As long as they are able to stand up and join the parade with the outcast and sinners; the lost and little and leprous; the black and the gay and the Moslem -- the parade will welcome them no matter how far back in line they may finally decide to join in the fun. Come along Miriam and Aaron. We'll wait on you.

Friday, June 22, 2012 -- Week of Proper 6, Year Two
Alban, First Martyr of Britain, c. 304

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 971)
Psalms 88 (morning) 91, 92 (evening)
Numbers 13:1-3, 21-30
Romans 2:25 - 3:8
Matthew 18:21-35

[Go to http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html for an online version of the Daily Office including today's scripture readings.]

It's a matter of the heart. All three readings today are "heart readings." In Numbers we have the story of the spies who go into Canaan and return with fearful hearts, except for one, Caleb. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus urges us to forgive from the heart, and he has some fairly extreme things to say about that. But I want to look at Paul's conversation about real circumcision -- a matter of the heart.

In the back of my mind I'm thinking about a conversation I recently had with another minister. We were disagreeing. He was certain that the "only way" to God was through Jesus. I agreed, but I saw Jesus as the Second Person of the Holy Spirit manifested whenever God is manifest throughout history, in every age and culture and religion. Wherever there is good, truth, or beauty, ...faith, hope, or love, there is the incarnation of God whom we recognize as Jesus. Not so, he said. There is only one way, and it is Jesus only as revealed in the Scriptures. Unless one confesses his name, in a very precise way, the consequences are eternal separation from God.

Paul is having a similar disagreement. The issue is whether the "only way" to God is through circumcision. Circumcision is the Biblical sign of one's covenant to follow the Jewish law. But, Paul says, look what a mess we who are Jews have made of following the law. We dishonor God with our unfaithfulness. And what about those Gentiles who are faithful, whose ethics exceed our own? It is a matter of the heart. God desires the inner, spiritual transformation of our hearts, not something external and physical.

So, the others say to Paul, it doesn't matter that we are Jews, that God called us as a chosen people. YES it matters, says Paul. We were entrusted with a precious gift. And God will be faithful to the promises to the Jewish people. In fact, look what God is doing with Jewish unfaithfulness! God is using our people's unfaithfulness to open God's grace to non-Jews. If God does something great like that with unfaithfulness, there is no limit to what God can do, especially with any form of faithfulness.

So back away from the distinctions. We are all the same before God. All have failed. God loves all. And even in the face of universal failure, God's grace abounds. All that is needed is a little trust, a little heart-faithfulness. And you can find big hearts among those who are "in" (the circumcised) and those who are "out" (the uncircumcised). Promote faithfulness-of-heart among all -- big courageous hearts; forgiving hearts. It's okay to back away from some of those outward boundaries. What God wants is our inner, spiritual transformation. The inner faithfulness will then produce outer faithfulness.

A friend of mine says that makes a good church too. Soft at the edges and strong at the core. Or as I saw it recently in a logo: "Deep roots. Low walls."

Then the men who had gone up with him said, ‘We are not able to go up against this people, for they are stronger than we are.’ So they brought to the Israelites an unfavourable report of the land that they had spied out, saying, ‘The land that we have gone through as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people that we saw in it are of great size. There we saw the Nephilim (the Anakites come from the Nephilim); and to ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.’

Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. And all the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron; the whole congregation said to them, ‘Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become booty; would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?’ So they said to one another, ‘Let us choose a captain, and go back to Egypt.’

Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the Israelites. And Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes and said to all the congregation of the Israelites, ‘The land that we went through as spies is an exceedingly good land. If the Lord is pleased with us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. Only, do not rebel against the Lord; and do not fear the people of the land, for they are no more than bread for us; their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.’ But the whole congregation threatened to stone them.

Then the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the Israelites. And the Lord said to Moses, ‘How long will this people despise me? And how long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? I will strike them with pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.’

But Moses said to the Lord, ‘Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for in your might you brought up this people from among them, and they will tell the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you, O Lord, are in the midst of this people; for you, O Lord, are seen face to face, and your cloud stands over them and you go in front of them, in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. Now if you kill this people all at one time, then the nations who have heard about you will say, “It is because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land he swore to give them that he has slaughtered them in the wilderness.” And now, therefore, let the power of the Lord be great in the way that you promised when you spoke, saying,

“The Lord is slow to anger,
and abounding in steadfast love,
forgiving iniquity and transgression,
but by no means clearing the guilty,
visiting the iniquity of the parents
upon the children
to the third and the fourth generation.”

Forgive the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just as you have pardoned this people, from Egypt even until now.’

Then the Lord said, ‘I do forgive, just as you have asked; nevertheless—as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord— none of the people who have seen my glory and the signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have tested me these ten times and have not obeyed my voice, shall see the land that I swore to give to their ancestors; none of those who despised me shall see it. But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me wholeheartedly, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it. Now, since the Amalekites and the Canaanites live in the valleys, turn tomorrow and set out for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.’ -- Numbers 13:31-14:25 (NRSV)

Moses sent out twelve spies to see what this "Promised Land" was really like. It was a natural thing, at least I think we'd see it that way. Any time I move, I want to find out as much as I can about where I'm going, what the weather's like, how the neighborhoods are, etc. When there are a whole bunch of people moving in all at once, it is a pretty safe bet that the locals aren't going to be happy about it, so the more that is known beforehand about them and their land, the better.

Sometimes it's hard to get the straight story. Two people witness an accident and there will be two (probably somewhat different) accounts of what happened. Two political candidates will speak to a single issue and it, and the solution to it, will undoubtedly seem like two entirely different things, even if the two candidates represent the same party with, allegedly, the same goals. So it was with the Israelites. Out of twelve spies who set out to scope out the new territory God promised them, ten came back with one story while two gave a very different one. Somehow when I read passages like this, it is hard not to think that things haven't really changed all that much between us and Moses' band of wandering exiles.

Everybody has an idea of a land of milk and honey, where everything is good and to their liking. I sometimes think the second item there is the most important, because I don't always see where "good" and "to their liking" are totally compatible, especially since human beings tend to be a cantankerous bunch, each with their own idea of what is good and to their liking and it seldom agrees totally with that of their next-door neighbor, the person on the other side of town or even in another part of the state much less the country or the world. When you have ten people telling you it's awful, the people are huge and mean, the land isn't very good and oh, why did we come all this way for this, while two others are telling you it's great, the grapes are THIIIIIIIIS big, the pasture is terrific and it all looks like paradise, who are you supposed to believe? When you have ten people telling you that this group is out to "convert" you and your children to a degenerate way of life because they demand equal rights and opportunities while two tell you they are just like you, except that they happen to be a gay or lesbian couple, who are you to believe? When ten people tell you that bleeding-heart programs just foster more welfare-dependent and lazy people and two tell you that most folks aren't looking for a handout but rather a hand up, who are you supposed to believe?

Moses put the people's questions to God, strategically reminding God that if God allowed the Israelites to be wiped out, all the neighbors and their rulers would say that God didn't live up to the billing and couldn't deliver on promises made. How would that be for recruitment of a new people? So, despite the temerity and doubt of the people, Moses got God to find an alternative plan, one that would, unfortunately, keep them wandering in the desert for forty years but which would, eventually, lead their sons and daughters to the Promised Land as promised. It's easy to look back at this story and see that indeed, the two spies were right and the ten were so wrong, God had an alternative plan in the pipeline and things would work out as promised. What happens now with our media, our elected officials, our nay-sayers and "But God's Word clearly states...." folks, it's a little harder to see. Clearly their vision is a lot like the ten spies, full of fear and temerity and, sometimes, reporting what they feel or want us to feel, not what actually is.

Sometimes it's better to listen to two than to ten, and sometimes it is necessary to go talk to God about it and see what the plan is. It's usually better to step out in faith than to grovel in fear, no matter how hard that step is. Sometimes returning to the past seems the safest move, even if the past has a lot of negative stuff attached to it. Even if it is negative, at least it's familiar and familiarity counts when I try to balance it with something new and untried, something that might turn out great but which also has the possibility of being as bad as, if not worse, than the I tried to escape.

Lack of trust, faith and courage kept the older generation of Israelites who had known bondage wandering around in the desert, seemingly going in circles when a straight line would have quickly taken them to the Promised Land. With the death of the last of their generation, a new generation, their sons and daughters, could move past the fear and into the inheritance that was promised so many decades ago.

What's keeping me from my own inheritance? Do I hang on to a past that is at least familiar, or do I set off not knowing what's beyond the next rise or around the next corner? One thing's for sure -- I won't be sending out any spies to investigate the territory and report back. I've got to do it on faith alone, and by myself. Well, by myself -- with God's help.

Linda Ryan co-mentors 2 EfM Online groups and keeps the blog Jericho's Daughter

Psalms 66, 67 (Morning)
Psalms 19, 46 (Evening)
Numbers 14:26-45
Acts 15:1-12
Luke 12:49-56

And the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying: How long shall this wicked congregation complain against me? I have heard the complaints of the Israelites, which they complain against me. Say to them, “As I live,” says the Lord, “I will do to you the very things I heard you say: your dead bodies shall fall in this very wilderness; and of all your number, included in the census, from twenty years old and upward, who have complained against me, not one of you shall come into the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. But your little ones, who you said would become booty, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you have despised. But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness for forty years, and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for every day a year, you shall bear your iniquity, forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.” I the Lord have spoken; surely I will do thus to all this wicked congregation gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die.
And the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation complain against him by bringing a bad report about the land— the men who brought an unfavorable report about the land died by a plague before the Lord. But Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh alone remained alive, of those men who went to spy out the land. When Moses told these words to all the Israelites, the people mourned greatly. They rose early in the morning and went up to the heights of the hill country, saying, “Here we are. We will go up to the place that the Lord has promised, for we have sinned.” But Moses said, “Why do you continue to transgress the command of the Lord? That will not succeed. Do not go up, for the Lord is not with you; do not let yourselves be struck down before your enemies. For the Amalekites and the Canaanites will confront you there, and you shall fall by the sword; because you have turned back from following the Lord, the Lord will not be with you.” But they presumed to go up to the heights of the hill country, even though the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and Moses, had not left the camp. Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and defeated them, pursuing them as far as Hormah. --Numbers 14:26-45 (NRSV)

"I have bad news."

One of the things we now teach medical students that was not taught when I was in training was "the art of telling patients bad news." In my day, it was usually dumped on the lowest member of the totem pole (usually the intern) and often done with very little forethought. One of the things we teach them is to start the conversation with the short blunt truth--"The pathologist's biopsy report is back, and you have a cancer." "The cardiologist says that your heart is only pumping with a fraction of what's normally expected." "I spoke with the neurologists and they don't think he'll ever regain consciousness." Another thing we teach them is to then say nothing and give people time to let it sink in and react--and to expect things like denial, or anger, or raw emotion, and to accept that some degree of "acting out" is normal.

As Linda pointed out in yesterday's reflection, it's human nature to couch things in the way that best meets our expectations and feelings at the time.

It's appropriate that the word "mourned" was used in our passage today, because the truth is, we all have to deal with some degree of grief with bad news. It takes a while to visualize our roadway through bad news, and, frankly, sometimes we simply don't do that. Hearing the word "cancer" takes our brains straight to "Stage IV, multiple metastases, only a short while to live, painful agonizing death," and we are not yet ready to hear "curable," or "treatable," or "palliative care." To be treated means work. It means suffering the chronic conditions of chemotherapy or radiation. It means changing our life schedules and our work life. Even if the diagnosis IS an incurable one, it means the work of being ready and reconciliation.

Today's reading picks up at the moment Moses is told the bad news that is to be delivered--that the people will have forty pretty rough years. As Linda pointed out yesterday, retreating into the past is sometimes the response. "But you said the hill country was ours. I want my hill country, I'm going to my hill country, and you're not going to stop me!" The people were not ready to hear that they were not given a total "Stage IV incurable cancer diagnosis." The diagnosis was only for 40 years. Yes, it did mean for most of those present, it would be a terminal condition. But it was also a condition that, when treated, offered hope to succeeding generations.

The story is a reminder of those times in our life when we were not ready to accept that something would get better, but we'd have to walk through a period that it would get worse before it got better. Instead of simply putting on our grown-up undies and wading into it, we chose to be needy. If the bad news was financial, our response might have been to run out and buy something (or worse, charge it), or spend a weekend at the gambling boat. If the bad news was personal, perhaps we retreated into the emotional unavailability that drugs or alcohol temporarily provide. If the bad news involved intimacy or intimate personal relationships, we chose to immerse ourselves in one or more meaningless relationships and squander our intimacy. We bristle, flare up, clam up, and act up to hide behind a false sense of distance those actions seem to provide.

It's also a reminder that sometimes we really won't live long enough to see the place where reconciliation happens. It's just a fact. Generation after generation of African-Americans went to their graves not yet seeing even a glimmer of civil rights. Native Americans are still waiting for that glimmer of reconciliation in many ways. Having hope when the situation will probably be hopeless in our lifetimes isn't easy.

Of course, we have the advantage of knowing how this story turns out. The Promised Land will be reached. Moses will get to see it but not actually get to be in it--but it's okay by Moses. We are the ones who feel sad about that, not Moses. That's the stuff that is the center of holy hope. We are where we are in society this day, wrangling over the things in society we're wrangling over, because others went to their graves with hope despite a sense they'd never see the day of its coming.

How will each of us choose to live in hope today, in the turmoil of bad news?

Maria Evans, a surgical pathologist from Kirksville, MO, writes about the obscurities of life, medicine, faith, and the Episcopal Church on her blog, Kirkepiscatoid

Monday, June 25, 2012 -- Week of Proper 7, Year Two
either The Nativity of Saint John the Baptist (tr. fm. June 24)
or James Weldon Johnson, Poet, 1938

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 973)
Psalms 89:1-18 (morning) 89:19-52 (evening)
Numbers 16:1-19
Romans 3:21-31
Matthew 19:13-22

[Go to http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html for an online version of the Daily Office including today's scripture readings.]

Romans 3:28 is a fine summary of Paul's teaching: "For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law." Paul knew something about "works prescribed by the law." In his former life, he was successful. He zealously obeyed the law, and it brought him only anxiety. Am I doing right? What if I mess up? He became self-absorbed and filled with a kind of performance anxiety. It drove him crazy.

I had a friend who was smart enough to go through college and make all A's. It was her motivation. She worked hard. She studied conscientiously. Toward her senior year, she became a bit compulsive about it. She didn't join her friends if there was a big test coming up. She was taking an advanced course that semester that was very hard. She was so worried that she wouldn't ace it that she became almost obsessed with learning everything so she would run any risk. She was competing with another student who also had all A's. They were in this same class.

Eventually it got ugly when he got a B on something and she got an A. She was sure she was going to win a prestigious award that went to the person with the highest grades in their particular major. But her competition, the other (male) student's father was a very powerful state legislator. Somehow, he ended up with an A and won the award at graduation. She's sure she got bumped. I remember a conversation with her later. "I wish I had more fun at college. I studied too hard."

It's a good thing to study and to make A's. ("Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.") But our "being," our "justification" is not based on our grades. Our relationship as God's beloved is a gift. We are accepted because God loves us. That's that. God's loving acceptance is God's free unqualified gift to us. Grace is the word Paul uses. Accept that gift (faith) and you are in (justified). Jew or Gentile, doesn't matter. Passing or failing doesn't affect the offer.

So now you can relax. You don't have to make all "A's.". Instead, you can relax and learn. Learn and grow for the sake of the learning and growing rather than for the grade.

Jesus makes the same point today. Riches can do the same thing to you that achieving does. Riches distract us. Possessions posses us. They also promote pride and self-glorification. Just like an "A-student" may easily think herself better than a "C-student" so a wealthy person so easily may think himself better than a poor person. It is impossible to enter into the kingdom of heaven so burdened with self-interest, self-importance. As impossible as for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.

You can't earn or buy your way into God's graces. You can only accept it humbly, like everybody else. "For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law." It's the heart of Paul's gospel.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012 -- Week of Proper 7, Year Two
Isabel Florence Hapgood, Ecumenist and Journalist, 1929

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 973)
Psalms 97, 99, [100] (morning) 94, [95] (evening)
Numbers 16:20-35
Romans 4:1-12
Matthew 19:23-30

[Go to http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html for an online version of the Daily Office including today's scripture readings.]

I remember how bothered I was as a child when I first read the story of about the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram that we have for today's first reading. I was at my grandmother's house, reading from a children's Bible. The book had been my father's when he was a child. It told the biblical stories in a straightforward way, using vocabulary that was accessible for a younger reader. There were illustrations, mostly black and white, that were pretty literal and meant to be as historically accurate as possible. Some of the pictures were pretty scary.

The story of this rebellion in the wilderness was pretty clear. These three were challenging Moses, but more than that, by challenging Moses, they were disobeying God's intention, since Moses was God's chosen. The haunting part about it for me was the image of Korah, Dathan and Abiram standing at the entrance of their tents along with "their wives, their children, and their little ones." Moses prays for God to judge between them, and the earth opens up and swallows them all alive. Children and all.

I don't remember if there was an accompanying illustration, but I have in my mind a terrible image of their shocked and fearful faces (in black and white) as the earth disappears under their feet and they begin to fall to their living deaths. I wondered why God, who could do all things, couldn't have thought of another way -- maybe lightning -- to punish just the ones who had done the wrong, not the wives and children.

Yet children are always dragged along into the damnable consequences of their parent's activities and choices. When "insurgents" meet in a home in Afghanistan and our intelligence learns of the meeting, the drone bomber destroys everyone in the house, wives and children included. When the Sudanese military bombs a defenseless village and the Janjaweed militia follow through with raids on horse or camelback, women are raped and children are killed or enslaved. When a Mexican family seeking something better finds a way into this country, their children may grow up from early childhood as Americans, yet find themselves "illegal" when they turn 18 and can't accept the college scholarship they have qualified for. When a parent drinks into addiction and creates a household of chaos and fear, the children are damaged in a profound way that usually persists into adulthood. Books and recovery groups for "Adult Children of Alcoholics" seek to help them heal the persistent injuries of their vulnerable childhood.

It is in the nature of things that the consequences of adult rebellion and pride often fall most fiercely upon their children. It is also the nature of things that children face many of the punishing consequences of our systemic injustices. A profound proportion of those who live in poverty are children.

It is the responsibility of the adults to protect the children. We must think of the consequences to them when we make choices, especially choices motivated by false pride. What we might be willing to risk for ourselves, are we willing to inflict on our children?

It is also important for us to give voice to the interests of children in our political debate. They cannot vote. They have no power. If the needs and interests of children are to be represented, it must be the adults that do so. Thank God for groups like the Children's Defense Fund and my state's Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families.

I wonder again about that story of Korah, Dathan and Abiram. What if, just before the earth opened, as they stood before their tents, a group of Hebrew women ran to them, gathered the wives and children and scurried them away from the danger? Would God have been angry? Would Moses have stopped them? I don't know. But it seems to me it would have been worth the try. Every time Abraham or Moses challenged God by interceding about a justice issue, God modified the anticipated damage. (i.e. Abraham in Sodom and Moses in the next section of this reading)

It is our responsibility to try -- to intercede for justice on behalf of the innocent and vulnerable who are in harm's way because of the choices of the powerful. Every day there are children who are being swallowed alive.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012 -- Week of Proper 7, Year Two
Cornelius Hill, Priest and Chief among the Oneida, 1907

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 973)
Psalms 101, 109:1-4(5-19)20-30 (morning) 119:121-144
Numbers 16:36-50
Romans 4:13-25
Matthew 20:1-16

[Go to http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html for an online version of the Daily Office including today's scripture readings.]

It is a regular theme of Jesus' parables that in God's kingdom: Grace abounds. In many of those parables grace has an economic aspect.

It is a regular theme of the Hebrew scriptures that God loves the poor and expects God's people to care for them.

In Jesus' parables about the workers, though the workers come at all times of the day, even at the last hour, they all receive the daily wage that they need to provide for themselves and their family. It is an enacted version of the prayer "Give us this day our daily bread."

The parable works on both a plain and a metaphorical level.

Economic care and justice extends to the poor to insure that every person is paid what we might call today a "living wage." God's economy is generous toward the needy. All receive their daily bread; debts are forgiven.

The parable also communicates the metaphorical message that God loves all people and gives abundantly to the latecomer as well as the long-faithful, the prodigal and the elder son. The full acceptance, forgiveness and grace of God is always available and complete.

Like so many psalms, Psalm 109 sets up a plea for the poor and needy and an accusation toward those who fail to care for them, or worse, who oppress the poor. The series of bitter curses (optional verses) are directed toward an unknown oppressor, "Because he did not remember to show mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy..." The psalmist asks for and claims mercy from God, "For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me." This consistent message of the Hebrew scriptures is sometimes described as "God's preferential option for the poor."

What would our politics and economics look like if our values reflected the values of Jesus' parables and of the Hebrew scriptures?

Reflection on Sunday's Gospel Mark 5:21-43

Isolated and alone
Woman of blood
pours herself towards
the fabric of life.

Dewdrop of hope
slips down the thread
to the woman
with outstretched hands

See more on today's gospel at Edge of Enclosure

The Rev. Ann Fontaine keeps what the tide brings in. She is the author of Streams of Mercy: a meditative commentary on the Bible.

Friday, June 29, 2012 -- Week of Proper 7, Year Two
Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Apostles

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer)
EITHER the readings for Sts. Peter and Paul (p. 998)
Morning Prayer: Psalm 66; Ezekiel 2:1-7; Acts 11:1-18
Evening Prayer: Psalms 97, 138; Isaiah 49:1-6; Galatians 2:1-9

OR the readings for Friday of Proper 7, (p. 973)
Psalms 102 (morning) 107:1-32
Numbers 20:1-13
Romans 5:12-21
Matthew 20:29-34

[Go to http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html for an online version of the Daily Office including today's scripture readings.]

I used the readings for Friday of Proper 7

Many years ago I became convinced of something that I couldn't really defend theologically. I'm not sure that I can defend it systematically to this day. So I hold to it as a personal conviction and hope rather than as a point of doctrine.

My experience of the grace and love of God has been so wonderful, that it is virtually unimaginable to me that anyone can escape that immeasurable love forever. I've become convinced that God's victory will be total.

It seems to me that Paul gets to a similar place in his writing today. He repeats the crescendo of wonder -- "If this ..., then how much more ...Christ." If sin came into the world through the one man Adam's sin, how much more is sin defeated through the one man Jesus. If death exercised dominion from Adam, how much more will life triumph through Jesus. If judgment brought condemnation, how much more will the free gift bring righteousness and grace. If Adam brought defeat, how much more has Jesus brought victory.

"Therefore just as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man's act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. For just as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous." (Romans 5:18-19)

It is hard to imagine anyone being excluded from Jesus' triumph. Life for all. That's what Paul says. (Or as some of my more literal friends like to say, "The Bible says, 'Life for all!' and that's what it means.")

If little old Adam's measly sin brought condemnation and death to all, how much more completely effective is the goodness and resurrection of Jesus the Son of God for all. This is Paul at his most expansive. His vision of Christ is universal. The triumph is complete. That seems to be the way it is when the direction of our vision is cast toward Christ. His love is so expansive that it fills all.

There are other places where Paul does not seem so expansive. When he concentrates on human failure and obstinacy, he can get almost morose. (We're about to enter one of those times in the upcoming passages in Romans.) But over and over he returns to the wonder of the forgiveness, grace and victory of Christ which has overcome all -- and it is a free gift, not something to be earned.

For Paul (for me) that is motivation for living. All is given; so how can we keep on living so selfishly, so anxiously? All is won; so how can we keep living so fearfully, so violently? All is forgiven; so how can we keep living so arrogantly, so condemning? Live into the gift, the triumph, the love. That's the gospel good news.

[I'm taking about a month off from "Speaking to the Soul." For the next two weeks I'll be writing a blog from the General Convention of the Episcopal Church. That will be available from http://generalconvention.blogspot.com. Then I'll be taking a couple of weeks of vacation. I'll be back writing for "Speaking to the Soul" in August]

Lowell

Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom, ‘Thus says your brother Israel: You know all the adversity that has befallen us: how our ancestors went down to Egypt, and we lived in Egypt for a long time; and the Egyptians oppressed us and our ancestors; and when we cried to the Lord, he heard our voice, and sent an angel and brought us out of Egypt; and here we are in Kadesh, a town on the edge of your territory. Now let us pass through your land. We will not pass through field or vineyard, or drink water from any well; we will go along the King’s Highway, not turning aside to the right hand or to the left until we have passed through your territory.’

But Edom said to him, ‘You shall not pass through, or we will come out with the sword against you.’ The Israelites said to him, ‘We will stay on the highway; and if we drink of your water, we and our livestock, then we will pay for it. It is only a small matter; just let us pass through on foot.’ But he said, ‘You shall not pass through.’ And Edom came out against them with a large force, heavily armed. Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through their territory; so Israel turned away from them.

They set out from Kadesh, and the Israelites, the whole congregation, came to Mount Hor. Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron at Mount Hor, on the border of the land of Edom, ‘Let Aaron be gathered to his people. For he shall not enter the land that I have given to the Israelites, because you rebelled against my command at the waters of Meribah. Take Aaron and his son Eleazar, and bring them up Mount Hor; strip Aaron of his vestments, and put them on his son Eleazar. But Aaron shall be gathered to his people, and shall die there.’ Moses did as the Lord had commanded; they went up Mount Hor in the sight of the whole congregation. Moses stripped Aaron of his vestments, and put them on his son Eleazar; and Aaron died there on the top of the mountain. Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain. When all the congregation saw that Aaron had died, all the house of Israel mourned for Aaron for thirty days. --- Numbers 20:14-29 (NRSV)

In the saga of the Israelites after their leaving Egypt, these two episodes seem to be a little unrelated, other than that they both take place on the journey. The first tells of the Israelites coming to the borders of Edom, the land of the descendants of Esau, Jacob's (Israel's) twin brother. Moses had sent messengers to ask permission to cross their territory, even offering to pay for any provisions or damage, calling on the king of Edom to remember the bonds of kinship. The king refused, and the Israelites headed another way.

The second story is also about kinship, in a way. Aaron, Moses's brother and chief priest of the Israelite band, was about to die. He had done a lot of good things, but he had also done some snarky ones, including fomenting discord with his sister and fellow prophet Miriam over Moses' leadership (for which Miriam got punished and Aaron didn't), yielding to pressure and fashioning a golden calf for the people to worship, and being with Moses when Moses struck the rock to which God had ordered him to speak. His ultimate punishment was death on the journey, not in the promised land -- as was the punishment for the entire generation of Israelites who had begun the exodus from Egypt, including Moses.

With Aaron on his deathbed, his successor as chief priest needed to be appointed. The successor would not only inherit the responsibilities for leading the rites and practices of the Israelites, but also the very raiment that marked the high priest. The tunic, the turban, the breastpiece, robe, ephod, even the breeches all had a practical meaning (as a reminder of various laws and practices) but also symbolic ones. The handing over of these garments, or, as the text puts it, the "stripping" of Aaron and the placing on Eleazar conveys the transfer of power and prestige, but also responsibility as well. Elisha inherited Elijah's mantle, and with it the position of chief prophet for Israel.

Often when there is a change of leadership it is referred to as the successor inheriting the mantle of the predecessor, even if the successor takes the corporation, church or group in an entirely different direction. Inheriting a mantle conveys responsibility for the welfare of those being led, but it doesn't always work out that way. Televangelists' children often inherit the church that their father had built up through charisma and God's guidance, but the second generation doesn't always sustain the growth and may even lead to the downfall of the entire edifice. Children of corporate moguls may (or may not) be successful in continuing the growth of the company that had made their parent so successful. Even disciples might not live up to the responsibility laid on them by the visible or invisible "mantle" of their teacher. Sometimes the parent themselves see that the offspring are not really interested in the family business or adept at management at the level to which they might be raised. A successful parent does not always mean a successful child as successor.

Aaron made mistakes, of that there was no doubt. He also tried to do what God wanted, but his humanity made him as fallible as any other human being. Priestly garb or not, he could only do his best, even if that weren't always good enough. I wonder -- does God choose people for special jobs or positions knowing that they might fail simply because of their human nature? Does God lay a mantle on them with the expectation that they will grow into it or that it will always remain a size or two too large? How much do we expect of our children? Do we lay on them the mantle of wanting them to do better than we did as parents, workers and examples?

I think I need to look at the mantle God has laid on me, but first I have to discern what that mantle is. It's not an obvious one, like Aaron's ephod, tunic and turban or Elijah's cloak, but it's there somewhere. Identifying the mantle is one thing, growing into it is another. It sounds like a project that may take me years, and there might be a few golden calves or struck rocks on the way. Still, all I can do is my best. God expects that, but still allows for my humanity.

Somehow, that is a comforting thought.

Linda Ryan co-mentors 2 EfM Online groups and keeps the blog Jericho's Daughter