“If you knew the whole Bible by heart and the teachings of all the philosophers, what would all this avail you without the love of God, and without His grace?”
Thomas a'Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book 1, Chapter 1
On Mondays I lead a Bible study at the Rogue Valley Retirement Center. We are currently working our way through Matthew, and this week we focused on Chapter 15. That chapter opens up with scribes and Pharisees confronting Jesus over the issue of ritual hand washing. Jesus goes on the offensive and talks about how the traditions of hand washing and allowing children to abandon their parents are in direct opposition to God's will. What he's telling those around him is that we cannot be tainted by what we perceive as impurities in others. Verses 1-20 have Jesus arguing against limited, literal readings of Scripture that are designed to keep people out, in favor of generous readings of Scripture that look to manifest the love of God to everyone through our behavior.
The argument the Pharisees and scribes were essentially making was, “Scripture clearly says . . .”
The scribes and the Pharisees knew their holy scripture and the teachings that derived from it. They were constantly playing a game of scriptural one-upmanship with Jesus, looking to prove they had all the right scriptural answers in an attempt to maintain their purity and holiness. By holding to ritual law, by maintaining their cleanliness, as was dictated in both scripture and thousands of years of teachings, they could maintain their holiness while ostracizing and condemning others.
This wasn't just an issue for the Pharisees and scribes of Jesus' day, it is an issue for Christians today as well. Today we also have people who know the Bible by heart. Today we have people quoting scripture in reference to the curse of Ham. Today we have people who find scriptural support for slavery and the continued oppression of African Americans. Today we have people who find scriptural support for the degrading and exclusion of women, minorities and outsiders. Today we still have people more concerned with their own purity and being tainted by perceived impurities of others than with expressing the love of God in thought, word and deed.
I don't know Dylann Roof or what he knew about the Bible. But I do know that groups steeped in racism (such as the KKK and the Council of Conservative Citizens) and in the patriarchy movement (such as Quiverfull) often recite chapter and verse of the Bible as both a foundation of their hatred and rationale to ostracize, condemn and sometimes kill others.
The arguments these groups are essentially making is, “Scripture clearly says . . .”
Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you. Love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. Let all you do be done in love. Whoever does not love, abides in death.
If you knew the whole Bible by heart and the teachings of all the philosophers, what would all this avail you without the love of God?
Amen.
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
June 17, 2015
“Where is God in all this?”
Everyone everywhere in the midst of a tragedy
Bombings, shootings, buildings collapsing, terrorist attacks, sudden deaths, crashes and accidents of all kinds always bring out questions about the presence (or lack thereof) of God.
If God were a loving God, why would he let this happen? If God really is omnipotent, couldn't he have stopped this from happening? What did I do wrong that God is punishing me? All these questions and more surface when we are faced with a tragedy or loss of some kind.
And while it's easy to proclaim belief in an all-loving, omnipotent and omnipresent God who allows us to exercise our free will when things are going well, that seems to get more difficult or more complicated when things don't go our way or when disaster strikes. We want to hold to certain tenets of the faith as long as God doesn't get in the way, while also wanting to be engulfed in holy bubble-wrap to keep us from harm when things go wrong.
But that, unfortunately, is not how it works. God does not surround us with holy bubble-wrap. God does not step in and alter the course of bad or hateful decisions. God does not, generally speaking, suddenly and magically “make everything better.”
If God doesn't do any of those things, then we are back to the original question: Where is God in all this?
As Christians, we believe that God became incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ. This is an amazingly bold statement of belief: that the eternal, omnipotent, Creator of everything chose to humble himself and dwell with us as a fellow human being. But this can also be amazingly comforting when we realize that God Almighty chose to dwell with us as a fellow human being. It means that our suffering has become God's suffering. It means that our tragedies have become God's tragedies. It means that our joys have become God's joys. Our struggles and accomplishments are God's struggles and accomplishments. This is all reflected in Matthew's interpretation of Isaiah 7:14 when he writes, “ . . . 'and they shall name him Emmanuel,' which means, 'God is with us'.”
This question of where is God has been on my mind recently with the news of Dan Collins. On Monday afternoon he had the misfortune of falling down a flight of stairs resulting in eight broken ribs, a collapsed lung and lacerated spleen and liver. He was transported to the hospital in Tahoe and then airlifted to the Reno trauma center where he spent the past few days in ICU. Dan, apparently, could have benefited from holy bubble-wrap.
Where is God in all this? God is with the medics, nurses and doctors who have cared, and are caring, for Dan. God is with those who minister to Joan while in Reno. God is with Fr. John Seville, the interim rector at Trinity Church in Reno, who will visit Dan and Joan at the hospital. God is with all those who are praying for safety, healing and recovery.
Where is God in all this? God is with us.
Amen.
Everyone everywhere in the midst of a tragedy
Bombings, shootings, buildings collapsing, terrorist attacks, sudden deaths, crashes and accidents of all kinds always bring out questions about the presence (or lack thereof) of God.
If God were a loving God, why would he let this happen? If God really is omnipotent, couldn't he have stopped this from happening? What did I do wrong that God is punishing me? All these questions and more surface when we are faced with a tragedy or loss of some kind.
And while it's easy to proclaim belief in an all-loving, omnipotent and omnipresent God who allows us to exercise our free will when things are going well, that seems to get more difficult or more complicated when things don't go our way or when disaster strikes. We want to hold to certain tenets of the faith as long as God doesn't get in the way, while also wanting to be engulfed in holy bubble-wrap to keep us from harm when things go wrong.
But that, unfortunately, is not how it works. God does not surround us with holy bubble-wrap. God does not step in and alter the course of bad or hateful decisions. God does not, generally speaking, suddenly and magically “make everything better.”
If God doesn't do any of those things, then we are back to the original question: Where is God in all this?
As Christians, we believe that God became incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ. This is an amazingly bold statement of belief: that the eternal, omnipotent, Creator of everything chose to humble himself and dwell with us as a fellow human being. But this can also be amazingly comforting when we realize that God Almighty chose to dwell with us as a fellow human being. It means that our suffering has become God's suffering. It means that our tragedies have become God's tragedies. It means that our joys have become God's joys. Our struggles and accomplishments are God's struggles and accomplishments. This is all reflected in Matthew's interpretation of Isaiah 7:14 when he writes, “ . . . 'and they shall name him Emmanuel,' which means, 'God is with us'.”
This question of where is God has been on my mind recently with the news of Dan Collins. On Monday afternoon he had the misfortune of falling down a flight of stairs resulting in eight broken ribs, a collapsed lung and lacerated spleen and liver. He was transported to the hospital in Tahoe and then airlifted to the Reno trauma center where he spent the past few days in ICU. Dan, apparently, could have benefited from holy bubble-wrap.
Where is God in all this? God is with the medics, nurses and doctors who have cared, and are caring, for Dan. God is with those who minister to Joan while in Reno. God is with Fr. John Seville, the interim rector at Trinity Church in Reno, who will visit Dan and Joan at the hospital. God is with all those who are praying for safety, healing and recovery.
Where is God in all this? God is with us.
Amen.
Wednesday, June 10, 2015
June 10, 2015
“It is hard to forgo that to which we are accustomed, and harder still to conquer the will. But if you fail to overcome small and easy things, how will you overcome hard things? Resist your evil inclinations in the beginning, and unlearn your evil habits, lest perhaps little by little they bring you greater trials.”
Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ
This is more properly a Lenten meditation, for it is during that season in which we are more attuned to making changes in our lives that bring us closer to God. Change is difficult whether it is wanted or not; which is why I always tell people, “If you are going to give up chocolate for Lent, take on the habit of eating baby carrots; or if you are going to give up TV, take on the habit of reading Scripture.”
It's easier to overcome those small and easy things if we replace them with small but better habits. Baby carrots for chocolate, Scripture for TV, 30 minutes of walking for one TV show, etc.
And even though this seems to be more appropriate for a Lenten meditation, I was reminded of this quote from Thomas yesterday at Morning Prayer. For the last several days, the first reading has come from the book of Deuteronomy and is, essentially, Moses summarizing for the people of Israel both the benefits of obeying and the consequences of disobeying the Law.
“No, the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe . . . But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall perish” (Deut. 30:14, 17-18a).
I sometimes wonder if we aren't having the same conversation with the Serpent on a daily basis. “Oh, you won't die,” the Serpent whispers to us. “You'll be fine.”
But the truth is, we aren't fine. We slowly waste away by ignoring our physical health. We slowly create an enclave of one by focusing only on ourselves, ignoring others around us. We slowly drift away by seeing worship, prayer and study as non-essential activities. It doesn't take long for us to wander off into places we thought we would never go, one easy step at a time. And before we know it, we have a mountain of habits and practices too large to overcome. And eventually we get buried by that mountain.
How can we keep from being buried by the mountain? How can we avoid the trap of the Serpent? One step at a time, I think. Start small, maybe with a few baby carrots. Make an effort to unlearn one bad habit at a time. Make time to be more intentional about worship, prayer and study.
Lent comes around once a year to help us reorder our lives in relationship to God. The bad news is that those “evil inclinations” and “evil habits” don't pay attention to the Church calendar and have a way of cropping up on a daily basis.
The good news is that there's never a bad time to make a new beginning.
Amen.
Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ
This is more properly a Lenten meditation, for it is during that season in which we are more attuned to making changes in our lives that bring us closer to God. Change is difficult whether it is wanted or not; which is why I always tell people, “If you are going to give up chocolate for Lent, take on the habit of eating baby carrots; or if you are going to give up TV, take on the habit of reading Scripture.”
It's easier to overcome those small and easy things if we replace them with small but better habits. Baby carrots for chocolate, Scripture for TV, 30 minutes of walking for one TV show, etc.
And even though this seems to be more appropriate for a Lenten meditation, I was reminded of this quote from Thomas yesterday at Morning Prayer. For the last several days, the first reading has come from the book of Deuteronomy and is, essentially, Moses summarizing for the people of Israel both the benefits of obeying and the consequences of disobeying the Law.
“No, the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe . . . But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall perish” (Deut. 30:14, 17-18a).
I sometimes wonder if we aren't having the same conversation with the Serpent on a daily basis. “Oh, you won't die,” the Serpent whispers to us. “You'll be fine.”
But the truth is, we aren't fine. We slowly waste away by ignoring our physical health. We slowly create an enclave of one by focusing only on ourselves, ignoring others around us. We slowly drift away by seeing worship, prayer and study as non-essential activities. It doesn't take long for us to wander off into places we thought we would never go, one easy step at a time. And before we know it, we have a mountain of habits and practices too large to overcome. And eventually we get buried by that mountain.
How can we keep from being buried by the mountain? How can we avoid the trap of the Serpent? One step at a time, I think. Start small, maybe with a few baby carrots. Make an effort to unlearn one bad habit at a time. Make time to be more intentional about worship, prayer and study.
Lent comes around once a year to help us reorder our lives in relationship to God. The bad news is that those “evil inclinations” and “evil habits” don't pay attention to the Church calendar and have a way of cropping up on a daily basis.
The good news is that there's never a bad time to make a new beginning.
Amen.
Wednesday, June 3, 2015
June 3, 2015
“Just right.”
Josh
That was the favorite exclamation of Josh, the owner of one of the bars I used to frequent. Whenever something went exceedingly well, or whenever I said something he particularly liked, he always said, “Just right.”
We have just come through what some people call the Liturgical Season – the period of time that runs from Advent through the Day of Pentecost – and have moved into the Season after Pentecost – also called Ordinary Time – which stretches all the way to the end of November and Advent.
I have a saying that really needs to be on a bumper sticker: Episcopalians read the dirty pages. You can walk into any Episcopal church in any part of the country, pick up any prayer book in any pew, and you will find a thin, dirty line of pages running from 355 to 365. Those ten pages are, obviously, the most used pages of the BCP in any church and encompass Holy Eucharist. This really isn't surprising; it's just one of those common things that everybody does and, when pointed out, can make you laugh.
A long time ago I decided that we need to use more of the BCP on Sundays than is traditionally the case. So I sat down and created a system that utilized every Eucharistic Prayer on a regular basis. During Advent and Lent, I use Prayer B because I think it has a more somber tone and (more importantly) has the line, “For in these last days,” a phrase appropriate for those two seasons. At Christmas (and for services in which there are baptisms or a renewal of baptismal vows) I use Prayer D – at Christmas because of the strong reference to the Virgin Mary, and at baptisms/renewal because the Prayers of the People are incorporated into the Prayer. And during the Easter season I use Prayer C because of its greater congregational participation and theme of new creation.
We have now entered the long, green Season after Pentecost/Ordinary Time. This is the season of growth, hence the color green. This is the season that focuses on the ministry of Jesus. This is the season where we focus on discipleship. This is also the season where we can/should focus on our own ministries. And this is the season where I use Eucharistic Prayer A.
We used Prayer A for the first time in a long time this past Sunday. As I presided over Holy Communion, the familiar words and acts flowed through the service without missing a beat. As I glanced out over the congregation, I noticed how many parishioners either didn't bother to open their prayer books or, if opened, simply held it open out of habit without actually looking at it.
Prayer A is familiar to us. It's like meeting up with a good friend we haven't seen for years and picking up the conversation right where we left off as if we were never separated. Prayer A is like that comfortable old sweatshirt that you rarely wear, but when you finally slip it on, you say, “Oh . . . this is nice.”
Yes, the Season after Pentecost seems to last forever. Yes, Prayer A will eventually feel old and tired. But for now, Prayer A is just right.
Amen.
Josh
That was the favorite exclamation of Josh, the owner of one of the bars I used to frequent. Whenever something went exceedingly well, or whenever I said something he particularly liked, he always said, “Just right.”
We have just come through what some people call the Liturgical Season – the period of time that runs from Advent through the Day of Pentecost – and have moved into the Season after Pentecost – also called Ordinary Time – which stretches all the way to the end of November and Advent.
I have a saying that really needs to be on a bumper sticker: Episcopalians read the dirty pages. You can walk into any Episcopal church in any part of the country, pick up any prayer book in any pew, and you will find a thin, dirty line of pages running from 355 to 365. Those ten pages are, obviously, the most used pages of the BCP in any church and encompass Holy Eucharist. This really isn't surprising; it's just one of those common things that everybody does and, when pointed out, can make you laugh.
A long time ago I decided that we need to use more of the BCP on Sundays than is traditionally the case. So I sat down and created a system that utilized every Eucharistic Prayer on a regular basis. During Advent and Lent, I use Prayer B because I think it has a more somber tone and (more importantly) has the line, “For in these last days,” a phrase appropriate for those two seasons. At Christmas (and for services in which there are baptisms or a renewal of baptismal vows) I use Prayer D – at Christmas because of the strong reference to the Virgin Mary, and at baptisms/renewal because the Prayers of the People are incorporated into the Prayer. And during the Easter season I use Prayer C because of its greater congregational participation and theme of new creation.
We have now entered the long, green Season after Pentecost/Ordinary Time. This is the season of growth, hence the color green. This is the season that focuses on the ministry of Jesus. This is the season where we focus on discipleship. This is also the season where we can/should focus on our own ministries. And this is the season where I use Eucharistic Prayer A.
We used Prayer A for the first time in a long time this past Sunday. As I presided over Holy Communion, the familiar words and acts flowed through the service without missing a beat. As I glanced out over the congregation, I noticed how many parishioners either didn't bother to open their prayer books or, if opened, simply held it open out of habit without actually looking at it.
Prayer A is familiar to us. It's like meeting up with a good friend we haven't seen for years and picking up the conversation right where we left off as if we were never separated. Prayer A is like that comfortable old sweatshirt that you rarely wear, but when you finally slip it on, you say, “Oh . . . this is nice.”
Yes, the Season after Pentecost seems to last forever. Yes, Prayer A will eventually feel old and tired. But for now, Prayer A is just right.
Amen.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)