March 25, 2020

International Day of Prayer

This past Monday evening the Episcopal News Service (ENS) posted an article about an international day of prayer. This came about when Pope Francis invited all Christians to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic “with the universality of prayer, of compassion, and of tenderness.” The invitation to pray is specific in its request: that on March 25 (today), the Feast of the Annunciation, all Christians pray the Lord's Prayer at noon in their particular time zones.

Prayer is an important part of our lives. Prayer, essentially, reflects our relationship with God; because prayer is relationship. Prayer is not the quarter that you drop into the great vending machine in the sky, hoping to receive your specific request. Instead, prayer is where we express our joys and sorrows, our delights and our burdens, our victories and our failures. Prayer is essentially a conversation with the beloved.

You know that Pope Francis understands this because of what he requested: Let's all come together and in unison pray the prayer that Jesus taught us. He didn't say, “Let's all pray for an end to the pandemic,” (although that would be great), nor did he ask for people to pray for anything specific. He asked that we pray a common prayer: “Hallowed by your name . . . Your will be done . . . forgive us as we have forgiven . . . deliver us from evil . . .”

So today at noon, in whatever time zone you happen to be, I invite you to join with me, with other Christians, both lay and clergy, and the Pope, in praying a prayer we have known since our earliest days.

I have written several times about the need to stay connected even as we are having to keep our distance. I don't know what affect this international day of prayer will have. I am hopeful that at 12:30 local time, coronavirus cases miraculously end. But maybe even more so, I am hopeful that this international day prayer helps remind people that praying in common is yet another way we are connected. I am hopeful that it reminds us of the need, as Jesus showed us, to pray always.

On this day when we celebrate the Annunciation of Christ to Mary, on this day when we remember a young woman who said, “Let it be with me according to your word,” let us gather together in our respective time zones and lift our voices in prayer, “On earth, as it is in heaven. Amen.”

Be well,

March 18, 2020

We're all in this together.

My how things change in a week's time.

When I wrote last week's Wednesday Word we were beginning to hear of major closings around the state, country, and world. The Dioceses of Washington and Virginia closed all churches for the time being. Our bishop came out with a statement giving protocols for Communion and coffee hour, with the focus on a “low touch” or “no touch” Eucharist.

On Thursday we learned that the Diocese of Maryland would also require churches to suspend worship services and other gatherings until at least March 27 after the governor closed schools. My ecumenical colleagues followed suite, with some opting to close until April 1.

Yesterday the governor closed all restaurants and bars, gyms, and movie theaters. Washington County has declared a state of emergency. The City of Hagerstown has canceled council meetings through March. And the governor has just delayed the presidential primary, Preakness, and reduced public transit.

I spoke with my neighbor yesterday and she asked, “Have you been to the grocery store?? People are nuts. One man was buying up cases of bottled water because he thought the water lines would be shut off. And people are being mean.”

All of this reminded me of the bank scene in, “It's a Wonderful Life.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VIk4FIshp0

I bring this up because, yes, we need to be careful. Yes, we need to practice healthy habits. Yes, we need to practice social distancing. But we also need to practice restraint. We need to realize that we aren't the only ones in this crisis. We've got to have faith in each other. We need fewer Toms and more Eds, Mrs. Thompsons, and Ms. Davis'.

We are living in times most of us have only read about – the plague, the cholera outbreak, the Spanish flu. We need to take this seriously and do what we can to remain safe and flatten the infection curve. But we also need to understand that we are all in this together. To forget that is to forget that our society, and our faith for that matter, are based in community. Because really, how much water, hand sanitizer, or toilet paper will one person actually need?

Be well,

March 4, 2020

The foundation of things is not so much a ground of being sustaining its existence from beneath as it is a power of attraction toward what lies ahead.

The Unbearable Wholeness of Being: God, Evolution, and the Power of Love, Ilia Delio, p. 15

Through most of Epiphany and into Lent, I have been discussing the topic of transformation. Jesus transformed the law from black and white enforcement to looking at the heart of the law and what God was really after in our relationships. Jesus was transformed/transfigured on the mountain with Peter, James, and John present to see him for who he truly was – God incarnate. And on Ash Wednesday and the First Sunday in Lent, I discussed how Lenten disciplines shouldn't be seen as something to give up for a season, but something that transforms us into living more fully in our relationship with God and others.

This idea of transformation is based on a continual movement from where we are to where we want to be, from who we are to who God is calling us to be.

I'm currently working my way through this book about how evolution and God tie together.

For most people, I think, evolution is understood by looking backward – starting small (one-celled organisms) and ending big (us). When discussing evolution, I think most people look back and wonder if our ancestors really were monkeys.

But Ms. Delio puts forth a different idea in this book – namely that evolution is all about looking forward. She posits that God is a God of newness (“I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” – Is. 43:19). That God is a God of ever evolving communion becoming “ever more deeply in love through the generation of the Word and Spirit.” And that evolution “thrives not on 'rugged individualism' but on communal interdependence.” These thoughts, then, don't look backward to where we originated as much as they look forward to what lies ahead.

The foundations of Christianity also look forward. We look forward to resurrection. Holy Communion is forward looking as it is a “foretaste of the heavenly banquet.” In the burial service we are reminded that life is changed, not ended. And the Catechism is forward looking when it states that the mission of the Church is to restore all people to unity with God and others.

God is the power of attraction moving us forward. God asks us to look toward what lies ahead.

With this in mind, let us look to our Lenten journey and Lenten discipline not as a period of time we need to endure until we get back to the way it was, but as a period of transformation that focuses on what lies ahead.

Blessings,

PS:  I am also reminded that, on this day, we March Forth!