November 11, 2020

 “Holiness, then, is personal but not individualistic or turned in on itself.” The Rev. Paul Hunter, The Living Church, October 19, 2014

Fr. Hunter was addressing the Feast of All Saints back in '14 when he wrote this sentence. He pointed out that the saints of the church were rarely saints through individualistic behaviors. Saint Francis worked in communion with the monks of the order that would eventually bear his name. Saints Basil of Cappadocia, Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory of Nazianzus worked together to defend orthodoxy and defeat Arianism. Saint Patrick worked with local people to help build churches on existing sacred sites. Julian of Norwich, even though living as an anchoress, was visited by many people as a spiritual counselor. And there are many more.

I got to thinking about this sentence today as we begin dealing with another round of closures. Not in the context of the saints of the Church, but in terms of our spiritual and faith lives in the here and now.

In this time of church closures and continuing worship via online streaming, we run the risk of turning our worship and spirituality in on itself and making personal holiness individualistic.

One of the beauties of the Episcopal liturgy is exactly this – it's personal but not individualistic. When we worship, we are experiencing holiness on a personal level but it is not individualistic. You can see this in various parts of the Eucharist: we worship, we believe, we confess, we lift our hearts, we give thanks.

As we continue to live in these uncertain times, let us always remember that holiness is personal and that our spiritual lives inform our personal lives; but let us never forget that holiness is not individualistic. It does us no good to live a life of perceived holiness when that life only cares for the self. Our holiness should extend to the community and the communal.

When we can finally regather as this part of the body of Christ, one of the things we will celebrate will be the personal holiness of our people manifested through the wider community.

Blessings,

November 4, 2020

“I wonder what tomorrow has in mind for me . . .” from Crystal Ball by Styx

People often ask me, “How have you been?” My standard answer is, “Oh, you know . . . get up, go to work, come home, eat dinner, go to bed, rinse and repeat.”

That's not a complaint as much as it is an observation. I'm one of those people who like routine. I would be okay with things running according to schedule without deviation. For the most part, I am able to stay true to the schedule – get up, go to work, come home, eat dinner, go to bed.

But there are days . . . and yesterday was one of them.

What was originally supposed to be a day in the office finishing up a few things and beginning to look toward Sunday went totally off the rails. Well, that's not exactly right – it wasn't so much “off the rails” as much as “not according to plan.” A home Communion visitation got moved from Monday to yesterday, and that backed up into a second post-surgery home visitation. My Tuesday meeting with Mark delved into a few areas, followed by a legal phone call and then several other phone calls having to do with HARC and a conversation about coronavirus adjustments.

And before I knew it, it was 4:00.

This song came to mind because I thought how helpful it would be if I knew in advance what tomorrow had in mind for me. It would be so much easier to plan and organize if I knew what was coming.

Unfortunately life doesn't work that way. We never get tomorrow's script today. Sometimes we don't even get today's script today.

I may not always know what's coming. Some days are more reactive than proactive. But as a good friend of mine is fond of saying, “You wouldn't want to be bored, now, would you?”

Yesterday didn't go according to plan. But there were conversations that needed to happen, people who needed to be called, and situations that needed to be dealt with. And what wasn't done today will be there tomorrow.

We may not know what tomorrow has in mind for us, but it just might be what was needed at the time.

May you have the wisdom, grace, and strength for the unknown days ahead.

October 21, 2020

 “Where were you when we needed you?”

This question was posed in a 2013 issue of a publication called Congregations, and it was part of an article regarding a totally different topic than what I'm discussing here. But this is a question we could ask ourselves today.

The COVID pandemic has changed our lives in so many unforeseen ways. We were separated from each other for a long period of time, and it seems that we are just now finding our way back together.

This is a time when we need each other. The pastoral care team has been making phone calls to check up on people, but after several months, those are beginning to understandably slow down as people find new rhythms to their lives. At the beginning of the pandemic, we were forced to only offer online worship in the form of Morning Prayer. We then moved to what is called “Spiritual Communion,” and now, for about three months, we have had limited in-person worship, allowing people to gather and receive Communion. And now, with permission from the diocese, I am once again allowed to visit people in their homes and bring Communion to those who can't or are uneasy about coming in person.

During this time of a pandemic and uncertainty of all kinds, know that the Church is here when you most need it.

But this is also a two-way street. For just as we need the Church in this time, the Church also needs us. One way you can be there for the Church is to return pledge cards and let the Church know how you will continue to support it through your time, talent, and treasure. Another way we can be there for the Church is through personal evangelism – talk with friends and neighbors and let them know of the good things we are doing in the name of Christ, because it is only through you that the Church can live into its mission. Just as Jesus invited people to join him in revealing the kingdom of God, we must also work to reveal the kingdom of God and invite people to join us.

This is a time when we need each other. Let us remember to not only look for what we can receive, but let us look for what we can also give.

Blessings,

October 14, 2020

 There's a long history of how fishing is tied to the Gospel story. Depending on which story you read, fishermen were the first four people Jesus called to be his disciples. There are several stories about Jesus being with his disciples while they were fishing. In one of them, Jesus tells the fishermen to let down their nets on the other side of the boat (as if fish new the difference between one side or the other) and they ended up catching many fish. And Jesus tells Simon, “From now on you will fish for people.”

The pastor of the Methodist church across the street from us in Montana was (and is) fisherman. He uses fishing stories and the gospel like I use football. And the only time I ever wanted to be a Methodist was on the Third Sunday of Easter in Year C when the assigned Gospel came from John and Jesus is cooking fish for the disciples. Pastor Ben would designated this as Communion Sunday and he would use fish he caught and smoked for the event.

We are in the fishing business, so to speak. We are charged by Jesus to go out and fish for people, bringing them into the net of the kingdom. This is about where this analogy breaks down though, because, unlike fishermen, we don't kill the fish we've caught. Instead, we work to nurture them as disciples. So maybe we participate more in the “catch and release” variety of fishing rather than the “catch and keep.” That is, we catch, nurture, feed, and grow the fish so they can become fishers of people themselves.

But this world has a way of taking something good and misusing it, turning it from its intended purpose to sinful purposes. And that has happened with fishing.

Fishing has been hijacked to become phishing. Instead of fishing for people to become disciples, phishing has become a new way to scam people. The idea behind phishing is to cast as wide a net as possible, usually with a “oh poor pitiful me” or a “poor pitiful person in need” story in an attempt to get people to bite and steal their money.

Some of you received an e-mail from “me” a few weeks ago asking for some kind of emergency assistance. Thankfully enough of you questioned that request, brought it to my attention, and I was able to get word out about the scam. You may have received an e-mail from “Bishop Sutton” requesting assistance in the form of purchasing gift cards. As a matter of fact, I received one of those e-mails myself while in a clergy meeting with the Bishop this past Monday.

Be wary of anyone asking for financial help via e-mail or other virtual formats (a player in Words with Friends tried to pull the “I need gift cards” scam on me recently).

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad.” – Matthew 13:47-48

We are in the business of fishing. Honest fishing will yield good results; dishonest phishing, however, will result in the bad phish being thrown out. Know the difference.

Blessings,

October 7, 2020

 

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus – Philippians 2:3-5

These verses were part of the assigned reading from two weeks ago. A parishioner asked me about this, saying they had trouble seeing others as “better than” themselves; equal, yes, but not necessarily better than.

One of the ways to look at this is to, as Paul said, “let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.”

In various places Jesus talks about himself coming to serve others, not to be served by them. When two disciples try to secure their place of honor, Jesus pointed out that whoever wants to be great must serve others. When he says, “The last shall be first,” he's reiterating this position of servanthood. And on the evening of his betrayal and arrest, one of the last things the eternal, omnipotent, God-incarnate did was to humble himself and wash the feet of his twelve disciples, including the feet of the one who would betray him to the authorities.

It may be difficult to see others as better than yourself, and that's understandable. But if that feels problematic, try having the same mind that was in Christ – and that is to see yourself as a servant. As it so happens, this idea of servanthood is built into our own mission statement: Worship, Welcome, Serve, and Encourage. How, especially now in this pandemic, can we position ourselves to serve others? This probably means more than giving away food and/or clothing, although those things certainly help. But how can we look to serve others in ways that have long-term effects?

Part of being able to do that, I think, is to be willing to humble ourselves in such a way that we see ourselves as servants, not necessarily as the ones with all the answers. By humbling ourselves, by emptying ourselves as Christ emptied himself, we can be in a position to both take in the other as well as give ourselves to the other. As Ilia Delio said in, The Unbearable Wholeness of Being, “A self that is 'full of itself' can neither receive the other nor make genuine movement toward the other” (p. 134).

Serving others requires that we humble and empty ourselves in order to build others up. Serving others can be difficult when we are asked to make sacrifices or give up things to which we've grown accustomed to having.

When we are asked to empty ourselves, let us not focus on what we are losing, but instead let us focus on what the served and server are gaining.

September 30, 2020

 Three weeks ago I was invited to be interviewed for a podcast having to do with technology and the church during the COVID pandemic. Because I wanted to be prepared, I asked you to give me your thoughts to a few questions the interviewer had given me ahead of time.

As it turns out, I was only asked one scripted question as we spent most of the time discussing how the liturgy was/is impacted during this time We finished up by talking about a few blessings and challenges.

All in all it was a good conversation that lasted about 35 minutes.

So today, your Wednesday Word is an all-audio event. Click the link to listen, or copy and paste into your web browser.

https://lakelandsinstitute.com/?powerpress_pinw=1140-podcast

September 23, 2020

The Episcopal Diocese of Maryland has been dealing with the topic of reparations for possibly 20-some years, although that number could be wrong since I've only been here four years and have only heard a few discussions about how long this conversation has gone on. Regardless, 20, 10, or 5, the Diocese of Maryland has been dealing with this topic for some time.

Maryland itself was a slave state, but had divided loyalties between pro- and anti-slavery. Many of the churches in the diocese were purchased and built with slave labor. And in our own history, the Rev. Thomas Pitt Irving, who served this parish from 1813 – 1816, owned two slaves when he arrived and purchased one more during his time here.

Slavery in Maryland has a long history. This state and the churches of this diocese benefited greatly from that evil institution. Much of what we have today is a direct result of that free, forced labor of people whose lives were valued less than their owners pets.

And so we have been talking about reparations.

Reparations is a word that has its roots in repair. We are working at repairing the damage done by one group of people against another group of people; damage done based solely on skin color. When we talk about reparations, we are talking about a system of reconciliation that leads to restoration. Reparations, as the Diocese of Maryland envisions it, is a systemic solution to a systemic problem.

It's important to know how the leaders of our diocese view reparations. Reparations is not apologetic. That is, there is a recognition that nobody alive today participated in the institution of slavery, so therefore nobody alive today needs to apologize for slavery. Reparations is not a system of paying back. That is, the leaders of our diocese have not placed a dollar figure on slave labor and committed to paying back that amount to descendants of slaves.

Reparations, as the leaders of our diocese see it, is based in a theology of new beginnings. It is based on the fact that people have been taken advantage of, disrespected, abused, and marginalized for far too long and it is time to put God's justice into play. It is time to recognize that there is no more Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, black or white in the kingdom of God. It is time to recognize that, moving forward from here, those who have benefited from systemic inequalities must now step up to help eliminate those inequalities and work to make things better.

At our diocesan convention earlier this month, Resolution 2020-06 was overwhelmingly approved. This resolution called for the initial establishment of $1,000,000 to begin the work of reparations. It also called for all congregations and affiliated schools to consider committing a percentage of their endowments to this work (percentages to be determined by each individual congregation/school).

Why do this now? Because it is past time that we who have benefited from systems of discrimination begin doing the work of repairing that damage and begin doing the work of God's justice. It reminds me of planting trees: the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago; the second best time is now.

This is certainly not the end of the story, but only the beginning. Today we are planting a tree of justice, and today we are beginning the work of repairing centuries of damage.

Blessings,