A Task for Memorial Day

Monday, May 28, 2012 -- Week of Proper 3, Year Two
John Calvin, Theologian, 1564

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 969)
Psalms 25 (morning)        //        9, 15 (evening)
Proverbs 10:1-12  
1 Timothy 1:1-17
Matthew 12:22-32

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

A Prayer for Memorial Day
O Judge of the nations, we remember before you with grateful hearts the men and women of our country who in the day of decision ventured much for the liberties we now enjoy.  Grant that we may not rest until all the people of this land share the benefits of true freedom and gladly accept its disciplines.  This we ask in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.  (Book of Common Prayer, p. 839)

On Memorial Day there is something I can think of that would be an appropriate act of solidarity with those who have sacrificed for the protection of freedom and for the security of our families.  It would be to go to the U.S. Citizenship and and Immigration Services website and offer a comment to support a proposed rule change that would allow families to stay together in this country while they petition for residency status for one of their loved ones.

Currently, if a U.S. citizen wants to petition for a parent or spouse or child to be allowed to waive the requirement for their family member who does not have legal status in this country to be able to apply for a hardship waiver, that immigrant has to leave their family in this country and risk a 3 to 10 year wait in their country of origin, hoping their application will be approved.  These things usually take years. 

Families are unwilling to let their bread-winner, or their child, go back to a country that they may have left a decade ago or more, on the chance that they will be given a wavier.  What is the family to do in the meantime?

Maria is a local mother of three children -- all citizens of the U.S.  Maria was brought here by her husband when she was seventeen.  They entered illegally in a harrowing walk through the desert.  She's been here seventeen years.  She's an upstanding neighbor and a regular parent volunteer in two local schools.  She would like to apply for legal status.  To do so, she would have to leave her three children -- 16, 12, and 10 -- in order to apply for residency.  She's now a single mother.  She can't do that. 

But there is hope.  There is a proposed policy change that could help good people like Maria.  The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is proposing a rule that would allow an application for a provisional waiver of the 3-to-10 year bar while remaining in the U.S.  If Maria could show that her being barred for that time would pose an extreme hardship on a U.S. citizen, she could pursue legal status without having to abandon her family or taking them to a country they do not know.

For those of us who are pro-family, this is good news.  But we need to speak up now to support the proposed rule change.  USCIS is taking comments on the rule through the end of May.  Go to www.nilc.org/statesidewaiver.html to learn more.  Or to submit your own comment, to go http://tinyurl.com/crsfgz2  (note the widow only stays open for 20 minutes, so work quickly).

Hurry.  You've only got through this Thursday before the comment period closes.  Help our laws keep families together rather than separating them.  Submit your comment of support to give families like Maria a chance to stay together, a chance for a good life.

What a good thing to do on Memorial Day.  Advocate for families who wish to pursue the American Dream -- to live in freedom.  Advance the values so many have given their lives for. 

"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.  Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"  (inscription on the Statue of Liberty)

Lowell

___________

Audio podcast:  Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week.  Go to: http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id244.html

About Morning Reflections

"Morning Reflections" is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.

Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html

Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location

-- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html

The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church

is to explore and celebrate

God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

See our Web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life: 

We aspire to...

    worship weekly

    pray daily

    learn constantly

    serve joyfully 

    live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector

St. Paul's Episcopal Church

Fayetteville, Arkansas

New Covenants

Friday, May 25, 2012  -- Week of 7 Easter, Year Two
Bede, the Venerable, Priest, and Monk of Jarrow, 735

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 965)
Psalms  102 (morning)        //        107:1-32 (evening)
Jeremiah 31:27-34
Ephesians 5:1-20
Matthew 9:9-17

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

In the Ten Commandments and again in the covenant begun in Exodus 34, we hear ominous words of judgment passed down from generation to generation.  God speaks as one who will visit the iniquity of the parents upon the children to the third and fourth generation.

During a time of national threat and chastisement, Jeremiah's generation feels the weight of that curse.  In the early years of Jeremiah's vocation, the good King Josiah had inspired a revival of faithfulness and observance of the Law.  But Josiah died suddenly in battle, and political and religious hopes unraveled quickly.  The people became disillusioned and helpless.  Much of Jeremiah's testament gives words to their misery and suffering.

But now, Jeremiah speaks words of hope.  He says to them, You've seen the tragedy -- "I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring evil."  Now God is planning good -- "so I will watch over them to build and to plant." 

Throw off the helpless feeling of doom, the destiny to live out the curse of your ancestors' wrongdoing.  The rules have changed.  No longer will you speak the old folk maxim "The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge."  But now, each will be responsible for your own actions and not inherit the curse from your parents.

Jeremiah speaks of a new covenant.  The law will no longer be a set of external words of instruction, but an internal presence in your hearts.  You will know God intuitively, immediately.  You will no longer reference the external teachings, but God will live in your heart.

That religion of the heart is what we aspire to.  At the feast of Pentecost, Christians say that God's Spirit, God's own life is in us at the center of our being.  We are made one with God in the Spirit.  We call that our new covenant.  It releases us from the curse of the past through forgiveness and regeneration.  It guides us into a new future through the indwelling of the Spirit.

Today, let us walk in the Spirit.  Let the intuitive presence of God guide and lead us.  It is our inheritance.  It is our blessing.  God is with us.  Jeremiah's hope has come true in the gift of the Spirit through Jesus:  "For they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more."

Lowell

___________


Audio podcast:  Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week.  Go to: http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id244.html

About Morning Reflections
"Morning Reflections" is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117
An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html

Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location
-- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html

The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

See our Web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life: 
We aspire to...
    worship weekly
    pray daily
    learn constantly
    serve joyfully 
    live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas

Today's Readings

Thursday, May 24, 2012 -- Week of 7 Easter
Jackson Kemper, First Missionary Bishop in the United States, 1870

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 965)
Psalms  105:1-22 (morning)        //        105:23-45 (evening)
Zechariah 4:1-14
Ephesians 4:17-32
Matthew 9:1-8

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

I've got an early meeting today.  Won't be writing.  Here are the readings.

Lowell

Humility into Union

Wednesday, May 23, 2012 -- Week of 7 Easter
Nicolaus Copernicus and Johannes Kepler, Astronomers, 1543

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 965)
Psalms  101, 109:1-4(5-19)20-30 (morning)        //        19:121-144 (evening)
Isaiah 4:2-6
Ephesians 4:1-16
Matthew 8:28-34

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

The witness of scripture invites us into interconnectedness, union -- what Buddhist monk Thich Naht Hahn calls "interbeing" -- the reality that we are all connected with each other in an intimate relationship of unity and interdependence.  That's a theme found in every enduring religion.  This passage in Ephesians is one of our Christian treasures about that theme.  The upcoming Feast of Pentecost is one of our festivals about that theme.

For Americans, a deep sense of oneness with humanity may be somewhat counter-cultural.  We are taught to be independent and self-reliant.  We reserve our deepest forms of pride for individual accomplishment.

The writer of Ephesians seems to know this.  The appeal for unity begins with an exhortation on behalf of the virtues of humility, gentleness and patience -- the precursors to interconnectedness, the antidote to individualistic pride. 

It's not easy to live in a world with other people.  Only in a context of humility, gentleness and patience will we be willing to "maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." 

It is profound to say there is "one body and one Spirit, ...one hope, ...one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all."  A mystery.  And I think it is a mistake to use this hymn of union to divide humanity into a religious "us" and "them,"  limiting the Spirit to only the one form of faith and the baptism of our particular religion.  I am convinced that there is a greater unity than can be employed by any single religion.  God's Spirit is ubiquitous.  With humility, gentleness and patience we can recognize the Spirit universally, in other faiths and baptisms, and honor our interconnectedness.

Our organic union with God's humanity is the context for the use of our individual gifts.  Our call is to grow up, to become mature, to help humanity evolve consciously together as a race.  The image is organic.  We belong to a body.  Each of us are members of that body.  We work together to help the body heal and mature.  All are included.

Go through this day with an intentional sense of organic unity with each person you encounter.  Claim every person you encounter, in person or online, and connect with everyone you read about in the news or see on the television as though they were part of your own body.  Begin with an ethos of humility, gentleness and patience.  See if you can deepen your connectedness into an experience of being one in union with all.  Then use your gifts for the good of the body.  See if you don't experience a more satisfying and deeper context for your own work and actions, in union with all.

Lowell

_________

Audio podcast:  Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week.  Go to: http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id244.html

About Morning Reflections
"Morning Reflections" is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117
An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html

Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location
-- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html

The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

See our Web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life: 
We aspire to...
    worship weekly
    pray daily
    learn constantly
    serve joyfully 
    live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas

A Prayer and Promise

Tuesday, May 22, 2012 -- Week of 7 Easter

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 965)
Psalms  97, 99, [100] (morning)        //        94, 95 (evening)
1 Samuel 16:1-13a
Ephesians 3:14-21
Matthew 8:18-27

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

Today's readings include a wonderful prayer (Ephesians) and a picture of stability in the midst of challenge and chaos (Matthew).

Let's start with the prayer.  Read it slowly.  Claim this prayer for yourself.

I pray that, according to the riches of God's glory, God may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through God's Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love.  I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.  Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.  Amen.

What a marvelous prayer.  It strengthens us with God's power and grounds us in God's love, inspiring our trust that Christ dwells in our hearts.  Our source and root and grounding is love, for God is love -- love so broad and long, so high and deep that it surpasses all we can know, and fills us with God's own life.  With the indwelling of divine love breathing us into being, we are empowered to accomplish more than we can imagine, to the glory of Christ.  This is a description of our daily inheritance.  Each morning we are invited to accept this gift of loving presence to empower our day.

Will Christ's presence be enough to sustain us through what we must face?  What does that love-in-action look like?  We see Christ's stabilizing presence in the stories from Matthew's gospel.

Some people face homelessness or other threats to their security.  Jesus himself knows their plight and lives with them -- "the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head."  I have known homeless neighbors who could speak with such authenticity about their trust in Jesus.  For some, Jesus is their only hope, for they have nothing of themselves.  They know Jesus is with them and near them.  I've looked into their eyes, hopeful eyes, and I've recognized the deep trust in Jesus, who they know will not let them down.

Some people find themselves in deadly, life-crushing circumstances.  Trapped, stuck, weighed down, oppressed.  Jesus liberates us from death.  "Let the dead bury their own dead."  Jesus offers us resurrection and enough self-definition to enable us to separate from unhealthy dependencies and to live with authenticity and power.

Many of us experience times of chaos, when we feel overwhelmed, like we are sinking and swamped.  Jesus is in the boat with us.  He can rebuke the winds that we fear will overcome us; he can bring calm to our raging seas.  Dwelling within us, in the center of our being, Jesus is the stillpoint of peace. 

Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.  Amen. 

Lowell

_____________

Audio podcast:  Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week.  Go to: http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id244.html

About Morning Reflections
"Morning Reflections" is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117
An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html

Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location
-- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html

The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

See our Web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life: 
We aspire to...
    worship weekly
    pray daily
    learn constantly
    serve joyfully 
    live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas

Privilege Unbounded

Monday, May 21, 2012 -- Week of 7 Easter
John Eliot, Missionary among the Algonquin, 1690

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 965)
Psalms  89:1-18 (morning)        //        89:1952 (evening)
Joshua 1:1-9
Ephesians 3:1-13
Matthew 8:5-17

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

Many of us live with presumptions of privilege, including divine privilege.  Sometimes God turns our expectations over, and extends blessing beyond our imagination.

Psalm 89 articulates two expectations of privilege that were core to Israel's identity.  "I have sworn an oath to David my servant: I will establish your line for ever." (89:3b-4a)  "I shall make his dominion extend from the Great Sea to the River." (89:25) 

The Hebrew Scriptures articulate in several places the expectation that God would bless and protect David's royal dynasty for all times.  The Scriptures also make a geographic claim.  In today's reading in Joshua and elsewhere, Israel hears the promise that God gives them a wide expanse of land, from the Mediterranean all the way to the Euphrates River in modern Iraq. 

Those expectations have been defined by many in nationalistic terms, in terms of power and privilege.

Psalm 89 recognizes that God did not keep the promise to David according to their expectations.  The Psalmist reminds God of those promises and asks God to restore the monarchy.  It is a prayer that will not be answered, a promise that will not be fulfilled, at least not in the expected way.

Even in its brief moment of widest political boundaries, Israel never had sovereignty extending to the Euphrates.  For centuries it was a people without land -- a people who learned to live faithfully in exile.  God did not fulfill the promise of land, at least not in the expected way.

Today some are reclaiming that latter promise.  Christian Zionists promote a map on behalf of Israel that claims God gave Israel the lion's share of the Middle East.  They reclaim that geography and urge political action to support it.  Yet these are the ancient homes of many other peoples, including many Christians.  The potential for conflict is world threatening.

Next to some of these nationalistic claim of power and divine privilege are other traditions, traditions of wider inclusion and blessing.

In our story from Matthew, Jesus remarks on the faith of the Roman Centurion in Capernaum, saying, "Truly I tell you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith.  I tell you, many will come from east and west and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the heirs of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."  (8:10b-12)  As Matthew writes, those presumptive "heirs of the kingdom" could be Christians as well as Jews.

In Ephesians we hear a defense of Paul's mission to the Gentiles -- to the "others."  "The Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel."  (3:6)

God often surprises us by refusing to meet our expectations of privilege and power, even those articulated in scripture.  God often expands the boundaries of divine blessing and inclusion, even toward those people excluded in some accounts of scripture.  It seems to be a lesson of history that we create much tragedy and violence when we try to enforce the privileges we presume are ours to claim from God.  It seems to me that we are more likely to be following the track of God's intention when we hold our sense of privilege lightly and when we expect to discover God's blessing and presence in the unexpected.  

Lowell

_______

Audio podcast:  Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week.  Go to: http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id244.html

About Morning Reflections
"Morning Reflections" is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117
An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html

Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location
-- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html

The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

See our Web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life: 
We aspire to...
    worship weekly
    pray daily
    learn constantly
    serve joyfully 
    live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas

Readings for This Week

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 963)

I'm on my annual retreat with the Order of the Ascension this week.  I won't be writing or sending Morning Reflections.  To read the Daily Office online, go to  http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html

Here are the readings for the upcoming weekdays:

Monday, May 14
Psalms  80 (morning)        //        77, [79] (evening)
Leviticus 25:35-55
Colossians 1:9-14
Matthew 13:1-16

Tuesday, May 15
Psalms 78:1-39       //       78:40-72
Leviticus 26:1-20
1 Timothy 2:1-6
Matthew 1318-23

Wednesday, May 16
The Martyrs of Sudan
Psalms 119:97-120       //   _____
Leviticus 26:27-42
Ephesians 1:1-10
Matthew 22:41-46

Eve of Ascension (Wednesday, May 16)
Psalms _____         //       68:1-20
2 Kings 2:1-15
Revelation 5:1-14

Thursday, May 17
Ascension Day
Psalms 8, 47       //       24, 96
Daniel 7:9-14
Hebrews 2:5-18
Matthew 28:16-20

Friday, May 18
Psalms 85, 86       //       91, 92
1 Samuel 2:1-10
Ephesians 2:1-10
Matthew 7:22-27

Lowell

________

Audio podcast:  Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week.  Go to: http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id244.html

About Morning Reflections

"Morning Reflections" is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.

Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html

Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location

-- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html

The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church

is to explore and celebrate

God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

See our Web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life: 

We aspire to...

    worship weekly

    pray daily

    learn constantly

    serve joyfully 

    live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector

St. Paul's Episcopal Church

Fayetteville, Arkansas

 

Away for the Rest of the Week

I won't be able to write Morning Reflections for the rest of the week.

You can read the Daily Office from the Prayer Book or online at http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html

Lowell
___

J. Neville Ward on "The Lord's Prayer

Tuesday, May 8, 2012 -- Week of 5 Easter
Dame Julian of Norwich, c. 1417

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 963)
Psalms  61, 62 (morning)        //        68:1-20(21-23)24-36 (evening)
Leviticus 16:20-34
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
Matthew 6:7-15

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

The late J. Neville Ward was an early influence on me.  He was an English Methodist who wrote wonderfully insightful books on prayer and spirituality.  He had an annual practice to read a different book about the Lord's Prayer every year, and in 1981 he published his own reflections -- The Personal Faith of Jesus: As Revealed in the Lord's Prayer.

I flipped through some of the book this morning, noting a few of my underlines:

There is a sense in which everyone has faith, and everyone behaves quiet loyally and consistently with what he believes, that is to say, what he believes about himself and life.  That faith, hugely important as it is, is not the sort that can be or ever is set out in a creed and spoken aloud in some ceremonial rite for all to hear.  It is part of the inner life of the mind, the drift of secret thoughts whose precise character we are not sharp enough always to note but whose atmosphere we are breathing all the time.

...If we secretly believe that there is nothing much about us, that we have nothing the world particularly needs, perhaps in some dark moment that we are empty things, the odds are that we shall be driven by the need to fill our emptiness somehow.  We may go though a stretch of our lives in which in one way or another we are on the make, anxiously seeking some advantage or success or recognition.

If, however, deep within where it matters, we believe that we live within the love of God, that he has created us to fulfill some part of his purpose, that he is himself within us as the ability to do or enjoy or endure what comes, we are likely to have a much more relaxed time of it.  If we find life worth while we shall not need to consider the question whether we ourselves are; we shall find it rather a pointless question.  As a result there will probably be enough courage in our response to life for us to be reasonably outgoing and honest.

What we really believe is the all-important matter.  This is why if we want to change the way we react to evens and people, it is not much use attempting to control this directly.  ...The requirement for that kind of change is a change of inner faith, a new set of convictions about oneself and life, about the possibilities and the prospects. 

In the Christian tradition the classical example of this process is in St. Paul's journey of faith.  As I understand him he seems to say that having tried hard enough to control his behaviour, only to make himself miserable with failure, he came into an entirely new range of possibility when he changed his convictions about the sort of thing God wants from us.

When he accepted Jesus' view that God wants us to embark on a relationship of trust and love with him instead of a struggle to improve ourselves, a new response to life began to form in him.  (p. 15-16)

[Jesus] was certainly drawn to the weak and sensual and broken who know it and long to see life changed into something that will make up for the wasted years, and to those who wait for someone in whose presence they can put down a tremendous burden they have been carrying all their lives. (p. 33)

Grant us now, this very day, the sense of that holy day when all will be satisfied with that which alone truly meets human desire and need.  Grant us here and now the joy and affection of that time, and its sense of God, as much as it is possible for them to be enjoyed here and now and by people like us.  (p. 51)

Not long ago I read of a boy who was murdered while doing his morning paper route.  How can his parents think compassionately about the man who murdered their son?  Never, without God.  Yet there does not seem to be much hope for us unless they can manage it.  Their fury must increase unless they, their son, his attacker, are called into some new kind of life in which people look mercifully at one another, refreshed by understanding.  Glimpses of such a life come.  The trouble is that they vanish too.  It sometimes seems that a thousand eucharists, a thousand Our Fathers have left us much as we were. 

...What matters is that as a result of the hundreds of eucharists, Lord's Prayers, and many other experiences mulled over as best you can, you come to understand what it means to live life in the light cast on it by Jesus, and to live it with the new shadow you are trailing now you are in his light. (p. 70, 71)

Lowell

_____________

A Goat for God; a Goat for Azazel

Monday, May 7, 2012 -- Week of 5 Easter
Harriet Starr Cannon, Religious, 1896

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 963)
Psalms  56, 57, [58] (morning)        //        64, 65 (evening)
Leviticus 16:1-19
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

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

Today in Leviticus we read Moses instructions about the liturgy of the atonement, a complicated rite of purification involving diverse sacrifices, incense, blood, vestments, curtains, altar, drama and ritual.  One of the most interesting parts of the liturgy is the role of the goat for Azazel.  After Aaron has made atonement for himself and his house, Aaron takes two goats and casts lots over them.  One goat is sacrificed to God as a sin offering for the people, but the other goat is left alive and sent into the wilderness to Azazel. 

It may be that Azazel is the name of a goat-demon who was thought to inhabit desolate places.  The second goat is driven into the remote wilderness, far from the community, into the wild and dangerous regions.

One goat for God.  One goat for Azazel. 

There is something powerful about making offering to the dark and wild places.  We have emotional and psychological energies that are deep and dangerous.  At one point Jesus speaks sharply and dismissively about these urges, "Get thee behind me, Satan."  There is some danger in becoming fascinated with the dark side and it's deathly urges.  It is not good to dabble with evil. 

But many people find spiritual richness when they allow their dreams and subconscious material to rise into consciousness where it can be recognized and acknowledged in order to give our conscious self some power over it.  There is a reality and freedom that comes when we outgrow mere repression and gain awareness of the destructive patterns of our thoughts and behavior.

We can recognize that each of us has the potential for terrible acts.  We can confess our sins to God and be forgiven.  We can also acknowledge our potential for the evil that we have not acted upon.  Maybe it is helpful to give those energies to something like Azazel, to the demons in the wilderness where the wild and dangerous things are.  We are not to act upon our most primitive urges, but it may be helpful to acknowledge their reality in us, and to give them their due.  May thay always remain in the wilderness, away from community.

Lowell

_______

Audio podcast:  Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week.  Go to: http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id244.html

About Morning Reflections
"Morning Reflections" is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117
An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html

Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location
-- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html

The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

See our Web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life: 
We aspire to...
    worship weekly
    pray daily
    learn constantly
    serve joyfully 
    live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas

Adoration, Awe, and then Service

Friday, May 4, 2012 -- Week of 4 Easter
Monnica, Mother of Augustine of Hippo

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 961)
Psalms  40, 54 (morning)        //        51 (evening)
Exodus 34:18-35
1 Thessalonians 3:1-13
Matthew 5:27-37

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

One's first duty is adoration, and one's second duty is awe and only one's third duty is service.  And that for those three things and nothing else, addressed to God and no one else, you and I and countless human creatures evolved...  We observe then that two of the three things for which our souls were made are matters of attitude, or relation:  adoration and awe.  Unless these two are right, the last of the triad, service, won't be right. *

I read that exquisite quote in the wee hours of the morning when I couldn't sleep last night.  I couldn't sleep last night because I was thinking about all of the things I need to do, most of them matters of "service."  Today's gospel reading from Matthew ends, "Let your word be 'Yes, Yes' or 'No, No';"  But I've said "Yes, Yes" too often instead of accepting my limitations and saying "No, No."  So, as I should be asleep, resting -- I'm thinking, planning, organizing, worrying.  How will I keep too many promises?

Our Exodus reading today insists that we keep sabbath and set aside times of holiday.  "Six days shall you work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even in plowing time and in harvest time you shall rest."  Rest trumps even the urgency of the intense season.

Adoration first.  Awe second.  And only after the soul's attitude and relation is set by adoration and awe, comes service. 

As if she were reading my mind, Michelle Heyne followed that quote from Evelyn Underhill with another quote, this one from Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.  It reminds me of what I know.  I find that when I take my anxieties and relax, ask God to guide me in my actions, the work happens efficiently, sometimes almost effortlessly, and things work out that I was worried about.  Teilhard says it better:

All around us, to right and left, in front and behind, above and below, we have only to go a little beyond the frontier of sensible appearances in order to see the divine welling up and showing through.  But it is not only close to us, in front of us, that the divine presence has revealed itself.  It has sprung up universally, and we find ourselves so surrounded and transfixed by it, that there is no room left to fall down and adore it, even within ourselves.

* (From Evelyn Underhill, Concerning the Inner Life, as quoted by Michelle Heyne in her fine little book In Your Holy Spirit - available from episcopalbookstore.com)

Lowell

_________

Audio podcast:  Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week.  Go to: http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id244.html

About Morning Reflections
"Morning Reflections" is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117
An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html

Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location
-- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html

The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

See our Web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life: 
We aspire to...
    worship weekly
    pray daily
    learn constantly
    serve joyfully 
    live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas

Today's Readings

Thursday, May 3, 2012 -- Week of 4 Easter

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 961)
Psalms  50 (morning)        //        [59, 60] or 114, 115 (evening)
Exodus 34:1-17
1 Thessalonians 2:13-20
Matthew 5:21-26

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

I'm taking the morning off from writing.  Here are the Daily Office readings.

Lowell

_______

Audio podcast:  Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week.  Go to: http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id244.html

About Morning Reflections

"Morning Reflections" is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.

Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html

Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location

-- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html

The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church

is to explore and celebrate

God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

See our Web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life: 

We aspire to...

    worship weekly

    pray daily

    learn constantly

    serve joyfully 

    live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector

St. Paul's Episcopal Church

Fayetteville, Arkansas