Blowing Minds Open

Wednesday, February 28, 2007 -- Week of 1 Lent

"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 www.missionstclare.com
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


Today's Readings for the Daily Office (p. 952)
Psalms 119:49-72 (morning) // 49, [53] (evening)
Deuteronomy 9:13-21
Hebrews 3:12-19
John 2:23 - 3:15

So much of the story of the scripture is the story of our rebellion and misunderstanding. In the first reading Moses reminds the people of their rebellion and of his successful intercession to God on their behalf. He is offering them teaching and warning before his departure and their entry into the new land. In the second reading from Hebrews the writer reminds a Christian generation centuries later of their ancestors' rebellion in the wilderness. He too is offering teaching and warning to encourage them to enter into the new land of promise that Jesus has offered. John gives us an illustration. Nicodemus is his straw man.

Like so many others, Nicodemus has been impressed by the signs that Jesus has performed. Faith based on signs is inadequate however. Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night, out of the dark, to the light.

Nicodemus is looking for certainty -- those nice, clearer, pat answers underlined by some miraculous show of power that leaves a person convinced and comfortable. That is exactly the kind of faith that Jesus will not sustain.

So Jesus proceeds to blow his mind with images to open Nicodemus to new possibilities. "You must be born from above." (Also translated, "You must be born anew.") Nicodemus is a literalist. Many people who insist on certainty are literalists. "Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb...?" he asks.

Jesus refuses to answer his literal question and continues to bombard him with images, metaphors, and symbols. These are things which resist the manipulation of literalism. "You must be born of water and Spirit." (The word "spirit" is ambiguous -- it can mean wind, breath, or spirit.) Jesus underlines the mystery of it all. "The wind/breath/spirit blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes." This is the divine wind/breath/spirit that is as free as the mysterious God whom Moses met at the burning bush. Nicodemus is perplexed. "How can these things be?"

Healthy religion opens us to the mysterious, unknowable reality of God. In symbol, metaphor, story, ritual, and images we are invited to step beyond our need for comfortable certainties and to enter into a relationship of trust with the uncontrollably free, mysterious God. To insist on our own way is rebellion. To insist on our own understanding is to live in darkness.

Faith that enters trustingly into relationship with the wind/breath/spirit that blows where it chooses is like being born from above, born anew.

John leaves this story open ended. We don't know how Nicodemus responds to Jesus' words of teaching a warning. We will see him later, however. He will act with courage when things have turned dangerous. We get the feeling he is on the path.

Lowell
______________________

To Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the "Morning Reflections" email list,
go to our Subscriptions page -- http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id137.html

The Rev. Lowell Grisham
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, AR

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

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

Save Me From Myself

Tuesday, February 27, 2007 -- Week of 1 Lent (George Herbert)

"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 www.missionstclare.com
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

Discussion Blog: To comment on today's reflection or readings, go to http://lowellsblog.blogspot.com, find today's reading, click "comment" at the bottom of the reading, and post your thoughts.

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (p. 952)
Psalms 45 (morning) // 47, 48 (evening)
Deuteronomy 9:4-12
Hebrews 3:1-11
John 2:13-22

Today Moses tells the Hebrew people not to be smug when they inherit the promised land. It is not because of their goodness that God has given it to them, but because of the wickedness of its inhabitants. (If this reading seems too familiar, I typed incorrectly, and listed it as yesterday's first lesson.) Today Jesus takes the pride of Jewish life, the Temple, and accuses it of becoming a business instead of a house of prayer for all people.

From Thomas Merton:
"Lord, I have not lived like a contemplative. The first essential is missing. I only say I trust You. My actions prove that the one I trust is myself -- and that I am still afraid of You.

"Take my life into Your hands, at last, and do what ever You want with it. I give myself to Your love and mean to keep on giving myself to Your love -- rejecting neither the hard things nor the pleasant things You have arranged for me. It is enough for me that You have glory. Everything You have planned is good. It is all love.

"The way You have laid open before me is an easy way, compared with the hard way of my own will which leads back to Egypt, and to bricks without straw. If you allow people to praise me, I shall worry even less, but be glad. If You send me work I shall embrace it with joy and it will be rest to me, because it is Your will. And if You send me rest, I will rest in You.

"Only save me from myself. Save me from my own, private, poisonous urge to change everything, to act without reason, to move for movement's sake, to unsettle everything You have ordained. Let me rest in Your will and be silent. Then the light of Your joy will warm my life. Its fire will burn in my heart and shine for your glory. This is what I live for. Amen, amen."

Lowell
______________________

To Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the "Morning Reflections" email list,
go to our Subscriptions page -- http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id137.html

The Rev. Lowell Grisham
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, AR

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

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

Wine and Wonders

Monday, February 26, 2007 -- Week of 1 Lent

"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 www.missionstclare.com
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


Today's Readings for the Daily Office (p. 952)
Psalms 41, 52 (morning) // 44 (evening)
Deuteronomy 9:4-12
Hebrews 2:11-18
John 2:1-12

John intends to shock us. The volume of water in the stone jars is unusual. Six jars, each holding 20 or 30 gallons. That's an enormous amount of water, especially in an arid climate. It is much more than would be present in even a very large home in Jesus's life time.

When Jesus turns the water into wine, John calls it a sign. For John, a sign manifests the presence of God working through Jesus. Sometimes these signs are stunning and extravagant. In this sign, Jesus turns over 100 gallons of ordinary water into wine. Furthermore, the steward of the party remarks that this wine is unusually fine, especially for the later wine served after the guests may have lost their ability to tell much difference.

It is good to have an expectant eye open for the presence of extravagance. The poets and mystics help us. Today it is often the scientists who give us glimpses into the extravagance of God's creation. Yesterday's conversation with Lothar Schafer in our "Friends Talking" series left me with at least as much awe as the wine steward of the wedding in Cana. Lothar is a molecular chemist who has a gift for communicating about the quantum reality which constitutes the universe.

The universe and everything in it is best described as non-material. There is very little of what we would conventionally call matter or material. All that is is interrelated in a vast wholeness. There is consciousness at a rudimentary level even in quantum events. Everything that we think of existing begins in a state of virtual probabilities, forms that we can statistically discover, but which are open and free to relate in unpredictable ways to create the material reality that we see and experience. (My words don't do it justice.)

It is wonderful to be alive in a time like this. It is like hanging around the wedding party long enough to drink this late, newly discovered wine. How wonderful and extravagant creation is. What a joyful celebration it is to touch more deeply into the wonders of reality. There is so much more than we can see. There is so much more that is invisible than visible. And the visible is wonderful in itself.

"The heavens declare the glory of God, and wonders of his love."

Lowell
______________________

To Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the "Morning Reflections" email list,
go to our Subscriptions page -- http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id137.html

The Rev. Lowell Grisham
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, AR

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

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

Andrew

Friday, February 23, 2007 -- (Polycarp)

"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 www.missionstclare.com
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

Discussion Blog: To comment on today's reflection or readings, go to http://lowellsblog.blogspot.com, find today's reading, click "comment" at the bottom of the reading, and post your thoughts.

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (p. 950)
Psalms 31 (morning) // 35 (evening)
Deuteronomy 7:12-16
Titus 2:1-15
John 1:35-42

There is something about Andrew that appeals to me. I imagine him as a winsome, caring person with a hopeful idealism. We see him today as one of the disciples of John the Baptist. John points out Jesus with the exclamation, "Look, here is the Lamb of God!" Andrew is open enough to follow Jesus. When Jesus looks at him and asks, "What are you looking for?" the answer is a traditional way of saying "I would like to learn from you." He says, "Rabbi, where are you staying?"

Jesus' invitation is my idea of good evangelism. "Come and see." Try it out. See if it is a good fit for you. That's the way I like to invite people to St. Paul's or to the Episcopal Church. "Come and see." No expectations. No hard-sell. Just come and see if this way of worshiping, praying, and serving in community is a good fit for you.

Andrew hangs around long enough to like what he sees. And the first thing he does is to go find his brother. His brother is Simon, whom Jesus will name Peter. Rocky in English. Andrew is the connection between Jesus and Peter. And what a connection it will be. On this Rock, Christ will build the church.

In one of the versions of the feeding of the multitudes. it is Andrew who brings a young boy to Jesus. The child doesn't have much, a few fish and some peasant bread. But it is enough, and multitudes are satisfied.

There is something winsome and encouraging about Andrew. He is able to connect people to Jesus just by inviting them. We see no evidence of expectation, control or manipulation in his actions. With a gentle hope he brings others to Jesus' presence. And amazing things happen. Simon Peter becomes the church's first great leader. A small boy's sack-lunch feeds thousands.

Come and see. Try it out. No expectations. You never know what might happen.

Lamb Power

Thursday, February 22, 2007

"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 www.missionstclare.com
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



Today's Readings for the Daily Office (p. 950)
Psalms 37:1-18 (morning) // 37:19-42 (evening)
Deuteronomy 7:6-11
Titus 1:1-16
John 1:29-34

"Here is the Lamb of God..." Later, John's Gospel will particularly connect Jesus' passion and death with the festival of the Jewish Passover. The Passover is the celebration of Jewish freedom. It recalls their people's escape from oppression and bondage in Egypt. On the night before their leaving, the Jewish households prepared a feast of lamb. With some of the blood of the lamb they marked the doors of their homes. That night the angel of death visited Egypt but passed over the homes marked with the blood of the lamb. In the face of such disaster, Pharaoh let them leave.

The Lamb of God is the one who brings freedom from bondage. In Christian tradition that bondage includes sin. John the Baptist declares, "Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!"

John also connects the Lamb of God with the feast that creates the identity of a free community. We are a people who have been given our freedom from sin, bondage, oppression and death.

A lamb is a very different symbol to use for a liberating hero. It is much more common to use animals that eat lambs as symbols for heroic power -- the kingly lion, the Soviet bear, the bald eagle. As Christians, we follow a lamb, not tigers and the lions and bears, oh my, or even eagles. A lamb is a nonthreatening animal. It is a vulnerable animal. It gives its coat to warm the cold and its life to feed the hungry.

Part of the scandal of the Christian gospel is that we are a people who declare that a lamb is more powerful than a lion (or even the Roman eagle). Lamb Power is our image of God's Power. Several 20th century heroes of nonviolence such as Gandhi, the Dalai Lama, and Martin Luther King give which is to this Lamb Power. It is a different way of being in the world.

It seems inescapable, as troubling as it is, that's liberation does not come without sacrifice. The sacrificial lamb enables reconciliation, the overcoming of sin, liberation from bondage, life out of death, and the feasting of a free community. But the price is dear.

Lowell
______________________

To Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the "Morning Reflections" email list,
go to our Subscriptions page -- http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id137.html

The Rev. Lowell Grisham
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, AR

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

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

Unpossessive Love

Wednesday, February 1, 2007 -- Week of Last Epiphany, Year One (Ash Wednesday)

"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 www.missionstclare.com
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


Today's Readings for the Daily Office (p. 950)
Psalms 95* & 32, 143 (morning) // 102, 130 (evening)
*for the invitatory
Jonah 3:1- 4:11
Hebrews 12:1-14
Luke 18:9-14

How different God's love is from ours. The book of Jonah makes that point with an entertaining skit. Jonah is so typical of all of us, full of pride and prejudice. Reluctantly he goes to Nineveh, the place he despises. He tells those awful people how awful they are. He can't wait for them to get what they deserve.

But God does not give them what they deserve. The people of Nineveh see the reality of their weakness, and God acts like God. Jonah complains, "I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing." Jonah is furious.

Thomas Merton writes:
"He Who is infinitely great has given to His children a share in His own innocence. He alone is the gentlest of loves: whose pure flame respects all things. God, Who owns all things, leaves them all to themselves. He never takes them for His own, the way we take them for our own and destroy them. He leaves them to themselves. He keeps giving to them, giving them all that they are, asking no thanks of them save that they should receive from him and be loved and nurtured by him, and that they should increase and multiply, and so praise him. He saw that all things were good, and He did not enjoy them. He saw that all things were beautiful and he did not want them. His love is not like ours. His love is unpossessive. His love is pure because it needs nothing."

So on this Ash Wednesday we approach God with the confident humility of the tax collector who bows his eyes and knows justification when he speaks to this on possessive God "be merciful to me, a sinner!" We will rise from our knees reminded of our death and fed with eternal life.

"Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed." Hebrews 12:12-13

Lowell
______________________

To Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the "Morning Reflections" email list,
go to our Subscriptions page -- http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id137.html

The Rev. Lowell Grisham
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, AR

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

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

Low Expectations and High Hopes

Tuesday, February 20, 2007 -- Week of Last Epiphany, Year One (Shrove Tuesday)

"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 www.missionstclare.com
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

Discussion Blog: To comment on today's reflection or readings, go to http://lowellsblog.blogspot.com, find today's reading, click "comment" at the bottom of the reading, and post your thoughts.

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (p. 950)
Psalms 26, 28 (morning) // 36, 39 (evening)
Deuteronomy 6:16-25
Hebrews 2:1-10
John 1:19-28

The scripture is full of hope and expectation. But it is also laced with caution, for we misinterpret and fall away from God's intention so easily.

In Deuteronomy we see the people of Israel in the desert. They have been liberated from Pharaoh's slavery in Egypt. God has shown some wonderful signs and promised them a good new land. There is so much hope and so much promise. But the warnings are present also. Be faithful to God's commands. Execute justice. Do not become like the Egyptians.

In Hebrews we celebrate that Jesus has become one with us even to "the suffering of death." Now he is "crowned with glory and honor." We share in his victory and glory. It is a glory so much greater than that given to Moses and the congregation in the desert. Therefore, cautions the writer of Hebrews, do not neglect so great a salvation as the Israelites once did.

John the Baptist excites the hopes and expectations of the people. The authorities are excited also. "Who are you?" They are searching and hoping for the coming Messiah. "I am not the Messiah." John says he is "the voice of one crying out in the wilderness," the forerunner of the Messiah. There is hope and expectation; but we read this with caution. We know that the One whom John speaks of will be crucified.

These thoughts of hope and caution draw me to a favorite quotation. This is something that is actually in needlepoint framed on my office wall. It is called "Paradigm of Openness."

Have low expectations and high hopes. Have low expectations of people so you don't force them directly or indirectly to meet certain anticipations you've might have as to how they should or should not respond to you and your actions. But have high hopes for them based on a ruthless faith in God that something good, something dear and beautiful will come of it if you are looking and listening with an open heart.

Forgive yourself and other people for their defensiveness. Being cautious is natural for faithless and hopeless persons -- and we all fall into this category more or less.

Be as open as possible to being surprised by the encounter. In other words, we must not look for our god and reactions that we feel would be important and right. We must position ourselves instead to see whatever we will see amidst the joy, pain, apathy, anxiety, peace, depression, or tension we experience. When we are truly open, we will be surprised by something in the encounter. And that surprise -- that unique presence of God -- can be called by another name: holiness. (from Robert J. Wicks, "Living Simply in an Anxious World")

Lowell
______________________

To Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the "Morning Reflections" email list,
go to our Subscriptions page -- http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id137.html

The Rev. Lowell Grisham
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, AR

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

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

The "Alreadiness" of All

Monday, February 19, 2007 -- Week of Last Epiphany, Year One

"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 www.missionstclare.com
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


Today's Readings for the Daily Office (p. 950)
Psalms 25 (morning) // 9, 15 (evening)
Deuteronomy 6:10-15
Hebrews 1:1-14
John 1:1-18

There is an amazing "alreadiness" to the proclamation of scripture.

Speaking in the voice of Moses, Deuteronomy reminds Israel that the land which the people will enter will be a land given to them. It will have fine, large cities that they did not build, houses that they did not furnish, wells that they did not dig, vineyards and olive groves that they did not plant. The appropriate attitude towards such un-earned privilege is an attitude of grateful, humble thanks. Moses warns the people not to be proud, not to take too much credit.

Likewise, Hebrews and John both celebrate the unique wonder of God's presence and activity through Jesus the Son, the Word. Jesus is the incarnation and manifestation of God within human life. He is God with us, the light eternal. He comes to us freely, as God's generous gift of Being with us. Even though we did not know him, even though we rejected him, he is with us for ever. Jesus reveals the heart of God.

Everything is given. I did not create myself. I was given life and nourished. I was given gifts of intellect and body. The little that I might claim as my own contribution is merely the stewardship of the incalculable treasure I have been given. To do anything other than take care of mind, body, and spirit would be irresponsible and a tragic waste.

And everything that is given is given in relationship. First in the divine relationship of eternal love -- the Father emptying the divine life in love of the Son; the Son returning that love in complete giving to the Father; the Spirit Being the very love that unites them. Out of that primordial relationship of creative love comes everything that has being. All is a reflection of the divine relationship of love. Everything I am is a reflection of my participation in this overflowing, creative love. It takes more than a village to raise a child. I am mineral, vegetable, and animal loved into consciousness. Each of us is from the beginning, a Word made flesh. All is given.

The "alreadiness" of our very being is wonderful and amazing. Can we be other than grateful?

Lowell
______________________

To Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the "Morning Reflections" email list,
go to our Subscriptions page -- http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id137.html

The Rev. Lowell Grisham
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, AR

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

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

The Law of Love... Incarnate

Friday, February 16, 2007 -- Week of 6 Epiphany; Year One

"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 www.missionstclare.com
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


Today's Readings for the Daily Office (p. 948)
Psalms 102 (morning) // 107:1-32 (evening)
Isaiah 65:17-25
I Timothy 5:17-22 (23-25)
Mark 12:28-34

It is so instructive and encouraging. After all of the arguing and doctrinal disputes that have consumed the Gospel of Mark following Jesus' cleansing of the temple -- after all of this wrangling and conflict -- we get the summary of the law which crystallizes our foundation for discernment.

Everything rises or falls on love. It's all about love. Do you want to talk about health or dysfunction? (Mk. 11:20-25) Or the authority of ministry in God's name? (Mk. 11:27-33) How about faithfulness and unfaithfulness? (Mk. 12:1-12) Or a proper attitude toward the secular authorities? (Mk. 12:13-17) Theological doctrine and speculation? (Mk. 12:18-27) Find the path of love and you are "not far from the kingdom of God." (Mk. 12:28-34) "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. ...You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these." Love is the bottom line.

Sure there will be plenty to argue about even if we make love our fulcrum. But how much more encouraging our arguing might be if the common reference is love?

I am cautioned by the memory that the witch-burners in Salem were able to rationalize their executions believing that they were saving the souls of the women they were burning. I'm sure they could look you in the eye with utter sincerity and tell you burning at the stake was the most loving act they could offer under the circumstances. So, given our human propensity for self-justification and rationalization, we need something more than a foundational reference to love. What does love in action look like? It seems to me that the best illustration of love in action is Jesus' life. Let the life of Jesus define what love looks like. "What would Jesus do?" is a great question.

Would Jesus burn witches? Hard to imagine. Who would Jesus bomb? Would Jesus commend today's "money changers in the Temple" if he read a report like the one this week released by UNICEF showing that children in the United States and Britain ranked last in a survey of child welfare in 21 wealthy countries? Jesus got asked about taxes in verse 13. What would Jesus say about taxes today? What would Jesus say about the relationship of wealth and power? What is love in action? What would Jesus do?

How might our answers to the conflicts and divisions in our generation be influenced if our fundamental orientation was two questions: (1) What is the most loving thing to do? (2) What would Jesus do?

Lowell
______________________

To Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the "Morning Reflections" email list,
go to our Subscriptions page -- http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id137.html

The Rev. Lowell Grisham
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, AR

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

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

Religious Conflicts

Thursday, February 15, 2007 -- Week of 6 Epiphany; Year One (Thomas Bray)

"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 www.missionstclare.com
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


Today's Readings for the Daily Office (p. 948)
Psalms 105:1-22 (morning) // 105:23-45 (evening)
Isaiah 65:1-12
I Timothy 4:1-16
Mark 12:13-27

We get a lot of commentary about religious practice in today's readings. Isaiah decries some esoteric practices that seem to have magical elements to them. He is particularly critical of the separatism and spiritual pride that these practices encourage. He quotes their devotees who say, "Keep to your self, do not come near me, for I am to holy for you."

But there is no sure way to purified the people. God cannot bring punishment on these wrongdoers without also bringing unjust suffering to the faithful. Like Jesus's parable of the of wheat and the weeds, for the sake of the faithful God will not destroy the whole.

In the letter to Timothy we read more exhortations to right belief and practice. Among the religious conflicts that the writer addresses is the question of clean and profane foods. In Isaiah we read criticism of those who "eat swine's flesh, with broth of abominable things in their vessels." But Timothy says "everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, provided it is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by God's word and by prayer." What to eat and with whom to eat it has been a perennial topic of religious debate.

Jesus finds himself in debate with challengers. Some Roman collaborators ask him if it is lawful to pay taxes to the emperor. Jesus asks him for a coin. Roman coins typically bore the image of the emperor -- a graven image in violation of the second commandment according to Jewish tradition. Roman coins usually had an inscription celebrating the divinity of the emperor. Such coins were a public blasphemy to sensitive Jews. Jesus' answer cleverly evades the trap.

Then Sadducees challenge the theological view of the Pharisees. Pharisees believe in resurrection. The Sadducees invent a scenario to ridicule the notion of resurrection. Jesus invites them to a higher vision of union beyond the limitations of possessive earthly relationships.

I am left thinking that religious debate and conflict seems eternal and inevitable. People are rarely convinced by argument. Minds and opinions are not easily changed. But these conversations are important and necessary. There are better and worse religious practices and beliefs.

Our knowledge is always partial. There is much that is ambiguous. Mystery cannot be defined and contained. Ultimately our faith points toward a God who is free and beyond our knowing and control. Moses teaches us that from the burning bush.

So we offer our best thoughts and theologies, but we do so with qualifications. When it comes to religious teaching, we often don't know what is man's and what is God's. To render unto God what is God's is to give everything into God's hands, including our ignorance. It is always important to recognize that the first temptation in the Garden of Eden was to eat of the forbidden fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. Certainty is more than humans can claim.

Lowell
______________________

To Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the "Morning Reflections" email list,
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The Rev. Lowell Grisham
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, AR

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

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

Unfaithful Ways

Wednesday, February 14, 2007 -- Week of 6 Epiphany; Year One (Cyril & Methodius))

"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 www.missionstclare.com
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


Today's Readings for the Daily Office (p. 948)
Psalms 101, 109:1-4 (5-19) 20-30 (morning) // 119:121-144 (evening)
Isaiah 63:15 - 64:9
1 Timothy 3:1-16
Mark 11:27 - 12:12

In today's Gospel Jesus tells the parable of the vineyard. If read as an allegory, it is the story of God's planting of Israel as God's beloved vineyard, but the unfaithful tenants refused to give God the produce. The message is Jesus' indictment of the religious leadership. They did not follow the original vision for God's vineyard, but look first to their own needs. In a way, the same message is present in Third Isaiah as well and as in the Pastoral Epistles such as 1 Timothy.

Today 3-Isaiah grieves the absence of God in the Temple. The prophet remembers God's awesome deeds of the past and wishes such wonders could be accomplished in the present. But the people have hard hearts and have strayed from God's ways.

Israel's relationship to God as focused in the Jerusalem Temple is a uniting theme for the three sections of Isaiah. The eighth century prophet of First Isaiah focuses on the protection of Jerusalem and its Temple during the military threats from Assyria. Second Isaiah inspires the sixth century exiles in Babylon for their return to Jerusalem to rebuild a new Temple as a house of prayer for all people. Third Isaiah is a mixture of threats and warnings which reflect the conflict and frustration surrounding the rebuilding efforts of the following generation.

In all of Isaiah we see the Temple as a uniting theme. The Temple can be a place of understanding and faithfulness for Israel's encounter with God. The Temple can also be a self-centered focus of foolish illusion where religious people evade the true demands of God. Only when Israel approaches the Temple with humility, obedience, and a contrite spirit motivating justice will the people show their faithfulness and experience God's blessing.

In a way, I Timothy and the other pastoral epistles exhibit a similar falling away from an original vision. In Paul's authentic letters, "righteousness" is God's free gift of justification which we receive freely through faith -- simply accept the fact that you are accepted, and you are justified. In I & II Timothy and Titus (the Pastoral Epistles) "righteousness" is moral uprightness and "faith" is a collection of traditions that are to be guarded -- behave yourself and believe the doctrines, and you are justified. The Pastoral Epistles restored to centrality exactly what Paul sought to liberate us from -- salvation by works or by obedience to the law.

The Temple can be a place of encounter with God or a place of avoidance of God through illusion. The teachings of Scripture can also be a means of encounter with God or an experience of domesticating God through illusion. Will we be faithful or unfaithful tenants? Which kind of Temple will we create? Which message of scripture will we follow? When Jesus criticized the religious leaders of his day they were convinced that he was wrong, and that they acted decisively to protect God from Jesus.

Lowell
______________________

To Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the "Morning Reflections" email list,
go to our Subscriptions page -- http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id137.html

The Rev. Lowell Grisham
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, AR

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

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

Meaning Well; Doing Wrong

Tuesday, February 13, 2007 -- Week of 6 Epiphany; Year One (Absalom Jones)

"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 www.missionstclare.com
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

Discussion Blog: To comment on today's reflection or readings, go to http://lowellsblog.blogspot.com, find today's reading, click "comment" at the bottom of the reading, and post your thoughts.

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (p. 948)
Psalms 97, 99, [100] (morning) // 94, [95] (evening)
Isaiah 63:7-14
1 Timothy 1:18 - 2:8
Mark 11:12-26

There are so many ways for us to do things wrongly despite our good intentions. The officials of the Jerusalem Temple believed themselves to be stewards of the holiest site of Jewish faith. They were very conscientious in their intention to keep God's Temple holy. A lucrative industry evolved around providing services on behalf of the Temple.

Out of respect for God, in order to assure that animals given to God in sacrifice were whole and unblemished, the Temple authorities established an inspection and supply process for all offerings. To certify that no unclean coinage with the image of the Emperor was received as part of the peoples' offering to God, moneychangers turned Roman coins into more appropriate Temple coinage. The purpose of these services was to keep temple worship and offerings pure and holy. A side effect was that these services made worship more expensive, particularly for peasants. Unblemished animals were more expensive (and the inspection process could be rigid toward household animals); there was a service fee for the exchange of coins.

Jesus took great exception to the Temple practices. He objected to anything that tended to separate people from direct access to their God and to God's forgiveness. He decried the religious commerce as unjust. The cursing of the fig tree in our Gospel account today is a symbolic image of the withering of the holy city and its Temple.

The temple officials thought they were doing right. They believed they were protecting God's holiness.

We see a similar concern in 1 Timothy, especially in the verses 11-15 which are omitted from the Daily Office readings in our prayer book. (They were also skipped in the 1928 Prayer Book.) We know from 1 Corinthians that women prayed and prophesied publicly in worship in Paul's churches. We know that women held remarkably egalitarian status in Paul's churches as well as among Jesus' followers. But later generations qualified that model of inclusion. Writing in the name of Paul, the author of 1 Timothy sternly silences women and places them in a secondary position. No doubt, the author believed himself to be protecting the holiness of the church and to be following God's will.

What practices do we see in our contemporary church that may be well intentioned but actually compromise the full freedom of worship and praise from God's people? Maybe more importantly, what practices do we not see because we have inherited them as our norms? Jesus was particularly effective at breaking down these unnecessary barriers while maintaining a Spirit of holiness. He was able to do so because he looked with new eyes focused on the presence of God. His "reforms" were not well received by those in authority. We do not have such a good record at receiving such reforms in our worship either.

Today is the feast of Absalom Jones, the first African-American priest of the Episcopal Church. He was born a slave. He taught himself to read out of the New Testament and in a school run by Quakers. He was the property of good, Christian people. He purchased his wife's freedom at age 20. It took 18 more years for him to purchase his own. Jones was such an effective evangelist that he increased the Black membership of the church he attended in Philadelphia to the point that an alarmed vestry decided to segregate the Black members into the balcony one Sunday. Jones led them to walk out of the church.

Eventually, the congregation that Absalom Jones led was received into the Episcopal Church and he was ordained deacon and later priest. It is a sad yet inspiring story. From our perspective we can see the injustice of slavery and racial prejudice. But I'm sure at the time everyone was doing what they thought was best. It usually takes a great conflict of values to bring changes that expand the full freedom of worship and praise from God's people.

Lowell
______________________

To Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the "Morning Reflections" email list,
go to our Subscriptions page -- http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id137.html

The Rev. Lowell Grisham
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, AR

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

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

The Grapes of Wrath

Monday, February 12, 2007 -- Week of 6 Epiphany; Year One

"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 www.missionstclare.com
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


Today's Readings for the Daily Office (p. 948)
Psalms 89:1-18 (morning) // 89:19-52 (evening)
Isaiah 63:1-6
1 Timothy 1:1-17
Mark 11:1-11

When people are oppressed and powerless their thoughts so easily turn to violence. When injustice abounds, frustration grows dangerously.

For several weeks we read from the inspiring and lyrical poetry of Second Isaiah, speaking hopefully from the Babylonian exile about the deliverance that is to come. He visions a restored Israel and a new Jerusalem at peace and harmony with all the world, its Temple a place of universal hospitality and prayer for all people.

Last week we began reading from what is called Third Isaiah, words that come from a later time when many exiles had returned to Israel, but the restoration has not fulfilled their expectations. Instead of peace, harmony, and hospitality there has been opposition and hostility between the returning Israelites and the peoples of the land. The rebuilding has met resistance and conflict. The people are frustrated. They long for an end to the conflict and violence. They feel oppressed and powerless.

Those emotions spill over into a vision of vengeance. With frightening pictures the prophet imagines God returning from the enemy's home with robes stained red from the blood of the dead. Since humans were powerless to impose justice and peace, God acted with decisive violence. As grapes are trodden in a wine press until the juice runs free, so God has trodden on Israel's enemies. "I trampled down peoples in my anger, I crushed them in my wrath, and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth."

This vision of God's violent defeat of injustice from Isaiah 63 has been part of the collection of messianic prophecies and has motivated the hopes of Christians and Jews for centuries. School children brightly sing, "My eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored."

It is particularly significant that our lectionary happens to have this bloody vision of divine victory coinciding with our reading of Jesus's entry into Jerusalem riding on a colt as onlookers spread their cloaks and palm branches on the road shouting, "Hosanna! ... Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!" Jesus has chosen to enter Jerusalem as the Messiah was expected from the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9. "Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your kingdom come to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey."

This crowd shouting "Hosanna!" was also expecting that Jesus would trample down the Romans in divine anger, crush them in wrath, and pour out their lifeblood on the earth. The traditional, conventional, and orthodox expectation of the Messiah was of one who would fulfill the triumphant military ambitions as David's heir. The Messiah would trample Israel's enemies in the tradition of prophecies like Isaiah 63.

One of the reasons that people turned against Jesus was that he failed their expectations. He did not trample out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored. The only blood that was shed was his own. He was a peaceful Messiah, and that is not what people wanted or expected.

Sadly, Jesus's non-violent example did not put the blood-lust to rest. Many Christians continue to look forward to the blood spilling and violence of all of the old prophecies. It is their scenario for the second coming of Jesus.

It is as if the Jesus that God sent to us as Messiah is simply not good enough -- or should we say violent enough -- for them. How hard it is to root out the violence that is so deep in the human heart. How Jesus's heart must break when he sees the eager hope for genocide spoken in his name. Do they not know; the Jesus who will return it the same Jesus we have already known. He has refused the genocidal path and opened to us a new way.

Lowell
______________________

To Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the "Morning Reflections" email list,
go to our Subscriptions page -- http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id137.html

The Rev. Lowell Grisham
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, AR

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

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

Inclusive or Exclusive

Friday, February 9, 2007 -- Week of 5 Epiphany; Year One

"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 www.missionstclare.com
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


Today's Readings for the Daily Office (p. 946)
Psalms 88 (morning) // 91, 92 (evening)
Isaiah 61:10 - 62:5
2 Timothy 4:1-8
Mark 10:46-52

Last Friday we changed Isaiahs. We finished with the exquisite oracles from Second Isaiah, concluding at chapter 55, and began what some scholars call Third Isaiah (and maybe Fourth). Some of the vision and lyricism of 2 Isaiah is also present in these prophecies. Episcopalians love the beginning of today's reading not only because it is the passage that Jesus referenced in his appearance at the synagogue in Nazareth, but also because it is say popular reading for our funerals.

"The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and released to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn..." Beautiful stuff. But notice -- "the day of vengeance of our God." I sometimes cringe when I read that phrase in the midst of this reading when we use it at a funeral.

There is an edge present in 3 Isaiah that is absent in 2 Isaiah. Second Isaiah visions a Jerusalem which will be open and hospitable to all the nations of the world. Second Isaiah imagines foreigners coming in peace to the Temple which will be a house of prayer for all people. It is a generous and inclusive vision. Third Isaiah contemplates Israel's dominance over the nations. God will accomplish Israel's vengeance, and "strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, foreigners shall till your land and dress your vines; you shall be named ministers of our God; you shall enjoy the wealth of the nations, and in their riches you shall glory."

These two prophetic traditions are only a few decades apart in time, both from the sixth century BCE. Both speak inspiring visions of God restoration of Israel. But they have very different spirits. A universalism that is present in Second Isaiah is absent in Third Isaiah. The latter prophet anticipates judgment, dispoilment, and humiliation for the other nations.

What will God to with the "others"? Will God bless and include or will God judge and punish? You can find both throughout Scripture. You can find both traditions in the New Testament as well as the Hebrew Scriptures.

For me the key is what does Jesus do and say? Not just what did the early church interpret Jesus as saying, but what do we see from the actions of Jesus in particular and what do we hear from the bulk of the remembered saying of Jesus? I would argue that Jesus stands solidly in the tradition of Second Isaiah. His actions are completely inclusive. He performs the same miracles of healing and feeding to Gentiles and even Romans as he does for his own people. And his words of judgment land primarily on those in his own religion who are the most judgmental, strict, and exclusive in their attitude toward the "others".

But if you want religious triumphalism, exclusive salvation, and even tribalism, you can find it and defend yourself biblically. Sometimes I think how we read and interpret the Bible says more about us than it does about God.

Lowell
______________________

To Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the "Morning Reflections" email list,
go to our Subscriptions page -- http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id137.html

The Rev. Lowell Grisham
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, AR

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

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

No Complaints

Thursday, February 8, 2006 -- Week of 5 Epiphany; Year One

"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 www.missionstclare.com
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


Today's Readings for the Daily Office (p. 946)
Psalms [83] or 146, 147 (morning) // 85, 86 (evening)
Isaiah 60:1-17
2 Timothy 2:14-26
Mark 10:17-31

It is obvious that the congregation to which the letter titled 2 Timothy is addressed is a congregation in conflict. Scholars see this as a document from the third-generation of Christians written in the name of Paul at a time when he is regarded as an honored ancestor. With warnings and encouragement the author tells them to stop their complaining and conflicts.

"...avoid wrangling over words... Avoid profane chatter... Have nothing to do with stupid and senseless controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome..."

A friend of mine who is a pastor in the Unity Church showed me her wristband yesterday. It is a purple wristband that says "no complaints" (or words to that effect). Another pastor in Kansas City came up with the idea. You wear the band on your arm as a reminder not to complain. The challenge is to go 21 days without complaining. If you catch yourself griping, you move the wrist band from one arm to the other and start the count again. On the website of the congregation that started the "no complaints" wristbands they list the names of 20 members who have successfully accomplished 21 days without complaint.

It's a very Benedictine idea. In his famous rule for communities, Benedict had much to say about grumbling. He's against it. Maya Angelou is often quoted for her saying, "If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain." When our kids were young, if they ever began to whine, Kathy would say in a very matter-of-fact tone, " I can't hear you when you whine," and they almost always changed their appeal toward a more problem-solving sound.

How about a suggestion for a possible Lenten discipline? -- Give up complaining for Lent. I've ordered 150 of the purple armbands from the Kansas City church. We will have them available in a few weeks, as soon as they come in. Pick one up and take the 21-day challenge. If you make it, we'll be glad to put your name on our website.
_____________________

Here are a couple of old sermons based on today's gospel reading.

http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id179.html
http://www.stpaulsfay.org//sermon101203.html


Lowell
______________________

To Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the "Morning Reflections" email list,
go to our Subscriptions page -- http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id137.html

The Rev. Lowell Grisham
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, AR

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

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

Organic Growth

Wednesday, February 7, 2006 -- Week of 5 Epiphany; Year One

"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 www.missionstclare.com
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


Today's Readings for the Daily Office (p. 946)
Psalms 119:97-120 (morning) // 81, 82 (evening)
Isaiah 59:15b-21
2 Timothy 1:15 - 2:13
Mark 10:1-16

Spiritual growth has an organic nature to it. We don't just decide to be spiritually mature and become so. It takes time and practice.

The writer of 2 Timothy offers three helpful images -- soldier, athlete, and farmer. Soldiers undergo rigorous training in order to become fit and to respond with instinctive obedience in times of threat. Athletes practice long hours until their skill is finely honed. A farmer works with the natural cycle, patiently preparing the soil, planting, and waiting for the gifts of sun and rain to produce the crop.

There are no shortcuts. You can't plant today and reap tomorrow. You can't take one tennis lesson and serve an ace. You can't run through one obstacle course and face combat as an effective unit.

It is the same way with the practice of virtue, prayer, and study. It takes time to develop the discipline and practice that produces spiritual growth. But with time and discipline and practice you will discover yourself responding with instinctive charity or praying effortlessly or understanding intuitively. Growth happens.
____________________

In the heart-breaking conflict, division, and separation that characterizes some parts of the church today I see some irony in the selective obedience that is happening. Some priests are leaving the Episcopal Church alleging that we are being unfaithful to scripture if we recognize and accept the spiritual gifts and be committed love of Christians with a same-sex orientation. They cite scripture as their authority.

Some of the same priests are finding themselves in awkward positions as they affiliate with African Anglican churches which do not recognize the experience of resurrection and committed love of Christians who have divorced and remarried. This passage from Mark combined with a similar prohibition from Paul was the foundation for the centuries-old tradition of the Church prohibiting remarriage. "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery."

Until 1978 no one could be remarried in the Episcopal Church if their former spouse was alive. In some congregations, remarried members were not admitted to communion. They were not ordained or given leadership. That is still the practice in many parts of the Anglican Communion.

It was the Episcopal Church's experience with the fruits of the Spirit present and manifest in the relationships of divorced and remarried Christians that persuaded the Episcopal Church to change its policy. We became convinced that remarriage is often an experience of resurrection, healing, grace and love. We allowed love to overcome the "letter of the law" and we made careful exception to the Biblical prohibition to remarriage.

Most of the priests now leaving the Episcopal Church, maybe all, have recognized the grace present in remarriage and have presided at the sacrament of marriage for persons who have divorced and whose former spouse is still alive. There is a priest in a neighboring diocese whose testimony at the 2003 General Convention was the most passionate and, to my mind, the most extreme in opposing any accommodation to homosexuals. Recently he led his congregation out of the Episcopal Church. His news release about that action cited his commitment to being "unapologetically biblical." He is himself divorced and remarried.

I wish those who have appreciated the grace present in many remarriages could also recognize the grace present in the committed relationships of many gay couples. But if they can't, I wish they would not beat those of us who do over the head with the Bible. We are all trying as best we can to follow the revelation of God in scripture. We just disagree in our interpretations.

Lowell
______________________

To Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the "Morning Reflections" email list,
go to our Subscriptions page -- http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id137.html

The Rev. Lowell Grisham
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, AR

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

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

Serious Admonitions

Tuesday, February, 6, 2007 -- Week of 5 Epiphany; Year One

"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 www.missionstclare.com
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

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (p. 946)
Psalms 78:1-39 (morning) // 78:40-72 (evening)
Isaiah 59:1-15a
2 Timothy 1:1-14
Mark 9:42-50

Our passages from Mark underline the seriousness and radicalism of Jesus' message. Living an authentic life, faithful to the values of Christ's compassion and love, is more important than physical disfigurement. The phrases are repeated: if part of you causes you to stumble, it is better to live without that part than to be thrown into "Gehenna." Gehenna was a narrow valley just outside the wall of Jerusalem which served as the city dump. Garbage of all kind stayed there rocking perpetually. Fires burned continually to try to moderate the stench. Sometimes the bodies of criminals or the executed would be thrown there. It was a vivid metaphor.

One of the characteristics of many of the older and classic works of spiritual direction is their emphasis on the importance of our struggle against wrong action and thought. These classic texts are filled with admonitions on behalf of the struggle for faithfulness and goodness. This excerpt from Jean Pierre de Caussade caught my attention last night:

"If you really have a good will, if you are seriously and earnestly resolved to belong to God, you ought to make every effort to maintain yourself in peace in order not to give the lie to the message of the angels: ' Peace to men of good will.'

"The greatest evil in your soul at present is that of anxiety, uneasiness and interior agitation. This malady is, thank God, not incurable, but as long as it remains unhealed it cannot but be even more dangerous than painful to you.

"Interior disturbance renders the soul incapable of listening to and following the voice of the divine Spirit, of receiving the sweet and delightful impressions of his grace, and of applying itself to devotional exercises and to exterior duties.

"It is the same with such sick and afflicted souls as with bodies enfeebled by fever, which cannot accomplish any serious task until delivered from their malady.

"The health of the body can only be restored by three means: obedience to the physician, rest, and good food. These are, likewise, the three means of restoring peace and health to a soul that is agitated, sick, and almost in agony."

De Caussade offers a compelling spiritual image. The health of the spirit can only be restored by three means: obedience to the Physician, rest, and spiritual nurture. If your hand, foot or eye causes you to stumble, it is diseased and subject to dismemberment. Return to obedience to God, seek rest and renewal for the soul.

Lowell
______________________

To Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the "Morning Reflections" email list,
go to our Subscriptions page -- http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id137.html

The Rev. Lowell Grisham
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, AR

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

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

Hypocrisy

Monday, February 5, 2007 -- Week of 5 Epiphany; Year One -- (The Martyrs of Japan)

"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 www.missionstclare.com
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

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (p. 946)
Psalms 80 (morning) // 77, [79] (evening)
Isaiah 58:1-12
Galatians 6:11-18
Mark 9:30-41

One of the familiar indictments of Christianity and other religions is the charge of hypocrisy. Religious people will sometimes make a show of their faith yet fail to connect their faith to their actions.

Isaiah 58 is a clarion cry of challenge to the religious. Isaiah tells his contemporaries that their religious observance is meaningless if their lives fail to produce justice and goodness. Isaiah sees a direct cause-and-effect between the establishment of justice and God's blessing upon their society.

Here are the justice issues that Isaiah demands in the name of the Lord:
just pay and working conditions for laborers; no more oppression of the weak, especially foreigners and eunuchs; food for the hungry; shelter for the homeless; clothes for the needy; the end of quarreling; replacing greed with generosity. Isaiah says that if God's people will practice these right behaviors, their society will prosper. He tells them that their self-centered plans for economic and agricultural success will falter unless they first reclaim their inner direction.

Jesus addresses some of the same issues in today's reading from Mark. Jesus lives the servant-life example. But the disciples are arguing over status and power. Jesus reminds them that when they offer hospitality and respect to the least of their neighbors, they honor Christ himself. He cautions his followers not to be sectarian and jealous. They are not to feel threatened by a rival religious practice. "Who ever is not against us is for us."

It makes sense intuitively that these Biblical admonitions of generosity and service would create a more just and energetic society than a society motivated by greed and lust for power. The sharpest rebuke is saved for those who cover their greed and lust for power with a religious veneer.

Lowell
______________________

To Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the "Morning Reflections" email list,
go to our Subscriptions page -- http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id137.html

The Rev. Lowell Grisham
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, AR

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

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

Building the New Jerusalem

Friday, February 2, 2007 -- Week of 4 Epiphany; Year One
The Feast of The Presentation of the Lord (Candlemas)

"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 www.missionstclare.com
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

Today's Readings for the Daily Office
EITHER the readings for Friday, 4 Epiphany (p. 946)
Psalms 69:1-23 (24-30) 31-38 (morning) // 73 (evening)
Isaiah 56:1-8
Galatians 5:16-24
Mark 9:2-13

OR the readings for The Presentation (p. 997)
Morning Prayer: Psalms 42, 43; I Samuel 2:1-10; John 8:31-36
Evening Prayer: Psalms 48, 87; Haggai 2:1-9; I John 3:1-8

(I used the readings for Friday, 4 Epiphany)

We have just finished the wonderful collection of Second Isaiah (chapters 40-55) speaking confident hope to an exiled people for their return to Jerusalem. Today we move several decades later. The exiled people have been restored to Jerusalem. But all is not well.

This section, which is sometimes called Third Isaiah, begins by picking up the vision of the call to rebuild Jerusalem from the earlier prophecy. That call had been an open invitation to all. But now traditional rules about who belonged and who did not belong were being used to exclude some from the community and from the Temple. Third Isaiah decries these exclusions as mockery of God's invitation.

Whose exclusion is the prophet concerned about? "Do not let the foreigner joined to the Lord say, 'The Lord will surely separate me from his people'; and do not let the eunuch say, 'I am just a dry tree.'" The prophet is angry because foreigners and eunuchs are being treated as outcasts.

Third Isaiah promises the eunuchs an everlasting name "in my house and within my walls." The scripture promises that God will accept the labors and sacrifices of the foreigners. "These I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer."

Then the Isaiah offers the vision. It is a treasured vision for all times. "For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples." ALL peoples.

My thoughts go immediately to the conflicts of our contemporary church and our community. The parallel of "eunuchs" and "foreigners" with homosexual persons and undocumented immigrants seem obvious to me. These are the people who are being treated as outcasts in our generation. The words of Third Isaiah ring a clarion call of inclusion. "These I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; ... for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples."

I was doubly moved when our second reading from Galatians included Paul's wonderful account of the fruit of the Spirit: "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things." That word has been for me a proof-text for the inclusion of faithful homosexual Christians in the full life of the Church. Just as Second Isaiah saw the full humanness and faithfulness of the eunuchs and foreigners in the rebuilt Jerusalem and called for their inclusion in the community and Temple, so I see the fruit of the Spirit in gay people and illegal immigrants who suffer rejection and discrimination as outcasts in our generation.

The word of Scripture seems clear. God's house is a house of prayer for all peoples.

Lowell
______________________

To Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the "Morning Reflections" email list,
go to our Subscriptions page -- http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id137.html

The Rev. Lowell Grisham
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, AR

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

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