Friday, May 30, 2008

The Whiskey Speech

Friday, May 30, 2008 -- Week of Proper 3
(I'll be on retreat next week. Next Morning Reflection, Tuesday, June 10)

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 969)
Psalms 31 (morning) 35 (evening)
Proverbs 23:19-21, 29 - 24:2
1 Timothy 5:17-22(23-25)
Matthew 13:31-35

Proverbs 29f: "Who has woe? Who has sorrow? ...Those who linger late over wine."
1 Timothy 5:23: "No longer drink only water, but take a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments."

Growing up as an Episcopalian in the Bible Belt as an Episcopalian, I experienced our church's tradition of moderation as a distinguishing characteristic. The Episcopal Church was one of the first to embrace the 12-step spirituality of Alcoholics Anonymous, and the perspective that addiction was better handled as a disease needing healing than as a moral failure needing punishment or shunning. Food, drink, and sex are all good gifts from God, we said -- gifts that bring happiness when enjoyed with moderation. That moderate tradition is consistent with the Biblical heritage even though it is inconsistent with the Biblical teachings of the dominant Christian denominations of my origins, churches which were suspicious of pleasures that were so easily misused. In my part of the world, previous generations divided politically and religiously between "wets" and "drys."

My home state of Mississippi was the first state to ratify the 18th amendment to prohibit alcoholic beverages (1918) and the last state to allow legal sales (1966). "Whisky" was a hot political topic, not unlike abortion and gun control today. Some voters were single-issue voters.

One of my dad's best friends was N. S. "Soggy" Sweat. Dad and Soggy were in law school together and served in the Mississippi legislature. Soggy eventually became a Federal Judge on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. In 1952, when the Mississippi legislature was debating legalizing liquor, Soggy was a young state representative in his 20's. Soggy gave a speech that became known as the famous "Whiskey Speech," and has been treasured as a great example of American political doublespeak. I don't know that it takes us very far as a Morning Reflection, but with some delight I share it with you:

My friends,
I had not intended to discuss this controversial subject at this particular time. However, I want you to know that I do not shun controversy. On the contrary, I will take a stand on any issue at any time, regardless of how fraught with controversy it might be. You have asked me how I feel about whiskey. All right, here is how I feel about whiskey.

If when you say whiskey you mean the devil's brew, the poison scourge, the bloody monster, that defiles innocence, dethrones reason, destroys the home, creates misery and poverty, yea, literally takes the bread from the mouths of little children; if you mean the evil drink that topples the Christian man and woman from the pinnacle of righteous, gracious living into the bottomless pit of degradation, and despair, and shame and helplessness, and hopelessness, then certainly I am against it.

But;
If when you say whiskey you mean the oil of conversation, the philosophic wine, the ale that is consumed when good fellows get together, that puts a song in their hearts and laughter on their lips, and the warm glow of contentment in their eyes; if you mean Christmas cheer; if you mean the stimulating drink that puts the spring in the old gentleman's step on a frosty, crispy morning; if you mean the drink which enables a man to magnify his joy, and his happiness, and to forget, if only for a little while, life's great tragedies, and heartaches, and sorrows; if you mean that drink, the sale of which pours into our treasuries untold millions of dollars, which are used to provide tender care for our little crippled children, our blind, our deaf, our dumb, our pitiful aged and infirm; to build highways and hospitals and schools, then certainly I am for it.

This is my stand. I will not retreat from it. I will not compromise.

1952, Noah. S. "Soggy Sweat (1923-1996)

Lowell
_____________________________________________

Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts

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 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


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

Visit 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

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Wheat and Darnel

Thursday, May 29, 2008 -- Week of Proper 3

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 969)
Psalms 37:1-18 (morning) 37:19-42 (evening)
Proverbs 21:30 - 22:6
1 Timothy 4:1-16
Matthew 13:24-30

1 Timothy opens with a warning that "in later times some will renounce the faith by paying attention to deceitful spirits..." He speaks of those false teachings coming from those "whose consciences are seared with a hot iron."

The next line is this: "They forbid marriage..."

Matthew's gospel is the parable of the field with the good seed and the weeds. Both have been sown in the field. The householder's slave ask, "Do you want us to go and gather them?" The answer is, "No."

It helps to know a little Middle Eastern agriculture here. The weeds are probably darnel, a common species of noxious rye grass that looks very similar to wheat as it grows. There are some forms of darnel that have toxic properties. Only when the plants mature can you tell the difference between wheat and darnel. The wheat produces fruit, the grain that can be ground into bread. The darnel does not, and it may be poisonous.

The homeowner's caution seems to have multiple messages. First, the slaves do not have the capacity to tell the difference between the wheat and the darnel, at least not until they have grown enough for the wheat's fruit to be manifest. Second, because the two are growing together, it is likely that these high-minded purists in attempting to rid the field of of the weeds will actually do great harm to the good plants. The lives and roots of the wheat and weeds are so intertwined that to uproot the weeds will destroy or harm the wheat.

My 33rd wedding anniversary is just over a week away. When Kathy and I were married, we had great hope. But we had no way of knowing whether our relationship would be fruitful or noxious, whether we were planting wheat or weeds. It was the same for others among our friends, as we went to one another's weddings. They all began with love, joy and hope. Now we know. It took a bit of time to discover that some were pretty poisonous. Occasionally a sick relationship could be renewed, with prayer and counseling, repentance and forgiveness. Sometimes it became clear, this relationship is toxic to its core. Pulling out those weeds was always painful, always an experience of death. And many innocent lives were intertwined and injured. But there was a second planting, either as a renewed single or sometimes in another marriage. And often new growth and new fruit blossomed from the place that once was toxic.

Though there was no way to know for certain on that day thirty-three years ago, something good and fruitful was beginning for me and for Kathy. We have friends who made their vows to each other 16 months before we did. I know that we'll get an anniversary greeting from them, because these things are important to them. They celebrated their 34th anniversary in February. Their love and their lives have been abundantly fruitful. But they have been forbidden marriage, at least one that is recognized by the church and the state. They are two loving men of same-gender orientation. And one of them is black. Earlier generations would have forbidden them to marry had they been a man and a woman.

Some people whose consciences seem to be seared with a hot iron fail to see the loving faithfulness of this couple, the good fruit and abundant wheat that they have produced. Many weed-pulling, reforming purists have sought to rid the field of their type. But time has been revealing, and love has been manifest in them.

1 Timothy's correction to those who have paid attention to deceitful spirits is to point them toward goodness. "For 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." Sometimes it takes a little time to see the fruit of thanksgiving and sanctification. After 34 years of love in the midst of weed-pullers, my friends just laugh when those who can't tell the difference between wheat and darnel call them "fruits." They are. Fruit-full!

Lowell

_____________________________________________

Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts

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 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


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

Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

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

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Vision and Order

Wednesday, May 28, 2008 -- Week of Proper 3

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 969)
Psalms 38 (morning) 119:25-48 (evening)
Proverbs 17:1-20
1 Timothy 3:1-16
Matthew 12:43-50

There is something disappointing, but understandable, that happens when we move from reading the letters from the apostle Paul to reading letters like 1 Timothy, written by a later generation of leader invoking Paul's authority. We sense the development of a different focus and vision and structure.

In Paul's letters we feel the tension and excitement of the expected imminent return of Jesus. Long term institutions like marriage have little interest since they are part of the passing age; Paul encourages sexual passion to be diverted into passion for the Lord. Paul welcomes charismatic leadership -- let anyone with gifts use them for the common good. Women host churches and have active leadership. Faith is a verb. Faith is our active trust in God, who has made us righteous, who gives us the gift of an intimate, alive relationship with God in the living Christ. There is a new energy and vision in Paul that is dynamic and expansive.

In the letters to Timothy and Titus we see the church at a later point of evolution. Jesus is no longer expected to return at any moment, but we celebrate his remembered appearance, as we await with patient endurance his eventual postponed manifestation "at the right time." It is a time of institutional focus -- the time of making by-laws and constitutions. Leaders are less charismatic and more respectable. Marriage is the honored estate for enfolding passion and raising children. Faith is a noun, a collection of traditions to be guarded and preserved. Women are silenced. There is a defensive establishment of order and authority to protect and administer the institutional church.

Such evolution is necessary when any movement becomes an institution. When vision becomes established norms, there is a needed entrenchment of structure and order for the continuation of the work and identity.

I've seen that process of evolution in the homeless ministry of Seven Hills. That work began as a compelling vision, energized by the entrepreneurial spirit of its founder Kimberly Gross. It was exciting, risky, walking out in active trust. Faith as a verb. Now we are more established, and we have more orderly structure and must create more predictable sources of income and institutional policies. It is the natural progression from vision to institution.

It takes renewed energy to maintain institutional connection with the charismatic vision. We have to continue to communicate the original vision and driving force behind Seven Hill's and it's founding. We do that now now in a set of norms and values, reminding people of our original energy to make sure that all are welcomed and invited to take their next step toward independence. We tell the stories of the way it used to be so that those who join our work now understand the motivation and power that is underneath us.

Healthy institutions need both kinds of leaders -- the visionary and the orderly. Often they exist side-by-side with one another, usually with some tension. "Respond now to this compelling need!" cries the visionary, connecting the original spirit of Jesus' calling to the circumstances of the present age. "How will we pay for it and maintain it?" asks the orderly leader who creates foundation and structure for an ongoing ministry of presence and service.

There is a cross-like creative tension when we live in visionary institutions like the church, as we hold on to both demands. Too much energetic vision creates chaos. Too much orderly structure make a deadened institution.

How can structure serve vision? How can institution promote inspiration and service? How can tradition support renewal? That is our constant quest in the church. We see the same dynamic in our political and social institutions, even in our marriages. Energy and stability. Innovation and continuity. Risk and endurance. Nearly anything with life and durability needs both vision and order.

Lowell

_____________________________________________

Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts

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 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


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

Visit 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

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Wisdom and Ambiguity

Tuesday, May 27, 2008 -- Week of Proper 3

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 969)
Psalms 26, 28 (morning) 36, 39 (evening)
Proverbs 15:16-33
1 Timothy 1:18 - 2:8
Matthew 12:33-42

Many of the pithy statements of Proverbs have made their way into the lexicon of familiar folk wisdom. "Better is a dinner of vegetables where love is than a fatted ox and hatred with it." Proverbs reflects the conventional belief that if you practice wisdom and humility, good things will follow; but it you live foolishly, catastrophe will overtake you.

Most of the time, that's true. Good habits tend to produce good results. If we continue to ignore sensible decisions, eventually there are consequences.

But it's not that simple. Sometimes the wicked prosper and prevail. Sometimes the humble and good are victimized. Job and Eccelesiastes are two Biblical writings that enter the ambiguity that Proverbs seems to deny.

This past Sunday we had some conversations that explored some of this territory. Sr. Helen Prejean was compelling with her stories from death row. She offered us an image of the importance of holding on to both the perpetrators of terrible crimes and to their victims. She stretched out both arms like Jesus on the cross, one hand holding the perpetrator and one hand holding the victims.

She spoke movingly about how so much violence arises out of poverty and how disproportionately conviction falls upon the poor. She connected some of the dots between child abuse and crime.

Several people in our class have experience working with troubled or abused youth and with parolees. Several had experience with violence and crime. The territory is complicated.

It makes a great difference when adults, families and society can nurture and care for children so that they grow up loved and secure rather than abused and threatened. We heard stories of people who overcame great obstacles to become whole. We also heard stories of people who seem to be broken. How hard it is for some to change, and unless they change, they will continue to hurt others.

We heard stories that challenge our confidence that our justice system can find truth or that it can rehabilitate. We heard stories of innocent people convicted and executed. We heard stories of violent criminals released to repeat their crimes.

There is some basic hope that Proverbial wisdom can save us from some of tragedy that is so endemic. Nurturing childhood environments and the elimination of poverty are key. Competent available mental health care is critical for some. Most of the time, it's true. Good habits tend to produce good results. Soul-breaking environments tend to produce tragedy.

But it is complicated. Sometimes people with every apparent advantage turn rotten. Sometimes greatness emerges out of oppression.

Sr. Helen urged us to go beyond sympathy and beyond charity. She urged us to be with the poor. (It was a message she resisted for a long time.) When she lived with the poor, and when she became friend to the criminal and to the victim, she found room to bear their humanity in her heart.

Lowell
_____________________________________________

Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts

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 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


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

Visit 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

Friday, May 23, 2008

Wisdom

Friday, May 23, 2008 -- Week of Proper 2

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 967)
Psalms 16, 17 (morning) 22 (evening)
Proverbs 8:1-21
2 John 1:1-13
Matthew 12:1-14

Living a whole life has more of a subjective quality to it than objective. When we internalize the values of God and personalize our relationship with the Divine, we are becoming what we worship. Outward practices, like disciplines of prayer, study and service, incline our whole being toward God's ways. With practice, life in relationship with God becomes habitual and natural.

It's like music. To learn to play the piano, you practice, practice, practice. Eventually, you can pick up a sheet of music and play it with natural skill or you can make up music without needing to read it. Sometimes the music seems to play itself, to come out of the musician, without the need of thought or great effort. The person is one with the music; the music is a subjective expression of that person's reality.

Proverbs offers a vivid personification of Wisdom as a woman. From the busiest place in town she invites all to attain her. Practice, practice, practice. Gain wisdom and knowledge. Act with integrity and righteousness. You will find Wisdom becomes a subjective, living reality, living with and in and among us.

The invitation to the spiritual life is an invitation to grow in such a way that the qualities of the Divine take on an inner, subjective reality. Wisdom becomes personal and real to us.

Second John picks up the themes of the first letter, calling the congregation into the new commandment: love one another. "This is the commandment just as you have heard it from the beginning -- you must walk in it." To walk in love is to abide in Christ. To walk in love becomes more than just following a set of objective commandments, it is to become Love.

In the Gospel story from Matthew, we see Jesus, the subjective, personification of Divine Wisdom. With great confidence he lives freely, free enough to interpret the practice of the Sabbath within the wisdom of mercy. He doesn't merely follow the rules that other, objective authorities have given him. He has internalized the qualities of love, mercy and wisdom to such a degree that he can interpret the needs of the moment with authority. Christians see Jesus as the vivid personification of God as a human being.

Wisdom tells us: Practice, practice, practice. Get Wisdom. With practice, we may internalize Wisdom so deeply, that she lives in us as a subjective expression of our own deepest reality.

Lowell
_____________________________________________

Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts

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 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


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

Visit 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

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Resting

Thursday, May 22, 2008 -- Week of Proper 2

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 967)
Psalms 18:1-20 (morning) 18:21-50 (evening)
Proverbs 7:1-27
1 John 5:13-21
Matthew 11:25-30

I sometimes cite Gerald May's book Simply Sane as the best book I've ever read. His work came back to mind when I read today's familiar verse: "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

Gerald May is a psychiatrist who has helped people burdened by the darkest of mental and emotional darkness. He himself has suffered from episodic clinical depression. In an appendix to his book when it was re-released seventeen years after its original publication, he writes this:

"Over the years I have experienced the difference between trying to run my life with my own hands and letting myself be carried in the arms of a loving God. And, over the years, I have never once been let down by those arms. The goodness always comes through. Of course there have been many times when I didn't feel or recognize it, many times I have felt abandoned, even betrayed. But, given time, I have glimpsed the goodness in retrospect: God and God's creation are trustworthy."

May says that what happens is that "faith turns to trust." Even when he fails daily to trust, and when he tries to take things back into his own hands in those compulsions to fix or control, "In a strange way, I am happy for these many lapses, because each gives me a chance for returning to trust. I keep reenacting the story of the prodigal son, and it feels so good to keep coming home."

He can't prove that message of trust; no one can prove that God and God's creation are trustworthy. It is so obvious that there are so many specific things in life that are not trustworthy. We have to be alert and respectful of the many ways that we can be hurt. We can't avoid being hurt, but we can endure whatever comes our way and learn from it.

Gerald May says, "When one lover hurts another, the one who is hurt may say, 'I'll never trust you again.' What does this mean? If it means 'I'll never trust you not to hurt me again,' it is a wise statement; we cannot help hurting one another. If it means 'I'll never love you again,' if is foolish; to avoid loving and keep from being hurt is like trying to stop breathing so you won't catch a cold.' ...Grounded in fundamental respect, wise trust is courageous, willing to make mistakes, willing to be hurt because it knows there is an essential goodness beneath errors and pain, perhaps even within them. Wise trust chooses life, not protection."

May encourages us to try to live trusting that God and God's creation are trustworthy. "And because even the courage to try and test it must come as a gift, I ask you to pray for it. Pray for letting-be. Pray for simply being. Pray for trust. Pray for what you need. Pray for what God wants, even if you have not the slightest idea what that might be, or who or what God is."

"...My religious faith explains it thus: God is endlessly, irrepressibly and unconditionally loving, always calling us home. But in that love, God leaves us always free to accept or decline the invitation. God treats us with absolute respect. God may beckon us gently or challenge us fiercely, but God will not make us puppets and pull our strings. We may delude ourselves into thinking that we should control our lives and destinies, but God suffers no such delusion. Whoever or whatever God is, God is sane. Love does not control. Love frees."

Those words sound like echoes of Jesus in Matthew's gospel: "Come to me, ...and I will give you rest. ...For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

Lowell

_____________________________________________

Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts

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 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


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

Visit 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

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Privilege and Responsitility

Wednesday, May 21, 2008 -- Week of Proper 2

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 967)
Psalms 119:1-24 (morning) 12, 13, 14 (evening)
Proverbs 6:1-19
1 John 5:1-12
Matthew 11:16-24

All of our readings today invite us to be self-reflective and self-critical.

The first two of the four short pieces in Proverbs address internal obstacles to becoming wise -- poor judgment (in this case, being a third party guarantor on a loan) and laziness. It closes with a list of activities "that are an abomination" to God.

1 John has been drawing our focus on the centrality of love: God is love; God's commandment is "love one another." Today the letter embodies our loyalty to love by pointing our faith toward Jesus.

Matthew's gospel speaks woe to the villages where Jesus has lived and taught -- Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum. Because of their good fortune, they will be judged more critically than the cities that serve as symbols of Gentile evil -- Tyre, Sidon and Sodom.

These latter comments would have been received with about as much enthusiasm as a commentator today telling Americans that we are the problem for the world. If someone were to say to us, "With all of the benefits that we have been given, look at America's greediness and violence. On the day of judgment it will be more tolerable for Iran and North Korea..." Such a comment would be dismissed with disgust by others: "Blame America first..."

Jesus alludes to the criticism that he and the forerunner John the Baptist have received. Both have played the role of the prophet. Both have raised up criticism of God's people in the name of God. Both were opposed and criticized, John the ascetic and Jesus who feasted.

Elsewhere there is a teaching that claims much is expected from those to whom much is given. Privilege brings responsibility. Both the Wisdom traditions and the Prophetic traditions are very critical of those who simply claim privilege and enjoy its power and prerogatives, especially if mixed with a little pride. The worst manifestations of pride are directed toward those who lean on their unearned privileges.

I am one of those who is the product of manifest unearned privilege. I was born in the most powerful, wealthy nation in the world. I am male, white, and straight. I am the child of two parents with graduate degrees. My family was prosperous. They gave me lessons for music and swimming and tennis. I lived in a college town and was exposed to art and beauty. I always had food, shelter, running water, clothes. All of these are unearned privileges that gave me certain advantages. Other human beings live without some or all of these privileges and must struggle in ways that I didn't experience.

The Biblical traditions, from both the wisdom and prophetic literature, level strong criticism at those like me who have been given so many advantages. Be not haughty. Because you have been given so much that you did not earn, you are expected to live with special generosity. And beware of being critical of those were not as privileged. Had they been given your luck, how much more might they have accomplished.

The invitation is for a humble generosity of spirit that reaches out like Jesus with special compassion and respect toward "the little, the lost and the leprous." Those who have privilege will always be able to take care of themselves. They need no advocacy, they need no breaks. There is a higher responsibility to be directed toward those who have been given fewer advantages. It is the responsibility of the powerful and privileged to work for the equality, potential and benefit of all. If we who are privileged fail to perform our higher duty toward our neighbors, the prophets and sages are consistent in their word to us. "Woe. Woe to you..."

Lowell

_____________________________________________

Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts

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 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


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

Visit 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

Monday, May 19, 2008

Following Wisdom

Monday, May 19, 2008 -- Week of Proper 2
Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, 988

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 967)
Psalms 1, 2, 3 (morning) 4, 7 (evening)
Proverbs 3:11-20
1 John 3:18 - 4:6
Matthew 11:1-6

We are beginning to read from the book of Proverbs for the next two weeks. It is a fascinating anthology of instruction and pithy sayings offering sage advice from elder to younger. Although the presumed target is an upper-class male in a tribal or royal household, people of all ages and conditions have treasured this wisdom. Reading Proverbs is like being in touch with ancient lore not only of Israel, but also Egypt and all of Mesopotamia where this form of writing abounded.

An underlying assumption of Proverbs is that life is good. God orders creation in such a way that promotes blessing for those who live a disciplined life. If we seek wisdom, live justly and honor God, we are more open to the blessings of God. Those who follow the opposite path, Proverbs says, will find they will reap misfortune and cursing. Live rightly, and God may bless you. Live wrongly, trouble will follow. The book has an optimistic confidence in God's justice and promotes a strong sense of human autonomy. (The books of Job and Ecclesiates were written, in part, to challenge the theology of Proverbs.)

The early church borrowed from Proverbs, especially the Gospel of John and the Epistle of James. John describes Jesus as the personification of Wisdom who has descended to offer life and truth to humanity. The Epistle of James is a wisdom instruction. Today, many people are adopting the Jewish tradition of writing an Ethical Will for one's descendants, passing on the wisdom and philosophy that one would like to bequeath to subsequent generations.

Some of the expectations of Proverbs and the other Wisdom literature became an impediment for the proclamation of the early Church that Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus did not enjoy the expected fruits of the Wisdom literature -- long life, earthly honors and prosperity. Many Jews, Romans and Greeks ridiculed the notion that God's anointed would end up condemned, dying shamefully in a Roman execution.

We feel a piece of this conflict in the gospel reading today when John the Baptist asks from prison, "Are you the one?" It is obvious that Jesus is not fulfilling the traditional expectations of the Messiah. There has been no raising of the status of Israel, no throwing off of the foreign yoke, no liberation and restoration of Jewish autonomy and honor. Peace and justice have not broken out in obvious, God-blessed ways. "Are you the one?" John asks from his prison cell, with some sense of doubt and hope.

Jesus' answer is to describe his mission with reference to some of the Messianic vision of Isaiah: "the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. Blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me."

Today the church continues the compassionate and healing ministry that Jesus initiated. We also encourage people into the path of Wisdom. Our congregation's rule of life is not unlike the advice of the Proverbs of the sages: "We aspire to worship weekly, pray daily, learn constantly, serve joyously, live generously." Underlying that good advice is the optimistic conviction that such discipline opens us to God's direction and blessing. We know, as Job says, that sometimes the good suffer and the bad prosper. We know, as Ecclesiastes says, that there is much injustice and futility in life. But underneath that is a renewing confidence that God is good, creation is good, and if we persevere in the paths of Wisdom that Jesus and our ancestors have shown us, we live more open to some of the possibilities of blessing.

Lowell

_____________________________________________

Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts

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 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


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

Visit 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

Friday, May 16, 2008

Growing in Holiness

Friday, May 16, 2008 -- Week of Proper 1

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 967)
Psalms 140, 142 (morning) 141, 143:1-11(12) (evening)
Ezekiel 39:21-29
1 John 3:1-10
Matthew 10:24-33

At the heart of the first letter of John is a double call. There is the call to believe that Jesus of Nazareth, the man who lived among us and died, is God's anointed one and abides in and among us. There is the call to act in a way that is consistent with the life, teaching, and victory of Jesus.

The two markers for those who live under Jesus are love and ethical behavior -- to become like him is to love others and to live a moral life. In this passage, the writer asserts that we can live lives without sin. Earlier he has said, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves." (1:8) But now he tells us, "No one who abides in [Jesus] sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him." John sets up a dichotomy: children of God love others and do not sin; children of the devil sin and do not love others.

It has been the goal of classical catholic spirituality that we grow into union with God by way of the spiritual journey. Traditional spirituality asserts that we can live in union with God in Christ through the Holy Spirit. The pilgrimage into holiness is also a major feature of the teaching of the Wesleys and the Methodist movements as well as various other Protestant holiness traditions.

I believe that it is a good thing to hold out before us the realistic proposition that we can live lives of holiness. We can live and breathe and have our being in God. We can come to a place of such love and surrender that we do not sin.

I've known a few people like that in my life. Before I went to seminary, an old priest told me that God puts a few saints in every congregation. He said it helped keep the priests humble. In every congregation I've served, I've known people who walk in an instinctive union with God. They are usually modest and unassuming, flying under the radar, until they say something that can catch your attention and let you know that they are living intimately, naturally, with the reality of the divine.

All of the spiritual disciplines and practices that we are given are designed to help us toward that end. We are to read and study to conform our minds to Christ. We are to pray and worship to orient our hearts toward God. We are to live with love and compassion toward others to conform our will in the Spirit. It's really just a matter of practice, practice, practice. For most of us this is a long, slow journey. It is significant to me that most of the saintly people I've met are elderly.

Much of the pilgrimage toward union with God and holiness of life consists of the mundane business of taking note of our bad habits and vices and slowly overcoming them with God's grace. The Christian life is a persevering life of making promises, and breaking promises, and making promises again, and breaking promises, and making promises again...

I think it helps to ask consciously for God's aid in this process of conversion. If you have an abiding fault, see if you can name it. (Here's where the classical list of vices might come in handy.) What virtue corresponds with your fault (or vice)? Ask God to take away your vice and replace that character flaw with the corresponding spiritual virtue.

Let me try an example to illustrate. Let's say you are habitually insecure in such a way that manifests itself in jealousy and fault-finding. Ask God to take away that character flaw. (You might even label it, say the vice of faithlessness -- lacking faith in God's infinite love.) Ask God to replace your faithlessness with such deep, intimate trust in God's infinite love for you, that you will feel overflowing compassion for all others. Let your affirmation be, "God has loved me so much that I can love, honor and forgive others."

With practice, our sins become less and our love becomes more. That's the goal of full humanity. "See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are."

Lowell
_____________________________________________

Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts

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 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


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

Visit 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

Thursday, May 15, 2008

When Expectations Don't Happen

Thursday, May 15, 2008 -- Week of Proper 1

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 967)
Psalms 131, 132, [133] (morning) 134, 135 (evening)
Ezekiel 37:21b-28
1 John 2:18-29
Matthew 10:16-23

What do we do with expectations of God which do not materialize? What do we do when we get attached to particular outcomes and become convinced that God will accomplish what seems so consistent with God's will and purpose, but it doesn't happen?

Ezekiel has a compelling vision. The divided kingdoms of Judah and Israel will be reunified under a single monarch from the line of David. They will be established as one nation, and God will dwell in peace with them forever, presumably in a restored Temple. Ezekiel lived 26 centuries ago; two and one-half millennia have passed. After centuries of absence from the land, there is a state of Israel, but the divisions remain profound. There is only a wall remaining of the Temple, and even if it were restored, it is doubtful that animal sacrifices that Ezekiel would have expected would resume. There are no kings. It is clear that Ezekiel's literal vision will not come to pass. For the generations of the past 2,600 years it did not come to fruition.

"Children, it is the last hour!" cries 1 John. Matthew tells his readers to be of good courage when facing persecution, "for truly I tell you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes." In chapter 24 he describes that coming like lightning flashing from east to west. Clearly the early church expected the imminent return of Jesus to establish the new age, God's reign in glory and peace. That was nearly twenty centuries ago.

For all of these centuries, some people have tried to create formula that would describe the literal fulfillment of these kinds of visions and expectations. Their descriptions are far-fetched and sometimes downright silly. They are best ignored. (You know the stuff -- "End Time Prophecies Fulfilled!!!" "Left Behind" The Schofield Bible)

Skeptics point to these unfulfilled prophecies and indict the whole religious enterprise as folly.

I prefer to see these visions as expressions of our human hopes, released to God within the context of our courageous faithfulness in our present circumstances. I cannot know the precise content of God's will for the future, but I can offer my hope to God, trusting the loving wisdom of the divine nature to provide today our daily bread, living with as much idealism, faith and hope as I can muster.

Today's Psalm 131 expresses it pretty well:
O God, I am not proud;*
I have no haughty looks.

I do not occupy myself with great matters,*
or with things that are too hard for me.

But I still my soul and make it quiet,
like a child upon its mother's breast;*
my soul is quieted within me.

O Israel, wait upon God,*
from this time forth for evermore.

On my office wall I have this quote:
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 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")

What shall we do with expectations that do not materialize? Have low expectations of people and deep hope in God, letting our soul wait quietly to see whatever we will see.


Lowell
_____________________________________________

Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts

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 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


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

Visit 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

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

God's Agenda

Wednesday, May 14, 2008 -- Week of Proper 1

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 967)
Psalms 119:145-176 (morning) 128, 129, 130 (evening)
Ezekiel 34:1-16
1 John 2:12-17
Matthew 10:5-15

We begin a new section of ministry instruction from Matthew's Gospel. The disciples are sent out into Israel to proclaim the good news of God's reign, to "cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons" and to do so freely.

From this point to chapter 15, this mission will be to Israel only. At that wonderful moment in chapter 15 when Jesus tells the Canaanite woman, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel," and she responds, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table," the mission will expand universally, including the Gentile world, culminating in the Great Commission. Jesus' disciples will embrace for everyone the good news of God's reign; they will cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers and cast out demons everywhere.

John's epistle has another way to describe our mission. He contrasts the love of God and the love of the things in the world. John tells us to obey God's new commandment to love and to forsake "the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches."

It is easy to put these two readings together. Our mission is to act with love toward all, giving special attention to the sick, to those living under death's many guises, to the outcast, and to the oppressed. We are to resist the opposite agenda, "the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches."

Although we are going backwards in time, we see the same message in Ezekiel, only the prophet is addressing the leaders -- "the shepherds." What does good leadership look like? What is good government? Ezekiel is pretty clear. "Should not shepherds feed the sheep?"

Ezekiel condemns the leadership of Israel. "You have not strengthened the weak, you have not healed the sick, you have not bound up the injured, you have not brought back the strayed, you have not sought the lost..." Instead of acting out of an agenda that places first the needs and interests of the weak and the lost, these shepherds have looked after their own interests and the concerns of the rich and powerful. "You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wood, you slaughter the fatlings; but you do not feed the sheep."

Ezekiel has defined the prophetic expectation for just government. And he says that the contemporary leaders/shepherds have failed. "Thus says the Lord God, I am against the shepherds; ...no longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths."

Ezekiel says God will seek out the scattered and fearful sheep, feed and care for them. "I will seek the lost, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice."

What a judgment! To the rich and powerful leaders, who have preferred the privilege of the powerful to the needs of the weak, God says through the prophet, "I will feed them with justice." For Ezekiel, God's justice will be to destroy "the fat and the strong" and to "rescue the sheep from their mouths."

We are in a political season. What would Ezekiel say to those who seek to be our shepherds?

The shepherds are given the same mission that Jesus' disciples are given. Love one another in real and concrete ways by enabling the good news of God's reign -- cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers and cast out demons everywhere, forsaking "the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches."

That's God's agenda -- for us and for our shepherds.

Lowell
_____________________________________________

Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts

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 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


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

Visit 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

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

A Cry for Deliverance

Tuesday, May, 13, 2008 -- Week of Proper 1

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 967)
Psalms [120], 121, 122, 123 (morning) 124, 125, 126, [127] (evening)
Ezekiel 33:21-33
1 John 2:1-11
Matthew 9:35 - 10:4

We begin in Psalm 120 with the cry for deliverance "from lying lips and from the deceitful tongue. [From] the sharpened arrows of a warrior, along with hot glowing coals." (One wonders if this last is a reference to a form of torture.) The psalmist feels surrounded by enemies, Meshech (in the north) and Kedar (in the south). "Too long have I had to live among the enemies of peace. I am on the side of peace, but when I speak of it, they are for war."

I'm still trying to process the recent PBS "Frontline" documentary "Bush's War," a factual inquiry into the story of how our nation was led into war against Iraq. Using exaggerated fear as a weapon of persuasion, lying lips and deceitful tongues drowned out every word of peace. Our leaders sharpened their arrows and hot gloing coals, aimed toward a pitiful nation that was thoroughly contained and deterred. Our leaders could speak only of war.

I'm also trying to process the stories now emerging about the calculated process orchestrated by our own White House to ignore Geneva Conventions and the advice of our military in order to attempt legal rationalization for torture. Some are saying we have perpetrated war crimes.

In those crucial early days so many voices called out for restraint. We could have used the moral credit we earned through the world's outpouring of sympathy following the attacks of September 11 to forge a universal response of compassion and healing. We could have called together the world for a plan to reach out to heal the suffering of the marginalized and poor. We could have given power and voice to moderate expression of all religion and government in the wake of the world's horror at the spectacle of what militant extremism can lead to. Instead, we became militant to the extreme.

In the reading from Ezekiel the prophet hears the word of the Lord that his warnings of dire consequences will be ignored by those who "hear your words, but they will not obey them. For flattery is on their lips, but their heart is set on their gain." They listen to Ezekiel, the prophet-sentinel, in the same condescending way they listen to love songs. Elevator music. "They hear what you say, but they will not do it."

So when virtually every national and international religious body spoke out in opposition to the Bush plans for war (with the notable exception of the Southern Baptists), when so many prophet-sentinels warned of dire consequences, this proud group ignored all words but their own. And what suffering and catastrophe they have wrought.

"I lift up my eyes to the hills; from where is my help to come? My help comes from God, the maker of heaven and earth." How beautifully Psalm 121 gives hope to the anguish of Psalm 120. Then a new vision of harmony at the center of the conflict comes to us in Psalm 122. "Jerusalem is built as a city that is at unity with itself." Can we imagine Washington as a city that is at unity with itself? Grounded. Centered. "Peace be within your walls and quietness within your towers."

Psalm 123 completes the thought. Again we redirect our gaze: "To you I lift up my eyes... as they eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters, and the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, So our eyes look to the Holy One our God, until God shows us mercy.

"Have mercy upon us, O God, have mercy, for we have had more than enough of contempt, Too much of the scorn of the indolent rich, and of the derision of the proud."

Amen.


Lowell

_____________________________________________

Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts

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 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


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

Visit 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

Monday, May 12, 2008

Sentinels and Responsibility

Monday, May, 12, 2008 -- Week of Proper 1

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 967)
Psalms 106:1-18 (morning) 106:19-48 (evening)
Ezekiel 33:1-11
1 John 1:1-10
Matthew 9:27-34

In our gospel reading from Matthew today, Jesus touches the eyes of two blind men, and their eyes are opened. They can see. A person who is mute is brought to Jesus, and Jesus casts out the demon that has bound his speech.

But the religious authorities are not impressed. They have their traditional, comfortable beliefs and interests. They know blindness and muteness are judgments God serves upon sinners. To them, this touching-and-demon-business is blasphemy. "By the ruler of the demons he casts out the demons," they say. They'll do whatever they can to discredit Jesus and defend their orthodoxies.

The obvious irony is that these authorities are actually blind and mute. They see and hear, but do not understand the goodness and truth that is presented to them. The implication is that because they have seen and rejected, they are under some form of judgment. How culpable are these religious authorities for their failure to understand what they see?

In the first reading from Ezekiel, the prophet outlines a clear statement of responsibility and culpability. If some disaster is approaching, a disaster that can be prevented by prompt action, and a sentinel who recognizes the approaching trouble does not speak a word of warning, the sentinel is responsible not only for his own failure to speak but also for the resulting consequences. The people who fail to act because they did not receive the warning are freed of any guilt.

But if a sentinel sees approaching trouble and speaks a warning, anyone who fails to act to avert the disaster will be held responsible and culpable.

The great question of culpability in the Watergate investigations was "What did you know and when did you know it?" The follow-up question is always, "When you learned, what did you do?"

I can imagine Ezekiel's voice speaking in our generation. Sentinels have spoken to us of impending disaster and they have told us what we can do to avoid them. The scientific consensus is compelling about the looming disasters of global climate change and the link to human contribution to these changes appears powerful. But so many business and political authorities are not impressed. It would be costly to their power and orthodoxies to respond.

Sentinels have told us that ours is the first generation with the resources and technology to end extreme poverty worldwide. An international body has endorsed a map to that healing, the Millennium Development Goals. Now that we know, we are responsible.

In his great book of South Africa, "Ah, the Beloved Country," author Alan Paton tells of a character who has been a sentinel among his people. He is killed in a senseless act of violent burglary. His father, a man of traditional sensibilities who was mostly unfamiliar and unsympathetic with his son's work, reads at the dead son's desk the writing that he was apparently preparing at the time of his death. It is a speech for some unknown future occasion.

In the speech, the son recognizes that there were reasons why our ancestors could have set in motion unjust and tragic policies and practices, when they were trying to tame a hostile land, doing the best they could with what they knew. But now that we know the unjust and tragic consequences of the racial and economic exploitations of the black and colored people of South Africa, it is no longer acceptable to continue as before, his words cry out mutely from the page. In the book's moving conclusion, the father's eyes are opened to something he was previously blind to, the suffering and poverty of the native village adjacent to his own property. And though he himself is under financial threat, he acts with creative compassion to bring new hope and life to those he has hitherto ignored.

There are so many things that sentinels have shown us. We now know the dishonest way our nation was manipulated into an unjust war. We now know that practices of torture were authorized and rationalized by our leaders. The evidence is before our eyes and compelling. We are now responsible. Will we see and respond, or will we be like the religious authorities of Jesus' and curse the messenger?

We know that our medical system does not work for a profound and growing percentage of our people. We can see other countries that have found better ways. We are now responsible.

The people who witnessed Jesus' healing of the blind and the mute were not bad people. They were just stuck in their own comforts and their own opinions, and what Jesus was doing was inconsistent with their worldview. When faced with his reality, they would not see. They are responsible for their failure to see and to respond.

How will we respond to the voice of the sentinels in our day? The answer to that question will be our judgment.


Lowell
_____________________________________________

Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts

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 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


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

Visit 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