Friday, August 29, 2008

Attack Ads

Friday, August 29, 2008 -- Week of Proper 16

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 981)
Psalms 16, 17(morning) 22 (evening)
Job 9:1-15, 32-35
Acts 10:34-48
John 7:37-52

We're in political year. One of the tactics we will see is the strategy of fear. Opponents will focus on whatever fear they can manipulate in the public mind and try to make that fear the lens through which we see the other candidate. They know that voters tend to "vote against" more than to "vote for." We've seen for many years the proliferation of attack ads.

Since attack ads often use half-truths, exaggerations and inaccuracies, many of us turn to web sites like factcheck.org, a nonpartisan, nonprofit service that seeks to reduce deception and confusion by monitoring the factual accuracy of political speech.

In John 7, Jesus is beginning to create some political "buzz" at the Jerusalem Festival of Booths. During the dramatic last day of the festival, the traditional reading for that day tells the story of God's giving Israel water from the rock during the sojourn in the wilderness. What an image of hope for a dry and thirsty people.

Jesus takes that image of hope and invites the thirsty to come to him and to receive the life-giving Spirit which will burst from within them like a hidden spring in their souls. The image hits a responsive chord. People speculate: Is he a prophet? Is he the Messiah?

Time for the attack ad. Distract them from his message. Distract them from their hope. Focus on something tangential and make it central. "He's from Galilee. Look in your Bibles. It doesn't say the Messiah comes from Galilee. He's a fraud."

But his message and his way of speaking has a power. They don't arrest him. The authorities are furious. And, you sense that they are a bit afraid of the crowd. They are used to manipulating the crowd with fear and intimidation. They wouldn't want someone outside their control to cause the crowd to gain its own voice. "This crowd, which does not know the law," say the authorities, "they are accursed." It is an ironic statement. It is the authorities who do not know the embodiment of the law in Jesus who is love personified, who has summarized the law to be love of God, neighbor and self.

It is Nicodemus, one of the authorities, who appeals to factcheck.org. "Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find out what they are doing, does it?"

He gets a rude reply. The authorities stick to their talking points. "Surely you are not also from Galilee, are you? Search and you will see that no prophet is to arise from Galilee." They smear Jesus with the Galilee button.

There is a tinge of racism in that smear. Galilee is an outsider province. It is a portion of Israel that is influenced by trade and interchange with foreigners. Jerusalem is suspicious of Galileans. During the narrative about Jesus' arrest, Peter is threatened when someone recognizes his Galilean accent. "Certainly you are also one of them, for your accent betrays you." The threat provides Peter with his third opportunity to betray Jesus before the cock crows. Fear is all around.

Fear is a terrible motivator. Maybe that is why the phrase "fear not / do not be afraid / be not afraid" occurs 365 times in the scripture, I'm told. One for every day of the week.

Jesus sought to motivate with a loving compassion that inspired hope grounded in a trust of God. His appeal was to our highest nature: Perfect love which casts out fear. The battle between fear and love is both an external and an internal struggle.

I'm reminded of the old Cherokee tale. A Cherokee elder is teaching his grandson about life. "A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy. "It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil -- he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego." He continued, "The other is good -- he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you -- and inside every other person, too."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

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, August 28, 2008

Bible vs. Bible

Thursday, August 28, 2008 -- Week of Proper 16
Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, 430

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 981)
Psalms 18:1-20 (morning) 18:21-50 (evening)
Job 8:1-10, 20-22
Acts 10:17-33
John 7:14-36

All three readings today are conflicts over Biblical interpretations. In every context, we are reading about a non-traditional interpretation meeting resistance from a traditional interpretation. In all three stories, the Biblical authors and actors have something new to say to the Biblical tradition.

[from Job] The words of Bildad the Shuhite represent the theological world view of the author(s) of a major portion of the Hebrew scriptures. Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, and 1 & 2 Kings is a coherent body of writing that comes from the same source, usually called the Deuteronomic historian. It is history written to teach a lesson: God rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked. The writer organizes the early history of Israel around that theological premise. The belief that God rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked was a conventional religious theme that finds voice in many places in scripture in addition to the Deuteronomic history. It is likely, at the time the book of Job was written, the idea that God punishes the wicked and rewards the righteous was one of those things that "everybody knows" -- it was the orthodox, conventional teaching.

Bildad picks up the traditional theme, chiding Job for Job's rash words. "Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert the right?" asks Bildad. (The answer he alleges rhetorically is a resounding, "No!") Then he makes it personal. If you children sinned, God punished them. If you are pure, God will restore and reward you. The book of Job is written to challenge that theology.

[from Acts] The Biblical tradition that Peter has learned from the Hebrew scripture and from his Rabbis, parents, teachers, and culture includes a very specific and careful understanding about sin and purity. They are deeply related. Peter learned careful boundaries between the clean and the profane, between Jews and Gentiles. Their effect was a moral law. Peter's vision included a heavenly voice telling him to kill and eat animals that the Bible forbids God's people to eat. Peter resists the vision, "By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is profane or unclean." The voice tells Peter, "What God has made clean, you must not call profane."

Just as Peter is puzzling over the vision, men arrive from the home of Cornelius, an unclean Roman soldier. Peter gives them lodging (a boundary violation) and goes with them. He is about to challenge the entire purity code of the Bible. It will cause a great conflict.

[from John] Jesus has healed on the sabbath. According to traditional teaching, Jesus violated the 4th Commandment. Jesus challenges the interpretation, citing the practice of circumcision on the eighth day, in obedience to another commandment, even if it is on the Sabbath. "Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment," he tells them.

Then follows a debate. Could Jesus be the Messiah? No, they say. We know where he comes from (Nazareth), "but when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from." In several places in the Gospels we have accounts like this presenting the ways that people rejected Jesus as Messiah because he did not live up to the expectations of the Messiah. Those expectations were shaped by various Biblical traditions.

The Bible witnesses to itself that it is not a consistent body of meaning with a self-evident truth and interpretation. Preachers who attempt to speak with authority with the words, "the Bible says," are speaking nonsense unless they qualify the context and background of the portion of the Bible they are quoting. Job is saying that Deuteronomy through 2 Kings is wrong. Peter is saying that the Holiness Code is wrong. Jesus is saying that the contemporary interpretations of Sabbath and Messiah are wrong.

To seek to establish the Bible as an unchanging, unambiguous, univocal expression coming from the mouth of God is contrary to the Bible itself. It was the people who treated the Bible that way who gave Job, Jesus and the early church such a hard time.

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, August 27, 2008

Job's Prayer and Peter's Act

Wednesday, August 27, 2008 -- Week of Proper 16
Thomas Gallaudet with Henry Winter Syle

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 981)
Psalms 119:1-24 (morning) 12, 13, 14 (evening)
Job 6:1; 7:1-21
Acts 10:1-16
John 7:1-13

"God, leave me alone!" is Job's cry. He is haunted and suffering. Long sleepless nights of tossing and bad dreams. Illness that will not improve. The only way out is death.

He parodies Psalm 8, "What are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?" That psalm thanks God for glorifying human beings beyond our deserving. Job turns the psalm on its ear, asking God why do you pay so much attention to us to make us so miserable. Just look the other way and leave us alone, he tells God. I'll be dead and gone soon, "as the cloud fades and vanishes, so those who go down to Sheol do not come up; they return no more to their houses, nor do their places know them any more. ...I shall lie in the earth; you will seek me, but I shall not be." Death will be his relief from suffering and his escape from God's hand.

On of the messages of the story of Job is that God accepts such frank lament and complaint. Job gives us an example of honesty. He can tell God what he really thinks without covering it with pieties or respectful "prayerful" language. This is the real language of prayer from the heart. Job blasts God with his anger and hurt. He is an example for us. We also can tell God anything.

In fact, it is helpful to direct our anger and hurt toward God. God is big enough to take it. If we project our anger and hurt on another human being, we are likely to hurt or confuse that person. If we project our anger and hurt inwardly, we are likely to become depressed. The healthiest and safest way to express our deepest and most conflictive emotions is to direct them to God in fierce honesty.

Sometimes we hear nothing in response. Sometimes we sense that though we hear nothing, God is still there. God does not depart just because we have challenged God.

Sometimes we sense a response. Jeremiah railed at God, calling God a "deceitful brook," and God's response was to scold him for speaking foolishly, and to give him more authority and work to do. In the book of Job, we hear Job's complaints, and we will wait a long time for God's response. Eventually, Job will experience God face to face, and Job will be changed.

Only God is big enough to take our most extreme emotions. It is right to communicate them to God honestly.
____________________

A note about our reading from Acts. We are beginning a story that narrates an important turning point in the history of the early Church. By a revelation in a dream, Peter will have his traditional, Biblical understanding of clean and profane challenged. Then he will sense himself sent to the home of a Roman army officer. Peter will witness the presence of God in this household of unclean, Gentile pagans and he will see the gifts of the Holy Spirit manifest in them. He will then do something remarkable and very controversial. He will baptize them into the fellowship of the community.

Peter's act will cause a huge church conflict. Why would he do such a unilateral thing that is contrary to the Scripture and tradition that they have inherited? Peter will have to face the other apostles and explain his behavior. After all, those people are uncircumcised, unclean Gentiles. Peter will explain his vision, his observation of the gifts of the Spirit among these outsiders. "If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?" (11:17) The apostles will be silenced and will thank God for the manifestation of the Spirit among the Gentiles.

That won't end the story. There will be scandal later, when the church learns that Paul and Barnabas are baptizing Gentiles without requiring circumcision. The Apostolic Council of Acts 15 will endorse their ministry, and the door will be open to the church's Gentile mission. Had the church not heeded the Spirit's radical direction, we might have remained a sect and movement within Judaism rather than the worldwide communion we have become. God would have had to work harder to teach us to spread the Gospel.

We are living through a similar process today. The American and Canadian churches of the Anglican Communion have seen the manifestation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the loving, committed relationships of its gay and lesbian members. Like Peter and Paul some of us have given them the church's blessing, and, in a few places, the sacrament of marriage -- full inclusion like the baptisms that Peter and Paul conducted with the Gentiles.

It is causing a controversy and a church conflict. With time the Holy Spirit will move the church into recognizing that "God gave them the same gift that he gave us" and will teach us again, "What God has made clean, you must not call profane." We are still in the middle of our story.

P.S. Today is the feast day of two Episcopalians who initiated the church's ministry among deaf persons. When Henry Winter Syle was ordained priest in 1876, it was a controversial act, opposed by many who believed that the impairment of one of the senses disqualified one for ordination. It seems that we learn something new every generation.

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, August 26, 2008

Calamity's Fear

Tuesday, August 26, 2008 -- Week of Proper 16

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 981)
Psalms 5, 6 (morning) 10, 11 (evening)
Job 6:1-4; 8-15, 21
Acts 9:32-43
John 6:60-71

There is a line that catches my breath in today's reading from Job. "You see my calamity, and are afraid."

Job's friends have come to him in his suffering. But they aren't willing simply to be with him. His misery is so profound. The spiritual, psychological and emotional weight is so heavy, that they cannot keep still with loving respect before him. Instead, they feel like they need to do something to "fix" him. They want to make it better.

They also seem to need to do some explaining -- to defend God in the presence of something mysterious. Job maintains that he is innocent. Yet he is suffering terribly. That doesn't fit into their theological worldview. So Eliphaz has just tried to correct Job. Everyone sins, said Eliphaz. Surely you have sinned, maybe without even knowing it. That is why this misfortune has happened to you.

We hear such "comforters" in the presence of our own suffering and tragedy. "God never gives us more than we can bear." "God knows best." "There is a reason for all of this." (after a death): "God needed him more in heaven." "You'll get over it." Friends mean well when they speak so in the presence of great suffering or loss. But so often the words are an articulation of our own fear in the presence of calamity. We need to speak some word of reassurance, lest the world's foundations be shaken -- for us. We need to say something we've learned in church lest our sense of God be shaken -- for us.

Job faces his intense suffering with passionate honesty. He wishes he could die. He wishes God would relieve him of his misery and annihilate him. (Ironically, that part of the wish will come true in some sense when Job experiences the presence of God in the theophany of the whirlwind. He will be annihilated by God's mystery and power.)

Some of Job's complaint give words of prayer to human suffering in the extreme. "Is my strength the strength of stones, or is my flesh bronze? In truth I have no help in me, and any resource is driven from me." He speaks of the discomforting teaching that his friends have given him: "My companions are treacherous like a torrent-bed, like freshets that pass away." (a freshet is an overflowing stream) Job is overwhelmed.

The word "compassion" means literally "to suffer with." "Cum" is Latin for "with" and "passio" means "to suffer." To bring another compassion is to suffer with the other. Sometimes that means to share their helplessness. Sometimes it means resisting the urge to fix. (And not running away in fear.)

That can be hard. We are a pragmatic people. We want to fix things, to make them better. But sometimes we are called simply to love and to suffer with another. That was Jesus' response to our deepest suffering. He embraced our helplessness and suffering on the cross, and he did nothing. He just hung there, until he died. From his faithful compassion, God brought resurrection. But he had to go through the cross to get there. And he too was innocent.

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, August 25, 2008

The Debate of Job

Monday, August 25, 2008 -- Week of Proper 16
Louis, King of France, 1270

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 981)
Psalms 1, 2, 3 (morning) 4, 7 (evening)
Job 4:1; 5:1-11, 17-21, 26-27
Acts 9:19b-31
John 6:52-59

There are several quotes from this section of Job which show up from time to time as wise sayings from the Bible: "human beings are born to trouble just as sparks fly upward."
"He gives rain on the earth and sends waters on the fields; he set on high those who are lowly, and those who mourn are lifted to safety."
"How happy is the one whom God reproves; therefore do not despise the discipline of the Almighty. For he wounds, but he binds up; he strikes, but his hands heal."

The words are from Eliphaz the Temanite. Eliphaz is one of the friends who comes to comfort Job. Teman is in Edom, East of Israel, a place with a reputation for it's wisdom traditions. These words are similar to many sentiments that are present in other parts of scripture, especially Psalms, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. This is the conventional wisdom of the age. It has a certain weight and dignity.

The book of Job is intended as an extended debate between Job, the innocent sufferer, and the various schools of religious wisdom thought. The argument of the book of Job is that none of these traditional, conventional theologies is adequate in the face of injustice.

So it is ironic if we hear a contemporary person quote from the speech of Eliphaz, "The Bible says, 'human beings are born to trouble just as sparks fly upward.'" Well... Yes and no. We find that proverb in the Bible, in the book of Job. But it comes from the mouth of Eliphaz, whom the book of Job is intent on discrediting.

And yes, the wisdom of Eliphaz sounds a lot like what we read in the other parts of Biblical Wisdom literature, especially Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. But that is exactly the theology and world view that the book of Job intends to confront and challenge. Later we will hear speeches from others of Job's friends who will articulate the theology of the Deuteronomic historian -- God rewards the good and punishes the wicked, they will assert. "No!" says Job. Sometimes the wicked prosper and the good suffer unjustly, and your pieties are mere rationalizations.

Job is a Bible vs. Bible argument. Job is a passionate reflection on the ancient question, Is God's governance of the earth just? Job suffers horribly. Job asserts his innocence. This is personal injustice. If God is supremely wise and powerful, as well as just and good, why does this happen and what, if anything, is God doing about it?

Job's friends will offer every argument in defense of God. Job, you must have done something sinful, even without knowing it. Everyone is sinful. We are all fragile sinners, mere shadows of short lives. Job, you can't even know the rules; just trust God with your heart without having to have some intellectual solution. God is right and good; you must have failed.

From the book of Job's perspective, it is the arguments of Job's friends that fail. Ultimately God will declare Job the victor in the disputation.

The book of Job raises the question -- How do we read the Bible? Certainly not as though it were a single voice from a single source. "The Bible says..." The Bible is a conversation, sometimes an argument. It presents conflicting and sometimes irreconcilable viewpoints. The author of Job will never agree with those who wrote Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. In some sense, Job is protest literature against Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.

Yet, we treasure all of these as sacred scripture. We receive them as God's Word, part of our heritage of our encounter with the revelation of God. We enter the great stream of conversation and debate in our day. It is rich and alive, challenging and ambiguous.

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, August 22, 2008

Dark Angels

Friday, August 22, 2008 -- Week of Proper 15

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 981)
Psalms 140, 142 (morning) 141, 143:1-11(12) (evening)
Job 2:1-13
Acts 9:1-9
John 6:27-40

I was visiting with a friend the other day who talked about the frequent theme of what he called the visitation of dark angels. We talked about movements in life, when something apparently catastrophic or overwhelming happens that becomes the cauldron out of which something wonderful emerges. Death and resurrection; light out of the darkness; brokenness and healing; lost and found.

We are entering into one of our tradition's most expansive considerations of this mystery, the story of Job. Job explores the problem of human suffering and the question of God's justice in the face of great tragedy. As the story opens, horrible catastrophe falls upon Job as a result of a wager in the heavenly court over his integrity. His goodness brings him calamity. We will witness the anemic responses of those who attempt to defend the conventional view of God's justice -- that God rewards the good and punishes the wicked. We will descend into the belly of suffering, anguish and alienation with Job. Eventually, whether it is satisfying to us or not, we will hear Job's witness of a mystical encounter with God that dissolves him into silence. Is it a full or an empty silence? Readers have argued for centuries.

Today we hear Luke's version of Saul dramatic encounter with God. Saul has participated in the stoning of Stephen. He is vigorously prosecuting the followers of Jesus. He is defending his traditional faith. He is cleansing and purifying his people. But something has cracked inside him. Maybe it was the purity and faith of Stephen as he spoke of a heavenly vision while being killed. Maybe it is the conviction with which these people hold to their faith in Jesus.

Saul is stopped in his tracks. He is blinded by the light. The actor become the acted upon. Passively he is led by the hand and told what to do. He is entering into a new life. Saul, the enemy of the Way will become Paul, the greatest evangelist of the early church.

Jesus says in John's gospel that it is God's will that he should lose nothing of all that he has given him. And that God has given all into the Son's hands. Jesus gives the gift of eternal life rather than judgment, the bread which gives life to the world.

God will go to extraordinary lengths to bring us to ourselves and to give us this eternal life. God is darkly, mysteriously present, especially in the catastrophic and tragic. Christians point to Jesus on the cross as the fulcrum of God's Being absorbing all of our evil and suffering. God turns death into resurrection.

Job will curse and wish he were dead. Saul will walk blindly into an unknown future. Jesus will feed others with the bread from heaven until he is sacrificed and becomes the bread from heaven. Out of the cauldron emerges something wonderful. Death and resurrection; light out of the darkness; the broken healed; the lost found.

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, August 20, 2008

No Morning Reflection Today

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 981)
Psalms 131, 132, [133] (morning) 134, 135 (evening)
Job 1:1-22
Acts 8:26-40
John 6:16-27

Here are today's readings.

I have a meeting in Little Rock this morning, so I had to get away early.

We begin to read Job today!

Lowell

No Morning Reflection Today

Wednesday, August 20, 2008 -- Week of Proper 15
Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, 1153

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 981)
Psalms 119:145-176 (morning) 128, 129, 130 (evening)
Judges 18:16-31
Acts 8:14-25
John 6:1-15

Here are today's readings. I was very tired and slept in. No Morning Reflection Today.

I have a meeting in Little Rock tomorrow morning, so it is unlikely I'll have a reflection tomorrow. We'll see. (I'll send the readings nonetheless.)

Lowell

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Three Witnesses

Tuesday, August 19, 2008 -- Week of Proper 15

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 981)
Psalms [120], 121, 122, 123 (morning) 124, 125, 126, [127] (evening)
Judges 18:1-15
Acts 8:1-13
John 5:30-47

One of the frustrating things that the early church had to contend with was the fact that the main body of Judaism did not accept the Christian claim that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah. As the church presented itself to the Gentile world (or to Jews for that matter), it needed to explain this enigma.

John offers an explanation in the terms of witnesses. Both Jewish and Roman law had strict rules of evidence. Jewish law did not accept self-witness, but required the collaborative testimony of two witnesses for some cases. In this dialogue from John's gospel, Jesus offers three witnesses: John the Baptist, the works that Jesus did, and the scriptures (Moses).

It is part of the early church's tradition that Jesus' cousin John baptized Jesus and pointed to him with a prophetic word, declaring Jesus to be the lamb of God, the anointed or chosen Messiah. John was popular with many who sought a reform of Jewish practice, but he was imprisoned and killed by Herod Antipas after John criticized his incestuous marriage. There is evidence of some competition between John's disciples and Jesus' followers. Several of the gospel writers, including John (the evangelist), took pains to show John the Baptist deferring to Jesus, declaring Jesus as Messiah. In this passage, John the Baptist is the first witness to Jesus the Messiah.

The second witness, Jesus says, is "the very works that I am doing." These good works reveal the testimony of the Father, Jesus is saying. It is from God's power that Jesus does good. Look and see. If these are good works, they are from God, they are God's testimony.

The third witness is the scriptures, attributed to Moses as source of the Law. Jesus says that the scriptures "testify on my behalf." In this context we aren't given any reference to what parts of the scriptures might testify to Jesus, but the early church collected a handful of references that they used to preach Jesus as the fulfillment of the Messianic anticipations of the Hebrew scriptures.

Three witnesses -- John the Baptist, the works, the scriptures. You would think that would cinch it. Not necessarily. There were some who continued to follow John the Baptist who did not accept that John had signaled Jesus as Messiah.

Many were drawn to Jesus because of his works. He healed the sick and gave the gift of congruity to many who were emotionally or mentally disturbed. The feeding of multitudes is a characteristic story. This evidence seemed to be pretty compelling, even to Jesus' enemies. But many discredited him saying that his acts were not empowered by God, but by the demonic.

There were many who disputed Jesus' claims on scriptural grounds. After all, Jesus did not fulfill most of the conventional expectations of the Messiah, especially that he would be a successful earthly ruler who would expel the foreign occupiers and establish a new international reign centered in Jerusalem. There were technical objections -- no prophet is to come from Galilee; the Messiah should be from David's tribe of Judah, etc. The church had stories to respond to these charges. The greatest objection was his scandalous death. Deuteronomy 21:23: "...anyone hung on a tree is under God's curse."

The fact is that most of the Jewish religious authorities and most of the people of Israel were not convinced. They could point to John's other disciples who did not follow Jesus, or just write him off because he was dead. They could dispute the source and origin of Jesus' deeds, good or mighty as they might be. They could certainly argue from scripture that Jesus did not fulfill their messianic expectations. The Jesus-followers remained a small cult within Judaism. Most of the success that they enjoyed was among Roman and non-Jewish people who were attracted to their fellowship.

It makes me wonder. If I had been a Jewish contemporary of Jesus, would I have followed the crowd? Would I have accepted the conventional view that he was not the Messiah?

That makes me wonder further. What works of God might I be missing right now? Is God doing things among us that we discount because we are not impressed with those who point toward them? Or we may see good works but disagree with the faith or theology that is behind them. How might we demean good acts because they are out of accord with something we have attached to in scripture?

I see the courageous witness of the Dalai Lama and the goodness of so many Buddhists and they appear to me to be consistent with the works of God. Other Christians would disagree. I am skeptical of the odd message that the Jehovah Witnesses share door to door, yet how might God be using them for good?

One of the consistent messages of scripture is that we are a stubborn people and we often punish the prophets and resist what God is doing in our generation. We tend to be on stronger ground when we align ourselves with the Biblical values of love, compassion and justice. Sometimes those who act in support of love, compassion and justice are among the most controversial people. Like Jesus. Will we recognize the witnesses of God in our day?

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, August 18, 2008

Expansive Thinking

Monday, August 18, 2008 -- Week of Proper 15
William Porcher DuBose, Priest, 1918

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 981)
Psalms 106:1-18 (morning) 106:19-48 (evening)
Judges 17:1-13
Acts 7:44 - 8:1
John 5:9-29

It is so easy for us to get stuck. When we know something, something wonderful and powerful, we tend to grasp it in our eagerness, and get stuck. One definition of a heresy is to take part of the truth and beat the rest of the truth to death with it.

In our story from Acts, Stephen re-tells the story of Israel. He reminds them of God's goodness and grace toward them, but he also reminds them of Israel's stubbornness and failures. His listeners are happy to hear that Israel is God's chosen people, but resent the focus on Israel's failures. They love the temple where they have met God for centuries, but they resent Stephen's implied slight to that holy place when he reminds them that God is everywhere and made everything. When Stephen accuses them of killing Jesus just like they have always killed the prophets, and when Stephen says he can see Jesus standing at the right hand of God, it is too much. They stone him for blasphemy. Paul is among them as a leader, approving the violent death.

In our gospel story Jesus has healed a man. But he has done so on the sabbath, the day of rest. When the authorities chide him for his violation of the sabbath, he takes liberties, calling God "My Father," and saying that, like his father, Jesus is working also. That is too much for them. They seek to kill him.

We make things so small. We know a little about God and God's ways and we decide, that's that. We have our comfortable theologies and places, and punish those whose vision soars beyond a comfortable horizon.

In his reflection on today's feast honoring William Porcher DuBose, Sam Portaro writes this:
We are reductionists by habit; we whittle away at the many demands thrown at us, attempting to break them into manageable bits. Breadth of scholarship is sacrificed for narrow specialization, breadth of thought is sacrificed for narrow literalism, breadth of affection is sacrificed for narrow privatism, breadth of tolerance is sacrificed for narrow judgmentalism -- all with the excuse that this narrowness is the necessity of our limitations. But there is a difference between narrowness and focus; narrowness confines us to a single path, while focus regards breadth itself as a prerequisite to intense attention to the particular.

The Incarnation offers an antidote to this painful and life-threatening constriction; it reveals the tremendous expanse of the human frame. When we say that God became incarnate in Jesus we are acknowledging that human substance, human life and being, is capable of containing and sustaining the vast complexities of God. As DuBose reminds us, Jesus is not just the image of God -- not a mere pencil drawing or poetic metaphor; Jesus is the wholeness of God in human frame.

There is a liberating word in that presumption. To those of us who feel we simply cannot take in one more thing, cannot deal with one more idea, cannot possibly entertain one more request or sustain one more relationship, the Incarnation assures us otherwise. Our fears that we shall disintegrate or explode if we let one more conflicting element into the mix of our crazy lives is put to rest in the reminder that human flesh was sufficient to hold the enormousness of God.
(from Brightest and Best)


It's all bigger than we can imagine -- including ourselves.

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, August 15, 2008

Mary

Friday, August 15, 2008 -- Week of Proper 14
Saint Mary the Virgin; Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer)
EITHER the readings for Friday of Proper 14 (p. 979)
Psalms 102 (morning) 107:1-32 (evening)
Judges 14:20 - 15:20
Acts 7:17-29
John 4:43-54

OR the readings for St. Mary (p. 999)
Morning Prayer: Psalms 113, 115; 1 Samuel 2:1-10; John 2:1-12
Evening Prayer: Psalms 45 or 138, 139; Jeremiah 31:1-14 or Zechariah 2:10-13; John 19:23-27 or Acts 1:6-14

I read the readings for St. Mary

Mary is a wonderful model for the church. Her willing openness provided the space that God filled with divine life. She nurtured the light into being, and bore God into the world. Her word is "Yes! Let it be unto me according to your word."

In our gospel story she takes her neighbor's problem to Jesus. "They have no wine." To run out of wine at a wedding feast would be a terrible dishonor for a host family. It would have been an embarrassment. It would have taken the life out of the celebration honoring the new love which is creating a new family. Mary senses the plight of the hosts, empathizes, and takes the issue to Jesus.

For Jesus, the problem seems problematic. "Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come." It is an abrupt and curt reply. The time is not propitious. Yet she is unfazed. She trusts implicitly. She tells the servants, "Do whatever he tells you." Willing openness which makes space that will be filled with divine life and will turn water into wine, mere survival transformed into effervescence. She is God-Bearer.

She is also Our Lady of Sorrows. Centuries of Christian art has tried to capture the pathos of a helpless mother witnessing the torturous death of her child, the lifeless body delivered into the arms of the mother who once cradled the infant. All human anguish can be imaged in this sadness. Faith tells us that this deep sorrow is also the place of divine life. Centuries of grief has collected in prayer toward her and received the sad, serene peace of acceptance.

Legend says that after Jesus' death, Mary settled in Ephesus under the protection of the apostle John. There is a small shrine just outside the town which has been a place of pilgrimage and devotion for centuries. A stone chapel covers a building from the 6th or 7th century with foundations that may date to the 1st century. In 1812 a German nun who never left her house awoke in a trance and described the journey of John and Mary to Ephesus, and recounted her vision of a small, rectangular house with a fireplace and an apse and a round back wall. Next to the apse was Mary's room, which had a spring running into it. Years later a French priest searched to find the House of the Virgin. He found this place, but didn't get much response from authorities. In the 1890's the Lazarist order came, found a small chapel in ruins and a damaged statue of Mary. They erected a chapel, which has become a place of pilgrimage.

Water from the spring that runs below the house is said to have healing properties, and there are abandoned crutches and canes left behind as testimony. Pilgrims tie paper and cloth prayers of supplication to a fence along the wall, asking Mary for aid, comfort and intercession.

The final image of Christian tradition is that of Mary Queen of Heaven. She reigns in peaceful triumph within the glorious life of her risen son. The open peasant girl taken into divine embrace, bringing with her a heart that carries the weight of the world.

There is something approachable, welcoming and nurturing about a mother's love. Mary shows to us the feminine nature of God. We can bring our hopes and fears, our anguish and aspiration to one whose openness makes such abundant room for God's being with us. In her womb is nurtured every nascent hope. In her arms she carries sorrow unto death. In her heart she bears all that is human, with open obedience to God, and lifts life into the glories of Heaven. \

She shows us how to be the church -- the mediator of God's presence, the open "Yes!" that bears Christ, the faithful surrender that is the path to heaven.

Hail Mary, Mother of God. Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God. Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. 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

Thursday, August 14, 2008

The Blessing of the Poor

Thursday, August 14, 2008 -- Week of Proper 14
Jonathan Myrick Daniels; Seminarian and Witness for Civil Rights, 1965

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 979)
Psalms 105:1-22 (morning) 105:23-45 (evening)
Judges 14:1-19
Acts 6:16 - 7:16
John 4:27-42

Today we see how Jesus' visit with the outcast Samaritan woman expands into a mission among the Samaritans who respond to the good news with more enthusiasm than Jesus' own people.

Today is the day we remember Jonathan Myrick Daniels who responded to Martin Luther King's call in 1965 to come to Selma, Alabama to help outcast black Southerners claim the right to vote as American citizens. He joined a picket line and was arrested on this day, August 14, 1965. Authorities then released the group that had been detained. There was a sense of danger. As four of the group walked into a small store, a man with a gun appeared, cursing sixteen-year-old Ruby Sales who had reached the top step of the entrance. Jonathan pulled her to one side to shield her, and he was killed by a 12-gauge shotgun blast. Less than three years later, Dr. King would be killed as he brought the Poor Peoples' Campaign to the Memphis sanitation workers' strike.

The outcast and the poor. These are the special objects of God's care and concern, and when the church is healthy, they are our focus as well. It can be hard and discouraging work, advocating for and working with the poor. At Evening Prayer a few weeks ago, Bob McMath read this as part of our liturgy. It is from the late Henri Nouwen's little book "The Spiritual Life":

Jean Vanier, the Canadian who founded a worldwide network of communities for mentally disabled people, has remarked more than once that Jesus did not say: "Blessed are those who care for the poor," but "Blessed are the poor." Simple as this remark may seem, if offers the key to the kingdom.

I want to help. I want to do something for people in need. I want to offer consolation to those who are in grief and alleviate the suffering of those who are in pain. There is obviously nothing wrong with that desire. It is a noble and grace-filled desire. But unless I realize that God's blessing is coming to me from those I want to serve, my help will be short-lived, and soon I will be "burned out."

How is it possible to keep caring for the poor when the poor only get poorer? How is it possible to keep nursing the sick when they are not getting better? How can I keep consoling the dying when their deaths only bring me more grief? The answer is that they all hold a blessing for me, a blessing that I need to receive. Ministry is, first of all, receiving God's blessing from those to whom we minister. What is this blessing? It is a glimpse of the face of God. Seeing God is what heaven is all about! We can see God in the face of Jesus, and we can see the face of Jesus in all those who need our care.

Once I asked Jean Vanier: "How do you find the strength to see so many people each day and listen to their many problems and pains?" He gently smiled and said: "They show me Jesus and give me life." Here lies the great mystery of Christian service. Those who serve Jesus in the poor will be fed by him whom they serve: "He will put on an apron, set them down at table and wait on them" (Luke 12:37).

We so much need a blessing. The poor are waiting to bless us."


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, August 13, 2008

Water or Stones?

Wednesday, August 13, 2008 -- Week of Proper 14
Jeremy Taylor; Bishop of Down, Connor, and Dromore, 1667

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 979)
Psalms 101, 109:1-4(5-19)20-30 (morning) 119:121-144 (evening)
Judges 13:15-24
Acts 6:1-15
John 4:1-26

One of the major themes in scripture is how often God surprises us by working outside our religious expectations and how often we misinterpret God's will.

The encounter between Jesus and the woman at the well is a remarkable moment. In Jesus' culture, such conversations between a Jewish man and a woman who is not his relative would be scandalous.

The woman is a Samaritan. Jews regarded Samaritans as heretics. Each side regarded the other as enemies.

This encounter at the well is a violation of Jewish purity laws. Sharing drinking vessels was closely regulated with reference to Biblical commandments.

We have in this encounter a host of religious, political and social precepts at stake.

Maybe the deepest embedded conflict is the conflict of place. Mount Gerizim was the site of an ancient temple. For Samaritans, Gerizim was the holy mountain of God. Jews saw it as a place of blasphemy. The faith of this woman and her people was regarded as a competitive and false religion. For Jesus' culture, the common attitude toward Samaritans and Mount Gerizim would not be unlike much of the contemporary American animus toward Islam and its traditions.

Yet, how graciously Jesus deals with this woman. He offers to her the gift of living water which springs to eternal life. And he speaks of a true worship in spirit and truth, a worship that transcends the difference between competitive religions and conflicting holy places. What a shame that Christianity has so often adopted the competitive, exclusive interpretation of religious culture instead of the gracious and transcendent attitude that Jesus models.

But religions can feel so easily threatened. We see some of that in these early chapters of Acts. We see the early church setting aside some from their group to do the compassionate work of service, charity and economic justice. One among them, Stephen, speaks with such wisdom that others are offended by him. They stir up fear -- false fear. Fear how the public is always manipulated. They accuse the followers of Jesus of trying to "change the customs that Moses handed on to us." How much conflict and violence has occurred because one group was afraid that another group might change our customs. We will follow this conflict until it becomes deadly. Stephen will be stoned to death.

Water or stones? Which do we wish to offer to those who are different from us, to those who follow alien beliefs and worship in ways that are strange to us? Acceptance or fear? Conversation or accusation? Water or stones? It is to Stephen's credit that he will not be the one to launch a stone. How different might our history be had Christians followed the examples of Jesus and Stephen.

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, August 11, 2008

Gamaliel's Testimony

Monday, August 11, 2008 -- Week of Proper 13
Clare, Abbess at Assisi, 1253


Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 979)
Psalms 97, 99 [100] (morning) 94, 95 (evening)
Judges 13:1-15
Acts 5:27-42
John 3:22-36

Many years ago I was on the Cursillo National Committee. The Church was just beginning to become anxious about its gay members who were asking, like black citizens in a previous decade, to be allowed to live as equals before God and the church. One of my favorite colleagues on the committee was a priest from Glendale, California. He was gifted and committed. But he was certain that gay Episcopalians were not to be accepted as equal before God. He was certain that homosexual love was sinful behavior. He convinced a majority of the committee to pass a policy that excluded non-celibate gay Episcopalians from positions of leadership in Cursillo.

The following year two diocesan leaders who were active in Cursillo and who were gay came to address the committee and ask us to reconsider the policy. Each of these leaders -- one lay and one priest -- was active in the Cursillo movement. Each was committed to a disciplined rule of life and to the principles of evangelism and spiritual growth that were at the heart of Cursillo. They knew the Cursillo movement and they were deeply committed to the Episcopal Church. They made their witness to our group.

With a poignancy that bordered on despair, the priest who addressed us closed his words with the argument from Gamaliel. The church is in a place of disagreement and discernment, he said. I tell you that I love Jesus Christ, and I follow him as my Lord and Savior. I do so as a gay man in a committed relationship. I find Christ manifest in my loving relationship with my partner and in my ministry as a priest and as an active leader in Cursillo. I realize that there are others who say that my relationship is a sin, a violation of God's intention, but I experience it as grace from God.

Citing Gamaliel, he said, do not throw us out. Wait and see. Watch us; watch me and my relationship and my ministry. If we are not of the Spirit -- if we are not of God -- we will fail. We will fall of our own weight. But, if we are of God, "you will not be able to overthrow us -- in that case you may even be found to be fighting against God!" Please, he begged us humbly. Do like Gamaliel advised. Just leave us alone. See what God will do. Do not cast us out yourselves. Let God be the judge.

It was a moving testimony. We broke for noonday prayers and lunch. For the noon office, we read the lessons assigned from the daily office in the Book of Common Prayer. As we sat to listen to the reading, it was this passage from Acts 5 -- the story of Gamaliel. Chills went up my spine.

I glanced back at the priest who had just a few moments ago been referencing these very words. His eyes closed. A gentle smile of thanks came to his mouth. He tilted his head up as though gesturing thanks to God. And when he opened his eyes, he blinked back tears. I too felt tears fill my eyes. I heard another in the room gasp. The Word of God had spoken.

That afternoon we reversed the policy. As far as I know, Cursillo never again took a political stand in a church debate.

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

Let the Wind Blow

Monday, August 11, 2008 -- Week of Proper 13
Clare, Abbess at Assisi, 1253

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 979)
Psalms 89:1-18 (morning) 89:19-52 (evening)
Judges 12:1-7
Acts 5:12-26
John 3:1-21

Reading the story of Jesus' encounter with Nicodemus has a playful side to it. Nicodemus is a leader and a member of the Pharisee party. As a Pharisee, he was devoted to holiness and to helping all Jews observe the Biblical mandates in their daily life.

He comes to Jesus at night. Maybe this is some of John's symbolic language -- he comes out of the darkness to Jesus the light of the world. Maybe Nicodemus is hoping his visit will be private and unseen, since Jesus is regarded with some suspicion as one who is not strictly observant of the Torah.

Nicodemus addresses Jesus as "Rabbi." From his perspective it is an address of respect. From John's perspective as narrator, it is a sign that Nicodemus doesn't understand. This is not just a Rabbi; this is the Son of Man.

Jesus' response to Nicodemus is the only instance in John's gospel where he uses the term "kingdom of God," which is so central and characteristic of the other gospels. "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above." There are a few words in this narrative that you need to read using dual translations. "Born from above" can also be translated "born anew." Jesus is talking of a radical reorientation and reordering of one's life.

Every time Jesus speaks with metaphor and abstraction, Nicodemus hears Jesus literally. It sets up some absurdities. "How can a grown adult re-enter the womb?" So Jesus poses a different birth, by water and wind/spirit. (The word for wind is also the word for spirit.) Jesus elaborates, but using the plural form of "you." (Here's where Southern speech is helpful.) "Y'all must be born anew/from above. The wind/spirit blows where it chooses, and y'all hear the sound of it, but y'all do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit/wind."

This kind of language is utterly perplexing to a Pharisee like Nicodemus. His entire orientation has been studied and objective. Search the scriptures. Find what God has taught us and teach it. Recover the laws and statutes and commandments, and follow them. Study and obey. Work together with others over the situations that may be ambiguous or hard to understand, until you have a practical, certain, safe, obedient way to live following God's Words in every moment and circumstance of life. Reference everything to the scripture. (There are some churches and some Christians who live this way. I've wondered why they don't name their churches St. Nicodemus.)

But Jesus points to a completely different orientation, a new way of being alive in relationship to God. God is alive, a Spirit that blows like the wind. Ungraspable, unpredictable, free. You are to live that way. Free. Alive. Blown like the wind, driven by the Spirit.

What does love demand? Blow there. How can you exercise compassion? Breathe there. In what surprising guise does the hidden God become manifest? Be surprised and joyful. It is a completely different way of being in the world. Pretty tough for a literalist like Nicodemus who wants everything tacked down in black and white.

St. Clare of Assisi was one of those who heard the wind blow as an eighteen-year-old listening to her neighbor Francis. Wealthy and beautiful, she gave all her possessions away and committed herself to serving God by becoming poor and serving the poor. She became a dynamo of the Spirit.

During her final illness, when commoners, priests and the Pope visited her bedside, she encouraged them to love "holy poverty" by living with generous compassion.

We sometimes use her blessing at the end of our Eucharist. "Go forth in peace, for you have followed the good road. Go forth without fear, for he that created you has sanctified you, has always protected you, and loves you as a mother. Blessed be God, for having created me."

That's not a bad prayer to start this day. Let the wind of the Spirit blow.

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