Friday, October 31, 2008

Follow Your Bliss

Friday, October 31, 2008 -- -- Week of Proper 25
Eve of All Saints (All Hallows Eve)

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 991)
Psalms 40, 54 (morning) 51 (evening)
Ecclesiasticus* 34:1-8, 18-22
Revelation 13:1-10
Luke 12:13-31

* found in the Apocrypha; also called the Wisdom of Jesus Son of Sirach, or just Sirach

OPTION for Evening Prayer, Eve of All Saints, p. 1000
Psalm 34
Wisdom 31-9
Revelation 19:1, 4-10


Joseph Campbell, the great mythology scholar, coined the phrase "Follow your bliss." During an interview with Bill Moyers, Campbell quoted from the last line of Sinclair Lewis' "Babbit": "I have never done the thing that I wanted to do all my life." Of that line, Campbell said, "That is a man who never followed his bliss."

Jesus says the same thing today as he tells the disciples not to worry about money, power and prestige. Instead, follow your bliss. "Strive for God's kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well."

Frederick Beuchner said that "vocation happens when our deep gladness meets the world's deep need."

How many people have followed the path of Babbit? Doing what someone else expected you to do, striving for money or respect. Jesus tells his disciples, "Life is more than food, and the body more than clothing." Rather than living a life motivated by worry or anxiety, pleasing others or meeting artificial goals, follow your bliss. Let your deep gladness meet the world's deep need. Seek ye first the kingdom of God. And all these things will be given to you as well.
_______

A note about the reading from Revelation.

Maybe you remember when Pope John Paul II survived an assassination attempt. Suddenly "end-timers" had their answer. He was the Antichrist. They were reading our chapter in Revelation today. The dragon gives power, throne and authority to a beast with ten horns and seven heads. "One of its heads seemed to have received a death-blow, but its mortal wound had been healed." A-ha, said John Ankelburg and a host of other end-time dispensationalists. For them, the papacy had long been the primary candidate for the Antichrist, now it had happened.

You would think that with a two-thousand year history of being wrong the strange tradition of trying to historicize apocalyptic literature literally would have eventually become embarrassed and quit. Not so. Just the other day I saw Ronnie Floyd on TV identifying Magog as Putin's Russia, and I think he was saying that Gog had something to do with Islam. Stand in line Ronnie, with a centuries old tradition of abusing the Bible with trivial contemporary silliness.

John is writing about the Roman Empire. He is condemning the civic cult of emperor worship which began with Julius Caesar who was declared a deity by the Roman Senate after his death. Though he was wounded mortally, the beast of Caesar continued and all later emperors claimed to be sons of the divine Julius or of his great successor Augustus. The beast is the Roman Empire and its Emperor.

At the time of John's writing, there was no specific persecution of the church, though Rome ruled with an iron fist. The great threat that John speaks to is the threat of Roman life and culture, the Empire's lure of luxury and glamour and power.

Anyone who wants to make Revelation contemporary doesn't have to do too much imaginative stretching. You don't need to tag the pope or Russia. You need only look at the Empire-qualities of our own culture. You need only look at the temptations of wealth, power, sex, celebrity, and violence to see the beasts that John decried.

John condemned these temptations with vivid apocalyptic imagery. Jesus invited us to turn away from these lures with simple earthy imagery. "Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. ...Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. ...And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things..."

God knows our needs, and they are deeper than material needs. Follow your bliss, and you will find your life, Joseph Campbell would say. Let your vocation be the place where your deep gladness meets the world's deep need, Frederick Beuchner would say. Seek first God's kingdom, and all these things will be given you, Jesus tells us.

"Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

If your heart follows your bliss, there will be your treasure. If your heart follows treasure, you have sold your heart to the empire.

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, October 30, 2008

Drinking and War

Thursday, October 30, 2008 -- Week of Proper 25

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 991)
Psalms 50 (morning) [59, 60] or 103 (evening)
Ecclesiasticus* 31:12-18, 25 - 32:2
Revelation 12:7-17
Luke 11:53 - 12:12

* found in the Apocrypha; also called the Wisdom of Jesus Son of Sirach, or just Sirach

The passage in Ecclesiasticus is probably an elder's advice for appropriate behavior at an Hellenistic symposium (from the Greek word meaning "to drink together"). The symposium banquet was a forum for men to debate, plot, boast or simply to party with others. There were often entertainments, games and rhetorical contests. Wine was served mixed with varying portions of water. Ben Sira advises moderation in food, deportment and drinking in this section of his Wisdom.

"What is life to one who is without wine?" he asks rhetorically. "It has been created to make people happy. Wine drunk at the proper time and in moderation is rejoicing of heart and gladness of soul. Wine drunk to excess leads to bitterness of spirit, to quarrels and stumbling."

There is a fragment from a lost play by the Greek Euboulos in which the god Dionysos gives instruction about drinking at a symposium. (A krater is the large jar from which servants would draw pitchers of wine.) "For sensible men I prepare only three kraters: one for health (which they drink first), the second for love and pleasure, and the third for sleep. After the third one is drained, wise men go home. The fourth krater is not mine any more - it belongs to bad behaviour; the fifth is for shouting; the sixth is for rudeness and insults; the seventh is for fights; the eighth is for breaking the furniture; the ninth is for depression; the tenth is for madness and unconsciousness."
_____

Some notes about Revelation 12.

We see the war in heaven. Michael is a symbol for Israel, a prince and protector of God's people. (Not unlike St. George for England.) Michael leads his angelic army which defeats the dragon, now identified as "the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world." Expelled from heaven, they now torment earth.

But note the "military tactics" that achieved the heavenly victory. "They have conquered the dragon by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony ("martus"), for they did not cling to life even in the face of death." Again, the only blood that is shed is the blood of the Lamb. The only weapons used are the weapons of their "testimony." The word is "martus", meaning "witness" or "testimony," from which we get the word "martyr." The victory is a victory of the Word not of weapons of violence and force.

The Book of Revelation is much more pacifist than its reputation. The divine victory is achieved through martyrdom -- the witness of God's faithful people living in imitation of the triumphant witness of Jesus the Lamb that was slain. By his blood evil is defeated and we are saved.

Then we see a story of the mythological woman (Israel, Eve, Mary) and the dragon's futile attempts to capture her and her child. In Exodus God describes the divine deliverance of Israel from the Egyptian Empire into the wilderness: "You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself." (19:4) Confronted with the Red/Reed Sea, the waters parted and they escaped. In similar imagery the woman of Revelation escapes. She and her child are safe. The dragon leaves to make life miserable for "those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus."

I sometimes visit with people who have grown up in churches where they were taught two things in particular. Drinking is a sin, and the Book of Revelation tells about an approaching violent apocalyptic end where God will destroy the earth, kill all who do not believe in Jesus and cast them into hell. That's not what the Bible says.

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, October 29, 2008

The Urge of Justice

Wednesday, October 29, 2008 -- Week of Proper 25
James Hannington, Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa,
and his Companions, Martyrs, 1885

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 991)
Psalms 119:49-72 (morning) 49, [53] (evening)
Ecclesiasticus* 28:14-26
Revelation 12:1-6
Luke 11:37-42

* found in the Apocrypha; also called the Wisdom of Jesus Son of Sirach, or just Sirach


First a note about the passage from Revelation.

Like Toto pulling the curtain back to reveal the puny Wizard of Oz who is behind the fearful image of power, John is pulling the curtain back to belittle the claims of the Empire and reveal the power of God on behalf of God's people and the earth. John sees a portent in heaven. (It may be an astrological message from the stars.) We see a mythic woman, "clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars." She is in birth pangs. Who is this woman? Mary, Eve, Sophia, Israel, Motherhood-itself, the constellation Virgo? Maybe all of these. There are similar myths of endangered births told about Isis, Leto, and Roma. The twelve stars are the number of God's people, and also the twelve constellations of the zodiac. Something new is being brought to life. The woman is to bring birth to a son who is to shepherd the nations, the beginning of the promised new age.

The second portent is the dragon, the primeval enemy. Ancient mythology of the Near East has many stories of the dragon; the Jewish equivalent is the leviathan. The astrological sign which follows Virgo is Scorpio. With his tail the dragon sweeps a third of the stars from heaven, which fall to earth like Lucifer, the fallen star of heaven. (John will describe the war in heaven in tomorrow's reading.) The dragon threatens the new birth, but God aids an escape. The child is taken to God's throne and the woman is safely nourished in the wilderness during the passing time of evil.

This is symbolic, mythological speech, intended to encourage and inspire the church to perseverance. Behind the imperial curtain, is a defeated, fallen power whose greedy and destructive term is ending.
________

In the reading from Luke we have a dramatic encounter between Jesus and the Pharisees as he dines with one of their party. (It is significant that Jesus is a guest at this Pharisee's house. To be invited implies a friendly and supportive relationship.)

But Jesus ignores the important customs that create ritual cleanliness for an observant Jew. It is an affront and a scandal to the religious sensitivities of his host. Jesus reinterprets cleanliness.

He uses the image of dishes. A cup and a dish has an outside and an inside. For them to be truly clean, both must be washed. Jesus implies that the ritual washing of hands before a meal is like cleaning only the outside of the cup. The cleanliness inside of the cup, like the cleanliness inside of the person, is more important. He tells them that inside they are "full of greed and wickedness." He tells them to "give for alms those things that are within." Generosity balances the internal evil.

But Jesus also takes issue with their scrupulous customs of tithing, giving one tenth not only of their money but also of little things like seasonings. That is like an external cleansing of the outside of the cup. What is more important is that they "practice justice and the love of God." Justice is the love of neighbor as oneself, the exercise of equality and compassion on behalf of the weak and the poor. Again we hear hints of the great commandment: Love God, and love your neighbor as yourself.

Both of these readings continue the Biblical mandate for justice. John stands up to the injustice of the empire on behalf of the birth of a new age of equality and peace. Luke reminds the religious and the fastidious of the higher claims of justice for righteousness. Once again the Bible sets before us the claims of the poor and marginalized. Whose side will we choose? The dragon of empire, the scrupulous pride of proud religion -- or the claims of peace and justice?

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, October 28, 2008

The Vision -- The Earth is God's Kingdom

Tuesday, October 28, 2008 -- Week of Proper 25
St. Simon and St. Jude, Apostles

Today's Reading for the Daily Office

EITHER: the readings for Tuesday of Proper 25 (Prayer Book p. 991)
Psalms 45 (morning) 47, 48 (evening)
Ecclesiasticus* 24:1-12
Revelation 11:14-19
Luke 11:27-36
* found in the Apocrypha; also called the Wisdom of Jesus Son of Sirach, or just Sirach

OR the readings for Sts Simon & Jude (Prayer Book, p. 1000)
Morning: Psalms 66; Isaiah 28:9-16; Ephesians 4:1-16
Evening: Psalms 116, 117; Isaiah 4:2-6; John 14:15-31

I chose the readings for Tuesday of Proper 25


"If your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light." (Luke 11:34b)

The Revelation of John comes to a climactic vision today. We get a glimpse into heaven to see the true reality: "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah." (Rev. 111:15b) No matter how corrupt and threatening the world may seem, no matter how obscene and violent is the power of the empire, here is the true reality -- "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and his Messiah." The triumph of God's Lamb is assured. Therefore do not be afraid, and do not succumb to the empire's temptations of greed and power.

Instead, we are invited to join the vision of the heavenly worship. We see the twenty-four elders who sing "eucharistoumen" -- "We give you thanks." Our earthly Eucharist is our participation in the heavenly liturgy. (Note: 24 is a symbolic number meaning the totality of God's people; we've already seen in this heavenly liturgy that the totality of the tribes of Israel are present as well as "a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages" [7:1-17])

John visualizes divine justice which is beginning to do its work in the earthly kingdom that now belongs to the Lord and his Messiah. The greed and violence which are the by-products of empire will be defeated. Later we will see that it is the mouth of the Lamb and the blood of the Lamb that defeats the evil of empire. Without violence, but with his Word and his own blood, the Lamb will judge triumphantly.

As John joins the heavenly worship, God's temple is opened and John sees into the inmost sanctuary, the ark of God's covenant. "There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and earthquake, and heavy hail." At the center of the worship in heaven is the divine presence, God's wondrous presence upon the ark of the covenant. For John, this is the deepest reality and the truest power in the universe.

From here, we will shift in John's narrative to see what is happening on earth. It will appear threatening, but after we have witnessed the reality of heaven, what can truly threaten us. If your eye can see what John has seen, your whole body will be full of 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

Monday, October 27, 2008

Reflection on Revelation 11

Monday, October 27, 2008 -- Week of Proper 25

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 991)
Psalms 41, 52 (morning) 44 (evening)
Ecclesiasticus* 19:4-17
Revelation 11:1-14
Luke 11:14-26

* found in the Apocrypha; also called the Wisdom of Jesus Son of Sirach, or just Sirach

There is an inner reality that is safe, at peace, and always one with God, regardless of the outer circumstances.

When speaking of our personal lives, we describe this as our inner union with God, which is our true self, the person God has created us to be. At the core of our being, we are always and have always been one with God -- that is our true self. Because we experience ourselves as being threatened, we become fearful and reactive. We create an adaptive self, a false self. The false self is attached to our exaggerated needs for security, affection/esteem, and power/control. Most of us get pretty dysfunctional trying to secure on our own terms what God gives us at our deepest being -- perfect security, unqualified love, divine power.

John writes of this symbolic territory in his Revelation. He is speaking to a community rather than to an individual. At the core of the community, the church, there is the temple and the altar -- the union between God and God's people. At that center, we are always one with God and the heavenly hosts who worship and praise God continually. The core is always connected and secure. Though the outer realities of political, social and economic well-being may be attacked, crumbling and chaotic, the center holds forever. The reign of evil and destruction is merely temporary, it is passing away.

Our call is to stand as witnesses during the passing period. John gives us a symbolic picture of that, using numbers to describe the experience of the incomplete and broken. The period of evil is always incomplete and broken -- forty-two months = 1,260 days = three and one-half years = half of seven (seven is the symbol of perfection, the sum of three [the spiritual order] and four [the created order]). (Six is one less than seven -- imperfection, incompleteness.)

John gives us the image of two witnesses, who like Jesus (and like the community) are both conquered and victorious. We are God's witnesses. We are a community of priests and kings, two olive trees. As part of our memory and heritage, we know the two great prophet-witnesses Moses (who commanded the plagues) and Elijah (who shut up the sky). We join their struggle against the empire.

We are in conflict with the values of the empire -- the lure of wealth and luxury and greed, the abuse of power and its inevitable violence. But our weapons are always the weapons of the Word. Our weapon, John says, is the "testimony." (In Greek the word "witness/testimony" is "martus" -- the same word as "martyr.")

So we have conflict between the empire and the community. The witnesses may appear to be defeated, but their apparent defeat is only temporary. God always intervenes on behalf of truth. Resurrection happens. "The breath of life from God" reanimates; the Spirit breathes new life.

John is setting the scene for the announcement of God's reign. God reigns now. The internal victory is every present. Yet in the conflict of our world, the victory is anticipatory, partial, and surely coming. We are victorious now, at one with God; we are struggling now, giving witness to the evil of this passing oppression. Like Jesus the Lamb, we are both conquered and victorious.

John describes every person, every community, every age. Here is the key to this part of his message: The experience of being conquered or assaulted by evil is always temporary and passing. The triumph of the Lamb is eternal and eternally present. Hold fast. Do not fear.

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, October 24, 2008

Hurry Sickness

Friday, October 24, 2008 -- Week of Proper 24

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 989)
Psalms 31 (morning) 35 (evening)
Ecclesiasticus* 11:2-20
Revelation 9:13-20
Luke 10:38-42

* found in the Apocrypha; also called the Wisdom of Jesus Son of Sirach, or just Sirach

"My child, do not busy yourself with many matters; if you multiply activities, you will not be held blameless. If you pursue, you will not overtake, and by fleeing you will not escape. There are those who work and struggle and hurry, but are so much the more in want." (Sirach 11:10)

"Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, 'Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.' But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her." (Luke 10:40-42)

"For fast-acting relief, try slowing down." (Lily Tomlin)

I've got a case of time-sickness, the disease of busyness. There are so many good things I want to do. I am a glutton. I cram more activities than the time can bare, like cramming more food than a stomach can bare. Like a tummy-ache, I get a busy-ache. Going to fast, I knock things over, skim the surface, miss an opportunity.

I remember a moment at a particularly anxious General Convention. The number of resolutions we needed to address had risen to an ominous place. We had limited debate to sound bytes and tried every parliamentary trick to speed up a slow, deliberative process. The urgency began to push the system. As the chair tried to accelerate the pace, there was a glitch. One procedure got in front of another, and the process ground to a confused halt. The chair stopped. Breathed. In a calm, deliberate voice he said, "When we go fast, we go slow." He breathed again, then completely changed his metabolism and began to return deliberately to each next step of untangling. It untangled, and we slowed to an effective, deliberative speed.

There are few things in our culture more contagious than hurry sickness. It seems drummed into us from childhood. I remember learning the unspoken rule of my first workplace. Look busy. We are plagued with busyness, swamped by demands, scattered by things that want our attention.

I see a connection between these themes from Sirach and Luke and the plagues of Revelation 9. Like the ghost of Christmas Future, Revelation shows the horrifying vision of destruction that is the by-product of the Greco-Roman culture (or any materialistic empire). He tells his readers to "repent of the work of their hands" and to "give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk." He might add to that list, "to-do lists." The Empire doesn't just plague us with violence and greed, it also infects us with hurry-up and speed.

There's a chapter called "The Unhurried Life" that tells about a man asking advice from a wise friend. "What do I need to do to be healthy?" The answer: "You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life." "Okay, that's a good one," he wrote it down. "Now, what else?" Long pause. Nothing else. "You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life."

Contemplative Prayer or Centering Prayer helps unhook us from attachment to busyness. There's nothing you can do to hurry up 20-minutes of silence, except be still. A human being; not a human doing.

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, October 23, 2008

St. James of Jerusalem Day

Thursday, October 23, 2008 -- Week of Proper 24
St. James of Jerusalem, Brother of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and Martyr, c. 62

Today's Reading for the Daily Office

EITHER: the readings for Thursday of Proper 24 (Prayer Book p. 989)
Psalms 37:1-18 (morning) 37:19-42 (evening)
Ecclesiasticus* 10:1-18
Revelation 9:1-12
Luke 10:2517-37
* found in the Apocrypha; also called the Wisdom of Jesus Son of Sirach, or just Sirach

OR the readings for St. James of Jerusalem (Prayer Book, p. 999)
Morning: Psalms 119:145-168; Jeremiah 11:18-23; Matthew 10:16-22
Evening: Psalms 122, 125; Isaiah 65:17-25; Hebrews 12:12-24


No Morning Reflection today

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

The Plagues

Wednesday, October 22, 2008 -- Week of Proper 24

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 989)
Psalms 38 (morning) 119:25-48 (evening)
Ecclesiasticus* 7:4-14
Revelation 8:1-13
Luke 10:17-24

* found in the Apocrypha; also called the Wisdom of Jesus Son of Sirach, or just Sirach

Today our reading of the Revelation is something like that scene from the Ghost of Christmas Future in Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol." A frightening picture of the potential future. If you do not change, this is what will happen.

The author pauses dramatically before the trumpet sounds. "There was silence in heaven for about half an hour."

Then plagues like those in Egypt when Moses sought to persuade the Pharaoh to "let my people go." We are reenacting scenes from the memory of Israel. God heard the people's cry from their slavery in Egypt. When Pharaoh refused to free them, God sent the plagues to convince the Pharaoh to change his ways and to liberate God's people from empire and injustice. The purpose of the terrible plagues was to convert Pharaoh, to convince him to free God's people.

Here in Revelation the "smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rise before God." They pray for liberation from the oppression and injustice of the Roman Empire. The trumpet blows and plagues like those in Egypt descend. Remember, it is a vision of a future possibility -- like the Christmas Future vision of Scrooge -- warning the Roman Empire of the terrible consequences if it continues in its ways. Later an angel will say that these plagues of hail and fire and blood, of environmental poisoning and death, of cosmic darkness "is what they deserve." (Revelation 15:6) The word is Greek, "axios" -- it is axiomatic, or self-evident.

It is axiomatic, it is self-evident that the kind of bloodshed, injustice and destruction that Egypt, Babylon, Rome and other empires create should come back upon the Empires. John is telling Rome, just as the Ghost told Scrooge, if you continue in your wanton ways, here is the catastrophe that the future holds for you. Change! Repent!

Writing from the base-communities of Latin America, Liberation Theologian Pablo Richard interprets some of these signs this way:

Cosmic agonies of this kind are not "natural" disasters but rather the direct consequences of the structure of domination and oppression: The poor die in floods because they are pushed out of safe places and forced to live alongside rivers; in earthquakes and hurricanes the poor lose their flimsy houses because they are poor and cannot build better ones; plagues, such as cholera and tuberculosis, fall primarily on the poor because they are malnourished... Hence the plagues of the trumpets and bowls in Revelation refer not to so called "natural" disasters, but to the agonies of history that the empire itself causes and suffers; they are the agonies of the beast caused by its very idolatry and lawlessness. Today the plagues of Revelation are rather the disastrous results of ecological destruction, the arms race, irrational consumerism, the idolatrous logic of the market, and the irrational use of technology and of natural resources.
(from "Apocalypse: A People's Commentary, 85-86)

Revelation is a book for today, but not in the cartoonish sense of Tim LeHaye, Hal Jenkins, and the bizarre disponsationalist preachers. Revelation says look at the economic markets in apoplexy today and see the consequences of your idolatry and greed. Look at the global degradation and the dire warnings of inconvenient truths because of your consumerism and greed. Look at the death and chaos, the violence and fear that increases because of your militarism and failure of imagination. Look at the agonies of the poor and innocent. Your empire is corrupt, addicted to excess, and unjust. If you do not change, it is axiomatic that you will suffer terrible consequences. Change! Repent!

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, October 21, 2008

Honor

Tuesday, October 21, 2008 -- Week of Proper 24

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 989)
Psalms 26, 28 (morning) 36, 39 (evening)
Ecclesiasticus* 6:5-17
Revelation 7:9-17
Luke 10:1-16

* found in the Apocrypha; also called the Wisdom of Jesus Son of Sirach, or just Sirach

When I got interested in flower gardening, I learned a maxim about propagating certain perennials. In the strange arithmetic of flowers, "When you divide them, they multiply." So I have hostas from several friends who have divided their plants and given them to me, and I have done the same for others. There are always more hostas. For me to receive another, someone else doesn't have to lose one.

A zero sum game is the description we give when we believe there is a finite, fixed amount of some resource. For anyone to gain more means that someone else must lose a comparable amount. When we have a cherry pie for dessert, that is a zero sum game. If I get a bigger slice of the pie, somebody else's slice will have to be smaller.

In the ancient world, and in much of the Mediterranian today, honor is a zero sum game. It is believed that there is a finite amount of honor in the world, and for anyone to gain honor means that someone else must lose honor. The competition for honor is a complicated match. (In our culture, urban gangs are organized according to an honor hierarchy -- they compete for "respect.")

It is good to gain honor in such a culture. Little else is more important. One's honor is one's status. Yet it is not good to be seen grasping for honor, because by doing so you are injuring your neighbor -- it is a zero sum game. One must accrue honor modestly, by living honorably and by competing for honor correctly. The opposite of honor is shame.

And so we read of Ben Sira's advice about friendship. Friendship must be practiced very carefully, he advises, because one's friends are also one's competitors for honor. "Let those who are friendly with you be many, but let your advisers be one in a thousand. When you gain friends, gain them through testing, and do not trust them hastily... Keep away from your enemies, and be on guard with your friends. Faithful friends are a sturdy shelter: whoever finds one has found a treasure."

Knowing a bit about the honor code helps us understand some parts of the Bible that can be mystifying, such as Jesus' retort when someone calls him, "Good teacher." "Why do you call me good? Only God is good." In his culture, to complement another is to tell that one to his face that he is rising above his appropriate level. When this man called Jesus, "Good teacher," it was an act of aggression. Jesus repudiates the compliment, as any honorable man would.

In today's Gospel reading we hear of the sending of the seventy. How each city receives them will be a measure of that city's honor or shame. Jesus gives to his disciples his own identity and honor. They are his representatives and agents. "Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me." Jesus' followers share in his "glory," the early church insists.

Beyond that is a more radical claim. Jesus tells them, "whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me." In an honor/shame culture, that is a blasphemous claim. Jesus is claiming to have the honor of God. Such a claim is bound to create a hostile reaction. Part of the scandal of the Church was its insistence that Jesus, a human being, had the right to claim the honor that is reserved only for God because Jesus is God's unique Son. Knowing a bit about the honor culture helps us realize how radical and threatening such a claim would have seemed.

Jesus' message compromised the honor/shame system. He invited people into a world of infinite honor and infinite love -- he invited them into a relationship with God. He called those who entered that relationship "friends," not servants. To be Jesus' friend is to be a friend of God. Instead of competition, the wealth of honor just became boundless.

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, October 20, 2008

Return to Revelation

Monday, October 20, 2008 -- Week of Proper 24

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 989)
Psalms 25 (morning) 9, 15 (evening)
Ecclesiasticus* 4:20 - 5:7
Revelation 7:1-8
Luke 9:51-62

* found in the Apocrypha; also called the Wisdom of Jesus Son of Sirach, or just Sirach

We begin today reading from the Revelation of John. The word "revelation" comes from the Latin "revelatio," meaning a "disclosure." The Greek word "apokalypis" means "to uncover," as in removing a veil. The Apocalypse of John or the Book of Revelation intends to reveal or uncover hidden meaning so that we can see the true, underlying significance of history. The genre of this visionary literature includes mediated figures such as angels who guide the seer and esoteric symbols and numerology.

The focus of the meaning of this book has to do with the call to faithful living in the face of the temptations of the glamour and luxury of a powerful and alluring military-economic complex. Do not be seduced by wealth and power, by pride and extravagance, Revelation says. The by-product of Empire is always violence and injustice. The Beast of Empire will bring suffering to the whole earth. The Lamb of God will bring restoration and joy.

As we pick up in chapter 7, the first six seals of the seven-sealed scroll of the Lamb have been opened. These six seals show the destruction that inevitably occurs when human pride and power act out. Here is what Empire produces: war, blood, death, and corruption (the four horsemen); the slaughter of the innocents (who are robed in white beneath God's altar); the devastation of the Earth and its ecology (earthquake, black sun, blood moon, falling stars, and universal fear). These are the fruits of Empire, the consequences of our human systems of domination.

Before we turn to a second set of judgments about the domination system (the trumpets -- a warning like the plagues of Egypt), we shift to a heavenly scene. That is our reading today. Four angels at the four corners of the earth are held back. "Do not damage the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have marked the servants of our God with a seal upon their foreheads." The twelve tribes of Israel are gathered. From each tribe twelve thousand are sealed -- a total of 144,000. The meaning of the word is "all God's people." Twelve is the number for God's people (the twelve tribes; twelve apostles -- twelve is the product of three (the spiritual order) and four (the created order). Ten is the number for totality.

We see a vision of the totality of God's people being sealed, protected and accounted for by God, before the Lamb's judgment upon Empire. (Tomorrow the circle will widen to include an unnumbered multitude "from all tribes and peoples and languages.)

Although God's people are sealed and ultimately protected, still they face suffering. The domination systems of Empire produce injustice and violence, gross economic indulgence and inequity, and environmental degradation. God's people, God's earth groans and suffers under the hand of the oppressive systems of Empire.

The Book of Revelation calls us to hope and perseverance. Hope, because the non-violent triumph of the Lamb is already assured, and perseverance -- faithfulness to the Lamb's values in the face of the temptations of luxury, glamour and power.

Many commentators see this apocalypse as a book that is appropriate for us today. Will God's church be tempted and seduced by the wealth and luxury of our age and be complicit in its concomitant injustice, violence and environmental degradation? Or will we live by the values of the Lamb -- hopeful living committed to peaceful, loving, gentle generosity?

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, October 17, 2008

Ben Sira and the Fear of the Lord

Friday, October 17, 2008 -- Week of Proper 23
Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, and Martyr, c. 115

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 989)
Psalms 16, 17 (morning) 22 (evening)
Ecclesiasticus* 1:1-10, 18-27
Acts 28:1-16
Luke 9:28-36

* found in the Apocrypha; also called the Wisdom of Jesus Son of Sirach, or just Sirach

Today we begin to read from the Apocryphal book of Ecclesiasticus, or the Wisdom of Jesus Son of Sirach. ("Ecclesiasticus" is a Latin title meaning the "church book." This teaching was used in the early church. I'll refer to it as "Sirach" which is the common title that the NRSV uses. I'll follow the custom of referring to the author, Jesus Son of Sirach, as Ben Sira.)

There is a tradition in Judaism and some other cultures for an elder to give something more than just money and property to one's descendants. In those traditions, an elder also bequeaths Wisdom to successive generations. Often the collection of the insights of a lifetime will be summarized in what is sometimes called an "Ethical Will." Just as a "Last Will and Testament" will designate property to one's heirs, an Ethical Will passes along the treasure of wisdom, insight, advice and knowledge one has gained, giving it to succeeding generations.

It is becoming increasingly popular in our culture to adopt this ancient tradition. I've heard of workshops that help elders plan the writing of their Ethical Will to their descendants. Carl Jung said that the second half of life should be used as a preparation for one's death. Collecting and composing the wisdom of a lifetime is a healthy way of coming to peace and self-definition while offering to future generations a priceless gift. For the next three weeks we will read and learn from the inheritance left to us by one of our Jewish ancestors, Jesus Ben Sira. From across the centuries he will speak to us as his children.

The Prologue of Sirach is written by the author's grandson, explaining that he is translating his grandfather's original Hebrew text into Greek. The grandson remarks that "what was originally expressed in Hebrew does not have exactly the same sense when translated into another language." That is an important factor whenever we are reading the scriptures in English. There are no scriptures that were written in English, only translations. We need some modesty when we claim truths based on translations of copies of copies of ancient manuscripts. This book's English translation, for instance, is based on different and often fragmentary Hebrew texts as well as Greek manuscripts.

In the Prologue, we see the first record referencing the three-part division of the Hebrew canon of sacred writings as "the Law and the Prophets and the other books of our ancestors." That third division has come to be called the Wisdom scriptures.

In the text of the book, Ben Sira repeats the refrain "the fear of the Lord." "The fear of the Lord is the crown of wisdom." "The fear of the Lord is glory and exultation..." "The fear of the Lord delights the heart..." "Those who fear the Lord will have a happy end..." "For the fear of the Lord is wisdom and discipline..." Ben Sira is echoing the word from Psalm 111:10 -- "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; those who act accordingly have a good understanding; his praise endures for ever."

For us the English word "fear" describes our response to threat. To fear God sounds like we should be afraid of God as a threatening power. That is not the Biblical meaning. To fear God is to be alert, awake, always aware of God, like a small animal alert to all of the sounds and presence in the woods. Some translations prefer to use the word "reverence" or "awe." "The fear of the Lord" is our alert and responsive attention to the presence and the intention of God.

Many spiritual traditions invite us into the Practice of Presence. We can always have a portion of our consciousness trained toward the divine. God is always present. God is here and God is now. Here and now is all that we have. If we are to know God, we can only know God in the here and now. The fear of the Lord is our reverent, alert attention and awareness of God's presence and God's will for us now. Our ancestors who bequeathed to us the Wisdom traditions tell us that this Practice of Presence is the beginning and the crown of wisdom. We have been given a priceless inheritance. We have been invited to see from their shoulders and to walk in their paths.

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, October 16, 2008

Jonah's Frustration

Thursday, October 16, 2008 -- Week of Proper 23
Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley, Bishops, 1555
Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1556

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 989)
Psalms 18:1-20 (morning) 18:21-50 (evening)
Jonah 3:1 - 4:11
Acts 27:27-44
Luke 9:18-27

Jesus tells his disciples that he must suffer the same fate as so many of the prophets before him. God's people will not listen to him and heed his message. He will be opposed and treated violently. Yet he offers to those who will listen to him a path of service. "For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it."

The ending of Jonah makes a humorous counterpoint to the gospel reading today. Jonah is the reluctant prophet who refuses to speak God's word and tries to flee. Yet who can flee from God? So Jonah goes to Nineveh.

For Israel, Nineveh is a symbol of evil. (read Osama bin Laden) More than once armies from Nineveh had attacked Israel. Sargon II, who destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel, had a palace at Nineveh. Sennacherib, who destroyed Lachish and many other cities and starved many in his siege of Jerusalem, helped make Nineveh magnificent. Nineveh is in modern Iraq, across the river from the city of Mosul.

When Jonah preaches, this foreign town of enemies listens to him. Unlike the people of Israel, the Ninevites take the prophet's message seriously. They proclaim a fast and repent in sackcloth. (In a humorous exaggeration, even the animals participate, fasting and wearing sackcloth.) Because they heeded the prophet's warning, "God changed his mind about the calamity that he said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it."

But Nineveh is the hated enemy. These are the people who have destroyed Israel and insulted Israel's God. Just because they heeded one prophet this one time, they are to be spared?! Jonah is furious. He wanted "shock and awe" rained down upon them -- fire and violence and destruction. Jonah pouts outside the city, just hoping God will call down ruin upon it.

A bush appears in the desert of Iraq. (Yes, it's a bad pun.) The bush covers Jonah from the sun and sultry east wind. But the next day, a worm withers the bush, and Jonah is exposed to the heat, while the city remains undestroyed. Jonah is so miserable that he wishes he were dead.

"But God said to Jonah, 'Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?' And he said, 'Yes, angry enough to die.' Then the Lord said, 'You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?"

It's a great ending. Funny and ironic. God punches holes though Jonah's prejudice and his religious pride. Jonah wants a triumphalistic God; a tribal God who will punish the other religions, especially those who have treated his people with such violence. Instead, he recognizes that God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, ready to relent from punishing.

Many commentators believe that this book was written as protest literature during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, and time of nationalism and ethnic purification.

Imagine today how popular a short story might be featuring a gentle and forgiving end for Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda. That's the flavor of the book of Jonah. If you might be frustrated and angry with such an end, you can feel for Jonah as he sits beneath the bush in the Iraqi desert waiting for revenge. But that's not God's way, says the story.

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, October 15, 2008

Passion and Confidence

Wednesday, October 15, 2008 -- Week of Proper 23
Teresa of Avila, Nun, 1582

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 989)
Psalms 119:1-24 (morning) 12, 13, 14 (evening)
Jonah 1:17 - 2:10
Acts 27:9-26
Luke 9:1-17

Ours is a tepid age. You especially feel our lukewarmness when you look at the life of someone like Teresa of Avila. Her passion seems strange to us. She is so extreme. She throws herself into God and into life with utter abandon, begging God to send her suffering so that she may share Christ's burden of the cross. She wants to feel. Deeply. Pain and suffering are deep feeling. So is sexual passion. Teresa combines a raw, passionate love for God along with her desire to share Christ's suffering. She produces something that can seem to us an almost bizarre, audacious, masochistic form of devotion. Oh, she is passionate. She makes us seem so measured and lukewarm.

Sam Portaro says that "we lack that genuine love of our work, that abiding love for the other person, that insatiable love for learning, that ineffable love that gives rise to worship, that passionate love that animates and humanizes politics. This is the characteristic that we see at work in Teresa. It is not the hallucinatory nature or sexual dimensions of her visions, nor the rigorism of her monastic discipline that is off-putting. It is her passion that causes us to raise one eyebrow just slightly. ...This is what we find so amazing in this nonchalant society of ours -- we are thrown off guard by those who find it within themselves to care, passionately." (Brightest and Best, p. 186)
_________

We have some stormy readings today. Jonah 2 is a wonderful psalm that the author has put into Jonah's mouth as his prayer from the belly of the fish. "The waters closed in over me; weeds were wrapped around my head at the roots of the mountains... As my life was ebbing away, I remembered the Lord; and my prayer came to you..." From that desperate place of dark depths, the one who has been fleeing from God calls out for deliverance.

We also read about a stormy sea passage as Paul is being escorted under guard to have his case appealed to Caesar. There is a note of humor here as Paul offers advice to the commanding officer, "but the centurion paid more attention to the pilot and to the owner of the ship than to what Paul said." Instead of wintering in an exposed harbor, the ship tried to go a little further west to a safer place in Crete. A violent wind attacked their vessel, and soon they were throwing cargo overboard to lighten the load. After three days they threw the ship's tackle overboard -- they are completely out of control. "All hope of our being saved was at last abandoned." They ended up getting blown for fourteen nights and eventually shipwrecked.

These are desperate images, aren't they? Alone in the belly of the fish at the bottom of the ocean. Blown uncontrollably by sickening storms until you wreck.

How do we cope with such times? How do we react? Certainly there is desperate prayer. We see in Paul a knowing confidence. At the unprotected harbor he told the officers, "Sirs, I can see that the voyage will be with danger and much heavy loss, not only of the cargo and the ship, but also of our lives." Two weeks later when they had been blown violently and had not eaten for a long time, Paul says, "I told you so..." "Men, you should have listened to me and not have set sail from Crete and thereby avoided this damage and loss." That always helps. I can imagine how they appreciated his reminder. But Paul adds that he has seen a vision of an angel telling him that they will wreck, but "God has granted safety to all who are sailing with (Paul)."

Such confidence in the storm. We see similar signs of confidence in the gospel. Jesus sends the twelve out with "power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases," and they go, with nothing extra -- "no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money -- not even an extra tunic." They bring good news and cure diseases everywhere. Later we read while Jesus and his disciples are in a deserted place, they take their meager provisions, five loaves and two fish, and feed five thousand.

Confidence and passion in the midst of storm and impossible challenge. Passion for God, regardless. Genuine love of my work, abiding love for others, insatiable love for learning, ineffable love that gives rise to worship, passionate love that animates and humanizes politics and deep confidence to face lostness and storms. This is the energy I want to live my life with. That's the heritage we are invited to embrace.

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, October 14, 2008

Schereschewsky

Tuesday, October 14, 2008 -- Week of Proper 23
Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky, Bishop of Shanghai, 1906

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 989)
Psalms 5, 6 (morning) 10, 11 (evening)
Jonah 1:1-17a
Acts 26:24 - 27:8
Luke 8:40-56

There is a lot to commend our attention today.

We begin reading Jonah, a book full of irony -- the prophet who runs away; sailors who treat God with more respect than the prophet; a successful preaching mission that the prophet resents, he cares more for the shade tree than for the residents of Ninevah. It's a tale about prejudice and about God's universal love and salvation.

Jesus restores two women -- one is perpetually unclean and thus isolated because of her vaginal bleeding; she has "spent all she had on physicians." The other is a 12-year-old child who has died on the verge of menses. Jesus brings these two back to community and fecundity.

Paul's trial concludes. He is innocent. Had he not appealed to Caesar, he could be released. As Luke writes the story, Paul's trials parallel Jesus'. Jesus was declared innocent three times by Pilate, who also had counsel with a different Herod.

But I want to comment just a bit about Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky who is commemorated today. His is an amazing story. In some ways, it is a mirror image of the Jonah story.

A native of Lithuania, he was studying for the rabbinate when he became interested in Christianity. He moved to the U.S., eventually graduating from my seminary, the General Theological Seminary in New York City. (1859) He responded to a call for missionaries to China and learned to write Chinese during the voyage on ship. Starting in Peking, he translated the Bible and parts of the Prayer Book into Mandarin. In 1877 he became Bishop of Shanghai and began translating the Bible into Wenli. He founded St. John's University in Shanghai. (That school is a fascinating story as well. Look it up.)

In 1883, at the age of 52, he was stricken with paralysis. For most of the rest of his life he lived in Japan where he continued his translation work, typing some 2,000 pages with the middle finger of his partially crippled hand. He lived until 1906.

Four years before his death, he said this: "I have sat in this chair over twenty years. It seemed very hard at first. But God knew best. He kept me for the work for which I am best fitted."

That quote humbles and awes me.

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