Friday, May 29, 2009

A Morning's Agenda

Friday, May 29, 2009 -- Week of 7 Easter, Year One

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 964)
Psalms 102 (morning) 107:1-32 (evening)
Ezekiel 34:17-31
Hebrews 8:1-13
Luke 10:38-42

Today's readings offer visions that heal and restore us closer to God's desire for us.

Ezekiel imagines a day when the wealthy and powerful no longer over-consume, waste the environment, and live in manner that degrades the poor and weak. He echoes an earlier, ancient theme from scripture that there should be no great gulf between the rich and the poor, but that everyone should have plenty. Ezekiel imagines a day when the governmental authority will enforce a justice of equality, and a day when security will be a reality for all.

Hebrews imagines a day when religion is no longer about outward observance, but a deep, interior knowledge of God. A day when everyone knows God in their hearts and minds, and from their souls they will walk in the ways of justice and compassion. The writer sees the inauguration of that new day in Jesus.

And the little story in Luke imagines a day when women sit at the Teacher's feet with the same right of discipleship as men. When Mary will be welcomed as an equal among the disciples and not just relegated to the kitchen. Jesus offers this welcome without demeaning in any way the servant ministry of Martha.

A justice of equality, an intimate knowledge of God, and gender equality. Not a bad agenda for one day's scripture reading.

Lowell
_____________________________________________

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

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


Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html


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

Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

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

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

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Morning Reflection

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 964)
Psalms 105:1-22 (morning) 105:23-45 (evening)
Ezekiel 18:1-4, 19-32
Hebrews 7:18-28
Luke 10:25-37

Still trying to ward off a head cold. Slept late.

Here are the readings.

Lowell

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Morning Reflection

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 964)
Psalms 101, 109:1-4(5-19)20-30 (morning) 119:121-144 (evening)
Ezekiel 11:14-25
Hebrews 7:1-17
Luke 10:17-24

Trying to ward off a head cold. Slept in this morning.

Here are the readings.

Lowell

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Call and Response

Tuesday, May 26, 2009 -- Week of 7 Easter, Year One
Augustine, First Archbishop of Canterbury, 605

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 964)
Psalms 97, 99, [100] (morning) 94, [95] (evening)
Ezekiel 7:10-15, 23b-27
Hebrews 6:13-20
Luke 10:1-17

Today's readings taste the back and forth of God's call and our response. God continually reaches out to us. Sometimes we grasp God's hand and realize the divine blessing. Sometimes we are proud, presumptuous and faithless, and we reap only trouble.

Ezekiel's vision imagines the Day of the Lord as a day of disaster and destruction, when the land and the people suffer the consequences of their actions. Pride, insolence and greed are the capital vices. The business leaders and merchants are thrown into chaos. Ezekiel faults the leaders, saying that God "will put an end to the arrogance of the strong."

The letter to the Hebrews extols our hope which is grounded in Jesus who is now our great High Priest. The writer urges us to look to Abraham as our model, and to be patient as we await the fulfillment of God's blessing through Jesus.

And Luke tells of the mission of the seventy (or other manuscripts read seventy-two). Jesus sends them into the countryside, traveling light. They bring healing with them. They announce God's reign. However they meet with ambiguous results.

There is no advantage for the places that have been privileged with the Gospel. Unless they respond energetically, they are less blessed than the outsiders. "Woe to you Rome and Canterbury. For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tehran and Kabul, they would have repented long ago. At the judgment it will be more tolerable for them than for you."

The seventy return from their mission elated. They have seen God's power overcome the destructive powers.

Jesus places his own message and mission into his disciples' hands. We are to be the instruments of God's recurring call. "Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me."

The story goes on and on. God reaches out to us through prophet or disciple or through the Son, our great High Priest. God's hand touches us through the hands of countless faithful people. We hear the call. We are invited into the life that brings healing and wholeness. But pride and greed get in our way. Or we simply fail to respond, going on with ordinary, unresponsive life like Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum, blind to the glory that has come among us.

Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God:
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes,
The rest sit round it, and pluck blackberries
(Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

The mission continues. How shall we respond?

Lowell
_____________________________________________

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

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


Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html


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

Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

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

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

Friday, May 22, 2009

Science and Spirituality

Friday, May 22, 2009 -- Week of 6 Easter, Year One

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 962)
Psalms 85, 86 (morning) 91, 92 (evening)
Ezekiel 1:28 - 3:3
Hebrews 4:14 - 3:6
Luke 9:28-36

Yesterday we read the vision of Ezekiel. Today Ezekiel hears a voice that calls him to ministry. Our reading from Hebrews declares that the human being Jesus, one tested like us in every respect, is now our heavenly high priest, eternally interceding for us. And Luke gives us his version of the experience of three disciples who in a thin place on a mountain had a vision of the glory of their teacher Jesus.

Today there is significant curiosity, exploration and study of spiritual and mystical experience, usually as part of a conversation between science and spirituality. I listened recently to an interview with Barbara Bradley Haggerty of National Public Radio. She's published a book titled "Fingerprints of God" reviewing her interviews with people who have had spiritual experiences and with scientists who study these things. A majority of American adults report that they have had a transforming spiritual experience.

She reports the story of Pam Reynolds who had an aneurysm in 1991 and had to undergo a stand-still operation in which her body temperature was lowered, the blood was drained from her brain, surgeons snipped the aneurysm and then restored the blood and temperature. Although her brain was virtually shut down, her eyes were completely covered and earphones broadcast 90 decibel sound waves to monitor brain activity, Pam accurately described having seen the process of her surgery and reported exact conversations that she had overheard. Maybe our consciousness can operate when our brain can't.

In looking at the often reported "near-death experiences" Haggerty said that many scientists are becoming skeptical of the explanation that these visions are merely the effect of an oxygen deprived brain that is shutting down. That is "a lot of heavy lifting" for a dying brain, to retain coherent memories that so many people report, of seeing relatives and having conversations. Many people describe their lives as transformed after a near-death experience. Interestingly, approximately 15% of people who tell of near-death experiences describe them in hellish terms, which can also be transformative.

Haggerty speaks of the two sides of her own belief. She has come to regard God as an infinite intelligence that stitches together the universe. She also attends to the practical, everyday life questions -- how do I want to live my life? -- with faith, sacrifice, the Golden Rule. For her, church and religious practice is important.

She describes the human religious experience and the various religions as spokes on a wheel. All of the spokes get to the same place, but you need to go deeply into your particular path (spoke) to find what practitioners of many religions all report. Speaking with Sufi, Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim, Protestant, and Catholic people she has found they all describe similar experiences of the Divine "Other" -- light, love, being One, and a transformed life, not unlike what some call being "born-again."

Ironically some research says that very religious people tend to be less open to spiritual or mystical experience than "spiritual people" who may not describe themselves as religious. But religious people, people who pray, or people who have spiritual practice all tend to be healthier than those who do not.

Haggerty says the scientific evidence is ambiguous. It can be explained in a purely materialistic way, it can also point to something real that is spiritual or transcendent. It is unlikely that science will ever prove or disprove God. But so many of us have transforming spiritual experiences that connect us with the "Other" or "Something More," and more than a few scientists find the answer of faith to be as compelling or more compelling than the materialistic answer.

Lowell
_____________________________________________

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

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


Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html


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

Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

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

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

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Ascension

Thursday, May 21, 2009 -- Week of 6 Easter, Year One
Ascension Day

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 962)
Psalms 8, 47 (morning) 24, 96 (evening)
Ezekiel 1:1-14, 24-28b
Hebrews 2:5-18
Matthew 28:16-20

The resurrection appearances in the gospels sound so objective and real. In one Jesus invites Thomas to touch his wounds. In another Jesus eats breakfast with Peter. In this story from Matthew Jesus meets the disciples at an appointed place, the mountain in Galilee to which Jesus had directed them. There the crucified one appears to the eleven disciples. This is the intimate band of those who had been closest to him. They have had the privilege of truly knowing him and sharing in his ministry. Now the resurrected One appears to them in a group as he had promised.

Then we read: "When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted." But some doubted! When you read a story like this, what's to doubt? But apparently whatever the nature of the appearance, it had some aspect of ambiguity about it. Even among the eleven there was doubt.

Ascension Day marks a turning point in the apostolic experience. From this point not long after his resurrection, Jesus no longer appeared bodily to his disciples. They knew him to be taken away from them. Yet not long after that experience of absence, the disciples experienced an even more convincing sense of presence. With the coming of the Holy Spirit, they knew the presence of God in Christ in a way that transcends all sense of material limits of space and time.

The disciples became convinced that Jesus' absence from the particular place meant his universal presence. Though he was absent in body, they knew his presence in spirit. And they insisted on a continuity between the human being and friend that they had lived with so closely, and the suffering servant who had died such a painful death, and the risen one who had appeared to them after his death, and the Holy Spirit which filled their lives and energized everything. They insisted it was all the same. It was all Jesus.

But some doubted. Doubt is always a part of faith. Regardless of the level of doubt, from everything we know about those disciples, they trusted. They trusted Jesus and lived out of the memory and spirit of what he had taught them and meant to them. When they condensed their trust to its simplest form, they used the word love. They trusted love. They loved.

To live in this new Holy Spirit which was the energy of the human being they had known as Jesus -- who died, arose and ascended -- is to walk in love as he loved us. They summarized his commandments into the new commandment to love. The described the experience of living in communion with him as living in love and being enveloped in the very life of God -- God in Christ and Christ in us, a living union of divine and human embracing all.

The separation and alienation each of us feels within ourselves is healed and elevated by love. The separation and alienation we feel within the human family is healed and united by love. The separation and alienation we feel with God is overcome and healed by love. The love of Jesus, experienced in a singular, concrete human life, has been raised from the particularity of space and time and now fills creation. All is healed. We are one, with ourselves, our neighbor, and with the mysterious and infinite God.

But still there is doubt. Sure. Yet we put our trust in love, and we seem to see God too.

Lowell
_____________________________________________

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

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


Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html


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

Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

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

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

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Health and Healing

Wednesday, May 20, 2009 -- Week of 6 Easter, Year One
Alcuin, deacon, and Abbot of Tours, 804
Rogation Day
Eve of Ascension

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 962)

Morning Prayer:
Psalms 119:97-120 (morning)
Baruch 3:24-37
James 5:13-18
Luke 12:22-31

Evening Prayer - Eve of Ascension:
Psalms 68:1-20
2 Kings 2:1-15
Revelation 5:1-14

From time to time I experience back spasms. There is some predictability to their onset. I tend to have back spasms when I push anxiously beyond my boundaries. When I try to do too much too fast; when I worry too much and feel rushed; when I repeatedly try to get two hours of things done in one hour, I set myself up for the spasms. When I set an untenable pace and ignore my good sense telling me to slow down, my body will tell me, and painfully force me, to adjust my behavior.

As I read the two New Testament lessons today, I thought about my back spasms, because these two passages speak to the best ways I've found for relief and balance.

"Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life..." Luke's famous passage about trust and hope is among the healthiest scriptures we have. Underneath the formula for releasing anxiety is simple trust. Trust God; trust that God is beneath the functions of life.

Let the moment come, don't anticipate it. Each moment carries its duties, beauties and hopes. Let it be, and respond gently. We are responsible creatures. That means, as we are able, we respond. We look at the circumstances of the moment, we accept them deeply, and as we are able, we respond. The rest of the universe, we can leave to God's hands.

Every moment when I can trust God to take care of things and allow myself to take responsibility only for whatever is within my immediate circle of respose, staying simply in the present moment, I am co-creating the context for a good day. Be, and let it be. The rest is God's work.

I know these things, but I don't always do them. And if I try to do too much, worry about too much -- eventually I will get back spasms. I will cease doing too much.

When spasms happen, I've found two things that help. (And that takes us to the other reading, James 5:13f.) Both involve prayer, and both involve very deep, trusting rest.

Massage helps me. One key to massage is to do nothing. One must rest, and trust the skill of the therapist. My massage therapist works with deep, prayerful intentionality. (I think most do.) The touch of the massage invites the over-inflamed parts of me to return to more natural balance and rest. My surrender in restful participation in that process is the best thing I can do.

The other thing I've found helpful in my pain is Healing Touch. St. Paul's has a number of trained Healing Touch ministers who offer an energy modality that is grounded in prayer. We've got so many stories of healing and of various experiences of relief that Healing Touch brings. Many people among us who live with chronic illness have found Healing Touch to be especially helpful. Occasionally things happen that transcend medical expectations. I know that whenever I have accepted Healing Touch during my back spasms, each time I've experienced an exponential improvement. Even if the physical symptoms had not been so notably relieved, the spiritual comfort and deep care is profound and healing. "The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective."

It is a good thing to be reminded this morning of these deep and healing truths. I can relax into the day, trusting God, and gently being responsible for what little part of God's creation is presented to me for my offering. Moment by moment. That's enough.

Lowell
_____________________________________________

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

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


Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html


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

Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

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

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

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Intimate Loving Trust

Tuesday, May 19, 2009 -- Week of 6 Easter, Year One
Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, 988
Rogation Day

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 962)
Psalms 78:1-39 (morning) 78:40-72 (evening)
Deuteronomy 8:11-20
James 1:16-27
Luke 11:1-13

Jesus invites us into an intimacy with God. In Luke's gospel, the disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray. Jesus teaches them to call God "Father." (Luke writes in Greek, Pater.) The word is an expression more of trust than of authority. Elsewhere we are given the Aramaic word for Father, Abba.

The fundamental relationship that Jesus shows us between God and us is a relationship of loving trust. We get two stories today that illustrate some of the qualities of that trust.

Jesus tells of a neighbor who goes to a friend after bedtime and keeps pestering the friend for bread until the friend gets up to help him. You only do that sort of thing with someone you know loves you even when you know you are intentionally getting on their nerves. There is a childlike persistence in this story. It's not unlike a child in the grocery checkout, begging a distracted mother for candy. The child keeps asking. The child keeps asking because the child wants the candy. The child believes it can keep asking because it knows the mother loves him.

Now this is not a commentary about parenting. It's not good to reward whining children. (Kathy always told ours, "I can't hear you when you whine.") It is, instead, a picture of intimacy. It is an encouragement to perseverance. Persevere in loving trust toward God like a child will persevere toward a parent, or a close friend will persevere with a neighbor.

These are remarkably intimate images for our relationship with God.

Jesus' second illustration reinforces the element of trust in our relationship with God. Parents don't give the children dangerous things. If a child asks for a fish, the parent won't give a snake. If a child asks for an egg, the parent won't give a scorpion. God is an even more loving parent than we can be. The gift that God gives is God's own divine life, God's own self -- the Holy Spirit. God gives us God. So ask, and you will receive. Trust. Keep asking. Persevere.

Our fundamental relationship with God is one of intimate, loving trust. It is a relationship that has a parental quality. And we all need the experience of good, loving parenting.

Lowell
_____________________________________________

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

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


Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html


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

Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

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

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

Monday, May 18, 2009

Dissecting Temptation

Monday, May 18, 2009 -- Week of 6 Easter, Year One

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 962)
Psalms 80 (morning) 77, [79] (evening)
Deuteronomy 8:1-10
James 1:1-15
Luke 9:18-27

Life is difficult. All of the sacred texts of the enduring religions agree that life is difficult.

Each reading today offers a different angle on life's difficulties. Psalm 80 is written during a time of national catastrophe. Deuteronomy 8 reminds the people of God's protection during their wilderness experiences and warns them of forgetfulness and pride. James writes that testing and endurance are essential to faith and maturity. In Luke's gospel Jesus links Peter's recognition of Jesus as the Messiah with the necessity of the Messiah's suffering. Jesus tells his own followers to take up their cross and to save their lives by losing their lives.

I'd like to look at a portion of this opening section of James as a window into a process for confronting problems. James is addressing the trials and temptations of life. He dissects the emotional process of a temptation: "But one is tempted by one’s own desire, being lured and enticed by it; then, when that desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and that sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death."

I see three opportunities in this scenario. There are three distinct moments along the path to failure. We have an opportunity to interrupt the process at any of these moments and be restored to health.

The first moment is desire. "One is tempted by one's own desire." One way to minimize temptation is to let go of our desires. The less we desire, the fewer temptations we endure. Advertisers know the power of desire. They intend to tempt us to buy their product by planting desire in us. But we can be intentional and conscious about desire. We can limit our desires. We can live simply. What do I really need? Not much actually.

I know someone who lives a compelling life without a need for a cell phone or something more than a dial-up computer modem. He bicycles most places. And he has time to read and tend the yard. In third world countries I've met people who seem happier and more content than most of my neighbors even though they live with few of the necessities and none of the conveniences that we seem to think of as indispensable. Challenging desire and softening its voice is the first opportunity to lessen temptation.

The second moment of a temptation is the commentary and energy we add to the experience of a simple desire. We get stimulated; we will be stimulated. We can either simply watch the energy of the stimulation, or we can complicate it by adding energy to it. We can think about our desires; we can fantasize about the pleasures we might enjoy. We can rationalize about how we need or deserve some indulgence. There are millions of ways for us to take a simple desire and add energy to it -- to gestate and nurture a temptation until it has become huge and almost overwhelming.

But there is always the third moment: the moment of action. We act. We choose our own behaviors. No matter how much we may have desired or fantasized or rationalized, nothing actual has happened until we act. We can choose not to act.

But if we act, we still have the opportunity to repent and choose not to act that way again. Beyond simple temptation is the habitual practice that can become normalized by repetition. When we find we have failed our best intention, we still have the opportunity to turn away from the behavior and prevent it from becoming a pattern. Repeated acts become habits; habits create our addictions; addiction steals our freedom. "Sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death."

With God's grace, even addictions can surrender. As twelve-step spirituality tells us, we will continue to have desires. We can let go of them at their simplest place and find relief. Our most established addictions have a history of commentary and rationalization. We can consciously and intentionally dismantle those commentaries, replacing them with new and truer interpretations. And, just for this moment, we can simply choose not to act upon an addiction. We don't have to look further than the present moment. But right now, when tempted, we can choose not to act.

Each moment of the process that James outlines offers an escape. "One is tempted by one’s own desire, being lured and enticed by it; then, when that desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and that sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death." Let go of desire. Limit commentary, fantasy and rationalization. Don't act; just be.

Let go and let life. Take it easy. One day at a 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

Friday, May 15, 2009

Conflicting Consciences

Friday, May 15, 2009 -- Week of 5 Easter, Year One

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 962)
Psalms 106:1-18 (morning) 106:19-48 (evening)
Wisdom* 16:15 - 17:1
Romans 14:13-23
Luke 8:40-56 *found in the Apocrypha

At the heart of Paul's gospel is his experience of liberation. He was freed from a kind of performance anxiety that came from scrupulosity. He had tried to follow the religious law with such thorough attentiveness that he could know himself to be right with God. If I follow all of the laws and do everything right, I'll be okay. Only, he never felt okay; he could never be sure. He just felt anxious. Am I doing everything right? I don't know. How can I be sure?

Paul was liberated by the realization that God gives him that right relationship as a gift. All he had to do was accept the gift -- justification by faith through grace. Accept the fact that God accepts you. Relax. You are accepted. You are loved. Live confidently, with loving energy, instead of anxiously, worrying about earning your acceptance.

So Paul was free. Free from so many things that had bothered his conscience earlier. He quit worrying about eating kosher. All food is just food. What about meat that has been dedicated to Apollo in the public marketplace? Doesn't matter. I don't believe in Apollo.

But within the community of the church were others who weren't so free. Their conscience and their scruples were injured by some of the old beliefs. They worried about eating meat dedicated to Apollo. They felt it compromised their faith, or implied their participation in idolatry, or somehow defiled them.

Be gentle with them, Paul advised. I can limit my personal freedom out of respect for their tender consciences. When I am at table with those bothered by such things, I can refrain from eating the marketplace meat so I don't offend them. Tomorrow I'll be back home with family. We'll enjoy an Apollo-burger. Won't bother us.

It is a generous attitude, and one that Paul consistently advises for his congregations that included people who came into community from so many different lifestyles. There were Jewish Christians who still treasured so many of the values they had grown up with -- kosher foods, circumcision, rituals, sabbath and the calendar of holy days, purity laws. There were Gentile Christians who grew up in the Hellenized Roman world with very different perspectives. How do we all get along? Paul advised them to go the extra mile not to offend the other's conscience, even if that means limiting your own liberty from time to time.

But he drew a line: You may continue to engage in your meaningless, scrupulous practices, but don't you dare require them of others. Don't shackle the freedom of others with your scruples. We see that line in the circumcision debate. Circumcision gives you no status, and you will not require it of others. I'll watch myself when I am with you, and I will voluntarily avoid offending your sense of purity, but you may not impose your purity code on me and on your other brothers and sisters.

We see Jesus facing some similar tensions between doing something that is life-giving and violating the scruples of purity codes. In today's story Jesus participates in two events of ritual defilement. He consents to the touch of a woman with a hemorrhage so that she may be healed. He takes a apparent corpse by the hand so that the child may be raised. Jewish sensibilities were shocked. A person with a discharge is unclean. A corpse is unclean. Do not touch. The rule was, if you think it might be a corpse, do not touch. But for the sake of life, abundant life, Jesus violates the rules.

The church is trying to figure out how we can live in community when our members come from many different perspectives and world views. We still have issues of conscience and purity at the forefront of our controversies.

How can those of us who are free limit our freedom so as not to offend the conscience of those who are more scrupulous? When do we need to act for the sake of abundant life regardless of the shocked sensibilities of others? Those old questions become new over and over again in every generation.

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

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


Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html


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

Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

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

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

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

The Authority of Authorities

Wednesday, May 13, 2009 -- Week of 5 Easter, Year One

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 962)
Psalms 72 (morning) 119:73-96 (evening)
Wisdom* 13:1-9
Romans 13:1-14
Luke 8:16-25 *found in the Apocrypha

The opening section of Romans 13 troubles me. I'm also bothered by a similar passage found at 1 Peter 2:13. Here's a portion:

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Romans 13:1-3a

For the Lord's sake accept the authority of every human institution, whether of the emperor as supreme, or of governors, as sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to praise those who do right. ...Fear God. Honor the emperor. 1 Peter 2:13-14, 17b

It is easy to understand these admonitions in the context of the early Church's life in the Roman Empire. As followers of one who was executed as a capital criminal and an enemy of the state, suspicion surrounded this new religious movement. Rome could be incredibly efficient and violent when dealing with those it regarded as enemies or conspirators. For the Church to survive, it had to convince the authorities that it was not a threat. To appeal to a wider audience, the Church could not be seen to be a seditious movement. Early Church leaders were at pains to convince those who might threaten them that they were not a threat to the governing authorities.

But in so many ways, the gospel that Paul preaches is a direct challenge to the empire and to the civil religion of emperor worship. Many of the fundamental claims of the Church directly confronted the claims of the emperor. Jesus is Lord. Jesus is Son of God. Coins and inscriptions throughout the Empire declared that the divine Caesar is Lord and is Son of God.

So on the one hand, Paul and the first letter attributed to Peter offer these admonitions of respect for the authority of the empire and for Caesar, and on the other hand they lead an organization that undermines the claims of empire.

These writers are not naive. They know that innocent members of their community have been arrested, punished and occasionally executed as traitors of the state. They want to establish a prima facia case that the state has nothing to suspect from their movement so that they won't be threatened and persecuted.

But these words, that instruct obedience to the state and presume that governing authorities do God's work through their institutions for punishing bad conduct, stand in contrast to much of the Biblical witness. God called Moses to challenge the authority of Pharaoh and to lead the people into freedom. God raised up judges to liberate the people from oppressive powers. God anointed the prophets to speak truth to authority and to proclaim God's will for justice. Jesus proclaimed the kingdom of God -- what the world would be like if God reigned instead of Caesar. Jesus stands forever as a testimony of God's triumphant peaceful challenge in the face of the violence of the powers and principalities.

Except as words of accommodation to threat, these messages from Paul and from 1 Peter cannot stand as immutable and timeless truths. Unfortunately they have been used historically to quell movements of freedom and to justify institutions of oppression. When liberal innovators began to argue on behalf of representative government and democracy, many Church leaders opposed them, using passages like these to invoke God's purpose on behalf of the Divine Right of Kings. (After all, you see only Biblical examples of monarchy, not of elected government.) The notion that a representative government should be of the people, by the people and for the people had to assert itself in the face of many Biblical proof texts when monarchy was the tradition and the norm. George Washington and the founders of our nation appealed to a higher authority and to more fundamental rights when they resisted authority in the name of God.

More than a few conflicts have pitted Biblical proof texts and traditional practice against more universal values and the higher calling of justice and liberation. Slaves, democrats, women, and gay people stand in a notable tradition among those who have challenged the traditional interpretation of scripture in the name of God.

The rock on which their challenge has stood is the rock that Paul shifts to right after his paragraph about being subject to the authorities. Paul echoes the Gospels, saying, "Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law." And justice is love extended into the communal sphere. Therefore, whenever love and authority are in conflict, love trumps authority. That is a revolutionary notion.

Lowell
_____________________________________________

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

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


Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html


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

Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

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

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

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Wisdom and Romans 12

Tuesday, May 12, 2009 -- Week of 5 Easter, Year One

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 962)
Psalms 61, 62 (morning) 68:1-20(21-23)24-36 (evening)
Wisdom* 10:1-4(5-12)13-21
Romans 12:1-21
Luke 8:1-15 *found in the Apocrypha

The word for "wisdom" in Greek is "sophia," a feminine word. In the Wisdom of Solomon (written in Greek), wisdom/sophia is personified as a functional equivalent to the Spirit of God, a feminine Spirit that holds all things together (1:7). In our chapter today, the author repeats the catchword "She" meaning "Sophia/Wisdom" to trace how Sophia/Wisdom has guided Israel's history through her heroes.

In the Hebrew scriptures the feminine word "Hokhma" means Wisdom (it is also translated as "knowledge," "truth," "counsel," and "law). The Hebrew word for "Understanding" (aka prudence, insight, intellect, and intuition) is "Binah," also feminine. A Latin word for Wisdom is "Sapientia," also feminine.

Among the Jewish mystics there is great affection for the power of the "Tree of Life" ("Asherah") as a representation of the One God. In medieval days Jewish mystic tradition regarded "Hokhma" and "Binah" as feminine attributes or emanations of the divine "Tree of Life."

The Hebrew scriptures often refer to God's breath with the feminine term "Ruach" which means breath, soul, or spirit. And God's powerful divine presence is God's "Shekhinah," God's Holy Spirit, also a feminine word. The predominant name for God in the second great Biblical epic history is "Elohim," a feminine plural Hebrew name given to the Creator in Genesis 1. Since Elohim is a plural word, some have translated it "God and Goddess." The singular forms are "Eloh" meaning "God," and "Eloah" meaning "Goddess."

These traditions offer us a couple of reminders. First, the nature and being of God incorporates and transcends gender. God is both male and female. And it seems important to guard our language about God so that it doesn't become predominately or exclusively masculine language.
__________

The second half of Romans 12 is a beautiful exhortation about how we can live in community. As I read this wonderful passage today, I thought how transforming it might be if our political life were dominated by these values:

Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’ No, ‘if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

How different might our foreign policy be if guided by these values? How might our economic life be more compassionate and inclusive? What would happen if an entire political party took these Biblical values as the centerpiece of their activity?

Lowell
______
_____________________________________________

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

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


Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html


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

Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

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

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

Monday, May 11, 2009

Thw Woman and the Pharisee

Monday, May 11, 2009 -- Week of 5 Easter, Year One

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 962)
Psalms 56, 57, [58] (morning) 64, 65 (evening)
Wisdom 9:1, 7-18
Colossians (3:18 - 4:1) 2-18
Luke 7:36-50

You can feel the elitism in this gospel passage. A Pharisee has asked Jesus to his home for a meal. Maybe he is one of those liberal and tolerant Pharisees who is reaching out to the peasant rabbi Jesus. Jesus should feel himself honored to be invited to share the table with such a one. Some of the niceties are avoided -- the elaborate greetings, washings and anointings that might be offered to a dignitary or leader. The Pharisee is investigating some of the stirring among the lower classes. There is rumor of a prophet among them. This Pharisee is not one who would dismiss such things out of arrogance. He is open to reaching out to the lower classes. He's interested to hear what this unknown teacher of peasants has to say.

But there is a social embarrassment. A woman of the land, one of those who cannot follow the law because of her poverty and circumstance, comes off the street into the open courtyard and begins to make a scene. She behaves emotionally, weeping and washing Jesus' feet with an extravagant demonstration. Such public displays of feeling are unseemly in this setting. No doubt, she is unclean. A prophet would know that she is a sinner and would upbraid her and put her in her place. But Jesus seems to accept her presence and her actions.

It is an uncomfortable situation for the host. This woman should not be there. She is uninvited. She is not the kind of person who comes to this table. She is violating the social norms. She is befouling what he hoped would be a comfortable meal with this odd religious figure. The weeping, the anointing, the kissing and hair. It's all just so inappropriate.

But Jesus turns to the Pharisee and gently offers him a lesson. Jesus' point: Those who know themselves to be forgiven much, love much. It is not a lesson that would come easily to the Pharisee. His whole life has been oriented around his intention that there be nothing that he might need forgiveness for. He has lived scrupulously, attentive to the large and small matters of the law. He is righteous. He knows that. He has earned that.

Jesus implies that this woman has something that the Pharisee lacks. Because she knows she has been given so much, forgiven so much, her heart bursts with grateful thanksgiving. She pours out her feelings with her extravagant demonstration of affection. We can see that she loves much. She knows how deep her need has been; she knows that Jesus gives her something powerful from God. She is overwhelmed with emotion and unashamed to express it. She has a freedom that the Pharisee lacks.

Sometimes I feel like this Pharisee. I live a pretty conventional, proper life. Sometimes I will see someone expressing their faith with demonstrable and extravagant public emotion, and I find I shrink from them. I like my proper, cooler, understated expressions of faith and devotion.

When I can shed my elitism I can see that these other passionate expressions are loving and true. They reveal an inhibition that I lack. They reveal a kind of forgiveness and love that I lack. They can reveal the presumption and arrogance that often infect those of us who make our religion our practice. We can be tempted to think that we have earned our place in God's light. We can be tempted to think that we are better than those who appear less religious or less proper.

Jesus' sympathies are more oriented toward the woman in this story. She has much to teach 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

Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Morning Reflections This Week

Note about Morning Reflections This Week

I am at my annual chapter and retreat meeting with the Order of the Ascension. In the past I've sent Morning Reflections during this week, but this year the schedule has changed, and I'm not able get them written.

As always you can read Daily Morning Prayer (and/or Evening Prayer) from the Prayer Book; this week's lectionary is found on page 960, the bottom half of the page. And there is always the online version of the Daily Office posted at missionstclare.com

Lowell