Away Early

March 1, 2010

David , Bishop of Wales, c. 544

Today's Readings for the Daily Office  

     (Book of Common Prayer, p. 950)

Psalms 5, 6 (morning)       10, 11 (evening)
Deuteronomy 4:15-24
2 Corinthians 11:1-21a
Matthew 6:16-23

I've got a very early meeting this morning.  No time to write.  Here are the readings.

Lowell

The Lord's Prayer

Monday, February 28, 2011 -- Week of 8 Epiphany, Year One
Anna Julia Haywood Cooper and Elizabeth Evelyn Wright, Educators, 1964, 1904
To read about our daily commemorations, go to our Holy Women, Holy Men blog:
http://liturgyandmusic.wordpress.com/category/holy-women-holy-men/

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 950)
Psalms 1, 2, 3  (morning)       4, 7 (evening)
Deuteronomy 4:9-14
2 Corinthians 10:1-18
Matthew 6:7-15

The Lord's Prayer is the midpoint of Matthew's composition of the Sermon on the Mount.  It is a profound and wonderful prayer.  One of my favorite writers, English Methodist Neville Ward, made it his practice to read a different book of commentary on the Lord's Prayer every year.  Late in life he wrote his own commentary, "The Personal Faith of Jesus."

In Matthew's version, the prayer opens with an address that would be typical for Jewish prayers, "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name."  Luke's version opens a little more simply:  "Father, hallowed be your name."  The word "Father" is a deeply intimate word, expressing profound personal trust.

The center of Jesus' message and teaching was his proclamation of the Kingdom of God.  Jesus announced that in him, God's kingdom had drawn near, it had broken forth.  We pray, "Your kingdom come."  It is an intentionally political metaphor.  Jesus didn't choose less political options -- your religion come, your family come, your community come.  A kingdom is a government, a political reality.  Jesus' world was governed by kings and kingdoms.  The Kingdom of God is how our world would be if God were king, and not Caesar.  Jesus was executed as an enemy of the state, a traitor and threat to political order.  At the heart of the Lord's Prayer is an insistence that Christians are politically active people.  We are to name how it is that God would rule differently from how our authorities govern.  We are to strive with Christ that God's kingdom come.

The deepest personal surrender is our trust in God and our intention to do God's will.  "Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."  So many spiritual masters emphasize that our surrender to the will of God is our central act of morality and being.  Jean Pierre de Caussade emphasizes that we can only do God's will in the present moment, under the limitations of the present circumstances.  He tells us to accept radically the present moment as the form in which God is present to us, inviting us to do God's will.  Each moment is a sacrament, the outward and visible form of God's inward and spiritual grace.  So we are invited to trust the moment, even in its difficulty and threat, and to do God's will.

What is God's will?  Caussade says it can only be one of three options.  (1) To do some present duty.  (2) To enjoy some present joy.  (3) To suffer some present suffering.  Our intuition can help us understand what is God's will for us in each present moment.  Our life approaches perfection, and and we can live in exquisite cooperation with God, whenever we simply do God's will here and now.  Insofar as it is in our power, we are bringing the Kingdom of God to earth whenever we do God's will.  Caussade adds, commenting on option three, suffering, that we know from the cross that sometimes God does God's most remarkable work through our suffering when offered to God.

Jesus' prayer has political concerns (the Kingdom), moral concerns (God's will), and economic concerns.  "Give us this day our daily bread.  And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors."  Daily bread, food for tomorrow, was a survival issue for peasants of his day and is an issue for millions on our planet today.  To be about God's business is to insure that every person has their basic needs covered, their bread for tomorrow. 

One of the primary ways that peasants in Jesus' day became impoverished and hungry was through indebtedness, especially if they owned small parcels of land.  Jesus told his followers to give freely to those who ask, and to do so not expecting repayment.  It is a radical economic program, followed rarely in Christian history.  How close can we come to following his ideals?  I don't know. 

In Luke's version, we pray "forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us."  Indebtedness can be a metaphor for sin.  Jesus offered people open, instant, and free access to God's forgiveness, bypassing the temple and its sacrifices.  Jesus also taught his followers to forgive as freely as God forgives us. 

In both prayers it is implied that the degree of debt and sin that we are forgiven is related to the degree of debt and sin that we forgive others.

Finally, Jesus prays that we not be brought into the time of trial, but be rescued from evil.  We hear anticipation of Jesus' own passion in this petition.  We also pray for ourselves and everyone who might be threatened with the terrible things that humans can do to one another.

Nearly every liturgy that our church provides for our common life of prayer includes in it the Lord's Prayer -- Eucharist, Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, Compline, Daily Devotions, Baptism, Marriage, Healing, Burial.  It is the most ubiquitous prayer in our tradition.  Some people have learned to pray the prayer constantly, like a mantra, almost subconsciously. 

The Lord's Prayer is a good anchor for our life and intention.  Through it we pray to God as our intimate and trusted Father, we align ourselves with God's reign and God's will, we commit ourselves to God's justice, we give and forgive, and we seek God's protection from the time of trial.  It is a good way to begin this day.

Lowell

__________________

Audio podcast:  Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week.  Click the following link: -- Morning Reflection Podcasts About Morning Reflections "Morning Reflections" is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church. Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer. Evening Prayer begins on p. 117 An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at missionstclare.com -- Click for online Daily Office 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 --  Click for Divine Hours Discussion Blog:  To comment on today's reflection or readings, go to http://lowellsblog.blogspot.com, or click here for Lowell's blog find today's reading, click "comment" at the bottom of the reading, and post your thoughts.

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

"We do not lose heart"

Friday, February 25, 2011 -- Week of 7 Epiphany, Year One
John Roberts, Priest, 1949
To read about our daily commemorations, go to our Holy Women, Holy Men blog:
http://liturgyandmusic.wordpress.com/category/holy-women-holy-men/

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 948)
Psalms 140, 142  (morning)       141, 143:1-11(12) (evening)
Ruth 3:1-18
2 Corinthians 4:1-12
Matthew 5:38-48

I am struck by the context in which Paul looks at his work and ministry, and also his difficulties and frustrations.  He focuses on the light that suffuses creation and sees that light as the presence of Christ.  He has died to his attachment to all else but Christ.  The light of Christ working in him is enough to cast out all darkness.

He finds himself in conflict with those who do not accept his teaching.  "By the open statement of the truth, " he says, "we commend our selves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God."  But not everyone's conscience accepts Paul's message.  We know there were those who could not imagine the incorporation of uncircumcised Gentiles into the community without their becoming like the original members, without their becoming Jewish.  We know there were those who were part of the church who had scruples about the purity or impurity of market meat that had been dedicated to the Greek gods.  To eat such meat was to worship those gods, they believed. 

For the former conflict, whether Gentiles must be circumcised, Paul refused to compromise.  This language in today's reading may reflect some of his meditation on that conflict.  Paul saw "the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ" in the Gentiles, and he saw death working through his opponents' insistence that converting Gentiles must follow the laws of the Torah.  Paul recognizes that his "gospel is veiled" to some.  They cannot see the same light that Paul sees; what Paul sees as light, they can only see as darkness.  He says it is "the god of this world" who "has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light."

In the latter conflict about meat dedicated to idols, Paul advised compromise.  If your conscience is not bothered, feel free to eat the consecrated meat.  But if you are at table with one whose conscience is offended (or weak, as he says), out of respect for them, forego exercising your freedom for that meal.  (1 Corinthians 10)  He counseled a similar approach over conflicts about the observation of sacred days.  "Some judge one day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be alike.  Let all be fully convinced in their own minds."  Paul had his opinions, but on some things, he commended himself "to the conscience of everyone" and allowed that there is room for disagreement. 

It seems that Paul is able to see the light of Christ in people and in things that others see only as darkness.  Christ's light has broken down so many divisions.  Paul sees that light suffusing all creation.  But not everyone sees Christ's light as universally as Paul.  Paul allows for differences of conscience for those who cannot see Christ's light in some of the things of this world -- in meat sacrificed to other gods, in sabbath customs or other sacred observances of time. 

But Paul's back stiffens when people are unwilling to see that light in other people.  In Christ, human divisions, prejudices and hierarchies are overcome by the light that suffuses all.  "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for you are one in Christ Jesus."  (Galatians 3:28)  God's light has shined out of the darkness to enlighten all things, but especially to reveal light in all people.  You either see that or the "god of this world" has blinded you.  "For it is God who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

It is a glorious vision.  A unifying light that infuses all humanity.  (Suzanne talked about this Sunday in her sermon illustration about her mother-in-law.) 

Yet we are also "clay jars."  Paul feels the frustration of one who has something precious that others oppose.  But his experience of this inner light of Christ is enough for his continued renewal and encouragement.  "We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies.  For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh."

Paul is able to accept frustration, even defeat, because he has abandoned dependence on his own performance -- he died to the performance-based righteousness of following the law -- he has accepted a new life that is a pure gift from God.  So it is all God.  It is all Christ.  It's not about him.  Christ's light has overcome all -- Paul's scruples, human divisions, finally death itself.  It is all filled with the light that shines out of darkness. 

Not everyone can see that, of course, so Paul lives with innumerable conflicts.  But "we do not lose heart."  Even though he feels his body weakening before these divisions can be reconciled, he knows "our inner nature is being renewed day by day."  He can see the light continuing to spread, even where others see only darkness.  "So that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God."  His comfort is "we can look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal."

I find these words console me.  It seems that among my most troubling conflicts are disagreements with my own brothers and sisters in Christ, when I see light where they do not.  I see light among the immigrant community who has come here seeking a better opportunity despite a prejudicial and dysfunctional legal system.  Others see only criminals.  I see light in the loving relationships of gay couples, where others see only darkness and sin. 

Paul reminds me that there is great room for compromise and conscience when we are disagreeing about things -- customs and traditions and scruples.  But he also reminds me that we cannot compromise when we see Christ's light in other people.  We cannot relax and let them be cast into darkness by those who follow "the god of this world," all of the prejudices and bias that our culture bequeaths us. 

"So we do not lose heart."  "For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as slaves for Jesus' sake.  For it is the God who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

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 missionstclare.com -- Click for online Daily Office 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 --  Click for Divine Hours Discussion Blog:  To comment on today's reflection or readings, go to http://lowellsblog.blogspot.com, or click here for Lowell's blog find today's reading, click "comment" at the bottom of the reading, and post your thoughts.

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

Working Hard

Thursday, February 24, 2011 -- Week of 7 Epiphany, Year One
Saint Matthias the Apostle
To read about our daily commemorations, go to our Holy Women, Holy Men blog:
http://liturgyandmusic.wordpress.com/category/holy-women-holy-men/

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer)

EITHER the readings for Thursday or 7 Epiphany, p. 948
Psalms 131, 132, [133] (morning)       134, 135 (evening)
Ruth 2:14-23
2 Corinthians 3:1-18
Matthew 5:27-37

OR the readings for St. Matthias, p. 997
Morning:  Psalm 80; 1 Samuel 16:1-13; 1 John 2:18-25
Evening:  Psalm 33; 1 Samuel 12:1-5; Acts 20:17-35

I chose the readings for Thursday of 7 Epiphany

The tentative circumstances of the immigrants Ruth and Naomi seem so poignant in today's reading.  They are two women without the protection of a male provider in a patriarchal world.  They have no land and few possessions.  During the harvest, the younger, Ruth, goes to the fields to glean with the other women peasants.  Gleaning was the Biblical right of the poor to pick up the scraps that fall to the ground during the harvest.  It is bent-over toil, sweeping the small, individual sticks or buds of grain left behind by those whom the landowner has hired to gather.  It is not in the interest of a landowner to leave much behind or to reap inefficiently.  The gleanings will be slim.  But they will be something.  The right of gleaning is a protection for the poor and an acknowledgment of our responsibility toward the poor. 

The story is set during the important seasons of the barley and wheat harvests, April and May.  These were the most important of the spring crops.  The landowner Boaz instructs the harvesters to allow Ruth to glean among the standing sheaves, a placement otherwise prohibited to gleaners.  He also tells them to "pull out some handfuls for her from the bundles, and leave them for her to glean."  As a result, Ruth collects an extravagant bonanza.  Her mother-in-law Naomi is amazed when Ruth brings her bundle.  It was about and ephah of barley.

How much is an ephah?  It is variously calculated at 29-50 pounds.  Such a weight of grain collected by gleaning would be extraordinary beyond imagination.

Wheat and barley grains were the primary food staple for people of ancient Israel, accounting for more than half of their caloric intake.  When the spring harvests are over, the people would have to live on whatever they had harvested. 

I think of a cereal box of something like Granola.  A pound box is pretty small.  How long might forty boxes of Granola last as the main source of food for two adult women?  If an ephah of grain is an amazing return for a gleaner, how much would someone normally bring home?  How could a peasant family collect, store and ration the spring grain collected from gleaning and avoid famine?  I wonder.

My mind shifts to the words of Jesus at the close of today's reading from Matthew.  "Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you."  He may have had in mind the tenuous circumstances of unlanded peasants. 

I'm also reminded of the compelling book "Nickel and Dimed" written by Barbara Ehrenreich.  She is a successful author, Ph.D., and journalist who was given an assignment by her editor at Harpers.  She was to take $1000 up front and her car, go to towns, apply for hourly-wage jobs, take the best-paying job offered, and live on her earnings.  She had some advantages over many hourly workers.  She was healthy, white, spoke English, had no children to support, and a paid-for car.  (She also had a credit card or ATM to fall back on in case things got too tough.)  She worked as a waitress, a hotel maid, a cleaning woman, a nursing home aide, and a Wal-Mart sales clerk.  She learned that no job is truly "unskilled."  Even the lowliest occupations require exhausting mental and muscular effort.  She also learned she couldn't make it on one job.  You need at least two jobs if you want to live indoors.  And two jobs is mentally, physically, and spiritually exhausting.  Barbara Ehrenreich returned from her sojourn into the world of hourly wage earners with a new respect and empathy for those who may appear almost invisible to us. 

The story of Ruth is a story of an immigrant peasant woman who might otherwise be invisible in her world.  But among the poor are people of remarkable character and virtue.  Ruth is rewarded in the style of an Horatio Alger novel.  May God bless those millions of hard working virtuous poor who are not so rewarded.  May we also advocate and strive to create a more humane and compassionate society where anyone who is works virtuously at a full-time job can live modestly and securely and can raise a family.  Not every good person marries Boaz. 
____

Today I have much to be thankful for in my own work.  Thirty years ago today, on St. Matthias Day, I was ordained a priest.

Suzanne preached recently on a portion of today's gospel text:  http://stpaulsfay.org/sermon7epiphany2011.pdf

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 missionstclare.com -- Click for online Daily Office 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 --  Click for Divine Hours Discussion Blog:  To comment on today's reflection or readings, go to http://lowellsblog.blogspot.com, or click here for Lowell's blog find today's reading, click "comment" at the bottom of the reading, and post your thoughts.

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

Gleaning

Wednesday, February 23, 2011 -- Week of 7 Epiphany, Year One
Polycarp, Bishop and Martyr of Smyrna, 156
To read about our daily commemorations, go to our Holy Women, Holy Men blog:
http://liturgyandmusic.wordpress.com/category/holy-women-holy-men/

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 948)
Psalms 119:145-176 (morning)       128, 129, 130 (evening)
Ruth 2:1-13
2 Corinthians 1:23 - 2:17
Matthew 5:21-26

We see today an example of an early form of welfare system.  Ruth and Naomi are immigrants.  Naomi has family in Bethlehem.  Ruth is a foreigner, a Moabite, who was married to Naomi's son.  They are both widows.  Ruth goes into the grain fields to glean. 

Gleaning was an early form of welfare, mandated in the Torah for the relief of the poor and the alien.  The Torah functioned as the legal and political law for much of Israel's history.  "When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest.  You shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the alien:  I am the LORD your God."  (Leviticus 19:9)  "When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be left for the alien, the orphan, and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all your undertakings.  When you beat your olive trees, do not strip what is left; it shall be for the alien, the orphan and the widow."  (Deuteronomy 23:19-20) 

Gleaning concerned the portion of the harvest that fell to the ground in the process of reaping, or what was left along the edges of the field where farmers were prohibited to harvest, both to prevent trespass by taking produce that might belong to a neighbor, and to provide for the poor.  Gleaning could also included anything left on the olive trees after the first beating of the limbs, or anything left in the field after it is worked by the harvesters.

Ruth asked for a privilege that is a bit beyond the scope of the common gleaning privileges.  "Please, let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the reapers," she asked.  Because of her beauty, she catches the eye of a landowner, Boaz.  He has heard of her kindness to her mother-in-law Naomi.  He tells her to stay in his field to glean, and he gives further instructions to his laborers to leave some extra grain for her to glean, to allow her to drink water from their supply, and not to bother her.  This last instruction is a reminder of how vulnerable poor women in a field might be, and a clue that physical or sexual abuse was a risk.

In nineteenth century England, the church sexton would ring the bell at eight in the morning and again at seven in the evening to signal to village cottagers when they could enter and leave the field for their gleaning.  In our day, organizations like the Arkansas Food Bank collects from groceries and other sources dented cans or food that has passed its due date.  Our Community Meals program uses Food Bank "gleanings" to supplement our hot lunch ministry on Mondays and Wednesdays at St. Paul's.  (Here's the web page for the Arkansas Food Bank: http://nwafoodbank.org.  They take donations of money and of non-perishable food items.)  We have several restaurants who donate directly to Community Meals as well as to Seven Hills Homeless Center, another program that St. Paul's started.  The Cobblestone Project is another local non-profit that uses various strategies for gleaning, including restaurant donations.  Our Angel Food program could be considered a form of gleaning.  That ministry connects directly with producers to purchase quality food at bulk discounts.  Then through a volunteer distribution network through churches they can offer the food at a very low price.

To my mind Food Stamps is one of the most efficient and effective modern ways of following the Biblical tradition of gleaning.  As a community we do not harvest to the edge of our economic field or claim and consume every scrap of money that we produce.  Through our taxes we leave some of our reaping behind for the common good, and a portion of that is turned into Food Stamps that the poor can use to purchase food and necessities. 

Food Stamps has been a remarkably successful program for reducing hunger in the U. S.  The apportionments are modest.  But they make a huge difference.  (I'm amused and delighted when a legislator will try to live on Food Stamps for a while just to experience how hard it is.) 

Two compassionate Biblical mandates are at the core of the story of Ruth.  First, gleaning, as a form of providing for the poor.  But also we see a commandment and tradition of hospitality and care for the alien, the stranger and the immigrant. 

For those of us who embrace Biblical values, it is important that we support and advocate for similar values in our corporate life.  These are values that are under attack in many political circles today by those who seem to think compassion is neither a religious mandate nor a social norm.  The story of Ruth is a reminder that we are called to be a caring and compassionate society, with structures and laws that embody our responsibilities for one another, especially for the vulnerable.
____

I preached recently on today's gospel.  

http://stpaulsfay.org/11-02-13WhoeversaysYoufool!.pdf

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 missionstclare.com -- Click for online Daily Office 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 --  Click for Divine Hours Discussion Blog:  To comment on today's reflection or readings, go to http://lowellsblog.blogspot.com, or click here for Lowell's blog find today's reading, click "comment" at the bottom of the reading, and post your thoughts.

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