Friday, November 18, 2011

Pointed Connections

Friday, November 18, 2011 -- -- Week of Proper 28, Year One
Hilda, Abbess of Whitby, 680

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 992)
Psalms  (morning) 102      //       107:1-32  (evening)
1 Maccabees 4:36-59*                *found in the Apocrypha
Revelation 22:6-13
Matthew 18: 10-20

"I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me; but he said to me, 'You must not do that!  I am a fellow servant with you and your comrades the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book.  Worship God!'" 
(Revelation 8b-9)

Our parishioner Andrew Kilgore is a gifted artist who specializes in portraits.  He has created a wonderful presentation titled Ineffable Connections, a collection of compelling faces that he has captured in his work.  In opening our eyes to see the fullness of humanity, Andrew inclines us toward a glimpse of the divine.  I once heard Andrew say that humans are the only animals who will look toward the direction that someone points rather than looking at the finger doing the pointing. 

In today's reading from the Revelation, John sees and hears things that are holy, eternal, ineffable.  Instinctively, in awe he falls in worship at the feet of the angel who has revealed this to him.  The angel immediately tells John to stop.  The angel is only the means of God's revelation, not God.  The angel says to stand up and keep the words of the book.  But the book also is merely the means of God's revelation, not God.  Worship God!  Not the means of God's revelation.

Underneath the angel's command is the realization that God is ineffable.  Yes, God is revealed.  Yes, we can experience God.  But the fullness of God who is the object of worship is beyond our knowing and our defining.  Don't look at the finger and just stop there.  Look beyond the angel, the book, or Andrew's transfiguring pictures.  Look in the direction of what they are pointing toward... and worship. 
____

The reading from Matthew begins with the illustration of the lost sheep.  There is one sheep that is lost.  Because it is lost, because of its need, the shepherd leaves the ninety-nine to search, find and rejoice.  "So it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost." (Matthew 18:14)  Here is yet another picture of the inclusiveness and universality of the work of God.  We're invited to imagine and follow a God who will search diligently, patiently, and creatively in order to bring everyone to their home.  We are invited to believe in a God who will succeed at that task, so that no one and nothing will be lost.

There is a second story in this reading -- about conflict.  We are offered some rules of engagement.  Visit one-on-one.  If that doesn't work, take one or two along to broaden the perspective.  If that doesn't work, use the whole church in the process of reconciliation.  If that doesn't work, don't give up.  "Let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector."  The Gentile and tax collector, after all, were objects of the church's missionary endeavor and beneficiaries of forgiveness.  

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

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

Friday, November 11, 2011

Moments of Insight

Friday, November 11, 2011 -- Week of Proper 27, Year One
Martin, Bishop of Tours, 397

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 992)
Psalms 88 (morning)       //       91, 92 (evening)
1 Maccabees 1:41-63*                *found in the Apocrypha
Revelation 19:11-16
Matthew 16:13-20

There are moments of intuition.  Occasionally in an instant, things become clear.  Sometimes we see profound, complex things that have perplexed us, and suddenly it all seems so simple.  Insight happens.

As I read again the story of Peter's confession -- "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God" -- I can imagine him speaking in a tone of voice and with facial gestures conveying that even he is surprised by his own words.  Where did this insight come from?  "Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you..." 

Years ago our local radio station broadcast a winsome little program by Earl Nightingale, a motivational speaker.  It only lasted a minute or so, but Nightingale tried to offer listeners a nugget of his brand of wisdom or encouragement.  One story that has stuck with me concerned a chemical engineer who was trying to solve a complex problem about the molecular structure of a particular substance.  He had spent hours in the laboratory.  He had wasted much paper trying various sketches and equations. 

One day at home, as the scientist was watching something distracting on television, his mind in neutral, the answer to his research just appeared to him like a 3D vision in mid-air, between his lounge chair and the television screen.  He saw the structure of the substance in its entirety, and it made complete sense.  He could even ask the vision to turn around so he could see it from all angles.  The answer was given to him. 

Of course there had been hours of preparation that set the foundation for his discovery of a moment.  But isn't that often how these things happen?  We dig and struggle and persevere, sometimes with great futility, then, in an instant something is revealed.

In the back of my mind there is a story about Einstein's discovery of relativity coming in a flash of insight from a mind game he was pondering.  Many of us treasure Thomas Merton's Louisville epiphany on the corner of 4th and Walnut where he "suddenly realized that I loved all the people and that none of them were, or, could be totally alien to me. As if waking from a dream -- the dream of separateness."  (Private Journal, March 19, 1958)  Gerald May tells the story of an addict who found equanimity and freedom in a moment while walking his dog.

Today is St. Martin's day.  Legend has it that while Martin was a Roman soldier and a catechumen, a beggar approached asking alms.  Martin impulsively drew his sword and cut off a portion of his soldier's cloak and gave it to the poor man.  That night in a dream, Jesus appeared, clothed in half a cloak, and said, "Martin, a simple catechumen, covered me with this garment."

These moments happen to us.  They are full of grace.  They also seem ephemeral and fleeting.  Though we may be changed, we must claim the change.  It helps to write things down, like Merton's journal.  It helps to tell another, like Peter's witness to Jesus.  We can forget.  We can also, like Mary, treasure these things, and ponder them in our hearts.  

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

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

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Today's Readings

Thursday, November 10, 2011 -- Week of Proper 27, Year One
Leo the Great, Bishop of Rome, 461

Today's Readings for the Daily Office
(Book of Common Prayer, p. 992)
Psalms [83] or 23, 27 (morning)       //       85, 86 (evening)
1 Maccabees 1:1-28*                *found in the Apocrypha
Revelation 19:1-10
Matthew 16:13-20

Note:  we start today to read the fascinating narrative from 1 Maccabees in the Apocrypha

I've got to write some other things today, so I'm passing on writing a Morning Reflection.

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

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

Wednesday, November 09, 2011

Recovering Tradition

Wednesday, November 9, 2011 -- Week of Proper 27, Year One

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 992)
Psalms 119:97-120 (morning)       //       81, 82 (evening)
Nehemiah 7:73b - 8:3, 5-18
Revelation 18:21-24
Matthew 15:29-39

There is something moving about the account we read today from Nehemiah.  The community has been on a journey of rebuilding -- rebuilding the walls of the city as well as the corporate structures and the identity of their nation recovering from exile.  The people gather together in an assembly to hear the reading of the ancient law.  They hear sacred words from their tradition.  It has been such a long time since these words have been pondered that the community has lost some of its corporate memory.  The people weep, because they realize that they had lost so much of their identity. 

In the reading they rediscover a holy festival and reinstate its observance.  The people celebrate the Festival of Booths for the first time in living memory.  They rejoice as they reclaim a part of themselves that they didn't know they had.

Last night I taught an Inquirers Class.  I spoke about the dynamic way time and space opens in the celebration of the Eucharist, the Lord's Supper.  I talked about how we experience the past becoming actively present in the Eucharist.  "Anamnesis" is a way of remembering so that a past event becomes present to us now.  Through active anamnesis we participate in the Last Supper today.  I talked about our anticipation of the heavenly banquet where all things are to be gathered together into the eternal life of God.  The future blessing becomes present now.  When we celebrate the Eucharist, we enter a thin place where past and future merge into the present moment.

One of the participants in the class was deeply moved.  He has been a Christian for a long time, though he is new to our church.  "I've never heard of that before," he said.  Then he spoke about how meaningful that tradition seemed to him.  It seemed so much more than merely thinking of communion as a memorial of something that had happened long ago and was now over.  Last night he reclaimed something ancient, and his worship will be deeper.

I remember when I was taught the ancient tradition of Centering Prayer, based on the 14th century teaching from "The Cloud of Unknowing."  This practice of opening to the possibility of contemplation was unknown to me, though I was an adult who had been brought up in the church.  When this tradition was "recovered" for me, it became a portal for my own life and renewal.

I grew up in the days of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.  I can remember some of the process of liturgical renewal that accompanied the composition of the 1979 BCP.  One of its treasures is the recovery of the Great Vigil of Easter.  The church where I was raised had never celebrated that great liturgy.  Thanks to our reclaiming something from our tradition, the Vigil has become my favorite worship service of the year.  Our church has reclaimed a part of its lost tradition.

It can be a wonderful moment when we reclaim something from our ancient identity, like finding a valuable treasure that we didn't know we already owned.

I wonder what other ancient things of our tradition remain for us to discover, to uncover or to reclaim. 

For a while I've wondered what it might mean for us to reclaim the ancient tradition of the Year of Jubilee (Leviticus 25f).  In the year of Jubilee all debts were canceled, all bondage released, and there was a redistribution of the land to its original equal endowments.  In our nation, where one percent of our people owns over one-third of our wealth, where the top 20% claim 85%, and where the lower 40% only have 0.3% of our corporate wealth, what might some form of a Year of Jubilee mean for us?

What other treasures lie hidden below our corporate remembrance?  What parts of our inheritance have we forgotten?  What ancient wisdom waits for our rediscovery?  What more is there for us to claim?  ...for us to learn?

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

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

Tuesday, November 08, 2011

Fallen Babylon

Tuesday, November 8, 2011 -- Week of Proper 27, Year One

Today's Readings for the Daily Office
(Book of Common Prayer, p. 992)
Psalms 78:1-39 (morning)       //       78:40-72 (evening)
Nehemiah 9:26-38
Revelation 18:9-20
Matthew 15:29-39

The Liberation Theology movement that began in the 20th century articulates a vision of God's activity on behalf of those who are oppressed.  "God's preferential option for the poor" is one of the phrases that liberation scholars have used to describe a consistent theme in scripture.  We see that in spades in the vision from Revelation today.

"Rejoice over her, O heaven, you saints and apostles and prophets!" cries the seer observing the judgment given against "Babylon, the mighty city!"  "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!" 

Babylon is a complicated symbol in John's apocalypse.  But her primary sin and abomination is pretty obvious -- it is her great wealth and power, the seduction of her luxury and glamour.  It is a judgment against luxury.  "The fruit for which your soul longed has gone from you, and all your dainties and your splendor are lost to you, never to be found again." 

The wealthy merchants weep for the city "clothed in fine linen, in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold, with jewels, and with pearls."  The wealthy merchants cry because  "no one buys their cargo anymore."  The lists of merchandise go on and on with great specificity -- "all kinds of scented wood, all articles of ivory, all articles of costly wood, bronze, iron and marble, cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, olive oil, choice flour and wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and human bodies and souls." 

It doesn't take much imagination to see American commerce described.  These are the things we advertise and trade in, including human bodies and souls.  These luxuries are the things we love.  This vision from Revelation thrills at their destruction.  I am reminded of the fall of the World Trade Center.  There are communities in the world who, like John, see our wealth and power and luxury as corrupting.  They see the power of multinational commerce as "the beast."  Those communities saw the fall of the towers and rejoiced the same way that John celebrates the fall of Babylon.

But I am a person of Babylon.  I live in luxury and great comfort.  I am drawn to the "dainties" that John so decries.  I am wealthy and powerful, and I live in the wealthiest and most powerful nation in human history. 

My friend Jay McDainel of Hendrix College has written extensively that the competing religion of our age is the religion of consumerism.  Though he has written and spoken so compellingly about the idolatry of consumerism, he says of himself that he is still not released from its grip.  I too am thoroughly enmeshed in Babylon.  How to let go?

We shift scenes.  In the gospel today a Cannanite woman approaches Jesus for help.  "Send her away, for she keeps shouting at us," say the disciples.  She is annoying, inconvenient.  She is not one of us; she is a foreigner.  Yet, she only asks for crumbs.  "Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table," she begs.  Jesus sees her faith, and gives her her wish.  The next thing he does is to go to a crowd of foreigners, and he feeds their multitudes out of compassion. 

How can we embrace the compassionate generosity of Jesus and disengage from our enthrallment with Babylon?

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

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

Monday, November 07, 2011

Fallen is Babylon!

Monday, November 7, 2011 -- Week of Proper 27, Year One
Willibrord, Archbishop of Utrecht, Missionary to Frisia, 739

Today's Readings for the Daily Office
(Book of Common Prayer, p. 992)
Psalms 80 (morning)       //       77, [79] (evening)
Nehemiah 9:1-15, (16-25)
Revelation 18:1-8
Matthew 15:1-20

"Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!  It has become a dwelling place of demons...  For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxury." 

Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, "Come out of her, my people, so that you do not take part in her sins, and so that you do not share in her plagues..." 
(Revelation 2a, 3)

I heard a brief news report on the radio this morning that more than 600,000 accounts shifted from major banks to credit unions and community banks Saturday as a result of a Facebook campaign that started as a protest against Bank of America's attempt to charge a monthly fee for debit cards.

Last year our Servant Leadership School held a class on money.  I can't pull up the exact numbers, but around a dozen households paid off over $30,000 in debt during the class series and nearly all the participants ended their dependence upon credit card debt.

Last Thursday sixteen activists were arrested at the corporate headquarters of Goldman Sachs where they protested the behavior of the company which was a key part of the economic meltdown.  Senior employees of Goldman Sachs received bonuses of $18 billion in 2009, $16 billion in 2010, and $10 billion in 2011 while ordinary people were living with rising and food costs and home foreclosures.  "This massive transfer of wealth upwards by the Bush and Obama administrations, now estimated at $13 trillion to $14 trillion, went into the pockets of those who carried out fraud and criminal activity rather than the victims who lost their jobs, their savings and often their homes," said Chris Hedges, one of the arrested activists.

And today I hear European economic anxiety shifting from Greece to Italy, whose depth of debt is so massive that should Rome default, it would make the problems in Greece seem like chump change.

Current scholarship contends that the Book of Revelation was not written as an encouragement to churches under persecution.  There is no evidence of Roman persecution in the area the book addresses during the time it is believed to have been written. 

The threat that Revelation speaks to is the seductive temptation of the wealth, glamour and luxury of the Empire - the evils of materialism.  The text of the Book of Revelation sounds a bit like some of the speeches at the various Occupy Wall Street rallys.  "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!"  For "the nations have drunk the wine of the wrath of (Babylon's) fornication, and the kings have committed fornication with her, and the merchants have grown rich from the power of her luxury."  Ordinary people have taken to the street, and they are commenting on an unjust financial and economic system, saying, "Come out of her, my people, so that you do not take part in her sins, and so that you do not share in her plagues."

The Book of Revelation as a treatise against greed and abuse of power reads like today's headlines.

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

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