Paradigm of Openness

Monday, December 31, 2012 -- Christmas
Samuel Ajayi Crowther, Bishop in the Niger Territories, 1891

[Go to http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html for an online version of the Daily Office including today's scripture readings.]

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 940)

Morning Prayer
Psalms 46, 48
Isaiah 26:1-9
2 Corinthians 5:16 - 6:2
John 8:12-19

Evening Prayer (Eve of Holy Name)
Psalms 90
Isaiah 65:15b-25
Revelation 21:1-6

St. Paul proclaims today:  If anyone is in Christ, that person is part of the new creation.  The old things have gone away, and look, new things have arrived!  All of these new things are from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and who gave us the ministry of reconciliation.  (2 Corinthians 5:17-18)

It is a good text for the cusp of a new year.  And it reminds me of a favorite quote from Robert J. Wicks.  He calls this Paradigm of Openness:

Have low expectations and high hopes.  Have low expectations of people so you don't force them directly or indirectly to meet certain anticipations you might have as to how they should or should not respond to you and your actions.   But have high hopes for them based on a ruthless faith in God that something good, something dear and beautiful will come of it if you are looking and listening with an open heart.

Forgive yourself and other people for their defensiveness.  Being cautious is natural for faithless and hopeless persons -- and we all fall into this category more or less.

Be as open as possible to being surprised by the encounter.  In other words, we must not look for our god and reactions that we feel would be important and right.  We must position ourselves instead to see whatever we will see amidst the joy, pain, apathy, anxiety, peace, depression, or tension we experience.  When we are truly open, we will be surprised by something in the encounter.  And that surprise -- that unique presence of God -- can be called by another name: holiness. 
 
(from Robert J. Wicks, Living Simply in an Anxious World, Paulist Press, New York/Mahwah, 1988, p. 33)

Happy New Year!

Lowell
_____________

Audio podcast:  Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week.  Go to: http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id244.html

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 http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html

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.

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

 

The Holy Innocents

Friday, December 28, 2012 -- Christmas
The Holy Innocents

[Go to http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html for an online version of the Daily Office including today's scripture readings.]

Today's Readings for the Daily Office
     (Book of Common Prayer, p. 996)
Morning Prayer
Psalms 2, 26
Isaiah 49:13-23
Matthew 18:1-14

Evening Prayer
Psalms 19, 126
Isaiah 54:1-13
Mark 10:13-16

The feast of the Holy Innocents feels particularly poignant this year coming so soon after the horrible events in Newtown, CT.  Last Saturday my friend and parishioner David Lewis wrote with an additional detail about his six-year-old grandson Jesse's death that day.  Jesse tried to help other kids escape and was killed running into the line of fire.  For his actions, he was recognized as a "First Responder" and given a "Commander in Chief" funeral -- a motorcycle police escort, mounted police at the funeral home and at the burial and a full line of police standing at attention at the funeral home, the church and the gravesite. 

Meanwhile, the whole world prays for Malala Yousafzai and other children oppressed by the evil violence of the Taliban.  And for the children caught in the horrible violence in Syria and elsewhere. 

At this moment, one of my heroes Sam Totten is risking his life trying to bring food to thousands of children and adults who are being systematically starved in the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan, Sudan, where defenseless people suffer indiscriminate bombing directed by indicted war criminal, President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan.  Sam is a genocide scholar and is trying to bring the world's attention to this horror.  He's also a good friend, the husband of my parishioner Kathleen Barta.  We pray for Sam and for those he is trying to help.  But we need more than prayer.  We need international military intervention to stop the genocide.

We also need some political backbone to help stop the continuing murder of the innocents in this country.  It's time to stand up to the bullies of the NRA and pass sensible gun laws.  Our nation is different from other developed nations.  We have more guns than they do, and we have 32 times the rate of gun homicides that they do. 

Hang in there with me for some numbers.  In the U.S. there are 3.2 gun homicides per 100,000 residents each year.  Switzerland ranks second among the advanced democracies -- 0.7 per 100,000.  Ireland and Canada, 0.5; Sweden and Finland, 0.4; New Zealand, Spain and Germany, 0.2; France, Britain and Australia, 0.1; and 0 in Japan.  Can anybody say Americans are 32 times as mentally ill and dangerously deranged as the other Western democracies?  Of course not.  It's the guns!

In the U.S. states with the highest proportion of gun ownership tend to be the states with the highest level of gun deaths.  The presence of guns increases the likelihood of deadly action. 

Grown-ups -- get rid of the guns in your own home for the sake of your family's safety!  Politicians, stop letting the NRA bully you and stand up to them.  Nobody needs military style assault weapons or Saturday Night Special handguns.  Guns are costing our nation profoundly.  Tax them, license them, register them and use the money to improve our mental health services and to increase public education about the dangers of gun ownership.

In today's reading, Jesus says, "If your hand or your foot causes you to fall into sin, chop it off and throw it away." (Matthew 18:8)  It's time to throw away the extensions of our hands -- the guns that are causing us to fall into sin.  Chop them up and throw them away.  Too many children, too many innocents have died.  "It is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost." (18:14)

Lowell
__________

Audio podcast:  Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week.  Go to: http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id244.html

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 http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html

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.

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

Today's Readings

Thursday, December 27, 2012 -- Christmas
Saint John, Apostle and Evangelist

[Go to http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html for an online version of the Daily Office including today's scripture readings.]

Today's Readings for the Daily Office
     (Book of Common Prayer, p. 996)

Morning Prayer
Psalms 97, 98
Proverbs 8:22-30
John 13:20-35

Evening Prayer
Psalms 145
Isaiah 44:1-8
1 John 5:1-12

On the Feast of Stephen

Wednesday, December 26, 2012 -- Christmas
Saint Stephen, Deacon and Martyr
[Go to http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html for an online version of the Daily Office including today's scripture readings.]

Today's Readings for the Daily Office
     (Book of Common Prayer, p. 996)
Morning Prayer
Psalms 28, 30
2 Chronicles 24:17-22
Acts 6:1-7

Evening Prayer
Psalms 118
Isaiah 44:1-8
1 John 5:1-12

It is the day after Christmas.  For many, it means a return to work; it's just another work day.  Because some things were postponed for Christmas, it may be one of those days that starts with the pressure of being behind before one begins. 

For those who get to take another day of holiday (holy-day) because of Christmas, it is good to remember those who can't.  Yesterday our neighborhood grocery closed in the early afternoon, the only time all year that it pauses its 24-7 services.  There are others who cannot stop.  Some essential services continue always, and others continue by choice.  I remember working on Christmas Day as a teenager.  My first job was at a radio station, and we continued broadcasting on December 25 just like every other day.

Our office of Compline has a beautiful prayer that remembers those who work while others rest:  O God, your unfailing providence sustains the world we live in and the life we live:  Watch over those, both night and day, who work while others sleep, and grant that we may never forget that our common life depends upon each other's toil; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.  (BCP, p. 134)

Illness, emergency and death take no holiday.  I've been struck this year by stories of several friends whose loved ones have been given an ominous diagnosis or who have died right here at Christmas.  These things can color the holiday forever.  All of us carried the recent trauma from Sandy Hook school with us through these days.  And yesterday on Christmas Day, those who serve us in emergencies and other critical care were also busy at their tasks while most of us opened presents and prepared Christmas feasts.  With only a little editing, the companion prayer from Compline intercedes for this other part of our common life:  Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep.  Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous; and all for your love's sake.  Amen. (p. 134)

On the day after Christmas, St. Stephen's Day, we read two stories of tragic death.  Second Chronicles tells of the 6th century BCE stoning of Zechariah son of Jehoida in the courtyard of the Temple, and the reading from Acts remembers the stoning death of Stephen, the first Christian martyr.  Violence and injustice seem to take no holiday either.

Yet within the story of Stephen's death, there is a glimmer of light.  We see Saul participating in the act.  But inside him, something may be cracking open.  It could be that the peace and composure of Stephen touched Saul's anxiety and lack of peace from trying to earn his own worthiness.  Within the tragedy are the seeds a resurrection in Saul/Paul.  An ancient Christian sermon celebrates their union in heaven where Paul now feels no shame and Stephen delights in their friendship. 

May we sense our interconnectedness and union with others in the wonder of life as it is touched by Incarnation on this feast of Stephen.

Lowell
_________

Audio podcast:  Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week.  Go to: http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id244.html

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 http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html

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.

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

Merry Christmas

Tuesday, December 25, 2012 -- Christmas
Christmas Day

[Go to http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html for an online version of the Daily Office including today's scripture readings.]

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 940)
Psalms 2, 85 (morning)       //       110:1-5(6-7), 132 (evening)
Zechariah 2:10-13
1 John 4:7-16
John 3:31-36

At this feast of the nativity
let each person wreathe the door of his heart
so that the Holy Spirit may delight in that door,
enter in and take up residence there;
then by the spirit we will be made holy.
                     Ephrem of Syria

quoted in Robert Atwell, Celebrating the Seasons, Canterbury Press, Norwich, 1999, p. 43

Merry Christmas,
Lowell
___________________

Audio podcast:  Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week.  Go to: http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id244.html

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 http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html

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.

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