Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Away for a Couple of Days

I'll be away for a meeting for a couple of days.  Below I've posted the readings for Thursday, and a Reflection for Friday.
_______

Thursday, March 29, 2012 -- Week of 5 Lent
John Keble, Priest, 1866

Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 957)
Psalms  (morning) 131, 132, [133]       //        140, 142 (evening)
Exodus 7:25 - 8:19     
2 Corinthians 3:7-18      
Mark 10:17-31   
________

Friday, March 30, 2012  -- Week of 5 Lent
Innocent of Alaska, Bishop, 1879

Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 957)
Psalms  (morning) 95* & 22       //        141, 143:1-11(12) (evening)
Exodus 9:13-35     
2 Corinthians 4:1-12      
Mark 10:32-45  

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

Jesus' life has a pattern of downward mobility.  And Paul describes his vocation in complementary terms.  Reversing the usual assumptions of what is the good life, the successful and blessed life, Jesus and Paul find meaning, peace and divine presence in this other way of being.  And both of them inaugurated movements and influences that impact the world two millennia later.

The gospel begins with Jesus on the road, his face set toward Jerusalem.  His followers recognize the inevitability of threat and conflict ahead.  They are afraid, Mark says.  James and John are still living in the old paradigm.  They ask to sit at Jesus' side in his glory.  They don't understand, so he teaches.  "Whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all."  Now that's extreme downward mobility.

Yet listen to the power and freedom this new way creates when someone "gets it."  Paul understands.  He says that God's light shines in his heart.  It is "the light of the knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ."  It's all about God.  Everything!  That realization makes him bulletproof.  He is totally hopeful, no matter what.  Read again how he describes his life, but don't let a whisper of whining mar his words.  This is a hymn of joy.  This is a declaration of triumph and peace.  This is an emancipation proclamation:
    "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."

Can you see the joyful wonder in Paul's eyes as he dictates these words?  He's smiling ear to ear.  It's one of those smiles that communicates something like "can you believe the luck?!  Isn't God something?  Things are screwed up all around me, but everything's fine.  I'm just fine.  God's working everything out.  I don't have to worry about anything.  I've died to worry!  Look!  Out of this stuff, God is creating everything new!  Amazing!"

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

Heart Opening

Wednesday, March 28, 2012 -- Week of 5 Lent

Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 957)
Psalms  (morning) 119:145-176       //        128, 129, 130 (evening)
Exodus 7:8-24     
2 Corinthians 2:14 - 3:6      
Mark 10:1-16  

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

"And now, O Lord, I bend the knee of my heart."  (Book of Common Prayer, p. 91)

That imaginative phrase comes from the first canticle assigned for Morning Prayer on Wednesdays in Lent.  It comes from the Prayer of Manasseh, part of the Apocrypha.  The "heart" is a theme throughout today's Office.

In Hebrew tradition the heart is the intersection of the human intellect and will.  Marcus Borg argues convincingly in his book "The Heart of Christianity" that the heart is a metaphor for the inner self as a whole -- "the self at a deep level, deeper than our perception, intellect, emotion, and volition.  As the spiritual center of the total self, it affect all of these: our sight, thought, feelings, and will."  (p. 151)

Today our story from Exodus speaks of Pharaoh's hardened heart.  In 2 Corinthians, Paul speaks of the message and Spirit of Christ being written on our hearts, making us letters of the Spirit.  In Mark, Jesus complains that the Mosaic law allowing a man to write a certificate of dismissal and thus divorce his wife was a commandment reflecting our hardness of heart, not the loving intention of God.  And our Collect for this week asks that our hearts may be fixed upon God's will, "where true joys are to be found."

The Greek word for "hard hearted" is sklerokardia -- sclerosis of the heart.  It is so natural for our hearts to become hardened, closed.  It is the natural result of our defensive protections as we grow up in an unreliable and threatening world.  It is as if our selves become encased in a tough, "protective" shell.  In its mild form, a closed heart is judgmentalism, insensitivity, self-centeredness, ordinary self-interest.  In its severe form, hardness of heart is violence, brutality, arrogance, rapacious greed. 

"And now, O Lord, I bend the knee of my heart."  I want to have an open heart, a soft heart.  Sometimes, in order for our hearts to be opened, the protective shell must be cracked, like an egg that must be broken open to release the life within.

It seems to me that opening our hearts and opening our eyes go together.  When I am awake and observant, alive to the wonder and beauty of life, my heart is more alive.  When I am in touch with a sense of gratitude, my heart is softer.  When I am motivated primarily by compassion, my actions are more heartfelt. 

Today, may I bend the knee of my heart, so that the Spirit may write upon it, softening and opening my heart that it may be fixed upon God where true joys are to be found.

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, March 27, 2012

God's Labor Movement

Tuesday, March 27, 2012 -- Week of 5 Lent
Charles Henry Brent, Bishop of the Philippines, and of Western New York, 1929

Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 957)
Psalms  (morning) [120], 121, 122, 123       //        124, 125, 126, [127] (evening)
Exodus 5:1 - 6:1     
1 Corinthians 14:20-33a, 39-40      
Mark 9:42-50  

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

The Exodus is the foundational story of the Hebrew scriptures.  It is the story of the creation of a people.  God takes them from bondage to liberation, from oppression to freedom.  God leads them to their own secure home. 

It all starts as a labor movement.  On behalf of the workers, Moses makes a demand for time-off for the laborers to celebrate a religious festival.  Management refuses.  Trying to intimidate the workers, management punishes them for organizing.  Management raises quotas.  It's the kind of thing that looks good in the board room and at stockholders meetings -- a plan to increase productivity.  Instead of the company supplying straw for bricks, the workers will gather straw and will continue to produce at the same level.  It's a cost-cutting measure for the company.  It should raise the bottom line and have a dual purpose of discouraging any unionizing activity.

The management strategy worked.  The workers blamed the union.  They turned on Moses and Aaron.  "You have brought us into bad odor with Pharaoh and his officials..."  Moses and Aaron turn to God.  God determines to escalate the conflict.  There will be some serious union activity in the brick-making sector.

There is a lot of pro-labor sentiment in the scripture.  The Torah establishes just expectations for prompt and fair payment of workers, demanding the same regulations for foreigners and immigrants as for the locals.  In the Name of the Lord the prophets decry unjust labor practices and extreme income gaps. 

Jesus speaks to the common economic plight of peasants when he places petitions such as "give us this day our daily bread" and "forgive us our debts" at the center of the teaching we call the Lord's Prayer.  Many of his parables are set in a place of work, including the parable of the vineyard where every laborer gets paid a living wage regardless of how long each has worked.  His most striking public act was to overturn the tables of the moneychangers, challenging the financial system of the Temple, presumably at least in part for their oppressive business practices.

Anyone who takes the Bible seriously is probably going to have a pro-labor inclination.  Many people who have created unions and other labor advocacy organizations have done so as a religious calling.

We have a story in our family.  Kathy's grandfather was a Southern Baptist pastor in a South Carolina mill town.  When the textile workers went on strike in the 1930's, part of the largest organized labor action in the history of the U.S., he was run out of town.  The violence that management used across the South, backed up by sheriffs and other law enforcement agencies, was so profound that for decades union activity in the South was profoundly suppressed.  The South became the third-world labor market of the U.S. -- bring your factory here where we have low-wages and no unions. 

Kathy's family was like many others that were victimized by the brutal suppression.  They were shamed by her grandfather's forced exodus to Mississippi.  They never talked of it.  It was only referred to as "Granddaddy's problems back in Carolina."  Kathy's questions about the circumstances met embarrassed discouragement.  We don't talk about such things.  It took Kathy years to learn her grandfather was punished for courageously standing up for his parishioners who were laborers.  When Kathy said she was proud to learn what he had done, her older aunts couldn't understand.  The oppression was so thorough that they were left only shamed and intimidated.  That's a story that was repeated throughout the South.

The movement that God initiates through Moses will lead to a different end -- freedom and the creation of a new people with instructions for living together justly.

We live with similar issues today.  How is power shared and abused?  Every person should have work.  Every worker should be compensated.  The system should be just and should share it's fruitfulness with all.  How can labor be structured in a just way, with living wages and benefits that give a worker's family appropriate security?  These are Biblical issues as well as business and economic issues.  Every once in a while we are given a pretty clear choice to choose between the economics of Pharaoh and the economics of God.  When we choose wrongly, we always invite plagues.

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, March 26, 2012

God's Attack

Monday, March 26, 2012 -- Week of 5 Lent
Richard Allen, First Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, 1831

Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 957)
Psalms  (morning) 31       //        35 (evening)
Exodus 4:10-20(21-26)27-31     
1 Corinthians 14:1-19      
Mark 9:30-41  

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

There is a fascinating story in our reading from Exodus today.  It comes to us only in a fragment.  We don't have the context of the original story to help interpret it.  It seems as if the Biblical editors have included it here in connection with the mention of the firstborn son of Pharaoh who will be killed at Passover. 

The story begins, "On the way, at a place where they spent the night, the Lord met (Moses) and tried to kill him."  Moses' wife Zipporah saves Moses by circumcising their son and touching Moses' genitals with it, saying, "Truly you are a bridegroom of blood to me!"

Why does God attack Moses, the one whom he has called for a special mission?  There is no explanation.  But there are some other similar stories elsewhere in the Hebrew scriptures.  Jacob wrestled with God all night, holding on desperately until near dawn, when he was blessed and injured.  Balaam the prophet would have been struck down by the angel of the Lord except that the donkey he was riding saw the angel and turned off the road.  There is a moment in the Joshua saga when he sees an armed man standing before him and Joshua challenges the man; it is the commander of the army of God, and Joshua falls down before him in worship.  There are several divine attacks upon the people of Israel, including a plague in the wilderness and the visit of the angel of the Lord in Bochim cursing Israel for failing to drive out the Canaanites. 

It seems that one of the characteristics that sometimes accompanies a sense of calling from God is an attending sense of threat or attack from God.  We can feel ourselves to be both obeying God and attacked by God.  The fear of following God and the fear of not following God can be closely related.  Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel, says Paul.  Let this cup pass from me, says Jesus, sweating blood.  Sometimes the path of obedience can seem like the choice between two threats.  Sometimes we must fight and wrestle with God before we can survive to do what we must.

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, March 23, 2012

Channeling Love

Friday, March 23, 2012 -- Week of 4 Lent
Gregory the Illuminator, Bishop and Missionary of Armenia, c. 332

Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 955)
Psalms  (morning) 95* & 102       //        107:1-32 (evening)
Exodus 2:1-22     
1 Corinthians 12:27 - 13:3      
Mark 9:2-13  

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

To the Egyptians, Moses was just a murderer, or maybe even a terrorist.  His killing of the Egyptian who was beating one of the Hebrew laborers had a political component to it.  Moses fled for his life.  The Midianites who took him in -- did they give sanctuary to a justice warrior or did they harbor a terrorist? 

In one sense, we can see Moses' violent act as a response that is motivated by love.  His love for his people provoked his anger into rage when he witnessed the injustice of their forced labor.  That love was focused in the particular incident when he came across the Egyptian overlord beating the Hebrew.  Moses' act was premeditated.  He looked around.  No witnesses.  He struck.  He buried the body. 

Anger is the appropriate emotional reaction whenever someone or something you love is threatened.  Anger stimulates action -- sometimes enraged action.  But underneath the anger, there is love.  

Gerald May writes:
Searching beneath anxiety, one will find fear.  And beneath fear hurt will be discovered.  Beneath the hurt will be guilt.  Beneath the guilt lie rage and hatred.  But do not stop with this, for beneath the rage lies frustrated desire.  Finally beneath and beyond desire, is love.  In every feeling, look deeply.  Explore without ceasing.  At bottom, love is.  (Simply Sane, Crossroad, 1993, p. 87)

What do we do with all that love?  If love is the energizing cauldron of emotion, how do we channel that energy into constructive rather than destructive actions? 

Paul says today, "If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing."  

Love may be the underlying motivation for one's speech and powers and sacrifices, but if that love is exercised through rage and violence, it can become destructive nevertheless, as Moses learned.

The model for us is Jesus who transfigures human life and love.  Today we see Jesus on a high mountain joined by Moses and by Elijah the prophet.  Jesus is bathed in dazzling light.  Jesus will take the energizing love of freedom (Moses) and justice (Elijah) and he will channel that energy in a pure and non-violent way.  He will stand up to violence and injustice, exposing it and soaking-in its evil without giving it back in some violent counter-reaction.  Instead, he will trust God's deliverance, and unmask wrong, forgiving perpetrators and liberating victims alike.

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, March 22, 2012

Pharaoh

Thursday, March 22, 2012 -- Week of 4 Lent
James De Koven, Priest, 1897

Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 955)
Psalms  (morning) 69:1-23(24-30)31-38       //        73 (evening)
Exodus 1:6-22     
1 Corinthians 12:12-26      
Mark 8:27 - 9:1  

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

"Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.  He said to his people, 'Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we.  Come, let us deal shrewdly with them...'"  (Exodus 1:8f)

My home state has a new Pharaoh.  Governor Phil Bryant has endorsed an Alabama-style bill by Representative Becky Currie to deal shrewdly with our immigrants.  Like the Alabama law, the bill would require schools to check the citizenship and residency status of every child who enrolls for education.  Anyone applying for a drivers license or business license is subject to check.  Even public utility companies in Alabama are checking status before connecting utilities.  It's a felony to have running water if you are undocumented.

The bill's sponsor Rep. Currie says it's no big deal, just follow the law.  "That's all we're asking.  Be legal."  Nothing to it.  Just file your paperwork and get in line and immigrate legally.  I wonder if she knows, the immigration bureau is just now processing applications filed in 1993-4 by legal residents here from Mexico who would like to have their spouse or child immigrate legally.  That line's not quite 20 years long.

At last weekend's "Immigrant Welcoming Congregations" workshop, our parishioner Doug Cummins told about the best student he ever taught in his college career, a young woman from Moldova.  When she had to leave the country inconveniently for several months to renew her visa, Doug asked, "Why don't you apply for residency or citizenship so you won't have to do that?"  "Have you never heard of quotas?" she asked.  The process is slow, she explained.  "How long would it take you?" Doug asked her.  "Right now, 110 years," she said. 

Just get in line.  That's all we're asking.  Be legal, says Rep. Currie and Gov. Bryant.  (Rep. Currie has also said she believes President Obama is a foreigner and a Muslim.)

There's a loss of soul in as well in these policy changes.  Maybe you've heard some of the reports of how white people in Alabama have begun acting differently toward darker people.  There's more hostility, more threatening behavior.  It's happening in stores.  It's happening even in old relationships that used to be friendly.

God has a way of punishing Pharaohs and oppressors.  God hears the cries of the oppressed.  If Mississippi passes this racist, discriminatory, evil legislation, my state -- poor as it is -- will become poorer.  In Alabama immigrants have fled the state, leaving some crops unharvested.  Conservative estimates count direct losses of $40 million and of 140,000 jobs.  (Even with high unemployment, Alabama citizens aren't flocking to fill the low wage jobs.)  Gross Domestic Product decrease is estimated between $2.3 - $10.8 billion, and local sales taxes are expected to go down $20 - $93.1 billion.  And grocery prices rise as crops sit in the field.

Fear is never productive.  I'm told that the Bible has 365 different places saying, "Fear not.  Do not be afraid."

Paul offers a better way.  We are one body -- "Jews and Greeks, slaves or free" -- documented or undocumented.  When we oppress one part of the body we harm the whole.  "The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you.  ...On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those members we of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; whereas our more respectable members do not need this."  (1 Cor. 12:21f)

We pull people to this country with our need for cheap labor.  Struggling people trying to provide for their families are drawn to this country and to the hope for a better life.  We make it virtually impossible for them to come illegally, even as we benefit from their risk to come nonetheless.  Then we treat them as criminals, separate them from their families, detain and deport.  It is wicked behavior.  Anti-family, anti-work, anti-aspirational, anti-compassionate.  Cruel, bigoted, proud, and damaging to the whole. 

Things didn't turn out well for the Pharaoh.  Things aren't turning out so well for Alabama.  They won't for Mississippi either if it follows Gov. Bryant and Rep. Currie's lead.  Prejudice, arrogance and oppression have their own destructive consequences.  Love, compassion and justice can build up the body.  A better law -- Jesus' new commandment:  "Love one another."

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, March 21, 2012

Gifts

Wednesday, March 21, 2012 -- Week of 4 Lent
Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury and Martyr, 1556

Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 955)
Psalms 101, 109:1-4(5-19)20-30 (morning)     //         119:121-144 (evening)
Genesis 50:15-26      
1 Corinthians 12:1-11      
Mark 8:11-26  

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

"Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit..."  1 Corinthians 12:4

I like to say that everyone has gifts, what are yours?  The Spirit gives every person gifts to be exercised "for the common good."  Think of things you do easily and well?  What comes to you naturally?  Sometimes we tend to dismiss our gifts simply because they can seem effortless to us.  At St Paul's we incorporate a process for discovering our spiritual gifts into our Journey to Authenticity class that we offer seasonally.

I think it is important also to realize that not everyone gets every spiritual gift.  The Church has the fullness of the gifts of the Spirit.  Because you are grafted into the Body of Christ, you participate in all of the gifts, but individually you have not been given every gift.

That's significant because sometimes people feel guilty because they find they do some things poorly that they think are expectations of all Christians.  Prayer and faith are both gifts of the Spirit.  But for some good Christians, prayer, or faith, seems almost impossible and distracting.  Yet they have other gifts, maybe of service or generosity. 

Exercise the gifts that are yours.  Relax about the gifts you haven't been given, and enjoy the competence of others who exercise those gifts "for the common good."  If prayer and faith aren't your gifts, let others pray and believe for you within the Body of Christ, for you belong to the Church, which has the fullness of the gifts of the Spirit.

I think it is important also to look for the manifestations of the gifts of the Spirit outside of the church.  "The Spirit blows where it chooses." (John 3:8a)  In Jesus' conversation in the boat with his disciples today (Mark 8:14f) he invites the disciples to see the presence of the Spirit inside and outside of religious and cultural boundaries.  He asks them to open their eyes and their ears.  They have already seen.  They are witnesses to the miracles of feeding, one among a Jewish crowd, the other among Gentiles. 

The numbers in this passage have significance.  Among the Jewish crowd there were five loaves for the five thousand.  Five is an important number in Jewish tradition.  The sacred Torah is the first five books of the Hebrew scriptures.  When the feeding is over, there are twelve baskets of leftover food.  Twelve is the number of the tribes of Israel. 

Then Jesus asks the disciples about the numbers in the feeding in Gentile territory.  There were seven loaves that fed the four thousand, and seven baskets left over.  Four is a widely used symbolic number that traditionally represents the four corners of the earth, the four winds or four directions -- an image of the whole created order.  And seven is a number that is sacred to many faiths and cultures, a number that represents totality and perfection, the sum of three (the spiritual order) and four (the created order).  Later in the book of Acts we will read that the church would choose seven deacons to go out into the world to serve the Gentiles.  In the book of Revelation we will hear John address seven Gentile churches.  Twelve is a number associated with the Jewish world; seven, with the Gentile world.

As Jesus told the disciples to open their eyes and ears to recognize the grace and power manifest in both worlds, so we need to see and honor the gifts of the Spirit present within and outside the Church.  "It is the same God who activates all of them in everyone." (1 Cor. 12:6b)

Lowell

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