Thursday, May 31, 2012

The May Magnificat

Thursday, May 31, 2012 -- Week of Proper 3, Year Two
Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer)
EITHER the readings for Thursday of Proper 3, p. 969
Psalms 37:1-18 (morning)        37:19-42 (evening)
Proverbs 21:30 - 22:6
1 Timothy 4:1-16
Matthew 13:24-30

OR
the readings for the Visitation, p. 997
Morning Prayer - Psalm 72 / 1 Samuel 1:1-20 / Hebrews 3:1-6
Evening Prayer - Psalms 146, 147 / Zechariah 2:10-13 / John 3:25-30

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

A poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins

The Mary Magnificat

MAY is Mary’s month, and I
Muse at that and wonder why:
    Her feasts follow reason,
    Dated due to season—

Candlemas, Lady Day;   
But the Lady Month, May,
    Why fasten that upon her,
    With a feasting in her honour?

Is it only its being brighter
Than the most are must delight her?
    Is it opportunest
    And flowers finds soonest?

Ask of her, the mighty mother:
Her reply puts this other
    Question: What is Spring?—   
    Growth in every thing—

Flesh and fleece, fur and feather,
Grass and greenworld all together;
    Star-eyed strawberry-breasted
    Throstle above her nested 

Cluster of bugle blue eggs thin
Forms and warms the life within;
    And bird and blossom swell
    In sod or sheath or shell.

All things rising, all things sizing
Mary sees, sympathising
    With that world of good,
    Nature’s motherhood.

Their magnifying of each its kind
With delight calls to mind 
    How she did in her stored
    Magnify the Lord.

Well but there was more than this:
Spring’s universal bliss
    Much, had much to say   
    To offering Mary May.

When drop-of-blood-and-foam-dapple
Bloom lights the orchard-apple
    And thicket and thorp are merry
    With silver-surfèd cherry    

And azuring-over greybell makes
Wood banks and brakes wash wet like lakes
    And magic cuckoocall
    Caps, clears, and clinches all—

This ecstasy all through mothering earth
Tells Mary her mirth till Christ’s birth
    To remember and exultation
    In God who was her salvation. 


A poem for the feast of the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth

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

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, May 30, 2012

Vision and Order

Wednesday, May 30, 2012 -- Week of Proper 3, Year Two
Jeanne d'Arc (Joan of Arc), Mystic and Soldier, 1431

Today's Readings for the Daily Office
(Book of Common Prayer, p. 969)
Psalms 38 (morning)        //        119:25-48 (evening)
Proverbs 17:1-20  
1 Timothy 3:1-16  
Matthew 12:43-50

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

There is something disappointing, but understandable, that happens when we move from reading the letters from the apostle Paul to reading letters like 1 Timothy, written by a later generation's leader invoking Paul's authority.  We sense the development of a different focus and vision and structure.

In Paul's letters we feel the tension and excitement of the expected imminent return of Jesus.  Long-term institutions like marriage have little interest to Paul since they are part of the passing age; Paul encourages sexual passion to be diverted into passion for the Lord.  Paul welcomes charismatic leadership -- let anyone with gifts use them for the common good.  Women host churches and have active leadership.  Faith is a verb.  Faith is our active trust in God, who has made us righteous, who gives us the gift of an intimate, alive relationship with God in the living Christ.  There is a new energy and vision in Paul that is dynamic and expansive.

In the letters to Timothy and Titus we see the church at a later point of evolution.  Jesus is no longer expected to return at any moment, but we celebrate his remembered appearance, as we await with patient endurance his eventual postponed manifestation "at the right time."  It is a time of institutional focus -- the time of making by-laws and constitutions.  Leaders are less charismatic and more respectable.  Marriage is the honored estate for enfolding passion and raising children.  Faith is a noun, a collection of traditions to be guarded and preserved.  Women are silenced.  There is a defensive establishment of order and authority to protect and administer the institutional church.

Some evolution is necessary when any movement becomes an institution.  When vision becomes established norms, there is a needed entrenchment of structure and order for the continuation of the work and identity. 

Healthy institutions need both kinds of leaders -- the visionary and the orderly.  Often they exist side-by-side with one another, usually with some tension.  "Respond now to this compelling need!" cries the visionary, connecting the original spirit of Jesus' calling to the circumstances of the present age.  "How will we pay for it and maintain it?" asks the orderly leader who creates foundation and structure for an ongoing ministry of presence and service. 

There is a cross-like creative tension when we live in visionary institutions like the church, as we hold on to both demands.  Too much energetic vision creates chaos.  Too much orderly structure make a deadened institution. 

How can structure serve vision?  How can institution promote inspiration and service?  How can tradition support renewal?  That is our constant quest in the church.  We see the same dynamic in our political and social institutions, even in our marriages.  Energy and stability.  Innovation and continuity.  Risk and endurance.  Nearly anything with life and durability needs both vision and order. 

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
 

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Proud Houses and the Widow's Boundaries

Tuesday, May 29, 2012 -- Week of Proper 3, Year Two

Today's Readings for the Daily Office
(Book of Common Prayer, p. 969)
Psalms 26, 28 (morning)        //        36, 39 (evening)
Proverbs 15:16-33  
1 Timothy 1:18 - 2:8
Matthew 12:33-42

[Go to http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html for an online version of the Daily Office including today's scripture readings.]
 
The LORD tears down the house of the proud,
     but maintains the widow's boundaries.
  (Proverbs 15:25)

It does seem that when we rely on our own powers and seek control to bring about our self-directed ends that things tend to unravel. 

Sometimes they unravel through circumstance and failure.  We meet our limits.  We wear out in frustration or find we can't maintain control of all that we feel responsible for.  We mess up.  We don't live up to our intentions.  The proud house cracks and crumbles.

Sometimes they unravel through success and accomplishment.  We meet our goals and gain our ends, but they prove ultimately unsatisfying.  They are like cotton candy, big and beautiful with a burst of instant sweetness, but once consumed, they melt into air and do not sustain.  We look for the next big thing, like a restless addict.  The big, proud house feels empty and cold.

The widow is a model of vulnerable trust.  With no status and power of her own, she trusts God alone for her simple needs.  Within her modest boundaries the Spirit maintains her essential needs with gentle grace. 

Centering Prayer is a widow's prayer.  When we practice Centering, we gently let go of all of our distracting thoughts and plans and worries.  We narrow our boundaries to a willing consent to the presence and activity of God, within and without.  When the false self tries to erect it's proud houses, we let them go, returning to the gentle poverty of a sacred word.  Instead of assailing heaven with our possessive thoughts and personal agendas, we let the Spirit pray from within our silence.  The indwelling Spirit prays faithfully and continually.

When the Spirit dwells within a person, from the moment that person has become prayer, the Spirit never leaves them.  For the Spirit himself never ceases to pray within us.  Whether we are asleep or awake, from then on prayer never departs from our soul.  Whether we are eating or drinking or sleeping or whatever else we may be doing, even if we are in the deepest of sleeps, the incense of prayer is rising without effort in our heart.  Prayer never again deserts us.  In every moment of our life, even when it appears to have ceased, prayer is secretly at work within is continuously. 

One of the Fathers, the bearers of Christ, teaches that prayer is the silence of the pure in heart; for their very thoughts are the movements of God.  The movements of the heart and the intellect that have been purified become voices full of sweetness with which such people never cease to sing in secret to the hidden God. 

     (Isaac of Nineveh, from The Ascetical Treatises; quoted by Robert Atwell, Celebrating the Seasons, Canterbury Press, 1999, p.296.)

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

Monday, May 28, 2012

A Task for Memorial Day

Monday, May 28, 2012 -- Week of Proper 3, Year Two
John Calvin, Theologian, 1564

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 969)
Psalms 25 (morning)        //        9, 15 (evening)
Proverbs 10:1-12  
1 Timothy 1:1-17
Matthew 12:22-32

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

A Prayer for Memorial Day
O Judge of the nations, we remember before you with grateful hearts the men and women of our country who in the day of decision ventured much for the liberties we now enjoy.  Grant that we may not rest until all the people of this land share the benefits of true freedom and gladly accept its disciplines.  This we ask in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.  (Book of Common Prayer, p. 839)

On Memorial Day there is something I can think of that would be an appropriate act of solidarity with those who have sacrificed for the protection of freedom and for the security of our families.  It would be to go to the U.S. Citizenship and and Immigration Services website and offer a comment to support a proposed rule change that would allow families to stay together in this country while they petition for residency status for one of their loved ones.

Currently, if a U.S. citizen wants to petition for a parent or spouse or child to be allowed to waive the requirement for their family member who does not have legal status in this country to be able to apply for a hardship waiver, that immigrant has to leave their family in this country and risk a 3 to 10 year wait in their country of origin, hoping their application will be approved.  These things usually take years. 

Families are unwilling to let their bread-winner, or their child, go back to a country that they may have left a decade ago or more, on the chance that they will be given a wavier.  What is the family to do in the meantime?

Maria is a local mother of three children -- all citizens of the U.S.  Maria was brought here by her husband when she was seventeen.  They entered illegally in a harrowing walk through the desert.  She's been here seventeen years.  She's an upstanding neighbor and a regular parent volunteer in two local schools.  She would like to apply for legal status.  To do so, she would have to leave her three children -- 16, 12, and 10 -- in order to apply for residency.  She's now a single mother.  She can't do that. 

But there is hope.  There is a proposed policy change that could help good people like Maria.  The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is proposing a rule that would allow an application for a provisional waiver of the 3-to-10 year bar while remaining in the U.S.  If Maria could show that her being barred for that time would pose an extreme hardship on a U.S. citizen, she could pursue legal status without having to abandon her family or taking them to a country they do not know.

For those of us who are pro-family, this is good news.  But we need to speak up now to support the proposed rule change.  USCIS is taking comments on the rule through the end of May.  Go to www.nilc.org/statesidewaiver.html to learn more.  Or to submit your own comment, to go http://tinyurl.com/crsfgz2  (note the widow only stays open for 20 minutes, so work quickly).

Hurry.  You've only got through this Thursday before the comment period closes.  Help our laws keep families together rather than separating them.  Submit your comment of support to give families like Maria a chance to stay together, a chance for a good life.

What a good thing to do on Memorial Day.  Advocate for families who wish to pursue the American Dream -- to live in freedom.  Advance the values so many have given their lives for. 

"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.  Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"  (inscription on the Statue of Liberty)

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

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, May 25, 2012

New Covenants

Friday, May 25, 2012  -- Week of 7 Easter, Year Two
Bede, the Venerable, Priest, and Monk of Jarrow, 735

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 965)
Psalms  102 (morning)        //        107:1-32 (evening)
Jeremiah 31:27-34
Ephesians 5:1-20
Matthew 9:9-17

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

In the Ten Commandments and again in the covenant begun in Exodus 34, we hear ominous words of judgment passed down from generation to generation.  God speaks as one who will visit the iniquity of the parents upon the children to the third and fourth generation.

During a time of national threat and chastisement, Jeremiah's generation feels the weight of that curse.  In the early years of Jeremiah's vocation, the good King Josiah had inspired a revival of faithfulness and observance of the Law.  But Josiah died suddenly in battle, and political and religious hopes unraveled quickly.  The people became disillusioned and helpless.  Much of Jeremiah's testament gives words to their misery and suffering.

But now, Jeremiah speaks words of hope.  He says to them, You've seen the tragedy -- "I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring evil."  Now God is planning good -- "so I will watch over them to build and to plant." 

Throw off the helpless feeling of doom, the destiny to live out the curse of your ancestors' wrongdoing.  The rules have changed.  No longer will you speak the old folk maxim "The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge."  But now, each will be responsible for your own actions and not inherit the curse from your parents.

Jeremiah speaks of a new covenant.  The law will no longer be a set of external words of instruction, but an internal presence in your hearts.  You will know God intuitively, immediately.  You will no longer reference the external teachings, but God will live in your heart.

That religion of the heart is what we aspire to.  At the feast of Pentecost, Christians say that God's Spirit, God's own life is in us at the center of our being.  We are made one with God in the Spirit.  We call that our new covenant.  It releases us from the curse of the past through forgiveness and regeneration.  It guides us into a new future through the indwelling of the Spirit.

Today, let us walk in the Spirit.  Let the intuitive presence of God guide and lead us.  It is our inheritance.  It is our blessing.  God is with us.  Jeremiah's hope has come true in the gift of the Spirit through Jesus:  "For they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more."

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

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Today's Readings

Thursday, May 24, 2012 -- Week of 7 Easter
Jackson Kemper, First Missionary Bishop in the United States, 1870

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 965)
Psalms  105:1-22 (morning)        //        105:23-45 (evening)
Zechariah 4:1-14
Ephesians 4:17-32
Matthew 9:1-8

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

I've got an early meeting today.  Won't be writing.  Here are the readings.

Lowell

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Humility into Union

Wednesday, May 23, 2012 -- Week of 7 Easter
Nicolaus Copernicus and Johannes Kepler, Astronomers, 1543

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 965)
Psalms  101, 109:1-4(5-19)20-30 (morning)        //        19:121-144 (evening)
Isaiah 4:2-6
Ephesians 4:1-16
Matthew 8:28-34

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

The witness of scripture invites us into interconnectedness, union -- what Buddhist monk Thich Naht Hahn calls "interbeing" -- the reality that we are all connected with each other in an intimate relationship of unity and interdependence.  That's a theme found in every enduring religion.  This passage in Ephesians is one of our Christian treasures about that theme.  The upcoming Feast of Pentecost is one of our festivals about that theme.

For Americans, a deep sense of oneness with humanity may be somewhat counter-cultural.  We are taught to be independent and self-reliant.  We reserve our deepest forms of pride for individual accomplishment.

The writer of Ephesians seems to know this.  The appeal for unity begins with an exhortation on behalf of the virtues of humility, gentleness and patience -- the precursors to interconnectedness, the antidote to individualistic pride. 

It's not easy to live in a world with other people.  Only in a context of humility, gentleness and patience will we be willing to "maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." 

It is profound to say there is "one body and one Spirit, ...one hope, ...one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all."  A mystery.  And I think it is a mistake to use this hymn of union to divide humanity into a religious "us" and "them,"  limiting the Spirit to only the one form of faith and the baptism of our particular religion.  I am convinced that there is a greater unity than can be employed by any single religion.  God's Spirit is ubiquitous.  With humility, gentleness and patience we can recognize the Spirit universally, in other faiths and baptisms, and honor our interconnectedness.

Our organic union with God's humanity is the context for the use of our individual gifts.  Our call is to grow up, to become mature, to help humanity evolve consciously together as a race.  The image is organic.  We belong to a body.  Each of us are members of that body.  We work together to help the body heal and mature.  All are included.

Go through this day with an intentional sense of organic unity with each person you encounter.  Claim every person you encounter, in person or online, and connect with everyone you read about in the news or see on the television as though they were part of your own body.  Begin with an ethos of humility, gentleness and patience.  See if you can deepen your connectedness into an experience of being one in union with all.  Then use your gifts for the good of the body.  See if you don't experience a more satisfying and deeper context for your own work and actions, in union with all.

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

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

A Prayer and Promise

Tuesday, May 22, 2012 -- Week of 7 Easter

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 965)
Psalms  97, 99, [100] (morning)        //        94, 95 (evening)
1 Samuel 16:1-13a
Ephesians 3:14-21
Matthew 8:18-27

[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 include a wonderful prayer (Ephesians) and a picture of stability in the midst of challenge and chaos (Matthew).

Let's start with the prayer.  Read it slowly.  Claim this prayer for yourself.

I pray that, according to the riches of God's glory, God may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through God's Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love.  I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.  Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.  Amen.

What a marvelous prayer.  It strengthens us with God's power and grounds us in God's love, inspiring our trust that Christ dwells in our hearts.  Our source and root and grounding is love, for God is love -- love so broad and long, so high and deep that it surpasses all we can know, and fills us with God's own life.  With the indwelling of divine love breathing us into being, we are empowered to accomplish more than we can imagine, to the glory of Christ.  This is a description of our daily inheritance.  Each morning we are invited to accept this gift of loving presence to empower our day.

Will Christ's presence be enough to sustain us through what we must face?  What does that love-in-action look like?  We see Christ's stabilizing presence in the stories from Matthew's gospel.

Some people face homelessness or other threats to their security.  Jesus himself knows their plight and lives with them -- "the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head."  I have known homeless neighbors who could speak with such authenticity about their trust in Jesus.  For some, Jesus is their only hope, for they have nothing of themselves.  They know Jesus is with them and near them.  I've looked into their eyes, hopeful eyes, and I've recognized the deep trust in Jesus, who they know will not let them down.

Some people find themselves in deadly, life-crushing circumstances.  Trapped, stuck, weighed down, oppressed.  Jesus liberates us from death.  "Let the dead bury their own dead."  Jesus offers us resurrection and enough self-definition to enable us to separate from unhealthy dependencies and to live with authenticity and power.

Many of us experience times of chaos, when we feel overwhelmed, like we are sinking and swamped.  Jesus is in the boat with us.  He can rebuke the winds that we fear will overcome us; he can bring calm to our raging seas.  Dwelling within us, in the center of our being, Jesus is the stillpoint of peace. 

Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.  Amen. 

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

Monday, May 21, 2012

Privilege Unbounded

Monday, May 21, 2012 -- Week of 7 Easter
John Eliot, Missionary among the Algonquin, 1690

Today's Readings for the Daily Office
(Book of Common Prayer, p. 965)
Psalms  89:1-18 (morning)        //        89:1952 (evening)
Joshua 1:1-9
Ephesians 3:1-13
Matthew 8:5-17

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

Many of us live with presumptions of privilege, including divine privilege.  Sometimes God turns our expectations over, and extends blessing beyond our imagination.

Psalm 89 articulates two expectations of privilege that were core to Israel's identity.  "I have sworn an oath to David my servant: I will establish your line for ever." (89:3b-4a)  "I shall make his dominion extend from the Great Sea to the River." (89:25) 

The Hebrew Scriptures articulate in several places the expectation that God would bless and protect David's royal dynasty for all times.  The Scriptures also make a geographic claim.  In today's reading in Joshua and elsewhere, Israel hears the promise that God gives them a wide expanse of land, from the Mediterranean all the way to the Euphrates River in modern Iraq. 

Those expectations have been defined by many in nationalistic terms, in terms of power and privilege.

Psalm 89 recognizes that God did not keep the promise to David according to their expectations.  The Psalmist reminds God of those promises and asks God to restore the monarchy.  It is a prayer that will not be answered, a promise that will not be fulfilled, at least not in the expected way.

Even in its brief moment of widest political boundaries, Israel never had sovereignty extending to the Euphrates.  For centuries it was a people without land -- a people who learned to live faithfully in exile.  God did not fulfill the promise of land, at least not in the expected way.

Today some are reclaiming that latter promise.  Christian Zionists promote a map on behalf of Israel that claims God gave Israel the lion's share of the Middle East.  They reclaim that geography and urge political action to support it.  Yet these are the ancient homes of many other peoples, including many Christians.  The potential for conflict is world threatening.

Next to some of these nationalistic claim of power and divine privilege are other traditions, traditions of wider inclusion and blessing.

In our story from Matthew, Jesus remarks on the faith of the Roman Centurion in Capernaum, saying, "Truly I tell you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith.  I tell you, many will come from east and west and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the heirs of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."  (8:10b-12)  As Matthew writes, those presumptive "heirs of the kingdom" could be Christians as well as Jews.

In Ephesians we hear a defense of Paul's mission to the Gentiles -- to the "others."  "The Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel."  (3:6)

God often surprises us by refusing to meet our expectations of privilege and power, even those articulated in scripture.  God often expands the boundaries of divine blessing and inclusion, even toward those people excluded in some accounts of scripture.  It seems to be a lesson of history that we create much tragedy and violence when we try to enforce the privileges we presume are ours to claim from God.  It seems to me that we are more likely to be following the track of God's intention when we hold our sense of privilege lightly and when we expect to discover God's blessing and presence in the unexpected.  

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

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Readings for This Week

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 963)

I'm on my annual retreat with the Order of the Ascension this week.  I won't be writing or sending Morning Reflections.  To read the Daily Office online, go to  http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html


Here are the readings for the upcoming weekdays:

Monday, May 14
Psalms  80 (morning)        //        77, [79] (evening)
Leviticus 25:35-55
Colossians 1:9-14
Matthew 13:1-16

Tuesday, May 15
Psalms 78:1-39       //       78:40-72
Leviticus 26:1-20
1 Timothy 2:1-6
Matthew 1318-23

Wednesday, May 16
The Martyrs of Sudan
Psalms 119:97-120       //   _____
Leviticus 26:27-42
Ephesians 1:1-10
Matthew 22:41-46

Eve of Ascension (Wednesday, May 16)
Psalms _____         //       68:1-20
2 Kings 2:1-15
Revelation 5:1-14

Thursday, May 17
Ascension Day
Psalms 8, 47       //       24, 96
Daniel 7:9-14
Hebrews 2:5-18
Matthew 28:16-20

Friday, May 18
Psalms 85, 86       //       91, 92
1 Samuel 2:1-10
Ephesians 2:1-10
Matthew 7:22-27

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

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