Tuesday, April 30, 2013

A Note from Lowell



I will be away for a while and not posting Morning Reflections. 
If you don't use The Book of Common Prayer to find the Daily Office readings (p. 962f), you might enjoy reading the Office online at Mission St. Clare -- clickhere.

The Speaking to the Soul blog that picks up my Morning Reflections four days a week will continue to post daily thoughts, usually related to the Daily Office.  You might want to bookmark the Speaking to the Soul blog, and I also recommend Episcopal Cafe which is the the wider context for that blog.

I'll return to Morning Reflection on May 20 after a visit to my newly born grandchild and a week's retreat and chapter with the Order of the Ascension.


Lowell
________ 

Monday, April 29, 2013

The Woman, the Pharisee and Me

Monday, April 29, 2913 -- Week of 5 Easter
Catherine of Siena

[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. 962
Psalms       56, 57, [58] (morning)        64, 65 (evening)
Wisdom 9:1, 7-18 
Colossians (3:18 - 4:1)2-18
Luke 7:36-50

You can feel the elitism in this gospel passage.  A Pharisee has asked Jesus to his home for a meal.  Maybe he is one of those liberal and tolerant Pharisees who is reaching out to the peasant rabbi Jesus.  Jesus should feel himself honored to be invited to share the table with such a one.  Some of the niceties are avoided -- the elaborate greetings, washings and anointings that might be offered to a dignitary or leader.  The Pharisee is investigating some of the stirring among the lower classes.  There is rumor of a prophet among them.  This Pharisee is not one who would dismiss such things out of arrogance.  He is open to reaching out to the lower classes.  He's interested to hear what this unknown teacher of peasants has to say.

But there is a social embarrassment.  A woman of the land, one of those who cannot follow the law because of her poverty and circumstance, comes off the street into the open courtyard and begins to make a scene.  She behaves emotionally, weeping and washing Jesus' feet with an extravagant demonstration.  Such public displays of feeling are unseemly in this setting.  No doubt, she is unclean.  A real prophet should know that she is a sinner and should upbraid her and put her in her place.  But Jesus seems to accept her presence and her actions.

It is an uncomfortable situation for the host.  This woman should not be there.  She is uninvited.  She is not the kind of person who comes to this table.  She is violating the social norms.  She is befouling what he hoped would be a comfortable meal with this odd religious curiosity.  The weeping, the anointing, the kissing and hair.  It's all just so inappropriate.  Tacky. 

But Jesus turns to the Pharisee and gently offers him a lesson.  Jesus' point:  Those who know themselves to be forgiven much, love much.  It is not a lesson that would come easily to the Pharisee.  His whole life has been oriented around his intention that there be nothing that he might need forgiveness for.  He has lived scrupulously, attentive to the large and small matters of the law.  He is righteous.  He knows that.  He has earned that.

Jesus implies that this woman has something that the Pharisee lacks.  Because she knows she has been given so much, forgiven so much, her heart bursts with grateful thanksgiving.  She pours out her feelings with her extravagant demonstration of affection.  We can see that she loves much.  She knows how deep her need has been; she knows that Jesus gives her something powerful from God.  She is overwhelmed with emotion and unashamed to express it.  She has a freedom that the Pharisee lacks.

Sometimes I feel like this Pharisee.  I live a pretty conventional, proper life.  Sometimes I will see someone expressing their faith with demonstrable and extravagant public emotion, and I find I shrink from them.  I like my proper, sedate, understated expressions of faith and devotion. 

When I can shed my elitism I can see that these other passionate expressions are loving and true.  They reveal an inhibition that I lack.  They reveal a kind of forgiveness and love that I lack.  They can reveal the presumption and arrogance that often infect those of us who make our religion our practice.  We can be tempted to think that we have earned our place in God's light.  We can be tempted to think that we are better than those who appear less religious or less proper. 

Jesus' sympathies are more oriented toward the woman in this story.  She has much to teach me.


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, April 26, 2013

Pere Cretien

Friday, April 26, 2013 -- Week of 4 Easter
Robert Hunt, Priest and First Chaplain at Jamestown, 1607

[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. 960)
Psalms    40, 54 (morning)    //    51 (evening)
Wisdom 6:12-23
Colossians 3:1-11
Luke 7:1-17

Today Jesus heals the slave of a Roman army officer.  Some Jewish elders commend the centurion to Jesus for the soldier's goodness and generosity.  Being sensitive to the Biblical purity laws, the officer sends word to Jesus not to come inside, where Jesus would risk ritual defilement, but "only speak the word, and let my servant be healed."  Jesus remarks, "I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith."  Jesus heals the Roman soldier's servant.

Many would not have responded as Jesus did.  Some in Israel saw a Roman officer only as the enemy, an instrument of occupation and oppression.  Many who were religious might have seen him only as a non-believer, one who is profane and impure and worthy only of God's judgment and wrath.  Jesus saw him as a fellow human being with qualities of faith and goodness.

May those of us who follow in his name be as generous as Jesus toward those of other faiths and traditions.

I'd like to share a story of another generous spirit from our later Christian tradition.

On May 21, 1996 an Algerian Terrorist group - the GIA - beheaded seven French Trappist monks who, against all advice, decided to remain at their abbey in the Atlas Mountains alongside their Muslim neighbors with whom they had established deep bonds of affection. Their compassion and their vow of stability led them to stay put in spite of all dangers.

Five days after their assassination, on May 26, the Feast of Pentecost that year, the testament of one of the slaughtered monks, Père Crétien was opened and read. It was dated January 1, 1994, two-and-one-half years before his kidnapping and murder. It reads in part:

If it should happen one day -- and it could be today --
that I become a victim of the terrorism
which now seems ready to engulf
all the foreigners living in Algeria,
I would like my community, my Church and my family
to remember that my life was GIVEN
to God and to this country.
I ask them to accept the fact
that the One Master of all life
was not a stranger to this brutal departure.
I would ask them to pray for me:
for how could I be found worthy of such an offering?
I ask them to associate this death
with so many other equally violent ones
which are forgotten through indifference or anonymity.
My life has no more value than any other.

I would like, when the time comes,
to have a moment of spiritual clarity
which would allow me to beg forgiveness of God
and of my fellow human beings,
and at the same time forgive with all my heart
the one who will strike me down.

Obviously, my death will appear to confirm
those who hastily judged me naïve or idealistic:
"Let him tell us now what he thinks of it!"
But these persons should know that finally
my most avid curiosity will be set free.
This is what I shall be able to do, please God:
immerse my gaze in that of the Father
to contemplate with him His children of Islam
just as he sees them, all shining with the glory of Christ,
the fruit of His Passion, filled with the Gift of the Spirit
whose secret joy will always be to establish communion
and restore the likeness, playing with the differences.


Père Crétien then addresses his assassin, the one who will do him evil:
And also you, my last-minute friend,
who will not have known what you were doing:
Yes, I want this THANK YOU and this "A-DIEU"
to be for you, too,
because in God's face I see yours.
May we meet again as happy thieves
in Paradise, if it please God, the Father of us both.


Amen.


Lowell
________

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Dying to Live

Thursday, April 25, 2013 -- Week of 4 Easter
St. Mark the 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)
EITHER the readings for Thursday of 4 Easter (p. 960)
Psalms       50 (morning)        [59, 60] or 114, 115 (evening)
Wisdom 5:9-23
Colossians 2:8-23
Luke 6:39-49

OR the readings for St. Mark, (p. 997)
Morning Prayer:  Psalm 145   Ecclesiasticus 2:1-11   Acts 12:25-13:3
Evening Prayer:  Psalms 67, 96   Isaiah 62:6-12   Timothy 4:1-11

(I chose the readings for Thursday of 4 Easter)

A few unconnected thoughts today.

What happens after we die?  Nobody knows, of course.  The disciples' experience of the resurrection of Jesus is the foundation of the church's hope of the resurrection of the body.  In other parts of scripture we find other beliefs -- after death there is nothing; or a shadowy semi-existence in Hades; or the immortality of the soul; or reward for some in heaven and punishment for some in Hell; or the healing of all life raised into God's eternal victory. 

The Wisdom of Solomon proposes that the righteous will live as immortal souls, comforted by God in a life of peace that rewards their earthy virtue and reverses history's injustice.  For the unrighteous, Wisdom proposes dishonor and permanent extinction rather than permanent punishment.  Some images from today's reading:  for destiny of the unrighteous, they will be like the trail of a ship after it has passed through water, or the invisibility of the path of a bird that has flown past or of an arrow that has been shot.  Nothing is left behind.  "But the (souls of the) righteous live forever," says the Wisdom of Solomon.

Colossians picks up on some baptismal imagery, connecting it with Jewish circumcision.  Baptism is the ritual of incorporation and identity for Christians just as circumcision is the ritual of incorporation and identity for Jewish males.  Baptism is like a "spiritual circumcision" (NRSV) or a "circumcision made without hands" (literal Greek).  Colossians picks up the death, burial and resurrection imagery of baptism.  "When you were buried with (Christ) in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead."  For Christians, our life after death is here and now, our life after our burial in baptism.

Baptism is a rich symbol.  Among other things, it is a ritual drowning of our old self, a death of our old identity grounded upon our own family and our human power.  Under the waters of this drowning we are united with Christ in his death, and we are raised to the new life of his resurrection.  Our identity is profoundly changed.  We now belong to Christ.  His resurrection life is our inheritance.  We are filled with divine Spirit so we live "in Christ."

One little note about the reading from Luke.  Jesus' statements in this section of the Sermon on the Plain emphasize our obedience of faith through our actions.  Take care of your own faults and shortcomings before criticizing another.  Be a good tree that bears good fruit.  If you hear his words and act on them, you are like the man who built a house on the strong foundation.  Actions speak louder than words.

So, letting Colossians and Luke speak to one another...  We could say that in baptism we have died and been reborn in order to live in Christ.  We have a strong foundation that empowers us to live loving, compassionate, and fruitful lives. 

Each morning we can remind ourselves of this journey.  As we awaken from the death of sleep we are reborn into a life that has been blessed and given to us by God.  Be thankful.  Rejoice.  And whatever good we can do, do that.


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, April 24, 2013

The Values of God's Kingdom

Wednesday, April 24, 2013 -- Week of 4 Easter
Genocide Remembrance

[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. 960)
Psalms       119:49-72 (morning)        49, [53] (evening)
Wisdom 4:16 - 5:8
Colossians 1:24 - 2:7
Luke 6:27-38

This passage in Luke's gospel is simply incredible.  Wonderful stuff!  I think it is important to read it not only as a moral exhortation, but also as a theological statement.  Jesus tells us how to live within the values and vision of God's Kingdom which he has inaugurated as Messiah.  He tells us how to live as citizens of that Kingdom. 

But more than that, we are told to live this way because this is how God is.  God loves enemies and does good to those who hate God.  God blesses those who curse God and prays for those who abuse God's Being.  God offers the other cheek and does not withhold anything, giving to everyone who begs and asking not from those to whom God gives.  God loves those who do not love God.  God is generous in the hope that we might be like God -- that we might extend the Golden Rule even to our enemies.  That we might not judge or condemn; that we might forgive; that we might give extravagantly -- because this is the way God is.

The punch line: "For he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.  Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful."  [Marcus Borg makes a strong argument from linguistic analysis and from content that the latter verse would more accurately be translated "Be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate."]

These are the values of the Kingdom because they describe the character of God.  What is God like?  God is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked; God is merciful; God is compassionate.  This is the Ground in which we are planted.  This is the Ground of our Being.

Colossians offers us an image of this Kingdom-life growing in us.  "Christ in you, the hope of glory...  As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving."

We can imagine ourselves first as the recipients of this grace, compassion and love.  God is kind to us even in our ungratefulness and wickedness.  We can root our lives in this amazing grace. 

Then, secure and grateful, we can live toward others as God has lived toward us.

Jesus extends the Golden Rule -- "Do to others as you would have them do to you" -- even beyond that to the command "love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return." 

We have not been judged or condemned;  we can forego judgment.  We have been forgiven; we can forgive.  We have been given to extravagantly; we can give extravagantly.  God is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked; we can be kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.  God is completely compassionate to us; we can be completely compassionate toward every other human being on the planet.

Be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate.


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