Ascended Christ Within

Almighty God, whose blessed Son our Savior Jesus Christ ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things: Mercifully give us faith to perceive that, according to his promise, he abides with his Church on earth, even to the end of the ages; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

It was neither my first nor second choice of seminaries. Nashotah House in Nashotah, Wisconsin was a place I knew of but very little about. Mostly when hoping and thinking about where we would go for seminary, we were hoping and thinking about staying close to home so Susan could visit and care for her aging and ailing parents and where being from an “owning” diocese we would have help with tuition. We got Nashotah instead. It was a long way from home and parents, a place of unfamiliar religious rituals, and costly in many ways. But, within and through that experience I learned to value something unanticipated - the feast and fast days of the church. Nashotah is in the Anglo-Catholic stream of the Episcopal Church. We observed every feast and fast day, every saint’s day, and even made one up when there was not one on the church calendar. Blessed Saint Feria of Northumbria, pray for us! I learned to value the formative nature of these holy observances, and by extension to value all the days of our feasting and fasting. They were preparation for the fasting from communion and communion we are now experiencing. I know that many of you, and likely all of you, have your own stories of times of feasting and times of fasting - times when everything seemed to be well and good, and times when a dark cloud hung overhead. They are formative experiences and with theological reflection can reveal to us God’s presence in the fast as well as the feast.

The Feast of the Ascension was observed on Thursday, May 21. It is a Principal Feast of the church taking precedence over other observances. That puts the Feast of the Ascension on par with Easter, Pentecost, Christmas Day and several others that most church people still observe. It has not been my experience that Ascension Day is highlighted on as many calendars. Given the current situation, that is a lost opportunity for a valuable theological reflection on these times we now face. In the collect for the day, we read that Jesus ascended into heaven and much artwork has tried to capture that moment with some, personally speaking, less than edifying representations showing his feet sticking out from the clouds as watchers look on. Jesus is gone home. We now fast from his presence until his future second coming one might conclude. But the prayer continues on that in ascending he filled and fills all things on earth in the present time, even his Church. The Ascension of our Lord is a crucial moment in the life of God’s people. It is as significant as the Incarnation and the Resurrection. Within the fasting of Jesus from his people until his second coming is a feasting on his presence everywhere we find two or three gathered together in his name. Jesus is gone (fast) but is everywhere (feast). And because he is everywhere, the love, peace, and healing of Jesus are everywhere. Even within you? The feast is in the fast.

And so I wonder, what do you see when you look again at what is now missing from your life and what you now miss? What do you see in your fasting from your church community and from communion, from family and friends, from the things you enjoy? There is a feast within the fast. Can you see it and what good thing is God revealing to you in these days of fasting?

Grace to you and peace, Fr Bill+

Holy Spirit

We believe in the Holy Spirit. Yes, but what does that mean? Some time ago I went with a group of friends to see the move The Shack. You may be familiar with that movie and the book by the same title which came out years before the film. Briefly, the story is about a man who loses a daughter but finds God at an old shack in the woods. This God is no old man played by George Burns. Rather, God is represented by an unexpected trinity of characters. God the Father, named Papa in the film, is played by an African-American woman. Jesus is played by a Tunisian born Israeli man, and the Holy Spirit by a Japanese woman. In the book, the character of the Holy Spirit is less human than, well, animated spirit. Some folks liked both the book and movie and others did not. What I appreciate about both is that they took a chance on trusting that while God is beyond any of our attempts at portrayal, to try to do so in a bold and fresh way may help us to grow to know God more clearly and to be drawn to love God more dearly. Our growth in the knowledge and love God is clearly part of the Bible narrative and can be seen in the creeds of the church.

Many may know that it was the early church councils who worked out an understanding of how Jesus could be both fully human and divine, and how the Son of God was both coequal and coeternal with God the Father. There were strong disagreements on these and other matters with some proclaiming their position orthodox and labeling others as heterodox. The Nicene Creed of 325 is one product of those working councils. What you may not know is that the original form of that creed ended simply with the words “And in the Holy Spirit.” What you may not know is that there was a time when some Christians denied the divinity of the Holy Spirit and so in 381 at Constantinople the church added the words concerning the Holy Spirit - “The Lord, and Giver of Life, Who proceeds from the Father, Who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified, Who spoke by the Prophets.” We learn and we grow.

When I worked with youth confirmands, one exercise we did was to form our own council of the church, including adopted bishop names for each youth, and then negotiate a statement of the faith. It was an expression of what these 12-14 year olds believed as 12-14 year olds about God. I imagine they have grown beyond that statement, retaining and refining some elements and adding or deleting others. I hope that they, and all of us, find the Creeds of the church a solid foundation and returning point for our continued questioning and growing in faith. And it seems so divinely ordered that the Creeds should end with a statement about the Holy Spirit given that it is the Spirit that inspires us even to continue to pushing the boundaries of our understanding of God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We believe in the Holy Spirit. What does that mean for you?

Grace and peace, Fr. Bill+

Firmly Grounded

I have noticed that the ground outside my front door is breaking open once again. Flowering plants are coming back, perhaps far too soon. Their reappearance reminds me that survival for all things depends on their being rooted, grounded, or otherwise connected to the Earth.

In one of his parables, Jesus speaks about vines and branches. He is the vine and we are the branches. Branches die when cut off from the vine. They are gathered up and burned with the rubbish. Our survival, vitality, and prospering, both physical and spiritual, require that we remain connected to him. He is our grounding and our life source. As Saint Paul wrote, “In him we live and move and have our being.”

The texts of the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds tell us in simple, factual statements about this person who is our grounding. It is significant that most of the text of the creeds is given to stating the divine nature and earthly life of Jesus. For example, in the standard formatting of the Apostles’ Creed, just two lines speak of God the Father, while ten are devoted to Jesus. While the ongoing theological debates at the time of their writing have something to do with this, it is also the essential place in our faith and our being that Jesus fills that explains this emphasis. He is the ground of our being and the source of our life. And this make us unique among faith traditions - that God came in human form as Jesus to affirm a way of life and give life now and forevermore.

The early church was appropriately called “The Way” because to be a follower of Jesus was to live a way of life trusting and abiding, remaining connected to, and grounded in the way of Jesus. To be a follower is not merely to profess a belief, but to live. Those members of The Way were later called Christians because their way of living was as “little Christs.” Jesus Christ was the vine, they were the branches. Branches look like the vine and live like the vine because of the vine. To be a Christian is to be an icon of Christ and to be a reflection of his ways. To profess as the Creeds states, “I believe in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord” means to live as he lived - lovingly, compassionately, humbly, sacrificially, full of grace and truth. It is only by maintaining our vital connection with Jesus that we can remain in the way. Reading your Bible, spending time with God in prayer, serving others, and staying active in this church community are key disciplines for the health of that connection. The upcoming season of Lent is a traditional time for working on our spiritual disciples. To be firmly grounded is essential. Nature is also trying to remind us of that.

Grace and peace, Fr Bill+

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! Let the adventures begin. I like adventures. Wandering actually. The surprises always seem better that way. Maybe it is spatial intelligence, or a product of repetition, or more likely just dumb luck, but I rarely get lost. As Tolkien wrote, “Not all those who wander are lost.”

Knowing a few landmarks and having general sense of direction are helpful for wandering and enjoying surprises while not getting lost. As the people of God, we may start out on the adventure of this new year by first stopping and getting our theological bearings - our landmarks and direction. For this we turn to the foundational statement of the Christian faith for Episcopalians. While not a doctrinal church, not one that has a confession that requires assent for membership, the Episcopal Church does profess that the essential elements of the faith are found within the Nicene Creed. God is Father, God is Son, God is Holy Ghost. Jesus is God who became incarnate, died, and rose again. There is one holy, catholic, and apostolic church. You know this and more, I believe. It is not so much that the Nicene Creed explains what we profess but that it provides a return point to truths that are frankly beyond explanation. Explanations stand and explanations fall, but the truth of our creedal statements remains that firm foundation that keeps us from getting lost in our wandering.

“I believe in God the Father, creator of heaven and earth.” As I wander, I am grounded in the knowledge that God is Father, my father and Jesus’ father. Actually, he is everyone’s father. I know that, you do as well, and I hope that I and those I meet are mindful of that when and wherever we meet in our wanderings. Sure, siblings have rivalries, but all those people out there are kin. Maybe I should express more kindness and have a bit more patience with them like I try to have with those closest to me. I am also grounded in the knowledge that all I see and feel, smell, taste and touch are part of God’s creation. Lake Chatuge, Fire’s Creek, the Tusquittee range ... those are all made by the same God and they say a lot about whom God is. God is an artist and has produced a work of art to delight our eyes and to be our playground. And since it is all God’s, I am grounded in knowing that my wandering should not abuse creation, but rather include caring for creation. Lastly, knowing that there should be some family resemblance, I am grounded in knowing that as God is begetter-creator, I am meant to be a begetter-creator. So I wander and explore and find new things and come to beget new understandings of myself and God, and new ways of seeing and living. The nice thing is that I always know where home is. “I believe in God the Father.”

Have a Happy and Blessed New Year. Enjoy the journey and do not forget where you live.

Fr. Bill+

Silent Night

In the beginning was the Word .... And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. - John 1:1, 14.

As contemporary philosopher Steve Martin once put it, “Some people have a way with words and other people, well ... uh, not have way, I guess.” If you are like me and are one of those who “not have way”, fear not because there are plenty of others working to fill in the space. I read recently that on average we hear 20,000-30,000 words per day. That’s roughly 120 double spaced typed pages of text. Add to that the roughly 16,000 words per day we speak on average and you see that we are surrounded by words.

Those numbers may actually rise during the Christmas season. Do you watch more movies? Lifetime Network and Hallmark Channel now offer plenty of Christmas movies to fill empty air. Or maybe you have pulled out your Christmas CDs and are listening to more music. Anyone writing more cards than usual? My guess is that during this time of year we are awash with words. The climax of this may just be Christmas day. Buyers beware of gifting anything electronic or anything saying “some assembly required.” A 40 page manual for a child’s toy seems a bit much. Who writes those anyway? Having gone through this with my children I now understand the genius of my mom and dad who gave us pajamas, walnuts, a football, and matchbox cars for Christmas. There was silence in the house on Christmas and my hard-working parents had an opportunity to rest. That is Christmas.

At Christmas, God became one of us. God took on flesh and pitched his tent right alongside his people. I have been to Bethlehem. I have seen the surrounding countryside. I imagine that at the time Jesus was born, a single word at midnight would have punctuated the stillness of midnight and rippled out across all creation.

In silence, you can hear a single word. Ask a contemplative and they will tell you that silence is God’s first language. In that silence a single word can strike every fiber of your being. “And the Word became flesh ...” This is John the Evangelist’s Christmas story. It is a story about the silence and a word spoken into the silence. No noisy angel choirs and little drummer boy. No shepherds shrieking in fear nor their bleating sheep. No muddy -booted visitors bearing nifty gifts. John’s story does not make for a homey nativity or child-friendly pageant. On all those things that make for a traditional Christmas, John is silent.

I think the gift John is inviting us to receive is the gift of silence into which the word of God can be born. “In the beginning was the Word ...” Before light and dark, before earth and sea and sky, before life and death, before PlayStation and Instant Pot, before all the words about all things, there was silence and there was the Word. The Word is still found there.

May God bless you with peace and quiet in your home and in your spirit this Christmas season. May God’s peace rest upon your loved ones. And may the Word of God speak into your silence. Merry Christmas,

Fr. Bill+

Thanksgiving

Hodu l’Adonai ki tov, ki la’olam chasdo, “Give thanks to Adonai for He is good, for His mercy is everlasting.”

On behalf of the staff, vestry, and finance committee, thank you for your faithful support of this parish and the work of God in the world, both nearby and far away. Your pledge of time, talent, and treasure is vital to the vision of our parish to boldly engage the world as God’s shepherds, to share our blessings, and to work with God toward creating Heaven on Earth one person at a time. As we look toward the Thanksgiving Holiday, we should be reminded of the many reasons we have for giving thanks to God and we should be mindful of how we should respond to show our gratitude.

The scriptures provide plenty of examples of the people of God offering their thanksgiving—in response to being blessed Abraham gave one-tenth of all his possessions to the priest Melchizedek; in response to his salvation Zacchaeus gave half of what he owned to the poor; the blind man restored followed Jesus and praised God — and the Psalms tell us that thanksgiving has been a central part of worship from ancient times. For Episcopalians, thanksgiving is also a central part of our worship, not only in our use of the psalms and the offering of our gifts, but in the celebration of Eucharistic, a Greek word meaning thanksgiving.

In Luke’s telling of the Last Supper we read that Jesus gave thanks involving two cups with a thanksgiving involving bread in the middle: cup-bread-cup. This is in the manner of Jewish meal prayers where it is neither the contents of the cup nor the bread, but it is God who is blessed. Words like these may have been used, “Blessed are You, LORD our God, King of the universe, Who brings forth bread from the earth.” “Blessed are You, LORD, our God, King of the universe, Who creates the fruit of the vine.” You might try this at your Thanksgiving table this year.

Just for fun — The Hebrew word above translated as “Give thanks” is “hodu.” That is also found in the Hebrew word for the bird we call a turkey. “Hag Hahodaya,” literally the “the chicken of India” and you probably recall, India is where Columbus thought he was headed when he sailed west and started the chain of events that led to the Pilgrim’s first Thanksgiving celebration in 1621.

I thank God for you and for God’s faithfulness working through you. Give thanks to the Lord.

Fr Bill+

Stewardship

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. - 1 Peter 4:10

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter, the first leader of the post-Ascension church, offers a word of exhortation to his community that echoes across time and space. Use whatever gift you have received in service of others. In this way we are counted as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. Grace is gift and gift is grace, all from God and taking a variety of forms, and meant not just for ourselves but for the benefit of others.

Stewards are not owners, but servants and managers of the property of another, and Peter tells us that proper management of God’s property means that we deploy those graces for God’s purpose which here is identified as serving others. It may have been harvest time and time for the first stewardship campaign of the early church.

For almost 2000 years, the faithful have been exhorted to share whatever gift they have received for the work of the church in serving others. Those others are fellow church members, those not yet in the church, and those who may not come to know the Lord in this lifetime.

I am grateful that we have a highly faithful congregation. All in their own way, as circumstances some times dictate, are using the gifts entrusted to them by God for serving others. For some, it is their time that they generously give to the church. For others, a special gift of talent is used to bless the church’s mission. And for others still, it is through generous financial gifts that they express their faithfulness. These forms of stewardship are, of course, not exclusive and those who are faithful stewards are typically generous with their time, talent, and treasure. Is there anything more Christlike than that? God, through Christ, gave his very best and gave his all to serve others.

Thank you for being Good Shepherds of the gifts you have received and for the gift of time, talent, and treasure you will pledge to the church for its mission in 2020. Please know that your generosity is being matched by the generosity of many, many others who make this a special place in which to serve and to worship. You make St Peter smile. May you know his joy and the joy of our Lord who says to you, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Grace and peace, Fr Bill+

The Stewardship of Life

The story is told of an American tourist who visited the 19th century Polish rabbi, Hofetz Chaim. Astonished to see that the rabbi's home was only a simple room filled with books, plus a table and a bench, the tourist asked, "Rabbi, where is your furniture?"

"Where is yours?" Replied the rabbi.

"Mine?" Asked the puzzled American. "But I'm a visitor here. I'm only passing through."

"So am I," said Hofetz Chaim.

Passing through happens in so many ways. We are visitors to each day the Lord has given us. We pass through places where we live and call home. We pass through friends, losing some and gaining others. Our families change. Youth turns to adulthood and then to old age.

Our life on this side of eternity is a passing through. You have likely noticed that Jesus traveled and did a lot of passing through. You may have also noticed that he did it unencumbered by home and wealth, things we feel we must have and things that can become a cause for us to worry. The felt need for the security of a place and our things is shaped by the world we live in and cannot escape, but the same was true for people in Jesus’ day. Yet, Jesus tells us that we are passing through. To the rich man, who to his credit had kept all the commandments but who was also encumbered by his wealth, Jesus said to “sell it all and give it to the poor. Then come follow me.” He taught that entering the kingdom was through a small door and that holding onto wealth and things could be a problem (Matthew 19:24). To others he spoke of the necessity of setting our hearts on building up treasure in the place we would eventually arrive when the passing through has ended. Like Jesus, in this life we are just passing through.

Likewise with our accomplishments and our failures. These, too, are passing. Most will never have monuments built to their memory and those few who do will also eventually be forgotten by this world. However, earthly accomplishments can provide an opportunity for recognizing our good fortune, our giftedness, and expressing our gratitude. They can lift our eyes off the approval of the world and to the approval of God. Our faith tells us that heaven is our home and the only accomplishment with eternal significance is receiving our family membership through Christ. As with accomplishments, failures are a passing part of this life. Learn from them, let them also be a source of sanctification, and then let them pass. I imagine that it can take much courage and grace to accept the impermanence of our lives and to receive and let go of what each day brings.

In this passing through, know that you are loved and already heirs of a kingdom beyond all you can ask or imagine. It is a place where all that needs to be accomplished already has been accomplished for you and where failures will neither be recalled nor known. Blessings of courage and grace be upon you as you pass through this life to your eternal life in the household of our God.

Fr. Bill+

Clarity

Years ago I heard something that I shared with my students to see if what I heard was true. The point was not to mislead or embarrass anyone, but to point out that clarity of communication matters.

You may have heard about the potential problem of a dihydrogen oxide build up in the environment. It was a rainy day in Charleston when I spoke with my students about the current dihydrogen oxide spill. Scientists say that this dangerous chemical goes largely unregulated although it has incredible destructive potential. It is found in large concentrations in the atmosphere, in lakes, rivers, and oceans, and in the ground, yet the public seems not to be overly concerned or even aware of its dangers. This hydric acid can corrode metals and dissolve rock. It can create sink holes and mud slides. It is a major cause of destruction to our bridges, roadways, communication systems, and sewer lines. Meteorologists say it plays a key role in blizzards and hurricanes, tsunamis and floods. To humans, prolonged exposure can damage skin tissue and ingestion of large amounts of hydric acid can cause gastric distress, diarrhea, or even death. Having shared this news, a good number of students were understandably concerned that there had been a recent heavy spill of hydric acid in Charleston. Bad stuff, this hydric acid, this dihydrogen oxide, this H2O.

“Oh, that is what you are talking about.” Clarity of communication matters. I appreciate that the different professions have their necessary technical language. That language is helpful toward the precision required in those professions and must be learned by those practitioners. It is meant for a limited field and is helpful in the clarity of their internal communication. With my students, I engaged in obfuscation. I intentionally made something simple hard to understand.

One thing I think Jesus tried to do was to be clear and straightforward in his communication. Yes, I get that he spoke in parables and said things about people not understanding because he spoke in parables, but I think that was a clever way of inviting the curious, brilliant, ordinary and lazy to think for themselves rather than obfuscation.

The prophet Micah tells us what God requires - “To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Jesus amplifies that in the life he models for us by showing us just, merciful, and humble living, and in the words he left us that summarize the whole purpose of our lives - “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”

Can it be more clear than this? To act justly is to fulfil our responsibilities to God and neighbor. To act mercifully is to extend grace to others where it is not merited, knowing that we, too, require mercy. To walk humbly is to understand that all that we have is the gift of God. To love God is to love your neighbor and to love your neighbor is to love God. These are the measure for our Christian progress and the measure by which all our decisions should be made. Is this clear?

Grace and peace, Fr Bill+

Spiritual Growth in Ordinary Times

Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight. - Proverbs 3:5-6

Following the long season of Holy Days and special devotional practices that stretches from the first day of Advent through Trinity Sunday, we now enter that other long season of the church called ordinary time. It is a time when the seeds of worship and devotion sown during the earlier season sprout, take root, and grow. This very much matches the world around us, where nature has fully come alive, the fields and forests have returned to green, and we witness the process of birth and growth which will lead to the fall harvest. Appropriately, our liturgical color for the season is green.

For Christians, this is our growth period and the time for continuing to be mindful of our spiritual lives, adding some water and fertilizer where needed and pulling those weeds that seek to choke off growth. All this is done faithfully so that we might bear fruit individually and as a faith community come harvest time.

So, here is a growth area - trust in the Lord with all your heart. In this season of growth, what is going on with your trust in God with all that you are and all that you have, even to include your thoughts, your hopes, and your aspirations?

In my reading of this piece of wisdom, I understand the goal not as becoming a mindless Christian zombie without my own thoughts or understanding. For the Hebrew people, the heart was the seat of understanding, and not as we might think, a place of the emotions. That was the gut. The goal of trusting God is not mindless obedience. I have seen a bumper sticker that says “God said it. I believe it. That settles it.” I do hope there is more thought than seems implied by those words. God gave us the gift of reason so that we might use it to know the will of God and how to apply it in all the varied situations where humans find themselves. Rather than mindlessness, I see this a call to increased mindfulness such that my seeing, my perceiving, my knowing, and my acting increasingly correspond to the mind and will of God. Being mindful, I think about what God thinks about something I am facing and I trust in following that wisdom even when that may be the hard, the unpopular, and the lonely way.

The writer of Proverbs exhorts the person who would be wise to submit, but maybe we can think of this not as self-abasement or humiliation, not as denying our thoughts and intellect, but as becoming more thoughtful, more mindful, and increasingly making God’s way our way in all things and situations so that there is less and less distinction between the two. The faithful promise of God, and God is always faithful, is that this kind of growing mindfulness will direct us in the path we should go.

Here is a discipline that some seeking mindfulness of God may find helpful in this ordinary time. Theologian Karl Barth is said to have once told some young theologians not to isolate themselves from the world, but to read the newspapers and the Bible, and then to interpret the news from the view of the Bible. As a practice in mindfulness, this might be a good start. When you review the news of the day, ask: How does God feel about the events and the people I have encountered in the news? How do I feel toward them and how should I feel toward them? Pray for the grace to have the mind and heart of God.

Grace and peace,
Bill