Can These Bones Live?

“The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. He said to me, ‘Mortal, can these bones live?’ I answered, ‘O Lord God, you know.’ Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.’” - Ezekiel 37:1-4

“Mortal, can these bones live?” The prophet Ezekiel lived in exile. He was among those taken captive when Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians. He was among those who sat and wept on the banks of the rivers of Babylon, who had hung up their harps, whose captors asked for songs and mirth saying “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

It was a painful time for the people of God. Their nation and way of life had been destroyed. Their ability to meet with and worship their God in the Temple was no more. Things were bad and then they became near hopeless. Six months became twelve, and one year followed another until they found themselves two generations removed from all they knew and loved. Their hope for rescue and restoration dimmed. Their memories faded. No doubt some had adapted to their new condition, but this was not their true hope and this was not their home.

God, however, retained for them a dream of a better place - the home promised them through their ancestor Abraham. It is in this context that God speaks to Ezekiel. “Mortal, can these bones live?” Can these faded hopes and dreams be revived? Can these people be restored?

The genius of this dialog between God and Ezekiel comes through when we are invited to overhear the conversation and to peer over Ezekiel’s shoulder and behold what he sees. And then, to speak for ourselves those very words of God. Look around and see what are the bones, the very dry bones of our lives. This past year has been for this faith community a kind of exile. This past year has added the pain of isolation to the many pains most of our bodies already carry. This past year has perhaps stolen precious time from our latter years. “O dry bones [whatever those may be], hear the word of the Lord.”

I wonder how far Ekeziel’s jaw fell open when piece by piece those very dry bones came back to life. I wonder how gobsmacked were those who stood in silence watching the impossible happen. The truth of history is that God did rescue and restore his people. Their old and very dry bones were no obstacle to the grace of God’s word. They returned to their land and rebuilt their beloved Jerusalem and a new Temple. “O Lord God, you know.”

Yes, God does know the longings of our hearts and we should know the faithfulness of God. God knows what has been lost in this past year. God knows the aching of our bones and our souls. God knows that many are tired, lonely, anxious, and grieving. And because God is faithful, our hope in God making all things new should be unfailing. Our bones and the bones of this faith community will live.

Grace and peace,
Fr. Bill+

Hallowed Be Your Name

Many if not all will recognize this phrase from the Lord’s Prayer. Found in both the Gospel of Matthew and Luke, it is part of Jesus’s reply to his disciples’ request that he teach them how to pray as John the Baptizer had taught his disciples to pray. Not a bad thing, I think, to seek instruction in prayer even when we are well schooled and well practiced in a variety of prayer forms.

My strong guess is that his disciples already knew what prayer was, how to pray in some form, and were sustaining an active daily prayer life. These were, after all, devout Jews looking for the coming Messiah who he called to follow him. They went to the synagogue on the Sabbath and observed the major Jewish religious holidays. So even being good observant praying Jews, they still looked for more.

Maybe that is enough for us now in this letter? Just the message to keep going and search for new and deeper ways of being in covenant relationship with God through prayer. Go for it!

Jesus begins by saying, “Our Father.” So far, so good, in identifying to whom you are addressing your prayer. I like that our prayer book says “... we are bold to say ... ” as an introduction to the Lord’s Prayer in our Eucharistic prayer. We are bold to say that God is “Our Father.”

And now, we pause and meditate on that because while Jesus continues on with the rest of the prayer, we should, as I am sure his disciples did that night and days after, consider what that means. Yes, we are claiming God as a parent and ourselves as children, and in doing so we are identifying ourselves as brothers and sisters of Jesus. He did say it first, and coming from him it must be true. But the other thing we might meditate upon in that moment concerns who it is that we are bold to claim as Father. What is this Father like, what has this Father done, and what do we ask of this Father as children might expect?

There is a wonderful collect for Advent 3 that says “Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins, let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen.”

Here is a petition to God to act like God and do what only God can do. Likewise, in the Old Testament one can find again and again petitions by God’s people for God to act like God against those who say their God is sleeping, weak, has abandoned them, and so forth. I can imagine someone once praying during the exile, “Dear God, those Babylonians are mocking us for trusting in you. Do not let us be shamed for our faith. Rise up and defend your name.”

This is what we see in the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus teaches his disciples to ask God to be God. “Hallowed be your name” are not words of praise as they sounded to me for most of my years, but mean more like “God, make your name to be hallowed, to be respected, to be honored.” It is a plea that God act like God and in doing so defend his good name and reputation. And then you get the rest of the prayer.

But think, what would be needful if God did rise up and hallowed his name? The rest of what we pray for really is fulfilled in that petition: the full realization of God’s will being done on earth, everyone having their daily bread, everyone reconciled to God and neighbor, no more evil in the world.

I encourage you to think more about what “Hallowed be your name” means to you and for you, and in your prayers during this season of prayer, what you pray God would do to hallow his name.

Grace and peace,
Fr. Bill+

Lent 2021

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The season of Lent is upon us once again, and while much has changed for many of us individually and as a faith community over this past year, we can look to Lent as a forty day season for regrounding ourselves spiritually by immersing ourselves in the ancient practices of our faith even in these days of COVID-19.

The forty day length of Lent draws its inspiration from the multiple forty day experiences found in scripture: Moses stayed on the mountain of God forty days (Exodus 24:18 and 34:28), the spies were in the land for forty days (Numbers 13:25), Elijah traveled forty days before he reached the cave where he had his vision (1 Kings 19:8), Nineveh was given forty days to repent (Jonah 3:4), and most importantly, Jesus spent forty days in wilderness praying and fasting before beginning the ministry that led to his death and resurrection (Matthew 4:2). From ancient times, Christians have taken on prayer and fasting in imitation of Christ as spiritual disciplines leading up to the celebration of Good Friday and the Feast of the Resurrection.

During this season of prayer, it is proper that we should do self-examination and take the steps necessary to mend our relationships with God and with our brothers and sisters in Christ. In the ancient church, Lent was a time when converts to the faith were prepared for baptism and those who fell into notorious sin were restored to the faith community by confession, repentance, and reconciliation. Lent may be for us a similar time for prayer and reflection on our relationship with God and the promises we made in our baptismal covenant. It may be a time for confession and repentance. For some, it may be a time for seeking the rite of reconciliation.

In the service for Ash Wednesday, we hear Jesus speak about proper prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. His words are both a witness to the faith practices of his day and a prescription for all the faithful in all ages. During the forty days of Lent, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are practiced that we might be drawn back to and closer to God, and that we would be prepared as Jesus prepared for the events of Good Friday and the Resurrection.

Questions you might ask at the beginning of Lent to help identify where your spiritual life might benefit from taking on a forty day discipline of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are: How am I living the Gospel in my home, in my work, in my church, in my town?

In what ways have I grown stagnant, cold-hearted, closed off, or failed to seek God?

In what areas of my life have I failed to acknowledge growth or signs of renewal, and equally failed to express gratitude for these blessings?

While we will not be able to gather this year for the annual pancake supper, I do invite you to join with your fellow good shepherds on Zoom at 6:00PM on Tuesday, February 16, to share your household pancake supper time with your friends. Watch the email highlights for the Zoom meeting ID and passcode. We will begin the season of Lent with an Ash Wednesday service at 11:00AM streaming on the parish FaceBook page. Drive by imposition of ashes will follow at noon in the parking lot. While the imposition of ashes is a tradition of the church, it is not required and in fact is an optional feature of the Ash Wednesday liturgy found in the Book of Common Prayer. Please see a separate piece in this newsletter for an alternative to the imposition of ashes.

I invite you in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial. May each of us find our spiritual lives resurrected and enriched by the experience and may we soon find ourselves safely re-gathered in that holy sanctuary where we have celebrated so many time the resurrection of our Lord.

Fr. Bill+

Happy New Year?

It may be that you and I saw or heard some of the same observations made about this past year 2020. For one, that we would just as well not gain an extra hour of that year when we set our clocks back in the fall. Google “2020 meme.” There are so many such observations and while they often sought to bring some levity to the 2020 experience, they also memorialized for us that this was for many a strange and even unhappy period. Unfortunately, it is not over yet even with the rollout of two or more hopeful vaccines. And we do hope and expect that one day this virus will be under control and we can return to whatever was our normal pattern of life. However, let us not move on too quickly and fail to do the spiritual work that both heals the known and unknown wounds to our souls that this disruption has surely caused and that honors the life we have been given to live through this time.

In the book Joshua, the Israelites come to the bank of the Jordan and ready to cross into the promised land. Remember what their journey has been. Plagues in Egypt, scarcity in the desert, complaining against Moses and unfaithfulness to God, and forty years of 2020. Yet, God is with them and directs Joshua to have twelve men take up twelve stones from the bed of the Jordan river and to set them up as a memorial at Gilgal, the place where they make their first camp in the promised land. These stones were to serve as a reminder of God’s faithful presence and grace. The text of Joshua 4:6-7 reads “In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.” This is not a denial of hardship and loss. They have experienced much of that, but it is a recognition of those within a greater proclamation of deliverance. Loss and salvation can both be true at the same time. As you cross over into 2021, you may find it helpful to set up your own memorial marker to 2020 with stones representing what has been lost and what has been saved.

Finally, remembering and practicing the exhortation of Saint Paul in the fourth chapter of his letter to the Philippians can be healing. He is no stranger to hardship and suffering: five times receiving thirty nine lashes of the whip; three times beaten with rods; once stoned and left for dead; three times shipwrecked, and more. Yet, Paul says “Rejoice.” “Think about what is good and praiseworthy.” “Give thanks.” This is not to deny hardship and loss, but to see that those things do not overwhelm us and keep us from seeing the good that still fills our lives even in dark times. The active affirmation of those good things is our witness to God’s faithful presence and grace. So, before moving on to 2021, review 2020. What are the good and praiseworthy things and for what do you give thanks?

As you reflect upon, memorialize, and give thanks for 2020, may the peace of God that passes all understanding bless you and fill you with a renewed hope for 2021.

Fr. Bill+

The Incarnation

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. – John 1:14

One of the distinguishing beliefs of Christianity is that God became human in a unique person in a non-recurring event. Neither as some series of humans inspired by the Sprit of God - as in the Old Testament prophets - nor as God represented through a series of rebirths - as in Buddhism, but as God in all of the fullness of all God’s divinity becoming flesh in one and only one human ever. This is Jesus the Christ. Properly understood, Christians believed it to be “the” incarnation that we look forward to at Christmas. Two thousand years ago God pitched his tent and lived among us. He carried the name Jesus and was the anointed one, hence the names messiah and Christ that are usually associated with him and his name.

John’s Christmas story, the one we hear read on Christmas day, tells us that Jesus is the son of God and has come from his home heaven and from his Father. You see, to incarnate is of course to be born into somewhere and something, but it also means to be from somewhere prior. For John, the starting place is in heaven before all things. His Christmas story appears quite unlike those told by Matthew and Luke who give us an unwed couple, shepherds and angels, an inn and a manger, and visitors from the East. Mark appears to have wanted to immediately* get on with things and so leaves out the incarnation. But for both Matthew and Luke we have genealogies and family stories about where people and Jesus are from. They are both concerned to place Jesus in the family of God’s people. As a practical matter, it is not a bad idea for God to have a home and a family if God is going to arrive as a baby. I suspect that Matthew and Luke are however thinking more theologically than practically. You may recall that Matthew provides a family history that begins at Abraham and runs through David with several interesting women named. Luke goes even further back and begins with Adam. It seems that Matthew is interested in connecting Jesus with all the Hebrew people while Luke associates Jesus with all people, Hebrew and Gentile alike. Quite the family that he was born from. And then John, likely the last of the Gospels written, goes one really big step further. The Word who was with God in the beginning, who came from God, joins the human family - his human family. The Christian family tree stretches back to David and Abraham and to Adam and Eve before that, and includes all sorts of crazy uncles and heroes and villains, saints and sinners, and finds its ultimate origin in God and heaven because God became flesh and dwelt among us.

Christmas is a time for celebration and thanksgiving, for giving and receiving gifts, but maybe this year in all that it has brought for better or worse, we might remember and celebrate the gift of the Incarnation by giving thanks for where we are from and for our families: parents, spouses, children and all those who have touched our lives. Merry Christmas,
Fr. Bill+

* Mark’s gospel is characterized by Jesus immediately doing this or that.

Children of the God of Peace

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. —Matthew 5:9

If you have been blessed with children, you may have on occasion looked at their physical features, noted their talents, observed their personalities and concluded that this or that child looks like, resembles, acts like, etc. one or another of its parents or grandparents. Children through nature and nurture are reflections of their parents. This is something that many likely heard while growing up. That they looked like or had the personality of their mom or dad, grandmother or grandfather.

When Philip says to Jesus, “Show us the Father” Jesus responds by saying “If you have seen me you have seen the Father.” Such it is between a parent and a child. While I appreciate there is a difference between the relationship of Jesus to his father and us to our parents, the general principle holds: children are a reflection of their parents. In Jesus, we see that the Father is compassionate, merciful, patient, loving, healing, just and righteous, and forbearing. We see that the Father cares for the oppressed, the outcast, the sick, the poor, the orphan and the widow. If you want to know what God our Father is like, look at what Jesus did.

In his great sermon on the mount, Jesus makes use of this relationship between parent and child to remind us of in whose image we are made and therefore whose image we should reflect. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” It is the seventh of his statements on blessedness. Matthew is too thoughtful and too careful, for this to be random or a coincidence. Many will recognize that seven is a number representing perfection, completeness, and wholeness. Recall the seven days of creation and rest from Genesis. This seventh statement is about completeness and wholeness. It is about the peace that is the fruit of being complete and whole in our identity as children of God when we rest in and live out that identity.

Peacemakers - those who actively seek peace within and without - are those who will find and know what it means to be at peace with themselves and at peace with others. To be at peace and to be a source of peace, is to embrace and to enact the character of God that is already in you as a child of God. The name is “peace-makers” meaning that is an action and a way of being. Practice peace and you will know peace. Practice peace and you will find your true self. Practice peace and you will find yourself in union with the God of peace.

When Jesus says “Blessed are the peacemakers” he is not merely saying that they are blessed because others will know they are children of God, as if the blessing is that of a good reputation, but more so that in their doing of peacemaking they will find for themselves the blessedness that comes from being true to one’s inheritance as a child of the God of peace. And the place to start toward peace is with yourself, child of God. You cannot make the peace with others that you first do not have for yourself.

What are the things you carry within you that keep you from having peace? Judging voices and selfcriticism? Bitterness and resentment toward another? Fear, guilt, shame? Daily quiet time devoted to sitting in the presence of God to be reminded of your true self can bring you the peace you need. Make your daily sacrifice an offering of those things that burden you and may God receive them with the love of a Father for a child and fill in those spaces in your spirit with the blessedness of peace.

Shalom to you, child of God,
Fr. Bill+

Patience

“There is always the fear of self-righteousness possessing us, the fear of arrogating to ourselves a superiority that we do not possess.” - Mahatma Gandhi

As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” - John 9:1-2

A couple weeks ago a friend shared with a group some not fully fleshed out thoughts on an inspiration God had given him. He openly admitted that he was just breaking open that inspiration and what he had to share was rudimentary. I appreciate the humility and courage he showed. I suppose many, including myself, would have been compelled by fear or pride to come with something more polished or conclusive. His point was, by the way, a very good one. But the more I think about what he shared, the more it is the patience he showed with this Godgiven inspiration and himself that I find both an inspiration and a challenge. Too often, closure comes too soon. We assume we know and we reach conclusions prematurely.

The disciples ask Jesus a question: “Who sinned, this man or his parents?” They have closed off much in their question. They have decided that sin must be involved. They have decided that either the man or his parents are to blame. And assuming they have no afflictions themselves, that they are not sinners. They have painted a black and white world with good and bad people, and of course it is easy to tell who is who. This man is among the bad, hence his suffering. The only question left is who to pin the blame upon.

I wonder if we do the same? I wonder if we claim for ourselves a righteousness and in doing so deny that to others. I wonder if we occupy that same black and white world where we claim for ourselves that we are the good guys and if you are not with us, then well. My hope for myself and for others is that we might step back and not reach conclusions about others too hastily or at all.

My hope is that we would be mindful of the grace shown to us by God and not break fellowship with others. Imagine instead of such premature closure, we would instead seek to know more about another person.

Imagine the disciples going to the blind man, finding out who he is, what his life is like, and what his hopes and dreams are and then coming back to ask Jesus to help. Imagine the question turning from “who is to blame?” to “how can we help you?” Imagine instead of self-righteousness, the disciples find common humanity and a common need for Jesus.

Where and how might we do the same? You may recall that Jesus invited all the wrong people to dinner. He had a heart for fellowship and it was at such gatherings that hearts were changed. He did it time and again because it takes time to hear people tell their stories and to get to know them as people and not as portrayed in political cartoons, in Internet memes, on talk shows, and so forth. Resist the temptation to “unfriend” people, to break fellowship, to retreat into a bubble of like-minded travelers. If you are looking for Jesus, try looking among the “wrong” people.

Grace and peace,
Fr. Bill+

Send Them Away

As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, "This is a remote place, and it's already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food." Matthew 14:15

Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, "Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us." Matthew 15:23

A comedian was once talking with his audience about his experience fathering children. He had two daughters but he and his wife also wanted a son, so as his old football coach had taught him, he did. “Keep running that play until you get it right.” They eventually got their son but also more children than they had planned at the start.

Jesus seems to know that his disciples need repetition and he appears to run the same play once again. Just before the feeding of the five thousand, the disciples see large crowds and assess the situation. It is late, they are in a barren place with no resources, and it is dinner time. Their solution? “Send the crowds away!” Jesus then teaches them about the power of God to turn scarcity into abundance. Five thousand men plus women and children are fed, and twelve baskets of leftovers are collected for the local food pantry. Jesus cares for body and soul. Jesus cares for everyone because God cares for everyone, and there is more than enough.

Did they understand? Do we?

I wonder because the travel narrative continues with Jesus and his crew venturing to Gentile turf where a Canaanite woman (read: unclean outsider Gentile and a woman at that) comes asking for help. One of our Lectionary Bible Study members thought that she had perhaps been part of that earlier crowd. The Canaanite woman obviously knows something about Jesus since she calls him Lord and Son of David and has faith his healing power. But it looks like the disciples are just annoyed by her presence. “Sheesh, a loud unclean Gentile and a woman at that. She does not belong here. Send her away!” Did they not understand who Jesus is? Did they already forget what happened the last time they uttered those words? I think this woman likely was at the earlier feeding or she received some of the leftovers because she speaks of crumbs falling from the master’s table. She says that she will humbly take those crumbs. Contrary to the disciples, Jesus does not send her away.

You see, Jesus is in the reconciliation business. He is in the business of reconciling us to God and us to each other. As he shows us God’s care for the body and souls of all people, he is also showing us the care that we should have for each other. There are numerous ways of doing that, of course, and we do so at Good Shepherd with feeding and meal ministries, visitations to the sick, prayer and prayer shawls, phone calls and cards and so forth. But reconciliation extends beyond that. Reconciliation also means that we seek to heal our political and cultural divisions remembering that in God’s Kingdom there are no unclean outsiders, no one to be cast out or sent away because of their views or actions. There is plenty of room for everyone at the Lord’s table, plenty of grace for everyone, and even twelve baskets full and crumbs on the floor for anyone who missed the first call to supper.

We should remember that in the end Jesus’ desire for us to be reconciled to God and each other led him to stretch wide his arms and embrace all people and the whole of God’s creation. It is that heart of welcome and inclusion, and of reconciliation, that is the image of God we should strive for. As imperfect people, our striving toward this will always remain imperfect, but I believe Jesus showed us these things because he thought how we live as citizens and ambassadors of God’s Kingdom matters both for us and for the world watching what those Christians are doing and failing to do.

Grace and peace,

Fr. Bill+

In the end, there is Grace

I was talking recently with a small group of parishioners about some the stories in the book Genesis. Those stories can be read in many ways. Some take them as literally true and others as myths and folk tales, as stories of fictional heroes from a long, long time ago. Of course, that does not deny that they teach us truths. What I also believe is true is, while they are wonderful stories for telling us about the human experience, where all the goodness and pettiness or worse of human character is on display, there is another story running in the background. It is the story of God who makes an appearance at the beginning and reappears here and there within a narrative that generally seems to focus our attention not on God, but mostly on the characters and unfolding plots of the subsequent Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob sagas. In these sagas we catch glimpses of God’s character, God’s faithfulness, and God’s enduring providence. We see that time and again, human failing does not prevent God’s will from being done. These stories show God working with humans as they really are, as real people like you and me, and not with saints and superstars. God does not give up on them and in the end we see transformed people coming a little closer to being the people who show the character of God in their lives and their relationships. The hope these stories should give us comes from believing God is still God, still having God’s way, still working in and through us, still transforming us even if slowly, and that in the end God’s justice, peace, and reconciliation will win the day in our lives and the world.

Just to note a couple examples from these early Bible stories, recall the twins Esau and Jacob. Two boys from the same mom and dad, reared in the same household, but yet so different in interests, outlooks, and character you might think they belonged to different tribes. The story suggests that Esau was dim-witted and impulsive. His brother Jacob was a crafty, manipulative, liar. Neither is the sort of person we should aspire to be. Jacob takes advantage of his brother, lies to his father and steals his brother’s blessing, and his mom helps him do it. Esau seeks to kill his bother but before we have Cain and Abel Part II, mom helps the favored son get away. This is not the first nor the last dysfunctional family. Years later, they reunite. Esau is now wealthy, as is Jacob, both have large families, and both apparently so without any mention of what they inherited from their father Isaac. So much for the material gains of that birthright that was so easily given away for a bowl of stew. You see, God made a promise to Abraham much earlier in this family story. It was a promise to bless and prosper God’s people. Family dysfunction might make us wonder if and how that promise will appear but appear it does. In the end, God’s will be done.

Likewise, we read about another sibling rivalry in the story of Leah and Rachel. These are the co-wives of Jacob, the ones he gets when the trickster himself is tricked by his maternal uncle named Laban. What goes around, right? Seems just doesn’t it? Telling the truth is not a defining family trait of these folk. Yet there is sadness too. Leah is the unloved bride. The Hebrew text says that she has timid eyes, which may be “lovely” as the NRSV translates it, but the Hebrew word suggests that Leah had already lost hope. I wonder what has caused this because the text does not say. Maybe it was all the bad behavior she had seen. On top of this despondency she gets married off by trickery, has to face the rejection she must have felt the morning after her marriage when Jacob reacts with shock to seeing her in the marriage bed, and then suffer the humiliation of knowing that her new husband was willing to accept another seven-year term of service to get what he really wanted - Rachel. “Lovely” eyes indeed. But this is all people being people, right? It is pride, and envy, and fleshly unholiness as well as, I am sure, some righteous behavior here and there. All the while, God seems to have eyes on Leah the unloved and she has many children while Rachel does not. God’s love for Leah is evident. I wonder if her eyes changed. Both sisters end up with the blessing of children and those children end up with their own sad discontent and struggles. Yet it is from this very human family that we get the line of David and the line of Jesus. In the end, God’s will be done.

I find these hopeful stories for our times. The details of where we find ourselves as families, as a community, and as a nation are different but we are not so different in our character and our struggles from Esau and Jacob, Laban and Rebekah, Leah and Rachel. God worked in and through them, often appearing only behind the scenes, but never giving up on them and so, I suppose, never giving up on us either. Keep the faith. In the end, God’s will be done. In the end, there is grace.

Grace and peace,

Fr. Bill+

Holiness and Virtues

We are called to holiness of life. We are called to a life of virtue. We are called to be saints. We are called to be a holy priesthood, serving God. How is that going?

No problem!

No problem because we have lowered the bar?
No problem because we have given up?
No problem because that is for the clergy?

God says to those who have ears to listen, “You will be holy because I the Lord your God am holy” (Lev 19:2). And he tells them what to do. They have something to do in order to be.

The early church was called The Way (Acts 9:2) because it was about a doing and a being. It was about an orthopraxy before the church turned it into an orthodoxy. The first call of God is a call to a way of life.

The church has traditionally taught the learning, practice, and development of virtues as a means toward holiness for both individuals and the church community. Virtues are the defense and the remedy for the various sins that afflict us. Pride, envy, gluttony, greed, anger, lust, and sloth are each defeated by the practices of the virtues such as humility, kindness, charity, and patience.

These are easy enough to find on the Internet if you would rather not talk to your priest about personal vices and helpful virtues. In this traditional teaching, it is pride that is cast as the chief of all vices. Saint Augustine and Thomas Aquinas both taught that pride is the root of all sin. C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity, wrote that "Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.” What is pride? It is narcissism. It is overconfidence in and boasting about oneself. It is arrogance. It is an attempt to take the place of God and so is an offense against God. The remedy? The virtue of humility.

Humility is about knowing one’s place in relationship to God. It is about letting God be God and not exceeding the bounds of our humanity and taking the place of God. It is also about recognizing our various gifts and not practicing a false humility by denying ourselves, our worth, and our giftedness. As one person put it, “humility is not thinking less of oneself, but rather thinking of oneself less often.” In that sense, and in contrast to narcissism, humility may be taken as thinking about others and how ones gifts may be of service to others in God’s name.

Holiness is a way of life, an orthopraxy, and virtues are a means to help us along the way. They are meant to be practices. Flex your virtues and let us with God’s help become holy people.

Grace and peace,
Fr Bill+